he imposed the like penance upon England Also when our King Edward the First made Warre upon the Scots word came from Rome that he should surcease for that the Kingdome of Scotland belonged unto the Popes Chappell A great oversight it was of St. Peter that he did not accurse Nero and all heathen Princes whereby the Popes Chappell might have gotten all that the Devill offered and our Saviour refused Yet what need was there of such a banne Since Fryar Vincent of Valnarda could tell Atatalipa King of Peru That all the Kingdomes of the Earth were the Popes who had bestowed more then halfe thereof upon the King of Spaine If the Pope will have it so it must be so otherwise I should have interpreted that place in Genesis Increase and multiply and fill the Earth As spoken to Noah and his Children not as directed only to Tubal Homer and Phatto the supposed Fathers of the old Iberians Gothes and Moores of whom the Spanish blood is compounded But of such impudent presumption in disposing of countryes farre remote And whereto the sword must acquire a better title the mischiefe is not presently discerned It were well if his Holinesse had not loved to set the world in an uproare by nourishing of War among those that respected him as a Common Father His dispensing with oaths taken for agreement between one King and another or between Kings and Subjects doe speake no better of him For by what right was it That Fardinand of Arragon won the Kingdome of Navar why did not the Confederacie that was between Lewis the Twelfth of France and the Venetians hinder that King from warring upon Venice why did not the like between England and France hinder our King Henry the eighth for warring upon the same King Lewis Was it not the Pope who did set on the French to the end that himself might get Ravenna from the Venetians Why was it not the same Pope who afterwards upon desire to drive the French out of Italie excommunicated Lewis and his adherents By vertue of which Excommunication Fardinand of Arragon seized upon Navarr And served not the same Warrant to set our Henry upon the back of France But this was not our Kings fault more then all the peoples We might with shame confesse it if other Countries had not been as blindly superstitious as our Fathers That a Barque of Apples blessed by the Pope and sent hither for presents unto those that would be forward in the War upon France made all our English hasty to take Armes in such sort as the Italians wondred and laughed to see our men no lesse greedy of those Apples then Eve was of the forbidden fruit for which they were to hazard their lives in an unjust War Few ages have wanted such and more grievous examples of the Popes tumultuous disposition but these were amongst the last that fell out before his unholinesse was detected Now for his dispensing betweene Kings and their Subjects we need not seeke instances far from home He absolved our King Iohn of an oath given to his Barons and people The Barons and people he afterwards discharged of their alleageance to King Iohn King Henry the third had appeased this Land how wisely I say not by taking such an oath as his Father had done swearing as he was a Knight A Christian and a King But in a Sermon at Paules People were taught how little was to be reposed on such assurance the Popes dispensation being there openly read which pronounced that Oath voyde Good cause why For that King had the patience to live like neither Knight nor King But as the Popes Tenant and Rent-gatherer of England But when the same King adventured to murmure the Pope could threaten to teach him his duty with a vengeance And make him know what it was to winch and play the Fredericke Thus we see what hath been his Custome to oppresse Kings by their people And the people by their Kings yet this was for serving his owne turne Wherein had our King Henry the sixt offended him which King Pope Iulius would after for a little money have made a Saint Neverthelesse the Popes absolving of Rich Duke of Yorke from that honest oath which he had given by mediation of all the Land to that good King occasioned both the Dukes and the Kings ruine And therewithal those long and cruell Wars betweene the Houses of Lancaster and Yorke and brought all England into an horrible Combustion What he meant by this I know not unlesse to verifie the Proverbe Omnia Romae venalia I will not urge the dispensation whereby the Pope released King Philip the second of Spaine from the solemne Oath by which he was bound to maintaine the priviledges of the Netherlands though this Papall indulgence hath scarce as yet left working And been the cause of so many hundred thousands slaine for this last forty years in the Netherlands Neither will I urge the Pope encouraging of Henry the second and his sons to the last of them against the French Protestants the cause of