pleasure as Samuel told the Israelits when they chose their first king And as sayd Othanes he peruerteth the lawes and the customs of the countrie he rauisheth women and he putteth folke to death without sentence of condemnation If ye commend him modestly he is discontented that ye doe it not excessiuely and if you commend him out of measure he is offended as though ye did it of flatterie Policrates the tyrant of the Isle of Samos made warre vpon all his neighbours without any respect saying that he pleasured his friend the more in restoring to him that which he had taken from him than if he had not taken ought from him first Neuerthelesse it behoueth a Prince to thinke that if he forget himselfe and doe not his dutie ne performeth his charge as he ought to do besides that he shal yeeld an account for it before him that gaue him that charge he shall not leaue his kingdome to his posteritie Which thing Denis the tyrant of Siracuse did his son to vnderstand rebuking him for the adulteries and other crimes that he had committed and declaring vnto him that he himselfe had not vsed such maner of dealing when he was of that age Whereunto his sonne answered him that he had not had a king to his father neither shall you quoth his father haue a king to your son except you doe better And as he had said so it came to passe Peter king of Castile for his tyrannie and wicked demeanor towards his subiects was first driuen out of his realme by his bastard-brother aided with the helpe of such as hated Peter and afterward when he had recouered it againe by the means of the blacke Prince as soone as his brother the bastard came againe with any force all the countrie reuolted from him to the bastard and the Spaniards that were with him would neither put on armor nor mount on horse-backe at his commaundement by reason whereof he was faine to craue succour of strangers and yet notwithstanding he lost the battell with the battell both his kingdome and his life Alfons the yonger king of Naples hauing done many tyrannicall deeds fled dishonorably out of his kingdome at the comming of Charles the 8. king of France and as Guicciardine reporteth being tormented with the sting of his owne conscience found no rest of mind day nor night for a night-times those whom he had wronged appeared vnto him in his sleepe a day-times he saw his people making insurrectiō against him to be reuenged His son also to whom he left the kingdome felt himselfe pinched with the sins of his predecessors for the Neapolitanes forsooke him as wel as his father turned to the French kings side We see what befell to Roboam the son of king Salomon for exacting too much vpon his subiects to the duke of Guyen commonly called the blacke Prince for raising a fowage in the country of Aquitane Marcus Aurelius said that the cause why God suffered wicked Princes to be murthered rather than other wicked men is for that the priuat mans naughtinesse hurteth but himselfe and his owne familie for want of abilitie to extend his naughtinesse any further but the Prince that is tyrannous and wicked ouerthroweth the whole Common-weale To conclude the tyrannicall dominion is very dangerfull and noisome to all the people but the kingdome that is gouerned according to law passeth all other states of gouernment be it in comfort of the people or in the durablenesse of itselfe or in making of great conquests CHAP. IIII. Whether the State of a Kingdome or the State of a Publike-weale be the antienter MAnie be of opinion that the Kinglie authoritie had his beginning from the people and that the state of a Publike-weale was afore the state of a King Of that opinion is Cicero in his bookes of Duties saying that Kings were chosen at the first for the good opinion that men had of them And in another place he saith That when folke found themselues harried and troden vnderfoot by the richersort they were constrained to haue recourse to some man of excellent prowesse to defend them from the oppression of the mightier sort and to maintaine both great and small in a kind of equalitie Of the same opinion likewise is Aristotle Because the men of old time saith he were benefactors to the communaltie either by the inuention and practise of arts or by making warres in their behalf or by assembling them together into corporations and by allotting them their territories the multitude did willinglie create them Kings so they conueyed their kingdomes ouer by succession to their posterities Plinie saith that the Athenians were the first that brought vp the popular gouernment which neuerthelesse had been vsed long afore by the Iewes as Iosephus witnesseth in his books of their antiquities Indeede Thucidides in his first booke of the warres of Peloponnesus saith that when the countrie of Greece was become rich by reason of the nauigations there stept vp euerie day new tyrants in the cities by reason of the greatnesse of their reuenues For afore that time the kings came in by Succession and had their authorities prerogatiues and preheminences limited Whereby he doth vs to vnderstand that kingdomes were afore common-weales as indeed there is great likelihood that the state of a king was the foremost And it is not to be doubted but the first men that were after the the floud when the earth was repeopled againe did rule the lands which they possessed first in their owne housholds and afterward when they were increased in gouerning the whole off-spring that came of their race as we see was done by Sem Cham Iaphet Ianus Gomer Samothes and such others of whom some reigned in the West and some in the East And Nembroth of Chams linage was the first that troubled his neighbours by making warre vpon them and the first that made himselfe a king as S. Iohn Chrisostome affirmeth vpon the ninth of Genesis For afore that time time there could be no king because there were no store of people to be subiects Also Abraham hauing a great houshold tooke three hundred and eighteene of his owne men and pursuing those that had spoiled Lot discomfited them The fathers of old time therefore hauing many slaues and seruants which were multiplied afterward with the increase of their issue had them at commaundement as a King hath his subiects And of this opinion seemeth Iustine to be in his abridgement of Trogus Pompeius who saith in his first booke That at the beginning euery nation and euerie citie was gouerned by kings and that such as had none of their owne did chuse one either for the good opinion which they had of the person whom they chose or for some good turne which they had receiued at his hand or else for that they felt themselues misused by their head whom they themselues had set ouer them as it befell by the sonnes of
protector and aboue all others fearing the Persians determined with himselfe vpon aduice to cōmit the charge thereof by his last Will in writing vnto Indisgertes king of Persia and to set his Faith as a shield against his force and to tie his hands with the holy band of Protectorship praieng him to keepe and preserue the empire for his sonne Indisgertes taking the protectorship vpon him executed it so faithfully that he preserued both the life and empire of Theodosius Don Philip of Austrich king of Castile and lord of the Low countries considering how he left his sonne Charles not aboue eleuen yeres old that afore he should be of ful age the king of France might inuest himselfe in the Low-countries to preuent this inconuenience did by his testament ordaine king Lewis the twelfth to be his protector Wherupon the king by consent of the country appointed the lord of Chieures to be gouernor there and neuer made any warre vpon him notwithstanding that Maximilian gaue him sufficient causes to haue done it Licurgus being counselled therto by his countrymen and also by his sister in law the queene to take vpon him the kingdome of Lacedemon after the death of his brother would not hearken vnto it but kept it faithfullie for his nephew Charilaus who was borne after his fathers decease chusing rather to be a faithfull protector than an vnfaithfull king cleane contrarie to Lewis Sfortia who of a Gardian made himselfe duke of Millan dispossessing his nephew Iohn Galeas and his posteritie thereof But he kept it not any long time In all the doings of these good princes there was neither oth nor promise but only a good and sincere will to keep touch with such as had relied vpon the trust of their faithfulnesse For whersoeuer there hath passed either oath or single promise good men haue neuer doubt but it was to be kept as the forealleaged examples may witnesse vnto vs. And Cicero in one of his orations saith That the Gods immortall do punish a periured person and a liar both with one punishment because they be offended at the trecherie and malice wherby men be beguiled rather than at the prescript forme of words and couenants wherin the oth is comprised But whensoeuer an oth was added vnto it they held it and kept it whatsoeuer it cost them as we see in the Poets concerning the vow of Agamemnon the which is like inough to haue beene counterfaited out of the historie of Ieptha In the xxiij and xxx of Deut. it is written thus If a man be bound by oth he shall performe whatsoeuer he hath promised And Cicero in his bookes of Duties saith That we ought in any wise to keepe the promise wherein we call God to witnesse And as Sophocles saith He that that sweareth ought to be sore afraid that he sinne not against God The Aegyptians did punish periured persons with death because they sinned double as well in violating religion towards God as in taking away faithfulnesse from among men the greatest and straightest bond of humane societie After the battell of Cannas Scipio being aduertised that certaine senators held a counsell in secret how to forsake the citie of Rome went suddenly in among them with his naked sword in his hand and made them to sweare that they should not for any cause forsake the citie which thing they durst not but performe for feare of their oath As likewise did a certaine Tribune who for feare of death had promised Torquatus to withdraw his accusation which he had exhibited against his father for hee withdrew it indeed for his oath sake notwithstanding that Torquatus had compelled him thereto by force in holding his swords point to his throat So great reuerence did the men of old time yeeld vnto an aoth The Samnits hauing warred long time with the Romans and being almost vtterly destroied would needs for their last refuge put thēselues once more to the trial of fortune whome they had found so contrarie vnto them and hazard all in one battell And for the better executing of their determination they sware by great oathes euerichone of them that they would neuer retire out of the battel but follow their captaine whether soeuer he led them and if any of them all recoiled they sware all to kill him This oath had such force that neuer any people were seene to fight so desperatly and valeantly as they fought at that time Neuerthelesse the valiancie good gouernment of the Romanes was of more force than their stoutnesse The thing that made the people of Rome beleeue that Romulus was not slaine but conueied vp into heauen vvas the great oth that Proculus sware vnto them that he saw him deified and had spoken vvith him For the people were of opinion that Proculus whom they esteemed to be a good man and a friend to Romulus would not haue taken such an oth except he had bene sure that the thing was as he affirmed Lycurgus to the intent his countrimen should not disanull the lawes which he had newly stablished among them although he had gotten them ratified by the oracle of Apollo yet would needs take an oth of the people and caused them to sweare that they should not infringe them vntill his return to the end that the reuerence of the oth which they had taken might restraine them from altering any thing After the example of whome christian princes ought to bee well ware that they violat not their faith nor see light by the oth which they take for performance of their promises Wherof we haue a notable example in the fourteenth chapter of the first booke of Samuel where God is very sore angrie for that Ionathas the sonne of king Saul in chasing his enemies had tasted a little honie which was in respect of the oath which Saul had made that neither he nor any of his people should eat any thing before night and afore hee had bene fully reuenged of his enemies In so much that although Ionathas was not present at the making of the vow yet had Saul put him to death if the people had not saued him And in the one and twentith of the second booke of Samuel because Saul being moued with a good zeale had slaine certaine of the Amorrhits contrarie to the promise made vnto them by the Israelits of old time that they would not hurt them God sent a famine among the Israelits which ceassed not vntill they had deliuered seuen of Saules children to the Amorrhits to take vengeance of them These examples shew how greatly our God abhorreth periurie to the intent no man should excuse himselfe vnder pretence that no touch is to be kept with him that breaketh his promise or that one cōpanion is to keepe touch with another but not the master with his seruant nor the christian with the infidel For an oath ought to be so holy and so had in reuerence that it should not
so keeping and maintaining euery mans profit in peculiar as may best stand with the conseruation of the whole Men in old time said that Righteousnesse was a goddesse sitting at Iupiters seat Hesiodus saith she was borne of Iupiter and Homer saith she was borne of all the gods To be short all the Heathen said it was a Heauenly vertue wherein they agree with this vvhich S. Peter saith in his second epistle We looke for the new Earth and new Heauens wherein righteousnesse dwelleth And as Plato saith in his Common-weale Righteousnesse is the greatest good thing that euer God bestowed vpon vs as whereof hee himselfe is the very author and first ground wherein he speaketh diuinely and agreeable to the commaundment of our Lord Iesus who willeth vs to seeke the kingdome of God his righteousnes because if we so do we shall not want any thing And Dauid counselleth vs to offer vnto him the sacrifice of Righteousnesse S. Paul in the epistle to the Romans opposeth vnrighteousnesse against righteousnesse so as the contrarie to righteousnesse is euill For as sayth saint Ierome vvriting to the daughter of Morris Righteousnesse is nothing else but the eschewing of sinne and the eschewing of sinne is the keeping of the commaundements of Gods law And therefore Ecclesiasticus saith thus Turne away from thine vnrighteous deeds and turne againe vnto the Lord. And in the Prouerbs Righteousnesse saith Salomon exalteth a whole nation but sinne is a reproch vnto people And in the fourteenth Psalme it is sayd Thou hatest Vnrighteousnesse Now then Righteousnesse is the vertue of the soule and Vnrighteousnesse is the vice therof the procurer of death And as Philo saith Vnrighteousnesse is the linage and off-spring of vice And this vice bringeth with it paine and trauell according to this saying of Dauid in the seuenth Psalme Behold he trauelleth with vnrighteousnesse and wickednesse Plato in his Common-wealth saith that to order or dispose to commaund to counsell or aduise such other things are properties peculiar to the soule so as an euill soule miscommaundeth misordereth and miscouncelleth and contrariwise a good soule doth all things well which it doth And like as a man is esteemed to be in health when his body is altogether disposed according to the order of nature and contrariwise to be out of health when the parts of his body be infected and all goes contrarie to the order of nature euen so to doe righteously is nothing else but to keepe the parts of the soule in such order as they may both commaund and obey according to the true rule of Nature The same author saith in his Protagoras That righteousnesse and holinesse are both one or at least wise they be vertues very like one another In so much that such as righteousnesse is such also is holinesse and such as holinesse is such also is righteousnesse And in his Theetetus he sayth That he which is the holiest amongst vs is likest vnto God accordingly as our Lord teacheth vs in his Euangelist Matthew saieng Follow ye the example of your heauenly father The dutie of Righteousnesse is to liue honestly without hurting any man and as sayth Iustinian to yeeld to euery man that which belongeth vnto him Cicero in his Duties setteth down two sorts therof the fiâ—st is that a maÌ„ should hurt no man vnprouoked by iniurie and wrong first done vnto him the which thing notwithstanding is forbidden by God as in respect of reuenge hath also ben put in practise by diuers heathen men The second is that we vse coÌ„mon things as coÌ„mon and priuat things as priuat But according to christianitie Righteousnes consisteth in two precepts wherof the first is to loue God and the second is to loue our neighbor and on that dependeth al that is written in the law the Prophets In the first consisteth the diuine and coÌ„templatiue righteousnes and in the latter consisteth the distributiue righteousnesse For it is not inough for a man to honour God to feare him and to abstaine from euill except he also doe good and be helpefull to his neighbour and by the word Neighbor I meane all men specialy those that are good For as saith Pithagoras we ought to esteeme more of a righteous stranger than of a kinsman or countriman that is vnhonest Which thing our Lord hath told vs more expresly in saieng He that doth the will of God is my kinsman my brother and my mother And also in another place by the parable of the Samaritan that had shewed himselfe to be the wounded Iewes neighbor in very deed by setting him vpon his horse and by hauing a speciall care of him wherein he and not the priests and Pharisies that made none account of the wounded man had done the dutie of Righteousnesse Wherby it appeareth the righteous man takes pains rather for other men than for himselfe and had leuer to forgo some part of his owne goods than to diminish another mans Now therefore when men instruct the ignorant releeue the poore yeeld to their neighbors that which belongs vnto theÌ„ by helping them with thing at their need when the great personages oppres not their inferiors nor the king his subiects then may it be said that righteousnes raigneth in that couÌ„trie And if euery man would liue after manner there should need neither law nor magistrat For as saith Menander Their owne manners should be as lawes But for as much as few men doe giue themselues to righteousnesse there must of necessitie be laws and magistrats to enforce such vnto righteousnesse as will not be righteous for loue and to that end are kings and rulers ordained of God For as saint Paule sayth the king is Gods lieutenant on earth the maintainer of righteousnes and as it were his chancelor so as they which require iustice at his hand resort not vnto him as to a man but as to the very righteousnes it self wherof he is the dealer forth through the wil of God according to this saieng of SalomoÌ„ in the booke of Wisdome By me kings reigne and counsellors determine right By me princes rule and all lords iudge their lands Not without cause therefore did Homer call kings the disciples of Iupiter as who would say they learned of God to do iustice Dauid vseth termes yet of more force and calleth them Gods which doe iustice honoring them with the name of their charge which is of God And Philo calleth them Gods lieutenants and vicegerents in cases concerning iustice And in the 6 chapter of the booke of Wisdome Vnto you kings do I speake saith Salomon harken vnto me ye gouernors of people and you that glorie in the multitude of natioÌ„s For your authoritie is giuen you of the Lord and your power coÌ„meth from the highest who wil examin your works and diligently search your thoughts because you being ministers of his kingdome haue not iudged vprightly nor kept the law of righteousnes Therefore will he
appeare vnto you with terror and that right soone For a very sore iudgement shall be executed vpon them that haue ben in authoritie And in Ieremie he sweareth that if princes execute not iustice their houses shal be left desolate Wherewith agreeth that which S. Remy said vnto king Clowis namely that the kingdome of France should continue so long as iustice raigned there Also Totilas king of the Goths said that all kingdomes and empires were easily destroied if they were not maintained by iustice and that as long as the Goths delt iustly their power was had in good reputation but when they fell once to couetousnes and to taking more than they ought to haue done by and by they came to decay through their owne discord among themselues A prince is called a liuing law on earth because that lawes speake not ne moue not but a prince is as a liuely law which speaketh and moueth from place to place putting the law in execution and appointing euery man what he should doe and thereof it commeth that we be said to doe men right Seeing then that a prince is the law it followeth that he must be iust and do iustice to his subiects in doing wherof the world receiueth very great good And as Aristotle saith in his mattets of state the iustice of the prince that raigneth is more profitable to his subiects than riches are S. Ciprian in his treatise of twelue abuses saith that the iustice of a king is the peace of his people the safegard of innocents the defence of his country the foyzon of his hand the reliefe of the poore and the hope of blessednesse to come to himselfe Salomon in the 20 of his prouerbs saith That a king sitting on his iudgement seat disperseth all iniquitie with his looke Hereby is nothing els meant but that he driueth away all naughtinesse by his only shewing of himselfe to his people by bearing a good countenance Howbeit the meaneth it of a good prince such a one as is an executer of iustice for such a one maketh the wicked to quake euen with his only look although this vertue ought to be chiefly and principally appropried to princes because kingdomes without iustice are but maintenaÌ„ces of mischiefe according to S. Austines saying in his ninth booke of the citie of God yetnotwithstanding it faileth not to be behooffull for all sorts of men yea euen for solitarie men as saith Cicero and for such as neuer goe abroad as well as for them that buy and sell bargaine and couenant which things cannot be done without vprightnesse the force wherof is such that euen they that liue of robbery and leaudnesse cannot continue without it in that it assureth the goods of the robbers vnto them In cities iustice procureth peace and equitie For as saith Dauid Righteousnes and peace imbrace one another In priuat houses it maintaineth mutuall loue concord betweene the man and wife good will of the seruants toward their master mistresse good vsage of the master towards his seruants Agathias said that the FreÌ„chmen became great by being iust vpright and charitable For iustice and charitie make a coÌ„monweale happie stable long lasting and hard to be surprised by enemies whereas a man may reckon vp a great sort that haue bin ouerthrowne by vniustice Of iustice or righteousnes are two sorts the one of the law and the other of equalitie That of the law is the more vniuersal as which comprehendeth al sorts of vertue and is that which in our English toung we properly call Righteousnesse For he that performeth the commaundements of the law is Righteous because he doth al the vertuous things commaunded in Gods law so as he is liberall lowly modest kind-hearted meeke peaceable and so forth When I say that a man is righteous I meane not that he is righteous before God otherwise than by grace and not by the law as S Paule teacheth vs in his epistles to the Romans and the Galathians saieng By the law shall no man be found righteous For the blessed â—ife consisteth in the forgiuenes of sinnes as Dauid declareth in the one and thirtith Psalme And therfore what good so euer we doe our Lord will haue vs to account our selues vnprofitable seruants The other sort of righteousnes is of equalitie and consisteth in dealing vprightly and in yeelding euery man that which belongeth vnto him the which in English we terme properly Vprightnes and Iust dealing And this kind of righteousnes is diuided againe into other two sorts whereof the one concerneth distributing and the other concerneth exchange This which coÌ„sisteth in matters of exchange serueth to make equalitie where vnequalitie seemeth to be and is occupied about buieng selling bartering and bargaining betweene man and man For we see that one man hath monie that another man wanteth who hath corne and wine here doth this kind of righteousnes procure an equalitie For the monied man giuing his monie receiueth corn for it that he wanted and the other giuing corne wine hauing more than he needed receiueth monie where of he had want Therfore when lending buieng intercoÌ„moning hiring morgaging such other things proceed duly without fraud then is a realme seene to prosper because right reigneth there The like wherof we see in our bodies the eye by the sight of it directeth our steps but cannot go it selfe the foot is able to go but it cannot see so as it carrieth the eye and the eye guideth it The hand wipeth the eye clean and the eye directeth it the feet beare vp the head and the head ruleth them and without that the body could not continue Euen so the body of a common-weale could not endure if euery man should not succour one another by such interchange The distributiue iustice which the king vseth toward his subiects coÌ„sisteth chiefly in distributing honor and promotion vnto theÌ„ according to euery mans desert Semblably in our bodies there reigneth a kind of iustice as for example we see how the heart giues life and mouing to al the members at leastwise according to most philosophers who hold opinion that the beginning of life and mouing is in the heart and likewise that sence is in the braine Wherefore it is requisit that as the heart for his excellencie reigneth as king ouer all the other members so he that is most excellent of al other men should haue the prerogatiue to coÌ„maund others that if he bee borne to haue gouernment he should make himselfe worthie of that charge For as Cicero saith in his Duties Those that at the first were chosen to bear rule were such as the people had great good opinioÌ„ of Others of whom Francis Petrarch is one diuide Righteousnes into 4 sorts namely Diuine which is sister to Wisdom wherthrough we beleeue in God and acknowledge him to be the creator of al things without whom we cannot do any thing It is he that directeth
