my Treasurer hath at length declared the reasons vnto you of my necessities and of a large supply that he craued for the same wherein he omitted no arguments that can be vsed for that purpose yet will I my selfe now shortly remember you some of the weightiest reasons that come in my head to proue the equitie of my demaund First ye all know that by the accession of more Crownes which in my Person I haue brought vnto you my charge must be the greater in all reason For the greater your King be both in his dominion and number of Subiects he cannot but be forced thereby to be at the more charge and it is the more your honour so to haue it Next that posteritie and issue which it hath pleased God to send me for your vse cannot but bring necessarily with it a greater proportion of charge You all know that the late Queene of famous memory notwithstanding her orbitie had much giuen vnto her and more then euer any of her predecessors had before her Thirdly the time of creation of my Sonne doeth now draw neere which I chuse for the greater honour to bee done in this time of Parliament As for him I say no more the sight of himselfe here speakes for him Fourthly it is trew I haue spent much but yet if I had spared any of those things which caused a great part of my expense I should haue dishonored the kingdome my selfe and the late Queene Should I haue spared the funerall of the late Queene or the solemnitie of mine and my wiues entrie into this Kingdome in some honourable sort or should I haue spared our entrie into London or our Coronation And when most of the Monarches and great Princes in Christendome sent their Ambassadours to congratulate my comming hither and some of them came in person was I not bound both for my owne honour and the honour of the Kingdome to giue them good entertainement But in case it might be obiected by some that it is onely vpon occasions of warre that Kings obtaine great Supplies from their Subiects notwithstanding my interne Peace I am yet in a kinde of warre which if it bee without the more is your safetie For as the Treasurer tolde you at large I am now forced both in respects of State and my promise and for the generall cause of Religion to send a Supply of forces to Cleues and how long that occasion may last or what greater supply the necessitie of that Errand may draw mee vnto no man can yet tell Besides that although I haue put downe that forme of warlike keeping of Barwicke yet are all those commaunders my pensioners that were the late Queenes souldiers And I hope I sustaine a prettie Seminarie of Souldiers in my Forts within this Kingdome besides the two cautionary Townes in the Low-countreys Flushing and Brill And as for Ireland yee all know how vncertaine my charges are euer there that people being so easily stirred partly through their barbaritie and want of ciuilitie and partly through their corruption in Religion to breake foorth in rebellions Yee know how vnlooked for a Rebellion brake foorth there the last yeere which could not but put mee to extraordinary charges Besides I doe maintaine there continually an Armie which is a goodly Seminarie of expert and old Souldiers And I dare neuer suffer the same to be diminished till this Plantation take effect which no doubt is the greatest moate that euer came in the Rebels eyes and it is to be looked for that if euer they will bee able to make any stirre they will presse at it by all meanes for the preuenting and discouraging this Plantation Now it is trew that besides all these honourable and necessary occasions of my charge I haue spent much in liberalitie but yet I hope you will consider that what I haue giuen hath bene giuen amongst you and so what comes in from you goes out againe amongst you But it may be thought that I haue giuen much amongst Scottishmen Indeed if I had not beene liberall in rewarding some of my old seruants of that Nation ye could neuer haue had reason to expect my thankefulnesse towards any of you that are more lately become my Subiects if I had beene ingrate to the old And yet yee will find that I haue dealt twice as much amongst English men as I haue done to Scottishmen And therefore he that in your House was not ashamed to affirme that the siluer and gold did so abound in Edenburgh was very farre mistaken but I wish him no worse punishment then that hee should onely liue vpon such profit of the money there But I hope you will neuer mislike me for my liberalitie since I can looke very few of you this day in the face that haue not made suits to mee at least for some thing either of honour or profit It is trew a Kings liberalitie must neuer be dried vp altogether for then he can neuer maintaine nor oblige his seruants and well deseruing Subiects But that vastnesse of my expence is past which I vsed the first two or three yeeres after my comming hither And as I oft vsed to say that Christmas and open tide is ended For at my first comming here partly ignorance of this State which no man can acquire but by time and experience and partly the forme of my comming being so honourable and miraculous enforced me to extend my liberalitie so much the more at the beginning Ye saw I made Knights then by hundreths and Barons in great numbers but I hope you find I doe not so now nor minde not to doe so hereafter For to conclude this point anent expences I hold that a Kings expence must alwayes bee honourable though not wastefull and the charges of your King in maintaining those ancient honourable formes of liuing that the former Kings of England my Predecessours haue done and his liuing to bee ruled according to the proportion of his greatnesse is aswell for the honour of your Kingdome as of your King Now this cannot be supplied out of the ayre or liquid elements but must come from the people And for remouing of that diffidence which men may haue that I minde not to liue in any wastefull sort hereafter will you but looke vpon my selfe and my posteritie and if there were no more but that it will teach you that if I were but a naturall man I must needs bee carefull of my expences For as for my owne person I hope none that knowes me well can thinke me but as little inclined to any prodigall humours of vnnecessary things as any other reasonable man of a farre meaner estate Therefore since as I haue said I cannot be helped but from the people I assure my selfe that you will well allow mee such measure of Supplie as the people may beare and support him with more Honourable meanes then others haue had that as I may say without vaunting hath brought you more Honour then euer
with a false light which yee doe if ye mistake or mis-vnderstand my Speach and so alter the sence thereof But secondly I pray you beware to soile it with a foule breath and vncleane hands I meane that yee peruert not my words by any corrupt affections turning them to an ill meaning like one who when hee heares the tolling of a Bell fancies to himselfe that it speakes those words which are most in his minde And lastly which is worst of all beware to let it fall or breake for glasse is brittle which ye doe if ye lightly esteeme it and by contemning it conforme not your selues to my perswasions To conclude then As all these three dayes of Iubile haue fallen in the midst of this season of penitence wherein you haue presented your thanks to me and I the like againe to you So doe I wish and hope that the end of this Parliament will bee such as wee may all haue cause both I your Head and yee the Body to ioyne in Eucharisticke Thanks and Praises vnto God for our so good and happie an end A SPEACH IN THE STARRE-CHAMBER THE XX. OF JVNE ANNO 1616. GIVE THY IVDGEMENTS TO THE KING O GOD AND THY RIGHTEOVSNES TO THE KINGS SONNE These be the first words of one of the Psalmes of the Kingly Prophet Dauid whereof the literall sense runnes vpon him and his sonne Salomon and the mysticall sense vpon GOD and CHRIST his eternall Sonne but they are both so wouen together as some parts are and can onely bee properly applied vnto GOD and CHRIST and other parts vnto Dauid and Salomon as this Verse Giue thy Iudgements to the King O God and thy Righteousnesse to the Kings Sonne cannot be properly spoken of any but of Dauid and his sonne because it is said Giue thy Iudgements c. Now God cannot giue to himselfe In another part of the same Psalme where it is said that Righteousnes shall flourish and abundance of Peace as long as the Moone endureth it signifieth eternitie and cannot be properly applied but to GOD and CHRIST But both senses aswell literall as mysticall serue to Kings for imitation and especially to Christian Kings for Kings sit in the Throne of GOD and they themselues are called Gods And therefore all good Kings in their gouernment must imitate GOD and his Christ in being iust and righteous Dauid and Salomon in being godly and wise To be wise is vnderstood able to discerne able to iudge others To be godly is that the fountaine be pure whence the streames proceed for what auailes it though all his workes be godly if they proceed not from godlinesse To bee righteous is to a mans selfe To bee iust is towards others But Iustice in a King auailes not vnlesse it be with a cleane heart for except he bee Righteous aswell as Iust he is no good King and whatsoeuer iustice he doeth except he doeth it for Iustice sake and out of the purenesse of his owne heart neither from priuate ends vaine-glory or any other by-respects of his owne all such Iustice is vnrighteousnesse and no trew Iustice From this imitation of GOD and CHRIST in whose Throne wee sit the gouernment of all Common-wealths and especially Monarchies hath bene from the beginning setled and established Kings are properly Iudges and Iudgement properly belongs to them from GOD for Kings sit in the Throne of GOD and thence all Iudgement is deriued In all well setled Monarchies where Law is established formerly and orderly there Iudgement is deferred from the King to his subordinate Magistrates not that the King takes it from himselfe but giues it vnto them So it comes not to them Priuatiuè but cumulatiuè as the Shoolemen speake The ground is ancient euer sithence that Counsell which Iethro gaue to Moses for after that Moses had gouerned a long time in his owne person the burthen grew so great hauing none to helpe him as his father in law comming to visite him found him so cumbred with ministring of Iustice that neither the people were satisfied nor he well able to performe it Therefore by his aduice Iudges were deputed for easier questions and the greater and more profound were left to Moses And according to this establishment all Kings that haue had a formall gouernement especially Christian Kings in all aages haue gouerned their people though after a diuers maner This Deputation is after one manner in France after another here and euen my owne Kingdomes differ in this point of gouernment for Scotland differs both from France and England herein but all agree in this I speake of such Kingdomes or States where the formalitie of Law hath place that the King that sits in Gods Throne onely deputes subalterne Iudges and he deputes not one but a number for no one subalterne Iudges mouth makes Law and their office is to interprete Law and administer Iustice But as to the number of them the forme of gouernement the maner of interpretation the distinction of Benches the diuersitie of Courts these varie according to the varietie of gouernment and institution of diuers Kings So this ground I lay that the seate of Iudgement is properly Gods and Kings are Gods Vicegerents and by Kings Iudges are deputed vnder them to beare the burden of gouernement according to the first example of Moses by the aduice of Iethro and sithence practised by Dauid and Salomon the wisest Kings that euer were which is in this Psalme so interlaced that as the first verse cannot be applied properly but to Dauid and Salomon in the words Giue thy Iudgements to the King c. So the other place in the same Psalme Righteousnesse shall flourish and abundance of peace shall remaine as long as the Moone endureth properly signifieth the eternitie of CHRIST This I speake to shew what a neere coniunction there is betweene God and the King vpward and the King and his Iudges downewards for the same coniunction that is betweene God and the King vpward the same coniunction is betweene the King and his Iudges downewards As Kings borrow their power from God so Iudges from Kings And as Kings are to accompt to God so Iudges vnto God and Kings and both Kings and Iudges by imitation haue two qualities from God and his Christ and two qualities from Dauid and his Salomon Iudgement and Righteousnesse from God and Christ Godlinesse and Wisedome from Dauid and Salomon And as no King can discharge his accompt to God vnlesse he make conscience not to alter but to declare and establish the will of God So Iudges cannot discharge their accompts to Kings vnlesse they take the like care not to take vpon them to make Law but ioyned together after a deliberate consultation to declare what the Law is For as Kings are subiect vnto Gods Law so they to mans Law It is the Kings Office to protect and settle the trew interpretation of the Law of God within his Dominions And it is the Iudges Office to interprete the