the first three Civill Warres And lastly of the Leavyings of Byrons in which there hath perished no lesse number then in the Low-Countryes For our Country it affords an example of fresh memory since we should have had as furious Warre as ever both upon us and amongst us in the daies of our late famous Soveraigne Queene Elizabeth if Pope Pius his Bull Could have gored as well as it could Bellow Therefore it were not amisse to answer by a Herald the next Pontificall attempt of like nature rather sending defiance as to an enemy then publishing answers as to one that had here to doe though in deed he had never here to doe by any lawfull power either in Civill or Ecclesiasticall businesse after such time as Brittaine was won from the Romane Empire For howsoever it were ordered in some of the first holy generall Councills that the Bishop of Rome should be Patriarch over these quarters yea or it were supposed that the forged Canons by which he now challengeth more then precedency and primacie had also been made indeed yet could this little help his claime in Kingdomes that hold not of the Empire For those right holy Fathers as in matters of Faith they did not make truth But religiously expounded it so in matters of Ecclesiasticall Government they did not create provinces for themselves But ordered the Countries which they then had They were assemblies of all the Bishops in the Romane world and with the Romane dominion only they medled Requisite it is that the faith which they taught should be imbraced in all Countryes As it ought likewise to be entertained if the same had been in like sort illustrated not by them but by a generall Councill of all Bishops in the great Kingdome of the Abissines which is thought to have been Christian even in those daies But it was not requisite nor is that the Bishops of Abissines or of India
setting winds West the rest North and South and so by the same termes In all the Divisions of Southeast Northeast Southwest Northwest and the rest And if we compare the marveilous great transportations of people by the Saxons Angles Danes Gothes Swedes Norwegians especially and other And how many Fleets for supplies have been set out by them with the swarmes of Danes aswell in our Seas as when they invaded and conquered Scicilie together with the Colonies planted by the Tyrians in Africa as else where and of the Carthaginians the Sons of the Tyrians in Spaine It s hard to judge which of these Nations have most commanded the Seas though for priority Tribullus and Ovid give it the Tyrians Prima ratam Ventis credere docta Tyros And Ovid Magna minorque fere quarum Regis altera Gratias altera Sydonias uterque sicca rates And it is true that the first good Ships were among the Tyrians and they good and great Ships not long after the Warre of Troy and in Solomons time they were of that account as Solomon invited Hiram King of Tyre to joyne with him in his Journey into the East-Indies for the Israelites till then never traded by Sea and seldome if ever after it and that the Tyrians were the chiefe in that enterprise It appears in that they were called Nautas peritos maris in the Hebrew saith Iunius homines navium And in our English Marriners It is also written in the second of Chronicles the eight That Hiram sent Solomon Ships Et servos peritos maris And servants skilfull of the Sea whereby it is probable that the Tyrians had used the Trade of East-India before the dayes of Solomon or before the Raigne of David when themselves commanded the Ports of the Red Sea But the Edumaeans being beaten by David and the Port of Ezion-Geber now subject to Solomon the Tyrians were forced to make Solomon the cheife of that expedition and to joine with him in the enterprise For the Tyrian had no passe to the Red Sea but through the territory of Solomon and by his sufferance Whosoever were the inventers we find that every age had added somewhat to ships and to all things else And in my owne time the shape of our English ships hath been greatly bettered It is not long since the striking of the Top-mast a wonderfull great ease to great ships both at Sea and Harbour hath been devised together with the Chaine pumpe which takes up twice as much water as the ordinary did we have lately added the Bonnett and the Drabler To the courses we have devised studding Sayles Top gallant Sayles Sprit stayles Top stayles The weighing of Anchors by the Capstone is also new We have fallen into consideration of the length of Cables and by it we resist the malice of the greatest winds that can blow Witnesse our small Milbrooke men of Cornewall that ride it out at Anchor half Seas over betweene England and Ireland all the winter quarter And witnesse the Hollanders that were wont to ride before Dunkirke with the wind at Northwest making a Lee shoare in all weathers For true it is that the