Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	good_a	king_n	power_n	4,538	5	4.8909	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A22928	The naturall and morall historie of the East and West Indies Intreating of the remarkable things of heaven, of the elements, mettalls, plants and beasts which are proper to that country: together with the manners, ceremonies, lawes, governments, and warres of the Indians. Written in Spanish by the R.F. Ioseph Acosta, and translated into English by E.G.; Historia natural y moral de las Indias. English	Acosta, José de, 1540-1600.; Grimeston, Edward, attributed name.	1604 (1604)	STC 94; ESTC S100394	372,047	616

were those they doe call Tlacatecati which is to say circumcisers or cutters of men The third dignitie were of those which they called EZuahuacalt which signifies a sheader of blood All the which Titles and Dignities were exercised by men of warre There was another a fourth intituled Tlilancalqui which is as much to say as Lord of the blacke house or of darkenesse by reason of certaine incke wherewith the Priests annoynted themselves and did serve in their idolatries All these foure dignities were of the great Counsell without whose advise the king might not doe any thing of importance and the king being dead they were to choose another in his place out of one of those foure dignities Besides these there were other Counsells and Audiences and some say there were as many as in Spaine and that there were divers seates and iurisdictions with their Counsellers and Iudges of the Court and o●hers that were vnder them as Corrigidors chiefe Iudges captaines of Iustice Lievetenants and others which were yet inferiour to these with a very goodly order All which depended on the foure first Princes that assisted the king These foure onely had authoritie and power to condemne to death and the rest sent them instructions of the sentences they had given By meanes whereof they gave the king to vnderstand what had passed in his Realme There was a good order and settled policie for the revenues of the Crowne for there were officers divided throughout all the provinces as Receivers and Treasurers which received the Tributes and royall revenews And they carried the Tribute to the Court at the least every moneth which Tribute was of all things that doe growe or ingender on the land or in the water aswell of iewells and apparrell as of mear They were very carefull for the well ordering of that which concerned their religion superstition and idolatries and for this occasion there were a great number of Ministers to whom charge was given to teach the people the custome and ceremonies of their Lawe Heerevppon one day a christian Priest made his complaint that the Indians were no good Christians and did not profite in the lawe of God an olde Indian answered him very well to the purpose in these termes Let the Priest saide hee imploy as much care and diligence to make the Indians christians as the ministers of Idolles did to teach them their ceremonies for with halfe that care they will make vs the best christians in the worlde for that the lawe of Iesus Christ is much better but the Indians learne it not for want of men to instruct them Wherein hee spake the very trueth to our great shame and confusion How the Mexicaines made Warre and of their Orders of Knighthood CHAP. 26. THe Mexicaines gave the first place of honour to the profession of armes and therefore the Noblemen are their chiefe souldiers and others that were not noble by their valour and reputation gotten in warres came to dignities and honours so as they were held for noblemen They gave goodly recompences to such as had done valiantly who inioyed priviledge● that none else might have the which did much incourage them Their armes were of rasors of sharpe cutting flints which they set on either side of a staffe which was so furious a weapon as they affirmed that with one blow they would cut off the necke of a horse They had strange and heavy clubbes lances fashioned like pikes and other maner of dartes to cast wherein they were very expert but the greatest part of their combate was performed with stones For defensive armes they had little rondaches or targets and some kind of morions or head-peeces invironed with feathers They were clad in the skinnes of Tigres Lions and other sauage beasts They came presently to hands with the enemie and were greatly practised to runne and wrestle for their chiefe maner of combate was not so much to kill as to take captives the which they vsed in their sacrifices as hath beene saide Moteçuma set Knighthood in his highest splendor ordaining certaine militarie orders as Commanders with certaine markes and ensignes The most honourable amongest the Knightes were those that carried the Crowne of their haire tied with a little red ribband having a rich plume of feathers from the which did hang branches of feathers vpon their shoulders roules of the same They carried so many of these rowles as they had done worthy deedes in warre The King himselfe was of this order as may be seene in Chapultepec where Moteçuma and his sonnes were attyred with those kindes of feathers cut in the rocke the which is worthy the sight There was another order of Knighthood which they called the Lions and the Tigres the which were commonly the most valiant and most noted in warre they went alwaies with their markes and armories There were other Knightes as the grey Knightes the which were not so much respected as the rest they had their haire cut round about the eare They went to the war with markes like to the other Knightes yet they were not armed but to the girdle and the most honourable were armed all over All Knightes might carry golde and silver and weare rich cotton vse painted and gilt vessell and carry shooes after their maner but the common people might vse none but earthen vessell neyther might they carry shooes nor attyre themselves but in Nequen the which is a grosse stuffe Every order of these Knightes had his lodging in the pallace noted with their markes the first was called the Princes lodging the second of Eagles the third of Lions and Tigres and the fourth of the grey Knightes The other common officers were lodged vnderneath in meaner lodgings if any one lodged out of his place he suffred death Of the great order and dilligence the Mexicaines vsed to instruct their youth CHAP. 27. THere is nothing that gives me more cause to admire nor that I finde more worthy of commendations and memory then the order and care the Mexicaines had to nourish their youth for they knew well that all the good hope of a common-weale consisted in the nurture and institution of youth whereof Plato treates amply in his bookes De Legibus and for this reason they laboured and tooke paines to sequester their children from delights and liberties which are the two plagues of this age imploying them in honest and profitable exercises For this cause there was in their Temples a private house for childeren as schooles or colledges which was seperate from that of the yong men and maides of the Temple whereof we have discoursed at largee There were in these schooles a great number of children whom their fathers did willingly bring thither and which had teachers and masters to instruct them in all commendable exercises to be of good behaviour to respect their superiors to serve and obey them giving them to this end certaine precepts and instructions And to the end they might be pleasing to Noblemen

