commaundement of the gods Withdraw your selfe then quoth he a while out of the temple and I wil tell it them if they aske it Zosimus reporteth in his historie that while Constantine the great was yet no Christian he would haue bin purged by the high-priests of the Painims for his murthering of his wife and his sonne and that when they refused to doe it he became a Christian vpon report of a Spaniard who gaue him to vnderstand that the Christian Religion wiped away all sorts of sin But this Zosimus speaketh like a clerke of arms and like an enemie to our Religion not knowing with how great discretion penitents are receiued into the bosome of the church as we may see in many treatises of S. Ciprian Nicephorus in his seuenth booke disproueth those that so report vnto whom I referre my selfe concerning the cause that moued Constantine to take vpon him the Christian religion because it is a thing notably knowne to all men For inasmuch as Religion bringeth with it humilitie and lowlinesse of heart pride and ouer-weening doe vtterlie defeat it as we read of king Osias who was punished with a leaprosie for presuming to offer sacrifice to God and likewise of Dathan Choree and Abiron whom the earth swallowed vp aliue Concerning the touching of the things dedicated to the temple we see what befell to Manasses and Amon kings of Ierusalem and to Nabugodonozer king of Babilon and diuers others And as touching the forsaking of the true Religion wee know the euill end that befell to Achab Ochosias and Oseas kings of Samaria Now seeing that true Religion is a goodly thing needs ' must Hipocrisie and false Religion be very dangerous as which displeaseth God and man when a countenance of the feare of God is pretended to deceiue folke vnder shew of holinesse For as Cicero saith in his Duties There is not so great a wickednesse as the cloking of a mans selfe vnder the mantle of Religion to do euill Such guiles or cosenages are misliked both of God and man specially when they be faced with the countenance of holinesse I meane wicked guiles as the Lawyers tearme them and not such guiles as serue for baits to draw folke to that which is good and behooffull of which sort Plato speaking in his Laws saith It is not against the grauitie of a law-giuer to vse such kind of vntruths because it is inough for him to persuade folk to that which is for their welfare profit For it is not vnlawfull to beguile men to a good end as saith S. Paul to apply a mans selfe to all sorts of men to the intent to win them as he himselfe did in Ierusalem by the counsell of S. Iames when he made his foure companions to be shauen and purified himselfe with them in the temple according to the custome of law notwithstanding that he allowed not that ceremonie Therefore men are not forbidden to beguile vntractable folke and such as are otherwise vnweeldie and hard to be ruled or els which are grosse superstitious fearfull and shiwitted or to induce them to some kind of Superstition for the compassing of some commendable matter or to bridle those with the snaffle of Religion which can not be compassed by loue nor by force which is the strongest mean that we haue to restraine euen them that are most fierce and vntamable For as Sabellicus saith there is not any thing that doth more easily retaine the common people than Superstition or is of more force to moue and persuade people to the intent and opinion that a man will rule them and lead them too This maner of dealing haue the greatest and best aduised law-makers and the best experienced captaines of the world vsed And among others Numa Pompilius of whom I haue spoken afore vsed it wisely towards the Romanes holding the people whom he gouerned in awe by a Religion such as it was and specially by the ceremonies which were in vse at that time He saw well he had to doe with theeues robbers and murtherers and that his estate could not bee sure among people that had their hands alreadie stained with the blood of their king whom they had killed late afore and that it was no need to whet them being a people too much giuen to war but rather to procure them rest to the intent that during the time of peace they might receiue some good lawes for the gouerning of their citie and haue their crueltie assuaged by means of religion And to the intent that the thing which he did might be of the more authoritie he feined that all proceeded frō the counsel of the Muses and of the nymph or goddesse Aegeria that haunted the forrest Arecine vnto whose company he often withdrew himselfe alone not suffering any body to go in thither with him Minos the law-giuer of Candie had vsed the like feat afore to giue force and authoritie to his lawes For he went ordinarily into a certaine caue of the earth the which he termed Iupiters caue and after he had bin there a long time he brought his lawes with him all written saying he had receiued them of Iupiter to the end to compell his countrimen to keepe them both by the power and authoritie which he had ouer them and also by religion the which he esteemed to bee of more force than all his commandements No lesse did Pithagoras for the ratifieng of his doctrine for he had so reclaimed an eagle that at a certaine call she would come and lie houering ouer his head in the aire After that Lycurgus had made his lawes