erat illa fidei Corona sed poena 〈◊〉 nec 〈◊〉 virtut is exitus gloriosus sed desperation is 〈◊〉 For if Valentius banish Eusebius from 〈◊〉 and Eusebius obey not the edict if Valentius puts him to death it is not for his being a Christian that he suffers death but for staying at 〈◊〉 against the command of Valentius Such was the case of the Priests whom for just cause as I have proved and too apparent proofe of seditious practices the Queen banished Now if the Queen was their lawfull Soveraigne then were they bound to obey her Decree of exile though it had been unjust as was the case of Eusebius or if they did not obey not to think the Lawes unjust for punishing their disobedience I say again their Disobedience not their Religion for that it was not their Religion that was struck at by the justice of these Lawes but the security of the Queen and State only aim'd at besides what I have already said is apparent to the evidence of sence For when Hart and Bosgrave Iesuits both came into England against the Law they were apprehended and imprison'd for the Lawes without just Execution were of no force for the Queenes safety but when these men had acknowledg'd the Queenes legitimate power and put in their security for their due obedience they obtain'd their pardon and their liberty The same proceedings were in the case of Horton and Rishton all which I hope were not 〈◊〉 from their Order or Religion but so they must have been or not have escap'd death in case that their Religion had been made Capitall Lastly this Statute extended only to such Priests who were made Priests since Primo of Elizabeth were born in England It was not Treason for a French Priest to be in England but yet so it must have been if Religion had been the thing they aim'd at But 't is so foule a Calumny I am asham'd to stand longer to efute it The proceedings of the Church and State of England were just honourable and religious full of mercy and discretion and unlesse it were that as C. Fimbria complain'd of Q. Scaevola we did not open our breasts wide enough to receive the danger there is no cause imaginable I mean on our parts to move them to so damned a conspiracy or indeed to any just complaint Secondly if these were not the causes as they would faine abuse the world into a perswasion that they were what was I shall tell you if you will give me leave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to derive it from its very head and then I will leave it to you to judge whether or no my Augury failes me First I guesse that the Traitors were encouraged and primarily mov'd to this Treason from the preuailing opinion which is most generally receiv'd on that side of the lawfulnesse of deposing Princes that are Hereticall I say generally receiv'd and I shall make my words good or else the blame shall lay on themselves for deceiving me when they declare their own mindes I instance first in the Fathers of the Society Bellarmine teacheth that Kings have no wrong done them if they be deprived of their Kingdomes when they prove Heretiques Creswell in his Philopater goes farther saying that if his Heresy be manifest he is deposed without any explicite judiciall sentence of the Pope the Law it selfe hath passed the sentence of deposition And therefore Bonarscius is very angry at Arnald the French Kings Advocate for affirming that Religion could be no just cause to depose a lawfull Prince If hee had beene brought up in their Schooles hee might have learnt another lesson papa Potest mutare regna uni auferre atque alteri conferre tanquam summus Princeps spiritualis si id necessarium sit ad animarum salutem saith Bellarmine Hee gives his reason too quia alioqui possent mali Principes impunè fovere Haereticos which is a thing not to be suffered by his Holinesse This Doctrine is not the private opinion of these Doctors but est certa definita atque indubitata virorum clarissimorum sententia saith F. Creswell I suppose hee meanes in his owne Order and yet I must take heed what I say for Eudaemon Iohannes is very angry with Sr Edward Cooke for saying it is the Doctrine of the Iesuits Doe they then deny it No surely but Non est Iesuitarum propria it is not theirs alone sed ut Garnettus respondit totius Ecclesiae quidem ab antiquissimis temporibus consensione recepta Doctrina nostra est and there hee reckons up seven and twenty famous Authors of the same opinion Creswell in his Philopater sayes as much if not more Hinc etiam infert Vniversa Theologorum Iuris consultorum Ecclesiasticorum Schola est certum de fide quemconque Principem Christianum si à religione Catbolicá manifestè deflexerit alios avocare voluerit excidere statim omni potestate ac dignitate ex ipsà vi juris tum Humani tum Divini You see how easily they swallow this great camell Adde to this that Bellarmine himselfe prooves that the Popes temporall power or of disposing of Princes Kingdomes is a Catholique Doctrine for hee reckons up of this opinion one and twenty