Capello who was wholly given to his wives humours hated of the Portugales and himselfe disliked for her sake for many Malefactors and insolent persons were supported by her who grew daily more audacious in their excesse without feare of Iustice which was trodden under foot for their respect For these considerations and her barrennesse too all the Noblemen of the kingdome desired to have the Queen called Mencia separated and sent out of Portugall for effecting whereof they made a great instance at Rome but neither exhortation admonition nor commandment nor censure could prevaile the king so doting on her that he would not leave her Which the Portugals perceiving some of them presumed to seize on her in the City of Coimbra and conducted her into Gallicia from whence she never more returned into Portugall Not content herewith they sought to depose the King from his Royall dignity too for his ill government and to advance his Brother Don Alphonso to the Regall Throne in his place whom the Estates assembled made Regent of Portugall leaving only the Title of King to his brother which fact of the Estates the Pope in the Councell of Lions authorized by his Apostolicke power with which the King being displeased abandoned his Realme and retired into Castile Anno 1247. The Lawes and Customes of Arragon were reduced into writing by King Iames his appointment and compacted into one body having till that time been observed onely by tradition which Volume was coufirmed by the Estates held at Huâ—fâ—a And the same yeere the King of Castile erected a kind of Chancery and standing Court of Parliament of 12. learned men which followed the Court. Anno 1254. Thibald the 2. king of Navarre being but 15. yeers old at the descent of the crown unto him was at 25. yeers of age declared of full age and crowned King in the great church of Pampelone where he did sweare TO PRESERVE AND AUGMENT THE PRIVILEDGES OF THE COVNTRY Afterwards he doing homage to the king of Castile for the Realme of Navarre as his predecessours had done before him and making such a peace with him as the prelates Knights and Commonalties of the Realme in the States had approved yet divers knights and the Inhabitants of the Borough of St. Iermin of Pampelone disallowed this homage this peace and would not subscribe to it as tending to the kings dishonour whereupon the king did punish them by fines but his choller being past some few dayes after considering they were good and faithfull subjects loving his honour and greatnesse and that they resisted his will out of true love and zeale which they owed to the Crowne and their Countrey hee caused their Fines to be restored Alphonso the 3. fifth King of Portugall putting away his first wife Mahault without cause after he had children by her and marrying Beatrix hereupon when by no intreaties of Friends or the Pope he would entertaine his first wife again he was excommunicated by the Pope and his Realme interdicted 10. or 12. yeers space continuing still obstinate till his first wife dyed after which he was absolved Anno 1260. and in some yeere following there were divers controversies concerning the Crown Lands and setling of Portions for the King of Arragons younger children moved and determined in the Assembly of the Estates of Arragon and the Nobility complaining that their King Iames did breake their priviledges made many Leagues and Factions This matter being debated in the Estates at Saragossa and then at Ex ea in the yeare 1265. for pacifying these troubles they enacted That no honours nor military fees should be given to any but to Gentlemen of race and born in the Countrey That no Gentleman should be subject to the tribute of Cattell nor to any other That in all controversies which the Nobility might have against the king or among themselves the Magistrate called the Iustice Major of Arragon should be Iudge being assisted by the Councell That the King should not give the fees and Military rewards allotted to them that doe him service as a recompence of their vertue and valour to any of his lawfull children who by right have their portions in the Realme Anno 1274. Iames King of Arragon comming to the Councell of Lions desirous there to be crowned by the hands of Pope Gregory a ceremony whereof he made great account the Pope refused him unlesse he would acknowledge himselfe vassall to the church of Rome and pay the arrerages of the rent which the deceased King Don Pedro his Father had promised the which King Iames would not doe holding it an unworthy thing so to debase the greatnesse of his Crowne and restraine the Liberty of his Realme in any sort And this yeare there were great and continuall Tumults in Arragon the Nobility opposing themselves against the King for composing which differencs the Estates of Arragon assembled in Parliament at Exea where king Iames tooke the government and managing of the affaires of the Realme from his sonne Don Pedro and diverse great Dons were there condemned of contumacy and their Lands confiscated by the Iustice Major of Arragon In this Assembly the Nobility pleaded the Priviledges of Câ—â—teloyne That the Nobility might quit the Kings obedience in case of controversies and suites especially if there were question of their Liberties and to protest it publikely Anno 1265. Denis the infant King of Portugall desired his Grandfather Alphonso King of Castile to discharge the Realm of Portugall of the homage and vassallage it ought to the King of Leon who thinking it would be taken ill by the Noblemen his Subjects advised the infant to propound it in an open Assembly called to that end The opinion of Don Nugno de Lara was that by no meanes he should diminish the authority and greatnesse of his Crown which he should doe if he did quit this homage to the King of Portugall For which opinion the King growing angry with him the residue fearing the kings displeasure advised him to doe it Whereupon the Realme of Portugall was freed from all homage and subjection due to the Kings of Leon and Castile For which prodigality the other Nobles and D. Nugno were so much discontented that they made a League with the King of Granado against their own King for dismembring Portugall from the Crown of Leon to pacifie which differences the King used many mediations and at last called an Assembly of the Estates at Burgos the which was held without the Towne for the safety of these Confederates That great Astronomer Alphonso King of Castile who presumed to controule the Author of Nature saying That if he had been at the Creation of the world hee should in many things have been of another opinion and amended Gods workmanship was a most willfull indiscreet unfortunate Prince for his eldest sonne Fernand dying in his life time leaving Alphonso and other issue males behind him Don Sancho his second son resolved to dispossesse his
Kingdom which if they contemned to do thy would with force of Arms and Banners disslayed MARCH AGAINST THEM AS PUBLIKE ENEMIES SUBVERT THEIR CASTLES BURN THEIR HOUSES AND EDIFICES AND NOT CEASE TO DESTROY THEIR PONDS PARKES AND ORCHARDS Whereupon all the Lords Knights and People dâ—serting the King who had scarce seven Knights in all left with him confederated themselves to the Barons in the Common Cause wherein to be a Neuter was to be an enemy and no member of the politicke body in which all were equally engaged Whereupon the King thus deserted by all condescended speedily to their demands and confirmed the great Charter much against his will A very apt President for these times which would make the people more unanimous faithfull and couragious for the Common Cause if but imitated in the commination onely though never put into actuall execution he being unworthy once to enjoy any priviledge of a free-born Subject in the Kingdom who will not joyn with the Parliament and Kingdom to defend his Libertie and the Kingdoms priviledges in which he hath as great a common share as those who stand pay and fight most for them It is a good Cause of disfranchising any man out of any Citie Corporation or Company and to deprive him of the Priviledges of them if he refuse to contribute towards the common support defence or maintenance of them or joyn in open hostilitie contributions or suites against them There is the same and greater reason of the generall Citie and Corporation of the whole Realm to which we are all most engaged and therefore those who refuse to contribute towards the defence and preservation of it if able or by their persons purses intelligence or counsell give any assistance to the common enemy against it deserve to be disfranchised out of it to have no priviledge or protection by it and to be proceeded against as utter enemies to it Christs rule being here most true He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad The Common-wealth of which we are members hath by way of originall contract for mutuall assistance and defence seconded by the late Protestation and Covenant a greater interest in our Persons and Estates then we our selves or the King and if we refuse to ayd the republike of which we are members in times of common danger with our Persons Abilities Goods or assist the common enemy with either of them we thereby betray our trust and fidelitie violate our Covenants to the Republike and expose our bodies to restraint our estates to consiscation for this most unnaturall treachery and sordid nigguardlinesse as well as for Treason Fellony or other more petty injuries against the State or humane societie made capitall by the Laws most justly for the publike service of the State which hath a generall Soveraign Interest in them in all times of need paramount our private Rights which must alwayes submit to the publike and lose all our formerly enjoyed Priviledges either of Laws Liberties or free-born Subjects if we refuse to defend or endeavour to betray them as the Laws and common practise of all Nations evidence In the Barons warres against King John Henry the third and Edward the second in defence of their Liberties and Laws they seised upon the Castles Forts and Revenues of the Crown and upon the Moneyes and Goods of the Priors aliens and malignant Poictovines which they imployed in the Kingdoms service Eodem tempore Castellanus de Dovera Richardus de Gray vir fidelis strenuus qui ex parte Baronum ibidem constituebatur omnes transeuntes transituros diligenter considerabat cuncta prudâ—nter perscrutando invenit NON MODICUM THESAURUM paratum dictis Pictaviensibus clanculo deferendum qui TOTUS CAPTUS EST IN CASTRO RESERUANDUS Similiter Londini apud novum Templum THESAURUS MAXIMUS de cujus quantitate audientes mirabantur quem reposureunt Pictavienses memorati licet contradicentes reniterenter Hospitelarii CAPTUS est AD ARBITRIUM REGIS ET BARONUM IN UTILES REGNI USUS UTILITER EXPONENDUS writes Rishanger the continuer of Matthew Paris a good President for the present times After which the Barons banished all the Poictovine Malignants who miscounselled and adhered to the King out of England Anno 1260 who Anno 1261. were all baâ—ished out of London and other Cities and Forts An. 1234. The Earl Marshall having routed John of Monmouth his forces which assisted King Henry the third against the Barons in Wales he wasted all the said Johns Villages and Edifices and all things that were his with sword and fire and so of a rich man made him poor and indigent In the very Christmas holy-dayes there was a grievous warre kindled against the King and his evill Counsellors For Richard Suard conjoyning other Exiles to him entred the Lands of Richard Earl of Cornwall the Kings brother lying not farre from Behull and burned them together with the Houses and the Corne the Oxen in the Ox-stalls the Horses in the Stables the Sheep in the Sheep-cots they likewise burned Segrave the native soyl of Stephen Justiciar of England with very sumptuous Houses Oxen and Corne and likewise brought away many horses of great price returning thence with spoils and other things They likewise burned down a certain village of the Bishop of Winchesters not farre from thence and took away the spoils with other things there found But the foresaid Warriers had constituted this laudable generall rule among themselves that they would do no harme to any one nor hurt any one BUT THE WICKED COUNSELLERS OF THE KING by whom they were banished and those things that were theirs they burnt with fire extirpating their Woods Orchards and such like by the very Roots This they did then de facto de Jure I dare not approve it though in Cases of Attaint and Felony the very Common Law to terrifie others gives sentence against perjured Juries Traytors and Felons in some Cases that their houses shall be raced to the ground their Woods Parkes Orchards Ponds cut down and destroyed their Meadowes and Pastures plowed up and defaced though not so great Enemies to the State as evill Counsellors Anno 1264. the forty eight yeers of Henry the third his raign The King keeping his Christmas with the Queen Richard King of Romans and many others at London Simon Montford the Captain of the Barons at the same time preyed upon the Goods of these who adheared to the King and especially those of the Queens retinue brought by her into England whom they called Aliens Among others some of the Barons forces took Peter a Burgundian Bishop of Hereford in his Cathedrall Church and led him prisoner to the Castle of Ordeley and divided his treasure between themselves and took divers others of the Kings partie prisoners Who thereupon fearing least he should be besieged in the Tower by the Barons army by
Hostilium REGEM POPULUS JUSSIT patres auctores facti After him the people created Ancus Martius King Regem POPULUS CREAVIT patres fuêre auctores After him ingenti consensu Populus Romanus Tarquinium REGNARE JUSSIT The People of Rome with great consent commanded Tarquin to reigne But hedying Servins having a strong Guard to defend him primus injussupopuli voluntate Patrum Regnavit was the first that reigned without the command of the people by the Senates consent yet doubting his title for want of the peoples votes and young Tarquin his Competitour giving out speeches se injussupopuli regnare that he reigned without the peoples command he thereupon so courted the Commons by dividing the Lands he had taken from the enemies among them that at last he appealed to the people Vellent nolerintve se regnare whether they would or would not have him reigne tantoque consensu quanto hand quisquam alius ante rex est declaratus But Tarquin the Proud affecting the Kingdome slew Servius and Non Commitiis habitis non per suffragium populi non auctoribus Patribus without the Election of the people or Senate usurped the Crowne neque enim ad jus regni quicquam praeter vim habebat ut qui neque populi jussu neque Patribus auctoribus regnaret writes Livy Whereupon reposing no hope in the love of the people he endeavoured to defend his usurped Soveraignty by force to which purpose he of himselfe without the Senate or Counsell tooke upon him the conusance of Capitall offences and by colour hereof not onely to slay banish and plunder those whom bee suspected or hated but even those from whom hee could expect nothing but prey Then he lesseneth the number of the Senate to diminish their esteeme and power and at last to subvert it Hee was the first of Kings who dissolved the Custome used by all his Predecessours De omnibus Senatum consulendi of consulting with the Senate about all affaires and administred the Common-wealth by his domesticke Counsels making Warre Peace Truces Leagues with whom he would injussu populi Senatus without the peoples and Senates command which Tyrannicall Usurpations of his with his ravishing of Lucretia caused Brutus and the incensed Romanes to rise up in Armes against him deprive him of His Crowne banish him his Wife and Children utterly to abolish the Kingly Government by a Decree and to take a solemne Oath lest afterward they might bee overcome by Royall intreaties or Gifts That they would never suffer any King to Reigne in Rome Which act of Brutus and the People is highly magnified by Livie and Tully This done the people created two annuall Consuls who had the Power but not the name and continuance of Kings Annuum imperium consulare factum est Brutus the first Consull was slaine whilest hee was Consull and Valerius his Companion being suspected by the People to affect the Kingdome because hee demanded no new Companion Valerius heereupon calls the people together layes downe his Fasces the badges of his Soveraignty before them which was a gratefull spectacle to the people confessionemque factam Populi quam Consulis Majestatem vimque majorem esse and a confession made that the People had greater Soveraignty and Power then the Consul who yet had regall Jurisdiction And then there were Lawes enacted of appealing from the Consul or Magistrate to the people and that hee should lose both his head and goods who should but consult to usurp the Kingdome In briefe it is clearly agreed by Dionysius Halicarnasseus Polibius Livy Alexander ab Alexandro Bodin and most who have written of the Roman Republike that the Soveraigne Authority among the Romans during their Kings Consuls Dictators and other Magistrates was originally vested not in the Kings Senate Consuls or other Magistrates but in the whole body of the Senate and People the People had the chiefe Soveraigne Power of enacting and confirming Lawes the Senates Decrees and Lawes being of no validity unlesse the People ratified them of creating and electing Kings Dictators Tribunes and all other great publike Officers of denouncing warre and making Peace these Tribunes and Dictators might restrain curb imprison censure depose the Roman Consuls who had Regall Power yea the Roman Kings Senators and highest Officers and to them the last appeale from King Senate or other Magistrate might be made as to the highest Tribunall they having power likewise to change or annull the very frame of their publike Government which they oft times did as these Authors prove at large to whom for brevity I referre the Reader Yea after the Roman Empire the greatest largest Soveraignty in the world was erected the Supream Power still rested in the Senate and People not in the Emperors themselves which Bodin grants and proves This is clearly evident by these ensuing particulars First the Senate and People had sole right and lawfull power both to elect and confirme their Emperors and to decree them new Honours Titles Triumphs which power of election though some Emperors in a sort usurped by adopting their Successors and the Roman Souldiers too by presuming sometimes to elect Emperours without the Senate yet these adoptions and elections were not held valid unlesse the Senate approved and confirmed them who usually elected all their Emperors as of right according to that of the Panegyrist Imperaturum omnibus ex omnibus elegi debere Plinius Panegyr Trajano dictus and Jacobus Valdesius c. 18. This appeares by the election and confirmation of most Emperors from Octavius to Leo the first and more particularly by the Senates and Peoples election and confirmation of Nerva Pertinax Severus Gordianus Maximus Pupienus Clodius Balbinus Philip Decius Trebonianus Galienus Claudius the second Taâ—itus Probus Iovinianus Aurelius and others This right of the Senate was so cleare that after the death of Aurelianus the Army sent word to the Senate that as reason was they should chuse and name an Emperor and that they would obey him After six months space during which time the Empire was governed by the Senate the Senate made choice of Tacitus who earnestly refused the same at first but in the end accepted thereof to the great joy of the Senate and Roman people After whose decease Prebus being chosen Emperor by the Legions and Army he presently wrote a letter to the Senate excusing himselfe for having accepted the Empire without their knowledge and confirmation whereupon the Senate confirmed his election with many blessings gave him the name of Augustus Father of the Countrey made him High Priest and gave him Tribunall Power and Authority Secondly This is manifest by the confessions and Actions of the best Roman Emperours Volateranus writes of Trajan the best heathen Emperor that Rome enjoyed that he used to call the Senate Father but himselfe their Minister or Servant of their labour And that standing he
to procure his pardon which because it was the first president of this kinde made his advocate say tamen it a inusitatum est Regem capitis reum esse ut ante hoc tempus non sit auditum yet long before that Zedechiah King of Iudah rebelling against the King of Babylon was brought prisoner to the King of Babylon to Riblah where hee gave judgement upon him slew both his sonnes and Princes before his eyes and then put out his own eyes bound him with fetters of brasse and carried him prisoner to Babylon where hee died 2 Kings 25. 1. to 8. Ier. 52. 1. to 12. And after Detoratus Antigonus King of the Iewes being taken prisoner by Antonius for moving sedition against the Roman State was beheaded with an axe at Antioch without any legall triall to prevent further seditions which never befell any King before that time writes Alexander ab Alexandro And Agrippa not long after put Bogus King of the Mores to death for siding with Antonius Of later times I read that Ludovicus Pius the Emperour taking Bernard his Nephew King of Italy prisoner for rebelling and denying his superiority over him carried him into France to determine what should be done with him according to Iustice for this his offence where though a King hee was condemned to death and executed as some or at least cast into prison and had his eyes put out as others write So Charles of France taking Conradine King of Sicily prisoner publikely arraigned and condemned him of high Treason and cut off his head Anno 1208. Yea our owne King Iohn being a Feudatary to the King of France was by Philip the French king in a full Parliament there during his absence in England arraigned condemned to death and deposed from his Crown by the sentence of his Peeres for murthering his Nephew Arthur then a Subject of France with his owne hands So Iohn Bailiol king of Scotland renouncing his homage for that Crowne to king Edward the first was for this offence compelled to resigne his Crown with all his right to the kingdome of Scotland to King Edward the first and sent Prisoner to the Tower of London and Mary Queene of Scots within many mens memories after long debate in Parliament was condemned and beheaded at Fothringhom Castle Febr. 8. An. 1587. for laying claime to the Crowne of England and other particulars mentioned in our Historians And thus much for the Roman Grecian German Emperours kings and kingdomes I shall now give you a briefe Survey of what Greeke Authors write concerning Kings and Kingdoms and of the power the kinds of ancient Kings and Kingdomes in Greece and other places That great Father of Learning and policie Aristotle Tutor to the greatest Emperour Alexander the Great whose Authority is irrefragable in our Schooles resolves That true Kingdoms were erected at first and conferred on the worthiest men by the free voluntary joynt consent of the people and founded confirmed by the customes and Lawes of each country which Polibius also affirmes That there are 4 severall sorts of Kings some of greater some of lesser Authority and continuance then others some elective some successive some during life some Annuall all of them receiving their distinct jurisdictions Formes Limitations and different Royalties from the peoples primitive or subsequent institutions and consents For all men being equall by the Law of nature can have no dominion nor Supercrity one over another but by their own voluntary consents That the Lawes not the Kings Princes or Magistrates be they one or more or never so good ought to be the sole Lords or Rulers of the Common-wealth and that Princes and Governours ought to governe by the Lawes who cannot command what the Lawes doe not command That those who command that the Law should rule command that God and the Lawes should rule but he that commands a man to be a Prince he commands that both a man and beast should be Princes for covetousnesse and the lust of the minde is a certaine beast which poverts both Magistrates and the very best men but the Law is a constant and quiet Minde and Reason voyd of all motions of lusts and desires That the power of the greatest things and greatest power ought DE IVRE of right to be in all the people because their wisdomes resolutions and revenues considered altogether are greater and more considerable then those of a few wise or honest men placed in the highest offices of Magistracie who are but a small particle of the State in respect of all the people That the people ought to be of more power then the King or greatest Magistrates to prevent their Tyranny and Oppression and that a King ought to governe by his Lawes and not to doe any thing against them according to his lust wherefore he ought to have so much power and force wherewith he may protect the authority of the Lawes yea he must necessarily have forces and power yet so much onely as thereby he may be able to curbe every particular man or many also yet not so great power but that a populo autem universo idem REX ILLE IPSE COERCERI POTEST the very King himselfe may yet BE CVRBED by all the people such Guards verily the Ancients gave to their Kings when they would set any Tyrant or Governour over the City And when Dionysius required Guards a certaine Syracusan perswaded them to curbe such Guards to which Polybius also suffragates According to these Rules of Aristotle I read in Dionysius Halicarnassaeus and Polybius that in the Lacedemonian Common-wealth the Kings had not the chiefe Dominion so as they might doe what they pleased sed summa totius Reipub. administratio penes Senatum erat but the chiefe Government of the whole Commonweale was in the Senate from whence the Romanes tooke their patterne Alexander ab Alexandro Boemus and Xenophon write That the Lacedemonians sometimes elected a King out of the Family of the Heraclidae or of Agis but more often two joynt Kings of equall Authority out of the stock of Proclus and Aemisthenes who yet had not the chiefe Command as Kings Quia juris omnis publici potestas penes Senatum erat because the power of all publike law or rule was in the Senate the better to keep their Kings from attempting and usurping a Tyranny they being Kings rather in name then Dominion and like the Athaean two Annuall Praetors whence Aristotle makes them the lowest ranke of Kings Iohn Bodin informes us That in the Lacedemonian Aristocracie the Soveraignty remained in the State wherein were two Kings without any Soveraignty at all being indeed nothing else but Captains and Generals for the managing of their Warres and for that cause were by the other Magistrates of the State sometimes for their faults condemned to pay their fine as was Agesilaus and sometimes to death also as was
