Post by Pacelli on Jun 11, 2016 13:38:05 GMT -5
An extract from:
THE CHURCH OF THE WORD INCARNATE, An Essay in Speculative Theology, Charles Journet, Translated by A. H. C. Downes, Volume One: The Apostolic Hierarchy, Sheed and Ward, London and New York, 1955.
Chapter VIII, EXCURSUS VIII: ELECTION OF A POPE
During a vacancy of the Apostolic See the Church, as far as the supreme jurisdiction is concerned, possesses only the power of proceeding to the election of a new Pope; either through the cardinals, or, in default of them, by other ways: "Papatus, secluso papa, non est in Ecclesia nisi in potentia ministerialiter electiva, quia scilicet potest, sede vacante, papam eligere, per cardinales, vel per seipsam in casu" (Cajetan, De Comparatione Auctoritatis Papae et Concilii, cap. xiv, no. 210). Cajetan here expresses astonishment at Gerson's grave errors.
(1) Nature of the election. All that the Church can then do, as far as supreme jurisdiction is concerned, is to designate him on whom God, in virtue of the Gospel promises, will send it down directly. "The power to confer the pontificate belongs to Christ alone, not to the Church, which does no more than designate a particular subject" (John of St. Thomas, II-II, q. 1-7; disp. 2, a. I, no. 9, vol. VII, p. 218).
(2) Can the Pope directly designate his successor? It is not fitting, and all theologians are here agreed, that the designation of a successor should be made by the Pope himself. The act of electing a Pope precedes, strictly speaking, any exercise of the papal power; and so it is fittingly assigned to the Church and not to the Pope. Such in fact is the usage, conformable, as Cajetan says, to the divine prudence which assigns a proper time for everything. "Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow, for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof" (Matt. vi. 34). For certain theologians indeed, the direct election of a successor by the Pope would be invalid—for example, Cajetan (Apologia de Comparata Auctoritate Papae et Concilii, cap. xiii, no. 736), according to whom the power to elect a successor resides in the Pope not in a formal manner, apt to pass into act (as the mason's art is in the mason), but in an eminent manner, inapt for immediate exercise (as the mason's art is in the architect). For many others, however, it would be simply contra-indicated in the present state of things. History records the case of Felix IV who, in 530, chose his successor, Boniface I1. But did the latter become Pope in virtue of this election or in virtue of the later ratification by the Roman clergy? (cf. L. Duchesne, L'Eglise au VI siecle, Paris 1925, pp. 142-6). Boniface II, in his turn, made the Roman clergy promise to maintain after his death the choice he had made of Vigilius as his successor: but fearing, later on, for the consequences of such an act, he publicly retracted it (cf. T. Ortolan, art. "Elections des papes", Dict. de theol. cath., col. 2284).
(3) In whom does the power to elect the Pope reside? If the Pope is not concerned to designate his successor directly, it belongs to him, on the other hand, to determine or modify the conditions of a valid election: "The Pope" says Cajetan, "can settle who the electors shall be, and change and limit in this way the mode of election to the point of invalidating anything done outside these arrangements" (De Comparatione Auctoritatis Papae et Concilii, cap. xiii, no. 201). Thus, resuming a usage introduced by Julius II, Pius IX decreed that if a Pope should chance to die during the sitting of an Oecumenical Council, the election of his successor would be made not by the Council, which would be at once interrupted ipso jure, but by the College of Cardinals alone (Acta et Decreta Sacrosancti Oecumenici Concilii Vaticani, Rome 1872, p. 104 et seq. ). This same provision is recalled in the constitution Vacante Sede Apostolica, of Pius X, 25th Dec. 1904.
In a case where the settled conditions of validity have become inapplicable, the task of determining new ones falls to the Church by devolution, this last word being taken, as Cajetan notes (Apologia, cap. xiii, no. 745) not in the strict sense (devolution is strictly to the higher authority in case of default in the lower) but in the wide sense, signifying all transmission even to an inferior.
It was in the course of the disputes on the respective authorities of Pope and Council that the question of the power to elect a Pope came up in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. On this point Cajetan's thought is as follows.
