first King of Israel was rather a monster than a man after the spirit of God had forsaken him the evil spirit was come upon him m 1 Sam. â—6 14 There were not many sins against God Man or Nature wherein he transgressed not yet his excesse was punished neither by the Sacerdotall Synod nor the secular Senate Who can loy his hand on the Lords Annointed and be guiltlesse n 1 Sam. 16 9 The very Annointment was the cause of Sauls immunity from all humane coersion as Augustine affirmeth Quaero si non habebat Saul sacramenti sanctitatem Aug. contr lit Petil l. 2 c. 48. quid in eo David venerabatur If Saul had not the holinesse of the Sacrament I aske what it was that David reverenced in him he honoured Saul for the sacred and holy unction while he lived and revenged his death Yea he was troubled and trembled at the heart because he had cut off a lappe of Saules garment Loe Soul had no innocency and yet he had holinesse not of life but of unction So far Augustine Who questioned David for his murther and adultery who censured Salomon for his idolatry though their câ—â—nes were capitall by the Law of God After that Kingdome was divided all the Kings of Israel and most of the Kings of Iudah were notorious Idolaters yet during those Kingdomes which endured above 200 yeares no Priest did challenge no States-men did claime power from the highest to punish or depose their Princes And the Prophets perswaded all men to obey and endure those idolatrous Princes whose impiety they reproved with the losse of their lives Christ sled when the people would have made him a King a Joh. 6.15 He payed tribute for himselfe and Peter b Mat. 17.27 When the question was propounded concerning the Emperours Subsidy he concluded for Caesar c Mat. 22.21 And standing to receive the judgement of death before Pilate he acknowledged his power to be of God d Ioh. 19.15 This Saviour of Mankind whose actions should be our instruction did never attempt to change that Government or to displace those Governours which were directly repugnant to the scope of information that he aymed at Iohn Baptist did indeed reprove King Herod with a Non licet e Mar. 6 18 but he taught not the Souldiers to leave his service or by strife and impatience to wind themselvs out of the band of allegiance wherin the Law had left them and the Gospell found them f Luk. 3.14 The Apostle delivered unto the Church the Doctrine of obedience and patience which they had learned by the Precept and observed by the practise of our Lord Christ Peter commandeth obedience to all manner of men in Authority g 1 Pet. 2.15 Paul forbiddeth resistance against any power h Rom. 13.1 2 3.4 And S. Iude maketh it blasphemy to revile Government or to speake evill of Governours i Iude 8. If therefore an Angell from heaven preach otherwise than they have delivered let him be accursed k Gal. 1.8 The second Chapter prooveth the same by the Fathers of the first 300 yeares THe true Church which had the Spirit of understanding to discerne the voyce of Christ from the voyce of a stranger never taught never practised never used or approoved other weapons than salt teares and humble prayers against the Paganisme Heresie Apostacy and Tyranny of earthly Kings Iustinus Martyr Tertullian and Cyprian shall beare witnesse for 300 years wherein the Kings and Potentates of the earth bathed themselves in the bloud of innocents and prosessed enmity against Christ and his servants Ad inquisitionem vestram Christianos nos esse profitemur c. At your inquisition we professe our selvs to be Christians though we know death to be the guerdon of our profession saith Iustin Martyr to the Emperor Antonius did we expect an earthly kingdom Second apolog ad Ant. Imp. p. 113. we would deny our Religion that escaping death we might in time attain our expectation But we feare not persecution which have not our hope fixed on the things of this life because we are certainly perswaded that we must dye As for the preservation of publike peace we Christians yeeld to you O Emperor more help and assistance than other men For we teach that no evill doer no covetous man nor seditious that lyeth in wait for bloud can have accesse to God And that every man doth passe to life or death according to the merit of his deeds Thus far he We saith Tertullian to Scapula the Viceroy of Carthage are defamed Tertull. lib. au Scap. for seditious against the Imperiall Majesty Yet were the Christians never found to be Albinians Nigrians or Cassians Albinus Niger and Cassius were traytors against Marcus Antonius Commodus Pertinax and Severus the Emperors but they that sweare by the Emperors deity the very day before they that vowed offred sacrifice for the Emperor's health are found to be the Emperor's enemies A Christian is enemy to no man much lesse to the Emperor knowing that the Imperiall Majesty is ordained of God and therefore necessarily to be loved reverenced and honored whose prosperity together with the welfare of all the Roman Empire they desire so long as the world standeth We do therfore honour the Emperor in such sort as is lawfull for us and expedient for him we reverence him as a mortall man next unto God of whom he holdeth all his authority only subject to God and so we make him soveraigne our all in that we make him subject but to God alone So far