away of the Primacie of the Apostolique Sea then are they busie about cutting off the very head of the faith and dissoluing of the state of the whole body and of all the members Which selfe same thing S. Leâ—â— â—â—th confirme in his third Sermon of his Assumption to the Popedom when he saith Our Lord had a special care of Peter praied properly for Peters faith as though the state of others were more stable when their Princes mind was not to be ouercome Whereupon himselfe in his Epistle to the bishops of the prouince of Vienna doth not doubt to affirme that he is not partaker of the diuine Mysterie that dare depart from the solidity of Peter who also saith That who thinketh the Primacy to be denied to that Sea he can in no sort lessen the authority of it but by being puft vp with the spirit of his owne pride doth cast himselfe headlong into hel These and many other of this kind I am very sure are most familiar to you who besides many other books haue diligently read ouer the visible Monarchy of your owne Sanders a most diligent writer and one who hath worthily deserued of the Church of England Neither can you be ignorant that these most holy and learned men Iohn bishop of Rochester and Tho. Moore within our memory for this one most weighty head of doctrine led the way to Martyrdome to many others to the exceeding glory of the English nation But I would put you in remembrance that you should take heart and considering the weightines of the cause not to trust too much to your owne iudgement neither be wise aboue that is meet to be wise and if peraduenture your fall haue proceeded not vpon want of consideration but through humane infirmity for feare of punishment and imprisonment yet do not preferre a temporall liberty to the liberty of the glory of the Sonnes of God neither for escaping a light momentanie tribulation lose an eternal weight of glory which tribulation it selfe doeth worke in you You haue fought a good fight a long time you haue wel-neere finished your course so many yeeres haue you kept the faith do not therefore lose the reward of such labors do not depriue your selfe of that crowne of righteousnes which so long agone is prepared for you Do not make the faces of so many yours both brethren and children ashamed Vpon you at this time are fixed the eyes of all the Church yea also you are made a spectacle to the world to Angels to men Do not so carry your selfe in this your last act that you leaue nothing but laments to your friends and ioy to your enemies But rather on the contrary which we assuredly hope and for which we continually powre forth prayers to God display gloriously the banner of faith and make to reioyce the Church which you haue made heauy so shall you not onely merite pardon at Gods hands but a Crowne Farewell Quite you like a man and let your heart be strengthened From Rome the 28. day of September 1607. Your very Reuerendships brother and seruant in Christ Robert Bellarmine Cardinall THE ANSWERE TO THE CARDINALS LETTER ANd now that I am to enter into the field against him by refuting his Letter I must first vse this protestation That no desire of vaine-glory by matching with so learned a man maketh me to vndertake this taske but onely the care and conscience I haue that such smooth Circes charmes and guilded pilles as full of exterior eloquence as of inward vntrewths may not haue that publike passage through the world without an answere whereby my reputation might vniustly be darkened by such cloudie and foggie mists of vntrewths and false imputations the hearts of vnstayed and simple men be misse-led and the trewth it selfe smothered But before I come to the particular answere of this Letter A great mistaking of the state of the Question and case in hand I must here desire the world to wonder with me at the committing of so grosse an errour by so learned a man as that he should haue pained himselfe to haue set downe so elaborate a Letter for the refutation of a quite mistaken question For it appeareth that our English Fugitiues of whose inward societie with him he so greatly vaunteth haue so fast hammered in his head the Oath of Supremacie which hath euer bene so great a scarre vnto them as he thinking by his Letter to haue refuted the last Oath hath in place thereof onely paied the Oath of Supremacie which was most in his head as a man that being earnestly caried in his thoughts vpon another matter then he is presently in doing will often name the matter or person he is thinking of in place of the other thing he hath at that time in hand For as the Oath of Supremacie was deuised for putting a difference betweene Papists and them of our profession so was this Oath The difference betweene the Oath of Supremacie and this of Allegiance which hee would seeme to impugne ordained for making a difference betweene the ciuilly obedient Papists and the peruerse disciples of the Powder-Treason Yet doeth all his Letter runne vpon an Inuectiue against the compulsion of Catholiques to deny the authoritie of S. Peters successors and in place thereof to acknowledge the Successors of King Henry the eight For in K. Henry the eights time was the Oath of Supremacie first made By him were Thomas Moore and Roffensis put to death partly for refusing of it From his time till now haue all the Princes of this land professing this Religion successiuely in effect maintained the same and in that Oath onely is contained the Kings absolute power to be Iudge ouer all persons aswell Ciuill as Ecclesiastical excluding al forraigne powers and Potentates to be Iudges within his dominions whereas this last made Oath containeth no such matter onely medling with the ciuill obedience of Subiects to their Soueraigne in meere temporall causes And that it may the better appeare that whereas by name hee seemeth to condemne the last Oath yet indeed his whole Letter runneth vpon nothing but vpon the condemnation of the Oath of Supremacie I haue here thought good to set downe the said Oath leauing it then to the discretion of euery indifferent reader to iudge whether he doth not in substance onely answere to the Oath of Supremacie but that hee giues the child a wrong name I A B. doe vtterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the Kings Highnesse is the onely Supreame Gouernour of this Realme and all other his Highnesse Dominions and Countries aswell in all Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall things or causes as Temporall And that no forraine Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to haue any Iurisdiction Power Superioritie Preeminence or Authoritie Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall within this Realme And therefore I doe vtterly renounce and forsake all forraine Iurisdictions Powers Superiorities and Authorities and doe promise that from
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