length of the Cable is the life of the Ship in all extreamities and the reason is because it makes so many bendings and waves as the Ship riding at that length it is not able to stretch it and nothing breaks that is not stretched In extreamity we carry our Ordnance better then we were wont Because our Netheroverloops are raised commonly from the water to wit betweene the lower part of the Port and the Sea In King Henry the eights time and in this present at Portsmouth the Marie Rose by a little sway of the Ship in casting about her Ports being within sixteene Inches of the waters was overset and lost and in her that worthy Knight Sir George Carew Cozen Germaine to the Lord Carew and with him besides many other Gentlemen the Father of the late renowned Sir Richard Greenevile Wee have also raised our second Decks and given more vent thereby to our Ordnance tying on our Nether-overloope We have added crosse pillars in our Royall ships to strengthen them which be fastned from the Kelson to the beams of the second Decke keepe them from setling or from giving way in all distresses We have given longer Floares to our Ships then in elder times and better bearing under water whereby they never fall into the Sea after the head and shake the whole body nor sinck sterne nor stoope upon a wind by which the breaking loose of our Ordnance or the not use of them with many other discommodities are avoided And to say the truth a miserable shame and dishonour it were for our Shipwrights if they did not exceed all other in the setting up of our Royall Ships the Errors of other Nations being farre more excusable then ours For the Kings of England have for many years been at the charge to build and furnish a Navy of powerfull Ships for their owne defence and for the Wars only Whereas the French the Spaniards the Portugalls and the Hollanders till of late have had no proper Fleete belonging to their Princes or States Only the Venetians for a long time have maintained their Arsenal of Gallyes the Kings of Denmark and Sweden have had good Ships for these last Fifty years I say that the forenamed Kings especially the Spaniards and Portugalls have ships of great bulke but fitter for the Merchant then for the man of Warre for burthen then for Battaile But as Popelinire well observeth the forces of Princes by Sea are Marquess de Grandeux d' Estate Are markes of the greatnesse of an Estate For whosoever commands the Sea Commands the Trade whosoever Commands the Trade of the world Commands the Riches of the world and consequently the world it selfe yet can I not deny but that the Spaniards being afraid of their Indian Fleets have built some few very good ships but he hath no ships in Garrison as his Majestie hath and to say the truth no sure place to keepe them in But in all Invasions he is driven to take up of all Nations which comes into his Ports for Trade The Venetians while they attended their Fleets and imployed themselves in their Easterne Conquest were great and powerfull Princes and Commanded the Maritimate parts of Croatia Dalmatia Albania and Epirus were Lords of Peloponesus and the Islands adjoyning of Cyprus Candia and many other places but after they sought to greaten themselves in Italie it self using strangers for the Commanders of their armies The Turkes by degrees beate them out of all their goodly Countryes and have now confined them Candia excepted to a few small Grecian Islands which with great difficulty they enjoy The first honour they obtained was by making Warre upon the Istrii by Sea and had they been true to their spouse to wit the Seas which once a yeare they marry the Turks had never prevailed against them nor ever
been able to be siege any place of theirs to which he must have transported his armies by his Gallies The Genowaies were also exceeding powerfull by Sea and held many places in the East and contended often with the Venetians for superiority destroying each other in a long continued Sea Warre Yea the Genowaies were the most famous Mercenaries of all Europe both by Sea and Land for many years The French assisted themselves by Land with the Crosbowers of Genoa against the English namely at the Battaile of Cressie The French had 12000 Crosbowers Genowaies by Sea With their great ships called the Carrecks of Genoa they alwayes strengthned their Fleets against the English But after Mahomet the second had taken Constantinople they lost Caffa and all Taurica Chersonesus with the whole Trade of the Euxine Sea and although they sent many supplies by the Hellespont yet having often felt the smart of the Turks Cannon they began to slack their succours and were soone after supplanted yet doe the Venetians to this day well mainetaine their estate by their Sea forces and a great losse it is to the Christian Common-weale in generall that they are lesse then they