Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/174

128 next thing objected againſt the barons is this: “That they who were vaſſals preſumed to raiſe arms againſt their lord, and knights againſt their King which they ought not to have done, although he had unjuſtly oppreſſed them. And that they made themſelves both judges and executors in their own cauſe.” All which is very eaſily anſwered. Firſt, it was always lawful for vaſſals to make war upon their lords, if they had juſt cauſe. So our Kings did perpetually upon the Kings of France, to whom they were vaſſals all the while they held their territories in that kingdom. And by the law of England an inferior vaſſal might fight his lord in a weighty cauſe, even in duel. The pope ſeems here willing to depreſs the barons with low titles, that he may the better ſet off the preſumption of their proceedings; but before I have ended, I ſhall ſhew what vaſſals the barons were. I ſhould be loth to ſay, that the Kings of England were not all along as good men as their lords of France, or that the barons of England were not good enough to aſſert their rights againſt any body, but this I do ſay, that it was always lawful for vaſſals to right themſelves even while they were vaſſals, and without throwing up their homage and fealty: for that was never done till they