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for five days together, after the decease of their king, permitted the people to live lawless; that after the experience of the slaughters, rapines, and other outrages committed in that short interval, they might learn to hold their kings in more high esteem. Which bringeth some light to that which we meet with so oft in the book of Judges, and wherewith the last chapter of that. sacred history is concluded: "In those days there was no king in Israel, every man did that which was right in his own eyes." In the same chapter we read that there were then "the elders of the congregation" in the commonwealth; and in the chapter going before, that zealous Phineas stood high priest before the ark in those days. But the want of a king, that is, of one that had the supreme managing of the sword of justice, is assigned to be the cause of all this confusion and disorder; who, being in the Scripture termed "The" breath of our nostrils," as the great army of Alexander doth profess to the same effect in Curtius, that "they all did live by that one man's breath, or spirit;" we may easily thence infer, that, as in the natural body, the breath being stopped, life can no longer be continued; so, the power of the supreme governor being taken away, all vital influence into the rest of the body civil must cease therewith, and the whole state of necessity suffer a dissolution. And therefore, as Florus writeth of the constitution of the Roman empire under Cæsar Augustus, that "No doubt it could never have otherwise conjoined and consented together, unless it had been governed by the beck of one ruler, as by a kind of soul and mind:” so, touching the continuation thereof, Seneca in like man

Judges, chap. 21. ver. 16.

u Lament. chap. 4. ver. 20.

Ibid. chap. 20. ver. 28.

* "Armatus exercitus regiam obsedit, confessus omnes unius spiritu vivere." Q. Curtius, lib. 9. cap. 11.

y "Ad Octavium Cæsarem Augustum summa rerum rediit: qui sapientia sua atque solertia perculsum undique et perturbatum ordinavit imperii corpus. Quod ita haud dubie nunquam coire et consentire potuisset, nisi unius præsidis nutu quasi anima et mente regeretur." L. Florus, lib. 4. cap. 3.

ner addeth : "This infinite multitude which environs one man's soul, is by his spirit governed, and by his reason guided; which otherwise would oppress and break herself with her own force, if by his counsel she were not sustained." For, "Hea is the bond which holds fast the state together, he is that vital breath which so many thousands draw in; who otherwise as a lifeless and unwieldy load would prove a booty, if that soul of the empire were taken away."

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The king being safe, one mind unites them all;
He gone, their league dissolveth, and they fall.

XXVI. Where further also it is to be considered, that the placing of the supremacy of civil power (which the Latins call majesty, the Grecians κύριον πολίτευμα, κυρίαν ἀρχὴν, and ἄκραν ἐξουσίαν) in some certain head, is so essential to all states of government, that from it the formal difference ariseth of all particular kinds thereof. For, although in Switzerland, for example, the cantons have their several magistrates, who during the time of their government order all things among the people, yet are they not an aristocracy for that, but a mere democracy; because these officers derive their authority wholly from the people, and to them or their deputies they are to give an account of the exercise thereof. And, although in the commonwealth of Venice there be but one duke, yet, because this person is not invested with the supreme power of government, that state is nothing less than monarchical. The

"Hæc immensa multitudo, unius animæ circumdata, illius spiritu regitur, illius ratione flectitur; pressura se ac fractura viribus suis, nisi consilio sustineretur." Seneca de Clementia, lib. 1. cap. 3.

a "Ille est enim vinculum, per quod respublica cohæret; ille spiritus vitalis, quem hæc tot millia trahunt; nihil ipsa per se futura nisi onus et præda, si mens illa imperii subtrahatur. Rege incolumi mens omnibus una est; Amisso rupere fidem-" Seneca de Clementia, lib. 1. cap. 4. Versus autem Virg. sunt lib. 4. Georg. de apibus, quorum sententiam hoc eodem libro, cap. 19. ita expressit idem Seneca, "Amisso rege totum dilabitur examen."

b" Imperii summam vim ipsam nunquam habuit, sed imaginem tantum quandam et umbram imperii, plus minusve, pro temporum varietate." Nicol. Crass. Not. 15. in Donat. Jannot. de rep. Venet.

