Mahometisme or any other detestable in fidelity That then this Prince may be declared fallen from his right as culpable of felony towardes him to whome he hath made the oath of his Realme that is to Christ and his subiects may be absolued in cōscience both at the spirituall and Ecclesiasticall Tribunall from the oath of allegiance they haue made vnto him And that in this case it belongs to the authority of the Church resident either in her head the Pope or in her body a Councell to publish this declaration And not only all the other partes of the Catholike Church but likewise all the Doctors who liued in France from the first setting vp of schooles of Diuinity amongst them haue held the affirmatiue opinion that in the case of hereticall or infidell Princes and such as persecute Christianity or Catholike Religion their subiects may be absolued from their oath of allegiance By meanes wherof though the contrary doctrine were the truest yet notwithstanding all the other partes of the Church being against it you cannot hould it for more then problematical in matter of faith I call that doctrine problematicall in matter of faith which we are not bound to belieue by necessity of faith and the contradictory therof doth not binde them that belieue it with excommunication and disunion or separation from the community Otherwise you must acknowledge that the communion which you exercise with the other partes of the Church houlding the contrary doctrine yea euen that communion which you conserue with the memory of your predecessours was vnlawfull defiled with heresy and excommunication And indeed those who take vpon them to defend the doctrine of the English Oath which is the patterne of yours VVidring disput de Iuram fidel cap. 3. sect 19. defend it for no other then problematicall Our intention say they is not to affirme the other opinion as repugnant to faith or saluation it being defended and maynteined by so many so great Deuines whome God forbid we should go about to condemne of so great a cryme And therefore to include this clause vnder the same obligation of faith vnder that very degree of excommunication vnder the which we comprehend the condemnation of those which attempt the liues of Princes is to fall into foure manifest Inconueniences which our Chamber hath giuen me in charge to lay before your eies The first is to force mens soules and intangle their consciences in bidding them to belieue and sweare vnder payne of excommunication as doctrine of faith and conformable to the word of God a point of doctrine the contrary wherof is held by all the other partes of the Catholike Church and hath byn euer hitherunto by their owne predecessours The second inconuenience is vtterly to ouerthrow the authority of the Church and to open the gate to all sortes of heresies to giue scope to lay men without direction or warrant either of generall Councell or Ecclesiasticall sentence to vndertake the decision of matters of faith to determine pointes of Controuersy and to pronounce openly what is conformable to the Scripture what is impious and detestable This then we say is to vsurpe the office of Priesthood this is to stretch our hand to the Arke this is to take the Censar for Sacrifice In briefe this is to commit the selfe same outrages for which Gods maledictions haue iustly fallen long since on the vsurpers as wel priuate persons as Kings themselues The third Inconuenience is to throw vs head long into euident and ineuitable schisme For all other Catholike nations houlding this doctrine we cannot declare it to be contrary to holy Writ nor hould it for wicked and detestable but therewithal we must renounce the cōmuniō both of the head and other partes of the Church and therby confesse that the Church for so many ages hath not beene the Church of God but the Synagogue of Sathan not the spouse of Christ but the Diuells strumpet The fourth Inconuenience is not only to make frustrate the remedy which men seeke in this peril of Princes in weakning that which is held for certaine and vndoubted by ioyning it to a thing contradicted but withall insteed of assuring the life and estate of Princes to put in great daunger both the one and the other by meanes of wars and other mischances and disasters which ordinarily schisme drawes after it These are Gentlemen the foure pointes our Company haue giuen me in charge to represent vnto you which I will do my best to dispatch with all possible cleernes and facility if you please to heare me with the like patience you haue hitherto continued which I easily persuade my selfe you will if you set before your eies the importance of the matter I am heare to treate with you which is the greatest at this present in Christendome And besides consider that it is not my selfe whome you heare speake in this Controuersy For it is not I who speake in this cause but the whole body of the Ecclesiasticall Order and all that of the Nobility adioyned vnto it and which haue deputed these twelue Noble men taken from the twelue Gouernementes in the Realme of purpose to giue authority to my wordes with their presence and withall to giue testimony in this present occasion of the selfe same deuotion their predecessours haue euer borne the Church which they haue planted by their Armes and watered with their bloud in the furthest partes of the world And therfore I will no more enlarge my selfe in begging of you fauourable audience and attention only let me intreate you before I enter into the matter to giue me leaue to make these two protestations therby to preuent certaine calumniations The first that when I say those who hould the negatiue part cannot hould it for other then Problematicall I intend not to comprehend by the word Problematicall that which concernes the condemnation of those parricides who vndertake to kill Princes for this I hould for a point of faith and condemne the contrary opinion for hereticall and guilty of all sortes of excommunication and eternall punishment The other that it is contrary to my disposition and full sore against my will that I come to treate of these questions in such a time when our Country is newly come out of many differences and diuisions in State-matters and is yet full of debates in matters of Religion and haue refused this charge many times euen with teares knowing well how I was to imbarke my selfe in a sea full of rockes and perills and to how many harsh contradictions and calumniations I should expose my selfe But the publishing of Copyes of your Article the bruit wherof was spred farre and neere hath hindered vs from keeping it any longer secret and the wound once discouered the discharge of our Office bound vs to seeke a remedy NOvv then Gentlemen concerning the first Inconuenience to lay the foundation of my discourse not on pillars of gold as Pindarus said but on the firme pillars
