law-makers of the world Quibus omnes antiquae gentes quondā paruerunt both for the more credit of thēselues better authoritie of their lawes made their subiects people beleeue when their first lawes were made that the gods were so carefull that they gaue them seuerall lawes to gouerne the people So Mena one of the first kings of Egipt affirmed that he had instructions for making of his lawes and decrees to the Egiptians from god Mercurius In like sort Licurgus made the Lacedemonians beleeue that the lawes which he gaue vnto them were deliuered vnto him from Appollo in Delphos The people of Creete were perswaded fully by Minoes their first lawe-maker that the lawes which he gaue vnto them were deliuered vnto him from Iupiter that thereby the law might the more be feared and the law-makers better obeyed So did Numa Pomp. warrant his lawes which he established among the Romanes concerning religion from the Nimph Egeria for the gouernmēt which was vnder kings is by Aristotle called Primus diuinissimus principatus When the first gouernment and state of Common-wealths fell by too much seueritie of kings as among the Romaines who were wearie of kings and had no lawe but Ius regis the iudgement and sentence of the king called in Romulus time Lex curiata whose seueritie grew to be such that the second gouernment in Rome which was by Consuls and Senators tooke place by fall of the first which lawe was called Senatus Consultus which grew so great by authoritie of the Consuls that a third kind of popular gouernment vnder the Tribune of the people was authorised to suppresse the misgouernment both of the Consuls and Senators as the Ephori were among the Lacedemonians made by Theopompus to bridle the insolencie of the kings So were the wise men called Magi in Persia without whom the kings of Persia could make no lawes And so the Magistrates called Megistenes had the like authoritie with the kings of Armenia as the Ephori had in Sparta Among the Carthagineans also were two chiefe Magistrates named Suffetes the one with the other to looke to the gouernment of the kings that they should iustly and rightly minister iustice to the people The Hebrewes likewise where God placed Iudges to gouerne the people of the which they were wearie and would haue a king so that the Romanes being wearie of kings would haue Consuls and the Hebrewes being wearie of Iudges would haue kings for all nations at the beginning began with the gouernment of kings sauing the Hebrewes which were as straungers and bondmen in Egipt without eyther king lawe or libertie foure hundred thirtie yeares euen from the comming of Abraham into Egipt vntil Moses and Aaron were commaunded to bring Israel out of Egipt at what time a lawe was giuen in Mount Sinai to Moses within fiftie dayes after the Israelites came out of Egipt that they should bee gouerned thereby before they possessed the land of Canaan After they had receiued the lawe the Lorde commaunded them that they should not make gods of siluer nor gods of golde hee also commaunded that they should make him an Aultar and thereon to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings with a straight charge that they should not make him an Aultar of hewed stones like the aulter at Damascus which Achab brought to Israel for that they should doo nothing of themselues after the manner of the Gentiles but by the Lords prescript rules which are his eternall lawes Yet before this lawe was giuen to Moses there were Aultars builded and sacrifices offered by Noah after hee landed out of the Arke at Baterion by Abraham after he came to the land of Canaan at Sychem by Isaac in Bersabe by Iacob in Bethel where hee fled from his brother Esau they were instructed by the lawe of nature written in the tables of their hearts to worship the Lord to feare him euen from the creation Vnder the lawe of nature the people of God liued and were assisted by the spirit of the Lord ministred vnto them by Angels and instructed by the Patriarches and liuely tradition of the fathers to the sonnes two thousand fiue hundred yeares before the lawe written Who doubtes but what Methusalem beeing in the company of Adam aboue two hundred fiftie yeares and with the rest of the Patriarches vnto the very floud liuing vnder the lawe of nature heard of Adam but Methusalem deliuered it to Sem what Sem heard of Methusalem but hee instructed Abraham therewith what Abraham heard of Sem hee shewed it to Iacob and what Iacob heard of Abraham hee taught it to Amri who was father to Moses to whom the lawe written was giuen so that the one was instructed by the other from the father to the sonne to serue and feare the Lord by the lawe of nature So that Enoch Noah Abraham Iacob Iob and all the olde Patriarches and godly fathers liued in the feare of God by the lawe of nature No doubt many things were written of the olde fathers before the floud and left to their posterities and after the floud generally ouer the whole world before the vse of paper lawes and learning were