signifie that in two sorts of men chiefly Satan shall vtter himselfe to wit hypocrites and auowed or open enemies to God It is said then that Satan shall in the latter times rule a new ouer the world who shall stirre vp the nations vnder the banners of these two enemies to God the hypocriticall and open to spread themselues in great multitudes vpon the earth Thirdly they shall ascend vpon the plaine of the earth presumptuously and proudly bragging of their number and force and thinking none shall be able to resist their rage They shall compasse and besiege the campes of the Saints and beloued Citie that is the handfull of the faithfull beloued of the Lord against whome trusting in their vntellable number like the sand of the sea they shall make a cruell and vncessable warre The elect are called Saints and beloued The Elect are the Saints and beloued Citie of God because they are in the loue of God selected and seuered out and by grace engraffed in Christ in whom they are counted and found iustified sanctified worthy of loue and endlesse glorie Their faithfull fellowship is compared to Tents and to a Citie beloued to signifie their continuall warfare in the earth against Satan and sinne with all his instruments their mutual amitie and friendly coniunction in loue among themselues and ioyning together to maintaine the good cause that their God hath clad them with but chiefly to signifie the mightie and al-sufficient protection or defence in prosperity and aduersity flowing from God for their iust aide against all powers that can pursue whereby they also become faire as the Moone pure as the Sunne terrible as an armie with banners Cant. 1.6 9. Yea as a defenced Citie and yron pillar and wals of Brasse against the whole earth Ierem. 1.18 The summe then of Satan his doing after he is loosed The summe of Satan his doing after he is loosed is this hee shall deceiue the nations he shall gather an infinite number of hypocrites and open enemies together inflamed with crueltie and these shall in pridefull presumption fiercely bend themselues against the chosen of God and his trewth professed by them But what at last shall the successe be surely most vnhappy for fire shall come downe from heauen and deuoure them and the diuell that deceiued them and all his instruments chiefly the Beast and false Prophet shall be cast in a lake of fire and brimstone The vnhappy successe of Satan and shall bee tormented day and night incessantly for euer and euer that is how greatly soeuer their brags be how neere soeuer they shall appeare to be to obtaine their purpose God from heauen as the pallace and throne wherefrom hee giueth proofe of his mercie towards his owne and of his iustice toward his enemies shall send plagues and destruction as well ordinary as extraordinarie vpon them Ordinarie by reuealing their wickednesse by the thundring mouthes of trew pastors which is oft called fire in the Scriptures Extraordinarie by all corporall plagues to their vtter destruction and vntellable torment for euer in the hels Thus farre for the exposition or paraphrase of the words THE SECOND PART NOw followeth the interpretation of the sentence according to the order vsed in the first part The putitie of the Gospel induring stayeth the Antechrist his rising And first we must know what time these thousand or many yeres was in and when and how Satan was loosed This time is to be found in the sixt Chapter in the opening of the first three seales of the secret booke of God his prouidence by the Lambe to wit the time when the white red and blacke horses had their course in the world And to speake more plainely the Diuell his power did lurke which is called his binding and the Gospel did flourish in a reasonable puritie many hundreth yeeres after Christ as the Ecclesiasticall histories beare witnesse For in great puritie the Gospel did continue long which is signified by the course of the white horse albeit the professors were vnder the crosse signified by the red horse and troubled wonderfully by heretickes signified by the blacke horse by wormewood that fell in the Fountaines of waters in the third trumpet and by waters that the dragon spewed out of his mouth in the vision of the Dragon and the woman chap. 12. This time did endure from Christ a space after Augustine his dayes when the bloodie Sword of persecution ceasing the whole Church began to be defiled with diuers heresies which comming vnto a mature and ripe heape did produce or bring foorth the Antechrist signified by the pale horse in the fourth seale by the king of the Locusts in the fift trumpet by Babylon in the 11 and 18. Chapter by the second Beast rising out of the sea in the 13. Chapter and by the woman clad with scarlet in the 17. chapter The arisings of the heresies and the Antichrist breeding of their smoake is in this place called the loosing of Satan Now followeth after this his loosing what he doeth The Gospel being hid the Antichrist beginneth to breed tend to his height He deceiueth the nations vniuersally he gathereth Gog and Magog with vntellable armies to fight he climeth vpon the plaine of the earth he compasseth the tents of the Saints and the beloued Citie about These are his doings Now because these actions are most liuely declared in other places of the same booke I will shortly alleadge them to make the matter cleere by conference of places expounding euery one another It is said in the ninth chapter that the Antichrist shall send out his locusts or Ecclesiasticall orders by faire allurements to entice the world to yeeld to his and their abominable heresies and shall preuaile ouer the most part It is said in the 11. chapter that he shall persecute the Saints kill the two witnesses and shall reioyce with the kings of the earth for their killing as hauing beene the onely lets to his full glory It is said in the 13. chapter that he shall blaspheme God in vsurping his power that by the aduice and assistance of the false Prophet or false Church hee shall send out his Images or Embassadours through the world persecuting and destroying them that will not obey him and them and acknowledge his supremacie yea none shall be suffered to buy or sell or vse ciuill societie that acknowledgeth not his supreme power and dignity It is said in the 16. chapter that God plaguing him for these foresaid abuses he shall be so farre from repentance as by the contrarie he shall finde out a new sort of vermin that is a new Ecclesiasticall order which are called their frogges who shall mooue and entice the Princes of the earth to ioyne with him and make warre against the faithfull pressing vtterly to destroy them and of that battell and the end therof doeth this place make mention Now shortly ioyne all these together and so obtaine the meaning There
protest to serue for a shew of my learning and ingine but onely moued of conscience to preasse thereby so farre as I can to resolue the doubting hearts of many both that such assaults of Satan are most certainely practised and that the instruments thereof merits most seuerely to be punished against the damnable opinions of two principally in our aage whereof the one called Scot an Englishman is not ashamed in publike Print to deny that there can be such a thing as Witch-craft and so maintaines the old errour of the Sadduces in denying of spirits The other called Wierus a German Physition sets out a publike Apologie for all these crafts-folkes whereby procuring for their impunitie he plainely bewrayes himselfe to haue bene one of that profession And for to make this Treatise the more pleasant and facill J haue put it in forme of a Dialogue which I haue diuided into three Bookes The first speaking of Magie in generall and Necromancie in speciall The second of Sorcerie and Witch-craft and the third containes a discourse of all these kinds of spirits and Spectres that appeares and troubles persons together with a conclusion of the whole worke My intention in this labour is onely to prooue two things as I haue already said The one that such diuelish artes haue bene and are The other what exact triall and seuere punishment they merit and therefore reason I What kinde of things are possible to be performed in these Arts and by what naturall