Guards upon all such places of His Dominions as lye open to their Incursions least otherwise the English should chance to seaze upon them And such are the Haven Corugna and all the Sea Coast of Galicia Leon Biscay and all the Kingdomes that lie in the other Hemisphere as shall be shewed hereafter But this he must make his cheifest businesse namely to weaken the Power of the English for the effecting of which design it would be sufficient if He could but bring it about that the Hollander and the Freezlander should with their Fleets fall upon the English Forces at Sea as I shall by and by make it plainly appear But seeing He is so far from doing this that his own Navies are very often damaged by the English ships the only Remedy that is left him is to provide himself of some Vast Fleets of ships which should lie at Corugna and Lisbon that when ever the Spanish Fleet shall return from the Indies they may serve as convoys to It and may bring it home safely or else they may be sent forth either against Ireland or England and so may divert them from lying in wait for and infesting of the Spanish Navies And because the King of Spain is to be Lord of the Seas it is very necessary that He build himself many Wooden Cities that is to say great Navies for the securing of His Treasure that he recieves out of the New World It would also be a very good course for him to hire those that are of the greatest strength among the Hollanders though it cost him a Million of mony to guard such Fleets of his as are to passe to and fro in the Northern Seas and to deal in the like manner with such Nations as are better skilled in Nautical affaires then the English themselves are as namely the Danziokers by means of the King of Poland who is allied to the house of Austria likewise with the Gutlanders Swedes Finlanders and the rest that are of Scandinavia Denmark Pomerania and Borussia procuring them to declare against the English and either to set upon some of their Islands or else to invade England it self that so they may divert them from falling upon the Spanish Fleets or else if the King shall think it better to set upon the English Navy it self If I say He would but be at so great a charge as to hire the said Nations to fall upon the English and would besides but give them all the Booties that they should take from the English He might compasse all his desires and besides the seeds of such a Feude once sown would spread far and near and would never be killed and choaked again And therefore I conceive that Mony alone would be able to set these People at Variance and make them fall foul one upon the other And it is certain that England stands in fear of no other Nations so much as of those above named because they are both more fierce and more Populous Nations and also more powerful at Sea then the English themselves are For Spain cannot it self make any considerable opposition against the English unlesse it be by makig use of some such Artifice seeing that they are better acquainted with those Northern Seas then the Spanish are And then England is an Island whose Inhabitants are both very Numerous and they are also a diligent and subtle People and it is besides very strongly fortified both by Sea and Land and withall a deadly enemy to Spain partly by reason of their different Religions and partly because the English claime a kind of Right to that Crown by reason of the Castilian Line which is derived by the House of Lancaster besides diverse of the former Kings of England of the Family of York and others have been allied to Spain Now as concerning the weakning of the English there can no better way possibly be found out then by causing Divisions and Dissentions among themselves and by continually keeping up the same which will quickly furnish the Spaniard with better and more advantageous Opportunities And as for the Religion of that People it is that of Calvin though very much Moderated and not so rigid and austere as it is at Geneva which yet cannot so easily be extinguished and rooted out there unlesse there were some certain Schooles set up in Flanders with which People the English have very great coâ—â—erce by meanes of which there should be scattered abroad the Seeds of Schisme and Divisions in the Natural Sciences as namely betwixt the Stoicks Peripateticks and Telesians by which the Errours of the Calvinists might be made manifest For the truth of it is That Sect is Diametrically contrary to the Rules of Policy for they teach that whether a Man do well or ill he doth all by Divine Impulsion which Plato Demonstrates against Homer to be opposite to all Sounder Policy which sayes that every Man hath Free Liberty of Will either to do Well or Ill so that it is in our own Power either to observe or not observe what is commanded us and from hence we are to expect either our Rewards or Punishments according as I have most evidently demonstrated in my Dialogue touching Policy where I have discoursed of this Point though but briefly and without any flourish of Language which They since they have become Hereticks are grown somewhat subtle in and yet being of a Nature that is still desirous of Novelties and Change they are easily wrought over to any thing As concerning their Dominions and Private Estates the English are divided and live in several Countries whence some time or other the Spaniard may easily light upon some convenient Opportunity of advantage against them For the King of Englands Dominion is divided into Ireland and England which together with Scotland maketh up the Isle of Great Brittain Now Scotland it self hath also many small Islands belonging to it which are called the Orcades And hence it is that the Isle of Great Brittain had alwaies two Kings reigning over it namely one of them was King of England and the other of Scotland who by reason of their lying so near to each other were in a manner continually at wars and invading one anothers Territories for their Kingdomes are severed only by a little small River and some few hills But now the King of Scots hovers as it were at this time over England not only by reason of his Neighbourhood to it but also because of His Right of Succession for His Mother was Niece to King Henry the Eighth who was Father to Queen Elizabeth that now reigneth and if we should confesse the truth there is none so near in blood to the Crown of England as He is And therefore the time now draweth on that after the death of the said Queen Elizabeth who is now very old the Kingdom of England must fall into the hands of their Ancient and continuall Rivals the Scots We may here add that the Peers of the
Land who when they are assembled together in a Body are called in their Language the Parliament carry a great sway with them and have very great Power in so much that they seem to desire to set up an Oligarchy or an Aristocratical State according to the example shewed them by the Netherlanders For all Northern Nations are Naturally impatient of Monarchy or Absolute Power in Princes and the Kings of England were alwaies kept under by the Parliament till that now of later times under pretext of introducing a New Religion they have taken upon them to exercise a more absolute power over their Subjects But in Antient Times the whole Kingdom of England was divided into four lesser Kingdoms as Spain also hath been anciently distributed both into many several Kingdomes both of which Countries did afterwards grow into two entire Kingdomes although it cannot be denied but that the Power of the Kings of England was never so great as that of the Kings of Spain My opinion is therefore that the King of Spain should do well to employ under hand some certain Merchants of Florence that are wise and subtle persons and that traffick at Antwerp who because they are not so much hated by the English as the Spaniards are should treat with some such of the English as are some way or other descended from some of the former Kings of England and should promise each of them severally no one of them knowing any thing what is said to the other all the possible aides that can be from Spain for the restoring of them to their Inheritances Legally descending down to them from their Ancestours and undertake to effect this for them if not as to the whole Kingdome yet at least to some part of it requiring them to engage themselves to nothing else so to give a colour to the businesse save only that they shall not joyn their forces and assist the English in setting upon the Spanish Fleet at its return from the West Indies For by this meanes each of them being puft up with hope will presently fall to question the King of Scots his Title to the English Crown and will endeavour to oppose him in it Let him also send privately to King James of Scotland and promise him that He will assist him to the utmost of his Power in his getting possession of the Kingdom of England upon this condition viz that He shall either restore there again the Catholick Religion for the love whereof His Mother Mary Stuart Queen of Scots refused not to spend her dearest blood and even to lay down her Life too or at least that he shall not annoy or any way disturbe the said Spanish Fleet. But then again on the other side let him under hand labour with the English Peers and the chiefest of the Parliament and egge them on to endeavour to reduce England into the Form of a Republick withal assuring them that the King of Scots when he shall have once gotten into the English Throne must needs prove a cruel Prince to them as having alwaies about him a deep remembrance how injuriously the English have heretofore dealt with the Scots Moreover let Him endeavour to strike a terrour into Queen Elizabeths friends by often putting into their heads that they will find that King James will revenge his Mothers blood upon Queen Elizabeths friends seeing that She is like to leave behind her None of Her Own blood upon whom He might take revenge especially seeing that His Mother Queen Mary when she was now to dye seriously commended unto Him the care of the Catholick Religion and the Revenge of Her Blood The English Bishops are also to be exasperated and put into Fears and Jealousies by telling them that the King of Scots turned Calvinist out of hope and desire of the English Crown and being also forced to do so by his Heretical Barons but that when He shall once be quietly settled in the English Throne He will then quickly restore the Former Religion for as much as not onely His deceased Mother but even the King of France also have both of them very earnestly commended the same unto Him By which means it must necessarily follow that the seeds of a continual War betwixt England and Scotland will be sown in so much that neither Kingdome shall have any leisure to work any disturbance to the Spanish Affaires Or else by buzzing into their ears that in case King James should be possest of this Kingdom He will however be a Friend of Spain that the whole Island would be devided into many Dominions or else that it would come to be an Elective Kingdom by which means the King of it will be the lesse careful of making himself Master of other Countries and of adding them to the English Crown neither indeed though he should never so much desire it would he ever be able to do so as I have before shewed where I speak of France or else that this Country of England will be reduced into the Form of a Common Wealth which will perpetually be at feude with Scotland and that all Actions It shall undertake will be long in bringing to effect and so It will be able to do the lesse harm to Spain The Spirits of the English Catholicks also are to be rouzed up and as it were awakened from sleep and encouraged to Action for by this means so soon as ever the Throne shall be vacant the King of Spain shall come into England under Pretence of assisting them Let Him also deal with those English Nobles who are possessed of some certain circumjacent Islands lying about England that they should exercise an Absolute and full Jurisdiction each of them in their several places and have Peculiar Courts of Justice of their own distinct from those of England which very thing we read to have been Anciently done by them The Chief of the Irish Nobility also are to be dealt with that as soon as they hear of the Queens death they should new model Ireland either into the Form of a Republick or else should make it a Kingdom of it self throwing off all Obedience to the English withal promising aides to each of them in particular and that so much the rather because that in that Kingdome or Island the Catholicks and especially the Friers that are of the Order of S. Francis are very greatly esteemed and beloved There is also much greater agreement and correspondence betwixt the Spaniard and the Irish then betwixt them and the English whether it be by reason of the Similitude of their Manners or else by reason of the Clime and the nearnesse of these two Countries one to the other There are also in Ireland many Vagabond persons and such as have fled their Countries being men that are most impatient of Government and yet are good Catholicks and such as may be able to do good service in this kind as hath been shewed already But this sort of Men is not very rare to
