sit faster on their heads then to be stirred by any Papal power whatsoeuer and yet saith withall the Pope winketh at the French by his toleration to hold this dogmatical point for problematicall And by this meanes the Martyrdome that he affecteth in this cause will prooue but a problematicall Martyrdome whereof question might growe very well whether it were to be mustered with grieuous crimes or with phreneticall passions of the braine or with deserued punishments Fiftly hee denounceth Anathema dischargeth maledictions like haile-shot against parricides of Kings and yet elsewhere he layes himselfe open to speake of Kings onely so long as they stand Kings But who doth not know that a King deposed is no longer King And so that limme of Satan which murthered Henrie III. then vn-king'd by the Pope did not stabbe a King to death Sixtly he doth not allowe a King to be made away by murder and yet hee thinkes it not much out of the way to take away all meanes whereby hee might be able to stand in defence of his life Seuenthly he abhorreth killing of Kings by apposted throat-cutting for feare least bodie and soule should perish in the same instant and yet he doth not mislike their killing in a pitcht field and to haue them slaughtered in a set battaile For he presupposeth no doubt out of his charitable mind that by this meanes the soule of a poore King so dispatched out of the way shall instantly flie vp to heauen Eightly hee saith a King deposed retaineth still a certaine internall habitude and politike impression by vertue and efficacie whereof hee may being once reformed and become a new man be restored to the lawfull vse and practise of Regality Whereby hee would beare vs in hand that when a forraine Prince hath inuaded and rauenously seised the Kingdome into his hands he will not onely take pitty of his predecessor to saue his life but will also prooue so kind-hearted vpon sight of his repentance to restore his kingdome without fraude or guile Ninthly he saith euery where in his Discourse that he dealeth not in the cause otherwise then as a problematicall discourser and without any resolution one way or other and yet with might and maine he contends for the opinion that leaues the States and Crownes of Kings controulable by the Pope refutes obiections propounds the authoritie of Popes and Councils by name the Lateran Councill vnder Innocent III. as also the consent of the Church And to crosse the Churches iudgment is in his opinion to bring in schisme and to leaue the world without a Church for many hundred yeares together which to my vnderstanding is to speake with resolution and without all hesitation Tenthly he acknowledgeth none other cause of sufficient validitie for the deposing of a King besides heresie apostasie and infidelitie neuertheles that Popes haue power to displace Kings for heresie and apostasie he prooueth by examples of Kings whom the Pope hath curbed with deposition not for heresie but for matrimoniall causes for ciuill pretences and for lacke of capacitie Eleuenthly he alledgeth euerie where passages as well of holy Scripture as of the Fathers and moderne histories but so impertinent and with so little truth as hereafter we shall cause to appeare that for a man of his deepe learning and knowledge it seemeth not possible so to speake out of his iudgement Lastly whereas all this hath beene hudled and heaped together into one masse to currie with the Pope yet he suffereth diuerse points to fall from his lips which may well distast his Holinesse in the highest degree As by name where he prefers the authoritie of the Councill before that of the Pope and makes his iudgement inferiour to the iudgement of the French as in fit place hereafter shall be shewed Againe where he representeth to his hearers the decrees of Popes and Councils alreadie passed concerning this noble subiect and yet affirmes that he doth not debate the question but as a Questionist and without resolution As if a Cardinall should be afraid to be positiue and to speake in peremptory straines after Popes and Councils haue once decided the Question Or as if a man should perorate vpon hazard in a cause for the honour whereof he would make no difficulty to suffer Martyrdome Adde hereunto that his Lordshippe hath alwaies taken the contrary part heretofore and this totall must needs arise that before the third Estate his lippes looked one way and his conscience another All these points by the discourse which is to followe and by the ripping vp of his Oration which by Gods assistance J will vndertake tending to the reproach of Kings and the subuersion of Kingdomes I confidently speake it shall be made manifest Yet doe I not conceiue it can any way make for my honour to enter the lists against a Cardinall For J am not ignorant how far a Cardinals Hat commeth vnder the Crowne Scepter of a King For wel I wot vnto what sublimity the Scripture hath exalted Kings when it styles them Gods Whereas the dignitie of a Cardinall is but a late vpstart inuention of man as I haue elswhere prooued But I haue imbarqued my selfe in this action mooued thereunto first by the common interest of Kings in the cause it selfe Then by the L. Cardinal who speaketh not in this Oration as a priuate person but as one representing the body of the Clergie and Nobilitie by whom the cause hath beene wonne and the garland borne away from the third Estate Againe by mine owne particular because he is pleased to take me vp for a sower of dissention and a persecutor vnder whom the Church is hardly able to fetch her breath yea for one by whome the Catholikes of my Kingdome are compelled to endure all sorts of punishment and withall he tearmes this Article of the third Estate a monster with a fishes tayle that came swimming out of England Last of all by the present state of France because Fraunce beeing nowe reduced to so miserable tearmes that it is nowe become a crime for a Frenchman to stand for his King it is a necessary duty of her neighbours to speake in her cause and to make triall whether they can put life into the truth now dying and readie to bee buried by the power of violence that it may resound and ring againe from remote regions I haue no purpose once to touch many prettie toyes which the ridges of his whole booke are sowed withall Such are his allegations of Pericles Agesilaus Aristotle Minos the Druides the French Ladies Hannibal Pindarus and Poeticall fables All resembling the red and blew flowers that pester the corne when it standeth in the fields where they are more noysome to the growing croppe then beautifull to the beholding eye Such pettie matters nothing at all beseemed the dignity of the Assembly and of the maine subiect or of the Orator himselfe For it was no Decorum to enter the Stage with a Pericles in his mouth but with
their Royall Thrones wherefore takes he more vpon him ouer Kings then ouer priuate persons wherefore shal the sacred heads of Kings be more churlishly vnciuilly and rigorously handled then the hoods of the meanest people Here the L. Cardinal in stead of a direct answer breakes out of the lists alleadging cleane from the purpose examples of heretikes punished not by the Pope but by the ciuill Magistrate of the Countrey But Bellarmine speakes to the point with a more free and open heart he is absolute and resolute in this opinion that his Holinesse hath plenarie power to dispose all Temporall estates and matters in the whole world I am confident saith Bellarmine and I speake it with assurance that our Lord Iesus Christ in the dayes of his mortalitie had power to dispose of all Temporall things yea to strippe Soueraign Kings and absolute Lords of their Kingdomes and Seignories and without all doubt hath granted and left euen the same power vnto his Vicar to make vse thereof whensoeuer he shall thinke it necessary for the saluation of soules And so his Lordship speaketh without exception of any thing at all For who doth not knowe that Iesus Christ had power to dispose no lesse of priuate mens possessions then of whole Realmes and Kingdomes at his pleasure if it had been his pleasure to display the ensignes of his power The same fulnesse of power is likewise in the Pope In good time belike his Holinesse is the sole heire of Christ in whole and in part The last Lateran Council fineth a Laic that speaketh blasphemie for the first offence if he be a gentleman at 25. ducats and at 50. for the second It presupposeth and taketh it for graunted that the Church may rifle and ransacke the purses of priuate men and cast lots for their goods The Councill of Trent diggeth as deepe for the same veine of gold and siluer It ordaines That Emperours Kings Dukes Princes and Lords of cities castles and territories holding of the Church in case they shall assigne any place within their limits or liberties for the duell between two Christians shal be depriued of the said citie castle or place where such duell shall be performed they holding the said place of the Church by any kind of tenure that all other Estates held in fee where the like offence shall be committed shall foorthwith fall and become forfeited to their immediate and next Lords that all goods possessions and estates as well of the combatants themselues as of their seconds shall be confiscate This Council doth necessarily presuppose it lieth in the hand and power of the Church to dispose of all the lands and estates held in fee throughout all Christendome because the Church forsooth can take from one and giue vnto an other all estates held in fee whatsoeuer as well such as hold of the Church as of secular Lords and to make ordinances for the confiscation of all priuate persons goods By this Canon the Kingdome of Naples hath need to looke well vnto it selfe For one duell it may fal into the Exchecker of the Romane Church because that Kingdome payeth a Reliefe to the Church as a Royaltie or Seignorie that holdeth in fee of the said Church And in France there is not one Lordship not one Mannor not one farme which the Pope by this means cannot shift ouer to a new Lord. His Lordship therefore had carried himselfe and the cause much better if in stead of seeking such idle shifts he had by a more large assertion maintained the Popes power to dispose of priuate mens possessions with no lesse right and authoritie then of Kingdomes For what colour of reason can be giuen for making the Pope Lord of the whole and not of the parts for making him Lord of the forrest in grosse and not of the trees in parcell for making him Lord of the whole house and not of the parlour or the dining chamber His Lordship alleadgeth yet an other reason but of no better weight Betweene the power of priuate owners ouer their goods and the power of Kings ouer their estates there is no little difference For the goods of priuate persons are ordained for their owners and Princes for the benefit of their Common-wealths Heare me now answer If this Cardinal-reason hath any force to inferre that a King may lawfully be depriued of his Kingdome for heresie but a priuate person cannot for the same crime bee turned out of his mansion house then it shall follow by the same reason that a Father for the same cause may be depriued of all power ouer his children but a priuate owner cannot be depriued of his goods in the like case because goods are ordained for the benefit and comfort of their owners but fathers are ordained for the good and benefit of their children But most certaine it is that Kings representing the image of God in earth and Gods place haue a better and closer seat in their chaires of Estate then any priuate persons haue in the saddle of their inheritances and patrimonies which are daily seene for sleight causes to flit and to fall into the hands of newe Lords Whereas a Prince beeing the Head cannot be loosed in the proper ioynt nor dismounted like a cannon when the carriage thereof is vnlockt without a sore shaking and a most grieuous dislocation of all the members yea without subuerting the whole bodie of the State whereby priuate persons without number are inwrapped together in the same ruine euen as the lower shrubs and other brush-wood are crushed in peices altogether by the fall of a great oake But suppose his Lordships reason were somewhat ponderous and solide withall yet a King which would not be forgotten is indowed not onely with the Kingdome but also with auncient desmenes and Crowne-lands for which none can be so simple to say the King was ordained and created King which neuerthelesse he looseth when he looseth his Crowne Admit againe this reason were of some pith to make mighty Kings more easily deposeable then priuate persons from their patrimonies yet all this makes nothing for the deriuing and fetching of deposition from the Popes Consistorie What hee neuer conferred by what right or power can hee claime to take away But see here no doubt a sharpe and subtile difference put by the L. Cardinall betweene a Kingdome and the goods of priuate persons Goods as his Lordship saith are without life they can be constrained by no force by no example by no inducement of their owners to loose eternall life Subiects by their Princes may Now I am of this contrary beleefe That an hereticall owner or master of a family hath greater power and means withall to seduce his owne seruants and children then a Prince hath to peruert his owne subiects and yet for the contagion of heresie and for corrupt religion children are not remooued from their parents nor seruants are taken away from their masters Histories abound with examples of most flourishing
