Antidote against this moderne poyson For not onely great and learned Captaines as Alexander and Caesar haue attained to the Empires of the world but also Generals of warre haue profitably vsed the Counsell of learned men for to execute great designes To this purpose Pyrrus said hee wanne more Citties by the industry of his Orator Cineas Plutar. in Pyrrhus then hee tooke by force of armes Yea a sillie Scholler following Regilianus profited him to obtaine the Empire by meanes of his declining Rex Regis making allusion to the name of Regilianus Trebel Pollio in Regill for the Souldiers which were in the Campe taking that for good presage proclaimed him Emperour Such men Alphonsus the Phenix of the Spanish Kings vsed calling vnlearned Princes Golden Flecees added that the dumbe were his best Counsellours meaning bookes that flattered not Kings but told them the truth and reprouing the opinion of one of his Predecessors who thought it vnbeseeming a noble and generous minde to haue learning saith It was the voyce of a brute beast rather then a man The want of which register hath caused that the most generous actions of our ancient Gaules haue remained buried in obliuion or haue bene much lessened by the writings of such as enuied their greatnesse For military actions are renowned to posterity according as the penne of hystory hath extolled the same thus are Achilles and Aeneas made famous by Homer and Virgil and Caesar himselfe by his true testimony And contrariwise they that haue had learning for aduersary remaine in opprobry to posterity Thus the iniury that the Vniuersity of the Athenians receiued by the cruel imposition of foureteene children sent to the King of Creta though otherwise he were in such reputation of iustice that antiquity made him a Iudge in the Elizium yet could hee not obtaine against pen and inke weake instruments in apparance Quaesitor Minos vnam mouet but that hee was dishonoured in his bed and his children Icarus and Minotaure the one an example of vanity the other a prodigious monster and himselfe taxed in his person as perishing miserably It is a worke worthy your Maiesty to establish the Kings Colledge the building vp whereof God hath reserued vnto your Maiesty as hee did the building of the Temple to wise Salomon and doubt not my Lord but that there will bee found Regents sufficiently capable honour nourisheth Artes they haue not hitherto appeared because the Muses could not bee heard during the noise of the Trumpet and sound of the Drumme The nurse-children of the Muses shut vp themselues in the caues of Parnassus and come not at the Court vnlesse they bee sent for But my Lord seeing it is a matter of peopling a royall Colledge there should not bee any Doctors not royall or not for the King nor any that haue taken oath of blind vow to any out of the Kingdome for saith the Gospell No man can serue two Maisters And why should the King maintaine at his charge Professours that will corrupt the syncerity of the affections of his subiects by the poyson of the new Canons of which wee haue quoted some By these two meanes euermore profitable for the State the State shall be preserued till it please God to encrease your Maiesty in age and in all sorts of Spirituall and Temporall blessings that you may gouerne the same in person and remoue away the cause of this euill which I hope for by Gods grace so much the more assuredly as your Maiesty is a liuely purtraiture of those great Kings that haue commanded the people of God succeeding as a yong Iosias to a father murthered by the disloyaltie of some of his subiects as a Salomon to triumphing Dauid his father as a Saint Lewis vnder the Regency of his mother God grant that your Maiesty may accomplish the posie of King Lewis the twelth your predecessour Perdam Babylonis nomen That is I will destroy the name of Babylon seeing that they now renew the like attempts as they did then vnder his raigne To the end that as the most high Monarch of heauen and earth would not employ to such a worke the mighty arme of flesh Henry the Great your father no more then hee did that of Dauid whom hee had destinated vnto battels your Maiesty as a Salomon his sonne by the workes of peace may restore the Gallicane Church by the common voyce of which with bended knees hands lifted vp to heauen and heart to God your Maiesty heareth the like blessing as the Queene of Sheba gaue to Salomon 2. Chron. 9.8 Blessed be the Lord thy God which loued thee to set thee on his throne as King to execute iudgement and iustice And let the Prophesy of Nathan in the highest heauen bee ratified in your Maiesty 2. Sam. 7.13.14 I will stablish the throne of his Kingdome for euer I will bee vnto him a father and hee shall bee my sonne Amen Mart. 9.104 Prima tuo gerito pro Ioue bella puer FINIS