Italians fourteene French 〈◊〉 Germans seven English and Scotch nineteen Spaniards these not è faece plebis but e 〈◊〉 all very famous and very leading Authors You see it is good Divinity amongst them and I have made it good that it is a generall opinion received by all their Side if you will believe themselves and now let us see if it will passe for good Law as well as good Divinity It is not for nothing that the Church of France protests against some of their received Canons if they did not I know not what would become of their Princes Their Lillies may be to day and to morrow be cast into the oven if the Pope either call their Prince 〈◊〉 as he did Henry the fourth or Tyrant as Henry the third or unprofitable for the Church or Kingdome as he did King Childeric whom Pope 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 did depose for the same cause and inserted his act into the body of the Law as a precedent for the future quod etiam ex 〈◊〉 frequenti agit sancta Ecclesia it is impaled in a 〈◊〉 in the body of the Canon least deposition of Princes should be taken for newes The law is cleere for matter of fact the lawfulnesse followes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est auferri 〈◊〉 habent and this not only from a private man but even from Princes nam qui in majore dignitate est plus punitur or take it if you please in more proper termes Dominus Papa Principem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propter haeresim so another may be chosen like the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 in Poland just as if the King were dead 〈◊〉 per haeresim 〈◊〉 civiliter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Simancha and
became 〈◊〉 saying it was sentenc'd to the fire before it had escaped the presse And good reason Nihil enim tale à Patribus societatis didicit Good men they never taught him any such doctrine as is contained in that pestilent book de iuribus principalibus defendendis moderandis iustè Now if this be heresy or like it to preach such a Doctrine then likely it will be judg'd heresy in Princes to doe so that is to hold their crownes without acknowledgment of subordination to S. Peters chaire And if it be not heresy to doe so it is in their account as bad for so the Iesuits in their Veritas defensa against the Action of Arnald the Advocate affirme in terminis that the actions of some Kings of France against the Pope in defence of their Regalties were but examples of rebellion and spots to disgrace the purity of the French Lillies 5. Put case the Pope should chance to mistake in his sentence against a Prince for the cause of heresy yet for all this mistake he can secure any man to take away the Princes life or Kingdome His Lawyers will be his security for this point For although in this case the deposition of the Prince should be and be acknowledged to be against Gods law the Prince being neither Tyrant nor heretick yet his Holinesse commanding it takes away the unlawfulnesse of it by his dispensation So D. Marta and for this doctrine he quotes Hostiensis Felinus Cratus the Abbat the Arch bishop of Florence Ancharanus Iohannes Andreas Laurentius de Pinu and some others Indeed his Divines deny this sed contrarium 〈◊〉 observatur as it 's very well observed by the same Doctor for he brings the practise example of Pope Martin the fifth Iulius the second Celestine the third Alexander the third and Sixtus quintus all which dispensed in cases acknowledged to be expressely against Gods law 6. Lastly How if the Pope should lay a claime to all the Kingdomes of the world as belonging to S. Peters patrimony by right of spirituall preheminence I know no great security we have to the contrary For first It is known he hath claimed the Kingdome of England as feudatary to the See Apostolike Which when I considered I wondred not at that new and insolent title which Mosconius gives his Holinesse of Desensor fidei He might have added the title of Rex Catholicus Christianisstmus For D. Marta in his treatise of Iurisdiction which he dedicated to Paulus quintus hath that for an argumēt why he dedicated his Book to him because for sooth the Pope is the only Monarch of the World But of greater authority is that of Thomas Aquinas affirming the Pope to be the verticall top of all power Ecclesiasticall and Civill So that now it may be true which the Bishop of Patara told the Emperor in behalfe of Pope Sylverius Multos esse Reges sed nullum talem qualis ille qui est Papa super Ecclesiam Mundi totius For these reasons I think it is true enough that the constituting the Pope the judge of Princes in the matter of deposition is of more danger then the thing it selfe The summe is this However schisme or heresy may be pretended yet it is but during the Popes pleasure that Kings or subjects shall remain firme in their mutuall necessitude For if our Prince bee but excommunicate or declar'd heretick then to be a good subject will be accounted no better then