Agis and Pausanias Agis the last of the Lacedemonean kings as Plutarch records being apprehended and condemned by the Ephori without an Indictment and then hanged in a halter Finally Aristotle himself and Xenophon informe us that the Kingdom of the Lacedemonians flourished very long yea longer then any other forme of Government because their Kings power was but small and their Kings never desired greater things then the Lawes would beare by which they had received their Kingdome in the beginning for in the beginning that Kingdome was divided between two joynt Kings After which Theopompus left it more moderated to his successours and constituted the Magistracie of the Ephori who had power even to depose and execute their kings if they offended and rose not up out of their seates unto them to retain that moderation By which meanes he verily weakned the power of the Kingdome but yet certainely setled it more lasting and stable whence Theopompus gave this answer to his complaining and upbraiding wife whether he was not ashamed to leave the Kingdoms lesse to his Children then he had received it from his Father No truly saith he for by this means I leave it more stable and lasting A Speech well worthy the consideration of the very greatest hereditary kings These Lacedemonian kings whose honours writes Xenophon were not much better then those of private men Etenim neque Regibus animos 〈◊〉 Tyrannicos voluit Lycurgus neque civibus eorum potestatem invisam reddere tooke an Oath every month to governe the Kingdome according to the Lawes enacted I finde that the Cumaeans had a Magistrate whom they called Phylactus whose office was to come into the full Senate and hold the Kings hands who stood in judgement before them untill by the Senators decree their reward or punishment was appointed By which it is apparent that the Cumaean Senate was above their kings and did usually arraigne and punish them iudicially if they saw cause as they rose up in Armes against Aristodomus their king who tyrannized over them by Zenocrita her instigation slew him and so recovered their Liberties The ancient Carthaginians had two kings whom they stiled Suffites who were but annuall removed every yeares Yea the Ibersans and Parthians had two joynt kings in ancient times the one to judge the other to governe the people In Meroe where they elected their kings by their beauty stregth or wealth their Priests had the chiefe power who had so great authority that sometimes like the Pope and his Nuncioes they would send a Messenger and command the king to be put to death and make another in his steed Which custome was after abolished by one of the kings who violently assaulted and slew all the Priests and in Meroe if the king offended after the Priests power was abolished they inflicted no corporall punishment on him but all withdrew themselves from him and avoided his company till he was killed with griefe and consumption The Indians will not permit their king to sleep in the day time and if he be drunken at any time if any woman of whom he hath a guard kill him whiles he is drunke she is so farre from being guilty of Treason that for a reward she shall be married to his Successour much like the ancient publike institution of the Selavonians recorded by Saxo Grammaticus that the assassinate of evill Kings should succeed them in their kingdomes a thing frequently practised in many kingdomes and Empires though very ill enacted in any The Sabaeans confined their Kings to their Palaces and used to stone them if they went forth of their bounds The Mosseriaes whose kings were elective used to punish them when they offended by keeping them fasting a whole dayes space Among some of the Indians if the king dyes having male children of his owne or cosen-germans or brothers children they shall not succeed him in the kingdome but his sister sonne if there be any if not then his next alliance and that ex gentis instituto by the institution of the Nation the reason is because their Priests used to defloure the Queene whose issue is held to be illegitimate In Thraciae the people elect a king who is well qualified mercifull grave for his age and one who hath no children For no Father though never so well qualified is admitted to raigne and if he fortune to have issue while he reignes he is deprived and so kept lest the kingdome should become hereditary Yea though the king be never so just yet they will not that he should have the whole power but appoint him 40. Governours lest hee alone should judge in capitall causes And if he be convicted of any offence be is punished with death yet not by laying violent hands on him but by publike consent all food is kept from him so as at last he perisheth with famine The Taprobani had this custome that no man who had any children should be chosen king lest he should claime the kingdome as hereditary and make it so The Athenians Ionians Milesians Marchomanni Quadi Persians Sicilians Corinthians Parthians Meroes Gordii Medes Paphii Cathians Aetheopians Sydonians Germans Swedes Danes and other Nations had severall Customes Lawes Rules over-tedious to recite by which they elected and inaugurated their kings of which you may read in Alexander ab Alexandro Strabo Boemus Peter Martyr Purchas and others and different degrees of power and government derived from their kingdomes and people the soveraigne Authority still residing in them to prescribe both Laws and limits to their kings and call them to publike account for their grosse offences and misgovernment The ancient Aethiopiant elected the most fanatique Priest for their king whom though they adored and honoured for a God yet Vitam agere STATVTAM LEGIBVS DEBET iuxta patrios mores he ought to live such a life as the Laws appointed him according to the manners of the Countey neither ought he to reward or punish any man himselfe though chiefe parts of Royalty The old German kings had no free nor infinite but a restrained and bounded power by the Lawes Diodorus Siculus writes that the first Egyptian Kings lived not like other Monarchs to rule all things according to their wills Nullis obnoxii censuris as ob noxious to no censures but all things not only their publike actions but even the regiment of their daily life were conformed to the rule of the Lawes as he there manifests in sundry particulars both in respect of their attendants dispatches devotions recreations moderate spare dyet and the like neither was it lawfull for them to judge nor doe any thing nor punish any man out of petulancy or anger or any other unjust cause contrary to what the established Lawes required concerning every of them Whiles they observed these things customarily it was so farre that they tooke it ill
or were offended in minde that on the contrary they thought they lived a most blessed life For other men rashly giuing indulgence to the affections of nature acted many things accompanied with losses and dangers yea some men ofttimes although they foreknew they should sinne did notwithstanding perpetrate evill things being led away with love or hatred or some other perturbation of minde but they imbracing the rule of life approved by the most prudent men resolved not to erre from their duty in the least degree Whiles Kings used this Iustice towards their Subjects they had their Subjects bound unto them in greater benevolence and love then their very kindred For not only the Colledge of Priests but the whole Nation of the Aegyptians and likewise every one of them were not so carefull of their wives and children and private goods as of the safety of their Kings Wherefore they preserved the estate of the Republike intire for a long time under the mentioned kings spending their life in greatest felicity as long as this constitution of Lawes flourished And when these kings dyed all the Aegyptians generally mourned for them in an extraordinary manner divers wayes made solemne Orations in their praise buried them with great pompe and solemnity and erected Pyramides to their eternall honour all which funerall pompous solemnities many ill kings wanted after their deaths ob plebis refragationem because the people gain-sayed it who together with the Priests and Senates who were ever present with the kings to assist counsell and direct them were superiour to their kings since they could thus decree or deny them these funerall honours which made many of their following kings to addict themselves to just actions too for feare of contumelious handling and sempiternall ignominy after their decease So this Author To which I shall adde Xenophons definition of a Kingdome and Tyranny A kingdome is an Empire over men by their free assents according to the Lawes of the City And a Tyranny is an unlawfull Empire over men against their wills which depends upon the will of the Prince And this observation of Polybius That Kings in ancient times did give themselves wholly to doe that which was honest and just and to suppresse the contrary the very beginning of all true kingdomes and the end for which kings were first instituted by the people Whiles they thus demeaned themselves they were subject to no envy because they differed not much from others neither in apparell nor in meat and drinke but observed a conversation of life conformable to other men and lived perpetually like to others But afterwards when those who obtained the principality of succession and the prerogative of their blood had those things already provided which made them able to secure themselves and to support their state following their lusts by reason of their abundance they then thought it belonged to Princes to be better clad then subjects to exceed them in costlinesse and variety of meats and to use venery with whom they pleased Hence envy and offence was begotten and implacable hatred and anger kindled and a kingdome by this meanes changed into a Tyranny Hence men most generous and magnanimous bold spirits unable to beare such affronts and insolences of Princes seditiously conspire against them and the people having got such Captaines to make resistance joyne with them for the foresaid causes that the Princes may be repressed And thus the forme of a Kingdome and Monarchy is utterly taken away by the roots and the beginning of an Aristocracy again laid the people refusing to set any more a King over them yet not daring to commit the Republike to many fearing as yet the iujustice of Superiours and therefore most esteeme equality and liberty So that the Soveraigne power of setling of changing the Kingdome and forme of government resides principally in the people who as hee there largely proves by the Lacedemonian and Roman state ought to enjoy the Supreame authority and to be above their Kings as it seems the Aegyptian did who deposed and expelled Evergetes their King for his cruelty and after him their King Ptolomaeus Auletes setting up Cleopatra his eldest child in his Threne and as the Romane Senate did who had power to dispose of the common Treasury and revenue one of the greatest points of Soveraignty to appoint Lieutenants and Governours of Provinces to grant Triumphes to dispose of Religion for which cause Fertullian saith that never any God was received in Rome without the decree of the Senate and to receive answer and dismisse the Ambassadours of Kings and Nations which none else did but the Senate whose Soveraigne power was such that Tiberius the Emperour in the beginning of his Reigne called the Senators assembled altogether in the Senate Indulgentissimos DOMINOS his most loving LORDS and moved the Senate to divide the Empire not to commit it all to one man as we read in Tacitus though they were his Subjects and inferiours when divided and severally considered And such Soveraigne power had the Panaetolium or generall assembly of Parliament among the Aetolians who received and answered all Embassadours determined all affaires of warre and peace it being provided by the Lawes of the Aetolians that nothing should be intreated of concerning peace or war but in their Panaetolium or Pelaicon Councell as Livy and Bodin record But to leave these ancient and come neerer our present neighbor Kings and Kingdomes of greatest eminencie and power which may parallell our owne The Kings of France to whom Caessanaeus in his Catalogus Gloriae mundi gives precedency before all others and to the Emperour himselfe while but elect before his Coronation have in ancient times been inferiour to their Kingdomes Parliaments and subject to their censures even to deposition if not more though some cry them up for absoluts Monarchs and make them little better then Tyrants now Iohn Bodin a learned French Lawyer and Statesman writes That in ancient times the Kings of the Cities of the Gaules were subject to their States whom Caesar for this cause oftentimes calleth Reguli little Kings being themselves subjects and justifiable to the Nobility who had all the Soveraignty causing them even to be put to death if they had so deserved And that is it for which Amphiorix the Captaine Generall whom they called the King of the Lingeois said Our commands are such as that the people hath no lesse power over us then we over the people Wherein he shewed evidently that he was no soveraigne Prince howbeit that it was not possible for him to have equall power with the people as we have before shewed Wherefore these sort of Princes if they polluted with wickednesse and villany cannot be chastised by the Authority and severity of the Magistrate but shall abuse their wealth and power unto the hurt and destruction of good men IT ALWAYES HATH AND SHALL BE LAWFVLL not for strangers onely but
divided the Land of France betweene them so that either of them should under the King Rule and Governe such proportion as then there was to them appointed Charlemayne soone after renounced his Government and turned Monke and Pipin as onely Ruler tooke upon him the charge of the whole Realme Pipin then considering in his minde in what danger and trouble before him his Father and he now had ruled the Land and that the King to whom belonged all the charge kept his Palaces and followed all his delights and pleasures without taking any paine for reformation of the same sent an ambassage to Pope Zachary asking his advice in point of conscience Whether it were more necessary or wealfull for the Realme of France that he should be admitted for King that did nothing but apply his minde to all bodily pleasures without care and charge takeâ— upon him for the guarding of the Land and the People of the same or he that tooke upon him all the charge and paine in defence of the Land and keeping of the people in the due subjection To this the Pope answered and wrote back to Pipin that he was best worthy and most profitable for the Realme to be admitted for King that ruled well the Commonalty by justice and prudence and the enemies thereof defended and subdued by his policie and manhood Aventine relates his answer more largely in these words I finde saith Zachary in the Story of Divine Scripture that the people fell away from their wretchlesse and lascivious king that despised the counsell of the wise men of the Realme and created a sufficient man one of themselves King God himselfe allowing their doings All Power and Rule belongs to God Princes are his Ministers in their Kingdomes And Rulers are therefore chosen for the people that they should follow the will of God the chiefe Ruler in all thing and not do what they list He is a true King that guideth the people committed to his charge according to the Prescript and Line of Gods Law all that he hath as power glory riches favour and dignitie HE RECEIVETH OF THE PEOPLE and the people MAY WHEN THE CAVSE REQVIRETH FORSAKE THEIR KING It is therefore LAVFVLL for the Franks and Germanes refusing this unkindly Monster Childericke to chuse some such as shall be able in warre and peace by his wisdome to protect and keep in safetie their Wives Children Parents Goods and Lives Which answer of the Pope recited and approved in our owne King Edward the Confessors Lawes and Childerickes deposition likewise Chap. 17. being declared to the Lords Barons and Commons of the Realme whom this Pope likewise wholly absolved from their allegiance to Childericke soone after they of one assent and minde proceeded and deposed and put downe their King and Governour Childericke being a Sott a foole a beast and one unfit to governe and closed him in a Monastery after he had reigned ten yeares in the Kings room by name onely which done they unanimously elected and crowned Pipin for their King By meanes whereof the Royall Line of Moroveus after 17 discents ended and the Crown was translated to Pipins blood Which act in point of policie is determined lawfull by Polybius who Writes That the reason why some Kingdomes became hereditary was onely this because their first Kings being vertuous and worthy men they were perswaded their Children would prove like them but if at any time they degenerat and prove otherwise and the posteritie of the first Kings displease the subjects they thenceforth make the Kingdome elective chusing Kings not according to their strength of body and mindes attempting great things but according to the difference of their will and reason manifested by their actions And by Aristotle who informes us That in Kingdomes confirmed in succession of blood this is to be numbred among the causes of their ruine that the Kingdomes descend to many contemptible and slothfull persons who although they obtaine no tyrannicall but Royall dignitie yet they live lustfully and proudly and so the Kingdome easily falls to ground and becomes a tyrannie the people being unwilling that such should rule over them and so either wholly alter the forme of government or make choice of a fitter King for the necessary preservation of the State yea this election in point of Police and Divinity too is justified and proved lawfull by Buchanan in his Book de Iure Regni apud Scotos by Iohn Mariana de Rege Regis Instit l. 1. c. 3 5. by Pope Zachary in his forceited Epistle by King Edward the Confessor in his Laws c. 17. by a generall Councell of all the Peers and Prelates of France Convocato enim Principum et Senatorum Concilio de COMMVNI SENSV ET VOLVNTATE OMNIVN Childericum solo nomine Regem à regni fastigio deponunt c. ac OMNIBVS GAVDENTIBVS ET VOLENTIBVS Pipinum super Francos REGNARE FACIVNT writes Antoninus and in a word our Bishop Bilson himselfe an Anti-Puritane and great Royalist affirmes That if the King be a naturall foole distracted and altogether unable to governe as Childericke was any Realme by publicke consent and advice may choose another to govern them of which more before Pipin deceasing Charlemain and Charles the great his sons reigned joyntly over the Frenchmen by their â—oyous admittance Having now two Kings instead of one Lewes sirnamed the godly sonne of Charles the great a pious yet unfortunate Prince by meanes of his sonne Lothair was first imprisoned and then by a Councell and Parliament held at Compaygne by authority of the spirituall and temporall Lords and of that Parliament discharged of all rule and dominion as well of the Empire as of the Realme of France after that shorne a Monke and thrust into the Monastery of Saint Marke where he was strictly guarded and when some of the Nobles and people afterwards desired Lothair to release and restore him to his former dignity he answered them That the deposing of him was done by the whole Authority of the Land wherefore if he should be againe restored it must be by the same Authority and not by him onely After which by the Lords assents hee was restored Lewes and Charles after Lewes Balbus their fathers death were joynt Kings of France and being very young by a Parliament held at Meaux Lewes the Emperour their Vncle was declared to be more apt to rule the Kingdome of France then these Infants or Barnard their Guardian and these Children held by some illegitimate Whereupon by the greater number of voyces an Ambassadour was sent to the Emperour to come and take upon him the Rule of middle France which he comming to doe his Nephewes friends compounded with him and then caused these Infants to be crowned and proclaimed Kings Charles the simple at his Fathers death Anno 895. being too yong to take upon him the charge of the Realme the Lords of France