He explains first that the power to elect the Pope resides in his predecessors eminently, regularly and principally. Eminently, as the "forms" of lower beings are in the angels, who, however, are incapable in themselves of exercising the activities of bodies (Apologia, cap. xiii, no. 736). Regularly, that is to say as an ordinary right, unlike the Church in her widowhood, unable to determine a new mode of election save "in casu", unless forced by sheer necessity. Principally, unlike the widowed Church, in whom this power resides only secondarily (no. 737). During a vacancy of the Apostolic See, neither the Church nor the Council can contravene the provisions already laid down to determine the valid mode of election (De Comparata, cap. xiii, no. 202). However, in case of permission (for example if the Pope has provided nothing against it), or in case of ambiguity (for example, if it is unknown who the true Cardinals are or who the true Pope is, as was the case at the time of the Great Schism), the power "of applying the Papacy to such and such a person" devolves on the universal Church, the Church of God (ibid., no. 204).
Cajetan affirms next that the power to elect the Pope resides formally—that is to say in the Aristotelian sense, as apt to proceed directly to the act of electing—in the Roman Church, including in that Church the cardinal bishops who, in a way, are suffragans of the Bishop of Rome. That is why, according to the canonical rule provided, the right to elect the Pope belongs in fact to the cardinals alone (Apologia, cap. xiii, no. 742). That again is why, when the provisions of the Canon Law cannot be fulfilled, the right to elect will belong to certain members of the Church of Rome. In default of the Roman clergy the right will belong to the Church universal, of which the Pope is to be Bishop (ibid., nos. 741 and 746).
(4) The modes of election in history. If the power to elect the Pope belongs, by the nature of things, and therefore by divine law, to the Church taken along with her Head, the concrete mode in which the election is to be carried out, says John of St. Thomas, has been nowhere indicated in Scripture; it is mere ecclesiastical law which will determine which persons in the Church can validly proceed to election.
At different times and with various qualifications the following have taken part in the election: the Roman clergy (whose right seems to be primary and direct), the people (but only in so far as it consents to and approves the election made by the clergy), the secular princes (whether licitly by simply giving their consent and their support to the person elected, or by an abuse, as when Justinian forbade the elect to be consecrated before the Emperor's approbation), and lastly the cardinals who are the first of the Roman clergy, so that today it is to the Roman clergy that the election of a Pope is once again confided (cf. John of St. Thomas, II-II, q. 1, a. 7; disp. 2, a. 1, nos. 21 et seq.; vol. VII, pp. 223 et seq. ). The Dict. de theol. cath. has an article, "Election des papes", containing an historical account of the various conditions under which the Popes have been elected.
The constitution Vacante Sede Apostolica of Pius X, dated the 25th December 1904, provides for three modes of election: a. by inspiration, when the cardinals, prompted by the Spirit, unanimously proclaim the Sovereign Pontiff; b. by compromise, when the cardinals agree to leave the election to three, or five or seven of their number; c. by scrutiny, when two-thirds of the voices (exclusive of that of the elect himself) are obtained (nos. 55 to 57).
(5) Validity and certitude of election. The election, remarks John of St. Thomas, may be invalid when carried out by persons not qualified, or when, although effected by persons qualified, it suffers from defect of form or falls on an incapable subject, as for example one of unsound mind or unbaptized.
But the peaceful acceptance of the universal Church given to an elect as to a head to whom it submits is an act in which the Church engages herself and her fate. It is therefore an act in itself infallible and is immediately recognizable as such. (Consequently, and mediately, it will appear that all conditions prerequisite to the validity of the election have been fulfilled. )
Acceptance by the Church operates either negatively, when the election is not at once contested; or positively, when the election is first accepted by those present and then gradually by the rest (cf. John of St. Thomas, II-II, qq. 1-7; disp. 2, a. 2, nos. 1, 15, 28, 34, 40; pp. 228 et seq. ).
