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Men to stand up for the credit of their places. [ 1219]
LEwis the 11th of France, desiring to thrust an Abbot injuriously out of his place,* 1.1 commanded him Cedere, to give up his Right, and to yeeld up the pos∣session to one that he should nominate; the Abbot thinking the King to have no absolute power to dispose of Church-rights, without some high crime, or the Par∣ties voluntary consent, resolutely told him; That he had been forty years learn∣ing the two first letters of the Alphabet, A. B.* 1.2 that is, how to be made an Abbot and he should be forty years longer before he should learn the two next letters, C. D. by which he meant C E D E, that he could not understand how to yield up an Abbo••ship so easily: Thus it is that the greater Men are, the greater care ought they to have in keeping up the credit of their places; be as great as their Pa∣rentage and Pedigrees, Ties and Titles; be as great as their great Crea••or hath made them to be; and as God hath had the bringing of them forth, let not the De∣vill have the bringing of them up;* 1.3 as they tender their dignities, leave them as dignities, lose not a cubit of their stature, embesell not their stock, lose their birth∣right, nor be inferiour to themselves, as some in these dayes are, that have such a Lethargy, Vertigo, or palpitation of the heart, that they have forgotten every thing that should be near and dear unto them, and even tremble to be their own Propug∣nators.