hardie withall he suffered them to take upon him some small advantages seeking still to draw them unto some place of advantage to fight with them as indeed he did They beeing swelled for that in some light skirmishes they had overthrowne some few of Annibals souldiors and thereby thought it was not honourable to recoile and that men would think their hearts failed them to flie before such as they had alreadie beaten resolved to give battaile and indeed they gave it but they lost it to their great shame and confusion Which the Romane Senate seeing sent against Anniball Fabius Maximus who was not so forward and it may bee not so hardie in enterprizing as Flaminius or Sempronius were but he was more wise and carefull as he shewed himselfe For at the first arrivall as the other did he did not aboord and set upon Anniball who desired no other thing but began to coast him a farre off seeking alwayes advantageous places And when Anniball approched him then would he shew him a countenance fully determined to fight yet alwaies seeking places of advantage But Anniball which was not so rash as to joine with his enemie to his own disadvantage made a shew to recoile and flie to draw him after him Fabius followed him but it was upon coasts and hils seeking alwayes not the shortest way but that way which was most for his advantage insomuch as Anniball saw him alwaies upon some hill or coast nigh him as it were a cloud over his head so that after Anniball had many times assaied to draw Fabius into a place fit for himselfe and where he might give battaile for his owne good and yet could not thereunto draw him said I see well now that the Romanes also have gotten an Anniball and I feare that this cloud which approching vs still hovers upon those hils will some of these mornings poure out some shoure on our heads Breefely the prudencie and wisdome of Fabius brought more feare and gave more adoe unto Anniball than all the Romane forces which yet was not small I have above recited another example witnessed of king Edward of England who said That he feared more the missives and letters of king Charles le Sage than he feared the great and puissant armies of 40 and 100000 men of his Father and Grandfather and that wrought him more trouble and broke more of his purposes and enterprises in enditing of letters than they ever did with their great forces Which is another witnesse made for prudence and good Counsell like unto the example of Anniball which witnesses are so much the more worthie of credite as the one proceeded from a most valiant king and the other from a most noble and hardie Captaine both which well knew by long use and experience how to helpe themselves with force and armes And if we consider the Romane hystories we shall truly find that the ancient Romanes made themselves lords and maisters almost of all the world more by wisdome and good Counsell than by force although they used both Therefore said Varro as by a common proverbe received in his time That the Romans vanquished sitting as if he would say As they sit in their chairs in their Senate they provide so for their affaires by good Counsell and wisedome that they get and obtaine the upper hand in all their enterprises Yea and we see that at this day the Venetians maintain very well their estate yea do augment and make it greater although they understand no thing how to handle armes and indeed when they must needs goe to warre they hire and wage people to doe it but yet notwithstanding are they wise and prudent keeping themselves as much as they can from the warre and when they have warre they do discreetly seeke meanes to quiet and appease it by some other way than by battailes besiegings of Townes or any other exploits of warre And assuredly they know better how to finish and bring a warre to an end by their wisedome and good Counsell without striking any stroke than many puissant princes by their forces and armes Hitherto we have spoken of a princes Counsell which in the time of the Roman A Senat and the Estates are things correspondēt emperours men called The princes Consistorie and our French The kings Priuie Counsell But now we must know that as well the Romane emperours as the kings of France of old have yet had another Counsell whereunto they had recourse in all their waightie affaires which were of great consequence as when they stood in need to make lawes ordinances and rules concerning the universall estate the Romanes called this Counsell the Senat and the French call it the Parlement But this name of Parlement aunciently signifieth an assemblie of the three estates as Philip de Comines saith and as is seene by all our French hystories Our kings also De Comines lib. 1. cap. 64. convocated sometimes with their ordinarie and priuie Counsell some good number of great Prelats and Barons of the realme and that assemblie they called The great Counsell But afterward men attributed the name of Parlement unto the assemblie of Iudges and Senators which judged causes and processes from whome there is no appeale And some thinke that our Parlement is at this day like unto the Senat of Rome but they are greatly deceived for the Romane Senat tooke not any knowledge of the processes and causes of particular persons but only dealt with affairs of the State of the universall government and pollicie and of matters of consequence unto all the Commonwealth and therefore the assemblie of the three estates in France doe much better resemble the Roman Senat than the Parlements doe at this day which might better be compared unto the Romans Centumvirat or to their Praetorian government which dealt in the knowledge of appellations and matters of justice distributive from which judgement ther was no appeale And as the name of Parlement is at this day otherwise applied than it was anciently so is it of the name of Great Counsell But to come to our purpose Wee read that the good Emperours never contemned or thought much in waightie affairs to take the advice of the Romane Senat and to governe themselves thereby for although that by the change of the estate which happened in the time of Iulius Caesar when the commonwealth was changed into a Monarchie the authoritie of the Senate was much abated and weakened yet there was never emperour found that durst enterprise altogether to abolish it but contrarie the good and wise emperors rather helped to establish their authoritie and power And the reason why no emperor good or wicked durst enterprise to abolish the Senate was because by the Law Roiall whereby the estate Monarchicall was established at Rome there was only transferred unto the king the authoritie and power of the people and not that which the Senat had Which people although they had sovereigne power over every particular person of
they understood how they should administer as a captaine Niger lieutenant of the warre for the emperor Marcus Antonine complained to him But that incommoditie was much more supportable in that time than Spart in Nigro at this day it can bee in Fraunce for the Romane magistrates seldome decided private and particular causes but in Fraunce magistrates must deale in all causes After that the prince hath well established his justice as well by publication of A Prince ought himself to minister Iustice good lawes as by institution of good magistrates yet is he not discharged For he ought himselfe also to deale therin And this is another point of the Counsell which Iethro gave to Moses For after he had counselled him what magistrates hee should establish under him he added more That Moses ought to reserve unto himselfe the knowledge and decision of great affaires which are of consequence And assuredly this is a point very necessarie and which a prince ought not to leave behind for hee is debtor of Iustice to his subjects and ought to give them audience in things wherof he is to have necessarie knowledge for all things are not proper to bee handled before magistrates established by the prince but there are many things wherof the knowledge ought to appertaine to the prince alone as when a meane man wil complaine against some great lord or magistrat or against Publicans and exactors of the princes money or when a man labours for a pardon gift recompence and many other like The prince then ought himselfe either alone or in his Counsell to give often audience unto his subjects For we reade that by the primitive creation of kings Dionis Halic â—ib 1. 5. and monarchs the authoritie which was attributed unto them by the people consisted in three very notable points whereof the first was To minister good justice unto their subjects by causing them to observe the lawes and customes of the countrey and to take knowledge themselves of the injuries which are great and of consequence amongst their subjects The second point was To convocat an assembly of a Senat to handle the affaires of the commonwealth And the third To be the cheefetaine and soveraigne of the warre And for as much as the first dutie of kings consisteth to do good justice unto their subjects the auncient Grecians even Homer calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Distributers of justice This is it wherefore almost all good princes have had their ordinary daies of Audience wherin they took knowledge of the complaints and grievances of their subjects and administred right and justice unto them Iulius Caesar tooke great paine and travaile to heare causes and to administer justice and to cause them to observe lawes which concerned Suet. in Caesar cap. 43. in Aug. cap. 3 in Claud. cap. 15. in Galba cap. 7. 8 9. Domitiano cap 8. the commonwealth as especially the law Sumptuariam which would permit no excesse in bankets nor dissolutnesse in apparell Augustus Caesar likewise kept an ordinarie Audience which he continued untill night yea being evill at ease he in a litter would be carried to the pallace or hold Audience in his house The emperour Claudius also although hee were of an heavie and dull spirit yet held hee his Audience and administred right to parties So did Domitian who how wicked soever he was in other deportments with great industrie and diligence administred good justice unto parties and often revoked decrees from the Centumvirat seat which for favor were given and spared not to punish corrupted Iudges The emperour Galba likewise although he was of the age of threescore and twelve yeares when he came to the empire yet dealt with audience of parties and administred justice So did Traian Adrian the Antonines Severus Alexander and many other Romane emperors give Audience to their subjects and administred justice unto them And very memorable is that which is written of the emperor Adrian namely That one day as hee went into the fields he was required by a poore woman who had watched to speake with him to doe her justice upon a certaine complaint she made unto him The emperour very Dion in Adrian kindly said unto her That that was no place where she should require justice and sent her away till another time The woman replied upon him Sir said she if you wil not doe me justice wherefore deale you to be emperour Adrian was never moved hereat but staied still heard her did her justice If we read the hystories of France wee shall find that it hath yet beene more ordinarie and common with our auncient kings to hold Audiences which men called Lict de Iustice The Bed of Iustice than with the Romane emperours Charlemaigne king of Fraunce and emperour besides Annal. upoÌ„ Anno 809 814 1215. that he tooke great care that Stewards Bayliffes and their deputies should walk upright without abusing their Offices would also that they should reserve unto him all great causes or such as were amongst great lords Then caused hee the parties to appeare before him he heard them patiently and agreed them amiably if he could by any means and so he gave his sentence and good and prompt justice King Lewis the first of that name surnamed le Debonaire because of his good and holy conditions following the traces of Charlemaigne his father held a publicke Audience in his pallace three times in the weeke and heard the grievances and complaints of every one executing to all quicke and right justice But what good came there hereof Even this saith the hystorie that the publicke good in this good kings time was so well governed and administred that there was almost no man found amongst his subjects which complained that any man did him wrong or injurie but al men lived in great peace and prosperitie one not daring to offend another for the feare they had of the kings good justice which he would administer himselfe and so cause his ministers to doe after his example So much could that royall vertue of Iustice doe for the maintenance of peace and prosperitie in a kingdome King Philip Augustus surnamed the Conquerour for his great prowesses and conquests was also a good Iusticer and willingly heard the complaints of his subjects insomuch as one day understanding that Guy Counte de Auverne used greatly to pill and violently to spoile his subjects and neighbours exacting upon them great summes of money against their wils and without the kings consent their soveraigne and having found him culpable hereof condemned him by the advice of the barons of the realme to lose his land and seignorie of Auverne which from that time was united to the crown We may also place here the good justice of the kings Charles le Sage Charles the seventh Charles the eight Lewis the twelfth and of many other kings of France Annal. upon Anno 1255 1269 Gaguin in the liâ—e of S.
