being scantly inhabited but by very few and they as barbarous and scant of ciuilitie as number there comes our first King Fergus with a great number with him out of Ireland which was long inhabited before vs and making himselfe master of the countrey by his owne friendship and force as well of the Ireland-men that came with him as of the countrey-men that willingly fell to him hee made himselfe King and Lord as well of the whole landes as of the whole inhabitants within the same Thereafter he and his successours a long while after their being Kinges made and established their lawes from time to time and as the occasion required So the trewth is directly contrarie in our state to the false affirmation of such seditious writers as would perswade vs that the Lawes and state of our countrey were established before the admitting of a king where by the contrarie ye see it plainely prooued that a wise king comming in among barbares first established the estate and forme of gouernement and thereafter made lawes by himselfe and his successours according thereto The kings therefore in Scotland were before any estates or rankes of men within the same before any Parliaments were holden or lawes made and by them was the land distributed which at the first was whole theirs states erected and decerned and formes of gouernement deuised and established And so it followes of necessitie that the kings were the authors and makers of the Lawes and not the Lawes of the kings And to prooue this my assertion more clearly it is euident by the rolles of our Chancellery which containe our eldest and fundamentall Lawes that the King is Dominus omnium bonorum and Dominus directus totius Dominij the whole subiects being but his vassals and from him holding all their lands as their ouer-lord who according to good seruices done vnto him chaungeth their holdings from tacke to few from ward to blanch erecteth new Baronies and vniteth olde without aduice or authoritie of either Parliament or any other subalterin iudiciall seate So as if wrong might bee admitted in play albeit I grant wrong should be wrong in all persons the King might haue a better colour for his pleasure without further reason to take the land from his lieges as ouer-lord of the whole and doe with it as pleaseth him since all that they hold is of him then as foolish writers say the people might vnmake the king and put an other in his roome But either of them as vnlawful and against the ordinance of God ought to be alike odious to be thought much lesse put in practise And according to these fundamentall Lawes already alledged we daily see that in the Parliament which is nothing else but the head Court of the king and his vassals the lawes are but craued by his subiects and onely made by him at their rogation and with their aduice For albeit the king make daily statutes and ordinances enioyning such paines thereto as hee thinkes meet without any aduice of Parliament or estates yet it lies in the power of no Parliament to make any kinde of Lawe or Statute without his Scepter be to it for giuing it the force of a Law And although diuers changes haue beene in other countries of the blood Royall and kingly house the kingdome being reft by conquest from one to another as in our neighbour countrey in England which was neuer in ours yet the same ground of the kings right ouer all the land and subiects thereof remaineth alike in all other free Monarchies as well as in this For when the Bastard of Normandie came into England and made himselfe king was it not by force and with a mighty army Where he gaue the Law and tooke none changed the Lawes inuerted the order of gouernement set downe the strangers his followers in many of the old possessours roomes as at this day well appeareth a great part of the Gentlemen in England beeing come of the Norman blood and their old Lawes which to this day they are ruled by are written in his language and not in theirs And yet his successours haue with great happinesse enioyed the Crowne to this day Whereof the like was also done by all them that conquested them before And for conclusion of this point that the king is ouer-lord ouer the whole lands it is likewise daily proued by the Law of our hoordes of want of Heires and of Bastardies For if a hoord be found vnder the earth because it is no more in the keeping or vse of any person it of the law pertains to the king If a person inheritour of any lands or goods dye without any sort of heires all his landes and goods returne to the king And if a bastard die vnrehabled without heires of his bodie which rehabling onely lyes in the kings hands all that hee hath likewise returnes to the king And as ye see it manifest that the King is ouer-Lord of the whole land so is he Master ouer euery person that inhabiteth the same hauing power ouer the life and death of euery one of them For although a iust Prince will not take the life of any of his subiects without a cleare law yet the same lawes whereby he taketh them are made by himselfe or his predecessours and so the power flowes alwaies from him selfe as by daily experience we see good and iust Princes will from time to time make new lawes and statutes adioyning the penalties to the breakers thereof which before the law was made had beene no crime to the subiect to haue committed Not that I deny the old definition of a King and of a law which makes the king to bee a speaking law and the Law a dumbe king for certainely a king that gouernes not by his lawe can neither be countable to God for his administration nor haue a happy and established raigne For albeit it be trew that I haue at length prooued that the King is aboue the law as both the author and giuer of strength thereto yet a good king will not onely delight to rule his subiects by the lawe but euen will conforme himselfe in his owne actions thereuneto alwaies keeping that ground that the health of the common-wealth be his chiefe lawe And where he sees the lawe doubtsome or rigorous hee may interpret or mitigate the same lest otherwise Summum ius bee summa iniuria And therefore generall lawes made publikely in Parliament may vpon knowen respects to the King by his authoritie bee mitigated and suspended vpon causes onely knowen to him As likewise although I haue said a good king will frame all his actions to be according to the Law yet is hee not bound thereto but of his good will and for good example-giuing to his subiects For as in the law of abstaining from eating of flesh in Lenton the king will for examples sake make his owne house to obserue the Law yet no man will thinke he needs to take a licence to
made doubt or stop in it but at the first offering it vnto him did freely take it as a thing most lawfull neither meanes of threatening or flatterie being euer vsed vnto him as himselfe can yet beare witnesse And as for the temperature and modification of this Oath except that a reasonable and lawfull matter is there set downe in reasonable and temperate wordes agreeing thereunto I know not what he can meane by quarelling it for that fault For no temperatnesse nor modifications in words therein can iustly be called the Deuils craft when the thing it selfe is so plaine and so plainely interpreted to all them that take it as the onely troublesome thing in it all bee the wordes vsed in the end thereof for eschewing Aequiuocation and Mentall reseruation Which new Catholike doctrine may farre iustlier bee called the Deuils craft then any plaine and temperate wordes in so plaine and cleare a matter But what shall we say of these strange countrey clownes whom of with the Satyre we may iustly complaine that they blow both hote cold out of one mouth For Luther and all our bold and free-speaking Writers are mightily railed vpon by them as hote-brained fellowes and speakers by the Deuils instinct and now if we speake moderately and temperately of them it must be tearmed the Deuils craft And therefore wee may iustly complaine with CHRIST that when we 1 Mat. 11.17 mourne they wil not lament and when we pipe they wil not dance But neither Iohn Baptist his seueritie nor CHRIST his meekenesse and lenitie can please them who build but to their owne Monarchie vpon the ground of their owne Traditions and not to CHRIST vpon the ground of his word and infallible trewth But what can bee meant by alleadging that the craft of the Deuill herein is onely vsed for subuersion of the Catholique Faith and euersion of Saint Peters Primacie had neede bee commented anew by Bellarmine himselfe For in all this Letter of his neuer one word is vsed to prooue that by any part of this Oath the Primacie of Saint Peter is any way medled with except Master Bellarmine his bare alleadging which without proouing it by more cleare demonstration can neuer satisfie the conscience of any reasonable man For for ought that I know heauen and earth are no farther asunder then the profession of a temporall obedience to a temporall King is different from any thing belonging to the Catholique Faith or Supremacie of Saint Peter For as for the Catholique Faith No decision of any point of Religion in the Oath of Allegiance can there be one word found in all that Oath tending or sounding to matter of Religion Doeth he that taketh it promise there to beleeue or not to beleeue any article of Religion Or doeth hee so much as name a trew or false Church there And as for Saint Peters Primacie I know no Apostles name that is therein named except the name of IAMES it being my Christen name though it please him not to deigne to name me in all the Letter albeit the contents thereof concerne mee in the highest degree Neither is there any mention at all made therein either disertis verbis or by any other indirect meanes either of the Hierarchie of the Church of Saint Peters succession of the Sea Apostolike or of any such matter but that the Author of our Letter doeth brauely make mention of Saint Peters succession bringing it in comparison with the succession of Henry the eight Of which vnapt and vnmannerly similitude I wonder he should not be much ashamed For as to King Henries Successour which hee meaneth by mee as I I say neuer did nor will presume to create any Article of Faith or to bee Iudge thereof but to submit my exemplarie obedience vnto them in as great humilitie as the meanest of the land so if the Pope could bee as well able to prooue his either Personall or Doctrinall Succession from Saint Peter as I am able to prooue my lineall descent from the Kings of England and Scotland there had neuer beene so long adoe nor so much sturre kept about this question in Christendome neither had 2 Bellar. de Rom. Pont. li. 4. cap. 6. Ibid. l 2. ca. 12. Master Bellarmine himselfe needed to haue bestowed so many sheetes of paper De summo Pontifice in his great bookes of Controuersies And when all is done to conclude with a morall certitude and a piè credendum bringing in the 3 Idem ibid. lib. 2. cap. 14. Popes that are parties in this cause to be his witnesses and yet their historicall narration must bee no article of Faith And I am without vanterie sure that I doe farre more neerely imitate the worthie actions of my Predecessours then the Popes in our aage can be well proued to be similes Petro especially in cursing of Kings and setting free their Subiects from their Allegiance vnto them But now wee come to his strongest argument which is That he would alledge vpon mee a Panicke terrour as if I were possessed with a needlesse feare The Cardinals weightiest Argument For saith the Cardinall from the beginning of the Churches first infancie euen to this day where was it euer heard that euer a Pope either commaunded to bee killed or allowed the slaughter of any Prince whatsoeuer whether hee were an Hereticke an Ethnicke or Persecutour But first wherefore doeth he here wilfully and of purpose omit the rest of the points mentioned in that Oath for deposing degrading stirring vp of armes or rebelling against them which are as well mentioned in that Oath as the killing of them as beeing all of one consequence against a King no Subiect beeing so scrupulous as that hee will attempt the one and leaue the other vnperformed if hee can And yet surely I cannot blame him for passing it ouer since he could not otherwise haue eschewed the direct belying of himselfe in tearmes which hee now doeth but in substance and effect For 1 Bellarm. de Rom Pont. lib. 5. cap. 8. et lib. 3. cap. 16. as for the Popes deposing and degrading of Kings hee maketh so braue vaunts and bragges of it in his former bookes as he could neuer with ciuill honestie haue denied it here But to returne to the Popes allowing of killing of Kings I know not with what face hee can set so stout a deniall vpon it against his owne knowledge How many Emperours did the Pope raise warre against in their owne bowels Who as they were ouercome in battaile were subiect to haue beene killed therein which I hope the Pope could not but haue allowed when he was so farre inraged at 2 Gotfrid Viterb Helmod Cuspinian Henry the fifth for giuing buriall to his fathers dead corpes after the 3 Paschal 2. Pope had stirred him vp to rebell against his father and procured his ruine But leauing these olde Histories to Bellarmines owne bookes that doe most authentically cite them as I haue already
Platina and a number of the Popes owne writers beare witnesse And 3 Lib. de Clericis Bellarmine himselfe in his booke of Controuersies cannot get it handsomely denied Nay the Popes were euen forced then to pay a certaine summe of money to the Emperours for their Confirmation And this lasted almost seuen hundreth yeeres after CHRIST witnesse 4 In Chron. ad ann 680. Sigebert and 5 In vit Agathen Anast. in vit eiusd Agath Herm. Contract ad ann 678. edit poster dist 63. c. Agathe Luitprandus with other Popish Historians And for Emperours deposing of Popes there are likewise diuers examples The Emperour 1 Luitpr Hist lib 6. ca. 10.11 Rhegino ad an 963. Platin. in vit Ioan. 13. Ottho deposed Pope Iohn the twelfth of that name for diuers crimes and vices especially of Lecherie The Emperour 2 Marianus Scot. Sigeb Abbas Vrsp ad ann 1046 Plat in vit Greg. 6. Henry the third in a short time deposed three Popes Benedict the ninth Siluester the third and Gregorie the sixt as well for the sinne of Auarice as for abusing their extraordinarie authoritie against Kings and Princes And as for KINGS that haue denied this Temporall Superioritie of Popes First wee haue the vnanime testimonie of diuers famous HISTORIOGRAPHERS for the generall of many CHRISTIAN Kingdomes As 3 Walthram Naumburz in lib. de inuest Episc Vixit circa ann 1110. Walthram testifieth That the Bishops of Spaine Scotland England Hungarie from ancient institution till this moderne noueltie had their Inuestiture by KINGS with peaceable inioyning of their Temporalities wholly and entirely and whosoeuer sayeth hee is peaceably solicitous let him peruse the liues of the Ancients and reade the Histories and hee shall vnderstand thus much And for verification of this generall Assertion wee will first beginne at the practise of the KINGS of France though not named by Walthram in this his enumeration of Kingdomes amongst whom my first witnesse shall bee that vulgarly knowne letter of 4 See Annales Franciae Nicolai Gillij in Phil. Pulchro Philip le Bel King of France to Pope Boniface the eighth the beginning whereof after a scornefull salutation is Sciat tua maxima fatuitas nos in temporalibus nemini subesse And likewise after that 5 Anno 1268. ex Arrestis Senatus Parifiens Lewes the ninth surnamed Sanctus had by a publique instrument called Pragmatica sanctio forbidden all the exactions of the Popes Court within his Realme Pope Pius 6 Ioan. Maierius lib. de Scismat Concil the second in the beginning of Lewes the eleuenth his time greatly misseliking this Decree so long before made sent his Legate to the saide King Lewes with Letters-patents vrging his promise which hee had made when hee was Dolphin of France to repeale that Sanction if euer hee came to bee King The King referreth the Legate ouer with his Letters-patents to the Councell of Paris where the matter being propounded was impugned by Iohannes Romanus the Kings Atturney with whose opinion the Vniuersitie of Paris concurring an Appeale was made from the attempts of the Pope to the next generall Councell the Cardinall departing with indignation But that the King of France and Church thereof haue euer stoken to their Gallican immunitie in denying the Pope any Temporall power ouer them and in resisting the Popes as oft as euer they prest to meddle with their Temporall power euen in the donation of Benefices the Histories are so full of them as the onely examples thereof would make vp a bigge Volume by it selfe And so farre were the Sorbonistes for the Kings and French Churches priuiledge in this point as they were wont to maintaine That if the Pope fell a quarrelling the King for that cause the Gallican Church might elect a Patriarch of their owne renouncing any obedience to the Pope And Gerson was so farre from giuing the Pope that temporall authority ouer Kings who otherwise was a deuoute Roman Catholike as hee wrote a Booke de Auferibilitate Papae not onely from the power ouer Kings but euen ouer the Church And now pretermitting all further examples of forraigne Kings actions I will onely content me at this time with some of my owne Predecessors examples of this kingdome of England that it may thereby the more clearely appeare that euen in those times when the world was fullest of darkened blindnes and ignorance the Kings of England haue oftentimes not onely repined but euen strongly resisted and withstood this temporall vsurpation and encrochment of ambitious Popes And I will first begin at 1 Matth. Paris in Henr. 1. anno 1100. King Henry the first of that name after the Conquest who after he was crowned gaue the Bishopricke of Winchester to William Gifford and forthwith inuested him into all the possessions belonging to the Bishopricke contrary to the Canons of the new Synod 2 Idem ibid. anno 1113. King Henry also gaue the Archbishopricke of Canterbury to Radulph Bishop of London and gaue him inuestiture by a Ring and a Crosiers staffe Also Pope 3 Idem ibid. anno 1119. Calixtus held a Councell at RHEMES whither King Henry had appointed certaine Bishops of ENGLAND and NORMANDIE to goe Thurstan also elected Archbishop of YORKE got leaue of the King to goe thither giuing his faith that hee would not receiue Consecration of the Pope And comming to the Synode by his liberall gifts as the fashion is wanne the ROMANES fauour and by their meanes obtained to bee consecrated at the Popes hand Which assoone as the King of ENGLAND knewe hee forbade him to come within his Dominions Moreouer King Edward the first prohibited the Abbot of 4 Ex Archiuis Regni Waltham and Deane of Pauls to collect a tenth of euery mans goods for a supply to the holy Land which the Pope by three Bulles had committed to their charge and the said Deane of Pauls compeering before the King and his Councell promised for the reuerence he did beare vnto the King not to meddle any more in that matter without the Kings good leaue and permission Here I hope a Church-man disobeyed the Pope for obedience to his Prince euen in Church matters but this new Iesuited Diuinitie was not then knowen in the world The same Edward I. impleaded the Deane of the Chappell of Vuluerhampton because the said Deane had against the priuiledges of the Kingdome giuen a Prebend of the same Chappell to one at the Popes command whereupon the said Deane compeered and put himselfe in the Kings will for his offence The said Edward I. depriued also the Bishop of Durham of all his liberties for disobeying a prohibition of the Kings So as it appeareth the Kings in those dayes thought the Church-men their Subiects though now we be taught other Seraphicall doctrine For further proofe whereof Iohn of Ibstocke was committed to the goale by the sayde King for hauing a suite in the Court of Rome seuen yeeres
the maine meanes of corrupting this people in point of Religion proceeds from the free vse of reading of all kinde of writings without any restraint The other Storie of Augustus is that famous Inscription of his which he made to be set vp in the Altar of the Capitoll to our Sauiour Christ of which Nicephorus makes mention as also Suidas in the word Augustus Caesar Augustus being proclaimed the first Emperour of Rome hauing done many great things and achiued great Glory and felicity came to the Oracle of Apollo offering vp a Heccatomb which is of all other the greatest Sacrifice demaunded of the Oracle who should rule the Empire after his decease receiuing no answere at all offered vp an other Sacrifice and asked with all how it came to passe that the Oracle that was wont to vse so many wordes was now become so silent The Oracle after a long pause made this answere Me puer Hebraeus Diuos Deus ipse gubernans Cedere sede iubet tristemque redire sub Orcum Aris ergo dehinc tacitus abscedito nostris The Emperour receiuing this answere returned to Rome erected in the Capitoll the greatest Altar that was there with this Inscription Ara primogeniti Dei Surely our Augustus in whose dayes our Blessed Sauiour Christ Iesus is come to a full and perfect aage As hee was borne in the dayes of the other studying nothing at all to know who shall rule the Scepter after him for God be praised he is much more happie then was Augustus in a Blessed Posterity of his owne but indeauoring that CHRIST his Kingdome may euer Reigne in his Kingdome hath consulted all the Oracles of GOD and hath found in them that there is but one onely Altar to be erected to the onely Sonne of GOD who is Blessed for euer and therefore hath set himselfe and bestowed much paines to bid that Man of Sinne cedere sede and redire sub Orcum that hath erected so many Altars Athenian-like to vnknowne Gods making more prayers and Supplications to supposed Saints then euer the other did to Gods they knew not But to returne Claudius Caesar that had so much wickednesse in him had this good in him that hee writte many good Bookes Suetonius reports hee writ so many Bookes in Greeke as that hee erected a Schoole of purpose in Alexandria called after his owne name and caused his Bookes to be read yeerely in it He writ in Latine likewise 43. Bookes contayning a Historie from the murther of Caesar to his owne time There would bee no ende of the reporting of the writings of the Heathen Emperours That one example of Constantine amongst the Christian Emperors shall suffice Eusebius hath written curiously his Life and is not sparing to report of his Learning How many Orations and discourses he made exhorting his Subiects and seruants to a good and godly life How many nights hee passed without sleepe in Meditations of Diuinitie His Speeches in the beginning and ende of the Councell of Nice That fomous Oration Ad Sanctorum coetum pronounced in Latine by him Selfe after translated into Greeke by diuerse doe shew how much Glory hee gayned by Letters From these great Monarches abroad giue mee leaue a little to descend to our owne Kings at home Alphredus King of the West-Saxons translated Paulus Orosius S. Gregorie De pastorali cura and his Dialogues into the English tongue He translated likewise Beda of the Actes of the English and Boetius de consolatione Philosophiae Dauids Psalmes and many other things Hee writ besides a Booke of Lawes and Institutions against wicked Judges Hee writ the sayings of Wisemen and a singular Booke of the fortune of Kings a collection of Chronicles and a Manuel of Meditations Ethelstanus or Adelstan as our Stories call him Rex Anglorum as Baleus calls him caused to be translated the Bible out of Hebrew into Saxon and writ himselfe a Booke of Astrologie the Constitutions of the Cleargie corrected many olde Lawes and made many new King Edgar writ to the Cleargie of England certaine Constitutions and Lawes and other things Henrie the first the yongest Sonne of the Conquerour was brought vp in the Vniuersitie of Cambridge and excelled so in the knowledge of all Liberall Arts and Sciences that to this day he doeth retaine the name of Beau-Clerke Achaius King of the Scots writ of the Acts of all his Predecessors And Kenethus King of the Scots writ a huge Volume of all the Scottish Lawes and like an other Iustinian reduced them into a Compendium Iames the first writ diuers Bookes both in English and LatineVerse He writ also as Baleus saith De vxore futura Henrie the eight writ of the Institution of a Christian man and of the Institution of youth Hee writ also a defence of the 7. Sacraments against Martin Luther for which hee was much magnified of the Pope and all that partie Jnsomuch as hee was stiled with the Title of Defensor fidei for that worke And trewly it fell out well for the King that hee writ a Booke on the Popes side for otherwise he should haue them raile on him for his writings as freely as they reuile him for his Actions For he writ two Bookes after that the one De auctoritate Regia contra Papam the other Sententia de Concilio Mantuano as well written for the Stile and Argument as the other is But because they seeme to breath an other breath there is no Trumpet sounded in their praise Edward the sixt though his dayes were so short as he could not giue full proofe of those singular parts that were in him yet hee wrote diuers Epistles and Orations both in Greeke and Latine He wrote a Treatise De fide to the Duke of Somerset He wrote a History of his owne time which are all yet extant vnder his owne hand in the Kings Library as Mr. Patrick Young his Maiesties learned and Industrious Bibliothecarius hath shewed mee And which is not to bee forgotten so diligent a hearer of Sermons was that sweet Prince that the notes of the most of the Sermons he heard are yet to bee seene vnder his owne hand with the Preachers name the time and the place and all other circumstances Queene Elizabeth our late Soueraigne of blessed memory translated the prayers of Queene Katherine into Latine French and Italian Shee wrote also a Century of Sentences and dedicated them to her Father J haue heard of her Translation of Salustius but I neuer saw it And there are yet fresh in our memories the Orations she made in both the Vniuersities in Latine her entertayning of Embassadors in diuers Languages her excellent Speaches in the Parliament whereof diuers are extant at this day in Print And to come a little neerer his Maiestie The Kings Father translated Valerius Maximus into English And the Queene his Maiesties Mother wrote a Booke of Verses in French of the Institution of a Prince all with her owne hand wrought the Couer of it with