Tertullian S. Cyprian sheweth many good reasons for the patience of the Saints in his book against Demetrianus God saih he is the revenger of his servants when they are annoyed Wherefore no Christian when he is apprehended doth resist or revenge himself against your unjust violence though the number of our people be very great The confidence we have that God will reward doth confirm our patience the guiltlesse give way to the guilty the innocent rest content with their undeserved punishment and tortures being certainly assured that the wrong done to us shall not be unrewarded The more injury we suffer the most just and grievous shall God's vengeance be on them that persecute us It is therfore cleare and manifest that the plagues which comed own from Gods indignation do not come through us poore persecured Christians but from him whom we serve for the wrong done unto us So far Cyprian As many as lived according to Christ's institution did never revile the government of Tyrants much lesse by force resist their violence following the patience of Christ who could by his own power the might of his Angels or the strength of his creatures have at the first withstood or at the last revenged the injury of the people Ioh 19.15 Iohn 8.22 Luk. 23.11 Mar. 15 15 Mat. â—7 27 28 29. the buffet of the Priests servant the
their City men women and children with the edge of the sword Did David for whom they were slain when he had Saul in his power take revenge or suffer his servants to do it when they were ready and offred themselves to slay Saul David b 2 Sam. 11.4.17 defiled Vrias his bed and caused him to be killed Did Absolon well to conspire against him that was both a murtherer and an adulterer Salomon c 2 Reg. 11.8 brought into the land many strange wives and as many different Religions into the Church Did the high Priest the Peeres the Prophets or the people offer to chastice or depose him Achab d 1 Reg. 21 8 9. suffered Jezabel to put Naboth to death and to kill the Lords Prophets Did Elias depose him intice his subjects to rebell against him or implore foraigne aide to destroy him Herod e Marke 6.27 Act. 12.24 beheaded John Baptist kill'd Iames imprisoned Peter and would have slain him also if he had not been delivered by an Angell Did Peter take vengeance on Herod which he might have done with a word as wel as on f Act 5.5 Ananias No he did leave him to the Lord whose iudgment insued in most g Acts 12.23 fearefull manner In a word wicked Princes have never been lawfully punished by Prelates Potentates or people of their Kingdome as the Papists and Puritans aver but must be reserved to the judgement of God as the Protestants affirme Gregory Nazianzen in this Oration at the funerall of S. Basil reporteth that the Emperor's Deputy in Pontus Basilius magnus commanded S. Basil to put out a widow that had taken sanctuary to save her selfe from forced marriage The Bishop not willing to violate the Ecclesiasticall Laws granted by the Imperial Majesty refused so to do The Governor call the Bishop before him threatned to whip him and to teare his flesh with iron books the people hearing that indignity offered to the Bishop fell to an uprore and would have slaine the Lieutenant Monodia Nazian inter opuscula Basil fol 95 had not that innocent man of God with much ado stayd that furious tumult delivered his persecutor from that perill to whose pleasure he did afterward submit himselfe The same Nazianzen for his admirable learning called the Divine writeth of Iulian the Apostata-Emperor's death Iulian was punished by the mercy of God thorough the teares of Christian men which teare were many and shed of many for that they had no other remedy against that persecutor Thus far Nazianzen This godly father lived under five Emperors Constantius Iulianus Valens 2 Oâ—at cont Iulian Valentianus and Theodosius in all which time he could finde no remedy against the Tyranny Heresy and Apostasy of Princes beside prayers and teares The Devill of Hell had not as yet hatched the distinctions of propriè and impropriè directé and indirectè simpliciter and secundum quid absolutè inordine ad spiritualia wherewith the Iesuites do fill the schooles with clamorous evasions the Church with erroneous superstition and many Christian states with tragicall sedition Lucifer Calaritanus in sundry books against Constantius useth many immodest and disloyall speeches but he perswaded not the Pope to depose him the state to punish him the people to rebell against him or forraine aide to suppresse him but threatened him with the dreadfull punishment of God He that in the servency of zeale durst call so cruell an Emperor Theef Church-robber Murtherer Beast Hangman Heretique Apostata Idolator the fore-runner of Antichrist and Antichrist himselfe would surely have encouraged the Pope the Peeres or the people to have removed that evil King and placed a better in his stead If there had been any such opinion in those daies as our moderne Iesuites and Puritans beare now the World in hand As this Father in his writings kept not the modesty of the other Fathers which lived in that age under Constantius so he did not continue in the unity of the Catholique Church Orat in obit sratris Satir. Lucifer saith Ambrose divided himself from our Communion though he were banished with