Platina and a number of the Popes owne writers beare witnesse And 3 Lib. de Clericis Bellarmine himselfe in his booke of Controuersies cannot get it handsomely denied Nay the Popes were euen forced then to pay a certaine summe of money to the Emperours for their Confirmation And this lasted almost seuen hundreth yeeres after CHRIST witnesse 4 In Chron. ad ann 680. Sigebert and 5 In vit Agathen Anast. in vit eiusd Agath Herm. Contract ad ann 678. edit poster dist 63. c. Agathe Luitprandus with other Popish Historians And for Emperours deposing of Popes there are likewise diuers examples The Emperour 1 Luitpr Hist lib 6. ca. 10.11 Rhegino ad an 963. Platin. in vit Ioan. 13. Ottho deposed Pope Iohn the twelfth of that name for diuers crimes and vices especially of Lecherie The Emperour 2 Marianus Scot. Sigeb Abbas Vrsp ad ann 1046 Plat in vit Greg. 6. Henry the third in a short time deposed three Popes Benedict the ninth Siluester the third and Gregorie the sixt as well for the sinne of Auarice as for abusing their extraordinarie authoritie against Kings and Princes And as for KINGS that haue denied this Temporall Superioritie of Popes First wee haue the vnanime testimonie of diuers famous HISTORIOGRAPHERS for the generall of many CHRISTIAN Kingdomes As 3 Walthram Naumburz in lib. de inuest Episc Vixit circa ann 1110. Walthram testifieth That the Bishops of Spaine Scotland England Hungarie from ancient institution till this moderne noueltie had their Inuestiture by KINGS with peaceable inioyning of their Temporalities wholly and entirely and whosoeuer sayeth hee is peaceably solicitous let him peruse the liues of the Ancients and reade the Histories and hee shall vnderstand thus much And for verification of this generall Assertion wee will first beginne at the practise of the KINGS of France though not named by Walthram in this his enumeration of Kingdomes amongst whom my first witnesse shall bee that vulgarly knowne letter of 4 See Annales Franciae Nicolai Gillij in Phil. Pulchro Philip le Bel King of France to Pope Boniface the eighth the beginning whereof after a scornefull salutation is Sciat tua maxima fatuitas nos in temporalibus nemini subesse And likewise after that 5 Anno 1268. ex Arrestis Senatus Parifiens Lewes the ninth surnamed Sanctus had by a publique instrument called Pragmatica sanctio forbidden all the exactions of the Popes Court within his Realme Pope Pius 6 Ioan. Maierius lib. de Scismat Concil the second in the beginning of Lewes the eleuenth his time greatly misseliking this Decree so long before made sent his Legate to the saide King Lewes with Letters-patents vrging his promise which hee had made when hee was Dolphin of France to repeale that Sanction if euer hee came to bee King The King referreth the Legate ouer with his Letters-patents to the Councell of Paris where the matter being propounded was impugned by Iohannes Romanus the Kings Atturney with whose opinion the Vniuersitie of Paris concurring an Appeale was made from the attempts of the Pope to the next generall Councell the Cardinall departing with indignation But that the King of France and Church thereof haue euer stoken to their Gallican immunitie in denying the Pope any Temporall power ouer them and in resisting the Popes as oft as euer they prest to meddle with their Temporall power euen in the donation of Benefices the Histories are so full of them as the onely examples thereof would make vp a bigge Volume by it selfe And so farre were the Sorbonistes for the Kings and French Churches priuiledge in this point as they were wont to maintaine That if the Pope fell a quarrelling the King for that cause the Gallican Church might elect a Patriarch of their owne renouncing any obedience to the Pope And Gerson was so farre from giuing the Pope that temporall authority ouer Kings who otherwise was a deuoute Roman Catholike as hee wrote a Booke de Auferibilitate Papae not onely from the power ouer Kings but euen ouer the Church And now pretermitting all further examples of forraigne Kings actions I will onely content me at this time with some of my owne Predecessors examples of this kingdome of England that it may thereby the more clearely appeare that euen in those times when the world was fullest of darkened blindnes and ignorance the Kings of England haue oftentimes not onely repined but euen strongly resisted and withstood this temporall vsurpation and encrochment of ambitious Popes And I will first begin at 1 Matth. Paris in Henr. 1. anno 1100. King Henry the first of that name after the Conquest who after he was crowned gaue the Bishopricke of Winchester to William Gifford and forthwith inuested him into all the possessions belonging to the Bishopricke contrary to the Canons of the new Synod 2 Idem ibid. anno 1113. King Henry also gaue the Archbishopricke of Canterbury to Radulph Bishop of London and gaue him inuestiture by a Ring and a Crosiers staffe Also Pope 3 Idem ibid. anno 1119. Calixtus held a Councell at RHEMES whither King Henry had appointed certaine Bishops of ENGLAND and NORMANDIE to goe Thurstan also elected Archbishop of YORKE got leaue of the King to goe thither giuing his faith that hee would not receiue Consecration of the Pope And comming to the Synode by his liberall gifts as the fashion is wanne the ROMANES fauour and by their meanes obtained to bee consecrated at the Popes hand Which assoone as the King of ENGLAND knewe hee forbade him to come within his Dominions Moreouer King Edward the first prohibited the Abbot of 4 Ex Archiuis Regni Waltham and Deane of Pauls to collect a tenth of euery mans goods for a supply to the holy Land which the Pope by three Bulles had committed to their charge and the said Deane of Pauls compeering before the King and his Councell promised for the reuerence he did beare vnto the King not to meddle any more in that matter without the Kings good leaue and permission Here I hope a Church-man disobeyed the Pope for obedience to his Prince euen in Church matters but this new Iesuited Diuinitie was not then knowen in the world The same Edward I. impleaded the Deane of the Chappell of Vuluerhampton because the said Deane had against the priuiledges of the Kingdome giuen a Prebend of the same Chappell to one at the Popes command whereupon the said Deane compeered and put himselfe in the Kings will for his offence The said Edward I. depriued also the Bishop of Durham of all his liberties for disobeying a prohibition of the Kings So as it appeareth the Kings in those dayes thought the Church-men their Subiects though now we be taught other Seraphicall doctrine For further proofe whereof Iohn of Ibstocke was committed to the goale by the sayde King for hauing a suite in the Court of Rome seuen yeeres
be more cruel or more voyd of reason then to seeke to stop the strong and violent streame of tyrannie by sedition These words me thinke doe make very strongly and expresly against butchering euen of Tyrannical Kings And whereas a little after the said passage he teacheth to expell Tyrannie he hath not a word of expelling the Tyrant but onely of breaking and shaking off the yoke of Tyrannie Yet for all that he would not haue the remedies for the repressing of Tyrannie to be fetcht from the Pope who presumeth to degrade Kings but from Philosophers Lawyers Diuines and personages of good conuersation It appeareth now by all that hath bin said before that whereas Gerson in the 7. Considerat against Flatterers doeth affirme Whensoeuer the Prince doeth manifestly pursue and prosecute his naturall subiects and shew himselfe obstinately bent with notorious iniustice to vexe them of set purpose and with full consent so farre as to the fact then this rule and law of Nature doeth take place It is lawfull to resist and repell force by force and the sentence of Seneca There is no sacrifice more acceptable to God then a tyrant offered in sacrifice the words doeth take place are so to be vnderstood as he speaketh in another passage to wit with or amongst seditious persons Or else the words doeth take place doe onely signifie is put in practise And so Gerson there speaketh not as out of his owne iudgement His Lordship also should not haue balked and left out Sigebertus who with more reason might haue passed for French then Thomas and Occam whom hee putteth vpon vs for French Sigebertus in his Chronicle vpon the yeere 1088. speaking of the Emperours deposing by the Pope hath words of this tenour This Heresie was not crept out of the shell in those dayes that his Priests who hath said to the King Apostata and maketh an hypocrite to rule for the sinnes of the people should teach the people they owe no subiection vnto wicked Kings nor any alleagiance notwithstanding they haue taken the oath of alleagiance Now after the L. Cardinal hath coursed in this maner through the histories of the last aages which in case they all made for his purpose doe lacke the weight of authority in stead of searching the will of God in the sacred Oracles of his word and standing vpon examples of the ancient Church at last leauing the troupe of his owne allegations he betakes himselfe to the sharpening and rebating of the points of his aduersaries weapons For the purpose he brings in his aduersaries the champions of Kings Crownes makes them to speake out of his own mouth for his Lordship saith it will be obiected after this maner Pag. 52. sequentibus It may come to passe that Popes either caried with passion or misled by sinister information may without iust cause fasten vpon Kings the imputation of heresie or apostasie Then for King-deposers he frames this answere That by heresie they vnderstand notorious heresie and formerly condemned by sentence of the Church Moreouer in case the Pope hath erred in the fact it is the Clergies part adhering to their King to make remonstrances vnto the Pope and to require the cause may be referred to the iudgement of a full Councel the French Church then and there being present Now in this answere the L. Cardinall is of another mind then Bellarmine his brother Cardinall Aduers Barclaium For hee goes thus farre That a Prince condemned by vniust sentence of the Pope ought neuerthelesse to quit his Kingdome and that his Pastors vniust sentence shall not redound to his detriment prouided that hee giue way to the said sentence and shew himselfe not refractarie but stay the time in patience vntil the holy Father shall renounce his error and reuoke his foresaid vniust sentence In which case these two material points are to be presupposed The one That he who now hath seized the kingdome of the Prince displaced wil forthwith if the Pope shall sollicit and intercede returne the Kingdome to the hand of the late possessor The other That in the interim the Prince vniustly deposed shall not need to feare the bloody murderers mercilesse blade and weapon But on the other side the Popes power of so large a size as Bellarmine hath shaped is no whit pleasing to the L. Cardinals eye For in case the King should be vniustly deposed by the Pope not well informed he is not of the minde the Kingdome should stoupe to the Popes behests but will rather haue the Kingdome to deale by remonstrance and to referre the cause vnto the Council Wherein he makes the Council to be of more absolute and supreme authority then the Pope a straine to which the holy father will neuer lend his eare And yet doubtlesse the Council required in this case must be vniuersall wherein the French for so much as they stand firme for the King and his cause can be no Iudges and in that regard the L. Cardinal requireth onely the presence of the French Church Who seeth not here into what pickle the French cause is brought by this meanes The Bishops of Italie forsooth of Spaine of Sicilie of Germanie the subiects of Soueraignes many times at professed or priuie enmitie with France shall haue the cause compremitted and referred to their iudgement whether the Kindome of France shall driue out her Kings and shall kindle the flames of seditious troubles in the very heart and bowels of the Realme But is it not possible that a King may lacke the loue of his owne subiects and they taking the vantage of that occasion may put him to his trumps in his owne Kingdome Is it not possible that calumniations whereby a credulous Pope hath beene seduced may in like maner deceiue some part of a credulous people Is it not possible that one part of the people may cleaue to the Popes Faction another may hold and stand out for the Kings rightfull cause and ciuill warres may be kindled by the splene of these two sides Is it not possible that his Holinesse will not rest in the remonstrances of the French and will no further pursue his cause And whereas now a dayes a Generall Councill cannot be held except it be called and assembled by the Popes authority is it credible the Pope will take order for the conuocation of a Council by whom he shall be iudged And how can the Pope be President in a Councill where himselfe is the party impleaded and to whom the sifting of his owne sentence is referred as it were to Committies to examine whether it was denounced according to Law or against Iustice But in the meane time whilest all these remonstrances and addresses of the Council are on foot behold the Royall Maiestie of the King hangeth as it were by loose gimmals and must stay the iudgement of the Council to whom it is referred Well what if the Councill should happe to be two or three yeeres in assembling and
of our Catholike Religion then if it should bee granted the Church hath decided the said points without any authoritie c. Mee thinkes the L. Cardinal in the whole draught and course of these words doeth seeke not a little to blemish the honour of his Church and to marke his religion with a blacke coale For the whole frame of his Mother-Church is very easie to be shaken if by the establishing of this Article she shall come to finall ruine and shall become the Synagogue of Satan Likewise Kings are brought into a very miserable state and condition if their Souereigntie shall not stand if they shall not bee without danger of deposition but by the totall ruine of the Church and by holding the Pope whom they serue to be Antichrist The L. Cardinall himselfe let him be well sifted herein doeth not credit his owne words For doeth not his Lordship tell vs plaine that neither by Diuine testimony nor by any sentence of the ancient Church the knot of this controuersie hath bene vntied againe that some of the French by the Popes fauourable indulgence are licensed or tolerated to say their mind to deliuer their opinion of this question though contrary to the iudgement of his Holinesse prouided they hold it onely as problematicall and not as necessary What Can there be any assurance for the Pope that hee is not Antichrist for the Church of Rome that she is not a Synagogue of Satan when a mans assurance is grounded vpon wauering and wilde vncertainties without Canon of Scripture without consent or countenance of antiquitie and in a cause which the Pope by good leaue suffereth some to tosse with winds of problematicall opinion It hath beene shewed before that by Gods word whereof small reckoning perhaps is made by venerable antiquitie and by the French Church in those times when the Popes power was mounted aloft the doctrine which teacheth deposing of Kings by the Pope hath bene checked and countermanded What did the French in those dayes beleeue the Church was then swallowed vp and no where visible or extant in the world No verely Those that make the Pope of Soueraigne authoritie for matters of Faith are not perswaded that in this cause they are bound absolutely to beleeue and credit his doctrine Why so Because they take it not for any decree or determination of Faith but for a point perteining to the mysteries of State and a pillar of the Popes Temporall Monarchie who hath not receiued any promise from God that in causes of this nature hee shall not erre For they hold that errour by no meanes can crawle or scramble vp to the Papall See so highly mounted but grant ambition can scale the highest walls and climbe the loftiest pinacles of the same See They hold withall that in case of so speciall aduantage to the Pope whereby he is made King of Kings and as it were the pay-master or distributer of Crownes it is against all reason that hee should sit as Iudge to carue out Kingdomes for his owne share To bee short let his Lordship be assured that he meeteth with notorious blocke-heads more blunt-witted then a whetstone when they are drawen to beleeue by his perswasion that whosoeuer beleeues the Pope hath no right nor power to put Kings beside their Thrones to giue and take away Crownes are all excluded and barred out of the heauenly Kingdome But now followes a worse matter For they whom the Cardinall reproachfully calls heretikes haue wrought and wonne his Lordship as to mee seemeth to plead their cause at the barre and to betray his owne cause to these heretikes For what is it in his Lordship but plaine playing the Praeuaricator when he crieth so lowd that by admitting and establishing of this Article the doctrine of Cake-incarnation and priuie Confession to a Priest is vtterly subuerted Let vs heare his reason and willingly accept the trewth from his lips The Articles as his Lordship granteth of Transubstantiation auricular Confession and the Popes power to depose Kings are all grounded alike vpon the same authoritie Now he hath acknowledged the Article of the Popes power to depose Kings is not decided by the Scripture nor by the ancient Church but within the compasse of certaine aages past by the authoritie of Popes and Councils Then he goes on well and inferres with good reason that in case the point of the Popes power be weakened then the other two points must needs bee shaken and easily ouerthrowen So that hee doeth confesse the monstrous birth of the breaden-God and the blind Sacrament or vaine fantasie of auricular confession are no more conueyed into the Church by pipes from the springs of sacred Scripture or from the riuers of the ancient Church then that other point of the Popes power ouer Kings and their Crownes Very good For were they indeed deriued from either of those two heads that is to say were they grounded vpon the foundation of the first or second authoritie then they could neuer bee shaken by the downefall of the Popes power to depose Kings I am well assured that for vsing so good a reason the world will hold his Lordship in suspicion that he still hath somesmacke of his fathers discipline and instruction who in times past had the honour to be a Minister of the holy Gospel Howbeit he playeth not faire nor vseth sincere dealing in his proceeding against such as he calls heretikes when hee casts in their dish and beares them in hand they frowardly wrangle for the inuisibilitie of the Church in earth For indeed the matter is nothing so They freely acknowledge a visible Church For howsoeuer the assembly of Gods elect doth make a body not discerneable by mans eye yet we assuredly beleeue and gladly professe there neuer wanted a visible Church in the world yet onely visible to such as make a part of the same All that are without see no more but men they doe not see the said men to be the trew Church Wee beleeue moreouer of the vniuersall Church visible that it is composed of many particular Churches whereof some are better fined and more cleane from lees and dregs then other and withall we denie the purest Churches to be alwayes the greatest and most visible THE FOVRTH AND LAST INCONVENIENCE EXAMINED THE Lord Cardinall before he looketh into the last Inconuenience vseth a certaine preamble of his owne life past and seruices done to the Kings Henry the III. and IIII. Touching the latter of which two Kings his Lordship saith in a straine of boasting after this manner I by the grace of God or the grace of God by mee rather reduced him to the Catholike religion I obtained at Rome his absolution of Pope Clement 8. I reconciled him to the holy See Touching the first of these points I say the time the occasions and the foresaid Kings necessary affaires doe sufficiently testifie that he was induced to change his mind and to alter his religion vpon the strength of other
For before Pius Quintus his excommunication giuing her ouer for a prey and setting her Subiects at libertie to rebell it is well knowne she neuer medled with the blood or hard punishment of any Catholique nor made any rigorous Lawes against them And since that time who list to compare with an indifferent eye the manifold intended inuasions against her whole Kingdome the forreine practises the internall publike rebellions the priuate plots and machinations poysonings murthers and all sorts of deuises quid non daily set abroach and all these wares continually fostered and fomented from Rome together with the continuall corrupting of her Subiects as well by temporall bribes as by faire and specious promises of eternall felicitie and nothing but booke vpon booke publikely set foorth by her fugitiues for approbation of so holy designes who list I say with an indifferent eye to looke on the one part vpon those infinite and intollerable temptations and on the other part vpon the iust yet moderate punishment of a part of these hainous offendors shall easily see that that blessed defunct LADIE was as free from persecution as they shall free these hellish Instruments from the honour of martyrdome 5. But now hauing sacrificed if I may so say to the Manes of my late Predecessour I may next with Saint PAVL iustly vindicate mine owne fame from those innumerable calumnies spread against me in testifying the trewth of my behauiour toward the Papists wherein I may trewly affirme That whatsoeuer was her iust and mercifull Gouernement ouer the Papists in her time my Gouernement ouer them since hath so farre exceeded hers in Mercie and Clemencie as not onely the Papists themselues grewe to that height of pride in confidence of my mildnesse as they did directly expect and assuredly promise to themselues libertie of Conscience and equalitie with other of my Subiects in all things but euen a number of the best and faithfulliest of my sayde Subiects were cast in great feare and amazement of my course and proceedings euer prognosticating and iustly suspecting that sowre fruite to come of it which shewed it selfe clearely in the Powder-Treason How many did I honour with Knighthood of knowen and open Recusants How indifferently did I giue audience and accesse to both sides bestowing equally all fauours and honours on both professions How free and continuall accesse had all rankes and degrees of Papists in my Court and company And aboue all how frankely and freely did I free Recusants of their ordinarie paiments Besides it is cuident what strait order was giuen out of my owne mouth to the Iudges to spare the execution of all Priests notwithstanding their conuiction ioyning thereunto a gracious Proclamation whereby all Priests that were at libertie and not taken might goe out of the countrey by such a day my generall Pardon hauing beene extended to all conuicted Priestes in prison whereupon they were set at libertie as good Subiects and all Priests that were taken after sent ouer and set at libertie there But time and paper will faile me to make enumeration of all the benefits and fauours that I bestowed in generall and particular vpon Papists in recounting whereof euery scrape of my penne would serue but for a blot of the Popes ingratitude and iniustice in meating me with so hard a measure for the same So as I thinke I haue sufficiently or at least with good reason wiped the * Magno cum anims moerore c. teares from the Popes eyes for complaining vpon such persecution who if hee had beene but politickely wise although hee had had no respect to Iustice and Veritie would haue in this complaint of his made a difference betweene my present time and the time of the late Queene And so by his commending of my moderation in regard of former times might haue had hope to haue mooued me to haue continued in the same clement course For it is a trew saying that alledged kindnesse vpon noble mindes doeth euer worke much And for the maine vntrewth of any persecution in my time it can neuer bee prooued that any were or are put to death since I came to the Crowne for cause of Conscience except that now this discharge giuen by the Pope to all Catholiques to take their Oath of Allegiance to me be the cause of the due punishment of many which if it fall out to be let the blood light vpon the Popes head who is the onely cause thereof As for the next point contained in his Breue concerning his discharge of all Papists to come to our Church or frequent our rites and ceremonies I am not to meddle at this time with that matter because my errand now onely is to publish to the world the Iniurie and Iniustice done vnto me in discharging my subiects to make profession of their obedience vnto mee The intendement of this discourse Now as to the point where the Oath is quarrelled it is set downe in fewe but very weighty wordes to wit That it ought to be cleare vnto all Catholiques that this Oath cannot bee taken with safetie of the Catholique Faith and of their soules health since it containeth many things that are plainely and directly contrarie to their faith and saluation To this the old saying fathered vpon the Philosopher may very fitly bee applied Multa dicit sed pauca probat nay indeed Nihil omnino probat For how the profession of the naturall Allegiance of Subiects to their Prince can be directly opposite to the faith and saluation of soules is so farre beyond my simple reading in Diuinitie as I must thinke it a strange and new Assertion to proceede out of the mouth of that pretended generall Pastor of all Christian soules I reade indeede and not in one or two or three places of Scripture that Subiects are bound to obey their Princes for conscience sake whether they were good or wicked Princes So said the people to 1 Iosh 1.17 Ioshua As wee obeyed Moses in all things so will wee obey thee So the 2 Iere. 27.12 Prophet commanded the people to obey the King of Babel saying Put your neckes vnder the yoke of the King of Babel and serue him and his people that yee may liue So were the children of Israel vnto 3 Exod. 5.1 Pharaoh desiring him to let them goe so to 4 Ezra 1.3 Cyrus obtaining leaue of him to returne to build the Temple and in a word the Apostle willed all men 5 Rom. 13 5. to bee subiect to the higher powers for conscience sake Agreeable to the Scriptures did the Fathers teach 6 August in Psalm 124. Augustine speaking of Iulian saith Iulian was an vnbeleeuing Emperour was hee not an Apostata an Oppressour and an Idolater Christian Souldiers serued that vnbeleeuing Emperour when they came to the cause of CHRIST they would acknowledge no Lord but him that is in heauen When hee would haue them to worship Idoles and to sacrifice they preferred GOD before
