matter of truth I draw this conclusion Howsoeuer no smal number of the French Clergie may perhaps beare the affection of louing Subiects to their King and may not suffer the Clericall character to deface the impression of naturall allegiance yet for so much as the Order of Clerics is dipped in a deeper die and beareth a worse tincture of daungerous practises then the other Orders the third Estate had beene greatly wanting to their excellent prouidence and wisdome if they should haue relinquished and transferred the care of designements and proiects for the life of their King and the safetie of his Crowne to the Clergie alone Moreouer the Clergie standeth bound to referre the iudgment of all matters in controuersie to the sentence of the Pope in this cause beeing a partie and one that pretendeth Crownes to depend vpon his Mitre What hope then might the third Estate conceiue that his Holinesse would passe against his own cause when his iudgment of the controuersie had been sundrie times before published and testified to the world And whereas the plot or modell of remedies proiected by the third Estate and the Kings Officers hath not prooued sortable in the euent was it because the said remedies were not good and lawfull No verily but because the Clergie refused to become contributors of their duty meanes to the grand seruice Likewise for that after the burning of bookes addressed to iustifie rebellious people traytors and parricides of Kings neuerthelesse the authors of the said bookes are winked at and backt with fauour Lastly for that some wretched parricides drinke off the cuppe of publike iustice whereas to the firebrands of sedition the sowers of this abominable doctrine no man saith so much as blacke is their eye It sufficiently appeareth as I suppose by the former passage that his Lordship exhorting the third Estate to refer the whole care of this Regall cause vnto the Clergie hath tacked his frame of weake ioynts and tenons to a very worthy but wrong foundation Howbeit he laboureth to fortifie his exhortation with a more weak feeble reason For to make good his proiect he affirmes that matters and maximes out of all doubt question may not be shuffled together with points in controuersy Now his rules indubitable are two The first It is not lawfull to murther Kings for any cause whatsoeuer This he confirmeth by the example of Saul as he saith deposed from his Throne whose life or limbs Dauid neuerthelesse durst not once hurt or wrong for his life Likewise he confirmes the same by a Decree of the Council held at Constance His other point indubitable The Kings of France are Soueraignes in all Temporall Soueraigntie within the French Kingdome and hold not by fealtie either of the Pope as hauing receiued or obliged their Crownes vpon such tenure and condition or of any other Prince in the whole world Which point neuerthelesse he takes not for certen and indubitable but onely according to humane and historicall certentie Now a third point he makes to be so full of controuersie and so farre within the circle of disputable questions as it may not be drawne into the ranke of classicall and authenticall points for feare of making a certen point doubtfull by shuffling and jumbling therewith some point in controuersie Now the question so disputable as he pretendeth is this A Christian Prince breakes his oath solemnly taken to God both to liue and to die in the Catholique Religion Say this Prince turnes Arrian or Mahometan fals to proclaime open warre and to wage battel with Iesus Christ Whether may such a Prince be declared to haue lost his Kingdome and who shall declare the Subiects of such a Prince to be quit of their oath of allegiance The L. Cardinall holds the affirmatiue and makes no bones to maintaine that all other parts of the Catholique Church yea the French Church euen from the first birth of her Theologicall Schooles to Calvins time and teaching haue professed that such a Prince may be lawfully remooued from his Throne by the Pope and by the Council and suppose the contrarie doctrine were the very Quintessence or spirit of truth yet might it not in case of faith be vrged and pressed otherwise then by way of problematicall disceptation That is the summe of his Lordsh ample discourse The refuting whereof I am constrained to put off and referre vnto an other place because he hath serued vs with the same dishes ouer ouer againe There we shall see the L. Cardinall maketh way to the dispatching of Kings after deposition that Saul was not deposed as he hath presumed that in the Council of Constance there is nothing to the purpose of murthering Soueraigne Princes that his Lordship supposing the French King may be depriued of his Crowne by a superiour power doth not hold his liege Lord to be Soueraigne in France that by the position of the French Church from age to age the Kings of France are not subiect vnto any censure of deposition by the Pope that his Holinesse hath no iust and lawful pretence to produce that any Christian King holds of him by fealtie or is obliged to doe the Pope homage for his Crowne Well then for the purpose he dwelleth onely vpon the third point pretended questionable and this he affirmeth If any shall condemne or wrappe vnder the solemne curse the abettors of the Popes power to vnking lawfull and Soueraigne Kings the same shall runne vpon fowre dangerous rocks of apparant incongruities and absurdities First he shall offer to force and intangle the consciences of many deuout persons For hee shall bind them to beleeue and sweare that doctrine the contrary whereof is beleeued of the whole Church and hath beene beleeued by their predecessors Secondly he shall ouerturne from top to bottome the sacred authoritie of holy Church and shall set open a gate vnto all sorts of heresie by allowing lay-persons a bold libertie to be iudges in causes of religion and faith For what is that degree of boldnesse but open vsurping of the Priesthood what is it but putting of prophane hands into the Arke what is it but laying of vnholy fingers vpon the holy Censor for perfumes Thirdly he shal make way to a schisme not possible to be put by and auoided by any humane prouidence For this doctrine beeing held and professed by all other Catholicks how can we declare it repugnant vnto Gods word how can we hold it impious how can we accompt it detestable but we shall renounce communion with the head and other members of the Church yea we shall confesse the Church in all ages to haue been the Synagogue of Satan and the spouse of the Deuill Lastly by working the establishment of this Article which worketh an establishment of Kings Crownes He shall not onely worke the intended remedy for the danger of Kings out of all the vertue and efficacie thereof by weakening of doctrine out of all controuersie in packing it vp
