the dishonoring and abusing of his Church to giue the greatest contribution that could be wished to the Dignity and Maiesty of the same Who knowes not that the holding of these Estates in France was pursued only in effect by certaine irreuerent semi-Catholikes who loue nothing lesse then the splendour and vigour of Ecclesiasticall discipline and â—urisdiction Who knowes not that as soone as the said Estates were opened that rotten member which tooke the name of the Third Estate discouered that Canker which hath been feeding gredily vpon it especially since the introduction of heresy into that Kingdome by plodding vpon some course how to make an Idâ—ll of the temporall power of Kinges in respect of the reuerence due to Popes and so far to abuse the authority of the Apostolike Sea as that they would redoubt it no more then a meere Scarcrow or Chymera And yet we see God hath fetcht the Treacle of which I haue spoken from the poyson that grew in the festred bowells of his Enemies for if that French Oath had not been propounded by those Lawyers the contrary doctrine and beliefe of the Church of France had not beene protested by those Prelates Shall the prouidence therefore of God be able to watch so fruitfully ouer the Catholike Church of France and shall the narrow seas be broad inough to keepe him from shewing his power in England to our comfort and the confusion of such as either know him not or care not for him nay rather let vs learne by this that when our persecuting Ministers do most conspire our ruine then shall we be surest of Gods present help when the graue shal be finished wherin they hope to bury vs aliue incident in foueam quam fecerunt it is then that they are likeliest to die in the same ditch which they made for vs. Courage therfore is that which we are to beg at the hands of God who knowes not how to forsake but such as confide not in him It was said long ago by one who had no supernaturall â—ssistance wherby his crosses were to be asswaged Si longus leuis si magnus breuis but we haue infinitly more reason to assure our selues then he that if our persecution linger on it wil be lightned if it increase it wil be shortned Nor ought we be without hope but that it may be both short and light when his Maiestyes Excellent Iudgment shall haue obserued which in all likelihood he hâ—th already done by he ensâ—ing Oration and other bookes that his Catholiâ—e subiects hoâ—d no other opinions in fauour of the Sea Apostolike but such as are common to those Cathoâ—iâ—es that are accounted euen the most remisse iâ— Europe That there is no Protestant Church which hath declared this proposition to be true That a King can neuer be deposed by any authority vnder heauen nor his subiects be absolued from the Oath of Allegiance which once they made for any incorrigible crimes whatsoeuer That on the other side rebellions of sâ—biects against their naturall Princes haue growne familia since â—rotestancy brake loose and haue been as it were haâ—cht by that sect in England Scotland Holland Sweueland Germany Switzerland Geneua and most often in France wherof truâ— histories makâ— particuâ—e mention And 〈◊〉 that should not be able to read or vnderstanâ— a booke might see the matter verified euen at this instant in the Kingdome of France where the Prince Protestant of them all is vexing his King by all the power he hath either of credit or other meanes hauing drawne to his lure many others of both Religions That since his Maiesty hath beene ill counselled and vâ—ged by Ministers amongst all whome there hath nâ—uer yet beene any one good man of State he hath gotten nothing lesse then that they aymed at which was That Regall Authority now that it is imployed in their defence should be as superstitiously adored as in Queene Maries dayes both of England and Scotland when their religion receaued a check it was irreligiously decried and disgraced For now insteed of being held a kind of Diuinity vpon earth which notion mens mindes were fitter for before they were opened by such Oathes they are growne to lookeâ— abroad vpon that light which they were wont to be afraid would dazell their eies and at last are come so neere vnto it as that they touch and handle it by the discourse of reason and experience which tells them that Kingly Authority cannot come immediatly from God to any man but by miracle That all the Kinges whome we know do either rule by force of conquest and in that case the authority of the CommoÌ„ wealth if it be vsurped may be resumed or by Donation Election Marriage or Succession of bloud in which cases Kings forfait by not performing the conditions vnder which either they or their first auncestors did enter whether they were expressed or necessarily implied Necessarily I say implied for supposing that a people who was without question the first owner of supreme authority vpon earth should cause a King to gouerne them without obliging him in particuler to do this or that it were a Barbarous conceipt to thinke that it were in his law full power to Tyrannize ouer them at his pleasure without hauing respect either to their defence in time of warre or the administration of Iustice in tyme of peace for which only respectes they made him King If this discourse be true in case of Kinges euen by the Law of Nature and of Nations how much more shall it be so amongst Christian Kinges who in their Baptisme do their homage to the Faith of Christ and at their Coronations do sweare the mayntenance of Religion and Iustice which are the conditions expressed whereupon the progenitours of the most absolute Christian Kinges were placed in their Royall Throne These thinges I say are growne into the consideration of men and strikes the reasonable part of their soules with such an euidence and demonstration of truth as no formulary of an Oath though perhaps for feare or fashion sake they may chance to accept therof will euer be able to wipe out Some questions there may be betweene men of different Religions as hath beene toucht to whom the iudgment ouer Kings for their offences may belong some holding that this Iurisdiction resides in the Church some in the Common Wealth some in both together and some others other seuerall opinions which are not so much worth the specifying but all the Christian Congregations of all Religions in the world do agree in this that all Kinges for hideous crimes may fall from their dignity and their subiectes may be absolued from their Oath of fidelity Nay I haue not heard euen in England where our Oath of Allegiance was enacted nor in France where the like was offered that when the generall propositions which were conteyned in both the formularies were well deduced into particulers men would be drawne to subscribe and sweare thereto otherwise then forced by feare
that the Church doth this and sometimes it doth it not And againe (b) Ibid. q. 11. art 2. 〈◊〉 corpore art So soone as any is deuounced excomunicated by sentence for Apostacie from the faith his subiectes be absolued from his domination and subiection and from the Oath of fidelity whereby they were bound vnto him before Behold what this holy and wonderfull Doctour or rather this Eagle of Doctours whome the Schoole of Deuines calleth the Angelicall Doctour saith and this in his Summe which hath been euer publiquely read at Paris and held for the miracle and oracle of Scholasticall diuinity and who hath neuer been noted nor taxed in this Article by any neither French nor other And not only he but euen those also who among the Doctours of the faculty of Paris haue purposely and expresly written for the Emperours and for the Kings against the Popes and haue taken vpon them to demonstrate that the Popes could not declare the subiects absolued in conscience from the Oath made to their Princes haue alwaies excepted the case of heresy and infidelity and especially when the Princes went and proceeded so far as to haue a will to destroy and ouerthrow the Christian or Catholike Religion and to inforce and constraine their subiects in their consciences and to persecute them as they were either Christians or Catholikes For William Occam who fauoured the Emperour against the Pope and whome the French Doctours who haue impugned the Popes temporall authority haue taken for their Patron hauing written expressely touching the Power Ecclesiastique and Laique spirituall and temporall where he disputeth of set purpose that the Pope hath not any power at all to absolue the Subiects of Kings from the Oath of Allegiance they owe vnto them excepted in generall termes the cases of Heresy or Infidelity (a) Occam lib. 8. q. 2. c. 8. ad 3. alleg The Pope sayth he cannot ordinarily depose the Emperour no more then other Kings though he be neuer so worthy to be deposed nor for any crime or default though neuer so great if it be not of the number of the spirituall crymes And Iohn of Paris to whome the more sincere seruants and fauourers of Kings send the Readers to learne and vnderstand what ought to be the limits and bounds of the authority spirituall and temporall doth there bring the very same exception (b) Io. Par lib. de potest Regis Papae c. 14. If a Prince sayth he were an heretike and incorrigible and lib. a contemner of the Churches censure the Pope might do something in the behalf of the people wherof might ensue that he should be depriued of his secular dignity and deposed by the people And this the Pope may do in the only crime Ecclesiastique the vnderstanding and notice wherof appertayneth to him that is to excommunicate all them who should obey such a Prince as their Lord and Soueraigne And Iames Almaine Doctour of the Faculty of Paris who at what time King Lewis the 12. was at difference and variance with Pope Iulius tooke vpon him the defence of the Kings power against that of the Pope and for that cause did publish and put to light what Occam aforesaid had composed and written against the Pope touching the boundes of both powers and illustrated them with explications and notes of his owne relateth the words of Occam in these termes Doctour Occam (a) Almain l. de potest Eccles Late c. 8. sayth he writeth that Iesus Christ hath not giuen power to the Pope to depriue the Laiques of their Dominions and their possessions except in case that a secular Prince should abuse himselfe therin to the ruine of Christianisme or of the faith so as that abuse should extend to the domage of eternall felicity For in this case it is not to be denied but that the Pope hath power to dispose though other Doctours deny it albeit they confesse that the Pope hath only authority and power to declare that such a Prince ought to be deposed Loe Almaine his wordes in the first part of his booke And see agayne what he sayth in the second part of it The Doctour sayth he speaking (b) Alm. ibidem