with a disputable question but likewise in stead of securing the life and estate of Kings hee shall draw both into farre greater hazards by the trayne or sequence of warres and other calamities which vsually waite and attend on schismes The L. Cardinall spends his whole discourse in confirmation of these foure heads which we now intend to sift in order and demonstratiuely to prooue that all the said inconueniences are meere nullities matters of imagination and built vpon false presuppositions But before we come to the maine the reader is to be informed and aduertised that his Lordship setteth a false glosse vpon the question and propounds the case not onely contrary to the truth of the subiect in controuersie but also to the Popes owne minde and meaning For he restrains the Popes power to depose Kings onely to cases of heresie Apostasie and persecuting of the Church whereas Popes extend their power to a further distance They depose Princes for infringing or in any sort diminishing the priuiledges of Monasteries witnesse Gregorie the first in the pretended charter graunted to the Abbay of S. Medard at Soissons the said charter beeing annexed to his Epistles in the rere The same he testifieth in his Epistle to Senator by name the 10. of the eleuenth booke They depose for naturall dulnesse and lacke of capacitie whether inbred and true indeed or onely pretended and imagined witnesse the glorious vaunt of Gregorie VII that Childeric King of France was hoysted out of his Throne by Pope Zacharie Not so much for his wicked life as for his vnablenes to beare the weightie burden of so great a Kingdome They depose for collating of Benefices and Prebends witnesse the great quarrells and sore contentions between Pope Innocent III. and Iohn King of England as also betweene Philip the Faire and Boniface VIII They depose for adulteries and matrimoniall suites witnesse Philip. 1. for the repudiating or casting off his lawfull wife Bertha and marrying in her place with Bertrade wife to the Earle of Aniou Finally faine would I learne into what heresie or degree of Apostasie either Henrie IV. or Freder Barbarossa or Frederic 2. Emperours were fallen when they were smitten with Papall fulminations euen to the depriuation of their Imperiall Thrones What was it for heresie or Apostasie that Pope Martin IV. bare so hard a hand against Peter King of Arragon that he acquitted and released the Arragonnois from their oath of allegiance to Peter their lawfull King Was it for heresie or Apostasie for Arrianisme or Mahumetisme that Lewis XII so good a King and Father of his Countrey was put downe by Iulius the II Was it for heresie or Apostasie that Sixtus 5. vsurped a power against Henrie III. euen so farre as to denounce him vn-kingd the issue whereof was the parricide of that good King and the most wofull desolation of a most flourishing Kingdome But his Lordship best liked to worke vpon that ground which to the outward shew appearance is the most beautifull cause that can be alledged for the dishonouring of Kings by the weapon of deposition making himselfe to beleeue that he acted the part of an Orator before personages not much acquainted with auncient and moderne histories and such as little vnderstood the state of the question then in hand It had therefore beene a good warrant for his Lordship to haue brought some authentical instrument from the Pope whereby the French might haue beene secured that his Holinesse renounceth all other causes auouchable for the degrading of Kings and that he will henceforth rest in the case of heresie for the turning of Kings out of their free-hold as also that his Holinesse by the same or like instrument might haue certified his pleasure that he will not hereafter make himselfe iudge whether Kings be tainted with damnable heresie or free from hereticall infection For that were to make himselfe both iudge and plaintiffe that it might be in his power to call that doctrine heretical which is pure orthodoxe and all for this ende to make himselfe master of the Kingdome and there to settle a Successor who receiuing the Crowne of the Popes free gift and graunt might be tyed thereby to depend altogether vpon his Holines Hath not Pope Boniface VIII declared in his proud letters all those to be heretickes that dare vndertake to affirme the collating of Prebends appertaineth to the King It was that Popes grosse error not in the fact but in the right The like crime forsooth was by Popes imputed to the vnhappie Emperour Henrie IV. And what was the issue of the said imputation The sonne is instigated thereby to rebell against his father and to impeach the interment of his dead corps who neuer in his life had beate his braines to trouble the sweet waters of Theologicall fountaines It is recorded by Auentine that Bishop Virgilius was declared heretique for teaching the position of Antipodes The Bull Exurge marching in the rere of the last Lateran Council sets downe this position for one of Luthers heresies A new life is the best repentance Among the crimes which the Council of Constance charged Pope Iohn XXIII withall one was this that hee denied the immortalitie of the soule and that so much was publiquely manifestly and notoriously knowne Now if the Pope shall bee carried by the streame of these or the like errors and in his hereticall prauitie shall depose a King of the contrary opinion I shall hardly bee perswaded the said King is lawfully deposed The first Inconvenience examined THE first inconuenience growing in the Cardinall his conceit by entertaining the Article of the third Estate whereby the Kings of France are declared to be indeposeable by any superiour power spirituall or temporall is this It offereth force to the conscience vnder the penaltie of Anathema to condemne a doctrine beleeued and practised in the Church in the continuall current of the last eleuen hundred yeares In these words he maketh a secret confession that in the first fiue hundred yeeres the same doctrin was neither apprehended by faith nor approoued by practise Wherein to my vnderstanding the L. Cardinall voluntarily giueth ouer the suite For the Church in the time of the Apostles their disciples and successors for 500. yeares together was no more ignorant what authoritie the Church is to challenge ouer Emperours and Kings then at any time since in any succeeding age in which as pride hath still flowed to the height of a full Sea so puritie of religion and manners hath kept for the most part at a lowe water-marke Which point is the rather to be considered for that during the first 500. yeres the Church groned vnder the heauy burthen both of heathen Emperours and of hereticall Kings the Visigot Kings in Spaine and the Vandals in Affrica Of whose displeasure the Pope had small reason or cause to stand in any feare beeing so remote from their dominions and no way vnder the lee of
Emperour in the tenth yeare of his raigne The L. Cardinall with no lesse abuse alleadgeth Pope Zacharie by whome the French as he affirmeth were absolued of the oath of allegiance wherein they stood bound to Childeric their King And for this instance he standeth vpon the testimonie of Paulus Aemilius and du Tillet a paire of late writers But by authors more neere that age wherein Childeric raigned it is more truely testified that it was a free and voluntarie act of the French onely asking the aduise of Pope Zacharie but requiring neither leaue nor absolution Ado Bishop of Vienna in his Chronicles hath it after this manner The French following the Counsell of Embassadors and of Pope Zachary elected Pepin their King and established him in the Kingdome Trithemius in his abridgement of Annals thus Childeric as one vnfit for gouernement was turned out of his Kingdome with common consent of the Estates and Peeres of the Realme so aduised by Zacharie Pope of Rome Godfridus of Viterbe in the 17. part of his Chronicle and Guaguin in the life of Pepin affirme the same And was it not an easie matter to worke Pepin by counsell to lay hold on the Kingdome when he could not be hindered from fastening on the Crowne and had already seizd it in effect howsoeuer he had not yet attained to the name of King Moreouer the rudenesse of that Nation then wanting knowledge and Schooles either of diuinitie or of Academicall sciences was a kind of spurre to make them runne for counsell ouer the mountaines which neuerthelesse in a cause of such nature they required not as necessary but onely as decent and for fashion sake The Pope also for his part was well appaied by this meanes to drawe Pepin vnto his part as one that stood in some need of his aide against the Lombards and the more because his Lord the Emperour of Constantinople was then brought so low that he was not able to send him sufficient aide for the defence of his territories against his enemies But had Zacharie to deale plainely not stood vpon the respect of his owne commoditie more then vpon the regard of Gods feare he would neuer haue giuen counsel vnto the seruant vnder the pretended colour of his Masters dull spirit so to turne rebell against his Master The Lawes prouide Gardians or ouerseers for such as are not well in their wits they neuer depriue and spoile them of their estate they punish crimes but not diseases and infirmities by nature Yea in France it is a very auncient custome when the King is troubled in his wittes to establish a Regent who for the time of the Kings disability may beare the burden of the Kingdomes affaires So was the practise of that State in the case of Charles 6. when he fell into a phrensie whome the Pope notwithstanding his most grieuous and sharpe fits neuer offered to degrade And to be short what reason what equity will beare the children to be punished for the fathers debilitie Yet such punishment was laid vpon Childerics whole race and house who by this practise were all disinherited of the Kingdome But shall wee now take some viewe of the L. Cardinals excuse for this exemplarie fact The cause of Childerics deposing as the L. Cardinal saith did neerly concerne and touch Religion For Childerics imbecillitie brought all France into danger to suffer a most wofull shipwracke of Christian religion vpon the barbarous and hostile inuasion of the Saracens Admit now this reason had beene of iust weight and value yet consideration should haue been taken whether some one or other of that Royallstemme and of the Kings owne successors neerest of blood was not of better capacitie to rule and mannage that mightie State The feare of vncertaine and accidentall mischiefe should not haue driuen them to slie vnto the certain mischiefe of actuall and effectuall deposition They should rather haue set before their eies the example of Charles Martel this Pepins father who in a farre more eminent danger when the Saracens had already mastered and subdued a great part of France valiantly encountred and withall defeated the Saracens ruled the Kingdome vnder the title of Steward of the Kings house the principall Officer of the Crowne without affecting or aspiring to the Throne for all that great steppe of aduantage especially when the Saracens were quite broken and no longer dreadfull to the French Nation In our owne Scotland the sway of the Kingdome was in the hand of Walles during the time of Bruse his imprisonment in England who then was lawfull heire to the Crowne This Walles or Vallas had the whole power of the Kingdome at his beck and command His edicts and ordinances to this day stand in full force By the deadly hatred of Bruse his mortall enemie it may be coniectured that hee might haue beene prouoked and inflamed with desire to trusse the Kingdome in his talants And notwithstanding all these incitements hee neuer assumed or vsurped other title to himselfe then of Gouernour or Administrator of the Kingdome The reason Hee had not beene brought vp in this newe doctrine and late discipline whereby the Church is endowed with power to giue and to take away Crownes But now as the L. Cardinall would beare the world in hand the state of Kings is brought to a very dead lift The Pope forsooth must send his Phisitians to know by way of inspection or some other course of Art whether the Kings braine be crackt or found and in case there be found any debility of wit and reason in the King then the Pope must remooue and translate the Crowne from the weaker braine to a stronger and for the acting of the stratageme the name of Religion must be pretended Ho these heretikes beginne to crawle in the Kingdome order must bee taken they be not suffered by their multitudes and swarmes like locusts or caterpillars to pester and poison the whole Realme Or in a case of matrimonie thus Ho marriage is a Sacrament touch the Order of Matrimonie and Religion is wounded By this deuise not onely the Kings vices but likewise his naturall diseases and infirmities are fetcht into the circle of Religion and the L. Cardinal hath not done himselfe right in restraining the Popes power to depose Kings vnto the cafes of heresie Apostasie and persecution of the Church In the next place followeth Leo III. who by setting the Imperiall Crowne vpon the head of Charles absolued all the subiects in the West of their obedience to the Greeke Emperours if the L. of Perron might be credited in this example But indeed it is crowded among the rest by a slie tricke and cleane contrary to the naked truth of all histories For it shall neuer bee iustified by good historie that so much as one single person or man I say not one Country or one people was then wrought or wonne by the Pope to change his copy and Lord or from a subiect of the Greeke Emperours
