man who by attempting an act which neuer any man had the heart or face to attempt before hath condemned all his predecessors of cowardise or at least of ignorance what is it else but euen to send vs to the schoole of mighty robbers and to seeke to correct and reforme ancient vertues by late vices Which Otho Frisingensis calling into his owne priuate consideration he durst freely professe that he had not reade of any Emperour before this Henrie the 4. excommunicated or driuen out of his Imperiall Throne and Kingdome by the cheife Bishop of Rome But if this quarrell may bee tryed and fought out with weapons of examples I leaue any indifferent reader to iudge what examples ought in the cause to be of cheifest authoritie and weight whether late examples of Kings deposed by Popes for the most part neuer taking the intended effect or auncient examples of Popes actually and effectually thrust out of their thrones by Emperous and Kings The Emperour Constantius expelled Liberius Bishop of Rome out of the citie banished him as farre as Beroe and placed Foelix in his roome Indeed Constantius was an Arrian and therein vsed no lesse impious then vniust proceeding Neuertheles the auncient Fathers of the Church do not blame Constantius for his hard and sharpe dealing with a cheife Bishop ouer whom he had no lawfull power but onely as an enemie to the Orthodoxe faith and one that raged with extreame rigor of persecution against innocent beleeuers In the raigne of Valentinian the 1. and yeare of the Lord 367. the contention between Damasus and Vrsicinus competitors for the Bishoppricke filled the cittie of Rome with a bloody sedition in which were wickedly and cruelly murdered 137. persons To meete with such turbulent actions Honorius made a law extant in the Decretalls the words whereof be these If it shall happen henceforth by the temeritie of competitors that any two Bishops be elected to the See wee straitly charge and command that neither of both shall sit in the said See By vertue of this Law the same Honorius in the yere 420. expelled Bonifacius and Eulalius competitors and Antipopes out of Rome though not long after he reuoked Bonifacius and settled him in the Papall See Theodoric the Goth King of Italie sent Iohn Bishop of Rome Embassador to the Emperour Iustinian called him home againe and clapt him vp in the close prison where hee starued to death By the same King Peter Bishop of Altine was dispatched to Rome to heare the cause and examine the processe of Pope Symmachus then indited and accused of sundry crimes King Theodatus about the yeare 537. had the seruice of Pope Agapetus as his Embassadour to the Emperour Iustinian vpon a treatie of peace Agapetus dying in the time of that seruicc Syluerius is made Bishop by Theodatus Not long after Syluerius is driuen out by Belisarius the Emperour his Lieutenant and sent into banishment After Syluerius next succeedeth Vigilius who with currant coine purchased the Popedome of Belisarius The Emperour Iustinian sends for Vigilius to Constantinople and receiues him there with great honour Soone after the Emperour takes offence at his freenesse in speaking his mind commands him to be beaten with stripes in manner to death and with a roape about his necke to be drawne through the city like a theife as Platina relates the historie Nicephorus in his 26. booke and 17. chapter comes very neere the same relation The Emperour Constantius in the yere 654. caused Pope Martin to be bound with chains banished him into Chersonesus where he ended his life The Popes in that age writing to the Emperors vsed none but submissiue tearmes by way of most humble supplications made profession of bowing the knee before their sacred Maiesties and of executing their commaunds with entire obedience payed to the Emperours twenty pound weight of gold for their Inuestiture which tribute was afterward released and remitted by Constantine the Bearded to Pope Agatho in the yere 679. as I haue obserued in an other place Nay further euen when the power and riches of the Popes was growne to great height by the most profuse and immense munificence of Charlemayne and Lewis his sonne the Emperours of the West did not relinquish and giue ouer the making and vnmaking of Popes as they saw cause Pope ' Adrian 1. willingly submitted his necke to this yoke and made this Law to be passed in a Council that in Charlemain should rest all right and power for the Popes election and for the gouernement of the Papall See This Constitution is inserted in the Decretals Dist 63. Can. Hadrianus and was confirmed by the practise of many yeeres In the yeare of the L. 963. the Emperour Otho tooke away the Popedom from Iohn 13. and placed Leo 8. in his roome In like manner Iohn 14. Gregorie 5. and Siluester 2. were seated in the Papal Throne by the Othos The Emperour Henrie 2. in the yeere 1007. deposed three Popes namely Benedict 9. Siluester 3. and Gregorie 6. whom Platina doth not sticke to call three most detestable and vile monsters This custome continued this practise stood in force for diuers ages euen vntill the times of Gregorie 7. by whome the whole West was tossed and turmoiled with lamentable warres which plagued the world and the Empire by name with intolerable troubles and mischiefes For after the said Gregorian wars the Empire fell from bad to worse and so went on to decay till Emperours at last were driuen to begge and receiue the Imperiall Crowne of the Pope The Kingdome of France met not with so rude entreatie but was dealt withall by courses of a milder temper Gregorie 4. about the yere of the Lord 832. was the first Pope that perswaded himselfe to vse the censure of Excommunication against a King of France This Pope hauing a hand in the troublesome factions of the Realme was nothing backward to side with the sonnes of Lewis surnamed the Courteous by wicked conspiracy entring into a desperate course and complot against Lewis their owne Father as witnesseth Sigebert in these words Pope Gregorie comming into France ioyned himselfe to the sonnes against the Emperour their Father But Annals of the verie same times and he that furbushed Aimonius a religious of S. Benedicts order do testifie that all the Bishops of France fell vpon this resolution by no meanes to rest in the Popes pleasure or to giue any place vnto his designe and contrariwise In case the Pope should proceed to excommunication of their King he should returne out of Fraunce to Rome an excommunicate person himself The Chronicle of S. Denis hath words in this forme The Lord Apostolicall returned answer that he was not come into Fraunce for any other purpose but onely to excommunicate the King and his Bishops if they would be in any sort opposite vnto the sonnes of Lewis or disobedient vnto the
Then for King-deposers he frames this answer That by heresie they vnderstand notorious heresie and formerly condemned by sentence of the Church Moreouer in case the Pope hath erred in the fact it is the Clergies part adhering to their King to make remonstrances vnto the Pope and to require the cause may be referred to the iudgement of a full Councill the French Church then and there beeing present Now in this answer the L. Cardinall is of an other minde then Bellarmine his brother Cardinall For he goes thus farre That a Prince condemned by vniust sentence of the Pope ought neuertheles to quit his Kingdome and that his Pastors vniust sentence shall not redound to his detriment prouided that he giue way to the said sentence and shew himselfe not refractarie but stay the time in patience vntill the holy Father shall renounce his error and reuoke his foresaid vniust sentence In which case these two materiall points are to be presupposed The one That he who now hath seized the Kingdome of the Prince displaced will forthwith if the Pope shall solicite and intercede return the Kingdome to the hand of the late possessor The other That in the interim the Prince vniustly deposed shall not neede to feare the bloodie murderers mercilesse blade and weapon But on the other side the Popes power of so large a size as Bellarmine hath shaped is no whit pleasing to the L. Cardinals eie For in case the King should be vniustly deposed by the Pope not well informed he is not of the mind the Kingdome should stoope to the Popes behests but will rather haue the Kingdom to deale by remonstrance and to referre the cause vnto the Council Wherein hee makes the Council to be of more absolute and supreame authoritie then the Pope a straine to which the holy Father will neuer lend his eare And yet doubtles the Councill required in this case must be vniuersall wherein the French for so much as they stand firme for their King and his cause can be no Iudges and in that regard the L. Cardinal requireth onely the presence of the French Church Who seeth not here into what pickle the French cause is brought by this meanes The Bishops of Italie forsooth of Spaine of Sicilie of Germany the subiects of Soueraignes many times at professed or priuy enmitie with France shall haue the cause compromitted referred to their iudgment whether the Kingdome of France shall driue out her Kings and shall kindle the flames of seditious troubles in the very heart and bowels of the Realme But is it not possible that a King may lacke the loue of his owne subiects and they taking the vantage of that occasion may put him to his trumps in his owne Kingdome Is it not possible that calumniations whereby a credulous Pope hath beene seduced may in like manner deceiue some great part of a credulous people Is it not possible that one part of the people may cleaue to the Popes faction an other may hold and stand out for the Kings rightfull cause and ciuil warres may be kindled by the splene of these two sides Is it not possible that his Holinesse will not rest in the remonstrances of the French will yet further pursue his cause And whereas nowe a dayes a Generall Councill cannot be held except it bee called and assembled by the Popes authority is it credible the Pope will take order for the conuocation of a Council by whom he shall be iudged And how can the Pope be President in a Council where himselfe is the partie impleaded and to whom the sifting of his owne sentence is referred as it were to committies to examine whether it was denounced according to Law or against Iustice But in the meane time whilest all these remonstrances and addresses of the Council are on foote behold the Royall Maiesty of the King hangeth as it were by loose gimmals and must stay the iudgement of the Council to whom it is referred Well what if the Councill should happe to be two or three yeeres in assembling and to continue or hold eighteene yeeres like the Council of Trent should not poore France I beseech you be reduced to a very bad plight should shee not be in a very wise and warme taking To be short His Lordships whole speech for the vntying of this knot not onely surmounteth possibility but is stuft with ridiculous toyes This I make manifest by his addition in the same passage If the Pope deceiued in fact shal rashly and vniustly declare the King to be an heretike then the Popes declaration shal not be seconded with actuall deposition vnles the Realme shall consent vnto the Kings deposing What needes any man to be instructed in this doctrine Who doth not knowe that a King so long as he is vpheld and maintained in his Kingdome by his people cannot actually and effectually bee deposed from his Throne Hee that speaketh such language and phrase in effect saith and saith no more then this A King is neuer depriued of his Crowne so long as he can keep his Crowne on his head a King is neuer turn'd and stript naked so long as hee can keepe his cloathes on his backe a King is neuer deposed so long as he can make the stronger partie and side against his enemies in breife a King is King and shal stil remaine King so long as he can hold the possession of his Kingdome and sit fast in his Chaire of Estate Howbeit let vs here by the way take notice of these words vttered by his Lordship That for the deposing of a King the consent of the people must be obtained For by these words the people are exalted aboue the King and are made the Iudges of the Kings deposing But here is yet a greater matter For that Popes may erre in faith it is acknowledged by Popes themselues For some of them haue condemned Pope Honorius for a Monothelite S. Hierome and S. Hilarius and S. Athanasius doe testifie that Pope Liberius started aside and subscribed to Arrianisme Pope Iohn 23. was condemned in the Council of Constance for maintaining there is neither hell nor heauen Diuerse other Popes haue been tainted with error in faith If therefore any Pope hereticall in himselfe shall depose an Orthodoxe King for heresie can it be imagined that he which boasts himselfe to beare all diuine and humane lawes in the priuy coffer or casket of his breast will stoope to the remonstrances of the French and vayle to the reasons which they shall propound though neuer so iustifiable and of neuer so great validitie And how can he that may be infected with damnable heresie when himselfe is not alwaies free from heresie be a iudge of heresie in a King In this question some are of opinion that as a man the Pope may fall into error but not as Pope Very good I demand then vpon the matter wherefore the Pope doth not instruct and reforme the man or
