ABSTRACT
IN RECONSTRUCTING THE basic principles of the papal government it is, therefore, best if we follow the lead given by the papacy itself. The theme expressed in or underlying the thousands of papal communications in the Middle Ages is the primacy of the Roman Church, a primacy conceived in both doctrinal and jurisdictional respects. This tenet of the Roman primacy denoted in succinct Roman constitutional theory the idea of the principatus or, seen from a different angle, it was the classic expression of the descending thesis of government and law. The sum-total of all power was concentrated in the pope.
