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 we shall adde how craftily and subtilly he 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 spoken of Kings that owe fealtie to the Pope and are not Soueraignes in the highest degree of Temporal 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 cal me vsurper and vnlawfull King For the feudatarie or he that holdeth a Mannor by fealty when he doth not his homage with all suit and seruice that he owes to the Lord Paramount doth 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 Between 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 binds 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 general pardon at large for all his sinnes to be short cuts King Iohn out so much worke and makes him keep 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 intangled in the Popes toyles but by yeelding himselfe to become the Popes vassall and his Kingdome feudatary or to hold by fealty of the Papall See By this meanes his Crowne is made tributarie all his people liable to payment of taxes by the poll for a certaine yearly 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 doth not well see and clearely perceiue For to purchase his owne freedom from this bondage to the Pope what could he be vnwilling to doe that was willing to bring his Kingdome vnder the yoke 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 an other by Knights seruice or by homage and fealty doth faire homage for his Crowne to the Popes Legat and layeth downe at his feete a great masle of the purest gold in coyne The reuerend Legat in token of his Masters Soueraigntie with more then vsuall pride fals to kicking and spurning the treasure no doubt with a paire of most holy feete Not onely so but likewise at solemne feasts is easily entreated to take the Kings chaire of Estate Here 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 knowne from whence or from whom this power was deriued and conuaied to the Pope whereby he makes himselfe Soueraigne Lord of Temporalties in that Kingdome where neither he nor any of his predecessors euer pretended any right or laid 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 beganne this Papall power In what age beganne the Pope to practise this power What! haue the auncient Canons for the Scripture in this question beareth no pawme haue the Canons of the auncient Church imposed any such satisfaction vpon a sinner that of ueraigne and free King he should become vassal 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 coyne 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 he make his Pastor 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 graunted admit his Holinesse robs one Prince of his rights and reuenewes to conferre the same vpon an other were it not an high degree of Tyrannie to finger an other 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 own caruer in the rights of an other
with a disputable question but likewise in stead of securing the life and estate of Kings hee shall draw both into farre greater hazards by the trayne 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 we 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 we come to the maine the reader is to be informed and aduertised that his Lordship setteth a false glosse vpon the question and propounds the case not onely contrary to the truth of the subiect in controuersie but also to the Popes owne minde and meaning For he restrains 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 graunted to the Abbay of S. Medard at Soissons the said charter beeing annexed to his Epistles in the rere The same he testifieth in his Epistle to Senator by name the 10. of the eleuenth booke They depose for naturall dulnesse and lacke of capacitie whether inbred and true indeed or onely pretended and imagined witnesse the glorious vaunt of Gregorie VII that Childeric King of France was hoysted out of his Throne by Pope Zacharie Not so much for his wicked life as for his vnablenes to beare the weightie burden of so great a Kingdome They depose for collating of Benefices and Prebends witnesse the great quarrells and sore contentions between Pope Innocent III. and Iohn King of England as also betweene Philip the Faire and Boniface VIII They depose for adulteries and matrimoniall suites witnesse Philip. 1. for the repudiating or casting off his lawfull wife Bertha and marrying in her place with Bertrade wife to the Earle of Aniou Finally faine would I learne into what heresie or degree of Apostasie either Henrie IV. or Freder Barbarossa or Frederic 2. 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 Arragonnois from their oath of allegiance 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 5. vsurped a power against Henrie III. euen so farre as to denounce him vn-kingd 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 appearance is the most beautifull cause that can be alledged 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 auncient 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 authentical 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 he will not hereafter make himselfe iudge whether Kings be 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 heretical which is pure orthodoxe and all for this ende to make himselfe master of the Kingdome and there to settle a Successor who receiuing the Crowne of the Popes free gift and graunt might be tyed thereby to depend altogether vpon his Holines Hath not Pope Boniface VIII declared in his proud letters all those to be heretickes that dare vndertake to affirme the collating of Prebends appertaineth to the King It was that Popes grosse error not in the fact but in the right The like crime forsooth was by Popes imputed to the vnhappie 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 interment of his dead corps who neuer in his life had beate his braines to trouble the sweet waters of Theologicall fountaines 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 Council sets downe this position for one of Luthers heresies A new life is the best repentance Among the crimes which the Council 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 knowne Now if the Pope shall bee carried by the streame of these or the like errors 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 yeares In these words he maketh a secret confession that in the first fiue hundred yeeres the same doctrin 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. yeares together was no more ignorant what authoritie the Church is to challenge ouer Emperours and Kings then at any time since in any succeeding age 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 500. yeres the Church groned vnder the heauy burthen both of heathen Emperours and of hereticall Kings the Visigot Kings in Spaine and the Vandals in Affrica Of whose displeasure the Pope had small reason or cause to stand in any feare beeing so remote from their dominions and no way vnder the lee of
