The fullest expression of this temporal and spiritual supremacy claimed by
the Bishops of Rome is to be found in Pope Innocent IV.’s _Commentary on
the Decretals_(6) (1243-1254), and in the Bull, _Unam Sanctam_, published
by Pope Boniface VIII. in 1302. But succeeding Bishops of Rome in no way
abated their pretensions to universal sovereignty. The same claims were
made during the Exile at Avignon and in the days of the Great Schism. They
were asserted by Pope Pius II. in his Bull, _Execrabilis et pristinis_
(1459), and by Pope Leo X. on the very eve of the Reformation, in his
Bull, _Pastor Æternus_ (1516); while Pope Alexander VI. (Rodrigo Borgia),
acting as the lord of the universe, made over the New World to Isabella of
Castile and to Ferdinand of Aragon by legal deed of gift in his Bull,
_Inter cætera divinæ_ (May 4th, 1493).(7)
The power claimed in these documents was a twofold supremacy, temporal and
spiritual.
§ 2. The Temporal Supremacy.
The former, stated in its widest extent, was the right to depose kings,
free their subjects from their allegiance, and bestow their territories on
another. It could only be enforced when the Pope found a stronger
potentate willing to carry out his orders, and was naturally but rarely
exercised. Two instances, however, occurred not long before the
Reformation. George Podiebrod, the King of Bohemia, offended the Bishop of
Rome by insisting that the Roman See should keep the bargain made with his
Hussite subjects at the Council of Basel. He was summoned to Rome to be
tried as a heretic by Pope Pius II. in 1464, and by Pope Paul II. in 1465,
and was declared by the latter to be deposed; his subjects were released
from their allegiance, and his kingdom was offered to Matthias Corvinus,
the King of Hungary, who gladly accepted the offer, and a protracted and
bloody war was the consequence. Later still, in 1511, Pope Julius II.
excommunicated the King of Navarre, and empowered any neighbouring king to
seize his dominions—an offer readily accepted by Ferdinand of Aragon.(8)
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