common-weale as he shewed anon after in the warres that he had against Silla But Agustus would rather haue priuiledged men from paying of subsidies discharged thē of tallages than to haue made thē free of the citty of Rome for he could not abide that the right of citizenship should be brought in smal estimation by becōming too common Neither ought the changing of lawes to be excused by this saying of Plato That at the first making of lawes there may be some things which the magistrats that succeede afterward may well amend vntill that by good aduisement and experience they see what is best to be allowed And in another place he saith againe it is not men but fortune and the enterchange of things that make lawes For either nessessitie or force and violence of war subuert states and alter lawes so likewise plagues tempests sicknesses and incōmodities of many years continuance do cause very great changes and alterations For no doubt but the thing which is set downe for a law is to be debated long time to be altered if ther by any incōuenience therin as the citisens of Locres did who admitted men to deuise new laws howbeit with halters about their necks to be hanged for their labour if their lawes were found to be euill But when a law is once alowed by long experience and custome it is not in any wife to be chaunged but vpon extreame necessitie which is aboue all law Also it is certaine that many new lawes are to be made vpon the alteration of a state But when the lawes are once stablished with the state they cannot be altered without iniurie to the state exept it be vpon very vrgent and needfull cause For the politik laws that are made for the mainteinance of a state tend not to any other end saith Plato than to rule and commaund and not to be subiect As for the lawes of nature they ought to be kept most streightly For as Iustinian saith forasmuch as the law of nature is giuen vs by the prouidence of God it ought to abide firme and vnmutable But the politicall law is to be chaunged oftentimes as we shall shew hereafter And because that among men there be some monsters that is to say men that sin against nature and make warre against it it is meet that the soueraigne magistrat which is set in that dignitie of purpose to encounter against monsters as Hercules did and to defend the poore from the violence of the greater sort should cause an equalitie of iustice to be obserued among his subiects For when the poore is oppressed by the rich it is wrong of the which wrong proceedeth discontentmēt which oftentimes breeds a hatred towards the prince and finally a rebelling against him Wisely therefore did Theopompus answer to one that demaunded of him by what meanes a prince might liue in suertie by suffering his friends quoth he to doe al things that are reasonable taking heed therewithall that his subiects be not misused nor wronged For many princes haue bin ouerthrowne for suffering their seruants to do all maner of wrongs and iniuries whereof we haue a notable example in Philip king of Macedonie who was slaine by Pausanias for refusing to heare his complaint and to doe him iustice against one that had committed a rape vpon him For the very dutie of a prince consisteth in doing iustice For as Cicero saith in his books of Duties the first chusing of kings was for the estimation which men had of them that they were good and iust men such as by defending the poore from the rich and the weake from the mightie would hold them both in concord and quietnes Plutarke in the life of Cato saith that folke giue greater credit and authoritie to good iusticers than to any others For they not only honour them as they doe the valeant ne haue them in admiration as they haue the sage and wise but they doe also loue them and put their trust and confidence in them whereas of them that be not such they distrust the one sort and feare the other Moreouer they be of opinion that valeantnesse and wisdome come rather of nature than of good will persuading themselues that the one is but a quicknes and finesse of wit and the other but a certaine stoutnesse of heart that commeth of nature wheras eueryman may be iust at leastwise if he will Wherefore they that will gouern well saith Cicero must obserue two precepts of Platos wherof the one is to haue good regard of the welfare of their subiects imploying all their deuises and doings to that end and leauing their owne peculiar profit in respect of that and the other is to haue such a care of the whole body of the common-weale that in defending any one part therof the residue be not neglected For like as a tutorship so the charge of a kingdome is to be administred to the benefit of those that are vnder the charge and not of them that haue the charge And they that are carefull of one part and carelesse of another doe bring sedition quarelling and discord into the kingdome or common-weale which is the ruine of realmes and common-weales Wherfore the dutie of a good king is not only to doe no wrong to his subiects himselfe but also to restrain others from doing them wrong and to straine himselfe to the vttermost of his power to do right either in his own person or by his substituts to such as seeke iustice at his hand For the greatest good that can be done to any people is to doe them right and to punish such as doe them wrong And in that case the king must be like vnto the law which accepteth no person ne punisheth for displeasure but iudgeth according to right euen so princes must not suffer themselues to be caried away with fauor hatred or anger but must minister iustice indifferently to al men But oftentimes they ouershoot themselues and step aside from the path of iustice to pleasure their courtiers not considering that their so doing breedeth to themselues great dishonor and in their people great discontentment Aristides would neuer make aliance with any man in administring the common-weale because he would not doe wrong vnto any man at the pleasure of those to whom he were alied nor yet greeue them by refusing any thing that they might require at his hand Cato of Vtica was so seuere a iusticer that he swarued not any way for any fauor or pitie insomuch that sometimes he would speake against Pompey as well as with him And when Pompey thanked him for that which he had done for him he told him that in any good cause he wold be his freind and not otherwise Philip was desired by one Harpalus one in greatest fauour with him to call before him a certaine case to the intent that his kinsman for whom he made the sute might not be diffamed To
and readie to giue battell he maruelled that they gaue themselues to feasting to haunting of the theatres and to make pastimes in the fields and gardens This doing of his proceeded of nothing else but of an inordinat and vnreasonable enuie that fretted his braine the which he shewed sufficiently towards the noblemen in bereauing theÌ„ of their cote-armors and of the antient cognisances of their houses And if hee spied any faire boies that had faire haire he caused the hinder parts of their heads to be shauen And he was so spitefull that he enuied euen Homer the greatest Poet that euer was insomuch that being determined vpon a time to abolish the remembrance of him he said he might well haue as much power as Plato to weed him out of his common-wealth Alexanders enuie was the chiefe cause of the death of Clitus For hee so enuied the high exploits of Philip his father that he fell into a rage when any man compared him with him Lisander accompanying Agesilaus in the voaige into Asia was so honored of the men of Asia because he had had the gouernment of them aforetimes that in comparison of him they made no reckoning of the king by reason wherof Agesilaus bare him such enuie that in all that voiage he committed not any honourable charge vnto him but emploied him about such things as a man would not haue emploied the meanest of Sparta and it was thought that that would haue cost the citie of Lacedemon deerly For had not death preuented Lisander he would haue ouerthrowne the king Enuie made Socrates to be put to death and Aristides Themistocles and others to be banished Also it was the death of Coriolane because the chiefe princes of the Volses enuied his vertue and his greatnesse And by his death the Volses were vanquished of the Romanes Through enuie Dion was slaine by Calippus and Sertorius by Perpenna and by their death were they themselues vanquished and disappointed of the fruit of their former enterprises The enuie that was rooted betweene Themistocles and Aristides hindered the Athenians from doing many goodly enterprises insomuch that Themistocles said that it was vnpossible for the affairs of the common-weale of Athens to prosper vntill they were both of them cast into the barather which was a deepe dungeon whereinto men were throwne headlong that were condemned to death And no doubt but the affairs of Greece had gone to wrack if Aristides had continued his enuie against Themistocles But when he saw the danger whereinto all Greece was like to fall if hee and Themistocles did not agree he bespake him after this manner Themistocles if we be both wise it is high time for vs to leaue the vaine spight and iealosie which we haue hitherto borne one against another and to take vp a strife that may be to the honor and welfare of vs both that is to wit which of vs shall doe his dutie best for the safegard of Greece you in commaunding and doing the office of a good captaine and I in counselling you and in executing your commandements Hereunto Themistocles answered I am displeased Aristides in this that you haue shewed your selfe a better man than I but sith the case standeth so that the honor of breaking the yce is due to you for prouoking me to so honourable and commendable a contention I wil strain my selfe henceforth to out go you by good continuance The enuie that was borne to Peter Saderin Gonfaâ—â—nnier of Florence for the great credit and authoritie that he had in that citie caused the returne of the Medices and the vtter ruine of the common-weale Now we must consider what remedies there be to defend a man from this maladie that a man may not be enuious nor enuied As touching the first the curing therof is by the contrarie that is to say by being meeld gentle and charitable for he that loueth men cannot enuie them And that is the cause why we be commanded to loue our neighbor as our selues to the end we be not enuious against him but rather glad when he hath good successe in his affairs And as S. Paule saith in the 12 to the Romans Reioice with them that reioice and weepe with them that weepe and beare well in mind that enuie doth more harme to the enuious man himselfe than to the partie whom he enuieth remembring how Salomon in the seuenteene of the Prouerbs saith That he which reioiceth at another mans fall shal not be vnpunished And in the four and twentith of the Prouerbs he saith Reioice not wheÌ„thine enemy hath a fall neither be thou glad that he stumbleth least perchance the Lord doe see it and be displeased therat and turne away his wrath from him If this be spoken of enemies what ought we to do concerning freinds I will not alledge the infinit precepts and examples touched by Diuines I will take but the only example of the Heathen Aristides of whom I haue spoken When his enemie Themistocles was banished he neither spake ne did any thing to his preiudice or disaduaÌ„tage neither reioiced he any more to see his enemie in aduersitie than if he had neuer enuied his prosperitie Enuie is eschewed or diminished by modestie as when a man that is praised chalengeth not such honour to himselfe but referreth it ouer to those that praise him Wherof we haue example in Pirrhus who after many victories when his men of war called him Eagle I am qd he an eagle by your means being caried vp by your knighthood and chiualrie as the eagle is caried vp by his fethers and so he cast back the honor and title to his men of war So also did Philip abase the praise that was giuen vnto him for his beautie his eloquence and his good skil in hunting saying that the one belonged to women the other to sophists and the third to sponges Othersome doe attribute this answer to his enemie Demosthenes Contrariwise Alexander for enforcing men to worship him and to esteeme him as a god began to be hated in his campe Augustus disallowing al such doings of Alexander did the cleane contrarie For when he was entred into Rome in triumph as lord of the whole world in peaceable possession and one in a certaine comedie said O good lord and euery man turned that word vnto Augustus flattering him and clapping their hands for ioy he gaue a token presently that he liked not of it and the next morning made prohibitions that men should not vse the terme of lord vnto him neither permitted he any man no not euen his owne children to call him by that name either in iest or in good earnest There is another way to auoid enuie which was practised by Dennis the tirant which is that he aduanced a man that was wicked and hated of the people and when he was asked why he did so because quoth he I will haue a man in my realme that may be more hated than my selfe Caesar Borgia to auoid
ordering of them by reason of his distemperature For it is hard to occupie our wit well when we haue eaten and drunken too much And S. Ierom saith in his rule of Monks We cannot applie our selues to wisdome if we set our minds vpon the abundance of the table and that nothing but belly-cheare lechery do make vs to court riches For this cause Salomon esteemeth them vnhappy that are vnder a king that is early at his feeding that is to say which is subiect to his mouth Cato said That we must take so much meat and drinke as is requisit to maintaine the strength of the bodie and not as shall accloy it And as Cicero saith in his Duties We must referre our feeding to the health and strength of our bodies and not vnto pleasure And Socrates saith That we must so vse our feeding as neither bodie nor mind be ouercharged therwith And therefore Ecclesiasticus in the seuen and thirtith chapter saith thus Be not greedie of thy meat neither thrust thy hand into euery dish for the multitude of meats procureth diseases and of ful feeding breedeth choler Many haue died of Gluttonie but he that abstaineth shall prolong his life Our Lord in the 21 of Saint Luke commaundeth vs to beware that our hearts be not accloied with wine and meat And S. Paule to the Ephesians forbiddeth vs to take too much wine as wherein lieth surfetting Horace in the second of his sermons describeth naturally the pleasure and discōmoditie of too much feeding Plinie saith That simple meats are most wholsom for the body that al sawses and sawcepikets are daungerous and deadly Such as haue written of antiquities say That in the time of Saturne the world neither ate flesh nor dranke wine wherein they agree with our diuines who put vs out of doubt that the vse of flesh and wine was vnknowne afore the vniuersall flood The Esseans liued longest of all the Iewes because they did most abstaine and vsed least daintie meats There were three sorts of feeding in Persia wherof the excellentest contented them selues with hearbs and meale Saint Iohn Chrysostome in his fiue and fiftith Homilie saith That a poore table is the mother of health and a rich table is the mother of diseases as of headach of quaking of the limbs of agues of gouts and of other diseases more dangerous than hunger For hunger killeth within few daies but excesse rotteth a mans bodie by peecemeale and pineth away the flesh with sicknesse and in the end killeth him with a cruell death Againe in the mind it breedeth testinesse melancholie slouth and vnweeldinesse and there is not any thing that driueth away so many diseases as moderat diet That which I say tendeth not to the vtter taking away of all feasts for as Plutarch saith in his banket of the seuen Sages They that take away the vse of eating and drinking one with another take away that which is strongest in friendship And our bodies cannot receiue a greater pleasure nor a more rightfull familiar and agreeable to nature because that by that means men communicat and participat of the selfe same vittels Socrates did oftentimes banquet and gather good companies togither whom he entertained well howbeit soberlie and without superfluitie delighting them more with his mirthfull and sweet talke than with his meats and drinks Insomuch that afterward sober and merrie meals were called Socratissis meals And this maner did Plato well hold still of his maister For he entertained his guests well but without anie superfluitie Which thing Timothie of Athens marked well in him who hauing had verie good and conuenient intertainment at his hand howbeit without any great furniture of meats at his meeting with him the next morning thanked him for that his supper had done him pleasure not onely for the present time but also the day after The Lacedemonians were wonderfull sober in eating and drinking and had certaine publike places called Phidities where they ate verie soberly whereof it came that when men would speake of a small pittance they would liken it to a meale of the Phiditie And when a certaine stranger asked them Why they drunke so liltle To the intent answered they that we may counsell other men and not other men counsell vs. Meaning to shew by that answer that the greatest drinkers are not the best in counsell but that Sobrietie breedeth good aduice For temperate diet is the schoolmistresse of good and sage counsell as said Sophocles Epicurus said That he should esteeme himselfe alway alike happie so he might haue bread and water For the appetite of eating and drinking consisteth more in hunger and thirst than in the delicatnesse of wines and meats The Lacedemonians in stead of all other dainties had for their first dish a broth that was blacke and of small taste whereof notwithstanding they made great account Dennis the tyrant would haue tasted thereof because they liked it so well and he had a Lacedemonian cooke that prepared thereof for him but when he had tasted of it he liked not of it Then said his cooke vnto him that it was not to be wondered if he misliked it seeing it was not seasoned as it should be that is to say with trauell in hunting and running nor with hunger thirst which are the sawces that the Lacedemonians vse to season their meats withall On a time the queene of Caria gaue Alexander great store of delicate meats for the which he thanked her howbeit in taking them he told her that he had much better than those that is to wit for dinner the iourney that he marched afore daylight and for supper a small dinner For a great dinner hindereth a good supper as Diogenes said to a yong man that ate nothing to his supper but Oliues If thou hadst dined quoth he after this maner thou wouldest not feed as thou dost Mo men die of eating too much than of hunger as saith Theognis And as the cōmon prouerbe saith The mouth killeth mo men than the sword Cato said it was hard for that common-weale to endure long wherin a little fish was sold deerer than a great oxe Socrates said That most men liued to eat but he himselfe ate to liue It was said of the emperor Bonosus that he was borne to eat and drinke the which hath a better grace in latin Non vt viuat natus est sed vt bibat He that listeth to see more thereof let him read Iuuenal in his eleuenth Satire Let vs ad hereunto that which Porphirie saith That the pampering and glutting of the bodie starueth the soule and by increasing that which is mortall it hindereth and casteth vs back from the life eternal And as Galen saith The mind that is choked vp with greace and blood cannot vnderstand any heauenly thing And S. Ierom saith That a fat paunch cannot breed a good and sharpe wit For Plinie saith That such as haue great bellies
