deposition seeing Gelasius was dead above 240 years before Chilpericus or Childericus they write him both ways came to be King of France But they say the words of this Canon are found in the Epistles of Pope Gregory the Seventh and therefore they do rightly refer them to him as the true Author of them Now whether it were Gelasius or Gregory the Seventh it is all one as to my present business it is by them confess'd that a Pope was Author of that Rebellious passage Gratian refers it into the Body of their Canon-Law and Pope Gregory the Thirteenth approves and together with the whole Body of the Law the Gloss and Annotations confirms and ratifies it Whence we may rationally conclude that this Doctrine of the Popes Power to depose Kings and absolve their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance though impious and rebellious is so far from being disown'd or detested by all Papists as some now pretend that the Supreme power of that Church has not only approved but establish'd it for Law By the way though you see that Gratian and Pope Gregory say that Pope Zachary was the Man who deposed the French King Hildericus yet an Historian of more Antiquity and Credit than either of them notwithstanding Gregories Infallibility tells us that it was Pope Stephen Zacharies Successor who deposed him So that all agree that A Pope it matters not which was Author of that impiety 3. When the Canon says that the French King was deposed by the Pope because he was INUTILIS c. the Gloss gives you the meaning of that word ...... Non intelligas INUTILS id est INSUFFICIENS tunc enim ei dari debuit Coadjutor sed quia DISSOLUTUS erat cum MULIERIBUS EFFOEMINATUS so that by this Papal Law we see that if the Pope please the greatest Prince may be deposed for a very small matter 4. When this Canon says the Pope deposed the King of France the Gloss notes ..... Ergo Papa deponit Imperatorem And least we should not take notice of it these words in their best Editions of the Canon-Laws corrected purged revised and whatever wicked men had put into the Text or Margent contrary to the Catholick Faith by Pope Gregories command expunged I say notwithstanding all this these words are put in the Margent ....... IMPERATOR POTEST A PAPA DEPONI Whence it is evident that in Pope Gregories Opinion this impious Doctrine and Position though contrary to the true Christian is not contrary to THEIR ROMAN FAITH being expresly in those Glosses and Canons in which their Supreme and Infallible Judge says There is NOTHING CATHOLICAE VERITATI CONTRARIUM Nor is this Pope Gregories singular opinion that the Pope may depose Kings For seeing it has been approved by their Popes and their General Councils as you shall see anon and for some Ages received amongst their Sacred Canons as they call them it is become a necessary part of their Creed and no Salvation without the belief of it to which all their Secular Clergy Archbishops Bishops and whoever has any cure of Souls and all their Regulars at least the Heads and Governors of them are solemnly sworn For they swear promise and vow without all doubtings to receive and profess ALL THINGS defined and declared in the SACRED CANONS and General Councils and so far as they are able to make others receive them too So that all their Ecclesiastiques especially all who have any Cure of Souls do not only believe this impious Doctrine of Popes Power to depose Kings but they swear both to BELIEVE and PROFESS IT and as far as they are able make others do so too How pernicious to Kings and Princes such Principles and such Persons sworn to Profess and Promote them heretofore have been the many sad and Tragical Examples of deposed Princes in the six last Centuries can abundantly witness and assure us And how pernicious for the future they may be unless with care and prudence they be prevented we or our Posterity may unhappily and too soon see Dirum omen misericors qui solus potest averruncet Deus 5. Lastly If we consult Cardinal Turrecremata a very great and learned person who well understood their sacred Canons and in what sense the Roman Church received them he in his Commentary on the Canon before-cited affirmes and endeavours to prove these following Propositions I. The Pope may DEPOSE the Emperor or a King not subject to the Emperor II. The Pope may LAWFULLY absolve Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance III. The Pope may depose Counts Dukes and other Barons without the Consent of the Emperor or those Kings whose Subjects they are IV. Subjects if they have the Popes consent which they are sure to have if it make for his interest may depose their Kings This he farther proves and adds ..... That if the King be a manifest Heretick as all Protestants are with them then THE CHURCH may depose him