with a disputable question but likewise in stead of securing the life and estate of Kings hee shall draw both into farre greater hazards by the trayne or sequence of warres and other calamities which vsually waite and attend on schismes The L. Cardinall spends his whole discourse in confirmation of these foure heads which we now intend to sift in order and demonstratiuely to prooue that all the said inconueniences are meere nullities matters of imagination and built vpon false presuppositions But before we come to the maine the reader is to be informed and aduertised that his Lordship setteth a false glosse vpon the question and propounds the case not onely contrary to the truth of the subiect in controuersie but also to the Popes owne minde and meaning For he restrains the Popes power to depose Kings onely to cases of heresie Apostasie and persecuting of the Church whereas Popes extend their power to a further distance They depose Princes for infringing or in any sort diminishing the priuiledges of Monasteries witnesse Gregorie the first in the pretended charter graunted to the Abbay of S. Medard at Soissons the said charter beeing annexed to his Epistles in the rere The same he testifieth in his Epistle to Senator by name the 10. of the eleuenth booke They depose for naturall dulnesse and lacke of capacitie whether inbred and true indeed or onely pretended and imagined witnesse the glorious vaunt of Gregorie VII that Childeric King of France was hoysted out of his Throne by Pope Zacharie Not so much for his wicked life as for his vnablenes to beare the weightie burden of so great a Kingdome They depose for collating of Benefices and Prebends witnesse the great quarrells and sore contentions between Pope Innocent III. and Iohn King of England as also betweene Philip the Faire and Boniface VIII They depose for adulteries and matrimoniall suites witnesse Philip. 1. for the repudiating or casting off his lawfull wife Bertha and marrying in her place with Bertrade wife to the Earle of Aniou Finally faine would I learne into what heresie or degree of Apostasie either Henrie IV. or Freder Barbarossa or Frederic 2. Emperours were fallen when they were smitten with Papall fulminations euen to the depriuation of their Imperiall Thrones What was it for heresie or Apostasie that Pope Martin IV. bare so hard a hand against Peter King of Arragon that he acquitted and released the Arragonnois from their oath of allegiance to Peter their lawfull King Was it for heresie or Apostasie for Arrianisme or Mahumetisme that Lewis XII so good a King and Father of his Countrey was put downe by Iulius the II Was it for heresie or Apostasie that Sixtus 5. vsurped a power against Henrie III. euen so farre as to denounce him vn-kingd the issue whereof was the parricide of that good King and the most wofull desolation of a most flourishing Kingdome But his Lordship best liked to worke vpon that ground which to the outward shew appearance is the most beautifull cause that can be alledged for the dishonouring of Kings by the weapon of deposition making himselfe to beleeue that he acted the part of an Orator before personages not much acquainted with auncient and moderne histories and such as little vnderstood the state of the question then in hand It had therefore beene a good warrant for his Lordship to haue brought some authentical instrument from the Pope whereby the French might haue beene secured that his Holinesse renounceth all other causes auouchable for the degrading of Kings and that he will henceforth rest in the case of heresie for the turning of Kings out of their free-hold as also that his Holinesse by the same or like instrument might haue certified his pleasure that he will not hereafter make himselfe iudge whether Kings be tainted with damnable heresie or free from hereticall infection For that were to make himselfe both iudge and plaintiffe that it might be in his power to call that doctrine heretical which is pure orthodoxe and all for this ende to make himselfe master of the Kingdome and there to settle a Successor who receiuing the Crowne of the Popes free gift and graunt might be tyed thereby to depend altogether vpon his Holines Hath not Pope Boniface VIII declared in his proud letters all those to be heretickes that dare vndertake to affirme the collating of Prebends appertaineth to the King It was that Popes grosse error not in the fact but in the right The like crime forsooth was by Popes imputed to the vnhappie Emperour Henrie IV. And what was the issue of the said imputation The sonne is instigated thereby to rebell against his father and to impeach the interment of his dead corps who neuer in his life had beate his braines to trouble the sweet waters of Theologicall fountaines It is recorded by Auentine that Bishop Virgilius was declared heretique for teaching the position of Antipodes The Bull Exurge marching in the rere of the last Lateran Council sets downe this position for one of Luthers heresies A new life is the best repentance Among the crimes which the Council