reuenged or called in question after that peace and agreement togither is made otherwise there would neuer be any assurance of peace or end of periurie From the selfe same fountaine of the profanation of faith and custome in lying it being the propertie of vice to ingender another vice for a punishment of it selfe proceedeth that pernitious plague of kingdomes and Common-wealths I meane Treason hated of God and men wherewith periured persons being bewitched feare not to betray themselues so they may betray others also and their countrey Whereupon they become odious to euery one euen to those who vsed them to serue their owne turnes in disloyall and wicked actions and in the end they receiue the reward due to their execrable impieties For this is the common affection that men beare towards such people so to seeke them out which notwithstanding is not the propertie of a noble hart when they stande in feare of them as they that want gall or the poison of some venemous beasts afterward to giue them ouer and to reiect bicause of their wickednes If a man be called slothfull he may become diligent if talkatiue hold his peace if a glutton temperate himselfe if an adulterer abstaine if furious dissemble if ambitious stay himselfe if a sinner amend but he that is once called a traitor there is no water to washe him cleane nor meane to excuse himselfe Nowe let vs come to the examples of the Ancients and know what zeale they bare to fidelitie and hatred to periurie and treason as also what recompence commonly followed and accompanied such things and with what reward noble-minded men did requite those that were disloiall and traiterous Attilius Regulus a Romane of great credite being taken prisoner in the Carthaginian warre and sent to Rome vpon his faith to intreat about a peace and the exchange of captiues so soone as he arriued gaue cleane contrarie aduice in the Senate shewing that it was not for the profit of the Common-wealth to make such an agreement Afterward hauing resolued with himselfe to keepe faith with the enimie he returned to Carthage where he was put to death very cruelly For his eie-lids being cut off himselfe bound to an engine he died with the force of waking Demaratus king of Sparta being in Persia with the king against whome a great man of Persia had rebelled was the meanes of their reconciliation Afterward this barbarian king hauing his said Vassaile in his power would haue beene reuenged of him thinking to put him to death But the vertuous Lacedemonian turned him from it declaring vnto him that it would redound to his great shame not to know how to punish him for his rebellion when he was his enimie and now to put him to death being his seruant and friend A reason truly well woorthie to be marked but very slenderly put in vre at this day Augustus hauing made proclamation by sound of trumpet that he would giue 25000. Crownes to him that should take Crocotas ringleader of the theeues in Spaine he offered himselfe to the Emperor and required the summe promised by him which he caused to be paid him pardoned him withall to the end no man should thinke that he would take his life from him thereby to frustrate him of the promised recompence as also bicause he would haue publike faith and safetie kept to euery one that came according to order of Iustice although in truth he might haue proceeded and giuen out processe against him Cato the elder being in warre against the Spaniards was in great danger by reason of the multitude of enimies who sought to inclose him round about And not being then in possibilitie to be succored of any but of the Celtiberians who demanded of him 200. Talents which are 120000. Crownes in hand for their wages the Councell tolde him that it was not by anie meanes to be gotten presently but yet promised to furnish them with such a summe and that within any time which they would appoint otherwise that it was more expedient not to meddle with them But this wise and wel aduised captaine vsed this occasion to very good purpose by resoluing with himselfe and with his souldiers either to ouercome their enimies or else to die after they had agreed with the Celtiberians that the Romane glorie should not be stained by the falshood of their promises For quoth he to his souldiers if we get the battell we will pay them not of our owne but at the charges of our enimies but if we loose the victorie none will be left aliue either to pay or to demand any paiment There was no talke among the Councell of these noble Romanes how they might deceiue their enimies or those whose seruice they were vrged to vse but they determined rather to die than to be wanting in their promise Likewise we may note that as their enterprizes thus grounded had good successe so periurie and violating of right were through the vengeance of God pursued for the most part with vnhappie effects contrarie to the platformes and desires of periured and faithles men or at leastwife that themselues were speedily punished for their wickednes And therefore when Tissaphernes Lieutenāt to the king of Persia had broken a truce which he had made with the Grecians they gaue him thankes by his owne Herald bicause he had placed the Gods in whose name the truce was sworne on their side And in deede he smally prospered after that in his enterprizes Cleomenes king of Lacedemonia hauing taken a truce for seuen daies with the Argians assaulted them the third night after knowing that they were in a sound sleepe and discomfited them which he did vnder this craftie subtletie bicause forsooth in the foresaid truce mention was made of the day onely and not of the night Whereupon the Grecians noted this as a iust iudgement of his periurie and breach of faith in that he was miraculously frustrated of his principall intent which was by the meanes of that ouerthrow to haue suddenly taken the citie of Argos For the women being full of wrath and iust griefe for the losse of their husbands by the cowardly treacherie of this Lacedemonian tooke those weapons that were in the said towne and droue him from the wals not without great murder and losse of the greatest part of his armie Whereupon within a while after he became furious and taking a knife he ript his bodie in smiling manner and so died Caracalla the Emperor trauelling with his armie towardes the Parthians vnder pretence of marying the daughter of Artabanus their king who came for the same purpose to meete him he set vpon him contrary to his faith and put him to flight with an incredible murder of his men But within a little after being come downe from his horse to make water he was slaine of his owne men which was noted as a iust punishment sent from God for his vnfaithfulnes
speaking bicause a rash and inconsiderate worde may be corrected presently but that which is once set down in writing can no more be denied or amended but with infamy As therfore a man had need of a readie and quicke wit to be able to speake wel so great wisedom is very necessarie to write well yea the same rules and precepts that belong to speaking agree also to writing Besides writing is called of many a dumb speech which ought to be short and full of instruction Caesar in a letter which he sent to Rome frō the Persian battaile wrote but these three words Veni vidi vici that is to saie I came sawe and ouercame Octanian writing to his nephew Cains Drusus said thus For asmuch as thou art nowe in Illyria remember that thou deseendest of Casars that the Senate hath sent thee that thou art yoong my nephewe and a citizen of Rome Plato writing to Dionysius the yoonger vsed these words onely To kill thy brother to double thy tributes to force the people to forget thy friends to take good men for thine enimies are the works of a tyrant Pompey writing to the Senate from the east parts saide thus Fathers of the Senate Damascus is taken Pentapolis subdued Syria Ascalonia and Arabia are confederates and Palestina is vanquished We see then the maner of writing vsed by the ancients for which breuitie they were as much esteemed as the great discoursers of these tiems after inst occasion of correction But to returne againe into the path-way of speaking we haue in Cicero a notable instruction for this matter Let our speech saith he be sweet and pleasant not headstrong and when we discourse let vs not be so long that we hinder others from speaking For speech of all other things ought to be mutuall and equall Moreouer we must haue respect to that thing whereof we speake If a man discourse of graue matters he must adde a certaine seueritie but if he speake of delectable things a pleasant and gratious behauior Aboue all things we must take heede that our speech discouer not some vice to be in our manners which commonly falleth out when we speake euill of a man in his absence either to mooue laughter or to his shame and reproch We must also remember if our speech vpon some occasion comming betweene intermit the first discourse that it returne againe in conuenient time But that is as thinges fall out For all take not pleasure in the same things nor at all times And as we haue begun vpon some occasion so we must end by some meanes Now bicause in euery action of our life the perturbations of the soule are to be eschewed we must be carefull that our speech be voide thereof namely that it be without choler without extreame affections also without carelesnes and other such like imperfection Especially we must striue to make it knowne that we loue reuerence those with whom we speake Further we must know that silence in due time and place is profound wisedome a sober and modest thing and full of deepe secrets This caused Archidamus when he saw that Hecatus the orator was blamed for not speaking one worde at a banquet to answere for him that they which knowe how to speake well know also the time of silence Hyperides likewise being at a feast amongst a great assemblie verie full of noise pleasure and being asked why he spake nothing answered thus It is no time now to discourse of those things for which I am fit and as for those things which the time nowe requireth I am vnfit Bias being mocked of a babler bicause he spake nothing all a supper while answered him thus How is it possible that a foole should holde his peace at the table The ambassadours of the king of Persia being at a feast with a citizen of Athens and seeing Zeno the great philosopher say nothing they began to flatter him and to drinke to him saying what shall we tell the king our master concerning you master Zeno Nothing else quoth he but that you saw an olde man who knew wel how to holde his peace at the table And truly no speech vttred did euer so much good as many kept in haue profited and that which is restrained may be spoken at any time but a worde giuen out can no more be called backe againe For words as the poet saith haue wings and are presently dispersed euery where and manie repent that they haue spoken but neuer that they held their peace How many examples do histories set before our eies of men who through the intemperancie of their toongs haue throwne themselues headlong into infinite calamities of mightie cities and great estates destroied and ouerthrowne through the disclosing of some secret The citie of Athens was taken and destroied by Sylla the Romane dictatour who by his spies was admonished of the pratling of certaine old men in a barbars shop where they talked of a certaine place of the town that was weakest and woorst defended The ouermuch talke of one only man was the cause that Rome was not deliuered from the tiranny of Nero. For seeing one of the prisoners that was taken by the tirant to be dismaid bicause he shuld be put to death he willed him to pray to God that he might escape but vntil the morrow onely then he should haue cause of reioicing Wherupon the prisoner thinking with himselfe that it were better for him to chuse a certaintie than to expect an vncortainty and to prefer a safe way to saue his life before a iust disclosed this speech to Nero who knew wel how to remedy the conspiracy The gentleman of Normandy who in his confession told a Franciscan frier that he was once minded to haue killed king Fraunces the first may wel be placed amongst these ouermuch speakers For the king being aduertised hereof by the Franciscan frier sent the poore penitentiarie to the court of parliament where he receiued sentence of death Those that are nobly roially brought vp saith Plutark learne first to hold their peace then to speake Therfore Antigonus the great being demanded by his son at what houre the campe should dislodge art thou afraid quoth he to him that thou alone shalt not heare the trumpet He trusted not him with a secret matter to whom the succession of the empire was to come teaching him thereby to be more close and secret in such matters Euerie particuler man likewise ought to be no lesse aduised in vsing great discretion when the questiō is of vttring any thing which a man would haue concealed For he saith Plato to whom one discloseth a secret getteth the others libertie Now in this laudable silence which we commend here we haue this to marke wel that when the question is of speaking a truth or of profiting another we ought not to doubt in any case what pretence soeuer there be to speak vtter maintaine
and much more doth wine vexe a man For it discloseth the secrets of the soule troubleth the whole mind A drunken gouernor and ruler of any thing whatsoeuer bringeth all to ruine ouerthrow whether it be a ship or a wagon or an armie or any other thing committed to his keping We see by the goodly sentences of these Authors how many discommodities mischiefs come as wel to the body as to the soule by this excessiue superfluitie and curiositie of nourishment whether it be in drinking or eating We see also that from this self same spring-head proceed those vnmeasurable and loose behauiours in all kind of delights in carding and dicing in dauncing masking and mumming in loue of maidens and adultery with wiues the filthines whereof is so shameful and discouereth it self so much that I shall not greatly need to loose time in reproouing thereof For it is most certaine that all such inuentions are meerely heathenish or rather diuelish when men commit such reprobate actions with publike libertie and licence Especially we haue to note this well that concerneth masks and mummeries so common amongst vs and the cause of infinite offences that forasmuch as the face was appointed and ordeined of God to be seen openly and the mouth to speake we destroy the ordinance of God as much as lieth in vs and become contrary vnto him when we take vnto vs a false face and depriue our selues of speech It may be sayd that manie thinke no harme when they doe these things But that which of it self is euil cannot be excused and no fashion of liuing taken vp and practised through the onely motion of our sensualitie such are these delights pleasures can be maintained neither hath it any good and lawfull defence Now let vs consider some examples of those pernitious effects which proceed from this Epicurian vice of intemperance Esau fold his birth right through a gluttonous desire The self same cause mooued the Israelites to murmure many times against God The drunkennesse of Lot caused him to commit incestwith his daughters Alexander the great darkned the glory of his valiant acts with this vice For being ouertaken with wine he slew Clitus one of the valiantest captains he had to whom he was beholding for his own life Afterward when he was come to himself he would oftentimes haue murdered himself and wept three days togither without meat and drink Dionysius the yonger was somtime more than nine dayes togither drunken and in the ende he lost his estate Cyrillus sonne in his drunkennes wickedly slew that holy man his father and his mother also great with child He hurt his two sisters and defloured one of them Ought not this to cause the haire of our head to stand vpright as often as any occasion is offred vnto vs whereby we might fall into such inconueniences Amongst the Romanes Lucullus a man of great dignitie and commended of Historiographers for many braue exploits of warre which he did in Armenia and for his bountie iustice and clemencie is yet greatly blamed because towards the end of his dais omitting all intermedling with the gouernment of publike affaires he gaue himself to all kind of excessiue sumptuousnes superfluous wasting of that great substance which he had Whereof this only testimonie recited by Plutarke shall serue for sufficient proofe Cicero and Pompey meeting him one day in the citie told him that they would sup with him on this conditiō that he should prepare nothing for them but his owne ordinarie diet At the least wise quoth he vnto them giue me leaue to bid my Steward make ready supper in my hall of Apollo and by that he beguiled them For his seruants vnderstood therby what cost he would haue bestowed thereupon in so much that a supper of fiftie thousand drachmes of siluer which amount to fiue thousand crownes was prepared for them This was so much the more wonderfull bicause so great and sumptuous a feast was made ready in so short a time But this was his ordinarie diet which he caused manie times to be prepared for himselfe alone And as his men asked him on a day who should dine with him seeing he commanded them to make readie such a great feast Lucullus quoth he shall dine with Lucullus This superfluous pompe magnificence wil not be thought verie strange if we compare it with that which not long since a simple Franciscan frier called Peter de Ruere made after he had attained to the dignitie of a Cardinal through fauour of the Pope his kinsman For within the space of two yeeres which he liued in Rome he consumed in feasts and banquets the summe of two hundred thousand crownes besides his debts which came to no lesse summe Philoxenus the Poet wished that he had a necke like a Crane to the end he might enioy greater pleasure in swalowing downe wine and meat saying that then he should longer feele the tast thereof We read of the emperor Vitellius Spinter that he was so much giuen to superfluitie and excesse that at one supper he was serued with two thousand seuerall kinds of fishes and with seuen thousand flying foules But within a very litle while after he changed his estate being executed publikely at Rome at the pursuite of Vespasianus who was chosen emperor in his place In our time Muleasses king of Thunes was so drowned in pleasure and delight that after he was banished from his kingdom bicause of his whoredom in his returne out of Almaign being without hope that the emperor Charles the fift would helpe him at all he spent one hundred crownes vpon a pecock dressed for him as Paulus Iouius rehearseth and that he might take the greater delight in musike he couered his eyes But the iudgement of God was such vpon him that his owne children made him blind with a bar of hote iron Concerning exāples of the miserie that followeth accompanieth riot delight in playing dancing mumming we see daily that a thousand quarrels blasphemies losse of goods whoredoms proceed frō thence And oftentimes God suffreth the punishment therof to be notorious euen by vnlooked for strange means as not long since it hapned to Lewes Archb. of Magdeburg who dancing with gentlewomē vntil midnight fell down so fiercely vpon the ground that he brake his neck with one of the women which he led Charles the 6. being clothed like a wild mā with certain of his familiar friends dancing by torchlight was also in great peril of burning if a gētlewoman had not cast her cloke vpō his shoulders And I think it wil not be from the matter if we say that it is a shameful thing to suffer amongst vs or to loose time that ought to be so precious vnto vs in beholding in hearing plaiers actors of Interludes and Comedies who are as pernitious a plague in a common wealth as can be