irreligion and Anti-Catholicisme If the conclusion be too hard and intolerable then so are the Premises and yet they passe for good Catholike doctrine among themselves But if truly and ex animo they are otherwise affected they should doe well to unsay what hath been said and declare themselves by publique authority against such doctrines And say whether or no their determinations shall be de fide If they be then all those famous Catholique Doctors Thomas Aquinas Bellarmine Creswell Mariana Emanuel Sà c. are heretiques and their Canons teach heresy and Many of their Popes to be condemn'd as hereticall for practising and teaching deposition of Princes by an authority usurp't against and in prejudice of the Christian faith But if their answers be not de fide then they had as good say nothing for the danger is not at all decreased because if there be Doctors on both sides by their own assertion they may without sinne follow either but yet more safely if they follow the most received and the most authorized and whether this rule will lead them I will be judg'd by any man that hath considered the premises Briefly either this thing must remain in the same state it is and our Princes still expos'd to so extream hazards or else let his Holinesse seat himselfe in his chaire condemne these doctrines vow against their future practise limit his ordo ad spiritualia containe himselfe within the limits of causes directly and meerely Ecclesiasticall disclaime all power so much as indirect over Princes temporalls and all this with an intent to oblige all Christendome Which when I see done I shall be most ready to believe that nothing in Popery doth either directly or by a necessary consequence destroy Loyalty to our lawfull Prince but not till then having so much evidence to the contrary Thus much was occasion'd by consideration of the cause of the Disciples Quaere which was when they saw this that their L. and M. for his difference in Religion was turned forth of doores which when they saw They said Lord It was well they ask'd at all and would not too hastily act what they too suddēly had intended but it was better that they ask'd Christ it had been the best warrant they could have had could they have obtain'd but a Magister dixit But this was not likely it was too strange a Question to aske of such a Mr. A Magistre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crudelitatis Nothing could have come more crosse to his disposition His spirit never was addicted to blood unlesse it were to shed his owne Hee was a Prince of peace and set forth to us by all the Symboles of peace and gentlenesse as of a sheepe a lambe a hen a gentle twining vine the healing 〈◊〉 and is it likely that such a one should give his placet to the utter ruine of a company of poore Villagers for denying him a nights lodging moved thereto by the foregoing scandall of a Schisme Hee knew better what it cost to redeem aman and to save his life from destruction then to bee so hasty for his ruine And if the Fathers Confessors who were to answere the Question of the day had but reflected upon this Gospell they might have informed their penitents better then to have engaged them upon such Antichristian and Treasonable practises as to destroy an assembly of Christians as to depose or kill a King It is the proper cognisance of Mahumetanisme by fire and sword to
instance once more If I mistake not it was Sixtus Quintus who sometimes pronounced a speech in full Consistory in which hee compares the assasinat of Iaques Clement upon Henry the third to the exploits of Eleazar Iudith where after having aggravated the faults of the murdred King concluded him to have diedimpenitent denyed him the solemnities of Masse Dirge and Requiem for his soule at last he ends with a prayer that God would finish what in this bloudy manner had been begun I will not aggravate the foulenesse of the thing by any circumstances though I cannot but wonder that his Holinesse should say a prayer of so much abhomination it is of it selfe too bad If his Holinesse be wrong'd in the businesse I have no hand in it the speech was printed at Paris three months after the murder of the King and avouched for authentick by the approbation of three Doctors Boucher Decreil and Ancelein let them answer it I wash my hands of the accusation and only consider the danger of such Doctrines if set forth with so great authority and practis'd by so uncontroulable 〈◊〉 If the Disciples of Christ if Apostles if the See Apostolique if the fathers Confessors prove 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 I 'le no more wonder if the people call for fire to consume us but rather wonder if they doe not And indeed although it be no rare or unusuall thing for a Papist to be de facto loyall and duteous to his Prince yet it is a wonder that he is so since such Doctrines have beene taught by so great Masters and at the best hee depends but upon the Popes pleasure for his Loyalty which