King be in the worst condition of all men sit quasi exul qui est omnium praesul Baldus He is tyed by the Laws of nations and nature to observe just contracts which as the Doctors say he cannot make void and revoke de plenitudine potestatis suae The Lawyers affirm that vectigalia alia emolumenta ex jurisdictione provenientia alienari possunt in parte praescribi possunt firma manente jurisdictionis suae suprema exercitatione apud se et successores suos Baldus ita ut sit sine diminutione authoritatis supremae derogatione directi dominii Principis * No Act of Parliament can bind the King from any prerogative which is sole and inseparable to his Person And although some of these Regalities seem to be reserved yet are they grantable and subject to prescription as creare Tabelliones monetas cudere exactiones vectigalium aliquorum and some others quae cùm sint inter minora Regalia corporis summique Imperii Patrimonii Regii integritatem non imminuunt In his praescriptio valeat contra fiscum * Peregrinus de jure fisci alii Chopin de doman Reg. Codex Fab. Sex tinus de Regalibus Tributa alia publica functio seu collatio nullam temporis praescriptionem admittunt Cod. l. 6. de Praescript 30. vel 40. annorum Et generaliter res Fisci non usucapi l. 2 Cod. communia de usucapi Institut de usucap l. 18. F. de usucap temen sunt aliqui casus ubi praescriptio locum tenet contra Fiscum per leges constitutiones Imperiales l. 4. l. 6. de Praescript 30. 40. annorum Cod. l. ult C. de Fundis Rei privatae l ult C. de Fundis Patrimon caus 16. quast 3. c. 16. de Tributis aliisque prensitationibus publicis nullo temporis spacio praedia redduntur immunia non sic de alio jure publico principali seu Fiscali Feudali Cujac consultatio 54. Census tributa domnium Principis res sunt inalienabiles imperscriptibiles quarum vindicatio nulla temporis praescriptione submoveatur His ancient and just tributes and customes and his right of imposing moderate gabells and taxes are not alienable neither within the reach of prescription as likewise the domaines of the Crown called the Royal Dowry for when these are taken away he doth lose his peculiar and proper livelihood and the ordinary means to support his estate and the Common-wealth receiveth much detriment when the King hath not wherewith to live of his own but the people must be continually burthened with exorbitant and illegal Taxes and courses used for raising of money the most usual causes of discord between the King and the People often producing Insurrections and Rebellion and sometimes made use of by factious and discontented persons to justifie or colour their designs against their Soveraign The Emperour Vitellius unto some men released his Tributes Tacitus to others he granted over-large immunities without care of posterity he mangled and maimed his Empire The Common sort accepted these favours the fools bought them with money which wise men accounted void as being such as could neither be given nor taken with the safety of the State CHAP. IX Of the Act of Parliament wherein the King was to pass away his power in the Militia And that other Act which was made for the continuation of the Parliament until both Houses should agree for the dissolving thereof Of fraud or force used towards the King or any other men for the obtaining of any Charters Patens or Grants BUt we cannot finde any grants of Vitellius or of other Roman Emperours or Princes subject to more just exception either in respect of the matter and things granted or the means used for the obtaining of them or the end and purpose for which they were obtained then that act of Parliament whereby the King was to pass away his power of the Militia and raising of moneys upon the People for maintenance of forces by land and sea at the will of the Parliament the ready way to out himself of all power of War and Peace of arming or disarming his own Subjects or any others upon what cause soever contrary to the rights and safety of Monarchies and to the Laws and Statutes of England as hath been before declared But this was as the Psalmist saith to strengthen themselves in their wickedness and to worke their iniquity by a Law The King might as well have granted them jurisdiction over any City or County of his Kingdome independent as unto himselfe and exempt from his authority and the Laws of the Realm and without appeal to his supream Court and he might as well have passed away his peculiar right of pardoning offences and despensing with penal Statutes The Doctors of the Civil and Canon Law say that a King in what grant soever cannot abdicare à se superioritatem suam jus illud supremum Baldus Alexand Angelus alii