King is a King deposed his repentance is euer fruitles euer vnprofitable Hath a priuate person a trayne of seruants He can not be depriued of any one without his priuity and consent Hath a King millions of subiects He may be depriued by the Pope of a third part when his Holinesse will haue them turne Clerics or enter cloisters without asking the King leaue so of subiects they may be made nonsubiects But I question yet further A King falling into heresie is deposed by the Pope his sonne stands pure Catholike The Regall seate is empty Who shall succeed in the deposed Kings place Shall a stranger be preferred by the Pope That were to do the innocent sonne egregious and notorious wrong Shall the sonne himselfe That were a more iniurious part in the sonne against his father For if the sonne be touched with any feare of God or mooued with any reuerence towards his Father he will diligently and seriously take heed that he put not his Father by the Kingdome by whose meanes he himselfe is borne to a Kingdome Nor will he tread in the steps of Henry V. Emperour who by the Popes instigation expelled and chased his aged father out of the Imperiall dignity Much lesse will he hearken to the voice aduise of Doctor Suares the Iesuite who in his booke written against my selfe a book applauded and approoued of many Doctors after he hath like a Doctor of the chaire pronounced That a King deposed by the Pope cannot bee lawfully expelled or killed but onely by such as the Pope hath charged with such execution falleth to adde a little after If the Pope shall declare a King to be an heretike and fallen from the Kingdome without making further declaration touching execution that is to say without giuing expresse charge vnto any to make away the King then the lawfull successor beeing a Catholike hath power to do the feate and if he shall refuse or if there shall bee none such then it appertaineth to the comminaltie or body of the Kingdome A most detestable sentence For in hereditarie Kingdoms who is the Kings lawfull successor but his sonne The sonne then by this doctrine shall imbrew his hands in his owne fathers blood so soone as he shall be deposed by the Pope A matter so much the neerer and more deepely to be apprehended because the said most outragious booke flyeth like a furious mastiffe directly at my throat and withal instilleth such precepts into the tender disposition of my sonne as if hereafter he shall become a Romane Catholike so soone as the Pope shall giue me the lift out of my Throne shall bind him forthwith to make effusion of his owne fathers blood Such is the religion of these Reuerend Fathers the pillars of the Pontificiall Monarchie In comparison of whose religion and holinesse all the impietie that euer was among the Infidels and all the barbarous cruelty that euer was among the Canibals may passe henceforth in the Christian world for pure clemencie and humanity These things ought his Lordship to haue pondered rather then to babble of habitudes and politike characters which to the common people are like the Bergamasque or the wild-Irish forme of speech and passe their vnderstanding All these things are nothng in a manner if we compare them with the last clause which is the closer and as it were the vpshot of his Lordships discourse For therein he laboureth to perswade concerning this Article framed to bridle the Popes tyrannicall power ouer Kings if it should receiue gratious entertainment and general approbation That it would breed great danger and worke effects of pernicious consequence vnto Kings The reason because it would prooue an introduction to schisme and schisme would stirre vp ciuill warres contempt of Kings distempered inclinations and motions to intrappe their life and which is worst of all the fierce wrath of God inflicting all sorts of calamities An admirable paradoxe and able to strike men stone-blind that his Holinesse must haue power to depose Kings for the better security and safegard of their life that when their Crownes are made subiect vnto an others will and pleasure then they are come to the highest altitude and eleuation of honour that for the onely warrant of their life their supreame and absolute greatnes must be depressed that for the longer keeping of their Crownes an other must plucke the Crowne from their heads As if it should be said Would they not be stript naked by an other the best way is for themselues to vntrusse for themselues to put off all and to goe naked of their owne accord Will they keepe their Soueraigntie in safetie for euer The best way is to let an other haue their Soueraigne authority and supreame Estate in his power But I haue been euer of this mind that when my goods are at no mans command or disposing but mine owne then they are truely and certainly mine owne It may be this error is growne vpon me and other Princes for lacke of braines whereupon it may be feared or at least coniectured the Pope meanes to shaue our crownes and thrust vs into some cloister there to hold ranke in the brotherhood of good King Childeric For as much then as my dull capacity doth not serue me to reach or comprehend the pith of this admirable reason I haue thought good to seeke and to vse the instruction of old and learned experience which teacheth no such matter by name that ciuill warres and fearefull perturbations of State in any nation of the world haue at any time growne from this faithfull credulity of subiects that Popes in right haue no power to wrest and lift Kings out of their dignities and possessions On the other side by establishing the contrary maximes to yoke and hamper the people with Pontificiall tyrannie what rebellious troubles and stirres what extreame desolations hath England been forced to feare and feele in the raigne of my Predecessors Henry II. Iohn and Henry III These be the maximes and principles which vnder the Emperour Henry IV. and Frederic the I. made all Europe flowe with channels and streames of blood like a riuer with water while the Saracens by their incursions and victories ouerflowed and in a manner drowned the honour of the Christian name in the East These bee the maximes and principles which made way for the warres of the last League into France by which the very bowels of that most famous and flourishing Kingdome were set on such a combustion that France herselfe was brought within two fingers breadth of bondage to an other Nation and the death of her two last Kings most villanously and trayterously accomplished The Lord Cardinall then giuing these diabolicall maximes for meanes to secure the life and estate of Kings speaketh as if he would giue men counsell to dry themselues in the riuer when they come as wet as a water spaniel out of a pond or to warme themselues by the light of the Moone when they