Temporall sword and vpon his right eye his arme shall bee dried vp for certaine and his right eye shall bee vtterly darkened For if for the first mans offence in hauing tasted the forbidden fruite and beleeued the saying of the Serpent Yee shall bee as Gods Gen. 3. knowing good and euill the father of all mercy spared not the innocency of his deerely beloued sonne our suerty but saith by the same Prophet Arise Zach. 13.7 ô sword vpon my Sheepheard and vpon the man that is my fellow saith the Lord of Hoasts What torments attend the Apostasy of a re-lapsed man without promise of restoring which doth not simply beleeue himselfe to be God but exalteth himselfe aboue all that beare that name O sword which didst not spare the good Shepeheard for the offences of others awake rise vp against the foolish Shepheard destroy that man of sinne for his owne transgression who in the Maisters absence behaueth himselfe not as a fellow seruant but as Maister Math. 24. to the end that in this last time as sometime did his predecessour Herod who gaue not glory to God when the people cryed the voyce of God ctA 12.12 and not of men he may learne to his condemnation that it is the most High Dan. 4.25 the euerlasting God blessed for euer and none other beareth rule ouer the Kingdome of men and giueth it to whom soeuer he will Iuu 1. Sat. 3. procul ab Iesu It quibus grata est picta lupa barbara mitra The Conclusion directed by the Authour to the French King Lewis the 13. THE most ancient author of prophane History mighty Soueraigne reporteth that Croesus being in danger to bee slaine in the warre his son who had till that time bene dumbe seeing his father in that estate cryed out O man kill not Croesus which representeth vnto vs the effect of a naturall affection forcing natures defect and causing a man discharge the duty by his birth imposed vpon him Hitherto though according to my small ability I haue omitted no occasion by word and deed to testifie the seruice I owe your Maiesty Yet haue I euer remained dumbe not daring to represent vnto your Maiesty by mouth the true feeling I haue had of my duty And I should for euer haue bene silent had I not feared to bee reputed to giue consent to the pernitious effects of a certaine damnable errour Canonized of late which would still remaine vnder the ashes of such decrees if it had not bene discouered by some incendiaries come forth thence who with the firebrands and bellowes of some controuersies in religion haue caused the fires that haue since fifty yeares bene seene in France And whilst good French-men were busied wearied and weakned in quenching these flames these men haue taken opportunity and endeauoured to seize vpon the State and done all they could to roote out the Royall race and to trans-ferre the Crowne vnto strangers Vnto which not being able to attaine by maine force hauing so powerfull an enemy as King Henry the great and his Princes they haue aduised themselues of the most vnnaturall and abominable meanes that euer was practised amongst the most barbarous and Infidel Nations hauing blow vpon blow after infinite attempts laid violent hands vpon the sons of the most high the Lords annoinced These detestable actes make mee cry out O man of sinne kill no more our Kings If I should bee silent I were worthy to be condemned to dye for if the subiect that heareth in wordes some complot against the safety of his Prince makes himselfe guilty if he declare it not vnto him how could he excuse himselfe which by reading of bookes and discourse of reason perceiueth whence such vnnaturall attempts do proceed if hee contribute not his speach his industry and the perill of his life to auert and preuent such outrages in time to come But seeing it is lost labour to cry vnto this euill spirit who is not ruled by the military discipline of Cyrus to giue ouer the slaughter at the sound of retraite I will turne my selfe to your Maiesty aduising to take heed to your selfe for our our peace dependeth on yours we will haue no other Temporall King but Lewis suffer him not to publish in your Kingdome that there is a power aboue yours that your command is limited by the will of a stranger that the fidelity of the oath of your subiects may be slacked by his dispensation and your life at his worde giuen ouer to murderous attempts Vse againe the remedies which your Predecessor Phillip Lewis and Henry haue done before these new garrisons of strangers were brought into the land who take an oath of blind obedience to a forraine power out of the Kingdome a fourth vow vnknowne to other orders who creepe in and insinuate themselues with a wonderfull violence into the capitall Cities and best families yea euen into