Mahometisme or any other detestable in fidelity That then this Prince may be declared fallen from his right as culpable of felony towardes him to whome he hath made the oath of his Realme that is to Christ and his subiects may be absolued in cōscience both at the spirituall and Ecclesiasticall Tribunall from the oath of allegiance they haue made vnto him And that in this case it belongs to the authority of the Church resident either in her head the Pope or in her body a Councell to publish this declaration And not only all the other partes of the Catholike Church but likewise all the Doctors who liued in France from the first setting vp of schooles of Diuinity amongst them haue held the affirmatiue opinion that in the case of hereticall or infidell Princes and such as persecute Christianity or Catholike Religion their subiects may be absolued from their oath of allegiance By meanes wherof though the contrary doctrine were the truest yet notwithstanding all the other partes of the Church being against it you cannot hould it for more then problematical in matter of faith I call that doctrine problematicall in matter of faith which we are not bound to belieue by necessity of faith and the contradictory therof doth not binde them that belieue it with excommunication and disunion or separation from the community Otherwise you must acknowledge that the communion which you exercise with the other partes of the Church houlding the contrary doctrine yea euen that communion which you conserue with the memory of your predecessours was vnlawfull defiled with heresy and excommunication And indeed those who take vpon them to defend the doctrine of the English Oath which is the patterne of yours VVidring disput de Iuram fidel cap. 3. sect 19. defend it for no other then problematicall Our intention say they is not to affirme the other opinion as repugnant to faith or saluation it being defended and maynteined by so many so great Deuines whome God forbid we should go about to condemne of so great a cryme And therefore to include this clause vnder the same obligation of faith vnder that very degree of excommunication vnder the which we comprehend the condemnation of those which attempt the liues of Princes is to fall into foure manifest Inconueniences which our Chamber hath giuen me in charge to lay before your eies The first is to force mens soules and intangle their consciences in bidding them to belieue and sweare vnder payne of excommunication as doctrine of faith and conformable to the word of God a point of doctrine the contrary wherof is held by all the other partes of the Catholike Church and hath byn euer hitherunto by their owne predecessours The second inconuenience is vtterly to ouerthrow the authority of the Church and to open the gate to all sortes of heresies to giue scope to lay men without direction or warrant either of generall Councell or Ecclesiasticall sentence to vndertake the decision of matters of faith to determine pointes of Controuersy and to pronounce openly what is conformable to the Scripture what is impious and detestable This then we say is to vsurpe the office of Priesthood this is to stretch our hand to the Arke this is to take the Censar for Sacrifice In briefe this is to commit the selfe same outrages for which Gods maledictions haue iustly fallen long since on the vsurpers as wel priuate persons as Kings themselues The third Inconuenience is to throw vs head long into euident and ineuitable schisme For all other Catholike nations houlding this doctrine we cannot declare it to be contrary to holy Writ nor hould it for wicked and detestable but therewithal we must renounce the cōmuniō both of the head and other partes of the Church and therby confesse that the Church for so many ages hath not beene the Church of God but the Synagogue of Sathan not the spouse of Christ but the Diuells strumpet The fourth Inconuenience is not only to make frustrate the remedy which men seeke in this peril of Princes in weakning that which is held for certaine and vndoubted by ioyning it to a thing contradicted but withall insteed of assuring the life and estate of Princes to put in great daunger both the one and the other by meanes of wars and other mischances and disasters which ordinarily schisme drawes after it These are Gentlemen the foure pointes our Company haue giuen me in charge to represent vnto you which I will do my best to dispatch with all possible cleernes and facility if you please to heare me with the like patience you haue hitherto continued which I easily persuade my selfe you will if you set before your eies the importance of the matter I am heare to treate with you which is the greatest at this present in Christendome And besides consider that it is not my selfe whome you heare speake in this Controuersy For it is not I who speake in this cause but the whole body of the Ecclesiasticall Order and all that of the Nobility adioyned vnto it and which haue deputed these twelue Noble men taken from the twelue Gouernementes in the Realme of purpose to giue authority to my wordes with their presence and withall to giue testimony in this present occasion of the selfe same deuotion their predecessours haue euer borne the Church which they haue planted