For seeing they are all certainly enough assured that they shall be put to death by the succeeding Emperour they have need all of them to provide for themselves and so are necessitated in a manner to take up Armes and to implore the aid and assistance either of subjects at home of Forrain Princes abroad Hence it was that Selim was wont to say that He was to be excused for having made away with so many of his Brothers Nephews and Kindred seeing that otherwise the meanest person of the Ottoman line that should have but scaped acting a part in that Tragedy might have come to the same Dignity He enjoyed But passing by these Impious and yet Ineffectual Examples of Cruelty let us now come to the Daughters of the King of Spain And these Probably may do well to be matched with the Kings or Princes of Poland and France and also with the Kings of Denmark Muscovia England and the like upon this condition that these Princes promise faithfully to embrace the Catholick Religion which if they would do there would thence a double Benefit accrue The King must take into his Court all the most able and most knowing in all sorts of Sciences and He must endeavour to render both Himself and his Children as excellent in them as is possible that so the Eyes of all men may be turned upon Him and His and may joyn themselves unto them seeing them live so happily and securely In like manner as all the People of Israel even to the Maccabees themselves who had God for their Guide became yet admirers of the Romans and entring into a League with them fled to Them for Protection Now He that protects or assists may naturally be said to be Lord of him whom he protects as the Man became Lord of the Horse whiles He assisted him against the Stag. CHAP. X. What Sciences are required in a Monarch to render him admired by all ALl Great Men when they have gone about to set up a New Monarchy have changed the Sciences that the people were exercised in before and many times also the Religion of the Country that so they might render themselves the more Admired by their Subjects and by this means also other Nations have come in unto them too And this is the reason why the Assyrians under King Ninus changed the Religion of Noah and set up that of Jupiter Belus and applied themselves to the study of Astrology whereby they became so famous and admired that they brought the whole East under their Subjection The like course also was taken by the Persians under Cyrus who took upon himself the Title of Gods Commissary for These introduced into the World the Practise of Natural Magick a Science till then never heard of before and furnished it out with great Variety of New and Admirable Rites and Ceremonies The Macedonians made the world believe that their Prince Alexander the Great was the Son of Jupiter Ammon and withal abolishing the Ancient Disciplines they brought in upon the Stage the Aristotelian which confuted all that were before it insomuch that his Father King Philip rejoyced very much thereat foreseeing that this Novelty of Doctrine would lay a Foundation for his son to erect a New Empire upon and so thenceforward neglected the worship of Jupiter Mercury Osiris and the rest of the most Ancient among the Gods Thus Mahomet also when he now aspired to a Monarchy introduced a New Religion fitting it to his own Palat and the Gust of the People Julius Caesar likewise being now got to be chosen the Pontifex Maximus and Astrology being at that time not very well known to the Romans He by changing the Old Account and rectifying the Year laid the Foundation of His Monarchy And the same must the King of Spain also do especially seeing He hath the best Opportunity that can be of doing the same For seeing that it is not Lawful at all times to introduce a New Religion He ought therefore to adorn and set forth the Old so much the more and to enlarge it with variety of New Rites and Ceremonies as also to bring Forth into the World New Sciences and such as shall be suitable to His Dignity But above all let him make a Law to be observed by all Christians First That whensoever any People or Country shall forsake the Roman Religion all Princes shall be bound upon pain of forfeiting their Estates to root out and extirpate the same like as God commanded Moses Secondly That the Clergy and such as are skilled in Church Matters shall make it Their care to look to the regulating of the Moneths of the Year and the Daies of the Week calling the several Moneths by the Names of the Twelve Apostles and the seven Daies of the Week by the Names of the Seven Sacraments For the truth of it is that the Inhabitants of the New World when they find in conversing with the Christians that the Heathenish Names of Moneths and Daies are still in use among them they are wrapt into a great admiration And the like course is to be observed in other the like things Thirdly that seeing that New Sciences do make a New Monarchy the more Admired I would have the Schooles of the Platonists and of the Stoicks opened again whose Opinions come nearer to Christianity then the Aristotelian And that we may descend to particulars the Telesian Philosophy is the most excellent of all seeing it comes the nearest to the Holy Fathers and makes it appear to the World that the Philosophers knew nothing and that Aristotloâ— who would have the Soul to be Mortal and the World to be Immortal and denyes Providence also on which Christianity is grounded talks very absurdly notwithstanding all his so specious Reasons seeing that the same are refuted by stronger Reasons fetcht in like manner from Nature Fourthly It is necessary that he set the Wits of the Learned to work with Scholastick Questions lest by being conversant in the Sciences of Natural Things it set an edge upon their Ambition and by this meanes they should aspire to higher Matters Fifthly That He should banish all Theological Questions out of the Transalpine Schools seeing that all the Divines of those parts turn Hereticks by not continuing firm to the Holy Constitutious of the Pope but are still raising up fresh Controversies and the Wits of these men are to be exercised onely in the Disputes of Natural Philosophy Sixtly He must endeavour to get himself Renown as Justinian did by reducing all the Roman Lawes into One Body and as Charles the Great did by opening the School of Aristotle which was at that time the only School of Philosophy in Christendome for all the rest had been long before trodden down to the ground by the Barbarians as I have shewed elsewhere Seventhly He shall do well to shut up all the Greek and Hebrew Schools because that these Two Languages have been destructive to Monarchy and are besides the Main Pillars by
might have of seizing upon the Subjects Goods and restraining the Souldiers from abusing the Inhabitants where they come for which very reasons the People do not get so many Children as otherwise they would which might afterwards do the King service And hence also it is that their Daughters wanting good portions to put them off are fain to become either Nunnes or Whores and the Men to turn Priests or Friers or Renegadoes and so to serve as Souldiers in other Countries And therefore it would be much the better course to use them more Courteously and to take this for a most certain Truth That Mony doth not give Men Dominion over their Enemies but rather exposeth them as a Prey to others And therefore the Spaniard is in a very great Errour as we shall hereafter shew while he thinks that Mony hath the Command of All the World Whereas in truth it is thy Vassals and thy Souldiers that must make Thee Lord over thine Enemies and not thy Mony For the Only Use of Mony is to procure and maintain Souldiers with it It is much better therefore that Souldiers should bear rule over any Country then Mony for by this means mutual Amity and friendship will be the better preserved betwixt the Souldier and the Subject And to this purpose it would be much a safer course if there were a Law made both in Spain and other places that the Eldest Sons only should inherit their Fathers Estates and the rest should all serve the King and be Pensioners to Him then so severely to squeeze out of the People such vast Summes of Mony as the Kings Ministers do In the second place I would have some course to be taken for the promoting of Peoples Marrying by the denying of some certain Honours and Priviledges to all such who being arrived to the Age of One and Twenty years unlesse they be Souldiers do not marry for by this means the summes required for Virgins Portions in Marriage which hath now rendred the Condition of Matrimony very hard will be abated And this is one of the Principal Elements of advancing a Common-Wealth and was much made use of by the Romans It would do very well also if a Law were made that the daughters of no Tradesmen or Husbandmen should bring above a Hundred Crowns to their Husbands for their Portions and that within the compass of this Law should be included all those also who have informer times ever been Tradesmen or Mechanical persons For now adaies when any one hath scraped together but a Hundred Crowns he presently puts the same out to use and looks ever after to be called a Gentleman quite bidding Adieu to his Profession and thus the Kings Tributes are diminished not without the losse and detriment of the rest of their fellow Subjects But a Circumspect and wise Law-maker will be able to provide well enough against all these things Thirdly let the King give leave to his Souldiers to seize upon Women in the Low-Countries England and Africk and carry them away with them by force which they may afterwards make their Wives according as any of them shall be invited to do so by Mutual Love and these Women thus caught up I would have to be maintained at the Kings Charge who for this cause must enlarge the Souldiers pay But all these things are to be so ordered that the Dutch Women be married to Spaniards and the African Women either to Germans or Low-Dutch and the Spanish Women to Italians For this the Law of Nature seems to require that the Heat of the Spaniard should be rendred more fruitful by the German Juycinesse and that the Fiery Temper of the African should be attempered and allayed by the Cold and Moyst Constitution of the Netherlander that so both Venereal Desires and Fecundity too may be the more excited and procured as I have formerly shewed in My Philosophy And as concerning this Temperament the Italians are good for both And from hence will arise two Advantages the First whereof is that these Women will embrace the Christian Faith for a Woman will never be of any other Religion then that which her Husband whom she loves so dearly is of As your Northern Women who are naturally cold love their South-Country Husbands who are hot and the Sabine Young Women made peace betwixt the Romans their Ravishers and the Sabines their Parents that came to demand them of the Romans and to have them home again And St. Paul saith that the Unbelieving Wife is sanctified by her Believing Husband and so on the contrary The Second Advantage is that by this meanes the King shall never be without good store of Souldiers while He shall alwaies have his Souldiers Sons also to make Souldiers of When therefore He shall once come to abound in Souldiers by reason of this course taken to promote Fructification which I have now laid down it will be a means to inflame the Souldiers minds and will exceedingly encourage them to go on against any Garrisons or Fortified places of the Enemy that so they may get themselves handsome women for their Wives and afterward may lye still and take their ease And this was a Secret of Plato's finding out that Souldiers should be stirred up and encouraged to fight for Love I would also have a Law made that such Souldiers as have taken away more Women then one should be placed in some strong Holds and keep Garison there and not be forced to follow the Camp in like manner as at Naples all those Souldiers that are married are put into the Forts there and it would do very well if such were sent away into some New Colonies of the New World Fourthly let Him cause to be erected in each of his several Dominions as namely in Spain Naples the Low-Countries c. two or four Seminaries of Souldiers into which shall be put poor Mens Sons only and Bastards which shall be here trained up to the Exercise of Armes acknowledging the King for their father and none else and these after they are once grown up to be listed for Souldiers shall go and seize upon Women where they can in an enemies Country which they may make their Wives And this will be a means to encourage poor people to get children as fast as they can as being certainly provided of one that will breed them up for them and the King also shall by this means be sure to have faithful Souldiers But in Forreign Nations let Him erect for every several Nation a several Seminary as for Example let there be one for the Moors and another for the Sons of the Low-Dutch all which He shall cause to be brought up in Military Discipline as the Great Turk doth his Janizaries And besides there should be certain poor women maintained in the said Seminaries at the Kings Charge who shall make the Souldiers beds or may Spin and Weave cloath for the making of Sailes or the like Then again that such as are
Disposition as was Scipio And I would have these to be chosen out of the number of Souldiers that have behaved themselves valiantly in fight and such as have step by step got up to what places they are now in Such as were Marius Sylla Ventidius Antonio de Leva Cicala and Occiali But the Person to whom the whole Charge of the War shall be committed must be such a one as is of very great Authority amongst the souldiery and one that is also of the Blood Royal. Or if it be suspected that such a one may possibly himself aspire to the Monarchy let there be then one chosen out of the Barons who shall be found the most fit for this Trust and who is a man that is Eminent rather for Real Action then for Shew and Ostentation In this case that the King may proceed the more securely Let Him erect a Councel which shall consist of Wise and Faithful persons with some of some Religious Order or other joyned to them from whose hands the Souldiers should receive their Pay For there was nothing that did more promote the ruine of the Kings affaires in the Low-Countries then the Souldiers being defrauded of their Pay And therefore I would have those to be entrusted with the charge of Paying the Souldier that are Capuchins because that these men care for Mony the least of any Religious Order of Friers whatsoever And that there may never be wanting fit persons to be made Captains and Commanders there ought to be certain peculiar Seminaries erected for the education of the Second and Younger Sons of Barons and Gentlemen who shall there be instructed in the Art of Riding the Great Horse and using the Javeling of raising Fortifications and making assaults upon and taking in of fortified places likewise of marshalling of battels and laying of sieges to places also of managing a battel and drawing out an Army into Companies and how to give the Word of Command to the Souldiers and lastly how to train up fresh-water Souldiers all which things Hannibal was instructed in when he was yet but nine years old But now not onely the Souldiers having been cheated of their Pay but also their Insolency after a Victory and their contempt of too mild a Commander often gives them occasion of Mutinying And therefore they are alwaies to be divided into Regiments and never the whole Army to lye all together but when they are to go into the field to fight because by this meanes the fear of the Enemy will keep them in due Obedience to their Commander The neglect of this one thing was the cause of all those Mischeifs that the Carthaginians felt after the Second Punick War and it was destructive also to the Romans themselves in the time of Furius Camillus Let the Authors therefore of all Mutinies among the Souldiers be immediately put to death in the face of the whole Army as Speridius heretofore was and he that caused the Army of Charles the Fifth to Mutiny So that he was forced to retreat back from Austria and go into Italy again For it is the duty of these men to be able to make use of their Swords rather then of their Tongues And what Persons soever are condemned to die let them suffer by the hands of the Army rather then by the Commanders least by this meanes He should draw an Odium upon himself But yet he ought oftentimes to pardon those that are guilty