the ouerturning and ruining of all Catholike Religion then to say that the Church which hath decided them hath done it without authority and was not at that tyme any more Christes Church but Antichristes Concubine See therefore wherunto these men leade vs who compell vs to sweare that it is a doctrine contrary to Gods word impious and detestable to hold that subiects in some cases may be absolued of their fidelitie And this proposition they would haue vs put in the same conclusion of faith and vnder the same decree of Anathema with that of the murthering of Kinges THERE remayneth the last Inconuenience which I promised to examine which is that this medly doth not only make the remedie that they would bring to the daunger of Kinges to be vnprofitable but more then that to be pernicious and domageable And now I beseech you Gentlemen before I enter into the matter to permit me to tell you that I giue not place in affection to the seruice of the King to any of my Countrymen I am a French man borne and the sonne of a French man and I haue neuer but respected our Kinges I haue neuer in fact of State cast mine eyes vpon others God lending me my right wits I will neuer turne mine eyes away I haue beene nourished brought vp intertayned and raysed vp vnder the winges of my Soueraigne King Henry the third haue alwayes continued an adherent to his fortunes whilest he liued After his death I followed likewise the fortune of the deceased King Henry the Great of glorious memory and that with a good and with a sound conscience euen according to the Maximes as well of those who defend the affirmatiue part as of those who hold the negatiue For to say nothing of the word of Relapse that was by bad information imputed vnto him he was neuer either persecutour or incorrigible On the contrary after the tyme of his predecessors death he promised to procure to informe himself and be instructed and in his greatest affayres he did me the honour to confer with me in secret about the points of our faith for the preparing of himselfe to his Conuersion I brought him by the grace of God back or the grace rather by me to the Catholike religion I obteyned his absolution at Rome of Pope Clement the 8 and reconciled him with the Sea Apostolike Actions by which he effected and wrought the recouery of his Estate and the restoring of you all to your houses commodities and fortunes I euer serued him after that supporting vpholding the honour and rightes of his Maiesty in a more affectionate manner then I tendred mine owne life not here where it is an easy matter to extoll the Kinges soruice and to commend as the saying is the Athenians at Athens but out of his owne Kingdome and there where matters were canuased and disputed vpon And of this also I haue receaued for a signe and testimony of approbation of my seruice all these honours commodities I am now possessed of for as much as I neuer receaued neither goods nor dignities but of him It is he alone who hath aduanced me and raysed me vp to a Bishop Archbishop and Cardinall He made me Great Almenour and bestowed vpon me the meanes and prouisions necessary for the helping of me towards the susteyning and bearing out a part of these charges And from the King his Sonne I continue the enioyng and possession of the same benefits and good turnes without hoping or desire of hope of gratificatiō from any other And therfore Gentlemen you ought to be belieue that I am not moued in this for any other interest then for his seruice and for the conseruation of the Catholike Religion in preseruation whereof is comprehended both the spirituall and temporall safety of himself of his estate For the first branch then of our last opposition which is that the mixtion of contentious matters maketh the remedy which they would bring for the daunger of Kinges vnfruitfull and vnprofitable we haue already said inough from the beginning For seeing we will agree both the one the other that the tēporall laws the paynes penalties imposed vpon the body do not any waies serue the turne or be inough to preuent auert put by these wicked attemptes and that we must make recourse to spirituall lawes and to the paynes that be exercised after death that is to say to the lawes of excommunication and of damnation eternall and for that reason teacheth vs that the lawes of Anathema and of excommunication make not any impression in the soules if they be not belieued to proceed from an infallibleauthority how is it when there shal be intermixed some clause contestated called into question by the rest of the Church that they will serue for a bridle to those who feare nothing but the paynes and tormentes of the soules And how shall such lawes imprint the terrour and feare of Anathema in mindes that shall belieue that the lawes themselues be subiected to Anathema On the contrary how will they not quite ouerthrowe the good and sufficient remedies that the generall Councells whereof the authority is infallible haue instituted for the safety of Kinges which they would take from vs by the medly of other thinges wherevnto the vniuersall Church doth not agree