Innocent X, 1644-1655

INNOCENT X 1644-1655

Error of the Dual Head of the Church (or the Primacy of R. P.)¹

[From the decree of the Sacred Office, Jan. 24, 1647]

1091. The most holy . . . has decreed and declared heretical this proposition so presented that it established an exact equality between St. PETER and St. Paul, without subordination and subjection of St. Paul to St. Peter in supreme power, and in the rule of the universal Church: "St. PETER and St. Paul are the two princes of the Church who form one head, or: there are two Catholic heads and supreme leaders of the Catholic Church, joined in highest unity between themselves"; or, "the head of the Catholic Church consists of two who are most divinely united into one"; or, "there are two supreme pastors and guardians of the Church, who form one head only."

(footnote continued from previous page) of teaching and of preaching, of reserving the active and passive voice and excommunication (of an interdict respectively) to the Supreme Pontiff, and to be incurred ipso facto. Yet these prohibitions afterwards passed into disuse. Certain of the adversaries of the Molinists falsely contended that the Bull which condemned their doctrine was made by Paul V, and was not only promulgated but that the autograph was preserved in the archive [cf. n. 1097]. The Supreme Pontiff imposed strict silence regarding the conclusion of the Congregation, and gave over to the General of each order a formula by which each would announce the will of the Pope to his man. Not long after Benedict XIV wrote as follows (in the year 1748) to the Supreme Inquisitor of Spain: "You know that there are manifold opinions in the schools on the famous questions about predestination and grace, and on the manner of reconciling human liberty with the omnipotence of God. The Thomists are proclaimed destroyers of human liberty and as followers, not to say of Jansenism but even of Calvinism; but, since they meet the charges with eminent satisfaction, and since their opinion has never been condemned by the Holy See, the Thomists carry on with impunity in this matter, and it is not fitting for any ecclesiastical superior in the present state of affairs to remove them from their opinion. The Augustinians are reported as the followers of du Bay and Jansenism. They represent themselves as supporters of human liberty, and with all their strength banish opposition and, since their opinion has not been condemned by the Holy See, there is no one who does not see that there can be no effort on the part of anyone to cause them to relinquish their opinion. The followers of Molina and Suarez are condemned by their adversaries just as if they were Semipelagians; the Roman Pontiffs thus far have not passed judgment on this system of Molina, and so they continue in its defense and can continue. . . ."—For the decree of Innocent X against Jansenists and what was afterwards published by the Supreme Pontiffs on this matter, see n. 1097.