In 1615 James I ordered the publication of God and the King, which supported the obligation to take the oath of allegiance: the work announces itself to be “Imprinted by his Maiesties speciall priuiledge and command.” Attributed to Richard Mocket, at the time warden of All Souls, Oxford, the pamphlet defends divine right absolutism by making the patriarchal analogy linking father and king. Cast in the form of a dialogue, God and the King wastes little time in preliminaries. After a brief greeting, Philalethes, just come from a catechism, launches into a justification of monarchical authority by way of the fifth commandment. A good cathechumen, he recites the lesson that the names of father and mother include all other authorities, especially royal authority. The injunction to honor father and mother also mandates obedience to kings. Extrapolating from Isaiah 49:23, which “stile[s] Kings and Princes the nursing Fathers of the Church,” Philalethes concludes, “there is a stronger and higher bond of duetie betweene children and the Father of their Countrie, then the Fathers of priuate families.” The tract insists on obedience to kings based on the “natural” and divinely sanctioned subjection of children to parents. Enjoying considerable royal patronage, God and the King appeared in both English and Latin, and in James's lifetime was reprinted in London in 1616 and in Edinburgh in 1617. James commanded all schools and universities as well as all ministers to teach the work, and directed all householders to purchase a copy.