I haue sayd good sufficient remedies for the safety of Kinges which they would haue taken from vs For who knoweth not that if the infernal monsters who made the attemptes vpon the liues of our two last Kinges had read the Ecclesiastical lawes they had found their damnation expressed in the decree of the Councell of Constance And therefore it was not for default of Ecclesiasticall lawes that they committed those two most horrible murders but for this that they had not read them or rather by occasion of an enraged and diuellish malice wherewith they were possessed But they will reply that it was not inough for the securing and assuring of the life of Kinges that the Church hath decreed vnder the payne of Excōmunication that none may attempt vpon their persons if it decreeth not further vnder the same paynes that the subiects cannot be absolued from their obedience in whatsoeuer estate they be that is to say euen when they should make profession of heresy or incorrigible Infidelity and should become persecutours and violators of conscience For though say they further the Church forbiddeth that no attempt be made vpon the life of Princes yet if the Princes happen to fall into incorrigible Heresy or Apostacy and become persecutours of the faith and that the Church thereupon declare their subiectes absolued from the oath of Allegiance and that notwithstanding this declaration they will inforce the subiects to continue their obedience vnto them they become Tyrants And then adde they the Politique Lawes permit euery particuler body to attempt vpon the person of Tyrantes and consequently their life in case of Heresie or of
which this vertue hath shined and beene flourishing it is this in which we liue I will not speake of the glory of the Druides or ancient Sacrificers in whose handes the Gauls had put the execution of iustice with intent to make it sacred and venerable to the people by the quality of the persons that should exercise it I omit the care and zeale our Kinges did beare to the practise of Iustice themselues becomming ministers and distributers not only in their first and second race but likewise in the third To say nothing of the splendour of our Courtes of Parlament and in particuler of this great and high Parlament of Paris wherof the reputation hath beene such amongst forraine Princes that they themselues often made choyce of it for their iudge and arbitrator in causes of greatest importance It shall suffice me to affirme of our Nation that it hath euer beene so famous and florished in the exercise of this vertue that the very womeÌ„ amongst the Gauls were hertofore esteemed better able to administer Iustice then the men of al other Prouinces For when Hannibal receaued and incorporated the Gauls in his Army in his passage to the Conqest of Italy it was agreed on that if at any tyme there should arise any difference betweene the two Nations if the Carthaginians were plaintifs the verdict should belong to the Tribunall of the Carthaginians resident in Spaine and if the Gauls found themselus agrieued the decision was referred to the Dames of France And therefore Gentlemen our Kinges hauing assigned the keeping and disposing of this precious treasure in the hands and custody of your Order it is not without cause that we honour and respect you not only as ministers and interpreters of Themis but as such her interpreters in the chiefest Tribunall she hath vpon earth And now Gentlemen this Themis this Dicas this â—lustice it selfe which teacheth you to render to euery one his due inspired you likewise from the first meeting of the States to render aboue al other thinges what you owe to God to his Religion and to his Ministers making you therby to imitate the example of those great Law-giuers and Sages the Romans your Predecessours who carried so great respect to Diuine thinges that although the Religion was false yet notwithstanding because in this false Religion they pretended as S. Augustine sayth to honour the true Deity it pleased the same God to recompence their zeale with temporall graces and benedictions wherby they raysed their Empire aboue the cloudes For then you gaue vs testimony by diâ—ers Embassages that you held vs for your parents as the Pastours and Directours of your soules and such as liued in continuall watchfulnes to render accompt of them to Almighty God For the which we haue of tentimes giuen you many and harty thankes But that which did most assure vs that you practised effectually what you gaue testimony of by wordes was the last occasion which presented it selfe For vpon the newes which was sent vnto vs of a certain article touching the security of Kinges intituled a Fund a mentall Law proposed resolued amongst your selues where there was matter of Religion mixt with interest of state you were contented to be perswaded by the learned and eloquent informations deliuered you in our names by the Archbishop of Aix and the Lord Bishop of Mumpelier to communicate the matter with vs and ioyntly to receaue our opinion therof For this cause Gentlemen the Ecclesiasticall assembly hath chosen sent me vnto you First to giue you thankes for the honour you pleased to do them heerin then to let you vnderstand their opinion concerning as wel the substance as circumstaÌ„ces of your Article And they haue especially giuen me in charge aboue all other thinges to render you infinite thankes and prayse your zeale in prouiding so carefully for the security of the life and person of our Kinges withall protesting that they all conspire together with you in this thought and extraordinary feeling of yours and that from the bottome of their hartes and soules For they lament and shall neuer cease mourning with teares of bloud the tragicall and detestable Assassinats which haue wronged and defiled the memory of this age with two so horrible parricides and do find in themselues so much greater obligation to haue their hartes pierced with this grief by how much more they must