by their Armes and watered with their bloud in the furthest partes of the world And therfore I will no more enlarge my selfe in begging of you fauourable audience and attention only let me intreate you before I enter into the matter to giue me leaue to make these two protestations therby to preuent certaine calumniations The first that when I say those who hould the negatiue part cannot hould it for other then Problematicall I intend not to comprehend by the word Problematicall that which concernes the condemnation of those parricides who vndertake to kill Princes for this I hould for a point of faith and condemne the contrary opinion for hereticall and guilty of all sortes of excommunication and eternall punishment The other that it is contrary to my disposition and full sore against my will that I come to treate of these questions in such a time when our Country is newly come out of many differences and diuisions in State-matters and is yet full of debates in matters of Religion and haue refused this charge many times euen with teares knowing well how I was to imbarke my selfe in a sea full of rockes and perills and to how many harsh contradictions and calumniations I should expose my selfe But the publishing of Copyes of your Article the bruit wherof was spred farre and neere hath hindered vs from keeping it any longer secret and the wound once discouered the discharge of our Office bound vs to seeke a remedy NOvv then Gentlemen concerning the first Inconuenience to lay the foundation of my discourse not on pillars of gold as Pindarus said but on the firme pillars
shall it be in vayne that the Apostle hath said Obey your Prelates Greg. Nazian orat de ser suis ad Iul. trib exeq and be subiect vnto them For they watch for your soules And shall that be said in vayne that S. Gregorie Nazianzene hath written You sheepe feed not your pastors And shall it be in vayne that Saul was accursed because he would vsurpe and take vpon him the authority of Priesthood And shall it be to no purpose that Oza was punished with suddaine death for hauing put his hand to the Arke And shall it be in vayne that Ozias was stroken with the leprosy because he would take the Censar in his hand But the tyme presseth me to get out of this point to dispatch the other two remaining with as much breuity as possibly I can THE THIRD INCONVENIENCE that I haue vndertaken to discouer and lay open to the eye in the examen of your article was that it did thrust vs into a manifest and ineuitable schisme For to say nothing of the declaration that his Holines hath already made of the Oath of England vpon the modell wherof this Article hath been formed and not to permit any hold to those who say that it should be the Pope who should be the authour of the Schisme and not we I say that though the Pope intermeddle not himselfe in our affaires the Schisme is all made the very houre that we accept and sweare this Article or Bill And that it is not the Pope but we that make it And to confirme it how can we sweare that the Pope and all the other parts of the Catholike Church hold a doctrine contrary to the word of God impious and detestable without making schisme and schisme not only against the Popes person but also against the Sea Apostolike and against all the rest of the body of the Church For if the foundation of the Communion Ecclesiastique be vnity in faith and in matters appertaining to saluation how can we belieue and sweare that the Pope and all the rest of the Church erre in faith and in matters belonging to saluation and hold a doctrine contrary to Gods word and impious and detestable and consequently Hereticall without separating our selues from Communion with them and subiecting them in as much as is in vs to a malediction and an Anathema and consequently to deuide the Church or rather separate our selues from the Church And how odious a thing schisme is to God and how much it is detested both of Angells and men we need not any more expresse testimony then that of holy Writ that teacheth vs that the earth opened it selfe vnder the Schismatikes and that they descended all liuing Num. 16. and aliue into hell The ground sayth Moyses brake in sunder vnder their feete and opening her mouth deuoured them with their Tabernacles and all their substance and they went downe quick into hell We need not a more expresse witnes then Great S. Euseb hist Eccl. lib. 6. cap. 45. Denis of Alexandria who wrote to Nouatian in these wordes It were meet in very deed rather to endure all things then to consent to the deuiding of Gods Church the Martyrdomes to which we expose our selues to hinder the dismembring of the Church being no lesse glorious then those which we suffer for the alsteyning from sacrificing vnto Idols We need not more expresse testimony then that which S. Cyprian bringeth That the stayne and spot of Schisme is not washed away by the bloud of Martyrdome De vnit Ecclesiae We need not a more manifest testimony then this of S. Chrysostome who sayth That those who deuide the Church of Christ Ad Eph. hom 11. merit no lesse punishment thent hose who pierced and deuided his owne body We need not a more expresse testimony then that of S. Augustine Aug. de bapt contra Donat. lib. 1. cap. 8. who affirmeth that