For which Joseph Stevan ‖ Ioseph Stevan Epist ad Gregor XIII de osculo pedum Papae Iure meritoque in Religionis Ecclesiae infensissimum hostem Fredericum Barbarossam non ut in salem insatuatum quem jubet Christus pedibus proterere sed potius ut horrendam belluam calcibus insultavit who writ at Rome to Gregory the XIII of kissing the Popes feet checks Duarenus saying that Pope Alexander the III. trod the Emperour Frederick under foot not onely as salt which hath lost its savour but as an horrible wild beast And Otho Frisingensis both relates it and commends it * Otho Frising lib. 5. cap. 14. Quod sactum summis liberum est sacerdotibus cum Principum tyrannidem aut violatam fidem aut Ecclesiae imminutam dignitatem vident and saith That the Popes have the power to do so much when they see the tyranny of Princes or that faith is violated or the dignity of the Church imbezelled So though the History were not as it is most undoubtedly true the approving and exalting of the fact in the Court of Rome makes that Court as guilty as if it had been done But it was done and as bad was done by other Popes Pope Celestin the III. gave Constantia a Nunne in marriage to the Emperour Henry the VI. and gave him for her dowry the Kingdome of both the Sicilies upon Platina Uspergensis condition he should expell Tancred who was possess'd of the Kingdome Hence a bloody War between Henry the VI. and Tancred It is ordinary to the Pope to give that which is none of his When the Pope giveth a Kingdome from a Prince that enjoyeth it he commands together the people to resist him making a sport to spill their blood and damn their souls Baronius commends very much that Popes behaviour Annal. Roger. an 1191. Sedebat Dominus Papa in Cathedra Pontificali tenens coronam auream inter pedes suos Imperator inclinato capite recepit coronam imperator similiter de pedibus Domini Papae Dominus autem Papa statim percussit cum pede suo coronam Imperatoris dejecit eam in terram significans quod ipse potestatem ejiciendi eum ab Imperio habet si ille demeruerit in the Crowning of the Emperour Henry the VI. and his Wife thus related in the Annalls of Rogerius The Pope was sitting in his pontifical chair holding an Imperial golden Crown between his feet and the Emperour bowing his head received the Crown and the Empress likewise by the feet of the Pope And the Pope presently hit the Emperours Crown and kick'd it down to the ground thereby signifying that he had power to cast him down from the Empire if he deserved it Baronius having related this amplifieth it with this morality ‖ Baron Tom. 12. Anno 1191. sect 10. Ut fixum menti Caesaris haereret nempe dare custodire conservare auserre si causa exigeret imperium esse in voluntate Romani Pontificis ejusmodi voluit commenere eum exemplo That it might remain fixed in the Emperours mind that it lieth in the Popes pleasure to give keep preserve and take away the Empire if there be cause for it he would admonish him with such an example Could the Devil have set up pride to a higher pin to put the Emperours Crown at his feet as a foot-stool for him to tread upon put the Crown on the Emperours head with his feet as an office too low for his hands and then with his foot kick'd it down as having a quarrell against the Imperiall Crown and together a contempt for it This and the treading upon the Emperours neck were significant ceremonies with a witness And what more effectual course could have been taken to raise rebellion in all the States of Christendome then thus to blast the respect of Majesty For thereby all Nations were taught that their Princes were not Sovereigns but the Popes Vassalls and Liegemen That themselves were not their Kings Subjects but the Popes who could kick down their Crowns when he listed and that when that supreme Head shall command it the Feet that is the inferiour Members of the State must make Foot-balls of the Crowns of Emperours and Kings After Celestin the III. came Innocent the III. as proud but more active then he England hath reason to remember this Pope For he excommunicated King John deposed him absolved his Subjects from their allegiance to him and cast an Interdict upon England which lasted six years All which time no Divine Service was said in the Kingdome but in some priviledged places no Sacrament was administred and no corps buried in Consecrated Ground The Kingdome of England he gave to Philip August of France if he could take it and that by a formal order thus related by Matthew Paris The Pope by the counsell Matth. Paris in vita Reg. Johan Papa ex consilio Cardinalium Episcoporum aliorum vivorum prudentium sententialiter definivit ut Rex a solio deponeretur Ad hujus quoque sententiae executionem scripsit Dominus Papa potentissimo Regi Francorum Philippo quatenus in remissionem peccatorum suorum hunc laborem assumeret of the Cardinalls Bishops and other prudent men gave a definitive sentence that the King should be put down from his Throne For the execution of that Sentence the Pope writ to the most potent King of the French Philip that for the remission of his sins he should take that labour upon him A new way for that King to get the remission of his sins to invade his neighbours estate As in the age of our Fathers Pope Sixtus the V. gave nine years of true indulgence to all the French that would bear Arms against their King Henry the III. Thus the remission of sins purchased by the blood of the Son of God and presented by his Gospell to all that repent and believe is by the Pope given as a reward of Invasion and Rebellion Matthew Paris writes that The Pope having gotten the Kingdome of England to himself to his thinking sent to Philip August to enjoyn him to be reconciled with King John else he would put France to Interdict Philip answered that he feared not his sentence and that it belonged not to the Church of Rome to pronounce a sentence against the King of France It is a long and a sad story how King John was persecuted by Pope Innocent the III. his Barons made to rise against him his Neighbours to fall upon him his Clergy to revile him and his people to despise him till that unlucky King was brought to such an extremity that to buy his peace he gave his Kingdome to the Pope and yet could not get his peace that way The Gold which he laid at the Legats feet in sign of subjection the Legat trod under his feet in scorn yet took it in his hand after so great was his clemency What a cruel tyranny did the