sinewes of his Papall Office to vnsheath and vnease his bolts of thunder against vngodly Princes and grieuous enemies to the Church wherefore liuing vnder Christian and gracious Emperours haue they not made knowne the reasons why they were hindred from drawing the pretended sword least long custome of not vsing the sword so many ages might make it so to rust in the scabbard that when there should bee occasion to vse the said sword it could not be drawne at all and least so long custome of not vsing the same should confirme prescription to their greater preiudice If weakenes bee a iust let how is it come to passe that Popes haue enterprised to depose Philip the Faire Lewis the XII and Elizabeth my predecessor of happy memorie to let passe others in whom experience hath well prooued how great inequalitie was between their strengths Yea for the most part from thence growe most grieuous troubles and warres which iustly recoyle and light vpon his owne head as happened to Gregory the VII and Boniface the VIII This no doubt is the reason wherefore the Pope neuer sets in for feare of such inconueniences to blast a King with lightning and thunder of deposition but when he perceiues the troubled waters of the Kingdome by some strong faction setled in his Estate or when the King is confined and bordered by some Prince more potent who thirsteth after the prey is euer gaping for some occasion to picke a quarrell The King standing in such estate is it not as easie for the Pope to pull him downe as it is for a man with one hand to thrust downe a tottering wall when the groundsil is rotten the studdes vnpind and nodding or bending towards the ground But if the King shall beare down and break the faction within the Realme if hee shall get withall the vpper hand of his enemies out of the Kingdome then the holy Father presents him with pardons neuer sued for neuer asked and in a fathers indulgence forsooth giues him leaue stil to hold the Kingdome that he was not able by all his force to wrest and wring out of his hand no more then the clubbe of Hercules out of his fist How many worthy Princes incensed by the Pope to conspire against Soueraigne Lords their Masters and by open rebellion to worke some change in their Estates haue miscarried in the action with losse of life or honour or both For example Rodulphus Duke of Sueuia was eg'd on by the Pope against Henrie IIII. of that name Emperour How many massacres how many desolations of cities and townes how many bloody battels ensued thereupon Let histories be searched let iust accompts be taken and beside sieges laid to cities it wil appeare by true computation that Henrie IIII. and Frederic the I. fought aboue threescore battels in defence of their owne right against enemies of the Empire stirred vp to armes by the Popes of Rome How much Christian blood was then split in these bloody battels it passeth mans witte penne or tongue to expresse And to giue a little touch vnto matters at home doth not his Holinesse vnderstand right well the weakenesse of Papists in my Kingdome Doth not his Holinesse neuerthelesse animate my Papists to rebellion and forbid my Papists to take the oath of allegiance Doth not his Holinesse by this means draw so much as in him lieth persecution vpon the backes of my Papists as vpon rebells and expose their life as it were vpon the open stall to be sold at a very easie price All these examples either ioynt or seuerall are manifest and euident proofes that feare to drawe mischiefe and persecution vpon the Church hath not barred the Popes from thundering against Emperours and Kings whensoeuer they conceiued any hope by their fulminations to aduance their greatnesse Last of all I referre the matter to the most possessed with preiudice euen the very aduersaries whether this doctrine by which people are trained vp in subiection vnto Infidel or hereticall Kings vntill the subiects be of sufficient strength to mate their Kings to expell their Kings and to depose them from their Kingdomes doth not incense the Turkish Emperours and other Infidel Princes to roote out all the Christians that drawe in their yoke as people that waite onely for a fit occasion to rebell and to take themselues ingaged for obedience to their Lords onely by constraint and seruile feare Let vs therefore now conclude with Ozius in that famous Epistle speaking to Constantius an Arrian hereticke As hee that by secret practise or open violence would bereaue thee of thy Empire should violate Gods ordinance so be thou touched with feare least by vsurping authoritie ouer Church matters thou tumble not headlong into some hainous crime Where this holy Bishop hath not vouchsafed to insert and mention the L. Cardinals exception to wit the right of the Church alwaies excepted and saued when she shall be of sufficient strength to shake off the yoke of Emperours Neither speaks the same holy Bishop of priuate persons alone or men of some particular condition and calling but he setteth downe a generall rule for all degrees neuer to impeach Imperial Maiestie vpon any pretext whatsoeuer As his Lordships first reason drawn from weakenesse is exceeding weake so is that which the L. Cardinall takes vp in the next place He telleth vs there is very great difference betweene Pagan Emperours and Christian Princes Pagan Emperours who neuer did homage to Christ who neuer were by their subiects receiued with condition to acknowledge perpetuall subiection vnto the Empire of Christ who neuer were bound by oath and mutuall contract betweene Prince and subiect Christian Princes who slide backe by Apostasie degenerate by Arrianisme or fall away by Mahometisme Touching the latter of these two as his Lordshippe saith If they shall as it were take an oath and make a vowe contrary to their first oath and vow made and taken when they were installed and contrary to the condition vnder which they receiued the Scepter of their Fathers if they withall shall turne persecutors of the Catholike religion touching these I say the L. Cardinal holds that without question they may be remooued from their Kingdomes He telleth vs not by whome but euery where he meaneth by the Pope Touching Kings deposed by the Pope vnder pretence of stupidity as Childeric or of matrimoniall causes as Philip I. or for collating of benefices as Philip the Faire not one word By that point he easily glideth and shuffles it vp in silence for feare of distasting the Pope on the one side or his auditors on the other Now in alledging this reason his Lordship makes all the world a witnesse that in deposing of Kings the Pope hath no eye of regard to the benefit and securitie of the Church For such Princes as neuer suckt other milke then that of Infidelitie and persecution of Religion are no lesse noisome and pernicious vermin to the Church then if they had
to put vp his Catholike Sonnes proceeding to the Cardinalls disgrace neuer opened his mouth against the King neuer declared or noted the King to bee schismaticall Hee waits perhaps for some fitter opportunitie when the Kingdome of Spaine groaning vnder the burthens of intestine dissentions and troubles he may without any danger to himselfe giue the Catholike King a Bishops mate Yea the L. Cardinall himselfe is better seen in the humors and inclinations of the Christian world then to be grossely perswaded that in the Kingdome of Spaine and in the very heart of Rome it selfe there be not many which either make it but a ieast or else take it in fowle scorne to heare the Popes power ouer the Crownes of Kings once named especially since the Venetian Republike hath put his Holinesse to the worse in the same cause and cast him in Lawe What needed the L. Cardinall then by casting vp such mounts and trenches by heaping one amplification vpon an other to make schisme looke with such a terrible and hideous aspect Who knowes not how great an offence how heinous a crime it is to quarter not Iesus Christs coat but his body which is the Church And what needed such terrifying of the Church with vglinesse of schisme whereof there is neither colourable shew nor possibility The next vgly monster after schisme shaped by the L. Cardinall in the third supposed and pretended inconuenience is heresie His Lordship saith for the purpose By this Article we are cast headlong into a manifest heresie as binding vs to confesse that for many ages past the Catholike Church hath been banished out of the whole world For if the champions of the doctrine contrary to this Article doe hold an impious and a detestable opinion repugnant vnto Gods word then doubtlesse the Pope for so many hundred yeers expired hath not been the head of the Church but an heretike and the Antechrist He addeth moreouer That the Church long agoe hath lost her name of Catholike and that in France there hath no Church flourished nor so much as appeared these many and more then many yeeres for as much as all the French Doctors for many yeeres together haue stood for the contrary opinion We can erect and set vp no trophey more honourable for heretikes in token of their victorie then to avowe that Christs visible Kingdome is perished from the face of the earth and that for so many hundred yeeres there hath not beene any Temple of God nor any spouse of Christ but euery where and all the world ouer the Kingdome of Antechrist the Synagogue of Satan the spouse of the Deuill hath mightily preuailed and borne all the sway Lastly what stronger engines can these heretikes wish or desire for the battering and the demolishing of transubstantiation of auricular confession and other like towers of our Catholike religion then if it should bee graunted the Church hath decided the said points without any authoritie c. Me thinkes the Lord Cardinall in the whole draught and course of these words doth seeke not a little to blemish the honour of his Church and to marke his religion with a blacke coale For the whole frame of his mother-mother-Church is very easie to be shaken if by the establishing of this Article she shall come to finall ruine and shall become the Synagoue of Satan Likewise Kings are brought into a very miserable state and condition if their Soueraigntie shall not stand if they shall not be without danger of deposition but by the totall ruine of the Church and by holding the Pope whome they serue to be Antechrist The L. Cardinall himselfe let him be well sifted herein doth not credit his owne words For doth not his Lordship tell vs plaine that neither by diuine testimonie nor by any sentence of the ancient Church the knot of this controuersie hath been vntyed againe that some of the French by the Popes fauourable indulgence are licensed or tolerated to say their mind to deliuer their opinion of this question though contrarie to the iudgement of his Holines prouided they hold it onely as problematicall and not as necessary What Can there be any assurance for the Pope that he is not Antechrist for the Church of Rome that she is not a Synagogue of Satan when a mans assurance is grounded vpon wauering and wild vncertanties without Canon of Scrpture without consent or countenance of antiquity and in a cause which the Pope with good leaue suffereth some to tosse with winds of problematicall opinion It hath beene shewed before that by Gods word whereof small reckoning perhaps is made by venerable antiquity and by the French Church in those times when the Popes power was mounted aloft the doctrine which teaches deposing of Kings by the Pope hath been checked and countermaunded What did the French in those dayes beleeue the Church was then swallowed vp and no where visible or extant in the world No verily Those that make the Pope of Soueraigne authoritie for matters of faith are not perswaded that in this cause they are bound absolutely to beleeue and credit his doctrine Why so Because they take it not for any decree or determination of faith but for a point pertaining to the mysteries of State and a pillar of the Popes Temporal Monarchy who hath not receiued any promise from God that in causes of this nature hee shall not erre For they hold that errour by no meanes can crawle or scramble vp to the Papall See so highly mounted but graunt ambition can scale the highest walls and climbe the loftiest pinnacles of the same See They hold withall that in a case of so speciall aduantage to the Pope whereby he is made King of Kings and as it were the pay-master or distributer of Crownes it is against all reason that hee should sit as Iudge to carue out Kingdoms for his own share To be short let his Lordship be assured that he meets with notorious blocke-heads more blunt witted then a whetstone when they are drawne to beleeue by his perswasion that whosoeuer beleeues the Pope hath no right nor power to put Kings beside their Thrones to giue and take away Crownes are all excluded and barred out of the heauenly Kingdome But now followes a worse matter For they whome the Cardinall reproachfully calls heretikes haue wrought and wonne his Lordship as to me seemeth to plead their cause at the barre and to betray his owne cause to these heretikes For what is it in his Lordship but plaine playing the Praeuaricator when he cryeth so loud that by admitting and establishing of this Article the doctrine of cake-incarnation and priuy Confession to a Priest is vtterly subuerted Let vs heare his reason and willingly accept of the truth from his lips The Articles as his Lordshippe graunteth of Transubstantiation auricular Confession and the Popes power to depose Kings are all grounded alike vpon the same authoritie Now he hath acknowledged the Article of the Popes power to depose Kings is