A DISCOVRSE VPON THE MEANES OF VVEL GOVERNING AND MAINTAINING IN GOOD PEACE A KINGDOME OR OTHER PRINCIPALITIE Divided into three parts namely The Counsell the Religion and the Policie vvhich a Prince ought to hold and follow Against Nicholas Machiavell the Florentine Translated into English by Simon Patericke OVIBVS RESPVBLICA CONSERVETVR LONDON Printed by Adam Islip 1602. TO THE MOST FAMOVS YONG GENTLEMEN AS WELL FOR RELIGION MODESTIE AND OTHER VERTVES AS ALso for kinred Francis Hastings and Edward Bacon most heartie salutations AFter Solon right Worshipfull yong men had seene Thespis his first edition and action of a Tragoedie and meeting vvith him before the playe demaunded If he vvere not ashamed to publish such feigned fables under so noble yet a counterfeit personage Thespis answered That it vvas no disgrace upon a stage merrily and in sport to say and do any thing Then Solon striking hard upon the earth vvith his staffe replied thus Yea but shortly vve that now like and embrace this play shall finde it practised in our contracts and common affaires This man of deepe understanding saw that publicke discipline and reformation of manners affected and attempted once in sport and ieast vvould soone quaile corruption at the beginning passing in play vvould fall and end in earnest Therefore Tacitus vvorthily dooth extoll the manners of the Germanes of his time amongst vvhom vices were not laughed at For laughters begun of some publick shame and dishonestie wil assuredly procure him some miserable calamitie Hereof France is unto all ages and nations a vvofull view yet a profitable instruction at this day For vvhē the cleare light of the Gospell began first to spring and appeare Sathan to occupie and busie mens minds vvith toyish playes and trifles that they might give no attendance unto true vvisedome devised this policie to raise up jeasters and fooles in Courts vvhich creeping in by quipping and prettie conceits first in vvords and after by bookes uttering their pleasant ieasts in the Courts and banquets of kings and princes laboured to root up all the true principles of Religion and Policie And some there vvere vvhom the resemblance of nature or vanitie of wit had so deceived that they derided the everlasting veritie of the true God as if it were but a fable Rabelaysus amongst the French and Agrippa amongst the Germanes were the standerd bearers of that traine which with their skoffing taunts inveighed not only against the Gospell but all good arts whatsoever Those mockers did not as yet openly undermine the ground work of humane societie but only they derided it But such Cyclopian laughters in the end prooved to be onely signes and tokens of future evils For by little and little that which was taken in the beginning for iestes turned to earnest words into deedes In the necke of these came new Poets very eloquent for their owne profit which incensed unto lust lightnesse such mindes as were alreadie inclined to wantonnesse by quickening their appetites with the delectable sause of unchast hearing and pricking them forward with the sharp spurres of pleasure Who could then bridle vices and iniquities vvhich are fed with much wealth and no lesse libertie seeing them not onely in play mirth and laughter entertained but also earnestly accepted and commended as being very excellent Yet some troad the steps of honesty which now lay a dying and practised the ould manners and fashions which were almost forgotten For although the secret faults of the Court were evill spoken of yet shame stoode in open view hainous infamous crimes kept secret corners princes were of some credit and faith lawes were in reasonable good use magistrates had their due authoritie and reverence all things onely for ostentation and outward shew but none would then have feared an utter destruction For than Sathan being a disguised person amongst the French in the likenesse of a merry ieaster acted a Comaedie but shortly ensued a wofull Tragoedie When our countrie mens minds were sick and corrupted with these pestilent diseases and that discipline vvaxed stale then came forth the books of Machiavell a most pernitious vvriter vvhich began not in secret and stealing manner as did those former vices but by open meanes and as it vvere a continuall assault utterly destroyed not this or that vertue but even all vertues at once Insomuch as it tooke Faith from the princes authoritie and maiestie from lavves libertie from the people and peace and concord from all persons vvhich are the onely remedies for present malladies For vvhat shall I speake of Religion vvhereof the Machiavellians had none as already plainelie appeareth yet they greatly laboured also to deprive us of the same And although they have vvrongfully bannished us our native countrey yet fight vvee still for the Churches defence Moreover Sathan useth strangers of France as his fittest instruments to infect us stil with this deadly poyson sent out of Italie vvho have so highly promoted their Machivellian bookes that he is of no reputation in the Court of France vvhich hath not Machiavels vvritings at the fingers ends and that both in the Italian and French tongues can apply his precepts to all purposes as the Oracles of Apollo Truly it is a wonderfull thing to consider how fast that evill weede hath growne within these fewe yeares seeing there is almost none that striveth to excell in vertue or knowledge as though the onely way to obteine honour and riches were by this deceivers direction But now to turne mine eyes from beholding so many miseries of poore afflicted France as often as I see or remember our neighbour countries which thing I doe daily so often doe I bevvaile our miseries Yet am I right ioyfull for your felicitie chiefely because God of his great bounty hath given you a most renowned Queene as well in deede as title even in the middest of so many troubles For she comming to the crowne even when England was tossed with tempestuous stormes so dispersed those cloudes with the brightnesse of her counsell and countenance that no civile dissention nor externall invasion hath disturbed your peace tranquilitie these many yeeres especially so many vvarres sounding on every side For shee by maintaining vvholesome unitie amongst all degrees hath hitherto preserved the State of her realme not onely safe but florishing not by Machiavelian artes as Guile Perfidie and other Villanies practising but by true vertues as Clemencie Iustice Faith Therfore goeth she her progresse throgh her realme of England entertained in all places with happy applause reioysing prosperitie of all her subiects she being a princesse of both Nobles and commons by dew desert most entirely beloved Whereas vve against our vvils behold our countrie svvimming in blood and disfigured by subversion vvhich is a ioyfull obiect to the eyes of strangers yea and those labour most to vvork her destruction vvho should bee most carefull to rescue deliver poore France out of her long calamities but the Lord vvill at
the Senat yet had they no power over the whole body of the Senat for they might well punish with death one Senator but they had no superioritie over the body of the Senat. So the body of the Senat and the body of the People were as it were alike and equall And as much authoritie had the lawes of the Senat which they called Senatus consulta as the lawes of the People which they called Plebiscita And therefore the emperours which by the Law Roiall succeeded in the place of the People only for the Senat did never despoile themselves of their authoritie to invest the emperour therewith had never power to decay the Senat neyther durst they ever enterprise it although some had a will thereunto as Nero Caligula and their like But as for the good emperours besides that they had no power to abolish the Senat they never had any desire thereof but maintained and conserved it and governed themselves by it and by it were they better obeied For we need not doubt but a people will more willingly obey a Law or Decree which shall have been sifted and examined in a great wise and notable an assembly such as was the Senate and will like it better and rather judge the Law to be founded upon reason and equitie than when it onely passeth through the braine of one sole man or of some small number Therefore the Emperour Alexander Severus never made Lamp in Alexand. law nor edict but he had on his Counsell twentie great and excellent Lawyers and fiftie other great excellent persons wise and well experienced And yet to the end that they might give their opinions more assuredly he first made them understand the matter upon which they must give their advise and after give time to consider thereof that their opinions might bee better digested resolved Therfore also the Emperour Theodosius ordained that no law should be availeable unlesse it were first L. humanum C. de Leg. concluded and determined with good and assured resolution of all the princes Consistorie and afterward received and approved by the Senat of Rome For saith he we know well that the ordinance of good Lawes and Edicts concluded with good Counsell and deliberation is the establishment of the assurednesse and glory of our Empire Therefore was it also that that great and wise Emperour Augustus Caesar did so communicate all the affaires of his Commonwealth with the Romane Senate Dion in August that as Dion saith he made a sweet and pleasant mingled harmonie of the Monarchicall estate with the estate of the Commonwealth And he not onely contented not himselfe to conferre with the Senate all affaires of importance and to take their advise but yet he would that the Senate should give him every yeare twentie Counsellors to be nigh him of his privie Councell in which Counsell he had alwaies many men very wise courteous and very modest such as the Lawyer Trebatius and that good and prudent Agrippa his sonne in law with that so learned and good a piller of learned men Mecoenas Therefore also Tiberius the Emperour the successor of Augustus although he was a Prince more abundant in vices than in vertues not daring wholly to stray out of his predecessors traces that good Augustus made nor ordained any thing of weight without the Counsell and advise of the Senate For this cause also breefely all the good Emperors as Vespatian Titus Traian Adrian the Antonines and others like communicated alwaies with the Senate upon all the great affaires of the Commonwealth and they bore themselves not like maisters but like Presidents of the Senat also they did not attribute unto themselves any title of honour nor enterprised to make any triumphs but such as was decreed and ordained by the Senate And by the contrarie the Emperours which were of no account such as Caligula Nero Comodus Bassianus Maximinus Heliogabalus and other like hated extreamely the Senate esteeming of it as their pedegoge and corrector and have caused many Senators to die thinking the more easily to command as they would having no controulers to withstand their wicked actions But the end was alwayes this that such as despised and would have annihilated the Senate have ever had an unluckie end and reigned not long time but have all been massacred and slaine young and have left unto their posteritie an infamie and most wicked memorie of them Herein is shewed a continuall successe of the just judgements of God against them which despised wise Counsell and contrary a felicitie and divine prosperitie in other Emperours which governed themselves by the good Counsell of the Senate and of the wise men of their privie Counsell For they raigned and held the Empire happily replenished with all goods honour and glorie and their subjects under them enjoyed good handling and good repose and tranquilitie And we need not doubt that such felicitie comming to good Princes the evill haps unto wicked Princes doe not proceed from God for as the wise man saith Good Counsell commeth from God and he that despiseth the gift of God Prov. 18. Eccle. 37. certaine it is that in the end he shall be well chastised Our kings of France of old used the same course that these good Emperors did For they often convocated the three Estates of the kingdome to have their advise and Counsell in affaires of great consequence which touched the interest of the Commonwealth And it is seene by our Hystories that the generall assembly of the Estates was commonly done for three causes One when there was a question In old time the general Estates wer held for three causes to provide for the kingdome a Governour or Regent as when kings were young or had not the use of their understandings by some accident or were captives or prisoners For in these cases the three Estates assembled to obtaine a Governour for the Realme Againe when there was cause to reforme the kingdome to correct the abuses of Officers and Magistrates and to bring things unto their ancient and first institution and integritie For kings caused the Estates to assemble because that many being assembled from all parts of the kingdome they might better be informed of all abuses and evill behaviours committed therein and might also better worke the means to remedie them because commonly There is no better Physician than he that knoweth well the disease and the causes therof The third cause why there was made an assembly of the Estates was when there was a necessary cause to lay a Tribute or Impost upon the people For then in a full assembly some shewed to them which were there which represented all the people the necessitie of the kings and the kingdomes affaires who graciously and courteously entreated the people to aid and helpe the king but with so much money as they themselves thought to be sufficient and necessarie And for this cause that which the Estates accorded to the king was
called with these gracious names Subsidies Subventitions Aydes Grants not with these tearmes Tailles Imposts Tributes Impositions which were tearmes more hard and odious Examples appeare of the first cause when the generall Estates assembled at Paris after the death of king Charles le Sage to provide for the government as well of king Charles the sixt being under Annal. upon An 1380 and Fross li 2. cap. 58. 60. age as of the kingdome which government they gave unto three of the kings uncles namely to the Duke of Berry Languedoc to the Duke of Bourgoigne Picardie and Normandie and to the Duke de Aniou the remainder of all the realme and the rule of the young kings person was committed to the said Dukes of Berry and Bourgoigne So was there ordained during the said kings life another ordinance In like manner the generall Estates were held at Tours after the decease of king Lewis the eleventh to purvey for the government of king Charles the eighth under Annal. upon An. 148. and Coâ—â—n â—ib 1. ca. 109. age and of the kingdome And by the same Estates was established a Counsell of twelve persons good men and of good calling to dispatch the affaires of the kingdome yet in the kings name and under his authoritie And the rule of the young kings person was committed unto Madame de Beavien his sister When king Charles the sixt le bien aime was come to the age of one and twentie yeares his uncles were discharged from the government of the kingdome by the Froiss lib 1. cap. 134. lib. 4. cap. 44. advise and deliberation of the kings great Counsell But this good prince by an accident of sicknesse fell a certaine time after into a frenzie which sometimes bereaved him of his sences insomuch that the Estates assembled at Paris gave the government of the kingdome during the kings indisposition to his two uncles the dukes of Berrie and Burgoigne The yeare 1356. that king Iohn was taken prisoner nie Poictres at the journey of Annal. upon An. 1356 and Fross li. 1. cap. 170. 171. Maupertins with his sonne Philip after Duke of Burgoigne and that they were led into England there remained in France three of the said king Iohns children namely Charles Dauphin and duke of Normandie Lewis duke de Aniou and Iohn duke of Berrie There was a question about the providing for the government of the kingdome because of the kings captiuitie but none of them would enterprise the mannaging thereof of himselfe insomuch that the generall Estates were assembled at Paris whereby were elected thirtie six persons some say fiftie to governe the affaires of the kingdome with Monsieur le Dauphin who at the beginning called himselfe the Lieutenant of the king his father but afterward he named himselfe Regent The yeare 1409. during the raigne of Charles the sixt king of France were held Monstrelet lib. 1. ca. 59. the generall Estates at Paris for the reformation of abuses in the kingdome And there it was ordained that all accountants for the kings revenues and rents should make their accounts By the meanes of which reformation great summes of money were recovered upon the same accountants and there were also made some good lawes and ordinances In other conventions of Estates the money and coine hath been reformed from weake and light unto thicke and of good waight and goodnesse Also of late at the generall Estates held at Orleans were made manie goodly ordinances for the good and comfort of the poore people reformation of justice and for the cutting off of manie abuses which were committed in plaies at Cardes and Dise in superfluitie of apparell and in matter of benefices But commonly commeth such euill hap that all good things which are introducted and ordained vpon good reason and to a good end incontinent vanish away and wicked examples are alwaies drawne into consequence As for the last cause for which we haue said the generall Estates in old time were called namely for the graunt of Helps Subsidies ther are manie examples in our Histories As in the time of king Iohn wherein the Estates accorded great subventions Froiss lib. 1. cap. 155. Annal. upon An 1354 58. 59. or subsidies to make warre against the English men which then held a great part of the kingdome And after he was taken prisoner and led into England the said Estates agreed to give vnto Monsieur le Dauphin his soune great summes of money to pay for the said kings raunsome and for Philip his sonne being also a prisoner And well to be marked it is that our histories doe witnesse that all the people of France generally were meruailously anguished grieved with the prisonment captivitie which they saw their king suffer but especially the people of the countrey of Languedoc For the Estates of the said countrey ordained that if the king were not delivered within a yeare that every one both men and women should lay by all coloured garments such also as were jagged and cut and such as were enriched with gold silver or other strange and costly fashion Likewise to make cease all stage-plaies morrisdauncings piping yea and plaies pastimes and daunces in signe and token of their mourning and lamentation for their princes captivitie A thing whereby appeared the great and cordiall affection of this people towards their king As truely the Frenchmen have alwaies been of great love and affection towards their kings unlesse they were altogither tyrants But to make an end of this point Certaine it is that before king Charles the seventh called le Victorieux no Subsidies were imposed without assembling the generall Estates And that our kings used thus to do was not because they had power by an absolute authoritie to impose tallages and subsidies without calling the Estates but it is to the end they may be better obeyed with a voluntarie and unconstrained obedience and to shunne all uprores and rebellions which often happen upon that occasion And truly the French people have alwaies been so good and obedient unto their kings that they never refused him any thing if there were but any appearance of reason to demand it Yea often the Estates have granted their king more than he would demand or durst looke for as is seene by that which our histories write of the Estates held for Subsidies But because Aydes and Subsidies were customably granted for the making of De Com. lib. 5. cap. 18. warres M. Philip de Comin saith That kings should also communicat and consult with their Estates whether the causes of such warres be just and reasonable and that the Prince cannot nor ought not otherwise to enterprise a warre For it is reason that they which defray the charges and expenses should know something But yet he passeth further and saith There is no Prince in the world which hath power to lay one pennie upon his subjects without their grant and consent unlesse he will use tyrannie and
