erat illa fidei Corona sed poena 〈◊〉 nec 〈◊〉 virtut is exitus gloriosus sed desperation is 〈◊〉 For if Valentius banish Eusebius from 〈◊〉 and Eusebius obey not the edict if Valentius puts him to death it is not for his being a Christian that he suffers death but for staying at 〈◊〉 against the command of Valentius Such was the case of the Priests whom for just cause as I have proved and too apparent proofe of seditious practices the Queen banished Now if the Queen was their lawfull Soveraigne then were they bound to obey her Decree of exile though it had been unjust as was the case of Eusebius or if they did not obey not to think the Lawes unjust for punishing their disobedience I say again their Disobedience not their Religion for that it was not their Religion that was struck at by the justice of these Lawes but the security of the Queen and State only aim'd at besides what I have already said is apparent to the evidence of sence For when Hart and Bosgrave Iesuits both came into England against the Law they were apprehended and imprison'd for the Lawes without just Execution were of no force for the Queenes safety but when these men had acknowledg'd the Queenes legitimate power and put in their security for their due obedience they obtain'd their pardon and their liberty The same proceedings were in the case of Horton and Rishton all which I hope were not 〈◊〉 from their Order or Religion but so they must have been or not have escap'd death in case that their Religion had been made Capitall Lastly this Statute extended only to such Priests who were made Priests since Primo of Elizabeth were born in England It was not Treason for a French Priest to be in England but yet so it must have been if Religion had been the thing they aim'd at But 't is so foule a Calumny I am asham'd to stand longer to efute it The proceedings of the Church and State of England were just honourable and religious full of mercy and discretion and unlesse it were that as C. Fimbria complain'd of Q. Scaevola we did not open our breasts wide enough to receive the danger there is no cause imaginable I mean on our parts to move them to so damned a conspiracy or indeed to any just complaint Secondly if these were not the causes as they would faine abuse the world into a perswasion that they were what was I shall tell you if you will give me leave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to derive it from its very head and then I will leave it to you to judge whether or no my Augury failes me First I guesse that the Traitors were encouraged and primarily mov'd to this Treason from the preuailing opinion which is most generally receiv'd on that side of the lawfulnesse of deposing Princes that are Hereticall I say generally receiv'd and I shall make my words good or else the blame shall lay on themselves for deceiving me when they declare their own mindes I instance first in the Fathers of the Society Bellarmine teacheth that Kings have no wrong done them if they be deprived of their Kingdomes when they prove Heretiques Creswell in his Philopater goes farther saying that if his Heresy be manifest he is deposed without any explicite judiciall sentence of the Pope the Law it selfe hath passed the sentence of deposition And therefore Bonarscius is very angry at Arnald the French Kings Advocate for affirming that Religion could be no just cause to depose a lawfull Prince If hee had beene brought up in their Schooles hee might have learnt another lesson papa Potest mutare regna uni auferre atque alteri conferre tanquam summus Princeps spiritualis si id necessarium sit ad animarum salutem saith Bellarmine Hee gives his reason too quia alioqui possent mali Principes impunè fovere Haereticos which is a thing not to be suffered by his Holinesse This Doctrine is not the private opinion of these Doctors but est certa definita atque indubitata virorum clarissimorum sententia saith F. Creswell I suppose hee meanes in his owne Order and yet I must take heed what I say for Eudaemon Iohannes is very angry with Sr Edward Cooke for saying it is the Doctrine of the Iesuits Doe they then deny it No surely but Non est Iesuitarum propria it is not theirs alone sed ut Garnettus respondit totius Ecclesiae quidem ab antiquissimis temporibus consensione recepta Doctrina nostra est and there hee reckons up seven and twenty famous Authors of the same opinion Creswell in his Philopater sayes as much if not more Hinc etiam infert Vniversa Theologorum Iuris consultorum Ecclesiasticorum Schola est certum de fide quemconque Principem Christianum si à religione Catbolicá manifestè deflexerit alios avocare voluerit excidere statim omni potestate ac dignitate ex ipsà vi juris tum Humani tum Divini You see how easily they swallow this