an excommunicatorie Bull into Fraunce against Charles the King and all his Princes The Vniuersitie of Paris made request or motion that his Bull might be mangled and Pope Benedict himselfe by some called Petrus de Luna might be declared heretike schismatike and perturber of the peace The said Bull was mangled and rent in pieces according to the petition of the Vniuersity by Decree of Court vpon the 10. of Iune 1408. Tenne dayes after the Court rising at eleuen in the morning two Bul-bearers of the said excōmuncaitorie censure vnderwent ignominious punishment vpon the Palace or great Hall stayres From thence were lead to the Lovure in such manner as they had beene brought from thence before drawen in two tumbrells cladde in coates of painted linnen wore paper-mytres on their heads were proclaimed with sound of trumpet and euery where disgraced with publike derision So little reckoning was made of the Popes thundering canons in those daies And what would they haue done if the said Buls had imported sentence of deposition against King Charles The French Church assembled at Tours in the yeere 1510. decreed that Lewis XII might with safe conscience contemne the abusiue Bulls and vniust censures of Pope Julius the II. and by armes might withstand the Popes vsurpations in case hee should proceed to excommunicate or depose the King More by a Council holden at Pisa this Lewis declared the Pope to be fallen from the Popedome and coyned crowns with a stamp of this inscription I wil destroy the name of Babylon To this the L. of Perron makes answer that all this was done by the French as acknowledging these iars to haue sprung not from the fountaine of Religion but from passion of state Wherin he condemneth Pope Iulius for giuing so great scope vnto his publike censures as to serue his ambition and not rather to aduance Religion Hee secretly teacheth vs besides that when the Pope vndertakes to depose the King of France then the French are to sit as Iudges concerning the lawfulnesse or vnlawfulnesse of the cause and in case they shall finde the cause to be vnlawfull then to disannull his iudgements and to scoffe at his thunderbolts Iohn d' Albret King of Nauarre whose Realme was giuen by the foresaid Pope to Ferdinand King of Arragon was also wrapped and entangled with strict bands of deposition Now if the French had been touched with no better feeling of affection to their King then the subiects of Nauarre were to the Nauarrois doubtlesse France had sought a newe Lord by vertue of the Popes as the L. Cardinal himselfe doth acknowledge and confesse vniust sentence But behold to make the said sentence against Iohn d' Albret seeme the lesse contrary to equity the L. Cardinal pretends the Popes donation was not indeede the principall cause howsoeuer Ferdinand himselfe made it his pretence But his Lor. giues this for the principall cause that Iohn d' Albret had quitted his alliance made with condition that in case the Kings of Nauarre should infringe the said alliance and breake the league then the Kingdome of Nauarre should returne to the Crowne of Arragon This condition between Kings neuer made and without all shew of probabilitie serueth to none other purpose from the Cardinals mouth but onely to insinuate and worke a perrswasion in his King that he hath no right nor lawfull pretension to the Crowne of Nauarre and whatsoeuer hee nowe holdeth in the said Kingdome of Nauarre is none of his owne but by vsurpation and vnlawfull possession Thus his Lordshippe French-borne makes himselfe an Aduocate for the Spanish King against his owne King and King of the French who shall bee faine as he ought if this Aduocats plea may take place to draw his title and style of King of Nauarre out of his Royall titles and to acknowledge that all the great endeauours of his predecessors to recouer the said Kingdome were dishonourable and vniust Is it possible that in the very heart and head Citie of France a spirit tongue so licentious can be brooked What shall so great blasphemy as it were of the Kings freehold be powred forth in so honourable an assembly without punishment or fyne what without any contradiction for the Kings right and on the Kings behalfe I may perhaps confesse the indignitie might bee the better borne and the pretence aledged might passe for a poore excuse if it serued his purpose neuer so little For how doth all this touch or come neere the question in which the Popes vsurpation in the deposing of Kings and the resolution of the French in resisting this tyrannicall practise is the proper issue of the cause both which points are neuer a whit more of the lesse consequence and importance howsoeuer Ferdinand in his owne iustification stood vpon the foresaid pretence Thus much is confessed and we aske no more Pope Iulius tooke the Kingdome from the one and gaue it vnto the other the French thereupon resisted the Pope and declared him to bee fallen from the Papacie This noble spirit and courage of the French in maintaining the dignitie and honour of their Kings Crownes bredde those auncient customes which in the sequence of many ages haue beene obserued and kept in vse This for one That no Legate of the Pope nor any of his rescripts nor mandates are admitted and receiued in France without licence from the King and vnlesse the Legate impart his faculties to the Kings Atturney Generall to be perused and verified in Court of Parliament where they are to be tyed by certaine modifications restrictions vnto such points as are not derogatorie from the Kings right from the liberties of the Church and from the ordinances of the Kingdome When Cardinal Balva contrary to this ancient forme entred France in the yeare 1484. and there without leaue of the King did execute the Office and speed certaine Acts of the Popes Legat the Court vpon motion made by the Kings Atturney Generall decreed a Commission to be informed against him by two Councellors of the said Court and inhibited his further proceeding to vse any faculty or power of the Popes Legate vpon paine of beeing proclaimed rebell In the yeare 1561. Iohannes Tanquerellus Batchelor in Diuinitie by order of the Court was condemned to make open confession that hee had indiscreetly and rashly without consideration defended this proposition The Pope is the Vicar of Christ a Monarke that hath power both spirituall and secular and he may depriue Princes which rebel against his cōmandements of their dignities Which proposition howsoeuer he protested that he had propounded the same onely to be argued and not iudicially to be determined in the affirmatiue Tanquerellus neuerthelesse was compelled openly to recant Here the L. Cardinal answers The historie of Tanquerellus is from the matter because his proposition treateth neither of heresie nor of infidelitie but I answer the said proposition treateth of both for as much as
not decided by the Scripture nor by the auncient Church but within the compasse of certaine ages past by the authority of Popes and Councils Then he goes on well and inferres with good reason that in case the point of the Popes power be weakned then the other two points must needs bee shaken and easily ouerthrowne So that he doth confesse the monstrous birth of the breaden-God and the blind Sacrament or vaine phantasie of auricular confession are no more conueyed into the Church by pipes from the springs of sacred Scripture or from the riuers of the auncient Church then that other point of the Popes power ouer Kings and their Crownes Very good For were they indeede deriued from either of those two heads that is to say were they grounded vpon the foundation of the first or second authoritie then they could neuer be shaken by the downefall of the Popes power to depose Kings I am well assured that for vsing so good a reason the world will hold his Lordshippe in suspicion that he still hath some smacke of his fathers discipline and instruction who in times past had the honour to be a Minister of the holy Gospel Howbeit he playeth not faire nor vseth sincere dealing in his proceeding against such as he calls heretikes when he casts in their dish and beares them in hand they frowardly wrangle for the inuisibilitie of the Church in earth For indeed the matter is nothing so They freely acknowledge a visible Church For howsoeuer the assembly of Gods elect doth make a bodie not discernable by mans eye yet we assuredly beleeue and gladly professe there neuer wanted a visible Church in the world yet onely visible to such as make a part of the same All that are without see no more but men they doe not see the said men to be the true Church We beleeue moreouer of the vniuersall Church visible that it is composed of many particular Churches whereof some are better fined and more cleane from lees and dregs then other and withall we deny the purest Churches to be alwaies the greatest and most visible The fourth and last Inconuenience examined THE Lord Cardinall before he looketh into the last Inconuenience vseth a certaine preamble of his owne life past and seruices done to the Kings Henry the III. and IIII. Touching the latter of which two Kings his Lordship saith in a straine of boasting after this manner I by the grace of God or the grace of God by me rather reduced him to the Catholike religion I obtained at Rome his absolution of Pope Clement 8. I reconciled him to the holy See Touching the first of these points I say the time the occasions and the foresaid Kings necessary affaires doe sufficiently testifie that he was induced to change his mind and to alter his religion vpon the strength of other manner of arguments then Theologicall schooles or the perswasions of the L. Cardinals fluent Rhetoricke do vsually afford or could possibly suggest Moreouer who doth not know that in affaires of so high nature and consequence resolutions once taken Princes are to proceede with instructions by a formall course As for the Kings absolution pretended to bee purchased of Clement 8. by the L. Cardinals good seruice it had beene the part of so great a Cardinall for the honour of his King of the Realme and of his owne place to haue buried that peice of his notable seruice in perpetuall silence and in the darke night of eternall obliuion For in this matter of reconcilement it is not vnknowne to the world how shamefully and basely he prostituted the inuiolable dignity of his King when his Lordship representing the person of his King and couching on the ground by way of sufficient penance was glad as I haue noted in the Preface to my Apologie to haue his venerable shoulders gracefully saluted with stripes and reuerently worshipped with bastonados of a Pontificiall cudgell Which gracefull or disgracefull blemish rather it pleased Pope Clement of his rare clemencie to grace yet with a higher degre of spirituall graces in giuing the L. Cardinall then Bishop of Eureux a certaine quantity of holy graines crosses and medals or little plates of siluer or some other mettall to hang about the necke or to be born about against