Of the Harmonie and agreement that ought to be in the dissimilitude or vnlike callings of subiects by reason of the duty and office of euery estate 743 67 Of Peace and of Warre 754 68 Of the ancient Discipline and order of Warre 764 69 Of the office and duty of a Generall 772 70 Of the choise of Souldiors of the maner how to exhort them to fight and how victory is to be vsed 783 71 Of a happie Life 794 72 Of Death 804 THE FIRST DAIES WORKE of this Academie with the cause of their assemblie WHen GOD by his infinite and vnspeakable goodnes beholding with a fatherly bountifull and pitifull eie our poore France which most cruel against it selfe seemed to run amain most furiously to throw it self headlong into the center of some bottomlesse gulfe had sent from heauen the wished-for newes of peace in the midst of ciuill and domesticall armies which a man might say were of purpose prepared for the finall ouerthrow of this French Monarchie that hath florished so long time sparing by his heauenlie grace and fauor and that in despite of them the bloud of those men who held foorth their right hand to cut off the left among manie who touched with the loue of their countrie and with true zeale to pietie reioiced at this so well liking and healthfull newes fower yong gentlemen of Aniou who came togither to serue their Prince and to sacrifice their liues if need required for the welfare and safetie of the Common wealth were none of the last that sought out one another and met togither to testifie ech to other as their mutuall kindred and sworne frendship did inuite them the ioy which filled their souls arising of so happie and vnlooked for successe and alteration of affaires to the end also that they might giue glorie and praise to him who for the benefit of his knoweth wel how to take order euen in those things which according to the iudgement of men are desperate and past recouery And that which gaue them greater occasion to reioice for this peace and so diligently to seeke out one another was this bicause contratie to hope they saw the meanes offered them to returne home and to continue an exercise that greatly pleased them which not long before the last fal of France into troubles they had happily begun Now to let you readers vnderstand what this exercise was these fower gentlemen being of kin and neere neighbors and in a maner of one age were by the care and prudence of their fathers brought vp and nourished togither from their yoong yeeres in the studie of good letters in the house of an ancient wise gentleman of great calling who was the principall stocke and roote of these fruitfull buds This man by reason of his manifold experience and long abode in strange countries knew that the common corruption of French youth of it selfe inclined to pleasure proceeded chiefly from the ouer great licence and excessiue libertie granted vnto them in the Vniuersities of this Realme as well through the fault and negligence of the gouernors and tutors in them as also bicause of the euill gouernment of the townes at this day He knew also that they were no lesse abused who thinking to auoide this dangerous downe-fall at home did send their children to studie abroad amongst strangers where the traffike and merchandise of mischiefs is more common and easie to be made bicause they feare not that newes will presently or so speedily be caried to their parents as if they were neere vnto them Oh how well woorthie of eternall praise is the prudence of this gentleman bringing to my remembrance Eteocles one of the most noble Ephories of Lacedemonia who freely answered Antipater asking fiftie pledges that he would not giue him children least if they were brought vp farre from their fathers they should change the ancient custome of liuing vsed in their owne countrie and become vicious but of olde men and women he would giue him double the number if he would haue them Wherevpon being threatened by this king if he speedily sent him not of the youth we care not quoth he for threatenings For if thou command vs to do things that are more greeuous than death we will rather choose death so carefull were the men of old time that the dressing and trimming of these yoong plants should not be out of their presence But let vs go on with our matter This good and notable old man hauing spent the greater part of his yeeres in the seruice of two kings and of his country and for many good causes withdrawen himselfe to his house thought that to content his mind which alwaies delighted in honest and vertuous things he could not bring greater profit to the Monarchie of France than to lay open a way and meane to preserue and keepe youth from such a pernicious and cancred corruption by offering himselfe for example to all fathers and shewing them the way to haue a more carefull eie in the instruction of their children and not so lightly to commit them to the discipline of vices by the hands of mercenarie and hired strangers And this was begun vpon these fower yoong gentlemen whom he tooke to his owne house by the consent of their parents offering himselfe to the vttermost of his power to helpe their gentle nature which appeered in them woorthie their ancestors by training it vp first in the feare of God as being the beginning of al wisedome secondly in humane learning and knowledge which are necessarie helps to liue well and happily to the benefit of the societie of men To this end after that he himselfe had shewed them the first grounds of true wisedome and of al things necessarie for their saluation according to the measure of grace giuen him from aboue and as their age could conceiue them he labored earnestly to haue in his house some man of great learning and wel reported of for his good life and conuersation vnto whom he committed the instruction of this yoong Nobilitie Who behaued himselfe so wel in his charge that not greatly staying himselfe in the long degrees of learning which being ordinarie and vsuall in our French Colledges are often more tedious besides losse of time than profitable to youth after he had indifferently taught his schollers the Latine toong and some smackering of the Greeke he propounded for the chiefe part and portion of their studies the morall philosophie of aucient Sages and wise men togither with the vnderstanding searching out of histories which are the light of life therein following the intent and will both of him that set him on worke and also of the parents of this Nobilitie who desired to see their children not great Orators suttle Logitians learned Lawiers or curious Mathematicians but onely sufficiently taught in the doctrine of good liuing following the traces and steps of vertue by the knowledge of things past from the first ages vntill this present that they
die with him to vexe himselfe through impatiencie what meanest thou poore man quoth he to him doest thou not thinke thy selfe happie that thou maist die with Phocion The feare and appreheusion of death doth astonish as we commonly say the stoutest but not the most vertuous For they know as Plautus saith that he dieth not who for vertues sake is put to death Callicratides Generall of the Lacedemonians being readie to giue battell to his enimies the soothsaier after sacrifice done to the gods said vnto him that the intrals of the sacrifices promised victorie to the armie but death to the captaine Whereunto he answered as one without all feare although he beleeued it as an oracle from heauen Sparta consisteth not in one man For when I shal be dead my countrie shall be nothing lessened but if I recule now and draw backe the reputation thereof will be diminished Whereupon substituting in his place Cleander as successor in his office he gaue battell wherein it happened vnto him as the soothsaier had told him If we desire infinite such examples histories are ful of them euen of those who loued rather to kill themselues which a Christian neuer ought to do but onely to suffer death patiently if it be offered vnto him than to commit any thing vnwoorthie their vertue Themistocles being vniustly banished from Athens retired to the king of Persia whose great fauour and benefits receiued caused to say to his children We had beene vndone if we had not beene vndone as also to promise that he would imploy himselfe in his seruice Notwithstanding when he saw the war begun againe betweene this king and the Athenians wherein he was offered a great charge he chose rather to hasten his death by a poison which he tooke than to seeme to be pricked or prouoked with malice against his vngratefull countrie-men least thereby he should obscure and blot the glorie of so many goodly exploites triumphes and victories which he had obtained Nowe if death can not stoppe the course of vertue how much lesse can any other weaker accident do it Old-age which diminisheth and consumeth all the strength of the bodie coulde not weaken the great vertue of Agesilaus king of Lacedemonia who being fower-score yeeres of age and seeing the glorie of his countrie brought to nothing by that victorie which the Thebanes had obtained against him withdrewe himselfe into the seruice of a king of Egypt and tooke the charge of a captaine vnder him that through the good seruice he should do him he might deserue whereof he assured himselfe to haue succour of him for his owne countrey affaires Enuie saith Thucidides is heard to be ouercome and followeth great estates and potentates Honour glorie and riches are but firebrandes to kindle it Notwithstanding the excellencie of vertue oftentimes triumpheth ouer it so that the enuious are constrained to speake well of vertuous men We see then cleerely and haue better experience thereof in our selues if we be decked with vertue that she is of an inuincible force and that all things are tamed by hir For who can doubt that through hir great empires monarchies commonwealths estats and cities haue much more florished than through force and might of armes The sequele of our discourses shall furnish vs with examples hereof Now to conclude our present matter knowing that vertue deserueth so great praise in regarde of hir fruits and of hir woonderfull great effects we say that she is the onely good both for honestie profite and pleasure between which there is such a coniunction that they cannot be seperated one from another as hereafter we may intreat more at large so that the seuering of these three things to attribute them to other earthly and perishing goods is the fountaine of all vice deceit and mischiefe If then trouble losse hazard or danger are to be found in the practise and exercise of this holie and sacred vertue as euen the greatest worldly happines is counterpoised with euill and difficultie ought we not to dispise all such things yea death it selfe for that happie recompence which is assured vnto vs not onely of immortall glorie and praise which the men of old time promised to themselues but also of life euerlasting whereof the most of them were ignorant Let vs not be like to a little child for he that is a child in minde differeth nothing from a childe in age who seeing a trifle wherewith he plaieth taken out of his hand casteth away for anger that which he holdeth in his other hand although it be some daintie thing and good to eate But let vs with feruent zeale and burning affection alwaies imbrace this so precious and chaste beautie I meane vertue which alone filleth the life of man with true sound and perfect contentation Let all things come behinde vertue after the example of so many excellent and ancient personages who ought to make vs blush for shame when we consider that the care of earthly goods hath the first place amongst vs. Anacharsis a Barbarian being led with the onely loue of vertue left the kingdome of Scythia to his yoonger brother went into Graecia where he profited so well with Solon that he deserued to be placed in the number of the seauen Sages Now if three things after we haue asked them of him who only can and will giue them vnto vs meete togither in vs namely Nature Reason and Vse we may by them being directed illuminated and guided by the spirit of God attaine to the top of humane perfection in this rich vertue which being thus grounded like to a strong and liuely plant will take sure footing and roote within vs. If she meet with a good and well disposed nature that is able to endure labor that is tilled by reason with the precepts of philosophie whereby it is made firme mightie and fruitfull then vse and exercise will bring foorth the fruits thereof as well for our owne as for the common profit of men Of Vice Chap. 6. ACHITOB AS he that is ignorant of goodnes cannot loue it or boast except it be falsly that he seeketh after it and if he should find it yet he could not acknowledge it or reape any profit thereby so he that knoweth not euill can neuer hate it sufficiently much lesse shun it or keepe himselfe from falling into the snares and ambushes thereof where it lieth in continuall watch to surprise and ouertake men Ye shall haue very few but say that they are enimies to euill and that they labour to driue it as far from them as they can But what As they neuer knew what goodnes meant so they knowe as little of the contrarie Now hauing by our last speech declared sufficiently that vertue is the onely true good of the soule it is out of question that vice which is altogither contrarie vnto it is the onely euill thereof and the fountaine of al the miseries of man
imagined For nothing marreth more the behauior simplicitie and natural goodnes of any people than this bicause they soone receiue into their soules a liuely impression of that dissolutenes and villanie which they see and heare when it is ioyned with words accents gestures motions actions wherewith players and iuglers know how to inrich by all kind of artificiall sleights the filthiest and most dishonest matters which commonly they make choice of And to speake freely in few wordes we may truely say that the Theater of players is a schoole of all vnchastnes vncleannes whoredom craft subtletie and wickednes Now let vs speake of those that propound as we said vnto themselves the vainglory of outward shew among the best and men of great calling through friuolous vnprofitable and superfluous expences as in sumptuous and costly apparel precious and rich moueables goodly furniture and trapping of horses great traine of seruing men dogs birds other vanities gifts and presents sent to such as are vnwoorthie thereby to obtaine the good will of them that are most wicked in authoritie to the end to prepare a way vnto high callings and to preferments vnto offices Besides the wasting of their goods hereupon to their shame and confusion which they should imploy vpon charitable works they spend many times other mens goods euen the substance of the poore which they craftily get by vnlawfull meanes This is that which at length as Crates the Philosopher said very well stirreth vp ciuill warres seditions and tyrannies within cities to the end that such voluptuous men and ambitious of vaine glorie fishing in a troubled water may haue wherewith to maintaine their foolish expences and so come to the ende of their platformes Heerof we haue many examples in the ciuil wars amongst the Romanes as namely vnder Cinna Carbo Marius and Sylla Likewise in the conspiracie of Catiline his complices who being of the chiefe families in Rome and perceiuing themselues to be brought to the estate of bankrupts as we commonly say sought by all meanes to prosecute their first deliberation which was alwaies to seeme great and mightie Thus dealt Caesar in procuring to his countrey that ciuill warre which he made against Pompey after he had indebted himselfe in seuen hundred and fiftie thousand crownes to get the fauor and good liking of the people This is that which Heraclitus meant to teach his countreymen when after a sedition appeased and quieted being asked what waie were best to be taken that the like should not fall out againe he went vp into that place from whence orations were made to the people there in steed of speaking began to eate a morsell of browne bread and to drinke a glasse of water Which being done he came downe againe and spake neuer a word Heerby he would signifie that vntill daintines of fare were banished the citie and immoderate expences cut off and sobrietie and modesty brought in their place they should neuer be without sedition If this counsell were euer requisite in a Monarchie it is certainly most necessarie at this present for ours wherein all kind of supersluitie riot and weltring in pleasures curiositie in apparell tapistrie and pictures vessels perfumes and painting of faces aboundeth in greater measure than heertofore it did amongst the Persians which was the cause of their finall subuersion and of Alexanders greatnes who subdued them That which for the space of fiue hundred yeeres and more maintained the Lacedemonian estate being the chiefest in Grecia for glory and goodnes of gouernment was the cutting off and abolishing of all superfluitie in diet apparel moueables and of all strang wares which Lycurgus banished Whereby also forraine merchants the cause of corruption banished themselues as they that seeke not after others but for gaine by selling their nouelties very deere vnto them Neither did the Romane Commonwealth florish more at any time than when those men that caried about them perfumes and sweetesmels and those women that were found swilling like drunkards were corrected with the same punishment This caused Cato being the Censurer of the election of two captaines that one of them might be sent as General of the Pannonian warre to say with a loud voice that he would dismisse Publius his Allie bicause he neuer saw him returne wounded from the war but had seene him walke vp and downe the citie of Rome perfumed What would he haue said of our Courtiers so finely curled ruft and perfumed The Kings and Magistrats of those so happie times were the principall obseruers of their owne lawes and edicts reforming themselues before all others and liuing so austerely that their example constrained their subiects more to follow them than all the punishments which they could haue deuised to propound vnto them We haue a notable testimonie heereof in Agis king of Sparta who in his returne from the warre wherein he had ouercome the Athenians being desirous to sup priuately with his wife sent into the kitchen that was appointed for his band and company for they liued all in common being seuered into quarters to haue his portion But this was denied him and the next morning for this fact he was fined by the Ephories who were ioined in soueraigne authoritie with the kings for the maintenance of lawes and of iustice in which sentence and iudgement of theirs he willingly rested But to returne to our matter how ought we to blush for our riot and excesse in apparell which we maintaine with such glorie What follie is it to imploy the industrie of the soule ordained for heauenlie things in trimming decking and gilding hir enimie hir prison and if I may so speake hir poison the bodie Excesse of apparell saith Erasmus is an argument of the incontinencie of the soule and rather whetteth the eies of the beholders thereof to wicked desires than to any honest opinion and conceite Decke not thy house saith Epictetus with tables and pictures but paint it with temperance For the one is to feede the eies vainely but the other is an eternall ornament and such a one as can neuer be defaced If we make account of things of small importance we despise those that are of great weight but in not caring at all for little things we make our selues woorthie of great admiration That great Monarke Augustus Caesar ware no other garments than such as his wife and daughters made and those very modest Agesilaus king of Lacedemonia neuer had but one kind of garment for winter and sommer Epaminondas Generall Captaine of the Thebanes was contented with one onely gowne al the yeere long Further if we looke vnto their simplicitie and modestie in their traine and followers truely it was woorthie of reuerence being without pride pompe or superfluous magnificence Scipio Africanus that great Captaine going as delegate into Asia to compound and end certaine contentions that were betweene the kings of that countrey was accompanied but
fidelitie and many other good deedes wherof many men taste and which procure to a man greater good will of euery one are proper to mildnes and meekenes called by an ancient man the characters of an holie soule which neuer suffer innocencie to be oppressed as Chilo said which lead noble harts slowly to the feasts of their friends but speedily to the succouring of them in their calamities This vertue of meekenes is truly most necessarie for a valiant man For without it he should be in danger to commit some actions which might be iudged cruell And seeing that a noble minded man commeth neere to the diuine nature he must also resemble it as much as may be in gentlenes and clemencie which adorneth and honoreth those especially that are lift vp in dignitie and haue power to correct others True it is also that they are deceiued that commend and as it were adore the bounty of great men and Magistrats who of a certain simplicity without prudence shew themselues gratious gentle and courteous towards all men Which is no lesse pernitious to an Estate than is the seueritie and crueltie of others For of this ouer-great lenitie among many other inconueniences an impunitie of the wicked is bred and the sufferance of one fault quickly draweth on another Therefore the mildnes of those that haue power and authoritie ought to be accompanied with seueritie their clemencie mingled with rigour and their facilitie with austeritie This is that which Plato learnedly teacheth vs saying that the noble and strong man must be courageous and gratious that he may both chastice the wicked and also pardon when time requireth And as for those offences which may be healed he must thinke that no man is willingly vniust Therefore Cicero saith that it is the property of a noble minded man simply to punish those that are most in fault the authors of euill but to saue the multitude And thus the rigour of discipline directing meekenes and meekenes decking rigour the one will set foorth and commend the other so that neither rigour shall be rigorous nor gentlenes dissolute By the learned sentences of these Philosophers it is very euident that the vertue of meekenes is not onely a part of Fortitude which can not be perfect without it but hath also some particular coniunction with all the other vertues yea is as it were the seede of them and induceth men to practise all dutie towards their neighbours But bicause the order of our discourses wil offer vs matter and occasion to intreat particularly heereafter aswell of iustice and of reuenge of wrongs and ininries which a man receiueth of his enemy as also of other vertues heere briefly mentioned we will now come to certaine notable examples of meekenes gentlenes mildnes and goodnes of nature The first that commeth to my remembrance is Philip king of Macedonia who giueth place to none in the perfection of these gifts and graces When it was told this good Prince that one Nicanor did openly speake ill of his maiestie his counsellors being of opinion that he was to be punished with death I suppose quoth he to them that he is a good man It were better to search whether the fault commeth not from vs. And after he vnderstood that the said Nicanor was a needy fellow and complained that the king neuer succoured him in his necessity he sent him a rich present Whereupon afterward it was told Philip that this Nicanor went vp and downe speaking much good of him I see well said he then to his Councellors that I am a better Phisition for backbiting than you are and that it is in my power to cause either good or euill to be spoken of me The good disposition of Antigonus king of Macedonia commeth in here not vnfitly vpon the like occasion For hearing certaine souldiers speake ill of him hard by his tent who thought not that the king could ouerheare them he shewed himselfe vttering these onelie words without farther hurting of them Good Lord could you not go further off to speake ill of me And to say truth such gifts and graces become a noble Prince very well yea he cannot more woorthily and more beseeming himselfe giue place to any wrongs than to those that are done to his owne person As contrariwise those men are vnwoorthie their scepters who cruelly reuenge their owne iniuries pardon such as are done to others yea such faults as are directly against the honor of God A Prince wel instructed in vertue saith Xenophon in his Cyropaedia ought so to behaue himselfe towards his enemie as to thinke consider that at some time or other he may be his friend Was there euer Monarch more feared of his enemies than Alexander the Great inuincible in all things he tooke in hand insomuch that he would not onely force al humane powers but also times places themselues and yet who hath left greater proofes of meekenes and curtesie than he As he was on his voyage vndertaken for the conquest of the Indians Taxiles a king of those countries came desired him that they might not warre one against another If thou said this king vnto him art lesse than I receiue benefits if greater I will take them of thee Alexander greatly admiring and commending the grauitie and courteous speech of this Indian answered thus At the least we must fight and contend for this namely whether of vs twaine shall be most beneficiall to his Companion so loath was this noble Monarch to giue place to another in goodnes mildnes and courtesie Heereof he gaue a great argument after he had vanquished Porus a very valiant Prince of whome demanding how he would be intertained of him this king answered Royally Neither would he giue him any other answer albeit Alexender vrged him thereunto For he said that all was contained vnder that word As in deede the Monarch shewed that he was nothing ignorant thereof For he did not onely restore his kingdome vnto him but inlarged it also wherein he surmounted his victorie and procured to himselfe as much renowne by his clemency as by his valure Had he euer any greater enemie than Darius vanquished and subdued by him And yet when he saw himselfe letted from vsing towards him any bountie worthy his greatnes bicause Bessus one of his captains had slaine him he was so displeased therwith that he caused the murderer to be punished albeit he was one of his familiar friēds with a most cruel death causing him to be torne asunder with two great trees bowed down by main strength one against another vnto each of which a part of Bessus his body was fastened Then the trees beyng suffered to returne backe again to their first nature with their vehement force rent asunder the body of this poore and miserable wretch Iulius Caesar was of such a curteous disposition that hauing conquered Pompey and all his enemies he wrote to his friends
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
