Of You Sir our most Noble Lord by the Grace of God King of France the people of Your Kingdom supplicate and desire because it behoves them so to doe that You preserve the Sovereign Freedom of your Kingdom which is that You own and acknowledge no Sovereign on the Earth over Your Temporals but God alone and that You give all the World to understand that Pope Boniface does manifestly erre and commit a most notorious mortal sin in sending You word by his Letters and Bulls that himself was Sovereign of Your Temporals c. and those who should believe the contrary he esteem'd as Hereticks Also that You cause to be declared that we are bound to hold the Pope himself an Heretick and not You good King and all the liege people of Your Kingdom who have ever believed and do believe the contrary The same Protestation is to be seen in several Acts inserted in that Collection which Mons. du Puy has made of the difference between King Philip the Fair and Pope Boniface where you 'l see how Pope Boniface's Bulls were then explain'd and what was the opinion of France touching Infallibility 'T is in vain to strive to make any other replies to these kind of Popes Decrees then such as the French of that Age did before us For as there 's nothing to which the Court of Rome aspires with greater passion then to this Temporal Empire so neither is there any thing which the Popes have establish'd with so much industry Cardinal Bellarmine summs up no less then 18 since Gregory the VIIth to our times who manifestly attributed to themselves this right as they call'd it of deposing Kings and chastising them temporally even to the privation of their States viz. Victor the III d Urban the II d Paschal the II d Gelasius the II d Calixtus the II d Alexander the III d Innocentius the III d Honorius the III d Gregory the IXth Innocent the IVth Boniface the VIIIth Clement the VIth Paul the II d Iulius the II d Paeul the III d Pius the Vth Gregory the XIIIth and Sixtus the Vth He counts to 16 or 17 Kings and Emperours against whom Popes have pretended this right of Sovereignty as a debt due to them amongst which there are 5 French Kings Philip the I st Philip the Fair Lewis the XIIth Henry the III d and Henry the IVth Baronius mentions also the Excommunication of a world of Germans who are not yet well agreed concerning the Pope's Power by which it appears that they alwaies pretended to make it an Heresie when at any time they were the strongest party Nor is there any thing more frequent in these Bulls then their menacing Kings and Princes to deprive them of their States in case of Disobedience Which universally betraies that Passion which the Court of Rome has to infuse this belief into the minds of the People But if one could forget those other enterprises of Rome against our Kings which are founded upon this pretented Superiority as this Superiority is upon Infallibility since France has so universally hindred their effects yet we cannot but remember that which made us lose Navarre because the wound is yet bleeding Ferdinand had no other pretext to swallow it up from Iohn d' Albret Great-Grandfather to Henry the Great besides a Bull which he obtain'd of Iulius the II d against the King and Queen of Navarre importing Privation of their Kingdom for having assisted Lewis the XIIth whom it call'd Schismatick and as having denied passage to the Army which Ferdinand King of Arragon would have sent into France to assist the King of England in the conquest of Guienne I know very well that Cardinal du Perron to render this Doctrine of the Power of Popes over the Temporals of Kings less odious to the French tells us that the real cause of the loss of the Kingdom of Navarre was the breach of the Alliance which the King of Navarre had with Ferdinand King of Arragon which Ferdinand pretended to have been establish'd on condition that if the Kings of Navarre should violate it the Kingdom of Navarre should again revert to the Spaniards who had render'd it by deed in Writing to the race of Albret and that Pope Iulius's Excommunication was neither the true Cause nor real Pretence but a certain tail of a Pretence which though Ferdinand had made no use of he had notwithstanding pretended that the Kingdom of Navarre appertain'd to him and consequently possess'd it But I know as well too that there is nothing worse founded then this answer as Mons. du Puy has made appear by most invincible proofs in his Treatise of the Right of the King to the Kingdom of Navarre For he does there prove by the Spanish Historians themselves that Ferdinand during the Usurpation and whiles he liv'd had onely the Title by the Pope's Excommunication to justifie his Arms. He shews how Ferdinand having swallow'd up this Kingdom 1512 and being press'd by the King of Navarre 1513 to doe him reason defended his possession by no other right but by that of the Excommunication and that in the two most authentick Acts on this subject one whereof is the Will and Testament of Ferdinand by which he bequeaths the Kingdom of Navarre to his Daughter Iane Queen of Castile and the other of the Union of that Kingdom to that of Castile it is expresly signified that Iohn d' Albret and Catharine his Wife had been depriv'd of it by the Pope for having adher'd to the Schism of the French Kings against Pope Iulius the II d and that the Pope had given him this Kingdom to