at Paris shewed him in all humilitie how of themselves they were rid of the English obedience and that again they would remit themselves into his Majesties obedience as being their king and naturall soveraigne Prince but that they besought him humbly to accord Priviledges of Rochell them certaine priviledges The king demanded what priviledges First said they That it would please your Majestie to agree unto us that the Towne of Rochell may be inseparably united unto the Crowne of France so that it may never be seperated nor dismembred by peace mariage nor by any compact condition or misadventure that can come in Fraunce Secondly that the Castle may be throwne to the earth without which we will keepe the towne of Rochell well for your Majestie The king perceiving their demands and finding them reasonable and proceeding from a true French heart accorded their requests and so the Rochellois returned merily into the French obedience from whence they had been seperated to their great greefe Here then you see how well to the purpose and to the great profit of the king and of the kingdome that law of not alienating the Lands Townes and Provinces of the Crowne was made But upon this that I have said of the Rochellois some Messer will say How happeneth it then that the Rochellois are at this day so bad French subjects hereunto the answere is easie and evident that is that they are at this day as good Frenchmen as ever were the ancestours but they are not good Italians neither meane to be subject under the yoke of strangers no more than their ancestors Let us now come to the other example King Francis the first of that name being prisoner at Madril in Spain in power of the emperour Charles the fist there was made a traitie and an accord betwixt the two great princes whereby amongst other things the king promised the emperor to grant him all his right and possession of the Dutchie of Burgoigne and that he would imploy himselfe to cause the Estates of the countrey to condiscend therunto This accord being concluded the emperor caused the king to be conducted to Bayonne and there by his embassadours summoned him to ratifie the accord which he had made at Madril when he was prisoner to the end to make more valeable and that it might the rather appeare to be made without constraint unto which embassadours the king answered that he could doe nothing in that article concerning the Dutchie of Burgoigne without first knowing the intent and will of his subjects because he could not aliene it without their consent and that he would cause the Estates of the countrey to assemble to know their wils therein Not long after the king caused the Estates of Burgoigne to come together which would by no meanes consent unto the said alienation whereof hee advertised the emperour who seeing that by reason they could not be alienated without their consents was content with that answer upon this condition That the king would assure the said Dutchie unto the first heire male which the said king should have by Elenor the said emperours sister unto whom he was then espoused so that that law That the king cannot alienate the Crowne-land was then verie profitable unto the king and the kingdome And unto this agree the doctors of the Civill law which hold that the emperour cannot aliene any thing of the Empires but he is bound to increase it to his power And from thence they drawe but foolishly the etymologie of that name Augustus saying The Emperors are called Augusti for that they ought to encrease and cannot diminish the Empire as much say they of other kings and monarchs for there is therein the like reason For a conclusion no man of perfect judgment can denie but these three lawes of the kingdome of France namely the law Salicke the law of the Estates general and the law of not alienating the lands and provinces of the crowne are the verie true pillars bases and foundations of the kingdome and the royaltie which none can or ought to abolish I doubt not but there will be found manie which will be quarelling at those aforesaid examples and reasons and will say That to sustain and defend that the king cannot abolish the said lawe is to diminish his power and to give limitation and restriction to his soveraigne authoritie But for reply I will only demaund If it be not puissance in a prince to conserve him and his estate If they confesse yea as none can denie it if he be not altogether without judgement I say it followeth by argument taken from contraries that it is then impuissance and want of power in a prince to ruinate himselfe and his estate And by consequent it followeth that when we say that a Prince cannot abolish the fundamentall lawes of him and his estate so much there wanteth that we diminish his power that by the contrarie we establish it and make it more firme greater and as it were invincible As also on the contrarie they which say that a Prince can abolish and change his lawes upon which he and his Estate are founded they establish and place in him an impuissance to conserve himselfe For to take it rightly and in good sence it is an act of impuissance to ruinat destroy overthrow and to participate his estate And contrarie it is an act of power to conserve himselfe and maintaine his estate No more nor no lesse than when a building falleth upon the earth or when a man letteth it fall these be acts of feeblenesse frailetie and impuissance but when the one and the other holdeth and standeth streight and firme without cracking or falling these be acts of force and power As for the law Naturall it cannot be abolished For if a Prince will authorise The law naturall cānot be abolished by the king or any other adulteries incests thefts murders and massacres and other like crimes which naturall reason and common sence causeth us to abhorre and detest certaine and evident it is that such authorising is of no value and that the Prince cannot doe this When the emperor Claudius wold espouse Agrippina his niece his brothers daughter he made a Law whereby he authorised the mariage of the uncle with the niece which was published all over but sayth Suetonius no man would imitate and follow the Emperours example but a bad servant newly enfranchised and a souldier every body so detested and abhorred such kind of mariages as being contrarie to the naturall law and common sence And indeed this mariage fell not out well for Sueto in Claudio cap. 26. Tacitus Annal lib. 12. him For Agrippina his neece and wife poysoned him to bring to the Empire Nero hir sonne whom she had had by another husband and had caused him to be adopted for his sonne although he had by his first wife Messalina another naturall sonne called Britanicus whom Nero when he came to the Empire empoysoned to
death so that by the incestuous mariage wherewith Claudius had contaminated and poysoned his house he and his naturall sonne who by reason should have been his successor were killed with poyson We read likewise that the Emperour Bassianus Carracalla Spartian in Carac beholding one day Iulia his mother in law with an eye of incestuous concupiscence She said unto him Si tu le veux tu le peux If thou wilt thou maiest Knowest thou not that it belongs unto thee to give the law not to receive it which talke so enflamed him yet more with lust that he tooke her to wife in marriage Hereupon Hystoriographers note that if Bassianus had knowne well what it was to give a law he would have detested and prohibited such incestuous and abhominable copulations and not to have authorised them For breefely a Prince may well give lawes unto his subjects but it must not be contrary to nature and naturall reason This was the cause why Papinian the great Lawyer who well understood both naturall and civile law loved better to die than to obey the said Emperor Bassianus who had commanded him to excuse before the Senate his parricide committed in the person of Geta his brother For Papinian knowing that such a crime was against natural right so much there wanted that he would have obeied the Emperor if he had commanded him to have perpetrated and committed it that he would not obey him so far therein as to excuse it Wherein the Paynim Lawyer may serve for a goodly example to condemne many Magistrate Lawyers of our time which not only excuse but also cause to be executed unnaturall murders and massacres against all law divine and humane But now we have spoken of a Princes absolute power let us come to the other The other power which we call Civile is that which is governed and as it were The Civile power temperateth the Absolute limited within the bounds of Reason of right and equitie and which we must presume that the Prince will use and useth ordinarily in all his commaunds unlesse expressely he shew and declare that he willeth and ordaineth this or that of his absolute power and of his certaine knowledge This is that second power which is guided by prudence and good Counsell and which giveth a sweet temperature and counterpoise to that absolute power no more nor no lesse than the second motion of the Sunne tempereth the course of the first as we have abovesaid This is that power which establisheth and conserveth in assurednesse kingdomes and empiers and without which they cannot stand but incontinent shal be ruinated annihilated and laid on the ground This is that power which all good Princes have so practised letting their absolute power cease without using any unlesse in a demonstration of Majestie to make their Estate more venerable and better obeyed that in all their actions and in all their commands they desire to subject and submit themselves to lawes and to reason And in this doing they never thought or esteemed to doe any thing unworthie of their Majestie but contrary have ever accounted that there was no thing more beseeming the majestie of a soveraigne Prince than to live and carrie himselfe in all his actions according to right and equitie And that the domination and power of a Prince that so governeth himselfe is greater more secure and more venerable than his which governeth himselfe after the absolute power And truly all the good Romane Emperours have alwayes held this language and have so practised their power as we read in their hystories Yea the Emperour Theodosius L. digna Vox C. de Lege made an expresse law for it which is so good to be marked that I thought good to translate it word by word It is the majestie of him that governeth to confesse himselfe to be bound unto lawes so much doth our authoritie depend upon law And assuredly it is a farre greater thing than the Empire it selfe to submit his Empire and power unto lawes And that which we will not to be lawfull unto us we shew it unto others by the oracle of this our present Edict Given at Ravenna the eleventh day of Iune the yeare of the Consulship of Florentius and Dionisius To come then to our purpose you must understand that de Comines spoke of this second power in the place above alledged and not of the absolute power of a Prince for by that power it is certain that the Prince hath good authority to enterprise wars to levie imposts upon his subjects without their consent Because that by the roiall law above mentioned the Roman people gave all the like power unto the Prince as Dion de August ◠I. D. de Constit. Princ. they had themselves to use it towards the people against the people gave him absolute power without any astriction or bond to laws to do what he would We see also by the law of God the same absolute power is given unto kings soveraign Princes For it is written that they shall have full power over the goods persons of their subjects And althogh God have given them that absolute power as to his ministers 1. Sam. 8. lieutenants on earth yet wold he not have thē use it but with a temperance moderation of the second power which is ruled by reason equitie which we call Civile For so much there wanteth that God would that Princes shold use the said absolute power upon their subjects as he wold not so far constrain them as to sell their goods as is declared unto us in the example of Naboth For most unlikely is it that God 1. King 22. the great Dominator and Governor of al Princes would have Princes to abuse their powers with cruelties rapines injustices or any other unreasonable way of absolute power But as God by justice punisheth the wicked and by kindnesse and clemencie maintaineth the good and rightly and most holily useth his divine power so would he that Princes which are his lieutenants on earth should do the like not in perfection for that they cannot but in imitation To conclude then now our talke concerning the place of Comines certaine it is that a Prince may well make warre and impose tallies without the consent of his subjects by an absolute power but better it is for him to use his civile power so shuld he be better obeyed And as for Aydes and Subsidies whereof Comines speaketh some say they are not at this day levied by an absolute power but by the peoples consent Because in the time of Charles the seventh who had great and long warres against the English the Estates generall of the kingdome agreed unto him to levie Aydes and Subsidies every yeare without any more calling them together for that the warres endured so long and that their every yeares assembly would have come to great expences so that if the cause had alwaies continued then necessarily
by strangers that evill hap had not come unto him That great king Asseuerus which held the empire of the Medes and Persians and Ester cap. 6 7 8 c. governed over 127. countries a great while governed himselfe by a stranger called Aman who was a Macedonian this Aman seeing himselfe in credit durst enterprise unjustlie to make die Mardocheus who had alwaies beene the kings good and faithfull servant under the pretext and colour that he was not of the kings religion and to cover the particular enmitie which he had against Mardocheus and to the end to make it see me that he would not this harme to him alone he found meanes to the king to cause a generall commandement for the massacring and murdering of all such as were of Mardocheus his religion But the king having beene advertised that Mardocheus had done him good services and that that which Aman did was but upon envie revoked the commaundement and would not have that massacre to be executed but caused to hang and strangle the Macedonian which would have had him brought his kingdomes and countries into combustion by so horrible an effusion of blood as he had caused to be enterprised and gave his estate to Mardocheus Alexander king of Epirotes had drawne and gathered into his countrie a great number of Lucanians banished and chased out of their countrie and vsed them with such curtesie and hospitalitie that not only he permitted them to dwell in Epire but also served himselfe with them and reputed them for his good and faithfull friends and vsed them with all the best dealing he could But it so happened that the king had warre against the countrie of those banished people and so thought to be well served with them in this war as indeed they promised him saying They desired no more than to revenge themselves of such as had banished and chased them out of their countrie and to bring the countrie into the obedience of Alexander and to be afterward established in their goods in authoritie under him in the said countrie But as it ordinarilie commeth saith Titus Livius that such people have spirits and faith as mutable as their fortune they used the matter otherwise than they promised the king and than he looked for For they made secret compacts to betray this king with their countrimen which promised them a restauration into their goods and authority which they had in their said countrie before their banishment provided that they would deliver the king either alive or dead which willing to execute they did so much that they persuaded this king to give battaile against the Lucanians and there should he know the good affection they had to do him service and to fight against such as had banished them insomuch that they came to the battaile there this banished people did so much that they brought this king Alexander into a place nigh the flood Acheron from drowning in which he could not save himselfe but by swimming over the floud Being then brought to that place and straight they begun to shew their treason and turned themselves against the king who seeing the perill wherein he was hazarded himselfe by swimming to passe over that great floud As hee had almost passed it over and that he had recovered the banke on the other side behold there came one of the banished people who with a javeline transpierced and run him cleane through the bodie The body falling in the water was by the river carried into the hands of his enemies which encamped lower But when they light upon that bodie they in great irrision and disdaine cut it in many peeces Here is the miserable end that came to this poore king for trusting in strangers Charles the last duke of Bourgoine not being able any way to get his will of the De Comines lib. 1. cap. 83 92. towne of Nus entred into distrust and discontentment with his owne subjects although in truth they had done all their duties in the besiege of the towne yet a prince must doe what hee will Vpon this mistrust and discontentment of his subjects hee resolved with himselfe to bee served with strangers and amongst all other strange nations he made choice of Italians But I leave you to thinke how good his choice was likely to be for every one knowes well ynough what account Italians make of the observation of their faith and how Machiavell teacheth That faith is not to be observed but to a mans profit which they of that nation doe alwayes well practise And if sometimes there bee found any loyall and good observers of their promise it is a thing so rare as that raritie should not have any thing mooved the duke of Burgoigne rather to trust the Italians than his own proper subjects Yet having taken it in hand he drew to his service the earle of Campobache which hee entertained with foure hundred men of arms more of Italians paied by his hands Incontinent as Campobache was entred into credit with the duke hee begun to governe him at his pleasure so that the duke trusted more in him than in any man in the world Campobache having gained this point straight begun to practise to betray him and to deliver him to king Lewis the eleventh then raigning if hee would promise him in recompence 20000 crownes and a good earledome But the king doing as Fabricius did towards the king Pyrrhus would not enter into that composition but advertised the duke of Burgoigne to the end he might take heed of that traitor and rid himselfe of him The duke tooke this advertisement in evill part his sences were so troubled imagining that the king sent him this word to make him leese his good servants and therefore trusted more than ever Campobache When Campobache saw hee could not bargaine with the king hee sought a merchant other where for hee was resolved whatsoever became of his credit to draw out a profit if he could Amongst these actions the duke thought good to besiege Nancy the principall towne of Lorraine The duke of Lorraine was not so scrupulous to enter into composition with that traitor as the king had been especially because the duke of Burgoigne made warre upon him unjustly and sought to take from him his countrey He therefore entred into compact with Campobache by the meanes of a gentleman of his named Cyfron and they concluded and agreed betwixt them secretly Finally before Nancy was a battaile given by the advice of Campobache who councelled the duke of Lorraine to levie the siege of the duke of Burgoigne who was there slaine and his armie defeated by the meanes and treason of Campobache The king after this tooke a part of the countrey of the said duke of Burgoigne which died in the foresaid battaile because they ought duly for want of heires male to returne to the Crowne of Fraunce and the rest of his dukedome fell to his onely daughter who was his heire which was