Lacedemonians had two kings (for failing) and both of them hereditary, descending from the race of Hercules, and yet that hindered nothing at all their aristocracy; because they being subject to the oversight and control of the Ephori, were but equivocal kings, such in name, but not in deed. For, to speak properly, by the name of a king, as Gregory Nyssen noteth, we understand such an one as is "his own master, and hath no other master beside:" who hath "absolute power in himself," and is no way subject to the control of any other. And therefore when Anthony was so much pressed by his Cleopatra to call Herod unto question, he answered: “It' was not fitting a king should give account of what he did in his government, for he should be in effect no king at all."

XXVII. On the other side, in our high court of parliament, although the knights, citizens and burgesses (representing the whole body of the commons) bear the shew of a little democracy among us, and the lords and nobles, (as the optimates of the kingdom) of an aristocracy; yet our government is a free monarchy notwithstanding: because the supreme authority resteth neither in the one nor in the other, (either severally or jointly) but solely in the person of the king, at whose pleasures they are assembled, and without whose royal assent nothing they conclude on can be a law forceable to bind the subjects. Whereupon by a special act of the same great court it is

As other inferior princes likewise named, Isai. chap. 10. ver. 8. Jerem. chap. 19. ver. 3. Psalm 105. ver. 30. So Eustathius in Homer. Odyss. a. Σημείωσαι δὲ ὅτι οὐ μόνον Ὅμηρος βασιλεῖς λέγει τοὺς ἐνδόξους καὶ βασιλικοῦς, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ μετ' αὐτόν. et Proclus, in Hesiod. "Εργων α. Βασιλῆας τους δικαστὰς καὶ τοὺς ἄρχοντας λέγει· οὕτω γὰρ αὐτοὺς ἐκάλουν οἱ πα

λαιοί.

d Αὐτοκράτορα καὶ ἀδέσποτον τὸν βασιλέα καλοῦμεν. Greg. Nyssen. contra Eunom. lib. 1.

• Tò AVTOKρATÉS TE Kai ävaρxov. Greg. Nyssen. contra Eunom. lib. 1. · Οὐ γὰρ ἔφη καλῶς ἔχειν ̓Αντώνιος, βασιλέα περὶ τῶν κατὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν γεγενημένων εὐθύνας ἀπαιτεῖν· οὕτως γὰρ ἂν οὐδὲ βασιλεὺς εἶναι. Joseph. antiqu. lib. 15. cap. 14.

8 Quis tantæ est authoritatis ut nolentem principem possit ad convocandos patres cæterosque proceres coarctare? Justinian. Novel. 23.

declared, that" the king's highness must be acknowledged to be the ONLY SUPREME GOVERNOR of his dominions in all causes whatsoever. Which could not stand, if that either court itself, or any other power upon earth, might in any cause overrule him: I say any power, whether foreign or domestical.

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XXVIII. This government is called "TaνTEλns' μovaoπαντελὴς μοναρxía, a full monarchy," by Sophocles; "avraoxía*, a free and independent regiment," by Marcus Aurelius in Dio; αὐτοκρατὴς βασιλεία καὶ ἀνυπεύθυνος, an absolute kingdom, not subject to the control of any," by Plutarch, in that little book wherein he compareth the three kinds of governments (monarchical, democratical, and oligarchical or aristocratical) together; and in the end, out of Plato, preferreth a monarchy before the rest for this very reason; because "the1 others being ruled, do yet after a sort rule, and being led do lead the civil governor" set over them; who "having no solid and firm strength herein from those who gave him his power," is subject to be suppressed by the same hand that raised him. Whereas a free monarch, who hath the supremacy of power placed in his own person, and by virtue thereof maketh such laws, and imparteth to the subordinate magistrates such authority for the seeing of them put in execution, as may best conduce to the benefit of the whole state, doth thereby in a most special manner represent unto us (as we have before heard out of the same author) the image of God, the most high and absolute monarch of this whole universe. To this purpose, Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, maketh that "high" eminency of glory," annexed unto the imperial state, to be

Statut. Angl. ann. 1. Eliz. (et Hibern, ann. 2. ejusdem) eap. 1.

