had resigned wheâ—upon Ramir raised an Army against him and after 2. yeers warres took him prisoner put cut his eyes and thrust him into a Monastery Iohn the first the 35 King of Castile after the death of Ferdinand King of Portugall claimed that kingdome iâ— right of Eleanor his wife and next Heire but the Portugals elected Iohn a bastard a Knight of the blood Royall for their King and excluded Eleanor Henry the 4. the 38. King of Castile having no children lawfully begotten would have made Elizabeth his bastard daughter heire to the Crown but the Nobles would no wayes permit it and resisting him with all their might preferred his own sister Elizabeth to the Crown and married her to Ferdinand the 6 sonne to Iohn King of Arragon rejecting his spurious daughter And Fâ—ier Iohn de Tâ—ixeraiâ— his Book of The Originall of the Kings of Portugall affirmes that the Kings of Portugall were usually ELECTED BY THE SVFFRAGES AND FREE CHOICE OF THE PEOPLE who had power to conferre the Kingdome on whom they pleased averring that Alfonso 1. 3. and 5. Iohn the 1. Emanuel and Antonio Kings of Portugall were thus elected Which though Duardus Nonius Leo a Portugois Lawyer denyes and seemes to resute yet he grants freely that the Parliament or Assembly of the Estates in Portugall have usually determined the Title Right and ordered the Succession of that Crown in the Cases of these Princes and determined of their Legitimate or spurious birthes That when the Kings of Portugall have dyed without Heires they have BY THE LAW OF ALL NATIONS freely elected whom they thought meetest for their King And that after the death of King Ferdâ—nand they put by Iohn and Ferdinand the â—onnes of King Peter begotten of Agnes de Castro his Concubine from the Crown because they were bastards and moreover enemies to the name and Realme of the Portugois entring with Henry and Peter Kings of Castile in an hostile manner with an Army into the Confines of Portugall wasting them every where and doing great dammages to and committing many murthers among their Citizens for which reason the States assembled at Cotmbri resolved that although they were legitimate yet THEY COULD NOT OBTAIN THE SUCCESSION OF THAT KINGDOME quod se hostes alienos a Portugalia declarassent because â—HEY HAD THVS DECLARED THEMSELVES ENEMIES AND ALâ—ENS TO PORTVGALL And therefore beleeving the Kingdome to be void for want of a right heire to succeed in which case BY THE LAW OF ALL NATIONS THEY MIGHT LAWFVLLY ELECT THEM WHAT KING THEY PLEASED they chose Iohn the Bastard King After which he shewes that Philip thâ— 2. his Tide to the Crown was long debated by and resolved in the Assembly of the States of Portugall in the life of king Henry who summoned all the Pretenders to the Crown to come and declare their Titles to it in a Parliament held at Almâ—erin upon the Petition of the Senate and People who earnestly pressed him that the Title of the crown might be setled and discided during his life to prevent division and câ—vill warres after his death By which it is apparent that the Assembly of the Estates of Portugall is the most Soveraign power and above their kings themselves It is clear that the Gothish kings which reigned in Spain were not hereditary but elective yea censuâ—able excommunicable and desposable by them for their Male-administrations The Generall History of Spaine is expresse that among the Goths they did not reigne by right and succession from Father to Sonne but those were chosen Kings among them which were held worthy which election was made by the Nobility and People and if any one did affect that dignity by any other unlawfull meanes he was excommunicated and rejected from the company of christians as appearâ—s by the 5. Councell of Toledo Thus Vallia the 1. king of the Goths An. 418. Agila the 11. king An. 546. Luiba the 13. king An. 5â—5 Gundamir the 18. king An. 610. Suintilla the 20. king An 621. Tulâ—â— the 23. King An. 642. Bamba the 26. king of Goths an 672. to omit others were elected by the Nobles and people though now and then the Crown went by succession through usurpation rather then right Theodiscle the tenth king of the Goths in Spaine giving himselfe to lusts and adulteries polluted great and honest families corrupted Nobles wives and committed many murthers whereupon the chiefe of the Goths conspiring against him strangled him at Sevill rioting in his banquets and elected Agila for their king So Victrix the 17. king of the Goths a vitious base unworthy Prince was miserably slain by his own people for his vitiousnesse as he sate at Table Suinâ—illa the 20. king of the Goths in the beginning was a good Prince but in the end he grew exceeding covetous and cruell wherefore the Goths made him resign his Kingdome about the yeare 630. and deprived him of the crowne he was likewise excommunicated by the Bishops whose power at that time began to equall that of Kings at the 4. Councell of Toledo which interdicted him with Geilands brother their wives and children the communion and fellowship of the Church and the possession of their goods gotten by violence and tyrannicall meanes and Sisenand his adversary with the consent of the people obtained the Kingdom The 6. Councel of Toledo under Cinthilla the 22. king of Goths about the yeare 686. decreed and by a perpetuall law imposed on the Kings of Spain not to suffer any one to live within their Dominions which was not a Catholike the which their kings should solemnly sweare before they were crowned and if any king should goe against that Law which he had thus sâ—orn he should be excommunicate and accursed in sight of the eternall God and made the fuell of eternall fire which Canon was made not only by the assent of this king his Bishops but likewise with the consent deliberation of his Nobles and great men In the 5. Councel of Toledo under this king it was decreed Câ—n. 2 3 4 5 6 7. That the kings children and faithfull servants after their deathâ— should not be deprived of the lands honours and just rewards by the succeeding kings which had been conferred on them in their lives That no man should aspire to the crowne liceâ—â—iously under pain of excommunication and a divine Anathema whom neither THE ELECTION OF ALL nor the Nobility of the Gothisn Nation had noâ— advanced to this top of honour That none should during the kings life endeavour or use meanes to succeed him after his death nor yet revile the Prince under paine of excomunication All which particulars were raâ—ified by new Canons in the 6. Councell of Toledo under this king Can. 14 15 15 17 18. with this addition That the king being dead none should usuâ—p the kingdome by tyrannicall presumption that none who had been shaven a Monke or dishonestly bald or descended from a servile stocke or a mâ—n of a forraign Naâ—ion unlesse
obedience to their King deserted Magnus and chose Albert King Magnus seeking to regaine his Realme was defeated in battell and died in exile Queen Margaret taking Albert prisoner and conquering Sweden left it and two Kingdoms more to Ericus her adopted son But the Swedes weary of a forraigne yoke by the helpe of Engelbert denied subjection to him and waged warre so long with him that he was forced to place Swedes in all the Castles by agreement and to receive onely halfe the revenues of the Realme in his absence and at last tired out with the wars deserted both Crowne and Kingdome After this the Swedes elected Charles for their King who after seven yeers reigne perceiving that he grew grievous and displeasing to the States of Sweden taking his owne private goods onely with him and leaving the treasure of the Realm in a safe place left the Kingdome Whereupon they elected Christierne the first the King of Denmarke and Norway for their King against whom they took up armes because he had broken that paction prescribed to him when he tooke the Crowne whereupon Anno 1499. Christierne came with a great power to subdue the Swedes but he was easily conquered repulsed thence twice one after another by the Swedes united forces who elected them a Governour whom they called a Marshall which had power to call generall Assemblies of the States and execute the Kings Office and might have beene elected King upon such conditions as the States propounded which he reâ—used to submit to King Iohn thinking to subdue the Swedes after Christiernes death was repulsed by them and his Queen taken prisoner His sonne Christierne the second King of Denmarke by the treachery of Gustavus Archbishop of Vpsalis after many encounters upon promise to continue their Laws Liberties and Priviledges inviolably and to remit all offences past by a solemne Oath was elected by the Swedes for their King who swearing these Articles and confirming them by his Charter was upon this admitted into the Towne and Castle of Holmâ— where feasting all the Nobles and principall men of Swethland two dayes together suspecting no treachery he suddenly apprehends them imprisons murthers all the Nobles Gentry Citizens Commons yea Bishops and Monkes with extraordinary cruelty spoils their wives and Orphans of all their goods and exerciseth more then barbarous tyranny over them which Gustavus Erichson a noble Swede then in Denmarke hearing of escapes thence privily and comes into Swethland â—iâ—gâ—ised raiseth an Army to revenge this butchery delivers his Country from this Tyrant and for 〈◊〉 noble service was by their unanimous vote elected and crowned 〈…〉 of Sweden in his stead the Swedes in a publike Declaration manifesting then expulsion and deprivation of Christierne for his treachery and tyranny to be just and lawfull Ericus the seventeenth King of Sweden imprisoning his brother murdering his faithfull Counsellours warring upon his Subjects playing the tyrant and matching himselfe unworthily to a woman of meane condition was for these his misdemeanors taken prisoner with his Queene deposed and his brother made King in his stead Anno 1599. And Sigismund King of Sweden taking upon him the Crowne of Poland after fourteen yeers reigne was deposed and dâ—spossessed of his Kingdom Anno 1607. and Charles his Uncle made King in his stead Assyria Cyprus Lombardy Naples Venice I Could now acquaint you with many such like passages and stories in the Kingdomes of Assyria as how effeminate Sardanapalus for his vices and misâ—government was deprived by his Subjects burned in his Palace and Arbactus made King in his stead In the kingdom of Cyprus where King Peter murthering his brother and those of Geneva was soon after taken prisoner and made a tributary Prince King Iohn governed by Helena his wife and she by his Nurse which made the people weary of the government had a Regent by consent of the Nobles Iohn of Portugall whom they married to his daughter Carlota set over him and the Realm and all the royall power soon after put into his hands who being soon poysoned by Helena Lewes sonne to the Duke of Savoy was sent for the crowned King by generall assent and Iohn and Iames his sons put by Clephus the second King of Lombardy was so cruell that after his death they would have no more Kings but chose thirty Dukes to governe them who continued this government eleven yeeres Desiderius the last King of Lombardy was taken prisoner with all his children in Pavia by Charles the great and so that Kingdome ceased Anno 774. Tancred the fourth King of Naples was deposed by Pope Celestine the third with his peoples consent Momfrey a Bastard poysoning Conrade the seventh King of Naples and usurping the Crown was deposed by Charles Earle of Aniou who enjoyed the Crowne till Aragon seased on the Realme Ione Queene of Naples married Andrew second sonne to Charles King of Hungary whom she hanged at her window for insufficiency after marrying Iames of Tarragon she beheaded him for lying with another woman and was at last driven out of her Kingdome by Lewes of Hungary and hanged at the same window where she hanged her first husband Peter Duke of Venice was for his tyranny and misgovernment besieged in his palace by the people which they fired and then taking him his wife and sonne dragged them unto the butchery where they chopped them in pieces and threw him to the dogs to be devoured notwithstanding all their submissions and intreaties on their knees Anno 977. So Duke Falier and many othe Dukes have beene condemned to death and executed by the States of Venice and that justly as Bodine grants Multitudes of such like presidents occur in most other Dukedoms and Principalities which I will not name because they want the title of Kings though Aquinas truly holds That a Kingdome is so called from ruling therefore he who hath others under his government is said to have a Kingdome in reality though not in propriety of speech and so are Kings in verity though not in title I might adde to these many more examples manifesting what miseries and untimely deaths tyrannicall Kings and Princes have undergone in all ages and States being commonly deposed poysoned murthered but I shall for brevity passe over these examples remitting the Readers to Aristotle Aelian and Doctor Beard his Theatre of Gods Judgements and come nearer home to Scotland as having nearest relation to England Scotland WHat soveraigne power and jurisdiction the Realme Parliaments and Nobles of Scotland have claimed and exercised over their Kings who saith Buâ—â—anan can neither make Laws Warre Peace nor conclude of any great affairs of the Realm without a Parliament which hath there and in Hungary Poland Denmarke Swethland been oft-times summoned not onely without but against their Kings consents and how frequently they have questioned imprisoned censured deposed yea judicially sentenced their Kings for their tyrannies oppressions whoredoms murders rapines and evill administrations you may reade at large in George Bucanan
