POPE

THE. The sovereign pontiff, or supreme head, of the Romish Church. The appellation of Pope ( Papa ) was, anciently, given to all Christian bishops: but, about the latter end of the eleventh century, in the pontificate of Gregory VII., it was usurped by the bishop of Rome, whose peculiar title it has ever since continued. The spiritual monarchy of Rome sprang up soon after the declension of the Roman empire; and one great, though remote, instrument, in promoting the increase of this monarchy, so pernicious to the supreme civil power, was, the barbarity and ignorance which from that time spread itself over the Western parts. Rome was chosen for the place of residence of the ecclesiastical monarchy, because this city had the particular prerogative of being the capital city of the Roman empire, where the Christian religion had its first rise and increase. For what is related concerning St. Peter’s chair is nothing but a vain pretence, which may easily be seen from hence, that, afterwards, the bishop of Constantinople had the next place a igned him after the bishop of Rome, only because that city was then the place of the emperor’s residence, and called New Rome. And when afterwards the Western empire was come to decay, and the city of Rome had lost its former lustre, the bishop of Constantinople disputed the precedency with the Roman bishop. It is true the emperor Phocas granted the right of precedency to Boniface III., then bishop of Rome, who thereupon took upon him the title of Œcumenical bishop: but this did not imply any power or jurisdiction over the rest; for the other patriarchs never acknowledged any. So that here are no footsteps of Divine institution to be found, the papal power being purely human, and an usurpation upon the rights of other sees. The bishops of Rome did not extend their power over the Western parts all at once; but it was introduced from time to time, by degrees, by various artifices, and under various pretences. What chiefly contributed to its growth was, first, the emperors choosing other places of residence besides Rome; for, by their constant presence there, they might easily have kept under the ambitious designs of the bishops. In the next place, the Western empire was divided into several new kingdoms, erected by the several barbarous and pagan nations, and these, having been converted to the Christian faith by the direction of the Romish Church, thought themselves obliged to pay her the profoundest respect. In the fifth century, the bishops on this side of the Alps began to go to Rome, to visit the sepulchres of St. Peter and St. Paul. This voluntary devotion insensibly grew into a nece ity. From hence it was easy for the popes afterwards to pretend, that the bishops ought to receive their confirmation from Rome. Besides, some other bishops and churches, that were novices in comparison of the ancient Roman Church, used to refer themselves to, and ask the advice of, the Church of Rome, concerning matters of great consequence, and the true interpretation of the canons. Hence the bishops of Rome, perceiving their answers were received as decisions, began to send their decrees before they were demanded. And hence they set themselves up as judges of the differences arising between the bishops, and, encroaching on the right and jurisdiction of the metropolitans, proceeded to suspend and depose whom they thought fit. At the same time, by making void the decisions of the provincial synods, they so diminished their authority, that by degrees they were quite abolished. Add to this, that Gregory VII. forced the bishops to take an oath of fealty to the popes, and by a decree enacted that none should dare to condemn any one, who had appealed to the pope. Nor did they forget to send legates or nuncios to all places, whose busine was to exercise, in the pope’s name, the same authority, which had formerly belonged to the bishops and provincial synods. (See Legate .) It is certain that many Romish bishops, especially among those on this side the Alps, were to a late period opposed to the pope’s authority; which evidently appeared at the Council of Trent, where the French and Spanish bishops insisted very strongly to have it decided, that bishops are obliged to residence by the law of God ; the consequence of which was, the deriving their authority from God alone. The pope met with great difficulty before he could surmount this obstacle; and therefore it is very likely this will be the last council, since the pope will scarce put his grandeur to the hazard and decision of such another a embly. Not to mention that they are now of no farther use, since the Jesuits and others have taught, that the pope is infallible, and superior to councils. However that may be, the bishops are obliged for their own sakes not to withdraw themselves from the pope’s jurisdiction, since thereby they would fall under the civil power, and would be obliged to seek protection from their sovereigns, who must be potent princes, if they could protect them against the pope; so that they think it wiser, of two evils to choose the least. The spiritual monarchy of Rome could not have been established, had its bishops continued dependent on any temporal prince; and therefore the popes took their opportunity to exempt themselves from the jurisdiction of the Greek emperors, whose authority was mightily decayed in Italy. This was greatly forwarded by the dispute concerning the use of images. For the emperor Leo Isaurus having quite ejected them out of the churches, Pope Gregory II., who stood up for the images, took occasion to oppose him, and stirred up the Romans and Italians to refuse to pay him tribute; by which means the power of the Greek emperors was lost in Italy, and these countries began to be free and independent of any foreign jurisdiction. The pope, having freed himself from the authority of the emperors of Constantinople, and being in