Disputes as it is now most necessary Tho God appointed David King yet he was to be chosen by the People 2 Sam. 5. 1. So Solomon 1 Chron. 29. 22. and tho the Crown of right did belong to David's Family yet the People did choose which of the Family best pleased them and that by a double Obligation as may appear by the History of Joas 2 King. 11. 4. and 17. For the King and the People by a Solemn Oath did promise to God that they would keep his Laws both Ecclesiastical and Civil Afterwards there was another Oath between King and People at which time there was a Right in the People i. e. Ordinibus Populi to call him to Account whom they had ordained King if he performed not his Duty Which is made out by Examples If it were lawful for David to defend himself from the Tyranny of Saul and for the City of Libnah the City of the Priests and inferiour Magistrates only to withdraw themselves from the Obedience of Joram the sixth Successor from David because he had forsaken the Lord God of his Fathers which City belonging to the Priests it is very apparent that their case was far different from that of the Idumaeans which hapned at the same time under the same King for it is not likely that the Edomites withdrew themselves from the Subjection of the Israelites that they might serve God whom they never served but hated him and the Israelites but desired to free themselves from thier Subjection But the Priests and Inhabitants of Libnah not being able to serve two Masters God and the Tyrant threw of his Yoak that they might the better serve God will it not naturally follow that the States of a Kingdom may lawfully defend and free themselves from Tyranny The Fact also of the Rulers over Hundreds with the Captains by the Advice of Joida against Athalia and of the Israelites against Amasia 2 King. 14. 19. whom they slew which was not seditiously but lawfully done for it is no where said that Amasius was slain by his Servants as it hapned to his Father Joas and to Ammon the Son of Manasses but by the common consent of Jerusalem and that not treacherously the end of most Tyrants but by publick force and publick Authority not tumultuously but after he had fled to the City Lachish from whence his Body was carried to the Sepulchers of his Fathers which is confirmed for that after his death we do not read of any Inquisition made how he came to be slain or that any Body was punished or called in question for it either by the People or his Children as there was for Ammon and Joas 2 King. 12. 10. 14. 5. 21. 24. but on the contrary in respect to Kingly Dignity and his Fathers Family they chose Azariah his Son King. Hence we may conclude that the chief States or Ordines of Jerusalem had a rightful Power to choose a King out of the Family of David whom they pleased and when elected him either to eject or punish according as he did or did not observe the Laws So the Danes dethroned and imprisoned Christiern their Tyrant King till he dyed and chose his Uncle in his room It is not unknown how Gustavus Erickson freed himself and his Subjects from their Subjection to the Danes and also how they kept their King Captive for Male-Government which they translated to his Brother To say nothing of England and Scotland Poland keeps its ancient Right of choosing their Kings on certain Terms and Conditions with this Salvo That it may be lawful to be quit of their Oath if the King keep not his as it may appear by their Election of Henry Brother to the King of France which agrees with Bishop Valentine Procurator for the King in that Election who in his Oration to the People publickly made and printed commended them for that they did limit and circumscribe the Power of the King by wise Laws So the Venetians whose General Council hath Authority of choosing their Duke reserving Power to themselves of deposing or punishing them if he endeavour or do any thing Tyrannically So the Venetians constitute their Duke not as an Idol but as a Prince and Monarch from whom without any danger of Tyranny all the Lawful Priviledges and Prerogatives of Kings do issue and flow Now as their General Council have all the Authority of choosing him observing their ancient Rites and Customs used therein so the same Council retain to themselves the Right of deposing or punishing him if he govern Tyrannically without which Power all the rest would signifie little So consider that Wise and Prudent Nation of Spain In the Fourth Council of Toledo cap. 74. held 1144. according to Sigibert's Computation and consisted both of Ecclesiasticks and of the States of that Kingdom it is thus recorded viz. Nullus apud nos sub presumptione regnum arripiat c. Let no Man presume to take upon him the Government of this Kingdom no Man move or stir up Sedition among the Citizens no Man design the