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A89086
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A pious and learned speech delivered in the High Court of Parliament, 1. H. 4. by Thomas Mercks then Bishop of Carlile. Wherein hee gravely and judiciously declares his opinion concerning the question, what should be done with the deposed King Richard the Second.
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Merke, Thomas, d. 1409.
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1642
(1642)
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Wing M1826; Thomason E200_51; ESTC R13379
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5,336
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8
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the Prophet David forbiddeth both by precept and practice to touch the Lords anointed Thou shall not saith the Lord Raile upon the Iudges neither speake evill of the Ruler of the people And the Apostles doe demand further that even our thoughts and soules be obedient to higher powers And lest any should imagine that they meant of good Princâ—s onely they speake generally of all And further to take away all doubt they make expresse mention of the evill For the power and Authority of wicked Princes is the ordnance of God And therefore Christ told Pilate That the power which he had was given him from above And the Prophet Esay called Cyrus being a prophane and Heathen Prince the Lords anointed For God turneth the hearts even of wicked Princes to doe his will And as Iehosaphat said to his Rulers They execute not the judgement of man but of the Lord. In regard whereof David calleth them Gods because they have the rule and authority even from God which if they doe abuse they are not to be adjudged by their Subjects for no power within their Dominion is superiour to theirs But God reservcth them to their sorest tryall Horribly and suddenly saith the Wiseman will the Lord appeare to them and a hard judgement shall they have The Law of God commandeth that the childe should be put to death for any contumely done unto the parents but what if the Father bee a Robber if a murtherer if sor excesse of villanies odious and execrable both to God and man surely he deserveth the greatest degree of punishment and yet must not the sonne lift up his hand against him for no man can be so great an offender as to be punished by parricide But our Country is or ought to bee more deare to us than our Parents And the Prince is the Father of the Countrey and therefore more sacred and deare to us then our Parents by nature and must not be violated how imperious how impious soever he be Doth he command or demand our purses or persons we must not shun the one nor shrink from the other for as Nehemiah saith Kings have dominion over the Cattell of their Subjects at their pleasure Doth hee injoyne those actions which are contrary to the Lawes of God we must neither wholly obey nor violently resist but with a constant courage submit our selves to all manner of punishment and shew our subjection by suffering and not performing yea the Church hath declared it to be an Heresie to hold that a Prince may be slaine or deposed by his Subjects for any default or disorder of life or default in Government There will be defaults so long as long as there be men and as we endure with patience a barren yeare if it happen and unseasonable weather so must we tollerate the imperfections of Rulers and quietly expect either reformation or alteration But alas what such cruelty what such impiety hath King Richard committed examine the imputations objected with the false circumstance of aggravation and you shall finde but little of truth or of great moment it may be many oversights have escaped as who lives without offending yet none so grievous to be termed tyranny as proceeding rather from unexperienced ignorance or corrupt counsell than from any naturall or wilfull malice Oh! how should the world be pestered with tyrants if Subjects might be permitted to rebell upon pretence of tyranny how many good Princes should often be suppressed by those by whom they ought to be supported if they but levie a Subsidie or any other taxation it shall be judged oppression if they put any to death for traiterous attempts against their persons it shall be exclaimed at for cruelty if they shall doe any thing against the good liking of their people it shall bee proclaimed Tyrannie But let it be that without desert in him or authority in us King Richard must be deposed yet what right hath the Duke of Lancaster to the Crowne or what reason have we without right to give it him If he make Title as Heire to King Richard then must he stay King Richards death for no man can succeed as heire to the living But 't is well knowne to all men who are not wilfully blind or grosly ignorant that there are some yet alive lineally descended from Lionel Duke of Clarence whose issue by the judgement of the high Court of Parliament in the 8. yeare of K. Richards Reigne was declared heire apparant to the Crowne in case King Richard should dye without issue The claime from Edmund Crouchbacke I passe over the Authors thereof themselves being ashamed of so absurd an abuse And therefore all the pretence now on foot is