seeing it lieth so heauy vpon them and the time seemeth vnto them ouer-long to stay for the naturall death of this poore old man whom they hate so extremely And yet Titus shall not obtaine a victory greatly honorable or woorthy the praise of the ancient Romanes who euen then when Pyrrhus their enimy warred against them and had wonne battels of them sent him word to beware of poison that was prepared for him Thus did this great vertuous captaine finish his daies being vtterly ouerthrowen and trode vnder foote by fortune which for a time had placed him in the highest degree of honor that could be Eumenes a Thracian one of Alexanders lieutenants and one that after Alexanders death had great wars and made his partie good against Antigonus king of Macedonia came to that greatnesse and authoritie from a poore Potters sonne afterwards being ouercome and taken prisoner he died of hunger But such preferments of fortune will not seeme very strange vnto vs if we consider how Pertinax came to the Empire ascending from a simple souldier to the degree of a captaine and afterward of Gouernour of Rome being borne of a poore countrywoman And hauing raigned only two moneths he was slaine by the souldiers of his gard Aurelianus from the same place obtained the selfe same dignitie Probus was the sonne of a gardiner and Maximianus of a black-smith Iustinus for his vertue surnamed the Great from a hogheard in Thracia attained to the empire Wil you haue a worthy exāple agreeable to that saying of Iuuenal which we alleaged euen now Gregory the 7. from a poore monke was lift vp to the dignitie of chief bishop of Rome Henry the 4. emperor was brought to that extreme miserie by wars that he asked the said Gregory forgiuenes cast him selfe down at his feete And yet before this miserable monarch could speake with him he stood 3. days fasting and barefoote at the popes palace gate as a poore suppliant waiting whē he might haue entrance accesse to his holynes Lewes the Meeke emperour king of France was constrained to giue ouer his estate to shut himself vp in a monasterie through the conspiracie of his own childrē Valerianus had a harder chaunge of his estate ending his days whilest he was prisoner in the hands of Sapor king of the Parthians who vsed the throte of this miserable emperor whensoeuer he mounted vpō his horse But was not that a wonderful effect of fortune which hapned not long since in Munster principal towne in the country of Westphalia wherin a sillie botcher of Holland being retired as a poore banished man from his country called Iohn of Leiden was proclaimed king was serued obeied of all the people a long time euen vntil the taking subuersion of the said town after he had born out the siege for the space of 3. yeeres Mahomet the first of that name of a very smal and abiect place being enriched by marying his mistres and seruing his own turne very fitly with a mutinie raised by the Sarrasins against Heracleus the emperor made himself their captain tooke Damascus spoiled Egypt finally subdued Arabia discomfited the Persians and became both a monarch a prophet Wil you see a most wōderful effect of fortune Look vpon the procedings of that great Tamburlane who being a pesants son keping cattel corrupted 500. sheepheards his companions These men selling their cattel betook them to armes robbed the merchants of that country watched the high ways Which when the king of Persia vnderstood of he sent a captaine with a 1000. horse to discomfit them But Tamburlane delt so with him that ioining both togither they wrought many incredible feates of armes And when ciuil warre grew betwixt the king and his brother Tamburlane entred into the brothers pay who obtained the victory by his means therupon made him his lieutenant general But he not long after spoiled the new king weakened subdued the whole kingdom of Persia And when he saw himselfe captain of an army of 400000. horsmen 600000. footmē he made warre with Baiazet emperor of the Turkes ouercame him in battel and tooke him prisoner He obtained also a great victorie against the Souldan of Egypt and the king of Arabia This good successe which is most to be maruelled at and very rare accompanied him always vntill his death in so much that he ended his days amongst his children as a peaceable gouernour of innumerable countries From him descended the great Sophy who raigneth at this day and is greatly feared and redoubted of the Turke But that miserable Baiazet who had conquered before so many peoples and subdued innumerable cities ended his dayes in an iron cage wherein being prisoner and ouercome with griefe to see his wife shamefully handled in waiting at Tamburlanes table with hir gowne cut downe to hir Nauell so that hir secrete partes were seene this vnfortunate Turke beate his head so often agaynst the Cage that he ended his lyfe But what neede we drawe out this discourse further to shewe the straunge dealinges and maruellous chaunges of fortune in the particular estates and conditions of men which are to be seene daily amongst vs seeing the soueraign Empires of Babylon of Persia of Graecia and of Rome which in mans iudgement seemed immutable and inexpugnable are fallen from all their glittering shew and greatnes into vtter ruine and subuersion so that of the last of them which surpassed the rest in power there remaineth onely a commandement limited and restrained within the confines of Almaigne which then was not the tenth part of the rich prouinces subiect to this Empire Is there any cause then why we should be astonished if litle kingdoms common-wealths and other ciuill gouernments end when they are come to the vtmost ful point of their greatnes And much lesse if it fal out so with mē who by nature are subiect to change and of themselues desire and seeke for nothing else but alteration Being assured therefore that there is such vncertaintie in all humane things let vs wisely prepare our selues and apply our will to all euents whose causes are altogither incomprehensible in respect of our vnderstandings and quite out of our power For he that is able to say I haue preuented thee O fortune I haue stopped all thy passages and closed vp all thy wayes of entrance that man putteth not all his assurance in barres or locked gates nor yet in high walles but staieth himselfe vpon Phylosophicall sentences and discourses of reason whereof all they are capable that imploy their wils trauell and studie thereupon Neither may we doubt of them or distrust our selues but rather admire and greatly esteeme of them beyng rauished with an affectionate spirite He that taketh least care for to morow saith Epicurus commeth thereunto with greatest ioy And as Plutarke saith riches glory
ciuil estate gouernment which is the chief Magistrate let vs consider now of the second no lesse necessary therein which is the law whereby he is ioined and vnited to the rest of the publike body for the maintenance and preseruation thereof ACHITOB. The lawe is in the citie as the spirite is in the body For as the body without the spirite vndoubtedly perisheth in like maner euery citie Commonwealth that hath no law falleth into ruine and perdition Therefore Cicero calleth lawes the soules of Common-wealths ASER. As the soule guideth the body and indueth it with abilitie to work so the law is the direction maintenance of euery Estate By the lawe is the Magistrate obeied and the subiects kept in peace and quietnes But let vs heare AMANA handle this matter AMANA We see that naturally all liuing creatures whether earthie watry aërie or flying tame or wild seeke after the companies and assemblies of their kinds to liue with them as Sheepe by flocks Kine Oxen Harts and Hindes feeding by herds Horses Asses Mules by companies Choughs Stares Cranes other birds by flights Fishes both in fresh and salt waters following one another in sholes Bees dwelling in hiues Pigeons in doouehouses Ants in little hollow places No maruell therefore if men singularly adorned with an immortal soule with reason speech and by these prerogatiues more communicable than other creatures as borne to honour God to loue one another to liue togither in a ciuill policie with lawes Magistrats iudgements hauing proper to themselues onely the knowledge of good euill of honestie dishonestie of iustice iniustice knowing the beginnings causes of things their proceedings antecedents consequents their similitudes cōtrarieties no maruel I say if they liue more commodiously happily togither do that by right equity which other liuing creatures do only by a natural instinct seeing also they may be assured as Cicero saith that nothing here below is more acceptable to god the gouernor of all the world than the cōgregations assemblies of mē linked togither by right equity which we cal cities Now we are to note that all those which obey the same lawes Magistrats make iointly togither but one city which as Aristotle saith is euery cōpany assembled togither for some benefit If a city be assēbled in monarch-wise it is to be defēded against strāgers to liue peaceably among thēselues according to law if Aristocratically vnder certaine chiefe lords it is to be respected according to their riches nobility vertue if in a popular cōmunity it is to enioy liberty equality the better that the city is guided by policy the greater benefit they hope for therby Therefore as the Venetians make but one city liuing vnder an Aristocraticall gouernment the Bernians an other liuing vnder a Democraty whether they liue within or without the wals or far frō the chief towne so all the natural subiects of this Monarchy acknowledging one king for their soueraigne lord obeying his commandemēts the decrees of his coūcel represent one city political cōmunion cōpounded of many villages townes prouinces Prouostships Bailiweeks Senshalships gouernments Parliaments Barronies Counties Marquesies Dukedoms Cures Bishopriks Archbishopriks being in of it self sufficiently furnished with all necessary honest things for the leading of a good vertuous life obeying the statuts lawes ordinances established therin according to which the Magistrat ought to rule to gouern his subiects shewing therby that albeit he be not subiect to the law yet he wil as it becommeth him liue gouerne himselfe vnder the law Therfore the Magistrate is very wel called by some a liuing lawe the law a mute Magistrate Moreouer the marke of a soueraign Prince of which depēdeth whatsoeuer he doth by his imperial authority is the power to prescribe lawes vnto all in general to euery one in particular not to receiue any but of God who is the Iudge of Princes saith Marcus Aurelius as Princes are the iudges of their subiects yea it is God saith the wise mā that wil proceed with rigor against thē for the contēpt of his law So that they which say generally that princes are no more subiect to laws thā to their own couenāts if they except not the laws of god of nature those iust couenants and bargaines that are made with them they are iniurious to God And as for their power to abrogate such lawes by their absolute authoritie it is no more permitted vnto them than the other seeing the power of a soueraign is only ouer the ciuill or positiue lawes But that we may haue some certaine vnderstanding of the matter heere propounded vnto vs to intreate of we must first see what the lawe is into howe many kindes it is diuided whereunto it ought to tend the profite of it and howe we must obey it The lawe is a singular reason imprinted in nature commanding those things that are to be done and forbidding the contrary We haue both the lawe of nature and the lawe written The lawe of nature is a sence and feeling which euerie one hath in himselfe and in his conscience whereby he discerneth betweene good and euill asmuch as sufficeth to take from him the cloake of ignorance in that he is reprooued euen by his owne witnesse The written lawe is double diuine and ciuill The diuine lawe is diuided into three partes that is into Manners Ceremonies and Iudgements That of Manners was called of the ancient writers the Morall lawe beeing the true and eternall rule of Iustice appointed for all men in what countrie or tyme soeuer they liue if they will direct their life according to the will of God And as for the Ceremonies and Iudgements although they haue some relation to Maners yet bicause both of them might be altered and abolished without the corruption or diminution of good manners the Ancients did not comprehend those two parts vnder the word Morall but attributed this name particularly to the first part of the lawe of which the sincere integritie of Maners dependeth which neither may nor ought in any sort to be altered or changed and whereunto the end of all other lawes is to be referred in honouring God by a pure faith and by godlines and in being ioined vnto our neighbour by true loue The Ceremonial lawe was a Pedagogie of the Iewes that is to say a doctrine of infancie giuen to that people to exercise them vnder the obedience to God vntill the manifestation of those things which were then figured in shadowes The Iudiciall law giuen vnto them for policie taught them certaine rules of iustice and equitie wherby they might liue peaceably togither without hurting one another Now as the exercise of ceremonies appertained to the doctrine of pietie which is the first part of the Morall law
with him in the Capitoll neere the Temple Whereupon hatred and rancor increasing openly amongst them infinite murders followed and many of the chiefest euen the Consuls were slaine the contempt of lawes and iudgements ensued and in the end open war armies troupes one against another with incredible thefts and cruelties At last Cornelius Sylla one of the seditious persons seeking to redresse one euil with another after these dissentions had continued about 50. yeeres made himself prince ouer the rest in many things taking vpon him the office of a Dictator who was woont in former time to be created in the greatest dangers of the common-wealth only for six moneths But Sylla was chosen perpetuall Dictator bicause necessitie so required as he said himselfe After he had practised much violence he continued in quietnes like a conquerour and was thereupon surnamed the Happie After his death seditions began a fresh and reuenging of those cruelties which he had committed vntil Caius Caesar laid hold of the Seignorie and principaltie hauing discomfited ouercome Pompey to whome he was before allied For when they twaine sought by their plat-formes and deuises to commaund all they could not abide one another within a while after Pompey being vnwilling to haue an equall and Caesar a superiour Afterward Brutus and Cassius beyng mooued with desire either of rule or of publike libertie slew Caesar whereupou the seditions grew greater than they were before and the triumuirate warre was opened against them which preuailing for a time was it selfe dissolued and brought to nothing For Octanius only of the three remained a peaceable possessor of the Romane Empire beyng happy in all things and feared of all men leauing heyres of his race to rule the Monarchie after him Augustus beyng dead the estate began vnder Tyberius his successour a voluptuous prince to decline by little and little from the periode of hir greatnesse vntill in the ende there remayned no more than that which we see inclosed within the limites of Germanie Alexanders Empire beyng the greatest that euer was vanished away as a fire of Towe through the diuision and disorder that was amongst his successoures The Empire of Constantinople through the part-takings of Princes is brought vnder the tyrannous and miserable power of an Ethnike and barbarous Turke We read in Iosephus that the kingdome of Iudaea became subiect and tributarie to the Romanes through the ciuill warres between Hircanus and Aristobulus who were brothers For Pompey being of Hircanus side tooke the citie of Hierusalem and led away Aristobulus and his children prisoners with him after the countrey had suffred infinite calamities by their domestical diuisions Which when Onias a holy man did wel foresee he with-drew himselfe into a secret place and would not take part either with the one or the other side And being taken by Hircanus his men they required him that as once he obtained raine by his prayers in the tyme of a drought so he would now curse Aristobulus and all those of his faction but he contrarywise lifting vp his hands to heauen vttred these wordes O God king of the whole world seeing these men among whom I stand are thy people and they that are assailed thy Priests I beseech thee humbly that thou wouldest harken neither to these men against the other nor to the other against these for which holy prayer he was stoned to death such was the poisoned rage of this people one against an other Was there euer any folly or rather fury like to that of the Guelphes and Gybellines in Italy of whome the one side held with the Pope and the other with the Emperour The Italians vpon no other occasion but only in fauour of these two names entred into so extreme a quarell throughout the whole countrey that greater crueltie could not be wrought between the Infidels and Christians than was committed amongst them This contention continueth yet insomuch that murders are euery where committed in the townes euen between naturall brethrē yea between the father and his sonnes without all regard either of bloud or parentage Their goods are spoyled their houses razed some banished others slain whilest euery one feareth least any reuenge should be layed vp in store for him or for some other of his side they kill many times litle infants whom the most barbarous men in the world would spare These two factions fought continually togither through mortall hatred so that they could not dwell togither in one citie but the stronger always draue out and expelled the other They knew one another by feathers by the fashion of their hose by cutting of bread slicing of orenges and by other markes which is a very pernicious thing and hath procured great destruction of people and ouerthrow of townes The Italians say that this fire was first kindled at Pistoya between two brethrē the one called Guelph and the other Gibellin who quarelling togither diuided the towne between them whereupon the Gibellins were driuen out This separation like to a contagious disease vpon no other occasion was spread ouer all Italy insomuch that afterward all that were at contention any where were diuided into Guelphs Gibellines The Germains thinke that these names came from thir countrey and language and that the emperor Frederike the second in whose time this diuision began called his friends Gibellines bicause he leaned vpon them as a house doth vpon two strong walles that keep it from falling and those that were against him of the faction of Pope Gregorie the ninth he called Guelphs that is to say Wolues What did England suffer by the deuision of the houses of Yorke and Lancaster that gaue the white and red Roses in their armes Which contention although it began when Henrie the 4. who was duke of Lancaster and earle of Darbie vsurped the kingdom vpon his cosin Richard the second whom he caused to be slaiue in prison after he had compelled him to resigne his kingly power and crowne of England yet it was hottest in the raigne of king Henry the 6. who succeeding his father and grandfather was at Paris crowned king of England and France Afterward fauouring the house of Lancaster against the house of Yorke they that held with the red Rose tooke armes against him so that in the end he was depriued of his estate and shut vp as prisoner in the Tower of Londō where he was after that put to death These factions and ciuill warres as Phillip Cominaeus writeth indured about 28. yeeres wherein there died at sundry battels and skirmishes aboue 80. persons of the bloud royall with the flower of the nobilitie of England besides an infinite nūber of the valiauntest men and best warriours among the people Many lordes were put in prison or banished leading the rest of their liues miserably in strange countreys the ancient pollicie of the kingdom corrupted iustice cōtemned and the Iland impouerished vntill