were And a precipitate Counsell it was of those Christian Kings their Neighbours when they joined in League against them seeing they then were and they yet are the strongest Rampiers of Europe against the Turks But the Genowaies have now but a few Gallyes being altogether degenerate and become Merchants of mony and the Spanish Kings bankers But all the States and Kingdomes of the world have changed forme and pollicy The Empire it selfe which gave light to all principallities like a Pharo's or high Tower to Seamen is now sunck downe to the levell of the soyle The greatnesse which it gave to the Church of Rome as before proved was it which made it selfe little in hast And therefore truely said Imperium amore Religionis seipsum Exhausisse The Empire being also elective and not successive The Emperors in being made profit of their owne times and sold from the Empire many Signiories depending on it and at so easy a rate as Lucca freed it self for ten thousand Crownes and Florence for six thousand Crowns The rest the Popes then the Hauses and lastly the Turks have in effect ruined And in which severall Inundations many pieces have been recovered by other Princes and States As Basill Zurick and Bearne by the Switzers omitting many others Metz Tholouse Verdum by the French Groigne Aix la Chapple Zuphen Deuenter Newengen in Gilderland Wesell Antwerpe And many other places by the Spaniards and by the States Dantzick and other townes of importance by the Polack Insomuch as it is now become the most confused estate of the world Consisting of an Empire in title with territory who can ordaine nothing of importance but by a dyet or assembly of the Estates of many free Princes Ecclesiasticall and Temporall in effect of equall force divers in Religion and faction and of free Cities and Hanstownes whom the Princes doe not more desire to Command then they scorne to obey Notwithstanding being by farre lesse then they were in number and lesse in force and Reputation as they are not greatly able to offend others so have they enough to doe being seated farre asunder to defend themselves of whom hereafter more particularly The Cassilians in the meane while are growne great and by mistaking esteemed the greatest Having by Marriage Conquest practize and purchase devowred all Kingdomes within Spaine with Naples Sicilie Millaine and the Netherlands And many places belonging to the Empire and the Princes thereof Besides the Indies East and West The Islands of the West Ocean and many places in Barbary Guiena Congo and else where France hath also enlarged it self by the one half and reduced Normandy Brittaine and Aquitaine withall that the English had on that side the Sea together with Languedocke Foix Armignac Beerne and Dolphine For this Kingdome of great Brittaine it hath had by his Majesty a strong addition The posterne by which we were so often heretofore entered and surprised is now made up and we shall not hereafter need the double face of Ianus to looke North and South at once But there is no stare growne in hast but that of the united provinces and especially in their Sea forces and by a contrary way to that of France or Spaine the latter by Invasion the former by oppression For I my self may remember when one ship of her Majesties would have made forty Hollanders strike sayle and to come to Anchor They did not then dispute De mari libero but readily acknowledg'd the English to be Domini maris Brittanici That we are lesse powerfull then we were I doe hardly beleive it For although we have not at this time 135 ships belonging to the subjects of 500 tuns each ship as it is said we had in the 24. yeare of Queen Elizabeth at which time also upon a generall view and muster there were found in England of all men fit to beare armes eleaven hundred and seaventy two thousand yet are our Merchants ships now farre more warlike and better appointed then they were and the Navy Royall double as strong as then it was For these were the ships of her Majesties Navy at that time 1. The Triumph 2. The Eliz Ionas 3. The white Beare 4. The Phill and Mary 5. The Bonaventure 6. The Golden Lion 7. The Victory 8. The Revenge 9. The Hope 10. The Mary Rose 11. The Dreadnaught 12. The Minion 13. The Swiftsure To which there hath been added 14. The Antelope 15. The Foresight 16. The Swallow 17. The Handmaide 18. The Gennett 19. The Barque of Bullen 20. The Ayde 21. The Achates 22. The Falcon. 