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Quote#Politics & Power

[T]he King is God's immediate lieutenant upon earth; and therefore…

Quote byWilliam Laud · 1573–1645

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Sermon preached at Whitehall (19 June 1625), quoted in The Works of the Most Reverend Father in God, William Laud, sometime Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. Volume I: Sermons (1847), p. 94.

English (original)

[T]he King is God's immediate lieutenant upon earth; and therefore one and the same action is God's by ordinance, and the King's by execution. And the power which resides in the King is not any assuming to himself, nor any gift from the people, but God's power, as well in, as over, him.

— William Laud

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