he caused them to be ratified by the oracle of Apollo who answered that they were good and fit to make men liue well and blessedly And as the superstition of people hath well serued the turn of lawmakers so hath it no lesse serued to make captains obeied and to giue thē the reputation which they deserued when they could skill to vse it cunningly as Agesilaus did who seeing his men dismaied because they were far fewer in number than their enimies fell to making sacrifice afore hee prepared himselfe to the battell and writing this word Victorie in his left hand tooke the liuer of the beast at the priests hand without making any countenance and holding it a long time in his owne hand as in a muse that the liuer might take the print of the letters went anon after to his men of warre there present and shewed them the liuer telling them that those letters behighted a sure signe of victorie thereby to make them the more couragious and resolute Sertorius one of the best experienced captains of Rome being brought into a little country of Spaine where it behooued him to haue the helpe of the Spaniards who were but smally accustomed to obey and to submit themselues to warlike discipline to the intent he might beare some sway among them and be beleeued and followed of them in
an vnskilfull person neither misliked he of learned men but had Philosophers Lawyers and other men of good learning and knowledge neere about him And notwithstanding that he was well aduised and discreet yet in doing many things vpon his owne head he failed not to doe some whereof he repented afterward because the benefit of nature was not sufficiently kiltred by learning which is the thing wherein princes faile For if they bee not taught by the dumb scholemaisters that is to say by bookes they will hardly be taught by the liuely voice because the schoolemaister is afraid and dareth not compell them but letteth them doe what they list at their own discretion therefore they cannot learne so well as others that are vnder correction But the booke although it doe not speake vttereth what it listeth without either feare or blushing and giueth such warnings vnto Princes as their tutors durst not doe Therefore all their recourse ought to be vnto bookes as well to vnderstand the truth as to learne the historie wherein they shall see a thousand policies of warre infinit goodly sayings a thousand inconueniences that haue lighted vpon euil princes their grossenes their lewdnesse and their wickednesse On the contrarie part they shall take singular pleasure in reading the praises of good princes they shall see their wisedome vertue and good demeanor in matters both of peace and warre How they defended themselues froÌ„ their enemies how they wound themselues out of their hands what they did to maintaine their states and what got them their good reputation and made them to prosper in all things Which thing the valeantest captains could well skill to put in practise who not only haue helped themselues by learning in the managing of their affairs as Cicero and Lucullus who had small experience of warre Alexander the great Iulius Caesar and infinit other great captains but also haue set downe to themselues as it were in a looking-glasse some such personages as they haue liked to follow As for example Alexander setting Achilles before him for his patterne neuer slept without the Iliads of Homer vnder his pillow The paterne of Iulius Caesar was Alexander and Cirus was the pattern of Scipio who neuer went without a Xenophon no more did Alfons king of Arragon go without the Commentaries of Caesar nor the emperour Charles the fift without the Remembrances of Philip of Comines After whose example all noble-minded princes ought first to haue the histories of the holy Bible and besides them of the Heathen histories the liues of Traian Antonie the Meeke Alexander the Stern such others by whom they shal learne to order their life aright And to allure them the more vnto learning I will alleage the saying of Salomon in the xx chapter of his Prouerbs There is much gold and store of pearles but bookes of knowledge are the precious iewels By knowledge chambers are filled with all maner of costly and pleasant stuffe And as he sayth in another place The vvise mâ—n hath great might and the man of knovvledge hath great strength For by skill are vvarres made and vvhere many be that can giue councell there is victorie Cicero in his oration for Archias saith That learning is the teacher of vertue a delighter and refresher of vs vvhen vve be at home alone in our ovvne houses and a companion that cumbereth vs not vvhen vve goe abroad It trauelleth vvith vs it sleepeth vvith vs it is an ornament vnto vs in prosperitie and a helpe in aduersitie Many being in prison many being in captiuitie to their enemies many being in banishment haue borne their misfortune vvell by means of learning Diogenes was wont to say That learning made yong men sober comforted old men enriched poore men and made rich men glorious because learning restraineth the slippernesse of youth and supplieth the defects of old age Aristotle saith that the eies receiue light from the aire about them and the mind from the liberall sciences and that learning serueth for an ornament in prosperitie and for a refuge in aduersitie Aristippus was