great camell Adde to this that Bellarmine himselfe prooves that the Popes temporall power or of disposing of Princes Kingdomes is a Catholique Doctrine for hee reckons up of this opinion one and twenty Italians fourteene French 〈◊〉 Germans seven English and Scotch nineteen Spaniards these not è faece plebis but e 〈◊〉 all very famous and very leading Authors You see it is good Divinity amongst them and I have made it good that it is a generall opinion received by all their Side if you will believe themselves and now let us see if it will passe for good Law as well as good Divinity It is not for nothing that the Church of France protests against some of their received Canons if they did not I know not what would become of their Princes Their Lillies may be to day and to morrow be cast into the oven if the Pope either call their Prince 〈◊〉 as he did Henry the fourth or Tyrant as Henry the third or unprofitable for the Church or Kingdome as he did King Childeric whom Pope 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 did depose for the same cause and inserted his act into the body of the Law as a precedent for the future quod etiam ex 〈◊〉 frequenti agit sancta Ecclesia it is impaled in a 〈◊〉 in the body of the Canon least deposition of Princes should be taken for newes The law is cleere for matter of fact the lawfulnesse followes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est auferri 〈◊〉 habent and this not only from a private man but even from Princes nam qui in majore dignitate est plus punitur or take it if you please in more proper termes Dominus Papa Principem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propter haeresim so another may be chosen like the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 in Poland just as if the King were dead 〈◊〉 per haeresim 〈◊〉 civiliter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Simancha and
whom under God and the King we owe the Blessing and Prosperity of all our Studies Nor yet can I choose but hope that my Great Obligations to your Grace's Favour may plead my pardon since it is better that my Gratitude should be bold then my diffidence ingratefull but that this is so farre from expressing the least part of them that it layes a greater bond upon me either for a debt of delinquency in presenting it or of thankfulnesse if your Grace may please to pardon it I humbly crave your Grace's Benediction pardon and acceptance of the humblest duty and observance of Your GRACES most observant and obliged CHAPLAINE IER TAYLOR A SERMON PREACHED VPON THE Anniversary of the GUNPOWDER-TREASON LUK. 9. Cap. vers 54. But when Iames and Iohn saw this they said Lord wilt thou that we command fire to come from Heaven and consume them even as Elias did I Shall not need to strain much to bring my Text and the day together Here is fire in the text consuming fire like that whose Antevorta we doe this day commemorate This fire called for by the Disciples of Christ so was ours too by Christs Disciples at least and some of them intitled to our Great Master by the compellation of his holy name of IESUS I would say the paralell holds thus farre but that the persons of my Text however Boanerges sonnes of thunder and of a reproveable spirit yet are no way considerable in the proportion of malice with the persons of the day For if I consider the cause that mov'd Iames and Iohn to so inconsiderate a wrath it beares a fair excuse The men of Samaria turn'd their Lord and Master out of doores denying to give a nights lodging to the Lord of Heaven and Earth It would have disturbed an excellent patience to see him whom but iust before they beheld transfigured and in a glorious Epiphany upon the Mount to be so neglected by a company of hated Samaritans as to be forc'd to keep his vigils where nothing but the welkin should have been his roofe not any thing to shelter his precious head from the descending dew of heaven Quis talia fando Temperet It had been the greater wonder if they had not been angry But now if we should levell our progresse by the same line and guesse that in the present affaire there was an equall cause because a greater fire was intended wee shall too much betray the ingenuity of apparent truth and the blessing of this Anniversary They had not halfe such a case for an excuse to a farre greater malice it will prove they had none at all and therefore their malice was somuch the more malicious because causelesse and totally inexcusable However I shall endeavour to joyne their consideration in as 〈◊〉 a paralell as I can which if it be not exact as certainly it cannot where we have already discovered so much difference in degrees of malice yet by laying them together we may better take their estimate though it be only by