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
A REMONSTRANCE OF THE MOST GRATIOVS KING IAMES I. KING OF GREAT BRITTAINE FRANCE and IRELAND Defender of the Faith c. FOR THE RIGHT OF KINGS AND THE independance of their Crownes AGAINST AN ORATION OF the most Illustrious Card. of PERRON pronounced in the Chamber of the third Estate Ian. 15. 1615. Translated out of his Maiesties French Copie PRINTED BY CANTRELL LEGGE Printer to the Vniuersitie of Cambridge 1616. THE PREFACE I Haue no humour to play the Curious in a forraine Common-wealth or vnrequested to carrie any hand in my neighbours affaires It hath more congruitie with Royall dignity wherof God hath giuen me the honour to prescribe Lawes at home for my Subiects rather then to furnish forraine Kingdoms and people with counsels Howbeit my late entire affection to K. Henrie IV. of happy memorie my most honoured brother and my exceeding sorrow for the most detestable parricide acted vpon the sacred person of a King so complete in all heroicall and Princely vertues as also the remembrance of my owne dangers incurred by the practise of conspiracies flowing from the same source hath wrought me to sympathize with my friends in their grieuous occurrents no doubt so much more daungerous as they are lesse apprehended and felt of Kings themselues euen when the danger hangeth ouer their owne heads Vpon whome in case the power and vertue of my aduertisments be not able effectually to worke at least many millions of children and people yet vnborne shall beare me witnes that in these daungers of the highest nature and straine I haue not bin defectiue and that neither the subuersions of States nor the murthers of Kings which may vnhappily betide hereafter shal haue so free passage in the world for want of timely aduertisment before For touching my particular my rest is vp that one of the maynes for which God hath advanced me vpon the loftie stage of the supreme Throne is that my words vttered from so eminent a place for Gods honour most shamefully traduced and vilified in his owne Deputies and Lieutenants might with greater facilitie be conceiued Now touching France faire was the hope which I conceiued of the States assembled in Parliament at Paris That calling to minde the murthers of their Noble Kings and the warres of the League which followed the Popes fulminations as when a great storme of haile powreth down after a thunder-cracke and a world of writings addressed to iustifie the parricides the dethronings of Kings would haue ioyned heads hearts and hands together to hammer out some apt and wholsome remedie against so many fearefull attempts and practises To my hope was added no little ioy when I was giuen to vnderstand the third Estate had preferred an Article or Bill the tenor and substance whereof was concerning the meanes whereby the people might be vnwitched of this pernicious opinion That Popes may tosse the French King his Throne like a tennis ball and that killing of Kings is an act meritorious to the purchase of the crowne of Martyrdome But in fine the proiect was encountred with successe cleane contrary to expectation For this Article of the third Estate like a sigh of libertie breathing her last serued only so much the more to inthrall the Crowne and to make the bondage more grieuous and sensible then before Euen as those medicines which worke no ease to the patient doe leaue the disease in much worse tearmes so this remedie inuented and tendred by the third Estate did onely exasperate the present maladie of the State for so much as the operation and vertue of the wholesome remedie was ouermatched with peccant humours then stirred by the force of thwarting and crossing opposition Yea much better had it beene the matter had not beene stirred at all then after it was once on foote and in motion to giue the Truth leaue to lie gasping and sprawling vnder the violence of a forraine faction For the opinion by which the Crownes of Kings are made subiect vnto the Popes will and power was then avowed in a most Honourable Assemblie by the averment of a Prelate in great authoritie and of no lesse learning He did not plead the cause as a priuate person but as one by representation that stood for the whole bodie of the Clergie Was there applauded and seconded with approbation of the Nobilitie No resolution taken to the contrarie or in barre to his plea. After praises and thankes from the Pope followed the printing of his eloquent harangue or Oration made in full Parliament a set discourse maintaining Kings to be deposeable by the Pope if he speake the word The saide Oration was not onely printed with the Kings priuiledge but was likewise addressed to me by the author and Orator himselfe who presupposed the reading thereof would forsooth driue me to say Lord Cardinall in this high subiect your Honour hath satisfied me to the full All this poysed in the ballance of equall iudgement why may not I truly and freely affirme the said Estates assembled in Parliament haue set Royall Maiestie vpon a doubtfull chance or left it resting vpon vncertain tearmes and that now if the doctrine there maintained by the Clergie should beare any pawme it may lawfully be doubted who is King in France For I make no question he is but a titular King that raigneth onely at an others discretion and whose Princely head the Pope hath power to bare of his Regall Crowne In temporall matters how can one be Soveraigne that may be fleeced of all his temporalties by any superiour power But let men at a neere sight marke the pith and marrowe of the Article proposed by the third Estate and they shall soone perceiue the skilfull Architects thereof aymed onely to make their King a true and reall King to be recognised for Soueraigne within his own Realme and that killing their King might no longer passe the muster of works acceptable to God But by the vehement instance and strong current of the Clergie and Nobles this was borne down as a pernicious Article as a cause of schisme as a gate which openeth to all sorts of heresies yea there it was maintained tooth and nayle that in case the doctrine of this Article might go for currant doctrine it must follow that for many ages past in sequence the Church hath bin the kingdome of Antechrist and the synagogue of Satan The Pope vpon so good issue of the cause had reason I trow to addresse his letters of triumph vnto the Nobilitie and Clergie who had so farre approoued themselues faithfull to his Holines and to vaunt withall that he had nipped Christian Kings in the Crowne that he had giuen them checke with mate through the magnanimous resolution of this couragious Nobilitie by whose braue making head the third Estate had bin so valiantly forced to giue ground In a scornefull reproach he qualified the Deputies of the third Estate nebulones ex foece plebis a sort or a number of knaues the very dregges
of the base vulgar a packe of people presuming to personate well affected Subiects and men of deepe vnderstanding and to read their masters a learned lecture Now it is no wonder that in so good an office and loyall carriage towards their King the third Estate hath outgone the Clergie For the Clergie denie themselues to haue any ranke among the Subiects of the King they stand for a Soueraigne out of the kingdome to whome as to the Lord Paramount they owe suit and seruice they are bound to aduance that Monarchie to the bodie whereof they properly appertaine as parts or members as elswhere I haue written more at large But for the Nobilitie the Kings right arme to prostitute and set as it were to sale the dignitie of their King as if the arme should giue a thrust vnto the head I say for the Nobilitie to hold and maintaine euen in Parliament their King is liable to deposition by any forraine power or Potentate may it not passe among the strangest miracles and rarest wonders of the world For that once granted this consequence is good and necessarie That in case the King once lawfully deposed shal stand vpon the defensiue and hold out for his right he may then lawfully be murthered Let me then here freely professe my opinion and this it is That now the French Nobilitie may seeme to haue some reason to disrobe themselues of their titles and to transferre them by resignation vnto the third Estate For that bodie of the third Estate alone hath carried a right noble heart in as much as they could neither be tickled with promises nor terrified by threatnings from resolute standing to those fundamentall points reasons of State which most concerne the honor of their King and the securitie of his person Of all the Clergie the man that hath most abandoned or set his owne honour to sale the man to whome France is least obliged is the Lord Cardinall of Perron a man otherwise inferiour to few in matter of learning and in the grace of a sweete style This man in two seuerall Orations whereof the one was pronounced before the Nobilitie the other had audience before the third Estate hath set his best wits on worke to draw that doctrine into all hatred and infamie which teacheth Kings to be indeposeable by the Pope To this purpose he tearmes the same doctrine a breeder of schismes a gate that openeth to make way and to giue entrance vnto all heresies in briefe a doctrine to be held in so high a degree of detestation that rather then he and his fellow-Bishops will yeild to the signing thereof they will be contented like Martyrs to burne at a stake At which resolution or obstinacie rather in his opinion I am in a manner amased more then I can be mooued for the like brauado in many other for as much as he was many yeares together a follower of the late King euen when the King followed a contrarie Religion and was deposed by the Pope as also because not long before in a certaine Assemblie holden at the Iacobins in Paris he withstood the Popes Nuntio to his face when the said Nuntio laboured to make this doctrin touching the Popes temporall Soueraigntie passe for an Article of faith But in both Orations he singeth a contrarie song and from his owne mouth passeth sentence of condemnation against his former course and profession I suppose not without solide iudgement as one that herein hath well accommodated himselfe to the times For as in the raigne of the late King he durst not offer to broach