Page:William John Sparrow-Simpson - Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (1909).djvu/69

 ] fusion between the secular and spiritual spheres. The learned work of Gosselin, Superior of the Seminary of St Sulpice in 1850, on the power of the Pope in the Middle Ages, shows how naturally the temporal authority grew out of the circumstances of the period.

The temporal sovereignty of the Roman See arose simply out of the necessities of the Roman People, who, being abandoned by the Empire, intrusted their temporal interests to the papal guardianship. Neither Charlemagne nor Pepin were the founders of the temporal sovereignty; they were but its protectors and promoters. It was founded in the legitimate consent of a helpless and forsaken people. But, being once founded, loftier reasons were gradually created to justify and explain it. Archbishop Fénelon's opinion, which Gosselin quotes and accepts, was that the deposition of princes by the Pope in the Middle Ages was based in the belief that none but Catholics could rule over Catholic nations. Consequently, a contract between Prince and People was implied: their loyalty depending on his fidelity to Religion. Therefore the Church neither made temporal rulers nor unmade them; but when consulted by the people, the Pope decided cases of conscience arising from a contract and an oath of fidelity. But this power to determine when consulted, easily slid into an assertion and a claim of a loftier character. The double effect of excommunication on the religious and the temporal status of the victim naturally led to endless confusion: it exalted the possessor of this two-fold power to a height which earlier ages would have considered simply amazing. It was a principle universally admitted in the time of Gregory VII. that excommunication entailed the loss of all civil rights. Consequently, says Fleury, when