the grace of God that he is to Lewes the noble Prince with instance of prayer offreth himselfe in all things serviceable Concord is profitable to every Realme and Iustice much to be desired these vertues are the mother of devotion and the consecration of all honesty But whosoever seeketh after civill dissention and incenseth other to the effusion of bloud he is a murtherer and partaketh with him who gaping for bloud goeth about seeking whom he may devoure The worthy vessell of election that was taken up to the third Heaven protesteth saying Let every soule submit himselfe to the higher power there is no power but from God He that resisteth power resisteth the ordinance of God If that be true which some men prate among women and the vulgar sort that we ought not to be subdued to the Kingly power Then it is false which the Apostle teacheth that every soule must submit himselfe under power and superiority Can the truth lye Epist Wald. quae habetur in appendice Marian Scot. Did not Christ the Lord speake by the Apostle Why do we provoke the Lord Are we stronger than he Doth not he thinke himselfe stronger than the Lord the resisteth the ordinance of God Seeing there is no power but of God What saith the Prophet Confounded be they that strive against the Lord and they that resist him shall perish Rodolphus Hermanus Egbertus with many other Princes resisted the ordinance of God in Henry the Emperor but loe they are confounded as though they had never beene for as their end was ill their beginning could not be good c. Haec ille Pope Paschalis seeing the bad successe of those seditious subjects which his predecessors Gregory and Vrbanus had armed against Henry that worthy Emperor did perswade the Emperor's own son against all Law of God Nature and Nations to rebell against his father The Bishop of Leige tooke the Emperors part against this young Prince for the which he was excommunicate his Church interdicted and Robert Earle of Flaunders commanded by the Pope as he hoped to have the forgivenesse of his sins and the faof the Church of Rome to destroy that Bishop and his false Priests The Churchmen of Leige terrified with the Popes excommunication and fearing the Earles oppression wrote an Apology for themselvs about the yeare 1106. Epist Leodiensium apud Simonem Scard We are excommunicate say they because we obey our Bishop who hath taken part with his Lord the Emperor These are the beginnings of sorrow for Satan beeing loosed compasseth the earth and hath made a division between the Prince and the Priest who can justly blame the Bishop that taketh his Lords part to whom he hath sworn allegiance Perjury is a great sin whereof they cannot be ignorant that by new schisme and novell traditions do promise to absolve subjects from the guilt of perjury that forsweare themselves to their Lord the King c. In the progresse of their Apology they determine three great questions First whether the Pope hath power to excommunicate Kings Secondly to whom it belongeth to inflict temporall punishment when Church-men offended against Faith unity or good manners And thirdly what remedy subjects have against their Kings that are impious or tyrannous Si quis respectu sancti Spiritus c. If any man having respect to the Spirit of God shall turn over the old and new Testament he shall plainly find that Kings ought not at all or very hardly be excommunicate whether we consider the etimology of their names or the nature of their excommunication Even til this day hath this point been questioned and never determined Kings may be admonished and reproved by such as be discreet and sober men for Christ the King of Kings in earth who hath placed them in his own stead hath reserved them to his own judgement c. Their answer to the second question is grounded on the testimony of Saint Augustine the practise of Princes and the authority of Paul Kings say they and Emperors by their publique Lawes have forbidden heretiques to enjoy any wordly possession Wherfore seeing we are no heretiques and that it belongeth not to the Pope but to Kings and Emperors to punish heresies why doth our Lord Paschalis send Robert his armour-bearer to destroy the possessions and to overthrow the villages of the Churches which in case they deserved destruction ought to be destroyed by the Edict of Kings and Emperors which cary the sword not without good cause c. For answer to the third question they shew by sundry places of Scripture that there is no other helpe against evill Princes than prayer and patience Nihil modo pro Imperatore nostro dicimus c. We will for the present say nothing in defence of our Emperor but this we say though he were as bad as you report him to be wee would endure his government because our sins have deserved such a Governor Even such a Prince ought not to be resisted by violence but endured by patience and prayer Moses brought many plagues upon Pharaoh whose heart God had hardened but it was by prayer and the lifting up his hands to heaven And S. Paul requireth prayers to be made for all men for Kings and such as are in authority which Kings were neither Catholikes nor Christians Baruch also from the mouth of the Prophet Jeremy wrote unto the Iews which were captives unto the King of Babylon that they must pray for the life of Nabuchadnezzar the King of Babylon and Balthazar his son that their dayes