of a man feeleth moueth by the sinewes so the body of the common-wealth receiueth strength power by riches to gather men of war togither in defence of hir libertie For this cause Aristotle in his plat-forme of a happy common-welth requireth abundance of wealth and money to help publike affairs at home warlike matters abroad And in another place he saith that a happy life consisteth in the perfect vse of vertue assisted with bodily external goods as with instruments that serue to execute honest actions wel vertuously It is certain that gold siluer in respect of the soule are neither good nor ill but by good vsage they are made profitable for this life the abuse of them is hurtful both to the body soule And in deed riches of their own nature are not to be condemned Abraham Lot Iacob Iob were rich holy men Iosephus writeth that neuer any king either of the Hebrews or of any other nation left so great riches to his successor as Dauid did to Salomon For he left him to build the temple withal 10000. talents of gold 100000. of siluer beside infinite store of stuffe of wonderful cost and value which he had caused to be prepared made readie The sumptuousnesse of that Temple as it is described by this Historiographer is wonderfull He saith that it was made and finished in seuen yeeres by 80000. Masons 3200. Ouerseers 30000. Hebrewes that hewed wood in the forest and 70000. others that brought stones and such like matter for the worke If the riches of the Romane Empire had not been great I meane both the publique and priuate wealth it is certaine that it had not so long time maintained it selfe in such a glorious and flourishing estate as the like was neuer before causing the farthest and most vnknowen nations to stand in feare of hir weapons Hereof wee haue good proofe by that which we read of Augustus Caesar who ordinarily defrayed the charges of 44. Legions which amounted yeerely to twelue millions of gold But the Romane empire was then come to the top of hir greatnesse hauing for hir bounds the riuer of Euphrates on the East side the Oceā sea on the West on the South side the fruitfull region of Africa and on the North side the riuers of Rhine and Danubius At this day 50. kingdoms estates are diuided out of that monarchy Therfore if the citizens of the common-wealth possesse riches if they imploy thē vpon good workes and that liberally for the tuition defence and setting foorth of their countrey they behaue themselues like good citizens borne to do good and to profit the Common-wealth The fift thing necessary in euery good Common-wealth and citie are occupations and consequently crafts-men An arte is a habite of working according to right reason as Aristotle saith Or else an arte is the knowledge of some certain thing gotten by vse instruction or reason tending to necessary vses for mans life Some artes consist in Speculation and others in practise We call Speculation Theoricall that is to say Speculatiue and Action practicall that is to say Actiue This word Artificer is deriued of the worde Arte. Nowe bicause that nature is most perfect next to God the neerer that arte approcheth to nature the better and perfecter it is as appeereth in images and pictures so that arte is nothing else but an imitation of nature Those Artes that are commonly called Mechanicall or handy-craftes whereby they differ from liberall Artes of which we haue alreadie discoursed are of diuers sortes For the better vnderstanding of them wee will presuppose that man hath need of three temporall things for the maintenaunce of this life namely of Alimentes Houses and Clothing He standeth in neede of Alimentes to restore the consumption of radicall moysture wasted away by naturall heate as the weeke consumeth the oyle in the Lampe I saye to restore it agayne by moyst nourishment as by breade wine flesh and other aliments without which a man could not liue These nutrimentes are prouided and prepared by men of Occupations as by Butchers Fishmongers Bakers Cookes Vintners and other handycrafts-men which serue and looke to the prouision of victuals Next mē haue need of houses that euery one may haue his priuate place of refuge to keep his body familie goods vnder couert these are edifices and frames erected by the arte of building made by Masons Carpenters Geometricians Sawyers Ioiners other handycrafts that are occupied in caruing Likewise a city in respect both of ornament of defence standeth in need of wals towers bulwarks rampires andother things of defence as also of temples and other common places all which cannot be made without the artes of building and of Masonry The third thing which men stand in need of are garments to clothe themselues withall to preserue natural heat and to keep out external cold these are prouided by Mercers Drapers Tailors Hosiers such like Besides the abouenamed things we stand in need of armour of horses to defend our libertie and for our greater commoditie and so consequently Armorers Glazers Sadlers Spur-makers Smithes and such like are necessarie Likewise for the preseruation and recouerie of our health we must honor the Physition Chirurgion Apothecarie Drug-seller and such like The dutie and office of all artificers is to auoyd idlenes slooth and negligence and especially to vse no deceit in their artes but to referre the end of their labours more to common profite than to their priuate gaine And for the auoiding of Ingrossers it is very expedient that the crafts-men should be diuided into diuers parts of the city and not placed all on a rowe in one quarter therof as they do in the townes of Afrike and in many cities of Europe For besides the discommodities in great townes when euery quarter hath not in it such artificers as are commonly necessary it is to be feared that there wil be amongst thē Ingrossers to fore-stall the merchandise and wares or else iealousie and quarels are to be feared if one sell better cheape than another euen before his eyes that refused to take that money It is true that such artificers as are least required as men that liue by the hammer may be ranged in one quarter that thereby they may be separated from men of learning and quietnes The sixt and last thing necessary in a Common-wealth remaineth to be considered of namely Aliments and consequently labourers We haue already spoken of Aliments but as for that which concerneth husbandry especially there is no other arte that doth more awaken the minde of man that rauisheth his sences more that affoordeth greater pleasure or is more necessarie and profitable for the life of man than husbandry Moreouer nothing sauoureth of greater antiquitie nothing doth better discouer the greatnes of the works of God
his hand to the worke For this cause Isocrates said that a prudent man ought to remember things past to vse things present and to foresee things to come A prudent man saith Demosthenes accounteth it a point of follie to say when a thing is com to passe Who would haue thought it could haue beene Now Prudence is apparant in him that possesseth hir first by the rule and gouernment of his person whether it be in things within him as in his maners and conditions or in outward things concerning his bodie as in sobrietie of diet comely intertainment good house-keeping commendable vse of his substance and riches Of which perfections and other praise-worthie effects that flow from Prudence vnder the name of sundrie vertues we are to intreat particularly heerafter as also how a prudent man being adorned with them may first become a good Oeconomist that is a gouernor and father of a familie and after attaine to that great vertue of politicall knowledge which is the art of skilfull gouerning ruling a multitude of men And then although he doubt not but that it is an act of Prudence to know what is good and profitable for the Common-wealth yet that he may knowe howe to execute that office with a perfect and absolute vertue he seeketh for all occasions to profit the same and vnto what place of authoritie soeuer he be called he alwaies sheweth foorth dutifull effects of a good man He neuer giueth or taketh but good counsel and alwaies vttereth the same freely He is able saith Plato to discerne the good from the bad He helpeth innocencie and correcteth malice He is not astonished for any feare nor altereth his mind for dispraise or commendation he is not discouraged through violence or false accusations neither is pressed downe with sorrow or puffed vp with prosperitie And as one not ignorant of the vncertaintie of worldly things he abideth constant in all changes and like to himselfe knowing how to choose the lesse euill in all inconueniences as the better He sheweth himselfe valiant in all things He is maister of his pleasures knoweth how to command himselfe He can reape profit by most sinister accidents yea by his greatest enimies and yet hurt them not The conuersation of the prudent is alwaies healthfull and profitable His quips his laughters his sports are not without some fruit hauing in them a certaine power to correct and moue those that do amisse He beleeueth not saith Heraclitus any thing lightly but is a seuere examiner of the truth To be short Prudence causeth a man to refer all his actions both priuate and publike to the best end which is to serue God and to profit his neighbor This did Socrates teach very well saying that All the desires and inclinations of our soule guided by prudence tende to happines Wherin we may note the indissoluble coniunction of all the morall vertues of which no one can be had perfectly but with hir companions albeit ech of them haue hir particular proper dutie But prudence is especially necessarie in them all as it will yet better appeere in the further handling therof albeit the effects hereunder mentioned of this first vertue being narrowly considered may giue vs sufficient proofe thereof Now to incite and stir vs vp to imbrace it with greater zeale and affection and to seeke after all meanes of obtaining it either by good instruction or by long vse of things let vs call to mind certaine examples of the ancients thereby to marke what woonderful fruits this vertue of Prudence hath brought foorth in them If we consider all the heroicall facts of the worthiest captaines and generals of armies that euer were we shall finde that they brought them to passe more by prudence than by any other force and meane Which thing Alexander the great and first Monarke of the Graecians knowing very well whensoeuer any speech or comparison was made before him of Vertue or Science he alwaies had this verse of Homer in his mouth In counsell wise and valiant in the fight as if he would haue said that of all vertues Prudence was most prince-like and that prowesse was practised by meanes thereof And indeed he being richly endued therwith vndertooke the conquest of the Persian empire yea of all the world when he had but thirtie thousand footemen and fower thousand horsemen with monie and victuals to furnish them onely for thirtie daies But what The meanes wherunto he trusted was Prudence followed of Patience Valure and Temperancie wherewith the studie of philosophy had furnished him for his voiage In this iourney he did not onely in two battailes ouerthrowe Darius monarke of the Persians who had aboue twelue hundred thousand men but also brought vnder subiection fifteene sundry nations and tooke fiue thousand cities and townes and laboured to put in reall execution practise that forme of gouernment of estate which was so greatly esteemed of Zeno the Stoick philosopher tended in effect to this end that all men generally might liue togither not being diuided by townes peoples and nations nor separated by particuler lawes rightes customes but that we should take all men for our countrimen and fellow citizens that as there is but one world so there might be but one kinde of life Thus did this prudent and vertuous monarck giue out that he was sent from heauen to be a common refourmer gouernour and reconcilour of the whole world so that he imploied all his might to reduce and bring to ciuilitie barbarous kings to plant Graecian cities that they might liue ciuilly amongst the vntamed and sauage nations and established euery where lawes and a peaceable kinde of life euen amongst vnbrideled people who neuer heard word spoken either of peace or lawes Those whom he could not assemble together by perswasion of reason he constrained by force of armes so that he caused them all to drinke as ye would say in the same cup of loue friendship by intermingling their liues maners mariages and fashions of liuing He commanded that al men liuing should account the whole habitable earth for their country and his campe for their castle and tower of defence and that all good men should be of kin one to another and the wicked onely strangers Moreouer he willed that the Graecian and Barbarian should no more be distinguied by their garments but that the Graecian should be knowne and discerned by vertue and the Barbarian by vice accounting all vertuous men Graecians and all vicious men Barbarians Therefore Plutark said very well that they who were tamed and brought vnder his yoke were a great deale more happie than those that escaped his power bicause these men had none to cause them to leaue of from liuing miserablic and the other were compelled by the conqueror to liue happily Whereby he deserued no lesse the name of a great philosopher than did Pythagoras Socrates and others who although they wrote nothing yet were so called
recouering any victuals were taken from them To whome they made this onely answer that forasmuch as they had liued for the space of 338. yeeres in freedom they would not die slaues in any sort Whereupon such as were most valiant assembled togither and slew those that were most growne in yeeres with women and children Then they tooke all the riches of the citie and of the temples and brought it into the midst of a great hall and setting fire to all quarters of the citie each of them tooke the speediest poison they could find so that the temples houses riches and people of Numantia ended all in one day leauing to Scipio neither riches to spoile neither man or woman to triumph withal For during the whole time wherin their citie was besieged not one Numantine yeelded himselfe prisoner to any Romane but slew himselfe rather than he would yeeld Which Magnanimitie caused Scipio to bewaile the desolation of such a people in these words O happie Numantia which the Gods had decreed should once end but neuer be vanquished Now albeit these examples and infinite other like to these are set foorth vnto vs by Historiographers as testimonies of an excellent Magnanimitie whereby they would teach vs both to be neuer discouraged for the most tedious trauels and irkesome miseries of mans life and also to stand so little in awe of death that for feare thereof much lesse for any other torment or griefe we neuer commit any thing vnbeseeming a noble hart yet notwithstanding no man that feareth God and is willing to obey him ought to forget himselfe so much as to hasten forward the end of his daies for any occasion whatsoeuer This did Socrates knowe very well when he said that we must not suffer our soule to depart from the Sentinell wherein she is placed in this bodie without the leaue of hir Captaine and that so waightie a matter as death ought not as Plato saith to be in mans power But if it be offred vnto vs by the will of God then with a magnanimious hart void of al starting aside in any thing against dutie we must set free this passage being staied and assuredly grounded vpon that consolation which neuer forsaketh a good conscience not onely through the expectation of a naked and simple humane glorie which most of the Heathen propounded to themselues but of that life which abideth for euer following therein the constancie of Alcibiades a great Captaine of Grecia who hearing the sentence of his condemnation to death pronounced said It is I that leaue the Athenians condemned to die and not they me For I go to seeke the Gods where I shall be immortall but they shall remaine still amongst men who are all subiect to death Socrates also hauing a capitall accusation laid against him wrongfully directed his speech to the Iudges and said vnto them that his accusers by their false depositions might wel cause him to die but hurt him they could not adding further that he woulde neuer leaue his profession of Philosophie for feare of death I â—m per swaded quoth he in Plato that this my opinion is very good namely that euery one ought to abide constantly in that place and trade of life which either he hath chosen himselfe or is appointed him by his superior that he must account that for the best and hazard himselfe therein to all dangers without feare either of death or of any other thing whatsoeuer And therfore I should erre greatly if obeying the Generall of warre which ye appointed vnto me in Potidaea Amphipolis and Delos and abiding in that place wherein he set me without feare of death I should now for feare of death or of any other thing forsake that rancke wherein God hath placed me and would haue me remaine in as I alwaies beleeued thought namely that I should liue a student in Philosophie correcting mine owne and other mens vices Now if I should do otherwise I might iustly be accused for calling my selfe a wise man not being so indeed seeing to feare death is to thinke that to be which is not But neither I nor any other man ought to do all that we may either in iudgement or in warre to the end to auoid death For it is very certaine that he who would in time of battell cast downe his armour and flie away might by that meane auoid death and the like is to be vnderstood in al dangers perils if he were not afraid of infamie But consider O countreymen that it is no very hard matter to auoid death but farre more difficult to eschew wickednes and the shame therof which are a great deale swifier of foote than that is O speech woorthie of eternal praise and such a one as instructeth a Christian notably in a great and noble resolution namely to run the race of his short daies in that vocation wherunto God hath called him and that in the midst of tortures torments all agonies of death From which whilest we expect a happie passage we ought to be no more destitute of an apt remedie in all those things which according to the world are most irkesome and desperate but sustaine them with like constancie and woorthines not departing from the tranquillitie and rest of our soules which is a more noble act than to hasten forward the end of our daies that we may be deliuered of them But howsoeuer it be let vs alwaies preferre a vertuous and honest death before any kind of life be it neuer so pleasant And seeing that one and the same passage is prepared aswell for the coward as the couragious it being decreed that all men must once die the louers of vertue shall do well to reape to themselues some honor of common necessity and to depart out of this life with such a comfort Now to come to the second commendable effect of this vertue of Magnanimity wherof Heroical men were so prodigall heeretofore for the benefit and safetie of their enemies we can bring no better testimonie than the courteous fact of Fabritius the Romane Consul towards Pyrrhus who warred against him and whose Physition wrote vnto him that he offered himselfe to murder his maister by poison and so to end their strife without danger But Fabritius sent the letter vnto him and signified withall that he had made a bad choice of friends aswell as of enemies bicause he made warre with vpright good men and trusted such as were disloiall and wicked whereof he thought good to let him vnderstand not so much to gratifie him as least the accident of his death should procure blame to the Romanes as if they had sought or consented to end the warre by meanes of treason not being able to obtaine their purpose by their vertue Camillus a Romane Dictator is no lesse to be commended for that which he did during the siege of the citie of the Fallerians For he that was Schoolemaister to