The Premises consider'd it will highly concern all Protestant Kings and Princes to look to it who as Hereticks are all damned and Anathematiz'd once every year on Maundy-Thursday in their Bulla Coenae Domini For had they of Rome power to act according to their Principles Pretences and Interest they would make short work a speedy and thorough Reformation and compel all Protestant or as they constantly miscall them Heretical Kings and Princes to quit their Religion or their Realms and Kingdoms Be it concluded then that according to the Approved and Received Doctrine of the Roman Church Kings and Princes may be deposed and their subjects absolved from their Oaths of Allegiance And for the truth of what I here say we have the Precept and Practice of three Popes Zachary Gregory the Seventh and Urban the Second and three Canons grounded on that Papal Authority received into the Body of their Canon-Law which when you have occasion you may for further satisfaction consult Now if you inquire for what Crimes Kings may be deposed by the Pope whether for Heresie onely for that 's universally agreed on or for other Crimes also John Semeca Author of the Gloss on Gratian gives us a full and Categorical Answer For 1. He proposes the Question Pro quo peccato potest Imperator deponi For what Sin can the Emperor be deposed That he may be deposed is in that Law no Question but an undoubted truth the Question onely is for what Crimes it may be done And the Answer is .......... That he may be deposed for ANY SIN if he be INCORRIGIBLE and not onely for his sins but if he UNPROFITABLY manage that Regal Power And this he proves out of another Canon This is the sad condition of Kings and Emperors by the Popish Canon-Law they may be deposed if they be incorrigible for ANY SIN and sometimes for no sin at least as the principal cause of
or to be Born of Queen Anna and all the Children of his Adherents and their Descendents none excepted of all their Rights Priviledges and Goods Moveable and Immoveable and makes them for the future incapable and deprived of all Dignities Honors Offices Rights Fees c. which otherwise they might have obtain'd and this he does knowingly and by the Plenitude of his Power Then he goes on and declares the King and his Adherents and Descendents to be Infamous Persons disabled to be Witness to make any Will or Testament or to receive any Legacy or Benefit by the Testament of any other Forbids all Men to have any Conversation Commerce or Trade with them on pain of Excommunication and loss of all their Goods c. And further Commands all Christian Princes quacunque dignitate Imperiali aut Regali fulgeant Kings and Emperors no way to favour the King and his Adherents and Nulls all Oaths Compacts Treaties c. made or to be made to or with the King or in favour of him or his Adherents and gives Authority and express COMMAND to all Christian Princes and their Armies by Sea or Land to turn their Arms against the King and his Adherents and compel them to return to the Unity of the Church and Obedience to the Pope And whoever acknowledges Henry the Eighth to be King or any way Obeys him and will not in Obedience to the Popes Command expel him and them out of the Kingdom and their Dominions all their Goods Moveable and Immoveable Moneys Merchandizes whether within or without England are to be seiz'd on and by the Popes Authority possess'd and kept by any who can catch them And he there gives them such Thieves and Robbers full power to enjoy and possess such Plunder'd Goods of the Kings or his Loyal Subjects as in their own Right and Propriety And if they take any Inhabitants in England Native or Alien who Obey the King and Disobey the Pope then all so taken are to be Slaves to those who take them So that impious Bull in contradiction to the Laws of Nature and Scripture Reason and Christian Religion Our Blessed Saviour the Prince of Peace came not to destroy but to save not to Depose Kings and Emperors Absolve their Subjects from the Obligations of their Natural or Sworn Allegiance or to Arm them against Governors and as his pretended Vicar does promise them a Reward Remission of Sins here and an higher place in Heaven hereafter for Rebellion and Murdering their Brethren Fellow-Subjects and Christians for believing and maintaining that Truth which by the Pope and his Party should be miscall'd Heresie No he was the good Shepherd who laid down his own life for his Sheep and when they stray'd and err'd from his Fold he did not hire and send Dogs or Wolves to worry them but with infinite Patience and Mercy went himself to seek them and being found though erring and out of his Fold laid them on his own shoulders and with great love and labor brought them home to his Fold from which as his Sheep may and yet not cease to