of your Princes as well as they do with yours Or to speak something yet nearer to the quick why doe you not repair these disorders by your own more exact obedience The Prince alone is obvious in a Battail to the infamie Cowardise and misfortune of his whole Army and you are thousands who are obliged to strengthen the Authoritie and honour of your King which he cannot support with his single valour Believe me if all Subjects would be loyal no Kingdome could be miserable and if all Princes thought more of severity then of Clemencie there would not be so many Subjects Rebels Moreover if it were permitted to the Capritious people to take and give Crowns when they fancied a change I conceive there is not a Shepheard but might hope to be a King and not a King but might be reduced to be a Shepheard so unruly and uncertain are their floating judgements But to speak the truth to you these things ought not thus to pass we are your Masters and you ought not to become ours It is not that I am ignorant that God disposeth of Scepters and Crowns as he pleases and gives them as he lists and bestowes them on or takes them from whom he will and what he alwayes doth is without all injustice sometimes permitting that the people shall elevate to the Throne those who never pretended to such a high degree But when such an accident happeneth it is usually in favour to those extraordinary persons in whom Virtue hath imprest a Royal Character so visible that it were almost injustice not to admit them Kings To conclude that which precedes and that which follows ought to be sufficient to justifie the effect and it became Charles Martel Pepin and Charlemain puissantly to erect a Throne which was not founded upon a line of right succession yet even in this re-encounter you will see the event to this present hath not authorized your design The Engine of this enterprize hath been slain in battail The Arch-Bishop of Rhemes preserved not his life but three dayes after he had anointed the Usurper But it is not seasonable to day to exaggerate the injustice of your proceedings I am not willing to particularize other things and I shall satisfie my self with telling you in general that Kings ought not to lose their Crowns but with their lives and that nothing can dispense Subjects from the respect and loyalty which they owe to their Soveraigns nor any pretence whatsoever Authorize Treason and Rebellion If sacred persons may not enjoy their particular priviledge which is derived from none but God they shall be exposed more then others to all sorts of miseries Their guards will appear to them instead of enemies their Thrones will rather seem a direful precipice then a place of honour and safety a King of this kind is no better then an illustrious slave when he shall have as many Masters as Subjects This first disorder will quickly cause a second for when the Nobles of a Kingdom fail in their duty to their Prince their own Vassals and Tenants will forfeit their fealtie to them and then Rebellion communicated from the Grandees to the Commons and so descending from one Soul to another an universal confusion swells and devours all Every one will command and no person obey and in this resentment of Levelling equality each person proves a slave to his own ambition no one either rationally Commands himself or others In effect this is the most sad condition that a Kingdom can fall into when there is no subjection and where for their punishment the Prince hath not force to reduce the people to their obedience For mine own part when I consider my self to be the Son of a King the successour of so many Kings and yet notwithstanding that I immediately succeed not my Father This Idea imprints in me a strange confusion as towards you and an extream grief as towards my self for when I reflect how the same Subjects who inchained Charles in Fetters and gave the Crown to Robert placed Lewis on the Throne the malice which they bore to the Father may it not easily fall upon the Son and may not they fear that the Son will revenge the outrages committed against the Father but yet may some one say those who have searcht after you and pass'd the Seas to present you with a Scepter they need not fear that the memory of their ancient injustice will obliege you to punish them They have reason rather to believe that this submission should blot out the memory of the first disservice It is certain in the exact Rule of justice no noble Action ought to pass without his recompence and it is really as true That no crime ought to escape without his punishment After all these reasons what ought you not to fear and what not to hope you have recalled me to the Throne 't is true but if you had not had you not been as Criminal against Lewis as you had been against Charles he who gives to another that which he hath taken from him restores without doubt that which he hath taken but his restoration is not a free present and he ought not to expect thanks for an Action of that nature No it sufficeth of one punish not the first without intending any recompence for the second I may say also that you understand not rightly all my present concernments for why because you have not left me still in exile because you have rendred what justly appertained to me Because you understood that I came to re-demand mine own not with a powerful Army and being tired with your crimes and miseries you believe you may probably disarm the furie of Heaven by this Act of justice No no confide not in any of these pretences for if I had not stronger considerations then these I should commence my Reign with the punishment of your treasons I should send them to prison who restrained the person of my Father expose them to the most cruel tortures who contrived and caused his death with the greatness of his misfortunes Those black crimes are such which nothing can exterminate Repentance and tears from common errours where humane frailty may plead excuse and not for Traitors and Rebels nor for those who have destroyed Thrones and Scepters inchaind Kings created and protected Tyrants Think not then that by taking an Oath of fidelity which is your dutie that I am thereby ingaged not to doe what becomes a King No I scorn a Throne where I should be a slave and I had rather be obscured in prison as my Father was then not to Reign as Soveraign Those people with whom Loyalty is elective forbear not to make their Kings absolute because they could have no pretence of Iustice to do otherwise judge then if those who hold their Crowns from Heaven ought to acknowledge their subjects for their Masters whether they ought not rather to punish or pardon as best agreeth with their
