two swords
English
A depiction of the two swords being conferred by Jesus to the pope and the emperor
Etymology
Allegorical interpretation of Luke 22:38, “Behold, here are two swords”.
Noun
the two swords pl (plural only)
- (chiefly historical, Roman Catholicism) Spiritual and temporal power, church and state.
- 1952, C. W. Previté-Orton, The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History, volume 2, page 943:
- The most clear-cut definition of the Pope's possession of the two swords was given in Boniface VIII’s famous bull Unam Sanctam, which stressed the unity of Christendom under its single head.
- 2004, Matthew Butler, Popular Piety and Political Identity in Mexico's Cristero Rebellion: Michoacán, 1927–29, →ISBN, page 3:
- […] the dispute between the two swords cut deep into the countryside in ways that the authors of ecclesiastical and revolutionary policy neither intended nor anticipated.
- 2009, Peter Lodberg, Religion, Politics, and Law, →ISBN, page 146:
- In the crusader theology, the two swords were totally united and not divided as Bernard would have it.
- Used other than with a figurative or idiomatic meaning: see two, sword.
Related terms
- Gelasian dyarchy
See also
- secular arm