deponi eligi alius Et Recogn lib. de Laicis sect Addo experientiam laudat Navarrum qui non dubitat affirmare nunquam populum ita potestatem suam in Regem transferre quin illam sibi in habitu retineat ut in certis quibusdam casibus etiam actu recipere possit men the Kings power is from the people because the people makes the King And in temporal Common-wealths if the King degenerate into a Tyrant though he be the Head of the Kingdome he may be deposed by the people and another elected And doth he not praise Navarrus for saying that the people never so transferre their power to the King but they retain it in the habit so that in some cases they may resume it Is it for saying that the Common-wealth may take defensive armes against the King and expel him The Jesuite Suarez taught them that doctrine Suarez Defens Fid lib. 6. c. 19. sect 17. Resp ex sola rei natura spectatam prout fuit apud Gentiles nunc est inter Ethnicos habet potestatem se desendendi à Tyranno Rege sect 15. Si Rex legitimus tyrannice gubernat regno nullum aliud sit remedium nisi Regem expellere deponere poterit Resp tota publico communi consensu civitatem procerum Regem deponere The Common-wealth saith he considered in her meer nature and as it was among the Gentiles and as it is now among the Pagans hath the power to defend her self against a Tyrant If a lawful King governe tyrannically and that there be no other remedy for the Kingdome but to expel and depose the King the whole Common-wealth by the publick and common consent of the Cities and the Peers may depose the King Or do the Jesuites inveigh against them for making a formal and aggressive Warre against the King They have no reason for it seeing that the Jesuite Mariana hath set them down the whole course which they have followed The readiest Mariana lib. 6. de Rege cap. 6. pag. 59. 60. Expedita maximé tuta via est si publici conventus facultas detur communi consensu quid statuendum sit deliberare fixum ratumque habere quod communi sententia steterit Monendus in primis Princeps erit atque ad sanitatem revocandus c. Qui si medicinam respuat neque spes ulla sanitatis relinquatur sententia pronuntiata licebit Reip ejus imperium detrectare primum quoniam bellum necessario concitabitur ejus defendendi consilia explicare expedire arma pecunias in belli sumptus imperare populis si res feret neque aliter se Resp tueri possit eodem defensionis jure ac vero potiori authoritate propria Principem publice hostem declaratum ferro perimere and the safest way saith he if the people may meet in a publick Assembly is to deliberate by common consent what is to be done and then to keep inviolably that which is agreed on by common consent The Prince must first be admonish't and exhorted to mend But if he refuse the remedy and there be no hope of his mending the sentence being once pronounced against him it will be lawful for the Common-wealth to refuse to obey him And because a Warre must necessarily follow the counsels how to maintain it must be set down armes must be quickly provided and taxes laid upon the people to bear the expences of the Warre And if it be requisite and the Common-wealth cannot otherwise maintain it self it shall be lawful both by the right of defence and more by the Authority proper to the people to declare publikely the King to be the common enemy and then kill him with the sword Do the Jesuites look with horrour upon that Court of Justice erected to try the King Let them remember that they had Mariana's warrant for it That the Common-wealth from which the Royal Power hath its original may when the case requires Mariana Ibid. Certe à Rep. unde ortum habet regia potestas rebus exigentibus Regem in jus vocari posse si sanitatem respuat Principatu spoliari Neque ita in Principem jura potestatis transtulit ut non sibi majorem reservarit potestatem it bring the King to judgement and if he refuse to mend deprive him of his Sovereignty For the Common-wealth hath not so transferred the right of power unto the Prince but it hath reserved a greater power to it self And why doth our Adversary an earnest defender of the Jesuites exclaim so much against the abominable parricide acted upon our Sacred Sovereigne seeing that the people which made Warre against him held him to be a Tyrant and Lessius lib. 2. de Iustitia Iure cap. 9. dubio 4. scribit Verum Principem qui tyrannus est ratione administrationis non posse à privatis interimi quamdiu manet Princeps primum à Repub. vel comitiis Regni vel alio habente authoritatem esse deponendum hostem declarandum ut in ipsius personam liceat quicquam attentare it is the currant opinion of the Jesuites that a tyrant may be killed by any private man A true Prince saith Lessius who is a tyrant by reason of his administration cannot be killed by a private person as long as he remaineth a Prince but he must first be deposed and declared enemy by the Common-wealth or the Parliament of the Kingdome or some other having Authority that it may be lawful to attempt any Suarez contra Regem Mag. Brit. lib. 6. cap. 4. sect 14. Post sententiam lutam domnino privatur regno ita ut non possit justo titulo illud possidere ergo ex tunc poterit tanquam tyrannus tractari consequenter à quocunquè privato poterit intersici thing against his person And Suarez saith to the same purpose that after the Sentence given against a King he is altogether deprived of his Kingdome so that he can no more possesse it with a just title Wherefore from thenceforth he may be used like a tyrant and killed by any private person Neither ought the Jesuites to find fault with the publick thanksgiving for murthering the King and making of the thirtieth of Ianuary a Thanksgiving Day seeing that the Jesuites of Paris shewed the way for that to the Rebels in England for in the time of the French League they made Solemne Thanksgivings for the murthering of their King as Pope Sixtus the V. did since at Rome with a vehement oration in which he applieth a Prophesie of the Incarnation of the Sonne of God unto that Kings Murther So much the late Rebels of England have learned of you Fathers Jesuites and no reason have you to chide your Scholars for following your doctrine and example how far you are yet before them I will shew before I have done with you For they do not make the crown of their Kings obnoxious to be kickt down by the