the faithfull who though they be otherwise in enmitie among themselues yet agree in this respect in odium tertij as did Herod and Pilate Sixtly the compassing of the Saints and besieging of the beloued City The false Church euer persecuteth declareth vnto vs a certaine note of a false Church to be persecution for they come to seeke the faithfull the faithfull are those that are sought The wicked are the besiegers the faithfull the besieged Seuenthly Scripture by Scripture should be expounded 2. King 1.10 11. in the forme of language and phrase or maner of speaking of fire comming downe from heauen here vsed and taken out of the Booke of the Kings where at Elias his prayers with fire from heauen were destroyed Achazias his souldiers as the greatest part of all the words verses and sentences of this booke are taken and borrowed of other parts of the Scripture we are taught to vse onely Scripture for interpretation of Scripture if we would be sure and neuer swarue from the analogie of faith in expounding seeing it repeateth so oft the owne phrases and thereby expoundeth them Eightly of the last part of the confusion of the wicked euen at the top of their height and wheele we haue two things to note One that God although he suffereth the wicked to run on while their cup be full yet in the end he striketh them first in this world and next in the world to come to the deliuerance of his Church in this world and the perpetuall glory of the same in the world to come The other note is that after the great persecution and the destruction of the pursuers shall the day of Iudgement follow For so declareth the 11. verse of this same Chapter but in how short space it shall follow that is onely knowne vnto God Onely this farre are we certaine that in the last estate without any moe generall mutations the world shall remaine till the consummation and end of the same To conclude then with exhortation It is al our duties in this Isle at this time to do two things One to consider our estate And other to conforme our actions according thereunto Our estate is we are threefold besieged First spiritually by the heresies of the antichrist Secondly corporally generally as members of that Church the which in the whole they persecute Thirdly All men should be lawfully armed spiritually and bodily to fight against the Antichrist and his vpholders corporally and particularly by this present armie Our actions then conformed to our estate are these First to call for helpe at God his hands Next to assure vs of the same seeing we haue a sufficient warrant his constant promise expressed in his word Thirdly since with good conscience we may being in the tents of the Saints beloued City stand in our defence encourage one another to vse lawfull resistance and concurre or ioyne one with another as warriors in one Campe and citizens of one beloued City for maintenance of the good cause God hath clad vs with and in defence of our liberties natiue countrey and liues For since we see God hath promised not only in the world to come but also in this world to giue vs victory ouer them let vs in assurance hereof strongly trust in our God cease to mistrust his promise and fall through incredulitie or vnbeliefe For then are we worthy of double punishment For the stronger they waxe and the neerer they come to their light the faster approcheth their wracke and the day of our deliuery For kind and louing true and constant carefull and watchfull mighty and reuenging is he that promiseth it To whom be praise and glory for euer AMEN A MEDITATION VPON THE xxv xxvj xxvij xxviij and xxix verses of the xv Chap. of the first Booke of the Chronicles of the Kings Written by the most Christian King and sincere Professour of the trewth IAMES by the grace of God King of England France Scotland and Ireland Defender of the Faith THE TEXT 25 So Dauid and the Elders of Israel and the Captaines of thousands went to bring vp the Arke of the Couenant of the Lord from the house of Obed-Edom with ioy 26 And because that God helped the Leuites that bare the Arke of the Couenant of the Lord they offered seuen Bullockes and seuen Rammes 27 And Dauid had on him a linnen garment as all the Leuites that bare the Arke and the singers and Chenaniah that had the chiefe charge of the singers and vpon Dauid was a linnen Ephod 28 Thus all Israel brought vp the Arke of the Lords Couenant with shouting and sound of Cornet and with Trumpets and with Cymbales making asound with Violes and with harpes 29 And when the Arke of the Couenant of the Lord came into the Citie of Dauid Michal the daughter of Saul looked out at a window and saw King Dauid dauncing and playing and shee despised him in her heart THE MEDITATION AS of late when greatest appearance of perill was by that forreine and godlesse fleete I tooke occasion by a Text selected for the purpose to exhort you to remaine constant resting assured of a happy deliuerance So now by the great mercies of God my speeches hauing taken an euident effect I could doe no lesse of my carefull duety then out of this place cited teach you what resteth on your part to be done not of any opinion I haue of my abilitie to instruct you but that these meditations of mine may after my death remaine to the posteritie as a certaine testimony of my vpright and honest meaning in this so great and weightie a cause Now I come to the matter Dauid that godly King you see hath no sooner obtained victory ouer Gods and his enemies the Philistines but his first action which followes is with concurrence of his whole estates to translate the Arke of the Lords couenant to his house in great triumph and gladnesse accompanied with the sound of musicall instruments And being so brought to the Kings house he himselfe dances and reioyces before it which thing Michal the daughter of Saul and his wife perceiuing she contemned and laughed at her husband in her minde This is the summe THE METHOD FOr better vnderstanding whereof these heades are to be opened vp in order and applied And first what causes mooued Dauid to doe this worke Secondly what persons concurred with Dauid in doing of this worke Thirdly what was the action it selfe and forme of doing vsed in the same Fourthly the person of Michal And fiftly her action THE FIRST PART AS to the first part Zeale in Dauid and experiēce of Gods kindnesse towards him moued Dauid to honour God The causes moouing Dauid passing all others I note two One internall the other external the internall was a feruent and zealous mind in Dauid fully disposed to extoll the glorie of God that had called him to be King as he saith himselfe The zeale of thy house it eats
ioyned with the trew Church neuer to be sifted while the Master of the Haruest come with the fanne in his hand THE FIFT PART HEr doings are being quiet in her lodging Michals doings al the time of her husbands great and publike reioycing with the people not comming out for not being able as appeareth to counterfeit finely euough a dissimulate ioyfull countenance And therefore looking out at a window shee spies her husband dancing before the Arke incontinent interprets shee this indifferent action in malam partem as not being touched with a true feeling of the cause of his ioy and so despises she his doing in her minde as onely proceeding of a lasciuious wantonnesse A marueilous case shee that before of naturall loue to her husband did preserue him although to her owne great perill from the hands of her owne father Saul cannot now abide to see him vse aright that indifferent action which she her selfe I doubt not did oft through licentiousnes abuse By this we may note the nature of the hypocrites and interiour enemies of the Church who although in their particulars not concerning Religion there will be none in shew more friendly to the godly then they yet how soone matters of Religion or concerning the honour of God comes in hand O then are they no longer able to containe or bridle their passions euen as here Michal defended her husband euen in the particulars betwixt him and her owne father but his dancing before the Arke to the honour of God she could no wise abide Now thus farre being said for the methodicall opening vp of the Text The application of the purpose to vs. It rests onely to examine how pertinently this place doeth appertaine to vs and our present estate And first as to the persons the people of God and the nations their enemies together with their pridefull pursuite of Dauid and Gods most notable deliuerance Is there not now a sincere profession of the trewth amongst vs in this Isle oppugned by the nations about haters of the holy word And doe we not also as Israel professe one onely God and are ruled by his pure word onely on the other part are they not as Philistines adorers of legions of gods and ruled by the foolish traditions of men Haue they not as the Philistines beene continually the pursuers and we as Israel the defenders of our natiue soile and countrey next haue they not now at the last euen like the Philistines come out of their owne soiles to pursue vs and spread themselues to that effect vpon the great valley of our seas presumptuously threatning the destruction and wracke of vs But thirdly had not our victory beene farre more notable then that of Israel and hath not the one beene as well wrought by the hand of God as the other For as God by shaking the tops of the mulbery trees with his mightie windes put the Philistines to flight hath hee not euen in like maner by brangling with his mightie windes their timber castles scattered and shaken them asunder to the wracke of a great part and confusion of the whole Now that we may resemble Israel as well in the rest of this action what triumph rests vs to make for the crowning of this blessed comedy Euen to bring amongst vs the Arke with all reioycing What is the Arke of Christians vnder grace but the Lord Iesus Christ whom with ioy wee bring amongst vs when as receiuing with sinceritie and gladnesse the new Testament in the blood of Christ our Sauiour in our heart we beleeue his promises and in word and deede wee beare witnesse thereto before the whole world and walke so in the light as it becomes the sonnes of the same this is the worthiest triumph of our victory that we can make And although there will doubtlesse be many Michals amongst vs let vs reioyce and praise God for the discouerie of them assuring our selues they were neuer of vs accounting all them to be against vs that either reioyce at the prosperitie of our enemies or reioyce not with vs at our miraculous deliuerance For all they that gather not with vs they scatter And let vs also diligently and warily trie out these craftie Michals for it is in that respect that Christ recommends vnto vs the wisedome of Serpents not thereby to deceiue and betray others no God forbid but to arme vs against the deceit and treason of hypocrites that goe about to trap vs. And lest that these great benefits which God hath bestowed vpon vs be turned through our vnthankfulnesse into a greater curse in seruing for testimonies at the latter day against vs to the procuring of our double stripes let vs now to conclude bring in the Arke amongst vs in two respects before mentioned seeing we haue already receiued the Gospel first by constant remaining in the puritie of the trewth which is our most certeine couenant of saluation in the only merits of our Sauior And next let vs so reforme our defiled liues as becomes regenerate Christians to the great glory of our God the vtter defacing of our aduersaries the wicked and our vnspeakeable comfort both here and also for euer AMEN His Maiesties owne Sonnet THe nations banded gainst the Lord of might Prepar'd a force and set them to the way Mars drest himselfe in such an awfull plight The like whereof was neuerseene they say They forward came in monstrous aray Both Sea and land beset vs euery where Bragges threatned vs a ruinous decay What came of that the issue did declare The windes began to tosse them here and there The Seas begun in foming waues to swell The number that escap'd it fell them faire The rest were swallowed vp in gulfes of hell But how were all these things miraculous done God laught at them out of his heauenly throne Idem Latinè INS ANO tumidae gentes coiere tumultu Ausae insigne nefas bello vltro ciere tonantem Mars sese accinxit metuenda tot agmina nunquam Visa ferunt properare truces miro ordine turmae Nosque mari terra saeuo clasere duello Exitium diraque minantes strage ruinam Irrita sed tristi lugent conamina fine Nam laceras iecit ventus ludibria puppes Et mersit rapidis turgescens montibus aequor Foelix communi qui euasit clade superstes Dum reliquos misero deglutit abyssus hiatu Qui vis tanta cadit quis totque stupenda peregit Vanos Ioua sacro conatus risit Olympo Per Metellanum Cancellarium DAEMONOLOGIE IN FORME OF A DIALOGVE Diuided into three Bookes WRITTEN BY THE HIGH AND MIGHTIE PRINCE IAMES by the Grace of GOD King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. ¶ THE PREFACE TO THE READER THe fearefull abounding at this time in this Countrey of these detestable slaues of the Diuel the Witches or enchaunters hath mooued mee beloued Reader to dispatch in post this following Treatise of mine not in any wise as J
ceased seeing I could doe you no other good to commend your labouring most painfully in the Lords Vineyard in my prayers to God And I doubt not but that I haue liued all this while in your memory and haue had some place in your prayers at the Lords Altar So therfore euen vnto this time we haue abidden as S. Iohn speaketh in the mutuall loue one of the other not by word or letter but in deed and trewth But alate message which was brought vnto vs within these few dayes of your bonds and imprisonment hath inforced mee to breake off this silence which message although it seemed heauie in regard of the losse which that Church hath receiued by their being thus depriued of the comfort of your pastorall function amongst them yet withall it seemed ioyous because you drew neere vnto the glory of Martyrdome then the which gift of God there is none more happy That you who haue fedde your flocke so many yeeres with the word and doctrine should now feed it more gloriously by the example of your patience But another heauie tidings did not a little disquiet and almost take away this ioy which immediatly followed of the aduersaries assault and peraduenture of the slip and fall of your constancie in refusing an vnlawfull Oath Neither trewly most deare brother could that Oath therefore bee lawfull because it was offered in sort tempered and modified for you know that those kinde of modifications are nothing else but sleights and subtilties of Satan that the Catholique faith touching the Primacie of the Sea Apostolike might either secretly or openly be shot at for the which faith so many worthy Martyrs euen in that very England it selfe haue resisted vnto blood For most certaine it is that in whatsoeuer words the Oath is conceiued by the aduersaries of the faith in that Kingdome it tends to this end that the Authoritie of the head of the Church in England may bee transferred from the successour of S. Peter to the successour of King Henry the eight For that which is pretended of the danger of the Kings life if the high Priest should haue the same power in England which hee hath in all other Christian Kingdomes it is altogether idle as all that haue any vnderstanding may easily perceiue For it was neuer heard of from the Churches infancie vntill this day that euer any Pope did command that any Prince though an Heretike though an Ethnike though a persecutour should be murdered or did approue of the fact when it was done by any other And why I pray you doeth onely the King of England seare that which none of all other the Princes in Christendome either doeth feare or euer did feare But as I said these vaine pretexts are but the traps and stratagemes of Satan Of which kinde I could produce not a fewe out of ancient Stories if I went about to write a Booke and not an Epistle One onely for example sake I will call to your memory S. Gregorius Nazianzenus in his first Oration against Iulian the Emperour reporteth That hee the more easily to beguile the simple Christians did insert the Images of the false gods into the pictures of the Emperour which the Romanes did vse to bow downe vnto with a ciuill kinde of reuerence so that no man could doe reuerence to the Emperours picture but withall hee must adore the Images of the false gods whereupon it came to passe that many were deceiued And if there were any that found out the Emperours craft and refused to worship his picture those were most grieuously punished as men that had contemned the Emperour in his Image Some such like thing me thinkes I see in the Oath that is offered to you which is so craftily composed that no man can detest Treason against the King and make profession of his Ciuill subiection but he must bee constramed perfidiously to denie the Primacie of the Apostolicke Sea But the seruants of Christ and especially the chiefe Priests of the Lord ought to bee so farre from taking an vnlawfull Oath where they may indamage the Faith that they ought to beware that they giue not the least suspicion of dissimulation that they haue taken it least they might seeme to haue left any example of preuarication to faithfull people Which thing that worthy Eleazar did most notably performe who would neither eate swines flesh nor so much as faine to haue eaten it although hee sawe the great torments that did hang ouer his head least as himselfe speaketh in the second Booke of the Machabees many young men might bee brought through that simulation to preuaricate with the Lawe Neither did Basil the Great by his example which is more fit for our purpose cary himselfe lesse worthily toward Valens the Emperour For as Theodoret writeth in his Historie when the Deputy of that hereticall Emperour did perswade Saint Basil that hee would not resist the Emperour for a little subtiltie of a few points of doctrine that most holy and prudent man made answere That it was not to be indured that the least syllable of Gods word should bee corrupted but rather all kind of torment was to be embraced for the maintenance of the Trewth thereof Now I suppose that there wants not amongst you who say that they are but subtilties of Opinions that are contained in the Oath that is offered to the Catholikes and that you are not to strius against the Kings Authoritie for such a little matter But there are not wanting also amongst you holy men like vnto Basil the Great which will openly auow that the very least syllable of Gods diuine Trewth is not to bee corrupted though many torments were to bee endured and death it selfe set before you Amongst whom it is meete that you should bee one or rather the Standard bearer and Generall to the rest And whatsoeuer hath beene the cause that your Constancie hath quailed whether it bee the suddainenesse of your apprehension or the bitternesse of your persecution or the imbecilitie of your old aage yet wee trust in the goodnesse of God and in your owne long continued vertue that it will come to passe that as you seeme in some part to haue imitated the fall of Peter and Marcellinus so you shall happily imitate their valour in recouering your strength and maintaining the Trewth For if you will diligently weigh the whole matter with your selfe trewly you shall see it is no small matter that is called in question by this Oath but one of the principall heads of our Faith and foundations of Catholique Religion For heare what your Apostle Saint Gregorie the Great hath written in his 24. Epistle of his 11. Booke Let not the reuerence due to the Apostolique Sea be troubled by any mans presumption for then the state of the members doeth remaine entire when the Head of the Faith is not bruised by any iniurie Therefore by Saint Gregories testimonie when they are busie about disturbing or diminishing or taking
said let vs turne our eyes vpon our owne time and therein remember what a Panegyricke 4 See the Oration of Sâ—xtus Quintus made in the Consistory vpon the death of Henry the 3. Oration was made by the Pope in praise and approbation of the Frier and his fact that murthered king Henry the third of France who was so farre from either being Hereticke Ethnicke or Persecutor in their account that the said Popes owne wordes in that Oration are That a trew Friar hath killed a counterfeit Frier And besides that vehement Oration and congratulation for that fact how neere it scaped that the said Frier was not canonized for that glorious act is better knowen to Bellarmine and his followers then to vs here But sure I am if some Cardinals had not beene more wise and circumspect in that errand then the Pope himselfe was the Popes owne Kalender of his Saints would haue sufficiently proued Bellarmin a lier in this case And to draw yet neerer vnto our selues how many practises and attempts were made against the late Queenes life which were directly enioyned to those Traitours by their Confessors and plainly authorized by the Popes allowance For verification whereof there needs no more proofe then that neuer Pope either then or since called any Church-man in question for medling in any those treasonable conspiracies nay the Cardinals owne S. Sanderus mentioned in his Letter could well verifie this trewth if hee were aliue and who will looke his bookes will finde them filled with no other doctrine then this And what difference there is betweene the killing or allowing the slaughter of Kings and the stirring vp and approbation of practises to kill them I remit to Bellarmines owne iudgement It may then very clearely appeare how strangely this Authors passion hath made him forget himselfe by implicating himselfe in so strong a contradiction against his owne knowledge and conscience against the witnesse of his former bookes and against the practise of our owne times But who can wonder at this contradiction of himselfe in this point when his owne great Volumes are so filled with contradictions which when either he or any other shall euer bee able to reconcile I will then beleeue that hee may easily reconcile this impudent strong deniall of his in his Letter of any Popes medling against Kings with his owne former bookes as I haue already said And that I may not seeme to imitate him in affirming boldly that which I no wayes prooue I will therefore send the Reader to looke for witnesses of his contradictions in such places here mentioned in his owne booke In his bookes of 1 Bellar. de Iustif lib. 5. cap. 7. Iustification there he affirmeth That for the vncertaintie of our owne proper righteousnesse and for auoiding of vaine-glory it is most sure and safe to repose our whole confidence in the alone mercy and goodnesse of God 2 Contrary to all his fiue bookes de Iustificatione Which proposition of his is directly contrary to the discourse and current of all his fiue bookes de Iustificatione wherein the same is contained God doeth not encline a man to euill either 3 Bellar. de amis gra stat pecca li. 2. c. 13. naturally or morally Presently after hee affirmeth the contrary That God doeth not encline to euill naturally but 4 Ibidem paulò pòst morally All the Fathers teach constantly That 5 Bellar. declericis lib. 1. c. 14. Bishops doe succeed the Apostles and Priests the seuentie disciples Elsewhere he affirmeth the contrary That 6 Bellar. de Pont. l. 4. c. 25. Bishops doe not properly succeede the Apostles That 7 Bellar. de Pont. lib. 1. c 12. Iudas did not beleeue Contrary That 8 Bellar. de Iustif lib. 3. c. 14. Iudas was iust and certainly good The keeping of the 9 Bellar. de gra lib arbit lib. 5. cap. 5. Law according to the substance of the worke doeth require that the Commandement be so kept that sinne be not committed and the man be not guiltie for hauing not kept the Commandement Contrary 10 Eodem lib. cap. 9. It is to be knowen that it is not all one to doe a good morall worke and to keepe the Commandement according to the substance of the worke For the Commandement may be kept according to the substance of the worke euen with sinne as if one should restore to his friend the thing committed to him of trust to the end that theeues might afterward take it from him 1 Bellar. de Pont. lib 4 c. 3. Peter did not loose that faith whereby the heart beleeueth vnto iustification Contrary 2 Bell. de Iust lib. 3. cap. 14. Peters sinne was deadly 3 3 Bell. de Rom Pontif. lib 3. cap. 14. Antichrist shall be a Magician and after the maner of other Magicians shall secretly worship the diuel 4 Ibid. ex sentent Hypol. Cyril cap. 12. eiusdem libri Contrary He shall not admit of idolatrie he shall hate idoles and reedifie the Temple By the words of 5 Bell. lib. 1. de missa cap. 17. Consecration the trew and solemne oblation is made Contrary The sacrifice doeth not consist in the words but in the 6 Bellar. de miss lib. 2. cap. 12. oblation of the thing it selfe 7 Bellar. de anim Christ lib. 4. cap. 5. That the end of the world cannot be knowne 8 Bellar. de Pont. lib. 3. cap. 17. Contrary After the death of Antichrist there shall bee but fiue and fourtie dayes till the end of the world 9 Bellar. de Pont. lib. 3. cap. 13. That the tenne Kings shall burne the scarlet Whore that is Rome 10 Bellar. ibid. Contrary Antichrist shall hate Rome and fight against it and burne it 11 Bellar. de Pont. lib. 2. cap. 31. The name of vniuersall Bishop may be vnderstood two wayes one way that he which is said to be vniuersall Bishop may bee thought to be the onely Bishop of all Christian Cities so that all others are not indeed Bishops but onely Vicars to him who is called vniuersall Bishop in which sense the Pope is not vniuershall Bishop Contrary All ordinary 12 Bellar. de Pont. lib. 2. cap. 24. iurisdiction of Bishops doeth descend immediatly from the Pope and is in him and from him is deriued to others Which few places I haue onely selected amongst many the like that the discreet and iudicious Reader may discerne ex vngue Leonem For when euer he is pressed with a weighty obiection hee neuer careth nor remembreth how his solution and answere to that may make him gainesay his owne doctrine in some other places so it serue him for a shift to put off the present storme withall But now to returne to our matter againe Since Popes sayeth hee haue neuer at any time medled against Kings wherefore I pray you should onely the King of ENGLAND be afraid of that
