All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions.
Ver. 7. All the presidents of the kingdom.] Not all either, for Daniel would sooner have died a thousand deaths than have voted such a gross impiety; but he was one of the most, that knew least of the council, and it was he against whom, haec cudebatur faba, this plot was laid, though it proved at last to be against themselves.
The governors, and the princes, the counsellors and the captains.] A rabble of rebels, conspiring against heaven. Non numeranda aunt suffragia, sed expendenda.
To establish a royal statute.] But a very irreligious and injurious one, the like whereunto was that prohibition in France of Henry III, that it should not be lawful for householders to pray with their families; a and that of the Jesuits at Dolce, forbidding the common people to say anything at all of God, either in good sort or in bad. b
That whosoever shall ask a petition of any god or man.] What, not of their own gods? nor yet of Cyrus, who was co-partner with Darius in the kingdom? But, like enough, these conspiritors might think hereby the rather to ingratiate with the old dotard Darius, who feared the virtue and valour of his nephew and colleague, Cyrus, and would say with tears, as Xenophon reporteth, that Cyrus was more glorious than he, and had more applause of the people.
a Polan. in locum.
b Heyl. Geog.