he imposed the like penance upon England Also when our King Edward the First made Warre upon the Scots word came from Rome that he should surcease for that the Kingdome of Scotland belonged unto the Popes Chappell A great oversight it was of St. Peter that he did not accurse Nero and all heathen Princes whereby the Popes Chappell might have gotten all that the Devill offered and our Saviour refused Yet what need was there of such a banne Since Fryar Vincent of Valnarda could tell Atatalipa King of Peru That all the Kingdomes of the Earth were the Popes who had bestowed more then halfe thereof upon the King of Spaine If the Pope will have it so it must be so otherwise I should have interpreted that place in Genesis Increase and multiply and fill the Earth As spoken to Noah and his Children not as directed only to Tubal Homer and Phatto the supposed Fathers of the old Iberians Gothes and Moores of whom the Spanish blood is compounded But of such impudent presumption in disposing of countryes farre remote And whereto the sword must acquire a better title the mischiefe is not presently discerned It were well if his Holinesse had not loved to set the world in an uproare by nourishing of War among those that respected him as a Common Father His dispensing with oaths taken for agreement between one King and another or between Kings and Subjects doe speake no better of him For by what right was it That Fardinand of Arragon won the Kingdome of Navar why did not the Confederacie that was between Lewis the Twelfth of France and the Venetians hinder that King from warring upon Venice why did not the like between England and France hinder our King Henry the eighth for warring upon the same King Lewis Was it not the Pope who did set on the French to the end that himself might get Ravenna from the Venetians Why was it not the same Pope who afterwards upon desire to drive the French out of Italie excommunicated Lewis and his adherents By vertue of which Excommunication Fardinand of Arragon seized upon Navarr And served not the same Warrant to set our Henry upon the back of France But this was not our Kings fault more then all the peoples We might with shame confesse it if other Countries had not been as blindly superstitious as our Fathers That a Barque of Apples blessed by the Pope and sent hither for presents unto those that would be forward in the War upon France made all our English hasty to take Armes in such sort as the Italians wondred and laughed to see our men no lesse greedy of those Apples then Eve was of the forbidden fruit for which they were to hazard their lives in an unjust War Few ages have wanted such and more grievous examples of the Popes tumultuous disposition but these were amongst the last that fell out before his unholinesse was detected Now for his dispensing betweene Kings and their Subjects we need not seeke instances far from home He absolved our King Iohn of an oath given to his Barons and people The Barons and people he afterwards discharged of their alleageance to King Iohn King Henry the third had appeased this Land how wisely I say not by taking such an oath as his Father had done swearing as he was a Knight A Christian and a King But in a Sermon at Paules People were taught how little was to be reposed on such assurance the Popes dispensation being there openly read which pronounced that Oath voyde Good cause why For that King had the patience to live like neither Knight nor King But as the Popes Tenant and Rent-gatherer of England But when the same King adventured to murmure the Pope could threaten to teach him his duty with a vengeance And make him know what it was to winch and play the Fredericke Thus we see what hath been his Custome to oppresse Kings by their people And the people by their Kings yet this was for serving his owne turne Wherein had our King Henry the sixt offended him which King Pope Iulius would after for a little money have made a Saint Neverthelesse the Popes absolving of Rich Duke of Yorke from that honest oath which he had given by mediation of all the Land to that good King occasioned both the Dukes and the Kings ruine And therewithal those long and cruell Wars betweene the Houses of Lancaster and Yorke and brought all England into an horrible Combustion What he meant by this I know not unlesse to verifie the Proverbe Omnia Romae venalia I will not urge the dispensation whereby the Pope released King Philip the second of Spaine from the solemne Oath by which he was bound to maintaine the priviledges of the Netherlands though this Papall indulgence hath scarce as yet left working And been the cause of so many hundred thousands slaine for this last forty years in the Netherlands Neither will I urge the Pope encouraging of Henry the second and his sons to the last of them against the French Protestants the cause of the first three Civill Warres And lastly of the Leavyings of Byrons in which there hath perished no lesse number then in the Low-Countryes For our Country it affords an example of fresh memory since we should have had as furious Warre as ever both upon us