be his Sheep they had erred We read indeed that our Blessed Saviour gives Peter Commission to FEED HIS SHEEP and his LAMBS But we never read that he whose Kingdom was not of this World gave any Commission to Peter or his pretended Vicar to raise Armies to kill and indictà causà to Murder them Though I know there are some who from pasce oves with bad Logique and worse Divinity conclude that the Pope has Power to kill Heretiques Like that Monk Erasmus mentions who with great Zeal for the Catholique Cause and greater Ignorance endeavoured to prove that the Church might kill Heretiques from that passage in the Apostle HAERETICUM DEVITA that is says the Monk who had no Greek and little Latine DE VITA TOLLE take him out of this life that is kill him Sed è diverticulo in Viam 7. From the aforesaid reasons I think we may with good consequence conclude that the Pope and his party ever since Henry the Eighth de facto assum'd the Supremacy which de jure was his before have been in a perpetual Conspiracy against the Lives and Religion of our Protestant Princes at least till the Happy Return of our Gracious Soveraign whom God preserve who being by the good and Miraculous Providence of Heaven Restor'd to His Fathers Throne His own Right and Inheritance a blessed Peace and all the happy effects of it did immediately follow to the great comfort and benefit of the whole Nation The Government of Church and State before shatter'd and ruin'd by a horrid Rebellion Begun Incourag'd and Promoted by the Pope and his Jesuitical Party was happily Restored and by Law establish'd the Just Rights and Liberties of the Subjects assured to them and confirm'd a Gracious Act of Oblivion and Pardon of Illegal Seditious and Rebellious actions against the King and His Laws granted and the blessing and benefit of all these extended to Papists as well as other So that beside their Obligation to Obedience and Loyalty by their Natural or Sworn Allegiance there lay upon them an Obligation to Gratitude for those signal favors they received from the goodness of a gratious Prince So that it was the beliefe and hope of some that the foremention'd Popish Principles and Practises had been forgot or laid aside and that the Roman Catholiques as both in words and writings they publickly pretended would be very Loyal Subjects But these were vain hopes for notwithstanding all obligations to obedience and gratitude even since His Majesties Happy Return the Popish Party have carried on their Plots and Conspiracies against their gracious Prince the establish'd Religion and the Peace of our Church and State with as much industry and impiety as formerly Which now evidently appears by their impious Conspiracy by the blessing of God very happily though lately discover'd That you may in the General know what this Plot is and that I do not miscall it when I say it is an Impious Conspiracy I shall give you two Authentique Testimonies I. Our gratious King calls it A BLOODY TRAITEROUS design of POPISH Recusants against His MAJESTIES Sacred PERSON the GOVERNMENT and the PROTESTANT RELIGION II. The House of Commons in a Vote of that House approved by the Lords say thus ........ Resolved c. That this House is of Opinion that there HATH BEEN and STILL IS a DAMNABLE and HELLISH PLOT contrived and carried on by POPISH RECVSANTS for horresco referens ASSASSINATING and MURDERING THE KING and for SUBVERTING the GOVERNMENT and rooting out and DESTROYING the PROTESTANT RELIGION By what is already said I suppose you may see what the Roman-Catholick or Popish Principles and Practises have been are and while there is a Pope and a Party to believe and incourage such Practises ever will be and how dangerous such Principles are and when put in execution how pernicious they
POPERY OR THE Principles Positions Approved by the CHURCH OF ROME When Really Believ'd and Practis'd Are very Dangerous to all and to Protestant Kings and Supreme Powers more especially Pernicious And Inconsistent with that Loyalty which by the Law of NATURE and SCRIPTURE is Indispensably due to SUPREME POWERS In a LETTER to a Person of Honor By T. L d Bishop of LINCOLN Rev. 18. 4. Jer. 15. 