of Pilate the auarice and hypocrisie of the Scribes and Pharisies notwithstanding he euer-more commaunded to obey them Dyd he find fault with the Scribes and Pharisies sitting in Moises chayre or that the people should not do what they sayd albeit theyr workes were very contrary Beeing brought before Herode dyd he murmure When he was bounde to be presented before the wicked Iudges as well Iewes as Pagans Did not he forbid S. Peter to vse the sworde yet neuerthelesse he knew himselfe to be innocent the other vile men he iust the other vniust he trueth it selfe the other full of lyes and corrupted by false witnesses He could with one word haue ouer-thrown them as sometime hee did the imperious Rulers he could haue past thorow the middest of them as he dyd in Nazareth hee coulde haue made the earth swallowe them as of olde the mutinous were with Dathan Corah and Abiram Notwithstanding to leaue an example to such as were his he esteemed it better to suffer and councelled rather to flye then vse violence against the Magistrate So other-whiles seeing his Disciples began to animate themselues against the Pharisies Let them alone quoth hee they be the blinde leaders of the blinde and so taught them rather to Arme themselues with pacience then to offer any violence He very often fore-told them That they should be brought before Kings Princes and Iudges for his sake Did he therefore bid them finde some meane to sette footing in the Realmes they entred to the end they shold cōplot and practise the death of the Lordes that there ruled Did he councell them after theyr entraunce into speech to aduaunce theyr complaints afterwarde Armes and then treasons Did hee euer aduise to vse humaine forces to such as had nothing but the two weapons in the time of their furie To take from any for such as had left their owne to lift such to the seates of the earth as war-fared onely but for heauen He told them that they should be happy when they endured persecution when they were afflicted and chased Did he ioyne hereto that they should be happy when they had murthered a King spoiled a faire Countrey prayed on all the goods of poore people massacred and killed all such as withstood them In what place of the Scripture canst thou finde one onely point for confirmation of such deedes Where canst thou shew that the Apostles made themselues heades of such enterprises From what word dost thou gather that the Subiects may bandye themselues against their Prince If we shall come to the Apostles wee shall read sufficiently howe they endured perpersecution by Tyrants yet shall wee not read that by corporall armes they offered rebellion The Apostle S. Peter was helde prisoner by King Herode the Armes of the Church was fasting and Prayer for his deliuerance The selfe same Herod put to death S. Iames the brother of S. Iohn yet did not the Church in any case mutinie against him S. Stephen was stoned by the wicked sentence with what Armes did he reuenge himselfe He knewe that the Prophet had sayd Leaue vengeance to me for I will doe it therefore he spake no euill but prayed to God for his persecutors Thys charity dyd hee learne of hys Maister Christ Iesus who kissing the Traytour Iudas called him friende and prayed vpon the Crosse for hys tormentors Likewise he had learned of him that he which sheddeth blood is the child of the deuill such as the Iewes were in following the desires of their fathers For quoth he the deuill your father was a murderer from the beginning And because that light and darkenesse Christ and Beliall God and the deuill are not alike Therefore our Sauiour gaue his Disciples manifestly to vnderstand that they ought to abhorre bloode and slaughter VVhich S. Paule well witnessed when he gloried not in temporall Armes but spirituall not in the honours of thys world but in afflictions for Iesus Christ in prisons fastings shyp-wracks hatred perrils on the way daunger of spoyles deceite of false bretheren and other persecutions assuring himselfe that these were the meanes whereby a Christian man was to be exalted Hee sayth he shall be hated and despised of the world Likewise He is as a sheep appointed for the slaughter Great difference is betweene the Apostles and the false Apostles at this day in seeking the meanes to surprize Kings gainst whom they no way practised any reuenge We endured persecution sayth Saint Paule yet were we not vanquished in that as witnesseth S. Iames That the persecution of our fayth moulded vs in patience whereby all the worke of a Christian is accomplished For thys cause he taught hys scholler Timothie to make prayers for Kings Princes and Gouernours to the end hee might liue peaceaably albeit such as then raigned in hys tyme were Pagans and Idolaters S. Peter enioyned the lyke to the Churches to honour their Kings acknowledging