Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	henry_n	king_n	richard_n	15,475	5	9.2713	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42629	The defence of the Parliament of England in the case of James the II, or, A treatise of regal power and of the right of the people drawn from ancient councils ... and more especially the ordinances of the doctors of the Church of Rome ... : wherein is demonstrated that the Holy Scriptures are so far from being contrary, that they do even assent thereto / written in Latin by P. Georgeson, Kt. ; translated by S. Rand.	Georgeson, P., Sir.; Rand, S.	1692 (1692)	Wing G533; ESTC R18626	44,763	42

is as clear as the Sun at Noon-day that whatsoever the sacred Assembly of Prelates hath thought fit to be observed is by the special grace of the Holy Ghost ordained and prefixt and settled to all eternity and is inviolably to be observed I beseech you therefore and conjure you the whole Assembly of reverend Prelates and you most excellent Princes and Peers who by your homage and duty to the Court are obliged to sit in this sacred Assembly I command you I say by the Mistery of the holy Trinity that if there be any thing before you shall be judged needful to be decreed or repealed as well what by us hath been offered to your consideration as also what else may have come to your hearing on behalf of the People that you would be careful to decide and clear it with an unanimous vigour of justice accompanied with a due proportion of mercy Ervigius behaves himself before the Synod with abundance of modesty who humbly implores their justice and mercy and laying aside all lostiness of mind sensible of his own in abilities to undertake such a charge submits himself to its censure We do not find it so now a days no no but now you must take notice that the asorementioned Spanish Kings were of the Gothic Race but as to their Religion having renounced Arianisme they became sound and orthodox from the time of Ricared they had likewise won the Kingdom of Spain by force of Arms and the ●ight got by di●t of Sword is accounted the best Title by your Civilians Now let us proceed to the French The first that presents himself is Childeric the 3 d. the very last of the M●rovingian Race who was deposed by the Parliament and hurled into a Monastry Now there were present in this Parliament divers Bishops amongst the rest was Boniface a Bishop of Mentz of great reputation who set the Crown on Pepin's Head who was put in the place of Childeric No body can be ignorant of that notable Story of Lewis the pious Son to Charles the Great who in the Synod of Compeign composed of Bishops and Peers of the Realm Anno 833. was tumbled from his Throne and forced into a Monastry Synods in those days were made up usually of the Clergy and the States of the Nation which was much the best way especially in general Councils for it is certain that for the most part the covetousness and ambition of the Clergy commonly corrupt both Divine and Human right Nor after what manner the Capetians were by consent of all the French substituted in the Room of the Carlovingians and how Lewis the Eleventh was surrounded with thirty six Commissioners without whose Advice he could not govern the Common wealth as known to all we omit But what on this Subject is beyond all exception and may stop the Mouth of the Patrons of Tyranny is the Consent of all the Christian Princes in the Convention of Arras The business thus Charles the Seventh whilst he was but yet Dolphin commanded John Father to Philip Duke of Burgundy traiterously to be assassinated thereupon a bloody War arose between the two Princes but at length by the mediation and procurement of the Counsel of Basil and Pope Engenius a Council was called and held at Arras for composing Differences whereunto the noblest part of Europe had resort It was saith Mezeray the noblest and greatest of that Age thither did all Christian Princes except King Henry of England who disputed the Crown of France with Charles send their Agents and Plenipotentiaries and Eugenius his Ambassadors A Peace being once clapt up between the two Princes it was covenanted and agreed upon that if either of the two Princes should not stand to their words but violate the Articles of Agreement that then his Subjects absolved of their Oaths might lawfully send Succours to another Prince against the breaker of the Covenant here you may plainly see that all Princes do unanimously agree in absolving Subjects of their Oaths of Allegiance besides you may see that a Vassal doth covenant with his Lord upon equal Conditions for Philip was Vassal to Charles So much the more is the simplicity of those to be laught at who dare affirm that Princes are not so much as bound by Oath to their Subjects for performance of the Articles of a Treaty when God himself is obliged to fulfill his promises the Lord hath sworn and will not repent and the holy Scriptures declare that all controversies are decided by an Oath as if Princes were obliged to resemble God Almighty in respect of his power and not in respect of his faithfulness and veracity But not to deviate too much from our present purpose If it were lawful for Subjects to levy War