Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bind_v	law_n	obligation_n	1,168	5	9.4651	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33356	The case of Protestants in England under a popish prince if any shall happen to wear the imperial crown.	Clarkson, David, 1622-1686.	1681 (1681)	Wing C4569; ESTC R1246	26,207	36

THE CASE OF PROTESTANTS IN ENGLAND UNDER A Popish Prince If any shall happen to Wear the IMPERIAL CROWN LONDON Printed for Richard Janeway in Queens-Head-Alleyin Pater-Noster-Row 1681. The CASE of PROTESTANTS in England c. A PRINCE putting Himself and his Dominions under the Popes Authority and admitting as he must unavoidably the Laws and Decrees of the Romish Church all his Protestant Subjects being by the Judgment and sentence of that Church Hereticks do forthwith lye under the penalties which those Laws and Constitutions will have inflicted upon Hereticks And these are the severest penalties being proportioned to the crime which that Church judgeth most hainous for Heresie is Treason with them and the highest degree of High Treason for it is say they Crimen laesae Majestatis divinae Treason against the Divine Majesty and so much worse than Treason against any Prince on earth and upon this ground they commonly justifie all severities decreed against Hereticks Not to mention particular Doctors Innocent the Third thus argues in a special instance This punishment is justly inflicted upon Hereticks because it is so in case of civil Treason which is a smaller fault than Treason against the Divine Majesty And there is an Edict of Frederick confirmed and made a Church-Constitution by several Popes particularly by Innocent 4th wherein what is enacted against Traytors is declared to fall upon Hereticks multo fortiùs justinsque with much more force and justice So that the Papal authority being introduced among Protestants they are forthwith Traytors by law and stand in no better terms than the worst of Traytors and are exposed to the penalties which the highest Treason is judged worthy of Let me instance in two or three particulars briefly for I must but point at the miseries of Protestants in such a state not give a full prospect of them Infamy is one of them that I may begin with the least Hereticks are infamous by Law It is certain saith Suarez that Hereticks both by common and civil Law are infamous for which he alledged several Texts of the Popes Law and extends it to the favourers of Hereticks if they repent not within a year and to their Children for some generations if their Parents dyed pertinacious It is many penalties in one including several things grievous and intolerable to all sorts for upon this account those whom they count Hereticks are deprived of all Nobility Jurisdiction and Dignity and debarr'd from all Offices Benefices and publick Councils they are uncapable of chusing or of being chosen to them so that it reacheth all sorts Clergy Laity Noble and Ignoble as the same Author tells us And they fall under all this immediately ipso facto as soon as they are Hereticks before any sentence Declaratory of their crime so in a manner all the Doctors conclude In quo Authores ferè conveniunt proving it from the very words of the Law aforementioned Let me mention some of the particulars comprized in this Legal Insamy Protestants are hereby excluded from all publick Councils and so from Parliaments being uncapable of either chusing or being chosen thereto This is the Decree of a General Council besides several Constitutions for it in the Canon-Law So that all the Lords and Commons in England would be by Law while they are Protestants debarred from having any place in Parliament and all the Freeholders from chusing any and that by a Law paramount to any Civil Law or National Constitution and this alone would be enough to ruine and enslave this or any people whose Liberty depends upon Parliaments They are excluded from all Dignities this is Essential to the penalty for it is a Rule in their Law Infamibus Portae non pateant dignitati particularly Noblemen are degraded from their Nobility and deprived of all Honours this by the same Law and it is extended to their Children by many of their Authors who say expresly that the Issue of Traytors Civil or Spiritual lose their Nobility both that which they had by Priviledge and that which comes by descent from their Ancestors They are deprived not only of all Ecclesiastical Benefices but of all Secular Offices which is expressed in the Law forequoted Particularly it is decreed that Hereticks be not admitted into any publick Office or Benefice but if they be it is null and void Nor can they exercise any Jurisdiction either Spiritual or Civil as their Authors commonly determine and upon this account they conclude all our Judges Justices and Magistrates that are Protestants to be incompetent such as have no more Jurisdiction than the Bench they sit on and think not themselves at all obliged to answer them or if they condescend to give them an answer yet not to speak the truth before them although they be sworn to it In short all that owe any duty to Hereticks are discharged from the obligation and exempted from paying any In their Canon Law it is decreed that all who are bound to Hereticks by any obligation whether of Oath or Fealty or Service or any other Agreement or promise are freed there from Subjects owe no Allegiance to their Prince nay they may lawfully kill them as their Authors commonly conclude Servants owe Masters no Faithfulness no service though they be slaves and purchased with their money yet they are discharged and if they discover their Master's Heresie and so seek to take away his life though they be not Christians it 's reason they hold that they have absolute freedom when none but Christian slaves may have it save upon such a treacherous account Parents lose authority over their Children so their Law will have it and Children owe no duty to such Parents only they are bound under mortal sin to denounce them that is to discover their Heresie which is the way to deprive their Parents of their lives And they give this reason for it because it is lawful for a Child to kill his Father if he be an enemy to the Common-wealth and therefore he may much more lawfully in this case deal thus with his Father that is betray him to death This is an act worthy of honour and praise as is proved by the Constitutions of several Popes and so many other Writers that it may pass for their common Doctrine nor can they be secured from suffering for their Parents Heresie without detecting them as Innocent 4th decrees We see a little to what condition the admission of the Papal authority would reduce us it would expel nature and humanity and make the dearest Relatives unnatural and barbarous to one another it would leave no Protestant either Dignity or Authority either Safety or Liberty by these Law which must then be ours our Nobles are sentenced to be Peasants and Peasants must be no better than slaves Secondly Another penalty to which Hereticks are condemned by their Laws is Confiscation of all their Estates or Goods