6. Come out of her my people least ye be partakers of her Sins and Plagues In the SAVOY Printed by Tho. Newcomb for James Collins in the Temple-passage from Essex-street MDCLXXIX FOR MY Honored Friend L. N. P. SIR I Received and read your Letter and this comes to bring my humble Service and tell you so In your Letter you tell me First Of an Inhumane and Bloody Design and Popish Plot a Traiterous and Roman-Catholick Conspiracy as you call it against the Sacred Person and Life of our Gracious KING whom GOD preserve and many more by them design'd for Ruine and for the Subversion of the true Religion Establish'd by Law and introducing Papal Tyranny Superstition and Idolatry A Design not only Unchristian but Inhumane and Barbarous beyond all examples of Turkish or Pagan Cruelty nor has it in any story any parallel Impiety unless perhaps that Bloody French Massacre or the Gun-powder-Treason all contriv'd and carry'd on by Men of the same desperate Principles and though with the blood and ruine of many thousand innocent persons to advance the Papal Interest Secondly You say That the Popish Party decry this Impious Conspiracy as a State-Trick without truth or reallity to make Catholicks as they commonly miscall themselves odious to the People and this whole Nation This I believe and know they do As their Plots and Conspiracies so their Impudence to deny or lessen them when discover'd is monstrous and were not their Persons and Principles known incredible So they did where and when they durst and still do call the Gun-powder-Treason A State-Design to make them though they were innocent seem guilty and Criminals Thirdly Lastly you say that several Papists tell you in excuse of Popery and their Party That if indeed there be such a Plot and Conspiracy as is pretended yet it is the only fault of those persons concern'd in it not of Popery or their Religion the Principles and Doctrine of their Church giving no ground or incouragement to such impious and Anti-Monarchical practices This I believe too because I find them making the same Apology for themselves to take off the guilt of the Gun-powder-Treason For without all truth or modesty they tell us in Print That the Gun-powder-Treason was MORE THAN SUSPECTED to be the CONTRIVANCE of Cecil the great Politician TO RENDER CATHOLICKS ODIOUS and that there were but VERY FEW of that Religion AND THOSE DESPERADOES TOO detected of it c. All sober Catholicks detesting that and all such Conspiracies Now these things premis'd you desire to know of me whether I think these their Allegations and Apologies true or if I think them untrue and insignificant as you may be sure I do that I would give you some reasons why I do so In obedience therefore to your command and to satisfie that Obligation that lies upon me so far as I am able to Vindicate Truth and my Mother the Church of England though I have little time and few Books here being absent from my own save what I borrow of friends I shall endeavour to say something which may I hope be pertinent towards the conviction of our Adversaries and your satisfaction And here I shall plainly set down I. The Position I undertake to make good II. The Proofs and Reasons of it I. The Position is this ...... The Doctrine and Principles of Popery own'd by the Church of Rome when believed and practised are not onely dangerous but pernicious to Kings especially to those who are Protestants prejudicial to the just rights of Monarchy and inconsistent with that Loyalty which by the Laws of Nature and Scripture is due to them and particularly to our Kings by the establish'd and known Laws of England made antiently even by Popish Kings and Parliaments against Papal Usurpations and Anti-Monarchical Practices And here because it is impossible distinctly to shew how Popish Principles are dangerous to our Kings and prejudicial to their Just Rights and Royal Prerogative unless we first know what that Prerogative and those Rights are I shall inquire 1. What the Jura Coronae the Rights and Prerogatives of the Imperial Crown of England are as to our present concern 2. How Popish Doctrines and Principles may be dangerous or pernicious to them 1. For the First That England is a Monarchy the Crown Imperial and our Kings SUPREME Governors and SOLE SUPREME Governors of this Realm and all other their Dominions will I believe I am sure it should be granted seeing our Authentick Laws and Statutes do so expresly and so often say it In our Oath of Supremacy we Swear that the King is the ONLY SUPREME Governor SUPREME so none not the Pope above Him and ONLY SUPREME so none co-ordinate or equal to Him So that by our known Laws our King is Solo Deo minor invested with such a Supremacy as excludes both Pope and People and all the World God Almighty only excepted by whom Kings Reign from having any Power Jurisdiction or Authority over Him For this Soveraignty and Supremacy belonging to our Kings and the Imperial Crown of England is asserted not only by the Statutes of Q. Elizabeth King James and Charles the Second Protestant Princes but even those Statutes made by Popish Princes and Parliaments declare the same I instance only in Richard the Second Henry the Eighth and Q. Mary though all the Statutes of Provisors were pertinent to this purpose That Richard the Second and His Parliament were Roman-Catholicks is manifest and it is as certain That Henry the Eighth and His Parliaments