against their Prince for violating his word past to a Foreiguer I cannot see why it should be deemed an hainous offence to spurn and resist Tyranny when they themselves are galled and oppressed The Brittish History likewise furnisheth us with a long series of Examples of this Nature but too great a Prolixity especially in matters of themselves otherwise plain and evident is tedious and troublesome Let one therefore and that very considerable in its self suffice which is this John surnamed Sans terre or without Land King of England and Duke of Brittain standing excommunicate by Pope Innocent the III. and his Subjects absolved from their Oath of Allegiance the Kingdom of England was devolved upon Philip the August Now Philip relying upon this donation of the Pope having fitted out a huge Navy was just ready to fall upon and Invade England when John by his submission and obsequious compliance regained the Pope's favour Neither did Philip for all that desist from his enterprize for he gave his Consent that the Nobility of England should choose Lewis his Son Husband to Jone K. John's Niece for their King and should Crown him in London accordingly the Matter proceeded to Suit and Tryal before the Pope still a great favourer of John the Ambassadors of Lewis who solioited his Cause at Rome mainly urged that John was never Leige King because he was condemned by the Peers of France to have his Head cut off for the Murder committed on the person of Arthur his Nephew moreover that if he were a King yet that he had notwithstanding forfeited his Crown by turning a Tyrant and that it was Tyranny as they said to subvertand destory the Regal Power the death of John stops the Proceedings and ends the Difference and his Son Henry placed in his stead Pray let the French take special notice of this Passage who are out of humour and ill satisfied at the last Revolution and Change of the British Empire and if they are wise let them take warning whilst they may by their own consession Tyranny quite overthrows Kingly Power and it evidently appears by their own Example that the Throne of a Tyrant may justly and lawfully be possessed by another and in

this Trust and Charge upon them and after they have once acquitted themselves of it they are no longer the Representives of the Person of the Church the Church it self ever remains superiour to the Pope and at such time as she thinks good to lay down the Authority of a Pope she may commit it to the Cardinals but that Regal Power draws its origin from the People if the business needed proving it might be without much ado demonstrated from the very Coronation of the French Kings For after this manner doth the Archbishop speak to him when he anoints him Maintain that State and Dignity in which you are placed to succeed your Father by the Law of Inheritance by divine Providence by our present delivering it to you VIII Besides there was ever a great difference between Subjects and Servants Subjects are always looked upon in the Scripture as Sons and Brethren but Servants are accounted as the vilest and most abject of Mortals now then if you ascribe Absolute Power to Princes this difference and distinction would be quite out of doors because the Power of Lords over Servants cannot be greater then Absolute nay and Subjects would be in a much worse condition then Servants for as much as the Power of Lords over Servants cannot be called Absolute If the Authority of Justinian the Emperour may be of any moment in this matter But at this time saith he it shall not be lawful for any Man whatsoever within our Empire without some cause approved of by the Laws to exercise any unreasonable excessive cruelty upon his Servants for by the order of Antoninus whosoever shall slay his Servant without cause shall have no less punishment inflicted on him then if he had killed another mans but even too great and extraordinary sharpness and austerity of Lords and Masters was restrained by the Order of the aforesaid Prince for Antoninus being consulted by some Governours of Provinces about such Servants who took refuge in the Temple or fled to the Statue of the Prince gave order that if the cruelty of Lords and Masters should appear intollerable that they should be compelled to sell their Servants upon good Conditions and the price to be given to the Masters and all the reason in the World for it is expedient for the Common-wealth that none make ill use of what he hath The words of this Extract sent to Aelius Martianus are these the Power and Authority of Lords over Servants ought to be just and blameless nor ought any Person whatsoever to be defrauded of his right but it mightily concerns Masters to see that redress be not denied to those who shall lawfully require it for hardships hunger thirst or intollerable injury M. Antoninus seems in these Clauses to Counsel and Advice Servants and Subjects to take their parts against Tyrants Wherefore take cognisance of the Complaints of those of the Family of Julius and Sabinus who have fled for Refuge to the Sacred Statue and in case they be either more hardly used and intreated then justice requires or if you shall judge them ignominously wronged and abused venire jube cause them to be sold so that they may never any more fall into their Lords clutches and if he shall prove to act otherwise then becomes a subject and shall not submit to this my Ordinance let him understand that I shall execute the severity of the Law against him for such a default This constitution of the Emperors doth altogether correspond with the Law of God by which it is commanded that if any one shall deprive a Man-servant or a Maid-servant of one Eye yea or but of a Tooth then he shall be forced to grant them their liberty Exod. 21. 