matter of truth I draw this conclusion Howsoeuer no smal number of the French Clergie may perhaps beare the affection of louing Subiects to their King and may not suffer the Clericall character to deface the impression of naturall allegiance yet for so much as the Order of Clerics is dipped in a deeper die and beareth a worse tincture of daungerous practises then the other Orders the third Estate had beene greatly wanting to their excellent prouidence and wisdome if they should haue relinquished and transferred the care of designements and proiects for the life of their King and the safetie of his Crowne to the Clergie alone Moreouer the Clergie standeth bound to referre the iudgment of all matters in controuersie to the sentence of the Pope in this cause beeing a partie and one that pretendeth Crownes to depend vpon his Mitre What hope then might the third Estate conceiue that his Holinesse would passe against his own cause when his iudgment of the controuersie had been sundrie times before published and testified to the world And whereas the plot or modell of remedies proiected by the third Estate and the Kings Officers hath not prooued sortable in the euent was it because the said remedies were not good and lawfull No verily but because the Clergie refused to become contributors of their duty meanes to the grand seruice Likewise for that after the burning of bookes addressed to iustifie rebellious people traytors and parricides of Kings neuerthelesse the authors of the said bookes are winked at and backt with fauour Lastly for that some wretched parricides drinke off the cuppe of publike iustice whereas to the firebrands of sedition the sowers of this abominable doctrine no man saith so much as blacke is their eye It sufficiently appeareth as I suppose by the former passage that his Lordship exhorting the third Estate to refer the whole care of this Regall cause vnto the Clergie hath tacked his frame of weake ioynts and tenons to a very worthy but wrong foundation Howbeit he laboureth to fortifie his exhortation with a more weak feeble reason For to make good his proiect he affirmes that matters and maximes out of all doubt question may not be shuffled together with points in controuersy Now his rules indubitable are two The first It is not lawfull to murther Kings for any cause whatsoeuer This he confirmeth by the example of Saul as he saith deposed from his Throne whose life or limbs Dauid neuerthelesse durst not once hurt or wrong for his life Likewise he confirmes the same by a Decree of the Council held at Constance His other point indubitable The Kings of France are Soueraignes in all Temporall Soueraigntie within the French Kingdome and hold not by fealtie either of the Pope as hauing receiued or obliged their Crownes vpon such tenure and condition or of any other Prince in the whole world Which point neuerthelesse he takes not for certen and indubitable but onely according to humane and historicall certentie Now a third point he makes to be so full of controuersie and so farre within the circle of disputable questions as it may not be drawne into the ranke of classicall and authenticall points for feare of making a certen point doubtfull by shuffling and jumbling therewith some point in controuersie Now the question so disputable as he pretendeth is this A Christian Prince breakes his oath solemnly taken to God both to liue and to die in the Catholique Religion Say this Prince turnes Arrian or Mahometan fals to proclaime open warre and to wage battel with Iesus Christ Whether may such a Prince be declared to haue lost his Kingdome and who shall declare the Subiects of such a Prince to be quit of their oath of allegiance The L. Cardinall holds the affirmatiue and makes no bones to maintaine that all other parts of the Catholique Church yea the French Church euen from the first birth of her Theologicall Schooles to Calvins time and teaching haue professed that such a Prince may be lawfully remooued from his Throne by the Pope and by the Council and suppose the contrarie doctrine were the very Quintessence or spirit of truth yet might it not in case of faith be vrged and pressed otherwise then by way of problematicall disceptation That is the summe of his Lordsh ample discourse The refuting whereof I am constrained to put off and referre vnto an other place because he hath serued vs with the same dishes ouer ouer againe There we shall see the L. Cardinall maketh way to the dispatching of Kings after deposition that Saul was not deposed as he hath presumed that in the Council of Constance there is nothing to the purpose of murthering Soueraigne Princes that his Lordship supposing the French King may be depriued of his Crowne by a superiour power doth not hold his liege Lord to be Soueraigne in France that by the position of the French Church from age to age the Kings of France are not subiect vnto any censure of deposition by the Pope that his Holinesse hath no iust and lawful pretence to produce that any Christian King holds of him by fealtie or is obliged to doe the Pope homage for his Crowne Well then for the purpose he dwelleth onely vpon the