commanded to adore Idoles and to offer sacrifice they preferred God before their prince But when he called upon them to war August in Psal 124. and bad them invade any Nation they presently obeyed They did distinguish their eternall Lord from the temporall King yet they submitted themselves to their temporall Lord for his sake that was their eternall King Deschism Donatist Lib. 3. So far he Optatus Milevitanus is another pregnant witnesse Cum super Imperatoren nemo sit nisi solus Deus Seeing there is no man above the Emperor beside God alone which made the Emperor Donatus by advancing himselfe above the Emperour doth exceed the bounds of humanity and maketh himself a God rather than man in that he feareth and reverenceth him not Com. in Evang Ioh l. 12. c. 36. whom all men should honor next after God So far Optat. S. Cyril is of the same judgment Cui legis prevaricatores liberare licet nisi Legis ipsius authori Who can acquit them that break the Law from transgression beside the Law-giver As we see by experience in all humane States no man can without danger breake the Law but Kings themselves in whom the crime of prevarication hath no place For it was wisely said of one that it is a wicked presumption In Epist. ad Timoth. c. 2. v. 1. to say to a King Thou doest amisse So far he And also S. Chrysostome What meaneth the Apostle saith he to require Prayers Supplications Intercessions and Thanksgiving to be made for all men He requireth this to be done in the dayly service of the Church and the perpetuall rite of Dive Religion For all the faithfull do know in what manner prayers are powred out before the Lord morning and evening for all the word even for Kings and every man in authority Some man will peradventure say that for all must be understood of all the faithfull Which cannot be the Apostles meaning as may appeare by the words following viz for Kings seeing that Kings neither did then nor in many ages after serve the living God but continued obstinatly in infidelity which by course of succession they had received Thus far Chrysost See the preface before Basilic Dor. Our Modern Reformers teach us that which Paul and Chrysost neither knew nor beleeved that wicked Princes are not to be prayed for but to be resisted c. When the faction of Eutiches had prevailed against the Catholikes Leo the first had no other remedy than Prayers to God sighs teares and petitions to the Emperor Omnes partium nostrarum Ecclesiae c. All the Churches of these parts Bpist 24. ad Theod. Imper. all we Priests even with sighs and teares beseech your Majesty to command a generall Synode to be held in Italy that all offences beeing remooved there may remaine neither error in Faith nor division in Lâ—â—e Favor the Catholiques grant liberty to protect the Faith against Heretiques defend the state of the Church from ruin that Christ his right-hand may support your Empire Thus far Leo. When Gregory the great was accused for the murther of a Bishop in prison he wrote to one Sabinianus to cleare him to the Emperor and Empresse Breviter suggeras serenissimis Dominis meis Epist. lib. 7. Epist 1. You may briefly enforme my soveraigne Lord and Lady that if I their servant would have busied my self with the death of the Lombards that Nation would by this time have had neither Kings nor Duks nor Earles and should have been in great confusion and division but because I stood in aw of God I was ever afraid to meddle with the shedding of any mans bloud So far Gregory These Lombards were Pagans invaders of the Countrey ransackers of the City persecutors of the Saints robbers of the Church oppressors of the poore whom Gregory the first might and would not destroy quia Deum timuit because he seared God It is very like that his successor Gregory the 7 feared neither God nor man when he erected the papall croisier against the regall scepter and read the sentence of deprivation against the Emperor Henry Ego authoritate Apostolica c. I by the power Apostolicall do bereave Henry of the German Kingdome and do deprive him of all subjection of Christian men absolving all men from the allegiance which they have sworne unto him And that Rodolph whom the Peeres of the Empire have elected may govern the Kingdome I grant all men that shall serve him against the Emperor forgivenesse of their sins Carol. Sigon de Regoo Itâ— l. 9. in vita Hen. 3. in this life and in the life to come As I have for his pride dejected Henry from the Royall dignity so I do exalt Rodolph for his humility to that place of Authority Thus far Gregory the 7. Benno Gard in vit Greg 7. It is no wounder that Gregory his chaire clave a sunder as some writers affirme at the giving of this sentence because the proud Pope and his wicked sentence were too heavy a burthen for Peters stoole of humility to beare The fourth Chapter proveth the Immunity of Kings by the Fathers of the third 300 yeares AFter the death of Gregory the great which was about the year of our Lord 604. Sabinianus did succeed him who lived but one yeare after whom came Boniface the 3 which obtained of Phocas to be called Vniversall Bishop since that time periit virtus Imperatorum pietas Pontificum the Emperours waxed weake and the Bishops wicked What the judgement of those Fathers then was concerning subjection to wicked Kings I will make evident by the testimony of of Gregorius Turonensis Isidorus Damascenus Beda Fulgentius Leo the 4 and the Fathers astembled in a Councell at Toledo in Spaine Gregory Turonensis acknowledgeth such an absolute power in Childerick a most wicked King of France Histor lib. 5 cap. 1. as