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 hydes Not long after the Cardinal of Capua was in the like taking For he durst not bring the Realme within the limits of the interdict before he 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 Math. Paris After the Pope had giuen his Maiesty to vnderstand by the Cardinal of Anagnia that his Kingdome should be interdicted vnlesse hee would be reconciled to the King of England the King returned the Pope this answer that he was not in any sort afraid of the Popes sentence for as much as it could not bee grounded vpon any equity of the cause and added withall that it did no way appertain vnto the Church of Rome to sentence Kings especially the King of Fraunce And this was done saith Iohannes Tilius Register in Court of Parliament at Paris by the counsell of the French Barons Most notable is the example of Philip the Faire and hits the bird in the right eie In the yeere 1032. the Pope dispatched the Archbishop of Narbona with mandates into France commaunding 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 deede 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 Ecclesiasticall dignities Vpon which occasion the Pope sent letters to the King of this tenour and style Feare God and keepe his commaundements We would haue thee knowe that in spirituall and temporall causes thou art subiect vnto our selfe that collating of benefices and prebends doth 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 void thou shalt by sequestration reserue the fruites 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 bee 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 beleefe A Legate comes to Paris and brings these brauing letters By some of the Kings faithful 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 answers 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 fruites when they become voide belongeth to our selfe alone during their vacancie that all collations by vs heretofore made or to be made hereafter shall stand in force that in the validitie and vertue of the said collations we 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 beleefe 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 whome they hold their Fees with all other the Temporalties of the Church They make answer 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 Lowe Countries 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 carries him prisoner to Rome where ouercome with choller anguish and great indignation hee takes his last leaue of the Popedome and his life All this notwithstanding the King presently after from the successors of Boniface receiues very ample and gratious Bulls in which the memorie of all the former passages and actions is vtterly abolished Witnesse the Epistle of Clement 5. wherein this King is honoured with prayses for a pious and religious Prince and his Kingdom is restored to the former estate In that age the French Nobilitie carried other manner of spirits then the moderne and present Nobilitie doe I meane those by whome the L. Cardinal was applauded and assisted in his Oration Yea in those former times the Prelates of the Realme stood better affected towards their King then the L. Cardinal himselfe now standeth who could finde none other way to dally with and to shift off this pregnant example but by plaine glosing that heresie and Apostasie was no ground of that question or subiect of that controuersie Wherein hee not onely condemnes the Pope as one that proceeded against Philip without a iust cause and good ground but likewise giues the Pope the lie who in his goodly letters but a little aboue recited hath enrowled Philip in the list of heretiks He saith moreouer that indeed the knot of the question was touching the Popes pretence in challenging to himselfe the temporall Soueraingntie of France that is to say in qualifying himselfe King of France But indeed and indeede no such matter to be found His whole pretence was the collating of benefices and to pearch aboue the King to crowe ouer his Crowne in Temporall causes At which pretence his Holinesse yet aimeth still attributing and and challenging to himselfe plenary power to depose the King Now if the L. Cardinal shall yet proceede to cauill that Boniface 8. was taken by the French for an vsurper and no lawfull Pope but for one that crept into the Papacy by fraud and symonie hee must bee pleased to set downe positiuely who was Pope seeing that Boniface then sate not in the Papall chaire To conclude If hee that creepeth and stealeth into the Papacie by symonie by canuases or labouring of suffrages vnder hand or by bribery be not lawfull Pope I dare bee bold to professe there will hardly bee found two lawfull Popes in the three last ages Pope Benedict in the yeare 1408. being in choller with Charles 6. because Charles had bridled and curbed the gainefull exactions and extorsions of the Popes Court by which the Realme of France had been exhausted of their treasure sent