whereof the first consisteth in the worshipping of God and in the louing of him with all our heart for it is reason that we should yeeld him faith and alleageance for our creatiō and for the great number of so many good things which we receiue dailie at his hand seing that we peculiarly of all other liuing wights are beholders of the heauenly things that are aboue The other is for the instruction and stablishment of the common conuersation wherein consisteth the dutie of a christian which is to loue his neighbour as himself For as saith S. Paule to the Romanes it is a fulfilling of the law of God and a confirming of the law of nature which will not haue a man to doe that to an other which he would not haue done to himselfe And he that keepeth this precept cannot do amisse For it is very certaine that no man hateth his own flesh ne procureth any euill to himselfe and therfore he vvill not do any such thing to his neighbour Now then we need not to be taught what is Vprightnesse Valeantnesse and Staiednesse for he that keepeth the said precept will not do any vnright But forasmuch as our own nature by reason of the corruption thereof maketh vs to step out of the right vvay if vve will come into the true path againe it be houeth vs of necessitie to peruse the law and the commaundements and to treat of the vertues which are termed Cardinall namely Wisedome Vprightnesse Valeantnesse and Temperance or Staiednesse and of the branches depending vpon them the which S. Austine doth allegoricallie terme the foure streames that watered the earthly Paradise in old time and daily still watereth the little world of them that liue well and to see how good princes haue practised them and how euill princes for want of making account of them haue found themselues ill apaid to the end vve may make our profit of histories and not make them as a matter of course but as a good and wholsome instruction Howbeit ere we enter into that matter it behoueth vs to know vvhat a Prince a King an Emperour and a soueraigne Lord is CHAP. II. Of a Prince a King an Emperour and a soueraigne Lord. WE cannot enioy the goods which God hath giuen vs on this earth except there be a iustice a law and a prince as Plutarch teacheth vs in his booke concerning the education of princes Iustice is the end of the law law is the workmanship of the prince and the prince is the workmanship of God that ruleth all who hath no need of a Phidias For he himselfe behaueth himselfe as God And like as God hath set the Sunne and the Moone in the skye as a goodly resemblance of his Godhead so a Prince in a common-weale is the light of the common-weale and the image of God who vvorshipping God maintaineth iustice that is to say vttereth foorth the reason of God that is to weet Gods minde A Prince then is a magistrate that hath soueraigne power to commaund those ouer vvhom he hath charge And vnder this generall terme of Prince I comprehend kings emperours dukes earles marquises and gouernors of cities and common-weales The men of old time called him a Prince which excelled other men in discretion and wisedome For like as to make a fortunate voyage by sea there behoueth a good Pilot that is a man of courage and good skill so to the well gouerning of subiects there behoueth a good Prince And therefore we may say that that prince is the chiefe and most excellent of all which for the preheminence of his wisdome and worthinesse commaundeth all others It is the first and chiefest law of nature that he which is vnable to gard and defend himselfe should submit himselfe to him that is able and hath wherewith to do it and such a one doe we tearme a chiefe man or a prince who ought to be esteemed as a God among men as Aristotle saith in his third booke of matters of state or at least wise as next vnto God as Tertullian saith vnto Scapula and such a one ought all others to obay as a person that hath the authoritie of God as saith S. Paule Homer termeth princes Diogenes and Diotrophes that is to say Bred and brought vp of Iupiter And Cicero in his common weale saith That the gouerners and keepers of townes and citties doe come from heauen and shal returne thither againe when they haue done their dueties And in another place describing a good Prince he saith that he ought to despise all pleasures and not yeeld to his owne lust nor be needy of gold and siluer For the needinesse of the Prince is but a deuiser of subsidies as the Empresse Sophia said to Tiberius Constantine Also he ought to be more mindfull of his peoples profit than of his own pleasure And to conclude in a word a prince ought to imprint in his heart the saying of Adrian the emperor to the Senate namely That he ought to behaue himselfe after such a sort in his gouernmēt as euerie man might perceiue that he sought the benefit of his people not of himselfe Also men cal them Princes which are of the blood royal stand in possibilitie to succeed to the crowne and generally all soueraigne magistrats as dukes marquises earles and other chiefe lords of which sort there are in Italy and Germanie which haue soueraigne authoritie and owe no more to the emperour but only their mouth and their hands But the greatest and excellentest magistrats are the kings and emperours An Emperour is a terme of warre borrowed of the Romanes for in their language the word Imper◠signifieth to commaund And albeit that in their armies the Romanes had captaines whom they called Emperors which commaunded absolutely and were obayed as kings yet did not any man vsurpe or take to himselfe that title of Emperor vnlesse he had done some notable exploit of warre Insomuch that Crassus was counted a man but of base minde and small courage and of slender hope to atchieue any great or haughty matters that could finde in his heart to be named emperor for taking a silly towne called Zenodotia Afterward when the state of the common weale was chaunged by reason of the ciuill warres and reduced into a Monarchie the successors of Iulius Caesar knowing how odious the name of king was to the Romanes would not take that title vnto them but contenting themselues with the effect therof they named themselues Emperors which among vs is as much to say as chiefe leaders or Generals of an armie or host of men Plato in his booke of Lawes teacheth vs seuen sorts of ruling or commanding the first is that the father commaundeth his children the second that the valeant noble-minded commaund the weake and baseminded the third that the elder sort command the yoonger the fourth that the maisters commaund the seruants the fift that the mightier commaunds the feebler
heale an eye it is behoofull that he know the nature both of the eye and of the whole body so he that will gouerne aright must know what belongeth to the mind For the skill of gouernment is a thing of more worthinesse than the art of healing mens bodies For as much therefore as Phisitions and Surgions take so great pains to know the constitution of the body surely he that will be cunning and well skilled in gouerning of pople ought to take paine to get knowledge of the soule that is to say of vertue which springeth from the soule and hath this propertie that the knowing thereof maketh a man in loue with it so that therewithall he findeth therein right goodly actions and is desirous to become like vnto those that doe them For as touching the goods of fortune we haue of them a possesion and as touching vertue we haue thereof an inworking or action By means whereof we be glad to haue those goods of other men but yet therwithall we would also that other men shuld haue them of vs. For vertue is of such force that it quickeneth vp the man that considereth it to be desirous to put it in execution by and by and engendreth in his heart a certaine longing to vtter it by his deeds framing and fashioning the maners of him that beholdeth it not by way of imitation but by the only vnderstanding of the vertuous deed which out of hand bringeth him a determinate purpose to doe the like And as Cicero saith in his booke of Friendship Nothing is so auailable as vertue ne draweth men more to be in loue therewith insomuch that we loue those whom we neuer saw vpon an opinon which we conceiue of their goodnesse and vertue For the true loue of vertue that is to say the affection to imitate it is not imprinted in mens hearts without a singular good will and reuerence towards the person that giueth the impression thereof Insomuch that euen enemies doe praise their enemies that haue vertue and euen robbers and outlaws haue it in admiration Whereof we haue a notable example in Scipio who being all alone in his house in the countrie was beset with a great number of robbers and when he prepared himselfe to resist them they threw down their weapons and praied him to open them the gate saying they were come of purpose to obtaine the fauor to see so vertuous a noble man as he was The thing that procureth loue saith Cicero in his booke intituled Laelius is the consideration of the goodnesse and liberalitie of him to whome a man resorteth so that vertue causeth him to be beloued and esteemed And as the same Cicero saith in his booke of Duties We highly commend and make great reckoning of those whom we take to be vertuous and we despise those that haue neither power nor vertue And in his Tusculane questions he saith That there is not any thing comparable to vertue and that vertue dispising all things regardeth not the chaunces of the world but is sufficient of hirselfe to lead a good and happie life without the aid of any other thing Furthermore praise and honor doth necessarily follow vertue as a mans shadow followeth him by the light of the sun or of a candle and for that cause Marcellus made his tēple of Honor insuch wise as no man could enter into it but by the dore of the temple of Vertue as I haue declared afore Our Lord Iesus likeneth the kingdome of heauen vnto one that sold all that he had to buy a goodly pearle withall as who would say A man would not sticke to spend his mony his goods to purchase a thing that is beautiful and rare and wherein there is great gaine Therefore he that will purchase vertue the fairest and greatest thing of price that can be as whereby we mount vp to heauen ought not to spare any thing Antisthenes said That Vertue is a good and sure wal a kind of armor that cannot be taken away be a man neuer so valiant he may haue his sword taken from him and he may de disarmed but a wise man being armed with vertue cannot be disarmed or ouercome Also he affirmeth that the wise man liueth not by law but by the rule of vertue As who should say no good man ought so much to respect the commaundement of the law as the direction of reason which wil haue vs to follow the thing that is good and honest and to eschew whatsoeuer is shamefull and vnhonest The which reason caused the emperour Theodosius to say that it most highly beseemed the maiestie of a king to bind himselfe to law and that the authoritie of the empire depended vpon lawes vnto the which he also submitted himselfe Contrariwise Heliogabalus the peerelesse patterne of all wickednesse said it belonged to none but to himselfe alone to stablish lawes at his pleasure without being bound to maintaine them longer than he listed One demaunded of Aristotle what profit Philosophie brought with it Very great quoth he for it teacheth me to doe the things vncommaunded which other folkes doe for feare of lawes The same is it that makes a king conform himselfe to the law For the prince being the defender maintainer and vpholder of the law cannot doe any thing against law without doing wrong to the state and without giuing an euill example to his people And for as much as hee hath none aboue him but onely God and therefore may transgresse the law without punishment and without feare of man hee ought to haue the bridle of reason and vertue before his eies as well to keepe the lawes himselfe as to make them to be kept of his people And as it is a great shame for a scholemaster when his scholer knoweth more than he so is it a great dishonor to a prince when his subiect is better than he And therefore vertue is much more needful in a prince than in a priuat person For the priuat person doth good of force by constraint and rigor of the lawes but the prince can haue none other constraints than vertue religion and hope of reward at Gods hand According whereunto Chilo the Lacedemonian being asked Wherein vertuous men passed other men In good hope quoth hee Whereby he meant the reward that we looke for after this life And therefore I say for a conclusion that Vertue is the law and rule of princes according whereunto they ought to direct all their actions and doings for the well gouerning of their people and that they may haue a happie reigne CHAP. X. Of the Passions of the mind FOr as much as I haue alredie spoken of vertue in generall it will not be amisse for the vnderstanding of this discourse to speake a word or twaine by the way concerning the passions that are in the mind which Mercurie the great termeth the tormentors of man to the end that vertue may be the better knowne by
he should send them home to Rome without doing them any displeasure thinking that for so notable a benefit they would of enemies become thensfoorth good and faithfull friends And when he saw that this counsell liked not the Samnits he counselled them to put them all to the sword without sparing any one of them for he thought that so great a losse would so greatly weaken the Romans as they shold not be able to recouer themselues a long time after This opinion seemed also ouer-cruell and so they chose a meane way which was to saue the Romanes liues and to bereaue them of their armour and weapon and of their stuffe with some other conditions which afterward was the confusion of the Samnits Likewise the Euthalibians committed a great ouersight in that they dispatched not the Persians when they had them shut vp almost after the aforesaid maner or sent them not home in friendly sort but did neither of both For they sent them away without hurt but they compelled Perosas the king of Persia to adore their king and to promise them vpon his oath neuer to make war on them afterward Neuerthelesse as soone as Perosas was deliuered of the danger he made sharper warre vpon them than he had done afore in reuenge of the iniutie and dishonour that they had done vnto him For in matter of state a prince must either deserue well of his enemies by some singular courtesie or make cleane riddance of them if it lie in his hand to doe it I would alway counsell him to follow courtesie But yet he may haue to doe with such kind of men that it shall stand him on hand to vse rigour rather than gentlenes as is to be seene in the deed of queene Thomiris where albeit that the reuenge of hir sonnes death prouoked hir to kill Cirus yet was it moreouer expedient also for hir state to doe it in such sort as she did For a prince that commeth out of a farre countrie to conquer a realme whereunto hee cannot pretend any right will not lightly be paied with such clemencie For his intent is to possesse himselfe of it by some means or other and oftentimes for the bringing therof to passe to make vtter slaughter and destruction of the inhabitants thereof as the children of Israell did when they came into the land of Promise Well might Charles Martell haue done all the courtesies that could be vnto the Sarsines but yet would not that haue made them forbeare to inuade the realme of France And therefore the best way was to fight it out with them and to ouerthrow them vtterly If Aetius being aided by the Frenchmen had not fought with Attila to the vtterance in France it had beene vnpossible for him to haue got him thence by faire means and yet because he made not cleane riddance of him a man may see what mischiefe came of it It is noted as a fault in Constantine that when he had vanquished the Vandales Sweuians and Alanes he pursued not his victorie in putting them all to the sword but gaue them respit to resemble themselues againe whereby they became as strong as he Darius offered Alexander his daughter a very beautifull Lady with six millions of monie and the one halfe of Asia but Alexander would not admit that honourable offer because his couetousnesse was vnmeasurable By reason whereof had good fortune gon on Darius side he had plaied an vnwise part if he had not slaine Alexander and all his armie without mercie Manfred king of Naples was willing to haue made peace with Charles duke of Aniou but Charles would neuer hearken vnto it because he grounded his right vpon the sword and was bent to be king of Naples whatsoeuer it did cost him Courtesie and clemencie are to be vsed among neighbours that striue but for their bounds for hatred or for honour For they that are so vanquished are alwaies mindful of the courtesie that hath beene done vnto them and of the means to requite it whereof in the fourth booke of Kings the sixt chapter we haue a notable example ' in the king of Israel who by the aduise of the prophet Elizeus in steed of putting the Assyrians his enemies to death which were come to seeke him caused them to be entertained with all kind of good cheere and sent them home without doing them any harme by means whereof whereas they had bin his sworne enemies he made them his good friends So also did Ptolomie who hauing ouercome Demetrius and put his host to flight at the citie Gaza restored him his treasure and all his stuffe with eight thousand prisoners saying that he stroue not with him for honour and empire And Demetrius receiuing those things at his hand prayed God he might not continue long his debter for that courtesie and euen so it came to passe For anon after Demetrius ouercame Ptolomie and hauing taken his treasure also seuen thousand prisoners sent all home againe to him and moreouer gaue presents to euerie of the prisoners whom he sent backe The case standeth otherwise with him that commeth a farre off to make conquest of a countrie For his intent is to dispossesse them against whom he maketh warre and to make cleane riddance of them as we haue seene in the Saxons Englishmen Burgonions Frenchmen Turks Gothes and Lumbards who haue continued owners of the lands which they inuaded And if they had not had the vpper hand of fortune doubtlesse not so much as one had bin fuffered to escape That is the cause why the pope after that Charles of Aniou had gotten the vpper hand of Conradine and the Sweuians councelled him to cut off Conradines head sending him word in a word or twaine of latin That the life of Conradine was the death of Charles and the death of Conradine was Charles his life But sauing the reuerence of the pope and of duke Charles albeit this way seemed most profitable yet ought it not to haue bin followed because it was scarce honorable seeing that Conradine had escaped the furie of the battell and his quarrell was iust in recouery of his kingdome which his base brother Manfred had first vsurped from him and Charles had woone away from Manfred Such man-slaughters done vpon quiet determination and out of the heat of conflict in battell are disallowed both of God and man In confirmation whereof I must needs alleage a certaine text out of the third chapter of the second booke of Samuel There were in Iury two braue captaines named Abner and Amasa which had borne arms for king Saul against Dauid and Dauid after Sauls death had pardoned them But Ioab Dauids constable being ouer-zealous of his maisters honour forbare not for all that to kill them both which doing of his Dauid so greatly misliked that he protested before God and the people that he was guiltlesse of their blood And to shew that he was so vnfainedly although he punished it not
thing vncumbered vnwithered vnpainted vndisguised vnmovable vnueiled apparant comprehensible of it selfe vnchangeably good and spiritual Wherin the antient Philosophers agree with vs saying that we haue but a shadow of the Truth that the pure Truth is in heauen Truth saith Menander is an inhabitant of heauen and dwelleth with the gods And the Persians worshipped a great God which in body resembled the light and in soule the Truth as who would say that God was light and Truth Therefore of all the things that are on earth none as saith Mercurie in the xv of his Pimander can be called truth but only an imitation of the truth And whē the wit receiueth influence from aboue then doth it imitate the truth for without inworking from aboue it abideth in vntruth like as the shape of a man in a painted table representeth a very bodie but is not a body indeed as the eye imagineth it to be in so much that although it seeme verily to haue eyes and eares yet it neither seeth nor heareth at all euen so the things that men behold with their eies are but leasings Men beare themselues on hand that they see the truth but in very deed they be but lies For truth cannot be vpon earth but yet it may be that some men to whom God hath giuen power to see diuine things do vnderstand the truth howbeit that is not the truth of speaking and vnderstanding things as they be indeed For the very truth is the souereigne Good and true things are the effects thereof which are the off-springs or imps of truth In so much that the truth which remaineth with vs in this world is but a countershape and shadow of the very truth the which we follow when wee forbeare frawd lying and deceit and proceed in good faithfull dealing truth and loialtie according to this saying of the Psalmist The works of Gods hands are truth and vprightnes that is to say Faithfulnesse his commandements are made in truth that is to say in substantiall Faithfulnesse which kepeth truth euermore that is to say which alwaies keepeth promise The beginning of his word is Truth that is to say his word is a grounded stablenesse And in another place All thy commaundements sayth he be Truth For as sayth Pindar to be true of heart is the ground and foundation of all vertue And therefore Dauid praieth God not to take the word of Truth out of his mouth And in the fourteenth Psalme he sayth thus Lord who shall dwell on thy holy hill he that dealeth iustly with his neighbour and speaketh the truth from his heart and beareth true witnesse Wherein we haue to consider that hee matcheth Righteousnesse and Truth together as who would say he esteemeth a soothfast man to be a righteous man and a righteous man to bee a soothfast man and hardly indeed can they be seuered according to this saying of Dauid in the 119 Psalme Thou hast commaunded vprightnesse and truth aboue all things Thou shalt haue folke at thy commaundement because of thy meekenesse vprightnesse and truth The kings throne that iudgeth folke with truth shall be stablished for euer And Salomon in his Prouerbs sayth That he which speaketh the truth vttereth righteousnesse And in another place he saith That meeldnesse and truth vphold and maintaine a king When Iethro councelled Moses to disburden himselfe of the paine of iudging perticular cases he aduised him to chuse such men as were wise true of their word and fearing God as who would say that the maintenance of iustice depended vpon truth After which maner Marcus Aurelius said That in an honest woman truth chastitie ought to be matched togither and it was neuer seene but the woman that was true of word was also chast and that the liar was sildome chast And as Varia Mesa was wont to say It is no lesse shame for women that are come of good houses to be liars than to be vnchast Socrates would that a prince should aboue all things be true of his word to the end that his bare word might be more esteemed than another mans oths And Cicero in one of his orations saith That he which shrinketh from the truth will passe as little to forsweare himselfe as to make a lie And in another place he saith that truth is of so great might that it cannot be vanquished by any subtiltie or wilinesse whatsoeuer and that it is a sufficient defence to it selfe though it haue no man of law to plead for it Euripides saith That the word of truth is plaine and needeth no interpreter And Salomon saith that the lip of truth is euer steadie but the toung of falshood is euer variable In all thy works let the word of truth goe before thee saith the son of Sirach in his third chapter Pithagoras said That when we exercise truth we follow the foot-steps of God Plato in his fift booke of Laws saith That truth is the guid to all goodnesse be it towards God or towards man that whosoeuer wil be happie must be partaker therof and that by that means he shall be worthie to be beleeued and contrariwise that he shal be vnworthie of credit which loueth to lie He that bare the office of lord chiefe iustice in Aegypt did weare an image of truth hanging at his brest which image of truth was had in singular estimation of the Druides also The men of old time painted their God Pan with two faces meaning thereby that he had skill both of good and euill of truth and falshood taking the face on the forpart to represent truth the which they painted faire beautiful and amiable and the face on the back-part to betokenfalshood the which they portraied soule ilfauored and ouglie like vnto a Goat or some other brute beast of purpose to shew the difference that is betweene truth and vntruth CHAP. XIIII Of Religion and Superstition IN handling the fore-said question so well discussed by Cicero in his books of Duties and well debated among such as haue to deale with matters of state I haue told you heretofore that Machiauell held this erronious opinion That a prince was of necessitie to deale contrarie to faithfulnesse and Religion for the mainteinance of his estate Of Faithfulnesse I haue spoken sufficiēt alreadie now remaineth to enquire of Religion because in some respects it is an appendant of our discourse or to say truly all that euer we haue treated of hitherto and all that euer we shall treat of hereafter depēdeth vpon that For it is the ring-leader of al vertues as the but wherat al they do shoot without the which neither prince nor any other person whatsoeuer can be wise vertuous or happy or do any thing that shal be ought-worth but religion is of it selfe behofful profitable to al thing as saith S. Paul in his epistle to Timothie For it is vnpossible that any of the things which are in nature should continue
