480 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



" Your legiitf, HulxTt, religious futlicr, Inia adinoiiislicd me on your part to 

 " do liomage to you and your successors, and to tiiink belti-r of the money wliich 

 " my predeci'ssors were accustomed to send to the Roman Cl)urcli. Of these 

 " demands, one I have granted ; the otlier I have refused. Homage I would not 

 " nor will I do. For I did not promise it myself ; nor can I learn that it was ever 

 " done by my predecessors to yours," etc., etc. 



Then lie promi.ses to send the usual monoy. 



The next letter is from the b.orons of England to Pope Boniface 

 VIIT., (the writer of the " Unam Sanctam,") who had declared that 

 Scotland was a fief of the Holy See and had summoned Edward I. to 

 desist from invasion and plead the matter in the lioman Court. 



" To the most holy father in Christ, the Lord Boniface, by divine Providence, 

 " chief bishop of the Holy Roman Church, John, Earl of Warren, and one hun- 

 " dred and five other barons, send greeting. 



"It is well known to us and to many others, most holy father, that the 

 " kingdom of Scotland never did, nor does, by any right whatever, belong, in 

 " temporals, to the Roman Church. Nor have the Kings of England, on account 

 " of the independent pre-eminence of their royal dignity, and a custom at all 

 " times inviolably observed, ever pleaded, or been bound to plead, with respect to 

 " their right to the kingdom aforesaid, or to their other temporal rights, before 

 " any ecclesiastical or secular judge whatsoever," etc., etc. 



The barons then go on to say that even if the king were disposed 

 to plead they would not permit him to do so ; as it would be to '' the 

 '• manifest disherison of the rights of the Crown of England and sub- 

 " version of the laws, charters and customs inherited from their 

 " fathers." 



In the face of these two letters the argument as to the submission 

 of the English kings based by the Venezuelan counsel on Mr. Harrissc's 

 book falls to the ground. Ono more letter, and this, from the very 

 King Ferdinand the Catholic, who sent the embassy of obedience to 

 which Mr. llarrisse devotes a chapter, will suffice to show the dilfer- 

 ence between obedience in temporal and in spiritual matters. Fer- 

 dinand was King of Naples, as well as of Aragon, and the Pope had 

 served upon his vice-roy at Naples, a Brief without sending it first to 

 be examined and receive the royal placet before publication ; accord- 

 ing to the fundamental laws of these kingdoms. The King writes to 

 his vice-roy and after reciting the circumstances, he continues : 



" Ail this has not a little excited our anger ami indignation ; and we are 

 " equally surprised at and displea.sed with you ; that, considering the importance 

 " of the ct\se and the prejudice which our royal dignity suffered from the act of 

 " the apostolical messenger, which is a violence iigainst all right, never practised 

 " against any king or viceroy of my kingdom," etc., etc. 



Then, after expressing his indignation that the Pope's messenger 

 had not been instantly hanged, the King goes on to sliow how the act 

 might be cancelled, as follows : — 