upon what security it rests you may easily guesse from the antecedents Thus much for consideration of the persons who ask'd the Question they were Christs Disciples they were Iames and Iohn But when Iames and Iohn saw this Our next inquiry shall be of the cause of this their angry Question This we must learne from the fore-going story Christ was going to the feast at Ierusalem and passing through a Village of Samaria ask'd lodging for a night but they perceiving that hee was a Iew would by no meanes entertaine him as being of a different Religion For although God appointed that all of the seed of Iacob should goe up to 〈◊〉 to worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet the Tribes of the separation first under 〈◊〉 worship'd in Groves and High places and after the captivity being a mixt people halfe Iew halfe Gentile procur'd a Temple to be built them by 〈◊〉 their President neare the City 〈◊〉 upon the mountaine Gerezim stiling themselves pertinentes 〈◊〉 Montem benedictum by allusion to the words of God by Mofes they shall stand upon the Mount Gerezim to blesse the people and these upon Mount Ebal to curse And in case arguments should faile to make this schisme plausible they will make it good by turning their Adversaries out of doores They shall not come neere their blessed Mount of Gerezim but fastning an Anathema on them let them goe to Ebal and curse there And now I wonder not that these Disciples were very angry at them who had lost the true Religion and neglected the offices of humanity to them that kept it They might goe neere now to make it a cause of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzene speaks might seem to Apologize for them and so it might if it had not led them to indiscreet and uncharitable zeale But men care not how farre they goe if they doe but once thinke they can make God a party of their Quarrell For when Religion which ought to be the antidote of our malice proves its greatest incentive our uncharitablenesse must needs runne faster to a mischiefe by how much that which stopt it's course before drives it on with the greater violence And therefore as it is ordinary for charity to be called coldnesse in Religion so it is as ordinary for a pretence of Religion to make cold charity The present case of the Disciples and the same spirit which for the same 〈◊〉 cause is takenup by the persons of the day proves all this true with whom fire and fagot is esteem'd the best argument to convince the understanding and the Inquisitors of hereticall pravity the best Doctors and subtlest Disputants determining all with a Vir is ignem fossā mulieribus For thus wee had like to have suffered it was mistaken Religion that mov'd these Traytors to so damnable a Conspiracy not for any defence of their owne cause but for extirpation of ours For else what grievances did they groan under In quos corum populum exaestuantem sollicit a vimus quibus vitae periculum attulimus It was Nazianzen's question to the Apostate Give me leave to consider it as appliable to our present case and try if I can make a just discovery of the cause that mov'd these Traytors to so accursed a Confpiracy 1 Then there was no cause at all given them by us none put to death for being a Roman Catholique nor any of them punish'd for his Religion This hath beene the constant attestation of our Princes and State since the first Lawes made against Recusants the thing it selfe will bear them record From primo of Elizabeth to undecimo the Papists made no scruple of comming to our Churches Recusancy was not then so much as a Chrysome not an Embrio But when Pius quintus sent forth his Breves of Excommunication and Deposition of the Queen then first they forbore to pray with us or to have any religious communion This although every where knowne yet being a matter of fact and so as likely to be denied by others as affirmed by us without good evidence see it therefore affirmed expresly by an Act of Parliament in Decimo tertio of Elizabeth which specifies this as one inconvenience and ill consequence of the Bull. Whereby 〈◊〉 grown great 〈◊〉 and bolonesse in many not only to 〈◊〉 and absent themselves from 〈◊〉 service now most 〈◊〉 set forth and used within this Realme but also have thought themselves discharged of all 〈◊〉 c. Not only Recusancy but likewise disobedience therefore both Recusancy and disobedience Two yeares therefore after this Bull this Statute was made if it was possible to nullify the effects of it to hinder its execution and if it might be by this meanes to keep them as they had been before in Communion with the Church of England and obedience to her Majesty This was the first Statute that concerned them in speciall but yet their Religion was not medled with For this Statute against execution of the Popes Bulls was no more thē what had been established by Act of Parliament in the 16 th yeare of Richard the second by which it was made 〈◊〉 to purchase Bulls from Rome and the delinquents in this kinde with all their 〈◊〉 fautors 〈◊〉 and maintainers to be referred to the Kings