acknowledge themselues tyed with strayter bandes then any other Orders to mayntayne and stand affected to the Sacred Person of our Kinges I meane not to enlarge my selfe for the present in telling you how God hath put into their handes the light of his word to lighten other orders and how the Clergie must march formost and direct others by doctrine and example in seruing well and faithfully those whome God hath placed ouer his people Only thus much out of meere humane considerations There is no profession so straitly bound in all fidelity and loyalty to our Princes as the state Ecclesiasticall For other states come to offices honours and dignities of the realme some of them as the Gentelmen Nobility at the dearest rate of all other with losse of their bloud and perill of their liues others besides their merit by contribution of some part of their goodes and commodities But as for vs we atteyne them by the only grace and fauour of our Kinges without hazard or imployment of ought either of life goods or honours Neither by any other meanes beeing as we are naked and vnarmed can we enioy our quiet or commodities but vnder the shaddow of the peaceable and prosperous affaires of the King being otherwise exposed as a prey to all sortes of wronges and outrages And therefore what man of sound iudgment can liue in doubt but that we haue more interest then any other in his conseruation in whose life as within some fatall brand all our liues and fortunes are comprized Wee therefore alike ioyne issue with you in this your zeale and feruency of passion and do alike condemne nay more if possible may be the perfidious butchery of those monsters which dare aduenture on Sacred personages of Kinges But with all desiring you to enter into consideration that as the only lawes sufficient to restaine those who set at naught their liues are the Ecclesiasticall which curbe those spirits that contemne death with the apprehension of those paynes after death So must we carefully take heed not to insert any thing into those lawes but that which is held for certaine and vndoubted by the whole Church for feare of disabling the authority of that which is certaine infallible by mixture of that which is doubtfull and in contention For experience hath taught vs too well that humane lawes only and apprehension of temporall punishment can neuer serue for sufficient remedy to such euills as proceed from a peruerse and corrupted imagination of Religion We must haue therefore lawes of conscience such as work on our soules and keep
them in feare of eternall tormentes Those who vndertake these detestable parricides vnder a false per suasion of Religion are not kept back with any feare of corporall punishment they bath themselues in tormentes with delight they expect triumphes and Crownes of Martyrdome they flatter themselues with false application of that seÌ„tence of our Sauiour do not feare them that can kill the body Matt. 10. but rather feare him that can send both soule and body into hell So that to restrayne and terrify this kinde of people we must lay before them not such lawes as are executed in this life which they care not for and thereby depriue other men of theirs but of such lawes whose rigour and seuerity are exacted after death that is of lawes Ecclesiasticall and spirituall The Milesian Virgins were possessed of so furious and prodigious hatred of their liues that they ran voluntarily with great contentment to their deathes they strangled threw themselues downe headlong and cut their owne throtes the prayers and teares of their parentes not being able to hinder them The Magistrates of the Iland oftentimes consulted and made many decrees to stop the publick mourning but none of their designementes tooke effect For they despising and hating life entred likewise into contempt of whatsoeuer was ended with life vntill in the end seeing all other meanes to fayle them agreed to publish a law whereby all those which voluntarily made away themselues should be drawne openly through the streets that stark naked after their death Then the frenzie which all these remedies applied during life could not cure the apprehension of shameful punishment after death did remedy The like is to be held of this fury this rage this madnes there is nothing but the feare of paynes to be imposed after death nothing but the apprehension of the paynes of hell nothing but the horrour of eternall torments which are sufficient to cure their distemper who thinke to immolate and sacrifice their liues to God when they loose them by putting in execution this horrible and abhominable enterprises Now the spiritual and Ecclesiastical lawes are those only which can imprint in mens hartes the terrour of excommunication and liuely apprehension of euerlasting torments For to cause this effect they must proceed froÌ„ Ecclesiasticall Authority that is certaine absolute infallible that is to say vniuersall and such as conteineth nothing wherein the whole Church doth not agree For if they proceed from doubtfull and different authority conteyne such thinges whereof one part of the Church houldes one opinion the head and other partes thereof teach another those in whose bearts they desire these thinges should make impression insteed of houlding them for certaine and infallible and therby to be terrified and swayed by their threats fall to laughing at them and hould them in extreme derision And therefore we must take great heed I say once againe we must take extraordinary great heed to mixe that which is in no sort to be doubted of in this Article and that which the whole Church agrees on that is to say that none without putting himselfe in danger of the diuell and eternall death may aduenture vpon the life of Kinges with any point in controuersy for feare of weakning that which is vndoubtedly true by ioyning it with some other thing which other partes of the Church do debate and hould in dispute Three points there are in the substance of your