UNAM SANCTAM
BULL OF POPE BONIFACE VIII
NOVEMBER 18, 1302

Unam sanctam Ecelesiam catholicam et ipsam apostolicam urgente fide credere cogimur et tenere, nosque hanc firmiter credimus et simpliciter confitemur, extra quam nec salus est nec remissio peccatorum, sponso in Canticis proclamante: Una est columba mea, perfecta mea. Una est matri suae, electa genitrici suae [Ct 6,8]; quae unum corpus mysticum repraesentat, cuius corporis caput Christus, Christi vero Deus. In qua << unus Dominus, una fides et unum baptisma >> [Eph 4, 5]. Una nempe fuit diluvii tempore arca Noe, unam Ecclesiam praefigurans, quae in uno cubito consummata unum, Noe videlicet, gubernatorem habuit et rectorem, extra quam omnia subsistentia super terram legimus fuisse deleta. Hanc autem veneramur et unicam, dicente Domino in Propheta: << Erue a framea, Deus, animam meam, et de manu canis unicam meam >> [Ps 21, 21]. Pro anima enim, id est pro se ipso, capite simul oravit et corpore, quod corpus unicam scl. Ecclesiam nominavit, propter sponsi, fidei, sacramentorum et caritatis Ecclesiae unitatem. Haec est tunica illa Domini inconsutilis (Jo 19, 23), quae scissa non fuit, sed sorte provenit. Igitur Ecclesiae unius et unicae unum corpus, unum caput, non duo capita quasi monstrum, Christus videlicet et Christi vicarius PETRUS, PETRIque successor, dicente Domino ipsi PETRO: << Pasce oves meas >> [Io 21, 17]. Meas, inquit, et generaliter, non singulariter has vel illas: per quod commisisse sibi intelligitur universas. Sive ergo Graeci sive alii se dicant PETRO eiusque successoribus non esse commissos: fateantur necesse est se de ovibus Christi non esse, dicente Domino in Ioanne, unum ovile, unum et unicum esse pastorem [Jo 10, 16].
We are compelled, our faith urging us, to believe and to hold--and we do firmly believe and simply confess--that there is one holy catholic and apostolic Church, outside of which there is neither salvation nor remission of sins; her Spouse proclaiming it in the canticles, "My dove, my undefiled is but one, she is the choice one of her that bare her"; which represents one mystic body, of which body the head is Christ, but of Christ, God. In this Church there is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. There was one ark of Noah, indeed, at the time of the flood, symbolizing one Church; and this being finished in one cubit had, namely, one Noah as helmsman and commander. And, with the exception of this ark, all things existing upon the earth were, as we read, destroyed. This Church, moreover, we venerate as the only one, the Lord saying through His prophet, "Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling from the power of the dog." He prayed at the same time for His soul--that is, for Himself the head, and for His body--which body, namely, he called the one and only Church on account of the unity of the faith promised, of the sacraments, and of the love of the Church. She is the seamless garment of the Lord which was not cut but which fell by lot. Therefore of this one and only Church there is one body and one head--not two heads as if it were a monster: Christ, namely, and the vicar of Christ, St. Peter, and the successor of Peter. For the Lord Himself said to Peter, "Feed my sheep." My sheep, He said, using a general term, and not designating these or those particular sheep; from which it is plain that He committed to Him all His sheep. If, then, the Greeks or others say that they were not committed to the care of Peter and his successors, they necessarily confess that they are not the sheep of Christ; for the Lord says, in John, that there is one fold, one shepherd, and one only.
In hac eiusque potestate duos esse gladios, spiritualem videlicet et temporalem, evangelicis dictis instruimur. Nam dicentibus Apostolis: Ecce gladii duo hic, in ecclesia scilicet, quum apostoli loquerentur, non respondit Dominus, nimis esse, sed satis. Certe qui in potestate Petri temporalem gladium esse negat, male verbum attendit Domini proferentis. Converte gladium tuum in vaginam [Mt 26.52]. Uterque ergo est in potestate ecclesiae, spiritualis scilicet gladius et materialis. Sed is quidem pro ecclesia, ille vero ab ecclesia exercendus. Ille sacerdotis, is manu regum et militum, sed ad nutum et patientiam sacerdotis. Oportet autem gladium esse sub gladio, et temporalem auctoritatem spirituali subiici potestati. Nam quum dicat Apostolus: Non est potestas nisi a Deo; quae autem sunt, a Deo ordinata sunt, non autem ordinata essent, nisi gladius esset sub gladio, et tanquam inferior reduceretur per alium in suprema. Nam secundum B. Dionysium lex divinitatis est infima per media in suprema reduci. Non ergo secundum ordinem universi omnia aeque ac immediate, sed infima per media et inferiora per superiora ad ordinem reducuntur. Spiritualem autem