of Occam hath answered that if the Emperour be worthy of deposition for a cryme of the former kind that is for spirituall crymes he may be deposed by the Pope for as much as the Pope hath full power to punish spirituall sinnes But if he be worthy of deposition for a cryme ciuill and politique it then belongeth not to the Pope to depose him And it is not to be said that the condition of the Emperour and of other Kinges is not paralell alike and equall For Occam handleth them as equall and manteyneth that the Emperour dependeth not in any sort of the Pope for his temporalities And a little after passing vnto the opinion of Iohn Doctour of Paris he sayth (c) Alm. ibidem Iohn of Paris holdeth that for any crime either spirituall or politique it apperteyneth not vnto the Pope to depose the Emperour but by accident c. that is to say in as much as he may excommunicate him for such a cryme and all them that take parte with him and consequently by such an excommunication to constreyne them to depose him And so he deposeth him only by accident and indirectly and not directly And yet these be the principall supportes wherewith the Kinges and Church of France haue serued themselues when they meant to withstand and oppose themselues against the progresse of the Ecclesiasticall power ouer the temporall These be the bookes which the Kinges haue caused to be writtē for the maynteyning and vpholding of their authority These be the bookes which the Faculty of Diuinity haue caused to be published at such time as the Kinges had any variance with the Popes These be those writinges that were reprinted and put to light agayne and illustrated with explications when King Lewis the 12. entred into a difference with Pope Iulius in the time of the Councell of Towers and of Pisa These be the bookes which were caused to be published for the same subiect vnder our deceased King of glorious Memory and that an eight yeares since that is to say in the yeare 1606. and whereunto the Maisters of the Kinges retinue of the Parlament of Paris do remit and refer their Readers to vnderstand what be the batteries strongest defences of the Iurisdiction spirituall temporal And this Schoole of Sorbonne saith the deceased Monsieur Procuratour or Attorney Generall de la Guesle (a) Apud Rochell in Decreto Eccl. Gall. lib. 5. c. 8. speaking to the Schoole of Sorbone on the behalf of the Court hath excellent obseruations in the writings of Gerson and in the booke de potestate Regia Papali composed by Iohn of Paris Doctour in this faculty and in a thousand places besides And notwithstanding this what saith Iohn of Paris That the Pope (b)
Supra pag. 47. in case of heresie can depose only indirectly in as much as he can excoÌ„municate those who do adhere to an hereticall Prince and consequently compell them by imposition of some spirituall payne to depose him though he cannot depose directly And what saith Gerson That the power Ecclesiasticque cannot take vpon it power ouer the secular but in case of heresie or of impugning the faith The power Ecclesiastique saith (c) Gerson de pot Eccl. confiderat 22. tom 1. Gerson ought not to presume or vsurpe ouer the rightes dignities lawes and iudgments of the secular power but when the abusing of the secular power redoundeth to the manifest impugnatioÌ„ of the faith and the blasphemy of the Creatour and to the manifest iniury of the power Ecclesiastique For then a remembrance must be had of the last clause of this consideration that is that in such cases the power Ecclesiastique hath a certaine dominion and power regitiue directiue regulatiue ordinatiue And not only the Deuines but the Lawyers also be of the same opinion For to say nothing of those who haue further extended the Popes power as Iohn de Selue (a) Io. de Seiu eract de Benef. p. 3. q. 8. President of the Parlament of Paris (b) Ioan. Fab. in log 1. nu 10. c. de sum Trinit fide Cath. Iohn Faber Aduocate of the same Parlament Stephen Aufrerius (c) Aufr de potest saecul President of the Parlament of Tholouse But to restreyne my selfe to those who haue written expresly for the limiting of the Popes power when Maister Raoul de Presles Counsailour and Maister of Requests to King Charles the fifth translated by commandement of the same King the work intituled Of the Power Pontificall and Imperiall or Royall he proposed the 15. obiection for the Popes temporall authority in these wordes Item the Pope may absoâ—ue the vassalls or subiects from the oath of fidelity which is due to the temporall Lord which thing he would not do if he had not power in temporall matters And he made answere for the Princes in these wordes (d) Raoul de Presles imprimé en Almaine parles Protestants I answere to this argument say that in a case in which the Pope may haue action against a Prince he may also absolue the vassals from their oath of fidelity or which is more he may declare them absolued as in case of heresie of diuision of the faith or of contumacy against the Church of Rome And when the Chancelour of the same King Charles the fift composed in fauour of his Lord and Maister a dialogue of the Power Regall and Sacerdotall (e) Le songe dit Verger attribué par quelques vns au Chaunceleur des Domans par les autres a Philip de Mâ—giâ—s Cosâ—â—ller inâ—â—ne coÌ„fident du Râ—y Charles 5. he made answere by him who mainteyned the part of the Regal power That the power spirituall commaundeth not the secular but when the secular power intermedled it self in matters spirituall to the preiudice and hurt of the eternal good of the soule Behold his wordes (a) Lib. 1. c. 7.8 in res milit But there where the secular Prince would meddle in spirituall matters and do some thing in regard of his subiects to the detriment and hurt of their eternall saluation the spirituall power is then necessary which in such a case commaundeth and guideth the temporall And after this when Peter Gregory a lawyer of Tholouse vndertooke in his Treatise of the Republique the defence of the Regall authority against that of the Pope he alwaies excepted the cases of faith saith that the Pope could not depose Childerike of his owne authority that is to say without the instance of the French for he addeth (b) Petr. Gregor Tholof tract de Repub l. 6. cap. 5. Childerike was not an Heretike nor had commited any Ecclesiasticall crime wherby he should haue beene enforced to submit himself to the Iurisdiction of the spirituall Sea And againe Cest autheur est citè parles Anglois par â—auteritè temporel des Roys imprimè â—uecq priuilege verifie au ParlemeÌ„t The example of the Emperours ought not to be drawne for a president for other realmes principalities and gouerments which depend not vpon the Sea of Rome in temporall matters and care not much for her commandements in such matters I alwaies except as I haue said els where the cases of faith in which the Princes of what power and libertie soeuer they be are directly subiect to the Sea of Rome may be punished for the crymes they coÌ„mit in such cases Alwayes vnderstood that as the crimes be personal go not further then to persons deliâ—queÌ„t so the paine that is due to them infringeth not the right of the successâ—urs to their Kingdome But against this one obiectes three principall instaÌ„ces The first is taken from the resistance made by Philip the Fayre to the attempt of Pope Boniface The second is taken from the opposition of King Lewis the tweluth to the pretensions of Pope Iulius And the third is drawne from the arrest and Decree of the Parlament of Paris against Tanquerell To the first of these instances the defendours of the exception answere is that the subiect of the controuersy was not matter of heresy or of Apostacy from Christian Religion On the contrary the people of France gaue testimony to King Philip the Fayre that he was a great distroyer of the Bulgares (a) They anciently called the AsbigeÌ„ses Bulgares because the Bulgores held their heresie after that al Heretiques were by extension so called that is to say of Heretikes And as touching them who wrot for the King so farre were they from houlding that it is impiety to belieue that the Pope can for cry me of Religion disanull the Oath of fidelity and allegiance as they themselues alleaged amongst the meritorious workes of the Kings predecessours that his father died for the execution of the absolution which the Pope had giuen and graunted the Aragonians from their fidelity to their Prince Philip his Father say they (b) Act inter â—â—enif Thil. â—idch qâ— de poâ—â—st Pap. fol. 80. passed to God prosecuting in Aragon the Churches cause But the subiect of the quarrell was that the Pope pretended that the temporall soueraignty of France apperteyned vnto him Against this therefore the King opposed himselfe and all his Realme appealed not to the Pope but from the person of Boniface whome he maynteyned not to be Pope to the Councel to the Sea Apostolique when it should be prouided of a true Pope The King saith du Haillan (a) Du Hailan in his history of FraÌ„ce in the life of Philip the Fayre answered that sith Boniface was not the lawfull Pope he appealed for this fact to the Sea apostolique at that time destitute of Pope Pastour And King Philip the Fayre himself in the