by right of Conquest and the Kings resignation and grant and the consent of the many it is bad stuffe that will take no colour what conquest can a Subject make against a Soveraigne where the warre is insurrection and the victory high Treason King Richards resignation being in prison is an act of exaction by force and therefore of no force to bind him And by the Lawes of this Realme the King by himselfe cannot alienate the ancient Jewels and ornaments of the Crowne much lesse give away his Crowne and Kingdome And custome wee have none for the vulgar to elect their King but they are alwayes tyde to accept of him whom the right of succession enables to the Crowne much lesse can they make good that Title which is by violence usurped For nothing can be said to be freely done when liberty is restrained by feare As for the deposing of Edward the Second it is no more to be urged than the poysoning of King Iohn or the murthering of a lawfull Prince we must live according to Lawes not Examples yet the Kingdome then was not taken from lawfull Successours But if we looke backe to times past we shall finde that these Titles were more strong in King Stephen than they are now in the Duke of Lancaster for King Henry the 1. being at liberty neither restrained nor constrained the people assented to this designement and thereupon without feare or force he was anointed and crowned King Yet Henry Fitzempresse having a neerer right to the Crowne by his Mother notwithstanding his Father was a stranger and he borne beyond the Seas never ceased the prosecution of bloody warres to the great effusion of blood and spoyling the Countrey untill his lawfull inheritance was assured him It terrifieth me but to thinke how many flourishing Kingdomes have been by such contentions either rent by intestine division or subdued to forraigne Princes under pretence of assistance and aide This Kingdome hath had too wofull experience of these severall mischiefes and yet neither examples of other Countreys or miseries of our owne are sufficient to make us be wary Certainely I feare it will betide us as it did to Esops Frogges who being desirous to have a King had a beame given them the first fall affrighted them but when they saw it lye still they contemptuously insulted thereon and desired a King of more active spirit Then a Storke was sent them which stalking amongst them daily devoured them King Richards mildnesse hath bred in us this scorne interpreting it to be cowardise and dulnesse of nature I dare not say yet give me leave to suspect with greater courage we may finde greater cruelty And thus have I declared my opinion with more words you may perhaps conjecture than wisdome yet fewer then the waight of the cause did require And I doe resolutely conclude that we have neither power nor policie either to depose King Richard or in his place to Elect Duke Henry That King Richard remaineth still our Soveraigne Lord and therefore it is not lawfull for us to give judgement against him That the Duke whom you are pleased to stile King hath more transgressed the King and Realme than Richard hath done either against him or us For he being banished the Realme for ten yeares by the King and Councell amongst whom his owne father was chiefe and given oath not to returne without speciall license Hee hath not only broken his oath but disturbed the peace of the Land dispossessed the King of his Royall estate and now demandeth judgement against his person without offence proved or defence heard if this injury move not yet let both our private and publike dangers somewhat withdraw us from these violent proceedings FINIS
A Pious and Learned SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HIGH COURT OF Parliament 1. H. 4. by THOMAS MERCKS then Bishop of CARLILE WHEREIN HEE GRAVELY AND Judiciously Declares his opinion concerning the Question What should be done with the Deposed King RICHARD the Second VERITAS VIRESâ—IT VVLNERE London printed for N. V. and J. B. â—â—â—â— A Speech wise and Religious Spoken in the High Court of Parliament in the I. yeare of the Raigne of H. the 4. by the pious learned pillar of the Church Thomas Mercks Bishop of CARLILE THomas Mercks the Bishop of Carlile a man that used both liberty and constancie in a good cause in his private judgement having never allowed these proceedings but dissembled his dislike till fit time to declare it being in a place to be heard and by the order of the House not to be interrupted of any rose up and with a grave countenance and setled courage said This Question right Honourable concerneth a matter of great consequence and weight the determining whereof will assuredly procure either quiet or turmoyle both to the publike State and our particular consciences Therefore before any resolution thereof be given I beseech you to take into your more serious consideration these two things First whether King Richard be sufficiently deposed or not Secondly whether King Henry be by Instice and good advisement seated in the Succession In the first point is to be examined whether a King by lineall succession crowned annointed and lawfully invested may upon imputation either of negligence or tyranny be deposed by his Subjects secondly what Richard had omitted in the one or committed in the other