Destruction of the King but when the King dies let the Princes and Peers of the Nation with the Priests constitute the Successor in Common Council that whilst Unity and Concord are preserved amongst us no Discord may arise But if this Admonition do not quiet our Minds and move our Hearts to endeavour the common Good then hear our Sentence Whoever of us or of all the People of this Nation shall by any Conjuration or Study violate the Sacrament of his Faith or Allegiance which for the State of his Country and of the Gothick Nation or for the Preservation of the Welfare of the King he had promised or plighted or shall compass the Kings death or divest him of his Power or by any Tyrannical Presumption shall attempt or usurp the Crown Let him be Anathema Accursed in the sight of God the Father and his Angels and from the Catholick Church which by Perjury he hath profaned and from all the Company of Christians with all his Associates in iniquity be for ever debarred because it must needs be that the same Punishment is due to all the Complices and Companions in the same Crimes which we again the second time repeat Quod iterum secundo replicamus dicentes quicunque à modo c. And therefore may it please all here present by your consent to confirm this Sentence the third time by the Universal Clergy or People it is pronounced that whoever shall presume against this our definitive Sentence Let him be Anathema Maranatha i. e. Accursed at the coming of the Lord and that he and his Fellows may have their Portion with Judas Iscariot Amen Wherefore we admonish the whole Church of God and the People that no Man presume to condemn this dreadful Sentence but that they keep their plighted Faith towards our glorious King Sisenand c. And we humbly require thee our present King and all future Princes that
the Earth to stay the Righteous with the wicked Gen. 18. 25. or take vengeance on the People for the Sins of the King the Soul that sinneth it shall die Ezek. 18. 4. Every Man shall be put to death for his own Sin Deut. 24 16. was it not rather because the People did not resist or restrain but assisted Saul their King violating the Law of God and wickedly persecuting the Man after Gods own Heart and killing the Priests of the Lord. Saul desiring to inlarge thē Borders of the Tribe of Judah at his entrance into Canaan broke publick Faith with the Gibeonites and destroyed many of them the Children of Israel having sworn unto them by which he broke the third Commandment God being witness to his Covenant with the Gibeonites he broke also the sixth Commandment and so the breach of both Tables God himself would revenge the breach of which Covenant and Oath was justly laid to Saul and his Family Now Saul being dead and David constituted King 2 Sam. 21. 1 2. God sent a Famine in the days of David three Years Year after Year upon the whole Land and David inquired of the Lord and the Lord answered It was for Saul and his bloody House because he slew the Gibeonites which Famine ceased not till David delivered seven Sons of Saul to the Gibeonites whom they hanged in Gibeah of Saul unto the Lord v. 6. 8. But was the Famine over all the Land for Sauls fault only No both King and People were both punished the one for breaking Covenant the other for not resisting and not hindring the King or as being accessary to do this Evil. How came it to pass that God never punisheth the sins of the King upon the People nor the sins of the People upon the King and yet he sent a Famine on the whole Land Saul the chief Actor being Dead and consequently Actio moritur cum persona but because the People suffered so manifest a Sin to be committed by their sinful connivance and used no endeavours to resist or hinder him as they ought Can Punishment by any right be inflicted on any for a Crime whereof they are not guilty Alieni secleris quenquam poenas pati Jura non sinunt 2 Kings 14. 6. Wherein did the Israelites sin if not by tolerating Saul to do as he did when they ought and might have hindred him When Menasseh had polluted the Temple of the Lord and shed Innocent Blood which the Lord would not pardon 2 Kings 24. 4. why did the Lord threaten not only Menasseh but his People with Judgments but because they being under the same Covenants with Manasseh they would not restrain the King from persisting in his wickedness but did connive countenance and assist him in his Impieties 2 Chron. 33. 17. Herod and Pilate condemned Christ the Priests delivered him to Death yet the Curse fell upon the whole Nation and why because the People might have delivered him as well as they did Barrabas and did not but impricated Curses upon themselves and their Children It is the duty of all Nations to take care not only that Criminals be punished but that no Crimes be committed which made Hezekiah pull down the Brazen Serpent though set up by Moses when it came to be abused 2 Kings 18. 