notwithstanding what Azarias the high Priest said vnto him taken the Censar in hand to offer incense before the Altar the high Priest iudging it to be the leprosy did thrust him out of the Temple and from conuersing with the people by that meanes caused that the administration and gouernment of the Kingdome was taken from him and transferred to his sonne though among other nations the leprosy depriued none of conuersation with others nor of the gouernment of the Common wealth witnesse wherof is Naaman 4. Reg. 5. who was Generall of the warfarre of the King of Syria and Gouernour of his whole Kimgdome Finally to passe from thinges figured to things literal 1. Mach. 2. seq they allege the story of Matathias high Priest the head of the family house of the Machabees who seeing Antiochus who raigned in Iury to haue an intent to force the Iewes in their ancient customes and to ouerthrow their law and to persecute them by punishmentes torments death tooke armes gathered Gods dispersed seruantes together who effected wrought so much vnder his cōduct and his sonnes as they deliuered the people from the yoke of the Seleucides and tooke from them the Kingdome of Iury and by that meanes conserued the religion of the Iewes which without such a resolution fauoured by Gods visible assistance had els beene quite exterminated and abolished out of the land Those who hold the negatiue part come downe to the new Testament and cite for themselues this passage of S. Rom. 13. Paul where he writeth Let euery soule be subiect to higher Powers 1. Petr. 2. For he that resisteth the power resisteth the order instituted of God And this of S. Peter Be ye subiect whether it be to Kings as more excelling or to Rulers And by this they inferre that obedience to Kinges is of Right Diuine and therefore cannot admit dispensation by any authority neither spirituall nor temporall The maynteyners of the affirmatiue part answere to this that these passages do not in any sort touch the knot or difficulty of the controuersie For the question say they is not whether it be de Iure diuino to obey Kinges whilest they are Kinges or knowne for Kinges But the question is if it be de Iure diuino that he who hath beene once known acknowledged for King by the body of Estate may cease to be that is that he may do some thing by which he commeth to loose and forgo his rights to cease to be acknowledged for King Now these two questions be farre different For to take an example euen of him vnder whome S. Peter suffered martyrdome it was de Iure diuino to obey Nero whilest he was Emperour But it was not de Iure Diuino say they that he could not fall from his Imperiall rightes and be deposed and declared an enemy of the Common wealth It was de Iure diuino so long as Antiochus was by the Community of the Iewes acknowledged for King that the Iewes should obey him in matters that were not against God For he was no lesse temporall soueraigne of the Iewes then was the Emperour Claudius vnder whome S. Peter wrote But after that Mattathias the high Priest and the rest of the nation of the Iewes who liued conforme to their owne law had declared him a Tyrant and a violatour of the consciences of the people of God therefore no more their lawful Prince the particuler Iewes were then no longer bound to yeild him obedience And not only the defenders of the affirmatiue parte but euen M. Barcklay himselfe who is the principall propugner of the negatiue part vseth this distinction and sayth Controuers Menarch Mach. l. 4. cap. 16. There is not any case wherin the people can rise against a Prince ruling after an insolent manner so long as he continueth King For this commandement of God is alwaies against it Honour the King and he that resisteth power resisteth God And therfore the people cannot haue by any other means authority ouer him vnles he do something by which he by right ceaseth to be King And els where they adde 1. Petr. 2. what S. Peter writeth Rom. 13. Be subiect to euery creature whether it be to King as excelling or to Rulers as sent by him And S. Hebr. 13. Paul Let euery soule be subiect to higher powers And the same Apostle writeth els where in more expresse words thus Obey your Prelates and be ye subiect vnto them For they watch for your soules as those who ought to render accompt Hence it ariseth that it is as wel de iure diuino to yeild spirituall obedience to Prelates as it is to yeild temporall obedience to Princes And yet it followeth not that it is de iure diuino that the Prelates no not the Pope himselfe cannot fall from their rights of Prelacy nor that it is de Iure diuino to continue to obey them after they haue lost their right But the defendours of the negatiue part obiect that the Church which liued vnder the first Pagan Emperours neuer made vse of this right of absoluing in the spirituall Court the Christians from the Oath they had made vnto them And contrariwise that the first Christians preached not any other thing then obedience that they yeilded to the Emperours To this againe the maynteyners of the affirmatiue part answere many thinges For first they say that the Church not hauing absolued the Christians of the Oath of fidelity by thē made to the Pagan Emperours all the Christians in particuler were bound euen in conscience to obey them and pray to God for the safety and prosperity of their Empire And as touching the cause for which the Church did not take away the spirituall obligation the Christians had to obey them they bring three reasons The first is For that it had beene ouer great imprudency and folly to irritate and incense the Pagan Emperours by such a declaration in a time when they were the Lordes of the whole world for that such an act could haue beene not only vnprofitable but also absolutly domageable pernicious to the Christians against whom to incense the Emperour at such time as they had all the forces and the world within their handes was not to succour or promote religion but to precipitate ouerthrow it cleane For it is not sufficient to say that the Church is bound to doe some thing because she may lawfully do it vnlesse she also can doe it with prudence and profit The second reason is For that there is great difference betweene the Pagan Emperours vnder whome the Church began to lay her first foundations and to take the first rootes and the Princes who should now fall into Heresy or into Apostacy from Christian religion and should become either Arians or Mahometans or Pagans For the Pagan Emperours who then were had not yet at that tyme done homage to Christ nor yielded
excepting only a few hypocritical Ministers amongst vs or profane Lawyers amongst our neighbours But as God would haue it neither the Ministers in France are of that opinion for they professe the contrary nor yet the Lawyers of England if you put the case home to them for howsoeuer it costes them nothing to sweare that the Pope can neuer come to depose a King because he is a protestant it would trouble some of their consciences if they haue any to sweare that if an Vpper and Lower house of the English Parlament should condemne a King who might happen to be so great a Tyrant as that he would abrogate all the Statutes and Common Lawes of the Realme bring in by force a summary course of Iustice as is vsed in Switzerland confiscate all the Common Lawyers of England who are able to spend aboue a thousand poundes per annum and in a word dispose of their wiues and children as if they were his owne it would trouble them I say to sweare that such a King might not be deposed by the Houses of Parlament and that themselues could not be so far discharged from the Oath of Fidelity which they made to him when they were sworne Iustices of Peace as to make some personall resistance in their owne defence There is nothing more certaine then that many a man reades ouer the Oath of Allegiance and diuers take it who consider not the importance of those fearefull generall clauses which include and exclude all particuler cases of No Pope No King neither by his owne nor by any other Authority for any cause whatsoeuer can Depose or Absolue subiects c. And yet as I said before there are so many Protestantes who by occasion of this Oath haue entred so deeply into the consideration of Kingly Authority as it is euident to all such as freely and familiarly liue with Protestantes and vnderstand sincerely from them what they think that thousands of them are growne to a lesse adoring conceipt of Royall Dignity then they were wont to haue And though his Maiesty can hardly come to know the preiudice that he hath susteyned by yeilding to them who haue vnfitly sought to help him or rather to help themselues by propounding this Oath because he is a King and cannot equally conuerse with his subiectes nor can he from his seruantes expect but such newes as will be pleasing to him yet it may be hoped for at the Handes of so Excellent a Iudgment as his Maiesty is endued withall that he will one day fall vpon the true account of these businesses by other meanes and not cōtinue his Catholike Subtectes in his so ill conceipt for professing of that beliefe which is now in terminis auowed by the learned and noble Catholikes euen of France the contrary whereof is not auowed by any Protestant Church vpon earth if we chaunge the name of Pope into the name of Common wealth and the sequele whereof hath done nothing but disseruice to him I beseech God of his infinite mercy giue his Maiesty such light of mind wherby to discerne the distempered thoughts of his Ministers who are in such a rage against Catholikes and to vs that he will vouchsafe so much strength of mind as that whatsoeuer happeneth we may rather obey God then Man AN ADVERTISMENT TO THE READER translated out of the French THE Author of this Discourse vnderstanding that some had put in print two seuerall Speaches in his name far different both in sense and wordes from that which he by word of mouth deliuered he was constrayned to bring this to light as an Antidot or Countermaund to those other Neither did he much wonder to see such peeces of changeable colours clapt togeather some true some false according vnto euery ones passion without resemblance to the originall for he doth thinke that no pen could follow nor memory retayne two Speaches wherof the shortest lasted three houres although swiftly pronounced But he was much astonished at the liberty of this tyme that within Paris himselfe being present any should publish two Speaches in his name without acquainting him with it therby to vnderstand whither he would acknowledge them for his owne It is true indeed that he was not the only man who had byn so dealt withall for some other Prelates had lyn handled after the same manner and found as litle of theirs in those remnantes bestowed on them as Euphorbus in Pithagoras Now therefore it doth suffice him to present thee with that he pronounced in the Chamber of the Third Estate For that it was in a manner all one with that he made in the Chamber of the Nobility the reasens being the same and no difference at all but in the beginning conclusion and ornuments By reason wherof the publishing of the one might serue for a generall remedy of the suppositions of the other two As soone as he had therefore signified to the Gentlemen of the Third Order that being to speake in their presence he thought himself obliged to make the same prayer to God which Pericles was accustomed to do being to speake to the Athenians that nothing might passe from him vnbeseeming those that had imployed him neyther of those that were to heare him Psal 50. he directed his words to God saying with the Psalmist Domine labia men aperies and then began as followeth THE ORATION IT had byn to small purpose Noble Gentlemen to honour the dignity of those that make profession to minister Iustice It had byn to litle purpose that which Aristotle taught vs by saying that Iustice is beautifull and admirable like to the starre Lucifer and it had byn to as litle purpose to haue taught vs that in iustice all vertues are summarily conteyned And the answere of Agesdaus King of Sparta had byn vnto as litle purpose which he gaue vnto the King of Persia who tooke to himself the title of the great King that he could not be greater then himselfe valesse he could proue he were more iust And that fable of the Poets had byn to as litle purpose faigning Minos the Patron of iust Princes to haue byn the sonne of Iupiter and that Themis and Dicas were placed on either side of Iupiter if the Scripture did not teach vs that by iustice Kings do raigne if the Sonne of God had not chosen him who was to be his figure called him Melchisedech that is to say King of iustice and that the same Melchisedech whose name doth signify King of Iustice had not been also King of Salem that is King of peace to shew that of iustice dependeth peace which is the mother of all good in heauen and earth And seeing the oracles of diuine scripture agree in cōmendation of this vertue with the testimony of prophane authors it seemes in giuing her the first place of honour and dignity amongst humane vertues is to put in execution the will both of God and men Now Gentlemen if euer there were any Nation in