of death especially when not a few only but the whole Army become intercessors for them as was the case of Papirius Torquatus and Drusus as it is reported by Titus Livius and Cornelius Tacitus The Spaniards are good Foot Souldiers even in Mountainous places or when they are to fight from a wall in defending any strong Hold. The French and Netherlanders are good Horsemen and charge Notably well in an open field and at the first Onset The Italians would do well at both these did not the abusing of their own proper Inclinations spoyl them All Mountainous People as the Biscaines Switzers and the Italians that inhabit the Appennine So likewise the Saxons are excellent Foot Souldiers and are naturally desirous of Liberty they are also accounted very faithful though not very subtle Those that inhabit Champian Countries as the Andalusians Castilians Austrians Hungarians and Neopolitans are excellent Horsemen and are to be kept in Obedience by a strict hand but they are each of them both an Unfaithful and a subtile kind of People All these considerations a General must exactly observe if he intends to manage his Army discreetly and according to Art unlesse he have the skill of judging of the dispositions of his Souldiers by Physiognomy as Julius Caesar had After any of his Souldiers are arrived to the age of fifty yeares he must then encourage them with gifts that so they be may enticed to stay the longer in the Service and when they once come to the age of five and fifty he must either put them into Castles and strong holds or else he must dismisse them quite and let them go to their homes He must accustome his Souldiers also to carry burthens or to carry forth the Earth in making Entrenchments as the Romans were wont to do when they wanted men to dig their Trenches Or let him put them to make Bridges or to mend the Gallies as Caesars Army did in the Low-Countries and in England And although the Fortune of the Wars does not alwayes favour those that have the greatest Armies as may be seen in the Example of Alexander the Great who with Thirty Thousand Old Souldiers subdued the whole World and of Scanderbeg and of Julius Caesar also who with small numbers conquered Multitudes yet however it is a very good thing to be alwaies provided with good full numbers of Souldiers And hence it is that the Turk hath almost in all Battels been the Conquerour for having such a multitude of Souldiers as he hath and placing all the most Inconsiderable of them in the Van our Souldiers having spent themselves in fighting with and cutting off these are at length fallen upon by the Janizaries who are fresh as not having struck a stroak before and so are overcome This Course of his I confesse I should like well enough were it not a wicked and Inhumane one Therefore such Commanders are to be sent into the Wars as are both Expert Souldiers and such as will propose to themselves the Advantage and Glory of Christianity only and not their own glory Neither ought He upon every slight occasion to expose his men to death And besides the General must sometimes as occasion shall require take care in person of his maimed and sick Souldiers that by this means He may the more indear himself to them He is also to have Preachers to go along with him in his Army who are to put him in mind of God after the Example of the Maccabees And if a Commander would conquer his enemy with a
a man of a Warlike spirit being King of Spain was afterwards chosen also Emperour of Germany by al which advantages He might have been able to have made himself Lord of the whole Earth had He but known as well how to give Lawes to those He conquered as He knew how to conquer them This Prince took Tunis and having driven thence Ariodenus the Turk He made Muleasses King of that place without changing the former State of the Kingdom at all After this He conquered Germany that is to say the Protestant Princes there whom He devested of their Electoral Dignity substituting into their places their Brethren and Kinsmen but otherwise leaving them in the same state He found them And although He had once got Luther himself into his hands and power yet looking after the empty Fame only of being accounted a Mercisul Prince He let him go again that so he might have the opportunity forsooth of reducing all Germany and the Nâ—therlands He took Francis the King of France and then set him again at liberty that so he might raise up a new War against Him and thereby frustrate all that He had done before He also took in the Cities of Sienna Florence and bestowed them upon the Family of the Medici that so He might procure himself more powerful enemies by the bargain For whosoever is raised by any one to some degree of Power what service soever is due from him to his Rayser he will be sure to decline the doing it as much as he can and therefore he seeks all the occasions he can of shaking off the Yoak that he may make his Benefactor his Enemy which very thing was done by the Dukes of Florence and by Maurice Prince Elector of Saxony against Charles the Fifth And indeed such Benefits as by reason of the greatnesse of them cannot any way be returned commonly they draw a hatred upon the Virtue of the Benefactor as we see it evidently fell out in the case betwixt the aforementioned Francis King of France and Charles the Fifth Another cause that this Monarchy hath not yet hitherto been brought about is this because that Philip could not succeed his Father not so much as in the War and therefore lost both the Low Countries together with the Imperial Titles But that Affliction which also fell upon him by the losse of Charles his Son was the most grievous of all the rest for he would have been able to have maintained the Wars in His stead which seeing the King of Spain is not able to do He is constrained alwaies to defend and make good the bounds of his Kingdom rather then to endeavour to enlarge them and to look to his Commanders and see that they do not pillage the Countries where their Command lies and enrich themselves out of the Kings Treasure it being their onely care how to keep up such a Trade of War by which they may make advantage to themselves rather then any way enlarge the Kings Dominions I shall therefore here lay down these Rules though they are not so proper for this place that when any new Country is conquered that is of a different Religion and manner of Government the Natives are presently to be removed out of it and carried into some other Country where they may serve as Slaves and their Children are to be Baptized and may be either put into the Seminaries before spoken of or else sent into the New World and into this conquered Country may be sent Colonies of Spaniards under the conduct of some Wise and faithful Commander Which Course ought to have been taken by Charles the Fifth at Tunis who should also have carried away Muleasses to Naples And He should by right have done the very same thing in Germany namely in Saxony in the Marquisat of Brandenburg and the Lantgravedome of Hessen into which Countries He should have sent New Colonies under the Command of New Governours The Free Cities also He should have suppressed and have taken away their Priviledges and lastly He should have made Three Cardinals the Governous of all Germany But when any New Country is taken in that is not of a different Religion but only differing in Government let Him then change nothing at all in matters that concern the People but only let Him set strong Guards upon the Country and let the Chief Officers be chosen all out of the Kings party but the Inferiour out of the Common People of the place the Lawes whereof may also be altered by little and little and made to conforme to the Kings Lawes either by heightning or abating the rigour of them according as the Condition and Temper of the place shall require All Authors or Heads of Factoins must be presently removed out of the way either by Death if they have been Enemies or if they have been friends they must be carried away into Spain that they may there receive Baronies for their reward or may have liberty of free Traffick into the Kings Dominions granted them But the Chief Heads of such People as He shall subdue He must never suffer to continue in their places which course ought to have been taken with the Strozzi Medici Cappones Petruccij and other Ringleaders and Heads of Factions at Sienna and Florence And indeed the same Course should have been taken with Francis King of France that so he might have had no further opportunity of attempting any thing against Charles the V. But as for the Hereticks and Luther the best way would have been to have suppressed them under some other Pretense presently after the breaking up of the Diet at Ausburg as I shall shew hereafter And if Charles the Fifth had but taken these Courses He had never left behind him so much work and trouble for King Philip and perhaps his young son Charles too might have been alive at this day and might perhaps by His Arms have added Africk Hungary Macedonia Italy and England to his Dominions But He as I have before said was the onely cause of all those Evills which we see at this day So that I do not wonder at all that notwithstanding the vast Treasures of the King of Spain yet the bounds of His Monarchy are not all this while enlarged But I rather wonder that so Wealthy a Prince hath not laid up all such his Revenues for Necessary Uses against times of need which might have been his ruin For if so be his Negotiation by Sea should be stopt or interrupted but for one five or six yeares space together or that his Plate Fleet should be intercepted in its return home from the West-Indies would it not be so fore a cut to him as that he must of necessity be forced to oppresse his own snbjects by laying most heavy and unusual Taxes upon them and so draw upon himself their Hate and besides should he not also undoe all his Merchants and defraud his Souldiers of their Pay and by that means be in danger
therefore of Raigning well and quietly is the Tongue and the Second is the Sword And the truth of this will best of all appear by the contrary Use of It. For whensoever any Seditious Preachers rise up against the King they are able in a short time to bring the people that before dissented in Judgments to be now of one and the same mind and will adde courage to every Seditious spirit and so will make themselves the Heads and Ringleaders of sedition by which Princes have oftentimes been brought into very great Straits and which is more have sometimes also lost their Lives thereby An example of this kind may be Mahomet who stirred up the People against Heraclius the Emperour The like whereof hath of late years been practised by Luther and Calvin against an Infinite number of Princes and these two have done more mischief with their Tongue then either Marcus Sciarra or Ninus Martinus did with their Swords Thus again on the contrary Menenius Agrippa with his Tongue only suppressed the Mutinying Commons of Rome and made them again to yield Obedience to the Senat against whom they had shamefully risen up The Pope also hath often by his Preachers repressed Rebellions that were now broken out and grown high Nay He by this means preserved and upheld the Western Empire when by the Rhetorick of his Divine Tongue he diverted Attila the Hunne from destroying all Italy and made him return home again King Ahab also was brought to destruction by the Tongue of the Prophet Elijah as Jeroboam was by Ahijah's And therefore Good Preachers ought to be had in high estimation especially if they be Good Men and are able to confirm that which they say both by Miracles and by strong Reasons like as Moses confounded Pharaoh and the Pope the Emperours Frederick and Henry and as the Emperour Constantine performed that which He had conceived by Divine Inspiration It is certain therefore that Tumults and Mutinies may be stirred up among the People by the Eloquence of such persons as are Powerful with them and in high esteem among them and therefore such are to be had in reverence whether they be Good men or Bad and they are to be made your friends For if they be Good men they are then so powerful by their Divine Authority as that there can be no Opposition made against them Look upon Samuel who set Saul upon the Throne and shortly after deposed Him again and set up David upon it And so likewise what is it that the Pope is not able to do in this kind For as much as His Supream Authority joyned with Sermons is of much greater force and power And Bishops in this case would also be very powerful if they would but take upon themselves to discharge the duty of Preachers How stoutly did St. Chrysostome oppose the rage and fury of the Empresse Eudoxia and her Party And St. Bernard also made himself very formidable both to the Cardinals and to the Popes themselves setting at oddes and reconciling Princes and their People as he pleased himself as his Epistles do sufficiently testifie And I am verily perswaded that if all Princes and Nations should joyn their Forces together for the Overthrowing of the Popedome they would not be able to effect it for thus much Christ hath also promised to his Church Whatsoever ye bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye loose on earth c. And again The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against It. And if there were but one Expedition onely of Croisades appointed to be set forth all persons that are of any Religious Orders whatsoever and of these there are certainly many Millions would questionlesse immediatly flock together with their Armes and making use both of their Tongues and Swords would be able to make resistance against and to strike a terrour into the Whole World For indeed all people would be afraid to make use of their Armes against persons that are in Sacred Orders and yet if some few of them should dare to do this yet would the Major part of them lay down Their Armes and so the rest being by this means disheartned would not make any Opposition against them Do but take notice if you please how Moses alone being accompanied onely with the Levites and Priests yet took up armes against the Rebellious People of Israel and against their Princes who together with their Wives were above a Million in number and how with the Armes of one single Tribe onely and that too of the Priests The Text saith onely 3000. Exod. 32.28 he killed thirty three Thousand men in one day and reduced the rest into Obedience For where the True Religion joyneth Armes and Preaching together there is no Power so great as to be able to make resistance against it The Romans so soon as ever they perceived the Power of the New growing Christian Religion they presently took up Armes against It killing and imprisoning the Christians every where yet were they fain at last to give way to It until at length Themselves also in the time of the Emperour Constantine the Great embraced the Christian Faith And although that a Bishop or the Pope himself should chance to be a Wicked person yet if any Prince shall draw his Sword against him he shall be overcome though the Conquerour Of which we had a plain example in Roger Guiscard King of Naples who though he got the Victory in the Battel yet was he afterwards compelled to kisse the Popes Foot A Remedy against which some Kings conceiving they had found out among which number was Henry the VIII King of England they betook themselves to Apostasy and yet neverthelesse did They also come to Ruin and this very thing would bring if it should be attempted the most certain destruction upon Spain also as we have formerly shewed Some others have thought it the best course to cast the Popes into Prison which Philip K. of France made bold to practise upon Pope Boniface the Eighth and in like manner St. Chrysostom was heretofore sent into banishment by The Emperour Arcadius which yet was destructive to both these Princes For Chrysostome was called home again and restored to his Seat with greater honour by occasion of Gaina the Goth his taking up Armes against the said Emperour notwithstanding that Gaina himself could not be preserved in the Church because he was an Opposer of that Religion that Chrysostome was of And the King of France after he had by Boniface's means brought it so about that a Frenchman was chosen Pope hoping by this meanes His Offence would escape unpunished he fomented and kept up the Breach that at that time was risen in the Church and sent Clement V. the new Elected Pope to Avignon to keep his residence there but all to no purpose For this very Pope Clement by the advice of Cardinal Brateus deceived his Kings expectation in not keeping those Promises that he had made to