23. The Tyger 24. The Bull. We have not therefore lesse force then we had the fashion and furnishing of our Ships Considered For there are in England at this time 400. saile of Merchants fit for the Wars which the Spaniards would call Gallions to which we may adde 200 saile of Crumsters or hoyes of Newcastle which each of them will beare six Demiculverins and foure Sakers needing no other addition of building then a slight spar Decke fore and afte as the Seamen call it which is a slight Decke throughout the 200 which may be chosen out of 400 by reason of their ready staying and turning by reason of their windwardnesse and by reason of their drawing of little water And they are of extreame vantage neere the shoare And in all Bayes and Rivers to turne in and out These I say alone well manned and well Conducted would trouble the greatest Prince of Europe to encounter in our Seas For they stay and turne so readily As ordering them into small squadrons three of them at once may give their broad sides upon any one great ship or upon any Angle or side of an enemies Fleet They shall be able to continue a perpetuall volley of Demiculverins without intermission And either sinck
what it will let not them deceive themselves in believing that they can make themselves masters of the Sea For certainly the shipping of England with the great squadron of his Majesties Navy Royall are able in despight of any Prince or State in Europe to Command the great and large Field of the Ocean But as I shall never thinke him a Lover of this Land or of the King that shall perswade his Majesty from imbracing the amity of the States of the united Provinces For his Majesty is no lesse safe by them then they invincible by him So I would wish them Because after my duty to mine owne Soveraigne and the love of my Country I honour them most That they remember and consider it that seeing their passage and Repassage lyes through the Brittish Seas that there is no Port in France from Callice to Flushing that can receive their ships that many times outward by Westerly winds and ordinarily homewards not only from the East Indies but from the Straits and from Spaine all Southerly winds the Brises of our Clymate thrust them of necessity into the Kings ports how much his Majesties favour doth concerne them for if as themselves confesse in their last treaty of Truce with the Spaniards They subsist by their trades the disturbance of their trades which England can only disturbe will also disturbe their subsistance The rest I will omit because I can never doubt either their gratitudes or their wisdomes For our New-castle trade from which I have digressed I refer the Reader to the Author of the trades increase a Gentleman to me unknowne But so far as I can judge he hath many things very considerable in that short treaty of his yea both considerable and praise worthy and among the rest the advise which he hath given for the maintenance of our Hoyes and Carvills of Newcastle which may serve us besides the breeding of Marriners for good ships of Warre and of exceeding advantage and certainly I cannot but admire why the Impositions of five shillings should any way dishearten them seeing there is but one Company in England upon whose trade any new payment are layd But that they on whom it is laid raise profit by it The Silkemen if they pay his Majesty twelve pence upon a yard of Sattin they not only raise that twelve pence but they impose twelve pence or two shillings more upon the subject so doe they upon all they sell of what kind soever as all other Retaylers doe of what quality or profession soever And seeing all the Maritimate provinces of France and Flanders all Holland and Zealand Embden and Breame c. Cannot want our New-castle or our Welsh Coales The Imposition cannot impoverish the transporter but that the buyer must make payment accordingly And if the Impositions laid on these things whereof this Kingdome hath no necessary use as upon Silkes Velvets Gold and Silver Lace and cloaths of Gold and Silver Cut works Cambricks and a world of other trumperyes doth in nothing hinder their vent here But that they are more used then ever they were to the utter impoverishing of the Land in generall and of those Poppinjayes that value themselves by their out sides and by their Players coats Certainly the imposing upon Coales which other Nations cannot want can be no hinderance at all to the Newcastlemen but that they may raise it againe upon the French and other Nations as those Nations themselves doe which fetch them from us with their owne shipping For conclusion of this Chapter I say that it is exceeding lamentable that for any respect in the world seeing the preservation of the State and Monarchie doth surmount all other respects that strangers should be permitted to eat us out by exporting and importing both our owne Commodities and those of Forreigne Nations For it is no wonder we are overtopped in all the trades we have abroad and far off Seeing we have the grasse cut from under our feet in our fields and pastures FINIS A Discourse of the Originall and fundamentall cause of Naturall Customary Arbitrary Voluntary and necessary War with the misery of invasive Warre That Ecclesiasticall Prelates have alwayes been subject