35. Innocent iii. had paved the way for this by establishing the doctrine that the bond between a Bishop and his diocese is stronger than the marriage bond between man and wife, and therefore as indissoluble by man as the latter, and that God alone could dissolve it, and the Pope as God's vicegerent.[138] It followed that the Pope, and he alone, could also dissolve a validly contracted marriage.
36. According to papal teaching it is praiseworthy and Christian for a man, who has promised a woman [pg 650] with an oath to marry her, to deceive her by a sham marriage, and then break the bond and retire into a monastery. This recommendation (to commit an act of treachery at once and of sacrilege) was given by Alexander iii. in 1172, and it has been incorporated in the code of canon law drawn up by command of the Popes.[139]
37. The Popes teach that anyone attending a service celebrated by a married priest commits sacrilege, because the blessing he gives turns to a curse. So Gregory vii. teaches, in direct contradiction to the doctrine of the ancient Church, and even to modern theology.[140] The notion has long since been exploded.[141]
38. The Popes teach that they have the power of rewarding services done to themselves with a higher degree of eternal beatitude. Thus Nicolas v. promised all who should take up arms against Amadeus of Savoy (the antipope Felix) and his adherents, not only remission of all their sins, but an increase of heavenly happiness, and gave his lands and property at the same time to the King of France.[142]
39. The Popes teach that it is false and damnable to maintain that a Christian ought not to abstain from doing his duty from fear of an unjust excommunication. Clement xi. declares the contrary to be true in his Bull Unigenitus, prop. 91.
40. Those who die wearing the Carmelite scapular have papal assurance, resting on a revelation granted to John xxii., that they will be delivered on the next Saturday after their death by the Virgin Mary from Purgatory and conveyed straight to heaven. So says the Bull Sabbathina, confirmed by Alexander v., Clement vii., Pius v., Gregory xiii., and Paul v., by the last after long and careful examination, and with indulgences attached to it.[143]
41. According to papal decisions it is an excess of extravagance and folly, and a detestable innovation, to translate the Roman missal into the vernacular. It is to violate and trample under foot the majesty of the ritual composed in Latin words, to expose the dignity of the holy mysteries to the gaze of the rabble, to produce disobedience, audacity, insolence, sedition and many other evils. The authors of such translations are [pg 652] “sons of perdition.” Alexander iii. says this totidem verbis in his Brief of Jan. 12, 1661.[144] Nevertheless the translated missal is in general circulation in France, England and Germany, and is daily used by all the most pious persons.
42. To receive interest on invested money is a grievous sin according to papal teaching, and any one who has done so is bound to make restitution. Papal legislation makes it, under the name of usury, an ecclesiastical offence to be judged by the spiritual tribunals. The principle established by the Popes was, that it is unlawful and sinful to ask for any compensation for the use of capital lent out. And under the head of usury, which was strictly forbidden, was included anything whatever received by the lender in compensation for his capital, every kind of interest, commercial business and the like. Thus Clement v. pronounced it heresy to defend taking interest, and liable to the penalties of the papal law against heresy.[145] His successors, Pius v., Sixtus v., and especially Benedict xiv., adhered to this condemnation of all taking of interest. The results [pg 653] were that real usury was greatly advanced thereby, that all sorts of evasions and illusory contracts came into actual use, that the wealth of whole countries was damaged, and commercial greatness, banished from Catholic countries, became the monopoly of Protestant countries.[146]