The blood of Henry the Great was ftill reeking on the fword of his murderer, when the

:

ces, that an apoftate prince lofes his right to the crown, and forfeits the obedience due to him from his fubjects that the church may condemn him to death that the emperor Julian was permitted to reign only, because he was too powerful to be refifted that we ought to kill every heretick‡: that those who deliver a people from the government of a tyrannical prince, &c. &c. We have, doubtlefs, a great refpect for the angel of the fchools; but if he had preached up fuch maxims in France at the time of his brother James Clement, and the mendicant Ravaillac, his angelical doctorfhip would have met with but a fcurvy recep

tion.

It must be confeffed, that John Gerfon, chancellor of the univerfity, carried the matter yet farther than St. Thomas; and John Pettit, the Francifcan, Several of the order ftill farther than Gerfon.

openly maintained the deteftable maxims of their brother Pettit. It must be acknowledged, that this hellish doctrine of king-killing proceeds wholly from the ridiculous notion which has fo long

* Lib. ii. part ii, question 12.

Ibid. Queft. 11 and 12.

pre

parliament of Paris iffued an arret to establish the independance of the crown as a fundamental law; whilft cardinal du Perron, who owed his elevation to that prince, oppofed this decree in an affembly of the states, and got it fuppreffed. The following expreffion, made use of on this occafion by Du Perron, is to be found in all the hiftorical tracts of these times: "Should a prince, fays he, turn Arian, it "would be neceffary to depofe him."

prevailed amongst all orders of monks, that the pope is a God upon earth, and can difpofe of the crowns and lives of fovereigns at his pleafure. In this refpect, we are inferior even to thofe Tartarian idolaters, who hold the grand Lama to be immortal; greedily gather the contents of his close-ftool, dry thefe precious relics with great care, inclofe them in rich cafes, and kifs them with the warmest devotion. For my part, I confefs, that I had rather, for the good of my country, and the fake of public tranquility, carry thofe relics conftantly about my neck, than to give my affent to the pope's having in any cafe whatfoever, an authority over the temporals of kings, or even those of a private perfon.

But

But here I muft beg the cardinal's pardon; for let us for a while adopt his chimerical fuppofition, and fay, that one of our kings having read the History of the Councils and of the Fathers, and being ftruck with these words, "My Father is greater than me," and taking them in too literal a fenfe, fhould be divided between the council of Nice and that of Conftantinople, and adopt the opinion of Eufebius of Nicomedia: yet I should not be the less obliged to obey my king, nor think the oath of allegiance I had taken to him less binding; and if you, Mr. Cardinal, fhould dare to oppofe him, and I was one of your judges, I should, without fcruple, declare you guilty of high treafon.

Du Perron carried this difpute much farther; but I fhall cut it very fhort, by faying with every good citizen, that I should not look upon myself bound to obey Hepry IV. because he was king; but because he held the crown by the incontestible right of birth, and as the juft reward of his virtue and magnanimity.

Permit me then to fay, that every individual is entitled by the fame right to enjoy the inheri tance of his father, and that he in no wife deferves

to be deprived of it, or to be fent to the gallows, because he may perhaps be of the opinion of Ratram against Paschafius Ratberg, or of Berengarius against Scotus.

We are very fenfible that there are many of our tenets which have not been always clearly explained: Jefus Chrift not having exprefsly told us in what manner the Holy Ghost really proceeds, both the Latin church and the Greek believed, that it proceeded only from the father; but afterwards an article was added to the creed, in which it is faid to proceed from the fon alfo. Now, I defire to know, whether the day after this new article was added, a perfon who might abide by the old creed, would have been deferving of death? And is there lefs cruelty or injuftice, in punishing at this day, a perfon who may poffibly think as they did two or three centuries ago? Or was there any crime in believing in the time of Honorius I. that Christ had not two wills?

It is but very lately, that the belief of the immaculate conception has been established: the Dominicans have not received it as yet. Now will any one tell me the precife point of time, when the Dominicans will begin to deferve

punish

punishment in this world, and in that which is

to come.

If any one can fet us an example for our conduct, it is certainly the Apoftles and the Evangelifts. There was fufficient matter to excite a violent fchifm between St. Peter and St. Paul. The latter in his Epiftles to the Galatians 1, fays, "That he withstood Peter to the face, "because he was to be blamed; for before that "certain men came from James, he did eat "with the Gentiles: but when they were

66

come, he withdrew and feparated himself, "fearing them which were of the circumcifion, "infomuch, that Barnabas alfo was carried away "with his diffimulation." "But, adds he, "When I faw that they walked not uprightly,

according to the truth of the Gofpel, I said "unto Peter before them all, if thou, being a "Jew, liveft after the manner of Gentiles, and "not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the "Gentiles to live as do the Jews?"

Here now was a fubject for a violent difpute. The question was, whether the new Chriftians

Chap. ii. v. 11-14.

G 2

fol