third point pretended questionable and this he affirmeth If any shall condemne or wrappe vnder the solemne curse the abettors of the Popes power to vnking lawfull and Soueraigne Kings the same shall runne vpon fowre dangerous rocks of apparant incongruities and absurdities First he shall offer to force and intangle the consciences of many deuout persons For hee shall bind them to beleeue and sweare that doctrine the contrary whereof is beleeued of the whole Church and hath beene beleeued by their predecessors Secondly he shall ouerturne from top to bottome the sacred authoritie of holy Church and shall set open a gate vnto all sorts of heresie by allowing lay-persons a bold libertie to be iudges in causes of religion and faith For what is that degree of boldnesse but open vsurping of the Priesthood what is it but putting of prophane hands into the Arke what is it but laying of vnholy fingers vpon the holy Censor for perfumes Thirdly he shal make way to a schisme not possible to be put by and auoided by any humane prouidence For this doctrine beeing held and professed by all other Catholicks how can we declare it repugnant vnto Gods word how can we hold it impious how can we accompt it detestable but we shall renounce communion with the head and other members of the Church yea we shall confesse the Church in all ages to haue been the Synagogue of Satan and the spouse of the Deuill Lastly by working the establishment of this Article which worketh an establishment of Kings Crownes He shall not onely worke the intended remedy for the danger of Kings out of all the vertue and efficacie thereof by weakening of doctrine out of all controuersie in packing it vp
their Soueraigntie But let vs come to see what aide the L. Cardinall hath amassed and piled together out of later histories prouided wee still beare in mind that our question is not of popular tumults nor of the rebellion of subiects making insurrections out of their owne discontented spirits and brain-sicke humors nor of lawfull Excommunications nor of Canonicall censures and reprehensions but onely of a iuridicall sentence of deposition pronounced by the Pope as armed with ordinary and lawfull power to depose against a Soueraigne Prince Now then The L. Cardinall sets on and giues the first charge with Anastasius the Emperour whome Euphemius Patriarke of Constantinople would neuer acknowledge for Emperour that is to say would neuer consent he should be created Emperour by the help of his voice or suffrage except he would first subscribe to the Chalcedon Creed notwithstanding the great Empresse and Senate sought by violent courses and practises to make him yeeld And when afterward the said Emperour contrary to his oath taken played the relaps by falling into his former heresie and became a persecutor he was first admonished and then excommunicated by Symmachus Bishop of Rome To this the L. Cardinall addes that when the said Emperour was minded to choppe the poison of his hereticall assertions into the publique formes of diuine seruice then the people of Constantinople made an vproare against Anastasius their Emperour and one of his Commanders by force of armes constrained him to call backe certaine Bishops whome he had sent into banishments before In this first example the L. Cardinall by his good leaue neither comes close to the question nor salutes it a farre off Euphemius was not Bishop of Rome Anastasius was not deposed by Euphemius the Patriarch onely made no way to the creating of Anastasius The suddaine commotion of the base multitude makes nothing the rebellion of a Greeke Commaunder makes lesse for the authorizing of the Pope to depose a Soueraigne Prince The Greek Emperour was excommunicated by Pope Symmachus who knowes whether that be true or forged For the Pope himselfe is the onely witnesse here produced by the Lord Cardinall vpon the point and who knowes not how false how suppositious the writings and Epistles of the auncient Popes are iustly esteemed But graunt it a truth yet Anastasius excommunicated by Pope Symmachus is not Anastasius deposed by Pope Symmachus And to make a full answer I say further that excommunication denounced by a forraine Bishop against a party not beeing within the limits of his iurisdiction or one of his owne flock was not any barre to the party from the communion of the Church but onely a kind of publication that he the said Bishop in his particular would hold no further communion with any such party For proofe whereof I produce the Canons of the Councils held at Carthage In one of the said Canons it is thus prouided and ordained If any Bishop shall wilfully absent himselfe from the vsual and accustomed Synodes let him not be admitted to the communion of other Churches but let him onely vse the benefit and libertie of his owne Church In an other of the same Canons thus If a Bishop shall insinuate himselfe to make a conueiance of his Monasterie and the ordering thereof vnto a Monke of any other Cloister let him be cut off let him bee separated from the communion with other Churches and content himselfe to liue in the communion of his owne flocke In the same sense Hilarius Bishop of Poictiers excommunicated Liberius Bishop of Rome for subscribing to the Arrian Confession In the same sense Iohn Bishop of Antioch excommunicated Caelestine of Rome and Cyrill of Alexandria Bishops for proceeding to sentence against Nestorius without staying his comming to answer in his owne cause In the same sense likewise Victor Bishop of Rome did cut off all the Bishops of the East not from the communion of their owne flocks but from communion with Victor and the Romane Church What resemblance what agreement what proportion betweene this course of excommunication and that way of vniust fulmination which the Popes of Rome haue vsurped against Kings but yet certaine long courses of time after that auncient course And this may stand for a full answer likewise to the example of Clotharius This