the Metropolitane City of the Realme who augment and make greater the presumptuous boldnesse of them that would precede Princes be equall with Parliaments and despise the function whereunto they are called Whence commeth it else that in former ages in the time of Phillip the Faire and other succeding Kings no French-man reuolted from the obedience of his Prince for feare of a friuolous excommunication and that in this latter age that illusion hath retained so long time in obstinacy so many peoples And how is it that King Francis the Great threatned Charles the fifth with the number and fidelity of his Schollers and that in the time of the barricadoes there was whole companies of them set forth to besiege the King in the Louvre And who was it instructed and fashioned Barriere but Varade a Priest of the new society ministring to him the holy Communion for saluation And who was it but a Scholler of these new Doctors that thrust his parricide knife into the mouth of King Henry the Great your father Yea who was it murthered him My Lord I cannot hold my peace I haue horrour of what is past and feare yet more what may come I will not bee a preuaricator in the cause of my King neither will I liue after him O! it hath bene it hath bene those vncleane Spirits whereof Saint Iohn speaketh in his Reuelation Apoc. 16.12 9.16 which repent not of their murthers of their witch-crafts of their fornications nor of their thefts which worke miracles and go vnto the Kings of the earth to assemble them to the battle of that great day c. These he termeth also Frogges Amphibia creatures that liue as well in water as on land in the State and in the Church and can vse both the sword and the penne These are they that imprinted in the minde of that monstrous parracide These blasphemies are read in the arraignement of Rauillac in his confrontation with D'Aubinie the Iesuite that the King intended to make warre against the Pope and that to make warre against
THE Right and prerogatiue of Kings Against Cardinall Bellarmine and other Iesuites Written in French by Iohn Bede Aduocate in the Court of Parliament of Paris and published by Authority PROV 24. 24. My sonne feare God and the King and meddle not with them that are seditious ECCLES 8. 4. In whatsoeuer place the word of the King is there is power And who shall say vnto him What doest thou Translated by Robert Sherwood LONDON Printed by N. O. for William Bladon and are to bee sold at his Shop in Pauls Church-yard at the Signe of the Bible 1612. TO THE MOST PIOVS PRVDENT and Potent Monarch IAMES by the grace of God King of Great Brittaine France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Dread Soueraigne OF all the creatures of this Vniuerse none draweth neerer to the Creator thē man neither any degree of men so much as doth the King whether wee consider his persō or his Office As the face of Moses descending the Mount from God shone bright and glorious so the Maiesticke looke of a King reflecting diuine beames receiued from the King of Kings daunteth the most proud and sauadge hearts of Inferiors Therefore Kings are in holy Writ called Lights for their glory Gods for their power and the Lords annointed to testifie their graces and the dignity of their Office And surely your Maiesty is a light and a light of Israel Gods people not onely for glory but for example of piety religion and vertue your Maiesty is Gods Lieutenant executing his power which consisteth chiefly in ordering directing in protecting and defending in rewarding and punishing in a word your Maiesty is truely the Lords annointed furnished with all Royall and Princely graces and namely of a wise and vnderstanding heart to iudge and rule this geat mighty people ouer which the Lord hath placed you Wherefore I haue presumed being but a Translator to present this small Treatise to your Maiesty not as a thing worthy so iudicious view but for that it treateth of the Authority of Kings and for that it was by the Authour dedicated to a King his Maister entitled Most Christian therefore for none more meet thē your Maiesty being truly stiled Defender of the fath Wherein I beseech your Maiesty to pardon the boldnesse and passe by the infirmities of him that is bound with all true subiects vnfeignedly to pray to the King of Kings for your Maiesties long and prosperous raigne in this world and an immortall Crowne of eternall felicity in the world to come Your Maiesties most humble and obedient subiect ROBERT SHERVVOOD The Translator to the Reader OVR blessed Sauiours rule Math. 7.20 Ye shall know them by their fruits is an infallible and perpetuall way to vnmaske hypocrites among which none are more dangerous to the State wherein they liue then such as vnder pretence of Religion do