this doctrine such was his fore-wit so now he is bold to proclaime and publish it in Parliament vnder the raigne of the said Kings sonne whose tender yeares and late succession to the Crowne do make him lie the more open to iniuries and the more facill to bee circumuented Such is nowe his after wisedome Of these two Orations that made in presence of the Nobility he hath for feare of incurring the Popes displeasure cautelously suppressed For therein hee hath beene somewhat prodigall in affirming this doctrine maintained by the Clergie to be but problematicall and in taking vpon him to auouch that Catholikes of my Kingdome are bound to yeeld me the honour of obedience Wheras on the other side he is not ignorant how this doctrine of deposing Princes and Kings the Pope holdeth for meerely necessarie and approoueth not by any meanes allegiance to be performed vnto me by the Catholikes of my Kingdome Yea if credit may be giuen vnto the abridgement of his other Oration published wherein he parallels the Popes power in receiuing honours in the name of the Church with the power of the Venetian Duke in receiuing honours in the name of that most renowned Republike no meruaile that when this Oration was dispatched to the presse hee commaunded the same to be gelded of this clause and other like for feare of giuing his Holinesse any offensiue distast His pleasure therefore was and content withall that his Oration imparted to the third Estate should bee put in print and of his courtesie hee vouchsafed to addresse vnto mee a copy of the same Which after I had perused I forthwith well perceiued what and how great discrepance there is betweene one man that perorateth from the ingenuous and sincere disposition of a sound heart and an other that flaunteth in flourishing speech with inward checkes of his owne conscience For euery where he contradicts himselfe and seemes to bee afraid least men should picke out his right meaning First he graunts this Question is not hitherto decided by the holy Scriptures or by the Decrees of the auncient Church or by the analogie of other Ecclesiasticall proceedings and neuerthelesse he confidently doth affirme that whosoeuer maintaine this doctrine to be wicked and abhominable that Popes haue no power to put Kings by their supreame Thrones they teach men to beleeue there hath not beene any Church for many ages past and that indeede the Church is the very Synagogue of Antechrist Secondly hee exhorts his hearers to hold this doctrine at least for problematicall and not necessarie and yet herein he calls them to all humble submission vnto the iudgement of the Pope and Clergie by whome the cause hath beene alreadie put out of all question as out of all hunger and cold Thirdly he doth auerre in case this Article be authorized it makes the Pope in good consequence to bee the Antechrist and yet he graunts that many of the French are tolerated by the Pope to dissent in this point from his Holinesse prouided their doctrine be not proposed as necessarie and materiall to faith As if the Pope in any sort gaue toleration to hold any doctrine contrarie to his owne and most of all that doctrine which by consequence inferres himselfe to be the Antechrist Fourthly he protesteth forwardnesse to vndergoe the flames of Martyrdome rather then to signe this doctrine which teacheth Kings Crowns to
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
man who by attempting an act which neuer any man had the heart or face to attempt before hath condemned all his predecessors of cowardise or at least of ignorance what is it else but euen to send vs to the schoole of mighty robbers and to seeke to correct and reforme ancient vertues by late vices Which Otho Frisingensis calling into his owne priuate consideration he durst freely professe that he had not reade of any Emperour before this Henrie the 4. excommunicated or driuen out of his Imperiall Throne and Kingdome by the cheife Bishop of Rome But if this quarrell may bee tryed and fought out with weapons of examples I leaue any indifferent reader to iudge what examples ought in the cause to be of cheifest authoritie and weight whether late examples of Kings deposed by Popes for the most part neuer taking the intended effect or auncient examples of Popes actually and effectually thrust out of their thrones by Emperous and Kings The Emperour Constantius expelled Liberius Bishop of Rome out of the citie banished him as farre as Beroe and placed Foelix in his roome Indeed Constantius was an Arrian and therein vsed no lesse impious then vniust proceeding Neuertheles the auncient Fathers of the Church do not blame Constantius for his hard and sharpe dealing with a cheife Bishop ouer whom he had no lawfull power but onely as an enemie to the Orthodoxe faith and one that raged with extreame rigor of persecution against innocent beleeuers In the raigne of Valentinian the 1. and yeare of the Lord 367. the contention between Damasus and Vrsicinus competitors for the Bishoppricke filled the cittie of Rome with a bloody sedition in which were wickedly and cruelly murdered 137. persons To meete with such turbulent actions Honorius made a law extant in the Decretalls the words whereof be these If it shall happen henceforth by the temeritie of competitors that any two Bishops be elected to the See wee straitly charge and command that neither of both shall sit in the said See By vertue of this Law the same Honorius in the yere 420. expelled Bonifacius and Eulalius competitors and Antipopes out of Rome though not long after he reuoked Bonifacius and settled him in the Papall See Theodoric the Goth King of Italie sent Iohn Bishop of Rome Embassador to the Emperour Iustinian called him home againe and clapt him vp in the close prison where hee starued to death By the same King Peter Bishop of Altine was dispatched to Rome to heare the cause and examine the processe of Pope Symmachus then indited and accused of sundry crimes King Theodatus about the yeare 537. had the seruice of Pope Agapetus as his Embassadour to the Emperour Iustinian vpon a treatie of peace Agapetus dying in the time of that seruicc Syluerius is made Bishop by Theodatus Not long after Syluerius is driuen out by Belisarius the Emperour his Lieutenant and sent into banishment After Syluerius next succeedeth Vigilius who with currant coine purchased the Popedome of Belisarius The Emperour Iustinian sends for Vigilius to Constantinople and receiues him there with great honour Soone after the Emperour takes offence at his freenesse in speaking his mind commands him to be beaten with stripes in manner to death and with a roape about his necke to be drawne through the city like a theife as Platina relates the historie Nicephorus in his 26. booke and 17. chapter comes very neere the same relation The Emperour Constantius in the yere 654. caused Pope Martin to be bound with chains banished him into Chersonesus where he ended his life The Popes in that age writing to the Emperors vsed none but submissiue tearmes by way of most humble supplications made profession of bowing the knee before their sacred Maiesties and of executing their commaunds with entire obedience payed to the Emperours twenty pound weight of gold for their Inuestiture which tribute was afterward released and remitted by Constantine the Bearded to Pope Agatho in the yere 679. as I haue obserued in an other place Nay further euen when the power and riches of the Popes was growne to great height by the most profuse and immense munificence of Charlemayne and Lewis his sonne the Emperours of the West did not relinquish and giue ouer the making and vnmaking of Popes as they saw cause Pope ' Adrian 1. willingly submitted his necke to this yoke and made this Law to be passed in a Council that in Charlemain should rest all right and power for the Popes election and for the gouernement of the Papall See This Constitution is inserted in the Decretals Dist 63. Can. Hadrianus and was confirmed by the practise of many yeeres In the yeare of the L. 963. the Emperour Otho tooke away the Popedom from Iohn 13. and placed Leo 8. in his roome In like manner Iohn 14. Gregorie 5. and Siluester 2. were seated in the Papal Throne by the Othos The Emperour Henrie 2. in the yeere 1007. deposed three Popes namely Benedict 9. Siluester 3. and Gregorie 6. whom Platina doth not sticke to call three most detestable and vile monsters This custome continued this practise stood in force for diuers ages euen vntill the times of Gregorie 7. by whome the whole West was tossed and turmoiled with lamentable warres which plagued the world and the Empire by name with intolerable troubles and mischiefes For after the said Gregorian wars the Empire fell from bad to worse and so went on to decay till Emperours at last were driuen to begge and receiue the Imperiall Crowne of the Pope The Kingdome of France met not with so rude entreatie but was dealt withall by courses of a milder temper Gregorie 4. about the yere of the Lord 832. was the first Pope that perswaded himselfe to vse the censure of Excommunication against a King of France This Pope hauing a hand in the troublesome factions of the Realme was nothing backward to side with the sonnes of Lewis surnamed the Courteous by wicked conspiracy entring into a desperate course and complot against Lewis their owne Father as witnesseth Sigebert in these words Pope Gregorie comming into France ioyned himselfe to the sonnes against the Emperour their Father But Annals of the verie same times and he that furbushed Aimonius a religious of S. Benedicts order do testifie that all the Bishops of France fell vpon this resolution by no meanes to rest in the Popes pleasure or to giue any place vnto his designe and contrariwise In case the Pope should proceed to excommunication of their King he should returne out of Fraunce to Rome an excommunicate person himself The Chronicle of S. Denis hath words in this forme The Lord Apostolicall returned answer that he was not come into Fraunce for any other purpose but onely to excommunicate the King and his Bishops if they would be in any sort opposite vnto the sonnes of Lewis or disobedient vnto the
