# Of Power Ecclesiastical explained — Leviathan

> Chapter companion for Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes.

## What happens

Hobbes examines the claim that the Pope holds supreme spiritual authority over civil sovereigns, arguing that such a division of power is incoherent and dangerous. He contends that all power, including ecclesiastical, ultimately resides in the civil sovereign, and that the Pope's asserted 'indirect' power is as absolute and threatening as direct power. Through a critique of Cardinal Bellarmine's arguments, Hobbes defends the absolute sovereignty of the civil ruler in both temporal and spiritual matters.

## Themes in this chapter

### Sovereignty and Absolute Power

Hobbes argues that the civil sovereign must hold supreme authority over both temporal and ecclesiastical matters, rejecting any division or subordination of power to the Pope.

### Religion and Civil Authority

The chapter examines the relationship between ecclesiastical and civil power, concluding that the Church is subordinate to the sovereign and that religious governance is a function of the state.

### Liberty and Obligation

Hobbes discusses the obligation of subjects to obey the civil sovereign, arguing that the Pope's claim to indirect power undermines this obligation and leads to civil strife.

## Character check-ins

### Cardinal Bellarmine

Hobbes engages directly with Bellarmine's arguments in 'De Summo Pontifice' to refute the Pope's claim to supreme ecclesiastical power over civil sovereigns.

### Pope Innocent III

Cited as the pope under whom the Fourth Council of Lateran decreed that subjects could be absolved of obedience to a king who failed to purge heretics.

### St. Peter

Mentioned as the apostle who, along with others, will judge the world at Christ's second coming, not the Pope.

### Jesus Christ

Referenced as the one who did not give the Pope the power to command, judge, or punish except by excommunication, and whose vicar cannot exercise government until His second coming.

## Key lines

> For subjection, command, right, and power, are accidents, not of powers, but of persons.

Subordination and authority are attributes of individuals, not of abstract powers or offices.

_Hobbes clarifies that the relationship between civil and spiritual power is a matter of personal authority, not inherent hierarchy._

> Men cannot serve two masters.

No one can be loyal to two competing authorities.

_Hobbes warns that the division of power between temporal and spiritual rulers creates an impossible conflict of allegiance for subjects._

> For this distinction of temporal and spiritual power is but words.

The separation of temporal and spiritual authority is merely a verbal distinction, not a real one.

_Hobbes dismisses the conceptual separation as meaningless, arguing that any indirect power is as absolute as direct power._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leviathan_se/chapters/xlii-of-power-ecclesiastical
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leviathan_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leviathan_se/chapters