Fundamentall Law besides certain accessary pointes and circumstances The first coÌ„cerneth the security of Kinges persons and in this we all agree offering to seale it not with inke but with our bloud that is to say that it is not lawful for any cause whatsoeuer to murther Kinges and not only with Dauid do deâ—est the Amalecite who vaunted to haue laid his handes on Saul 1. Reg. 11. although reiected and deposed by God by the mouth of Samuel but moreouer cry out aloud with the Sacred Councel of ConstaÌ„ce Concil Constant sess 5. against the murtherers of Kings euen such as might be pretÌ„eded to be Tyrants Anathema to such as murther Kinges eternall malediction to the assassinats of Kinges eternall damnatioÌ„ on al such as murther Kinges The second point is of the temporall dignity and soueraignty of the Kinges of Frances and in this likewise we agree For we beleeue our Kinges are absolute in euery fort of temporall Soueraignty in their Realme and that they are neither feudataries to the Pope as some others who haue either receaued or obliged their Crownes with this condition nor to any other Prince but that in the pure administratioÌ„ of temporall thinges they depend immediatly of God and acknowledge no other power ouer them but his These two pointes then wee hould for certaine and vndoubted but in different manner of certainty for the certainty of the first is diuine and theologicall the certainty of the second humane and historicall For that which Pope Innocent III. (a) Cap. per Venerab Tit. Qui filij sint legitimi affirmes that the King of France acknowledgeth no superiour in temporalities is spoken by him in forme of historical testimony and that certaine other Realmes whereof he seemes to wright (b) Cap. causam tit eodem the same haue since changed and bound themselues to some certain kind of temporall dependence vpon the Sea Apostolike and that France remaynes in her prime estate it is history and not faith that tells vs so There remaynes the third point which is this Whether if Princes hauing made an oath to God and their people either themselues or their predecessors to liue and dye in the Christian Catholick faith and do afterwardes violate their oath rebell against Christ bidding him open warre that is to say fall not only to open profession of heresy or Apostacy from Christian Religion but withall passe to force their suâ—iectes consciences and goe about to plant Arianisme or Mahometisme or any such like infidelity within their states and thereby destroy and roote out Christianity whether I say in this case their subiects on the other side may not be declared absolued from their oath of Loyaltie and Fidelity And this comming to passe to whome it apperteynes to pronounce this absolution This then is the point in controuersy betweene vs For your article conteyneth the negariue that is to say that in no case whatsoeuer the subiectes may be absolued from the Oath of Allegiance made to their Princes As on the contrary side all other partes of the Catholike Church togeather with this of France since the institution of Schooles of Diuinity vntill the comming of Catuin held the affirmatiue propositioÌ„ which is that when the Prince breakes the Oath he hath made to God and his subiectes to liue and dye in Catholique Religion and doth not only become an Arian or a Mahometan but manifestly wars against Iesus Christ in compelling his subiects in matters of conscience and constrayning them to imbrace Arianisme or
of History and practise of the Church the methode I will obserue shal be in prouing two things The one that not only all the other parts of the Church which are at this day in the world hould the affirmatiue opinion that is to say in the case of hereticall Apostataes and persecuting Princes the subiects may be absolued from their Oath of allegiance made to them or their predecessours but also for these eleuen hundred yeares there hath not been any one age in which this doctrine hath not byn belieued and practised in diuers nations The other that it hath byn continually held in France where our Kings and particulerly those of the last race haue defended it by their authority and armes where our Councells haue vpheld and mayntained it where our Bishops and Scholasticall Doctours since the first institution of schooles of Diuinity vntill our dayes haue written preached and taught it and where to conclude all our Magistrates Officers and Lawyers haue followed and faâ—oured it yea often times for crymes in matters of Religion much more light then heresy or Apostacy Wherewith notwithstanding I intend not to help my selfe but where they serue to defend either the generall Theses that is to say Whether in some cases the subiects may be absolued from the Oath made by them to their Princes or this particuler Hypothesis that in the case of hereticall Apostataes and persecuting Princes their Subiects may be dispensed withall in obeying them To the end therfore to free you from all obscurity I will not oppugne your Article but by those maximes wherin our Doctours of France who haue written in defence of Princes temporall authority do all agree conteyning my selfe notwithstanding in the simple playne way of fact without passing to that of right the decisioÌ„ wherof appertaines not to this tyme nor place First then to begin with Anastasius who was made Emperour more then eleuen hundred yeares ago When this Emperour Anastasius an Eutichian heretike tooke on him the Empire Euphâ—mius Patriarch of Constantinople would neuer acknowledge him for Emperour vntill he had signed and subscribed with his owne hand to the Creede of the Chalcedon Councell Anastasius as Victor Tunonensis (a) Victor Tunon in Chron. à Scaligero edito an Author of that age hath left written vrged by the Bishop of Constantinople was constreyned to promise vnder his hand to attempt nothing that was sinister against the Apostolike Faith and the Councell of Chalcedon And Euagrius (b) Euagr. hist Eccle. lib. 3. ca. 