because it is said in Ecclesiasticus chap. 10. Initium omnis peccati superbia that is Pride is the beginning and root of all sinne All men may then argue from this place Then is not dame covetousnesse But the answere hereunto is that there are three manner of covetousnesse that is of Honor of Riches and of Carnall delectation but the first kind comprehendeth pride ergo c. This covetousnesse also of honor comprehendeth vain-glorie wrath hatred envie insomuch as hee that is spotted with this kind of covetousnesse is enflamed with vaine-glorie and angrie against his lord whose place and domination he would gladly occupie and moreover hateth and envieth him And al these crimes together which proceed from covetousnesse when they are committed against his prince are called Treason which is the greatest crime that can bee Thus much for the first point of my theme That dame Covetousnesse is the root of all evils The second point is That she maketh them become disloyall for with a desire to dominier they enterprise against their lord whereas they should be loiall unto him as I shall shew hereafter by many goodly places But as is fit to shew my lord of Bourgoignes justification I will take that place of dame Covetousnesse which I have alleadged for my Major and after I will come to my Minor and so to the Conclusion For proofe then of my Maior I wil note and propose eight principall Verities by manner of a foundation out of which I will inferre eight Conclusions as it were correlatives the better to ground the justification of Monsieur de Bourgoigne The first Veritie is That every subject and vassale which upon covetousnesse enterpriseth against the corporall health of his king and soveraigne lord to take away his most noble seignorie committeth the horrible crime of treason and is worthie of double death that is of the first and of the second I prove it because every disloyall subject and vassale against his soveraigne sinneth mortally Ergo c. Also I prove it by S. Gregorie who sayth thus Tyrannus est proprie qui non Dominus reputatur non iuste principatur aut non principatu decoratur That hee is a tyrant which is not the true Lord or which ruleth not justly or which is not honoured by his principalitie Also I prove it by S. Iohn the Evangelist who saith Qui vivit non morietur nec laedetur à morte secunda that is to say That he that shall have victorie upon lady Covetousnesse and her three daughters Ire Hatred and Envie shall not need to feare the second death namely eternall damnation The second Veritie is that in the aforesaid case wherein the subject or vassale is worthie of double death yet the vassale is more to be punished than the simple subject and a baron more than a simple vassale and a countie more than a baron and a duke more than a countie and a kings allie more than a stranger I prove it because the obligation of a duke or the kings kinsman towards the king is by many degrees greater than of a countie baron or of a vassale Ergo then the punishment must be in an higher degree And that my consequence is good I prove it because the degrees of obligations and prerogatives doe correspond and fully answer to the degrees of the punishment and so as they are greater so ought the punishment to be greater as I have before alledged out of S. Gregorie Cum crescunt dona crescunt rationes donorum As gifts encrease so ought the reasons of gifts that is obligations to doe I prove also my said Veritie by another argument It is a greater scandale that a duke or the kings allie should goe about to take away the kings seignorie than if it were a poore subject Ergo then the punishment ought to bee greater seeing the scandale is greater Thirdly I prove my said Veritie because there is a greater perill of a great man than of a little therefore the remedie of punishment ought to be greater to withdraw great men from yeelding and obeying the enemie of mankind and dame Covetousnesse The third Veritie is That in the case aforesaid when the vassale committeth treason meriting double death then is it lawfull for every subject according to the lawes morall naturall and divine to kill without any command that traitour and disloyall tyrant and it is not onely lawfull but also honourable and meritorious I prove this veritie by twelve reasons in the honour of holy Theologie The first of a doctor which upon the second booke of the master of Sentences sayth Qui ad liberatioonem patriae tyrannum occidit praemium accipit facit opus laudabile meritorium That is He which sleyeth a tyrant to deliver his countrey receiveth a reward and doth a laudable and a meritorious worke The second authoritie is taken out of that excellent doctor Salceber in his book of Policraton who saith Amico adulari non licet sedaurem Tyranni mulcere licitum est quia ei licet adulari quem licet occidere that is It is not lawfull for any to flatter his friend but with faire words he may wel bring a tyrant asleepe for it is lawfull to kill him The third authoritie is of many doctors in Theologie all which I set downe but for one that I may not exceede the number of three namely of Richard de Mivile Alexander de Halles and Astensis which hold the foresaid conclusion And for a greater confirmation I adde hereunto the authoritie of S. Peter who sayth Subditi estote Regi quasi praecellenti that is Let each man obey his king as the most excellent and soveraign My three second reasons of the twelve are founded upon the authoritie of three morrall philosophers The first Licitum laudabile est cuilibet subditorum occidere tyrannum that is It is lawfull praiseworthie for every man to sley a tyrant The second authoritie is from the noble morallist Tully who sayth in his Offices That they which killed Iulius Caesar were worthie of praise because he had usurped the seignorie of Rome by tyrannie The third authoritie is out of Boccace who sayth That men may well conspire and employ armes against a tyrant and that it is a thing most holy and necessarie that a tyrant ought not to be called king nor prince and that there cannot be a more pleasanter sacrifice than the bloud of a tyrant After these authorities alledged out of Theologians and Moralists I come now to the authoritie of Legists And because I am not a Lawyer it sufficieth me to speake the sentence of the lawes without alledging them for in all my life I never studied the cannon and civile law but two years and that was twentie yeares agoe so that I could learne but a little and might easily forget that little by the length of time since I learned it The first authoritie out of the civile law is That it is lawfull to kill
forsakers of knighthood but who can more forsake knighthood than he which forsakes his king who is the chiefe of all knighthood The second authoritie is That it is lawfull to kill theeves and robbers by high wayes It is lawfull then to kill a tyrant which continually watcheth and intendeth the death of his soveraigne lord I come now to three authorities of the holy Scripture The first is that of Moses who without authoritie slew the Aegyptian who tyrannized over the people of Irael For at that time Moses had not the authoritie of a judge over the people of Israel which was delivered unto him nigh fortie yeares after that he had slaine the Aegyptian The second authoritie is the example of Phineas who without any commandement slew the duke Zambry because he allied him selfe by carnall love with a Sarracene woman whereupon Phineas was commended and reverenced in three things in love honour and riches The third authoritie is that of S. Michael the archangell who without the commandement of God or any other fought against the tyrant Lucifer so disloyall to God his soveraigne who went about to usurpe the seignorie of God The said S. Michael was favourably rewarded in three things that is in honour love and riches in love because God loved him more than any other Angell in honour because God made him a perpetuall prince of the heavenly hoast in riches because God gave him riches as much as he desired or could carrie away so it appeareth that my third Veritie is well proved by twelve reasons in the name of the twelve Apostles of which reasons three are taken from the holy Theologians three from Moralists and three from Legists and the three last from the holy Scripture and they goe alwaies from three to three My fourth Veritie is this It is more meritorious and honourable that a tyrant be slaine by the kings parents than by a stranger and by a duke than by a countie and by a barron than by a simple vassale because therein shineth more the love obedience of the sleyer and is more honourable to the king to be revenged of a great man than a base and meane man My fift Veritie is That alliances promises othes or confederations ought not to be kept if for keeping them there come any prejudice to the prince or to the commonweale but to keep them is to do against the morall naturall and divine lawes I proove this Veritie by thus arguing Whensoever two contrarie obligations are concurrent a man must keepe and observe the greatest and breake the least But in this case the bond unto the prince and commonwealth is greater than any other promise or consideration Ergo then wee must observe the obligation towards the prince and commonwealth and breake all other obligations othes and confederations Also in arguing thus Whensoever a man doth a thing better than that which he sweares to do he is not perjured in doing that better thing omitting that thing which he swore to doe as expressely the master saith of Sentences in the last of the third but in this propounded case it is better to kill a tyrant although a man have sworne not to kill him than to let him live as hath been above shewed Ergo then it is no perjurie nor evill done to sley a tyrant against his sworne promise alliance or confederation that he hath with him Also Isiodorus in his booke of soveraigne good sayth That wee must not observe an oth whereby a man shall bee forced rashly to commit an evill but in our case a man shall bee forced to an evill by such a promise and oth Ergo he must then not observe it The sixt Veritie is That if so it happen that the alliances othes or confederations turne to the prejudice of one of the promisers hee is in nothing bound to keep them This veritie is prooved in thus arguing The end of every commaundement is charitie as the Apostle saith but the cheefe charitie beginneth at our selves Ergo the commandement to observe the faith and promise ought not to bee observed if it be contrarie to the charitie which we ought to have towards our selves according to that which is said of the Cannonists Frangenti fidem fides frangatur eidem Hee that breakes faith faith ought to be broken to him againe Also in all promises that are made every man must include If it please God But certaine it is it pleaseth not God that we should do any thing against the law and order of charitie Ergo c. The seventh Veritie is That to every subject it is lawfull honourable and meritorious to kill a tyrant by deceits speculations and dissimulations I proove it first by the authoritie of the morall philosopher Boccace above alledged Also by the example of king Iehu who dissembled to approve the service of Baal to trap the sacrificers for which he was praised Also by the example of Ioiada who by treason caused Athalia to be slaine for which he was praised Also of Iudith who slew Holofernes by dissimulation whereupon she is praised And this is the fittest death for tyrants to die on that is to be slaine villanously by watchings and espiements The eight Truth is That every subject which enterpriseth and worketh against his soveraigne lord by Necromancie and invocation of devils for covetousnesse to have the crowne is a violator of the Catholicke faith and worthie of double death the first and the second For S. Bonaventure in his second book Distinction the sixt saith That the divell never pleaseth the will of such men but first idolatrie and infidelitie are mingled together For as faith serveth much to the operation of the miracles of God so infidelitie is as requisit in the operation of divellish things The divell also will doe nothing for such men unlesse they agree to yeeld him the domination over them whereof he is very desirous Also that great doctor in the ninth article in Secunda Secundae saith and affirmeth That invocations of devils never come to effect without a fore-going of a corruption of faith idolatrie and an expresse compact with divels And this opinion doe the venerable doctors Alexander de Hales Richard de Mivile and Astensis hold and commonly all the other doctours which have writ of this matter Here you see my eight Verities well proved I come now to eight Correlatives The first is If it come to passe that in the case aforesaid these invocators of devils and traitoâ—â—â—o the king be imprisoned and some of their partakers deliver or cause to deliver them hee ought to bee punished with the same punishment as they are themselves namely with the first and second death Secondly every subject that maketh a bargaine with any man to empoyson his soveraigne lord although the enterprise come not to effect is also well worthie of death Thirdly every subject that by dissimulation of pastime causeth apparrell to be made to put on his soveraigne lord and to put
possible whilest they are in base degree after they bee mounted into some high degree of honor dignitie they become rough haughtie so much that to whom before they shewed themselves facile and serviceable they even seeme now not to know them yea which before were their privat friends and familiars Such people have no good soules but deserve that their fiercenesse and pride should disarson and dispossesse them of that place unto which most commonly their dissembled humilitie and courtesie hath advanced them This vice is reprehensible not only in a Princes officers but also in the Prince himselfe who ought not to put pride and fiercenesse upon that head whereupon the Crowne and Diademe standeth For hereof is the king Agamemnon taxed and reprehended by Menelaus his brother in a Tragoedie of Euripides where he sayth thus Most humble wast thou in times past and kissed each mans hand Most humaine gentle affable to none thy gates did stand Shut up to highest Honour thou by such means soughtst to rise But now thou Honour hast supreme why proov'st thou so unwise Another man straight to become and change thy manners all Yea humane dutie even to friends by thee doth not befall To good men that esteems good fame this is not covenable Chamoelion like thy manners changed thou to be so mutable This mutabilitie then of manners which is seene in many natures of men is the cause that it is so hard for a Prince to know how to elect good men for his Counsel and that in that point it is very uneasie to teach a Prince how to behave himselfe therein yet I will a little discourse upon that point how the Elders governed themselves in election of Princes Counsellors and then we will returne to Machiavell Vpon this I first find that our auncient Frenchmen have observed three rules which I thinke good enough The first that the princes of the bloud are alwayes of the kings Counsell for although it may well come to passe that some one of them is not the most resolute nor best garnished with parts requisite to know well to counsell and govern the affaires of the Commonwealth yet seeing they have that honor to be princes of the bloud they may not be excluded unlesse it be for some great fault and offence For so there may arise as many times hath been seene great discontentments troubles and partialities which often draweth after them civile wars and infinit evils The other rule is that the new king retaine alwayes in his service the old Counsellors of his predecessor which governed well especially such as have before acquired the reputation to be good loyall and sincere men The third rule is that the three estates provide good Counsellors for the king during his minoritie or if by accident he leese the use of his sences or understanding as was practised in both cases during the raigne of Charles the sixt Ie bien aime Which aforesaid rules as I hope â—one can denie but they are good and introducted with good reason by our ancestors so I must needs confesse that they are not sufficient in all cases to provide good Counsellors for a Prince For it may well happen that a prince of ful age may have few or no princes of his â—loud experienced in affaires and that the other Counsellors which his predecessor left shall either not be good men or not capable or that they are dead and therefore then he must needs come to an election of new Counsellors by some other way than by these aforesaid rules And upon that point it seemeth unto me that the manner of proceeding which Lampri in Alexandro Alexander Severus the Emperour used to chuse as well his Counsellors as his Magistrates is very good meriteth well to be imitated and drawn into consequence For first he never provided any persons for an Office in consideration of any favour of kinred or amitie nor in recompence of any service but onely in consideration of the probitie and capacitie of the persons But if any man were presented unto him which was not of good reputation as well in knowâ—edge and experience as in good life although otherwise hee had done good services in some other charge or that there had been good appearance that he might doe well being of the house race of wise and prudent people yet he would not receive him And the better to be informed of the reputation of persons whereof he had profers by his wise friends hee caused to be set up in common streets and great publicke places where many wayes meet certaine posts to fix bils upon them whereupon was written certaine exhortations unto the people That if any man had any thing to say against such and such a man which he named wherefore they might not be received and admitted to such and such an Office that he should denounce it And so made those commaunds by placards to the end he might better discover be advertised of the vertues vices of persons For said this Paynim Emperor seeing the Christians use well this form to renounce publickly in their assemblies the names of such as they will promote unto the order of Priesthood why should not we use it also in the election of our Officers and Magistrates into the hands of whom we commit the lives and goods of our subjects Moreover he never suffered Offices and estates of Magistrates which had power authoritie over the people to be sold nor that any commerce whatsoever should be made of them For said he necessarily he that buyeth selleth and if I suffer that any man buy an Office I cannot condemne him when he selleth for it were a shame for me to punish him which selleth againe that which he buyeth Besides all this in the election of Counsellors and Magistrates he did ever suspect such as fought for Offices and held them for ambitious and dangerous people for the Commonweale But they which he could know to be good men and worthy of publicke charge and never sought it these were they which he esteemed most sufficient and the more they excused themselves from accepting of Offices so much the more were they constrained unto them Insomuch that one day there was one whereof there was good testimonie given unto him unto whome hee determined the Office of Lieutenant Generall of Iustice in the towne of Rome But the other excused himselfe the best he could saying He perceived not himselfe sufficient nor capable to exercise so great an estate The more he excused himselfe the more the Emperour Alexander constrained him and commanded him to accept and exercise it and that he would have it so beeing contented with his sufficiencie The other which in no case would accept that estate found some light occasion to get from the Emperours presence for that time and so fled When the Emperour knew hee was fled he caused him to be searched diligently found him caused him to be broght
