Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	emperor_n	rome_n	3,418	5	7.3244	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88696	Vindiciæ contra tyrannos: a defence of liberty against tyrants. Or, of the lawfull power of the prince over the people, and of the people over the prince. Being a treatise written in Latin and French by Junius Brutus, and translated out of both into English. Questions discussed in this treatise. I. Whether subjects are bound, and ought to obey princes, if they command that which is against the law of God. II. Whether it be lawfull to resist a prince which doth infringe the law of God, or ruine the Church, by whom, how, and how farre it is lawfull. III. Whether it be lawfull to resist a prince which doth oppresse or ruine a publique state, and how farre such resistance may be extended, by whome, how, and by what right, or law it is permitted. IV. Whether neighbour princes or states may be, or are bound by law, to give succours to the subjects of other princes, afflicted to the cause of true religion, or oppressed by manifest tyranny.; Vindiciae contra tyrannos. English	Languet, Hubert, 1518-1581.; Walker, William, 17th cent.	1648 (1648)	Wing L415; Thomason E430_2; ESTC R34504	141,416	156

like The which is the rather to be allowed in that Subjects are neither slaves nor intra●ch●●de servants but brothers and not onely the Kings b●ethren taken one by one but also considered in one body they ought to be e●●e●n●ed absolute Lords and owners of the Kingdom Whether the King be the usufruictuor of the Kingdom But if the King be not Lord in proprietie yet at the least we may esteeme him usufruictuor of the Kingdom and of the Demean nay truly we can allow him to have the usufruit for being usufruictuor though the proprietie remain in the people yet may he absolutely dispose of the profits and ingage them at his pleasure Now we have already proved that Kings of their own Authority cannot ingage the Revenues of the Exchequer or the Demain of the Kingdom The usufroictuor may dispose of the profits to whom how and when he pleaseth Contrarily the excessive gifts of Princes are ever judged void his unnecessary expences are not allowed his superfluous to be cut off and that which is expended by him in any other occasion but for the publick utilitie is justly esteemed to be unjustly extorted And is no lesse liable to the Law Cincea then the meanest Roman Citizen formerly was In France the Kings gifts are never of force untill the Chamber of Accounts have confirmed them From hence proceed the postils of the ordinarie Chamber in the giving up of the Accounts in the Reigns of prodig all kings Trop donne soyt repele which is excessive gifts must be recal●ed The Judges of this Chamber solemnly swear to passe nothing which may prejudice the Kingdom or the publick State notwithstanding any letters the King shall write unto them but they are not alwayes so mindfull of this oath as were to be desired Furthermore the Law takes no care how a usufruictuor possesseth and governes his revenues but contrariwise she prescribes unto the King how and to what use he shall imploy his For the ancient Kings of France were bound to divide their royall revenues into foure parts The first was imployed in the maintaining of the Ministers of the Church and providing for the poore The second for the Kings table The third for the wages of his Officers and houshold servants The last in the repairing of bridges castles and the royall Palaces And what was remaining was layd up in the treasurie to be bestowed Monstrel in Car. 6. on the necessities of the Common-wealth And Histories do at large relate the troubles and tumults which hapned about the yeer 1412 in the Assemblie of the Estates at Paris because Charles the sixt had wasted all the money that was raised of the revenues and demean in his own and his minnions loose pleasures and that the expences of the Kings houshold which before exceeded not the summe of 94000. francks did amount in that miserable estate of the Common wealth to five hundred and fourty thousand francks Now as the demeane was imploied in the before mentioned affaires so the aydes were onely for the war and the taxes assigned for the payment of the men at armes and for no other occasion In other Kingdomes the King hath no greater authority and in divers lesse especially in the Empire of Germanie and in Poland But we have made choise of the Kingdome of France to the end it be not thought this hath any speciall prerogative above others because there perhaps the common-wealth receiveth the most detriment Briefly as I have before said the name of a King signifie● not an inheritance nor a Propriety nor a usufruict but Ex concil Valem in c. 1. ●e his quae fiunt a praelat abque consenlucapit a charge office and procuration As a Bishop is chosen to look to the wellfare of the soul so is the King established to take care of the body so far forth as it concerns the publick good the one is dispensor of the heavenly treasure the other of the secular and what right the one hath in the Episcopall revenues the same hath the other and no greater in the Kingdoms demean If the Bishop alien the goods of the Bishoprick without the consent of the Chapter this alienation is of no value If the King alien the demeane without the approbation of the Estates that is also void one portion of the Eclesiasticall goods ought to be imployed in the reparation of the Churches the second in releiving of the poore the third for the maintenance of the Church-men and the fourth for the Bishop himself We have seen before that the King ought to divide into foure parts the R●venues of the Kingdoms demeane The abuse of these times cannot infringe or annihilate the right for although the most part of the Bishops steale from the poor that which