and amongst us in the daies of our late famous Soveraigne Queene Elizabeth if Pope Pius his Bull Could have gored as well as it could Bellow Therefore it were not amisse to answer by a Herald the next Pontificall attempt of like nature rather sending defiance as to an enemy then publishing answers as to one that had here to doe though in deed he had never here to doe by any lawfull power either in Civill or Ecclesiasticall businesse after such time as Brittaine was won from the Romane Empire For howsoever it were ordered in some of the first holy generall Councills that the Bishop of Rome should be Patriarch over these quarters yea or it were supposed that the forged Canons by which he now challengeth more then precedency and primacie had also been made indeed yet could this little help his claime in Kingdomes that hold not of the Empire For those right holy Fathers as in matters of Faith they did not make truth But religiously expounded it so in matters of Ecclesiasticall Government they did not create provinces for themselves But ordered the Countries which they then had They were assemblies of all the Bishops in the Romane world and with the Romane dominion only they medled Requisite it is that the faith which they taught should be imbraced in all Countryes As it ought likewise to be entertained if the same had been in like sort illustrated not by them but by a generall Councill of all Bishops in the great Kingdome of the Abissines which is thought to have been Christian even in those daies But it was not requisite nor is that the Bishops of Abissines or of India
give commonly a willing eare And in this case I think it was that the great Cardinall Francis de Amiens who governed Spaine in the minority of Charls the fift hearing tell that 8000. Spaniards were lost in the enterprise of Algier under Don Diego de Vera made light of the matter Affirming that Spaine stood in need of such evacuation forreigne Warre serving as King Fardinard had been wont to say like a potion of Rubarbe to wash away Choler from the body of the Realme Certainly among all Kingdomes of the earth we shall scarce find any that stands in lesse need then Spaine of having the veines opened by an enemies sword The many Colonies which it sends abroad so well preserving it from swelling humors Yet is not that Country thereby dispeopled but mainteineth still growing upon it like a tree from whose plants to fil a whole Orchard have bin taken as many as it can well nourish And to say what I think if our King Edward the third had prospered in his French Wars and peopled with English the Towns which he won As he began at Calice driving out the French the Kings his Successors holding the same course would by this time have filled all France with our Nation without any notable emptying of this Island The like may be affirmed upon like suspition of the French in Italy or almost of any others as having been verified by the Saxons in England and Arabians in Barbarie What is then become of so huge a multitude as would have over spread a great part of the Continent surely they dyed not of old age nor went out of the world by the ordinary wayes of nature But famine and contagious diseases the sword the halter and a thousand mischiefs have Consumed them Yea many of them perhaps were never borne for they that want means to nourish Children will abstaine from marriage or which is all one they cast away their bodies upon rich old women or otherwise make unequall or unhealthy Matches for gaine or because of poverty they thinke it a blessing which in nature is a curse to have their wives barren Were it not thus Arithmeticall progression might easily demonstrate how fast mankind would increase in multitude overpassing as miraculous though indeed naturall that example of the Israelites who were multiplyed in 215. yeares from seaventie unto 600000. able men Hence we may observe that the very propagation of our kind hath with it a strong insensive even of those daily Wars which afflict the earth And that Princes excusing their drawing the sword by devised pretences of necessity speake often more truly then they are aware there being indeed a great necessity though not apparent as not extending to the generality but resting upon private heads Wherefore other cause of Warre meerly naturall there is none then want of roome upon the earth which pinching a whole nation begets the remedilesse Warre vexing only some number of particulars It draws on the Arbitrary But unto the kindling of Arbitrary Warre there are many other motives The most honest of these is feare of harme and prevention of danger This is just and taught by nature which labours more strongly in removing evill then in pursuite of what is requisite unto her good Neverthelesse because Warre cannot be without mutuall violence It is manifest that allegation of danger and feare servâ—s only to excuse the suffering part the wrong doer being carried by his owne will So the Warre thus caused proceeds from nature not altogether but in part A second motive is Revenge of injury susteined This might be avoided if all