4. It being the duty of the People by common consent to hinder Kings as much as in them lies from violating the Law of God and from injuring his Church and Saints and if they do not they are guilty of the same crime and liable to the same punishment Resist they may by opposing words to words force to force stratagem to stratagem always avoiding perfidiousness which is always disallowed and hateful to God and Man. For in War it matters not whether it be managed by open Force or secret Stratagems By People is not meant the Many headed-Monster-Multitude but by the Universal People is to be understood those who have any share in the Government or any Authority from the People conferred upon them by any Laws made by publick consent as inferior Magistrates either chosen by the People or any other way constituted to take care of publick Peace and concerns of the Laws of the Land and worship of God in their several qualifications be they Tribunes of the People Ephori Praefects Praetors Judges Justices of the Peace Constables Captains of Thousands Captains of Hundreds Captains of Fifties or other inferior Officers or Magistrates which are as Consorts of the Empire and are in the vacancy of the publick Sanhedrims Dyets Parliaments c. As it were the Epitome of every Kingdom and Ephori of Kings and Conservators of the Publick Peace thereof to and among whom all the publick concerns of a Nation are referred of which sort in a manner were the Seventy Elders in the Kingdom of Israel among which there was a Chief Priest which did judge de Arduis Regni which were not to be Hobby-horsed in and out by the High Priest according as they would or would not serve a sinister turn and they were chosen out of the Seventy Families which went down into Egypt the Elders of which were first chosen and made Heads over the People Rulers of Thousands Rulers of Hundreds Rulers of Tens and the hard causes they brought unto Moses Exod. 18. 25. We read often in Scripture of all Israel of all Judah and Benjamin c. when in all probability every Individual did not at all times meet of which sort and kind there is in all well constituted Kingdoms several Congregations of the Kingdoms Officers of the Kingdom as the Privy Council Peers Patricians Judges Sessions Assizes Lord Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants Mayors Bayliff's of Towns and Cities as the ordinary Councils and Officers of a Kingdom and as Councils extraordinary chosen out of them all to consider de Arduis Regni which are Officers of the Kingdom and called by several names in several Kingdoms as Dyets Parliaments c. which provide that no detriment come to either Church or State in which tho' every individual be inferior to the King yet the Joynt Body being the Representative of the whole Kingdom is superior and to be preferred before him For as the Council of Basil and Constance decreed that a General Council was superior to the Pope and the Chapter to the Bishop for that they which receive any Authority from any Company of Men must needs be inferior to that Company though he be personally superior to every Individual of that Society So without all doubt Israel which petitioned for and chose Saul from among themselves to be their King as a publick Actor for the common good of them all was superior to Saul When we attribute any power to the People it is to be understood of the Officers Princes Elders Parliaments Dyets that have a share in the Government and in the Legislative Power Take Athaliah 2 Chron. 24. for an Example in which Act the Kingdom was not opposed but
substract from their Princes what they please nostrum est ferre modice Populi voluntates c. It is our duty modestly to submit to the good wills of the People So Tertullian in his Apolegetico to an Ethnick Emperor boklly told him that an Emperor ought not to be called Lord Augustus saith he Imperii formator ne dominum quidem dici se volebat hoc enim Dei est Cognomen c. Augustus was the Founder of the Empire and yet would not be called Lord because it was the Sir name of God Almighty and if he be Father of his Countrey how can he be Lord thereof O but Athanasius the Egyptian Bishop says that it is a most wicked nefarious thing to call Kings of the Earth before Tribunals What then when the Authority of Men though had in great veneration are trumpt up to justify any opinion without producing the grounds and reason of such their opinions it is but magnificum nihil makes a noise and a pudder but neither proves nor convinces Here 's not a word out of Scripture to prove it and in this there 's as little credit to be given to Athanasius as when at the end of his Creed he boldly affirms that that Creed to be the Catholick Faith which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved A Creed which many doubt whether he understood it himself or be yet intelligible to any other however to place the certainty of Salvation upon such mysterious expressions believe it quicunque vult I am sure vulgar capacities cannot reach it and they are the greatest part of Christians So St. Ambrose of a Proconsul and Catechumen called to be Bishop of Milan is brought upon the Stage to serve the same turn either unskilfully or flatteringly interpreting against thee only have I sinned Psal 51. 