that might deserve that heavie judgement I will not dispute what may be done in a Popular or Consular estate in which though one beareth the Title and Honour of a Prince yet he hath no supreme power of a King But in the one the Nobility and chiefe men of State in the other the people have greatest Prerogative in neither the Prince Of the last sort was the Common wealth of the Lacedemonians who by that forme of government which Licurgus framed oftentimes fined sometimes fettered their Princes sometimes put them to death such were the petty Kings in France in Caesars time who were oftentimes arraigned and executed and the Princes of the Leodiâ—nses as Ambiorix confessed had no greater power over their subjects than their subjects had over them And of the second condition were the Roman Emperours at the first being subject to the censure of the Senate and such are now the Emperours of Germany whom the other Princes by their Aristocraticall power doe not onely restraine but sometimes remove such are the Kings of Denmarke and Swethland who are many times by their Nobility dejected either into prison or exile such are the Dukes of Venice and some other free States of Italy And the chiefest cause why Lewis Earle of Flanders was lately expelled was for assuming unto himselfe the Cognizance of life and death which Authority was never incident to his Dignity In these and such like Governments the Prince hath not absolute Regality but is himselfe subject to that power which is more transcendent then his whether it be in the Nobility or multitude But if the Soveraigne Majesty be in the Prince as it was in the first three Emperours and in the Kingdomes of Iudaea and Israel and is now in the Kingdomes of England France Scotland Spaine Muscovia Turkie Tartary Persia Ethiopia and almost all the Kingdomes of Asia and Africa although for his vices he be unprofitable to the Subjects yea hurtfull yea untollerable yet can they neither hazzard his power nor harme his person either by judiciall proceedings or by force for neither one nor all Magistratec have any Authority over the Prince from whom all Authority is derived and whose onely presence doth silence and suspend all inferiour Iurisdiction and sorce And for power what Subject can assist or counsell or conceale violence against his Prince and not incurre the high and heinous crime of fawsonry or treason it is a common saying thought is free free indeed from punishment of secular Lawes except by word or deed it breake forth into action yet the secret thoughts against the sacred Majesty of a Prince without attempt without endeavour have beene adjudged to death And some who in auricular confession have discovered their treacherous devises against the King in person have for the same beene executed All Lawes do exempt a mad man from punishment because their actions are not governed by their will and the will of man being set apart all his deeds are indifferent neither can the body offend without a corrupt or erroneous minde yet if a mad-mâ—n but draw his weapon upon his King it hath been adjudged worthy death And lest any man should surmise that Princes for the maintenance of their owne safety and soveraignty are the onely authors of these Judgements Let us examine with consideration the patterns and precepts to this purpose set forth in the sacred Text. Nebuchadnezzar King of Assyria wasted all Palestine with fire and sword oppugned the whole Citie a great while and at the last expugned it slaughtered the King burnt the Temple carryed away the holy Vessels and Treasure and permitted the Souldiers with unmercifull cruelty to spoile and ransack all the people with fire and sword and whom from thence had escaped and the pestilence had spared he led captive into Chaldea and there erected his Golden image commanding those that refused to worship it to be cast into the firy Furnace notwithstanding God calleth Nebuchadnezzar his servant and promiseth him wages for his service And the Prophets Ieremiah and Barucke did write unto the Jewes to pray for the life of him and of Balthazar his sonne that their dayes upou earth might be as the dayes of Heaven And Ezechiel with bitter tearmes upbraideth the disloyaltie of Zedechiah for revolting from Nebuchadnezzar after homage done unto him Did not Saul put all the Priests to death because one of them did relieve holy and harmlesse David Did he not prosecute his faithfull servant and dutifull son-in-law yet was not hee spared nay protected by him And was not David much grieved for but taking away the lap of his garment and afterwards caused the messenger to be slaine that upon request and sor pitty did lend his hand as himselfe reported to hasten the voluntary death of that sacred King As for the contrary examples of Iehu they were done by expresse Oracle and Revelation from God and are no more set downe for our imitation than the robbing of the Egyptians or any other particular or priviledged commandement but in the generall precept which all men must generally follow not only our actions but our speeches also and our very thoughts are strictly charged with duty and obedience to Princes whether they be good or evill The Law of God ordaineth That hee that doâ—h presumptuously against the Prince shall dye Deut. 17. 12. And