that fall into it through negligence or misgouernment of those goods which God hath put into their hands that they should be faithfull keepers and disposers thereof in charitable workes This is that which Thucidides saith that it is no shame for a man to confesse his pouertie but very great to fal into it by his owne default Therefore to reape profite by that which hath beene heere discoursed let vs put off that old error which hath continued so long in mens braines that pouertie is such a great and troublesome euill whereas it is rather the cause of infinite benefits and let vs say with Pythagoras that it is a great deale better to haue a quiet and setled minde lying vpon the ground than to haue much trouble in a golden bed Moreouer let vs knowe that to possesse small store of earthlie goods ought not to be called pouertie bicause all fulnes of wealth aboundeth in the knowledge and assurance of the fatherlie grace and goodnes of the Author and Creator of all things which he offereth liberally to all without accepting either of pompe or greatnes And further when as continuing the care which it pleaseth him to take of vs he giueth vs although in trauell and sweate wherewith to feede and to cloth vs in all simplicitie and modestie and that according to our necessitie we should be vnthankfull and altogither vnwoorthie the assistance of his helpe and fauour and of his eternall promises if not contented nor glorifieng him for our estate we complained or wondred at desired the calling of other men offering thereby in will and affection our birthrights through a gluttonous desire whereas we ought to preserue to our selues the possession of that heauenlie inheritance wherein consisteth the perfection of all glorie rest and contentation Of Idlenes Sloth and Gaming Chap. 35. ARAM. TWo things being the cause of all passions in men namely Griefe and Pleasure they alwayes desire the one but flie from and feare the other But the occasion of the greatest euil that befalleth them is bicause these desires and affections being borne with them from the beginning do also grow encrease a long time before they can haue any iudgement framed in them through the right vnderstandyng of things Whereupon as well by nature which of it selfe is more inclined to euill than to good as through a long continuing in vice they are easily drawen to follow the appetite and lust of their sensualitie wherein they falsly iudge that pleasure consisteth and thinke it painfull not to please it Being thus guided by ignorance and walking like blindmen they haue experience for the most part of such an end as is cleane contrary to their purposes As we may see in those men who purposing with themselues to liue at their ease in ioy rest and pleasure giue ouer all intermedling in serious matters and such as beseeme the excellencie of vertue that they may liue in idlenes wherwith being bewitched they are partakers of many false pleasures which procure them a greater number of griefs and miseries all which they thought to auoyd very well And this we may the better vnderstand if we discourse of Idlenes the enemie of all vertue and cleane contrary to Perseuerance which is a branch of Fortitude Therefore I propound the handling of this matter to you my Companions ACHITOB. Although we haue not a singular excellencie of spirite yet we must not suffer it to be idle but constantly follow after that which we haue wisely hoped to obtaine For as Erasmus saith that which is often done reiterated and continually in hand is finished at last ASER. They that do nothing saith Cicero learne to do ill through idlenesse the body minds of men languish away but by labour great things are obtained yea trauail is a worke that continueth after death Let vs then giue eare to AMANA who will handle more at large for our instruction that which is here propounded vnto vs. AMANA As we admire and honour them with very great commendation in whom we may note as we think some excellent and singular vertues so we contemn them whom we iudge to haue neither vertue courage nor fortitude in them and whom we see to be profitable neither to themselues nor to others bicause they are not laborious industrious nor carefull but remain idle and slouthfull And to say truth the maners conditions and natural disposition of such men are wholy corrupted their conuersation is odious vnprofitable and to be auoided seeing that Idlenes is the mother and nurse of vice which destroieth and marreth all Therefore it was very well ordained in the primitiue Church that euery one should liue of his owne labor that the idle and slothfull might not consume vnprofitably the goods of the earth Which reason brought in that ancient Romane edict mentioned by Cicero in his booke of Lawes that no Romane should goe through the streets of the city vnles he caried about him the badge of that trade whereby he liued Insomuch that Marcus Aurelius speaking of the diligence of the ancient Romanes writeth that all of them followed their labor and trauell so earnestly that hauing necessarie occasion one daye to send a letter two or three daies iournie from the towne he could not find one idle bodie in all the citie to carie it That great Orator and Philosopher Cicero minding to teach vs how we ought to hate Idlenes as being against nature sheweth that men are in deede borne to good works whereof our soule may serue for a sufficient and inuincible proofe seeing it is neuer still but in continuall motion action And for the same cause he greatly commendeth Scipio who vsed to say that he was neuer lesse quiet than when he was quiet Whereby he giueth vs to vnderstand that when he was not busied with waightie affaires of the Common-wealth yet his owne priuate matters and the searching after knowledge were no lesse troublesome vnto him so that euen then in his solitarines he tooke counsell with himselfe It seemeth saith this father of eloquence that nature doth more require of a man such actions as tend to the profit of men than she doth the perfect knowledge of all things seeing this knowledge and contemplation of the workes of nature should seeme to be maimed vnperfect if no action followed it whereas vertuous deedes are profitable to all men for which end nature hath brought vs foorth which sheweth sufficiently that they are better and more excellent So that vnles the knowledge of things be ioined with that vertue which preserueth humane societie it will seeme to be dead and vnprofitable Therefore Chrysippus the Philosopher said that the life of those men that giue themselues to idle studies differed nothing from that of voluptuous men So that we must not studie Philosophie by way of sport but to the end we may profit both our selues and others Now if action must of necessitie be ioined to
chast and reuerent virgine not violated or defiled but lodged alwaies with shamefastnes chastitie and simplicitie Pindarus calleth hir the Queene of all the world Pythagoras teaching by his riddlelike precepts how a man ought to beware of transgressing Iustice saith Go not beyond the ballance If we purpose saith Plato to exercise Iustice perfectly we must make no differēce of men in regard either of their friendship kindred wealth pouertie or dignitie This vertue saith Cicero requireth of vs the forsaking of our pleasures and priuate commoditie that we may procure the benefit of the Common-wealth although it be to our perill and losse And those men command and gouerne very wel who forbid vs to do any thing wherof we doubt whether it be iust or vniust bicause equity is so cleere of it self that when we doubt of any thing we may be assured that there is some iniustice in it Aristotle and Cicero deuide Iustice into these two partes Distributiue and Commutatiue Distributiue Iustice consisteth in giuing to euery one according to his desert whether it be honor and dignitie or punishment Commutatiue Iustice is in keeping fidelitie and in causing it to be kept in promises and contracts in behauing our selues no otherwise to another than we would be delt withall Many parts and particular dueties are also attributed by the Philosophers to Iustice as Liberalitie and sundry other whereof we will particularly discourse hereafter But we must here learne that the end of all Iustice tendeth to the preseruation of the common societie of men For the preseruation of the lawes which are the Gardian and Tutor of good men and a mortall enimie to the wicked is so necessarie for euery estate and condition of life that as Cicero saith the very Pirates thieues robbers could not liue together without some part thereof If we desire to know more of hir vnspeakeable fruits let vs consider that which Paulus the Pythagorian hath written saying Iustice among men ought in my opinion to be called the Mother and Nurse of all the other vertues For without hir no man could be either temperate valiant or prudent the profite wherof will be very euident if we consider all hir effects For the prouidence of God is that Iustice which gouerneth the world and hath the principalitie ouer it In cities and townes Iustice is rightly called Equitie and Peace in particular houses betweene the husband and the wife Vnitie and Concord in respect of seruants towards their masters Good will of masters towards their seruants Humanitie and Gentlenesse and in mens bodies Health and perfection of the members Thus you see that Iustice is the beginning and perfection of all the vertues By these short sayings of ancient and graue personages the excellencie of this holy and sacred vertue Iustice appeereth sufficiently vnto vs. Yea it is so earnestly commaunded by the spirit of God vnto Magistrates in these words of exercising Iudgement and Iustice so often repeated that whosoeuer infringeth and violateth it can not auoid the curse and wrath of the Almightie which will both light vpon their owne heads and also worke the destruction of them that are committed to their charge It belongeth to Iustice to receiue the innocent into protection and safegard to maintaine defend sustaine and deliuer them and to Iudgement to resist the boldnes of the wicked to represse their violence and to punish their offences bicause Magistrats are therefore armed with the sword and with power that publike peace should not be disturbed This also is that which Solon meant to teach vs when he said that the greatnes and preseruation of all Common-wealths consisted in two things in the reward of the good in the punishmēt of the wicked which being taken away the whole discipline of humane societie must needes be dissolued and come to nothing For there are many that haue no great care to do wel if they see not vertue recompenced with some honor although this beseemeth not a noble-minded man who ought to do nothing but onely for the loue of vertue And againe the malice of the wicked cannot be brideled if they see not vengeance and punishment prepared for offenders All these aboue specified considerations did so greatly recommend Iustice to the men of old time and caused them to esteeme so much of it that whensoeuer occasion was offered to maintaine and execute it it was preferred before all things insomuch that the father did not pardon his owne sonne The Egyptians were the ancientest Lawmakers as Historiographers report and were very carefull and diligent obseruers of Iustice In their cities they painted Iudges without hands and the President or chiefe Iustice with his eies blind-folded to teach that Iustice ought not to be either a briber or respecter of persons that is she must neither take any thing nor iudge for any fauour The kings of their countrey obserued this order to cause Iudges when they were installed by them in their offices to sweare that albēit they were commanded by them to iudge vniustly yet they should not obey them Since their time the ancient Grecians and Romanes shewed themselues great true and zealous followers of this vertue of Iustice and that towardes their greatest enimies They iudged it a very noble act to accuse the wicked so it were not vpon any priuate occasion or passion they delighted greatly to see yoong men by way of Iustice to pursue transgressors as grayhounds well flesht follow after wild beasts This caused Solon being demanded what citie seemed to him best gouerned to answer that city wherein they that are not wronged do as egerly follow after satisfaction in the behalfe of another man wronged as if themselues had receiued the iniurie For the truth is quoth he that they which violate and breake lawes do not offend one man alone but the whole Citie and Common-wealth therefore euery one ought to desire and seeke after iust punishment Moreouer the seueritie which the Lacedemonians obserued in their iudgements procured such a publike safety that for a long time they vsed not to put either lockes to cofers or barres to gates Aristotle maketh mention of a certaine countrey where the inhabitants were to assure the safetie of the waies and to repay vnto passengers that losse which they had receiued by theeues and robbers Neither is it long since the like statute was obserued in many places of Italie But I stand greatly in doubt that at this day it is ilfauoredly kept O happie yea an hundred times happy was the golden age of those famous men full of heauenlie spirite bicause vnder their gouernment Iustice was had in such honor and reuerence But let vs rub vp the memorie heereof by some notable examples If any thing causeth Magistrates to commit iniustice it is chieflye the fauour which they beare the bond wherewith they are bound more to some than to others Therefore Cleon the Lacedemonian
courage so much as to reprooue their slaues onely so far off are they that they can frankly chide their children And which is woorst of al by their naughty life they are vnto them in steed of maisters counsellors of il-doing For where old men are shameles there it must needs be that yoong men become impudent graceles Fathers therfore must striue to do whatsoeuer their dutie requireth that their children may waxe wise and well qualified This we may comprehend in fewe words namely if they bring them vp wel in their infancy let them haue due correction in their youth Which two things being neglected of fathers the faults of their children are for the most part iustly imputed vnto them Hely the Priest was not punished for any sin which himselfe had committed but bicause he winked at the sins of his children We read in the storie of the Heluetians or Switzers of the iudgement of a tyrant condemned to death where order was taken that the execution thereof should be done by the father who was the cause of his euill education that he might come to his death by the author of his life and that the father might in some sort be punished for his negligence vsed towards his child Moreouer they that haue many children must be passing careful to bring them vp in mutuall friendship causing them to giue each to other that honor and duty vnto which nature bindeth them and sharpely chastising those that in any respect offend therin The Ephoryes of Lacedemonia long since cōdēned a notable citizen in a very great sum when they vnderstood that he suffred two of his childrē to quarel togither The best meane which I find to auoid so great an euill is to loue and intreat them all alike and to accustom them to giue honour dutie and obedience one to another according to their degrees of age They must remoue from them al partialities and not suffer them to haue any thing seueral or diuided one from another that as it were in one hart and will all things may be common amongst them Example heerof was that good father of a familie Aelius Tubero who had sixteene children of his owne bodie all of them maried and dwelling all in one house with their children and liuing with him in all peace and concord For the conclusion therefore of our present discourse we learne that a father of a familie must begin the gouernment of his house with himselfe and become an example to his of all honestie vertue That he must not neglect the care of prouiding goods necessarie meanes for the maintenance of his familie remembring alwaies that in nothing he go beyond the bounds of that seemelines and decencie which dutie hath limited prescribed vnto him That he ought to loue to intreat his seruants curteously putting away threatnings as it is said in the Scripture and knowing that both their and his maister is in heauen with whom there is no respect of persons And for the last point that it belongeth to his dutie to bring vp his children in the holie instruction and information of the Lord not prouoking them to wrath that God may be glorified and he their father may reioice in the presence of his friends and that his countrie generally may receiue benefit profit and commoditie Of the dutie of children towards their parents of the mutuall loue that ought to be among brethren of the dutie of seruants towards their maisters Chap. 50. ACHITOB VPon a day when one said in the hearing of Theopompus king of Sparta that the estate of that citie was preserued in such flourishing maner bicause the kings knew how to command wel the prince replied that it was not so much for that cause as bicause the citizens knew how to obey well And to speake the truth to obey