incompatible thing with the Coronation and Oath which he ought to take hurtfull to the honour of God and prejudiciall to the good of the Realme Then they declare the King an enemy to and oppressor of his people a Tyrant over his Realme that so the people should presently resolve to confine him unto a Monastery and install the Duke in his throne And at last the King being certainly informed of the Dukes traiterous designes to surpize him and usurpe his Throne caused the Duke and Cardinall of Burbon the chiefe Heads of the League to be suddenly slaine and others of them to be imprisoned Hereuppon the Parisiens mutinie and take up Armes a fresh The Colledge of Sorbone concluded by a publike Act of the seventh of Ianuary 1589. That the people of France are freed from the Oath of obedience and fealty which they owed to Henry of Valoys and that lawfully and with a good conscience they may arme against him receive his Revenues and imploy it to make warre against him After which the Assembly of the Estates dissolving the Parisiens imprison the Court of Parliament at Paris till they condescended to their pleasures and confirmed a generall Councell of the union consisting of fourty choice men of the three Estates to dispose of the publike affaires and conferre with the Provinces and Townes of the League To which many Assistants were afterward added by the Nobles and a Declaration in manner of an oath for the entertainment of the Vnion made sworne and subscribed to by many one of which prickt his own Arme to signe it with his owne blood and became lame thereby The people condemne imprison spoile ransom of their absolute power and sell the goods of any that bears not the mark of their inraged faction Hereupon the King turning his lenitie into fury Proclaims them Rebels and Traitors if they come not in and submit by a day and reconciles himselfe to the King of Navarre They go on with greater insolency then before set out a great Army under the Duke of Mayenne crave assistance from the Pope and king of Spaine surprize divers townes robbe Churches ravish Wives and Virgins murther men of all sorts even before their Altars commit all the outrages wickednesses which irreligion and impiety could invent in madd Souldiers The King at last besieged Paris takes some of the Outworks and was like to master the Citie but in the middest of this attempt he was stabbed in the belly with a Knife by Iames Clement a Iacobin Friar of two and twenty yeers old sent out of Paris to act this Tragedie on the kings person who vowed to kill the Tyrant and to deliver the City besieged by Sennacherib The murtherer was presently slaine by those who came in to assist the king who within few houres after died of this wound which he received in the self-same chamber wherein the Counsell for the Massacre of the Protestants was held on that fatall day of Saint Bartholmew 1572. A notable circumstance of Divine justice upon this Prince who being ever a zealous promoter of the Romish Religion was murthered by a Zealot of it and had his owne blood shed by those who spurred him on to shed the blood of Protestants in the very Chamber where the most babarous Massacre of Protestants that ever the world beheld was contrived Henry when the pangs of death seized on him declared Henry the fourth King of Navarre his brother in law the lawfull Successor of the Crowne of France as in Truth he was notwithstanding the Edict of Bloys to exclude all Heretikes from the Crowne The Parisiens and holy Vnion refuse to accept him for their Soveraigne proclaiming Charles the tenth for their King and triumphing exceedingly at Henry his death The Parliament at Bourdeaux commands all men under their jurisdiction by a Decree of the nineteenth of August 1549. To observe inviolably the Edict of Vnion in the Catholique Apostolike and Romish Church and Declarations are hereupon made The Parliament of Tholousa is more violent they decree That yearly the first day of August they should make processions and publike prayers for the benefits they had received that day in the miraculous and fearfull death of Henry the third whereby Paris was delivered and other Townes of the Realme forbidding all persons to acknowledge Henry of Burbon the pretended King of Navarre for King declaring him uncapable ever to suceed to the Crowne of France by reason of the notorious and manifest crimes contained at large in the Bull of Excommunication of Pope Sixtus the fifth The Court of Parliament at Râ—an no lesse violent and presumptuous then that of Tholousa pronounced them guilty of High Treason both against God and man and the Estate and Crowne of France that had opposed themselves against the holy Vnion and all Royalists and their Successors deprived of all prerogatives of Nobility their Offices to be void not to be recovered and all their Goods forfeited Anno 1592. they renew this Edict every eight moneth Thus the league kindled afresh the fire which the siege of Paris had somewhat quenched the King raising his siege before it and returning to Arques the Leaguers Army followed him and are there defeated after which the King with a small Army gaines many great Conquests which amaze the Leaguers he besiegeth Paris above three moneths where more then one hundred thousand people died of famine yet they force the Parliament to publish a Decree the fifteenth of Iune 1590. For bidding upon pain of death all men to speak of any composition with Henry of Burbon but to oppose themselves by all meanes yea with the effusion of their blood But the Belly hath not Ears the people are not fed with paper or promises they mutinie and demand peace whereupon Deputies are sent to the King to treat a peace who to defeat the Spanish Army called in by the Leaguers raiseth his siege and routs the Spanyard with other Forces of the League in sundry places which makes many desire peace yet by meanes of Pope Clement the eighth his Bull the Duke of Mayenne and the Popes Legate they intend to summon a Convocation of the Estates of Paris to elect a new King desiring the Cardinall of Placentia to assist and confirme this their intended future electior The Parliament of Paris removed to Chaalons gives sentence against the Popes Bull and nulls it The King sets out a Declaration against the Leaguers as Traitors and Rebels declares this Assembly of the Estates without his Authoritie to be against the Lawes against the good and quiet of the Realme and all that should be treated or concluded therein abusive and of no force On the contrary the Popes Legate by a publike exhortation full of injuries labors to perswade the French that the King long since dismembred from the bodie of the Church was most justly pronounced uncapable of the Crown The Spaniyards labouring the Estates to elect the Infanta of Spain king the Parliament of Paris
of their Kingdom and Estates assembled as some falsly averre they are because our Royalists and Court Doctors parallell England with France making both of them absolute Monarchies and our greatest malignant Councellors chiefe Designe hath been to reduce the Government of England to the late modell and new arbitrary proceedings of France which how pernicious they have proved to that unfortunate Realm what infinite distructive civill warres and combustions they have produced and to what unhappy tragicall deaths they have brought divers of their Kings Princes Nobles and thousands of their people the premisses other Storyes will so far discover as to cause all prudent Kings and Statesmen to steer the Helme of our own and other Kingdoms by a more safe steddy and fortunate compasse Thus I have done with France and shall recompence any prolixity in it with greater brevity in other Kingdoms when I have overpassed Spain From France I shall next steer my course to the Kingdomes and Kings of Spaine whom Iacobus Valdesius Chancellor to the King of Spain in a large Book de Dignitate Regum Regnorumque Hispaniae printed at Granado 1602. professedly under takes to prove to be of greater dignity and to have the Precedency of the Kings and Kingdoms of France which Cassanaeus and all French Advocates peremptorily deny The first Kings of Spain over-run by the Goths and Wisigoths are those their Writers call the Gothish Kings who as Michael Ritius de Regibus Hispaniae L. 1 2. Iohannis Mariana de rebus Hispaniae L. 2 3. the Generall History of Spain and othes affirme were elected by and had their authority from the people You may reade their lives and successions at large in these Authors and finde some of there dis-inherited and deposed by their subjects others of them in ward during their minorities to such as the State appointed others murdered but all of them subject to the Lawes of their Realms as it is evident by the expresse ancient Law of the Wisigoths having this Title Quod tam Regia potestas quam populorum universitas Legum reverentiae sit subjecta by other lawes thereto annexed by Iohannis Mariana De Rege Regis institutione L. 1. c. 9. Those whom they properly call Kings of Spain had their royall authority derived to them conferred on them by the people upon this occasion Spain being a Provincesubject to the Roman Empire was spoyled over-runne and possessed by the barbarous Moors for many years in which time the Spanyards oft solicited the Roman Emperours for ayde to expell the Moors but could gain none Whereupon to free themselves and their Countrey from slavery they chose one Pelagius for their Captain by whose valour they conquered the Moors and thereupon by unanimous consent Elected and Crowned Pelagius King of Oviedo whom the Spanish Writers mention as the first King of Spain And this their desertion by the Emperours the Spanish Writers generally hold and g Iacobus Valdesius proves it largely to be a sufficient lawfull ground for the Spanyards even by the generall law of Nations to cast off their subjection to the Roman Empire and to elect a King erect a Kingdom of their own exempt from all subjection to the Emperor since they purchased their own libertie and Countrey from the Gothes by conquest of themselves alone without any aide or assistance from the Roman Emperours to whom for this reason they hold themselves and their Kingdom no wayes subject yet for all this they deem their Kings inferiour to their whole Kingdoms and censurable yea deposable by them as is cleer by the forecited passage of the Bishop of Burgen Ambassadour to the King of Spain in the Councell of Basill and by Johannis Mariana the Jesuites Book de Rege Regis Institution dedicated to Philip the third King of Spain printed at Madrit in Spain by this Kings own speciall priviledge Dated at Madrit January 25. 1599. and after this reprinted at Mentz in Germany Anno 1605. Cum privilegio sacrae Caesariae Majestatis to wit of the Emperour Radulph the second permissu Superiorum who certainly would not thus specially approve authorize this Book for the Presse had it maintained any Positions contrary to the Laws or derogatory to the Prerogative Royall of the Crownes and Kingdoms of Spain though other States cannot so well digest it In this very Book the Authour who hath likewise written a large History of the affaires and Kings of Spain professedly maintains in a speciall Chapter wherein he debates this Question Whether the power of the Republike or King be greater That the whole Kingdom State and People in every lawfull Kingdom and in Spain it selfe are of greater power and authority then the King His reasons which I have for brevity digested into number in his own words are these First because all Royall Power that is lawfull hath its originall from the People by whose grant the first Kings in every Republike were placed in their Royall Authoritie which they circumscribed with certain laws and sanctions lest it should too much exalt it selfe to the distruction of the Subjects and degenerate into a Tyrannie This appears in the Lacedaemonians long since who committed onely the care of Warre and procuration of holy things to the King as Aristotle Writes Also by a later example of the Aragonians in Spain who being incited with an earnest endeavour of defending their libertie and not ignorant how the hights of Libertie are much diminished from small beginnings created a middle Magistrate like the Tribunall power commonly called at this time Aragoniae Iustitia the Justice of Aragon who armed with the lawes authoritie and endeavours of the people hath hitherto held the Royall Power included within certain bounds and it was specially given to the Nobles that there might be no collusion if at any time having communicated their counsell among themselves they should keep assemblies without the Kings privity to defend their Lawes and Liberties In these Nations and those who are like them no man will doubt but that the authoritie of the Republike is greater then the Kings Secondly because in other Provinces where the people have lesser and the Kings more power and all grant the King to be the Rector and supream Head of the Commonwealth and to have supream authoritie in managing things in times of warre or peace yet there the whole Commonwealth and those who represent it being chosen out of all Estates and meeting together in one place or Parliament are of greater power to command and deny than the King which is proved by experience in Spain where the King can impose no Taxes nor enact no Laws if the people dissent or approve them not Yea let the King use art propound rewards to the Citizens sometimes speak by threats to draw others to consent to him solicite with words hopes and promises which whether it may be well done we dispute not yet if they shall resist their judgement shall be
Brotherhood and Estates of this Province sent to K. Alphonso divers Articles which they beseeched him to confirme promising for their part that this should be their last Assembly and that the name and effect of their Brotherhood should remain for ever extinct and the Province be for ever united to the Crown of Castile if he would confirme those Articles to them being 17. in number which he did The chiefe were these That the King nor his Successors should not alien any place of his Demesnes That the Gentlemen and their goods should be free and exempt from all Subsidies as they had been heretofore That they and others of the Countrey should be governed according to the customes and rights of Soportilla And that divers Townes and Villages therein specified should be free from all Tributes and Impositions About the yeer 1309. Mahumet King of Granado becomming casually blind was soon after deposed by his own Brother and the great men of his Realme who were discontented and disliked to be governed by a blind King who could not lead them to the warres in person Which Kingdome went by Election commonly as is evident by his three next successours and Mahumet the sixth King of Granado Anno 1307. Lewes Hutin was crowned King of Navarre at Pampelone where he sware to observe the Lawes and Rights of the Realme After which Anno 1315. Philip the long was elected by the Estates of Navarre to be their king in right of his wife but it was upon conditions drawn in writing which they tendered to him and the Queen to subscribe and sweare to before the solemnities of their Coronation in the Estates assembled at Pampelone which they yeelded willingly unto whereof the principall Articles were these 1. First to the Estates to maintain and keep the Rights Lawes Customes Liberties and priviledges of the Realme both written and not written whereof they were in possession to them and their successours for ever and not to diminish but rather augment them 2. That they should disannull all that had been done to the preiudice thereof by the kingâ— their Predecessors and by their Ministers without delay notwithstanding any Leâ— 3. That for the tearme of 12. yeares to come they should not coyne any money but such as was then currant within the Realme and that during their lives they should not coyne above one sort of money and that they should distribute part of the revenues profits and commodities of the Realme unto the Subiects 4. That they should not receive into their service above foure strangers but should imploy them of the Countrey 5. That the Forts and Garrison of the Realme should be given unto Gentlemen borne and dwelling in the Countrey and not to any stranger who should do homage to the Queen and promise for to hold them for her and for the lawfull Heire of the Countrey 6. That they should not exchange nor engage the Realme for any other Estate whatsoever 7. That they should not sell nor engage any of the Revenues of the Crowne neither should make any Law nor Statute against the Realme nor against them that should lawfully succeed therein 8. That to the first sonne which God should give them comming to the age of twenty yeares they should leave the kingdome free and without factions upon condition that the Estates should pay unto them for their expences an hundred thousand Sanchets or other French money equivalent 9. That if God gave them no children in that case they should leave the Realme after them free with the Forts in the hands of the Estates to invest them to whom of right it should belong 10. That if they infâ—inge these Articles or any part of them the Subiects should be quit of their Oath of subiection which they ought them These Articles being promised and sworne by the king and Queen they were solemnly crowned and the Deputies of the Estates Noblemen and Officers of the Crown took their obedience to them Vpon this agreement all the Castles and places of strength in Navarre were put into the hands of the Estates who committed them unto the custody of faithfull knights in whose keeping they continued a Catalogue of which Castles with the names of the knights that guarded them by the Estates appointment in the yeare 1335. you may read at large in the Generall History of Spaine Before this Anno 1328. the Estates of Navarre assembled at Puenta la Reyna to resolve without any respect TO WHOM THE REALM OF NAVARRE BELONGED whether to Edward king of England or to Iane Countesse of Eureux The Estates being adjourned to Pampalone the chief Town of the Realme their opinions were divers many holding that king Edward should have the Realm as Granchilde born of the daughter to Queen Iane daughter to King Henry rather then the Countesse of Eureux in regard of the Sex others with more reason held for the Countesse who was in the same degree but daughter to a Son and Heir to Queen Iane. These prevailed drawing the rest to their opinion whereupon the Countesse was declared true and lawfull Queen of Navarre the Realm having been vacant above four Moneths And untill that she and Count Philip her husband should come and take possession of the Realm they declared the Regent and Viceroy Don Iohn Corberan of Leet Standard bearer of the Realm and Iohn Martines of Medrado Lo here a Parliament of the Estates of Navarre summoned by themselves without a King determining the Right of succession to the Crown appointing a Vicegerent and prescribing such an Oath and Articles to their king as you heard before Anno 1331. king Philip of Navarre to administer justice erected a new Court of Parliament in Navarre which was called New to distinguish it from the old HE AND THE THREE ESTATES of the Realm NAMING MEN WORTHY OF THAT CHARGE Queen Iane and Philip deceasing their son Charles the second surnamed the Bad for his crueltie and ill manners was called by the three Estates of Navarre to Pampelone and there crowned in their Assembly after the manner of his Ancestors swearing to observe the Lawes and Liberties of the Country After which a far stricter Oath was administred to Charles the 3. An. 1390. Anno 1325. In a generall assembly of all the Estates of Arragon Don Pedro son to the Infant Don Alphonso was sworn presumptive Heir and Successor to the Crown after the decease of his Grandfather and Father the which was there decreed and practised for that Don Pedro Earl of Ribagorca did maintain that if his brother Don Alphonso should die before then Father the Realm did belong to him by right of propriery being the third brother rather then to his Nephew the son of the second brother In this Assembly the Articles of the generall priviledges were confirmed and it was ordained for a Law That no Freeman should be put to the Racke and that confiscations should not be allowed but in Cases of
suddenly and conquered the Tyrant who being betrayed into King Henry his hands as hee was taking his flight by night King Henry stabbed him with dagger in the face and at last getting him under him slew him with his dagger for his excesse and tyranny Anno 1368. and raigned quietly in his steed I might prosecute and draw down the Histories of all the Spanish Kings and Kingdomes from his dayes till this present which are full fraught with presidents of this nature to prove all the Kings of Spaine inferiour to their Kingdomes Assemblies of the Estates Lawes resistible deprivable for their Tyrannyes but because those who desire satisfaction in this kinde may read the Histories themselves more largely in the generall History of Spain in Joannis Pistorius his Hispaniae Illustratae where all their chiefe Historians are collected into severall volumnes and in Meteranus and Grimstons Histories of the Netherlands I shall for brevity sake pretermit them altogether concluding with one or two briefe observations more touching the Gothish and Arragonian Kings in Spaine which will give great light and confirmation to the premises First for the Antient Kings of the Gothes in Spain Aimoinius and Hugo Grotius out of him confesse that they received the Kingdom from the people revocable by them at any time and that the people might depose them as often as they displeased them and therefore their acts might be rescinded and nulled by the people who gave them only a revocable power which the premised Histories experimentally evidence such likewise were the Kings of the Vandales removable at the peoples pleasure as Procopius writes such the Kings of the Heruli Quadi Iazyges Lombardes Burgundians Moldavians Africans the l Moores in Spaine the two annuall Kings of Carthage the antient Germane Kings the Kings of Sparta and most other Kings of Greece as Historians and Authors of best credite relate Secondly for the Kings of Arragon and originall constitution of the Kingdom I find this memorable passage in Hieronymus Blanca his Rerum Arragonensium Commentarius pag. 586. 587. 590. 72â— 724. in the third Tom of Ioannis Pistorius his Hispaniae illustratae Sancho the fourth King of Arragon dying without issue the Estates and people advising together what course they should take for their security and future good administration of the Common-weale about the year of our Lord 842. elected twelve principall men to whom they committed the care and government of the Republike during the Inter-regnum These because they were very ancient men were called Elders from whence those who by birth are stiled Rici-men drew their originall And this manner of governing the Common-wealth continued long But the great incursions of the Arabians pressing them they imagined it would not continue firme and stable Yet notwithstanding taken with the sweetnesse of Liberty they feared to subject themselves to the Empire of one man because verily they beleeved that servitude would proceed from thence Therefore having considered and rightly pondered all things and reasons they made this the result of all their Counsels that they should consult with Pope Adrian the second and the Lombards what course they should take by their advise which should be most meet for the perpetuating of the Empire to whom as reports goe they returned this answer That preordaining certaine Rights and Lawes ratified with the previous religion of a cautionary oath they should set up one King over them but yet should reject a forraign Dominion and that they should take heed that he whom they adopted to be King should be neither of the superiours nor inferiours lest if superiour he should oppresse inferiours or lest if inferiour hee should be derided by superiours To which counsell and sentence they submitting founded that ancient Suprarbian Court For according to the answer given all decreed That they ought to elect one man excelling in vertue for their King But yet lest the pleasure of Kings like as in other Princes should likewise even among us become Lawes they first of all enacted some Lawes by which they might heale this inconvenience These Lawes they afterward called the Suprarbian Court which we should largely prosecute but through the injury of time the knowledge of them is buried and some fragments of them only are extant observed by Prince Charles himselfe and some other Writers which we shall verily remember because they are as the first elements of our Republike and containe in them the institution of the Magistrate of the Iustice of Arragon which is the chiefe thing of our institution therefore in the beginning of that Court it was provided that the King which should be since the Kingdom lately taken from the Moores was freely and voluntarily conferred on him should be bound both by the Religion of an Oath as likewise by the force and power of Lawes to observe the Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdom Now the Lawes were these Governe thou the Kingdome in peace and righteousnesse and give us better Courts of justice The things which shall bee gained from the Moores let them be devided not only between the Rich-men but likewise between the souldiers and infantry but let a stranger receive nothing from thence Let it bee unlawfull or a wicked act for the King to enact Lawes unlesse it be by the advice of his Subjects first given Let the King beware that he begin no Warre that he enter into no Peace conclude no Truce or handle any other thing of great moment without the concurring assent of the Elders Now lest that our Lawes or Liberties should suffer any detriment Let there be a certain middle Judge at hand to whom it may be lawfull to appeal from the King if he shall wrong any one and who may repell injuries if peradventure he shall offer any to the Common-weale With these Lawes therefore and sanctions those our Ancestors confirmed the enterprise of new moulding and reforming the Common-wealth But verily this was the chiefest garison for to retaine their liberty whereby they ordained the Presidentship of a middle Iudge placing the power in such sort in the King that the temperating of it should be in the middle Iudge out of which things the moderate and musicall state of the Common-weale which we enjoy is moulded and made up For from the very beginning of things even to these later times wee see by force of this intermediate Magistrate and by the goodnesse and clemency of most peaceable Kings that both our pristine liberty and ancient Priviledge hath been alwayes retained and due loyalty and reverence to the Kings Majesty observed Neither hath the Kingdome onely emplored the help of this Magistrate against Kings but the Kings themselves oft-times against the Kingdome by which meanes many intestine evils have been appeased without any tumult which unlesse they had been civilly suppressed seemed verily to have been likely to have broken out to the common destruction of all men so as we may rightly