causes they may be not that I touch euery particular thing of the Diuels power for that were infinite but onely to speake scholastickely since this cannot be spoken in our language J reason vpon genus leauing species and differentia to bee comprehended therein As for example speaking of the power of Magiciens in the first booke and sixt Chapter I say that they can suddenly cause be brought vnto them all kinds of daintie dishes by their familiar spirit since as a thiefe he delights to steale and as a spirit he can subtilly and suddenly ynough transport the same Now vnder this genus may be comprehended all particulars depending thereupon such as the bringing Wine out of a wall as wee haue heard oft to haue bene practised and such others which particulars are sufficiently prooued by the reasons of the generall And such like in the second booke of Witch-craft in speciall and fift Chapter J say and proue by diuers Arguments that Witches can by the power of their master cure or cast on diseases Now by these same reasons that proues their power by the Diuell of diseases in generall is aswell proued their power in special as of weakning the nature of some men to make them vnable for women and making it to abound in others more then the ordinary course of nature would permit And such like in all other particular sicknesses But one thing I will pray thee to obserue in all these places where I reason vpon the diuels power which is the different ends and scopes that God as the first cause and the diuell as his instrument and second cause shoots at in all these actions of the diuel as Gods hang-man For where the diuels intention in them is euer to perish either the soule or the body or both of them that he is so permitted to deale with God by the contrary drawes euer out of that euill glory to himselfe either by the wracke of the wicked in his iustice or by the triall of the patient and amendment of the faithful being wakened vp with that rod of correction Hauing thus declared vnto thee then my full intention in this Treatise thou wilt easily excuse I doubt not aswel my pretermitting to declare the whole particular rites and secrets of these vnlawfull arts as also their infinit and wonderfull practises as being neither of them pertinent to my purpose the reason whereof is giuen in the hinder end of the first Chapter of the third booke and who likes to be curious in these things he may reade if he will heare of their practises Bodinus Daemonomanie collected with greater diligence then written with iudgement together with their confessions that haue been at this time apprehended If he would know what hath bene the opinion of the Ancients concerning their power he shall see it well described by Hyperius Hemmingius two late Germane writers Besides innumerable other neotericke Theologues that write largely vpon that subject And if he would know what are the particular rites and curiosities of these blacke Arts which is both vnnecessary and perillous he will finde it in the fourth Booke of Cornelius Agrippa and in Wierus whom-of J spake And so wishing my paines in this Treatise beloued Reader to be effectuall in arming all them that reade the same against these aboue mentioned errours and recommending my good will to thy friendly acceptation J bid thee heartily fare-well IAMES R. x. DAEMONOLOGIE IN FORME OF A DIALOGVE FIRST BOOKE ARGVMENT The exord of the whole The description of Magie in speciall CHAP. I. ARGVMENT Proued by the Scripture that these vnlawfull arts in genere haue bene and may be put in practise PHILOMATHES and EPISTEMON reason the matter PHILOMATHES IAm surely very glad to haue met with you this day for I am of opinion that ye can better resolue me of some thing whereof I stand in great doubt nor any other whom-with I could haue met EPI In what I can that ye like to speir at me I will willingly and freely tell my opinion and if I proue it not sufficiently I am heartily content that a better reason carry it away then PHI. What thinke ye of these strange newes which now onely furnishes purpose to all men at their meeting I meane of these Witches EPI Surely they are wonderfull And I thinke so cleare and plaine confessions in that purpose haue neuer fallen out in any aage or countrey PHI. No question if they be true but thereof the Doctours doubts EPI What part of it doubt ye of PHI. Euen of all for ought I can yet perceiue and namely that there is such a thing as Witch-craft or Witches and I would pray you to resolue me thereof if ye may for I haue reasoned with sundrie in that matter and yet could neuer be satisfied therein EPI I shall with good will doe the best I can But I thinke it the difficiller since ye deny the thing it selfe in generall for as it is said in the Logicke schooles Contra negantem principia non est disputandum Alwaies for that part that Witch-craft and Witches haue beene and are the former part is clearely prooued by the Scriptures and the last by daily experience and confessions PHI. I know ye wil alleadge me Sauls Pythonisse but that as appeares will not make much for you EPI Not onely that place but diuers others But I maruell why that should not make much for me PHI. The reasons are these first yee may consider that Saul beeing
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
all aswell strangers as naturall subiects to whose eyes this Discourse shall come may wisely and vnpartially iudge of the Veritie as it is nakedly here set downe for clearing these mists and cloudes of calumnies which were iniustly heaped vpon me for which end onely I heartily pray the courteous Reader to be perswaded that I tooke occasion to publish this Discourse A PREMONITION TO ALL MOST MIGHTIE MONARCHES KINGS FREE PRINCES AND STATES OF CHRISTENDOME TO THE MOST SACRED AND INVINCIBLE PRINCE RODOLPHE THE II. by GODS Clemencie Elect Emperour of the ROMANES KING OF GERMANIE HVNGARIE BOHEME DALMATIE CROATIE SCLAVONIE c. ARCH-DVKE OF AVSTRIA DVKE OF BVRGVNDIE STIRIA CARINTHIA CARNIOLA and WIRTEMBERG c. Earle of TYROLIS c. AND TO ALL OTHER RIGHT HIGH AND MIGHTIE KINGS And Right Excellent free Princes and States of CHRISTENDOME Our louing BRETHREN COSINS ALLIES CONFEDERATES and FRIENDS IAMES by the Grace of GOD King of GREAT BRITAINE FRANCE and IRELAND Professour Maintainer and Defender of the Trew Christian Catholique and Apostolique FAITH Professed by the ancient and Primitiue CHVRCH and sealed with the blood of so many Holy Bishops and other faithfull crowned with the glory of MARTYRDOME WISHETH cuerlasting felicitie in CHRIST our SAVIOVR TO YOV MOST SACRED AND INVINCIBLE EMPEROVR RIGHT HIGH AND MIGHTIE KINGS RIGHT EXCELLENT FREE PRINCES AND STATES MY LOVING BRETHREN AND COSINS To you I say as of right belongeth doe I consecrate and direct this Warning of mine or rather Preamble to my reprinted Apologie for the Oath of Allegiance For the cause is generall and concerneth the Authoritie and priuiledge of Kings in generall and all supereminent Temporall powers And if in whatsoeuer Societie or Corporation of men either in Corporations of Cities or in the Corporation of any mechanicke craft or handie-worke euery man is carefull to maintaine the priuiledges of that Societie whereunto he is sworne nay they will rather cluster all in one making it a common cause exposing themselues to all sorts of perill then suffer the least breach in their Liberties If those of the baser sort of people I say be so curious and zealous for the preseruation of their common priuiledges and liberties as if the meanest amongst them be touched in any such