was free from all controll of man Si quis de nobis Rex justitiae limites transcendere voluerit c. If any one of us O King do passe the bonds of justice you have power to correct him but if you exceed your limit who shall chastice you We may speake unto you if you list not to hearken who can condemn you but that great God who hath pronounced himself to be righteousnes Hactenus ille Isidorus saith no lesse for the immunity of the Kings of Spaine Let all earthly Princes know that they shall give account of the Church which Christ hath committed to their protection Yea whether the peace and discipline Ecclesiasticall be advanced by faithfull Kings or dissolved by the unfaithfull he will require a reckoning at their hands which hath left his Church in their power So far Isidor John Damascene pleadeth not only for the Exemption of wicked Kings themselves but also of their Deputies Parallâ—l 〈◊〉 1. c. 21. The Governours saith he which Kings create though they be wicked though they be theeves though they be
the grace of God that he is to Lewes the noble Prince with instance of prayer offreth himselfe in all things serviceable Concord is profitable to every Realme and Iustice much to be desired these vertues are the mother of devotion and the consecration of all honesty But whosoever seeketh after civill dissention and incenseth other to the effusion of bloud he is a murtherer and partaketh with him who gaping for bloud goeth about seeking whom he may devoure The worthy vessell of election that was taken up to the third Heaven protesteth saying Let every soule submit himselfe to the higher power there is no power but from God He that resisteth power resisteth the ordinance of God If that be true which some men prate among women and the vulgar sort that we ought not to be subdued to the Kingly power Then it is false which the Apostle teacheth that every soule must submit himselfe under power and superiority Can the truth lye Epist Wald. quae habetur in appendice Marian Scot. Did not Christ the Lord speake by the Apostle Why do we provoke the Lord Are we stronger than he Doth not he thinke himselfe stronger than the Lord the resisteth the ordinance of God Seeing there is no power but of God What saith the Prophet Confounded be they that strive against the Lord and they that resist him shall perish Rodolphus Hermanus Egbertus with many other Princes resisted the ordinance of God in Henry the Emperor but loe they are confounded as though they had never beene for as their end was ill their beginning could not be good c. Haec ille Pope Paschalis seeing the bad successe of those seditious subjects which his predecessors Gregory and Vrbanus had armed against Henry that worthy Emperor did perswade the Emperor's own son against all Law of God Nature and Nations to rebell against his father The Bishop of Leige tooke the Emperors part against this young Prince for the which he was excommunicate his Church interdicted and Robert Earle of Flaunders commanded by the Pope as he hoped to have the forgivenesse of his sins and the faof the Church of Rome to destroy that Bishop and his false Priests The Churchmen of Leige terrified with the Popes excommunication and fearing the Earles oppression wrote an Apology for themselvs about the yeare 1106. Epist Leodiensium apud Simonem Scard We are excommunicate say they because we obey our Bishop who hath taken part with his Lord the Emperor These are the beginnings of sorrow for Satan beeing loosed compasseth the earth and hath made a division between the Prince and the Priest who can justly blame the Bishop that taketh his Lords part to whom he hath sworn allegiance Perjury is a great sin whereof they cannot be ignorant that by new schisme and novell traditions do promise to absolve subjects from the guilt of perjury that forsweare themselves to their Lord the King c. In the progresse of their Apology they determine three great questions First whether the Pope hath power to excommunicate Kings Secondly to whom it belongeth to inflict temporall punishment when Church-men offended against Faith unity or good manners And thirdly what remedy subjects have against their Kings that are impious or tyrannous Si quis respectu sancti Spiritus c. If any man having respect to the Spirit of God shall turn over the old and new Testament he shall plainly find that Kings ought not at all or very hardly be excommunicate whether we consider the etimology of their names or the nature of their excommunication Even til this day hath this point been questioned and never determined Kings may be admonished and reproved by such as be discreet and sober men for Christ the King of Kings in earth who hath placed them in his own stead hath reserved them to his own judgement c. Their answer to the second question is grounded on the testimony of Saint Augustine the practise of Princes and the authority of Paul Kings say they and Emperors by their publique Lawes have forbidden heretiques to enjoy any wordly possession Wherfore seeing we are no heretiques and that it belongeth not to the Pope but to Kings and Emperors to punish heresies why doth our Lord Paschalis send Robert his armour-bearer to destroy the possessions and to overthrow the villages of the Churches which in case they deserved destruction ought to be destroyed by the Edict of Kings and Emperors which cary the sword not without good cause c. For answer to the third question they shew by sundry places of Scripture that there is no other helpe against evill Princes than prayer and patience Nihil modo pro Imperatore nostro dicimus c. We will for the