of Constance charged Pope Iohn XXIII withall one was this that hee denied the immortalitie of the soule and that so much was publiquely manifestly and notoriously knowne Now if the Pope shall bee carried by the streame of these or the like errors and in his hereticall prauitie shall depose a King of the contrary opinion I shall hardly bee perswaded the said King is lawfully deposed The first Inconvenience examined THE first inconuenience growing in the Cardinall his conceit by entertaining the Article of the third Estate whereby the Kings of France are declared to be indeposeable by any superiour power spirituall or temporall is this It offereth force to the conscience vnder the penaltie of Anathema to condemne a doctrine beleeued and practised in the Church in the continuall current of the last eleuen hundred yeares In these words he maketh a secret confession that in the first fiue hundred yeeres the same doctrin was neither apprehended by faith nor approoued by practise Wherein to my vnderstanding the L. Cardinall voluntarily giueth ouer the suite For the Church in the time of the Apostles their disciples and successors for 500. yeares together was no more ignorant what authoritie the Church is to challenge ouer Emperours and Kings then at any time since in any succeeding age in which as pride hath still flowed to the height of a full Sea so puritie of religion and manners hath kept for the most part at a lowe water-marke Which point is the rather to be considered for that during the first 500. yeres the Church groned vnder the heauy burthen both of heathen Emperours and of hereticall Kings the Visigot Kings in Spaine and the Vandals in Affrica Of whose displeasure the Pope had small reason or cause to stand in any feare beeing so remote from their dominions and no way vnder the lee of
to put vp his Catholike Sonnes proceeding to the Cardinalls disgrace neuer opened his mouth against the King neuer declared or noted the King to bee schismaticall Hee waits perhaps for some fitter opportunitie when the Kingdome of Spaine groaning vnder the burthens of intestine dissentions and troubles he may without any danger to himselfe giue the Catholike King a Bishops mate Yea the L. Cardinall himselfe is better seen in the humors and inclinations of the Christian world then to be grossely perswaded that in the Kingdome of Spaine and in the very heart of Rome it selfe there be not many which either make it but a ieast or else take it in fowle scorne to heare the Popes power ouer the Crownes of Kings once named especially since the Venetian Republike hath put his Holinesse to the worse in the same cause and cast him in Lawe What needed the L. Cardinall then by casting vp such mounts and trenches by heaping one amplification vpon an other to make schisme looke with such a terrible and hideous aspect Who knowes not how great an offence how heinous a crime it is to quarter not Iesus Christs coat but his body which is the Church And what needed such terrifying of the Church with vglinesse of schisme whereof there is neither colourable shew nor possibility The next vgly monster after schisme shaped by the L. Cardinall in the third supposed and pretended inconuenience is heresie His Lordship saith for the purpose By this Article we are cast headlong into a manifest heresie as binding vs to confesse that for many ages past the Catholike Church hath been banished out of the whole world For if the champions of the doctrine contrary to this Article doe hold an impious and a detestable opinion repugnant vnto Gods word then doubtlesse the Pope for so many hundred yeers expired hath not been the head of the Church but an heretike and the Antechrist He addeth moreouer That the Church long agoe hath lost her name of Catholike and that in France there hath no Church flourished nor so much as appeared these many and more then many yeeres for as much as all the French Doctors for many yeeres together haue stood for the contrary opinion We can erect and set vp no trophey more honourable for heretikes in token of their victorie then to avowe that Christs visible Kingdome is perished from the face of the earth and that for so many hundred yeeres there hath not beene any Temple of God nor any spouse of Christ but euery where and all the world ouer the Kingdome of Antechrist the Synagogue of Satan the spouse of the Deuill hath mightily preuailed and borne all the sway Lastly what stronger engines can these heretikes wish or desire for the battering and the demolishing of transubstantiation of auricular confession and other like towers of our Catholike religion then if it should bee graunted the Church hath decided the said points without any authoritie c. Me thinkes the Lord Cardinall in the whole draught and course of these words doth seeke not a little to blemish the honour of his Church and to marke his religion with a blacke coale For the whole frame of his mother-Church is very easie to be shaken if by the establishing of this Article she shall come to finall ruine and shall become the Synagoue of Satan Likewise Kings are brought into a very miserable state and condition if their Soueraigntie shall not stand if they shall not be without danger of deposition but by the totall ruine of the Church and by holding the Pope whome they serue to be Antechrist The L. Cardinall himselfe let him be well sifted herein doth not credit his owne words For doth not his Lordship tell vs plaine that neither by diuine testimonie nor by any sentence of the ancient Church the knot of this controuersie hath been vntyed againe that some of the French by the Popes fauourable indulgence are licensed or tolerated to say their mind to deliuer their opinion of this question though contrarie to the iudgement of his Holines prouided they hold it onely as problematicall and not as necessary What Can there be any assurance for the Pope that he is not Antechrist for the Church of Rome that she is