bicause it nourished the Iewish Church in the reuerence of God and yet was distinct from true pietie in like maner albeit their Iudiciall law tended to no other ende than to the preseruation of the selfe same charitie that is commanded in the Morall law yet it had a distinct propertie which was not expresly declared in the commandement of charitie As therefore the ceremonies were abrogated and true religion and pietie I meane Christian substituted in place of the Iudaicll law so the Iudiciarie lawes were cancelled abolished without violating in any sort the dutie of charitie So that all nations haue libertie to make for themselues such lawes as they shall thinke expedient for them called of vs ciuill lawes which must be squared according to the eternall rule of charitie and differing onely in forme they must all haue one end commanding alwaies honest vertuous things and contrariwise forbidding those that are dishonest and vitious Nowe of these ciuill lawes there are two chiefe kindes amongst vs The first consisteth in lawes that are ratified established vpon which euery Monarchie and publike gouernment is first grounded and hath his beginning which ought not in any wise to be infringed or changed such are those which we call the lawes of the French-men namely the Salicke law established by Pharamond who was the first that tooke vpon him the name of king ouer them Such lawes also are annexed and vnited to the crowne and therefore the Prince cannot so abrogate them but that his successor may disanull whatsoeuer he hath done in preiudice of them much lesse are subiects permitted to attempt any such matter Yea all those that go about it seeke nothing but to mooue sedition in the estate and to cause subiects to reuolt from their superiours As for the other ciuill lawes as constitutions ordinaunces edicts and customes which haue beene made and receiued according to the condition and circumstaunce of times and places they are in the power of the soueraigne Prince to change and to correct them as occasion shall serue And yet in the general and particular customes of this Realme none haue beene commonly chaunged but after the lawefull assemblie of the three generall Estates of France or else of the particular Estates of euery Prouince not as if the king were necessarily bound to stand to their aduice or might not do contrary to that which they demand if naturall reason and iustice stand with his will And then whatsoeuer it pleaseth him to like or dislike to command or forbid is held for a law an edict and decree and euery subiect is bound to obey it But to speake generally of the lawes of an Estate the changing and gain-saying of them is a very pernitious plague in euery Common-wealth This ancient rule and Maxime of wise Politicks is well woorth the marking That nothing is to be changed in the lawes of a Common-wealth which hath a long time preserued it selfe in good estate what apparant profite soeuer a man may pretend And for this cause in the popular gouernment of the Romanes vnder Publius Philo the Dictator that Athenian edict was receiued and past by force of lawe whereby it was not lawfull for any to present a request to the people without the aduice of the Senate But there was a farre more strict and seuere decree amongest the Locrians For it was to this effect as Demosthenes rehearseth it that euery Citizen that was desirous to bring in a newe lawe should come and declare it publikely before the people with a halter about his necke to the end that if his newe lawe was not thought meete to be receiued and very profitable for the Common-wealth he might presently be strangled as a woorthie reward for his rashnes In euery societie sayth Aristotle that is well instituted and ordained by lawes great care is to be taken that no part of the lawe although neuer so little be diminished or changed yea most heede is to be had of that which is done by little and little For if resistance be not then made it falleth out in the Common-wealth as in the diseased bodie of a man wherein the disease if speedie remedie be not vsed in the beginning thereof increaseth by little and little and that which might easily haue beene cured through negligence is made incurable Men neuer beginne sayed Paulus Aemilius the Romane Consul to alter and chang the estate of a Common-wealth by making their first entrance with some notorious resisting of the lawes And therefore we must thinke that the preseruation of the principall foundations of a politike Estate is left at randon when men neglect the care of keeping diligentlye the constitutions thereof howe light or of small importance soeuer they seeme to be For seeing the lawe is the sure foundation of euery ciuill societie if that fayle it must needes be that the whole politicall building will fall to ruine Therefore Bias the wise sayd that the Estate of that Common-wealth is happie wherein all the inhabitants feare the lawe as a seuere Tyrant For then whatsoeuer it requireth is vndoubtedly perfourmed After the lawe is once established and approoued saith Isidorus we must not iudge of it but iudge according vnto it That is the beste policie sayde Chilon one of the Sages of Graecia where the people hearken more to the lawes than to the Oratours This also was the cause that Pausanias the Lacedemonian made this aunswere to one who demaunded of him why it was not lawefull in their countrie to alter any of their auncient lawes The reason is quoth he bicause the lawes must bee Mistresses ouer men and not men Maysters ouer the lawes Moreouer the antiquitie and profite of lawes are so euident that it is needeles to make any long discourse thereof heere Moses was the first lawe-maker of the Hebrewes Mercurius Trismegistus of the Egyptians Phoroneus the Kinge of the Graecians Solon of the Athenians Lycurgus of the Lacedemonians Anacharsis of the Scythians Numa Pompilius of the Romanes Ten notable men were chosen by the Senate and people of Rome to translate and to expound the lawes of the twelue tables We haue already declared how Pharamond made ours The greatest and best part of the lawes of Germanie was established by Charles the great Emperour and king of France And so all regions haue had diuers lawmakers according to the condition and circumstance of time place and countrie True it is that before the publishing of the law of God there was no law-maker of whome we haue any knowledge and surely not so much as one word of a law is to be found in all the works of Homer or Orpheus or of any before Moses But Princes iudged and commanded all thinges by their soueraigne power which kind of gouernment being more tyrannicall than kingly could not be of any continuance or assurance bicause there was no bond to knit the great with
the constitutions of lawes aswell in the gathering of their duties and tributes as in their manner of life They vsed the seruice of Noble mens and of Princes children onely who were of the age of twentie yeeres and were instructed in all sciences The reason whereof was that the king being pricked forward with the sight of thē that were about him might beware how he committed any thing woorthie of reproch And truly there is nothing that corrupteth Princes so much as vitious seruants who seeke to please their sensuall desires and affections When the king arose in the morning he was bound first to take and receiue all the letters and requests that were brought vnto him that answering necessarie matters first all his affaires might be guided by order and reason Then he went to the Temple to offer sacrifice to the gods where the Prelate and chiefe Priest after the sacrifice and praiers were ended rehearsed with a loud voice in the presence of the people what vertues were in the king what reuerence and religion towardes the gods was in him and what clemencie and humanitie towards men Moreouer he told that he was continent iust noble-minded true liberall one that brideled his desires and punished malefactors with a more mild and light punishment than the greatnes of their sinne and offence required rewarding also his subiects with graces gifts that were greater than their deserts This done he exhorted the king to a happie life agreeable to the gods and likewise to good manners by following after honor and vertue and therewithall propounded vnto him certaine examples of the excellent deedes of ancient kings thereby to prouoke him the rather therunto These kings liued with simple meates as with veale birds for all dishes they kept very exactly all the lawes and ordinances of their countrie in euery point of their life which was no lesse directed euen in the least things than the simplest of their subiects And truly so long as the kings of Egypt were such zealous obseruers of their lawes and of iustice raigned peaceably among their subiects they brought many strang nations into their subiection gathered togither infinite riches whereby they adorned their countrie with great buildings and sumptuous works and decked their townes with many gifts and benefits The Barbarian kingdomes were the second kinde of Monarchy namely the ancient Monarchies of the Assyrians Medes and Persians whose Princes vsurped Lordlie rule ouer their goods and persons and gouerned their subiects as a father of a familie doth his slaues Which kind of gouernment sauoureth more of a tyrannie than of a kingdome besides it is directly against the law of nature which keepeth euery one in his libertie and in the possession of his owne goods Notwithstanding when by the law of Arms and of iust warre a Prince is made Lord ouer any people they properly belong to him that conquereth and they that are ouercome are made his slaues by the ancient consent of all nations and this maketh the difference betweene the Lord-like Monarchy and a tyrannic which abuseth free subiects as slaues Of this second kinde of Monarchy was the kingdome of Persia as Plato writeth vnder Cambyses Xerxes and other kings vntill the last Darius For vsurping more absolute authoritie to rule than was conuenient they began to contemne their Vassals and to account of them as of slaues and putting no more confidence in them they intertained into their seruice mercenarie souldiors and strangers whereby they made their owne subiects vnfit for warre and so in the end lost their estate when it seemed to haue attained to the top of worldlie prosperitie Such is the estate of the Turke at this day wherein he is sole Lord commanding ouer his subiects in rigorous manner aswell ouer the Musulmans as Christians and Iewes He vseth in his principall affaires which concerne peace and warre and matters of gouernment the seruice of runnagate slaues whom he placeth in authoritie changeth or deposeth as he thinks good without peril and enuie yea he strangleth them vpon the least suspition or dislike conceiued of them not sparing his owne children and others of his blood if they anger him So did Sultan Solyman deale with Hibrahim Bascha who was almost of equall authoritie with him insomuch that he was there called the Seignour king of the Ianitzaries the Bascha and king of the men of Armes Neuertheles in one night wherin he made him stay sup with him lie in his owne chamber he caused him to be slaine and his bodie to be cast into the sea The morrow after he seazed vpon his goods as confiscate and caried them away and yet no man euer knewe the cause of his death except it were this that he was growne too great and consequently suspected of his maister who was a Tyrant rather than a King Likewise he keepeth in his hands all the Lordships of his kingdome which he distributeth to men of warre who are charged to maintaine a certaine number of men of Armes and of horses according to the rate of their reuenew and when it pleaseth him he taketh them away againe Neither is there any man in all the countries vnder his obedience that possesseth Townes Castles and Villages or dwelleth in strong houses or that dare build higher than one storie or than a Dooue-house The great Knes or Duke of Moscouia exceedeth for seueritie and rigour of commanding all the Monarchs in the world hauing obtained such authoritie ouer his subiects both Ecclesiasticall and secular that he may dispose of their goods and liues at his pleasure so that none dare gainesay him in any thing They confesse publikely that the will of their prince is the will of God and that whatsoeuer he doth is done by the will of God The king of Ethiopia is also a Lordlike Monarch hauing as Paulus Iouius affirmeth 50. kings no lesse subiect vnto him than slaues And Frauncis Aluarez writeth that he hath seene the great Chancellour of that countrie scourged starke naked with other Lords as the very slaues of the prince wherein they thinke themselues greatly honoured The Emperour Charles the fift hauing brought vnder his obedience the kingdome of Peru made himselfe soueraigne Lord thereof in regard of goods which the subiects haue not but as they farme them or for terme of life at the most The third kind of Monarchy whereof the Ancients made mention was that of Lacedemonia wherein the king had not absolute power but in time of warre out of the countrie and a certaine preheminence ouer the sacrifices We made mention of their gouernment before The first kings in Rome were sacrificers also and afterward the emperors called themselues Pontifices that is chiefe bishops and those of Constantinople were consecrated as our kings of Frāce are In like maner the Caliphaes of the Sarasins were kings and chiefe bishops in their religion the
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
Prince whereby it seemeth he thought that there was lesse to do in well ordering ruling and preseruing a great Empire once entirely gotten than in conquering the same And surely to speake truth there is nothing more difficult than to raigne well Moreouer it is better for a Prince to gouerne prudently and to rule according to his estate than to inuade possesse another mans countrie namely if he consider that God being so gratious vnto him as to bring innumerable persons vnder his obedience hath chiefly established him to keepe them in the knowledge and obseruation of true religion to rule them by good lawes to defend them by armes and in all things to be so carefull of their good that they may esteeme of him as of their father and sheepeheard Now seeing we haue summarily intreated of the education and institution of a prince vnder the charge of a teacher and gouernour let vs in this place my Companions consider of his office and dutie when he raigneth with full authoritie ouer his subsubiects ARAM. Forasmuch as integritie of religion and the good will of the people are two principall pillers vpon which the safetie of euery Estate standeth the king ought to procure the first being therefore appointed by God ouer so many millions of men and the second without doubt dependeth of the former which is the onely difference betweene a king and a tyrant who ruleth by constraint ACHITOB. In a king is seene the ordinance of God who is the author and preseruer of policies and of good order Therefore his feare and reason must neuer depart out of his mind to the end that seruing God he may profite all those that liue vnder his dominion But from thee ASER we looke for the discourse of this matter ASER. The seuen Sages of Grecia being inuited to a feast by Periander prince of Corinth were requested by him to enter into the discourse of the estate of great men Solon speaking first said That a soueraigne king or prince cannot any way procure greater glorie to himselfe than by making a popular Estate of his Monarchy that is to say by communicating his soueraigne authoritie with his subiects Bias speaking next said By submitting himselfe first of all to the lawes of his countrie Thalcs I account that Lord happie that attaineth to old age and dieth a naturall death Anacharsis If he be the onely wise man Cleobulus If he trust none of those that are about him Pittacus If he be able to preuatle so much that his subiects feare not him but for him Chilon A Prince must not set his mind vpon any transitorie or mortall thing but vpon that which is eternall and immortall Periander concluding vpon these opinions said that all these sentences seemed to him to disswade a man of good iudgement from desiring at any time to command ouer others The Emperour Traian writing to the Senate of Rome among other things vsed these very words I freely confesse vnto you that since I began to taste of the trauels and cares which this Imperiall Estate bringeth with it I haue repented me a thousand times that I tooke it vpon me For if there be great honor in hauing an Empire there is also very great paine and trauell in gouerning the same But ouer and besides to what enuie is he exposed and to how many mislikings is he subiect that hath others to gouerne If he be iust he is called cruell if pitifull he is despised if liberall he is thought to be prodigall if he laie vp monie he is taken for couetous if he be addicted to peace he is supposed to be a coward if he be courageous he is iudged ambitious if graue they will call him proud if affable and courteous he is termed simple if solitarie an hypocrite and if he be merrie they will say he is dissolute After many other speeches this good Emperour concluded that although he willingly accepted of his estate at the first yet he was very sorowful afterward that he had so great a charge bicause the sea and the Empire were two pleasant things to looke vpon but perilous to tast Diuine Plato wrote also that none was fit to gouerne an Empire and to be a Prince but he that commeth vnto it through constraint and against his will For whosoeuer desireth the charge of a Prince it must needes be that he is either a foole not knowing how dangerous and full of care the charge of a King is or if he be a wicked man that he mindeth nothing but how he may raigne to satisfie his pleasure and priuate profite to the great hurt of the Common-wealth or else if he be ignorant that he considereth not how heauie the burthen is which he taketh vpon him Therefore a wise Prince will not thinke himselfe the happier bicause he succeedeth in a greater Empire and kingdome but remember rather that he laieth so much the more care and paine vpon his shoulders and that he beginneth then to haue lesse leasure lesse rest and happines in passing away his time In other persons a fault is pardoned in youth and growing old they are suffered to take their ease But he that is Head of a Common-wealth bicause he is to trauell for all must be neyther yoong nor old For he can-not commit a fault how small soeuer it be without the hurt of many men nor yet rest from his dutie but it will turne to the miserie of his subiects This caused the Philosophers to say that a Prince ought not to dedicate the Common-wealth to himselfe but to addict himself to the Common-wealth and for the profit thereof alwaies to be diligent vertuous and wise so to gouerne his Empire that he may be able easily to giue a reason of his charge And bicause no man asketh an account of him in this life he ought to be so much the more stirred vp to demand a straighter reckoning of himselfe being assured that the time wil come and that speedily wherein he must yeeld it vp before him with whome there is no respect of Princes except in this that they shal haue the Iudge more rigorous against them that haue abused greater power and authority To begin therfore to handle the duty and office of a Prince first he must haue the lawe of God continually before his eies he must engraue it in his soule and meditate vpon the wordes and ordinances thereof all the dayes of his life desiring of God to graunt him the spirite of vnderstanding to conceiue them well and according to that diuine rule to direct all his intents and actions to the glorie of that great eternall and Almightye Kinge of Kinges aswell for the saluation of his owne soule which he ought to preferre before the rule of the whole worlde as for the good of those that are committed to his charge to gouerne teach and iudge them For it is moste certaine that of the knowledge of the truth in
but as soone as another stranger came they shewed what they were Heereuppon it came that Kinge Charles the eight easily ouer-ranne all Italy with chalke as we vse to speake that is to saye that without resistance he sent before to take vp his lodging bicause they that shoulde haue withstoode him and were called in to keepe the Countrie did of their owne accord take his parte But there is a further matter Strange hired Captaines either are excellent men or haue nothing in them If they be valiant the Prince is not to trust them For out of doubt they will seeke to make themselues great either by his ouerthrowe that is their Maister or by destroying others against his will And if the Captaines haue no valure in them he cannot hope for any thing but for the cause of his owne perdition Succour is moste hurtfull to an Estate when some Potentate is called in with his forces for aide and defence Those souldiours may well be good and profitable for themselues but are alwaies hurtfull to such as call them in For if a man loose the fielde he is ouer-throwne if he winne it he is their prisoner Such succour is a great deale more to bee feared than hired strength which obeieth the Prince that calleth them and requireth their helpe But when a man receiueth in an armie vnited and accustomed to obeye the Captaine that conducteth and bringeth them in his destruction is alreadie prepared and cannot be auoided who openeth the doore of his owne house to let in an enimie stronger than himselfe Therefore it were expedient for euerye Prince to trye all waies before he haue recourse to such men for helpe and succour And whosoeuer shall reade and consider well the times that are past and runne ouer the present state of things he shall see that whereas one prospered well an infinite number were deceiued and abused For a Common-wealth or an ambitious Prince coulde not wish to haue a better occasion whereby to get the possession of a Citie Seignorie or Prouince than when hee is required to send his armie to defende it But what The ambition desire of reuenge or some other affection of men is so great that to accomplish once their present will they forget all dutie and cast behind them the care of all danger and inconuenience whatsoeuer that may light vppon them The Herules Gothes and Lumbards by these meanes became Lordes of Italy the Frenchmen of the Gaules Countrye the Englishmen of greate Britaine the Scots of Scotland after they had driuen out the Britons and Picts who called them in for succour The Turks made themselues Lords of the East Empire and of the kingdom of Hungary being likewise required of help by the Emperours of Constantinople and by the States of Hungary Not long since Cairadin a Pirate being called by the Inhabitants of Alger to driue the Spaniards out of the fortresse after he had vanquished them he slew Selim Prince of the towne and made himselfe king leauing the Estate to his brother Arradin Barberossa And Saladine a Tartarian Captaine being called by the Calipha and Inhabitants of Caire to driue the Christians out of Soria after the victorie slew the Calipha and became absolute Lorde thereof The foresight which the Princes of Germany had of the perill and hurt that all strangers bring to an Estate caused them to bind the Emperour Charles the fift by the twelfth article of conditions vnto which he sware before he receiued the Imperiall crown that he should not bring in any forraine souldiors into Germany And yet through the great number of Spaniards Italians and Flemmings that came into the countrie beeing called in against the Protestants there wanted little of changing the Estate of Almaigne into an hereditarie kingdom Which had bene soone doone if king Henry the second had not staied it by his French power for which cause he was called by books published and arches erected in their country Protector of the Empire and deliuerer of the Princes who since haue concluded amonge themselues that they will neuer chuse a forraine Prince Charles the seuenth king of France hauing by his great good successe and vertue deliuered France of Englishmen and knowing well that it was necessarie for him to be furnished with his owne forces instituted the decrees of horsemen and of the companies of footemen After that king Lewes his sonne abolished his footemen and began to leauy Switzers which being likewise practised by other kings his successors many men haue noted that by countenancing the Switzers they haue caused their owne forces to degenerate and growe out of vse disanulled the footemen and tied their horsemen to other footemen insomuch that since they haue been vsed to fight in company of the Switzers they think that they cannot obtaine the victorie nor yet fight without them Therfore the prudence of king Francis the first must needes be honored with exceeding great praise in that he established seuen legions of footmen accounting 6000. men to a legion so that there could be no better deuice for the maintenance of warrelike discipline nor more necessary for the preseruation of this kingdome if those good ordinances that were made to this end be wel marked Neuertheles they were abolished in his raigne established againe by Henry the second his successor and after that abrogated I am of opinion that if these ancient institutions both of horsemen and footemen were reuined they would be a good mean whereby we might alwaies haue men of warre to defend this kingdom to conquer that which is taken from it and to helpe our friends whereas nowe we are faine to vse the seruice of vnskilfull men that are made Captaines before euer they were souldiors or else of necessitie compelled to begge and to buy very deare the succour offorraine nations My meaning is not that a Prince should neuer vse the helpe of others but alwaies take his own forces collected among his subiects Nay I say to the contrary that it must needs be profitable for him to vse the succors of his Allies so that they be ioined with him in league offensiue and defensiue For by this meanes he doth not onely make himselfe stronger but withall taketh away both that aide from his enimie which he might otherwise haue drawne from thence and occasion also from all men to make warre with the one except they will haue the other also their enimie But aboue all things let no Prince trust so much to the succours of his Allies except himselfe with his subiects be of greater strength And if Allies are to be feared when they are stronger in another countrie what assurance may a man haue of forraine souldiors that are at no league either offensiue or defensiue with vs Now if vpon the due consideration of these things souldiors be carefully trained vp in good discipline of warre which may be collected out of many institutions that are extant and if
learned True philosophy is to be found in the word of God How much we owe to good authors The chiefe foundation of al philosophie Necessarie points for a philosopher We must learne alwaies Against presumption and selfe liking A fit comparison Antisthenes an example of great loue to knowledge Plato How we may know whether we profit in philosophie A good way to ouercome great faults When we may be called Philosophers The perfection of Philosophie The contempt of worldly goods necessary in a Philosopher Crates Notable examples of loue to Philosophie Anaxagoras Democritus Euclide Philosophie only teacheth vs to know our chiefe good The true cause of ioy and tranquillitie in a Christian soule What this word Philosopher meaneth There were three chiefe sects of philosophers Who are happie and who vnhappie Worldlie goods are of no force Two sorts of goods Vertue is the effect of regeneration The definition of vertue Socrates called religion the greatest vertue The dutie of prudence The foundation and spring of all vertue Wherein humane happines consisteth The gifts and graces of God are diuers in men The excellencie and propertie of vertue Euerie thing is made profitable through vertue Vertue compared to a palme tree The reward of vertue in the life to come is of the free mercie of God Comparison of worldly goods with vertue Nothing hath power ouer vertue Vertue cannot be valued Why Plato in his works bringeth in Socrates speaking Wherein the happines and greatnes of a king consisteth What it was that procured to Alexander the surname of Great Examples of the force and effects of vertue in aduersitie Pelopidas Philocles A most constant death Anaxarchus A woonderfull magnanimitie A wise man dieth willingly The feare of death doth not astonish the vertuous Callicratides Themistocles loue to his countrie Age hath no power ouer vertue Agesilaus Vertue causeth kingdoms to florish Vertue is the onely honest profitable and pleasant good Anacharsis forsooke a kingdome that he might the better obtaine vertue Three things necessarie for the obtaining of vertue The knowledge of goodnes must go before the loue of it Vice is the onely euil of the soule What we ought to call euill Vertue is the health and vice the sicknes of the soule Vice is like a dropsie When we begin to hate vice The definition of vice The effects of vice Vice is of an endles stocke Although we are to hate vice with a perfect hatred yet we must not kill our selues to be 〈◊〉 of it The vicious man onely is a captiue Nothing more hurtfull than vice Vice ioined with authoritie is more hurtfull A good lesson for great men The propertie of the wicked The alteration of kingdoms commeth of vice Offences are neuer without paine How a man may haue continuall quietnes The force of conscience in the wicked Leuit. 26. 36. Esay 66. 24. Examples of tormented consciences in the wicked A wise man is ashamed to attend before himselfe Why God deferreth his vengeance vpon the wicked Custome in sinning is dangerous How we should fortifie our selues against vice The humanitie of Pythagoras euen towards brute beasts An excellent comparison teaching vs not to suffer any vnlawfull thing We must neuer harken to the heralds of vice How vice deceiueth men The prudence of the serpent Why Diogenes asked his almes of images The speeches of ignorant men touching the studie of sciences Why many fathers set not their children to schoole Man was created to vnderstand and to do The benefits which come by knowledge The proper worke of the spirit of man It is long ere men without knowledge become good magistrates The praise of wisedome The diuision of sciences Grammer Rhetorick Logick Physick Metaphysick Mathematick and the parts thereof as Arithmetick Geometry Cosmography Geography Astronomy Musicke Poetry Those sciences are first to be learned that are most necessarie What kinde of knowledge is especially required in a philosopher Anacharsis letter to Craesus touching the studies of Graecia The praise and prosite of 〈◊〉 How a man may become happie Wherein kings ought most to exercise themselues The saving of Philip at the birth of Alexander Alexanders letter to Aristotle His loue to learning Iulius Caesar Xenophon Nicias Archimedes Socrates conclusion drawen out of 24. howers contemplation Charles 4. Robert king of Sicilia Ptolemie Philadelphus Charlemaine Francis 1. Antisthenes saying touching a flute plaier The modestic of Socrates touching his owne skill Quicke wits commonly want memorie Psal 102. 26. It is very hard for a man to know himselfe Socrates opinion concerning man The soule is 〈◊〉 man Socrates answer touching his burâ—all Periander Empedocles Of the generation of the soule The soule is diuided into the spirit and the flesh The spirit of the godlie both by creation and regeneration is enimie to vice The fight betweene the spirit and the flesh Rom. 8 7. What we are being left to our selves The difference betweene the 〈◊〉 and the spirit The three parts of the spirit Of Memorie Mithridates Frederick Genusbey P. Crassus From whence iudgement proceedeth Iulius Caesar Seneca A good â—se of memorie Reasons why quick est wits haue woorâ—t memories and conâ—â—â—wise 1. Cor. 12. Rom. 8. 1. The end of the creation of all things What homage we owe to God Which is the cheefe end of our being What â—uâ—ie is The diuision of dutie What dutie we owe to God and therefore Obedience to Gods law is the mother of all vertues What our dutie towards our neighbour is Man created for man Profit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be separated from honestie Two things requisite in euerie good worke Fower riuers issue out of the fountaine of dutie Examples of the zeale of the ancients in the seruice of there god Calanus The zeale of the Iewes to their law Of the loue which a man oweth to his countrie Cato of Vtica In what case a good man may sue for an office Metellus Lycurgus Marcus Otho The couragious mind of a soldier A notable example against ciuill war Codrus M. Curtius Dutie and honestie are to be propounded in all our actions Ecclus. 1. 18. Ecclus. 1. 23. What prunence is The effects of the vertue of prudence The difference betweene science and prudence Prudence compared to the sight Prudence hath three eies The praise-worthy effects of prudence The coniunction of all the vertues Of the prudence of Alexander Of the prudence of Pulius Caesar Caesar noted two faults in Pompey Agesilaus The losse of a captâ—â—â—e is commonly cause of the ruine of an amâ—e The prudence of Solon The prudence of Lycurgus Phocion The prudence of Demosthenes in defending the innocencie of a poore woman How a prudent man may reape benefit by his enimies and by mishaps Anaxagoras The prudent foresight of 〈◊〉 The prudence of Scipio in answering to an vniust accusation Emilius Scaurus The sports of prudent men Pleasant sayings ful of doctrine A prudent man doth not ouerlightly beleeue any thing How none can be hurt but by himselfe Vertuous actions are to
