Angelus, do you affirm or deny the following proposition:

The public sin of manifest formal heresy by its very nature separates the heretic from the Church.

Now the fifth true opinion, is that a Pope who is a manifest heretic, ceases in himself to be Pope and head, just as he ceases in himself to be a Christian and member of the body of the Church: whereby, he can be judged and punished by the Church.

Does the proposition I presented when applied to a pope that becomes a public manifest formal heretic (hypothetically speaking that a pope could actually become a heretic) cause the man to go from an ontological pope to ontological non-pope?

Note:  By "ontological pope", I mean a man upon whom Jesus Christ has conferred the papal munus.

And now we come to the difference between us two.  I hold that by Divine Law an ontological pope will become an ontological non-pope by his public sin of manifest formal heresy.

10 A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, avoid: 11 Knowing that he, that is such an one, is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned by his own judgment.

On the part of selection, one is a heretic, because he selects; but if he is not obstinate and is ready to be corrected by the Church, then his selection arose not from malice but from ignorance. In that case he is not a heretic.

One should avoid this man on account of the danger: their talk will eat its way like gangrene (2 Tim 2:17). Furthermore, let no one take part in the sins, lest he appear to consent to them: if any one comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into the house or give him any greeting (2 John 1:10). And also because of the punishment: depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away with all their sins (Num 16:26).

Such a person should be warned, and if he does not desist, he should be avoided. And he says, after the first and second admonition, for that is the way the Church proceeds in excommunicating. The reason for this is that the number three suggests that everything has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Consequently, it is taken as expressing all things: this is the third time I am coming to you (2 Cor 13:1), and also because of the perfection of the number three.

Canon 2314 (1983 CIC 1364)

§ 1. All apostates from the Christian faith and each and every heretic or schismatic:

1.° Incur by that fact excommunication;
2.° Unless they respect warnings, they are deprived of benefice, dignity, pension, office,
or other duty that they have in the Church, they are declared infamous, and [if]
clerics, with the warning being repeated, [they are] are deposed;
3.° If they give their names to non-Catholic sects or publicly adhere [to them], they are
by that fact infamous, and with due regard for the prescription of Canon 188, n. 4,
clerics, the previous warnings having been useless, are degraded.

You can "hold" anything you want, I suppose. God gave you free will. But I would suggest that you follow Canon Law. It is the safer course.

The "divine law" in this matter is Titus 3:10-11:


For the theology see St. Thomas Aquinas's commentary on Titus:

For Law of the Church see Canon 2314 (and Canons 2257-2267):

All of the above agree on the process.

Do you think Bellarmine is contradicting himself?

.

No, because a pope cannot be judged by the Church. So, St. Robert Bellarmine says a pope would cease to be pope, and then can and must be judged by the Church. The two events are not simultaneous, and he must cease being pope before he can be judged.

That the public sin of manifest heresy by its very nature separates the heretic from the Church does not depend upon St. Robert Bellarmine's teaching or Canon Law.  It is a doctrine of the Catholic Church.  You seem to be making this doctrine intrinsically connected with Canon Law.  It is not so and cannot be so because the former is of Divine Law and the latter is of Ecclesiastical Law.  The former is non-contingent and the latter is contingent.  Even if there were no canonical delict with the effect of excommunication for public manifest formal heresy, the public manifest formal heretic would still be separated from the Church.

Canon 188 (1983 CIC 194) Cross-Refs.: 1917 CIC 156, 1444, 2168, 2314, 2379, 2388

Any office becomes vacant upon the fact and without any declaration by tacit resignation
recognized by the law itself if a cleric:

4.° Publicly defects from the Catholic faith;