ceased seeing I could doe you no other good to commend your labouring most painfully in the Lords Vineyard in my prayers to God And I doubt not but that I haue liued all this while in your memory and haue had some place in your prayers at the Lords Altar So therfore euen vnto this time we haue abidden as S. Iohn speaketh in the mutuall loue one of the other not by word or letter but in deed and trewth But alate message which was brought vnto vs within these few dayes of your bonds and imprisonment hath inforced mee to breake off this silence which message although it seemed heauie in regard of the losse which that Church hath receiued by their being thus depriued of the comfort of your pastorall function amongst them yet withall it seemed ioyous because you drew neere vnto the glory of Martyrdome then the which gift of God there is none more happy That you who haue fedde your flocke so many yeeres with the word and doctrine should now feed it more gloriously by the example of your patience But another heauie tidings did not a little disquiet and almost take away this ioy which immediatly followed of the aduersaries assault and peraduenture of the slip and fall of your constancie in refusing an vnlawfull Oath Neither trewly most deare brother could that Oath therefore bee lawfull because it was offered in sort tempered and modified for you know that those kinde of modifications are nothing else but sleights and subtilties of Satan that the Catholique faith touching the Primacie of the Sea Apostolike might either secretly or openly be shot at for the which faith so many worthy Martyrs euen in that very England it selfe haue resisted vnto blood For most certaine it is that in whatsoeuer words the Oath is conceiued by the aduersaries of the faith in that Kingdome it tends to this end that the Authoritie of the head of the Church in England may bee transferred from the successour of S. Peter to the successour of King Henry the eight For that which is pretended of the danger of the Kings life if the high Priest should haue the same power in England which hee hath in all other Christian Kingdomes it is altogether idle as all that haue any vnderstanding may easily perceiue For it was neuer heard of from the Churches infancie vntill this day that euer any Pope did command that any Prince though an Heretike though an Ethnike though a persecutour should be murdered or did approue of the fact when it was done by any other And why I pray you doeth onely the King of England seare that which none of all other the Princes in Christendome either doeth feare or euer did feare But as I said these vaine pretexts are but the traps and stratagemes of Satan Of which kinde I could produce not a fewe out of ancient Stories if I went about to write a Booke and not an Epistle One onely for example sake I will call to your memory S. Gregorius Nazianzenus in his first Oration against Iulian the Emperour reporteth That hee the more easily to beguile the simple Christians did insert the Images of the false gods into the pictures of the Emperour which the Romanes did vse to bow downe vnto with a ciuill kinde of reuerence so that no man could doe reuerence to the Emperours picture but withall hee must adore the Images of the false gods whereupon it came to passe that many were deceiued And if there were any that found out the Emperours craft and refused to worship his picture those were most grieuously punished as men that had contemned the Emperour in his Image Some such like thing me thinkes I see in the Oath that is offered to you which is so craftily composed that no man can detest Treason against the King and make profession of his Ciuill subiection but he must bee constramed perfidiously to denie the Primacie of the Apostolicke Sea But the seruants of Christ and especially the chiefe Priests of the Lord ought to bee so farre from taking an vnlawfull Oath where they may indamage the Faith that they ought to beware that they giue not the least suspicion of dissimulation that they haue taken it least they might seeme to haue left any example of preuarication to faithfull people Which thing that worthy Eleazar did most notably performe who would neither eate swines flesh nor so much as faine to haue eaten it although hee sawe the great torments that did hang ouer his head least as himselfe speaketh in the second Booke of the Machabees many young men might bee brought through that simulation to preuaricate with the Lawe Neither did Basil the Great by his example which is more fit for our purpose cary himselfe lesse worthily toward Valens the Emperour For as Theodoret writeth in his Historie when the Deputy of that hereticall Emperour did perswade Saint Basil that hee would not resist the Emperour for a little subtiltie of a few points of doctrine that most holy and prudent man made answere That it was not to be indured that the least syllable of Gods word should bee corrupted but rather all kind of torment was to be embraced for the maintenance of the Trewth thereof Now I suppose that there wants not amongst you who say that they are but subtilties of Opinions that are contained in the Oath that is offered to the Catholikes and that you are not to strius against the Kings Authoritie for such a little matter But there are not wanting also amongst you holy men like vnto Basil the Great which will openly auow that the very least syllable of Gods diuine Trewth is not to bee corrupted though many torments were to bee endured and death it selfe set before you Amongst whom it is meete that you should bee one or rather the Standard bearer and Generall to the rest And whatsoeuer hath beene the cause that your Constancie hath quailed whether it bee the suddainenesse of your apprehension or the bitternesse of your persecution or the imbecilitie of your old aage yet wee trust in the goodnesse of God and in your owne long continued vertue that it will come to passe that as you seeme in some part to haue imitated the fall of Peter and Marcellinus so you shall happily imitate their valour in recouering your strength and maintaining the Trewth For if you will diligently weigh the whole matter with your selfe trewly you shall see it is no small matter that is called in question by this Oath but one of the principall heads of our Faith and foundations of Catholique Religion For heare what your Apostle Saint Gregorie the Great hath written in his 24. Epistle of his 11. Booke Let not the reuerence due to the Apostolique Sea be troubled by any mans presumption for then the state of the members doeth remaine entire when the Head of the Faith is not bruised by any iniurie Therefore by Saint Gregories testimonie when they are busie about disturbing or diminishing or taking
Sheweth such Princely courage and resolution in those times when all that stood and suffered for the Popes Temporall pretensions against Kings were enrowled Martyrs or Confessors The Pope takes the matter in fowle scorne and great indignation shuts the King by his excommunicatory Bulls out of the Church stirres vp his Barons for other causes the Kings heauy friends to rise in armes giues the Kingdome of England like a masterlesse man turned ouer to a new master to Philippus Augustus King of France bindes Philip to make a conquest of England by the sword or else no bargaine or else no gift promises Philip in recompence of his trauell and Royall expences in that conquest full absolution and a generall pardon at large for all his sinnes to bee short cuts King Iohn out so much worke and makes him keepe so many yrons in the fire for his worke that he had none other way none other meanes to pacifie the Popes high displeasure to correct or qualifie the malignitie of the Popes cholericke humour by whom he was then so entangled in the Popes toyles but by yeelding himselfe to become the Popes vassal and his Kingdome feudatary or to hold by fealty of the Papall See By this meanes his Crowne is made tributary all his people liable to payment of taxes by the poll for a certaine yeerely tribute and he is blessed with a pardon for all his sinnes Whether King Iohn was mooued to doe this dishonourable act vpon any deuotion or inflamed with any zeale of Religion or inforced by the vnresistable weapons of necessitie who can be so blind that he doeth not well see and clearely perceiue For to purchase his owne freedome from this bondage to the Pope what could he bee vnwilling to doe that was willing to bring his Kingdome vnder the yoake of Amirales Murmelinus a Mahumetan Prince then King of Granado and Barbaria The Pope after that sent a Legat into England The King now the Popes vassall and holding his Crowne of the Pope like a man that holds his land of another by Knights seruice or by homage and fealtie doeth faire homage for his Crowne to the Popes Legat and layeth downe at his feet a great masse of the purest gold in coyne The reuerend Legat in token of his Masters Soueraigntie with more then vsuall pride falls to kicking and spurning the treasure no doubt with a paire of most holy feet Not onely so but likewise at solemne feasts is easily entreated to take the Kings chaire of Estate Heere I would faine know the Lord Cardinals opinion whether these actions of the Pope were iust or vniust lawfull or vnlawfull according to right or against all right and reason If he will say against right it is then cleare that against right his Lordship hath made way to this example if according to right let him then make it knowen from whence or from whom this power was deriued and conueyed to the Pope whereby hee makes himselfe Souereigne Lord of Temporalties in that Kingdome where neither he nor any of his predecessours euer pretended any right or layd any claime to Temporall matters before Are such prankes to be played by the Pontificiall Bishop Is this an act of Holinesse to set a Kingdome on fire by the flaming brands of sedition to dismember and quarter a Kingdome with intestine warres onely to this end that a King once reduced to the lowest degree of miserie might be lifted by his Holinesse out of his Royall prerogatiue the very soule and life of his Royall Estate When began this Papall power In what aage began the Pope to practise this power What! haue the ancient Canons for the Scripture in this question beareth no pawme haue the Canons of the ancient Church imposed any such satisfaction vpon a sinner that of a Souereigne and free King he should become vassall to his ghostly Father that he should make himselfe together with all his people and subiects tributaries to a Bishop that shall rifle a whole Nation of their coine that shall receiue homage of a King and make a King his vassall What! Shall not a sinner be quitted of his faults except his Pastor turne robber and one that goeth about to get a booty except hee make his Pastour a Feoffee in his whole Estate and suffer himselfe vnder a shadow of penance to freeze naked to be turned out of all his goods and possessions of inheritance But be it granted admit his Holinesse robs one Prince of his rights and reuenewes to conferre the same vpon another were it not an high degree of tyrannie to finger another mans estate and to giue that away to a third which the second hath no right no lawfull authoritie to giue Well if the Pope then shall become his owne caruer in the rights of another if he shall make his owne coffers to swell with anothers reuenewes if he shall decke and aray his owne backe in the spoiles of a sinner with whom in absolution he maketh peace and taketh truce what can this be else but running into further degrees of wickednesse and mischiefe what can this be else but heaping of robbery vpon fraud and Impietie vpon robbery For by such deceitfull craftie and cunning practises the nature of the Pontificiall See meerely spirituall is changed into the Kings-bench-Court meerely temporall the Bishops chaire is changed into a Monarchs Throne And not onely so but besides the sinners repentance is changed into a snare or pit-fall of cousening deceit and S. Peters net is changed into a casting-net or a flew to fish for all the wealth of most flourishing Kingdomes Moreouer the King a hard case is driuen by such wiles and subtilties to worke impossibilities to acte more then is lawfull or within the compasse of his power to practise For the King neither may in right nor can by power trans-nature his Crowne impaire the Maiestie of his Kingdome or leaue his Royal dignitie lesse free to his heire apparant or next successor then he receiued the same of his predecessour Much lesse by any dishonourable capitulations by any vnworthy contracts degrade his posteritie bring his people vnder the grieuous burden of tributes and taxes to a forreine Prince Least of all make them tributary to a Priest vnto whom it no way apperteineth to haue any hand in the ciuill affaires of Kings or to distaine and vnhallow their Crownes And therefore when the Pope dispatched his Nuntio to Philippus Augustus requesting the King to auert Lewis his sonne from laying any claime to the Kingdome of England Philip answered the Legat as we haue it in Matth. Paris No King no Prince can alienate or giue away his Kingdom but by consent of his Barons bound by Knights seruice to defend the said Kingdome and in case the Pope shall stand for the contrary error his Holines shall giue to Kingdomes a most pernicious example By the same Author it is testified that King Iohn became odious to his subiects for such dishonourable and vnworthy
Law of the King whereto themselues are also subiect Hauing now perfourmed this ancient Prouerbe A Ioue principium which though it was spoken by a Pagan yet it is good and holy I am now to come to my particular Errand for which I am heere this day wherein I must handle two parts First the reason why I haue not these fourteene yeeres sithence my Coronation vntill now satisfied a great many of my louing subiects who I know haue had a great expectation and as it were a longing like them that are with child to heare mee speake in this place where my Predecessors haue often sitten and especially King Henry the seuenth from whom as diuers wayes before I am lineally descended and that doubly to this Crowne and as I am neerest descended of him so doe I desire to follow him in his best actions The next part is the reason Why I am now come The cause that made mee abstaine was this When I came into England although I was an old King past middle aage and practised in gouernment euer sithence I was twelue yeeres olde yet being heere a stranger in gouernement though not in blood because my breeding was in another Kingdome I resolued therefore with Pythagoras to keepe silence seuen yeeres and learne my selfe the Lawes of this Kingdome before I would take vpon mee to teach them vnto others When this Apprentiship was ended then another impediment came which was in the choice of that cause that should first bring me hither I expected some great cause to make my first entry vpon For I thought that hauing abstained so long it should be a worthy matter that should bring mee hither Now euery cause must be great or small In small causes I thought it disgracefull to come hauing beene so long absent In great causes they must be either betwixt the King and some of his Subiects or betwixt Subiect and Subiect In a cause where my selfe was concerned I was loath to come because men should not thinke I did come for my owne priuate either Prerogatiue or profit or for any other by-respect And in that case I will alwayes abide the triall of men and Angels neuer to haue had any particular end in that which is the Maine of all things Iustice In a great cause also betweene partie and partie great in respect either of the question or value of the thing my comming might seeme as it were obliquely to be in fauour of one partie and for that cause this Counsellour or that Courtier might be thought to mooue me to come hither And a meane cause was not worthy of mee especially for my first entrance So lacke of choice in both respects kept mee off till now And now hauing passed a double apprentiship of twice seuen yeeres I am come hither to speake vnto you And next as to the reasons of my comming at this time they are these I haue obserued in the time of my whole Reigne here and my double Apprentiship diuers things fallen out in the Iudicatures here at Westminster Hall that I thought required and vrged a reformation at my hands whereupon I resolued with my selfe that I could not more fitly begin a reformation then here to make an open declaration of my meaning I remember Christs saying My sheepe heare my voyce and so I assure my selfe my people will most willingly heare the voyce of me their owne Shepheard and King whereupon I tooke this occasion in mine owne person here in this Seate of Iudgement not iudicially but