also the art and mistresse of life Briefly by philosophie we are taught that perfection which concerneth all the actions and dealings of men euen from those who are placed in the gouernment of monarchies kingdomes common-wealths cities and nations vnto the lest that liueth vnder them For she teacheth the one sort how to command well and the other to obey well and to maintaine themselues vpright in euerie estate and condition of life in the alteration either of prosperitie or of aduersitie yea euen to shew themselues constant in contrarie things by shunning pleasure sustaining griefe by despising glorie and enduring contempt And to this effect one of the wise Hebrew interpreters being demanded by Ptolemie Philadelphus king of Egypt what it was to exercise philosophie answered that it was to reason well and directly to reape great profit by all things that happen not to be carried away by lust to contemn all vanities proceeding of worldly pleasures and to be guided in euery action by a certaine mediocritie Now seeing it is out of question that the fruit and commoditie of morall philosophie is such and so great let vs in the next place consider where and how we may learne it that we may put it in practise There is nothing more true than this that it dependeth in such sort of the former which we called contemplatiue and diuine or rather is so ioined vnto it that without this it can neuer but be vnperfect in man seeing the feare and knowledge of God is the beginning and perfection of all wisedome Moreouer it is so well and perfectly taught vs in the word of God that nothing more may be added or desired Neuertheles the doctrine ioined with examples which we may draw out of histories and from the liues of wise men by things that haue beene done in deed is of great force and efficacie in the soule to draw and moue it with delight to seeke to resemble them For when as man naturally desirous of glorie and immortalitie shall see that philosophers and vertuous men who were so much commended and renowmed are as it were reuiued againe in these daies after so many ages past he will be thereby awakened and pricked forward by this ielousie of glorie which by nature is in him to desire and bring to passe all great matters woorthie to be remembred to the end he may deserue the like praise and commendation Therfore we shall reape no small profit heereby yea it will be vnto vs as an entrie to a happie and holie life and as a guide to sacred contemplations if we earnestly imbrace and exercise our selues in the reading and studie of good authors who teach vs the precepts of good life to whom as Alexander the great said speaking of his maister Aristotle we find our selues no lesse boūd beholding if we throughly taste their doctrine than to our owne fathers without offence vnto them be it spoken of whom we haue onely our life and being But bicause the excellencie highnes of this part of philosophie called morall which is for the correction of life and maners is such and so great that the sound and perfect knowledge therof is very hard and seeing that good beginnings in all great matters are alwaies the difficultest part of them we must lay a good ground of our enterprise if we meane to attaine thereunto and then ascend vpward from one degree to another The chiefest and most necessarie foundation must be a perpetuall and feruent loue of the truth and of eternall things ioined with the separation of lies and of the desire of temporall things far from vs. Secondly these particulars are as Plato saith very necessarie for vs a liuely and sharpe wit a nature apt to cōtemplation likewise graue prompt hardie to execute and prouident of publike commoditie But aboue all things the knowledge of the true God is infinitely necessarie for him that will be a philosopher bicause that as all things without the enioying of their vse and goodnes are possessed without profit so to haue knowledge of arts and sciences without the vnderstanding of the true God is friuolous and vnprofitable Yea no man can do any thing that good is whether it be in priuate or publike affaires if by reason he knoweth not what that is which ought to be called good But in this thing we shall be well instructed God willing by the sequele of our discourses Thirdly we must continue without ceasing the studie of this morall knowledge as Cicero the father of eloquence doth familiarly teach vs saying that in our studies we are to vse some intermission onely for the recreation both of bodie and mind in all honest sort but we must neuer leaue and forsake them altogither Neither ought these intermissions to be of any long continuance bicause vice alwaies watcheth to ouer-run vs so soone as we let our selues loose vnto idlenes to the end to stir vs vp through the intisements of the flesh to followe our naturall imperfections Much lesse ought we through presumption of our selues and confidence in our owne vertue and sufficiencie altogither to forsake the profession of this studie as they do who thinke themselues such great doctors that nothing may be added to their knowledge Of these men we may truly say that they neuer had the true knowledge of this morall philosophie wherein the more we profit the more we shall desire to learne and whether we be yoong or old as Socrates said we shall alwaies find what to learne and be occasioned to diminish all vaine opinion of our selues seeing this is one of the most notable effects thereof to purge all pride and presumption For as those vessels saith Plutarke wherin we put liquor do let out the void aire according to the measure of that which goeth in so when the soule filleth it selfe with certaine and true goods vanitie voideth and giueth place This is that which Plato saith in these words The more reason a man getteth by philosophie the more pride and arrogancie he looseth We haue a notable testimonie hereof in Antisthenes who after he had heard Socrates dispute tooke so great pleasure and found such deepe skill therein that albeit he was very learned and had a great number of schollers yet he willed them to seeke another master because he purposed to learne himselfe And by reason of the distance of place where he dwelt he came twice a day aboue three miles on foote to heare Socrates Likewise Plato shewed well how smally he presumed of his exceeding great knowledge when not contenting himselfe therewith after the death of his master Socrates he made a voyage through Egypt and after into Italy to heare and conferre with the best learned of those countries and to learn that which he knew not before Which zeale of his and burning desire vnto wisedome being so laudable God so recompenced that none of the Ethniks except Socrates
which did all intreat of vertue out of which men may reape infinite profite especially out of those that intreat of a common-wealth or of lawes In these books that he might not seeme vngratefull towarde his master Socrates who would neuer write any thing he bringeth him in rehearsing that which at other times he had heard him speake Stilpo the philosopher being in his citie of Megara when it was taken spoiled by Demetrius king of Macedonia who fauouring him asked if he had lost any thing that was his made this answer No sir quoth he for war cannot spoile vertue And indeede this is that riches wherwith we ought to furnish our selues which can swim with vs in a shipwrack and which caused Socrates to answere thus to one who asked him what his opinion was of the great king whether he did not thinke him very happy I cannot tell quoth he how he is prouided of knowledge vertue Who may iustly doubt whether vertue alone is able to make a man happie seeing it doth not onely make him wise prudent iust good both in his doings sayings but also commonly procureth vnto him honor glorie and authoritie It was through hir meanes that Alexander deserued the surname of Great by that experience which she gaue him in warre by his liberalitie in riches by his temperance in all his sumptuous magnificence by his hardines and constancy in fight by his continency in affections by his bountie and clemencie in victorie and by all other vertues wherein he surpassed all that liued in his time Yea the fame and renowme of his vertues procured a greater number of cities countries and men to submit themselues willingly vnto him without blowestriking than did the power of his armie Wherein this sentence of Socrates is found true that whole troupes of souldiers and heapes of riches are constrained oftentimes to obey vertue What said Darius monarche of the Persians when he vnderstoode both what continencie Alexander his enimie had vsed towards his wife who being exceeding beautifull was taken prisoner by him and what humanitie he shewed afterward in hir funerals when she was dead The Persians quoth he neede not be discouraged neither thinke themselues cowards and effeminate because they were vanquished of such an aduersarie Neither do I demand any victorie of the gods but to surmount Alexander in bountifulnes And if it be so that I must fall I beseech them to suffer none but him to sit in the royall throne and seat of Cyrus Will we haue testimonies of the inuicible force of vertue and of hir powerfull and praisewoorthy effects in most sinister and vntoward matters Histories declare vnto vs that amongst all the vertuous acts which procured praise and renowme to the men of old time those were the notablest most commended which they shewed foorth at such time as fortune seemed to haue wholy beaten them downe Pelopidas generall captaine of the Thebans who deliuered them from the bondage of the Lacedemonians is more praised and esteemed for the great and notable vertue which he shewed being prisoner in the hands of Alexander the tyrannous king of the Phereans then for all his victories gotten before For at that time his vertue was so farre from yeelding any iot to his calamitie that contrariwise with an vnspeakeable constancie he recomforted the inhabitants of the towne that came to visite him exhorting them to be of good courage seeing the houre was come wherin the tyrant should be at once punished for his wickednes And one day he sent him word that he was destitute of all iudgement and reason in that he vexed his poore citizens caused them to die in torments who neuer offended him and in the meane time suffered him to liue in rest of whom he could not be ignorant that escaping his hands he would be reuenged of him The tyrant maruelling at his great courage asked why he made such great haste to die To this end quoth he that thou being yet more hated of God and men than thou art mightest the sooner be destroied Philocles one of the most famous Athenian captaines of his time who caused this law to be made that the right thombe of all prisoners taken in war from that time forward should be cut off that they might not handle a pike any more but yet might serue to rowe with an oare being taken prisoner with three thousand Atheniens in one battell which Lysander admirall of the Lacedemonians obtained against him and al of them being condemned to die was demanded of Lysander what paine he iudged himselfe worthie of for counselling his country-men to so wicked and cruell a thing To whom he made this onely answere with an vnmoueable vertue Accuse not those who haue no iudge to hear know their cause But seeing the gods haue shewed thee this fauour to be conqueror deale with vs as we would haue done with thee if we had ouercome thee Which being said he went to wash and bath himselfe and then putting on a rich cloke as if he should haue gone to some feast he offered himselfe first to the slaughter shewing the way of true constancie to his fellow citizens Anaxarchus the philosopher being taken prisoner by the commandement of Nero that he might know of him who were the authors of a conspiracie that was made against his estate and being led towards him for the same cause he bit his toong in sunder with his teeth and did spit it in his face knowing well that otherwise the tyrant would haue compelled him by all sorts of tortures and torments to reueale disclose them Zeno missing his purpose which was to haue killed the tyrant Demylus did asmuch to him But what is more terrible than death Notwithstanding when did vertue better shew hir greatnes and power then when death laboured most to ouerthrow hir as being resolued of that saying of Cicero that all wise men die willingly and without care but that the vnwise ignorant are at their wits ende for feare of death If many who haue not knowne the true and perfect immortalitie of the soule and some onely led with a desire of praise worldly glorie others touched with duty and kindled with a loue towards their countrey haue shewed the increase of their vertue in the horrors and pangs of death what ought they to do who expect certainely an euerlasting life Phocion after he had beene chosen generall captaine of the Athenians foure and fortie times and done infinite seruices to the common-wealth being at length through certaine partakinges and diuisions ouercome with the weakest side which he had mainetained and being condemned to drinke poison was demaunded before he dranke whether he had no more to saye Whereupon speaking to his sonne he saide I commaunde thee to beare the Athenians no rancor and malice for my death And a little before this speech beholding one of those that were condemned to
the end well propounded and yet men erre in the meanes to attaine vnto it and contrariwise it falleth out oftentimes that the meanes are good and the end propounded bad So that it is from this liuely and euer-flowing fountaine which is the cause of al good from whence we are to looke for the perfect knowledge of our dutie and the ends and meanes whereby to execute it to the glorie of God and to the good and profit of our like And from this generall vertue and fountaine of honestie and dutie fower riuers issue and spring called morall vertues namely Prudence which is as a guide to the rest and knoweth what is profitable for it selfe for others and for the common-wealth Temperance the mistres of modestie chastitie sobrietie and vigilancie and of all order and mediocritie in all things Fortitude which maketh a man constant patient couragious hardie and readie to enterprise high great profitable and holie things and Iustice which is the bond and preseruation of humane societie by giuing to euery one that which belongeth vnto him by keeping faith in things promised by succoring gladly the afflicted and by helping euery one according as abilitie serueth Which vertues are the true and certain goods of the soule whereby all actions are directed according to dutie as we shall speake particularly thereof heerafter In the meane while let vs enter into the examples of the ancients and see how exactly and inuiolably they obserued all points of dutie choosing rather to sacrifice their liues than to infringe and breake any of them much more contemning all other weaker occasions wherwith lewd and base-minded people suffer themselues to be easily corrupted And first touching the first point of dutie naturally imprinted in the soules of the greatest infidels which is to acknowledge some diuinitie with what zeale although inconsiderate and rash did the ancient heathens and pagans precisely obserue their paganisme euen to the sacrificing and cheerfull offering vp of their owne children to their gods as we read of the Carthaginians What say I their children yea oftentimes themselues whereof Calanus an Indian Gymnosophist serueth for a witnes who seeing himselfe old after he had offered sacrifice to the gods bad Alexander the Great farewell with whom he came to Babylon and tooke his leaue also of all his other friends Then lying along according to the custome of his countrie vpon a little pile of wood which he had prepared for that purpose he caused fire to be put vnto it and so burned himselfe for a burnt-offering to his gods not stirring at all but continuing with such a wonderfull constancie that Alexander who was present confessed himselfe to be vanquished of him in greatnes of hart and magnanimitie of courage Who will not admire the strict obseruation of the ancient religion of the Egyptians Graecians and Romans mooued with a desire of yeelding the dutie of their being to the honor of a diuine nature But for shortnes sake and not to wander farre from the subiect of our assemblie I passe it ouer with silence Heere I will onely alledge one notable example of the Iewes who were more zealous professors of their law than euer were any people Caius a Romane emperor sent Petronius into Syria with commandement to make war with the Iewes if they would not receiue his image into their temple Which when they refused to do Petronius said vnto them that then belike they would fight against Caesar not weighing his wealth or their owne weakenes and vnabilitie We will not fight quoth they but had rather die than turne from the lawes of our God And foorthwith casting themselues on the ground and offering their throtes they said that they were readie to receiue the blow In this estate as Iosephus reporteth it they remained for the space of fortie daies letting slip the time which then was of sowing their grounds Which caused Petronius to defer the execution of his charge and to send the declaration of these things vnto Caesar whose death rid the Iewes out of danger Now we are to consider with what burning affection the ancients imbraced common benefit and safetie seeking to profit all men according to the true dutie of a good man but especially their countrie in whose seruice they thought it great happines to lose their liues For truly besides the sweet affection which nature hath imprinted in our harts towards our countrie and the conformitie of humors which commonly is found in our bodies with that heauenly aire wher we haue our first breathing which seemeth to be a mutual and naturall obligation the reason of all humane right and the religion of diuine equitie besides the dutie of conscience bind all persons to serue the publike wealth of their countrie to the vttermost of their power and that so much the rather bicause that vnder it the life honor and goods of euery particular man are comprehended This reason caused Cato of Vtica a Consul and noble Romane to answer one of his friends who was come to giue him thanks for defending him in iudgement from a false accusation that he was to thanke the Common-wealth for whose loue onely he did spake and counselled all things This also made him to vndertake the sute for the office of Tribuneship of the people that he might resist the faction of Pompey by whom he saw Metellus set on worke to sue and seeke for the same office for the assurance of his affaires and strengthening of his league Now is the time quoth Cato to his friends wherein I must imploy and bestow the power of such an office and of so great authoritie as a strong medicine in time conuenient and vpon necessarie causes and either ouercome or die honorably in the defence of common libertie So likewise he opposed himselfe as much as he could against all nouelties and alteration of affaires betweene Caesar and Pompey And when the selfesame Pompey being desirous to win him to himselfe sought to bring it to passe by alliance and thereupon demanded two of his neeces in marriage one for himselfe and the other for his sonne Cato without any longer deliberation answered him presently as being netled that caried backe the message that he should returne to Pompey and tell him that Cato was not to be taken by the meanes of women Which was not bicause he would not haue him esteem greatly of his friendship which he should alwaies find in him to be more sure and certaine than any alliance by marriage so that he onely sought after and did things honest and iust but at this time he would not giue hostages at Pompeies pleasure against the Common-welth Afterward the affaires of Rome being brought to such necessitie through corruption of monie and by vnlawfull and forceable meanes in procuring publike places of authoritie many Senators being of opinion that Pompey was to be chosen sole and onely Consul Cato also was of the same mind saying that men ought
to choose a lesse euill to meete with and to redresse greater mischiefs and that it were better willingly to bring in a kind of monarchie than to defer it so long vntill the issue of present seditions should by force and constraint establish one And it may be quoth he that Pompey will haue a longing desire to preserue the Common-wealth when he shall see that it is so liberally and freely committed to his fidelitie This election being approoued and ratified Pompey sent to seeke Cato and hauing hartily thanked him for that honor which he had done him requested him to be a daily assistant and Councellor vnto him in his office To whom this graue man made answere that he did neuer oppose himselfe heeretofore against him for any ill will he bare him neither gaue this last counsell for any good he meant towards him but all for the good and profit of the Common-wealth And as touching his priuate and particular affaires he said he would giue him the best counsell he could whensoeuer he asked his aduise but for publike matters he would alwaies speake what he thought were best although he neuer asked him any thing Thus did Cato behaue himselfe al his life time as a good citizen and as an vpright and iust man free in speaking for the truth and altogither void of corruption Metellus a Senator of Rome left vs a notable testimonie that he esteemed of Dutie as of a sacred and inuiolable thing when he would not sweare to the people to obserue and keepe that which was to be ordained and established concerning a law put vp by one of the Tribunes against all right and equitie notwithstanding that the Consul with the rest of the Senators through constraint and feare which they had of the people had sworne vnto it and giuen their promise Then Metellus departing from the assemblie said that it was too easie a matter to do ill as also a common thing to do well where no danger is but to do well when perill is certaine and sure that was the proper dutie of an honorable and vertuous man For this cause being banished and making light account of the matter he vsed these or the like speeches When things shall be amended the people repenting them of their error will cal me back againe but if the affaires continue still in the same state wherein they now are it will be best for a man to keepe himselfe a farre of Lycurgus after his lawes were giuen to the Lacedemonians fained that he had some thing else whereof to take counsell with Apollo concerning their estate and therefore at his departure from Lacedaemon to go to Delphos he caused his citizens to sweare and promise that they would keepe his lawes inuiolably vntill his returne either dead or aliue This done he went to the I le of Candie where he remained in perpetuall and voluntarie banishment and commanded that after his death the ashes of his bodie being burnt should be cast into the wind that by this meanes the Lacedaemonians might neuer be absolued of their oth but that his countrie might alwaies receiue the fruit of his labors for desire whereof he had freely forsaken it altogither Marcus Otho the emperor hath left behind him a more woonderfull example of the great loue he bare towards his countrie for the benefit whereof he died willingly For after he had lost a battell against Vitellius and Cecinna fighting for the empire he was solicited by the rest of his armie which was yet of great strength to trie fortune once againe and to vse them and their persons as long as they had one drop of blood and life in their bodies And at the same time a simple soldier hauing his sword in his hand spake thus vnto him Know O Caesar that all my companions are determined to die thus for thy sake and therewithall he slue himselfe before him Then Otho casting his eies all about spake vnto them in this sort I account this day more happie to me Companions than that other wherein ye did choose and pronounce me your emperor beholding you so wel affected in my behalfe and receiuing such honor from you with so great a demonstration of friendship And if I haue been worthie to hold the empire of Rome by your election I must now shew it in not sparing my life for the good and safetie of my countrie I knowe well that the victorie is not yet wholie mine enimies and I haue receiued newes of such and such forces which he named particularly vnto them that are readie to ioine with vs. The Senate is on our side and the wiues and children of our enimies are in our hands But what This war is not against a Hannibal or a Pirrhus or against the Cymbrians that we should fight for the possession of Italie but it is against the Romans themselues so that in this warre both the conqueror and conquered shall offend and hurt their countrie bicause whatsoeuer serueth for the benefit of him that ouercommeth turneth to the dammage of the Common-wealth Beleeue me I know better how to die than to raigne especially considering that I shall not so much profit the Romans although in the end I should remaine the stronger as now I can by sacrificing my life for the peace vnion and concord of my countrimen This done he tooke order for the Senators and others of his armie to retire and saue themselues and said to a nephew of his whom he had adopted I command thee my sonne as the last admonition which I can giue thee not to forget altogither nor yet to print it too much in thy memorie that thou hast had an vnkle who was emperor Then laying him downe to rest the next morning very early he tooke his sword and turning the point thereof with both his hands against his stomacke he fell vpon the top of it without shewing any other token or feeling of griefe and so died being onely seuen and thirtie yeeres of age Codrus king of Athens did no lesse for his countrie For hauing vnderstood that the Oracle had promised and assured the victorie to the Thracians who were enimies to the Athenians if they saued their king aliue he went into their campe disguised like a handicrafts man and slue one of their men whereupon he was presently slaine of others not being knowen what he was And thus were the Thracians depriued of the hope of victorie which before they accounted certaine and in a maner gotten of the Athenians Marcus Curtius a knight of Rome who being Consul wan a notable battell against the Cymbrians threw himselfe headlong into a deepe gulfe which was made in the midst of Rome by an earthquake and which had greatly dammaged the citie The reason moouing him so to do was bicause the Soothsaiers had giuen out that the gods would not be pacified and appeased towards the citie before the gulfe had swalowed a man on liue Curtius