barke so as they could not bring the seruice which they had vndertaken to any good passe because they stood in a bodily feare of their owne hydes Not long after the Cardinal of Capua was in the like taking For he durst not bring the Realme within the limits of the interdict before he was got out of the limits of the Kingdome The King herewith incensed thrust all the Prelates that had giuen consent vnto these proceedings out of their Sees confiscated their goods c. To the same effect is that which wee reade in Math. Paris After the Pope had giuen his Maiesty to vnderstand by the Cardinal of Anagnia that his Kingdome should be interdicted vnlesse hee would be reconciled to the King of England the King returned the Pope this answer that he was not in any sort afraid of the Popes sentence for as much as it could not bee grounded vpon any equity of the cause and added withall that it did no way appertain vnto the Church of Rome to sentence Kings especially the King of Fraunce And this was done saith Iohannes Tilius Register in Court of Parliament at Paris by the counsell of the French Barons Most notable is the example of Philip the Faire and hits the bird in the right eie In the yeere 1032. the Pope dispatched the Archbishop of Narbona with mandates into France commaunding the King to release the Bishop of Apamia then detained in prison for contumelious words tending to the Kings defamation and spoken to the Kings owne head In very deede this Pope had conceiued a secret grudge and no light displeasure against King Philip before namely because the King had taken vpon him the collation of benefices and other Ecclesiasticall dignities Vpon which occasion the Pope sent letters to the King of this tenour and style Feare God and keepe his commaundements We would haue thee knowe that in spirituall and temporall causes thou art subiect vnto our selfe that collating of benefices and prebends doth not in any sort appertaine to thy office and place that in case as keeper of the spiritualties thou haue the custodie of benefices and prebends in thy hand when they become void thou shalt by sequestration reserue the fruites of the same to the vse and benefit of the next incumbents and successors and in case thou hast heretofore collated any we ordaine the said collations to bee meerely void and so farre as herein thou hast proceeded to the fact we reuoke the said collations We hold them for hereticks whosoeuer are not of this beleefe A Legate comes to Paris and brings these brauing letters By some of the Kings faithful seruants they are violently snatched and pulled out of the Legates hands by the Earle of Artois they are cast into the fire The good King answers the Pope and payes him in as good coyne as he had sent Philip by the grace of God King of the French to Boniface calling and bearing himselfe the Soueraigne Bishop little greeting or none at all May thy exceeding sottishnesse vnderstand that in temporall causes we are not subiect vnto any mortall and earthly creature that collating of benefices and prebends by Regall right appertaineth to our office and place that appropriating their fruites when they become voide belongeth to our selfe alone during their vacancie that all collations by vs heretofore made or to be made hereafter shall stand in force that in the validitie and vertue of the said collations we will euer couragiously defend and maintaine all Incumbents and possessors of benefices and prebends so by vs collated We hold them all for sots and senselesse whosoeuer are not of this beleefe The Pope incensed herewith excommunicates the King but no man dares publish that censure or become bearer thereof The King notwithstanding the said proceedings of the Pope assembles his Prelates Barons and Knights at Paris askes the whole assembly of whome they hold their Fees with all other the Temporalties of the Church They make answer with one voice that in the said matters they disclaime the Pope and know none other Lord beside his Maiestie Meane while the Pope worketh with Germanie and the Lowe Countries to stirre them vp against France But Philip sendeth William of Nogaret into Italy William by the direction and aide of Sciarra Columnensis takes the Pope at Anagnia mounts him vpon a leane ill-fauoured iade carries him prisoner to Rome where ouercome with choller anguish and great indignation hee takes his last leaue of the Popedome and his life All this notwithstanding the King presently after from the successors of Boniface receiues very ample and gratious Bulls in which the memorie of all the former passages and actions is vtterly abolished Witnesse the Epistle of Clement 5. wherein this King is honoured with prayses for a pious and religious Prince and his Kingdom is restored to the former estate In that age the French Nobilitie carried other manner of spirits then the moderne and present Nobilitie doe I meane those by whome the L. Cardinal was applauded and assisted in his Oration Yea in those former times the Prelates of the Realme stood better affected towards their King then the L. Cardinal himselfe now standeth who could finde none other way to dally with and to shift off this pregnant example but by plaine glosing that heresie and Apostasie was no ground of that question or subiect of that controuersie Wherein hee not onely condemnes the Pope as one that proceeded against Philip without a iust cause and good ground but likewise giues the Pope the lie who in his goodly letters but a little aboue recited hath enrowled Philip in the list of heretiks He saith moreouer that indeed the knot of the question was touching the Popes pretence in challenging to himselfe the temporall Soueraingntie of France that is to say in qualifying himselfe King of France But indeed and indeede no such matter to be found His whole pretence was the collating of benefices and to pearch aboue the King to crowe ouer his Crowne in Temporall causes At which pretence his Holinesse yet aimeth still attributing and and challenging to himselfe plenary power to depose the King Now if the L. Cardinal shall yet proceede to cauill that Boniface 8. was taken by the French for an vsurper and no lawfull Pope but for one that crept into the Papacy by fraud and symonie hee must bee pleased to set downe positiuely who was Pope seeing that Boniface then sate not in the Papall chaire To conclude If hee that creepeth and stealeth into the Papacie by symonie by canuases or labouring of suffrages vnder hand or by bribery be not lawfull Pope I dare bee bold to professe there will hardly bee found two lawfull Popes in the three last ages Pope Benedict in the yeare 1408. being in choller with Charles 6. because Charles had bridled and curbed the gainefull exactions and extorsions of the Popes Court by which the Realme of France had been exhausted of their treasure sent
who in stead of suing to the King had petitioned to the Pope for a dispensation for his bastard But perhaps as be speaketh it will be alledged out of the glosse that he acknowledgeth no superiour by fact and yet ought by right But I tell you the glosse is an Aurelian glosse which marres the text Amongst other arguments Maior brings this for one This opinion ministreth matter vnto Popes to take away an others Empire by force and violence which the Pope shall neuer bring to passe as we reade of Boniface 8. against Philip the Faire Saith besides That from hence proceede warres in time of which many outragious mischeifes are done and that Gerson calls them egregious flatterers by whom such opinion is maintained In the same place Maior denies that Childeric was deposed by Pope Zacharie The word He deposed saith Maior is not so to be vnderstood as it is taken at the first blush or sight but he deposed is thus expounded in the glosse Hee gaue his consent vnto those by whom he was deposed Iohn of Paris Were it graunted that Christ was armed with Temporall power yet he committed no such power to Peter A little after The power of Kings is the highest power vpon earth in Temporall causes it hath no superiour power aboue it selfe no more then the Pope hath in spirituall matters This author saith indeede the Pope hath power to excommunicate the King but he speaketh not of any power in the Pope to put down the King from his regall dignity and authority He onely saith When a Prince is once excommunicated he may accidentally or by occasion be deposed because his precedent excommunication incites the people to disarme him of all secular dignity power The same Iohn on the other side holdeth opinion that in the Emperour there is inuested a power to depose the Pope in case the Pope shall abuse his power Almainus Doctor of the Sorbonic schoole Jt is essentiall in the Laye-power to inflict ciuill punishment as death banishment and priuation or losse of goods But according to diuine institution the power Ecclesiasticall can lay no such punishment vpon delinquents nay more not lay in prison as to some Doctors it seemeth probable but stretcheth and reacheth onely to spirituall punishment as namely to excommunication all other punishments inflicted by the spirituall power are meerely by the Lawe positiue If then Ecclesiasticall power by Gods Lawe hath no authoritie to depriue any priuate man of his goods how dares the Pope and his flatterers build their power to depriue Kings of their scepters vpon the word of God The same author in an other place Be it graunted that Constantine had power to giue the Empire vnto the Pope yet is it not hereupon to be inferred that Popes haue authority ouer the Kingdome of France because that Kingdom was neuer subiect vnto Constantine For the King of Fraunce neuer had any superiour in Temporall matters A little after It is not in any place to be found that God hath giuen the Pope power to make and vnmake Temporall Kings He maintaineth elsewhere that Zacharie did not depose Childeric but onely consented to his deposing and so deposed him not as by authoritie In the same booke taking vp the words of Occam whome hee styles the Doctor The Emperour is the Popes Lord in things Temporall and the Pope calls him Lord as it is witnessed in the body of the Text. The Lord Cardinall hath dissembled and concealed these words of Doctor Almainus with many like places and hath been pleased to alledge Almainus reciting Occams authoritie in stead of quoting Almainus himselfe in those passages where hee speaketh as out of his owne opinion and in his owne words A notable peice of slie and cunning conueiance For what heresie may not be fathered and fastened vpon S. Augustine or S. Hierome if they should bee deemed to approoue all the passages which they alledge out of other authors And that is the reason wherfore the L. Cardinal doth not alledge his testimonies whole and perfect as they are couched in their proper texts but clipt and curtaild Thus he dealeth euen in the first passage or testimonie of Almainus he brings it in mangled and pared hee hides and conceales the words added by Almainus to contradict crosse the words going before For Almainus makes this addition and supply Howsoeuer some other Doctors doe stand for the negatiue and teach the Pope hath power onely to declare that Kings and Princes are to bee deposed And so much appeareth by this reason because this ample and Soueraigne power of the Pope might giue him occasion to bee puft vp with great pride and the same fulnesse of power might prooue extreamely hurtfull to the subiects c. The same Almainus brings in Occams opinion in expresse tearmes deciding the question and there ioynes his owne opinion with Occams The Doctors opinion saith Almainus doth simply carrie the most probabilitie that a Pope hath no power neither by excommunication nor by any other meanes to dedepose a Prince from his Imperiall and Royall dignitie And a little before hauing maintained the Greeke Empire was neuer transported by the Pope to the Germaines and that when the Pope crownes the Emperour he doth not giue him the Empire no more then the Archbishop of Reims when he crownes the King of France doth giue him the Kingdome he drawes this conclusion according to Occams opinion I denie that an Emperour is bound by oath to promise the Pope allegiance On the other side if the Pope hold any Temporall possessions hee is bound to sweare allegiance vnto the Emperour and to pay him tribute The said Occam alledged by Almainus doth further auerre that Iustinian was acknowledged by the Pope for his superiour in Temporall causes for as much as diuerse lawes which the Pope is bound to keep and obserue were enacted by Iustinian as by name the law of prescription for an hundred yeeres which law standeth yet in force against the Bishop of Rome And to the ende that all men may cleerely see how great distance there is betweene Occams opinion and the L. Cardinals who towards the ende of his Oration exhorts his hearers at no hand to dissent from the Pope take you here a viewe of Occams owne words as they are alleadged by Almainus The Doctor assoyles the arguments of Pope Jnnocent by which the Pope would prooue out of these words of Christ Whatsoeuer thou shalt bind c. that fulnes of power in Temporall matters belongeth to the Soueraigne Bishop For Innocent saith Whatsoeuer excepteth nothing But Occam assoyles Innocents authoritie as not onely false but also hereticall and saith withal that many things are spoken by Jnnocent which by his leaue sauour and smell of heresie c. The L. Cardinal with lesse fidelitie alledgeth two places out of Thomas his Summe The first in the Second of his Second Quest 10. Art 10. in
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