present say nothing in defence of our Emperor but this we say though he were as bad as you report him to be wee would endure his government because our sins have deserved such a Governor Even such a Prince ought not to be resisted by violence but endured by patience and prayer Moses brought many plagues upon Pharaoh whose heart God had hardened but it was by prayer and the lifting up his hands to heaven And S. Paul requireth prayers to be made for all men for Kings and such as are in authority which Kings were neither Catholikes nor Christians Baruch also from the mouth of the Prophet Jeremy wrote unto the Iews which were captives unto the King of Babylon that they must pray for the life of Nabuchadnezzar the King of Babylon and Balthazar his son that their dayes in earth may be as the dayes of Heaven Epist Leod. c. S. Paul teacheth why we ought to pray for evill Kings namely that under them we may lead a quiet life It would becom an Apostolike man to follow the Apostles doctrin it were propheticall to follow the Prophet c. Thus far they in their Epistle Apologeticall He that wrote the life of this Emperor Henry the 4 Vita Hen. 4 quo supra an auncient a modest and an impartiall relator of such occurrents as happened in his time declareth his dislike of the Popes practises and the Germaines tumults against their said Soveraigne Lord. Magnum mundo documentum datum est A great instruction was given to the World that no man should rise against his master For the hand of Rodolph being cut off shewed a most just punishment of perjury he feared not to violate his fidelity sworn to the King and his right hand was punished as if other wounds had not beene sufficient to bring him to his death that by the plague of the rebellious the fault of rebellion might be perceived Thus far he The sixth Chapter proveth the same by the testimony of the Writers from the 1200 yeares downward I Will for conclusion produce Otho Frisingensis Thomas Aquinas Gratianus Philip the faire King of France the Parliament of England in the time of Edward the 1 Vincentius and Aeneas Silvius that afterward was Pope by
the name of Pius Secundus Otho Frisin in his Epistle dedicatory before his Chronicle Otho Frisin gensis hath an excellent saying in his Epistle dedicatory to Frederick Barbarossa Cum nulla persona mundialis inveniatur quae mundi Legibus non subjaceat c. Although no earthly man can be found that is not subject to the Laws of the World and in respect of subjection liable to correction Kings as it were placed over Laws are not restrained by them but reserved to the examination of God according to the words of the King and Prophet Against thee only have I sinned Psal 51.5 It becommeth therfore a King both in respect of the noble disposition of his mind and the spirituall illumination of his soule to have God the King of Kings and Lord of Lords ever in his mind and by all meanes possible to take heed that he fals not into the hands of God seeing it is as the Apostle saith a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the living God It is more fearefull for Kings than for any other because Kings have none but God himselfe above them whom they need feare It shall be so much more horrible for them by how much they may offend more freely than other men So far Otho Thomas Aquinas Aquin de regimine prin lib. 1. cap. 6. if the tractate de Regimine Principum be his maketh three sorts of Kings Kings by Election Kings by Subordination and Kings by Succession For the first he saith that they which did establish may abolish For the second we must have our recourse to him that did surrogate the subordinate King as the Iews did to Caesar against Herod for the last his resolution is Recurrendum esse ad omnium Regem Deum that we must fly to God the King of all Kings in whose only power it is to molifie the cruell heart of a Tyrant And that men may obtaine this at the hands of God they must cease from sin for wicked Princes by Divine permission are exalted to punish the sins of the people tollenda est igitur culpa ut cessat tyrannorum plaga we must therefore remove our sins that God may take away his punishment Thus far Thomas Gratianus which compiled the Decrees is very peremptory that the Bishop of Rome ought not to medle with the temporall sword the state of Common-wealths or the change of Princes He saith nothing indeed de Regni ordinibus which in his time and a 100 yeares after him never dreamed of any such authority Cum Petrus qui primus Apostolorum à Domino fuerat electus materianlem ladium exerceret When Peter whom the Lord had first chosen of all the Apostles drew the material sword to defend his Master froÌ„ the injuries of the Iews he was commanded to shearh his sword Mat. 26.52 For all that take the sword shall perish by the sword As if Christ should have said Hitherto it was lawfull for thee and thine auncestors to persecute Gods enemies with the temporall sword hereafter thou must put up that sword into his place and draw the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God to slay the old man Caus 23. quest 8. paâ—ag 1. Rom. 13 4. whosoever beside the Prince and without his authority that hath lawfull power and as the Apostle teacheth beareth not the sword in vaine to whom every soule must be subject whosoever I say without or beside the Princes authority beareth the sword shall perish by the sword Thus far Gratian. About the yeare 1300 began a quarrell between Boniface 8 and Philipus Pulcher the French King about the collation of Benefices Prebends and other Ecclesiasticall promotions Whereupon the Pope wrote