the wound of schisme is more grieuous then that of Idolatry Those sayth he whome the Donatists heale of the wound 〈◊〉 Idolatry or of Infidelity they hurt and wound more grieuously with the wound of schisme Neither doth this Article only cast vs into an ineffable schisme but doth also precipitate vs into a manifest heresy necessarily obliging vs to confesse that the Catholike Church is perished and decayed on earth for many ages past For if they who imbrace the opposite Doctrine hold an opinion cotrary to Gods word impious and detestable the Pope hath not then for so many ages past beene Head of the Church and Christes vicar but an Heretike Antichrist and all the other partes of the Church haue not beene true partes of the Church but members of Antichrist And this being so where continued the Catholike Church In France alone And shall then the Part haue giuen a bill of diuorce to the whole Shall then that which an ancient Father cried out be accomplished I see that which cannot be done Author li. contra Fulgent inter ep Aug. tom 7. The Part of the Donatists hath ouercome the whole body A corner of Afrike hath excluded and thrust out the whole world What then shall become of the inheritance to whome God the Father said Aske of me and I will giue thee the Gentils for thine inheritance Psal 2. what then shall become of the title of Catholike by which S. Aug. cont ep Fundament Augustine professeth himself to haue beene most of all held and kept in the Church But how should it haue contiuued in France if this Article be true sith all the French Doctors haue for so many ages held the contrary in case of Heresie and of Apostacie from Christian Religion we should then also bid adiew to the Church of France that hath beene before our times and take vp the bodies of so many Doctours either French or those who haue written and taught in France as S. Thomas S. Bonauenture and others without number and burne their bones vpon the Altar as did Iosias burne and consume the bones of the false prophets And this done where should the Church haue beene In the desert of the Apocalyps And why then should we with so mayne force oppugne the inuisibilitie of the Heretikes Church Wherefore should we delay to yeald them the victorie and our armes and all For what greater trophies and signes of victory can we rayse and set vp for them then to auerre professe that the visible Kingdome of Christ should be perished cleane decayed through the world and that for so many hundred yeares past there hath beene neither temple of God nor spouse of Christ nor Church but that all hath beene the Kingdome of Antichrist the Synagoue of Sathan and the spouse of the Diuell And what stronger machines engines could they desire for the abolishing ouerthrowing of the Article of Transubstantiation that of Auricular Confession and other the like which were decided against the Albigenses and in few wordes for
our part to the Emperour who shall diligently informe themselues what conceit he hath of the Catholike faith and therof shall make a report vnto vs. And in case they find not any thing but sound wherefore should we disquiet him But if otherwise we will persecute both him (a) Cost addition and the Pope himself sent 〈◊〉 stile de l'Anglois non comydes Barons de S. Louys and the Pope himselfe if he beleeue not in God aright or whome soeuer besides to the very rooting out of the memory of them And when Peter King of Aragon besides much intelligence and correspondence he interteyned with the Insidels had caused the festiuity of Easter day to be violated by the horrible massacre of the Sicilian Euensong Pope Martin the 4. saith Paul Aemilius (b) Paul Aemil. in Philip. 3. and du (c) Du Haillan l. 12. de Phist de France Haillan after him acquited and absolued the Aragonians of the Oath of fidelity they had made to the said Peter And Philip surnamed the Hardy Sonne of the same S. Lewis and Father of Philip the Fayre tooke armes for the execution of the Popes censure died in executing of it But I insist the lesse vpon this example because though there were some cryme of religion intermixed with the motiues of the censure yet there wanted not many temporall respectes and causes I only alledge it to shew how far off the Kinges of France were from holding that it was contrary to the word of God and impious and detestable to thinke that in certaine cases the subiectes might be absolued from their fidelity and allegiance sworne to their Princes sith they became theÌ„selues the executors and reputed such actes amongst the chiefest workes of their piety For the defendors of (d) Act. inter Bonif Phil. Pulâ—h fol. 80. pag. 2. Philip le belle haue put this example amongst the meritorious workes of the Kinges of France Philip his Father say they ended his life and went to God prosecuting in Aragon the Churches quarell And when the Pope Vrban the fifth had excommunicated Peter the Cruell King of Castile For that saith Froissart (a) Proissart vol. 1. cha 230. an Authour of the same tyme he was an (b) Bulgaret en Froissart signifie Albigeois an heretike heretike a persecutor of the Church conspired with the Moores some adde (c) De Serâ—es an abnegatour and abiurer of his Christianity and had discharged his subiectes of the Oath of