Pope Leo X, Pastor Aeternus, (1516), Reaffirms Unam Sanctam

Most Protestants are familiar with the 1302 document by Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam. Within that document, we have a pope citing “the Blessed Dionysius”, a sixth-century writer whom he thought was Dionysius from Acts17:

For, according to the Blessed Dionysius, it is a law of the divinity that the lowest things reach the highest place by intermediaries. Then, according to the order of the universe, all things are not led back to order equally and immediately, but the lowest by the intermediary, and the inferior by the superior. Hence we must recognize the more clearly that spiritual power surpasses in dignity and in nobility any temporal power whatever, as spiritual things surpass the temporal.

Too, most Protestants are familiar with the concluding statement of that document:

Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.

Roman Catholic apologists I’ve seen have tried to minimize the force of those words, which fly in the face of “the Spirit of Vatican II”.

Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience.

But here is Pope Leo X (who was pope from 1513-1521) reiterating that statement several hundred years later:

The pope alone has the power, right, and full authority, extending beyond that of all councils, to call, adjourn, and dissolve the councils. This is attested not only by the Holy Scriptures as well as the statements of the Holy Fathers and our predecessors on the throne at Rome, but even the councils themselves ….

It is necessary for the salvation of souls that all Christian believers be subject to the pope at Rome. The Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers testify to this, as does the bull of Pope Boniface VIII of blessed memory, which begins with the words “Unam Sanctam.” Therefore, with the approval of the holy council now in session, we renew and consider this very same bull to be valid. All this is done for the salvation of believing souls, for the strengthening of the supreme authority of the pope at Rome and of the Holy See, and for the unity and power of the church which has been entrusted to him”.

At the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-1517), Cited in Denis R. Janz, Ed., A Reformation Reader: Primary Texts with Introductions, Second Edition, Mineapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress Press ©2008, pg 14.

This was the prevailing attitude of the medieval papacy. The joke was on Leo, however. It was a notion with which a lot of people did not agree, and the flood was to begin not more than a year later.