besides the possession without interruption continued and the perpetuall tradition of the Prouince there were writinges made that very houre the date accordinge to the account of the yeare of our Lord falling to be the same with the yeare 536. Which I alleadge not as I haue before made protestation therehence to inferre any particuler consequence from fact to right but to shew in generall how great reuerence our first kinges did beare to the censures of ancient Popes The Pope sayes du HaillaÌ„ (b) Du Haillan en Phist de France l. 1. incensed with this cruell acte sent word to the King that he should make amendes for this fact otherwise that his realme should be interdicted Then Clotharius feeling remorse of conscience for his crime did ordeine for amendes thereof that from that time forward the Lords of Yuetot and their heires should be quit from all homage seruice and obedience due to the King for the territory of Yuetot c. And thereupon were the euidences drawne and sealed by the foresaid Clotharius And Gaguin (a) Gaguinus hist â—ranc l. 2. I find as an infallible truth that this was done the yeare of our Lord 536. For the English hauing long time after dominion in Normandy there fell out a suite betweene Iohn of Holland Englishman and the Lord of Yuetot as if his territory had beene tributary to the King of England The Lieuetenant of (b) The word which the translator of Gaguin vseth is Caletz which signifieth as well the towne as the coast of Callis the people wherof in old time were cal'd Caletes and wherof one part is euen to this day called le Pais de Caults Callis after he had throughly in the yeare of our Lord 1428. informed himself of the case by order of iustice did determine that he had found iust as I haue noted before And when Queene Brune childe and King Theodorike desirours to haue a confirmation of the priuiledges of the hospitall of Autun which the said Queene had founded and to haue the insuing Kinges bound by the authority of the Sea Apostolike to conserue them inuiolable without the least tuch of any sacriledge the Pope S. Gregory the great at their instance wrote these wordes in an Epistle to Senator which is the tenth in the eleauenth booke of his Epistles (c) An absurd Author hath as fondly made answere that this decree is not found in S Gregory as it was absurdly answered that the Excommunication of the Emperour Theodosius by S. Ambrose was not to be found in the Ecclesiasticall History We grant and confirme ordeyning that no Kings Prelates nor any other of what degree soeuer may in part diminish or take away any thing bestowed on the said hospital by the foresaid most excellent Kings our sonnes And a litle after And if any one of the Kings Prelates Iudges or other secular persons after information giuen of this our constitution do go about to contradict it let him be depriued of his power and dignity For I wil not serue my self of those Buls of the Abbey of Soisson for that they were not inserted within the Register of S. Gregories Epistles but were taken out of the Coffers of the Monkes of S. Medard and put after the work at the end of the Register as appeares both by ancient impressions of the same Register and by the citation of Pope Gregory VII (a) Gregor 7. lib. 8. ep 21. who liued more then 500. yeares since made of the Epistle to Senator without speaking of that of Soisson And when the Emperour Iustinian the 2. sent his Constable to take Pope Sergius and transport him from Rome to Constantinople for that he would not approue the Councel falsely called the Sixt the Imperiall souldiers of Italy opposed themselues droue back the Emperours CoÌ„stable with iniuries reproaches Iustinian the 2. sayes Beda (b) Bed de sex aetat mundi an Author of the same age being offended for that Sergius of happy memory Bishop of the Church of Rome would not signe and fauour the erroneous Synod which he caused to be held at Constantinople sent his Constable Zachary commaunding him to take the Pope and bring him to Constantinople But the Souldiers of Rauenna with the Prouinces adioyning did resist the impious commaundement of the Prince and repelled the said Zachary with contumelies reproaches from the Citty of Rome It is true indeed that afterwardes the same Iustinian did wash away this cryme togeather with other his impieties when as hauing gotten Pope Constantine into the East He threw himselfe prostrate on the earth (c) Bed ib. before him saith Beda and praying him to make intercession for his sinnes he did renew all the priuiledges of the Church And when the Emperour Philippicus successour to Iustinian 2. came to the Empire and according to the custome of the Emperours presently after their comming to the state of sending the profession of their faith to the Pope had addressed vnto him a profession of an hereticall faith the Pope reiected it in Synode and vpon the refusal of it the people of Rome abrogated the Emperour Philippicus his Imperiall titles Philippicus sayth (a) Beda de sex aetat mundi Bede and after him Paulus (b) Paulus Diacon de gestis Longob lib. 6 cap. 4. Diaconus sent vnto Pope Constantine letters of peruerse doctrine which the Pope togeather with the Councell of the Sea Apostolique reiected c. And the people of Rome ordeyned that neither the name nor the edictes nor the money that had the image of the heretical Emperour vpon it should be admitted or receaued And at what time the Emperour Leo Isauricus fell into the heresy of the Iconclastes or Image-breakers and began to persecute the Catholikes in the East Pope Gregory the second after many dilations assembled a Councell of the Bishops of the West at Rome by which he depriued the Emperour of all his rightes tributes iurisdiction and power Imperiall that he had in Italy and all this with the aduise assistance of the French And though some Authors be silent herein yet Theophanes Cedrenus Zonarus Greeke historians affirme it and none of them deny it The most holy Gregory sayth Theophanes (c) Theop. in hiâ—â— miscel lib. 21. withdrew Rome Italy and al the rights as well of the Republique as of the Church into the west partes from the obedience of Leo and of his Empire Zonaras saith (d) Zon. tom 3 Annal in Leon. Isaterico Pope Gregory seeing the persecutions of the Emperour Leo against the Catholikes did cut off from communion with him the Bishop of Constantinople and those who imbraced the same impiety and exposed them together with the Emperour to an Anathema Synodique forbad the tributs which til then had beene paid to the Empire and adioyned himselfe with the French whereupon they might take an occasion to make themselues maisters of Rome And when the French were resolued to abandon and
forsake Childerike and to substitute Pipine in his place though the cause that moued them to remooue and make away Childerike was his impertinency and his stupidity yet in as much as it touched Religion by occasion because Childerike his imbecillity weaknes did put France in danger of falling from Christianity (a) Orat. legat Pipini apud Paul Aemilium in Child 3. through the inuasion of the Sarazens who were become possessed of all Affrike and Spaine and had already many times ouerrun and wasted France and that otherwise it rested vpon the absolution of an oath in matter of conscience They would not in any wise yeild to do homage to Pipin vntill the Pope had absolued them in the spirituall Tribunall from their precedent and former oath they had made to Childerike Pipin saith Paulus Aemilius (b) Paul Aemil. de reb gestis Franc. in Child 3. after infinite other authors sent Burchard Bishop of Wirtzburg to Pope Zachary for the abrogating taking away of the obligatio of the oath by which the French were bound to Childerike And againe The Pope absolued the French frō the Oath they had made to Childerike and they assembling the States did homage to Pipin in quality of King (c) du Tillet en la vie du Child 3. And the Lord of Tillet in his Memorialls sayth To take a way the note of periury and infidelity it was thought best to send vnto Pope Zachary Vegard Bishop of Wirtzburg Fulrad chaplayne of the said Pipine for the obteyning of absolution vnto the said subiects from the oath made vnto the said King Childerike and of approbation of the election by them made of the said Pipin for their King And this was accorded by the said Pope And when as againe after the heresy of the Emperour Constantine Copronymus and of Leo his Sonne and the persecution that Constantine Sonne of Leo raysed against the Catholikes for his false marriage Charlemaine became beloued and potent in the West and that it came to be vnderstood that by the inconstancy of the Emperours of Greece there was no more certainty at all for stability of religion in those prats of the East Pope Leo the third absolued with effect all their subiectes of the West from their fidelity declaring Charlemaine Emperour of the West in their place The French sayth Zonaras (a) Zonar tom 3. Annal. in Iren Constant made themselues Lords of Rome Pope Leo hauing crowned Charles and called him Emperour of the Romans And Theophanes (b) In hist nuscell 22. The Pope to requite Charles crowned him Emperour And Eginard Chancelor to Charlemain saith (c) Eginard in vita Caroli magni our Charles in the beginning had such an horrour at the title of Augustus as he affirmed if he had vnderstood the Popes intention he would not that day haue come to the Church notwithstanding it were a solemne festiuity And the Lord of Tillet in his Memorials sayth thus (d) du Tillet enla vie de Charlemaine Charlemayne was King of all France by the half wellneere augmented and increased by him and after that by Pope Leo crowned the first Emperour of the West And when King Charles the Simple meant to vse the help of the Infidells and to bring in the Normanes who were Pagans Idolaters into the Christian Countries of the French to make warres against his enemies Fouques Arch. bishop of Rhemes threatned