Cardinal Giovanni Battista de Luca and his reflections on the right of resistance to the prince. An unresolved debate

Abstract

This article focuses on the debate that spanned the early modem age on the right of resistance to established government. One of the most famous documents concerning papal state building, the 'Donation of Constantine', was the main topic of a heated discussion between two opposite opinions about the pontiff's prerogatives in the seventeenth century. The clash was caused by the 'document' entitled 'Apology for the reparation of the ancient authority and dignity of the Sacred College of Cardinals', drawn up between 1676 and 1677. It circulated anonymously within the Curia but it is in the hand of Cardinal Girolamo Grimaldi. The immediate response of Cardinal Giovanni Battista De Luca tackles the problem of the origin and nature of the temporal power of the Church in all its historical-legal aspects. He also clarified the question raised by Cardinal Grimaldi of the relationship between the authority of the pope and the role of the college of cardinals within the government of the State.