him And indeed from that time forward the Kingdome of France seems to have been continually in declining as appears plainly out of History It is therefore a Profane Remedy to lay hands upon or to attempt any thing against the person of a Priest Other Princes again have elected Anti-popes as did the Duke of Bavaria by which meanes they were afflicted worse then before Others have summoned such Bishops and Popes as have been obstinate perverse Persons and enemies to them to appear before a General Councel but this devise of theirs the Pope hath now eluded it being openly delared to all the World that a Generall Councel hath no power at all over the Pope and a Decree being also made That No Councel shall be called but by the Pope alone And for this reason did Pope Leo X. ruine those Cardinals that were present at the Councel of Pisa and yet neither did their friends the Princes obtain what they desired Eclesiastical Princes have alwaies been wiser then Secular some of whom have found a remedy for this Evil by yeilding and submitting themselves as Theodosius the Emperour humbled himself before that Good Bishop St Ambrose and the Kings of the Goths left Rome and went to Ravenna to reside giving way to the Popes as well to the Bad as the Good And That King of England also by whose command Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury was murdered made choyce rather to enter into Conditions of Peace with the Pope then to lose his Kingdom and so was forced to pay yearly to the Pope forty Thousand Marks of Gold and besides at his death he made the Pope his heir to the Kingdom by his last Will and Testament After the Example of these Princes it will behoove the King of Spain also to give way to the Pope whether He be Good or Bad and to lay aside what Controversies soever he shall have with him and to leave such Bishops as are his enemies to be chastised by the Pope to whom He must wholly unite himself by those waies which are before set down Alexander the King of the Jewes having drawn upon himself the hatred of the Pharises and being now upon his death bed persuaded his wife as Josephus testifies that by all meanes she should take him and throw him down headlong out at the Window telling her that by so doing she should give full satisfaction to the incensed Pharises who after she had done that Act would suffer her to succeed him in the Kingdom giving her Counsel besides that she should ever take heed how she fell out with any Religious persons least she suffered that which himself had done But if such men as are Authorised by no Superiour Power especially if they be Clergy men such as were Arrius Savanarola and Luther shall rise up against any State this is a very dangerous case and it must then be enquired into whether these men have any encouragement from the Pope to do so or not for if so be they have and He contradicts them not then is the Evill in a manner Incurable but if they have not Him for their Abettor then may an order be very easily taken with them For here it is necessary that it be considered whether these Men be Good or Bad for both may prove very dangerous and if they are Bad they must then be rooted out by the Authority of the Pope but if they are Good men they must then be cited to appear before a General Councel where by the Authority of the Pope being also interposed they may be openly convinced in like manner as Berengarius being convinced of his Errour yeilded to the Truth and submitted and this is the Course that ought to be taken where the Parties are sincerely and really Good men and not meer Hypocrites onely But if they maintain a Good Cause those Faults which they did inveigh against in their Sermons are to be mended and they themselves are to be sent for away to Rome where they should afterwards spend the rest of their Lives as was done by Bartholomaeus Miranda Archbishop of Toledo and the Bishop of Curzola who was expelled from his Bishoprick by the Venetians If they are Lay-men as was John of Leyden and Philip Melancthon there is no great danger to be feared from them For these two after the breach had been first made by Luther at length rose up and when now Luther had already setled his Erroneous Religion and false Priesthood in Germany But in our Dominions no One Lay-man whatsoever would be able to bring about such a businesse without the assistance of some one of the Clergy It is an Infallible Rule that no Heresie did ever do any hurt in a Country unlesse the Prince himself of that Country for some Reasons of State afforded some Patronage to the same as I have shewed where I discoursed touching the Papal Monarchy It will therefore concern all Princes to take care that their Nobles also be not infected with the said Heresie which they may prevent by taking them off with Employments and so diverting their Minds from any such thoughts as I have delivered before Now these Rules are to be diligently observed with these aforesaid Hereticks You must be careful that you do not fall to dispute with them about Minute Quirks and subtilties in Divinity but only that you require them to give you a good account of their Calling and to produce the Names of their Authors after this manner suppose Who commanded you to teach these things publickly Were they Men or Divels rather For we cannot believe they should be any other And then if they shall answer that They have their Calling from God let them then make the same appear to you by doing some Miracles or other such as God heretofore armed His Messengers with namely Moses Elijah and the Apostles And if they are not able to do any such things you should then bring them to the Stake and burn them if you can and render them as Infamous as possibly you may But be sure you avoid all Grammatical Disputations and Logical Subtilties but dispute with them only according to the Principles of Divine Logick as St. Francis did in Egypt and St. John Guidalbert and as I my self have endeavoured to do in my Dialogues against the Lutherans and Calvinists laying down a way how they are to be convinced by an Apostolical and Political way least out of multiplying idle and vain words one Controversie may still be started out of another which to perverse and Malicious spirits will be taken for a kind of Victory I would also have them condemned to be Burnt out of the Imperial Constitutions for as much as they rob Persons in Authority of their Goods and Good name such as are the Pope and other Religious and Pious men who have confirmed the Faith of the Church and sealed it with their Blood which indeed is more precious then what ever other Treasures in the World and therefore
whosoever they are that are Refractory to and perversly oppose such Persons and seduce others to do the like they justly deserve to be punished A second Rule is that all care be taken that there be no fruits suffered to spring from such branches for the hindering whereof the best course would be to prefer only men of excellent parts to Bishopricks and Benefices and withal you are to consider that such if they be good Men will be of good use to you nor will ever scatter abroad any Pestilent Opinions such as were Cato and Socrates among the Gentiles and St. Bernard and Thomas Aquinas among the Christians There are also other Good men to be found that are able to act powerfully on either part such as were among the Heathen Alcibiades and Coriolanus both which were the Authors of much good and as much evil to their Countries according as they were led by the Occasion and present necessity upon them as among the Christians were Luther and Sergius who afterwards recanted as it were all that ever they had before Rightly Preached and taught And therefore it concerns the Prince that he shew himself Favourable and Gracious to all Learned Men seeing that he cannot be able to see so far into them as to know what their Inclinations are And let him use all the means he can to know who are the most excellent for Learning in his Dominions and having notice of them let Him invite them to him and find Imployments for them preventing even the Pope himself in bestowing perferments on them and these he shall encourage and provoke to shew their abilities against the Infidels One only Monk converted all England to the Christian Faith and Charles the Great that extraordinary favourer and Patron of all that were Eminent for Learning and Eloquence whether they were Laicks or Clergy-men subdued Gotland Norway and Denmark with a great part of Germany also by the means of these Men whom also He rewarded most magnificently In the Conquest also of the New World the Monks were of more use and did more good then the Souldiers And the like might also be effected both in China Ethiopia and Persia Wherefore New Sciences are to be introduced and New Sects of Philosophers together with the Mathematicks as likewise the study of the Arabick Tongue is to be taken up seeing that the Empires of the Greeks and of the Hebrews are now quite extinct that so by the use thereof the Turks may be the better convinced of their Errour Let there be also certain Assemblies erected consisting of the wisest persons that can be pickt out both of the Religious Order of the Friers and out of the Laity whose businesse it shall be to deliberate about such things as concern the State that so their Wits being wholly taken up with the meditating about these things they may wholly serve the Prince and him only and not design any thing to his disadvantage while their own only Ambitions will be who shall deserve best of the Prince and so will have no other thoughts And let him make it his businesse to get together as many of these men as he can and withal let him be sure that they be all honest good men For should there be never so many of them yet if they were such as those were that Jezabel had about her one Elijah because he is a Good man would easily confound them all and bring them to nothing Antiochus also erected Greek Schooles at Jerusalem to the end that by that means he might abolish the Wholsome Doctrine and Lawes that Moses had given the Jewes but all in vain because the Macchabees opposed themselves against him In like manner ought the King to set up many Christian Catholick Schooles and that against the Enemies of Religion for by so doing he shall render Himself secure both from the Pope and from his Enemies and shall besides reduce the Netherlands and bring them under his subjection as I have before declared Neither would I have this one thing to be omitted namely that He erect certain Colledges through all the Provinces of his Dominions in which should be placed all the most Ingenious Boyes of the said Provinces and who are such may easily be known by their first Masters that taught them their Grammers and other the First Rudiments and these being thus culled out of all Grammer Schools I would have to be brought up and maintained at the Kings Charge and there should be a New Order set up of them like that of St. Dominick which Order I would have called The Austrian Order And when any of these were come to be 18. years old they should then be commanded to Preach and these I would have to be called The Kings Preachers and they should then be sent abroad some into Germany and others into England where if they have managed their businesses rightly and well at their return they should have Bishopricks conferred upon them by the King of those that are in the Kings own gift for by so doing he shall render himself secure both from the Pope and also against all perfidious Preachers and Hereticks and by this meanes such persons only shall be maintained at His charge as do him service for it and advance His affairs Neither can it be expressed by words what great advantages He shall reap to himself hereby For among all sorts of Hereticks that are there are none that are farther out of the way of Truth then the Calvinists are who sow abroad the Seeds of Sedition wheresoever they come and endeavour to break asunder the bonds of that Peace which was made known unto the world by Angels and publickly preached by Christ himself and who having neither any respect to Learning nor regarding the Authority of the Fathers do defend their own Sect by their Armes only as the Turks do There is need therefore here of the most Effectual Medicines that can be against this Evil these kind of Men and that is Principiis obstare To stop them in their Beginning which course is to be observed in the Prevention of all Evils whatsoever and then afterwards are those other Remedies to be applied which are before set down namely for the converting of them for which work there must be chosen out honest and painful Labourers who by the Purity of their Doctrine and holinesse of their Life may reduce and winne back such wandring sheep as have gone astray out of the Way of Truth The Kings of Portugal and especially John the Third erected in India certain Colledges and Seminaries wherein are educated a great number of young Youths of all sorts under the Discipline of the Jesuits who also have by this meanes done very much good both in Germany and in the New World For those Cities of Germany in which these Jesuits live have alwaies stood firm in the Faith and those other which have been infected with the Venom of Heresie are cured thereof by their Means But if
