User:Alterego/Lord God our Pope

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  • Charles Hastings Collette (1896). Lord God our Pope (Dominus Deus Noster Papa) Another God on Earth (Alter Deus in Terris): And a reply to a Pamphlet by the Rev. Sydney F. Smith, S.J., entitled Does the Pope claim to the God?. Protestant Alliance. ISBN B0008A1EZC.
Location 	        Library 	              Code 
GA	                EMORY UNIV, PITTS THEOL LIBR  EMT 
Title:  	        Lord God our Pope (Dominus Deus Noster Papa) another God on earth \
                        (Alter Deus in Terris) and a reply to a pamphlet by the \
                        Rev. Sydney F. Smith, S.J., entitled Does the Pope claim to be God? \
Author(s): 	        Collette, Charles Hastings, 1816-1901. 
Publication: 	        London : Protestant Alliance,
Year: 	                1896
Description: 	        20 p. ; 19 cm.
Language: 	        English
Series: 	        Variation: SOLINET/ASERL Cooperative Microfilming Project \
                        (NEH PS-21089) ;; SOL MN06540.18 EMT.
Named Person: 	        Smith, Sydney F. (Sydney Fenn), 1843-1922. Does the Pope claim to be God? 
Named Corp: 	        Catholic Church -- Controversial literature. 
Title Subject: 	        Does the Pope claim to be God? 
Note(s): 	        Printing Master 241./ Includes bibliographical references./ 
                        Reproduction: Microfilm./ Atlanta, Ga. :/ SOLINET,/ 1997./ 
                        1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm./ 
                        (SOLINET/ASERL Cooperative Microfilming Project (NEH PS-21089) \
                        ; SOL MN06540.18 EMT)
Class Descriptors: 	LC: BR55
Responsibility: 	by Charles Hastings Collette.
Material Type: 	        Microfilm (mfl); Master microform (mmc)
Document Type: 	        Book
Entry: 	19970313
Update: 	        20040330
Accession No: 	        OCLC: 36544203
Database: 	        WorldCat

"He sitteth in the Temple of God, shewing himself as if he were God." --2 Thess. ii, 4 (R.C. Version).

London: Protestant Alliance, 430, Strand, W.C.

(Price Twopence.)


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"Lord God Our Pope." "Another God on Earth."

"Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus Inciderit." --Horance.--Or as the English Poet writes; -- "Nor let a God appear unless some weighty cause His presence ask."

The subject, the title of this tract, has been unexpectedly revived. The Rev. J. Hiles Hitchens, D.D., published a pamphlet under the title "Papal Supremacy, or the Present Struggle," in its third edition. (Protestant Alliance, 430, Strand, London.) in page 5 we read:--"In Roman Catholic books the following, "among other titles, are given--Pontiff-The Prince of Priests--Vicar of Christ--Head of the Body--Foundation of the Building--Bridegroom of the Church--Our Lord God the Pope--Another God on Earth--King of King's and Lord of Lords." This pamphlet was distributed at the close of a Protestant lecture delivered at Bow, on behalf of the Protestant Alliance. A copy came into the hands of a Roman Catholic, who tereupon wrote to the Secretary, Mr. A. H. Guinness, the following letter:--

Secretary, Protestant Alliance

Sir, A pamhlet issued by your alliance was handed to a Protestant friend of mine last night (Friday) at the Bow and Bromley Institute, after a Meeting held there by your Society. He very properly handed it to me being a Catholic, for answer to the "sweeping" assertions therein. It is not my intention to refute these statements to you, though I have done so (with the greatest ease) to my friend. Indeed, the whole of the pamphlet is pregnated with so much uncharitableness that in this present intelligent age no honest Protestant would read it without disgust. The pamphlet is entitled "Papal Supremacy," or the Present Struggle, by the Rev. J. Hiles HItches, D.D. As no address is given to the author I cannot write to him respecting it. But as your Alliance published the Pamphlet, you are responsible for the statements contained therein. Now the author states on Page 5, that "in Roman Catholic books the following among other titles are given to the Pontiffs"--"Our Lord God the Pope"--"Another God upon Earth." The author does not state the names of these Roman Catholic books wherein these titles are given, and I must ask you, in common honesty, to send me at once the names of the books and the publishers, as I have never heard of such blasphemous titles being used in any of our books and should be the first to denounce such blasphemy, if these words can be proved to have been written' in Roman Catholic books. If these statements cannot be proved, then they are gross libels, and should be withdrawn publicly by you at once. I trust you will, therefore, send me the information at once, or otherwise I must find some means of having these words substantiated.


Mr. A. H. Guinness at once replied to this letter, giving Dr. Hitchen's address, and furnished authorities substantiating the statments to which the writer of the letter referred. I now state the following--

And first as to the words "Dominus Deus noster Pap"--"Our Lord God the Pope." "To believe that Our Lord God the Pope has not the power to decree as he has decreed, is to be deemed heretical." These words appeared in the Roman Canon Law in the Gloss on the "Extravagantes" of Pope John XXII.* "Cum inter," Tit. xiv, cap. iv., ad Callem. Sexti Decretalium, Paris 1685. On this important subject I prefer to quote from Roman Catholic authority. I refer to "Tentativa Theologia," a Treatise on Episcopal Rights, &c., by Father A. Pereira, Priest and Doctor of Lisbon; English translation by Mr. Landon, London, 1847. Pereira, in page 180, tells us:--"It is quite certain that Popes have never reproved or rejected this title 'Lord God the Pope' for the passage in the Gloss referred to appears in the edition of the Canon Law published in Rome in 1580 by Gregory XIII. The Index Expurgatorious of Pius V., which orders the erasure of other passages, yet leaves this one."