seeing their disproportion The words as they lay in their own order point out 1. The persons that ask't the question 2. The cause that mov'd them 3. The person to whom they propounded it 4. The Question it selfe 5. And the precedent they urg'd to move a grant drawn from a very fallible Topick a singular Example in a speciall and different case The persons here were Christs Disciples and so they are in our case design'd to us by that glorious Sir-name of Christianity they will be called Catholiques but if our discovery perhaps rise higher and that the See Apostolique prove sometimes guilty of so reproveable a spirit then we are very neer to a paralell of the persons for they were Disciples of Christ Apostles 2. The cause was the denying of toleration of abode upon the grudge of an old schisme Religion was made the instrument That which should have taught the Apostles to be charitable and the Samaritans hospitable was made a pretence to justify the unhospitablenesse of the one and the uncharitablenesse of the other Thus farre we are right for the malice of this present Treason stood upon the same base 3. Although neither Side much doubted of the lawfulnesse of their proceedings yet S. Iames and S. Iohn were so discreet as not to think themselves infallible therefore they ask'd their Lord so did the persons of the day aske the question too but not of Christ for he was not in all their thoughts but yet they ask'd of Christs Delegates who therefore should have given their answer eodem tripode from the same spirit They were the Fathers Confessors who were ask'd 4. The question is of both sides concerning a consumptive sacrifice the destruction of a Towne there of a whole Kingdome here but differing in the circumstance of place whence they would fetch their fire The Apostles would have had it from Heaven but these men's conversation was not there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things from beneath from an artificiall hell but breath'd from the naturall and proper were in all their thoughts 5. The example which is the last particular I feare I must leave quite out and when you have considered all perhaps you will look for no example First of the persons they were Disciples of Christ and Apostles But when Iames and Iohn saw this When first I considered they were Apostles I wondered they should be so intemperatly angry but when I perceived they were so angry I wondred not that they sinned Not the priviledge of an Apostolicall spirit not the nature of Angels not the condition of immortality can guard from the danger of sinne but if we be overrul'd by passion we almost subject our selves to its necessity It was not therefore without reason altogether that the Stoicks affirm'd wisemen to be void of passions for sure I am the inordination of any passion is the first step to folly And although of them as of waters of a muddy residence wee may make good use and quench our thirst if wee doe not trouble them yet upon any ungentle disturbance we drinke down mud in stead of a cleere streame and the issues of sinne and sorrow certaine consequents of temerarious or inordinate anger And therefore when the Apostle had given us leave to be angry as knowing the condition of human nature hee quickly enters a Caveat that we sinne not hee knew sinne was very likely to be hand-maid where Anger did domineer and this was the reason why S. Iames and S. Iohn are the men here pointed at for the Scripture notes them for Boanerges sonnes of thunder men of an angry temper quid mirum est filios tonitrui fulgurâsse voluisse said S. Ambrose But there was more in it then thus Their spirits of themselves hot enough yet met with their education under the Law whose first tradition was in fire and thunder whose precepts were just but not so mercifull and this inflam'd their distemper to the
instance once more If I mistake not it was Sixtus Quintus who sometimes pronounced a speech in full Consistory in which hee compares the assasinat of Iaques Clement upon Henry the third to the exploits of Eleazar Iudith where after having aggravated the faults of the murdred King concluded him to have diedimpenitent denyed him the solemnities of Masse Dirge and Requiem for his soule at last he ends with a prayer that God would finish what in this bloudy manner had been begun I will not aggravate the foulenesse of the thing by any circumstances though I cannot but wonder that his Holinesse should say a prayer of so much abhomination it is of it selfe too bad If his Holinesse be wrong'd in the businesse I have no hand in it the speech was printed at Paris three months after the murder of the King and avouched for authentick by the approbation of three Doctors Boucher Decreil and Ancelein let them answer it I wash my