politickely vnderhand practise all for the good of a forraigne power to whom they haue vowed themselues Of which we need no farther instance then the vpstart sect of Ignatians who blasphemously terme themselues Of the society of Iesus Yet none do more abhorre from the holinsse of that name which they so arrogantly vsurpe or lesse resemble and imitate Iesus the patterne of all holinesse To omit their intollerable pride aspiring ambition their insatiable coueteousnesse their cunning hypocrisie their subtil sophistry their matchlesse Machiauelisme their equiuocating periury their compassing sea and land to seduce and peruert and the like wherein they are directly opposite to Iesus who was humble and lowly liued poorely is the truth it selfe and taught the way of God plainely Are not these their sublimest fruits to intermedle with matters of State to oblige themselues by their blind vow to a forraine Lord to cōceale high Treason tending to the danger of Princes persons and euersion of States reueiled to thē in auricular confession that I may not say to animate rather then deterre the Traitors to put their Treason in execution to publish their diuelish and pernitious doctrines ascribing to one man the Pope euen ouer Kings both the powers Ecclesiastical Ciuil which Christ Iesus hath separated the one frō the other Nich. 1. ad Michael Imp. actibus proprijs dignitatibus distinctis as Pope Nicholas the first affirmeth Looke neerly into their doings and you shall perceiue them armed with rage and cruelty not with teares which as Saint Ambrose wittnesseth are and onely ought to be In orat cōtra Auxentium 23. quest 8. conuenientior munimenta sacerdotis You shall see them bring forth fruites dangerous to the persons and states of Kings and contrary to them of the ancient Christians Tertul. 30. Apologetici who as Tertullian testifieth did pray for all their Emperours that they might haue Vitam prolixam Imperium securum domum tutam exercitus fortes senatum fidelem populum probum orbē quietum quaecunque hominis Caesaris vota sunt Yea to euery indifferent man they will appeare to be so farre off from the innocency of holy Dauid who had a touch of heart 1. Sam. 24.6 for hauing but cut off the lap of Sauls garment that by writings they rather approue the murther of Princes the Lords annointed a doctrine not onely opposite to the doctrine and practise of IESVS but which I am assured all true subiects in all lands not only of such as are taught in IESVS Schoole but euen of them that haue neuer so little sparke of humanity or light of nature do detest and abhorre And how be it they labour to couer these things to perswade their adorers that these are but slanderous imputations wrongfully cast vpon them Yet they sticke not to publish to the eye of the world many things derogatory from the authority of Soueraigne powers ordained of God affirming it to be a meerely humane institution Which new strange and dangerous paradox our Authour in this small Treatise doth both by diuine and humane testimonies learnedly confute the soundnesse of whose reasons and faithfulnesse of allegations will to euery indifferent Reader plainely appeare Whereby not onely the best Christians and most loyall subiects may be confirmed the mouth of the aduersary stopped and the honest minded though blinded Papist be preserued as by a soueraigne antidote against the pestilent doctrines of such as mislead thē At least if any of them dare cast an eye on this booke for that their bondage is so great as they are forbidden to reade any thing written by men of our side yea the holy Bible for feare forsooth of hereticall infection A pollicy which as it sheweth the vnsoundnesse of their cause so doth it not a little vphold their tottering Kingdome by retaining the people still in ignorance But let mee entreate thee good Reader not to censure a peece but reade the whole with an vnpartiall eye and friendly to accept my paines in good part vndertaken for thy good Robert Sherwood The Authors Epistle to
the French King SACRED Maiesty Plin. l. 11. cap. 16. natural History teacheth vs that Bees appeare at their beginning like a little white worme all except him that is to be their King which commeth forth with wings is of yellow colour because he is formed of the most exquisite flowers And if the Monarch of all the world hath giuen such priuiledge to the King of so smal creatures what are we to beleeue of him whom he hath established to command ouer men honoured with the title of Most Christian To confirme which beliefe in the harts of your subiects to destroy the opiniō of the doctors of lies which falsely maintaine that the Kingly power is not absolute that it is an inuention of mē I haue aduentured to frame this little