matter of truth I draw this conclusion Howsoeuer no smal number of the French Clergie may perhaps beare the affection of louing Subiects to their King and may not suffer the Clericall character to deface the impression of naturall allegiance yet for so much as the Order of Clerics is dipped in a deeper die and beareth a worse tincture of daungerous practises then the other Orders the third Estate had beene greatly wanting to their excellent prouidence and wisdome if they should haue relinquished and transferred the care of designements and proiects for the life of their King and the safetie of his Crowne to the Clergie alone Moreouer the Clergie standeth bound to referre the iudgment of all matters in controuersie to the sentence of the Pope in this cause beeing a partie and one that pretendeth Crownes to depend vpon his Mitre What hope then might the third Estate conceiue that his Holinesse would passe against his own cause when his iudgment of the controuersie had been sundrie times before published and testified to the world And whereas the plot or modell of remedies proiected by the third Estate and the Kings Officers hath not prooued sortable in the euent was it because the said remedies were not good and lawfull No verily but because the Clergie refused to become contributors of their duty meanes to the grand seruice Likewise for that after the burning of bookes addressed to iustifie rebellious people traytors and parricides of Kings neuerthelesse the authors of the said bookes are winked at and backt with fauour Lastly for that some wretched parricides drinke off the cuppe of publike iustice whereas to the firebrands of sedition the sowers of this abominable doctrine no man saith so much as blacke is their eye It sufficiently appeareth as I suppose by the former passage that his Lordship exhorting the third Estate to refer the whole care of this Regall cause vnto the Clergie hath tacked his frame of weake ioynts and tenons to a very worthy but wrong foundation Howbeit he laboureth to fortifie his exhortation with a more weak feeble reason For to make good his proiect he affirmes that matters and maximes out of all doubt question may not be shuffled together with points in controuersy Now his rules indubitable are two The first It is not lawfull to murther Kings for any cause whatsoeuer This he confirmeth by the example of Saul as he saith deposed from his Throne whose life or limbs Dauid neuerthelesse durst not once hurt or wrong for his life Likewise he confirmes the same by a Decree of the Council held at Constance His other point indubitable The Kings of France are Soueraignes in all Temporall Soueraigntie within the French Kingdome and hold not by fealtie either of the Pope as hauing receiued or obliged their Crownes vpon such tenure and condition or of any other Prince in the whole world Which point neuerthelesse he takes not for certen and indubitable but onely according to humane and historicall certentie Now a third point he makes to be so full of controuersie and so farre within the circle of disputable questions as it may not be drawne into the ranke of classicall and authenticall points for feare of making a certen point doubtfull by shuffling and jumbling therewith some point in controuersie Now the question so disputable as he pretendeth is this A Christian Prince breakes his oath solemnly taken to God both to liue and to die in the Catholique Religion Say this Prince turnes Arrian or Mahometan fals to proclaime open warre and to wage battel with Iesus Christ Whether may such a Prince be declared to haue lost his Kingdome and who shall declare the Subiects of such a Prince to be quit of their oath of allegiance The L. Cardinall holds the affirmatiue and makes no bones to maintaine that all other parts of the Catholique Church yea the French Church euen from the first birth of her Theologicall Schooles to Calvins time and teaching haue professed that such a Prince may be lawfully remooued from his Throne by the Pope and by the Council and suppose the contrarie doctrine were the very Quintessence or spirit of truth yet might it not in case of faith be vrged and pressed otherwise then by way of problematicall disceptation That is the summe of his Lordsh ample discourse The refuting whereof I am constrained to put off and referre vnto an other place because he hath serued vs with the same dishes ouer ouer againe There we shall see the L. Cardinall maketh way to the dispatching of Kings after deposition that Saul was not deposed as he hath presumed that in the Council of Constance there is nothing to the purpose of murthering Soueraigne Princes that his Lordship supposing the French King may be depriued of his Crowne by a superiour power doth not hold his liege Lord to be Soueraigne in France that by the position of the French Church from age to age the Kings of France are not subiect vnto any censure of deposition by the Pope that his Holinesse hath no iust and lawful pretence to produce that any Christian King holds of him by fealtie or is obliged to doe the Pope homage for his Crowne Well then for the purpose he dwelleth onely vpon the third point pretended questionable and this he affirmeth If any shall condemne or wrappe vnder the