A REMONSTRANCE OF THE MOST GRATIOVS KING IAMES I. KING OF GREAT BRITTAINE FRANCE and IRELAND Defender of the Faith c. FOR THE RIGHT OF KINGS AND THE independance of their Crownes AGAINST AN ORATION OF the most Illustrious Card. of PERRON pronounced in the Chamber of the third Estate Ian. 15. 1615. Translated out of his Maiesties French Copie PRINTED BY CANTRELL LEGGE Printer to the Vniuersitie of Cambridge 1616. THE PREFACE I Haue no humour to play the Curious in a forraine Common-wealth or vnrequested to carrie any hand in my neighbours affaires It hath more congruitie with Royall dignity wherof God hath giuen me the honour to prescribe Lawes at home for my Subiects rather then to furnish forraine Kingdoms and people with counsels Howbeit my late entire affection to K. Henrie IV. of happy memorie my most honoured brother and my exceeding sorrow for the most detestable parricide acted vpon the sacred person of a King so complete in all heroicall and Princely vertues as also the remembrance of my owne dangers incurred by the practise of conspiracies flowing from the same source hath wrought me to sympathize with my friends in their grieuous occurrents no doubt so much more daungerous as they are lesse apprehended and felt of Kings themselues euen when the danger hangeth ouer their owne heads Vpon whome in case the power and vertue of my aduertisments be not able effectually to worke at least many millions of children and people yet vnborne shall beare me witnes that in these daungers of the highest nature and straine I haue not bin defectiue and that neither the subuersions of States nor the murthers of Kings which may vnhappily betide hereafter shal haue so free passage in the world for want of timely aduertisment before For touching my particular my rest is vp that one of the maynes for which God hath advanced me vpon the loftie stage of the supreme Throne is that my words vttered from so eminent a place for Gods honour most shamefully traduced and vilified in his owne Deputies and Lieutenants might with greater facilitie be conceiued Now touching France faire was the hope which I conceiued of the States assembled in Parliament at Paris That calling to minde the murthers of their Noble Kings and the warres of the League which followed the Popes fulminations as when a great storme of haile powreth down after a thunder-cracke and a world of writings addressed to iustifie the parricides the dethronings of Kings would haue ioyned heads hearts and hands together to hammer out some apt and wholsome remedie against so many fearefull attempts and practises To my hope was added no little ioy when I was giuen to vnderstand the third Estate had preferred an Article or Bill the tenor and substance whereof was concerning the meanes whereby the people might be vnwitched of this pernicious opinion That Popes may tosse the French King his Throne like a tennis ball and that killing of Kings is an act meritorious to the purchase of the crowne of Martyrdome But in fine the proiect was encountred with successe cleane contrary to expectation For this Article of the third Estate like a sigh of libertie breathing her last serued only so much the more to inthrall the Crowne and to make the bondage more grieuous and sensible then before Euen as those medicines which worke no ease to the patient doe leaue the disease in much worse tearmes so this remedie inuented and tendred by the third Estate did onely exasperate the present maladie of the State for so much as the operation and vertue of the wholesome remedie was ouermatched with peccant humours then stirred by the force of thwarting and crossing opposition Yea much better had it beene the matter had not beene stirred at all then after it was once on foote and in motion to giue the Truth leaue to lie gasping and sprawling vnder the violence of a forraine faction For the opinion by which the Crownes of Kings are made subiect vnto the Popes will and power was then avowed in a most Honourable Assemblie by the averment of a Prelate in great authoritie and of no lesse learning He did not plead the cause as a priuate person but as one by representation that stood for the whole bodie of the Clergie Was there applauded and seconded with approbation of the Nobilitie No resolution taken to the contrarie or in barre to his plea. After praises and thankes from the Pope followed the printing of his eloquent harangue or Oration made in full Parliament a set discourse maintaining Kings to be deposeable by the Pope if he speake the word The saide Oration was not onely printed with the Kings priuiledge but was likewise addressed to me by the author and Orator himselfe who presupposed the reading thereof would forsooth driue me to say Lord Cardinall in this high subiect your Honour hath satisfied me to the full All this poysed in the ballance of equall iudgement why may not I truly and freely affirme the said Estates assembled in Parliament haue set Royall Maiestie vpon a doubtfull chance or left it resting vpon vncertain tearmes and that now if the doctrine there maintained by the Clergie should beare any pawme it may lawfully be doubted who is King in France For I make no question he is but a titular King that raigneth onely at an others discretion and whose Princely head the Pope hath power to bare of his Regall Crowne In temporall matters how can one be Soveraigne that may be fleeced of all his temporalties by any superiour power But let men at a neere sight marke the pith and marrowe of the Article proposed by the third Estate and they shall soone perceiue the skilfull Architects thereof aymed onely to make their King a true and reall King to be recognised for Soueraigne within his own Realme and that killing their King might no longer passe the muster of works acceptable to God But by the vehement instance and strong current of the Clergie and Nobles this was borne down as a pernicious Article as a cause of schisme as a gate which openeth to all sorts of heresies yea there it was maintained tooth and nayle that in case the doctrine of this Article might go for currant doctrine it must follow that for many ages past in sequence the Church hath bin the kingdome of Antechrist and the synagogue of Satan The Pope vpon so good issue of the cause had reason I trow to addresse his letters of triumph vnto the Nobilitie and Clergie who had so farre approoued themselues faithfull to his Holines and to vaunt withall that he had nipped Christian Kings in the Crowne that he had giuen them checke with mate through the magnanimous resolution of this couragious Nobilitie by whose braue making head the third Estate had bin so valiantly forced to giue ground In a scornefull reproach he qualified the Deputies of the third Estate nebulones ex foece plebis a sort or a number of knaues the very dregges
with a disputable question but likewise in stead of securing the life and estate of Kings hee shall draw both into farre greater hazards by the trayne or sequence of warres and other calamities which vsually waite and attend on schismes The L. Cardinall spends his whole discourse in confirmation of these foure heads which we now intend to sift in order and demonstratiuely to prooue that all the said inconueniences are meere nullities matters of imagination and built vpon false presuppositions But before we come to the maine the reader is to be informed and aduertised that his Lordship setteth a false glosse vpon the question and propounds the case not onely contrary to the truth of the subiect in controuersie but also to the Popes owne minde and meaning For he restrains the Popes power to depose Kings onely to cases of heresie Apostasie and persecuting of the Church whereas Popes extend their power to a further distance They depose Princes for infringing or in any sort diminishing the priuiledges of Monasteries witnesse Gregorie the first in the pretended charter graunted to the Abbay of S. Medard at Soissons the said charter beeing annexed to his Epistles in the rere The same he testifieth in his Epistle to Senator by name the 10. of the eleuenth booke They depose for naturall dulnesse and lacke of capacitie whether inbred and true indeed or onely pretended and imagined witnesse the glorious vaunt of Gregorie VII that Childeric King of France was hoysted out of his Throne by Pope Zacharie Not so much for his wicked life as for his vnablenes to beare the weightie burden of so great a Kingdome They depose for collating of Benefices and Prebends witnesse the great quarrells and sore contentions between Pope Innocent III. and Iohn King of England as also betweene Philip the Faire and Boniface VIII They depose for adulteries and matrimoniall suites witnesse Philip. 