The Church has the right to elect the Pope, and therefore the right to certain knowledge as to who is elected. As long as any doubt remains and the tacit consent of the universal Church has not yet remedied the possible flaws in the election, there is no Pope, papa dubius, papa nullus. As a matter of fact, remarks John of St. Thomas, in so far as a peaceful and certain election is not apparent, the election is regarded as still going on. And since the Church has full control, not over a Pope certainly elected, but over the election itself, she can take all measures needed to bring it to a conclusion. The Church can therefore judge a Pope to be doubtful. Thus, says John of St. Thomas, the Council of Constance judged three Popes to be doubtful, of whom two were deposed, and the third renounced the pontificate (loc. cit., a. 3, nos. 10-11; vol. VII, p. 254).
To guard against all uncertainties that might affect the election the constitution Vacante Sede Apostolica counsels the elect not to refuse an office which the Lord will help him to fill (no. 86); and it stipulates that as soon as the election is canonically effected the Cardinal Dean shall ask, in the name of the whole College, the consent of the elect (no. 87). "This consent being given—if necessary, after a delay fixed by the prudence of the cardinals and by a majority of voices—the elect is at once the true Pope and possesses in act, and can exercise, the full and absolute jurisdiction over all the world" (no. 88).
(6) Sanctity of the election. These words do not mean that the election of the Pope is always effected with an infallible assistance since there are cases in which the election is invalid or doubtful, and remains therefore in suspense. Nor does it mean that the best man is necessarily chosen.
It means that if the election is validly effected (which, in itself, is always a benefit) even when resulting from intrigues and regrettable interventions (in which case what is sin remains sin before God) we are certain that the Holy Spirit who, overruling the Popes, watches in a special way over His Church, turning to account the bad things they do as well as the good, has not willed, or at least permitted, this election for any but spiritual ends, whose virtue will either be manifest, and sometimes with small delay, in the course of history, or will remain hidden till the revelation of the Last Day. But these are mysteries that faith alone can penetrate.
Let us single out this passage from the constitution Vacante Sede Apostolica: "It is manifest that the crime of simony, odious at once to God and man, is absolutely to be condemned in the election of the Roman Pontiff. We reprobate and condemn it once more, and we declare that those guilty of the same incur the penalty of excommunication ipso facto. However, we annul the measure by which Julius II and his successors have invalidated simoniacal elections (from which may God preserve us!) that we may remove all pretext for contesting the validity of the election of the Roman Pontiff."
(Emphasis added)
THE CHURCH OF THE WORD INCARNATE, An Essay in Speculative Theology, Charles Journet, Translated by A. H. C. Downes, Volume One: The Apostolic Hierarchy, Sheed and Ward, London and New York, 1955.
Chapter VIII, EXCURSUS VIII: ELECTION OF A POPE
During a vacancy of the Apostolic See the Church, as far as the supreme jurisdiction is concerned, possesses only the power of proceeding to the election of a new Pope; either through the cardinals, or, in default of them, by other ways: "Papatus, secluso papa, non est in Ecclesia nisi in potentia ministerialiter electiva, quia scilicet potest, sede vacante, papam eligere, per cardinales, vel per seipsam in casu" (Cajetan, De Comparatione Auctoritatis Papae et Concilii, cap. xiv, no. 210). Cajetan here expresses astonishment at Gerson's grave errors.
(1) Nature of the election. All that the Church can then do, as far as supreme jurisdiction is concerned, is to designate him on whom God, in virtue of the Gospel promises, will send it down directly. "The power to confer the pontificate belongs to Christ alone, not to the Church, which does no more than designate a particular subject" (John of St. Thomas, II-II, q. 1-7; disp. 2, a. I, no. 9, vol. VII, p. 218).
(2) Can the Pope directly designate his successor? It is not fitting, and all theologians are here agreed, that the designation of a successor should be made by the Pope himself. The act of electing a Pope precedes, strictly speaking, any exercise of the papal power; and so it is fittingly assigned to the Church and not to the Pope. Such in fact is the usage, conformable, as Cajetan says, to the divine prudence which assigns a proper time for everything. "Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow, for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof" (Matt. vi. 34). For certain theologians indeed, the direct election of a successor by the Pope would be invalid—for example, Cajetan (Apologia de Comparata Auctoritate Papae et Concilii, cap. xiii, no. 736), according to whom the power to elect a successor resides in the Pope not in a formal manner, apt to pass into act (as the mason's art is in the mason), but in an eminent manner, inapt for immediate exercise (as the mason's art is in the architect). For many others, however, it would be simply contra-indicated in the present state of things. History records the case of Felix IV who, in 530, chose his successor, Boniface I1. But did the latter become Pope in virtue of this election or in virtue of the later ratification by the Roman clergy? (cf. L. Duchesne, L'Eglise au VI siecle, Paris 1925, pp. 142-6). Boniface II, in his turn, made the Roman clergy promise to maintain after his death the choice he had made of Vigilius as his successor: but fearing, later on, for the consequences of such an act, he publicly retracted it (cf. T. Ortolan, art. "Elections des papes", Dict. de theol. cath., col. 2284).