auncient King of the French fearing the censures of Pope Agapetus erected the territorie of Yuetot vnto the title of a Kingdome by way of satisfaction for murdering of Gualter Lord of Yuetot For this example the L. Cardinall hath ransackt records of 900. yeeres antiquitie and vpward in which times it were no hard peice of worke to shewe that Popes would not haue any hand nor so much as a finger in the affaires and acts of the French Kings Gregorie of Tours that liued in the same age hath recorded many acts of excesse and violent iniuries done against Bishops by their Kings and namely against Praetextatus Bishop of Roan for any of which iniurious prankes then plaied the Bishop of Rome durst not reproue the said Kings with due remonstrance But see here the words of Gregory himselfe to King Chilperic If any of vs O King shall swarue from the path of iustice him thou hast power to punish But in case thou shalt at any time transgresse the lines of equitie who shall once touch thee with reproofe To thee we speake but are neuer heeded and regarded except it be thy pleasure and be thou not pleased who shal challenge thy greatnes but he that iustly challengeth to be iustice it selfe The good Bishop notwithstanding these humble remonstrances was but roughly entreated and packt into exile beeing banished into the Isle of Gernseye But I am not minded to make any deepe search or inquisition into the titles of the Lords of Yuetot whose honourable priuiledges and titles are the most honourable badges and cognizances of their ancestors and of some remarquable seruice done to the Crowne of France so farre I take them to differ from a satisfaction for sinne And for the purpose I onely affirme that were the credit of this historie beyond all exception yet makes it nothing to the present question wherein the power of deposing and not of excommunicating supreme Kings is debated And suppose the King by charter granted the said priuiledges for feare of excommunication how is it prooued thereby that Pope Agapetus had lawfull and ordinarie power to depriue him of his Crowne Nay doubtlesse it was rather a meanes to eleuate and aduance the dignitie of the Crowne of France and to style the French King a King of Kings as one that was able to giue the qualitie of King to all the rest of the Nobles and Gentrie of his Kingdome Doth not some part of the Spanish Kings greatnesse consist in creating of his Great In the next place followeth Gregorie I. who in the 10. Epistle of the 11. booke confirming the priuiledges of the Hospital at Augustodunum in Bourgongne prohibiteth all
man who by attempting an act which neuer any man had the heart or face to attempt before hath condemned all his predecessors of cowardise or at least of ignorance what is it else but euen to send vs to the schoole of mighty robbers and to seeke to correct and reforme ancient vertues by late vices Which Otho Frisingensis calling into his owne priuate consideration he durst freely professe that he had not reade of any Emperour before this Henrie the 4. excommunicated or driuen out of his Imperiall Throne and Kingdome by the cheife Bishop of Rome But if this quarrell may bee tryed and fought out with weapons of examples I leaue any indifferent reader to iudge what examples ought in the cause to be of cheifest authoritie and weight whether late examples of Kings deposed by Popes for the most part neuer taking the intended effect or auncient examples of Popes actually and effectually thrust out of their thrones by Emperous and Kings The Emperour Constantius expelled Liberius Bishop of Rome out of the citie banished him as farre as Beroe and placed Foelix in his roome Indeed Constantius was an Arrian and therein vsed no lesse impious then vniust proceeding Neuertheles the auncient Fathers of the Church do not blame Constantius for his hard and sharpe dealing with a cheife Bishop ouer whom he had no lawfull power but onely as an enemie to the Orthodoxe faith and one that raged with extreame rigor of persecution against innocent beleeuers In the raigne of Valentinian the 1. and yeare of the Lord 367. the contention between Damasus and Vrsicinus competitors for the Bishoppricke filled the cittie of Rome with a bloody sedition in which were wickedly and cruelly murdered 137. persons To meete with such turbulent actions Honorius made a law extant in the Decretalls the words whereof be these If it shall happen henceforth by the temeritie of competitors that any two Bishops be elected to the See wee straitly charge and command that neither of both shall sit in the said See By vertue of this Law the same Honorius in the yere 420. expelled Bonifacius and Eulalius competitors and Antipopes out of Rome though not long after he reuoked Bonifacius and settled him in the Papall See Theodoric the Goth King of Italie sent Iohn Bishop of Rome Embassador to the Emperour Iustinian called him home againe and clapt him vp in the close prison where hee starued to death By the same King Peter Bishop of Altine was dispatched to Rome to heare the cause and examine the processe of Pope Symmachus then indited and accused of sundry crimes King Theodatus about the yeare 537. had the seruice of Pope Agapetus as his Embassadour to the Emperour Iustinian vpon a treatie of peace Agapetus dying in the time of that seruicc Syluerius is made Bishop by Theodatus Not long after Syluerius is driuen out by Belisarius the Emperour his Lieutenant and sent into banishment After Syluerius next succeedeth Vigilius who with currant coine purchased the Popedome of Belisarius The Emperour Iustinian sends for Vigilius to Constantinople and receiues him there with great honour Soone after the Emperour takes offence at his freenesse in speaking his mind commands him to be beaten with stripes in manner to death and with a roape about his necke to be drawne through the city like a theife as Platina relates the historie Nicephorus in his 26. booke and 17. chapter comes very neere