wel as also the vertue of commanding is a great vertue and proceedeth from a nature which being noble of it selfe is holpen by good education Therefore Aristotle said that it was necessarie that he which obeieth should be vertuous as wel as he that commandeth Now seeing we haue intreated of the dutie of a father and head of a familie exercising his office vpon all the parts of his house let vs now consider of the dutie and obedience that is requisite in seruaunts and children and of the mutuall and reciprocall amitie which ought to be betweene brethren desirous to preserue the bond of Oeconomical societie in a happie estate ASER. Children saith the Scripture obey your parents in all things for that is well pleasing vnto the Lord Honor thy father and mother which is the first commaundement with promise that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest liue long on earth AMANA Who so honoreth his father his sinnes shall be forgiuen him and he shall abstaine from them and shall haue his daily desires And he that honoureth his mother is like one that gathereth treasure And you seruaunts be subiect to your masters with all feare not onely to the good and curteous but also to the froward Let vs then heare ARAM discourse more at large of that which is here propounded vnto vs. ARAM. Nature saith Plutark and the law which preserueth nature haue giuen the first place of reuerence and honor after God vnto the father and mother and men can not do any seruice more acceptable to God than graciously and louingly to pay to their parents that begot thē and to them that brought them vp the vsurie of new and olde graces which they haue lent them as contrarywise there is no signe of an Atheist more certaine than for a man to set light by and to offend his parents The father is the true image of the great and soueraigne God the vniuersall father of all things as Proclus the Academike said Yea the child holdeth his life of the father next after God and whatsoeuer else he hath in this world Therfore a man is forbidden to hurt others but it is accounted great impietie and sacriledge for a man not to shew himselfe ready to doe and to speake all things I will not say whereby they can receiue no displeasure but wherby they may not receiue pleasure And in deed one of the greatest good turnes that we can do to those of whom we are descended is not to make them sad Which cannot possibly be done if God the leader and guide to all knowledge disposeth not the mind to all honest things The children of wisdome are the Church of the righteous and their ofspring is obedience and loue Children heare the iudgement of your father and do thereafter that you may be safe For the Lord will haue the father honored of the children and hath confirmed the authoritie of the mother ouer the children He that honoureth his father shall haue ioy of his owne children and when he maketh his prayer he shall
from publike administrations charges but onely that he would haue them imploied about such things as require least labour and not to beginne to meddle with publike affaires before they be fortie yeeres of age He alleadgeth these reasons bicause often-times many women haue beene more excellent than all the men of their countrie and such are dailie to be seene And seeing they haue a soule aswell as we as quicke a spirite and often-times more quicke than we whereof those women are witnesses who hauing giuen thēselues wholy to any thing whatsoeuer were not inferiour but rather went beyond many men it were great follie in men seeing God hath created man and woman with the like spirite to cut off as it were the one halfe of their strength and to helpe themselues but with a part thereof Nowe albeit these reasons are of great waight yet sure it is that men and women both by diuine and humane policie haue their distinct and seuerall offices It is very true that I like not the opinion of many who say that women ought to knowe nothing but to spinne and sowe which saying commeth neere to that of the Emperour who would not haue a woman to haue more witte than is needefull for hir to discerne hir husbandes shirt from his doublet Such opinions are fit for ignorant persons and proceede from a darke braine For it cannot but be very seemely and profitable for a woman to be able to render a reason of hir being aswell by the knowledge of the holie Scriptures as by the precepts of good life which we haue from the Ancients This ought parents to teach their daughters that they may be withdrawne from all other foolish loue through the loue of vertue and be desirous of all honestie and chastitie as also that when they are moothers in good and holie mariage they may be a principall cause of the good bringing vp of their children Yea histories reckon vp vnto vs a great many that haue beene in steede of Schoole-maisters in excellent sciences Aretia taught hir sonne Aristippus Philosophie Zenobia Queene of the Palmyrians being very well learned in the Greeke Latine and Aegyptian toongs taught them to hir two sonnes and wrote an Epitomie of the Easterne Histories Cornelia taught the Gracchyes hir two sonnes the Latine eloquence But let vs followe our discourse of the generall instruction of children Aristotle seemeth vnto mee to bee a good teacher and Maister where hee sayeth that there are two ages in which it is necessarie to diuide the institution of those disciplines which we would haue our children learne namely from seuen yeeres vntill foureteene which he calleth the age of pubertie and againe from this age vntill the one twentieth yeere He saith that in the institution of youth two things must be looked vnto the one wherin children are to be instructed the other how they ought to be instructed For all men are not agreed of this what things children are to learne neither yet is it decided or resolued vpon to what end their institution ought to be directed whether to profite or to manners or to vnderstanding and contemplation which proceedeth from the variable opinions of men who place their end in diuers things But how soeuer it is we must as we said before referre all our studies to the glorie of God and to the seruice of our neighbours in liuing well according to those charges and vocations whereunto we may be called We haue already seene the diuision of sciences and arts and spoken of those that are most necessarie for a happie life Aristotle following the custome then vsed in Grecia appointed that children should learne foure things Grammer bodilie exercise Musicke and painting for certaine commodities meete for the life of a man Grammer is the entire to all sciences whereby we learne to speake exactly also to read and to write And this is necessarie for all estates of life whether publike or priuate in peace or in warre in a quiet life or in multitude of busines for marchandice for the guiding of a house for the obtaining of knowledge for the continuance and perpetuitie of the memorie of man Briefly as nature is the cause of our being so the knowledge of letters which Grammar teacheth vs worketh in vs the knowledge how to liue well For this cause Charondas the law-maker as Diodorus the Sicilian writeth preferred Grammer before all other sciences as that which is most necessarie for mans life appointing that all the children of his citie should learne their letters at the charges of the common-wealth which was to maintaine publike maisters to teach both poore and rich Truly this law ought to be put in practise in all the townes of this kingdome to resist that pernitious Hydra of ignorance which the richer sort defend making no account of knowledge to the treading downe and oppression of the poore who would gladly haue the meanes whereby they might be instructed The Gymnastical part was that arte which as the Ancients affirmed did serue for health and strength preparing the bodies of children by honest and moderate exercises as fencing shooting throwing of a stone riding wrastling running leaping swimming and such like These according to Aristotles opinion are to be moderately practiced by children vntill they be foureteene yeeres old exercising them lightly not with forced labors that their growth be not hindred thereby This age being past after they haue bestowed three yeeres in other Morall disciplines and followed their studies in deeper sciences vntill the one and twentieth yeere then may they be exercised with more sharpe and hard labors of the body They must also be taught Musicke for the solacing and recreation of their mindes after trauels and painting that they may the better consider of the beautie of the bodie and vnderstand the symmetry and apt composition of all things to the ende that they may be the better aduised either in buying or selling them Let them also knowe howe to drawe platformes of publike and priuate buildings to set foorth countries townes and castels their height breadth and length for the warre liuing creatures of all sortes with their parts herbs trees rootes leaues flowres fruits for medicine for the knowledge of simples In this institution of children Aristotle had respect to that which was conuenient drew neerest to the forme of a happie Commonwealth established by him and to that which was necessary for the preseruation and maintenance thereof Nowe let vs apply to our vse that which we may learne both of him and of the rest of the Ancients for the framing of yoong men to honesty and vertue leauing to the libertie of Fathers to make choice of those arts and sciences wherein they purpose to bring vp their children hauing regard to that whereunto nature maketh them most apt and pliable We shall take a good way in the institution of
old man quoth he to learne I am goyng said he to Sextus the Philosopher to learne that which I know not Than Lucius lifting vp his hands towards heauen cried out O good God I see an emperour euen gray-headed carying his booke as if he were a child to heare a lecture and to be instructed thereby and yet most kings of the earth will not vouchsafe to looke vpon a booke at eighteene yeeres of age Solon had this sentence commonly in his mouth that he waxed old as he learned The same day and houre that he died being aboue 80. yeeres olde and hearing some of his friends disputing of a certain point of Philosophy he lift vp himself vpon his bed after his maner as wel as he could And being asked why he did so To the end quoth he that when I haue learned that whereof you dispute I might end my dayes so in deed he did For the disputation was no sooner ended but he died Socrates learned musick when he was very olde Terentius Varro and Marcus Portius Cato learned Greek when they were old Iulianus the great lawyer vsed to say whē he was very old that although he had one foot in the graue yet he was desirous to learne Alphonsus king of Arragon when he was 50. yeeres old learned the Latin toong and translated Titus Liuius out of Latine into Spanish The sixt and last age of man is called Old-age which according to Marcus Varro and other authors beginneth at 50. yeeres bicause at this age the naturall power and strength of man beginneth to decline and fade away Isidorus calleth this time Grauitie which he maketh to last vntill 70. yeeres and termeth the ouer-plus of age beyond that old-age But as neither the diuision of ages here set downe nor the termes wherein we haue enclosed them could agree to the ages of our first fathers either in the first or second age wherin they liued commonly as manie yeeres as we do moneths so considering the shortnesse of our days which the Psalmist limiteth within 80. yeeres at the most I think we are to folow the opiniō of Varro who calleth old-age whatsoeuer is aboue 50. yeeres In which age prudence is a very meet necessary ornament which those ancient men might attain vnto through long vse of life through knowledge and through experience Therfore it is their office to succour and helpe the yonger sort their friendes and the common-wealth by their prudence and counsell For this cause Romulus the first founder of the citie of Rome chose an hundred of the eldest in the citie by whose counsell he willed that it should be gouerned And of these old men called in Latin Senes came that word Senatus which is as much to say as an assembly or gathering togither of olde men whom we now call counsailors or Senators And albeit that men now a dayes greatly abuse those charges yet surely they properly belong to olde men to whome it appertaineth to gouerne townes to administer iustice and to be a paterne and example of honestie to the younger sort For then haue they no time to take their ease but as Cicero saith they must encrease the exercises of the soule as they diminish the labours of the bodie Let them remember that saying of the Lacedemonian who being asked why he suffred his beard to grow so long to the end quoth he that by looking vpon my white haire I should be put in mind not to do any act vnbeseeming this hoarie whitenesse In this age that sentence of Plato ought especially to be well thought vpon That yong men die very soone but that olde men cannot liue long To which effect Epaminondas sayd that vntil 30. yeeres it may be thus said to men Ye are welcome for vntill that time they seeme still to be comming into the world From 30. vntill 50. yeeres they must be saluted in this maner Ye are in a good hower bicause they are then to know what the world is And from 50. to the end a man must say vnto them Go in a good hower bicause then they go faire and softly taking their leaue of the world Olde age said Cato to an olde man that liued ill hath sufficient deformities of it self do not thou adde such as proceed from vice For it is not grisled haire nor a wrinckled visage that bringeth authoritie but a life that is honestly led and guided according to the best end of our being whereunto euery age is to be referred To such olde men saith Sophocles as haue their soules nourished with heauenly light old age is not grieuous and in such the desire of contemplation and knowledge encreaseth as much as the pleasures of their bodie decrease Therfore when we haue passed ouer the greatest part of our days to the profite of many if than through weaknes of extreme age we are constrained to leaue the managing of publike affaires it will be very great honour comfort and contentation of mind vnto vs to run the rest of our race quietly and peaceably in the studie of letters wherein delight is ioyned with honest contemplation The ende of the thirteenth daies worke THE FOVRTEENTH DAIES WORKE Of Policie and of sundry sortes of Gouernments Chap. 53. ASER. IF we are able to discern between the bodie the soul between this present transitorie life and the life to come which is eternall we will not thinke it strange that one part of mans building should be created to remaine free for euer and to be exempted frō the yoke of humane power acknowledging onely the spiritual iurisdiction and the other part to be in seruitude and to receiue commaundement from those humane and ciuill offices which are to be kept amongst men In the kingdome of God saith Paul there is neither Iew nor Graecian neither bond nor free neither Barbarian nor Scythian but Iesus Christ is all in all Stand fast in the libertie wherewith you are made free And by and by after he addeth Onely vse not your libertie as an occasion to the flesh but by loue serue one another And else-where he saith Let euery soule be subiect to the higher powers for there is no power but of God Whosoeuer therfore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God Wherby it appeereth that they which thinke that the maintenance of ciuil policies are the worke of man only are greatly deceiued For we must of necessitie beleeue that it proceedeth from the counsel of God and from his eternall prouidence without which neither the round frame of the world nor cities townes could in any sort abide stedfast so that it is very necessary for their preseruation that certain lawes should be appointed according vnto which men may liue honestly iustly one with another As there are then two chief regiments gouernments in man of which one respecteth the soule and acknowledgeth no temporal
beyng kinges and seeyng how hard a matter it was to assemble all the people togither and how they ouerthrew many tymes the sacred decrees of the Senate holpe them-selues with an oracle from Apollo whereby it was signified that the Senate of thirtie should from thence-forth haue all power in matters of estate in so much that of Senators they became soueraigne lordes And to content the people they appointed fiue Ephories who were chosen out of the people as Tribunes to keepe away tiranny That policie then is truely Aristocraticall wherin vertue only is respected in the distribution of magistracies and the benefit of the subiects is chiefly considered in the gouernment thereof Oligarchie is opposite and contrary to this and is the second kinde of a corrupted common-wealth This is when a few noble or riche men occupie the authoritie and administration of the common-wealth reiecting the poorer and baser sort and aiming at nothing but at their owne priuate and particular profite without all care of publique commoditie These men alwayes vse to take part with their like in nobilitie or riches to the treading downe and oppression of the meaner sort of people Moreouer they rule all matters according to their affections and through ambition and couetousnes take them into their own hands vntil some one that is mightiest amongst them find the means to rule absolutely and to change the Oligarchie into a tiranny Aristotle affirmeth that all the auncient gouernments in Sicilia were Oligarchies among which that of the Leontines was translated into the tirannie of Panecus that of Gela into the tirannie of Cleander that of Rhegium into the tirannie of Anaxilas and so of many others The third kind of a good and right common-wealth is of a Greeke worde called Timocratie which we may call The power of meane or indifferent wealth This kinde of gonernment was after a peculiar sort called of the Auncients by the name of Common-wealth bicause this policie tended most of all to publique profite and was guided by lawes and compounded of an Oligarchie and a Democratie which are two extremes and of themselues vicious and corrupt For of their mediocrities this forme of common-wealth was instituted after 3. sortes First by taking the lawes and institutions of both secondly by holding the mediocritie of things commanded by them thirdly by following the constitutions partly of the one partly of the other Aristotle speaketh of this kind of Common-wealth when he saith That ciuill societie consisting of meane persons is very good and that those cities are wel gouerned wherein there are many of the middle sort who haue more power than both the other parties or at least than any one of them For where as many are passing rich or extreme poore there followeth either an extreme Democratie or an intollerable Oligarchie or els through their excesse a tirannie Nowe the last kind of corrupt common-wealth remaineth to be seene which is called Democratie where free and poore men being the greater number are lordes of the estate There were fiue sortes of them the first where the gouernment was equally communicated to all the second where regard was had to wealth although it was but