III. and absolved his subjects from all Allegiance to him in consequence of that Bull many of the French rebelled against their King and he wasslain upon that account by a Dominican Friar Which when this Pope heard he commended the action highly in a full Consistory at Rome and forbad that any funeral rites should be celebrated for him Which funeral rites usually celebrated at Rome for departed Princes consisting most in prayer for their souls it appeareth that his Holinesse was not contented that he had slain that King by his Bull but would also damne his soul Gregory the XIV excommunicated by his Bulls Henry the IV. of France forbidding all Peers Nobles Cities and Commons to yield him obedience and declaring him incapable of the Crown as an Heretick and relapse But that Bull was by the Court of Parliament then sitting at Tours condemned to be torn and burnt by the Hang-man Clement the VIII did the same over again and excommunicated Henry The Bull was condemned as the other to be burnt by the hand of the Hang-man But the effect of these Bulls appeared by the attempts against the Kings life which soon after followed first by a woman next by Peter Barriere and again by John Chastel all denying him to be King because he was not absolved by the Pope Neither did the effects of these Bulls cease after that the King was absolved by his Holinesse For by them the King got his death Ravilliac who killed him could alledge them when he was examined and say that the King was an Heretick in his heart and deserved to be slain as an enemy of the Church Paul the V. was as turbulent as his predecessors as he shewed it in his insolent and impertinent quarrel with the Venetians because they had stopt by Edict the giving of Lands to the Church whereby the State lost many tributes and services He threatned them of Excommunication if they did not recal that Law And upon their maintaining of it he excommunicated them and put their State in Interdict But it took no effect for none of their Clergy would or durst obey it the Jesuites onely excepted who therefore were expelled out of their dominions They condemned the Popes Bull by Edict and forbad the bringing of it into their Territory upon pain of hanging Neither did they give any satisfaction to the Pope when the businesse came to an Arbitrement but forced him to make amends to himself and to come to their terms In the beginning of this Popes reigne was detected that Treason not to be matcht in any age for cruelty and depth of villany the Gunpowder-plot to have destroyed in one blow the King the Parliament the Judges of the Land and all the flowre and strength of the Kingdome of England This horrid Treason was the effect of the several Bulls of the Pope before the Reigne of our gracious King James of glorious memory who coming into his Kingdome of England found it lying under a Papal Interdict and himself excluded from the Crown by a Bull sent into England a little before the death of Queen Elizabeth whereby all that are not Roman Catholicks are declared incapable of and excluded from the Succession of which his Majesty complains in his Apology And that Bull was produced in the Indictment of the Jesuite Garnet as the principal motive of the Gunpowder Treason This gave occasion to the Oath of Supremacy set forth by the King and his Parliament then sitting for the security of his Majesties Life and Dignity wherein it is required of all to whom it is administred to acknowledge his Majesty to be the lawful King of the Realmes of England Scotland and Ireland and that the Pope hath no right to depose him of his Kingdoms or dispense his Subjects from their obedience to him Also that they abhorre as impious and heretical this doctrine That Princes excommunicated by the Pope may justly be deposed or slain by their owne Subjects This Oath being presented to the Roman Catholicks some of them made no difficulty to take it among others Blackwell the Arch-priest Whereupon the Pope sent Apostolical Letters into England declaring that Dated Sept. 22. 1606. this Oath could not be taken with a safe conscience and exhorting the English to suffer all kinds of torments and death it self rather then to offend Gods Majesty by such an Oath To imitate the constancy of other English Martyrs To have their loins girt about with vertue to put on the Brest-plate of righteousnesse and take the Buckler of Faith He tells them that God who hath begun in them that good work will perfect it and will not suffer them to be Orphans c. And he injoyneth them to observe diligently the precepts contained in the Letters which Clement the VIII his predecessor had written a little before to Mr. George Arch-priest of England By which Letters all Princes of a Religion contrary to the Roman are excluded from the Crown of England These Letters whereby the English were exhorted to be Martyrs of the Popes Sovereignty in England and to make it an Article of their faith which they must signe with their blood that the Pope hath power to depose Princes and expose them to be expelled and slain by their own subjects did not receive that entertainment which he expected among the English of his Religion For some rejected them as supposititious forged by the Hereticks to draw persecution upon them and kindle their Kings wrath against them he being already justly provoked to revenge by the late conspiracy The Pope hearing of this sends other and more express letters Dated Aug. 23. 1607. into England to expostulate with the Roman Catholicks saying That he wondred at their doubting of the truth of the Apostolick letters to dispense themselves upon that pretence from obeying his commandments And therefore he declareth That those Letters were written by himself not only motu proprio ex certa scientia by his own motion and certain knowledge but also after a long and grave deliberation enjoyning them again to obey those Letters because such is his pleasure To these letters which set up rebellion with a high hand as an Article of the Roman Faith were joyned letters of Cardinal Bellarmine to Blackwell the Archpriest wherein he chides him bitterly for taking the Oath which under colour of modifications had no other end but to transport the Popes authority to a Successor of Henry the VIII And by the examples of his Predecessors he exhorteth him to defend the Popes primacy whom he calleth The Head of the Faith Of this Oath thus prohibited by the Pope and cryed down by Bellarmine the Jesuite Becanus saith That both of them the Pope and Bellarmine Beean de dissidio Anglic. Vterque negat salva conscientia praestari posse hoc juramentum quia abnegarent fi-Catholicam deny that it may be taken with a safe Conscience because by taking it the Catholick Faith is denyed Is it then an