hands of the accusation and only consider the danger of such Doctrines if set forth with so great authority and practis'd by so uncontroulable 〈◊〉 If the Disciples of Christ if Apostles if the See Apostolique if the fathers Confessors prove 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 I 'le no more wonder if the people call for fire to consume us but rather wonder if they doe not And indeed although it be no rare or unusuall thing for a Papist to be de facto loyall and duteous to his Prince yet it is a wonder that he is so since such Doctrines have beene taught by so great Masters and at the best hee depends but upon the Popes pleasure for his Loyalty which upon what security it rests you may easily guesse from the antecedents Thus much for consideration of the persons who ask'd the Question they were Christs Disciples they were Iames and Iohn But when Iames and Iohn saw this Our next inquiry shall be of the cause of this their angry Question This we must learne from the fore-going story Christ was going to the feast at Ierusalem and passing through a Village of Samaria ask'd lodging for a night but they perceiving that hee was a Iew would by no meanes entertaine him as being of a different Religion For although God appointed that all of the seed of Iacob should goe up to 〈◊〉 to worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet the Tribes of the separation first under 〈◊〉 worship'd in Groves and High places and after the captivity being a mixt people halfe Iew halfe Gentile procur'd a Temple to be built them by 〈◊〉 their President neare the City 〈◊〉 upon the mountaine Gerezim stiling themselves pertinentes 〈◊〉 Montem benedictum by allusion to the words of God by Mofes they shall stand upon the Mount Gerezim to blesse the people and these upon Mount Ebal to curse And in case arguments should faile to make this schisme plausible they will make it good by turning their Adversaries out of doores They shall not come neere their blessed Mount of Gerezim but fastning an Anathema on them let them goe to Ebal and curse there And now I wonder not that these Disciples were very angry at them who had lost the true Religion and neglected the offices of humanity to them that kept it They might goe neere now to make it a cause of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzene speaks might seem to Apologize for them and so it might if it had not led them to indiscreet and uncharitable zeale But men care not how farre they goe if they doe but once thinke they can make God a party of their Quarrell For when Religion which ought to be the antidote of our malice proves its greatest incentive our uncharitablenesse must needs runne faster to a mischiefe by how much that which stopt it's course before drives it on with the greater violence And therefore as it is ordinary for charity to be called coldnesse in Religion so it is as ordinary for a pretence of Religion to make cold charity The present case of the Disciples and the same spirit which for the same 〈◊〉 cause is takenup by the persons of the day proves all this true with whom fire and fagot is esteem'd the best argument to convince the understanding and the Inquisitors of hereticall pravity the best Doctors and subtlest Disputants determining all with a Vir is ignem fossā mulieribus For thus wee had like to have suffered it was mistaken Religion that mov'd these Traytors to so damnable a Conspiracy not for any defence of their owne cause but for extirpation of ours For else what grievances did they groan under In quos corum populum exaestuantem sollicit a vimus quibus vitae periculum attulimus It was Nazianzen's question to the Apostate Give me leave to consider it as appliable to our present case and try if I can make a just discovery of the cause that mov'd these Traytors to so accursed a Confpiracy 1 Then there was no cause at all given them by us none put to death for being a Roman Catholique nor any of them punish'd for his Religion This hath beene the constant attestation of our Princes and State since the first Lawes made against Recusants the thing it selfe will bear them record From primo of Elizabeth to undecimo the Papists made no scruple of comming to our Churches Recusancy was not then so much as a Chrysome not an Embrio But when Pius quintus sent forth his Breves of Excommunication and Deposition of the Queen then first they forbore to pray with us or to have any religious communion This although every where knowne yet being a matter of fact and so as likely to be denied by others as affirmed by us without good evidence see it therefore affirmed expresly by an Act of Parliament in Decimo tertio of Elizabeth which specifies this as one inconvenience and ill consequence of the Bull. Whereby 〈◊〉 