1. for the repudiating or casting off his lawfull wife Bertha and marrying in her place with Bertrade wife to the Earle of Aniou Finally faine would I learne into what heresie or degree of Apostasie either Henrie IV. or Freder Barbarossa or Frederic 2. Emperours were fallen when they were smitten with Papall fulminations euen to the depriuation of their Imperiall Thrones What was it for heresie or Apostasie that Pope Martin IV. bare so hard a hand against Peter King of Arragon that he acquitted and released the Arragonnois from their oath of allegiance to Peter their lawfull King Was it for heresie or Apostasie for Arrianisme or Mahumetisme that Lewis XII so good a King and Father of his Countrey was put downe by Iulius the II Was it for heresie or Apostasie that Sixtus 5. vsurped a power against Henrie III. euen so farre as to denounce him vn-kingd the issue whereof was the parricide of that good King and the most wofull desolation of a most flourishing Kingdome But his Lordship best liked to worke vpon that ground which to the outward shew appearance is the most beautifull cause that can be alledged for the dishonouring of Kings by the weapon of deposition making himselfe to beleeue that he acted the part of an Orator before personages not much acquainted with auncient and moderne histories and such as little vnderstood the state of the question then in hand It had therefore beene a good warrant for his Lordship to haue brought some authentical instrument from the Pope whereby the French might haue beene secured that his Holinesse renounceth all other causes auouchable for the degrading of Kings and that he will henceforth rest in the case of heresie for the turning of Kings out of their free-hold as also that his Holinesse by the same or like instrument might haue certified his pleasure that he will not hereafter make himselfe iudge whether Kings be tainted with damnable heresie or free from hereticall infection For that were to make himselfe both iudge and plaintiffe that it might be in his power to call that doctrine heretical which is pure orthodoxe and all for this ende to make himselfe master of the Kingdome and there to settle a Successor who receiuing the Crowne of the Popes free gift and graunt might be tyed thereby to depend altogether vpon his Holines Hath not Pope Boniface VIII declared in his proud letters all those to be heretickes that dare vndertake to affirme the collating of Prebends appertaineth to the King It was that Popes grosse error not in the fact but in the right The like crime forsooth was by Popes imputed to the vnhappie Emperour Henrie IV. And what was the issue of the said imputation The sonne is instigated thereby to rebell against his father and to impeach the interment of his dead corps who neuer in his life had beate his braines to trouble the sweet waters of Theologicall fountaines It is recorded by Auentine that Bishop Virgilius was declared heretique for teaching the position of Antipodes The Bull Exurge marching in the rere of the last Lateran Council sets downe this position for one of Luthers heresies A new life is the best repentance Among the crimes which the Council of Constance charged Pope Iohn XXIII withall one was this that hee denied the immortalitie of the soule and that so much was publiquely manifestly and notoriously knowne Now if the Pope shall bee carried by the streame of these or the like errors and in his hereticall prauitie shall depose a King of the contrary opinion I shall hardly bee perswaded the said King is lawfully deposed The first Inconvenience examined THE first inconuenience growing in the Cardinall his conceit by entertaining the Article of the third Estate whereby the Kings of France are declared to be indeposeable by any superiour power spirituall or temporall is this It offereth force to the conscience vnder the penaltie of Anathema to condemne a doctrine beleeued and practised in the Church in the continuall current of the last eleuen hundred yeares In these words he maketh a secret confession that in the first fiue hundred yeeres the same doctrin was neither apprehended by faith nor approoued by practise Wherein to my vnderstanding the L. Cardinall voluntarily giueth ouer the suite For the Church in the time of the Apostles their disciples and successors for 500. yeares together was no more ignorant what authoritie the Church is to challenge ouer Emperours and Kings then at any time since in any succeeding age in which as pride hath still flowed to the height of a full Sea so puritie of religion and manners hath kept for the most part at a lowe water-marke Which point is the rather to be considered for that during the first 500. yeres the Church groned vnder the heauy burthen both of heathen Emperours and of hereticall Kings the Visigot Kings in Spaine and the Vandals in Affrica Of whose displeasure the Pope had small reason or cause to stand in any feare beeing so remote from their dominions and no way vnder the lee of
an excommunicatorie Bull into Fraunce against Charles the King and all his Princes The Vniuersitie of Paris made request or motion that his Bull might be mangled and Pope Benedict himselfe by some called Petrus de Luna might be declared heretike schismatike and perturber of the peace The said Bull was mangled and rent in pieces according to the petition of the Vniuersity by Decree of Court vpon the 10. of Iune 1408. Tenne dayes after the Court rising at eleuen in the morning two Bul-bearers of the said excōmuncaitorie censure vnderwent ignominious punishment vpon the Palace or great Hall stayres From thence were lead to the Lovure in such manner as they had beene brought from thence before drawen in two tumbrells cladde in coates of painted linnen wore paper-mytres on their heads were proclaimed with sound of trumpet and euery where disgraced with publike derision So little reckoning was made of the Popes thundering canons in those daies And what would they haue done if the said Buls had imported sentence of deposition against King Charles The French Church assembled at Tours in the yeere 1510. decreed that Lewis XII might with safe conscience contemne the abusiue Bulls and vniust censures of Pope Julius the II. and by armes might withstand the Popes vsurpations in case hee should proceed to excommunicate or depose the King More by a Council holden at Pisa this Lewis declared the Pope to be fallen from the Popedome and coyned crowns with a stamp of this inscription I wil destroy the name of Babylon To this the L. of Perron makes answer that all this was done by the French as acknowledging these iars to haue sprung not from the fountaine of Religion but from passion of state Wherin he condemneth Pope Iulius for giuing so great scope vnto his publike censures as to serue his ambition and not rather to aduance Religion Hee secretly teacheth vs besides that when the Pope vndertakes to depose the King of France then the French are to sit as Iudges concerning the lawfulnesse or vnlawfulnesse of the cause and in case they shall finde the cause to be vnlawfull then to disannull his iudgements and to scoffe at his thunderbolts Iohn d' Albret King of Nauarre whose Realme was giuen by the foresaid Pope to Ferdinand King of Arragon was also wrapped and entangled with strict bands of deposition Now if the French had been touched with no better feeling of affection to their King then the subiects of Nauarre were to the Nauarrois doubtlesse France had sought a newe Lord by vertue of the Popes as the L. Cardinal himselfe doth acknowledge and confesse vniust sentence But behold to make the said sentence against Iohn d' Albret seeme the lesse contrary to equity the L. Cardinal pretends the Popes donation was not indeede the principall cause howsoeuer Ferdinand himselfe made it his pretence But his Lor. giues this for the principall cause that Iohn d' Albret had quitted his alliance made with condition that in case the Kings of Nauarre should infringe the said alliance and breake the league then the Kingdome of Nauarre should returne to the Crowne of Arragon This condition between Kings neuer made and without all shew of probabilitie serueth to none other purpose from the Cardinals mouth but onely to insinuate and worke a perrswasion in his King that he hath no right nor lawfull pretension to the Crowne of Nauarre and whatsoeuer hee nowe holdeth in the said Kingdome of Nauarre is none of his owne but by vsurpation and vnlawfull possession Thus his Lordshippe French-borne makes himselfe an Aduocate for the Spanish King against his owne King and King of the French who shall bee faine as he ought if this Aduocats plea may take place to draw his title and style of King of Nauarre out of his Royall titles and to acknowledge that all the great endeauours of his predecessors to recouer the said Kingdome were dishonourable and vniust Is it possible that in the very heart and head Citie of France a spirit tongue so licentious can be brooked What shall so great blasphemy as it were of the Kings freehold be powred forth in so honourable an assembly without punishment or fyne what without any contradiction for the Kings right and on the Kings behalfe I may perhaps confesse the indignitie might bee the better borne and the pretence aledged might passe for a poore excuse if it serued his purpose neuer so little For how doth all this touch or come neere the question in which the Popes vsurpation in the deposing of Kings and the resolution of the French in resisting this tyrannicall practise is the proper issue of the cause both which points are neuer a whit more of the lesse consequence and importance howsoeuer Ferdinand in his owne iustification stood vpon the foresaid pretence Thus much is confessed and we aske no more Pope Iulius tooke the Kingdome from the one and gaue it vnto the other the French thereupon resisted the Pope and declared him to bee fallen from the Papacie This noble spirit and courage of the French in maintaining the dignitie and honour of their Kings Crownes bredde those auncient customes which in the sequence of many ages haue beene obserued and kept in vse This for one That no Legate of the Pope nor any of his rescripts nor mandates are admitted and receiued in France without licence from the King and vnlesse the Legate impart his faculties to the Kings Atturney Generall to be perused and verified in Court of Parliament where they are to be tyed by certaine modifications restrictions vnto such points as are not derogatorie from the Kings right from the liberties of the Church and from the ordinances of the Kingdome When Cardinal Balva contrary to this ancient forme entred France in the yeare 1484. and there without leaue of the King did execute the Office and speed certaine Acts of the Popes Legat the Court vpon motion made by the Kings Atturney Generall decreed a Commission to be informed against him by two Councellors of the said Court and inhibited his further proceeding to vse any faculty or power of the Popes Legate vpon paine of beeing proclaimed rebell In the yeare 1561. Iohannes Tanquerellus Batchelor in Diuinitie by order of the Court was condemned to make open confession that hee had indiscreetly and rashly without consideration defended this proposition The Pope is the Vicar of Christ a Monarke that hath power both spirituall and secular and he may depriue Princes which rebel against his cōmandements of their dignities Which proposition howsoeuer he protested that he had propounded the same onely to be argued and not iudicially to be determined in the affirmatiue Tanquerellus neuerthelesse was compelled openly to recant Here the L. Cardinal answers The historie of Tanquerellus is from the matter because his proposition treateth neither of heresie nor of infidelitie but I answer the said proposition treateth of both for as much as