that they were established of GOD who ordained that all persons shoulde be subiect to the higher power He commaunded they should be obeyed and if any one offered to resist them he went against the ordinaunce of God Notwithstanding who ruled in hys tyme Was hee a Christian Prince or any King that looued true Religion Hee was a barbarous Nero inhumaine an Idolater the most cruell of all the worlde Dyd the Apostles resist his tyrannie by Armes although he was not theyr naturall Prince S. Paule reuerenced Agrippa and Felix he honoured Lithius the Proconsull he neuer lifted weapon against the Princes after he had rid himselfe of those Armes which at first he bare against Christ Iesus Of a Woolfe he became a Lambe of a blood-seeker peaceable of a sedicious humble and obedient of a mutiner soft and tractable thys chaunge hee made of himselfe after he was brought into the yoke of the Euangelicall doctrine On the contrary madly these false Apostles haue throwne off thys manner of life forsaken Christian Religion gyuen place to rebellion enemies to GOD the Church Princes sedicious robbers spoylers murderers and in all points lyke to the Prince of dissention For who-soeuer commeth into the Church is conducted by the Spirit of peace endureth all things rendereth good for euill and according to the words of Christ loueth his enemies doth good to them that hate him pray for them that persecute and afflict him surmounting the wicked not in euill but in good But he that is abandoned to the euill spirit is ruminating on bad thoughts prepareth traines for his brother and by force seeks to lay hold on hys enemy And in all these actions is not foūd any one more detestable against God and man then to rise against the person of a King or Prince to smite or murder him for he is hallowed and annointed of God of whom he representeth the maiestie though he be but a man and mortal as others are Thou vnder-proppest thy hatefull
them by themselues But although GOD permitteth for our correction and proofe of the auncient constancie and fidelitie of the French that these leagued Rebels should afflict and ouer-trauaile vs yet his iustice will neuer suffer that they shal confound or tread vnder foot the estate Royall or to dispose it where they please hauing placed and established it for so many ages in the royall Lynage of S. Lewes But in the end he will take vengeance on their crimes treasons periuries murthers with other horrible disorders and shames giuing them as a pray euen vnto those people whom now they holde as theyr great friendes and confederates the worst is that they will destroy a great number with them which neuer did partake in their detested treason Some subtill cunning Rebell as a collour or shaddowe to such disloyalties will saye vnto mee That all thinges are subiect to alteration and change and there is nothing that perpetually continueth in one selfe same estate for heauen it selfe is not exempt from change and ending I aunswer that I am very certain of this alteration likewise that there is a course of ages and dispositions of things in the world as in our humaine body to wit after they are borne they haue their infancie child-hood and state of a yonge stripling then they increase in manly strength and so continue a while in force and vigor afterward they become aged declining and in the end perishinge For this is a maxime in Phisique that all thinges composed by generation are dissolued by corruption and the ende of the one is the birth of the other Such variety and change commeth not onely to priuate men who declare sufficiently these effects by the mutabillitie of their desseignes and enterprises suffering themselues to bee carryed away with nouelties that makes a confusion of their wits and in the ende is their vtter spoyle but likewise to Families who at the instant when they imagin they haue freely builded their fortune and tryumph in the conceit of their owne greatnesse they behold their present fall and all their foundations throwne on a heape together I knowe likewise that Empires Kingdomes Signories the most flourishing estates are no lesse exposed to remoouings varieties changes as it may seeme a naturall reuolution that oftentimes makes the state of a Cōmon-wealth to change and rechange But what is the cause of the change that thou wouldst make Is it not the change of thy manners of thy fidellity into disobedience of thy milde and gentle nature into audacious behauiour of thy loyaltie into breach of faith of thy duetifull office of a true subiect into all loose libertie and licenciousnes Is it not ambition and greedy desire to reigne that in this sort transporteth men of high courage being madded with their enterprises that without feare and reuerence of Religion which dooth defend them from such tyrannies or care of their