suturi licitum habeant sine Rebellionis aut Infidelitatis crimine resistendi ac contradicendi nobis Successoribus nostris Romanorum Regibus vel Imperatoribus in perpetuam libertatem Caesarea anno 1356. Whereby if the Emperour or the King of the Romans violate any of the Rights of the Subject established by that Capitulation It is declared to be lawfull for the Electors Princes Prelates Nobles and Commons either jointly or severally to resist them without crime of Rebellion or Infidelity Three hundred and fifty years before that a German Pope Gregory V. had brought in the Institution of the Electors as the Centuriators of Magdeburg report But Aventinus and Onuphrius more credibly make it of later date after the death of Frederick II. whom Pope Innocent IV. had persecuted to death and the Empire being much weakned by the loss of that great Emperour to weaken him more yet either Innocent IV. or his Successor Alexander III. procured seven perpetual Electors whose Interest should be to keep alwaies the Emperours low to keep themselves high Since that time the Emperours Authority in many parts of Germany is little more then a title and a respect without power for the Electors may both elect and depose him They and the other Princes of the Empire govern their Signories and pay nothing to him but homage And the Cities called Imperial are they that have the greatest exemptions from the Imperial Lawes Wherefore the exclamations of the Adversaries about the resistance of the Elector of Saxony with other Princes of the Empire and some Imperial Cities against the Emperour and about the words of German Divines or Jurists to that purpose are very ignorantly or maliciously urged as rebellious for neither the words nor the actions of those Germans ought to be weighed in the balance of the duty of other subjects to their absolute Sovereignes Luther who was always very rigid for the subjection of every soul to the higher powers and had written a book expresly of that subject had much ado to be perswaded to consent to a confederacy of defensive arms against the Emperour who being set on by the Court of Rome oppressed the liberties of Germany and to suppress the growing Reformation took more cognizance of cases belonging to the jurisdiction of the Princes and cities of the Empire then he was allowed by the authentical capitulations till the learned in the Law satisfied him about the Statutes of his Countrey and his reason and conscience shewed him that the Apostle commanding Christians to submit themselves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake requireth of them an obedience proportioned to the constitutions of the States of which they are members Of that consultation Sleidan giveth this account Before they made the confederacy Sleidan Hist lib. 8. ad an 1531. Priusquam soedus iniretur in consilium adhibiti sunt non Iurisconsulti modo sed Theologi quoque Lutherus enim semper docuerat Magistratui non esse resistendum exstabat ejus ea de re libellus Cum autem in hac deliberatione periti juris docerent legibus esse permissum resistere nonnunquam nunc in eum casum de quo leges inter alia mentionem faciunt rem esse deductam ostenderent Lutherus ingenue profitetur se nescivisse hoc licere Et quia leges Politicas Evangelium non impugnat aut aboleat uti semper docuerit Deinde quoniam hoc tempore tam dubio tamque formidoloso multa possint accidere sic ut non modo jus ipsum sed conscientiae quoque vis atque necessitas arma nobis porrigat defensionis causa foedus iniri posse dicit five Caesar ipse sive quis alius forte bellum ejus nomine saciat they called to counsel not onely Jurists but Divines also For Luther had taught alwayes that the Magistrate must not be resisted and a book of his concerning that subject was extant But when in that consultation the learned in law shewed that it was permitted by the laws to resist sometimes and demonstrated that at that time their business was come to that very case of which the laws make mention among other things Luther did ingeniously profess that he knew not that it was lawfull And because the Gospel doth not impugne or abolish the Politick laws as he had alwayes taught Also because the time being so perillous and full of terrour many things might happen which would put the armes in our hands not onely by the prescript of the law but by the force of conscience and necessity he declared his opinion that a defensive League might justly be made whether the Emperour himself or any other in his name should make war against us While they were thus met at Smalcald the Emperour sent letters to them not to condemn or dissolve their meeting as a King of England or France would have done for he knew that by the laws they might meet to look to their common interest without him yea and against him But to charge the Protestants to send help against the Turk who was advancing with a great army towards Germany The Protestants answered that because the Emperour would grant them no peace at home nor suspension of the decree of confiscation against their estates for their Religion and that they were in daily expectation of proscription and hostile dealing from him they could not cut off their own sinews and lay themselves open to his hostility to help him against a foreign enemy But if he would make all fiscal proceedings for the matter of Religion to surcease till the time of the promised Councel and grant them peace and safety at home they would not onely assist him against the Turk with all their power but serve him in all the publick interests to which their duty bound them And this is that confederâ—… 〈…〉 which the Adversary cryeth down as the â—pâ—… 〈…〉 â—…rn of Rebellion from that time to our days how 〈…〉 the equitable Reader judge If it be objected that this abridging of the Emperours power was wrongfully got from him I will grant it It was jus quod coepit ab injuria a right that began by wrong yet confirmed by the Emperours with authentical Charters and strengthened by long prescription The Emperour may thank the Popefor it who having an ancient jealousie of the Imperial rights in Italy and not able to suffer any King of the Romans but themselves have powerfully laboured for many ages to break the Emperours power every where And it was by their practises that the constitution of the Electors and the Golden Bull was made and those great immunities given to the Princes of the Empire and Imperial Cities whereby the Emperour is remained a manacled Prince so unable in most parts of the Empire to stretch his hands upon the meanest persons that trouble him that he could never so much as secure Luther a poor Monk though urged to it by the most powerfull and irresistible sollicitations
