any thing which subjects may not perform,
because it is against the Laws of God, or of Nature, or impossible;
yet Subjects are bound to undergo the punishment, without either
resisting, or railing, or reviling, and are to yield a Passive
Obedience where they cannot exhibit an Active one, ... but in all
others he is bound to active obedience."[73]

[Footnote 73: Cited in Franklyn, 208; 1 Rushworth, 422, 436, 444.]

Mainwaring went further, and in two famous sermons--preached, one on
the 4th of July, 1628, the other on the 29th of the same
month--declared that "the King is not bound to observe the Laws of the
Realm concerning the Subject's Rights and Liberties, but that his
_Royal will and Command_, in imposing Loans, and Taxes, without
consent of Parliament, _doth oblige the subject's conscience upon pain
of eternal damnation_. That those who refused to pay this Loan
offended against the Law of God and the King's Supreme Authority, and
became guilty of Impiety, Disloyalty, and Rebellion. And that the
authority of Parliament is not necessary for the raising of Aid and
Subsidies; and that the slow proceedings of such great Assemblies were
not fitted for the Supply of the State's urgent necessities, but would
rather produce sundry impediments to the just designs of Princes."
"_That Kings partake of omnipotence with God._"[74]

[Footnote 74: Franklyn, 208, 592. These two Sermons were published in
a volume with the title "Religion and Allegiance."... "Published by
his Majesty's special command." (London, 1628.) Prof. Stuart seems
inspired by this title in giving a name to his remarkable
publication--written with the same spirit as Dr. Mainwaring's--"Conscience
and the Constitution." (Andover, 1851.) See 3 St. Tr. 335; 1
Rushworth, 422, 436, 585, _et al._; 1 Hallam, 307; 2 Parl. Hist. 388,
410.]

The nation was enraged. Mainwaring was brought before Parliament,
punished with fine and imprisonment and temporary suspension from
office and perpetual disability for ecclesiastical preferment. But the
King who ordered the publication of the sermons, and who doubtless had
induced him to preach them, immediately made him Rector of Stamford
Parish, soon appointed him Dean of Worcester, and finally in 1645 made
him Bishop of St. David's. A few years ago such clerical apostasy
would seem astonishing to an American. But now, Gentlemen of the Jury,
so rapid has been the downfall of public virtue, that men filling the
pulpits once grac