their fidelity King Charles the siâ—th assisted the Popes censure with his armes and sent his Constable with an Army to driue Peter out of Castile and to put Henry the Bastard of Castile in his place The King of France saith Froissart (d) Froiss en Phist de Fran. 1. volian c. 230. was very glad of this ordination and decree and laboured and effected that Monsieur Bertrard du Guesclin was sent to the Finance And du HaillaÌ„ saith Charles (e) Du Haillan eâ— la vie de Charle 5. the fifth King of France relying vpon the interdict laid by the Pope vpon the Realme of Castile vpon the right by him giuen to the Bastard sent forces of the French for his ayde and succour vnder the conduct and charge of Bertrard du Guesâ—lin newly returned from his prison And when the ConÌ„cell of Constance which all the Parlamentes of France imbrace and receaue as the Palladium of liberties of the Church of France was assembled and held for the taking away of the schisme that was betweene the three Popes contestating and standing for the Popedome that the Emperour Sigismund tooke vpon him the charge of going in Embassage in behalf of the Councell to Pope Benedict the 13. into Spayne a iourney vndertaken for a reunion and taking away of the schisme of the vniuersall Church wherunto none might cause any impediment or let without declaring himselfe an enemy of Christian religion the safe conduct that the Councell gaue him for his security of passage through the landes of other Princes and Potentates was coÌ„prised in these wordes (a) Concil Constant fess 27. If any King Cardinall Patriarke Archbishop Bâ—shop Duke Marques Count be any hinderance or let vnto him let him be depriued of his dignity be it secular or Ecclesiasticall And this Gerson Chancelour of the vniuersity of Paris and the Kinges Ambassadour and all the Bishops deputed of the Church of France being present and consenting And when the Councell of Basil consisting for the greater part of French Bishops and which the Parlamentes hould for another Bulwark of the Church of France meant to propose a perpetuall example of direction dâ—scipline to posterity it caused the same Actes of the Councell of Constance to be published anew and with the very same wordes And not only the Councell in generall but also the Doctours in particuler who haue liued since the Diuinity which we call Scholasticall hath been instituted and namely those who haue beene Frenchmen or haue written and taught in France haue all held auerred this doctrine I will not speake of them who haue more exalted and extended the Popes power as Alexander de Hales (b) Alexand Halen p. 4. quast 10. an English Doctour but who read and taught in Paris Hugo de (c) â—ugo de S. Vict. l 2. de Sacram p. 2. 〈◊〉 41. S. Victore an Almaine yet a Doctour and Abbot of Paris Durand Bishop of Mande (d) DuraÌ„d Mâ—â—â—â— in 〈…〉 surnamed the Speculatour Durand (e) DuraÌ„d Mâ—ld l. de orig â—urisdict q. 2. Bishop of Meaux Peter Paludanus (f) Petr. Palud tract de caus imnad potest art 4. Patriark titular of Hierusalem (g) Heru tract de potest Papae Heruey and others But I will speake only of them who haue specified the case of heresy or of Apostacy and namely of S. Thomas who for hauing taken the degree of Doctour in France and studied read and written so long a time in France ought to be reckoned and numbred among the French Doctours and who for hauing beene the chief of them all and for hauing had the honour to be Kinsman to S. Lewis and to haue beene highly fanoured by him and to haue eaten at his table ought to be the lesse suspected of Princes He then in his Summe which is the substance of all his other writinges and as his last will and testament and which hath at all times beene publiquely read and if I may say it adored in the Schoole of Paris sayth expressely in these wordes (a) Tho. 2.2 q. 〈◊〉 art 10. 〈◊〉 corp art The right of domâ—nation or gournement that the Infidells haue ouer the faithfull may be iustly taken away by the sentence or decree of the Church hauing the authority from God For the Infidells by the desâ—rt of their infidelity merit to loose their power ouer the faithfull who be traÌ„sferred to be become the children of God And sometimes it happeneth
Apostacy cannot be secured To this obiection the answere is short and easy For the Church intermedleth not her selfe with the absolution of the subiects but in the Ecclsiasticall Court and therin besides this payne and that of excommunication it imposeth not any other By meanes wherof it is so far from consenting that any attempt be made vpon the life of them whom it hath excommunicated as it abhorreth all fortes of killinges and murtheringes and especially such as be sudaine and vnexpected in regard of the losse of both body and soule which cōmonly go therin accompanied togeather And if they say that the Church ordayneth it not but that it is the cause that it is done for as much as the Common wealth conforming it selfe to the Churches iudgment and making the same decision in the tribunall politique if the Prince keepe on his former course declareth him a Tyrant and an enemy of the state and consequently subiecteth him to the power of the Lawes politique which permit the conspiring against Tyrantes for the making of them away