faith and loue to their Countrey they striue to attaine the soueraigne place of commanding couering themselues with the maxime of Eteocles as it is in Euripides or practising as Iulius Caesar did and other Vsurpers For at this day in such remoouements as tende to this ende the pretences of Religion and the Weale-publique as I haue before declared serue to no other ende then to bring a sleep the most simple and foolish who are rauished with the deceitfull eloquence and faire perswasions of thy factious rebellious Preachers I say vnto thee moreouer that the better to hide the cōiuration of the Leaguers thou mightest lay before me this place of Plato That there is a certaine fatall reuolution and changing of Kingdomes and Comm-weales which is done by the course and inclination of heauen and the starres To which I thus reply That Christians in iudging better attribute the cause of such reuolutions to the prouidence diuine which moderates and gouernes this huge frame and all thinges else therein comprehended God hath established Kingdomes soueraigne estates he dooth maintaine and preserue them he suffers them to be afflicted with diuers calamities hee ouerthrowes or trans-ferreth from one to an other from Familie to Familie and from Nation to Nation Heereof wee haue example by the Monarchies of the Assirians the Babilonians the Persians and the Romaines the Empire of Greece such as it hath beene since the deuision made between the two parties of the East and West but without more remembrance of these aforesaide changes we shall be sufficiently furnished with the wonderfull alteration which the Turke hath there brought in And not to vse these externe examples let vs looke on them that are our owne particuler domesticall In this estate the Merouingians first of all reigned after them the Carlingians to whome Hugh Capet succeeded beeing issued of the Merouingian bloode and legitimate Princes of Fraunce by reason whereof hee was placed in possession of that which had beene vsurped on his Grandfathers the Merouingians and was willingly obeyed beyond all the Monarches and Kings in the world Nor shal ye finde any race that hath so long endured as thanks be to God it stil continueth in the sexe Masculine then thys whereof wee now speake if wee should searche all Monarchies both auncient and moderne I confesse that sometimes happeneth the alteration of Monarchies namely by the diuine permission and that they are trans-ferred from one house to another but heerein I yeeld not that God will haue the change made by disloyaltie breach of fayth and treason committed by subiects against theyr Prince to whom he hath commanded them expresly to be obedient For the King is the annointed of God and who-soeuer resisteth the King as I haue amply declared in the seconde part of this discourse by the authority of holy Scripture resisteth God the establisher of Kings and Princes on the earth to gouerne in his sted And if it so fall out that subiects by force or violence attempt the estate and life of their King they doe against the ordinaunce of God and earely or late they shal be chastised Hence then it came as I haue breeflie touched that the Carlingians hauing perforce helde the Realme against the Merouingians by the Armes of Pepin a stranger prince God pleased that the Crowne should return by Hugh Capet of whom our Kings are discended to this present day in the race of the Merouingians who therof was a while vniustly frustrated Will yee then permit my Lordes that our King Henrie the fourth a branch of the Merouingians by Hugh Capet and S. Lewes of the selfe same race should be depriued of the succession which appertaineth to him in right and iustice Will not you assist him against such as seeke to hinder his peaceable possession Are ye so weake of minde and spirit as to let him be smitten and conquered by his enemies without giuing the assitance you owe him of duetie Take ye such delight in your owne ruine as it stirres ye not when the stranger
GOD and consequently to such as he hath placed ouer vs Kings Princes and other theyr Lieuetenants for the chastising and punishment of male-factors and sounde assuraunce of the good To resist the King and hys seculer authoritie is to ryse against GOD the Authour and protector of royall dignitie by which Kings raigne and the Princes of the earth exercise iustice towards theyr Subiects By which the wise are maintained Rebels prostrated theyr enterprises ouer-throwne and the iniury doone to the blessed and annoynted of the Lord searched into and venged wyth seuerity The antiquity of the Royall estate is most excellentlie noted in the holie Scripture and recommended in Melchisedech King of Salem in the tyme of the great Patriarch Abraham long before Moises Kings depend and are established by God ouer theyr people