them to the trouble of coming ſo hardly by it. Nor was the granting of Magna Charta a foul and diſhonourable compoſition, but juſt and honourable, and therefore honourable becauſe it was juſt. As for the compulſion there was in it, a man that muſt be made to be honeſt, cannot complain of that himſelf nor any body for him. In this whole affair, the pope’s apoſtolical authority went farther than his arguments.
It is the laſting honour of Magna Charta and the barons, that they were run down by a pope and a general council, which were the firſt that eſtabliſhed tranſubſtantiation[1], and the depoſing of Kings for hereſy, either their own, or even that of their ſubjects, if they ſuffered them in their dominions: in which caſe the pope was to abſolve their ſubjects from their allegiance, to ſet up a cruſado againſt them, and to diſpoſe of their kingdoms to catholic free-booters. This was a powerful transforming metamorphoſing council; but they that could turn a bit of bread into a god, might more eaſily turn better chriſtians than themſelves into Saracens. I take the decrees of that general council to be a ſtanding declaration of war, yea a holy war, againſt all proteſtant princes and ſtates to the end of the world; whereby all papiſts are the public and
- ↑ Lateram. ſub Innocent III.
