The Americas in the Spanish World Order by Muldoon James;

Author:Muldoon, James;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Published: 1994-08-24T04:00:00+00:00

Whence it follows that when, after the resurrection, He gave the power of the keys and the responsibility for the flock to Peter, as it says in Matthew, the last chapter and ch. 16, we ought to measure the power of His vicar according to the power of God and grant to him supreme and universal jurisdiction in spirituals and in temporals all over the world when he judges what is useful for the common good of the Church.75

Strictly speaking, the last chapter of Matthew that Solórzano cited here did not contain any reference to the transmission of power. In it, a scene that takes place after His crucifixion, death, and resurrection, Christ did say that all power was His, but the grant of the keys with their powers had come before Christ’s passion and death. Using the distinction previously made, it would appear that the pope did not obtain Christ’s universal dominium, because the grant of the keys came before Christ had asserted His universal jurisdiction. Nevertheless, for Solórzano and those whom he cited in support of this position, the two scenes refer to the same, universal, dominium.

In similar fashion, Solórzano was able to reinterpret another famous line from the Gospels that would seem to have demonstrated that Christ had no temporal dominium to grant to the pope. Facing Pilate, Christ had said that His kingdom was not of this world. (John 18:36, 37) While this would seem to mean that Christ was not in possession of any temporal power, Solórzano took the position that Christ simply meant that at the moment at which He said this to Pilate, standing before him for judgment, readying Himself for death on the cross, He chose freely not to exercise His rightful dominium. At the resurrection, however, Christ would assume all his rightful power and become the true king of the world.76

The final stage of this argument dealt with the legal tradition in which the relationship between the spiritual and the temporal powers had long been subject to debate. Solórzano pointed out that in the legal tradition, there were statements by popes indicating that they did not possess any power in temporal affairs, that the two powers were separate and distinct. On the other hand, it was also clear that there was a hierarchy of powers, the spiritual obviously being the higher, and these two powers ought to assist one another in the achievement of their respective ends.77 The roles of the respective powers should not be confused, however, and one should not interfere improperly in the other’s realm.

As an example of this theory, Solórzano pointed out that the pope was, as Bartolus said, the “ordinary judge of all men of the whole world.”78 At the same time, however, what is decided routinely “by secular judges may not be appealed to the pope because they are not subject to his temporal jurisdiction.” The clear distinction between the powers is thus retained. In situations where “an injustice perpetrated by an emperor or king

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