and for killing of them we bring first this exception that there is great difference betweene Tyrantes of vsurpation whome the Lawes permit to extirminate by all manner of wayes and Tyrantes of administration and gouernement who are lawfully called to their Principality but gouerne it ill and we add that the Hereticall Princes who persecute the faith and their Catholike subiects be of the number of Tyrantes of administration and not of the number of Tyrants of vsurpation against whome alone it is permitted to conspire by clandestine and secret practises And if they further vrge and say that the politique Lawes permit conspiracies against the one and the other we answere that they are politique prophane and heathenish Laws as those of the ancient Romans or of the Grecians in former tymes and not Christian politique Lawes For the Christian politique Laws consider not only in their Princes the respect due vnto them for the good of temporall pollicy and the regard of the Maiesty of the Estate which they represent but they further consider in them the Image and vnction of God who hath called them to that Dignity in so much as in them who haue once had the lawfull vocation of Royalty what Tyrany soeuer they exercise the Christian politique Laws neuer passe so farre as to permit the vse of proscription against their persons or that any do attempt by clandestine or secret coniuration or conspiracy against their persons or liues but they carry the same respect to them that did Dauid to Saul notwithstanding he knew he were reiected 1. Reg. 26. cast of and reproued of God when he said Who shall extend his hand vpon the anoynted of our Lord and shal be innocent In so much as if the Christians be constrayned to defend their religion and their life against Hereticall and Apostata Princes from whose allegiance they were absolued the Christian politique Laws permit not more then what is permitted by military Lawes and the right of nations that is to say open warre and not clandestine and secret 〈…〉 and conspiracies For there alwaies remayneth in them a certain habitude to the dignity Royall as it were a marke of a politique character that discerneth them from simple particulers and when the obstacle and impediment is taken away that is when they come to amend themselues and to giue satisfactiō it restoreth them to the lawfull vse and exercise of their regality And therefore we see that in so many controuersies that the Popes haue had with tēporall Princes neuer any Pope went so far as to coūsell or to assent to the murthering of Princes Contrariwise if any calumniators laboured to impute it vnto them they haue euer iustified themselues euen with the horrour and abhomination of such actes remembring themselues of these wordes of S. Gregory when the Lombards made war vpon him If I would haue medled with the death of men Greg. lib. 7. epist 1. the Nation of the Lombards should at this day haue had neither King non gouernors But because I stand in feare of God I will not haue to moddle or deale with the death of any person And touching the other point of the last Inconuenience which is that this medly maketh the remedies that they would bring to the daunger of the Kinges to be not only vnprofitable but also pernicious and domageable there needeth not much eloquence to perswade it For if those who made the attempts vpon the liues of our Kinges were moued to those horrible parricides by a false imagination which they conceaued to wit that our Kings did something in preiudice of religion how much more would they haue thought they had a greater better pretext if they had beleeued that our Kings had abused their authority by the bringing in of schisme and the ouerthrowing of Religion and that they had seene themselues in schisme separated from the communion of the Sea Apostolique and cut off from the other partes of the Church And more then this who vnderstandeth not that there cannot happen any thing of more and greater daunger for the life and authority of Kinges then intestine and ciuill wars which schismes do ordinarily draw after them Moreouer who knoweth not that the cōtempt and indifferencie of Religion which must needes follow vpon schismes engendreth and occasioneth Impiety and Atheisme and taketh quite away all the respect that men are wont to carry to Kinges for the loue of God and for the reuerence of Religion which is the strongest corps or Court of Guard and the surest rampaire for the defence and security of their persons For when Religion is had in contempt men are not any longer withholden from attempting vpon the persons of Kinges then by force and by feare of the temporall paynes and therfore when they thinke they may do it without beeing punished or that they contemne and make no reckoning of the temporall paynes they haue no more bridle to conteyne them or to hold them in Finally who seeth not that there can be nothing worse for the safety of the persons and of the estate of Kinges then to stir vp and drawe vpon them by an ouerture of a new schisme and diuision from the Church Psal 75. the wrath of him who taketh away the spirits of Princes from out of the earth And heere Gentlemen I will not with you vse more reasons and argumentes but wil passe ouer to exhortations and intreaties and wil coniure you to remember that you are French men and that you are also Christians and Catholikes and that in treating touching the securing of Kinges you must not only cast your eies vpon the earth but also lift them vp to Heauen and you must not remedy their temporall safetie in causing them to forgo and loose the euerlasting nor prouide for your bodily part which is France by destroying and ruyning the spirituall parte which is the Church The Pope tolerateth and