solemne curse the abettors of the Popes power to vnking lawfull and Soueraigne Kings the same shall runne vpon fowre dangerous rocks of apparant incongruities and absurdities First he shall offer to force and intangle the consciences of many deuout persons For hee shall bind them to beleeue and sweare that doctrine the contrary whereof is beleeued of the whole Church and hath beene beleeued by their predecessors Secondly he shall ouerturne from top to bottome the sacred authoritie of holy Church and shall set open a gate vnto all sorts of heresie by allowing lay-persons a bold libertie to be iudges in causes of religion and faith For what is that degree of boldnesse but open vsurping of the Priesthood what is it but putting of prophane hands into the Arke what is it but laying of vnholy fingers vpon the holy Censor for perfumes Thirdly he shal make way to a schisme not possible to be put by and auoided by any humane prouidence For this doctrine beeing held and professed by all other Catholicks how can we declare it repugnant vnto Gods word how can we hold it impious how can we accompt it detestable but we shall renounce communion with the head and other members of the Church yea we shall confesse the Church in all ages to haue been the Synagogue of Satan and the spouse of the Deuill Lastly by working the establishment of this Article which worketh an establishment of Kings Crownes He shall not onely worke the intended remedy for the danger of Kings out of all the vertue and efficacie thereof by weakening of doctrine out of all controuersie in packing it vp
to put vp his Catholike Sonnes proceeding to the Cardinalls disgrace neuer opened his mouth against the King neuer declared or noted the King to bee schismaticall Hee waits perhaps for some fitter opportunitie when the Kingdome of Spaine groaning vnder the burthens of intestine dissentions and troubles he may without any danger to himselfe giue the Catholike King a Bishops mate Yea the L. Cardinall himselfe is better seen in the humors and inclinations of the Christian world then to be grossely perswaded that in the Kingdome of Spaine and in the very heart of Rome it selfe there be not many which either make it but a ieast or else take it in fowle scorne to heare the Popes power ouer the Crownes of Kings once named especially since the Venetian Republike hath put his Holinesse to the worse in the same cause and cast him in Lawe What needed the L. Cardinall then by casting vp such mounts and trenches by heaping one amplification vpon an other to make schisme looke with such a terrible and hideous aspect Who knowes not how great an offence how heinous a crime it is to quarter not Iesus Christs coat but his body which is the Church And what needed such terrifying of the Church with vglinesse of schisme whereof there is neither colourable shew nor possibility The next vgly monster after schisme shaped by the L. Cardinall in the third supposed and pretended inconuenience is heresie His Lordship saith for the purpose By this Article we are cast headlong into a manifest heresie as binding vs to confesse that for many ages past the Catholike Church hath been banished out of the whole world For if the champions of the doctrine contrary to this Article doe hold an impious and a detestable opinion repugnant vnto Gods word then doubtlesse the Pope for so many hundred yeers expired hath not been the head of the Church but an heretike and the Antechrist He addeth moreouer That the Church long agoe hath lost her name of Catholike and that in France there hath no Church flourished nor so much as appeared these many and more then many yeeres for as much as all the French Doctors for many yeeres together haue stood for the contrary opinion We can erect and set vp no trophey more honourable for heretikes in token of their victorie then to avowe that Christs visible Kingdome is perished from the face of the earth and that for so many hundred yeeres there hath not beene any Temple of God nor any spouse of Christ but euery where and all the world ouer the Kingdome of Antechrist the Synagogue of Satan the spouse of the Deuill hath mightily preuailed and borne all the sway Lastly what stronger engines can these heretikes wish or desire for the battering and the demolishing of transubstantiation of auricular confession and other like towers of our Catholike religion then if it should bee graunted the Church hath decided the said points without any authoritie c. Me thinkes the Lord Cardinall in the whole draught and course of these words doth 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 Synagoue of Satan Likewise Kings are brought into a very miserable state and condition if their Soueraigntie shall not stand if they shall not be without danger of deposition but by the totall ruine of the Church and by holding the Pope whome they serue to be Antechrist The L. Cardinall himselfe let him be well sifted herein doth not credit his owne words For doth not his Lordship tell vs plaine that neither by diuine testimonie nor by any sentence of the ancient Church the knot of this controuersie hath been vntyed 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 contrarie to the iudgement of his Holines prouided they hold it