giuē by traditions frō the parents to the children their posterities as the Indians which had no lawes written no more then the Lacedemonians but by obseruations vntill the Indian Philosophers called Brachmaines found meanes to write in Sindone fine linnen or lawne as the old Egiptians vsed to write on the inward side of the barke of the tree Biblus or as Vlpian saith the Grecians vsed to write on the barke of the tree Tilia for in auntient time from the beginning lawes were written on the inward side of barks of trees as on the barke of Beech trees Elme Ashe Palme trees and such for the great library in Alexandria by Philadelphis compiled and the library in Asia by A◅talus and Eumenes gathered together were written in Haedonis Chartis in goate skinnes During all which time there was no mention made neither of gods nor of Idols though Satan plaid the first Idolater in practising to Adam Eue saying Eritis vt dij Ye shal be like gods on earth your eies shal be opened Satan by degrees deceiued Adā first asking him questions then doubting then denying saying you shal not die which was the first lye in the world so Satan proceedeth with his stratagems as Gregorius Magnus saith in Vnoquoque lapsu a minimis semper incipitur Yet after the lawe written was giuen Idolatry was presently committed before Moses came downe from the Mount so that there was no Idols mentioned nor spoken of before Rachel Iacobs wife stole her father Labans Image and brought it from Mesopotamia in her husbands company towards Canaan where Laban accused his daughter that she stole his gods away But Iacob within a while after he came to Canaan commaunded his houshold and all that were
wife and daughters made Narseus to yeeld vnto the Komanes and to deliuer to the Romais hands Armenia with fiue other Prouinces and to conclude a peace See the force of vertue and power of chastitie in Heathens that Alexander Scypio and Dioclesian wanne by temperance and chastitie that which they could not conquere by armes Antigonus vnderstanding that his sonne lodged in a house where three sisters were of passing beautie wrote that he was most straightly besieged of three great enemies and therefore wished him to remoue his campe and afterwards made a decree that his son should lodge in no place but where the woman should be 50. yeares of age The lawe was among the Grecians that women should not sit among men vnlesse it were with thier husbands and among their next neighbours The like lawe was among the Romains the woman that might be found with strangers in banquets her husband might put her away and be diuorced frō her and therefore it is written in the lawe that conuiuia veneris Praeludia sunt Licurgus lawe was among the Lacedemonians that none should fare better then an other in banquets but all by lawe should be equally feasted the number was appointed in banquets from three vnto seuen among the Greekes so that it grew to be a prouerbe among the Grecians Septem conuiuium nouem conuitium facere So among the auntient Romanes not aboue foure or fiue should be allowed or admittted to a feast or banquet for the chiefe feast by Platoes lawe called Bellaria Platonis was figges berries oliues pease beanes masts of beech trees tosted and prunes for the temperate fare and thin dyet both of the olde Greekes and of the Romanes were Magis iucunda quam Profusa But after in time it grew to such excesse among the Romanes that they came to their feasts and banquets with garlands crowned and there to drinke the first draught to Iupiter as the Grecians drank the last draught to Mercurius Vnto these kinde of feasts the Romanes might not come in black or sad coloured garments but all in white Wisedome exclaimes against those that say Coronemus nos vosis ante quā marcescant vino precioso nos impleamus So likewise among the Grecians it grew to such excesse that they forgot Anacharsis lawe which was but three draughts of wine or Democritus lawe which was but foure at the most though afterward it came to a popular lawe Aut biberent aut abirent This the Greekes had frō the Persians who with their wiues and concubines consulted of state matters at their feasts Licurgus also decreed an other lawe that in any publike feast or banquet whē neighbours and friends were disposed to be merrie that the best and auntientest man of the company should speake to the rest that nothing spoken or done in this feast should passe yonder doore shewing to the company with his finger the chamber doore which they came in at These feasts were not Bellaria Platonis but rather Praeludia veneris In the eight Regiment is contained the commendation of chastitie in vertuous and godly women with the sinister means of the Gentiles to become chaste AFter lawes were made in euery countrey confirmed by diuine authoritie and executed by graue and wise magistrates these lawes for necessitie sake were sent for from one kingdome to an other to gouerne to rule theyr countreys Philadelphus king of Egipt sent three from Alexandria to Eleazarus