THE Chamber of the third Estate IAN. 15. 1615. THE PREFACE I Haue no humour to play the Curious in a forraine Common wealth or vnrequested to carry any hand in my neighbours affaires Jt hath more congruitie with Royall dignitie whereof God hath giuen mee the honour to prescribe Lawes at home for my Subiects rather then to furnish forraine Kingdomes and people with counsels Howbeit my late entire affection to K. Henry IV. of happy memorie my most honoured brother and my exceeding sorrow for the most detestable parricide acted vpon the sacred person of a King so complete in all heroicall and Princely vertues as also the remembrance of my owne dangers incurred by the practise of conspiracies flowing from the same source hath wrought mee to sympathize with my friends in their grieuous occurrents no doubt so much more dangerous as they are lesse apprehended and felt of Kings themselues euen when the danger hangeth ouer their owne heads Vpon whom in case the power and vertue of my aduertisements be not able effectually to worke at least many millions of children and people yet vnborne shall beare me witnesse that in these dangers of the highest nature and straine J haue not bene defectiue and that neither the subuersions of States nor the murthers of Kings which may vnhappily betide hereafter shall haue so free passage in the world for want of timely aduertisement before For touching my particular my rest is vp that one of the maynes for which God hath aduanced me vpon the loftie stage of the supreme Throne is that my words vttered from so eminent a place for Gods honour most shamefully traduced and vilified in his owne Deputies and Lieutenants might with greater facilitie be conceiued Now touching France faire was the hope which J conceiued of the States assembled in Parliament at Paris That calling to minde the murthers of their Noble Kings and the warres of the League which followed the Popes fulminations as when a great storme of haile powreth downe after a Thunder-cracke and a world of writings addressed to iustifie the parricides and the dethronings of kings they would haue ioyned heads hearts hands together to hammer out some apt and wholesome remedy against so many fearefull attempts and practises To my hope was added no little ioy when I was giuen to vnderstand the third Estate had preferred an Article or Bill the tenor and substance whereof was concerning the meanes whereby the people might bee vnwitched of this pernicious opinion That Popes may tosse the French King his Throne like a tennis ball and that killing of Kings is an acte meritorious to the purchase of the crowne of Martyrdome But in fine the proiect was encountred with successe cleane coutrary to Expectation For this Article of the third Estate like a sigh of libertie breathing her last serued onely so much the more to inthrall the Crowne and to make the bondage more grieuous and sensible then before Euen as those medicines which worke no ease to the patient doe leaue the disease in much worse tearmes so this remedy inuented and tendred by the third Estate did onely exasperate the present malady of the State for so much as the operation and vertue of the wholesome remedy was ouermatched with peccant humours then stirred by the force of thwarting and crossing opposition Yea much better had it bene the matter had not bene stirred at all then after it was once on foot and in motion to giue the Trewth leaue to lye gasping and sprawling vnder the violence of a forraine faction For the opinion by which the Crownes of Kings are made subiect vnto the Popes will and power was then auowed in a most Honourable Assembly by the auerment of a Prelate in great authoritie and of no lesse learning He did not plead the cause as a priuate person but as one by representation that stood for the whole body of the Clergie was there applauded and seconded with approbation of the Nobilitie no resolution taken to the contrary or in barre to his plea. After praises and thankes from the Pope followed the printing of his eloquent harangue or Oration made in full Parliament a set discourse maintaining Kings to be deposeable by the Pope if he speake the word The said Oration was not onely Printed with the Kings priuiledge but was likewise addressed to mee by the Author and Orator himselfe who presupposed the reading thereof would forsooth driue me to say Lord Cardinall in this high subiect your Honour hath satisfied me to the full All this poysed in the ballance of equall iudgement why may not J trewly and freely affirme the said Estates assembled in Parliament haue set Royall Maiestie vpon a doubtfull chance or left it resting vpon vncertaine tearmes and that now if the doctrine there maintained by the Clergie should beare any pawme it may lawfully be doubted who is King in France For I make no question hee is but a titular King that raigneth onely at an others discretion and whose Princely head the Pope hath power to bare of his Regall Crowne In temporall matters how can one be Soueraigne that may be fleeced of all his Temporalties by any superiour power But let men at a neere sight marke the pith and marrow of the Article proposed by the third Estate and they shall soone perceiue the skilfull Architects thereof aymed onely to make their King a trew and reall King to bee recognised for Soueraigne within his owne Realme and that killing their King might no longer passe the muster of workes acceptable to God But by the vehement instance and strong current of the Clergie and Nobles this was borne downe as a pernicious Article as a cause of Schisme as a gate which openeth to all sorts of Heresies yea there it was maintained tooth and naile that in case the doctrine of this Article might goe for currant doctrine it must follow that for many aages past in sequence the Church hath beene the kingdome of Antichrist and the synagogue of Satan The Pope vpon so good issue of the cause had reason J trow to addresse his Letters of triumph vnto the Nobilitie and Clergie who had so farre aprrooued themselues faithfull to his Holinesse and to vaunt withall that hee had nipped Christian Kings in the Crowne that hee had giuen them checke with mate through the magnanimous resolution of this courageous Nobilitie by whose braue making head the third Estate had beene so valiantly forced to giue ground Jn a scornefull reproach hee qualified the Deputies of the third Estate I haue receiued aduertisement from diuers parts that in the Popes letters to the Nobitie these wordes were extant howsoeuer they haue bin left out in the impression rased out of the copies of the said letters nebulones ex foece plebis a sort or a number of knaues the very dregges of the base vulgar a packe of people presuming to personate well affected Subiects and men of deepe vnderstanding and to reade their masters a
Religion as beeing instructed by their schoolemasters in Religion And who were they but Ecclesiasticall persons All this presupposed as matter of trewth I draw this conclusion Howsoeuer no small 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 wisedome if they should haue relinquished and transferred the care of designements and proiects for the life of their King and the safety of his Crowne to the Clergiealone Moreouer the Clergie standeth bound to referre the iudgement 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 owne cause when his iudgement of the controuersie had beene 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 and 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 supose by the former passage that his Lordship exhorting the third Estate to referre 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 Page 9. Howbeit he laboureth to fortifie his exhortation with a more weake and feeble reason For to make good his proiect he affirmes that matters and maximes out of all doubt and question may not be shuffled together with points in controuersie 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 Conc. Constan Sess 15. Likewise he confirmes the same by a Decree of the Councill 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 certaine and indubitable but onely according to humane and historicall certaintie 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 certaine point doubtfull by shuffling and iumbling therewith some point in controuersie Now the question so disputable as he pretendeth is this A Christian Prince breakes his oath solemnely 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 battell 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 Caluins time and teaching haue professed that such a Prince may bee lawfully remooued from his Throne by the Pope and by the Councill and suppose the contrarie doctrine were the very Quintessence or spirit of trewth 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 Lordships 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 and 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 Councill 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 Soueraine in France that by the position of the French Church from aage to aage the Kings of France are not subiect vnto any censure of deposition by the Pope that his Holinesse hath no iust and lawfull 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 hee affirmeth If any shall condemne or wrappe vnder the solemne curse the abettours of the Popes power to vnking lawfull and Soueraigne Kings the same shall runne vpon foure dangerous rocks of apparent incongruities and absurdities First he shall offer to force and entangle the consciences of many deuout persons For he shall binde them to beleeue and sweare that doctrine Pag. 14. the contrary whereof is beleeued of the whole Church and hath bene 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 vpon the Arke what is it but laying of vnholy fingers vpon the holy Censor for perfumes Thirdly hee shall make way to a Schisme not possible to bee put by and auoyded by any humane prouidence For this doctrine beeing held and professed by all other Catholiques how can we declare it repugnant vnto Gods word how can wee hold it impious how can wee account it detestable but wee shall renounce communion with the Head and other members of the Church yea we shall confesse the Church in all aages to haue bene 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
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 new spring of his Kings tender aage 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 seeke the thraldome of his Kings Crowne to play the captious in cauilling about causes of his Kings deposing to giue his former life the Lye with shame enough in his old aage 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 INCONVENIENCE EXAMINED THe third Inconuenience pretended by the L. Pag. 87. Cardinall to grow by admitting this Article of the third Estate is flourished in these colours It would breed and bring foorth an open and vnauoydeable schisme against his Holinesse and the rest of the whole Ecclesiasticall body For thereby the doctrine long approued 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 mischiefe by many degrees greater then the mischiefe is The L. Cardinal is in a great errour if hee 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 naile 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 caried away the weapons with great honour Doeth she notwithstanding her triumph in the cause forbeare to participate with all her neighbours in the same Sacraments doeth 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 Antichrist 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 acte or other declaration to conceiue that he acknowledged himselfe deposeable by the Pope for heresie or Tyrannie or stupiditie But being well assured the Pope standeth in greater feare of his arme then hee doeth of the Popes head and shoulders he neuer troubles his owne head about our question More when the booke of Cardinall Baronius was come foorth in which booke the Kingdome of Naples is descried and publiquely discredited like false money touching the qualitie of a Kingdome and attributed to the King of Spaine not as trew 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 to put vp his Catholike sonnes proceeding to the Cardinals disgrace neuer opened his mouth against the King neuer declared or noted the King to be schismaticall He waits perhaps for some fitter opportunitie when the Kingdome of Spaine groaning vnder the burthens of intestine dissentions and troubles hee may without any danger to himselfe giue the Catholike King a Bishops mate Yea the L. Cardinal himselfe is better seene in the humors and inclinations of the Christian world then to be grosly perswaded that in the Kingdome of Spaine and in the very heart of Rome it selfe there be not many which either make it but a ieast or else take it in fowle scorne to heare the Popes power ouer the Crownes of Kings once named especially since the Venetian Republike hath put his Holinesse to the worse in the same cause and cast him in Law What needed the L. Cardinall then by casting vp such mounts and trenches by heaping one amplification vpon an other to make schisme looke with such a terrible and hideous aspect Who knowes not how great an offence how heinous a crime it is to quarter not IESVS CHRISTS coat but his body which is the Church And what needed such terrifying of the Church with vglinesse of schisme whereof there is neither colourable shew nor possibilitie The next vgly monster after schisme shaped by the L. Cardinall in the third supposed and pretended inconuenience is heresie Pag. 89. His Lordship saith for the purpose By this Article we are cast headlong into a manifest heresie as binding vs to confesse that for many aages past the Catholike Church hath bene banished out of the whole world For if the champions of the doctrine contrary to this Article doe hold an impious and a detestable opinion repugnant vnto Gods word then doubtlesse the Pope for so many hundred yeeres expired hath not bene the head of the Church but an heretike and the Antichrist He addeth moreouer That the Church long agoe hath lost her name of Catholike and that in France there hath no Church flourished nor so much as appeared these many and more then many yeeres for as much as all the French doctors for many yeres together haue stood for the contrary opinion We can erect and set vp no trophey more honorable for heretikes in token of their victory then to auow that Christs visible Kingdom is perished from the face of the earth and that for so many hundred yeres there hath not bene any Temple of God nor any spouse of Christ but euery where and all the world ouer the kingdom of Antichrist the synagogue of Satan the spouse of the diuel hath mightily preuailed and borne all the sway Lastly what stronger engines can these heretikes wish or desire for the battering and the demolishing of transubstantiation of auricular confession and other like towers
being scantly inhabited but by very few and they as barbarous and scant of ciuilitie as number there comes our first King Fergus with a great number with him out of Ireland which was long inhabited before vs and making himselfe master of the countrey by his owne friendship and force as well of the Ireland-men that came with him as of the countrey-men that willingly fell to him hee made himselfe King and Lord as well of the whole landes as of the whole inhabitants within the same Thereafter he and his successours a long while after their being Kinges made and established their lawes from time to time and as the occasion required So the trewth is directly contrarie in our state to the false affirmation of such seditious writers as would perswade vs that the Lawes and state of our countrey were established before the admitting of a king where by the contrarie ye see it plainely prooued that a wise king comming in among barbares first established the estate and forme of gouernement and thereafter made lawes by himselfe and his successours according thereto The kings therefore in Scotland were before any estates or rankes of men within the same before any Parliaments were holden or lawes made and by them was the land distributed which at the first was whole theirs states erected and decerned and formes of gouernement deuised and established And so it followes of necessitie that the kings were the authors and makers of the Lawes and not the Lawes of the kings And to prooue this my assertion more clearly it is euident by the rolles of our Chancellery which containe our eldest and fundamentall Lawes that the King is Dominus omnium bonorum and Dominus directus totius Dominij the whole subiects being but his vassals and from him holding all their lands as their ouer-lord who according to good seruices done vnto him chaungeth their holdings from tacke to few from ward to blanch erecteth new Baronies and vniteth olde without aduice or authoritie of either Parliament or any other subalterin iudiciall seate So as if wrong might bee admitted in play albeit I grant wrong should be wrong in all persons the King might haue a better colour for his pleasure without further reason to take the land from his lieges as ouer-lord of the whole and doe with it as pleaseth him since all that they hold is of him then as foolish writers say the people might vnmake the king and put an other in his roome But either of them as vnlawful and against the ordinance of God ought to be alike odious to be thought much lesse put in practise And according to these fundamentall Lawes already alledged we daily see that in the Parliament which is nothing else but the head Court of the king and his vassals the lawes are but craued by his subiects and onely made by him at their rogation and with their aduice For albeit the king make daily statutes and ordinances enioyning such paines thereto as hee thinkes meet without any aduice of Parliament or estates yet it lies in the power of no Parliament to make any kinde of Lawe or Statute without his Scepter be to it for giuing it the force of a Law And although diuers changes haue beene in other countries of the blood Royall and kingly house the kingdome being reft by conquest from one to another as in our neighbour countrey in England which was neuer in ours yet the same ground of the kings right ouer all the land and subiects thereof remaineth alike in all other free Monarchies as well as in this For when the Bastard of Normandie came into England and made himselfe king was it not by force and with a mighty army Where he gaue the Law and tooke none changed the Lawes inuerted the order of gouernement set downe the strangers his followers in many of the old possessours roomes as at this day well appeareth a great part of the Gentlemen in England beeing come of the Norman blood and their old Lawes which to this day they are ruled by are written in his language and not in theirs And yet his successours haue with great happinesse enioyed the Crowne to this day Whereof the like was also done by all them that conquested them before And for conclusion of this point that the king is ouer-lord ouer the whole lands it is likewise daily proued by the Law of our hoordes of want of Heires and of Bastardies For if a hoord be found vnder the earth because it is no more in the keeping or vse of any person it of the law pertains to the king If a person inheritour of any lands or goods dye without any sort of heires all his landes and goods returne to the king And if a bastard die vnrehabled without heires of his bodie which rehabling onely lyes in the kings hands all that hee hath likewise returnes to the king And as ye see it manifest that the King is ouer-Lord of the whole land so is he Master ouer euery person that inhabiteth the same hauing power ouer the life and death of euery one of them For although a iust Prince will not take the life of any of his subiects without a cleare law yet the same lawes whereby he taketh them are made by himselfe or his predecessours and so the power flowes alwaies from him selfe as by daily experience we see good and iust Princes will from time to time make new lawes and statutes adioyning the penalties to the breakers thereof which before the law was made had beene no crime to the subiect to haue committed Not that I deny the old definition of a King and of a law which makes the king to bee a speaking law and the Law a dumbe king for certainely a king that gouernes not by his lawe can neither be countable to God for his administration nor haue a happy and established raigne For albeit it be trew that I haue at length prooued that the King is aboue the law as both the author and giuer of strength thereto yet a good king will not onely delight to rule his subiects by the lawe but euen will conforme himselfe in his owne actions thereuneto alwaies keeping that ground that the health of the common-wealth be his chiefe lawe And where he sees the lawe doubtsome or rigorous hee may interpret or mitigate the same lest otherwise Summum ius bee summa iniuria And therefore generall lawes made publikely in Parliament may vpon knowen respects to the King by his authoritie bee mitigated and suspended vpon causes onely knowen to him As likewise although I haue said a good king will frame all his actions to be according to the Law yet is hee not bound thereto but of his good will and for good example-giuing to his subiects For as in the law of abstaining from eating of flesh in Lenton the king will for examples sake make his owne house to obserue the Law yet no man will thinke he needs to take a licence to