they profusely cast away on their pandars and ruine and destroy their lands and woods the calling of the Bishop is not for all that altered Although that some Emperors have assumed to themselves an absolute power that cannot invest them with any further right because no man can be judge in his own cause What if some Caracalla vaunt he will not want money whilest the sword remaines in his custodie The Emperor Adrian will promise on the contrary so to discarge his office of Principalitie that he will alwaies remember that the Common-wealth is not his but the peoples which one thing almost distinguisheth a King from a Tyrant Neither can that act of A●talus King of Pergomus designing the Roman people for heires to his Kingdome nor that of Alexander for Egypt nor P●olom for the Cyrenians bequeathing their Kingdomes to the same people nor Praesutagus King of the Icenians which left his to Caesar draw any good consequence of right to those which usurpe that which by no ●ust title belongs to them nay by how much the intrusion is more violent by so much the equity justice of the cause is more perspicuous for what the Romās assumed under the colour of right they would have made no difficulty if that pretext had been wanting to have taken by force we have seen almost in our daies how the Venetians possest themselves of the Kingdom of Ciprus under pretence of an imaginarie adoption which would have proved rediculous if it had not been seconded by power and armes To which also may be not unfitly resembled the pretended donation of Constantine to Pope Silvester for that straw of the decretist Gratian was long since consumed and turned to ashes neither is of more validity the grant which Lewis the courteous made to Pope Paschal of the Citie of Rome and part of Italy because he gave that which hee possessed not no man opposed it But when his Father Volater l. Geogr 3. Charlemain would have united subjected the Kingdome of France to the Germane Empire the French did lawfully oppose it and if he had persisted in his purpose they were resolved to have hindered him and defended themselves by armes There can be to as

Kings and in whose right the King assumes to himself that priviledge for otherwise wherefore is the Prince only administrator and the people true proprietor of the publique Exchequer as we will prove here presently after Furthermore it is not a thing resolved on by all that no tyrannous intrusion or usurpation and continuance in the same course can by any length of time prescribe against lawfull liberty If it be objected that Kings were enthronized and received their authority from the people that lived five hundred yeers ago and not by those now living I answer that the Common-wealth never dyes although Kings be taken out of this life one after another for as the continuall running of the water gives the River a perpetuall being so the alternative revolution of birth and death renders the people quoad hunc mundum immortall And further as wee have at this day the same Seine and Tiber as was 1000. yeers agoe in like manner also is there the same people of Germany France and Italy excepting intermixing of Colonies or such like neither can the lapse of time nor changing of individuals alter in any sort the right of those people Furthermore if they say the King receives his kingdom from his Father and not from the people and hee from his Grandsa her and to one from another upward I ask could the Grandfather or Ancestor transfer a greater right to his Successor then he had himself If he could not as without doubt Vlpian de reg juris l. 54. it must need be so is it not plainly perspi●uous that what the Successor further arrogates to himself he may usurp with as sare a conscience as what a Thiefe g●●s by the high-way side The people on the contrary have their right of eviction intire and whole although then that the officers of the Crown have for a time lost or left their rankes this cannot in any true right prejudice the people but rather cleer otherwise as one would not grant audience or show favour to a slave which had long time held his master prisoner and did not only vant himself to be free but also presumptuously assumed power over the life and death of his master neither would any man allow the excuses of a those because he had continued in that grade 30. yeers or for that he had beene bred in that course of life by his Father if hee presumed by his long continuance in that function to prescribe for the lawfulnesse but rather the longer he had continued in his wickednesse the more grievous should be his punishment in like manner the Prince is altogether unsupportable which because he succeeds a Tyrant or hath kept the people by whose suffrages he holds the Crown in a long slavery or hath suppressed the Officers of the kingdom who should be protectors of the publike liberty that therefore presumes that what he affects is lawfull for him to effect and that his will is not to be restrained or corrected by any positive Law whatsoever For prescription in tyranny detracts nothing from the right of the people nay it rather much aggravates the Princes on rages But what if the Peers and principal officers of the Kingdom makes themselves parts with the King Wha● if betraying the Publique cause the yoak of tyranny upon the peoples neck shall it follow that by this prevatication and treason the authority is devolved into the King Does this detract any thing from the aight of the peoples liberty or does it adde any licencious power to the King Let the people thank themselves say you who relyed on the distoyall loyalty of such men But I answer that these officers are indeed those Protectors whose principall care and study should be that the people be maintained in the free and absolute fruition of their goods and liberty And therefore in