height of a revenge It is the Doctrine of S. Hierome and Titus Bostrensis The Law had beene their Schoole-master and taught them the rules of justice both Punitive and Vindictive But Christ was the first that taught it to be a sinne to retaliate evill with evill it was a Doctrine they could not read in the killing letter of the Law There they might meete with precedents of revenge and anger of a high severity an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and let him be cut off from his people But forgiving injuries praying for our persecutors loving our enemies and relieving them were Doctrines of such high and absolute integrity as were to be reserved for the best and most perfect Law-giver the bringer of the best promises to which the most perfect actions have the best proportion and this was to be when Shiloh came Now then the spirit of Elias is out of date Iam ferrea primum Desinit ac toto surgit Gens Aurea Mundo And therefore our blessed Master reproveth them of ignorance not of the Law but of his spirit which had they but known or could but have guessed at the end of his comming they had not been such Abecedarij in the Schoole of Mercy And now we shall not need to look farre for persons Disciples professing at least in Christs schoole yet as great strangers to the mercifull spirit of our Saviour as if they had been sonnes of the Law or foster-brothers to Romulus and suck't a wolse and they are Romanists too this daies solemnity presents them to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet were that wash'd off underneath they write Christian and Iesuit One would have expected that such men set forth to the worlds acceptance with so mercifulla cognomentum should have put a hand to support the ruinous fabrick of the worlds charity and not have pulled the frame of heaven earth about our eares But yet Necredite Teucri Give me leave first to make an Inquisition after this Antichristian pravity and try who is of our side and who loves the King by pointing at those whose Sermons doe blast Loyalty breathing forth Treason flaughters and cruelty the greatest imaginable contrariety to the spirit and Doctrine of our Dear Master So we shall quickly finde out more then a pareil for S. Iames and S. Iohn the Boanerges of my Text. It is an act of faith by faith to conquer the enemies of God and Holy Church saith Sanders our Country-man Hitherto nothing but well If Iames and Iohn had offered to doe no more then what they could have done with the sword of the spirit and the shield of Faith they might have beene inculpable and so had he if hee had said no more but the blood boyles higher the manner spoyles all For it is not well done unlesse a warlike Captaine be appointed by Christs Vicar to beare a Croisade in a field of blood And if the other Apostles did not proceed such an angry way as Iames Iohn it was only discretion that detain'd them not religion For so they might and it were no way unlawfull for them to beare armes to propagate Religion had they not wanted an opportunity if you believe the same author for fighting is proper for S. Peter and his Successors therefore because Christ gave him Commission to feed his Lambs A strange reason I had thought Christ would have his Lambes fed with the sincere milk of his word not like to Canibals solitisque 〈◊〉 Lac potare Getis poculatingere venis To mingle blood intheir sacrifices as Herod to the Galilaeans and quaffe it off for an auspicium to the propagation of the Christian faith Me thinks here is already too much clashing of armour and effusion of blood for a Christian cause but this were not altogether so unchristian like if the sheepe though with blood yet were not to be fed with the blood of their sheepheard 〈◊〉 I meane their Princes But I finde many such Nutritij in the Nurseries of Rome driving their Lambes from their folds unlesse they will be taught to wory the Lion Emanuel Sà in his Aphorismes affirmes it lawful to kill a King indeed not every King but such a one as rules with Tyranny and not then unlesse the Pope hath sentene'd him to death but then he may though he be his lawfull Prince Not the necessitude which the Law of nations hath put betweene Prince and people not the obligation of the oath of Allegeance not the Sanctions of God Almighty himselfe must reverse the sentence against the King when once past but any one of his subjects of his owne sworne subjects may kill him This perfidious treasonable position of Sà is not a single Testimony For 1. it slipt not from his pen by inadvertency it was not made publique untill after forty yeares deliberation as himselfe testifies in his Preface 2. After such an avisamente it is now the ordinary receiv'd manuall for the Fathers Confessors of the Iesuits Order This Doctrine although Titulo res digna sepulchri yet is nothing if compared with Mariana For 1. he affirms