onely as problematicall and not as necessary What Can there be any assurance for the Pope that he is not Antechrist for the Church of Rome that she is not a Synagogue of Satan when a mans assurance is grounded vpon wauering and wild vncertanties without Canon of Scrpture without consent or countenance of antiquity and in a cause which the Pope with 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 antiquity and by the French Church in those times when the Popes power was mounted aloft the doctrine which teaches deposing of Kings by the Pope hath been checked and countermaunded What did the French in those dayes beleeue the Church was then swallowed vp and no where visible or extant in the world No verily 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 pertaining to the mysteries of State and a pillar of the Popes Temporal Monarchy 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 graunt ambition can scale the highest walls and climbe the loftiest pinnacles of the same See They hold withall that in a 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 Kingdoms for his own share To be short let his Lordship be assured that he meets with notorious blocke-heads more blunt witted then a whetstone when they are drawne 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 whome the Cardinall reproachfully calls heretikes haue wrought and wonne his Lordship as to me 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 cryeth so loud that by admitting and establishing of this Article the doctrine of cake-incarnation and priuy Confession to a Priest is vtterly subuerted Let vs heare his reason and willingly accept of the truth from his lips The Articles as his Lordshippe graunteth 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
sit faster on their heads then to be stirred by any Papal power whatsoeuer and yet saith withall the Pope winketh at the French by his toleration to hold this dogmatical point for problematicall And by this meanes the Martyrdome that he affecteth in this cause will prooue but a problematicall Martyrdome whereof question might growe very well whether it were to be mustered with grieuous crimes or with phreneticall passions of the braine or with deserued punishments Fiftly hee denounceth Anathema dischargeth maledictions like haile-shot against parricides of Kings and yet elsewhere he layes himselfe open to speake of Kings onely so long as they stand Kings But who doth not know that a King deposed is no longer King And so that limme of Satan which murthered Henrie III. then vn-king'd by the Pope did not stabbe a King to death Sixtly he doth not allowe a King to be made away by murder and yet hee thinkes it not much out of the way to take away all meanes whereby hee might be able to stand in defence of his life Seuenthly he abhorreth killing of Kings by apposted throat-cutting for feare least bodie 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 hee saith a King deposed retaineth still a certaine internall habitude and politike impression by vertue and efficacie whereof hee may being once reformed and become a new man be restored to the lawfull vse and practise of Regality 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 pitty of his predecessor to saue his life but will also prooue so kind-hearted vpon sight of his repentance to restore his kingdome without fraude 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 he 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 iudgment is in his opinion to bring in schisme and to leaue the world without a Church for many hundred yeares 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 heresie apostasie and infidelitie neuertheles that Popes haue power to displace Kings for heresie and apostasie he prooueth 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 he alledgeth euerie where passages as well of holy Scripture as of the Fathers and moderne histories but so impertinent and with so little truth as hereafter we 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 beene hudled and heaped together into one masse to currie with the Pope yet he suffereth diuerse 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 shall be shewed Againe where he representeth to his hearers the decrees of Popes and Councils alreadie 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 Cardinall 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 difficulty to suffer Martyrdome Adde hereunto that his Lordshippe hath alwaies taken the contrary part heretofore and this totall must needs arise that before the third Estate his lippes looked one way and his conscience another All these points by the discourse which is to followe and by the ripping vp of his Oration which by Gods assistance J will vndertake tending to the reproach of Kings and the subuersion of Kingdomes I confidently speake it shall be made manifest Yet doe I not conceiue it can any way make for my honour to enter the lists against a Cardinall For J am not ignorant how far a Cardinals Hat commeth vnder the Crowne Scepter of a King For wel I wot vnto what sublimity the Scripture hath exalted Kings when it styles them Gods Whereas the dignitie of a Cardinall is but a late vpstart inuention of man as I haue