from the ancient forme of the Oath which is extant in the Library of the Chapter of Belvace to which Philip the first is found to have sworn yet notwithstanding they are plainly enough expressed Neither is the King girt with a sword annointed crowned by the Peeres who even themselves are adorned with Coronets or receives the Scepter or rod of Iustice or is proclaimed King before THE PEOPLE HAVE COMMANDED IT Neither doe the Peeres themselves swear fealty and homage to him untill he shall have given his faith unto them That he will exactly keep the Lawes Now those are that hee shall not waste the publike Patrimony that he shall not impose nor enjoyn customes Taxes Tributes at his owne pleasure Nor deneunce warre or make peace Finally that he shall determine nothing concerning the publike affaires but in a publike Councell Also that the Senate the Parliaments the Officers of the Kingdome shall constantly enjoy their severall authorities and other things which have been alwayes observed in the Realm of France Yea verily when he enters into any Province or City hee is bound to confirm their priviledges and he binds himselfe by Oath to preserve their Lawes and Customes Which custome takes place by name among those of Tholouse Dolphenie Britanny Province and Rochel whose agreements with Kings are most expresse all which should be frustrate unlesse they should be thought to hold the place of a condition in the contract Yea Charles the 7. made a peace with Philip Duke of Burgundy whose Father Iohn he had â—reacherously slain with this expresse clause contained in it confirmed with the Kings own Seale That if he should break this Agreement his Tenants feudataries and subjects present and to come should not be thence forth bound either to obey or serve him but rather the Duke of Burgundy and his Successours and that they should be freed and absolved from all the fealty Oathes promises obligations and duties whatsoever under which they were formerly obliged by Charles The like we read between King Lewis and Charles the Bald. Yea Pope Iohn the 22. in the Treaty between Philip the long of France and the Flâ—mmings caused it to be set downe That if the King did infringe the Treaty it might be lawfull for his Subjects to take Armes against him And if was usuall among the first Kings of France in their Treatises with other Princes to sweare that if they brake the Treaties made by them their Subjects shall be free from their obedience as in the Treaty of Arras and others The Oath of the ancient kings of Burgundy is extant in these words I will conserve Law justice and protection to all men In England Scotland Sweden Donmarke there is almost the same custome as in France and verily no where more directly then in Spain For in the Kingdome of Arragon many ceremonies being dispatched between him who represents the justice of Arragon or publike Majesty who sits in an higher Throne and having read the Lawes and conditions which he is to observe who is to be crowned King Who both fealty and homage to him the Nobles at last speake thus to the King in their owne language We who are as powerfull as you for so the Spanish Idiom imports and can doe more then you have chosen you King upon these and these conditions Between you and us there reignes one greater then you to wit the Iustice of Arragon Now lest he should think he had sworn those things onely perfunctorily or onely for to observe the old custome these very words are wont to be repeated every third yeere in the publike Assembly But if he shall grow insolent trusting to his Royall power shall violate the publike Lawes finally shall neglect the Oath he hath taken then verily by the Law it selfe he is deemed excommunicated with that grandest excommunication or Anathema wherewith the Church in former times excommunicated Iulian the Apostate whose force truly is such that no more prayers may be conceined for him but against him and they themselves are clearly absolved from their Oath and Obligation by that Law whereby a vassall out of duty ought not to obey an excommunicated Lord neither is bound to do it by his Oath which is ratified among them by the Decree both of a Councell and of a Parliament or publike Assembly Likewise in the kingdome of Castile an Assembly being summoned the King that is to be crowned is first publikely admonished of his duty after which most expresse conditions are read which pertaine to the profit of the Republike Then the King sweares that he will diligently and faithfully observe them then at last the great Master of the Knights binds himselfe to him by Oath whom the other Princes and Deputies of Cities afterwards follow every one in his order which also is in like manner observed in Portugall Leon and the other kingdomes of Spain Neither verily were lesser principalities instituted by any other Law There are extant most expresse agreements of the Brabanders of the other people of Belgia Austria Carintha and other provinces made with their princes which verily have the place of conditions But the Brabanders expresly that place might not be left to any ambiguity have expressed this condition For in inaugurating their Duke in ancient conventions wherein there is almost nothing wanting for the preservation of the Republike they being all read over before the Duke they protest openly and plainly to him that unlesse he shall observe them all That it shall be free for them to chuse another Duke at their pleasure Which conditions he embracing and willingly acknowledging he then binds himselfe by Oath to observe them which was also observed in the inauguration of Philip the last King of Spaine In sum no man can deny but that there is a mutuall binding contract between the King and subjects to wit That he raigning well shall be well obeyed Which verily is wont to be confirmed with an Oath by the King first afterwards by the people Now verily I demand here why any man should sweare but that he may shew that he speaks from his heart and seriously whether truly is there any thing more agreeable to nature then that those things which have pleased us should be observed Moreover why doth the King swear first at the peoples stipulation or request but that he may receive either a tacit or expresse condition But why is a condition annexed to a contract but onely to this end that if it bee not fulfilled the contract should become voide in Law it selfe But if through default of performing the condition the contract be voide in Law it selfe who may call the people perjured who shall deny obedience to a King neglecting that condition which hee might and ought to fulfil violating that law to which he hath sworn Yea who on the contrary would not account the King faedifragous perjurious altogether unworthy of that benefit For if the Law freeth the Vassal from the bond of
the Pope by a meere divine right is the sole and supreme Monarch of the whole world and all the Kingdomes in it to dispose of them at his pleasure to whom and when he will without giving any account of his actions That all Emperours and Kings are but his vassals deriving and holding their Crownes from him by base unworthy services worse then villenage that they call and repute them their Popes vassals curs packe-asses with Bels about their neckes and use them like such if they offend the Pope For full proofe whereof out of their own Authours and practise I shall refer them to Doctor Richard Crackenthorps Booke Of the Popes temporall Monarcâ—y chap. 1. p. 1. to 27. worthy any mans reading to Iohn Bodins Commonwealth Lib. 1. cap. 9. Bishop Iewels view of a Seditious Bull and Doctor Iohn Whites Defence of the way to the true Church chap. 10. p. 43. Secondly That the Pope alone without a Councell may lawfully excommunicate censure depose both Emperours Kings and Princes and dispose of their Crownes and Kingdomes unto others That it is meete and necessary he should excommunicate and deprive all Kings who are either Heretickes or Apostates as they repute all protestant Princes or oppressors of the Common-wealth That as soone as such Princes are actually excommunicated or notoriously knowne to be Heretickes or Apostates their Subjects are ipso facto absolved from their governmeâ—t and Oathes of Allegiance whereby they were bound unto them and may yea ought to take up Armes against them to deprive them of their Kingdomes Thirdly That such hereticall tyrannicall oppressing Kings may be killed poysoned or slaine by open force of Armes not onely lawfully but with glory and commendations That this is to be executed by Catholikes and that it is not onely an heroicall but meritorious act worthy the highest Encomiums and a Saint-ship in the Roman Calender These two last propositions you may read abundantly proved by the words of Popish writers and forty examples of severall Emperours Kings and Princes which Popes and Papists have excommunicated deprived violently assaulted and murthered in Doctor Iohn Whites defence of the way to the true Church chap. 6. pag. 14. to 22. and chap. 10. p. 43. 44. in his Sermon at Pauls Crosse March 24. 1615. pag. 11. 12. in Bishop Iewels view of a seditious Bull in Bishop Bilsons true difference of Christian Subjection and unchristian rebellion part 3. throughout Aphorismi Doctrinae Iesuitarum King Iames his Apology against Bellarmine with his Answer to Cardinall Perron and sundry printed Sermons preached on the fifth of November to which I shall referre the Reader What security or protection then of his Majesties royall person Crowne Kingdomes can now be expected from our popish Recusants infected with these trayterous principles and branded with so many ancient moderne nay present Treasons and Rebellions against their Soveraignes let the world and all wise men seriously judge What faire quarter and brotherly assistance the Parliament Protestants Protestant Religion Lawes and Liberties of the Subject are like to receive from this popish Army the late Gunpowder Treason the Spanish Armado the English and French booke of Martyrs the present proceedings in Ireland Yorkeshire and elsewhere will resolve without dispute And what peace and safety the Kingdome may expect in Church of State whiles Popery and Papists have any armed power or being among us Doctor Iohn White hath long since proclaimed at Pauls Crosse and now we feele it by experience in these words Papistry can stand neither with peace nor piety the State therefore that would have these things hath just cause to suppresse it Touching our peace it hath not beene violated in our State these many yeares but by them nor scarce in any Christian State since Charles the Great his time but the Pope and his ministers have had a hand in it All these ill advisers to colour their close designe of re-establishing Popery principally intended can alleadge for arming Papists against Law is That the Parliament hath trayterously invaded the Kings Prerogatives in a high degree claimed a power and jurisdiction above his Majesty in sundry particulars yea usurped to its selfe a more exorbitant unlimited arbitrary authority in making Lawes imposing taxes c. then any Parliaments challenged in former ages to represse which insolences and reduce the Parliament to its due limits his Majesty is now necessitated to raise an Army and pray in ayde of Papists who in former ages have beene more moderate in their Parliaments and are like to prove most cordiall and loyall to his Majesty in this service To answer which pretence more fully though it be for the maine most palpably false yet by way of admission onely I shall suppose it true and with all possible brevity manifest That Parliaments Prelates Peeres Commons in times of Popery have both claimed and exercised farre greater authority over our Kings and their Prerogatives then this or any other Protestant Parliament hath done Wherefore Papists of all others have least cause to taxe the Parliaments proceedings and those ill Counsellors and his Majesty small reason to imploy or trust Papists in this service To descend to some particular heads of complaint involved in this generall First it is objected that the Parliament and some of its Advocates with its approbation affirme that the Parliament being the representative Body of the whole Kingdome is in some respects of greater power and authority then the King who though he be singulis major yet he is universis minor which is contrary to the Oath of Supremacy wherein every Subject doth utterly testifie and declare in his conscience that the Kings highnesse is THE ONELY SUPREAME GOVERNOUR of this Realme c. as well in all Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall causes as Temporall and a kinde of unkinging his Majesty no wayes to be indured To which I answer first that if this Doctrine be either Traytorous or Hereticall the Papists were the first broachers of it long agoe For Hen. de Bracton a famous English Lawyer who writ in King Henry the third his reigne lib. 2. cap. 16. f. 34. a. resolves thus But the King hath a SUPERIOUR to wit God Also the Law by which be is made a King likewise HIS COURT namely the EARLES AND BARONS because they are called Comites as being THE KINGS FELLOWES or companions and he who hath a fellow or associate hath a MASTER and therefore if the King shall be without a bridle that is without Law THEY OUGHT TO IMPOSE A BRIDLE ON HIM unlesse they themselves with the King shall be without bridle and then the Subject shall cry out and say O Lord Iesus Christ doe thou binde their jawes with bit and bridle c. A cleare resolution That the Law with the Earles and Barons assembled in Parliament are above the King and ought to bridle him when he exorbitates from the Law which he also seconds in