the high Priest at Ierusalem for the lawes of Moses to bee translated from Hebrew into Greeke So the Senators of Rome sent three for the lawe of the 12. Tables to be brought from Athens to Rome So the Mazacens sent for the lawe of Charondas to Thuria and so the Grecians sent for the lawes of king Minoes into Creete Philadelphus much wondred after the reading of the Hebrew lawes being so wise and godly a lawe that welnigh for a thousand two hundred yeares no nation among the Gentiles made any mention of this lawe though before that time they must needs heare and read of it by reason of the greatnesse and authoritie of the Iewes common-wealth Demetrius and Menedemus two great Philosophers at that time answered the King that none durst attempt to mingle the diuine lawes of the Hebrewes with the prophane lawes of the Gentiles for both Theodectus and Theopompus were punished the one with madnesse the other with blindnesse for making no difference betweene the lawes of the Lord and the lawes of the Gentiles for as Dagon their god fel could not stand before the arke where the presence of God and the figure of Christ was so the lawes of the Lord suffered no prophane lawes to be ioyned with them Seeing we are commaunded by the lawe to forsake adultery wee must learne by the selfe same lawe how to become chaste not as the Priests of Athens did called Hierophantae before they should come to doo sacrifice to their goddesse Pallas they would drinke a very colde drinke made of Cicuta hemblocke to make themselues chaste sometimes vsed in Athens to poison condemned men which was the last drinke and draught of Socrates Neither like the Romaine Priests who vsed to drinke and to wash themselues often with the colde water Cicalda to become chaste to sacrifice to the Goddesse Ceres Neither as the Priests of Egipt did by shauing theyr beards and the haires of their heads by abstaining from wine women and flesh or by ofren washing or annointing of their bodies to become the more continent to serue their goddesse Ifis These Heathens all for that they knew not Christ missed in the meanes to become temperate So the Priests of Cybeles did amputare virilia because they might continue chast and religious to sacrifice and serue their goddesse Cybeles But it was commanded by the Lord to Aaron and his sonnes that they should make no baldnesse on theyr heads nor shaue off the lockes of their beards nor make any marke in their flesh as the Gentiles did It was not lawfull for them to marrie with a widowe or woman diuorced from her husband or any polluted woman but onely with a maide for the Lord would haue his Priests holy which kindle fire on his aultar and offer bread in his sacrifice If the Priests daughter play the harlot she should be burnt by the lawe though others by the lawe should be stoned to death To become chaste is to serue God and to say as Sarah Tobiahs wife said in her praiers thou knowest ô Lord how I haue kept my soule cleane without any desire or company of man Likewise to become temperate is to imitate Iudith the widdowe that sate all day long in her house in sackcloath and kept her selfe close within doores with her maides fasting all the daies of her life excepting onely the Sabboth and the feast of the new Moone not like Dina gadding to Sichem to see the manners and
fellowe and companion of Senators to whom he was scarce worthie to be a seruant For the wise prudent Emperors of Rome were wont to haue learned graue men with thē as well in warres in their camp as also for counsell at home For Augustus would not allow in Rome that libertie which the Indian Philosophers allowed to the Indians for they thought it fond and foolish sith the lawes were equall to all but that euery man should be equally gouerned by the law sith the lawe made all men free that there should be no seruants in that part of India Farre from the Athenians who made so much of their freedome for Pericles lawe was that none might be free in Athens vnlesse they were borne and their parents before them in the citie of Athens And it was the lawe of Solon that no stranger borne should haue Ius ciuitatis vnlesse hee with his house and houshold goods were for euer banished out of his country or had comen to Athens alicuius artis causa But among the Lacedemonians the maner was that they that should be made free should be crowned with greene branches made of boughes of trees and should goe round about the Temples of that citie where they were made free The ceremonies and manners of making free men among the auncient Romanes was that the seruants or bondmen should come with their heads shaued before the Romane Praetor and there the Serieant at the commaundement of the Praetor should strike them on the head three times with a little rodde or wande called Virgula vindictae and they that were so made free were called Manumissi vindicta But if they were souldiers taken by the enemie and had lost the libertie of their freedome if afterwards they returned to Rome they should againe