in their being and state without calling vpon God considering that it is through his fauour and goodnesse that all things abide in their perfection as Philo saith in his third booke of the life of Moses In so much that a gouernour of people cannot haue a greater good thing in this world nor a thing more beseeming his maiestie than Religion and that it is the greatest honour that can be for him to stand in aw of God the which dutie vttereth it selfe in godlinesse and religion For thereby he honoreth God and is honored of God and hath an entrance into all vertues The same author expounding Genesis saith that by the tree of life is betokened the greatest of all vertues namely Godlinesse the which maketh the soule immortall Wherevnto accordeth S. Ambrose in the sixt of his Epistles where he sayth that the tree of life is the root of godlinesse and that to doe due honour and seruice to our Lord and God is the verie substance of our life And Mercurie saith that by Religion man is replenished with all good things and made to abound in heauenly vnderstanding The emperour Theodosius was woont to say that by Religion peace is maintained and enemies in war time put to flight Whosoeuer then will attaine to vertue and to the souereigne good cannot come to it but by Religion and by seeking it at Gods hand who hath promised to graunt vs whatsoeuer wee aske with a good heart so it be rightfull For God liketh well of such as call vpon him with a true heart saith Dauid in the hundred and foure and forteeth Psalme bringeth to passe the desires of them that feare and loue him heareth their cries saueth them and keepeth them Hee that loueth God sayth Ecclesiasticus shall be heard when he praieth for his sinnes so as he shall abstaine from them and he shal be heard in his daily praier And as Plato sayth in his fourth booke of Lawes A good man ought that man to bee which shall offer sacrifice vnto God and be present at the diuine ceremonies and there is not any thing more beautifull more expedient more behoofful to a happie life nor more beseeming a man than to giue himselfe to the seruing of God and to the maâ—ing of oblations praiers and supplications vnto God And the same Plato saith in his Theetetus That mans felicitie consisteth in Religion to Godward which is the greatest vertue that can be among men And as saith Xenophon in his first booke of the trainment of Cirus It is easier to obtaine any thing at the hand either of God or of man by honouring them in our prosperitie than by praying and suing vnto them in our aduersitie Now then in treating of vertues it behoueth vs as saith Iamblichus in speaking of mysteries to begin at the best and most pretious which is Religion and the seruice of God a naturall propertie as saith Proclus that is incident to al men and is essentiall in man Religion and godlinesse are wel neere both one For godlines as saith Mercurie the great is nothing els but the knowledge of God and Religion is the knowledge of the ceremonies belonging to the worship of God Plutarch saith in the life of Paulus Aemilius That Religion is the skill how to serue God And Cicero in his Rhetorike saith That it is the bringer of the ceremonies concerning the things that belong to the God-head so as there is no great difference betwixt the one and the other According to Festus Pompeius We call those Religious which can skill what is to be done and what is to be left vndone Godlinesse then or Religion is the seruice which we do vnto God in worshipping him as altogither good almightie and the author and creator of all things In this acknowledgement did Abel make his offerings and Enos begin to call vpon God Afterward Moses brought the law of God to the children of Israel written in two tables wherof the first concerneth Religion the honor that ought to be yeelded vnto God and the other concerneth our dutie towards our neighbour commaunding vs to beleeue in God only to loue him with all our heart to worship him only and none other to giue no honour to any thing wrought by mens hands nor to any other creature but only to the liuing God to forbeare to take his name in vaine by swearing by it and much more by forswearing and to take one day of rest in the weeke to dedicate the same vnto God and to cease from all worke and to intend to the seruing of him And secondly he commaundeth vs to honor our father and mother to abstaine from murther theft sals-witnessing whoredome and the coueting of any thing whatsoeuer Now we find that not only the Israelits who had the law written but also the heathen which had it not did wholly obserue it as we shall see by this discourse chiefly in the case of Religion We see what is written therof by such as had not the knowledge of God reuealed vnto them as namely how diuinely the great Mercurie hath written thereof and how his Pimander reuealeth wonderfull secrets vnto him which are so conformable to our misteries that they seeme to be drawne out of the same fountaine And the thing that is most wonderfull is that he speaketh of the three persons as if he had bin instructed thereof by the writings of the gospell and specially of the wisdome whom he calleth the sonne of God to whom he attributeth the creating of all things according to that which S. Iohn saith therof in the beginning of his Gospell Next vnto Mercurie followeth Plato who for that cause is called the diuine And after them haue followed many other Philosophers as is to be seen by their writings by the things which S. Austin of Eugubie hath painfully gathered into his books which he hath made of continuall Philosophie The Sabines worshipped God in three persons naming the one Holie the other Fidius and the third Semipater And in their oths they did commonly put Fidius in the middest as who would say that vnder that name they coÌ„prehended al the three persons wherof came their great oth of Medius fidius Numa Pompilius king of Romanes was not of opinion that there were so many gods as he himselfe forged after the example of others For he wrote against such vngodlinesse which books being found after his death were burned by commaundement of the Senate as contrarie to the worshipping of many gods which follie there was no way as then to put out of their heads wherein Numa did verie ill in that he had leuer to sticke to the Superstition of the multitude than to tell them his mind without dissimulation how he made idols neuerthelesse the people were forbidden to beleeue that God had the shape of beast or man insomuch that in those first times there was not in Rome any image of God either painted carued or cast in mould
in his Religion recouered all that his forefathers had lost We see at this day how the contempt and disagreement in Religion shaketh all the states of Christendome and will yet shake them more if the dissentious spirits be not reunited againe in the bosome of the church S. Lois got himselfe more glorie in Syria and Aegypt by his holy conuersation than by his wars wherein he had not any happie successe and the churches which we see of his building doe shew sufficiently how hee was giuen to Religion Philip the emperor was not so much renowned for his victories as for that after the battell of Bouvines he builded the church of Victorie neer vnto Senlis the which he dedicated to the virgin Marie and afterward did great good to the Clergi-men And whē his officers complained vnto him of his diminishing of his reuenues by enriching of the church-men he answered That he had receiued so much good at Gods hand that he could not denie any thing to his Temples and Ministers for the great goods which he had gotten and gained by helpe more than humane and euen by the fauor of God But now leauing our christian histories because my chiefe intent is not to speak of them let vs read Titus Liuius and there we shall see the deuotion that was in the Romanes of old time and among others the zeale of Lucius Albinus a commoner who hauing his wagon loaden with his wife and yoong children and with his mouables and fleeing from the Gauls that were come to Rome as soone as he espied the Nuns of Vesta on foot carrying their holy reliks with them immediatly he caused his wife and children to come downe and his goods to be vnloaden and lent his wagon to the virgins to ride in and to carrie their Relikes Numa Pompilius to the intent to make the people attentiue to the ceremonies of their religion made an herald to go before the priest that ministred the ceremonies and to crie with a loud voice Do this which was a commaunding of them to intend wholly to the diuine seruice without intermedling any other action The good ladies and personages of reputation did oft frequent the temples and the founders of them gate great fame and renowne amongst the people Scipio African was one of the happiest captains of Rome and best beloued of the people men of war because they deemed him to doe all things by the counsel of God for that he vsed to tarry long alone in the capitoll where their opinion was that he consulted with Iupiter concerning the affaires of the common-weale And generally all princes beeing of any good disposition haue had Religion in singular estimation as wee read by the answer that Alexander Seuerus made to certaine Inholders of Rome which would haue disappointed the Christians of the building of a chappell to make their prayers in The things that concerne God quoth the emperour are to be preferred before the things that concerne man and therefore let it be free for the Christians to build their chappell to their God who though he be vnknowne at Rome ought neuerthelesse to haue honour done vnto him euen in respect that he beareth the name of God And so he chose rather to apply the place to the worshipping of God than to worldly vses And for himselfe he made it not strange that the Bishops in cases belonging to their iurisdiction should giue other iudgement than he had done as who would say that in matters of Religion the emperour ought to giue place to the authoritie of priests and Bishops Plutarch in his treatise of Philosophicall discipline saith That common-weales honour and reuerence priests because they pray vnto God not for the welfare of themselues and their friends and acquaintance onely but in common for all men and yet the priests cause not the gods to doe vs good but they onely call vpon them as dooers of good We see in what reuerence the Romanes had them by their condemning of Cneus Cornelius a Pretor of Rome in a great fine for quarrelling vniustly with Emilius Lepidus their high priest Antiochus king of Syria lying in siege before Ierusalem at the feast of Tents or Boothes gaue the Iewes seuen daies truce at their request because he would not trouble their deuotion and moreouer sent an Oxe and certaine vessels of gold vnto the gate of the citie to be offered in sacrifice vnto God When Philip king of Macedonie was about to lay siege to Vdisitane a citie of Maesia belonging to the Gothes their priests came foorth to him clad all in white to whom he yeelded such honour and reuerence that hee retired without doing them any harme No lesse did Alexander to the high priest of the Iewes notwithstanding that he went against him in great choler and with full purpose to haue destroied the towne For when he saw him come in his priestly ornaments and attire he not only relented but also stepped forth alone vnto him with great honour and reuerence and worshipped God The same Alexander hauing taken the citie of Thebes razed it and sold all the citizens thereof sauing only the priests and men of Religion Darius caused an image of his to be set vp in the temple of Vulcane before the image of Sesostris the doing wherof Vulcans priest withstood saying that Sesostris had done mo deeds of arms than Darius and therefore deserued to be preferred before him for which free speech Darius did not the priest any harme but pardoned him Selim emperor of the Turks being in the citie of Ierusalem did reuerence to the monuments of the antient prophets And albeit that he was an enemie to the verie name of Christians yet for all that he letted not to giue the priests monie to find them six moneths as to deuout persons and men of good life When Alarik king of the Gothes had entered the citie of Rome by force he made proclamation by the sound of a trumpet that no harme should be done to such as were fled into the churches of the Apostles to saue themselues by reason wherof his souldiers touched not the religious persons nor the vessels which they carried with them Wheras Didier king of Lumbards intending to haue seazed Rome into his possession afore Charlemain should come there fained himselfe to haue a vow thither by reason whereof he found the gates open at his comming yet notwithstanding he durst not enter because Adrian the Pope forbad him vpon paine of excommunication And I beleeue that the feare which he had of Charlemaine helped him wel to the taking of that offer Attila had such regard of Pope Leo that as soon as he had heard him speake he forbare to go to Rome vtterly left vp all Italie Cabaon captaine of Tripolie finding himselfe too weake to withstand the Vandales gaue himselfe ouer to Religion and forbad his men of war to doe wrong to any man enioyning them to abstaine from women
all his enterprises found the means to haue a white Hynd the which hee affirmed to haue bene sent vnto him from Diana to giue him notice of many things to come the which Hynd he had so wel taught and inured to the noise of battell that shee followed him wheresoeuer he went and was not a whit afraid to see so great a multitude Which thing made his souldiers the more pliable to order because they beleeued that all that euer he did came of the counsell of Diana and not of his owne good gouernment Eumenes perceiuing that Antigonus and Teutamus captains of Alexanders old bands that were called Siluer-shields in respect of the shields of siluer that they carried would not in any wise giue place to him though they had commaundement from Olimpias the mother of Alexander to obey him nor come at him to consult of the affairs of the realme thinking it no reason that he for his part shuld go to their lodging found the means to win them by this superstition he made theÌ„ beleeue that Alexander had appeared vnto him in his sleepe and had shewed him a stately Pauilion wherin was a roiall throne and had told him that if they would hold their consultation there he would be there present with them aid theÌ„ both in their counsel in the managing of al their affairs coÌ„ditionally that they alwaies began at him vnto this Eumenes easily persuaded theÌ„ so as with one coÌ„mon consent they caused a beautiful and sumptuous pauilion to be set vp which they called the Pauilion of Alexander where they made their meetings for counsell The emperour Charles the fift being at Tunes whether it were that he would by some means remoue all heart-burning from among the lords of his armie whom he vvas to coÌ„maund in his absence or that he vvould giue the more courage to his souldiers shew to them all that there was a head aboue him tooke the crucifix in his own hands and shewing it to them all told them that our Lord Iesus Christ should be the chiefe of that host Themistocles perceiuing that neither reason nor intreatance could persuade the people of Athens to goe to the sea to encounter the Medes fell to beating them with heauenly signes oracles and answers of the gods For he tooke occasion to serue his turne as with a signe from heauen by the dragon of Minerua which by good hap appeared not in hir temple as it had bin wont to doe And the priests found the oblations to lie whole vnminished and vntouched which the people offered dailie vnto hir By reason whereof being intrapped by Themistocles they sowed a brute among the people that the goddesse Pallas the defender of the citie had forsaken it pointing them the way to the sea And on the other side he won them also by means of a certaine prophesie which commaunded them to saue themselues in wodden walles saying that those wodden wals betokened nothing els but ships Christopher Columb perceiuing he could get no victuals of the Indians neither for loue nor by force went neer vnto a little citie of theirs and calling out certaine of the citizens vnto him did them to vnderstand that if they furnished him not with victuals God would send them such a scourge from heauen that they should die euery one in token wherof he assured them that within two daies next comming they should see the Moone full of blood if they would take heed of it They beholding the thing come to passe the verie same day that he told them of which was nothing els but the eclips of the moone were so affraid of it that they went and prouided him victuals and furnished him of as much as he needed Lysander being desirous to further Agesilaus in making him king whereunto the oracle of Apollo was an impediment which had forbidden the Lacedemonians to chuse a king that did halt told them the oracle meant it not of the halting of a leg but of the halting in linage and parentage after which sort Leotichides halted which was the person whome some would haue preferred to be their king whome the wife of king Agis had conceiued in adulterie by Alcibiades Marius led with him a woman of Syria named Martha whom he had euermore present at all his sacrifices and without her he did not any thing It is not wel known whether he beleeâ—ed verily that she had the gift of prophesie or whether he did wittingly pretend to beleeue it for the better furtherance of his deuices Vpon a time when Sylla was readie to giue battell he openly kissed a little image of Apollo which he had taken out of the temple of Delphos praying it to keep promise with him Thus ye see how the braue captains do easily make their hand of the superstition of the people so long as they themselues fal not into the same vice as Nicias did who being dismaid at an eclipse of the moon delaied his departure out of Sicilie wheÌ„ it stood him most on hand to haue bin gon vpon an opinion that it was a token of very great misfortune notwithstanding that Anaxagoras in his bookes had shewed the reason of such eclipse which doing of Nicias was cause of the vtter ouerthrow of his armie and of his own destruction to Likewise when Antigonus was minded to haue war with the Romans he committed a great fault in that hee beleeued not the counsel of Hannibal but had rather to stand gaping superstitiously vpon the inwards of brute beasts and to herken to a sort of cosening birdgazers thaÌ„ to an old well experienced captaine that knew the forces of the Romans where they were to be assailed The superstitiousnes of the Almanes was their vndoing for the woman-wizards that were in the camp forbad them to go to battell against the Romanes afore the new of the moone Wherof Iulius Caesar getting intelligence and perceiuing that for that cause the Almanes stirred not went and assailed them in their own campe while they were out of courage by reason of their superstition he prouoked them so far that in the end hee made them to come foorth into the field in a rage where they were all discomfited But the best and wisest captains neuer troubled their heads with such doteries As for example Lucullus spared not to incounter with Tigranes vpon the sixt day of October though there were that would haue dissuaded him because the Romanes esteemed it an vnlucky day forsomuch as Scipio was discoÌ„fited by the Cimbrians as on that day wherto Lucullus answered That of a day of sorrow misfortune he would make it aday of good fortune and ioy and so it came to passe indeed Alexander leading his armie against the Persians in the moneth of Iune was desired not to stirre all that moneth because the Macedonians esteemed it an vnluckie moneth But yet hee letted not to proceed for all that and to turne away the superstition hee