Justice of thy Fathers He answeres I will and by Gods Assistance promise that I will doe and performe it by all meanâ—s After this kneeling on his knees the Arch-bishop holding the New Testament open and the Burgrave reading the words first the king takes this Oath in the Bohemian tongue We sweare to God the mother of God and all Saints upon this holy Gospell that we will and ought to keepe immovably to the Barons Knights and Nobles also to those of Prague and the other Cities and to all the Commonalty of the Realme of Bohemia the Institutions Lawes Priviledges Exemptions Liberties and Rights and also the ancient good and laudable customes of the Realme and not to alienate or morgage any thing from the same Kingdome of Bohemia but rather to our power to augment and enlarge it and to doe all things which may be good and honourable to that Kingdome So helpe me God touching the booke with two of the fingers of his right hand and all Saints The Kings of Navarre take the like Oath How this Realme hath beene altered from a Principality to a Dukedome and from it againe to a Kingdome having sometimes Kings sometimes Dukes both elected by the free choyse of the Estates to whom they were inferiour in Soveraigne power accountable for their mis-government and removeable from their Throne you may read in the marginall Authors Not to mention the Bohemians deposition of Libussa a Noble Virago who governed them for a season reputing it a dishonour to the Nation to be ruled by a woman and electing Przemysâ—â—s for their Prince their deposition and banishment of Prince Borzinegius because he became a Christian and renounced their Pagan Religion though they afterwards twice restored him Of Boleslaus Rufus of Borzinogius the 2. thrice deposed banished by the Nobles and people or Sobeâ—slaus and other Princes Wladislaus first King of Bohemia in his old age by the assent of the Estates associated his sonne Frederick Anno 1173 with him in the Regality Henry King of Bohemia using the Councell of the Germans rather then the Bohemians and looking more after his owne private gaine then the Kingdomes was deposed in a generall Assembly of the Estates Anno 1310. and the sonne of the Emperour Henry the 7 th chosen King upon this condition if he would marry the youngest daughter of King Winceslaus King Wenceslaus the drunken for his drunkennesse negligence and cruelty was twice imprisoned and severely handled by his Nobles and upon promise of amendment restored to his liberty and dignity in his and Sigismond his successors raigns Zizca and the Taborites in defence of their Religion against the Popish party who most unjustly against their promise and safe conduct caused John Hus and Jerome of Prague to be put to death waged great warres and obtained many victories against the King and Emperour and gained free liberty of professing their religion publickely much against the Popes good will which liberty they have ever since maintained by the sword both against the Popish Emperours and Kings by meanes of which civill wars the kingdome suffered some Interregnums During the Minority of king â—c Ladislaus Anno 1439. this kingdome was governed by two Presidents appointed by the Estates Anno 1611. the Emperour Rodulph being willing to settle the kingdome of Bohemia on his Brother Matthias in an assembly of the States of Bohemia called for that purpose the Estates thereupon drew many Articles which Matthias was to sweare to before his Coronation with 49. Articles of complaints and grievances for which they craved redresse and the inhabitants of Prague required the confirmation of 8. Articles which concerned the private Government of their City All which the Emperour and Matthias were constrained to Grant and sweare to before they would admit Matthias to be their King who had nothing in a manner but the Title some of the flowers of the liberty of the Crowne being parted with by his assenting to these Articles Anno 1617. Matthias resigning the Crowne of Bohemia and renouncing his right thereunto recommended Ferdinand Arch. Duke of Austria to them or his successour The States would not admit him king but upon Conditions the which if he should infringe The States should not be bound to yeeld him Obedience Moreover it was added That he should confirm to the States before his Coronation to maintaine all the Priviledges Charters Immunities Municipall Rights Constitutions and Customes of the Realme and people as the Emperour and his predecessors had done by his Oath and Charter in Writing All which assented to he was proclaimed and crowned king Soone after the Arch-bishop of Prague causing some of the Protestant Churches to be ruined and those who complained of it to be put in prison and plotting the extirpation of the Protestant Religion through the Iesuites instigation contrary to their Liberties and the Provinciall constitution hereupon the Protestant States of Bohemia assembled at Prague fortified the Towne binding the three Townes of Prague to them by an Oath entred into a solemne League promising to fight against the Common enemies of God the King and Religion and in that cause to live and dye to which end they levyed a great Army banishing the Jesuites out of Bohemia as the Authors of all the miseries which had hapned in that Realme and many other Realmes and States of Christendome and inciting murderers to kill Kings who would not live after their manner and medling with affaires of State and who had drawne the whole Country into the hands of certaine perfidious Catholickes by whose practises the Country was in danger of ruine For which causes they banished them for ever out of the Realme of Bohemia enjoyning them to depart within 8 dayes never to returne After this the Protestants hearing that the Emperour and Popish party raised Forces against them possessed themselves of many Townes and places within the Realme and raised two Armies All the Protestant Princes and States of Germany Morauia and Silesia except the Elector of Saxony assisted them with men money or Councell publishing a Declaration to justifie their action being for the Common cause of Religion theâ— endangered The Prince of Orange and States of the united Provinces promised them assistance of men and money other Protestant Princes and the Protestant States of Lower Austria did the like The Protestant Armies after this had many victorious incounters with the Imperialists and Popish Forces and took many Towns King Ferdinand in the meane time being newly chosen Emperour the States of Bohemia being assembled together at Prague which the Deputies of the incorporated Provinces Anno. 1619. Concluded and protested by Oath never to acknowledge Ferdinard for their King who had violated his first Covenants resolving to proceede to a new Election and on the 26. of August Elected Fredericke the Prince Electer Palatine of Reine to be their King who accepted the dignity was afterward Crowned king accordingly After which the States of Bohemia
people that partly out of revenge partly to prevent further oppressions and to provide for their owne securitie corrupting his servants with money they sent their agents into his chamber in the night and slew him Not to mention the murther of King Duncan by Machbed who usurped his Crowne through his pusillanimity this Machbed omitting no kind of libidinousnesse cruelty and tyrannizing over the people for 18 yeares space together trusting to the predictions of certaine wisards that he should neven be overcome till Bernane wood did come to Dunsinane Castle and that he should never be slaine by any man borne of a woman At last Mackduffe governour of Fiffe joyning himselfe to some few patriots who had escaped this Tyrants sword met at Bernane wood and early in the morning every man bearing a bough in his hand the better to keepe them from discovery tooke Dunsinane Castle by scalado whence Machbed escaping was pursued overtaken and urged to fight bp Mackduffe to whom the Tyrant replyed in scorne that in vaine hee attempted his death for it was his destinie never to be slaine by any man borne of a woman Now then said Mackduffe is thy fatall houre come for I never was borne of a woman but violently cut out of my mothers wombe she dying before I was borne which words so daunted the Tyrant though otherwise valiant that he was easily slaine and Malcolme Conmer the true heire of the Crowne seated in the Throne King Donald being odious and cruell to his subjects they sent for Duncan Malcombes bastard who expelled him the Realme and was created King in his steed who proving harsh cruell and Imperious to his Subjects fell into their hatred and was beheaded in the night by Marpender Earle of Murry corrupted with money by Donald to murther him Donald permitting the Isles to be taken and possessed by Magnus King of Norway and suffering his Realme to be wasted by a secret agreement thereupon the Scots sent for Edgar Malcombes sonne to take possession of the Crowne who entring into Scotland with small forces Donald being deserted by his people betooke himselfe to flight but being apprehended and brought backe to Edgar he was cast into prison and not long after dyed King Malcolme the fourth at a Parliament at Yorke parting with divers of his Crowne-lands to King Henry without his peoples consents so farre incurred their hatred that upon his returne they beseiged him at Barwick and almost tooke him prisoner but by the mediation of some of his Councell who informed the Nobles that the King was by violence fraud circumvented by the King of England of the ancient patrimony of the Crowne land they resolved to recover it by war the Scottish Nobility affirming that the king had not any power to diminish or part with any lands appertaining to the Crown without all their consents in Parliament This King after some encounters making a peace with the English upon unequall termes wherein he parted with some of his ancient territories out of his pusilanimity against his Nobles consent hereupon he grew so odious and contemptible to them that they were all weary of his government and caused many to take up Armes and Rebell against him After the death of King Alexander the third there was a Parliament summoned at Scone to consult about the creating of a new King and the government of the Realme during the Inter-regnum where first of all they appointed fix men to rule the Realme for the present and then heard and discussed the severall Titles pretended to the Crowne the finall determination whereof they referred to King Edward the first of England as to the Supreame Soveraigne Lord of the Realme who selecting 12. Scottish and 12. English Councellors to assist him After full hearing by generall consent of all adjudged the Crown to Iohn Baylioll husband to King Alexanders nightest Kinswoman The Scots considering his simplicity and unaptnes to governe them and scarce confiding in him being an Englishman and elected by the K. of England cōstituted them 12. Peers after the manner of France to wit 4. Bishops 4. Earles and 4. Lords by whose advise the King and all the affaires of the Realme were to be governed and directed He was taken and kept prisoner by the English After the death of Robert Bruce the Scots before their King was crowned created a Vice-Roy to govern the Realme who suppressed the theeues and Robbers Edward Bayliol sonne to Iohn Bayliol succeding Bruce was afterwards rejected and deposed by the Scots for adhereing too closely to the English K. Edward and David Bruce elected K. in his place Robert the 2 d. of Scotland when a peace was propounded between France England and Scotland by the Pope willingly consented thereunto but his Nobles being against it his assent alone was in vaine because the King of Scotland alone can make no firme peace nor truce nor promise which shall bind but by publike consent in Parliament King Robert the 3 d. dying of griefe for the captivity and imprisonment of his Son Iames taken prisoner by our King Henry the 4 th as he was going into France the Scots hereupon appointed Robert his uncle by common consent for their Vice-roy till Iames the first of that name right heire of the Cowne were enlarged Iames being freed and Crowned summoned a Parliament wherein an ayde was granted him to pay his ransome with much difficulty he had many Civill wars with his Subjects and at last was murthered by Robert Grame and his confederats from whom he received 28. wounds in his Chamber in the night wherof he presently died Iames the 2. his son being but 7. yeares old at his death Alexander Leviston was chosen Protector and William Crichton made Chancellor by Parliament Which the Earle Douglas storming at committed many insolencies in a hostile manner After which Alexander and his faction opposing the Chancellor and commanding that none should obey him the Chancellor thereupon fortified Edenborough Castle and as the King was hunting early in the morning seized upon him with a troop of Horse brought him to Edinburgh Castle where he detained him from the Protector till the peace of the Kingdom and present divisions should be setled which lasting very long by reason of Earle Douglas his ambition power and covetousnes who raised many grievous civill wars he was at last stabbed to death by the King himselfe Anno 1452. contrary to his promise of safe conduct to the Court under the Kings and Nobles hands and seales Wherupon his brethren and Confederats meeting at Sterling resolved to revenge his death and tied the Kings and Nobles writing of safe conduct to an horses taile which they led through the streets of Sterling railing at the King and his Councell as they went and when they came into the market place where they had 500. trumpets sounding they by an Herald proclaimed the King and all that were with him fedifragus perjured and enemis of all good
king then he was no king before they had made him as many Divines most sottishly averre against the very letter of the Text and Iosephus who writes That it pleased the Assembly of the Israelites there held that HEE SHOULD RECEIVE THE KINGDOM BY THE PEOPLES CONSENT And Ieroboam and ALL THE CONGREGATION OF ISRAEL came and spake unto Rehoboam saying Thy Father made our yoake grievous now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy Father and his heavy yoake which he put upon us lighter AND WE WILL SERVE THEE because naturally subjects delight in mild Kings who will somwhat descend from their altitudes saith Iosephus This was the condition they propounded to him before they would accept him for their king and upon this condition only would they admit him to reigne over them therefore doubtlesse the disposall of the Crown and limitation of the kings royall power resided in all the congregation who had authority to prescribe their kings what equall and just conditions they pleased And he said unto them depart yet for three dayes then come again to me and the people departed Hereupon Rehoboam consulted with the old men that stood before Solomon his Father while he lived and said how doe you advise that I may answer this people And they spake unto him saying If thou wilt be A SERVANT unto this people this day and wilt SERVE THEM and answer them and speak good words to them THEN THEY WILL BE THY SERVANTS FOR EVER But he forsooke the Counsell of the old men which they had given him and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him and which stood before him and following their ill advise when Ieroboam and all the People came to Rehoboam the third day as he had appointed the King answered the people roughly and forsaking the old mens Counsell he spake unto them after the Counsell of the young men saying My Father made your yoake heavy and I will adde to your yoake my Father chastised you with whips but I will chastise you with scorpions Wherefore the King HEARKNED NOT UNTO THE PEOPLE for the cause was from the Lord c. SO WHEN ALL ISRAEL SAW THAT THE KING HEARKNED NOT VNTO THEME the People answered the King through indignation with one voyce writes Iosephus saying What portion have we in David NEITHER HAVE WEE INHERITANC IN THE SONNE OF IESSE that is we have not intailed our Subjection nor the inheritance of this our Realme to David and his seed for ever but are still free to elect what King we please to thy Tents O Israel Now see to thine House David so Israel departed to their Tent. But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the Cities of Judah Rehoboam reigned over them the Tribes of Iudah and Beniamin CHOOSING HIM THEIR KING BY THEIR COMMON SVFFRAGES writes Iosephus Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram who was over the Tribute to excuse saith Iosephus the petulancy of his young tongue and to appease the mindes of the enraged vulgar And all Israel stoned him with stones that he dyed therefore King Rehoboam imagining truly that himselfe was stoned in his servant and fearing lest the once conceived hatred should be poured out on his own head tremblingly getting up into his chariot as hastily as he could made speed to flee to Ierusalem So Israel fell away from the house of David unto this day And it came to passe when ALL ISRAEL heard that Ieroboam was come again that they sent and called him unto the Congregation AND MADE HIM KING OVER ALL ISRAEL c. it being so preordained by God 1 King 12. 26. to 41. Loe here the whole Congregation or Parliament of Israel if I may so stile it had full and free power to reiect Rehoboam from the Crown for refusing to subscribe to their conditions to elect Ieroboam for their lawfull King and erect a new Kingdome of their owne divided ever after from that of Iudah which action I shall prove anon to be lawfull warranted by Gods owne divine authority and no sinne nor rebellion at all in the People who never admitted Rehoboam for or submitted to him as their lawfull Soveraigne So Iehu having slain King Ioram Ahabs eldest sonne sent a Letter to Samaria where his other 70. sonnes were brought up to the Rulers and Elders there wishing them to look out THE BEST AND MEETEST of their Masters sonnes and set him on his Fathers throne and fight for their Masters house But they being exceedingly afraid said two Kings could not stand before him how then shall wâ— stand and sent word to Iehu We are thy servants and will doe all that thou shalt bid us WE WILL NOT MAKE ANY KING A clear evidence that the kingdom was then elective and that they had power to choose the meetest man not eldest brother for their king After this Zimri slaying Baasha king of usrael and usurping the Crown the people then encamped about Gibbethon hearing of it that Zimri had conspired and also slain the King Wherefore ALL ISRAEL MADE OMRI Captain of the Host king over Israel that day in the Campe who burnt Zimri in his Palace then were the People divided into two parts halfe of the People followed Tibni to make him king and halfe followed Omri But the people that followed Omri prevailed against the people that followed Tibni so Tibni dyed and Omri Reigned being made king onely by the peoples free election without any divine designation So Ioash the sonne of Ahaziah when Athaliah had usurped the Crowne and kingdome of Iudah neer seven yeers space was MADE KING anointed and crowned by Iehoiadah the High Priest the Captaines of hundreds and ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND who rejoyced at it when he was but 7. yeeres old and Athaliah was apprehended deposed and murthered by them as an Vsurpresse So Amaziah King of Iudah being slain by a Conspiracie at Lachish ALL THE PEOPLE OF IVDAH tooke Vzziah who was but 16. yeers old and MADE HIM KING instead of his Father Vzziah king of Iudah being smitten with Leprosie unto the day of his death dwelt in a severall house Iotham his son in the mean time by common consent was over this house judging the people of the Land Ammon king of Iudah being slain by his own servants the people of the Land slew all them that had conspired against Ammon And THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND MADE Iosiah his sonne King in his stead And after Iosiah his death the PEOPLE OF THE LAND took Iehoabaz the sonne of Iosiah and MADE HIM KING in his Fathers stead in Ierusalem From all which sacred Texts and Presidents as likewise from Hosea 8. 4. THEY HAVE SET VP KINGS But not by mee THEY HAVE MADE PRINCES and I knew it not it is most apparant that the kings of Israel and Iudah were usually elected by and derived their Royall authority from the people who made them kings and received not their
kingdomes and Crowns immediatly from God himself by a divine right which may be further conmed by the 1. Macab 9. 28. 29. 30. After the death of Iudas Maccabeus all Iudas his friends came unto Ionathan his brother and said unto him since thy brother Iudas dyed we have none like to him to goe forth against our enemies Now therefore WEE HAVE CHOSEN THEE this day TO BE OVR PRINCE and Captain in his stead that thou maist fight our battells Vpon this Ionathan took the Government on him at that time After Ionathans death the People said unto Simon his brother with a lowd voyce 1 Mac. 13. 8. 9. Thou shalt be our Leader instead of Iudas and Ionathan thy brother fight thou our battels and whatsoever thou commandest us wee will doe And the Iewes and Priests were well pleased that Simon should be their Governour Captain and High Priest and Simon accepted thereof 1 Mac. 14. 41. to 49 Hence Carolus Sigonius de Repub. Hebraeorum l. 7. c. 3. writes That the kings of the Israelites were created by the Suffrages of the People that the Kingdome of Israel was translated to divers Families for their idolatry that although the kingdome of Iudah were in some sort hereditary yet it was confirmed by the Suffrages of the People which he proves by the example of Rehoboam and others and that they obtained the Royall dignity not onely by inheritance but likewise by the Suffrages of the People as every one may clearly know who shall but consider the Histories of their kings Which plainly refutes the wild impudent false assertion of the Author of An Appeale to thy Conscience newly published p. 13. where thus he writes Observable it is that thorowout the whole Scriptures we read not of Any King I doubt hee never read the Scriptures else he could not be so grossely mistaken THAT WAS CHOSEN BY THE VOYCE OF THE PEOPLE Nor of an Aristocracy that is where the Nobles govern nor of a Democracy that is where the people govern And therefore let them consider how they can answer it at the last day who shall endeavour to change an hereditary kingdome into an elective or any other forme of Government whatsoever that the people doe properly and absolutely make a king is false c. But had this illiterate ignoramus seriously perused the precedent or subsequent Texts here cited with the best Commentators on them or read over advisedly Iosh 22. Iudges 17. 6. c. 18. 1. c. 19. 1. c. 21. throughout with the Books of Ezra Nehemiah Judges Esther Maccabees the four Euangelists touching Christs arraignment and death Acts 4. 5. 22. 23. 24. and 25 chapters or consulted with Josephus Philo Paul Eber Godwin Cunaeus Sigonius BertraÌ„ or any others who have written of the Jewish Antiquities of Republike he could not have had the impudency to have published such grosse untruths and should have found not onely divers kings in Scripture created by the voyce of the people but an hereditary kingdom oft changed into an elective yea into an Aristocraticall and no Royall government and an Aristocracie and Democracy to even among the Jews themselves whose government before their kings was meerly Aristocraticall as Iosephus Antiqu. Jud. l. 4. c. 8. Carolus Sigonius de Repub. Hebr. l. 1. c. 5. Cunaeus Schickardus Bertram Paul Eber and all others that I have seen except this Animal irrationale risibile punctually determine they having no kings of their own before Saul nor any after Zedekiah Therefore I shall spend no more waste paper to refute this palpable errour so confidently asserted by parisiticall Court Doctors who make no conscience of writing any though the grossest untruths which may advance the absolute Soveraign Arbitrary tyrannicall government of kings to oppresse and inslave the people Thirdly that the Kings of Iudah and Israel were no absolute Soveraign Princes but took their Crown with and upon such Divine conditions for breach whereof they and their posterities were oft times by Gods command just judgement and speeiall approbation deposed disinherited destroyed and the Crown translated to other families This is evident by direct Scriptures Deuter. â—7 14. to the end Thou shalt in any wise set him King over thee whom the Lord thy God shalt chuse one from among thy Brethren shalt thou set King over thee thou maist not set a stranger over thee which is not thy Brother Here is an expresse limitation and condition in respect of the person of the King the conditions in regard of his royall administration follow which are partly Negative partly positive But he shall not multiplie Horses to himself nor cause the the people to return to Egypt c. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself that his heart turn not away neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold And it shall be when he fitteth on the throne of his Kingdome that he shall write him a Copie of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Priests the Levites and it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this Law and these Statutes to do them That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren and that he turn not aside from the Commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong his dayes in his Kingdom he and his children in the midst of Israel Here all the kings of the Israelites when their kingdoms should be erected are strictly bound by God himself to negative and positive conditions upon performance whereof they and their children should prolong their dayes in the kingdom and perpetuate their thrones in the midst of Israel and upon breach whereof they and their posterity should lose both their lives and kingdom to as the last clause insinuates and the subsequent Texts in direct terms averre But what if the king should violate these conditions might the people lawfully resist him Iosephus in his paraphrase on this very text which I shall cite at large resolves they might Truely the government of the best men or Aristocraticall government is best and to live in a Republike thus administred nor is there cause why you should desire any other kinde of goverment but it is best that contenting yur selves with this you continue within the power of your Laws and of your selves But if the desire of a king shall possesse you let there be none unlesse he be of your stock and blood and one to whom justice with other vertues are cordiall He whosoever he shall be let him attribute more to the lawes and unto God than to his own wisedome AND LET HIM DO NOTHING WITHOUT THE HIGH PRIESTS AND SENATES ADVICE neither may he nourish many wives nor possesse very much money and many Horses with the plenty of which things he may easily become a contemner of the laws and if he shall addict