receiue their freedome Iure Postliminij But both those which were made free Cum virga vindictae the rod of reuenge and they which were taken by the enemies should goe vnto the Temple of Feronea and there they should receiue Libertorum munia After that the Romaines became Lords of Italy they graunted Ius latij vnto the Italians which was the lawe then vsed within the citie of Rome and after they had conquered the most part of Asia and Affrike both Affrike and Asia had Ius latinitatis which was the auntient law among the old Italians to be ruled gouerned by for the Romans would haue their Romaine lawes and Romaine magistrates to gouern those prouinces which they got with the sword Among the Romains during the time of their kings they had no law but the sentence and iudgement of the king in any great cause and this lawe was called Lex curiata by Romulus and by the rest of his successors continued during the time of kings this lawe was without the consent of the people but with the counsell consent of the king and of the Senators and for that Papirianus a learned Romane gathered these lawes together and recorded them into one volume they were called Ius Papirianum But when the name of Kings was banished out of Rome and Consuls created to be chiefe gouernours in Rome then the lawe was betweene the Consuls and the Senators called Senatus Consultus then came in the authoritie of the people and no lawe was allowed and ratified but by consent of the people but when the people had voices to make lawes so many lawes were made in Rome as one lawe confounded an other against Platoes rule who euer preferred fewe lawes before many lawes for said Plato Corruptissima Respub vbi plurimae leges That lawe which was made by the Senators and Consuls in Rome was not accepted vnlesse it were allowed by the people for whatsoeuer the Consuls and Senators had determined the people should be Iudge thereof So Plyni with Plato saide that multiude of lawes were hurtfull Videat princeps nè ciuitas legibus fundata legibus euertatur So it was among the Lacedemonians by Licurgus law that the people had authoritie and power to iudge of that which the Kings and Senators did determine Of these thus saith Homer Popliuorus princeps populoiudice cuipecuniam eripere idem quod vitam There was a lawe decreed in Aegina that hee that went about to inuent and bring in new lawes by abrogating the former should die for it for oftentimes Specie aliqua legum leges euertunt It is not so among the Achaians as it was among the Romaines and the Grecians for in Achaia there was no other lawe but what Aratus set downe and in Syracusa no other lawe but what Timoleon said Yet the Senators of Rome might without the consent of the people call a Senate and make election of Senators they might also gouerne and rule the Romane prouinces abroad they might dispense and distribute the money of the cōmon treasurie but for making of lawes creating of magistrates to make warres or to conclude peace the Senators had no authoritie to do it without the consent of the people So that in time lawes were rather authorized in Rome by force weapons in the market place then in the Senate house by the Senators for Populus Comitiorom Princeps bare sway euer in Rome So Pompey by force of armes authorized Caesars law to please the people with diuision of lands and distribution of corne though Cato spake bitterly against it yet could hee not bee heard but was by Caesar beeing then Consul commanded to prison They pleaded Ius in armis as Pompey and Lysander said Non cessabitis nobis gladio accinctis leges praedicare Lex agraria was the most dangerous lawe among the Romaines for that the Tribune of the people sought euer to please the people by lands by corne or by any meanes to become strong by the people which had the chiefest voyce in Rome that the Tribune would often cōtroll the Consuls resist the Senators as Tiberius and Cai. Gracchus Marius and Fuluius with others preferred alwaies this lawe to please the people but Gracchus and Fuluius lost their heads for it were carried vpon a pole to Opimius the Consul who was then commaunded by the Senators to resist the Tribunes and people-pleasers for at that commaundement were slaine three thousand at Rome whose bodies were throwne into Tiber. No Common-wealth can bee without armes no armes without stipend no stipend without tribute and therefore saith Plato Quemque opes suas in censum deferre ad multa vtillia Neither were the magistrates called Ephori opposed against the kings in Sparta without cause by Theopompus neither were they remoued afterwards without cause by king Cleomenes Plena enim periculi aula Neither were the Tribunes of the people in Rome without cause appointed to resist the Consuls and Senators though sometimes they were reiected and suppressed sometimes slaine for so was the old law of the twelue tables Salus populi suprema lex esto The
