Papal deposing power

The papal deposing power was the most powerful tool of the political authority claimed by and on behalf of the Roman Pontiff, in medieval and early modern thought, amounting to the assertion of the Pope's power to declare a Christian monarch heretical and powerless to rule.

Pope Gregory VII's Dictatus Papae (c. 1075) claimed for the Pope "that it may be permitted to him to depose emperors" (12) and asserted the papal power to "absolve subjects from their fealty to wicked men" (27).

Oaths of allegiance held together the feudal political structure of medieval Europe. The principle behind deposition was that the Pope, as the ultimate representative of God from whom all oaths draw their force, could in extreme circumstances absolve a ruler's subjects of their allegiance, thereby rendering the ruler powerless. In a medieval Europe in which all confessed the Pope as head of the visible Church, it gave concrete embodiment to the superiority of the spiritual power over the temporal—the other side, so to speak, of the role of Popes and bishops in anointing and crowning emperors and kings.

History

Some prominent papal depositions^[1]:

• Pope Gregory VII deposed Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, February 22, 1076
• Pope Innocent III deposed King John of England, 1212^[2]
• Pope Innocent IV deposed Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, July 17, 1245^[3]
• Pope Pius V declared Elizabeth I of England deposed, February 25, 1570^[4]
• Pope Boniface VIII attempted to depose Philip the Fair, King of France

Later Historical Reception

The claim was contested by both Catholic and Protestant rulers, as part of the ongoing discussion of the demarcation of spiritual and temporal authority. Catholic writers differed on the question of whether the deposing power was an integral part of the Catholic faith, an issue that was debated intensively in the early seventeenth century. The political points involved were later swept up in the formulation of Gallicanism as a distinctive doctrine limiting papal authority.

The Oath of Allegiance (1606) formulated for James I of England contained a specific denial of the deposing power. It triggered the Catholic Roger Widdrington's opposition to the unconditional acceptance by Catholics of the deposing power. Widdrington instead used the language of probabilism from moral theology, claiming that the deposing power was only a 'probable' doctrine, not a matter of faith.^[5].

Notes

1. ^ "Papal deposing power," New Catholic Dictionary
2. ^ "Pope Innocent III," Catholic Encyclopedia, 1917.
3. ^ "Pope Innocent IV," Catholic Encyclopedia, 1917.
4. ^ See Regnans in Excelsis
5. ^ John Bossy, The English Catholic Community (1603-1625), p. 93, in Alan G. R. Smith (editor), The Reign of James VI and I (1973).

See also

• Civil allegiance

External links

• Medieval Sourcebook: Gregory VII: Dictatus Papae 1090
• Medieval Sourcebook: Gregory VII: First Deposition and Banning of Henry IV (Feb 22, 1076)
• New Catholic Dictionary entry