wont to say There is as great difference betweene the learned and vnlearned as is betweene the liuing and the dead Send them both quoth he into a strange countrie and you shall see what difference there is The which appeared well in Dennis who of the king of Sicilie became a schoolemaster at Corinth and might haue starued for hunger had it not bin for his learning The foresaid Philosopher Aristippus was wont to say That it was better to be a beggar than to be vnlearned because the beggar hath no need but of mony but the vnlearned hath need of humanitie as who would say that he which wanted knowledge was no man Socrates was wont to say That for war iron was better than gold and that for the life of man learning was better than riches At such time as Paulus Emileus was for to encounter with Perseus the last king of Macedonie that his armie was sore dismaid at the eclips of the moon which then happened Sulpicius Gallus incouraged them by his learning in that hee assured them of victorie by his knowledge in the Mathematicall sciences By the like knowledge Archimedes defended the citie of Syracuse from the force of Marcellus In this processe of learning I will not omit Eloquence which the men of old time termed the Queene of men as one which euen by force drue vnto her the affections of as many as shee spake vnto Plutarch in the life of Pericles saith that Eloquence is an Art that weeldeth mens minds at her pleasure and that her cheefe cunning is to know well how to mooue mens passions and affections to her lure which are as you would say the Tunes and sounds of the soule which is willing to be touched by the hand of a good musician And albeit that a good naturall disposition be very requisit to haue the toung at commandement yet will nature doe but small seruice if it be not polished by learning On the contrary part the man that is rude of speech by nature may become eloquent and well spoken in amending his euill disposition by learning I meane not that he shal becom as good as Demosthenes but that he may be able to make some breefe oration to the people or to men of war that shall be of force to persuade them as the braue captains of old times did Nestor is commended of Homer not only for his good skill and counsell but also for his Eloquence saying that the words issued from his lips as sweet as honie Notwithstanding that Pirrhus was one of the best captains of the world yet would he say that Cyneas had woon him mo cities by his eloquence than he himselfe had done by the sword Anon after the expulsing of the kings out of Rome there fel such debate between the senators and the common-people that the citie was like to haue gone to vtter
of Iustice. Moreouer he had good and discreet men about him of whom he would enquire in secret what men reported of him and if he found that their speaking euill of him was for iust cause he endeuored to amend his fault And therfore it is better that a prince should be too gentle than too slerne howbeit that it is to be considered that the excesse in any of both waies cannot be without vice and that as well in this as in all other things the best is to be followed which is the meane in matching grauitie and gentlenesse togither as the Athenians said of Pericles that no mans nature could be more moderated in grauitie nor more graue with meeldnesse and gentlenesse than his was And as Gueuara saith in his first booke Princes ought to endeuor to get the good wils of men by courteous conuersation and also to be feared and redouted for their maintaining of good iustice as we read of Liberius Constantine the emperor who was both feared of many and loued of all Plutarch in the life of Phocion saith That too rough seueritie as well as too meeld gentlenesse is a verie slipperie and dangerous downfall and that the middle way of yeelding sometimes to the peoples desire therby to make them the more obedient otherwise and to grant them the thing that doth delight them therby to require of them the things that are for their profit is a wholsome meane to rule and gouerne men well who suffer themselues to be led to the executing of good things when too lordly authoritie is not vsed ouer them Therefore when maiestie is mingled with courtesie there is no harmonie so perfect musick-like as that For it is the thing wherin the prince may resemble God who enforceth not vs to any thing but doth sweeten the constraint of obedience with demonstration and persuasioÌ„ of reason Chilo said That princes must match gentlenesse with puissance to the intent they may be the more reuerenced and feared of their subiects For this reuerence is accompanied with loue but feare is accompanied with hatred Now it is both more sure more honourable to be loued than to be feared Therfore a prince must moderat his behauiour in such sort as he may be neither too much feared of the meaner sort nor too much despised of the greater For to be too much feared of his subiects belongeth vnto a tyrant But yet must he also beware that he be not despised of the great he must keepe his estate be graue howbeit such grauitie as is accoÌ„panied with gentlenes so as when he is abroad he shew a princely maiestie when he is to heare requests he shew himselfe affable easie to be delt with After that maner did Iulius Casar behaue himselfe in his dictatorship