some euil Which treasures of the Popes grace whosoeuer should graciously and reuerently kisse they should without faile purchase vnto themselues a pardon for one hundred yeeres These feate and prety gugawes for children were no doubt a speciall comfort vnto the good Kings heart after his Maiestie had been handsomely basted vpon the L. Bishops backe But with what face can his Lordship brag that he preuailed with Pope Clement for the Kings absolution The late Duke of Neuers not long before had solicited his Holines with all earnest and humble instance to the same purpose howsoeuer the Kings affaires then seeming desperate in the Popes eye hee was licensed to depart for France without any due and gracious respect vnto his errand But so soone as the Pope receiued intelligence of the Kings fortunes growing to the full and the affaires of the League to be in the wane and the principall cities the strongest places of garrison through all France to strike tops and tops gallant and to hale the King then the holy Ghost in good time inspired the holy Father with a holy desire and tender affection to receiue this poore wandring sheep againe into the flocke of Christ and bosome of holy Church His Holinesse had reason For he feared by his obstinate seuerity to prouoke the patience of the French and to driue that Nation as they had many times threatned before then to put in execution their auncient designe which was to shake off the Pope and to set vp some of their owne tribes or kinreds for Patriarch ouer the French Church But let his Lordshippe vouchsafe to search the secret of his owne bosome and no doubt he will not sticke to acknowledge that before hee stirred one foote out of France he had good assurance of the good successe and issue of his honourable embassage Now the hearers thus prepared by his Preface the L. Cardinall proceedeth in his purpose namely to make proofe how this Article of the third Estate wherein doubtfull and questionable matters are mingled and confounded with certaine and indubitable principles doth so debilitate and weaken the sinewes and vertue of any remedy intended for the danger of Kings as it maketh all remedies and receipts prescribed for that purpose to become altogether vnprofitable and without effect He yeelds this reason take it forsooth vpon my warrant a reason full of pith and substance The onely remedie against parricides is to thunder the solemne curses of the Church and the punishments to bee inflicted after death which points if they be not grounded vpon infallible authoritie wil neuer be setled in mens perswasions with any certaine assurance Now in the solemne curses of the Church no man can
borne against Kings when Kings practised to take away the libertie of their conscience and Religion Hence are those turbulent Commotions and seditions by them raised as well in the Law-countryes against the King of Spaine as in Swethland against the Catholike King of Polonia Besides he casteth Iunius Brutus Buchananus Barclaius and Gerson in our teeth To what end all this I see not how it can be auaileable to authorize the deposing of Kings especially the Popes power to depose And yet his Lordship here doth outface by his leaue and beare downe the truth For I could neuer yet learne by any good and true intelligence that in France those of the Religion took armes at any time against their King In the first ciuill warres they stood onely vpon their guard they stood only to their lawfull wards and locks of defence they armed not nor tooke the field before they were pursued with fire and sword burnt vp and slaughtred Besides Religion was neither the root nor the rynde of those intestine troubles The true ground of the quarrell was this During the minority of King Francis 2. the Protestants of France were a refuge and succour to the Princes of the blood when they were kept from the Kings presence and by the ouer powring power of their enemies were no better then plaine driuen and chased from the Court I meane the Grand-father of the King now raigning and the Grand-father of the Prince of Condé when they had no place of safe retreate In regard of which worthy and honourable seruice it may seem the French King hath reason to haue the Protestants in his gracious remembrance With other commotion or insurrection the Protestants are not iustly to be charged But on the contrary certaine it is that King Henry III. raysed and sent forth seuerall armies against the Protestants to ruine and roote them out of the Kingdom howbeit so soon as they perceiued the said King was brought into dangerous tearms they ranne with great speed and speciall fidelitie to the Kings rescue and succour in the present danger Certaine it is that by their good seruice the said King was deliuered from a most extreame and imminent perill of his life in the city of Tours Certaine it is they neuer abandoned that Henry 3. nor his next successor Henry 4. in all the heat of reuolts and rebellions raised in the greatest part of the Kingdome by the Pope and the more part of the Clergie but stood to the said Kings in all their battels to beare vp the Crowne then tottering and ready to fall Certaine it is that euen the heads and principalls of those by whome the late King deceased was pursued with all extremities at this day doe enioy the fruit of all the good seruices done to the King by the said Protestants And they are now disgraced kept vnder exposed to publike hatred What for kindling coales of questions and controuersies about Religion Forsooth not so but because if they might haue equall and indifferent dealing if credit might be giuen to their faithfull aduertisements the Crowne of their Kings should be no longer pinned to the Popes flie-flap in France there should be no French exempted from subiection to the French King causes of benefices or of matrimonie should be no longer citable and summonable to the Romish Court and the Kingdome should be no longer tributarie vnder the colour of annats the first fruits of Benefices after the remooue or death of the Incumbent and other like impositions But why do I speake so much in the behalfe of the French Protestants The Lord Cardinall himselfe quittes them of this blame when he telleth vs this doctrine for the deposing of Kings by the Popes mace or verge had credit and authoritie through all France vntill Caluins time Doth not his Lordship vnder-hand confesse by these words that Kings had been alwaies before Caluins time the more dishonoured and the worse serued Item that Protestants whome his Lordship calls heretikes by the light of holy Scripture made the world then and euer since to see the right of Kings oppressed so long before As for those of the Low Countries and the subiects of Swethland I haue little to say of their case because it is not within ordinary compasse and indeed serueth nothing to the purpose These Nations besides the cause of Religion doe stand vpon certaine reasons of State which I will not here take vpon me like a Iudge to determine or to sift Iunius Brutus whom the L. Cardinall obiecteth is an author vnknowne and perhaps of purpose patcht vp by some Romanist with a wyly deceit to draw the reformed Religion into hatred with Christian Princes Buchanan I reckon and ranke among Poets not among Diuines classicall or common If the man hath burst out here and there into some tearmes of excesse or speach of bad temper that must be imputed to the violence of his humour and heate of his spirit not in any wise to the rules and conclusions of true Religion rightly by him conceiued before Barclaius alledged by the Cardinal meddles not with deposing of Kings but deals with disavowing them for Kings when they shall renounce the right of Royaltie and of their owne accord giue ouer the Kingdome Now he that leaues it in the Kings choice either to hold or to giue ouer his Crowne leaues it not in the Popes power to take away the Kingdome Of Gerson obtruded by the Cardinall we haue spoken sufficiently before Where it hath been shewed how Gerson is disguised masked and peruerted by his Lordsh In briefe I take not vpon me to iustifie and make good all the sayings of particular authors We glory and well we may that our religion affordeth no rules of rebellion nor any dispensation to subiects for the oath of their allegiance and that none of our Churches giue entertainement vnto such monstrous and abhominable principles of disloyaltie If any of the French otherwise perswaded in former times now hauing altered and changed his iudgement doth contend for the Soueraignty of Kings against Papal vsurpation he doubtles for winding himselfe out of the Laborinth of an error so intricate and pernicious deserueth great honour and speciall prayse He is worthy to hold a place of dignity aboue the L. Cardinall who hath quitted and betrayed his former iudgement which was holy and iust Their motions are contrary their markes are opposite The one reclineth from euil to good the other declineth from good to euill At last his Lordship commeth to the close of his Oration and bindes vp his whole harangue with a feate wreath of praises proper to his King He styles the King the eldest Sonne of the Church a young shoot of the lilly which King Salomon in all his Royaltie was not able to match He leades vs by the hand into the pleasant meadowes of Histories there to learne vpon the very first sight and viewe That so long so oft as the Kings of France embraced vnion and kept good
of the base vulgar a packe of people presuming to personate well affected Subiects and men of deepe vnderstanding and to read their masters a learned lecture Now it is no wonder that in so good an office and loyall carriage towards their King the third Estate hath outgone the Clergie For the Clergie denie themselues to haue any ranke among the Subiects of the King they stand for a Soueraigne out of the kingdome to whome as to the Lord Paramount they owe suit and seruice they are bound to aduance that Monarchie to the bodie whereof they properly appertaine as parts or members as elswhere I haue written more at large But for the Nobilitie the Kings right arme to prostitute and set as it were to sale the dignitie of their King as if the arme should giue a thrust vnto the head I say for the Nobilitie to hold and maintaine euen in Parliament their King is liable to deposition by any forraine power or Potentate may it not passe among the strangest miracles and rarest wonders of the world For that once granted this consequence is good and necessarie That in case the King once lawfully deposed shal stand vpon the defensiue and hold out for his right he may then lawfully be murthered Let me then here freely professe my opinion and this it is That now the French Nobilitie may seeme to haue some reason to disrobe themselues of their titles and to transferre them by resignation vnto the third Estate For that bodie of the third Estate alone hath carried a right noble heart in as much as they could neither be tickled with promises nor terrified by threatnings from resolute standing to those fundamentall points reasons of State which most concerne the honor of their King and the securitie of his person Of all the Clergie the man that hath most abandoned or set his owne honour to sale the man to whome France is least obliged is the Lord Cardinall of Perron a man otherwise inferiour to few in matter of learning and in the grace of a sweete style This man in two seuerall Orations whereof the one was pronounced before the Nobilitie the other had audience before the third Estate hath set his best wits on worke to draw that doctrine into all hatred and infamie which teacheth Kings to be indeposeable by the Pope To this purpose he tearmes the same doctrine a breeder of schismes a gate that openeth to make way and to giue entrance vnto all heresies in briefe a doctrine to be held in so high a degree of detestation that rather then he and his fellow-Bishops will yeild to the signing thereof they will be contented like Martyrs to burne at a stake At which resolution or obstinacie rather in his opinion I am in a manner amased more then I can be mooued for the like brauado in many other for as much as he was many yeares together a follower of the late King euen when the King followed a contrarie Religion and was deposed by the Pope as also because not long before in a certaine Assemblie holden at the Iacobins in Paris he withstood the Popes Nuntio to his face when the said Nuntio laboured to make this doctrin touching the Popes temporall Soueraigntie passe for an Article of faith But in both Orations he singeth a contrarie song and from his owne mouth passeth sentence of condemnation against his former course and profession I suppose not without solide iudgement as one that herein hath