whereof neuer Christian King is or was afraid Was neuer Christian Emperour or King afraid of the Popes How then were these miserable Emperours tost and turmoiled and in the end vtterly ruined by the Popes for proofe whereof I haue already cited Bellarmines owne bookes Was not the 13 Henry 4. Emperour afraid who 14 Abbas Vâ—spergen Lamb Scaff Anno 1077. Plat. in vit Greg. 7. waited barefooted in the frost and snow three dayes at the Popes gate before he could get entrie Was not the 15 Frederick Barbarosia Emperour also afraid 16 Naucler gener 40. Iacob Bergom in Supplem chron Alfons Clacon in vit Alex. 3. who was driuen to lie agroofe on his belly and suffer another Pope to tread vpon his necke And was not another 17 Henry 6. Emperour afraid 18 R. Houeden in Rich 1 Ranulph in Polycronico lib. 7. who was constrained in like maner to endure a third Pope to beat off from his head the Imperiall Crowne with his foot Was not 19 Abbas Vrsper ad Ann. 1191. Nanc gen 40. Cuspin in Philippo Philip afraid being made Emperour against Pope Innocentius the thirds good liking when he brake out into these words Either the Pope shall take the Crowne from Philip or Philip shall take the Miter from the Pope whereupon the Pope stirred vp Ottho against him who caused him to be slaine and presently went to Rome and was crowned Emperour by the Pope though afterward the Pope 1 Abbas Vrsper deposed him too Was not the Emperour 2 Math. Paris in Henr. 3. Petr de Vineis Epist li. 1. 2. Cuspin in Freder 2. Fredericke afraid when Innocentius the fourth excommunicated him depriued him of his crowne absolued Princes of their Oath of fidelitie to him and in Apulia corrupted one to giue him poison whereof the Emperour recouering hee hired his bastard sonne Manfredus to poison him whereof he died What did 3 Vita Frederici Germanicè conscripta Alexander the third write to the Soldan That if he would liue quietly hee should by some slight murther the 4 Fredericke Barbarossa Emperour and to that end sent him the Emperours picture And did not 5 Paul Iouius Hist lib. 2. Cuspinian in Baiazet 11. Guiccâ—ard lib 2. Alexander the sixt take of the Turke Baiazetes two hundred thousand crownes to kill his brother Gemen or as some call him Sisimus whom he helde captiue at Rome Did hee not accept of the conditions to poyson the man and had his pay Was not our 6 Houeden pag. 308. Matth. Paris in Henric 2. Walsinga in Hypodig Neustriae Ioan. Capgraue Henry the second afraid after the slaughter of Thomas Becket that besides his going bare-footed in Pilgrimage was whipped vp and down the Chapter-house like a schoole-boy and glad to escape so to Had not this French King his great grandfather King Iohn reason to be afraid when the 7 Gomecius de rebus gest Fran. Ximenij Archiepis Tolet. lib. 5. Pope gaue away his kingdome of Nauarre to the King of Spaine whereof he yet possesseth the best halfe Had not this King his Successour reason to be afraid when he was forced to begge so submissiuely the relaxation of his Excommunication as he was content likewise to suffer his Ambassadour to be whipped at Rome for penance And had not the late Queene reason to looke to her selfe when she was excommunicated by Pius Quintus her Subiects loosed from their fidelitie and Allegiance toward her her Kingdome of Ireland giuen to the King of Spaine and that famous fugitiue diuine honoured with the like degree of a redde Hat as Bellarmine is was not ashamed to publish in Printan 8 Card. Allens Answere to Stan. letter Anno 1587. Apologie for Stanleys treason maintaining that by reason of her excommunication and heresie it was not onely lawfull for any of her Subiects but euen they were bound in conscience to depriue her of any strength which lay in their power to doe And whether it were armies townes or fortresses of hers which they had in their hands they were obliged to put them in the King of Spaine her enemies hands shee no more being the right owner of anything But albeit it be trew that wise men are mooued by the examples of others dangers to vse prouidence and caution according to the olde Prouerbe Tumtuares agitur paries cùm proximus ardet yet was I much neerlier summoned to vse this caution by the practise of it in mine owne person First by the sending foorth of these Bulles whereof I made mention already for debarring me from entrie vnto this Crowne and Kingdome And next after my entrie and full possession thereof by the horrible Powder-treason which should haue bereft both me and mine both of crowne and life And howsoeuer the Pope will seeme to cleare himselfe of any allowance of the said Powder-treason yet can it not be denied that his principall ministers here and his chiefe Mancipia the Iesuites were the plaine practisers thereof for which the principall of them hath died confessing it and other haue fled the Countrey for the crime yea some of them gone into Italy and yet neither these that fled out of this Countrey for it nor yet Baldwine who though he then remained in the Low-countreys was of counsell in it were euer called to account for it by the Pope much lesse punished for medling in so scandalous and enormous businesse And now what needs so great wonder and exclamation that the only King of England feareth And what other Christian King doeth or euer did feare but hee As if by the force of his rhetoricke he could make me and my good Subiects to mistrust our senses deny the Sunne to shine at midday and not with the serpent to stop our cares to his charming but to the plaine and visible veritie it selfe And yet for all this wonder he can neuer prooue mee to be troubled with such a Panicke terrour Haue I euer importuned the Pope with any request for my securitie Or haue I either troubled other Christian Princes my friends and allies to intreat for me at the Popes hand Or yet haue I begged from them any aide or assistance for my farther securitie No. All this wondred-at feare of mine stretcheth no further then wisely to make distinction betweene the sheepe and goats in my owne pasture For since what euer the Popes part hath beene in the Powder-treason yet certaine it is that all these caitife monsters did to their death maintaine that onely zeale of Religion mooued them to that horrible attempt yea some of them at their death would not craue pardon at God or King for their offence exhorting other of their followers to the like constancie Had not wee then and our Parliament great reason by this Oath to set a marke of distinction betweene good Subiects and bad Yea betweene Papists though peraduenture zealous in their religion yet otherwise ciuilly honest and
conclusion of all his examples The Cardinals paire of Martyrs weighed he reckoneth his two English Martyrs Moore and Roffensis who died for that one most weightie head of doctrine as he alledgeth refusing the Oath of Supremacie I must tell him that he hath not been well informed in some materiall points which doe very neerely concerne his two said Martyrs For it is cleare and apparantly to be prooued by diuers Records that they were both of them committed to the Tower about a yeere before either of them was called in question vpon their liues for the Popes Supremacie And that partly for their backwardnesse in the point of the establishment of the Kings succession whereunto the whole Realme had subscribed and partly for that one of them to wit Fisher had had his hand in the matter of the holy 8 Called Elizabeth Barton See the Act of Parliament maide of Kent hee being for his concealement of that false prophets abuse found guiltie of misprision of Treason And as these were the principall causes of their imprisonment the King resting secure of his Supremacie as the Realme stood then affected but especially troubled for setling the Crowne vpon the issue of his second mariage so was it easily to be conceiued that being thereupon discontented their humors were thereby made apt to draw them by degrees to further opposition against the King and his authoritie as indeede it fell out For in the time of their being in prison the Kings lawfull authoritie in cases Ecclesiasticall being published and promulged as well by a generall decree of the Clergie in their Synode as by an Acte of Parliament made thereupon they behaued themselues so peeuishly therein as the olde coales of the Kings anger being thereby raked vp of new they were againe brought in question as well for this one most weighty head of doctrine of the Pope his supremacy as for the matter of the Kings mariage and succession as by the confession of one of themselues euen Thomas Moore is euident For being condemned he vsed these words at the barre before the Lords Non ignoro cur me morti adiudicaueritis videlicet ob id Histor aliquet Martyrum nostri seculi Anno 1550. quòd nunquam voluerim assentiri in negotio matrimonij Regis That is I am not ignorant why you haue adiudged mee to death to wit for that I would neuer consent in the businesse of the new mariage of the King By which his owne confession it is plaine that this great martyr himselfe tooke the cause of his owne death to be onely for his being refractary to the King in this said matter of Marriage and Succession which is but a very fleshly cause of Martyrdome as I conceiue And as for Roffensis his fellow Martyr who could haue bene content to haue taken the Oath of the Kings Supremacie with a certaine modification which Moore refused as his imprisonment was neither onely nor principally for the cause of Supremacie so died hee but a halting and a singular Martyr or witnesse for that most weighty head of doctrine the whole Church of England going at that time in one current and streame as it were against him in that Argument diuers of them being of farre greater reputation for learning and sound iudgement then euer he was So as in this point we may well arme our selues with the Cardinals owne reason where he giueth amongst other notes of the trew Church Vniuersalitie for one wee hauing the generall and Catholique conclusion of the whole Church of England on our side in this case as appeareth by their booke set out by the whole Conuocation of England called The Institution of a Christian man the same matter being likewise very learnedly handled by diuers particular learned men of our Church as by Steuen Gardiner in his booke De vera obedientia with a Preface of Bishop Boners adioyning to it De summo absoluto Regis Imperio published by M. Bekinsaw De vera differentia Regiae Potestatis Ecclesiasticae Bishop Tonstals Sermon Bishop Longlands Sermon the letter of Tonstall to Cardinall Poole and diuers other both in English and Latine And if the bitternesse of Fishers discontentment had not bene fed with his dayly ambitious expectation of the Cardinals hat which came so neere as Calis before he lost his head to fill it with I haue great reason to doubt if he would haue constantly perseuered in induring his Martyrdome for that one most waighty head of doctrine And surely these two Captaines and ringleaders to Martyrdome were but ill followed by the rest of their countreymen for I can neuer reade of any after them being of any great accompt and that not many that euer sealed that weighty head of doctrine with their blood in England So as the trew causes of their first falling in trouble whereof I haue already made mention being rightly considered vpon the one part and vpon the other the scant number of witnesses that with their blood sealed it a point so greatly accompted of by our Cardinal there can but smal glory redound thereby to our English nation these onely two Enoch and Elias seruing for witnesses against our Antichristian doctrine And I am sure the Supremacie of Kings may The Supremacy of Kings sufficiently warranted by the Scriptures wil euer be better maintained by the word of God which must euer be the trew rule to discerne all waighty heads of doctrine by to be the trew and proper office of Christian Kings in their owne dominions then he will be euer able to maintaine his annihilating Kings and their authorities together with his base and vnreuerend speaches of them wherewith both his former great Volumes and his late Bookes against Venice are filled In the old Testament Kings were directly 1 2. Chron. 19.4 Gouernours ouer the Church within their Dominions 2 2. Sam. 5.6 purged their corruptions reformed their abuses brought the 3 1. Chron. 13.12 Arke to her resting place the King 4 2. Sam. 6.16 dancing before it 5 1. Chron. 28.6 built the Temple 6 2. Chron. 6. dedicated the same assisting in their owne persons to the sanctification thereof 7 2. King 22.11 made the Booke of the Law new-found to bee read to the people 8 Nehe. 9.38 Dauid Salomon renewed the Couenant betweene God and his people 9 2. King 18.4 bruised the brasen serpent in pieces which was set vp by the expresse commandement of God and was a figure of Christ destroyed 10 1. King 15.12 2. king 13.4 all Idoles and false gods made 11 2. Chron. 17.8 a publike reformation by a Commission of Secular men and Priests mixed for that purpose deposed 12 1. King 2.27 the high Priest and set vp another in his place and generally ordered euery thing belonging to the Church-gouernment their Titles and Prerogatiues giuen them by God agreeing to these their actions They are called the 13 2.
for the Rectorie of Newchurch And Edward II. following the footsteps of his Father after giuing out a Summons against the Abbot of Walden for citing the Abbot of Saint Albons and others in the Court of Rome gaue out letters for his apprehension And likewise because a certaine Prebend of Banburie had drawen one Beuercoat by a Plea to Rome without the Kings Dominions therefore were letters of Caption sent foorth against the said Prebend And Edward III. following likewise the example of his Predecessours Because a Parson of Liche had summoned the Prior of S. Oswalds before the Pope at Auinion for hauing before the Iudges in England recouered the arrerage of a pension directed a Precept for seasing vpon all the goods both Spirituall and Temporall of the said Parson because hee had done this in preiudice of the King and Crowne The saide King also made one Harwoden to bee declared culpable and worthie to bee punished for procuring the Popes Bulles against a Iudgement that was giuen by the Kings Iudges And likewise Because one entred vpon the Priorie of Barnewell by the Popes Bul the said Intrant was committed to the Tower of London there to remaine during the Kings pleasure So as my Predecessors ye see of this Kingdome euen when the Popes triumphed in their greatnesse spared not to punish any of their Subiects that would preferre the Popes Obedience to theirs euen in Church-matters So farre were they then from either acknowledging the Pope for their temporall Superiour or yet from doubting that their owne Church-men were not their Subiects And now I will close vp all these examples with an Act of Parliament in King Richard II. his time whereby it was prohibited That none should procure a Benefice from Rome vnder paine to be put out of the Kings protection And thus may yee see that what those Kings successiuely one to another by foure generations haue acted in priuate the same was also maintained by a publike Law By these few examples now I hope I haue sufficiently cleered my selfe from the imputation that any ambition or desire of Noueltie in mee should haue stirred mee either to robbe the Pope of any thing due vnto him or to assume vnto my selfe any farther authoritie then that which other Christian Emperours and Kings through the world and my owne Predecessours of England in especiall haue long agone maintained Neither is it enough to say as Parsons doeth in his Answere to the Lord Coke That farre more Kings of this Countrey haue giuen many more examples of acknowledging or not resisting the Popes vsurped Authorities some perchance lacking the occasion and some the abilitie of resisting them for euen by the Ciuill Law in the case of violent intrusion and long and wrongfull possession against mee it is enough if I prooue that I haue made lawfull interruption vpon conuenient occasions But the Cardinall thinkes the Oath not onely vnlawfull for the substance therof but also in regard of the Person whom vnto it is to be sworne For saith he The King is not a Catholique And in two or three other places of his booke he sticketh not to call me by my name very broadly an Heretike as I haue already told But yet before I be publikely declared an Heretike by the Popes owne Law my people ought not to refuse their Obedience vnto me And I trust if I were but a subiect and accused by the Pope in his Conclaue before his Cardinals hee would haue hard prouing mee an Heretike if he iudged me by their owne ancient Orders For first I am no Apostate as the Cardinal would make me not onely hauing euer bene brought vp in that Religion which I presently professe but euen my Father and Grandfather on that side professing the same and so cannot be properly an Heretike by their owne doctrine since I neuer was of their Church And as for the Queene my Mother of worthy memorie although she continued in that Religion wherein shee was nourished yet was she so farre from being superstitious or Iesuited therein that at my Baptisme although I was baptized by a Popish Archbishop she sent him word to forbeare to vse the spettle in my Baptisme which was obeyed being indeed a filthy and an apish tricke rather in scorne then imitation of CHRIST And her owne very words were That she would not haue a pockie priest to spet in her childs mouth As also the Font wherein I was Christened was sent from the late Queene here of famous memory who was my Godmother and what her Religion was Pius V. was not ignorant And for further proofe that that renowmed Queene my Mother was not superstitious as in all her Letters whereof I receiued many she neuer made mention of Religion nor laboured to perswade me in it so at her last words she commanded her Master-houshold a Scottish Gentleman my seruant and yet aliue she commanded him I say to tell me That although she was of another Religion then that wherein I was brought vp yet she would not presse me to change except my owne Conscience forced mee to it For so that I led a good life and were carefull to doe Iustice and gouerne well she doubted not but I would be in a good case with the profession of my owne Religion Thus am I no Apostate nor yet a deborder from that Religion which one part of my Parents professed and an other part gaue mee good allowance of Neither can my Baptisme in the rites of their Religion make me an Apostate or Heretike in respect of my present profession since we all agree in the substance thereof being all Baptized In the Name of the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost vpon which head there is no variance amongst vs. And now for the point of Heretike I will neuer bee ashamed to render an accompt of my profession and of that hope that is in me as the Apostle prescribeth I am such a CATHOLIKE CHRISTIAN as beleeueth the three Creeds That of the Apostles that of the Councell of Nice and that of Athanasius the two latter being Paraphrases to the former And I beleeue them in that sense as the ancient Fathers and Councels that made them did vnderstand them To which three Creeds all the Ministers of England doe subscribe at their Ordination And I also acknowledge for Orthodoxe all those other formes of Creedes that either were deuised by Councels or particular Fathers against such particular Heresies as most reigned in their times I reuerence and admit the foure first generall Councels as Catholique and Orthodoxe And the said foure generall Councels are acknowledged by our Acts of Parliament and receiued for Orthodoxe by our Church As for the Fathers I reuerence them as much and more then the Ie suites doe and as much as themselues euer craued For what euer the Fathers for the first fiue hundreth yeeres did with an vnanime consent agree vpon to be beleeued as a necessary point of saluation I either will beleeue it
faith and be a word of reproch in the mouthes of our aduersaries who make Vnitie to be one of the speciall notes of the trew Church And as for you my louing Brethren and Cosins whom it hath not yet pleased GOD to illuminate with the light of his trewth I can but humbly pray with Elizeus that it would please GOD to open your eyes that yee might see what innumerable and inuincible armies of Angels are euer prepared and ready to defend the trewth of GOD Actes 26.29 and with S. Paul I wish that ye were as I am in this case especially that yee would search the Scriptures and ground your Faith vpon your owne certaine knowledge and not vpon the report of others Abac. 2.4 since euery Man must bee safe by his owne faith But leauing this to GOD his mercifull prouidence in his due time I haue good reason to remember you to maintaine the ancient liberties of your Crownes and Common-wealthes not suffering any vnder GOD to set himselfe vp aboue you and therein to imitate your owne noble predecessors who euen in the dayes of greatest blindnesse did diuers times couragiously oppose themselues to the incroaching ambition of Popes Yea some of your Kingdomes haue in all aages maintained and without any interruption enioyed your libertie against the most ambitious Popes And some haue of very late had an euident proofe of the Popes ambitious aspiring ouer your Temporall power wherein ye haue constantly maintained and defended your lawfull freedome to your immortall honour And therefore I heartily wish you all to doe in this case the Office of godly and iust Kings and earthly Iudges which consisteth not onely in not wronging or inuading the Liberties of any other person for to that will I neuer presse to perswade you but also in defending and maintaining these lawfull Liberties wherewith GOD hath indued you For yee whom GOD hath ordained to protect your people from iniuries should be ashamed to suffer your selues to be wronged by any And thus assuring my selfe that ye will with a setled Iudgement free of preiudice weigh the reasons of this my Discourse and accept my plainnesse in good part gracing this my Apologie with your fauours and yet no longer then till it shall be iustly and worthily refuted I end with my earnest prayers to the ALMIGHTIE for your prosperities and that after your happie Temporall Raignes in earth ye may liue and raigne in Heauen with him for euer A CATALOGVE OF THE LYES OF TORTVS TOGETHER WITH A BRIEFE Confutation of them TORTVS Edit Politan pag. 9. IN the Oath of Allegiance the Popes power to excommunicate euen Hereticall Kings is expresly denied CONFVTATION The point touching the Popes power in excommunicating Kings is neither treated of nor defined in the Oath of Allegiance but was purposely declined See the wordes of the Oath and the Praemonition pag. 292. TORTVS pag. 10. 2 For all Catholike writers doe collect from the wordes of Christ Whatsoeuer thou shalt loose vpon earth shall be loosed in heauen that there appertaineth to the Popes authoritie not onely a power to absolue from sinnes but also from penalties Censures Lawes Vowes and Oathes CONFVTATION That all Roman-Catholike writers doe not concurre with this Libeller in thus collecting from CHRISTS wordes Matth. 16. To omit other reasons it may appeare by this that many of them doe write that what CHRIST promised there that hee did actually exhibite to his Disciples Iohn 20. when hee said Whose sinnes ye remit they shall be remitted thereby restraining this power of loosing formerly promised vnto loosing from sinnes not mentioning any absolution from Lawes Vowes and Oathes in this place So doe Theophylact Anselme Hugo Cardin. Ferus in Matt. 16. So doe the principall Schoolemen Alexand. Hales in Summa part 4. q. 79. memb 5. 6. art 3. Thom. in 4. dist 24. q. 3. art 2. Scotus in 4. dist 19. art 1. Pope Hadrian 6. in 4. dist q. 2. de clauib pag. 302. edit Parisien anno 1530. who also alleadgeth for this interpretation Augustine and the interlinear Glosse TORTVS Pag. 18. 3 I abhorre all Parricide I detest all conspiracies yet it cannot be denied but occasions of despaire were giuen to the Powder-plotters CONFVTATION That it was not any iust occasion of despaire giuen to the Powder-Traitours as this Libeller would beare vs in hand but the instructions which they had from the Iesuits that caused them to attempt this bloody designe See the Premonition pag. 291. 335. and the booke intituled The proceedings against the late Traitours TORTVS Pap. 26. 4 For not onely the Catholiques but also the Caluinist puritanes detest the taking of this Oath CONFVTATION The Puritanes doe not decline the Oath of Supremacie but daily doe take it neither euer refused it And the same Supremacie is defended by Caluin himselfe Instit lib. 4. cap. 20. TORTVS Pag. 28. 5 First of all the Pope writeth not that he was grieued at the calamities which the Catholikes did suffer for the keeping of the Orthodox faith in the time of the late Queene or in the beginning of King Iames his reigne in England but for the calamities which they suffer at this present time CONFVTATION The onely recitall of the wordes of the Breue will sufficiently confute this Lye For thus writeth the Pope The tribulations and calamities which ye haue continually susteined for the keeping of the Catholique faith haue alway afflicted vs with great griefe of minde But for asmuch as we vnderstand that at this time all things are more grieuous our affliction hereby is wonderfully increased TORTVS Pag. 28. 6 In the first article of the Statute the Lawes of Queene Elizabeth are confirmed CONFVTATION There is no mention at all made of confirming the Lawes of Queene Elizabeth in the first article of that Statute TORTVS Pag. 29. 7 In the 10. Article of the said Statute it is added that if the Catholicks refuse the third time to take the Oath being tendered vnto them they shall incurre the danger of loosing their liues CONFVTATION There is no mention in this whole Statute either of offering the Oath the third time or any indangering of their liues TORTVS Pag. 30. 8 In the 12. Article it is enacted that whosoeuer goeth out of the land to serue in the warres vnder forreine Princes they shall first of all take this Oath or els be accounted for Traitours CONFVTATION It is no where said in that Statute that they which shall thus serue in the warres vnder forraine Princes before they haue taken this Oath shall be accounted for Traitors but onely for Felons TORTVS Pag. 35. 9 Wee haue already declared that the Popes Apostolique power in binding and loosing is denied in that Oath of Alleageance CONFVTATION There is no Assertory sentence in that Oath nor any word but onely conditionall touching the power of the Pope in binding and loosing TORTVS Pag. 37. 10 The Popes themselues euen will they nill they were