of Israel For Hezekiah had taken counsell and his Princes and all the Congregation in Ierusalem to keep the Passeover in the second moneth for they could not keep it at that time because the people had not sanctified themselves sufficiently neither had the people gathered themselves together at Ierusalem and the thing pleased the King And all the Congregation So they established a Decrée to make Proclamation throughout all Israel from Bersheba even to Dan that they should come to keep the Passeover unto the Lord God of Israel at Ierusalem for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written So the Posts went with the Letters from the King and the Princes throughout all Israel and Iudah c. vers 12. Also in Iudah the hand of God was to give them one heart to doe the Commandement of the King and of the Princes by the word of the Lord and vers 23. And the whole Assembly took Counsell to keep other seven dayes and they kept other seven dayes with gladnesse and All the Congregation of Iudah and Israel rejoyced vers 25. When all this was finished All Israel that were present went to the Cities of Iudah and brake the images in pieces and cut down the Groves and threw downe the high places and the Altars out of all Iudah and Benjamin in Ephraim also and Manasseth untill they had utterly destroyed them all Then all the Children of Israel returned every man to his possession into their owne City In the 2 Chron. 32. 3. When Hezekiah saw that Senacherib was come and that he was purposed to fight against Ierusalem He took Councell with his Princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the Fountaine which were without the City and they did help him and there was gathered much people together who stopped all the Fountaines c. Adde hereunto that notable Text Jer. 38. 4. to 28. Where when the Prophet Ieremy had prophecied that Ierusalem should be given into the hands of the King of Babylons Army which should take it Therefore the Princes hereupon said unto the King we beseech thee let this man be put to death for thus he weakneth the hands of the men of Warre that remain in this City and the hands of all the people in speaking such words unto them for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people but the hurt Then Zedechiah the King said Behold he is in your hand For the King is not he that can doe any thing against you And Jer. 26. 8. to 29. Now it came to passe when Ieremiah had made an end of speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speake unto all the people that the Priests the Prophets and all the people tooke him saying thou shalt surely dye c. So Ezra 10. 1. to 20. There assembled unto Ezra a very great Congregation of men c. And they said unto Ezra we have trespassed against our God and have taken strange wives of the people of the land yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing Now therfore let us make a Covenant with our God to put away all the strange wives c. and let it be don according to the Law and All Israel said that they would doe according to this word And they made Proclamation throughout Iudah and Ierusalem unto all the children of the Captivity that they should gather themselves unto Ierusalem and that whosoever would not come within 3. dayes According to the Councell of the Princes and the Elders all his substance should be forfeited and himselfe seperated from the Congregation of those that had been carryed away Then all the men of Iudah and Benjamin gathered themselves together unto Ierusalem within three dayes and all the people sate in the street of the house of God trembling â—ecause of this matter and for the great raine And Ezra the Priest stood up and said unto them Ye have transgressed and taken strange wives to encrease the trespasse of Israel Now therefore make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers and doe his pleasure and seperate your selves from the people of the Land and from the strange wives Then All the Congregation answered and said with a lowd voyce As thou hast said so must we doe but the people are many and it is a time of much raine and we are not able to stand without neither is this a worke of one day or two for we are many that have transgressed in this thing let now our rulers of all the Congregation stand and let them which have taken strange wives in our Cities come at appointed times and with them the Elders of every City and the Iudges thereof untill the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us And the Children of the Captivity did so Where we see the whole Congregation determine and direct all that was done in this grand common businesse And Esther 9. 17. to 32. the Iewes upon Mordecaies and Esthers Letters after the slaughter of their Enemies Ordained and took upon them and upon their séed and upon all such as joyned themselves unto them so as it should not faile that they would keep the 13. and 14. day of the month Adar and make it a day of feasting and gladnesse according to their writing and according to their appointed time every yeare And that these dayes should be kept and remembred thorowout every generation every Family every Province and every City and that these dayes of Purim should not faile from among the Iewes nor the memoriall of them perish from their seed And the Decree of Esther confirmed those mater of Purim As they had decreed for themselves and their séed From all these Texts compared with Prov. 11. 14. c. 15. 22. c. 25. 5. it is most apparant that the Kings of Iudah and Israel were no absolute Soveraigne Princes paramount their whole Kingdomes or the generall Senate and Congregation of the people or their Sanhedrin but inferiour to them in power and not onely counselled but over-ruled usually by them in all matters of publike concernment A truth so pregnant that Bp. Bilson himself from some of these Texts confesseth That it is a question among the learned what Soveraignty the whole people of Israel had over their Kings And that these Scriptures have perswaded some and might lead Zuinglius to thinke that the people of Israel notwithstanding they called for a King Yet reserved to themselves sufficient Authority to over-rule their King in these things which séemed expedient and néedfull for the publike wellâ—fare else God would not punish the people for their Kings iniquity which they must suffer and not redresse Hence that eminent lew Iosephus a man best acquainted of any with his owne Nations Antiquities Lawes and the Prerogatives of their kings resolves in direct termes that their King whosoever he were ought to attribute more to the Lawes and to God then to his
own wisdome And to doe nothing without the advice of the High-Priest and Senate and that if he multiplyed horses and mony more then was fitting They might resâ—st him lest he became more potent then was expedient for their affaires Hence Petrus Cunaeus de Repub. Hebr. l. 1. c. 12. p. 101. 102. writes thus of the Sanhedrin or Parliament among the Iewes Thus the Prophets who grievously offended were no where else punishable but in this Assembly which Quod summae potestatis est as it is an Argument of The Supremest power did both constitute the King ac de Bello gerendo deque hostibus profligandis de proferendo Imperio delâ—berabaâ—t Sed quoniam haec ejusmodi erant in quibus salus omnium summae Reipublicae vertebatur Consultatum de his plerumque cum populo est indictae enim Comitiae sunt in quibus solis populus partem aliquam caperet regendae reipublicae c. De Rege igiâ—ur deque Bello ut dixi decreta facta interdum Populi auctore sunt Caetera omnia Senatores Sanhedrin Per se expedivere So that the Sanhedrin and Congregation of the people were the highest Soveraigne power and principall determiners of publike matters concerning warre and peace by Cunaeus his resolution Who debating this weighty controversie What the Scepter of Iudah was prophesied of Gen. 49. 10. and what and whose the Majesty of the Empire was determines thus I suppose the Scepter to be nothing else but the Majesty of the Empire or Government to wit that Quae ipsi Reipublicae assidet which belongs to the Republike it selfe Wherefore whos 's the Republike is the Scepter ought to be said theirs Now the Hebrew Republike from Moses his time till the Kingdome of Rehoboam was not of the Iewes or tribe of Iudah but of the twelve Tribes from whence it followes that even the Scepter for all those times was of all the Israelites Now of this Scepter which was long common to all the twelve Tribes the divine Patriarke spake not in that most famous Oracle for he looked at latter yeares and future ages when as the Tribe of Iudah the people being divided into contrary parts began to have its Republike apart from the Israelites which God approved and loved and would have to be called Iewish from the Tribe of Iudah alone untill hee to wit Christ should be given to the assemblies of men to whom not onely the Empire of the Iewes but Gentiles also was destinated And verily this Majesty of the Scepter from the time it once began to be of the Iewes we say continued to be theirs although the state of the Commonweale was sometimes changed and the soveraignty of the Empire was sometimes in the Elders and High Priests sometimes in the Kings and Princes They doe too foolishly who here dance in a narrow compasse and suppose that the honour of this name appertaines not but to Kings For what people soever useth its owne Republike and its Lawes Is recte Gloriari de Imperio deque sceptro potest it may rightly boast of Its Empire and Scepter It is recorded that at Ierusalem even at that time when not the Princes but the Elders governed the people in the midst of the great Councell which they called the Sanhedrin there hung a Scepter which thing verily was a certain Ensign of its Majesty which Marcus Tullius in a particular Oration saith Esse magnitudinem quandam Populi in ejus potestate ac jure retinendo quae vertitur in imperio atque omnis populi dignitate Not Kings not Princes but Consuls and the Senate managed the Roman Common-wealth whence this Law of Truce was given to the Aetolians which Livy reports That they should conserve The Majesty of the People of Rome without mal-engin And the very same thing was commanded all free People who by any league but not equall would come into the friendship of the Romanes as Proculus the Lawyer witnesseth in l. 7. F. de Captiu Post reversis Neither think we it materiall to our purpose of what Nation or Tribe they were who moderated and ruled the Iewish affaires for although the Hasmonaean Lâ—vites held their Kingdome for many yeeres yet the Republike was of the Iewish people That most wise Master Seneca said to Nero Caesar That the Republike was not the Princes or of the Prince But the Prince the Republikes Neither verily was the opinion of Vlpian the Lawyer otherwise for he at last â—aith that That is Treason which is committed against the Roman People or against their safety l. 1. s 1. F. ad Legem Iul. Majest Now Vlpian lived in those times when the people had neither command nor suffrages left them but the Emperours held the Empire and Principality and yet he who is wont most accurately to define all things saith That Majesty is of the People From all which it is apparant that not onely in the Roman Empire and other Kingdomes but even among the Iewes themselves the Majesty and Soveraign Power and Scepter resided not in the Kings but in the whole State and People Hence Will. Schickardus in his Ius Regium Hebraeorum Argent 1625. p. 7. determinesthus The state of the Iewish Kingdome was not Monarchicall as our Court Doctors falsely dream but mixt with an Aristocrcie for the King without the assent of the Sanhedrin Could determine nothing in great causes They constituted not a King but in it c. attributing the Soveraignest power to the Congregation and Sanhedrin who had power to create elect and in some cases to resist and depose their Kings Hence Huldericus Zuinglius writes expresly That the Kings of the Iewes and others when they dealt perfidiously contrary to the Law of God and the rule of Christ might be lawfully deposed by the People This the example of Saul manifestly teacheth whom God rejected notwithstanding he had first elected him King Yea whiles wicked Princes and Kings were not removed all the people were punished of God as is evident by Ier. 15. 1. to 6. where they were punished with four judgements and plagues for Manassehs sinnes In summe if the Iewes had not permitted their King to be so wicked without punishment they â—ad not beene so grievously punished by God By what means he is to be removed from his Office is easily to conjecture thou maist not slay him nor raise any war or tumult to do it but the thing is to be attempted by other means because God hath called us in peace 1 Cor. 7. If the King be created by common suffrages he may again be deprived by common Votes unlesse they will be punished with him but if he be chosen by the election and consent of a few Princes the people may signifie to them the flagitious life of the King and may tell them that it is by no means to be endured that so they may remove him who have inaugurated him Here now is the difficulty for those that do this the Tyrant
will proceed against them according to his lust and slay whom he pleaseth but it is a glorious thing to die for justice and the truth of God and it is better to die for the defence of justice then afterwards to be slain with the wicked by assenting to injustice or by dissembling Those who cannot endure this let them indure a lustfull and insolent Tyrant expecting extream punishment together with him yet the hand of the Lord is stretched out still and threatneth a stroke But when with the consent and suffrage of the whole or certainly of the better part of the multitude a Tyrant is removed Deo fit auspice it is done by God approbation If the Children of Israel had thus deposed Manasseh they had not been so grievously punished with him So Zuinglius Hence Stephanus Iunius Brutus in his Vindiciae contra Tyrannos in answer to Machiavels Princeps a most accursed mischievous Treatise and justification of the Protestant defensive wars in France to preserve their Religion and Liberties Anno 1589. determines positively That as all the people are Superiour to the King so are those Officers of State and Parliaments who represent them Superiour to Kings collectively considered though every of them apart be inferiour to them In the Kingdom of Israel which by the judgement of all Polititians was best instituted by God there was this order The King had not onely private Officers who looked to his family but the Kingdom likewise had 71 Elders and Captains elected out of all the Tribes who had the care of the Commonweale both in time of peace and war and likewise their Magistrates in every Town who defended their severall Cities at the others did the whole kingdom These when ever they were to deliberate of greatest affairs assembled together neither could any thing be determined without their advice which much concerned the commonwealth Therefore David called these all together when he desired to in vest Solomon in the Kingdom when he desired the policy restored by him should be examined and approved when the Ark was to be reduced c. And because they represented all the people all the people are then said to have assembled together Finally the same rescued Ionathan condemned to death by Sauls sentence from whence it appears that an appeale lay from the King to the people But from the time the Kingdome was divided through the pride of Rehoboam the Synedrin of Ierusalem consisting of 71 men seems to be of that authoritie that they might judge the King in their assembly as well as the King judge them when they were apart The Captain of the House of Iudah was President over this assembly that is some chief man chosen out of the Tribe of Iudah as even the chief man for the City Ierusalem was chosen out of the Tribe of Benjamin This will be made more evident by examples Ieremie being sent by God to denounce the overthrow of the City Ierusalem is for this first condemned by the Priests and Prophets that is by the Ecclesiasticall judgement or Senate after this by all the People that is by the ordinary Iudges of the Citie to wit by the Captains of thousands and hundreds at last by the Princes of Iudah that is by the 71 men sitting in the new Porch of the Temple his cause being made known he is acquitted Now they in that very judgement expresly condemn King Iehoiakim who a little before had most cruelly slain the Prophet Uriah threatning like things Also we reade elsewhere that King Zedekiah did so much reverence the Authoritie of this Sanhedrin that he durst not free the Prophet Jeremie thrust by these 71 men into a filthy prison but likewise 〈◊〉 dared to translate him into the Court of the Prison from thence yea when they perswaded him to consent to Jeremiah his death he answered that he was in their hands and that he could not contradict them in any thing Yea he fearing lest they should enquire into the conference which he privately had with Ieremie as if he were about to render an account of the things which he had spoken forgeth a lie Therefore in this Kingdom the States or Officers of the Kingdom were above the King I say in this Kingdome which was instituted and ordaintd not by Plato or Aristotle but by God himself the Author of all order and the chiefe institutor of all Monarchy Such were the seven Magi in the Persian Empire the Ephori in the Spartan Kingdom and the publike Ministers in the Egyptian Kingdome assigned and associated to the King by the People to that onely end that He should not commit any thing against the Lawes Thus and much more this Author together with Con. Superantius Vasco who published this Treatise to all pious and faithfull Princes of the Republike giving large Encomiums of its worth as also the Author of the Treatise De Iure Magistratus in Subditos p. 253 254 255 256. 268 to 275. whose words for brevity I pretermit Bp. Bilson in his forecited passages and Hugo Grotius De Iure Belli pacis l. 1 c 3. sect 20. p. 63 64. where he confesseth That if the King of the Israelites offended against the Lawes written concerning the Office of a King he was to be scourged for it and that the Sanhedrin had a power above their king in some cases Finally the Kings of Israel and Iudah were not superior to nor exempted from the Lawes but inferiour to and obliged by them as well as Subjects This is evident not onely by the premises but by sundry impregnable Texts As Deut. 17. 18. 19. 20. where God himselfe in the very description of the office and duty of their King prescribes this in direct termes as a part of his duty And it shall be when He sitteth on the Throne of this Kingdome that he shall write him a Copy of This Law in a Booke out of that before the Priestic and Levites And it shall be with Him and He shall read therein All the dayes of his life that he may learn to feare the Lord his God To keep all the words of the Law and these Statutes to doe them that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren and that He turn not aside from the Commandement to the right hand or to the left seconded by Iosh 7. 8. This Booke of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou maist observe to doe according to all that is written therein turne not to it from the right hand or to the left for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good successe Hence it was that as soon as ever Saul was elected and made King by Samuel and the people he being the first of their Kings Samuel told the people the manner of the Kingdom and wrote it in a Booke and laid it up before the Lord which Booke
1 Sam. 18. 17. Onely be thou valiant So here against thee thee only have I sinned that is I have principally sinned against thee alone not excluding his sinne against himselfe Vriah and others whom he injured thereby 6. This sinne against Vriah was but a personall and private injury into which David fell out of humane frailty it was the first and onely sin of this kinde that ever he committed for ought we read he made no trade of it he repented for it and never relapsed again into it in this regard therefore these Fathers interpretations may be Orthodox that for such a private sin of infirmitie onely David was not responsible nor punishable by the Congregation or Sanhedrin But had he made a common trade of murthering his subjects ravishing their wives and the like or giving himselfe over to the open practice of grosse Idolatry a sin onely against God himself and not repented of or humbled himself solemnly for it as he did for these sins here no doubt the Congregation or Sanhedrin might upon complaint have questioned reprehended and censured him for it as the premises plentifully manifest notwithstanding the priviledge of his regalitie which as it exempted him not from the guilt so not from the punishment due unto such Crimes whether temporall or eternall not from the eternall which is the greatest that is certain therefore not from the temporall which is the lesse Finally God himself threatens that If Solomon or any Kings of Davids Seed should forsake his Law and not keep his Commandments but commit iniâ—â—â—ity against him he would chasten them with the Rod of Men and the Stripes of the Children of Men whence the Rabbins write That if their Kings transgressed against the Law of the King they were and might be scourged for it without dishonour by a man whom themselves made choice of Therefore they might be justly censured and punished by men for their transgressions against God alone notwithstanding this glosse of these Fathers true only in som sence in private cases and sins of infirmity against private men not of publike habituall transgressions The second Objection is that Speech of Samuel to the people 1 Sam. 8. 11. to 19. This will be the manner of the King that shall reign over you He will take your sons and daughters and appoint them for himself c. And he will take your fields and your Vineyards and your Oliveyards even the best of them and give them to his servants And he will take the tenth of your seed and of your Vineyards and give to his servants And he will take your manservants your maidservants your goodliest young men and your Asses and put them to his service he will take the tenth of your sheep and ye shall be his servants And ye shall crie out in that day because of the King whom yee have chosen you and the Lord will not hear you in that day Therefore their Kings were absolute Monarchs not bound to Laws nor responsible to their subjects for their oppressions nor yet resistible by them To which I answer that this is a direct description of a Tyrant and not of a lawfull King as is evident First by the very occasion of the words Vttered purposely by Samuel to disswade the People from electing a King changing their former Aristocraticall Government into a Monarchicall because their kings would many of them prove more oppressive Tyrannicall and burthensome to them then their Iudges or his sons were whose bribery and perverting of judgment moved the people thus earnestly to affect a change of Government as is evident by the 1 2 3 4 5 6 and 9 Verses Iosephus and the consent of all Expositors Secondly by the introduction to and the words themselvs This will be the manner of the King that shall reign over you He will take and he will do thus and thus not this ought to be the manner he ought to do or lawfully may do thus and thus Thirdly by the things themselves which he would do which are directly contrary to Deuter. 17. 14. to the end and all other Scriptures expresly enjoying Kings to judge their people righteously to do justice and judgement and not any wayes to oppresse or spoyle them I shall instance onely in two particulars First the law of God expresly prohibits all men and Kings as well as others to covet their neighbours House his menservants his maidservants his Oxe or his Asse or any thing that is his Neighbours If their Kings then might not lawfully so much as desire or covet much lesse might they lawfully take away their Houses Sonnes Daughters Manservants Maidservants Asses Sheep Corn Vineyards or any thing else that was theirs without their free consents as Samuel tells them their King would do this therefore must need be onely a declaration of what their Kings would Tyrannically do not of what they might lawfully or justly execute Secondly it is Gods expresse Edict Ezek. 46. 18. The Prince shall not take the Peoples inheritance by oppression to thrust them out of their possessions but he shall give his Sons inheritance out of his own possession that my people be not scattered every one from his possession And Ezek 45. 8 9. The Land shall be the Princes possession in Israel and my Princes shall no more oppresse my people and the rest of the Land shall they give to the house of Israel according to their Tribes Thus saith the Lord God Let it suffice you O Princes of Israel remove violence and spoile and execute judgement and justice take away your exactions or expulsions from my people saith the Lord. Whence Ahab King of Israel for coveting and unjustly depriving Naboth of his Vineyard which he refused to sell him because it was the inheritance of his Fathers and taking possession thereof after his unjust condemnation had a most severe judgement denounced against him even the utter extirpation of himself Q. Iezabel and their posterity afterwards executed Which punishment God would never have inflicted on them had it been lawfull for the Kings of Israel to take the peoples Fields Vineyards Oliveyards c. and possesse or give them to their servants as Samuel here tels them their Kings will do This clause then of taking their Fields Vineyards c. from them by the King without their consents being thus diametrally contrary to these Texts of Ezekiel and such a capitall Crime in King Ahab yea contrary to the practise of Ioseph and the Aegyptian Heathen King Pharaoh who took not away but bought the Aegyptians Cattell and Lands for Corne Gen. 47. 14. to 27. can no wayes be warranted as a just royall prerogative lawfull for their Kings to use but must needs be branded for a Tyrannicall Oppression Fourthly this is evident by the consequences of it Ye shall be his servants not subjectâ— And ye shall crie in that day because of your King which ye have chosen you and the