small the third where all the citizens were partakers of the gouernment vnder the ruling of the lawe the fourth where euery one might attaine to the magistracie so that hee were a citizen and the lawe ruled the fift where other things beyng equall the multitude commanded and not the lawe and then the people onely gouerned accordyng to their fansie by decrees and prouisoes which they gaue out daily oppressing the vertuous riche and noble that they might liue in all libertie This kinde is not to bee called a Common-wealth seeing the lawes beare no sway but beyng aunswerable to a tirannie it is passing ill and vnwoorthie to bee numbred among Common-wealths Plato and Xenophon wrote that the Democratie of Athens was such a one where the people was giuen ouer to all licentiousnesse without either feare of Magistrates or obseruation of lawes Nowe of the three kindes of good Common-wealthes mentioned by vs Aristotle Polybius Dionysius Halicarnassaeus and Cicero compound an other that is partaker of all three saying that euery kind of Common-wealth established simplie and alone by it selfe soone degenerateth into the next vice if it be not moderated and kept backe by the rest Therefore they say that a Common-wealth erected with a right gouernement to continue long must haue the vertues and properties of the other Common-wealths ioyned togither in hir to the ende that nothing growe out of proportion which may cause hir to degenerate into hir next euill and so consequently ouerthrow hir Likewise many auncient and late Politikes haue maintayned that the Common-wealths of the Lacedemonians Carthaginians Romans and others that are famous as that of the Venitians were compound and mildlie intermingled with the royall Aristocraticall and popular power But this subiect deserueth well a seuerall discourse which beyng needlesse for the vnderstanding of the matter here propounded vnto vs we will not stay any longer in the curious searching out of sundry other kindes of estates and policies which the ancients haue drawen out of these alreadie described We will note therefore for the conclusion of our speech that the reason why so many kindes of Common-wealths are mentioned by the auncients is this bicause euery citie is compounded of many partes the diuersitie of which according as they were in greater number and power caused them to varie the names of gouernments But to auoyd confusion and obscuritie we may say that if the soueraigntie consisteth in one onely prince the estate is Monarchicall if all the people haue interest in it the estate is popular and if onely the least parte of them haue the chiefe power the estate is Aristocraticall But if their forme of gouernment be contrary to their nature they take an other qualitie but chaunge not their essence Moreouer we say that the preseruation of euerie publique societie dependeth of the policie well ordeined without which there can be nothing but disorder confusion among men We say that policie is the order of a citie in the offices of magistracie namely in the chiefe of all in whose gouernment the whole Common-wealth consisteth which if it be in the peoples handes is called Popular as in the Cantons of Switzerland and leagues of the Grisons in many free townes in Germanie and in old time was in Athens if in the hands of certaine persons as of the gentlemen of Venice and of some families in Genes it is called Aristocraticall if it dependeth of the wil of one alone it is called a Monarchie as in France Spaine Portingale England Scotland Sweathland Polonia Further we say that the diuersitie of gouernment among cities and peoples dependeth of their end if they tend to a good ende which is to publique benefite they are
good and iust but if to an ill ende namely to the particular profite of such as commaund they are euill and vniust Of the soueraigne Magistrate and of his authoritie and office Chap. 54. ACHITOB WE commonly say that that thing is rightly done which is done according to the order and institution of policie Neither is right any other thing amongst vs than the order of that estate vnder which we liue the soueraigntie wherof is the sure foundation vnion and bond of all the particulars in one perfect body of a commō-welth And when iudgements are exercised by the magistrates when the wil of iustice is declared by the exposition of the lawes of right and when we direct our actions vnder iustice thē is the order of ciuil societie duly obserued Hereupon in our last discourse we said that the estate of a common-wealth was compounded of 3. general partes of the magistrate of the law and of the people Thus followyng our purpose let vs intreat particularly of these parts wherof euery common-welth consisteth first let vs consider of the chief magistrate and of his authoritie and office ASER. All ciuil superioritie is a holy and lawful vocation before God And as iustice is the end of the law and the law a worke of the magistrate so also the magistrate is the image of God who ruleth and gouerneth all according to which mould and paterne he must fashion himselfe through the meanes of vertue AMANA As in a man that is well disposed both in bodie and soule according to nature not corrupted the soule ruleth and commandeth with reason being the better part and the body with the affections thereof serue obey as the woorse part so is it in euery humane assemblie It belongeth to the wisest to rule and to such as are lesse aduised to obey Therefore the Magistrate must aboue all things labour that he be not vnwoorthie of that person which he sustaineth But let vs heare ARAM discourse of this matter which is heere propounded vnto vs. ARAM. God being carefull of all things euen of the very least and comprehending in himselfe the beginning end and midst of them according to his good pleasure and making all in all by his onely spirite respecting the common good of this whole frame and preseruation of humane societie hath from time to time distributed to sundry persons distinct and different graces that in exercising diuers estats charges administrations offices handicrafts and occupations they might through mutuall succour and interchangable helpe preserue and maintain themselues This is that which we see in cities amongst ciuill companies which is asmuch to say as a multitude of men vnlike in qualities conditions as rich poore free bond noble vile skilfull ignorant artificers labourers some obeying others commanding and all communicating togither in one place their arts handicrafts occupations exercises to this end that they may liue the better and more commodiously They obey also the same Magistrates lawes and soueraigne councell which Plato calleth the Anchor head and soule of the citie which naturally tendeth to some order and rule of dominion as that which tooke beginning and increase from persons acquainted with a gouernment that resembleth the royall regiment as appeereth in euery well ordered familie and hath already beene touched of vs. The first soueraign gouernment was established either by the violence of the mightiest as Thucidides Caesar Plutarke and others write and the holy historie testifieth the same vnto vs and putteth this opinion out of doubt where it is sayd that Nimrod Chams nephewe was the first that brought men into subiection by force and violence establishing his principalitie in the kingdome of Assyria Or if any will beleeue Demosthenes Aristotle and Cicero the first soueraigntie was instituted vpon their will and good liking who for their owne commoditie rest securitie submitted themselues to such as excelled most in vertue in those times which they called heroicall Who knoweth not saith Cicero in his oration for Sestius that the nature of men was sometime such that not hauing natural equitie as yet written they wandred vp and downe being dispersed in the fields and had nothing but that which they could catch keep forceably by murders and wounds Wherefore some excelling in vertue and counsell knowing the docilitie vnderstāding of man gathered the dispersed togither into one place brought them from that rudenes wherein they were vnto iustice gentlenes Then they established those things that belonged to common profit which we call publike appointed assemblies afterward called cities walled about their buildings ioined togither which we cal townes hauing first found out both diuine and humane equitie At the same time the authoritie of Magistrats tooke place who were instituted by the consent of the people for that excellent heroicall vertue which they saw in those first Rectors and Ordainers of ciuill societie to whome was committed the iurisdiction of lawes or receiued customes and the disposition of written equitie to rule and gouerne their people thereafter But not to staye long about the diuersitie of those opiniōs which we haue heere alleadged for the establishment of the soueraigntie this is out of question that the foundation of euery common-wealth dependeth thereupon that it is the absolute perpetual power of the Common-wealth is not limited either in power or charge or for a certaine time This soueraigntie is in him or them that are chiefe of the Estate a little king is asmuch a soueraigne as the greatest Monarch of the earth For a great kingdome saith Cassiodorus is nothing else but a great Common-wealth vnder the keeping of one chief soueraigne But before we intreate more amply of his authoritie and office it behooueth vs to render a reason of the name of Magistrate which is heere giuen vnto him This word Magistrate hath beene taken of the Ancients in diuers significations and Plato maketh seuenteene sortes of them calling some necessary Magistrats others honourable Aristotle said that they ought chiefly to be called Magistrats that haue power to take counsell to iudge and to command but especially to command And this doth the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufficiently declare as if he would say Commanders and the Latine word Magistratus being a word of commanding signifieth to maister and to exercise dominion Also the Dictator who had the greatest power to command was called of the Ancients Magister populi Therefore albeit the name of Magistrate hath been heeretofore and is yet giuen to all that haue publike and ordinarie charge in the Estate yet we will as it were abuse this name a little by transferring it to the Soueraigne of all of whome all Magistrats lawes and ordinances of the Common-wealth depend Now let vs see whether this vocation of the Magistrate be lawfull and approoued of God We
passe to the detriment of the realm notwithstanding any letters of commandement whatsoeuer Among other things the king may not alienate his crowne reuenues without some cause knowen to the sayd officers of accounts and to the parliaments And which is more publike treaties with neighbour states edicts and decrees haue no authoritie before they are published in the high courts By which moderation his power is not lessened but made surer more durable and lesse burthensome to his subiects being wholy separated from tiranny which is hated of God and men as we may haue further knowledge by discoursing thereof particularly So that ouer and besides those fiue kindes of monarchies mentioned of vs tiranny may be put for the sixt which we may call that wherein the monarch treading vnder foote the lawes of nature abuseth the libertie of free subiects as if they were slaues and other mens goods as his owne Among the auncients the name of tyrant was honourable and signified nothing else being a Greeke worde but a prince that had gotten the gouernment of the estate with out the consent of his subiects and of a companion had made himselfe a master whether he were a wise and iust prince or cruel and vniust And in deed most of them became wicked to make sure their estate life goods knowing that they were fallen into many mens hatred bicause they had inuaded the soueraigntie In this respect therfore was this dominion rule called tyrannical bicause it gouerned in lord-like maner without right ouer free men compelled and forced to obey But generally we may call that a tirannie when the prince accounteth all his will as a iust law and hath no care either of pietie iustice or faith but doth all things for his owne priuate profite reuenge or pleasure And as a good king conformeth himselfe to the lawes of God and nature so a tyrant treadeth them vnder foote the one striueth to enriche his subiects the other to destroy them the one taketh reuenge of publike iniuries and pardoneth his owne the other cruelly reuengeth iniuries done to himselfe and forgiueth those that are offered to others the one spareth the honour of chaste women the other triumpheth in their shame the one taketh pleasure to be freely admonished and wisely reprooued when he hath done amisse the other misliketh nothing so much as a graue free and vertuous man the one maketh great account of the loue of his people the other of their feare the one is neuer in feare but for his subiects the other standeth in awe of none more than of them the one burtheneth his as little as may be and then vpon publike necessitie the other suppeth vp their bloud gnaweth their bones and sucketh the marrow of his subiectes to satisfie his desires the one giueth estates and offices to meete with briberie and oppression of the people the other selleth them as deare as may bee and careth not for the oppression of his subiectes the one in time of warre hath no recourse but to his subiects the other warreth against none but them the one hath no garde or garrison but of his owne people the other none but of straungers the one reioyceth in assured rest the other languisheth in perpetuall feare the one is honoured in his life tyme and longed for after his death the other is defamed in his lyfe and rent in pieces after his death Examples hereof are in euery mans sight And therefore Diogenes the Sinopian meeting one day in the citie of Corinth with Dionysius the younger tyraunt of Syracusa who was then brought into the estate of a priuate man banished from his countrey and fallen from his dignitie spake thus vnto him Truely Dionysius thou art nowe in an estate vnwoorthie of thee The tyraunt standing still withall made him this answere I like thee well Diogenes bicause thou hast compassion of my miserable fortune What replied the Philosopher doest thou thinke that I pitie thee I am rather grieued to see such a slaue as thou who deseruest to growe olde and to die in that cursed estate of a tyraunt as thy father did to take thy pleasure in suche safetie and to passe away thy tyme freely amongst vs without feare And to say truth tirannie is suche a miserable condition that euen they that practise it and glorie therein are constrained manie tymes to confesse with their owne mouth that no kinde of life is so wretched as theirs This selfe tyrant Dionysius when hee was in the greatest glorye of his estate declared as much to Democles one of his familiar friendes who had sayd that he was most happie Wilt thou quoth Dionysius to him enjoy my felicitie but for one day onely Whereunto when Democles agreed hee caused him to be serued at the table as himselfe was woont to be with all the magnificence that could be deuised hanging in the meane while a sworde right ouer his head which was tied to the roofe aloft onely by one haire of a horse taile When Democles perceiued that he was well contented to make a short dinner and to passe away the rest of the day in his former estate Loe quoth the tyraunt then vnto him how happie our life is which with all our armed garde hangeth but by a little threed Moreouer the raigne of tyraunts beyng without measure and reason and guided onely by violence cannot be of any long continuaunce This is that which Thales the wise man sayde that there was nothing so straunge or rare as an olde tyrant And albeit they liue miserablie in perpetuall distrust of euery one yea of their neerest kindred yet their ende is more wretched For there were fewe of them that died not a cruell and extraordinarie death most of them being slayne and murdered and others persecuted with straunge griefes died like mad and desperate men through the remembraunce of their corrupt life and of the cruelties which they had committed In auncient time tyrannie was so detestable that euen scholers and women sought to winne the reward of honour by killing tyraunts as Aristotle the Logitian did who slew a tyraunt of Sycionia and as Thebe who killed hir husband Alexander tyrannt of the Phereans Thirtie tyraunts were slayne in one day in the Citie of Athens by Theramenes Thrasibulus and Archippus who had but three-score and tenne men to execute that enterprise Leander tyraunt of Cyrena was taken aliue and being sewed into a leather bagge was cast into the sea Aristodemus tyraunt of Cumes tooke Xenocrita by force beyng a wealthie citizens daughter whome he had banished and keeping hir with him as his wife shee stirred vp Thymoteles and others to recouer the libertie of their countrey who beyng safelie let into the tyrants chamber by hir slew Aristodemus Besids the auncientes had appoynted great rewardes and recompences for the murderers of tyrauntes namelie titles of Nobilitie of Prowesse of Chiualrie images and honourable titles to bee shorte the goodes