grown great 〈◊〉 and bolonesse in many not only to 〈◊〉 and absent themselves from 〈◊〉 service now most 〈◊〉 set forth and used within this Realme but also have thought themselves discharged of all 〈◊〉 c. Not only Recusancy but likewise disobedience therefore both Recusancy and disobedience Two yeares therefore after this Bull this Statute was made if it was possible to nullify the effects of it to hinder its execution and if it might be by this meanes to keep them as they had been before in Communion with the Church of England and obedience to her Majesty This was the first Statute that concerned them in speciall but yet their Religion was not medled with For this Statute against execution of the Popes Bulls was no more thē what had been established by Act of Parliament in the 16 th yeare of Richard the second by which it was made 〈◊〉 to purchase Bulls from Rome and the delinquents in this kinde with all their 〈◊〉 fautors 〈◊〉 and maintainers to be referred to the Kings
became 〈◊〉 saying it was sentenc'd to the fire before it had escaped the presse And good reason Nihil enim tale à Patribus societatis didicit Good men they never taught him any such doctrine as is contained in that pestilent book de iuribus principalibus defendendis moderandis iustè Now if this be heresy or like it to preach such a Doctrine then likely it will be judg'd heresy in Princes to doe so that is to hold their crownes without acknowledgment of subordination to S. Peters chaire And if it be not heresy to doe so it is in their account as bad for so the Iesuits in their Veritas defensa against the Action of Arnald the Advocate affirme in terminis that the actions of some Kings of France against the Pope in defence of their Regalties were but examples of rebellion and spots to disgrace the purity of the French Lillies 5. Put case the Pope should chance to mistake in his sentence against a Prince for the cause of heresy yet for all this mistake he can secure any man to take away the Princes life or Kingdome His Lawyers will be his security for this point For although in this case the deposition of the Prince should be and be acknowledged to be against Gods law the Prince being neither Tyrant nor heretick yet his Holinesse commanding it takes away the unlawfulnesse of it by his dispensation So D. Marta and for this doctrine he quotes Hostiensis Felinus Cratus the Abbat the Arch bishop of Florence Ancharanus Iohannes Andreas Laurentius de Pinu and some others Indeed his Divines deny this sed contrarium 〈◊〉 observatur as it 's very well observed by the same Doctor for he brings the practise example of Pope Martin the fifth Iulius the second Celestine the third Alexander the third and Sixtus quintus all which dispensed in cases acknowledged to be expressely against Gods law 6. Lastly How if the Pope should lay a claime to all the Kingdomes of the world as belonging to S. Peters patrimony by right of spirituall preheminence I know no great security we have to the contrary For first It is known he hath claimed the Kingdome of England as feudatary to the See Apostolike Which when I considered I wondred not at that new and insolent title which Mosconius gives his Holinesse of Desensor fidei He might have added the title of Rex Catholicus Christianisstmus For D. Marta in his treatise of Iurisdiction which he dedicated to Paulus quintus hath that for an argumēt why he dedicated his Book to him because for sooth the Pope is the only Monarch of the World But of greater authority is that of Thomas Aquinas affirming the Pope to be the verticall top of all power Ecclesiasticall and Civill So that now it may be true which the Bishop of Patara told the Emperor in behalfe of Pope Sylverius Multos esse Reges sed nullum talem qualis ille qui est Papa super Ecclesiam Mundi totius For these reasons I think it is true enough that the constituting the Pope the judge of Princes in the matter of deposition is of more danger then the thing it selfe The summe is this However schisme or heresy may be pretended yet it is but during the Popes pleasure that Kings or subjects shall remain firme in their mutuall necessitude For if our Prince bee but excommunicate or declar'd heretick then to be a good subject will be accounted no better then irreligion and Anti-Catholicisme If the conclusion be too hard and intolerable then so are the Premises and yet they passe for good Catholike doctrine among themselves But if truly and ex animo they are otherwise affected they should doe well to unsay what hath been said and declare themselves by publique authority against such doctrines And say whether or no their determinations shall be de fide If they be then all those famous Catholique Doctors Thomas Aquinas Bellarmine Creswell Mariana Emanuel Sà