the same Doctrine in substance 2. Then he descends to the very manner of it ordering how it may be done with the best convenience He thinks poyson to be the best way but yet that for the more secrecy it be cast upon the chayres saddles and garments of his Prince It was the old laudable custome of the Moores of Spaine 3. Hee addes examples of the businesse telling us that this was the device to wit by poyson'd boots that old Henry of Castile was cur'd of his sicknesse 4. Lastly this may be done not only if the Pope judge the King a Tyrant which was the utmost Emanuel Sà affirm'd but it is sufficient proofe of his being a Tyrant if learned men though but few and those seditious too doe but murmure it or beginne to call him so I hope this Doctrine was long since disclaim'd by the whole Society and condemned ad umbras Acherunticas Perhaps so but yet these men who use to object to us an infinity of divisions among our selves who boast so much of their owne Vnion and consonancy in judgment with whom nothing is more ordinary then to maintaine some opinions quite throughout their Order as if they were informed by some common Intellectus agens should not be divided in a matter of so great moment so much concerning the Monarchy of the See Apostolike to which they are vowed leigemen But I have greater reason to believe them Vnited in this Doctrine then is the greatnesse of this probability For 1. There was an Apology printed in Italy permissu superiorum in the yeare 1610. that sayes They were all enemies of that holy Name of Iesus that condemned Mariana for any such Doctrine I understand not why but sure I am that the Iesuits doe or did thinke his Doctrine innocent for in their Apology put
that by vertue of a constitution of 〈◊〉 the ninth by which every man is freed from all duty homage allegeance or subordination whatsoever due to a Heretick whether due by a naturall civill or politicall right aliquo pacto aut quâcunque firmitate vallatum Et sic nota saith the glosse quod Papa potest absolvere Laicum de iuramento fidelitatis I end those things with the attestation of Bellarmine Est res certa 〈◊〉 at a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maximum iustis de causis temporalibus indicare atque ipsos Temporales Principes aliquando deponere And again that we may be sure to know of what nature this doctrine is he repeats it Sic igitur de potestate in Temporalibus quod ea sit in Papa non Opinio sed Certitudo apud Catholices est And now let any man say if this be not a Catholike Doctrine and a likely antecedent to have Treason to be its consequent But I fixe not here onely this it is plain that this proposition is no friend to Loyalty but that which followes is absolutely inconsistent with it in case our Prince be of a different perswafion in matters of Religion For 2 It is not only lawfull to depose Princes that are hereticall but it is necessary and the Catholiks are bound to doe it sub mortali I know not whether it be so generally I am sure it is as confidently taught as the former and by as great Doctors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 erraret si admitteret aliquem Regem qui vellet impunè fovere quamlibet Sectam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Bellarmine And again Non licet Christianis tolerare Regem haereticum si conetur pertrahere subditos ad suam haeresim But F. Creswell puts the businesse home to purpose Certè non tantum licet sed summâ etiam iuris Divini necessitate ac praecepto imò conscientiae vinculo arctissimo extremo animarum suarum periculo ac discrimine Christianis omnibus hoc ipsum incumbit si praestare rem possint Vnder perill of their soules they must not suffer an hereticall Prince to reigne over them Possunt debent 〈◊〉 arcere ex hominum Christianorum dominatu ne alios inficiat c. 3 He that saith Subjects may and are bound to depose their Princes and to drive them from all rule over Christians if they be able meanes something more For what if the Prince resist still he is bound to depose him if he be able How if the Prince make a 〈◊〉 The Catholike subject must doe his duty neverthelesse and warre too if he be able He that 〈◊〉 he may wage a warre with his Prince I doubt not but thinks he may kill him and if the fortune of the warre lights so upon him the subject cannot be blamed for doing of his duty It is plain that killing a Prince is a certain consequent of deposing him unlesse the Prince be bound in conscience to think himselfe a Heretick when the Pope declares him so and be likewise bound not to resist and besides all this will performe these his obligations and as certainly think himselfe hereticall and as really give over his Kingdome quietly as he is bound For in case any of these should faile there can be but very sleder assurance of his life I would be loth to obtrude upon men the odious consequences of their opinions or to make any thing worse which is capable of a fairer construction but I crave pardon in