us for our Religion When Ambrose was commanded to deliver up his Church in Millaine to Maxentius an Arrian Bishop he declared his resolution in a sermon to the people which were very sory for his departure Orat. Ambrosii adpopulum inter epist 32.33 Quid turbamini volens nunquam vos deseram Why are you troubled I will never willingly depart from you If I be compelled I have no way to resist I can sorrow I can weep I can sigh my teares are my weapons against Souldiers Armour Gothes such is the munition of a Priest by any other meanes than teares I neither ought nor can resist So far Ambrose Not disability but duty not want of strength and martial forces but a reverend regard of the Emperors Majesty commanded by the Law of God kept this blessed Ambrose from resisting For hé might easily have wrought the Churches liberty his own safety and the Arrians calamity by the overthrow of the Emperour through the force of the Garison in that City which refused to attend the Prince to any other Church than that wherein Ambrose was The stout and peremptory answer of the Captaines and Souldiers is thus reported by Ambrose in an Epistle to Mercellina a religious woman Si prodire vellet haberet copiam se praesto futuros Epist 35. The Emperor may go at his pleasure they would be ready to attend him if he would go to the Catholique Assemblies or otherwise they would keep on their way to that Congregation wherin Ambrose was Thus far the Souldiers They refused as you see to obey and preferred God's true Service before the Emperor's favour they reviled not his secred person they resisted not his Soveraign power but yeelded themselves to his mercy and pleasure Epist eadem to save their soules from Gods wrath and displeasure as we find in the same Epistle Vnum Iob miraturus ascenderam I went to Church to extoll the patience of Iob where I found every one of my hearts a Iacob worthy to be extolled In every one of you Iob is revived in each of you his patience and vertue shined what could be said better by Christian men than that which the Holy Ghost this day spake in you We beseech O Emperor we offer not to fight we feare not to dye we intreat your clemency Oh it was seemely for Christian Souldiers to desire the tranquility of Peace and Faith and to be constant in truth even unto death Thus far Ambrose S. Augustin relateth the same of the Christian Souldiers under Iulian the Apostata Emperor Iulianus extitit Imperator insidelis Iulian was an unbeleeving Emperor was he not an Apostata An Oppressor and an Idolater Christian Souldiers served that unbeleeving Emepror When they came to the cause of Christ they would acknowledge no Lord but him that was in Heaven when they were
commanded to adore Idoles and to offer sacrifice they preferred God before their prince But when he called upon them to war August in Psal 124. and bad them invade any Nation they presently obeyed They did distinguish their eternall Lord from the temporall King yet they submitted themselves to their temporall Lord for his sake that was their eternall King Deschism Donatist Lib. 3. So far he Optatus Milevitanus is another pregnant witnesse Cum super Imperatoren nemo sit nisi solus Deus Seeing there is no man above the Emperor beside God alone which made the Emperor Donatus by advancing himselfe above the Emperour doth exceed the bounds of humanity and maketh himself a God rather than man in that he feareth and reverenceth him not Com. in Evang Ioh l. 12. c. 36. whom all men should honor next after God So far Optat. S. Cyril is of the same judgment Cui legis prevaricatores liberare licet nisi Legis ipsius authori Who can acquit them that break the Law from transgression beside the Law-giver As we see by experience in all humane States no man can without danger breake the Law but Kings themselves in whom the crime of prevarication hath no place For it was wisely said of one that it is a wicked presumption In Epist. ad Timoth. c. 2. v. 1. to say to a King Thou doest amisse So far he And also S. Chrysostome What meaneth the Apostle saith he to require Prayers Supplications Intercessions and Thanksgiving to be made for all men He requireth this to be done in the dayly service of the Church and the perpetuall rite of Dive Religion For all the faithfull do know in what manner prayers are powred out before the Lord morning and evening for all the word even for Kings and every man in authority Some man will peradventure say that for all must be understood of all the faithfull Which cannot be the Apostles meaning as may appeare by the words following viz for Kings seeing that Kings neither did then nor in many ages after serve the living God but continued obstinatly in infidelity which by course of succession they had received Thus far Chrysost See the preface before Basilic Dor. Our Modern Reformers teach us that which Paul and Chrysost neither knew nor beleeved that wicked Princes are not to be prayed for but to be resisted c. When the faction of Eutiches had prevailed against the Catholikes Leo the first had no other remedy than Prayers to God sighs teares and petitions to the Emperor Omnes partium nostrarum Ecclesiae c. All the Churches of these parts Bpist 24. ad Theod. Imper. all we Priests even with sighs and teares beseech your Majesty to command a generall Synode to