when the Statutes cited were made were so too For 't is evident that those Statutes were made Anno. 24. and Anno. 25. Hen. 8. that is Anno. Dom. 1532. and 1533. when neither He nor His Adherents were Excommunicate but actual Members of the Roman Church then and for some years after For though Pope Paul the Third was angry and about it Anno. 1535. yet he did not actually Excommunicate him or his Adherents before the year 1538. which was six years after Henry the Eighth and His Popish Parliament had Vindicated the Rights of the Imperial Crown of England against the irrational and unjust Pretences and Usurpations of the Pope and declared that the Supremacy both in Ecclesiastical and Civil Things ever did de Jure belong to the Imperial Crown of England not to the Pope's Mitre He having no more to do in England Jure proprio or by any Law of God or Man than Henry the Eighth in Italy And that Parliament of Queen Mary
Philip King of Spain hearing of the strange defeat and ruine of his Fleet and seeing the Hand of Heaven in it said more soberly ...... That he did not send his Fleet to fight against God to whose Power and Providence he attributed the loss of it but against Men. 4. The Queen being dead Popish Conspiracies did not die with her the Pope and his Party continue as industrious and as to their Designs and Plots as impious as before They saw and knew that King James a Protestant was Legal Successor and Heir to the Crown of England yet used all Roman Arts to hinder his having possession of it and to this end Father Parsons the Jesuite writes a Book to prove what was evidently untrue and he could not chuse but know it That King JAMES had no just Title to the Crown of England though the whole Right of the Saxons and Normans and of the Houses of York and Lancaster were intirely and evidently united in him But when these Popish and Jesuitical Arts prevailed not having neither true Reason or Religion to further their Designs which were impious and irrational they contrive and resolve to execute such a Conspiracy as for barbarous and prodigious Villany neither Heathens nor Hell had till that time ever put in execution I mean the Gun-Powder-Treason which was not any ordinary or before-known Wickedness as the Killing a King or Poysoning a Prince c. but a black and unparallell'd Villany worthy Rome and a Jesuite the Blowing up of a whole Parliament King Lords and Commons the Murdering of a Kingdom in its Representatives and this in a moment before they could see or dream of any danger But though this for its impiety was a prodigious Conspiracy carried on with sworn secrecie and lay hid in the dark and under ground yet there is no Power or Policy against Providence nor concealing any thing from the All-seeing Eye of our God he saw and gratiously discover'd that horrid Popish-Powder-Treason to the Preservation of his People the Confusion of their Adversaries and nisi periisset pudor if they had any to the Eternal Shame of Papists and Popery their Religion which approves and encourages such abominable Impieties When King James slept with his Fathers and was translated to a better Kingdom out of the reach of such Popish Conspirators and whither without a serious and timely repentance of such inhumane Villanies they can never come their Designs slept not they prosecute their Plots and Conspiracies to ruine our Church and establish'd Religion as much in Charles the First 's as in his Fathers time And at last it came to this issue that other means failing the King and the Archbishop of Canterbury must be made away This was conceived the likeliest means to compass their Ends and bring in that Religion they miscal Catholique and Christian. For certainly such barbarous Murders and Assassinations may possibly promote Turcism and the Errors of Mahomet and if you will Popery but never were nor can be any just means to propagate true Christianity This Traiterous Conspiracy to Murder Charles the First and the Archbishop c. was discovered by an honorable Person to the English Ambassador in Holland and by him to the Archbishop and by him to the King And the Original Copy of the Discovery being found in the Archbishop's Library after his death was then publish'd and is in Print in many hands and amongst others in mine In the mean time our unhappy Civil Wars began and our Popish Conspirators animated by a belief of such Rebellious Doctrines and Principles as I have before mentioned and incouraged and assisted by the Pope are first in Arms and the bloody Rebellion and in Ireland murdered above 100000 Protestants in cold blood without any provocation given but to kill Heretiques which according to their impious and erroneous Principles was lawful and meritorious and thereby promote the Catholique Cause This is notoriously known