Kingdomes or Dominions or to authorise any Foreign Prince to invade or annoy him or his Countries or to discharge any of his Subjects of their Allegiance and obedience to his Majesty or to give license or leave to any of them to bear Arms raise Tumults or to offer any violence or hurt to his Majesties Royal Person State or Government or to any of his Majesties Subjects within his Majesties Dominions Also I do swear from my heart that notwithstanding any Declaration or sentence of Excommunication or Deprivation made or granted or to be made or granted by the Pope or his Successours or by any Authority derived or pretended to be derived from him or his See against the said King his Heirs or Successours or any Absolution of the said Subjects from their Obedience I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majesty his Heirs and Successours and him and them will defend to the uttermost of my power against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever which shall be made against his or their Persons their Crown and Dignity by reason or colour of any such Sentence or Declaration or otherwise and will do my best endeavour to disclose and make known unto his Majesty his Heirs and Successours all Treasons and Trayterous Conspiracies which I shall know or hear of to be against him or any of them And I do further swear That I do from my heart abhor detest and abjure as impious and heretical this Damnable Doctrine and Position That princes which be excommunicated or deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do believe and in conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any person whatsoever hath power to absolve me of this Oath or any part thereof which I acknowledge by good and full Authority to be lawfully administred unto me and do renounce all pardons and dispensations to the contrary And all these things I doe plainly and sincerely acknowledge swear according to these expresse words by me spoken and according to the plain and common sense and understanding of the same words without any equivocation or mental evasion or secret reservation whatsoever And I do make this Recognition and acknowledement heartily willingly and truly upon the true faith of a Christian So help me God c. The Oath of Supremacy I A. B. Do utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the King 's Highnesse is the onely Supream Governour of this Realm and of all other his Highnesse's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal And that no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preeminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm And therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all Forraign Jurisdictions Powrs Superiorities and Authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegiance to the King's Highnesse his Heirs and lawfull Successours and to my power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preeminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and successours or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm So help me God and by the contents of this book These Platforms and models of Oathes as they are of holy use to unite our fidedelity to God and Man so they are of Divine Authority and seem to be influential from Heaven from whence we have the Sacred example so the Scriptures testifie Exod 33.1 Depart hence unto the Land which I swear unto Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Thus divine usage is very frequent with God Deut 1.8.34.35 Psal 95.9 Luk. 1.73 Heb. 6.13 Heb. 7.21 And as God pleased to confirm his promise with an Oath So King David Gods annointed voweth and sweareth calling on God and praying Lord remember David and all his Afflictions how he swear unto the Lord and vowed to the mighty God of Jacob. Psal 132.1 2. And Solomon his royal Son gave Counsel to all his subjects and all the world I counsel thee to keep the Kings commandement and that in regard of the Oath of God Eccles 8.2 Having now set fourth the sacred ☜ Oaths and obligations of the Kings and Queens of England and of some of the cheif Officers and Ministers of State together with the Homage of the Ecclesiastical Hirarchy and temporal Nobility and of the three great Officers of Court the Lord high Steward the Master of the Horse and the Lord Chamberlain by their Oathes as privy counsellors under whose immediate command and power all servants at Court are sworn to fidelity and obedience in their respective relations and ranks of order degrees and subordinations It is plain and easie to every rational subject to discern and see the most excellent form of Government that the prudence and piety of former ages hath conveyed to the English to this present time and we cannot do less then admire and magnifie the gracious providence and riches of Gods favours to the Kingdome of England who hath with the golden chain of harmonious Government so lincked Kings and Queens to himself and all their subjects and people to their soveraign Princes that no Kingdome under the canopy of Heaven hath a better frame of Government either for Church or State or the transaction of Ecclesiastick or civil concernments and affaires in which there is such an incementing concatenation by wholesome laws and customes for justice and the happy preservation of all the peoples Rights that as the King may sit as happily and securely on his Throne as any Monarch on earth so his people may as prosperously thrive under his gracious Government and reposing themselves under their own vines and figtrees as cheerfully enjoy the inestimable blessings of their own just rights and labours Milk and Hony with the overflowing favours of Peace and Plenty How great a crime must it then be to wrest or break one of the invaluable lincks of this golden concatenation which Soveraign Princes graciously please to strengthen and consolidate if possible by their sacred Oathes to God which cannot but indear and more oblige ingenuous subjects to greater exactness of duty and fidelity considering that these pious proceeding are more acts of Grace and voluntary and Princely condescentions flowing from the fountaines of their own royal goodness being methods of high degrees of kindness and love where words or promises and those at their royal wills and pleasure are to be looked on not only as certainties and assurances but as deeds and compleat performances The civil Law expecteth as much from Noble men and Persons of Honour that there words be equally esteemed as their deeds m Promissa nobilinm pro factis habentur And Iser c. 1. Tantum fidei legalitatis presumitur in Nobilibus ut si quicquam promiserint id per equesit certum ac indubitatum ac si jam factum esset And Iser c 1.