4. who would have all People subject to the Emperor and yet the Emperor be subject to him How did he treat Theodosius the Emperor forbidding him to come into the Church thereby demonstrating himself to be a Novice i. e. newly come to the faith from being a Proconsul and a Catechumen in the Doctrine of the Gospel and lifted up with pride whom at last prostrate at the Bishops feet having obtained his pardon and restored to the participation of holy duties and standing without the Rails magisterially and sawcily told him O Imperator interiora loca tantum Sacerdotihus attributa quae caeteris contingere non licet In this his demeanour he shewed himself rather a high Priest of Jewish Rites and Customs than a true Bishop of the Gospel who ought to be blameless and not lifted up with Pride lest he fall into the condemnation of the Devil I wonder in what Gospel the Bishop found such authority to be his right to treat Emperors after such a rate This Bishop attributed absolute dominion to the Emperor over others but it seems reserved Power over the Emperor to his own Tribe of Prelates and therefore repulsed Theodosius as subject to him saying Coaequalium hominum es Imperator conservorum unus enim omnium Dominus Rex Creator Very well the Murder is now out that mystery which the subtilty and craft Ecclesiastick had long kept in the dark the indiscreet to say no worse Zeal of this otherwise Pious Learned Bishop hath brought to light And this very St. Ambrose being commanded by Valentinian the Emperor to depart the City of Milan refused to obey and being compassed with a company of Armed People he defended himself and House against the Emperors Commanders and so resisted the Supream Powers against which he had taught As to that place of the Psalmist Psal 51. 4. Against thee only have I sinned whereof before certainly every Individual hath the same right to the same Plea and then I appeal unto and adjure all Ecclesiasticks plainly to tell us if Kings should treat their Wives or Daughters after the same rate whether they do really and truly believe that Kings so treating them as David did Vriah did sin only against God and not offend them also Surely they dare not be so confident as to assert it no offence to them and yet such there are If this be currant Doctrine in this particular it will as certainly hold in all other Sins such Priests as preach such Doctrines do manifest themselves to be Priests of Baal rather than Priests of the most High God. What mischiefs such Preachments have done in the Christian world let the world it self be Judg look upon allthe Courts and lives of all Emperors Kings and Princes Christian and tell me if we may not very probably judge by their Lives and Governments that they think their Authority an Immunity from all obedience to the Laws of God and Man and no wonder when such Parasites and Sycophants Preach and Print such Doctrines That evil Kings are constituted by God be it so and so are all other evils shall there be Evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 6. and yet the same Prophet bids us hate the evil and love the good and therefore for that reason have they God only for their Judge What above all Laws written and unwritten natural and divine and by no Laws to be called to Account by their Subjects and be found guilty though so Wherefore certainly no Law of God forbids it no Law excepts or exempts them Reason Right Justice Religion true Policy and Government reprove all indifferently without distinction or respect of Persons I have not as yet read or known any Law written or unwritten natural or divine brought to forbid the same And why should not reproofs and censures of sin and vices and wrongs be executed against them because forsooth though wicked yet are constituted of God wretched perverse reasonings I have created the Waster to destroy Isaiah 54. 16. Are Destroyers therefore above all Laws Consider well with your selves if the reasons and consequences be not the very same How many Kings in Scripture constituted by God himself have we known punished and that by Men Are not Popes Tyrants in the Church after the same manner constitued by God as prima sedes anemine judicabitur 77 and yet how powerfully can the same men plead for dethroning them and yet plead impunity for Kings Tyrants How ridiculous is it to plead thus against Baal whose Province is conscience only to be removed out of the Church and yet Tyrants over our Bodies Lives and Fortunes Consciences and Liberties must be continued without control If otherwise then Kingdoms and States would be turned topsy turvy be it so if for the better why not If Tyranny and abuse of Power must still continue setled on its Dregs and Lees then Actum est A Dieu to all the happiness of the Governed if things once reduced quo jure quave injuria unto an il habit or figure must they for ever so continue without contradiction God forbids it the same power be it in free States or