not a Synagogue of Satan when a mans assurance is grounded vpon wauering and wild vncertanties without Canon of Scrpture without consent or countenance of antiquity and in a cause which the Pope with good leaue suffereth some to tosse with winds of problematicall opinion It hath beene shewed before that by Gods word whereof small reckoning perhaps is made by venerable antiquity and by the French Church in those times when the Popes power was mounted aloft the doctrine which teaches deposing of Kings by the Pope hath been checked and countermaunded What did the French in those dayes beleeue the Church was then swallowed vp and no where visible or extant in the world No verily Those that make the Pope of Soueraigne authoritie for matters of faith are not perswaded that in this cause they are bound absolutely to beleeue and credit his doctrine Why so Because they take it not for any decree or determination of faith but for a point pertaining to the mysteries of State and a pillar of the Popes Temporal Monarchy who hath not receiued any promise from God that in causes of this nature hee shall not erre For they hold that errour by no meanes can crawle or scramble vp to the Papall See so highly mounted but graunt ambition can scale the highest walls and climbe the loftiest pinnacles of the same See They hold withall that in a case of so speciall aduantage to the Pope whereby he is made King of Kings and as it were the pay-master or distributer of Crownes it is against all reason that hee should sit as Iudge to carue out Kingdoms for his own share To be short let his Lordship be assured that he meets with notorious blocke-heads more blunt witted then a whetstone when they are drawne to beleeue by his perswasion that whosoeuer beleeues the Pope hath no right nor power to put Kings beside their Thrones to giue and take away Crownes are all excluded and barred out of the heauenly Kingdome But now followes a worse matter For they whome the Cardinall reproachfully calls heretikes haue wrought and wonne his Lordship as to me seemeth to plead their cause at the barre and to betray his owne cause to these heretikes For what is it in his Lordship but plaine playing the Praeuaricator when he cryeth so loud that by admitting and establishing of this Article the doctrine of cake-incarnation and priuy Confession to a Priest is vtterly subuerted Let vs heare his reason and willingly accept of the truth from his lips The Articles as his Lordshippe graunteth of Transubstantiation auricular Confession and the Popes power to depose Kings are all grounded alike vpon the same authoritie Now he hath acknowledged the Article of the Popes power to depose Kings is
Kings and Prelates whatsoeuer to infringe or diminish the said priuiledges in whole or in part His formall and expresse words be these If any King Prelate Iudge or any other secular person informed of this our constitution shall presume to go or do contrary thereunto let him be cast downe from his power and dignitie I answer the Lord Cardinal here wrongs himselfe very much in taking imprecations for Decrees Might not euen the meanest of the people vse the same tenour of words and say If any shall touch the life or the most sacred Maiestie of our Kings be he Emperour or be hee Pope let him be accursed let him fall from his eminent place of authoritie let him lose his dignity let him tumble into beggarie diseases and all kinds of calamities I forbeare to shewe how easie a matter it is for Monkes to forge titles after their owne humour and to their owne liking for the vpholding and maintaining of their priuiledges As for the purpose the same Gregorie citeth in the end of his Epistles an other priuiledge of the like stuffe and stamp to the former granted to the Abbey of S. Medard at Soissons It is fenced with a like clause to the other But of how great vntruth and of how little weight it is the very date that it beareth makes manifest proofe For it runnes Dated the yeare of our Lords Incarnation 593. the 11. Indiction whereas the 10. Indiction agreeth to the yeare 593. Besides it was not Gregories manner to date his Epistles according to the yeare of the Lord. Againe the said priuiledge was signed by the Bishops of Alexandria and Carthage who neuer knew as may wel be thought whether any such Abbey of S. Medard or citie of Soissons was euer built in the world Moreouer they signed in the thickest of a crowde as it were of Italian Bishops Lastly he that shall read in this Gregories Epistles with what spirit of reuerence and humilitie hee speaketh of Emperours will hardly beleeue that euer he armed himselfe with authoritie to giue or to take away Kingdomes He styles himselfe the Emperours vnworthie seruant presuming to speake vnto his Lord when hee knowes himselfe to bee but dust and a very worme Hee professeth subiection vnto the Emperours commaunds euen to the publishing of a certaine Law of the Emperours which in his iudgement somewhat iarred and iustled with Gods Lawe as elsewhere I haue spoken more at large The L. Cardinall next bringeth vpon the stage Iustinian 2. He beeing in some choller with Sergius Bishop of Rome because he would not fauour the erroneous Synode of Canstantinople would haue caused the Bishop to bee apprehended by his Constable Zacharias But by the Romane Militia that is the troupes which the Emperour then had in Italie Zacharias was repulsed and hindered from his designe euen with opprobrious reproachfull tearmes His Lordship must haue my shallownes excused if I reach not his intent by this allegation wherein I see not one word of deposing from the Empire or of any sentence pronounced by the Pope Here are now 712. yeares expired after the birth of Iesus Christ in all which long tract of time the L. Cardinal hath not light vpon any instance which might make for his purpose with neuer so little shew For the example of the Emperour Philippicus by the Cardinal alledged next in sequence belongeth