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Boniface Viii, the Bull Unam Sanctam (1302)1 1 Primary Source 3.9 BONIFACE VIII, THE BULL UNAM SANCTAM (1302)1 Pope Boniface VIII (r. 1294–1303) believed that all authority derived from God, and that the pope, as the Vicar (or lieutenant) of Christ, was the highest embodiment of his will on Earth. As such, he believed that papal authority was superior to that of secular rulers, who Boniface argued derived their right to rule from God and therefore from the pope, to whom every human being should be subject as to the caretaker of their souls and the assurance of their salvation. His belief in papal supremacy brought him into frequent conflict with secular rulers and divided Europe into factions that either supported papal supremacy or favored the separation of church and state. The most important clash pitted Boniface against the centralizing monarch, Philip IV the Fair of France (1285–1314), in a struggle for control of the church’s revenues and for authority over the clergy in France. To build support for his resistance to the papacy, in April 1302 Philip convoked a precursor of the Estates General by inviting representatives of the clergy, the nobility, and the wealthiest towns to Paris. The body expressed support for their king. In November, Boniface issued his Bull, Unam Sanctam, in which he declared and justified the superiority of papal authority to that of the king, in part with reference to the theory of the Two Swords. For the text online, click here. The true faith compels us to believe that there is one holy Catholic Apostolic2 Church, and this we firmly believe and plainly confess. And outside of her there is no salvation or remission of sins, as the Bridegroom says in the Song of Solomon: “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” [Song of Sol.,3 vi. 9]; which represents the one mystical body, whose head is Christ, but the head of Christ is God [1 Cor., xi. 3]. In this Church there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” [Eph., iv. 5]. For in the time of the flood there was only one ark, that of Noah, prefiguring the one Church, and it was “finished above in one cubit”4 [Gen., vi. 16], and had but one helmsman and master, namely, Noah. And we read that all things on the earth outside of this ark were destroyed. This Church we venerate as the only one, since the Lord said by the prophet: “Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog” [Ps., xxii. 20]. He prayed for his soul, that is, for himself, the head; and at the same time for the body, and he named his body, that is, the one Church, because there is but one Bridegroom [John, iii. 29], and because of the unity of the faith, of the sacraments, and of his love for the Church. This is the seamless robe of the Lord which was not rent but parted by lot [John, xix. 23]. 1 Frederic Austin Ogg (ed.), A Source Book of Medieval History (New York, Cincinnati: American Book Company, 1908), 385–88. 2 Pertaining to the Apostles of Christ; in this instance: descended from apostolic succession. 3 All bracketed references are to passages in the Bible. 4 According to the book of Genesis, God told Noah to build a space (or set of windows) all around the top of the ark in the length of one cubit, or about eighteen inches. 2 Therefore there is one body of the one and only Church, and one head, not two heads, as if the Church were a monster. And this head is Christ, and his vicar, Peter5 and his successor; for the Lord himself said to Peter: “Feed my sheep” [John, xxi. 16]. And he said “my sheep,” in general, not these or those sheep in particular; from which it is clear that all were committed to him. If, therefore, Greeks [i.e., the Greek Church] or any one else say that they are not subject to Peter and his successor, they thereby necessarily confess that they are not of the sheep of Christ. For the Lord says, in the Gospel of John, that there is one fold and only one shepherd [John, x. 16]. By the words of the gospel we are taught that the two swords, namely, the spiritual authority and the temporal, are in the power of the Church. For when the apostles said “Here are two swords” [Luke, xxii. 38]—that is, in the Church, since it was the apostles who were speaking—the Lord did not answer, “It is too much,” but “It is enough.” Whoever denies that the temporal sword is in the power of Peter does not properly understand the word of the Lord when He said: “Put up thy sword into the sheath” [John, xviii. 11]. Both swords, therefore, the spiritual and the temporal, are in the power of the Church. The former is to be used by the Church, the latter for the Church; the one by the hand of the priest, the other by the hand of kings and knights, but at the command and permission of the priest. Moreover, it is necessary for one sword to be under the other, and the temporal authority to be subjected to the spiritual; for the apostle says, “For there is no power but of God: and the powers that be are ordained of God” [Rom., xiii. 1]; but they would not be ordained unless one were subjected to the other, and, as it were, the lower made the higher by the other. For, according to St. Dionysius,6 it is a law of divinity that the lowest is made the highest through the intermediate. According to the law of the universe all things are not equally and directly reduced to order, but the lowest are fitted into their order through the intermediate, and the lower through the higher. And we must necessarily admit that the spiritual power surpasses any earthly power in dignity and honor, because spiritual things surpass temporal things. We clearly see that this is true from the paying of tithes, from the benediction, from the sanctification, from the receiving of the power, and from the governing of these things. For the truth itself declares that the spiritual power must establish the temporal power and pass judgment on it if it is not good. Thus the prophecy of Jeremiah7 concerning the Church and the ecclesiastical8 power is fulfilled: “See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant” [Jer., i. 10]. Therefore if the temporal power errs, it will be judged by the spiritual power, and if the lower spiritual power errs, it will be judged by its superior. But if the highest spiritual power errs, it cannot be judged by men, but by God alone. For the apostle says: “But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man” [1 Cor., ii. 15]. Now this authority, although it is given to man and exercised through man, is not human, but divine. For it was given by the word of the Lord to Peter, and the rock9 was made firm to him and his successors, in Christ himself, whom he had confessed. For the Lord said to Peter: 5 Simon Peter (d. 64 A.D.), better known as Saint Peter, was one of Jesus Christ’s Twelve Apostles and was the first bishop of Rome (an office that evolved into the pope of Rome). 6 St. Dionysius was the pope from 259 until his death in 268 A.D. 7 One of the major prophets in the Hebrew Bible. 8 Of or relating to the institutional church. 9 This is a reference to the name Peter, which means “rock.” 3 “Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” [Matt., xvi. 19]. Therefore, whosoever resisteth this power thus ordained of God resisteth the ordinance of God [Rom., xiii. 2], unless there are two principles [beginnings], as Manichaeus10 pretends there are. But this we judge to be false and heretical. For Moses11 says that, not in the beginnings, but in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth [Gen.,i. 1]. We therefore declare, say, and affirm that submission on the part of every man to the bishop of Rome is altogether necessary for his salvation. 10 Mani (c. 216–274 A.D.) was the Persian founder of Manichaeism, a formerly widespread religion of Late Antiquity, which considered the world to be gripped in a struggle between relatively equal forces of good and evil. 11 A prophet of the Old Testament, responsible for leading the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt and receiving the Ten Commandments from God. .
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