JVS REGIMINIS BEING A JUSTIFICATION OF Defensive Arms IN GENERAL And consequently of Our Late Revolutions AND TRANSACTIONS TO BE THE JUST RIGHT OF THE KINGDOM LICENS'D June 17. 1689. J. FRASER LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLXXXIX Benedictus sit prae caeteris Principibus Wilhelmus Henricus D. G. Magnae Britanniae Franciae Hiberniae REX Qualem nec viderunt Avi nec visuri sunt Nepotes qui advenerit ad Auxilium Jehovae contra potentes Papicolas Antichristianos tyrannorum pessimos Benedicta sit prae caeteris Heroinis MARIA Regina conjux Regni Consors Communicatis Imperii fascibus fruantur illi Sceptro Britannico Parentes liberorum laeti Aurei Seculi Authores Macti virtute conculcate Inimicos Religionis Protestantium Legum Anglorum Libertatum Parliamenti ut nomina vestra eant in Mille saecula sciantque posteri filii nascituri surgentes enarrent filiis suis semper fugiant infesti Osores à conspectu vestro Sic comprecatur sic vovet omni supplex humilitate WILHELMUS DENTON M. D. Majestatum vestrarum subditus humillimus ADVERTISEMFNT TO THE READER THIS Treatise hath been written several Years and kept close because the Government would not bear such Prints and might still have lain snug but that I daily see great endeavours by various Prints and Pamphlets casting false glosses upon a good Cause designing to bring us back to Onyons and Garlick and to Popery the worst of Tyranny Among which Prints the History of Passive Obedience at first view seems to carry in it's Front for its better countenancing of Non-resistance the most flourishing shew of our Articles Injunctions Canons Homiles Liturgy both our Universities Bishops Martyrs Confessors c. Which at first view presents a wonderful and an amazing cloud of Witnesses ready to confound the Doctrine of Resistance and Defensive Arms without farther Inquiry and to make good that enslaving Doctrine of Passive Obedience absolutely absolute without reserve of which I shall make but one or two plain Remarks leaving the rest to better Pens 1. Granting all the Quotations to be true yet are they to be understood of private Men and of private Authority only and not of Ordines Regni States and Kingdoms and Commonwealths 2. Calvin though quoted in this History as an Assertor of such Passive Obedience of which he Treats very Learnedly giving it all its just Allowances and Dimensions yet concludes notwithstanding all those specious Expressions which seem to favour Passive Obedience That he is to be understood always speaking of private Men For if there be at this time any Magistrates for the behalf of the People as the Ephori amongst the Lacedaemonians or Tribunes at Rome as the Demarchi at Athens or the same Power also which peradventure as things are now the Estates have in every Realm when they hold their Dyets Parliaments principle Assemblies he doth not forbid them according to their office to withstand the outragious licentiousness of Kings And farther he affirms That if they wink at Kings wilfully ranging over and treading down the poor Commonalty their dissembling is not without wicked breach of Faith because they deceitfully betray the Liberty of the People whereof they know themselves to be Protectors appointed by the Ordinance of God. Calvin Instit lib. 4. c. 20. par 32. Likewise his Quotation of Dr. Jackson in the Chapter of the Bounds of Christian Obedience will serve his turn as little as that out of Calvin for in the same Chapter p. 929. it being objected to him by the Author of the Prince and Prelate That many besides the Separatists and Enthusiasts many of note in reformed Churches have published in writing that Kings and Princes may in some cases be deposed which saith Dr. Jackson if spoken universally their Doctrine is false and for such condemned by our Church if thus they taught indefinitely only as that some Kings some chief Magistrates may be deposed he knows no Church that justly condemns them But for Divines to determine or dispute what Princes in particular may be deposed or in what cases is matter without their Commission unless commanded by