to the yeare 713. And thus lies the historie This Emperour Philippicus Bardanes was a professed enemie to the worshipping of Images and commanded them to be broken in peices In that verie time the Romane Empire was ouerthrown in the West and sore shaken by the Saracens in the East Beside those miseries the Emperour was also incumbred with a ciuil and intestine warre The greatest part of Italie was then seized by the Lombards and the Emperour in Italie had nothing left saue onely the Exarchat of Rauenna and the Dutchie of Rome then halfe abandoned by reason of the Emperours want of forces Pope Constantine gripes this occasion whereon to ground his greatnesse and to shake off the yoke of the Emperour his Lord Vndertakes against Philippicus the cause of Images By a Council declares the Emperour heretique Prohibites his rescripts or coine to be receiued and to goe currant in Rome Forbids his Imperiall statue to bee set vp in the Temple according to auncient custome The tumult groweth to a height The Pope is principall promoter of the tumult In the heate of the tumult the Exarche of Rauenna looseth his life Here see now the mutinie of a subiect against his Prince to pull from him by force and violence a citie of his Empire But who seeth in all this any sentence of deposition from the Imperial dignity Nay the Pope then missed the cushion and was disappointed vtterly of his purpose The cittie of Rome stood firme and continued still in their obedience to the Emperour About some 12. yeeres after the Emperour Leo Isauricus whome the Lord of Perron calleth Iconoclast falles to fight it out at sharpe and to prosecute worshippers of Images with all extremitie Vpon this occasion Pope Gregorie 2. then treading in the steps of his predecessor when he perceiued the citie of Rome to be but weakly prouided of men or munition and the Emperour to haue his hands full in other places found such meanes to make the citie rise in rebellious armes against the Emperour that he made himselfe in short time master thereof Thus far the L. Card. wherunto my answer for satisfaction is that degrading an Emperour from his Imperiall dignitie and reducing a citie to reuolt against her Master that a man at last may carrie the peice himselfe and make himselfe Lord thereof are two seuerall actions of speciall difference If the free-hold of the citie had beene conueied to some other by the Pope depriuing the Emperour as proprietarie thereof this example might haue challenged some credit at least in shew but so to inuade the citie to his owne vse and so to seize on the right and authority of another what is it but open rebellion and notorious ambition For it is farre from Ecclesiasticall censure when the spirituall Pastor of soules forsooth pulles the cloake of a poore sinner from his backe by violence or cuts his purse and thereby appropriates an other mans goods to his priuate vse It is to be obserued withall that when the Emperours were not of sufficient strength and Popes had power to beard and to braue Emperours then these Papall practises were first set on foot This Emperour notwithstanding turned head and peckt againe his Lieutenant entred Rome and Gregorie 3. successor to this Gregorie 2. was glad to honour the same Emperour with style and title of his Lord witnes two seueral Epistles of the said Gregory 3. written to Boniface and subscribed in this forme Dated the tenth Calends of December In the raigne of our most pious and religious Lord Angustus Leo crowned of God the great
Then for King-deposers he frames this answer That by heresie they vnderstand notorious heresie and formerly condemned by sentence of the Church Moreouer in case the Pope hath erred in the fact it is the Clergies part adhering to their King to make remonstrances vnto the Pope and to require the cause may be referred to the iudgement of a full Councill the French Church then and there beeing present Now in this answer the L. Cardinall is of an other minde then Bellarmine his brother Cardinall For he goes thus farre That a Prince condemned by vniust sentence of the Pope ought neuertheles to quit his Kingdome and that his Pastors vniust sentence shall not redound to his detriment prouided that he giue way to the said sentence and shew himselfe not refractarie but stay the time in patience vntill the holy Father shall renounce his error and reuoke his foresaid vniust sentence In which case these two materiall points are to be presupposed The one That he who now hath seized the Kingdome of the Prince displaced will forthwith if the Pope shall solicite and intercede return the Kingdome to the hand of the late possessor The other That in the interim the Prince vniustly deposed shall not neede to feare the bloodie murderers mercilesse blade and weapon But on the other side the Popes power of so large a size as Bellarmine hath shaped is no whit pleasing to the L. Cardinals eie For in case the King should be vniustly deposed by the Pope not well informed he is not of the mind the Kingdome should stoope to the Popes behests but will rather haue the Kingdom to deale by remonstrance and to referre the cause vnto the Council Wherein hee makes the Council to be of more absolute and supreame authoritie then the Pope a straine to which the holy Father will neuer lend his eare And yet doubtles the Councill required in this case must be vniuersall wherein the French for so much as they stand firme for their King and his cause can be no Iudges and in that regard the L. Cardinal requireth onely the presence of the French Church Who seeth not here into what pickle the French cause is brought by this meanes The Bishops of Italie forsooth of Spaine of Sicilie of Germany the subiects of Soueraignes many times at professed or priuy enmitie with France shall haue the cause compromitted referred to their iudgment whether the Kingdome of France shall driue out her Kings and shall kindle the flames of seditious troubles in