true yet the Course that the Turk takes is so blunt and plain that if he should have but one overthrow so that it were a lusty one indeed it would prove his utter Ruin as I have hinted before since that He hath no Vice-Roys or Barons by whom he might be recruited and made whole again But we cannot say so of the King of Spain who in such a case would presently be furnished with Aides from the Pope and the Princes of Italy and that by reason of their Union in point of Religion I say moreover that He cannot suffer any Notable Overthrow unlesse it be by some very Potent Prince such a One as the great Turk is who yet lying so very far remote from him as Alexander the Great of old did from the Romans cannot so quickly ruin him whereas on the Contrary any Peaceable Agreement of the Christians among themselves if so be it were but Firm and Lasting would utterly confound the Turk And therefore I say that although King Philips Kingdomes lye scattered far and near yet his enemies also lye far asunder one from another and therefore it is clear that his Emulators the Italians Tuscans and Venetians will never enter into a Combination against him unlesse he First give them some evident cause and wrong them very much Neither indeed will the Pope ever suffer any acts of Hostility to be done against His Catholick Majesty and besides it is also most certain that the Catholick Princes both out of fear of the Hereticks and also of the Authority of the Pope will never attempt any such thing And the Hereticks are at very great Variance also amongst themselves and for this reason Germany being divided into severall small Republicks cannot do him any harm at all and it is besides part of it made subject to the House of Austria and the Archdukes thereof by the Emperours and part also to certain Archbishops who are withall secular Princes as namely the Archbishops of Mentz of Colen Trevers Salsburg Strasburg and Bamberg and part also to the Dukes of Bavaria so that the Protestants can by no meanes make any Insurrection against the King of Spain The Lower Germany also is divided into more Common-Wealths then the other all which bear Armes against the King of Spain though it be only to defend themselves and not to offend Him And of this number are the Provinces of Holland Frisland and Zealand Besides the Upper and the Lower Germanies differ very much in their Religion which we may also say of the Danes Norwegians Transylvanians Gotlanders Polonians French Switzers and Grisons so that the King hath no need at all to fear that these should ever all joyn together against him and besides the King retains a great part of these Nations in pay and by that means keeps them his friends and then the King of Poland and the Prince of Transylvania are allied to him by Marriage and so are in league and amity with him So that He hath no body to stand in fear of but only the King of France and the King of England which two Princes by reason of their being of different Religions can never agree together Now although the King of Spain cannot as yet subdue the King of France yet it makes very much for His Interest that the King of France being absolved by the Pope is returned again to the Obedience of the Church For otherwise he would have been the Head of all the Transalpine Hereticks and would have marcht with an Army of them over into Italy to the great Prejudice both of the Pope and of our King which None of the Hereticks hath to this day adventured to do merely for want of a Powerful General to head them Then besides there is a Division broken out in France betwixt the Catholicks and the Hereticks and which is the chiefest thing of all there are in that Kingdome many Potent Bishops who would not by any means see Spain ruined And lastly our Kings Subjects do not come into the field with Lances Swords and Horses as the French use to do but they come into it armed with Guns which are a kind of Arms that are fitter for the defending of strong Holds and Fortifications then for the setting upon an Enemy in an open Field And hence it is that the French are able indeed to resist all the Spaniards Attempts but they cannot overcome them for in this case the very Princes and States of Italy who have to this day alwaies held with the French would go over to the Spaniard for it is their Design to keep the Ballance alwaies so even betwixt these two Nations as that neither of them may preponderate and bear down the Scales and so make a Prey of the Other which Hiero King of Syracuse heretofore laboured to do betwixt the Romans and the Carthaginians although he failed of his purpose Besides the King of France cannot march with an Army into Spain by reason of the Fortified Places and Castles that lye in his way and are kept by the Spaniards who are very well skilled in defending such Places Neither can he so soon march out with an Army against Millan or Naples but that the King of Spain can be much sooner in France with an Army and shall so force him to return back again and defend his own Kingdom Neither did the King of France ever passe over into Italy unlesse when he was assisted by the Pope as the Expedition of Charles of Anjou testifies or except he were called in by some Prince or State of Italy as Charles the Eighth was called in by the Duke of Millan which yet at this time can hardly be done again For the Italians were now afraid that they would bring in a New Religion with them And besides it is a usual thing that that Prince that first calls Forraigners in to his aide shall be first ruined by them for he must necessarily entertain them and allow them Quarters who after they have overcome the adverse Party will joyn with them and so drive out Him who called them first in Examples of this we have in the Sforza's Castruccio's and the Florentines with many others and also in the Pope himself although his own Papal Authority restored him again And therefore the Spaniard hath no need to fear the King of France much And as for the English he hath much lesse reason to stand in fear of them seeing they are shut up within an Island and we seldome see Islanders get any sure footing and make themselves Masters of any part of a Forraign Continent And therefore it is sufficient for them if they can keep their own only they send out their Ships to fetch in Prizes by Sea but for this Mischief I shall hereafter set down a Remedy Only let the King of Spain take care that the English joyn not their Navy with the Hollanders Scots Danes Norwegians and Danzickers for if they should they might then be able to overrun all
another Errour in this Point in that by his Slownesse He gave the King of Navarre time to make over to his Party the Princes of Italy and the Pope only by making them believe that He intended to abjure the Protestant Religion and turn Catholick besides that those Princes did likewise consider that when France was once subdued by the Spaniards whom they knew very well to gape earnestly after an Universal Monarchy their Own Turnes would probably have been next to have been swallowed up by them This very Slownesse of his was the reason why the Spaniard gained the lesse and was also the longer held in expectation and besides by gaping in this manner after what belonged to others became hated by all So true is that Common Saying namely That there is no place Inexpugnable into which an Asse laden with Gold can but get in But then this is also to be added to that Saying namely that That Golden Asse or that Asse laden with Gold must have many Horses laden with Iron to come after it that so while the Citizens are all busied in weighing and telling out their Mony Thou mayest in the mean time make use of thy Iron in the subduing and taking in of that Place To this we may adde that the Spanish Commanders as well as the French plaid booty as we say neither of them fighting for the Victory but for Gain onely And the reason of this was because that neither the King himself nor his Son were present in person in the Army And besides the Duke of Parma durst not at first in the beginning of the War hazard all in a Battel without Commands from the King by which means the King of Navarre had time given him to gain over to him the French Nobility whom the Spaniard had before wrought over by his Mony to His side only by an Opinion they had conceived of his Military Valour And in this He imitated those other most Valiant Princes who neglecting the Common People made it their only businesse to oblige the Nobles to them only Which hath been the Ancient Custome with the Polonians Persians and French And because that the Nobles think it a thing too much below them to march with Foot Souldiers hence it is that these very Nations have alwaies been very strong in Horse but have still been but weak in Foot And seeing the businesse is come to this passe that the King of France hath now won to himself the Affections both of his Subjects the French and of the Pope also and hath thereby got himself more Renown then if he had beaten the King of Spain himself it is now to be feared that He may sometime or other attempt to take in some part of Spain also For He is of a Turbulent Unquiet Spirit neither can the French hold while they have well settled a Country that they have newly taken in but they must on still and fall upon some other and this the King of France must the rather do because that being out of Mony He is forced to forrage abroad and take from others that he may have to pay his own men And therefore it will be necessary that the King of Spain take care that the Frontiers of Spain and the Duchy of Millan also be well guarded and fortified and also that he carefully observe these following Rules The first whereof is that he enter into a League with the French who are his Competitors and the Second is that He hinder the coming of any Assistance to him either from England or from Italy both which things may be effected one and the same way namely if He do but perswade the Pope that the King of France hath a purpose of Assisting the Hereticks and that should he but once come into Italy he would scatter abroad the Poyson of his Heresie every where and that Tuscany and the Venetian Territories will first be the Seat of the War and afterwards will be his Prey Let the King of Spain therefore deal with the Pope that He would interdict the King of France the contracting of any League or Friendship either with the Queen of England or with any other of the Hereticks such as are the Genevians Helvetians and Rhetians or Grisons for these would be able to assist him very much Let the Pope also make Him swear that He will go to the Holy Land and there joyn with the Italians in the Defence of the Christian Faith But the best course of all would be that the Nobility of France and of Italy should all joyn together and should be sent in an Expedition against Greece and that there should also be another Association made betwixt the Princes of the House of Austria against the Hereticks For if that the Christian Princes were but thus dispersed and kept at a distance one from another the Kingdom of Naples together with that of Spain and the Duchy of Millan also would have none to stand in fear of but would be secure on all sides and besides the King of Spain might in the mean time bethink himself what waies were the best to be taken for the reducing of the Netherlands over whom were he but once Conquerour the forenamed Princes would be so much astonished at the report of that his Victory and of his Military Strength that they would never dare to attempt any thing against Him no though they should return home Lords of all Asia For although Pompey was a Conquerour in Asia yet he was not able to stand against Caesar that had now subdued the Belgick Provinces For the Belgians by reason of their Fiercenesse in War put Caesar much more to it to subdue them then those of Asia did Pompey who was for this reason also inferiour to Caesar in Power Now in case that Henry the Fourth should die as he begins now to be an old man and hath neither Successor nor Wife or if he should marry and should leave a Son behind him yet probably he would be under Age and so Conde would either be the next Heir to the Crown or else would at least have the Administration of the Government put into his hands during the Minority of the Prince whose Ancestors having alwaies been the Leaders and indeed the stirrers up of the Hereticks of France in all their Wars were the Authors of shedding so much Catholick blood I say should things come to this passe it would then concern the King of Spain to lay hold on that Opportunity in proposing to the Consideration of the Catholicks of France whether they thought would be the better course to make choyce of Conde or else of some Catholick to be their King remembring that He is the Son of that Father that acted so much Cruelty upon the Catholicks which this Prince suckt in with his Nurses Milk The King of Spain must also so order the matter as that if He cannot bring it about that the Kingdome of France should be divided in Judgment upon