true sight of their owne weakenesse Let stirring spirits be trained vp in such practicall precepts let desperate wits be seasoned with such rules of discipline and what need we or how can we wonder they contriue powder conspiracies and practise the damnable art of parricides After Iulian his Lordship falles vpon Valentinian the younger who maintaining Arrianisme with great and open violence might haue beene deposed by the Christians from his Empire and yet say we they neuer dream'd of any such practise Here the L. Cardinal maketh answer The Christians mooued with respect vnto the fresh memory both of the brother and father as also vnto the weake estate of the sonnes young yeeres abstained from all counsels and courses of sharper effect and operation To which answer I reply these are but friuolous coniectures deuised and framed to tickle his owne fancie For had Valentinianus the younger beene the sonne of an Arrian and had then also attained to threescore yeeres of age they would neuer haue borne themselues in other fashion then they did towards their Emperour Then the Cardinal goeth on The people would not abandon the factious and seditious party but were so firme or obstinate rather for the faction that Valentinian for feare of the tumultuous vproares was constrained to giue way and was threatened by the souldiers that except hee would adhere vnto the Catholikes they would yeeld him no assistance nor stand for his partie Now this answer of the L. Cardinall makes nothing to the purpose concerning the Popes power to pull downe Kings from their stately nest Let vs take notice of his proper consequence Valentinian was afraid of the popular tumult at Milan the Pope therefore hath power to curbe hereticall Kings by deposition Now marke what distance is betweene Rome and Milan what difference betweene the people of Milan and the Bishop of Rome betweene a popular tumult and a iudicatory sentence between fact and right things done by the people or souldiers of Milan and things to bee done according to right and law by the Bishop of Rome the same distance the same difference if not farre greater is betweene the L. Cardinals antecedent and his consequent betweene his reason and the maine cause or argument which we haue in hand The madde commotion of the people was not here so much to be regarded as the sad instruction of the Pastor of their good and godly Pastor S. Ambrose so far from heartning the people of Milan to rebell that being Bishop of Milan he offered himselfe to suffer Martyrdome If the Emperour abuse his Imperiall authoritie for so Theodoret hath recited his words to tyrannize thereby here am I ready to suffer death And what resistance he made against his L. Emperour was only by way of supplication in these tearmes We beseech thee O Augustus as humble suppliants we offer no resistance we are not in feare but we flie to supplication Againe If my patrimony be your marke enter vpon my patrimonie if my bodie I will goe and meet my torments Shall I bee drag'd to prison or to death I will take delight in both Item in his Oration to Auxentius J can afflict my soule with sorrowe I can lament J can send forth grieuous groanes My weapons against either of both souldiers or Goths are teares A Priest hath none other weapons of defence I neither can resist nor ought in any other manner to make resistance Iustinian Emperour in his old age fell into the heresie of the Aphthartodocites Against Iustinian though fewe they were that fauoured him in that heresie the Bishop of Rome neuer darted with violence any sentence of Excommunication interdiction or deposition The Ostrogot Kings in Italy the Visigot in Spaine the Vandal in Africa were all addicted to the Arrian impietie and some of them cruelly persecuted the true professors The Visigot and Vandall were no neighbours to Italie The Pope thereby had the lesse cause to feare the stings of those waspes if they had been angred The Pope for all that neuer had the humour to wrastle or iustle with any of the said Kings in the cause of deposing them from their Thrones But especially the times when the Vandals in Affricke and the Goths in Italy by Belisarius and Narses professors of the Orthodoxe faith were tyred with long warres and at last were vtterly defeated in bloodie battels are to be considered Then were the times or neuer for the Pope to vnsheath his weapons and to vn-case his arrowes of deposition then were the times to drawe them out of his quiuer and to shoote at all such Arrian Heads then were the times by dispensations to release their subiects of their oathes by that peremptory meanes to aide and strengthen the Catholike cause But in that age the said weapons were not knowne to haue been hammered in the Pontificall forge Gregory I. made his boasts that he was able to ruine the Lombards for many yeeres together sworne enemies to the Bishops of Rome their state present and the hope of all their future prosperity But hee telleth vs that by the feare of God before his eyes and in his heart he was bridled and restrained from any such intent as elswhere we haue obserued If J would haue medled with practising and procuring the death of the Lombards the whole nation of the Lombards at this day had been robbed of their Kings Dukes Earles they had beene reduced to the tearmes of extreame confusion Hee might at least haue deposed their King if the credit of the L. Cardinals iudgement bee currant without polluting or stayning his owne conscience What can we tearm this assertion of the L. Cardinall but open charging the most auncient Bishops of Rome with crueltie when they would not succour the Church of Christ oppressed by tyrants whose oppression they had power to represse by deposing the oppressors Is it credible that Iesus Christ hath giuen a Commission to S. Peter and his successors for so many ages without any power to execute their Commission or to make any vse thereof by practise Is it credible that he hath giuen them a sword to be kept in the scabbard without drawing once in a thousand yeeres Is it credible that in the times when Popes were most deboshed abandoning themselues to all sorts of corrupt and vitious courses as it testified by their own flaterers and best affected seruants is it credible that in those times they beganne to vnderstand the vertue and strength of their Commission For if either feare or lacke of power was the cause of holding their hands and voluntarie binding of themselues to the peace or good behauiour wherefore is not some one Pope at least produced who hath complained that he was hindered from executing the power that Christ had conferred vpon his Pontificall See Wherefore is not some one of the auncient and holy Fathers alledged by whom the Pope hath bin aduised and exhorted to take courage to stand vpon the vigor and
paying tribute vnto Caesar and the Pope making Caesar to pay him tribute Iesus Christ perswading the Iewes to pay tribute vnto an heathen Emperour and the Pope dispensing with subiects for their obedience to Christian Emperours Iesus Christ refusing to arbitrate a controuersie of inheritance partable betweene two priuate parties and the Pope thrusting in himselfe without warrant or Commission to be absolute Iudge in the deposing of Kings Iesus Christ professing that his Kingdome is not of this world and the Pope establishing himselfe in a terrene Empire In like manner the Apostles forsaking all their goods to followe Christ and the Pope robbing Christians of their goods the Apostles persecuted by Pagan Emperours and the Pope now setting his foote on the very throate of Christian Emperours then proudly treading Imperiall Crownes vnder his feete By this comparison the L. Cardinals allegation of Scripture in fauour of his Master the Pope is but a kind of puppet-play to make Iesus Christ a mocking stocke rather then to satisfie his auditors with any sound precepts and wholesome instructions Hereof hee seemeth to giue some inckling himselfe For after he hath beene plentifull in citing authorities of Scripture and of newe Doctors which make for the Popes power to depose Kings at last he comes in with a faire and open confession that neither by diuine Oracles nor by honourable antiquitie this controuersie hath beene yet determined and so pulls downe in a word with one hand the frame of worke that he had built and set vp before with an other discouering withal the reluctation and priuie checkes of his owne conscience There yet remaineth one obiection the knot whereof the L. Cardinall in a manner sweateth to vntie His words be these The champions for the negatiue flie to the analogie of other proceedings and practises in the Chruch They affirme that priuate persons masters or owners of goods and possessions among the common people are not depriued of their goods for heresie and consequently that Princes much more should not for the same crime bee depriued of their estates For answer to this reason he brings in the defendants of deposition speaking after this manner In the Kingdom of France the strict execution of lawes decreed in Court against heretickes is fauourably suspended and stopped for the preseruation of peace and publike tranquilitie He saith elsewhere Conniuence is vsed towards these heretikes in regard of their multitude because a notable part of the French Nation and State is made all of heretikes I suppose that out of speciall charitie hee would haue those heretikes of his own making forewarned what courteous vse and intreaty they are to expect when hee affirmeth that execution of the lawes is but suspended For indeed suspensions hold but for a time But in a cause of that nature and importance I dare promise my selfe that my most honoured Brother the King of France will make vse of other counsell will rather seek the amitie of his neighbour Princes and the peace of his Kingdom will beare in minde the great and faithfull seruice of those who in matter of religion dissent from his Maiestie as of the onely men that haue preserued and saued the Crowne for the King his Father of most glorious memorie I am perswaded my Brother of France will beleeue that his liege people pretended by the L. Cardinall to be heretikes are not halfe so bad as my Romane Catholike subiects who by secret practises vnder-mine my life serue a forraine Soueraigne are discharged by his Bulls of their obedience due to me their naturall Soueraigne are bound by the maximes and rules published and maintained in fauour of the Pope before this full and famous assembly of the Estate at Paris if the said maximes be of any weight and authoritie to hold me for no lawfull King are there taught and instructed that Pauls commandement concerning subiection vnto the higher powers aduerse to their professed religion is onely a prouisionall precept framed to the times and watching for the opportunitie to shake off the yoake All which notwithstanding I deale with such Romane-Catholiks by the rules and waies of Princely clemencie their hainous and pernicious error in effect no lesse then the capitall crime of high treason I vse to call some disease or distemper of the mind Last of all I beleeue my said Brother of France will set downe in his tables as in record how little he standeth ingaged to the Lord Cardinal in this behalfe For those of the reformed Religion professe and proclaim that next vnder God they owe their preseruation and safetie to the wisedome and benignity of their Kings But now comes the Cardinall and hee seekes to steale this perswasion out of their hearts Hee tells them in open Parliament and without any going about bushes that all their welfare and securitie standeth in their multitude and in the feare which others conceiue to trouble the State by the strict execution of lawes against heretikes He addeth moreouer that Jn case a third sect should peepe out and growe vp in France the professors thereof should suffer confiscation of their goods with losse of life it selfe as hath been practised at Geneua against Seruetus and in England against Arrians My answer is this That punishments for heretikes duely and according to law conuicted are set downe by decrees of the ciuil Magistrate bearing rule in the countrey where the said heretikes inhabite and not by any ordinances of the Pope I say withall the L. Cardinal hath no reason to match and parallell the Reformed Churches with Seruetus and the Arrians For those heretikes were powerfully conuicted by Gods word and lawfully condemned by the auncient Generall Councils where they were permitted and admitted to plead their owne cause in person But as for the truth professed by me and those of the reformed religion it was neuer yet hissed out of the Schooles nor cast out of any Councill like some Parliament bills where both sides haue been heard with like indifferencie Yea what Councill soeuer hath beene offered vnto vs in these latter times it hath been proposed with certaine presuppositions as That his Holinesse beeing a partie in the cause and consequently to come vnder iudgement as it were to the barre vpon his triall shall be the Iudge of Assize with Commission of oyer and determiner it shall be celebrated in a citie of no safe accesse without safe conduct or conuoy to come or goe at pleasure and without danger it shall be assembled of such persons with free suffrage and voice as vphold this rule which they haue alreadie put in practise against Iohn Hus and Hierom of Prage that faith giuen and oath taken to an heretike must not be obserued Now then to resume our former matter If the Pope hitherto hath neuer presumed for pretended heresie to confiscate by sentence either the lands or the goods of priuate persons or common people of the French Nation wherfore should he dare to dispossesse Kings of