be held in Italy that all offences beeing remooved there may remaine neither error in Faith nor division in Lâ—â—e Favor the Catholiques grant liberty to protect the Faith against Heretiques defend the state of the Church from ruin that Christ his right-hand may support your Empire Thus far Leo. When Gregory the great was accused for the murther of a Bishop in prison he wrote to one Sabinianus to cleare him to the Emperor and Empresse Breviter suggeras serenissimis Dominis meis Epist. lib. 7. Epist 1. You may briefly enforme my soveraigne Lord and Lady that if I their servant would have busied my self with the death of the Lombards that Nation would by this time have had neither Kings nor Duks nor Earles and should have been in great confusion and division but because I stood in aw of God I was ever afraid to meddle with the shedding of any mans bloud So far Gregory These Lombards were Pagans invaders of the Countrey ransackers of the City persecutors of the Saints robbers of the Church oppressors of the poore whom Gregory the first might and would not destroy quia Deum timuit because he seared God It is very like that his successor Gregory the 7 feared neither God nor man when he erected the papall croisier against the regall scepter and read the sentence of deprivation against the Emperor Henry Ego authoritate Apostolica c. I by the power Apostolicall do bereave Henry of the German Kingdome and do deprive him of all subjection of Christian men absolving all men from the allegiance which they have sworne unto him And that Rodolph whom the Peeres of the Empire have elected may govern the Kingdome I grant all men that shall serve him against the Emperor forgivenesse of their sins Carol. Sigon de Regoo Itâ— l. 9. in vita Hen. 3. in this life and in the life to come As I have for his pride dejected Henry from the Royall dignity so I do exalt Rodolph for his humility to that place of Authority Thus far Gregory the 7. Benno Gard in vit Greg 7. It is no wounder that Gregory his chaire clave a sunder as some writers affirme at the giving of this sentence because the proud Pope and his wicked sentence were too heavy a burthen for Peters stoole of humility to beare The fourth Chapter proveth the Immunity of Kings by the Fathers of the third 300 yeares AFter the death of Gregory the great which was about the year of our Lord 604. Sabinianus did succeed him who lived but one yeare after whom came Boniface the 3 which obtained of Phocas to be called Vniversall Bishop since that time periit virtus Imperatorum pietas Pontificum the Emperours waxed weake and the Bishops wicked What the judgement of those Fathers then was concerning subjection to wicked Kings I will make evident by the testimony of of Gregorius Turonensis Isidorus Damascenus Beda Fulgentius Leo the 4 and the Fathers astembled in a Councell at Toledo in Spaine Gregory Turonensis acknowledgeth such an absolute power in Childerick a most wicked King of France Histor lib. 5 cap. 1. as was free from all controll of man Si quis de nobis Rex justitiae limites transcendere voluerit c. If any one of us O King do passe the bonds of justice you have power to correct him but if you exceed your limit who shall chastice you We may speake unto you if you list not to hearken who can condemn you but that great God who hath pronounced himself to be righteousnes Hactenus ille Isidorus saith no lesse for the immunity of the Kings of Spaine Let all earthly Princes know that they shall give account of the Church which Christ hath committed to their protection Yea whether the peace and discipline Ecclesiasticall be advanced by faithfull Kings or dissolved by the unfaithfull he will require a reckoning at their hands which hath left his Church in their power So far Isidor John Damascene pleadeth not only for the Exemption of wicked Kings themselves but also of their Deputies Parallâ—l 〈◊〉 1. c. 21. The Governours saith he which Kings create though they be wicked though they be theeves though they be
unjust or otherwise tainted with any crime must bee regarded Wee may not contemne them for their impiety but must reverence them because of their authority by whom they were appoynted our Governours So farre he Fulgentius saith that no kind of Sedition can stand with Religion Cum pro nostra fide libere respondemus c. When we answer freely for our profession we ought not to be taxed with the least suspition of disobedience or contumely seeing we are not unmindfull of the Regall dignity and do know that we must feare God and honour the King according to the Doctrine of the Apostle Give to each one his due feare to whom feare Fulgent ad Thrasim Reg. 1 Pet. 2.7 honour to whom honour appertaineth Of the which feare and honour Saint Peter hath delivered unto us the manifest knowledge saying As the servants of God honour all men love brotherly fellowship feare God honour the King Thus farre Fulgent Our Countriman Beaa for his great learning called Venerable Lib. 4 expos in Samuel â— Sam. 24.6 is of the same mind David saith he for two causes spared Saul who had persecuted him most maliciously First for that he was his Lord annoynted with holy oyle And secondly to instruct us by morall precepts that wee ought not to strike our governours though they unjustly oppresse us with the sword of our liâ—s