have made the Right of Kings known which was opprest before Such a judgement is of great weight coming from a wise King who was truly informed of the businesses of his neighbours Certainly si perito in arte sua credendum est If a skilful Artist must be believed when he speaketh within the compasse of his Art none can decide better what rebellion is and what is not then a great Monarch jealous of the Royal Authority skilled in the duty of Subjects and one that had a long struggling with rebellious spirits This Sentence was pronounced by his Majesty in the year 1615 when France had peace at home and abroad Two years after they had the like testimony of their fidelity from their own King by a Letter of his Majesty written to their Deputies assembled in a Synod at Vitre in these terms Nous avons receu bien volontiers les nouuelles assurances protestations que vous nous auez faites de vostre fidelite obeissance En laquelle persistans comme vous devez que vous auez sait par le passè vous pouuez aussi estre assurez que nous aurons toussours soin de vous maintenir conserver en tous les avantages qui vous ont esté accordez These Letters were printed and published with other Declarations We have received with good satisfaction the new assurances and protestations which you have made unto us of your fidelity and obedience In the which if you persist as you ought and as you have done before you may also be assured that we shall alwayes have a care to maintain and preserve you in all the advantages which have been granted unto you These Letrers bear the Date of May 29. 1617. from Paris Cardinal d'Ossat speaking to Cardinal Aldobrandin Nephew to Clement the VIII about the execrable murther attempted by Iohn Chastel against Henry the IV. of France told him that if Sil y avoit lieu a de tels assassinats ce seroit aux Heretiques a les purchasser executer qu'il a quittez abandonnez qui avoyent a se craindre de luy toutesois ils n'ont rien attenté contre luy ni contre aucun de cinq de nos Roys ses predecesseurs quelque boucherie que leurs Majestez ayent fait desdits Huguenots Card. d'Ossat Epist 8. a Mr. de Velleroy Ian. 25. 1595. pag. 77. such attempts were allowable they were more proper to execute for the Hereticks so he is pleased to call the Protestants whom the King hath left and forsaken and who have reason to stand in fear of him and yet they never attempted any such thing neither against him nor against any of the Kings his predecessors what slaughter soever they have made of the said Hugenots But the greatest testimony of their fidelity is that famous Edict of Nantes which was expressely made to reward them with priviledges for their constant adhering to their King in the long calamities of France Seeing then that the French Protestants were acknowledged good Subjects by their Sovereigne and have deserved by their signal loyalty and long services to the Crowne those few priviledges which they hardly enjoy it is evident how unjust the extraordinary expostulation is That the Roman Catholicks have not the publick allowed exercise of Religion in England as the Protestants have in France There is great reason for that differing dealing The French Protestants have deserved that liberty and more by their constant fidelity and valour having maintained their King with their purses and defended him with their swords so many years against the Jesuitical party who had made a League with strangers to keep him from the Crown and take away his life It is known that the Grandfather of the King now reigning was set upon the Throne by the swords of his Protestant Subjects Let the Jesuitical party of England shew the like service to their Sovereigne whereby they deserve the like recompence What care did they take of the preservation of their Sovereigns lives Queen Elizabeth and King Iames How did they defend their Crowns against the claim and invasion of strangers Did they further or hinder the return of our gracious King now reigning If some few Roman Catholicks have fought for our glorious King and Martyr Charles the I. their whole party fares the better by it now and finds the King a grateful Prince remembring good deeds and forgetting injuries Then the difference of their doctrine in point of Government ought to make a great difference in the allowance of the publick exercise of their Religion The Jesuited Catholicks acknowledge another Sovereigne over their King both for the Spiritual and the Temporal a forreigne power which can dispense them of their Allegiance to him The Protestants acknowledge no Sovereigne above their King and give no jealousie by their doctrine to the Roman Catholick Princes and States under which they live as the Jesuites have done even to Roman Catholicks by whom they have been expelled out of their Dominions as Teachers of a doctrine tending to rebellion Of the troubles that followed who so will give an impartial judgement must look upon the condition of the French Protestants since King Henry IV. bought his peace with the party of the League by the change of his Religion That King seeing himself obliged to provide for the safety of his Protestant subjects by whose armes and long service he had been preserved in his adversities and finally placed upon the Royal Seat gave them some places of strength in several Provinces of the Kingdome for certain years and by an Edict called the Edict of Nantes the free enjoying of their estates and the open exercise of their Religion with some limitation of places Of the priviledges granted them by that Edict there were many infractions especially since the death of Henry the IV. who both by his authority and together by his ancient interest in the Protestant party kept all quiet and preserved them from those wrongs to which the weakest are alwaies obnoxious The term being expired of the grant of those places King Lewis the XIII renewed it for four or five years after which he would have them out of their hands That they were to be restored upon the Kings demand was the opinion of grave Protestants the severest exactors of the obedience of subjects to the Sovereign of my Reverend Father especially who being eminent and respected in the party was a principal means to keep the Protestant Churches on this side Loire in peace and in duty to their King for which his Majesty sent him a considerable summe of money which he refused to take saying that he could be loyal to his King without being bought But the necessity of their keeping those places seemed to be justified by the reason of the first grant which was to preserve them from the violence of their bitter enemies for said they if so many places of safety could not keep us