quod semper praesumitur reservatum nec concedere censetur totum hoc privativè quoad se successores suos ita ut non possit alteri jurisdictionem dare aut potestatem quin ei remanet major jurisdictio potestas quam fuerat translata neque tamen quocunque modo Regalium concessio fiat Sixtinus de Regalib lib. 1. cap. 5. ipsius Imperatoris aut alterius Regis superior potestas ea concessione comprehensa censetur sed potius major quam est concessa illis reservata retenta sit neque potest à supremo Principe licet velit ita concessio fieri ut superior potestas in alium transferatur The fairest and the most specious pretences and the strongest and most legal tyes and formalities make that which is evil in it selfe the most pernicious and abominable damnabilis est malitia quam titulus bonitatis accusat Salvianus this Statute therefore being such and so qualified and so destuctive to that power wherewith Kings are intrusted by God and invested by the fundamental Laws of their Kingdomes and serving most properly to raise and continue discord between the King and his Subjects cannot but appear to all men to be as absurd as pernicious And like this was that other act and of the same leaven and mould with that act of the MILITIA which was made for the continuation of the Parliament until both Houses should agree for the dissolving of it But they did not stay for that agreement for the Parliament was dissolved against their will by the irruption of the soldiers And yet before that they did dissolve it themselves although besides their intention when they deserted the King and his authority and acted contrary to their writ of summons and to the rights of both King and People But more apparently when they suppressed the House of Peers and ran away most part of them together with their speaker unto the protection of the Army and so became the
and common concernment and interest but when they are assembled in due form and solemnity We perceive by the judgement of wise and learned men and by experience in all times how precious is the presence and prejudicial the absence of Judges Counselors or Parties interessed Plutarch in Cato The Romans were so strict in the case of a private man condemned to dye by one voyce more then there was for his acquittal that the sentence was suspended because of absence of one of the Judges Sometimes by one man all are brought from an error By the Counsel of one man a puissant army hath been deseated Polibius One Ephesius prevailed with the Romans in Councel assembled to send into Greece to get their Laws whereupon the Romans did ground and forme their excellent Laws of the twelve Tables Fons omnis juris publici privatique Livius Act. 5. Onely Gamaliel prevailed with the Jews in their Counsel and staid thei furious proceedings against the Apostles The Councel of Nice concurred in their Judgment with Paphnutius Sosomen The Emperour Frederick the second kept divers Cardinals in prison and the Pope dying during their imprisonment the other Cardinals would not proceed to the Election of a new Pope neither could they by law as they affirmed untill their fellows were released Platina alii and those who were under restraint made their protestation against any election during the time of their imprisonment so as the See of Rome was void twenty moneths When the Roman Senate discontinued their antient custome of having a full number alwayes present opportunity was given and taken for the setting in hand a most pernicious abuse and practise as Asconius observed ut per panculos â—aciâ—bant Senatus-consulta ii omnes suae factienis à quibus quod libitum erat facilè impetrabant when none were present but those of their own faction they did what they list and the others who were absent betrayed their Countrey in neglecting their duty Livius lib. 39. Quid aequi pâ—ssit expectari ubi per infrequentiam â—urtim Senatus-consulta facta sunt In the multitude of Counsellors there is safety saith Solomon Thus the Roman Decemviri * Valerius Flaccus being made Inter-rex in a vacancy the Consuls being absent preferred a law that Sylla should be perpetual Dictator and do what he list Cice. Appian Livius lib. 3. when they had setled their authority they changed their former moderate course and had daily secret meetings like our close Committees apart inclosed from others At home they determined how matters should pass and in open place they pronounced the sentence accordingly The common opinion was that they had conspired not onely for the present time to do wrong but were confederated and bound it by an oath to hold the possession of the Decemvirship for ever CHAP. VII The necessity of having all the