discourse to present it to your Maiesty to the end that by the reading of the same they may learne no more to blaspheme against the powers established of God alone and that they may know that it is not the antiquity and greatnesse of your house the Nobility of the Princes which your Maiesty commandeth the wisedome of your Soueraigne Courts the order Ecclesiasticall the large extent of your Prouinces the strength of your places the affection of your peoples the faithfulnesse of the confederates of your Crowne the experience of your Captaines the vallour of your Nobity the thunders of your Arsenall the greatnesse of your treasury that mainteineth your Crowne But that diuine character grauen by the finger of God in the face of the King Prou. 20.8 who sitting vpon the throne chaseth away all euill with his eyes He hauing giuen to your Maiesty in these tender yeares wings to flye ouer peoples which are but as creeping wormes of the earth in comparison of the degree he hath giuen your Maiesty euery good subiect by the yoake imposed of God to his owne conscience Rom. 13. acknowledgeth himselfe bound as I doe to make a vow to remaine for euer without dispensation from such a duty Your Maiesties most humble most obedient and most faithfull subiect and seruant IOHN BEDE Vltima talis erat quae mea prima fides Propert. 20 20. Errata Page 1. in marg read Hieron p. 2. l. 15. read Micrarchie p. 16. l. 16. for they read the p. 21. l. 11. read Papinian p. 36. l. 4. read depose him p. 38. l. 10. for of read ouer p. 49. l. 17. read Remy p. 89. l. 14. for these read their p. 90. l. 7. read in the Church p. 102 l. 18. for man read name p. 117. l. 19. read Luxemburg p. 121. l. 21. read by a Councell p. 141. l. 2. for out of read not in p. 149. l. 18. read these flattrers p. 163. l. 2. for haue read hauing What other litterall faults occurre I entreat the Reader either himselfe to amend or of curtesie to passe ouer The Right and Prerogatiue of Kings CHAP. I. That the Authority of the Prince is from God THE Ancients doe witnesse that France hath a long time ben free from monsters Heiron contra Vigilant statim initio hauing nothing disordered in her inhabitants nor in their manners whereas on the contrary in Affrica ariseth euer ordinaily some nouelty But if we seeke whence the disproportioned propositions handled in these daies doe proceed wee shal find them to be bred in forraigne parts not fruits of home-grouth Such an one is this same maintained by Cardinall Bellarmine whose actions haue (b) Bellum arma minae that is warre armes and threates Bel. lib. 1. de pont c. 7. de clericis ca. 28. reference to his name that the authority of Kings is but of a humane institution Wherein hee doth like those malefactors who going about to excuse their fact diminish the dignity of the person against whom they offended or like men of warre who first batter downe the defences of a place before they giue the assault For if this Doctor said true the attempt of murthering Kings were not so heinous a crime simply transgressing the lawes of men as indeed it is being committed against the commandement of God The falshood of which doctrine that I may the better shew I will vse foure kind of arguments of which the first is taken from nature created of God and considered in her purity wherein are obserued the traces of respect which all creatures beare vnto man to obay him as a Monarch Which naturall instinct notwithstanding the corruption brought in by sinne remaineth still in some creatures which acknowledge a King of their kinde and follow him Secondly seeing that the excellency of man consisteth in this that he was created after the image of his Creator who will doubt but that Empire or rule formed on the patterne of the Soueraigne God is aboue all other kind of command Thirdly the forme of the reasonable indiuiduall man whose head alone commandeth all the members and who in this regard is called Mycrocosmos that is to say a little world is it not a Michrarchie that is to say a little Kingdome well policied And euery one of our housholds commanded and gouerned by one alone doth it not put vs in minde of this order instituted by God Surely none but such as will haue no lawfull familie at home dare deny it For as the father of a familie is in his house so is the King in his Kingdome and for this cause Princes are called by the Prophet Esa 49.23 The nursing Fathers of Gods Church The second order of Arguments is taken from the cōmon sence of al men against which such Doctors do trespasse for the law of superiority is borne with man and continued from the Creation of the world euen vnto vs. God hauing grauen in mans heart as to acknowledge a God-head for respect of religion so also to submit himselfe to the King