unto the said King as solloweth Boniface Bishop the servant of Gods Servants to his well-beloved Son Philip by Gods grace King of France greeting and blessing Apostolicall Feare God and keepe his Law We give thee to understand that thou art subject to us both in Spirituall things and Temporall and that no gift of benefices or prebends belongeth to thee If thou have in thy hand any vacant keep the profits of them to the Successors and if thou hast bestowed any we decree the collation voide and recall it how far soever it hath proceeded Whosoever beleeveth otherwise we account him a foole Dated at Lateran the fourth of the Calends of December and in the 6. yeare of our Papacy King Philip returned his hautinesse a correspondent answer viz. Philip by the grace of God King of France to Boniface bearing himselfe for Pope Philip. Pulcher. Salutem modicam sive nullam Sciat tua maxima fatuitas Lattle health or none at all Let thy great fooleship know that in temporall things we are subject to no man And that the gifts of prebends and Ecclesiasticall promotions made and to be made by us were and shall be Lawfull both in time past and in time to come For such collations belong to us in the right of our Crown wherefore we will manfully defend the possessours of the said dignities and do judge them that thinke otherwise fooles and mad men Given at Paris the Wednesday after Candlemasse 1301. Questionlesse this King that did so scornefully reject the Popes chalenge pretended from Christ would little regard the claime of the Nobles derived but from the people The same busie Boniface of whom some write that he came in like a Foxe craftely raigned like a Lion cruelly and dyed like a Dog miserably would take upon him the decision of a controversie between the Kings of England and Scotland and commanded King Edward of England either to cease his claime or to send his procurators to the Apostolike sea to shew his right and to receive such order from the Pope as justice and equity would require The Lords and Commons then assembled in Parliament at Lincolne sent Boniface this answer in the Kings behalfe Whereas our most dread Lord Edward by the grace of God the Noble King of England caused your Letters to be read openly before us touching certaine occurrents of state between him and the King of Scotland we did not a little marvaile at the contents thereof so strange and wonderfull as the like hath never been heard of We know most holy father and it is well known in this Realme and also to other nations that the King of England ought not to make answer for his right before any judge Ecclesiasticall or secular by reason of the free estate of his Royall dignity and custome Parliament at Lincolne quoted by M. Beken-shaw without breach at all times unviolably observed Wherefore after treaty had and diligent deliberation this was our resolution that our said King ought not to answer in judgement nor send procurators or messengers to your court seeing that tendeth manifestly to the disinheriting of the right of the Crown the overthrow of the state of the Kingdome and the breach of the Liberties Customes and Lawes of
first King of Israel was rather a monster than a man after the spirit of God had forsaken him the evil spirit was come upon him m 1 Sam. â—6 14 There were not many sins against God Man or Nature wherein he transgressed not yet his excesse was punished neither by the Sacerdotall Synod nor the secular Senate Who can loy his hand on the Lords Annointed and be guiltlesse n 1 Sam. 16 9 The very Annointment was the cause of Sauls immunity from all humane coersion as Augustine affirmeth Quaero si non habebat Saul sacramenti sanctitatem Aug. contr lit Petil l. 2 c. 48. quid in eo David venerabatur If Saul had not the holinesse of the Sacrament I aske what it was that David reverenced in him he honoured Saul for the sacred and holy unction while he lived and revenged his death Yea he was troubled and trembled at the heart because he had cut off a lappe of Saules garment Loe Soul had no innocency and yet he had holinesse not of life but of unction So far Augustine Who questioned David for his murther and adultery who censured Salomon for his idolatry though their câ—â—nes were capitall by the Law of God After that Kingdome was divided all the Kings of Israel and most of the Kings of Iudah were notorious Idolaters yet during those Kingdomes which endured above 200 yeares no Priest did challenge no States-men did claime power from the highest to punish or depose their Princes And the Prophets perswaded all men to obey and endure those idolatrous Princes whose impiety they reproved with the losse of their lives Christ sled when the people would have made him a King a Joh. 6.15 He payed tribute for himselfe and Peter b Mat. 17.27 When the question was propounded concerning the Emperours Subsidy he concluded for Caesar c Mat. 22.21 And standing to receive the judgement of death before Pilate he acknowledged his power to be of God d Ioh. 19.15 This Saviour of Mankind whose actions should be our instruction did never attempt to change that Government or to displace those Governours which were directly repugnant to the scope of information that he aymed at Iohn Baptist did indeed reprove King Herod with a Non licet e Mar. 6 18 but he taught not the Souldiers to leave his service or by strife and impatience to wind themselvs out of the band of allegiance wherin the Law had left them and the Gospell found them f Luk. 3.14 The Apostle delivered unto the Church the Doctrine of obedience and patience which they had learned by the