Members present in Parliament or the greater number of them and the danger of Confederations Associations Ingagements and other indirect practises contrary to the Rights of the King and the liberty of the Subject AS the absence of any of the Members make all their Acts void or voidable when their absence is caused by fraud force and tumults so are the Acts of all that are present void and their rights and priviledges cease when they who sit and act change the Parliament into an unlawful Assembly and by covert and indirect practises conventicles associations contrived in close Committees endeavour to circumvent the King or to enforce him and to abuse the people and the trust reposed in them All Associations Conventicles and confederations without warranty from the Supream Authority are by all Lawes Divine and Humane void as being the most effectual means to disturb the peace to introduce innovations in the State and to weaken all bonds of loyalty and obedience Qui faciunt ligam vel societatem ad eorum defensionem Bart. ad tit qui srent Rebelles Bald. ad tit quib modit feudum amit cap. 1. ut Florentini Perusini alii hoc exprimunt sed aliud in veritate agunt Istudest signum proditisnis proximè post hoc cadebant ab Imperio Romano pro liberis se tenchant But those Associations are the worst which being in themselves unlawful have the countenance and support of Parliamentary authority ut unde jura nascuntur injuriarum nascatur occasio when that which should have been for our wellfare becometh a snare when the Leaders of the People cause them to erre and they that are led by them are destroyed like the authority of the Roman Tribunes of the People which the People did adore But Appius Claudius said unto them Livius lib. 5. ye give a favourable ear to all your Tribunes although they ruine the Common-wealth and ye being thus carried away by the sweetness of that authority suffer under it to lurk any mischief whatsoever This power and the exercise thereof by the Tribunes was the cause of frequent seditions Quae authoritas specie quidem tuende Plebis Blorus lib. 3. cap. 13. cujus in auxilium instituta erat re autem dominationem sibi adquirens studium favorem Populi legibus agrariis frumemariis judiciariis aucupabatur in quibus omnibus incrat species aquitatis sed haecipsa in perniciem reotham misera respublica in exitium suum merees erat It was one of the cheisest articles against Peiree Gavistion of treason in Edward the seconds time that he assumed Regal power in makeing alliance and confederation with the People and tooke an oath from them to live and dye with them These associations and consederations draw unlawfull assemblies and fedition and therefore by the Roman Law he was guilty of treason L. 1. F. ad leg Jal Ma. L. 3. F. de vi pub lica Lib. 2. de Feudis tit 53. cujus conatu catus conventusque sum hominésve ad seditionem convocentur vel qui turbae vel seditionis consilium inierunt And therefore as in the Law Conventicula omnesque conventiones inter Personam Personam inter Civitatem Civitatem omnibus modis sieri prohibemus praeteritas factas cassamus And also those who suffered Conventicles in their houses were punished L. 15. Cod. de Epise Cler. L. 8.8.5 Cod. de Haereticis Novel 132. and their houses confiscate Publicatur domus in quo siunt Conventicula illicita domum vel possessionem ejus in quâ convenerunt sanctae assignari Ecclesiae by an other Law Clerici monachi conjurantes vel conspirantes aut factiones componentes aliquas deponuntur omninò cadunt de proprio gradu Caus 11. c. 21. By the golden Bull of the Empire all unlicenced confederations made between the Princes Cities and states of Germany subjects much more at large then others are strictly prohibited for associations and confederations are proper onely to the supream Powers are inter jura summa Imperii unio
Whether by the lawes divine and humane forbidding the resistance of the soveraign authority justly established we are thereby restrained from all resistance by armes in defence of our goods estates just rights and liberties when the resistance cannot be made without hazard of other mens lives and of sedition and civil war I will not insist upon the decision thereof it is a work of long labour and not much pertinent I will add this as a most undoubted truth that a Civil war or rebellion doth most commonly produce more pernicious effects in one year then either the insufficiency or Tyranny of a Prince can in an age It was truly observed that the Roman State suffered more in those seven months of civil war raised by Sylla and Marius then in the fourteen years of that bloody war which Annibal waged in Italy at their