pleasure In a word I find it far more glorious to be a loyal Subject then to be a King disobeyed Prepare then your selves to render me all that obedience which you owe me and without farther informing you whether you are to hope more for Clemency or Iustice resolve your selves to an absolute submission I know well some peevish Polititians will censure that I act not as I ought in this conjuncture and that I should reflect on former passages with some sweetness and gratifie you with Presents to encourage you with future hopes but I presume my Policy is more generous and more secure then theirs for if I had so perswaded you perhaps you would have believed me to have been more fit to wear my Fathers Irons then his Crown and would have more suspected me of weakness and dissimulation this excessive indulgence would give you more of fear and me less of honour and estimation I being then so far from following such Maximes tell you once more that I declare my self to be your King And without farther capitulation with you I ascend the Throne by the steps of mine own Authority as Soveraignly as if not recalled by you at all Hitherto I have let you know I am not ignorant how far the duty of Subjects ought to bend But moreover I judge it fit to acquaint you to what degree Soveraign Clemency may extend it self to this end that by that resentment you may reasonably know what to fear and what to hope Know then that although a Prince may justly punish Traytors he may likewise pardon penitent offenders principally then when he discerns his pardon shall reclaim insolency to obedience and fidelity For seeing Kings are the Fathers of the people they ought not alwayes to be too severe in justice and seeing that a Prince may afford grace and pardon to his enemies he may without doubt shew pity and mercy to his own Subjects He cannot well punish them all but must in part enfeeble himself nor sluce out their blood without emptying his own veins wherefore he ought to spare as far as Reason and Iustice can make the way passable When then a particular accident grows up against a Prince or State it may suffice that the heads of some chief offendors be sacrificed to a reparation and that by some severe examples others may be instructed with exemplary terrour But seeing that the number of the offendors may prove infinite and if all should be punish't a desolation of entire Provinces might succeed and consequently more men be lost then 15. main Battails could devour so that the piles of dead corps should make mountains and severe execution of revenge cause Rivers of bloud in such considerations I say It may be better to use a great example of Clemencie then of Iustice and hazard something rather then to loose the lives of so many miserable souls and there cannot be a greater Victory then to vanquish ones own passion in such dangerous conjunctures Fear not then that I shall abuse my Authority since if I should punish all who have offended I should reduce my Kingdom to a forlorn Desart For who is there among you that hath not failed of his duty Some have done mischief others have desired it or at least permitted it to be acted some have assisted Robert others have directly fought against their King some have most perfidiously laid their hands upon their Anointed Lord committed a sâcred person into prison and others have at least forsaken him The publick good is pretext of all things but Rebellion alone is the mother of that horrid Monster The Nobles agitated as they did for their own interest and the people by their madness and unavisedness seconded their fury and put in execution the intention of the Parricides Your wives and your children are not exempt from these crimes seeing without doubt they made vowes for their Parents offending and prayers against their Prince Whereas then I cannot punish you all but that I must utterly exterminate you it resteth at my choice whether I would become a King without Subjects or to pardon you out of pure grace and bounty and not by Obligations It may be that during your lives you may repent you of your ancient crimes and become as faithful as you have been disobedient But perhaps you will tell me as to our selves we have repented formerly before we sent to you to come and receive the Scepter which belongs to you 'T is true it may be as you have said and that I have considered your Addresses to me were to make reparation of what formerly passed and that with those hands you would advance to the Throne his Son whose Father you had barbarously removed But after all whosoever can abandon the path of Virtue to make choice of that Vice can again embrace that occasion if presented Wherefore you owe greater obligation to me then I can confidence to you for had I not resolved to shew Grace and Pardon the great number of Nobles which the King of England my Uncle hath presented to me to attend my person had not come without Souldiers each one of these who incircle me have troops at their command and I would not have received my Fathers Crown but in the head of a victorious Army in the midst of a Field covered with dead and dying men bedewed with the blood of ten thousand Rebels I would have been the Conquerour of my Kingdom and not have mounted unto the Throne supported by the same hands who snatcht it from my Fathers head But I call to mind I am your King as you are also my Subjects and in this relation I can love you yet as guilty as you are I can have pitty for your errors and kindness for your obstinacy and I will not put my self into a condition of sadness after the Victory I am then come to you without an Army to receive what is mine This Action without doubt is hardy bold and well deserveth glory and is sufficiently obliging to demerit your acknowledgement in all degrees of fidelity Before that you were criminous the Divine humane right conjured you notto forsake your Prince but this day a new obligation chaineth you to more strict obedience It is not enough alone to be faithful so to satisfie your dutie but it is your part to blot out the memorie of what is past and to justifie what is present you ought not to look on me meerly as your King but as a King of your own choice as a King who hath pardoned you as a King who confideth in you who now is commending his person into your hands and commits the very care of his life to your protection next to Heaven Studie then to gratifie such pressing endearments and provoke not the wrath of Heaven uppon your heads by new rebellions Those who have examined your by past actions approve not doubtless that resolution that I have taken to return into France as I have done for