declaratorily and openly to giue those directions which at other times by piece-meale I haue deliuered to some of you in diuers lesse publike places but now will put it vp in all your audience where I hope it shall bee trewly caried and cannot be mistaken as it might haue bene when it was spoken more priuately I will for order sake take mee to the methode of the number of Three the number of perfection and vpon that number distribute all I haue to declare to you FIrst I am to giue a charge to my selfe for a King or Iudge vnder a King that first giues not a good charge to himselfe will neuer be able to giue a good charge to his inferiours for as I haue said Good riuers cannot flow but from good springs if the fountaine be impure so must the riuers be Secondly to the Iudges And thirdly to the Auditory and the rest of the inferiour ministers of Iustice First I protest to you all in all your audience heere sitting in the seate of Iustice belonging vnto GOD and now by right fallen vnto mee that I haue resolued as Confirmation in Maioritie followeth Baptisme in minoritie so now after many yeeres to renew my promise and Oath made at my Coronation concerning Iustice and the promise therein for maintenance of the Law of the Land And I protest in GODS presence my care hath euer beene to keepe my conscience cleare in all the points of my Oath taken at my Coronation so farre as humane frailtie may permit mee or my knowledge enforme mee I speake in point of Iustice and Law For Religion I hope I am reasonably well knowen already I meane therefore of Lawe and Iustice and for Law I meane the Common Law of the Land according to which the King gouernes and by which the people are gouerned For the Common Law you can all beare mee witnesse I neuer pressed alteration of it in Parliament but on the contrary when I endeauoured most an Vnion reall as was already in my person my desire was to conforme the Lawes of Scotland to the Law of England and not the Law of England to the Law of Scotland and so the prophecie to be trew of my wise Grandfather Henry the seuenth who foretold that the lesser Kingdome by marriage would follow the greater and not the greater the lesser And therefore married his eldest daughter Margaret to Iames the fourth my great Grandfather It was a foolish Querke of some Iudges who held that the Parliament of England could not vnite Scotland and England by the name of Great Britaine but that it would make an alteration of the Lawes though I am since come to that knowledge that an Acte of Parliament can doe greater wonders And that old wise man the Treasourer Burghley was wont to say Hee knew not what an Acte of Parliament could not doe in England For my intention was alwayes to effect vnion by vniting Scotland to England and not England to Scotland For I euer meant being euer resolued that this Law should continue in this Kingdome and two things mooued mee thereunto One is that in matter of Policie and State you shall neuer see any thing anciently and maturely established but by Innouation or alteration it is worse then it was I meane not by purging of it from corruptions and restoring it to the ancient integritie Another reason was I was sworne to maintaine the Law of the Land and therefore I had beene periured if I
what indifferencie of Religion can Momus call that in mee where speaking of my sonnes marriage in case it pleased God before that time to cut the threed of my life I plainly forewarne him of the inconuenients that were like to ensew incase he should marry any that be of a different profession in Religion from him notwithstanding that the number of Princes professing our Religion be so small as it is hard to foresee how he can be that way meetly matched according to his ranke And as for the other point that by some parts in this booke it should appeare that I doe nourish in my minde a vindictiue resolution against England or some principals there it is surely more then wonderfull vnto me vpon what grounds they can haue gathered such conclusions For as vpon the one part Ineither by name nor description poynt out England in that part of my discourse so vpon the other I plainly bewray my meaning to be of Scottish-men where I conclude that purpose in these termes That the loue I beare to my Sonne hath mooued me to be so plaine in this argument for so that I discharge my conscience to him in vttering the verity I care not what any traitour or treason-allower doe thinke of it And English-men could not thereby be meant since they could be no traitours where they ought no alleageance I am not ignorant of a wise and princely apophthegme which the same Queene of England vttered about the time of her owne Coronation But the drift of that discourse doth fully cleare my intention being onely grounded vpon that precept to my Sonne that he should not permit any vnreuerent detracting of his praedecessours bringing in that purpose of my mother onely for an example of my experience anent Scottishmen without vsing any perswasion to him of reuenge For a Kings giuing of any fault the dew stile inferres no reduction of the faulters pardon No I am by a degree nearer of kinne vnto my mother then he is neither thinke I my selfe either that vnworthie or that neere my end that I neede to make such a Dauidicall testament since I haue euer thought it the dewtie of a worthie Prince rather with a pike then a penne to write his iust reuenge But in this matter I haue no delite to be large wishing all men to iudge of my future proiects according to my by-past actions Thus hauing as much insisted in the clearing of these two points as will I hope giue sufficient satisfaction to all honest men and leauing the enuious to the foode of their owne venome I will heartily pray thee louing Reader charitably to conceiue of my honest intention in this Booke I know the greatest part of the people of this whole Isle haue beene very curious for a sight thereof some for the loue they beare me either being particularly acquainted with me or by a good report that perhappes they haue heard of me and therefore longed to see any thing that proceeded from that authour whom they so loued and honoured since bookes are viue Idees of the authours minde Some onely for meere curiositie that thinke it their honour to know all new things were curious to glut their eyes therewith onely that they might vaunt them to haue seene it and some fraughted with causlesse enuie at the Authour did greedily search out the booke thinking their stomacke jit ynough for turning neuer so wholesome foode into noysome and infectiue bumours So as this their great concurrence in curiofitie though proceeding from farre different complexions hath enforced the vn-timous divulgating of this Booke farre contrarie to my intention as I haue alreadie said To which Hydra of diuersly-enclined spectatours I haue no targe to oppone but plainenesse patience and sinceritie plainenesse for resoluing and satisfying of the first sort patience for to beare with the shallownesse of the next and sinceritie to defie the malice of the third with-all Though I cannot please all men therein I am contented so that Ionely please the vertuous sort and though they also finde not euery thing therein so fully to answere their expectation as the argument would seeme to require although I would wish them modestly to remember that God hes not bestowed all his gifts vpon one but parted them by a iustice distributiue and that many eyes see more then one and that the varietie of mens mindes is such that tot capita totsensus yea and that euen the very faces that God hath by nature brought foorth in the world doe euery one in some of their particular lineaments differ from any other yet in trewth it was not my intention in handling of this purpose as it is easie to perceiue fully to set downe heere all such grounds as might out of the best writers haue beene alledged and out of my owne inuention and experience added for the perfite institution of a King but onely to giue some such precepts to my owne Sonne for the gouernement of this kingdome as was meetest for him to be instructed in and best became me to be the informer of If I in this Booke haue beene too particularly plaine impute it to the necessitie of the subiect not so much being ordained for the institution of a Prince in generall as I haue said as containing particular precepts to my Sonne in speciall whereof he could haue made but a generall vse if they had not contained the particular diseases of this kingdome with the best remedies for the same which it became me best as a King hauing learned both the theoricke and practicke thereof more plainely to expresse then any simple schoole man that onely knowes matters of kingdomes by contemplation But if in some places it seeme too obscure impute it to the shortnesse thereof being both for the respect of my selfe and of my Sonne constrained there-unto my owne respect for fault of leasure being so continually occupied in the affaires of my office as my great burthen and restlesse fashery is more then knowen to all that knowes or beares of me for my Sonnes respect because I know by my self that a Prince so long as he is young wil be so caried away with some sort of delight or other that he cannot patiently abide the reading of any large volume and when he comes to a ful maturity of aage he must be so busied in the actiue part of his charge as he will not be permitted to bestow many houres vpon the cōtemplatiue part therof So as it was neither fit for him nor possible for me to haue made this Treatise any more ample then it is Indeed I am litle beholden to the curiositie of some who thinking it too large alreadie as appears for lacke of leisure to copy it drew some notes out of it for speeds sake putting in the one halfe of the purpose and leauing out the other not vnlike the man that alledged that part of the Psalme non est Deus but left out the praeceeding words Dixit insipiens in corde
suo And of these notes making a little pamphlet lacking both my methode and halfe of my matter entituled it forsooth the Kings Testament as if I had eiked a third Testament of my owne to the two that are in the holy Scriptures It is trew that in a place thereof for affirmation of the purpose I am speaking of to my Sonne I bring my selfe in there as speaking vpon my Testament for in that sense euery record in write of a mans opinion in anything in respect that papers out-liue their authours is as it were a Testament of that mans will in that case and in that sense it is that in that place I call this Treatise a Testament But from any particular sentence in a booke to giue the booke it selfe a title is as ridiculous as to style the booke of the Psalmes the booke of Dixit insipiens because with these wordes one of them doeth begin Well leauing these new baptizers and blockers of other mens books to their owne follies Ireturne to my purpose anent the shortnesse of this booke suspecting that all my excuses for the shortnesse thereof shall not satisfie some especially in our neighbour countrey who thought that as I haue so narrowly in this Treatise touched all the principall sicknesses in our kingdome with ouertures for the remedies thereof as I said before so looked they to haue found something therein that should haue touched the sicknesses of their state in the like sort But they will easily excuse me thereof if they will consider the forme I haue vsed in this Treatise wherein I onely teach my Son out of my owne experience what forme of gouernment is fittest for this kingdome and in one part thereof speaking of the borders I plainely there doe excuse my selfe that I will speake nothing of the state of England as a matter wherein I neuer had experience I know indeed no kingdome lackes her owne diseases and likewise what interest I haue in the prosperitie of that state for although I would be silent my blood and discent doeth sufficiently proclaime it But notwithstanding since there is a lawfull Queene there presently reigning who hath so long with so great wisedome and felicitie gouerned her kingdomes as I must in trew sinceritie confesse the like hath not beene read nor heard of either in our time or since the dayes of the Romane Emperour Augustus it could no wayes become me farre inferiour to her in knowledge and experience to be a busie-body in other princes matters and to fish in other folkes waters as the prouerbe is No I hope by the contrary with Gods grace euer to keepe that Christian rule To doe as I would be done to and I doubt nothing yea euen in her name I dare promise by the bypast experience of her happy gouernment as I haue already said that no good subiect shall be more carefull to enforme her of any corruptions stollen in in her state then shee shall be zealous for the discharge of her conscience and honour to see the same purged and restored to the ancient integritie and further during her time becomes me least of any to meddle in And thus hauing resolued all the doubts so farre as I can imagine may be moued against this Treatise it onely rests to pray thee charitable Reader to interprete fauourably this birth of mine according to the integritie of the author and not looking for perfection in the worke it selfe As for my part I onely glory thereof in this point that I trust no sort of vertue is condemned nor any degree of vice allowed in it and that though it be not perhaps so gorgeously decked and richly attired as it ought to be it is at the least rightly proportioned in all the members without any menstrous deformitie in any of them and specially that since it was first written in secret and is now published not of ambition but of a kinde of necessitie it must be taken of all men for the trew image of my very minde and forme of the rule which I haue prescribed to my selfe and mine Which as in all my actions I haue bitherto preassed to expresse so farre as the nature of my charge and the condition of time would permit me so beareth it a discouery of that which may be looked for at my hand and whereto euen in my secret thoughts I haue engaged my selfe for the time to come And thus in a firme trust that it shall please God who with my being and Crowne gaue me this minde to maintaine and augment the same in me and my posteritie to the discharge of our conscience the maintenance of our Honour and weale of our people I bid thee heartily farewell OF A KINGS CHRISTIAN DVETIE TO WARDS GOD. THE FIRST BOOKE AS he cannot be thought worthy to rule and command others that cannot rule and dantone his owne proper affections and vnreasonable appetites so can hee not be thought worthie to gouerne a Christian people The trew ground of good gouernment knowing and fearing God that in his owne person and heart feareth not and loueth not the Diuine Maiestie Neither can any thing in his gouernment succeed well with him deuise and labour as he list as comming from a filthie spring if his person be vnsanctified for as that royal Prophet saith Except the Lord build the house Psal 127 1. they labour in vaine that build it except the Lord keepe the City the keepers watch it in vaine in respect the blessing of God hath onely power to giue the successe thereunto and as Paul saith he planteth 1. Cor. 3.6 Apollos watereth but it is God onely that giueth the increase Therefore my Sonne first of all things learne to know and loue that God whom-to ye haue a double obligation Double bond of a Prince to God first for that he made you a man and next for that he made you a little GOD to sit on his Throne and rule ouer other men Remember that as in dignitie hee hath erected you aboue others so ought ye in thankfulnesse towards him goe as farre beyond all others A moate in anothers eye is a beame into yours a blemish in another is a leprouse byle into you and a veniall sinne as the Papists call it in another is a great crime into you Thinke not therefore that the highnesse of your dignitie The greatnesse of the fault of a Prince dimmisheth your faults much lesse giueth you a licence to sinne but by the contrary your fault shall be aggrauated according to the height of your dignitie any sinne that ye commit not being a single sinne procuring but the fall of one but being an exemplare sinne and therefore drawing with it the whole multitude to be guiltie of the same Remember then that this glistering worldly glorie of Kings The trew glorie of Kings is giuen them by God to teach them to preasse so to glister and shine before their people in all workes of sanctification and