own doores although their loss and damage was inestimable Brutus perswaded a wise man his friend to joyn with him in the Conspiracy against Julius Caesar his friend answered him that the government under a Tyrant was not so bad as a Civil war Our fanatick Polititians who teach men rebellion and to flatter and deceive the People and to effect their own designes do say that the supream power is originally in the People and habitually inherent in them and is derived from them so as they may chastise and change their Kings and assume again their power They do not consider how by these improbable assertions they weaken the bonds of all lawes humane and divine and cut the sinewes of all magistracy and government how they do incite the People to rebellion and preserve the seeds thereof alwayes in their heads and hearts how they in leaving Kings to stand or fall according to the changable humours of their own subjects who against common reason they make to be judges accusers witnesses and parties they leave Princes in the most miserable condition of all men And the People also ever desirous of innovations and prone to all licentiousness when the reins are but slackned they do expose to the fury of their provoked Soveraign by their rebellion and to the loss of their just rights and liberties and perhaps to intolerable servitude under the sword of a Conquerour The Rivers which by some violent accident have broken their bounds are destructive to themselves and to all round about them They run on still and scatter themselves and never come to good until they return to the right Channel and are inclosed and fensed again within their proper and just bounds assigned unto them by God and Nature I could not in this discourse insist upon the framing and deducing of arguments although they were necessary for confirmation of the truth and confutation of falshood neither in drawing my matter into an exact method my desire was to relate the truth and to rectify the judgments of the ignorant for Gods glory and the good of my Countrey and to convince those who are perverse not presuming to teach the wise and learned unto whose Judgments I do submit THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. INnovations in Government Publishing of false Newes and Prophesies Pretenses of Reformation Sects and Divisions in matters of Religion Quarrel against Episcopacy Page 3. CHAP II. Of the Presbyterian Government in the Church The practice in the Primitive times Touching the election of Pastors and Ministers in the Church and their maintenance by paiment of Tythes Pag. 11. CHAP. III. The inconveniences that happen by the alterations of Government in the Church and Common-wealth Of Ceremonies used in the Church-Service Of tender consciences Of the coercive power of the Magistrate in matters of Religion Pag. 16. CHAP. IV. Of the changes in Religion in England And by Luther And the toleration of divers Religions Pag. 31. CHAP. V. Of the use of Parliaments Of the danger that cometh by the abuse of Parliaments and the Factions that therein arise Pa. 35. CHAP. VI. The Right that Bishops have to sit in Parliament Pag. 40. CHAP. VII The necessity of having all the Members present in Parliament or the greater number of them and the danger of Consederations Associations Ingagements and other indirect practises contrary to the Rights of the King and the liberty of the Subject Pag. 49. CHAP. VIII Of Seditions and seditious Assemblics and the punishment thereof Of the power of the King in that which concerneth the Militia and the Arms of the Kingdome And of other Rights of the Crown Pag 57. CHAP. IX Of the Act of Parliament wherein the King was to pass away his power in the Militia And that other Act which was made for the continuation of the Parliament until both Houses should agree for the dissolving thereof Of fraud or force used towards the King or any other men for the obtaining of any Charters Patents or Grants Pag. 63. CHAP. X. The Caese of Subjects in Rebellion against their Soveraign and the errour of those that would draw more crimes within the compass of Treason then they ought Of Acts made and past under the power of a Vsurper Pag. 76. CHAP. XI Against any power pretended to depose Princes Of the Allegiance of the Subjects Of the oath of the King and of his Coronation Of strangers joyning in Arms with Subjects in Rebellion against their Soveraign Of oaths and ingagemeuts made to Tyrants and Vsurpers Pag. 85. CHAP. XII Of those who onely accept of Offices and Imployments under Tyrants and Vsurpers Pag. 100. CHAP. XIII Of the inseparable conjunction and relation between the King and his Subjects which