danger from the Lombards, who endeavoured to make themselves masters of Italy, had recourse for protection to the kings of France. Pepin, and afterwards Charles the Great, having entirely subdued the Lombards, these princes gave to the papal chair all that tract of land, which had been formerly subject to the Greek emperors. To obtain this gift, it is said, the pope made use of a fictitious donation of Const an tine the Great, which, in those barbarous times, was easily imposed upon the ignorant world. By virtue of this grant, the popes pretended to a sovereign jurisdiction over these countries; which the people at first refused to submit to, thinking it very strange, that the pope, who was an ecclesiastical person, should at the same time pretend to be a temporal prince. When, therefore, the Romans mutinied against Leo III., he was forced to seek for a istance from Charles the Great, who restored the pope. On the other hand, the pope and people of Rome proclaimed Charles emperor; whereby he was put in po e ion of the sovereignty of that part of Italy, which formerly belonged to the governors of Ravenna, and the other remnants of the Western empire; so that the popes afterwards enjoyed these countries under the sovereign jurisdiction of the emperor, who therefore used to be called the patron and defender of the Church, till the reign of the emperor, Henry VI. The popes at length began to grow weary of the imperial protection, because the emperor’s consent was required in the election of a pope, and, if they were mutinous, the emperors used to check them, and sometimes turn them out of the chair. The popes, therefore, for a long time, employed various artifices to exempt themselves from the power of the emperors. To this end, they frequently raised intestine commotions against them. But the reign of Henry IV. furnished them with an opportunity of putting their designs in execution. For Pope Gregory VII., surnamed Hildebrand, had the boldne to excommunicate this emperor, on pretence that he made a traffic of church benefices, by selling them to all sorts of persons, whom he installed before they had taken orders. And, not satisfied with this, he cited the emperor before him, to answer to the complaints of his subjects, and declared him to have forfeited all right and title to the empire. This obliged the emperor to renounce the right of constituting bishops. And though his son, Henry V., endeavoured to recover what was forcibly taken away from his father, and made Pope Paschal a prisoner, yet were the whole clergy in Europe so di atisfied, that he was obliged at last to resign the same right again into the pope’s hands. This affair gave rise to the factions of the Guelfs and Ghi be lines , the first of which were for the pope, the latter for the emperor. The succeeding emperors found so much work in Germany, that they were not in a condition to look after Italy; whereby the pope had sufficient leisure to make himself sovereign, not only over his own po e ions, but over all po e ions pertaining to the Church. But the pope, not satisfied with this degree of grandeur, quickly set on foot a pretension of far greater consequence. For now he pretended to an authority over princes themselves, to command a truce between such as were at war together, to take cognizance of their differences, to put their kingdoms under an interdict, and, if they refused submi ion to the see of Rome, to absolve their subjects from their allegiance, and to deprive them of their crowns. This has been attempted against many crowned heads, and put in execution against some of them. And for this abominable pretension they pleaded their fictitious decretals, (see Decretals ,) which grant to the popes an unlimited power over all Christians whatever. Pope Boniface VIII. gave the world clearly to understand his meaning, at the jubilee kept in the year 1300, when he appeared sometimes in the habit of an emperor, and sometimes in that of a pope, and had two swords carried before him, as the ensigns of the ecclesiastical and civil power. But the popes could not long enjoy this intolerable usurpation in quiet; for it was often called in question, till they were obliged to desist in part from their pretensions. In particular, Philip the Handsome, king of France, gave several great blows to the papal authority. But the ensuing schisms, and the double elections, when the opposite factions chose two different popes at the same time, contributed most towards weakening the power of the holy see. Hence an occasion was taken to bridle the pope’s authority by general councils, which often proceeded so far as to depose the holy fathers. Therefore it is not to be wondered that, since the Council of Trent, the popes have been very averse to the calling of general councils, and seem to have bid adieu to them for ever. To this may be added, that the translation of the papal chair, by Clement V., from Rome to Avignon, where the popes constantly resided for seventy years together, carried along with it several inconveniences, which proved greatly prejudicial to the ecclesiastical monarchy. Among others, the pope’s authority being founded upon this belief, that St. Peter had been at Rome, and by his presence had communicated a particular prerogative and holine to that chair, it was very much questioned whether the same could be transferred to Avignon. But, when the ecclesiastical monarchy seemed to be come to the pinnacle of its grandeur, when all the Western parts were either in communion with, or in obedience to, the Church of Rome, by the influence of the Reformation, the pope became only the spiritual head of a sect, and eventually, as a civil power, of very slight importance. The manner of the election of a pope is as follows: nine or ten days after the funeral of a deceased pope, the cardinals enter the conclave, which is generally held in the Vatican, in a long gallery, where cells