to maintaine society according to that which the people of God said 1. Sam. 8.20 Our King shall iudge vs and go out before vs and fight our battailes Also Adam was chiefe head of all the men which liued during the 930 yeares that he liued after his creation The Empire of Noah was diuided betweene three Iaphet raigned in Europe Sem in Asia and Cham in Affrica And Nimrod called the mighty Hunter raigned in Babylon from the yeare 130 after the floud For this effect were Moses and Ioshuah established of God who had all the markes of Soueraignty for though the word King be not in so many letters found why shall wee not call them Princes Dukes and Kings seeing they executed the whole function and bare the markes of such And after the creation of the Iudges God cōdemneth not the forme of Monarchicall command as the Aduersaries of Royalty falsely calumniate seeing that he saith Rom. 13.1 There is no power but from God But hee blameth the lightnesse of his people in the change of the order by him established But if the people bee made so
earth Bulla Iulij 3. sess Latran Non Decembris 1512. giueth Law to Temporall powers in Temporall things for there is read a Bull in this same Councell whereby Iulius the second forbiddeth faires to bee kept at Lyons and will haue them bee kept in another Citty ad Gebenensem ciuitatem To conclude hee setteth himselfe aboue the Church which he prostrateth disheuelled at his feete and calleth his seate Babylon of which speaketh Saint Peter in his first Catholicke Epistle 1. Pet. 5. And to the end that in the mouth of two witnesses this truth may bee confirmed I will bring forth yet another Parasite that was Generall of the order of Preachers 2. Sess in Orationem Caietani and had for recompence of his blasphemies a Cardinals hat his wordes may bee thus enterpreted speaking of the Church It shall obtaine if you will and command it if you imitate the power perfection and wisedome of God Almighty whose place on earth you ought to hold not onely in honour of dignity but in affection of will Gird your swords for you haue two one which is vnto you common with other Princes of this world the other which belongeth in such sort vnto you that none can haue it but from you c. Set forwards set forwards happily destroy the nations that desire warre seeing you raigne Priest and King c. And speaking of the mercy of the Pope the same will make you most excellent aboue all the Kings of the earth ergo the Popes mercy is diuine it will make you worthy to be worshipped gracious a friend and most-like vnto God And because we suppose many of quality will come to this Synode by the mercy of God and yours c. Magne regnator Deúm tam lentus audis scelera Senec. Tam lentus vides ec quando saeua fulmen emittes manu CHAP. IX That the Pope exalting himselfe aboue Kings in the manner as Cardinall Bellarmine will haue it exalteth himselfe also aboue all that is called God in Temporall things THE Teachers of nouelties submitting peace and war obedience rebelliō of subiects to the wils of Popes remember not what was in the beginning and that which we haue aboue proued For when the Magistrate hath bene a beleeuer hee hath euer bene aboue the Church to reforme it both in head mēbers being the Guardian to whose trust is committed the Law of God whereof hee is to haue a Copie which is cleere in points necessary to saluation and if there be obscurity in any place it is cleered by the reading of the same Neh. 8. according as Nehemiah practised and of this forme of enterpreting we need none other witnesse then Pope Clemēt who saith that we must not take a sense out of the Scriptures Clem. epist 5. ad discipulos Can. relatum dist 37. c. but must take the sense of truth from the Scriptures and he yeeldeth the reason of it because all men may take from them a full and firme rule of truth And if some Christian Emperours would not take knowledge of Ecclesiasticall causes it followeth not but that they had the authority and right to do it Deut. 17. For not onely the Priests and Leuites which did their duty tooke knowledge of thē but also the Iudge established by the Soueraigne Magistrate So when Ruben and Gad Iosh 22. with the halfe Tribe of Manasses had builded an Altar neere Iordan it is said that all Israell gathered together in Sylo to examine the matter sent ten of the principall of euery tribe vnto thē So Gedeō being established Iudge destroyed the Altar of Baal c. Cyrus Esd 1.16 Neh. 1. Darius Artaxerxes ordaine that the Temple shal be builded againe Esdras Nehemias take cōmission from thē In like maner vnder the Gospel Constantine Valentinian Theodosius assemble Councels We will say they bee present in the Councell after the example of Constantine not to make shew of our power