The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

—138 THE CANON LAW.faithful, so, for the defence of the faith, they imllldy makeoath tliat tliey will endeavour^ bona fide, with all their might,to extirpate from, their territories all heretics marked hy theChurch ; so that when any one is about to assume any authority,whether of a permanent kind or only temporary, heshall be held bound to confirm his title by this oath.Andif a temporal prince, being required and admonished by theChurch, shall neglect to purge his kingdom from this hereticalpravity, the metropolitan and other provincial bishopsshall hind him in the fetters of excommunication ; and if heobstinately refuse to make satisfaction within the year, itshall be notified to the supreme pontiff, that then he maydeclare his subjects absolved from their allegiance, and bestowtheir lands upon good Catholics, who, the heretics being exterminated,may possess them unchallenged, and preservethem in the purity of the faith."*" Those are not to be accounted homicides who, fired withzeal for Mother Church, may have killed excommunicatedpersons.'"-j-\Ve shall add to the above the episcopal oath of allegianceto the Pope. That oath contemplates the pontiff inboth hischaracters of a temporal monarch and a spiritualsovereign ; and, of consequence, the fealty to which theswearer binds himself is of the same complex character. Itis taken not only by archbishops and bishops, but by all whoreceive any dignity of the Pope ; in short, by the wholeruling hierarchy of the monarchy of Rome. It is " notonly," says the learned annotator Catalani, "a professionof canonical obedience, but an oath offealty, not unlike thatwhich vassals took to their direct lord." We quote thecath only down to thefamous clause enjoining the persecutionof heretics :" /. N., elect of the church of '^.,from henceforimrd ivHlhe faithful and obedient to St Peter the apostle, and to the* Decret. Grcgorii, lib. v. tit. vii. cap. xiii.+ Decreti, pars ii. causa xxiii. qutost. v. can. xlvii.