Boniface, Bishop, Servant of the servants of God. For perpetual
remembrance:
Urged on by our faith, we are obliged to believe and hold that there
is one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. And we firmly believe
and profess that outside of her there is no salvation nor remission of
sins, as the bridegroom declares in the Canticles, 'My dove, my undefiled,
is but one; she is the only one of her mother; she is the choice one of
her that bare her.' And this represents the one mystical body of
Christ, and of this body Christ is the head, and God is the head of Christ.
In it there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. For in the time
of the Flood there was the single ark of Noah, which prefigures the one
Church, and it was finished according to the measure of one cubit and had
one Noah for pilot and captain, and outside of it every living creature
on the earth,as we read, was destroyed. And this church we revere
as the only one, even as the Lord saith by the prophet, 'Deliver my soul
from the sword, my darling from the power of the dog.' He prayed
for his soul, that is, for himself, head and body. And this body
he called one body, that is, the Church, because of the single bridegroom,
the unity of the faith,
the sacraments, and the love of the Church. She is that seamless
shirt of the Lord which was not rent but was allotted by the casting of
lots. Therefore, this one and single Church has one head and not
two heads, - for had she two heads, she would be a monster, - that is,
Christ and Christ's vicar, Peter and Peter's successor. For the Lord
said unto Peter, 'Feed my sheep.' 'My,' he said, speaking generally
and not particularly, 'these and those,' by which it is to be understood
that all the sheep are committed unto him. So, when the Greeks and
others say that they were not committed to the care of Peter and his successors,
they must confess that they are not of Christ's sheep, even as the Lord
says in John, 'There is one fold and
one shepherd.'
That in her and within her power are two swords, we are taught in the
Gospels, namely, the spiritual sword and the temporal sword. For
when the Apostles said, 'Lo, here,' - that is, in the Church, - are two
swords, the Lord did not reply to the Apostles 'it is too much,' but 'it
is enough.' It is certain that whoever denies that the temporal sword
is in the power of Peter hearkens ill to the words of the Lord which he
spake, 'Put up thy sword into its sheath.' Therefore, both are in the power
of the Church, namely, the spiritual sword and the temporal sword; the
latter is to be used for the Church, the former by
the Church; the former by the hand of the priest, the latter by the
hand of princes and kings, but at the nod and sufferance of the priest.
The one sword must of necessity be subject to the other, and the temporal
authority to the spiritual. For the Apostle said, 'There is no power
but of God, and the powers that be are ordained of God'; and they would
not have been ordained unless one sword had been made subject to the other,
and even as the lower is subjected to the other
for higher things. For, according to Dionysius, it is a divine
law that the lowest things are made by mediocre things to attain to the
highest. For it is not according to the law of the universe that
all things in an equal way and immediately should reach their end, but
the lowest through the mediocre and the lower through their higher.
But that the spiritual power excels the earthly power in dignity and worth,
we will the more clearly acknowledge just in proportion as the spiritual
is higher than the temporal. And this we perceive quite distinctly from
the donation of the tithe and functions of benediction and sanctification,
from the mode in which the power was received, and the government of the
subjected realms. For truth being the witness, the spiritual power
has the functions of establishing the temporal power and sitting in judgement
on it if it should prove to be not good. And to the Church and the
Church's power the prophecy of Jeremiah attests: "See, I have set thee
this day over the nations and kingdoms to pluck up and to break down and
to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.'
And if the earthly power deviate from the right path, it is judged by the spiritual power; but if a minor spiritual power deviate from the right path, the lower in rank is judged by its superior; but if the supreme power (the papacy) deviate, it can be judged not by man, but by God alone. And so the Apostle testifies, 'He which is spiritual judges all things, but he himself is judged by no man.' But this authority, although it be given to man, and though it be exercised by a man, is not a human but a divine power given by divine word of mouth to Peter and confirmed to Peter and to his successors by Christ himself, whom Peter confessed, even him whom Christ called the Rock. For the Lord said to Peter himself, 'Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth,' etc. Whoever, therefore, resists this power so ordained by God, resists the ordinance of God, unless perchance he imagines two principles to exist, as did Manichaeus, which we pronounce false and heretical. For Moses testified that God created heaven and earth not in the beginnings but 'in the beginning'.
Furthermore, that every human creature is subject to the Roman pontiff,
- this we declare, say, define, and pronounce to be altogether necessary
to salvation.