elswhere prooued But I 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. Cardinal 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 beene 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 persecutor vnder whom the Church is hardly able to fetch her breath yea for one by whome the Catholikes of my Kingdome are compelled to endure all sorts of punishment and withall he tearmes this Article of the third Estate a monster with a fishes tayle that came swimming out of England Last of all by the present state of France because Fraunce beeing nowe reduced to so miserable tearmes that it is nowe become a crime for a Frenchman to stand for his King it is a necessary duty of her neighbours to speake in her cause and to make triall whether they can put life into the truth now dying and readie to bee buried by the power of violence that it may resound and ring againe from remote regions I haue no purpose once to touch many prettie toyes which the ridges of his whole booke are sowed 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 noysome to the growing croppe then beautifull to the beholding eye Such pettie matters nothing at all beseemed the dignity 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
Then for King-deposers he frames this answer 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 Councill the French Church then and there beeing present Now in this answer the L. Cardinall is of an other minde then Bellarmine his brother Cardinall For he goes thus farre That a Prince condemned by vniust sentence of the Pope ought neuertheles to quit his Kingdome and that his Pastors vniust sentence shall not redound to his detriment prouided that he giue way to the said sentence and shew himselfe not refractarie but stay the time in patience vntill the holy Father shall renounce his error and reuoke his foresaid vniust sentence In which case these two materiall points are to be presupposed The one That he who now hath seized the Kingdome of the Prince displaced will forthwith if the Pope shall solicite and intercede return the Kingdome to the hand of the late possessor The other That in the interim the Prince vniustly deposed shall not neede to feare the bloodie 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 eie For in case the King should be vniustly deposed by the Pope not well informed he is not of the mind the Kingdome should stoope to the Popes behests but will rather haue the Kingdom to deale by remonstrance and to referre the cause vnto the Council Wherein hee makes the Council to be of more absolute and supreame authoritie then the Pope a straine to which the holy Father will neuer lend his eare And yet doubtles the Councill required in this case must be vniuersall wherein the French for so much as they stand firme for their 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 Germany the subiects of Soueraignes many times at professed or priuy enmitie with France shall haue the cause compromitted referred to their iudgment whether the Kingdome 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 manner deceiue some great part of a credulous people Is it not possible that one part of the people may cleaue to the Popes faction an other may hold and stand out for the Kings rightfull cause and ciuil 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 will yet further pursue his cause And whereas nowe a dayes a Generall Councill cannot be held except it bee 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 Council where himselfe is the partie 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 foote behold the Royall Maiesty 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 continue or hold eighteene yeeres like the Council of Trent should not poore France I beseech you be reduced to a very bad plight should shee not be in a very wise and warme taking To be short His Lordships whole speech for the vntying of this knot not onely surmounteth possibility but is stuft with ridiculous toyes This I make manifest by his addition in the same passage If the Pope deceiued in fact shal rashly and vniustly declare the King to be an heretike then the Popes declaration shal not be seconded with actuall deposition vnles the Realme shall consent vnto the Kings deposing What needes any man to be instructed in this doctrine Who doth not knowe that a King so long as he is vpheld and maintained in his Kingdome by his people cannot actually and effectually bee deposed from his Throne Hee that speaketh such language and phrase in effect saith and saith no more then this A King is neuer depriued of his Crowne so long as he can keep his Crowne on his head a King is neuer turn'd and stript naked so long as hee can keepe his cloathes on his backe a King is neuer deposed so long as he can make the stronger partie and side against his enemies in breife a King is King and shal stil remaine King so long as he can hold the possession of his Kingdome and sit fast in his Chaire of Estate Howbeit let vs here by the way take notice of these words vttered by his Lordship That for the deposing of a King the consent of the people must be obtained For by these words the people are exalted aboue the King and are made the Iudges of the Kings deposing But here