iudgements of the Romanes were for a long time in the hands of three Orders or Estates namely of Senators Knights and Tribunes of the treasure Neuertheles the same persons did not alwaies iudge but the Pretors who were annuall Iudges and chief amongst them tooke a certaine number of Iudges by lot out of those three Estates And if they that were first taken were refused by any one of the parties others were chosen by an after-lot who being agreed vpon and sworne were distributed by decuries or tens There were three sorts of Pretors the Pretor of the Citie who tooke knowledge of particular causes namely of ciuill and criminal matters amongst the citizens of Rome the Pretor established for matters betweene strangers citizens the Pretors appointed for publike causes The Senators were once the only Iudges of all processes but Tiberius Caius Gracchus being popular persons to diminish the authority of the Senate and to encrease the peoples power ioined vnto them 300. Knights according to the number of the Senators brought it so about that the iudgmēts of al causes were diuided betweene these 600. men Vnder Sylla all authoritie of iudging was restored againe to the Senate but Pompey after that brought in the Knights againe all iudgements were equally communicated vnto the three Orders aboue mentioned Afterward when Caesar was Dictator he reduced them to two Orders only that is to Senators to Knights Buda in his annotations vpon the Pandects hath obserued many good things belonging to the Romane iudgements which curious spirits may looke into among the rest of the great respect honor that was giuen to Magistrats Concerning which matter we may vse as a good testimony that which we read in Plutark of Fabius Maximus his son who seeing a far off his father come towards him on horse-backe that his sergeants in regard of fatherly reuerence had not caused him to alight commanded him to set foot on ground Which the father presently obeied imbracing his sonne made greater account of him than if he had done otherwise The same author writeth that one Vectius was presently slaine bicause he arose not whē the Tribune of the people passed before him And Valerius Maximus saith that the Censors did note with ignominy withall disfranchised a citizen of Rome bicause he breathed yawned a little too loud in their presence But what Estats dignities were then giuen to vertue not to him that offred most And often times the places of iudgement were necessarily and as it were by force laid vpon Iudges being more honourable than profitable yea very incommodious to such as would discharge themselues vprightly therein I remember an excellent iudgement giuen by Archidamus the Lacedemonian when he was chosen Arbitrator to decide a certaine contention betweene two friendes After he had brought them both into the Temple of Diana and made them sweare vpon the aultar that they shoulde obserue precisely whatsoeuer he determined wherunto they yeelded I iudge then quoth he that none of you depart out of this Temple before you haue ended your strife Thus were they both constrained to agree among themselues and Archidamus freed from perill of loosing one of their friendships against whome he must needes haue giuen iudgement By this meanes he put in practice that saying of Pittacus That a man must not be ludge or Arbitrator in the controuersie of two friendes least by iudging profitably for one he loose the friendship of the other But let vs speake of our own Estate In old time as many histories report iudgements were so well administred in France that strangers did willingly submit themselues vnto them Frederick the 2. submitted to the iudgement of the king and his Parliament the deciding of many contentions and controuersies betweene him and Pope Innocent the fourth In the time of Phillip the Faire the Earle of Namure did the like albeit that Charles of Valoys the kings brother was his aduerse partie so great confidence had he in the equitie of those Iudges At the same time Phillip Prince of Tatentum willingly accepted for Iudge the king sitting in his Parliamēt about the controuersie that he had with the Duke of Burgundye for certaine charges which he should defraye towardes the recouerie of the Empire of Constantinople The like did the Duke of Lorraine in the suite which he had against Guy of Castillon his brother in law for their diuision of lands And in the yeere 1402. the Kinges of Castile and of Portingale sent an agreement made and past betweene them that it might be published and proclaimed in the Court of Parliament to haue greater authoritie thereby Truly these testimonies are as famous for the glorie of iustice vsed in France as any that can be alleadged by the Grecians or Romanes for the proofe of their iust iudgements of the reputation of their lawes and renowne of their Magistrates But let vs consider how farre iustice is fallen at this day from that ancient opinion and credite iudgements being now brought to that length and intangled in so many formalities that it is a thing greatly to be pitied and full of calamitie to see this Realme so infected as it were with a generall contagious disease wherein such an innumerable companie of men liue by that miserable exercise of pleading called Practice Plato saith that it is an euident token of a corrupted Estate where there are many Iudges and Phisitions bicause the multitude of Iudges is maintained by the vnfaithfulnes and contention of men and the great number of Physitions by idlenes daintie fare and gluttony There was neuer any nation of which this might be more truly spoken than of ours as it is notoriously knowne to euery one Paulus Aemilius writeth that in the beginning Frēch men behaued themselues simply and plainly in matters of iudgement resting in the determinations giuen by the Bailiffs and Seneshals who had the administration almost of al right and iurisdiction and thinking it vnseemely and void of honestie to seeke a farre off for right by meanes of appeale But after that slanders arose amongst them and suites were multiplied soueraigne iustice began to be exercised once a yeere and that for a few daies togither afterward twice a yeere alwaies changing the place In the end it was determined that the chiefe iudgements should be held in a certaine place and that a house should be built for that purpose at Paris the principall citie of the kingdome Whereupon in the raigne of Phillip the Faire the Pallace was erected according to that greatnes and magnificence wherein you now see it with hals chambers into which were distributed by certaine companies those Iudges that gaue the last sentence frō which no appeale might be made both in ciuill and criminal matters The erection of this Parliament into an ordinarie Court doth giue vs to vnderstand that there should be one or two Presidents The first
are two sortes of negligence the one in those that call chuse or receiue into any great office such men as are vnwoorthie and care not for their charges or that suffer such persons to ascend to the chiefest places of Magistracie that are enimies to that forme of Common-wealth as if the chiefe men in Bearne shoulde chuse an Auoyer which office is contrarie to their manner of liuing or if the Venetians should chuse a Duke or the Cardinals a Pope that were not of their religion or if the King of Fraunce should create a Constable or Chancellour that liked not a Royall and Monarchicall Estate The other kinde of negligence which is much more common is in them that are called to a dignitie office or Magistracie and shewe them-selues retchles in that administration and exercise as we see that moste Bishops and Prelats neglect the dutie of their charges to imploie or bestowe their tyme in worldlie affaires for which cause they growe into misliking and contempt From hence haue proceeded great offences and maruellous troubles which may more easilye bee lamented than taken away or reformed being such abuses as haue taken deepe roote Moreouer the alteration of policie is bred by other meanes by little and little as when through dissimulation or otherwise men suffer some part albeit neuer so little of the lawe or politike Estate to be cut off Changes seldome fall out all at one time if they are not very violent but for the most part go on by litle and litle as the seasons of the yeere slide away softly from great heates to hard frosts and from the frost and cold of winter to the heate of sommer A lingring feuer afflicteth the patient so easily that he hardly perceiueth himselfe therin but if it be suffered to continue without redresse in due time it will turne to a hectick feuer and so consequently become incurable So fareth it with an Estate and Policie whose authoritie waxeth contemptible and is lost by little and little when men are negligent in preuenting the same in due time He that will consider the alteration happened in France within these thirtie yeeres shall find it to be very great aswell in regard of religion as of manners and lawes which neuertheles came by little and little and so continueth still greatly threatning a change of the estate Heere therefore I will distinguish betweene the chance of lawes customes religion place which is properly but an alteration and the change of an estate which is when the soueraigntie goeth from one into the power of another Dissimilitude also is the cause many times of sedition and of change in the Common-wealth which commeth to passe when the Inhabitants of a place are not of the same nation but many strangers are receiued into it who perceiuing them-selues to be the stronger part haue many times thrust the naturall Citizens out of their towne whereof Aristotle alleadgeth many examples that fell so out in the Grecian cities At Sienna at Genes at Zurick at Cullen the strangers being multiplied draue out the Lords of those places and slew most of them bicause they were ouer-charged with exactions euill entreated and excluded from bearing of offices They of Lindauia slew the Lords of the countrie and changed the Aristocraty into a popular Estate and so did the Inhabitants of Strausborough who hated the Nobilitie in such sort that they would not suffer any of them to enioy the great estates and publike charges vnles he prooued that his grandfather was one of the baser sort of the people These examples mooue naturall Inhabitants many times to ouer-runne strangers when they see the number of them waxe ouer-great amongst them One example heereof we may note in the citie of Geneua into which when many strangers aswell Frenchmen as others retired for religion the naturall Citizens could neuer brooke them although they were very profitable to the citie making it rich and populous whereas before it was poore and smally inhabited but conspired many times to driue them out as namely that conspiracie of one Perin in the yeere 1556. which began to be put in execution when Caluine ranne into the midst of their naked swords to appease the tumult as Beza writeth in his life The same feare mooued Pharaoh when he sawe the Hebrewes encrease ouer-fast amongst his subiects to decree that the Midwiues should from that time forward kill the male children at their birth Now in receiuing of strangers regard must be had to the number that it be not ouergreat and that their authoritie be not vnmeasurable For otherwise it is necessarie for trafficke sake and for many other publike commodities that some be receiued of others Many other kinds of dissimilitude are found in common-wealths as dissimilitude of linage betweene the Nobilitie and Common-people of offices betweene Iudges Treasurers Souldiors Priests of professions betweene Lawyers Phisitions Diuines and Philosophers of occupations betweene Bakers Butchers Shooemakers Painters Smithes Carpenters without which dissimilitudes no Common-wealth can consist Therefore they are not to be taken quite away but onely the disorder that groweth amongst them that so they may be reduced to a conuenient agreement like to that which is betweene the diuers parts that are in the constitution of the world of man We may also call a dissimilitude that difference which is of religions as of the Iewes Christians Mahomists Caphrans Armenians Grecians Latines Iacobites Ethiopians then betweene the Christians themselues as Catholiks Lutherans Zuinglians and Caluinists Many haue said and are yet of this opinion that the chiefe cause of ciuill warres in France proceedeth from this diuersitie of religion And to say truth there is nothing that carieth men away with such vehement passions as zeale of religion for which they fight more willingly thā for their liues goods wiues and children Through the diuersitie heereof they that are neerest of kinne loose their naturall loue they that are of the same country and language persecute one another as mortall enimies and sundry nations abhorre one another for the same These things are too well knowne amongst vs to require proofs thereof And truly in respect of sedition and tumult nothing is more dangerous than for subiects to be diuided in opinion whether it be in matters of estate or of lawes and customs or for religion For if they be of diuers opinions some labour for peace and seeke to make others agree vnto it who wil neuer agree amongst themselues And in truth it is a very hard matter to maintaine publike exercises of any religion whatsoeuer when it is contrary to the religion of the people or of the most of them who many times cannot be kept within compasse neither by lawes nor Magistrats vnlesse the force appointed to keepe them in bee very great For we saw that Thomas Emperour of Constantinople was cruelly slaine by the people amidst a great congregation in the Church bicause he
to lay them vp in a sure place The dignitie of a Head of an armie is in truth greatly to be accounted of especially when it is ioyned with prowesse and experience the chief point whereof is to saue him that must saue all the rest Therefore Timotheus an Athenian captaine and Chares also an other captaine shewed one day openly vnto the Athenians the skarres of many woundes which he had receiued in his body and his shield also that was spoyled and thrust through with many pushes of a pike but now quoth he I am of another minde For when I besieged the citie of Samos I was very much ashamed that an arrowe shotte from the walles fell harde by me being then too venturous a yong man and hazarding my selfe more rashly than became the Head of so great an armie And yet when it greatly profiteth the whole enterprise and is a matter of no small importance that the Generall of the armie should put his life in daunger then he must yeeld and imploy his person not sparing himselfe or giuing place to their wordes who say that a good and wise captaine ought to die of age or at least to be olde But where small benefit ariseth if he prosper well and contrarywise an vniuersall losse and generall hurt to all if any thing but well betide him no wise man will require it or be of the opinion that he should venture himselfe as a common souldiour doth whereby he being the Generall should be in daunger of destruction And yet in the meane while he must not be lesse carefull ouer the safetie of those valiaunt men that follow him or thrust them into danger but very warily remembring the saying of that good emperor Antoninus that he had rather saue one citizen thā put a thousand enimies to death The answer of Scipio was very like it whē he was earnestly requested by the souldiours at the siege of Numantia to gine an assault I had rather quoth he haue the life of one Romane than the death of all the Numantines He vsed also to say that all things ought to be assaied in warre before the sword be taken in hand And in deed there is no greater victory than that which is gotten without sheding of bloud Sylla Tiberius Caligula and Nero had no skill but to commaund and to kill but that good Augustus Titus and Traian were always ready to sollicite to request and to agree by forgiuing Augustus also said that although a prince were mightie yet if hee were wise hee would neuer giue battell vnlesse there were more apparant profite in the victorie than losse if the enimie should ouercome And in deede he neuer gaue battell but vpon necessitie We reade of that great captaine Narses who subdued the Gothes vanquished the Bactrians and ouercame the Germaines that he neuer gaue his enimies battell but he wept in the Temple the night before Theodosius the Emperor suffred not his men to assault any towne nor to lay siege vnto it before tenne dayes were past causing this proclamation to be made vnto them that hee graunted these tenne daies to the ende they might accept and taste of his clemencie before they had experience of his power It is a common saying that it is not enough for a Captaine to know how to leade his men well to the fight vnlesse he foresee also the meanes to retire and to saue them in tyme of neede And it is no lesse fault in a Captaine to fall into an inconuenience vnlooked for than through too much mistrust to let slippe an occasion of doyng some great exploite when it is offred For want of experience breedeth rashnesse in the one and taketh away boldnesse from the other Neither must a good captaine onely vse present occasion well but hee must also iudge wisely of that which is to come distrusting alwayes the doubtfull issue of all enterprises of warre For this cause the ancient Generals of armies both Greekes and Latines neuer marched but in armour nor incamped although they were farre from their enimies but they closed their campe round about with a trench And when Leonidas was demanded the reason hereof he aunswered bicause as the sea hath his sandes gulfes and rocks so hath war his among which none is more perillous and hurtful than this of I had not thought it Among other things necessary in a captaine the knowledge of nature and of the situation of places is very requisite which is to know how the mountaines are lift vp how the valleis hang how the Champian fields are couched togither and to know the nature and course of riuers the bredth of marishes This is profitable in two respects First a man learneth thereby to know his owne countrey so to be more skilful to defend it Secondly hauing by that means had good practise of the seat of that countrey he may easily conceiue the situation of another place of which sometime he must necessarily consider So that if a General be wanting herein he is destitute of the chief vertue which a good captain ought to haue For it is that which teacheth him to find out the enimy to encamp himself to guide an host to set his men in aray for the battell and to take the aduauntage at the siege of a towne Among other great praises that authors giue to Philopaemenus prince of the Acheans they forget not this that in time of peace he studied diligētly how he might war more skilfully And when he was in the fields with his friends he would stand stil many times and conferre with them vsing such like speeches If the enimie were in this mountaine and we here with our campe who should haue the aduantage how might we seeke him out marching on in battell If we would retire how should we do If they retired how should we folow thē Thus in the way he set before them all the chances that might happen to a campe then he would heare their opinions and after set down his own confirming it with reasons This he did so well that by reason of these continual disputations and cogitations no hinderance could befall him when he guided an army which he could not redresse Xenophō sheweth in Cyrus his life that being ready to set forward in that voyage which he vndertooke against the king of Armenia he said familiarly to his men that this iourny was but one of those huntings which they had so often practised with him He willed those whom he sent to lye in ambush vpon the mountaines to remember when and how they went to pitch their nets vpon the small hils and to those that went to begin the skirmish he sayd that they resembled such as went to rouze a beast out of his denne to driue him to their nets This noble Prince shewed well that his exercise of hunting was not vnprofitable vnto him as in deede it is a true
