law;" from which, as he well observeth, "neither by the senate nor by the people exemption can be given."

For the more full understanding hereof, observe we the distinction to be made between these three kinds of laws, the law of God, the law of the king, and that which is God's law and the king's together. Under the first of these we comprehend also the law of nature; of which (as the same Tully rightly noteth) " Gods, that one common master and ruler of all, is the inventor, arbitrator and enacter; which he who will not obey, must in a sort fly from himself, and reject man's nature; and consequently undergo the greatest pains" from his own conscience, "although he should escape all those other which commonly are accounted punishments." Now to this moral law of God, whether "byt nature thus written in the hearts" of men, or more fully delivered in God's own written word, or by just consequence deduced from the grounds of either of them, the greatest monarch upon earth owes as much obedience as the lowest and meanest of all his subjects and therefore the civilians themselves, who" deny the king to be subject unto other laws, do yet declare, that these "general laws ought to prevail even against

mus, verum ex natura ipsa arripuimus, hausimus, expressimus; ad quam non docti, sed facti, non instituti, sed imbuti sumus." Cic. orat. pro Milone.

Huic legi nec obrogari fas est, neque derogari ex hac aliquid licet, neque tota abrogari potest: nec vero aut per senatum aut per populum solvi hac lege possumus." Cicero, lib. 3. de Republ. apud Lactant. lib. 3. cap. 8.

"Unus erit communis quasi magister et imperator omnium Deus ille, legis hujus inventor, disceptator, lator; cui qui non parebit, ipse se fugiet, ac naturam hominis spernabitur, atque hoc ipso luet maximas pœnas, etiamsi cætera supplicia quæ putantur effugerit." Cicero, de Republ. apud Lactant. lib. 3. cap. 8. "Hanc video sapientissimorum fuisse sententiam, legem neque hominum ingeniis excogitatam, nec scitum aliquod esse populorum, sed æternum quiddam quod universum mundum regeret, imperandi prohibendique sapientia. Ita principem legem illam et ultimam mentem esse dicebant omnia ratione aut cogentis aut vetantis Dei." Cicero, lib. 2. De legibus.

Rom. chap. 2. ver. 14, 15.

" 'O Baoiλεvs Tоîç vóμοis oνx νTÓKELTAL. Basilic. lib. 2. tit. 6. cap. 1. Harmenopul. epitom. juris, lib. 11. tit. 1. sect. 48.

* Κατὰ βασιλέως οἱ γενικοὶ κρατείτωσαν νόμοι. Basilic. lib. 2. tit. 6. cap. 9. Harmenopul. lib. 11. tit. 1. sect. 39.

him also." Concerning which, hear what John of Sarisbury writeth: "There are certain precepts which have a perpetual necessity, are current with all nations, and which by no means without guilt may be broken. Before the law, under the law, and under grace, this one law did bind all: What thou wouldest not have done to thyself, do not thou unto another; and what thou wouldest have done unto thyself, the same do thou unto others. Let those parjetters of great men now come forth, let them whisper, or (if that be too little) let them preach publicly, that the prince is not subject to the law, and that what pleaseth him (not only in the making of a law, according to the tenor of equity, but any way whatsoever) hath the force of a law. Let them, if they will and they dare, make the king, whom they exempt from all obligation of the law, to be a lawless person: whatever not only they, but the whole world shall say to the contrary, I will stand to it, that they are bound by this law."

For although the king2 be lord of all, yet is he the servant of God together with all: nay, for God's law, we find that the king had this particular charge laid upon him above others: "It shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law

y "Sunt autem præcepta quædam perpetuam habentia necessitatem, apud omnes gentes legitima, et quæ omnino impune solvi non possunt. Ante legem, sub lege, sub gratia, omnes lex una constringit, Quod tibi non vis fieri alii ne feceris; et quod tibi vis fieri hoc facias aliis. Procedant nunc dealbatores potentum, susurrent, et (si hoc parum est) publice præconentur, principem non esse legi subjectum, et quod ei placet (non modo in jure secundum formam æquitatis condendo, sed qualitercunque) legis habere vigorem. Regem, quem legis nexibus subtrahunt, si volunt et audent, exlegem faciant: ego non modo his renitentibus, sed mundo reclamante, ipsos hac lege teneri confirmo." Jo. Sarisburiens. Polycratic. lib. 4. cap. 7.