32. The Empresse Ariadne desirous to put the Imperiall habiton Anastasius the Bishop Euphemius would neuer giue his consent vntill he had giuen vp a profession of his faith written with his owne hand with grieuous and seuere Oathes And Theodorus Anagnostes saith that (c) Theod. Anagnost l. 2. collect hist Eccl. Anastasius being declared Emperour by the Empresse Ariadne Euphemius the Bishop made resistance (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calling him heretike and vnworthy to haue commaund one Christians Notwithstanding the Empresse and the Senate trayling Euphemius by force did their vttermost to compell him But he would neuer consent to anything before he had drawne from him a profession by writing to imbrace the doctrine of the Chalcedon Councell And when the said Anastasius fell back contrary to his Oath vnto the Eutichian heresy and passed further to persecute the Catholikes Pope Symachus resisted him tooke vpon him the defence of the Church in these wordes (b) Sym. in Apologet It may be thou wilt say it is written We must be subiect to all power It is true We acknowledge humane power according to the degree therof yet so notwithstanding that it be not erected against God But for the rest if all power come from God with much more reason that which gouernes diuine things Beare respect to God in vs and we will reuerence God in thee But if thou honour not God thou canst not clayme priuiledge by him whose lawes thou coÌ„temnest And imediatly after Thou sayst that the Senate coÌ„spiring with me I haue excoÌ„municated thee that which I found lawfully done by my Predecessors I haue without doubt followed Thou sayest that the Senate of Rome doth treat thee ill if we treat thee ill by inciting thee to leaue heretikes can it be thought thou dealest well with vs which wouldest throwe vs headlong into the society of heretikes And when he went about to distill the infection of his heresy into the Churches offices â—â—d set his hand to the banishment of Bishopâ— not only the people of Constantinople were in commotion against him and demanded another Emperout but moreouer Vitalianus one of the chiefest Generalls of that age hauing assembled a puissant army went to present him battaile at the very gates of Constantinople and would heuer agree to peace but with this condition That he should recall the Bishops whom he had banished from their seas should reunite all the Eastern Churches with the Romane The Catholikes sayes Marcellinus Comes (a) Marcel Com. in chron demanded Areobuidas for Emperour and threw to ground the Images and statua's of Anastasius And Cedrenus (b) Cedr in compend hist in Anastas Anastasius going about to ioyne these words to the Hymne of the Church who was crucified for vs there was made a popular insurrection within Constantinople the Citizens calling for another Emperour wherby the Emperour being affrighted put of for a time his heresie And Victor Tunonensis (d) Victor Tunon in chron Count Vitalianus the sonne of Patriciolus vnderstanding the subuersion of the Catholike faith the condemnation of the Chalcedon Councell the banishment of the Catholike Bishops and the intrusion of heretikes into their places he assembled a great army revolted from the Emperour Anastasius and ioyning battaile which Patricius the Emperours Nephew Constable of the Empire he killed threescore and seauen thousand of the Romane souldiers and tooke Patricius prisoner And a little after Vitalianus being incamped at the gates of Constantinople notwithstanding many demaundes of peace made to him by the Emperour he would neuer â—earken to any but with this condition that he should call back the defendours of the Chalcedon Councell who had beene cast out from their seas and should reunite all the Churches of the East with the Romane And when Clotharius the first of that name King of France that liued in the same age with the Emperour Iustinian had slayne within the Church of Soisson on good Friday in the time of the adoring the Crosse * Gautier Walter Lord of Yuetot in Normandie Pope Agapetus whome the Greekes call (a) Concil Const sub Men. the Beloued of God and men did threaten him with his censures if he did not make amendes for the outrage he had committed against Christian Religion In satisfaction wherof the King did erect the territory of Yuetot with * En tiltre condition de Royâ—ume the title and freedome of a Kingdome Wherof
time the Christian people hath by the conuersion of Emperours and Empires and by the reduction of Kinges and Kingdomes beene gayned and consecrated to Iesus Christ his temporal raigne it cannot any more be vsurped nor possessed by way of right by the enemies of Christs name And hence it is that whatsoeuer Conquest the Turke maketh of the Christians and whatsoeuer possession of long continuance it be he cannot by any tract of tyme gaine the least inch of prescription ouer Christian people who were formerly subiect to Christes temporall tribunall before any such Conquest by him made And to say the contrary were not only to imbrace and hod one of Luthers errours who hath taught that the warre that the Christians made against the Turkes was vniust and vnlawful not only to cōdemne the authority of so many Councells which haue decreed the expeditions of the holy Land for the ayding of the Christians of the East for the deliuering of them from the yoke and seruitude of the Infidells which had beene a thing vniust For the Accessary followeth the Principall and if the Christians of the East had beene lawfull subiectes to the Mahometan Princes they neither could haue reuolted from them nor rebelled against them But also euen to anathematize and accurse the memory of so many Christian Worthies and to affirme that so many Knightes Princes and Kinges among them our most glorious S. Lewis who dying in that warre as Champious maynteyners of Christes cause pretended to gayne the Crowne of Martyrdome dyed in a cause vniust and worthie of damnation But those who