committer Here would I also eike another crime to bee vnpardonable if I should not be thought partiall but the fatherly loue I beare you will make mee breake the bounds of shame in opening it vnto you Stayning of the blood It is then the false and vnreuerent writing or speaking of malicious men against your Parents and Predecessors Exod. 20.12 ye know the command in Gods lawe Honour your Father and Mother and consequently sen ye are the lawful magistrate suffer not both your Princes and your Parents to be dishonoured by any especially sith the example also toucheth your selfe Plat. 4. de Legib. in leauing thereby to your successors the measure of that which they shal mete out againe to you in your like behalfe I graunt wee haue all our faults which priuately betwixt you and God should serue you for examples to meditate vpon and mend in your person but should not be a matter of discourse to others whatsoeuer And sith yeare come of as honourable Predecessours as any Prince liuing represse the insolence of such as vnder pretence to taxe a vice in the person seeke craftily to staine the race and to steale the affection of the people from their posteritie For how can they loue you that hated them whom-of ye are come Wherefore destroy men innocent young sucking Wolues and Foxes but for the hatred they beare to their race and why wil a coult of a Courser of Naples giue a greater price in a market then an Asse-colt but for loue of the race It is therefore a thing monstrous to see a man loue the childe and hate the Parents as on the other part the infaming and making odious of the parent is the readiest way to bring the sonne in contempt And for conclusion of this point I may also alledge my owne experience For besides the iudgments of God that with my eyes I haue seene fall vpon all them that were chiefe traitours to my parents I may iustly affirme I neuer found yet a constant biding by me in all my straites by any that were of perfite aage in my parents dayes but onely by such as constantly bode by them I meane specially by them that serued the Queene my mother for so that I discharge my conscience to you my Sonne in reuealing to you the trewth I care not what any traitour or treason-allower thinke of it And although the crime of oppression be not in this ranke of vnpardonable crimes Of oppression yet the ouer-common vse of it in this nation as if it were a vertue especially by the greatest ranke of subiects in the land requireth the King to be a sharpe censurer thereof Arist 5. polit Isocr de reg Cic. in Of. ad Q. fr. Be diligent therefore to trie and awfull to beate downe the hornes of proud oppressours embrace the quarrell of the poore and distressed as your owne particular thinking it your greatest honour to represse the oppressours The trew glorie of Kings care for the pleasure of none neither spare ye anie paines in your owne person to see their wrongs redressed and remember of the honourable stile giuen to my grand-father of worthie memorie A memorable and worthie patterne in being called the poore mans King And as the most part of a Kings office standeth in deciding that question of Meum and Tuum among his subiects so remember when ye sit in iudgement that the Throne ye sit on is Gods Deut. 1. as Moyses saith and sway neither to the right hand nor to the left either louing the rich or pittying the poore Iustice should be blinde and friendlesse it is not there ye should reward your friends Plat. in polit Câ—â—a Q. frat Arist 1. Ret. Plat. in Is or seeke to crosse your enemies Here now speaking of oppressours and of iustice the purpose leadeth me to speake of Hie-land and Border oppressions As for the Hie-lands Of the Hielands I shortly comprehend them all in two sorts of people the one that dwelleth in our maine land that are barbarous for the most part and yet mixed with some shewe of ciuilitie the other that dwelleth in the Iles and are alluterly barbares without any sort or shew of ciuilitie For the first sort put straitly to execution the Lawes made alreadie by me against their Ouer-lords and the chiefes of their Clannes and it will be no difficultie to danton them As for the other sort follow forth the course that I haue intended in planting Colonies among them of answerable In-lands subiects that within short time may reforme and ciuilize the best inclined among them rooting out or transporting the barbarous and stubborne sort and planting ciuilitie in their roomes But as for the Borders because I know if ye enioy not this whole Ile Of the Borders according to Gods right and your lineall discent yee will neuer get leaue to brooke this North and barrennest part thereof no not your owne head whereon the Crowne should stand I neede not in that case trouble you with them for then they will be the middest of the I le and so as easily ruled as any part thereof And that yee may the readier with wisedome and Iustice gouerne your subiects by knowing what vices they are naturallie most inclined to A necesiarie point in a good gouernment Plato in polis as a good Physician who must first know what peccant humours his Patient naturallie is most subiect vnto before he can begin his cure I shall therefore shortly note vnto you the principall faults that euery ranke of the people of this countrey is most affected vnto And as for England I will not speake be-gesse of them neuer hauing been among them although I hope in that God who euer fauoureth the right before I die to be as well acquainted with their fashions As the whole Subiects of our countrey by the ancient and fundamentall policie of our Kingdome are diuided into three estates A consideration of the three estates so is euerie estate hereof generally subiect to some speciall vices which in a maner by long habitude are thought rather vertue then vice among them not that euerie particular man in any of these rankes of men is subiect vnto them for there is good and euill of all sorts but that I meane I haue found by experience these vices to haue taken greatest holde with these rankes of men And first that I prejudge not the Church of her ancient priuiledges reason would shee should haue the first place for orders sake in this catalogue The naturall sickenesse that hath euer troubled The diseases of the church and beene the decay of all the Churches since the beginning of the world changing the candlesticke from one to another as Iohn saith hath beene Pride Ambition and Auarice and now last these same infirmities wrought the ouerthrow of the Popish Church in this countrey and diuers others But the reformation of Religion in Scotland being
for keeping of the peace where by their naturall dewtie they are oblished to obey the lawe and keepe the peace all the daies of their life vpon the perill of their verie craigges For remeid to these euils in their estate Remedie of such euils Arist 5. Polit. teach your Nobilitie to keepe your lawes as precisely as the meanest feare not their orping or beeing discontented as long as yee rule well for their pretended reformation of Princes taketh neuer effect but where euill gouernement precedeth Acquaint your selfe so with all the honest men of your Barrons and Gentlemen Zeno in Cyr. Iso in En. Cic. ad Q. fra and be in your giuing accesse so open and affable to euery ranke of honest persons as may make them peart without scarring at you to make their owne suites to you themselues and not to employ the great Lordes their intercessours for intercession to Saints is Papistrie so shall ye bring to a measure their monstrous backes And for their barbarous feides put the lawes to due execution made by mee there-anent beginning euer rathest at him that yee loue best and is most oblished vnto you to make him an example to the rest For yee shall make all your reformations to beginne at your elbow and so by degrees to flow to the extremities of the land And rest not vntill yee roote out these barbarous feides that their effects may bee as well smoared downe as their barbarous name is vnknowen to anie other nation For if this Treatise were written either in French or Latine I could not get them named vnto you but by circumlocution And for your easier abolishing of them put sharpelie to execution my lawes made against Gunnes and traiterous Pistolets thinking in your heart tearming in your speech and vsing by your punishments all such as weare and vse them as brigands and cut-throates On the other part eschew the other extremitie in lightlying and contemning your Nobilitie Remember howe that errour brake the King my grand-fathers heart Plat. in 1. Al. in pol. 5. del Arist 2. oecom But consider that vertue followeth oftest noble blood the worthinesse of their antecessors craueth a reuerent regard to be had vnto them honour them therfore that are obedient to the law among them as Peeres and Fathers of your land the more frequently that your Court can bee garnished with them Zenâ— in Cyr. thinke it the more your honour acquainting and employing them in all your greatest affaires sen it is they must be your armes and executers of your lawes and so vse your selfe louinglie to the obedient and rigorously to the stubborne as may make the greatest of them to thinke that the chiefest point of their honour standeth in striuing with the meanest of the land in humilitie towards you and obedience to your Lawes beating euer in their eares that one of the principall points of seruice that ye craue of them is in their persons to practise and by their power to procure due obedience to the Law without the which no seruice they can make can be agreeable vnto you But the greatest hinderance to the execution of our Lawes in this countrie are these heritable Shirefdomes and Regalities Of Shirefdomes and Regalities which being in the hands of the great men do wracke the whole countrie For which I know no present remedie but by taking the sharper account of them in their Offices vsing all punishment against the slouthfull that the Law will permit and euer as they vaike for any offences committed by them Ar. 2. pol. dispone them neuer heritably againe preassing with time Laudable custome of England to draw it to the laudable custome of England which ye may the easilier doe being King of both as I hope in God ye shall And as to the third and last estate The third estate which is our Burghes for the small Barrones are but an inferiour part of the Nobilitie and of their estate they are composed of two sorts of men Merchants and Craftes-men either of these sorts being subiect to their owne infirmities The Merchants thinke the whole common-weale ordeined for making them vp and accounting it their lawfull gaine and trade The formes of Merchants to enrich themselues vpon the losse of all the rest of the people they transport from vs things necessarie bringing backe sometimes vnnecessary things and at other times nothing at all They buy for vs the worst wares and sell them at the dearest prices and albeit the victuals fall or rise of their prices according to the aboundance or skantnesse thereof yet the prices of their wares euer rise but neuerfall being as constant in that their euill custome as if it were a setled Law for them They are also the speciall cause of the corruption of the coyne transporting all our owne and bringing in forraine vpon what price they please to set on it For order putting to them put the good Lawes in execution that are already made anent these abuses but especially doe three things Establish honest diligent but few Searchers for many hands make slight worke and haue an honest and diligent Thesaurer to take count of them Pl. 2. de Rep. 8. 11. de leg Permit and allure forraine Merchants to trade here so shall ye haue best and best cheape wares not buying them at the third hand And set euery yeere downe a certaine price of all things considering first how it is in other countries and the price being set reasonably downe if the Merchants will not bring them home on the price cry forrainers free to bring them And because I haue made mention here of the coyne A duice anent the coyne make your money of fine Gold and Siluer causing the people be payed with substance and not abused with number so shall ye enrich the common-weale and haue a great treasure laid vp in store if ye fall in warres or in any straites For the making it baser will breed your commoditie but it is not to bee vsed but at a great necessitie And the Craftes-men thinke Of craftsmen Plat. 11. de leg we should be content with their worke how bad and deare soeuer it be and if they in any thing be controlled vp goeth the blew-blanket A good policie of England But for their part take example by ENGLAND how it hath flourished both in wealth and policie since the strangers Craftes-men came in among them Plat. 9. de leg Therefore not onely permit but allure strangers to come heere also taking as strait order for repressing the mutining of ours at them as was done in ENGLAND at their first in-bringing there But vnto one fault is all the common people of this Kingdome subiect A generall fault in the people as well burgh as land which is to iudge and speake rashly of their Prince Sal. in Iug. setting the Common-weale vpon foure props as wee call it euer wearying of the present estate and desirous