of women when he is inuited to weddings or in their companie to request him to walke that hath alreadie gone a great way when he seeth a thing sold to bring a chapman to the seller who would haue giuen a great deale more for it to repeate one thing oftentimes to shew himselfe readie to do that which a man would not haue him to do and yet dare not well denie it him to woonder at all things and to speake all in a word an vnskilfull man is alwaies in all places and in all affaires vnciuill and impertinent The examples of these foresaid effects are but too familiar amongst vs. And first concerning these of small and meane estate and condition how many millions of men haue there been in the ages past and do liue yet among vs whose life being ignorant of euery good cause and reason is not much vnlike and in many things worse than that of brute beasts The originall of so many errors foolish opinions and impieties hath it not had passage through the midst of their soules bicause they had no true knowledge of the end of their being nor of his will by whom they liue From thence it commeth that the best aduised among them exercise base handicrafts not being desirous to learne further that some lead a seruile and contemptible life bringing their bodies and soules in subiection to the lusts and wicked desires of the greater sort that others remaine idle and vnprofitable seeking to maintaine their liues by vnlawfull meanes that all through a blockish ignorance depriue themselues of all present and eternall felicitie Now albeit these poore men who haue no great meanes to execure their wicked desires may after a sort seeme tollerable and excuseable to mans iudgement bicause their ignorance doth not greatly hurt any but themselues yet it falleth out far worse with those that haue wealth at will and authoritie to command others who not knowing how to vse their goods well by vertuous deeds abuse them to all vice dissolutenes and pleasure whereby for the most part they cast themselues headlong into infidelitie and Atheisme bicause they neuer had true vnderstanding of the perfect diuinitie nor yet considered the perfection of his works both in heauen earth O pitifull calamity abounding in this our age more than euer it did A thousand millions of Pagans and heathens considering that there was nothing to be misliked in the heauens neither any negligence disorder or confusion in the moouing of the stars nor in the seasons of the yeere nor in their reuolutions nor in the course of the sunne about the earth which causeth the day and the night no not in the nourishing and preseruation of all sorts of liuing creatures nor in the generation of yeerly fruits and for a thousand other good considerations beleeued and worshipped one supreme eternall essence which gouerneth all things And shall they that carie the name of Christians to whom the vnspeakable treasures of the heauens haue been opened and offered with innumerable graces shall they I say doubt yea impudently denie that there is a God But let vs returne to our matter It is most certaine that the higher that ignorant men are aduanced so much without question are their faults greater than those of meaner estate bicause they are hurtfull to many Yea oftentimes it hath come to passe that one onely fault of such a man hath been the losse and destruction of an infinite number of men Nicias the general captain of the Athenians through the feare which he had conceiued of the darkness of an Eclipse of the moone and not knowing the cause thereof staied so long vntill his enimies had inclosed him round about whereupon he was taken aliue of them and put to death besides the losse of fortie thousand Athenians that were taken and slaine Who doubteth but that ignorance draue Caligula Domitian into such pride crueltie that whilst they sought to be worshipped in stead of the true God they were the cause of the death destruction of more than a hundred thousand men In the time of Otho the first there fell a stone from heauen which astonished all Germanie and turned them from prosecuting an enterprise of great waight and importance for the benefit of their countrie If they had knowen it to be a naturall thing and such as had come to passe long before as Aristotle affirmeth they had not been so fearfull nor receiued that dammage to the detriment of the Common-wealth which came to them afterward That speech of Anaxagoras a Greeke philosopher agreeable heerunto is worthie to be remembred when he said that a man ought to driue out of himselfe and to tread vnder his feete all superstitious feare of the heauenly signes and impressions of the aire which worke great terror in them that are ignorant of their causes and that feare the gods with a forlorne and amased feare bicause they want that certaine knowledge that philosophie bringeth which in stead of a trembling and alwaies terrifying superstition engendreth true deuotion accompanied with an assured hope of good Let vs looke a little into our Chronicles and consider what profit our kings receiued by their ignorance when they were called Simple when they stood but for images and were seene of their subiects but once a yeere They suffered their wise maisters of the palace to take knowledge of and to order and rule all things who depriuing them as vnworthie of all authoritie tooke possession in the end of their crowne And surely it is no lesse pernitious for the greater sort to aduance ignorant men to charges and places of honor and to vse their counsell than to be ignorant themselues For as we said ignorance causeth him that is aduanced to forget himselfe and lifteth him vp into all pride There are amongst vs too many examples of the ambition and presumption of many ignorant men who contrarie to Torquatus that refused the Consulship bicause of his diseased eies altogither blind as they are deafe dumbe and destitute of all natural light of prudence and experience to guide themselues are not contented to manage the sailes and tacklings but desire to haue the rudder of the Common-welth in their hands And it is greatly to be feared that such vnskilfull and ambitious men will in the end shew themselues both in will and practise to be imitators of one Cleander an outlandish slaue who being preferred by Commodus the emperor to goodlie offices and great places of honor as to be great maister of his men of war and his chiefe chamberlaine conspired notwithstanding against his Lord seeking to attaine to the imperiall dignitie by feditions which he stirred vp in Rome betweene the people and the soldiers But through good order taken his enterprise tooke no effect except the losse of his owne head and destruction of his house Although oftentimes it falleth out cleane contrarie through the iust punishment of God for the ignorance
more they thought to know the greater occasion of doubting they found in them so that for all their labour and vnderstanding they could neuer carrie away any true knowledge or certaine resolution And euen as that man who not contenting himselfe with the abundant light of the sunne beames but seeking with his eies to pearce through the brightnes therof euen vnto the midst of the circle of the body must questionlesse become blind so falleth it out for the most part to those who go about too curiously to inquire after that which is not lawfull to be knowen The ill successe of our age affoordeth vs too manie miserable testimonies wherin at this day we see nothing but contrarieties of opinions and vncertainties through their subtilties bold curiosities who haue sought to plucke as a man would say out of heauen the secrets hid from the angels yea which is worse haue boasted that they haue attained vnto the knowledge of them filling our times with trouble and confusion vnder that false pretence There are others also no lesse hurtful who haue binne such curious Inquisitours of the causes of all naturall things that through friuolous and vnprofitable questions they haue fallen into that impietie as to seeke for another beginning of all things than God Whereupon this prouerbe which is too true arose Of three Physitions one Atheist This kinde of curiositie is of all others most pernitious But forasmuch as it is without the compasse of our Academie we let it passe with this short mention thereof and with this onely addition that God commonly punisheth the pride of such men by those fruits which we see them bring foorth and by taking from them their vnderstanding in principall and most necessarie matters wherein notwithstanding they thinke themselues to be woonderfull and iolly fellowes aboue all others As touching this point the example of Socrates is very memorable and to be imitated who being demanded what the world was answered that since he had any iudgement he gaue himselfe to seeke out the true knowledge of himselfe which yet he could neuer find But so soone as he had attained thereunto then he would seeke for other things that would do him no seruice or pleasure Aristotle as Iustin Martyr writeth who for the excellencie of his skill in naturall philosophie was called the god of the earth burned with such a desire of curiositie in vnderstanding the causes of naturall things that bicause he could not know and conceiue the cause and nature of Euripus which is in Chalcis a citie of Eubaea I meane of the flowing ebbing of the sea which turneth compasseth about that place nor giue a sufficient reason thereof he died for very shame and greefe which he conceiued thereupon Plinie also who wrote the historie of naturall philosophie was choked with the flames and vapors of the mountaine Mongibel in Sicilia whilest he sought to find out the cause of them and from whence that great fire came which spoiled the countrie round about in the time of Titus the emperor insomuch that seuen or eight townes were burned and many persons trauelling by land and sailing on the sea were stifled with the ashes therof caried about by the vehemency of the winds But let vs leaue these curious spirits and speake of two other generall kinds of curiositie which respect chiefly our morall philosophie and from whence all corruption of good maners proceeded The first kind concerneth our selues onely and the other our brethren and countrimen To speake therefore of the first it bringeth foorth pernitious effects after diuers sorts and maners but amongst vs Frenchmen they appeere principally in that burning desire which inflameth vs to trauell into strange nations and in our carking and caring for the nourishment clothing and decking of our bodies and for the setting foorth and trimming vp of our houses with curious and vnprofitable moueables wherein we exceede all the superfluitie of other countries When the ancients speake of the felicitie that accompanied the golden age amongst the good conditions and commendable maners which they noted in that holie and first simplicitie they neuer forgat this that the men of that good time tilled and manured their grounds and cared not what strangers did in farre countries Moreouer since the time that men made light account of their owne climate through a curious and vnsatiable desire of appropriating vnto themselues the inheritance and labour of others besides the crueltie violence and murders which prepared a way to their miserable platformes all corruption of good maners at home and all bastardlike attire haue followed thereupon We might heere note infinite testimonies of antiquitie and especially of our ancient progenitors the Gaules who were verie warlike and liued within their bounds in al simplicitie of maners and frugalitie of life But our owne example to our vnspeakeable shame and miserie is so euident before our eyes that I neede no better proofe of my saying than that experience which we feele by our owne perill For the ruine and destruction of this french monarchy proceedeth of no other second cause our iniquitie being the first than of the mixture which we haue made of strangers with our selues Wherein we are not contented to seeke them out vnder their roofes vnlesse we also draw them vnto vs and lodge them vnder our roofes yea preferre them before our owne countrimen and citizens in the offices and honorable places of this kingdome against the law and right of euerie good and well established policie Besides we adore and reuerence all their nouelties and subtill inuentions and that so ignorantly or rather blockishly that suffring them to sucke vs euen to the verie bowels in steade of all our riches and spoiles which they for their part haue drawne from vs they haue left vs nothing but new maners and fashions of liuing in all dissolutenes and pleasure except this one thing also that we haue learned of them to dissemble and withall to frame and build a treason verie subtillie Such is the prouision wherewith our french youth is commonly furnished by their Italian voyages To this purpose Gueuara Chronicler to the emperor Charles the first writeth that from forraine countries men commonly bring newes to prattle of and strange customes to practise and that few come out of Italie that are not absolute and dissolute Lycurgus by his lawes commanded the Lacedemonians not to go out of their kingdome nor to conuerse with strangers saying that although by their trafficke with them they might be inriched yet on the other side they would grow poore in regard of their owne vertues Titus Liuius Macrobius Salustius and Tully cursed and bewailed the conquests and victories which Rome had in Asia saying that if the Romanes brought the Persians Medes vnder subiection by force yet the selfe same Asians ouercame the Romans with their vices and delights This doth Cicero testifie writing to Atticus where he saith
was withall but yong in yeeres the victorious Monarke being but yong also and hauing no superior aboue him to whom he was bound to giue an account of himselfe had notwithstanding such great knowledge how to command himselfe that albeit by his acquaintance and friends he was sufficiently certified of the excellent beautie of this Ladie yet hee bare no ill thought towards hir but sent to comfort hir and caused hir to be intertained and attended on with no lesse honor and reuerence than if she had been his owne sister And to auoid all suspicion and occasion of euill he would not see hir nor suffer hir to be brought before him The temperance of Cyrus king of Persia is also very famous amongst the historiographers For when one of his minions stirred him vp to go and see faire Panthaea saying that hir rare beautie was well woorthie to be seene that is the cause answered this yong prince vnto him why I will altogither abstaine at this present from beholding hir at thy persuasion least she hir selfe heerafter should induce me through the remembrance of hir perfection to go to hir and so cause me in the meane time to let slip many affaires of great importance Architas was so temperate that he would not so much as vtter one filthie word and if he were driuen to declare it vpon some iust occasion then he wrote it shewing by this silence how dishonest a thing it was to commit that which being onely vttered ought to cause a man to blush Xenocrates was indued with such a great gift of continencie that Phryna a very faire and notable courtisan laid a wager with certaine yoong men that if she lay with him she would cause him to breake his temperance But Xenocrates hauing granted hir the halfe of his bed for example sake to those youths was nothing more mooued for any thing she could do Whereupon Phryna being verie angrie made answere in the morning to those that demanded the wager of hir that she laie not with a man but with a blocke Isaeus the philosopher being asked of one that looked vpon a verie faire woman whether she seemed not vnto him to be faire made this answer My friend I am not diseased any more in my eies and so would not behold hir at all Caius Gracchus the Romaine as long as he gouerned Sardinia would neuer suffer a woman to set foote in his house except it were to demand iustice Antigonus king of Macedonia hearing that his sonne was lodged in a house where there were three verie faire daughters made an edict that no courtier should lodge in any matrons house that had daughters if she were vnder fiftie yeeres of age Pompeius would neuer speak to the wife of Demetrius his freeman bicause she was so faire that he feared least he should be in loue with hir In the number of these ancient famous and vertuous men that great captaine Francis Sforce duke of Millan deserueth to be placed whose continencie was woonderfull euen when he was yet yoong and generall of the Florentine armie at the taking of Casanoua For as certaine souldiers had taken a maide of an exccellent beautie and at hir intreatie and earnest request had brought hir before him Sforce asked the maide why she desired so earnestly to come before him To this ende quoth she that thou mightest deliuer me from the souldiers that I might please thee Sforce seeing hir to be verie faire accepted of hir and at night caused hir to lie with him But as he would haue drawne neer vnto hir the maide cast hir selfe on both hir knees before him without the bed and besought him to saue hir virginitie and to restore hir to him vnto whome she was made sure Whereupon Sforce willingly agreed beholding the abundance of hir teares which were testimonies of the chastitie of hir hart Will we haue examples of this vertue of temperance in other circumstances of hir effects Ambition truly is the most vehement and strongest passion of all those wherewith mens minds are troubled and yet many notable and vertuous men haue so mastred it by the force of their temperance that oftentimes they accepted of offices and estats of supreame authoritie as it were by compulsion with greefe yea some altogither contemned and willingly forsooke them Pompey receiuing letters of absolute authoritie from the senate to conduct the warre against the two kings Tygranes and Mithridates cried out O God shall I neuer come to the ende of so many trauels Shall enuie alwaies hold me in such sort as hir slaue that newe and great charges daily laying hold vpon me I cannot rid my selfe of these snares to the end I may liue sweetly with my wife and children at my house in the countrey Pittacus one of the Sages of Graecia being constrained to take vpon him the charge of an armie accepted it with great greefe saying before them all O how hard a matter it is to be a good man Pedaretus the Lacedemonian hauing escaped to be elected one of those three hundred senators which gouerned the estate of Sparta returned from the assembly verie ioifull saying that it was an easie matter to finde in that citie three hundred better and more honest men than himselfe What did Scipio of whom we haue already spoken after he had performed a thousand glorious facts for the greatnes of the Romaine empire He forced the nature of ambition which is alwaies caried with a desire of new glorie and changed the rest of his life into quietnes and abandoning the affaires of estate he went and dwelt in the countrey Torquatus and Fabritius absented thēselues from Rome the one bicause he would not haue the dictatorship and the other the consulship It is not long since Aimaeus duke of Sauoy willingly gaue ouer his duchy into his sons hands became an hermit and after that being chosen pope he gaue vp the seat willingly to another Amurathes the second of that name emperor of the Turks after he had obtained infinite victories and vanquished the king of Hungarie became a monke of the straightest sect amongst them That great emperor Charles the fift did he not resigne his empire into the hands of the princes electors and withdrewe himselfe into a monasterie But what need we maruell at the knowledge of these examples which shewe the effects of this vertue of temperance against strange passions arising in vs proceeding of our nature corrupted with sinne and ruling in vs through the ignorance of that which is good when we may see that temperance doth not onely serue for a good guide and schoolmaster to our passions and to our naturall and necessarie desires and pleasures that are borne with man from the beginning to rule them with mediocritie and reason but also compelleth them oftentimes to submit themselues thereby triumphing ouer their necessitie although as Thales said it be inuincible
And then how much more easie wil it be to restraine yea wholy to ouerthrow the foolish desires of vanitie Soüs a captaine of great renowne and king of Lacedemonia being besieged in a narrow straight very craggie place void of water after he had endured the necessitie of thirst to the vttermost he offred to the Clitorians his enemies to restore vnto them al their land which he had wonne of them so that he and all his companie might drinke of a fountaine neere vnto them Which being thus agreed vpon betweene them he led al his men thither and said vnto them that if any one would abstaine from drinking he would resigne his royaltie of Lacedemonia vnto him But none would accept thereof insomuch that all dranke except himselfe who going last downe into the fountaine did nothing but refresh himselfe and wet his mouth a little on the outside in the presence of his enemies not drinking one drop thereof By meanes whereof he maintained that he was not bound at all vnto his promise bicause all dranke not and so he continued the warre to the great honor aduantage of his country Lysimachus one of Alexanders successours in the empire had not so great power ouer the like passion For being compelled by thirst he diliuered himselfe and all his armie to the Getes his enemies After he had drunke being prisoner O God quoth he how faint-harted am I that for so short a pleasure haue depriued my selfe of so great a kingdome Cato the yoonger trauelling ouer the deserts of Lybia endured verie sore thirst And when a souldier offered him a little water in his morion he threw it vpon the ground in presence of them all to the end his armie might knowe that he would be in no better estate than they Truely a woorthy example for all captaines for by so doing that which would hardly haue quenched the thirst of one restrained it in a whole armie The emperor Rodolphus who of base estate attained to this dignitie by his vertue vpon the like occasion made an answere woorthy to be remembred For when a full cup of beere was brought vnto him in the warre which he had against Octocarus king of Bohemia at what time he was in a place where his whole army was greatly troubled with thirst he would not receiue it but said vnto the bearer thereof that his thirst was for all his armie and not onely for himselfe therfore that cup of beere was not sufficient to quench it We read of Socrates that whensoeuer he felt himselfe very thirsty he would not drinke before he had spilt and cast away the first pitcher of water which he drew for himselfe out of the well to this ende as he said that he might acquaint his sensuall appetite to expect the conuenient time of reason Seeing therefore by such examples and infinite others contained in histories we haue certaine and assured proofe of the force of temperance ouer naturall and necessarie passions how credible is it that she may haue farre greater power ouer those other passions that came from without vs after we fell from our first creation Let vs therefore conclude by our present discourse that the vertue of temperance is verie necessarie and profitable for a happie life as that which hath this propertie belonging vnto it to be skilfull in chasing a mediocritie in pleasures and greefes in keeping that which is honest vertuous and in shunning of vice especially of carnall pleasures although she serue also to moderate all the actions of our life And if a prudent man auoideth dishonest things in publike places a temperate man goeth farther eschewing them in solitarie and obscure corners If iustice suffereth no violence to be vsed or wrong offered to any temperance further permitteth none to offend any and therefore is verie well called of the philosophers the mother of all dutie and honestie Of Intemperance and of Stupiditie or blockishnes Chap. 18. ACHITOB BEing instructed in the vertue of temperance which as well as hir fellow vertues consisteth in mediocritie we are now to consider of hir extremities and vices that are in excesse and in defect Intemperance is cleane contrarie vnto it which as Cicero saith inflameth prouoketh and troubleth the tranquillitie of the spirit but concerning the defect I find no proper name giuen vnto it by the philosophers But I leaue the handling of this matter vnto you my Companions ASER. Intemperance saith Plato was so called of the ancients bicause that peruerse cruell great and variable beast Lust exerciseth therein more power than it ought as also disordered ioy doth the like Whereupon it commeth that intemperate men enioying the pleasure of their senses imagine falsely that true felicitie accompanieth them therein But truly whosoeuer obeieth bodilie pleasures serueth most cruell tyrants AMANA Nature said Architas hath giuen no plague more pernitious hurtful than the pleasure of the body For wheras God hath bestowed vpon man nothing more excellent than the soule and reason there is none so great an enimie to this heauenlie gift as voluptuousnes bicause where luxuriousnes and concupiscence raigne there temperance can haue no place yea all vertues are banished out of their kingdome But let vs heare ARAM discourse of these vices heere propounded vnto vs. ARAM. I red in Plato not long since that there were many sins which ought rather to be called punishments of other sins going before than sinnes According to the course and sequele of his speech if my memorie be good I thinke his meaning is that men suffering themselues to be ouertaken of vice in the beginning as it were in sport neuer take heed vnto themselues vntill they be wholie abandoned and giuen ouer as S. Paule saith to their vile affections and pleasures of their harts in all vncleannes and turbulent passions of ignominie and reproch Insomuch that after they haue opened the gate to their concupiscences and to the desires of the flesh of whooremongers couetous persons reuengers of their owne wrongs belly gods gluttons and from other lesse imperfections being notwithstanding foule and beastly they become Sodomites Church-robbers parricides Epicures Atheists and full of all execrable villanies which are comprehended vnder this word of intemperance Intemperance is very well defined of the philosophers to be an ouerflowing in voluptuousnes forcing and compelling all reason in such sort that no consideration of losse or hinderance is able to stay or keepe backe him that is through long custome infected with vice from betaking himselfe of set purpose and as a man would say willingly and desperately to the execution of all his desires and lusts as he that placeth his sole and soueraigne good therein seeking for no other contentation than in that thing which bringeth to him and to his senses delight and pleasure For this cause Aristotle distinguisheth betweene intemperance and incontinencie albeit many take them indifferently one for an other saying
a noble hart ought to labor but for one thing in this world namely to be great among his owne countreymen and to purchase fame renowne among strangers Which had been well spoken if he had added by Iustice and Vertue Was it not from the same fountaine of ambition that so hurtfull wars to both those Common-wealths of the Lacedemonians and Athenians the one being maisters of the sea and the other of the land tooke their beginning and thereby were both brought to ruine in the end Was it not the same cause of ambition in certaine particular men which procured the speedie returne of that good king Agesilaus to redresse the ciuill dissentions of Grecia when he was in Asia continuing those goodlie victories which he had against the Barbarians for the comfort and libertie of many Grecian cities O yee Grecians said that wise Prince being then verie sorowfull howe many more mischiefes doe yee procure to your selues than were procured vnto you by the Barbarians banded togither for your ouerthrow seeing yee are so vnhappie as to staye with your owne hands that good speede which conducted you to the top of felicitie and to turne backe into your owne entrailes those weapons which were so well guided against your enimies by calling backe the warre into your owne countrey from whence it was so happily banished The great and large scope of the Romane Empire ouer three partes of the world could not satisfie the ambition of Caesar and Pompey whilest the one could abide no equall and the other no superior insomuch that they omitted and forgat no meanes to increase their greatnes although it were with the charges of the Common-wealth As we may read among other things of Caesar who to ground vnderprop his power well for continuance gaue at one time to Paulus the Consul nine hundred thousand crownes for feare lest he should oppose himselfe against his enterprises and to Curio the Tribune he gaue fifteene hundred thousand crownes that he should take his part After the death of these two Princes that great dominion could no better content the Triumuirate namely Octauius Antonius and Lepidus who by force of armes ceased not to put their countrey to sword and fire vntill the soueraigne authoritie became resident in one alone But why should we seeke among the Ancients or amongst our neighbours for examples of the pernitious effects of this vice seing we haue so many at our owne gates Who kindled that fire in France which had taken hold of all the parts thereof and almost consumed it vtterly vnder the raigne of the Dukes of Orleans and Burgundy who stroue togither for the gouernment of the kingdome Were there not vpon the same occasion more than foure thousand men slaine in one daye within Paris the most of them being men of name at the instigation and procurement of the Duke of Burgundy who had taken possession thereof But alas the continuall and present remembrance of our late and vnspeakeable miseries procured chiefly from the same fountaine of ambition and knowne to women and children staieth me from seeking farther for testimonies of this our present matter Yea I feare greatly that we shall shortly see I would to God I might be deceiued the finall and intire ruine of our Monarchie which hath flourished as long as euer any did and continued longer vnuanquished of strangers For we see hir owne children bathing their hands in hir bloud and seeking to plucke out hir hart and intrailes and to cast them as a pray before hir enimies O how would Princes chase farre from them all ambitious persons if they were well instructed in vertue and in the knowledge of those euils which such men procure seeing it is impossible that any good counsell should proceed from them but onely such as tendeth to the aduancement of their priuate greatnes Now if ambition be the mother of ciuill warres is it not the same also of all other warres which are daily bred betweene Kings Princes through the desire of increasing their bounds of seazing vpon other mens territories to the treading downe oppression and ruine of their poore subiects and oftentimes of their owne estats Is it not ambition which blindeth men so that they are not content to be chiefe among a million of others ouer whom they command vnles they be equal or superior to one or two of those whom they know to be greater than themselues The desire of hauing more saith Plutark is a vice common to Princes and great Lords which by reason of ambition and desire to rule bringeth foorth in them oftentimes an vnsociable cruell and beastly nature And as Ennius saith there is no faith or assured societie in kingdomes For they whose greedines neither sea nor mountaines nor inhabitable deserts can staie and whose insatiable desire of hauing cannot be limited with those bounds which separate Asia from Europe how will they content themselues with their owne and not seeke to vsurpe that which belongeth to another especially when their confines and borders touch one another and are ioined so neere togither that nothing is betweene them It is impossible And in truth how soeuer they dissemble they purposely warre one with another watching continually for meanes to surprize and ouerreach each other But in outward shew they vse these two words of Peace and Warre as a peece of monie according as it shall make best for their purpose not for duties sake or vpon reason and iustice but for their owne profite and aduantage wickedly disguising in that manner the intermission and surceasing from the execution of their ill will and purpose with the holie name of iustice and amitie Princes therfore must not thinke it strange if somtime priuate men howbeit that doth not excuse them find the like dealing profitable vnto them according as it falleth out for their purpose For in so doing they do but imitate and follow them that are their maisters in all disloialtie treason and infidelitie thinking that he bestirreth himselfe who least of all obserueth that which equitie and iustice require This did Dionides the pirat fitly giue Alexander the Great to vnderstand when he asked of him why he troubled the whole sea and robbed euery one Know quoth he to him that thou and I are of one disposition and calling except in this that I am called a Pirate for skouring the seas with a few men and thou a prince bicause thou inuadest and spoilest euery where with great mightie armies But if thou wert Dionides and I Alexander it may be I should be a better prince than thou a good pirate With which free speech Alexander was so delighted that in stead of a guiltie man brought before him to be punished as was Dionides he made him one of his great captains But to continue our matter if Right say Ambitious men may be violated it is to be violated for a kingdom O speech ful of all impietie yea