Sophocles in Antigona, ver. 1177.

* Xiphilin. excerpt. ex Dionis Marc. Aurelio.

· Αἱ μὲν γὰρ ἄλλαι πολιτεῖαι τρόπον τινὰ κρατούμεναι κρατοῦσι, καὶ φερόμεναι φέρουσι τὸν πολιτικὸν οὐκ ἔχοντα τὴν ἰσχὺν βέβαιον ἐπὶ τούτου (τούτων) παρ ̓ ᾧ ἔχει τὸ ἰσχύον, ἀλλὰ πολλάκις ἀναγκαζόμενον τὸ Αἰσχύλειον ἀναφωνεῖν, &c. Plutarch.

n

Vide Philonem Jud. initio lib. 1. de monarchia.

Τῆς μὲν ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐκλείας τὸ ἀνώτατον, καὶ ἀσυγκρίτοις διαφοραῖς τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων ἀνεστηκός τε καὶ ὑπερκείμενον ὑμεῖς (ὦ ψιλό

an image upon earth of the supreme majesty of Almighty God in heaven. And you, saith he to the emperors, "you" alone, who have obtained power over all men, are, as it were, a kind of expression and imitation of that kingdom which is in heaven." Whereunto may be added that of the author of the questions upon the Old and New Testament, in the third tome of St. Augustin's works: "The king hath the image of God;" and the author of the commentaries upon the epistles of St. Paul, who, not without great probability, is thought to be the same, howsoever bearing the name of St. Ambrose: "Kings are created for the correcting of our life, and the keeping back of adversities; in his having the image of God, that all the rest should be under one." And of Johannes Sarisburiensis: "The prince, as sundry do define him, is a public power, and a kind of an image of the divine majesty upon earth." To which definition, or description rather, we may refer that of Menander:

Εἰκὼν δὲ βασιλεύς ἐστιν ἔμψυχος Θεοῦ.

The king is a living image of God.

And that of Diogenes the Pythagorean, that "The king having a power uncontrolable, and being himself a living

χριστοι βασιλεῖς) καὶ κλῆρος ὑμῖν ἐξαιρετός τε καὶ πρέπων παρὰ θεοῦ τῆς εὐούσης αὐτῷ κατὰ πάντων ὑπεροχῆς, εἰκὸς γὰρ ἐπὶ γῆς τὸ γέρας, &c. ἴδοι δ' ἄν τις καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς ὑμετέρας γαληνότατος τῆς οὕτω περιφανοῦς καὶ ἀνωτάτω πασῶν εὐκλεῖας, διαπρέποντα καὶ ἐναργῆ τὸν τύπον· ὑμεῖς γὰρ ἐστε καὶ τῶν εἰς λῆξιν ἀξιωμάτων πηγαὶ, καὶ ἁπάσης ὑπεροχῆς ἐπέκεινα. Cyril. initio libri de recta fide ad Theodosium.

* Τῆς ἐν οὐρανοῖς βασιλείας ἐκτύπωμα ὥσπερ τι καὶ μίμημα τοῖς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ὑμεῖς δὲ καὶ μόνοι τὸ κατὰ πάντων λαχόντες κράτος. Cyril. in apologet. ad Theodosium.

• Quæst. 25. ex vet. et nov. Test.

"Principes hos reges dicit, qui propter corrigendam vitam et prohibenda adversa creantur; Dei habentes imaginem, ut sub uno sint cæteri." Ambr. in Rom. cap. 13.

"Est ergo, ut eum plerique definiunt, princeps potestas publica, et in terris quædam divinæ majestatis imago." Jo. Sarisbur. Polycratic. lib. 4. cap. 1. In monostichis ab H. Stephano edit. ann. 1569.

• ̔Ο δὲ βασιλεὺς ἀρχὰν ἔχων ἀνυπεύθυνον, καὶ αὐτὸς ὢν νόμος ἔμψυχος, Deòç év ávoρúπоι паρεσXаμάTιorai. Diotog. apud Stobæum serm. 46.

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