The Enlightenment Project is Over: Sacred Coronation in the Supreme Court Building
America's Founding Fathers did not want to establish a king, but they did want a sufficiently powerful executive to balance the powers of Congress (Schmidt 237). Neither did the Founding Fathers want to establish the social reign of Christ the King, for many Founding Fathers were Deists and Unitarians if not outright atheists (Ferrara 514). The President of the United States as Chief Executive appoints cabinet positions, federal judges, agency heads, and several thousand lesser positions to a total of about nine thousand (Schmidt 241). More than one thousand of these presidential appointments require Senate confirmation in accordance with the Constitution’s Advice and Consent Clause (Hayes and Davies). Much as aggiornamento updated the Catholic Church with Vatican II in the 1960's, a similar updating of the United States Constitution can now well resolve those yet burning issues of kingship and balance of power.
The Donation of Constantine is Constantine's fourth century reputed gift of sovereignty to Pope Sylvester. Although scholars have subsequently judged the Donation to be a forgery, it yet remains true in essence. With Constantine's moving the capital to the East and his abandonment of Rome, in the ensuing chaos of the barbarian invasions of the fifth century, secular authority did indeed devolve to the Papacy. The only government to survive the wreckage of the old Roman order in the West was the Church (Watkin 53), thereby making the Donation de facto, in effect, authentic and true. Furthermore, Constantine did give to Pope Miltiades the Lateran Palace which became the seat of Western, Latin, ecclesiastical power ("Pope Miltiades").
Rejection of Church temporal power renders illicit and reprobate centuries of historical practice in both East and West. The doctrine of the two swords, in contrast, asserts that there are two swords in the power of the Church, the spiritual and the temporal. The spiritual sword is exercised directly by the Church, while the temporal sword is exercised by kings on behalf of the Church, and the Church's spiritual power is superior to the king's temporal power (Boniface). Although a Pope may be unwise to meddle in some particular political matter, for infallibility is not guaranteed to political machinations, by the doctrine of the two swords, an authentic, legitimate Pope is well within his rights to exert influence over secular rulers, and even to demand submission. For the entire world, while maintaining its proper autonomy, must submit to the superior power of the Papacy, according to this doctrine. That is, where there is conflict between Church and State, the Church has superior power.
In the East, it was the practice of the Patriarch of Constantinople, in Hagia Sophia, before the gathered Senate and representatives of the army and the people as witnesses, in sacred ceremony, to crown the new Byzantine Emperor (Runciman 64-66). In doing so the Patriarch exacted concessions from the Emperor, and he required the Emperor to sign a coronation oath to uphold and defend orthodox Christian doctrines (Runciman 64-66). Additionally, the Patriarch wielded as a weapon the threat of excommunication against the Emperor, and thus, in theory, but not practice, given the deeply embedded Byzantine yearning to tread the narrow way to the gates of Heaven (Runciman 108), the Patriarch could by excommunication depose the Emperor (Runciman 65).
In the West, the two powers of Pope and Emperor were generally more sharply divided, and the clergy remained more free and pure from oppression and corruption by nobles and monarchs than in the Byzantine, caesaropapist East (Watkin 51). Yet these two powers were distinctly ordered. In A.D. 494, Pope Gelasius I wrote to Byzantine Emperor Anastasius: " . . . you must be submitted to the order of religion rather than rule over it . . . [you] must . . . submit to the prelate of that See, whom the highest Divinity willed . . . " (Gelasius 21). With the Barbarian invasions of the fifth century, the Popes assumed imperial power in Rome. In A.D. 754, "Pope Stephen II crossed the Alps into Gaul" and "anointed Pepin king of the Franks and patricius of the Romans." (Stephenson and Lyon 146) On Christmas day, A.D. 800, in the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, Pope Leo III crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne (Sykes). In January, A.D. 1077, Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV crossed the Alps to in utter humiliation stand barefoot in the snow, in penitential garb, stripped of all regalia, for three days and two nights, in order to be ultimately allowed to kiss the toe of Pope Gregory VII and receive the forgiveness for which he begged (Bishop 49-50). Henry had been excommunicated and deposed for his sinful audacity of investiture and rebellion (Bishop 48-49). Note also that the Hebrew prophet and priest Samuel both anointed and deposed King Saul, and that there is continuity between the Mosaic priesthood and the priesthood of Jesus Christ (RSV 1 Sam 10; 1 Sam 28).