point they thinke it concerneth them all Then what should wee doe in such a case whom GOD hath placed in the highest thrones vpon earth made his Lieutenants and Vice-gerents and euen seated vs vpon his owne Throne to execute his Iudgements The consideration hereof hath now mooued mee to expone a Case vnto you which doeth not so neerely touch mee in my particular as it doeth open a breach against our Authoritie I speake in the plurall of all Kings and priuiledge in generall And since not onely all rankes and sorts of people in all Nations doe inuiolably obserue this Maxime but euen the Ciuil Law by which the greatest part of Christendome is gouerned doeth giue them an interest qui fouent consimilem causam How much more then haue yee interest in this cause not beeing similis or par causa to yours but eadem with yours and indeed yee all fouetis or at least fouere debetis eandem causam mecum And since this cause is common to vs all both the Ciuill Lawes and the municipall Lawes of all Nations permit and warne them that haue a common interest to concurre in one for the defence of their common cause yea common sense teacheth vs with the Poet Ecquid Ad te pòst paulò ventura pericula sentis Nam tua res agitur paries cùm proximus ardet A wake then while it is time and suffer not by your longer sleepe the strings of your Authoritie to be cut in singulis and one and one to your generall ruine which by your vnited forces would rather make a strong rope for the enemie to hang himselfe in with Achitophel then that hee should euer bee able to breake it As for this Apologie of mine it is trew that I thought good to set it first out without putting my name vnto it but neuer so as I thought to denie it remembring well mine owne words but taken out of the Scripture in the beginning of the Preface to the Reader in my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that nothing is so bid which shall not bee opened c. promising there which with GOD his grace I shall euer performe neuer to doe that in secret which I shall need to be ashamed of when it shall come to be proclaimed in publique In deed I thought it fit for two respects that this my Apologie should first visite the world without hauing my name written in the forehead thereof First because of the matter and next of the persons that I medled with The matter it being a Treatise which I was to write conteining reasons and discourses in Diuinitie for the defence of the Oath of Alleagiance and refutation of the condemners thereof I thought it not comely for one of my place to put my name to bookes concerning Scholasticke Disputations whose calling is to set forth Decrees in the Imperatiue mood for I thinke my selfe as good a man as the Pope by his reuerence for whom these my Answerers make the like excuse for that his Breues are so summary without yeelding any reason vnto them My next reason was the respect of the persons whom with I medled Wherein although I shortly answered the Popes Breues yet the point I most laboured being the refutation of Bellarmines Letter I was neuer the man I confesse that could thinke a Cardinall a meet match for a King especially hauing many hundreth thousands of my subiects of as good birth as hee As for his Church dignitie his Cardinalship I meane I know not how to ranke or value it either by the warrant of God his word or by the ordinance of Emperours or Kings it being indeed onely a new Papall erection tolerated by the sleeping conniuence of our Predecessours I meane still by the plurall of Kings But notwithstanding of this my forbearing to put my name vnto it some Embassadours of some of you my louing Brethren and Cousins whome this cause did neereliest concerne can witnesse that I made Presents of some of those bookes at their first printing vnto them and that auowedly in my owne name As also the English Paragraphist or rather peruerse Pamphleter Parsons since all his description must runne vpon a P. hath trewly obserued that my Armes are affixed in the frontispice thereof which vseth not to bee in bookes of other mens doing whereby his malice in pretending his ignorane that hee might pay mee the soundlier is the more inexcusable But now that I finde my sparing to put my name vnto it hath not procured my sparing by these answerers who haue neither spared my Person directly in naming me nor indirectly by railing vpon the Author of the Booke it is now high time for me no longer to conceale nor disauow my selfe as if I were ashamed of
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
adiudged by the Councill of Constance to expresse damnation For in these words the L. Cardinall preferreth a bill of inditement to cast his Holinesse who vpon the commencing of the Leaguers warres in stead of giuing order for the publishing of the said Ecclesiasticall Lawes for the restraining of all parricidicall practises and attempts fell to the terrour of his fulminations which not long after were seconded and ratified by the most audatious and bloody murder of King Henry III. In like manner the whole Clergy of France are wrapped vp by the L. Cardinals words and inuolued in the perill of the said inditement For in stead of preaching the said Ecclesiasticall Lawes by which all King-killing is inhibited the Priests taught vented and published nothing but rebellion and when the people in great deuotion came to powre their confessions into the Priests eares then the Priests with a kind of counterbuffe in the second place when their turne was come and with greater deuotion powred blood into the eares of the people out of which roote grewe the terrour of those cruell warres and the horrible parricide of that good King But let vs here take some neere sight of these Ecclesiasticall Lawes whereby subiects are inhibited to kill or desperately to dispatch their Kings out of the way The Lord Cardinall for full payment of all scores vpon this reckoning layeth downe the credit of the Councill at Constance which neuerthelesse affoardeth not one myte of trew and currant payment The trewth of the history may bee taken from this briefe relation Iohn Duke of Burgundy procured Lewis Duke of Orleans to be murthered in Paris To iustifie and make good this bloody acte he produced a certaine petimaster one called by the name of Iohn Petit. This little Iohn caused nine propositions to be giuen foorth or set vp to bee discussed in the famous Vniuersitie of Paris The summe of all to this purpose It is lawfull iust and honourable for euery subiect or priuate person either by open force and violence or by deceit and secret lying in waite or by some wittie stratagem or by any other way of fact to kil a Tyrant practising against his King and other higher powers yea the King ought in reason to giue him a pension or stipend that hath killed any person disloyal to his Prince The words of Petits first proposition be these It is lawfull for euery subiect Gerson without any command or commission from the higher powers by all the Lawes of nature of man and of God himselfe to kill or cause to be killed any Tyrant who either by a couetous and greedie desire or by fraud by diuination vpon casting of Lots by double and treacherous dealing doeth plot or practise against his Kings corporall health or the health of his higher powers In the third proposition It is lawfull for euery subiect honourable and meritorious to kill the said Tyrant or cause him to be killed as a Traitor disloyall and trecherous to his King In the sixt proposition The King is to appoint a salarie and recompence for him that hath