The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 06 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
_B._ I believe not. For it is likely enough, if he had told him so
plainly, or but made him suspect it, he would either have been no
Christian at all, or but a counterfeit one.
_A._ But if he did not tell him so, and that plainly, it was foul play,
not only in a priest, but in any Christian. And for this derivation of
their right from the Emperor’s consent, it proceeds only from this, that
they dare not challenge a legislative power, nor call their canons laws
in any kingdom in Christendom, further than the kings make them so. But
in Peru, when Atabalipa was King, the friar told him, that Christ being
King of all the world, had given the disposing of all the kingdoms
therein to the Pope, and that the Pope had given Peru to the Roman
Emperor Charles the Fifth, and required Atabalipa to resign it; and for
refusing it, seized upon his person by the Spanish army there present,
and murdered him. You see by this how much they claim, when they have
power to make it good.
_B._ When began the Popes to take this authority upon them first?
_A._ After the inundation of the northern people had overflowed the
western parts of the empire, and possessed themselves of Italy, the
people of the city of Rome submitted themselves, as well in temporals as
spirituals, to their bishop; and then first was the Pope a temporal
prince, and stood no more in so great fear of the Emperors, which lived
far off at Constantinople. In this time it was that the Pope began, by
pretence of his power spiritual, to encroach upon the temporal rights of
all other princes of the west; and so continued gaining upon them, till
his power was at the highest in that three hundred years, or thereabout,
which passed between the eighth and eleventh century, that is, between
Pope Leo the Third and Pope Innocent the Third. For in this time Pope
Zachary the First deposed Chilperic, then King of France, and gave the
kingdom to one of his subjects, Pepin; and Pepin took from the Lombards
a great part of their territory and gave it to the Church. Shortly
after, the Lombards having recovered their estate, Charles the Great
retook it, and gave it to the Church again; and Pope Leo the Third made
Charles Emperor.
_B._ But what right did the Pope then pretend for the creating of an
Emperor?
_A._ He pretended the right of being Christ’s vicar; and what Christ
could give, his vicar might give; and you know that Christ was King of
all the world.
_B._ Yes, as God; and so he gives all the kingdoms of the world, which
nevertheless proceed from the consent of people, either for fear or
hope.