wils pleasures profit or benefit of Kings who by birth and nature differ not at all from the meanest of their Subjects but Kings were at first constituted and still continued for the protection welfare benefit service of their kingdomes Parliaments People whose publicke Servants Ministers Shepherds Fathers Stewards and Officers they are Now Nature Reason and Scriptures resolve that he who is instituted meerely for the benefit and service of another as all the Creatures were created for mans use and therefore are inferiour unto man in dignity and power is of lesse dignity power and jurisdiction than the intire body of those for whose good he was instituted as the servant is inferiour to his Master the Wife to her Husband for whom they were created the Mayor to the whole Corporation and the King to his whole Kingdome and Parliament which consideration hath caused sundry Kings and Emperours not onely to adventure their lives in bloody battles but to lay downe their Crownes for the peace and safety of their Subjects witnesse Otho the first and others with the Examples of Moses Exod. 32. 9. to 15 32. Numb 14. 11 to 15. of David 2 Sam. 29. 17. 1 Chron. 21. 17. and Iohn 10. 11. 15. with other precedents which I pretermit And the reason is apparent for if the King be slaine in defence of the kingdome or People yet the kingdome and people may remaine secure and another succeed him in that office of trust In which respect a Politique body differs from a Naturall that it hath life continuance and meanes to guide defend and Order it selfe though the King and head be cut off by death But if the Realme and People be destroyed though the King survive them as a Man yet he must necessarily perish in and with them as a King since he cannot possibly be a King without a kingdome and people for whose good and safety alone he was made a King Hence Aristotle Polit. l. 3. c. 4. and Marius Salamonius de Principatu l. 2. p. 50. define a Principality to be A just Government for the benefit of the people respecting onely the publique good and welfare not its owne private advantage Hence Plato de Repub. l. 1. thus describes the Office of a Prince towards the Common-wealth That as he is a Prince he neither mindes nor commands what is advantagious to himselfe but what is beneficiall to his Subjects and whatever he saith or doth he saith and doth it for the profit and honour of the Republicke which Cicero in his Offices hath more elegantly thus translated As the defence so the procuration of the Common-weale is to be managed to be benefit of those who are committed not of those to whom it is committed And de Finibus l. 3. A good and wise man not ignorant of his civill Office is more carefull of the utility of all than of any one or of his owne Neither is a Traytor to his Country to be more dispraised than a deserter of the common profit and safety for his owne profit and safety And the Emperour Iustinian used this golden sentence Quod communiter omnibus prodest hoc privatae nostrae utilitati praeferendum esse censemus nostrum esse proprium subjectorum commodum Imperialiter existimantes Imperialis benevolentiae hoc esse judicantes in omni tempore Subjectorum commodatam investigare quam eis mederi procuremus I shall conclude this with Salamonius his words Let the Prince be either from God or from men yet think not that the world was created by God and in it men that they should serve for the benefit of Princes for it is an absurdity above what can be spoken to opine that men were made for Princes since God hath made us free and equall But Princes were ordained ONELY FOR THEIR PEOPLES BENEFIT that so they might innocently preserve humane and civill societie with greater facility helping one the other with mutuall benefits Which he there largely proves by sundry Histories and Authorities That of Peter Matthew being a certaine verity All the Actions of a Prince must tend to the good and health of his people for whom he lives and more than for himselfe as the Sun doth not shine and give heat but for men and the elements The King then being made King onely for the Kingdomes Parliaments Peoples service must needs in this regard be inferiour to not Paramount them in absolute Soveraigne power though greater better than any particular Subjects Seventhly The Parliament as our Law-bookes and Writers resolve is the most high and absolute power the supreamest and most ancient Court of the Realme of England and hath the power of the whole Realme both Head and Body and among other Priviledges this is the highest that it is above the Law it selfe having power upon just grounds to alter the very common Law of England to abrogate and repeale old Lawes to enact new Lawes of all sorts to impose taxes upon the people Yea it hath power to declare the meaning of any doubtfull Lawes and to repeale all Patents Charters Grants and Iudgements whatsoever of the King or any other Courts of Iustice if they be erroneous or illegall not onely without but against the Kings personall consent so farre as finally to obliege both King and Subjects Now it is cleare on the contrary side that the King hath not the power of the whole Realme vested in his person that he and his Prerogative are not above but subordinate to the Lawes of the Realme that he cannot by his absolute regall power alter the Common Law of the Realme in any particular point whatsoever that he cannot repeale any old nor enact any new Law whatsoever nor impose the least taxe or common charge upon his people nor imprison their persons distraine their goods declare any Law or reverse any judgement in the meanest of his Courts without or against his peoples joynt consents in Parliament For Potest as sua Iuris est non injuriae Nihil aliud potest Rex in terris nisi ID SOLUM QUOD DE JURE POTEST Bracton l. 3. c. 9. f. 107. Therefore without any peradventure the Parliament in this regard is the most Soveraigne Authority and greater in jurisdiction than the King Iohn Bodin that great Lawyer and Politician resolves That the chiefe marke of an absolute and Soveraigne Prince is to give Lawes to all his Subjects in generall and to every of them in particular without consent of any other greater equall or lesse than himselfe For if a Prince he bound not to make any Lawes without the consent of a greater than himselfe he is then a very Subject if not without his equall he then hath a Companion as Bracton and others forecited say our English King hath namely his Earles and Lords thence stiled Comites if not without the consent of his inferiours whether it be of his Subjects or of the Senate or
judicature as both King and Kingdome may confide in which will be so far from depressing that it will infinitely advance both the Kings Honour Justice profit and the Kingdomes too Seventhly It is undeniable that the Counsellours Judges and Officers of the Kingdome are as well the Kingdoms Councellours Officers and Iudges as the Kings yea more the Kingdoms than the Kings because the King is but for the Kingdoms service and benefit This is evident by the Statute of 14 E. 3. c. 5. which enacts that as well the Chancellour Treasurer Keeper of the Privie Seale the Iustices of the one Bench and of the other the Chancellour and Barons of the Exchequer as Iustices assigned and all they that doe meddle in the said places under them shall make an Oath well and lawfully to SERVE the King and HIS PEOPLE in THEIR OFFICES which Oath was afterward enlarged by 15 E. 3. c. 3. 18 E. 3. Stat. 3. 20 E. 3. c. 1 2 3. 1 Rich. 2. c. 2. swearing and injoyning them To doe even Law and execution of right to all the Subjects rich and poore without having respect to any person c. And if any of them doe or come against any point of the great Charter or other Statutes or the Lawes of the Land by the Statute of 15 E. 3 c. 3. he shall answer to the Parliament as well at the Kings suite as at the suite of the party Seeing then they are as well the Kingdomes Councellours Officers Iudges as the Kings and accountable responsible for their misdemeanours in their places as well to the Parliament and Kingdom as to the King great reason is there that the Parliament Kingdome especially when they see just cause should have a voice in their elections as well as the King The rather because when our Kings have been negligent in punishing evill Councellours Officers Iudges our Parliaments out of their care of the publike good have in most Kings reignes both justly questioned arraigned displaced and sometimes adjudged to death the Kings greatest Counsellours Officers and Iudges for their misdemeanours witnesse the displacing and banishing of William Longcham Bishop of Ely Lord Chauncellour chiefe Iustice and Regent of the Realme in Richard the 1. his Reigne Of Sir Thomas Wayland chiefe Iustice of the Common pleas attainted of Felony and banished for bribery by the Parliament 18 Ed. 1. the severall banishments of Piers Gaveston and the â— Spensers the Kings greatest favourites Officers Counsellors for seducing miscounselling King Edward the second oppressing the Subjects and wasting the Kings revenues the removall and condemnation of Sir William Thorpe Chiefe Iustice of the Kings Bench for Bribery 25. E. 3. The fining and displacing of Michael de 〈◊〉 Pole Lord Chauncellour Alexander Nevell and divers other great Officers and Privie Counsellours with the condemning executing and banishing of Tresilian 〈◊〉 and other Judges in 10 11 Rich 2. by Parliament for ill Councell and giving their opinions at Nottingham against Law Of Empson Dudley and that grand Cardinall Wolsey Lord Chancellour and the Kings chiefest Favourite and Counsellour in Henry the eight his Reigne Of the Duke of Sommerset Lord Protector and his Brother Lord Admirall for supposed Treasons in Edward the 6 th his Reigne Of Sir Francis Bacon Lord Keeper and Cranfield Lord Treasurer in King Iames his latter dayes with infinite other presidents of former and latter ages and one more remarkable then all the rest In the Yeare 1371. the 45. of King Edward the third his Reigne and somewhat before the Prelates and Clergy-men had ingrossed most of the Temporall Offices into their hands Simon Langham Arch-bishop of Canterbury being Lord Chancellour of England Iohn Bishop of Bath Lord Treasurer William Wickam Archdeacon of Lincolne Keeper of the Privie Seale David Wolley Master of the Rolles Iohn Troy Treasurer of Ireland Robert Caldwell Clerke of the Kings Houshold William Bugbrig generall Receiver of the Dutchy of Lancaster William Ashby Chancellour of the Exchequer Iohn Newneham and William de Mulso Chamberlaines of the Exchequer and keepers of the Kings Treasury and Iewels Iohn Roxceby Clerke and Comptroller of the Kings works and Buildings Roger Barnburgh and 7 Priests more Clerkes of the Kings Chancery Richard Chesterfield the Kings under-Treasurer Thomas Brantingham Treasurer of Guives Merke and Calis All these Clergie-men who abounded with pluralities of rich Spirituall Livings though they Monopolized all these temporall Offices in the Parliament of 45 Edward the 3d. by a Petition and complaint of the Lords were displaced at once from