killed such a Tyrant or hath caused him to bee killed These propositions of Iohannes Paruus were condemned by the Councill of Constance as impious and tending to the scandall of the Church Now then whereas the said Councill no doubt vnderstood the name or word Tyrant in the same sense wherein it was taken by Iohannes Paruus certaine it is the Councill was not of any such iudgement or mind to condemne one that should kill a King or Soueraigne Prince but one that by treason and without commandement should kill a subiect rebelling and practising against his King For Iohn Petit had vndertaken to iustifie the making away of the Duke of Orleans to be a lawfull acte and calls that Dukea Tyrant albeit hee was no Soueraigne Prince as all the aboue recited words of Iohn Petit doe testifie that he speaketh of such a Tyrant as being in state of subiection rebelleth against his free and absolute Prince So that whosoeuer shall narrowly search and looke into the mind and meaning of the said Council shal easily perceiue that by their decrees the safetie of Kings was not confirmed but weakened not augmented but diminished for as much as they inhibited priuate persons to kill a Subiect attempting by wicked counsels and practises to make away his King But be it granted the Councill of Constance is flat and altogether direct against King-killers For I am not vnwilling to be perswaded that had the question then touched the murdering of Soueraigne Princes the said Councill would haue passed a sound and holy decree But I say this granted what sheild of defence is hereby reached to Kings to ward or beat off the thrust of a murderers weapon and to saue or secure their life seeing the L. Cardinall building vpon the subtile deuise and shift of the Iesuites hath taught vs out of their Schooles that by Kings are vnderstood Kings in esse not yet fallen from the supreame degree of Soueraigne Royaltie For being once deposed by the Pope say the Iesuites they are no longer Kings but are fallen from the rights of Soueraigne dignitie and consequently to make strip and wast of their blood is not forsooth to make strip and wast of Royall blood The Iesuiticall masters in the file of their words are so supple and so limber that by leauing still in their speech some starting hole or other they are able by the same as by a posterne or backdoore to make an escape Meane while the Readers are here to note for well they may a tricke of monstrous and most wicked cunning The L. Cardinall contends for the bridling and hampering of King-killers by the Lawes Ecclesiasticall Now it might be presumed that so reuerend and learned a Cardinal intending to make vse of Ecclesiasticall Lawes by vertue whereof the life of Kings may be secured would fill his mouth and garnish the point with diuine Oracles that wee might the more gladly and willingly giue him the hearing when hee speakes as one furnished with sufficient weight and authoritie of sacred Scripture But behold in stead of the authenticall and most ancient word hee propounds the decree of a lateborne Councill at Constance neither for the Popes tooth nor any way comming neere the point in controuersie And suppose it were pertinent vnto the purpose the L. Cardinall beareth in his hand a forke of distinction with two tines or teeth to beare off nay to shift off and to auoid the matter with meere dalliance The shortest and neerest way in some sort of respects to establish a false opinion is to charge or set vpon it with false and with ridiculous reasons The like way to worke the ouerthrow of trew doctrine is to rest or ground it vpon friuolous reasons or authorities of stubble-weight For example if we should thus argue for the immortalitie of the soule with Plato In Phaedone The swan singeth before her death ergo
the Lawes but onely the clearing and the sweeping off the rust of them and that by Parliament our Lawes might be cleared and made knowen to all the Subiects Yea rather it were lesse hurt that all the approued Cases were set downe and allowed by Parliament for standing Lawes in all time to come For although some of them peraduenture may bee vniust as set downe by corrupt Iudges yet better it is to haue a certaine Law with some spots in it nor liue vnder such an vncertaine and arbitrarie Law since as the prouerbe is It is lesse harme to suffer an inconuenience then a mischiefe And now may you haue faire occasion of amending and polishing your Lawes when Scotland is to bee vnited with you vnder them for who can blame Scotland to say If you will take away our owne Lawes I pray you giue vs a better and cleerer in place thereof But this is not possible to bee done without a fit preparation Hee that buildeth a Ship must first prouide the timber and as Christ himselfe said No man will build an house but he will first prouide the materials nor a wise King will not make warre against another without he first makeprouision of money and all great workes must haue their preparation and that was my end in causing the Instrument of the Vnion to be made Vnion is a mariage would he not bee thought absurd that for furthering of a mariage betweene two friends of his would make his first motion to haue the two parties be laid in bedde together and performe the other turnes of mariage must there not precede the mutuall sight and acquaintance of the parties one with another the conditions of the contract and Ioincture to be talked of and agreed vpon by their friends and such other things as in order ought to goe before the ending of such a worke The vnion is an eternall agreement and reconciliation of many long bloody warres that haue beene betweene these two ancient Kingdomes Is it the readiest way to agree a priuate quarell betweene two to bring them at the first to shake hands and as it were kisse other and lie vnder one roofe or rather in one bedde together before that first the ground of their quarell be communed vpon their mindes mitigated their affections prepared and all other circumstances first vsed that ought to be vsed to proceed to such a finall agreement Euery honest man desireth a perfect Vnion but they that say so and admit no preparation thereto haue mel in ore fel in corde If after your so long talke of Vnion in all this long Session of Parliament yee rise without agreeing vpon any particular what will the neighbour Princes iudge whose eyes are all fixed vpon the conclusion of this Action but that the King is refused in his desire whereby the Nation should bee taxed and the King disgraced And what an ill preparation is it for the mindes of Scotland toward the Vnion when they shall heare that ill is spoken of their whole Nation but nothing is done nor aduanced in the matter of the Vnion it selfe But this I am glad was but the fault of one and one is no number yet haue your neighbours of Scotland this aduantage of you that none of them haue spoken ill of you nor shall as long as I am King in Parliament or any such publique place of Iuditature Consider therefore well if the mindes of Scotland had not neede to be well prepared to perswade their mutuall consent seeing you here haue all the great aduantage by the Vnion Is not here the personall residence of the King his whole Court and family Is not here the seate of Iustice and the fountaine of Gouernment must they not be subiected to the Lawes of England and so with time become but as Cumberland and Northumberland and those other remote and Northerne Shires you are to be the husband they the wife you conquerours they as conquered though not by the sword but by the sweet and