would please you to have pitie and compassion upon them They are your naturall subjects and they and their ancestors have ever been under the obedience of your majestie and your auncestors Alas Sir what greater evill hap can there come unto us than to be now cut off and alienated from the kingdome and from the Crowne of France They are borne and have been nourished in the French nation They are of manners condition and language naturall Frenchmen What a strange and deplorable miserie should it now be to them to bend themselves under the yoke and obedience of the English a strange nation altogether different from us in manners conditions and language shall not this be unto them a cruell and slavish servitude now to become subjects unto them which of long time have not ceased to vex this poore kingdome with warre For if upon some divine punishment and for our sinnes the poore town of Rochell must needs be violently plucked and seperated from France as the daughter from the mothers dug to submit it selfe unto the sad servitude of a stranger yet that evill should be farre more tollerable to serve and yeeld to the yoke of any other nation than to that which so long time hath been a bloudie enemie of Fraunce and hath shed so much of our bloud Wherefore most humbly we beseech you Sir said they with teares that you will not deliver us into the hands of the English your enemies and ours If in any thing we have offended your Majestie for which you will now leave and abandon us we crie you mercie with joined hands and pray you in the name of God and of our Lord Iesus Christ that it would please you to have mercie and compassion upon us and to retaine us alwaies under your obedience as we and our auncestors have alwayes been We are not ignorant Sir that your Majestie having been prisoner in England hath been constrained to accord with them to their great advantage and that we are comprehended in the number of the Townes and Countries that must be delivered but yet we have some hope that we may be taken from that number by silver and for that purpose your poore town of Rochell offereth contribution to yoâ—r Majestie all that it hath in her power and besides we offer to pay with a good heart hereafter for our Subsidies and taillies halfe the revenue and gaines of all our goods Have pitie then Sir upon your poore Towne which comes to retire her selfe under your protection in most humble and affection at obedience as a poore desolate and lost creature to his Father his King and his naturall Lord and Soveraigne We obtest and beseech you most deare Sir in the name of God and of all his Saints that you will not abandon and forsake us but that it would please your clemencie and kindnesse to retaine for your subjects most humble them which cannot live but in al vexation languishment and bitternesse of heart unlesse we be your subjects The king having heard the piteous supplication of these poor Rochellois mourned and pitied them greatly but he made them answere That there was no remedie that which he had accorded must needs be executed This answere being reported at Rochell it is impossible to speake what lamentations there were through all the Towne this newes was so hard that they which were born nourished French should be no more French but become English Finally they being pressed constrained by the kings Commissaries to open the Towne-gates to the English Well said the most notable townsmen seeing we are forced to bow under the yoke and that it pleaseth the king our soveraigne lord that we should obey the English we will with our lips but our hearts shall remaine alwaies French After that the English had been peaceable possessors of Rochell and all the other countries abovenamed king Edward invested his eldest sonne the prince of Wales in that government a valiant and very humble Prince towards greater than himselfe but haughtie and proud towards his inferiors who came and held his traine and court at Bourdeaux where having dwelt certaine yeares he would needs have imposed upon the countrey a yearely tribute of money upon every fire But to withstand this new impost and tribute the Lords Barons and Counties of those countries but especiall the Countie d' Armignac de Perigourd de Albret de Commenges and many others all which went to Paris to offer in their appeales against the Prince of Wales Arriving there they dealt with king Charles le Sage for king Iohn was then dead about their appeale who answered them That by the peace of Britaine which he himselfe had sworne the dead king his father for him and his successors to the Crowne had acquited and renounced all the soveraignetie of the said countries and that he could not with a good conscience breake the peace with the English and that it greeved him much that with good reason he could not accord their appeale The said Counties and Barons contrarily shewed him by lively reasons That it is not in the kings power to release acquite the soveraigne power and authoritie of his subjects and countries without the consent of the Prelats Barons Cities and good Townes of those Countries and that was never seene nor practised in France and that if they had been called to the treatie of Britaine they would never have consented unto that acquittance of soveraigntie And therefore humbly praied his Majestie to receive their appellation and to send an huisher to adjorne in case of appeale the Prince of Wales to appeare at Paris at the Court of Fraunce to the end to quash and revoke the said new ordinance for the said tribute Finally the king Charles was nothing offended to heare them so speake of a kings power much unlike our Machiavelistes at this day which call them culpable of treason which speake of Estates neither replied unto them that the power of a soveraigne Prince ought not to be limited neither that they spoke evill to revoke into doubt that which his dead father had done but contrary rejoycing at that limitation referred the cause to the debating and resolution of the wise men of his Counsell And after he was resolved that it was true which they said he accorded unto these Counties and Barons their demaund and sent to adjorne in case of appeale to the Court of Paris the Prince of Wales which done the said Counties and Barons easily revolted from the English obedience so did Rochell get all Englishmen out of their towne and castle This done the duke of Berry the kings brother would have entred there but for that time with good words they refused him the entrie thereinto saying they would send unto the king certain Delegates to obtaine some priviledges and therefore desired of the duke a safe-conduct which he willingly granted and having the same they sent twelve chosen for that purpose amongst their Burgesses which finding the king
to the manner of speech used amongst the people but there was never Philosopher so beastly that ever thought her to be any goddesse but when the auncient Philosophers say any thing comes by fortune or by adventure or contingencie they meane that the efficient cause of such a thing is unknowne for that is their doctrine and manner of speech to say that a thing happeneth or chanceth by Fortune and contingently when they know not the cause thereof Learnedly speakes Plutarke to this purpose when he sayth That the poets have Plutarke in libello de Fortuna done great wrong to Fortune to say she is blind and that she gives her gifts to men rashly without knowing them for sayth he it is we which know it not for Fortune is no other thing but the cause whereof we are ignorant of things which wee see come to passe And therfore the Stoicke philosophers although they knew not the second causes of all things no more than other philosophers yet used they another manner of speech than they and attributed the haps and chances of all things unto the ordinance and providence of God which they called by the name of Fatum yet indeed the Fatum differeth much from the providence of God which the Christians hold For the Stoickes held That God could worke no otherwise than the order of second causes would beare and leade him unto but wee hold That God is free in operation and not tied to second causes without which he can do that which he doth by them and can change them at his pleasure Timotheus an Athenian captaine comming one day from the war where his affaires had succeeded and sped well hee was much greeved at some which said that he Plu. in Silla was very happie and fortunate so that one day in a publike assemblie of all the people of Athens hee made an oration wherein hee discoursed all his gestes and victories uttering by the way the meanes and counsell which hee had used in the conduction of his affaires and after all this discourse Maisters said hee Fortune hath had no part in all this that I have accounted unto you as if he would say That it was by his owne wisedome that these things had so well succeeded to him The gods saith Plutarke were offended at this foolish ambition of Timotheus insomuch that he did never after any thing of account but all things he did turned against the haire till hee came to bee hated much of the Athenian people that in the end hee was banished and chased from Athens Hereby we may see that the ancient Paynims meant to attribute to the gods that which men in their common manner of speech attributed to Fortune but they never beleeved shee was a goddesse When Messiere de Commines speaketh of the constable of S. Pol who was so great and puissant a lord yet in the end such evill luck befell him that his hand was De Com. lib. 1. cap. 18. cut off Heereof hee makes a question and wisely and religiously absolveth it What shall wee say saith hee of Fortune This man that was so great a lord that by the space of twelve yeeres he had handled and governed king Lewis the eleventh the Duke Charles of Bourgoigne hee was a wise knight and had heaped together great treasures and in the end fell into her net Wee may then well say that this deceitfull Fortune beheld him with an evill countenance nay contrary wee must answere saith hee that Fortune is nothing but a poeticall fiction and that God must of necessitie have forsaken him because hee alwaies travailed with all his power to cause the war still to continue betwixt the king and the duke of Bourgoigne for upon this war was founded his great authoritie and estate and hee should bee very ignorant that would beleeve that there was a Fortune therein which could guide so wise a man to obtaine the evill will of two so great princes at once and also of the king of England which in their lives accorded in nothing but in the death of this constable Beholde the very words of Commines speaking of Fortune which senteth as much of a good man and a good Christian as the Maxime of Machiavell tastes of a most wicked Atheist And as for that which Machiavell saith That Fortune favours such as are most hazardous and rash Titus Livius is of a farther opinion who speaking of the victorie Tit. Livi. lib. 2. Dec. 3. which Anniball obtained nigh the lake Trasimene against the consull C. Flamminius saith That evill luck came by the temeritie of Flamminius which was nourished and maintained in him by fortune whereas before things had well succeeded with him but now hee which neither tooke counsell of the gods nor of men it was no mervaile if sodainely hee fell into ruine This losse of the battaile was the cause that Fabius Maximus was elected Dictator to go against Anniball as indeed after his election he tooke the field with a new army and certain time after being sent for of the Senat to assist at Rome certain sacrifices and ceremonies he left in the campe Minutius his Lieutenant saying unto him in this manner I pray you Minutius take heed you do not as Flamminius did but trust you more in good counsell than in fortune better it were to bee assured not to be vanquished than to hazard your selfe to bee vanquisher In another place Titus Livius rehearseth That Caius Sempronius captaine of the Roman Armie against the Volsques trusting in Fortune as a thing Lib. 4. Dec 1. constant and perdurable because alwaies before the Romanes had it in custome to overcome that nation used no prudence nor good counsell in his conduction but hazard and temeritie therefore saith Livie fortune and good successe followeth abandoneth rashnesse and this happeneth most commonlie Heere you see the opinion of Fabius Maximus and of Titus Livius much better than that of Machiavell who would persuade us that wee had better bee rash than prudent to have fortune favourable unto us for certaine it is that the haps which men call of Fortune proceede from God who rather blesseth prudence which hee hath recommended unto us than temeritie and although sometimes it happen that hee blesse not our counsels and wisedomes it is because we take them not from the true spring and fountaine namely from him of whom we ought to have demanded it and that most commonly wee would that our owne wisedome should bee a glorie unto us whereas onely God should bee glorified Heere endeth the second part entreating of such Religion as a Prince should use THE THIRD PART TREATING of such Pollicie as a Prince ought to hold in his Commonweale ¶ The Praeface I Have before in order disposed all Machiavels Maximes touching Counsell and Religion and at large I have shewed That all his doctrine shootes at no other marke but to instruct a prince to governe himselfe after his owne fancie not
make warre upon them The duke of Bourbon assembled the greatest lords of the armie to resolve what answer to make to the herauld After by the advice of all it was answered That they Christians made warre upon them to revenge the death of Christ the sonne of God and a true Prophet which their generation had put to death and crucified The Turkes understanding this answere sent againe to the duke of Bourbon and the lords of France that they had by some received evill information upon that matter for they were the Iewes which crucified Iesus Christ and not their predecessors and if the children must needs suffer for their auncestors faults they should then take the Iewes which were then amongst them and upon them revenge the death of their Iesus Christ Our Frenchmen knew not what to answere hereunto yet they continued the warre where was done no notable exploit but by contagion of the aire they were constrained to returne after they had lost the most part of their armie Likewise in the yeare 1453 the Pope having proclaimed a Croisado in Christendome to run over Turkie to avenge the death of our Lord Iesus Christ and to constraine the Turkes to be christened the Turke writ letters unto him wherein he signified that they were the Iewes which crucified Christ And as for him hee descended not of the Iewes but of the Trojans blood whereof hee understood the Italians were likewise descended And that their dutie were rather both one of us and the other to restore rather the great Troy and to revenge the death of Hector their auncestor against the Grecians than to make warre one upon another as for his part he was readie to doe having alreadie subjugated the most part of Greece And that he beleeved that Iesus Christ was a great Prophet but that he never commanded as he was given to understand that men should beleeve in his law by force and by armes as also on his part he so constrained no man to beleeve in the law of Mahomet Behold the substance of the Turkes letter to the Pope which seemed to bee as wel yea better founded upon reasons than the Popes buls For verily Iesus Christ would that by preaching his law should be received into the world and not by force of armes In the time when Christendome was devided into Clementines and Vrbanists by reason of a schisme of Popes we may well presuppose that the one thought the Froisar lib. 2 cap. 132. 