to Temporall Princes and that the Pope had never any lawfull power in England either in Civill or Ecclesiasticall businesse after such time as Brittaine was won from the Roman Empire THe ordinary Theme and Argument of History is War which may be defined the exercise of violence under Soveraigne Command against withstanders force Authority and resistance being the essentiall parts thereof violence limited by authority is sufficiently distinguisht from Robbery and the like outrages yet consisting in relation towards others It necessarily requires a supposition of resistance whereby the force of War becomes different from the violence inflicted upon Slaves or yeilding Malefactors as for Armes Discipline and whatsoever else belongeth to the making of War prosperous they are only considerable in degree of perfection since naked savages fighting disorderly with stones by appointment of their Commanders may truly and absolutely be said to War Neverthelesse it is true that as the Beasts are armed with fierce teeth pawes horns and other bodily instruments of much advantage against unweaponed men so hath reason taught man to strengthen his hand with such offensive Armes as no creature else can well avoid or possibly resist And it might seeme happy if the sword the Arrow the Gun with many terrible Engines of death could be wholly imployed in the exercise of that Lordly rule which the Lord of all hath given to mankind over the rest of living things But since in humane reason there hath no meanes been found of holding all mankind at peace within it self It is needfull that against the wit and subtilty of man we oppose not only the bruit force of our bodyes wherein many Beasts exceed us but helping our strength with art and wisdome strive to excell our enemies in those points wherein man is excellent over other Creatures The necessity of War which among humane Actions is the most lawlesse hath some kind of affinity and neere resemblances with the necessity of Law For there were no use at all either of War or of Law If every man had prudence to conceive how much of right were due both to and from himselfe and were withall so punctually just as to performe what he knew requisite and to rest contented with his owne But seeing that no conveyance of Land can be made so strong by any skill of Lawyers with multiplicity of clauses and provisoes That it may be secure from contentious Avarice and the malice of false seeming Justice It is not to bee wondered that the great Charter whereby God bestowed the whole earth upon Adam And confirmed it unto the Sons of Noah being as breife in word as large in effect hath bred much quarrell of interpretation Surely howsoever the Letter of that Donation may be unregarded by the most of men yet the sense
in vassallage unto themselves Now this could not satisfie the ambition of that See which gloried falsly to be the only See Apostolique For as the Reputation of the Romane Prelats grew up in those blind ages under the Westerne Emperours much faster then true piety could raise it in former times when better Learning had flourished So grew up in them withall a desire of amplifying their power that they might be as great in temporall forces as mens opinion have formed them in spirituall matters Immediately therefore upon the death of Charlemaine they began to neglect the Emperours consent in their Elections And finding in them that afterwards reigned of the house of France either too much patience or too much weakenesse they were bold within seaventy years to decree That in the Creation of Popes the Emperour should have nothing at all to doe Having obteined this It followed that they should make themselves Lord over the whole Clergie in all Kingdomes But the worke was great and could not be accomplished in hast for they were much disturbed at home by the People of Rome who seeing about Fifty Popes or rather as mainetainers of the Papacie would now have them called Monsters to succeed one another and attaine by the faction of Cut-throats and Strumpets St. Peters Chaire despised that hypocrisy which the world abroad did Reverence as holinesse Likewise the Empire falling from the line of Charles to the mighty house of Saxonie was so strongly upheld by the first Princes of that race as it greatly curbed the ambition of those aspiring Prelats Yet no impediment could alwaies be of force to withstand the violence of seeming sanctity The Polonians Hungarians and some other farre removed Nations had yeilded themselves in subjection more then meerely spirituall even to those Popes whom Italie knew to be detestable men As for the Romane Citizens they were chastised by the sword and taught to acknowledge the Pope their Lord though they knew not by what right Long it was indeed ere they could with much adoe be throughly tamed Because they knowing the Lewdnesse