sure bond of loue Besides that they as other Northerne Countreys will beseldome seene and saluted by their King and that as it were but in a posting or hunting iourney How little cause then they may haue of such a change of so ancient a Monarchie into the case of priuate Shires iudge rightly herein And that you may be the more vpright Iudges suppose your selues the Patients of whom such sentence should be giuen But what preparation is it which I craue onely such as by the entrance may shew something is done yet more is intended There is a conceipt intertained and a double iealousie possesseth many wherein I am misiudged First that this Vnion will be the Crisis to the ouerthrow of England and setting vp of Scotland England will then bee ouerwhelmed by the swarming of the Scots who if the Vnion were effected would raigne and rule all The second is my profuse liberalitie to the Scottish men more then the English and that with this Vnion all things shal be giuen to them and you turned out of all To you shall bee left the sweat and labour to them shall bee giuen the fruite and sweet and that my forbearance is but till this Vnion may be gained How agreeable this is to the trewth Iudge you And that not by my wordes but by my Actions Doe I craue the Vnion without exceptions doe I not offer to binde my selfe and to reserue to you as in the Instrument all places of Iudicature doe I intend any thing which standeth not with the equall good of both Nations I could then haue done it and not spoken of it For all men of vnderstanding must agree that I might dispose without assent of Parliament Offices of Iudicature and others both Ecclesiasticall and Temporall But herein I did voluntarily offer by my Letters from Royston to the Commissioners to bind my Prerogatiue Some thinke that I will draw the Scottish Nation hither talking idlely of transporting of Trees out of a barren ground into a better and of leane cattell out of bad pasture into a more fertile soile Can any man displant you vnlesse you will or can any man thinke that Scotland is so strong to pull you out of your houses or doe you not thinke I know England hath more people Scotland more wast ground So that there is roumth in Scotland rather to plant your idle people that swarme in London streets and other Townes and disburden you of them then to bring more vnto you And in cases of Iustice if I bee partiall to either side let my owne mouth condemne me as vnworthy to be your King I appeale to your selues if in fauour or Iustice I haue beene partiall Nay my intention was euer you should then haue most cause to praise my discretion when you saw I had most power If hitherto I haue done nothing to your preiudice much lesse meane I hereafter If when I might haue done it without any breach of promise Thinke so of mee that
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
generall and maine grounds the principall things that haue bene agitated in this Parliament and whereof I will now speake First the Arrand for which you were called by me And that was for supporting of my state and necessities The second is that which the people are to mooue vnto the King To represent vnto him such things whereby the Subiects are vexed or wherein the state of the Common wealth is to be redressed And that is the thing which you call grieuances The third ground that hath bene handled amongst you and not onely in talke amongst you in the Parliament but euen in many other peoples mouthes aswell within as without the Parliament is of a higher nature then any of the former though it be but an Incident and the reason is because it concernes a higher point And this is a doubt which hath bene in the heads of some of my Intention in two things First whether I was resolued in the generall to continue still my gouernment according to the ancient forme of this State and the Lawes of this Kingdome Or if I had an intention not to limit my selfe within those bounds but to alter the same when I thought conuenient by the absolute power of a King The other branch is anent the Common Law which some had a conceit I disliked and in respect that I was borne where another forme of Law was established that I would haue wished the Ciuill Law to haue bene put in place of the Common Law for gouernment of this people And the complaint made amongst you of a booke written by doctour Cowell was a part of the occasion of this incident But as touching my censure of that booke I made it already to bee deliuered vnto you by the Treasurer here sitting which he did out of my owne directions and notes and what he said in my name that had he directly from me But what hee spake of himselfe therein without my direction I shal alwayes make good for you may be sure I will be loth to make so honest a man a lyer or deceiue your expectations alwayes within very few dayes my Edict shall come forth anent that matter which shall fully discouer my meaning There was neuer any reason to mooue men to thinke that I could like of such grounds For there are two qualities principally or rather priuations that make Kings subiect to flatterie Credulitie and Ignorance and I hope none of them can bee iustly obiected to mee For if Alexander the great for all his learning had bene wise in that point to haue considered the state of his owne naturall body and disposition hee would neuer haue thought him selfe a god And now to the matter As it is a Christan duety in euery man Reddere rationem fidei and not to be ashamed to giue an account of his profession before men and Angels as oft as occasion shall require So did I euer hold it a necessitie of honour in a iust and wise King though not to giue an account to his people of his actions yet clearely to deliuer his heart and intention vnto them vpon euery occasion But I must inuert my order and begin first with that incident which was last in my diuision though highest of nature and so goe backward THe State of MONARCHIE is the supremest thing vpon earth For Kings are not onely GODS Lieutenants vpon earth and sit vpon GODS throne but euen by GOD himselfe they are called Gods There bee three principall similitudes that illustrate the state of MONARCHIE One taken out of the word of GOD and the two other out of the grounds of Policie and Philosophie In the Scriptures Kings are called Gods and so their power after a certaine relation compared to the Diuine power Kings are also compared to Fathers of families for a King is trewly Parens patriae the politique father of his people And lastly Kings are compared to the head of this Microcosme of the body of man Kings are iustly called Gods for that they exercise a manner or resemblance of Diuine power vpon earth For if you wil consider the Attributes to God you shall see how they agree in the person of a King God hath power to create or destroy make or vnmake at his pleasure to giue life or send death to iudge all and to bee iudged nor accomptable to none To raise low things and to make high things low at his pleasure and to God are both soule and body due And the like power haue Kings they make and vnmake their subiects they haue power of raising and casting downe of life and of death Iudges ouer all their subiects and in all causes and yet accomptable to none but God onely They haue power to exalt low things and abase high things and make of their subiects like men at the Chesse A pawne to take a Bishop or a Knight and to cry vp or downe any of their subiects as they do their money And to the King is due both the affection of the soule and the seruice of the body of