Selected quad for the lemma: blood_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
blood_n	wife_n	woman_n	young_a	114	3	6.1363	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51725	Discourses upon Cornelius Tacitus written in Italian by the learned Marquesse Virgilio Malvezzi ; dedicated to the Serenissimo Ferdinand the Second, Great Duke of Thuscany ; and translated into English by Sir Richard Baker, Knight.; Discorsi sopra Cornelio Tacito. English	Malvezzi, Virgilio, marchese, 1595-1653.; Baker, Richard, Sir, 1568-1645.	1642 (1642)	Wing M359; ESTC R13322	256,112	410

the man and not the woman and the honours that are done to the women ought to passe by the way of their husbands and therefore it is said in Esay 〈◊〉 invocetur nomen tuum super nos This course Tiberius tooke most notably who when his mother made any suite in his name he presently granted it and more then so he many times at the suit of Livia required those things of the Senat which without blushing he could not have asked but when it was moved to give her honours immediately without passing by the meanes of Tiberius he then presently opposed it saying Moderandos foeminarum honores But if we speake of those Princes that live securely in peace and are well setled in their states as at this day many are in Italy then either those women that should governe together with the men are in judgement and understanding fit for it or else they are altogether unfit if unfit it may then be enough for them to looke to matters at home and Domesticall affaires but if fit I cannot then thinke any thing more just or more convenient or more profitable to a Prince then to call such women of his blood to beare a part of the burthens of government both because by their experience and prudence they may assist the Prince as much as any other and also because by reason of their owne interest and the singular affection they beare to their husbands their sonnes or nephewes there can be none found that with more sincerity and faithfulnesse and without any by-respects will helpe them to beare so great a burthen as a Kingdome is and so much more as they are alwaies like to be partakers as well of the dangers as of the profits of the Prince A thing which is not found in strangers and such as are mercenary whose profit oftentimes lookes another way and is divided from the Princes profit Whereupon S. 〈◊〉 upon that place of Esay Pater filiis notam faciet veritamet saith Non revelatur servo veritas quia servus nescit quid faciat Dominus ejus sed nec Mercenarius rapitur ad contemplandam veritatem quia propriam quaerit utilitatem And therefore Augustus a most wise Prince had often conference with Livia Numa Pompilius with Aegeria Cyrus with Aspas●…a Tarquinius with Tanaquill and Justinian with his wife Theodosia Princes therefore ought not to despise the counsels of women of their blood but to hold them in great account whereof in my opinion there is in Genesis a Golden Text Sara having spoken to Abraham to send away Agar and Ismael it seemes he was not very willing to give credit to the words of a woman which God knowing said unto him Omnia quae dixerit tibi Sara audi vooem ejus Moreover when our Lord God made the woman he said Faciamus ei Adjutorium simile sibi and why then should we seeke after other helpers and not take those who are made of purpose for our ayd According to this my opinion was decided the controversie in Tacitus betweene Valorius Messalina and Caecina where it was concluded that in governments which stand in danger it is not fit to bring in women but very fit in governments that are peaceable and secure In which I say more that a Prince who is yong cannot doe better then not onely to be counselled a thing in part also fit where States are dangerous but to suffer himselfe also to be governed by women Theodatus King of the Ostrogothes in the beginning of his Raigne carried himselfe with great moderation as long as he agreed with his wife but when he left to follow her advice he filled with injustice all his Kingdome The Emperour Constantinus Sestus never governed well but when he suffered his mother Irene to direct him And Salomon never runne into disorderly courses as long as his mother Bersabe●… lived of whom he scorned not to be taught as himselfe in the Proverbs saith Filius fui patris mei tenellus Vnigenitus coram matre mea docebat me atque dicebat suscipiat verba mea cor tuum custodi praecepta mea vives And therefore S. Chrysostome upon S. John saith Nihil potentius muliere bona ad instituendum informandum virum quodcunque voluerit neque tam leniter anticos nec magistros patietur ut conjugem admonentem atque consulentem habet enim voluptatem quandam admonitio uxoria cum plurimum amet cui consulit multos possum afferre viros asperos immites per uxorem mites redditos mansuetos Who knowes not that Tiberius never plunged himselfe so much into all kinds of wickednesse as after his mothers death And the reason which all men alledge to prove women unfit for government is of no force of force I know in generall but that in particular women should not be as fit as men I hold it a great folly to thinke having my selfe although but yong not onely found written in Histories but seene in experience many women able to have governed the whole World and to these the frailty of their sexe is so farre from