well accommodated himselfe to the times For as in the raigne of the late King he durst not offer to broach this doctrine such was his fore-wit so now he is bold to proclaime and publish it in Parliament vnder the raigne of the said Kings sonne whose tender yeares and late succession to the Crowne do make him lie the more open to iniuries and the more facill to bee circumuented Such is nowe his after wisedome Of these two Orations that made in presence of the Nobility he hath for feare of incurring the Popes displeasure cautelously suppressed For therein hee hath beene somewhat prodigall in affirming this doctrine maintained by the Clergie to be but problematicall and in taking vpon him to auouch that Catholikes of my Kingdome are bound to yeeld me the honour of obedience Wheras on the other side he is not ignorant how this doctrine of deposing Princes and Kings the Pope holdeth for meerely necessarie and approoueth not by any meanes allegiance to be performed vnto me by the Catholikes of my Kingdome Yea if credit may be giuen vnto the abridgement of his other Oration published wherein he parallels the Popes power in receiuing honours in the name of the Church with the power of the Venetian Duke in receiuing honours in the name of that most renowned Republike no meruaile that when this Oration was dispatched to the presse hee commaunded the same to be gelded of this clause and other like for feare of giuing his Holinesse any offensiue distast His pleasure therefore was and content withall that his Oration imparted to the third Estate should bee put in print and of his courtesie hee vouchsafed to addresse vnto mee a copy of the same Which after I had perused I forthwith well perceiued what and how great discrepance there is betweene one man that perorateth from the ingenuous and sincere disposition of a sound heart and an other that flaunteth in flourishing speech with inward checkes of his owne conscience For euery where he contradicts himselfe and seemes to bee afraid least men should picke out his right meaning First he graunts this Question is not hitherto decided by the holy Scriptures or by the Decrees of the auncient Church or by the analogie of other Ecclesiasticall proceedings and neuerthelesse he confidently doth affirme that whosoeuer maintaine this doctrine to be wicked and abhominable that Popes haue no power to put Kings by their supreame Thrones they teach men to beleeue there hath not beene any Church for many ages past and that indeede the Church is the very Synagogue of Antechrist Secondly hee exhorts his hearers to hold this doctrine at least for problematicall and not necessarie and yet herein he calls them to all humble submission vnto the iudgement of the Pope and Clergie by whome the cause hath beene alreadie put out of all question as out of all hunger and cold Thirdly he doth auerre in case this Article be authorized it makes the Pope in good consequence to bee the Antechrist and yet he graunts that many of the French are tolerated by the Pope to dissent in this point from his Holinesse prouided their doctrine be not proposed as necessarie and materiall to faith As if the Pope in any sort gaue toleration to hold any doctrine contrarie to his owne and most of all that doctrine which by consequence inferres himselfe to be the Antechrist Fourthly he protesteth forwardnesse to vndergoe the flames of Martyrdome rather then to signe this doctrine which teacheth Kings Crowns to
matter of truth I draw this conclusion Howsoeuer no smal number of the French Clergie may perhaps beare the affection of louing Subiects to their King and may not suffer the Clericall character to deface the impression of naturall allegiance yet for so much as the Order of Clerics is dipped in a deeper die and beareth a worse tincture of daungerous practises then the other Orders the third Estate had beene greatly wanting to their excellent prouidence and wisdome if they should haue relinquished and transferred the care of designements and proiects for the life of their King and the safetie of his Crowne to the Clergie alone Moreouer the Clergie standeth bound to referre the iudgment of all matters in controuersie to the sentence of the Pope in this cause beeing a partie and one that pretendeth Crownes to depend vpon his Mitre What hope then might the third Estate conceiue that his Holinesse would passe against his own cause when his iudgment of the controuersie had been sundrie times before published and testified to the world And whereas the plot or modell of remedies proiected by the third Estate and the Kings Officers hath not prooued sortable in the euent was it because the said remedies were not good and lawfull No verily but because the Clergie refused to become contributors of their duty meanes to the grand seruice Likewise for that after the burning of bookes addressed to iustifie rebellious people traytors and parricides of Kings neuerthelesse the authors of the said bookes are winked at and backt with fauour Lastly for that some wretched parricides drinke off the cuppe of publike iustice whereas to the firebrands of sedition the sowers of this abominable doctrine no man saith so much as blacke is their eye It sufficiently appeareth as I suppose by the former passage that his Lordship exhorting the third Estate to refer the whole care of this Regall cause vnto the Clergie hath tacked his frame of weake ioynts and tenons to a very worthy but wrong foundation Howbeit he laboureth to fortifie his exhortation with a more weak feeble reason For to make good his proiect he affirmes that matters and maximes out of all doubt question may not be shuffled together with points in controuersy Now his rules indubitable are two The first It is not lawfull to murther Kings for any cause whatsoeuer This he confirmeth by the example of Saul as he saith deposed from his Throne whose life or limbs Dauid neuerthelesse durst not once hurt or wrong for his life Likewise he confirmes the same by a Decree of the Council held at Constance His other point indubitable The Kings of France are Soueraignes in all Temporall Soueraigntie within the French Kingdome and hold not by fealtie either of the Pope as hauing receiued or obliged their Crownes vpon such tenure and condition or of any other Prince in the whole world Which point neuerthelesse he takes not for certen and indubitable but onely according to humane and historicall certentie Now a third point he makes to be so full of controuersie and so farre within the circle of disputable questions as it may not be drawne into the ranke of classicall and authenticall points for feare of making a certen point doubtfull by shuffling and jumbling therewith some point in controuersie Now the question so disputable as he pretendeth is this A Christian Prince breakes his oath solemnly taken to God both to liue and to die in the Catholique Religion Say this Prince turnes Arrian or Mahometan fals to proclaime open warre and to wage battel with Iesus Christ Whether may such a Prince be declared to haue lost his Kingdome and who shall declare the Subiects of such a Prince to be quit of their oath of allegiance The L. Cardinall holds the affirmatiue and makes no bones to maintaine that all other parts of the Catholique Church yea the French Church euen from the first birth of her Theologicall Schooles to Calvins time and teaching haue professed that such a Prince may be lawfully remooued from his Throne by the Pope and by the Council and suppose the contrarie doctrine were the very Quintessence or spirit of truth yet might it not in case of faith be vrged and pressed otherwise then by way of problematicall disceptation That is the summe of his Lordsh ample discourse The refuting whereof I am constrained to put off and referre vnto an other place because he hath serued vs with the same dishes ouer ouer againe There we shall see the L. Cardinall maketh way to the dispatching of Kings after deposition that Saul was not deposed as he hath presumed that in the Council of Constance there is nothing to the purpose of murthering Soueraigne Princes that his Lordship supposing the French King may be depriued of his Crowne by a superiour power doth not hold his liege Lord to be Soueraigne in France that by the position of the French Church from age to age the Kings of France are not subiect vnto any censure of deposition by the Pope that his Holinesse hath no iust and lawful pretence to produce that any Christian King holds of him by fealtie or is obliged to doe the Pope homage for his Crowne Well then for the purpose he dwelleth onely vpon the third point pretended questionable and this he affirmeth If any shall condemne or wrappe vnder the solemne curse the abettors of the Popes power to vnking lawfull and Soueraigne Kings the same shall runne vpon fowre dangerous rocks of apparant incongruities and absurdities First he shall offer to force and intangle the consciences of many deuout persons For hee shall bind them to beleeue and sweare that doctrine the contrary whereof is beleeued of the whole Church and hath beene beleeued by their predecessors Secondly he shall ouerturne from top to bottome the sacred authoritie of holy Church and shall set open a gate vnto all sorts of heresie by allowing lay-persons a bold libertie to be iudges in causes of religion and faith For what is that degree of boldnesse but open vsurping of the Priesthood what is it but putting of prophane hands into the Arke what is it but laying of vnholy fingers vpon the holy Censor for perfumes Thirdly he shal make way to a schisme not possible to be put by and auoided by any humane prouidence For this doctrine beeing held and professed by all other Catholicks how can we declare it repugnant vnto Gods word how can we hold it impious how can we accompt it detestable but we shall renounce communion with the head and other members of the Church yea we shall confesse the Church in all ages to haue been the Synagogue of Satan and the spouse of the Deuill Lastly by working the establishment of this Article which worketh an establishment of Kings Crownes He shall not onely worke the intended remedy for the danger of Kings out of all the vertue and efficacie thereof by weakening of doctrine out of all controuersie in packing it vp
wherefore the man doth not require the Popes instructions But whether a King be deposed by that man the Pope or by that Pope the man is it not all one is he not deposed Others affirme the Pope may erre in a question of the fact but not in a question of the right An egregious gullery and imposture For if he may bee ignorant whether Iesus Christ died for our sinnes doubtles he may also be to seeke whether we should repose all our trust and assured confidence in the death of Christ Consider with me the Prophets of olde They were all inspired and taught of God to admonish and reprooue the Kings of Iudah and Israel they neither erred in matter of fact nor in point of right they were as farre from being blinded and fetcht ouer by deceitfull calumniations as from beeing seduced by the painted shew of corrupt and false doctrine As they neuer trode awry in matter of faith so they neuer whetted the edge of their tongue or style against the faultles Had it not beene a trimme deuice in their times to say that as Esay and as Daniel they might haue sunke into heresie but not as Prophets For doubtlesse in this case that Esay would haue taken counsell of the Prophet which was himselfe To bee short If Kings are onely so long to be taken for Kings vntill they shall be declared heretikes and shall be deposed by the Pope they continually stand in extreame danger to vndergoe a very heauy and vniust sentence Their safest way were to know nothing and to beleeue by proxie least if they should happen to talke of God or to thinke of religion they should be drawne for heretikes into the Popes Inquisition All the examples hitherto produced by the L. Cardinall on a rowe are of a latter date they lacke weight are drawne from the time of bondage and make the Popes themselues witnesses in their owne cause They descant not vpon the point of deposition but onely strike out and sound the notes of excommunication and interdiction which make nothing at all to the musicke of the question And therefore he telleth vs in kindnesse as I take it more oftentimes then once or twice that he speaketh onely of the fact as one that doth acknowledge himselfe to be out of the right Hee relates things done but neuer what should bee done which as the Iudicious know is to teach nothing The second Jnconuenience examined THE second Inconuenience like to growe as the Lord Cardinall seemeth to be halfe afraid if the Article of the third Estate might haue passed with approbation is couched in these