desperate case Briefly to speake in a word Fortitude is the cause that neither for feare nor danger we turne aside from the path waie of vertue and iustice neither yet repent vs of well doing for any torment And thus it belongeth properly to this vertue to command chiefly ouer these two perturbations grounded vpon the opinion of euill namely Feare and Griefe as before we saw that Temperance exerciseth hir power ouer vnbrideled desire excessiue ioy Furthermore bicause they that naturally haue greater stomacks and more excellent spirits are desirous and greedie of honors power and glorie and seeing that an excessiue desire to rule and to excel others commonly groweth with the greatnes of the hart it is necessarie that this vnrulie affection should be moderated by the contempt of such things as are common to all men by nature And this also is a propertie belonging to this vertue of Fortitude which desiring the greatest and best things despiseth those that are base and abiect aspiring to celestiall and eternall things shunneth humane mortall things and iudgeth honors riches and worldlie goods an vnwoorthie recompence for his valiant acts Which is the who cause that whosoeuer hath this vertue of Fortitude perfectly if so great happines could be among mortall wights he remaineth free from all perturbations of the soule to enioy a blessed tranquillitie which togither with constancie procureth vnto him dignitie and reputation For this cause Cicero teacheth vs that they which giue themselues to the gouernment of affaires ought at least asmuch as Philosophers to make light account of temporall goods from whence proceedeth all the rest of our mindes yea they ought to striue to that end with greater care and labor than Philosophers do bicause it is easier for a Philosopher so to doe his life being lesse subiect to Fortune standing in lesse need of worldly Goods than doth that of Politicks And if any mishap befall them it toucheth the Philosopher a great deale lesse But whether it be in war or in ruling a Common-wealth or in the gouernment of a house there are alwaies means enough to exercise the works of Fortitude many times this vertue is most necessarie in things that seeme to be of smallest account Besides that honesty which we seeke after is perfected by the forces of the soule of which euery one hath great need not by those of the bodie I will not say that the firme knitting togither of the members and the good disposition of nature to sustaine manfully the iniuries of wether al kind of paine trauel without sicknes is not a good helpe towards the execution of noble enterprises only I say that it is not so necessarie but that many being troubled with a thousand ill dispositions in their persons especially such as were placed in offices of Captaines and Conductors of armies haue executed infinite great and glorious exploits surmounting all weakenes of their bodies through the magnanimitie of their hart Yea oftentimes they haue as it were constrained their bodies to change their nature that they might be made fit to execure whatsouer their wise spirite iudged to belong to dutie Was there euer any Captaine among the Romanes greater than Iulius Caesar Yet was he of a weake and tender complexion subiect to great head-aches and visited somtimes with the falling sicknes But in steed of vsing the weaknes of his bodie for a cloke to liue nicely and delicately he tooke the labors for warre for a fit medicine to cure the vntowardnes of his bodie fighting against his disease with continuall labor and exercise liuing soberly and lying for the most part in the open aire which made him to be so much the more admired and loued of his souldiers As it may appeere by that which is reported of him that being one daye by reason of great storme and tempest greatly vrged with want of lodging in a plaine where there was but one little cottage belonging to a Peasant which had but one chamber he commanded that Oppius one of his Captaines who was il at ease should be lodged there as for himselfe he laye abroad with the rest saying that the most honorable places were to be appointed for the greatest and the most necessarie for such as were most diseased What shall we say of those who being impotent in some part of their members did notwithstanding not diminish in any sort but augment the glorie of their doings Marcus Sergius a Romane Captaine hauing lost his right hand in a battell practised so well with the left hand that afterward in an armie he chalenged foure of his enimies one after another and ouercame them such force hath a good hart that it can doe more in one onely little member than a man well made and fashioned in all points that hath but a cowardly hart We might heere alleadge infinite examples whereof histories are full of all those effects which we said were brought foorth by the vertue of Fortitude in noble minds but we will content our selues to touch certaine generals that were of notable and politike prowes and valure and constant in their resolutions aswell for shortnes sake as also bicause heereafter we shall haue further occasion to bring others in sight when we handle more at large the parts and branches that proceed from this happie stalke of Fortitude Fabius the Greatest commeth first to my remembrance to prooue that the resolution of a courageous hart grounded vpon knowledge and the discourse of reason is firme and immutable This Captaine of the Romane armie being sent into the field to resist the furie and violence of Hannibal who being Captaine of the Carthaginians was entred into Italy with great force determined for the publike welfare and necessitie to delay and prolong the warre and not to hazard a battell but with great aduantage Whereupon certaine told him that his owne men called him Hannibals schoolemaister and that he was iested at with many other opprobrious speeches as one that had small valure and courage in him and therfore they counselled him to fight to the end he might not incurre any more such reprehensions and obloquies I should be quoth he againe to them a greater Coward than now I am thought to be if I should forsake my deliberation necessarie for the common welfare and safetie for feare of their girding speeches and bolts of mockerie and obey those to the ruine of my countrey whom I ought to command And in deed afterward he gaue great tokens of his vnspeakeable valure being sent with three hundred men onely to encounter with the said Hannibal and seeing that he must of necessitie fight for the safetie of the Common-wealth after all his men were slaine and himselfe hurt to death he rushed against Hannibal with so great violence and force of courage that he tooke from him the diademe or frontlet which he had about his head and died with that about him Pompey who by
the renowme of his high enterprises got to himselfe the surname of Great being readie to saile by sea and to passe into Italy whether he was to cary a certaine quantitie of wheate to meete with a famine according to the commission giuen him of the Senate there arose a very great tempest insomuch that the mariners made great doubt to weigh vp their anchors But his resolution beeing well made before and grounded vpon the dutie of a noble hart he tooke shipping first of all and caused the sailes to be spread in the wind saying with a loud and cleare voice It is necessarie that I go but not necessarie that I liue Caius Marius who was six times Consul being in war against the Allies of the Romanes that were reuolted inclosed himselfe one day with trenches and suffered a thousand iniuries and vaunting speeches both of his enimies and of his owne men but yet cared nothing at all for them nor went from his deliberation which was that he would not fight at that time And when Publius Sillo one of the chiefe captaines of the enimie cried vnto him saying If thou art such a great Captaine Marius as men report of thee come out of thy campe to battell Nay doe thou quoth he againe vnto him if thou art a great Captaine compell me to come out to battell in despite of my teeth Afterward this Marius shewed himselfe to be one of the most valiant and courageous men of his time aswell in the discomfiture of the said enemies as in two other battels which he wan against the barbarous Cimbrians and Flemings who were entred into Italy to inhabite there in one of which battels about a hundred thousand fighting men were slaine in the field Agis king of Lacedemonia being resolued to fight his Councellors told him that there was no reason so to doe bicause his enemies were ten against one It must needs be quoth this courageous Prince that he which will command many must fight also against many We are enough to put naughtie men to flight The Lacedemonians vse not to aske what number there is of the enemies but onely where they are The answer which Dienecus made to one that told the Councell of Grecia that the multitude of the Barbarians was so great that their arrowes couered the sunne commeth neere to the courageous saying of king Agis For concluding with their opinion who perswaded to fight Dienecus made this answer Thou tellest vs very goodnewes For if the multitude of the Medes is such that they are able to hide the Sunne they will offer vs the meanes how to fight in the shadowe and not in the heate of the Sunne We may not heere passe ouer with silence the testimonie of inuincible Fortitude which alwaies findeth meanes to effect hir glorious purposes giuen by Themistocles when he saw the sundrie opinions of the Chieftaines of the Grecian armie vnder the leading of Euribiades the Lacedemonian touching the place where they should fight with Xerxes fleet The greatest part determined to forsake Salamis where they were at that time and to retire to Peloponnesus fearing the great force of their enimies who were about twelue hundred vessels whereas they themselues had but three hundred But Themistocles sent Sicinnus his childrens Schoolemaister secretly in a Sciffe towards the Persians aduertising them of the resolution which the Grecians had taken to flie faining as he made Xerxes beleeue that he fauored their side Vpon this watchword Xerxes sent part of his armie to the other side of Salamis Whereupon the Grecians considering that they were enuironed resolued and setled themselues as men constrained to fight and in deed the victorie remained on their side to the confusion ouerthrow of their enemies who departed out of Grecia which otherwise would haue been greatly shaken had not Themistocles vsed this notable stratageme thereby to staie the shamefull flight of his Countreymen It was this vertue of Fortitude which caused Damindas the Lacedemonian to make this answer to one who told him that the Lacedemonians were in danger to suffer much mischiefe if they agreed not with Philip who was armed against the Grecians O my friend quoth he that art halfe a woman what euill can he cause vs to suffer seeing we make no account of death it selfe Dercyllides being sent from Sparta towards king Pyrrhus to know wherefore he marched with his armie vpon their borders and vnderstanding of him that he commanded them to receiue againe their king Cleonymus whome they had banished or else he would let them know that they were not more valiant than others alreadie subdued by him made this answer If thou art a God we feare thee not bicause we haue not offended thee but if thou art a man thou art no better than we The answer which certaine Polonian Embassadors made to Alexander the Great who threatned their countrey sheweth also the excellencie of their courage We are afraid quoth they to him but of one only thing namely least the skie should fall vpon vs. Thunder as Plato saith terrifieth children and threatnings fooles Anaxarchus being likewise threatned by the same Monarke that he should be hauged Threaten this quoth he to thy Courtiers who feare death for my part I care not whether I rot in the ground or aboue ground Socrates also answered thus to one that asked him whether he were not ashamed to commit any thing that would procure his death My friend thou doest not well to thinke that a vertuous man ought to make any account either of danger or of death or to consider any other thing in all his actions than this whether they are iust or vniust good or bad If we desire to see farther what effects Fortitude bringeth foorth in the greatest and most sinister dangers Marcus Crassus shal serue vs for sufficient proofe When he was three skore yeeres of age albeit he had receiued the foile in a battell against the Parthians wherein the greatest part of his armie was destroied and his sonne being Captaine of a thousand men was slaine whose death seemed more to astonish the rest of his men than anye other danger yet he shewed himselfe in this mishap more vertuous than euer before went through all his bands crying aloud in this manner It is I alone my friends whome the sorow and griefe of this losse ought to touch But the greatnes of the fortune and glorie of Rome remaineth whole and inuincible as long as ye stand on your feete Notwithstanding if yee haue any compassion of mee seeing mee loose so valiant and vertuous a sonne I praye you shewe the same by changing it into wrath against your enemies to take vengeance of their crueltie and be not abashed for any mishap befallen vs for great thinges are not gotten without losse Patience in trauels and Constancie in aduersities haue brought the Romane Empire to that greatnes of power wherein it is now
was nothing but vertue could tame it and that men furnished therewith behaued themselues constantly and courageously in both kinds of fortune Vertue saith Cicero abideth calme and quiet in the greatest tempest and although she be driuen into exile yet she stirreth not out of hir place and countrey but shineth so alwaies of hir selfe that she cannot be soiled with the spots of an other This excellent Orator and Philosopher giueth vs also wholesome counsell to oppose against the dangerous effects that are to be feared in prosperitie When we are saith he in best estate we must vse the counsell of our friends more than we do commonly and as long as it continueth we are greatly to beware that we open not our eares to flatterers who are the plague destruction of the greater sort bicause all their labor is to propound vnto vs occasions meanes to enioy delights and pleasures and to shew out selues to be proud and arrogant during the time of our prosperitie to the end we should put good men farre from vs and reserue to them onely that authority wherein they are setled Whereas on the contrarie side our true friends would lead vs backe to consider the inconstancie of humane things to the ende that we abuse not our felicitie but behaue our selues as a wise Pilote doth who alwayes feareth a smiling calmnesse in the maine sea Which consideration maketh a mā constant and resolute to beare and indure all sinister chaunces and not so ready and easie to be deceiued bicause he always feareth and distrusteth fortune Let vs now come to examples of that which we haue here alleaged As touching the pernitious effects of ouer great prosperitie they may well be noted in Alexander the great who although he was indued with notable and rare vertues yet could not vse moderately the great good speed and happy successe of all his enterprises but being conquered of the Persian delights gaue himselfe ouer to commit many insolencies and then filled with prefumption and pride would haue been worshipped Iulius Caesar being ascended into the highest degree of fauourable fortune that he could desire and lending his eare ouer freely to flatterers would be called and declared a king which name was most odious to the Romanes since the time that Tarquinius was banished as we mentioned before and retained alwayes to himselfe the authoritie and power of a Dictator which before continued but a certaine time He bestowed the publike offices and places of honor vpon whō he thought good whereof proceeded the ill will of his subiects and in the end his destruction The greatnesse of Pompey was that which afterward ouerthrew him For imploying his credite to fauour others vniustly it fell out to him as to cities that suffer their enemies to enter euen into their strongest places diminishing so much of their own forces as they adde to others that wish them no good Which thing Sylla the Dictator did very notably giue him to vnderstand when he sawe that Pompey by his countenance and fauour had brought Lepidus a wicked man to the dignitie of Confulship I see well quoth Sylla to him thou art very glad bicause thou hast preuailed in this suit and sure thou hast great cause so to be For it is a goodly matter and the point of a noble man to be so gratious with the people that through thy fauour Lepidus the wickeddest man in the world hath caried away the Consulship before Catullus the honestest man in all the citie But I aduise thee to beware of sleeping now and to haue a vigilant eie to thy busines bicause thou hast armed made strong an aduersarie against thy selfe Wherof Pompey had experience afterward in those warres which Lepidus raised against whome he was sent by the Senate and in the end obtained the victorie But the fauour he bare to Caesar entring vpon the gouernment of publike affairs came not to that passe For he was afterward ouerthrowne by the same meanes wherewith he had strengthned Caesar against others Out of which we may draw an excellent doctrine for all that are placed in authoritie or that haue the eares of great men at commandement that they neuer cause the wicked to be aduanced For as the worme that is bred at the foote of a tree groweth with it and in the end destroieth it so a wicked man aduanced by the fauour of one greater than himselfe becommeth afterward vnthankfull and treacherous vnto him This mooued Archidamides the Lacedemonian to answer in this sort one that commended Charilaüs king of Sparta bicause he shewed himselfe alike courteous to all But how deserueth that man praise who sheweth himselfe courteous towards the wicked Now to returne to our speech touching the effects of prosperitie not ruled by the reason of true prudence what is more hatefull or hath at any time beene more hurtfull to men than pride Which as Plato saith dwelleth with solitarines that is to say is so hated that in the end it is forsaken of all the world And whereof is it bred sooner than of prosperitie Which that wise man excellent Romane captaine Paulus Aemilius knowing ful well after the victorie gotten by him against Perses king of Macedonia being desirous to admonish the men of warre that were in his armie and to keepe them within the compasse of their dutie he vsed these or the like speeches vnto them Is there any man now my friends and companions that ought to waxe proud and to glorie in the profperitie of his affaires if he hath lucke to his liking and not rather to feare the ficklenes of fortune who euen at this present setteth before our eies such a notable example of the common frailtie of man subiect to the ordinarie course of fatall destinie which turneth about continually You see how in the moment of an houre we haue beaten downe and put vnder our feete the house of Alexander the Great who was the mightiest and most redoubted Prince in the world You see a King not long since followed and accompanied with so many thousands of fighting men brought to such miserie that being prisoner he must receiue his meate and drinke at the hands of his enemies Ought we to trust more to our good hap and to thinke it more firme and assured Truly no. And therefore let vs learne to humble our selues and to restraine this foolish arrogancie proud insolencie wherewith our youth seemeth to be ouercome by reason of the victorie obtained by vs and let vs expect to what end and issue fortune will guide the enuie of this present prosperitie Marcus Aurelius after he had vanquished Popilion Generall of the Parthians spake thus vnto him I tell thee of a truth that I stand in greater feare of fortune at this present than I did before the battell For she careth not so much to ouertake the conquered as to subdue and vanquish the Conquerors This selfe same consideration caused Philip
monie For they that are touched with this maladie follow after riches with such zeale as if they supposed that when they had gotten them no more euill should come neere them And then also they set so light by those which they haue that they burne with the desire of hauing more How then shall we call that good which hath no end or measure Or that which being gotten is the beginning of a further desire to haue more A horse saith Epictetus is not said to be better bicause he hath eaten more than another or bicause he hath a gilt harnesse but bicause he is stronger swifter and better made for euery beast is accounted of according to his vertue And shall a man be esteemed according to his riches ancestors and beautie If any man thinke that his old age shall be borne more easilie by the meanes of riches he deceiueth himselfe For they may well cause him to enioy the hurtfull pleasures of the bodie but cannot take from him sadnes horror and feare of death nay rather they double his griefe when he thinketh that he must leaue and forsake them In this short discourse taken from ancient men the vanitie of riches appeereth sufficiently vnto vs as also the hurtfull effects that flow from them if they be not ruled by the reason of true prudence Heereafter we are to see how we may vse those riches wel which God putteth into our hands being iustly gotten by vs which is a part of iustice whereof we are to intreat In the meane time that we fasten not our harts to so friuolous and vaine a thing let vs call to mind some examples of wise and famous men woorthie of immortall renowne who haue altogither contemned eschewed and despised the couetous desire and hoording vp of riches as the plague and vnauoidable ruine of the soule We read of Marcus Curius a Romane Consul the first of his time that receiued thrice the dignitie of triumphing for the notable victories which he obtained in the honor of his countrey that he made so small account of worldlie riches that all his possession was but a little farme in the countrey soryly built wherein he continued for the most part when publike affaires suffered him labouring and tilling himselfe that little ground which he had there And when certaine Embassadors vpon a day came to visite him they found him in his chimney dressing of reddish for his supper And when they presented him with a great summe of monie from their Comminaltie he refused it saying that they which contented themselues with such an ordinarie as his was had no need of it and that he thought it farre more honorable to command them that had gold than to haue it Phocion the Athenian being visited with Embassadors from Alexander they presented him with a hundred Talents being in value three score thousand crownes which this Monarch sent vnto him for a gift Phocion demanding the cause why seeing there were so many Athenians besides him they answered bicause their maister iudged him onely among all the rest to be a vertuous and good man Then quoth he let him suffer me both to seeme and to be so in deede and carie his present backe againe to him Notwithstanding he was needie as may be prooued by the answer which he made to the Athenian Councell who demanded a voluntarie contribution of euery one towards a sacrifice And when there were no moe left to contribute but he they were verie importunate with him to giue somewhat It were a shame for me said he vnto them to giue you monie before I haue paied this man and therewithall he shewed one vnto them that had lent him a certaine summe of monie Philopaemen Generall of the Achaians hauing procured a league of amitie betweene the citie of Sparta his owne the Lacedemonians sent him a present of sixe score Talents which were woorth three score and twelue thousand crownes But refusing it he went purposely to Sparta where he declared to the Councell that they ought not to corrupt and win honest men or their friends with monie seeing in their need they might be assured of thē and vse their vertue freely without cost but that they were to buy and gaine with hired rewards the wicked such as by their seditious orations in the Senate house vsed to raise mutinies and to set the citie on fire to the end that their mouthes being stopped by gifts they might procure lesse trouble to the gouernment of the Common-wealth A great Lord of Persia comming from his countrey to Athens and perceiuing that he stood in great neede of the aid and fauour of Cimon who was one of the chiefe in the citie he presented vnto him two cups that were both full the one of Dariques of gold the other of siluer Dariques This wise Grecian beginning to smile demanded of him whether of the twaine he had rather haue him to be his friend or his hireling The Persian answered that he had a great deale rather haue him his friend Then said Cimon carie backe againe thy gold and siluer For if I be thy friend it will be alwaies at my commandement to vse as often as I shall neede Anacreon hauing receiued of Polycrates fiue Talents for a gift was so much troubled for the space of two nights with care how he might keepe them and about what to imploy them best that he caried them backe againe saying that they were not woorth the paines which he had alrcadie taken for them Xenocrates refused thirtie thousand crownes of Alexander sent vnto him for a present saying that he had no neede of them What quoth Alexander hath he neuer a friend For mine owne part I am sure that all king Darius treasure will scarce suffice me to distribute among my friends Socrates being sent for by king Archelaüs to come vnto him who promised him great riches sent him word that a measure of floure was sold in Athens for a Double and that water cost nothing And although it seemeth quoth this Philosopher that I haue not goods enough yet I haue enough seeyng I am contented therewith What is necessarie sayd Menander for the vse of our life besides these two things Bread and Water Bias flying out of his citie which he foresawe would be besieged without hope of rescue would not lode himselfe with his wealth as others did And being demaunded the cause why I cary quoth he all my goods with me meaning the inuisible gifts graces of his mind Truly gold and siluer are nothing but dust and precious stones but the grauell of the sea And as Pythagoras said we ought to perswade our selues that those riches are not ours which are not inclosed in our soule According to which saying Socrates when he saw that Alcibiades waxed arrogant bicause of the great quantitie of ground which he possessed shewed him an vniuersall Map of the world and asked him whether he knew
