The Life and Defence of the Conduct and Principles of the Venerable and Calumniated Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London in the Reigns of Henry Viii

Title: The Life and Defence of the Conduct and Principles of the Venerable and Calumniated Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London in the Reigns of Henry Viii Edward Vi, Mary and Elizabeth General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1842 Original Publisher: Seeley and Burnside Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: 16 NATURE OF THE PAPAL SUPREMACY. Pope to the next general council. The opinions of the Church were divided on the question, whether a Council was superior to the Pope, or the Pope to a Council; but all acknowledged that a Council with the Pope, was supreme ; and that if there were any limits to the Papal authority, they could be defined by a Council only. No one presumed to think that the King could decide the question of the divorce in his own favor, by virtue of his own supremacy. The appeal, therefore, from the Pope to the Council implied -- that, as the Council and the Pope were supreme over the Church, and the Council only could be superior to the Bishop of Rome ; so the Pope was superior to all others, except a Council. The very fact of an appeal to a Council, implied that there was some undefined and undefinable authority in the Pope. The Pope was considered superior in some manner to Kings, as the King of England was superior to all his subjects. As the King rules with his Parliament, so the Pope was supposed to rule with a Council. As the King is supreme by the laws of his Parliament, the Pope was regarded as supreme, within the limits of conciliar law. As the subject appeals from the King's Court to the Parliament, an appeal lay from the Pope to a Council. As the question whether the King or the Parliament is superior, is undecided by the laws of England ; the superiority of...