cannot be dissolved by any law or custome That Kings cannot alienate their Kingdomes nor Subjects renounce their allegeance nor bar the next successor of the Crown Pag. 103. CHAP. XIV Of the Beginning Continuation of Kingly Government P. 111. CHAP. XV. Of Prescription as well upon Land as Sea And the Right and Jurisdiction that the King hath in the Sea over the Sea P. 116. CHAP. XVI Against the pretended Power of the People to Elect their Prince or to depose him Of the Norman conquest of England and of Leagues between Princes and of Aides given to Subjects in Rebellion against their Soveraign Pag. 121. CHAP. XVII Of the King and of his power in Parliament Pag. 136. CHAP. XVIII Of the Kings Prerogative Pag 141. CHAP. XIX Of a Civil War and of the effects thereof Pag. 146. CHAP. XX. No pretences whatsoever can be just ground of a Civil war or Rebellion Pag. 153. FINIS
Armies Parliament under which power they still afterwards did sit and act leaving the Parliament without any Lawful adjournment sine die sine capite sine corpore This Law for continuation of the Parliament so directly contrary to the institution and essence of Parliaments and the undoubted right of Kings to call and dissolve Parliaments was another new and strange Law Lex nova inaudita as was said of the Roman Law Agraria from which great seditions took their first rise and from those seditions Civil wars which never were fully ended until that Common-wealth was utterly destroyed by the usurpation of Julius Caesar Salust Paterculus It was a Law quae summa miscuit imis a Law unde jus vi obrutum erat For the iniquity of our two Statutes before mentioned they may fitly in many respects be compared to this Law Agraria which Tiberius Gracchus the Tribune of the People preferred to flatter the People to continue himselfe in his office that he might be the more safe from the Nobility and rich men his enemies the better bring his designes to effect This Law being very plausible to the Commons Julius Caesar revived to assure the People unto him and to obtain their compliance with his usurpation It was a law seditious in it self serving aptly to imbase and make contemptible the Majesty of the Senate and Consuls but in respect of the meanes used to make it pass with their votes it was abominable for tumults were raised on purpose and such violence was offered to one of the Consuls for opposing it that the Ensigns of office carried before him were broken Plutarch in the lives of Caesar and Pompey and a basket of dust thrown upon his head and two Tribunes and some others in his company were wounded and soon after came to an end the Roman glory and their liberty Insomuch as many of the wisest seeing the madness of the People and their contempt of Laws and their former government thought themselves happy if the Common-wealth was no worse afflicted then with the burthen of an absolute Monarchy It is not the retaining of some of the usual form and solemnity as was in the making our two Statutes that maketh a binding law if the principal and essential parts and properties of a Law be wanting For a Law hath no force nor virtue when the material and final causes and reasons of a just Law do cease and are determined and the execution of that Law would prove injurious or absurd And so a Law or Grant whose foundation and ground is laid upon a fiction or presumption of a fact or thing which never had any existence and being Medina Felin alii Ancharan Decius alii Decis Rotae Rom. hath naturally no force efficacy as having no consent of the will but onely under an implyed and supposed condition Quae reipsa non extitit sic veritate facti deficiente totum legis desicit fundamentum quia haec est obligatio quasi ex falsa causa quae nulla est obligatio cùm deficiat voluntas ejus qui se obligavit cum aliquo praesupposito deficiente veritate dicti praesuppositi Jus supposititium lex improbat Moreover if a Law although it had at first just causes and reasons for making of it which after fall off and cease doth lose its force and vertue what may we say of our two Statutes and some others made in this long Parliament which in lieu of just and legal causes and reasons were fraudulent pretences and illusions put upon the King to obtain his assent and to abuse the people for the advancement of evil designs and the strengthening of a pernicious faction In a stipulation or promise although for the making of it there was just cause L. 2. F. de except doli L. penult F. de condict sine causa Cuiac alii sed nunc nullam causam idoneam habere videtur vel causa non secuta aut finita est datur contra petitorem doli mali exceptio quia non refert utrum ab initio