these Offices no wayes suitable with their functions and Lay-men substituted in their places And a like president I find about 3 Hen. 3d. where the Clergy Lord Chancellour Treasurer with other Officers were removed upon a Petition against them and their Offices committed to Temporall-men whom they better beseemed If then the Parliament in all Ages hath thus displaced and Censured the greatest Councellours State-Officers Iudges for their misdemeanours ill Counsell insufficiency and unfitnesse for these places contrary to that twice condemned false opinion of the over-awed Iudges at Nottingham in 11 R 2. That the Lords and Commons might not without the Kings will impeach the Kings Officers and Iustices upon their Offences in Parliament and he that did contrary was to be punished as a Traitour and that upon this very ground that they are the Kingdoms Counsellours Officers and Iustices as well as the Kings and so responsible to the Parliament and Kingdome for their faults I see no cause why they may not by like reason and authority nominate and place better Officers Counsellours Iudges in their steeds or recommend such to the King when and where they see just cause Eightly Iohn Bodin a grand Polititian truely determines and proves at large That it is not the right of election of great Officers which declareth the right of Soveraignty because this oft is and may be in the Subjects but the Princes approbation and confirmation of them when they are chosen without which they have no power at all It can then be no usurpation at all in the Parliament upon the Kings Prerogative to nominate or elect his Councellours great Officers and Iudges or recommend meet persons to him which is all they require so long as they leave him a Power to approve and ratifie them by Writs or speciall Patents in case he cannot justly except against them Of which power they never attempted to divest his Majesty though he be no absolute but only a politick King as Fortescue demonstrates Ninthly It hath beene and yet is usuall in most Forraigne Kingdomes for the Senate and people to elect their publike Offiâ—ers and Magistrates without any diminution to their Kings Prerogative In the Roman State the people and Senate not only constantly elected their Kings and Emperours but all their other grand publike Officers and Magistrates as Consuls Tribunes Dictators Senators Decemviri and the like
blinde King who could not lead them to the warres in person And Ethodius the 2 d king of Scotland being dull of wit given to avarice and nothing meete to governe the Realme thereupon the Nobles tooke upon them the governmeÌ„t appointing Rulers in every Province so continued them all his reigne leaving him nothing but the bare title of a King not depriving him thereof out of the respect they gave to the family of Fergusius but yet taking away all his regall power And not to multiply cases or examples of this nature Andrew Favine in his Theatre of Honour out of the Chronicle of Lauresheâ—m and Aâ—monius in his 4 th Booke of the History of France relates a notable resolution given by the Parliament Estates of France in this very point In the yeare 803. Lewes the Deâ—onnaire king of France holding his Parliament in May there came thither from strange Provinces two Brethren kings of Vuilses who with frank free good will submitted themselves to the judgement of the said â—arliament to which of them the kingdome should belong The elder of these two brethren was named Miligastus and the yonger Celeaâ—raeus Now albeit the custome of the said kingdome adjudged the Crowne to the eldest according to the right of 〈◊〉 allowed and practised by the Law of Nature and of later memory in the person of the last dead King Liubus father to the two contendants yet notwithstanding in regard that the Subjects by universall consent of the kingdome had rejected the elder brother FOR HIS COWARDISE AND EVILL GOVERNMENT cum secundam ritum ejus gentis commissum sibi Regnum parum digne administraret and had given the Crown to the younger brother FOR HIS VALOVR DISCREETE CARRIAGE after full hearing of both parties BY SENTENCE of PARLIAMENT the Kingdome was adjudged to the younger Brother statâ—â—t ut junior frater delatam sibi à Populo suo potâ—statem haberet c and thereupon the eldest did him homage with oath of Alleigance in the said Parliament and submitted to this sentence And upon this very ground in some of our ancient British and Saxons Kings Reignes when the right heire to the Crowne was an infant unable to defend his kingdome and people against invading enemies the Crowne hath commonly descended to the Vncle or next heire of full age who was able to protect them and repulse their enemies till the right heire accomplished his compleat age as I have elsewhere manifested If then a Kingdome by generall consent may elect a new King to defend and preserve it in case of invasion and eminent danger of ruine by forraigne enemies when their present King either cannot or will not doe his duty in protecting them from their enemies and exposeth them for a prey to their devastations as these examples and authorities conclude they may though I will not positively determine so Then certainely by equall semblable and greater reason subjects may lawfully take up necessary defensive Armes against their Kings when they shall not onely desert but actually invade and wage warre against them destroy and wast them in an open Hostile manner and handle them as cruelly as the worst of enemies such a wilfull unnaturall Hostile invasion being farre worse than any cowardly or bare desertion of theÌ„ when they are invaded by a forraign enemy And if Kings in case of â—otâ—ishnesse or Lunacy may be lawfully deposed from their kingdomes by common consent of their Realmes when they are altogether unfit or unable to governe as Bishop Bilson asserts and I have manifested elsewhere then much more may they be lawfully resisted by force without guilt of Treason or Rebellion when they wilfully and maliciously contrary to their oath and duty cast off their Royall governments the protection of their subjects and wage open warre against them to enslave or ruine them If a Father shall violently and unjustly assault his sonne a husband his wife a master his servant a Major or other inferior Officer a Citizen to murther maime or ruine them They may in such a case by the Law of Nature God man resist repulse them in their owne defence without any crime at all as dayly practise experimentally manifests yea they may sweare the peace against them and have a Writ de securitate Pacis in such cases Therefore by the selfefame reason they may resist the King and his Army in like cases there being no more humane nor divine Law against resistance in the one case than in the other Finally it is the resolution of Iohn Bodin and others who deny the lawfulnesse of Subjects taking up Armes against their Soveraigne Prince or offering violence to his person though he become a Tyrant That if a Soveraigne Prince or King by lawfull election or succession turnâ— a Tyrant he may lawfully at his Subjects request be invaded resisted condâ—mâ—ed or slaine by a forraigne Prince For as of all Noble acts none is more honourable or glorious then by way of fact to defend the honour goods and lâ—ves of such as are unjustly oppressed by the power of the more mighty especially the gate of Iustice being shut against them thus did Moses seeing his brother the Israelite beaten and wronged by the Egyptian and no meanes to have redresse of his wrongs So it is a most faire and magnificall thing for a Prince to take up Armes to releive a whole Nation and people unjustly oppressed by the cruelty of a Tyrant as did the great Hercuâ—es who travelling over a great part of the world with wonderfull power and valour destroyed many most horrible monsters that is to say Tyrants and so delivered people for which he was numbred among the gods his posterity for many worlds of yeares after holding most great Kingdomes And other imitators of his vertue as Dio Timoilion Aratus Harmodius Aristogiton with other such honourable Princes bearing Titles of chastisers and correctors of Tyrants And for that onely cause Tamerlain Emperour of the Tartars denounced warre unto Bajazet King of the Turkes who then besieged Constantinople saying That he was comming to chastise his Tyrannie and to deliver the afflicted people and vanquishing him in battle routed his Army and taking the Tyrant prisoner he kept him in chains in an Iron Cage till he dyed Neither in this case is it materiall that such a vertuous Prince being a stranger proceede against a Tyrant by open forcâ— or fiercenesse or else by way of justice True it is that a valient and worthy Prince having the Tyrant in his power shall gaine more honour by bringing him unto his tryall to chastise him as a murtherer a manqueller and a robber rather than to use the Law of Armes against him Wherefore let us resolve on this that it is lawfull for any stranger Prince to kill a Tyrant that is to say a man of all men infamed and notorious for the oppression murder and slaughter of his subjects and people And in this sort
treacherously contrary to his League and Oath Berthgwin the 14. Bishop of Landaffe hearing thereof assembled a Synod of his Clergy at Landaffe and solemnly excommunicated the King with all his Progeny and Kingdom by uncovering the Altars casting down the Crosses on the earth and depriving the Countrey both of Baptisme and the Eucharist Whereupon the King unable to endure so great an excommunication with great deiection submitted himselfe to the Bishop and leaving his Kingdom went on pilgrimage into forraign parts for a long space after which returning by the intercession of king Morcant he obtained abâ—olution from the Bishop to whose enioyned penance he submitted himself conferring divers Lands upon the Church And in another Synod at Landaffe under this Bishop King Gurcan for living incestuously with his Mother-in-law was solemnly excommunicated in form aforesaid whereupon he craved pardon resolved to put away his Mother-in-law promised satisfaction by k. â—udhail his Intercessor upon which he was absolved upon promise of amendment of life with fasting prayer and almes after which he bestowed divers Lands on the Church Houell king of Gleuissig contrary to his Oath League trecherously circumverring and slaying Gallun hereupon Cerenhir the 18. Bishop of Landaffe calling a Synod solemnly excommunicated him by laying all the crosses on the ground overturning the Bells taking the Reliques from the Altar and casting them on the ground depriving him of all Christian communion under which excommunication he remained almost a whole yeers space After which this king came bare-foot to the Bishop imploring his absolution from this sentence with many teares which he obtained after publke penance enoyned Not long after the same Bishop and his Clergy in another Synod for the like crime in the self-same forme excommunicated Ili sonne of Conblus till he came bare-footed with teares and prayed absolution which upon performance of enjoyned penance promise of future reformation with prayers fasting almes and the setling of some Lands on the Church was granted him by the Bishop So Loumarch son of Cargnocaun was in a full Synod excommunicated by Gulfrid the 20. Bishop of this See for violating the patrimony of the Church and king Brochuail with his family convented before a Synoâ—e threatned Excommunication enjoyned Penance and satisfaction by the Synode for some injuries offered to to Ciueilliauc the two and twentieth Bishop of Landaffe Mauric King of of Glamorgan was excommunicated by Ioseph the eigth and twentieth Bishop of Landaffe for treachâ—rously putting out the eyes of Etguin during the truce between them After which he was again publikely excâ—mmunicated in a Synode for violating the Sanctuarie of the Church of Landaffe and hurting some of this Bishops servants and not absolved till he made his submission and did his Penance and gave some laâ—ds to the Church for satisfaction of these offence Thus Calgucam King of Morganauc and his whole family were solemnly excommunicated by Herâ—wald the nine and twentieth Bishop of Landaffe in a Synod of all his Clergy onely because one of the Kings followers being drunk laid violent hands upon Bathutis the Bishops Physitian and Kinsman on Christmas day Anno 1056. Whereupon all the Crosses and Reliques were cast to the ground the Bells overturned the Church doors stopped up with thorns so as they continued without a Pastor and Divine Service day and night for a long season till the King though innocent submitted himself to the Bishop and to obtain his absolution gave Henâ—inguinna to him and his Successors for ever free from all secular and royall services in the presence of all the Clergie and people So Richard the tenth Bishop of Bangor