defend the negatiue part reply and say that in tyme of the first Arian Emperours Constantius and Valens before whome the Empire had already acknowledged Christ Iesus the Church vsed not such manner of proceeding nor acquited the Christians of their obedience On the contrary that the Bishop Hosius writing vnto the Emperour Constantius Apud Athana in epist desolit vit agen saith vnto him in these wordes As he who would spoyle you in your Empire should resist Gods ordenance So I feare that your vsurping the authority of the Church will make you culpable of a great cryme To this then the defendants of the affirmatiue part answere two thinges The one that the Custome of obliging Princes to make an expresse oath vnto God and to their people to liue and to die in the Christian and Catholique Religion had not yet place in the tymes of the first Heretique or Apostata Emperours was not brought in but afterwards namely then when they would stay and hinder Religion from falling into the same perills wherin it was vnder them The other that the Church vsed not this proceeding not for default of Right but for want of force and strength not for want of power in it to ordeyne it but through want of ability in the Christian people to execute it For it is not inough to bind the Church to declare Princes Infidells to haue lost their rightes to exhort their subiects to depart from their obedience that she may lawfully do it but it is further necessary that she be able to do it prudently and profitably And therefore S. D. Tho. 2.2 2. q. 10. art 10. Thomas after he had said Infidells by the desert of their Infidelity be worthy to loose their power ouer the faithfull addeth But this the Church sometimes doth and sometimes doth it not And if we should conclude that because the ancient Church hath not declared the first Arian Emperours excluded from the right they had from God of commaunding Catholiks that therefore she had not the authority to do it we then should conclude the very same that because it excommunicated them not it had no authority to do it For we find not that any either Pope or Councell did euer namely and personally excommunicate the Arian Emperours Not for that the Church cānot excōmunicate them as wel as other Ariās whome it excōmunicated from tyme to tyme but for that it deemed it a matter of imprudency and pernicious to Religion to exasperate them not hauing forces to represse and curbe them And as touching Hosius they āswere that he saith not that the Church cānot absolue in the spiritual Court the Catholiks from the obedience of Cōstantius if she should haue thought it profitable possible and necessary for them to attempt the deliuery of themselues from his tyranny Neither saith he that if the Emperour Constance being a Catholique Prince had not beene dead and that he had declared and proclaymed warre against his brother Constantius as he threatned he would do if he ceased not to persecute the Catholikes the Catholikes of the East would not haue ioyned taken part with him and would not haue belieued that the Church could haue dispensed with them about their oath of fidelity they had made to Constantius Theod. hist Eccles lib. 2. cap. 9. alibi But they say that Hosius speaketh of them who of their priuate authority and of their owne ambition raised themselues against Constantius to depriue him of the Empire and to become Tyrantes themselues Yet Lucifer Calaritanus maketh no difficulty Lucif Cola. rit lib. de non parcend in Deum delinq to call Constantius himselfe A Tyrant and the Antiochus of his age and protesteth that he is not bound towardes him to obserue the modesty of wordes which the Apostle commaundeth to be obserued to Princes and Magistrates for as much as the Apostle speaketh of Princes who haue not yet belieued in Christ and not of such Princes as haue reuolted from Christ I adde saith he that the Apostle speaketh of Princes and Magistrates which haue not yet belieued in the only Sonne of God whome we should by our humility and meeknes and long patience in aduersity and most great obedience in thinges reasonable prouoke to belieue in him But those who hold the negatiue part Socrat. hist Eccl. lib. 3. cap. 19. reply that the Christians might well haue deposed the Emperour Iulian the Apostata For when the Emperour Iouian who was elected after his death Theod. lib. 4. cap. 1. answered the soldiers of the Army Sozom. lib. 6. cap. 1. that he would not haue a commaund ouer men who were not Christians they replyed that they were Christians And to this againe they who maynteyne the affirmatiue part want not their answere For on the contrary they auerre that the Church could not do it prudently nor profitably For besides that the Christians were so deuided as the faction of the Arians alone ioyned with the Heathens without speaking of other Heretikes or of the cold Catholikes who as S. Gregory Nazianzene saith Greg. Naz. in Iul. orat serued the tyme and had not as he further addeth other law then the Emperours will held their foote vpon the Catholike Churches throate And besides when Iulian was Emperour he was so far from persecuting the Catholikes at the first as that in