sine causa aliquid datum sit an causa propter quam datum sit secuta non sit vel ex post facto redierit ad injustam vel nullam causam ita ut datum videatur sine causa Inomnibus causis quae jure non valuerunt L. 54 F. de condict in debiti l. 36. de verb. obl vel non habuerunt effectum revocatur quod datum vel solutum erat All stipulations are in their nature stricti juris and therefore not easily made void yet if one be bound contrary to his will by machination and practise he may void such stipulation And so all other contracts grounded upon deceit are void or voidable where there is dolus ex proposito dolus dans causam contractui vel ubi res ipsa in se dolum habeat And the Law doth ever provide ne quis ex dolo suo lucrum habeat L. 36. F. de verb. obl Exceptio doli accomodatur ei qui aliter obligatus est quam convenisset licet alioquin subtilitate juris obstrictus esset nihilominus repellit agentem ex stipulatu ctiamsi nulla sit ab isto adhibita machinatio dum tamen ipsares in se dolum habeat And yet not every deceit nor every fear will void promises contracts and grants as that fear is reputed sufficient which may overcome a man indued with fortitude so that deceit seemeth by law sufficient which may deceive a prudent person so as the fear or deceit were the immediate cause without which the man would not have done the act But how far this fear or deceit shall extend according to the quality nature and condition of the persons and other circumstances and whether deceit errour and ignorance do more abolish the consent of the will then fear or violence is to be left unto the Judges as a question of fact and so the Interpreters of the Law agree after much diversity of opinions amongst them As in all grants and releases fraud is alwayes presumed to be excepted so shall they not extend unto that which the party granting or releasing may justly be presumed to have not had thought either in specie or in genere non ad inopiata incognita extenditur dispositio Decis Rot. Rom. Farinacii Decis Rot. Rom. Lib. 2. Cod. de rescind vend Lib. 7. Cod. Quando provocare nec ultra ea pro quibus factum erat so general words shall be restrained ad rationem causam propter quam fuerunt prolata and so in case of excessive hurt and damage per enormissimam laesionem aut error aut ignorantia aut dolus ex reipsa praesumitur A sentence and decree shall not bind if it passed through bribery and corruption per sordes turpitudinem ipso jure nulla est although the Law saith interest Reipublicae non convelli rerum judicatarum authoritatem quia
Regis qui regnaturus est super eos 1 Sam. 8. vers 9. 11. And Samuel told the people the manner of the Kingdome eloculus est Samuel jus Regni 1 Sam c. 10. vers 25. CHAP. XIX Of a Civil war and of the effects thereof I shall now draw towards a Conclusion and in my passage shew the fruits of our adversaries wit and labour which have been rebellion civil war and servitude with some examples of their forerunners in other countries which they have imitated being they were more apt to imitate and magnify any example of rebellion then to take warning by their calamities or to consider the ruine of their own Countrey and the great scandal they have given unto the Christian name To begin with that which was nearest to us the late memorable example in France where they of the Reformed religion for their desence and liberty of conscience as they set it forth in their Declarations and Protestations made an Association and took up arms And soon after those of the Roman religion made the like Association about the year 1576. which they called the holy League Thuanus Both these produced the most dangerous rebellion and civil war in all respects that ever fell upon that Kingdome or any other Christian Kingdome for the people generally fell into such a phrensy that they deserced their Allegeance charity religion and reason Into these Associations many were at the first drawn unadvisedly through diverse and different perturbations in their minds designs and interests some upon false apprehensions and reports of the King and others cunningly raised Others through discontent want of livelyhood hope of raising their fortune hatred one of another or of the present government or of those of the greatest power therein and many out of preposterous and wild zeal And when repentance found entrance they could not find any way out of this Egyptian darkness The Cathoilck league was carried on with much subtilty and power by the cheif of the faction men of great power in Court and with the seduced and violent people Unto this league by ill counsel the King Henry the Third gave connivance and out of a desire