It is important to note that to Pope Gregory's edition is appended his Bull in these terms:--"We decree, sanction, and ordain, that it shall not be permitted to any one . . . . to add to or take from, to alter or transpose, or to add any interpretation to the book of Canon Law as revised, corrected and expurgated by our command, &c." Thus leaving the words "Dominus Deus noster Papa," confirmed by his Ex-Cathedra and infallible Bull.

  • Notwithstanding, this same Pope, John XXII., was distinguished by patronising heresy. "Jahannis Papa XXII., errorum "de beatudine animae quam ipse din tenerat publice praedicaverat." Mangis. Ann. 1334. Dachery, iii. 97.


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Father Pereira further tells us (p. 130):--"So it is in two editions "published at Lyons in 1584 and 1606; "and in those of Paris published in 1586, 1601, and 1612." It also occurs in those of Lyons in 1556, 1559, 1572, and those of Paris in 1522, 1561.*

Our Bishop Jewell exposed this "blasphemous" title given to the Pope, for, be it understood, the Corpus Juris became the Law of the Roman Church, and one of her "Constitutions," within the definition of an Article of the Creed of Pope Pius IV., which declares:--"Ecclesiastical Traditions and all the Constitutions of the same Roman Church." The dictum thus became an article of the Roman Faith,--Bishop Jewell's exposure had its effect, and, notwithstanding the command of Gregory XIII., the word "Deus" has been silently withdrawn from the Gloss, though Gregory's decree is still appended to all subsequent editions of the Corpus Juris Canonici! But we still find in several previous and subsequent editions the Decree attributed to Pope Nichals I., "Satis evidenter." "It is clearly enough shown that the Pope, who it is certain, was styled a God by pious Prince Constantine . . . . can neither be bound in any degree by the secular power; and that God canot be judged by men is manifest."*

It is doubtful if Constantine ever used this expression, but then it remains in Rome's Canon Law. We further read in every edition of this Canon Law:-- The Pope of Rome may be judged of none but God only, for although he neither regard his own salvation nor no one else, but draw down with himself in numerable persons to hell, yet no mortal man in the world presume to reprehend him, except by chance he be convicted of heresy."*

---

  • See a note to the Epistle prefixed by Calfhill to his "Answer to Martiall's Treatise of the Cross," p.5, Parker's Society edition.
  • Constat Papa a pio Principe Constantine Deum Appelatum ab hominibus, et Deum ab hominibus judicare non posse, manifestum sit. Lyons edit. 1621. Can vii, col 467
  • This is attributed to Pope Boniface. The test is:--"Si Papa Suae, et fraternae salutis negligens deprehendituro, inatilis et remissus in operibus suis, et insuper abono taciturnus, quod magis offficit sibi, et omnibus, nihilominus innumerabiles populos caternatim secum ducit primo mancipio gehennae, cum ipso plagis multis in aeternum vapulaturus Hujus culpas istic redarguere praesumit mortalium nullus: quia cunctos ipse judicaturus, a nemine est judicandus, nisi deprehendatur a fide devius." (Decret. Pars i. Dist. 40, sec. vi. Corpun. Greg. XIII.


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The reason for this, we must presume, is founded on the dictum of Pope Nicholas I. that as Prince Constantine styled the Pope a God, that it is manifest that God cannnot be judged by man! But who would be bold enough to charge an infallible Pope with heresy?

More than a hundred examples of extravagances similar to those in the above text are collected in the "Gravamina adversus Syn. Trident, Restit. P. ii caus. viii. Ob. Tyrannidem Papae, p. 201. Argent, 1565.

This theory is carried out at the present day on the coronation of a Pope, with the triple crown to mark the triple jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome over heaven earth and purgatory. The ceremony is thus described in an official document:--"After the election and proclomation, the Pope attired in the pontifical habit, is borne in the Pontifical chair to the church of St. Peter, and is placed on the High Altar, where he is saluted for the third time by the Cardinals by kissing his feet, hands and mouth. In the mean time the Ambrosian Hymn Te Deum is sung. Then the Pontif descends from the altar, and is carried to the vatican Palace."*

The ceremony takes place in the Church of St. Peter. The Pope is placed upon the High Altar of that Church, a spot consecrated, according to the Romish theory of the Mass, by the actual presence of the body blood soul and divinity of a living Christ. He sits on the High Altar using it as his footstool; and enthroned as a King, he is adored as a God in the same manner as is the consecrated wafer; adored by the Cardinal Princes who kiss his feet, which rest on the Altar of the Supreme! "He sitteth in the temple of God shewing himself as if he were God." The same account is given of the inauguration of Pope Pius Ix. in the R.C. paper "The Universe" of the 27th June, 1846.

  • Notitis Congre. Et Tribunal, Curiae Romanae, Littenburg 1683.


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