These things being noted, in order to remove ambiguity, I assume that the doctors in their writing designate by the Roman church that church of which the Saviour said to Peter: "On this rock I will build my church" (see Chapter VII). The holy writers and the Decretals speak of it as the Roman church, Dist. 21: 3 [Friedberg, 1: 70], 24: 1, capp. 9, 14 [Friedberg, 1: 969, 970]. And in the Clementines, de Jurejurando [Friedberg, 2: 1147],[1] it is said: "The Romans, princes, professors of the orthodox faith, venerate with warm faith and pure devotion the holy Roman church, whose head is Christ, our Saviour, and the Roman pontiff, the Saviour's vicar."[2] And in the Sextus it is said: "Our alma mater, the church" [Friedberg, 2: 1106], and in the Extravagante of Boniface VIII, "The holy Roman church." And the same is true of the other statements made in other places and alleged above.
In regard to these follies of the Unlearned—indoctorum—I find these points: (1) The pope is the head of the holy Roman church. (2) The college of cardinals is the body of the holy Roman church. (3) The pope is manifestly and truly
- ↑ The first of these decretals is by Gelasius, 495, and states that the "holy Roman catholic and apostolic church is placed at the head of the other churches not by virtue of the action of synods but by the appointment of Christ." The second is by Lucius, the third by Jerome writing to Pope Damasus.
- ↑ Clement V, 1314, the first of the Avignon popes. He declares that the "Roman church transferred the empire from the Greeks to the Germans."
was more influential than anything else in building up the arrogant claims of the papacy. Dante denied the right of Constantine to grant secular power to the pope, but did not call in question the authenticity of Constantine's gift. He expressed himself in the lines:
Ah, Constantine, of how much ill was cause
Not thy conversion, but those rich domains
Which the first wealthy pope received of thee.
The fraud was not shown up till the middle of the fifteenth century by Laurentius Valla, and a profound impression was made upon Luther in 1520 when he was informed of the fraudulent character of the document by von Hutten. Of course, Constantine was baptized by Eusebius of Nicomedia, and not till the very last year of his life and never had the leprosy. Huss fully believed the story and often refers to the donation as the beginning of papal wealth, pomp, and corruption. The text in Mirbt, pp. 81–87. Also Boehmer's art. in Herzog, XI, 1–7.
