"For thou art the shepherd, thou art the physician, thou art the director, thou art the husbandman; finally, thou art another God on earth." (Christopher Marcellus, Oration in the Fifth Lateran Council, Session IV (1512), in Mansi SC, Vol. 32, col. 761. Latin.)

"Therefore the decision of the Pope and the decision of God constitute one decision. . . . Since, therefore, an appeal is always made from an inferior judge to a superior, just as no one is greater than himself, so no appeal holds when made from the Pope to God, because there is one consistory of the Pope himself and of God Himself." (Augustinus Triumphus, Summa de Potestate Ecclesiastica, 1483, questio 6. Latin.)

"Hence the Pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven and of earth and of the lower regions." (Lucius Ferraris, "Papa," art. 2, in his Prompta Bibliotheca, Vol. 6, p. 26. 1772. Latin.)

"But the supreme teacher in the Church is the Roman Pontiff. Union of minds, therefore, requires, together with a perfect accord in the one faith, complete submission and obedience of will to the Church and to the Roman Pontiff, as to God Himself." (Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, "On the Chief Duties of Christians as Citizens," dated January 10, 1890, trans. in The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII, New York: Benzinger, 1903, p. 193.)

"We [the pope] hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty." (Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter "The Reunion of Christendom," dated June 20, 1894, trans. in The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII, p. 304.)