id: "Then am I to be
_under_ the law--which it is treason to affirm?"

To which Coke replied: "Thus wrote Braxton: 'Rex non debet esse sub
homine, sed sub _Deo et Lege_.'"[8]

Coke had the misfortune to offend the King in another matter. James
issued proclamations whenever he thought that the existing law
required amendment. A reply was drawn up by Coke, in which he said:
"The King, by his proclamation or otherwise, cannot change any part
of the common law, or statute law, or the customs of the realm." This
still further aggravated James.

Meanwhile Bacon, now Attorney-General, was high in the King's favour,
and he was constantly manoeuvring in order to bring about the downfall
of his rival. He persuaded James to remove Coke from the Common Pleas
to the King's Bench--a promotion, it is true, but to a far less
lucrative post. This greatly annoyed Coke, who, on meeting Bacon,
said: "Mr. Attorney, this is all your doing." For a time Coke
counteracted his fall in James's favour by giving L2,000 to a
"Benevolence," which the King had asked for the pressing necessities
of the Crown, a benevolence to which the other judges contributed only
very small sums. This fair weather, however, was not to be of long
duration.

In 1616 Coke again offended the King. Bacon had declared his opinion
that the King could prohibit the hearing of any case in which his
prerogative was concerned. In the course of a trial which shortly
afterwards took place, Bacon wrote to the judges that it was "his
Majesty's express pleasure that the farther argument of the said cause
be put off till his Majesty's farther pleasure be known upon
consulting him." In a reply, drawn up by Coke and signed by the other
judges, the King was told that "we have advisedly considered of the
said letter of Mr. Attorney, and with one consent do hold the same to
be contrary to law, and such as we could not yield to by our oaths."

James was furious. He summoned the judges to Whitehall and gave them a
tremendous scolding. They fell on their knees and all were submissive
except Coke, who boldly said that "obedience to his Majesty's command
... would have been a delay of justice, contrary to law, and contrary
to the oaths of the judges."

Although Coke was now in terrible disgrace at Court, he might have
retained his office of Chief Justice, if he would have sanctioned a
job for Villiers, the new royal favourite. George Villiers, a young
man of twenty-four, since the fall