Churches vnder a Prince of contrary religion And if things without life or soule are with lesse danger left in an heretikes hands why then shall not an hereticall King with more facilitie and lesse danger keep his Crown his Royall charge his lands his customes his imposts c. For will any man except he bee out of his wits affirme these things to haue any life or soule Or why shall it be counted follie to leaue a sword in the hand of a mad Bedlam Is not a sword also without life and soule For my part I should rather be of this minde that possession of things without reason is more dangerous and pernicious in the hands of an euill Master then the possession of things indued with life and reason For things without life lacke both reason and iudgement how to exempt and free themselues from being instruments in euill and wicked actions from beeing emploied to vngodly and abhominable vses I will not deny that an hereticall Prince is a plague a pernicious and mortal sicknes to the soules of his subiects But a breach made by one mischiefe must not be filled vp with a greater inconuenience An errour must not be shocked and shouldered with disloialtie nor heresie with periurie nor impietie with sedition and armed rebellion against God and the King God who vseth to try and to schoole his Church will neuer forsake his Church nor hath need to protect his Church by any proditorious and prodigious practises of perfidious Christians For hee makes his Church to be like the burning bush In the middest of the fire and flames of persecutions he will prouide that she shall not bee consumed because he standeth in the midst of his Church And suppose there may bee some iust cause for the French to play the rebels against their King yet will it not follow that such rebellious motions are to be raised by the bellowes of the Romane Bishop to whose Pastorall charge and office it is nothing proper to intermeddle in the ciuill affaires of forraine Kingdomes Here is the summe and substance of the L. Cardinals whole discourse touching his pretence of the second inconuenience Which discourse he hath closed with a remarkeable confession to wit that neither by the authoritie of holy Scripture nor by the testimony and verdict of the Primitiue Church there hath beene any full decision of this question In regard whereof he falleth into admiration that Lay-people haue gone so farre in audaciousnesse as to labour that a doubtfull doctrine might for euer passe currant and be taken for a newe article of faith What a shame what a reproach is this how full of scandall for so his Lordship is pleased to cry out This breakes into the seueralls and inclosures of the Church this lets in whole herds of heresies to grase in her green and sweet pastures On the other side without any such Rhetoricall outcries I simply affirme It is a reproach a scandall a crime of rebellion for a subiect hauing his full charge and loade of benefits in the newe spring of his Kings tender age his King-fathers blood yet reeking and vpon the point of an addresse for a double match with Spaine in so honourable an assembly to seek the thraldome of his Kings Crown to play the captious in cauilling about causes of his Kings deposing to giue his former life the lie with shame enough in his olde age and to make himselfe a common by-word vnder the name of a Problematicall Martyr one that offers himselfe to fagot and fire for a point of doctrine but problematically handled that is distrustfully and onely by way of doubtfull and questionable discourse yea for a point of doctrine in which the French as he pretendeth are permitted to thwart and crosse his Holines in iudgement prouided they speake in it as in a point not certaine and necessary but onely doubtfull and probable The third Jnconvenience examined THE third Inconuenience pretended by the L. Cardinall to growe by admitting this Article of the third Estate is flourished in these colours It would breede and bring forth an open and vnauoideable schism against his Holinesse and the rest of the whole Ecclesiasticall bodie For thereby the doctrine long approoued and ratified by the Pope and the rest of the Church should now be taxed and condemned of impious and most detestable consequence yea the Pope and the Church euen in faith and in points of saluation should be reputed and beleeued to be erroniously perswaded Hereupon his Lordship giues himselfe a large scope of the raines to frame his elegant amplifications against schismes and schismatikes Now to mount so high and to flie in such place vpon the wings of amplification for this Inconuenience what is it else but magnifically to report and imagine a mischeife by many degrees greater then the mischeife is The L. Cardinal is in a great error if he make himselfe beleeue that other nations wil make a rent or separation from the communion of the French because the French stand to it tooth and nayle that French Crownes are not liable or obnoxious to Papall deposition howsoeuer there is no schisme that importeth not separation of communion The most illustrious Republike of Venice hath imbarked herselfe in this quarrell against his Holinesse hath played her prize and carried away the weapons with great honour Doth she notwithstanding her triumph in the cause forbeare to participate with all her neighbors in the same Sacraments doth she liue in schisme with all the rest of the Romane Church No such matter When the L. Cardinal himselfe not many yeeres past maintained the Kings cause and stood honourably for the Kings right against the Popes Temporall vsurpations did he then take other Churches to be schismaticall or the rotten members of Antechrist Beleeue it who list I beleeue my Creed Nay his Lordship telleth vs himselfe a little after that his Holinesse giues the French free scope to maintaine either the affirmatiue or negatiue of this question And will his Holinesse hold them schismatikes that dissent from his opinion and iudgement in a subiect or cause esteemed problematicall Farre be it from his Holinesse The King of Spaine reputed the Popes right arme neuer gaue the Pope cause by any act or other declaration to conceiue that hee acknowledged himselfe deposeable by the Pope for heresie or Tyrannie or stupidity But beeing well assured the Pope standeth in greater feare of his arme then he doth of the Popes head and shoulders he neuer troubles his owne head about our question More when the booke of Cardinall Baronius was come forth in which booke the Kingdome of Naples is decryed and publiquely discredited like false money touching the qualitie of a Kingdome and attributed to the King of Spain not as true proprietary thereof but onely as an Estate held in fee of the Romane Church the King made no bones to condemne and to banish the said booke out of his dominions The holy Father was contented
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
wherefore the man doth not require the Popes instructions But whether a King be deposed by that man the Pope or by that Pope the man is it not all one is he not deposed Others affirme the Pope may erre in a question of the fact but not in a question of the right An egregious gullery and imposture For if he may bee ignorant whether Iesus Christ died for our sinnes doubtles he may also be to seeke whether we should repose all our trust and assured confidence in the death of Christ Consider with me the Prophets of olde They were all inspired and taught of God to admonish and reprooue the Kings of Iudah and Israel they neither erred in matter of fact nor in point of right they were as farre from being blinded and fetcht ouer by deceitfull calumniations as from beeing seduced by the painted shew of corrupt and false doctrine As they neuer trode awry in matter of faith so they neuer whetted the edge of their tongue or style against the faultles Had it not beene a trimme deuice in their times to say that as Esay and as Daniel they might haue sunke into heresie but not as Prophets For doubtlesse in this case that Esay would haue taken counsell of the Prophet which was himselfe To bee short If Kings are onely so long to be taken for Kings vntill they shall be declared heretikes and shall be deposed by the Pope they continually stand in extreame danger to vndergoe a very heauy and vniust sentence Their safest way were to know nothing and to beleeue by proxie least if they should happen to talke of God or to thinke of religion they should be drawne for heretikes into the Popes Inquisition All the examples hitherto produced by the L. Cardinall on a rowe are of a latter date they lacke weight are drawne from the time of bondage and make the Popes themselues witnesses in their owne cause They descant not vpon the point of deposition but onely strike out and sound the notes of excommunication and interdiction which make nothing at all to the musicke of the question And therefore he telleth vs in kindnesse as I take it more oftentimes then once or twice that he speaketh onely of the fact as one that doth acknowledge himselfe to be out of the right Hee relates things done but neuer what should bee done which as the Iudicious know is to teach nothing The second Jnconuenience examined THE second Inconuenience like to growe as the Lord Cardinall seemeth to be halfe afraid if the Article of the third Estate might haue passed with approbation is couched in these words Lay-men shall by authoritie be strengthened with power to iudge in matters of Religion as also to determine the doctrine comprised in the said Article to haue requisite conformitie with Gods word yea they shall haue it in their hands to compell Ecclesiastics by necessitie to sweare preach and teach the opinion of the one side as also by Sermons and publike writings to impugne the other This inconuenience hee aggrauateth with swelling words and breaketh out into these vehement exclamations O reproach O scandall O gate set open to a world of heresies He therefore laboureth both by reasons by autorities of holy Scripture to make such vsurped power of Laics a fowle shamefull and odious practise In the whole his Lordship toyles himselfe in vaine and maketh suppositions of castles in the aire For in preferring this Article