dispose of as he pleas'd I omit the other proofs Which sufficiently shews that the Pope's Bull was no tail of Pretext but indeed the onely and sole Pretence of that unjust Usurpation which continues to this very day In the second place there is nothing more absurd then to say that the Spaniards had never rendred the Kingdom of Navarre to the race of Albret but with this written Caution That if their Successors should violate the Alliance the Kingdom should revert to the Spaniards For Iean d' Albret on whom was the Usurpation was the first of Albret's race who possess'd the Kingdom How then could it be said that the Spaniards had render'd it to Albret's race who before never enjoy'd it And supposing we did take the word render'd for given it is no less false that the Spaniards were they of Arragon or Castile gave this Kingdom to the race of Albret who in no sort held it of the Spaniards but by the Marriage of Catharine who succeeded King Francis Phoebus his Brother and Francis Phoebus to Elianor his Grandmother wife of Gastion de Foix and sole superviving Daughter of Blanch Queen of Navarre which Lady had espous'd Iohn King of Arragon the Father of Ferdinand who being born of another Venter had nothing to doe with Navarre So as this pretended Caution can be no other then a
against the Lord and against his Anointed That is to say The Pope is Iesus Christ and all Christian Kings who maintain their Sovereignty against the Usurpations of Rome are the Herods and the Pontius Pilates This publick decry yet in the Books of these Writers is nothing so considerable as the particular and clandestine traverses that the Court of Rome excites upon all occasions whatsoever against those whom she believes not favourable to her Interests By that it is she stops the mouths and stays the Pens of almost all Learned persons who cannot really possess themselves of that Title that they are not inwardly persuaded of the Hypocrisies of these ambitious pretensions but they chuse rather to be silent then to speak of it Because there are but a very few persons so in love with Truth as in resolving to maintain it will endure to be tormented and barretted all their life-time and to be torn in pieces when they are dead They see that Kings and their great Ministers take not for the most part that care to protect those who maintain and defend their Right by some testimony of their acknowledging it as the Court of Rome does to persecute them or at least to deny them all kind of favour They must be touch'd with an extraordinary Zeal and very disinteress'd to surmount all these considerations and to sacrifice themselves for the Interest of their Prince and Countrey without any hope of advantage or to speak more properly with reason to apprehend all sort of disadvantage by it All those principally who are ty'd to any Community are thereby oblig'd to a silence which they believe to be just as holding themselves responsable for the conservation of their Body And 't is true these vast Bodies have stricter bonds which tie them to Rome and are more expos'd to Persecution because they have more places which expose them to seisure to which one may adde that almost all the Religious and Communities have their Generals resident at Rome who will never permit that the Divines of their Orders should undertake to teach things which would not be well receiv'd there and from which there may lie a grudge against the whole Order They are therefore Private persons onely who are fit upon these encounters to engage for the Truth but then it is necessary that they be furnished with Light to know it with Zeal to love it with Steadiness not to fear the ills it may produce and with Sincerity and Disinterest that so they may have no occasion to be in danger of being thwarted And when there were onely this last how rare a thing it is to be found Well therefore has Iohn Major that renowned Doctor of Paris long since observ'd That it was not to be wonder'd at if they were fewer who declared for a Council then for the Pope since Councils met but seldom and gave no Benefices whereas the Pope does and thence 't is saies he men flatter him with an omnipotent power as well in Spiritual things as temporal Hinc homines ei blandiuntur dicentes quòd solvere potest omnia quadrare rotundata rotundare quadrata tam in Spiritualibus quà m in temporalibus Hence it proceeds that the Liberties of the Gallican Church and the ancient Maxims of the Sorbon are now-a-daies hardly vindicated but by secular persons such as We that have less relation to the Court of Rome then Ecclesiasticks have whereof the wisest of them are rather satisfied to approve them in their heart without defending them in their Books such power have fear and interest upon the spirit of those who should be more free from them by the Sanctity of their Profession But if there be persons disinterested so as not to be touch'd by these temporal considerations it often falls out that having little judgment and less science their Piety it self engages them into these new Opinions because they are publish'd in the World under this artificial veil That 't is forsooth to violate and wound Religion to contest the Pope's Infallibility and temporal Sovereignty over Kings Those in the mean time who have no relation to it but this pretext without any mixture of humane interest may easily be