That the pope hath a superiority over kings, as subjects, to depose them; not only for spiritual crimes, as heresy and schism, but for faults of a temporal nature; forasmuch as a tyrannical government tendeth ever to the destruction of souls. So, by this position, kings of either religion are alike comprehended, and none exempted. The second, that after a sentence given by the pope, this writer hath defined of a series, or succession, or substitution of hangmen, or "bourreaux," to be sure, lest an executioner should fail. For he saith, That when a king is sentenced by the pope to deprivation or death, the executioner, who is first in place, is he to whom the pope shall commit the authority, which may be a foreign prince, it may be a particular subject, it may be general, to the first undertaker. But if there be no direction or assignation in the sentence special or general, then, "de jure,” it appertains to the next successor, a natural and pious opinion; for commonly they are sons, or brothers, or near of kin, all is one; so as the successor be apparent; and also that he be a Catholic. But, if he be doubtful, or that he be no Catholic, then it devolves to the commonalty of the kingdom; so as he will be sure to have it done by one minister or other. The third is, he distinguisheth of two kinds of tyrants, a tyrant in title, and a tyrant in regiment; the tyrant in regiment cannot be resisted or killed without a sentence precedent by the pope; but a tyrant in title may be killed by any private man whatsoever. By which doctrine he hath put the judgment of kings' titles, which I will undertake, are never so clean, but that some vain quarrel or exception may be made unto them, upon the fancy of every private man; and also couples the judgment and execution together, that he may judge him by a blow, without any other sentence. Your lordships see what monstrous opinions these are, and how both these beasts, the beast with seven heads, and the beast with many heads, pope and people, are at once let in, and set upon the sacred persons of kings. Now, to go on with the narrative; there was an extract made of certain sentences and portions of this book, being of this nature that I have set forth, by a great prelate and counsellor, upon a just occasion; and there being some hollowness and hesitation in these matters, wherein it is a thing impious to doubt, discovered and perceived in Talbot; he was asked his opinion concerning these assertions, in the presence of the best; and afterwards they were delivered to him, that upon advice, and "sedato animo," he might declare himself. Whereupon, under his hand, he subscribes thus: May it please your honourable good lordships: Concerning this doctrine of Suarez, I do perceive, by what I have read in this book, that the same doth concern matter of faith, the controversy growing upon exposition of Scriptures and councils, wherein, being ignorant and not studied, I cannot take upon me to judge; but I do submit my opinion therein to the judgment of the Catholic Roman church, as in all other points concerning faith I do. And for matter concerning my loyalty, I do acknowledge my sovereign liege lord, King James, to be lawful and undoubted king of all the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland; and I will bear true faith and allegiance to his highness during my life. WILLIAM TALBOT. My lords, upon these words I conceive Talbot hath committed a great offence, and such a one, as, if he had entered into a voluntary and malicious publication of the like writing, it would have been too great an offence for the capacity of this court. But because it grew by a question asked by a council of estate, and so rather seemeth, in a favourable construction, to proceed from a kind of submission to answer, than from any malicious or insolent will; it was fit, according to the clemency of these times, to proceed in this manner before your lordships: and, yet, let the hearers take these things right; for, certainly, if a man be required by the council to deliver his opinion whether King James be king or no? and he deliver his opinion that he is not, this is high treason: but, I do not say that 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 kingdom; 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. EDITOR'S PREFACE ΤΟ 1. THEOLOGICAL TRACTS. 1. Prayers. I. A Prayer, or Psalm, made by the Lord 2. A Prayer made by the Lord Chancellor 3. The Student's Prayer. 4. The Writer's Prayer. 2. A Confession of Faith. 3. The Characters of a Believing Christian, in Paradoxes and seeming Contradictions. 4. An Advertisement touching the Controversies of the Church of England. 5. Certain Considerations, touching the better Pacification and Edification of the Church of England. 6. The Translation of certain Psalms into English Verse. 