(3) In whom does the power to elect the Pope reside? If the Pope is not concerned to designate his successor directly, it belongs to him, on the other hand, to determine or modify the conditions of a valid election: "The Pope" says Cajetan, "can settle who the electors shall be, and change and limit in this way the mode of election to the point of invalidating anything done outside these arrangements" (De Comparatione Auctoritatis Papae et Concilii, cap. xiii, no. 201). Thus, resuming a usage introduced by Julius II, Pius IX decreed that if a Pope should chance to die during the sitting of an Oecumenical Council, the election of his successor would be made not by the Council, which would be at once interrupted ipso jure, but by the College of Cardinals alone (Acta et Decreta Sacrosancti Oecumenici Concilii Vaticani, Rome 1872, p. 104 et seq. ). This same provision is recalled in the constitution Vacante Sede Apostolica, of Pius X, 25th Dec. 1904.
In a case where the settled conditions of validity have become inapplicable, the task of determining new ones falls to the Church by devolution, this last word being taken, as Cajetan notes (Apologia, cap. xiii, no. 745) not in the strict sense (devolution is strictly to the higher authority in case of default in the lower) but in the wide sense, signifying all transmission even to an inferior.
It was in the course of the disputes on the respective authorities of Pope and Council that the question of the power to elect a Pope came up in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. On this point Cajetan's thought is as follows.
He explains first that the power to elect the Pope resides in his predecessors eminently, regularly and principally. Eminently, as the "forms" of lower beings are in the angels, who, however, are incapable in themselves of exercising the activities of bodies (Apologia, cap. xiii, no. 736). Regularly, that is to say as an ordinary right, unlike the Church in her widowhood, unable to determine a new mode of election save "in casu", unless forced by sheer necessity. Principally, unlike the widowed Church, in whom this power resides only secondarily (no. 737). During a vacancy of the Apostolic See, neither the Church nor the Council can contravene the provisions already laid down to determine the valid mode of election (De Comparata, cap. xiii, no. 202). However, in case of permission (for example if the Pope has provided nothing against it), or in case of ambiguity (for example, if it is unknown who the true Cardinals are or who the true Pope is, as was the case at the time of the Great Schism), the power "of applying the Papacy to such and such a person" devolves on the universal Church, the Church of God (ibid., no. 204).
Cajetan affirms next that the power to elect the Pope resides formally—that is to say in the Aristotelian sense, as apt to proceed directly to the act of electing—in the Roman Church, including in that Church the cardinal bishops who, in a way, are suffragans of the Bishop of Rome. That is why, according to the canonical rule provided, the right to elect the Pope belongs in fact to the cardinals alone (Apologia, cap. xiii, no. 742). That again is why, when the provisions of the Canon Law cannot be fulfilled, the right to elect will belong to certain members of the Church of Rome. In default of the Roman clergy the right will belong to the Church universal, of which the Pope is to be Bishop (ibid., nos. 741 and 746).
(4) The modes of election in history. If the power to elect the Pope belongs, by the nature of things, and therefore by divine law, to the Church taken along with her Head, the concrete mode in which the election is to be carried out, says John of St. Thomas, has been nowhere indicated in Scripture; it is mere ecclesiastical law which will determine which persons in the Church can validly proceed to election.