following Popes exercise over his Son Henry the III. in his long and unfortunate Reign insulting over his weakness and superstition How licentiously did these Wolves tear and raven in England while the publick cry of the oppressed Matth. Paris in vitae Hen. III. people represented unto the King that his Kingdome was become like a Vine whose fence is pulled down and rooted out by the wild Bear These Histories which make the usurpations of the Roman Court to be abhorred yet are set forth by the Jesuite Petra Sancta as examples for all Princes And Petra Sancta Not. in Epist ad Balzac he would have all Kings to imitate King John and Henry the III. of England in their subjection to the Pope He could not have chosen more frequent examples to dehort them from it considering the gulf of miseries which they sunk into by their stooping under the Popes tyranny But they have more reason to follow the example of the next King brave Edward the I. who recovered his own and his Kingdomes liberty by expelling all the Roman Exactours out of England and by his contempt of Rome reigned peaceably and glorious For the Pope who in the Reigns of his Father and Grandfather was thundering continually and cudgelling both King and people never spake a word against this stout King Pope Innocent the III. played with his Spiritual Sword in Germany as well as in England for he excommunicated the Emperour Otho the IV. Platina in Innocent III. Otho iram Pontificis in se concitavit à quo anathemate notatur Imperii titulis privatur and deprived him of the titles of the Empire as Platina speaks warily for Popes cannot take away Kingdomes but onely deny to acknowledge the titles The Emperour Fredericke the II. was worse used by the Popes though much deserving of the Roman See to which he had given the County of Fundi For he was excommunicated and deposed by Pope Honorius the III. and again by Gregory the IX for that Monster Platina of pride and greedinesse when the Emperour was gone on his errand into Palaestina anathematized him raised him enemies in Germany by his preaching Friars Matth. Paris in Vita Hen. III. Reg. Angl. Vspergensis Trithemius and taking advantage of his absence sent an army into Appulia and seised upon the Emperours Lands Twice he shewed himself reconciled with the Emperour and twice again broke with him and excommunicated him but with ill successe to himself For by all these Excommunications and Depositions the Emperour thrived who after a long patience fell upon the Pope made his Interdicts laid upon the Empire to be hissed out and so distressed the Pope by his armies that he died for wrath and sorrow The same Emperour was also excommunicated and Platina Matth. Paris persecuted by Pope Innocent the IV. And when after the Emperours death the armes of his Son prospered in Italy he gave the Kingdome of Sicily to Richard brother to Henry the III. of England Richard not acquainted with the Popes giving of Kingdomes asketh that the Forts and the Treasure and Hostages be given to him Herein wiser if he had stayed there then others who accept that which the Pope cannot deliver I will passe by many Popes that came after who sent their Excommunications no further then the Kingdome of Naples and Sicily and filled Italy with factions that they might fish in troubled waters Let us fix our contemplation a little upon that high pattern of Pontifical vertues Boniface the VIII upon whom Platina bestoweth this Character That Boniface Platina in Bonifacio Bonifacius ille qui Imperatoribus Regibus Principibus Nationibus Populis terrorem potius quam religionem injicere conabatur Quique dare regna auferre pellere homines ac reducere pro arbitrio conabatur aurum undique conquisitum plus quam dici potest sitiens who studied to give terrour rather then religion unto Emperours Kings Princes and Nations and laboured to give and take away Kingdomes drive men away and bring them again according to his pleasure One that was thirsty of goods scraped up from all places more then can be exprest The passages between him and the French King Philip the Fair are known yet perhaps not to all This is the History in short This Pope having a grudge against him about the Collation of Benefices and desiring to pick a quarrel sent to him the Bishop of Pamiers Stella Histoire de France to command him to undertake an expedition to the Holy Land and to threaten him if he refused The Bishop did that errand so malapertly that the King offended committed him to prison The Pope angry demanded the Bishop again and had him and sent this Letter to the King Fear God and keep his Commandements We will have thee to know that thou art our Subject both for the Spiritual and the Temporal That no Collation of Benefices and Prebends belongs to thee And if thou hast the custody of any of them that are vacant we will have thee to reserve the fruits for their Successors And if thou hast granted any Benefices We declare all such Collations null and as far as they are executed de facto We revoke them Those that believe otherwise we hold them for Hereticks These goodly Letters being brought to Paris by a Legate were pluckt from him by the Kings Council and Judges and cast into the fire by the Earle of Artois And to them the King returned this Answer Philip by the Grace of God King of the French to Boniface calling himself Sovereign Pontife but little greeting or rather none at all Let thy most egregious folly know that in temporal things we are subject to no man That the Collation of Churches and Prebends belongs unto us by Royal Right and converting the same to our use during the vacancy That the Collation by us made and to be made shall be valid and that in vertue of the same we will couragiously defend the possessors Those that hold otherwise We hold to be idiots and bereaved of their sense The Pope inraged excommunicates the King but none durst be the publisher or bearer of that Bull. The King assembleth at paris his Knights Barons and Prelates and asketh them of whom they hold their Lordships and the temporal of their Ecclesiastical preferments All answer that they hold them of the King not of the Pope whom they charge with heresie and many crimes The Pope assembleth a General Council as Platina calleth it though it was gathered out of few Platina Countries and by a Decree of that Council depriveth Philip of his Kingdome and giveth it to the Emperour Albert and laboureth to arme Germany and Netherlands against France But that vigorous King sent Nogaret into Italy who by the help of Sciarra Columna whose Family Boniface had cruelly opprest got two hundred horse and surprised the Pope at Anagnia whom they mounted upon a poor jade and brought him prisoner