c. are heretiques and their Canons teach heresy and Many of their Popes to be condemn'd as hereticall for practising and teaching deposition of Princes by an authority usurp't against and in prejudice of the Christian faith But if their answers be not de fide then they had as good say nothing for the danger is not at all decreased because if there be Doctors on both sides by their own assertion they may without sinne follow either but yet more safely if they follow the most received and the most authorized and whether this rule will lead them I will be judg'd by any man that hath considered the premises Briefly either this thing must remain in the same state it is and our Princes still expos'd to so extream hazards or else let his Holinesse seat himselfe in his chaire condemne these doctrines vow against their future practise limit his ordo ad spiritualia containe himselfe within the limits of causes directly and meerely Ecclesiasticall disclaime all power so much as indirect over Princes temporalls and all this with an intent to oblige all Christendome Which when I see done I shall be most ready to believe that nothing in Popery doth either directly or by a necessary consequence destroy Loyalty to our lawfull Prince but not till then having so much evidence to the contrary Thus much was occasion'd by consideration of the cause of the Disciples Quaere which was when they saw this that their L. and M. for his difference in Religion was turned forth of doores which when they saw They said Lord It was well they ask'd at all and would not too hastily act what they too suddēly had intended but it was better that they ask'd Christ it had been the best warrant they could have had could they have obtain'd but a Magister dixit But this was not likely it was too strange a Question to aske of such a Mr. A Magistre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crudelitatis Nothing could have come more crosse to his disposition His spirit never was addicted to blood unlesse it were to shed his owne Hee was a Prince of peace and set forth to us by all the Symboles of peace and gentlenesse as of a sheepe a lambe a hen a gentle twining vine the healing 〈◊〉 and is it likely that such a one should give his placet to the utter ruine of a company of poore Villagers for denying him a nights lodging moved thereto by the foregoing scandall of a Schisme Hee knew better what it cost to redeem aman and to save his life from destruction then to bee so hasty for his ruine And if the Fathers Confessors who were to answere the Question of the day had but reflected upon this Gospell they might have informed their penitents better then to have engaged them upon such Antichristian and Treasonable practises as to destroy an assembly of Christians as to depose or kill a King It is the proper cognisance of Mahumetanisme by fire and sword to
maintain their cause and to propagate their Religion by ruine of Princes and conquering their Kingdomes But it is the excellency of Christianity that by humility and obedience it made Princes tributary to our Deare Master and homagers to his Kingdome When Valentinian sent Calligonus his Chamberlaine to S. Ambrose to threaten him from his faith his answer was Deus permittit tibi ut impleas quod minaris Ego patiar quod est Episcopi 〈◊〉 facies quod est spadonis He did not stirre up the numerous people of his Diocesse to rebell against the Emperour or depose him imployed no agent in his Court to undermine his security nor assasine to take his life He and the rest of those good Fathers would not have lost their possibility of being Martyrs for the world unlesse it were by perswading the Emperours to the Christian faith Wee pray for all our Governours that they might have long life a secure government a safe house strong armies good subjects quiet world So 〈◊〉 I had thought that the Doctrine and example of our B. Saviour the practise Apostolicall and primitive had beene tyes enough to keep us in our obedience to God and the King and in Christian charity to all but I finde that all these precepts come to nothing for the Apostles and primitive Christians did not actually depose Kings nor alter states nor call for fire to consume their enemies not because it was simply unlawfull so to doe or any way adverse to the precepts of Christ but because they wanted Power So Bellarmine The Church gave leave that the faithfull should obey Iulian because then they wanted forces And F. Creswell is very confident of the businesse They might without all Question have appointed to themselves other Kings and Princes if the Christians had beene strong enough to bring their intendments to passe But because they could not therefore it was not lawfull for them to goe about it nor is it for us in