God sayd to the people of Israell When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giueth thee and enioyest it and dwellest therein and if thou shalt say I will sette a King ouer me like as all the other Nations that are about me thē thou shalt make him King ouer thee whom the Lord thy God shal chuse from among the number of thy Brethren and thou maist not sette a stranger ouer thee that is not of thy Bretheren Since thys Lawe in the tyme of Samuel the Israelites desirous to vse theyr priuiledge receiued of GOD demaunded that a King might goe before them leade theyr warres defend theyr Countrey and venge them on theyr enemies euen as by all other Nations they behelde the Maiestie royall to florish and be aduaunced Which by the commaundement of God was graunted to them wheron succeeded Dauid chosen according to Gods owne hart and so continued this dignitie among the Israelites tyll by the deuision of the people diuorce of the auncient Religion it was tottered and shaken and afterward in the ende dissipated and brought to nothing Neuerthelesse what captiuitie ensued on the people of the Hebrewes what-soeuer strange Kings were commaunded them yet had they euermore in chiefe commendation the Royall greatnesse and were instructed by the Prophets to obey and pray for their Kings yea although they were Ethnickes and Pagans in so much as GOD had appointed them theyr Lords during theyr bondage and captiuitie Subiects ought in all feare to submit themselues to theyr Princes not onely the good and humaine but those likewise that are stearne rigorous for this is agreeable to the wil of God If any one for the cause of hys conscience towards God endureth vexation and suffers vniustly our God in no case will permit the Seruaunt to contend against his Maister nor the vassayle to take vp Armes against his King But the King sayst thou is contrary to thee in doctrine what dooth thys pretence auayle thee when were he contrary in doctrine and as impious and sacriligious as thy selfe yet it followes not that iustly thou art to reuolt from him to make warre vpon him to attempt hys life and the spoyle of his estate It is certaine that Saule for hauing contraryed Gods commaundement in pardoning the Amalechites whom he should haue put to the sword hee was giuen ouer to the euill Spirit who by times tormented him and declared him vnworthy of the Realme Notwithstanding was it lawfull for any liuing man among his subiects to enterprise against him So much wanted it in Dauid himselfe who coulde finde farre greater occasion to doe it than any other not onely pretending to the Crowne hauing beene before by the Prophet Samuell annoynted King of Israell but also carrying in memorie the iniuries he receiued of Saule day by day in recompence of his good and faithfull seruices albeit he were a fugetiue he his father and all his race albeit in despight of him through cruell indignation Saule had caused to be slaine the sacrificing Priests of God to the number of foure score and fiue that wore the linnen Ephode besides discomfited their cittie Nob in the same rage slewe with the edge of the sworde so many men women children yonge sucking Infants Oxen Sheepe and Asses as were there to bee founde onely because the hygh Priest Ahimelech gaue Dauid to eate in extreame necessitie as also deliuered him the sword of Goliah being ignorant that he had fled the Court and was in Saules displeasure Although that Dauid was searched through all the corners of Israell in the Mountains Deserts Rockes and places very neere vnaccessable although that Saule had appointed concluded his death and Dauid hearing this sentence well knew himselfe to be innocent although that God had giuen the King into hys handes and easily hee might haue put him to death Yet had he no will to touch the person Royall assuring himselfe that who soeuer durst be so hardy what good right to euer he coulde pretend in the cause yet should he not stande innocent before the face of God Which well hee witnessed in the Caue of En-gadi and in the Desert of Ziph euen there where soone after Saule was discomfited For euen as Dauid was hyd in the Rockes of En-gadi Saule beeing aduertised thereof tooke three thousand of the most chosen men in all Israell and so went to seeke Dauid and his men in sollitarie and vn-habitable places There Saule causing his men to come before hym went into a Caue to ease himselfe and Dauid and hys men remained behind within the same Caue whē as Dauids people thus spake to him Nowe is the day whereof the Lorde thy God tolde thee see heere I giue thine enemie into thine hand and thou shalt doe with him what thou pleasest Dauid behelde his enemy alone in a place conuenient farre enough from hys men disgarnished of defence and brought in all poynts according to hys owne wyll Hee coulde