yet these be at this day the writers whome they celebrate extoll and whome they haue in their eyes For so an authour say something against the Pope and that he put as much as he please the safetie of Kinges vnder the peoples feete him they imbrace applaude and adore And of this we neede not any better proofe then the edition of Gerson which they who haue beene the first authors of the Article that is now proposed vnto vs haue caused to be imprinted eight yeares since with inscriptions pictures and elogies or testifications of his prayses because he seemeth vnto them to haue writen against the Pope For in his sermō made in the presence of King Charles the 7. in the name of the Vniuersitie of Paris Gers serm ad Regem Fran. nomine vniuersit Paris after he had made Sedition to speake which wills that vse without exception and indifferently be made of this rule of Seneca There is not a sacrifice more pleasing vnto God then the killing of Tyrants and that it is to be put in vre against all sortes of persons accused of Tyranny and vpon all manner of suspitions and of defamatory libels and Dissimulation that wills on the contrary that we neuer vse it but that we endure all Tyrants he bringeth in Discretiō that teacheth when it is to be vsed in these wordes Gers ibid. We conclude further that if the head or any other member of the Commō wealth should incurre such an incōuenience as he would swallow vp the deadly poyson of Tyrany euery member in his place should oppose himself by al his possibility by expediēt meanes such as should not make the matter worse seing it were to small it purpose when the head aketh that the hand should strike it but rather folly For nether is it necesary to cut it off by by to separate it from the rest of the body but we must cure it sweetly aswel by good words as otherwise lyke prudent wise Phisitians There could not be any thing more against reason of greater cruelty then Tyrany by a seditiō I cal sedition a rebellion of the people without cause and without reason which is oft tymes worse thē tyrany c. There needeth great singuler discretion prudence and temperance about the expulsion thrusting out of tyranny and therefore we must heare and giue credit to wise Philosophers Lawyers Deuines to men of good life of good and naturall prudence of great experiēce of whom it is said In old men is found experience For though a Prince and Lord sinne in many cases yet he must not for that be presently censured a Tyrant So he there And in his worke of ten Considerations against the flatterers of Kings where he recapitulateth a part of the discourse of his Sermon Gerson Considerat 7. contra adulat he sayth It is an errour to belieue that a terrene Prince is not bound in any thing during his raigne to his subiects For according to diuine right and naturall equity and the end of true gouernement as the subiects owe fidelity ayd succour and seruice to their Lord So the Lord oweth agayne faith and protection to his subiects And if the Prince manifestly pursue and persecute them and with obstinacy in iniury and by fact then this naturall rule It is lawfull to repell force by force and this saying of Seneca There cannot be a more acceptable Sacrifice immolated and made to God then by taking away of a Tyrant taketh place And notwithstanding this which is more strange those who haue caused this to be reprinted haue not vouchsafed to add either in the beginning of his workes or in the margent of these wordes any obseruation or note for the censuring of them or for aduertisement of the Reader to take heed But indeed how could they haue done it without condemning themselues Themselues I say who during the fury of these last troubles had been Ensigne-bearers or rather had caried the burning torches of this pernicious doctrine and had maynteyned and publisht it against King Henry the third by propositions disputed and printed For these be their words It is most certaine that by right both diuine and naturall the Estates be aboue Kings And againe It was lawfull for all the people of France most iustly to take armes against the Tyrant that is to say agaynst King Henry the third And a litle after They who consider matters attentiuely and diligently will iudge that the eternall enemies of the Religion and of the Country ought to be pursued not only by publique armes but also by the sword and plotts of particuler persons And that Iames Clement the Dominican was not put forwards by any other desire then by the loue of the Lawes of his Country and of the zeale of Ecclesiasticall discipline by which this restorer of our Liberty hath put vpon his owne head grace and vpon our neck a coller of gold and the heauenly collers of the Church Thus there This I say not to scandalize them for I conceale