excommunicated David ap Lhewelin Prince of Wales for detaining his brother Griffith prisoner contrarie to his Oath repairing to him upon the Bishops word for his safe return who never left vexing him till he had delivered him up to to the King of Englands hands Many such presidents of Prelates censuring and excommunicating their Kings occur in Storie which for brevity I pretermit onely I shall inform you that Iohn Stratford Archbishop of Canterbury in the 14. year of K. Edw. 3 contesting with this King and excommunicating divers of his followers and all the infringers of the Churches Liberties presumed to write thus unto his Soveraign There are two things by which the world is principally governed The sacred Pontificall authority and the royall power of which the Priesthood is by so much the more weighty ponderous and sublima by how much they are to give an account of kings themselves at the Divine audit And therefore the kings Majesty ought to know that you ought to depend on their judgement not they to be regulated according to your will For who doubteth that the priests of Christ are accounted the FATHERS AND MASTERS of Kings Princes and all faithfull Christians Is it not known to be a part of miserable madnesse if the son should endeavour to subjugate the Father the servant the master to himself The Canonicall authority of Scriptures testifieth that divers Pontiffs have excommunicated some of them Kings others Emperours And if you require somewhat in speciall of the persons of Princes Saint Innocent smote the Emperour Archadius with the sword of excommunication because he consented that Saint John Chrysostom should be violently expelled from his See Likewise Saint Ambrose Archbishop of Millain for a fault which seemednot so hainous to other priests excommunicated the Emperour Theodosius the great From which sentence having first given condigne satisfation he afterwards deserved to be absolved and many such like examples may be alleaged both more certain for time and nearer for place Therefore no Bishops whatsoever neither may nor ought to be punished by the secular Power if they chance to offend through humane frailtie For it is the duty of a good and religious Prince to honour the Priests of God and defend them with greatest reverence inimitation of the Pious Prince of most happy memory Constantine saying when the cause of Priests was brought before him You cannot be iudged by any to wit of the secular judges who are reserved to the iudgement of God alone according to the assertion of the Apostle very ill applied saying The spirituall man is iudged of no man 1 Corinth 2. 15. Not mean of Bishops or Clergie-men but Saints alone endued with Gods Spirit not of judging in courts of iustice but of discerning spirituall things and their own spirituall Estates as the Context resolves Thus and much more this Prelate who notwithstanding this text of the Romanes pleads an exemption of all Bishops and Priests from the kings secular power by Divine Authority and arrogates to Priest and Prelates a iudiciary lawfull power over Kings themselves to excommunicate and censure them for their offences And to descend to later times even since the the Reformation of Religion here Iohn Bridges Dean of Sarum and Bishop of Oxfort even in his Book intituled The supremacy of Christian Princes over
have been so esteemed in those times And thus I hope I have satiâ—factorily answered this objection without shifts or evasions and rectified these mistaken Fathers meanings with which our Opposites have seduced the illiterate over-credulous vulgar I have now through Gods assistance quite run through all Obiections of moment from Scripture Reason Fathers against the lawfulnesse of the Parliaments present defensive war and discovered divers grosse errors yea Impostures in our Opposites writings wherewith they have perverted many mens Consciences and cheated the ignorant seduced world I shall therefore here adjure them in the presence of Almighty God as they will answer the contrary before his Tribunall at the Day of Iudgement seriously to consider these my answers and publikely to retract those their Errors false grosse mis-interpretations perveâ—sions of Scriptures Authors which I have here discovered And since they pretend nothing but the satisfying and keeping of a good Conscience in by others concerned in this Controversie to shew a syncere ingenuous Conscience therein themselves where they have been mistaken since the contestation pretended is not for Victory Time-serving or Self-seeking but for Truth Gods glory and the publike weal and if I have over-shot my self in any thing I shall promise them a thankfull acknowledgement and ready paline dy upon their information and conviction of any apparent oversights I may casually fall into Now because they shall not deem me singular in my opinion concerning the lawfulnesse of subjects defensive Arms against their Soveraigns bent to subvert Religion Laws Liberties the Republike or deem it is a late upstart Novelty I shall conclude this discourse with such personall naturall and publike authorities as they shall not be able to balance with counter-resolutions in which I shall be as brief as I may be For personall Authorities I shall not be ambitious to remember many especially Papists whose common constant received opinion and practise hath alwayes been and yet is That Subjects upon the Popes command alone and absolution of them from their Soveraigns allegiance may and ought to take up even offensive Arms against their owne naturall Princes excommunicated interdicted deposed or onely declared contumacious Schismâ—ticall or Hereticall by the Pope without yea against their Kingdoms Parliaments privities or consents much more then with their approbation What Papists have determined and practised in this very point you may read at large in Gratiau himself Causa 15. Quaest. 6. and Causa 23. in the very Oath of Supremacie and Statut of 3. Iacobi ch 4. which prescribes it in Bishop Iewels view of a seditious Bull in Doctor Iohn Wâ—ite his Defence of the way Chap. 6. 10. in Abbas Vsper geâ—sis Sabellicus Valateranus Grimston and others in the Lives of the Roman and German Emperours in Aventine his Annalium Boyorum the Generall and Particular Histories of France Sparn Germany Italy Sicily Hungary England in Bishp Bilsons third part of the True Difference between Christian Subjection and unchristian Rebellion In suâ—dry Sermons on the fift of November to which I shall refer you In Pope Paschal his letter to Robert Earl of Flanders about the year of our Lord 1107. exorting him to war against those of Leige Henry the Emperour and his Assistants wheresoever he should finde them excommunicated and deposed as an Heretike and enemy to the Church telling him that he could not offer a more gratefull sacrifice to God then to ware against them concluding Hoc tibi Militibus tuis in peccatorum remissionem Apostolicae sedis familiaritatem praecipimus ut his laboribus triumphis ad Coelestem Hierusalem Domino praestante pervenias Which Let er was excellently answered by those of Leige And in the Councel of Towres in France under Lewes the twelfth Anno 1510. it was unanimously resolved by the Church of France That if the Pope did make war upon temporall Princes in lands which they held not of the patrimony of the Church they might lawfully by force of Arms resist and defend both themselves and others not only repulse this injury but likewise invade the lands of the Church possessed by the Pope their notorious enemy not perpetually to retain but to hinder the Pope from becomming more strong and potent by them to offend both them and theirs And that it was lawfull for such Princes for such notorious hatred and unjust invasion to withdraw themselves from the Popes obedience and with armed force to resist all censures denounced by the Pope against them their subjects and Confederates and that such sentences ought not to be obeyed but are mear nullities in law which obliege no man Yet I must inform you further in brief that Iohn Maior a Popish Schoolman in Lib. 4. Sentent as Grotius writes affirms That the people cannot deprive themselves of the power not onely of resisting but deposing Kings in cases which directly tend to their destruction and that Iohn Barclay a late Scottish Priest though a strenuous defendor of Princes Prerogatives expresly averres That if a King will alienate and subiect his Kingdom to another without his subiects â—onsents or be carried with atrâ—e hostile minde to the destâ—uction of all his people that his Kingdom is thereby actually lost and forfeited so as the people may not onely absolutely resist and disobey but depose him and elect another King to which Hugo Gortius a Protestant freely subscribes and Iohn Bodinâ—â— â—oweth of Subjects resistance yea deposing kings in some Kingdoms absolutely and in some cases generally in all De Repub. l. 1. c. 10. l. 1. c. 5 l. 5. c. 5. 6. For Protestant personall authorities we have Huldericus Zuinglius Explanatio Articuli 40 41 42 43. Tom. 1. fol. 82. to 86. who allows not only Subiects actuall resistance but deprivation of Kings Where Princes set themselves to subvert Religion Laws Liberties and that by the common consent of the States in Parliament from whom Kings originally receive their Royall power and authority Martin Luther Bugenhagius Iustus Ionas Ambsdorfius Spâ—lotinus Melancthon Cruciger and other Divines Lawyers Statesmen Anno 1531. who published a writing in justification of defensive Arms by subjects in certains cases Sleidan Hist. lib. 8. 18 22. David Chrytraeus Chron. Saxoniae l. 13. p. 376. Richardus Dinothus de Bello Civili Gallico Religionis causa suscepto p. 231. 232. 225 227 c. A book intituled De Iure Belli Belgici Hagae 1599. purposely justifying the lawfulnesse of the Low-countries defensive war Emanuel Meteranus Historia Belgica Praefat. lib. 1. to 17. David Parâ—us Com. in Rom. 13. Dub. 8. And. Quaest. Theolog. 61. Edward Grimston his Generall History of the Netherlands l. 5. to 17. passim Hugo Grotius de Iure Belli Pacis lib. 1. cap. 4. with sundry other forraign Protestant writers both in Germany France Bohemia the Netherlands and elsewhere Iohâ— Knokes his Appellation p. 28. to 31. George Bucanon De Iure Regni apud
better to let the curious reade them in the Originalls themselves Amongst all losses that of Liberty toucheth neerest but Francis having learned to withstand all adversity with a constant resolution said I will dye a Prisoner rather then make any breach in my Realm for my deliverance whereof I neither WIL NOR CAN alienate any part without the consent of the Soveraign Courts and Officers in whose hands remains the authority of the whole Realm We preferre the generall good before the private interest of Kings persons If the Emperour will treat with me let him demand reasonable things which lye in my power then shall he finde me ready to joyne with him and to favour his greatnesse The Emperour seeing the King constant in this resolution in the end yeelded to his delivery upon these termes That within six weekes after his delivery he should consigne the Dutchy of Burgongue to the Emperour with all the dependancies as well of the Dutchie as of the County the which should hereafter be sequestred from the Soveraigntie of the Realme of France That he should resigne to the Emperour all his rights pretended to the Estates of Naples Milan Genoa anâ— Ast That he should quit the Soveraignty of Flaunders and Arthois c. Hereupon the King being enlarged and arrived at Bayonne he was required to ratifie the Accord which he had promised to doe when hee came to a free place but he delayed it with many excuses giving the Emperour to understand that before he proceeded to such an act it was necessary that he should pacifiâ— his Subjects who were discontented with bonds which tended to the diminution of the Crowne of France c. After which the Pope and the Venetians sending Messengers unto him he complained of the Emperour that he had wronged him in that he had forced him to make impossible promises and that he would be revenged if â—ver occasion were offered and that he had often told him that it was not in the power of a French King to binde himselfe to the alienation of any thing depending of the Crowne without the consent of the Generall Estates that the Lawes of Christians did not allow that he which was taken in Warre should be detained in perpetuall prison which was a punishment proper to Malefactors and not for such 〈◊〉 had bin beaten by the cruelâ—y of fortune that all men knew that Bonds made by constraint in prison were of no value and that the capitulation being of no force the faith likewise which was but accessary and the confirmation of the same could not be bound that by the oath which he had taken at Râ—emes at his Coronation he was bound according to the custome of