American secular judges inevitably make policy when they interpret and apply laws (Schmidt 301). Judicial activism bespeaks the judiciary actively checking the activities of Congress, state legislatures, and administrative agencies (Schmidt 301), in order to propel forward its own vision of earthly utopia. Judicial restraint signifies the judiciary in deference to the legislative and executive branches (Schmidt 302), so that these purportedly elected and expert institutions can propel forward their visions of terrestrial utopia. Both conservative and liberal judges can be either activists or restrainists.
The practices of either American judicial activism or judicial restraint are potentially acceptable, with the proviso that Supreme Court Justices are ultimately appointed and confirmed, that is, crowned, only with the consent of authentic, legitimate Catholic hierarchy, that these Justices are required to swear an oath to uphold and defend orthodox Catholic doctrine, that these Justices are subject to excommunication and deposition by authentic, legitimate Catholic hierarchy, and that the decisions of these Justices can be ruled to be contrary to the faith and thus not binding by the same authentic, legitimate Catholic hierarchy. Such altering interpretation of the Constitution might itself be considered judicial activism, that is, a checking of the activities of the judicial branch of federal government by the Highest Court in the Universe. Or such altering interpretation of the Constitution might be considered judicial restraint, that is, a deference to the activities of the judicial branch of federal government by the Highest Court in the Universe. And excommunication and deposition themselves can be considered as unilateral and instantaneous impeachment and conviction.
Such is the real aggiornamento required for updating the United States Constitution. The CIA in part wrought the wreckage of Vatican II upon the Catholic Church, and it is now time for the authentic, legitimate Catholic Church to wreak redemption upon America.
Works Cited:
Bible: Revised Standard Version, https://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/
Bishop, Morris. The Middle Ages. First Mariner Books ed, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1968.
Pope Boniface VIII. Unam Sanctam. 1302, https://www.papalencyclicals.net/bon08/b8unam.htm
Ferrara, Christopher A., Liberty: The God that Failed. Angelico Press, 2022.
Pope Gelasius I. Famuli Vestræ Pietatis, 2020, https://thejosias.com/2020/03/30/famuli-vestrae-pietatis/
Hayes, Christal, and Alys Davies, "Recess appointments eyed to speed up confirmation of Trump cabinet picks." BBC, 15 Nov. 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg7r5e3gz7o
"Pope Miltiades." New World Encyclopedia. 2024, https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Pope_Miltiades
Runciman, Steven. Byzantine Civilisation. Edward Arnold (Publishers) LTD, 1933.
Schmidt, Steffen W., et al. American Government and Politics Today. Cengage, 2022.
Stephenson, Carl, and Bryce Lyon. Mediaeval History : Europe from the Second to the Sixteenth Century. 4th ed, Harper & Row, 1962.
"Die Kaiserkrönung Karls des Großen." Friedrich Kaulbach. Wikimedia Commons
"Panorama of the west facade of United States Supreme Court Building at dusk in Washington, D.C., USA.," Joe Ravi, CC-BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Although the term "judicial supremacy" gets bandied about by those who say the Supreme Court is to powerful, in virtually all cases the Supreme Court's decision merely give legitimacy to the dominant ruling coalition at the time. In a few, rare cases, the Court has upset some of the elites in a polarized nation...but they usually step back from the brink...and uphold Obamacare for example or after deciding Heller, go a full ten years before taking another gun case, and only when the presidency is on their side. See the "switch in time that saved nine" and FDR's court packing scheme. To use the analogy of this essay somewhat, the Court is like the Pope who has Napoleon take the crown from him, and the Napoleon represents electoral power from the presidency and Congress. The Pope has no army, no police force, and relies on others to enforce edicts....the same goes for all federal courts, especially the Supreme Court.