CHAPTER I

If the skilful investigator of imperial rights takes careful note of what has gone before, he will not doubt that imperial rights are to be defended chiefly by means of sacred literature, and that rash action against those rights falls, not only into iniquity, injustice, and error, but also into the wickedness of heresy. From this it is clear that Catholics must not neglect this subject, but must examine it with the greatest attention. Therefore, making another beginning, before answering other arguments by which some try to prove that the Empire is from the pope, I must support the opposite truth more strongly, and afterwards show who it is that the Roman Empire is from.

That the Roman Empire is not from the pope is shown as follows. The Empire existed before the papacy, as is plainly certain from sacred literature, because it existed before the birth of Christ: for Octavian was true Augustus before Christ was born of his mother, as is clear from Luke, chapter 2. Therefore the Empire was not from the pope.

Further, the Empire existed among unbelievers before it existed among believers, as the Scriptures, both the gospels and the apostolic writings, make clear: for Christ and the apostles and blessed John the Baptist regarded the Roman emperor as a true emperor.