Volume II Part 35 (1/2)
[Sidenote: QUESTIOUN.]
”But yit, (said sche,) thei resisted not by the sweard?”
[Sidenote: [ANSWER.]]
”G.o.d, (said he,) Madam, had not gevin unto thame the power and the meanes.”
”Think ye, (quod sche,) that subjectis having power may resist thair Princes?”
[Sidenote: QUESTION TO ANSWER THE FORMAR]
[Sidenote: BLYND ZEALL WHAT.]
[Sidenote: WHEN THIS WAS WRITTEN, THAIR WES NO APPEARANCE OF MARIES IMPREASONMENT.][658]
[658] This marginal note in MS. 1566, occurs in one of the re-written sets or quires, and is in the same hand with the text. The reference is evidently to the imprisonment of Queen Mary in Lochlevin Castle, in June 1567, from whence she made her escape on the 2d May 1568.
”Yf thair Princes exceed thair boundis, (quod he,) Madam, and do against that whairfoir they should be obeyed, it is no doubt but thei may be resisted, evin by power. For thair is neather greattar honour, nor greattar obedience to be gevin to kings or princes, then G.o.d hes commanded to be gevin unto father and mother: But so it is, Madam, that the father may be stricken with a phrensye, in the which he wold slay his awin childrene. Now, Madame, yf the children aryese, joyne thame selfis togetther, apprehend the father, tack the sweard or other weaponis frome him, and finallie bind his handis, and keape him in preasone, till that his phrenesy be over past; think ye, Madam, that the children do any wrang? Or, think ye, Madam, that G.o.d wilbe offended with thame that have stayed thair father to committ wickedness? It is even so, (said he,) Madam, with Princes that wold murther the children of G.o.d that are subject unto thame. Thair blynd zeall is no thing but a verray mad phrenesie; and thairfoir, to tack the sweard frome thame, to bynd thair handis, and to cast thame selfis in preasone, till that thei be brought to a more sober mynd, is no disobedience against princes, but just obedience, becaus that it aggreith with the will of G.o.d.”
At these wordis, the Quene stood as it war amased, more then the quarter of ane hour. Hir countenance altered, so that Lord James begane to entreat her, and to demand, ”What hes offended you, Madam?”
[Sidenote: THE QUENIS CONCLUSIOUN.]
At lenth, sche said, ”Weall then I perceave that my subjectis shall obey you,[659] and not me; and shall do what thei list, and nott what I command: and so man I be subject to thame, and nott thei to me.”
[659] Namely, John Knox.
”G.o.d forbid, (answered he,) that ever I tack upoun me to command any to obey me, or yitt to set subjectis at libertie to do what pleaseth thame. Bot my travell is, that boyth princes and subjectis obey G.o.d.
And think not, (said he,) Madam, that wrong is done unto you, when ye ar willed to be subject unto G.o.d: for it is he that subjects people under princes, and causses obedience to be gevin unto thame; yea, G.o.d craves of Kingis That thei be as it war foster-fatheris to his Churche, and commands Quenis to be nurisses unto his people. And this subjectioun, Madam, unto G.o.d, and unto his trubled Churche, is the greatest dignitie that flesche can get upoun the face of the earth, for it shall cary thame to everlasting glorie.”
[Sidenote: THE QUENIS KIRK.]
”Yea, (quod sche,) but ye are not the Kirk that I will nureiss. I will defend the Kirk of Rome, for, I think, it is the treu Kirk of G.o.d.”
”Your will, (quod he,) Madam, is no rea.s.sone; neather doeth your thoght maik that Romane harlot to be the treu and immaculat spous of Jesus Christ. And wonder nott, Madam, that I call Rome a harlott; for that Churche is altogidder polluted with all kynd of spirituall fornicatioun, alsweall in doctrine as in maneris. Yea, Madam, I offer myselff farther to prove, that the Churche of the Jewes that crucifyed Christ Jesus, was not so far degenerated frome the ordinances and statutis which G.o.d gave be Moses and Aharon unto his people, when that thei manifestlie denyed the Sone of G.o.d,[660] as that the Churche of Rome is declyned, and more than five hundreth year hath declyned frome the puritie of that Religioun, whiche the Apostles taught and planted.”
[660] In MS. G, these words are transposed.
”My conscience, (said sche,) is nott so.”
”Conscience, Madam, (said he,) requyres knowlege; and I fear that rycht knowlege ye have none.”
”But, (said sche,) I have bayth heard and red.”
[Sidenote: QUESTIOUN.]
”So, (said he,) Madam, did the Jewes that crucifyed Christ Jesus, read both the Law and the Prophetis, and heard the same interprete after thair maner. Have ye heard, (said he,) any teache, but such as the Pope and his Cardinalles have allowed? And ye may be a.s.sured, that suche will speak nothing to offend thair awin estaite.”