the same relation The Emperour Constantius in the yere 654. caused Pope Martin to be bound with chains banished him into Chersonesus where he ended his life The Popes in that age writing to the Emperors vsed none but submissiue tearmes by way of most humble supplications made profession of bowing the knee before their sacred Maiesties and of executing their commaunds with entire obedience payed to the Emperours twenty pound weight of gold for their Inuestiture which tribute was afterward released and remitted by Constantine the Bearded to Pope Agatho in the yere 679. as I haue obserued in an other place Nay further euen when the power and riches of the Popes was growne to great height by the most profuse and immense munificence of Charlemayne and Lewis his sonne the Emperours of the West did not relinquish and giue ouer the making and vnmaking of Popes as they saw cause Pope ' Adrian 1. willingly submitted his necke to this yoke and made this Law to be passed in a Council that in Charlemain should rest all right and power for the Popes election and for the gouernement of the Papall See This Constitution is inserted in the Decretals Dist 63. Can. Hadrianus and was confirmed by the practise of many yeeres In the yeare of the L. 963. the Emperour Otho tooke away the Popedom from Iohn 13. and placed Leo 8. in his roome In like manner Iohn 14. Gregorie 5. and Siluester 2. were seated in the Papal Throne by the Othos The Emperour Henrie 2. in the yeere 1007. deposed three Popes namely Benedict 9. Siluester 3. and Gregorie 6. whom Platina doth not sticke to call three most detestable and vile monsters This custome continued this practise stood in force for diuers ages euen vntill the times of Gregorie 7. by whome the whole West was tossed and turmoiled with lamentable warres which plagued the world and the Empire by name with intolerable troubles and mischiefes For after the said Gregorian wars the Empire fell from bad to worse and so went on to decay till Emperours at last were driuen to begge and receiue the Imperiall Crowne of the Pope The Kingdome of France met not with so rude entreatie but was dealt withall by courses of a milder temper Gregorie 4. about the yere of the Lord 832. was the first Pope that perswaded himselfe to vse the censure of Excommunication against a King of France This Pope hauing a hand in the troublesome factions of the Realme was nothing backward to side with the sonnes of Lewis surnamed the Courteous by wicked conspiracy entring into a desperate course and complot against Lewis their owne Father as witnesseth Sigebert in these words Pope Gregorie comming into France ioyned himselfe to the sonnes against the Emperour their Father But Annals of the verie same times and he that furbushed Aimonius a religious of S. Benedicts order do testifie that all the Bishops of France fell vpon this resolution by no meanes to rest in the Popes pleasure or to giue any place vnto his designe and contrariwise In case the Pope should proceed to excommunication of their King he should returne out of Fraunce to Rome an excommunicate person himself The Chronicle of S. Denis hath words in this forme The Lord Apostolicall returned answer that he was not come into Fraunce for any other purpose but onely to excommunicate the King and his Bishops if they would be in any sort opposite vnto the sonnes of Lewis or disobedient vnto the
who in stead of suing to the King had petitioned to the Pope for a dispensation for his bastard But perhaps as be speaketh it will be alledged out of the glosse that he acknowledgeth no superiour by fact and yet ought by right But I tell you the glosse is an Aurelian glosse which marres the text Amongst other arguments Maior brings this for one This opinion ministreth matter vnto Popes to take away an others Empire by force and violence which the Pope shall neuer bring to passe as we reade of Boniface 8. against Philip the Faire Saith besides That from hence proceede warres in time of which many outragious mischeifes are done and that Gerson calls them egregious flatterers by whom such opinion is maintained In the same place Maior denies that Childeric was deposed by Pope Zacharie The word He deposed saith Maior is not so to be vnderstood as it is taken at the first blush or sight but he deposed is thus expounded in the glosse Hee gaue his consent vnto those by whom he was deposed Iohn of Paris Were it graunted that Christ was armed with Temporall power yet he committed no such power to Peter A little after The power of Kings is the highest power vpon earth in Temporall causes it hath no superiour power aboue it selfe no more then the Pope hath in spirituall matters This author saith indeede the Pope hath power to excommunicate the King but he speaketh not of any power in the Pope to put down the King from his regall dignity and authority He onely saith When a Prince is once excommunicated he may accidentally or by occasion be deposed because his precedent excommunication incites the people to disarme him of all secular dignity power The same Iohn on the other side holdeth opinion that in the Emperour there is inuested a power to depose the Pope in case the Pope shall abuse his power Almainus Doctor of the Sorbonic schoole Jt is essentiall in the Laye-power to inflict ciuill punishment as death banishment and priuation or losse of goods But according to diuine institution the power Ecclesiasticall can lay no such punishment vpon delinquents nay more not lay in prison as to some Doctors it seemeth probable but stretcheth and reacheth onely to spirituall punishment as namely to excommunication all other punishments inflicted by the spirituall power are meerely by the Lawe positiue If then Ecclesiasticall power by Gods Lawe hath no authoritie to depriue any priuate man of his goods how dares the Pope and his flatterers build their power to depriue Kings of their scepters vpon the word of God The same author in an other place Be it graunted