Therefore as from subordination of an art, cannot be inferred the subjection of the professor; so from the subordination of a government cannot be inferred the subjection of the governor. When therefore he saith, the civil power is subject to the spiritual, his meaning is, that the civil sovereign is subject to the spiritual sovereign. And the argument stands thus, “The civil sovereign is subject to the spiritual; therefore the spiritual prince may command temporal princes.” Where the conclusion is the same with the antecedent he should have proved. But to prove it, he allegeth first, this reason: “Kings and popes, clergy and laity, make but one commonwealth; that is to say, but one Church: and in all bodies the members depend one upon another: but things spiritual depend not on things temporal: therefore temporal depend on spiritual, and therefore are subject to them.” In which argumentation there be two gross errors: one is, that all Christian kings, popes, clergy, and all other Christian men, make but one commonwealth. For it is evident that France is one commonwealth, Spain another, and Venice a third,
1054