133 lib. 3. cap 24. other to be altogether out of the way of salvation and our hystorians say That the one part called the other dogs miscreants infidels c. Their reason was because they said that as there was but one God in heaven so there ought to bee but one on earth and the aforesaid Clementines held assuredly That Pope Clement was the true god on earth and Pope Vrbane the false god and that the Vrbanists beleeved in a false god and by consequent that they all strayed from the faith For as no religion can stand without beleeving in God so esteemed they that they which beleeved not in the true earthly god were altogether without all religion as dogs miscreants our hystoriographers which held that opinion as well as the other said That from that time the faith was shaken and readie to fall to the ground The same opinion had the Vrbanists of the Clementines as the Clementines had of the Vrbanists We have before in another place said That under colour of this diversitie in religion the king of England who was an Vrbanist enterprised to make warre upon the kings of France and Castile Clementines Likewise also the Clementines enterprised no lesse against the Vrbanists yea against the Pope Vrbane himselfe whom they besieged in the towne of Peronse where he was in great danger to have been taken yet in the end he saved himselfe at Rome The king of Fraunce determined to have passed into Italie by warre to have destroyed the Vrbanists but in the end he tooke another resolution which was to cause the schisme to cease so he caused to convocate a great and notable assembly in the towne of Rhemes in Campaigne whither in person resorted the emperour Sigismund and there a conclusion was made to exhort the two Popes to submit themselves to the new election of a Pope wherein their right should bee conserved unto them and if they would not submit themselves thereunto that the Christian princes and their subjects should withdraw themselves from the obedience both of the one and the other After this subtraction was made because the said Popes would not obey the exhortation that was made there was a new election of a Pope in a Counsell held at Pise by the emperors and the kings authorities called Pope Alexander the fift a Frier minor and the other two Antipopes were cursed as is said in another place And thus ceased the warres for Religion in all Christendome To this purpose also you must know That during the said schisme of the Clementines Froisar lib. 4 cap. 33. and Vrbanists the duke of Bretaigne had peace with the king of Fraunce and a great assembly was made betwixt them in the towne of Tours The duke appearing there some of the kings Counsell shewed him that hee was disobedient to the king being of another religion than the king was for the king was a Clementine and the duke an Vrbanist and it was not meet that the vassale should be of another religion than his soveraigne lord The abovesaid duke aunswered wisely That it could not bee called a rebellion or disobedience for no man ought to judge of his conscience but only God who is the soveraigne and only judge of such a matter and that he beleeved in Pope Vrban because his election was before Pope Clements Some of the kings Counsell of the meanest sort made a great matter of this diversitie of religion but the dukes of Berry and Bourgoigne the kings uncles were opinioned that it was not a sufficient point to stand upon to put by an accord with the duke of Bretaigne insomuch that following their advice an accord was concluded yea a mariage of one of the kings daughters with the said duke of Bretaigne This example and advice of these two good dukes mee thinkes all Christian princes should follow and not cease to agree together for diversitie of Religion but to remit the judgement thereof unto God who alone can compound and agree the differences of the same And not onely amongst princes the bond of amitie ought not to bee broken for difference of Religion but also princes ought not to use armes against their subjects to force them unto a Religion but they ought to assay all other meanes to demonstrate unto them by lively reasons their errors and so bring them to a good way and if it appeare not that their subjects doe erre and stray they ought to maintaine them and not persecute them at the
that if Sertorius had not been slaine of his own people he had sooner overcome Pompeius than he him Yet Sertorius was but a simple souldier who had neither silver nor treasure he had no authoritie to command neither did any obey him against their wils Spartacus also was but a poore slave which escaping from his master gathered together a great number of people and made strong warre upon the Romanes whom hee many times vanquished And but that Pompeius and Crassus with great armies were greatly busied to hinder his desseignes he had made himselfe master of Italie And was not Cleon another poore slave yet gathered under his conduction an armie of 70 thousand other slaves wherewith he had like to have gotten all Sicilie And Viriatus was but a shepheard on the mountaines of Spaine and gathering together a great number of shepheards and theeves he made infinit worke for the Romanes yet in the end certaine Romane captains sent against him not being able otherwise to overcome him caused him traiterously to be slaine This the Senat found not good but greatly blamed those captains which overcame by so villanous a meane After Viriatus was slaine his people disbanded not but still made warre upon the Romanes insomuch as the Romanes were constrained to give unto them to appease them the towne and territorie of Valence in Spaine to inhabite and so they were satisfied and gave over their armes Of late memorie Philibert de Chaton Prince of Orange Antonie de Leva Andrew Doria the Marquis of Mantua and many others whereof we have spoken in other places which revolted against king Francis the first and did him more hutt than all the forces of the emperour Charles the fift yet were they no great lords in comparison of the king Therefore he which is a wise prince will estimate no enemie to be pettie and little but will guard himselfe from justly offending any man fearing least by that meanes hee procure enemies For enmities will come too fast on a man before hee lookes for them As for that hee saith That the Romanes had colonies in countries which they Titus Livi. lib. 10. Dec. 1. lib 7. Dec. 3. lib. 8. Dec. 4. conquered they did it not to serve their turnes as fortresses in that countrey as Machiavell saith but to disburden the citie of Rome of their too great a multitude of people which were still stirring up rebellions and seditions in their towne as in the time of the consulship of Marcus Valerius and Quintus Apuleius The towne saith Titus Livius was brought to a great quiet and tranquilitie by discharging it of a great part of the common people by deduction of colonies which when they were sent into any countrey that the Romanes had conquered the publick and common fields were divided amongst them yet the old inhabitants were not chased away neither were their goods taken from them but only mingled with the Romans goods which dwelt with them in their townes in houses they themselves builded or els which were publicke and conquered to the Roman commonweale The Romans also set up colonies as a multiplication of their race but not to serve them for fortresses in conquered countries and that it was so appears because they erected not colonies in all the countries they conquered no not in the most strongest places but rather in the amplest fattest and fertilest places These said colonies also were no more faithfull unto them than the other subjects but often rebelled as well as others as was seene after the battaile that the Romanes lost at Cannas against Anniball for then twelve Roman colonies revolted from them and entred league with Anniball And it is commonly seene that citizens transported into other countreyes doe incontinent degenerate taking the manners and conditions of the countrie as came to passe in the townes of Alexandria in Aegipt Seleucia in Siria Babilon in Parthia which were colonies of the Macedonians and to the towne of Tarentum a colonie of the Lacedaemonians for all these foresaid townes were straight despoiled of the manners natures and the originall generositie of their nation and became soft effeminate and cowardly as they were into whose countries they were removed A great and memorable calamitie fell to Philip king of Macedonie by removing Titus Livi. lib. 10. Dec. 4. to other places the naturall inhabitants of the maritime and sea townes of his countrey This king fearing to enter into warre with the Romanes because many of his neighbours went to complaine of him to the Senat of Rome thought it good to stand upon his guard and something distrusting the inhabitants of such townes as were nigh the sea hee tooke away from thence the naturall inhabitants and gave them grounds in Emathia to dwell in and in their places planted the inhabitants of Thracia in whom he trusted This caused in all Macedonie a great discontentment for every one saw to their great griefe their ancient poore dislodged carrying their children on their shoulders weeping and lamenting their calamities and making exercations and imprecations against the king that it might so happen to the king and his race to bee driven from his kingdome and countrey The king being advertised of this universall murmuration began to enter into a distrust of every man and especially of the children of certaine gentlemen which hee had caused to die and hee feared that the saide children making use of the peoples discontentment should attempt some enterprise against him and therefore determined to have seased certaine young children of the slaine gentlemen for his better assurance Theoxena the widdow of a great lord which was slaine by the king called Herodicus resolved rather to make die the children of her and her dead husband than that they should come into the hands and power of the king So she resolved to save her-selfe and them at Athens and yet if the worst fell she provided good swords poisons after shee was embarked with her children to obtaine the towne of Athens shee was followed by another boate of the kings people which when shee saw that they rowed with great dilligence to the barke wherein shee was Loe said she my childen you have now no other meanes to shun the tyrannie of king Philip but death which you may see shewing the swords and the poison chuse which you had rather die on either on sharpe whetted swords or to swallow this poison on my children let the eldest shew themselves most hardy and couragious This exhortation persuaded so much that they slew themselves some with swords some with poyson then she caused them all to fall into the water even when they yet had breath and cast her-selfe after them Straight the kings people ioyned to the barke but they found it emptie of the persons they looked for The crueltie of this fact added a new flame of envie and evill will towards the king so that it seemed to every one they heard the infernall furies preparing themselves to bring
by Machiavell which maintaineth his subjects in division and partialitie and which seekes to sley all them which love the commonweale and which desire a good reformation a good policie in the commonweale There are also other tokens and markes whereby to know a tyrant as them which wee have before alledged out of doctor Bartolus and them also which hystoriographers have marked to have been in Tarquin the proud For they say when he changed his just and royall domination Dioni Halic lib. 4. into a tyrannicall government he became a contemner and a despiser of al his subjects as well the meane people as the nobilitie and Patritians he brought a confusion and a corruption into justice he tooke a greater number of waiting servants into his guard than his predecessors had he tooke away the authoritie from the assembly of the Senate which it alwaies before had moreover hee dispatched criminall and civile causes after his fancie and not according to right hee cruelly punished such as complained of that change of estate as conspirators against him he caused many great and notable persons to die secretly without any forme of justice hee imposed tributes upon the people against the auncient forme and regalitie to the impoverishing and oppression of some more than of others hee had also spies to discover what was said of him and afterward punished rigorously such as had blamed either him or his government These be the colours wherewith the hystories do paint Tarquin when of a king he became a tyrant and these are ordinarily the colours and liverie of all tyrants banners whereby they may be knowne It seemeth that Tarquin forgot nothing of all that a tyrant could doe but that he slew not Brutus which was a fault in the art of tyrannie as learnedly Machiavell noteth it which fell to bee his ruin But the cause hereof was that Brutus in the court counterfeted the foole wherby Tarquin had no suspition of him For none but wise men and good people are suspect and greevous to tyrants but as for counterfeting fooles unthrifts flatterers bauds murderers inventors of imposts and such like dregs and vermine of the people they are best welcome into tyrants courts yet even amongst them are not tyrants alwaies without danger for amongst such fooles sometimes happeneth a Brutus who at last will plat out their ends so that ever their lives hangs by a small thred as Denis the tyrant sayth But the example of Hieronimus another tyrant of Sicilie is to this purpose well to be noted This Hieronimus was the sonne of a good and wise king called Hiero whom also they well called tyrant because he came not to that estate by a legitimate title although he exercised it sincerely and in good justice who when he died left this Hieronimus his sonne very young and under age For the government therefore of him and of his affaires he gave him fifteene tutors and amongst them Andronodorus and Zoilus his sonnes in law and one Thraso which he charged to maintaine the countrey of Sicilie in peace as he himselfe had done by the space of fiftie yeares of his raigne but especially that they should maintaine the treatie and confederation which he had all the length of his time duly observed with the Romanes The said tutors promised to performe his request and to change nothing in the estate but altogether to follow his footsteps Straight after Hiero was dead Andronodorus being angry because of so many tutors caused the king who was then but 15 yeares old to be proclaimed of sufficient age to bee dismissed of tutors and so dispatched himselfe as well as others of that dutifull care they ought to have had of their king and countrey After he got to himselfe alone the government of the kingdome and to make himselfe to bee feared under the kings authoritie hee tooke to him a great number of waiters for his guard and to weare purple garments and a diademe upon his head and to goe in a coach drawne with white horses altogether after the manner of Denis the tyrant and contrary to the use of Hieronimus yet was not this the worst for besides all this Adronodorus caused the yong king his brother in law to bee instructed in pride and arrogancie to contemne every man to give audience to no man to bee quarelous and to take advantage at words of hard accesse given to all new fashions of effeminacie and riotousnesse and to bee unmeasurable cruell thirstie after bloud After Andronodorus had thus framed to his minde this yong king a conspiration was made against him unto which Andronodorus was consenting to dispatch and sley him but it was discovered but yet executed which A conjuration discovered yet executed was strange For one Theodorus was accused and confessed himselfe to bee one of the conspiracie but being tortured and racked to confesse his complices and parteners in that conspiracie knowing he must needs die and by that meanes desiring to be revenged of that yong tyrant he accused the most faithfull and trustiest servants of the king This young tyrant rash inconsiderat straight put to death his friends and principal servants by the counsell of Andronodorus who desired nothing more because they hindered his deseignes This execution performed incontinent this yong tyrant was massacred and slain upon a straight way by the conspirators themselves which before had made the conjuration the execution whereof was the more easie by the discoverie thereof because as is said the tyrants most faithfull friends and servants were slaine Soone after the tyrants death Andronodorus obtained the fortresse of Siracuse a towne of Sicilie but the tumults and stirres which he raised in the countrey as he thought for his owne profit fell out so contrarie to his expectation that finally he his wife and all their race and the race of Hieronimus were extermined as well such as were innocent as they that were culpable And so doth it ordinarily happen to all young princes which by corruption are degenerated into tyrants So fals it out also to all them which are corrupters of princes to draw them into habits of all wickednesse Lastly here would not bee omitted altogether this wickednesse of Machiavell who confounding good and evill together yeeldeth the title of Vertuous unto a tyrant Is not this as much as to call darkenesse full lightsome and bright vice good and honourable and ignorance learned But it pleaseth this wicked man thus to say to plucke out of the hearts of men all hatred horror and indignation which they might have against tyrannie and to cause princes to esteeme tyrannie good honorable and desirable 16. Maxime A Prince may as well be hated for his vertue as for his vice THe emperour Pertinax saith Machiavell vvas elected emperor Cap. 19. Of the prince against the vvils of his men of vvarre vvhich before had customably lived licentiously in all vices and dissolutenesse under the emperour Commodus his predecessor
