Edmond About Quotes
But as the Pope has a long arm, which might reach me in France, I have gone a little out of the way to tell him the plain truths contained in these pages.
About, Edmond. The Roman Question. Translated by Henry C. Coe, D. Appleton and Company, 1859, p. vi.
The letter was written at the behest of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The quotation appears to ratify the Pope’s unlimited power, but in actuality carves out an exception whereby the Pope’s authority might be challenged in the future. Specifically, it claims the Pope has not the authority to alter that which “by the word of God, has eternal validity.” Politically, this position put the pope in a box. By arguing against the proposition, the Pope would have to maintain that he should have the right to alter the word of God that had eternal validity which no pope wanted to state. By not challenging the doctrine, there was an opening by which the pope’s omnipotence could be challenged in the future.
John Ilyitch Sergieff. The power of the leadership of organizations, religious and secular, has long been in contention. There are those who advocate the strong, very powerful executive such as Russia under the Czars and the Roman Catholic Church and those who prefer a weaker leader with very limited power such as the United States and the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope were at odds. The Pope had issued an edict staking out the powers of the Pope. King Henry called a conclave of clerics and deposed Pope Leo VII. The Pope Excommunicated Henry and deposed him as king and emperor. Civil war ensued, and finally they reached a compromise and accommodation with each other." Saint Hildebrand
This concept is not terribly different from the concept of the theocracy of the Islamic government of Iran in the 21st century. There is a civil government but it serves and is “under the direction of the spiritual power.”
This notice of Excommunication was promulgated to the Catholic clergy in Ireland in May of 1538. It required all Roman Catholic leaders to size the property of Protestants or Catholics who sympathized with them. Those who did were then regarded as traitors by the Protestant King. The anti-Protestant feeling culminated with the massacre of about 100 Protestants who were drowned in Bann a few years later.
Edmond François Valentin About was a French novelist, publicist and journalist.