that Constantine had power to giue the Empire vnto the Pope yet is it not hereupon to be inferred that Popes haue authority ouer the Kingdome of France because that Kingdom was neuer subiect vnto Constantine For the King of Fraunce neuer had any superiour in Temporall matters A little after It is not in any place to be found that God hath giuen the Pope power to make and vnmake Temporall Kings He maintaineth elsewhere that Zacharie did not depose Childeric but onely consented to his deposing and so deposed him not as by authoritie In the same booke taking vp the words of Occam whome hee styles the Doctor The Emperour is the Popes Lord in things Temporall and the Pope calls him Lord as it is witnessed in the body of the Text. The Lord Cardinall hath dissembled and concealed these words of Doctor Almainus with many like places and hath been pleased to alledge Almainus reciting Occams authoritie in stead of quoting Almainus himselfe in those passages where hee speaketh as out of his owne opinion and in his owne words A notable peice of slie and cunning conueiance For what heresie may not be fathered and fastened vpon S. Augustine or S. Hierome if they should bee deemed to approoue all the passages which they alledge out of other authors And that is the reason wherfore the L. Cardinal doth not alledge his testimonies whole and perfect as they are couched in their proper texts but clipt and curtaild Thus he dealeth euen in the first passage or testimonie of Almainus he brings it in mangled and pared hee hides and conceales the words added by Almainus to contradict crosse the words going before For Almainus makes this addition and supply Howsoeuer some other Doctors doe stand for the negatiue and teach the Pope hath power onely to declare that Kings and Princes are to bee deposed And so much appeareth by this reason because this ample and Soueraigne power of the Pope might giue him occasion to bee puft vp with great pride and the same fulnesse of power might prooue extreamely hurtfull to the subiects c. The same Almainus brings in Occams opinion in expresse tearmes deciding the question and there ioynes his owne opinion with Occams The Doctors opinion saith Almainus doth simply carrie the most probabilitie that a Pope hath no power neither by excommunication nor by any other meanes to dedepose a Prince from his Imperiall and Royall dignitie And a little before hauing maintained the Greeke Empire was neuer transported by the Pope to the Germaines and that when the Pope crownes the Emperour he doth not giue him the Empire no more then the Archbishop of Reims when he crownes the King of France doth giue him the Kingdome he drawes this conclusion according to Occams opinion I denie that an Emperour is bound by oath to promise the Pope allegiance On the other side if the Pope hold any Temporall possessions hee is bound to sweare allegiance vnto the Emperour and to pay him tribute The said Occam alledged by Almainus doth further auerre that Iustinian was acknowledged by the Pope for his superiour in Temporall causes for as much as diuerse lawes which the Pope is bound to keep and obserue were enacted by Iustinian as by name the law of prescription for an hundred yeeres which law standeth yet in force against the Bishop of Rome And to the ende that all men may cleerely see how great distance there is betweene Occams opinion and the L. Cardinals who towards the ende of his Oration exhorts his hearers at no hand to dissent from the Pope take you here a viewe of Occams owne words as they are alleadged by Almainus The Doctor assoyles the arguments of Pope Jnnocent by which the Pope would prooue out of these words of Christ Whatsoeuer thou shalt bind c. that fulnes of power in Temporall matters belongeth to the Soueraigne Bishop For Innocent saith Whatsoeuer excepteth nothing But Occam assoyles Innocents authoritie as not onely false but also hereticall and saith withal that many things are spoken by Jnnocent which by his leaue sauour and smell of heresie c. The L. Cardinal with lesse fidelitie alledgeth two places out of Thomas his Summe The first in the Second of his Second Quest 10. Art 10. in
Churches vnder a Prince of contrary religion And if things without life or soule are with lesse danger left in an heretikes hands why then shall not an hereticall King with more facilitie and lesse danger keep his Crown his Royall charge his lands his customes his imposts c. For will any man except he bee out of his wits affirme these things to haue any life or soule Or why shall it be counted follie to leaue a sword in the hand of a mad Bedlam Is not a sword also without life and soule For my part I should rather be of this minde that possession of things without reason is more dangerous and pernicious in the hands of an euill Master then the possession of things indued with life and reason For things without life lacke both reason and iudgement how to exempt and free themselues from being instruments in euill and wicked actions from beeing emploied to vngodly and abhominable vses I will not deny that an hereticall Prince is a plague a pernicious and mortal sicknes to the soules of his subiects But a breach made by one mischiefe must not be filled vp with a greater inconuenience An errour must not be shocked and shouldered with disloialtie nor heresie with periurie nor impietie with sedition and armed rebellion against God and the King God who vseth to try and to schoole his Church will neuer forsake his Church nor hath need to protect his Church by any proditorious and prodigious practises of perfidious Christians For hee makes his Church to be like the burning bush In the middest of the fire and flames of persecutions he will prouide that she shall not bee consumed because he standeth in the midst of his Church And suppose there may bee some iust cause for the French to play the rebels against their King yet will it not follow that such rebellious motions are to be raised by the bellowes