nor presume slanderously to teare the hemme of their superfluous actions So far he Leo the fourth about the yeare 846. agnised all subjection to Lotharius the Emperours Cap. de 〈◊〉 dist 5. I do professe and promise saith Leo to observe and keepe unviolably as much as lieth in me for the time present and to come your Imperial ordinances and commandements together with the decrees of your Bishops my predecessors It any man inform your Majesty otherwise know certainly that he is a lyer So far Leo. The Bishops of Spaine assembled in a Nationall Councell at Toledo made this Decree against Perjury and Treason Concil Tol. 5. Can. 2 〈◊〉 ann Dom. 636. Quicunque amodo ex nobis Whosoever among us shall from this tune forward violate the oath which he hath taken for the safegard of this Countrey the state of the Gotish nation and the preservation of the Kings Majesty whosoever shall attempt the Kings death or deposition whosoever shall by tyrannicall presumption aspire to the Regall Throne let him be accursed before the Holy Spirit before the blessed Saints let him be cast out of the Catholike Church which he hath polluted by perjury let him have no Communion with Christian men nor portion with the just but let him be condemned with the Devill and his angels eternally together with his complices that they may be tyed in the bond of damnation which were joyned in the society of sedition Thus far the Fathers in that Synod I conclude therefore with these learned Fathers that it is not for the people otherwise then with humility and obedience to control the actions of their Governors but their duty is only to call upon the God of Heaven and so submit themselves to his mercy by whose ordinance the Scepter is fallen into his hand and power that enjoyeth the Crown whether he be good or bad A right of deposing must be either in him that hath an higher power which is only God or in him that hath better right to the Crown which the Pope cannot have because he is a stranger nor the Peeres or people because they are subjects Be the King for his Religion impious for his Government unjust for his Life licentious the subject must endure him the Bishop must reprove him the Councellor must advise him all must pray for him and no mortall man hath authotity to disturbe or displace him as may evidently be seene by the Chapter following The fift Chapter confirmeth this Doctrine by the Fathers of the fourth 300 yeares IN this age of the Church the Popes exalted themselves above all that is called God and upon private displeasures and quarrels did curse and ban Princes incensing their neighbour-Nations and perswading their own Subjects to make war against them as if Christ had ordeined his Sacraments not to be seales of Grace and helps of our Faith but hookes to catch Kingdoms and rods to scourge such Potentates as would not or could not procure the Pope's favour How far these Popish practises did displease the godly and learned I will shew by S. Bernard Waltramus Bishop of Nanumberg the Epistle Apolegeticall of the Church of Leige against Paschalis the Pope and the Author of Henry the fourth his Life Saint Bernard in one of his Sermons upon the words of Christ I am the Vine commendeth the answer of a certaine King Bene quidam Rex cum percussus humana sagitta c. It was well said of a King when he was shot into the body with an arrow and they that were about him desired him to be bound untill the arrow's head were cut out for that the least motion of his body would endanger his life no quoth he it doth not beseem a King to be bound let the Kings power be ever safe and at liberty And the same Father in an Epistle to Ludovicus Crassus the King of France teacheth subjects how to rebell and fight against their Princes Quicquid vobis de Regno vestro de anima Corona vestra facere placuerit Whatsoever you please to do with your Kingdom Bernard Epist 221. your soule or your Crown we that are the children of the Church cannot endure or dissemble the injuries contempt and conculcation of our mother Questionlesse we will stand and fight even unto death in our mothers behalfe and use such weapons as wee may lawfully I meane not Swords and Speares but Prayers and Teares to God When Gregory the 7 had deposed Henry the 4 he gave away the Empire to one Rodolphus Duke of Saxony that was a sworn subject to that distressed Emperor which Rodolph in a battaile against his Soveraigne Lord lost his right-hand and gained a deadly wound After his death the Pope made one Hermanus King of Germany who enjoyed his Kingdom but a little time for he was slaine with a stone which a woman threw upon him from a turret as he made an assault in sport against his own castle Ex vita Henr. 4. quae habetur in fasciculorerum scienâ—io um Colâ—â—â—ae impresso to try the valour of his Souldiers Then did Egbertus by the Popes encouragment ascend the Imperiall Throne whereon he sat but a while for as he stepped aside from his Army into a Mill to rest himself in the heat of the day he was discovered by the Miller to the Emperor's friends and lost his life for his labour During this hurly-burly in that State Walthramus a godly Bishop wrote to one Ludovicus an Earle of the Empire diswading him from partaking with the seditious against that good Emperor whom the Pope had deposed Walthram by