2 Κύριος μὲν πάντων ἐστιν ὁ βασιλεὺς, δοῦλος ὁ μετὰ πάντων ὑπάρχει Orov. Agapet. Paræn. ad Justinian. cap. 68.

a Deut. chap. 17. ver. 18, 19, 20.

and these statutes, to do them. That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand or to the left; to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel." Whereupon Philo bringeth in the king using this soliloquy: "I being so great a prince did write these things, not using any other scribe, having so many thousands under me: to the end that while I did write them in the book, I might transcribe them into my soul, and imprint in my mind those divine characters never to be washed out again. Whereas other kings therefore bear staves for their sceptre, this abridgment of the law shall be my sceptre, my rejoicing and glory uncontrolable, the ensign of that unreprovable government which is fashioned according to the pattern of God's own kingdom." So that nothing hereby is detracted either from the liberty of the king, while he is made subject unto him whose service is perfect freedom; or from his power, while he is left "to do nothing else but that which God shall commend." For while hereby we" temper the majesty of Cæsar," as Tertullian speaketh, "under God, we commend him the more to God, unto whom alone we do subject him;" he being "thereforee great, because he is less than heaven."

By the law of the king, I understand such ordinances as are merely civil and positive; the coactive power whereof being derived from him who is the supreme lawgiver under God on earth, he himself cannot

b Ἐγὼ ταῦτ ̓ ἔγραψα ὁ τοσοῦτος ἄρχων, μὴ προσχρησάμενος ὑπηρέτη ἑτέρῳ, μυρίων ὄντων, &c. ὅπως αὐτὰ ἐν βίβλῳ γράφων, εὐθὺς εἰς τὴν ψυχὴν μεταγράφω, καὶ ἐναπομάττωμαι τῇ διανοίᾳ θειοτέρους καὶ ἀνεκπλύντους χαρακτῆρας. Οἱ μὲν οὖν ἄλλοι βασιλεῖς βακτηρίας ἔχοντες σκηπτροφοροῦσιν, ἐμοὶ δὲ τὸ σκῆπτρον ἡ βίβλος ἔσται τῆς ἐπινομίδος, καύχημα καὶ κλέος ἀνανταγώνιστον, ἐπίσημον ἡγεμονίας ἀεεπιλήπτου πρὸς ἀρχέτυπον τὴν Θεοῦ βασιλείαν ἀπεικονισθείσης. Philo, in libro de creatione principis. • Ηλίκην ἐξουσίαν ἔχει ἄνθρωπος, μὴ ποιεῖν ἄλλο ἢ ὅπερ μέλλει ὁ Θεὸς izaiveiv. M. Antonin. lib. 12. de vita sua.

"Temperans majestatem Cæsaris infra Deum, magis illum commendo Deo, cui soli subjicio." Tertul. apol. cap. 33.

e "Ideo magnus est, quia cælo minor est." Tertul. apol. cap. 30.

properly be said to be tied thereby. For as with the grammarians the imperative mood hath no first person, so with the civilians, "Nof man can command or forbid himself;" at leastwise, "No man can impose such a law upon himself, but that he may recede from it when he pleaseth." And with And with the schoolmen, "Ah law hath power to direct such acts as belong to those who are subject to the government of another; whereupon no man, if we speak properly, doth impose a law upon his own acts." As no man therefore is superior to himself, so no man hath jurisdiction over himself; because none can oblige a man against his will, but only his superior; and the jurisdiction over a man's self may be dissolved at pleasure. To which kind of voluntary submission unto the laws, that memorable saying of Valentinian the younger may be referred: "It is in truth a greater thing than the empire, to submit the princedom itself unto the laws:" and that of Alexander Severus: "Although the law of the empire hath freed the emperor from the solemnities of the law; yet nothing is so proper for empire as to live by the laws;" and that which both Severus and Antonius set down so oft in their rescripts: "Although' we be loosed from the laws, yet we live by the laws." Whereunto also we may add that commendation which