but to confirme the faith c. and it is chiefely said that they which were of the Senate made decrees Cyrill Also Saint Cyrill reporteth that the Councell of Ephesus sent to Theodosius and Valentinian for to render them a reason of what was passed touching the condemnation of Nestorius And the Councels of Aix and of Arles Art 3. In praef Conc. Cub wrote to Charlemaigne praying him to confirme their decrees yea they did beseech him by his wisedome Ca. 45. nō in f. praef mag Can. vtinā 96. distinct Also Pope Nicholas writing to the Emperour Michael acknowledgeth that when there was debating concerning the Articles of faith Emperours were wont to be present in Ecclesiasticall Assemblies According to this power of Emperours vnder the Law of Moses the Church hath bene reformed not in the members onely but also in the head Salomon deposed Abiathar and Moses reproued Aaron and Eleazer Constantius also the sonne of Constantine the great deposed Liberius though without cause The Emperour Otho deposed Pope Iohn the twelfth Plat. in vita Greg. 6. Abbas Vesp an 1406. Sigismond deposed three together at one time and Henry the third as many namely Bennet the ninth Siluester the third and Gregory the sixt The French Kings haue also deposed and created many specially Boniface the eight was displaced by Phillip the Faire who translated the seat to Auignon where it continued 74. yeares and there were resident in that place sixe Popes one succeeding the other by the appointment of the King And this right of deposing Popes is treated of by a certaine Chancellour of the Vniuersitie of Paris Gerson one of the most learned Sorbonists of those times in his booke de Auferibilitate Papae That is farre from being absolute Lords in Spirituall and Temporall things For if euen in Spirituall things lawfull Councels haue required the approbation and authorization of Emperours it followeth that the authority and Soueraignety is wholly theirs velitis iubeatis as in the people of Rome so farre is it off that the Pope or his Colledge can determine any thing soueraignely Also the Kings of France and the Gallicane Church haue preserued to themselues appeales as in case of abuse from such decrees yea so often as Rome abuseth her pretended iurisdiction the Lord Chancellour giueth (a) Can. filijs 17. q. 7. can boni principes 96. dist can Tributum 22. q. 8. letters in case of abuse Now wee must know that wee call notorious abuse (b) L. ob qua §. Idem l. 1. §. sciendum de Aedil edicto when the act that is made is voide when it is against the nature of the act or else made by a man that hath no power (c) Inn. Pan. dd Can. Cum olim de causa possessionis to do it so as that not onely by the authority of the Prince but of priuate (d) L. prohibitum l. defensionis doct de iu. fi li. 10. c.
him was to make warre against God for saith that prodigious murtherer God is the Pope and the Pope is God Further there was found about him a Character with a heart of Cotten hung about his necke hee shewed to the Iesuite D'Aubinie who confessed him and heard his visions of Hosties a knife whereon was grauen a Heart and a Crosse and with what sort of mē were the prisons filled after this fact but with such as were infected with heresies preiudiciable to the State and to the Church I beseech your Maiesty pardon my zeale grounded vpon that I know as one of your faithfull seruants pardon the iust griefe of a subiect passioned against the parricide committed on two of his Kings Giue mee leaue my Lord to shedde true teares for the death of your Royall Father suffer me to lament for my Abimelec Ier. 4.20 of whom I said in my heart I will liue amidst the nations vnder his shadow vnder his Edict by whose benefite seeing I haue permission to speake and write the truth I haue presented it to your owne hands not to renew sorrowes passed but to preuent them that are to come For iudge I beseech you how much it importeth to make apparant vnto your Maiesty that Popes are not Gods that they may erre that they forget themselues against God the King to the end that in discouering the cause of this euill I may leaue vnto your Maiesties wisedome to remedy the same when time and age shall inuite you thereto Meane while till that time of perfect cure doth come these two preseruatiues seeme necessary for the two members which this disease would seize on and corrupt namely Piety and Iustice the Pillars of State For to what end would they cause the prudent Counsell of the Senate to bee despised but because they thinke to ouerthrow the State after the example of Rehoboams new Counsellours What arrogant presumption to censure the Sentences of that great Senate Iudge of the Empire sometime Arbiter of Europe and to what other end do they procure with