it maketh mention of disobedience to the Pope For I suppose he will not deny that whosoeuer shall stand out in heresie contrary to the Popes monitorie proceedings hee shall shewe but poore and simple obedience to the Pope Moreouer the case is cleare by the former examples that no Pope will suffer his power to cast downe Kings to bee restrained vnto the cause of heresie and infidelitie In the heate of the last warres raised by that holy-prophane League admonitory Buls were sent by Pope Gregory 14. from Rome Anno 1591. By these Bulls King Henry 4. as an heretike and relaps was declared incapable of the Crowne of France and his Kingdome was exposed to hauock and spoile The Court of Parliament beeing assembled at Tours the 5. of August decreed the said admonitorie Bulls to bee cancelled torne in peices and cast into a great fire by the hand of the publike executioner The Arrest it selfe or Decree is of this tenor The Court duely pondering and approouing the concluding and vnanswearable reasons of the Kings Atturney General hath declared and by these present doth declare the admonitorie Bulls giuen at Rome the 1. of March 1591. to be of no validitie abusiue seditious damnable full of impietie and impostures contrarie to the holie decrees rights franchises and liberties of the French Church doth ordaine the Copies of the said Bulls sealed with the seale of Marsilius Landrianus and signed Septilius Lamprius to be rent in peices by the publike executioner and by him to be burnt in a great fire to be made for such purpose before the great gates of the common Hall or Palace c. Then euen then the L. of Perron was firme for the better part and stood for his King against Gregorie the Pope notwithstanding the crime of heresie pretended against Henrie his Lord. All the former examples by vs alleadged are drawne out of the times after Schooles of Diuinitie were established in France For I thought good to bound my selfe within those dooles and limits of time which the L. Card. himselfe hath set Who goeth not sincerely to worke and in good earnest where he telleth vs there bee three instances as if we had no more obiected against Papall power to remooue Kings out of their chaires of State by name the example of Philip the Faire of Lewis XII and of Tanquerellus For in very truth all the former examples by vs produced are no lesse pregnant and euident howsoeuer the L. Cardinal hath beene pleased to conceale them all for feare of hurting his cause Nay France euen in the dayes of her sorest seruitude was neuer vnfurnished of great Diuines by whom this vsurped pow-of the Pope ouer the Temporalties and Crownes of Kings hath been vtterly misliked and condemned Robert Earle of Flanders was commanded by Pope Paschall 2. to persecute with fire and sword the Clergie of Leige who then adhered and stood to the cause of the Emperour Henry 4. whom the Pope had ignominiously deposed Robert by the Popes order and command was to handle the Clergie of Leige in like sort as before he had serued the Clergy of Cambray who by the said Earle had beene cruelly stript both of goods and life The Pope promised the said Earle and his army pardon of their sinnes for the said execution The Clergie of Leige addressed answer to the Pope at large They cried out vpon the Church of Rome and called her Babylon Told the Pope home that God hath commanded to giue vnto Cesar that which is Cesars that euery soule must be subiect vnto the superiour powers that no man is exempted out of this precept and that euery oath of allegiance is to be kept inuiolable yea that hereof they themselues are not ignorant in as much as they by a new schism and newe traditions making a separation and rent of the priesthood from the Kingdome doe promise to absolue of periurie such as haue perfidiously forsworne themselues against their King And whereas by way of despight and in opprobrious manner they were excommunicated by the Pope they gaue his Holines to vnderstand that Dauids heart had vttered a good matter but Paschals heart had spewed vp sordid and railing words like old baudes and spinsters or websters of linnen when they scold and brawle one with an other Finally they reiected his Papall excommunication as a sentence giuen without discretion This was the voice and free speech of that Clergie in the life time of their noble Emperour But after he was thrust out of the Empire by the rebellion of his owne sonne instigated and stirred vp thereunto by the Popes perswasion and practise and was brought vnto a miserable death it is no matter of wonder that for the safegard of their life the said Clergie were driuen to sue vnto the Pope for their pardon Hildebert Bishop of Caenomanum vpon the riuer of Sartre liuing vnder the raigne of King Philip the first affirmeth in his Epistles 40. and 75. that Kings are to be admonished and instructed rather then punished to be dealt with by counsell rather then by commaund by doctrine and instruction rather then by correction For no such sword belongeth to the Church because the sword of the Church is Ecclesiasticall discipline and nothing else Bernard writeth to Pope Eugenius after this manner Whosoeuer they be that are of this mind and opinion shal neuer be able to make proofe that any one of the Apostles did euer sit in qualitie of Iudge or Diuider of lands I reade where they haue stood to be iudged but neuer where they sate downe to giue iudgement Againe Your authoritie stretcheth vnto crimes not vnto possessions because you haue receiued the keies of the kingdome of heauen not in regard of possessions but of crimes to keepe all that pleade by couin or collusion and not lawfull possessors out of the heauenly kingdome A little after These base things of the earth are iudged by the Kings and Princes of this world wherefore doe you thrust your sickle into an others haruest wherefore doe you incraach and intrude vpon an others limits Elsewhere The Apostles are directly forbid to make themselues Lords and rulers Goe thou then and beeing a Lord vsurpe Apostleship or beeing an Apostle vsurpe Lordship If thou needes wilt haue both doubtlesse thou shalt haue neither Iohannes Maior Doctor of Paris The Soueraigne Bishop hath no temporall authoritie ouer Kings The reason Because it followes the contrarie being once granted that Kings are the Popes vassals Now let other men iudge whether hee that hath power to dipossesse Kings of all their Temporalties hath not likewise authoritie ouer their Temporalties The same Author The Pope hath no manner of title ouer the French or Spanish Kings in temporall matters Where it is further added That Pope Innocent 3. hath beene pleased to testifie that Kings of France in Temporall causes doe acknowledge no superiour For so the Pope excused himselfe to a certaine Lord of Montpellier
the bodie of the Article In which place let it be narrowly examined Thomas will easily be found to speake not of the subiection of beleeuing subiects vnder Infidel Kings as the Lord Cardinall pretendeth but of beleeuing seruants that liue vnder Masters whether Iewes or Infidels As when a Iew keepeth seruants which professe Iesus Christ or as when some of the faithfull kept in Caesars house who are not considered by Thomas as they were subiects of the Empire but as they were seruants of the family The other place is taken out of Quest 11. and 2. art in the body of the article where no such matter as the L. Cardinal alledgeth can be found With like fidelitie he taketh Gerson in hand who indeed in his booke of Ecclesiasticall power and 12. Consider doth affirme When the abuse of secular power redoundeth to manifest impugning of the faith and blaspheming of the Creator then shall it not bee amisse to haue recourse vnto the last branch of this 12. Consider where in such case as aforesaid a certain regitiue directiue regulatiue and ordinatiue authoritie is committed to the Ecclesiasticall power His very words which make no mention at all of deposing or of any compulsiue power ouer Soueraigne Princes For that forme of rule and gouernement whereof Gerson speaketh is exercised by Ecclesiasticall censures excommunications not by losse of goods of Kingdoms or of Empires This place then is wrested by the L. Cardinall to a contrary sense Neither should his Lordship haue omitted that Gerson in the question of Kings subiection in Temporall matters or of the dependance of their Crowns vpon the Popes power excepteth alwaies the King of France witnesse that which Gerson a little before the place alleadged by the Cardinal hath plainely affirmed Now since Peters time saith Gerson all Imperiall Regall and Secular power is not immediately to drawe vertue and strength from the Soueraigne Bishop as in this manner the most Christian King of France hath no Superiour nor acknowledgeth any such vpon the face of the earth Now here need no great sharpenes of wit for the searching out of this deepe mysterie that if the Pope hath power to giue or take away Crownes for any cause or any pretended occasion whatsoeuer the Crowne of France must needs depend vpon the Pope But for as much as we are now hitte in with Gerson we will examine the L. Cardinals allegations towards the ende of his Oration taken out of Gersons famous Oration made before Charles 6. for the Vniuersitie of Paris where he brings in Gerson to affirme That killing a Tyrant is a sacrifice acceptable to God But Gerson let it be diligently noted there speaketh not in his owne person hee there brings in sedition speaking the words Of which words vttered by sedition and other like speeches you shall now heare what iudgement Gerson himselfe hath giuen When sedition had spoken with such a furious voice I turned away my face as if I had beene smitten with death to shew that I was not able to endure her madnesse any longer And indeede when dissimulation on the one side and sedition on the other had suggested the deuises of two contrary extremes he brings forth Discretion as a Iudge keeping the meane betweene both extreames and vttering those words which the L. Cardinall alleadgeth against himselfe If the head saith Gerson or some other member of the ciuill body should grow to so desperate a passe that it would gulpe and swallowe downe the deadly poison of tyrannie euery member in his place with all power possible for him to raise by expedient meanes and such as might preuent a greater inconuenience should set himselfe against so madde a purpose and so deadly practise For if the head be grieued with some light paine it is not fit for the hand to smite the head no that were but a foolish and a madde part Nor is the hand forthwith to chop off or separate the head from the bodie but rather to cure the head with good speach and other meanes like a skilfull and wise Physitian Yea nothing would be more cruell or more voide of reason then to seeke to stoppe the strong and violent streame of tyranny by sedition These words me thinke doe make verie strongly and expressely against butchering euen of Tyrannicall Kings And whereas a little after the said passage he teacheth to expell Tyrannie he hath not a word of expelling the Tyrant but onely of breaking and shaking off the yoke of Tyranny Yet for all that hee would not haue the remedies for the repressing of Tyrannie to bee fetcht from the Pope who presumeth to degrade Kings but from Philosophers Lawyers Diuines and personages of good conuersation It appeareth now by all that hath been said before that whereas Gerson in the 7 Considerat against Flatterers doth affirme Whensoeuer the Prince doth manifestly pursue and prosecute his naturall subiects and shew himselfe obstinately bent with notorious iniustice to vexe them of set purpose and with full consent so farre as to the fact then this rule and law of Nature doth take place It is lawfull to resist and repell force by force and that sentence of Seneca There is no sacrifice more acceptable to God then a Tyrant offered in sacrifice the words Doth take place are so to be vnderstood as hee speaketh in an other passage to wit with or amongst seditious persons Or else the words doth take place doe onely signifie is put in practise And so Gerson there speaketh not as out of his owne iudgement His Lordshippe also should not haue balked and left out Sigebertus who with more reason might haue passed for French then Thomas and Occam whom he putteth vpon vs for French Sigebertus in his Chronicle vpon the yere 1088. speaking of the Emperours deposing by the Pope hath words of this tenor This heresie was not crept out of the shell in those dayes that his Priests who hath said to the King Apostata and maketh an hypocrite to rule for the sinnes of the people should teach the people they owe no subiection vnto wicked Kings nor any allegiance notwithstanding they haue taken the oath of allegiance Now after the L. Card. hath coursed in this manner through the histories of the last ages which in case they all made for his purpose doe lacke the weight of authority in stead of searching the will of God in the sacred Oracles of his word and standing vpon examples of the ancient Church at last leauing the troope of his owne allegations he betakes himselfe to the sharpening and rebating of the points of his aduersaries weapons For the purpose he brings in his aduersaries the champions of Kings Crownes and makes them to speake out of his owne mouth for his L. saith it will be obiected after this manner Jt may come to passe that Popes either carried with passion or misledde by sinister information may without iust cause fasten vpon Kings the imputation of heresie or apostasie