cheese he refused it saying that it was no reason that hee should eat seeing his whole armie had not to eat as well as he Plutarch saith That the thing that most aduanced Marius was that he neuer refused the requitall of kindnesse for any paine or daunger that hung thereon nor also disdained any thing were it neuer so little but striued to out-goe euen the meanest souldiers in simplicitie of fare and in sufferance of labor whereby he got the good will of euerie man For it is a great comfort to such as take pains to haue company that willingly take pains with them because that to their seeming it after a sort taketh away their constraint and necessitie And it is a thing that wonderfully pleaseth the souldier when he seeth his captaine eating openly of the same bread that he himselfe eateth or sleeping vpon some pelting pad of straw or the first man that sets his hand to the worke when a trench is to be drawne or a rampier is to be made to fortesie a camp For they make not so great account of the captains that honour them or reward them as of the captaines that takes pains with them and hazard themselues with them to the dangers of warre yea and there is this further that they set more by those that take pains with them than by those that suffer them to continue in idlenesse Artaxerxes king of Persia marching in the countrie of the Cadusians went foremost on foot bearing his trusse vpon his shoulder in a skarfe and his target on his arme and so trauelled ouer mountaines that were cragged and rough insomuch that his souldiers seeing the courage of their king the pains that he tooke went so light on the ground that they seemed to haue had wings The emperor Iulian comming to a Marris which he saw his enemies had drowned with water to stop the passage of his armie did put himselfe formost into the Marris so that his armie being ashamed to refuse that which they saw the emperor do passed all through the Marris marching in water vp to the knees Great Alexāder perceiuing at the siege of Nysa that his souldiers were loth to go to the assault because of the deepnesse of the water O wretch that I am quoth he which haue not learned to swim and yet in the end hee passed the riuer to giue example to his men Himselfe also was the first that entered into the citie of the Malians howbeit very vndiscreetly Neuerthelesse his so doing made all the Macedonians to come in after him to saue his life Demetrius being afore the citie of Thebes went foremost himselfe to the battell to giue example to his men of warre that they should not spare themselues nor be afraid to put themselues in danger Also he was stricken quite and cleane through the necke with an arrow Iulius Caesar hazarded himselfe freely to all perill neuer forbearing to take pains and therefore his souldiers loued and esteemed him The marques of Piscaria to prouoke his foot-men to passe the foord of Brents did set himselfe foremost on foot to passe it with the brauest and honourablest captains of his principall bands to shew himselfe in like fortune with his souldiers As for those which haue refused to put their hand to work and to giue example to their people they haue not done themselues any good by it but haue ben disdained for their labour As for example Macrinus who went but with a wand in his hand when he made his musters or when he visited his men of warre was despised for it of his souldiers who sayd that a prince ought not to enter into the senathouse with arms nor come into an armie without them because the senathouse was to deale with matters of peace and the campe with matters of warre Therefore was he of so small estimation that his men of war forsooke him and in the end hee was vanquished by a woman Likewise the very presence of a prince in battel is a kind of example For it giueth courage to the souldiers as I haue declared in the beginning of this booke in speaking of the little child Europus king of Macedonie whome they were faine to bring foorth to the souldiers in his cradle and yet his presence gaue them such courage that they vanquished their vanquishers and went away with the victorie though they had bene ouercome afore The Almaris at the iournie of Gwingate were ignoraunt that the emperor Maximilian was comming to them but as soone as they espied him all armed sauing his head by and by taking his presence for a good foretoken of victorie they began to welcome him after this maner God saue thee O emperour God preserue thee good father God keepe thee O inuincible captaine we haue alreadie woon the victorie seeing that thou our head art here and it came to passe as they had forespoken When the armie of Alfons king of Arragon was readie to ioine battell with the armie of Renat that was led by Antonie Caldora the king fell to consulting how hee should demeane himselfe and was counselled not to be there in person wherat he taking disdaine answered in great choler How then By your saying it should seeme that the thing which hath bin wont to do most good in a battel namely the presence of the Generall should doe most harme I perceiue now that my men fight valiantly and I will be the first at it to shew that my presence is no impediment to your glorie and good fortune When Perses the last king of Macedonie was to ioyne battell with the Romanes he withdrew himselfe out of the field vnder colour to doe sacrifice to Hercules who could not find in his heart to accept the offerings of a coward and so he failed not to lose the field But the great captaines as Pirrhus Philip Alexander Antigonus Traiane and generally all the great princes haue made warre by themselues and not by their lieutenants I graunt that some haue made warre luckily by their lieutenants as Charles the fift king of France and the emperor Charles the fift in the battell of Pauie but yet there is none to the presence of the prince himselfe when any goodly exploit is to be done For as the French prouerbe saith The sheepe serue to no purpose where the shepheard is away But after his fortunate incounter at Pauie the emperour Charles of whome I now speake did neuer enterprise any thing whereat he himselfe was not present as the voyage of Argier the voiage of Goulette the voiage of Prouince the war in Germanie made in the dead of winter when he himselfe was diseased with the gout and ill at ease in his bodie the wars made many times in France and especially at the siege of Mets in the dead of winter For the presence of the prince is worth ten thousand men Whē Antigonus the second was purposed to giue battell vpon the sea to Ptolomie his Pilot
of such vnderstanding thereof in steed of being wise and wel aduised and in steed of chusing the good way wee follow the woorser and as Dauid saith Become like the horse and mule for not considering what God hath bestowed vpon man Therefore it standeth vs on hand to consider from whence we be and to what end we be created that by beholding the excellencie which we haue receiued of God we may submit our selues wholy vnto him and to his wisedome which inuiteth vs thereunto as is to bee seene in fiue hundred places of the booke of Wisdome Those then which refer al their actions to the said first cause we call Wise men according to the writings both of the Bible and also of the Heathen authors specially of the great Mercurie Plato and Cicero who affirme That the first point of wisedome is to know a mans selfe And by this knowledge a man shall perceiue wherat he ought to leuell himselfe and so he shall foresee the impediments that may hinder annoy him He then which hath not wisdome cannot discerne what is his or what is well or ill done neither can we know what is ours vnlesse we know our selues And he that knoweth not what is his is also ignorant what is another mans and consequently he is ignorant what belongeth to the commonweale and so shal he neuer be good housholder or good common-weales man because he knoweth not what he doth By reason wherof he shall walke on in error wandering and mistaking his marke so as he shall not atchieue any thing of value or if he doe yet shall he be but a wretch For no man can be happie or gouerne happily vnlesse he be good and wise because it is only he that discerneth good from euill Now if this saying may be verefied of al mē much more without comparison doth it agree to princes than to other men because they haue authoritie aboue all and to execute authoritie well it behoueth to haue Discretion and Wisedome For reason would that the wise should commaund the ignorant according to the saying of Ecclesiasticus That the free-borne shall serue the bondmen that are wise And as Dennis of Halicarnassus saith It is a law common to all that the better sort should commaund the worser It is they therefore to whom the said goodly precept is chiefly appointed to the end they should know the being and state of their soule the force and power wherof consisteth in wisdome whose ground is truth For it is the propertie of wisdome to discerne the truth of all things whereby the darknesse of ignorance is driuen out of our mind and light is giuen vnto vs. In this respect Iacob hauing gotten wisdome by trauel is said in Genesis to haue had the sight of God because that to the actiue life he had also ioyned the contemplatiue In so much that we may say that the wise man is the cleeresighted and hath iudgement reason to discerne good from euil that he may keepe himselfe from being deceiued For nothing is more contrarie to the grauitie of a wise man than error lightnes and rashnesse And although Wisdome and Discreetnesse doe well beseeme all men because it is the propertie of man to search the truth as who being partaker of reason gathereth the cōsequencies of things by considering their principall causes and proceedings yet notwithstanding Wisdome is an essentiall thing in princes and gouernors For nothing doth so firmly stablish a principalitie as a wise man who as saith Ecclesiasticus instructeth his people and the faithfull are the fruits of his vnderstanding The wise man shal be replenished with blessednesse and as many as see him shall commend him And in the third chapter of Salomons Prouerbs it is said That the purchace of Wisdome is more worth than all that euer a man can gaine by the trafficke of gold and siluer and all that euer man can wish is not comparable vnto hir For that very cause there was a writing in the foresaid temple of Delphos which commaunded men to honor Wisdome and iustice whom Hesiodus and Pindarus faigned to sit at Iupiters side Wherefore we may well say That Wisdomes is the mother of all good things and the tree of life that was in the earthlie Paradise as saith S. Austine in his thirteenth booke of the citie of God And to shew the excellencie therof yet more Ecclesiasticus saith That Wisdome is a greater aid and strength to a wise man than ten gouernors are to a country And therefore in the 16 of the Prouerbs it is said That Prophesie is in the lips of a king which thing is meant of a wise king After which maner he saith in another place that the delight of a king is in a wise seruant which is to be vnderstood of a good and wise king For commonly els such men are not welcome to princes But as Aesop saith either a man must please a king or els he must not come at him Bion was wont to say That Wisdome goeth before the other vertues as the sight goeth before the other sences and that without wisdome there is no vertue at all For how were it possible for the iust man to yeeld vnto euery man that which belongs to him if Wisdome had not taught him what is due to euery man Therfore afore wee enter into the morall vertues it is requisite by the way to speake a word of the contemplatiues namely of Wisdome and Discreation because that without contemplation ioyned with skill a man can doe nothing that is beautifull and good The Stoiks make no difference betweene these two vertues sauing that Wisdome consisteth in the knowledge of things belonging both to God and man and Discreetnesse consisteth only in things belonging to man For both of them be contemplatiue vertues proceeding from the mind and vnderstanding But yet one of them is meerely contemplatiue that is to wit Wisdome which after the opinion of antient Philosophers is occupied but in contemplation of the heauen the earth and the stars respecting nothing but such things as are euerlasting and vnchanged and because they be not subiect to any alteration man needeth not to scan of them And as Aristotle saith in his sixt booke of Morals It behooueth a wise man not only to vnderstand whatsoeuer may be gathered of principles but also to vnderstand the principles themselues truly and to speake truly of them And as a Geometrician scanneth not whether a triangle haue three angles made by the meeting and closing together of three right lines but holdeth it for an vndoubted certaintie so the contemplatiue vnderstanding doth not so much as dreame of any thing that admitteth any alteration neither is it subiect to consulting and deliberating But Discreetnesse which is cumbered with things vntrue erronious and troublesome and is to deale with casuall aduentures is driuen to consult of things doubtfull and after consultation to put it selfe in
action For as Cicero saith All vertue consisteth in action Concerning the which we will hold still the precept which he giueth vs in his books of Duties where he saith That whosoeuer will be wise must eschew two vices one is he must not vphold things vnknown as known and to eschew the falling into that vice he must spend time and labour in considering things aforehand For if a mans wit be not confirmed and fortified by reason he doth easily wauer and is easily driuen from the discourse wheron he was grounded at the first Therefore it behooueth that the resolution whereto he sticketh be firme and not subiect to alteration least he doe things afore he haue well considered and tried theÌ„ and so it befal him as doth to liquerous persons which oftentimes desire some meat with â—ouer-earnest appetit wherof wheÌ„ they haue once had their fil by by they be weary of it which thing happeneth to such as enterprise any thing lightly and without good aduisement aforehand But the choice that is grounded vpon sure knowledge and firme discourse of reason dooth neuer alter though the thing that was vndertaken come not to good end The other vice wherof Cicero maketh mention is that some men set all their studie vpon things difficult and needlesse after the maner of the ouer-profound wisdome of men in old time to the which wisdome Socrates would in no wise giue himselfe Therfore let vs omit that kind of wisdome as wherof we haue not to treat here and wherunto we cannot attaine For the former Philosophers gaue themselues the title of Wise men yet notwithstanding those that haue bin wiser than they would not take that title vnto them As Pithagoras who said He was but only a louer of wisdome And Socrates who confessed himselfe to know nothing By reason wherof he was accounted the wisest man of his time And neuer since was there any man so proud and presumptuous as to take that title vpon him As for vs that are Christians we ought to reiect it vtterly because the name of wisdome is attributed to the sonne of God and that God only is wise so that we agree with the philosophers That wisdome consisteth rather in heauenly things and in a certaine contemplation than in action And therfore letting it alone we will returne to the other contemplatiue vertue which is called Discreetnesse and commonly Wisdome also But that is an vnpropper kind of speaking whether we apply the tearme to matter of vnderstanding or to matter of art As for example when we say that Phidias was a wise ingrauer in so saying we intend to shew the vertue of the art because wisdome is the perfectest of all skils Which word Wisdome I shall be faine to vse sometimes because it is so vsed in our common speech not for the wisdome that searcheth things diuine wonderfull and hard to attaine vnto but for the vertue of deliberating which we call Discreetnesse wherewith we haue to deale in humane affaires For as Aristotle saith in his sixt booke of his Morals No man consulteth of things that are vnpossible and whose end is not the good that consisteth in action But Discreetnesse which the common sort call wisdome and consisteth chiefly in the choise of good from euil is not goten but by aduised deliberation wherthrough we refuse the euill and chuse the good Which thing cannot be done by a foole or by a harebraind person For as Salomon saith in his Prouerbs The foole hath no delight in Discreetnesse but in the imaginations of his owne heart Philâ— the Iew expounding the first chapter of Moses saith That by the knowledge of good and euill Discreation is to be vnderstood which discerneth and deemeth as a iudge betweene one thing and another Therefore let vs come to the definition of Discreetnesse the which Cicero in his Academiks calleth the Art of liuing and which we may say to be the way and path that leadeth to the morall vertues Aristotle saith that Discreetnesse is an habit matched with the very reason that is peculiar to action and discourseth what is good or euil And in another place he saith That it is the vertue of the reasonable part which prepareth the things that pertain to happinesse meaning the happinesse that coÌ„sisteth in the good estate of the soule and not in the outward euent of things For the well doing of things is the end of our actioÌ„s of our taking of theÌ„ in hand And therfore a good housholder whom we call a good husband a good coÌ„mon-weale man whom we call also a man that hath good skill in matters of state of whom the one hath an eye to the things that are good for himselfe and the other to the things that are good for the common-weale are esteemed wise and discreet when they performe their charge well There is yet another difference betweene a discreet man and a wel-aduised man For the man which aimeth at some certaine point and imployeth all his naturall wits to reach therunto if it be for an euill end is neuerthelesse accounted wel-aduised wheras to say more truly he is subtle and wilie and if it be for a good end and in a vertuous matter he is counted wise and discreet For as Aristotle saith in his Morals It is vnpossible for an euill man to be wise But he that in all thing seeth cleerely what is true and can by good iudgement and sharpenesse of wit conceiue the reason therof that man is reputed wise and therfore men seeke vnto him in all their affaires And as in sailing saith Socrates men beleeue the Pilot of the ship so ought we to beleeue the wisest in al the actions of our life For the Pilot guideth the ship by his discretion and as Homer saith in his Iliads One Wagoner outgoeth another by his aduisement It is not by the strength and lightsomnesse of body but by discreation and well-aduisednesse that men doe great things And as Horace saith in his Odes Force without discretion ouerthroweth it selfe For wisdome is better than strength saith Ecclesiasticus And Salomon saith in his Prouerbs that the wise man hath great strength for by discretion is warre made and by good counsell is victorie obtained Phocilides saith that a wise man is more worth than a strong man And Euripides saith That wise counsell is able to vanquish great hosts And therefore at Lacedemon the captaine that had compassed his matters by policie did sacrifice to their gods with an Oxe and he that had compassed them by force sacrificed a cocke For although they were a warlike people yet they deemed that exploit to be greater and more beseeming a man that was atchieued by good aduisement skill and reason than that which was executed by valeantnesse and force of arms And as Alamander the Sarzin said Those that are of most skill in warre how strong soeuer they be besides had leuer to intrap their
enemies by sleights and policies than to encounter them valiantly at the swords point And Blondus in his triumph at Rome saith That the chiefe of an armie should fight by discretion and policie rather than by boldnesse and valiancie because there is no comparison betweene wisdome and strength of bodie For he that thinks there is no good to be done but by hand-strokes is so farre off from being valiant that he is rather to be esteemed rash hare-braind and furious Cicero in his booke of inuention saith That there are of discreetnesse three parts Memorie Skill and Fore-cast Memorie whereby things past are called to mind againe Skill which knoweth and vieweth things present and Fore-cast which considereth what may happen afore it come Others doe set downe eight parts of discreetnesse to wit Remembrance Fore-cast Skil Reason Quickenesse of wit Teachablenesse Experience and Warinesse I count him a discreet man that is sufficient to gouerne others For the doing wherof foure things are to be considered first the good wherunto the discreet man leadeth others wherein it behoueth him to haue remembrance and fore-cast The maner of gouerning for the which it behooueth him to bee a man of skill and reason In his leading of other men he must haue cunning and liuelinesse of wit and he must be teachable and easie to beleeue good counsell And in respect of all those whome hee gouerneth he must be of good experience and wel-aduised that he may refuse the euill and chuse the good The contrarie to discreetnesse is vndiscreetnesse or wilfull ignorance when a man neither knoweth nor will learne to know any thing which is the thing that most troubleth the life of man and as Plato saith in his Lawes That man is ignorant which musliketh the good and loueth that which is noughtworth And when the will is bent against skil and reason which naturally beareth chiefe sway Discreetnesse then is a vertue of the mind proceeding from a good vnderstanding and iudgement which is encreased by knowledge and experience and consisteth in the looking into things to the end that men may find them easie and readie to be delt with afore they goe in hand with them foreseeing what may or should ensue by things already past And because the euents of things as saith Aristotle yeeld not themselues vnto our wils we must apply our wils to the euents howbeit so as our wils be ruled by discretion For mans life is like a game at tables where if a man meet with a cast of the dice that he would not haue he must amend it by his cunning in play as good table-players doe The effects of discreation are to take deliberation to discouer good and euill and whatsoeuer els is to be followed or shunned in this life to vse all maner of goods honestly to be of good conuersation with all men to foresee occasions and aduentures and to haue experience of good and profitable things As touching memorie and quicknesse of wit experience and knowledge either they be helps to discretion as experience and memorie or els they make a part of discretion as skill and quicknesse of wit Thus you see what wisdome is the which Aristotle speaking of the vertues doth rightly terme the queen of al other vertues as which sheweth vs the order that we ought to keepe in all things which driueth away all incumberance and feare out of our mind maketh vs to liue in tranquilitie and quencheth all the heat of lust and couetousnesse S. Iohn Chrysostome vpon the thirteenth Psalme calleth it the lanterne of the soule the queene of thoughts and the schoolemistresse of good and honest things It is a vertue royall in deed and the helme and helue of kings without the which they cannot gouerne well This is it that made kings at the beginning as I haue said heretofore and chose them out of the people as most discreet and worthie of all the multitude By wisdome men dispose of things present foresee things to come By it we bridle our affections purchase honour as Salomon saith in the fourth of the Prouerbs It maketh vs to gouerne orderly both in matters of peace and war and suffereth vs not to fall nor to be surprised vnawares It maketh vs to doe the good and to eschew the euill For Wisdome as Alexander of Aphrodyse saith is the skil what is to be done and what is to be left vndone Therefore only the wise man is worthy to gouerne And as Plato saith happie be those common-weales and kingdomes where Philosophers are kings or the kings be Philosophers For the wise man or Philosopher hath this prerogatiue aboue othermen that he liueth after the rule of vertue without musing vpon lawes because he vseth reason for his law as Antistâ—enes and Aristippus said insomuch that if all lawes were abolished yet would he not cease to liue vprightly as one that knoweth what is honest and what is vnhonest Aristotle being demaunded what profit he reaped of Philosophie answered That I doe those things vncommaunded which other men doe for feare of lawes For the law is not set downe for the righteous but for the vnrighteous saith S. Paul And therefore if he that raigneth be not wise his kingdome cannot be happie Cursed is that kingdome where a babe raigneth because the babe wanting the vse of reason cannot order his affaires with aduised Discretion Cirus was woont to say That no man ought to take vpon him the charge of commaunding vnlesse he were better than they whom hee is to commaund For he that is a good man and commaundeth well is commonly well obayed When one had said that Lacedemon had bin vpheld by the skilfulnesse of the kings to commaund well nay quoth Theopompus but rather by the skill of the inhabitants to obay wel For the coÌ„mandement of the prince the obedieÌ„ce of the subiects are answerable either to other For commonly men mislike to obay those which haue no skil to coÌ„maund wel Insomuch that the faithful obedieÌ„ce of the subiect dependeth vpon the sufficiencie of a good prince to commaund well For he that well guideth causeth himselfe to be well followed And like as the perfection of the art of riding and of the rider consisteth in making the horse obedient and in subduing him to reason euen so the principall effect of a kings skill is to teach his subiects to obay well Antonie the Meeke was a vertuous and wise emperor and so well aduised in all his doings that he neuer repented him of any thing that he did Wherat a Senator of Rome marueling asked him how it came to passe that his affaires had so good successe that he neuer repented him of any thing that he did that he was neuer denied any thing that he asked and that he neuer commaunded any thing which was not obayed It is quoth he because I make all my doings conformable to reason I demaund not any
