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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
A recent article on tyrannicide in an authoritative Catholic reference work states that there exist few official pronouncements of the Church on this controversial subject2. The only ruling on the legitimacy of putting to death a tyrannical ruler mentioned is the highly ambiguous decree of the Council of Constance in 1415. In the interest of greater accuracy and fuller historical knowledge it may be in place to bring to light a secret brief on tyrannicide issued in 1615 by Pope Paul V in which he approved and renewed the decree of Constance. This brief assumes special significance in view of the fact that until then the earlier decree had never been explicitly confirmed by any pope and thus could be considered as not binding. Moreover, the circumstances under which the brief was issued have received inadequate, and sometimes deliberately distorted, treatment that calls for clarification and correction.
2. Bride, A., “Tyrannicide,” Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique, XV (1950), 2011.Google Scholar
3. The proceedings are described by Schoenstedt, Friedrich, Der Tyranneninord im Spätmittealter: Studien Zur Geschichte des Tyrannenbegriffes und der Tyrannenmordtheorie insbesondere in Frankreich (Berlin, 1938), pp. 5–14.Google Scholar See also Coville, Alfred, Jean Petit: La question du tyrannicide au commencement du XVe siècle (Paris, 1932),Google Scholar
4. Mansi, Giovanni Domenico, Sacrorum conciliorum nova, et amplissima cothectio, Vol. XXVII (Venice, 1784)Google Scholar, col. 765. Translations, unless otherwise indicated, are mine.
5. On this point see the careful study of Bess, Bernhard, “Die Lehre vom Tyrannemnord auf dem Konstanzer Konzil,” Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, XXXVI (1916), 1–61.Google Scholar
6. Cf. Bride, op. cit., 2012; Pelaez, Antonio G., “Doctrina Tomista sobre la tiranía politica,” La Ciencia Tomista, XXX (1924), 319Google Scholar; Petrus Diaz, O. P., De resistentia tyrannidi: Excerpta e thesi…Catholicae Universitatis Americae. (Washington, 1941), p. 18.Google Scholar
7. The exception was the Jesuit Juan de Mariana who in his De rege et regis institutione, Lib. I, c. vi (Toledo, 1599)Google Scholar challenged the validity of the decree as such since not approved by any pope.
8. The documentation of this point would require a greater amount of space than it is appropriate to take up here. The passages in question are generally known and are not subject to controversy.
9. Suarez, Francisco S. J., Defensio fidei Catholicae et Apostolicae adversus Anglicanae sectae errores, Lib. VI, c. iv, secs. 14–18.Google Scholar
10. Pastor, Ludwig von, The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages, VoL XXVI, trans. Dom Ernest Graf (London, 1937), P. 27.Google Scholar
11. Martin, Victor, Le Gallicanisme et la réforme Catholique (Paris, 1919), p. 358.Google Scholar
12. Rance, A-J., “L'Arret contre Suarez (26 Juin 1614),” Revue des Questions Historiques, XXXVII (1885), 603–606.Google Scholar
13. Legrain, Baptiste, Decade commencant l'histoire du roy Louis XIII (Paris, 1619), p. 112.Google Scholar
14. Bullarium privilegiorum ac diplomatum Romanorum Pontificum amplissima collectio, Vol. V, part 4, ed. Charles Cocquelines (Rome, 1754), pp. 170–171.Google Scholar The brief is also contained in a later edition of this collection, but otherwise seems never to have been printed at all.
15. Pastor, op. cit., 28.
16. Blet, Pierre S. J., “L'Article du Tiers aux Etats Généreaux de 1614.” Revue d' Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine, II (1955), 90.Google Scholar
17. Raoul, de Scorraille S. J., Francois Suares de la Compagnie de Jésus (Paris, 1912), II, 212Google Scholar; Rance, op. cit., 606.
18. Martin, op. cit., 351.