of 20. of the best learned Ciuilians with the aduise and consent of 50. of the grauest and wifest councellors that were within his Empire to examine whether the lawes were iust profitable for the people before they should be published but being once published as a lawe extreame punishment was appointed for the breach thereof as is before spoken without any appeale frō the lawe without some great extraordinary cause of appeale As among the Hebrewes in any citie of Iudah that if they could not rightly iudge nor discerne throughly the cause according to iustice by the Magistrates of the citie they might appeale to the Iudges named Sinadrion in Ierusalem from whence no appeale could be had So among the Grecians they might appeale from the Areopagites in Athens from the Ephories in Sparta and all other cities of Greece to the Amphictions at Trozaena which were appointed general Iudges for the vniuersall state of Greece in martiall and military causes and there to sit and determine twise a yeare of the whole state of Greece and further to heare and to iudge of some other great causes and capitall crimes from whose sentence no other appeale was to be had for out of euery citie in Greece in the Spring and in the Autumne to the Amphictions at Trozaena they sent Embassadors whom the Greekes called Pytagorae So among the Romanes a lawfull appeale might be had from the Consuls to the Senators from the Senators to the Tribune of the people and from the people to the Dictator which continued vntill the time of the Iudges called Centum viri for Sententia Dictatoris iudicia centum viralia were both lawes of life and death from whose iudgement and sentences there were no greater Iudges to appeale vnto of the like authoritie were the Decem viri from whom also there was no appeale during their gouernment So in diuine causes we may appeale to mount Sion from Mount Sinai from the lawe to the Gospell from Moses to Christ our perpetuall Dictator from whom we haue no place to appeale vnto for our eternall saluation In the fift Regiment is declared the choice of wise Gouernours to gouerne the people and to execute the lawes among all Nations and also the education and obedience of theyr children to their Parents and Magistrates ALl Nations made their choise of the wisest and chiefest men to rule and gouerne their countrey imitating Moses who was by the Lord commanded to choose seuentie wise graue men to be Iudges among the Israelites called Synadrion which continued from Moses time who first appointed these Magistrates vntill Herods time who last destroyed them for in euery citie of Iudah seuen Magistrates were appointed to gouerne and to iudge according to the law of Moses and for their further instructions in the lawe they had of the Tribes of the Leuites two in euery citie to instruct and assist the Magistrates in all actions according to the lawe The Egiptians being next neighbours to the Hebrewes though they mortally hated the Hebrewes yet theyr gouernment of Dinastia vnder thirtie Gouernours elected and chosen out of Eliopolis Memphis Pellusium Thaebes and other chiefe cities of Egipt seemed to imitate Moyses lawe vnder Aristocratia So Solon appointed in Athens certaine wise men called Areopagitae as Iudges to determine of life and death and of other criminall causes Among the old Gaules the Druydes sage and wise religious men had authoritie both in warre and peace to make lawes and to determine of the state of theyr countrey The lawes of all Nations against disobedient children to theyr parents are manifest not onely the lawe of nature among all Nations vnwritten but also the diuine lawe of the Lorde written commaundes children to bee obedient to theyr parents as the lawe sayeth Whosoeuer curseth his father or mother shall dye and his bloud bee on his owne head for that hee curseth his father or mother If a man hath a sonne that is stubborne or disobedient let his parentes bring him vnto the Elders of the Cittie and there accuse him of his faultes saying my sonne is a Ryotour a Drunkarde and disobedient vnto his parentes the lawe is that all the men of that Cittie shall stone him with stones to death This commaundement was esteemed among all Nations euen among wicked men as Esau beeing a reprobate so the Lorde saide Esau haue I hated and Iacob haue I loued yet Esau hating his brother Iacob in heart saying that the dayes of his fathers sorrowes were at hande for I will kill my brother and most like it is that he would haue done so had not the Lorde which appeared to Laban the Syrian in a dreame by night for that hee followed Iacob from Mesopotamia said to Laban Take heed to thy selfe that thou doo or speake to Iacob nothing but good as the Lorde kept Iacob from Laban so he kept him from his brother Esau. Notwithstanding Esau came to his father and said hast thou any blessing for me see that obedience and feare was in Esau towards his father Isaac though hee was a wicked man he determined not to kill his brother before his father died least Isaac his father should curse him The sonnes of Samuel the Prophet Ioel and Abiath which were made Iudges