of their Prelate and his Court their devotion unto him the trade by which now they live was very small Because also they were the Popes domesticall forces against which no Prince doth happily contend But finally the Popes Armes prevailed or when his owne were too weake the Emperours and other friends were helping Contrariwise against Emperours and other Princes the sword of the people even of their owne Subjects hath been used by teaching all Christians in our Westerne world a false Lesson That it is lawfull and meritorious to rebell against Kings excommunicated and deposed by the Pope This curse was first laid upon the Emperour Henry the fourth by Pope Hildebrand or Gregory the seaventh It is true as I said before that Leo of Constantinople had felt the same though not in the same sort For Leo being excommunicated was not withall deposed only he suffered a revolt of some Italian Subjects And one may say That the Germane Empire deserved this plague Since the founder thereof had given countenance to the Popes Rebelling against their Soveraigns the Emperours of Constantinople Howsoever it were when Hildebrand had accursed and cast downe from his throne Henry the fourth there were none so hardy as to defend their Injured Lord against the Counterfeited name of St. Peter Wherefore he was faine to humble himselfe before Hildebrand upon whom he waited three daies beare footed in the Winter ere he could be admitted into his presence Neither yet could he otherwise get absolution then by submitting his estate unto the Popes good pleasure what was his fault He had refused to yeild up to the Pope the investiture of Bishops and Collation of Ecclesiasticall dignities within his dominions a right that had alwayes belonged to Princes untill that day It were superfluous to tell how grievously he was afflicted all his life after Notwithstanding this submission In breife the unappeasable rage of Hildebrand and his Successors never left persecuting him by raising one Rebellion after an other yea his owne Children against him till dispoyled of his Crowne he was faine to beg food of the Bishop of Spyers promising to earne it in a Church of his own building by doing there a Clarks duty for he could serve the Quire And not obteining this he pined away and dyed That Bishop of Spyers dealt herein perhaps rather fearfully then cruelly For he had to terrifie him the example of Vteilo Archhishop of Mentz chiefe Prelate among the Germans Who was condemned of heresie for having denyed that the Emperour might be deprived of his Crowne by the Popes authority If Princes therefore be carefull to exclude the doctrine of Hildebrand out of their dominions who can blame them of rigour This example of Henry though it would not be forgotten might have been omitted had it not been seconded with many of the same nature But this was neither one Popes fault nor one Princes destiny He must write a story of the Empire that means to tell of all their dealings in this kind As how they wrought upon Henry the fifth whom they had set up against his Father what horrible effusion of Blood they caused by their often thundering upon Fredericke And how they rested not untill they had made the Empire stand headlesse about seaventeene years These things moved Rodolph Earl of Habspurgh who was chosen Emperour after that long vacation to refuse the Ceremony of being Crowned at Rome though he were therero urged by the Electors For said he our Caesars have gone to Rome As the foolish Beasts in Aesops Fables went to the Lyons Den leaving very goodly footsteps of their journey thitherward but not the like of their returne The same opinion have most of the succeeding Emperours held all of them or almost all neglecting that Coronation Good cause why Since the Popes besides many Extortions which they practised about that Ceremony Arrogated thence unto themselves that the Empire was held of them in Homage And dealt they not after the same fashion with other Kingdomes What right had St. Peter to the Crowne of Sicily and of Naples The Romane Princes wonne those Lands from the Saracens who had formerly taken them from the Empire of Constantinople The same Romanes had also been mighty defenders of the Papacy in many dangers yet when time served the Pope tooke upon him as Lord Paramount of those Countryes to drive out one King and set up another with a Bloody confusion of all Italie retaining the Soveraignty to himself In France he had the daring to pronounce himselfe superiour unto the King in all matters both Spirituall and Temporall The Crowne of Poland he forced to hold of his Miter by imposing a subjection in way of penance For that the Polish King had caused one St. Stanislaus to be slaine For the death of St. Thomas Beckett and more strangely for a Refusall of an Archbishop of Canterbury whom his Holinesse had appointed