is yet a greater matter For that Popes may erre in faith it is acknowledged by Popes themselues For some of them haue condemned Pope Honorius for a Monothelite S. Hierome and S. Hilarius and S. Athanasius doe testifie that Pope Liberius started aside and subscribed to Arrianisme Pope Iohn 23. was condemned in the Council of Constance for maintaining there is neither hell nor heauen Diuerse other Popes haue been tainted with error in faith If therefore any Pope hereticall in himselfe shall depose an Orthodoxe King for heresie can it be imagined that he which boasts himselfe to beare all diuine and humane lawes in the priuy coffer or casket of his breast will stoope to the remonstrances of the French and vayle to the reasons which they shall propound though neuer so iustifiable and of neuer so great validitie And how can he that may be infected with damnable heresie when himselfe is not alwaies free from heresie be a iudge of heresie in a King In this question some are of opinion that as a man the Pope may fall into error but not as Pope Very good I demand then vpon the matter wherefore the Pope doth not instruct and reforme the man or
of King and continued in possession of his Kingdome euen to his dying day Yea the Scripture styles him King euen to the periodical and last day of his life by the testimonie of Dauid himselfe who both by Gods promise and by precedent vnction was then heire apparant as it were to the Crowne in a manner then ready to gird and adorne the temples of his head For if Samuel by Gods commaundement had then actually remooued Saul from his Throne doubtles the whole Church of Israel had committed a grosse error in taking and honouring Saul for their King after such deposition doubtlesse the Prophet Samuel himselfe making known the Lords ordinance vnto the people would haue enioyned them by strict prohibition to call him no longer the King of Israel doubtles Dauid would neuer haue held his hand from the throate of Saul for this respect and consideration because hee was the Lords annointed For if Saul had lost his Kingly authoritie from that instant when Samuel gaue him knowledge of his reiection then Dauid least otherwise the bodie of the Kingdome should want a Royal Head was to beginne his Raigne and to beare the Royall Scepter in the very same instant which were to charge the holy Scriptures with vntruth in as much as the sacred historie beginnes the computation of the yeers of Dauids raigne from the day of Sauls death True it is that in the 2. Sam. cap. 15. Saul was denounced by Gods owne sentence a man reiected and as it were excommunicated out of the Kingdome that he should not rule and raigne 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 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 instalment of Dauid in the Kingdome Wee reade the like in 1. King cap. 19. where God commaundeth Elias the Prophet to annoint Hasael King of Syria For can any man be so blind and ignorant in the sacred History to beleeue the Prophets of Israel established or sacred the Kings of Syria For this cause when Dauid was actually established in the Kingdom he was anointed the second time In the next place he brings in the Popes champions vsing these words Rehoboam was deposed by Ahiah the Prophet from his Royall right ouer the tenne Tribes of Israel because his father Salomon had played the Apostata in falling from the Lawe of God This I say also is more then the truth of the sacred historie doth affoard 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. Cardinall out of Reg. 3. chap. 11. it hath not reference to the time of Rehoboams raigne but rather indeed to Salomons time nor doth it carrie the face of a iudicatory sentence for the Kings deposing but rather of a Propheticall prediction For how could Rehoboam before he 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 treachery of a seruant against his master and the rebellion of Ieroboam branded in Scripture with a marke of perpetuall infamy for his wickednesse and impietie He goes on with an other example of no more truth King Achab was deposed by Elias the Prophet because he imbraced false religion and worshipped false gods False too like the former King Achab lost his Crowne and his life both together The Scripture that speaketh not according to mans fancy but according to the truth doth extend and number the yeeres of Achabs raigne to the time of his death Predictions of a Kings ruine are no sentences of deposition Elias neuer gaue the subiects of Achab absolution from their oath of obedience neuer gaue them the least inckling of any such absolution neuer set vp or placed any other King in Achabs Throne That of the L. Cardinall a little after is no lesse vntrue That King Vzziah was driuen from the conuersation of the people by Azarias the Priest and thereby the administration of his Kingdome was left no longer in his power Not so For when God had smitten Vzziah with leprosie in his forehead he withdrew himselfe or went out into an house apart for feare of infecting such as were whole by his contagious disease The high Priest smote him not with any sentence of deposition or denounced him suspended from the administration of his Kingdome No the dayes of his raigne are numbred in