The apology of the Church of England, and an epistle to one Seignior Scipio…

9. CERTAINLY it is a proud, injurious, and unjust thing and not to be born by Christian and Prudent Princes, to permit the sum of all that concerns Religion, to be managed by such Men as these alone, who know nothing of the Mysteries of Religion, nor care to know any thing more than what belongs to their Bellies and Kitchens, and do not value any thing of Religion as worth a•rush, who are no better than blind men placed in a Watch-tower; and that in the interim a Christian and a Catholic Prince should stand like a trunk or a stock, and without vote, and without giving his judgment, only observe what they are pleased to command and impose upon him, and as if he had neither Ears, nor Eyes, nor Mind, nor Heart of his own to receive without Exception, and with a blind-fold submission, do whatever they are pleased to command him, although they are Blasphemous and wicked things, yea, although they should command him to extinguish all Religion, and to crucify his Saviour: For why? Can Caiaphas and Annas judge well of Matters of Religion, and cannot David and Hezekiah? Is it lawful for a Cardinal, a Martial, and a bloody Man to sit in a Council, and is it unlawful for an Emperor and a Christian Prince? For we attribute nothing more to our Princes, than what is allowed them by the Word of God, and approved by the Examples of the best Governments. For besides that, the care of both Tables is committed ⟨p. 118⟩by God to a Faithful Prince, that he may thereby understand, that not only the Civil but the Ecclesiastical Polity belongs to him and his Office: And besides all this, God hath often expressly commanded Princes to cut down the Groves, and overthrow the Statues and Altars of Idols, to transcribe for himself a Book of the Law;¹ and Isaiah saith, that Kings should be nursing Fathers to the Church, and their Queens her nursing Mothers. Besides all these things, I say we see by Histories and the Examples of the best times, that Pious Princes did never think the Administration of Ecclesiastical Affairs, a thing that was foreign to their Duty.

9. CERTAINLY it is a proud, injurious, and unjust thing and not to be born by Christian and Prudent Princes, to permit the summ of all that concerns Religion, to be managed by such Men as these alone, who know nothing of the Mysteries of Religion, nor care to know any thing more than what belongs to their Bellies and Kitchins, and do not value any thing of Religion as worth arush, who are no better than blind men placed in a Watch-tower; and that in the interim a Christan and a Catholick Prince should stand like a trunk or a stock, and without vote, and without giving his judgment, only observe what they are pleased to command and impose upon him, and as if he had neither Ears, nor Eyes, nor Mind, nor Heart of his own to receive without Exception, and with a blind-fold submission, do whatever they are pleased to command him, altho they are Blasphemous and wicked things, yea, altho they should command him to extinguish all Religion, and to crucisie his Saviour: For why? Can Caiphas and Annas judge well of Matters of Religion, and cannot David and Ezechias? Is it lawful for a Cardinal, a Martial, and a bloody Man to sit in a Council, and is it unlawful for an Emperour and a Christian Prince? For we attribute nothing more to our Princes, than what is allowed them by the Word of God, and approved by the Examples of the best Governments. For besides that, the care of both Tables is committed