the very heart and bowels of the Realme But is it not possible that a King may lacke the loue of his owne subiects and they taking the vantage of that occasion may put him to his trumps in his owne Kingdome Is it not possible that calumniations whereby a credulous Pope hath beene seduced may in like manner deceiue some great part of a credulous people Is it not possible that one part of the people may cleaue to the Popes faction an other may hold and stand out for the Kings rightfull cause and ciuil warres may be kindled by the splene of these two sides Is it not possible that his Holinesse will not rest in the remonstrances of the French will yet further pursue his cause And whereas nowe a dayes a Generall Councill cannot be held except it bee called and assembled by the Popes authority is it credible the Pope will take order for the conuocation of a Council by whom he shall be iudged And how can the Pope be President in a Council where himselfe is the partie impleaded and to whom the sifting of his owne sentence is referred as it were to committies to examine whether it was denounced according to Law or against Iustice But in the meane time whilest all these remonstrances and addresses of the Council are on foote behold the Royall Maiesty of the King hangeth as it were by loose gimmals and must stay the iudgement of the Council to whom it is referred Well what if the Councill should happe to be two or three yeeres in assembling and to continue or hold eighteene yeeres like the Council of Trent should not poore France I beseech you be reduced to a very bad plight should shee not be in a very wise and warme taking To be short His Lordships whole speech for the vntying of this knot not onely surmounteth possibility but is stuft with ridiculous toyes This I make manifest by his addition in the same passage If the Pope deceiued in fact shal rashly and vniustly declare the King to be an heretike then the Popes declaration shal not be seconded with actuall deposition vnles the Realme shall consent vnto the Kings deposing What needes any man to be instructed in this doctrine Who doth not knowe that a King so long as he is vpheld and maintained in his Kingdome by his people cannot actually and effectually bee deposed from his Throne Hee that speaketh such language and phrase in effect saith and saith no more then this A King is neuer depriued of his Crowne so long as he can keep his Crowne on his head a King is neuer turn'd and stript naked so long as hee can keepe his cloathes on his backe a King is neuer deposed so long as he can make the stronger partie and side against his enemies in breife a King is King and shal stil remaine King so long as he can hold the possession of his Kingdome and sit fast in his Chaire of Estate Howbeit let vs here by the way take notice of these words vttered by his Lordship That for the deposing of a King the consent of the people must be obtained For by these words the people are exalted aboue the King and are made the Iudges of the Kings deposing But here is yet a greater matter For that Popes may erre in faith it is acknowledged by Popes themselues For some of them haue condemned Pope Honorius for a Monothelite S. Hierome and S. Hilarius and S. Athanasius doe testifie that Pope Liberius started aside and subscribed to Arrianisme Pope Iohn 23. was condemned in the Council of Constance for maintaining there is neither hell nor heauen Diuerse other Popes haue been tainted with error in faith If therefore any Pope hereticall in himselfe shall depose an Orthodoxe King for heresie can it be imagined that he which boasts himselfe to beare all diuine and humane lawes in the priuy coffer or casket of his breast will stoope to the remonstrances of the French and vayle to the reasons which they shall propound though neuer so iustifiable and of neuer so great validitie And how can he that may be infected with damnable heresie when himselfe is not alwaies free from heresie be a iudge of heresie in a King In this question some are of opinion that as a man the Pope may fall into error but not as Pope Very good I demand then vpon the matter wherefore the Pope doth not instruct and reforme the man or
full of danger to Christians liuing vnder heretical or Pagan Princes For make it once knowne to the Emperour of Turkes let him once get neuer so little a smacke of this doctrine that Christians liuing vnder his Empire do take Gods commaundement for obedience to Princes whom they count Infidels to bee onely a prouisionall precept for a time and wait euery houre for all occasions to shake off the yoke of his bondage doubtlesse he will neuer spare with all speed to roote the whole stocke with all the armes and branches of Christians out of his dominions Adde hereunto the L. Cardinalls former determination that possession kept neuer so long by the Turk in his Conquests ouer Christians gaines him not by so long tract of time one inch of prescription and it wil appeare that his Lordship puts the Turkish Emperour in mind and by his instruction leades the said Emperour as it were by the hand to haue no manner of affiance in his Christian subiects and withall to afflict his poore Christians with all sorts of most grieuous and cruell torments In this regard the poore Christians of Graecia and Syria must needes be very little beholden to his Lordship As for my selfe and my Popish subiects to whome I am no lesse then an heretike forsooth am not I by this doctrine of the Cardinall pricked and whetted against my naturall inclination to turne clemencie into rigour seeing that by his doctrine my subiects are made to beleeue they owe me subiection onely by way of prouiso and with waiting the occasion to worke my vtter destruction and final ruine the rather because Turkes miscreants and heretikes are mashalled by the Cardinall in the same ranke and heretikes are counted worse yea more iustly deposeable then Turkes and Infidels as irreligious breakers