Vicar Of Christ Research Articles

A Short Discourse on the Tyrannical Government: Over Things Divine and Human, but Especially over the Empire and Those Subject to the Empire, Usurped by Some Who Are Called Highest Pontiffs, by William of Ockham, and: A Letter to the Friars Minor and Other Writings by William of Ockham

BOOK REVIEWS87 a year at Frederick's court in 1313-14. For a brief period it even proved possible to invest Frederick with a quasi-messianic role as the leader of a crusade to the east, or the sponsor of a mission to Tunisia. Royal evangelism and rampant anticlericalism, the legacy of years of continual interdict during the War of the Vespers, made Sicily a natural refuge for the Spiritual Franciscans. This caused another breach with the papacy whenJohn XXII turned against the Spirituals in 1317. The island was again placed under interdict, and the economic troubles and baronial brigandage of the 1320's and 1330's made the Church as impoverished , harassed, and unpopular as it had ever been. This book's title is melodramatic and misleading, but its other faults are few. Clifford Backman guides his readers with authority through notoriously complex themes, and his lively prose style disguises an impressive depth of scholarship . He has written an admirable first book, and while his arguments are unlikely to be accepted in full, his study will be required reading in its field. Norman Housley University ofLeicester A Short Discourse on the Tyrannical Government: Over Things Divine and Human, butEspecially over the Empire and Those Subject to the Empire, Usurped by Some Who Are Called Highest Pontiffs. By William of Ockham . Edited by Arthur Stephen McGrade; translated by John KilcuUen. [Cambridge Texts in the History of PoUtical Thought.] (New York: Cambridge University Press. 1992. Pp. xxxiv, 215. $4995 cloth; $1595 paperback .) A Letter to the Friars Minor and OtherWritings. ByWilliam of Ockham. Edited by Arthur Stephen McGrade and John Kilcullen; translated by John Kilcullen . [Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought.] (New York: Cambridge University Press. 1995. Pp. xl, 390. $64.95 cloth; $24.95 paperback .) These volumes present a translation of Ockham's Breviolquium or Short Discourse—the first complete translation of any of Ockham's political treatises —together with substantial translated excerpts from Ockham's other political works. The two volumes are very welcome. Ockham's political writings are among the most important of the medieval era but, until now, they have been inaccessible except to scholars who can read them in the original Latin. The editor and translator have done their work exceUently. The introductions of McGrade are clear and concise, the translations of Kilcullen fluent and accurate ,and the footnotes provide material that will be helpful to a student without being too intrusive. I have only one quibble about the translation—the persistent rendering of the word dominium as "lordship." This sometimes obscures Ockham's meaning and even leads to phrases that are hardly Enghsh at all. Thus 88BOOK REVIEWS Kilcullen has Ockham write that "someone is said to have lordship over a horse when he can manage it as he pleases" (p. 103); but in English we never say that a rider has "lordship" over his horse. The word needed here is "mastery." In other contexts "jurisdiction" or "ownership"would be appropriate. In the Short Discourse the editors made an excellent choice of a work to translate in full. This treatise presents in a clear, straightforward, and accessible fashion Ockham's case against the contemporary popes. He attached not only specific abuses of the papal power, but a whole theory ofpapal absolution that he regarded as corrupt and heretical. (It is important to note,however,that Ockham never attacked the papacy as such.) The theory of papal authority that Ockham rejected held that the pope, as vicar of Christ on earth, was supreme lord of the world in all temporal and spiritual affairs. All rights of government and rights of property were derived from him. It followed that no licit government and no valid claims to property existed outside the CathoUc Church. Against this Ockham argued that the right to institute rulers and the right to acquire property were granted by God to all peoples "without intermediary" (p. 91). Ockham made a significant contribution to the emerging doctrine of natural rights in this work, referring several times to the inviolabUity of "the rights and liberties granted by God and Nature." Although Ockham has often been treated as a merely destructive critic of the papacy...

Innocent III: Vicar of Christ or Lord of the Worl? Edited by James M. Powell. Second, expanded edition. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1994. viii + 197 pp. $14.95.

Innocent III: Vicar of Christ or Lord of the Worl? Edited by James M. Powell. Second, expanded edition. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1994. viii + 197 pp. $14.95. - Volume 64 Issue 2

Temporal power and the vicar of christ: The papal state from 1450 to 1650

Temporal power and the vicar of christ: The papal state from 1450 to 1650

Introduction: ‘Straight Answers to the Problem of Sovereignty’?