Lord will not hear you in that day Verse 17 18. Certainly the people neither would nor ought to crie to god against the proceedings of a just upright King but onely of a Tyrant and Oppressour therefore this Text must needs be meant of such a one who should be a scourge and punishment to them as Tyrants are not a blessing as good Kings alwayes be Fifthly consult we with all Polititians whatsoever this description suites onely with a Tyrant not with any lawfull King and that it is meant of such a one we have the testimony of Iosephus the generall concurring suffrage of all Commentators and Expositors one the place see Lyra Hugo de Sancto Victore Carthusian Angelomus Lexoviensis Calvin Brentius Bugenhagius Beda Bertorius Martin Borrhaeus Peter Martyr Zanchius Piscator Serrarius Strigelius Doctor Willet Deodate the English Bibles notes with others and of sundry who descant on this Text in other writings by name of M. Iohn Calvin Instit l. 4. c. 20. sect 26. Bishop Ponet his Politicall Government p. 44. Iunius Brutus Vindiciae contra Tyrannos qu. 3. p. 121. 122. 134. 135. 153. 154. 155. 159. De Iure Magistratus in Subditos p 270. 271. Bucholceri Chronichon p. 208. Petrus Cunaeus de Repub. Hebraeor l. 1. c. 14. Bertrami Politia Iudâ—ic p. 53. Shickardus jus Regium Iudae p. 64. Albericus Gentilis de jure Belli l. 3. c. 15. p. 613. Hugo Grotius de jure Belli Pacis l. 1. c. 3. Adnotata p. 72. Governado Christiano p. 87. Georgius Bucanus de jure Regni apud Scotos p. 44. Dole-man p. 68 70. Haenon disp polit p 432. Weemse 2 Vol 2. Part. p. 14. Hotomani Franco Gallia c. 10. Amesius de Casibus Conscienciae p. 306. and to name no more in so plain a case of Doctor Ferne himself in his Resolving of Conscience sect 2. p. 10. where hee writes That Samuel here tels the people how they should be oppressed under Kings yet all that violence and injustice done unto them is no cause of resistance c. This Text then being cleerly meant of their Kings Oppression violence injustice against Law right and a clear description of a Tyrant not a King I may safely conclude from all the premises that even among the Israelites and Iews themselves their Kings were subject to the Lawes and that the whole Congregation Kingdom Senate Sanhedrin not their Kings were the Supreme Soveraign power and Paramount their Kings themselves whom they did thus freely elect constitute and might in some cases justly censure resist depose if not put to death by common consent for notorious grosse Idolatries and publike multiplied crimes as the forecited authors averre All which considered eternally refutes subverts confounds the erronious false Positions and Paradoxes which Doctor Ferne Griffith Williams Bishop of Ossery the Authour of The necessitie of Subjection with other late ignorant Pamphletters have broached to the contrary without either ground or presidents to warrant what they affirm touching the absolute Soveraignty Monarchy irresistibilitie incorrigibility of the Kings of Iudah and Israel by their whole States Congregations Kingdoms generall assents and utterly takes away those sandy fabulous foundations upon which their impertinent Pamphlets against the Soveraign Power of Parliaments Kingdoms and the illegality of Subjects taking up defensive Arms against Tyrannicall Princes bent to subvert Religion Laws Liberties the Republike are founded which must now needs vanish into nothing before this Catholike irrefragable clear-shining verity abundantly ratifyed by innumerable presidents in all eminent Kingdoms States Nations that either have been in any former ages or are yet extant in the world which must and will infinitely over-sway swallow up the inconsiderable contrary opinions of some few privadoes who either out of flattery hopes of getting or keeping undemerited preferments fear of displeasing greatnesse or inconsiderates following of other reputed learned mens mistakes without due examination of their erronious Tenents have engaged themselves in a Polemicall blinde Combate against these infragable transparent Verities whose defence I have here made good against all their misprisions and bootlesse assaults Having now Historically ran over the most eminent Empires Kingdoms of ancient and present times in a kinde of confused method their copious vastnesse and varietie being so boundlesse and my time to collect them so small that I could hardly marshall them into any comely distinct Regiments or reduce them to the particular Heads debated in the premises I shall therefore for a conclusion deduce these distinct Conclusions from them to which the substance of all the recited Histories may be aptly reduced and are in truth abundantly confirmed by them beyond all contradiction annexing some new punctuall Authorities of note to ratifie and confirme them First it is undeniably evident from all the premises That all Monarchies Empires Kingdoms Emperours Kings Princes in the world were originally created instituted ordained continued limited and received all their jurisdiction power Authoritie both from by and for the people whose Creatures Ministers Servants they are and ought to be If we survey all the severall Lawfull Monarchies Empires Principalities Emperours and Kings that either have been or yet are extant in the world we finde all sacred and prophane Histories concurre in this that they had their originall erections creations from by and for the People Yea we read the very times when the most Monarchies of note were instituted the Names of those on whom the first Monarchies were conferred by the peoples free election onely yet extant on record in most Histories and withall expresse relations of many different kinds of Kingdoms Kings in respect of succession continuance Power jurisdiction scarce any two kingdoms or their Kings being alike in all things in regard of Prerogatives jurisdictions all Histories Polititians concurring resolving with Peter that Kings are humane Creatures or Ordinances instituted diversified thus by men and the people alone out of Gods generall or speciall providence not one of them all being immediately or directly ordained by God as the onely efficient cause without the free concurrence consent and institution of the people This truth is not onely ratified by Lex Regia whereby the Roman Emperours were created yea invested with all their power registred by Iustus Eccardus de Lege Regia Marius Salamonius de Principatu l. 6. formerly transcribed by Plato Aristotle Xenophon Berosus Polybius Cicero Livy Iustin Plinie Strabo Plutarch Dionysius Hallicarnassaeus Diodorus Siculus Pausanias Solinus Alexander ab Alexandro Hermannus Schedell Herodotus Boëmus Pomponius Mela forecited and generally by all Historians Chronologers Antiquaries Lawyers Politians whatsoever but directly averred and proved by Franciscus Hotomanus a famous Lawyer in his Franco-Gallia c. 1. 6. 10 13. the Author of De Iure Magistratus insubditos Quaest 5. p. 239. 240 c. Thomas Garzonius Emporij Emporiorum Pars 1. Discursus 1. de Dom. p. 13. Vasquius Controvers Illustrium 12. n. 133. 59. n. 8. 61. n.
22. 80. n. 4. 108. n. 29. 141. n. 2. Covarunius Quaest Illust. T. 2. 396. n. 2. 4. Hugo Grotius de Jure Belli l. 1. c. 4. sect 7. l. 2. c. 14. sect 11. and elsewhere Marius Salamonius de Principatu Eccardus de lege Regia with others cited by them Hookers Ecclesiasticall Polity l. 1. sect 10. p. 69 70 71. a pregnant place Albericus Gentilis de Iure Belli l. 3. c. 10. 15. Ioannes Mariana de Rege Regum Instit l. 1. c. 1. to 10. Sparsim Iunius Brutus Vindiciae contra Tyrannos Quaest 3. p. 83. to 94. with whose words I shall close up this observation having elle where particularly proved the verity thereof and answered all Obiections against it from misinterpreted Scriptures We say now writes he that the people constitute Kings deliver Kingdoms approve Kings elections with their suffrages which God would have to be thus that so whatsoever authority and power they should have they should next to him referre it to the people and therefore should bestow all their care thoughts industrie for the peoples profit neither verily should they think themselves advanced above other men for their excellency of nature no otherwise then men are over Heards and Flocks but should remember that being born in the same condition with others they were lifted up from the ground unto that condition by the suffrages as it were by the Shoulders of the people upon whose Shoulders the burthen of the Common-weale should for a great part rest After which he proves by Deut. 17. and divers forecited presidents in Scripture that God gave the Election and Constitution of the kings of Israel to the people and that notwithstanding the succession of the kingdom of Iudah was by God entailed afterwards to the Linage of David yet the Kings thereof actually reigned not before they were ordained by the people Whence we may conclude that the Kingdom of Israel if we respect the stock was certainly hereditary but if we regard the persons altogether elective But to what end was this if the Election appear as it is confessed but that the remembrance of so great a dignitie conferred by the people should make them alwayes mindefull of their duty So likewise among the Heathens we read that Kings were constituted by the people for when they had wars abroad or contention at home some one man of whose fortitude and justice the multitude had a great opinion was by common consent assumed for King And among the Medes saith Cicero Deioces was of an Arbitrator made a Iugde of a Iudge created a King and among the Romanes the first Kings were elected Therefore when Romulus being taken away the Inter-regnum of the hundred Senators was displeasing to the Romans they accorded that afwards Kings should be chosen by the Suffrages of the people the Senate approving it And Tarquin the proud was therefore reputed a Tyrant for that being created neither by the people nor Senate he held the Empire onely by force and power Wherefore Caesar although he invaded the Empire by force yet that he might cosen the people at least with some pretext of Law would seem to have received the Empire from the Senate and people But Augustus although he was adopted by Caesar yet he never bare himselfe as heire of the Empire by divise but rather received it as from the Senate and people as did also Caligula Tiberius Claudius whereas Nero who first invaded the Empire by force and wickednesse without any colour of Law was condemned by the Senate Since then no man could be born an absolute King no man can be a King by himselfe no man can reigne without the people Whereas on the contrary the people may both be and are by themselvs and are in time before a King it most certainly appears that all Kings were first constituted by the people Now albeit that from the time that Sons or Nephews imitated the vertues of their parents they seem to have made kingdomes as it were hereditary to themselves in certain Countries where the free power of Election may seem in some sort to have ceased yet that custome hath continued in all well constituted kingdomes that the children of the deceased kings should not succeed untill they were as de nono newly constituted by the people nor should not be acknowledged as heires to their Fathers but should onely then at length be reputed kings when they had as it were received investiture of the Realme from those who represent the Majesty of the people by a Scepter and Diadem In Christian kingdomes which at this day are said to be conferd by succession there are extant most evident footsteps of this thing For the kings of France Spain England and others are wont to be inaugurated and as it were put into possession of the Realm by the States Senators Nobles and great men of the Realm who represent the universality of the people in the same manner as the Emperours of Germany are by the Electors and the kings of Poland by the Vaynods or Palatines where the intire right is onely by election neither is royall Honour yeelded to them in the Cities of the kingdomes before they have been duly inaugurated Neither also heretofore did they compute the time of the reigne but from the day of the inauguration which computation was accurately observed in France And that we may not be deceived by reason of any continued stories of succession even in those very kingdoms the States of the Realme have oft times preferred a kinsman before a sonne the second sonne before the eldest is in France Lewis the brother before Robert Earl of Dreux also Henry the second brother before Robert Capet the Nephew with others elsewhere Yea and the same kingdome by Authority of the People hath been translated from one Nation and Family to another whiles there were lawfull heires extant from the Merouingi to the Carlingi from the Carlingi to the Capets which hath been likewise done in other Realms as it sufficiently appears out of the truest Histories And that we may not recede from the kingdome of France which hath ever been reputed the pattern of the rest in which I say succession seemes to have obtained greatest strength We read that Pharamond was elected Anno 419. Pipen An. 751. Pipens sonnes Charles the great and Charlemain 768. not having respect of the Father Charlemain being at last taken away 771. the Brothers part did not immediatly accrue to Charli the Great as is usually done in inheritances but by the determination of the people and publike Councell and by them Ludovicus pius was elected An. 812. although he were the sonne of Charles the great Yea in the very Testament of Charles which is extant in Nauclerus he Intreats the People by the Common Councell of the Realm to elect one of his nephews whō they pleased as for his Vncles he bids thē rest satisfied with the Decrée of the people Whence
Charles the bald Nephew by Lewis the godly and Iudith professeth himselfe An elected King in Aimoinius the Historiographer In summe all kings whatsoever from the beginning were Elective and those who at this day strive to come to the kingdome by succession must of necessity be First ordained by the people Finally albeit the people by reason of certain egregious merits hath in certain Realmes used to chuse kings out of the same stock yet they chuse the stock it self nor the branch neither do they so chuse it but if it degenerates They may elect another But even those who are neerest of that stock are not so much born as made kings are not so much accounted kings as the Attendants of kings which Franciscus Hotomanus in his Franco-Gallia cap. 6. 7. 10. prosecures more at large and manifests by sundry pertinent Presidents and Authorities Secondly that it is apparant by all the premised Histories That in all Empires Monarchies the whole Empire State Kingdome with the Parliaments Senates States Diets publike Officers and generall Assemblies which represent them are the Supreamest Soveraign power superiour to the Emperours Kings and Princes themselves who are subordinate Ministers and servants to them elected created by them for their common good and not absolute Soveraign Lords or Proprietors to rule domineer over them at their pleasure Which conclusion you shall find abundantly ratified and professedly maintained by Marins Salamonius de Principatu in six severall Books by Iohn Mariana de Rege Regis Instit l. 1. c. 8. Stephanus Iunius Brutus his Vindiciae contra Tyrannos throughout especially p. 91. to 110. the Treatise De Iure Magistratus in Subditos throughout Iustus Eccardus de Lege Regia Henricus Ranzovius Commentarii Bellici lib. 1. c. 3. and elsewhere Georgius Obrechtus an eminent Civill Lawyer Disputationes Iuridicae de Principiis Belli sect 115. to 200. where he thus resolves The inferiour Magistrates as in Germany the Electors Princes Earles Imperiall Cities in France the Peers of France in Poland the Vayuodes or Palatines and in other Kingdomes the Nobles Senators and Delegates of the Estates as they are severally inferiour to the Emperour or King Ita Vniverst Superiores existunt so collectively They are superiour to them as a Generall Councell is above the Pope the Chapter above the Bishop the Vniversity above the Chancellor The Prince saith Pliny the second even the greatest is obliged to the Commonwealth by an Oath as its servant ac ipsa Republica seu Regno Minor est and is lesse then the Republike or Kingdome it selfe by Franciscus Hotomanus a learned French Lawyer in his Franco-Gallia c. 6 7. 10 11. 14 15 16 18 20. Aquinas de Regimine Principum c. 6. by Hemingius Arnisaeus De Auctoritate Principum in populum c. and De Iure Majestatis Sebastianus Foxius De Regni Regisque Institutione Vasquius Controvers Illustrium passim Cavarnuius Contr. Illustr T. 2. 505. n. 1. 399. n. 6. Haenon Disp Polit. p. 179. c. Alhusius Polit c. 4. p. 146. to 154. with Iohn Calvin Instit l. 4. c. 20. sect 31. and divers others forecited Heare Iunius Brutus instead of all the rest to this particular being a Frenchman by birth and writing his mind herein both freely accutely and ingeniously in these words Now verily since Kings are constituted by the people it seems necessarily to follow populum universum Rege potiorem esse That all the people are better and greater then the King For such is the force of the word that whoever is constituted by another is reputed lesse then him he who receiveth authority from another is inferiour to his Author Potipher the Aegyptian appointed Ioseph over his family Nebuchadonozer set Daniel over the Province of babylon Darius set an hundred and twenty Princes over the Kingdome Verily Masters are said to appoint servants Kings Ministers so likewise the people appoints the King as the Minister of the Commonweale which title good Kings have not contemned and ill Kings have affected so that for some ages none of the Roman Emperours but an apparant Tyrant such as Nero Domitian Caligula would be called LORD Moreover it appeares that Kings were instituted for the peoples sake neither wilt thou say that for an hundred Homuncices more or lesse for the most part far worse then the rest all inferiours whatsoever were created rather then they for them Now reason requires that he for whose sake another exists is to be accounted lesser then he Thus the Governour of a Ship is instituted by the owner for the Shippes sake who sits at the Helme lest the Ship should be broken on the Rocks or ill hold her course And verily whiles he intends this businesse the other Mariners serve him and the owner himselfe obeyes him and yet he is a servant of the Ship as well as any mariner neither differs he from a mariner in gender but in kind In the Republike which is usually compared to a Ship the King is in place of a Master the people of an Owner Threfore to him seeking the publike safety the people obey and submit when notwithstanding he is and ought no lesse to be accounted a servant to the Republike as well as any Judge or Captain neither differs he from those in any thing but that he is bound to beare greater burthens and undergoe more dangers Wherefore verily what things soever the King acquires in warre or when he gaineth adjoyning Coasts by right of warre or by sentence of Law as those things which are brought into the Eschequer he acquires to the Kingdom not to himselfe to the people I say which constitute the kingdome no otherwise then as a servant purchaseth to his Lord neither can any obligation be contracted with him but by their authority Furthermore innumerable people live without a king but thou canst not conceive a King without a people so much as in thy mind Neither have some attained a Royall Dignity because they differed in kind from other men and ought to rule over others by a certain excellency of nature as shepheards doe over their Flocks but rather the people created out of the same Masse have advanced them to that degree that so if they enjoyed any authority any power they should acknowledge it received from them and possesse it as during their pleasure which the ancient custome of the French aptly sheweth who lifting their King up on a Buckler proclaimed him King For why I pray are Kings said to have innumerable eyes many eares long hands most swift feet what because they are like to Argus Gerion Midas or to those whom fables have feined verily no but indeed because all the people whom it concerns lend all their eies their ears their hands feet and faculties to the king for the use of the Republike Let the people recede from the King he who even now seemed eyed eared strong and flourishing will suddenly wax blind
could not as it is certain he could not is it not manifest whatsoever he shall arrogate to himself besides that he cannot any more usurp it then any theef But on the contrary the people have a right of perpetuall eviction Therefore that the Nobles have been for a long space oppressed in any Kingdom can no way prejudice the people but rather as the servant should not be heard who in that he hath a very long time detained his Lord captive should boast that he was not onely a Free-man but would likewise arrogate to himself a power of life and death over his Lord nor yet a Theefe who because he hath robbed 30. yeers or is the sonne of a Theefe should think himselfe to be without fault yea rather by how much the longer he hath been such a one the more severely should he be punished So likewise a Prince is not to be heard or endured who because he hath succeeded to a Tyrant or hath for a long time used the people like a bondslave from whom he hath received his kingdome or hath offered violence to the Nobles should think that what ever â—e lusted should be lawfull to him and ought to be granted of right Neither doe yeers substract any thing from the peoples right but adde to the injury of the King But what if the Nobles themselves have colluded with the King what if in betraying the cause they have betrayed the people as it were bound into the hands of a Tyrant shall the authority of the people by this prevarication or treason seem to be plainly transferred upon the King whether I say by this fact is any thing taken away from the liberty of the people or adjoyned to the licentiousnesse of the Prince You will say they may impute it to themselves who made choise of such men of perfidious faith But yet these are as patrons to patronize the publike profit and the peoples safety and liberty Therfore as when an Advocate shall make a compact with the adversary of his Client concerning the value of the suit as they speake if he had betrayed his cause he should not hurt him at all so this conspiracie of the Nobles as it were made to the dammage and destruction of the people cannot verily detract any thing from their right but even they themselves shall fall into the penalty of the Law which is promulged against prevaricators and the Law permits the people to chuse another patron and to prosecute their right againe For if the Roman people condemned their Emperors to punishment who at the Caudine Gallowes had dishonourably contracted with the enemies although by compulsion and reduced to greatest straits and judged that they were no wayes obliged by that paction shall not the people be much lesse bound to suffer that yoke which not by force but willingly not for feare of death but out of desire of gain hath been thus treacherously put upon them Or if those who ought to shake it off shall impose it or those who might doe it shall tolerate it He hath many other pertinent passages to the same effect which brevity enjoynes me to omit those that please may read them at their leisure in the Author himselfe whose opinion is fortified by Alphonsus Menesius his poems annexed to his Treatise Thirdly it is abundantly manifest from all the premises That Kings and Emperours alwayes have been are and ought to be subject to the Lawes and Customes of their Kingdomes not above them to violate breake or alter them at their pleasures they being obliged by their very Coronation Oathes in all ages and Kingdomes inviolably to observe them This verily is confessed by K. Iames by our K. Charls himself in his late Declarations to al his Subjects resolved by Bracton Fleta Fortescue our Common and Statute Laws forecited by the Year Book of 19. H. 6. 63. a. where Fray saith That the Parliament is the highest Court which the King hath and the Law is the highest inheritance which the King hath for by the Law he himselfe and all his Subjects are ruled and if the Law were not there could be no King nor inheritance This is proued by Stephen Gardiner Bp. of Winchester in his Letter to the Lord Protector where he writes That when he was Embassadour in the Emperours Court he was faine there and with the Emperours Embassadour to defend and maintaine by Commandment in a case of Jewels That the Kings of this Realme were not above the Order of their Laws and therefore the Jeweller although he had the kings Bill signed yet it would not be allowed in the Kings Court because it was not obtained according to the Law and generally granted by all our own English Writers is copiously asserted and professedly averred by Aristotle Polit. l. 3. c. 11. 13. Marius Salomonius de Principatii in sixe speciall Books to this purpose by Justus Eccardus de Lege Regia Thomas Garzonius Emporii Emporiorum Pars 1. Discursus 1. de Dominiis sect 6. p. 9 10. Joannis Carnotensis Episc lib. 4. Policrat c. 1. Bochellus Decreta Eccles Gal. l. 5. Tit. 1. Cap. 6. 15 16. Haenon Disput Polit. p. 428. to 442. Fenestella de Magistratu p. 149. Ioannis Mariana de Rege Regis Instit l. 1. c 9. an excellent discourse to this purpose Petrus Rebuffus Praefat. ad Rubr. de Collationibus p. 583 584. Sebastianus Foxius de Rege c. part 1. p. 108 109 part 2. 192 c. Buckanon de Iure Regni apud Scotos passim Iunius Brutus Vindiciae contra Tyrannos quaest 3. p. 116. to 139. an accurate discouse to this effect Grimalius de Optimo Senatore p. 33. 201 205. Vasquius contr Illustr 16. n. 15. 19. 21. 17. n. 1. â—3 20. n. 3. 44. n. 3. 73. n. 12. 13 15. 72. n. 7. and elswhere De Iure Magistratus in subditos passim Polanus in Ezech. p. 824. 854. Pareus in Rom. 13. p. 138. Francis Hotomani Franco Gallia c. 6. to the end of Cap. 20. Sparsim Governado Christiano p. 108. Cunaeus de Republ. Hebr. l. 1. c. 1. 14. Schickardus Ius Regium Hebrae p. 54. Hugo Grotius de Iure Belli l. 1. c. 4. f. 7. l. 2. c. 14. and elsewhere thorowout his second Book with infinite others of all sorts This all good Emperours and Kings in all ages have professed as these Authors prove Thus the good Emperour Trajan practised and professed That the Prince was not above the Laws Hence Apollonius Thyanaeus writing to the Emperor Domitian saith These things have I spoken concerning Lawes which if thou shalt not think to reignover thee then thy self shalt not reign Hence Autiochus the third King of Asia is commended that he writ to all the Cities of his Kingdom if there should be any thing in his Letters he should write which should seem contrary to the Laws they should not obey them And Anastatius the Emperour