sort that these should be accounted miserable and wretched Take away saith Lactantius insolencie and boasting from rich men and there will be no difference betweene a poore man and a rich And if he that made the condition both of the one the other and that prouideth nourishment for vnreasonable creatures doth distribute vnto vs as much as he knoweth in his eternall prescience and foreknowledge to be needfull for vs whereof shall we complaine except as inheritors of that damnable vice of ingratitud from the first man we forget so many benefits receiued as also those that are dailie profered and promised vnto vs of his heauenlie goodnes and grace In a feast said Epictetus we content our selues with that which is set before vs thinking it an impudent and vile part to aske any other thing of him that entertaineth vs. And how can we be so impudent and shameles in this world as to aske those things of God which he will not giue vs and not content our selues with the vse of that which he hath liberally freely bestowed vpon vs But there is a further matter For if we would consider the great yea vnspeakable fruits which pouertie bringeth with hir whereof she is able to make vs partakers in this life without doubt she will be found to be a thousand times more happie than riches Pouertie saith Aristophanes is the mistres of manners Pouertie said Archesilaus seemeth to be sharpe hard troublesome but she is nurse to a good linage as she that acquainteth hir selfe with frugalitie and abstinence In a word she is a schoole of vertue Wealth is full of wickednes saith Euripides but pouertie is accompanied with wisedome and all honest men are contented with necessarie things And if they offer sacrifice to the Gods with a little incense in the paulme of their hand they are for the most part sooner heard than they that kill many beastes for sacrifice For as Menander saith the poore are vnder the protection of God and it is better to possesse a little wealth with ioy than a great deale with fadnes To desire but a little said Democritus maketh pouertie equall with riches and if thou desirest not many things a little will seeme to thee to be very great Pouertie said Anaximenus maketh the spirite more sharpe and men more excellent in all things belonging to this life For she is a very good mistres of knowledge and skill The life of poore men said Aristonymus is like to a nauigation made alongst the shore of some sea but the life of rich men to that which is in the maine sea For the first sort may easily cast anchor come a shore and saue themselues whereas the others cannot do so bicause they are no more in their owne power but in fortunes Flie not from pouertie said Hipsaeus but from iniustice and wrong For no man was euer punished bicause he was poore but many bicause they were vniust Neither is a mans life commended bicause he is rich but bicause he is iust Hunger saith Plutark neuer engendreth adult erie nor want of monie lust so that pouertie is a short kind of temperance If thou wert borne among the Persians said Epictetus thou wouldest not wish to dwell in Grecia but to liue there in a happie estate Art thou not then a very foole bicause thou seekest not rather to liue happily in pouertie seeing thou art borne therein than to striue with so great labor for riches that thou maist liue As it is better to lie downe in a very little bed with health than in a great and large bed being sicke so is it a great deale better to liue in rest with a little wealth than in trauell and care with aboundance For neither pouertie procureth trouble nor riches driueth away feare but reason is that which causeth men neither to desire riches nor to feare pouertie If other things saith Bion the wise could speake aswell as we and were licenced to dispute with vs might not pouertie iustly say vnto vs after this manner O man wherefore fightest thou against me Why art thou become my enemie Haue I robbed thee of any thing Haue I beene the cause that thou hast receiued any iniurie or haue I depriued thee of any good thing Haue I taken from thee either Prudence Iustice or Fortitude But thou fearest least necessarie things should faile thee What Are not the waies full of herbs and fruits and the fountaines of water Hast thou not as many beds as the earth is great and as many couerlets and mattresses as there are leaues Hast thou not a good Cooke by my meanes that maketh good sauce for thee in hunger And he that is a thirst doth he not take very great pleasure in drinking Doest thou thinke that a man shall die for hunger bicause he hath no tart or for thirst if he haue not very delicate wine cooled with snow All such things are but for delicacie and nicenes Doest thou want a house when there is so many goodly Churches in cities What answer could be made to pouertie if she should speake thus Truly he that hath vertue possesseth all goods bicause that alone maketh men happie which may be spoken aswell of a poore man as of a rich For they sayd Thales that thinke pouertie hindreth Philosophie and that riches are a helpe vnto it greatly deceiue themselues For proofe that it is not so how many moe haue withdrawne themselues from studie through riches thā through pouertie Do we not see that the poorest study Philosophy best which the welthy bicause of their mony many matters cānot do For this cause Theognis said very well that many mo haue perished through surfetting than through hunger And to let you know that pouertie is more happy better esteemed of than riches consider the example of Aristides surnamed the Iust who being very poore was chosen to leuie and to gather tribute before all the rich men in Athens And Callias the richest man of all the Athenians sought by all means to haue his friendship whereas the other made no great account of him Epaminondas was not called half a God nor Lycurgus a Sauiour bicause they abounded in wealth and were slaues to their passions but bicause they profited their countrey exceedingly and were content with their pouertie Therefore we may gather out of the sayings of so many great and vertuous men an assured testimonie of the benefit and profit that commonly foloweth the condition of poore men And for inuincible proofes haue we not the examples of the liues of infinite Sages and learned Philosophers who willingly forsaking wholy contemning riches went to the Academy commonly called the Schoole of Pouertie there to enioy the treasures of wisdome and vertue Yea which is more we find that pouertie hath been the only and principal cause of enriching many with this vnspeakable treasure according to that saying of Aristotle that calamitie is oftentimes the occasion of vertue
Zeno founder of the Stoicall Academic after he had possessed much wealth and suffred many losses had no more left but one ship of merchandise which being cast away he vttred this speech thou doest well Fortune to bring me to the studie of Philosophie wherein he continued euer after The exile banishment of Diogenes driuen from his countrey was the cause and beginning of his studie of Philosophie And if any man thinke it a difficult and strange matter that a poore man should be skilfull seeing that whilest he studieth he must haue wherewith to nourish his body let vs see what Cleanthes answered to Antigonus king of Macedonia who asked him if he turned the milstone always Yea sir sayd he I turne it yet about to get my liuing but forsake not Philosophie for all that How great and noble was the mind of that man who after his labour wrote of the nature of god and of the heauens with the same hand wherwith he turned about the milstone Others say that he got his liuing by drawing water for a gardiner about which he bestowed the night onely that he might spend the day in hearing the Philosophers dispute This man calleth to my remembrance two other Philosophers named Menedemus and Asclepiades who being accused before the Areopagites the chief iudges in Athens as idle persons hauing no goods in possession and being willed to declare how they liued their answer was that inquirie should be made of their Hoste who was a Baker This man being called said that they bestowed the whole day in the study of letters and the night in sifting and boulting his meale for which he gaue each of them a peece of money whereof they liued But what These ancient Sages wanted but few things to liue withall seeing the most of them contented themselues with bread and water and many times with herbes and fruites in stead of bread and so Pythagoras always liued And yet they found so great contentation and felicitie in such a life that one Philoxenus hauing as yet but tasted of the first fruits of this profession of study and being of that number which was sent by the Athenians to inhabite a new citie in Sicilia wherein a good house with great commodities to liue at ease fell to him for his part and seeing that delicacie pleasure and idlenes without any exercise of letters raigned in those quarters he forsook all returned to Athens saying by the gods these goods shall not destroy me but I will rather destroy them All these fruits which are noted to be in pouertie gaue occasion to an ancient man to say that it was a vertue of Fortitude to sustaine pouertie patiently but to desire it was the praise of wisedom Now forasmuch as it will be very hard if not altogither impossible notwithstanding all reason that can be alleaged to men to dispossesse them of the hatred and feare of pouertie which naturally they shun let vs learne of the ancients who ought to account himselfe poore that we abuse no more this word Pouertie Diogenes was vpon a time visited by Alexander who sayd vnto him I see well Diogenes that thou art poore and hast need of many things therfore aske of me what thou wilt and I will giue it thee Whereunto this excellent Philosopher despising such offers of goods whereof he stood not in need answered Whether of vs twaine Alexander seemeth to thee to haue most need and therfore poorest either I that desire nothing but my pile of wood and a litle bread or thou who being king of Macedonta doest hazard thy selfe to so many dangers to inlarge thy kingdom in so much that the whole world will hardly suffice to bound thy ambition and to content thy couetousnes The Monarch so greatly admired the magnanimitie of this man that he vttered these wordes with a loud voyce If I were not Alexander I would be Diogenes Marius a Consul of Rome distributing land among his countreymen gaue to euery one fourteen Acres onely And vnderstanding that some were not contented therewith but demanded more I would to God quoth he then that no Roman would care for any more land than would suffice to nourish him So goodly and commendable a matter was it esteemed of these wise men to be content with a litle with that which is sufficient rather than to thinke those men onely rich that were furnished with store of wealth And to say truth seeing God alone simply and absolutely standeth not in need of any thing whatsoeuer it may easily be presupposed that the most excellent vertue of man and that which commeth neerest to the diuine nature consisteth in causing a man to stand in need of fewest things This is that which Socrates sayd That to desire nothing meaning worldly things is in some sort to resemble God And how can we call him poore whose soule is inriched with so many great and rare perfections Cicero writing to Atticus sayd That a friend was bound to wish but three things vnto his friend namely That he be healthie that he be well accounted of and that he be not needie Now that all these things are found in a temperate and noble minded man we may learne by the effects of Sobrietie whereof we haue heretofore discoursed and by those of honor which is neuer separated from vertue no more than the shadow is from the body And as for the necessarie vse of foode and raiment it is not wanting to them that stand most in need thereof as we haue alreadie touched it in our present speech so a vertuous mā cannot be called poore But let vs yeeld a litle to the commō opinion of worldlings that pouertie and want of earthly riches is odious and contemptible yet that pouertie onely which proceedeth of slouth idlenes and ignorance or otherwise of foolish expences of riot and superfluitie may be said to be full of reproch and shame and is to be shunned For when pouertie is found in an honest painfull diligent iust valiant and wise man it serueth for a great proofe of his magnanimitie and greatnes of courage bicause he hath set his mind vpon great and high matters and not vpon such small and vile things as the riches of the world are Amongst many others of this number we may say that Aristides was being captaine and gouernor of the Athenian estate as we haue alredy mentioned who after many excellent great offices which he bare to the good of his countrey was so smally enriched therby that being dead all his goods would not suffice to bury him He vsed to say that none ought to be ashamed of pouerty but they that were poore against their wil that it was a rarer matter worthy of greater praise to sustain pouerty vertuously and with a noble mind than to know how to vse riches well And so pouertie is neuer accompanied with shame except it be to them
necessarily a continuall rest to preserue it well vsing that goodly pretence bicause they would not be troubled with mo matters thā needs they must especially with those which concerne publike commoditie as also bicause they would not take paines in the studie of wisedome they cannot be better compared than to such as will not vse their eies in beholding any thing that they might keepe them the better neither will speake at all to preserue their voyce well Euery kind of life hath both sicknesse and health but a sound man cannot take a better course to preserue his health than to imploy himselfe in the practise of many good and honest duties of humanitie Yea we must yet go farther and say with Socrates that diseased men ought not to be so carefull of their health that they leaue the studie and exercise of vertue seeing we are to make but small account of death it selfe And therefore Plutarke is very earnest against this Epicurian sentence Hide thy life which was set downe by Neocles brother to Epicurus meaning thereby to perswade them that would liue happily not to intermeddle with any publike matter But contrarywise saith this Philosopher it is dishonest to liue so that no man may know any thing Art thou vicious shew thy selfe to those that are able to admonish to correct to cure thee that so thou mayst amend repent If in the knowledge of nature thou hast learned by songs to prayse God his iustice and heauenly prouidence or in moral knowledge to commend the law humane societie the gouernment of the common-wealth and therein to respect honour not profite hide not this talent but teach it others and giue thy selfe an example vnto them of well doing and of profiting euery one O diuine counsail proceeding out of the mouth of an Ethnike as necessarie to be practised at this day as we see it contemned of so many wise worldings who say they haue the absolute and sound reformation of our estates of France in their head but that as yet there is no time to speake of it Thus some liue idlely and like to Recluses bicause they will take no paine and others do worse in maintaining the corruptiō of the estate and in cleauing wittingly to the destruction thereof But let vs proceed to looke vpon the fruits of idlenes It is of that fountaine whereof cursed ignorance drinketh and maintaineth hir selfe and from thence flow all pleasures folowed with bitternes griefe which withdraw vs from all vertuous occupations to imploy our selues about all kinds of trifles that are neither good honest nor profitable but rather hurtfull and very pernitious Of which number we may note gaming which is as common amongst vs and as blame-worthie as any other imperfection seeing hir foundation is laid vpon lucre and couetousnes or els vpon the losse of time Those cursed effects which it bringeth forth daily as quarels murders blasphemies cogging ouerthrow of houses and families do sufficiently testifie vnto vs the infamous nature thereof Likewise it hath bin so abhorred of the ancient Sages that Chilon being sent from Lacedemonia to Corinth to intreat of a league between those two peoples finding the rulers playing at dice returned back again and would not speake of his commission saying that he would not staine the glory of the Spartanes with so great an ignominie as to ioine thē in society with dice-plaiers How many happy ages haue our forefathers passed ouer yet neuer heard word of so vnhappy an exercise And some say that the Lydiās were the first inuēters of games but it was whē their countrey was brought into great necessitie of victuals to the end that by playing they might find some help and meane to sustaine and to resist hunger the better by spending euery other day in gaming without any meate Which they continued for the space of twentie and eight yeeres preseruing their country by that means from a generall famine through the great sparing of their prouision But now a daies we see that men are so farre from recompencing the fault of so vile an occupation by fasting that contrary wise it is followed with all kind of dissolutenes gluttonie riot and superfluitie And this is seene too much in these new faculties of carelesse men who haue taught vs this goodly prouerbe That a man were better loose than be idle But if they knew their inestimable losse not of mony which they abuse but of the richest and most precious thing that may be spent and which can neuer be recouered I meane of time they would speake cleane contrary That to loose is worse than to be idle bicause it is ioined with a naughtie action which of necessitie turneth to the detriment of himselfe or of his neighbor oftentimes of both Among many goodly and holy ordinances which Alphonsus sonne of Ferdinando king of Spaine caused those knights to obserue which he made of the order of the band himself and all his children being of the same order this was straightly kept that no knight should presume to play for any money at cardes or dice or giue his consent to any such play in his house vpon paine of forfeiting his wages for one moneth and himselfe to be forbidden another moneth and a halfe from entring into the kings palace But bicause the nature of man is not able to abide continuall labor and occasion of businesse is not alwaies offred it shall be lawfull for vs according to the precept of Plato his Academie to bestow our leasure vpon some honest pastime and game of moderate pleasure that is not far separated from study or vertue which will not be blame-worthie in vs so we vse it as we do rest or sleepe after we haue dispatched and ended graue serious affaires according to the gift and facultie of our spirits Moreouer let vs propound to our selues for example the liues of so many famous and graue men who both in youth and age laboured to do good and to profit euery one esteeming it great honor to end their daies in such a commendable exercise according to that saying of Erasmus That in vaine men follow that which is good and striue to do well if they stand still before the end of their daies For that man looseth his time in running swiftly who fainteth before he come to the end of his race Nothing will be vnpossible to thee saith the same author so that thy hart faint not Not to go forward in the way of the Lord is all one with turning backeward yea it were better neuer to begin than not to perseuer vnto the end This also is that which Cicero teacheth vs that it is not sufficient to know what ought to be done but we must abide firme and stedfast in that wherin vpon aduised good counsell we are once resolued And though we are out of hope of attaining to perfection yet we must striue to come vnto it
this is to be farre separated from the commendable end and good vse of riches wherof all that we haue ouer and aboue our necessitie ought to be imploied in the seruice of the common-wealth in relieuing the poore diseased afflicted and prisoners in procuring the good bringing vp of youth and generally in exercising all other deeds of pietie accounting it great gaine to helpe the poore seeing God is the rewarder therof Amongst the ancient Romanes there was a law kept inuiolably That no man should presume to make a publike feast except before he had prouided for all the poore of his quarter And they accounted it a great shame and offence to the common-wealth to see any man beg in the streets Therefore Plato said that where there are beggers in a towne there are also thieues church-robbers Now if we that beare the name of Christians and acknowledge the poore to be members of Iesus Christ are not ashamed to banquet and feast when as in the meane time the needy crie at our gates and almost die of hunger doe we not thinke that these Heathen men shall rise in iudgement before that great and iust Iudge to accuse and condemne vs as thieues and church-robbers and chieflie them that maintaine their delights and pleasure with the goods of the poore towards whom the liberall distribution of our owne wealth especially ought to be extended both by the lawe of God and man We must feede the poore and not kill them but to denie them nourishment or to driue them from vs is to kill them For this cause Epaminondas captaine generall of the Thebanes hauing knowledge of a very rich man that had no care of the poore in the towne sent a poore needie fellow vnto him and commanded him vnder great penaltie to giue presently without faile 600. crownes to that poore man The citizen hearing this commandement came vnto him to know the occasion and cause thereof It is quoth Epaminondas bicause this man being honest is poore and thou which hast robbed greatly the common-wealth art rich compelling him thereupon to be liberall in despite of his teeth So carefull were the ancients to helpe them that had need and to shew thēselues enimies vnto them that made no account of the poore But if we should diligently search all histories and deeds of famous men yet could we not find a more notable example or worthy to be folowed than that of Cimon the Athenian who hauing gottē great wealth honorably both for himself and his country by the taking and ouerthrow of many Barbarians and townes belonging vnto them knew neuerthelesse how to bestow it liberally with greater glory and honor by relieuing all his poore countreymen to whom his house was as an hospitall wherein they were all nourished and fed at an ordinarie that was common to so many as would come thither which was furnished not with daintie and delicate fare thereby to occasion rich folks to seeke it out but with many common sorts of victuals in all plentie and abundance and that for a great number of persons This he did chiefly as he sayd to the end that poore honest men might haue the more leasure to imploy themselues about the affaires seruice of the common-wealth and not be diuerted from that through trauell and care to get their liuing by the exercise of handicrafts Besides he caused all the inclosures hedges and ditches of his lands and inheritance to be taken away that strangers which passed by and his owne countreymen that wanted might take of the fruits that were there according to their necessitie Now if this vertue of liberalitie be praise-woorthie in all persons that vse it well according to their abilitie it is most of all necessarie honorable and profitable for kings and princes heads and captains of armies gouernours of estates and common-wealths as that which procureth vnto them more than any other thing the good will of euery one wherein the chiefe strength and stay of their greatnesse consisteth But withall they haue great need of prudence and iustice especially soueraigne princes to distribute liberally and according to harmonicall proportion their giftes graces and good turnes whether they be estates offices benefices knighthoods exemptions freedoms and other recompences due as rewards to their subiects according as euery one deserueth It belongeth principally to them to keep religiously and from point to point the lawes of liberalitie marking well to whom they giue how much is giuen at what time in what place to what end and their owne abilitie that giue Moreouer a soueraigne must looke that recompence go before gift by rewarding first those that haue deserued before he giue to thē that haue deserued nothing and aboue all things he must measure his largesse at the foote of his power But when the iust rewards of subiects and honest men are distributed amongst the vicious strangers and vnwoorthy persons this is that which oftentimes setteth florishing estates on fire There is neuer any want of flatterers and of impudent crauers about kings whose onely drift is to sup vp the bloud gnaw the bones and sucke the marow of princes and their subiects to satisfie their foolish vnprofitable expences which are such and so great that a man is well at ease to giue them any thing they are alwais so needie and monylesse and sticke not to say that they neuer receiue good of their masters In the meane while they that haue best deserued of the common-wealth are commonly remooued furthest from their maiesties which commeth to passe both by the ignorance of the greater sort who make but a bad choice of seruants worthy their fauour as also bicause the honor credite of good men forbiddeth them by flattery and begging to seek after the rewards of vertue which should be offred vnto them But not to wander farre from our matter subiect let vs now consider of some notable examples of the Ancients concerning this wherof we haue here discoursed It was by his magnificall and incomparable liberalitie that Alexander the great made a way for his noble plat-formes whereby he became monarch of three parts of the world distributing liberally all his demains amongst the Macedonians as before we mentioned But what a notable testimonie of this his liberalitie did he giue a fresh when during the warre he caused this to be published in his armie that all they that were indebted vpon any occasion whatsoeuer should bring their creditors vnto him and he would discharge all their debts Which thing he likewise performed Moreouer who will not admire the liberality which all his life time he exercised towards the learned men of his time We read that he gaue at one time to his maister Aristotle 800. Talents which amount to 480000. crownes as a reward for his paines trauels and expences which he had beene at in describing the nature and propertie of liuing creatures He sent
little and little may growe and waxe ripe with age and hauing once taken roote may abide stedfast and firme to his liues ende For there is no time better and fitter to frame and to correct a prince in than when he knowes not that he is a prince For if he learne to obey from his infancie when hee commeth to the degree of commaunding he applieth and behaueth himselfe a great deale better with his subiectes than they that from their youth haue been alwayes free and exempted from subiection For by such education or bringing vp a Prince addeth to his royall greatnesse and to those fashions which great men haue by nature curtesie and gentle behauiour which cannot but bee very acceptable to his people and containe them more willingly in their duetie of obedience Therefore the prince in his yong and tender yeeres must bee diligently imployed not onely in with-drawing him from dishonest things but also in causing him to taste of vertue and to haue some preceptes thereof ingrauen in his brayne vntill in the ende he vnderstand all that belongeth to his duetie and whatsoeuer else may helpe him forward to leade a good and happie life If wise fathers with great care bring vp and instruct their children who shall succeed them but in the gouernment of some litle house in the countrey how much greater care and labor ought to be taken in teaching him well wisely who is to succeed in the Empire ouer much people and whose life ought to be the discipline of their maners conditiōs For this cause a good prudent prince must take pains in causing his children to be brought vp that he remember he hath begotten them for the Common-wealth not to serue his priuate affections Let him knowe that although he erect a great number of images builde sumptuous houses establish good and holesome Ordinaunces yet hee cannot leaue a more excellent marke of his than a sonne who degenerating in nothing representeth the goodnesse of his father by vertuous actions For he dieth not that leaueth behinde him a liuely image of himselfe And truely it is the perfection of an excellent prince to rule in such sorte as if hee would striue that his like for goodnesse and iustice coulde not succeed him and so to bring vp his children as if hee desired that they shoulde surmount him in vertue To this ende therefore let him make choice of all his subiectes yea from what place so euer and gather together vertuous and sincere men vncorrupted graue and such as are learned not onely through preceptes but also through the experience of manye thinges to whome their age breedeth reuerence their good lyfe authoritie and their mildenesse and gentle behauiour loue and good-will that the tender spirite of the yong prince offended with the rough dealyng of his teachers may not beginne to hate vertue before he know it nor yet corrupted through their ouer-great gentlenesse degenerate and starte aside where it ought not Wherefore Seneca sayde that a Prince his teacher must haue these two properties Hee must know how to chide without shaming of him and howe to prayse hym without flatterie Moreouer great care must bee had in making choice of all such persones whether they are men women children or seruauntes as come neere about him eyther to gouerne or to serue him or to keepe him companie For seeing the most part of mens mindes incline to euill and no childe is so happily borne but hee may bee corrupted through wicked education what may a man looke for but verie great euils from that Prince who of what nature and spirite soeuer he be presently after he is out of his cradle is stuffed with foolish and false opinions nourished among fonde women brought vp in the middest of lasciuious maidens of lost children vile and abiect flatterers of iuglers and plaiers of drunkards of dice-plaiers and inuenters of pleasures briefly in the midst of such caitifes amongst whom he heareth and learneth nothing but pleasure delight pride arrogancie couetousnesse choler and tirannie and so departing from this schoole takes vnto him the scepter and gouernment of his Empire Now he that is elected and chosen to vndertake such a great and difficult charge as is the education and instruction of the prince must bring with him a will woorthie the same considering with himselfe not how many benefices and bishoprikes he may get into his hands but how he may deliuer vp a vertuous prince vnto his countrey which putteth all hir trust and confidence in him Let him know that they do good to all the people who make them good mē whom the people cannot want as contrarywise they that marre and corrupt princes and kings ought to be an abomination to all men and punished no lesse than they that put poison not into a cup but into a common fountaine of which they see euery bodie drinke First then he that hath taken this charge vpō him must narowly note whereunto the nature of the prince is inclined seeing it may be knowen by some signes euen in his yong yeeres as whether he be not giuen to anger to ambition to desire of renowne to riot to play to couetousnes to reuenge to war or to tiranny After when he knoweth to what vice he is enclined he must fortifie his mind against the same with good opinions and with holie resolutions and labor to change his hart which is yet tender into a habite that is contrary to his nature And when he perceiueth that his tender nature inclineth to honest and commendable things or to such vices as will easilie change into vertues in princes well brought vp as to ambition and prodigalitie he must pricke him forward and helpe his good nature by diligent trauel Neither must he vse precepts onely to withdraw the prince from dishonest things to procure in him a longing desire to doe those things that are vertuous but he must labor to imprint and to roote them in his memory by diuers formes now by sentences another while by fables after by comparisons then by examples or by some notable sayings ingrauen in rings and painted in tables Briefly if there be any other thing wherein this age taketh pleasure let that be a meane to worke in him a taste of vertue Aboue al things speciall regard is to be had what opinions are ingrauen in the prince his braine For the whole order of his life proceedeth from that fountaine And therfore he must labor immediately to imprint in his mind holy and good opinions which may serue for a counter-poison against the cōmon errors of the ignorant people but chiefly to instruct him throughly in gods truth in that which concerneth his saluation He must perswade him that whatsoeuer is taught in the law of God belongeth to none so much as to the prince and that as he is to raign by him so likewise it belongeth to his office to raigne