not onely worke the intended remedy for the danger of Kings out of all the vertue and efficacie thereof by weakening of doctrine out of all controuersie in packing it vp with a disputable question but likewise in stead of securing the life and estate of Kings he shall draw both into farre greater hazards by the traine or sequence of warres and other calamities which vsually waite and attend on Schismes The L. Cardinall spends his whole discourse in confirmation of these foure heads which wee now intend to sift in order and demonstratiuely to prooue that all the said inconueniences are meere nullities matters of imagination and built vpon false presuppositions But before wee come to the maine the reader is to be enformed and aduertised that his Lordship setteth a false glosse vpon the question and propounds the case not onely contrary to the trewth of the subiect in controuersie but also to the Popes owne minde and meaning For he restraines the Popes power to depose Kings onely to cases of Heresie Apostasie and persecuting of the Church whereas Popes extend their power to a further distance They depose Princes for infringing or in any sort diminishing the Priuiledges of Monasteries witnesse Gregorie the first in the pretended Charter granted to the Abbey of S. Medard at Soissons the said Charter beeing annexed to his Epistles in the rere The same hee testifieth in his Epistle to Senator by name the tenth of the eleuenth booke They depose for naturall dulnesse and lacke of capacitie wether in-bred and trew indeed or onely pretended and imagined witnesse the glorious vaunt of Gregory VII that Childeric King of France was hoysted out of his Throne by Pope Zachary Caus 15. Can. Alius Qu. 6. Not so much for his wicked life as for his vnablenesse to beare the weightie burden of so great a Kingdome They depose for collating of Benefices and Prebends witnesse the great quarrels and sore contentions betweene Pope Innocent III. and Iohn King of England as also betweene Philip the Faire and Boniface VIII They depose for adulteries and Matrimoniall suites witnes Philip I. for the repudiating or casting off his lawfull wife Bertha and marrying in her place with Bertrade wife to the Earle of Aniou Paul Aemil. in Phil. 3. Finally faine would I learne into what Heresie or degree of Apostasie either Henry IV. or Frederic Barbarossa or Frederic II. Emperours were fallen when they were smitten with Papall fulminations euen to the depriuation of their Imperiall Thrones What was it for Heresie or Apostasie that Pope Martin IV. bare so hard a hand against Peter King of Arragon that he acquitted and released the Aragonnois from their oath of Alleagiance to Peter their lawfull King Was it for Heresie or Apostasie for Arrianisme or Mahumetisme that Lewis XII so good a King and Father of his Countrey was put downe by Iulius the II Was it for Heresie or Apostasie that Sixtus V. vsurped a power against Henrie III. euen so farre as to denounce him vnkingd the issue whereof was the parricide of that good King and the most wofull desolation of a most flourishing Kingdome But his Lordship best liked to worke vpon that ground which to the outward shew and appearance is the most beautifull cause that can be alleaged for the dishonouring of Kings by the weapon of deposition making himselfe to beleeue that he acted the part of an Orator before personages not much acquainted with ancient and moderne histories and such as little vnderstood the state of the question then in hand It had therefore beene a good warrant for his Lordship to haue brought some authenticall instrument from the Pope whereby the French might haue beene secured that his Holinesse renounceth all other causes auouchable for the degrading of Kings and that he will henceforth rest in the case of Heresie for the turning of Kings out of their Free-hold as also that his Holinesse by the same or like instrument might haue certified his pleasure that hee will not hereafter make himselfe Iudge whether Kings bee tainted with damnable Heresie or free from Hereticall infection For that were to make himselfe both Iudge and Plaintiffe that it might be in his power to call that doctrine Hereticall which is pure Orthodoxe and all for this end to make himselfe master of the Kingdome and there to settle a Successour who receiuing the Crowne of the Popes free gift and grant might be tyed thereby to depend altogether vpon his Holinesse Hath not Pope Boniface VIII declared in his proud Letters all those to be Heretiques that dare vndertake to affirme the collating of Prebends appertemeth to the King It was that Popes grosse errour not in the fact but in the right The like crime forsooth was by Popes imputed to the vnhappy Emperour Henrie IV. And what was the issue of the said imputation The sonne is instigated thereby to rebell against his father and to impeach the interrement of his dead corps who neuer in his life had beate his braines to trouble the sweet waters of Theologicall fountaines Annal. Beio Lib. 3. Iâ—â—â—anen Episcop It is recorded by Auentine that Bishop Virgilius was declared Heretique for teaching the Position of Antipodes The Bull Exurge marching in the rere of the last Lateran Councel sets downe this Position for one of Luthers heresies A new life is the best repentance Optima poenitentia noua vita Conc. Constan Sess 2. Among the crimes which the Councel of Constance charged Pope Iohn XXIII withall one was this that hee denied the immortalitie of the soule and that so much was publiquely manifestly and notoriously knowen Now if the Pope shall be caried by the streame of these or the like errours and in his Hereticall prauitie shall depose a King of the contrary opinion I shall hardly bee perswaded the said King is lawfully deposed THE FIRST INCONVENIENCE EXAMINED THE first inconuenience growing in the Cardinall his conceit by entertaining the Article of the third Estate whereby the Kings of France are declared to be indeposeable by any superiour power spirituall or temporall is this It offereth force to the conscience vnder the penaltie of Anathema to condemne a doctrine beleeued and practised in the Church in the continuall current of the last eleuen hundred yeeres In these words he maketh a secret confession that in the first fiue hundred yeeres the same doctrine was neither apprehended by faith nor approoued by practise Wherein to my vnderstanding the L. Cardinall voluntarily giueth ouer the suite For the Church in the time of the Apostles their disciples and successors for 500. yeeres together was no more ignorant what authoritie the Church is to challenge ouer Emperours and Kings then at any time since in any succeeding aage in which as pride hath still flowed to the height of a full Sea so puritie of religion and manners hath kept for the most part at a lowe water marke Which point is the rather to be considered for that during the first
Vrbanus part was punished for his presumption dispoyled of his estate and kept in prison whereof he makes complaint himselfe in his 19. and 20. Epistles The L. Cardinall besides in my vnderstanding for his Masters honour should haue made no words of interdicting the whole Kingdome For when the Pope to giue a King chastisement doeth interdict his Kingdome hee makes the people to beare the punishment of the Kings offence For during the time of interdiction the Church doores through the whole Kingdome are kept continually shut and lockt vp publike seruice is intermitted in all places bels euery where silent Sacraments not administred to the people bodies of the dead so prostituted and abandoned that none dares burie the said bodies in holy ground More it is beleeued that a man dying vnder the curse of the interdict without some speciall indulgence or priuiledge is for euer damned and adiudged to eternall punishments as one that dyeth out of the communion of the Church Put case then the interdict holdeth and continueth for many yeares together alas how many millions of poore soules are damned and goe to hell for an others offence For what can or what may the faltlesse and innocent people doe withall if the King will repudiate his wife and she yet liuing ioyne himselfe in matrimonie to an other The Lord Cardinall after Philip the 1. produceth Philippus Augustus Examp. 12. who hauing renounced his wife Ingeberga daughter to the King of Denmarke and marrying with Agnes daughter to the Duke of Morauia was by Pope Innocent the third interdicted himselfe and his whole Kingdome But his Lordshippe was not pleased to insert withall what is auerred in the Chronicle of Saint Denis that Pope Caelestinus 3. sent forth two Legats at once vpon this errand Bochel pag. 320 Who being come into the assemblie and generall Council of all the French Prelats became like dumbe dogs that can not barke so as they could not bring the seruice which they had vndertaken to any good passe because they stood in a bodily feare of their owne bydes Not long after the Cardinall of Capua was in the like taking For hee durst not bring the Realme within the limits of the interdict before hee was got out of the limits of the Kingdome The King herewith incensed thrust all the Prelates that had giuen consent vnto these proceedings out of their Sees confiscated their goods c. To the same effect is that which wee reade in Matthew Paris After the Pope had giuen his Maiestie to vnderstand by the Cardinal of Anagnia that his kingdome should be interdicted vnlesse he would be reconciled to the King of England the King returned the Pope this answere that he was not in any sort afraid of the Popes sentence for as much as it could not be grounded vpon any equitie of the cause and added withall that it did no way appertaine vnto the Church of Rome to sentence Kings especially the King of France And this was done saith Iohannes Tilius Register in Court of Parliament of Paris by the counsell of the French Barons Most notable is the example of Philip the faire and hits the bird in the right eye In the yeere 1032. the Pope dispatched the Archbishop of Narbona with mandates into France commanding the King to release the Bishop of Apamia then detained in prison for contumelious words tending to the Kings defamation and spoken to the Kings owne head In very deed this Pope had conceiued a secret grudge and no light displeasure against King Philip before namely because the King had taken vpon him the collation of Benefices and other Ecclesiastical dignities Vpon which occasion the Pope sent letters to the King of this tenour and style Feare God and keepe his Commandements Wee would haue thee know that in Spirituall and Temporall causes thou art subiect vnto our selfe that collating of Benefices and Prebends doeth not in any sort appertaine to thy office and place that in case as keeper of the Spiritualties thou haue the custodie of Benefices and Prebends in thy hand when they become voyd thou shalt by sequestration reserue the fruits of the same to the vse and benefit of the next Incumbents and successors and in case thou hast heretofore collated any we ordaine the said collations to be meerely void and so farre as herein thou hast proceeded to the fact we reuoke the said collations We hold them for hereticks whosoeuer are not of this beliefe A Legate comes to Paris and brings these brauing letters By some of the Kings faithfull seruants they are violently snatched and pulled out of the Legates hands by the Earle of Artois they are cast into the fire The good King answeres the Pope and payes him in as good coyne as he had sent Philip by the grace of God King of the French to Boniface calling and bearing himselfe the Soueraigne Bishop little greeting or none at all May thy exceeding sottishnesse vnderstand that in Temporall causes we are not subiect vnto any mortall and earthly creature that collating of Benefices and Prebends by Regall right appertaineth to our office and place that appropriating their fruits when they become void belongeth to our selfe alone during their vacancie that all collations by vs heretofore made or to bee made hereafter shall stand in force that in the validitie and vertue of the said collations wee will euer couragiously defend and maintaine all Incumbents and possessors of Benefices and Prebends so by vs collated We hold them all for sots and senselesse whosoeuer are not of this beliefe The Pope incensed herewith excommunicates the King but no man dares publish that censure or become bearer thereof The King notwithstanding the said proceedings of the Pope assembles his Prelates Barons and Knights at Paris askes the whole assembly of whom they hold their Fees with al other the Temporalties of the Church They make answere with one voice that in the said matters they disclaime the Pope and know none other Lord beside his Maiestie Meane while the Pope worketh with Germanie and the Low Countreis to stirre them vp against France But Philip sendeth William of Nogaret into Italy William by the direction and aide of Sciarra Columnensis takes the Pope at Anagnia mounts him vpon a leane ill-fauoured iade caries him prisoner to Rome where ouercome with choller anguish and great indignation he takes his last leaue of the Popedome and his life All this notwithstanding the King presently after from the successours of Boniface receiues very ample and gratious Bulls in which the memorie of all the former passages and actions is vtterly abolished Extrauag Meruit Witnesse the Epistle of Clement 5. wherein this King is honoured with praises for a pious and religious Prince and his Kingdome is restored to the former estate In that aage the French Nobilitie caried other maner of spirits then the moderne and present Nobilitie doe I meane those by whom the L. Cardinal was applauded and assisted in his
the soule is immortall Or thus with certaine seduced Christians The Pope hath ordained the word of God to be authenticall ergo all credit must be giuen to diuine Scripture Vpon the spurkies or hookes of such ridiculous arguments and friuolous reasons the L. Cardinall hangs the life and safetie of Kings With like artificiall deuises hee pretendeth to haue the infamous murders and apposted cutting of Kings throats in extreame detestation and yet by deposing them from their Princely dignities by degrading them from their supreame and Soueraigne authorities hee brings their sacred heads to the butchers blocke For a King deposed by the Pope let no man doubt will not leaue any stone vnremooued nor any meanes and wayes vnattempted nor any forces or powers of men vnleuied or vnhired to defend himselfe and his Regall dignitie to represse and bring vnder his rebellious people by the Pope discharged of their alleagiance In this perplexitie of the publike affaires in these tempestuous perturbations of the State with what perils is the King not besieged and assaulted His head is exposed to the chances of warre his life a faire marke to the insidious practises of a thousand traitours his Royall person obuious to the dreadfull storme of angry fortune to the deadly malice to the fatall and mortall weapons of his enemies The reason He is presupposed to be lawfully and orderly stripped of his Kingdome Wil he yet hold the sterne of his Royall estate Then is he necessarily taken for a Tyrant reputed an vsurper and his life is exposed to the spoile For the publike lawes make it lawful and free for any priuate person to enterprise against an vsurper of the Kingdome Euery man saith Tertullian is a souldier In reos Maiestatis 〈◊〉 publâ—cos hostes omnis hom omiles est Tertul. apol cap. 2. to beare armes against all traitors and publike enemies Take from a King the title of lawfull King you take from him the warrant of his life and the weapons whereby he is maintained in greater securitie then by his Royall Guard armed with swords and halberds through whose wards and ranks a desperate villaine will make himselfe an easie passage being master of another mans life because he is prodigall and carelesse of his owne Such therefore as pretend so much pity towards Kings to abhorre the bloody opening of their liuer-veine and yet withall to approoue their hoysting out of the Royall dignity are iust in the veine and humour of those that say Let vs not kill the King but let vs disarme the King that he may die a violent death let vs not depriue him of life but of the meanes to defend his life let vs not strangle the King and stop his vitall breath so long as he remaineth King O that were impious O that were horrible and abominable but let him be deposed and then whosoeuer shall runne him through the body with a weapon vp to the very hilts shall not beare the guilt of a King-killer All this must be vnderstood to be spoken of Kings who after they are despoiled of Regalitie by sentence of deposition giuen by the Pope are able to arme themselues and by valiant armes doe defend their Soueraigne rights But in case the King blasted with Romane lightning and stricken with Papall thunder shall actually and speedily bee smitten downe from his high Throne of Regality with present losse of his Kingdome I beleeue it is almost impossible for him to warrant his owne life who was not able to warrant his owne Kingdome Let a cat be throwen from a high roofe to the bottome of a cellour or vault she lighteth on her feet and runneth away without taking any harme A King is not like a cat howsoeuer a cat may looke vpon a King he cannot fall from the loftie pinacle of Royalty to light on his feet vpon the hard pauement of a priuate state without crushing all his bones in pieces It hath bene the lot of very few Emperors and Kings to outliue their Empire For men ascend to the loftie Throne of Kings with a soft and easie pace by certaine steps and degrees there be no stately staires to come downe they tumble head and heeles together when they fall He that hath once griped anothers Kingdome thinks himselfe in little safetie so long as he shall of his courtesie suffer his disseised predecessour to draw his breath And say that some Princes after their fall from their Thrones haue escaped both point and edge of the Tyrants weapon yet haue they wandred like miserable fugitiues in forreine countreys or else haue bene condemned like captiues to perpetuall imprisonment at home a thousand-fold worse and more lamentable then death it selfe Dionysius the Tyrant of Syracusa from a great King in Sicilie tur'nd Schoolemaster in Corinth It was the onely calling and kind of life that as he thought bearing some resemblance of rule and gouernment might recreate his mind as an image or picture of his former Soueraigntie ouer men This Dionysius was the onely man to my knowledge that had a humour to laugh after the losse of a Kingdome and in the state of a Pedant or gouernour of children merily to ieast and to scorne his former state and condition of a King In this my Kingdome of England sundry Kings haue seene the walls as it were of their Princely fortresse dismantled razed and beaten downe By name Edward and Richard both II. and Henrie the VI. all which Kings were most cruelly murdered in prison In the reigne of Edward III. by Acte of Parliament Whosoeuer shall imagine that is the very word of the Statute or machinate the Kings death are declared guiltie of Rebellion and high Treason The learned Iudges of the Land grounding vpon this Law of Edward the third haue euer since reputed and iudged them traitors according to Law that haue dared onely to whisper or talke softly betweene the teeth of deposing the King For they count it a cleare case that no Crowne can be taken from a Kings head without losse of Head and Crowne together sooner or later The L. Cardinal therefore in this most weightie and serious point doth meerely dally and flowt after a sort Page 95. when hee tells vs The Church doeth not intermeddle with releasing of subiects and knocking off their yrons of obedience but onely before the Ecclesiasticall tribunall seat and that besides this double censure of absolution to subiects and excommunication to the Prince the Church imposeth none other penaltie Vnder pretence of which two censures so farre is the Church as the L. Cardinall pretendeth from consenting that any man so censured should bee touched for his life that she vtterly abborreth all murder whatsoeuer but especially all sudden and vnprepenced murders for feare of casting away both body and soule which often in sudden murders goe both one way It hath bene made manifest before that all such proscription and setting forth of Kings to port-sale hath alwaies for the traine thereof either some
become a Romane Catholike so soone as the Pope shall giue me the lift out of my Throne shall bind him forthwith to make effusion of his owne fathers blood Such is the religion of these reuerend Fathers the pillars of the Pontificiall Monarchie In comparison of whose religion and holinesse all the impietie that euer was among the Infidels and all the barbarous crueltie that euer was among the Canibals may passe hencefoorth in the Christian world for pure clemencie and humanitie These things ought his Lordship to haue pondered rather then to babble of habitudes and politike characters which to the common people are like the Bergamasque or the wilde-Irish forme of speach and passe their vnderstanding All these things are nothing in a maner if we compare them with the last clause which is the closer and as it were the vpshot of his Lordships discourse For therein he laboureth to perswade concerning this Article framed to bridle the Popes tyrannicall power ouer Kings if it should receiue gracious entertainement and generall approbation That it would breed great danger and worke effects of pernicious consequence vnto Kings The reason because it would prooue an introduction to schisme and schisme would stirre vp ciuil warres contempt of Kings distempered inclinations and motions to intrap their life and which is worst of all the fierce wrath of God inflicting all sorts of calamities An admirable paradoxe and able to strike men stone-blind that his Holinesse must haue power to depose Kings for the better security and safegard of their life that when their Crownes are made subiect vnto anothers will and pleasure then they are come to the highest altitude and eleuation of honour that for the onely warrant of their life their supreme and absolute greatnesse must be depressed that for the longer keeping of their Crownes another must plucke the Crowne from their heads As if it should be said Would they not be stript naked by another the best way is for themselues to vntrusse for themselues to put off all and to goe naked of their owne accord Wil they keepe their Souereigntie in safetie for euer The best way is to let another haue their Soueraigne authoritie and supreme Estate in his power But I haue bene euer of this mind that when my goods are at no mans command or disposing but mine own then they are trewly and certainly mine owne It may be this error is growen vpon me and other Princes for lacke of braines whereupon it may be feared or at least coniectured the Pope meanes to shaue our crownes and thrust vs into some cloister there to hold ranke in the brotherhood of good King Childerie Forasmuch then as my dull capacitie doeth not serue mee to reach or comprehend the pith of this admirable reason I haue thought good to seeke and to vse the instruction of old and learned experience which teacheth no such matter by name that ciuill warres and fearefull perturbations of State in any nation of the world haue at any time growen from this faithful credulity of subiects that Popes in right haue no power to wrest and lift Kings out of their dignities and possessions On the other side by establishing the contrary maximes to yoke and hamper the people with Pontificiall tyrannie what rebellious troubles and stirres what extreme desolations hath England bene forced to feare and feele in the Reigne of my Predecessours Henrie II. Iohn and Henrie III These be the maximes and principles which vnder the Emperour Henrie IV. and Frederic the I. made all Europe flowe with channels and streames of blood like a riuer with water while the Saracens by their incursions and victories ouerflowed and in a manner drowned the honour of the Christian name in the East These be the maximes and principles which made way for the warres of the last League into France by which the very bowels of that most famous and flourishing Kingdome were set on such a combustion that France her selfe was brought within two fingers breadth of bondage to another Nation and the death of her two last Kings most villenously and traiterously accomplished The L. Cardinall then giuing these diabolicall maximes for meanes to secure the life and Estate of Kings speaketh as if he would giue men counsell to dry themselues in the riuer when they come as wet as a water spaniell out of a pond or to warme themselues by the light of the Moone when they are stark-naked and well neere frozen to death THE CONCLVSION OF THE LORD OF PERRON EXAMINED AFter the L. Cardinal hath stoutly shewed the strength of his arme and the deepe skill of his head in fortification at last he leaues his loftie scaffolds and falls to worke neerer the ground with more easie tooles of humble praiers and gentle exhortations The summe of the whole is this He adiures his auditors neuer to forge remedies neuer so to prouide for the temporall safetie of Kings as thereby to worke their finall falling from eternall saluation neuer to make any rent or rupture in the vnitie of the Church in this corrupt aage infected with pestilent Heresies which already hauing made so great a breach in the walles of France will no doubt double their strength by the dissentions diuisions and schismes of Catholikes If this infectious plague shall still increase and grow to a carbuncle it can by no meanes poyson Religion without bringing Kings to their winding sheetes and wofull hearses The first rowlers of that stone of offence aimed at no other marke then to make an ignominious and lamentable rent in the Church Hee thinks the Deputies of the third Estate had neither head nor first hand in contriuing this Article but holds it rather a new deuice and subtile inuention suggested by persons which beeing already cut off by their owne practises from the body of the Romane Church haue likewise inueigled and insnared some that beare the name of Catholiks with some other Ecclesiastics and vnder a faire pretence and goodly cloake by name the seruice of the King haue surprised and played vpon their simplicitie These men as the Cardinall saith doe imitate Iulian the Apostata who to bring the Christians to idolatrous worship of false gods commaunded the idols of Iupiter and Venus to be intermingled with Imperiall statues and other Images of Christian Emperours c. Then after certaine Rhetoricall flourishes his Lordship fals to prosecute his former course and cries out of this Article A monster hauing the tayle of a fish as if it came cutting the narrow Seas out of England For in full effect it is downright the English oath sauing that indeed the oath of England runneth in a more mild forme and a more moderate straine And here he suddenly takes occasion to make some digression For out of the way and cleane from the matter he entreth into some purpose of my praise and commendation He courteously for sooth is pleased to grace mee with knowledge of learning and with ciuill vertues He seemeth chiefly