of board are erected, covered with purple cloth, one for each cardinal. (See Conclave .) The election is made by scrutiny , acce , or adoration . The first is, when each cardinal writes the name of him whom he votes for, in a scroll of five pages. On the first is written by one of his servants, that the cardinal may not be discovered by his hand, “ Ego eligo in summum pontificem reverendum dominum meum cardinalem .” On this fold two others are doubled down, and sealed with a private seal. On the fourth the cardinal writes his own name, and covers it with the fifth folding. Then, sitting in order on benches in the chapel, with their scrolls in their hands, they go up to the altar by turns, and, after a short prayer on their knees, throw the scroll into a chalice upon the table, the first cardinal bishop sitting on the right hand, and the first cardinal deacon on the left. The cardinals being returned to their places, the cardinal bishop turns out the scrolls into a plate, which he holds in his left hand, and gives them one by one to the cardinal deacon, who reads them with an audible voice, while the cardinals note down how many voices each person has; and then the master of the ceremonies burns the scrolls in a chafing-dish, that it may not be known for whom any one gives his voice. If two-thirds of the number present agree, the election is made, and he, on whom the two-thirds fall, is declared pope. When the choice is made by acce , the cardinals rise from their places, and, approaching him whom they would have elected, say, Ego accedo ad reverendi imum Dominum . The choice by adoration is much after the same manner, only the cardinal approaches him whom he would have chosen with the profoundest reverence. But both the one and the other must be confirmed by the scrutiny. There has been another way of choosing a pope, namely, by compromise : that is, when the differences have risen so high that they could not be adjusted in the conclave, they have referred the choice to three or five, giving them leave to elect any one, provided it were determined within the time that a candle lighted by common consent should last. Sometimes they have had recourse to what is called inspiration ; that is, the first cardinal rises up in chapel, and, after an exhortation to make choice of a capable person, immediately, as if inspired, names one himself: to which, if two-thirds of the cardinals present agree, he is reckoned legally chosen. When one of the cardinals is chosen pope, the master of the ceremonies comes to his cell, to acquaint him with the news of his promotion. Whereupon he is conducted to the chapel, and clad in the pontifical habit, and there receives the adoration, or the respects paid by the cardinals to the popes. Then, all the gates of the conclave being opened, the new pope shows himself to the people, and ble es them, the first cardinal deacon proclaiming aloud these words: Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum; Papam habemus. Reverend is sim us Dominus Cardinal is—elect us est in summum Pontificem, et eligit sib i nomen. After this, he is carried to St. Peter’s church, and placed upon the altar of the holy apostles, where the cardinals come a second time to the adoration. Some days after is performed the ceremony of his coronation, before the door of St. Peter’s church, where is erected a throne, upon which the new pope ascends, has his mitre taken off, and a crown put upon his head, in the presence of the people. Afterwards is a grand cavalcade from St. Peter’s church to St. John Later an, where the archbishop of that church presents the new pope with two keys, one of gold the other of silver. It is probable that, in the first ages of the Church, the Roman clergy elected the pope; and some think the people had a share in the election. Afterwards, Odoacer, king of the Eruli, and Theodoric, king of the Goths in Italy, would suffer no election of a pope to be made without their consent. But this was abolished in 502, under Pope Symmachus. The succeeding princes, however, reserved to themselves a right to confirm the newly elected pope, who, without this confirmation, could not take po e ion of the pontificate. The tenth century saw several popes elected and deposed at the fancy of the Roman nobility and Italian princes. But, since the election of Celestin II., in 1443, the cardinals have retained the power of election, independent of the Roman people, or of any sovereign prince whatever. It is a general maxim, in the choice of a pope, to elect an Italian; which is done, not only because they choose rather to bestow this dignity on a native of Italy than on a foreigner, but also because the security and preservation of the papal chair depends, in a great measure, on the balance which is to be kept between France and Spain: but this is not to be expected from a French or Spanish pope, who would quickly turn the scale, and, by granting too great privileges to his countrymen, endeavour to exclude others from the papal chair. It is also a sort of maxim, to choose a pope who is pretty far advanced in years, that there may be the quicker succe ion, and that it may not be in the power of a pope, during a long reign, to alter their customs, or, by making his family too powerful, to entail, as it were, the papal chair upon his house. They also take care that he be not too near akin to the deceased pope, that the vacant church benefices may not be engro ed by one family. It often happens, that one is chosen pope, of whom nobody thought before; and this comes to pa , when the cardinals are tired out by so many intrigues, and are glad to get out of the conclave. It is also observed, that a pope often proves quite another man, when he comes to sit in the chair, than that he was before, when only a cardinal. Ever since the time of Pope Sixtus IV., that is, since the year 1471, the popes have made it their busine to enrich their