being a hinderance that rather they are worthy of the more praise for overcomming naturall defects with supply of vertue Vix dum ingressus Illyricum Tiberius properis matris literis excitur neque satis compertum est spirantem adhuc Augustum apud urbem Nolam an exanimem repererit acribus namque custodiis domum vias sepserat Livia laetique interdum 〈◊〉 vulgabantur donec 〈◊〉 quae tempus monebat simul excessisse Augustum rerum potiri Neronem eadem fama detulit That at one and the same time to make knowne the death of the Prince and the assumption of the successour is a thing very profitable for States that stand in danger The foure and twentieth Discourse THere is nothing makes me more beleeve that Tiberius had given order to his mother to poison Augustus then his very being far off from Rome at the time of his death an invention followed by all those who by such meanes have taken away the life of great personages So did Piso after he had as is said poysoned Germanicus so did Lodowick Sforza who knowing that his Nephew had taken poyson and could not long be living he would not stay in Milan but went to Piacenza to the King of France The cause as I thinke why they do so is to the end the World may not suspect they had any hand in their deaths and although they cannot but thinke that men of understanding will suspect them the more yet this is nothing to the Prince who seeks but to a voyd the heat of the people who without any judgment are carried through love or hatred to doe such things as men of judgement would never doe Tiberius was then in Slavonia when his mother sent him word of Augustus his sicknesse who as may be thought was dead before Tiberius came to Nola yet he oftentimes gave forth he had good

not so to be understood but thus that an evill will appeare so much worse as a man hath beene accustomed to a greater good as it would be a greater evill to a Prince who hath alwaies lived deliciously to be cast into prison or into servitude then to a Husbandman that hath beene used to digging and hardnesse because in the Prince is corrupted a greater good but in Genere entis the same evill is all one to a Husbandman and to a Prince Thus much by way of digression To returne to our purpose As concerning Plato although he be alledged for the contrary yet seeing he is but wavering and speakes diversly sometimes as in his Dialogues of a Common-wealth that an Optimacy is the best and sometimes as in his Dialogues of a Kingdome that a Monarchy is the best and oftentimes that a government mixt of People and Tyrant is the best we shall doe well to waive his words and have recourse to that he shewed in de eds as better expressing mens minds then words And Plato being asked of Dio how a Common-wealth might best be governed he found fault with Monarchy and counselled him to bring in Optimacy by which it appeares that this indeed was his very opinion Now for Pythagoras we say The Pythagorans endeavoured all they could to bring into Italy the government of Optimates and if it succeeded not yet that happened not for want of judgement but of forces Then for Plutarch if he understood it otherwise we may say he had reason as being the Schoolmaster to an Emperour and therefore should have shewed himselfe very simple to blame a Monarchy As for Homer he no doubt is most fit to be brought in proofe of that which I my selfe in another Discourse have resolved which is that an Army indeed should be governed by one alone the Verse which is commonly alledged out of Homer being spoken by Agamenmon to the Army And lastly Herodotus also had reason to conclude that amongst the Persians a Monarchy was a fitter government then an Aristocracy because the Persians were a rude imperfect Nation as we have shewed in another place But because the most of the Arguments brought against my opinion are taken out of a booke of S. Thomas intituled De Regimine Principis I desire men would take notice that I goe not about to impugne the Doctrine of that Saint of whom I have made choice for my Advocate with God and for my Master in all Sciences but the truth is that booke is none of S. Thomases as is easily proved seeing in that booke many persons are spoken of which lived not till long after S. Thomas his time as in the 20. Chapter of the third Booke De Regimine Principis it is said that Adul phus succeeded Ridolphus Count of Habspurg in the Empire which hapned in the yeere 1292. full eighteen yeeres after S. Thomas was dead and in many other places which for brevity I omit But let the booke be whose it will there is nothing in it against my opinion seeing he meanes onely that a Monarchy is the better where the people are imperfect and this is no more then what I have said my selfe As in his fourth book and eighteenth Chapter he saith Quaedam autem Provinciae sunt servilis naturae tales Gubernari debent Principatu Despotico Includendo in Despotico etiam 〈◊〉 qui autem Virilis animi audacia Cordis in Confidentia suae Intelligentiae sunt tales regi non possunt nisi Principatu Politico communi nomine extendendo ipsum ad Aristocraticum This Text sufficiently shewes the Authours opinion and it differs not from mine As for the authority of Tacitus before alleadged it is easily answered if we consider that he speaks not those words as his owne opinion but by the mouth of Asinius Gallus who having offended