of the Romane Bishop to whose Pastorall charge and office it is nothing proper to intermeddle in the ciuill affaires of forraine Kingdomes Here is the summe and substance of the L. Cardinals whole discourse touching his pretence of the second inconuenience Which discourse he hath closed with a remarkeable confession to wit that neither by the authoritie of holy Scripture nor by the testimony and verdict of the Primitiue Church there hath beene any full decision of this question In regard whereof he falleth into admiration that Lay-people haue gone so farre in audaciousnesse as to labour that a doubtfull doctrine might for euer passe currant and be taken for a newe article of faith What a shame what a reproach is this how full of scandall for so his Lordship is pleased to cry out This breakes into the seueralls and inclosures of the Church this lets in whole herds of heresies to grase in her green and sweet pastures On the other side without any such Rhetoricall outcries I simply affirme It is a reproach a scandall a crime of rebellion for a subiect hauing his full charge and loade of benefits in the newe spring of his Kings tender age his King-fathers blood yet reeking and vpon the point of an addresse for a double match with Spaine in so honourable an assembly to seek the thraldome of his Kings Crown to play the captious in cauilling about causes of his Kings deposing to giue his former life the lie with shame enough in his olde age and to make himselfe a common by-word vnder the name of a Problematicall Martyr one that offers himselfe to fagot and fire for a point of doctrine but problematically handled that is distrustfully and onely by way of doubtfull and questionable discourse yea for a point of doctrine in which the French as he pretendeth are permitted to thwart and crosse his Holines in iudgement prouided they speake in it as in a point not certaine and necessary but onely doubtfull and probable The third Jnconvenience examined THE third Inconuenience pretended by the L. Cardinall to growe by admitting this Article of the third Estate is flourished in these colours It would breede and bring forth an open and vnauoideable schism against his Holinesse and the rest of the whole Ecclesiasticall bodie For thereby the doctrine long approoued and ratified by the Pope and the rest of the Church should now be taxed and condemned of impious and most detestable consequence yea the Pope and the Church euen in faith and in points of saluation should be reputed and beleeued to be erroniously perswaded Hereupon his Lordship giues himselfe a large scope of the raines to frame his elegant amplifications against schismes and schismatikes Now to mount so high and to flie in such place vpon the wings of amplification for this Inconuenience what is it else but magnifically to report and imagine a mischeife by many degrees greater then the mischeife is The L. Cardinal is in a great error if he make himselfe beleeue that other nations wil make a rent or separation from the communion of the French because the French stand to it tooth and nayle that French Crownes are not liable or obnoxious to Papall deposition howsoeuer there is no schisme that importeth not separation of communion The most illustrious Republike of Venice hath imbarked herselfe in this quarrell against his Holinesse hath played her prize and carried away the weapons with great honour Doth she notwithstanding her triumph in the cause forbeare to participate with all her neighbors in the same Sacraments doth she liue in schisme with all the rest of the Romane Church No such matter When the L. Cardinal himselfe not many yeeres past maintained the Kings cause and stood honourably for the Kings right against the Popes Temporall vsurpations did he then take other Churches to be schismaticall or the rotten members of Antechrist Beleeue it who list I beleeue my Creed Nay his Lordship telleth vs himselfe a little after that his Holinesse giues the French free scope to maintaine either the affirmatiue or negatiue of this question And will his Holinesse hold them schismatikes that dissent from his opinion and iudgement in a subiect or cause esteemed problematicall Farre be it from his Holinesse The King of Spaine reputed the Popes right arme neuer gaue the Pope cause by any act or other declaration to conceiue that hee acknowledged himselfe deposeable by the Pope for heresie or Tyrannie or stupidity But beeing well assured the Pope standeth in greater feare of his arme then he doth of the Popes head and shoulders he neuer troubles his owne head about our question More when the booke of Cardinall Baronius was come forth in which booke the Kingdome of Naples is decryed and publiquely discredited like false money touching the qualitie of a Kingdome and attributed to the King of Spain not as true proprietary thereof but onely as an Estate held in fee of the Romane Church the King made no bones to condemne and to banish the said booke out of his dominions The holy Father was contented
Kingdom thinks himselfe in little safetie so long as he shall of his courtesy suffer his disseised predecessor to draw his breath And say that some Princes after their fall from their Thrones haue escaped both point and edge of the Tyrants weapon yet haue they wandred like miserable fugitiues in forraine countryes or else haue beene condemned like captiues to perpetuall imprisonment at home a thousand-fold worse and more lamentable then death it selfe Dyonisius the Tyrant of Syracusa from a great King in Sicilie turn'd School-master in Corinth It was the onely calling kind of life that as he thought bearing some resemblance of rule and gouernment might recreate his mind as an image or picture of his former Soueraigntie ouer men This Dyonisius was the onely man to my knowledge that had a humour to laugh after the losse of a Kingdome and in the state of a Pedant or gouernour of children merily to ieast and to scorne his former state and