in Bersabe by rheyr father Samuel beeing olde they turned from theyr fathers wayes tooke rewards and peruerted the right the people complained to Samuel that his sonnes followed not his steppes and therefore they would haue a King to gouerne them as other nations had See the ende of Iudges in Israel by the wicked Iudges Ioel and Abiath two wicked sonnes of a good and godly father and the cause of the ouerthrowe of the Iudges in Israel The two sonnes of Eli their offences were such that their father being an olde man was rebuked of the Lord for suffering their vnthriftinesse and wickednesse which was the cause that the Priesthood was taken from the house of Eli for euer so that the gouernment of Iudges in Iudah and also of the Priesthood were taken away by the corruption and disobedience of wicked and vngodly children Obserue likewise the end of kings and kingdomes by wicked kings by Ahaz who offered his sonnes in fire to Moloch by Ioachim and his sonne wicked fathers which brought vp wicked sonnes The kings which were 21. in number continued fiue hundred and odde yeares Who would haue iudged that three such good Kings of Iudah should haue three such wicked children As Dauid had Absolon who sought most trecherously to dispossesse his father of his kingdome As Ezechias had Manasses who offered his sonne in fire to Moloch and filled Ierusalem with bloud Or as Iosias had Ioachim whose wickednesse together with Zedechiah was so disobedient to the Lord and his Prophets that he lost the kingdome of Iudah Who would haue iudged that Salomon the onely wise king of the world hauing
most ambitiously sought Naboths vineyard but hee did not long enioy it and some seeke with Nimrod to build towers in the ayre like to the King of Mexico when hee is sworne at the first comming to the kingdome who among other oathes must sweare that the sunne must keepe his course shyning alwaies in sight that the cloudes must let raine fall downe that the riuers must runne their course and that the earth must bring forth all kinde of fruites These kinde of men search those things that be vnder the earth and those things that be aboue the heauens Satagunt inquirentes saith Plato quae subter terram quae super caelum sunt We read of Antiochus after hee had taken Ierusalem after such slaughter of men women virgins children and Infants that within three daies there was slain foure score thousand and as many solde as were slaine and 4000. taken prisoners after he had taken a thousand and eight hundred talents out of the Temple he went with such a haughtie proude minde from Ierusalem to Antioch as Xerxes went from Persia into Greece thinking in his pride to make men saile vpon drie lande and to walke vpon the seas but as they liued both so they dyed the one miserably murthered in his owne country the other most miserably dyed out of his countrey These and such ambitious men in seeking to build their great name and fame on earth as Xerxes and Antiochus they become so odious and contemptible in their own country as Ammon was in Persia among the Iewes whose name when the Iewes heard of they beate and stampt on the ground with theyr feete because they would not heare his name for the like ambition the name of Hercules might not be mentioned among the Dardanians nor the name of Achilles among the Taenedians for that they destroyed both these countreys To forget these great iniuries Thrasibulus made a lawe in Athens called Amnestia because the crueltie of the thirtie tyrants which caused the children to daunce in their fathers bloud in Athens might no further bee remembred least by reuenging of the same more bloud should be lost much like the Dictators in Rome who might put to death any free Cittizen at theyr pleasure So did Opimius vsurping the office of a Dictator beeing but Consul caused Gracchus Fuluius and diuers other Cittizens to bee slaine But after Iulius Caesar became the first Emperour and Perpetuus Dictator the other Emperours that succeeded him claiming the like authoritie made such lawes in Rome as pleased themselues Sit fortitudo nostra lex iniusticiae for when the honour of the Senators were abrogated and past by Hortensius lawe vnder the Emperour Caesar and his successors that they onely made such lawes as were called Placita Principum without authoritie of the Senators or counsel of the people which were accepted as lawes among the Romaines during the time of the Emperors as Iusregis was in Rome during the raigne of the Kings The law called Plebiscita made by the Tribune of the people could not be allowed vnlesse it were confirmed by the Senators neither could the law made by Senators called Senatus Consultus be allowed without the voyce of the people In like sort Responsa Prudētū for that they had authoritie to enterpret the law in matters of controuersies their sentence iudgement was accepted as lawes so that the body and whole summe welnigh of the ciuill lawe consisted in these lawes before named None might in auntient time among the Romanes be