haue smytten hym without hazarding the meanest of hys people or without moouing his enemies troupe now could he haue left the Host a buried memorie of the place wher Saule had withdrawne himselfe that there should not remaine any tracke of hys entrance or foorth-comming Albeit he knew by thys deede he should be deliuered from all hys enemies at once and aduanced to the Maiestie royal promised him before notwithstanding hee was so farre of from reknowledging the ingratitude and ill will of the King as secretly hee arose and cutting a peece of the skyrt of hys garment beeing yet touched in his hart because he had done so much he sayd to hys men The Lord keepe me from dooing that thing to the King my Soueraigne Lord Maister the Lords annointed let not me lay my hand on his person that is sacred and annointed For albeit hee is nowe in my power to reuenge my selfe yet will I not doe that which I knowe is defended and prohibited by God seeing he is annointed of him Thus Dauid appeased the people wyth hys words and woulde not permit them to ryse against Saule notwithstanding all the reasons they
and remedie by the end and cutting off a Tyrant Likewise that it is more necessary to proceede against the crueltie of Tyrants rather by publique authoritie then by particuler wilfulnes or presuming But if any people haue right to prouide themselues of a King and that by them he is chosen for iust cause the King so established may by the people be supprest or his authoritie taken from him by them that created him King because so tyrannously hee abused the Maiestie royall Now are the people to bee iudged vnfaithfull in forsaking and subiecting thys Tyrant because before hee was neuer Gouernour of himselfe neither carryed that faithfull and honourable minde as is required in the office of a King Thus misleading and misgouerning his people hee deserues not that hys subiects shoulde keepe the promise they made and swore to him So the Romaines chased out of the Kingdome Tarquine the proude whome they had receiued as their King but because of the tyranny of him and his sonne they subiected thēselues to a lesser authoritie namely of Consuls In like case Domitian who succeded the most modest and debonnaire Emperours Vespasian his Father and Titus his brother because hee excercysed tyrannie hee was slaine by the Romaine Senate and by their decree were reuoked and annihillated all such things as he badly had established ordayned against the Romaines For this cause S. Iohn the Euangelist the beloued Disciple of Christ who was sent in exile by Domitian into the I le of Pathmos was recalled from thence and sent by the Senate to Ephesus But if any superiour Gouernour hath right to giue a King to the people he ought to regarde his dealing to yeeld remedie against the malice and wickednesse of the Tyrant Heereof Archelaus may remaine example who hauing begun to raigne in Iurie in the place of King Herod his father began to imitate him in wickednes and crueltie when the Iewes framed a cōplaint against him before Augustus Caesar then first his authoritie was deminished the name of King taken from him the moitie of his Realme deuided to his two brethren And because by thys meane hee could not bee kept from vsing tyranny Tyberius Caesar sent him in exile to the cittie of Lyons in Fraunce And if it bee not possible to haue humaine succour against a Tyrant let vs make our recourse to God the King ouer all who will help the oppressed in trybulation for it is in the power of God to conuert the heart of a Tyrant into mildnesse according to the words of Salomon Cor Regis in manu Dei quocunque voluerit inclinabit illud The hart of the king is in the hand of God he may turne it whether soeuer he will For he turned into meekenes the crueltie of King Assuerus who prepared to put the Iewes to death Hee likewise conuerted and changed the cruell King Nabuchodonozer that he became a Preacher of the diuine power saying Nowe therefore I Nabuchodonozer praise extoll magnifie the King of heauen whose works are al truth his wayes iudgement and those that walke in pride or arrogancie is he able to humble and abase But as for Tyrants they are reputed by him vnworthie of conuersion he will cut thē off or bring them into base estate according to the words of the Wiseman God destroieth the seates of proud Princes and setteth on them such as are meeke and humble in their sted Hee it is who seeing the affliction of his people in Egypt and hearing the cry of them ouerthrew the Tyrant Pharao with his Armie in the Red-sea It is he that not onely threw from the throne Roall the fore-named Nabuchodonozer who was become verie proude but also depriued him of the company of men and changed him into a beast Hys arme is no whit shortened but hee can and will deliuer his people from Tyrants For he