Parliament there were Lawes made setting downe some such orders as were thought fit for preuenting the like mischiefe in time to come Amongst which a forme of OATH was framed to be taken by my Subiects whereby they should make a cleare profession of their resolution faithfully to persist in their obedience vnto mee according to their naturall allegiance To the end that I might hereby make a separation not onely betweene all my good Subiects in generall and vnfaithfull Traitors that intended to withdraw themselues from my obedience But specially to make a separation betweene so many of my Subiects who although they were otherwise Popishly affected yet retained in their hearts the print of their naturall duetie to their Soueraigne and those who being caried away with the like fanaticall zeale that the Powder-Traitors were could not conteine themselues within the bounds of their naturall Allegiance but thought diuersitie of religion a safe pretext for all kinde of treasons and rebellions against their Soueraigne Which godly and wise intent God did blesse with successe accordingly For very many of my Subiects that were Popishly affected aswell Priests as Layicks did freely take the same Oath whereby they both gaue me occasion to thinke the better of their fidelitie and likewise freed themselues of that heauie slander that although they were fellow professors of one Religion with the powder-Traitors yet were they not ioyned with them in treasonable courses against their Soueraigne whereby all quietly minded Papists were put out of despaire and I gaue a good proofe that I intended no persecution against them for conscience cause but onely desired to be secured of them for ciuill obedience which for conscience cause they were bound to performe 3. But the diuel could not haue deuised a more malicious tricke for interrupting this so calme and clement a course then fell out by the sending hither and publishing a Breue of the Popes countermanding all them of his profession to take this Oath Thereby sowing new seeds of ielousie betweene me and my Popish Subiects by stirring them vp to disobey that lawfull commandement of their Soueraigne which was ordeined to bee taken of them as a pledge of their fidelitie And so by their refusall of so iust a charge to giue mee so great and iust a ground for punishment of them without touching any matter of conscience throwing themselues needlesly into one of these desperate straits either with the losse of their liues and goods to renounce their Allegiance to their naturall Soueraigne or else to procure the condemnation of their soules by renouncing the Catholicke faith as he alleadgeth 4. And on the other part although disparitie of Religion the Pope being head of the contrary part can permit no intelligence nor intercourse of messengers betweene mee and the Pope yet there being no denounced warre betweene vs he hath by this action broken the rules of common ciuilitie and iustice betweene Christian Princes in thus condemning me vnheard both by accounting me a persecutor which cannot be but implied by exhorting the Papists to endure Martyrdome as likewise by so straitly commanding all those of his profession in England to refuse the taking of this Oath thereby refusing to professe their naturall obedience to me their Soueraigne For if he thinke himselfe my lawfull Iudge wherefore hath he condemned me vnheard And if he haue nothing to doe with me and my gouernment as indeed he hath not why doeth he mittere falcem in alienam messem to meddle betweene me and my Subiects especially in matters that meerely and onely concerne ciuill obedience And yet could Pius Quintus in his greatest fury and auowed quarrell against the late Queene doe no more iniurie vnto her then hee hath in this case offered vnto mee without so much as a pretended or an alleadged cause For what difference there is betweene the commanding Subiects to rebell and loosing them from their Oath of Allegiance as Pius Quintus did and the commanding of Subiects not to obey in making profession of their Oath of their dutifull Allegiance as this Pope hath now done no man can easily discerne 5. But to draw neere vnto his Brene wherein certainely hee hath taken more paines then he needed by setting downe in the said Breue the whole body of the Oath at length whereas the onely naming of the Title thereof might as well haue serued for any answere hee hath made thereunto making Vna litura that is the flat and generall condemnation of the whole Oath to serue for all his refutation Therein hauing as well in this respect as in the former dealt both vndiscreetly with me and iniuriously with his owne Catholickes With mee in not refuting particularly what speciall words he quarrelled in that Oath which if hee had done it might haue beene that for the fatherly care I haue not to put any of my Subiects to a needlesse extremitie I might haue beene contented in some sort to haue reformed or interpreted those wordes With his owne Catholickes for either if I had so done they had beene thereby fully eased in that businesse or at least if I would not haue condescended to haue altered any thing in the saide Oath yet would thereby some appearance or shadow of excuse haue beene left vnto them for refusing the same not as seeming thereby to swarue from their Obedience and Allegiance vnto mee but onely beeing stayed from taking the same vpon the scrupulous tendernesse of their consciences in regard of those particular words which the Pope had noted and condemned therein And now let vs heare the words of his thunder POPE PAVLVS THE FIFT to the ENGLISH Catholickes WElbeloued Sonnes The Pope his first Breue Salutation and Apostolicall Benediction The tribulations and calamities which yee haue continually sustained for the keeping of the Catholike Faith haue alwayes afflicted vs with great griefe of minde But for as much as we vnderstand that at this time all things are more grieuous our affliction hereby is wonderfully increased For wee haue heard how you are compelled by most grieuous punishments set before you to goe to the Churches of Heretikes to frequent their assemblies to be present at their Sermons Truely wee doe vndoubtedly beleeue that they which with so great constancie and fortitude haue hitherto indured most cruell persecutions and almost infinite miseries that they may walke without spot in the Law of the Lord will neuer suffer themselues to be defiled with the communion of those that haue forsaken the diuine Law Yet notwithstanding being compelled by the zeale of our Pastorall Office and by our Fatherly care which we doe continually take for the saluation of your soules we are inforced to admonish and desire you that by no meanes you come vnto the Churches of the Heretickes or heare their Sermons or communicate with them in their Rites lest you incurre the wrath of God For these things may ye not doe without indamaging the worship of God and your owne saluation As
him But when hee said Goe forth to fight inuade such a nation they presently obeyed They distinguished their eternall Lord from their temporall and yet were they subiect euen vnto their temporall Lord for his sake that was their eternall Lord and Master 1 Tertull. ad Scap. Tertullian sayth A Christian is enemie to no man much lesse to the Prince whom hee knoweth to bee appointed of God and so of necessitie must loue reuerence and honour him and wish him safe with the whole Romane Empire so long as the world shall last for so long shall it endure Wee honour therefore the Emperour in such sort as is lawfull for vs and expedient for him as a man the next vnto God and obtaining from God whatsoeuer hee hath and onely inferiour vnto God This the Emperour himselfe would for so is hee greater then all while hee is inferiour onely to the trew God 2 Iust Martyr Apol. 2. ad Ant. Imperat. Iustine Martyr Wee onely adore the Lord and in all other things cheerefully performe seruice to you professing that you are Emperours and Princes of men 3 Amb. in oratcont AuxentiuÌ„ de basilicis traden habetur lib. 5. epist Ambr. Ambrose I may lament weepe and sigh My teares are my weapons against their armes souldiers and the Gothes also such are the weapons of a Priest Ocherwise neither ought I neither can Iresist 4 Optat. contra Parmen lib. 3. Optatus Ouer the Emperour there is none but onely God that made the Emperour And 5 Greg. Mag. Epist lib. 2. indict 11. Epist. 61. Gregory writing to Mauritius about a certaine Law that a Souldier should not be receiued into a Monasterie nondum expleta militia The Almightie God sayth hee holdes him guiltie that is not vpright to the most excellent Emperour in all things that hee doeth or speaketh And then calling himselfe the vnworthy seruant of his Godlinesse goeth on in the whole Epistle to shewe the iniustice of that Lawe as hee pretendeth and in the end concludes his Epistle with these wordes I being subiect to your command haue caused the same Law to be sent through diuers parts of your Dominions and because the Law it selfe doeth not agree to the Law of the Almightie God I haue signified the same by my Letters to your most excellent Lordship so that on both parts I haue payed what I ought because I haue yeelded obedience to the Emperour and haue not holden my peace in what I thought for God Now how great a contrarietie there is betwixt this ancient Popes action in obeying an Emperour by the publication of his Decree which in his owne conscience hee thought vnlawfull and this present Popes prohibition to a Kings Subiects from obedience vnto him in things most lawfull and meere temporall I remit it to the Readers indifferencie And answerably to the Fathers spake the Councels in their Decrees As the Councell of 6 Concil Arelatense sub Carolo Mag. Can. 26. Arles submitting the whole Councell to the Emperour in these wordes These things wee haue decreed to be presented to our Lord the Emperour beseeching his Clemencie that if wee haue done less then wee ought it may be supplyed by his wisedome if any thing otherwise then reason requireth it may be corrected by his iudgement if any thing be found fault with by vs with reason it may bee perfected by his aide with GODS fauourable assistance But why should I speake of Charles the great to whome not one Councell but sixe seuerall Councels Frankeford Arles Tours Chalons Ments and Rhemes did wholy submit themselues and not rather speake of all the generall Councels that of Nice Constantinople Ephesus Chalcedon and the foure other commonly so reputed which did submit themselues to the Emperours wisedome and piety in all things Insomuch as that of Ephesus repeated it foure seuerall times That they were summoned by the Emperours Oracle becke charge and commaund and betooke themselues to his Godlinesse 1 Vide Epistolaâ—â— generalâ—â— Conc. Ephes ad August beseeching him that the Decrees made against Nestorius and his followers might by his power haue their full force and validitie as appeareth manifestly in the Epistle of the generall Councell of Ephesus written ad Augustos I also reade that Christsaid His 2 2 Iohn 18 36. kingdome was not of this world bidding Giue to 3 3 Matt. 22.21 Cesar what was Cesars and to God what was Gods And I euer held it for an infallible Maxime in Diuinitie That temporall obedience to a temporall Magistrate did nothing repugne to matters of faith or saluation of soules But that euer temporall obedience was against faith and saluation of soules as in this Breue is alledged was neuer before heard nor read of in the Christian Church And therefore I would haue wished the Pope before hee had set downe this commandement to all Papists here That since in him is the power by the infabillity of his spirit to make new Articles of Faith when euer it shall please him he had first set it downe for an Article of Faith before he had commanded all Catholikes to beleeue and obey it I will then conclude the answere to this point in a Dilemma Either it is lawfull to obey the Soueraigne in temporall things Question or not If it be lawfull as I neuer heard nor read it doubted of then why is the Pope so vniust and so cruell towards his owne Catholikes as to command them to disobey their Soueraignes lawfull commandement If it be vnlawfull why hath hee neither expressed any one cause or reason thereof nor yet will giue them leaue nay rather hee should command and perswade them in plaine termes not to liue vnder a King whom vnto they ought no obedience And as for the vehement exhortation vnto them to perseuere in constancie Answere to the Popes exhortation and to suffer Martyrdome and all tribulation for this cause it requireth no other answere then onely this That if the ground be good whereupon hee hath commaunded them to stand then exhortation to constancie is necessarie but if the ground be vniust and naught as indeed it is and I haue in part already proued then this exhortation of his can worke no other effect then to make him guilty of the blood of so many of his sheepe whom hee doeth thus wilfully cast away not onely to the needlesse losse of their liues and ruine of their families but euen to the laying on of a perpetuall slander vpon all Papists as if no zealous Papist could be a trew subiect to his Prince and that the profession of that Religion and the Temporall obedience to the Ciuill Magistrate were two things repugnant and incompatible in themselues Famae vires acquirit eundo But euill information and vntrew reports which being caried so farre as betweene this and Rome cannot but increase by the way might haue abused the Pope and made him dispatch this Breue so rashly For that
hencefoorth I shall beare faith and trew Allegiance to the Kings Highnesse his Heires and lawfull Successours and to my power shall assist and defend all Iurisdictions Priuiledges Preeminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highnesse his Heires and Successours or vnited and annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of the Realme So helpe me God and by the Contents of this booke And that the iniustice as well as the error of his grosse mistaking in this point may yet be more clearely discouered I haue also thought good to insert here immediatly after the Oath of Supremacie the contrary conclusions to all the points and Articles whereof this other late Oath doeth consist whereby it may appeare what vnreasonable and rebellious points hee would driue my Subiects vnto by refusing the whole body of that Oath as it is conceiued For he that shall refuse to take this Oath must of necessitie hold all or some of these propositions following That I King IAMES am not the lawfull King of this Kingdome and of all other my Dominions That the Pope by his owne authoritie may depose me If not by his owne authoritie yet by some other authoritie of the Church or of the Sea of Rome If not by some other authoritie of the Church and Sea of Rome yet by other meanes with others helpe he may depose me That the Pope may dispose of my Kingdomes and Dominions That the Pope may giue authoritie to some forreine Prince to inuade my Dominions That the Pope may discharge my Subiects of their Allegiance and Obedience to me That the Pope may giue licence to one or more of my Subiects to beare armes against me That the Pope may giue leaue to my Subiects to offer violence to my Person or to my gouernement or to some of my Subiects That if the Pope shall by Sentence excommunicate or depose mee my Subiects are not to beare Faith and Allegiance to me If the Pope shall by Sentence excommunicate or depose me my Subiects are not bound to defend with all their power my Person and Crowne If the Pope shall giue out any Sentence of Excommunication or Depriuation against me my Subiects by reason o◠that Sentence are not bound to reueale all Conspiracies and Treasons against mee which shall come to their hearing and knowledge That it is not hereticall and detestable to hold that Princes being excommunicated by the Pope may be either deposed or killed by their Subiects or any other That the Pope hath power to absolue my Subiects from this Oath or from some part thereof That this Oath is not administred to my Subiects by a full and lawfull authoritie That this Oath is to be taken with Equiuocation mentall euasion or secret reseruation and not with the heart and good will sincerely in the trew faith of a Christian man These are the trew and naturall branches of the body of this Oath The affirmatiue of all which negatiues Touching the pretended Councell of Lateran See Plat. In vita Innocen III. doe neither concerne in any case the Popes Supremacie in Spirituall causes nor yet were euer concluded and defined by any complete generall Councell to belong to the Popes authoritie and their owne schoole Doctors are at irreconciliable oddes and iarres about them And that the world may yet farther see ours and the whole States setting downe of this Oath The Oath of Allegiance confirmed by the authoritie of ancient Councels did not proceed from any new inuention of our owne but as it is warranted by the word of GOD so doeth it take the example from an Oath of Allegiance decreed a thousand yeeres agone which a famous Councell then together with diuers other Councels were so farre from condemning as the Pope now hath done this Oath as I haue thought good to set downe their owne wordes here in that purpose whereby it may appeare that I craue nothing now of my Subiects in this Oath which was not expresly and carefully commaunded then by the Councels to be obeyed without exception of persons Nay not in the very particular point of Equiuocatiō The ancient Councels prouided for Equiuocation The difference betweene the ancient Councels and the Pope counselling of the Catholiques which I in this Oath was so carefull to haue eschewed but you shall here see the said Councels in their Decrees as carefull to prouide for the eschewing of the same so as almost euery point of that action this of ours shal be found to haue relation agreeance one with the other saue onely in this that those old Councels were careful and strait in cōmanding the taking of the same whereas by the contrary he that now vanteth himselfe to be head of al Councels is as careful strait in the prohibition of all men from the taking of this Oath of Allegiance The words of the Councell be these Heare our Sentence Whosoeuer of vs Concil Tolet. 4 can 47. Anno 633. or of all the people thorowout all Spaine shall goe about by any meanes of conspiracie or practise to violate the Oath of his fidelitie which he hath taken for the preseruation of his Countrey or of the Kings life or who shall attempt to put violent handes vpon the King or to depriue him of his kingly power or that by tyrannicall presumption would vsurpe the Soueraigntie of the Kingdome Let him bee accursed in the sight of God the Father and of his Angels and let him bee made and declared a stranger from the Catholique Church which hee hath prophaned by his periurie and an aliant from the companie of all Christian people together with all the complices of his impietie because it behooueth all those that bee guiltie of the like offence to vnder-lie the like punishment Which sentence is three seuerall times together and almost in the same wordes repeated in the same Canon After this the Synode desired That this Sentence of theirs now this third time rehearsed might bee confirmed by the voyce and consent of all that were present Then the whole Clergie and people answered Whosoeuer shall cary himselfe presumptuously against this your definitiue sentence let them be Anathema maranatha that is let them bee vtterly destroyed at the Lords comming and let them and their complices haue their portion with Iudas Iscarioth Amen And in the fifth 1 Concil Tolet. 5. Can. 7. anno 636. Councell there it is decreed That this Acte touching the Oath of Allegiance shall bee repeated in euery Councell of the Bishops of Spaine The Decree is in these wordes In consideration that the mindes of men are easily inclined to euill and forgetfulnesse therefore this most holy Synode hath ordained and doeth enact That in euery Councell of the Bishops of Spaine the Decree of the generall 2 Synod Tolet 4. vniuersalis magna Synodus dicta Synod Tolet. 5. cap 2. Councell which was made for the safetie of our Princes shall bee with an audible voyce proclaimed and pronounced after the
