XLV

It is also from the Roman heathen that the Popes have received the name and power of Pontifex Maximus. This was the name of him that in the ancient commonwealth of Rome had the supreme authority under the senate and people, of regulating all ceremonies and doctrines concerning their religion; and when Augustus Caesar changed the state into a monarchy, he took to himself no more but this office, that of tribune of the people, that is to say, the supreme power both in state and religion; and the succeeding emperors enjoyed the same. But when the emperor Constantine lived, who was the first that professed and authorized Christian religion, it was consonant to his profession, to cause religion to be regulated, under his authority, by the Bishop of Rome; though it do not appear they had so soon the name of Pontifex; but rather, that the succeeding bishops took it of themselves, to countenance the power they exercised over the bishops of the Roman provinces. For it is not any privilege of St. Peter, but the privilege of the city of Rome, which the emperors were always willing to uphold, that gave them such authority over other bishops; as may be evidently seen by that, that the Bishop of Constantinople, when the emperor made that city the seat of the empire, pretended to be equal to the Bishop of Rome; though at last, not without contention, the Pope carried it, and became the Pontifex Maximus; but in right only of the emperor; and not without the bounds of the empire; nor anywhere, after the emperor had lost his power in Rome; though it were the Pope himself that took his power from him. From whence we may by the way observe, that there is no place for the superiority of the Pope over other bishops, except in the territories whereof he is himself the civil sovereign, and where the emperor having sovereign power civil, hath expressly chosen the Pope for the chief pastor under himself, of his Christian subjects.