26 27. God likewise commands that if any one induced by Poverty shall sell himself he shall not be reckoned as a bond Servant but as an hired Servant and a Sojourner he was to serve till the Year of Jubile and then to depart both he and his Children with him he shall return to the Possession of his Fathers he and his Children for they are my Servants which I brought forth out of the Land of Aegypt they shall not be sold as Bonds-men Thou shalt not rule over them with ●igour but shal● fear thy God You see that for some certain reasons that is to say for cruelty for hunger or upon the account of ins●fferable wrongs that Servants might by Gods appointment and by the Emperors Constitutions which have now the force of Laws be exempted from their Masters commands and injunctions Why may not then Subjects be withdrawn from and dispensed of their duty to Princes unsit to bear sway From the Second Book also of the Fiefs or Feudaries Tit. 26. 5. it appears that the Lord is no less capable to commit an act of Treason against the Vassal than is the Vassal against the Lord which if it shall so happen the Lord loseth all his right over the Vassal no nor is that Power of Fathers over Sons Absolute neither though it be founded upon the Law of Nature for a Son is discharged from the Duty to a Farther that with cruelty and beyond all reason misuseth him or if the Father shall thunder out disinheritance against the Son the Laws shall carefully inquire into the occasions of disinheriting and if it be upon ●light Grounds or unadvisedly done that disinheriting shall be lookt upon as null and of none effect Last of all if all Subjects be but Servants what becomes of Peers withcut whom a King cannot try a Peer but if the King hath need of Peers in passing Sentence by Votes what signifies your Absolute Power truly I am even ashamed of those Persons who professing themselves Christians have a flighter opinion of Humanity then the Heathens have It is taken for granted amongst all the asserters and maintainers of Absolute Power by Barklay Grotius yea and by Salmatius the most daring and boldest of them all that the People did not part with or make over all their right to the Prince as for example they did not transfer all their right of chusing to himself a Successor in case the whole Royal Family be extinct Salmatius himself agrees with us in this matter Where the Seed of the Royal Line saith he in hereditary Kingdoms is quite extinct in such case the Power returns to the People to whom it may be lawful afterwards to confer the like Government upon another Person or change it into another form neither did the People grant to the King the right of Allienating the Crown or making it belong to anothers Dominion and that for the publick Good and Advantage for fear least some Stranger or other unfit Person should be set over the People Charles the VI. is a pregnant example of this who at such time as he abandoned Charles the VII his Son and declared and appointed Henry King of England his Son-in-Law Heir to the Crown this disowning and grant was judged by the People of France of none effect and exploded and so Charles the VII was again fully restored to his Crown and Dignity Francis the First also ●ffords us a notable Instance of this same that a King cannot

truth it was but just that the Parliament should serve James the II with the same Sauce as the Peers did John not coming at all short of him in deserving to be dethroned then again John did not go about to subvert the Established Religion then in Force nor did he sorsake the Kingdom and fly to the sworn Enemies of the English Nation add hereto that William and Mary had much a better Claim and Title to the Crown of England as being Heirs presumptive then ever Lewis had who was no presumptive Heir I can hardly forbear the adding to this Example that acknowledgment of the Authority of the Parliament by Richard the II in his solemn surrender of his Crown upon their Sentence I refer the Reader as to this point to the English Historians more especially to Henry Knighton Canon of Leicester in his Book De Eventibus Angliae who hath at large and exactly insisted upon this dreadful deposing Yet I shall take notice of one thing not customary with Tyrants to wit that Richard did own and acknowledge the Peoples right in punishing bad Princes and did allow himself uncapable of governing CHAP. II. Wherein the Absolute Power and Authority of Emperors and Kings by the Testimonies and Opinions of several learned Men is opposed THere are not wanting an innumerable company of Examples in History of Kings banished from their Kingdoms for ill managment yet I thought good to produce