shed in Christendome by the meanes of that plague of mankind Pope Julius the II. that it is thought that he was the death of two hundred thousand Christians in seven years time In a Synod of the Gallican Church at Tours it was Nicol. Cilles in Vita Ludov. XIII Thuan. lib. 1. declared that the Pope hath no power to make warre against a Christian Prince and if he do so that the Prince hath power to invade the Popes Territories This the King signifieth to Julius and cites him to answer to a General Council which both the Emperour and he had called to be held at Lyons The Council was held there but soon removed to Pisa where the Council cited Julius to appear and he not appearing was condemned as an Incendiary unworthy to sit at the Helme of the Church and declared deprived of the Papal Dignity There also Lewis coined golden Crownes with this Motto Perdam nomen Babylonis I will destroy the name of Babylon For it is observable that all that have quarrelled with the See of Rome these thirteen hundred years have called it Babylon and Saint Hierom ad Marcellam Hierome was he that began We cannot charge the Successor of Iulins Leo the X. to have stirred Wars abroad he loved too much his ease at home for that But I could not pass by him for indeed his memory is precious to all Protestants for giving occasion to the Reformation by his Indulgences And he is worthy to be recorded for his sentence spoken to his Secretary Cardinall Bembo Quantum nobis Crispinus nostrisque ea de Christo fabula profuerit satis est omnibus saeculis notum an anxiome of too high a nature to be Englished After him came next but one Clement the VII the Fomenter of the quarrell between the Emperour and the French joyning sometimes to the one sometimes to the other and playing false with both whereby he gave occasion to the taking and sacking of Rome The thundering of this Pope and of his Successor Iovius Paul the III. against Henry the VIII did him no harm but to themselves and to the Roman See very much Of the following Popes till Pius the V. the Protestants have much to say as of men that sought their own pleasure and wrought their ruine Hence so much blood split in horrible Massacres But these are besides my subject which is to make the Popes to appear Authors of rebellion But now in a good time we are come to Pius the V. that Pope whom the English Protestants have most reason to remember For without admonition or citation Cambdens Hist of Qu. Elizabeth premised he pronounced a sentence of anathema against that blessed and glorious Queen Elizabeth to raise rebellion in the Kingdome against her Authority and Life and caused the same to be published and set up upon the Pallace Gate of the Bishop of London the Title was this A sentence declaratory of our holy Lord Micolaus Sanderus de schismate Anglicano lib. 3. Pope Pius against Elizabeth Queen of England and the Hereticks adhering unto her Wherein her Subjects are declared absolved from the Oath of Allegiance and every thing due unto her whatsoever and those which from thenceforth obey her are innodated with the anathema In that Bull Pope Pius having first styled himself Servant of Servants declareth that God hath made the Bishop of Rome Prince over all people and all Kingdoms to pluck up destroy scatter consume plant and build Then he calleth Elizabeth the pretended Queen of England the servant of wickedness And having declared her crimes which are to have taken upon her self that supremacy which his Holiness pretended to and to have establish'd the true Catholick Orthodox Religion in her Kingdomes he doth thunder out this seditious Decree against her and all her loyall Subjects We do out of the fulness of our Apostolick power declare the aforesaid Elizabeth being an Heretick and a favourer of Hereticks and her adherents in the matters aforesaid to have incurred the sentence of anathema and to be cut off from the unity of the body of Christ And moreover we do declare her to be deprived of her pretended Title to the Kingdom aforesaid and of all Dominion Dignity and Priviledge whatsoever And also the Nobility Subjects and People of the said Kingdome and all other which have in any sort sworn unto her to be for ever absolved from any such Oath and all manner of duty of Dominion Allegiance and Obedience as we also do by authority of these presents absolve them and do deprive the same Elizabeth of her pretended Title to the Kingdome and all other things abovesaid And we do command and interdict all and every the Noblemen Subjects People and others aforesaid that they presume not to obey her or her Monitions Mandates and Laws And those which shall do to the contrary we do innodate with the like sentence of anathema This Bull was the fire and the roaring of the Canon and the bullet came forth immediately which was the rebellion in the North for which Chapino Vitelli was sent into England from the Duke of Alva under pretence of compounding some controversies about commerce And Nicholas Morton was sent from the Pope to knit the rebellion Which he did denouncing from his Master that Queen Elizabeth was an Heretick and thereby had forfeited to the Pope all her dominion and power At the same time a rebellion broke out in Ireland kindled or blown by a Spaniard Iuan Mendoza And when the Rebells of England were defeated they found refuge among the Papist Rebells of Scotland who set up again the English rebellion All these in vain by the gracious assistance of God to poor England as if his compassion had been stirred up by his jealousie after that the Pope had declared himself so insolently Prince over all People and all Kingdoms to pluck up destroy scatter consume plant and build And God would shew that to himself not to the Pope belongeth the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever Neither did Pius the V. fight onely by Bulls but at the same time that the Bull was published he laid down a hundred thousand Crowns to raise the rebellion and promised fifty thousand more yea and to bear the whole charge of the War That money was distributed by one Ridolpho And how active that Pope was to stirre Spain France and Netherlands against the Queen and to put her Kingdome in combustion is related by Hieronymo Catena an Authour of great credit at Rome in his life of Pius the V. Gregory the XIII succeeded Pius the V. in all his plots against England He gave to Thomas Stukely an English Rebell a Commission to help the Rebells of Ireland and get that Kingdome for the Bastard-Son of his Holiness Iames Boncompagnon and gave him the command of eight hundred Italians to joyn with King Sebastian of Portugal who had engaged his word to the Pope to serve him
