argument one meets constantly in mediaeval documents concerned with the bitter struggle between pope and emperor, than the appeal to the two swords.[1] It is impossible to discover who for the first time used this remarkable argument to establish the need of a spiritual and temporal head for the state. By the time it is used by the first combatants of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, it has acquired universal assent as inspired teaching, and the only matter of concern is whether both swords were given to Peter, thus proving the superiority of the pope; or one each to Peter and John, thus establishing the coordinate power of the emperor. By the time of the formularies found in the Sachsenspiegel, so far as the Holy Roman Empire is concerned, it has become the epitome of mediæval political theory. It is not to our purpose to notice the extraordinary logic of the vigorous letter of Henry IV. which accompanied the equally vigorous letter of the German bishops to Gregory VII.,[2] but it cannot be overlooked that not only does Henry appeal to the words of Peter[3] and Paul,[4] but he also expressly states that the royal authority, like the papal, is the gift of Jesus Christ. Frederick Barbarossa argues quite as directly and forcibly.[5]
These are by no means all the texts used by the mediæval writers and combatants. As Bryce says, "Every passage was seized upon when submission to the powers that be is enjoined, every instance cited where obedience had actually been rendered to imperial officials, a special emphasis being laid on the sanction which Christ himself had given to Roman dominion by pacifying the world through Augustus, by being born at the time of the taxing, by paying tribute to Cæsar [?], by saying to Pilate,
- ↑ Luke 22:38. And they said. "Lord, behold here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.
- ↑ Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Leges II., 44 sq.
- ↑ 1 Pet. 2:17.
- ↑ Gal. 1:8.
- ↑ For instance, in his remarkable proclamation following the affair at Besançon: "Cumque per electionem principum a solo Deo regnum et imperium nostrum sit, qui in passione Christi filli sui duobus gladiis necessariis regendum orbem subjecit, cumque Petrus apostolus hac doctrina mundum informaverit: 'Deum timete, regem honorificate.'" etc. For this and other illustrations from mediæval thought, see Mathews, Select Mediæval Documents. Bluntschli reprints (Theory of the State, p. 40 n.) the sentence from the Sachsenspiegel mentioned above.