elected Dictator Consul Praetor or Censor vnlesse he were one of the Patritians but in time it grew that the Patricians and the Plebeians were ioyned together that one Consul should be chosen by the Patritians the other by the people This lawe called Amnestia was afterwards brought to Rome from Athens and renewed by Cicero that they should forget the murthering of Caesar least a greater harme should come by reuenging of Caesars death by ciuill warres Omni enim populo inest malignum quiddam querulum in imperautes This lawe was put in practise by the Iewes in Mazphah for the trecherous murthering of Godoliah by ambitious Ismael for they thought it best to put vp iniuries by forgetting of iniuries But the lawe of Draco in Athens was not to forget iniuries as Thrasibulus lawe was neither to please the people as the lawe of Gracchus was in Rome but seuerely to punish the people and that with such seueritie that it was called according to his name Lex Draconis the lawe of a Dragon for the least fault in Athens by the lawe of Draco during the time of his raigne was punished with death who for his lawes was strangled in Aegina vppon the Theaters by the people So that in Rome for the lawes which Gracchus made to please the people he himselfe and diuers others were slaine So in Athens and in diuers other places by offending the people too much by cruell lawes they were strangled killed and slaine of the people for their lawes as Draco was in Aegina and Perillus in Agregutum who found out the brazen bull to please the tyrant Phalaris who decreed by lawe a reward to those that would find out new kindes of torments and tortures to punish offenders So Xerxes promised great gifts and rewards to any that would finde out diuers straunge kinds of pleasures to feed his humour as an Epicure Of these kinde of fellowes Aristotle saith Subtilia illa ignea ingenia in assiduo motu nouandis quam rebus gerendis aptiora and therefore rash young men must not bee magistrates or officers by Aristotles rule In the fourteenth Regiment is set downe the change and alteration of diuers lawes of the libertie and tyrannie of some lawes of the authoritie of soothsayers both among the Romaines and the Grecians HEliogabalus a monster and not an Emperour maintained rather women as Senators to sit with him in councell in Mount Quirinal to make lawes to feed his filthy humours then the Senators which haue beene Iudges equall with Kings in councell after Kings with Consuls after Consuls with good Emperours for Heliogabalus called the Senators Togatos seruos to whom Augustus Caesar gaue great reuerence in any publike assembly or meeting and with whom in the Senate house he sate in councell Facilius est errare naturam quà m sui dissimilem possit princeps formare Rempub. So Tiberius Caesar and Traiane that whatsoeuer was done in Rome was then done by the Senators with the consent of good Emperours which with the Senators made lawes and obeyed those lawes which they made for Vnum imperij corpus vnius animoregendum in so much that Adrian the Emperour when hee sawe a proud citizen of Rome walking in the market place betweene two Senators hee commaunded an officer to giue him first a buffet and after to bring him to prison for that hee made himsefe a
Lacedemonians had also their Senate of eight and twentie graue and auncient wise men which by Licurgus lawe should be 60. yeares old before they should be chosen and accepted to be of councell The Carthagineans in like manner made choice of 30. of their principall and chiefe men of Carthage called Conipodes to sit and determine in secret councell of the state of their citie for the Carthagineans though they followed Charondas lawe yet they imitated the Lacedemonians in all other gouernment as well in warreas in peace So wearie were many nations of kings that when the Hebrewes sought to alter the gouernment of Iudges to haue Kings the Lord commaunded Samuel to set downe to the Hebrewes the lawes of Kings that they will take their sonnes their daughters the best of their fields of their vineards and of their Oliue trees giue them to their seruaunts and they shall take the best of their men-seruants and their maid-seruants their yong men and their asses to do their worke withall So the Vine the Figge tree and the Oliue answered the trees which would haue a king Shall we loose our fatnesse and sweetnesse to become a king Notwithstanding the bramble would be a king ouer the trees The Storke also would accept to be king ouer the the Frogges though all nations desire generally rather to be ruled by one then by many yet many that were elected kings would faine haue forsaken it Q. Cincinnatus being taken from the plough to be a Dictator in Rome to weare Togam praetextam assoone as sixe moneths were expired so long the office of the Dictatorship endured he returned again to his plough according to Salomons speech better is a morsel of bread in a poore mans house peaceably then to bee a Consul or a Dictator in Rome among vnruly people And