Scripture to the day of his death And whereas the Priest according to the Lawe in the 13. of Leuit. iudged the King to be vncleane he gaue sentence against him not as against a criminall person and thereby within the compasse of deposition but as against a diseased body For the Lawe inflicteth punishments not vpon diseases but vpon crimes Hereupon whereas it is recorded by Iosephus in his Antiquities that Vzziah lead a priuate and in a manner a solitarie life the said author doth not meane that Vzziah was deposed but onely that he disburdened himselfe of care to mannage the publike affaires The example of Mattathias by whome the Iewes were stirred vp to rebell against Antiochus is no better worth For in that example we finde no sentence of deposition but onely an heartning and commotion of a people then grieuously afflicted and oppressed He that makes himselfe the ring-leader of conspiracie against a King doth not forthwith assume the person or take vp the office and charge of a Iudge in forme of lawe and iuridically to depriue a King of his Regall rights and Royall prerogatiues Mattathias was chiefe of that conspiracy not in qualitie of Priest but of cheiftaine or leader in warre and a man the best qualified of all the people Things acted by the suddaine violence of the base vulgar must not stand for lawes nor yet for proofes and arguments of ordinarie power such as the Pope challengeth to himselfe and appropriateth to his triple-Crowne These bee our solide answers wee disclaime the light armour which the L. Cardinall is pleased to furnish vs withall forsooth to recreate himselfe in rebating the points of such weapons as he hath vouchsafed to put into our hands Now it will be worth our labour to beate by his thrusts fetcht from the ordinary mission of the new Testament from leprosie stones and locks of wool A leach no doubt of admirable skil one that for subiecting the Crownes of Kings vnto the Pope is able to extract arguments out of stones yea out of the leprosie and the drie scab onely forsooth because heresie is a kind
Churches vnder a Prince of contrary religion And if things without life or soule are with lesse danger left in an heretikes hands why then shall not an hereticall King with more facilitie and lesse danger keep his Crown his Royall charge his lands his customes his imposts c. For will any man except he bee out of his wits affirme these things to haue any life or soule Or why shall it be counted follie to leaue a sword in the hand of a mad Bedlam Is not a sword also without life and soule For my part I should rather be of this minde that possession of things without reason is more dangerous and pernicious in the hands of an euill Master then the possession of things indued with life and reason For things without life lacke both reason and iudgement how to exempt and free themselues from being instruments in euill and wicked actions from beeing emploied to vngodly and abhominable vses I will not deny that an hereticall Prince is a plague a pernicious and mortal sicknes to the soules of his subiects But a breach made by one mischiefe must not be filled vp with a greater inconuenience An errour must not be shocked and shouldered with disloialtie nor heresie with periurie nor impietie with sedition and armed rebellion against God and the King God who vseth to try and to schoole his Church will neuer forsake his Church nor hath need to protect his Church by any proditorious and prodigious practises of perfidious Christians For hee makes his Church to be like the burning bush In the middest of the fire and flames of persecutions he will prouide that she shall not bee consumed because he standeth in the midst of his Church And suppose there may bee some iust cause for the French to play the rebels against their King yet will it not follow that such rebellious motions are to be raised by the bellowes of the Romane Bishop to whose Pastorall charge and office it is nothing proper to intermeddle in the ciuill affaires of forraine Kingdomes Here is the summe and substance of the L. Cardinals whole discourse touching his pretence of the second inconuenience Which discourse he hath closed with a remarkeable confession to wit that neither by the authoritie of holy Scripture nor by the testimony and verdict of the Primitiue Church there hath beene any full decision of this question In regard whereof he falleth into admiration that Lay-people haue gone so farre in audaciousnesse as to labour that a doubtfull doctrine might for euer passe currant and be taken for a newe article of faith What a shame what a reproach is this how full of scandall for so his Lordship is pleased to cry out This breakes into the seueralls and inclosures of the Church this lets in whole herds of heresies to grase in her green and sweet pastures On the other side without any such Rhetoricall outcries I simply affirme It is a reproach a scandall a crime of rebellion for a subiect hauing his full charge and loade of benefits in the newe spring of his Kings tender age his King-fathers blood yet reeking and vpon the point of an addresse for a double match with Spaine in so honourable an assembly to seek the thraldome of his Kings Crown to play the captious in cauilling about