other Kings of France not to alienate the patrimony of the Crowne and therefore for these reasons he was no lesse free then ready to abate the Emperors pride The Emperor growing jealous of the Kings delayes for ratification thereof sent one unto him to be certified of his intent who found him very unwilling to leave Burgundy which being very prejudicall to the Crowne of France he said was not in his power to observe and that hee could not alien the Bourguinans without their assents in an assembly of the Estates of the Country which he intended to call shortly to know their minds By which it is most apparent that the Kings of France have no power at all to dispose of their Crown lands or alienate them to others as other Subjects may doe because they hold them onely in the right of their Crowne for their Kingdomes use and service the true proprieters of them Upon which very ground Philip Augustus King of France Anno 1216. in a solemne Assembly of the States at Lyons told Walo the Popes Legate who came to prohibit his Sonne Lewes to goe to receive the Crowne of England because King Iohn had resigned it to the Pope That no King or Prince can give away his Kingdom without the consent of his Barons who are bound to defend the Kingdome and if the Pope decreed to defend this errour he should give a most pernitious Example to all kingdomes domes Whereupon all the Nobles of France began to cry out with one mouth That they would stand for this Article unto death That no King or Prince by his sole pleasure could give his Kingdome to another or make it tributary whereby the Nobles of the Realme should be made servants And the next day Lewes his Advocate alledged that King Iohn for his homicides and many of her enormities was justly rejected by his Barons that Hee should not reigne over them That he could not give the Crowne of England to any one without the assent of his Barons and that when he had resigned it he presantly ceased to be a King and the Kingdome became void without a King and being so vacant could not be disposed of without the Barons who had lawfully elected Lewes for their King who in pursuance of this his Title which the Estates of France held just sailed into England took possession of the Kingdome received homage of all the Barons and Citizens of London who joyfully received him taking an Oath upon the Evangelists to restore them their good Lawes together with their lost Inheritances Henry the 2. of France being casually slaine by the Earle of Montgommery in running at the Tilt left the Crowne to Francis the 2. being but about 16. yeares of age the Queen Mother with his wives Vncles the Duke of Guise and the Cardinall of Loraigne hereupon usurped the Government of his person and Realme dispossessed the chiefe Officers of the Crowne kept backe the Princes of the Blood from Court the true and lawfull Governours of the State during the Kings minority and plotted the meanes to raise their race to the Royall Throne by displacing all great Officers substituting others of their owne faction and endeavouring to extirpate the Protestant party whom they feared as most opposite to their treacherous designes They doe and undoe place and displace in Parliament and Priviâ— Councell like absolute Kings they revoke all alienations for life or yeares made by the deceased King in recompence of any services except sales they caused divers Protestants to be put to dâ—ath imprisoned pillaged Wherewith the princes Officers and people being generally discontented to redresse the present and prevent all future disasters that might ensue require a generall Parliament as the Soveraigne cure for such diseases whereby the Queen Mother might be put from her usurped Regency and those of Guise excluded from the Kings person who to please the king perswade him that their opposites sought only to bridle and make him a Ward and that he should hold them enemies to his Authority and GVILTY OF HIGH TREASON THAT TALK OF A PARLIAMENT The King of Spaine to crosse them by Letters to the King his Brother-in-law declares himselfe for the good affection he bare to him Tutor and Protector of him his Realme and affaires against those
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 undâ—r 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 wherby 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 goverment generall of these Countries the which hath been accepted by us We enjoyn and command ali 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 untill 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 Concels 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 other wise 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 within 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 name and armes of the King of Spain shall not be put not 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 Counsuls 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
MOST HIGH AND ABSOLUTE POWER OF THE REALME for thereby KINGS AND MIGHTY PRINCES HAVE FROM TIME TO TIME BEENE DEPOSED FROM THEIR THRONES and Lawes are enacted and abrogated Offenders of all sorts punished and corrupted Religion either disanulled or reformed It is THE HEAD AND BODY OF ALL THE REALME and the place where every particular man is intended to be present if not by himselfe yet by his Advocate and Atturney For this cause any thing that is there enacted is not to be withstood but obeyed of all men without contradiction or grudge and to be short all that ever the people of Rome might doe either Centuriatis Comitiis or Tribunitiis the same is and may be done by the Authority of Parliament Now the Romans in their Assemblies had power to enact binding Lawes to create and elect their Kings and Emperours and likewise to judge censure and depose them to create and elect all kindes of Officers and to change the very forme of their State and Government as I shall hereafter manifest Therefore by these Authours resolution the Parliament hath an absolute power to doe the like when they see just cause Sir Thomas Smith one of the Principall Secretaries of State of King Edward the 6. and Queene Elizabeth and a Doctor of Law in his Common-wealth of England l. 2. c. 1. in the old but 2. in the last Edition hath the same words in effect with Holinshed and addes that the Parliament giveth forme of Succession to the Crowne c. Our Kings Royall power being then originally derived to them conferred on them by the Peoples and kingdomes common consents in Parliament and all their new additionall Prerogatives too as the premises evidence it cannot be denyed but that the whole kingdome and Parliament are really in this sense above him and the most Soveraigne primitive power from whence all other powers were and are derived Fourthly This is undeniable because the whole kingdome in Parliament may not onely augment but likewise abridge allay abolish and resume some branches of the Kings royall power and prerogative if there be just cause as when it becomes onerous mischievous or dangerous to the Subjects inconvenient to or inconsistent with the kingdomes peoples welfare peace safety Liberty or the Lawes This is most apparent by Magna Charta Charta de Foresta Statutum De Tall agio non concedendo Articuli super Chartas Confirmatio Chartarum 1 E. 3. c. 6 7. 2 E. 3. c. 2. 8. 3 E. 1. c. 35. 9 E. 3. c. 12. 5 E. 2. c. 9. 10 E. 3. c. 2 3. 14 E. 3. c. 1. 14. 18 E. 3. c. 8. 25 E. 3. c. 4. Stat. 3. c. 1 2. Stat. 5. c. 8. 11. 36 E. 3. c. 10. 37 E. 3. c. 18. 42 E. 3. c. 3. 10 R. 2. c. 1. 11 R. 2. c. 1. to 7. 1 R. 3. c. 2. 4 H. 4. c. 13. 21 Jac. c. 3. 24. 7 H. 8. c. 3. The Petition of Right 3 Caroli most Statutes against Purveyens Pardons Protections and for regulating the Kings Charters Grants Revenues the Acts made this Parliament against Ship-money Knighthood Forest-bounds Pressing of Souldiers the Star-Chamber High-Commission the Trienniall Parliament the continuance of this Parliament whiles they please with sundry other Acts which restaine abridge repeale resume divers reall and pretended branches of the Kings royall Prerogative because they proved grievous mischievous dangerous pernicious to the people and kingdome This then answers that irrationall groundlesse position of Doctor Ferne That the Subjects neither lawfully may nor ought in any case to resume all or any part of that Regall power wherewith they have once invested their Kings by common consent though it prove never so mischievous and be never so much abused to the peoples prejudice Which as it is contrary to that received principle of nature and reason Eodem modo quo quid constituitur dissolvitur That all Governments created by mens consents especially being but officers in trust for their good and welfare onely to sundry presidents and Prophesies in Scripture concerning the Alterations Subversions Diminutions of Kings and kingdomes to the constant practise of all Realmes all States whatsoever from Adam till this instant who have undergone many strange alterations eclipses diminutions yea Periods of Government to the Resolution of Aristotle and all other Politicians who hold all formes of Government changeable and revocable without any injustice if necessary or convenient So likewise to the very end for which Kings have regall power as well as other Governours and Governements and for which they were ordained to wit their kingdomes peoples welfare safety peace protection c. Salus populi being not onely that Suprema Lex but principall end for which all royall power was instituted by God and Man and to which it must submit in case it becomes incompatible or inconsistent with the publique weale or safety What therefore that learned Father Augustine Bishop of Hippo long since resolved touching the now much contested for Lordly State of Episcopacy which he and neere three hundred African Bishops more were then ready to lay downe for the Churches peace I may fitly apply to the now over-much contended for supposed royall Prerogatives of Kings to effect peace in our State in these times of uncivill military that I say not bloody dissentions raised about them betweene King and Parliament Anâ— vero c. What verily did our Redeemer descend from heaven into humane members and shall we lest his very members he rent in pieces with cruell division feare to dâ—scend out of out Thrones we are ordained Bishops for Christian peoples sake what therefore may profit them for Christian peace that let us doe with our Bishoprickes Quod autem sum propter te sim si tibi prodest non sim si tibi obest What I am I may be for thee if it profit thee I may not be if it be hurtfull to thee If we be profitable servants why doe we envy the eternall gaines of our Lord for our temporall sublimities or Prerogatives Our Episcopall dignity will be more fruitfull to us if being laid downe it shall more unite the flocke of Christ than disperse it if retained If when I will retaine my Bishopricke I disperse the flocke of Christ how is the dammage of the flocke the honour of the Shepherd c. Old statute Lawes yea the common Law of England though above the King and his Prerogative may be and oft are repealed and altered by Parliaments when they become mischievous or inconvenient therefore by like or greater reason may any branches of the Kings Prerogative inferiour to these Lawes be restrained yea resumed when they prove grievous or dangerous to the Subject It is the Kings owne professed Maxime in full Parliament Printed and inrolled by his speciall command in all his Courts That the Kings Prerogative is but to defend the Peoples Liberties when therefore it either invades or subverts them it