King is a King deposed his repentance is euer fruitles euer vnprofitable Hath a priuate person a trayne of seruants He can not be depriued of any one without his priuity and consent Hath a King millions of subiects He may be depriued by the Pope of a third part when his Holinesse will haue them turne Clerics or enter cloisters without asking the King leaue so of subiects they may be made nonsubiects But I question yet further A King falling into heresie is deposed by the Pope his sonne stands pure Catholike The Regall seate is empty Who shall succeed in the deposed Kings place Shall a stranger be preferred by the Pope That were to do the innocent sonne egregious and notorious wrong Shall the sonne himselfe That were a more iniurious part in the sonne against his father For if the sonne be touched with any feare of God or mooued with any reuerence towards his Father he will diligently and seriously take heed that he put not his Father by the Kingdome by whose meanes he himselfe is borne to a Kingdome Nor will he tread in the steps of Henry V. Emperour who by the Popes instigation expelled and chased his aged father out of the Imperiall dignity Much lesse will he hearken to the voice aduise of Doctor Suares the Iesuite who in his booke written against my selfe a book applauded and approoued of many Doctors after he hath like a Doctor of the chaire pronounced That a King deposed by the Pope cannot bee lawfully expelled or killed but onely by such as the Pope hath charged with such execution falleth to adde a little after If the Pope shall declare a King to be an heretike and fallen from the Kingdome without making further declaration touching execution that is to say without giuing expresse charge vnto any to make away the King then the lawfull successor beeing a Catholike hath power to do the feate and if he shall refuse or if there shall bee none such then it appertaineth to the comminaltie or body of the Kingdome A most detestable sentence For in hereditarie Kingdoms who is the Kings lawfull successor but his sonne The sonne then by this doctrine shall imbrew his hands in his owne fathers blood so soone as he shall be deposed by the Pope A matter so much the neerer and more deepely to be apprehended because the said most outragious booke flyeth like a furious mastiffe directly at my throat and withal instilleth such precepts into the tender disposition of my sonne as if hereafter he shall 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 cruelty that euer was among the Canibals may passe henceforth in the Christian world for pure clemencie and humanity 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 wild-Irish forme of speech and passe their vnderstanding All these things are nothng in a manner 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 gratious entertainment and general 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 ciuill warres contempt of Kings distempered inclinations and motions to intrappe 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 an others will and pleasure then they are come to the highest altitude and eleuation of honour that for the onely warrant of their life their supreame and absolute greatnes must be depressed that for the longer keeping of their Crownes an other must plucke the Crowne from their heads As if it should be said Would they not be stript naked by an other the best way is for themselues to vntrusse for themselues to put off all and to goe naked of their owne accord Will they keepe their Soueraigntie in safetie for euer The best way is to let an other haue their Soueraigne authority and supreame Estate in his power But I haue been euer of this mind that when my goods are at no mans command or disposing but mine owne then they are truely and certainly mine owne It may be this error is growne 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 Childeric For as much then as my dull capacity doth not serue me 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 growne from this faithfull 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 extreame desolations hath England been forced to feare and feele in the raigne of my Predecessors Henry II. Iohn and Henry III These be the maximes and principles which vnder the Emperour Henry 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 bee 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 herselfe was brought within two fingers breadth of bondage to an other Nation and the death of her two last Kings most villanously and trayterously accomplished The Lord 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 spaniel out of a pond or to warme themselues by the light of the Moone when they
if he shal make his owne coffers to swell with an others reuenewes if he shall decke and array his owne backe in the spoyles 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 impiety vpon robbery For by such deceitfull crafty and cunning practises the nature of the Pontificiall Sea 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 Saint 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 wyles and subtilties to worke impossibilities to act 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 Royall dignitie lesse free to his heire apparant or next successor then he receiued the same of his predecessor 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 forraine Prince Least of all make them tributary to a Priest vnto whom it no way appertaineth to haue any hand in the ciuill affaires of Kings or to distaine vnhallow their Crownes And therefore when the Pope dispatched his Nuntio to Philippus Augustus requesting the King to avert Lewis his sonne from laying any claime to the Kingdom of England Philip answered the Legat as we haue it in Math. Paris No King no Prince can abienate or giue away his Kingdome but by consent of his Barons bound by Knights seruice to defend the said Kingdom and in case the Pope shall stand for the contrary error his Holinesse shall giue to Kingdomes a most pernicious example By the same Authorit is testified that King Iohn became odious to his subiects for such dishonorable and vnworthie 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 wild and wandring conceit or opinion of men and beeing 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 truth 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 to yes in thought and yet with such ridiculous with such toyes in conceit his Lordship feedes and entertains his auditors From this point he falleth to an other bowt and fling at his heretikes with whom he played no faire play before There is not one Synode of ministers as he saith