Do Roman Catholics place the Pope before the King?
What would you say were I to ask you, “Does a Protestant boy place his father before the King?” If you reasoned rightly you would say, “In some things he does; in other things he does not.” You see, two different factors come into the case, and it is illogical to jump from one to the other in the same breath. The boy would owe filial piety to his father, and civic loyalty to his King. So, too, Catholics owe spiritual allegiance to the Pope, and civic loyalty to the King. In spiritual matters, they place the Pope before the King. In the civic order, they place the King before the Pope. 1164. Do Roman Catholics believe that the Pope is greater than the King? I have just said that in spiritual matters the authority of the Pope comes before that of the King. In temporal and national matters, the authority of the King is supreme. If you ask me whether the spiritual and religious sphere is of greater dignity and importance than the temporal and national sphere, I must reply that it is. And a