was then such account made of Faith which they preferred before all difficulties and particular necessities And afterward many times that law of taking away from rich men that which they possessed more than five hundred acres was refreshed brought into question by other Tribunes to have it to passe but it never came to effect yet there arose of it infinite seditions murders pilleries and other innumerable evils A thing which well sheweth that the violation of publicke Faith draweth alwayes with it a great Iliade of evils and Titus â—ivius lib. 3. Dec. 3. calamities The Romanes seeing themselves one day want money for the maintenance of their armies and paiment of souldiers the Senat consulted what provision to make for this want none of them thought it good to impose a taillage or tribute upon the people which would prove very greevous in many sorts at last they all agreed that souldiers must needs be paid For said they if the commonwealth stand not by Faith it cannot stand by riches It were therefore better to spend the good of the commonwealth in loyally paying souldiers wages and so acquite themselves of their Faith towards them than to spare the commonwealth by the failing of Faith and word All the Senat being of this advice expedient then it was as they thought to find money and therefore a charge was given to the Praetor Fulvius in an oration to the people to shew them all their publicke necessities and to exhort such as were growne rich by farming grounds belonging to the commonwealth to lay out some silver for the maintenance of the armie in Spaine Fulvtus so well persuaded that the farmers accorded to lay downe a certaine summe of money as much as was demaunded upon conditions to enjoy their farmes for three yeares and that the commonwealth would take upon them the perils of the sea which might come unto them in their commerces by shipwracks and hostile incursions For they were certaine that such money as they lent to the commonwealth was as assured unto them as in their hands upon the publicke Faith and if the Romanes had not had that good reputation they should not so soon have found money for their need But they that have that vertue Well to observe their word shall never want with whom to contract King Perseus of Macedonie determining to make warre upon the Romanes sent embassadours to the Achaeans a people of Greece and allies of the Romanes to draw them on his side and only required of them a Diet where they were assembled to heare the said embassadors But Callicratides a notable man amongst the Achaeans was of advice That they should give no eare unto that king Perseus nor to his embassadors because the Achaeans had already confirmed an alliance by Faith and oath with the Romans that upon that Faith was founded all the assurance of their estate and that Faith had that propertie that it will not be violated nor suspected in any sort whatsoever And therfore it was a breach of Faith only to affoord audience Faith will neither be violated nor suspected to that king whome they saw plainely prepared to make warre upon the Romanes This reason founded upon the authoritie of publicke States was the cause that nothing was accorded to Perseus And likewise heereunto accordeth the saying of the emperour Antonine That the most lamentable thing in this world is when Faith is broken and violated by friends and without the same no vertue can bee Dion in Marcel assured To this purpose that Faith cannot bee suspected that is notable which Fabius Titus Livins lib. 2. Maximus Dâ—ctator did Anniball being in battaile array nigh Rome conceived this subtile device to ruinate and utterly to destroy all the houses in the fields both for pleasure and for other necessarie uses but onely the houses and commodities appertaining to Fabius And this hee did to bring a suspition upon Fabius that hee had made some secret compact with Anniball against his Faith and dutie Fabius knowing well that it was not sufficient perfectly to observe his Faith but that also he must be exempt from all suspition sent straight his sonne to Rome to sell and rid him of all he had without the towne which he did and so assured his publicke Faith by his particular damage taking from the people all sinister opinion they might take of him And assuredly there is nothing in the world more pleasant than when Faith is sincerely kept even in adversitie and when we have most to doe Therefore the Romanes esteemed such their good and loyall allies as kept their Faith loyally during the time they had warres in hand as did Ptolomeus king of Aegypt when the Romanes had to doe with Anniball and the Carthaginians for he was alwayes firme in the confederation and alliance which he had made with them insomuch as their warre being finished with Anniball they sent embassadors to Ptolomie to thank him for that in their so doubtfull and hazardous affaires his Faith had not altered and to pray him to continue Attalus king of Pergamus in Asia came to the degree of royaltie by his vertue Titus Livius lib. 3. 7. Dec. 4. for he was neither sonne nor successor of a king neither had hee the heroicall vertues of Hercules of Alexander or Caesar to conquer a kingdome yea breefely he had nothing in him saith Titus Livius that could either aid or bring hope unto him at any time to be a king but onely riches which he bestowed and used so well that by the meanes of them and by his fidelitie towards the Pergames he became king of Pergamus after he had once vanquished the Gaules of Asia As soone as he was come to this degree he allied himselfe by confederations with the Romans and alwaies kept his Faith perfect and entire insomuch as well by the integritie and constantnesse of his Faith as by good justice hee raigned foure and fortie yeares and left his kingdome stable and firme to Eumenes his sonne whose domination Fidelitie a good inheritance the Romanes greatly augmented because he continued in his fathers loyaltie who at his death charged him to repute that fidelitie to be the best heritage hee left him There was nothing in the world which the old Romanes had in greater reverence Titus Livius lib. 1. Dec. 1. lib. 4. Dec. 3. and observation than their publicke Faith Therefore had they a temple of Faith where men swore and solemnely promised all their treaties of peace truces confederations alliances and other such like and those who first did violate it were esteemed dedicated to the gods of hell and with a like sinceritie did they also observe their Faiths in particular contracts so that every one thought they could not better assure a debt than in lending to the commonwealth yea when by reason of great wars their treasuries were emptie of money such as had the custodie of pupils and widdowes portions and other
was no great warriour But the cause why the Romanes delivered so great and honourable a charge unto him was because the great Scipio the Affrican his brother had declared that if Lucius his brother were chosen generall captaine to goe against Antiochus he should be there as his lieutenant As then they both were in Greece with the Romane armie making warre upon that king it so happened that the only sonne of Scipio the Affrican was taken prisoner by Antiochus souldiers Antiochus having this young lord in his hands entertained and used him very honourably knowing that that great Scipio was of such Clemencie that he would never forget that the pleasure and that the amitie of so great a personage might stand him in good stead in some great necessities as losse of a battaile or of a captivitie or such like Not long after Scipio fell sicke whereof Antiochus hearing he sent him his sonne without ransome fearing Scipio would die with greefe and melancholie by whose death he doubted to leese a good refuge For that king saith Titus Livius trusted more in the Clemencie and authoritie of Scipio alone for the uncertaine and doubtfull haps of warre than in his armie of 60000 footmen and 12000 horsemen Is not here thinke you an admirable effect of Clemencie that an enemie dooth better assure his estate upon his enemies Clemencie than upon his owne forces But what need we any more to amplifie by examples or authorities this point doth not ordinarie experience shew and ever hath done that all good and clement princes have alwaies been very assured in their estates as Augustus Vespasian Traian Adrian the Antonines and many other Romane emperours and the most part of our kings of Fraunce which were clement and debonaire doe fully proove this which I say for they raigned very peaceably died of naturall deaths and after their deaths were greatly lamented of the people Here I may not forget a notable sentence of the emperour Antonius Pius which hee received from Scipio the Affrican Capit. in Pio. Sueâ— in August cap. 35. which was this That hee loved better to preserve one of his subjects than to sley a thousand of his enemies Assuredly a sentence of a good and clement prince who delighted not in shedding of blood as our Machiavelists doe at this day which are so covetous of such blood as they account their enemies that whensoever any of marke fals into their hands they will not give him for an hundred pounds They may well say contrary to Scipio and the emperor Pius that they had rather slay an enemie than save an hundred friends Are not these people worthie to commaund Neither make they any account more of their princes subjects than of slaves which men may beat scourge or sley at their pleasure as beasts as indeed there hath been lately a burne-paper-fellow a writer for wages one of these Machiavelists who durst publish by writing That the authority of a prince over his subjects is like that which a lord hath over his villaine and slave having power over death and life to sley and massacre them at their pleasure without forme of justice and so to despoile them of their goods And how comes this Thinkes this sot that the office of a king is like to the office of a gally captaine to hold his subjects in chaines and every day to whip them with scourges Surely they which hold that opinion doe merit to be so handled yea that some good gally captaine would twice or thrice a day practise that goodly doctrine upon their shoulders but how much more notable and humane is the doctrine wee learne of the life of Augustus Caesar who so much feared that men had such an opinion of him that he would not take away but onely diminish the libertie of the people that he could never abide and suffer to be called Dominus that is to say Lord but abhorred it as an injurious name full of opprobry because it hath some relation to Servus which is to say servant or slave he being farre from the affectation of such great and magnificall names as many great men have since well liked of without shewing the effect of them The third point now remaineth which is to shew That the Clemencie of a prince A prince by Clemencie encreaseth his domination Dionis Halic lib. 2. Plutarke in Caesar Alexand is cause of the encreasement of his domination Hereupon we reade a memorable hystorie of Romulus who was so clement soft and gentle towards his people which he vanquished and subjugated that not only many particulars but the whole multitude of people submitted themselves voluntarily and unconstrainedly under his obedience The same vertue was also cause that Iulius Caesar vanquished the Gaulois for he was so soft and gracious unto them and so easie to pardon and used them every way so well farre from all oppression that many of that nation voluntarily joyned themselves unto him and by them he vanquished the others When Alexander the Great made great conquests in Asia most commonly the citizens of all great cities met him to present unto him the keyes of the townes for he dealt with them in such Clemencie and kindnesse without in any thing altering their estates that they liked better to be his than their owne Anniball having taken the towne of Saguntum in Spaine was so feared and redoubted Titus Livius lib. 2. Dec. 3. that the most part of Spaine submitted themselves under his obedience and abandoned the Romane societie because they had not aided Saguntum against Anniball The Romanes to repaire their fault whereat they tooke much greefe sent great forces into Spaine under the conduction of Publius Scipio father of the African and of Cneius his uncle Anniball to containe in obedience the Spaniards tooke in hostage their children their brethren or parents of all the nobilitie of the countrey and the notablest citizens of the good townes and set them under guard at Saguntum under the charge of some small number of souldiers God would that those hostages should find meanes to escape from their prison yet it was their haps to fall into the hands of the Scipioes The Scipioes having possession of them in place to revenge themselves upon them as they feared for the fault they and their parents had made by their revoltment from the Romanes they welcommed and dealt with them very graciously and sent them all to their parents and houses This Clemencie and kindnesse of the Scipioes was cause that soone after all Spaine forsook the obedience of Anniball and the Carthaginians and fell under the government of the Romans which they would never have done if these hostages had been dealt with after the counsels and precepts of Machiavell Yet the example of Clemencie in Scipio the Affrican is more notable than this Titus Livius lib. 3. Dec. 3. of his father and uncle After the deaths of his said father and uncle this young lord full of all
and that by nature violent things cannot endure as also that God sets in foot and exerciseth his justice upon them yet for all that is there not a better nor more expedient meane to establish a tyrannie than to place and plant a Partialitie amongst the people And this is the marke and end whereat Machiavell shooteth to establish a tyrannie as we have before shewed in many places It may be Machiavell learned this Maxime of Claudius Appius who was a man of courage and very tyrannicall towards the Romane people and if all other Senatours had been of his humor assuredly the Senate had usurped a tyrannie in the citie and changed the Aristocraticall estate into an Oligarchie but most commonly he remained alone in his opinion But wee must understand that at Rome there was tenne Tribunes of the people which were magistrates established to conserve the liberties and franchises of the meane people against the tyrannicall enterprises of the great men of the citie which had power to oppose themselves against all novelties as new lawes new burthens and imposts and after a firme opposition none might passe any further They also had power to propose and pursue the reception of new lawes as they knew it was requisit and profitable for all the people whereby it often came to passe that the Tribunes sought to make passe and to receive lawes to the great dislike of the Patricians and Senatours and to the utilitie of the meane people The abovesaid Claudius Appius alwaies gave the Senate advice to sow a Partialitie Titus Livius Dec. Dionis Halic lib. 9. amongst the said tenne Tribunes and by the practise of that same amongst them they might oppose themselves against laws which others would have to passe For said he by this meanes the Tribunes power shall ruinate it selfe without that we shall seeme any way to meddle therein and without that the people shall know that any of our action is in it This counsell of Appius was many times followed but in the end they found it did them no good For after the Tribunes were partialized one against another and that thereby nothing could passe nor be concluded by way of deliberation and accustomed suffrages then fell they to armes and seditions So that in the end the people were constrained by force to plucke from the Patricians that which they would not permit to bee handled and disputed by the accustomed way of good deliberation and conclusion by pluralitie of voices Thus oftentimes the Patricians were constrained to appease the people to grant them things which by reason they might have persuaded them to leave for it is the nature of men to desire alwayes that which is denied them as the Poet Horace sayth very well expressing that which happeneth ordinarily in the world That which denied is most commonly Desired is of us most ardently Moreover it often came to passe that the Patricians desired to make passe to the people by meanes of the Tribunes some law which seemed unto them profitable for the commonwealth but they could not come to their pretences because they had fashioned the Tribunes to a contradiction one of another And of those Tribunarie partialities arose at Rome great insurrections of the people and great murthers and effusion of blood as there did when the two brethren Graccht were slain And therefore that goodly counsell of Appius whereupon Machiavell hath made his Maxime was cause of great evils and calamities as surely it is easie to judge That all Partialities and divisions are cause of ruine and desolation amongst a people whereof we are also advertised by him who is truth it selfe our Lord Iesus Christ who saith That every kingdome divided in it selfe shall be desolate And if there be any Machiavelist so grosse headed as hee cannot comprehend this in his spirit yet may he see this by experience in Fraunce if he be not altogether blind and if hee be French he cannot but palpably touch it in the losse of his goods and in the death of his parents and friends unlesse he be a lazer or without sence For all the late ruines of Fraunce from whence have they proceeded but from the partialities of Papists and Hugenots which strangers sowed and maintained thereof It is solly to say that the diversitie of Religion was cause thereof For if men had handled all controversies of Religion by preachings disputes and conferences as at the beginning they did they had never falne into any Partialitie but since men came to armes and massacres and that by constraint they will force men to beleeve partialities sprung up which was the onely marke whereat all strangers shot that thereby they might plant in Fraunce the government of Machiavell The Chalcedonians were well advised not to beleeve the counsell of the Aetolians which resembled this doctrine of Machiavell and the counsell of Appius for when the warre was open betwixt the Romanes and the king Antiochus the Chalcedonians allies and friends of the Romanes caused to be assembled the States of their countries to resolve upon that which Antiochus made them understand That his onely comming into Greece was to deliver the countrey from the subjection and servitude of the Romanes and therefore required them to allie and conjoyne themselves with him The Aetolians which were very unconstant and mutable people with each wind as are the Machiavelists chanced to be in that assembly and persuaded the Chalcedonians that it was certaine that the king Antiochus had passed from Asia into Europe to deliver Greece from the Romanes servitude and that they thought it best that all the cities of Greece ought to allie and contract amitie with both the two parties the Antiochs and the Romanes For said they if wee allie our selves with both parties when the one would offend us the other will revenge us The Chalcedonians not finding good this counsell of the Aetolians knowing well that as none can serve two contrary masters so neither can they allie themselves with two nations enemies and that they which will entertaine two contrarie parties shall often fall into the malegrace of both And therefore Mixtion one of the principals amongst the Chalcedonians made to the Aetolians a very wise and notable answere Wee see not masters Aetolians say they that the Romanes have seized upon any towne in Greece neither that therein they have placed any Romane garison nor that any payeth them tribute neither know we any unto whome they have given any law or any thing changed their estate And therefore we do not acknowledge our selves entangled in any servitude but that we alwaies are in the same libertie which we have alwayes been Being therefore free we stand in no need of a deliverer and the comming of the king Antiochus into Greece cannot but hurt us who can performe no greater good unto us than to withdraw himselfe farre from our countrey And as for us we are resolved to receive none within our townes but by the authority of