the same manner as if a treacherous Advoca●e for a sum of money should agree to betray the cause of his Client into the hands of his Adversary which he ought to have defended hath not power for all that to alter the course of justice nor of a bad cause to make a good one although perhaps for a time he give some colour of it In like manner this conspiracy of the great ones combined to ruine the inferiours cannot disanull the right of the people in the meane season those great ones incur the punishment that the same asors against Prevaricators and for the people the same Law allowes them to chuse another Advocate and afresh to pursue their cause as if it were then only to begin For if the people of Rome condemned their Captains and Generals of their Armies because they capitulated with their Enemies to their disadvantage although they were drawn to it by necessity being on the point to be all overthrown and would not be bound to performe the Souldiers capitulation much lesse shall a free People be tyed to bear the yoak of thraldome which is cast on them by those who should and might have prevented it but being neither forced nor compelled did for their own particular gain willingly betray those that had committed their liberty to their custody Wherefore Kings were created Now seeing that Kings have been ever established by the people and that they have had Associates joyned with them to contain them within the limits of their duties the which Associates considered in particular one by one are under the King and altogether in one intire Body are above him We must consequently see wherefore first Kings were established and what is principally their duty We usually esteem a thing just and good when it attains to the proper end for which it is ordained In the first place every one consents That men by nature loving liberty and having servitude born rather to command then obey have not willingly admitted to be governed by another and renounced as it were the priviledge of nature by submitting themselves to the commands of others but for some speciall and great profit that they expected from it For as Esope sayes That the horse being before accustomed to wander as his pleasure would never have received the bit into his mouth nor the Rider on his back but that he hoped by that means to overmatch the Bull neither let us imagine that Kings were chosen to apply to their own proper use the goods that are gotten by the sweat of their Subjects for every man loves and cherisheth his owne They have not received the power and authority of the People to make it serve as a Pandar to their pleasures for ordinarily the inferiours hate or at least envietheir superiours Let us then conclude that they are established in this place to maintain by justice and to defend by force of Armes both the publike State and perticular persons from all dammages and outrages wherefore Saint Augustine saith Those are properly called Lords and Masters A●ig lib. 16 de civit dei c. 15. which provide for the good and profit of

people in the generall Assembly of the States he grew insolent and relying on the counsell of his Minions arrogantly threatens to lay beavier burthens on them hereafter No man can doubt but that according to the tenour of the contract first passed betweene the King and the people the prime and principall Officers of the Kingdome had authority to represse such insolence They were only blameable in this that they did that by faction and division which should more properly have beene done in the generall Assembly of the States in like manner in that they transferred the Scepter from Juda which was by God onely confin'd to that Tribe into another linage and also as it chances in other affaires for that they did ill and disorderly manage a just and lawfull cause Prophane histories are full of such examples in other Kingdomes Brutus Generall of the Souldiers and Lueretius Governour of the Citie of Rome assemble the people against Tarquinius Superbus Titus Livi. lib. 1. and by their authority thrust him from the royall Throne Nay which is more his goods are confiscated whereby it appeares that if Tarquinius had beene apprehended undoubtedly hee should have beene according to the publique lawes corporally punished The true causes why Tarquinius was deposed were because he altered the custome whereby the King was obliged to advise with the Sena●e on all weighty affaires that he made Warre and Peace according to his owne fancie that he treated confederacles without demanding counsell or consent from the people or Senate that he violated the Lawes whereof he was made Guardian briefly that he made no reckoning to observe the contracts agreed between the former Kings and the Nobility and people of Rome For the Roman Emperours I am sure you remember the sentence pronounced by the Senate against Nero wherein he was judged enemie to the Common-wealth and his body condemned to be ignominiously cast on the dung-hill and that other pronounced against Vitellius which adjudge him to be shamefully dis-membred and in that miserable estate trayled through the Citie and at last put to death another against Maximinius who was dispoild of the Empire and Maximus and Albinus established in his place by the Senace There might also be added many others drawne from unquestionable Historians The Emperour Trajan held not himselfe exempt from lawes neither desired he to be spared if he became a Tyrant for in delivering the Sword unto the great Provost of the Empire he sayes unto him If I command as I should use this sword for mee but if I doe otherwayes unsheath it against me In like manner the French by the authority of the States and solicited thereunto by the Officers of the Kingdome deposed Childerick the first Sigisbert Theodoricke and Childericke the third for their