which would willingly subscribe to this Article whereunto we should be bound to sweare But herein his Lordship shooteth farre from the mark This Article is approued and preached by the Ministers of my Kingdome It is likewise preached by those of France and if neede be I assure my selfe will be 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 Consistories beleeue it as their Creede that if Catholike Princes at any time shall offer force vnto their conscience then they are dispensed withall for their oath of allegiance Hence are these modifications and restrictions 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 be not in any sort violated or infringed I am not able to conceiue what engine can be framed of these materialls for the bearing of Kings out of their eminent seats by any lawfull authority 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 Lord Cardinal there is nothing at all which doth 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 charity 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
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 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 boysterous winds and tempests My answer to this flourishing close and vpshot shall beno 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 been 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 peices 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 celestial treasures were neuer heaped vpon my Great Brittaine then haue been 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 shee hath refused to receiue and to entertain the Popes Legats employed to collect S. Peters tribute or Peter-pence since the Kings of England my Great Brittaine haue not beene the Popes vassals to doe him homage for their Crowne and haue no more felt the lashings the scourgings of base and beggarly Monkes Of Holland Zeland and Friseland what need I speake yet a word and no more Were they not a kind of naked and bare people of small value before God lighted the torch of the Gospel and aduanced it in those Nations were they not an ill fedde and scragged people in comparison of the inestimable wealth and prosperity both in all military actions and mechanicall trades in trafficke as merchants in marting as men of warre in long nauigation for discouerie to which they are now raysed and mounted by the mercifull blessing of God since the darknes of Poperie hath been scattered and the bright Sunne of the Gospel hath shined in those Countryes Behold the Venetian Republique Hath shee now lesse beautie lesse glory lesse peace and prosperitie since she lately fell to bicker and contend with the Pope since shee hath wrung out of the Popes hand the one of his two swords since she hath plumed and shaked his Temporall dominion On the contrarie after the French Kings had honoured the Popes with munificent graunts and gifts of all the cities and territories lands and possessions which they now hold in Italy and the auncient Earledome of Avignon in France for an ouer-plus were they not rudely recompenced and homely handled by their most ingratefull fee-farmers and copy-holders Haue not Popes forged a donation of Constantine of purpose to blot out all memory of Pepins and Charlemaignes donation Haue they not vexed and troubled the State haue they not whetted the sonnes of Lewis the Courteous against their owne Father whose life was a pattern and example of innocencie Haue they not by their infinite exactions robbed and scoured the Kingdome of all their treasure Were not the Kings of France driuen to stoppe their violent courses by the pragmaticall sanction Did they not sundrie times interdict the Kingdome degrade the Kings solicite the neighbour-Princes to inuade and lay hold on the Kingdome and stirre vp the people against the King whereby a gate was opened to a world of troubles and parricides Did not Rauaillac render this reason for his monstrous horrible attempt That King Henry had a designe to warre with God because he had a designe to take armes against his Holinesse who is God This makes me to wonder what mooued the L. Cardinall to marshall the last ciuill warres and motions in France in the ranke of examples of vnhappie separation from the Pope when the Pope himselfe was the trumpetor of the same troublesome motions If the Pope had beene wronged and offended by the French King or his people and the Kingdome of France had been scourged with pestilence or famine or some other calamitie by forraine enemies it might haue been taken in probabilitie as a vengeance of God for some iniurie done vnto his Vicar But his Holinesse beeing the root the ground the master-workman and artificer of all these mischiefes how can it be said that God punisheth any iniury done to the Pope but rather that his Holinesse doth reuenge his owne quarrell and which is worst of all when his Holinesse hath no iust cause of quarrell or offence Now then to exhort a Nation as the L. Cardinall hath done by the remembrance of former calamities to currie fauour with the Pope and to hold a strict vnion with his Holinesse is no exhortation to beare the Pope any respect of loue or of reuerence but rather a rubbing of memorie and a calling to mind of those grieuous calamities whereof the Pope hath been the onely occasion It is also a threatning and obtruding of the Popes terrible thunderbolts which neuer scorched nor parched any skinne except crauens and meticulous bodies and haue brought many great showres of blessings vpon my Kingdome As for France if she hath enioyed prosperitie in the times of her good agreement with Popes it is because the Pope seeks the amitie of Princes that are in prosperitie haue the meanes to curbe his pretensions and to put him to some plunge Kings are not in prosperitie because the Pope holds amity with Kings but his Holinesse vseth all deuises and seeketh all meanes to haue amitie with Kings because hee sees them flourish and sayle with prosperous winds The swallow is no cause but a companion of the spring the Pope is no worker of a Kingdoms felicitie but a wooer of Kings when they sit in felicities lap he is no founder but a follower of their good fortunes On the other side let a Kingdome fall into some grieuous disaster or calamitie let ciuill wars boyle in the bowels of the Kingdome ciuill warres no lesse dangerous to the State then fearefull and grieuous to the people who riseth sooner