his subiects And therefore that reuerend Bishop here amongst you though I heare that by diuers he was mistaken or not wel vnderstood yet did he preach both learnedly and trewly annent this point concerning the power of a King For what he spake of a Kings power in Abstracto is most trew in Diuinitie For to Emperors or Kings that are Monarches their Subiects bodies goods are due for their defence and maintenance But if I had bene in his place I would only haue added two words which would haue cleared all For after I had told as a Diuine what was due by the Subiects to their Kings in general I would then haue concluded as an Englishman shewing this people That as in generall all Subiects were bound to relieue their King So to exhort them that as wee liued in a setled state of a Kingdome which was gouerned by his owne fundamentall Lawes and Orders that according thereunto they were now being assembled for this purpose in Parliament to consider how to helpe such a King as now they had And that according to the ancient forme and order established in this Kingdome putting so a difference betweene the generall power of a King in Diuinity and the setled and established State of this Crowne and Kingdome And I am sure that the Bishop meant to haue done the same if hee had not bene straited by time which in respect of the greatnesse of the presence preaching before me and such an Auditory he durst not presume vpon As for the Father of a familie they had of olde vnder the Law of Nature Patriam potestatem which was Potestatem vitae necis ouer their children or familie I meane such Fathers of families as were the lineall heires of those families whereof Kings did originally come For Kings had their first originall from them who planted and spread themselues in Colonies through the world Now a Father may dispose of his
Inheritance to his children at his pleasure yea euen disinherite the eldest vpon iust occasions and preferre the youngest according to his liking make them beggers or rich at his pleasure restraine or banish out of his presence as hee findes them giue cause of offence or restore them in fauour againe with the penitent sinner So may the King deale with his Subiects And lastly as for the head of the naturall body the head hath the power of directing all the members of the body to that vse which the iudgement in the head thinkes most conuenient It may apply sharpe cures or cut off corrupt members let blood in what proportion it thinkes fit and as the body may spare but yet is all this power ordeined by God Ad aedificationem non ad destructionem For although God haue power aswell of destruction as of creation or maintenance yet will it not agree with the wisedome of God to exercise his power in the destruction of nature and ouerturning the whole frame of things since his creatures were made that his glory might thereby be the better expressed So were hee a foolish father that would disinherite or destroy his children without a cause or leaue off the carefull education of them And it were an idle head that would in place of phisicke so poyson or phlebotomize the body as might breede a dangerous distemper or destruction thereof But now in these our times we are to distinguish betweene the state of Kings in their first originall and betweene the state of setled Kings and Monarches that doe at this time gouerne in ciuill Kingdomes For euen as God during the time of the olde Testament spake by Oracles and wrought by Miracles yet how soone it pleased him to setle a Church which was bought and redeemed by the blood of his onely Sonne Christ then was there a cessation of both Hee euer after gouerning his people and Church within the limits of his reueiledwill So in the first originall of Kings whereof some had their beginning by Conquest and some by election of the people their wills at that time serued for Law Yet how soone Kingdomes began to be setled in ciuilitie and policie then did Kings set downe their minds by Lawes which are properly made by the King onely but at the rogation of the people the Kings grant being obteined thereunto And so the King became to be Lex loquens after a sort binding himselfe by a double oath to the obseruation of the fundamentall Lawes of his kingdome Tacitly as by being a King and so bound to protect aswell the people as the Lawes of his Kingdome And Expresly by his oath at his Coronation So as euery iust King in a setled Kingdome is bound to obserue that paction made to his people by his Lawes in framing his gouernment agreeable thereunto according to that paction which God made with Noe after the deluge Hereafter Seed-time and Haruest Cold and Heate Summer and Winter and Day and Night shall not cease so long as the earth remaines And therefore a King gouerning in a setled Kingdome leaues to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant assoone as he leaues off to rule according to his Lawes In which case the Kings conscience may speake vnto him as the poore widow said to Philip of Macedon Either gouerne according to your Law Aut ne Rexsis And though no Christian man ought to allow any rebellion of people against their Prince yet doeth God neuer leaue Kings vnpunished when they transgresse these limits For in that same Psalme where God saith to Kings Vos Dij estis hee immediatly thereafter concludes But ye shall die like men The higher wee are placed the greater shall our fall be Vt casus sic dolor the taller the trees be the more in danger of the winde and the tempest beats sorest vpon the highest mountaines Therefore all Kings that are not tyrants or periured wil be glad to bound themselues within the limits of their Lawes and they that perswade them the contrary are vipers and pests both against them and the Common-wealth For it is a great difference betweene a Kings gouernment in a setled State and what Kings in their originall power might doe in Indiuiduo vago As for my part I thanke God I haue euer giuen good proofe that I neuer had intention to the contrary And I am sure to goe to my graue with that reputation and comfort that neuer King was in all his time more carefull to haue his Lawes duely obserued and himselfe to gouerne thereafter then I. I conclude then this point touching the power of Kings with this Axiome of Diuinitie That as to dispute what God may doe is Blasphemie but quid vult Deus that Diuines may lawfully and doe ordinarily dispute and discusse for to dispute A Posse ad Esse is both against Logicke and Diuinitie So is it sedition in Subiects to dispute what a King may do in the height of his power But iust Kings wil euer be willing to declare what they wil do if they wil not incurre the curse of God I wil not be content that my power be disputed vpon but I shall euer be willing to make the reason appeare of all my doings and rule my actions according to my Lawes The other branch of this incident is concerning the Common Law being conceiued by some that I contemned it and preferred the Ciuil Law thereunto As I haue already said Kings Actions euen in the secretest places are as the actions of those that are set vpon the Stages or on the tops of houses and I hope neuer to speake that in priuate which I shall not auow in publique and Print it if need be as I said in my BASILICON DORON For it is trew that within these few dayes I spake freely my minde touching the Common Law in my Priuie Chamber at the time of my dinner which is come to all your eares and the same was likewise related vnto you by my Treasurer and now I will againe repeate and confirme the same my selfe vnto you First as a King I haue least cause of any man to dislike the Common Law For no Law can bee more fauourable and aduantagious for a King and extendeth further his Prerogatiue then it doeth And for a King of England to despile the Common Law it is to neglect his owne Crowne It is trew that I doe greatly esteeme the Ciuill Law the profession thereof seruing more for generall learning and being most necessary for matters of Treatie with all forreine Nations And I thinke that if it should bee taken away it would make an entrie to Barbarisme in this Kingdome and would blemish the honour of England For it is in a maner LEX GENTIVM and maintaineth Intercourse with all forreme Nations but I onely allow it to haue course here according to those limits of Iurisdiction which the Common Law it selfe doeth allow it And therefore though it bee not fit for the