this particular he must then deal with them that it may be conferred upon some one that they shall pitch upon by way of Election Or else in the last place He must speedily have recourse to the Arts before set down which King Philip failed in before And this manner of Electing a King upon condition that he be a Catholick would very much please the Italians and the Catholick Princes of France also would very willingly assent thereto because that every one of them would have some hope hereby of attaining to the Crown himself And if this should once come to passe it would prove a very great Weakning to the Kingdom of France for during the Vacancy of the Crown there must needs arise very great and long Dissentions amongst them and possibly the King of Spain also being called in by some or other of the Princes might come to have a finger in the businesse Now for as much as Elective Kings are for the most part not much given to trouble themselves about the enlarging the Bounds of their Kingdome because that they know very well that their Sons are not their Successours therefore neither will they expose themselves to danger upon the Account of another mans Interest And this is the onely reason why the Emperours of Germany never trouble themselves about the enlarging of their Empire as neither do the Kings of Poland unlesse they chance to be Persons of a high Warlick Spirit as King Steven was surnamed Battorius and Sigismund both which maintained Wars with the Muscovites Tartarians and others about the Principality of Prussia and some other Territories because they hoped that their Sons should at least have succeeded them in those This Course is of very good use to a Prince for the acquiring of Military Glory and through the Multitude of Victories and the affection of his Souldiers for the bringing his own Country under his subjection which Course I before shewed was to be taken by the Emperour of Germany according to the Example of Julius Caesar Yet notwithstanding this piece of Craft being well understood by the French hath been the cause that they have now laid aside all desires of enlarging their Territories meerly to avoid that Suspition And This Suspition is the reason why the Venetians do not send Commanders of their Own into their Wars but rather chuse to make use of Forraign Commanders whom a Little Mony contents well enough for their Pay For as to this particular it was no small hazard which they heretofore run under Carmagnola and Ludovicus Vrsinus And Francis Sforza who was but a Mercenary Souldier under the State of Venice returning home a Conquerour made himself Duke of Millun For this very cause the Romans heretofore hated the Tarquins their Kings who till that time had alwaies been Elective and this very thing also was the Ruine of the Duke of the Athenians that was Elected at Florence Neither are Opportunities at this time wanting of setting the French together by the ears among themselves for although their Peace is not at this time at all disturbed by any Forraign Enemies yet they being naturally of an Impatient Unquiet spirit are alwaies rising up one against another although it be perhaps but upon their quarrel about the Heresie of the Calvinists and I know not what New Gospel which wheresoever it is preached it bringeth not Joy but Mourning not Peace but horrid Wars and filleth the Minds of Men not with Good Will but with rage and Madnesse This Mischief therefore ought to be taken in due time and have a stop put to it for this Contagion hath already infected above two hundred thousand persons in France For if so be it should spread further and should infect the Nobility also and Peers of the Kingdom it would be much to be feared that there would never be any end of the Troubles of France which is now the Condition of Germany by means of the Dukes of Saxony Hessen and others For as we see such Kingdomes as abound with Nobles are made in a manner Immortal as we may evidently perceive by the examples of France and Persia For when France was heretofore in a manner all subdued and brought in subjection by the King of England yet it was afterwards through the Industry and by the endeavours of the Nobility and Gentry wholly asserted restored again to Its first Natural Lord. And so likewise the Kingdome of Persia which is one while annoyed by the Tartarians and again another while by the Saracens is yet so well defended by the Persian Nobility as that It is kept from falling under either of their Power and Obedience But yet on the contrary side again the very same Kingdomes are by reason of their Nobility also obnoxious to most unavoidable and miserable Calamities seeing they are able at any time either to assist or protect all such as endeavour to introduce any Innovations either in the State or Religion CHAP. XXV Of England Scotland and Ireland ALthough the English seem the least of all to affect an Vniversal Monarchy yet notwithstanding they have been a very great hinderance to the King of Spains designs that way several examples whereof may be gathered from the proceedings of the aforesaid Queen Elizabeth of England who appeared both against the Catholick King in the Low-Countries and against the most Christian King in France by fomenting the corrupt Humours in the subjects of both these Princes and in assisting the Hereticks both with her Counsels and Forces For they possesse an Island that is excellently well furnished both with Shipping and Souldiers and by this means they rob the King of Spain in all places in the North wheresoever he hath any thing and also wander out abroad as far as to the New World where although by reason of the Fortifications made upon the Sea Coast they cannot lay the foundation of any Kingdome yet do they do the Spaniards no small harme there For that same famous Englishman Captain Drake following the example of Magellan who had done the same before him sailed round about the whole World more then once and it is not impossible but that the Kingdom of Bacalaos which lies somewhat near to the English and is very convenient for them by reason of the temperatenesse of the Air may be some time or other seazed upon by them However it is most certain that if the King of Spain could but once make himself Master of England and the Low-Countries He would quickly get to be sole Monarch of all Europe and of the greatest part of the New World But seeing that He is not able to reduce this Island under His Obedience because that It is so exceeding strong by reason both of its Situation and multitude of Inhabitants who Naturally hate the Spaniard and are quite different from them both in their Manners and also their Religion it will concern Him therefore to defend himself as well as he can and to fortifie and set strong
be found either in England or Scotland also These and the like Preparations may be made before hand that so soon as ever Queen Elizabeth is dead they may be immediately put into Execution For there is no man but knowes what horrid Civil Wars and what strange Alterations and Turns have happened several times in England So that what I have here proposed ought not to appear to any man as things either New or Impossible CHAP. XXVI Of Poland Muscovia and Transylvania THe Kingdom of Poland is in Our time the most Potent of all the Northern Kingdomes insomuch that if it were not so divided in it self about Points of Religion as it is and were withal an Hereditary Kingdome and had a Prince that were a Native and were not Elected out of some Forraign Nation as their custome is it would prove a sufficient Terrour to the Great Turk especially if the Great Duke of Muscovia were but joyned with them But the Nobility of that Nation in whose Power the Election of the King is are very much afraid of the King's Power and for that reason They keep as hard a hand over Him as possibly they can The King of Spain therefore must endeavour as much as lies in Him that no King be elected there but such a one as is of the Catholick Religion which course hath hitherto been observed amongst them For should they chuse themselves a King that were of any other Religion He would then very easily be induced to countenance by his Authority the Northern Hereticks who do all agree in these two Points although they differ among themselves almost in all the rest namely that the Pope is Autichrist and that the Arch-Dukes of Austria are all of them such as fight for Antichrist And therefore upon any the least Occasion that could be they would be apt to joyn their forces together against both the Pope and the Emperour their Neighbour had they but any Powerful Prince to head them and to be their General which Charge none is so able to undertake and go through with as the King of Poland is For the King of Denmark is but a weak Prince and the King of Sweden lies too far off and besides is severed from Germany by the Sea The King of Spain must then in the next place by all meanes endeavour that one of the House of Austria may be advanced to the Crown of Poland or at least such a one as is some way or other allied to the House of Austria as the now King of Poland is And lastly he must be such a one as shall alwaies make head against the Turk and that should enter into an Association with the Muscovites who together should to their utmost endeavour as much as in them lies the utter Ruine and Extirpation of the Turks He must also make choyce of some of the Wisest and most Eminent persons of his Kingdom whom He shall send as Embassadours to Cracovia and who by their presence may adde Authority and Weight to the Spanish Union in the Esteem of the Electors of Poland and that may obtain of them that in case the King of Spain should have more Sons then one that then They would Elect one of the Younger of them to be their King for certainly were any of the King of Spain's Sons chosen King of Poland He would never be so simple and foolish as to take upon him to govern the Kingdome of Poland according to his Own Will and pleasure as the King of France's Son endeavoured to do Besides He must deal with the People of Scandia and the Dantzickers by the means of the King of Poland who now is King of Swethland also that they would joyn together and send out a Fleet against the English as hath been said before For by taking this course the Kings expense will not be half so great as his Gains will be He must also labour that the Prince of Transylvania may in like manner enter into a league with the Polanders or else that either He or the great Duke of Muscovia may be chosen King of Poland For seeing that these two Nations are not only Neighbours to the Turks but do also naturally hate them they might easily be able to stop his proceedings And I am verily perswaded that among all the Northern Nations there is not any so fit and able to oppose the Turk as is the Muscovite who would but the Tartarians and the Polanders joyn with him might be able to make Incursions into the Turks Dominions and march up even to the very Walls of Constantinople Neither indeed hath Macedonia or Moldavia or Bulgaria or Thrace ever suffered so much losse by any Nation as by the Muscovites And if there were an Association contracted betwixt the King of Spain and the Muscovite either by Marriage or else by the nearer Tie of Religion brought about there by the Industry of the Jesuites it must needs prove a very advantageous businesse to Him because that Spanish Gold is among these Northern Nations of greater Estimation and Account then any thing else in the world And then must the King of Spain be very careful that as soon as ever he finds he hath wrought up the affections of these people to a Willingnesse to do him any service He set them upon some Notable Expedition or other while they are now ready for it and before they begin to cool again and repent themselves of their forwardnesse For Delay hath alwaies been the Ruine of the King of Spain's Affaires by reason that his Confederates through his slownesse in putting them in execution have alwaies had time enough to smell out the subtilty of His Designs and by this means it comes to passe that he commonly loses his labour and is at charge to no purpose The Bohemians also might be hired by the King of Spain's and the Popes Mony to joyn with the Transylvanians against the Turks because that They are in league with the House of Austria Yet when all is done there cannot be any considerable matter done in this Particular without the Assistance of the Polanders also and the Muscovites and unlesse the Emperour himself also be a Man of a stout and Warlike spirit as we shewed before when we spake of Germany and use his utmost endeavour to stop all growing Mischiess in their very Beginings least by Delay they get head and grow so much the stronger and Intractable CHAP. XXVII Of Flanders and the Lower Germany IT is not without good cause that the King of Spain endeavours by all possible meanes that he can to recover the Low-Countries again about the keeping of that only part whereof which he still possesseth it hath cost him more Humane Blood then there is Water in it and about which He hath spent more Gold then there are stones in it And yet neither is this a matter so much to be wondred at seeing that could He but once make himself Master of those Countries again He
out of Nice the Persians out of Antioch and the Saracens out of Ierusalem they afterwards laid wast the whole East and in a short time recovered the Holy Land In which Expedition this especially is to be taken notice of that neither the Emperour himself nor any other King was either their General or so much as went along with them in it And notwithstanding that afterwards indeed the Kings of France and of England as also the Emperours Conrade and Frederick made several expeditions into those parts not for the taking in of any New Countries but only for the keeping of what the others had formerly gotten yet for all there was not any thing at all done by them worth the speaking of But now there ought to be care taken in this businesse that all may share alike in what shall be gotten for otherwise the Design would be quite spoiled and never come to any thing For as in a Clock if there be any one Exorbitant or Irregular Wheel it spoiles the whole Harmony and mutual Agreement that should be in it so likewise in all Associations if there be any Deficiency in one Part it proves to be the cause of the Dissolution of the whole Union A clear example whereof we have in the League that was made betwixt the Popes Paul III. and Pius V. the King of Spain and the Venetians which though it were managed with the greatest diligence and eagernesse on all sides that could be and with Incredible successe also yet it came all to nothing at last and that meerly for this one reason namely because that it did not equally concern the Interests of all of them that That Expedition should be so carefully undertaken and so diligently carried on For Spain hath no great advantage by any thing that is done against the Eastern People which yet is most beneficial to the Venetians in like manner as it is of litle or no concernment to the Venetians what ever is done against Africk which yet is of very great advantage to Spain And this is the reason that the Venetians who stand in fear of the Power the Turk hath in the East and the Spaniards who are afraid of their Neighbours of Algier can never unanimously go on together against the Enemy with equal courage and desires And by this means the Pope lying in the mean time in the midst betwixt them both and being forced to be at a great charge yet hath no benefit at all thereby But to return to our Present discourse again whence we have digressed There is yet another way whereby the Turkish Empire might be over thrown and that is in case that some one of His Chief Commanders in war who was at first a Christian such as were Cicala Occhiali and Scanderbeg should be prevailed withal by such large Promises as should be made him as namely that he should have some Christian Province given him for his reward to betray the Turkish Navy unto us if at least He have it committed to his charge or else in case he hath been appointed by the Great Turk to manage any Kingdom under him as His Viceroy he should then have the possession of that Kingdom promised him as suppose of Tunis Algier or the like For there is no doubt to be made but that such a one had rather be the Sole Absolute Lord of any Kingdom whatsoever it be and so to have the Power of transmitting it over to his Posterity then to be but a kind of Nobler Slave to the Great Turk having neither Power in his life