Folio 400

Pius VI, 1775-1799

printed p. 368 · pdf p. 400

Concerning the Power of the Roman Pontiff (Against Febronianism)1

[From the Brief, "Super soliditate," Nov. 28, 1786]

1500. And since truly, as Augustine teaches,2 God has placed the doctrine of truth in the chair of unity, that unfortunate writer on the contrary leaves nothing undone with which to harass and attack in every way this See of Peter, in which See the Fathers have taught with unanimous agreement that that chair was established, in which alone unity might be preserved by all; from which the rights of the venerable communion emanate to all the others; and to which it is necessary that every church and all the faithful everywhere come [cf. Vatican Council, n. 1824]. He has not hesitated to call fanatic the crowd which he saw breaking forth into these words at the sight of the Pontiff: "He is the man who has received from God the keys of the kingdom of heaven with the power of binding and loosing, to whom no other bishop can be made equal, from whom these very bishops receive their authority as he himself received his supreme power from God; moreover, he is the vicar of Christ, the visible head of the Church, the supreme judge of the faithful."

that of Worms (1575); that of Antwerp (1576); that of York (1576); that of Luxeuil (1580); that of Bordeaux (1583); that of Tours (1583); that of Narbonne and Constance (1609); that of Ermeland and Augusta (1610); that of Hertogenbosch (1612); that of Luttich (1618); that of Bordeaux (1624); that of Antwerp (1643); that of Gratianopolis (1690); that of Cologne (1651); that of Paderborn (1658); that of Kulm and of Pressburg (1745); that of Sitten (1651); that of Saint-Omer (1640); that of Ermeland (1726). Furthermore, the Pontiffs: Boniface V (c. 617), Stephen IV (c. 770), Nicholas I (Resp. ad Consult. Bulgar n. 22), Boniface VIII (Decret. VI 5, 24), Urban VIII (1624), Clement X (ep. d. Aug. 20, 1628), Clement XI (1706), Benedict XIV [cf. n. 1455], Clement XIII (1763), Pius VIII (1830), Gregory XVI (1832 etc.), Pius IX [cf. n. 1640, 1765 ff.], Leo XIII [cf. n. 1853 ff., 1865], Pius X [cf. n. 1991, 2066 ff.]; Codex I. C. can. 1060-1064 c. notis.

  1. BRCC 7, 672 b f.; Rsk RP III 319 f.—Although the book of Febronius or Ioh. Nic. ab. Hontheim: De statu Ecclesiae et legitima potestate Romani Pontificis, 1763, had been placed upon the Index of forbidden books, and at the command of the Supreme Pontiff had been especially prohibited by the Bishops of Germany, of Mainz, of Treves, of Cologne, of Bamberg, of Herbipolis, of Constance, of Auguste, of Frising, and of Prague, nevertheless its perverse principles began to be spread and proceed widely throughout Germany. But among those who after Febronius insurrected against the lawful power of the Roman Pontiff, the most unfortunate canonist Eybel was pre-eminent, who, when Pius VI set out on a journey into Germany to move the spirit of Joseph II, published a book: Was est der Papst? When it was published in repeated editions and after being translated into other tongues, Pius VI in the Brief, "Super soliditate," condemned it as containing propositions, respectively false, scandalous, bold, injurious, leading to schism, schismatic, erroneous, leading to heresy, heretical, and some condemned by the Church. ↩

  2. Ep. 105, 16 [ML 33, 403]; cf. St. Optatus Milev., De schismate donatist. 2, 2 f. [ML 11, 946 f.]. ↩