ney-general, as by the lords judges, touching the law in such cases. And therefore the court hath enjoined Mr. Attorney to have special care to the penning of this decree, for the setting forth in the same summarily the matters and reasons, which have been opened and delivered by the court touching the same; and nevertheless also, at some time convenient to publish the particulars of his speech and declaration, as very meet and worthy to be remembered and made known unto the world, as these times are. And his decree, being in such sort carefully drawn and penned, the whole court thought it meet, and so have ordered and decreed, that the same be not only red and published at the next assizes for Surrey at such time as the said Priest and Wright are to acknowledge their offences as aforesaid; but that the same be likewise published and made known in all shires of this kingdom. And to that end the justices of assize are required by this honourable court to cause this decree to be solemnly read and published in all the places and sittings of their several circuits, and in the greatest assembly; to the end, that all his majesty's subjects may take knowledge and understand the opinion of this honourable court in this case, and in what measure his majesty and this honourable court purposeth to punish such as shall fall into the like contempt and offences hereafter. Lastly this honourable court much approving that which the right honourable Sir Edward Coke, knight, lord chief justice of England, did now deliver touching the law in this case of duels, hath enjoined his lordship to report the same in print, as he hath formerly done divers other causes, that such as understand not the law in that behalf, and all others, may better direct themselves, and prevent the danger thereof hereafter.

THE

CHARGE

OF

SIR FRANCIS BACON, KNIGHT,

THE KING'S ATTORNEY-GENERAL,

AGAINST

WILLIAM TALBOT,

A COUNCELLOR AT LAW, OF IRELAND,

Upon an information in the Star-Chamber Ore tenus, for a Writing under his hand, whereby the said William Talbot, being demanded, Whether the Doctrine of Saurez, touching deposing and killing of Kings excommunicated, were true or no? he answered, That he referred himself unto that which the Catholic Roman Church should determine thereof.

Ultimo die termini Hilarii, undecimo Jacobi Regis.

MY LORDS,

I BROUGHT before you the first sitting of this term the cause of duels; but now this last sitting I shall bring before you a cause concerning the greatest duel which is in the Christian world, the duel and conflict between the lawful authority of sovereign kings, which is God's ordinance for the comfort of human society, and the swelling pride and usurpation of the see of Rome, in temporalibus, tending altogether to anarchy and confusion. Wherein if his pretence in the Pope of Rome, by cartels to make sovereign princes as the banditti, and to proscribe their lives, and to expose their kingdom to prey; if these pretences, I say, and all persons that submit themselves to that part of the Pope's power in the least degree, be not by all possible severity repressed and punished,

the state of Christian kings will be no other than the ancient torment described by the poets in the hell of the heathen; a man sitting richly robed, solemnly attended, delicious fare, &c. with a sword hanging over his head, hanging by a small thread, ready every moment to be cut down by an accursing and accursed hand. Surely I had thought they had been the prerogatives of God alone, and of his secret judgments: Solvam cingula regum, I will loosen the girdles of Kings; or again, He poureth contempt upon princes; or, I will give a king in my wrath, and take him away again in my displeasure; and the like: but if these be the claims of a mortal man, certainly they are but the mysteries of that person which exalts himself above all that is called God, supra omne quod dicitur Deus. Note it well, not above God, though that in a sense be true, but above all that is called God; that is, lawful kings and magistrates.

But, my lords, in this duel I find this Talbot, that is now before you, but a coward; for he hath given ground, he hath gone backward and forward; but in such a fashion, and with such interchange of repenting and relapsing, as I cannot tell whether it doth extenuate or aggravate his offence. If he shall more publicly in the face of the court fall and settle upon a right mind, I shall be glad of it; and he that would be against the king's mercy, I would he might need the king's mercy: but nevertheless the court will proceed by rules of justice.

The offence therefore wherewith I charge this Talbot, prisoner at the bar, is this in brief and in effect: That he hath maintained, and maintaineth under his hand, a power in the Pope for deposing and murdering of kings. In what sort he doth this, when I come to the proper and particular charge, I will deliver it in his own words without pressing or straining.

But before I come to the particular charge of this man, I cannot proceed so coldly; but I must express unto your lordships the extreme and imminent danger wherein our dear and dread sovereign is, and in him we all; nay, all Princes of both religions, for it is a

This

common cause, do stand at this day, by the spreading and inforcing of this furious and pernicious opinion of the pope's temporal power; which though the modest sort would blanch with the distinction of in ordine ad spiritualia, yet that is but an elusion; for he that maketh the distinction, will also make the case. peril, though it be in itself notorious, yet because there is a kind of dulness, and almost a lethargy in this age, give me leave to set before you two glasses, such as certainly the like never met in one age; the glass of France, and the glass of England. In that of France the tragedies acted and executed in two immediate kings; in the glass of England, the same, or more horrible, attempted likewise in a queen and king immediate, but ending in a happy deliverance. In France, Henry III. in the face of his army, before the walls of Paris, stabbed by a wretched Jacobine frier. Henry IV. a prince that the French do surname the Great, one that had been a saviour and redeemer of his country from infinite calamities, and a restorer of that monarchy to the ancient state and splendor, and a prince almost heroical, except it be in the point of revolt from religion, at a time when he was as it were to mount on horseback for the commanding of the greatest forces that of long time had been levied in France, this king likewise stilettoed by a rascal votary, which had been enchanted and conjured for the purpose.

In England, queen Elizabeth, of blessed memory, a queen comparable and to be ranked with the greatest kings, oftentimes attempted by like votaries, Sommervile, Parry, Savage, and others, but still protected by the watchman that slumbereth not. Again, our excellent sovereign king James, the sweetness and clemency of whose nature were enough to quench and mortify all malignity, and a king shielded and supported by posterity; yet this king in the chair of Majesty, his vine and olive branches about him, attended by his nobles and third estate in parliament; ready in the twinkling of an eye, as if it had been a particular doomsday, to have been brought to ashes, dispersed

to the four winds. I noted the last day, my lord chief justice, when he spake of this powder treason, he laboured for words; though they came from him with great efficacy, yet he truly confessed, and so must all men, that that treason is above the charge and report of any words whatsoever.

Now, my lords, I cannot let pass, but in these glasses which I spake of, besides the facts themselves and danger, to shew you two things; the one, the ways of God Almighty, which turneth the sword of Rome upon the kings that are the vassals of Rome, and over them gives it power; but protecteth those kings which have not accepted the yoke of his tyranny, from the effects of his malice: the other, that as I said at first, this is common cause of princes; it involveth kings of both religions; and therefore his Majesty did most worthily and prudently ring out the alarm-bell, to awake all other princes to think of it seriously, and in time. But this is a miserable case the while, that these Roman soldiers do either thrust the spear into the sides of God's anointed, or at least they crown them with thorns; that is, piercing and pricking cares and fears, that they can never be quiet or secure of their lives or states. And as this peril is common to princes of both religions, so princes of both religions have been likewise equally sensible of every injury that touched their temporals.

Thuanus reports in his story, that when the realm of France was interdicted by the violent proceedings of Pope Julius the second, the king, otherwise noted for a moderate prince, caused coins of gold to be stamped with his own image, and this superscription, Perdam nomen Babylonis e terra. Of which Thuanus saith, himself had seen divers pieces thereof. So as this catholic king was so much incensed at that time, in respect of the pope's usurpation, as he did apply Babylon to Rome. Charles the fifth, emperor, who was accounted one of the pope's best sons, yet proceeded in matter temporal towards pope Clement with strange rigour: never regarding the pontificality, but kept him prisoner thirteen months in a pestilent prison: