2°d S. N" 86., Aug. 22. '57.] 



l^OTES AND QUEKIES. 



141 



LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST It, 1857. 



"god and the king," 



The High Church axiom, that the divine right 

 of kings and princes is, under no circumstances, to 

 be disturbed, has often furnished a theme for well- 

 meaning men, who, thinking they find it based 

 upon sacred authority, have laboured to prove ita 

 eternal obligation upon subjects. 



Such an attempt is that put forth in the little 

 work before me, entitled, Cesar s Dialogue, or 

 a Familiar Communication, containing the first 

 Institution of a Subject in Allegiance to his Soue- 

 raigne. Lond. 1601. The author, E. N., was 

 most probably a clergyman of the High Church 

 stamp, and in a homily of 131 pages upon "The 

 foure cables which bind the subiects in allegiance 

 to their Soueraigne," convincingly makes out to 

 the junior (for it is a dialogue between father and 

 son) that his allegiance is due without any re- 

 servation, as well to the ungodly, as to the godly 

 prince, founded upon the text of " Rendering unto 

 Csesar the things which are Cassar's," &c. 



Our book seems to have been licensed in 1593 ; 

 on the back of the title to my impression is a fine 

 full length of Queen Elizabeth, in regal costume, 

 in a chair of state, surrounded by her Divine 

 Charters in the shape of texts from the Old and 

 New Testaments, and I doubt not the book was 

 acceptable " to all sound members of that bodie, 

 whereof her Sacred Maiestie is supreme head," 

 to whom it is addressed. 



Passing on we find that in a year or two there- 

 after the good queen was gathered to her fathers, 

 and her place occupied by King James, whose 

 accession was the signal for increased turbulence 

 on the part of the disappointed Papists, which 

 calling for some check, the Oath of Allegiance, as 

 we now have it, was imposed in 1606 ; and here 

 again we find a zealous subject at hand to incul- 

 cate obedience to the higher powers, but this time 

 in the more peremptory tone of God and the King ; 

 or a Dialogue shewing that our Soveraign Lord 

 King James being immediate under God within his 

 Dominions doth rightfully claim whatsoever is re- 

 quired by the Oath of Allegiance, 12mo. London, 

 Imprinted by his Maiesties special privilege and 

 command, 1615. A copy of this curiosity be- 

 longed to Mr. Geo. Chalmers, who has written 

 upon the title " By Dr. Mockett, as Dr. Twiss 

 says ; " it came out at the same time in Latin, and 

 was also published in one or both at Edinburgh, 

 1617. Dr. Richard Moket is noticed by Wood 

 and Nicolson as the author of De Politia Ec- 

 clesice Anglicance, 8vo. London, 1616, which, al- 

 though the latter characterises as a learned and 

 useful system, reprinted in 1683, was so little ap- 



preciated by his contemporaries that it was im- 

 mediately condemned to the flames and burnt : 

 some said for raising the ecclesiastical above the 

 temporal power ; others that in omitting the first 

 clauses of the 20th article he leaned too much to 

 the errors of Calvin's platform. God and the 

 King is not ascribed to Mocket by either of the 

 last named writers ; and taking this with the 

 charge that he maintained the superiority of the 

 Church over the State, Dr. Twiss' ascription of 

 the book to Mocket seems to require confirma- 

 tion. God and the King, if not a piece of his 

 Majesty's own kingcraft, was no doubt an accept- 

 able present to the royal pedant, and we are told 

 that it was frequently reprinted both in Latin and 

 English, and by Royal Proclamation recommended 

 " for the instruction of His Majesties Subjects." 

 Following the plan of its predecessor, the book is 

 in the form of a dialogue between Theodidactua 

 and Philalethes, and taking the recently imposed 

 Oath of Allegiance for its text maintains the same 

 blind passive obedience to princes. The work is, 

 however, more particularly aimed at the Ro- 

 manists, and is Introduced by a short abstract of 

 the plottings and treasons, past and present, set 

 on foot by the Pope and his emissaries, which 

 rendered this oath test imperative : the end in 

 view is, in short, to assure good patriots that as 

 King James holds his crown from God direct, and 

 not by virtue of the Popish triangle — God, the 

 Pope, and the King, — no earthly power can absolve 

 his subjects from their natural allegiance, nor can 

 the bulls and curses of Rome relieve such subjects 

 from the consequences of treasons against his 

 majesty's person, dominion, and dignity, and that 

 therefore "God and the King" should be the 

 only watchword of true Englishmen. 



In the English edition (1615) of the work under 

 consideration, we have an engraved frontispiece 

 in keeping with the subject : in the foreground 

 King James in state ; On one side the royal plat- 

 form, a man weeding ; and on the other a man 

 watering, typical of his royal determination to 

 root out the factions, and to nurture the loyal 

 subject; above all — Hebrew characters — rays 

 emanating therefrom, and on a scroll below, " By 

 mee Kings Raigne." I suspect the several mem- 

 bers of the Stuart family reminded their subjects 

 of their duty by reproducing this their charter at 

 convenient seasons ; at all events It came with 

 solemn significance from his Sacred Majesty 

 Charles II., Imprinted by special authority, in 

 quarto, 1663, with the portrait of the Merry 

 Monarch, and the aforesaid scroll setting forth 

 his divine appointment. 



Another edition of God and the King Is that 

 published in 1727, by Nathaniel Booth, Esq., of 

 Gray's Inn ; this time, however, it does not ad- 

 vocate the divine right of the Stuarts, but that 

 of their successful adversaries, the Hanoverians. 