disabus'd if once they but consider that the most pious of all our ancient Doctors as the illustrious Gerson wihtout mentioning Dionysius the Carthusian and the blessed Cardinal d' Arles have oppos'd with greater vigour those ambitious pretences of the Court of Rome and that they have judg'd that on the contrary 't is the sincere Zeal for the Catholick Religion which ought to oblige all judicious Divines courageously to resist this temporal Superiority over Kings and Infallibility as two inseperable Maxims one from the other either of them capable to raise very great mischiefs to the Church For in effect what is there more opposite to the real benefit of the Catholick Religion then this Doctrine of the Pope's Superiority over Kings in Temporals which is a necessary consequence of Infallibility and of the power which they give him to depose them Is not this to render Religion abhorr'd and suspected of all Princes as the Sorbon has judiciously remark'd in the Censure of Santarel to give them cause to believe that 't is impossible they should have Subjects at the same time good Catholicks and faithful to their King What Infidel Prince indeed would permit men to preach Faith in the Countries under his obedience if he knew that all those who embrace it think themselves by that dispens'd with for obedience to him farther then another Sovereign pleases who can at any time cause them to take up arms against their lawful King Were this for example a proper expedient to incline the Americans to receive our Faith to say to them as some Spaniards did that the Pope had bestow'd their Country on the King of Castile And however Barbarians as they were had they not reason to reply as they did That they knew no such thing as a Pope but that if there were he must needs be a wicked man to give away that which was none of his own Were not this also to dispose Heretical Princes not to suffer Catholicks in their States when they shall behold them but as so many subjects to another Prince who has power to command them to depose him in the Country where they live And do not we know that 't is this has so imbitter'd the King of England against the Papists and the almost sole cause of the disturbance which they suffered in Iames's time as being to this day the greatest obstacle to the progress of Religion in that Kingdom In fine what Catholick Prince would be willing that his Dominion which he takes so much pains to preserve both in Peace and War should continually depend upon the judgment of one sole Person who may be possess'd perhaps by his Enemies or transported by his proper passions For 't is a weak confidence to resolve they will give the Pope no occasion
over Kings the other that his Infallibility in matters of Fact takes away all means from the Kings they please to depose to complain of so rigorous a Sentence For the first 't is an easie matter to convince all the world of it nor ought we to imagine it a Consequence held onely by those who profess themselves enemies to the Iesuites Doctrine and which the Iesuites disavow 't is a Consequence which they themselves derive from it which they every-where acknowledge must needs follow and which does so indeed naturally and of necessity For Popes as Iesuites themselves have learn'd us have so many waies decided that they have power to degrade Kings and dispose of their Kingdoms when-ever they judge it for the interest of Religion that if to be Catholick one is oblig'd to consider all that Popes say in their Chair that is by their Bulls as Decisions of infallible authority and Oracles pronounc'd even by Christ himself Kings their Ministers and Parliaments must either renounce the quality of Catholick or else tamely acknowledge that Kings are Sovereigns independent in respect of their own Subjects and other Princes but nothing so in regard of the Pope but that he has power to make them descend from their Throne and to resolve them into their simple Originals so as exercising a Royalty superiour to theirs it may be said of his Empire as an heathen Poet said of that of God Omne sub regno graviore regnum est All this is an infallible consequent of Infallibility as the Iesuites well prove For who can chuse but believe that Popes have the power to depose Kings if once he be persuaded that their Decisions are so many Articles of Faith when it shall be shew'd him that Gregory the VIIth has decided it in express terms in a Council held at Rome Anno 1067 according to Onuphrius Baronius and all the Iesuites Quòd Papae liceat Imperatores deponere quòd à Fidelitate iniquorum subditos potest absolvere Whence Lessius the Iesuite concludes supposing the Principle of Infallibility That this Doctrine is no problematick Doctrine but a constant Truth not to be deny'd without violation of our very Faith We must absolutely believe says he that this Doctrine viz. that the Pope may depose Kings is an undoubted truth and not such as we may believe what we please of but such an one as is intirely certain not to be contradicted without wounding our Faith And this I prove first Because these Propositions are defin'd in proper terms in the Roman Synod under Gregory the VIIth where it is affirm'd that the Pope may depose Emperours and absolve the Subjects of wicked Princes from their Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity Now a Definition made by a Pope