Guilliandus Adam Sasbout with sundry others This then being irrefragable hereby it is most apparent First that no resistance of the higher powers is here prohibited but onely in the due and legall execution of their offices For if any inferiour Officers illegally indeavour to subvert Religion Lawes Liberties and unrightly governe the people they may lawfully be resisted by them For example if a Maior Justice of Peace Constable or other officer extravagating from the common course of Law and Justice shall with force of armes in a riotous manner assault any private man or the whole Citie or Village where he lives to beate wound kill plunder dispossesse the inhabitants of their houses goods franchises or assult them on the highway side to take away their purses in these and such like cases both in point of Law and conscience he may not onely be forcibly resisted but repulsed apprehended battered if not lawfully slaine by the people and proceeded against as a delinquent The reason is because these illegall unjust actions are not onely besides without their Commissions but directly contrary to their offices and the Lawes which never gave them authority to act such injustice yet they are higher Powers ordained of God within this Text and no way to be resisted in the due execution of their Offices according to Law If then these inferiour Officers may be thus forcibly resisted repulsed notwithstanding this Text in such cases as these then by the selfe same reason Kings and Emperours may bee thus resisted too since the Text extends indifferently to them both Let then the objectors take their choyce either affirme that no inferiour lawfull Officers whatsoever may be forcibly resisted by the people or repulsed arraigned censured for their misdemeanour by vertue of this Text which would bring an absolute Tyranny Anarchy and confusion presently into the world and make every Constable as great a Tyrant Monarch as the grand Emperor of the Turks or else confesse that this Text condemnes not such resistance even of Kings and Princes when they forcibly war upon their Subjects to subvert Religion Lawes Liberties and ruine the republike since it makes no distinction at all betweene the onespower and the others but equally enjoynes subjection prohibits resistance unto both and that onely in just administration of their severall authorities not in the arbitrary unjust prosecutions of their wils and lusts Secondly it followes that the Kings Souldiers Cavaliers and Forces now raised against Law and armed onely with illegall Commissions voyd in Law as I have proved are none of the high powers ordained of God nor lawfull Rulers or Magistrates within the meaning of this Scrâ—pture and so the forcible resisting of them and of the Kings illegall commands and designes executed by them is no resistance of the higher powers here prohibited Thirdly that tâ—e Hoâ—ses of Parliament being in truth the highest powers ordained of God in this Realme and their just legall Ordinances Votes Forces for the necessary defence of Lawes Liberties Religion against the Kings ill Counsellors and Malignant Popish Forces neither may nor ought in conscience to be resisted by the King himselfe or any of his Subjects Souldiers under the perill of that damnation mentioned in this Chapter For the second Whether the Roman Emperor in Pauls time was the highest Soveraign power in the Roman State or not It is taken for granted by Doctor Ferne and other opposites that he was as a thing past doubt the Senate and people as they say having resigned up their power to the Emperour But this no doubt is a grosse errour which I have largely refuted in the Appendix and therefore shall be the briefer here derived from some civill Lawyers who out of Iustinian Digest lib. 2. Tet. 2. and Instit. Tit. 2. falsly affirme that Lege Regia by the regall Law the Senate and people transferred all their Empire and power unto the Emperour For first the Senate and people as Albericus Gentilis well observes did not by this Law give the Emperour all power and command to dispose of them or the lands and revenues of the Empire as he pleased but onely to governe them according to their Lawes as men not to slay and alienate them as beasts Thus reason dictates so the words of the Law sound Divines are deceived Lawyers flatter who perswade that all things are lawfull to Princes and that their power is highest and free It is ridiculous to affirme that absolute power over the subjects belongs to Popes which belongs not to the Emperours themselves over the Italians from whom they derive it Imagine therefore that the Emperour had a power never so free yet it is not of dominion but of administration And he who hath but a free administration hath not the power of donation e Agardian is then reputed in stead of a Lord cum tutelam administrat non cum pupillum spoliat when he rightly administers his tutelage not when he spoyles his pupill So Gentilis If then the Emperours had onely a free legall administration not an absolute dominion granted them by the people then this soveraigne power still resided in the Senate and people as Iustinian Digest lib. 1. Tit. 2. De Origine Iuris will sufficiently manifest Secondly Iohn Bodin a learned Civilian clearely proves That the Roman Emperors were at the first nothing else but Princes of the Commonweale The SOVERAIGNTY NEVERTHELESSE STILL RESTING IN THE PEOPLE and THE SENATE So that this Common-wealth was then to have beene called a Principality although that Seneca speaking in the person of Nero his Scholler saith I am the onely man amongst living men elect and chosen to be the Lieutenant of God upon earth I am the Arbitratour of life and death I am able of my pleasure to dispose of the state and quality of every man True it is that he tooke upon him this Soveraigne authority by force wrested from the people and Senate of Rome therefore not freely given him by any Law but IN RIGHT HE HAD IT NOT the State being but a very principalitie WHEREIN THE PEOPLE HAD THE SOVERAIGNTY In which case THERE IS NO DOUBT but that IT IS LAWFULL to proceede against a Tyrant by way of justice if so men may prevaile against him or else by way of fact and OPEN FORCE if they may not otherwise have reason As the Senate did in the first case against NERO and in the other against Maximinus So Bodin who directly resolves that even in Nero his raigne when this Epistle was written the highest soveraigne power was not in the Emperour but in the Senate and people who notwithstanding this objected Text had no doubt a lawfull Right not onely to resist Nero when he turned Tyrant with open force but likewise judicially to arraigne and condemne him even to death as they did for his publike crimes Now that the Soveraigne highest Power remained in the Senate and people notwithsâ—anding this Lex Regia Marius
were still accountable for their actions and misgovernment This Iohn Bodin a famous learned French Lawyer of great experience in State affaires surpassing all who writ before him of Republikes plainly affirmes in these words The Roman Emperours were at first nothing else but Princes of the Common weale that is to say the cheife and principall men the SOVERAIGNTY neverthelesse still RESTING IN THE PEOPLE AND SENATE the Emperour having the Soveraigne authority only infact not in right the State being but a very Principality wherein THE PEOPLE HAD THE SOVERAIGNTY So the German Empire at this day is nothing else but an Aristocraticall Principality wherein the Emperour is head and chiefe the POWER and majesty of the Empire BELONGINGâ— VNTO THE STATES THEREOF who thrust out of the Government Adolphus the Emperour in the yeare 1296 and also after him Wenceslaus in the yeare 1400 and that BY WAY OF IVSTICE AS HAVING IVRISDICTION AND POWER OVER THEM And so properly ancient Romans said Imperium in Magistratibus Auctoritatem in Senatu Potestatem in Plebe Maiestatem in Populo Command to be in the Magistrates Authority in the Senate Power in the Maeniall People and Majesty in the People in Generall The Senate in Rome did consult the people command for Livy oft times saith Senatus decrevit populus iussit the Senate hath decreed and the People commanded Which he there more largely prosecutes as you may read at leysure To all which Bishop Bilson himself doth fully assent affirming that Germany is a free state that the Emperour holds the Empire by election and that but on condition which he takes an oath to performe And if he violate their liberties or his oath they may not only lawfully resist him by force of armes but repell and depose him as a tyrant and set another in his place by the right and freedome of their Countrey And Cassanaeus holds that the people may take away the very name of the Emperour at this day degrade him and resume his royall power This then being an unquestionable verity disproves that palpable common mistake of Dr. Ferne with other ignorant Court Doctors and Royalists who would make the world and Kings beleeve that the Roman Emperours were of greater power and authority than the Senate people the highest powers upon earth to which all persons yea the Senate and people collectively considered ought to submit and that it was unlawfull either for the Senate or people forcibly to resist Caligula Claudius Nâ—ro and other their wickedest and most tyrannicall Emperours much lesse to depose take armes against or call them to a strict just account for their Tyranny Oppression or Misgovernment it being directly contrary to Pauls Doctrine Rom. 13. 1 to 6. Let every soule be subject to the higher powers c. which false groundlesse principle is the sole foundation upon which all their late Sermons Books and rayling Discourses against this Parliaments proceedings and taking up of defensive armes are built when as in truth the Senâ—te people were the highest powers to whoÌ„ the Roman Emperours themselves were to be obedient in all iust requests commands under paine of damnation and subiect to the Senates sword of â—ustice in case of disobedience misgovernment as all the premises evidence yea it likewise manifestly evidenceth that whole States Parliaments are the highest power and above their Kings who are subject to theÌ„ since the Roman and Greek Senates and people heretofore the very German States at this day are the highest power and above their Emperours though ever reputed of greater power Soveraignty and dignity than any Kings and the greatest Monarchs in the world and that therfore Kings even by Pauls Doctrine Rom. 13. ought to be subiect to the higher power and Iurisdiction of their Parliaments the Laws and Statutes of their Realmes and to be accountable to them if not subiect to their censures as some affirme in exorbitant cases of misgovernment which concern the Kingdomes and peoples safety If Kings iniuriously take away the lands goods or imprison the persons of any particular subjects the Law gives every one a particular remedy against them by way of Action or Petition of Right If then every private subiect may have redresse much more the whole Kingdome in and by Parliaments only not in inferiour Courts against their Soveraigns which oppresse them who being subiect unto the Lawes of God and their Realmes which have no respect of persons may as many affirme be questioned and iudged by them in their Parliaments as well as other princes great officers of State and Magistrates who in scripture are called Gods the higher powers and said to be ordained to rule judge by and for God as well as Kings and Emperours It is branded as a spice of Antichristian pride in Popes and their Parasites to deem themselves so High above other men that they are accountable to none but God for their wicked actions though many Popes in former and later times have been questioned censured imprisoned and deposed both by Emperours Kings and Councels for their intollerable misdemeanors And is it not the very selfe same crime in Kings in Emperours and their flatterers to hold this Popish erronious opinion that they are in no case responsible to their whole Kingdomes or Parliaments for their grossâ—st exorbitances Our Popish Prelates and Clergy generally heretofore and some of our Protestant Bishops and Divines of late times from St. Ambrose his practise have held that â—â—ings for murthers rapes and great crying offenceâ— may be Lawfully excommunicated and censured by the spirituall Law and sword as sundry Emperours and Kings have been then why not likewise by the temporall when their Parliaments and whole Kingdoms see just cause the case of hundreds of Emperours and Kings in former time as the Histories of all Nations and ages prove abundantly beyond all contradiction I shall here instance in some few Kings censures subject to the Roman State and Empire with whom I shall conclude this discourse touching the Roman Monarchs Deioratus King of Galatia under the Romans Iâ—risdiction and one of their allies was accused of Treason and condemned to lose both his head and estate for certaine offences against C. Caesar and the Roman State as appeares by Tullies Oration to Caesar in his behalfe to procure his pardon which because it was the first president of this kinde made his advocate say tamen ita inusitatum est Regem capitis reumesse 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 Deâ—oratus Antigonus King of the Iewes being taken prisoner by Antonius for