men could be honest otherwise not For Princes must give protection to their Subjects and adherents when worthy occasion shall require it else will they be held unworthy and unsufficient then which there can be to them no greater perill Wherefore Caesar in all deliberations where difficulties and dangers threatned on the one side and the opinion that there should be in him Parum Praesidii little safeguard for his friends was doubted on the other side alwayes chose rather to venture uâ—on extreamities then to have it thought that he was a weake protector Yea by such maintenance of their dependants Many Noblemen in all formes of Government and in every mans memory have kept themselves in greatnesse with little help of any other vertue Neither have meere Tyrants been altogether carelesse to mainetaine free from oppression of strangers those Subjects of theirs whom themselves have most basely esteemed and used as no better then slaves For there is no master that can expect good service from his bondslaves if he suffer them to be beaten and daily ill intreated by other men To remedy this it were needfull that Justice should every where bee duly ministred aswell to strangers as to Denizons But contrariewise we find that in many Countreys as Muscovie and the like the Laws or the Administration of them are so far from giving satisfaction as they fill the generall voice with complaint and exclamation Sir Thomas Moore said whether more pleasantly or truely I know not that a trick of Law had no lesse power then the wheele of fortune to lift men up or cast them downe Certainly with more patience men are wont to endure the losses that befell them by meere casualty then the damages which they susteine by means of injustice Because these are accompanied with sense of indignity whereof the other are free when Robbers break open a mans house and spoile it they tell the owner plainly that money they want and money they must have But when a Judge corrupted by reward hatred favour or any other passion takes both house and Land from the rightfull owner And bestowes them upon some friend of his owne or of his favorite He saies that the rules of Justice will have it so that it is the voice of the Law the Ordinance of God himselfe And what else doth he herein then by a kind of Circumlocution tell his humble suppliants that he holds themselves Idiots or base wretches not able to get releife must it not astonish and vex withall any man of a free spirit when he sees none other difference betweene the Judge and the Theefe then in the manner of performing their exploits as if the whole being of Justice consisted in point of formality In such case an honest Subject will either seeke remedy by ordinary courses or awaite his time untill God shall place better men in office and call the oppressors to account But a stranger wil not so he hath nothing to do with the affairs of Barbary neither concerns it him what officer be placed or displaced in Taradante or whether Mulisidian himself can contemne the Kingdome his Ship and goods are unjustly taken from him and therefore he will seeke leave to right himselfe if he can and returne the injury ten fold upon the whole Nation from which he received it Truth it is that men are sooner weary to dance attendance at the
in vassallage unto themselves Now this could not satisfie the ambition of that See which gloried falsly to be the only See Apostolique For as the Reputation of the Romane Prelats grew up in those blind ages under the Westerne Emperours much faster then true piety could raise it in former times when better Learning had flourished So grew up in them withall a desire of amplifying their power that they might be as great in temporall forces as mens opinion have formed them in spirituall matters Immediately therefore upon the death of Charlemaine they began to neglect the Emperours consent in their Elections And finding in them that afterwards reigned of the house of France either too much patience or too much weakenesse they were bold within seaventy years to decree That in the Creation of Popes the Emperour should have nothing at all to doe Having obteined this It followed that they should make themselves Lord over the whole Clergie in all Kingdomes But the worke was great and could not be accomplished in hast for they were much disturbed at home by the People of Rome who seeing about Fifty Popes or rather as mainetainers of the Papacie would now have them called Monsters to succeed one another and attaine by the faction of Cut-throats and Strumpets St. Peters Chaire despised that hypocrisy which the world abroad did Reverence as holinesse Likewise the Empire falling from the line of Charles to the mighty house of Saxonie was so strongly upheld by the first Princes of that race as it greatly curbed the ambition of those aspiring Prelats Yet no impediment could alwaies be of force to withstand the violence of seeming sanctity The Polonians Hungarians and some other farre removed Nations had yeilded themselves in subjection more then meerely spirituall even to those Popes whom Italie knew to be