trāsgressors of diuine humane lawes If the French king in the heart of his kingdom should nourish and foster such a nest of stinging hornets and busie wasps I meane such a pack of subiects denying his absolute Soueraignty as many Romane Catholiks of my Kingdome do mine It may wel be doubted whether the L. Cardinal would aduise his king stil to feather the nest of the said Catholiks stil to keep them warme stil to beare them with an easie and gentle hand It may wel be doubted whether his Lordship would extol their constancie that would haue the courage to sheath vp their swords in his Kings bowels or blow vp his King with gun-powder into the neather station of the lowest regiō It may wel be doubted whether he would indure that Orator who like as himselfe hath done should stir vp others to suffer Martyrdome after such examples and to imitate parricides traitors in their constancy The scope then of the L. Cardinall in striking the sweet strings and sounding the pleasant notes of praises which faine he would fil mine eares withal is only by his excellent skil in the musick of Oratory to bewitch the harts of my subiects to infatuate their minds to settle them in a resolution to depriue me of my life The reason Because the plotters and practisers against my life are honoured and rewarded with a glorious name of Martyrs their constancie what els is admired when they suffer death for treason Wheras hitherto during the time of my whole raigne to this day I speake it in the word of a King and trewth it selfe shall make good the Kings word no man hath lost his life no man hath indured the Racke no man hath suffered corporall punishment in other kinds meerely or simply or in any degree of respect for his conscience in matter of religion but for wicked conspiring against my life or Estate or Royall dignitie or els for some notorious crime or some obstinate and wilfull disobedience Of which traiterous and viperous brood I commanded one to be hanged by the necke of late in Scotland a Iesuite of intolerable impudencie who at his arraignment and publike triall stiffely maintained that I haue robbed the Pope of his right and haue no manner of right in the possession of my Kingdome His Lordship therefore in offering himselfe to Martyrdome after the rare example of Catholiks as he saith suffering all sort of punishment in my Kingdome doeth plainely professe himselfe a follower of traytors and parricides These be the Worthies these the heroicall spirits these the honourable Captaines and Coronels whose vertuous parts neuer sufficiently magnified and praysed his Lordshippe propoundeth for imitation to the French Bishops O the name of Martyrs in olde times a sacred name how is it now derided and scoffed how is it in these daies filthily prophaned O you the whole quire and holy company of Apostles who haue sealed the trewth with your dearest blood how much are you disparaged how vnfitly are you paragoned and matched when traytors bloody butchers and King-killers are made your assistants and of the same Quorum or to speake in milder tearmes when you are coupled with Martyrs that suffer for maintaining the Temporall rites of the Popes Empire with Bishops that offer themselues to a Problematicall Martyrdome for a point decided neither by the authorities of your Spirit-inspired pens nor by the auncient and venerable testimonie of the Primitiue Church for a point which they dare not vndertake to teach otherwise then by a doubtfull cold fearefull way of discourse and altogether without resolution In good sooth I take the Cardinall for a personage of a quicker spirit and clearer sight let his Lordship hold mee excused then to perswade my selfe that in these matters his tongue and his heart his pen and his inward iudgement haue any concord or correspondence one with another For beeing very much against his minde as hee doeth confesse thrust into the office of an Aduocate to pleade this cause he suffered himselfe to bee carried after his engagement with some heat to vtter some things against his conscience murmuring and grumbling the contrary within and to affirme some other things with confidence whereof hee had not beene otherwise informed then onely by vaine and lying report Of which ranke is that bold assertion of his Lordship That many Catholiks in England rather then they would subscribe to the oath of allegiance in the forme thereof haue vndergone all sorts of punishment For in England as we haue trewly giuen the whole Christian world to vnderstand in our Preface to the Apologie there is but one forme or kind of punishment ordained for all sorts of traytors Hath not his Lordship now graced me with goodly testimonialls of prayse and commendation Am I not by his prayses proclaimed a Tyrant as it were inebriated with blood of the Saints and a famous Enginer of torments for my Catholikes To this exhortation for the suffering of Martyrdome in imitation of my English traytors and parricides if wee shall adde how craftily and subtilly hee makes the Kings of England to hold of the Pope by fealty and their kingdome in bondage to the Pope by Temporall recognizance it shall easily appeare that his holy-water of prayses wherewith I am so reuerently besprinkled is a composition extracted out of a dram of hony and a pound of gall first steeped in a strong decoction of bitter wormewood or of the wild gourd called Coloquintida For after he hath in the beginning of his Oration Page 10. spoken of Kings that owe fealtie to the Pope and are not Soueraignes in the highest degree of Temporall supremacie within their Kingdomes to explaine his mind and meaning the better he marshals the Kings of England a little after in the same ranke His words be these When King Iohn of England not yet bound in any temporall recognizance to the Pope had expelled his Bishops c. His Lordship means that King Iohn became so bound to the Pope not long after And what may this meaning be but in plaine tearmes and broad speach to call me vsurper and vnlawfull King For the feudatarie or he that holdeth a Mannor by fealty when he doeth not his homage with all suit and seruice that he owes to the Lord Paramount doeth fall from the propertie of his fee. This reproach of the L. Cardinals is seconded with an other of Bellarmines his brother Cardinall That Ireland was giuen to the Kings of England by the Pope The best is that his most reuerend Lordship hath not shewed who it was that gaue Ireland to the Pope And touching Iohn King of England thus in briefe stands the whole matter Betweene Henry 2. and the Pope had passed sundry bickerments about collating of Ecclesiasticall dignities Iohn the sonne after his fathers death reneweth vndertaketh and pursueth the same quarrell Driueth certaine English Bishops out of the Kingdome for defending the Popes insolent vsurpation vpon his Royall prerogatiue and Regall rights
Sheweth such Princely courage and resolution in those times when all that stood and suffered for the Popes Temporall pretensions against Kings were enrowled Martyrs or Confessors The Pope takes the matter in fowle scorne and great indignation shuts the King by his excommunicatory Bulls out of the Church stirres vp his Barons for other causes the Kings heauy friends to rise in armes giues the Kingdome of England like a masterlesse man turned ouer to a new master to Philippus Augustus King of France bindes Philip to make a conquest of England by the sword or else no bargaine or else no gift promises Philip in recompence of his trauell and Royall expences in that conquest full absolution and a generall pardon at large for all his sinnes to bee short cuts King Iohn out so much worke and makes him keepe so many yrons in the fire for his worke that he had none other way none other meanes to pacifie the Popes high displeasure to correct or qualifie the malignitie of the Popes cholericke humour by whom he was then so entangled in the Popes toyles but by yeelding himselfe to become the Popes vassal and his Kingdome feudatary or to hold by fealty of the Papall See By this meanes his Crowne is made tributary all his people liable to payment of taxes by the poll for a certaine yeerely tribute and he is blessed with a pardon for all his sinnes Whether King Iohn was mooued to doe this dishonourable act vpon any deuotion or inflamed with any zeale of Religion or inforced by the vnresistable weapons of necessitie who can be so blind that he doeth not well see and clearely perceiue For to purchase his owne freedome from this bondage to the Pope what could he bee vnwilling to doe that was willing to bring his Kingdome vnder the yoake of Amirales Murmelinus a Mahumetan Prince then King of Granado and Barbaria The Pope after that sent a Legat into England The King now the Popes vassall and holding his Crowne of the Pope like a man that holds his land of another by Knights seruice or by homage and fealtie doeth faire homage for his Crowne to the Popes Legat and layeth downe at his feet a great masse of the purest gold in coyne The reuerend Legat in token of his Masters Soueraigntie with more then vsuall pride falls to kicking and spurning the treasure no doubt with a paire of most holy feet Not onely so but likewise at solemne feasts is easily entreated to take the Kings chaire of Estate Heere I would faine know the Lord Cardinals opinion whether these actions of the Pope were iust or vniust lawfull or vnlawfull according to right or against all right and reason If he will say against right it is then cleare that against right his Lordship hath made way to this example if according to right let him then make it knowen from whence or from whom this power was deriued and conueyed to the Pope whereby hee makes himselfe Souereigne Lord of Temporalties in that Kingdome where neither he nor any of his predecessours euer pretended any right or layd any claime to Temporall matters before Are such prankes to be played by the Pontificiall Bishop Is this an act of Holinesse to set a Kingdome on fire by the flaming brands of sedition to dismember and quarter a Kingdome with intestine warres onely to this end that a King once reduced to the lowest degree of miserie might be lifted by his Holinesse out of his Royall prerogatiue the very soule and life of his Royall Estate When began this Papall power In what aage began the Pope to practise this power What! haue the ancient Canons for the Scripture in this question beareth no pawme haue the Canons of the ancient Church imposed any such satisfaction vpon a sinner that of a Souereigne and free King he should become vassall to his ghostly Father that he should make himselfe together with all his people and subiects tributaries to a Bishop that shall rifle a whole Nation of their coine that shall receiue homage of a King and make a King his vassall What! Shall not a sinner be quitted of his faults except his Pastor turne robber and one that goeth about to get a booty except hee make his Pastour a Feoffee in his whole Estate and suffer himselfe vnder a shadow of penance to freeze naked to be turned out of all his goods and possessions of inheritance But be it granted admit his Holinesse robs one Prince of his rights and reuenewes to conferre the same vpon another were it not an high degree of tyrannie to finger another mans estate and to giue that away to a third which the second hath no right no lawfull authoritie to giue Well if the Pope then shall become his owne caruer in the rights of another if he shall make his owne coffers to swell with anothers reuenewes if he shall decke and aray his owne backe in the spoiles of a sinner with whom in absolution he maketh peace and taketh truce what can this be else but running into further degrees of wickednesse and mischiefe what can this be else but heaping of robbery vpon fraud and Impietie vpon robbery For by such deceitfull craftie and cunning practises the nature of the Pontificiall See meerely spirituall is changed into the Kings-bench-Court meerely temporall the Bishops chaire is changed into a Monarchs Throne And not onely so but besides the sinners repentance is changed into a snare or pit-fall of cousening deceit and S. Peters net is changed into a casting-net or a flew to fish for all the wealth of most flourishing Kingdomes Moreouer the King a hard case is driuen by such wiles and subtilties to worke impossibilities to acte more then is lawfull or within the compasse of his power to practise For the King neither may in right nor can by power trans-nature his Crowne impaire the Maiestie of his Kingdome or leaue his Royal dignitie lesse free to his heire apparant or next successor then he receiued the same of his predecessour Much lesse by any dishonourable capitulations by any vnworthy contracts degrade his posteritie bring his people vnder the grieuous burden of tributes and taxes to a forreine Prince Least of all make them tributary to a Priest vnto whom it no way apperteineth to haue any hand in the ciuill affaires of Kings or to distaine and vnhallow their Crownes And therefore when the Pope dispatched his Nuntio to Philippus Augustus requesting the King to auert Lewis his sonne from laying any claime to the Kingdome of England Philip answered the Legat as we haue it in Matth. Paris No King no Prince can alienate or giue away his Kingdom but by consent of his Barons bound by Knights seruice to defend the said Kingdome and in case the Pope shall stand for the contrary error his Holines shall giue to Kingdomes a most pernicious example By the same Author it is testified that King Iohn became odious to his subiects for such dishonourable and vnworthy
of his life in the city of Tours Certaine it is they neuer abandoned that Henry 3. nor his next successor Henry 4. in all the heat of reuolts and rebellions raised in the greatest part of the Kingdome by the Pope and the more part of the Clergie but stood to the said Kings in all their battels to beare vp the Crowne then tottering and ready to fall Certaine it is that euen the heads and principalls of those by whom the late King deceased was pursued with all extremities at this day doe enioy the fruit of all the good seruices done to the King by the said Protestants And they are now disgraced kept vnder exposed to publike hatred What for kindling coales of questions and controuersies about Religion Forsooth not so but because if they might haue equall and indifferent dealing if credit might be giuen to their faithfull aduertisements the Crowne of their Kings should bee no longer pinned to the Popes flie-flap in France there should bee no French exempted from subiection to the French King causes of benefices or of matrimonie should bee no longer citable and summonable to the Romish Court and the Kingdome should bee no longer tributarie vnder the colour of annats the first fruits of Benefices after the remooue or death of the Incumbent and other like impositions But why doe I speake so much in the behalfe of the French Protestants The Lord Cardinall himselfe quittes them of this blame when he telleth vs this doctrine for the deposing of Kings by the Popes mace or verge had credit and authoritie through all France vntill Caluins time Doth not his Lordship vnder-hand confesse by these words that Kings had beene alwaies before Caluins time the more dishonoured and the worse serued Item that Protestants whom his Lordship calls heretikes by the light of holy Scripture made the world then and euer since to see the right of Kings oppressed so long before As for those of the Low Countries and the subiects of Swethland I haue little to say of their case because it is not within ordinary compasse and indeed serueth nothing to the purpose These Nations besides the cause of Religion doe stand vpon certaine reasons of State which I will not here take vpon me like a Iudge to determine or to sift Iunius Brutus Whom the Lord Cardinall obiecteth is an author vnknowne and perhaps of purpose patcht vp by some Romanist with a wyly deceit to draw the reformed Religion into hatred with Christian Princes Buchanan I reckon and ranke among Poets not among Diuines classicall or common If the man hath burst out here and there into some tearmes of excesse or speach of bad temper that must be imputed to the violence of his humour and heate of his spirit not in any wise to the rules and conclusions of trew Religion rightly by him conceiued before Barclaius alledged by the Cardinall meddles not with deposing of Kings but deals with disavowing them for Kings when they shal renounce the right of Royalty and of their owne accord giue ouer the Kingdome Now he that leaues it in the Kings choice either to hold or to giue ouer his Crowne leaues it not in the Popes power to take away the Kingdome Of Gerson obtruded by the Cardinal we haue spoken sufficiently before Where it hath beene shewed how Gerson is disguised masked and peruerted by his Lordship In briefe I take not vpon me to iustifie and make good all the sayings of particular authors We glory and well we may that our religion affordeth no rules of rebellion nor any dispensation to subiects for the oath of their allegiance and that none of our Churches giue entertainement vnto such monstrous and abhominable principles of disloyaltie If any of the French otherwise perswaded in former times Richcrius now hauing altered and changed his iudgement doth contend for the Soueraignty of Kings against Papall vsurpation He doubtles for winding himselfe out of the Laborinth of an error so intricate pernicious deserueth great honour and speciall praise He is worthy to hold a place of dignity aboue the L. Cardinall who hath quitted and betrayed his former iudgement which was holy and iust Their motions are contrary their markes are opposite The one reclineth from euill to good the other declineth from good to euill At last his Lordship commeth to the close of his Oration and bindes vp his whole harangue with a feate wreath of praises proper to his King He styles the King the eldest Sonne of the Church a young shoot of the lilly which King Salomon in all his Royaltie was not able to match He leades vs by the hand into the pleasant meadowes of Histories there to learne vpon the very first sight and view That so long so oft as the Kings of France embraced vnion and kept good tearmes of concord with Popes and the Apostolike See so long as the spouse of the Church was pastured and fed among the lillies all sorts of spirituall and temporall graces abundantly showred vpon their Crownes and vpon their people On the contrary when they made any rent or separation from the most holy See then the lillies were pricked and almost choaked with sharpe thornes they beganne to droope to stoope and to beare their beautifull heads downe to the very ground vnder the strong flawes and gusts of boystrous windes and tempests My answere to this flourishing close and vpshot shall be no lesse apert then apt It sauours not of good and faithfull seruice to smooth and stroake the Kings head with a soft hand of oyled speech and in the meane time to take away the Crowne from his head and to defile it with dirt But let vs try the cause by euidence of Historie yea by the voice and verdict of experience to see whether the glorious beauty of the French lillies hath beene at any time blasted and thereupon hath faded by starting aside and making separation from the holy See Vnder the raigne of King Philip the Faire France was blessed with peace and prosperity notwithstanding some outragious acts done against the Papall See and contumelious crying quittance by King Philip with the Pope Lewis 12. in ranged battell defeated the armies of Pope Iulius 2. and his Confederates proclaimed the said Pope to be fallen from the Popedome stamped certaine coynes and pieces of gold with a dishonourable mot euen to Rome it selfe Rome is Babylon yet so much was Lewis loued and honoured of his people that by a peculiar title he was called the Father of the Country Greater blessings of God greater outward peace and plenty greater inward peace with spirituall and celestiall treasures were neuer heaped vpon my Great Brittaine then haue beene since my Great Brittaine became Great in the greatest and chiefest respect of all to wit since my Great Brittaine hath shaken off the Popes yoke since she hath refused to receiue and to entertaine the Popes Legats employed to collect S. Peters tribute or Peter-pence since the Kings of England
Execution a greater promptnesse was required As for the execution of good Lawes it hath bene very wisely and honourably foreseene and ordered by my predecessours in this Kingdome in planting such a number of Iudges and all sorts of Magistrates in conuenient places for the execution of the same And therefore must I now turne mee to you that are Iudges and Magistrates vnder mee as mine Eyes and Eares in this case I can say none otherwise to you then as Ezekias the good King of Iuda said to their Iudges Remember that the Thrones that you fit on are Gods and neither yours nor mine And that as you must be answerable to mee so must both you and I be answerable to GOD for the due execution of our Offices That place is no place for you to vtter your affections in you must not there hate your foe nor loue your friend feare the offence of the greater partie or pity the miserie of the meaner yee must be blinde and not see distinctions of persons handlesse not to receiue bribes but keepe that iust temper and mid-course in all your proceedings that like a iust ballance ye may neither sway to the right nor left hand Three principall qualities are required in you Knowledge Courage and Sinceritie that you may discerne with knowledge execute with courage and doe both in vpright sinceritie And as for my part I doe vow and protest here in the presence of God and of this honourable Audience I neuer shall be wearie nor omit no occasion wherein I may shew my carefulnesse of the execution of good Lawes And as I wish you that are Iudges not to be weary in your Office in doing of it so shall I neuer be wearie with Gods grace to take account of you which is properly my calling And thus hauing tolde you the three causes of my conuening of this Parliament all three tending onely to vtter my thankefulnesse but in diuers formes the first by word the other two by action I doe confesse that when I haue done and performed all that in this Speech I haue promised Inutilis seruus sum Inutile because the meaning of the word Inutilis in that place of Scripture is vnderstood that in doing all that seruice which wee can to God it is but our due and wee doe nothing to God but that which wee are bound to doe And in like maner when I haue done all that I can for you I doe nothing but that which I am bound to doe and am accomptable to God vpon the contrary For I doe acknowledge that the speciall and greatest point of difference that is betwixt a rightfull King and an vsurping Tyrant is in this That whereas the proude and ambitious Tyrant doeth thinke his Kingdome and people are onely ordeined for satisfaction of his desires and vnreasonable appetites The righteous and iust King doeth by the contrary acknowledge himselfe to bee ordeined for the procuring of the wealth and prosperitie of his people and that his greatest and principall worldly felicitie must consift in their prosperitie If you bee rich I cannot bee poore if you bee happy I cannot but bee fortunate and I protest that your welfare shall euer be my greatest care and contentment And that I am a Seruant it is most trew that as I am Head and Gouernour of all the people in my Dominion who are my naturall vassals and Subiects considering them in numbers and distinct Rankes So if wee will take the whole People as one body and Masse then as the Head is ordeined for the body and not the Body for the Head so must a righteous King know himselfe to bee ordeined for his people and not his people for him For although a King and people be Relata yet can hee be no King if he want people and Subiects But there be many people in the world that lacke a Head wherefore I will neuer bee ashamed to confesse it my principall Honour to bee the great Seruant of the Common-wealth and euer thinke the prosperitie thereof to be my greatest felicitie as I haue already said But as it was the whole Body of this Kingdome with an vniforme assent and harmonie as I tolde you in the beginning of my Speech which did so farre oblige mee in good will and thankefulnesse of requitall by their alacritie and readinesse in declaring and receiuing mee to that place which God had prouided for mee and not any particular persons for then it had not bene the body So is my thankefulnesse due to the whole State For euen as in matter of faults Quod à multis peccatur impunè peccatur Euen so in the matter of vertuous and good deedes what is done by the willing consent and harmonie of the whole body no particular person can iustly claime thankes as proper to him for the same And therefore I must heere make a little Apologie for my selfe in that I could not satisfie the particular humours of euery person that looked for some aduancement or reward at my hand since my entrie into this Kingdome Three kinde of things were craued of mee Aduancement to honour Preferment to place of Credit about my Person and Reward in matters of land or profit If I had bestowed Honour vpon all no man could haue beene aduanced to Honour for the degrees of Honour doe consist in perferring some aboue their fellowes If euery man had the like accesse to my Priuy or Bed-chamber then no man could haue it because it cannot containe all And if I had bestowed Lands and Rewards vpon euery man the fountaine of my liberalitie would be so exhausted and dried as I would lacke meanes to bee liberall to any man And yet was I not so sparing but I may without vaunting affirme that I haue enlarged my fauour in all the three degrees towards as many and more then euer King of England did in so short a space No I rather craue your pardon that I haue beene so bountifull for if the meanes of the Crowne bee wasted I behoued then to haue recourse to you my Subiects and bee burdensome to you which I would bee lothest to bee of any King aliue For as it is trew that as I haue already said it was a whole Body which did deserue so well at my hand and not euery particular person of the people yet were there some who by reason of their Office credit with the people or otherwise tooke occasion both before and at the time of my comming amongst you to giue proofe of their loue and affection towards me Not that I am any way in doubt that if other of my Subiects had beene in their places and had had the like occasion but they would haue vttered the like good effects so generall and so great were the loue and affection of you all towards mee But yet this hauing beene performed by some speciall persons I could not without vnthankfulnesse but requite them accordingly And therefore had I iust occasion to aduance some in