in earth may be as the dayes of Heaven Epist Leod. c. S. Paul teacheth why we ought to pray for evill Kings namely that under them we may lead a quiet life It would becom an Apostolike man to follow the Apostles doctrin it were propheticall to follow the Prophet c. Thus far they in their Epistle Apologeticall He that wrote the life of this Emperor Henry the 4 Vita Hen. 4 quo supra an auncient a modest and an impartiall relator of such occurrents as happened in his time declareth his dislike of the Popes practises and the Germaines tumults against their said Soveraigne Lord. Magnum mundo documentum datum est A great instruction was given to the World that no man should rise against his master For the hand of Rodolph being cut off shewed a most just punishment of perjury he feared not to violate his fidelity sworn to the King and his right hand was punished as if other wounds had not beene sufficient to bring him to his death that by the plague of the rebellious the fault of rebellion might be perceived Thus far he The sixth Chapter proveth the same by the testimony of the Writers from the 1200 yeares downward I Will for conclusion produce Otho Frisingensis Thomas Aquinas Gratianus Philip the faire King of France the Parliament of England in the time of Edward the 1 Vincentius and Aeneas Silvius that afterward was Pope by
scorn of Herod the judgment of Pilate and the violence of the souldiers He yeelded himselfe patiently to death to teach all his Disciples that an injury done by authority is patiently to be endured not forcibly to be repelled As soon also as Paul became a Christia his seditious and bloudy spirit which he had learned of the Pharisies was changed into a desire of peace and quietnesse He honored the heathen Magistrates as Agrippa Foelix and Lisias ratifying his doctrin by the practise of his life I know that Cardinall Alane Cardinall Bellarmin Ficlerus Simancha and other upholders of the Papall tyranny that Stephanus Iunius Franciscus Hottomanus Georgius Buchananus and other pillars of the Puritan anarchy do answer that the Church then as it were swathed in the bonds of weaknesse had not strength sufficient to make powerfull resistance But these Fathers that then lived do convince them and all other sectaries of falshood by making demonstration of the strength and potency of the godly Christians in case they would have put their forces to the strongest proofe Seeing that all publike places as Courts Camps Consistories Cities and countrey Villages were stored and furnished with men of that profession and quality as doth most evidently appeare by the words of Tertullian in his Apologetical defence of the Christians Vna nox pauculis faculis c. One night with a few firebrand would yeel us sufficient revenge if it were lawfull for us to requit evill for evill But God forbid that Christians should either revenge themselves with humane fire or be grieved to suffer that wherewith they are tried Were we disposed not to practise secret revenge but to professe open hostility should we want number of men or force of Armes Are the Moores or the Parthians or any one nation whatsoever more in number than we that are spread over all the World We are not of you and yet we have filled all the places and rooms which you have Your Cities Islands Castles Towns Assemblies your Tents Tribes and Wards yea the Imperiall Pallace Senate and seats of Iudgment For what war were not we able ready though we were fewer in number than you that go to our Martyrdom so willingly If it were not more lawfull in our Religion to be slaine than to slay We could without armour not by rebelling against you but by departing from you do you displeasure enough even with our separation For if so great a multitude as we are should break out from you in any other corner of the world the losse of so many citizens would shame and punish you You would feare to see your selves left solitary even amazed as among the dead You should then see silence and desolation every where You would have many more enemies than inhabitants Whereas now you have fewer enemies because of the multitude of your citizens that are almost all Christians Haec Tertullianus We see by these three witnesses that the Church of God in the first 300 years wanted neither number of men strength nor courage to resist persecution and to have established the Christian Faith if that course had been lawfull but because their Lord had given them no sword to strike withall they chose rathe to be crowned Martyrs for their Religion than to be punished as traytors for rebellion What number of men what strength of armes had the Church thinke you the next 300 years after it had been backed by Princes defended by Laws provoked by Honorable favors to professe Christianity Yet all that while the servants of God neither did nor would resist Apostasie Heresie or Tyranny but yeelded their lives with all submission though they wanted neither meanes nor multitude convenient for any wars as the next chapter by impregnable demostration shall shew The third Chapter prooveth by the Fathers of the second 300 years that the pleasure of Princes must be endured with patience when their decrees cannot be obeyed with a good Conscience THe next 300 yeares the Christians did as patiently endure Heresie Apostasie and Tyranny to the glorious tryall of their Faith