time to give away any thing to his friends nor at his death to leave any thing to them And I am verily perswaded that there is nothing that keeps these men from attempting such a Rebellion against the Turk more then because they dispaire of ever being able to bring any such their Undertakings to effect as not daring to confide in the Christians or to rely upon them for Assistance Yet if they were but sincerely and Ingenuously dealt withal I am clearly of opinion that they might be brought to this It may also so happen that some such Gallant Vindicator of the Peoples Liberty may spring up among the Turks themselves as was Moses the Hebrew among the Subjects of Pharaoh King of Egypt and such a One in case the Great Turk should entrust him with any great Authority or Charge might questionlesse be able to do him an infinite deal of Mischief There might also a General Association be made amongst the Christians by whom He might be brought to a Pitch'd Battel as we said before and might have one or two such Notable Blowes given him by them that he should be never able to hold up his head again because that he hath not any Nobles that might relieve him in such a case And this might the more easily be done because that he hath within his Dominions an Infinite Number both of Christians and Jewes who if they but once saw him overthrown would all presently come over to Us. And yet in the procuring of such an Association as this there would be required either very much Patience in the Pope and the King of Spain or else a very great necessity that should force All of them to joyne together Now these Princes should all be bound by mutual Covenants drawn up betwixt them that every one of them should have a Proportionable Share of what soever shall be gotten by the said expedition and also that those that have gotten possession of their own share shall assist the rest also in the getting of theirs after the Example of Reuben and Dan who after they had possessed themselves of the Country that lay on this side Jordan were then to assist their brethren in the subduing of the further part of it that lay beyond Jordan There ought also to be a persuasion wrought into All and every one of these Princes that by the King of Assyria in the Scriptures is prefigured unto us the Great Turk who after he hath destroyed the Kingdom of Israel that is to say the Kingdom of the East or that of Constantinople He will then next overthrow the Kingdom of Judah that is of the West except they repent them of their Heresy and return again into the Bosome of the Church of Rome which is our Jerusalem as I have written in my Christian Monarchy and that so together with the Empire the Priesthood also will be lost and will passe over into the New World as I have there demonstrated by Political Reasons except they take the Course here set down before them And perhaps also it may hereafter so come to passe And when the Turk who is the Typical Cyrus is destroyed then shall the Church be renewed again It is therefore most Necessary that all Christendom should joyn their forces together for the destruction of this Ravenous Wolf who by his Strength and Cunning hath taken from us Two Empires and Two Hundred Kingdomes mean
Contrary thus uniting the two Kingdomes the more and by this meanes the Kingdom will be the more happily and the more safely admininistred Clergy men should also be frequently sent to these strong Holds and Castles to take a view of them and especially the Capuchins The Authority also of Particular men is to be restrained neither ought too great a Power to be granted to any One man in any matters that are of very great Moment and consequence but these should be transacted by the Personal joynt consent of all or at least by signifying the same by their Letters In like manner as all things that concern the Kings Interest in Italy are by a very wise course therein taken appointed to be considered of by the Kings Embassadour lying Lieger at Rome the Vice-Roy of Naples and the Governour of Millan The Third sort of Union is of Goods and therefore my Opinion is that the King should do well to divide every New discovered Country among the common People and Maimed Spaniards according to the Ancient Roman Law called Lex Agraria joyning with them also such Africans and Indians as he had not long before transported into Africk but still under this Condition namely that None of them all shall account what he possesses to be his own proper Goods but must reckon upon all to be the Kings save onely what belongs to the Clergy And Fields Castles and Offices are to be frequently taken from those that hold them and to be disposed of to others that so the Eyes of all may be upon the King onely in whose gift and at whose disposal all these things are yet the fruits of the Earth of every mans Land they may gather and enjoy as their own There should also Judges be appointed out of the Clergy who should assign every man what is his Due and should allot so much for the Maintenance of the Clergy so much for to pay Souldiers and so much to be paid to the King for a Tribute And these Judges should take care to see that no Spanish Souldier shall possesse any thing as his own save only his Armes unlesse it be by chance some small Orchard or Garden for to recreate himself in but they shall all be maintained at the Publick Charge And as for such sons of Souldiers as shall not be fit to serve in the Wars they may be put to the Plough and in their places to the end that the whole Power may still be solely the Kings there may be some such chosen out among the Husbandmen as shall be thought most fit for that purpose and may be trained up to the use of Armes And thus shall all things be ordered according to the Kings own wish and desire and the King himself also shall be beloved above all things neither will his Subjects desire to have any ample Possessions seeing they all depend upon Military service only by means whereof they are daily enlarged And when it shall be thought convenient so to do there may be Vines and the Seeds of other things sent over to them that so they may have wherewithal to delight themselves but yet let them be so sparingly furnished with these things as that they may alwaies stand in need of us for their support For if that the use of Vines the liberty to till the ground and the exercise of Armes together with the use of Printing and the Building of Ships should be denied them the King might thereby easily incur the Suspition of Tyranny In the most convenient places of that Hemisphere there should be erected Schools for the study of Astronomy the Mathematicks the Mechanical and other Arts and Sciences as hath been formerly shewed that so the Constellations of the Heavens and the Seas and Countries of that Part of the World may be the more fully discovered and made known I would not have either the Kings or lesser Princes of any of those Countries to be killed but rather to be carried over into Spain For that will both adde to the Majesty of the Spanish Empire and will also very much win upon the Affections of the Indians CHAP. XXXII Of Navigation BUt now for the better preserving of this Dominion of the New World entire to himself the King of Spain had need to build him a great number of Woodden Cities and to put them out to Sea which being laden with Commodities may continually passe to and fro betwixt this and the West-Indies and by being perpetually abroad and so scouring those Seas may hinder the English and others from making any Attempts that way For the performing of which Design the King of Spain will have need of very many Ships which should also be very well Manned with a sufficient number of Sea-men which should sayl about to the New VVorld and round about Africk Asia Calicut China Japan and the Islands adjacent subduing all where ere they come And all this might easily be effected if that the King would but give his mind to gather Men together rather then Mony seeing that it appears evidently enough that in those Expeditions of his against England the Netherlands and France He was utterly frustrate and failed of his designs meerly through his trusting too much to his Mony and his want of Able Souldiers First of all therefore in all the Islands of Sicily Sardinia the Canaries those of the Achipelago St. Lazaro in Hispaniola likewise and the Philippine Islands I would have Seminaries to be erected for Mariners and places appointed all along the Coast of Spain where young youths may be taught to build Ships and Gallies and may learn to know the Stars and the use of the Mariners Compasse and of the Sea Tables and Charts all these things I say I would have beaten into the dullest heads And then whensoever He destroyes any Country He ought to have more regard to the Captives then to the spoiles of it and so becomming wiser then formerly He shall change away Gold and Silver for a better sort of Merchandise Secondly at what parts so ever His Navy shall arrive He should make Havens and erect such Work-houses especially at the mouths of Rivers and Bayes He should cause Ships and Gallies to be built in the manning of which He may make use of such Mariners as have been brought up in the foresaid Seminaries Thirdly when He hath thus gotten to be well stored with Men He may then treat with the richer sort among the Portuguezes and the Genois and let them know that they shall have both of them free liberty to build themselves Ships and Gallies and with the same to sayle round about the New World which is now almost wholly the King of Spains and to go into the Havens and to fall upon Towns and Castles there and to keep all the Booty they shall there find to themselves only the places themselves they shall deliver up to the King together with all the Elder Children of both sexes for the supply of His
Seminaries And if they chance to take any whole large Country they may have whole Baronies bestowed upon them for their Reward And by this means both the King wil be enriched and the Genois will become the Instrumentts both of confirming and enlarging the Kings Empire who yet are themselves so rich as that they are able either of them to set forth whole Fleets of Ships against the Great Turk and to take in very many Countries for themselves if they pleased and therefore the Kings Navies ought alwayes to be so much the greater and the better provided Fourthly the Hollanders also Dantzickers and the Gutlanders are in a friendly manner to be dealt withal and perswaded to do the same as is said before only upon this condition that they shall deliver in their Sons as Pledges that what places soever they shall take in they shall not reckon upon them as gotten to themselves nor shall introduce Heresie into the same And by this means they would be the easier brought in subjection to the King even without making War upon them in like manner as the Gennescs are and thus by degrees would the whole World be brought over to comply with the Spaniards Customes and Manners Fifthly every seventh year such persons as are condemned to death are to be called forth and under the shew of a gentler punishment are to be sent away into the West Indies and so likewise the Children of Hereticks and of such others as shall be conquered by Him either in the Low-Countries or Africk should be sent into the Seminaries that afterwards they may be serviceable to the King both at home and abroad both in Nautical Affairs and in the Tilling of the Ground And I would have the King to be well assured that He hath not more need of any thing then of Men and especially of some most Experienced and Able Person for the managing of His Affairs such as were Lycurgus and Solon of which sort of Men there are many more to be found now adaies then there were then only by reason that they are Obnoxious to other mens envy they are not so much taken notice of as they ought to be There should also be Mathematicians sent out of the Low-Countries and out of Germany into all parts of the World for the observing of the Motions of the Stars and what New Constellations there are as also to observe the Situations of Countries the depths of the Seas what Motion they have from the East toward the West together with their Ebbings and Flowings and which of them increase when the Moon is twenty five daies old and again decrease when she is twenty six and which are fitter for the Summer Voyages and which for Winter and under what Star raigning so likewise in what parts their waters are thick and heavy and in which they are thin light and again which of them are wont to be frozen and which not together with all their Rocks Islands and Shelves for the knowlege of these things will tend to the advancement of the Spanish Monarchy more then any thing else whatsoever For God himself desires that these works of His should be known and He also reveales them to all such as desire earnestly after the knowledge of the same There ought also diligent notice to be taken of all Habitable Places and Temperate Climes and in what parts of the World there are Pygmies found and where Gyants where the Inhabitants are Black and where Red where White and where Green passing along thus in order from one Climate to another For the perfect knowledge of the World is as good as the Gaining of That half of It. And God himself hath given the World into the Possession of the Spaniards because that They above all others have the most earnestly thirsted after the knowledge of the same and because they also graced Columbus with Honours and dignities for that he desired to inform himself in the knowledge of World as being the Handiwork of God himself Besides this course would be also of every good use for the bringing under through their Admiration of the Spaniards and also the weakning of the Northern People Now that there may be continually safe Passage for the Kings Navies to and fro He ought to set up two Orders of Maritime Knights after the example of those of Malta the Masters of which Orders should have their Residence in Spain and they should be divided into Two Colledges one of which should be called The Eastern and the other The Western in which these Knights should be brought up from their Youth in the study of Nautical Affaires and the Exercise of what ever concerns Navigation where also they should take an Oath that they will imploy themselves continually in the scouring of the Seas and use their utmost endeavours both for the Protecting and also the Enlarging of the Spanish Monarchy for which purpose also the Younger Sons of the Barons should be made use of especially and be imployed in these Sea-Services some as Commanders and some as common Souldiers only And if the King would but once resolve to put all these things into practise He would quickly render Himself Formidable to the whole World much more therefore to England which yet He now stands in fear of and besides all hopes of being able to put forth any Fleets to Sea would be quite cut off both from the Turks Persians and all others whatsoever and withall those Salaries which are now swallowed up by Idle uselesse Persons would be more profitably bestowed upon such Worthy Heroick spirits as we here speak of There should also be proposed for the greater Encouragement of all such stout propagators of their Country as Cortesius was some Proportionable Rewards not so much of Mony or Possessions of Lands for these savour too much of Covetousnesse and may possibly by corruption be purchased for mony but rather of Honours namely that they should be allowed to have their Triumphs after the example of the Ancient Romans and should enter into Spain under their Triumphal Arches wherein should be described such Places as they had taken together with the manner how those Places were taken by them They should also have their Statues Erected for their greater Honour and underneath the same there should be such New Stars as are found to appear in the New World set up wrought in Mettal Neither can it be imagined how much good this course would do for the preservation of Military Discipline and also for the exciting and stirring up of all Mens minds towards the attempting of noble and high things It would also make very much to the businesse in hand in case that the King would but command that all the famous Acts of what persons soever whether Commanders or Common Souldiers should be Publickly recorded with the Names of the Authors of the same set down to them for this would serve as a Spur to stirre up others to the like Attempts For