Paul saith That hee may plant Apollo may water but it is GOD onely that must giue the increase This I speake because of the long time which hath benespent about the Treatie of the Vnion For my selfe I protest vnto you all When I first propounded the Vnion I then thought there could haue bene no more question of it then of your declaration and acknowledgement of my right vnto this Crowne and that as two Twinnes they would haue growne vp together The errour was my mistaking I knew mine owne ende but not others feares But now finding many crossings long disputations strange questions and nothing done I must needs thinke it proceeds either of mistaking of the errand or else from some iealousie of me the Propounder that you so adde delay vnto delay searching out as it were the very bowels of Curiositie and conclude nothing Neither can I condemne you for being yet in some iealousie of my intention in this matter hauing not yet had so great experience of my behauiour and inclination in these few yeeres past as you may peraduenture haue in a longer time hereafter and not hauing occasion to consult dayly with my selfe and heare mine owne opinion in all those particulars which are debated among you But here I pray you now mistake mee not at the first when as I seeme to finde fault with your delayes and curiositie as if I would haue you to resolue in an houres time that which will take a moneths aduisement for you all know that Rex est lex loquens And you haue oft heard mee say That the Kings will and intention being the speaking Law ought to bee Luce clarius and I hope you of the Lower house haue the proofe of this my clearenesse by a Bil sent you downe from the Vpper house within these few dayes or rather few houres wherein may very well appeare vnto you the care I haue to put my Subiects in good securitie of their possessions for all posterities to come And therefore that you may clearely vnderstand my meaning in that point I doe freely confesse you had reason to aduise at leasure vpon so great a cause for great matters doe cuer require great deliberation before they be well concluded Deliberandum est diu quod statuendum est semel Consultations must proceed lento pede but the execution of a sentence vpon the resolution would be speedie If you will goe on it matters not though you goe with leaden feet so you make still some progresse and that there be no let or needlesse delay and doe not Nodum in scirpo quaerere I am euer for the Medium in euery thing Betweene foolish rashnesse and extreame length there is a middle way Search all that is reasonable but omit that which is idle curious and vnnecessary otherwise there can neuer be a resolution or end in any good worke And now from the generall I wil descend to particulars and wil onely for the ease of your memories diuide the matter that I am to speake of into foure heads by opening vnto you First what I craue Secondly in what maner I desire it Thirdly what commodities will ensue to both the Kingdomes by it Fourthly what the supposed inconueniencie may be that giues impediments thereunto For the first what I craue I protest before GOD who knowes my heart and to you my people before whom it were a shame to lie that I claime nothing but with acknowledgement of my Bond to you that as yee owe to me subiection and obedience So my Soueraigntie obligeth mee to yeeld to you loue gouernment and protection Neither did I euer wish any happinesse to my selfe which was not conioyned with the happinesse of my people I desire a perfect Vnion of Lawes and persons and such a Naturalizing as may make one body of both Kingdomes vnder mee your King That I and my posteritie if it so please God may rule ouer you to the worlds ende Such an Vnion as was of the Scots and Pictes in Scotland and of the Heptarchie here in England And for Scotland I auow such an Vnion as if you had got it by Conquest but such a Conquest as may be cemented by loue the onely sure bond of subiection or friendship that as there is ouer both but vnus Rex so there may be in both but vnus Grex vna Lex For no more possible is it for one King to gouerne two Countreys Contiguous the one a great the other a lesse a richer and a poorer the greater drawing like an Adamant the lesser to the Commodities thereof then for one head to gouerne two bodies or one man to be husband of two wiues whereof Christ himselfe said Ab initio non fuit sic But in the generall Vnion you must obserue two things for I will discouer my thoughts plainly vnto you I study clearenes not eloquence And therefore with the olde Philosopers I would heartily wish my brest were a transparent glasse for you all to see through that you might looke into my heart and then would you be satisfied of my meaning For when I speake of a perfect Vnion I meane not confusion of all things you must not take from Scotland those particular Priuiledges that may stand as well with this Vnion as in England many particular customes in particular Shires as the Customes of Kent and the Royalties of the Countie Palatine of Chester do with the Common Law of the Kingdome for euery particular Shire almost and much more euery Countie haue some particular customes that are as it were naturally most fit for that people But I meane of such a generall Vnion of Lawes as may reduce the whole Iland that as they liue already vnder one Monarch so they may all bee gouerned by one Law For I must needs confesse by that little experience I haue had since my comming hither and I thinke I am able to prooue it that the grounds of the Common Law of England are the best of any Law in the world either Ciuil or Municipall and the fittest for this people But as euery Law would be cleare and full so the obscuritie in some points of this our written Law and want of fulnesse in others the variation of Cases and mens curiositie breeding euery day new questions hath enforced the Iudges to iudge in many Cases here by Cases and presidents wherein I hope Lawyers themselues will not denie but that there must be a great vncertaintie and I am sure all the rest of you that are Gentlemen of other professions were long agoe wearie of it if you could haue had it amended For where there is varietie and vncertaintie although a iust Iudge may do rightly yet an ill Iudge may take aduantage to doe wrong and then are all honest men that succeede him tied in a maner to his vniust and partiall conclusions Wherefore leaue not the Law to the pleasure of the Iudge but let your Lawes be looked into for I desire not the abolishing of
the Lawes but onely the clearing and the sweeping off the rust of them and that by Parliament our Lawes might be cleared and made knowen to all the Subiects Yea rather it were lesse hurt that all the approued Cases were set downe and allowed by Parliament for standing Lawes in all time to come For although some of them peraduenture may bee vniust as set downe by corrupt Iudges yet better it is to haue a certaine Law with some spots in it nor liue vnder such an vncertaine and arbitrarie Law since as the prouerbe is It is lesse harme to suffer an inconuenience then a mischiefe And now may you haue faire occasion of amending and polishing your Lawes when Scotland is to bee vnited with you vnder them for who can blame Scotland to say If you will take away our owne Lawes I pray you giue vs a better and cleerer in place thereof But this is not possible to bee done without a fit preparation Hee that buildeth a Ship must first prouide the timber and as Christ himselfe said No man will build an house but he will first prouide the materials nor a wise King will not make warre against another without he first makeprouision of money and all great workes must haue their preparation and that was my end in causing the Instrument of the Vnion to be made Vnion is a mariage would he not bee thought absurd that for furthering of a mariage betweene two friends of his would make his first motion to haue the two parties be laid in bedde together and performe the other turnes of mariage must there not precede the mutuall sight and acquaintance of the parties one with another the conditions of the contract and Ioincture to be talked of and agreed vpon by their friends and such other things as in order ought to goe before the ending of such a worke The vnion is an eternall agreement and reconciliation of many long bloody warres that haue beene betweene these two ancient Kingdomes Is it the readiest way to agree a priuate quarell betweene two to bring them at the first to shake hands and as it were kisse other and lie vnder one roofe or rather in one bedde together before that first the ground of their quarell be communed vpon their mindes mitigated their affections prepared and all other circumstances first vsed that ought to be vsed to proceed to such a finall agreement Euery honest man desireth a perfect Vnion but they that say so and admit no preparation thereto haue mel in ore fel in corde If after your so long talke of Vnion in all this long Session of Parliament yee rise without agreeing vpon any particular what will the neighbour Princes iudge whose eyes are all fixed vpon the conclusion of this Action but that the King is refused in his desire whereby the Nation should bee taxed and the King disgraced And what an ill preparation is it for the mindes of Scotland toward the Vnion when they shall heare that ill is spoken of their whole Nation but nothing is done nor aduanced in the matter of the Vnion it selfe But this I am glad was but the fault of one and one is no number yet haue your neighbours of Scotland this aduantage of you that none of them haue spoken ill of you nor shall as long as I am King in Parliament or any such publique place of Iuditature Consider therefore well if the mindes of Scotland had not neede to be well prepared to perswade their mutuall consent seeing you here haue all the great aduantage by the Vnion Is not here the personall residence of the King his whole Court and family Is not here the seate of Iustice and the fountaine of Gouernment must they not be subiected to the Lawes of England and so with time become but as Cumberland and Northumberland and those other remote and Northerne Shires you are to be the husband they the wife you conquerours they as conquered though not by the sword but by the sweet and sure bond of loue Besides that they as other Northerne Countreys will beseldome seene and saluted by their King and that as it were but in a posting or hunting iourney How little cause then they may haue of such a change of so ancient a Monarchie into the case of priuate Shires iudge rightly herein And that you may be the more vpright Iudges suppose your selues the Patients of whom such sentence should be giuen But what preparation is it which I craue onely such as by the entrance may shew something is done yet more is intended There is a conceipt intertained and a double iealousie possesseth many wherein I am misiudged First that this Vnion will be the Crisis to the ouerthrow of England and setting vp of Scotland England will then bee ouerwhelmed by the swarming of the Scots who if the Vnion were effected would raigne and rule all The second is my profuse liberalitie to the Scottish men more then the English and that with this Vnion all things shal be giuen to them and you turned out of all To you shall bee left the sweat and labour to them shall bee giuen the fruite and sweet and that my forbearance is but till this Vnion may be gained How agreeable this is to the trewth Iudge you And that not by my wordes but by my Actions Doe I craue the Vnion without exceptions doe I not offer to binde my selfe and to reserue to you as in the Instrument all places of Iudicature doe I intend any thing which standeth not with the equall good of both Nations I could then haue done it and not spoken of it For all men of vnderstanding must agree that I might dispose without assent of Parliament Offices of Iudicature and others both Ecclesiasticall and Temporall But herein I did voluntarily offer by my Letters from Royston to the Commissioners to bind my Prerogatiue Some thinke that I will draw the Scottish Nation hither talking idlely of transporting of Trees out of a barren ground into a better and of leane cattell out of bad pasture into a more fertile soile Can any man displant you vnlesse you will or can any man thinke that Scotland is so strong to pull you out of your houses or doe you not thinke I know England hath more people Scotland more wast ground So that there is roumth in Scotland rather to plant your idle people that swarme in London streets and other Townes and disburden you of them then to bring more vnto you And in cases of Iustice if I bee partiall to either side let my owne mouth condemne me as vnworthy to be your King I appeale to your selues if in fauour or Iustice I haue beene partiall Nay my intention was euer you should then haue most cause to praise my discretion when you saw I had most power If hitherto I haue done nothing to your preiudice much lesse meane I hereafter If when I might haue done it without any breach of promise Thinke so of mee that
much lesse I will doe it when a Law is to restraine me I owe no more to the Scottish men then to the English I was borne there and sworne here and now raigne ouer both Such particular persons of the Scottish Nation as might claime any extraordinary merit at my handes I haue already reasonably rewarded and I can assure you that there is none left whom for I meane extraordinary to straine my selfe further then in such ordinary benefit as I may equally bestow without mine owne great hurt vpon any Subiect of either Nation In which case no Kings handes can euer befully closed To both I owe Iustice and protection which with Gods grace I shall euer equally ballance For my Liberalitie I haue told you of it heretofore my three first yeeres were to me as a Christmas I could not then be miserable should I haue bene ouersparing to them they might haue thought Ioseph had forgotten his brethren or that the King had beene drunke with his new Kingdome But Suites goe not now so cheape as they were wont neither are there so many fees taken in the Hamper and Pettibagge for the great Seale as hath beene And if I did respect the English when I came first of whom I was receiued with ioy and came as in a hunting iourney what might the Scottish haue iustly said if I had not in some measure dealt bountifully with them that so long had serued me so farre aduentured themselues with me and beene so faithfull to mee I haue giuen you now foure yeeres proofe since my comming and what I might haue done more to haue raised the Scottish nation you all know and the longer I liue the lesse cause haue I to be acquainted with them and so the lesse hope of extraordinary fauour towards them For since my comming from them I doe not alreadie know the one halfe of them by face most of the youth being now risen vp to bee men who were but children when I was there and more are borne since my comming thence Now for my lands and reuenues of my Crowne which you may thinke I haue diminished They are not yet so farre diminished but that I thinke no prince of Christendome hath fairer possessions to his Crowne then yet I haue and in token of my care to preserue the same to my posteritie for euer the intaile of my lands to the Crowne hath beene long agoe offered vnto you and that it is not yet done is not my fault as you know My Treasurer here knoweth my care and hath already in part declared it and if I did not hope to treble my Reuenue more then I haue empaired it I should neuer rest quietly in my bed But notwithstanding my comming to the Crowne with that extraordinarie applause which you all know and that I had two Nations to bee the obiects of my liberalitie which neuer any Prince had here before will you compare my gifts out of mine inheritance with some Princes here that had onely this Nation to respect and whose whole time of reigne was litle longer then mine hath bene already It will be found that their gifts haue farre surpassed mine albeit as I haue already said they had nothing so great cause of vsing their liberalitie For the maner of the Vnion presently desired It standeth in 3. parts Secondly The first taking away of hostile Lawes for since there can bee now no Warres betwixt you is it not reason hostile Lawes should cease For desiciente causa desicit effectas The King of England now cannot haue warres with the King of Scotland therefore this failes of it selfe The second is communitie of Commerce I am no stranger vnto you for you all know I came from the loynes of your ancient Kings They of Scotland be my Subiects as you are But how can I bee naturall Liege Lord to you both and you strangers one to the other Shall they which be of one alleagance with you be no better respected of you nor freer amongst you then Frenchmen and Spaniards Since I am Soueraigne ouer both you as Subiects to one King it must needes follow that you conuerse and haue Commerce together There is a rumour of some ill dealings that should be vsed by the Commissioners Merchants of Scotland They be heere in England and shall remaine till your next meeting and abide triall to prooue themselues either honest men or knaues For the third point of Naturalization All you agree that they are no Aliens and yet will not allow them to bee naturall What kinde of prerogatiue will you make But for the Postnati your owne Lawyers and Iudges at my first comming to this Crowne informed me there was a difference betweene the Antè and the Post nati of each Kingdome which caused mee to publish a Proclamation that the Post nati were Naturalized Ipso facto by my Accession to this Crowne I doe not denie but Iudges may erre as men and therefore I doe not presse you here to sweare to all their reasons I onely vrge at this time the conueniencie for both Kingdomes neither pressing you to iudge nor to be iudged But remember also it is as possible and likely your owne Lawyers may erre as the Iudges Therefore as I wish you to proceede herein so farre as may tend to the weale of both Nations So would I haue you on the other part to beware to disgrace either my Proclamations or the Iudges who when the Parliament is done haue power to trie your lands and liues for so you may disgrace both your King and your Lawes For the doing of any acte that may procure lesse reuerence to the Iudges cannot but breede a loosenesse in the Gouernement and a disgrace to the whole Nation The reason that most mooues mee for ought I haue yet heard that there cannot but bee a difference betweene the Antè nati and the Post nati and that in the fauour of the last is that they must bee neerer vnto you being borne vnder the present Gouernement and common Allegiance but in point of conueniencie there is no question but the Post nati are more to bee respected For if you would haue a perfect and perpetuall Vnion that cannot be in the Antè nati who are but few in comparison of those that shall be in all aages succeeding and cannot liue long But in the Post nati shall the Vnion be continued and liue euer aage after aage which wanting a difference cannot but leaue a perpetuall marke of separation in the worke of the Vnion as also that argument of iealousie will be so farre remooued in the case of the Post nati which are to reape the benefit in all succeeding aages as by the contrary there will then rise Pharaos which neuer knew Ioseph The Kings my Successours who beeing borne and bred heere can neuer haue more occasion of acquaintance with the Scottish Nation in generall then any other English King that was before my time Bee not therefore abused
with the flattering speeches of such as would haue the Ante nati preferred alleadging their merit in my Seruice and such other reasons which indeede are but Sophismes For my rewarding out of my Liberalitie of any particular men hath nothing adoe with the generall acte of the Vnion which must not regard the deserts of priuate persons but the generall weale and conioyning of the Nations Besides that the actuall Naturalizing which is the onely point that is in your handes is already graunted to by your selues to the most part of such particular persons as can haue any vse of it heere and if any other well deseruing men were to sue for it hereafter I doubt not but there would neuer bee question mooued among you for the granting of it And therefore it is most euident that such discoursers haue mel in ore fel in corde as I said before carying an outward appearance of loue to the Vnion but indeed a contrary resolution in their hearts And as for limitations and restrictions such as shall by me be agreed vpon to be reasonable and necessary after you haue fully debated vpon them you may assure your selues I will with indifferencie grant what is requisite without partiall respect of Scotland I am as I haue often said borne and sworne King ouer both Kingdomes onely this farre let me entreat you in debating the point at your next meeting That yee be as ready to resolue doubts as to mooue them and to be satisfied when doubts are cleered And as for Commodities that come by the Vnion of these Kingdoms they are great and euident Peace Plentie Loue free Intercourse and common Societie of two great Nations All forreigne Kings that haue sent their Ambassadours to congratulate with me since my comming haue saluted me as Monarch of the whole Isle and with much more respect of my greatnesse then if I were King alone of one of these Realmes and with what comfort doe your selues behold Irish Scottish Welsh and English diuers in Nation yet all walking as Subiects and seruants within my Court and all liuing vnder the allegiance of your King besides the honour and lustre that the encrease of gallant men in the Court of diuers Nations carries in the eyes of all strangers that repaire hither Those confining places which were the Borders of the two Kingdomes where heretofore much blood was shed and many of your ancestours lost their liues yea that lay waste and desolate and were habitations but for runnagates are now become the Nauell or Vmbilick of both Kingdomes planted and peopled with Ciuilitie and riches their Churches begin to bee planted their doores stand now open they feare neither robbing nor spoiling and where there was nothing before heard nor seene in those parts but bloodshed oppressions complaints and outcries they now liue euery man peaceably vnder his owne figgetree and all their former cryes and complaints turned onely into prayers to God for their King vnder whom they enioy such ease and happy quietnesse The Marches beyond and on this side Twede are as fruitfull and as peaceable as most parts of England If after all this there shall be a Scissure what inconuenience will follow iudge you And as for the inconueniences that are feared on Englands part It is alleadged that the Scots are a populous Nation they shall be harboured in our nests they shall be planted and flourish in our good Soile they shall eate our commons bare and make vs leane These are foolish and idle surmises That which you possesse they are not to enioy by Law they cannot nor by my partialitie they shall not for set apart conscience and honour which if I should set apart indeede I had rather wish my selfe to bee set apart and out of all being can any man conclude either out of common reason or good policie that I will preferre those which perhaps I shall neuer see or but by poste for a moneth before those with whom I must alwayes dwell Can they conquer or ouercome you with swarmes of people as the Goths and the Vandals did Italy Surely the world knowes they are nothing so populous as you are and although they haue had the honour and good fortune neuer to be conquered yet were they euer but vpon the defensiue part and may in a part thanke their hilles and inaccessible passages that preserued them from an vtter ouerthrow at the handes of all that pretended to conquer them Or are they so very poore and miserable in their owne habitations that necessitie should force them all to make incursions among you And for my part when I haue two Nations vnder my gouernment can you imagine I will respect the lesser and neglect the greater would I not thinke it a lesse euill and hazard to mee that the plague were at Northampton or Barwicke then at London so neere Westminster the Seat of my habitation and of my wife and children will not a man bee more carefull to quench the fire taken in his neerest neighbours house then if a whole Towne were a fire farre from him You know that I am carefull to preserue the woods and game through all England nay through all the Isle yet none of you doubts but that I would be more offended with any disorder in the Forrest of Waltham for stealing of a Stagge there which lieth as it were vnder my nose and in a manerioyneth with my garden then with cutting of timber or stealing of a Deare in any Forrest of the North parts of Yorkeshire or the Bishopricke Thinke you that I will preferre them that be absent lesse powerfull and farther off to doe me good or hurt before you with whom my security and liuing must be and where I desire to plant my posterity If I might by any such fauours raise my selfe to a greatnesse it might bee probable All I cannot draw and to lose a whole state here to please a few there were madnesse I neede speake no more of this with protestations Speake but of wit it is not likely and to doubt of my intention in this were more then deuilish For mine owne part I offer more then I receiue and conueniencie I preferre before law in this point For three parts wherein I might hurt this Nation by partiality to the Scots you know doe absolutely lie in my hands and power for either in disposition of rents or whatsoeuer benefit or in the preferring of them to any dignitie or office ciuill or Ecclesiasticall or in calling them to the Parliament it doeth all fully and onely lie within the compasse of my Prerogatiue which are the parts wherein the Scottish men can receiue either benefite or preferment by the Vnion and wherein for the care I haue of this people I am content to binde my selfe with some reasonable restrictions As for the fourth part the Naturalizing which onely lieth in your hands It is the point wherein they receiue least benefit of any for in that they can obteine nothing but what
they buy by their purse or acquire by the selfe same meanes that you doe And as for the point of naturalizing which is the point thought so fit and so precisely belonging to Parliament not to speake of the Common law wherein as yet I can professe no great knowledge but in the Ciuill law wherein I am a little better versed and which in the point of Coniunction of Nations should beare a great sway it being the Law of Nations I will mainteine two principles in it which no learned and graue Ciuilian will deny as being clearely to be proued both out of the text it selfe in many places and also out of the best approued Doctours and interpreters of that law The one that it is a speciall point of the Kings owne Prerogatiue to make Aliens Citizens and donare Ciuitate The other that in any case wherein the Law is thought not to be cleare as some of your selues doe doubt that in this case of the postnati the Law of England doth not clearely determine then in such a question wherein no positiue Law is resolute Rexest Iudex for he is Lex loquens and is to supply the Law where the Law wants and if many famous histories be to be beleeued they giue the example for mainteining of this Law in the persons of the Kings of England and France especially whose speciall Prerogatiue they alleadge it to be But this I speake onely as knowing what belongeth to a King although in this case I presse no further then that which may agree with your loues and stand with the weale and conueniencie of both Nations And whereas some may thinke this Vnion will bring preiudice to some Townes and Corporations within England It may bee a Merchant or two of Bristow or Yarmouth may haue an hundred pounds lesse in his packe But if the Empire gaine and become the greater it is no matter You see one Corporation is euer against another and no priuate Companie can be set vp but with some losse to another For the supposed inconueniences rising from Scotland they are three Fourth First that there is an euill affection in the Scottish Nation to the Vnion Next the Vnion is incompatible betweene two such Nations Thirdly that the gaine is smal or none If this be so to what end do we talke of an Vnion For proofe of the first point there is alleadged an auersenesse in the Scottish Nation expressed in the Instrument both in the preface and body of their Acte In the preface where they declare That they will remaine an absolute and free Monarchie And in the body of the Acte where they make an exception of the ancient fundamentall Lawes of that Kingdome And first for the generall of their auersenes All the maine current in your Lower-house ranne this whole Session of Parliament with that opinion That Scotland was so greedy of this Vnion and apprehended that they should receiue so much benefit by it as they cared not for the strictnesse of any conditions so they might attaine to the substance And yet you now say they are backwards and auerse from the Vnion This is a direct contradiction In adiecto For how can they both be beggers and backwards in one and the selfe same thing at the same time But for answere to the particulars It is an old Schoole point Eius est explicare cuius est condere You cannot interpret their Lawes nor they yours I that made them with their assent can best expound them And first I confesse that the English Parliaments are so long and the Scottish so short that a meane betweene them would doe well For the shortnesse of their continuing together was the cause of their hastie mistaking by setting these wordes of exception of fundamentall Lawes in the body of the Acte which they onely did in pressing to imitate word by word the English Instrument wherein the same wordes be conteined in your Preface And as to their meaning and interpretation of that word I will not onely deliuer it vnto you out of mine owne conceipt but as it was deliuered vnto mee by the best Lawyers of Scotland both Counsellours and other Lawyers who were at the making thereof in Scotland and were Commissioners here for performance of the same Their meaning in the word of Fundamentall Lawes you shall perceiue more fully hereafter when I handle the obiection of the difference of Lawes For they intend thereby onely those Lawes whereby confusion is auoyded and their Kings descent mainteined and the heritage of the succession and Monarchie which hath bene a Kingdome to which I am in descent three hundreth yeeres before CHRIST Not meaning it as you doe of their Common Law for they haue none but that which is called IVS REGIS and their desire of continuing a free Monarchie was onely meant That all such particular Priuiledges whereof I spake before should not bee so confounded as for want either of Magistrate Law or Order they might fall in such a confusion as to become like a naked Prouince without Law or libertie vnder this Kingdome I hope you meane not I should set Garrisons ouer them as the Spaniards doe ouer Sicily and Naples or gouerne them by Commissioners which are seldome found succeedingly all wise and honest men This I must say for Scotland and I may trewly vaunt it Here I sit and gouerne it with my Pen I write and it is done and by a Clearke of the Councell I gouerne Scotland now which others could not doe by the sword And for their auersensse in their heart against the Vnion It is trew indeede I protest they did neuer craue this Vnion of me nor sought it either in priuate or the State by letters nor euer once did any of that Nation presse mee forward or wish mee to accelerate that businesse But on the other part they offered alwayes to obey mee when it should come to them and all honest men that desire my greatnesse haue beene thus minded for the personall reuerence and regard they beare vnto my Perion and any of my reasonable and iust desires I know there are many Piggots amongst them I meane a number of seditious and discontented particular persons as must be in all Common-wealths that where they dare may peraduenture talke lewdly enough but no Scottish man euer spake dishonourably of England in Parliament For here must I note vnto you the difference of the two Parliaments in these two Kingdomes for there they must not speake without the Chauncellors leaue and if any man doe propound or vtter any seditious or vncomely speeches he is straight interrupted and silenced by the Chauncellors authoritie where as here the libertie for any man to speake what hee list and as long as he list was the onely cause he was not interrupted It hath bin obiected that there is a great Antipathy of the Lawes and Customes of these two Nations It is much mistaken for Scotland hath no Common Law as here but the Law they