none but such by which it may plainly appear that a Tyrant may be dethroned not only with a safe Conscience but conscience even dictating and allowing the same It will not be amiss to add to these the Testimonies of Emperors and Kings together with the Sentiments and Opinions of some learned Men of the Roman Church The first that offers himself is the renowned Emperor Trajan who when he presented a naked Sword to Sura according to the custom in creating him Prefect of the Praetorium take this or such like saith he and use it for me if I rule justly if unjustly use it against me next come Adrian none of the worst Emperors who promised that he would so behave himself in holding the Reins of Government as one who knew that it was the Peoples business that was committed to his charge But let they Heathens hold their peace yet the Christian Emperors Theodosius and Valentinianus utter such Truths as deserve to be Engraven upon the Palaces yea rather upon the Hearts of Princes It is a Confession say they worthy the Majesty of him that rules to profess himself a Prince bound up by the Laws so much doth our Authority depend upon the Law And indeed it is somewhat more than Empire and Sovereignty to make the Govenment obedient and subject to the Laws and by this Edict we do decree that whatsoever is not lawful for our Subjects we do not pretend it to be to lawful for us this saying is not unworthy of the Confessor neither for it was the Law of King Edward named the Confessor touching the Office of a King That if a King fail in his duty the Name of King is no ways consistent with him Now let us have recourse to the Doctors of the Church of Rome and Pope Zacharias deservedly leads the Van who returned this Answer to the French consulting him about Abdicating Childeric afor●said That a Prince was accountable to a People by whose favour he injoy'd the Crown because whatsoever he possesseth whether Power Glory Riches or Dignity he must needs grant that he is beholden to the Commonalty for the same and that it was in the Peoples power both to constitute and appoint a King over them and also to abandon him Aenaeas Sylvius follows next who was Secretary to the Council of Basil and came afterwards to be Pope under the Name of Pious the II. Aeneas Sylvius puts two queries The one is whether a General Council hath Authority over the Pope the other whether or no the Catholick Faith do enjoyn the belief of it which two saith he when I shall have examined and stated there will be no place for doubting afterwards but that the Pope ought to be subject to a General Council the Reason produced before by the Bishop of Burgos doth excellently prove for a Pope is in the Church just as a King in the Kingdom now to imagin that a King can do more then the whole Kingdom together were absur'd therefore the Pope should not have power to do more than the Church But like as Kings sometimes by reason of male Administration and exercising of Tyranny are ejected and by the whole Kingdom excluded even so by the Church that is to say by a General Council may the Pope without all question be deposed Now let us hear what Thomas Aquinas that Prince of the School-men saith When a Tyrannical Government which is not ordered for common Good and Advantage but for the private ends of the Person reigning is not just troubles and commotions Lappning in that State doth not pass for Sedition the same Thomas lays it down for a certain and undeniable truth that Principalities and Dominions are not jure Divino but de Jure Humano John Gerson succeeds him in his Opinions who was a Master of Arts of high Repute and Authority with the French in a Sermon of his to the King in the Name of the University of Paris Even as saith he according to natural instinct all the other Members expose themselves for the Health and Safety of the Head in like manner should it be in the Body politique with Loyal Subject in respect of their Sovereign on the other side the Head should guide and d●●ct the rest of the Members otherwise distraction would ensue for th● Head could not last long without the Body this truth is point bl●nk c●ntrary to those who venture to aver though erroneous●y th● the Lord doth not hold of or is obliged to his subject in any thing whatsoever which is both against Divine Right and Natural Equity and the Trust reposed in Dominion for as the Subject owes Faith and Allegiance Service and Assistance to their Supreme Lord so he in authority owes Faith and Assistance to his Subjects One good turn requires another According to some Doctors the Sin of Lucifer consisted in this That he would fain have d●mineered and ruled over all other Creatures as God without being obliged to protect and defend or do them any service Afterwards at the end of the Article he adds And if so be the Lord do not deal faithfully with them as Subjects neither will they treat him as their Lord according to that answer returned by Domitius to a certain Consul if saith he you will not have me for a Senator neither will I have you for a Consul The same Author adds As nothing can appear to corporal sight more cruel or terrible or more to be abhorred and avoided then to behold a humane Body waste it self or to