A57975:716
Lex, Rex
Lex, rex The law and the prince : a dispute for the just prerogative of king and people : containing the reasons and causes of the most necessary defensive wars of the kingdom of Scotland and of their expedition for the aid and help of their dear brethren of England : in which their innocency is asserted and a full answer is given to a seditious pamphlet entitled Sacro-sancta regum majestas, or, The sacred and royal prerogative of Christian kings, under the name of J. A. but penned by Jo. Maxwell the excommunicate P. Prelate. : with a scriptural confutation of the ruinous grounds of W. Barclay, H. Grotius, H. Arnisœus, Ant. de Domi P. Bishop of Spalata, and of other late anti-magistratical royalists, as the author of Ossorianum, D. Fern, E. Symmons, the doctors of Aberdeen, &c. : in XLIV questions.Lex, rex The law and the prince : a dispute for the just prerogative of king and people : containing the reasons and causes of the most necessary defensive wars of the kingdom of Scotland and of their expedition for the ayd and help of their dear brethren of England : in which their innocency is asserted and a full answer is given to a seditious pamphlet intituled Sacro-sancta regum majestas, or, The sacred and royall prerogative of Christian kings, under the name of J. A. but penned by Jo. Maxwell the excommunicate P. Prelat. : with a scripturall confutation of the ruinous grounds of W. Barclay, H. Grotius, H. Arnisœus, Ant. de Domi P. Bishop of Spalata, and of other late anti-magistratical royalists, as the author of Ossorianum, D. Fern, E. Symmons, the doctors of Aberdeen, &c. : in XLIV questions.
London: printed for John Field, 1644London: printed for Iohn Field, 1644
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Lex, Rex. › Question 26: QUEST. XXVI. Whether the King be above the Law or no?
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Assert. 6. There be some Laws made in favour of the King as King, as to pay tribute. The King must be above this Law as King. 1True, but if a Noble man of a great rent be elected King, I know not, if he can be free from paying to himself as King, tribute, seeing ⟨p. 234⟩this is not allowed to the King by a Divine Law, Rom. 13.6. as a reward of his work; and Christ expressly maketh tribute a thing due to Caesar as a King, Matth. 22. v. 21. There be some solemnities of the Law from which the King may be free, Prickman. D. c. 3. n. 78. and he relateth what they are, they are not Laws, but some circumstances belonging to Laws, and Prickman answereth to many places alleged out of the Lawyers, to prove the King to be above the Law, Maldorus in 12. Art. 4, 5, 9, 96. will have the Prince under that Law, 2which concerneth all the Common-wealth equally in regard of the matter, and that by the Law of nature, but he will not have him subject to these Laws which concerneth the subjects as subjects, as to pay tribute. He citeth Francis. a Vict. Covarruvia, and Turrecremata. He also will have the Prince under positive Laws, such as not to transport victuals, not because the Law bindeth him as a Law. But because the making of the Law bindeth him, Tanquam conditio sine qua non, even as he who teacheth another that he should not steal, he should not steal himself, Rom. 2. But the truth is, this is but a branch of the Law of Nature, that I should not commit Adultery, and Theft, and Sacrilege, and such sins as nature condemneth, if I shall condemn them in others, and doth not prove that the King is under the coactive power of Civill Laws.
Assert. 6. There be some Lawes made in favour of the King as King, as to pay tribute. The King must be above this Law as King. 1True, but if a Noble man of a great rent be elected King, I know not, if he can be free from paying to himselfe as King, tribute, seeing