an vnskilfull person neither misliked he of learned men but had Philosophers Lawyers and other men of good learning and knowledge neere about him And notwithstanding that he was well aduised and discreet yet in doing many things vpon his owne head he failed not to doe some whereof he repented afterward because the benefit of nature was not sufficiently kiltred by learning which is the thing wherein princes faile For if they bee not taught by the dumb scholemaisters that is to say by bookes they will hardly be taught by the liuely voice because the schoolemaister is afraid and dareth not compell them but letteth them doe what they list at their own discretion therefore they cannot learne so well as others that are vnder correction But the booke although it doe not speake vttereth what it listeth without either feare or blushing and giueth such warnings vnto Princes as their tutors durst not doe Therefore all their recourse ought to be vnto bookes as well to vnderstand the truth as to learne the historie wherein they shall see a thousand policies of warre infinit goodly sayings a thousand inconueniences that haue lighted vpon euil princes their grossenes their lewdnesse and their wickednesse On the contrarie part they shall take singular pleasure in reading the praises of good princes they shall see their wisedome vertue and good demeanor in matters both of peace and warre How they defended themselues froÌ„ their enemies how they wound themselues out of their hands what they did to maintaine their states and what got them their good reputation and made them to prosper in all things Which thing the valeantest captains could well skill to put in practise who not only haue helped themselues by learning in the managing of their affairs as Cicero and Lucullus who had small experience of warre Alexander the great Iulius Caesar and infinit other great captains but also haue set downe to themselues as it were in a looking-glasse some such personages as they haue liked to follow As for example Alexander setting Achilles before him for his patterne neuer slept without the Iliads of Homer vnder his pillow The paterne of Iulius Caesar was Alexander and Cirus was the pattern of Scipio who neuer went without a Xenophon no more did Alfons king of Arragon go without the Commentaries of Caesar nor the emperour Charles the fift without the Remembrances of Philip of Comines After whose example all noble-minded princes ought first to haue the histories of the holy Bible and besides them of the Heathen histories the liues of Traian Antonie the Meeke Alexander the Stern such others by whom they shal learne to order their life aright And to allure them the more vnto learning I will alleage the saying of Salomon in the xx chapter of his Prouerbs There is much gold and store of pearles but bookes of knowledge are the precious iewels By knowledge chambers are filled with all maner of costly and pleasant stuffe And as he sayth in another place The vvise mâ—n hath great might and the man of knovvledge hath great strength For by skill are vvarres made and vvhere many be that can giue councell there is victorie Cicero in his oration for Archias saith That learning is the teacher of vertue a delighter and refresher of vs vvhen vve be at home alone in our ovvne houses and a companion that cumbereth vs not vvhen vve goe abroad It trauelleth vvith vs it sleepeth vvith vs it is an ornament vnto vs in prosperitie and a helpe in aduersitie Many being in prison many being in captiuitie to their enemies many being in banishment haue borne their misfortune vvell by means of learning Diogenes was wont to say That learning made yong men sober comforted old men enriched poore men and made rich men glorious because learning restraineth the slippernesse of youth and supplieth the defects of old age Aristotle saith that the eies receiue light from the aire about them and the mind from the liberall sciences and that learning serueth for an ornament in prosperitie and for a refuge in aduersitie Aristippus was wont to say There is as great difference betweene the learned and vnlearned as is betweene the liuing and the dead Send them both quoth he into a strange countrie and you shall see what difference there is The which appeared well in Dennis who of the king of Sicilie became a schoolemaster at Corinth and might haue starued for hunger had it not bin for his learning The foresaid Philosopher Aristippus was wont to say That it was better to be a beggar than to be vnlearned because the beggar hath no need but of mony but the vnlearned hath need of humanitie as who would say that he which wanted knowledge was no man Socrates was wont to say That for war iron was better than gold and that for the life of man learning was better than riches At such time as Paulus Emileus was for to encounter with Perseus the last king of Macedonie that his armie was sore dismaid at the eclips of the moon which then happened Sulpicius Gallus incouraged them by his learning in that hee assured them of victorie by his knowledge in the Mathematicall sciences By the like knowledge Archimedes defended the citie of Syracuse from the force of Marcellus In this processe of learning I will not omit Eloquence which the men of old time termed the Queene of men as one which euen by force drue vnto her the affections of as many as shee spake vnto Plutarch in the life of Pericles saith that Eloquence is an Art that weeldeth mens minds at her pleasure and that her cheefe cunning is to know well how to mooue mens passions and affections to her lure which are as you would say the Tunes and sounds of the soule which is willing to be touched by the hand of a good musician And albeit that a good naturall disposition be very requisit to haue the toung at commandement yet will nature doe but small seruice if it be not polished by learning On the contrary part the man that is rude of speech by nature may become eloquent and well spoken in amending his euill disposition by learning I meane not that he shal becom as good as Demosthenes but that he may be able to make some breefe oration to the people or to men of war that shall be of force to persuade them as the braue captains of old times did Nestor is commended of Homer not only for his good skill and counsell but also for his Eloquence saying that the words issued from his lips as sweet as honie Notwithstanding that Pirrhus was one of the best captains of the world yet would he say that Cyneas had woon him mo cities by his eloquence than he himselfe had done by the sword Anon after the expulsing of the kings out of Rome there fel such debate between the senators and the common-people that the citie was like to haue gone to vtter
ruine by it But Agrippa pacified the whole matter by his eloquence and brought the people backe to obedience when they had alreadie banded themselues in companies Pisistratus handled the Athenians so cunningly with the finesse of his toung that he made himself king of Athens Such as were sent by Cinna to haue slaine Antonie the Orator were so surprised with his eloquence that when they heard him speake they had no mind at all to kill him The eloquence of Cicero caused the disanulling of the law for the diuiding of lands whereof the people of Rome had conceiued so great liking and which had bene so often propounded in so much that when they had heard him speake they vtterly abolished it for euer whereof Plinie maketh a wonder The like grace of speech enforced Iulius Caesar to pardon Ligarius whome he was resolutly determined to haue put to death To be short it is a thing of so great power that a prince who hath many vnder his charge can in no wise forbeare it And if he fortune not to be eloquent inough of himselfe it would behoue him to haue some good orator about him as Moses tooke Aaron to persuade the people and to preach vnto them because he found himselfe vnfit for that purpose For it is to no purpose for a man to haue goodly conceits vnlesse he put them forth For according to the saieng of Themistocles Eloquence is like a peece of tapistrie wrought with figures and imagerie which shew themselues when the cloth is vnfoldâ—d and are hidden when it is lapped vp together and euen so a man cannot shew the goodly conceits of his mind vnlesse hee haue eloquence to vtter them Cicero saiih in his Orator that by the eloquence and persuasion of such as could handle their toungs well the people that were scattered abroad in the wild fields and forrests were first brought into cities and townes It is of such force that it maketh the things to be beleeued that were incredible and smootheth things that were vnpolished And as the mind is the beautie of a man so is Eloquence the beautifier of the mind The same author in the second booke of the Nature of gods saith thus A beautiful and diuine thing soothly is Eloquence for it maketh vs to learne the things we know not and to teach the things we know by it we persuade and comfort the sorrowfull by it we encourage them that bee dismaied by it we strike them dead that are too lustie by it we pacifie the angrie and kill folks lusts that is it that hath drawne vs into fellowship into societie into cities to liue according to equitie and law Yet is it not inough to haue learning and eloquence vnlesse they bee also matched with experience Bias in his lawes would haue a Prince to be chosen of the age of fortie yeares to the end he should gouerne well by good discretion and experience For it is well known that neither Phisitions nor Generals of war be they neuer so well instructed with precepts can well discharge their duties without experience And as the emperor Adrian was wont to say in the generall ordering and managing of matters of State One yeares experience is better woorth than ten yeares learning And for that cause he preferred Antonie to the Empire before Marcus Aurelius as making more account of Antonies experience than of Marks lerning Agamemnon desired not so much to haue learned and eloquent men of his counsell as to haue such as Nestor was that is to say men of great experience Plutarke saieth that the wise and valeant captaine Philopemen presuming that his skill which he had in ordering a battel vpon the land would also serue him alike vpon the sea learned to his cost what sway experience beareth in matters of chiualrie and how great aduantage they haue in all things which are well experienced The skill how to gard and defend a mans selfe is not learned saieth Thucidides by talking but accustoming himselfe to pains-taking and to handling of his weapon One asked Zeuxidamus why the Lacedemonians had no lawes written because quoth he they should rather enure themselues to the doing of noble and honorable things than to read of them Panthoidas said the same to the Anthenians that asked him what he thought of the Philosophers which had disputed before him assuring them that they had spoken goodly things but to themselues vnprofitable whereby he meant to doe the Athenians to vnderstand that they had vertue in their mouths but not in their deeds The knowledge that is gotten serueth to the ordering of mens affairs but if it be without practise it is like a body without a soule Very vnwise therfore was he which by his sophistrie would haue made Iphicrates beleeue that the Philosopher is the onely good captaine And we may well say with Anaxippus that such discoursers doe shew themselues wise in words but in effect are starke fooles Now therefore we conclude with Aristotle that such as will deale in matters of state must aboue all things haue experience and this experience is gotten by practise and exercise which is the perfecter of Learning For we see that by exercise a weake man becommeth strong and doth better away with trauell than he that being strong doth not vse exercise as Socrates sayth in Xenophon Againe they that bee practised in all things deeme truly of duties and vnderstandeth what belongeth to euery man And as saith Musonius Vertue is a science that consisteth not only in vnderstanding but also in action For euen as in Phisicke or Musicke it is not sufficient to be skilfull of the art but there must also be a practise of the actions that depend vpon the art and science so in the science of Gouernment a prince must be practised in that which concerneth action rather than in that which concerneth contemplation Can he thinke himselfe to be of good skil which when he is to go in hand with his worke findeth it cleane contrarie to his imagination Surely as Terence sayth there was neuer yet any man so well aduised afore-hand in his determinations whome age experience haue not crossed with some strange encounter so as he hath found himselfe to seeke in the things wherein he thought himselfe most skilfull and when he came to the execution hath reiected that which he thought to bee best afore he began to go in hand with it And that is allegorically the very tree of the knowledge of good and euill after the opinion of S. Austen in his thirteenth booke of the citie of God For in matter of State it is very dangerous to take white for blacke and to thinke a mans selfe to know that which hee knoweth not Therefore it behooueth a prince to be a dealer in his owne affairs and to exercise his mind at times in reading of bookes without forgetting to exercise his body He must so counterpeise his mind and his body as
sayd battel of Cannas how happeneth it that you come not to the Romans still Thinke you that wee be so leawd and so vnthankfull that we vvill not reward the vertue of our good friends according to their vvorthinesse vvhich is honoured euen of our enemies And after hee had imbraced him in his armes he presented him vvith a goodly horse of seruice for the wars and gaue him fiue hundred dragmaes Whereupon from that day foorth he neuer forsooke Marcellus but became very loiall and a most earnest discouerer of such as tooke part against the Romans Frederike the emperour and king of Naples minding to punish the rebels of Samimato made countenance as though he had not espied their conspiracie terming them euerywhere good and loiall subiects to the end that despaire should not cause them to enter into arms against him openly as the lords of Naples that followed the part of Conradine had done against Charles duke of Aniou For when they saw that Conradine was ouercome and that there was no hope for them to obtaine pardon at the hands of Charles of Aniou they fel to rebelling and fortified themselues in diuers places Likewise when people are to far inraged it is no time to punnish but rather to reconcile and appease When the Parisians rebelled for the aids to put them in feare men began to throw some of the rebels into the water But in steed of dismaieng them they burst out into greater furie than afore in so much that the executioners were faine to giue ouer their punishment for feare of increasing the commotion in steed of appeasing it Agesilaus hauing discouered a very dangerous conspiracie did put some of the traitors to death secretly without arraignment or indictment contrarie to the lawes of Lacedemon For vnto people that are set vpon mischiefe not onely ouer-rigorous iustice but also biting words are dangerfull considering that in time of trouble and in time of commotion one word or one letter may doe more harme than a notable iniutie shall doe another time And euen so besell it to Macrinus for a letter which hee wrate vnto Mesa wherein he told him that he had bought the emperorship of a sort of couetous souldiers that had no consideration of deserts but onely who would most giue With which words the men of warre being chafed did all sweare that it should cost Macrinus his head in recompence of the wrong that he had done them And so it came to passe indeed We haue spoken sufficiently of the discretion meeldnesse and vprightnesse which a prince ought to haue in cases of iustice for the well and worthie executing thereof But for as much as it is vnpossible for a prince to attend at al times to the doing of iustice he must needs do iustice by deputies and set men of good and honest reputation in his place to do right betweene partie and partie when coÌ„trouersies rise betwixt them as Moses did by the counsell of his father in law Iethro In the chusing of whome a prince may as far ouershoot himselfe as if he iudged all causes without any foreconsideration For he that maketh not choise of good iudges dooth great wrong to the common-weale No importunat sute no earnest intreatance no gifts that could be giuen no fauour no familiaritie could euer cause Alexander Scuerus to bestow any office of iustice vpon any man whome he deemed not fit â—or it and vertuous in the administration of it Such therefore should be chosen as are of skill and of good life and they ought to haue good wages and not to take any other thing than their ordinarie stipend allowed them by the prince Traian vsed that kind of dealing of whom it is written that he could not abide that iudges should take any thing for their hire but that they should be recoÌ„pensed at his hand according to their seruice and good dealing Adrian likewise enquired of the life conuersation of the senators and when he had in truth found any that was vertuous poore he increased his intertainment and gaue him rewards of his owne priuat goods Contrariwise when he found any to be giuen to vice he neuer left vntill he had driuen him out of the senat Now then the prince that will haue good iudges yea and good officers of all sorts must either honor them and reward them or else punish them according to their deserts As touching the honoring of them Augustus hath shewed vs an example therof who at his entering into the senat-house saluted all the senators and at his going out would not suffer any of them to rise vp to him Alexander Seuerus did greatly honour the presidents of the prouinces causing theÌ„ to sit with him in his chariot that men might see the honour that he yeelded to the ministers of iustice and that he might the more conueniently talke with them concerning the rule and gouernment wherof they had the charge He neither made nor punished any senator without the aduice of the whole senat And vpon a time when he saw a freeman of his walking betweene two senators he sent one to buffet him saieng it was vnseemly that he should presume to meddle among senators which might well haue bin their seruant Likewise the Emperour Claudius neuer dealt in any affaire of importance but in the senat Euen Tiberius himselfe had great regard of them and saluted them whensoeuer he passed by them And as touching the rewarding of them the foresaid Alexander may serue for an example to good princes For he did great good to iudges and rewarded them bountifully And being asked on a time why he did so As a prince quoth he neither ought nor in reason can be truly called a prince except he minister iustice so be ye sure that when I find an officer which doth his dutie in that behalfe I cannot pay or recompence him sufficiently That is the cause why I doe them so many courtesies besides that in making them rich I bereaue them of al cause to impouerish other men But like as a good iudge cannot be too much recoÌ„pensed so an euill iudge cannot be too much punished We haue a notable example knowne to all men concerning the punishment of the iudge whom Cambyses made to be flaine quick and with his skin curried caused the seat of iudgement to bee couered and made the same iudges son to sit as iudge on it that in ministring iustice he should bethinke him of his fathers punishment Albeit that Antonine was very pittifull yet was he very rigorous to iudges that did not their dutie insomuch that wheras in other cases he pardoned eueÌ„ the greeuousest offences in this case he punnished euen the lightest There was also another thing in him right worthie of commeÌ„dation in the execuâ—ion of iustice namely that to auoid confusion he caused al such to be dispatched out of hand as had any sute in the court And when any office was void he would
