Against the treasury: the pope’s power would reach heaven, purgatory and hell, and the saints’ merits are already assigned by God

Again, for all the blessed a reward of blessedness has been defined by God, corresponding to all their merits, 565which still remain in their fruit; now some merits, required for the blessedness of the patriarchs, are not subject to the power of this Gregory to distribute in this way, by reason of the reward assignedlimitare; limites: to assign (an office); limits from them; therefore neither are the others.¹ The assumptionassumptum: the assumption is clear, both because nothing is idle in the merits of the blessed, and because the blessed have joy, and so accidental reward, from whatever good they have done. Now the minor is shown thus: if a distribution were made of merit strictly required for essential blessednessbeatitudo essencialis / accidentalis: essential / accidental blessedness, that blessedness would be diminished correspondingly; which injury the popepapa: pope cannot do, just as Christ cannot so impoverish his fellow citizens.² But it is said that the merit of the blessed, since it is spiritual, is not diminished by such communication but rather perfected. But (I ask) to what end, then, are supererogated merits assigned beyond the measure of their debts, or a superabundance of merits, since the merits strictly required for blessedness would equally suffice for making this distribution? Or how is it necessary to posit now so great a plentycopia / habundancia: plenty / abundance of such merits?³ It seems to many of the faithful that there is now no number of such merits; or else all those, and far more if they were done, would not suffice for any degree of blessedness for the one meriting, except that God, of the infinity of his grace, accepts those merits by congruityde congruo / de condigno: by congruity / by condignity.⁴ Again, according to this teachingsentencia: CONTEXTUAL: teaching / sentence it follows that the judicial power of any pope whatever extends to all the souls in purgatory and all the blessed in heaven; the consequentconsequens / antecedens: consequent / antecedent is impossible, and the inferenceconsequencia: inference is proved thus: a pope, even a foreknownprescitus, -i: the foreknown one, has power to impart the merits of the good to whomever and whenever he wishes, as the position says; now a far lesser power suffices to ground judicial power; therefore the pope has judicial power over the blessed, even over Christ.⁵ For he can bring it about that a blessed one 566merits for anyone he favours as much as he wishes, because he can give him another’s merit, which is the same thing. For he who has power over so secret a treasure of the soul has power over the person as regards the lower, bodily part; in token of which God gave the devil power first over the substance of blessed Job, secondly over his body: "But yet," he says, "save his life," Job 2:6.⁶ And much more evidently it would follow that the pope is set over every spirit in purgatory or damned; and this the doctor seems to maintainintendere (a thesis): maintain, when he says that the common goods of a multitude are distributed to the single members of that multitude according to the judgment of him who is set over that multitude; and much more evidently it follows that the pope is set over the damned, since he is set over worthier persons, as, say, the spirits to be purged and the blessed.⁷ For he who has power to quash the work of the devil and to take from him the prey which he so desires has power over him; now the pope has power to give an indulgence as great as he pleases to the devil’s captive, so that the devil may no longer prevail against him, as it is said. And it is said in Luke 9 that Christ gave the disciples power over all devils; but the pope’s jurisdiction would be far too ample, who, like Christ, has power over the multitude of those in heaven, on earth and under the earth.⁸

From these things it is gathered, since so many absurditiesinconveniencia; inconveniens: CONTEXTUAL: an absurdity (in argument) · troubles, ill consequences (in affairs) follow from the said cloaking of papal power, that the root of these absurdities would be a poison to the faithful. And that these are absurdities is clear, first, from this: that according to the apostle, Romans 13:1, "there is no power but from God." Now he did not leave such power to popes in his law; therefore it is not to be feigned; for by the same token it would have to be amplified without end.⁹

Secondly, by this: that the popes, each one, short of Christcitra Christum: short of Christ, are of equal power; since, then, "an equal has no rule over an equal," 567it seems that the surviving pope has no power over all the popes in purgatory and in heaven. For they are more excellent, because nearer and dearer to God. Therefore the surviving pope must serve them, and not grant imperiously that Peter or another blessed one should merit for his friend as much as it has pleased him to assign.¹⁰ And thirdly, by this: that the surviving pope has not so great a power over his own body or work; therefore much more not over the work of God, so foreign to him; for a man by a certain naturalness exercises lordshipdominus; dominari: lord; to exercise lordship / to lord it over his own acts and works, nor did the author of nature give the pope a power adverse to the natural order.¹¹

The assumption is clear from this: that then he could make his own work as meritorious as it pleased him, because [he could] assign to the blessed that they should assist him by meriting as much as he wished. For he would be a fool who, for pride or gain, did more good to another, less worthy, than he would do even to himself; and if it is said that the power is not given that he may so do good to himself, it is clear that God gives power only for the good of his predestinatepredestinatus, -i: the predestinate (sg. "a predestinate [person]"). Therefore he would give his vicar power that he might repay himself so much good.¹² But Hostiensis (as I recounted above) shuddered at this fictionficticia: fiction, because it seems certain that, if he had so great a power over devils and over all his subjects as regards body and soul, he would also have power over their substance; and then many popes (as is believed) would have done miracles, commanding the spirits to bring them hidden treasures, and would have acquired for themselves the lordships they so desiredaffectare: to desire.¹³ But (as is hinted in Acts 3:6), because Peter had no possession of gold or silver, therefore he had power to heal 568the sick man; but Simon, because he desired temporal goodstemporalia: temporal goods, lacked apostolic power (as is clear in Acts 8). For the apostles, stripped of affection for temporal goods, had spiritual power and lordshipdominium: lordship over them.¹⁴

Again, according to the doctor, the blessed did not do such superabundant satisfactory works determinately for this one or that one who needs remission; therefore it remains that God leaves to his vicar on earth the power of distributing that treasury to the needy of the churchecclesia: church; now that seems cloaked in many ways; therefore the position lacks a foundation.¹⁵ The minor is proved, first, by this: that one may with equal probability dream that such blessed ones did these works of supererogationsupererogare; supererogacio: pay out beyond [what is owed]; supererogation determinately for the one who shares in them, as that he left the pope to distribute them; therefore the unknown seems to be sought through the more unknown.¹⁶ Secondly, because the said saints did their works out of a greater grace than that in which popes commonly live, therefore it is likely that they did them principally for the church, leaving the distribution to the divine judgment; for this belongs to qualificationhabilis / habilitas: qualified / qualification, wisdom and necessity. Now they would then have done them determinately for those to whom God assigns [them]; therefore it is likely that they merited determinately for those, and this is certain as regards the divine determination, by which one must abide.¹⁷