the Prince before meant afterward by flattering words to pacifie him In the last place I advertise that I counsell not People to change their government though it be not an Optimacy but rather I like that every Country should keepe the forme of government they have Ferenda Regum Ingenia saith Tacitus neque usui Crebras mutationes and in another place Vlteriora mirari Praesentia sequi bonos Jmperatores Voto expetere qualeseunque tolerare because to alter the forme of government is a mischievous thing not onely when it is good but even when it is bad whereupon it is better to endure a Tyrant then to rise up against him for if he should prevaile he would grow more cruell as having beene provoked and if he should be put downe there would grow a thousand differences about ordering the government and oftentimes he that was the forwardest to put downe the Tyrant would be the readiest to be Lord in his place and would then governe the more cruelly for feare to be put downe as his Predecessour was And this is his Doctrin that made the Booke De Regimine Principis Let People therefore keepe that forme of government they have and remember that notable Aphorisme of Hippocrates Consueta longo tempore etiamsi deteriora Insuetis minus molesta esse solent Lastly I advertise that governments would be proportioned to the Nature of the People and therefore in some places a Monarchie may do well where an Optimacy would not whereupon we see many Cities in 〈◊〉 as Perugia Florence Siena Bolonia others which never were in peace till they came to be under a Prince Nec ideo Iram ejus lenivit pridem in visus tanquam ducta in matrimonium Vipsania Marci Agrippae filia quae quondam Tiberii uxor fuerat plusquam Civilia agitaret That it is a great helpe for attaining a Kingdome to have a wife of the blood Royall and in what danger a Prince is that hath none but daughters The Fortieth Discourse HAving at this time no conveniency to Discourse upon all the Bookes of Tacitus I am forced to take all occasion though never so small to handle those things which more properly would be treated of in another place I shall therefore desire my reader that if in these Discourses I open many Sentences of Tacitus which might fitter be opened somewhere else it may be rather attributed to defect of occasion then to want of Judgement This Passage of Tacitus in which Tiberius shewed himselfe doubtfull of Asinius Gallus that Plusquam Civilia agitaret as having taken one to wife that had beene his wife before gives me occasion first to shew there is great reason to suspect such as get them wives of the blood Royall as being a speciall helpe for attaining the Empire and having attained it to maintaine it Secondly to shew the danger a Prince is in that hath none but Daughters and lastly to shew the course he ought to hold that would secure himselfe in these cases Saul had reason to doubt David having taken his daughter Micholl to wife and knowing this important point of state he sought by a

thousand impertinencies to free himselfe but being forced at last to give her to him the Scripture relates that he then began to fea re David exceedingly whereupon it is said Deditque ei Saul Micholl filiam suam and it followes Michol autem diligebat eum Saul caepit timere David The most wise Salomon who also knew this danger when Bersabee unadvisedly asked Abisac the Shunamite for Adoniah answered Quare postulas Abisac Shunamite Adoniae Postula ei Regnum and as he denyed to Adoniah his wife So Tiberius denied to Agrippina her husband whereof Tacitus speaking saith Caesar non ignarus quantum ex Repubitca peteretur ne tamen offensionis aut metus manifestus foret sine reponso quanquam Instantem reliquit Likewise the same Tiberius knew that when Seianus demanded Livia who had beene the wife of Drusus it was as much as to demand the Kingdome and therfore denyed her to him saying Falleris enim Seiane si te mansurum in 〈◊〉 Ordine putas Liviam quae Caio Caesari mox Druso nupta fuerat ea mente acturam ut cum equite Romano senes●…at It is no marvell also if ●…itellius shewed to be afraid of Dolobella as being in the same case Tiberius was with Asinius Gallus having taken her to wife who had beene his wife before Vitellius metu odio saith Tacitus quod Petroniam uxorem ejus mox Dolobella in matrintonium accepisset vocatum per epistolas vitata Flaminiae viae celebritate divertere Interamnam atque ibi Jnterfici Iussit And therefore Phalti shewed great Iudgement who when Micholl marryed before to David was given him by Saul yet he never touched her but as Rabbi Salomon saith laid a sword betweene Micholl and himselfe when he was in bed with her to keepe him from touching her and indeed it was well he did so seeing no sooner was Saul dead but that David not thinking himselfe King if his wife were married to another said to Abner Non videbis faciem meam antequam adduxeris Micholl filiam Saul This therfore is a special help for attaining a kingdom our Lord God although he be able of himselfe to accomplish whatsoever he pleaseth yet as willing to make use of second causes he caused David to the end he might more easily attaine the Crowne to which hee was designed Abaeterno and to which Samuel had anointed him to take to wife adaughter of Sauls And Salomon who was all wisedome and prudence shews it us himselfe and finally the most subtile