that must interprete but either cleare Law or solide reason But in Countreys where the formalitie of Law hath no place as in Denmarke which I may trewly report as hauing my selfe beene an eye-witnesse thereof all their State is gouerned onely by a written Law there is no Aduocate or Proctour admitted to plead onely the parties themselues plead their owne cause and then a man stands vp and reads the Law and there is an end for the very Law-booke it selfe is their onely Iudge Happy were all Kingdomes if they could be so But heere curious wits various conceits different actions and varietie of examples breed questions in Law And therefore when you heare the questions if they be plaine there is a plaine way in it selfe if they be such as are not plaine for mens inuentions dayly abound then are you to interprete according to common sense and draw a good and certaine Minor of naturall reason out of the Maior of direct Lawe and thereupon to make a right and trew Conclusion For though the Common Law be a mystery and skill best knowen vnto your selues yet if your interpretation be such as other men which haue Logicke and common sense vnderstand not the reason I will neuer trust such an Interpretation Remember also you are Iudges and not a Iudge and diuided into Benches which sheweth that what you doe that you should doe with aduice and deliberation not hastily and rashly before you well study the case and conferre together debating it duely not giuing single opinions per emendicata suffragia and so to giue your Iudgement as you will answer to God and me Now hauing spoken of your Office in generall I am next to come to the limits wherein you are to bound yourselues which likewise are three First Incroach not vpon the Prerogatiue of the Crowne If there fall out a question that concernes my Prerogatiue or mystery of State deale not with it till you consult with the King or his Councell or both for they are transcendent matters and must not be sliberely caried with ouer-rash wilfulnesse for so may you wound the King through the sides of a priuate person and this I commend vnto your speciall care as some of you of late haue done very well to blunt the sharpe edge and vaine popular humour of some Lawyers at the Barre that thinke they are not eloquent and bold spirited enough except they meddle with the Kings Prerogatiue But doe not you suffer this for certainely if this liberty be suffered the Kings Prerogatiue the Crowne and I shall bee as much wounded by their pleading as if you resolued what they disputed That which concernes the mysterie of the Kings power is not lawfull to be disputed for that is to wade into the weakenesse of Princes and to take away the mysticall reuerence that belongs vnto them that sit in the Throne of God Secondly That you keepe yourselues within your owne Benches not to inuade other Iurisdictions which is vnfit and an vnlawful thing In this I must inlarge my selfe Besides the Courts of Common Law there is the Court of Requests the Admiraltie Court the Court of the President and Councell of Walles the President and Councell of the North High Commission Courts euery Bishop in his owne Court These Courts ought to keepe their owne limits and boundes of their Commission and Instructions according to the ancient Presidents And like as I declare that my pleasure is that euery of these shall keepe their owne limits and boundes So the Courts of Common Lawe are not to encroach vpon them no more then it is my pleasure that they should encroach vpon the Common Law And this is a thing Regall and proper to a King to keepe euery Court within his owne bounds In Westminster Hall there are foure Courts Two that handle causes Ciuill which are the Common-pleas and the Exchequer Two that determine causes Criminall which are the Kings-Bench and the Starre-Chamber where now I sit The Common-Pleas is a part and branch of the Kings-Bench for it was first all one Court and then the Common-Pleas being extracted it was called Common-Pleas because it medled with the Pleas of Priuate persons and that which remained the Kings-Bench The other of the Courts for ciuill Causes is the Exchequer which was ordeined for the Kings Reuenew That is the principall Institution of that Court and ought to be their chiefe studie and as other things come orderly thither by occasion of the former they may be handled and Iustice there administred Keepe you therefore all in your owne bounds and for my part I desire you to giue me no more right in my priuate Prerogatiue then you giue to any Subiect and therein I will be acquiescent As for the absolute Prerogatiue of the Crowne that is no Subiect for the tongue of a Lawyer nor is lawfull to be disputed It is Athiesme and blasphemie to dispute what God can doe good Christians content themselues with his will reuealed in his word so it is presumption and high contempt in a Subiect to dispute what a King can doe or say that a King cannot doe this or that but rest in that which is the Kings reuealed will in his Law The Kings-Bench is the principall Court for criminall causes and in some respects it deales with Ciuill causes Then is there a Chancerie Court this is a Court of Equitie and hath power to deale likewise in Ciuill causes It is called the dispenser of the Kings Conscience following alwayes the intention of Law and Iustice not altering the Law not making that blacke which other Courts made white nor è conuerso But in this it exceeds other Courts mixing Mercie with Iustice where other Courts proceed onely according to the strict rules of Law And where the rigour of the Law in many cases will vndoe a Subiect there the Chancerie tempers the Law with equitie and so mixeth Mercy with Iustice as it preserues men from destruction And thus as before I told you is the Kings Throne established by Mercy and Iustice The Chancerie is vndependant of any other Court and is onely vnder the King There it is written Teste meipso from that Court there is no Appeale And as I am bound in my Conscience to maintaine euery Courts Iurisdiction so especially this and not suffer it to sustaine wrong yet so to maintaine it as to keepe it within the owne limits and free from corruption My Chancellour that now is I found him Keeper of the Seale the same place in substance although I gaue him the Stile of Chancellour and God hath kept him in it till now and I pray God he may hold it long and so I hope he will He will beare mee witnesse I neuer gaue him other warrant then to goe on in his Court according to Presidents warranted by Law in the time of the best gouerning Kings and most learned Chancellours These were the limits I gaue vnto him beyond the same limits he hath promised me he