him that he would renounce the fidelity he ought vnto him (e) Frodoard hist Eccles Rhemens Who is he quoth he who being faithfull vnto you as he is bound hath not an horrour that you desire the amity and friendship of Gods enemies and haue a will to the detriment and ruine of the name of Christ to receaue and admit the armes of the Infidells and detestable aliances with them And a litle after It were better you had neuer beene borne then to haue a will to raigne by the protection of the Diuell and for you to be assistant vnto them whome you should most eagerly oppugne Wherfore know you that if you so do and condescend to such counsells you shall neuer haue me loyall and faithfull to you and I will further withdrawe from your fidelity all that I shal be able and I togeather with my fellow Bishops will excommunicate you and your complices and adherentes and condemne you with a perpetuall curse in place of the fidelity I beare vnto you And when King Philip the first in the beginning of the last race forsooke Bertha his wife daughter to the Count of Holland and tooke in place of her Bertrude wife of Fouques Count of Anjou yet liuing matter that concerned the violating of a Sacrament and not of the breach of one Sacrament by simple adultery which had beene a crime of manners but by the superinduction of another Sacrament and by a publique profession of making it a matter lawful in keeping euen in the sight of his whole realme the wife of another man still liuing in his Royall bed and in title of Queene and his Spouse in place of his owne wife yet also aliue when as the precedent mariages had not by the Church been declared to be of no validity which was a cryme acompanied with heresie Pope Vrbane notwithstāding he was to contend with an Antipope reprehended the King and after many admonitions perceauing his pertinacy and obstinacy excōmunicated him in a Councell of almost 300. Berthold ad ann 1095. Bishops assembled at Clermont in Auuergne and interdicted his Realme And Pope Paschal after him did the same At the Councell of Clermont sayth Malmesbury (a) Guil. Malmesb lib. 4. c. 2. in Guil. 2. the Pope excommunicated Philip King of France and all them who called him King and obeyed him or spake vnto him if it were not to correct him And Iuo (b) Iuo Carnot ad Vrban Epist 46. of Charters writing vnto the same Vrbane sayth They will menace and threaten you that the King and his Realme will depart from your obedience that is will passe to the obedience of the Antipope if you restore not the Crowne to the King and absolue him from the excommunication And the Lord of Tillet sayth (c) Du Tillet en la vie de Philip. 1. In the yeare 1100. Iohn and Benedict Cardinalls and Legates of Pope Paschal the second sent into France assembled the Prelates at Autun at Valence and at Poictiers and after hauing admonished the King to take the said Queene Bertha agayne and to leaue Bertrude excommunicated them and interdicted the Realme Wherupon the said King was moued to iudignation But in conclusion he obeyed And when the Emperour Henry the fourth who liued at the same tyme with Philip the first complayned a while before Pope Gregory the seauenth for hauing absolued and discharged his subiectes from the Oath of fidelity he reproached him that he could not doe it for that he had not committed any errour in faith
forme of his appellation saith (b) Act. inter Bonif Phil. Pulch. Wee appeale to the said Generall Councell which we most hartily craue may be assembled and to the true and lawfull supreme Bishop that shal be and to others to which or to whome it shal be meete to appeale For the King and his maynteyned that Boniface was not the true Pope but was intruded and thrust into the Popedome by fraud simony (c) Ibidem Celestine his predecessour the true lawfull Pope still liuing And they further added that he was an (d) Ibidem Heretique and consequently not Pope for as much as said they (e) Ibid. in appell fact per reg regni col art 18. he had reuealed a confession and more then that he pretended that he beleeued not in the presence of Christes body in the Holy Sacrament And for this the Coūt of Artois caused his Buls to be burnt not as of the true Pope but as of a false one intruded heretical symoniacal and for this cause the King appealed not frō the Pope but from the person of Boniface to the Councel to the Sea Apostolique when it should haue a true Pope he sent two Knights to signify his appeale the one an Italian named Schiarra and the other a Frenchman named Nogaret who surprized by intelligence the Cittie of Anagnia wherin Pope Boniface was whence being deliuered vp and sent to Rome he dyed within awhile of sorrow In place of Boniface was chosen Benedictus to whome presētly after his creation the King gaue sufficiently to vnderstand that what he had done against Boniface was done but against his person and not against the Sea Apostolique For he wrote vnto him with this superscription (a) Act. inter Bonif Phil Pulch. fol. 94. To the most holy Father in our Lord Benedict by the diuine prouidence Supreme Bishop of the sacred holy Church Roman and vniuersall Philip by the grace of God King of France deuoutly kisseth his blessed seete And further with this cōgratulatiō (b) Ibid. f. 95. The Order of the Preachers do glorie to see sitting in the supreme throne of iustice such a father of the Vniuerse and of the faith such a successour of S. Peter and such a vicar of Christ And together with this concludeth (c) Ibid. f. 96. We recommend confidently the Realme in the gouernement whereof we doe by the grace of God sit and withall we recommend the Church of France to the fauours of your Holines And to Benedict who continued in the Sea but eight monethes succeeded Clement the fifth vnder whome the affaires of reconciliation were in such sort accorded and brought to an end as the temporall rightes of the Realme continued in their integrity And Clement himselfe came to Lions where the King to honour in him the spiritual power of Christ put himselfe on foot togeather with his brethren to receaue him Our Chronicles saith du Haillan (d) Du Haillan en la vie de Philip le Belle. doe affirme that the King of France and his two brethren were on foote by the Popes side holding his horses bridle To the second instance which is of the complaint of Lewis the 12. the defendors of the exception make the very same answere That the source and origen of that difference was not matter of religion but cases meerely temporall that is of the league and association that Pope Iulius and King Lewis the 12. at that time Duke of Millane had made and entred into against the Venetians For the Pope seeing how the King grew as great as he could desire in Italy fel of from that alliance with him and reconciled himselfe with the Venetians The King incensed with this separation and the Popes deportement and bad carriage towardes him thereon following caused a Councell to be held at Pisa and after againe at Millan by the Cardinals and other Prelates of his side where the Pope was declared susspēded frō the administration of the vniuersal Church The Pope sore moued at this attaint caused another to be held at Rome where to requite the King he declared him and his adherents deposed from the administration of their temporall Estates But the French both Ecclesiastike and Laike knowing that the first source beginning of that discord proceded from passion of matter of State not of religion interteyned vnion in such sort with the King as nothing could separate them from him For as touching the losse that happened vnto Iohn de Albret of the Kingdome of Nauarre the Continuer of Paulus Aemiltus though he was a sore enemy of the memory of Pope Iulius confesseth not that the sentence of the Pope was the true cause on the contrary he maynteineth that the cause for which Iohn de Albret lost the Kingdome of Nauarre was for breaking of from the alliance he had with Ferdinand King of Aragon which alliance Ferdinand affirmed was ratified vpon condition that if the Kinges of Nauarre did violate the same then the Kingdome of Nauarre should returne to the Spaniardes and he did put himselfe into that alliance of King Lewis the 12. vnder promise that he should procure the soueraignity of Berne to be restored vnto him This then the Continuer of Paulus Aemilius auerreth to be the true cause of the losse of the Kingdome of Nauarre And the other neither to haue beene the true cause nor true pretext but only a help of a pretext of which Ferdinand not hauing taken his aduantage did not yet leaue to pretend that the Kingdome of Nauarre appertained vnto him and so to take possession of it The King of Nauarre saith he (a) Ferrō Continuat Pauli Aemil. in Lud. 12. denied in the beginning that he could refuse to giue passage to the King of Aragon to passe into France saying first that he was hindred to declare himself enemy to Ferdinand by the alliance he had with him and Ferdinand himselfe vaunted that when the Kingdome of Nauarre was by the Spaniardes rendred vp into the handes of the race of Albret it was by caution written and prouided That in case their successors should breake their alliance the Kingdome should returne to the Spaniardes And a litle after (b) Ibid. Whereupon Ferdinand hauing vnderstood that the King of Nauarre was entred into amity with the King of France turned against him the forces which he had prepared for his iourney into France And this was the cause for which Ferdinand did thrust his neighbour next bordering King out of his Kingdome And more then this he added the pretext of another matter namely that the Pope had declared the King and his adherentes excomunicate their Kingdomes exposed To the Third Instance which is taken from the Arrest or Decree of Parlamēt which Mousieur Chancelour of the Hospitall caused to be made against Tanquerell there needeth no other answere then the Answers going before For the Arrest toucheth not in any sort
