Dictionary

two swords en · NOUN

Etymology

Allegorical interpretation of Luke 22:38, “Behold, here are two swords”.

Meanings

1. (plural, plural-only) Spiritual and temporal power, church and state.
   • 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. 1952, C. W. Previté-Orton, The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History, volume 2, page 943:
   • […] 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. 2004, Matthew Butler, Popular Piety and Political Identity in Mexico's Cristero Rebellion: Michoacán, 1927–29, →ISBN, page 3:
   • In the crusader theology, the two swords were totally united and not divided as Bernard would have it. 2009, Peter Lodberg, Religion, Politics, and Law, →ISBN, page 146:
2. (plural, plural-only) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see two, sword.

Forms

Relateds

secular arm · Sell your cloak and buy a sword · Gelasian dyarchy