Churches vnder a Prince of contrary religion And if things without life or soule are with lesse danger left in an heretikes hands why then shall not an hereticall King with more facilitie and lesse danger keep his Crown his Royall charge his lands his customes his imposts c. For will any man except he bee out of his wits affirme these things to haue any life or soule Or why shall it be counted follie to leaue a sword in the hand of a mad Bedlam Is not a sword also without life and soule For my part I should rather be of this minde that possession of things without reason is more dangerous and pernicious in the hands of an euill Master then the possession of things indued with life and reason For things without life lacke both reason and iudgement how to exempt and free themselues from being instruments in euill and wicked actions from beeing emploied to vngodly and abhominable vses I will not deny that an hereticall Prince is a plague a pernicious and mortal sicknes to the soules of his subiects But a breach made by one mischiefe must not be filled vp with a greater inconuenience An errour must not be shocked and shouldered with disloialtie nor heresie with periurie nor impietie with sedition and armed rebellion against God and the King God who vseth to try and to schoole his Church will neuer forsake his Church nor hath need to protect his Church by any proditorious and prodigious practises of perfidious Christians For hee makes his Church to be like the burning bush In the middest of the fire and flames of persecutions he will prouide that she shall not bee consumed because he standeth in the midst of his Church And suppose there may bee some iust cause for the French to play the rebels against their King yet will it not follow that such rebellious motions are to be raised by the bellowes of the Romane Bishop to whose Pastorall charge and office it is nothing proper to intermeddle in the ciuill affaires of forraine Kingdomes Here is the summe and substance of the L. Cardinals whole discourse touching his pretence of the second inconuenience Which discourse he hath closed with a remarkeable confession to wit that neither by the authoritie of holy Scripture nor by the testimony and verdict of the Primitiue Church there hath beene any full decision of this question In regard whereof he falleth into admiration that Lay-people haue gone so farre in audaciousnesse as to labour that a doubtfull doctrine might for euer passe currant and be taken for a newe article of faith What a shame what a reproach is this how full of scandall for so his Lordship is pleased to cry out This breakes into the seueralls and inclosures of the Church this lets in whole herds of heresies to grase in her green and sweet pastures On the other side without any such Rhetoricall outcries I simply affirme It is a reproach a scandall a crime of rebellion for a subiect hauing his full charge and loade of benefits in the newe spring of his Kings tender age his King-fathers blood yet reeking and vpon the point of an addresse for a double match with Spaine in so honourable an assembly to seek the thraldome of his Kings Crown to play the captious in cauilling about causes of his Kings deposing to giue his former life the lie with shame enough in his olde age and to make himselfe a common by-word vnder the name of a Problematicall Martyr one that offers himselfe to fagot and fire for a point of doctrine but problematically handled that is distrustfully and onely by way of doubtfull and questionable discourse yea for a point of doctrine in which the French as he pretendeth are permitted to thwart and crosse his Holines in iudgement prouided they speake in it as in a point not certaine and necessary but onely doubtfull and probable The third Jnconvenience examined THE third Inconuenience pretended by the L. Cardinall to growe by admitting this Article of the third Estate is flourished in these colours It would breede and bring forth an open and vnauoideable schism against his Holinesse and the rest of the whole Ecclesiasticall bodie For thereby the doctrine long approoued and ratified by the Pope and the rest of the Church should now be taxed and condemned of impious and most detestable consequence yea the Pope and the Church euen in faith and in points of saluation should be reputed and beleeued to be erroniously perswaded Hereupon his Lordship giues himselfe a large scope of the raines to frame his elegant amplifications against schismes and schismatikes Now to mount so high and to flie in such place vpon the wings of amplification for this Inconuenience what is it else but magnifically to report and imagine a mischeife by many degrees greater then the mischeife is The L. Cardinal is in a great error if he make himselfe beleeue that other nations wil make a rent or separation from the communion of the French because the French stand to it tooth and nayle that French Crownes are not liable or obnoxious to Papall deposition howsoeuer there is no schisme that importeth not separation of communion The most illustrious Republike of Venice hath imbarked herselfe in this quarrell against his Holinesse hath played her prize and carried away the weapons with great honour Doth she notwithstanding her triumph in the cause forbeare to participate with all her neighbors in the same Sacraments doth she liue in schisme with all the rest of the Romane Church No such matter When the L. Cardinal himselfe not many yeeres past maintained the Kings cause and stood honourably for the Kings right against the Popes Temporall vsurpations did he then take other Churches to be schismaticall or the rotten members of Antechrist Beleeue it who list I beleeue my Creed Nay his Lordship telleth vs himselfe a little after that his Holinesse giues the French free scope to maintaine either the affirmatiue or negatiue of this question And will his Holinesse hold them schismatikes that dissent from his opinion and iudgement in a subiect or cause esteemed problematicall Farre be it from his Holinesse The King of Spaine reputed the Popes right arme neuer gaue the Pope cause by any act or other declaration to conceiue that hee acknowledged himselfe deposeable by the Pope for heresie or Tyrannie or stupidity But beeing well assured the Pope standeth in greater feare of his arme then he doth of the Popes head and shoulders he neuer troubles his owne head about our question More when the booke of Cardinall Baronius was come forth in which booke the Kingdome of Naples is decryed and publiquely discredited like false money touching the qualitie of a Kingdome and attributed to the King of Spain not as true proprietary thereof but onely as an Estate held in fee of the Romane Church the King made no bones to condemne and to banish the said booke out of his dominions The holy Father was contented
Kingdom thinks himselfe in little safetie so long as he shall of his courtesy suffer his disseised predecessor to draw his breath And say that some Princes after their fall from their Thrones haue escaped both point and edge of the Tyrants weapon yet haue they wandred like miserable fugitiues in forraine countryes or else haue beene condemned like captiues to perpetuall imprisonment at home a thousand-fold worse and more lamentable then death it selfe Dyonisius the Tyrant of Syracusa from a great King in Sicilie turn'd School-master in Corinth It was the onely calling kind of life that as he thought bearing some resemblance of rule and gouernment might recreate his mind as an image or picture of his former Soueraigntie ouer men This Dyonisius was the onely man to my knowledge that had a humour to laugh after the losse of a Kingdome and in the state of a Pedant or gouernour of children merily to ieast and to scorne his former state and condition of a King In this my Kingdome of England sundry Kings haue seen the walls as it were of their Princely fortresse dismantled razed and beaten downe By name Edward and Richard both II. and Henrie VI. all which Kings were most cruelly murdered in prison In the raigne of Edward III. by act of Parliament whosoeuer shal imagine that is the very word of the Statute or machinate the Kings death are declared guilty of rebellion and high treason The learned Iudges of the Land grounding vpon this law of Edward the third haue euer since reputed and iudged them traytors according to Law that haue dared onely to whisper or talke softly between the teeth of deposing the King For they count it a cleare case that no Crowne can be taken from a Kings head without losse of Head and Crowne together sooner or later The L. Cardinall therefore in this most weighty and serious point doth meerely dally and flowt after a sort when he tels vs The Church doth not intermeddle with releasing of subiects and knocking off their yrons of obedience but onely before the Ecclesiasticall tribunall seate and that besides this double censure of absolution to subiects and excommunication to the Prince the Church imposeth none other penaltie Vnder pretence of which two censures so far is the Church as the L. Cardinal pretendeth from consenting that any man so censured should be touched for his life that shee vtterly abhorreth all murder whatsoeuer but especially all sudden and vnprepenced murders for feare of casting away both body and soule which often in sudden murders goe both one way It hath been made manifest before that all such proscription and setting forth of Kings to port-sale hath alwaies for the traine thereof either some violent and bloody death or some other mischiefe more intolerable then death it selfe What are we the better that parricides of Kings are neither set on nor approoued by the Church in their abhominable actions when she layeth such plots and taketh such courses as necessarily doe inferre the cutting of their throates In the next place be it noted that his Lordship against all reason reckons the absoluing of subiects from the oath of allegiance in the ranke of penalties awarded and enioyned before the Ecclesiasticall tribunall seate For this penaltie is not Ecclesiasticall but Ciuill and consequently not triable in Ecclesiasticall Courts without vsurping vpon the ciuill Magistrate But I wonder with what face the Lord Cardinall can say the Church neuer consenteth to any practise against his life whome she hath once chastised with seuere censures For can his Lordship be ignorant what is written by Pope Vrbanus Can. Excommunicatorum We take them not in any wise to be man-slayers who in a certain heate of zeale towards the Catholike Church their Mother shall happen to kill an excomunicate person More if the Pope doth not approoue and like the practise of King-killing wherefore hath not his Holinesse imposed some seuere censure vpon the booke of Mariana the Iesuite by whome parricides are commended nay highly extolled when his Holines hath been pleased to take the paines to censure and call in some other of Mariana's bookes Againe wherefore did his Holines aduise himselfe to censure the decree of the Court of Parliament in Paris against Iohn Chastell Wherefore did he suffer Garnet and Oldcorne my powder-miners both by bookes and pictures vendible vnder his nose in Rome to be inrowled in the Canon of holy Martyrs And when he saw two great Kings murdered one after an other wherfore by some publike declaration did not his Holinesse testifie to all Christendome his inward sense and true apprehension of so great misfortune as all Europe had iust cause to lament on the behalfe of France Wherefore did not his Holinesse publish some Lawe or Pontificiall decree to prouide for the securitie of Kings in time to come True it is that he censured Becanus his booke But wherefore That by a captious and sleight censure he might preuent a more exact and rigorous decree of the Sorbon Schoole For the Popes checke to Becanus was onely a generall censure and touch without any particular specification of matter touching the life of Kings About some two moneths after the said book was printed againe with a dedication to the Popes Nuntio in Germany yet without any alteration saue onely of two articles containing the absolute power of the people ouer Kings In recompence and for a counterchecke whereof three or fowre articles were inserted into the said book touching the Popes power ouer Kings articlcs no lesse wicked and iniurious to Regall rights nay more iniurious then any of the other clauses whereof iust cause of exception and complaint had been giuen before If I would collect and heape vp examples of auncient Emperours as of Henrie IV. whos 's dead corps felt the rage and fury of the Pope or of Frederic 2. against whome the Pope was not ashamed to whet and kindle the Sultane or of Queen Elizabeth our Predecessour of glorious memorie whose life was diuers times assaulted by priuie murderers expressely dispatched from Rome for that holy seruice if I would gather vp other examples of the same stampe which I haue laid forth in my Apology for the oth of allegiance I could make it more cleare then day-light how farre the L. Cardinals words are discrepant from the truth where his Lordship out of most rare confidence is bold to avowe That neuer any Pope went so farre as to giue consent or counsell for the desperate murdering of Princes That which already hath beene alleadged may suffice to conuince his Lordship I meane that his Holinesse by deposing of Kings doth lead them directly to their graues and tombes The Cardinal himselfe seemeth to take some notice hereof The Church as he speaketh abhorreth sudden and vnprepensed murders aboue the rest Doth not his Lordship in this phrase of speech acknowledge that murders committed by open force are not so much disavowed or disclaimed by the Church A little