or bowed their necks to Christes yoke as we read that S. Greg. Turon in Clodoueo Remigius said to our first Christian King Mitis depone colla Sicamber they were not yet by a mutuall and reciprocall oath bound to their subiects to liue dye in the religion obedience of him who carieth written vpon his thigh Apocal. 19 Psal 105. Kinge of Kinges and Lord of Lordes And those wordes of the Psalme The Kinges nations shall be gathered togeather to serue our Lord Esa 49. were not yet at that tyme fullfilled Nor those of the Prophet Esay The Kinges shall adore thee prostrate vpon the earth and shall lick vp the dust of thy feete By meanes whereof they not hauing beeue declared vassalls tributaries of Christ nor hauing made to him any oath of homage fidelity nor hauing beene receaued by their subiects with that condition they should liue vnder the Empire and Ensigne of Christ and not beeing bound to their subiects by contract and mutuall oath when they began to proclayme warre against Christ they fell not by their owne proper Profession into any manifest cryme of felony neither declared they themselues by their owne iudgment vnworthy and to haue lost the Fee which they held of him they violated not the reciprocall and mutual oath that was betweene them their people But at this day the Christian Princes who haue for so many ages since made profession to be vassals and tributaries of Christes Kingdome and to subiect their Scepters their Diadems Crownes vnto his Empire who haue raysed seated and placed his Crosse vpon their Ensignes and in their standardes carried it vpon the forefront of their Diadems haue set it vpon the top of their Crownes haue stamped it vpon their monies and coynes that it might appeare whose tribute-coyne it was haue made these Inscriptions Christus vincit Christus regnat Christus imperat haue bound themselues after so long a tyme by oath at their Consecrations both to God and to their people to maynteyne the faith of Christ and with that cōdition receaued the Scepter at the handes of their Peeres and the reciprocall oath of the people These I say when they come to proclaime warre against Christ to breake the oath they haue made to him and to their Estates not by a simple act of contrariety nor by a simple declaration and fact of repugnāce but by a profession and protestation of a will alwaies bent to contradict and to oppose against him not by a simple violating and breaking of an oath but by a vow and oath of a mind resolued for euer to violate and break their oath not by simple default of faith but by the yealding of their faith and promise to the enemy of him to whome they had by a former promise and faith bound themselues that is to say by abiuring and persecuting the Catholike Religion and by publike profession of Arianisme or of Mahometanisme or of Paganisme Then they fall into a contumacy of perfidiousnes against God and make themselues incapable of the tenures they hold of their Soueraigne vnworthy to be acknowledged for Lieutenantes of their Subiectes and of those that be vnder their charge And from this derogateth not that which others object that Kinges cease not to be Kinges before their cōsecratiō therfore the oathes which they take at their Consecratiō are not essentiall conditions of their Royalty For they answer that Kinges before they be consecrated be presumed to haue taken their Oath made it to their people in the person of their predecessors as the people are also reputed held to haue takē their Oathes of Allegiance vnto their Kinges in that which they haue made to their predecessours In so much as when there happeneth any impediment of Consecration they are alwayes thought to haue made and taken their Oath in desire and will and implicitè as the Schoole Deuines say by a couered relation that the condition vnder which they raigne is pretended to haue to the oathes of their predecessors and namely to the first Kinges of the races and lynes They who are not only content to bind theyr Successors by their example to take the like oath to their subiectes but also to assure vnto them the Crowne with the more strong bandes they would oft see them consecrated in their owne life tyme teaching them by the oath that they caused them in such a case to take and make to their people with what a lawe and condition they passed the Crowne ouer vnto them 4. Cor. ◠And to this they further add that where S. Paul sayth That it was ashame to Christians that they were iudged in causes that they had amongst themselues Cedr in com hist in Iust. ad lib. 1. tit 5.6.11 by the Infidells a thing which the Emperour Iustinian conuerted into a law when he ordeyned that neither Pagan nor Heretike should be admitted to the administration or gouernement of the Common wealth he seemed to insinuate that the commandement which the same Apostle gaue the Christians who liued vnder Pagan Emperours to obey them was a commaundement made by prouision and for the time namely vntill the Church were so multiplied and increased by the vniuersall conuersion of the Pagans to Christian Religion as it were or should be within the power of Christians to be able without perill and wrack of state to hinder the admitting receauing of any other Princes but Christians and to obserue this Law of Deuteronomy Thou shalt make one a King among the number of thy brethren Deut. 17. The second difference that is betweene the one the other Princes is taken frō the diuers condition of Christian people For in the time of the anciēt Pagan Emperours which is the tyme sayth S. Augustine meant by the first part of Daniels Prophecy Aug. epist 60. the Christian had not yet attayned the temporall Tribunall of Christ nor as yet apperteyned they to Christs temporall Kingdome For as much as Christ did not at that tyme exercise or manage any temporall Kingdome on earth neither had as yet any temporall Ministers of his Lawes but only exercised a spirituall Kingdome by his spirituall Ministers which were the Bishops and Pastours But after that the second part of the Prophecy was fulfilled that is to say after the conuersion of Kings and Countries to the Christian Religion and that Kings serued our Lord in feare and apprehended discipline or according to the Hebrew text did homage to the Sonne Psal 2. he then gayned and added the Christians not only to his spirituall Kingdome which he exerciseth by his spirituall Ministers which be the Bishops and Pastors but also to his temporall Kingdome which he exerciseth by his temporall Ministers and Substitutes which be the Kings and Princes who serue him sayth S. Augustine not simply as men in obseruing his Laws but as Princes in causing them to be obserued And therefore since the
the beginning of his Empire which continued but there yeares he called the Catholike Bishops home againe who had beene banished and sent into exile by Constantius his predecessour And in the end he had by fauours and his other carriage so gayned the souldiers of the Roman bands as they made almost all profession of Paganisme Whence it was that Iouian a Christian souldier being by them chosen after Iulian his death answered them that he would not commaund men who were not Christians For the answere which they made We are Christians was as much to say that all they made an outward profession of Paganisme to please Iulian yet in their heartes they continued still Christians By occasion whereof the feare of a greater ruine hauing hindered the Church from absoluing the Catholikes from the obligation of fidelity in behalfe of Iulian the Apostata they were still bound to do that which S. Austine sayth of them Aug in Psal 124. For the loue of the Emperour of Heauen they obeyed the Emperour of the Earth But some will say the Christians might well haue deposed the Emperour Valentinian for as much as they were the stronger in Millane when he would haue one of their Churches for the exercising of his Heresy therin It is true But to this the defendants of the affirmatiue part answere foure thinges The first that the memory of the Emperour Gratian his elder Brother and as it were Father and Tutor of the Emperour Valenâ—â—ar and slayne by Maximus the Tyrant and the most Catholike Prince and the greatest freind of S. Ambrose that euer was changed all the malice or euill that the Catholike people could haue had or carried towardes Valentinian into fauour and compassion and into a desire of assisting him for the reuenging of that murther and making away of his Brother The second is that Valentinian was yet so yong the sonne of so Catholike a Father as there was not any cause or ground to despaire of his conuersion which also followed within a while after and that with so great an Edification of the Church as S. Ambrose celebrateth him for one of the most Religious Emperours of his age The third that though in the beginning the people conteyned themselues within the simple boundes of petition gaue Valentinian to vnderstand We contend not O Emperour but we become Suppliantes vnto you yet when Valentinian had a meaning to proceed further the people held their owne resisted the Emperour and stood so resolute in the matter as he fearing a tumult and reuolt was constreyned to yeild vnto them Hence it is that they thought not that the commandment our Sauiour gaue to his disciples when they persecute in one Cittie to flie into another was an absolute perpetuall precept but rather a dispensation a permission accommodated to the tyme wherein the Christian people either were still vnder Pagan Emperours or had not yet the meanes to make resistance against persecutions by might and force The Fourth is that the Emperour Valentinian his owne souldiers thought not themselues so bound in way of fidelity vnto him as they belieued they could not be dispensed with when he should perseoute the Catholikes For when the tumult began to be hoat they caused it to be signified vnto him that if he would come vpon the Place he should come thither accompanied for as much as they would assist and help him if they sawe him conioyned and to take part with the Catholikes els they would put themselues in company with the troupes that held with Ambrose But the propugners of the negatiue part recurre to the Analogy of other practises of the Church say that for Heresie the owners are not depriued of their goodes and consequently much lesse Princes should be spoyled of their estates To this agayne the maynteyners of the affirmatiue part bring two answers The one is that in this our Realme Heretikes loose not their goodes and the cause is for that the execution of the lawes made against Heretikes is suspended for the conseruation of the publique peace and tranquillity But if there should creep forth some third sect in France should begin to growe and were not come to be so great and to make a notable part of the body of Estate as Arianisme or Nestorienisme it is questionles that the other two would â—udge them who should make such profession worthy to be depriued not only of their goodes but of their liues also For this is practised at Geneua where Caluin caused Seruetus to be burnt and it is the practise at this day in England where the Most Renowned moderne King of Great Britany punisheth the Arians with losse of goodes and of life The other answere is that there is a great difference between the power that owners haue ouer their goodes and that which Princes haue ouer their Estates For goodes are made for their Maisters and Princes contrariwise for their Estates neyther haue goods any soule nor can be compelled by force or by example or by perswasion of their Maisters to loose life euerlasting as subiectes may be by