made doubt or stop in it but at the first offering it vnto him did freely take it as a thing most lawfull neither meanes of threatening or flatterie being euer vsed vnto him as himselfe can yet beare witnesse And as for the temperature and modification of this Oath except that a reasonable and lawfull matter is there set downe in reasonable and temperate wordes agreeing thereunto I know not what he can meane by quarelling it for that fault For no temperatnesse nor modifications in words therein can iustly be called the Deuils craft when the thing it selfe is so plaine and so plainely interpreted to all them that take it as the onely troublesome thing in it all bee the wordes vsed in the end thereof for eschewing Aequiuocation and Mentall reseruation Which new Catholike doctrine may farre iustlier bee called the Deuils craft then any plaine and temperate wordes in so plaine and cleare a matter But what shall we say of these strange countrey clownes whom of with the Satyre we may iustly complaine that they blow both hote cold out of one mouth For Luther and all our bold and free-speaking Writers are mightily railed vpon by them as hote-brained fellowes and speakers by the Deuils instinct and now if we speake moderately and temperately of them it must be tearmed the Deuils craft And therefore wee may iustly complaine with CHRIST that when we 1 Mat. 11.17 mourne they wil not lament and when we pipe they wil not dance But neither Iohn Baptist his seueritie nor CHRIST his meekenesse and lenitie can please them who build but to their owne Monarchie vpon the ground of their owne Traditions and not to CHRIST vpon the ground of his word and infallible trewth But what can bee meant by alleadging that the craft of the Deuill herein is onely vsed for subuersion of the Catholique Faith and euersion of Saint Peters Primacie had neede bee commented anew by Bellarmine himselfe For in all this Letter of his neuer one word is vsed to prooue that by any part of this Oath the Primacie of Saint Peter is any way medled with except Master Bellarmine his bare alleadging which without proouing it by more cleare demonstration can neuer satisfie the conscience of any reasonable man For for ought that I know heauen and earth are no farther asunder then the profession of a temporall obedience to a temporall King is different from any thing belonging to the Catholique Faith or Supremacie of Saint Peter For as for the Catholique Faith No decision of any point of Religion in the Oath of Allegiance can there be one word found in all that Oath tending or sounding to matter of Religion Doeth he that taketh it promise there to beleeue or not to beleeue any article of Religion Or doeth hee so much as name a trew or false Church there And as for Saint Peters Primacie I know no Apostles name that is therein named except the name of IAMES it being my Christen name though it please him not to deigne to name me in all the Letter albeit the contents thereof concerne mee in the highest degree Neither is there any mention at all made therein either disertis verbis or by any other indirect meanes either of the Hierarchie of the Church of Saint Peters succession of the Sea Apostolike or of any such matter but that the Author of our Letter doeth brauely make mention of Saint Peters succession bringing it in comparison with the succession of Henry the eight Of which vnapt and vnmannerly similitude I wonder he should not be much ashamed For as to King Henries Successour which hee meaneth by mee as I I say neuer did nor will presume to create any Article of Faith or to bee Iudge thereof but to submit my exemplarie obedience vnto them in as great humilitie as the meanest of the land so if the Pope could bee as well able to prooue his either Personall or Doctrinall Succession from Saint Peter as I am able to prooue my lineall descent from the Kings of England and Scotland there had neuer beene so long adoe nor so much sturre kept about this question in Christendome neither had 2 Bellar. de Rom. Pont. li. 4. cap. 6. Ibid. l 2. ca. 12. Master Bellarmine himselfe needed to haue bestowed so many sheetes of paper De summo Pontifice in his great bookes of Controuersies And when all is done to conclude with a morall certitude and a piè credendum bringing in the 3 Idem ibid. lib. 2. cap. 14. Popes that are parties in this cause to be his witnesses and yet their historicall narration must bee no article of Faith And I am without vanterie sure that I doe farre more neerely imitate the worthie actions of my Predecessours then the Popes in our aage can be well proued to be similes Petro especially in cursing of Kings and setting free their Subiects from their Allegiance vnto them But now wee come to his strongest argument which is That he would alledge vpon mee a Panicke terrour as if I were possessed with a needlesse feare The Cardinals weightiest Argument For saith the Cardinall from the beginning of the Churches first infancie euen to this day where was it euer heard that euer a Pope either commaunded to bee killed or allowed the slaughter of any Prince whatsoeuer whether hee were an Hereticke an Ethnicke or Persecutour But first wherefore doeth he here wilfully and of purpose omit the rest of the points mentioned in that Oath for deposing degrading stirring vp of armes or rebelling against them which are as well mentioned in that Oath as the killing of them as beeing all of one consequence against a King no Subiect beeing so scrupulous as that hee will attempt the one and leaue the other vnperformed if hee can And yet surely I cannot blame him for passing it ouer since he could not otherwise haue eschewed the direct belying of himselfe in tearmes which hee now doeth but in substance and effect For 1 Bellarm. de Rom Pont. lib. 5. cap. 8. et lib. 3. cap. 16. as for the Popes deposing and degrading of Kings hee maketh so braue vaunts and bragges of it in his former bookes as he could neuer with ciuill honestie haue denied it here But to returne to the Popes allowing of killing of Kings I know not with what face hee can set so stout a deniall vpon it against his owne knowledge How many Emperours did the Pope raise warre against in their owne bowels Who as they were ouercome in battaile were subiect to haue beene killed therein which I hope the Pope could not but haue allowed when he was so farre inraged at 2 Gotfrid Viterb Helmod Cuspinian Henry the fifth for giuing buriall to his fathers dead corpes after the 3 Paschal 2. Pope had stirred him vp to rebell against his father and procured his ruine But leauing these olde Histories to Bellarmines owne bookes that doe most authentically cite them as I haue already
diuers others and fiue strange and as I thinke erroneous points of Doctrine with sundry falsifications of Histories are set downe in a Table by themselues in the end of this my Epistle hauing their Refutation annexed to euery one of them But as for the particular answering of his booke it is both vnnecessary and vncomely for me to make a Reply Vnnecessary because as I haue already told you my Booke is neuer yet answered so farre as belongeth to the maine question anent the Oath of Alleagiance the picking of aduantages vpon the wrong placing of the figures in the citations or such errors in the Print by casuall addition or omission of words that make nothing to the Argument being the greatest weapons wherewith hee assaults my Booke And vncomely it must needs be in my opinion for a King to fall in altercation with a Cardinal at least with one no more nobly descended then he is That Ecclesiasticall dignitie though by the sloath of Princes as I said before it be now come to that height of vsurped honour yet being in the trew originall and foundation thereof nothing else but the title of the Priests and Deacons of the Parish Churches in the towne of Rome at the first the stile of Cardinals being generally giuen to all Priests and Deacons of any Cathedral Church though the multitude of such Cardinal Priests and Deacons resorting to Rome was the cause that after bred the restraining of that title of Cardinall Priests and Deacons onely to the Parish-priests and Deacons of Rome And since that it is S. Gregorie who in his Epistles sixe hundreth yeeres after CHRIST maketh the first mention of Cardinals and so these now Electours of the Apostolike Sea beeing long and many hundreth yeeres vnknowen or vnheard of after the Apostolik aage and yet doeth hee speake of them but in this sence as I haue now described I hope the Cardinall who calleth him the Apostle of England cannot blame mee that am King thereof to acknowledge the Cardinall in no other degree of honour then our said Apostle did But how they should now become to bee so strangely exalted aboue their first originall institution that from Parish-priests and Deacons Priests inferiours they should now come to bee Princes and Peeres to Kings and from a degree vnder Bishops as both 1 Lib. de Clericis cap. 16. Bellarmine and 2 Lib. de Episcopatibus Titulis Diaconijs Cardinalium Onuphrius confesse to bee now the Popes sole Electours supplying with him the place of a Generall Councell whereby the conuening of Generall Councels is now vtterly antiquated and abolished nay out of their number onely the Pope to be elected who claimeth the absolute Superioritie ouer all Kings how this their strange vsurped exaltation I say should thus creepe in and bee suffered it belongeth to all them in our place and calling to looke vnto it who being GOD his Lieutenants in earth haue good reason to bee iealous of such vpstart Princes meane in their originall come to that height by their owne creation and now accounting themselues Kings fellowes But the speciall harme they do vs is by their defrauding vs of our common Christian interest in General Councels they hauing as I said vtterly abolished the same by rolling it vp making as it were a Monopoly thereof in their Conclaue with the Pope Whereas if euer there were a possibilitie to be expected of reducing all Christians to an vniformitie of Religiō it mustcome by the means of a Generall Councel the place of their meeting being chosen so indifferent as all Christian Princes either in their owne Persons or their Deputie Commissioners and all Church-men of Christian profession that beleeue and professe all the ancient grounds of the trew ancient Catholike and Apostolike Faith might haue tutum accessum thereunto All the incendiaries and Nouelist fire-brands on either side being debarred from the same as well Iesuites as Puritanes And therefore hauing resolued not to paine my selfe with making a Replie for these reasons heere specified grounded as well vpon the consideration of the matter as of the person of the Answerer I haue thought good to content my selfe with the reprinting of my Apologie hauing in a manner corrected nothing but the Copiers or Printers faults therein and prefixed this my Epistle of Dedication and Warning thereunto that I may yet see if any thing will be iustly said against it Not doubting but enow of my Subiects will replie vpon these Libellers and answere them sufficiently wishing YOV deepely to consider and weigh your common interest in this Cause For neither in all my Apologie nor in his pretended Refutation thereof is there any question made anent the Popes power ouer mee in particular for the excommunicating or deposing of mee For in my particular the Cardinall doeth mee that grace that hee saith The Pope thought it not expedient at this time to excommunicate mee by name our question being onely generall Whether the Pope may lawfully pretend any temporall power ouer Kings or no That no Church-men can by his rule bee subiect to any Temporall Prince I haue already shewed you And what Obedience any of you may looke for of any of them de facto hee plainely forewarneth you of by the example of Gregory the Great his obedience to the Emperour Mauritius not being ashamed to slaunder that great Personages Christian humilitie and Obedience to the Emperour with the title of a constrained and forced obedience because hee might or durst doe no otherwise Whereby he not onely wrongs the said Gregory in particular but euen doeth by that meanes lay on an heauie slaunder and reproach vpon the Christian humilitie and patience of the whole Primitiue Church especially in the time of persecution if the whole glory of their Martyrdome and Christian patience shall bee thus blotted with that vile glosse of their coacted and constrained suffering because they could or durst doe no otherwise like the patience and obedience of the Iewes or Turkish slaues in our time cleane contrary to Saint Paul and Saint Peters doctrine of obedience for conscience sake Rom. 13.5 1. Pet. 2.13 and as contrary to Tertullians Apologie for Christians and all the protestations of the ancient Fathers in that case But it was good lucke for the ancient Christians in the dayes of Ethnicke Emperours that this prophane and new conceit was then vnknowen among them otherwise they would haue beene vtterly destroyed and rooted out in that time and no man to haue pitied them as most dangerous members in a Common-wealth who would no longer be obedient then till they were furnished with sufficient abilitie and power to resist and rebell Thus may ye see how vpon the one part our Cardinall will haue all Kings and Monarchs to bee the Popes Vassals and yet will not on the other side allow the meanest of the Pope his vassals to be subiect to any Christian Prince But he not thinking it enough to make the
learned Lecture Now it is no wonder that in so good an office and loyall cariage towards their King the third Estate hath outgone the Clergie For the Clergie denie themselues to haue any ranke among the Subiects of the King they stand for a Soueraigne out of the Kingdome to whom as to the Lord Paramount they owe suite and seruice they are bound to aduance that Monarchie to the bodie whereof they properly apperteine as parts or members as elsewhere I haue written more at large But for the Nobilitie the Kings right arme to prostitute and set as it were to sale the dignitie of their King as if the arme should giue a thrust vnto the head J say for the Nobilitie to hold and maintaine euen in Parliament their King is liable to deposition by any forreine power or Potentate may it not passe among the strangest miracles and rarest wonders of the world For that once granted this consequence is good and necessarie That in case the King once lawfully deposed shall stand vpon the defensiue and hold out for his right he may then lawfully be murthered Let mee then here freely professe my opinion and this it is That now the French Nobilitie may seeme to haue some reason to disrobe themselues of their titles and to transferre them by resignation vnto the third Estate For that body of that third Estate alone hath caried a right noble heart in as much as the could neither be tickled with promises nor terrified by threatnings from resolute standing to those fundamentall points and reasons of State which most concerne the honour of their King and the securitie of his person Of all the Clergie the man that hath most abandoned or set his honour to sale the man to whom France is least obliged is the Lord Cardinall of Perron a man otherwise inferiour to few in matter of learning and in the grace of a sweete style This man in two seuerall Orations whereof the one was pronounced before the Nobilitie the other had audience before the third Estate hath set his best wits on worke to draw that doctrine into all hatred and infamie which teacheth Kings to be indeposeable by the Pope To this purpose hee termes the same doctrine a breeder of Schismes a gate that openeth to make way and to giue entrance vnto all heresies in briefe a doctrine to bee held in so high a degree of detestation that rather then he and his fellow-Bishops will yeeld to the signing thereof they will bee contented like Martyrs to burne at a stake At which resolution or obstinacie rather in his opinion I am in a manner amased more then I can be mooued for the like brauado in many other forasmuch as hee was many yeeres together a follower of the late King euen when the King followed a contrary Religion and was deposed by the Pope as also because not long before in a certaine Assemblie holden at the Iacobins in Paris hee withstood the Popes Nuntio to his face when the said Nuntio laboured to make this doctrine touching the Popes temporall Soueraigntie passe for an Article of Faith But in both Orations hee singeth a contrary song and from his owne mouth passeth sentence of condemnation against his former course and profession J fuppose not without sollide iudgemen as one that heerein hath well accommodated himselfe to the times For as in the reigne of the late King hee durst not offer to broach this doctrine such was his fore-wit so now he is bold to proclaime and publish it in Parliament vnder the reigne of the said Kings sonne whose tender yeeres and late succession to the Crowne doe make him lie the more open to iniuries and the more facill to be circumuented Such is now his afterwisedome Of these two Orations that made in presence of the Nobilitie he hath for feare of incurring the Popes displeasure cautelously suppressed For therein he hath beene somewhat prodigall in affirming this doctrine maintained by the Clergie to bee but problematicall and in taking vpon him to auouch that Catholikes of my Kingdome are bound to yeeld me the honour of obedience Whereas on the other side he is not ignorant how this doctrine of deposing Princes and Kings the Pope holdeth for meerely necessarie and approoueth not by any meanes Alleagiance to bee performed vnto mee by the Catholikes of my Kingdome Yea if credit may be giuen vnto the abridgement of his other Oration published wherein he paralells the Popes power in receiuing honours in the name of the Church with the power of the Venetian Duke in receiuing honours in the name of that most renowned Rebublike no marueile that when this Oration was dispatched to the presse he commanded the same to be gelded of this clause and other like for feare of giuing his Holinesse any offensiue distaste His pleasure therefore was and content withall that his Oration imparted to the third Estate should be put in Print and of his courtesie he vouchsafed to addresse vnto me a copie of the same Which after J had perused J foorthwith well perceiued what and how great discrepance there is betweene one man that perorateth from the ingenuous and sincere disposition of a sound heart and an other that flaunteth in flourishing speech with inward checkes of his owne conscience For euery where he contradicts himselfe and seemes to be afraid lest men should picke out his right meaning First In 12. seuerall passages the L. Card. seemeth to speake against his owne conscience Pag. 85. he grants this Question is not hither to decided by the holy Scriptures or by the Decrees of the ancient Church or by the analogie of other Ecclesiasticall proceedings and neuerthelesse hee confidently doeth affirme that whosoeuer maintaine this doctrine to be wicked and abhominable that Popes haue no power to put Kings by their supreame Thrones they teach men to beleeue there hath not bene any Church for many aages past and that indeed the Church is the very Synagogue of Antichrist Secondly he exhorts his hearers to hold this doctrine at least for problematicall and not necessary and yet herein he calls them to all humble submission vnto the iudgement of the Pope and Clergie by whom the cause hath bene already put out of all question as out of all hunger and cold Thirdly he doeth auerre in case this Article be authorized it makes the Pope in good consequence to bee the Antichrist Pag. 99. and yet he grants that many of the French are tolerated by the Pope to dissent in this point from his Holinesse prouided their doctrine be not proposed as necessary and materiall to faith As if the Pope in any sort gaue toleration to hold any doctrine contrary to his owne and most of all that doctrine which by consequence inferres himselfe to be the Antichrist Fourthly he protesteth forwardnesse to vndergoe the flames of Martyrdome rather then to signe this doctrine which teacheth Kings Crownes to sit faster on their heads then to be stirred by any
Papal power whatsoeuer and yet saith withall the Pope winketh at the French by his toleration to hold this dogmaticall point for problematicall And by this meanes the Martyrdome that hee affecteth in this cause will prooue but a problematicall Martyrdome whereof question might grow very well whether it were to be mustered with grieuous crimes or with phreneticall passions of the braine or with deserued punishments Fiftly he denounceth Anathema dischargeth maledictions like haile-shot against parricides of Kings and yet elsewhere hee layes himselfe open to speake of Kings onely so long as they stand Kings But who doeth not know that a King deposed is no longer King And so that limme of Satan which murthered Henry the III. then vn-king'd by the Pope did not stabbe a King to death Sixtly he doeth not allow a King to be made away by murder and yet he thinks it not much out of the way to take away al meanes whereby he might be able to stand in defence of his life Seuenthly Pag. 95.97 hee abhorreth killing of Kings by apposted throat-cutting for feare lest body and soule should perish in the same instant and yet he doth not mislike their killing in a pitcht field and to haue them slaughtered in a set battaile For he presupposeth no doubt out of his charitable mind that by this meanes the soule of a poore King so dispatched out of the way shall instantly flie vp to heauen Eightly he saith a King deposed retaineth stil a certaine internal habitude and politike impression by vertue and efficacie whereof he may being once reformed and become a new man be restored to the lawfull vse and practise of Regalitie Whereby hee would beare vs in hand that when a forraine Prince hath inuaded and rauenously seised the kingdome into his hands he will not onely take pittie of his predecessour to saue his life but will also proue so kind-hearted vpon fight of his repentance to restore his kingdome without fraud or guile Ninthly he saith euery where in his Discourse that he dealeth not in the cause otherwise then as a problematicall discourser and without any resolution one way or other and yet with might and maine hee contends for the opinion that leaues the States and Crownes of Kings controulable by the Pope refutes obiections propounds the authoritie of Popes and Councils by name the Lateran Councill vnder Innocent III. as also the consent of the Church And to crosse the Churches iudgement is in his opinion to bring in schisme and to leaue the world without a Church for many hundred yeeres together which to my vnderstanding is to speake with resolution and without all hesitation Tenthly he acknowledgeth none other cause of sufficient validitie for the deposing of a King besides herefie apostasie and infidelitie neuerthelesse that Popes haue power to displace Kings for herefie and apostasie hee proueth by examples of Kings whom the Pope hath curbed with deposition not for heresie but for matrimoniall causes for ciuill pretences and for lacke of capacitie Eleuenthly hee alledgeth euery where passages as well of holy Scripture as of the Fathers and moderne histories but so impertinent and with so little trewth as hereafter wee shall cause to appeare that for a man of his deepe learning and knowledge it seemeth not possible so to speake out of his iudgement Lastly whereas all this hath bene hudled and heaped together into one masse to currie with the Pope yet hee suffereth diuers points to fall from his lips which may well distast his Holinesse in the highest degree As by name where he prefers the authoritie of the Councill before that of the Pope and makes his iudgement inferiour to the iudgement of the French as in fit place hereafter shal be shewed Againe where he representeth to his hearers the decrees of Popes and Councils already passed concerning this noble subiect and yet affirmes that he doth not debate the question but as a Questionist and without resolution As if a Cardinal should be afraid to be positiue and to speake in peremptory straines after Popes and Councils haue once decided the Question Or as if a man should perorate vpon hazard in a cause for the honour whereof he would make no difficultie to suffer Martyrdome Adde hereunto that his Lordship hath alwayes taken the contrary part heretofore and this totall must needs arise that before the third Estate his lips looked one way and his conscience another All these points by the discourse which is to follow and by the ripping vp of his Oration which by Gods assistance J will vndertake tending to the reproch of Kings and the subuersion of kingdomes J confidently speake it shal be made manifest Yet doe J not conceiue it can any way make for my honour to enter the lists against a Cardinall For J am not ignorant how farre a Cardinals Hat commeth vnder the Crowne and Scepter of a King For well J wot vnto what sublimitie the Scripture hath exalted Kings when it styles them Gods Whereas the dignitie of a Cardinall is but a late vpstart inuention of man In the Preface to my Apologie as J haue elsewhere prooued But J haue imbarqued my selfe in this action mooued thereunto First by the common interest of Kings in the cause it selfe Then by the L. Cardinall who speaketh not in this Oration as a priuate person but as one representing the body of the Clergie and Nobilitie by whom the cause hath bene wonne and the garland borne away from the third Estate Againe by mine owne particular because he is pleased to take me vp for a sower of dissention and a persecutour vnder whom the Church is hardly able to fetch her breath yea for one by whom the Catholikes of my Kingdome are compelled to endure all sorts of punishments and withal he tearmes this Article of the third Estate a monster with a fishes taile that came swimming out of England Last of all by the present state of France because France being now reduced to so miserable tearmes that it is now become a crime for a Frenchman to stand for his King it is a necessary duetie of her neighbours to speake in her cause and to make triall whether they can put life into the trewth now dying and ready to be buried by the power of violence that it may resound and ring againe from remote regions J haue no purpose once to touch many prettie toyes which the ridges of his whole booke are sowen withall Such are his allegations of Pericles Agesilaus Aristotle Minos the Druides the French Ladies Hannibal Pindarus and Poeticall fables All resembling the red and blew flowers that pester the corne when it standeth in the fields where they are more noy some to the growing crop then beautifull to the beholding eye Such pettie matters nothing at all beseemed the dignitie of the Assembly and of the maine subiect or of the Orator himselfe For it was no Decorum to enter the Stage with a Pericles in his mouth but with the