Seianus having an intent to get the Empire knew this way to be if not necessary at least most profitable Thus my intention is proved by Examples but because there is more force in Reasons to move the understanding and therefore Philosophers never speak but they bring their reason I have therefore sought out one which I have found me thinkes in Aristotle in his Books of generation where speaking how Elements are transmuted hesaith In Elementis habentibus Symbolam qualitatem facilior est transitus As the Earth which is cold and dry is more converted into water which is cold and moist then into aire which is hot and moist as agreeing with that in one quality of cold and disagreeing with this in both So in our case the attaining to a Kingdome being in a private person a transmutation more difficult then that of the Elements it will more easily be attained where there is one symbolizing quality then where there is none He therefore is more likely to attaine the Empire who being himselfe a privat man shall have a wife of the blood Royall then he that both himselfe and his wife are of private estates A Second Reason omitting Philosophicall to come to a Politicall is that people bearing affection to their Prince more easily suffer themselves to be governed as long at there remaines in the Kingdome any spark of his blood Darius a man of exceeding great Judgement comming from a private man to be a Prince for confirming him in the Empire tooke to wife a daughter of Cyrus as knowing of how great importance it was to have a wife of that blood which had beene King before where of Iustin saith Principio igitur Regni Cyri Regis filiam Regalibus nuptiis Regnum firmaturus in matrimonium accepit ut non tam in extraneum translatum quam in familiam Cyri reversum videretur The like consideration had the sonnes of Tigranes and if with them it had not good successe this happened upon other occasion and therefore good cause had Tacitus to marvell where he saith Nec Tigrani diuturnum Jmperium neque liberis ejus quanquam sociatis more externo in matrimonium Regnumque This brought Demetrius to be King of Macedon that he had Fila to wife who was daughter to the old King Antipator From this passage now spoken off with good consequence comes in the second that a Prince is in great danger who hath none but daughters seeing if he marry them hee can never be secure that his sonne in law will not take the Kingdome from him for the facility we have shewed to be by this occasion To meet with this danger many have taken divers courses the first hath beene to marry them to meane men and such as may have no thought of comming to the Empire before the time because such a one seemes rather likely to be assistant to the Prince in his affaires seeing he may justly hope for more faithfulnesse from a Sonne in law then from strangers and need not make doubt of a person that is not of any Noble Lynage This conceit was in Augustus and Tacitus expresseth it in the Person of Tiberius At enim Augustus filiam suam Equiti Romano meditatus est Mirum hercule si cum in omnes Curas distraheretur Immensumque attolli provideret quem Conjunctione tali super alios extulisset Cajum Proculeium quosdam in sermonibus habuit Insigni tranquillitate vitae nullis Reipublicae negotiis permixtos This indeed would be no ill course so long as those persons of meane condition be not of a spirit to aspire to the Empire such as those named by Tiberius were in whom those words of Tacitus are to be considered Tranquillitate vitae as though he would say a man free from audacious haughty though●… and such may safely and without danger be advanced to honour Whereupon Aristotle in his Politicks meaning to teach what kind of men may safely be raised made great he saith 〈◊〉 si quē extollere oporteat non 〈◊〉 cum qui sit moribus 〈◊〉 hujusmodi homines aptissimi sunt ad invadondu circa 〈◊〉 And if Augustus gave her afterwards to Agrippa Ignobilem loco bonum Militia victor●… socium this happened because he could not choose but feare Agrippa whereupon he was forced either to put him to death a thing most scandalous not onely in a Christian but even in a Heathen or at least to put

are more punished than the second as was seen in Ananias and Saphyra in the Acts of the Apostles in the Deluge in the subversion of Sodome infinite many in our time who committing the same faults yet have not the same punishments I speak not of the Eternal I wouldtherfore make distinction either it is the same party that commits both faults and then the Law is he should be more punished for the second time offending or else they are severall pa●…ties and then either of faults committed against some new Law and then the first are more to be punished than the second to the end there may grow no abuse and that the Law with more care may be observed or else we speak of faults committed against a Law already established and then the second is more to be punished than the first in regard of the Example he hath before him To come finally to the particular of these Rebellions if the first time the fault be severely punished it will be a cause that hardly it will be committed the second time but if by ill fortune it be committed and they rebell the second time there will be then little hope to quiet them because the feare to be punished as at the first time will hinder