these words amount to that; and therefore let me open them truly to your lordships, and therein open also the understanding of the offender himself, how far they reach.

My lords, a man's allegiance must be independent and certain, and not dependent and conditional. Elizabeth Barton, that was called the holy maid of Kent, affirmed, that if king Henry VIII. did not take Catharine of Spain again to his wife within a twelvemonth, he should be no king: and this was treason. For though this act be contingent and future, yet the preparing of the treason is present.

And in like manner, if a man should voluntarily publish or maintain, that whensoever a bull of deprivation shall come forth against the king, that from thenceforth he is no longer king; this is of like nature. But with this I do not charge you neither; but this is the true latitude of your words, That if the doctrine touching the killing of kings be matter of faith, then you submit yourself to the judgment of the catholic Roman church: so as now, to do you right, your allegiance doth not depend simply upon a sentence of the pope's deprivation against the king; but upon another point also, if these doctrines be already, or shall be declared to be matter of faith. But my lords, there is little won in this: there may be some difference to the guilt of the party, but there is little to the danger of the king, For the same pope of Rome may, with the same breath, declare both. So as still, upon the matter, the king is made but tenant at will of his life and kingdoms; and the allegiance of his subjects is pinned upon the pope's acts. And certainly, it is time to stop the current of this opinion of acknowledgment of the pope's power in temporalibus; or else it will sap and supplant the seat of kings. And let it not be mistaken, that Mr. Talbot's offence should be no more than the refusing the oath of allegiance. For it is one thing to be silent, and another thing to affirm. As for the point of matter of faith, or not of faith, to tell your lordships plain, it would astonish a man to see the gulf of this

implied belief. Is nothing excepted from it? If a

man should ask Mr. Talbot, Whether he do condemn murder, or adultery, or rape, or the doctrine of Mahomet, or of Arius, instead of Suarez? Must the answer be with this exception, that if the question concern matter of faith, as no question it doth, for the moral law is matter of faith, that therein he will submit himself to what the church shall determine? And, no doubt, the murder of princes is more than simple murder. But to conclude, Talbot, I will do you this right, and I will not be reserved in this, but to declare that, that is true; that you came afterwards to a better mind; wherein if you had been constant, the king, out of his great goodness, was resolved not to have proceeded with you in course of justice; but then again you started aside like a broken bow. So that by your variety and vacillation you lost the acceptable time of the first grace, which was not to have convented you.

Nay, I will go farther with you: your last submission I conceive to be satisfactory and complete; but then it was too late, the king's honour was upon it; it was published and a day appointed for hearing; yet what preparation that may be to the second grace of pardon, that I know not: but I know my lords, out of their accustomed favour, will admit you not only to your defence concerning that that hath been charged; but to extenuate your fault by any submission that now God shall put into your mind to make.

THE

CHARGE

GIVEN BY

SIR FRANCIS BACON, KNIGHT,

HIS MAJESTY'S ATTORNEY GENERAL,

IN

MR. OLIVER ST. JOHN,

FOR

Scandalizing and traducing in the Public Sessions, Letters sent from the Lords of the Council touching the Benevolence.

MY LORDS,

I SHALL inform you ore tenus, against this gentleman Mr. I. S. a gentleman, as it seems, of an ancient house and name; but, for the present, I can think of him by no other name, than the name of a great offender. The nature and quality of his offence, in sum, is this: This gentleman hath, upon advice, not suddenly by his pen, nor by the slip of his tongue; not privately, or in a corner, but publicly, as it were, to the face of the king's ministers and justices, slandered and traduced the king our sovereign, the law. of the land, the parliament, and infinite particulars of his majesty's worthy and loving subjects, Nay, the slander is of that nature, that it may seem to interest the people in grief and discontent against the state; whence might have ensued matter of murmur and sedition. So that it is not a simple slander, but a seditious slander, like to that the poet speaketh ofCalamosque armare veneno. A venomous dart that hath both iron and poison.

To open to your lordships the true state of this of fence, I will set before you, first, the occasion where

upon Mr. I. S. wrought: then the offence itself in his own words and lastly, the points of his charge.

My lords, you may remember that there was the last parliament an expectation to have had the king supplied with treasure, although the event failed. Herein it is not fit for me to give opinion of an house of parliament, but I will give testimony of truth in all places. I served in the lower house, and I observed somewhat. This I do affirm, that I never could perceive but that there was in that house a general disposition to give, and to give largely. The clocks in the house perchance might differ; some went too fast, some went too slow; but the disposition to give was general: so I think I may truly say, solo tempore lapsus amor.

This accident happening thus besides expectation, it stirred up and awaked in divers of his majesty's worthy servants and subjects of the clergy, the nobility, the court, and others here near at hand, an affection loving and cheerful, to present the king some with plate, some with money, as free-will offerings, a thing that God Almighty loves, a cheerful giver : what an evil eye doth I know not. And, my lords, let me speak it plainly unto you: God forbid any body should be so wretched as to think that the obligation of love and duty, from the subject to the king, should be joint and not several. No, my lords, it is both. The subject petitioneth to the king in parliament. He petitioneth likewise out of parliament. The king on the other side gives graces to the subject in parliament: he gives them likewise, and poureth them upon his people out of parliament: and so no doubt the subject may give to the king in parliament, and out of parliament. It is true the parliament is intercursus magnus, the great intercourse and main current of graces and donatives from the king to the people, from the people to the king: but parliaments are held but at certain times; whereas the passages are olways open for particulars; even as you see great rivers have their tides, but particular springs and fountains run continually.

To proceed therefore: As the occasion, which was the failing of supply by parliament, did awake the love and benevolence of those that were at hand to give; so it was apprehended and thought fit by my lords of the council to make a proof whether the occasion and example both, would not awake those in the country of the better sort to follow. Whereupon, their lordships devised and directed letters unto the sheriffs and justices, which declared what was done here above, and wished that the country might be moved, especially men of value.

Now, my lords, I beseech you give me favour and attention to set forth and observe unto you five points: I will number them, because other men may note them; and I will but touch them, because they shall not be drowned or lost in discourse, which I hold worthy the observation, for the honour of the state and confusion of slanderers; whereby it will appear most evidently that care was taken, that that which was then done might not have the effect, no nor the shew, no, nor so much as the shadow of a tax; and that it was so far from breeding or bringing in any ill precedent or example, as contrariwise it is a corrective that doth correct and allay the harshness and danger of former examples.

The first is, that what was done was done immediately after such a parliament, as made general profession to give, and was interrupted by accident: so as you may truly and justly esteem it, tanquam post huma proles parliamenti, as an after-child of the parliament, and in pursuit, in some small measure, of the firm intent of a parliament past. You may take it also, if you will, as an advance or provisional help until a future parliament; or as a gratification simply without any relation to a parliament; you can no ways take it

amiss.

The second is, that it wrought upon example, as a thing not devised or projected, or required; no nor so much as recommended, until many that were never moved nor dealt with, ex mero motu, had freely and frankly sent in their presents. So that the letters were