So also did Marcellus cause barly to be deliuered in steed of wheat to the bands that first turned their backs vnto Hanniball Antonie tithed the Legions that had forsaken their trench at a sallie that was made vpon them by the Persians out of Phraata And vnto those also which remained of that tithing was barly giuen in steed of wheate for their food to liue by Licinius the consull being sent against Spaertaâ—us chiefe leader of the bondmen that had rebelled tythed to the number of a 4000 men and yet failed not for all that to obtain the victorie At such time as Timoleon was minded to giue battell to the Carthagineans who were ten to one ther were a thousand of his men that recoiled backe and would not fight wherof Timoleon was well apaid that they had bewraied themselues in good time because that else they had done him more harme than good But when he had once woone the field and was returned vnto Syracuse he banished them euerichone out of Sicilie with expresse commaundement that they should get them out of the citie before the sun went downe Lucullus laid a reprochfull infamie vpon such as had fled in a certaine skirmish against Mithridates causing them to dig a pit of twelue foot all vnapparelled in their shirts the rest of their company standing by to see them doe it Traian would not suffer any souldier to be put to death for any fault committed in war except it were for blaspheming God for treason for flying in battell for rauishing of women or for sleeping in the watch and in those cases he pardoned not any man whatsoeuer he were Albeit that Pirrhus was a stranger yet caused he the law of arms to be obserued straightly among the Tarentines and he punished those that failed Marius was a sore man in that behalfe but when he had once inured his souldiers to abstaine from offending and from disobaying then they found that his sternnesse in commaunding and his sharpnesse in punishing such as forgate their dutie was not only reasonable but also iust and wholesome The laws of the Switzers are such that such as slee and recoile in battell for feare and cowardlinesse shall be cut in peeces by their fellowes in the sight of the whole armie to the end that the greater feare should ouer-wey the lesser and that for dread of the violent death they should chuse the death that is honourable This caused the emperor Iulian in a certaine battell to slea ten of the first that fled away therby to compell the rest to turne againe vpon the enemie Captaine Franget was degraded from the order of knighthood proclaimed vnnoble both he and all his posteritie for yeelding Fontrabie to the Spaniards notwithstanding that he excused himselfe by a secret compact that Don Peter the sonne of the marshall of Nauar had made with the Spaniards because it was thought that although it were so yet he ought not to haue bin negligent in forseeing such coÌ„spiracie Auidius Cassius delt more cruelly thaÌ„ any others in executing the law of arms For he made all such to be crucified as had taken any thing from honest men in the selfe same place where the crime was coÌ„mitted Also he caused the arms legs to be cut off of al such as departed from the camp without pasport and he put them not to death saying that there was more exaÌ„ple to be seen in a miserable catif aliue than dead It happened vpon a time that a verie few of his men of war hauing discouered that the Sarmatians kept no good ward slew of theÌ„ to the nuÌ„ber of a three thousand And wheÌ„ his capteins sued for reward of their good exploit he made them to be al crucified saying it might haue happened that there had bin some ambush of enemies by that means the honor of the Roman empire might haue bin lost in doing wherof he followed the example of Torquatus the historie of whom is known well inough neuerthelesse in the one there was a breach of the prohibitioÌ„ but in this there was no such thing at all This crueltie was far differing froÌ„ the meeldnes of Scipio who said that a good generall of a field ought to deale like the good surgion which neuer vseth launcing but when all other remedies faile And as Plutarch saith in the coÌ„parison betweene Agis Gracchus It is not the propertie either of good surgion or of good gouernor of a state to set his haÌ„d to sword or launcer but only in extreame necessitie wheÌ„ there is no other remedie But to make a man of war obedieÌ„t refrain from doing wrong to any body he must be well paid And as Alexander Seuerus saith he must be wel apparelled well shod well armed well fed haue some mony in his purse For pouertie maketh men hartlesse The same thing was some cause that the soldiers of Macrinus rebelled against him For when they saw themselues so ill paid they fell to mutinie wherat Mesa taking occasion to lay hold of the opportunitie that was offered fell in hand with the men of war and by offering them to pay them of his owne treasures he made them so affectioned towards him that for his sake they set vp his little sonne Heliogabalus Iphicrates an Athenian captaine was content that his souldiers should be couetous amorous and voluptuous to the intent that they might hazard themselues the more boldly and aduenturously to all perils to haue wherewith to furnish their desires And Iulius Caesar would haue his souldiers faire and richly armed to the end they should fight valeantly for feare to loose them Finally to teach whatsoeuer belongs to a souldier to haue the epistle sufficeth which Dioclesian writeth thus to a certaine gouernour of a prouince If you will bee a Tribune saith he or rather if you intend to liue bring to passe that your souldiers meddle not with other mens goods that they take neither pullerie nor sheepe that they trample not downe other mens corne that they take not any mans oyle salt or wood vnpaid for that they find themselues of the booties of their enemies and not with the teares of your subiects that euery of them haue his armor neat and cleane that they be well shod and that they be well clad There is yet one rule more to be kept in the law of arms which is to keepe equalitie among men of war the which rule Adrian the emperor obserued very well and fitly For when he would haue any labour done in his campe all were put to the labour when any watching was al watched and he would not suffer any man to be exempted insomuch that he himselfe would be the formost among them Also there is consideration to be had in warfare how to make difference betweeen a camp and a garison For in a campe it is not amisse to take some respit that men may make merry so the time of feasting bee not ouer-long
too soft nor too rigorous inpunishing but as the cause deserueth For he must not affect the glorie of meeldnesse or of seueritie but when he hath wel considered the case he must doe iustice as the case requireth vsing mercie and gentlenesse in small matters and shewing seueritie of law in great crimes howbeit alwaies with some temperance of gentlenesse For as Theodorike was woont to say It is the propertie of a good and gracious prince not to be desirous to punish offences but to take them away least by punishing them too eagerly or by ouerpassing them too meeldly he be deemed vnaduised and carelesse of the execution of iustice S. Iohn Chrysostome saith That iustice without mercie is not iustice but crueltie and that mercie without iustice is not mercie but folly And to my seeming Suetonius hath no great likelihood of reason to commend Augustus for mercifull in that to saue a manifest parricide from casting into the water in a sacke as was wont to be done to such as had confessed themselues guiltie of that fault he asked him after this maner I beleeue thou hast not murthered thy father For he that iustifieth the wicked and hee that condemneth the guiltlesse are both of them abhominable to the Lord saith Salomon in his Prouerbs And aboue all things as saith Cicero in his booke of Duties he must beware that the punishment be not too great for the offence and that where many bee partakers of one crime one be not sore punished and another sleightly passed ouer CHAP. IIII. That a prince ought to be liberall and to shun niggardship and prodigalitie THus much in few words concerning iustice the which Cicero diuideth into two namely into that which is tearmed by the generall name of Righteousnesse into that which is tearmed Liberalitie accordingly as the holy scripture doth ordinarily take righteousnesse for the liberalitie that is vsed towards the needie the which we call Alms or Charitie He hath dispersed giuen vnto the poore saith the Psalmist and his righteousnesse endureth for euer that is to say He will continue still to shew himselfe righteous and he shall haue wherin to execute his liberalitie all the daies of his life And S. Paule in his second Epistle to the Corinthians prayeth God to encrease the reuenues of their righteousnesse that is to say of their liberalitie or bounteousnesse And in the one and twentith of the Prouerbs He that followeth righteousnesse and mercie saith Salomon He that is kind-hearted and pitifull to the poore shall find life righteousnesse and glorie And in the same place The righteous giueth saith he and spareth not Now therfore I must speake more particularly of the distributiue righteousnesse which is called Liberalitie and is as it were the meane betwixt niggardlinesse and prodigalitie a vertue well-beseeming a rich man For as saith Plato He that hath store of goods if he make others partakers with him is to be honoured as a great man but specially it most beseemeth a prince as who is better able to put it in vse than any priuat persons For Liberalitie vndoeth liberalitie because that the more a man vseth it the more he abateth his abilitie of vsing it towards many A king who hath great reuenues may honourably vse it in his life without abating the meane to doe good to such as deserue it Therefore Plutarch in his booke of the Fortunatnesse and vertue of Alexander saith That as the fruits of the earth grow faire by the temperatnesse of the aire euen so good wits are furthered by the liberalitie honourable countenaunce and courtesie of a king and that on the contrarie part they droope and decay through his niggardship displeasure and hard-dealing For the very dutie of a king said Agesilaus is to doe good vnto many Ptolomaeus Lagus said It was a more goodly and princely thing to enrich other men than to enrich himselfe according to S. Paules saying That it is better to giue than to take And Fabricius had leuer to haue at commaundement men that were well monied than the monie it selfe Dennis the tyrant of Siracuse offered presents to the ambassadours of Corinth the which they refused saying That the law of their countrie forbad them to take ought of any prince whatsoeuer Wherevnto hee answered Surelie yee doe amisse O yee Corinthians in that yee bereaue princes of the best thing that they haue For there is not any other meane to take away the misliking of so great a power than by courtesie and liberalitie Alexander was woont to say That there was not a better hoording vp of treasure than in the purses of his friends because they will yeeld it him againe whensoeuer hee needeth it Now then this vertue doth maruellously well beseeme a prince because he hath wherwith to put it in vre and yet neuerthelesse it ceasseth not to be in the mind of a poore man also For a man is not to be deemed liberall for his great gifts but for the will that he hath to do good For a poore man may be more liberall than a rich although he giue far lesse without comparison than the rich because liberalitie like as all other vertues proceedeth chiefly from the disposition or inclination that a man hath to giue As for example the poore widow that did put the two mites into the offering box was esteemed to haue giuen more than al the rich men though the thing she gaue was nothing in cōparison of the gifts of other men For liberalitie consisteth not in the greatnes of the gifts but in the maner of the giuing And he is liberall which giueth according to his abilitie vnto good men and vpon good causes This vertue represseth nigardship and moderateth prodigalitie causing a man to vse his goods and his money aright The meane to vse these well consisteth in three points The first is in taking a mans owne money where he ought to take it and hereunto maketh the good husbanding of him that spareth his reuenue to spend it to good purpose For he that hath not wherewith to maintain his expenses doth amisse in making large expenses at other mens cost and he that hath it doth amisse if he spend it not because there is not any thing that winneth a prince so much the fauor of his people as liberalitie doth Dennis the tyrant intēding to try his son furnished him with much costly stuffe iewels and vessell both of gold and siluer of great price And when long time after he had espied that the plate remained with him still he taunted him saieng that he had not a princely hart sith he had not made him friends with his plate hauing such abundāce for he was of opinion that such gifts would haue gotten his son good will at all mens hands For as Salomon saith in the xix of the prouerbs euery man is a friend to the man that giueth And in the chapter going afore he saith That a mans
his sweet sleepe through feare or hope For the affectionat minding of riches saith Ecclesâ—asticus pineth the flesh and the carke therof bereaueth a man of sleepe The same Horace writing to Crispus Salustius saith That that man is rich not which is a great king but which hath his lusts in subiection and that the thirst of him which is diseased with the dropsie is not to be stanched but by drawing the waterie humor out of the veins and by remouing the cause out of the disease Here by it is easie to decide the other question namely By what means a man may become rich For Socrates teacheth it in one word saying Ye shal easily become rich if you impouerish your lusts and desire Epicurus said That he that will make a man rich must not increase his goods but diminish his lusts For there is no riches so great as contentment And therfore the Philosopher Crates beholding how folke did buy and sell in the market said These folke are counted happie because they doe things contrarie one to another and I thinke my selfe happie that I haue rid my hands of buying and selling The true way then to become rich is to couet nought and to be vnmindfull of gaine specially of vnhonest gaine for that is no better than losse as saith Hesiodus For like as the liberall man is loued of all men according to this saying of Salomon in the nineteenth of his Prouerbs Euery man is a friend to him that giueth so the couetous person is hated of all men For the one helpeth the poore with his goods the other is loth to giue any thing In this respect Socrates said that a man must not require either talke to a dead man or a good turne of a nigard But there is nothing so royall and princely as to doe good vnto many as saith Cicero in his booke of Duties And it is found that there is more pleasure in giuing than in taking as saith S. Paul and also Hesiodus in his booke of Works and Daies And Ecclesiasticus saith Let not thy hand be open to receiue and shut to giue Dauid esteemeth him happie that lendeth and hath pitie of the poore saying That he shall euer haue wherwith to doe good without failing but he that stoppeth his eares at the cry of the needie shall crie himselfe and not be heard The same doth Salomon also say in the xxj of the Prouerbs And the Psalmist saith thus I haue bin young and now am old yet saw I neuer the righteous man forsaken nor his seed driuen to begge their bread but hee is still giuing lending and releeuing and his of-spring is seene to grow in good fortune and foyzon On the contrarie part The vnrighteous shall be driuen for verie hunger to borrow and not be able to pay but the righteous shall haue wherwith to shew their burning charitie Virgil in his sixth booke of Aenaeas putteth those persons in hell which haue done no good to their friends kins-folke and neighbours but haue bin wholly wedded to their riches without imparting them to other folks Acheius king of Elis was slaine by his owne subiects for couetousnes for his ouer-charging them with impositions Ochus king of Persia was blamed for that by reason of couetousnes he would neuer go into the country of Persland because that by the law of the realme he was bound to giue to euery woman that had born children one French crowne and to euerie woman with child two The only vice that Vespasian had was that he was extreamly couetous deuised many taxes moreouer bought things to sell theÌ„ again dealing more neerly for gain than a poore man would haue done which was great pitie for this emperors other vertues were defaced by that vice wherof princes ought to be wel ware For as Plutarch saith neuer shall any ciuil matter proceed wel without iustice without refraining from the lust desire of getting Hereby we see that as liberalitie is called iustice so couetousnes is nothing els but vniustice the which Bion the Sophist termed the principall towne of all vngratiousnes And Timon said That couetousnes ambitioÌ„ are the grounds of al mischiefe S. Paul in his first Epistle to Timothie calleth it The root of all euill saith That such as are wedded to it are falne from the faith Whosoeuer hath an ambitious or a couetous mind saith Euripides sauoreth not of any iust thing neither desireth he it and moreouer he is cumbersome to his friends and the whole citie where he dwelleth I am of opinion saith the same Euripides in his Heraclides that the righteous man is borne â—o the benefit of his neighbour but as for him that hath his heart turned away vnto gain he is vprofitable to his friends and hard to be delt with Salomon is the 15 of his Prouerbs saith That he which is giueÌ„ to couetousnes troubleth his own house but he that hateth gifts shall liue for gifts do blind the wise And in the 29 he saith That vnder a good king the land shall â—lourish but vnder a king that is couetous or loueth impositions it shall soon be destroied And in the xxiij againe he saith Labor not to be rich neither cast thine eies vpon the riches which thou caÌ„st not haue For they make theÌ„selues wings like eagles and flie vp into the aire that is to say they vanish away Againe in the xxviij he saith The faithfull man shall haue aboundance of blessings but he that hasteth to be rich shall not be guiltlesse neither knoweth he what want shall befall him The oracle of Apollo had foretold that Sparta should not perish but by couetousnesse and so it came to passe In like maner befell it to the citie of Athens For about the end of the wars of Peloponnesus Amintas began to corrupt the iudges with bribes and thence foorth they neuer prospered No other thing was the ruine of Rome Which thing Iugurth perceiuing who had bribed a great part of the senat with his monie said this O faire citie set to sale if a chapman were to be found for thee Plutarch in the life of Coriolane saith That after that bribes began once to preuaile in the election of officers it passed from hand to hand euen to the senators and iudges and from the iudges to the men of war insomuch that in the end it caused the common-weale to be reduced to a Monarchie and brought euen the men of arms themselues in subiection to monie so as the Pretorian souldiers sold the empire to them that paid faire gold for it and proceeded so far as to set it to open sale by the drum to him that offered most and was the last chapman CHAP. V. That Gentlenesse and Courtesie be needfull in the ordering of affairs the contraries whereunto be sternnesse and roughnesse OF Liberalitie proceedeth courtesie and Gentlenesse or rather Liberalitie proceedeth of kind-heartednesse and good will for as saith S. Paul in
the second Epistle to the Corinthians Readie good will goeth afore liberalitie Therupon it commeth that ordinarilie the liberall man is kind-hearted and gentle so as Liberalitie Kindnesse Affabilitie and Gentlenes resemble either other and may al be reduced vnder the name of Charitie which coÌ„prehendeth them all and much more the which S. Paule hath so discribed in the first Epistle to the Corinthians that a man cannot tell how to adde more vnto it saying Charitie is patient meeld and gentle she seeketh not hir owne she enuieth not she dealeth not frowardly she imagineth no euill and so foorth Now then wee call kindnesse a certaine good will and loue towards men and a certaine naturall goodnesse which extendeth it selfe further than vprightnesse because nature teacheth vs to vse vprightnesse and iust-dealing towards men only but kindnesse and good-will sometimes euen to the brute beasts in cherishing them when they be tired forworne and broken with trauell and labour in our seruice which doing proceedeth from the fountaine of gentlenesse and kindnesse which neuer ought to drie vp in a man And therfore Salomon in the fourteenth of his Prouerbs saith That he which disdaineth his neighbour sinneth but he that pitieth the afflicted is happie And Dauid Blessed is he that considereth the poore in his need or which hath a care of them which are in distresse for surely God will relieue him when he is in distresse We call that man gentle and courteous which behaueth himselfe familiarly towards all men and is easie to be spoken to as were the emperor Titus Philip king of Macedonia Scipio and many others for ordinarilie he that is kind-hearted that is to say which hath a care of his neighbor and is willing to do him good must yeeld him his eare as well as his purse specially seeing that of both it is the lesse to his owne cost There be fiue sorts of kindnesse or gentlenesse The first is that which we terme by the generall name of kindnesse which is a certaine meeld charitable and louing disposition of mind towards men as when a man pitieth the poore the oppressed or the needie and generally when a man behaueth himselfe courteously towards all men be they poore or rich according to the example of our Maker who delighteth to be among the children of men to doe them good The second sort of kindnesse may be called Familiaritie or familiarnesse For there be that are kind-hearted and ready enough to do good to euery man and yet notwithstaÌ„ding they haue a certain natiue â—ullennesse that barreth men froÌ„ hauing accesse to them But they that are gentle in all points are also meeld and easie to be delt with persuading themselues that the way to doe men good is to heare their requests And they that haue intended to shew themselues yet more kind and courteous haue gone further as Alexander Seuerus did who blamed his good seruants for that they required not recompence at his hand Some other princes to draw men the more vnto them haue called men by their names For it doth the subiect good when he seeth that his prince knoweth him because he gathereth therby that his prince loueth him And for that cause did Cirus cal al his men of war by their names howbeit that was a thing that could not be done without a diuine memorie And to the same purpose I will not omit Scipioes answere to a certaine Romane which vaunted that he could call mo men by their names than Scipio could You say true quoth Scipio for my studie hath not bin to know many but to be knowne of all The third sort of kindnesse consisteth in Clemencie that is to say in forgiuing offences or in making light of them which thing God hath commaunded vs in the fift chapter of saint Matâ—eâ— and in the xxv of the Prouerbs If thine enemie hungar saith he giue him bread to eat and if he thirst giue him water to drinke for so shalt thou heap coales vpon his head and God will pay it thee againe But let vs leaue the handling of this point to Diuines and take vs againe to the examples of the heathen It was asked to Cleomenes king of Sparta What a good king ought to doe To his enemies quoth hee all euill and to his friends none at all Then Aristo replying Nâ—y sir quoth he how much more beautifull and coÌ„mendable a thing is it to doe good to his friends and of his enemies to make friends Wherof the prince reapeth such profit that he maketh himselfe beloued of all men And therfore Traian said vnto a freind of his That the thing which made him better beloued than his predecessors was that he did easily pardon such as had offended him Agesilaus by his good doing made those that were his enemies to become his friends Augustus made one his seruant that would haue killed him Lewis the eleuenth assaied by all means to draw those to his seruice that had bin his enemies if he knew them to be men of seruice but he was moued therto more for the profit that he hoped for by their seruice than of any meeld disposition of nature Iulius Caesar being worthilie commended for his clemencie and mercie was no sooner reconciled to any enemies of his but he would by and by vse them as friends insomuch that he would euen set them at his owne table the same day While Bibulus was in Aegypt a certaine man killed two of his children by mischance wherof Cleopatra being aduertised sent him the two offenders with a couple of hangmen to take such punishment of them as he listed but he would not touch them but sent them backe againe saying That the punishing therof belonged not to him but to the people of Rome When Philip king of Macedonia had lost one of his eies at the siege of Modon he became neuer the more rigorous to his enemies for it but receiued them to mercie vpon reasonable conditions King Francis the first being dangerously wounded in the head with the stroke of a firebrand would in no wise be informed who it was that threw it at him saying That seeing he had committed follie it was good reason he should tast his part therof The fourth sort of kindnesse may be called Mercie when such as haue offended you doe crie you mercie For it is Gods will that we should haue pitie vpon them that submit themselues to our mercie and that as the earle of Derbie was wont to say He that crieth mercie should mercie haue Plato saith That the greatest sin which we can commit is to vse outrage towards them that humble themselues to vs and that he which doth such folk euill shall neuer go vnpunished The fift kind of kindnesse is Meeldnesse and Moderation as when a prince hauing ouercome his enemies doth vse them gently For such dealing serueth to win the hearts both of subiects and of enemies When Alexander saw Darius dead he fell not to