haue is of three sorts All the Lawe of Scotland for Tenures Wards and Liueries Seigniories and Lands are drawen out of the Chauncerie of England and for matters of equitie and in many things else differs from you but in certaine termes Iames the first bred here in England brought the Lawes thither in a written hand The second is Statute lawes which be their Acts of Parliament wherein they haue power as you to make and altar Lawes and those may be looked into by you for I hope you shall be no more strangers to that Nation And the principall worke of this Vnion will be to reconcile the Statute Lawes of both Kingdomes The third is the Ciuill Law Iames the fift brought it out of France by establishing the Session there according to the forme of the Court of Parliament of Fraunce which he had seene in the time of his being there who occupie there the place of Ciuill udges in all matters of Plee or controuersie yet not to gouerne absolutely by the Ciuill Law as in Fraunce For if a man plead that the Law of the Nation is otherwise it is a barre to the Ciuill and a good Chauncellor or President will oftentimes repell and put to silence an Argument that the Lawyers bring out of the Ciuill Law where they haue a cleare solution in their owne Law So as the Ciuil Law in Scotland is admitted in no other cases but to supply such cases wherein the Municipall Law is defectiue Then may you see it is not so hard a matter as is thought to reduce that Countrey to bee vnited with you vnder this Law which neither are subiect to the Ciuill Lawe nor yet haue any olde Common Law of their owne but such as in effect is borrowed from yours And for their Statute Lawes in Parliament you may alter and change them as oft as occasion shall require as you doe here It hath likewise beene obiected as an other impediment that in the Parliament of Scotland the King hath not anegatiue voice but must passe all the Lawes agreed on by the Lords and Commons Of this I can best resolue you for I am the eldest Parliament man in Scotland and haue sit in more Parliaments then any of my Predecessors I can assure you that the forme of Parliament there is nothing inclined to popularitie About a twentie dayes or such a time before the Parliament Proclamation is made throughout the Kingdome to deliuer in to the Kings Clearke of Register whom you heere call the Master of the Rolles all Bills to be exhibited that Session before a certaine day Then are they brought vnto the King and perused and considered by him and onely such as I allowe of are put into the Chancellors handes to bee propounded to the Parliament and none others And if any man in Parliament speake of any other matter then is in this forme first allowed by mee The Chancellor tells him there is no such Bill allowed by the King Besides when they haue passed them for lawes they are presented vnto me and I with my Scepter put into my hand by the Chancellor must say I ratifie and approue all things done in this present Parliament And if there bee any thing that I dislike they rase it out before If this may bee called a negatiue voyce then I haue one I am sure in that Parliament The last impediment is the French liberties which is thought so great as except the Scots farsake Fraunce England cannot bee vnited to them If the Scottish Nation would bee so vnwilling to leaue them as is said it would not lye in their hands For the League was neuer made betweene the people as is mistaken but betwixt the Princes onely and their Crownes The beginning was by a Message from a King of Fraunce Charlemaine I take it but I cannot certainely remember vnto a King of Scotland for a League defensiue and offensiue betweene vs and them against England Fraunce being at that time in Warres with England The like at that time was then desired by England against Fraunce who also sent their Ambassadours to Scotland At the first the Disputation was long maintained in fauour of England that they being our neerest Neighbours ioyned in one continent and a strong and powerfull Nation it was more fitte for the weale and securitie of the State of Scotland to be in League and Amitie with them then with a Countrey though neuer so strong yet diuided by Sea from vs especially Englandlying betwixt vs and them where we might be sure of a suddaine mischiefe but behooued to abide the hazard of wind and weather and other accidents that might hinder our reliefe But after when the contrary part of the Argument was maintained wherein allegation was made that England euer sought to conquer Scotland and therefore in regarde of their pretended interest in the Kingdoome would neuer keepe any sound Amitie with them longer then they saw their aduantage whereas France lying more remote and clayming no interest in the Kingdome would therefore bee found a more constant and faithfull friend It was vnhappily concluded in fauour of the last partie through which occasion Scotland gate many mischiefes after And it is by the very tenour thereof ordered to bee renewed and confirmed from King to King successiuely which accordingly was euer performed by the mediation of their Ambassadours and therefore meerely personall and so was it renewed in the Queene my mothers time onely betweene the two Kings and not by assent of Parliament or conuention of the three Estates which it could neuer haue wanted if it had beene a League betweene the people And in my time when it came to be ratified because it appeared to be in odium tertii it was by me left vnrenewed or confirmed as a thing incompatible to my Person in consideration of my Title to this Crowne Some Priuiledges indeede in the Merchants fauour for point of Commerce were renewed and confirmed in my time wherein for my part of it there was scarce three Counsellours more then my Secretarie to whose place it belonged that medled in that matter It is trew that it behooued to be enterteined as they call it in the Court of Parliament of Paris but that onely serues for publication and not to giue it Authoritie That Parliament as you know being but a Iudiciall Seate of Iudges and Lawyers and nothing agreeing with the definition or office of our Parliaments in this Isle And therefore that any fruites or Priuiledges possessed by the League with Fraunce is able now to remaine in Scotland is impossible For ye may be sure that the French King stayes onely vpon the sight of the ending of this Vnion to cut it off himselfe Otherwise when this great worke were at an end I would be forced for the generall care I owe to all my Subiects to craue of France like Priuiledges to them all as Scotland alreadie enioyes seeing the personall friendship remaines as great betweene vs as betweene our
Progenitors and all my Subiects must be alike deare vnto me which either hee will neuer grant and so all will fall to the ground or else it will turne to the benefite of the whole Island and so the Scottish Priuiledges cannot hold longer then my League with France lasteth And for another Argument to prooue that this league is only betweene the Kings and not betweene the people They which haue Pensions or are priuie Intelligence giuers in France without my leaue are in no better case by the Law of Scotland then if they were Pensioners to Spaine As for the Scottish Guard in France the beginning thereof was when an Earle of Boghan was sent in aide of the French with tenne thousand men and there being made Constable and hauing obtained a victorie was murthered with the most of the Scottish Armie In recompense whereof and for a future securitie to the Scottish Nation the Scottish Guard was ordeined to haue the priuiledge and prerogatiue before all other Guards in guarding the Kings person And as for the last point of this subdiuision concerning the gaine that England may make by this Vnion I thinke no wise nor honest man will aske any such question For who is so ignorant that doeth not know the gaine will bee great Doe you not gaine by the Vnion of Wales And is not Scotland greater then Wales Shall not your Dominions bee encreased of Landes Seas and persons added to your greatnesse And are not your Landes and Seas adioyning For who can set downe the limits of the Borders but as a Mathematicall line or Idaea Then will that backe doore bee shut and those portes of Ianus be for euer closed you shall haue them that were your enemies to molest you a sure backe to defend you their bodies shall bee your aides and they must bee partners in all your quarrels Two snow-balls put together make one the greater Two houses ioyned make one the larger two Castle walles made in one makes one as thicke and strong as both And doe you not see in the Low countreys how auaileable the English and the Scottish are being ioyned together This is a point so plaine as no man that hath wit or honestie but must acknowledge it feelingly And where it is obiected that the Scottishmen are not tyed to the seruice of the King in the warres aboue forty dayes It is an ignorant mistaking For the trewth is That in respect the Kings of Scotland did not so abound in Treasure and money to take vp an Armie vnder pay as the Kings of England did Therefore was the Scottish Army wont to be raysed onely by Proclamation vpon the penaltie of their breach of alleageance So as they were all forced to come to the Warre like Snailes who carry their house about with them Euery Nobleman and Gentleman bringing with him their Tents money prouision for their house victuals of all sorts and all other necessaries the King supplying them of nothing Necessitie thereupon enforcing a warning to be giuen by the Proclamation of the space of their attendance without which they could not make their prouision accordingly especially as long as they were within the bounds of Scotland where it was not lawfull for them to helpe themselues by the spoile or wasting of the Countrey But neither is there any Law Prescribing precisely such a certaine number of dayes nor yet is it without the limits of the Kings power to keepe them together as many more dayes as hee list to renew his Proclamations from time to time some reasonable number of dayes before the expiring of the former they being euer bound to serue and waite vpon him though it were an hundreth yeere if need were Now to conclude I am glad of this occasion that I might Liberare animam meam You are now to recede when you meete againe remember I pray you the trewth and sincerity of my meaning which in seeking Vnion is onely to aduance the greatnesse of your Empire seated here in England And yet with such caution I wish it as may stand with the weale of both States What is now desired hath oft before bene sought when it could not bee obteined To refuse it now then were double iniquitie Strengthen your owne felicitie London must bee the Seate of your King and Scotland ioyned to this kingdome by a Golden conquest but cymented with loue as I said before which within will make you strong against all Ciuill and intestine Rebellion as without wee will bee compassed and guarded with our walles of brasse Iudge mee charitably since in this I seeke your equall good that so both of you might bee made fearefull to your Enemies powerfull in your selues and auaileable to your friendes Studie therefore hereafter to make a good Conclusion auoyd all delayes cut off all vaine questions that your King may haue his lawfull desire and be not disgraced in his iust endes And for your securitie in such reasonable points of restrictions whereunto I am to agree yee need neuer doubt of my inclination For I will not say any thing which I will not promise nor promise any thing which I will notsweare What I sweare I will signe and what I signe I shall with GODS grace euer performe A SPEACH TO THE LORDS AND COMMONS OF THE PARLIAMENT AT WHITE-HALL ON WEDNESDAY THE XXI OF MARCH ANNO 1609. WE being now in the middest of this season appointed for penitence and prayer it hath so fallen out that these two last dayes haue bene spent in a farre other sort of exercise I meane in Eucharisticke Sacrifice and gratulation of thankes presented vnto mee by both the parts of this body of Parliament and therefore to make vp the number of three which is the number of Trinitie and perfection I haue thought good to make this the third Day to be spent in this exercise As ye made mee a faire Present indeed in presenting your thankes and louing dueties vnto mee So haue I now called you here to recompence you againe with a great and a rare Present which is a faire and a Christall Mirror Not such a Mirror wherein you may see your owne faces or shadowes but such a Mirror or Christall as through the transparantnesse thereof you may see the heart of your King The Philosophers wish That euery mans breast were a Christall where-through his heart might be seene is vulgarly knowne and I touched it in one of my former Speaches vnto you But though that were impossible in the generall yet will I now performe this for my part That as it is a trew Axiome in Diuinitie That Cor Regis is in manu Domini So wil I now set Cor Regis in oculis populi I know that I can say nothing at this time whereof some of you that are here haue not at one time or other heard me say the like already Yet as corporall food nourisheth and mainteineth the body so doeth Reminiscentia nourish and mainteine memory I Will reduce to three
Inheritance to his children at his pleasure yea euen disinherite the eldest vpon iust occasions and preferre the youngest according to his liking make them beggers or rich at his pleasure restraine or banish out of his presence as hee findes them giue cause of offence or restore them in fauour againe with the penitent sinner So may the King deale with his Subiects And lastly as for the head of the naturall body the head hath the power of directing all the members of the body to that vse which the iudgement in the head thinkes most conuenient It may apply sharpe cures or cut off corrupt members let blood in what proportion it thinkes fit and as the body may spare but yet is all this power ordeined by God Ad aedificationem non ad destructionem For although God haue power aswell of destruction as of creation or maintenance yet will it not agree with the wisedome of God to exercise his power in the destruction of nature and ouerturning the whole frame of things since his creatures were made that his glory might thereby be the better expressed So were hee a foolish father that would disinherite or destroy his children without a cause or leaue off the carefull education of them And it were an idle head that would in place of phisicke so poyson or phlebotomize the body as might breede a dangerous distemper or destruction thereof But now in these our times we are to distinguish betweene the state of Kings in their first originall and betweene the state of setled Kings and Monarches that doe at this time gouerne in ciuill Kingdomes For euen as God during the time of the olde Testament spake by Oracles and wrought by Miracles yet how soone it pleased him to setle a Church which was bought and redeemed by the blood of his onely Sonne Christ then was there a cessation of both Hee euer after gouerning his people and Church within the limits of his reueiledwill So in the first originall of Kings whereof some had their beginning by Conquest and some by election of the people their wills at that time serued for Law Yet how soone Kingdomes began to be setled in ciuilitie and policie then did Kings set downe their minds by Lawes which are properly made by the King onely but at the rogation of the people the Kings grant being obteined thereunto And so the King became to be Lex loquens after a sort binding himselfe by a double oath to the obseruation of the fundamentall Lawes of his kingdome Tacitly as by being a King and so bound to protect aswell the people as the Lawes of his Kingdome And Expresly by his oath at his Coronation So as euery iust King in a setled Kingdome is bound to obserue that paction made to his people by his Lawes in framing his gouernment agreeable thereunto according to that paction which God made with Noe after the deluge Hereafter Seed-time and Haruest Cold and Heate Summer and Winter and Day and Night shall not cease so long as the earth remaines And therefore a King gouerning in a setled Kingdome leaues to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant assoone as he leaues off to rule according to his Lawes In which case the Kings conscience may speake vnto him as the poore widow said to Philip of Macedon Either gouerne according to your Law Aut ne Rexsis And though no Christian man ought to allow any rebellion of people against their Prince yet doeth God neuer leaue Kings vnpunished when they transgresse these limits For in that same Psalme where God saith to Kings Vos Dij estis hee immediatly thereafter concludes But ye shall die like men The higher wee are placed the greater shall our fall be Vt casus sic dolor the taller the trees be the more in danger of the winde and the tempest beats sorest vpon the highest mountaines Therefore all Kings that are not tyrants or periured wil be glad to bound themselues within the limits of their Lawes and they that perswade them the contrary are vipers and pests both against them and the Common-wealth For it is a great difference betweene a Kings gouernment in a setled State and what Kings in their originall power might doe in Indiuiduo vago As for my part I thanke God I haue euer giuen good proofe that I neuer had intention to the contrary And I am sure to goe to my graue with that reputation and comfort that neuer King was in all his time more carefull to haue his Lawes duely obserued and himselfe to gouerne thereafter then I. I conclude then this point touching the power of Kings with this Axiome of Diuinitie That as to dispute what God may doe is Blasphemie but quid vult Deus that Diuines may lawfully and doe ordinarily dispute and discusse for to dispute A Posse ad Esse is both against Logicke and Diuinitie So is it sedition in Subiects to dispute what a King may do in the height of his power But iust Kings wil euer be willing to declare what they wil do if they wil not incurre the curse of God I wil not be content that my power be disputed vpon but I shall euer be willing to make the reason appeare of all my doings and rule my actions according to my Lawes The other branch of this incident is concerning the Common Law being conceiued by some that I contemned it and preferred the Ciuil Law thereunto As I haue already said Kings Actions euen in the secretest places are as the actions of those that are set vpon the Stages or on the tops of houses and I hope neuer to speake that in priuate which I shall not auow in publique and Print it if need be as I said in my BASILICON DORON For it is trew that within these few dayes I spake freely my minde touching the Common Law in my Priuie Chamber at the time of my dinner which is come to all your eares and the same was likewise related vnto you by my Treasurer and now I will againe repeate and confirme the same my selfe vnto you First as a King I haue least cause of any man to dislike the Common Law For no Law can bee more fauourable and aduantagious for a King and extendeth further his Prerogatiue then it doeth And for a King of England to despile the Common Law it is to neglect his owne Crowne It is trew that I doe greatly esteeme the Ciuill Law the profession thereof seruing more for generall learning and being most necessary for matters of Treatie with all forreine Nations And I thinke that if it should bee taken away it would make an entrie to Barbarisme in this Kingdome and would blemish the honour of England For it is in a maner LEX GENTIVM and maintaineth Intercourse with all forreme Nations but I onely allow it to haue course here according to those limits of Iurisdiction which the Common Law it selfe doeth allow it And therefore though it bee not fit for the
acquainted with their state If I had not more then cause you may be sure I would be loth to trouble you But what he hath affirmed in this vpon the honour of a Gentleman whom you neuer had cause to distrust for his honestie that doe I now confirme and auow to be trew in the word and honour of a King And therein you are bound to beleeue me Duetie I may iustly claime of you as my Subiects and one of the branches of duetie which Subiects owe to their Soueraigne is Supply but in what quantitie and at what time that must come of your loues I am not now therefore to dispute of a Kings power but to tell you what I may iustly craue and expect with your good wills I was euer against all extremes and in this case I will likewise wish you to auoyd them on both sides For if you faile in the one I might haue great cause to blame you as Parliament men being called by me for my Errands And if you fall into the other extreme by supply of my necessities without respectiue care to auoyd oppression or partialitie in the Leuie both I and the Countrey will haue cause to blame you When I thinke vpon the composition of this body of Parliament I doe well consider that the Vpper house is composed of the Seculer Nobilitie who are hereditary Lords of Parliament and of Bishops that are liue Renter Barons of the same And therefore what is giuen by the Vpper house is giuen onely from the trew body of that House and out of their owne purposes that doe giue it whereas the Lower house is but the representatiue body of the Commons and so what you giue you giue it aswell for others as for your selues and therefore you haue the more reason to eschew both the extreames On the one part ye may the more easily be liberall since it comes not all from your selues and yet vpon the other part if yee giue more then is fit for good and louing Subiects to yeeld vpon such necessary occasions yee abuse the King and hurt the people And such a gift I will neuer accept For in such a case you might deceiue a King in giuing your flattering consent to that which you know might moue the people generally to grudge and murmure at it and so should the King find himselfe deceiued in his Caloule and the people likewise grieued in their hearts the loue and possession of which I protest I did and euer will accompt the greatest earthly securitie next the fauour of GOD to any wise or iust King For though it was vainely saide by one of your House That yee had need to beware that by giuing mee too much your throats were not in danger of cutting at your comming home yet may ye assure your selues that I will euer bee lothe to presse you to doe that which may wrong the people and make you iustly to beare the blame thereof But that yee may the better bee acquainted with my inclination I will appeale to a number of my Priuie Councell here present if that before the calling of this Parliament and when I found that the necessitie of my estate required so great a supply they found me more desirous to obtaine that which I was forced to seeke then carefull that the people might yeeld me a supply in so great a measure as my necessities required without their too great losse And you all that are Parliament men and here present of both Houses can beare me witnesse if euer I burthened or imployed any of you for any particular Subsidies or summes by name further then my laying open the particular necessities of my state or yet if euer I spake to any Priuie Councellour or any of my learned Councell to labour voyces for me to this end I euer detested the hunting for Emendicata Suffragia A King that will rule and gouerne iustly must haue regard to Conscience Honour and Iudgement in all his great Actions as your selfe M. Speaker remembred the other day And therefore ye may assure your selues That I euer limitall my great Actions within that compasse But as vpon the one side I doe not desire you should yeeld to that extreame in giuing me more then as I said formerly vpon such necessary occasions are fit for good and louing Subiects to yeeld For that were to giue me a purse with a knife So on the other side I hope you will not make vaine pretences of wants out of causelesse apprehensions or idle excuses neither cloake your owne humours when your selues are vnwilling by alledging the pouertie of the people For although I will be no lesse iust as a King to such persons then any other For my Iustice with Gods grace shal be alike open to all yet ye must thinke I haue no reason to thanke them or gratifie them with any suits or matters of grace when their errand shall come in my way And yet no man can say that euer I quarrelled any man for refusing mee a Subsidie if hee did it in a moderate fashion and with good reasons For him that denies a good Law I will not spare to quarrell But for graunting or denying money it is but an effect of loue And therefore for the point of my necessities I onely desire that I be not refused in that which of duety I ought to haue For I know if it were propounded in the generall amongst you whether the Kings wants ought to be relieued or not there is not one of you that would make question of it And though in a sort this may seeme to be my particular yet it can not bee diuided from the generall good of the Common wealth For the King that is Parens Patriae telles you of his wants Nay Patria ipsa by him speakes vnto you For if the King want the State wants and therefore the strengthening of the King is the preseruation and the standing of the State And woe be to him that diuides the weale of the King from the weale of the Kingdome And as that King is miserable how rich soeuer he bee that raines ouer a poore people for the hearts and riches of the people are the Kings greatest treasure So is that Kingdome not able to subsist how rich and potent soeuer the people be if their King wants meanes to mainaine his State for the meanes of your King are the sinewes of the kingdome both in warre and peace for in peace I must minister iustice vnto you and in warre I must defend you by Armes but neither of these can I do without sufficient means which must come from your Aide and Supply I confesse it is farre against my nature to be burthensome to my people for it cannot but grieue me to craue of others that was borne to be begged of It is trew I craue more then euer King of England did but I haue farre greater and iuster cause and reason to craue then euer King of England had And though