Precept and observed by the practise of our Lord Christ Peter commandeth obedience to all manner of men in Authority g 1 Pet. 2.15 Paul forbiddeth resistance against any power h Rom. 13.1 2 3.4 And S. Iude maketh it blasphemy to revile Government or to speake evill of Governours i Iude 8. If therefore an Angell from heaven preach otherwise than they have delivered let him be accursed k Gal. 1.8 The second Chapter prooveth the same by the Fathers of the first 300 yeares THe true Church which had the Spirit of understanding to discerne the voyce of Christ from the voyce of a stranger never taught never practised never used or approoved other weapons than salt teares and humble prayers against the Paganisme Heresie Apostacy and Tyranny of earthly Kings Iustinus Martyr Tertullian and Cyprian shall beare witnesse for 300 years wherein the Kings and Potentates of the earth bathed themselves in the bloud of innocents and prosessed enmity against Christ and his servants Ad inquisitionem vestram Christianos nos esse profitemur c. At your inquisition we professe our selvs to be Christians though we know death to be the guerdon of our profession saith Iustin Martyr to the Emperor Antonius did we expect an earthly kingdom Second apolog ad Ant. Imp. p. 113. we would deny our Religion that escaping death we might in time attain our expectation But we feare not persecution which have not our hope fixed on the things of this life because we are certainly perswaded that we must dye As for the preservation of publike peace we Christians yeeld to you O Emperor more help and assistance than other men For we teach that no evill doer no covetous man nor seditious that lyeth in wait for bloud can have accesse to God And that every man doth passe to life or death according to the merit of his deeds Thus far he We saith Tertullian to Scapula the Viceroy of Carthage are defamed Tertull. lib. au Scap. for seditious against the Imperiall Majesty Yet were the Christians never found to be Albinians Nigrians or Cassians Albinus Niger and Cassius were traytors against Marcus Antonius Commodus Pertinax and Severus the Emperors but they that sweare by the Emperors deity the very day before they that vowed offred sacrifice for the Emperor's health are found to be the Emperor's enemies A Christian is enemy to no man much lesse to the Emperor knowing that the Imperiall Majesty is ordained of God and therefore necessarily to be loved reverenced and honored whose prosperity together with the welfare of all the Roman Empire they desire so long as the world standeth We do therfore honour the Emperor in such sort as is lawfull for us and expedient for him we reverence him as a mortall man next unto God of whom he holdeth all his authority only subject to God and so we make him soveraigne our all in that we make him subject but to God alone So far Tertullian S. Cyprian sheweth many good reasons for the patience of the Saints in his book against Demetrianus God saih he is the revenger of his servants when they are annoyed Wherefore no Christian when he is apprehended doth resist or revenge himself against your unjust violence though the number of our people be very great The confidence we have that God will reward doth confirm our patience the guiltlesse give way to the guilty the innocent rest content with their undeserved punishment and tortures being certainly assured that the wrong done to us shall not be unrewarded The more injury we suffer the most just and grievous shall God's vengeance be on them that persecute us It is therfore cleare and manifest that the plagues which comed own from Gods indignation do not come through us poore persecured Christians but from him whom we serve for the wrong done unto us So far Cyprian As many as lived according to Christ's institution did never revile the government of Tyrants much lesse by force resist their violence following the patience of Christ who could by his own power the might of his Angels or the strength of his creatures have at the first withstood or at the last revenged the injury of the people Ioh 19.15 Iohn 8.22 Luk. 23.11 Mar. 15 15 Mat. â—7 27 28 29. the buffet of the Priests servant the
wicked Emperour Constantius but appeared at his command and endured his pleasure to the admiration of the Arrians and the confirmation of the Christians as we find in Athanasius Trahitur Liberius ad Imperatorem c. Liberius was haled to the Emperor when he came to his presence he spake freely Cease saith he O Emperor to persecute the Christians go not about by any meanes to bring hereticall impiety into the Church of God Liberius quo supra apud Athanas We are ready rather to endure any torture than to be called Arrians Compell us not to become enemies unto Christ Fight not against him we beseech you that hath bestowed the Empire upon you Render not impiety to him for his grace persecute them not which beleeve in him least you heare Acts 9.5 it is hard for thee to kicke against the pricke Oh would to God you did so heare it that you might as Paul did beleeve it Loe we are at hand and come to your presence before our enemies the Arrians can invent any thing to informe against us we hastened to come at your command though we were assured of banishment that we might abide our punishment before any crime could be objected much lesse prooved against us Whereby it may appeare that all Christians are as we now be undeservedly punished and the crimes laid to their charge not true but fained by sycophancy or deceitfull subtilty Thus spake Liberius and every man admired his resolution but the Emperour for