children of Fraunce or to prouide for the gouernement of the kingdome or for other matters The kinges sate amongst them and were Presidentes except at one assemblie wherein was debated the noblest cause that euer was namelie to whome the kingdome of Fraunce belonged after the death of Charles the faire whether to his cosin Phillip de Valois or to Edward king of England his brother in lawe King Phillip was not President not beyng at that time king and besides a partie No doubt but the people receiue great benefit by this assemblie of estates For this good commeth vnto them that they may drawe neere to the kings person to make their complaints vnto him to present him their requests and to obtaine remedie and necessary prouision for redresse Whereby we may easily iudge that many who haue written of the duetie of magistrates and such like treatises are greatly deceiued in maintaining this That the estates of the people are aboue the prince which laieth open a gappe to the rebellions of subiects against their soueraign so that this opinion can haue no reason or good ground to leane vpon For if this were true the commō-wealth would not be a kingdom or monarchy but a pure Aristocratie as we haue declared heretofore Yea what shew of reason is there to maintaine this error seeing euery one in particular al in general bowe their knees before the king vse humbly requests supplications which his maiestie receiueth or reiecteth as it seemeth best vnto him But in this case we except a king that is captiue beside himself or in his infancie For that which is thē decreed by the estates is authorized as from the soueraign power of the prince Moreouer we may see what great good commeth to the king by the assemblie of his estates in the first speech which master Michael de l' Hospital Chauncellor of France made at the last assemblie of estates at Orleans Where he confuteth at large their opinion that say that the king after a sort diminisheth his power by taking aduise and counsell of his subiects seeing he is not bound so to doe as also that he maketh himselfe too familiar with them which breedeth contempt and abaseth his roiall dignitie But we may aunswere them as Theopompus king of Sparta did his wife who obiected this vnto him by way of reproch that by bringing in the Ephories and minglyng their gouernement with his he would leaue his authoritie and power lesse to his children than hee receiued it from his predecessours Nay said this Prince vnto hir I will leaue it greater bicause it shall be more assured The Emperour Aurelius sayd as much to his mother bicause hee freely heard euery one Besides as we see that in any great perill of sea or fire kindled to the daunger of publike profite no mans seruice or succour is reiected how base soeuer his calling is so it cannot but be profitable for the Estate when it is threatned with ruine and the affaires therof are of greatest importance to receiue the counsell of all that haue interest therein laying the opinions in the balance rather than the persons from whom they come And hereby the soueraigne maiestie and prudence of a Prince is knowen when he hath both power and skill to waigh and to iudge of their aduice that giue him counsel and to conclude with the soundest not the greatest side But to go forward with that which remaineth let so many as haue this honour to be ordinarie counsellors to Princes remember the saying of Solon the wise That they are not called thither to please and to speake to their liking but to vtter the truth and to giue them good counsell for common safetie that they must bring with them for an assured and certaine foundation of their conference about state-affaires a good intent mooued with reason and iudgement to profite him not with passions or desires of vain-glory of couetousnesse of emulation of any other imperfection that leadeth them to their priuate profite that they must at the entrie of the councell chamber vnclothe themselues of fauour towardes some of hatred towardes others and of ambition in themselues and aime at no other marke than at the honour of God and safetie of the Common-wealth To this ende they must necessarilie be furnished with wisedome iustice and loyaltie As for skill and knowledge although it be requisite in counsellors of estate namely the knowledge of the lawes of histories and of the estate of Common-wealths yet sound iudgement integritie and prudence are much more necessarie Aboue all things they must hold nothing of other Princes and Seignories that may binde them to their seruice And yet now a dayes to receiue a pension of them is so common a matter but very pernitious in any estate that it is growen to a custome Agesilaus would not so much as receiue a letter which the king of Persia wrote vnto him but sayd to his messenger that if the king were friend to the Lacedemonians he need not write particularly to him bicause he would also remaine his friend but if he were their enimie neyther letter nor any thing else should make him for his part otherwise affected To bee short let counsellors of estate learne of Plutarch that it is necessarie for them to be free from all passions and affections bicause in giuing of counsell the mind hath most force towards that wherunto the will is most enclined As for feare danger or threatnings they must neuer stay them from doyng their duetie but let them constantly propound and maintaine that which they iudge to be good and profitable for the Common-wealth We read that the Thasiens making warre with great vehemencie against the Athenians published a decree that whosoeuer counselled or spake at any time of concluding a peace between them should die the death Within a while after one of the citizens considering what great hurt his countrey receiued by that warre came one day into the assembly of the people with a halter about his necke and cried with a loud voyce that he was come thither to deliuer the Common-wealth by his death that they should put him to death when they would and that for his part he gaue them counsell to abrogate that law and to make peace which was done and he pardoned Considius a Romane Senatour would neuer be from the Senate no not when Caesar ruled all by violence and did what pleased him and when none of the other Senatours came any more through feare of his force And when Caesar asked him how he durst be there alone to stand against him bicause quoth he my age taketh all feare from me For hauing from hence forward such a short time to liue in I am not greatly carefull to saue my life If kings did correct all those that giue them ill counsell as Solyman did one of his Bassaes who was his kinsman they would not so readily
consent to the passions of great men This Infidell caused him to be hanged bicause he counselled him to put a Gentleman to death vniustly which he had done that he might enioy his wife more casilie Now for the conclusion of our discourse we will here set downe the aunswer of one of the Hebrew interpreters to king Ptolemie who asked him To whome a Prince should trust or commit himselfe To those sayd this wise man that loue him so entirely that they cannot be drawen from him neither through feare gifts or gayne bicause he that aspireth to riches is naturally a traitour Let vs learne that a counsell wel instituted and compounded of good men is a most necessarie point in the establishment and preseruation of euery estate and as the olde Prouerbe saith Good councell is better than manie hands Let vs learne that all those that are called thereunto ought to aime at nothing but at publike profite of which the happinesse and greatnesse of the Prince dependeth who must not contemne the counsell and seruice of the least when they can profite the Common-wealth but heare them willingly and satisfie their iust requests Of Iudgements and of Iudges Chap. 62. ACHITOB WE are now my companions according as the sequell of our speech requireth to consider of Iudgements which I affirmed in the beginning to be one of those two things whereof euery Common-wealth consisteth and that according as they are ordained the affaires of the estate proceed well or ill Therfore I leaue the discourse of this matter to you ASER. No citie saith Plato can truly be called a city if it want iudgements well instituted and consequently iudges to exercise them AMANA Iudgements are lawfull to such as vse them aright and Iudges are to vs the ministers of God for our good as Saint Paule saith Now let vs heare ARAM vpon this matter ARAM. As it is a very dāgerous matter for an estate to wauer daily in deliberations and not to be well resolued touching the affaires thereof or after resolution to leaue them without speedy executiō so the establishment of many good lawes and ordinances bringeth greater peril thā profit to the same estate if they be not seuerely obserued kept For the authoritie of the soueraign magistrate in whose name they are made is so much the more cōtemptible amongst his subiects as they know that they are lesse obeied as though the fault proceeded from his insufficiencie of skil to command He that leadeth well before is the cause why he is wel folowed the perfectiō of the art of a good Querie of the stable consisteth in making the horse obedient in bringing him to good order so the principall effect of the knowledge of a king is to iustruct wel his subiects in obediēce To this purpose the establishment of good iudges ouer thē wil help well that they may take knowledge of such as gain-say and resist the publike lawes and ordinances of his maiestie who is to authorize their iudgements as the chiefe sinewes of the whole body of his estate For nothing euer caused Common-wealthes to flourish so much as the constant keeping of their countrie lawes and the strict execution of iudgements agreeable vnto them And as Cicero saith those estates that are neer their ouerthrow all things beyng in a desperate case fall into this miserable issue that men condemned by the lawes are restored and iudgements giuen are cancelled which things when they come to passe euery one knoweth that their ruine is at hand without all hope of safetie Moreouer forasmuch as the Prince knoweth that he is as it were bound and indebted for iustice he ought to be so much the more careful that it may be rightly administred by those to whom he cōmitteth that office especially seeing he must answer for it himselfe before god to whom he may not say that he charged the consciences of his iudges therwith so discharged his own Wherfore if he adorne his estate with resolute prudent officers who will exactly preserue the bond of the common-welth by the seueritie of their iudgements vpright holding of the balance no doubt but all kind of publike felicitie will issue from the same But let vs briefly consider what iudgement is the diuision of iudgements their administration what manner of Iudges ought to exercise them Iudgement is properly that which is ordained by the Magistrate obseruing the tenor of the law But forasmuch as through the infinit varietie of causes times places and persons which cannot be comprehended in any lawes or statuts whatsoeuer punishments were referred to the will and power of the Magistrates and the dammages of ciuill matters to the conscience religion of the Iudges that which they determine by resolute sentences according to their opinion is also called Iudgement although more properly it may be called a Decree For this cause we say that as there are two principall pointes in euery Common-wealth which Magistrates must haue before their eies that is the law and equitie so also there is the execution of the law and the duty of the Magistrate which consisteth either in commanding in decreeing or in executing Of Iudgementes some are called priuate some publike some criminall others ciuill Priuate iudgements are of bondages prescriptions Gardianships Wardships contracts testaments successions mariages Publike iudgements concerne hainous offences against God man as sacriledge treason restitution of monie or other bribes taken by Magistrats robbery of the kings treasure forgeries theft wilfull and constrained murders Plato speaketh at large of these in his booke of lawes and it would be an infinite matter and smally to our instruction to seeke out the diuers kinds of iudgements which either haue beene or are among men But this is well woorth the noting that amongest the ancient Grecians and Romanes all iudgements both priuat and publike were from point to point followed and with all rigor obserued and they that stood against them were prosecuted and set vpon with fire and sword Among other examples Diodorus rehearsech a storie of the Phocians a people of Grecia condemned by the iudgement of the Amphyctions in a certaine summe of monie bicause they had tilled a great deale of ground that was consecrated to the gods Which summe when they refused to paye they pronounced their countrie as confiscate and consecrated to the gods wherupon arose a warre called the holie warre made by the rest of the Grecians against them and in the ende their vtter ruine subuersion Whosoeuer was once accused of any crime before the Iudges in Lacedemonia although he were absolued yet he abode a certaine time after in that estate of a criminall person during which time enquirie might be made againe of him and newe iudgement giuen according to his desert If the Ephories condemned their kings in any summe yea if it were to death their iudgements were executed with all rigor The
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
shun the other Vnto profit we referre riches to honor magistracie publike offices charges to losse pouertie to dishonor coÌ„tinual iniurie contempt such like means Which things although they are reckoned among the motiues or efficient causes of seditions so farre foorth as they prouoke men to stirre vp seditions yet they may bee endes also bicause men conspire togither either to obtaine or to eschew them Thereore let vs handle the causes which mooue the people to murmure and lead them from priuate and secret grudging to publike and open sedition from which the changes alterations and finall ruines of estates and monarchies proceed The couetousnes of magistrates and gouernors seemeth to be a chief cause therof when they lay vpon their subiects great exactions taxes loanes and other intollerable subsides whereby their patience is oftentimes turned into furie and their hartes set vpon reuolting are driuen forward to imitate them that forsooke Roboam for the same cause as the scripture rehearseth But forasmuch as all ciuill societie is appointed to the end that men might keep their goods safely vnder the protection and guiding of good gouernors they that beare chief rule in estates ought especially to prouide that not onely publike goods may be distributed and imploied according to common necessitie and profit but also that euery mans priuate goods may be in safetiâ— Publike goods are the reuenues of Seignories kingdoms and empires demeans taxes tributes confiscations exchetes subsidies graunts and impositions brought in for the supply of publike necessitie A man may say that couetousnes which is a wrongfull desire of another mans goods is committed in these publike reuenues wheÌ„ the mony that commeth of them is conuerted rather to priuate than to publike vse by those that haue the disposing therof which fault the Romans called peculatus and the iudgement giuen against it Repetundarum Now wheÌ„ such goods are wasted vnprofitably or superfluously princes magistrates vse to lay immoderate and strange exactions vpon their subiects Couetousnes also is vsed in priuate goods when the poorer or weaker sort are spoiled of their owne by the mightier The people will hardly beare this kind of vsurping when they consider that they are tormeÌ„ted by those that should defend them this dealing is subiect to restitution before God Histories are ful of changes seditions and destructions of commoÌ„-wealths arising of these causes of couetousnes wherof we haue alleaged many examples in our discourses Vnder Charles the 6. king of France great seditions and robberies were practised by the Parisians by reason of imposts and subsidies that were leuied of the subiects The occasion of these commotions was bicause the farmers exacted a halfpeny of a poore woman that sold Water cressets The couetousnes briberie and polling vsed by the lords nobles of Switzerland caused the common people to fall to mutinie and to deliuer theÌ„selues out of their slauery bondage by horrible massacres which they made of them Vnder Ioel and Abiah the sonnes of Samuel iudges ouer the Israelites the people oppressed through their couetousnes asked a king wherupon the estate of their gouernment was changed The second cause that breedeth the alteration ruine of Common-wealths is ambition or desire of honor which then especially mooueth men to murmure when the vnworthy are aduanced preferred before men of desert Honor is the only reward of vertue that which is more esteemed of euery loftie noble hart than all worldly goods Therfore it is meet that in the distribution of publike charges rewards and honors regard be had to the qualitie merite and sufficiencie of men that they may be giuen to woorthy persons and that such as are vnfit may be put backe Let vertue only diligence open the gates of honor and not mony or fauor We saw before many examples of the fruits of ambition we taste daily of some that are very bitter The third cause that changeth and ouer-turneth estates monarchies is iniurie which hapneth when they that are highest in authoritie through too much insoleÌ„cie pride offer wrong to the honor or person of their inferiors A kingdom saith the wife man is translated froÌ„ one nation to another through the iniustice iniuries contumelies offred by superiors Cyrus the great reuolted froÌ„ his grandfather Astyages ouercame him in battell translated the monarchie of the Medes vnto the PersiaÌ„s bicause of that iniurie which he offered vnto him in casting him out into the fields as soone as he was borne Coriolanus being vniustly banished his countrey tooke armes conquered a great part of the Romane dominion and burned all to the gates of Rome bringing their estate to such an extremitie that it was readie to be destroyed had not the women come towards him to pacifie him Childeric king of Fraunce caused Bodilus to be whipped with rods wherupon he slew him aâ—d his wife great with child Iustine the third emperour was slayne by Atelius generall of his armie whose sonne he had murdred and abused his wife to despite him there-with Feare also is many times the cause of alteration and daunger to a Common-wealth when guiltie and conuicted persones mooue sedition and rebell against the Magistrates to preuent and auoyd the punishment that is due to their faultes Catiline vrged with the consideration of his manifold wicked prankes and with the feare of iudgement conspired against his countrey beyng assisted by Lentulus Cethegus with many sacrilegious persones murderers adulterers bankrupts and other naughtie liuers that stoode in feare of iustice by reason of their misbehauiour Neither may any man doubt but wicked men will rather trouble the estate than stand in daunger of their liues or hazard their goodes For besides the assuraunce which they haue conceiued to escape the iudgement of men by this meanes they haue this further aduauntage to fish in troubled waters so that they are no lesse afrayd of peace than of the plague hauing in all euentes the same resolution before their eyes that Catiline had who sayd that he could not quench the fire begun in his house with water and therefore would pull it downe and so quench it This was one reason that mooued Caesar to lay hold of the estate bicause his enimies threatned that as soone as he was out of his offices they would cause him to giue an accouÌ„t how he had discharged theÌ„ I would to god we had not bought as deerly the same causes of our ciuil warres Likewise too much authoritie and power both for wealth friendship is dangerous in euery kinde of gouernment so that great heede is to be taken that none grow to be vnmeasurable great For men are subiect to corruption neither can euery one sustaine wisely the prosperitie of fortune which causeth some to seeke the alteration of popular and Aristocraticall Common-wealths into monarchies others
euery liuing creature to loue that place where it tooke beginning The sauage beastes saith Cassiodorus loue woods and forests birds loue the ayre fishes the sea and riuers men loue the originall place of their birth and being in a worde both men and beastes loue those places where they purpose to liue and to continue long He that is more in loue saith Aristotle with his priuate profite than with publike wealth looseth the name of a good citizen and taketh vnto him the name of a wicked subiect Therfore euery one both great and small ought to dedicate all good gifts in them to the benefit of their country louing their fellow-subiects exercising their charges callings faithfully It is their dutie also manfully to defend the common-wealth against all forraine incursions and he that defendeth his countrey defendeth himselfe and his He that refuseth to die as Cicero saith in the defence of his countrey dieth togither with it which being ouerthrowen the inhabitants are therewithall destroyed No man therefore ought to feare daunger in defence of his countrey and it is better to die for many than with many They that die said Iustinian the emperour in the defence of their Common-wealth liue alwaies by glorie Therefore euery one ought to arme himselfe with manhood which is one kind of Heroicall fortitude as the morall Philosophers say that he may be seruiceable for the safegard of his countrey in time of need and of a iust war The nobilitie is the ornament of euery Common-wealth For commonly the nobles are of greater abilitie of better behauior more ciuill than the common people than artificers and men of base estate bicause they haue beene brought vp from their infancie in al ciuilitie and amongst men of honor Moreouer to haue a noble hart inuincible to resist the enimie great to exercise liberalitie curteous and honest in talk bold to execute gentle to forgiue are graces vertues proceeding from honestie which are not so commonly found among men of base condition as among those that come of good ancient stocks For this cause there was in Rome a law called prosapia that is to say the law of linage wherby it was ordained that they which descended from the race of the Fuluians Torquates Fabritians should haue the Consulship when it so fell out that the Senate disagreed about the election of Consuls In like maner they that came of Lycurgus in Lacedaemon of Cato in Vtica of Thucidides in Galatia were not onely priuiledged in their own Prouinces but also greatly honoured of all nations The defence and preseruation of the countrey belongeth chiefly to the nobles as they that haue greater vse and practise of weapons than the common people haue whom God nature haue subiected to them that they should be their defendors protectors In this sort then is the Common-wealth decked and adorned of the nobilitie by their means honored of neighbor-friends and feared of hir enimies Next it must be ordred profitably Where no order is there is all confusiō And therfore as a good father of a familie taketh order in his house and a Pilote in his ship so the magistrate must appoint an order in his citie common-wealth For all communitie is confusion if by order it be not brought to vnitie Order is the due disposition of all things The order of the heauens times seasons teacheth vs among other things the wisdom of the Creator who hath appointed all diuine celestiall and earthly things by a wonderful dispositiē Neither doth any thing make magistrates of common-welths more admired commended than the good order which they establish in them The end of all good order tendeth to profit as the end of confusion to losse and destruction And if profit be to be considered in any thing it is chiefly to be thought vpon in a politike body The more common generall a good thing is saith Aristotle so much the more is it to be esteemed aboue another Therefore if it be a good thing and cōmendable to appoint a profitable order in a house or ship it is a great deale better yea most excellent to order a Common-wealth profitably Last of all a Common-wealth must be gouerned prudently Gouernment presupposeth order bicause no man can rightly and duly gouerne without order Gouernement is a right disposition of those thinges of which a man taketh charge vpon him to bring them to a conuenient ende Euery Monarch Emperour King Prince Lord Magistrate Prelate Iudge and such like may bee called a Gouernour in whom wisedome patience and diligence are necessarilie required for the discharge of their dueties Neither may ignoraunce or any errour be receyued for sufficient excuse of him that hath taken vpon him a publike charge and much lesse if he required and sought for it himselfe Yea he may bee charged with the least fault especiallie when it concerneth the estate or some great matter wherein the Common-wealth hath interest For this cause wee sayd that the Common-wealth must bee gouerned with Prudence But Prudence sayth Aristotle presupposeth wisedome and is the right reason of thinges that are to bee done Without Prudence saith Xenophon wee can haue no vse at all of vertue For in the administration eyther of priuate or publique matters wee can come to no good ende without the direction of Prudence which teacheth vs to prouide for thinges to come to order thinges present and to call to minde thinges past Wee haue heretofore discoursed more at large both of that vertue and also of others requisite in euery magistrate for the faithfull execution of his charge Whereunto we wil adde this thing only that euery gouernor must remember that lordship empire kingdom maiestie dominion and power are rather heathen than christian wordes and that the empire of a christian prince is nothing else but a iust administration protection and meane to do good Therfore when he beholdeth an innumerable multitude of his subiectes he is to thinke that so many millions of men depend of his carefulnes not to do with them what pleaseth him but to labour and trauell to make them better than when he receiued them And in all things wherein the safetie of the common-wealth consisteth whether it be in preuenting the causes of change therein or in redressing seditions which trouble it he must always resolue with himselfe to bring his purpose to passe how difficult soeuer the way be releasing rather somewhat of the extremitie of right as Lucius Papinius said seeing the quietnes and safetie of the people is the chiefest and most vpright lawe among men that can be So that when the Common-wealth is in danger or in necessitie we must freely bestow vpon that bloud and name which is commō to vs with all the members of the politike body whatsoeuer cannot bee kept backe without violating that common kindred and the estate of the common-wealth So that if