words Lay-men shall by authoritie be strengthened with power to iudge in matters of Religion as also to determine the doctrine comprised in the said Article to haue requisite conformitie with Gods word yea they shall haue it in their hands to compell Ecclesiastics by necessitie to sweare preach and teach the opinion of the one side as also by Sermons and publike writings to impugne the other This inconuenience hee aggrauateth with swelling words and breaketh out into these vehement exclamations O reproach O scandall O gate set open to a world of heresies He therefore laboureth both by reasons by autorities of holy Scripture to make such vsurped power of Laics a fowle shamefull and odious practise In the whole his Lordship toyles himselfe in vaine and maketh suppositions of castles in the aire For in preferring this Article the third Estate haue born themselues not as iudges or vmpires but altogether as petitioners requesting the said Article might be receiued into the number of the Parliament bookes to bee presented vnto the King and his Counsell vnto whome in all humilitie they referred the iudgement of the said Article conceiuing all good hope the Clergie and Nobilitie would be pleased to ioyne for the furtherance of their humble petition They were not so ignorant of State-matters or so vnmindfull of their owne places and charges to beare themselues in hand that a petition put vp and preferred by the third Estate can carrie the force of a Lawe or Statute so long as the other two Orders withstand the same and so long as the King himselfe holds backe his Royall consent Besides the said Article was not propounded as a point of religious doctrine but for euer after to remaine and continue a fundamentall Lawe of the Commonwealth and State it selfe the due care whereof was put into their hands and committed to their trust If the King had ratified the said Article with Royall consent and had commanded the Clergie to put in execution the contents thereof it had beene their duty to see the Kings will and pleasure fulfilled as they are subiects bound to giue him aide in all things which may any way serue to procure the safetie of his life and the tranquility of his Kingdome Which if the Clergie had performed to the vttermost of their power they had not shewed obedience as vnderlings vnto the third Estate but vnto the King alone by whome such commaund had beene imposed vpon suggestion of his faithfull subiects made the more watchfull by the negligence of the Clergie whom they perceiue to be linked with stricter bands vnto the Pope then they are vnto their King Here then the Cardinall fights with meere shadowes and mooues a doubt whereof his aduersaries haue not so much as once thought in a dreame But yet according to his great dexteritie and nimblenesse of spirit by this deuice he cunningly takes vpon him to giue the King a lesson with more libertie making semblance to direct his masked Oration to the Deputies of the people when he shooteth in effect and pricketh at his King the Princes also and Lords of his Counsell whom the Cardinall compriseth vnder the name of Laics whose iudgment it is not vnlikely was apprehended much better by the Clergy then the iudgement of the third Estate Now these are the men whom he tearmeth intruders into other mens charges and such as open a gate for I wot not how many legions of heresies to rush into the Church For if it be proper to the Clergie and their Head to iudge in this cause of the Right of Kings then the King himselfe his Princes and Nobilitie are debarred and wiped of all iudgement in the same cause no lesse then the representatiue body of the people Well then the L Cardinall showres downe like haile sundry places and testimonies of Scripture where the people are commaunded to haue their Pastors in singular loue and to beare them all respects of due obseruance Be it so yet are the said passages of Scripture no barre to the people for their vigilant circumspection to preserue the life and Crown of their Prince against all the wicked enterprises of men stirred vp by the Clergie who haue their Head out of the Kingdom and hold themselues to be none of the Kings subiects a thing neuer spoken by the sacrificing Priests and Prelates mentioned in the passages alleadged
Christians in those times were bound to performe such fidelity allegiance for as much as the Church the Cardinal for shame durst not say the Pope then had not absolued them of their oath No doubt a pleasant dreame or a merry conceit rather to imagine the Bishop of Rome was armed with power to take away the Empire of the world from Nero or Claudius or Domitianus to whom it was not knowne whether the citie of Rome had any Bishop at all Is it not a master-iest of a straine most ridiculous to presuppose the Grand-masters and absolute Lords of the whole world had a sent so dull that they were not able to smel out and to nose things vnder their owne noses that they saw so little with other mens eies and their owne that within their capitall citie they could not spie that Soueraigne armed with ordinary and lawfull authority to degrade and to turne them out of their renowned Empire Doubtlesse the said Emperours vassals belike of the Popes Empire are to be held excused for not acknowledging and honouring the Pope in quality of their Lord as became his vassals because they did not know there was any such power in the world as after-times haue magnified and adored vnder the qualitie of Pope For the Bishops of Rome in those times were of no greater authoritie power and meanes then some of the Bishops are in these daies within my Kingdomes But certes those Popes of that primitiue age thought it not expedient in the said times to drawe their swords they exercised their power in a more mild and soft kind of cariage toward those miserable Emperours for three seuerall reasons alledged by the L. Cardinall The first because the Bishops then durst not by their censures whet and prouoke those Emperous for feare of plunging the Church in a Sea of persecutions But if I be not cleane voide of common sense this reason serueth to charge not only the Bishops of Rome but all the auncient professors of Christ besides with deepe dissimulation and hypocrisie For it is all one as if he had professed that all their obedience to their Soueraignes was but counterfeit and extorted or wrung out of them by force that all the submissiue supplications of the auncient Fathers the assured testimonies and pledges of their allegiance humilitie and patience were but certaine formes of disguised speech proceeding not freely from the suggestions of fidelity but faintly and fainedly or at least from the strong twitches violent convulsions of feare Wherupon it followes that all their torments and punishments euen to the death are wrongfully honoured with the title and crowned with the crowne of Martyrdome because their patience proceeded not from their owne free choice and election but was taught by the force of necessitie as by compulsion and whereas they had not mutinously and rebelliously risen in arms to asswage the scorching heat and burning flames of tyrannicall persecuters it was not for want of will but for lacke of power Which false and forged imputation the Fathers haue cleared themselues of in their writings Tertullian in his Apologet All places are full of Christians the cities isles castles burroughs armies c. If we that are so infinite a power and multitude of men had broken from you into some remote nooke or corner of the world the cities no doubt had become naked and solitarie there had beene a dreadfull and horrible silence ouer the face of the whole Empire the great Emperours had beene driuen to seeke out newe cities and to discouer newe nations ouer whom to beare Soueraigne sway and rule there had remained more enemies to the State then subiects and friends Cyprian also against Demetrianus None of vs all howsoeuer wee are a people mighty and without number haue made resistance against any of your vniust and wrongfull actions executed with all violence neither haue sought by rebellious armes or by any other sinister practises to crie quittance with you at any time for the righting of our selues Certain it is that vnder Iulianus the whole Empire in a manner professed the Christian Religion yea that his Leiftenants and great Commanders as Iovinianus and Valentinianus by name professed Christ Which two Princes not long after attained to the Imperiall dignitie but might haue solicited the Pope sooner to degrade Iulianus from the Imperiall Throne For say that Iulians whole army had renounced the Christian Religion as the L. Cardinall against all shew and appearance of truth would beare vs in hand and contrary to the generall voice of the said whole army making this profession with one consent when Iulian was dead Wee are all Christians yet Italie then persisting in the faith of Christ and the army of Iulian then lying quartered in Persia the vtmost limit of the Empire to the East the Bishop of Rome had fit opportunity to drawe the sword of his authority if he had then any such sword hanging at his Pontificall side to make Iulian feele the sharpe edge of his weapon and thereby to pull him downe from the stately pearch of the Romane Empire I say moreouer that by this generall and suddaine profession of the whole Caesarian army We are all Christians it is clearely testified that if his army or souldiers were then addicted to Paganisme it was wrought by compulsion and cleane contrary to their setled perswasion before and then it followes that with greater patience they would haue borne the deposing of Iulian then if hee had suffered them to vse the libertie of their conscience To bee short in the matter S. Augustine makes all whole and by his testimonie doth euince that Iulians army perseuered in the faith of Christ The souldiers of Christ serued a heathen Emperour But when the cause of Christ was called in question they acknowledged none but Christ in heauen When the Emperour would haue them to serue and to perfume his idols with frankincense they gaue obedience to God rather then to the Emperour After which words the very same words alledged by the L. Cardinall against himselfe doe followe They did then distinguish betweene the Lord eternall and the Lord temporall neuerthelesse they were subiect vnto the Lord temporall for the Lord eternall It was therefore to pay God his duty of obedience and not for feare to incense the Emperour or to drawe persecution vpon the Church as the L. Cardinall would make vs beleeue that Christians of the Primitiue Church and Bishops by their censures durst not anger and prouoke their Emperours But his Lordship by his coloured pretences doth manifestly prouoke and stirre vp the people to rebellion so soone as they knowe their owne strength to beare out a rebellious practise Whereupon it followes that in case their conspiracie shall take no good effect all the blame and fault must lie not in their disloyalty and treason but in the badde choice of their times for the best aduantage and in the want of taking a