the third Estate haue born themselues not as iudges or vmpires but altogether as petitioners requesting the said Article might be receiued into the number of the Parliament bookes to bee presented vnto the King and his Counsell vnto whome in all humilitie they referred the iudgement of the said Article conceiuing all good hope the Clergie and Nobilitie would be pleased to ioyne for the furtherance of their humble petition They were not so ignorant of State-matters or so vnmindfull of their owne places and charges to beare themselues in hand that a petition put vp and preferred by the third Estate can carrie the force of a Lawe or Statute so long as the other two Orders withstand the same and so long as the King himselfe holds backe his Royall consent Besides the said Article was not propounded as a point of religious doctrine but for euer after to remaine and continue a fundamentall Lawe of the Commonwealth and State it selfe the due care whereof was put into their hands and committed to their trust If the King had ratified the said Article with Royall consent and had commanded the Clergie to put in execution the contents thereof it had beene their duty to see the Kings will and pleasure fulfilled as they are subiects bound to giue him aide in all things which may any way serue to procure the safetie of his life and the tranquility of his Kingdome Which if the Clergie had performed to the vttermost of their power they had not shewed obedience as vnderlings vnto the third Estate but vnto the King alone by whome such commaund had beene imposed vpon suggestion of his faithfull subiects made the more watchfull by the negligence of the Clergie whom they perceiue to be linked with stricter bands vnto the Pope then they are vnto their King Here then the Cardinall fights with meere shadowes and mooues a doubt whereof his aduersaries haue not so much as once thought in a dreame But yet according to his great dexteritie and nimblenesse of spirit by this deuice he cunningly takes vpon him to giue the King a lesson with more libertie making semblance to direct his masked Oration to the Deputies of the people when he shooteth in effect and pricketh at his King the Princes also and Lords of his Counsell whom the Cardinall compriseth vnder the name of Laics whose iudgment it is not vnlikely was apprehended much better by the Clergy then the iudgement of the third Estate Now these are the men whom he tearmeth intruders into other mens charges and such as open a gate for I wot not how many legions of heresies to rush into the Church For if it be proper to the Clergie and their Head to iudge in this cause of the Right of Kings then the King himselfe his Princes and Nobilitie are debarred and wiped of all iudgement in the same cause no lesse then the representatiue body of the people Well then the L Cardinall showres downe like haile sundry places and testimonies of Scripture where the people are commaunded to haue their Pastors in singular loue and to beare them all respects of due obseruance Be it so yet are the said passages of Scripture no barre to the people for their vigilant circumspection to preserue the life and Crown of their Prince against all the wicked enterprises of men stirred vp by the Clergie who haue their Head out of the Kingdom and hold themselues to be none of the Kings subiects a thing neuer spoken by the sacrificing Priests and Prelates mentioned in the passages alleadged
by the Lord Cardinall He likewise produceth two Christian Emperours Constantine and Valentinian by name the first refusing to meddle with iudgement in Episcopall causes the other forbearing to iudge of subtile Questions in Diuinity with protestation that Hee would neuer be so curious to diue into the streames or sound the bottome of so deepe matters But who doth not knowe that working and prouiding for the Kings indemnity and safetie is neither Episcopall cause nor matter of curious and subtile inquisition The same answer meets with all the rest of the places produced by the L. Cardinal out of the Fathers And that one for example out of Gregory Nazianzenus is not cited by the Cardinall with faire dealing For Gregorie doth not boord the Emperour himselfe but his Deputie or L. President on this manner For we also are in authoritie and place of a Ruler we haue command aswell as your selfe whereas the L. Cardinal with fowle play turnes the place in these termes We also are Emperours Which words can beare no such interpretation as well because he to whom the Bishop then spake was not of Imperiall dignitie as also because if the Bishop himselfe a Bishop of so small a citie as Nazianzum had qualified himselfe Emperour he should haue passed all the bounds of modestie and had shewed himselfe arrogant aboue measure For as touching subiection due to Christian Emperours hee freely acknowledgeth a little before that himselfe and his people are subiect vnto the superiour powers yea bound to pay them tribute The history of the same Gregories life doth testifie that he was drawne by the Arrians before the Consuls iudgement seate and from thence returned acquitted without either stripes or any other kind of contumelious entreatie and vse yet now at last vp starts a Prelate who dares make this good Father vaunt himselfe to bee an Emperour It is willingly granted that Emperours neuer challenged neuer arrogated to be Soueraigne Iudges in controuersies of doctrine and faith neuertheles it is clearer then the Sunnes light at high noone that for moderation at Synods for determinations and orders established in Councils and for the discipline of the Church they haue made a good and a full vse of their Imperiall authoritie The 1. Council held at Constantinople beares this title or inscription The dedication of the holy Synode to the most religious Emperour Theodosius the Great to whose will and pleasure they haue submitted these Canons by them addressed and established in Council And there they also beseech the Emperour to confirme and approoue the said Canons The like hath bin done by the Councill of Trullo by whome the Canons of the fift and sixt Councils were put forth and published This was not done because Emperours tooke vpon them to bee infallible Iudges of doctrine but onely that Emperours might see and iudge whether Bishops who feele the pricke of ambition as other men doe did propound nothing in their Conuocations and Consultations but most of all in their Determinations to vndermine the Emperours authoritie to disturbe the tranquilitie of the Commonwealth and to crosse the determinations of precedent Councils Now to take the cognizance of such matters out of the Kings hand or power what is it but euen to transforme the King into a standing image to wring and wrest him out of all care of himselfe and his Kingly charge yea to bring him downe to this basest condition to become onely an executioner and which I scorne to speake the vnhappie hangman of the Clergies will without any further cognizance not so much as of matters which most neerely touch himselfe and his Royall estate I graunt it is for Diuinitie Schooles to iudge how farre the power of the Keyes doth stretch I graunt againe that Clerics both may and ought also to display the colours and ensignes of their censures against Princes who violating their publike and solemne oath do raise and make open war against Iesus Christ I graunt yet againe that in this case they need not admit Laics to be of their counsell nor allowe them any scope or libertie of iudgement Yet all this makes no barre to Clerics for extending the power of their keies many times a whole degree further then they ought and when they are pleased to make vse of their said power to depriue the people of their goods or the Prince of his Crowne all this doth not hinder Prince or people from taking care for the preseruation of their owne rights and estates nor from requiring Clerics to shewe their cards and produce their Charts and to make demonstration by Scripture that such power as they assume and challenge is giuen them from God For to leaue the Pope absolute Iudge in the same cause wherein hee is a party and which is the strongest rampier and bulwarke yea the most glorious and eminent point of his domination to arme him with power to vnhorse Kings out of their feates what is it else but euen to draw them into a state of despaire for euery winning the day or preuailing in their honourable and rightfull cause It is moreouer graunted if a King shall commaund any thing directly contrary to Gods word and tending to the subuerting of the Church that Clerics in this case ought not onely to dispense with subiects for their obedience but also expressely to forbid their obedience For it is alwaies better to obey God then man Howbeit in all other matters whereby the glory and maiesty of God is not impeached or impaired it is the duty of Clerics to plie the people with wholesome exhortation to constant obedience and to auert by earnest disswasions the said people from tumultuous reuolt and seditious insurrection This practise vnder the Pagan Emperours was held and followed by the auncient Christians by whose godly zeale and patience in bearing the yoke the Church in times past grew and flourished in her happy and plentifull encrease farre greater then Poperie shall euer purchase and attaine vnto by all her cunning deuises and sleights as namely by degrading of Kings by interdicting of Kingdomes by apposted murders and by Diabolicall traines of Gunne-powder-mines The places of Scripture alledged in order by the Cardinall in fauour of those that stand for the Popes claime of power and authoritie to depose Kings are cited with no more sinceritie then the former They alleadge these are his words that Samuel deposed King Saul or declared him to bee deposed because hee had violated the lawes of the Iewes religion His Lordship auoucheth elsewhere that Saul was deposed because hee had sought prophanely to vsurpe the holy Priesthood Both false and contrary to the tenor of truth in the sacred historie For Saul was neuer deposed according to the sense of the word I meane depose in the present question to wit as deposing is taken for despoyling the King of his Royall dignity and reducing the King to the condition of a priuate person But Saul held the title