sit faster on their heads then to be stirred by any Papal power whatsoeuer and yet saith withall the Pope winketh at the French by his toleration to hold this dogmatical point for problematicall And by this meanes the Martyrdome that he affecteth in this cause will prooue but a problematicall Martyrdome whereof question might growe very well whether it were to be mustered with grieuous crimes or with phreneticall passions of the braine or with deserued punishments Fiftly hee denounceth Anathema dischargeth maledictions like haile-shot against parricides of Kings and yet elsewhere he layes himselfe open to speake of Kings onely so long as they stand Kings But who doth not know that a King deposed is no longer King And so that limme of Satan which murthered Henrie III. then vn-king'd by the Pope did not stabbe a King to death Sixtly he doth not allowe a King to be made away by murder and yet hee thinkes it not much out of the way to take away all meanes whereby hee might be able to stand in defence of his life Seuenthly he abhorreth killing of Kings by apposted throat-cutting for feare least bodie and soule should perish in the same instant and yet he doth not mislike their killing in a pitcht field and to haue them slaughtered in a set battaile For he presupposeth no doubt out of his charitable mind that by this meanes the soule of a poore King so dispatched out of the way shall instantly flie vp to heauen Eightly hee saith a King deposed retaineth still a certaine internall habitude and politike impression by vertue and efficacie whereof hee may being once reformed and become a new man be restored to the lawfull vse and practise of Regality Whereby hee would beare vs in hand that when a forraine Prince hath inuaded and rauenously seised the Kingdome into his hands he will not onely take pitty of his predecessor to saue his life but will also prooue so kind-hearted vpon sight of his repentance to restore his kingdome without fraude or guile Ninthly he saith euery where in his Discourse that he dealeth not in the cause otherwise then as a problematicall discourser and without any resolution one way or other and yet with might and maine he contends for the opinion that leaues the States and Crownes of Kings controulable by the Pope refutes obiections propounds the authoritie of Popes and Councils by name the Lateran Councill vnder Innocent III. as also the consent of the Church And to crosse the Churches iudgment is in his opinion to bring in schisme and to leaue the world without a Church for many hundred yeares together which to my vnderstanding is to speake with resolution and without all hesitation Tenthly he acknowledgeth none other cause of sufficient validitie for the deposing of a King besides heresie apostasie and infidelitie neuertheles that Popes haue power to displace Kings for heresie and apostasie he prooueth by examples of Kings whom the Pope hath curbed with deposition not for heresie but for matrimoniall causes for ciuill pretences and for lacke of capacitie Eleuenthly he alledgeth euerie where passages as well of holy Scripture as of the Fathers and moderne histories but so impertinent and with so little truth as hereafter we shall cause to appeare that for a man of his deepe learning and knowledge it seemeth not possible so to speake out of his iudgement Lastly whereas all this hath beene hudled and heaped together into one masse to currie with the Pope yet he suffereth diuerse points to fall from his lips which may well distast his Holinesse in the highest degree As by name where he prefers the authoritie of the Councill before that of the Pope and makes his iudgement inferiour to the iudgement of the French as in fit place hereafter shall be shewed Againe where he representeth to his hearers the decrees of Popes and Councils alreadie passed concerning this noble subiect and yet affirmes that he doth not debate the question but as a Questionist and without resolution As if a Cardinall should be afraid to be positiue and to speake in peremptory straines after Popes and Councils haue once decided the Question Or as if a man should perorate vpon hazard in a cause for the honour whereof he would make no difficulty to suffer Martyrdome Adde hereunto that his Lordshippe hath alwaies taken the contrary part heretofore and this totall must needs arise that before the third Estate his lippes looked one way and his conscience another All these points by the discourse which is to followe and by the ripping vp of his Oration which by Gods assistance J will vndertake tending to the reproach of Kings and the subuersion of Kingdomes I confidently speake it shall be made manifest Yet doe I not conceiue it can any way make for my honour to enter the lists against a Cardinall For J am not ignorant how far a Cardinals Hat commeth vnder the Crowne Scepter of a King For wel I wot vnto what sublimity the Scripture hath exalted Kings when it styles them Gods Whereas the dignitie of a Cardinall is but a late vpstart inuention of man as I haue elswhere prooued But I haue imbarqued my selfe in this action mooued thereunto first by the common interest of Kings in the cause it selfe Then by the L. Cardinal who speaketh not in this Oration as a priuate person but as one representing the body of the Clergie and Nobilitie by whom the cause hath beene wonne and the garland borne away from the third Estate Againe by mine owne particular because he is pleased to take me vp for a sower of dissention and a persecutor vnder whom the Church is hardly able to fetch her breath yea for one by whome the Catholikes of my Kingdome are compelled to endure all sorts of punishment and withall he tearmes this Article of the third Estate a monster with a fishes tayle that came swimming out of England Last of all by the present state of France because Fraunce beeing nowe reduced to so miserable tearmes that it is nowe become a crime for a Frenchman to stand for his King it is a necessary duty of her neighbours to speake in her cause and to make triall whether they can put life into the truth now dying and readie to bee buried by the power of violence that it may resound and ring againe from remote regions I haue no purpose once to touch many prettie toyes which the ridges of his whole booke are sowed withall Such are his allegations of Pericles Agesilaus Aristotle Minos the Druides the French Ladies Hannibal Pindarus and Poeticall fables All resembling the red and blew flowers that pester the corne when it standeth in the fields where they are more noysome to the growing croppe then beautifull to the beholding eye Such pettie matters nothing at all beseemed the dignity of the Assembly and of the maine subiect or of the Orator himselfe For it was no Decorum to enter the Stage with a Pericles in his mouth but with
Emperour in the tenth yeare of his raigne The L. Cardinall with no lesse abuse alleadgeth Pope Zacharie by whome the French as he affirmeth were absolued of the oath of allegiance wherein they stood bound to Childeric their King And for this instance he standeth vpon the testimonie of Paulus Aemilius and du Tillet a paire of late writers But by authors more neere that age wherein Childeric raigned it is more truely testified that it was a free and voluntarie act of the French onely asking the aduise of Pope Zacharie but requiring neither leaue nor absolution Ado Bishop of Vienna in his Chronicles hath it after this manner The French following the Counsell of Embassadors and of Pope Zachary elected Pepin their King and established him in the Kingdome Trithemius in his abridgement of Annals thus Childeric as one vnfit for gouernement was turned out of his Kingdome with common consent of the Estates and Peeres of the Realme so aduised by Zacharie Pope of Rome Godfridus of Viterbe in the 17. part of his Chronicle and Guaguin in the life of Pepin affirme the same And was it not an easie matter to worke Pepin by counsell to lay hold on the Kingdome when he could not be hindered from fastening on the Crowne and had already seizd it in effect howsoeuer he had not yet attained to the name of King Moreouer the rudenesse of that Nation then wanting knowledge and Schooles either of diuinitie or of Academicall sciences was a kind of spurre to make them runne for counsell ouer the mountaines which neuerthelesse in a cause of such nature they required not as necessary but onely as decent and for fashion sake The Pope also for his part was well appaied by this meanes to drawe Pepin vnto his part as one that stood in some need of his aide against the Lombards and the more because his Lord the Emperour of Constantinople was then brought so low that he was not able to send him sufficient aide for the defence of his territories against his enemies But had Zacharie to deale plainely not stood vpon the respect of his owne commoditie more then vpon the regard of Gods feare he would neuer haue giuen counsel vnto the seruant vnder the pretended colour of his Masters dull spirit so to turne rebell against his Master The Lawes prouide Gardians or ouerseers for such as are not well in their wits they neuer depriue and spoile them of their estate they punish crimes but not diseases and infirmities by nature Yea in France it is a very auncient custome when the King is troubled in his wittes to establish a Regent who for the time of the Kings disability may beare the burden of the Kingdomes affaires So was the practise of that State in the case of Charles 6. when he fell into a phrensie whome the Pope notwithstanding his most grieuous and sharpe fits neuer offered to degrade And to be short what reason what equity will beare the children to be punished for the fathers debilitie Yet such punishment was laid vpon Childerics whole race and house who by this practise were all disinherited of the Kingdome But shall wee now take some viewe of the L. Cardinals excuse for this exemplarie fact The cause of Childerics deposing as the L. Cardinal saith did neerly concerne and touch Religion For Childerics imbecillitie brought all France into danger to suffer a most wofull shipwracke of Christian religion vpon the barbarous and hostile inuasion