that he would not kill him neither was it his intention to hurt them but their obstinate folly was guiltie of all the misery afflictions they had suffered neither were they ignorant how often he had required peace and amity at their hands He then commanded them to be intreated curteously Many strange admirable things chanced in this conquest of Mexico for I neither hold it for an vntruth nor an addition which many write that God favoured the Spaniards by many miracles for else it had bin impossible to surmount so many difficulties without the favour of heaven and to subiect this nation with so few men For although we were sinners vnworthy so great a favour yet the cause of our God the glorie of our faith the good of so many thousands soules as were in these countries whome the Lord had predestinate wrought this change which wee now see by supernaturall meanes and proper to himselfe which calles the blinde and prisoners to the knowledge of himselfe giving them light and libertie by his holy Gospel And to the end you may the better vnderstand this and give credite therevnto I will aleadge some examples which in my opinion are fit for this history Of some miracles which God hath shewed at the Indies in favour of the faith beyond the desert of those that wrought them CHAP. 27. SAint Croix of the mountaine is a very great province and farre from the Kingdome of Peru neighbour to diverse infidell nations which have not yet any knowledge of the Gospel if since my departure the fathers of our company which remane there have not instructed them Yet this province of S. Croix is christned and there are many Spaniards and great numbers of Indians baptized The maner how Christianitie entred was thus A souldier of a lewd life resident in the province of Charcas fearing punishment being pursued for his offences went farre vp into the countrie and was received curteously by this barbarous people The Spaniard seeing them in a great extremity for water and that to procure raine they vsed many superstitious ceremonies according to their vsuall maner he said vnto them that if they would do as he said they should presently have raine the which they willingly offered to performe Then the souldier made a great crosse the which he planted on a high and eminent place commanding them to worship it and to demand water the which they did A wonderful thing to see there presently fel such aboundance of raine as the Indians tooke so great devotion to the holy crosse as they fled vnto it in all their necessities and obtained all they demanded so as they brake downe their idolls and beganne to carry the crosse for their badge demanding preachers to instruct and to baptise them For this reason the province to this day hath beene called S. Croix de la Sierre But to the end we may see by whom God wrought these miracles it shall not be vnfit to shew how that this souldier after he had some yeares done these miracles like an Apostle and yet nothing reformed in his lewd course of life left the province of Charcas and continuing in his wicked courses was publikely hanged at Potozi Polo who knew him wel writes all this as a notable thing happened in his time Cabeca de Vaca who since was governour of Paraguey writes what happened vnto him in his strange peregrination in Florida with two or three other companions the onely remainder of an army where they continued ten yeares with these Barbarians traveling and searching even vnto the South sea being an author worthy of credite he saieth that these Barbarians did force them to cure certaine diseases threatning them with death if they did it not they being ignorant in any part of phisicke and having nothing to apply forced by necessitie made evangelicall medicines saying the praiers of the Church and making the signe of the crosse by meanes whereof they cured these diseases which made them so famous as they were forced to exercise this office in all townes as they passed the which were innumerable wherein our Lord did aide them miraculously and they themselves were thereat amazed being but of an ordinarie life yea one of them was a Negro Lancero was a souldier of Peru of whom they knew no other merit but to be a souldier he spake certaine good wordes vpon wounds and making the signe of the crosse did presently cure them so as they did say as in a proverbe the psalme of Lancero Being examined by such as held authority in the Church his office works were approved Some men worthy of credite report and I have heard it spoken that in the cittie of Cusco whenas the Spaniards were besieged and so straightly pressed that without helpe from heaven it was impossible to escape the Indians casting fire on the tops of the houses whether the Spaniards were retyred in which place the great Church is now built although the covering were of a kind of straw which they call Chicho and that the fire they cast was of the wood of fat slimy firre-trees yet nothing was set on fire nor burnt for that there was a woman did quench it presently the which the Indians did visibly see as they confessed afterwards being much amazed It is most certaine by the relations of many and by the histories which are written that in divers battailes which the Spaniards had as well in New Spaine as in Peru the Indians their enemies did see a horse-man in the aire mounted on a whit horse with a sword in his hand fighting for the Spaniards whence comes the great reverence they beare at the Indies to the glorious Apostle Saint Iames. Other whiles they did see in some battailes the image of our Ladie from whom the Christians have received in those partes incomparable favours and benefites if I should particularly relate all the workes of heaven as they happened it would make a very long discourse It sufficeth to have said this by reason of the favour which the Queene of glorie did to our men when they were pressed and pursued by the Mexicans the which I have set downe to the end we may know how our Lord hath had a care to favour the faith and Christian religion defending those that maintained it although happily by their workes they deserved not so great favours and benefites from heaven And therefore we ought not to condemne all these things of the first Conquerours of the Indies as some religious and learned men have done doubtlesse with a good zeale but too much affected For although for the most part they were covetous men cruell and very ignorant in the course that was to be observed with the Infidels who had never offended the Christians yet can we not deny but on their part there was much malice against God and our men which forced them to vse rigor and chastisement And moreover the Lord of all although the faithfull were sinners