answer commanded him to banishment Thus far he Pope Liberius had not learned the language of his successour Pius Quintus when hee bellowed against our late Queene nor that principle of the Puritans that the inferiour officer may use force of armes against the chiefe Magistrate that shall become a tyrant whereof every seditious sectary will be judge and not only defend himselfe and his own people but also any other that shall fly unto him Politia Christ. lib. 6 cap. 3. Which opinion Lambertus Danaeus avoucheth contraty to the Law the Gospel and the generall consent of all Orthodoxall Fathers Hilarius a Bishop of France wrote the same time to this same Emperor in most humble manner Hilarius ad Imper. Constant Benefica natura tua domine beatissime Auguste Your milde nature most blessed Emperor agreeing with your gracious disposition and the mercy which floweth aboundantly from the fountain of your fatherly godlinesse do assure us that we shall obtaine our desire We beseech you not only with words but also with teares that the Catholique Churches be no longer oppressed with grievous injuries and endure intollerable persecutions and contumelies and that which is most shamefull even of our brethren Let your Clemency provide c. Surely if it had then been known that the Pope by his absolute power or indirect authority could have punished or deposed Kings which the Papists avouch or for the Peeres or the People to have done it which the Puritanes affirme some of these old Bishops would have pressed that point against this hereticall Prince which abused his sword to the blaspheming of Christ the murthering of the Saints the seducing of many thousand soules by strenghtning maintaining and establishing the Arrian error But they took it to be no Christian mans part to beare armour no not defensive against his Prince though never so wicked cruell or ungodly Holy Athanasius confesseth the power of Kings to bee of God and their impiety not to be punished by man Sicut in toto mundo Deus Rex est Imperator potestatem exercet in omnibus As God is King and Emperor over all the World Ad Antioch quest 55. and exerciseth his power in all creatures so the King and Prince is over all earthly men and doth by his absolute power what he will even as God himself Haec ille When it was objected against this reverend Father Athanasius that he had incensed Constans the religious Emperor of the West against Constantius Apolog. Athan ad Constant in the behalfe of the persecuted Christians he cleared himself from that accusation in an Apology to the said Emperor Constantius The Lord saith he is my record and his annointed your brother that I never made mention of your Majesty for any evill before your brother of blessed memory that religious Emperor Constans I did never incite him against you as these Arrians do slander me but whensoever I had accesse unto him I recounted your gracious inclination God knoweth what mention I made of your godly disposition Give me leave and pardon most courteous Emperor to speake the truth The servant of God Constans was not easily drawn to give eare to any man in this kind I was never in such credit with him that I durst speake of any such matter or derogate from one brother before another or talke reproachfully of one Emperor in the hearing of another I am not so madde neither have I forgotten the voyce of God which saith Curse not the King in thine heart and backbite not the mighty in the secrets of thy chamber for the birds of the ayre shall tell it and the winged foule shall bewray thee If then the things that be spoken in secret against Princes cannot be hid Is there any likelyhood that I in the Emperor's presence and before so many as continually attended his person would say any thing otherwise then well of your Majesty Thus far Athanas L Cook in his speach at Garnets arraignement This is sounder and seemelier doctrin for Subjects than that which Henry Garnet and Robert Tesmond taught some Romish Catholike Gentlemen of England who imployed Thomas Winter into Spaine in the month of December Anno Dom. 1601 to make request to the Spanish King in the behalfe and names of the English Pope-Catholiques that he would send an army hither into England for the advancement of their Catholique cause and to promise that the forces of the Papists here should be ready to do him service against the late Queen The selfe same doctrin of sedition was published in the yeare after viz. Anno Dom. 1602 by Guilielmus Bucanus a man of no mean esteeme among the Puritans and that at the earnest request of Beza and Goulartius the chiefest Ministers of the Church of Geneva if the Author himselfe belye them not whose words are as followeth Subditis 〈◊〉 fit publica manifesta jaevitiâ— licet fieri supplices implorare auxilia ab aliis suscipere eorum defensionem aliis Regibus licet Subjects when they endure publique and manifest wrong Loc. com Theol. loco 77. p. 845. may lawfully become suppliants to foraign States and crave their ayd against their Princes and other Kings ought to take upon them their defence and protection So far Bucan Subjects must square their subjection according to the rule of Gods Word not after the affection and fancies of men a 1 Sam. 22 â—8 Saul commanded Doeg to murther 85 Priests to destroy