therefore the Ephori of Sparta grew so ambitious that they began to enuie their kings and therefore deuised this lawe to expell their kings to obserue the starres euery ninth yeare in a cleare bright night which if they sawe any starre eyther shooting sliding or any way remouing from their place they with the consent of the whole colledge of soothsayers accused their kings that they had offended their gods and therefore deposed their kings so were king Agis and king Pausanias deposed from their kingdome by Lysander This was against the lawe of the Lord who said vnto Iob Where wast thou when I placed Hyades in theyr places and Plyades in their course canst thou know the course and orders of Septentriones and of other starres and of the reason thereof Nunquid Nosti rationem caeli saith the Lord Against these starre-gazers Plato writeth men should not bee too curious to seeke causes supernaturall and saith Nequè inquiri oportere nec fas esse curiosè satagere causas scrutantes That was the cause why Andronicus the Emperour hearing two learned men reasoning of the like to say if they would not leaue their curious and friuolous disputations the riuer Rindacus should be Iudge betweene them and end the controuersie for Non sapit qui nimis sapit So were the Priests called Mantes in Athens of such authoritie that nothing could be done in any publike councell concerning religion and matters of state vnlesse they were in place present The like lawe the Romaines vsed euery fiftyeare being taught and commaunded to bee obserued out of the bookes of the Sybils that vpon any appearances or sights of two Sunnes together or of three Moones or any other great causes the soothsayers might remoue either Consul or Praetor from their place The like ambition began in Persia after Cambises dyed that it was not lawfull for the kings of Persia to make any lawes otherwise then they were instructed by theyr Magi neither was there any lawe made among the auntient Romaines without the counsell of their soothsayers who were called interpretes Iouis Nuntijdeorum for these lawes were called among the Romains and the Persians Leges Augurales but of these Augural lawes I haue toucht them in my booke of Stratagems which were as much esteemed and feared of captaines and souldiers as their military lawes for both the Persians Grecians and Romains followed the counsell of soothsayers in their warres contrary to Moses lawe which forbad dreames and soothsaying to be vsed as the Gentiles did for saith the lawe Non declinetis ad magos The superstitious error of the Gentiles in their soothsayers grew to be so great that if the soothsaiers said that Esculapius beeing dead could sooner restore health and minister medicine to the sicke by dreames then Galen could do by his art aliue some would beleeue it and therefore the Pythagorians abstained from beanes when they went to sleepe because it filleth rather the minde with vaine dreames then the belley with good meate If any soothsayers would say that Serapis and Minerua through diuination could minister medicine and restore the sicke vnto health without the helpe of Phisitions sooner then the Phisitions themselues these flatterers would be as they are accepted in court countrey TanquaÌ„ Syrenes aulae the Gentiles would beleeue it which as Thucydides saith are two most noysome things in a common-wealth for nothing could be spoken so absurd but some Philosopher or other will maintaine it and defend it The Philosophers among the Indians which would either prognosticate or defend falsehood or seeme to affirme that to be true which was false they were by law for euer after commaunded to perpetuall silence The lawe of diuination was such in all kingdomes and countries eyther by fleeting of starres flying of fowles by intrailes of beasts or by dreames that whatsoeuer the soothsayers spake among the Persians Grecians and the Romaines it was taken for Maximum praestantissimum ius Reipub for the words of the lawe were Auspicia seruanto for example therof Cicero reciteth many histories and Crisippus gathered many Oracles together But if the lawe of the Gospell were so kept among Christians as the law of Augurers was among the Gentiles and the words of the Preacher were so obserued as the words of the Soothsayers among Pagans if mens affections were set on a heauenlycommon-wealth Vbi Rex est veritas lex charitas modus aeternitas as worldlings are set on an earthly habitation Vbi Rex est vanitas lex infidelitas modus breuitas As it hath bene seene in the Greeks which first florished before the Affricans in the Affricans which florished before the Romains and in the Romains which flourished before the Scythians and therefore In rebus cunctis est morum temporum imperiorum vices So that all commoâ—… wealths all kingdomes and all countries were ruled are and shall be gouerned by diuine prouidence from the beginning to the worlds ende FINIS A Table containing a briefe summe of the whole booke THe old Patriarkes liued vnder the lawe of nature