them from quiching and if in the first insurrection there be not used an excesse of rigour it will be an occasion they will easily make insurrection the second time but yet it will be easie then to quiet them as it hapned to Scipio Concerning the second to punish the seditious by the souldiers own hands is occasion of many laudable effects First the hatred goes alwayes against them that act the punishment and therefore when the Army now quieted would have Germanicus to punish the offendours he answered Ipfi exequerentur whereof Tacitus a little after shewing the reason saith Nec Caesar arcebat meaning that had done the slaughter Quando nullo ipfius jussu penes ●…osdem saevitia facti invidiaerat A second reason is that seeing all the seditious cannot be punished but onely the Heads unlesse he should destroy the whole Army it seemes that if the baser sort be not punished it will give them meanes to be able and occasion to be ready upon every light distaste to mutiny again which by punishing the Heads by the proper hands of the multitude will be remedied and prevented because they will finde none afterward forward to incite them when they see such an Example of their ungratefulnesse towards them them that incited and were their Heads before and of themselves they will be never able to make any innovation Nihil ausuram plebem principibus amotis Thirdly because the Generall by this meanes will remove the hatred which might grow by such slaughters from himselfe to the souldiers this way John Bentivoglio in Bolonia took when being advertised by his Adversary Duke Valentine that many of the principall of the City had a meaning to receive him into Bolonia with an Army which perhaps Valentine did to the end that Bentivoglio might shed the blood of his Nobles and thereby make the Heads of them his Enemies and finally be murthered by them but he giving credit to what Valentine writ caused his son Hermes and the greater part of the young Nobles of Bolonia to go and commit those slaughters to the end that they imbruing their hands in the blood of Bentivoglio his Enemies might run the same fortune with himselfe and consequently never after abandon their Prince because if he should chance to be driven out they might be sure themselves to fare no better so as Bentivoglio made that a meanes to make himselfe secure which Valentine intended should have made him odious Herod fearing John the Baptist and meaning to put him to death invited to supper all the principall men of Galile to the end that they also might have a part in the slaughter and thereby be tied to defend him if there should be need of which the holy Text in Saint Marke saith Herodes autem metuebat Johannem sciens eum virum justum sanctum custodiebat eum audito 〈◊〉 multa faciebat libenter eum audiebat cum dies opportunus accidisset Herodes natalis sui coenam fecit Principibus Tribunis Primis Galileae and that which followes A pestilent course because as well in the case before as in this there was a most cruell and unlawfull Execution But if as in our case we presuppose there should be an occasion deserving death I then conceive it would not do well unlesse execution of the slaughter were conferred upon their ovvn companions And thus did Moses vvho almost just in the same manner as Caecina did punished his people vvhen they rebelled against him or rather against God in vvorshipping the golden 〈◊〉 for he caused the Tribe of Levi to enter into the Campe and to go from one end to the other forward and backward and cut them all in pieces whom they found to have upon them a certain marke which what it was I will not at this time stand to speak of Si quis est Domini saith Moses jungatur mihi congregatique suntomnes filij Levi ad eum quibus ait Haec dicit Dominus 〈◊〉 Israel Ponat vir gladium super faemur suum ite redite de porta usque ad portam per medium castrorum occidat unusquisque fratrem amicum proximum suum and therefore the way which Caecina used in the Rebellion was a good way Fourthly those Souldiers which were no partakers in the Rebellion are the gladder if they can wash their hands in the blood of the offenders Laetabitur justus cum viderit vindictam manus 〈◊〉 lavabit in sanguine peccatoris Whereupon in that first sedition when the Souldiers had killed them that were guilty as though that slaughter were their own absolution they rejoyced Gaudebat caedibus miles tanquam semet absolveret It remaines to shew whether it be true that Officers in execution of punishments use to exceed their commission and that it is true is plainly shewed by Saint John in the Apocalyps where a voyce saying to the seven Angels Ite effundite septem phialas irae Dei interram they went and powred them out not onely upon the land but upon the rivers also upon the fountaines upon the sea and even upon the sun upon the same occasion in another place of the Apocalyps an Angel cried aloud to four Angels to whom power was given to hurt the Earth and the Sea saying Nolite nocere terrae mari neque arboribus he needed not have said arboribus seeing those Angels had power to hurt but onely the Earth and the Sea he therefore cried so as a Writer observes because he saw those Angels interpreted the power given them to hurt in too large a sense as meaning to hurt not only the Earth and the Sea but the trees also or perhaps he doubted least as