my Treasurer hath at length declared the reasons vnto you of my necessities and of a large supply that he craued for the same wherein he omitted no arguments that can be vsed for that purpose yet will I my selfe now shortly remember you some of the weightiest reasons that come in my head to proue the equitie of my demaund First ye all know that by the accession of more Crownes which in my Person I haue brought vnto you my charge must be the greater in all reason For the greater your King be both in his dominion and number of Subiects he cannot but be forced thereby to be at the more charge and it is the more your honour so to haue it Next that posteritie and issue which it hath pleased God to send me for your vse cannot but bring necessarily with it a greater proportion of charge You all know that the late Queene of famous memory notwithstanding her orbitie had much giuen vnto her and more then euer any of her predecessors had before her Thirdly the time of creation of my Sonne doeth now draw neere which I chuse for the greater honour to bee done in this time of Parliament As for him I say no more the sight of himselfe here speakes for him Fourthly it is trew I haue spent much but yet if I had spared any of those things which caused a great part of my expense I should haue dishonored the kingdome my selfe and the late Queene Should I haue spared the funerall of the late Queene or the solemnitie of mine and my wiues entrie into this Kingdome in some honourable sort or should I haue spared our entrie into London or our Coronation And when most of the Monarches and great Princes in Christendome sent their Ambassadours to congratulate my comming hither and some of them came in person was I not bound both for my owne honour and the honour of the Kingdome to giue them good entertainement But in case it might be obiected by some that it is onely vpon occasions of warre that Kings obtaine great Supplies from their Subiects notwithstanding my interne Peace I am yet in a kinde of warre which if it bee without the more is your safetie For as the Treasurer tolde you at large I am now forced both in respects of State and my promise and for the generall cause of Religion to send a Supply of forces to Cleues and how long that occasion may last or what greater supply the necessitie of that Errand may draw mee vnto no man can yet tell Besides that although I haue put downe that forme of warlike keeping of Barwicke yet are all those commaunders my pensioners that were the late Queenes souldiers And I hope I sustaine a prettie Seminarie of Souldiers in my Forts within this Kingdome besides the two cautionary Townes in the Low-countreys Flushing and Brill And as for Ireland yee all know how vncertaine my charges are euer there that people being so easily stirred partly through their barbaritie and want of ciuilitie and partly through their corruption in Religion to breake foorth in rebellions Yee know how vnlooked for a Rebellion brake foorth there the last yeere which could not but put mee to extraordinary charges Besides I doe maintaine there continually an Armie which is a goodly Seminarie of expert and old Souldiers And I dare neuer suffer the same to be diminished till this Plantation take effect which no doubt is the greatest moate that euer came in the Rebels eyes and it is to be looked for that if euer they will bee able to make any stirre they will presse at it by all meanes for the preuenting and discouraging this Plantation Now it is trew that besides all these honourable and necessary occasions of my charge I haue spent much in liberalitie but yet I hope you will consider that what I haue giuen hath bene giuen amongst you and so what comes in from you goes out againe amongst you But it may be thought that I haue giuen much amongst Scottishmen Indeed if I had not beene liberall in rewarding some of my old seruants of that Nation ye could neuer haue had reason to expect my thankefulnesse towards any of you that are more lately become my Subiects if I had beene ingrate to the old And yet yee will find that I haue dealt twice as much amongst English men as I haue done to Scottishmen And therefore he that in your House was not ashamed to affirme that the siluer and gold did so abound in Edenburgh was very farre mistaken but I wish him no worse punishment then that hee should onely liue vpon such profit of the money there But I hope you will neuer mislike me for my liberalitie since I can looke very few of you this day in the face that haue not made suits to mee at least for some thing either of honour or profit It is trew a Kings liberalitie must neuer be dried vp altogether for then he can neuer maintaine nor oblige his seruants and well deseruing Subiects But that vastnesse of my expence is past which I vsed the first two or three yeeres after my comming hither And as I oft vsed to say that Christmas and open tide is ended For at my first comming here partly ignorance of this State which no man can acquire but by time and experience and partly the forme of my comming being so honourable and miraculous enforced me to extend my liberalitie so much the more at the beginning Ye saw I made Knights then by hundreths and Barons in great numbers but I hope you find I doe not so now nor minde not to doe so hereafter For to conclude this point anent expences I hold that a Kings expence must alwayes bee honourable though not wastefull and the charges of your King in maintaining those ancient honourable formes of liuing that the former Kings of England my Predecessours haue done and his liuing to bee ruled according to the proportion of his greatnesse is aswell for the honour of your Kingdome as of your King Now this cannot be supplied out of the ayre or liquid elements but must come from the people And for remouing of that diffidence which men may haue that I minde not to liue in any wastefull sort hereafter will you but looke vpon my selfe and my posteritie and if there were no more but that it will teach you that if I were but a naturall man I must needs bee carefull of my expences For as for my owne person I hope none that knowes me well can thinke me but as little inclined to any prodigall humours of vnnecessary things as any other reasonable man of a farre meaner estate Therefore since as I haue said I cannot be helped but from the people I assure my selfe that you will well allow mee such measure of Supplie as the people may beare and support him with more Honourable meanes then others haue had that as I may say without vaunting hath brought you more Honour then euer
with a false light which yee doe if ye mistake or mis-vnderstand my Speach and so alter the sence thereof But secondly I pray you beware to soile it with a foule breath and vncleane hands I meane that yee peruert not my words by any corrupt affections turning them to an ill meaning like one who when hee heares the tolling of a Bell fancies to himselfe that it speakes those words which are most in his minde And lastly which is worst of all beware to let it fall or breake for glasse is brittle which ye doe if ye lightly esteeme it and by contemning it conforme not your selues to my perswasions To conclude then As all these three dayes of Iubile haue fallen in the midst of this season of penitence wherein you haue presented your thanks to me and I the like againe to you So doe I wish and hope that the end of this Parliament will bee such as wee may all haue cause both I your Head and yee the Body to ioyne in Eucharisticke Thanks and Praises vnto God for our so good and happie an end A SPEACH IN THE STARRE-CHAMBER THE XX. OF JVNE ANNO 1616. GIVE THY IVDGEMENTS TO THE KING O GOD AND THY RIGHTEOVSNES TO THE KINGS SONNE These be the first words of one of the Psalmes of the Kingly Prophet Dauid whereof the literall sense runnes vpon him and his sonne Salomon and the mysticall sense vpon GOD and CHRIST his eternall Sonne but they are both so wouen together as some parts are and can onely bee properly applied vnto GOD and CHRIST and other parts vnto Dauid and Salomon as this Verse Giue thy Iudgements to the King O God and thy Righteousnesse to the Kings Sonne cannot be properly spoken of any but of Dauid and his sonne because it is said Giue thy Iudgements c. Now God cannot giue to himselfe In another part of the same Psalme where it is said that Righteousnes shall flourish and abundance of Peace as long as the Moone endureth it signifieth eternitie and cannot be properly applied but to GOD and CHRIST But both senses aswell literall as mysticall serue to Kings for imitation and especially to Christian Kings for Kings sit in the Throne of GOD and they themselues are called Gods And therefore all good Kings in their gouernment must imitate GOD and his Christ in being iust and righteous Dauid and Salomon in being godly and wise To be wise is vnderstood able to discerne able to iudge others To be godly is that the fountaine be pure whence the streames proceed for what auailes it though all his workes be godly if they proceed not from godlinesse To bee righteous is to a mans selfe To bee iust is towards others But Iustice in a King auailes not vnlesse it be with a cleane heart for except he bee Righteous aswell as Iust he is no good King and whatsoeuer iustice he doeth except he doeth it for Iustice sake and out of the purenesse of his owne heart neither from priuate ends vaine-glory or any other by-respects of his owne all such Iustice is vnrighteousnesse and no trew Iustice From this imitation of GOD and CHRIST in whose Throne wee sit the gouernment of all Common-wealths and especially Monarchies hath bene from the beginning setled and established Kings are properly Iudges and Iudgement properly belongs to them from GOD for Kings sit in the Throne of GOD and thence all Iudgement is deriued In all well setled Monarchies where Law is established formerly and orderly there Iudgement is deferred from the King to his subordinate Magistrates not that the King takes it from himselfe but giues it vnto them So it comes not to them Priuatiuè but cumulatiuè as the Shoolemen speake The ground is ancient euer sithence that Counsell which Iethro gaue to Moses for after that Moses had gouerned a long time in his owne person the burthen grew so great hauing none to helpe him as his father in law comming to visite him found him so cumbred with ministring of Iustice that neither the people were satisfied nor he well able to performe it Therefore by his aduice Iudges were deputed for easier questions and the greater and more profound were left to Moses And according to this establishment all Kings that haue had a formall gouernement especially Christian Kings in all aages haue gouerned their people though after a diuers maner This Deputation is after one manner in France after another here and euen my owne Kingdomes differ in this point of gouernment for Scotland differs both from France and England herein but all agree in this I speake of such Kingdomes or States where the formalitie of Law hath place that the King that sits in Gods Throne onely deputes subalterne Iudges and he deputes not one but a number for no one subalterne Iudges mouth makes Law and their office is to interprete Law and administer Iustice But as to the number of them the forme of gouernement the maner of interpretation the distinction of Benches the diuersitie of Courts these varie according to the varietie of gouernment and institution of diuers Kings So this ground I lay that the seate of Iudgement is properly Gods and Kings are Gods Vicegerents and by Kings Iudges are deputed vnder them to beare the burden of gouernement according to the first example of Moses by the aduice of Iethro and sithence practised by Dauid and Salomon the wisest Kings that euer were which is in this Psalme so interlaced that as the first verse cannot be applied properly but to Dauid and Salomon in the words Giue thy Iudgements to the King c. So the other place in the same Psalme Righteousnesse shall flourish and abundance of peace shall remaine as long as the Moone endureth properly signifieth the eternitie of CHRIST This I speake to shew what a neere coniunction there is betweene God and the King vpward and the King and his Iudges downewards for the same coniunction that is betweene God and the King vpward the same coniunction is betweene the King and his Iudges downewards As Kings borrow their power from God so Iudges from Kings And as Kings are to accompt to God so Iudges vnto God and Kings and both Kings and Iudges by imitation haue two qualities from God and his Christ and two qualities from Dauid and his Salomon Iudgement and Righteousnesse from God and Christ Godlinesse and Wisedome from Dauid and Salomon And as no King can discharge his accompt to God vnlesse he make conscience not to alter but to declare and establish the will of God So Iudges cannot discharge their accompts to Kings vnlesse they take the like care not to take vpon them to make Law but ioyned together after a deliberate consultation to declare what the Law is For as Kings are subiect vnto Gods Law so they to mans Law It is the Kings Office to protect and settle the trew interpretation of the Law of God within his Dominions And it is the Iudges Office to interprete the
Pharises Hoc agite as the most principall yet I will say Et illud non omittite which that you may the better doe I haue allowed you a day more in your Circuits then my Predecessours haue done And this you shall finde that euen as a King let him be neuer so godly wise righteous and iust yet if the subalterne Magistrates doe not their parts vnder him the Kingdome must needes suffer So let the Iudges bee neuer so carefull and industrious if the Iustices of Peace vnder them put not to their helping hands in vaine is all your labour For they are the Kings eyes and eares in the countrey It was an ancient custome that all the Iudges both immediatly before their going to their Circuits and immediatly vpon their returne repaired to the Lord Chancellour of England both to receiue what directions it should please the King by his mouth to giue vnto them as also to giue him an accompt of their labours who was to acquaint the King therewith And this good ancient custome hath likewise beene too much slacked of late And therefore first of all I am to exhort and command you that you be carefull to giue a good accompt to me and my Chancellour of the dueties performed by all Iustices of Peace in your Circuits Which gouernment by Iustices is so laudable and so highly esteemed by mee that I haue made Scotland to bee gouerned by Iustices and Constables as England is And let not Gentlemen be ashamed of this Place for it is a place of high Honour and great reputation to be made a Minister of the Kings Iustice in seruice of the Common-wealth Of these there are two sorts as there is of all Companies especially where there is a great number that is good and bad Iustices For the good you are to enforme me of them that I may know them thanke them and reward them as occasion serues For I hold a good Iustice of Peace in his Countrey to doe mee as good seruice as hee that waites vpon mee in my Priuie Chamber and as ready will I be to reward him For I accompt him as capable of any Honour Office or preferment about my Person or for any place of Councell or State as well as any Courteour that is neere about mee or any that haue deserued well of me in forreine employments Yea I esteeme the seruice done me by a good Iustice of Peace three hundred miles yea sixe hundred miles out of my sight as well as the seruice done me in my presence For as God hath giuen me large limits so must I be carefull that my prouidence may reach to the farthest parts of them And as Law cannot be honoured except Honour be giuen to Iudges so without due respect to Iustices of Peace what regard will be had of the seruice Therefore let none be ashamed of this Office or be discouraged in being a Iustice of Peace if he serue worthily in it The Chancellour vnder me makes Iustices and puts them out but neither I nor he can tell what they are Therefore wee must bee informed by you Iudges who can onely tell who doe well and who doe ill without which how can the good be cherished and maintained and the rest put out The good Iustices are carefull to attend the seruice of the King and countrey for thanks onely of the King and loue to their countrey and for no other respect The bad are either idle Slowbellies that abide alwayes at home giuen to a life of ease and delight liker Ladies then men and thinke it is enough to contemplate Iustice when as Virtus in actione consistit contemplatiue Iustice is no iustice and contemplatiue Iustices are fit to be put out Another sort of Iustices are busie-bodies and will haue all men dance after their pipe and follow their greatnesse or else will not be content A sort of men Qui seprimos omnium esse putant nec sunt tamen these proud spirits must know that the countrey is ordained to obey and follow GOD and the King and not them Another sort are they that goe seldome to the Kings seruice but when it is to helpe some of their kindred or alliance So as when they come it is to helpe their friends or hurt their enemies making Iustice to serue for a shadow to Faction and tumultuating the countrey Another sort are Gentlemen of great worth in their owne conceit and cannot be content with the present forme of Gouernement but must haue a kind of libertie in the people and must be gracious Lords and Redeemers of their libertie and in euery cause that concernes Prerogatiue giue a snatch against a Monarchie through their Puritanicall itching after Popularitie Some of them haue shewed themselues too bold of late in the lower house of Parliament And when all is done if there were not a King they would be lesse cared for then other men And now hauing spoken of the qualities of the Iustices of Peace I am next to speake of their number As I euer held the midway in all things to be the way of Vertue in eschewing both extremities So doe I in this for vpon the one part a multitude of Iustices of Peace in the countrey more then is necessary breeds but confusion for although it be an old Prouerbe that Many handes make light worke yet too many make slight worke and too great a number of Iustices of Peace will make the businesse of the countrey to be the more neglected euery one trusting to another so as nothing shall bee well done besides the breeding of great corruption for where there is a great number it can hardly bee but some will bee corrupted And vpon the other part too few Iustices of Peace will not be able to vndergoe the burthen of the seruice And therefore I would neither haue too few nor too many but as many in euery countrey as may according to the proportion of that countrey bee necessary for the performing of the seruice there and no more As to the Charge you are to giue to the Iustices I can but repeat what formerly I haue told you yet in so good a businesse Lectio lecta placet decies repetita placebit And as I began with fulfilling the Prouerbe A Ioue principium so will I begin this Charge you are to giue to the Iustices with Church-matters for GOD will blesse euery good businesse the better that he and his Church haue the precedence That which I am now to speake is anent Recusants and Papists You neuer returned from any Circuit but by your accompt made vnto me I both conceiued great comfort and great griefe Comfort when I heard a number of Recusants in some Circuits to be diminished Griefe to my heart and soule when I heard a number of Recusants to be in other Circuits increased I protest vnto you nothing in the earth can grieue mee so much as mens falling away from Religion in my dayes And nothing so much ioyes mee as when
inthralling of his Crowne and Kingdome Therefore the Popes right pretended to the Crowne of England which is nothing else but a ridiculous vsurpation hath long agoe vanished into smoake and required not so much as the drawing of one sword to snatch and pull it by violence out of his hands For the Popes power lying altogether in a certaine wilde and wandring conceit or opinion of men and being onely an imaginary castle in the ayre built by pride and vnderpropped by superstition is very speedily dispersed vpon the first rising and appearing of the trewth in her glorious brightnesse There is none so very a dolt or block-head to deny that in case this right of the Pope ouer England is grounded vpon Gods word then his Holinesse may challenge the like right ouer all other Kingdomes because all other Kingdomes Crownes and Scepters are subiect alike to Gods word For what priuiledge what charter what euidence can France fetch out of the Rolles or any other treasurie of her monuments or records to shew that she oweth lesse subiection to God then England Or was this yoke of bondage then brought vpon the English Nation was it a prerogatiue whereby they might more easily come to the libertie of the sonnes of God Or were the people of England perswaded that for all their substance wealth and life bestowed on the Pope his Holinesse by way of exchange returned them better weight and measure of spirituall graces It is ridiculous onely to conceiue these toyes in thought and yet with such ridiculous with such toyes in conceit his Lordship feeds and entertains his auditors From this point hee falleth to another bowt and fling at his heretikes with whom he played no faire play before Pag. 105. There is not one Synode of ministers as he saith which would willingly subscribe to this Article whereunto wee should bee bound to sweare But herein his Lordship shooteth farre from the marke This Article is approoued and preached by the Ministers of my Kingdome It is likewise preached by those of France and if need bee I asssure my selfe will bee signed by all the Ministers of the French Church The L. Cardinall proceedeth for hee meaneth not so soone to giue ouer these heretikes All their Consistortes beleeue it as their Creed that if Catholike Princes at any time shall offer force vnto their conscience then they are dispensed withall for their oath of alleagiance Hence are these modifications and restricitions tossed so much in their mouthes Prouided the King force vs not in our conscience Hence are these exceptions in the profession of their faith Prouided the Soueraigne power and authoritie of God bee not in any sort violated or infringed I am not able to conceiue what engine can bee framed of these materialls for the bearing of Kings out of their eminent seates by any lawfull authoritie or power in the Pope For say those of the Religion should be tainted with some like errour how can that be any shelter of excuse for those of the Romish Church to vndermine or to digge vp the Thrones of their Kings But in this allegation of the L. Cardinall there is nothing at all which doeth not iumpe iust and accord to a haire with the Article of the third Estate and with obedience due to the King For they doe not professe that in case the King shall commaund them to doe any act contrarie to their conscience they would flie at his throat would make any attempt against his life would refuse to pay their taxations or to defend him in the warres They make no profession of deposing the King or discharging the people from the oath of allegiance tendred to the King which is the very point or issue of the matter in controuersie and the maine mischeife against which the third Estate hath bin most worthily carefull to prouide a wholesome remedie by this Article There is a world of difference betweene the termes of disobedience and of deposition It is one thing to disobey the Kings commaund in matters prohibited by diuine lawes and yet in all other matters to performe full subiection vnto the King It is another thing of a farre higher degree or straine of disloyaltie to bare the King of his Royall robes throne and scepter and when he is thus farre disgraced to degrade him and to put him from his degree and place of a King If the holy Father should charge the L. Cardinal to doe some act repugnant in his owne knowledge to the Law of God I will religiously and according to the rule of charitie presume that his Lordship in this case would stand out against his Holinesse and notwithstanding would still acknowledge him to be Pope His Lordship yet prosecutes and followes his former purpose Hence are those armes which they haue oftentimes borne against Kings when Kings practised to take away the libertie of their conscience and Religion Hence are those turbulent Commotions and seditions by them raised as well in the Low-countryes against the King of Spaine as in Swethland against the Catholike King of Polonia Besides he casteth Iunius Brutus Buchananus Barclaius and Gerson in our teeth To what end all this I see not how it can bee auaileable to authorize the deposing of Kings especially the Popes power to depose And yet his Lordship here doth outface by his leaue and beare downe the trewth For I could neuer yet learne by any good and trew intelligence that in France those of the Religion tooke armes at any time against their King In the first ciuill warres they stood onely vpon their guard they stood onely to their lawfull wards and locks of defence they armed not nor tooke the field before they were pursued with fire and sword burnt vp and slaughtred Besides Religion was neither the root nor the rynde of those intestine troubles The trew ground of the quarrell was this During the minority of King Francis II. the Protestants of France were a refuge and succour to the Princes of the blood when they were kept from the Kings presence and by the ouer powring power of their enemies were no better then plaine driuen and chased from the Court I meane the Grand-father of the King now raigning and the Grand-father of the Prince of Conde when they had no place of safe retreate In regard of which worthy and honourable seruice it may seeme the French King hath reason to haue the Protestants in his gracious remembrance With other commotion or insurrection the Protestants are not iustly to be charged But on the contrary certaine it is that King Henry III. raysed and sent forth seuerall armies against the Protestants to ruine and roote them out of the Kingdome howbeit so soone as they perceiued the said King was brought into dangerous tearms they ranne with great speed and speciall fidelitie to the Kings rescue and succour in the present danger Certaine it is that by their good seruice the said King was deliuered from a most extreame and imminent perill