their Princes by meanes whereof the preiudice of the one doth not make any consequence for the other And if this question be no where found certainly decided neither by scripture nor by the decrees of the ancient Church nor by the Analogy of other Ecclesiasticall proceedinges how is it that lay persons will of their owne authority and without light and president of any generall Councell of any Oecumenicall Synod of any vniuersall Assembly of the Church yea against the greater part of the rest of the Church coÌ„uert this doctrine into an article of faith and make the Clergie to sweare it is conformable to Gods word cause them to abiure the other as a doctrine contrary to the word of God impious and detestable It is fiue and twenty yeares since those of your Order caried away by the tumult and trouble of the tyme laboured in the full Assemblie of Estates to establish one Fundamentall Law of Estate cleane contrary to that article of yours And now you propose another Fundamentall Law intituled of Estate and of Religion quite contrary to that former And will you not you but those by whose inspiration and aduise these clauses be crept into your Bill that the Laytie cause the Clergie to sweare it That the Laytie exact of the Clergie an Oath in matter of faith That the Laytie impose the Lawes of Religion vpon the men of the Church O reproach and shame Oscand all O gate set open to all sort of Heresies And shall our faith then be subiect to the varieties and inconstancy of the affections of the people who chaung euery fiue and twenty yeares And shall the flockes then be guides to their shepheardes Luc. 16. Hebr. 13. and Pastors And shall the children teach their Father And shall that then be frustrated that our Lord hath cryed aloud The scholler is not aboue the Maister And
endureth for the good of the Churches peace that the French-men that is to say some of them hold maynteyne in this point Doctrine contrary to his owne and to that of all the rest of the Church so they hold it only as problematicall in matter of faith that is to say that they propose it not as necessary to be held with that necessity which is of faith and declare not the other to be contrary to Gods word impious and detestable And though in the cases before specified there be ten Countries against but a parte of one an hundred Doctours against one ten Councells against none yet whether it be that these Councells do not therin expresse their intention by forme of decision of faith but by forme manner of supposition or for some other causes he is contented to hold the Doctrine contayned in them for true without binding vs to hold it for necessary as matter of faith he is contented to hold the contrary opinion for erroneous without binding vs to hold it for Hereticall and not to excommunicate them as Heretikes that hold it And wherefore then should wee now go about to breake the Churches communion to deuide the vnity of Christes body by turning into matter of fayth a doctrine which doth not only make the remedies which they would bring for the security of Kinges vnprofitable but further maketh them pernicious both to their persons and to their Kingdome There is no tyme wherin schismes be not most domageable and preiudiciall to religion and to State but they be most of all ruinous and pernicious to the one and the other when the tymes be already infected with heresy For as the Phisitians say that in the tyme of pestilence all sortes of feuers end in the plague so in the tyme of Heresy all schismes haue their ending in Heresy And therefore Heresie hauing now at this day so great part in France if we proceed to bring in a schisme among Catholikes who doubteth but that the fruite of this diuision will be the enfeebling and weakning of the Church and the strengthning of Heresy And if Heresy euen when she is weakest hath so much ado to keep herselfe quick how will she continue in peace when she shall once come to an equality And if we breake it how shall she be able to disturbe the peace of Religion without troubling therewithall the Kinge and the State also It is certayne Gentlemen the scope and intention of them that first moued this stone of scandall was not to prouide for the security of the State and the person of our Kinges Their drift and intention was to cast the seedes of diuision in the Church of France and to assay either to separate it from the other partes of the Church or to deuide it within it self I say not this to taxe you I honour you all as persons of singular wisedome and merit and most affected to the Catholike Religion But I know you are not the first authors and inuentors of this Article I know that it hath beene craftily thrust into some of your seates It is not long tyme since they haue menaced and threatned vs with this apple of discord These be those that be already seuered from vs and haue by this meanes thought to sow some sparcles of diuision amongst vs and for this end they haue serued themselues of men who carry the name of Catholikes and more then that of Ecclesiasticall persons and for the vndermining beguiling of the ingenuity good disposition and simplicity of others vnder the title of seruice to the King The pretext they haue taken is fayre it is specious it is ouer shadowed with the name of the King but vnder this couer is hiden schisme and the designe of making a diuision in the Church These be the Vlissesses fighting vnder Achilles his buckler When Iulian the Apostata meant to draw the Christians to the adoration of the false Gods he caused the Idolls of Iupiter Venus and Mercury to be intermixed and put in company with his owne pictures to the end that when they should present his owne Images to the Christians to adore as it was the custome then for the people to adore the Images of their Emperour the Christians either refusing to do it should be accused of high treason as hauing refused to adore the Emperours Image or in doing it be constreyned ioyntly with the Image of the Emperour to adore Idolls These men haue heere done the very same hauing intermedled in one and the same Article a decree of the securing of Kinges together with an introduction of schisme to the end that those who shal refuse this oath should put themselues in daunger either to be esteemed litle affectioned to the seruice of Kinges or to be thought culpable of schisme And therefore you must not suffer your selues to be beguiled by this first bayte It is of hony but yet of hony that hath beene made by drone bees that haue gone from one flower of hemlock to another that is to say by soules that haue tasted and sucked the venome of schisme Aristotle writeth that we must behold pleasures not before but behind not when they are comming but when they are gone past In like manner in this there be specious pretextes you must regard and behold them not by the face that is to say by the first sight but by the back that is by the sequele and successe This Oath resembleth Horace his Mōster which hath the head of a fayre and beautifull woman that is the pretence of the seruice and safety of Kings but it hath a fishes tayle that is the tayle of Schisme and of diuision in Religion And indeed it may well be said to haue a fishes tayle seeing it is come swymming by sea from England For it is the very same Oath of England sauing that of England is yet more sweete and more modest moderate I will not prosecute this point for feare to offend the most Renowned King of Great Britany I am setting aside religion his most humble and most affectionate seruant I do in a most high degree esteeme honour his learning his eminent morall vertues and his excellent naturall conditions and I find nothing to be desired by me in him that might expresse not a fayned Image made at pleasure as that of Cyrus by Xenophon but the true and reall image of a perfect and complete Prince the title of Catholike only excepted Hee hath bound in generall all men of learning vnto him hauing made the Muses to sit in his Royall throne and he hath obliged me in particuler for hauing pleased to take the paynes to enter with me into the listes of dispute of Diuinity not to do as did Alexāder who disdayned to enter into the Olympian race if he were not to run his course against Kinges I therefore touch not this string for feare of offending I know that holding the religion he doth he thinketh to do what
he ought when he assayeth to bring in a Schisme and diuision in ours But shall it be said that what the King of Great Britany doth in England against the Catholikes doth serue vs for a law and an example to do the same in our Catholique Countrey Shall it be said that France that hath for so many ages beene honoured with the name of a most Christian Realme Hier. contra Vigil and in which S. Hierome said there were no monsters is brought to this that it permitteth not Catholike religion but with the same conditions and seruitudes that be imposed vpon it in England Shall it be said that Ecclesiasticall persons be not suffered to liue in Frāce but vnder the stipulations conditions vnder which it is permitted them to liue in England Shall it be said that the Catholikes of France and especially the Clergy enioying security and freedome shall be enforced to sweare and binde themselues to belieue the same thing which with groaning and sighes thereby to gayne some litle breath is done by Catholiques in England And if there be found in England Catholikes constant inough to suffer all sortes of punishments rather then to consent vnto it shall there not be found those in France to doe the same rather then to subscribe to sweare an article that putteth the raynes of the faith into the handes of the Laytie and bringeth a diuision and Schisme into the Church Yes certainly Gentlemen such will be found in France And all we who are Bishops will rather go to martyrdome then giue our consentes to the deuiding of Christes body Apud Euseb Eccl. hist lib. 6. cap. 37. remembring this saying of S. Dionysius of Alexandria That the martyrdomes that men suffer for the hindring of the Churches diuision be no lesse glorious then be those that men endure for absteyning from sacrifising to Idolls But we are not God be thanked vnder a King who maketh martyrs he leaueth the souls of his subiectes free and if he doth it to those of his Subiectes that be strayed from the Church how much more will he do it to those soules of his Catholike subiects we liue the one and the other vnder the shadow of the Edictes of peace in liberty of conscience And wherefore then should we be constreyned to sweare that which we forbeare to make others to sweare There is not one only Synod of Ministers who would haue subscribed to that article which they would bind vs to sweare There is not one Consistory of others but beleeueth that they are discharged