in Council is matter of Faith This is clear now without mincing nor can it be more expresly declar'd that the power to depose Kings is a necessary consequent of Infallibility so as those Iesuites must needs be very impudent who shall after this dare to affirm that they are their Enemies who derive this sequel from their Doctrine The Iesuite Cardinal Bellarmine under the feign'd name of Sculkenius writing against Widrington proves in the same manner by this Gregorian Decree that the Pope's Superiority over Kings is an Article of Faith 'T is an Heresie saies he to affirm that the Pope as Pope and ex jure divino has not the power to depose Secular Princes of their States as oft as the publick good or some urgent necessity of the Church does require it I prove this Conclusion An Opinion becomes heretical when its contradictory is de Fide But it is de Fide that the Pope has power to depose Princes since it has been defin'd and concluded by Gregory the VIIth in a Roman Council where it saies expresly That the Pope may depose an Emperour Now who can deny this Conclusion that holds but the Principle which is That what has been defin'd and concluded by a Pope is de Fide Is not this Argument of the Cardinal invincible supposing the Maxime to be true By consequent then who can doubt but that according to the Iesuites opinion and the truth it self the power of deposing Kings is in the Pope a certain Consequence of his Infallibility The same Gregory the VIIth has so often decided the same Point that no man questions his pretence of making it an Article of Faith as may yet be seen in the Bull of the Deposition of the Emperor Henry the IVth made likewise in Council where addressing his speech to S. Peter and S. Paul he thus expostulates Now therefore exert and vindicate your power O great and most holy Princes of the Apostles that all the world may take notice and acknowledg that if you can bind and loose in Heaven you can also on Earth dispose of Empires of Kingdoms Principalities and Marquisates in summe of all mens goods and fortunes whatsoever by taking them away from those who deserve them not and by bestowing them on others For if you judge things Spiritual shall we believe you have not the power to judge of Temporal and Secular Let all the Kings and Princes of the Age learn what your grandeur is and your power and not dare to despise the Commandments of your Church and be sure to leave such prompt and lasting marks in the judgment which you exercise against Henry that his ruine be not attributed to the fate of arms or fortuitous accidents of War but to your sole and almighty power In consequence of this he denounc'd to the Emperor as from God that he should never win battel But if Popes are infallible according to the Iesuites in actions past 't is certain at least that they are not in those which are to come For never did Prince gain so many remaining Victor in more then 50 pitch'd Battels and having at the very first slain the person whom his Holiness had design'd to make Emperor in his place I could recount a number more of Passages relating to the same Pope where he argues for the same Doctrine as visibly founded in the Scripture and annex'd to the Papal dignity For 't is not imaginable that he should pretend onely this right over Emperors because the Popes had so much contributed to the re-establishment of the Western Empire On the contrary 't is perspicuous that his pretence was over all Kings and that it was built on that Supposition of his viz. that the power of the Keys contain'd in it the Temporal Superiority which made him set upon the Crown he sent to Rodulphus Usurper of the Empire this Latin Verse Petra dedit Petro Petrus Diadema Rodulpho To shew that he believ'd he had power to dispose of Kingdoms by a right pretended to be given S. Peter by Iesus Christ himself 'T is likewise on the same basis he threatned Alphonsus King of Arragon to stir up his Subjects against him if he gave him not speedy satisfaction concerning a certain
affair As according to Cardinal Bellarmine he brav'd Philip the I st King of France to shew that he exempted none But nothing does so evidently discover that one cannot acknowledge the Pope to be infallible but that at the same moment we must acknowledge him likewise above Kings in Temporals as that famous Decision of Pope Boniface the VIIIth has done in the Bull Unam Sanctam approv'd by Leo the Xth in the Council of Lateran and the use which the favourers of the Roman Court make of this Bull to establish its pretensions There this Pope defines That both the one and the other Sword appertains to the Church and to the Pope That the Temporal Sword is subordinate to the Spiritual and the Temporal Authority to the Authority Spiritual That if this Spiritual power deviate from the right it must be judg'd by the Spiritual authority That this power was bestow'd on S. Peter and his Successors and That whoever resists this Subordination of Power resists Order in establishing two Principles like the Manichees Whence he concludes that it is necessary to Salvation that every humane power should submit it self to the Bishop of Rome Cardinal Bellarmine a Iesuite in his Book against Barclay concerning the Power of the Pope proves by this Bull that Kings are subject to the Pope in Temporals and this Doctrine is certain and most indubitable Now that