promised to his people by the Prophet Esay that he would giue rest to the trauaile confusion and troublesome seruitude wherein they were before subiected And by Ezechiell hee saith I will deliuer my flocke from the mouthes of such sheepheards as doe nothing but feede themselues But to the ende the people may obtayne this mercifull benefit from God it is necessarie for them to leaue theyr sinne because that in vengeaunce thereof the wicked and vngodly by diuine permission get hold of the principalitie And God saith by the Prophet Osee I will giue thee a King in my furie and in Iob it is written that hee will suffer the hypocrite to raigne because of the sinnes of the people It is requisite thē to take way the fault to the end GOD may cease to punish vs by the meanes of Tyrants Hetherto Thomas Aquinus shewed the errour of such as lifted themselues against Princes albeit they were Tyrants and dyd intreate their Subiects cruelly Sayst thou then vnder this pretence of tyrannie that iustly thou mayst raise thee against the King to kyll him murder him by treason and so to take his estate from him For the first he is no Tyrant and though hee shoulde consent to make any tyrannous Act as therein thou saist most false yet thy wordes fauour of most abhominable errour and are condemned by the counsell of Constance who aboue all things would haue abolished and rased foorth such a pernicious doctrine That it shoulde bee lawfull to kill a Tyrant for any cause what soeuer it be They declared such people to be wicked erronious in fayth and manners reproouing and condemning them as Heretiques or scandalous preparers of the way to fraudes deceites dreames periuries and treasons Thys holy Sinode declared furthermore and ordained that such as obstinatly affirmed and maintained this doctrine were heretiques and ought to be punished according to the holie and Canonicall ordinaunces Then tell me Sorcerer art not thou an heretique hauing murdered not a Tyrant but a iust debonnaire lawfull King Art not thou an heretique to pursue the life and estate of his admirable successour whom thou art enforced to confesse account for a mightie generous and affable Prince gracious euen toward his verie enemies a conseruer of Religion although he make profession of that is contrarie to thee But thou fearest as it seemeth that beeing the heade of his Subiects hee wyll not change his Religion but rather his clemencie into rigour and seuerity thys proceeds but frō the fardle of thy malice As concerning the matter of Religion I haue thereto aunswered thee alreadie but for the alteration of his kinde nature into another more rigorous I am perswaded that he is established by GOD to doe iustice to the wicked Beside he is so soundly acquainted with mercy and gentlenes as hee will neuer from them degenerate but will pardon hys simple Subiects that gaue but consent to rebellion and were not authours or procurers thereof Dooth it then appertaine to thee to iudge thy Prince Men saith the
shee defends her-selfe by Martyrs by Fayth Humilitie Obedience yea all the other Vertues and not by mortall Armes The Church is millitant but with what warre hurts and woundes euen those of her Spouse CHRIST IESVS who so giues Religion anie other Armes then those that Christ Iesus gaue to hys Church in stedde of aduauncing dooth ruinate it The Armes gyuen by GOD to a Christian are iustice in sted of a Corselet the Helmet of Health the inexpugnable Target of Equitie the Shield of Fayth the Sworde of the Spirit which is the worde of GOD. Heere-vpon Saint Paule sayth Let vs which are of the daie bee sober putting on the Breast-plate of Fayth and Charitie and the hope of Saluation for our Helmet For God hath not appointed vs to wrath but to obtaine Saluation by our Lord Iesus Christ. And to the Ephesians he sayth Finally my Bretheren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Put on all the Armour of GOD that yee may stande against the assaults of the deuill For wee wrestle not against fleshe and bloode but against Rulers against powers against worldly Gouernours of the darkenesse of this world against spirituall wickednesse in heauenly places For this cause take vnto you the whole Armour of GOD that yee may be able to resist the euill daie and hauing fynished all things to stand fast hauing your feete shodde with the preparation of the Gospell of Peace Aboue all taking the Shielde of Fayth where-with you maie quenche all the fierie Dartes of the Wicked Take also the Helmet of Saluation and the Sworde of the Spirite which is the Woorde of GOD. These Armes are commendable meete for a Christian and hee is forbidden to vse other materiall Armes where he goes for Religion and for hys conscience vvhich are no proper meanes to maintayne and defende them withall And nowe at thys instant comes