attaine to the said assurance if things not denied bee mingled with points not graunted and not consented vnto by the Vniuersall Church By a thing not denied and not contested the L. Cardinall meanes prohibiting and condemning of King-killing by points contested hee meanes denying of the Popes power to depose Kings In this whole discourse I find neither pith of argument nor course of proofe but onely a cast of the L. Cardinalls office by way of counsell whereunto I make this answer If there be in this Article of the third Estate any point wherein all are not of one mind and the same iudgement in whome lieth all the blame from whence rises the doubt but from the Popes and Popish parasites by whome the certaintie of the said point hath been cunningly remooued and conueied away and must bee restored againe by publike authoritie Now the way to restore certaintie vnto a point which against reason is called into doubt and question is to make it vp in one masse or to tie it vp in the same bundle with other certaine points of the same nature Here I am forced to summon the consciences of men to make some stand or stay vpon this point and with me to enter into deepe consideration how great and vnvanquishable force is euer found in the truth For these two questions Whether Kings may lawfully bee made away by assassins waged and hired for the act and Whether the Pope hath lawful power to chase Kings out of their Thrones are by the L. Cardinals owne confession in so full aspect of coniunction that if either bee brought vnder any degree of doubt the other also is fetcht within the same compasse In which words he directly pointeth as with a finger to the very true source of the maine mischiefe and to the basilique and liuer veine infected with pestilentiall blood inflamed to the destruction of Basilicall Princes by detestable parricide For whosoeuer shall confidently beleeue that Popes are not armed with power to depose Kings will beleeue with no lesse confidence and assurance it is not lawfull by sudden assaults to flie at their throats For are not all desperate villaines perswaded when they are hired to murder Kings that in doing so damnable a feate they doe it for a peice of notable and extraordinarie seruice to the Pope This maxime therefore is to be held for a principle vnmooueable and indubitable that If subiects desire the life of their Kings to be secured they must not yeeld the Pope one inch of power to depriue their Kings of their Thrones and Crownes by deposing their Kings The Lord Cardinall testifieth no lesse himselfe in these words If those monsters of men and furies of hell by whom the life-blood of our two last Kings was let out had euer been acquainted with Lawes Ecclesiasticall they might haue read themselues adiudged by the Councill of Constance to expresse damnation For in these words the L. Cardinall preferreth a bill of inditement to cast his Holinesse who vpon the commencing of the Leaguers warres in stead of giuing order for the publishing of the said Ecclesiasticall Lawes for the restraining of all parricidicall practises and attempts fell to the terrour of his fulminations which not long after were seconded and ratified by the most audacious and bloody murder of King Henry III. In like manner the whole Clergy of France are wrapped vp by the L. Cardinals words and inuolued in the perill of the said inditement For in stead of preaching the said Ecclesiasticall Lawes by which all King-killing is inhibited the Priests taught vented and published nothing but rebellion and when the people in great deuotion came to powre their confessions into the Priests eares then the Priests with a kind of counterbuffe in the second place when their turne was come and with greater deuotion powred blood into the eares of the people out of which roote grewe the terrour of those cruell warres and the horrible parricide of that good King But let vs here take some neere sight of these Ecclesiasticall Lawes whereby subiects are inhibited to kill or desperately to dispatch their Kings out of the way The L. Cardinall for full payment of all scores vpon this reckoning layeth downe the credit of the Council at Constance which neuerthelesse affoardeth not one myte of true and currant payment The truth of the historie may be taken from this briefe relation Iohn Duke of Burgundie procured Lewis Duke of Orleans to be murthered in Paris To iustifie and make good this bloody act hee produced a certaine petimaster one called by the name of Iohn Petit This little Iohn caused nine propositions to be giuen forth or set vp to be discussed in the famous Vniuersitie of Paris The summe of all to this purpose It is lawfull iust and honourable for euery subiect or priuate person either by open force and violence or by deceit and secret lying in wait or by some witty stratagem or by any other way of fact to kill a Tyrant practising against his King and other higher powers yea the King ought in reason to giue him a pension or stipend that hath killed any person disloyall to his Prince The words of Petits first proposition be these It is lawfull for euery subiect without any commaund or commission from the higher powers by all the Lawes of nature of man and of God himselfe to kill or cause to be killed any Tyrant who either by a couetous and greedie desire or by fraud by diuination vpon casting of lots by double and treacherous dealing doth plot or practise against his Kings corporall health or the health of his higher powers In the third proposition It is lawfull for euery subiect honourable and meritorious to kill the said Tyrant or cause him to bee killed as a Traitor disloyall and trecherous to his King In the sixt proposition The King is to appoint a salarie and recompence for him that hath killed such a Tyrant or hath caused him to be killed These propositions of Iohannes Parvus were condemned by the Councill of Constance as impious and tending to the scandall of the Church Now then whereas the said Councill no doubt vnderstood the name or word Tyrant in the same sense wherein it was taken by Iohannes Parvus certaine it is the Councill was not of any such iudgment or mind to condemne one that should kil a King or Soueraigne Prince but one that by treason and without commandement should kill a subiect rebelling and practising against his King For Iohn Petit had vndertaken to iustifie the making away of the Duke of Orleans to bee a lawfull act and calls that Duke a Tyrant albeit he was no Soueraigne Prince as all the aboue recited words of Iohn Petit doe testifie that hee speaketh of such a Tyrant as beeing in state of subiection rebelleth against his free and absolute Prince So that whosoeuer shall narrowly search and looke into the minde and meaning of the said Councill shall easily perceiue that
safetie of their King and honour of the truth it is their hard hap to leaue any at all vnsatisfied But suppose the said heretikes were the Authors of this Article preferred by the third Estate What need they to conceale their names in that regard What need they to disclaime the credit of such a worthy act Would it not redound to their perpetuall honour to be the onely subiects that kept watch ouer the Kings life and Crowne that stood centinell and walked the rounds for the preseruation of his Princely diademe when all other had no more touch no more feeling thereof then so many stones And what neede the Deputies for the third Estate to receiue instructions from forraine Kingdomes concerning a cause of that nature when there was no want of domesticall examples and the French histories were plentifull in that argument What need they to gape for this reformed doctrine to come swimming with a fishes tayle out of an Island to the mayne continent when they had before their eyes the murders of two Kings with diuerse ciuill warres and many Arrests of Court all tending to insinuate and suggest the introduction of the same remedy Suggestions are needlesse from abroad when the mischiefe is felt at home It seemes to me that his Lordship in smoothing and tickling the Deputies for the third Estate doth no lesse then wring and wrong their great sufficiencie with contumely and outragious abuse as if they were not furnished with sufficient foresight with loyal affection towards their King for the preseruation of his life and honour if the remedie were not beaten into their heads by those of the Religion reputed heretikes Touching my selfe ranged by his Lordship in the same ranke with sowers of dissention I take my God to witnes and my owne conscience that I neuer dream'd of any such vnchristian proiect It hath been hitherto my ordinary course to follow honest counsells and to walke in open waies I neuer wonted my selfe to holes and corners to crafty shifts but euermore to plain and open designes I need not hide mine intentions for feare of any mortall man that puffeth breath of life out of his nostrils Nor in any sort doe I purpose to set Iulian the Apostata before mine eyes as a patterne for me to follow Iulian of a Christian became a Pagan I professe the same faith of Christ still which I haue euer professed Iulian went about his designes with crafty conueiances I neuer with any of his captious and cunning sleights Iulian forced his subiects to infidelitie against Iesus Christ I labour to induce my subiects vnto such tearmes of loyaltie towards my selfe as Iesus Christ hath prescribed and taught in his word But how farre I differ from Iulian it is to bee seene more at large in my answer to Bellarmines Epistles written to Blackwell from whence the Lord Cardinall borrowing this example it might well haue beseemed his Lordship to borrow likewise my answer from the same place Now as it mooues me nothing at all to be drawne by his Lordship into suspitions of this nature and qualitie so by the prayses that he rockes me withall I will neuer be lulled asleepe To commend a man for his knowledge and withall to take from him the feare of God is to admire a souldier for his goodly head of haire or his curled locks and withall to call him base coward faint-hearted and fresh-water souldier Knowledge wit and learning in an hereticke are of none other vse and seruice but onely to make him the more culpable and consequently obnoxious to the more grieuous punishments All vertues turne to vices when they become the seruants of impietie The hand-maids which the Soueraigne Lady Wisdome calleth to be of her traine in the 9. Prouerb are moral vertues and humane sciences which then become pernicious when they runne away from their Soueraigne Lady-Mistris and put ouer themselues in seruice to the Deuill What difference is between two men both alike wanting the knowledge of God the one fnrnished with arts and ciuill vertues the other brutishly barbarous and of a deformed life or of prophane manners What is the difference between these two I make this the onely difference the first goeth to hell with a better grace and falleth into perdition with more facility then the second But he becommeth exceedingly wicked euen threefold and fourefold abhominable if he wast his treasure and stocke of ciuill vertues in persecuting the Church of Christ and if that may be layed in his dish which was cast in Caesars teeth that in plain sobernes and well-setled temper he attempts the ruine of the Common-wealth which from a drunken sot might receiue perhaps a more easie fall In briefe I scorn all garlands of praises which are not euer greene but beeing drie and withered for want of sap and radicall moysture doe flagge about barbarous Princes browes I defie and renounce those prayses which fit me no more then they fit a Mahumetane King of Marocco I contest against all praises which grace me with pety accessories but rob me of the principall that one thing necessary namely the feare and knowledge of my God vnto whose Maiesty alone I haue deuoted my scepter my sword my penne my whole industry my whole selfe with all that is mine in whole and in part I doe it I doe it in all humble acknowledgement of his vnspeakable mercy and fauour who hath vouchsafed to deliuer me from the erroneous way of this age to deliuer my Kingdome from the Popes tyrannicall yoake vnder which it hath lyen in times past most grieuously oppressed My Kingdome where God is now purely serued and called vpon in a tongue which all the vulgar vnderstand My Kingdom where the people may now reade the Scriptures without any speciall priuiledge from the Apostolike See and with no lesse libertie then the people of Ephesus of Rome and of Corinth did reade the holy Epistles written to their Churches by S. Paul My Kingdome where the people now pay no longer any tribute by the poll for Papall indulgences as they did about an hundred yeeres past and are no longer compelled to the mart for pardons beyond the Seas and Mountaines but haue them now freely offered from God by the doctrine of the Gospel preached at home within their owne seuerall parishes and iurisdictions If the Churches of my Kingdome in the L. Cardinals accompt be miserable for these causes and the like let him dreame on and talke his pleasure for my part I will euer advowe that more worth is our misery then all his felicity For the rest it shall by Gods grace be my daily endeauour and serious care to passe my daies in shaping to my selfe such a course of life that without shamefull calumniating of my person it shall not rest in the tippe of any tongue to touch my life with iust reprehension or blame Nor am I so priuie to mine owne guiltinesse as to thinke my state so desperate so deplorable as Popes