our Fathers for the keeping whereof we are bound by the duty of an oath and will by Gods help maintaine and defend with all our power and strength c. Dated at Lincolne Ann. Dom 1301. anno Edwardi primi 29. This was then the resolution of the state of this land if our late sectaries Popish or Puritan bring in any other Doctrine we may not leave the cawsey of truth and obedience whereon our forefathers walked to their commendation to follow these new guides in their by-paths of pride disobedience and contempt of authority to our destruction Vincentius in his Speculo Historiali hath a notable place to disswade from sedition and perjury Vt pace omnium bonorum dixerim li. 15. c. 84. haec sola novitas ne dicam haeresis nec dum è mundum emerserat That I may speake with the favour of all good men this meere novelty if not heresie was not sprung up in the world that Preists should teach Subjects that they owe no subjection to wicked Kings and albeit they have given an oath of fidelity unto them they are not bound to keep it Nay they that obey an evill Prince are to be held as excommunicated and all such as rebell against him are free from the guilt of the crime of perjury So far he I will end this Chapter with Aeneas Silvius Pius 2. de oâ—tu author imperii cap. 23. who dyed in the yeare 1464 Sit tandem finis litium Let there be an end of contention and one principall head to determine all Temporall matters let the occasion of perpetuall debate be taken away let men acknowledg themselvs subject to their Prince and give reverence to him whom God hath made his vicegerent on earth As that which God commandeth must be obeyed without contradiction so the Temporall Commandements of Caesar may not be resisted But let the Kings themselvs beware that they opreise no man unjustly nor give their people cause to cry to God against them for the earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof he will not forget the cry of the poore and for the sin of the Prince he translateth the Government from one Nation to another There is nothing more offensive to the greatest God the King and Creator of Heaven and Earth then the neglect of justice and the oppression of the poore as the Psalmist saith The poore shall not alway be forgotten and the patient abiding of the needy shall not perish for ever So far Silvius The Seventh Chapter sheweth the concord of Papist and Puritan for the deposition of Kings and their discord about the meanes and persons to be imployed in the execution of their Designements CHilderick was deposed and Pipine crowned King of France about the yeare 750. The truth of which History is this Childerick voyd of all Princely gravity gave himselfe over to pleasure and wantonnesse leaving the burthen of the State to Pipinus that was his Lord Marshall Who conspired with the Nobles to advance himselfe by the desition of the King his master To set a better colour on the matter Pipine sent his Chaplaine to Pope Zacharie to have his answer to this Question Whether should be King he that bare the name and did nothing or he he that grverned the Kingdome The Pope gave sentence with the Marshall against the King whereupon Childerick was made a shorne Monke and Pipine a crowned King It is a wonder to see how these opposite sectaries do insist upon this fact of the French-men to justifie their dangerous Doctrine and seditious conspiracies against Princes As Card. Bellarmine de pontif lib. 2. cap. 17. Thomas Harding against the Apologie of the Church of ENGLAND fol. 181. Franc. Fevardentius in his Commentary on Hester page 85. Boucher alias Raynolds de justa abdicatione Henrici 3 lib. 3. cap. 14. Ficklerus de jure magistratuum fol. 30. Alexander Carerius patavinus de potestate Papae lib. 2 cap. 3. D. Marta de temporali spirituali pontificis potestate lib. 1. cap. 23. and Doleman in his conference touching succession parte 1. cap. 3. page 48. And also these Puritans Christopher Goodman in his treatise of obedience pag. 53. George Buchanan de jure Regni apud Scotos pag. 47. Danaeus de politia Christiana lib. 3. cap. 6. pag. 221 Brutus Celta de jure magistratuum pag. 286. Philadelphus dialogo 2 pag. 65. Franc. Hottomanus in his Francogallia cap. 12. and Speculum tyrannidis Philipi Regis pag. 27. Cardinall ' Pellarmine the grand-master of Controversies De â—ontis lib. 2. c. 17. cannot endure to heare that this deposition was done by any other then the papall Authority Caeterum quod monachus iste saith Lambertus Danaus whereas this monke Bellarmine contendeth that Childerick was lawfully deposed by Pope Zacharias a stranger a Priest no Magistrate but in this respect a private person though he were Bishop of Rome Resp Danaei ad Bellar l. 2. c. 17 pag. 316. Will he ever be able to prove or defend his assertion Can Zacharie have authority in France being a stranger Can he depose the publike Magistrate being but a private person or transferre that principality to Pipin that he hath no right unto and commit so many sacriledges and impieties stealing from Childerick and giving to Pipin another mans right authorising subjects to violate their oaths which they had sworn to their King transporting Kingdomes from one man to another wheras it doth only belong to God to depose Kings and dispose of Kingdoms Thou maist see Bellarmin how many outrages this thy Zachary hath committed beside that he did thrust his sickle into another mans harvest and meddled with the Cobler beyond his Last in that being but a Priest he took upon him the decision of the right of Kingdomes Thus far Danaeus who is not so violent against the Pope Danaeus pol. Christ l. 6 c. 3 pag. 414. as he is virulent for the deposing power of Peeres or States of the Kingdome Men cannot say as it is in the Proverb nimium altercando veritas amittitur seeing that in this opposition the truth is not lost but divided among them For their premisses brought together will unavoidably conclude that this deposing power is neither in the Pope the Peeres nor the People Though it were the reason of the seditious Papists and Puritans à facto adjus is sophisticall in the Schooles where nothing can be concluded ex meris particularibus of meere particular instances Absurd in Law quia legibus non exemplis vivitur for men must do as the Law requireth not as other men practise Erroneous in Divinity non ideo quia factum credimus August ad Consen de mendac c. 9. faciendum credamus ne violemus praeceptum dum sectamur exemplum We may not do that which hath been done by other men least we break the Law of God in following the example of man And dangerous in policy as my Lord of Northampton the