to suppress some popular fears and jealousies of him and to shew himselfe really a devout son of the Church he soon declared himselfe a party And finding this Catholick league overmaster him he fell to no better shift then the confirming and ratifying of it by his authority But soon after that he perceived the design of the cheifest amongst them tended to the weakning and subordination of his authority by many of their actions and cheifly by their endeavour to get the power of the Militia into their own hands and all under the colour of defending the Catholick religion and the extirpation of Heresy For prevention thereof and preservation of himself from contempt into which he did run by joyning himselfe to the league he sought to throw out the devil by Belzebub and all that he could do could not untwist those inextricable difficulties in which it pleased God to leave him although he was a Prince indued with prudence and fortitude and as was said of him he might have proved an excellent King if he had not fallen into such times But he laboured and strugled under the contempt and hatred of his people either of them being sufficient to draw destruction upon Princes and the affection of his subjects was fastned upon the Duke of Guise a great Lord in respect of his alliance and followers exceeding popular ambitious active and of excellent parts Under this new league and association new officers were chosen soldiers and mony raised and war with the Protestants waged The League was acknowledged to be the head the King became an accessary and not the principal A preposterous and deformed government erected into the body a new head ingraffed and the old laid aside not cut off but made of no vigour and so was a horâ—id monster raised Then did it soon appear that those armes taken up for religion by the actions and the accidents ensuing were turned against the King who too late caused the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal his brother to be slain the which act drew on the Tragedy to the height for the year after he himselfe was murdered Peradventure it will not seem impertinent considering the likeness of our condition now in England Thuan. l. 100. to relate the words of our wise Author who saith Foederatorum factio primò libellum emisisse constat quo sumptorum armorum rationem reddebant ad levandÄ scilicèt Tributis plebem quò his inescamentis fascinatam ad suas partes pertraherent novarum rerum cupidos boni publici praetextu ad rebellionem impellerent Cum haec non successisset alia via Plebem aggressos religionis causam in horum animis praevalidam affinxisse quamvis nemo religionis observantior fuit quam Rex Henricus Tertius calumniose multa in illum commentata crant quasi communicatis cum sectaria peste consiliis evertendae religioni incumberet His successor Henry the Fourth a prudent magnanimous and victorious Prince passed through a multitude of difficulties and obtained many victories before he could get the quiet possession of his Crown occasioned by the errours and dissentions amongst those of his own party as much as by the power and practises of his adversaries the leaguers and their adherents And although he did see the death and destruction of many of them yet was he driven to agree upon hard conditions and to grant a pardon to them to the great discontent of many who had served with much courage and fidelity for his friends did see many malitious rebels in as good or better condition then themselves The Kings excuse was that he could not help it for he was inforced to expel one plague by another And as it is related in the History when the King had effected peace then did appear the incomprehensible effects of a Civil war driven to the height Religion pretended on all sides at first cast out at last or used but as a stalking-horse the honest Families the Cities and the people generally corrupted in manners and brought to poverty the Nobility most of them accustomed to rapine and licentiousness apt still to retain that course of life Unto those who were oppressed with debts or guilty of great crimes peace the inestimable blessing of God was a torment Others were ready upon all opportunities to take arms again to maintain their prodigality and wholly indisposed to use any honest trade or civil course of life and some to be revenged of their enemies or to repair the losses they received in the former Civil wars And as by the occasion of the Roman civil war impositions and taxes intolerable were laid although then excusable yet many of them alterwards remained in time of peace and so it hapned in France after their war ended with the English and their Civil