causes of his Kings deposing to giue his former life the lie with shame enough in his olde age and to make himselfe a common by-word vnder the name of a Problematicall Martyr one that offers himselfe to fagot and fire for a point of doctrine but problematically handled that is distrustfully and onely by way of doubtfull and questionable discourse yea for a point of doctrine in which the French as he pretendeth are permitted to thwart and crosse his Holines in iudgement prouided they speake in it as in a point not certaine and necessary but onely doubtfull and probable The third Jnconvenience examined THE third Inconuenience pretended by the L. Cardinall to growe by admitting this Article of the third Estate is flourished in these colours It would breede and bring forth an open and vnauoideable schism against his Holinesse and the rest of the whole Ecclesiasticall bodie For thereby the doctrine long approoued and ratified by the Pope and the rest of the Church should now be taxed and condemned of impious and most detestable consequence yea the Pope and the Church euen in faith and in points of saluation should be reputed and beleeued to be erroniously perswaded Hereupon his Lordship giues himselfe a large scope of the raines to frame his elegant amplifications against schismes and schismatikes Now to mount so high and to flie in such place vpon the wings of amplification for this Inconuenience what is it else but magnifically to report and imagine a mischeife by many degrees greater then the mischeife is The L. Cardinal is in a great error if he make himselfe beleeue that other nations wil make a rent or separation from the communion of the French because the French stand to it tooth and nayle that French Crownes are not liable or obnoxious to Papall deposition howsoeuer there is no schisme that importeth not separation of communion The most illustrious Republike of Venice hath imbarked herselfe in this quarrell against his Holinesse hath played her prize and carried away the weapons with great honour Doth she notwithstanding her triumph in the cause forbeare to participate with all her neighbors in the same Sacraments doth she liue in schisme with all the rest of the Romane Church No such matter When the L. Cardinal himselfe not many yeeres past maintained the Kings cause and stood honourably for the Kings right against the Popes Temporall vsurpations did he then take other Churches to be schismaticall or the rotten members of Antechrist Beleeue it who list I beleeue my Creed Nay his Lordship telleth vs himselfe a little after that his Holinesse giues the French free scope to maintaine either the affirmatiue or negatiue of this question And will his Holinesse hold them schismatikes that dissent from his opinion and iudgement in a subiect or cause esteemed problematicall Farre be it from his Holinesse The King of Spaine reputed the Popes right arme neuer gaue the Pope cause by any act or other declaration to conceiue that hee acknowledged himselfe deposeable by the Pope for heresie or Tyrannie or stupidity But beeing well assured the Pope standeth in greater feare of his arme then he doth of the Popes head and shoulders he neuer troubles his owne head about our question More when the booke of Cardinall Baronius was come forth in which booke the Kingdome of Naples is decryed and publiquely discredited like false money touching the qualitie of a Kingdome and attributed to the King of Spain not as true proprietary thereof but onely as an Estate held in fee of the Romane Church the King made no bones to condemne and to banish the said booke out of his dominions The holy Father was contented
tearmes of concord with Popes and the Apostolike See so long as the spouse of the Church was pastured and fed among the lillies all sorts of spirituall temporall graces abundantly showred vpon their Crownes and vpon their people On the contrary when they made any rent or separation from the most holy See then the lillies were pricked and almost choaked with sharpe thornes they beganne to droope to stoope and to beare their beautifull heads downe to the very ground vnder the strong flawes and gusts of boysterous winds and tempests My answer to this flourishing close and vpshot shall beno lesse apert then apt It sauours not of good and faithfull seruice to smooth and stroake the Kings head with a soft hand of oyled speech and in the meane time to take away the Crowne from his head and to defile it with dirt But let vs try the cause by euidence of Historie yea by the voice and verdict of experience to see whether the glorious beauty of the French lillies hath been at any time blasted and thereupon hath faded by starting aside and making separation from the holy See Vnder the raigne of King Philip the Faire France was blessed with peace and prosperity notwithstanding some outragious acts done against the Papall See and contumelious crying quittance by King Philip with the Pope Lewis 12. in ranged battell defeated the armies of Pope Iulius 2. and his Confederates proclaimed the said Pope to be fallen from the Popedome stamped certaine coynes and peices of gold with a dishonourable mot euen to Rome it selfe Rome is Babylon yet so much was Lewis loued and honoured of his people