their Princes p. 927. And I think he knew the Doctrine of this and other Churches as well as the Author of this History So Bishop Jewel explains St Paul and himself in the very same Quotation viz. That whosoever striketh with the Sword by private Authority shall perish with the Sword which Opinion if rightly considered is the sense or meaning of all or most of this Historians Quotations and are so to be understood Bishop Bilson how slightly soever represented by this Historian was as profound a Scholar and Divine as ever sate upon that See in his Book of Christian Subjection and Unchristian Rebellion treats of nothing else but of Passive Obedience and Non-resistance at large and no Man better or more solidly in defence of them yet will not rashly pronounce all that resist to be Rebels If a King should go about to subject the Kingdom to a Foreign Realm which happily is not much dissimular to our present constitution and transactions to change the Form of a Commonwealth from Impery to Tyranny or neglect the Laws established by common consent of Prince and People to execute his own pleasure in those and other cases if the Nobles and Commons join together to defend their Ancient Liberties Regiment and Laws they may not well be accounted Rebels very modestly expressed p. 520. And more at large to the same purpose may be read in several places of this Book which Opinion of these great and learned Men are a justification of the present Transactions of our Ordines Regni who have so considerable a share in the Government that no Law can or ought to be made without them And I may truly say without prejudice that those very Authors being all of the Historians own quoting have written as profoundly and solidly for Passive Obedience and Non-resistance as it will bear or that all his other Quotations do or can make out And Bishop Bilson that great Scholar and Divine printed his Book 1585. and dedicated it to Queen Elizabeth of ever blessed Memory whose happy Government was such as she did not think such Resistance unlawful and therefore she soon promoted him to be Bishop of Worcester Anno 1595. and soon after viz. Anno 1597. translated him to Winchester And I think these Men understood the Doctrines Articles Canons Liturgy Homilies Universities c. of this and of other Churches abroad as well as this Historian or as any of the other Authors as he hath named Besides Queen Elizabeth did not only approve the publication of such Doctrines in her Government but being willing to avoid the Curse that bitter Curse of Meroz on her and her Kingdom she gave this farther Testimony and Demonstration by her owning and countenancing such Resistance and by her enâ—ring into Contract with the Protestants of France against the Mighty by sending Mony and
the yoak of such Bondage and Impery is likewise according to the Law of Nature virtus vocatur The People for certain were before there could be any King and consequently Kings must be made by the People and therefore are superior to them in some sense according to quicquid efficit tale est magis tale a rule as true in Politicks as in Naturals Produce who can any one Law of God and Nature or any one Rule of Natural Justice by which Usurpers Tyrants perverters of Law and Justice are to be free of punishment and yet the Inferior People to be subject to punishments for Crimes of the same nature The Reason and Law of Government be it Monarchical or Republick is equally natural Kings by Nature are no more Sacred than those seated in the Government of Republicks who nemine contradicente may and ought to be punished and why not Kings when transgressors their Power being given them by the same Persons and for the very self-same ends and purposes the good of the governed To assert the Oaths and Pacts of Kings with their People to be obliging and yet to be unaccountable and unreprovable for any breach of them is with the Cow to give good Milk and then kick it down at one and the same moment to make good Laws and yet to abolish and null them which ought to have dominion over both Kings and People Look into Ancient Histories which strut with examples of Governors Kings and others brought to Judgment and condemned by the People Lacedaemonians Grecians Romans c. formal Governments Victima haud ulla Amplior Potest magisque opima mactari Jovi Quam Rex Iniquus Senec. Frag. See the Edict of Theodosius and Valens Christian Emperors Codex 1. tit 14. De Authoritate Juris Imperatorum pendet Authoritas The Majesty therefore of Cesars must submit to the Laws on which they depend Whoever consults and considers the very severe Laws of the Romans Grecians Lacedaemonians Carthaginians Athenians against the Licentiousness Oppressions Tyranny Insolencies c. of their Emperors and other Magistrates they will find that they