sucked of the Churches breasts And as for the greatnesse of the sinne or offence it seemes to me there is very little difference in the matter For a Prince that neuer did sweare any religious obedience to Iesus Christ is bound no lesse to such obedience then if he had taken a solemne oath As the sonne that rebelliously stands vp against his father is in equall degree of sinne whether he hath sworn or not sworn obedience to his father because hee is bound to such obedience not by any voluntarie contract or couenant but by the law of Nature The commaundement of God to kisse the Sonne whom the Father hath confirmed and ratified King of Kings doth equally bind all Kings as wel Pagans as Christians On the other side who denies who doubts that Constantius Emperour at his first steppe or entrance into the Empire did not sweare and bind himselfe by solemne vowe to keepe the rules and to maintaine the precepts of the Orthodox faith or that he did not receiue his fathers Empire vpon such condition This notwithstanding the Bishop of Rome pulled not Constantius from his Imperial throne but Constantius remooued the Bishop of Rome from his Papall See And were it so that an oath taken by a King at his consecration and after violated is a sufficient cause for the Pope to depose an Apostate or hereticall Prince then by good consequence the Pope may in like sort depose a King who beeing neither dead in Apostasie nor sicke of heresie doth neglect onely the due administration of iustice to his loyall subiects For his oath taken at consecration importeth likewise that he shall minister iustice to his people A point wherein the holy Father is held short by the L. Cardinall who dares prescribe new lawes to the Pope and presumes to limit his fulnesse of power within certaine meeres and head-lands extending the Popes power only to the deposing of Christian Kings when they turne Apostats forsaking the Catholike faith and not such Princes as neuer breathed any thing but pure Paganisme and neuer serued vnder the colours of Iesus Christ Meane while his Lordship forgets that King Attabaliba was deposed by the Pope from his Kingdome of Peru and the said Kingdome was conferred vpon the King of Spaine though the said poore King of Peru neuer forsook his heathen superstition and though the turning of him out of his terrestrial Kingdome was no way to conuert him vnto the faith of Christ Yea his Lordship a little after telleth vs himselfe that Be the Turkes possession in the conquests that hee maketh ouer Christians neuer so auncient yet by no long tract of time whatsoeuer can he gaine so much as a thumbes breadth of prescription that is to say the Turke for all that is but a disseisor one that violently and wilfully keeps an other man from his owne and by good right may be dispossessed of the same whereas notwithstanding the Turkish Emperours neuer fauoured nor sauoured Christianitie Let vs runne ouer the examples of Kings whome the Pope hath dared and presumed to depose and hardly will any one be found of whome it may be truely auouched that he hath taken an oath contrary to his oath of subiection to Iesus Christ or that hee hath wilfully cast himselfe into Apostaticall defection And certes to any man that weighs the matter with due consideration it will be found apparantly false that Kings of France haue been receiued of their subiects at any time with condition to serue Iesus Christ They were actually Kings before they came foorth to the solemnity of their sacring before they vsed any stipulation or promise to their subiects For in hereditary Kingdomes nothing more certain nothing more vncontroulable the Kings death instantly maketh liuery and seisin of the Royalty to his next successor Nor is it materiall to reply that a King succeeding by right of inheritance takes an oath in the person of his predecessor For euery oath is personall proper to the person by whom it is taken and to God no liuing creature can sweare that his owne sonne or his heire shall prooue an honest man Well may the father and with great solemnitie promise that he will exhort his heire apparant with all his power and the best of his endeauours to feare God and to practise pietie If the fathers oath be agreeable to the duties of godlines the sonne is bound thereby whether he take an oath or take none On the other side if the fathers oath come from the puddles of impietie the sonne is bound thereby to goe the contrarie way If the fathers oath concerne things of indifferent nature and such as by the varietie or change of times become either pernicious or impossible then it is free for the Kings next successor and heire prudently to fit and proportion his lawes vnto the times present and to the best benefit of the Commonwealth When I call these things to mind with some attention I am out of all doubt his Lordship is very much to seek in the right sense and nature of his Kings oath taken at his Coronation to defend the Church and to perseuere in the Catholike faith For what is more vnlike and lesse credible then this conceit that after Clouis had raigned 15. yeeres in the state of Paganisme and then receiued holy Baptisme he should become Christian vpon this condition That in case hee should afterward revolt from the faith it should then bee in the power of the Church to turne him out of his Kingdome But had any such conditionall stipulation beene made by Clouis in very good earnest and truth yet would hee neuer haue intended that his deposing should be the act of the Romane Bishop but rather of those whether Peeres or people or whole body of the State by whom he had been aduanced to the Kingdome Let vs heare the truth and this is the truth It is farre from the customarie vse in France for their Kings to take any such oath or to vse any such stipulation with their subiects If any King or Prince wheresoeuer doth vse an oath or solemne promise in these expresse tearmes Let mee loose my Kingdome or my life be that day my last both for life and raigne when I shall first reuolt from the Christian religion by these words he calleth vpon God for vengeance he vseth imprecation against his owne head but he makes not his Crowne to stoope by this meanes to any power in the Pope or in the Church or in the people And touching inscriptions vpon coines of which point his Lordship speaketh by the way verily the nature of the money or coine the stamping and minting whereof is one of the markes of the Prince his dignity and Soueraignty is not changed by bearing the letters of Christs name on the reuerse or on the front Such characters of Christs name are aduertisements and instructions to the people that in shewing and yeelding obedience vnto the King they are obedient vnto Christ
paying tribute vnto Caesar and the Pope making Caesar to pay him tribute Iesus Christ perswading the Iewes to pay tribute vnto an heathen Emperour and the Pope dispensing with subiects for their obedience to Christian Emperours Iesus Christ refusing to arbitrate a controuersie of inheritance partable betweene two priuate parties and the Pope thrusting in himselfe without warrant or Commission to be absolute Iudge in the deposing of Kings Iesus Christ professing that his Kingdome is not of this world and the Pope establishing himselfe in a terrene Empire In like manner the Apostles forsaking all their goods to followe Christ and the Pope robbing Christians of their goods the Apostles persecuted by Pagan Emperours and the Pope now setting his foote on the very throate of Christian Emperours then proudly treading Imperiall Crownes vnder his feete By this comparison the L. Cardinals allegation of Scripture in fauour of his Master the Pope is but a kind of puppet-play to make Iesus Christ a mocking stocke rather then to satisfie his auditors with any sound precepts and wholesome instructions Hereof hee seemeth to giue some inckling himselfe For after he hath beene plentifull in citing authorities of Scripture and of newe Doctors which make for the Popes power to depose Kings at last he comes in with a faire and open confession that neither by diuine Oracles nor by honourable antiquitie this controuersie hath beene yet determined and so pulls downe in a word with one hand the frame of worke that he had built and set vp before with an other discouering withal the reluctation and priuie checkes of his owne conscience There yet remaineth one obiection the knot whereof the L. Cardinall in a manner sweateth to vntie His words be these The champions for the negatiue flie to the analogie of other proceedings and practises in the Chruch They affirme that priuate persons masters or owners of goods and possessions among the common people are not depriued of their goods for heresie and consequently that Princes much more should not for the same crime bee depriued of their estates For answer to this reason he brings in the defendants of deposition speaking after this manner In the Kingdom of France the strict execution of lawes decreed in Court against heretickes is fauourably suspended and stopped for the preseruation of peace and publike tranquilitie He saith elsewhere Conniuence is vsed towards these heretikes in regard of their multitude because a notable part of the French Nation and State is made all of heretikes I suppose that out of speciall charitie hee would haue those heretikes of his own making forewarned what courteous vse and intreaty they are to expect when hee affirmeth that execution of the lawes is but suspended For indeed suspensions hold but for a time But in a cause of that nature and importance I dare promise my selfe that my most honoured Brother the King of France will make vse of other counsell will rather seek the amitie of his neighbour Princes and the peace of his Kingdom will beare in minde the great and faithfull seruice of those who in matter of religion dissent from his Maiestie as of the onely men that haue preserued and saued the Crowne for the King his Father of most glorious memorie I am perswaded my Brother of France will beleeue that his liege people pretended by the L. Cardinall to be heretikes are not halfe so bad as my Romane Catholike subiects who by secret practises vnder-mine my life serue a forraine Soueraigne are discharged by his Bulls of their obedience due to me their naturall Soueraigne are bound by the maximes and rules published and maintained in fauour of the Pope before this full and famous assembly of the Estate at Paris if the said maximes be of any weight and authoritie to hold me for no lawfull King are there taught and instructed that Pauls commandement concerning subiection vnto the higher powers aduerse to their professed religion is onely a prouisionall precept framed to the times and watching for the opportunitie to shake off the yoake All which notwithstanding I deale with such Romane-Catholiks by the rules and waies of Princely clemencie their hainous and pernicious error in effect no lesse then the capitall crime of high treason I vse to call some disease or distemper of the mind Last of all I beleeue my said Brother of France will set downe in his tables as in record how little he standeth ingaged to the Lord Cardinal in this behalfe For those of the reformed Religion professe and proclaim that next vnder God they owe their preseruation and safetie to the wisedome and benignity of their Kings But now comes the Cardinall and hee seekes to steale this perswasion out of their hearts Hee tells them in open Parliament and without any going about bushes that all their welfare and securitie standeth in their multitude and in the feare which others conceiue to trouble the State by the strict execution of lawes against heretikes He addeth moreouer that Jn case a third sect should peepe out and growe vp in France the professors thereof should suffer confiscation of their goods with losse of life it selfe as hath been practised at Geneua against Seruetus and in England against Arrians My answer is this That punishments for heretikes duely and according to law conuicted are set downe by decrees of the ciuil Magistrate bearing rule in the countrey where the said heretikes inhabite and not by any ordinances of the Pope I say withall the L. Cardinal hath no reason to match and parallell the Reformed Churches with Seruetus and the Arrians For those heretikes were powerfully conuicted by Gods word and lawfully condemned by the auncient Generall Councils where they were permitted and admitted to plead their owne cause in person But as for the truth professed by me and those of the reformed religion it was neuer yet hissed out of the Schooles nor cast out of any Councill like some Parliament bills where both sides haue been heard with like indifferencie Yea what Councill soeuer hath beene offered vnto vs in these latter times it hath been proposed with certaine presuppositions as That his Holinesse beeing a partie in the cause and consequently to come vnder iudgement as it were to the barre vpon his triall shall be the Iudge of Assize with Commission of oyer and determiner it shall be celebrated in a citie of no safe accesse without safe conduct or conuoy to come or goe at pleasure and without danger it shall be assembled of such persons with free suffrage and voice as vphold this rule which they haue alreadie put in practise against Iohn Hus and Hierom of Prage that faith giuen and oath taken to an heretike must not be obserued Now then to resume our former matter If the Pope hitherto hath neuer presumed for pretended heresie to confiscate by sentence either the lands or the goods of priuate persons or common people of the French Nation wherfore should he dare to dispossesse Kings of