and the eternall reward of their Patience Whereof wee have a cloud of witnesses namely Hosius Liberius Athanasius Hilarius Basilius Magnus Gregorius Nazianzenus Lucifer Calaritanus Cyrillus Alexandrinus Optatus Milevitanus Ambrosius Augustinus Chrysostomus Leo the first and Gregory the great Hosius was a famous Confessor in the Church before Constantine the great a worthy Bishop during that Emperor's raigne and after his death greatly esteemed of all good men yea even of Constantius the Arrian Emperor himselfe for his old age great experience excellent learning and good conversation When this worthy Prelate was commanded by the Emperour to subscribe to the condemnation of Athanasius he returned to the Imperiall Majesty this stout constant Christian and dutifull answer Ego confessionis munus imple vi primum cum persecutio moveretur ab avo tuo Maximiniano Obsequere scribe contra Athanasium qui enim contra illum scribit ille planeonobiscum c. I was then a confessor when your grandfather Maximinian persecuted the Church And if you do now raise persecution I am ready to endure any thing rather then bettray the truth and shed innocent bloud I do not like your manner of writing against Athanasius Cease from it be not of the Arrian opinion Give no eare to the Eastern Bishops beleeve me rather that for age might be your grandfather Leave off I beseech you and call to mind that you are a mortall man Feare that dreadfull day of Iudgment Enterpose not your selfe O Emperor into the Ecclesiasticall service neither command us in this kind to condemne the innocent but learn rather of us God hath entrusteed your Majesty with the Empire and committed unto us the service of the Church he that with an envious eye maligneth your Imperiall Soveraignty contradicteth the ordinance of God Hosius apud Athan. ad solitariam vitam agentes Take heed O Prince least drawing to your selfe the right of the Church you become guilty of grievous transgression It is written Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that appertaine to God it is therefore neither lawfull for us Priests to usurpe your Kingdome nor for you Princes to meddle with the sacred service and sacrifices of the Church Thus far Hosius You see the grounds that this good Bishop stood upon rather resolved to suffer any death or torture than by his consent to betray the truth or to condemne the guiltlesse He admonisheth freely and reprooveth sharply he offereth his life to the Prince's pleasure It was far from his meaning to revile the sacred Majesty or to stir up any rebellion against this Hereticall Emperor which infringed the Canons of the Church without all regard of truth or equity to serve the humors of the Arrians and to wrek his anger on them all which yeelded not to that Heresie Liberius a Bishop of Rome did neither excommunicate nor depose this
commanded to adore Idoles and to offer sacrifice they preferred God before their prince But when he called upon them to war August in Psal 124. and bad them invade any Nation they presently obeyed They did distinguish their eternall Lord from the temporall King yet they submitted themselves to their temporall Lord for his sake that was their eternall King Deschism Donatist Lib. 3. So far he Optatus Milevitanus is another pregnant witnesse Cum super Imperatoren nemo sit nisi solus Deus Seeing there is no man above the Emperor beside God alone which made the Emperor Donatus by advancing himselfe above the Emperour doth exceed the bounds of humanity and maketh himself a God rather than man in that he feareth and reverenceth him not Com. in Evang Ioh l. 12. c. 36. whom all men should honor next after God So far Optat. S. Cyril is of the same judgment Cui legis prevaricatores liberare licet nisi Legis ipsius authori Who can acquit them that break the Law from transgression beside the Law-giver As we see by experience in all humane States no man can without danger breake the Law but Kings themselves in whom the crime of prevarication hath no place For it was wisely said of one that it is a wicked presumption In Epist. ad Timoth. c. 2. v. 1. to say to a King Thou doest amisse So far he And also S. Chrysostome What meaneth the Apostle saith he to require Prayers Supplications Intercessions and Thanksgiving to be made for all men He requireth this to be done in the dayly service of the Church and the perpetuall rite of Dive Religion For all the faithfull do know in what manner prayers are powred out before the Lord morning and evening for all the word even for Kings and every man in authority Some man will peradventure say that for all must be understood of all the faithfull Which cannot be the Apostles meaning as may appeare by the words following viz for Kings seeing that Kings neither did then nor in many ages after serve the living God but continued obstinatly in infidelity which by course of succession they had received Thus far Chrysost See the preface before Basilic Dor. Our Modern Reformers teach us that which Paul and Chrysost neither knew nor beleeved that wicked Princes are not to be prayed for but to be resisted c. When the faction of Eutiches had prevailed against the Catholikes Leo the first had no other remedy than Prayers to God sighs teares and petitions to the Emperor Omnes partium nostrarum Ecclesiae c. All the Churches of these parts Bpist 24. ad Theod. Imper. all