them the chiefe places and offices as they doe in the Realm of Naples Sicilie Millaine at the Indies and in other Countries which are subject to the Kings command being also moved thereunto by the riches of the said Countries well knowne to the most of them the said councell or some of the chiefe of them have oftentimes given the King to understand That for his Maiesties reputation and greater authority it were better to conquer the Netherlands anew and then to command absolutely at his pleasure than to govern them under such conditions which he at his reception to the Seigniory of the said Countries had sworn to observe The King of Spain following this counsell hath sought all meanes to reduce these countries spoiling them of their ancient Liberties into servitude under the government of Spaniards having under pretext of Religion sought first to thrust in new Bishops into the chiefe and greatest Townes indowing them with the richest Abbeyes adding to every Bishop nine Chanons to serve him as Councellors whereof three should have a special charge of the Inquisition By which incorporation of the said Bishops being his creatures and at his devotion the which should happily have been chosen as well of strangers as of them which were born in the Country they should have the first place and the first voyce in the assemblies of the Estates of the Country And by the adiunction of the said Chanons had brought in the Inquisition of Spain the which had also bin so abhorred and so odious in these Countries even as slavery it selfe as all the world doth well know So as his Imperiall Maiesty having once propounded it unto these Countries upon due information given unto His Maiesty ceased from any more speech thereof shewing therein the great affection which he bare unto His Subjects Yet notwithstanding divers Declarations which were made unto the King of Spain as well by the Provinces and Townes in particular as by some other of the chiefe Noblemen of the Country namely by the Baron of Montigny and afterwards by the Earle of Egmont who by the consent of the Dutchesse of Parma then Regent of the said Countries by the advice of the Councell of Estate and of the Generalty had to that end been successively sent into Spain And notwithstanding that the king had by his own mouth given them hope that according to their petitions hee would provide for the contentment of the Country yet that he had since by his letters done the contrary commanding expresly and upon pain of his indignation to receive the new Bishops presently and to put them in possession of their new Bishopricks and incorporated Abbeyes to effect the Inquisition where they had begun to practise it and to observe the Decrees and Canons of the Councell of Trent the which in divers points doe contradict the priviledges of the Countrey The which being come to the knowledge of the Commons hath given just occasion of so great an alteration among them and greatly diminished the love and affection the which as good subjects they had alwayes borne unto the King and to his predecessours For they called chiefly into consideration that the King not onely pretended to tyrannize over their persons and goods but also upon their consciences whereon they held themselves not to be answerable nor bound to give account to any one but to God only For this cause and for the pitty they had of the poor people the chiefe of the Nobility did in the yeare 1566. exhibit certain admonitions by way of a Petition beseeching him that for the pacifying of the Commons and to avoid all tumults and seditions it would please his Majesty shewing the love and affection which as a mild and mercifull Prince he bare unto his Subjects to moderate the said points and especially those which concerned the rigorous Inquisition and punishments for matters of Religion And to informe the King more particularly thereof and with more authority and to let him understand how necessary it was for the good and prosperity of the Countrey and for the maintenance of peace and tranquility to abolish and disannull those innovations and to moderate the rigour of publike Edicts for matter of Religion the said Marquesse of Berges and Baron of Montigny at the request of the said Lady Regent the Councell of Estate and the Generall Estates of all the Countries went into Spain as Embassadors whereas the King instead of giving them audience and to prevent the inconveniences delivered by them the which for that they were not redressed in time as urgent necessity required began in effect to discover themselves throughout the whole Countrey by the perswasion and advice of the Councell of Spain hee hath caused all them to be proclaimed Rebels and guilty of high Treason and to have forfeited body and goods that presented the said Petition And moreover thinking himselfe to be fully assured of the Countrey by the Forces of the Duke of Alva and to have reduced them under his full power and subiection he had afterwards against the Lawes of Nations the which have been in all ages inviolably observed yea among the most barbarous and cruell Nations and most tyrannous Princes imprisoned and caused the said Noblemen Embassadors to be put to death confiscating all their goods And although that all this alteration which had hapned in the yeare 1566. upon the foresaid occasion was in a manner pacified by the Regent and her councell and that the greatest part of them which had presented themselves unto her for the Liberty of the Countrey were retired or chased away and the rest brought under obedience yet not to lose the opportunity which the Councell of Spain had long expected as it appeared plainly the same yeere 1566. by Letters intercepted which were written by the Embassador Alana to the Duchesse of Parma to have meanes under some pretext to overthrow all the priviledges of the Country and to govern them tyrannously by the Spaniards as they did the Indies and other Countries which had been newly conquered by them he by the advice and councell of the said Spaniards shewing therein the small affection which he bare unto his Subiects of these countries contrary unto that whereunto he was bound as their Prince protector and good Shepheard sent into these countries the Duke of Alva very famous for his rigour and cruelty and one of the chiefe enemies of these countries with a councell of the same Humour and disposition And although that the said Duke of Alva entred with his Army into this countrey without any let or opposition and was received of the poore Inhabitants with all reverence and Honour expecting all mildnesse and clemencie according unto that which the King had so often promised by His Letters fainedly written yea that He was resolved to come himselfe in person into the Countrey and to order all things to every mans content the said King having besides all this at the very instant of the Duke of
and violences which his poore subjects had endured to the comfort and ease of them which had endured them and to the example of others yet notwithstanding the King although that he made shew by words that what had hapned displeased him and was against his will and that he had an intent to punish the heads and authors and to provide for the quiet of the Countrey with all clemency as it behoved a mercifull Prince hath not onely neglected to punish the said Heads and Authors but contrariwise as it appeareth all was with his consent and former resolution of the councell of Spain as certain letters of his intercepted soon after do plainly shew by the which it was written unto Rhoda and to the other Captains authors of all the mischiefe That the King did not blame that action but did allow thereof and commend it promising to recompence them especially the said Rhoda as having done him a singular service The which at his return into Spaine and to all other ministers of the oppressions that were used in these Countries he did shew by effect At the same time the King thinking the better to blinde the eyes of his subjects sent into these Countries for Governour Generall Don Iohn of Austria his base brother as being of his blood who making shew unto the Estates that he did allow of the Pacification of Gant promised to send away the Spanyards to punish the authors of all insolencies and disorders which had hapned in the Countrey and to take an order for the generall peace and the restoring of their ancient liberties sought to divide the Estates and to subdue one Countrey after another By the permission and providence of God who is an enemy to all oppression he was discovered by the intercepting of certain letters where he was commanded by the King to govern himself in these Countries according to the Instructions that should be given him by Rhoda and to cover this practice the King had forbidden Don Iohn to speake with him commanding him to carry himselfe unto the chiefe Noblemen with all mildenesse and courtesie to winne their loves untill that by their assistance and meanes he might reduce Holland and Zeeland and afterwards work his will of the other Provinces Whereupon Don Iohn notwithstanding that he had solmnly sworn in the presence of all the Estates of the Countrey to observe the said Pacification of Gant yet contrary thereunto he sought by meanes of their Colonels whom he had already at his devotion and great promises to winne the Germane souldiers who were then in Garrison and had the guard of the chiefe Townes and Forts of the Countrey whereof by that meanes he made himselfe master holding himselfe assured of those places they held and so by that meanes to force them that would not joyne with him to make warre against the Prince of Orange and them of Holland and Zeeland and so to raise a more boody and intestine warre than had been before But as all things that are treated cunningly and with dissimulation cannot be long kept secret Don Iohns practises being discovered before hee could effect what he had designed hee could not bring his conceptions and enterprises to the end that he pretended Yet he revived a new warre the which continues unto this day in stead of rest and an assured peace whereof hee did so much vaunt at his coming Which reasons have given us great occasion to forsake the King of Spain and to seeke some other mighty and mercifull Prince to helpe to defend these Countries and to take them into his protection and the rather for that these Countries have endured such oppressions received such wrongs and have been forsaken and abandoned by their Prince for the space of twenty years and more duduring the which the Inhabitants have beene intreated not as subjects but as enemies their naturall Prince and Lord seeking to ruine them by armes Moreover after the death of Don Iohn having sent the Baron of Selles who under colour propounding some meanes of an accord declared sufficiently That the king would not avow the Pacification made a Gant which Don Iohn notwithstanding had sworne to maintaine setting downe more hard conditions Yet for that we would discharge our selves of our duties wee have not omitted to make humble suite by writing imploying moreover the favour of the greatest Princes of Christendome seeking by all meanes without intermission to reconcile our selves unto the King having also of late kept our deputies long at Cologne hoping there by the intercession of his imperiall Majestie and some Princes Electors to have obtained an assured peace with some moderate tolleration of Religion the which doth chiefly concerne God and mens consciences as the estate of the affairs of the Countrey did then require But in the end we found it by experience that nothing was to be obtained from the King by the Conference at Cologne and that it was practised and did onely serve to disunite and divide the Provinces that they might with the more facility vanquish and subdue first one and then another and execute upon them their first designes The which hath since plainly appeared by a certain proscription which the King hath caused to be published whereby we and all the Inhabitants of the united Provinces and Officers that hold their partie are proclaimed Rebels and to have forfeited lives and goods Promising moreover a great summe of money to him that should murther the said Prince and all to make the poore Inhabitants odious to hinder their Navigation and Traffique and to bring them into extreme despaire So as despairing of all meanes of reconciliation and destitute of all other succours and ayde we have according to the Law of nature for the defence of us and other Inhabitants the Rights priviledges ancient customes and libertie of the Countrey and the lives and honours of us our wives children and posterity to the end they fall not into the slavery of the Spanyards leaving upon just cause the King of Spaine beene forced to seeke out some other meanes such as for the greater safety and preservation of our Rights Priviledges and liberties we have thought most fit and convenient We therefore give all men to understand That having duely considered all these things and being prest by extreme necessitie We have by a generall resolution and consent declared and doe declare by these presents the King of Spaine ipso jure to be fallen from the Seigniory Principalitie jurisdiction and inheritance of these Countries And that we are resolved never to acknowledge him any more in any matter concerning the Prince jurisdictions or demeanes of these Netherlands nor to use hereafter neither yet to suffer any other to use his Name as Soveraigne Lord thereof According to the which we declare all Officers private Noblemen Vassels and other inhabitants of these Countries of what condition or qualitie soever to be from henceforth discharged of the Oath which they have made in any manner whatsoever
unto the King of Spaine as Lord of these countries or of that whereby they may be bound unto him And for the above-named reasons the most part of the said united Provinces by a common accord and consent of their Members have submitted themselves under the command government of the high and mighty Prince the Duke of Aniou and Alanson c. upon certain conditions contracted and accorded with his Highnesse and that the Archduke of Austria Mathias hath resigned into our hands the government generall of these Countries the which hath been accepted by us We enjoyn and command all Iudges Officers and all others to whom it shall appertain That hereafter they forbeare to use any more the name titles great seal or signet of the K. of Spain and instead therof whilst that the Duke of Anjou for his urgent affaires concerning the good and welfare of the Country shall be yet absent for as much as shall concern the Provinces which have contracted with his Highnesse and touching the rest by way of provision they shall use the title and name of the chiefe and Counsell of the Country And until that the said heads and Counsellors shall be named called and really established in the exercise of their charges and offices they shall use our name except Holland and Zeeland where they shall use as they have formerly done the name of the Prince of Orange and of the Estates of the said Provinces untill that the said Councell shall be in force and then they shall govern themselves as it is agreed touching the instructions given for the said Counsell and the accords made with his Highnesse And instead of the Kings seales they shall hereafter use our Great Seale counter Seale and Signet in matters concerning the government generall for the which the Councell of the Country according to their instructions shall have authority And in matters concerning the policie administration of Iustice and other private acts of every Province the Provinciall Councels and others shall respectively use the name and Seale of the said Province where the matter shall be in question and no other upon pain of nullity of the said Letters or Dispatches which shall be otherwise made or sealed And to the end these things may bee the better observed and effected we have enjoyned and commanded and do enjoyn and command by these presents That all the King of Spaines Seales which are at this present with these united Provinces shall be dilivered into the States hands or to him that shall have commission and authority from them upon pain of arbitrary punishment Moreover We ordain and command that from henceforth the names and armes of the King of Spain shall not be put nor stampt in any coynes of these united Provinces but there shall be such a figure set upon them as shall be appointed for the coyning of new peeces of Gold and Silver In the like sort we enjoyn and command the president and Lords of the privie Councel and all other Chancellors presidents Provinciall Consuls and all Presidents and chiefe Masters of accounts and others of all chambers of accounts being respectively in these countries and also all other Iudges and Officers as holding them discharged of the oath which they have made unto the King of Spain according to the tenor of their Commissions that they shall take a new oath in the hands of the Estates of the Province where they are or to their Deputies by the which they shall swear to be faithfull to us against the King of Spain and his adherents according to the form set down by us and there shall be given to the said Councellors Masters of accounts Iudges and Officers remaining in the Provinces which have contracted with the Duke of Aniou in our name an act of continuance in their Offices containing in stead of a new commission a cessation or disannulling of their former and that by way of provision untill his comming And to Councellors Masters of accounts Iudges and Officers being resident in Provinces which have not contracted with his Highnesse a new Commission shall be given under our name and Seale if the petitioners were not found faulty to be of bad behaviour to have done against the priviledges of the Countrey or to have committed some other disorder We also command the President and them of the privie Councell the Chancellour and Councell of Brabant the Governour Chancellour and Councell of Gueldres and the Countie of Zutphen the President and councell in Flanders the President and councell in Holland the Governour President and Councell in Friseland the President and Councell at Vtricht the Bayliff at Tournay and Tournesis the Receivors or chiefe Officer of Beooster cheldt and Bewesterscheldt Zeeland the scout of Macklyn and all other Iudges and Officers whom it shall concerne their Lieutenants and every of them presently without any delay to publish this our Decree in all places of their jurisdictions and wheresoever they are accustomed to make proclamations to the end that no man may pretend any cause of ignorance And that they may keep and observe and cause to be kept and observed inviolably this our Decree without any favour support or dissimulation for wee have so thought it fit and convenient for the good of the Countrey For the effecting whereof we give to every one whom it shall concerne full power and authority and speciall Commission In witnesse whereof we have caused our seale to be hereunto annexed Given at the Hage in our assembly the 26 of Iuly 1581. Vnderneath was written By the ordinance and decree of the said Estates and signed I. Tan Asseliers According unto this declaration of the Estates there was a new forme of an Oath drawn in manner of an abjuration of the King of Spaine and promise of duty and obedience which every one should owe unto the said Estates by the publike Officers and Magistrates of every Town and Province as followeth I sweare That hereafter I shall not serve nor yeeld obedience to Philip King of Spaine nor acknowledge him for my Prince and Lord whom I doe renownce by these presents and doe hold my selfe freed from all Oaths and bonds by the which I might bee formerly tyed unto him whereof finding my selfe presently delivered I sweare a new and binde my selfe to the united Provinces and namely to them of Brabant Gueldre Holland Zeeland and their allies and to the soveraign Magistrates that are appointed to bee faithfull and loyall unto them to yeeld them all obedience aide and comfort with all my power and meanes against the King of Spaine and his adherents and against all the enemies of the Countrey Promising as a good vassall of the Countrey to carry my self faithfully and loyally with shew of all obedience to my superiors So help me the Almighty God This decree being thus proclaimed all the seales counter-seals and secret signets of the King of Spaine were broken and cancelled with solemnity by all the consuls of the said