this particular the life of Princes is sacred and is not to be violated so much as in thought or by the most remote consequence of a publike doctrine But here indeed it is so immediate and naturall a consequent of the former that it must not be dissembled But what shall we think if even this blasphemy be taught in terminis See this too In the yeare 1407. when the Duke of Orleans had been slaine by Iohn of Burgundy and the fact notorious beyond a possibility of conccalement he thought it his best way to imploy his Chaplaine to justify the act pretending that Orleans was a Tyrant This stood him in small stead for by the procurement of Gerson it was decreed in the Councell of Constance that Tyranny was no sufficient cause for a man to kill a Prince But yet I finde that even this decree will not stand Princes in much stead First because the decree runnes ut nemo privatâ Authoritate c. but if the Pope commands it then it is Iudicium publicum and so they are never the more secure for all this Secondly because 〈◊〉 tels us that this Decree is nothing 〈◊〉 id decretum Concilij 〈◊〉 Romano Pontifici Martino quinto probatum non invenio non Eugenio 〈◊〉 Successoribus quorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecclesiasticorum sanctitas stat Thirdly because though the Councell had forbidden killing of Tyrannical Princes even by publique authority though this Decree had beene confirmed by the Pope which yet it was not yet Princes are never the more secure if they be convict of Heresy and therefore let them but adde Heresy to their Tyranny and this Councell Non obstante they may be killed by any man for so it is determin'd in an Apology made for Chastel Licitum esse privatis singulis Reges Principes Hareseos Tyrannidis condemnatos occidere non obstante Decreto Concilij Constantiensis And the Author of the Book de iustâ abdicatione Henrici 3. affirmes it not only lawfull but meritorious How much lesse then this is that of Bellarmine Si obsint fini Spirituali Spiritualis potestas potest debet coercere Temporalem omni ratione ac viâ If omniratione then this of killing him in case of necessity or greater convenience must not be excluded But to confesse the businesse openly and freely It is knowne that either the Consent of the people or the Sentence of the Pope or Consent of learned men is with them held to be a publicum 〈◊〉 and sufficient to sentence a Prince and convict him of Heresy or Tyranny That opinion which makes the people Iudge is very rare amongst them but almost generally exploded that opinion which makes the learned to be their Iudge is I thinke proper to Mariana or to a few more with him but that the sentence of the Pope is a sufficient conviction of him and a compleate 〈◊〉 act is the most Catholique opinion on that Side as I shall shew anon Now whether the Pope or learned men or the people be to passe this sentence upon the Prince it is plaine that it is an Vniversall Doctrine amongst them that after this sentence whosesoever it be it is then without Question lawfull to kill him and the most that ever they say is that it is indeed not lawfull to kill a King not lawfull for a private man of his owne head without the publike sentence of his Iudge but when this Iudge whom they affirme to be the Pope hath passed
maintain their cause and to propagate their Religion by ruine of Princes and conquering their Kingdomes But it is the excellency of Christianity that by humility and obedience it made Princes tributary to our Deare Master and homagers to his Kingdome When Valentinian sent Calligonus his Chamberlaine to S. Ambrose to threaten him from his faith his answer was Deus permittit tibi ut impleas quod minaris Ego patiar quod est Episcopi 〈◊〉 facies quod est spadonis He did not stirre up the numerous people of his Diocesse to rebell against the Emperour or depose him imployed no agent in his Court to undermine his security nor assasine to take his life He and the rest of those good Fathers would not have lost their possibility of being Martyrs for the world unlesse it were by perswading the Emperours to the Christian faith Wee pray for all our Governours that they might have long life a secure government a safe house strong armies good subjects quiet world So 〈◊〉 I had thought that the Doctrine and example of our B. Saviour the practise Apostolicall and primitive had beene tyes enough to keep us in our obedience to God and the King and in Christian charity to all but I finde that all these precepts come to nothing for the Apostles and primitive Christians did not actually depose Kings nor alter states nor call for fire to consume their enemies not because it was simply unlawfull so to doe or any way adverse to the precepts of Christ but because they wanted Power So Bellarmine The Church gave leave that the faithfull should obey Iulian because then they wanted forces And F. Creswell is very confident of the businesse They might without all Question have appointed to themselves