et dignitate et nobilitate terrenam quamlibet praecellere potestatem, oportet tanto clarius nos fateri, quanto spiritualia temporalia antecellunt. Quod etiam ex decimarum datione, et benedictione, et sanctificatione, ex ipsius potestatis acceptione, ex ipsarum rerum gubernatione claris oculis intuemur. Nam, veritate testante, spiritualis potestas terrenam potestatem instituere habet, et iudicare, si bona non fuerit. Sic de ecclesia et ecclesiastica potestate verificatur vaticinium Hieremiae. Ecce constitui te hodie super gentes et regna et cetera, quae sequuntur. Ergo si deviat terrena potestas, iudicabitur a potestate spirituali; sed, si deviat spiritualis minor, a suo superiori; si vero suprema, a solo Deo, non ab homine poterit iudicari, testante Apostolo: Spiritualis homo iudicat omnia, ipse autem a nemine iudicatur [1 Cor 2.15]. Est autem haec auctoritas, etsi data sit homini et exerceatur per hominem, non humana, sed potius divina, ore divino PETRO data sibique suisque successoribus in ipso, quem confessus fuit petra, firmata, dicente Domino ipsi PETRO: Quodcunque ligaveris etc. [Mt 16.19]. Quicunque igitur huic potestati a Deo sic ordinatae resistit, Dei ordinationi resistit [Rom 13.2], nisi duo sicut Manichaeus, fingat esse principia, quod falsum et haereticum iudicamus, quia, testante Moyse, non in principiis, sed in principio coelum Deus creavit et terram [cf. Gn 1.1]. Porro subesse Romano Pontifici omni humanae creaturae declaramus, dicimus, definimus et pronunciamus omnino esse de necessitate salutis.
We are told by the word of the Gospel that in this His fold there are two swords--a spiritual, namely, and a temporal. For when the apostles said, "Behold here are two swords"--when, namely, the apostles were speaking in the church--the Lord did not reply that this was too much, but enough. Surely he who denies that the temporal sword is in the power of Peter wrongly interprets the word of the Lord when He says, "Put up thy sword in its scabbard." Both swords, the spiritual and the material, therefore, are in the power of the Church; the one, indeed, to be wielded for the Church, the other by the Church; the one by the hand of the priest, the other by the hand of kings and knights, but at the will and sufferance of the priest. One sword, moreover, ought to be under the other, and the temporal authority to be subjected to the spiritual. For when the apostle says "there is no power but of God, and the powers that are of God are ordained," they would not be ordained unless sword were under sword and the lesser one, as it were, were led by the other to great deeds. For according to St. Dionysius the law of divinity is to lead the lowest through the intermediate to the highest things. Not, therefore, according to the law of the universe, are all things reduced to order equally and immediately; but the lowest through the intermediate through the higher. But that the spiritual exceeds any earthly power in dignity and nobility we ought the more openly to confess the more spiritual things excel the temporal ones. This also is made plain to our eyes by the giving of tithes, and the benediction and the sanctification; from the acceptation of this same power, from the control over those same things. For, the truth bearing witness, the spiritual power has to establish the earthly power, and to judge it if it be not good. Thus concerning the Church and the ecclesiastical power is verified the prophecy of Jeremiah: "see, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms," and the other things which follow. Therefore if the earthly power err it shall be judged by the spiritual power; but if the lesser spiritual power err, by the greater. But if the greatest, it can be judged by God alone, not by man, the apostle bearing witness. A spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is judged by no one. This authority, moreover, even though it is given to man and exercised through man, is not human but rather divine, being given by divine lips to Peter and founded on a rock for him and his successors through Christ Himself whom he has confessed; the Lord Himself saying to Peter: "Whatsoever thou shalt bind," etc. Whoever, therefore, resists this power thus ordained by God, resists the ordination of God, unless he makes believe, like the Manichean, that there are two beginnings. This we consider false and heretical, since by the testimony of Moses, not "in the beginnings," but "in the beginning" God created the heavens and the earth. Indeed, we declare, announce, and define that it is altogether necessary to salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman pontiff.
The Lateran, November 14, in our eighth year. As a perpetual memorial of this matter.

BONIFACE VIII



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