to both Kingdoms England and Ireland And further when in the process of that fatal Rebellion carried on openly by English and covertly by Popish Rebels that good King was taken imprison'd with design to bring His Sacred Head to the Block for the distance is seldom great between a Princes Prison and His Grave our Popish Conspirators had a Council of Priests and Jesuites which sate in London and signifi'd the condition of their Affairs here to a Council of their Confederates at Paris and they transmitted the Case to Rome from whence Directions and Commands were return'd by the same way back again to London In short it was determin'd that it was for the Interest of the Catholick Cause that the King should die and accordingly their Council of Priests and Jesuites in London Voted His Death This is now Notoriously known to be true and in Print publish'd to the World by a Reverend and Learned Person who if any shall call him to an account for it is so convinc'd of the truth of what he writ that he in scriplis publickly offers and promises to make it good I do not hear that he has as yet been call'd to any account to prove what he publickly and in Print has profess'd and promised to do Nor do I think he will be call'd to any such account because I have reason to believe that he can and will produce such Proofs as will evidently demonstrate both their bloody Conspiracies and the undeniable truth of what he affirm'd 6. By the Premises it may sufficiently appear That the Rebellious Popish Principles and Practices have been very dangerous to all our Protestant Princes and their Loyal Subjects ever since the Reformation and had they taken that effect which they designed and with unwearied wickedness industriously endeavoured they would have proved destructive and both to Prince and People pernicious Nay which I have omitted while this whole Nation continued actually in the Communion of the Church of Rome when Henry the Eighth his Parliament and Convocation all Roman-Catholiques and far from being Protestants had deny'd and lege latâ taken away the Popes Usurped Supremacy that we may be sure the Pope's Practices are suitable to his pernicious Principles Pope Paul the Third Excommunicates Curses and Damns the King and all his Good Subjects Commands him to Abrogate and Null the Laws made against his Supremacy and to appear before him at Rome within Ninety Days and his Adherents and Favorers which were all his Loyal Subjects especially his Parliament and Convocation within Sixty Days They not appearing he Ratifies the Excommunication Deprives him of his Kingdom and Dominions Prohibits peremptorily the King or his Adherents if they die as they did before he Absolved them to have any CHRISTIAN BURIAL and declares them ETERNALLY DAMND Then he layes that most impious Interdict upon the whole Nation forbids all Publick Prayers Masses and Divine Offices Nor this only but he Deprives the Children of Henry the Eighth Born
are and ever will be to all PRINCES espeally PROTESTANTS and all those they are pleas'd to call or miscall Heretiques Their received Principles I have hitherto mentioned are these 1. The Pope with them is Supreme MONARCH of all the World even in Temporals at least indirectè as the most moderate amongst them sometimes say and in ordine ad spiritualis which distinction can afford no comfort or security to Temporal Princes For if the Pope have such vast power directè or indirectè 't is all one he has it and if a Prince be deposed or murdered by either end of the distinction he is equally and as surely Murder'd as he who is kill'd by the edge or back of the Sword is as certainly kill'd 2. They say the Pope has power to Excommunicate Curse and Damn Kings 3. To depose and deprive them of all their Royal Power and Jurisdiction 4. To absolve their Subjects from all Obligations whether Natural or afterwards arising from Oaths to fidelity and obedience 5. To Arme their Subjects against their Sovereigns so deposed by the Pope their Supreme Judge and according to the profess'd Doctrine of the Jesuites Canonists c. infallible too In rebus facti fidei 6. That this taking of Arms against their King when deposed by the Pope is no Rebellion against their King seeing by their Traiterous Principles as soon as deposed he ceases to be their Sovereign 7. That if in such a War they kill their King especially if he be an Heretique it is no crime no Homicide or Murder but a Meritorious work to which the Pope has promised Plenary Indulgence and Pardon of all their Sins and an higher place in Heaven 8 Nay to give them the highest encouragements to commit all those Villanies Christians are capable of they shall be reputed Martyrs referr'd into their Calendars in Red Letters and in their opinion be esteemed great Saints in Heaven