deprehendet donationem eiusmodi ut rei alienae nullius esse momenti. Disputationem de potestate Pontificis, hoc est Episcopi Romanae Ecclesiae, hic non aggrediar, nec quicquam ponam nisi ex hypothesi, hoc est, quod confitentur homines inter eos eruditissimi, qui plurimum Pontificiae tribuunt auctoritati, maxime Hispani, qui cum pro sua perspicacia facile vident Dominum Christum omne a se terrenum imperium abdicasse,[31a] mundi certe totius dominium, qua homo fuit, non habuisse, et si habuisset, nullis tamen argumentis astrui posse ius illud in Petrum, aut Romanam Ecclesiam Vicarii iure translatum; cum alias etiam certum sit, multa Christum habuisse in quae Pontifex non successerit,[32a] intrepide affirmarunt (utar ipsorum verbis) Pontificem non esse dominum civilem aut temporalem totius orbis.[33a] Immo etiam si quam talem potestatem in mundo haberet, eam tamen non recte exerciturum, cum spirituali sua iurisdictione contentus esse debeat, saecularibus autem Principibus eam concedere nullo modo posse. Tum vero si quam habeat potestatem, eam habere, ut loquuntur in ordine ad spiritualia.[34a] Quocirca nullam illi esse potestatem in populos infideles, ut qui ad Ecclesiam non pertineant.[35a]
Unde sequitur ex sententia Caietani et Victoriae et
easily apprehend that a donation of this kind, dealing with the property of others, is of no effect. I shall not enter here upon any discussion as to the power of the Pope, that is the Bishop of the Roman Church, nor shall I advance anything but a hypothesis which is accepted by men of the greatest erudition, who lay the greatest stress on the power of the Pope, especially the Spaniards, who with their perspicacity easily see that our Lord Jesus Christ when he said “My kingdom is not of this world” thereby renounced all earthly power,[31] and that while He was on earth as a man, He certainly did not have dominion over the whole world, and if He had had such dominion, still by no arguments could such a right be transferred to Peter, or be transmitted to the Roman Church by authority of the ‘Vicar of Christ’; indeed, inasmuch as Christ had many things to which the Pope did not succeed,[32] it has been boldly affirmed—and I shall use the very words of the writers—that the Pope is neither civil nor temporal Lord of the whole world.[33] On the contrary, even if the Pope did have any such power on earth, still he would not be right in using it, because he ought to be satisfied with his own spiritual jurisdiction, and be utterly unable to grant that power to temporal princes. So then, if the Pope has any power at all, he has it, as they say, in the spiritual realm only.[34] Therefore he has no authority over infidel nations, for they do not belong to the Church.[35]
It follows therefore according to the opinions of