tyrannies and chose others of another Family to sit on the Royall Throne Yea they deposed some because of their idlenesse and want of judgment who exposed the State in prey to Panders Curtesans Flatterers and such other unworthy mushromes of the Court who governed all things at their pleasure taking from such rash Phaetous the bridle of government left the whole body of the State and people should be consumed through their unadvised folly Amongst others Theodoret was degraded because of Ebroinus Dagobert for Plectude and Thiband his Pander with some others the Estates esteeming the command of an effeminate Prince as insupportable as that of a woman and as unwillingly supporting the yoke of tyrannous Ministers managing affaires in the name of a loose and unworthy Prince as the burden of a tyrant alone To be briefe no more suffering themselves to be governed by one possessed by a Devill than they would by the Devill himselfe It is not very long since the Estates compeld Lewis the eleventh a Prince as subtile and it may be as wilfull as any to receive thirtie six Overseers by whose advise he was bound to governe the affaires of State The descendants from Charlemaine substituted in the place of the Merovingiens for the government of the kingdome or those of Capet supplanting the Charlemains by order of the Estates and raigning at this day have no other nor better right to the Crowne than what wee have formerly described and it hath ever been according to Law permitted the whole body of the people represented by the counsell of the Kingdome which are commonly called the Assembly of the States to depose and establish Princes according to the necessities of the Common-wealth According to the same rule wee reade that Adolph was removed from the Empire of Germany Anno 1296. because for covetousnesse without Anno 1296. any just occasion he invaded the Kingdome of France in favour of the English and Wenceslaus was also deposed in the yeare of our Lord 1400. Yet were not these Princes exceeding bad ones 1400. but of the number of those which are accounted lesse ill Elizabeth the wife of Edward the second King of England assembled the Parliament Froisard li. 1. cap. 1. against her husband who was there deposed both because he tyrannized in generall over his Subjects as also for that he cut Reade the manner of the deposing of Richard the second off the heads of many noble men without any just or legall proceeding It is not long since Christierne lost the Crowne of Denmarke Henry that of Sweden Mary Steward that of Scotland for the same or neere resembling occasions and the most worthy Histories relate divers alterations and changes which have hapned in like manner in the Kingdomes of Polonia Hungarie Spaine Portugall Bohemia and others But what shall we say of the Pope himselfe It is generally held Ant de But. confil quod positum est inter consil Paul de Castro vel antiq nu 412. incip viso puncto that the Cardinalls because they doe elect him or if they fayle in their dutie the Patriarkas which are next in ranke to them may upon certaine occasions maugre the Pope call a Councell yea and in it judge him As when by some notorious offence he scandalizeth the universall Church if he be incorrigible if reformation be as necessary in the head as the members if contrary to his oath he refuse to call a generall Councell And we reade for certaine that Mar. Laud●ns in tract de Card. 1. l. 2. q. 35. Ph●lip Deci●s in quodan co ●i●o cujus verbs suerunt Andr. B●●h in d. con●● 1. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 6. 〈…〉 de major obed divers Popes have been deposed by generall Councells But if they obstinately abuse their authoritie there must saith Baldus first be used verball admonitions secondly herball medicament● or remedies thirdly stones or compulsion for where vertue and faire meanes have not power to perswade there force and terror must be put in ure to compell Now if according to the opinions of most of the learned by decrees of Councels and by custome in like occasions it plainly appeares that the Councell may depose the P●pe

discover'd or delivered not the delinquents into the hand of the Magistrate If he were negligent in performing this duty for the first mulct he was to receive a certaine number of blowes on his body and to fast for 3. dayes together If the neighbour be so firmely oblig'd in this mutuall duty of succour to his neighbour yea to an unknowne person in case hee be assail'd by thieves shall it not be lawfull for a good Prince to assist not slaves to an imperious Master or children against a furious Father but a Kingdome against a Tyrant the Common-wealth against the private spleene of one the people who are indeed the true owners of the State ●●ainst a ministring servant to the publique And if he c●●elesly or wil●ully omit this duty deserves he no● himselfe to be esteem'd a Tyrant and punished accordingly as well as the other a sobber which neglected to assist his neighbour in that danger Theucidides Theucid lib. 1. upon this matter saies that those are not only Tyrants which make other men slaves but much more those who having meanes to suppresse and prevent such oppression take no care to performe it And amongst others those which assumed the title of Protectors of Greece and defenders of the Countrey and yet sti●re not to deliver their Countrey from oppression of strangers and truly indeed For a Tyrant i● in some sort compeld to hold a straight and tyrannous hand over those who by violence and tyranny he hath constrain'd to obey him because as Tiberius said he holds the Wolfe by the eares whom he can neither hold without paine and force nor let goe without danger death To the end then that he may blot out oue sin with another sinne he files up one wickednesse to another and is forced to do injuries