that by a peculiar title he was called the Father of the Country Greater blessings of God greater outward peace and plenty greater inward peace with spirituall and celestial treasures were neuer heaped vpon my Great Brittaine then haue been since my Great Brittaine became Great in the greatest and chiefest respect of all to wit since my Great Brittaine hath shaken off the Popes yoke since shee hath refused to receiue and to entertain the Popes Legats employed to collect S. Peters tribute or Peter-pence since the Kings of England my Great Brittaine haue not beene the Popes vassals to doe him homage for their Crowne and haue no more felt the lashings the scourgings of base and beggarly Monkes Of Holland Zeland and Friseland what need I speake yet a word and no more Were they not a kind of naked and bare people of small value before God lighted the torch of the Gospel and aduanced it in those Nations were they not an ill fedde and scragged people in comparison of the inestimable wealth and prosperity both in all military actions and mechanicall trades in trafficke as merchants in marting as men of warre in long nauigation for discouerie to which they are now raysed and mounted by the mercifull blessing of God since the darknes of Poperie hath been scattered and the bright Sunne of the Gospel hath shined in those Countryes Behold the Venetian Republique Hath shee now lesse beautie lesse glory lesse peace and prosperitie since she lately fell to bicker and contend with the Pope since shee hath wrung out of the Popes hand the one of his two swords since she hath plumed and shaked his Temporall dominion On the contrarie after the French Kings had honoured the Popes with munificent graunts and gifts of all the cities and territories lands and possessions which they now hold in Italy and the auncient Earledome of Avignon in France for an ouer-plus were they not rudely recompenced and homely handled by their most ingratefull fee-farmers and copy-holders Haue not Popes forged a donation of Constantine of purpose to blot out all memory of Pepins and Charlemaignes donation Haue they not vexed and troubled the State haue they not whetted the sonnes of Lewis the Courteous against their owne Father whose life was a pattern and example of innocencie Haue they not by their infinite exactions robbed and scoured the Kingdome of all their treasure Were not the Kings of France driuen to stoppe their violent courses by the pragmaticall sanction Did they not sundrie times interdict the Kingdome degrade the Kings solicite the neighbour-Princes to inuade and lay hold on the Kingdome and stirre vp the people against the King whereby a gate was opened to a world of troubles and parricides Did not Rauaillac render this reason for his monstrous horrible attempt That King Henry had a designe to warre with God because he had a designe to take armes against his Holinesse who is God This makes me to wonder what mooued the L. Cardinall to marshall the last ciuill warres and motions in France in the ranke of examples of vnhappie separation from the Pope when the Pope himselfe was the trumpetor of the same troublesome motions If the Pope had beene wronged and offended by the French King or his people and the Kingdome of France had been scourged with pestilence or famine or some other calamitie by forraine enemies it might haue been taken in probabilitie as a vengeance of God for some iniurie done vnto his Vicar But his Holinesse beeing the root the ground the master-workman and artificer of all these mischiefes how can it be said that God punisheth any iniury done to the Pope but rather that his Holinesse doth reuenge his owne quarrell and which is worst of all when his Holinesse hath no iust cause of quarrell or offence Now then to exhort a Nation as the L. Cardinall hath done by the remembrance of former calamities to currie fauour with the Pope and to hold a strict vnion with his Holinesse is no exhortation to beare the Pope any respect of loue or of reuerence but rather a rubbing of memorie and a calling to mind of those grieuous calamities whereof the Pope hath been the onely occasion It is also a threatning and obtruding of the Popes terrible thunderbolts which neuer scorched nor parched any skinne except crauens and meticulous bodies and haue brought many great showres of blessings vpon my Kingdome As for France if she hath enioyed prosperitie in the times of her good agreement with Popes it is because the Pope seeks the amitie of Princes that are in prosperitie haue the meanes to curbe his pretensions and to put him to some plunge Kings are not in prosperitie because the Pope holds amity with Kings but his Holinesse vseth all deuises and seeketh all meanes to haue amitie with Kings because hee sees them flourish and sayle with prosperous winds The swallow is no cause but a companion of the spring the Pope is no worker of a Kingdoms felicitie but a wooer of Kings when they sit in felicities lap he is no founder but a follower of their good fortunes On the other side let a Kingdome fall into some grieuous disaster or calamitie let ciuill wars boyle in the bowels of the Kingdome ciuill warres no lesse dangerous to the State then fearefull and grieuous to the people who riseth sooner