we Priests even with sighs and teares beseech your Majesty to command a generall Synode to be held in Italy that all offences beeing remooved there may remaine neither error in Faith nor division in Lâ—â—e Favor the Catholiques grant liberty to protect the Faith against Heretiques defend the state of the Church from ruin that Christ his right-hand may support your Empire Thus far Leo. When Gregory the great was accused for the murther of a Bishop in prison he wrote to one Sabinianus to cleare him to the Emperor and Empresse Breviter suggeras serenissimis Dominis meis Epist. lib. 7. Epist 1. You may briefly enforme my soveraigne Lord and Lady that if I their servant would have busied my self with the death of the Lombards that Nation would by this time have had neither Kings nor Duks nor Earles and should have been in great confusion and division but because I stood in aw of God I was ever afraid to meddle with the shedding of any mans bloud So far Gregory These Lombards were Pagans invaders of the Countrey ransackers of the City persecutors of the Saints robbers of the Church oppressors of the poore whom Gregory the first might and would not destroy quia Deum timuit because he seared God It is very like that his successor Gregory the 7 feared neither God nor man when he erected the papall croisier against the regall scepter and read the sentence of deprivation against the Emperor Henry Ego authoritate Apostolica c. I by the power Apostolicall do bereave Henry of the German Kingdome and do deprive him of all subjection of Christian men absolving all men from the allegiance which they have sworne unto him And that Rodolph whom the Peeres of the Empire have elected may govern the Kingdome I grant all men that shall serve him against the Emperor forgivenesse of their sins Carol. Sigon de Regoo Itâ— l. 9. in vita Hen. 3. in this life and in the life to come As I have for his pride dejected Henry from the Royall dignity so I do exalt Rodolph for his humility to that place of Authority Thus far Gregory the 7. Benno Gard in vit Greg 7. It is no wounder that Gregory his chaire clave a sunder as some writers affirme at the giving of this sentence because the proud Pope and his wicked sentence were too heavy a burthen for Peters stoole of humility to beare The fourth Chapter proveth the Immunity of Kings by the Fathers of the third 300 yeares AFter the death of Gregory the great which was about the year of our Lord 604. Sabinianus did succeed him who lived but one yeare after whom came Boniface the 3 which obtained of Phocas to be called Vniversall Bishop since that time periit virtus Imperatorum pietas Pontificum the Emperours waxed weake and the Bishops wicked What the judgement of those Fathers then was concerning subjection to wicked Kings I will make evident by the testimony of of Gregorius Turonensis Isidorus Damascenus Beda Fulgentius Leo the 4 and the Fathers astembled in a Councell at Toledo in Spaine Gregory Turonensis acknowledgeth such an absolute power in Childerick a most wicked King of France Histor lib. 5 cap. 1. as was free from all controll of man Si quis de nobis Rex justitiae limites transcendere voluerit c. If any one of us O King do passe the bonds of justice you have power to correct him but if you exceed your limit who shall chastice you We may speake unto you if you list not to hearken who can condemn you but that great God who hath pronounced himself to be righteousnes Hactenus ille Isidorus saith no lesse for the immunity of the Kings of Spaine Let all earthly Princes know that they shall give account of the Church which Christ hath committed to their protection Yea whether the peace and discipline Ecclesiasticall be advanced by faithfull Kings or dissolved by the unfaithfull he will require a reckoning at their hands which hath left his Church in their power So far Isidor John Damascene pleadeth not only for the Exemption of wicked Kings themselves but also of their Deputies Parallâ—l 〈◊〉 1. c. 21. The Governours saith he which Kings create though they be wicked though they be theeves though they be
our Fathers for the keeping whereof we are bound by the duty of an oath and will by Gods help maintaine and defend with all our power and strength c. Dated at Lincolne Ann. Dom 1301. anno Edwardi primi 29. This was then the resolution of the state of this land if our late sectaries Popish or Puritan bring in any other Doctrine we may not leave the cawsey of truth and obedience whereon our forefathers walked to their commendation to follow these new guides in their by-paths of pride disobedience and contempt of authority to our destruction Vincentius in his Speculo Historiali hath a notable place to disswade from sedition and perjury Vt pace omnium bonorum dixerim li. 15. c. 84. haec sola novitas ne dicam haeresis nec dum è mundum emerserat That I may speake with the favour of all good men this meere novelty if not heresie was not sprung up in the world that Preists should teach Subjects that they owe no subjection to wicked Kings and albeit they have given an oath of fidelity unto them they are not bound to keep it Nay they that obey an evill Prince are to be held as excommunicated and all such as rebell against him are free from the guilt of the crime of perjury So far he I will end this Chapter with Aeneas Silvius Pius 2. de oâ—tu author