families out of the Church revenues, of which there are very remarkable instances. For it is related that Sixtus V., during a reign of five years, bestowed upon his family above three millions of ducats. The house of the Bar bar in i, at the death of Urban VIII., was po e ed of 227 offices and Church benefices, whereby they ama ed thirty millions of scudi. Sergius III., ( A. D. 904,) or Sergius IV., ( A. D. 1009,) who was before called Os Porci , i. e. Swine-Face, is said to have been the first pope who changed his name upon his exaltation to the pontificate. This example has been followed by all the popes since his time, and they a ume the names of Innocent, Benedict, Clement, . When a pope is elected, they put on him a ca ock of white wool, shoes of red cloth, on which is embroidered a gold cro , a mantle of red velvet, the rochet, the white linen albe, and a stole set with pearls. At home, his habit is, a white silk ca ock, rochet, and scarlet mantle. In winter his Holine wears a fur cap; in summer, a satin one. When he celebrates ma , the colour of his habit varies according to the solemnity of the festival. At Whit sun tide, and all festivals of the martyrs, he officiates in red; at Easter, and all festivals of virgins, in white; in Lent, Advent, and eves of fasting days, in violet; and on Easter-eve, and at all ma es for the dead, in black. All these colours are typical: the red expre es the cloven tongue, and the blood of the martyrs; the white, the joy caused by our Saviour’s resurrection, and the chastity of virgins; the violet, the pale aspect of those who fast; and the black, grief and mourning. The pope’s tiara, or crown, is a kind of conic cap, with three coronets, rising one above the other, and adorned with jewels. Paul II. was the first who added the ornaments of precious stones to his crown. The jewels of Clement VIII.’s crown were valued, they say, at 500,000 pieces of gold. That of Martin V. had five pounds and a half weight of pearls in it. “Nor is there anything unreasonable in this, (says Father Bonani,) since the pope governs the kingdom of Christ in quality of his viceroy; now this kingdom is infinitely superior to all the empires of the universe. The high priest of the Jews wore on his head and breast the riches which were to represent the majesty of the Supreme God . The pope represents that of the Saviour of the world, and nothing better expre es it than riches.” We must not omit, that the two strings of the pontifical tiara represent the two different manners of interpreting the Scriptures, the mystical and the literal. The pope has two seals. One is called “the fisherman’s ring,” and is the impre ion of St. Peter holding a line with a bait to it in the water. It is used for those briefs that are sealed with red wax. The other seal is used for the bulls which are sealed with lead, and bears the figures of St. Peter and St. Paul, with a cro on one side, and a bust, with the name of the reigning pope, on the other. Upon the decease of a pope, these seals are defaced and broken by the cardinal Camerlengo, in the presence of three cardinals. When the pope goes in proce ion to St. Peter’s, the cro is carried before him on the end of a pike about ten palms long. “Many reasons,” says F. Bonani, “authorize this custom. It is a monument of the sufferings of Jesus Christ , and of the pope’s adherence to the Saviour of the world. It is the true mark of the pontifical dignity, and represents the authority of the Church, as the Roman fasces did that of the consuls.” At the same time two grooms bear two fans on each side of his Holine ’s chair, to drive away the flies. This (according to the above-cited author) represents the seraphim covering the face of God with their wings. The custom of ki ing the pope’s feet is very ancient; to justify which practice, it is alleged, that the pope’s slipper has the figure of the cro upon the upper leather; so that it is not the pope’s foot, but the cro of Christ , which is thus saluted. There are but few instances of the papal power in England before the Norman Conquest. But the pope, having favoured and supported William I. in his invasion of this kingdom, made that a handle for enlarging his encroachments, and, in that king’s reign, began to send legates hither. Afterwards he prevailed with King Henry I. to part with the right of nominating to bishoprics; and, in the reign of King Stephen, he gained the prerogative of appeals. In the reign of Henry II. he exempted all clerks from the secular power. This king, at first, strenuously opposed his innovation; but, after the death of Becket, who, for having violently opposed the king, was slain by some of the royal adherents, the pope got such an advantage over the king, that he was never able to execute the laws he had made. Not long after this, by a general excommunication of the king and his people, for several years, King John was reduced to such straits, that he surrendered his kingdoms to the pope, to receive them again, and hold them of him under a rent of a you sand marks. In the following reign of Henry III., partly from the profits of our best Church benefices, and partly from the taxes imposed by the pope, there went yearly out of the kingdom to Rome £70,000 sterling. But in the reign of Edward I., it was declared by the parliament, that the pope’s taking upon him to dispose of English benefices to foreigners, was an encroachment not to be endured; and this was followed by the statute of Provisors against popish bulls, and against disturbing any patron, in presenting to a benefice; which was afterwards enacted in Ireland also. But the pope’s power received a mortal blow in England, by the reformation in religion, begun in the reign of Henry VIII.; since which time, to maintain the pope’s authority here, by writing, preaching, ., was, till lately, made a premunire upon the first conviction, and high treason upon the second.