but that was to his own ouerthrow because he had taken vpon him that preheminence by force of arms and had altered the state of the citie in which case it is more safety for a prince to be feared than to be loued For it caÌ„not be but that the prince which hath changed a state hath many enemies Augustus his successor was better aduised than he for at the beginning he was cruel put those to death whoÌ„ he thought able to impeach his doings at any time after But wheÌ„ he once saw himselfe throughlie setled in his tyranny that the most part of the citizeÌ„s that had bin brought vp in libertie were dead then began he to be a gentle affable gratious prince Antigonus did the like in the beginning of his raign dealing roughlie at the first afterward becoÌ„ming meeld and gentle And wheÌ„ it was asked of him Why he had altered his maner of dealing he answered That at the beginning he needed a kingdome now he wanted but fauor and good wil because a new dominioÌ„ is gotten by force of arms by austeritie but it is maintained by loue and good will But in lawfull kings loue is more auailable than feare The kings of France demeane themselues better in that behalfe than all other kings For their attendance representeth a great maiestie yet notwithstanding no man is barred froÌ„ preferring his sute vnto him after he is out of his chaÌ„ber specially in the morning when he goeth to masse where certain masters of requests atteÌ„d vpon him deliuer him the petitions that are brought vnto them There is a kind of gentlenes that is hurtfull to a prince and his granting of euerie mans request may breed manie great inconueniences For by graunting some point of fauour in case of iustice wrong is done and by graunting monie the prince his purse is emptied whereby hee is driuen to take where he ought not or else where he can The lawes of France haue well remedied that matter For the king hath set downe by his ordinance that he will not haue his letters regarded which concerne not iustice for the view of theÌ„ he referreth himselfe to his iudges for his checker matters moreouer there is his court of parliament and a chamber of accounts which controlleth the kings gifts so as no man can go away discontented from him because he granteth all things that are demaunded of him and yet those gifts are without effect wherof the ministers only doe beare the disgrace as Machiauell hath very well marked in his booke of Princes And so long as this law stood in force the affaires of France did alway prosper Now let vs speake of Enuie which extendeth it selfe further than roughnesse or austeritie which properly is contrary to Gentlenes and Courtesie For the rough sterne person is contrarie to the gentle and kind-hearted as Terence teacheth vs in his comodie of the BrethereÌ„ vnder the persons of Mitio and Demea But Enuie containeth in it churlishnesse hatred ambition man-slaughter according to the saying of S. Iohn Chrisostom vpon the xxvij of Genesis where he saith That Enuie is the root of man-slaughter and man-slaughter is the fruit of enuie S. Ambrose in his Duties maketh no great difference betweene the wicked and the enuious saying That the wicked man delighteth in his owne welfare and the enuious man is tormented at the welfare of another the one loueth the euil the other hateth the good so as he that desireth the good is more tollerable than he that would the mischiefe of all men Enuie then is nothing else but a sorinesse conceiued at the prosperitie of another man Bion the Boristhenit speaking to a certaine enuious man whom hee saw sad said vnto him I cannot tell whether some harme hath happened to thy selfe or some good to some other bodie For Enuie is not sorie for another mans harme but contrariwise is glad of it The Greeks call it Epicairecaâ—ian as ye would say A ioying and reioicing at other mens harmes Themistocles said Hee had not yet done any thing woorthie of praise seeing that no man enuied him Hereby we
handle them ouerboldly But the yong men set hand to their weapons and slue them euery chone not one excepted Ioane queene of Naples was hanged vp for her aduoutrie in the very same place where she had hanged her husband Andreasse afore because he was not a lustie companion to her liking I will forbeare to speak of Fredegund and other vnchast women and for this matter will alledge but only the guile of the Madianits who perceiuing the children of Israell to be impregnable and vnuincible so long as they sinned not tooke of the beautifullest yoong women that they had and sent them afore to the camp of the Israelits to intice them to sin which thing caused the Israelits to be ouercome by them The Troians were vtterly destroied for the aduouterie of one man And Homer maketh Apollo to send the pestilence into the campe of the Greekes because the king had taken away the daughter of Chryses his priest Let vs now speake of punishments ordained by lawes The Persians were rigorous in punishing adulterers and likewise the Aegyptians who punished the adulterer with a thousand lashes of a whip and the adulteresse by cutting off hir nose And somtimes as saith Diodorus they did cut off the priuie members of him that had deflowred a gentlewoman because of the corrupting and confounding of issue Herodotus reporteth That Feron king of Aegypt did cause all the