to others lest hee should prove by remisnesse injurious to himselfe But the Prince which with a negligent and idle regard lookes on the outragiousnesse of a Tyrant and the massacring of Innocente that he might have preserved like the barbarous spectacles of the Roman sword-playes is so much more guilty than the Tyrant himselfe by how much the cruel and homicidious directers and appointers of these bloody sports were more justly punishable by all good laws than the poore and constrain'd actors in those murthering tragedies and as he questionlesse deserves greater punishment which out of insolent jollity murthers one than hee which unwillingly for feare of a further harme kills a man If any object that it is against reason and good order to meddle in the affaires of another I answer with the olde man in Terrence I am a man and I believe that all duties of humanity are fit and convenient for me If others seeking to cover their base negligence and carelesse unwillingnesse Pompon de reg ju● l●g 36. alledg that bounds and jurisdictions are distingnisht one from another and that it is not lawfull to thrust ones sickle into anothers harvest Neither am I also of that opinion that upon any such colour or pretence it is lawfull for a Prince to encroach upon anothers jurisdiction or right or uppon that occasion to usurp anothers countrey and so carry another mans corne into his b●rne as divers have taken such shadowes to maeke their bad intentions I will not I say that after the manner of those arbitrators which Cicero Ciccr. 2. offic speaks of thou adjudge the things in controversie to thy selfe But I require that you represse the Prince that invades the kingdome of Christ that you containe the Tyrant within his owne limits that you stretch forth your hand of compassion to the people afflicted that you raise up the Common-wealth lying groveling on the ground and that you so carry your selfe in the ordering a●d managing of this that all men may see your principall aime and end was the publique benefit of humane society and not any private profit or advantage of your owne For seeing that justice respects only the publique and that which is without and injustice fixes a man wholly on himselfe it doubtlesse becomes a man truly honest so to dispose his actions that ever private interests give place and yield to publique commoditie Briefly to epitomize what hath bin formerly said if a Prince outragiously over-pass the bounds of piety justice A neighbor Prince may justly and religiously leave his owne Countrey not to invade and usurp anothers but to containe the other within the limits of justice and equity and if he neglect or omit his duty herein hee shewes himselfe a wicked and unworthy Magistrace If a Prince tirannize over the people a neighbour Prince ought to yield succours as freely and willingly to the people as he would doe to the Prince his Brother if the people mutined against him yea he should so much the more readi●y succour the people by how much there is more just cause of pity to see many afflicted than one alone If Porsenna brought Tarquinius Superbus backe to Rome much more justly might Constantine requested by the Senate and Roman people expell Marentius the Tyrant from Rome Briefely if man become a Wolfe to man who hinders that man according to the proverb may not be instead of God to the needy And therefore the Ancients have ranckt Hercules amongst the gods because he punisht and tam'd Procrustes Busiris and other Tyrants the plagues of man kind and monsters of the earth So whilst the Roman Empire retained her freedome she was truly accounted the safe guard of all the world against the violence of Tyrants because the Senate was the port and refuge of Kings people and Nations In like manner Constantine called by the Romans against Mixentius had God Almighty for the leader of his Army and the whole Church doth with exceeding commendations celebrate his enterprize although that Maxentius had the same authority in the West a● Constantine had in the East Also Charlemaine undertooke War against the Lombards being requested to assist the Nobility of Italy although the Kingdome of the Lombards had been of a long continuance and he had no just pretence of right over them In like manner when Charles the bald King of France had tyrannously put to cleath the Governour of the Country between the River of Seynt and Loyre with the Duke Lambert and another Noble-man cald Jametius and that other great men of the Kingdome were retired unto Lewis King of Germany brother but by another mo●her unto Charles to request aid against him and his mother called Juclith one of the most pernitious women of the world Lewis gare them audience in a full Assembly of the German Princ●s by whose joynt advice it was decreed that Warres should be made against Charles for the re-establishing in their goods honours and estates those whom he had unjustly dispossest Finally as there hath ever been Tyrants disperst here and there so also all histories testifie that there hath been neighbouring Princes to oppose tyranny and maintain the people in their right The Princes of these times by imitating so worthy examples should suppresse the Tyrants both of bodies and soules and restraine the oppressors both of the Common-wealth and of the Church of Christ otherwise they themselves may most deservedly be branded with that infamous title of Tyrant And to conclude this discourse in a word piety command● that the Law and Church of God be maintain'd Justice requires that Tyrants and destroyers of the Common-wealth be compel'd to reason Charity challenges the right of relieving and restoring the oppressed Those that make no account of these things doe as much as in them lies to drive pietie justice and charity out of this world that they may never more be heard of FINIS