and violaters of their oath Who seeth not here how great indignitie is offered to me a Christian King paralleld with Infidels reputed worse then a Turke taken for an vsurper of my Kingdomes reckoned a Prince to whom subiects owe a forced obedience by way of prouision vntill they shall haue meanes to shake off the yoke and to bare my temples of the Crowne which neuer can be pulled from the sacred Head but with losse of the head it selfe Touching the warres vndertaken by the French English and Germaines in their expedition for Ierusalem it appeares by the issue and euent of the said warres that God approoued them not for honourable That expedition was a deuise and inuention of the Pope whereby he might come to be infeoffed in the Kingdoms of Christian Princes For then al such of the French English or Germaines as vndertooke the Croisade became the Popes meere vassals Then all robbers by the high way side adulterers cut-throats and base bankerupts were exempted from the Secular and Ciuil power their causes were sped in Consistorian Courts so soone as they had gotten the Crosse on their cassocks or coat-armours and had vowed to serue in the expedition for the Leuant Then for the Popes pleasure and at his commaundement whole countryes were emptied of their Nobles and common souldiers Then they made long marches into the Leuant For what purpose Onely to die vpon the points of the Saracens pikes or by the edge of their barbarous courtelasses battle-axes fauchions and other weapons without any benefit and aduantage to themselues or others Then the Nobles were driuen to sell their goodly Mannors and auncient demaines to the Church-men at vnder prises and low rates the very roote from which a great part of the Church and Church-mens reuenewes hath sprung and growne to so great height Then to bee short his most bountifull Holinesse gaue to any of the riffe-raffe-ranke that would vndertake this expedition into the Holy land a free and full pardon for all his sinnes besides a degree of glory aboue the vulgar in the Celestiall Paradise Military vertue I confesse is commendable and honourable prouided it be employed for iustice and that generous noblenesse of valiant spirits be not vnder a colour and shadow of piety fetcht ouer with some casts or deuises of Italian cunning Now let vs obserue the wisedome of the L. Cardinall through this whole discourse His Lordship is pleased in his Oration to cite certaine few passages of Scripture culls and picks them out for the most gracefull in shewe leaues out of his list whole troupes of honourable witnesses vpon whose testimonie the Popes themselues and their principall adherents doe build his power to depose Kings and to giue order for all Temporall causes Take a sight of their best and most honourable witnesses Peter said to Christ See here two swords and Christ answered It is sufficient Christ said to Peter Put vp thy sword into thy sheath God said to Ieremie I haue established thee ouer Nations and Kingdomes Paul said to the Corinthians The spirituall man discerneth all things Christ said to his Apostles Whatsoeuer yee shall loose vpon earth by which words the Pope hath power forsooth to loose the oath of allegiance Moses said In the beginning God created the heauen and the earth Vpon these passages Pope Boniface 8. grapling and tugging with Philip the Faire doth build his Temporall power Other Popes and Papists auouch the like authorities Christ said of himself All things are giuen to me of my Father and all power is giuen vnto me in heauen and in earth The Deuils said If thou cast vs out send vs into this herd of swine Christ said to his Disciples Yee shall finde the colt of an asse bound loose it and bring it vnto me By these places the aduersaries prooue that Christ disposed of Temporall matters and inferre thereupon why not Christs Vicar as well as Christ himselfe The places and testimonies now following are very expresse In stead of thy fathers shall be thy children thou shalt make them Princes through all the earth Item Iesus Christ not onely commaunded Peter to feed his lambs but said also to Peter Arise kill and eat the pleasant glosse the rare inuention of the L. Cardinall Baronius Christ said to the people If I were lift vp from the earth I wil draw all things vnto me Who lets what hinders this place from fitting the Pope Paul said to the Corinthians Know ye not that we shall iudge the Angels how much more then the things that pertaine vnto this life A little after Haue not wee power to eate These are the chiefe passages on which as vpon maine arches the roofe of Papall Monarchie concerning Temporall causes hath rested for three or foure ages past And yet his Lordship durst not repose any confidence in their firme standing to beare vp the said roofe of Temporall Monarchie for feare of making his auditors to burst with laughter A wise part without question if his Lordship had not defiled his lips before with a more ridiculous argument drawne from the leprosie and drie scab Let vs now by way of comparison behold Iesus Christ