it is saies he a thing constant and evident that the Sovereign Bishop may for just causes be Iudge of Temporals and sometimes depose Temporal Princes we prove by the Extravagant Unam Sanctam de majoritate obedientia which shews us that Sword is subordinate to Sword that is that the Temporal Authority is below the Spiritual and that if the Temporal neglect his duty it shall be judged by the Spiritual And for fear it should be objected that Clement the Vth seems to have revok'd this Bull by the Extravagant Meruit de privilegiis he prevents the Objection by saying that Clement the Vâ—h did not revoke the Bull of Pope Boniface but advertis'd onely that this Bull of Boniface had defin'd nothing new and had onely reviv'd the ancient obligation which men have to obey and submit themselves to the Apostolicall See in the manner he had before declar'd and which this Bull does observe that is to say as well in Temporal things as Spiritual Alexander Carrerius of Pavia in a Book intituled De potestate Primi Pontificis adversus impios Politicos Of the power of the Sovereign Bishop against the impious Politicians which is the name he gives to the French and particularly the Parliament proves by the same Bull that the Superiority over Kings in Temporals is an Article of Faith This Power of the Pope saies he over the Temporals of Kings is confirm'd by the testimony of Jeremiah See I have this day set thee over the Nations and Kingdoms to pull down and to destroy c. as 't is also decided by the Extravagant Unam Sanctam where 't is said that if the Temporal power deviate from the right it shall be judged by the Spiritual declaring that every humane creature is subject to the Bishop of Rome and that this is necessary to Salvation Therefore Boniface writ to Philip King of France in these terms Know that you are subordinate to us both in the Temporal and Spiritual and we do hold and declare them Hereticks who maintain the contrary For there are three marks whereby to distinguish matters of Faith The first is When the Decrees of a Synod are couched in these terms If any one affirm such or such a thing let him be accursed The second when it saies that those who maintain the contrary shall be Excommunicate ipso facto And the third when those of the contrary opinion are reputed and held for Hereticks In fine Cardinal Baronius having in a certain place mentioned the very Bull concludes that none do deny this Determination of Boniface unless such as are excluded from the Church Haec Bonifacius saies he cui assentiuntur omnes nisi qui ab Ecclesia excidit And very well argu'd it were if to be a member of the Catholick Church it were necessary to believe the Pope infallible since there is nothing more trifling and absurd then those Subterfuges which some Authors retire to to put themselves under covert from this Bull because they would fain support the Pope's Infallibility but dare not maintain his Temporal Sovereignty in France The chief of these is Doctour Duval who in his Treatise of the Power of the Pope avows that Boniface the Eighth did establish his Superiority over the Temporalty of Kings through the whole body of his Bull but saies that in all the Bulls there is nothing save the Conclusion which is of Faith and that the Conclusion of this in particular imports onely that every creature is subject to the Pope which is true saies he as it relates to Spirituals Certainly if the Authority of Kings had need of so pitiful a Reply one would conclude it built on a very weak foundation Nullas habet spes Troja si tales habet For what appearance of Reason is there in this learned Doctor 's Solution 1. How does he pretend we should believe that a Pope who makes a Bull onely to establish his Superiority over Temporals which is the thing contested and not over the Spirituals which no body does dispute and that he who speaks throughout his whole Bull of this Superiority in Temporals should in the last line form a Conclusion different from the Principles which he has establish'd and that we are onely to regard this last line 2. The word subesse indifferently signifying a subjection in Temporals as well as in Spirituals is it not clearly express'd and determin'd to Temporals by all that precedes it 3. How shall we ever comprehend what a Bull means but by the way it was then understood when it was made as well by those who oppos'd it as those who defended it and do not we know the troubles which then disturb'd all France and the Church caus'd by this pretence of the Pope maintain'd by his Partisans and contested by all the French 4. In fine has not Boniface himself explain'd his own words by another Bull shorter then this which he sent to King Philip in these terms Scire te volumus quòd in Spiritualibus in Temporalibus nobis subes aliud credentes Haereticos deputamus Whence Carrerius as we have already seen concludes well supposing the Pope infallible that those who disagree concerning the Pope's Superiority over the Temporals of Kings are Hereticks And the French of those times without amusing themselves with Monsieur Duval's Sophistry answered after another manner and sufficiently testified that the opinion of Infallibility was not so much as known in France See an Act of the whole Kingdom against these Bulls of Boniface VIIIth as 't is inserted in the first Tome of the Liberties of the Gallican Church