ch, they are both priests and kings, as Melchisedech was, and
as was our Lord himself, to whom was given by his Father all power in
heaven and in earth. The Pope, or Supreme Pontiff, is the vicar of our
Lord on earth, his representative--the representative not only of him
who is our invisible High-Priest, but of him who is King of kings and
Lord of lords, therefore of both the priestly and the kingly power.
Consequently, no one can have any mission to govern in the state any
more than in the church, unless derived from God directly or indirectly
through the Pope or Supreme Pontiff. Many theologians and canonists in
the Middle Ages so held, and a few perhaps hold so still. The bulls
and briefs of several Popes, as Gregory VII., Innocent Ill., Gregory
IX., Innocent IV., and Boniface VIII., have the appearance of favoring
it.

At one period the greater part of the medieval kingdoms and
principalities were fiefs of the Holy See, and recognized the Holy
Father as their suzerain. The Pope revived the imperial dignity in the
person of Charlemagne, and none could claim that dignity in the Western
world unless elected and crowned by him, that is, unless elected
directly by the Pope or by electors designated by him, and acting under
his authority. There can be no question that the spiritual is superior
to the temporal, and that the temporal is bound in the very nature of
things to conform to the spiritual, and any law enacted by the civil
power in contravention of the law of God is null and void from the
beginning. This is what Mr. Seward meant by the higher law, a law
higher even than the Constitution of the United States. Supposing this
higher law, and supposing that kings and princes hold from God through
the spiritual society, it is very evident that the chief of that
society would have the right to deprive them, and to absolve their
subjects, as on several occasions he actually has done.

But this theory has never been a dogma of the Church, nor, to any great
extent, except for a brief period, maintained by theologians or
canonists. The Pope conferred the imperial dignity on Charlemagne and
his successors, but not the civil power, at least out of the Pope's own
temporal dominions. The emperor of Germany was at first elected by the
Pope, and afterwards by hereditary electors designated or accepted by
him, but the king of the Germans with the full royal authority could be
elected and enthroned without the papal interv