the spirituall Pastor of soules forsooth pulles the cloake of a poore sinner from his backe by violence or cuts his purse and thereby appropriates an other mans goods to his priuate vse It is to be obserued withall that when the Emperours were not of sufficient strength and Popes had power to beard and to braue Emperours then these Papall practises were first set on foot This Emperour notwithstanding turned head and peckt againe his Lieutenant entred Rome and Gregorie 3. successor to this Gregorie 2. was glad to honour the same Emperour with style and title of his Lord witnesse two seuerall Epistles of the said Gregorie 3. written to Boniface and subscribed in this forme Dat. 10. Cal. Decem Imperante Dom. pijssimo Augusto Leone à Deo coronato magno Imp. anno decimo Imperij eius Examp. 7. Dated the tenth alends of December In the raigne of our most pious and religious Lord Augustus Leo crowned of God the great Emperour in the tenth yeere of his raigne The L. Cardinall with no lesse abuse alleadgeth Pope Zacharie by whom the French as he affirmeth were absolued of the oath of all egiance wherein they stood bound to Childeric their King And for this instance he standeth vpon the testimonie of Paulus Aemilius and du Tillet a paire of late writers But by authors more neere that aage wherein Childeric raigned it is more trewly testified that it was a free and voluntarie act of the French onely asking the aduise of Pope Zacharie but requiring neither leaue nor absolution Ado Bishop of Vienna in his Chronicles hath it after this manner The French following the Counsell of Embassadors and of Pope Zachary elected Pepin their King and established him in the Kingdome Trithemius in his abridgement of Annals thus Childeric as one vnfit for gouernement was turned out of his Kingdome with common consent of the Estates and Peeres of the Realme so aduised by Zacharie Pope of Rome Godfridus of Viterbe in the 17. part of his Chronicle and Guauguin in the life of Pepin affirme the same And was it not an easie matter to worke Pepin by counsell to lay hold on the Kingdome when he could not be hindered from fastening on the Crowne and had already seizd it in effect howsoeuer he had not yet attained to the name of King Moreouer the rudenesse of that Nation then wanting knowledge and Schooles either of diuinitie or of Academicall sciences was a kind of spurre to make them runne for counsell ouer the mountaines which neuerthelesse in a cause of such nature they required not as necessary but onely as decent and for fashion sake The Popealso for his part was well appaied by this meanes to draw Pepin vnto his part as one that stood in some neede of his aide against the Lombards and the more because his Lord the Emperour of Constantinople was then brought so low that hee was not able to send him sufficient aide for the defence of his territories against his enemies But had Zacharie to deale plainely not stood vpon the respect of his owne commodity more then vpon the regard of Gods feare he would neuer haue giuen counsell vnto the seruant vnder the pretended colour of his Masters dull spirit so to turne rebell against his Master The Lawes prouide Gardians or ouerseers for such as are not well in their wits they neuer depriue and spoile them of their estate they punish crimes but not diseases and infirmities by nature Yea in France it is a very auncient custome when the King is troubled in his wits to establish a Regent who for the time of the Kings disability may beare the burden of the Kingdomes affaires So was the practise of that State in the case of Charles 6. when hee fell into a phrensie whom the Pope notwithstanding his most grieuous and sharpe fits neuer offered to degrade And to be short what reason what equity will beare the children to be punished for the fathers debilitie Yet such punishment was laid vpon Childerics whole race and house who by this practise were all disinherited of the Kingdome But shall wee now take some view of the L. Pag. 25. Cardinals excuse for this exemplarie fact The cause of Childerics deposing as the L. Cardinall saith did neerely concerne and touch Religion For Childerics imbecillity brought all France into danger to suffer a most wofull shipwracke of Christian religion vpon the barbarous and hostile inuasion of the Saracens Admit now this reason had beene of iust weight and value yet consideration should haue beene taken whether some one or other of that Royall stemme and of the Kings owne successors neerest of blood was not of better capacity to rule and mannage that mighty State The feare of vncertaine and accidentall mischiefe should not haue driuen them to flie vnto the certaine mischiefe of actuall and effectuall deposition They should rather haue set before their eies the example of Charles Martel this Pepins father who in a farre more eminent danger when the Saracens had already mastered and subdued a great part of France valiantly encountred and withall defeated the Saracens ruled the Kingdome vnder the title of Steward of the Kings house the principall Officer of the Crowne without affecting or aspiring to the Throne for all that great step of aduantage especially when the Saracens were quite broken and no longer dreadfull to the French Nation In our owne Scotland the sway of the Kingdome was in the hand of Walles during the time of Bruse his imprisonment in England who then was lawfull heire to the Crowne This Walles or Vallas had the whole power of the Kingdome at his becke and command His Edicts and ordinances to this day stand in full force By the deadly hatred of Bruse his mortall enemie it may be coniectured that he might haue bene prouoked and inflamed with desiré to trusse the Kingdome in his tallants And notwithstanding all these incitements he neuer assumed or vsurped other title to himselfe then of Gouernour or Administratour of the Kingdome The reason Hee had not beene brought vp in this new doctrine and late discipline whereby the Church is endowed with power to giue and to take away Crownes But now as the L. Cardinall would beare the world in hand the state of Kings is brought to a very dead lift The Pope forsooth must send his Physicians to know by way of inspection or some other course of Art whether the Kings braine be cract or sound and in case there be found any debilitie of wit and reason in the King then the Pope must remooue and translate the Crowne from the weaker braine to a stronger and for the acting of the stratageme the name of Religion must be pretended Ho these Heretikes begin to crawle in the Kingdome order must bee taken they bee not suffered by their multitudes and swarmes like locusts or caterpillers to pester and poison the whole Realme Or in a case of Matrimony thus Ho marriage is a Sacrament touch
to reioyce in his owne behalfe and to giue me thanks that I haue done him the honour to enter the lists of Theologicall dispute against his Lordship Howbeit he twitches and carpes at me withall as at one that soweth seeds of dissention and schisme amongst Romane Catholiks And yet he would seeme to qualifie the matter and to make all whole againe by saying That in so doing I am perswaded I doe no more then my duetie requires But now as his Lordship followes the point it standeth neither with godlinesse nor with equity nor with reason that Acts made that Statutes Decrees and Ordinances ratified for the State and Gouernement of England should be thrust for binding Laws vpon the Kingdome of France nor that Catholikes and much lesse that Ecclesiastics to the ende they may liue in safetie and freely enioy their priuiledges or immunities in France should be forced to beleeue and by oath to seale the same points which English Catholikes to the end they may purchase libertie onely to breath nay sorrowfully to sigh rather are constrained to allow and to aduow besides And where as in England There is no small number of Catholikes that lacke not constant and resolute minds to endure all sorts of punishment rather then to take that oath of allegiance will there not be found an other manner of number in France armed with no lesse constancie and Christian resolution There will most honourable Auditors there will without all doubt and we all that are of Episcopall dignity will sooner suffer Martyrdome in the cause Then out of the super-abundance and ouer-weight of his Lordships goodnes he closely coucheth and conuayeth a certaine distastfull opposition betweene mee and his King with praises and thanks to God that his King is not delighted takes no pleasure to make Martyrs All this Artificiall and swelling discourse like vnto puffe-past if it be viewed at a neere distance will be found like a bladder full of wind without any soliditie of substantiall matter For the Deputies of the third Estate were neuer so voide of vnderstanding to beleeue that by prouiding for the life and safety of their King they should thrust him headlong into eternall damnation Their braines were neuer so much blasted so farre benummed to dreame the soule of their King cannot mount vp to heauen except he be dismounted from his Princely Throne vpon earth whensoeuer the Pope shall hold vp his finger And whereas he is bold to pronounce that heretikes of France doe make their benefit and aduantage of this diuision that speech is grounded vpon this proposition That professors of the Christian Religion reformed which is to say purged and cleansed of all Popish dregs are heretikes in fact and ought so to bee reputed in right Which proposition his Lordship will neuer soundly and sufficiently make good before his Holinesse hath compiled an other Gospell or hath forged an other Bible at his Pontificiall anuile The L. Cardinall vndertooke to reade mee a lecture vpon that argument but euer since hath played Mum-budget and hath put himselfe to silence like one at a Non-plus in his enterprise There be three yeeres already gone and past since his Lordship beganne to shape some answere to a certaine writing dispatched by mee in few daies With forming and reforming with filing and polishing with labouring and licking his answere ouer and ouer againe with reiterated extractions and calcinations it may be coniectured that all his Lordships labour and cost is long since evaporated and vanished in the aire Howbeit as well the friendly conference of a King for I will not call it a contention as also the dignitie excellencie and importance of the matter long since deserued and as long since required the publishing of some or other answere His Lordships long silence will neuer be imputed to lacke of capacity wherewith who knoweth not how abundantly he is furnished but rather to well aduised agnition of his owne working and building vpon a weake foundation But let vs returne vnto these heretikes that make so great gaine by the disagreement of Catholikes It is no part of their dutie to aime at sowing of dissentions but rather to intend and attend their faithfull performance of seruice to their King If some be pleased and others offended when so good and loyall duties are sincerely discharged it is for all good subiects to grieue and to be sory that when they speake for the safetie of their King honour of the trewth it is their hard hap to leaue any at all vnsatisfied But suppose the said heretiks were the Authors of this article preferred by the third Estate What need they to conceale their names in that regard What need they to disclaime the credit of such a worthy act Would it not redound to their perpetuall honour to be the onely subiects that kept watch ouer the Kings life and Crowne that stood centinell and walked the rounds for the preseruation of his Princely diademe when all other had no more touch no more feeling thereof then so many stones And what neede the Deputies for the third Estate to receiue instructions from forraine Kingdomes concerning a cause of that nature when there was no want of domesticall examples and the French histories were plentifull in that argument What neede they to gape for this reformed doctrine to come swimming with a fishes tayle out of an Island to the mayne continent when they had before their eyes the murders of two Kings with diuerse ciuill warres and many Arrests of Court all tending to insinuate and suggest the introduction of the same remedy Suggestions are needlesse from abroad when the mischiefe is felt at home it seemes to me that his Lordship in smoothing and tickling the Deputies for the third Estate doth no lesse then wring and wrong their great sufficiencie with contumely and outragious abuse as if they were not furnished with sufficient foresight and with loyall affection towards their King for the preseruation of his life and honour if the remedie were not beaten into their heads by those of the Religion reputed heretikes Touching my selfe ranged by his Lordship in the same ranke with sowers of dissention I take my God to witnes and my owne conscience that I neuer dream'd of any such vnchristian proiect It hath beene hitherto my ordinary course to follow honest counsells and to walke in open waies I neuer wonted my selfe to holes and corners to crafty shifts but euermore to plaine and open designes I neede not hide mine intentions for feare of any mortall man that puffeth breath of life out of his nostrils Nor in any sort doe I purpose to set Iulian the Apostata before mine eyes as a patterne for me to follow Iulian of a Christian became a Pagan I professe the same faith of Christ still which I haue euer professed Iulian went about his designes with crafty conueiances I neuer with any of his captious and cunning sleights Iulian forced his subiects to infidelitie against I