7. An Advertisement touching a Holy War. 8. Questions about the Lawfulness of a War for the Propagating of Religion. THEOLOGICAL TRACTS. Archbishop Tenison's Baconiana contains the following passage: "Last of all, for his lordship's writings upon pious subjects, though for the nature of the argument, they deserve the first place, yet they being but few, and there appearing nothing so extraordinary in the composure of them, as is found in his lordship's other labours, they have not obtained an earlier mention. They are only these: "His Confession of Faith, written by himself in English, and turned into Latin by Dr. Rawley, the questions about a Holy War, and the Prayers in these Remains, and a translation of certain of David's Psalms into English verse. With this last pious exercise he diverted himself in the time of his sickness, in the year twenty-five. When he sent it abroad into the world, he made a dedication of it to his good friend, Mr. George Herbert, for he judged the argument to be suitable to him, in his double quality of a divine and a poet." In the life of Lord Bacon, by Dr. Rawley, "his lordship's first and last chaplain," as he always proudly entitles himself, there is the following passage: "This lord was religious; for though the world be apt to suspect and prejudge great wits and politics to have somewhat of the atheist, yet he was conversant with God, as appeareth by several passages throughout the whole current of his writings; otherwise he should have crossed his own principles, which were, ‘that a little philosophy maketh men apt to forget God, as attributing too much to second causes; but depth of philosophy bringeth men back to God again.' Now I am sure there is no man will deny him, or account otherwise of him, but to have him been a deep philosopher. And not only so, but he was able to render a reason of the hope which was in him, which that writing of his, of the confession of the faith, doth abundantly testify. He repaired frequently, when his health would permit him, to the service of the church, to hear sermons; to the administration of the sacrament of the blessed body and blood of Christ; and died in the true faith established in the Church of England." The passage to which Dr. Rawley alludes, is in the "Advancement of Learning," where he says. 1 1658, in the Opuscula. 2 Baconiana, 72. VOL. II.-50 393 "It is an assured truth, and a conclusion of experience, that a little or superficial knowledge of philosophy may incline the mind of man to atheism, but a farther proceeding therein doth bring the mind back again to religion, for in the entrance of philosophy, when the second causes, which are next unto the senses, do offer themselves to the mind of man, if it dwell and stay there, it may induce some oblivion of the highest cause; but when a man passeth on farther, and seeth the dependence of causes, and the works of Providence, then, according to the allegory of the poets, he will easily believe that the highest link of nature's chain must needs be tied to the foot of Jupiter's chair. To conclude, therefore, let no man, upon a weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain, that a man can search too far, or be too well studied in the book of God's word, or the book of God's works-divinity or philosophy." The same sentiment, and almost the same words, may be found in his "Meditations on Atheism," in the "Meditationes Sacræ," and in his "Essay on Atheism" in his Essays.1 The several passages throughout the current of his writings, in which it appears that Lord Bacon was conversant with God, it would not, I fear, be proper for me in this place to do more than enumerate. They may be found in two volumes, entitled, "Le Christianisme de François Bacon," and there is scarcely a work of Lord Bacon's, in which his religious sentiments may not be discovered. Amongst his minor productions, they may be seen; in the "Meditationes Sacræ;" in the "Wisdom of the Ancients;" in the Fables of Pan, of Prometheus, of Pentheus, and of Cupid: in various parts of the Essays, but particularly in the Essay on Atheism and Goodness of Nature, in the "New Atlantis," an imaginary college amongst a Christian people, full of piety and humanity, whose prayer is— "Lord God of heaven and earth, thou hast vouchsafed of thy grace, to those of our order, to know thy work of creation, and the secrets of them; and to discern, as far as appertaineth to the generations of men, between divine miracles, works of nature, works of art, and impostures and illusions of all sorts. I do here acknowledge and testify before this people, that the thing which we now see before our eyes, is thy finger, and a true miracle; and forasmuch as we learn in our books, that thou never workest miracles, but to a divine and excellent end, for the laws of nature are thine own laws, and thou exceedest