of their Oath of fidelity towardes Catholike Princes when they shal be forced by them in their consciences Of this come those modificatiōs that they haue so oft in their mouth Prouided that the King forceth vs not in our conscience Of this come these exceptions in their profession of faith So the Soueraigne Empire of God abide in his owne integrity Of this came the taking of arms so many times against the Kings when they would take from thē the liberty of religiō Of this came their insurrections and rebellions both in Flanders against the King of Spayne Sweden against the Catholike King of Polonia whome they spoiled of the Realme of Sweden his lawfull inheritance and therin established Duke Charles a Protestant Neither yet do they restrayne these exceptions to the only case of religion of conscience but they further extend them to secular matters The writinges of Buchanan Bruse and infinite others giue testimony who will that if the Kinges fayle in temporall conuentions and accord which they haue made with their subiects their subiectes be free to reuolt from them Not considering that there is great difference as we haue already declared betweene faylinge in a simple accord made by Oath and destroying the Oath by the which the accord was made For when a Prince doth of frayltie or of humane passion commit some iniustice he doth indeed against the Oath he hath made to his people to do them iustice yet he doth not thereby destroy his Oath But if he make a contrary Oath that is to say insteed of what he hath publiquely and solemnly sworne to his people which was to do them iustice to wit as far as humaine frailty will permit he should sweare and bind himselfe by another publique and solemne Oath that he would neuer render them iustice but rather sweare that he will minister nothing but iniustice he should then destroy his Oath renounce his owne Royaltie in renouncing by a contrary Oath the clauses and conditions of his former oath for which and by meanes and occasiō wherof his Royalty was instituted And therefore Barckley the Achilles of the doctrine of your Article hath had most iust cause to reprehend and find fault with the aforesaid authours but in reprehending them he hath reserued an exception of two cases which make much more to the preiudice of Kinges then do the Churches censures from which he would exempt them For he affirmeth expresly that in two cases the people may shake off the yoke of Kinges Guil. Barcl lib. 4. cont Monarchomach c. 16. arme themselues against them Behold his wordes What then Can there not occurre any cases in which the people may rise take armes by their owne authority and assaile a King insolently raigning None indeed so long as he contynueth King For this commaundement of God contradicteth it alwaies Honour the King c. who resisteth power risisteth God The people then addeth he cannot haue by any other meanes power ouer him but when he doth some thing by which he ceaseth of right to be King For then for as much as he spoyleth and depriueth himself of his principality and maketh himself a priuate person the people remayneth free and becommeth superiour And these two cases as he saith be when a Prince laboureth and hath intention to exterminate and ouerthrow the Kingdome common wealth as Nero and Caligula did or when he will make his Kingdome feudatary to another Ibidem I finde saith he two cases in which a King by fact maketh himself of a King no King and depriueth himself of his royall dignity and of power ouer his subiectes The one is if he goeth about to exterminate the Realme Common wealth that is to say if he hath a designe and intention to destroy the Realme as it is recorded of Nero that he had a deliberation to exterminate the Senate and the people of Rome c. And the other if the King hath a wil to put himselfe vnder the clientele and protection of some other But who seeth not that this is a thing tooto vnworthie for a Christiā to admit these exceptions in case of the destruction of a Cōmon wealth and not in case of the destruction of Religion and otherwise the iudgment which the people may make of the one is much more perilous to Princes thē that which the vniuersall Church may forme of the other And
yet these be at this day the writers whome they celebrate extoll and whome they haue in their eyes For so an authour say something against the Pope and that he put as much as he please the safetie of Kinges vnder the peoples feete him they imbrace applaude and adore And of this we neede not any better proofe then the edition of Gerson which they who haue beene the first authors of the Article that is now proposed vnto vs haue caused to be imprinted eight yeares since with inscriptions pictures and elogies or testifications of his prayses because he seemeth vnto them to haue writen against the Pope For in his sermō made in the presence of King Charles the 7. in the name of the Vniuersitie of Paris Gers serm ad Regem Fran. nomine vniuersit Paris after he had made Sedition to speake which wills that vse without exception and indifferently be made of this rule of Seneca There is not a sacrifice more pleasing vnto God then the killing of Tyrants and that it is to be put in vre against all sortes of persons accused of Tyranny and vpon all manner of suspitions and of defamatory libels and Dissimulation that wills on the contrary that we neuer vse it but that we endure all Tyrants he bringeth in Discretiō that teacheth when it is to be vsed in these wordes Gers ibid. We conclude further that if the head or any other member of the Commō wealth should incurre such an incōuenience as he would swallow vp the deadly poyson of Tyrany euery member in his place should oppose himself by al his possibility by expediēt meanes such as should not make the matter worse seing it were to small it purpose when the head aketh that the hand should strike it but rather folly For nether is it necesary to cut it off by by to separate it from the rest of the body but we must cure it sweetly aswel by good words as otherwise lyke prudent wise Phisitians There could not be any thing more against reason of greater cruelty then Tyrany by a seditiō I cal sedition a rebellion of the people without cause and without reason which is oft tymes worse thē tyrany c. There needeth great singuler discretion prudence and temperance about the expulsion thrusting out of tyranny and therefore we must heare and giue credit to wise Philosophers Lawyers Deuines to men of good life of good and naturall prudence of great experiēce of whom it is said In old men is found experience For though a Prince and Lord sinne in many cases yet he must not for that be presently censured a Tyrant So he there And in his worke of ten Considerations against the flatterers of Kings where he recapitulateth a part of the discourse of his Sermon Gerson Considerat 7. contra adulat he sayth It is an errour to belieue that a terrene Prince is not bound in any thing during his raigne to his subiects For according to diuine right and naturall equity and the end of true gouernement as the subiects owe fidelity ayd succour and seruice to their Lord So the Lord oweth agayne faith and protection to his subiects And if the Prince manifestly pursue and persecute them and with obstinacy in iniury and by fact then this naturall rule It is lawfull to repell force by force and this saying of Seneca There cannot be a more acceptable Sacrifice immolated and made to God then by taking away of a Tyrant taketh place And notwithstanding this which is more strange those who haue caused this to be reprinted haue not vouchsafed to add either in the beginning of his workes or in the margent of these wordes any obseruation or note for the censuring of them or for aduertisement of the Reader to take heed But indeed how could they haue done it without condemning themselues Themselues I say who during the fury of these last troubles had been Ensigne-bearers or rather had caried the burning torches of this pernicious doctrine and had maynteyned and publisht it against King Henry the third by propositions disputed and printed For these be their words It is most certaine that by right both diuine and naturall the Estates be aboue Kings And againe It was lawfull for all the people of France most iustly to take armes against the Tyrant that is to say agaynst King Henry the third And a litle after They who consider matters attentiuely and diligently will iudge that the eternall enemies of the Religion and of the Country ought to be pursued not only by publique armes but also by the sword and plotts of particuler persons And that Iames Clement the Dominican was not put forwards by any other desire then by the loue of the Lawes of his Country and of the zeale of Ecclesiasticall discipline by which this restorer of our Liberty hath put vpon his owne head grace and vpon our neck a coller of gold and the heauenly collers of the Church Thus there This I say not to scandalize them for I conceale their names nor to reproach them with that that the bounty and clemency of the King hath buried vp and forgotten but to shew that they should be content to attend the rest of their dayes to the cancelling and washing away of their offence with their teares and not to meddle themselues with the making of lessons of the seruice of Kinges to them who alwaies well and faithfully serued them euen then when they persecuted them But these are violent spirits who being transported to one extreme and not being of power to hold the meane thought that the best meanes for the iustifying of themselues was to passe ouer to the other extreme and to put their hand to pen to write and fight against the Pope Wherin as they are found conforme or at least very like vnto the Churches enemies they haue beene so set on and plyed by those our enemyes and by some that dissembled with them as they haue beene induced thrust on vnder a pretence of the Kinges seruice to sow the seedes of schisme But Syrs the King desireth not to be serued after this sort his will is not that prouision be made for his safety by schisme and by the Churches diuision In the ruines whereof is comprehended the ruine and ouerthrow of his owne safetie spirituall and temporall he is a Catholike and the eldest child of the Catholike Church he is the first Catholike of all the Kinges and the first King of all the Catholikes He feareth not to fall into Heresy and standeth not in doubt of the Popes censures nor dreadeth the Churches threates against Heretikes He is the prime and principall protect our of the one and the other He is the heire both of the Crowne and of the name and of the faith of that glorious S. Lewis who was the Churches support and piller and the Popes defence retrait He is descēded from a mother no lesse Catholike pious and