trāsgressors of diuine humane lawes If the French king in the heart of his kingdom should nourish and foster such a nest of stinging hornets and busie wasps I meane such a pack of subiects denying his absolute Soueraignty as many Romane Catholiks of my Kingdome do mine It may wel be doubted whether the L. Cardinal would aduise his king stil to feather the nest of the said Catholiks stil to keep them warme stil to beare them with an easie and gentle hand It may wel be doubted whether his Lordship would extol their constancie that would haue the courage to sheath vp their swords in his Kings bowels or blow vp his King with gun-powder into the neather station of the lowest regiō It may wel be doubted whether he would indure that Orator who like as himselfe hath done should stir vp others to suffer Martyrdome after such examples and to imitate parricides traitors in their constancy The scope then of the L. Cardinall in striking the sweet strings and sounding the pleasant notes of praises which faine he would fil mine eares withal is only by his excellent skil in the musick of Oratory to bewitch the harts of my subiects to infatuate their minds to settle them in a resolution to depriue me of my life The reason Because the plotters and practisers against my life are honoured and rewarded with a glorious name of Martyrs their constancie what els is admired when they suffer death for treason Wheras hitherto during the time of my whole raigne to this day I speake it in the word of a King and trewth it selfe shall make good the Kings word no man hath lost his life no man hath indured the Racke no man hath suffered corporall punishment in other kinds meerely or simply or in any degree of respect for his conscience in matter of religion but for wicked conspiring against my life or Estate or Royall dignitie or els for some notorious crime or some obstinate and wilfull disobedience Of which traiterous and viperous brood I commanded one to be hanged by the necke of late in Scotland a Iesuite of intolerable impudencie who at his arraignment and publike triall stiffely maintained that I haue robbed the Pope of his right and haue no manner of right in the possession of my Kingdome His Lordship therefore in offering himselfe to Martyrdome after the rare example of Catholiks as he saith suffering all sort of punishment in my Kingdome doeth plainely professe himselfe a follower of traytors and parricides These be the Worthies these the heroicall spirits these the honourable Captaines and Coronels whose vertuous parts neuer sufficiently magnified and praysed his Lordshippe propoundeth for imitation to the French Bishops O the name of Martyrs in olde times a sacred name how is it now derided and scoffed how is it in these daies filthily prophaned O you the whole quire and holy company of Apostles who haue sealed the trewth with your dearest blood how much are you disparaged how vnfitly are you paragoned and matched when traytors bloody butchers and King-killers are made your assistants and of the same Quorum or to speake in milder tearmes when you are coupled with Martyrs that suffer for maintaining the Temporall rites of the Popes Empire with Bishops that offer themselues to a Problematicall Martyrdome for a point decided neither by the authorities of your Spirit-inspired pens nor by the auncient and venerable testimonie of the Primitiue Church for a point which they dare not vndertake to teach otherwise then by a doubtfull cold fearefull way of discourse and altogether without resolution In good sooth I take the Cardinall for a personage of a quicker spirit and clearer sight let his Lordship hold mee excused then to perswade my selfe that in these matters his tongue and his heart his pen and his inward iudgement haue any concord or correspondence one with another For beeing very much against his minde as hee doeth confesse thrust into the office of an Aduocate to pleade this cause he suffered himselfe to bee carried after his engagement with some heat to vtter some things against his conscience murmuring and grumbling the contrary within and to affirme some other things with confidence whereof hee had not beene otherwise informed then onely by vaine and lying report Of which ranke is that bold assertion of his Lordship That many Catholiks in England rather then they would subscribe to the oath of allegiance in the forme thereof haue vndergone all sorts of punishment For in England as we haue trewly giuen the whole Christian world to vnderstand in our Preface to the Apologie there is but one forme or kind of punishment ordained for all sorts of traytors Hath not his Lordship now graced me with goodly testimonialls of prayse and commendation Am I not by his prayses proclaimed a Tyrant as it were inebriated with blood of the Saints and a famous Enginer of torments for my Catholikes To this exhortation for the suffering of Martyrdome in imitation of my English traytors and parricides if wee shall adde how craftily and subtilly hee makes the Kings of England to hold of the Pope by fealty and their kingdome in bondage to the Pope by Temporall recognizance it shall easily appeare that his holy-water of prayses wherewith I am so reuerently besprinkled is a composition extracted out of a dram of hony and a pound of gall first steeped in a strong decoction of bitter wormewood or of the wild gourd called Coloquintida For after he hath in the beginning of his Oration Page 10. spoken of Kings that owe fealtie to the Pope and are not Soueraignes in the highest degree of Temporall supremacie within their Kingdomes to explaine his mind and meaning the better he marshals the Kings of England a little after in the same ranke His words be these When King Iohn of England not yet bound in any temporall recognizance to the Pope had expelled his Bishops c. His Lordship means that King Iohn became so bound to the Pope not long after And what may this meaning be but in plaine tearmes and broad speach to call me vsurper and vnlawfull King For the feudatarie or he that holdeth a Mannor by fealty when he doeth not his homage with all suit and seruice that he owes to the Lord Paramount doeth fall from the propertie of his fee. This reproach of the L. Cardinals is seconded with an other of Bellarmines his brother Cardinall That Ireland was giuen to the Kings of England by the Pope The best is that his most reuerend Lordship hath not shewed who it was that gaue Ireland to the Pope And touching Iohn King of England thus in briefe stands the whole matter Betweene Henry 2. and the Pope had passed sundry bickerments about collating of Ecclesiasticall dignities Iohn the sonne after his fathers death reneweth vndertaketh and pursueth the same quarrell Driueth certaine English Bishops out of the Kingdome for defending the Popes insolent vsurpation vpon his Royall prerogatiue and Regall rights
inthralling of his Crowne and Kingdome Therefore the Popes right pretended to the Crowne of England which is nothing else but a ridiculous vsurpation hath long agoe vanished into smoake and required not so much as the drawing of one sword to snatch and pull it by violence out of his hands For the Popes power lying altogether in a certaine wilde and wandring conceit or opinion of men and being onely an imaginary castle in the ayre built by pride and vnderpropped by superstition is very speedily dispersed vpon the first rising and appearing of the trewth in her glorious brightnesse There is none so very a dolt or block-head to deny that in case this right of the Pope ouer England is grounded vpon Gods word then his Holinesse may challenge the like right ouer all other Kingdomes because all other Kingdomes Crownes and Scepters are subiect alike to Gods word For what priuiledge what charter what euidence can France fetch out of the Rolles or any other treasurie of her monuments or records to shew that she oweth lesse subiection to God then England Or was this yoke of bondage then brought vpon the English Nation was it a prerogatiue whereby they might more easily come to the libertie of the sonnes of God Or were the people of England perswaded that for all their substance wealth and life bestowed on the Pope his Holinesse by way of exchange returned them better weight and measure of spirituall graces It is ridiculous onely to conceiue these toyes in thought and yet with such ridiculous with such toyes in conceit his Lordship feeds and entertains his auditors From this point hee falleth to another bowt and fling at his heretikes with whom he played no faire play before Pag. 105. There is not one Synode of ministers as he saith which would willingly subscribe to this Article whereunto wee should bee bound to sweare But herein his Lordship shooteth farre from the marke This Article is approoued and preached by the Ministers of my Kingdome It is likewise preached by those of France and if need bee I asssure my selfe will bee signed by all the Ministers of the French Church The L. Cardinall proceedeth for hee meaneth not so soone to giue ouer these heretikes All their Consistortes beleeue it as their Creed that if Catholike Princes at any time shall offer force vnto their conscience then they are dispensed withall for their oath of alleagiance Hence are these modifications and restricitions tossed so much in their mouthes Prouided the King force vs not in our conscience Hence are these exceptions in the profession of their faith Prouided the Soueraigne power and authoritie of God bee not in any sort violated or infringed I am not able to conceiue what engine can bee framed of these materialls for the bearing of Kings out of their eminent seates by any lawfull authoritie or power in the Pope For say those of the Religion should be tainted with some like errour how can that be any shelter of excuse for those of the Romish Church to vndermine or to digge vp the Thrones of their Kings But in this allegation of the L. Cardinall there is nothing at all which doeth not iumpe iust and accord to a haire with the Article of the third Estate and with obedience due to the King For they doe not professe that in case the King shall commaund them to doe any act contrarie to their conscience they would flie at his throat would make any attempt against his life would refuse to pay their taxations or to defend him in the warres They make no profession of deposing the King or discharging the people from the oath of allegiance tendred to the King which is the very point or issue of the matter in controuersie and the maine mischeife against which the third Estate hath bin most worthily carefull to prouide a wholesome remedie by this Article There is a world of difference betweene the termes of disobedience and of deposition It is one thing to disobey the Kings commaund in matters prohibited by diuine lawes and yet in all other matters to performe full subiection vnto the King It is another thing of a farre higher degree or straine of disloyaltie to bare the King of his Royall robes throne and scepter and when he is thus farre disgraced to degrade him and to put him from his degree and place of a King If the holy Father should charge the L. Cardinal to doe some act repugnant in his owne knowledge to the Law of God I will religiously and according to the rule of charitie presume that his Lordship in this case would stand out against his Holinesse and notwithstanding would still acknowledge him to be Pope His Lordship yet prosecutes and followes his former purpose Hence are those armes which they haue oftentimes borne against Kings when Kings practised to take away the libertie of their conscience and Religion Hence are those turbulent Commotions and seditions by them raised as well in the Low-countryes against the King of Spaine as in Swethland against the Catholike King of Polonia Besides he casteth Iunius Brutus Buchananus Barclaius and Gerson in our teeth To what end all this I see not how it can bee auaileable to authorize the deposing of Kings especially the Popes power to depose And yet his Lordship here doth outface by his leaue and beare downe the trewth For I could neuer yet learne by any good and trew intelligence that in France those of the Religion tooke armes at any time against their King In the first ciuill warres they stood onely vpon their guard they stood onely to their lawfull wards and locks of defence they armed not nor tooke the field before they were pursued with fire and sword burnt vp and slaughtred Besides Religion was neither the root nor the rynde of those intestine troubles The trew ground of the quarrell was this During the minority of King Francis II. the Protestants of France were a refuge and succour to the Princes of the blood when they were kept from the Kings presence and by the ouer powring power of their enemies were no better then plaine driuen and chased from the Court I meane the Grand-father of the King now raigning and the Grand-father of the Prince of Conde when they had no place of safe retreate In regard of which worthy and honourable seruice it may seeme the French King hath reason to haue the Protestants in his gracious remembrance With other commotion or insurrection the Protestants are not iustly to be charged But on the contrary certaine it is that King Henry III. raysed and sent forth seuerall armies against the Protestants to ruine and roote them out of the Kingdome howbeit so soone as they perceiued the said King was brought into dangerous tearms they ranne with great speed and speciall fidelitie to the Kings rescue and succour in the present danger Certaine it is that by their good seruice the said King was deliuered from a most extreame and imminent perill
First by my descent lineally out of the loynes of Henry the seuenth is reunited and confirmed in mee the Vnion of the two Princely Roses of the two Houses of LANCASTER and YORKE whereof that King of happy memorie was the first Vniter as he was also the first ground-layer of the other Peace The lamentable and miserable euents by the Ciuill and bloody dissention betwixt these two Houses was so great and so late as it need not be renewed vnto your memories which as it was first setled and vnited in him so is it now reunited and confirmed in me being iustly and lineally descended not onely of that happie coniunction but of both the Branches thereof many times before But the Vnion of these two princely Houses is nothing comparable to the Vnion of two ancient and famous Kingdomes which is the other inward Peace annexed to my Person And here I must craue your patiences for a little space to giue me leaue to discourse more particularly of the benefits that doe arise of that Vnion which is made in my blood being a matter that most properly belongeth to me to speake of as the head wherein that great Body is vnited And first if we were to looke no higher then to naturall and Physicall reasons we may easily be perswaded of the great benefits that by that Vnion do redound to the whole Island for if twentie thousand men be a strong Armie is not the double thereof fourtie thousand a double the stronger Armie If a Baron enricheth himselfe with double as many lands as hee had before is he not double the greater Nature teacheth vs that Mountaines are made of Motes and that at the first Kingdomes being diuided and euery particular Towne or little Countie as Tyrants or Vsurpers could obtaine the possession a Segniorie apart many of these little Kingdomes are now in processe of time by the ordinance of God ioyned into great Monarchies whereby they are become powerfull within themselues to defend themselues from all outward inuasions and their head and gouernour thereby enabled to redeeme them from forreine assaults and punish priuate transgressions within Do we not yet remember that this Kingdome was diuided into seuen little Kingdomes besides Wales And is it not now the stronger by their vnion And hath not the vnion of Wales to England added a greater strength thereto Which though it was a great Principalitie was nothing comparable in greatnesse and power to the ancient and famous Kingdome of Scotland But what should we sticke vpon any naturall appearance when it is manifest that God by his Almightie prouidence hath preordained it so to be Hath not God first vnited these two Kingdomes both in Language Religion and similitude of maners Yea hath hee not made vs all in one Island compassed with one Sea and of it selfe by nature so indiuisible as almost those that were borderers themselues on the late Borders cannot distinguish nor know or discerne their owne limits These two Countries being separated neither by Sea nor great Riuer Mountaine nor other strength of nature but onely by little small brookes or demolished