Barclay contra
Monarchom. 1. iii. c. 16.
Which in English runs thus:
Sec. 237. What then, can there no case happen wherein the
people may of right, and by their own authority, help themselves,
take arms, and set upon their king, imperiously domineering over
them? None at all, whilst he remains a king. Honour the king,
and he that resists the power, resists the ordinance of God; are
divine oracles that will never permit it, The people therefore
can never come by a power over him, unless he does something that
makes him cease to be a king: for then he divests himself of his
crown and dignity, and returns to the state of a private man, and
the people become free and superior, the power which they had in
the interregnum, before they crowned him king, devolving to them
again. But there are but few miscarriages which bring the matter
to this state. After considering it well on all sides, I can
find but two. Two cases there are, I say, whereby a king, ipso
facto, becomes no king, and loses all power and regal authority
over his people; which are also taken notice of by Winzerus.
The first is, If he endeavour to overturn the government,
that is, if he have a purpose and design to ruin the kingdom and
commonwealth, as it is recorded of Nero, that he resolved to cut
off the senate and people of Rome, lay the city waste with fire
and sword, and then remove to some other place.
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