of the Saracens Admit now this reason had beene of iust weight and value yet consideration should haue been taken whether some one or other of that Royallstemme and of the Kings owne successors neerest of blood was not of better capacitie to rule and mannage that mightie State The feare of vncertaine and accidentall mischiefe should not haue driuen them to slie vnto the certain mischiefe of actuall and effectuall deposition They should rather haue set before their eies the example of Charles Martel this Pepins father who in a farre more eminent danger when the Saracens had already mastered and subdued a great part of France valiantly encountred and withall defeated the Saracens ruled the Kingdome vnder the title of Steward of the Kings house the principall Officer of the Crowne without affecting or aspiring to the Throne for all that great steppe of aduantage especially when the Saracens were quite broken and no longer dreadfull to the French Nation In our owne Scotland the sway of the Kingdome was in the hand of Walles during the time of Bruse his imprisonment in England who then was lawfull heire to the Crowne This Walles or Vallas had the whole power of the Kingdome at his beck and command His edicts and ordinances to this day stand in full force By the deadly hatred of Bruse his mortall enemie it may be coniectured that hee might haue beene prouoked and inflamed with desire to trusse the Kingdome in his talants And notwithstanding all these incitements hee neuer assumed or vsurped other title to himselfe then of Gouernour or Administrator of the Kingdome The reason Hee had not beene brought vp in this newe doctrine and late discipline whereby the Church is endowed with power to giue and to take away Crownes But now as the L. Cardinall would beare the world in hand the state of Kings is brought to a very dead lift The Pope forsooth must send his Phisitians to know by way of inspection or some other course of Art whether the Kings braine be crackt or found and in case there be found any debility of wit and reason in the King then the Pope must remooue and translate the Crowne from the weaker braine to a stronger and for the acting of the stratageme the name of Religion must be pretended Ho these heretikes beginne to crawle in the Kingdome order must bee taken they be not suffered by their multitudes and swarmes like locusts or caterpillars to pester and poison the whole Realme Or in a case of matrimonie thus Ho marriage is a Sacrament touch the Order of Matrimonie and Religion is wounded By this deuise not onely the Kings vices but likewise his naturall diseases and infirmities are fetcht into the circle of Religion and the L. Cardinal hath not done himselfe right in restraining the Popes power to depose Kings vnto the cafes of heresie Apostasie and persecution of the Church In the next place followeth Leo III. who by setting the Imperiall Crowne vpon the head of Charles absolued all the subiects in the West of their obedience to the Greeke Emperours if the L. of Perron might be credited in this example But indeed it is crowded among the rest by a slie tricke and cleane contrary to the naked truth of all histories For it shall neuer bee iustified by good historie that so much as one single person or man I say not one Country or one people was then wrought or wonne by the Pope to change his copy and Lord or from a subiect of the Greeke Emperours
true sight of their owne weakenesse Let stirring spirits be trained vp in such practicall precepts let desperate wits be seasoned with such rules of discipline and what need we or how can we wonder they contriue powder conspiracies and practise the damnable art of parricides After Iulian his Lordship falles vpon Valentinian the younger who maintaining Arrianisme with great and open violence might haue beene deposed by the Christians from his Empire and yet say we they neuer dream'd of any such practise Here the L. Cardinal maketh answer The Christians mooued with respect vnto the fresh memory both of the brother and father as also vnto the weake estate of the sonnes young yeeres abstained from all counsels and courses of sharper effect and operation To which answer I reply these are but friuolous coniectures deuised and framed to tickle his owne fancie For had Valentinianus the younger beene the sonne of an Arrian and had then also attained to threescore yeeres of age they would neuer haue borne themselues in other fashion then they did towards their Emperour Then the Cardinal goeth on The people would not abandon the factious and seditious party but were so firme or obstinate rather for the faction that Valentinian for feare of the tumultuous vproares was constrained to giue way and was threatened by the souldiers that except hee would adhere vnto the Catholikes they would yeeld him no assistance nor stand for his partie Now this answer of the L. Cardinall makes nothing to the purpose concerning the Popes power to pull downe Kings from their stately nest Let vs take notice of his proper consequence Valentinian was afraid of the popular tumult at Milan the Pope therefore hath power to curbe hereticall Kings by deposition Now marke what distance is betweene Rome and Milan what difference betweene the people of Milan and the Bishop of Rome betweene a popular tumult and a iudicatory sentence between fact and right things done by the people or souldiers of Milan and things to bee done according to right and law by the Bishop of Rome the same distance the same difference if not farre greater is betweene the L. Cardinals antecedent and his consequent betweene his reason and the maine cause or argument which we haue in hand The madde commotion of the people was not here so much to be regarded as the sad instruction of the Pastor of their good and godly Pastor S. Ambrose so far from heartning the people of Milan to rebell that being Bishop of Milan he offered himselfe to suffer Martyrdome If the Emperour abuse his Imperiall authoritie for so Theodoret hath recited his words to tyrannize thereby here am I ready to suffer death And what resistance he made against his L. Emperour was only by way of supplication in these tearmes We beseech thee O Augustus as humble suppliants we offer no resistance we are not in feare but we flie to supplication Againe If my patrimony be your marke enter vpon my patrimonie if my bodie I will goe and meet my torments Shall I bee drag'd to prison or to death I will take delight in both Item in his Oration to Auxentius J can afflict my soule with sorrowe I can lament J can send forth grieuous groanes My weapons against either of both souldiers or Goths are teares A Priest hath none other weapons of defence I neither can resist nor ought in any other manner to make resistance Iustinian Emperour in his old age fell into the heresie of the Aphthartodocites Against Iustinian though fewe they were that fauoured him in that heresie the Bishop of Rome neuer darted with violence any sentence of Excommunication interdiction or deposition The Ostrogot Kings in Italy the Visigot in Spaine the Vandal in Africa were all addicted to the Arrian impietie and some of them cruelly persecuted the true professors The Visigot and Vandall were no neighbours to Italie The Pope thereby had the lesse cause to feare the stings of those waspes if they had been angred The Pope for all that neuer had the humour to wrastle or iustle with any of the said Kings in the cause of deposing them from their Thrones But especially the times when the Vandals in Affricke and the Goths in Italy by Belisarius and Narses professors of the Orthodoxe faith were tyred with long warres and at last were vtterly defeated in bloodie battels are to be considered Then were the times or neuer for the Pope to vnsheath his weapons and to vn-case his arrowes of deposition then were the times to drawe them out of his quiuer and to shoote at all such Arrian Heads then were the times by dispensations to release their subiects of their oathes by that peremptory meanes to aide and strengthen the Catholike cause But in that age the said weapons were not knowne to haue been hammered in the Pontificall forge Gregory I. made his boasts that he was able to ruine the Lombards for many yeeres together sworne enemies to the Bishops of Rome their state present and the hope of all their future prosperity But hee telleth vs that by the feare of God before his eyes and in his heart he was bridled and restrained from any such intent as elswhere we haue obserued If J would haue medled with practising and procuring the death of the Lombards the whole nation of the Lombards at this day had been robbed of their Kings Dukes Earles they had beene reduced to the tearmes of extreame confusion Hee might at least haue deposed their King if the credit of the L. Cardinals iudgement bee currant without polluting or stayning his owne conscience What can we tearm this assertion of the L. Cardinall but open charging the most auncient Bishops of Rome with crueltie when they would not succour the Church of Christ oppressed by tyrants whose oppression they had power to represse by deposing the oppressors Is it credible that Iesus Christ hath giuen a Commission to S. Peter and his successors for so many ages without any power to execute their Commission or to make any vse thereof by practise Is it credible that he hath giuen them a sword to be kept in the scabbard without drawing once in a thousand yeeres Is it credible that in the times when Popes were most deboshed abandoning themselues to all sorts of corrupt and vitious courses as it testified by their own flaterers and best affected seruants is it credible that in those times they beganne to vnderstand the vertue and strength of their Commission For if either feare or lacke of power was the cause of holding their hands and voluntarie binding of themselues to the peace or good behauiour wherefore is not some one Pope at least produced who hath complained that he was hindered from executing the power that Christ had conferred vpon his Pontificall See Wherefore is not some one of the auncient and holy Fathers alledged by whom the Pope hath bin aduised and exhorted to take courage to stand vpon the vigor and