little walles so as rather they were diuided in apprehension then in effect And now in the end and fulnesse of time vnited the right and title of both in my Person alike lineally descended of both the Crownes whereby it is now become like a little World within it selfe being intrenched and fortified round about with a naturall and yet admirable strong pond or ditch whereby all the former feares of this Nation are now quite cut off The other part of the Island being euer before now not onely the place of landing to all strangers that was to make inuasion here but likewise moued by the enemies of this State by vntimely incursions to make inforced diuersion from their Conquests for defending themselues at home and keeping sure their backe-doore as then it was called which was the greatest hinderance and let that euer my Predecessors of this Nation gat in disturbing them from their many famous and glorious conquests abroad What God hath conioyned then let no man separate I am the Husband and all the whole Isle is my lawfull Wife I am the Head and it is my Body I am the Shepherd and it is my flocke I hope therefore no man will be so vnreasonable as to thinke that I that am a Christian King vnder the Gospel should be a Polygamist and husband to two wiues that I being the Head should haue a diuided and monstrous Body or that being the Shepheard to so faire a Flocke whose fold hath no wall to hedge it but the foure Seas should haue my Flocke parted in two But as I am assured that no honest Subiect of whatsoeuer degree within my whole dominions is lesse glad of this ioyfull Vnion then I am So may the friuolous obiection of any that would bee hinderers of this worke which God hath in my Person already established bee easily answered which can be none except such as are either blinded with Ignorance or els transported with Malice being vnable to liue in a well gouerned Commonwealth and onely delighting to fish in troubled waters For if they would stand vpon their reputation and priuiledges of any of the Kingdomes I pray you was not both the Kingdomes Monarchies from the beginning and consequently could euer the Body bee counted without the Head which was euer vnseparably ioyned thereunto So that as Honour and Priuiledges of any of the Kingdomes could not be diuided from their Soueraigne So are they now confounded ioyned in my Person who am equall and alike kindly Head to you both When this Kingdome of England was diuided into so many little Kingdoms as I told you before one of them behooued to eate vp another till they were all vnited in one And yet can Wiltshire or Deuonshire which were of the West Saxons although their Kingdome was of longest durance and did by Conquest ouercome diuers of the rest of the little Kingdomes make claime to Prioritie of Place or Honour before Sussex Essex or other Shires which were conquered by them And haue we not the like experience in the Kingdome of France being composed of diuers Dutchies and one after another conquered by the sword For euen as little brookes lose their names by their running and fall into great Riuers and the very name and memorie of the great Riuers swallowed vp in the Ocean so by the coniunction of diuers little Kingdomes in one are all these priuate differences and questions swallowed vp And since the successe was happie of the Saxons Kingdomes being conquered by the speare of Bellona Mars How much greater reason haue wee to expect a happie issue of this greater Vnion which is only fastened and bound vp by the wedding Ring of Astrea Loue and Peace And as God hath made Scotland the one halfe of this Isle to enioy my Birth and the first and most vnperfect halfe of my life and you heere to
Paul saith That hee may plant Apollo may water but it is GOD onely that must giue the increase This I speake because of the long time which hath benespent about the Treatie of the Vnion For my selfe I protest vnto you all When I first propounded the Vnion I then thought there could haue bene no more question of it then of your declaration and acknowledgement of my right vnto this Crowne and that as two Twinnes they would haue growne vp together The errour was my mistaking I knew mine owne ende but not others feares But now finding many crossings long disputations strange questions and nothing done I must needs thinke it proceeds either of mistaking of the errand or else from some iealousie of me the Propounder that you so adde delay vnto delay searching out as it were the very bowels of Curiositie and conclude nothing Neither can I condemne you for being yet in some iealousie of my intention in this matter hauing not yet had so great experience of my behauiour and inclination in these few yeeres past as you may peraduenture haue in a longer time hereafter and not hauing occasion to consult dayly with my selfe and heare mine owne opinion in all those particulars which are debated among you But here I pray you now mistake mee not at the first when as I seeme to finde fault with your delayes and curiositie as if I would haue you to resolue in an houres time that which will take a moneths aduisement for you all know that Rex est lex loquens And you haue oft heard mee say That the Kings will and intention being the speaking Law ought to bee Luce clarius and I hope you of the Lower house haue the proofe of this my clearenesse by a Bil sent you downe from the Vpper house within these few dayes or rather few houres wherein may very well appeare vnto you the care I haue to put my Subiects in good securitie of their possessions for all posterities to come And therefore that you may clearely vnderstand my meaning in that point I doe freely confesse you had reason to aduise at leasure vpon so great a cause for great matters doe cuer require great deliberation before they be well concluded Deliberandum est diu quod statuendum est semel Consultations must proceed lento pede but the execution of a sentence vpon the resolution would be speedie If you will goe on it matters not though you goe with leaden feet so you make still some progresse and that there be no let or needlesse delay and doe not Nodum in scirpo quaerere I am euer for the Medium in euery thing Betweene foolish rashnesse and extreame length there is a middle way Search all that is reasonable but omit that which is idle curious and vnnecessary otherwise there can neuer be a resolution or end in any good worke And now from the generall I wil descend to particulars and wil onely for the ease of your memories diuide the matter that I am to speake of into foure heads by opening vnto you First what I craue Secondly in what maner I desire it Thirdly what commodities will ensue to both the Kingdomes by it Fourthly what the supposed inconueniencie may be that giues impediments thereunto For the first what I craue I protest before GOD who knowes my heart and to you my people before whom it were a shame to lie that I claime nothing but with acknowledgement of my Bond to you that as yee owe to me subiection and obedience So my Soueraigntie obligeth mee to yeeld to you loue gouernment and protection Neither did I euer wish any happinesse to my selfe which was not conioyned with the happinesse of my people I desire a perfect Vnion of Lawes and persons and such a Naturalizing as may make one body of both Kingdomes vnder mee your King That I and my posteritie if it so please God may rule ouer you to the worlds ende Such an Vnion as was of the Scots and Pictes in Scotland and of the Heptarchie here in England And for Scotland I auow such an Vnion as if you had got it by Conquest but such a Conquest as may be cemented by loue the onely sure bond of subiection or friendship that as there is ouer both but vnus Rex so there may be in both but vnus Grex vna Lex For no more possible is it for one King to gouerne two Countreys Contiguous the one a great the other a lesse a richer and a poorer the greater drawing like an Adamant the lesser to the Commodities thereof then for one head to gouerne two bodies or one man to be husband of two wiues whereof Christ himselfe said Ab initio non fuit sic But in the generall Vnion you must obserue two things for I will discouer my thoughts plainly vnto you I study clearenes not eloquence And therefore with the olde Philosopers I would heartily wish my brest were a transparent glasse for you all to see through that you might looke into my heart and then would you be satisfied of my meaning For when I speake of a perfect Vnion I meane not confusion of all things you must not take from Scotland those particular Priuiledges that may stand as well with this Vnion as in England many particular customes in particular Shires as the Customes of Kent and the Royalties of the Countie Palatine of Chester do with the Common Law of the Kingdome for euery particular Shire almost and much more euery Countie haue some particular customes that are as it were naturally most fit for that people But I meane of such a generall Vnion of Lawes as may reduce the whole Iland that as they liue already vnder one Monarch so they may all bee gouerned by one Law For I must needs confesse by that little experience I haue had since my comming hither and I thinke I am able to prooue it that the grounds of the Common Law of England are the best of any Law in the world either Ciuil or Municipall and the fittest for this people But as euery Law would be cleare and full so the obscuritie in some points of this our written Law and want of fulnesse in others the variation of Cases and mens curiositie breeding euery day new questions hath enforced the Iudges to iudge in many Cases here by Cases and presidents wherein I hope Lawyers themselues will not denie but that there must be a great vncertaintie and I am sure all the rest of you that are Gentlemen of other professions were long agoe wearie of it if you could haue had it amended For where there is varietie and vncertaintie although a iust Iudge may do rightly yet an ill Iudge may take aduantage to doe wrong and then are all honest men that succeede him tied in a maner to his vniust and partiall conclusions Wherefore leaue not the Law to the pleasure of the Iudge but let your Lawes be looked into for I desire not the abolishing of
they buy by their purse or acquire by the selfe same meanes that you doe And as for the point of naturalizing which is the point thought so fit and so precisely belonging to Parliament not to speake of the Common law wherein as yet I can professe no great knowledge but in the Ciuill law wherein I am a little better versed and which in the point of Coniunction of Nations should beare a great sway it being the Law of Nations I will mainteine two principles in it which no learned and graue Ciuilian will deny as being clearely to be proued both out of the text it selfe in many places and also out of the best approued Doctours and interpreters of that law The one that it is a speciall point of the Kings owne Prerogatiue to make Aliens Citizens and donare Ciuitate The other that in any case wherein the Law is thought not to be cleare as some of your selues doe doubt that in this case of the postnati the Law of England doth not clearely determine then in such a question wherein no positiue Law is resolute Rexest Iudex for he is Lex loquens and is to supply the Law where the Law wants and if many famous histories be to be beleeued they giue the example for mainteining of this Law in the persons of the Kings of England and France especially whose speciall Prerogatiue they alleadge it to be But this I speake onely as knowing what belongeth to a King although in this case I presse no further then that which may agree with your loues and stand with the weale and conueniencie of both Nations And whereas some may thinke this Vnion will bring preiudice to some Townes and Corporations within England It may bee a Merchant or two of Bristow or Yarmouth may haue an hundred pounds lesse in his packe But if the Empire gaine and become the greater it is no matter You see one Corporation is euer against another and no priuate Companie can be set vp but with some losse to another For the supposed inconueniences rising from Scotland they are three Fourth First that there is an euill affection in the Scottish Nation to the Vnion Next the Vnion is incompatible betweene two such Nations Thirdly that the gaine is smal or none If this be so to what end do we talke of an Vnion For proofe of the first point there is alleadged an auersenesse in the Scottish Nation expressed in the Instrument both in the preface and body of their Acte In the preface where they declare That they will remaine an absolute and free Monarchie And in the body of the Acte where they make an exception of the ancient fundamentall Lawes of that Kingdome And first for the generall of their auersenes All the maine current in your Lower-house ranne this whole Session of Parliament with that opinion That Scotland was so greedy of this Vnion and apprehended that they should receiue so much benefit by it as they cared not for the strictnesse of any conditions so they might attaine to the substance And yet you now say they are backwards and auerse from the Vnion This is a direct contradiction In adiecto For how can they both be beggers and backwards in one and the selfe same thing at the same time But for answere to the particulars It is an old Schoole point Eius est explicare cuius est condere You cannot interpret their Lawes nor they yours I that made them with their assent can best expound them And first I confesse that the English Parliaments are so long and the Scottish so short that a meane betweene them would doe well For the shortnesse of their continuing together was the cause of their hastie mistaking by setting these wordes of exception of fundamentall Lawes in the body of the Acte which they onely did in pressing to imitate word by word the English Instrument wherein the same wordes be conteined in your Preface And as to their meaning and interpretation of that word I will not onely deliuer it vnto you out of mine owne conceipt but as it was deliuered vnto mee by the best Lawyers of Scotland both Counsellours and other Lawyers who were at the making thereof in Scotland and were Commissioners here for performance of the same Their meaning in the word of Fundamentall Lawes you shall perceiue more fully hereafter when I handle the obiection of the difference of Lawes For they intend thereby onely those Lawes whereby confusion is auoyded and their Kings descent mainteined and the heritage of the succession and Monarchie which hath bene a Kingdome to which I am in descent three hundreth yeeres before CHRIST Not meaning it as you doe of their Common Law for they haue none but that which is called IVS REGIS and their desire of continuing a free Monarchie was onely meant That all such particular Priuiledges whereof I spake before should not bee so confounded as for want either of Magistrate Law or Order they might fall in such a confusion as to become like a naked Prouince without Law or libertie vnder this Kingdome I hope you meane not I should set Garrisons ouer them as the Spaniards doe ouer Sicily and Naples or gouerne them by Commissioners which are seldome found succeedingly all wise and honest men This I must say for Scotland and I may trewly vaunt it Here I sit and gouerne it with my Pen I write and it is done and by a Clearke of the Councell I gouerne Scotland now which others could not doe by the sword And for their auersensse in their heart against the Vnion It is trew indeede I protest they did neuer craue this Vnion of me nor sought it either in priuate or the State by letters nor euer once did any of that Nation presse mee forward or wish mee to accelerate that businesse But on the other part they offered alwayes to obey mee when it should come to them and all honest men that desire my greatnesse haue beene thus minded for the personall reuerence and regard they beare vnto my Perion and any of my reasonable and iust desires I know there are many Piggots amongst them I meane a number of seditious and discontented particular persons as must be in all Common-wealths that where they dare may peraduenture talke lewdly enough but no Scottish man euer spake dishonourably of England in Parliament For here must I note vnto you the difference of the two Parliaments in these two Kingdomes for there they must not speake without the Chauncellors leaue and if any man doe propound or vtter any seditious or vncomely speeches he is straight interrupted and silenced by the Chauncellors authoritie where as here the libertie for any man to speake what hee list and as long as he list was the onely cause he was not interrupted It hath bin obiected that there is a great Antipathy of the Lawes and Customes of these two Nations It is much mistaken for Scotland hath no Common Law as here but the Law they
