de Vattel: Of Piety and Religion

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* NOW - Buy this resource online! Click here * Of Piety and Religion§ 125. Of piety.§ 126. It ought to be attended with knowledge.§ 127. Of religion internal and external.§ 128. Rights of individuals.§ 129. Public establishment of religion§ 130. When there was yet no established religion.§ 131. When there is an established religion.§ 132. Duties and rights of the sovereign with regard to religion. § 133. Where there is an established religion§ 134. Objects of his care, and the means he ought to employ.§ 135. Of toleration.§ 136. What the prince ought to do when the nation is resolved to change its religion.§ 137. Difference of religion does not deprive a prince of his crown. § 138. Duties and rights of the sovereign reconciled with those of the subject.§ 139. The sovereign ought to have the inspection of the affairs of religion, and authority over those who teach it.§ 140. He ought to prevent the abuse of the received religion.§ 141. The sovereign's authority over the ministers of religion.§ 142. Nature of this authority.§ 143. Rule to be observed with respect to ecclesiastics.§ 144. Recapitulation of the reasons which establish the sovereign's rights in matters of religion.§ 145. Pernicious consequences of the contrary opinion.§ 146. The abuses particularized. 1. The power of the popes.§ 147. 2. Important employments conferred by a foreign power.§ 148. 3. Powerful subjects dependent on a foreign court.§ 149. 4. The celibacy of the priests.§ 150. 5. Enormous pretensions of the clergy. Pre-eminence.§ 151. 6. Independence immunities.§ 152. 7. Immunity of church possessions.§ 153. 8. Excommunication of men in office.§ 154. 9. And of sovereigns themselves§ 155. 10. The clergy drawing every thing to themselves, and disturbing the order of justice.§ 156. 11. Money drawn to Rome.§ 157. 12. Laws and customs contrary to the welfare of states.
   1. The former assassinated Henry III. of France; the latter murdered his successor, Henry IV.
   2. The Duke de Sully; see his Memoirs digested by M. de l'Ecluse, vol. v. pp. 135, 136.
   3. Decorum injuriae diis curae. — Tacit. Ann. book i. c. 73.
   4. Qui secus faxit, Deus ipse vindex erit. ... Qui non paruerit, capitale esto. — De Legib. lib. ii.
   5. Quas (religiones) non metu, sed ea conjunctione quae est homini cum Deo, conservandas puto. Cicero de Legib. lib. i. What a fine lesson does this pagan philosopher give to Christians!
   6. When the chief part of the people in the principality of Neufchatel and Vallangin embraced the reformed religion in the sixteenth century Joan of Hochberg, their sovereign, continued to live in the Roman Catholic faith, and nevertheless still retained all her rights. The state counsel enacted ecclesiastical laws and constitutions similar to those of the reformed churches in Switzerland, and the princess gave them her sanction.
   7. History of New France, books v. vi. vii.
   8. See the Theodosian Code.
   9. In England under Henry VIII.
   10. Henry III. and Henry IV. assassinated by fanatics, who thought they were serving God and the church by slabbing their king.
   11. Though Henry IV. returned to the Romish religion, a great number of Catholics did not dare to acknowledge him until he had received the pope's absolution.
   12. Many kings of France in the civil wars on account of religion.
   13. Turretin. Hist. Ecclesiast. Compendium. p. 182, Where may also be seen the resolute answer of the king of France.
   14. Extravag. Commun. lib. i. tit De Majoritate & Obedientia.
   15. Gregory VII. endeavored to render almost all the states of Europe tributary to him. He maintained that Hungary, Dalmatia, Russia, Spain, and Corsica, were absolutely his property, as successor to St. Peter, or were feudatory dependencies of the holy see. Greg. Epist. Concil. vol. vi. Edit, Harduin. — He summoned the emperor Henry IV. to appear before him, and make his defense against the accusations of some of his subjects: and, on the emperor's non-compliance, he deposed him. In short, here are the expressions he made use of in addressing the council assembled at Rome on the occasion: "Agite nunc, quæso, patres et principes sanctissimi, ut omnis mundus intelligat et cognoscat, quia si potestis in cœlo ligare et solvere, potestis in terra imperia, regna, principatus, ducatus, marchias, comitatus, et omnium hominum possessiones, pro meritis tollere unicique et concedere: Natal, Ales. Dissert. Hist. Eccl., s. xi. and xii. p. 384. The canon law boldly decides that the regal power is subordinate to the priesthood, "Imperium non præest saccerdotio, sed subest, et ei obedire tenetur." Rubric. ch. vi. De Major, et Obed. "Et est multum allegabile," is the complaisant remark of the writer of the article.
   16. History of the Revolutions in Sweden.
   17. Vogel's Historical and Political Treatise on the Alliances between France and the Thirteen Cantons, pp. 33 and 36.
   18. We may see, in the letters of Cardinal d'Ossat, what difficulties, what opposition, what long delays. Henry IV. had to encounter, when he wished to confer the archbishopric of Sens on Renauld de Baune, archbishop of Bourges, who had saved France, by receiving that great prince into the Roman Catholic church.
   19. This reflection has no relation to the religious houses in which literature is cultivated. Establishments that afford to learned men a peaceful retreat, and that leisure and tranquility required in deep scientific research, are always laudable, and may become very useful to the state.