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 Gentry of his Kingdome Doeth not some part of the Spanish Kings greatnesse consist in creating of his great In the next place followeth Gregorie I. Examp. 3. pag. 22. who in the 10. Epistle of the 11. booke confirming the priuiledges of the Hospitall at Augustodunum in Bourgongne prohibiteth all Kings and Prelates whatsoeuer to infringe or diminish the said priuiledges in whole or in part His formall and expresse words bee these If any King Prelate Iudge or any other Secular person informed of this our Constitution shall presume to goe or doe contrary thereunto let him bee cast downe from his power and dignitie I answere the Lord Cardinall heere wrongs himselse very much in taking imprecations for Decrees Might not euen the meanest of the people vse the same tenour of words and say If any shall touch the life or the most sacred Maiestie of our Kings be he Emperour or be he Pope let him bee accursed let him fall from his eminent place of authoritie let him lose his dignitie let him tumble into beggerie diseases and all kindes of calamities I forbeare to shew how easie a matter it is for Monkes to forge titles after their owne humour and to their owne liking for the vpholding and maintaining of their priuiledges As for the purpose the same Gregorie citeth in the end of his Epistles another priuiledge of the like stuffe and stampe to the former granted to the Abbey of S. Medard at Soissons It is fenced with a like clause to the other But of how great vntrewth and of how little weight it is the very date that it beareth makes manifest proofe For it runs Dated the yeere of our Lords Incarnation 593. the 11. Indiction whereas the 10. Indiction agreeth to the yeere 593. Besides it was not Gregories maner to date his Epistles according to the yeere of the Lord. Againe the said priuiledge was signed by the Bishops of Alexandria and Carthage who neuer knew as may well bee thought whether any such Abbey of S. Medard or citie of Soissons was euer built in the world Moreouer they signed in the thickest of a crowd as it were of Italian Bishops Lastly hee that shall reade in this Gregories Epistles with what spirit of reuerence and humilitie he speaketh of Emperours will hardly beleeue that euer hee armed himselfe with authoritie to giue or to take away Kingdomes Hee styles himselfe * Epist 6. l. 3. Ego antem indignus pietatin tuae seruils Ego verò haec Dominis meis Ioquens quid sum nisi pulu is vermis Ibid. Egc quidem iussioni subiectus c. Epist 61. l. 2. The Emperours vnworthie seruant presuming to speake vnto his Lord when he knowes himselfe to bee but dust and a very worme Hee professeth subiection vnto the Emperours commands euen to the publishing of a certaine Law of the Emperours which in his iudgement somewhat iarred and iustled with Gods Law as elsewhere I haue spoken more at large The L. Cardinall next bringeth vpon the stage Iustinian II. Hee Examp. 4. being in some choller with Sergius Bishop of Rome because hee would not fauour the erroneous Synode of Constantinople would haue caused the Bishop to bee apprehended by his Constable Zacharias But by the Romane Militia that is the troupes which the Emperour then had in Italie Zacharias was repulsed and hindered from his deseigne euen with opprobrious and reproachfull termes His Lordship must haue my shallownesse excused if I reach not his intent by this Allegation wherein I see not one word of deposing from the Empire or of any sentence pronounced by the Pope Heere are now 712. yeeres expired after the birth of Iesus Christ in all which long tract of time the L. Cardinal hath not light vpon any instance which might make for his purpose with neuer so little shew For the example of the Emperor Philippicus by the Cardinal alledged next in sequence Examp. 5. belongeth to the yeere 713. And thus lies the historie This Emperour Philippicus Bardanes was a professed enemie to the worshipping of Images and commanded them to be broken in pieces In that very time the Romane Empire was ouerthrowen in the West and sore shaken by the Saracenes in the East Besides those miseries the Emperour was also incumbred with a ciuill and intestine warre The greatest part of Italie was then seized by the Lombards and the Emperour in Italie had nothing left saue onely the Exarchat of Rauenna and the Dutchie of Rome then halfe abandoned by reason of the Emperours want of forces Pope Constantine gripes this occasion whereon to ground his greatnesse and to shake off the yoke of the Emperour his Lord Vndertakes against Philippicus the cause of Images by a Councel declares the Emperour Heretique Prohibites his rescripts or coine to bee receiued and to goe current in Rome Forbids his Imperiall statue to bee set vp in the Temple according to ancient custome The tumult groweth to a height The Pope is principall promoter of the tumult In the heate of the tumult the Exarche of Rauenna loseth his life Here see now the mutinie of a subiect against his Prince to pull from him by force and violence a citie of his Empire But who seeth in all this any sentence of deposition from the Imperiall dignitie Nay the Pope then missed the cushion and was disappointed vtterly of his purpose The citie of Rome stood firme and continued still in their obedience to the Emperour About some 12. yeeres after Exemp 6. the Emperour Leo Isauricus whom the Lord of Perron calleth Iconoclast falles to fight it out at sharpe and to prosecute worshippers of Images with all extremitie Vpon this occasion Pope Gregory 2. then treading in the steps of his predecessor when he perceiued the citie of Rome to be but weakely prouided of men or munition and the Emperour to haue his hands full in other places found such meanes to make the citie rise in rebellious armes against the Emperour that he made himselfe in short time master thereof Thus farre the Lord Cardinall whereunto my answere for satisfaction is that degrading an Emperour from his Imperiall dignitie and reducing a citie to reuolt against her Master that a man at last may carry the piece himselfe and make himselfe Lord thereof are two seuerall actions of speciall difference If the free-hold of the citie had beene conueied to some other by the Pope depriuing the Emperour as proprietarie thereof this example might haue challenged some credit at least in shew but so to inuade the citie to his owne vse and so to seize on the right and authority of another what is it but open rebellion and notorious ambition For it is farre from Ecclesiasticall censure when
the Order of Matrimonie and Relgion is wounded By this deuice not onely the Kings vices but likewise his naturall diseases and infirmities are fetcht into the circle of Religion and the L. Cardinall hath not done himselfe right in restraining the Popes power to depose Kings vnto the cases of Heresie Apostasie and persecution of the Church In the next place followeth Leo III. who by setting the Imperial Crowne vpon the head of Charles absolued all the Subiects in the West of their obedience to the Greeke Emperours if the L. of Perron might bee credited in this Example But indeed it is crowded among the rest by a slie tricke and cleane contrary to the naked trewth of all histories For it shall neuer be iustified by good historie that so much as one single person or man I say not one Countrey or one people was then wrought or wonne by the Pope to change his copy and Lord or from a subiect of the Greeke Emperours to turne subiect vnto Charlemaine Let me see but one Towne that Charlemaine recouered from the Greeke Emperours by his right and title to his Empire in the West No the Greeke Emperours had taken their farewell of the West Empire long before And therefore to nicke this vpon the tallie of Pope Leo his Acts that he tooke away the West from the Greeke Emperour it is euen as if one should say that in this aage the Pope takes the Dukedome of Milan from the French Kings or the citie of Rome from the Emperours of Germanie because their Predecessours in former aages had beene right Lords and gouernours of them both It is one of the Popes ordinary and solemne practises to take away much after the maner of his giuing For as he giueth what he hath not in his right and power to giue or bestoweth vpon others what is already their owne euen so he taketh away from Kings and Emperors the possessions which they haue not in present hold and possession After this maner he takes the West from the Greeke Emperors when they hold nothing in the West and lay no claime to any citie or towne of the West Empire And what shall wee call this way of depriuation but spoiling a naked man of his garments and killing a man already dead Trew it is the Imperiall Crowne was then set on Charlemaines head by Leo the Pope did Leo therefore giue him the Empire No more then a Bishop that crownes a King at his Royall and solemne consecration doeth giue him the Kingdome For shall the Pope himselfe take the Popedome from the Bishop of Ostia as of his gift because the crowning of the Pope is an Office of long time peculiar to the Ostian Bishop It was the custome of Emperours to be crowned Kings of Italy by the hands of the Archbishop of Milan did he therefore giue the Kingdome of Italy to the said Emperours And to returne vnto Charlemaine If the Pope had conueyed the Empire to him by free and gracious donation the Pope doubtlesse in the solemnitie of his coronation would neuer haue perfourmed vnto his ownecreature an Emperour of his owne making the dueties of adoration Perfectit landibus a Pontifice more Principum antiquorum adoratus est Auentinus Annalium Boiorum lib. 4. Posthaec ab eodem Pontifice vt caeteri veterum Prineipum mere maiorum aioratus est Magnus Sigeb ad an 801. Marianus Scotus lib. 3. Annalium Plat. in vita Leon. 3. Auent Annal. Boio lib. 4. Imperium transferre iure suo in Germanos Carolúmque tacito Senatus consulto plebiscitoque decernunt as Ado that liued in the same aage hath left it on record After the solemne prayses ended saith Ado the chiefe Bishop honoured him with adoration according to the custome of ancient Princes The same is like wise put downe by Auentine in the 4. booke of his Annals of Bauaria The like by the President Fauchet in his Antiquities and by Monsieur Petau Counsellour in the Court of Parliament at Paris in his Preface before the Chronicles of Eusebius Hierome and Sigebert It was therefore the people of Rome that called this Charles the Great vnto the Imperiall dignitie and cast on him the title of Emperour So testifieth Sigebert vpon the yeere 801. All the Romanes with one generall voice and consent ring out acclamations of Imperiall praises to the Emperour they crowne him by the bands of Leo the Pope they giue him the style of Caesar and Augustus Marianus Scotus hath as much in effect Charles was then called Augustus by the Romanes And so Platina After the solemne seruice Leo declareth and proclaimeth Charles Emperour according to the publike Decree and generall request of the people of Rome Auentine and Sigonius in his 4. booke of the Kingdome of Italie witnesse the same Neuerthelsse to gratifie the L. Cardinall Suppose Pope Leo dispossessed the Greeke Emperours of the West Empire What was the cause what infamous acte had they done what prophane and irreligious crime had they committed Nicephorus and Irene who reigned in the Greeke Empire in Charlemaines time were not reputed by the Pope or taken for Heretikes How then The L. Cardinall helpeth at a pinch and putteth vs in minde that Constantine and Leo predecessours to the said Emperours had beene poysoned with Heresie and stained with persecution Here then behold an Orthodoxe Prince deposed For what cause for Heresie forsooth not in himselfe but in some of his Predecessors long before An admirable case For I am of a contrary minde that he was worthy of double honour in restoring and setting vp the trewth againe which vnder his predecessors had endured oppression and suffered persecution Doubtlesse Pope Siluester was greatly ouerseene and played not well the Pope when hee winked at Constantine the Great and cast him not downe from his Imperiall Throne for the strange infide litie and Paganisme of Diocletian of Maximian and Maxentius whom Constantine succeeded in the Empire From this example the L. of Perron passeth to Fulke Archbishop of Reims Examp. 9. pag. 21. by whom Charles the Simple was threatned with Excommunication and refusing to continue any longer in the fidelity and allegiance of a subiect To what purpose is this example For who can be ignorant that all aages haue brought forth turbulent and stirring spirits men altogether forgetfull of respect and obseruance towards their Kings especially when the world finds them shallow and simple-witted like vnto this Prince But in this example where is there so much as one word of the Pope or the deposing of Kings Here the L. Cardinall chops in the example of Philip I. King of France but mangled and strangely disguised as hereafter shall be shewed At last he leadeth vs to Gregory VII surnamed Hildebrand Exam. 11. An. 1076. the scourge of Emperours the firebrand of warre the scorne of his aage This Pope after he had in the spirit of pride and in the very height of all audaciousnesse thundred the sentence of
excommunication and deposition against the Emperour Henry IIII. after he had enterprised this act without all precedent example after he had filled all Europe with blood this Pope I say sunke downe vnder the weight of his affaires and died as a fugitiue at Salerne ouerwhelmed with discontent and sorrow of heart Here lying at the point of giuing vp the ghoast Sigeb ad an 1085. calling vnto him as it is in Sigebert a certaine Cardinall whom he much fauoured He confesseth to God and Saint Peter and the whole Church that he had beene greatly defectiue in the Pastor all charge committed to his care and that by the Deuils instigation he had kindled the fire of Gods wrath and hatred against mankind Then hee sent his Confessor to the Emperour and to the whole Church to pray for his pardon because hee perceiued that his life was at an end Likewise Cardinall Benno that liued in the said Gregories time doth testifie That so soone as he was risen out of his Chaire to excommunicate the Emperour from his Cathedrall seate by the will of God the said Cathedrall seate new made of strong board or plancke did cracke and cleaue into many pieces or parts to manifest how great and terrible Schismes had beene sowen against the Church of Christ by an excommunication of so dangerous consequence pronounced by the man that had fit Iudge therein Now to bring and alleadge the example of such a man who by attempting an act which neuer any man had the heart of 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 mightie robbers and to seeke to correct and reforme ancient vertues by late vices Which Otho Frisingensis calling into his owne priuate consideration Otho Frisingens in vita Hen. 4. lib. 4. cap 31. hee durst freely professe that hee had not reade of any Emperour before this Henry the IIII. excommunicated or driuen out of his Imperiall Throne and Kingdome by the chiefe Bishop of Rome But if this quarrell may be tryed and fought out with weapons of examples I leaue any indifferent reader to iudge what examples ought in the cause to be of chiefest authority 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 Emperours 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 Theo. lib. 2. Hist cap. 16. Indeed Constantius was an Arrian and therein vsed no lesse impious then vniust proceeding Neuerthelesse the auncient Fathers of the Church doe not blame Constantius for his hard and sharpe dealing with a chiefe Bishop ouer whom hee had no lawfull power but onely as an enemie to the Orthodoxe faith and one that raged with extreame rigour of persecution against innocent beleeuers In the raigne of Valentinian the I. and yeare of the Lord 367. Ammia lib. 27 the contention betweene Damasus and Vrcisinus competitors for the Bishopricke filled the citie of Rome with a bloody sedition in which were wickedly and cruelly murdered 137. Decret dist 79. persons To meet with such turbulent actions Honorius made a law extant in the Decreetalls the words whereof be these If it shall happen henceforth by the temeritie of competitors that any two Bishops be elected to the See we straitly charge and command that neither of both shall fit in the said See Platina Sigebertus By vertue of this Law the same Honorius in the yeare 420. expelled Bonifacius and Eulalius competitors and Antipopes out of Rome though not long after he reuoked Bonifacius and setled him in the Papall See Theodoric the Goth King of Italy Anastatint Platina Lib. Pontifi Diaconus sent Iohn Bishop of Rome Embassador to the Emperour Iustinian called him home againe and clapt him vp in the close prison where he 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 scruice 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 bee beaten with stripes in manner to death and with a roape about his necke to be drawne through the city like a thiefe as Platina relates the historie Nicephorus in his 26. booke and 17. chapter comes very neere the same relation The Emperour Constantius Platina Baronius Sigeberius in the yeere 654. caused Pope Martin to be bound with chaines and banished him into Chersonesus where he ended his life The Popes in that aage writing to the Emperours 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 Iustin Authent 123. cap. 3. by Constantine the Bearded to Pope Agatho in the yeere 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 Councill that in Charlemayne should rest all right and power for the Popes election and for the gouernement of the Papall See This Constitution is incerted in the Decretals Distinct 63. Can. * Note that in the same Dist the Can of Greg. 4. beginning with Cum Hadrianus 2. is false and supposititious because Gregorie 4. was Pope long before Hadr. 2. Triateterrima monstra Hadrianus and was confirmed by the practise of many yeeres In the yeere of the Lord 963. the Emperour Otho tooke away the Popedome from Iohn 13. and placed Leo 8. in his roume In like maner Iohn 14. Gregory 5. and Siluester 2. were seated in the Papall Throne by the Othos The Emperour Henrie 2. in the yeere 1007. deposed three Popes namely Bendict 9. Siluester 3. and Gregorie 6. whom Platina doeth not sticke to call three most detestable
Oration Yea in those former times the Prelates of the Realme stood better affected towards their King then the L. Cardinal himselfe now standeth who could finde none other way to dally with and to shift off this pregnant example but by plaine glosing that heresie and Apostasie was no ground of that question or subiect of that controuersie Wherein hee not onely condemnes the Pope as one that proceeded against Philip without a iust cause good ground but likewise giues the Pope the Lie who in his goodly letters but a little aboue recited hath enrowled Philip in the list of heretiques Hee saith moreouer that indeed the knot of the question was touching the Popes pretence in challenging to himselfe the temporall Soueraigntie of France that is to say in qualifying himselfe King of France But indeed and indeed no such matter to be found His whole pretence was the collating of Benefices and to pearch aboue the King to crow ouer his Crowne in Temporall causes At which pretence his Holinesse yet aimeth still attributing and challenging to himselfe plenarie power to depose the King Now if the L. Cardinal shall yet proceed to cauill that Boniface the eighth was taken by the French for an vsurper and no lawfull Pope but for one that crept into the Papacie by fraud and symonie he must be pleased to set downe positiuely who was Pope seeing that Boniface then sate not in the Papall chaire To conclude If hee that creepeth and stealeth into the Papacie by symonie by canuases or labouring of suffrages vnder hand or by bribery be not lawfull Pope I dare be bold to professe there will hardly be found two lawfull Popes in the three last aages See the treatise of Charles du Moulin contrà paruas Datas wherin he reporteth a notable Decree of the Court vnder Charles 6. Pope Benedict in the yeere 1408. being in choller with Charles the sixt because Charles had bridled and curbed the gainefull exactions and extorsions of the Popes Court by which the Realme of France had bene exhausted of their treasure sent an excommunicatorie Bull into France against Charles the King and all his Princes The Vniuersitie of Paris made request or motion that his Bull might be mangled and Pope Benedict himselfe by some called Petrus de Luna might be declared heretike schismatike and perturber of the peace Theodoric Niemens in nemore vnion Tract 6. somnium viridar ij The said Bull was mangled and rent in pieces according to the petition of the Vniuersitie by Decree of Court vpon the tenth of Iune 1408. Tenne dayes after the Court rising at eleuen in the morning two Bul-bearers of the said excommunicatorie censure vnderwent ignominious punishment vpon the Palace or great Hal staires From thence were led to the Louure in such maner as they had bene brought from thence before drawne in two tumbrels clad in coates of painted linnen wore paper-mytres on their heads were proclaimed with sound of Trumpet and euery where disgraced with publike derision So litle reckoning was made of the Popes thundering canons in those dayes And what would they haue done if the said Buls had imported sentence of deposition against King Charles The French Church assembled at Tours in the yeere 1510. decreed that Lewis XII might with safe conscience contemne the abusiue Bulls and vniust censures of Pope Iulius the II. and by armes might withstand the Popes vsurpations in case hee should proceed to excommunicate or depose the King More by a Councill holden at Pisa this Lewis declared the Pope to bee fallen from the Popedome and coyned crownes with a stampe of this inscription I will destroy the name of Babylon To this the L. of Perron makes answere that all this was done by the French as acknowledging these iars to haue sprung not from the fountaine of Religion but from passion of state Wherein he condemneth Pope Iulius for giuing so great scope vnto his publike censures as to serue his ambition and not rather to aduance Religion He secretly teacheth vs besides that when the Pope vndertakes to depose the King of France then the French are to sit as Iudges concerning the lawfulnesse or vnlawfulnesse of the cause and in case they shall finde the cause to be vnlawfull then to disanull his iudgements and to scoffe at his thunderbolts Iohn d'Albret King of Nauarre whose Realme was giuen by the foresaid Pope to Ferdinand King of Arragon was also wrapped and entangled with strict bands of deposition Now if the French had bene touched with no better feeling of affection to their King then the subiects of Nauarre were to the Nauarrois doubtlesse France had sought a new Lord by vertue of the Popes as the L. Cardinall himselfe doeth acknowledge and confesse vniust sentence But behold to make the said sentence against Iohn d'Albret seeme the lesse contrary to equitie the L. Cardinall pretends the Popes donation was not indeed the principall cause Pag. 31. howsoeuer Ferdinand himselfe made it his pretence But his Lo. giues this for the principall cause that Iohn d'Albret had quitted his alliance made with condition that in case the Kings of Nauarre should infringe the said alliance and breake the league then the kingdome of Nauarre should returne to the Crowne of Arragon This condition betweene Kings neuer made and without all shew of probabilitie serueth to none other purpose from the Cardinals mouth but onely to insinuate and worke a perswasion in his King that he hath no right nor lawfull pretension to the Crowne of Nauarre and whatsoeuer hee now holdeth in the said kingdome of Nauarre is none of his owne but by vsurpation and vnlawfull possession Thus his Lordship French-borne makes himselfe an Aduocate for the Spanish King against his owne King and King of the French who shal be faine as hee ought if this Aduocats plea may take place to draw his title and style of King of Nauarre out of his Royall titles and to acknowledge that all the great endeuours of his predecessors to recouer the said Kingdome were dishonourable and vniust Is it possible that in the very heart and head Citie of France a spirit and tongue so licentious can be brooked What shall so great blasphemie as it were of the Kings freehold bee powred foorth in so honourable an assembly without punishment or fine What without any contradiction for the Kings right and on the Kings behalfe I may perhaps confesse the indignitie might bee the better borne and the pretence alledged might passe for a poore excuse if it serued his purpose neuer so little For how doeth all this touch or come neere the question in which the Popes vsurpation in the deposing of Kings and the resolution of the French in resisting this tyrannicall practise is the proper issue of the cause both which points are neuer a whit more of the lesse consequence and importance howsoeuer Ferdinand in his owne iustification stood vpon the foresaid pretence Thus much is confessed and wee aske no