them not but upon great cause, we most humbly beseech thee to prosper this great sign, and to give us the interpretation and use of it in mercy; which thou dost in some part secretly promise by sending it unto us ;" and the conditions of entities in the Baconiana, thus concludes: "This is the Form and Rule of our Alphabet. May God, the Creator, Preserver, and Renewer of the Universe, protect and govern this work, both in its ascent to his glory, and in its descent to the good of mankind, for the sake of his mercy and good will to men though his only Son [Immanuel] God with-us." These sentiments are not confined to the minor productions of Lord Bacon, but pervade all his works. They may be seen in his tract,-" De principiis atque originibus secundum fabulas Cupidinis et Cœli sive Parmenidis et Telesii, et præcipue Democriti philosophia, tractata in fabula." The introduction to his "Historia Naturalis et Experimentalis, Quæ est Instaurationis magnæ pars tertia,” concludes thus: "Deus Universi Conditor, conservator. Instaurator, hoc opus, et in ascensione ad Gloriam suam, et in descensione ad bonum humanum, pro suâ erga Homines, Benevolentiâ, et Misericordiâ, protegat et regat, per Filium suum unicum, Nobiscum Deum."4 And in the conclusion of the preface to the Instauration he says, " Neque enim hoc siverit Deus, ut phantasiæ nostræ somnium pro exemplari mundi edamus: sed potius benigne faveat, ut apocalypsim, ac veram visionem vestigiorum et sigillorum Creatoris supercreaturas, scribamus. Itaque tu, Pater, qui lucem visibilem primitias creaturæ dedisti, et lucem intellectualem ad fastigium operum tuorum in faciem hominis inspirasti ; opus hoc, quod a tua bonitate profectum, tuam gloriam repetit, tuere et rege. Tu, postquam conversus es ad spectandum opera, quæ fecerunt manus tuæ, vidisti quod omnia essent bona valde; et requievisti. At homo, conversus ad opera, quæ fecerunt manus suæ, vidit quod omnia essent vanitas et vexatio spiritus; nec ullo modo requievit. Quare si in operibus tuis sudabimus, facies nos visionis tuæ et sabbati tui participes. Supplices petimus, ut hæc mens nobis constet: utque novis eleemosynis per manus nostras et aliorum, quibus eandem mentem largieris, familiam humanam dotatam velis."5 1 The following similar sentiment is in the general corollary to Hume's Essays: "Though the stupidity of men, barbarous and uninstructed, be so great, that they may not see a sovereign Author in the more obvious works of nature, to which they are so much familiarized; yet it scarce seems possible, that any one of good understanding should reject that idea, when once it is suggested to him. A purpose, an intention, a design is evident in every thing; and when our comprehension is so far enlarged as to contemplate the first rise of this visible system, we must adopt, with the strongest conviction, the idea of some intelligent cause or Author." 2 Published at Paris, An. VII. 3 Baconiana, 91. 4 May God the Creator, Preserver, and Restorer of the universe, out of his kindness and compassion towards mankind protect and govern this work, both when ascending towards his glory, and descending to the improvement of man, through his only son, God with us. 5 May thou, therefore, O Father, who gavest the light of vision as the first-fruits of the creation, and hast inspired the The Treatise" De Augmentis Scientiarum," abounds with religious sentiments, and contains two tracts, one upon natural,' the other upon inspired divinity, "the Sabbath and port of all men's labours."2 In the Novum Organum, under the head of Instances of Divorce, there is the following observation: "Atque in radiis opticis, et sonis, et calore, et aliis nonnullis operantibus ad distans, probabile est media corpora disponi et alterari: eò magis, quòd requiratur medium qualificatum ad deferendum operationem talem. At magnetica illa sive Coitua virtus admittit media tanquam adiaphora, nec impeditur virtus in omnigeno medio. Quod si nil rei habeat virtus illa aut actio cum corpore medio, sequitur quod sit virtus aut actio naturalis ad tempus nonnullum, et in loco nonnullo, subsistens sine corpore: cum neque subsistat in corporibus terminantibus, nec in mediis. Quare actio magnetica poterit esse instantia diuortii circa naturam corpoream, et actionem naturalem. Cui hoc adjici potest tanquam corollarium aut lucrum non prætermittendum: viz. quòd etiam secundùm sensum philosophanti sumi possit probatio, quòd sint entia et substantiæ separatæ et incorporeæ. Si enim virtus et actio naturalis, emanans à corpore, subsistere possit aliquo tempore, et aliquo loco, omninò sine corpore; propè est ut possit etiam emanare in origine suâ à substantiâ incorporeâ. Videtur enim non minus requiri natura corporea ad actionem naturalem sustentandam et deuehendam, quam ad excitandam aut generandam."4 Such are specimens of Lord