detestable men As for the Romane Citizens they were chastised by the sword and taught to acknowledge the Pope their Lord though they knew not by what right Long it was indeed ere they could with much adoe be throughly tamed Because they knowing the Lewdnesse of their Prelate and his Court their devotion unto him the trade by which now they live was very small Because also they were the Popes domesticall forces against which no Prince doth happily contend But finally the Popes Armes prevailed or when his owne were too weake the Emperours and other friends were helping Contrariwise against Emperours and other Princes the sword of the people even of their owne Subjects hath been used by teaching all Christians in our Westerne world a false Lesson That it is lawfull and meritorious to rebell against Kings excommunicated and deposed by the Pope This curse was first laid upon the Emperour Henry the fourth by Pope Hildebrand or Gregory the seaventh It is true as I said before that Leo of Constantinople had felt the same though not in the same sort For Leo being excommunicated was not withall deposed only he suffered a revolt of some Italian Subjects And one may say That the Germane Empire deserved this plague Since the founder thereof had given countenance to the Popes Rebelling against their Soveraigns the Emperours of Constantinople Howsoever it were when Hildebrand had accursed and cast downe from his throne Henry the fourth there were none so hardy as to defend their Injured Lord against the Counterfeited name of St. Peter Wherefore he was faine to humble himselfe before Hildebrand upon whom he waited three daies beare footed in the Winter ere he could be admitted into his presence Neither yet could he otherwise get absolution then by submitting his estate unto the Popes good pleasure what was his fault He had refused to yeild up to the Pope the investiture of Bishops and Collation of Ecclesiasticall dignities within his dominions a right that had alwayes belonged to Princes untill that day It were superfluous to tell how grievously he was afflicted all his life after Notwithstanding this submission In breife the unappeasable rage of Hildebrand and his Successors never left persecuting him by raising one Rebellion after an other yea his owne Children against him till dispoyled of his Crowne he was faine to beg food of the Bishop of Spyers promising to earne it in a Church of his own building by doing there a Clarks duty for he could serve the Quire And not obteining this he pined away and dyed That Bishop of Spyers dealt herein perhaps rather fearfully then cruelly For he had to terrifie him the example of Vteilo Archhishop of Mentz chiefe Prelate among the Germans Who was condemned of heresie for having denyed that the Emperour might be deprived of his Crowne by the Popes authority If Princes therefore be carefull to exclude the doctrine of Hildebrand out of their dominions who can blame them of rigour This example of Henry though it would not be forgotten might have been omitted had it not been seconded with many of the same nature But this was neither one Popes fault nor one Princes destiny He must write a story of the Empire that means to tell of all their dealings in this kind As how they wrought upon Henry the fifth whom they had set up against his Father what horrible effusion of Blood they caused by their often thundering upon Fredericke And how they rested not untill they had made the Empire stand headlesse about seaventeene years These things moved Rodolph Earl of Habspurgh who was chosen Emperour after that long vacation to refuse the Ceremony of being Crowned at Rome though he were therero urged by the Electors For said he our Caesars have gone to Rome As the foolish Beasts in Aesops Fables went to the Lyons Den leaving very goodly footsteps of their journey thitherward but not the like of their returne The same opinion have most of the succeeding Emperours held all of them or almost all neglecting that Coronation Good cause why Since the Popes besides many Extortions which they practised about that Ceremony Arrogated thence unto themselves that the Empire was held of them in Homage And dealt they not after the same fashion with other Kingdomes What right had St. Peter to the Crowne of Sicily and of Naples The Romane Princes wonne those Lands from the Saracens who had formerly taken them from the Empire of Constantinople The same Romanes had also been mighty defenders of the Papacy in many dangers yet when time served the Pope tooke upon him as Lord Paramount of those Countryes to drive out one King and set up another with a Bloody confusion of all Italie retaining the Soveraignty to himself In France he had the daring to pronounce himselfe superiour unto the King in all matters both Spirituall and Temporall The Crowne of Poland he forced to hold of his Miter by imposing a subjection in way of penance For that the Polish King had caused one St. Stanislaus to be slaine For the death of St. Thomas Beckett and more strangely for a Refusall of an Archbishop of Canterbury whom his Holinesse had appointed