condition of a King In this my Kingdome of England sundry Kings haue seen the walls as it were of their Princely fortresse dismantled razed and beaten downe By name Edward and Richard both II. and Henrie VI. all which Kings were most cruelly murdered in prison In the raigne of Edward III. by act of Parliament whosoeuer shal imagine that is the very word of the Statute or machinate the Kings death are declared guilty of rebellion and high treason The learned Iudges of the Land grounding vpon this law of Edward the third haue euer since reputed and iudged them traytors according to Law that haue dared onely to whisper or talke softly between the teeth of deposing the King For they count it a cleare case that no Crowne can be taken from a Kings head without losse of Head and Crowne together sooner or later The L. Cardinall therefore in this most weighty and serious point doth meerely dally and flowt after a sort when he tels vs The Church doth not intermeddle with releasing of subiects and knocking off their yrons of obedience but onely before the Ecclesiasticall tribunall seate and that besides this double censure of absolution to subiects and excommunication to the Prince the Church imposeth none other penaltie Vnder pretence of which two censures so far is the Church as the L. Cardinal pretendeth from consenting that any man so censured should be touched for his life that shee vtterly abhorreth all murder whatsoeuer but especially all sudden and vnprepenced murders for feare of casting away both body and soule which often in sudden murders goe both one way It hath been made manifest before that all such proscription and setting forth of Kings to port-sale hath alwaies for the traine thereof either some violent and bloody death or some other mischiefe more intolerable then death it selfe What are we the better that parricides of Kings are neither set on nor approoued by the Church in their abhominable actions when she layeth such plots and taketh such courses as necessarily doe inferre the cutting of their throates In the next place be it noted that his Lordship against all reason reckons the absoluing of subiects from the oath of allegiance in the ranke of penalties awarded and enioyned before the Ecclesiasticall tribunall seate For this penaltie is not Ecclesiasticall but Ciuill and consequently not triable in Ecclesiasticall Courts without vsurping vpon the ciuill Magistrate But I wonder with what face the Lord Cardinall can say the Church neuer consenteth to any practise against his life whome she hath once chastised with seuere censures For can his Lordship be ignorant what is written by Pope Vrbanus Can. Excommunicatorum We take them not in any wise to be man-slayers who in a certain heate of zeale towards the Catholike Church their Mother shall happen to kill an excomunicate person More if the Pope doth not approoue and like the practise of King-killing wherefore hath not his Holinesse imposed some seuere censure vpon the booke of Mariana the Iesuite by whome parricides are commended nay highly extolled when his Holines hath been pleased to take the paines to censure and call in some other of Mariana's bookes Againe wherefore did his Holines aduise himselfe to censure the decree of the Court of Parliament in Paris against Iohn Chastell Wherefore did he suffer Garnet and Oldcorne my powder-miners both by bookes and pictures vendible vnder his nose in Rome to be inrowled in the Canon of holy Martyrs And when he saw two great Kings murdered one after an other wherfore by some publike declaration did not his Holinesse testifie to all Christendome his inward sense and true apprehension of so great misfortune as all Europe had iust cause to lament on the behalfe of France Wherefore did not his Holinesse publish some Lawe or Pontificiall decree to prouide for the securitie of Kings in time to come True it is that he censured Becanus his booke But wherefore That by a captious and sleight censure he might preuent a more exact and rigorous decree of the Sorbon Schoole For the Popes checke to Becanus was onely a generall censure and touch without any particular specification of matter touching the life of Kings About some two moneths after the said book was printed againe with a dedication to the Popes Nuntio in Germany yet without any alteration saue onely of two articles containing the absolute power of the people ouer Kings In recompence and for a counterchecke whereof three or fowre articles were inserted into the said book touching the Popes power ouer Kings articlcs no lesse wicked and iniurious to Regall rights nay more iniurious then any of the other clauses whereof iust cause of exception and complaint had been giuen before If I would collect and heape vp examples of auncient Emperours as of Henrie IV. whos 's dead corps felt the rage and fury of the Pope or of Frederic 2. against whome the Pope was not ashamed to whet and kindle the Sultane or of Queen Elizabeth our Predecessour of glorious memorie whose life was diuers times assaulted by priuie murderers expressely dispatched from Rome for that holy seruice if I would gather vp other examples of the same stampe which I haue laid forth in my Apology for the oth of allegiance I could make it more cleare then day-light how farre the L. Cardinals words are discrepant from the truth where his Lordship out of most rare confidence is bold to avowe That neuer any Pope went so farre as to giue consent or counsell for the desperate murdering of Princes That which already hath beene alleadged may suffice to conuince his Lordship I meane that his Holinesse by deposing of Kings doth lead them directly to their graues and tombes The Cardinal himselfe seemeth to take some notice hereof The Church as he speaketh abhorreth sudden and vnprepensed murders aboue the rest Doth not his Lordship in this phrase of speech acknowledge that murders committed by open force are not so much disavowed or disclaimed by the Church A little