12. All chancellors, counsellors, ordinary or extraordinary, of any king
or prince whatsoever, all presidents of chanceries, councils, or
parliaments, as also all attorneys-general, who call ecclesiastical
causes before them, or prevent the execution of the apostolical letters,
even though it be on pretext of preventing some violence.
In the same paragraph, the pope reserves to himself alone the power of
absolving the said chancellors, counsellors, attorneys-general, and the
rest of the excommunicated; who cannot receive absolution until they
have publicly revoked their acts, and have erased them from the records.
20. Lastly, the pope excommunicates all such as shall presume to give
absolution to the excommunicated as aforesaid: and, in order that no one
may plead ignorance, he orders:
21. That this bull be published, and posted on the gate of the basilic
of the Prince of the Apostles, and on that of St. John of Lateran.
22. That all patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and bishops, by virtue
of their holy obedience, shall have this bull solemnly published at
least once a year.
24. He declares that whosoever dares to go against the provisions of
this bull, must know that he is incurring the displeasure of Almighty
God and of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul.
The other subsequent bulls, called also _In cœna Domini_, are only
duplicates of the first. For instance, the article 21 of that of Pius
V., dated 1567, adds to the paragraph 3 of the one that we have quoted,
that all princes who lay new impositions on their states, of what nature
soever, or increase the old ones, without obtaining permission from the
Holy See, are excommunicated _ipso facto_. The third bull _In cœna
Domini_ of 1610, contains thirty paragraphs, in which Paul V. renews the
provisions of the two preceding.
The fourth and last bull _In cœna Domini_ which we find in the
_Bullaire_, is dated April 1, 1672. In it Urban VIII. announces that,
after the example of his predecessors, in order inviolably to maintain
the integrity of the faith, and public justice and tranquillity, he
wields the spiritual sword of ecclesiastical discipline to
excommunicate, on the day which is the anniversary of the Supper of our
Lord:
1. Heretics.
2. Such as appeal from the pope to a future council; and the rest as in
the three former.
It is said that the one which is read now, is of a more recent date, and
contains some additions.
The History of Naples, by Giannone, shows us what disorders the
ecclesiastics stirred up in that kingdom, and what vexations they
exercised against the king's subjects, even refusing them absolution and
the sacraments, in order to effect the reception of this bull, which has
at last been solemnly proscribed there, as well as in Austrian
Lombardy, in the states of the empress-queen, in those of the Duke of
Parma, and elsewhere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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