the same case especially if the Prince hath quiet possession and a strong guard about him then by no meanes is it lawfull for a single man by then by no meanes is it lawfull for a single man by his owne authority to assault his Prince that rules Tyrannically So Salmeron But who sees not that this way murder may be lawfull For true it is God commanded us saying Thou shalt not kill that is if thou art not able to lift up thy hand or strike a stroake thou shalt not blaspheme that is if thou beest speechlesse thou must be obedient to thy Prince that is if thou canst not tell how to helpe it Good Doctrine this And indeed it might possibly be something if God had commanded our subordination to Princes only for wrath for then si vires 〈◊〉 if wee can defend our selves we are secure wee need not feare his wrath but when he addes also for conscience sake I cannot sufficiently wonder that any man should obtrude so 〈◊〉 so illiterate and so impious an interpretation upon the Christian world under the Title of Catholique Doctrine Christ when he was betrayed and seized upon by his Murderers could have commanded twelve Legions of Angels for his Guard Non defuerunt vires and in all humane likelyhood such a Satellitium as that would have mov'd them to a beliefe in him or else I am sure might have destroyed the unbelievers Shall I say more against this rude 〈◊〉 Then thus It is false that the Primitive Christians had not power to defend themselves against their Persecutors Heare S. Cyprian Nemo nostrum quando apprehenditur reluctatur nec se adversus iniustitiam violentiam vestram quamvis nimius copiosus noster sit Populus ulciscitur They could have resisted and that to blood but they had not so learned Christ. Prayers and teares were the armes of Christians and then they had a defence beyond all this when they were hard put to it Mori potuerunt a submission of their bodies to Martyrdome was their last refuge Thus S. Agnes Lucia Agatha Christina Domitilla sav'd both their faith and chastity non armis sedignibus carnificis manu the tormentors last cruelty defended them from all succeeding danger I will not yet conclude that that which these men obtrude for Catholique Doctrine is flat and direct heresy I will instance but once more and then I shall In the fourth Councell of Toledo which was assembled when the usurping and Tyrannizing Goths did domineere in Europe the most whereof were Tyrants Vsurpers or Arrians the Councell decreed that if any man did violate the life or person of his King aut potestate Regni exuerit kill him or depose him Anathema sit c. He should be accursed in the sight of God and his Holy Angels and together withall the companions of his iniquity hee should be separated from the Catholique Church And now I hope I may say that these men who either practise or advise such practises as killing or deposing Kings areas formally condemn'd for heresy and anathematiz'd as ever was Manichee or Cataphrygian I know not but perhaps this might be thought of when the 〈◊〉 were inscrib'd heretiks upon the publike pillar before the Louure in Paris upon their banishment however let them answer it as they may it concernes them as much as their being Catholiques comes to Et considerent quia quae praedicant tantoperè verba aut ipsorum summorum Pontificum sunt suas fimbrias extendentium 〈◊〉 illorum qui eis adulantur as said Aeneas Sylvius but at no hand can it be Christian Doctrine I instanc'd in these things to shew the 〈◊〉 between the spirit of our B. Saviour who answer'd the Question of the text and the Fathers Confessors of whom was ask'd the Question of the day But give mee leave to consider them not only as mis-informing their penitents but as concealing their intended purpose for even this way the persons to whom the Question was propounded made themselves guilty of the intended machination For by all Law Ecclesiasticall and Civill hee that conceales an intended Murder or Treason makes himselfe as much a party for concealing as is the Principall for contriving Ob. But these Fathers Confessors could not be accused by vertue of these generall Lawes as being exempt by vertue of speciall case for they received notice of these things only in confession the seale of which is so sacred and inviolable that he is sacrilegious who in any case doth breake it open though it be to avoid the greatest evill that can happen so Bellarmine to save the lives of all the Kings in Christendome so Binet though to save a whole common wealth from dammage temporall or spirituall of body or soule so Suarez A considerable matter On the one side wee are threatned by sacriledge on the other by danger of Princes and common-wealths for the case may happen that either the Prince and whole State may be suffered to perish