women in a citie to be burned whom he vnderstood to be adultresses The same king had beene blind ten yeares and the eleuenth yeare the Oracle told him that he should recouer his sight if he washed his eies in the water of a woman that had neuer had to do with any other than hir husband First he made triall of his owne wiues water but that would do him no good and afterward of infinit others which did him all as little saue onely one by the rubbing of his eies with whose water he reeouered his sight and then put all the rest to dearh By the law of Moses adulterous persons were stoned to death as appeareth in the one and twentith of Leuitticus and in the two and twentith of Deuteronomie and afore that also in eight and thirtith of Genesis The law Iulia punished both the offenders with death whereof there is an expresse title in the Digests Ecclesiasticus speaking of an adulterous woman saith That hir children shall not take roote and that her braunches shall not beare fruit They shall leaue their remembrance accursed and the shame thereof shall not be wiped out Such as by reason of their greatnesse haue escaped the rigour of law haue not failed to be defamed as Faustine and the exceeding infamous Messaline who in that trade went beyond all the courtesans that euer were returning from the brothel house rather tired than satisfied And Iulia the daughter of Augustus was so shamelesse and vnchast that the emperor was neuer able to reclaime her And whē one thinking to haue good credit with her desired her to leaue that life and to follow chastitie as her father did she said That her father forgat himselfe and considered not that he was Caesar but as for her she knew well she was the daughter of Caesar. Now must I treat of the means to auoid this inconuenience Saint Paule giueth one which is verie certaine that is to wit mariage Another remedie is to eschew occasions For there is more pleasure in not desiring than in enioying When one demaunded of Sophocles whether he gaue himselfe to women still in his old age or no No quoth he I haue withdrawne my selfe from it and haue left vp that trade as a wicked wild and harebraind maister Occasions are eschewed by the eies by the toung and by the eares By the eies when a man turneth them away from looking vpon faire women as I haue said of Alexander and diuers others Cyrus would neuer see the beautifull Pantea And when Araspes one of his courriers told him That her beautie was a thing worthie the beholding Euen therfore quoth he is it best to abstaine from seeing her The same cause as witnesseth Iosephus in the eleuenth booke of his Antiquities made the Persians not to shew their wiues vnto strangers And as Tertullian saith in his treatise of the veiling of Virgins The Corinthians veiled their maidens Contrariwise the Lacedemonians did let them go vnueiled that they might get them husbands And when they were maried then they veiled them Sulpitius Gallus did put away his wife by deuorce because she went abrode bare faced as Valerius saith in his sixt booke but that was but a slender cause of diuorce It is said in Genesis That Rebecca couered her selfe as soone as she saw Isaac This was not done without cause For as Plutarch saith Loue is nothing else but a well-liking of beautie which carieth vs with an ardent desire to the obtainment of that which we couet And Ouid writing to a certaine woman saith Would God thou wert not so faire for then should I not be so importunate but thy beautifull face enforceth me to be bold Theocritus termed a faire face a mischiefe of yuory because it is pleasant to see to and causeth manie mischiefs It is a speechlesse commendation for it commendeth it selfe sufficiently without speaking It is a kingdom without halberders for the beautifull commaund euen kings and without force obtaine what they will of them yea and they be of such power that some haue said as Tertullian and manie others that euen angels haue beene in loue with them alledging the sixt chapter of Genesis howbeit misvnderstood by them the which thing Saint Iohn Chrysostome writing vpon the same chapter Saint Ambrose in his booke concerning Noe and the Arke S. Austen in his fifteenth booke of the citie of God and all the right beleeuing doctors haue disprooued at large If Paris had not seene Helen the citie of Troy had not beene destroyed If Dauid had not seene Bersaba and Gyges the wife of Candaules none of them both had beene murtherers and adulterers both at once If Caracalla had not seene his mothers thigh he had not maried her Suetonius saith That Tiberius caused manie boyes and girles to come to Capree whither he had withdrawne himselfe that he might not be seene of the Romans in such lewd dealings And he caused them to do a thousand villanous things in his presence to delight his sight withall and to quicken vp his lust which was almost dead vnto such things So that the surest way for a man is to withhold his eies from the sight of all vanities Next a man must keepe himselfe from speaking foule and filthie speeches and from hearing them spoken as such men and women will do as list not to read vnchast bookes nor to heare ribaudrie talke nor to come in place or companie where such are read For words spoken in ieast or in earnest serue well to kindle the fire of loue according to the answer