who in Earth were known to be Rebels to their Prince and justly Executed for High Treason For so as is before said and proved those who by the Hand of Justice perish'd for their Prodigious Villany in the Gunpowder-Conspiracy are reckon'd for Martyrs in the Jesuites Martyrology Now how dangerous such Principles having such Incouragements may prove to all especially Protestant Princes do you and the World Judge But as to the danger of such Doctrines this is not all though too much for it is not only a received Doctrine in the Roman-Church That the Pope may depose Kings and Emperors if they be Heretiques as with them we are sure all Protestants are but further I. That Subjects also as well as the Pope may lawfully depose their Soveraigns if they be Heretiques II. Nay that they ought and both in Law and Conscience are strictly bound to depose their Princes if they be Heretiques III. And their approved and great Writers publickly confess in their Books printed and licensed by the Authority of their Church that both the former Propositions are approved by all Catholiques Sure I am they have not publickly been condemn'd by any Act Decree or Sentence of their Church and therefore we have reason to believe that they approve them For qui non prohibet peccare cum possit jubet For the proof of all this I shall only give you two or three Testimonies of their own by publick Authority approved and licenc'd Authors who expresly say and endeavor to prove what here I have affirm'd 1. One of them says ........ That it is the Opinion of ALL CATHOLIQUES that Subjects ARE BOUND to depose an Heretical KING And he adds there ....... That they are BOUND by the LAW of GOD by the MOST STRICT BOND of CONSCIENCE and UTMOST PERIL of their SOULS to DEPOSE HERETICAL PRINCES And their great Controvertist and Cardinal Bellarmine says as much and with more authority speaking of Heretical Princes ......... OMNIUM CONSENSU all Roman-Catholicks he means possunt ac DEBENT privari suo Dominio It is the consent says the Cardinal of ALL that Heretical PRINCES may and OUGHT to be DEPRIVED of their Dominions And in a Book approved by the Jesuites and highly commended by the Licencer we are told That the Power and Authority of the PEOPLE is greater than that of their Prince 2. That the PEOPLE as well as the Pope may declare a King to be a Tyrant and when the Pope or PEOPLE have so declared him to be such ANY PRIVATE MAN may MURDER HIM 3. And he there tells us That he is a Tyrant who endeavors to ruin the religion of his Countrey the Roman-Catholique Religion you may be sure he means and then by these Jesuitical and Popish Principles All Protestant Princes are Tyrants and may lawfully be kill'd by any private person So that 't is evident that these Popish Principles are not only dangerous but pernicious to all Protestant Princes who in their account being Heretiques are consequently Tyrants and may be declared such by the People and Murder'd by any private Man I know that some Roman Catholiques deny this Doctrine to be approved by the Church of Rome and tell us that the Church has expresly condemn'd it as scandalous and both in faith and manners erroneous and for this they quote the Council of Constance In answer to this I shall 1. Set down the words of the Council 2. The Answer to them 1. The words of the Council are these and the Proposition they condemn this ...... Quilibet Tyrannus potest ac debet licite ac meritoriè occidi per quemlibet vassallum subditum etiam per insidias vel blanditias vel adulationes non obstante quocunque Juramento seu confederatione factis cum eo non expectata sententiâ vel mandato Judicis cujuscunque That is ..... Any Tyrant may and ought to be lawfully and meritoriously kill'd by any vassal or subject of his even by treachery or flattery notwithstanding any oath or confederation made to or with him and not having the preceding sentence or command of any Judge whomsoever 2. This is the Proposition which the Fathers at the General Council at Constance condemned for a General approved Council and confirm'd by a true Pope they acknowledge it though they have little reason for it as may appear by what b Gesner has said and Longus à Coriolano has not though he endeavour it Answer'd But it is penn'd with that Art and Roman-Catholick cunning that though it seem to say something for the Security of Kings and Princes yet indeed it is as to that purpose altogether insignificant For 1. Here is nothing in this Proposition or the Condemnation of it by the Council which condemns or any way disapproves the Popes Excommunications or Depositions of Kings their Absolutions of their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance or giving away their Dominions It is only the Assassinations and Murdering of Tyrants which are