Churches vnder a Prince of contrary religion And if things without life or soule are with lesse danger left in an heretikes hands why then shall not an hereticall King with more facilitie and lesse danger keep his Crown his Royall charge his lands his customes his imposts c. For will any man except he bee out of his wits affirme these things to haue any life or soule Or why shall it be counted follie to leaue a sword in the hand of a mad Bedlam Is not a sword also without life and soule For my part I should rather be of this minde that possession of things without reason is more dangerous and pernicious in the hands of an euill Master then the possession of things indued with life and reason For things without life lacke both reason and iudgement how to exempt and free themselues from being instruments in euill and wicked actions from beeing emploied to vngodly and abhominable vses I will not deny that an hereticall Prince is a plague a pernicious and mortal sicknes to the soules of his subiects But a breach made by one mischiefe must not be filled vp with a greater inconuenience An errour must not be shocked and shouldered with disloialtie nor heresie with periurie nor impietie with sedition and armed rebellion against God and the King God who vseth to try and to schoole his Church will neuer forsake his Church nor hath need to protect his Church by any proditorious and prodigious practises of perfidious Christians For hee makes his Church to be like the burning bush In the middest of the fire and flames of persecutions he will prouide that she shall not bee consumed because he standeth in the midst of his Church And suppose there may bee some iust cause for the French to play the rebels against their King yet will it not follow that such rebellious motions are to be raised by the bellowes of the Romane Bishop to whose Pastorall charge and office it is nothing proper to intermeddle in the ciuill affaires of forraine Kingdomes Here is the summe and substance of the L. Cardinals whole discourse touching his pretence of the second inconuenience Which discourse he hath closed with a remarkeable confession to wit that neither by the authoritie of holy Scripture nor by the testimony and verdict of the Primitiue Church there hath beene any full decision of this question In regard whereof he falleth into admiration that Lay-people haue gone so farre in audaciousnesse as to labour that a doubtfull doctrine might for euer passe currant and be taken for a newe article of faith What a shame what a reproach is this how full of scandall for so his Lordship is pleased to cry out This breakes into the seueralls and inclosures of the Church this lets in whole herds of heresies to grase in her green and sweet pastures On the other side without any such Rhetoricall outcries I simply affirme It is a reproach a scandall a crime of rebellion for a subiect hauing his full charge and loade of benefits in the newe spring of his Kings tender age his King-fathers blood yet reeking and vpon the point of an addresse for a double match with Spaine in so honourable an assembly to seek the thraldome of his Kings Crown to play the captious in cauilling about causes of his Kings deposing to giue his former life the lie with shame enough in his olde age and to make himselfe a common by-word vnder the name of a Problematicall Martyr one that offers himselfe to fagot and fire for a point of doctrine but problematically handled that is distrustfully and onely by way of doubtfull and questionable discourse yea for a point of doctrine in which the French as he pretendeth are permitted to thwart and crosse his Holines in iudgement prouided they speake in it as in a point not certaine and necessary but onely doubtfull and probable The third Jnconvenience examined THE third Inconuenience pretended by the L. Cardinall to growe by admitting this Article of the third Estate is flourished in these colours It would breede and bring forth an open and vnauoideable schism against his Holinesse and the rest of the whole Ecclesiasticall bodie For thereby the doctrine long approoued and ratified by the Pope and the rest of the Church should now be taxed and condemned of impious and most detestable consequence yea the Pope and the Church euen in faith and in points of saluation should be reputed and beleeued to be erroniously perswaded Hereupon his Lordship giues himselfe a large scope of the raines to frame his elegant amplifications against schismes and schismatikes Now to mount so high and to flie in such place vpon the wings of amplification for this Inconuenience what is it else but magnifically to report and imagine a mischeife by many degrees greater then the mischeife is The L. Cardinal is in a great error if he make himselfe beleeue that other nations wil make a rent or separation from the communion of the French because the French stand to it tooth and nayle that French Crownes are not liable or obnoxious to Papall deposition howsoeuer there is no schisme that importeth not separation of communion The most illustrious Republike of Venice hath imbarked herselfe in this quarrell against his Holinesse hath played her prize and carried away the weapons with great honour Doth she notwithstanding her triumph in the cause forbeare to participate with all her neighbors in the same Sacraments doth she liue in schisme with all the rest of the Romane Church No such matter When the L. Cardinal himselfe not many yeeres past maintained the Kings cause and stood honourably for the Kings right against the Popes Temporall vsurpations did he then take other Churches to be schismaticall or the rotten members of Antechrist Beleeue it who list I beleeue my Creed Nay his Lordship telleth vs himselfe a little after that his Holinesse giues the French free scope to maintaine either the affirmatiue or negatiue of this question And will his Holinesse hold them schismatikes that dissent from his opinion and iudgement in a subiect or cause esteemed problematicall Farre be it from his Holinesse The King of Spaine reputed the Popes right arme neuer gaue the Pope cause by any act or other declaration to conceiue that hee acknowledged himselfe deposeable by the Pope for heresie or Tyrannie or stupidity But beeing well assured the Pope standeth in greater feare of his arme then he doth of the Popes head and shoulders he neuer troubles his owne head about our question More when the booke of Cardinall Baronius was come forth in which booke the Kingdome of Naples is decryed and publiquely discredited like false money touching the qualitie of a Kingdome and attributed to the King of Spain not as true proprietary thereof but onely as an Estate held in fee of the Romane Church the King made no bones to condemne and to banish the said booke out of his dominions The holy Father was contented
prayses proclaimed a Tyrant as it were inebriated with blood of the Saints and a famous Enginer of torments for my Catholikes To this exhortation for the suffering of Martyrdome in imitation of my English traytors and parricides if we shall adde how craftily and subtilly he makes the Kings of England to hold of the Pope by fealty and their Kingdome in bondage to the Pope by Temporall recognizance it shall easily appeare that his holy-water of prayses wherewith I am so reuerently besprinkled is a composition extracted out of a dram of hony and a pound of gall first steeped in a strong decoction of bitter wormewood or of the wild gourd called Coloquintida For after he hath in the beginning of his Oration spoken of Kings that owe fealtie to the Pope and are not Soueraignes in the highest degree of Temporal supremacie within their Kingdomes to explaine his mind and meaning the better he marshals the Kings of England a little after in the same ranke His words be these When King Iohn of England not yet bound in any temporall recognizance to the Pope had expelled his Bishops c. His Lordship means that King Iohn became so bound to the Pope not long after And what may this meaning be but in plaine tearmes and broad speach to cal me vsurper and vnlawfull King For the feudatarie or he that holdeth a Mannor by fealty when he doth not his homage with all suit and seruice that he owes to the Lord Paramount doth fall from the propertie of his fee. This reproach of the L. Cardinals is seconded with an other of Bellarmines his brother Cardinall That Ireland was giuen to the Kings of England by the Pope The best is that his most reuerend Lordship hath not shewed who it was that gaue Ireland to the Pope And touching Iohn King of England thus in briefe stands the whole matter Between Henry 2. and the Pope had passed sundry bickerments about collating of Ecclesiasticall dignities Iohn the sonne after his fathers death reneweth vndertaketh and pursueth the same quarrell Driueth certaine English Bishops out of the Kingdome for defending the Popes insolent vsurpation vpon his Royall prerogatiue and Regall rights Sheweth such Princely courage and resolution in those times when all that stood and suffered for the Popes Temporall pretensions against Kings were enrowled Martyrs or Confessors The Pope takes the matter in fowle scorne and great indignation shuts the King by his excommunicatory Bulls out of the Church stirres vp his Barons for other causes the Kings heauy friends to rise in armes giues the Kingdome of England like a masterlesse man turned ouer to a new master to Philippus Augustus King of France binds Philip to make a conquest of England by the sword or else no bargaine or else no gift promises Philip in recompence of his trauell and Royall expences in that conquest full absolution and a general pardon at large for all his sinnes to be short cuts King Iohn out so much worke and makes him keep so many yrons in the fire for his worke that he had none other way none other meanes to pacifie the Popes high displeasure to correct or qualifie the malignitie of the Popes cholericke humour by whom he was then so intangled in the Popes toyles but by yeelding himselfe to become the Popes vassall and his Kingdome feudatary or to hold by fealty of the Papall See By this meanes his Crowne is made tributarie all his people liable to payment of taxes by the poll for a certaine yearly tribute and he is blessed with a pardon for all his sinnes Whether King Iohn was mooued to doe this dishonourable act vpon any deuotion or inflamed with any zeale of Religion or inforced by the vnresistable weapons of necessitie who can be so blind that he doth not well see and clearely perceiue For to purchase his owne freedom from this bondage to the Pope what could he be vnwilling to doe that was willing to bring his Kingdome vnder the yoke of Amirales Murmelinus a Mahumetan Prince then King of Granado and Barbaria The Pope after that sent a Legat into England The King now the Popes vassall and holding his Crowne of the Pope like a man that holds his land of an other by Knights seruice or by homage and fealty doth faire homage for his Crowne to the Popes Legat and layeth downe at his feete a great masle of the purest gold in coyne The reuerend Legat in token of his Masters Soueraigntie with more then vsuall pride fals to kicking and spurning the treasure no doubt with a paire of most holy feete Not onely so but likewise at solemne feasts is easily entreated to take the Kings chaire of Estate Here I would faine know the Lord Cardinals opinion whether these actions of the Pope were iust or vniust lawfull or vnlawfull according to right or against all right and reason If he will say against right it is then cleare that against right his Lordship hath made way to this example if according to right let him then make it knowne from whence or from whom this power was deriued and conuaied to the Pope whereby he makes himselfe Soueraigne Lord of Temporalties in that Kingdome where neither he nor any of his predecessors euer pretended any right or laid any claime to Temporall matters before Are such prankes to be played by the Pontificiall Bishop Is this an act of Holinesse to set a Kingdome on fire by the flaming brands of sedition to dismember and quarter a Kingdome with intestine warres onely to this end that a King once reduced to the lowest degree of miserie might be lifted by his Holinesse out of his Royall prerogatiue the very soule and life of his Royall Estate When beganne this Papall power In what age beganne the Pope to practise this power What! haue the auncient Canons for the Scripture in this question beareth no pawme haue the Canons of the auncient Church imposed any such satisfaction vpon a sinner that of ueraigne and free King he should become vassal to his ghostly Father that he should make himselfe together with all his people and subiects tributaries to a Bishop that shall rifle a whole Nation of their coyne that shall receiue homage of a King and make a King his vassall What! Shall not a sinner be quitted of his faults except his Pastor turne robber and one that goeth about to get a booty except he make his Pastor a feoffee in his whole Estate and suffer himselfe vnder a shadow of penance to freeze naked to be turned out of all his goods and possessions of inheritance But be it graunted admit his Holinesse robs one Prince of his rights and reuenewes to conferre the same vpon an other were it not an high degree of Tyrannie to finger an other mans estate and to giue that away to a third which the second hath no right no lawfull authoritie to giue Well if the Pope then shall become his own caruer in the rights of an other