At different times and with various qualifications the following have taken part in the election: the Roman clergy (whose right seems to be primary and direct), the people (but only in so far as it consents to and approves the election made by the clergy), the secular princes (whether licitly by simply giving their consent and their support to the person elected, or by an abuse, as when Justinian forbade the elect to be consecrated before the Emperor's approbation), and lastly the cardinals who are the first of the Roman clergy, so that today it is to the Roman clergy that the election of a Pope is once again confided (cf. John of St. Thomas, II-II, q. 1, a. 7; disp. 2, a. 1, nos. 21 et seq.; vol. VII, pp. 223 et seq. ). The Dict. de theol. cath. has an article, "Election des papes", containing an historical account of the various conditions under which the Popes have been elected.
The constitution Vacante Sede Apostolica of Pius X, dated the 25th December 1904, provides for three modes of election: a. by inspiration, when the cardinals, prompted by the Spirit, unanimously proclaim the Sovereign Pontiff; b. by compromise, when the cardinals agree to leave the election to three, or five or seven of their number; c. by scrutiny, when two-thirds of the voices (exclusive of that of the elect himself) are obtained (nos. 55 to 57).
(5) Validity and certitude of election. The election, remarks John of St. Thomas, may be invalid when carried out by persons not qualified, or when, although effected by persons qualified, it suffers from defect of form or falls on an incapable subject, as for example one of unsound mind or unbaptized.
But the peaceful acceptance of the universal Church given to an elect as to a head to whom it submits is an act in which the Church engages herself and her fate. It is therefore an act in itself infallible and is immediately recognizable as such. (Consequently, and mediately, it will appear that all conditions prerequisite to the validity of the election have been fulfilled. )
Acceptance by the Church operates either negatively, when the election is not at once contested; or positively, when the election is first accepted by those present and then gradually by the rest (cf. John of St. Thomas, II-II, qq. 1-7; disp. 2, a. 2, nos. 1, 15, 28, 34, 40; pp. 228 et seq. ).
The Church has the right to elect the Pope, and therefore the right to certain knowledge as to who is elected. As long as any doubt remains and the tacit consent of the universal Church has not yet remedied the possible flaws in the election, there is no Pope, papa dubius, papa nullus. As a matter of fact, remarks John of St. Thomas, in so far as a peaceful and certain election is not apparent, the election is regarded as still going on. And since the Church has full control, not over a Pope certainly elected, but over the election itself, she can take all measures needed to bring it to a conclusion. The Church can therefore judge a Pope to be doubtful. Thus, says John of St. Thomas, the Council of Constance judged three Popes to be doubtful, of whom two were deposed, and the third renounced the pontificate (loc. cit., a. 3, nos. 10-11; vol. VII, p. 254).
To guard against all uncertainties that might affect the election the constitution Vacante Sede Apostolica counsels the elect not to refuse an office which the Lord will help him to fill (no. 86); and it stipulates that as soon as the election is canonically effected the Cardinal Dean shall ask, in the name of the whole College, the consent of the elect (no. 87). "This consent being given—if necessary, after a delay fixed by the prudence of the cardinals and by a majority of voices—the elect is at once the true Pope and possesses in act, and can exercise, the full and absolute jurisdiction over all the world" (no. 88).
(6) Sanctity of the election. These words do not mean that the election of the Pope is always effected with an infallible assistance since there are cases in which the election is invalid or doubtful, and remains therefore in suspense. Nor does it mean that the best man is necessarily chosen.
It means that if the election is validly effected (which, in itself, is always a benefit) even when resulting from intrigues and regrettable interventions (in which case what is sin remains sin before God) we are certain that the Holy Spirit who, overruling the Popes, watches in a special way over His Church, turning to account the bad things they do as well as the good, has not willed, or at least permitted, this election for any but spiritual ends, whose virtue will either be manifest, and sometimes with small delay, in the course of history, or will remain hidden till the revelation of the Last Day. But these are mysteries that faith alone can penetrate.
Let us single out this passage from the constitution Vacante Sede Apostolica: "It is manifest that the crime of simony, odious at once to God and man, is absolutely to be condemned in the election of the Roman Pontiff. We reprobate and condemn it once more, and we declare that those guilty of the same incur the penalty of excommunication ipso facto. However, we annul the measure by which Julius II and his successors have invalidated simoniacal elections (from which may God preserve us!) that we may remove all pretext for contesting the validity of the election of the Roman Pontiff."
(Emphasis added)