more Pope Iulius tooke the Kingdome from the one and gaue it vnto the other the French thereupon resisted the Pope and declared him to be fallen from the Papacie This noble spirit and courage of the French in maintayning the dignitie and honour of their Kings Crownes bred those ancient customes which in the sequence of many aages haue bene obserued and kept in vse This for one That no Legate of the Pope Pag. 26. Nisi de consensu Regis Christianissimi nor any of his rescripts nor mandates are admitted and receiued in France without licence from the King and vnlesse the Legate impart his faculties to the Kings Atturney Generall to be perused and verified in Court of Parliament where they are to be tyed by certaine modifications and restrictions vnto such points as are not derogatorie from the Kings right from the liberties of the Church and from the ordinances of the Kingdome When Cardinal Balua Bochellus contrary to this ancient forme entred France in the yeere 1484. and there without leaue of the King did execute the office speed certaine Acts of the Popes Legate the Court vpon motion made by the Kings Atturney Generall decreed a Commission to be informed against him by two Councellors of the said Court and inhibited his further proceeding to vse any facultie or power of the Popes Legate vpon paine of beeing proclaimed rebell In the yeere 1561. Iohannes Tanquerellus Batchelour in Diuinitie by order of the Court was condemned to make open confession that hee had indiscreetly and rashly without consideration defended this proposition Indiscretè ac inconsideratè The Pope is the Vicar of Christ a Monarke that hath power both Spirituall and Secular and he may depriue Princes which rebell against his commandements of their dignities Doctrinaliter tantum non iuridicè Which proposition howsoeuer he protested that he had propounded the same onely to be argued and not iudicially to be determined in the affirmatiue Tanquerellus neuerthelesse was compelled openly to recant Here the L. Cardinall answeres The historie of Tanquerellus is from the matter because his proposition treateth neither of Heresie nor of Infidelitie but I answere The said proposition treateth of both forasmuch as it maketh mention of disobedience to the Pope For I suppose hee will not denie that whosoeuer shall stand out in Heresie contrary to the Popes monitorie proceedings he shal shew but poore and simple obedience to the Pope Moreouer the case is cleare by the former examples that no Pope will suffer his power to cast downe Kings to be restrained vnto the cause of Heresie and Infidelitie In the heate of the last warres raised by that holy-prophane League admonitory Bulls were sent by Pope Gregorie 14. from Rome Anno 1591. By these Bulls King Henrie 4. as an Heretike and relapse was declared incapable of the Crowne of France and his Kingdome was exposed to hauocke and spoile The Court of Parliament being assembled at Tours the 5. of August decreed the said admonitorie Bulls to bee cancelled torne in pieces and cast into a great fire by the hand of the publike executioner The Arrest it selfe or Decree is of this tenour The Court duely pondering and approouing the concluding and vnanswerable reasons of the Kings Attourney Generall hath declared and by these present doeth declare the admonitorie Bulls giuen at Rome the 1. of March 1591. to be of no validitie abusiue seditious damnable full of impietie and impostures contrary to the holy decrees rights franchises and liberties of the French Church doeth ordeine the Copies of the said Bulls sealed with the seale of Marsilius Landrianus and signed Septilius Lamprius to bee rent in pieces by the publike executioner and by him to be burnt in a great fire to be made for such purpose before the great gates of the common Hall or Palace c. Then euen then the L. of Perron was firme for the better part and stood for his King against Gregorie the Pope notwithstanding the crime of eresie pretended against Henrie his Lord. All the former examples by vs alledged are drawen out of the times after Schooles of Diuinitie were established in France For I thought good to bound my selfe within those dooles and limits of time which the L. Cardinal himselfe hath set Who goeth not sincerely to worke and in good earnest where he telleth vs there be three instances as if wee had no more obiected against Papall power to remooue Kings out of their chaires of State Page 47. by name the example of Philip the Faire of Lewis XII and of Tanquerellus For in very trewth all the former examples by vs produced are no lesse pregnant and euident howsoeuer the L. Cardinall hath bene pleased to conceale them all for feare of hurting his cause Nay France euen in the dayes of her sorest seruitude was neuer vnfurnished of great Diuines by whom this vsurped power of the Pope ouer the Temporalties and Crownes of Kings hath beene vtterly misliked and condemned Robert Earle of Flanders was commanded by Pope Paschal 2. to persecute with fire and sword the Clergie of Liege who then adhered and stood to the cause of the Emperour Henrie 4. whom the Pope had ignominiously deposed Robert by the Popes order and command was to handle the Clergie of Liege in like sort as before hee had serued the Clergie of Cambray who by the said Earle had beene cruelly stript both of goods and life The Pope promised the said Earle and his army pardon of their sinnes for the said execution The Clergie of Liege addressed answere to the Pope at large They cried out vpon the Church of Rome and called her Babylon Told the Pope home that God had commanded to giue vnto Caesar that which is Caesars that euery soule must bee subiect vnto the superiour powers that no man is exempted out of this precept and that euery oath of alleagiance is to be kept inuiolable yea that hereof they themselues are not ignorant in as much as they by a new Schisme and new traditions making a separation and rent of the Priesthood from the Kingdome doe promise to absolue of periurie such as haue perfidiously forsworne themselues against their King And whereas by way of despight and in opprobrious maner they were excommunicated by the Pope they gaue his Holinesse to vnderstand that Dauids heart had vttered a good matter but Paschals heart had spewed vp sordid and railing words like old bawdes and spinsters or websters of linnen when they scold and brawle one with another Finally they reiected his Papal excommunication as a sentence giuen without discretion This was the voyce and free speach of that Clergie in the life time of their noble Emperour But after hee was thrust out of the Empire by the rebellion of his owne sonne instigated and stirred vp thereunto by the Popes perswasion and practise and was brought vnto a miserable death it is no matter of wonder that for the safegard of their life
the said Clergie were driuen to sue vnto the Pope for their pardon Bibliotheca Patrum Tom. 3. Hildebert Bishop of Caenomanum vpon the riuer of Sartre liuing vnder the reigne of King Philip the first affirmeth in his Epistles 40. and 75. that Kings are to bee admonished and instructed rather then punished to be dealt with by counsell rather then by command by doctrine and instruction rather then by correction For no such sword belongeth to the Church because the sword of the Church is Ecclesiasticall discipline and nothing else De consider lib. 1. cap. 6. Bernard writeth to Pope Eugenius after this manner Whosoeuer they bee that are of this mind and opinion shall neuer be able to make proofe that any one of the Apostles did euer fit in qualitie of Iudge or Diuider of lands I reade where they haue stood to bee iudged but neuer where they sate downe to giue iudgement Againe Your authoritie stretcheth vnto crimes not vnto possessions because you haue receiued the keies of the kingdome of heauen not in regard of possessions but of crimes to keepe all that pleade by couin or collusion and not lawfull possessors out of the heauenly kingdome A little after These base things of the earth are iudged by the Kings and Princes of this world wherefore doe you thrust your sickle into an others haruest wherefore doe you incroach and intrude vpon an others limits Lib. 2. cap. 6. Elsewhere The Apostles are directly forbid to make themselues Lords and rulers Goe thou then and beeing a Lord vsurpe Apostleship or beeing an Apostle vsurpe Lordship If thou needes wilt haue both doubtlesse thou shalt haue neither Iohannes Maior Doctor of Paris Dist 24. quest 3 The Soueraigne Bishop hath no temporall authoritie ouer Kings The reason Because it followes the contrarie being once granted that Kings are the Popes vassals Now let other men iudge whether he that hath power to dispossesse Kings of all their Temporalties hath not likewise authoritie ouer their Temporalties The same Author Comment in l. 4. Sent. Dist 24 fol. 214. The Pope hath no manner of title ouer the French or Spanish Kings in temporall matters Where it is further added That Pope Innocent 3. hath beene pleased to testifie that Kings of France in Temporall causes doe acknowledge no superiour For so the Pope excused himselfe to a certaine Lord of Montpellier who in stead of suing to the King had petitioned to the Pope for a dispensation for his bastard But perhaps as he speaketh it will be alledged out of the glosse that hee 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 mischiefes 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 Hee deposed saith Maior is not so to bee vnderstood as it is taken at the first blush or fight but hee deposed is thus expounded in the glosse Hee gaue his consent vnto those by whom he was deposed Iohn of Paris De potest Regia Papali cap. 10. 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 downe the King from his regall dignity and authority He onely saith When a Prince is once excommunicated hee may accidentally or by occasion be deposed because his precedent excommunication incites the people to disarme him of all secular dignity and 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 Almain de potesi Eccl Laica Quest 3. cap. 8. De deminio naturali ciuil Eccl. 5. vlt. pars It is essentiall in the Lay-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 Quaest 1. de potest Eccles laic c. 12. 14 Bee it graunted that Constantine had power to giue the Empire vnto the Pope yet is it not hereupon to bee inferred that Popes haue authority ouer the Kingdome of France because that Kingdome was neuer subiect vnto Constantine For the King of France neuer had any superiour in Temporall matters A little after It is not in any place to bee found that God hath giuen the Pope power to make and vnmake Temporall Kings He maintaineth elsewhere that Zacharie did not depose Childeric Quaest 2. c. 8. sic nond posuit autoruat 〈◊〉 but onely consented to his deposing and so deposed him not as by authoritie In the same booke taking vp the words of Occam whom he styles the Doctor The Emperour is the Popes Lord in things Temporall and the Pope calls him Lord Quae. 3. c. 2. Quaest 11. can Sacerd. 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 beene pleased to alledge Almainus reciting Occams authoritie in stead of quoting Almainus himselfe in those passages where he speaketh as out of his owne opinion and in his owne words A notable piece of slie and cunning conueiance For what heresie may not be fathered and fastened vpon S. Augustine or S. Hierome if they should be deemed to approoue all the passages which they alledge out of other authors And that is the reason wherefore the L. Cardinall doeth 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 he hides and conceales
the words added by Almainus to contradict and 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 be deposed And so much appeareth by this reason because this ample and Soueraigne power of the Pope might giue him occasion to be 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 Quaest 2. de potest Eccl. Laic cap. 12. and there ioynes his owne opinion with Occams The Doctors opinion saith Almainus doeth simply carrie the most probabilitie that a Pope hath no power neither by excommunication nor by any other meanes to depose a Prince from his Imperiall and Royall dignitie In cap. 9 10. 11. 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 doeth not giue him the Empire no more then the Archbishop of Reims when he crownes the King of France doth giue him the kingdom 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 doeth further auerre that Iustinian was acknowledged by the Pope for his superiour in Temporall causes for as much as diuers Lawes which the Pope is bound to keepe 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 end that all men may clearely see how great distance there is betweene Occams opinion and the L. Cardinals who towards the end of his Oration exhorts his hearers at no hand to dissent from the Pope take you here a view of Occams owne words as they are alledged by Almainus The Doctour assoyles the arguments of Pope Innocent Quest. 1. cap. 14. by which the Pope would prooue out of these words of CHRIST Whatsoeuer thoushalt binde c. that fulnesse 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 withall that many things are spoken by Innocent which by his leaue sauour and smell of herefie c. The L. Pag. 40. Cardinall with lesse fidelitie alledgeth two places out of Thomas his Summe The first in the second of his second Quest 10. Art 10. in the body of the Article In which place let it bee narrowly examined Thomas will easily bee found to speake not of the subiection of beleeuing Subiects vnder Infidel Kings as the Lord Cardinall pretendeth but of beleeuing seruants that liue vnder Masters whether Iewes or Infidels As when a Iew keepeth seruants which professe Iesus Christ or as when some of the faithfull kept in Caesars house who are not considered by Thomas as they were subiects of the Empire but as they were seruants of the family The other place is taken out of Quest 11. and 2. Art in the body of the article where no such matter as the L. Cardinal alledgeth can be found With like fidelitie he taketh Gerson in hand Pag. 44. who indeed in his booke of Ecclesiasticall power and 12. Consider doeth affirme When the abuse of Secular power redoundeth to manifest impugning of the faith and blaspheming of the Creator then shall it not bee amisse to haue recourse vnto the last branch of this 12. Consider where in such case as aforesaid a certaine regitiue directiue regulatiue and ordinatiue authoritie is committed to the Ecclesiasticall power His very words which make no mention at all of deposing or of any compulsiue power ouer Soueraigne Princes For that forme of rule and gouernment whereof Gerson speaketh is exercised by Ecclesiasticall censures and excommunications not by losse of goods of Kingdomes or of Empires This place then is wrested by the L. Cardinall to a contrary sense Neither should his Lordship haue omitted that Gerson in the question of Kings subiection in Temporall matters or of the dependance of their Crownes vpon the Popes power excepteth alwayes the King of France witnesse that which Gerson a little before the place alleadged by the Cardinall hath plainely affirmed Now since Peters time saith Gerson all Imperiall Regall and Secular power is not immediatly to draw vertue and strength from the Soueraigne Bishop as in this maner the most Christian King of France hath no Superiour nor acknowledgeth any such vpon the face of the earth Now here need no great sharpenesse of wit for the searching out of this deepe mysterie that if the Pope hath power to giue or take away Crownes for any cause or any pretended occasion whatsoeuer the Crowne of France must needs depend vpon the Pope But for as much as we are now hit in with Gerson Pag. 108.109.119 where the Card. takes Char. 7. for Charl. 6. we will examine the L. Cardinals allegations towards the end of his Oration taken out of Gersons famous Oration made before Charles the 6. for the Vniuersitie of Paris where he brings in Gerson to affirme That killing a Tyrant is a sacrifice acceptable to God But Gerson let it be diligently noted there speaketh not in his owne person he there brings in sedition speaking the words Of which wordes vttered by sedition and other like speeches you shall now heare what iudgement Gerson himselfe hath giuen When sedition had spoken with such a furious voyce I turned away my face as if I had bene smitten with death to shew that I was not able to endure her madnesse any longer And indeed when dissimulation on the one side and sedition on the other had suggested the deuises of two contrary extremes hee brings foorth Discretion as a Iudge keeping the meane betweene both extremes and vttering those words which the L. Cardinall alledgeth against himselfe If the head saith Gerson or some other member of the ciuill body should grow to so desperate a passe that it would gulpe and swallow downe the deadly poyson of tyrannie euery member in his place with all power possible for him to raise by expedient meanes and such as might preuent a greater inconuenience should set himselfe against so madde a purpose and so deadly practise For if the head be grieued with some light paine it is not fit for the hand to smite the head no that were but a foolish and a mad part Nor is the hand forthwith to chop off or separate the head from the body but rather to cure the head with good speach and other meanes like a skilfull and wise Physitian Yea nothing would
to display the colours and ensignes of their censures against Princes who violating their publike and solemne oath doe raise and make open warre against Iesus Christ I grant yet againe that in this case they need not admit Laics to be of their counsell nor allow them any scope or libertie of iudgement Yet all this makes no barre to Clerics for extending the power of their keyes many times a whole degree further then they ought and when they are pleased to make vse of their said power to depriue the people of their goods or the Prince of his Crowne all this doeth not hinder Prince or people from taking care for the preseruation of their owne rights and estates nor from requiring Clerics to shew their cards and produce their Charts and to make demonstration by Scripture that such power as they assume and challenge is giuen them from God For to leaue the Pope absolute Iudge in the same cause wherein hee is a partie and which is the strongest rampier and bulwarke yea the most glorious and eminent point of his domination to arme him with power to vnhorse Kings out of their seates what is it else but euen to draw them into a state of despaire for euer winning the day or preuailing in their honourable and rightful cause It is moreouer granted if a King shall command any thing directly contrary to Gods word and tending to the subuerting of the Church that Clerics in this case ought not onely to dispense with subiects for their obedience but also expresly to forbid their obedience For it is alwayes better to obey God then man Howbeit in all other matters whereby the glory and maiestie of God is not impeached or impaired it is the duety of Clerics to plie the people with wholesome exhortation to constant obedience and to auert by earnest disswasions the said people from tumultuous reuolt and seditious insurrection This practise vnder the Pagan Emperours was held and followed by the ancient Christians by whose godly zeale and patience in bearing the yoke the Church in times past grew and flourished in her happy and plentifull increase farre greater then Poperie shall euer purchase and attaine vnto by all her cunning deuices and sleights as namely by degrading of Kings by interdicting of Kingdoms by apposted murders and by Diabolicall traines of Gunne-powder-mines The places of Scripture alleadged in order by the Cardinal Pag 66. in fauour of those that stand for the Popes claime of power and authoritie to depose Kings are cited with no more sincerity then the former They alledge these are his words that Samuel deposed King Saul or declared him to bee deposed because hee had violated the Lawes of the Iewes Religion His Lordship auoucheth elsewere that Saul was deposed because he had sought prophanely to vsurpe the holy Priesthood Both false and contrary to the tenour of trewth in the sacred history For Saul was neuer deposed according to the sense of the word I meane depose in the present question to wit as deposing is taken for despoiling the King of his royall dignitie and reducing the King to the condition of a priuate person But Saul held the title of King and continued in possession of his Kingdome euen to his dying day 1. Sam. 23.20 24.15 2. Sam. 2.5 Yea the Scripture styles him King euen to the periodicall and last day of his life by the testimony of Dauid himselfe who both by Gods promise and by precedent vnction was then heire apparant as it were to the Crown in a maner then ready to gird and adorne the temples of his head For if Samuel by Gods commandement had then actually remooued Saul from his Throne doubtlesse the whole Church of Israel had committed a grosse errour in taking and honouring Saul for their King after such deposition doubtlesse the Prophet Samuel himselfe making knowen the Lords Ordinance vnto the people would haue enioyned them by strict prohibition to call him no longer the King of Israel Doubtlesse Dauid would neuer haue held his hand from the throat of Saul 1. Sam. 26.11 for this respect and consideration because he was the Lords Anointed For if Saul had lost his Kingly authority from that instant when Samuel gaue him knowledge of his reiection then Dauid lest otherwise the Body of the Kingdome should want a Royall Head was to beginne his Reigne and to beare the Royall scepter in the very same instant which were to charge the holy Scriptures with vntrewth in as much as the sacred historie begins the computation of the yeeres of Dauids Reigne from the day of Sauls death Trew it is that in the 1. Sam. cap. 15. Saul was denounced by Gods owne sentence a man reiected and as it were excommunicated out of the Kingdome that hee should not rule and reigne any longer as King ouer Israel neuerthelesse the said sentence was not put in execution before the day when God executing vpon Saul an exemplarie iudgement did strike him with death From whence it is manifest and cleare 1. Sam. 16.23 that when Dauid was annointed King by Samuel that action was onely a promise and a testimony of the choice which God had made of Dauid for succession immediately after Saul and not a present establishment inuestment or installment of Dauid in the Kingdome Wee reade the like in 1. King cap. 19. where God commandeth Elias the Prophet to annoint Hasael King of Syria For can any man bee so blinde and ignorant in the sacred historie to beleeue the Prophets of Israel established or sacred the Kings of Syria For this cause 2. Sam. 2.4 when Dauid was actually established in the Kingdome hee was annointed the second time In the next place he brings in the Popes champions vsing these words Rehoboam was deposed by Ahiah the Prophet 1 King 12. from his Royall right ouer the tenne Tribes of Israel because his father Salomon had played the Apostata in falling from the Law of God This I say also is more then the trewth of the sacred history doeth afoard For Ahiah neuer spake to Rehoboam for ought we reade nor brought vnto him any message from the Lord As for the passage quoted by the L. Cardinal out of 3. Reg. chap. 11. it hath not reference to the time of Rehoboams raigne but rather indeed to Salomons time nor doeth it carry the face of a iudicatorie sentence for the Kings deposing but rather of a Propheticall prediction For how could Rehoboam before hee was made King be depriued of the Kingdome Last of all but worst of all to alleadge this passage for an example of a iust sentence in matter of deposing a King is to approoue the disloyall treacherie of a seruant against his master and the rebellion of Ieroboam branded in Scripture with a marke of perpetuall infamie for his wickednesse and impietie He goes on with an other example of no more trewth 1. King 19. King Achab was deposed by Elias the Prophet