Michael Wilks’s best-known contribution to historical scholarship is The Problem of Sovereignty in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1963). This is an exploration of the political ideas of Augustinus Triumphus of Ancona (c. 1270-1328) and his contemporary publicists on the nature of sovereignty—or supreme authority—and its location within society. Like most medieval thinkers Augustinus saw society as the universal Church, the body of Christ, a single corporate entity which embraced all Christians, and within which all were united in pursuit of the common aim of salvation. Most thinkers would have agreed, too, that in theory society itself was the possessor of sovereignty. The ‘problem’ arose in trying to decide how and by whom sovereignty should be wielded in practice. There were various solutions. At one extreme the pope, as the vicar of Christ, was thought to represent Christ’s mystical body, the Church, on earth. He thus became the physical embodiment of sovereignty, and, as such, the sole source of power within society.

Vicar of Christ

Where does one look for theological thinking in the Ecumenical Movement today? The first answer is obvious. From virtually its beginning, the Movement comprised two wings, whose respective functions are clearly enough indicated by the names under which they began to operate. The Life and Work element promotes the greatest possible degree of cooperation; the Faith and Order component works for theological and ecclesial understanding and consensus. For many reasons, among which is certainly to be reckoned the powerful presence of so-called Third World Churches as members, chief attention has swerved perceptibly to the Life and Work aspect: social justice evokes more interest than justification by faith, and the tendency is to be more concerned with bread than with God. Despite this, the theological work of Faith and Order continues.

The Vicar of Christ

The Vicar of Christ

Responsabilidad del Obispo en su diócesis, según Francisco de Vitoria

Francisco de Vitoria, one of the key figures in the Theology of the sixteenth century, was the principal influence on those Spanish bishops who participated decisively in the Council of Trent and who contributed to the shaping of its canons De Reformatione with the principals of doctrine and discipline which would affect the life and office of bishops. As is well known, in his lectures given at the University of Salamanca, Francisco de Vitoria has left us a treasure of doctrinal riches, which would serve as a source to enrich all of those disciples of his, who afterwards would take their places as the great bishops and teachers of their times. From his commentaries to the Secunda-secundae of Saint Thomas, and from his Relectiones Theologicae on the Church, one can establish what would constitute his own thinking on the Church, and more to the point, on the office of bishop. One discovers in his lectures a dogmatic consideration on the bishop-Pastor which lays the basis of their concrete responsabilities (moral, ascetic and pastoral) in the dioceses where they govern, that is to say, their responsabilities to the souls given over to their pastoral care. Following the Angelic Doctor, who lays the basis of ecclesiastical power in Christ, the Head of the Church, Vitoria, in turn, derives the power of the bishop from that of Christ himself, and, as a result, he considers each bishop to be the Vicar of Christ in his Church and head of his own particular Church. Making use of another biblical image, Vitoria looks upon the bishops as the spouse of his Church, in imitation of Christ. He should care for it, as a husband should care for his wife who merits all of his attention and concern; he cannot abandon her, because between them there exists a binding force tamquam perpetuum which obligates him to remain faithful. From this doctrinal basis of the episcopal office Vitoria derives some practical demands which assure the faithlul carrying-out of the pastoral mission: the responsability to reside in the diocese, near his sheep; the responsability of trying to supply priest; the responsability of attempting to achieve through serious effort his own sanctification. A particular church will be a faithful reflection of what its bishop is. And the bishop responds to the holiness of his flock through two principal means: to see to it that in his diocese sound doctrine is preached, and to correct with fortitude; he should also come to know the faithful personally and attend to the material needs of those most in need, as befits a pater pauperum. The figure of the bishop which we can outline in Vitoria's theology does not appear as an ideal image, but rather as the true image of the bishop who is consequent with the ontological reality of his episcopal consecration and of his office: the responsability of the bishop in his diocese is born of the ontological reality which is given him by means of the Sacrament (the special identity with Christ as Head) and through the reception of the concrete office (a special relation to his particular Church and with its souls). The doctrine of Vitoria concerning the episcopal office constitutes an important milestone in the history of theology. The affirmation of the divine institution of the episcopal order led him to the conclusion which would later be declared by the Magistery of the Church at the end of the nineteenth century, and afterwards, by the second Vatican Council.

SOME ASPECTS OF SCOTLAND AND THE CATHOLIC REVIVAL IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY

so beautiful, so full of the past and the future, and so cut off from the present. It is an image of eternity.'1 His description emphasises the Romantic need of continuity and of the beautiful certainty of a deity above the conflicting impulses of the day: the God of universal experience, of conscience—' the aboriginal Vicar of Christ,' as Newman called it—and of tradition, was localised. To that extent Erskine is indicative of the changing attitudes towards the Catholic church. To that general European shift Scotland made an important contribution.