their names nor to reproach them with that that the bounty and clemency of the King hath buried vp and forgotten but to shew that they should be content to attend the rest of their dayes to the cancelling and washing away of their offence with their teares and not to meddle themselues with the making of lessons of the seruice of Kinges to them who alwaies well and faithfully serued them euen then when they persecuted them But these are violent spirits who being transported to one extreme and not being of power to hold the meane thought that the best meanes for the iustifying of themselues was to passe ouer to the other extreme and to put their hand to pen to write and fight against the Pope Wherin as they are found conforme or at least very like vnto the Churches enemies they haue beene so set on and plyed by those our enemyes and by some that dissembled with them as they haue beene induced thrust on vnder a pretence of the Kinges seruice to sow the seedes of schisme But Syrs the King desireth not to be serued after this sort his will is not that prouision be made for his safety by schisme and by the Churches diuision In the ruines whereof is comprehended the ruine and ouerthrow of his owne safetie spirituall and temporall he is a Catholike and the eldest child of the Catholike Church he is the first Catholike of all the Kinges and the first King of all the Catholikes He feareth not to fall into Heresy and standeth not in doubt of the Popes censures nor dreadeth the Churches threates against Heretikes He is the prime and principall protect our of the one and the other He is the heire both of the Crowne and of the name and of the faith of that glorious S. Lewis who was the Churches support and piller and the Popes defence retrait He is descēded from a mother no lesse Catholike pious and
Religious then his owne he is inseparable indiuisible from the vnion and amity of the Sea Apostolike doth seeke by all manner of reasons both spirituall and temporall to manteyne it In the person of Elizabeth Queene of England the interests of Estate fought against those of conscience and bound her to continue seuered from the communion of the Pope But all the interests aswell of State as of Religion bind the gratitude of our King to conserue himselfe in intelligence correspondence vnion and amity with the Pope he is besides the Titles his predecessors haue gained him a child of the Sea Apostolique in many sortes Pope Clement the Eight receaued the deceased King Henry the Great his Father into the Churches bosome and lappe he resolued and established his mariage with the most Christian Queene Mary de Medices to whose prudence vertue and bountie we owe the prosperity of our new raigne and the memory of whose most happy Regencie al the ages of posterity will extoll and blesse Out of this Mariage is come the Sacred bud of our Lillyes which Salomon did not match with all his glory I meane the King who now raigneth Pope Paul who sitteth at this day in the Sea of Peter was his good Father and as his second Father hath imployed himselfe by all manner of cares and good offices to procure before God and before Men the conseruation of his person and of his Realme And wherefore then should we desturbe or trouble this concord by Lawes not only of State but also of Religion and of conscience which our Fathers haue not knowne Cast your eyes vpon the histories of France and you shall finde that allwayes when our Kinges haue beene in vnion concord and correspondence with the Sea Apostolike and that the Spouse to vse the termes of Scripture hath fed among the lillies all sortes of graces and benedictions temporall and spirituall haue rayned and come downe vpon them and their people you shall find that as when the Arke of Couenant stayed and continued in the house of Obededom there was not any kind of felicity wanting euen so as long as the Communion of the Sea Apostolique hath beene amongst vs that we haue had the assistāce of the Vicar of him who is the true Arke of Couenant we haue had our share in al sortes of prosperities the name of Frenchmē hath dispersed it self from one end of the world to the other and our Lillyes haue extended and reached themselues to the furthest remote corners of the earth Contrariwise at what time our Kinges were seuered from the communion of the Sea Apostolique the Lillies hath beene amidst the thornes and all sortes of afflictions and of aduersities haue besieged vs. Renew within your selues the memory of those thinges and therehence drawe consequences for the tyme to come Remember how many calamities and miseries we haue suffred in tyme of Schismes or apprehensiō of Schismes how many Churches ruyned how many Altars pulled downe how many Cittie 's saccaged and spoyled Represent to your eies the State of your passed life the tyme that our deceased King was depriued of the Communion of the Apostolique Sea and with how many vowes and teares both he and you haue desired his restitution But aboue all lay againe before your eies the state of the life to come from which the authors and fauourers of Schisme be excluded and whereunto none can possibly come if he be not placed not only in the faith but also in the vnity and in the communion of the Catholike Church FINIS