Apostacy cannot be secured To this obiection the answere is short and easy For the Church intermedleth not her selfe with the absolution of the subiects but in the Ecclsiasticall Court and therin besides this payne and that of excommunication it imposeth not any other By meanes wherof it is so far from consenting that any attempt be made vpon the life of them whom it hath excommunicated as it abhorreth all fortes of killinges and murtheringes and especially such as be sudaine and vnexpected in regard of the losse of both body and soule which cōmonly go therin accompanied togeather And if they say that the Church ordayneth it not but that it is the cause that it is done for as much as the Common wealth conforming it selfe to the Churches iudgment and making the same decision in the tribunall politique if the Prince keepe on his former course declareth him a Tyrant and an enemy of the state and consequently subiecteth him to the power of the Lawes politique which permit the conspiring against Tyrantes for the making of them away and for killing of them we bring first this exception that there is great difference betweene Tyrantes of vsurpation whome the Lawes permit to extirminate by all manner of wayes and Tyrantes of administration and gouernement who are lawfully called to their Principality but gouerne it ill and we add that the Hereticall Princes who persecute the faith and their Catholike subiects be of the number of Tyrantes of administration and not of the number of Tyrants of vsurpation against whome alone it is permitted to conspire by clandestine and secret practises And if they further vrge and say that the politique Lawes permit conspiracies against the one and the other we answere that they are politique prophane and heathenish Laws as those of the ancient Romans or of the Grecians in former tymes and not Christian politique Lawes For the Christian politique Laws consider not only in their Princes the respect due vnto them for the good of temporall pollicy and the regard of the Maiesty of the Estate which they represent but they further consider in them the Image and vnction of God who hath called them to that Dignity in so much as in them who haue once had the lawfull vocation of Royalty what Tyrany soeuer they exercise the Christian politique Laws neuer passe so farre as to permit the vse of proscription against their persons or that any do attempt by clandestine or secret coniuration or conspiracy against their persons or liues but they carry the same respect to them that did Dauid to Saul notwithstanding he knew he were reiected 1. Reg. 26. cast of and reproued of God when he said Who shall extend his hand vpon the anoynted of our Lord and shal be innocent In so much as if the Christians be constrayned to defend their religion and their life against Hereticall and Apostata Princes from whose allegiance they were absolued the Christian politique Laws permit not more then what is permitted by military Lawes and the right of nations that is to say open warre and not clandestine and secret 〈…〉 and conspiracies For there alwaies remayneth in them a certain habitude to the dignity Royall as it were a marke of a politique character that discerneth them from simple particulers and when the obstacle and impediment is taken away that is when they come to amend themselues and to giue satisfactiō it restoreth them to the lawfull vse and exercise of their regality And therefore we see that in so many controuersies that the Popes haue had with tēporall Princes neuer any Pope went so far as to coūsell or to assent to the murthering of Princes Contrariwise if any calumniators laboured to impute it vnto them they haue euer iustified themselues euen with the horrour and abhomination of such actes remembring themselues of these wordes of S. Gregory when the Lombards made war vpon him If I would haue medled with the death of men Greg. lib. 7. epist 1. the Nation of the Lombards should at this day haue had neither King non gouernors But because I stand in feare of God I will not haue to moddle or deale with the death of any person And touching the other point of the last Inconuenience which is that this medly maketh the remedies that they would bring to the daunger of the Kinges to be not only vnprofitable but also pernicious and domageable there needeth not much eloquence to perswade it For if those who made the attempts vpon the liues of our Kinges were moued to those horrible parricides by a false imagination which they conceaued to wit that our Kings did something in preiudice of religion how much more would they haue thought they had a greater better pretext if they had beleeued that our Kings had abused their authority by the bringing in of schisme and the ouerthrowing of Religion and that they had seene themselues in schisme separated from the communion of the Sea Apostolique and cut off from the other partes of the Church And more then this who vnderstandeth not that there cannot happen any thing of more and greater daunger for the life and authority of Kinges then intestine and ciuill wars which schismes do ordinarily draw after them Moreouer who knoweth not that the cōtempt and indifferencie of Religion which must needes follow vpon schismes engendreth and occasioneth Impiety and Atheisme and taketh quite away all the respect that men are wont to carry to Kinges for the loue of God and for the reuerence of Religion which is the strongest corps or Court of Guard and the surest rampaire for the defence and security of their persons For when Religion is had in contempt men are not any longer withholden from attempting vpon the persons of Kinges then by force and by feare of the temporall paynes and therfore when they thinke they may do it without beeing punished or that they contemne and make no reckoning of the temporall paynes they haue no more bridle to conteyne them or to hold them in Finally who seeth not that there can be nothing worse for the safety of the persons and of the estate of Kinges then to stir vp and drawe vpon them by an ouerture of a new schisme and diuision from the Church Psal 75. the wrath of him who taketh away the spirits of Princes from out of the earth And heere Gentlemen I will not with you vse more reasons and argumentes but wil passe ouer to exhortations and intreaties and wil coniure you to remember that you are French men and that you are also Christians and Catholikes and that in treating touching the securing of Kinges you must not only cast your eies vpon the earth but also lift them vp to Heauen and you must not remedy their temporall safetie in causing them to forgo and loose the euerlasting nor prouide for your bodily part which is France by destroying and ruyning the spirituall parte which is the Church The Pope tolerateth and