that the Empire of the Moon shall be divided betwixt Two Sons of the Turkish Emperour that shall be the Fifteenth Emperour of Turkey at which time the Moon shall be bowed into two Horns And this star is indeed a very terrible one and will make it appear that he that shall conquer and subdue the Turkish Empire shall be Lord of the whole Earth The House of Spain then can never attaine to any great Monarchy according to Fate but only by the adhering to Italy the Roman Empire which is the German the Right Head The King of Spain therefore is to use his utmost endeavour that he may be chosen Emperour seeing that not only God but even Human Prudence also may inform us that by that meanes he may attain to what ever his heart can wish A beginning of which thing appeared plain enough in Charles the Fifth King of Spain who being also Emperour and being assisted with the whole power of Italy and Spain overcame those of Tunis and the King of France and conquered all Germany in so much that Solyman seeing the prosperous Fortune of this Prince had good Cause to say that it behooved him to take heed of Charles neither would he though he were stronger then He fight with Him under the Walls of Vienna We see therefore that which way the Fates incline the same also goes all the rest of the Fortune and so on the other side all things must needs be successelesse that are taken in hand under a Reluctant Fate I shall here also open another Mystery namely that all Empires according to the Prophesy of Noah do descend from the Sons of Japhet God shall enlarge Japhet and he shall dwell in the tents of Sem and Cham shall be his Servant And from Cham are to descend none but Slaves and Tyrants who are indeed Slaves as I have elsewhere proved Wherefore the Turkish Empire comes from Japhet by Magog and as to the Law from Sem by the Line of Ishmael from whom Mahumet descended as it hath allwaies been observed to fall out that the Northern People which are fierce and by the armes of Japhet still Victorious have yet received Lawes and Rules from the wiser Southern People who were the Ofspring of Sem. And yet the Empire sometimes hath otherwise had a succession of Tyrants also who have descended from Cham though by the intervention of the German who is descended from Japhet as the Spaniard himself derives his Line from Japhet by Tubal like as concerning the Law the Roman Christianity doth derive it self from Sem in respect of Christ who is a true Sem by the Line of Isaac Seeing therefore Dominion was promised to Japhet it belongeth chiefly to the Spaniards who are more nearly and by a firmer alliance descended from the Law-giver then the Turks and their Victorie drives on to this end that they may dwell in the House of Sem seeing that they possesse the Greatest part of Italy by the Investiture of the Pope who is descended from Sem Of whom this is no fit occasion to say any more although I willingly would do so and indeed ought I shall only add here that they cannot according to Fate come to be Lords of all unlesse they become the Deliverers of the Church and set it free from out of the hands of the Babylonians that is to say of the Turks and Hereticks Upon this account they conquered the Moores God bestowing upon them so great an Empire as their reward Now it is evident that the Church is in subjection to Babylon as long as it is Militant and I have formerly shewed elsewhere that it doth yet retain the dayes of Tuesday and Friday and the moneths of August and July which were theirs of the Roman Babylon and the Church now suffers most grievous Persecutions under the Babylonian Infidels both in Africk Asia and Europe and especially in Germany France England and Poland This discourse therefore is to be listened unto with attentive eares because that all the Jewish Affaires were a Type and figure of those of the Christians He therefore that shall deliver the Church out of these evills shall become the Universal Monarch because He shall perform the Office of the Christain Cyrus whom God shall raise up as Esay saith to subdue the whole World to restore Jerusalem to remove their Captivity and to build a temple to the God of Heaven and Earth wherein shall be set up the Continual Sacrifice as is foretold by Daniel Esay and Esdras Cyrus also was of the Linage of Japhet by the Medes and notwithstanding that the Turk is descended of the same stock also yet shall He not perform the Office because that He is become an Enemy by setting up another Contrary Law The French in the time of Charlemagne arrogated this Office to themselves who by their often delivering the Pope out of the hands of the Princes of Italy the Lombards and the Goths arrived to so great power that they became formidable to all and the said Charlemagne might have come to have been Universal Monarch of the World had not his sons been at Variance among themselves but had managed their Empire rightly and as they ought to have done But the discords that were betwixt the Christians and the following Heresy raigning at this day broke the neck of the French Empire at least took away from it all hope of ever arriving to the height of so much greatnesse But the Spaniards by being continually rooting out of the Moors became powerful but contrariwise Constantinople because it deserted the Pope and adhered to Arrius Sabellius and others came to destruction The Venetians also have by the Popes meanes arrived to a great height because that they assisted him against Frederick So that it is manifest that he that shall take any enterprize in hand under a Favourable Fate shall have all happy successe therein but on the contrary he that shall rush on upon any undertaking under a Crosse and Vnwilling Fate shall find the Event also quite contrary to his desires Which may also be demonstrated out of Reasons of Policy For he that maintaines the Popes Interest maintaines the Universal Right of all Christendom which depends upon the Pope For this Cause is accounted both a Just and a Religious one and therefore all men will take it up And the Opinion also of Religion overcomes all other causes as we have already shewed elsewhere and shall further shew hereafter Add hereto that the Pope is the Universal Moderator and Judge of all things to whom all people have their recourse and yeild obedience to him as to their God and Deliverer as on the contrary the Sweden Saxon and the Constantinopolitan Princes as being enemies to and Stubborn opposers of Him are rejected and deserted by them Therefore the Office of Cyrus belongs to the King of Spain who being now honoured by the Pope with the Title of The Catholick King may easily arrive to the Principality
of the whole World and we see that he hath already followed his Footsteeps in having delivered the Church heretofore out of the hands of the Moors of Granado as he hath lately done from the Hereticks of England the Low-Countries and France and He maintaines besides with yearly Revenues so many Bishops Cardinals and Monasteries and he hath also setled the Daily Sacrifice throughout the whole World for as much as that every half hour indeed continually the Masse is celebrated throughout his Empire within the compasse whereof the Roman Papacy the City of Jerusalem and the Temple are contained Neither doth it ever Sleep in his Empire For seeing that the Sun being carried about in his Course from Spain to Brasile the Straites of Magellan the Philippine Islands Japan China Archipelagus Lazari Calecut Goa Bengala Ormus the Cape of Good hope the Sea Coast of Africk and the Fortunate Islands till it comes back again to the same Spain there is no hour of the day but it enlightens some part of His Dominions there is no question but that there are continually Sacrifices offered up to the God of Heaven and Earth It is certainly a very wonderful thing and a most evident Sign that this Kingdom of his is diffused to a vast distance wherein Prayers are continually offered up for the Church and the King together with what Stupendous Sacrifice which both according to the Truth and the Opinion of Men is of no mean Efficacy in the hearts of his Subjects Whence I affirm that the King of Spain following the Order of Things and by observing the Rules of Prudence together with Occasion may bring all things under his Obedience as it shall be made appear out of the Reasons hereafter following For this is already evident that he engages in the same Interest with that of the German Empire which is the same with that of Italy which is the same with that of Rome of Greece and of Persia or the Empire of Cyrus and so consequently of that of Media and Babylon And he shall have the Assistance of many several Angels as that of Cyrus and of Michael and afterwards all things shall be delivered into the hands of Gog and Magog But the Christians shall overcome and then shall Christ come to Judge the World And then shall the end be But the Eclipse and the Great Conjunction in Sagittary which is the Constellation of Spain will discover many secrets when I shall have opportunity to discourse of the same CHAP. V. Of the Second Cause namely Prudence FOr as much as Prudence is required in the manageing of all Humane things which is a Cause adjoyned to Fate consisting of an infinite number of Joynt Causes acting by vertue of the Prime Cause so especially it is necessary in the manageing of an Empire by It the whole World is governed and it is disseminated by God through all the Universe For Nature is an Intrinsecal Divine Art and whosoever shall follow Nature as his guide he is wise which appears evidently in Plants Ants Bees Cranes and the very Fishes themselves which small Creatures do oftentimes afford Instruction even to Men in the managing of their Dominions Whence we are to understand that Prudence is a different thing from Craft which is called by some Ratio Statuum regendorum the Reason or Rule of State-Government For Prudence is agreeable to the Prime Cause namely God whence it searcheth into Prophesies and Divine Sciences to the end that it may attain to the knowledge of things to come But Craft seeks after its own satisfaction and Pleasure only and is Pleased with nothing more then the subtlety of its own Wit Which notwithstanding though falsely calls it self Wisedom according to what was spoken by Pharaoh Venite Sapienter opprimamus eos Come on let us deal wisely with them Prudence is Magnanimous and Proposeth to it self onely such things as are truly of most difficult Atchievement But Craft is pusillanimous and sneaking yet that it may appear to be Magnanimous It puts on the garbe of Pride and would fain seem to reach at high matters but alwayes out of the way of Vertue and it flies at mean things such as are scarcely of any value at all Prudence is addicted to Clemency and Truth but Craft is Cruel and given to Flattery Whence the Crafty Princes saying is that the Nobles the Wise and the Valiant are to be made out of the way least happily they should wrest the Scepter out of his Hand Quicquid excelsum est cadat was the saying of Nero and Periander whatsoever is High you must down with it But Prudence makes use of the Assistance of such for the establishing of its own Kingdom as we read that the Honest Pharaoh who differed much from the other Crafty Pharaoh made use of the service of Joseph And this is the Rule also of the Pope who is wont to advance such as are Wise and Learned persons to the dignity of being Cardinals The Crafty Prince studieth how to find out deceitful tricks and fraudulent devises to impose upon his Subjects But the Prudent looks after advantageous and useful Arts and such as may encourage his people and make every one of them the more ready for the discharge of his duty as we see in Numa who that he might render Himself the more Venerable and worthy of esteem to the People of Rome found out for them and established a Form of Religion and Sacred Rites that so by this meanes He might the better make them contain themselves within the Bounds of their Duty and Obedience Prudence is a Vertue that becometh Kings and Emperours but Craft is fit only for Davusses and Slaves Prudence while it loseth is a gainer as we may observe of St. Peter and from the practise of the Pope at this day and the more inwardly we are acquainted with it the more fervently we love it Whereas Craft while it gaines is a loser and the better it is known and seen into the more it is hated As wee see it was in that wicked Disciple of Machiavell Caesar Borgia who by his Crafty Politique Tricks lost the Principality of Flaminia which is now called Romania and in Tiberius also and Nero who by their Finesses and Crafty designments darkened and cast a cloud over the Majestie of the Roman Empire which had been rendred so resplendent and Illustrious before by the Prudent Management of Augustus Caesar The Prudent Prince proposeth to himself the good of the Publique only but the Crafty looks onely after his own Private gain The Prudent that he may accomplish his desires shewes himself Valiant even almost to Rash adventuring as Columbus Caesar Alexander and Cyrus did and withall Liberal also even to a seeming degree of Prodigality and lastly Just yet with a Moderation in his Severity And therefore when he gets any thing he bestowes it all upon his Subjects that so he may oblige them to him by Benefits and may make them