nothing doth cast forth more liuely marks and beames of a wonderful diuinitie than husbandry For most of other arts were inuented long time after man was created of God and augmented since by the industrie of many Onely husbandry gaue sufficient testimonie of it self of the incomprehensible power of God when presently after the creation of the elements there came out of the bowels of the earth all kinds of herbes and plants garnished with their proper vertues for the seruice commoditie of man Man himself also by a diuine and natural instinct hath been from the beginning more enclined and disposed to the tillage of the earth than to any other studie vocation whatsoeuer as we read of our first fathers who commonly called themselues Laborers of the earth and feeders of cattell Husbandry and the countrey life were so much commended esteemed of the auncients that many of them haue written sundry bookes therof in Greek Latin and many monarchs haue heretofore left their great palaces contemned their purple robes and diademes that they might giue themselues to the manuring of countrey cōmodities Cyrus was neuer better pleased and contented than whē he might be dressing of some goodly piece of ground and setting of a certaine number of trees checker-wise Dioclesian forsook the scepter of his empire that he might with-draw himselfe into the fields and trim with his owne hands trees graffs seuerall plots of ground and gardens Besides in husbandry and the countrey life profite aboundeth with pleasure and gaine with delight As for profite it is very euident For a good husbandman is alwais prouided of bread wine flesh fruit wood and other Aliments And concerning pleasure it is incredible to one that hath skill and will to consider of the maruels of nature besides a thousand delights with exercises as pleasaunt and profitable for his health as can be And that benefit which is most excellent and chiefest of all I meane tranquillitie of mind may more easily bee obtained by the Muses darlings and louers of knowledge in the midst of the open fields and pleasaunt sound of waters than amongst the noise of suites dissentions wherwith cities are replenished It belongeth to the dutie of labourers to liue in their simplicitie and to do their endeuor in tilling the fields For the performing hereof they stand in need of 3. things of skill to know the nature of the soile and the seasons of sowing and gathering of will to be diligent and carefull to continue in their countrey labour and lastly of abilitie to prouide oxen horses cattell other instruments of husbandrie By this discourse therefore we may see what things are most requisite and necessarie for the institution of a happy common-wealth and that no man is so industrious wittie or prudent that of himselfe without the helpe of another he can liue without societie and minister to himselfe all necessary things For this cause the fellowship of many togither was found out that by teaching iudging defending giuing taking changing seruing and communicating their works and exercises one with an other they might liue well and commodiously togither Which thing will vndoubtedly come to passe in euery Common-wealth when euery one walking in his vocation directeth his will and worke to the seruice of God his prince and countrey Of Peace and of Warre Chap. 67. ARAM. IVstinian the Emperor in the Preface of his Institutions saith That it is necessarie for the imperial maiesty to haue respect to two times namely of peace and of warre that it may be prouided against all euents either of the one or the other Lawes and good politike statutes are necessary for it in time of peace that the Prouinces may be quietly gouerned but in time of warre it must alwayes haue armour readie and couenient forces to helpe friends to resist enimies and to containe disobedient subiectes within compasse Nowe hauing hitherto intreated of that policie which chiefly respecteth the tyme of peace we must hereafter my companions referre to our discourses that small knowledge which we haue of warlike discipline And first I thinke we must oppose these times of peace and warre one agaynst the other and consider of their cleane contrary effectes that we may bee so much the more easily ledde and perswaded to desire and procure that which is best and most profitable for euery estate and monarchie Therefore I propounde vnto you this matter to discourse vpon ACHITOB. If it be possible as much as in you is saith the Apostle haue peace with all men and let the peace of God rule in your hartes to the which ye are called in one body For truely without peace all riches is but pouertie all mirth but mourning all life but death But no man can perfectly know the benefit of peace that hath had no triall of the burthen of warre ASER. If ye walke in my ordinaunces saith the eternall God I will send peace in the land but if ye will not obey me but despise mine ordinaunces I will send a sword vpon you that shall auenge the quarell of my couenaunt and ye shall be deliuered into the hand of the enimie Now let vs heare AMANA discourse vpon that which is here propounded vnto vs. AMANA Lycurgus entring into the gouernement of the Lacedemonians and finding their Estate greatly corrupted determined with himselfe to change their whole Policie For he thought that if he should onely make some particular lawes and ordinances it would doe no more good than a slender medicine would profit a corrupt bodie full of many diseases before order were taken for the purging resoluing and consuming of the euill humors that a new forme and rule of life might afterward be prescribed His enterprise although great and difficult yet fell out very well and his lawes were receiued approoued of the people after a little force and feare wherwith at first they were restrained But this law-maker referred all his lawes to warre and to victorie and kept his subiects in continuall exercise of Armes not suffering them to learne any other science or handi-craft vnto which he appointed the Ilotes onely who were men brought in subiection by the right of warre Whereby Lycurgus seemeth to haue beene of this mind that force ought to be mistres in all worldly matters and that other things serue to no purpose if they want Armes which by a certaine right of warre that shall alwaies continue amongst men bring in subiection to Conquerours the persons goods of those whome they ouercome It seemeth also he thought that there was neuer any true peace amongst men but onely in name and that all Princes and people liue in continuall distrust one of another and doe nothing else for the most part but watch how to surprize each other as Plutark elegantly setteth it out notwithstanding all leagues and goodly agreements that passe betweene them Numa Pompilius second king of
paterne of warre but that it did helpe him greatly to iudge of the nature and seate of those places which he frequented in his countreys And bicause all landes are like in some things the perfect knowledge of one countrey which often vse of hunting bringeth may helpe one to iudge well of an other Publius Decius Tribune of the souldioures in the armie which Cornelius the Consull led against the Samnites beholding the Romane host brought into a valley where they might easily be enclosed of the enimies went to the Consull and sayd Doe you marke O Cornelius the toppe of this mountaine aboue our enimie It is the fortresse of our hope and safetie if we make haste to take it seeyng the blind Samnites haue forsaken it We see then how profitable yea how necessarie it is for a captaine to know the beyng and nature of countreys which helpeth a mā much in that principall point touched before by me namely to compel his enimies to fight when he perceiueth that he is the stronger and hath the aduantage of them if he be the weaker to keep himself from such places where he may be cōpelled therunto This is that wherby Caius Marius who was sixe times Consull got the renowne to be one of the greatest captains in his time For although he were Generall of many armies and fought three great battels yet was he so warie in all his enterprises that hee neuer gaue his enimies occasion to set vpon him and to force him to fight And that was a notable aunswere which he made to the Generall of his enimies who willed him to come out of his campe to battell if he were such a great captain as men reported him to be Not so quoth he but if thou art the great captaine compell me to it whether I will or no. This is one thing also wherein the Head of an armie must be very vigilant that all secrecies be closely kept among the captaines of his host For great affaires neuer haue good successe when they are discouered before they take effect To this purpose Suetonius saith that no man euer heard Iulius Caesar say To morrow we will do that and to day this thing but we will doe this nowe and as for to morrow we will consider what is then to be done And Plutarke saith in his treatise of Policie that Lucius Metellus beyng demaunded by a Captaine of his when hee would giue battell sayde If I were sure that my shirte knew the least thought in my hart I woulde presently burne it and neuer weare any other Therefore affaires of warre may be handled and debated of by many but the resolution of them must be done secretly and knowen of few men otherwise they would be sooner disclosed and published than concluded Notwithstanding it is very necessarie that the General should oftentymes call a councell so that it be of expert and ancient men and of such as are prudent and voyde of rashnesse But in all cases of necessitie a man must not stand long in seeking for reason but suddenly set vpon them For many tymes sundry captaines haue vndone themselues in warres vpon no other occasion but bicause they lingred in taking counsel when they should without losse of tyme haue wrought some notable enterprise Moreouer for the instruction and patterne of the dutie and office of a good Head and captaine of an armie we can alleage none more woorthy to be imitated than Cato of Vtica a Consul of Rome who had the guiding of a legion when he first tooke charge vpon him For from that tyme forward he thought that it was not roial or magnificall to be vertuous alone being but one body therfore he studied to make all that were vnder his charge like himselfe Which that he might bring to passe he took not frō them the feare of his authoritie but added reason thereunto shewing and teaching them their dutie in euery point and always ioyning to his exhortations reward for those that did well and punishment for such as did euill So that it was hard to say whether he had made them more apt for peace or for warre more valiant or more iust bicause they were so stout and eger against their enimies and so gentle and gracious to their friends so feareful to do euil and so ready to obtaine honor The vertue of Pompey is also worthy to be followed of euery great captain f or the temperance that was in him for his skil in armes eloquence in speech fidelitie in word as also bicause he was to be spoken with and so louingly entertained euery one And if with these things the example of the same Cato be followed in his prudent liberalitie and diuision of the spoils and riches of the enimies that captaine that so behaueth himself shal deserue eternal praise and please all those that follow him For when this vertuous captaine had taken many townes in Spaine he neuer reserued more for himselfe than what he did eate and drinke there He deliuered to euery one of his souldiors a pound waight of siluer saying that it was better that many should returne to their houses from the warre with siluer than a few with gold and as for the captains he sayd that during their charges and gouernements they should not grow and increase in any thing but in honor and glory For the conclusion therefore of our speech we note that a Generall of an army desirous to bee obeyed which is necessarie must behaue himselfe so that his souldiors may thinke him woorthy to prouide and care for their necessary affaires Which thing will come to passe when they see that he is courageous carefull that he keepeth his place and the maiestie of his degree well that he punisheth offenders and laboureth not his men in vaine but is liberall and performeth his promises made vnto them Of the choice of Souldiors of the maner how to exhort them to fight and how victory is to be vsed Chap. 70. ACHITOB A Gamemnon generall Captaine of the Graecians before Troy speaking of Achilles and being grieued bicause he refused to succour them hauing been offended by him sayd That a man beloued of God is in the place of many men in a campe and far better than a whole company that is vnruly and cannot be gouerned but with great paine and care This reason was the cause that good men heretofore were greatly honored in war and much sought after by great captaines bicause they were very religious and vndertooke nothing before they had prayed to their gods and offered sacrifices after the maner of their countrey Also after they had done some great exploite they were not slouthful to giue thē thanks by offrings and hymnes song to their praise But all these good considerations haue no more place amongst vs than the rest of their warlike discipline principally in that no regard is had what maner of men
are to be vsed in seruice but onely how a great number may be had And many times he that is knowen to be a bold murderer and giuen ouer to all wickednesse shall be preferred to an office before an honest man and which is more we despise our owne countrey-men whome the welfare of our countrey concerneth as well as our selues and rather trust strangers and hirelings who seeke nothing but destruction so that we our selues also bewaile but too late the mischiefes that haue light vpon vs. For this cause I propound vnto you my companions to discourse vpon the election and choise which is to be considered of in taking such men of war to whom a man may safely commit himself if you thinke good you may speak somwhat also of the maner of exhortatioÌ„ to fight vsed by the ancients bicause I touched it by the way in my former discourse lastly how victory ought to bee vsed which commonly followeth good order and discipline of war wherof we haue hitherto discoursed ASER. Forasmuch as the chiefe force of an armie consisteth in the sincere and constant good will of the souldiors towards him for whom they fight it is not to be sought for else-where than in his owne naturall subiects to whome prosperitie and good successe is common with the Prince AMANA My friends quoth Cyrus to his men of war I haue chosen you not bicause I haue had proofe heretofore of your manhood but bicause from my yong yeeres I haue known you ready to doe those things which we in this countrey account honest and to eschew all dishonestie This cannot be truely said of strangers neuer seen before who come out of their countrey to inrich themselues with the ouerthrow of their neighbours But it belongeth to thee ARAM to handle this matter here propounded vnto vs. ARAM. If we consider diligently of the causes from whence came the ruine of the Romane Empire we shall find that those meanes which the wisest Emperors inuented for the safetie and preseruation thereof turned in the end to the destruction of it First the ordinary armies placed by Augustus neere to Rome in the borders of his estate ouerthrew many of his successors euen the empire it self which they would sometimes set to sale deliuer vp to him that gaue most for it Next the translation of the empire which Constantine the great made from Rome to BizantiuÌ„ afterward called by his name Constantinople therby to make it more sure against the Persians other people of Asia greatly hastned forward the ouerthrow of the same For when he caried thither the chief strength and wealth of Rome diuided the empire into the East and West â—e weakned it very much so that the West was first destroyed and then the East which if they had continued vnited and knit togither might for a long time and in a maner for euer haue resisted all inuasions Thirdly when the Emperours thought to strengthen themselues with strange hired forrain power called to their succour as namely the Gothes thereby weakening their owne forces and naturall strength of the Empire they put ere they were aware Rome and Italy and consequently the other Prouinces into the hands of the Barbarians Yea we find that the greatest calamities that euer happened to Common-wealths diuided was when the Citizens were seuered among themselues and called in strangers to helpe them who vsing often to goe that way at the last made themselues maisters ouer them The Germanes called by the Sequani to their succour against those of Autun compelled them to deliuer halfe their land vnto them and at length they drooue away all the naturall people of the countrie and became Lordes of the greatest part of the Gaules territorie But not to go so farre off it is high time for vs to grow wise by our owne perill The factions of the houses of Orleans and of Burgundy called in the Englishmen into France who by this meane sette such footing therein that they possessed a great part therof a long time after What lacked in our time why the Frenchmen blinded caried away with partialities and God grant they may throughly knowe it did not bring their countrie to that extremitie of miseries as to submit it to the seruice and slauerie of a strange yoke vnder the colour of begging helpe at their handes What letted why there was not plaied among vs of vs and by vs the cruellest most sorrowfull tragedie that euer was when men came hither from all quarters to behold the sight Would not a man haue thought that both great and small had wittingly purposed to ouer-throw the goodliest most noble kingdome of the world and themselues withall and so in the end haue shamefully lost the glorie and renowne which their Ancestors had woorthily gotten for them Now if any good hap hath turned this tempest from vs against our wils at the least let vs call to mind the danger whereinto we had willingly cast our selues and let vs not forget the admonition that was giuen vs by those barbarous fellowes whose Captaines and Counsellors asked vs why we called them in when a little before their departure out of this kingdome they were complained vnto for the extorsions and cruelties which their men practised What thinke you said they is the intent and purpose of our men in following vs but to enrich themselues with your ouerthrow Agree among your selues and neuer call vs more except ye minde to taste of that which shall be woorse But let vs enter into the particular consideration of the perill and hurt that commeth by forraine and mercenarie souldiours that we may knowe whome wee ought rather to vse The armes where-with a Prince defendeth his Countrie are either his owne or hired of strangers or sent to his succour by some Prince his friend or else mingled of both togither They that maintaine that it is necessarie for the prosperitie and preseruation of euerie happie Common-wealth not to vse forraine helpe say that hired force and succour of strangers is woorth nothing but rather dangerous and that if a Prince thinke to ground the assurance of his Estate vpon forraine force he cannot safely doe it For they agree not easily togither they doe all for profite and will be neither well ordered nor obedient On the other side they are not ouer-faithfull they are all in their brauerie amonge friendes but hartlesse amonge enimies They neither feare God nor are faithfull to men The reason heereof is this bicause no loue nor anye other occasion holdeth them but paie and hope of spoyle Which is no sufficient cause to mooue them to die willingly in his seruice whose subiects they are not and whose ruine they desire rather than his increase The last destruction of Italy came by no other thing than bicause it trusted a longe time to forraine and hyred forces which brought some thinges to passe for some men
And who is not content to depart out of an olde ruinous house What pleasure haue wee in this world which draweth neere to an end euery day which selleth vnto vs so deere those pleasures that wee receiue therein What other thing is this life but a perpetual battell and a sharpe skirmish wherein we are one while hurt with enuie another while with ambition and by and by with some other vice besides the suddaine onsets giuen vpon our bodies by a thousand sorts of diseases and fluds of aduersities vpō our spirits Who than will not say with S. Paul I desire to be dissolued and to be with Christ Why do we daily pray that the kingdom of God should come if it be not for the desire which we ought to haue to see the fulfilling therof in the other life We haue a thousand testimonies in the scripture that the death of the body is a certaine way by which we passe into that true and eternal life and into our owne countrey Flesh and bloud saith Saint Paul cannot inherite the kingdom of God neither doth corruption inherite incorruption For this corruptible must put on incorruptiō and this mortali must put on immortalitie then shall bee fulfilled that which is written Death is swallowed vp in victory They that beleeue in Iesus Christ haue already ouercome death sin and hell And therefore contemning death they may say O death where is thy sting O graue where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the law but thanks be vnto God which hath giuen vs victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. He which hath raised vp the Lord Iesus shall raise vs vp also Our conuersation is in heauen from whence also we looke for the sauiour euen the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like vnto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able euen to subdue all things-vnto himselfe Ye are dead saith he to the Colossians and your life is hid with Iesus Christ in God When Christ which is our life shall appeere then shall ye also appeere with him in glory My brethren saith he to the Thessalonians I would not haue you ignorant concerning them which are a sleepe that ye sorow not euen as other which haue no hope For if we beleeue that Iesus is dead and is risen euen so them which sleepe in Iesus will God bring with him Iesus Christ saith he to the Hebrewes was partaker of flesh and bloud that is to say was truly man that he might destroy through death him that had the power of death that is the deuill And that he might deliuer all them who for feare of death were all their life time subiect to bondage God hath saued vs and called vs with an holy calling as he saith to Timothie not according to our works but according to his owne purpose and grace which was giuen to vs through Christ Iesus before the world was but is now made manifest by the appeering of our Sauiour Iesus Christ who hath abolished death hath brought life immortalitie vnto light through the Gospel I am sure saith Iob that my redeemer liueth and he shall stand the last on the earth And though after my skin worms destroy this body yet shall I see God in my flesh Whom I my selfe shall see and mine eyes shall behold and none other for me Iesus Christ is our head and we are his members This head cannot be without his members neither can forsake them Where Christ is there shall we be also He that considereth diligently these places of Scripture and infinite others contained therein it cannot be but he should haue great ioy and comfort in his hart against all feare and horror of death And then comming to compare the miseries which neuer leaue this life with that vnspeakable happines and felicitie which eye hath not seene neyther eare hath heard neyther came into mans hart which God hath prepared in the second and eternall life for all faithfull beleeuers a christian will not onely passe ouer this mortall life with ease and without trouble but will euen contemne and make no account of it in respect of that which is immortall But to whome is death sweete if not to them that labour The poore hireling is well at ease when hee hath done his dayes woorke So death is alwayes sweete to the afflicted but to them that put their trust in wordly things the remembrance thereof is bitter Now then the children of God are not afrayd of death but as Cyprian writeth in an Epistle sent to the Martyrs of Christ hee that hath once ouercome death in his owne person doth daily ouercome him in his members so that we haue Iesus Christ not onely a beholder of our combates but also an assistant and fighter with vs. And by his grace abounding in the harts of the faithfull they are so much the more bent to meditate vpon the benefites of the future and eternall life as they see that they are inuironed with greater store of miseries in this fading and transitorie life Then comparing both togither they find nothing more easie than to finish sweetly their race and to value the one as litle as they account the other absolute in all felicitie Moreouer seeing heauen is our countrey what is the earth else but a passage in a strange land And bicause it is accursed vnto vs for sinne it is nothing else but the place of our banishment If our departure out of this world be an entrance to life what is this world but a sepulcher And to dwell heere what is it else but to be plunged in death If it be libertie to be deliuered out of this bodie what is this bodie but a prison And if it be our chiefe happines to enioie the presence of our God is it not a miserie not to enioie it Now vntill we go out of this world we shal be as it were separated from God Wherefore if this earthlie life be compared with the heauenlie no doubt but it may be contemned and accounted as it were doung True it is that we must not hate it but so far foorth as it keepeth vs in subiection to sinne And yet whilest we desire to see the ende of it we must not be carelesse to keepe our selues in it to the good pleasure of God that our longing may be far from all murmuring and impatiencie For our life is as a station wherein the Lord God hath placed vs that we should abide in it vntill he call vs backe againe Saint Paul indeed bewailed his estate bicause he was kept as it were bound in the prison of his body longer than he would groned with a burning desire vntill he was deliuered but withall to shew his obedience to the wil of God he protested that he was ready for both bicause he knew
of the tyrauntes were giuen vnto them as to the true deliuerers of their Countrey Nowe albeit wee sayde that this worde tyraunt was taken amongst them for him that made him-selfe soueraigne Prince of his owne authoritie with-out election or right of succession or lotte or iust warre or speciall callyng of GOD yet wee must not inferre this consequent that therefore it is lawfull to kill euerie Prince that exerciseth tyrannie For it belongeth in no wise eyther to anye particular subiect or to all in generall to seeke the honour or lyfe of the Prince that is absolutely and lawfully soueraigne as we haue alreadie discoursed Now to conclude our present speech we may see how farre the establishment of this French Monarchie is from any inclination and from all things that may seeme to giue any entraunce life and preseruation to a tirannie nay it is cleane contrary thereunto and goeth beyond all monarchies that euer were or are amongst the sundrie nations of men for goodnesse and mildenesse of gouernement which ought wonderfully to stirre vp Frenchmen to perseuere in loue obedience and fidelitie towardes their king for which straungers haue alwayes praysed them Of the Education of a Prince in good maners and conditions Chap. 59. ARAM. THe effect of custome is wonderfull yea it is so power-full that it passeth nature especially in vice and dissolutenes Wherein if men be once plunged it is a very hard matter especially if they be young to drawe them out of it But further when they know that they haue in their handes an vnbrideled licence and a soueraigne authoritie to enioy their lustes and desires at their pleasure a man may then saie that all hope of amendment is vtterly perished in them and that it is altogether impossible to gaine any thing of them by counsell instruction or reason Therefore it is very certaine that the principall hope and expectation of a Prince after request made to God that by nature he may bee of a good and teach-able disposition ought to bee grounded alwayes in his education and first institution which beyng either good or badde will bring foorth like effectes to the great good or hurt of his subiectes Nowe then my Companions let vs discourse of that which we thinke ought to be obserued in the right instruction of a Prince in all kinde of good maners and commendable conditions as well for his owne profit as for the common vtilitie of all those ouer whom he is to command ACHITOB. Men are commonly carefull to strengthen with rampires the bankes of riuers which receine into them great quantitie of waters But it is needefull that more diligence be vsed in preseruing and fortifying the minde of a young prince with strong reasons graue sentences and most learned preceptes of wisedome against the greatnesse of his fortune the great aboundaunce of wealth riote delightes and flatterie disguised with fidelitie and libertie which lyke to a mightie streame fall from some rocke to ouer-whelme and to drowne the weake seedes of Vertue naturallie in a Prince ASER. Men must bee so much the more carefull in the dressing and tillage of that spirite and soule which they know ought to bee vigilant wise prudent and iust for the benefite of many Such a one is the king or magistrate or any other man that is to deale in gouernement and in publike affaires For to fill that soule with vertue and goodnesse is to profite an infinite number by the meaues of one Now let vs heare AMANA discourse vpon this matter AMANA All kingdomes vnder which men doe liue at this day are eyther hereditarie or giuen by election Some that are hereditarie goe by succession from male to male onely as this kingdome of Fraunce And this did the French-men wisely ordaine in the beginning of their Monarchie by the Salicke lawe by which prouidence and fore-sight they haue continued in the same kind of gouernement almost one thousand and two hundreth yeeres so that the crowne neuer went out of their nation neither hath the roiall linage chaunged oftener than thrise in so long continuaunce which thing neuer happened to any other Monarchie or Seignorie to any mans knowledge In other kingdomes when males are wanting daughters succeede as in Spaine England and Scotland Moreouer in hereditarie kingdomes where males succeede in some places that honour is alwayes reserued for the eldest who giueth an honest pension to his younger brethren as it is in Fraunce or if no regard be had to birth-right either he is preferred that is fittest to gouerne or he that is most warlike and in greatest fauour with the souldiours as in Turkie Selim the first of that name beyng the third and youngest sonne of Baiazet the second vsurped the Empire by the aide of the Ianitzaries vpon his father whome he caused to be poisoned and slew Achmat and Corcuth his two elder brothers with all his nephewes and others of Ottomans race saying that nothing was pleasaunter than to rule when all feare of kindred was taken away In some places they kill not their brethren and kindred but shut them vp in some most sure and safe place of custodie as they vse or are accustomed to doe in Ethiopia where hee that must beare rule is kept alone the rest are sent to a very high and strong mountaine called the mountaine of the Israelites from whence none of the male kinde may euer come foorth except Prester Iohn die without heire of his bodie to succeede him in the crowne for then he that is next vnto it and knowen to be woorthiest and fittest is taken foorth By this meanes that great kingdome hath continued very long without ciuill warre or murder and neuer wanted of-spring of the royall race In Calecuth when the king dieth although hee haue male children or nephewes by his brother yet none of them succeed in the kingdom but his sisters sonne and if they faile the next of the bloud royal commeth to the crowne They ground this vpon a foolish and fond superstition which they haue in causing the Queene to bee defloured by some young priest called Bramin in whose custodie she remaineth euer after so long as the King is abroade Whereuppon they presume and peraduenture not without good cause that the children which descend or are borne of that Ladie hold more of the priest than of the prince Concerning kingdomes that goe by election we haue spoken of them alreadie Now bicause it is a very harde matter to change him that is once chosen in such a kingdome greater consideration must be had in making the election lest the ouer-sight of one hower procure a perpetuall repentaunce But where the prince is by nature and not by election men must labour by carefull industrie and diligence to bring him vp and to instruct him well by replenishing his mind with sound opinions from his infancie and by casting vpon his new ground seedes of vertue and honestie which by