is president to distribute eternall gifts to his servants Whereas the politicall Empire is but as it were an inferior bench wherein Iustice is administred according to the prescription of the Ecclesiasticall soveraignty Thus far Renecherus I will make an end with William Bucanus whose book was published at the request and with the approbation of Beza and Goulartius maine pillars of the Church of Geneva 1602. They saith Bucanus which have any part of Office is the publike administration of the Common-wealth Loco 76 p. 844. as the Overseers Senators Consuls Peeres or Tribunes may restraine the insolency of vill Kings Thus far he This Puritan dangerous error is directly repugnant to the Law the Gospell the precepts of the Apostles the practise of Martyrs and the doctrine of the Fathers Councels and other Clasicall Writers as I have proved in the 6 former Chapters wherin the holy Texts of Scripture which the Papists and Puritans do damnably abuse against the Ecclesiastical and Civil authority of Kings shal be answered by the godly Protestanes whose labour God used to reforme his Church since the yeare of our Lord 1517. and by the ancient Fathers and Orthodoxall Writers in every age of the Church Inferiour Magistrates saith Iohannes Baptista Ficklerus are the defenders and protectours of the Lawes and Rights of the State De jury magist fol. 18. and have authority if need require to correct and punish the supreame King So far Ficklerus An English fugitive which was the Author of the booke de justa abdicatione Henrici Tertij affirmeth That all the Majesty of the Kingdome is in the assembly of Statesmen to whom it belongeth to make Covenants with God to dispose of the asssises of the Kingdome to appoint matters pertaining to war and peace lib. 3 c. 8. to bridle the Kingly power and settle all things that belong to publike Government So far he And the most seditious Dolemon saith Part 1. c. 4. pag. 72. that all humane Law and order Naturall Nationall and Positive doth teach that the Common wealth which gave Kings their authority for the common good may restraine or take the same from them if they abuse it to the common ill so far Doleman and of this opinion are many other as may appeare by D. Morton by whom they are discovered and refuted How far this gangrene will extend I know not The Kings of Christendome are dayly crucified as Christ their Lord was between two theeves I meane the Papist and Puritan which have prepared this deadly poyson for Princes whom they in their own irreligious and traiterous hearts shall condemne for tyranny I hope neither Peeres nor People will be so fond to beleeve them or wicked to follow them which pretend the Reformation of Religion and defend he subversion of Christian States If inferiour officers or the publike assembly of all States will claime this power it standeth them upon as they will avoyd everlasting damnation not to derive a title from Rome Lacedemon or Athens as Calvin doth whom the rest follow but from the hill of Sion and to plead their interest from the Law or the Gospell Si mandatum non est praesumptio ad poenam proficiet non ad praemium August in quest mixt quia ad contumeliam pertinet conditoris ut contempto Domino colantur servi spreto Imperatore adorentur Comites If their opposition against Kings be not commanded of God it is presumption against God for it is a contumely against God the Creator of all States to despise Lords and honour servants to contemne the Soveraigne Emperour and to reverence the Peeres of the Empire So far Augustine My sonne saith Salomon feare God and the King Pro. 24.21 and meddle not with the seditious for their destruction shall come sodainly and who knoweth the end of them The conclusion of all is That Kings have supreame and absolute authority under God on Earth not because all things are subject to their pleasure which were plaine tyranny not Christian Soveraignty but because all persons Within their Dominions stand bound in Law allegiance and conscience to obey their pleasure or to abide their punishment And Kings themselves are no way subject to the controule censure or punishment of any earthly man but reserved by speciall prerogative to the most fearfull and righteous judgement of God with whom there is no respect of persons He whose servants they are will beat them with a rod of iron and breake them in peeces like a potters vessell if they abuse that great and soueraigne power which God hath endued them withall to support error to suppresse truth and to oppresse the innocent God of his great mercy grant us the spirit of truth to direct us in all loyalty that we being not seduced by these seditious Sectaries may grow in grace stand fast in obedience embrace love follow peace and encrease more and more in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ To whom be all praise power and dominion now and for ever Amen FINIS