full of danger to Christians liuing vnder heretical or Pagan Princes For make it once knowne to the Emperour of Turkes let him once get neuer so little a smacke of this doctrine that Christians liuing vnder his Empire do take Gods commaundement for obedience to Princes whom they count Infidels to bee onely a prouisionall precept for a time and wait euery houre for all occasions to shake off the yoke of his bondage doubtlesse he will neuer spare with all speed to roote the whole stocke with all the armes and branches of Christians out of his dominions Adde hereunto the L. Cardinalls former determination that possession kept neuer so long by the Turk in his Conquests ouer Christians gaines him not by so long tract of time one inch of prescription and it wil appeare that his Lordship puts the Turkish Emperour in mind and by his instruction leades the said Emperour as it were by the hand to haue no manner of affiance in his Christian subiects and withall to afflict his poore Christians with all sorts of most grieuous and cruell torments In this regard the poore Christians of Graecia and Syria must needes be very little beholden to his Lordship As for my selfe and my Popish subiects to whome I am no lesse then an heretike forsooth am not I by this doctrine of the Cardinall pricked and whetted against my naturall inclination to turne clemencie into rigour seeing that by his doctrine my subiects are made to beleeue they owe me subiection onely by way of prouiso and with waiting the occasion to worke my vtter destruction and final ruine the rather because Turkes miscreants and heretikes are mashalled by the Cardinall in the same ranke and heretikes are counted worse yea more iustly deposeable then Turkes and Infidels as irreligious breakers and violaters of their oath Who seeth not here how great indignitie is offered to me a Christian King paralleld with Infidels reputed worse then a Turke taken for an vsurper of my Kingdomes reckoned a Prince to whom subiects owe a forced obedience by way of prouision vntill they shall haue meanes to shake off the yoke and to bare my temples of the Crowne which neuer can be pulled from the sacred Head but with losse of the head it selfe Touching the warres vndertaken by the French English and Germaines in their expedition for Ierusalem it appeares by the issue and euent of the said warres that God approoued them not for honourable That expedition was a deuise and inuention of the Pope whereby he might come to be infeoffed in the Kingdoms of Christian Princes For then al such of the French English or Germaines as vndertooke the Croisade became the Popes meere vassals Then all robbers by the high way side adulterers cut-throats and base bankerupts were exempted from the Secular and Ciuil power their causes were sped in Consistorian Courts so soone as they had gotten the Crosse on their cassocks or coat-armours and had vowed to serue in the expedition for the Leuant Then for the Popes pleasure and at his commaundement whole countryes were emptied of their Nobles and common souldiers Then they made long marches into the Leuant For what purpose Onely to die vpon the points of the Saracens pikes or by the edge of their barbarous courtelasses battle-axes fauchions and other weapons without any benefit and aduantage to themselues or others Then the Nobles were driuen to sell their goodly Mannors and auncient demaines to the Church-men at vnder prises and low rates the very roote from which a great part of the Church and Church-mens reuenewes hath sprung and growne to so great height Then to bee short his most bountifull Holinesse gaue to any of the riffe-raffe-ranke that would vndertake this expedition into the Holy land a free and full pardon for all his sinnes besides a degree of glory aboue the vulgar in the Celestiall Paradise Military vertue I confesse is commendable and honourable prouided it be employed for iustice and that generous noblenesse of valiant spirits be not vnder a colour and shadow of piety fetcht ouer with some casts or deuises of Italian cunning Now let vs obserue the wisedome of the L. Cardinall through this whole discourse His Lordship is pleased in his Oration to cite certaine few passages of Scripture culls and picks them out for the most gracefull in shewe leaues out of his list whole troupes of honourable witnesses vpon whose testimonie the Popes themselues and their principall adherents doe build his power to depose Kings and to giue order for all Temporall causes Take a sight of their best and most honourable witnesses Peter said to Christ See here two swords and Christ answered It is sufficient Christ said to Peter Put vp thy sword into thy sheath God said to Ieremie I haue established thee ouer Nations and Kingdomes Paul said to the Corinthians The spirituall man discerneth all things Christ said to his Apostles Whatsoeuer yee shall loose vpon earth by which words the Pope hath power forsooth to loose the oath of allegiance Moses said In the beginning God created the heauen and the earth Vpon these passages Pope Boniface 8. grapling and tugging with Philip the Faire doth build his Temporall power Other Popes and Papists auouch the like authorities Christ said of himself All things are giuen to me of my Father and all power is giuen vnto me in heauen and in earth The Deuils said If thou cast vs out send vs into this herd of swine Christ said to his Disciples Yee shall finde the colt of an asse bound loose it and bring it vnto me By these places the aduersaries prooue that Christ disposed of Temporall matters and inferre thereupon why not Christs Vicar as well as Christ himselfe The places and testimonies now following are very expresse In stead of thy fathers shall be thy children thou shalt make them Princes through all the earth Item Iesus Christ not onely commaunded Peter to feed his lambs but said also to Peter Arise kill and eat the pleasant glosse the rare inuention of the L. Cardinall Baronius Christ said to the people If I were lift vp from the earth I wil draw all things vnto me Who lets what hinders this place from fitting the Pope Paul said to the Corinthians Know ye not that we shall iudge the Angels how much more then the things that pertaine vnto this life A little after Haue not wee power to eate These are the chiefe passages on which as vpon maine arches the roofe of Papall Monarchie concerning Temporall causes hath rested for three or foure ages past And yet his Lordship durst not repose any confidence in their firme standing to beare vp the said roofe of Temporall Monarchie for feare of making his auditors to burst with laughter A wise part without question if his Lordship had not defiled his lips before with a more ridiculous argument drawne from the leprosie and drie scab Let vs now by way of comparison behold Iesus Christ
safetie of their King and honour of the truth it is their hard hap to leaue any at all vnsatisfied But suppose the said heretikes were the Authors of this Article preferred by the third Estate What need they to conceale their names in that regard What need they to disclaime the credit of such a worthy act Would it not redound to their perpetuall honour to be the onely subiects that kept watch ouer the Kings life and Crowne that stood centinell and walked the rounds for the preseruation of his Princely diademe when all other had no more touch no more feeling thereof then so many stones And what neede the Deputies for the third Estate to receiue instructions from forraine Kingdomes concerning a cause of that nature when there was no want of domesticall examples and the French histories were plentifull in that argument What need they to gape for this reformed doctrine to come swimming with a fishes tayle out of an Island to the mayne continent when they had before their eyes the murders of two Kings with diuerse ciuill warres and many Arrests of Court all tending to insinuate and suggest the introduction of the same remedy Suggestions are needlesse from abroad when the mischiefe is felt at home It seemes to me that his Lordship in smoothing and tickling the Deputies for the third Estate doth no lesse then wring and wrong their great sufficiencie with contumely and outragious abuse as if they were not furnished with sufficient foresight with loyal affection towards their King for the preseruation of his life and honour if the remedie were not beaten into their heads by those of the Religion reputed heretikes Touching my selfe ranged by his Lordship in the same ranke with sowers of dissention I take my God to witnes and my owne conscience that I neuer dream'd of any such vnchristian proiect It hath been hitherto my ordinary course to follow honest counsells and to walke in open waies I neuer wonted my selfe to holes and corners to crafty shifts but euermore to plain and open designes I need not hide mine intentions for feare of any mortall man that puffeth breath of life out of his nostrils Nor in any sort doe I purpose to set Iulian the Apostata before mine eyes as a patterne for me to follow Iulian of a Christian became a Pagan I professe the same faith of Christ still which I haue euer professed Iulian went about his designes with crafty conueiances I neuer with any of his captious and cunning sleights Iulian forced his subiects to infidelitie against Iesus Christ I labour to induce my subiects vnto such tearmes of loyaltie towards my selfe as Iesus Christ hath prescribed and taught in his word But how farre I differ from Iulian it is to bee seene more at large in my answer to Bellarmines Epistles written to Blackwell from whence the Lord Cardinall borrowing this example it might well haue beseemed his Lordship to borrow likewise my answer from the same place Now as it mooues me nothing at all to be drawne by his Lordship into suspitions of this nature and qualitie so by the prayses that he rockes me withall I will neuer be lulled asleepe To commend a man for his knowledge and withall to take from him the feare of God is to admire a souldier for his goodly head of haire or his curled locks and withall to call him base coward faint-hearted and fresh-water souldier Knowledge wit and learning in an hereticke are of none other vse and seruice but onely to make him the more culpable and consequently obnoxious to the more grieuous punishments All vertues turne to vices when they become the seruants of impietie The hand-maids which the Soueraigne Lady Wisdome calleth to be of her traine in the 9. Prouerb are moral vertues and humane sciences which then become pernicious when they runne away from their Soueraigne Lady-Mistris and put ouer themselues in seruice to the Deuill What difference is between two men both alike wanting the knowledge of God the one fnrnished with arts and ciuill vertues the other brutishly barbarous and of a deformed life or of prophane manners What is the difference between these two I make this the onely difference the first goeth to hell with a better grace and falleth into perdition with more facility then the second But he becommeth exceedingly wicked euen threefold and fourefold abhominable if he wast his treasure and stocke of ciuill vertues in persecuting the Church of Christ and if that may be layed in his dish which was cast in Caesars teeth that in plain sobernes and well-setled temper he attempts the ruine of the Common-wealth which from a drunken sot might receiue perhaps a more easie fall In briefe I scorn all garlands of praises which are not euer greene but beeing drie and withered for want of sap and radicall moysture doe flagge about barbarous Princes browes I defie and renounce those prayses which fit me no more then they fit a Mahumetane King of Marocco I contest against all praises which grace me with pety accessories but rob me of the principall that one thing necessary namely the feare and knowledge of my God vnto whose Maiesty alone I haue deuoted my scepter my sword my penne my whole industry my whole selfe with all that is mine in whole and in part I doe it I doe it in all humble acknowledgement of his vnspeakable mercy and fauour who hath vouchsafed to deliuer me from the erroneous way of this age to deliuer my Kingdome from the Popes tyrannicall yoake vnder which it hath lyen in times past most grieuously oppressed My Kingdome where God is now purely serued and called vpon in a tongue which all the vulgar vnderstand My Kingdom where the people may now reade the Scriptures without any speciall priuiledge from the Apostolike See and with no lesse libertie then the people of Ephesus of Rome and of Corinth did reade the holy Epistles written to their Churches by S. Paul My Kingdome where the people now pay no longer any tribute by the poll for Papall indulgences as they did about an hundred yeeres past and are no longer compelled to the mart for pardons beyond the Seas and Mountaines but haue them now freely offered from God by the doctrine of the Gospel preached at home within their owne seuerall parishes and iurisdictions If the Churches of my Kingdome in the L. Cardinals accompt be miserable for these causes and the like let him dreame on and talke his pleasure for my part I will euer advowe that more worth is our misery then all his felicity For the rest it shall by Gods grace be my daily endeauour and serious care to passe my daies in shaping to my selfe such a course of life that without shamefull calumniating of my person it shall not rest in the tippe of any tongue to touch my life with iust reprehension or blame Nor am I so priuie to mine owne guiltinesse as to thinke my state so desperate so deplorable as Popes