CHAPTER I

If the emperor wants to be what he is called, namely, a true emperor of the Romans, if he wants to be numbered among the successors of the first emperors, who on Christ's testimony exercised a true empire, granted and ordinate and not merely permitted, then he should not hesitate at all: he should hold without doubt, according to what has been shown above, that he should not acknowledge the Empire as being from the pope or regard himself as the pope's vassal for the Empire. It therefore seems superfluous, given what has been written above, to try to prove that the imperial power is distinct from the priestly power and in no way regularly dependent on it. But it will not be superfluous, indeed it will be useful and necessary, to answer the arguments by which some try to show, even by the sacred Scriptures, that the Roman Empire is from the pope. By the destruction of these arguments the temporal rights and liberties not only of emperors but of other kings and secular rulers, indeed of all mortals, will shine more clearly into light.

And, indeed, that it cannot be shown from Christ's words “You are Peter” etc. that the Empire is from the pope can be made clear from what was said in Book II, chapters 14, 16, 17, 19, and 20, and in Book IV, chapter 1.