on The Papal Pawer.^ Wherefore if it were permitted to Moses to make a law, a fortiori it is permitted to Peter, the successor of Christ, and to his successors, as is proved by the words, "Whatsoever they bid you ob- serve, that observe and do," in Matthew xxiv." Further- more, inasmuch as the priesthood has been transferred, it is needful that the law should be transferred.* Augustine ex- pounds these words by saying: "It is thus because both were given at the same time and by the same man and under the same guarantee ; wherefore what is said of one must necessarily be understood of the other."* From which words of the apostle the doctors gather and infer that the power of mak- ing laws now and formerly has rested with priests, as was said above, and thus one sees how indistinctly that text speaks. This power of making law was original with priests and not with laymen, and thus the laity never has the function or power of legislation. And although before the coming of Christ the Emperor received the power from the people, yet that power was, in fact, abusive and usurped.* Wherefore it was necessary to have it confirmed by the Church as far as it was exercised, as is noted in various passages in the Civil and Canon Laws,' from which it is evident that in the primitive Church all causes were brought to the bar of the Church. These are the words of Butrigarius, of John of Imola,* of the said Abbot,* and of my most illustrious preceptor in Canon Law, Alexander de Nevo.* These doctors say that sacerdotal orders and the other sacraments are found neither among the Jews nor among other unbaptized persons. Where- fore if any Jew or other unbaptized person is ordained he does not receive the priestly character. Even were Aaron alive he could not confer the priesthood in that form and by those words with which he once conferred it, for they have not the same force which they had before the advent of Christ, because the priesthood to-day is not with the Jews but with
1 On this see note at the begfnning of this epistle.
- Rmther, Matthew xxiii, 3.
- Hebrews vii, 12.
- Augustine, City of Cod, book xxvii, chap. 6.
■ Several quotations from the Ciril Law are giTen fully in notes to the tert in appendix, q.v.
- For these jurists see notes to text in appendix.
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