one of us may breake or fall from it by dissimulation secret intelligence or in any sort whatsoever And that for the preservation of our holy Catholike and Romish Faith and the accomplishment of the Pacification as also for the expulsion of Spaniards and their adherents with all due obedience to his Majesty for the good and quiet of our Countrey and the maintenance of our Priviledges rights Freedomes Statutes Customes and antient uses For the effecting whereof we will use all meanes possible imploying both Money Men Counsell and goods yea and our lives if it were necessary And that none of us may in private give any counsell advice or consent nor have any secret conference with them that are not of this Union nor yet reveale unto them in any sort what hath or shall be treated of in this Assembly or resolved but shall wholly conforme himselfe according to our generall and common resolution And in case that any Province Estate Countrey Towne Castle or House were besieged assaulted invaded or opprest in any sort whatsoever yea if any of us or any others having indeavoured himselfe for his Countrey and the just defence thereof against the Spaniards or for other causes depending thereon as well in generall as particular should be sought after imprisoned ransomed molested or disquieted in his person and goods honour and estate or otherwise we promise to give him assistance by all the said meanes yea and to procure the liberty of them that shall be imprisoned either by force or otherwayes upon paine to be degraded of their Nobility Name Armes and Honour and to be held perjured disloyall and enemies to our Countrey before God and men and to incurre the note of Infamy and cowardise for ever And for the strengthening of this our holy Union of Association we have signed these presents the tenth of January 1577. Underneath were the signatures of the Deputies of every Province Prelates Noblemen and Commissioners for Townes and underneath them was written the agreation of the Councell of State as followeth The Deputies of the generall Estates here under-written having required them of the Councell of State committed by his Majesty for the government of the Netherlands to consent unto and allow of that which is contained in the Union above written The Councell in regard of the said request and the reasons therein contained have as much as in them lay allowed and doe allow by these presents the said Union according to the forme and tenor Made at Brussels in the State-house in the Assembly of the said States the tenth of January 1577. And underneath was written By the commandement of the Lords of the Councell of State Signed Berrii If any shall here object that Kings are of divine institution whence Dei gratia By the grace of God is peculiarly annexed to their Titles and not communicated unto Subjects Therefore though they prove never so flagitious or tyrannicall they may in no wise be forcibly resisted or questioned by their Nobles and Parliaments for their crimes I answer briefely because I have elswhere largely dissipated this objection First that Kings are no more of divine institution then any other inferiour Magistrates Officers or Princes whatsoever as the Scriptures abundantly evidence But all other inferiour Magistrates Officers and Princes whatsoever are resistible questionable censurable and deposible for their tyranny wickednesse and misgovernment by the Parliaments censure as I have proved notwithstanding their divine institution therefore such degenerating Kings too as well as they in such cases Secondly all Ministers of the Gospel are as much if not farre more Jure divinâ— and by Gods owne ordination as Kings are a truth undeniable But they for their offences and misdemeanors contrary to their function may be both forcibly resisted censured deprived degraded yea and executed notwithstanding their divine right and institution as the Canons of most Councels the practise of all ages yea the expresse letter of the 26. Article of the Church of England with all our Episcopall Canons and Canonists attest Therefore tyrannicall degenerating Kings may be so too by the selfe-same reason in some cases Thirdly this Title of Dei gratia in publike Writs anciently hath beene and yet is common to Bishops Prelates inferiour Magistrates and Subjects as well as to Kings as sundry precedents in our Law bookes Matthew Paris Salon with others attest and Mr. John Selden in his Titles of Honour part 1. chap. 7. Sect. 2. p. 123. professedly proves at large to whom I shall referre you But these both lawfully may be and alwayes have beene forcibly resisted questioned convented deprived censured for their tyranny and misdemeanors notwithstanding this their stile of Dei gratia or pretence of divine institution yea we know that Bishops have beene lately thrust out of many Churches notwithstanding their long pretended Ius Divinum to support their Hierarchy and Iohn Gerson a Papist hath writ a particular Treatise De Auferibilitate Papae notwithstanding the Popes pretended Divine Title to his Monarchy which may be now and one day shall be totally abolished Therefore tyrannicall degenerous Kings may be justly resisted censured deprived as well as they and royalties changed into other governments by the peoples and kingdomes common consents if they see just cause If any secondly object That Kings are annoynted at their Coronation Therefore their persons are sacred irresistible unquestionable unpunishable for any tyrannicall or exorbitant actions whatsoever I briefly answer first that every Christians Baptisme being a Sacrament of Christs owne institution at least his spirituall unction and sanctification as I have formerly proved makes a person as sacred yea more holy then Kings annoynting being no Sacrament can or doth of it selfe make the person of any King whatsoever A truth which no Christian can without blasphemy deny But Baptisme and the inward unction of the spirit of grace and sanctification exempts no Christians from resistance censure punishments of all sorts in case they commit any exorbitant or capitall crimes as experience tels us Therefore Kings Coronation annoyntings cannot doe it Secondly Priests anciently were and at this day too in the Roman Church are annoynted as well as Kings and so are children and sicke persons that I say not Altars Bels c. with Chrisme and extreame Vnction But these Unctions conferre no such immunity to Priests children sicke men others c. Therefore neither can this annoynting doe it to Kings especially now being no divine institution Thirdly The annoynting of Kings is not common to all Christian Kings many of them especially in former times having beene crowned without any annoynting at all but peculiar to Emperours and to the Kings of Ierusalem France England and Sicily the foure annoynted Kings onely as Albericus Restaurus Castaldus Antonius Corsetus Azorius Cassanaeus and sundry others affirme out of the old Roman Provinciall though some other Kings have now and then beene
annoynted when they were crowned as Mr. Selden proves Since therefore all Kings persons are reputed sacred as well as these foure who are annoynted and these Kings as soone as the Crowne descended to them even before their Unctions and Coronations were deemed as sacred and inviolable as before it is certaine that their very enoyling of it selfe makes no addition to their personall immunities from just resistance publike censures or deprivations for grosse unsufferable publike crimes Fourthly the annoynting of Christian Emperours and Kings is not very ancient Charles the great being the first annoynted Emperour if we beleeve Mr. Selden The first annoynted King in France was Pipin about the yeare 750. the annoynting of their Clovis the first about the yeare 500. with that holy Vial of never-decaying Oyle reserved at Rheimes to annoynt their Kings which they say a Dove brought downe from Heaven to annoynt him with a ridiculous Monkish fable much insisted on by Bochellus and other French-men who relate the grand solemnity used in the carrying and recarrying of this fabulous Vial at the French Kings Coronations being not at his Coronation as many fondly mistake but onely at his baptisme as Mr. Selden manifests by pregnant authorities The annoynting of Kings is farre more ancient in England then in any other Realme as Mr. Selden notes out of Gildas yet Egfert is the first of whose annoynting there is any intimation in our Histories about the yeare 790. To adde to the holinesse of which ceremony some of our Monkes in latter ages have forged a Legend as good as that of the holy Viol at Rheimes that the Virgin Mary gave to Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury during his exile under Henry the second a golden Eagle full of precious Oyle inclosed in a stone vessell commanding him to preserve it foretelling him that the Kings of England annoynted with this Oyle should be Champions of the Church and bountifull and victorious as long as they had this Eagle oyle How late the Unction of Kings began in other Realmes you may read at large in Mr. Selden and how the later Kings of Judah were annoynted and with what unguent or Oyle the curious may read at leisure in Cunaeus This annoynting therefore of Kings being not of divine institution of such puny date in most Realmes and no wayes necessary nor essentiall to the constitution or Inauguration of any Christian King can adde no immunity or priviledge at all to the persons of Kings much lesse exempt them from all forcible resistance just censures or deprivation it selfe if there be just and reall cause to proceed criminally against them in case of incorrigibility as I have elsewhere more fully demonstrated and therefore shall no further expatiate in this particular here onely I shall conclude with one notable History which proves it I read in Gulielmus Neubrigensis that for an hundred yeares space and more though there were a numerous succession of Kings in Norway yet none of them ended his life by old age or sicknesse but all of them perished by the sword leaving the soveraigne power of the Realme to their murderers as to their lawfull successors so as to all those who are knowen to have reigned there for so long a time that which is written might seeme to have reference Hast thou slaine and also taken possession The Nobles of this Land out of a pious endeavour desirous to heale this infamous mischiefe obteining now the vigour of a Law as it were through long custome decreed That the new King should be solemnly annoynted with a mysticall unction and crowned so as no man should dare from thenceforth to lay hands on the Lords annoynted For till that time none in that Nation hath ever beene consecrated King after an Ecclesiasticall manner but whosoever had Tyrannically slaine a King put on the person and power of a King thereby and left the same likewise after a little fortune to his murtherer by a law of inveterate custome which verily out of a certaine Christian simplicity was thought by many to have beene therefore so frequently done because none of the former Kings had deserved to be initiated with the solemnitie of a Royall Vnction Therefore Haco being slaine who had succeeded King Jnge slaine by him when the succession of the Crowne seemed to belong to one Magnus a child Nephew to Jnge the Wisemen and Nobles of the Realme by a common Decree caused the said child to be solemnly consecrated to be the Lords annoynted and crowned with a Diadem By which deed they thought that they had a Prince made sacred to them and that the disgrace of the ancient custome was thereby abolished But when Magnus had reigned some few yeares in great prowesse and happinesse a most infamous Priest Suerus surnamed Birkebain usurped a Tyranny twice defeated Magnus by warlike stratagems and at last utterly routed and slew him in battell notwithstanding his annoynting and usurping the Crowne renounced his holy orders married a wife and would have beene crowned by the Archbishop of that Land but he being a great man would neither be moved with prayers nor threats to annoynt an exectable head with sacred Vnction for which he was banished the Countrey at last after two great victories against two competitors who were slaine Suerus obtained the Royall Crowne with mysticall Vnction by the hands of a certaine Bishop compelled thereunto under paine of death as it were secure by his frequent successes from the uncertaine end of a long prospering tyranny c. By which History it is evident that it is but a childish simplicity to beleeve that the ceremony of annoynting Kings can of it selfe make Kings persons sacro-sanct or preserve them from violence or assassinations since it no way prevented this mischiefe in this Realme nor yet in any other the very first King for whose personall safety this ceremony of annoynting and crowning was introduced among the Norwegians and Danes being not long after slaine by his Subjects and competitor in battell I shall close up this with the notable sentence of deprivation solemnly given and executed against Wenceslaus the Emperour notwithstanding his annoynting The sentence of Degradation and Deprivation of the Emperour Wenceslaus King of Romans pronounced by the Electors of the Empire in the yeare of our Lord. 1400. IN the name of God Amen We John by the grace of God Archbishop of the Church of Mentz Arch-chancellor of the sacred Roman Empire throughout Germany make knowne to all men present and to come What various manifold and grievous as well incommodities as discords have for many yeares since beene brought into the holy Church continuing even to this present and daily sprouting up more abundantly to the most grievous convulsion imminution and dissipation of the sacred Roman Empire which ought to be a Garrison to the Church of God and the Christian world as they cannot be all written so the mischiefes daily increasing do manifestly enough
imposing tribute without doubt Hezâ—kiah especially at that season wherein the Assyrians enjoyed the Empire of the world would have contained himselfe But we see that he invited by posts all Israel the subjects I say of the King of Assyria to celebrate the passeover in Jerusalem and moreover that the godly in Israel helped them in pulling downe the high places even in the territories of Ephraim Manasses and the rest So likewise we read that King Josiah a most godly Prince purged not onely his owne Kingdome but the Realme of Israel likewise then wholly subject to the King of Assyria from the worship of Idols Verily where the glory of God where the Kingdome of Christ are in question no limits no bounds no railes ought to exclude or keepe off the zeale of pious Princes But if peradventure some greater feare hangs over their heads they may remember by the example of these that those who truly feare the Lord can feare no man These examples of pious Princes since the time that the Church which was first circumscribed in Palestina hath beene spread over all the world many Christian Princes have followed Constantine and Licinius were both Emperours he of the East this of the West they were likewise colleagues endued with equall power Now it is known what is commonly spoken That one equall hath no Empire over another equall Yet notwithstanding Constantine made warre with Licinius who being vexed slew the Christians and among them many of the Nobles either for the cause or for the pretext of Religion by force obtaines free profession of Religion for the Christians and finally breaking his faith and reverting to his pristine cruelty he commanded him to be put to death at Thessalonica This I say did Constantine the great whose piety is so much celebrated by the Divines of that age that some of them will have that spoken of him written in the Prophet Esay That Kings should become nursing fathers and Pastors of the Church He being dead the Roman Empire was divided between both his sonnes by equall right no prerogative being annexed to either of them Of them Constans fostered the Orthodox Constantius the elder the Arrians and he verily expelled Athanasius the enemy of the Arrians out of Alexandria Truly if any rules of bounds ought to have beene kept it ought to have beene betweene brethren Yet in the meane time Constans threatned his brother if he restored not Athanasius being ready to doe it by force unlesse Constantius had speedily restored him intirely Now if so be he doubted not to doe this onely for the restoring of one Bishop might he not much more justly doe it where some part of the people is oppressed when they implore assistance when they desire to defend their Religion by the Nobles approbation So likewise Theodosius by the perswasion of Bishop Atticus undertook a warre against Chosroes King of Persia that he might releeve the Christians persecuted for Religion sake although they were truly privat men which surely those most just Princes who enacted so many Lawes and who had so great a care of Law had never done if they had imagined that by this their Act others territories and the Lawes of Nations had beene violated Yea to what end were so many expeditions of Christian Princes into Syria against the Saracens to what end were those Saladinian Dismes so oft imposed to what end so many sociall warres against the Turkes so many Crossadoes indicted against them if it be not lawfull for any Christian Princes even the most remote to free the Church from Tyranny and Christian captives from the yoke of bondage Now with what arguments were they impelled to the warre with what reasons were they urged unlesse these that the Church was one that Christ called all whatsoever from all quarters to this service that common dangers were to be repulsed with common armes all which likewise doe plainely suite with this our cause Now and if this were lawfull for them against Mahomet yea not onely lawfull but likewise as a reward was appointed to the industrious so a punishment both to the sloathfull and delayers why not also against the enemy of Christ If I say against the Graecians besieging our Troy why not also against Sinon the incendiary Finally if it be a pious act to free Christians from bodily servitude for the Turkes compell no man to it is it not much more so to manumit the soules of miserable men and to restore them to liberty And verily these so many examples of pious Princes may be insteed of a Law But now heare what God himselfe by the mouth of his Prophets doth every where threaten against those who promote not the instauration of the Church or neglect its affliction The Gadites Reubenites and halfe Tribe of Manasses desire of Moses that their portion might be given to them and their families on this side Jordan and Moses truly gave it them but with this Law and condition that they should not onely helpe their brethren the other Israelites in conquering the Land of Canaan but because they had first obtained their portion that they should goe before them and be placed in the forefront of them Which if they should not doe he accurseth them smites them with anathema and compares them to those who had beene judged Rebels at Cadesbernea For what saith he shall your brethren goe to warre and you in the meane time sit still here But rather you shall passe over Jordan neither shall you returne againe hither to your houses before that God hath expelled his enemies from before his face and given rest to your brethren as he hath given unto you Then verily you shall be innocent before the Lord of Israel verily those on when the great and good God hath bestowed so great a benefit unlesse they assisted their Brethren unlesse they were companions of their labours unlesse they went before them should without doubt receive most grievous punishments Likewise when under the conduct of Deborah those of Nephthali and Zebulon had taken up armes against the Tyrant Jabin and in the meane time the Tribe of Reuben which ought to be first in Armes delighted themselves with the Pipes among the Pastures of the flockes Dan boasted of the Empire of the Sea Asher finally trusted in the asperity of Mountaines all of them are most expresly condemned by the Spirit of God speaking by the Prophetesse Curse ye Meroz saith the Angel of the Lord curse ye bitterly the Inhabitants thereof because they came not to the helpe of the Lord against the mighty But blessed above women shall Jael the Wife of Heber the Kenite be who although she might have pleaded a truce with the heathens yet notwithstanding shee slew Sisera the Captaine of the enemies Hoast Therefore piously spake V riah The Arke and Israel and Judah abide in tents and oft times passe the night without sleepe in the open fields shall I then feast
contained not the exorbitances and oppressions that their Kings would exercise over them mentioned in the 1 Sam. 8. 11. to 19. as Iosephus mistakes but as Petrus Cunaeus and others more rightly observe the Law of God concerning Kings prescribed by him Deut. 17. 14. to the end and such Lawes which commanded Kings to use Iustice and equity to govern the Common-wealth well for the peoples benefit to abstaine from fornication and lusts to retain modesty in a great fortune c. Hence Samuel enioyned both Saul and the People to feare the Lord and serve him and obey his voyce and follow him and not rebell against his Commandement c. 1 Sam. 12. 14 15. 20. to 25. Hence King David did alwayes meditate in the Law of God day and night accounting it more deare unto him then thousands of Gold and silver And withall pronounceth from Gods own mouth The Gods of Israel said the Rocke of Israel spake to me he that ruleth over men must be just ruling in the feare of God Hence the Qu. of Sheeba used this speech to king Solomon Because the Lord loved Israel for ever therefore made be thee King what to domineere at his pleasure no verily but To doe Iudgement and Iustice Vpon this ground King Iosiah made a covenant before the Lord to walke after the Lord And to keep his Commandements and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and with all his soul And King Asa with other Princes and Governors did the like as the premises evidence From all which and infinite other Scriptures obliging Kings to reign in righteousnesse to doe justice and judgement to all and reprehending them exceedingly for their injustice tyranny oppressions idolatries and other sinnes it is irrefragable that their kings were as much if not more obliged to keep both Gods and the kingdomes Lawes as the Subjects and had no arbitrary power to doe what they pleased All that is or can be colourably obiected to the contrary to prove the kings of Israel absolute Monarchs exempt from Lawes and paramount their Sanhedrin or people collectively considered is First that passage of Psal 51. 4. where king David confessing his sinnes of Adultery and Murther to God useth this expression Against thee Thee onely have I sinned and done this evill in thy sight Of which Hierom renders this reason Quod Rex erat alium non timebat alium non habebat super se which Ambrose thus seconds Rex erat Nullis ipse legibus tenebatur quia liberi sunt Reges a vinculis delictorum Neque enim ullis ad poenam vocantur legibus Tuti Imperii potestate Homini ergo non peccavit cui non tenebatur obnoxius Arnobius Cassidor adde De populo si quis erraverit Deo peccat Regis quando Rex delinquit soli Deo reus est Merito ergo Rex Deo Tantum se dicit peccasse quia solus erat qui ejus potuisset admissa discutere The like we finde in Isiodor Epist 383. which some Iewish Rabbins back with this saying of Barnachmon titulo de Iudicibus Nulla creatura judicat Regem sed Deus benedictus Therefore the Iewish kings were above all Lawes and not subiect to the censures of their Congregations States or Sanhedrin To this I answer first That no doubt David by his adultry and murther being sinnes against the second Table did sinne not onely against God but against Vriah and his wife too their children and kinred yea against his own soule and body though he were a king That of Iustus Eccardus De Lege Regia being an itrefragable truth granted by all Lawyers and Divines whatsoever that the absolutest Emperors Monarchs Kings that be are subject to the Lawes of God of Nature of Nations and cannot justly doe any thing against them to the hurt of pietie chastity fame life or what is contrary to good Manners Secondly No doubt every king is bound in conscience by the Law of God and man to give satisfaction and recompence to his Subjects against whom he sinneth in this nature as David himselfe determines in this his own case 2 Sam. 12. 5 6 7. Thirdly For this very sin against Vriah God threatens that the sword should never depart from Davids house that hee would raise up evil against him out of his own house that he would take his wives before his eyes and give them unto his Neighbour who should lye with them in the sight of the Sunne before all Israel 2 Sam. 12. 10 11 12. which was actually fulfilled in and by Absalom his sonne 2 Sam. 16. 22. The glosse therefore of these Fathers that David was exempt from all Lawes being a King and that he could not sinne against a Subject is point-blank against the History and Text it selfe and manifested to be apparantly false by all the premised Scriptures and Authorities Fourthly the true reason of this speech of David Against thee Thée onely have I sinned and done this evill in thy sight as Augustine and others truly observe was 1. Because David had plotted and contrived the murther of Vriah and abusing of his wife so closely that no man did or could take notice of it whence Nathan the Prophet tells him 2 Sam. 12. 12. Thou didst it Secretly but I will do this before all Israel sed forte erat quod homines latebat non inveniebant illi quod erat quidem sed manifestum non erat writes Augustine 2. Because Vriah being slain and his wife a party consenting to Davids sinne his sinne now might in this sence be said to be against God alone 3. sinne quatenus sinne and as it deserves eternall punishment is properly committed against none but God whose Law and prohibition only makes it sinne therefore in this regard David now confessing his sinne to God himselfe useth this expression and rhetoricall ingemination Against thee thee only have I sinned 4. Because none was free from sinne and so sit to be his Judge in that respect but God onely 5. Only is many times taken for principally or especially as we usually say such a one is the onely man such a salve or medicine is the onely remedy and the Scripture useth this phrase in this sence in Davids owne ease 1 King 15. 7. David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the dayes of his life save ONELY in the matter of Vriah that is principally for he committed divers sins besides as in numbring the people in giving Mephibosheths land to Ziba upon a false suggestion himselfe confessing that his iniquities were gone over his head and his sinnes more then the haires of his head but yet this was his ONLY to wit his principall sinne so in divers others Texts onely is used for principally as Iosh 1. 7. 18. Onely be thou strong