   20. The Papia-Poppæn law.
   21. In the Theodosian Code.
   22. The president de Montesquieu, in his Spirit of Laws.
   23. Tantum sacerdos præstat regi, quantum homo bestiæ. Stanislaus Orichovius. — Vid; Tribbechov. Exerc. 1, ad Baron. Annal Sect 2, et Thomas Nat. ad. Lancell.
   24. The congregation of immunities has decided that the cognizance of causes against ecclesiastics, even for the crime of high treason, exclusively belongs to the spiritual court: — "Cognitio causæ contra ecclesiasticos, etiam pro delicto læsæ majestatis, feri debet a judice ecclesiastico." RICCI Synops. Decret. et Resol. S. Congreg. Immunit. p. 105. — A constitution of pope Urban VI. pronounces those sovereigns or magistrates guilty of sacrilege, who shall banish an ecclesiastic from their territories, and declares them to have ipso facto incurred the sentence of excommunication. Cap. II. De Fora. Compet in VII. To this immunity may be added the indulgence shown by the ecclesiastical tribunals to the clergy, on whom they never inflicted any but slight punishments, even for the most atrocious crimes. The dreadful disorders that arose from this cause, at length produced their own remedy in France, where the clergy were at length subjected to the temporal jurisdiction for all transgressions that are injurious to society. See Papon Arrets Notables, book i. tit. v. act 34.
   25. Indecorum est laicos homines viros ecclesiasticos judicare. Can. in nona actione 22, xvi. q. 7.
   26. See the Statement of Facts on the System of Independence of Bishops.
   27. In the year 1725, a parish priest, of the canton of Lucerne, having refused to appear before the supreme council, was, for his contumacy, banished from the canton. Hereupon his diocesan, the bishop of Constance, had the assurance to write to the council that they had infringed the ecclesiastical immunities — that "it is unlawful to subject the ministers of God to the decisions of the temporal power." In these pretensions he was sanctioned by the approbation of the pope's nuncio and the court of Rome. But the council of Lucerne firmly supported the rights of sovereignty, and, without engaging with the bishop in a controversy which would have been derogatory to their dignity, answered him — "Your lordship quotes various passages from the writings of the fathers, which we, on our side, might also quote in our own favor, if it were necessary, or if there was question of deciding the contest by dint of quotation. But let your lordship rest assured that we have a right to summon before us a priest, our natural subject, who encroaches on our prerogatives — to point out to him his error — to exhort him to a reform of his conduct — and, in consequence of his obstinate disobedience, after repeated citations, to banish him from our dominions. We have not the least doubt that this right belongs to us; and we are determined to defend it. And indeed it ought not to be proposed to any sovereign to appear as party in a contest with a refractory subject like him — to refer the cause to the decision of a third party, whoever he be — and run the risk of being condemned to tolerate in the state a person of such character, with what dignity soever he might be invested." etc. The bishop of Constance had proceeded so far as to assert in his letter to the canton, dated December 18th, 1725, that "churchmen, as soon as they have received holy orders, ceased to be natural subjects, and are thus released from the bondage in which they lived before." Memorial on the Dispute between the Pope and the Canton of Lucerne, p. 65.
   28. Revolutions of Portugal.
   29. See Letters on the Pretensions of the Clergy.
   30. Matthew Paris. — turretin. Compend. Hist. Eccles. Secul. xiii.
   31. Heiss's History of the Empire, book ii., chap. svi.
   32. Sovereigns were sometimes found, who, without considering future consequences, favored the papal encroachments when they were likely to prove advantageous to their own interests. Thus, Louis VIII., king of France, wishing to invade the territories of the Count of Toulouse, under pretense of making war on the Albigenses, requested of the pope, among other things, "that he would Issue a bull declaring that the two Raymonds, father and son, together with all their adherents, associates, and allies, had been and were deprived of all their possessions." VELLY'S Hist. of France, vol. iv. p. 33. Of a similar nature to the preceding is the following remarkable fact: — Pope Martin IV. excommunicated Peter, king of Arragon, declared that he had forfeited his kingdom, all his lands, and even the regal dignity, and pronounced his subjects absolved from their oath of allegiance. He even excommunicated all who should acknowledge him as king, or perform towards him any of the duties of a subject. He then offered Arragon and Catalonia to the Count de Valois, second son of Philip the Bold, on condition that he and his successors should acknowledge themselves vassals of the holy see, take an oath of fealty to the pope, and pay him a yearly tribute. The king of France assembled the barons and prelates of his kingdom, to deliberate on the pope's offer, and they advised him to accept of it. "Strange blindness of kings and their counselors!" exclaims, with good reason, a modern historian; "they did not perceive, that, by thus accepting kingdoms from the hands of the pope, they strengthened and established his pretensions to the right of deposing themselves." VELLY'S History of France, vol. vi. p. 190.
   33. In cap. Novit. de Judicis.
   34. See Leibnitii Codex, Juris Gent. Diplomat. Dipl. LXVII. § 9.
   35. Ibid. Alliance of Zurich with the cantons of Uri, Schweitz, and Underwald, dated May 1, 1351, § 7.
   36. See A Regulation of Parliament in an arret of March 19, 1409. Spirit of Laws. These (says Montesquieu) were the very best nights they could pitch upon; they would have made no great profit of any other.
   37. De Jure Belli et Pacis. lib. ii. cap. xxiv. He quotes Basil ad Amphiloch, x. 13. Zonarcas in Niceph. Phoc. vol. iii.