other weapons of defence I neither can resist nor ought in any other maner to make resistance Iustinian the Emperour in his old aage fell into the heresie of the Aphthartodocites Against Iustinian though few they were that fauoured him in that heresie the Bishop of Rome neuer darted with violence any sentence of excommunication interdiction or deposition The Ostrogot Kings in Italie the Visigot in Spaine the Vandal in Africa were all addicted to the Arrian impietie and some of them cruelly persecuted the trew professours The Visigot and Vandall were no neighbours to Italie The Pope thereby had the lesse cause to feare the stings of those waspes if they had bene angred The Pope for all that neuer had the humour to wrestle or iustle with any of the said Kings in the cause of deposing them from their Thrones But especially the times when the Vandals in Affricke and the Goths in Italie by Belisarius and Narses professours of the Orthodoxe Faith were tyred with long warres and at last were vtterly defeated in bloody battels are to bee considered Then were the times or neuer for the Pope to vnsheath his weapons and to vncase his arrowes of deposition then were the times to draw them out of his quiuer and to shoot at all such Arrian heads then were the times by dispensations to release their subiects of their oathes by that peremptorie meanes to aide and strengthen the Catholique cause But in that aage the said weapons were not knowne to haue bene hammered in the Pontificall forge Gregorie the I. made his boasts that he was able to ruine the Lombards for many yeeres together sworne enemies to the Bishops of Rome their state present and the hope of all their future prosperitie But he telleth vs that by the feare of God before his eyes and in his heart he was bridled and restrained from any such intent as elsewhere we haue obserued In Apol. pro iuram fidel His owne words lib. 7. Epist. 1. If I would haue medled with practising and procuring the death of the Lombards the whole nation of the Lombards at this day had bene robbed of their Kings Dukes Earles they had bene reduced to the tearmes of extreame confusion He might at least haue deposed their King if the credit of the L. Cardinals iudgement be currant without polluting or stayning his owne conscience What can we tearme this assertion of the L. Cardinal but open charging the most ancient Bishops of Rome with crueltie when they would not succour the Church of CHRIST oppressed by tyrants whose oppression they had power to represse by deposing the oppressors Is it credible that IESVS CHRIST hath giuen a Commission to S. Peter and his successors for so many aages without any power to execute their Commission or to make any vse thereof by practise Is it credible that hee hath giuen them a sword to bee kept in the scabbard without drawing once in a thousand yeeres Is it credible that in the times when Popes were most deboshed abandoning themselues to all sorts of corrupt and vitious courses as is testified by their owne flatterers and best affected seruants is it credible that in those times they began to vnderstand the vertue strength of their Commission For if either feare or lacke of power was the cause of holding their hands and voluntarie binding of themselues to the Peace or good behauiour wherefore is not some one Pope at least produced who hath complained that he was hindered from executing the power that CHRIST had conferred vpon his Pontificall See Wherefore is not some one of the ancient and holy Fathers alledged by whom the Pope hath bene aduised and exhorted to take courage to stand vpon he vigor and sinewes of his Papall Office to vnsheath and vncase his bolts of thunder against vngodly Princes and grieuous enemies to the Church wherefore liuing vnder Christian and gracious Emperours haue they not made knowne the reasons why they were hindred from drawing the pretended sword lest long custome of not vsing the sword so many aages might make it so to rust in the scabbard that when there should be occasion to vse the said sword it could not be drawne at all and lest so long custome of not vsing the same should confirme prescription to their greater preiudice If weakenesse be a iust let how is it come to passe that Popes haue enterprised to depose Philip the Faire Lewis the XII and ELIZABETH my predecessor of happy memorie to let passe others in whom experience hath well proued how great inequalitie was betweene their strengths Yea for the most part from thence grow most grieuous troubles and warres which iustly recoile and light vpon his owne head as happened to Gregorie the VII and Boniface the VIII This no doubt is the reason wherefore the Pope neuer sets in for feare of such inconueniences to blast a King with lightning and thunder of deposition but when hee perceiues the troubled waters of the Kingdome by some strong faction setled in his Estate or when the King is confined and bordered by some Princemore potent who thirsteth after the prey and is euer gaping for some occasion to picke a quarrell The King standing in such estate is it not as easie for the Pope to pull him downe as it is for a man with one hand to thrust downe a tottering wall when the groundsill is rotten the studdes vnpind and nodding or bending towards the ground But if the King shall beare downe and breake the faction within the Realme if hee shall get withall the vpper hand of his enemies out of the Kingdome then the holy Father presents him with pardons neuer sued for neuer asked and in afathers indulgence forsooth giues him leaue still to hold the Kingdome that hee was not able by all his force to wrest and wring out of his hand no more then the club of Hercules out of his fist How many worthy Princes incensed by the Pope to conspire against Soueraigne Lords their Masters and by open rebellion to worke some change in their Estates haue miscarried in the action with losse of life or honour or both For example Rodulphus Duke of Sueuia was eg'd on by the Pope against Henry IIII. of that name Emperour How many massacres how many desolations of Cities and townes how many bloody battels ensued thereupon Let histories bee searched let iust accompts be taken and beside sieges layde to Cities it will appeare by trew computation that Henry the IIII. and Frederic the fist fought aboue threescore battels in defence of their owne right against enemies of the Empire stirred vp to armes by the Pope of Rome How much Christian blood was then spilt in these bloody battels it passeth mans wit penne or tongue to expresse And to giue a little touch vnto matters at home doeth not his Holinesse vnderstand right well the weakenesse of Papists in my Kingdome Doeth not his Holmesse neuerthesesse animate my Papists to rebellion and forbid my Papists to take
the Oath of Allegiance Doeth not his Holinesse by this meanes draw so much as in him lyeth persecution vpon the backes of my Papists as vpon rebels and expose their life as it were vpon the open stall to be sold at a very easie price All these examples either ioynt or seuerall are manifest and euident proofes that feare to draw mischiefe and persecution vpon the Church hath not barred the Popes from thundering against Emperours and Kings whensoeuer they conceiued any hope by their fulminations to aduance their greatnesse Last of all I referre the matter to the most possessed with preiudice euen the very aduersaries whether this doctrine by which people are trained vp in subiection vnto Infidel or hereticall Kings vntill the subiects be of sufficient strength to mate their Kings to expell their Kings and to depose them from their Kingdomes doth not incense the Turkish Emperours and other Infidell Princes to roote out all the Christians that drawe in their yoke as people that waite onely for a fit occasion to rebell and to take themselues ingaged for obedience to their Lords onely by constraint and seruile feare Let vs therefore now conclude with Ozius in that famous Epistle speaking to Constantius an Arrian heretike Apud Athanâ—in Eâ—â—st ad solitâ—â— vitam aâ—gentes As hee that by secret practise or open violence would bereaue thee of thy Empire should violate Gods ordinance so bee thou touched with feare least by vsurping authoritie ouer Church matters thou tumble not headlong into some hainous crime Where this holy Bishop hath not vouchsafed to insert and mention the L. Cardinals exception to wit the right of the Church alwaies excepted and saued when she shall be of sufficient strength to shake off the yoke of Emperours Neither speaks the same holy Bishop of priuate persons alone or men of some particular condition and calling but hee setteth downe a generall rule for all degrees neuer to impeach Imperiall Maiestie vpon any pretext whatsoeuer As his Lordships first reason drawne from weakenesse is exceeding weake so is that which the L. Cardinall takes vp in the next place The 2. reas Pag. 77. He telleth vs there is very great difference betweene Pagan Emperours and Christian Princes Pagan Emperours who neuer did homage to Christ who neuer were by their subiects receiued with condition to acknowledge perpetuall subiection vnto the Empire of Christ who neuer were bound by oath and mutuall contract betweene Prince and subiect Christian Princes who slide backe by Apostasie degenerate by Arrianisme or fall away by Mahometisme Touching the latter of these two as his Lordshippe saith If they shall as it were take an oath and make a vowe contrary to their first oath and vow made and taken when they were installed and contrary to the condition vnder which they receiued the Scepter of their Fathers if they withall shall turne persecutors of the Catholike religion touching these I say the L. Cardinal holds that without question they may bee remooued from their Kingdomes He telleth vs not by whom but euery where he meaneth by the Pope Touching Kings deposed by the Pope vnder pretence of stupidity as Childeric or of matrimoniall causes as Philip I. or for collating of benefices as Philip the Faire not one word By that point he easily glideth and shuffles it vp in silence for feare of distasting the Pope on the one side or his auditors on the other Now in alledging this reason his Lordship makes all the world a witnes that in deposing of Kings the Pope hath no eye of regard to the benefit and securitie of the Church For such Princes as neuer suckt other milke then that of Infidelitie and persecution of Religion are no lesse noisome and pernicious vermin to the Church then if they had sucked of the Churches breasts And as for the greatnesse of the sinne or offence it seemes to me there is very little difference in the matter For a Prince that neuer did sweare any religious obedience to Iesus Christ is bound no lesse to such obedience then if he had taken a solemne oath As the sonne that rebelliously stands vp against his father is in equall degree of sinne whether he hath sworne or not sworne obedience to his father because he is bound to such obedience not by any voluntarie contract or couenant but by the law of Nature The commaundement of God to kisse the Sonne whom the Father hath confirmed and ratified King of Kings doeth equally bind all Kings as well Pagans as Christians On the other side who denies who doubts that Constantius Emperour at his first steppe or entrance into the Empire did not sweare and bind himselfe by solemne vowe to keepe the rules and to maintaine the precepts of the Orthodox faith or that he did not receiue his fathers Empire vpon such condition This notwithstanding the Bishop of Rome pulled not Constantius from his Imperiall throne but Constantius remooued the Bishop of Rome from his Papall See And were it so that an oath taken by a King at his consecration and after violated is a sufficient cause for the Pope to depose an Apostate or hereticall Prince then by good consequence the Pope may in like sort depose a King who beeing neither dead in Apostasie nor sicke of Heresie doeth neglect onely the due administration of iustice to his loyall subiects For his oath taken at consecration importeth likewise that he shall minister iustice to his people A point wherein the holy Father is held short by the L. Cardinall who dares prescribe new lawes to the Pope and presumes to limit his fulnesse of power within certaine meeres and head-lands extending the Popes power only to the deposing of Christian Kings when they turne Apostats forsaking the Catholike faith and not such Princes as neuer breathed any thing but pure Paganisme and neuer serued vnder the colours of Iesus Christ Meane while his Lordship forgets that King Attabaliba was deposed by the Pope from his Kingdome of Peru and the said Kingdome was conferred vpon the King of Spaine though the said poore King of Peru neuer forsooke his heathen superstition and though the turning of him out of his terrestriall Kingdome was no way to conuert him vnto the faith of Christ Pag. 77. Yea his Lordship a little after telleth vs himselfe that Be the Turkes possession in the conquests that he maketh ouer Christians neuer so auncient yet by no long tract of time whatsoeuer can he gaine so much as a thumbes breadth of prescription that is to say the Turke for all that is but a disseisor one that violently and wilfully keeps an other man from his owne and by good right may be dispossessed of the same whereas notwithstanding the Turkish Emperours neuer fauoured nor sauoured Christianitie Let vs runne ouer the examples of Kings whom the Pope hath dared and presumed to depose and hardly will any one be found of whom it may be trewly auouched that he hath taken an oath
direct vs to speake of Delegates of subordinate Magistrates and such as are in Commission from the Prince but of the supreame Prince himselfe the Soueraigne Magistrate ordained by nature and confirmed by succession Our question is whether such a Prince can be vnthroned by the Pope by whom he was not placed in the Throne and whether the Pope can despoile such a Prince of that Royaltie which was neuer giuen him by the Pope vnder any pretended colour and imputation of heresie of stupiditie or infringing the priuiledges of Monasteries or transgressing the Lawes and lines of holy Matrimonie Now that S. Pauls commandement which bindeth euery soule in the bands of subiection vnto the higher powers is no precept giuen by way of prouiso and onely to serue the times but a standing and a perpetuall rule it is hereby more then manifest S. Paul hath grounded this commandement vpon certaine reasons not onely constant and permanent by their proper nature but likewise necessary for euery state condition and reuolution of the times His reasons Because all powers are ordained of God because resisting of powers is resisting the ordinance of God because the Magistrate beares the sword to execute iustice because obedience and subiection to the Magistrate is necessary not onely for feare of his wrath or feare of punishment but also for conscience sake It is therefore a case grounded vpon conscience it is not a Law deuised by humane wisedome it is not fashionable to the qualities of the times Apostolicall instructions for the right informing of maners are not changeable according to times and seasons To vse the L. Cardinals language and to follow his fancie in the matter is to make way for two pestiferous mischiefes First let it be free and lawfull for Christians to hold the commanding rules of GOD for prouisionall cautions and what followes Men are ledde into the broad way of impietie and the whole Scripture is wiped of all authoritie Then againe for the other mischiefe The glorious triumphes of most blessed Martyrs in their vnspeakable torments and sufferings by the L. Cardinals position shall bee iudged vnworthy to weare the title and Crowne of Martyrdome How so Because according to his new fiction they haue giuen place to the violence and furie of heathen Magistrates not in obedience to the necessary and certaine Commandement of God but rather to a prouisionall direction accōmodated to the humours of the times And therfore the L. Cardinal hath vsed none other clay wherewith to dawbe ouer his deuise but plaine falsification of holy Scripture For he makes the Apostle say to the Corinthians It is a shame for Christians to bee iudged vnder vnbeleeuing Magistrates whereas in that whole context of Paul there is no such matter For when the Apostle saith I speake it euen to your shame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doeth not say it is a shame for a beleeuer to be iudged vnder an Infidel but he makes them ashamed of their vngodly course and vnchristian practise that in suing and impleading one another they layd their actions of cōtention in the Courts of vnbeleeuing Iudges The shame was not in bearing that yoke which God had charged their necks withall but in deuouring and eating vp one an other with Writs of habeas corpus and with other Processes as also in vncouering the shame in laying open the shamefull parts and prankes played by Christians before Infidels to the great scandall of the Church Here I say the L. Cardinall is taken in a tricke of manifest falsification If therefore a King when he salls to play the heretike deserueth to be deposed why should not a Cardinall when he falls to play the iuggler with holy Scripture deserue to be disrobed Meane while the indifferent Reader is to consider how greatly this doctrine is preiudicial and how full of danger to Christians liuing vnder hereticall or Pagan Princes For make it once knowne to the Emperour of Turkes let him once get neuer so little a smacke of this doctrine that Christians liuing vnder his Empire doe take Gods commandement for obedience to Princes whom they count Infidels to be onely a prouisional precept for a time and wait euery houre for all occasions to shake off the yoke of his bondage doubtlesse he will neuer spare with all speed to roote the whole stocke with all the armes and branches of Christians out of his dominions Adde hereunto the L. Cardinals former determination that possession kept neuer so long by the Turke in his Conquests ouer Christians gaines him not by so long tract of time one inch of prescription and it will appeare that his Lordship puts the Turkish Emperour in minde and by his instruction leades the said Emperour as it were by the hand to haue no maner of affiance in his Christian subiects and withall to afflict his poore Christians with all sorts of most grieuous and cruell torments In this regard the poore Christans of Graecia and Syria must needs be very little beholden to his Lordship As for my selfe and my Popish Subiects to whom I am no lesse then an heretike forsooth am not I by this doctrine of the Cardinall pricked and whetted against my naturall inclination to turne clemencie into rigour seeing that by his doctrine my subiects are made to beleeue they owe me subiection onely by way of prouiso and with waiting the occasion to worke my vtter destruction and finall ruine the rather because Turkes miscreants and heretikes are marshalled by the Cardinall in the same ranke and heretikes are counted worse yea more iustly deposeable then Turkes and Infidels as irreligious breakers and violaters of their oath Who seeth not here how great indignitie is offered to me a Christian King paralleld with Infidels reputed worse then a Turke taken for an vsurper of my Kingdomes reckoned a Prince to whom subiects owe a forced obedience by way of prouision vntill they shall haue meanes to shake off the yoke and to bare my temples of the Crowne which neuer can be pulled from the sacred Head but with losse of the head it selfe Touching the warres vndertaken by the French English and Germaines in their expedition for Ierusalem it appeares by the issue and euent of the said warres that God approoued them not for honourable That expedition was a deuise and inuention of the Pope whereby he might come to be infeoffed in the Kingdomes of Christian Princes For then all such of the French English or Germaines as vndertooke the Croisade became the Popes meere vassals Then all robbers by the high way side adulterers cut-throats and base bankerupts were exempted from the Secular and Ciuill power their causes were sped in Consistorian Courts so soone as they had gotten the Crosse on their cassocks or coat-armours and had vowed to serue in the expedition for the Leuant Then for the Popes pleasure and at his commaundement whole countryes were emptied of their Nobles and common souldiers Then they made long marches into the Leuant For