haue is of three sorts All the Lawe of Scotland for Tenures Wards and Liueries Seigniories and Lands are drawen out of the Chauncerie of England and for matters of equitie and in many things else differs from you but in certaine termes Iames the first bred here in England brought the Lawes thither in a written hand The second is Statute lawes which be their Acts of Parliament wherein they haue power as you to make and altar Lawes and those may be looked into by you for I hope you shall be no more strangers to that Nation And the principall worke of this Vnion will be to reconcile the Statute Lawes of both Kingdomes The third is the Ciuill Law Iames the fift brought it out of France by establishing the Session there according to the forme of the Court of Parliament of Fraunce which he had seene in the time of his being there who occupie there the place of Ciuill udges in all matters of Plee or controuersie yet not to gouerne absolutely by the Ciuill Law as in Fraunce For if a man plead that the Law of the Nation is otherwise it is a barre to the Ciuill and a good Chauncellor or President will oftentimes repell and put to silence an Argument that the Lawyers bring out of the Ciuill Law where they haue a cleare solution in their owne Law So as the Ciuil Law in Scotland is admitted in no other cases but to supply such cases wherein the Municipall Law is defectiue Then may you see it is not so hard a matter as is thought to reduce that Countrey to bee vnited with you vnder this Law which neither are subiect to the Ciuill Lawe nor yet haue any olde Common Law of their owne but such as in effect is borrowed from yours And for their Statute Lawes in Parliament you may alter and change them as oft as occasion shall require as you doe here It hath likewise beene obiected as an other impediment that in the Parliament of Scotland the King hath not anegatiue voice but must passe all the Lawes agreed on by the Lords and Commons Of this I can best resolue you for I am the eldest Parliament man in Scotland and haue sit in more Parliaments then any of my Predecessors I can assure you that the forme of Parliament there is nothing inclined to popularitie About a twentie dayes or such a time before the Parliament Proclamation is made throughout the Kingdome to deliuer in to the Kings Clearke of Register whom you heere call the Master of the Rolles all Bills to be exhibited that Session before a certaine day Then are they brought vnto the King and perused and considered by him and onely such as I allowe of are put into the Chancellors handes to bee propounded to the Parliament and none others And if any man in Parliament speake of any other matter then is in this forme first allowed by mee The Chancellor tells him there is no such Bill allowed by the King Besides when they haue passed them for lawes they are presented vnto me and I with my Scepter put into my hand by the Chancellor must say I ratifie and approue all things done in this present Parliament And if there bee any thing that I dislike they rase it out before If this may bee called a negatiue voyce then I haue one I am sure in that Parliament The last impediment is the French liberties which is thought so great as except the Scots farsake Fraunce England cannot bee vnited to them If the Scottish Nation would bee so vnwilling to leaue them as is said it would not lye in their hands For the League was neuer made betweene the people as is mistaken but betwixt the Princes onely and their Crownes The beginning was by a Message from a King of Fraunce Charlemaine I take it but I cannot certainely remember vnto a King of Scotland for a League defensiue and offensiue betweene vs and them against England Fraunce being at that time in Warres with England The like at that time was then desired by England against Fraunce who also sent their Ambassadours to Scotland At the first the Disputation was long maintained in fauour of England that they being our neerest Neighbours ioyned in one continent and a strong and powerfull Nation it was more fitte for the weale and securitie of the State of Scotland to be in League and Amitie with them then with a Countrey though neuer so strong yet diuided by Sea from vs especially Englandlying betwixt vs and them where we might be sure of a suddaine mischiefe but behooued to abide the hazard of wind and weather and other accidents that might hinder our reliefe But after when the contrary part of the Argument was maintained wherein allegation was made that England euer sought to conquer Scotland and therefore in regarde of their pretended interest in the Kingdoome would neuer keepe any sound Amitie with them longer then they saw their aduantage whereas France lying more remote and clayming no interest in the Kingdome would therefore bee found a more constant and faithfull friend It was vnhappily concluded in fauour of the last partie through which occasion Scotland gate many mischiefes after And it is by the very tenour thereof ordered to bee renewed and confirmed from King to King successiuely which accordingly was euer performed by the mediation of their Ambassadours and therefore meerely personall and so was it renewed in the Queene my mothers time onely betweene the two Kings and not by assent of Parliament or conuention of the three Estates which it could neuer haue wanted if it had beene a League betweene the people And in my time when it came to be ratified because it appeared to be in odium tertii it was by me left vnrenewed or confirmed as a thing incompatible to my Person in consideration of my Title to this Crowne Some Priuiledges indeede in the Merchants fauour for point of Commerce were renewed and confirmed in my time wherein for my part of it there was scarce three Counsellours more then my Secretarie to whose place it belonged that medled in that matter It is trew that it behooued to be enterteined as they call it in the Court of Parliament of Paris but that onely serues for publication and not to giue it Authoritie That Parliament as you know being but a Iudiciall Seate of Iudges and Lawyers and nothing agreeing with the definition or office of our Parliaments in this Isle And therefore that any fruites or Priuiledges possessed by the League with Fraunce is able now to remaine in Scotland is impossible For ye may be sure that the French King stayes onely vpon the sight of the ending of this Vnion to cut it off himselfe Otherwise when this great worke were at an end I would be forced for the generall care I owe to all my Subiects to craue of France like Priuiledges to them all as Scotland alreadie enioyes seeing the personall friendship remaines as great betweene vs as betweene our
had altered it And this I speake to root out the conceit and misapprehension if it be in any heart that I would change damnifie vilifie or suppresse the Law of this Land GOD is my Iudge I neuer meant it And this confirmation I make before you all To this I ioyne the point of Iustice which I call Vnicuique suum tribuere All my Councell and Iudges dead and aliue can and could beare mee witnesse how vnpartiall I haue beene in declaring of Law And where it hath concerned mee in my owne inheritance I haue as willingly submitted my interest to the Lawe as any my Subiects could doe and it becomes mee so to doe to giue example to others much lesse then will I be partiall to others where I am not to my selfe And so resolue your selues Iustice with mee may bee moderated in point of clemencie for no Iustice can be without mercie But in matters of Iustice to giue euery man his owne to be blinde without eyes of partialitie This is my full resolution I vsed to say when I was in Scotland if any man mooued mee to delay Iustice that it was against the Office of a King so to doe But when any made suite to hasten Iustice I told them I had rather grant fourtie of these suits then one of the other This was alwayes my custome and shall be euer with Gods leaue Now what I haue spoken of Law and Iustice I meane by the Lawe kept in her owne bounds For I vnderstand the inheritance of the King and Subiects in this land must bee determined by the Common Law and that is by the Law set downe in our forefathers time expounded by learned men diuers times after in the declaratory Comments called Responsa Prudentum Or else by Statute Law set downe by Acte of Parliament as occasion serues By this I doe not seclude all other Lawes of England but this is the Law of inheritance in this Kingdome There is another Law of all Lawes free and supreame which is GODS LAVV And by this all Common and municipall Lawes must be gouerned And except they haue dependance vpon this Law they are vniust and vnlawfull When I speake of that Law I onely giue this touch That that Law in this Kingdome hath beene too much neglected and Churchmen too much had in contempt I must speake trewth Great men Lords Iudges and people of all degrees from the highest to the lowest haue too much contemned them And God will not blesse vs in our owne Lawes if wee doe not reuerence and obey GODS LAVV which cannot bee except the interpreters of it be respected and reuerenced And it is a signe of the latter dayes drawing on euen the contempt of the Church and of the Gouernours and Teachers thereof now in the Church of ENGLAND which I say in my Conscience of any Church that euer I read or knew of present or past is most pure and neerest the Primitiue and Apostolicall Church in Doctrine and Discipline and is sureliest founded vpon the word of God of any Church in Christendome Next vnto this Law is the Law of Nations which God forbid should bee barred and that for two causes One because it is a Law to satisfie Strangers which will not so well hold themselues satisfied with other municipall Lawes Another to satisfie our owne Subiects in matters of Piracie Marriage Wills and things of like nature That Law I diuide into Ciuil and Canon And this Law hath bene so much encroched vpon sithence my comming to the Crowne and so had in contempt that young men are discouraged from studying and the rest wearie of their liues that doe professe it and would be glad to seeke any other craft So speaking of the Common Law I meane the Common Law kept within her owne limits and not derogating from these other Lawes which by longer custome haue beene rooted here first the Law of GOD and his Church and next the Law Ciuill and Canon which in many cases cannot be wanting To conclude this charge which I giue my selfe I professe to maintaine all the points of mine Oath especially in Lawes and of Lawes especially the Common Law And as to maintaine it so to purge it for else it cannot bee maintained and especially to purge it from two corruptions Incertaintie and Noueltie Incertaintie is found in the Law it selfe wherein I will bee painefull to cleare it to the people and this is properly to bee done in Parliament by aduice of the Iudges The other corruption is introduced by the Iudges themselues by Nicities that are vsed where it may be said Ab initio non fuit sic Nothing in the world is more likely to be permanent to our eyes then yron or steele yet the rust corrupts it if it bee not kept cleane which sheweth nothing is permanent here in this world if it be not purged So I cannot discharge my conscience in maintaining the Lawes if I keepe them not cleane from corruption And now that I may bee like the Pastor that first takes the Sacrament himselfe and then giues it to the people So I haue first taken my owne charge vpon me before I giue you your Charge lest it might be said Turpe est doctori cùm culpa redarguit ipsum NOw my Lords the Iudges for your parts the Charge I haue to giue you consists likewise in three parts First in generall that you doe Iustice vprightly as you shall answere to GOD and mee For as I haue onely GOD to answere to and to expect punishment at his hands if I offend So you are to answere both to GOD and to mee and expect punishment at GODS hands and mine if you be found in fault Secondly to doe Iustice indifferently betweene Subiect and Subiect betweene King and Subiect without delay partialitie feare or bribery with stout and vpright hearts with cleane and vncorrupt hands When I bid you doe Iustice boldly yet I bid you doe it fearefully fearefully in this to vtter your owne conceites and not the trew meaning of the Law And remember you are no makers of Law but Interpretours of Law according to the trew sence thereof for your Office is Ius dicere and not Ius dare And that you are so farre from making Law that euen in the higher house of Parliament you haue no voyce in making of a Law but only to giue your aduice when you are required And though the Laws be in many places obscure and not so wel knowen to the multitude as to you and that there are many parts that come not into ordinary practise which are knowen to you because you can finde out the reason thereof by bookes and presidents yet know this that your interpretations must be alwayes subiect to common sense and reason For I will neuer trust any Interpretation that agreeth not with my common sense and reason and trew Logicke for Ratio est anima Legis in all humane Lawes without exception it must not be Sophistrie or straines of wit