were made with all the Sincerity Care Caution and Wisdom that the Understandings and Wisdoms of those several Countries and Ages could afford and that the breach of them were very severely punished Valerius Publicola Collegue of Junius Brutus after their Kings were banished made a Law That when Tyrants by reason of their armed Soldiers could not be brought to Judgment it should be lawful for any Man to resist them by any means and afterwards to give an account of their so doing Such like Appeals and Examples are common amongst most Nations Ambiorix King of the Gauls confessed that the Multitude had no less Power over him than he had over them Tacitus writes of the Germans Nec Germanorum Regibus infinita aut libera potestas erat de minoribus rebus Principes consultant de majoribus omnes Rex aut Princeps auditur Authoritate suadendi magis quam jubendi potestate si displicuit sententia fremitu aspernatur That their Kings had no Infinite or Arbitrary Power c. It is not unworthy our consideration to recount with how great severity and strictest Discipline of Laws and Ordiances both of the Senate and Common Council the Romans did provide against the exorbitant and imperious licentious Government of their Kings beyond all bounds of reason After the expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus the last Roman King all the Citizens of Rome assembled and concluded that their Government under one whom they called King should for the future be settled on two whom at first they called Praetores afterwards Judices then Consules P. Valerius who was chosen Consul with L. Brutus made a Law That it should be lawful for any Man to Appeal from any Magistrate whomsoever to the People esteeming such Appeals as Bridles and Curbs to licentious Governors And some do contend that Appeals during the Reigns of their Kings from them to the People were in use before and that it was so provided by their Pontifical Books which Law was re-inforced again by Muraena the Consul quo tempore Sora Alba coliniae deductae sunt Afterward when the Decemvirate Impery was annulled the People of Rome the better to provide against Arbitrary Government besides the Tribunes of the People who had the Protectorship of the Liberties and Goods of the People made a new Law That if any should create a Magistrate without the intercession of the People or their Tribunes it should be lawful for to kill him Which Duellius the Consul soon after renewed by an other Constitution That whoever created a Magistrate without the benefit of Appeals his Back and Head should pay for it Notwithstanding all these severities yet the Nobles did oppress the Commons and therefore as the only remedy thereof M. Valerius before the first Punick War made a Law called Lex Valeria which among other things did provide That whosoever appealed from another Magistrate should not be punished either Head or Back But yet the Liberty and Goods of the People not being sufficiently secured but that the more mighty did oppress the less powerful the â—icher the poorer M. Valerius the Consul did a third time promulgate a Law with grievous punishments to those who should prohibit Appeals to the greater Tribunal in so much that those who were violently oppressed and condemned he gave the right of Appeal to the People And yet after a few years Caligula on pretence that Suits should not be spun out and wier-drawn too long did inhibite many Appeals Although Appeals the chief protection of the People from Injuries was ratified by so many Laws and yet proved insufficient thereunto therefore Martius Censor made a Law in behalf of the People That no Man should be preferred twice to those higher places And then Fab. Maximus in favour of the People ordained That no Man should in ten years be admitted to the same Place and Authority Then L. Sylla by a Law forbade any Man under great punishments to be a Praetor before he had been a Quaestor or Consul before he had been a Praetor and the same Man not to be advanced again into the same place within ten years deeming the frequent exaltations into Powers would make the Powers not to be endured which Law was afterwards extended unto twenty years There were many Acts also of the Common Council extant by which it was provided That no Man should bear two Magistracies especially that of the Curulis in one year neither the Plebaeian nor the Patritian And all Magistrates were before admittance to be sworn and not to stay therein above five Days except they were sworn and if they carried themselves proudly and insolently in their Government they were to be cast out the first of such was Tarquinius Superbus afterwards Kingship being banished Sergius and Virginius Tribune Consuls and Cn. Manlius and Servilius Cepio Pro-consuls the Senate for their Male-Government caused