Who is this Melchizedek that blesses the patriarch Abraham? Does Constantine, scarcely yet a Christian, give to the man by whom he was baptized and whom he calls blessed, authority to make priests? As though Sylvester had not and could not have done it before! And with what a threat he forbids any one to stand in the way! “Let no one, whomsoever, presume to act in a domineering way in this matter.” What elegant diction, too! “Enroll in the pious number of the religious”; and “clericare,” “clericorum,” “indictu,” and “placatus”!
And again he comes back to the diadem:
“We also therefore decreed this, that he himself and his successors might use, for the honor of the blessed Peter, the diadem, that is the crown, which we have granted him from our own head, of purest gold and precious gems.”
Again he explains the meaning of diadem, for he was speaking to barbarians, forgetful ones at that. And he adds “of purest gold,” lest perchance you should think brass or dross was mixed in. And when he has said “gems,” he adds “precious,” again fearing lest you should suspect them of being cheap. Yet why did he not say most precious, just as he said “purest gold”? For there is more difference between gem and gem, than between gold and gold. And when he should have said “distinctum gemmis,” he said “ex gemmis.” Who does not see that this was taken from the passage, which the gentile ruler had not read, “Thou settest a crown of precious stone on his head”?[486] Did the Caesar speak thus, with a certain vanity in bragging of his crown, if indeed the Caesars were crowned, but cheapening himself by fearing lest [See Latin page] people would think that he did not wear a crown “of purest gold and precious gems,” unless he said so?
Find the reason why he speaks thus: “for the honor of the blessed Peter.” As though, not Christ, but Peter, were the chief corner-stone on which the temple of the church is built; an inference he later repeats! But if he wanted to honor him so much, why did he not dedicate the episcopal temple at Rome to him, rather than to John the Baptist?
What? Does not that barbarous way of talking show that the rigmarole was composed, not in the age of Constantine, but later; “decernimus quod uti debeant”[487] for the correct form “decernimus ut utantur”? Boors commonly speak and write that way now; “Iussi quod deberes venire” for “Iussi ut venires.” And “we decreed,” and “we granted,” as though it were not being done now, but had been done some other time!
“But he himself, the blessed Pope, did not allow that crown of gold to be used over the clerical crown which he wears to the glory of the most blessed Peter.”
Alas for your singular stupidity, Constantine! Just now you were saying that you put the crown on the Pope’s head for the honor of the blessed Peter; now you say that you do not do it, because Sylvester refuses it. And while you approve his refusal, you nevertheless order him to use the gold crown; and what he thinks he ought not to do, that you say his own successors ought to do![488] I pass over the fact that you call the tonsure a crown, and the Roman pontiff “Pope,” although that word had not yet begun to be applied to him as a distinctive title.