overthrow and weake the authoritie of Senators and therefore they hindered it For Lucius Opimius Consull by the decree of the Senate caused the people to arme themselves and to goe assaile Caius Gracchus with the seditious of his troupe and in the conflict Gracchus was slaine with Flacchus his fellow in the Triumvirate Finally the seditions of these two bretheren Gracchi tended but to bring forward wicked lawes and heereof came no good but they were cause of infinit murders and of great effusion of bloud The seditions also which were raised up at Rome by the Triumvirate of Octavius Antonius and Lepidus what good brought they to the commonwealth They Dion in Augusto were cause of infinit mischiefes of great and long civile warre of the death of an infinit number of persons of the ruine impoverishment and pillage of the provinces of the empire and finally of the change of the estate of the commonwealth into a monarchie And although that the subjects of the Romane empire did not then feele any harme by that change because they light on a good prince Augustus yet after they felt it under five or sixe emperours all which successively followed Augustus that is to say Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero Otho and Vitellius all which were bad emperours and governed very tyrannicallie Herodianus writeth That the Greekes were first subjugated and brought under subjection by the Macedonians and after by the Romanes because of their accustomed Herod lib. 3. seditions whereby they bannished or caused to die ordinarilie the most valiant and generous persons that they had in their commonwealth And yet after they were brought under the Romanes yoke they could not hould themselves from beeing seditious yea even when there were many competitors to the empire for ever they banded for some one which was after cause oftentimes of the racing ruinating and destroying of their best townes as happened in the time of Severus to such as partialized for Niger Before the Romanes had subjugated the Gaulois Gaule was divided into pettie commonweales as Iulius Caesar saith in the commentaries which notwithstanding were leagued together and held a diet once a yeere at Dreux to parlie and confer of the whole countries affaires But at last there fell a partialitie amongst them insomuch as there became great warre betwixt the Sequanois and the Autunoys The Sequanois drew to their succours the Alemains under the conduction of Ariovistus and the Autunois the Romanes under the conduction of Caesar Caesar ariving in Gaule to succour the Autunois did so well as hee planted greater division and sedition through all Gaul and by that meanes subjected it to the Romane empire And it was a province which the Romanes esteemed most opulent and rich of all them under the empire so made they their account to draw ordinarilie out of it greatest store of silver And indeede after Gaul was made subject unto the Romanes it was alwaies much vexed with imposts and tributes and with the extorcions pillages of governours which to cover their robberies with some coulour said it was needefull to hould the Gaulois poore least they rebelled against the Romanes against whom they had aunciently made warre and obtained upon them many victories The tenne Potentates which were created at Rome in the place of Consul would Dionis Halic lib. 11. needs usurpe a tyrannie and continue in their estate beyond the time established by lawes But what meanes used they even sedition For so long as they could maintaine sedition betwixt the people and the Patricians their tyrannie was in some assurance but as soone as great and small of the citie were at an accord the ten Potentates were withall straight ruined and overthrowne But this example is very fit to confirme the Maxime of Machiavell according to the end whereunto it tendeth which is to establish a tyrannie for seditions and civile dissentions may something serve a tyrants turne to maintaine him in his tyrannie but because heeretofore wee have sufficiently parlied of tyrannicall actions and alledged many examples which in their places may bee found wee passe on 32. Maxime The meanes to keepe subiects in peace and union and to hould them from Rebellion is to keepe them alwaies poore THe townes saith Machiavell which are placed in leane Discourse lib. 1. Cap. 22 lib. 2. cap. 7. lib. 3. cap. 16. and 25 and barren soiles are customably united and peaceable because the inhabitants there being ever occupied in ploughing and labouring the earth have no other meanes nor leasure to thinke upon seditions rebellions And contrary townes situated in fat and rich countries are easily enclined to stirres and disobediences For truly strifes debates which arise every day amongst men proceede onely of riches and abundance of goods rich people will not suffer themselves to bee handled as wee commonly see Therfore did the Romanes maintaine in poore estate their Colonies and assigned them small possessions least they should rise up against them yea even within their owne towne a long time raigned a very great Povertie notwithstanding which the citizens left not to bee vertuous people imploied in great publike charges as were Quintus Cincinnatus Marcus Regulus Paulus Aemilius and many others which were very poore yet executed great things And surely wee have ever seene that povertie hath produced better fruits than riches and that a people being rich and fat have alwaies beene more prompt to rebellion and disobedience Therefore it is an healthfull and good remedy to hould subiects poore to the end that by their riches they neither may corrupt themselves nor others HEere may a man see the very counsell which Guiemand gave to Giles governour for the Romane emperour in the towne of Soisons and the neighbour countries Chilperick the fourth of that name king of France had for one of his most especiall friends and counsellors this Guiemand who was a valiant and sage French baron This king sometimes led a slipperie and disordinate life so that to furnish his pleasure and unmeasurable expences hee was constrained to impose upon the people great imposts and to commit great exactions The French which at that time were of an austere courage saith the hystorie begun to hate him and beare him evill will and to resolve amongst themselves to seize his person and to appoint a tutor for him and so to take from him all his young and bad counsellors about him which he perceiving demaunded Guiemand his advice what he should doe Guiemand counselled him to flie and to give place to the French ire which in his absence hee would appease and as soone as they were quieted hee would recall him He also parted a gold ring in two and gave one moietie to the king saying Sir when I send you this other halfe which I keepe it shall be unto you a certain token that you may boldly come againe and without feare Chilperick then retired towards the king of Thuringe and in his absence the French
doing good to their said Covents By this meanes also they drew to them the practise of burials and confessions insomuch as every man and woman went to the Mendicants to be shriven which failed not but alwayes enjoyned them for pennance to give something to their Covents and to cause Masses to be said for them And whensoever it came to the extreame confession in the article of death they exhorted the diseased to elect their sepulture in their Covents and so to give them good legacies and benefites Breefely they wrought so well and diligently by practise upon practise that legacies and benefits even rained on all sides upon them to the great prejudice of Curates which lost almost all their auncient and accustomed oblations and which saw their offertories and suffrages to goe to nothing in their open sights to their great greefe This was the cause that about the yeare 1311 the Curates being countenanced Cap. 1. De Sepult in extravag by bishops complained much to Pope Boniface the eight saying that the Mendicants troubled them in their auncient possessorie of Sermons Confessions and Sepultures and that they thought it was most reasonable that they to whome appertained the charge of soules should also have the bodies of the dead to burie and that they should heare them in confession unto whom they administred the sacraments Moreover they shewed that the Mendicants invented many novelties as to preach within their Covents at the same houre that the Curates said their parochiall masses and that they also preached withour their Covents without either the Bishops license or the Curate of the place And by such practises and novelties the said Mendicants had taken away from the said Curates the most part of their obventions and revenues and so brought their estates almost to nothing therefore most humbly they besought his Paternitie to remedie those abuses and to maintain them in their auncient possessions Pope Boniface upon this complaint of the Curates for which all Bishops and Prelates entreated would give provision and by his ordinance which he made with the advice of his brothers Cardinals he exhorted much the Curates to take patiently that the Mendicants have right authority to preach confesse and burie shewing them that it was free to the people to goe heare a sermon to confesse themselves and to chuse their scpulture where they thought good Moreover to doe them right in this that the Mendicants frustrared the said Curates of their practickes and obventions hee ordained That from thence forward the said Curates least they carried the name of Curate in vaine and without profit constituted by Apostolicall authoritie that they should levie and retract a fourth part from all legacies foundations and other obventions which the said Mendicants could obtaine and might any way fall and come unto them by meanes of the said Sermons Confessions Sepultures or otherwise forbidding the said Mendicants for no cause to preach in their Covents at the houre that parish Masses or at the houre that Bishops or their Vicars doe preach And not to preach out of their Covents without the permission of the Bishop or the Curate of the place Exhorting moreover the said Curates and Mendicants respectively to live and carry themselves together from thence forward in good peace and concord and by no meanes to suffer that the spirit of division the enemie of human nature be so familiarly acquainted with them The Pope Boniface having made this ordinance and rule betwixt the Curates and Mendicants soone after they entred further than ever into contentions and debates For when Curates went into the Mendicants Covents to aske their fourth part of the practickes and obventions of the said Mendicants they would straight joine altogether and make such a shouting braying and hissing at the poore Curat calling him beast ideot asse and saying he could not well reade his Masse nor decline their name And further would aske them certaine pettie questions out of Grammer and bid them turne something into Latine to shame them And thinkest thou beast said they that we have taken paines to prepare meat to put in thy mouth Belongeth it unto the Asse to reape that which wee sowe Goe goe beast to thy Breviarie if thou canst reade it come not into our Covent to beg any thing unlesse thou wilt have our discipline goe and studie thy Dispauterie and Amo Quae Pars and come not hither to trouble and defile the pure fountaine of holy Theologie wherein thou understandest nothing some others cried come come unto our Refectorie and wee Cap. 1. De Privileg in etravag will lay the Trebelliane fourth part on their shoulders These poore Curates then seeing the said Mendicants approch them beating one hand against another letting downe their coules and lifting up their fists in a great feare retired out of their Covents And knowing no way possibly to obtaine their due which had been granted them by Pope Boniface they offered their greefes and sorrowfull complaints to Pope Benedict the eleventh in the yeare 1304 or thereabouts But the Mendicants were not cowards to remonstrate also their good right on their side and amongst other reasons especially shewed that as by good right none wil withdraw a Falcidie or fourth part from devout godly legates so none ought to take a fourth Trebelliane from their practickes and obventions seeing they were bestowed on them for godly causes also Pope Benedict after good deliberation upon this waightie matter with the advice of his Cardinals and of certaine other good old doctors of Law found that the Mendicants their reasons were well founded in right and that there was no apparent reason wherefore they should pay to the said Curates the fourth part of their practickes and obventions For although there was some colour in that that the Curates said That they ought to have the fourth part of obventions and revenues of Mendicants because they had the name and title of Curates even as an heire ought to have the fourth Trebelliane free because he hath the name and title of heire yet in this rule there is a fallacie said these old doctors in regard of Legates for godly and devout causes For Legates are exempt from delivering of fourth parts such like as those which Mendicants take of godly Christians And for confirmation of their opinion they alledged Godfredus in Summa Azo Hugolinus de Fontava Guilliermus de Cuneo Rainerius de Foro Livio Hubertus de Bobio Petrus de bella Pertica Oldradus de Ponte and many other old doctors of Law They alledged also certaine strong pillars out of Bartolus and Baldus upon which they said their opinion was founded And therefore Pope Benedict mooved with their allegations and with equitie rased and made of no validitie the ordinance of Pope Boniface in that case taking away and utterly abolishing the said fourth part yet something to content the Curates he ordained that they should have the halfe of the funerals of such as were buried
his father made good profit of these excellent commands and maintained the kingdome in good peace and great prosperitie during his raigne For an end heereof I doe note in this good king Lewis That it is very true which the scripture witnesseth unto us That the lust shall spring up and receive of God the blessing of a good and long generation For there were more than three hundreth yeeres that the race of this good king held the crowne of France yea there was no more any other race of the blood royall but his For the house of Valois and the house of Burbon have issued from this good king God by his mercie graunt grace to princes of this time which are discended from so good a roote that they may engrave in their hearts the godly commandements of this king whose meaning verily was not onely to prescribe to the said king Philip his sonne but generally to all his posteritie 36. Maxime Gentlemen which hould Castles and Jurisdictions are very great enemies of commonweales THe Leages and Cantons of Almaigne saith Machiavell live very peaceably and at their ease because they observe Discourse lib. 1. cap. an equalitie amongst themselves and suffer no gentlemen in their country and those fevv they have they so hate them that vvhen by adventure any of them fall into their hands they put them to death and take none to mercie saying they are they vvhich destroy all and hould schooles of wickednesse I call saith hee them gentlemen vvhich live of their revenew without giving themselves to any trade These in a countrey are very dangerous and above all high Iusticers vvhich hould Castles and fortresses and which have a great number of vassailes and subiects which owe them faith and homage The kingdome of Naples the land of Rome Romaigne Lombardie are full of such manner of men and they are the cause that hitherto no good estate politicke can bee constituted in those places for they are formall and capitall enemies of the civile estate of common-weales THey which have frequented the countries of Almaigne and of Suises may well give Machiavell the lie for that he saith in this Maxime for in those countries may bee found many gentlemen great Iusticers having under them men jurisdictions and castles which were not onely maintained in their nobilitie and authoritie but also are there greatly respected and imployed in publike affaires And so much there wanteth that there they hould a schoole of wickednesse that contrary onely they hould the countries in peace every one in his owne countrey and doe see justice administred to their subjects I will not denie but there are gentlemen in Alemaigne in the countrey of Suisses in France and other where which are bad inough and which are violent and vitious yet for some few wee must not condemne all in generall as Machiavell doth heere who saith they bee dangerous people in a countrie and that they are enemies to an estate politicke I know not if those hee named bee such namely the gentlemen of Naples of Romania of Lumbardie and of Rome and I am content to confesse unto him because I will not contest and strive against him upon a fact which hath some appearance of truth But I deny unto him that on this side the mounts they are such but contrary wee see that it is onely the Nobilitie of France and other neighbour countries which authorize protect justice and which make it to bee obeyed Yet will I also confesse that the gentlemen on this side the mounts are very dangerous and great enemies unto such a politicke estate as Machiavell hath builded by his writings that is a Tyrannicall For hystories tell us that our ancestors especially the barons lords gentlemen have vigorouslie alwaies opposed themselves against tyrannies and would never suffer them long to grow up or take roote which is a naturall thing in the French Nobilitie good though evill for the Machiavellistes strangers which are come into France to practise their tyrannies for by Gods grace they shall with much a doe take any deepe roote there 37. Maxime The Nobility of France would overthrow the estates of that kingdome if their Parliaments did not punish them and hould them in feare THe kingdome of France saith Nicholas is a kingdome more living under lawes than any other whereof their Parliaments Discourse lib. 1. cap. 1. are the gardiants and maintainers especially that of Paris And hitherto that kingdome is maintained because the Parliaments have alwaies beene obstinate executors and resisters against the Nobilitie without which the kingdome of France had come to ruine MAchiavell had done much better to have medled onely with the estate of Florence for hee shewes well his ignorance and that hee never knew the estate of France nor how it hath beene governed by our ancestors For I pray you where hath hee found this that the kingdome of France would dissolve and come to ruine but that the Parliaments are executors against the Nobilitie Is not this as much to say as the French Nobilitie will ruinate the kingdome if it bee not brideled and held short by Parliaments and that it were better there were none I doubt not but that Machiavell thus though For wee see it by the practise of the Machiavellists which never shot at other marke than to ruinate in France all the Nobilitie the better to establish their tyrannie at ease without contradiction And for this effect have they cassed violated and overthrowne all the good lawes of the kingdome by the meanes of which it hath alwaies hitherto been maintained and Machiavell confesseth and said true which his disciples having well marked and desiring to ruinate the said kingdome have not fayled to beginne by the lawes thereof knowing well Since what time Parliaments of France were instituted Before Parliaments the kingdome was no lesse florishing in peace and good iustice than since that having ruinated her foundations she will be easily dissolved and overthrowne But to confute this Maxime I will alledge no other thing but that wee see in our French hystories That our kingdome was as much or more flourishing and better governed before there were any Parliaments in France than since For the Parliament of Paris which is the ancientest was established and constituted in the time of king Philip le Bel Anno 1294. That of Tholouse during the raigne of Charles the seventh Anno 1444. That of Bourdeaux in the time of the same king Anno 1451. That of Daulphin in the time also of the same king but by the authoritie of king Lewis the eleventh his sonne then Daulphin and then inhabiting in Dauphine in Anno 1453. The Parliaments of Dijon and of Provence in the time of the said king Lewis the eleventh That of Rovan in the time of king Lewis the twelfth in Anno 1499. And that of Bretaigne was erected onely in the time of king Henry the second in Anno 1553 But before there was any