The following list will show how frequently the Roman pontiffs in the days of their glory, claimed and exercised the power of deposing sovereigns.
A.D. 1075. Gregory VII. deposed Henry IV. the emperor. 1088. Urban II. deposed Philip, king of France. 1154. Adrian IV. deposed _William_, king of Sicily. 1198. Innocent III. deposed the Emperor Philip, and King John of England. 1227. Gregory IX. deposed the Emperor Frederic II. 1242. Innocent IV. deposed the emperor. 1261. Urban IV. deposed Manphred, king of Sicily. 1277. Nicholas III. deposed Charles, king of Sicily. 1281. Martin IV. deposed Peter of Arragon. 1284. Boniface VIII. deprived Philip the Fair[30]. 1305. Clement V. deposed the Emperor Henry V. 1316. John XXII. deprived the Emperor Lodovic. 1409. Alexander V. deposed the king of Naples. 1538. Paul III. deprived Henry VIII. of England. 1570. Pius V. deprived Queen Elizabeth, as did also some of his successors.
[Footnote 30: This pope in his bull says, _“We declare and pronounce it as necessary to salvation, that all mankind be subject to the Roman pontiff.”_ This bull is a part of the _canon law_.]
This is a sample of papal attempts against kings; and it proves that the popes have always lost sight of St. Peter’s character, though acting as his successors. Our own sovereigns have often felt the weight of the papal power. King Edgar was enjoined by Dunstan, the abbot of Glastonbury, not to wear his crown for seven years, to which he was compelled to submit. Henry II. was forced to walk barefooted three miles to visit Becket’s shrine, and there to receive fourscore lashes from the monks on his bare back. King John was compelled to resign his crown to the pope’s legate, and take it back on condition of paying a yearly sum of a thousand marks to the pope.
The pages of history are pregnant with proofs that, from the period of the Reformation, down to the time when the papacy became shorn of much of its strength, the practices of the church have exactly corresponded with the principles asserted in the canons already specified, in the canon law, and in the works of their eminent writers. I have alluded to the bulls issued against Elizabeth, and to the attempts of nations, and of individuals, to enforce them. Elizabeth escaped; but several continental sovereigns fell a sacrifice to the fury of the church of Rome. Henry III., of France, was murdered in 1589, by a Dominican friar, who was encouraged to the commission of the act by the prior of his convent. Henry was a member of the church of Rome; but he was not so zealous as the pope wished, in executing the laws against heretics. On account, therefore, of his supposed want of zeal, he was devoted to destruction by the church. The deed was lauded in sermons and in books, throughout the French territories; while the murderer, who was destroyed on the spot, was deemed a martyr in the cause of the church. At Rome, the fact was applauded by the pope in a set speech to the cardinals. The act was contrasted by his holiness, with those of Eleazar and Judith, and the palm was given to the friar. Nay, it was compared in greatness to the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. I give the following extract from this most blasphemous speech:—