to my memorie an example well worthie noting shewing that Religion ought not to be debated or prooued by corporall Armes The Hystorie is taken from the faythfull Corriualles of Spayne The Maister of Acantara D. Martin Ianes de la Barduba of the Portugall Nation entred in quarrell with the King of Granado about Religion and woulde make proofe of the trueth of his Religion by Armes Heereupon at the motion of a certaine Hermit vvho had promised hym victorie against the Infidell Moore King in despight of the King of Castile to whom he was subiect and had forbidde him to enter war on this occasion he brought an Armie to the Fielde gaue Battaile to the Moore King and there by the iust iudgement of God was worthily punished For there was he slaine and hys Armie vanquished driuen to flight by the Granadanes In thys case he vsed no manner of collour or pretence the trueth was that he tooke Armes for the maintenaunce of the Christian Religion and yet neuerthelesse was ouer-come Then thou that vnder cloake of Religion hast raised these Armes and perpetrated so manie sundry euils what thinkest thou will become of thee That it is not lawfull for a Subiect to Arme himselfe against his King for what pretence so euer it bee IS it not permitted thē sayst thou to bandie our forces against an hereticall Prince Albeit thou hadst such a one yet is it not for a Subiect to Arme himselfe against his King and that the Catholique Noble men which follow him may well gyue thee to vnderstand Tush this is nothing els but thy deceit it sits thee well to haue such a colloured pretext although thou hast no hereticall Prince For the good life and behauiour of his Maiestie with the desire hee hath to be better instructed without obstinacie if he were in errour as he is not exempts him from that infamous name and renowneth him wyth the most Christian King The tree is knowne by his fruite good reason then that thy barbarous actions shoulde shewe thee to be plunged in the bottomlesse depth of Atheisme For if thou didst beleeue in GOD or but loue him thou wouldest folow his word and obey thy Prince what euer he be in hys conscience he seeketh not to constraine thine He is a Christian most Christian King further of from the infidelitie and impietie that raignes in thee then thou or thy helpers are neere your tyrannous willes to despoile him of hys Crowne I would particulerly aunswer to all thy false inductions placed in a rancke vnder thys slye pretence if others better able then I had not doone it before mee wherein there is not anie thing forgotten This is to bee granted that a soueraigne Prince is not to be violate and hys Subiects are bound to obey him whatsoeuer he be without doing that which is contrarie to the honour of God If the King command me to goe to war in his seruice to mount my horse and to giue a charge vppon the enemies of his estate I will doe it most gladly and am bound in duetie so to doe If he commaund me to change my Religion I will not doe it neither is there any such duetie to be exacted on me But his Highnesse is so wise as he well knowes that his power tendeth not that way at his descretion and appointment remaines our bodies and goods the conscience onely appertaineth to God He can not force it and if perchaunce he should offer the meanes of constraint I would withstand him by sufferance and giue ouer force not resist againe by force I will change my Countrey to shunne this compulsion or I will dye in the defence of my Religion notwithstanding our good Kings thoughts are farre from this he wil not make warre against God to take from hym his kingdome which is our conscience soule he being inspyred with him and burning in the zeale of his loue Hauing deuided the French Empire with God thinkest thou hee will take from him his part or but enterprise vppon hys estate Hee is no Tyrant to doe so like thee that wouldest vsurpe and teare it altogether out of his handes but hee shall well enough defende thee thou hast a puissant and vnconquerable aduersarie against thee hee that with him hath part of this Empire And when thou hast presented all thy humaine forces those that thou hast gathered together of lost men and strange Spanyards equall in number with the Armie of Xerxes yet shalt thou not be able I will not say to fight but onely to hold head against our Alcides hauing hys Maister the most mighty King of Kings to be hys helper who holds him by the hand who in thys estate established him and the predecessours of hy srace for the space of sixe hundred yeeres and more commaundeth vs to obey him thou to thy extreame damage hast prooued hys force more then Herculean Hys Edicts and holy ordinaunces be obeyed and most expresly already proposed by manie pennes and sundry Doctors of diuinitie for our perfection which consisteth in the obedience due to