with his whole power against Queen Elizabeth and had raised a great Army for that expedition But when Stukely came to Sebastian he found him possess'd with a new project to help a Moor King of Fez against another King who kept him out of possession and to get the Kingdome from them both To that War he invited Stukely promising that presently after that work done which he represented to him most easie they should go together to the War against England and Ireland So they sailed over into Africa where Sebastian and his whole Army were destroyed and with him Stukely and the Popes Italian Souldiers were cut in pieces A deliverance of England ever to be remembred with praise and admiration So let thine enemies perish O Lord. This Pope had a great hand in that unparallelled villany wrought by the marriage of Henry King of Navarra with the Sister of Charles the IX of France A marriage which Pius the V. would never consent unto by reason of their difference in Religion But when his Successor Gregory the XIII was told by the Cardinall of Lorrain that this marriage was intended as a trap to destroy Henry and his Protestant party he presently gave his dispensation for the celebrating of it and encouraged the design The horrible massacre which attended the jollity of that marriage was received at Thuanus Rome with triumphant expressions of publick joy And Cardinal Vrsin was sent Legat into France to praise the Kings piety and wisdom in that great action and to bestow blessings and spiritual graces upon the King and the Actors of that fearful Tragedy The Court of Rome might well praise what themselves had procured if not contrived and truly the plot hath an Italian garb and looks not like a production of the French soil Not long after this Pope sent to Henry the III. of France and to his people Indulgences for millions of years which were to be obtained by making processions to four Churches in Paris and by being zealous and diligent in the extirpation of heresies that is in his style to extermine the Protestants The male line of the Kings of Portugal being extinct this Pope laid a claim to the Kingdome as depending from the holy See and would have the Nation to have taken Arms for him against the heirs from the females But his claim was hissed out with great scorn In the year 1580. this Pope sent an Italian called San Iosepho with some Italian Troops into Ireland to joyn with the Irish Rebells When they were demanded by a message from the Lord Deputy who they were and what they came for they answered Some that they were sent by the most holy Father the Pope and some from the Catholick King of Spain to whom the Pope had given Ireland because Queen Elizabeth had justly forfeited her Title to Ireland by her heresie A doctrine which at the same time was preach'd in England and Ireland by Jesuites and other Seminary Priests with great boldness and vehemency till the Queen and her Councell perceiving what danger the State was running into by these mens activeness and impunity Campian and some others sent by the Pope on that errand were apprehended And being examined they obstinately defended the Popes authority over the Queen and maintained that she was no Queen as being lawfully deposed by the Pope upon which they were condemned and executed That Crown of Martyrdom the Pope procured to his Confessors And the greater the number is of those Martyrs that the Papists muster the more they exaggerate the Popes cruelty to his truest Vassalls For could the Pope expect that persons sent to perswade the people to dispossess and kill their Sovereign should have other dealing from the hand of Justice The principal Article of the late Papal Creed is that which Pius the V. sets forth in his Bull against the Queen that God hath made the Bishop of Rome Prince over all people and all Kingdoms But the English Papists are taught that besides that general right over all Kingdomes the Pope hath a peculiar right over England and Ireland as his proper Dominions This is Bellarmins doctrine which he hath made bold to maintain unto King James himself The King Bellarm. lib. cui Titulus Tortus pag. 19. Rex Anglorum duplici jure subjectus est Papae uno communi omnibus Christianis ratione Apostolicae potestatis quae in omnes extenditur juxta illud Ps 44. Constitues eos Principes super omnem terram Altero proprio ratione recti dominii of England saith he is subject to the Pope by double right The one by reason of his Apostolick power which extends over all men according to that Charter Ps 44. Thou shalt establish them Princes over all the earth The other proper by a right dominion Then he pleadeth that England and Ireland are the Churches dominions the Pope the direct Lord and the King his Vassal This then being become an Article of Religion in which the English Papists are instructed and this in consequence that if the Pope disallow the King he is no more King of England but an Usurper and must be used accordingly Let any man judge who hath some equity and freedome of judgement left whether a prudent Prince and Council of State ought to suffer such an instruction to be given to the people Truly the more Religion is pretended for that doctrine and the practice of Rebellion obtruded as a commandement of the Church the more it concernes the loyal Magistrate to oppose it vigorously Pope Sixtus the V. to favour the enterprise of Philip the II. upon England renewed the Excommunication of Queen Elizabeth pronounced by Pius the V. deprived her verbo tenus of her Kingdome absolved her subjects from all Allegiance to her and published a Croisada against her as against the Turk giving plenary Indulgence to all that would make warre against her But the Popes Curses provoked Gods blessings upon the Queen who might say as David when Shimei cursed him The Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day All the storms raised against England were blown over without harme The great preparations of Spain served onely to disable it and secure England And the many attempts against the Queens life upon that Bull contributed to her safety by manifesting to the World the wickednesse of Rome and the pernicious effects of the Roman principles For which I might produce the Examinations and Confessions of many that suffered for attempting to murther the Queen but I will bring but one for all William Parry acknowledged that he had promis'd at Rome to kill the Queen about which he was most troubled in his conscience till he lighted upon Dr. Allens book which taught that Princes excommunicate for heresie were to be deprived of Kingdome and life Which book saith he did vehemently excite me to prosecute my attempt This Popes Excommunications had more effect in France for after that he had excommunicated King Henry the