Church as of secular Lords and to make ordinances for the confiscation of all priuate persons goods By this Canon the Kingdome of Naples hath need to looke well vnto it selfe For one duell it may fall into the Exchecquer of the Romane Church because that Kingdome payeth a Reliefe to the Church as a Royaltie or Seignorie that holdeth in fee of the said Church And in France there is not one Lordship not one Mannor not one farme which the Pope by this meanes cannot shift ouer to a new Lord. His Lordship therefore had carried himselfe and the cause much better if in stead of seeking such idle shifts he had by a more large assertion maintained the Popes power to dispose of priuate mens possessions with no lesse right and authoritie then of Kingdomes For what colour of reason can bee giuen for making the Pope Lord of the whole and not of the parts for making him Lord of the forrest in grosse and not of the trees in parcell for making him Lord of the whole house and not of the parlour or the dining chamber His Lordship alleadgeth yet an other reason but of no better weight Betweene the power of priuate owners ouer their goods and the power of Kings ouer their estates there is no little difference For the goods of priuate persons are ordained for their owners and Princes for the benefit of their Common-wealths Heare me now answere If this Cardinal-reason hath any force to inferre that a King may lawfully be depriued of his Kingdome for heresie but a priuate person cannot for the same crime be turned out of his mansion house then it shall follow by the same reason that a Father for the same cause may bee depriued of all power ouer his children but a priuate owner cannot be depriued of his goods in the like case because goods are ordeined for the benefit and comfort of their owners but fathers are ordeined for the good and benefit of their children But most certain it is that Kings representing the image of God in earth and Gods place haue a better and closer seate in their chaires of Estate then any priuate persons haue in the saddle of their inheritances and patrimonies which are dayly seene for sleight causes to flit and to fall into the hands of new Lords Whereas a Prince being the Head cannot bee loosed in the proper ioynt nor dismounted like a cannon when the carriage thereof is vnlockt without a sore shaking and a most grieuous dislocation of all the members yea without subuerting the whole bodie of the State whereby priuate persons without number are inwrapped together in the same ruine euen as the lower shrubs and other brush-wood are crushed in pieces altogether by the fall of a great oake But suppose his Lordships reason were somewhat ponderous and solide withall yet a King which would not bee forgotten is endowed not onely with the Kingdome but also with the ancient Desmenes and Crowne-lands for which none can be so simple to say The King was ordeined and created King which neuerthelesse he loseth when hee loseth his Crowne Admit againe this reason were of some pith to make mighty Kings more easily deposeable then priuate persons from their patrimonies yet all this makes nothing for the deriuing and fetching of deposition from the Popes Consistorie What hee neuer conferred by what right or power can he claime to take away But see heere no doubt a sharpe and subtile difference put by the L. Cardinall betweene a Kingdome and the goods of priuate persons Goods as his Lordship saith are without life they can be constrained by no force by no example by no inducement of their owners to lose eternall life Subiects by their Princes may Now I am of the contrary beliefe That an hereticall owner or master of a family hath greater power and meanes withall to seduce his owne seruants and children then a Prince hath to peruert his owne subiects and yet for the contagion of Heresie and for corrupt religion children are not remoued from their parents nor seruants are taken away from their masters Histories abound with examples of most flourishing 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 keepe his Crowne 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 bee counted folly 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 endued 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 being emploied to vngodly and abominable vses I will not deny that an hereticall Prince is a plague a pernicious and mortall sickenesse to the soules of his subiects But a breach made by one mischiefe must not bee 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 he makes his Church to be like the burning bush In the middest of the fire and flames of persecutions hee will prouide that she shall not be consumed because hee standeth in the midst of his Church And suppose there may be 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 hee hath closed with a remarkeable confession to wit that neither by the authoritie of holy Scripture nor by the the testimonie and verdict of the Primitiue Church there hath bene 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 new 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 greene and sweet pastures
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 approued by the Church in their abominable actions when shee 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 alleagiance 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 L. Cardinall can say The Church neuer consenteth to any practise against his life whom she hath once chastised with seuere censures For can his Lordship be ignorant what is written by Pope Vrbanus Can. Excommunicatorum Can. excoâ— Caus 23. Quaest 6. Wee take them not in any wise to bee man-slayers who in a certaine heat of zeale towards the Catholike Church their Mother shall happen to kill an excommunicate 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 whom parricides are commended nay highly extolled when his Holinesse hath beene pleased to take the paines to censure and call in some other of Mariana's bookes Againe wherefore did his Holinesse aduise himselfe to censure the Decree of the Court of Parliament in Paris against Iohn Chastell Wherefore did hee 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 hee saw two great Kings murdered one after another wherefore by some publike declaration did not his Holinesse testifie to all Christendome his inward sense and trew 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 Law or Pontificiall Decree to prouide for the securitie of Kings in time to come Trew 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 Sorbone Schoole For the Popes checke to Becanus was onely agenerall censure and touch without any particular specification of matter touching the life of Kings About some two moneths after the said booke was printed againe with a dedication to the Popes Nuntio in Germany yet without any alteration saue onely of two articles conteining the absolute power of the people ouer Kings In recompence and for a counterchecke whereof three or foure articles were inserted into the said booke touching the Popes power ouer Kings articles no lesse wicked iniurious to Regall rights nay more iniurious then any of the other clauses whereof iust cause of exception and complaint had bene giuen before If I would collect and heape vp examples of ancient Emperours as of Henrie IV. whos 's dead corps felt the rage and furie of the Pope or of Frederic II. against whom the Pope was not ashamed to whet and kindle the Sultane or of Queene Elizabeth our Predecessour of glorious memorie whose life was diuers times assaulted by priuie murderers expresly dispatched from Rome for that holy seruice if I would gather vp other examples of the same stampe which I haue layd forth in my Apologie for the oath of alleagiance I could make it more cleare then day-light how farre the L. Cardinals words are discrepant from the trewth where his Lordship out of most rare considence is bold to auow Page 97. That neuer any Pope went so farre as to giue consent or counsell for the desperate murdering of Princes That which already hath bene alleadged may suffice to conuince his Lordship I meane that his Holinesse by deposing of Kings doeth lead them directly to their graues and tombes The Cardinall himselfe seemeth to take some notice hereof The Church as he speaketh abhorreth sudden and vnprepensed murders aboue therest Pag. 95. Doth not his Lordship in this phrase of speech acknowledge that murders committed by open force are not so much disauowed or disclaimed by the Church A little after he speakes not in the teeth as before but with full and open mouth that hee doeth not dislike a King once deposed by the Pope should be pursued with open warre Whereupon it followes that in warre the King may be lawfully slaine No doubt a remarkeable degree of his Lordships clemencie A King shall bee better entreated and more mildly dealt withal if he be slaine by the shot of an harquebuse or caleeuer in the field then if hee bee stabd by the stroke or thrust of a knife in his chamber or if at a siege of some city hee be blowne vp with a myne then by a myne made and a traine of gunpowder laid vnder his Palace or Parliament house in time of peace His reason Forsooth because in sudden murders oftentimes the soule and the body perish both together O singular bountie and rare clemencie prouokers instigators strong puffers and blowers of parricides in mercifull compassion of the soule become vnmercifull and shamefull murderers of the body This deuice may well claime and challenge kinred of Mariana the Iesuites inuention For he liketh not at any hand the poisoning of a Tyrant by his meat or drinke for feare lest he taking the poison with his owne hand and swallowing or gulping it downe in his meate or drinke so taken should be found felo de se as the common Lawyer speaketh or culpable of his owne death But Mariana likes better to haue a Tyrant poysoned by his chaire or by his apparell and robes after the example of the Mauritanian Kings that being so poysoned onely by sent or by contact he may not be found guiltie of selfe-fellonie and the soule of the poore Tyrant in her flight out of the body may be innocent O hel-hounds O diabolical wretches O infernall monsters Did they onely suspect and imagine that either in Kings there is any remainder of Kingly courage or in their subiects any sparke left of ancient libertie they durst as soone eat their nailes or teare their owne flesh from the bones as once broach the vessell of this diabolicall deuice How long then how long shall Kings whom the Lord hath called his Anointed Kings the breathing Images of God vpon earth Kings that with a wry or frowning looke are able to crush these earth-wormes in pieces how long shall they suffer this viperous brood scotfree and without punishment to spit in their faces how long the Maiestie of GOD in their person and Royall Maiestie to be so notoriously vilified so dishonourably trampled vnder foot The L. Cardinall borads vs with a like manifest ieast and notably trifles first distinguishing betweene Tyrants by administration and Tyrants by vsurpation then
my Great Brittaine haue not beene the Popes vassals to doe him homage for their Crowne and haue no more felt the lashings the scourgings of base and beggarly Monkes Of Holland Zeland and Friseland what neede I speake yet a word and no more Were they not a kinde of naked and bare people of small value before God lighted the torch of the Gospel and aduanced it in those Nations were they not an ill fedde and scragged people in comparison of the inestimable wealth and prosperity both in all military actions and mechanicall trades in trafficke as merchants in marting as men of warre in long nauigation for discouerie to which they are now raysed and mounted by the mercifull blessing of God since the darknes of Poperie hath beene scattered and the bright Sunne of the Gospel hath shined in those Countryes Behold the Venetian Republique Hath shee now lesse beautie lesse glory lesse peace and prosperitie since she lately fell to bicker and contend with the Pope since she hath wrung out of the Popes hand the one of his two swords since she hath plumed and shaked his Temporall dominion On the contrarie after the French Kings had honoured the Popes with munificent graunts and gifts of all the cities and territories lands and possessions which they now hold in Italy and the auncient Earledome of Auignon in France for an ouer-plus were they not rudely recompenced and homely handled by their most ingratefull fee-farmers and copy-holders Haue not Popes forged a donation of Constantine of purpose to blot out all memory of Pepins and Charlemaignes donation Haue they not vexed and troubled the State haue they not whetted the sonnes of Lewis the Courteous against their owne Father whose life was a patterne and example of innocencie Haue they not by their infinite exactions robbed and scoured the Kingdome of all their treasure Were not the Kings of France driuen to stoppe their violent courses by the pragmaticall sanction Did they not sundry times interdict the Kingdome degrade the Kings solicite the neighbour-Princes to inuade and lay hold on the Kingdome and stirre vp the people against the King whereby a gate was opened to a world of troubles and parricides Did not Rauaillac render this reason for his monstrous and horrible attempt That King Henry had a designe to warre with God because he had a designe to take armes against his Holinesse who is God This makes me to wonder what mooued the L. Cardinall to marshall the last ciuill warres and motions in France in the ranke of examples of vnhappy separation from the Pope when the Pope himselfe was the trumpetor of the same troublesome motions If the Pope had bene wronged and offended by the French King or his people and the Kingdome of France had been scourged with pestilence or famine or some other calamitie by forraine enemies it might haue beene taken in probabilitie as a vengeance of God for some iniurie done vnto his Vicar But his Holinesse being the roote the ground the master-workeman and artificer of all these mischiefes how can it be said that God punisheth any iniurie done to the Pope but rather that his Holinesse doth reuenge his owne quarrell and which is worst of all when his Holinesse hath no iust cause of quarrell or offence Now then to exhort a Nation as the L. Cardinall hath done by the remembrance of former calamities to curry fauour with the Pope and to hold a strict vnion with his Holinesse is no exhortation to beare the Pope any respect of loue or of reuerence but rather a rubbing of memory and a calling to minde of those grieuous calamities whereof the Pope hath been the only occasion It is also a threatning and obtruding of the Popes terrible thunder-bolts which neuer scorched nor parched any skinne except crauens and meticulous bodies and haue brought many great showres of blessings vpon my Kingdome As for France if she hath enioyed prosperity in the times of her good agreement with Popes it is because the Pope seekes the amity of Princes that are in prosperitie haue the meanes to curbe his pretensions and to put him to some plunge Kings are not in prosperity because the Pope holds amitie with Kings but his Holinesse vseth all deuises seeketh all meanes to haue amitie with Kings because he sees them flourish sayle with prosperous winds The swallow is no cause but a companion of the spring the Pope is no worker of a Kingdoms felicity but a wooer of kings when they sit in felicities lap he is no founder but a follower of their good fortunes On the other side let a Kingdome fall into some grieuous disaster or calamitie let ciuill warres boile in the bowels of the Kingdom ciuil wars no lesse dangerous to the State then fearefull and grieuous to the people who riseth sooner then the Pope who rusheth sooner into the troubled streames then the Pope who thrusteth himselfe sooner into the heate of the quarrell then the Pope who runneth sooner to raise his gaine by the publike wrack then the Pope and all vnder colour of a heart wounded and bleeding for the saluation of soules If the lawfull King happen to be foyled to be oppressed and thereupon the State by his fall to get a new master by the Popes practise then the said new master must hold the Kingdome as of the Popes free gift and rule or guide the sterne of the State at his becke and by his instruction If the first and right Lord in despite of all the Popes fulminations and fire-workes shall get the honourable day and vpper hand of his enemies then the holy Father with a cheerfull and pleasant grace yea with fatherly gratulation opens the rich cabinet of his iewells I meane the treasurie of his indulgences and falls now to dandle and cocker the King in his fatherly lap whose throat if he could he would haue cut not long before This pestilent mischiefe hath now a long time taken roote and is growne to a great head in the Christian world through the secret but iust iudgement of God by whom Christian Kings haue beenesmitten with a spirit of dizzinesse Christian Kings who for many aages past haue liued in ignorance without any sound instruction without any trew sense and right feeling of their owne right and power whilest vnder a shadow of Religion and false cloake of pietie their Kingdomes haue beene ouer-burdened yea ouer-borne with tributes and their Crownes made to stoope euen to miserable bondage That God in whose hand the hearts of Kings are poised and at his pleasure turned as the water-courses that mighty God alone in his good time is able to rouze them out of so deepe a slumber and to take order their drowzy fits once ouer and shaken off with heroicall spirits that Popes hereafter shall play no more vpon their patience nor presume to put bits and snaffles in their noble mouthes to the binding vp of their power with weake scruples like mighty buls lead about by
they buy by their purse or acquire by the selfe same meanes that you doe And as for the point of naturalizing which is the point thought so fit and so precisely belonging to Parliament not to speake of the Common law wherein as yet I can professe no great knowledge but in the Ciuill law wherein I am a little better versed and which in the point of Coniunction of Nations should beare a great sway it being the Law of Nations I will mainteine two principles in it which no learned and graue Ciuilian will deny as being clearely to be proued both out of the text it selfe in many places and also out of the best approued Doctours and interpreters of that law The one that it is a speciall point of the Kings owne Prerogatiue to make Aliens Citizens and donare Ciuitate The other that in any case wherein the Law is thought not to be cleare as some of your selues doe doubt that in this case of the postnati the Law of England doth not clearely determine then in such a question wherein no positiue Law is resolute Rexest Iudex for he is Lex loquens and is to supply the Law where the Law wants and if many famous histories be to be beleeued they giue the example for mainteining of this Law in the persons of the Kings of England and France especially whose speciall Prerogatiue they alleadge it to be But this I speake onely as knowing what belongeth to a King although in this case I presse no further then that which may agree with your loues and stand with the weale and conueniencie of both Nations And whereas some may thinke this Vnion will bring preiudice to some Townes and Corporations within England It may bee a Merchant or two of Bristow or Yarmouth may haue an hundred pounds lesse in his packe But if the Empire gaine and become the greater it is no matter You see one Corporation is euer against another and no priuate Companie can be set vp but with some losse to another For the supposed inconueniences rising from Scotland they are three Fourth First that there is an euill affection in the Scottish Nation to the Vnion Next the Vnion is incompatible betweene two such Nations Thirdly that the gaine is smal or none If this be so to what end do we talke of an Vnion For proofe of the first point there is alleadged an auersenesse in the Scottish Nation expressed in the Instrument both in the preface and body of their Acte In the preface where they declare That they will remaine an absolute and free Monarchie And in the body of the Acte where they make an exception of the ancient fundamentall Lawes of that Kingdome And first for the generall of their auersenes All the maine current in your Lower-house ranne this whole Session of Parliament with that opinion That Scotland was so greedy of this Vnion and apprehended that they should receiue so much benefit by it as they cared not for the strictnesse of any conditions so they might attaine to the substance And yet you now say they are backwards and auerse from the Vnion This is a direct contradiction In adiecto For how can they both be beggers and backwards in one and the selfe same thing at the same time But for answere to the particulars It is an old Schoole point Eius est explicare cuius est condere You cannot interpret their Lawes nor they yours I that made them with their assent can best expound them And first I confesse that the English Parliaments are so long and the Scottish so short that a meane betweene them would doe well For the shortnesse of their continuing together was the cause of their hastie mistaking by setting these wordes of exception of fundamentall Lawes in the body of the Acte which they onely did in pressing to imitate word by word the English Instrument wherein the same wordes be conteined in your Preface And as to their meaning and interpretation of that word I will not onely deliuer it vnto you out of mine owne conceipt but as it was deliuered vnto mee by the best Lawyers of Scotland both Counsellours and other Lawyers who were at the making thereof in Scotland and were Commissioners here for performance of the same Their meaning in the word of Fundamentall Lawes you shall perceiue more fully hereafter when I handle the obiection of the difference of Lawes For they intend thereby onely those Lawes whereby confusion is auoyded and their Kings descent mainteined and the heritage of the succession and Monarchie which hath bene a Kingdome to which I am in descent three hundreth yeeres before CHRIST Not meaning it as you doe of their Common Law for they haue none but that which is called IVS REGIS and their desire of continuing a free Monarchie was onely meant That all such particular Priuiledges whereof I spake before should not bee so confounded as for want either of Magistrate Law or Order they might fall in such a confusion as to become like a naked Prouince without Law or libertie vnder this Kingdome I hope you meane not I should set Garrisons ouer them as the Spaniards doe ouer Sicily and Naples or gouerne them by Commissioners which are seldome found succeedingly all wise and honest men This I must say for Scotland and I may trewly vaunt it Here I sit and gouerne it with my Pen I write and it is done and by a Clearke of the Councell I gouerne Scotland now which others could not doe by the sword And for their auersensse in their heart against the Vnion It is trew indeede I protest they did neuer craue this Vnion of me nor sought it either in priuate or the State by letters nor euer once did any of that Nation presse mee forward or wish mee to accelerate that businesse But on the other part they offered alwayes to obey mee when it should come to them and all honest men that desire my greatnesse haue beene thus minded for the personall reuerence and regard they beare vnto my Perion and any of my reasonable and iust desires I know there are many Piggots amongst them I meane a number of seditious and discontented particular persons as must be in all Common-wealths that where they dare may peraduenture talke lewdly enough but no Scottish man euer spake dishonourably of England in Parliament For here must I note vnto you the difference of the two Parliaments in these two Kingdomes for there they must not speake without the Chauncellors leaue and if any man doe propound or vtter any seditious or vncomely speeches he is straight interrupted and silenced by the Chauncellors authoritie where as here the libertie for any man to speake what hee list and as long as he list was the onely cause he was not interrupted It hath bin obiected that there is a great Antipathy of the Lawes and Customes of these two Nations It is much mistaken for Scotland hath no Common Law as here but the Law they