352 DECLARATION OF THE TREASONS 



otherwise than according to his own royal authority 

 and direction, it is manifest rebellion. The other, 

 that in every rebellion the law intendeth as a conse 

 quent, the compassing the death and deprivation of the 

 king, as foreseeing that the rebel will never suffer 

 that king to live or reign, which might punish or 

 take revenge of his treason and rebellion. And it 

 was inforced by the queen s counsel, that this is not 

 only the wisdom of the laws of the realm which so 

 defineth of it, but it is also the censure of foreign 

 laws, the conclusion of common reason, which is the 

 ground of all laws, and the demonstrative assertion 

 of experience, which is the warranty of all reason. 

 For first, the civil law maketh this judgment, that 

 treason is nothing else but &quot; crimen laesae majesta- 

 tis,&quot; or &quot;diminutae majestatis,&quot; making every offence 

 which abridgeth or hurteth the power and authority 

 of the prince, as an insult or invading of the crown, 

 and extorting the imperial sceptre. And for com 

 mon reason, it is not possible that a subject should 

 once come to that height as to give law to his sove 

 reign, but what with insolency of the change, and 

 what with terror of his own guiltiness, he will never 

 permit the king, if he can choose, to recover autho 

 rity ; nor, for doubt of that, to continue alive. And 

 lastly, for experience, it is confirmed by all stories 

 and examples, that the subject never obtained a 

 superiority and command over the king, but there 

 followed soon after the deposing and putting of the 

 king to death, as appeareth in our own chronicles, in 

 two notable particulars of two unfortunate kings : 