imperii cap. 23. who dyed in the yeare 1464 Sit tandem finis litium Let there be an end of contention and one principall head to determine all Temporall matters let the occasion of perpetuall debate be taken away let men acknowledg themselvs subject to their Prince and give reverence to him whom God hath made his vicegerent on earth As that which God commandeth must be obeyed without contradiction so the Temporall Commandements of Caesar may not be resisted But let the Kings themselvs beware that they opreise no man unjustly nor give their people cause to cry to God against them for the earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof he will not forget the cry of the poore and for the sin of the Prince he translateth the Government from one Nation to another There is nothing more offensive to the greatest God the King and Creator of Heaven and Earth then the neglect of justice and the oppression of the poore as the Psalmist saith The poore shall not alway be forgotten and the patient abiding of the needy shall not perish for ever So far Silvius The Seventh Chapter sheweth the concord of Papist and Puritan for the deposition of Kings and their discord about the meanes and persons to be imployed in the execution of their Designements CHilderick was deposed and Pipine crowned King of France about the yeare 750. The truth of which History is this Childerick voyd of all Princely gravity gave himselfe over to pleasure and wantonnesse leaving the burthen of the State to Pipinus that was his Lord Marshall Who conspired with the Nobles to advance himselfe by the desition of the King his master To set a better colour on the matter Pipine sent his Chaplaine to Pope Zacharie to have his answer to this Question Whether should be King he that bare the name and did nothing or he he that grverned the Kingdome The Pope gave sentence with the Marshall against the King whereupon Childerick was made a shorne Monke and Pipine a crowned King It is a wonder to see how these opposite sectaries do insist upon this fact of the French-men to justifie their dangerous Doctrine and seditious conspiracies against Princes As Card. Bellarmine de pontif lib. 2. cap. 17. Thomas Harding against the Apologie of the Church of ENGLAND fol. 181. Franc. Fevardentius in his Commentary on Hester page 85. Boucher alias Raynolds de justa abdicatione Henrici 3 lib. 3. cap. 14. Ficklerus de jure magistratuum fol. 30. Alexander Carerius patavinus de potestate Papae lib. 2 cap. 3. D. Marta de temporali spirituali pontificis potestate lib. 1. cap. 23. and Doleman in his conference touching succession parte 1. cap. 3. page 48. And also these Puritans Christopher Goodman in his treatise of obedience pag. 53. George Buchanan de jure Regni apud Scotos pag. 47. Danaeus de politia Christiana lib. 3. cap. 6. pag. 221 Brutus Celta de jure magistratuum pag. 286. Philadelphus dialogo 2 pag. 65. Franc. Hottomanus in his Francogallia cap. 12. and Speculum tyrannidis Philipi Regis pag. 27. Cardinall ' Pellarmine the grand-master of Controversies De â—ontis lib. 2. c. 17. cannot endure to heare that this deposition was done by any other then the papall Authority Caeterum quod monachus iste saith Lambertus Danaus whereas this monke Bellarmine contendeth that Childerick was lawfully deposed by Pope Zacharias a stranger a Priest no Magistrate but in this respect a private person though he were Bishop of Rome Resp Danaei ad Bellar l. 2. c. 17 pag. 316. Will he ever be able to prove or defend his assertion Can Zacharie have authority in France being a stranger Can he depose the publike Magistrate being but a private person or transferre that principality to Pipin that he hath no right unto and commit so many sacriledges and impieties stealing from Childerick and giving to Pipin another mans right authorising subjects to violate their oaths which they had sworn to their King transporting Kingdomes from one man to another wheras it doth only belong to God to depose Kings and dispose of Kingdoms Thou maist see Bellarmin how many outrages this thy Zachary hath committed beside that he did thrust his sickle into another mans harvest and meddled with the Cobler beyond his Last in that being but a Priest he took upon him the decision of the right of Kingdomes Thus far Danaeus who is not so violent against the Pope Danaeus pol. Christ l. 6 c. 3 pag. 414. as he is virulent for the deposing power of Peeres or States of the Kingdome Men cannot say as it is in the Proverb nimium altercando veritas amittitur seeing that in this opposition the truth is not lost but divided among them For their premisses brought together will unavoidably conclude that this deposing power is neither in the Pope the Peeres nor the People Though it were the reason of the seditious Papists and Puritans à facto adjus is sophisticall in the Schooles where nothing can be concluded ex meris particularibus of meere particular instances Absurd in Law quia legibus non exemplis vivitur for men must do as the Law requireth not as other men practise Erroneous in Divinity non ideo quia factum credimus August ad Consen de mendac c. 9. faciendum credamus ne violemus praeceptum dum sectamur exemplum We may not do that which hath been done by other men least we break the Law of God in following the example of man And dangerous in policy as my Lord of Northampton the