Bacon's religious sentiments, which may be found in different parts of his works; but they are not confined to his intended publications. In a letter to Mr. Mathew, imprisoned for religion, he says, "I pray God, that understandeth us all better than we understand one another, contain you, even as I hope he will, at the least, within the bounds of loyalty to his majesty, and natural piety towards your country. And I entreat you much, sometimes to meditate upon the extreme effects of superstition in this last powder treason: fit to be tabled and pictured in the chambers of meditation, as another hell above the ground: and well justifying the censure of the heathen, that superstition is far worse than atheism; by how much it is less evil to have no opinion of God at all, than such as is impious towards his divine majesty and goodness. Good Mr. Mathew, receive yourself back from these courses of perdition. Willing to have written a great deal more, I continue," etc. In the decline of his life, in his letters to the Bishop of Winchester, he says, "Amongst consolations, it is not the least to represent to a man's self like examples of calamity in others. For examples give a quicker impression than arguments; and, besides, they certify us, that which the Scripture also tendereth for satisfaction; "that no new thing is happened unto us." "In this kind of consolation I have not been wanting to myself, though, as a Christian, I have tasted, through God's great goodness, of higher remedies ;" and his last will thus begins: First, I bequeath my soul and body into the hands of God, by the blessed oblation of my Saviour; the one at the time of my dissolution, the other at the time of my resurrection. For my burial, I desire it may be in St. Michael's church, near St. Alban's: there was my mother buried, and it is the parish church of my mansion-house of Gorhambury, and it is the only Christian church within the walls of Old Verulam." 66 countenance of man with the light of the understanding as the completion of thy works, guard and direct this work, which proceeding from thy bounty, seeks in return thy glory. When thou turnedst to look upon the works of thy hands, thou sawest that all were very good and didst rest. But man, when he turned towards the works of his hands, saw that they were all vanity and vexation of spirit, and had no rest. Wherefore, if we labour in thy works, thou wilt make us partakers of that which thou beholdest, and of thy sabbath. We humbly pray that our present disposition may continue firm, and that thou mayest be willing to endow thy family of mankind with new gifts, through our hands, and the hands of those to whom thou wilt accord the same disposition. 1 Book 3, c. 2, of the Treatise De Augmentis, and in the Advancement of Learning, page 174. 2 Book ix. 6, of the Treatise De Augmentis. 3 Instance, 37. 4 of the conclusion of this passage I subjoin two translations, the one by Dr. Shaw, the other by my excellent friend, to whom I am indebted for the translation of the Novum Organum. • SHAW'S TRANSLATION. NEW TRANSLATION. To this may be added, by way of corollary, the following To which we may add as a corollary and an advantage considerable discovery, viz. that by philosophizing, even not to be neglected, that it may be taken as a proof of according to sense, a proof may be had of the existence of essence and substance being separate and incorporeal, even separated and incorporeal beings and substances; for if by those who philosophize according to the senses. For if natural virtues and actions flowing from a body may subsist natural power and action emanating from a body can exist without a body for some time in space or place, it is possible at any time and place entirely without any body, it is nearly that such virtues or actions may proceed originally from a proof that it can also emanate originally from an incorpoan incorporeal substance: for a corporeal nature seems real substance. For a corporeal nature appears to be no no less required to support and convey, than to excite and less necessary for supporting and conveying than for exciting generate a natural action. or generating natural action. 5 This letter was published in Letters and Remains by Stephens, 1734, with the following note: "The following letter to the most learned Dr. Andrews, Bishop of Winchester, was written by my Lord St. Alban, in the year 1622, and in the nature of a dedication, prefixed before his dialogue, touching a Holy War; which was not printed, at least correctly, til seven years after, by the care of Dr. Rawley. But because it has been found amongst his lordship's letters and other books, separated from that treatise, and chiefly, because it gives some account of his writings, and behaviour after his retirement, I thought it very proper to insert it in this place." |