Thomism and the New Theology

THOMISM AND THE NEW THEOLOGY* T HAT World War IT would bring with it, not merely great changes in the material fortunes of many nations, but also radical changes in the world of thought, was something which could have been forseen by a glance at the history of human thought throughout the ages. Even before the outbreak of hostilities it was evident that the great civil universities of Europe were in the grip of philosophies which were anti-christian in character, derived as they were from Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Engels. Once the frontiers of Europe were opened for inspection after the liberation it soon became clear that a new factor had arrived on the scene. This was a new philosophy, difficult to define, even by those who taught it, but nevertheless of great influence, especially in France. This new philosophy was given the name of Existentialism. Now, it is also a fact of history that few philosophies come into being without having an influence, sooner or later, on the science of Theology, and so it was natural that the theologian should wait, with a certain degree of apprehension, the result of the impact of these philosophies, especially Existentialism, on Catholic thought. This was even more important in the present case, since a flourishing school of Catholic existentialists already existed in France and in some other countries. By the year 1946 controversies in several ecclesiastical reviews made it quite clear that the apprehensions were more than justified.1 In that same year, in the course of two Allocutions, one to the General Chapter of the Friars Preachers and the other to the Jesuits, the Pope himself made some references to * This article was written and accepted for publication prior to the appearence of the recent papal encyclical, Humani Generia. Hence, the author makes no reference to that important document but his article gains significance in the light of the Holy Father's words.-En. 1 Cf. M. Labourdette, 0. P. "La Theologie et ses sources," Revue Tkomiste, 56 (1946), 858-871, and J. Danielou, "Les orientations presentes de Ia pensee religieuse ," Etudea, !l49 (April, 1946). 567 568 DAVID L. GREENSTOCK what he called a" new theology." 2 He pointed out that, while questions hitherto in dispute among Catholic theologians were still important and by no means to be neglected, nevertheless, the modern problem which confronts all theologians, no matter to what " school " they belong, is the defense of the very foundations of the perennial philosophy and theology, foundations which every intellect calling itself Catholic both recognizes and venerates. The very centre of the problem touches upon the intimate relations between the human intellect and that faith which has been revealed to man by God. How far is the intellect capable of penetrating into those truths in order to deduce from them, by a process of reasoning, other truths which are connected with them? Above all, what is the value of such conclusion? In his Allocution to the Jesuits the Pope mentioned the new theology by name: " There is a good deal of talk (but without the necessary clarity of concept), about a 'new theology,' which must be in constant transformation, following the example of all other things in the world, which a:re in a constant state of flux .and movement, without ever :reaching their term. If we were to accept such an opinion what would become of the unchangeable dogmas of the Catholic Faith; and what would become of the unity and stability of that Faith? " In spite of these words of warning so solemnly delivered by the Vicar of Christ, discussion and controversy still continued, and on the twenty-third of November, 1949, the spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset, speaking to a packed audience in the Barcelo cinema, Madrid, declared that European Idealism as a philosophical system had been overcome and superseded by another and a more modern system, so too had Aristotelianism. He then continued: " I am able to announce to you that the Roman, Catholic, Apostolic Church is about to :relinquish both Aristotelianism and Thomism; and that a new theology is being forged which is in close relationship with that of the Greek Fathers." 3 2...

The One Church and Reunion Movements

The desire the will of Christ, manifested in His prayer that they all may be one, be speedily accomplished has been repeated so often by the Vicars of Christ, all efforts sincerely directed towards its fulfilment are worthy of study. The present strivings of those separated from the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church are briefly summarized in this comment. Currently the desire for unity is concretised in the creation of a World Council of Churches. This venture, a new departure in the. ecumenical movement, was recommended by the Edinburgh and Oxford Conferences of 1938. Its establishment is an attempt to show the fundamental oneness of the member churches in the ecumenical movement. While the Council manifests the unity already achieved, it admits it is far from the goal sought. The constitution of the World Council was drafted at Utrecht. The Council consists of a general assembly of 450 which is to meet every five years, a central committee which meets annually, and commissions for study in the fields where common action is not yet possible. The new factors which this Council introduces in the movement are: (1) It is a movement of the churches. Formerly, churches chose representatives and sent them to conferences. Now they are in an organization directly, with continuous relations and direct responsibility for the ecumenical task. The admission is made there has been ignorance of what the Church is, and an effort is being made to learn anew the nature and functions of the Church. The Church is now recognized as the form of life which God ordained for His children. And the Church sought is a concrete, organized Church, not an abstraction. (2) The Council acknowledges the interdependence of unity in faith and order and cooperation in life and work. For if Christians act as one body, without being one body, and do not ask why they are not one body, confusion is inevitable. A common conception of truth must be the foundation for common activity. It is interesting to note how the elements in the philosophic definition of a society are implicit in the explanation of the new factors which the