not decided by the Scripture nor by the auncient Church but within the compasse of certaine ages past by the authority of Popes and Councils Then he goes on well and inferres with good reason that in case the point of the Popes power be weakned then the other two points must needs bee shaken and easily ouerthrowne So that he doth confesse the monstrous birth of the breaden-God and the blind Sacrament or vaine phantasie of auricular confession are no more conueyed into the Church by pipes from the springs of sacred Scripture or from the riuers of the auncient Church then that other point of the Popes power ouer Kings and their Crownes Very good For were they indeede deriued from either of those two heads that is to say were they grounded vpon the foundation of the first or second authoritie then they could neuer be shaken by the downefall of the Popes power to depose Kings I am well assured that for vsing so good a reason the world will hold his Lordshippe in suspicion that he still hath some smacke of his fathers discipline and instruction who in times past had the honour to be a Minister of the holy Gospel Howbeit he playeth not faire nor vseth sincere dealing in his proceeding against such as he calls heretikes when he casts in their dish and beares them in hand they frowardly wrangle for the inuisibilitie of the Church in earth For indeed the matter is nothing so They freely acknowledge a visible Church For howsoeuer the assembly of Gods elect doth make a bodie not discernable by mans eye yet we assuredly beleeue and gladly professe there neuer wanted a visible Church in the world yet onely visible to such as make a part of the same All that are without see no more but men they doe not see the said men to be the true Church We beleeue moreouer of the vniuersall Church visible that it is composed of many particular Churches whereof some are better fined and more cleane from lees and dregs then other and withall we deny the purest Churches to be alwaies the greatest and most visible The fourth and last Inconuenience examined THE Lord Cardinall before he looketh into the last Inconuenience vseth a certaine preamble of his owne life past and seruices done to the Kings Henry the III. and IIII. Touching the latter of which two Kings his Lordship saith in a straine of boasting after this manner I by the grace of God or the grace of God by me rather reduced him to the Catholike religion I obtained at Rome his absolution of Pope Clement 8. I reconciled him to the holy See Touching the first of these points I say the time the occasions and the foresaid Kings necessary affaires doe sufficiently testifie that he was induced to change his mind and to alter his religion vpon the strength of other manner of arguments then Theologicall schooles or the perswasions of the L. Cardinals fluent Rhetoricke do vsually afford or could possibly suggest Moreouer who doth not know that in affaires of so high nature and consequence resolutions once taken Princes are to proceede with instructions by a formall course As for the Kings absolution pretended to bee purchased of Clement 8. by the L. Cardinals good seruice it had beene the part of so great a Cardinall for the honour of his King of the Realme and of his owne place to haue buried that peice of his notable seruice in perpetuall silence and in the darke night of eternall obliuion For in this matter of reconcilement it is not vnknowne to the world how shamefully and basely he prostituted the inuiolable dignity of his King when his Lordship representing the person of his King and couching on the ground by way of sufficient penance was glad as I haue noted in the Preface to my Apologie to haue his venerable shoulders gracefully saluted with stripes and reuerently worshipped with bastonados of a Pontificiall cudgell Which gracefull or disgracefull blemish rather it pleased Pope Clement of his rare clemencie to grace yet with a higher degre of spirituall graces in giuing the L. Cardinall then Bishop of Eureux a certaine quantity of holy graines crosses and medals or little plates of siluer or some other mettall to hang about the necke or to be born about against some euil Which treasures of the Popes grace whosoeuer should graciously and reuerently kisse they should without faile purchase vnto themselues a pardon for one hundred yeeres These feate and prety gugawes for children were no doubt a speciall comfort vnto the good Kings heart after his Maiestie had been handsomely basted vpon the L. Bishops backe But with what face can his Lordship brag that he preuailed with Pope Clement for the Kings absolution The late Duke of Neuers not long before had solicited his Holines with all earnest and humble instance to the same purpose howsoeuer the Kings affaires then seeming desperate in the Popes eye hee was licensed to depart for France without any due and gracious respect vnto his errand But so soone as the Pope receiued intelligence of the Kings fortunes growing to the full and the affaires of the League to be in the wane and the principall cities the strongest places of garrison through all France to strike tops and tops gallant and to hale the King then the holy Ghost in good time inspired the holy Father with a holy desire and tender affection to receiue this poore wandring sheep againe into the flocke of Christ and bosome of holy Church His Holinesse had reason For he feared by his obstinate seuerity to prouoke the patience of the French and to driue that Nation as they had many times threatned before then to put in execution their auncient designe which was to shake off the Pope and to set vp some of their owne tribes or kinreds for Patriarch ouer the French Church But let his Lordshippe vouchsafe to search the secret of his owne bosome and no doubt he will not sticke to acknowledge that before hee stirred one foote out of France he had good assurance of the good successe and issue of his honourable embassage Now the hearers thus prepared by his Preface the L. Cardinall proceedeth in his purpose namely to make proofe how this Article of the third Estate wherein doubtfull and questionable matters are mingled and confounded with certaine and indubitable principles doth so debilitate and weaken the sinewes and vertue of any remedy intended for the danger of Kings as it maketh all remedies and receipts prescribed for that purpose to become altogether vnprofitable and without effect He yeelds this reason take it forsooth vpon my warrant a reason full of pith and substance The onely remedie against parricides is to thunder the solemne curses of the Church and the punishments to bee inflicted after death which points if they be not grounded vpon infallible authoritie wil neuer be setled in mens perswasions with any certaine assurance Now in the solemne curses of the Church no man can