"Neque imperare sibi, neque se prohibere quisquam potest." Marcian. in l. Si de re sua. De recept. arbit. Vide et Ulpian. in 1. Ille a quo, sec. Tempestivum, D. ad Senatusc. Trebellian. et in l. Quod autem, sec. Uxori quis. D. de donat. inter. vir.

g"Nemo eam sibi potest legem dicere, ut a priore ei recedere non liceat." Hermogenian. in l. Si quis, sec. 1 D. de legat. 3.

h"Lex est directiva actuum qui conveniunt subjectis gubernationi alicujus : unde nullus, proprie loquendo, suis actibus legem imponit."! Thom. 1. 2. quæst. 93. artic. 5.

"Revera majus imperio est submittere legibus principatuum." 1. 4. C. de leg. et constitut.

"Licet lex imperii solennibus juris imperatorem solverit, nihil tamen tam proprium imperii est quam legibus vivere.” 1. 3. C. de testam.

"Secundum hoc D. D. Severus et Antonius sæpissime rescripserunt, Licet enim (inquiunt) legibus soluti simus, attamen legibus vivimus." Institut. quibus modis testam. infirment. sec. ult.

Plutarch giveth to Alexander the Great, that "hem conceived he ought to be thought superior unto all men, yet subject to justice:" and Pliny to Trajan: "He" thinks himself to be one of us; and so much the more excellent and eminent he is, that he so thinketh, and no less remembereth that he is a man, than that he is a ruler of men." "For" he who hath nothing left to increase his height, hath but this one way to grow by, if he submit himself, being secure of his greatness." And in his direct speech to the emperor himself: "Thou° esteemest us the same, and thyself the same; equal unto all, and in this only greater than the rest, that thou art better than they." And more nearly to our present purpose: "Thou hast made thyself subject to the laws, O Cæsar, which were not written to restrain the prince by. But thou wilt have nothing more lawful to thee than is to us." Such written laws as these, no doubt, Justinian the emperor meant, when, upon the enacting of a constitution of this kind, he addeth thereunto this limitation: "From all those things that have been said by us, let the emperor's state be excepted, whereunto God hath subjected the very laws themselves, sending him as a living law unto men." Who therefore in another place assumeth unto himself the title of "a father of the law:" whereupon the glossator maketh this observation: "Note that the em

* Πάντων οἰόμενος δεῖν περιεῖναι, τοῦ δικαίου δὲ ἡττᾶσθαι. Plut. de fortuna Alexandri, orat. 2.

"Unum ille se ex nobis ; et hoc magis excellit atque eminet, quod unum ex nobis putat; nec minus hominem se, quam hominibus præesse meminit." Plin. Paneg. ad Trajan.

"Nam cui nihil ad augendum fastigium superest, hic uno modo crescere potest, si se ipse submittat, securus magnitudinis suæ." Plin. Paneg. ad Trajan.

• "Eosdem nos, eundem te putas; par omnibus, et hoc tantum cæteris major, quo melior." Plin. Paneg. ad Trajan.

"Ipse te legibus subjecisti, legibus, Cæsar, quas nemo principi scripsit: Sed tu nihil amplius vis tibi licere quam nobis." Plin. Paneg. ad Trajan.

4 Πάντων τῶν εἰρημένων ἡμῖν ἡ βασιλέως ἐξηρήσθω τύχη, ἦγε καὶ αὐτ τοὺς ὁ Θεὸς τοὺς νόμους ὑποτέθεικε, νόμον αὐτὴν ἔμψυχον καταπέμπσας áv◊púæotg. Justinian. Novel. 105.

"Nota imperatorem vocari patrem legis; unde et leges sunt ei subjecta." Gloss. in Novel. 1. 2. c. 4.

VOL. XI.

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