so great importunity delayes of so holy iudgements And wherefore else hinder they the en-registring of the decrees of the Sorbonne so Canonicall Why do they terrifie and amerce the Preachers that speake the truth Courage ye good and loyall seruants that hide not but vse your Talent Serue God and the King Mat. 15.14 Luk. 19. and you shall enter into the ioy of your Lord For my part which is all I can doe for you I would engraue you in this memorial if your modesty did suffer it and that the hatred to which I expose my selfe were not cōmunicated to you For as for vs 2. Tim. 1.7 God hath not giuen vs the Spirit of feare but of strength and of loue and of a setled mind And if a Souldier for being praised of his Captaine will runne against the points of pikes cast himselfe into the trench and despise the fury of Canons what would a Frenchman Burgesse of the capitall City doe on so high a stage of Europe fighting for the honour of God and the seruice of his King Abeant questus discede timor vitae est auidus quisquis non vult mundo secum pereunte mori Now my Lord letting iustice bee administred as you doe according to her ordinary course your Maiesty shall bee the better serued and shall not incurre enuy in your person not being of age to employ your priuate authority in giuing extraordinary commandements and the Queene shall euer bee better obeyed gouerning herselfe as shee doth by the ancient Lawes of the State and ordinary course of iustice whereas if she let herselfe bee carried away with importunities many inconueniences would ensue For these men get ground of vs and go by degrees hauing bene first refused of all the orders and estates after that receiued with modification and now would driue out them that oppose themselues to their designes And if for the installing of these new Doctors this reason bee found good not to displease him that sendeth them what will not be done vpon this ground must wee renounce the most faithfull confederates of France who haue expelled cast them off neuer to receiue them more into their States and Common-wealthes must wee renew warre against them that acknowledge not this new power and not keepe our faith with them any longer then it shall please that Spirit of discord And if it bee thought vnfit to bring vs to such a misery wherefore do some counsell to repeale the causes Yea rather wee should resist the beginning And because that vnder pretence of maintaining Religion such men slily infect weake soules with maximes against the State The second remedy is taken from the other pillar of the State to wit The Vniuersity Piety that must be aided strengthened in the body of the Vniuersity which is not destitute of learned men as some calumniate This Vniuersity hath bene euer called in France Du Tillet of the liberties of the Church the keeper of the key of Christianity And it was the same that appealed from the Bull of Pope Pius the second and caused their protestations to bee en-registred in the Court of the Chastelet And Maister Iohn de S. Romain the Kings Attorney generall did the same actions as your Maiesty seeth done by your Aduocate generall Maister Sernin a man both learned couragious and incorruptible in iustice and in the seruice of his Prince Out of this Vniuersity King Lewis the twelfth tooke sixe Doctors for Counsellours of Estate It was this Vniuersity that ceased the massaker stirred vp by the Duke of Burgundy proclaimed through the streetes peace good people vnder the raigne of King Charles the sixt Out of this body were taken the sixe Doctors that decided the question now againe brought to be discussed of in Court Whether it be iust to assist the confederates of France against the will of the Pope when Pope Iulius excommunicated Alfonsus Duke of Ferrara whom King Lewis the twelfth assisted by the aduise of the Gallicane Church assembled in Councell at Tours in the month of September Anno. 1510. And although King Henry the Great followed onely the steppes of his Predecessours and the decisions of Catholicke Doctors neuerthelesse wee haue perceiued with an extreme mischiefe the effects of a pernitious doctrine the obstacles they would haue brought against the succour promised to the confederates of the Crowne for remedy whereof it seemeth that the exhortation of the Curates your Maiesties seruants and of the Doctors of Sorbonne will bee very necessary together with the writings of the most learned whom your Maiesty shall please to chuse for although armes bee seemely neere about your Maiesty yet is it no lesse profitable to prepare the affections of the subiects in such sort that armes may bee more for ornament then necessary for the safety of the Prince and that such men may bee employed herein as haue in their mindes an