the guiding of them be giuen to good vertuous and expert Captaines ledde onely with a desire to doe their dutie to their King and Countrie this kingdome will be feared of strangers and without feare it selfe of their assaults and enterprises Especially if in the Prince his absence the soueraigne authoritie of commanding absolutely in the armie be committed into the hands of a Captaine woorthy his charge as we haue discoursed who is able to win the harts of men and to prouoke them to their dutie by liuely and learned reasons as namely That all men must die and therefore that it were too great follie in a man to refuse to die for publike profit which bringeth vnto vs immortall glorie seeing he must once of necessitie yeeld vp his life that a glorious death is alwaies to be preferred before a shamefull life stained with reproch briefly if he can ground his exhortations vpon the occasion of taking armes of time place estate and condition of the enimies and of the good that will come to them if they obtaine the victorie But in all these things the iustice and equitie of the cause of war is that which most of all maketh good men courageous who otherwise neuer ought to fight We may read a million of goodly Orations made in time of warre set forth in one volume with which euery wise and prudent Captaine may helpe himselfe according as occasion is offred Now if that ancient order discipline of which we haue hitherto discoursed and which may be learned more at large in their excellent writings were renued imitated by our armies as the late vse and practise of Armes exercised at this day is apt and fit for the same being more terrible than that of the Ancients who had no gun-powder no doubt but great obedience of souldiors towards their Captaines would arise of it whereas now a daies in steede of commanding they haue nothing left but an humble request to be vsed towards their souldiours who neuertheles turne it into contempt and want of courage But if true obedience were ioined with good order the hope of prosperous successe in our enterprises would be farre greater Nowe when our affaires succeede happily so that wee haue our enimies at aduantage or haue gotten some victorie wee must beware least insolencie blind vs in such sort that trusting to our good happe we goe beyond our bounds and loose the occasion of a certaine and sure benefite through hope of some greater good as yet vncertaine Hannibal after the discomfiture of the Romanes at Cannas sent men to Carthage to carie newes of his victorie and withall to demand a newe supplie Whereupon the Senate was long in deliberating what was to be doone Hannon a prudent old man was of opinion that they were to vse the victorie wisely and to make peace with the Romanes which they might obtain of them with honest conditions and not to expect the hazard of another battell He said that the Carthaginians ought to bee satisfied with this declaration alreadie made to the Romanes that they were such men as could stand against them and therfore seeing they had woonne one victorie of them they should not venture the losse of it in hope of a greater This prudent counsell was not followed although afterwarde the Senate did acknowledge it for the best when that occasion was lost Alexander the Great had already conquered all the East when the Common-wealth of Tyrus being great and mightie bicause the Citie was situated in the water as Venice is and astonished at the greatnes fame of that Monarches power sent their Embassadors vnto him to offer what obedience subiection he would require vpon condition that neither he nor his men would enter into the Citie Alexander disdaining that one citie would shut their gates against him to whō the whole world was open sent them backe again without accepting their offer went thither to pitch his Campe against it After he had continued the siege 4. moneths he thought with himself that one onely Towne would shorten his glorie more than all his other conquests had done before wherupon he purposed to try an agreement by offering that vnto them which thēselues had required before But then the Tyrians were waxen so lustie and bold that they did not only refuse his proffers but also executed as many as came to conclude with them Whereupon Alexander being mooued with indignation caused an assault to be made with such heate and violence that he tooke and sacked the towne put some of the Inhabitants to the edge of the swoord and made the residue seruants and slaues Agreement and composition is alwaies to be preferred before continuance of warre And howsoeuer a man may seeme to be assured and as it were certaine of the victorie yet ought he to doubt the vncertaintie of humane things That courageous and valiant Hannibal being called out of Italy by his Countriemen to succour them against the Romaines by whome they were besieged when his armie was yet whole demanded peace of them before he would enter into battel bicause he saw that if he lost it he brought his Countrie into bondage What then ought another to do that hath lesse vertue and experience than he But men fall into the error of vnmeasurable hope vpon which staying them selues without further consideration they are ouerthrowne Sometimes when we contemne our enimie too much and bring him into a desperat estate we make him more venturous to vndertake and violent to execute any dangerous matter Despaire said Tubero is the last but the strongest assault and a most inuincible tower For this cause the ancient Romane Captaines were very diligent and carefull to lay all kind of necessitie to fight vpon their men and to take it from their enimies by opening vnto them passages to escape which they might haue shut vp against them K. Iohn bicause he would not make peace with the English host which desired to escape onely with life was taken and caried prisoner into England and his armie consisting of fortie or fiftie thousand men was discomfited by ten thousand Englishmen some say more some lesse Gaston de Foix hauing woonne the battell at Rauenna and following after a squadron of Spaniards that fled lost his life and made all that a praie vnto the enimie which he had conquered before in Italy Ancient histories are full of such examples and namely of small armies that ouercame those that were great and mightie Darius against Alexander Pompey against Casar Hannibal against Scipio Marcus Antonius against Augustus Mithridates against Sylla had greater forces without comparison than their enimies Therefore good Traian said that to accept of warre to gather a great number of men to put them in order to giue battell appertaineth to men but to giue victorie was the worke of God onely so that great armies preuaile but litle against the wrath of the Highest If
they are to the great preiudice of the whole Common-wealth We are therefore to wish that all valuing and sale of offices especially of iudgement and iustice may be abolished and disanulled that all meanes of fauor and ambition may be taken away that the ancient and happie ordinances of our kings may be restored especially that decree of S. Lewes the king whereby he enacted that all publike offices should be bestowed vpon the election of three persons chosen by the Officers and Citizens of those places to one of which so elected the king was to giue freely without monie the office then void This holie ordinance hath since that time beene often renued by king Phillip the Faire Charles the Wise Charles the 7. Lewes the 11. and Charles the ninth that dead is when his Estates were held at Orleans So that if the King and his Councell would aduisedly consider of these things in the establishing of Iudges and Magistrates in his kingdome and would strengthen them in the execution of their iudgements the obedience of his subiects would be greater and the foundation of all good order and policie more sure Of Seditions Chap. 63. ARAM. AS it is necessarie that all things which haue a beginning should end which encrease should diminish and waxe olde some sooner others later according to the disposition of that matter whereof they are compounded and through the influence of the heauenlie bodies from which nature woorking in them by hir author this continuall and mutuall succession of generation and corruption proceedeth so are publike estates first instituted encreased maintained lessened changed destroied turned returned one frō another by the disposition of God Those that are best grounded in religion and iustice haue their power most assured and are of longest continuance but none are perpetuall although their policie and manner of gouernment be neuer so good For we see them al corrupt in processe of time and in the end perish through their own vices that follow and accompanie them being first mooued and stirred vp by nothing so much as by sedition and ciuill warre This bringeth to light all euill that lurketh in those members of the politike body that are most pernitious vntill the infection be wholy spread and hath taken hold of the noblest parts thereof whereby it is brought to extreame miserie without hope of remedie Nowe although euery one of vs haue sufficient feeling heereof in himselfe by his owne harme yet we may know it better by taking occasion vpon this subiect to discourse of the nature of seditions of their common effects that we may haue them in greater detestation and bring euery one of vs his hart and mind to helpe this Estate if there remaine neuer so little shewe or meanes whereby the subuersion thereof may yet be kept backe But I leaue the discourse of this matter to you my Companions ACHITOB. All sedition is euill and pernitious although it seemeth to haue a good and honest cause For it were better for him that is author of sedition to suffer any losse or iniurie than to be the occasion of so great an euill as to raise ciuill warre in his countrie ASER. Nature saith Empedocles vseth no other meanes to destroy and to ouerthrow hir creatures than discord and disiunction and sedition as Thucydides saith comprehendeth in it all kind of euils Let vs then heare AMANA who will prooue this sufficiently vnto vs. AMANA If we consider how God minding to punish Adam for his ingratitude and disobedience made his owne members rebell against the spirite vnto which they obeied before whereby he became captiue vnder the lawe of sinne no doubt but we may say that after the same manner he chastiseth Kings Princes and Heads of Common-wealths that haue no care to obey his commandements and to cause others to keepe them by the rebellion of their owne subiects not without great danger of depriuation from all authoritie by them and of receiuing the law at their hands to whome they should giue it as it hath beene seene practised in many Estates and gouernments Religion and the loue of God bringeth with it all vnion and concord preserueth Kingdomes and Monarchies in their integritie and is the nursing mother of peace and amitie amongst them But the contempt of religion bringeth discord and confusion ouerturneth all order treadeth vertue vnder foote giueth authority to vice and soweth quarrels and dissentions amongst men from whence seditions and priuate murders proceed and in the end ciuill and open wars which are as flaming fires to take hold of and to consume most flourishing Estates For without doubt if men had in them the true loue and feare of God which cannot be without the loue of our neighbour no such effects would euer proceed from their works and actions Politicks haue labored infinite waies to maintaine the people in peace and to cause ciuill iustice to flourish They haue made many Lawes and Edicts many Statutes appointed many punishments to bridle the boldnes of seditious fellowes to represse extorsions wrongs and murders but bicause they built without a foundation that is without the feare of God all their labour taken therein was fruitles It is the feare of God onely that causeth swords to be broken and turned into mattocks and speares into siethes as Isaias and Micah speake that is to say which breedeth humanitie and gentlenes mollifieth mens harts and causeth them to suffer much to auoide strife and debate in a word which is able to vnite in one with vs most strange and barbarous nations Besides it is the profession of godlines to suffer and not to offer violence neither can it bring foorth euill effects contrarie to their cause This deserueth to be handled at large but our present subiect leadeth vs to discourse of the nature of seditions and to set before our eies the euils that proceede thereof both by reasons and examples referring the consideration of their causes vnto some other time heereafter Sedition then being taken generally is nothing else but ciuill warre so hurtfull to all Estates and Monarchies that it is the seede of all kinde of euils in them euen of those that are most execrable It engendreth and nourisheth want of reuerence towards God disobedience to Magistrates corruption of manners change of lawes contempt of iustice and base estimation of learning and sciences It causeth horrible reuenging forgetfulnes of consanguinitie parentage friendship extorsions violence robberies wasting of countries sacking of townes burning of buildings confiscations flights banishments cruell proscriptions sauage murders alterations and ouerthrowes of Policies with other infinite excesses and intollerable miseries pitifull to behold and sorrowfull to rehearse Sedition armeth the father against the son the brother against the brother kinsman against kinsman men of the same nation prouince and citie one against another Heerupon the fields which before were fertile are left vntilled sumptuous and rich houses
remaine emptie forsaken famous and wealthie townes stand desolate by reason of the losse of their ancient ornaments I meane their priuate and publike buildings and their notable Inhabitants and Citizens And which is woorst of all no man will acknowledge a Soueraigne but euery Prouince will seeke to withdraw it selfe and to be made a Canton In the end the bodie thus dismembred and the parts thereof infected with the same poison of discord destroy themselues that the prophesie of Iesus Christ who is the truth it selfe might be fulfilled where he saith That euery kingdome diuided in it selfe shall be desolate Therefore Dauid did rather chuse a plague amongest his subiects than warre or tumults And Pythagoras sayde that three thinges were by all meanes to be remooued a disease from the bodie ignorance from the soule and sedition from the Citie Plato also affirmeth that no euill is woorse in a Citie than that which diuideth it and of one maketh it two and that nothing is better than that thing which tieth and vniteth it togither Whereupon he wished that there might be a communion not onely of all goods but also of that which nature hath appropriated to euery one as of eies eares and hands to the end that whosoeuer saw heard or did any thing he might imploy all to common profite and vse thereby to maintaine better the mutuall loue of Citizens who hauing nothing priuate would by this meanes be alwaies touched with the same ioy and griefe praising and disliking all iointly togither the same things There are two sorts of warre mentioned also by Plato who calleth the one sedition which is the woorst and the other which is more gentle is that against strangers Nestor a wise and prudent counsellour among the Grecians said in a Councell as Homer reporteth that he which loueth ciuill war is a most wretched cruell and detestable man and vnwoorthy to liue And truly if we looke to the examples of those fruits which haue alwaies proceeded of ciuill wars we shall see that they haue beene guided after a most cruel and horrible kind of hostilitie and that their issue hath beene the losse and ouerthrow of many flourishing Common-wealths Thucydides speaking of the generall dissention amongst the Grecians for diuersity of gouernments which they sought to bring in amongst themselues some desiring to be gouerned in a Democraty others is an Oligarchy rehearseth incredible euils which arose of that warre As soone saith he as any insolencie was knowne to be committed in one place others were encouraged to do woorse to enterprise some new thing and to shewe that they were more diligent than others or more insolent and hot in reuenging themselues They disguised all the euils which they committed with commendable titles calling rashnes Magnanimitie and modestie Basenes of mind head-long indignation Manlines and Hardines prudent counsell and deliberation Coloured back-sliding Whereby it came to passe that whosoeuer alwaies shewed himselfe furious was accounted a loial friend and he that gain-said was suspected If any one of the contrarie faction gaue any good and honest counsell it was not accepted but if they could withstand it by any notorious deed they had rather be reuenged so then they would not giue occasion to others to offer the like wrong to them When any agreement was made and confirmed with a solemne othe it lasted vntil one of the parties grew to be the stronger that he might breake and violate the same and by extreme wickednes ouercome the other which proceeded of couetousnes and desire of other mens goods Hereupon those factions and part-takings were kindled which procured infinite euils to the whole countrey of Graecia wherein there was no quietnesse vntill it was quite ouerthrowen by seditions and ciuill warres This is that which Demades obiected to the Athenians by way of reproche that they neuer intreated of peace but in mournyng gownes namely after they had lost many of their kinsfolkes and friends in battels and skirmishes Agesilaus king of Lacedemonia bewailed this miserie when he sawe such cruell warres betweene the Athenians and Lacedemonians people of one countrey and although he had wonne a great battell neere vnto Corinth with great losse to his enimies and small hurt to his owne men yet not reioicing but rather being very sorowfull he vttered these words with a loud voyce O poore Graecia how miserable art thou to slay with thine owne hands so many of thy valiaunt men as would haue sufficed to discomfite in one battell all the Barbarians ioyned togither Histories tell vs that the Romanes came to that great Empire more by dissentions and ciuill warres which they sowed amongst their neighbors than by force of armes For after they had kindled the fire in one nation they maintained one side a certaine time vntill in the end they ouerwhelmed both the one and the other Thus they deceiued the Carthaginians the Asians the Gaules and Graecia Onely England was not quite subdued bicause it knew their practises and turned all domesticall choler against the enemie when the danger was common Traian the emperour writing to the Senate of Rome amongst other things sent these wordes I recommend vnto you aboue all things friendship and brotherhood among your selues bicause ye know that in great Common-wealths home-warres are more hurtfull than those that are made against strangers For if kinsmen and neighbours had neuer begun to hate one another to war one vpon another Demetrius had neuer ouerthrowen Rhodes nor Alexander Tyrus nor Marcellus Syracusa nor Scipio Numantium And in deed the Romane Empire fell from hir greatnesse by the same meanes of ciuill warre which they had long time nourished among others Yea it is certaine that in no place part-takings full of all kind of crueltie were so vsuall and so long time practised or factions and seditions were more cruell than in Rome The first occasion thereof was their gouernement wherein the people alwayes set themselues against the Senate and the Nobilitie the Senate seeking to rule without measure and the people to encrease their libertie During these dissentions it came to passe that at one time foure thousand and fiue hundreth slaues and banished men inuaded the Capitoll and wanted litle of making themselues lords of Rome Appian hath written at large of their seditions and partialities and saith that through ambition and couetousnes one side daily sought to diminish the authoritie of the other He saith that Martius Coriolanus being vpon this occasion and in these dissentions driuen out of the citie contrary to right and reason went to the Volsci and warred on their side against his countrey being the first banished person that tooke armes against Rome And in deed neither in the councell nor in the citie there was no sword drawen nor man slaine in ciuil sedition vntill Tyberius Gracchus fauouring the people making lawes in their behalf was killed and many others that were