Moses the God of Aaron, or the Power and Duty of Princes in Sacred Matters

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...did not exercise it. For indeed, the Prince original: "Princeps"; referring to the sovereign or civil ruler. is not a Bishop in this sense, nor does he possess or exercise command over sacred matters original: "imperium in sacra"; the legal authority to oversee the external administration of the church. as a Bishop would. Rather, he does so because he is the Prince and God’s Vicar original: "Vicarius"; a representative acting on behalf of God in earthly administration., just as Moses exercised the law of sacred matters original: "jus sacrorum" because he was as God to Aaron A reference to Exodus 4:16, where God tells Moses that he shall be "as God" to his brother Aaron the priest., and performed the office of King. Therefore, to demonstrate the exercise of the law of sacred matters by citing secular authors original: "profanis Auctoribus"; writers from the classical or non-Christian world. in order to prove the law itself is useless; for not everything that happens, ought to happen.

Rather, one must learn what the law is from canonical Scripture original: "Scriptura canonica", so that examples from secular history may be examined against it. To this is added the fact that if the law of sacred matters is expanded by examples from every history, then the minds of those first learning of it are distracted too much, so that they are unable to find or establish anything certain. This is especially true because the opinions of the learned vary on this particular argument. Some, due to the difficulty of the subject and because they confuse things that ought to be kept distinct, fall into error and cannot understand; others, however, favoring the Doctors Theologians or church authorities. or even the rest of the subjects against reason and Holy Scripture original: "Scriptura Sacra", seek to limit the Prince and venture in their writings to strip him of his command over sacred matters.

For these reasons, therefore, I have finally taken it upon myself to perform this labor, such as it is, so that [I might explain] the power and duty of Princes in sacred matters from