can be no wayes excused or concealed Therefore we as we have fore-written have frequently very earnestly beseeched admonished and required him that renouncing this unbeseeming kind of life he would take the study and labour to himselfe whereby he might recover to the holy Church oft-times imploring his aide as King of Romans and her Advocate peace and tranquillity and to the sacred Empire its prestine honours Dominions and finally its emoluments to the assistance and consolation of the Christian world grievously debilitated and oppressed in this regard Now albeit we have most clearely explicated to the foresaid Lord Wenceslaus and exhibited to him in writing these and other more grievous defects concerning him as King of Romans and the Empire yet having heard his answers and having reiterated our serious exhortations moreover having communicated the businesse to the sacred Roman Sea we have never as yet found him to have amended his manners as became a King of Romans namely to recover peace to the Church principally nâ—cessary to the Christian world also to the sacred Empire its dignities lands and Dominions a thing which is most notoriously knowne throughout all the Provinces of the Empire Therefore because we could no longer neither conceale nor endure the remembred and many other defects touching the sacred Church and Empire with grievous losse and mourning by reason of the instant petitions of the persons aforesaid but especially by reason of the Oath wherewith we are obliged to the same as the next superiour members of the sacred Empire therefore as of bounden duty we were to advise and endeavour how the sacred Empire might be more rightly and wholesomly provided for by whose madde and negligent administration those inconveniences have crept in to the safegard and consolation of the Christian world And verily as He in obeying us had performed an acceptable thing so we have sufficiently and seriously called and cited him so as wee have signified to him that unlesse he should be present at the place and day appointed it would come to passe that both in respect of the petitions exhibited to us as likewise in respect of our Oath we should be compelled to take and enter into such counsels whereby the sacred Empire might be better setled most clearely attesting it in our letters For this purpose we appeared at the place and time prescribed together with our Coelectors sufficiently summoned also with the other Princes and of the sacred Empire expecting from day to day whether the foresaid Lord Wenceslaus would appeare to apply a remedy to the foresaid diseases and from thenceforth more rightly to consult about the affaires of the sacred Empire But he neither vouchsafed to appeare nor yet to send any one to us in the name of a Proctor Wherefore when as by reason of so many pregnant and pernicious defects we had admonished and reproved him very often in private and in friendly manner but after that when we could doe no good before the Princes and Nobles and Cities of the Empire in divers Assemblies not without great and grievous expences yet without any fruit therefore we referred all the fore-mentioned things to the sacred Roman Sea But when as neither then he no whit regarded all those things we could conjecture nothing else from thence but that he had laid downe the care both of the Church and Christian world but especially of the sacred Empire Therefore resolving that this mischiefe destructive to the whole Christian Republike was by no meanes to be any longer borne and tolerated with a minde well confirmed after many and various debates and consultations both betweene our selves as also with other Princes and Nobles of the sacred Empire seriously had for the safety of the Church the consolation of the Christian world the honour and profit of the sacred Empire we have thought meet that the foresaid Lord Wenceslaus should at this time be wholly removed from the Roman sacred Empire and all its dignity as one that is negligent and a destroyer of the Empire and unworthy of it Therefore we John Archbish. in the name of the foresaid Lords Coelectors of the sacred Empire and our owne moved both with the commemorated as also with many other notable defects and causes by this our sentence which we give and pronounce by this our present writing DEPRIVE and REMOVE the foresaid Lord Wenceslaus as an unprofitable negligent waster and unworthy Defender of the sacred Empire from the foresaid Roman Empire and from all his degree dignity and Dominions appertaining to the same denouncing to all the Princes Nobles Knights Gentlemen Cities Provinces and Subjects of the sacred Roman Empire that they are altogether free from all homage and Oath made to the person of Wenceslaus in the name of the Empire requiring and admonishing them under the faith of the Oath wherewith they are obliged to the sacred Empire that they doe not henceforth obey and submit to the said Lord Wenceslaus as the King of Romans nor exhibit or suffer to be exhibited to him any right obedience tribute rent or any other revenue by what name soever it may be called but reserve the said duties for a profitable and idonâ—ous King of Romans hereafter to be substituted by Gods gracious assistance In assurance and testimony of all which things We John Archbishop of Mentz have caused this present Instrument to be made by the subscribed Notaries in this patent forme and our great Seale to be affixed thereunto This premised sentence was read and pronounced by us John Archbishop of Mentz in our name and the names of the Lords Coelectors before remembred under the Castle Lonstein at the Rhene in the Diocesse of Triers reaching towards Brubachium out of a publike Throne erected for the use of a Tribunall the Lords Coelectors sitting there in judgement in the yeare of our Lords Incarnation 1400. the eight indiction on Saturday the twentieth day of the month of August a little before the time of the Nones in the eleventh yeare of the Papacy of our most holy Father and Lord in Christ Lord Boniface the ninth Pope by divine providence in the presence of the most illustrious Princes and Lords John sonne of the most illustrious Prince and Lord Rupert Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine of Rheine Fredericke Burgrave of Norimberge the Noble Philip Lord of Nassau and Sarbrucke Emichon of Luringen John of Zigenhaim Cunrade Burgrave our Canon of Mentz Earles Bernhard of Westerburg John of Limpurge Rinehard of Honowe Barons Mr. Nicholas Berwin of the sacred Page John of Witenburg and Nicholas Burgman of the Decrees Mr. Herman President of Saint Gerion of Colen Doctors of the Law likewise the valiant Knight Sigfride of Lindow our Vice-Commander in Ringaugia John Bossen of Waldeck our Buggrave Beckelnheim and our trusty Henry Rulman of Dadenberg Gerard of Emerberg Lord in Lantscron Fredericke of Sachenheim Culman of Conâ—ren John of Dalburg Rudolfe of Zeiâ—â—ikon as also many other Lords Knights and Gentlemen spirituall and
subject to Legall Ceremonies So therefore the King lest his power should remaine unbridled there ought not to be a greater than he in the Kingdome in the exhibition of Justice yet he OUGHT TO BE THE LEAST or AS THE LEAST IN RECEIVING JUDGEMENT if he require it That a King is created and elected by whom but by his kingdome to this purpose to doe justice unto all That a King cannot doe any thing else in earth seeing he is Gods Minister and Vicar nisi id solum quod de jure potest but that onely which he can doe by Law That God the Law and his Court to wit the Earles and Barons in Parliament are above the King and ought to bridle him and are thence called Comites because they are the Kings Companions Fleta an ancient Law-booke written in King Edward the third his Reigne l. 3. c. 3. 17. useth the selfe-same words that Bracton doth and concludes That the King hath a Superior to wit God and the Law by which he is made a King and his Court of Earles and Barons to wit the Parliament Fortescue a Lawyer Chancellour to King Henry the sixt proves at large That the King of England cannot alter nor change the Lawes of his Realme at his pleasure for why be governeth his people by power not onely Royall but Politique If his power over them were royall onely then he might change the Lawes of his Realme and charge his Subjects with tallage and other burthens without their consent and such is the Dominion the Civill Lawes purport when they say The Princes pleasure hath the force of a Law But from this much differeth the power of a King whose Government over the people is Poâ—itique For HE CAN NEITHER CHANGE the LAW without the consent of his Subjects NOR YET CHARGE THEM WITH STRANGE IMPOSITIONS AGAINST THEIR WILL. Wherefore his people doe frankely and freely enjoy and recover their owne goods BEING RULED BY SUCH LAWES AS THEMSELVES DESIRE neither are they pilled off their their owne King or any other Like pleasure also should the Subjects â—ave of a King ruling onely by Royall power sol ong as he falleth not into tyranny St. Thomas in the Booke he wrote to the King of Cyprus justifieth the State of a Realme to be such that it may not be in the Kings power to oppresse his people with tyranny which thing is perfomed onely when the power Royall is restrained by power Politique Rejoyce then O Soveraigne Prince and be glad that the Law of the Realme wherein you shall succeed is such for it shall exhibit and minister to you and your people no small security and content Chap. 10 11 12. He showes the different sorts of Kings or kingdomes some of greater others of lesser power some elective others successive proceeding meerely from the peoples free consents and institution and that the ancient Aegyptian Aethiopian and other Kings were subject to and not above their Lawes quoting sundry passages out of Aristotle concerning the originall of kingdomes Chap. 13. He proceeds thus A People that will raise themselves into a kingdome or other Politique body must ever appoint one to be chiefe Ruler of the whole body which in kingdomes is called a King In this kinde of Order as out of an Embryo ariseth a body naturall ruled by one head because of a multitude of people associated by the consent of Lawes and communion of wealth ariseth a kingdome which is a body mysticall governed by one man as by an head And like as in a naturall body the heart is the first that liveth having within it blood which it distributeth among the other members whereby they are quickned semblably in a body Politique THE INTENT OF THE PEOPLE is THE FIRST LIVING THING having within it blood that is to say Politique provision for the Utility and wealth of the same people which it dealeth forth and imparteth AS WELL TO THE HEAD as to the Members of the same body whereby the body is nourished and maintained c. Furthermore the Law under which a multitude of men is made a people representeth the forme of sinews in the body naturall because that like as by sinews the joyning of the body is made sound so by the Law which taketh the name a Ligando from binding such a Mysticall body is knit and preserved together and the members and bones of the same body whereby is represented the soundnesse of the wealth whereby that body is sustained doe by the Lawes as the naturall body by sinewes retaine every one their proper function And as the head of a body naturall cannot change his Sinewes nor cannot deny nor with-hold from his inferiour members cheir proper powers and severall nourishments of blood SO NEITHER CAN THE KING who is the head of the Politique body CHANGE THE LAWES OF THAT BODY nor with-draw from the said people THEIR PROPER SUBSTANCE AGAINST THEIR WILLS OR CONSENTS For such a King of a kingdome politique is made and ordained for THE DEFENCE OF THE LAWES OF HIS SUBJECTS and of their bodies and goods WHEREUNTO HE RECEIVETH POWER OF HIS PEOPLE SO THAT HEE CANNOT GOVERNE HIS PEOPLE BY ANY OTHER LAW Chap. 14. be addes No Nation did ever of their owne voluntary minde incorporate themselves into a kingdome FOR ANY OTHER INTENT BUT ONELY TO THE END that they might thereby with MORE SAFETY THEN BEFORE MAINETAINE THEMSELVES and enjoy THEIR Goods free from such misfortunes and losses as they stood in feare of And of this intent should such a Nation be defrauded utterly IF THEIR KING MIGHT SPOYLE THEM OF THEIR GOODS WHICH BEFORE WAS LAWFULL FOR NO MAN TO DOE And yet should such a people be much more injured if they should afterwards be governed by Foraine and strange Lawes and such peradventure as they deadly hated and abhorred and most of all if by those Lawes their substance should be diminished for the safeguard whereof as also for their honour and of their owne bodies THEY OF THEIR OWNE FREEWILL SUBMITTED THEMSELVES TO THE GOVERNEMENT OF A KING NO SUCH POWER FREELY COULD HAVE PROCEEDED FROM THEM and yet IF THEY HAD NOT BEENE SUCH A KING COULD HAVE HAD NO POWER OVER THEM And Chap. 36. f. 86. He concludes thus The King of England neither by himselfe nor his Ministers imposeth no Tallages Subsidies or any other burthens on his Lieges or changeth their Lawes or make new ones without the concession or assent OF HIS WHOLE KINGDOME EXPRESSED IN HIS PARLIAMENT Thus and much more this Learned Chancellour in point both of Law and Conscience sufficient to stop the mouthes of all Malignant Lawyers and Royalists being Dedicated to and approved by one of our devoutest Kings and written by one of the greatest and learnedest Officers of the Kingdome in those dayes In few words Raphael Holinshed Iohn Vowell and others in their Description of England Printed Cum Privilegio resolve thus of the Parliaments power This House HATH THE