other Kings and Princes if the Christians had beene strong enough to bring their intendments to passe But because they could not therefore it was not lawfull for them to goe about it nor is it for us in the same case especially if the Prince hath quiet possession and a strong guard about him then by no meanes is it lawfull for a single man by then by no meanes is it lawfull for a single man by his owne authority to assault his Prince that rules Tyrannically So Salmeron But who sees not that this way murder may be lawfull For true it is God commanded us saying Thou shalt not kill that is if thou art not able to lift up thy hand or strike a stroake thou shalt not blaspheme that is if thou beest speechlesse thou must be obedient to thy Prince that is if thou canst not tell how to helpe it Good Doctrine this And indeed it might possibly be something if God had commanded our subordination to Princes only for wrath for then si vires 〈◊〉 if wee can defend our selves we are secure wee need not feare his wrath but when he addes also for conscience sake I cannot sufficiently wonder that any man should obtrude so 〈◊〉 so illiterate and so impious an interpretation upon the Christian world under the Title of Catholique Doctrine Christ when he was betrayed and seized upon by his Murderers could have commanded twelve Legions of Angels for his Guard Non defuerunt vires and in all humane likelyhood such a Satellitium as that would have mov'd them to a beliefe in him or else I am sure might have destroyed the unbelievers Shall I say more against this rude 〈◊〉 Then thus It is false that the Primitive Christians had not power to defend themselves against their Persecutors Heare S. Cyprian Nemo nostrum quando apprehenditur reluctatur nec se adversus iniustitiam violentiam vestram quamvis nimius copiosus noster sit Populus ulciscitur They could have resisted and that to blood but they had not so learned Christ. Prayers and teares were the armes of Christians and then they had a defence beyond all this when they were hard put to it Mori potuerunt a submission of their bodies to Martyrdome was their last refuge Thus S. Agnes Lucia Agatha Christina Domitilla sav'd both their faith and chastity non armis sedignibus carnificis manu the tormentors last cruelty defended them from all succeeding danger I will not yet conclude that that which these men obtrude for Catholique Doctrine is flat and direct heresy I will instance but once more and then I shall In the fourth Councell of Toledo which was assembled when the usurping and Tyrannizing Goths did domineere in Europe the most whereof were Tyrants Vsurpers or Arrians the Councell decreed that if any man did violate the life or person of his King aut potestate Regni exuerit kill him or depose him Anathema sit c. He should be accursed in the sight of God and his Holy Angels and together withall the companions of his iniquity hee should be separated from the Catholique Church And now I hope I may say that these men who either practise or advise such practises as killing or deposing Kings areas formally condemn'd for heresy and anathematiz'd as ever was Manichee or Cataphrygian I know not but perhaps this might be thought of when the 〈◊〉 were inscrib'd heretiks upon the publike pillar before the Louure in Paris upon their banishment however let them answer it as they may it concernes them as much as their being Catholiques comes to Et considerent quia quae praedicant tantoperè verba aut ipsorum summorum Pontificum sunt suas fimbrias extendentium 〈◊〉 illorum qui eis adulantur as said Aeneas Sylvius but at no hand can it be Christian Doctrine I instanc'd in these things to shew the 〈◊〉 between the spirit of our B. Saviour who answer'd the Question of the text and the Fathers Confessors of whom was ask'd the Question of the day But give mee leave to consider them not only as mis-informing their penitents but as concealing their intended purpose for even this way the persons to whom the Question was propounded made themselves guilty of the intended machination For by all Law Ecclesiasticall and Civill hee that conceales an intended Murder or Treason makes himselfe as much a party for concealing as is the Principall for contriving Ob. But these Fathers Confessors could not be accused by vertue of these generall Lawes as being exempt by vertue of speciall case for they received notice of these things only in confession the seale of which is so sacred and inviolable that he is sacrilegious who in any case doth breake it open though it be to avoid the greatest evill that can happen so Bellarmine to save the lives of all the Kings in Christendome so Binet though to save a whole common wealth from dammage temporall or spirituall of body or soule so Suarez A considerable matter On the one side wee are threatned by sacriledge on the other by danger of Princes and common-wealths for the case may happen that either the Prince and whole State may be suffered to perish