Kingdom thinks himselfe in little safetie so long as he shall of his courtesy suffer his disseised predecessor 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 forraine countryes or else haue beene condemned like captiues to perpetuall imprisonment at home a thousand-fold worse and more lamentable then death it selfe Dyonisius the Tyrant of Syracusa from a great King in Sicilie turn'd School-master in Corinth It was the onely calling 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 Dyonisius 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 seen the walls as it were of their Princely fortresse dismantled razed and beaten downe By name Edward and Richard both II. and Henrie VI. all which Kings were most cruelly murdered in prison In the raigne of Edward III. by act of Parliament whosoeuer shal imagine that is the very word of the Statute or machinate the Kings death are declared guilty 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 traytors according to Law that haue dared onely to whisper or talke softly between 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. Cardinall therefore in this most weighty and serious point doth meerely dally and flowt after a sort when he tels vs The Church doth not intermeddle with releasing of subiects and knocking off their yrons of obedience but onely before the Ecclesiasticall tribunall seate 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 far is the Church as the L. Cardinal pretendeth from consenting that any man so censured should be touched for his life that shee vtterly abhorreth 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 been made manifest before that all such proscription and setting forth of Kings to port-sale hath alwaies for the traine thereof either some violent and bloody death or some other mischiefe more intolerable then death it selfe What are we the better that parricides of Kings are neither set on nor approoued by the Church in their abhominable actions when she layeth such plots and taketh such courses as necessarily doe inferre the cutting of their throates In the next place be it noted that his Lordship against all reason reckons the absoluing of subiects from the oath of allegiance in the ranke of penalties awarded and enioyned before the Ecclesiasticall tribunall seate For this penaltie is not Ecclesiasticall but Ciuill and consequently not triable in Ecclesiasticall Courts without vsurping vpon the ciuill Magistrate But I wonder with what face the Lord Cardinall can say the Church neuer consenteth to any practise against his life whome she hath once chastised with seuere censures For can his Lordship be ignorant what is written by Pope Vrbanus Can. Excommunicatorum We take them not in any wise to be man-slayers who in a certain heate of zeale towards the Catholike Church their Mother shall happen to kill an excomunicate person More if the Pope doth not approoue and like the practise of King-killing wherefore hath not his Holinesse imposed some seuere censure vpon the booke of Mariana the Iesuite by whome parricides are commended nay highly extolled when his Holines hath been pleased to take the paines to censure and call in some other of Mariana's bookes Againe wherefore did his Holines aduise himselfe to censure the decree of the Court of Parliament in Paris against Iohn Chastell Wherefore did he suffer Garnet and Oldcorne my powder-miners both by bookes and pictures vendible vnder his nose in Rome to be inrowled in the Canon of holy Martyrs And when he saw two great Kings murdered one after an other wherfore by some publike declaration did not his Holinesse testifie to all Christendome his inward sense and true apprehension of so great misfortune as all Europe had iust cause to lament on the behalfe of France Wherefore did not his Holinesse publish some Lawe or Pontificiall decree to prouide for the securitie of Kings in time to come True it is that he censured Becanus his booke But wherefore That by a captious and sleight censure he might preuent a more exact and rigorous decree of the Sorbon Schoole For the Popes checke to Becanus was onely a generall censure and touch without any particular specification of matter touching the life of Kings About some two moneths after the said book was printed againe with a dedication to the Popes Nuntio in Germany yet without any alteration saue onely of two articles containing the absolute power of the people ouer Kings In recompence and for a counterchecke whereof three or fowre articles were inserted into the said book touching the Popes power ouer Kings articlcs no lesse wicked and iniurious to Regall rights nay more iniurious then any of the other clauses whereof iust cause of exception and complaint had been giuen before If I would collect and heape vp examples of auncient Emperours as of Henrie IV. whos 's dead corps felt the rage and fury of the Pope or of Frederic 2. against whome the Pope was not ashamed to whet and kindle the Sultane or of Queen Elizabeth our Predecessour of glorious memorie whose life was diuers times assaulted by priuie murderers expressely dispatched from Rome for that holy seruice if I would gather vp other examples of the same stampe which I haue laid forth in my Apology for the oth of allegiance I could make it more cleare then day-light how farre the L. Cardinals words are discrepant from the truth where his Lordship out of most rare confidence is bold to avowe That neuer any Pope went so farre as to giue consent or counsell for the desperate murdering of Princes That which already hath beene alleadged may suffice to conuince his Lordship I meane that his Holinesse by deposing of Kings doth lead them directly to their graues and tombes The Cardinal himselfe seemeth to take some notice hereof The Church as he speaketh abhorreth sudden and vnprepensed murders aboue the rest Doth not his Lordship in this phrase of speech acknowledge that murders committed by open force are not so much disavowed or disclaimed by the Church A little