against the Parthians Which thing Crassus fearing praied Pompey to accompanie him When the people saw Pompey comming before him with a smiling countenance and amiable looke they were altogether appeased and opened themselues to make way for him to passe Yet notwithstanding hee could not alwaies hold his natiue gentlenesse of his for the honourable offices of great charge which he had made him often-times too graue In so much that Crassus by behauing himselfe lowly and courteously and by admitting men easily to his speech doing pleasure with good will to as many as sought it defending his friends in places of iudgement lending monie to such as stood in need and assisting and furthering such as sued for offices made himselfe in the end more acceptable than Pompey who towards the end of his life altering his naturall gentlenesse into a certaine sâ—ueritie became more difficult to bee spoken to and did lesse for his friends And although Crassus had not the like authoritie and reputation yet notwithstanding he obtained his sutes and most commonly preuailed against Pompey Pyrrhus is highly commended for his gentlenesse and familiaritie with his houshold folke and friends Plutarch saith of him in his life that hee had woon the good fauour of the people of Sicilie by speaking more graciously than any other had done and that afterward when he fell to be rigorous and sharpe he soone lost the realme of Sicilie As soone as he went about to compell the Tarentines to the discipline of warre by and by he lost their hearts Cimon by his gracious speeches and by his gentle harkening to the Greeks recouered the principalitie of Greece out of the hands of the Lacedemonians Contrariwise Lisander king of Lacedemon by his hard dealing caused the confederats of Greeks to depart from the Lacedemonians and to allie themselues with the Athenians Plutarch reporteth that the gentlenesse of Quintus Flaminius was the cause that the Greeks submitted themselues to the Romans for had he not bene meeld gentle tractable vsing reason rather than force Greece would neuer haue submitted it selfe to the dominion of the Romans Totilas hauing many prisoners of the Roman campe handled them so courteously and with so good entertainment that many of them did put themselues in his pay for the courtesies sake which they knew to be in him Demetrius did a deed of great courtesie to the Athenians when they had rebelled against him for when he had ouercome them he gaue them a great quantitie of corne whereof they had then need and in his offering it vnto them committed a solicisme wherof being reproued by one of theÌ„ he said that for that correcting of his speech he would giue the people as much corn more shewing therin his goodnes toward the vanquished and his gentlenes and meeldnes towards his corrector Paulus Iouius speaking of Lewis Sforcia who of a gouernour vngraciously made himselfe duke of Millan saith he was very courteous which thing wan him the good wil of the people and redie to admit such to his presence hearing as sought it at his hand He saith as much of Lawrence Medicis who could well skill to win the hearts of the Florentines by gracious speeches courtesie and meeldnesse And likewise of the Marquis of Mantua who appeased a mutinie that was betweene the Italians and the Almans For the Almans regarded him for his gentlenesse because hee kept company with the meane souldiers in vncredible familiaritie and yet notwithstanding held his honour as generall of the host Bellisarius was beloued of all men for his gentlenesse because the poore as well as the rich had accesse vnto him and he imparted himselfe equally to all men The Cardinall of Medices who afterward was Pope Leo by giuing courteous intertainment vnto all the Florentines that had to doe at Rome and by admitting them fauorably to his speech made the Florentines to forget the hatred which they had borne vnto his brother Peter and so by conforming himselfe in qualities agreeable to his citizens opened the passage for his familie to enter into the citie of Florence The constable of France vsing the like fashion at the campe before Auinion and talking by the way eft with one and eft with another did by that means draw to obedience a troupe newly assembled of sundrie and diuerse nations Fabius was wont to say That he maruelled that men delt better with horses hounds and other beasts in taming them by gentlenesse than with men for euen by faire and gentle means are froward men also to be woon and tamed And we ought not to be more hard-harted towards them than husbandmen are towards wild vines who doe not cut them vp for their harshnesse but doe make them become sweet by grassing them And euen so must euill men be by benefits appeased and good men by the same means be maintained Cleomenes said That the pampering of men with monie was grosse void of policie and full of vniustice and that to his seeming the most honourable and the most royall means was to allure them by courtesie of delightful entertainment and communication wherin both grace and faithfulnesse went matched togither For he was of opinion that there was none other difference betweene a friend and an hireling but that the friend is gotten and kept by gentlenes of nature and good vsage and the hireling is caught by mony Herevnto we may ad that which Plutarch saith in the life of Artaxerxes namely That the tyrant which is most coward is most cruel and thirstie of blood And contrariwise there is no man more gentle and kindhearted or lesse suspicious than the valiant and hardie man And therfore the beasts that are not to be tamed are commonly cowards and fearfull wheras on the contrary part those that be noble and full of courage doe thinke themselues sure and acquaint themselues with man because they be void of feare and refuse not the allurements and familiar vsages which man proffereth vnto them Euen so when princes yeeld themselues gentle to their subiects their subiects also by that means become meeke towards them in hope that their king will hearken to them whensoeuer they request it And that kind of demeanour is oftentimes a cause that the courtiers keepe themselues in right mind for feare least they should be complained of to the prince if they doe amisse And the princes that deale otherwise are subiect to this saying of Dioclesian the emperour That onely the emperour knoweth that which he should not know and is ignorant of that which hee should know because there are three or foure about him which keepe him from knowing the truth But to eschew the falling into this inconuenience Antonie the meeke one of the best emperors that euer was gaue easie accesse vnto his presence and willed that his pallace gates should be open euery day to all such as listed to come in to craue iustice of the emperor as I haue said alreadie in the title
in all other things it is most pestilent and deadlie in the ambition of those that put themselues in the managing of publike affaires We see how Alexanders ambitioÌ„ wrought the ruine of all Asia for one Alexander that made profit of his ambition howbeit with the losse of his reputation among all good men infinit numbers were brought to ruine as Pompey Caesar Crassus Mariw and others innumerable Pâ—â—rhus might haue bin a great prince if he had not bin too ambitious and it had bin better for him to haue credited the counsell of inâ—as who being desirous to haue diuerted him from his voiage into Italic asked him to what purpose that so far voiage shuld serue him for the getting of one citie Whervnto he answered That froÌ„ Tarent he would go to Rome And when you haue taken Rome quoth Ciâ—â—as what will you doe then We will goe to Sicilie answered Pirrhus And when we haue done with Sicilie whether shall wee then Wee will to Carthage said Pirrhus And when Carthage is become yours what will you doe then I will make my selfe quoth he lord of all Greece And when we haue done al this what shal we do afterward TheÌ„ wil we rest our selues qd Pirrhus make good cheer And what letteth quoth Cineas that we should not fal presently to this making of good cheere sith we haue inough wherwith to do it Princes therfore must not only beware of ambition but also withdraw themselues from all ambitious persons For they be neuer satisfied And as Plutarch saith in the life of Silla Pride and ambition are two vices that neuer wex old and are very daungerous to a state like as it is daungerous to saile in a ship where the pilots be at strife who shall gouerne it Ambitions is neuer without quarrelling for euerie man fals to heauing at other and seeks to take his fellowes place As for example Pompey to take Lucullussis Marius to take Metellussis and Silla to heaue out Marius vntill in the end they brought the state to ruine As for Enuie no doubt but it proceedeth of pride as Alexander shewed very well who would needs be the perfectest of all men and was sorâ—e that his father did so many goodly exploits esteeming it as a bereauing him of occasion to purchase himselfe reputation Hee would not that Aristoâ—le should publish the books that he had taught him to the end that he himselfe might passe all others in skill and in feats of war Now as pride is the first and greatest sinne so also commonly it seeketh not any other than the most excellent things be it in vertue in prosperitie in riches or in dignitie And therfore Salust said That pride is the ordinary vice of nobilitie and Claudian That it cometh ordinarily in prosperitie For aduersitie pouertie and sickenesse do light he cut off the occasions of arrogancie and there is nothing worse than a poore maÌ„ that is proud as Salomon saith in his Prouerbs Darius the father of Xerxes said That aduersities and troubles make a man the wiser Antigonus seeing himselfe sicklie commended his sickenesse saying that it had done him great good by teaching him not to aduance himselfe aboue measure considering his infirmitie It is no small benefit when a small disease driueth away a great And therfore Dauid boasteth in the 119 Psalme That God had done him a great good â—â—ne in bringing him low And a little after Afore I was afflicted saith he I went astray but now I keepe thy word now lord I acknowledge that thy iudgements are iust that thou hast humbled me of very loue that is to say thou hast afflicted me to a good end And in the 131 Psalm Lord I 〈◊〉 not high-minded I haue no lostie looks I haue not delt in thingâ— that are greater and more wonderfull than becoÌ„meth me Secondly the vertuous and wise are more assailed with pride than are the vicious and the painfull more than the idle And therfore S. Pâ—ule said That God had giuen him an angel of Satans to bullet him least he shuld be puffed vp with his reuelations For the mischiefe of pride comes of ouerfulnesse And as S. Iohn Chrisostome saith in his homilie of Humilitie Like as too much eating ingendreth an inflammation of humors in our bodies which inflammation breedeth the ague and of the ague often commeth death euen so is it with pride which commeth not but of too much ease too much welfare The same author in the same place saith That other vices steale vpon vs when we be idle and negligent but this vice presseth assaulteth vs wheÌ„ we be doing good And like as they that intend to goe vpon a cord doe by and by fall and breake their neckes it their sight goe astray neuer so little so they that walke in this life doe cast themselues downe headlong out of hand if they take not great heed to themselues For the way of this cord is without all comparison far more narrow streight out than the other for so much as it mounteth vp vnto heauen and therfore it is the more danger to slip or to misse footing because the feare is woonderfull to them that are mounted so high whereof there is but onely one remedie which is neuer to looke downeward for feare of dazeling Hee maketh yet one other goodlie similitude saying That like as Sea-rouers passe not to assaile merchants when they set out of the hauen to fetch merchandise but when they come loaden home so when the mischieuous enemie seeth our ship full of precious sâ—ones of all sorts of godlinesse then doth he bend all his force to light vs of our treasure to sinke vs in the hauens mouth and to leaue vs starke naked vpon the strond And as saith S. Ambrose in his epistle which he writeth to the virgin Demetrias Satan watcheth to cast in a collup of pride in place of our deuotion And hee findeth not a better occasion to tempt vs than by our vertues which are the cause why we be of good right commended After that maner befell it to Osias king of Iuda a good man for in the end his heart was puffed vp and he would needs offer sacrifice to God whervpon ensued that he was by and by punished with a leprosie Through pride ouerweening Dathan Coree and Abiron moued sedition against Moses and would needs be equall with him but the earth swallowed them vp quicke Herod taking pleasure in the flatterie of the people which said That his words were the voice of God and not of man was eaten vp of lice so odious is that vice vnto God Thereof it commeth that it is said not that God forsaketh the proud but that he resisteth them to shew that he will fight against them with his power so greatly doth he abhorre that vice according to this saying of the Psalmist Thou didst cast them downe when they aduanced themselues Virgill seemeth to approch hereunto when he saith
altogether vnsetled in his countenance and in all his gestures and mouings The presumptuous opinion that Pompey had of himselfe surmoâ—â—ted the reach of his reason by means wherof forgetting the heed that hee was wont to take in standing vpon his 〈◊〉 whereby he had alwaies assuâ—ed his prosperitie afoâ—â— hee changed it into rash and bold brauerie Gaulter Brenne hauing conquered the greatest part of the kingdome of Naples and holding Diepold an Almane besieged within Sarne happened to be taken in a salie that Diepold made out vpon a desperate aduenture and being prisoner was vsed courteously by Diepold Who hauing caused him to thinke vpon the curing of his wounds would haue sent him home againe and haue put the kingdome into his hands But Gaulter hauing too lordly a heart answered that there was not so great a benefit nor so great an honour that he would receiue at the hands of so base a person as he was with which words Diepold being prouoked to wrath threatned him that he should repent it Whervpon Gaulter fell into such a furie that he opened his wounds drew his bowels out of his bellie and within foure daies after died for very moode Had hee beene lowlie-minded his imprisonment had profited him and he had gotten a faithfull seruitor of Diepold who would haue made the kingdome of Naples sure vnto him wheras now through his passing pride he lost both kingdome and life Alfons of Arragon dealt not so for when he was prisoner he did so much by his gentlenesse and humilitie that he made his enemies to loue him and practised with them in such sort that they helped him to win the realme of Naples Taxilles gained more at Alexanders hand by his humilitie than hee could haue conquered in all his life with all his forces and men of arms And yet notwithstanding his humbling of himselfe vnto Alexander was after a braue and princelie maner somoning him to the combat with such words as these If you be a lesser lord than I suffer me to doe you good If you be a greater lord that I doe by me as I do by you Well then qd Alexander we must come to the encounter and see who shal win his companion to do him good and therwithal imbracing him in his arms with all gentlenesse and courtesie in steed of taking his kingdome from him as he had done from others he increased his dominion Herod by humbling himselfe before Augustus saued and increased his kingdome Plutarch saith That Pirrhus could verie well skill to humble himselfe towards great men and that his so doing helped him verie much to the conquest of his kingdome Lois the eleuenth king of France led the countie of Charrolois with so sweete and lowly words that he got the thing by humilitie which he could neuer haue obtained otherwise and by that means wound himselfe from all his enemies and setled his state in rest and tranquilitie which had bin in great hazard if he had vsed brauery towards him The lowlines of Aristides did maruellous great seruice to the obtainment of the victorie which the Greeks had of the Persians at such time as he agreed to the opinion of Miltiades and willingly yeelded him the soueraigne authority of commanding the armie For there were many captaines which had euery man his day to command the whole armie as generals but when it came to Aristides turne he yeelded his preheminence into the hands of Miltiades thereby teaching his other companions that to submit a mans selfe to the wisest and to obay them is not only not reprochfull but also wholesome and honorable after whose example all the rest submitted themselues to Miltiades likewise I told you in the chapter going afore how he submitted himselfe to Themistocles his enemie for the profit of Greece And I wil say yet further of him that beeing sent with Cimon to make war against the Persians both of them bahaued themselues gently and graciously toward the Greeks that were their allies on the other side Pausanias and the rest of the captains of Lacedemon which had the soueraine charge of the whole armie were rough and rigorus to the confederate people In doing wherof he bereft the Lacedemonians by little and little of the principalitie of Greece not by force of arms but by good discretion and wise demeanor For as the goodnes of Aristides and the gentlenes and meekenes of Cimon made the gouernment of the Athenians well liked of the other nations of Greece so the couetousnes arrogancie and pride of Pausanias made it to be the more desired S. Iohn Chrisostom saith in his nine and thirtith homilie That honor is not to be had but by flying from it For iâ— we seeke after it it fleeth from vs and when we flee from it it followeth vs. And as Salomâ—n saith in the xviij of the Prouerbs The heart is puffed vp against a fall and lowlines goeth afore glory Not without great reason therfore is pride esteemed the greatest of all vices and humilitie set formost among all the vertues And as S. Austin saith in his thirteenth booke of the citie of God For as much as the gloriâ—ieng and exalting of a mans selfe refuseth to be subiect vnto God it falleth away from him aboue whom there is not any thing higher but humilitie maketh a man subiect to his superior Now there is nothing higher than God and therfore humilitie exalteth men because it maketh them subiect vnto God And as S. Chrisostom saith It is the mother the root and the good of all goods The CenturioÌ„ was esteemed worthy to receiue the Lord because he protested himselfe to be vnworthie And S. Paâ—l who counted not himselfe worthy the name of an Apostle was the cheefe of all the Apostles S. Iohn who thought not himselfe worthy to vntie the Lords shoes laid his hand vpon his head to baptise him And S. Peter who praied the Lord to depart far from him vretched sinner was a foundation of the church For there is not a more acceptable thing vnto God than to muster a mans selfe among the greatest sinners Hereby we see the profit that is gotten of the small esteeming of a mans selfe For the lesse a man esteemeth himselfe the more is he esteemed first of God and secondly of men Also we see that ordinarily the lowly prince is loued of euery man and the proud is hated of all And therfore let such as haue the gouernment of yoong princes teach them cheefly among other things to be lowly and courteous towards all men as knowing by experience that nothing winneth mens hearts so much as humilitie which killeth vainglorie Insolencie Impatiencie Enuie Ambition and all manner of vices CHAP. VII Of Fortitude Valiancie Prowesse or Hardinesse and of Fearfulnesse or Cowardlinesse LEt vs come to the third cardinall vertue which the learned call Fortitude Prowes or Valiantnesse the which the Poet Hâ—mer said to be the only morall vertue that hath as it were salies
they had won or lost Phrynee confessed that the philosopher was not moued at all with her daliances And when they required the monie which she had lost vpon the wager she answered them that she had made her wager of a man and not of a block truly in the opinion of the couetous and vnchast he was a very block sencelesse but in very deed he shewed himselfe to be well staied and a right philosopher in that he could so well skill to ouermaister his affections specially considering that the courtisan would haue triumphed ouer him and his philosophie in maintenance wherof he stood so resolutly grounded that it was not possible afterward for the courtisan to make him to stoope to the feats of hir amorous temptations And so this his doing proceeded not of any grosse insensibility but rather of a gallant mind that stood resolute in his purpose After which manner wee read of certaine saints and martyrs which by the grace of God did wonderfull deeds of chastity resisting such temptations with inuinsible courage whom we will omit for shortnes sake after I haue set down the wonderfull staiednesse of Ioseph who could not be moued with the beautie of his mistresse nor with the good that he might haue receiued at her hand nor with the danger that he incurred by refusing At whose continencie S. Iohn Chrisostome maruelling saith vpon the nineteenth of Genesis That it is not so great a wonder that the three children ouercame the fire in the furnace at Babylon as it is wonderful and rare that this righteous man being in this furnace of the incontinencie of the Aegiptian woman far more dangerous than the furnace of Babylon abode safe and sound and so waded out of it keeping the mantle of his chastitie pure and cleane S. Ierom being halfe broiled with the heate of the sun in the desert confesseth that he could not refraine from thinking vpon the delicat delights and beautifull dames of Rome But yet the austeritie of his life restrained those lusts from taking place in his head I know well that some euen of nature are too cold and othersome againe be too whot and too sore giuen to flesh but yet reason and resolutenesse aided by the grace of God get the vpper hand Polemon king of Licia was put away by his wife for being to rough in dealing with her as witnesseth Iosephus in his twentith booke of his Antiquities Among the greatest praises that Mahomet giueth to himselfe he vaunteth in his Alcoran that he had not his fellow in that feat And Iames Churre reporteth that in his time there was a woman that complained to the king of Arragon of her husbands prodigious lecherie Whereupon he was forbidden to haue to doe with her aboue six times a day which was a restraint to the fift part of his ordinarie dealing who so marketh and considereth this mans dealings he shall find mo houres in the day that the Aegyptians made who ruled their houres by a certaine beast dedicated to Serapis which pissed twelue times a day by equall distances at leastwise if such as are hard of beleefe will not muster this in the same rank with the fable of Hercules who is reported to haue defloured fiftie daughters of one man in one night Now must I speake of the good that is reaped by chastitie and of the harme that is receiued by vnchastitie which good and harme extend themselues to the goods of the bodie of the soule and of fortune As touching the goods of the bodie it is certaine that a man cannot be beautifull and well disposed if he be giuen to that pleasure For as Cicero saith An vnchast youth yeeldeth an ouerworne bodie vnto old age As touching strength nothing is so noysome to it as that according to this saying of the Poet Venus and Bacchus bereaue men of all strength And Menander sayth A woman is a shortener of mans life Cornelius Celsus saith That lecherie dissolueth the bodie And Hippocrates saith That nothing doth so much wither and wast a man as that calling it an vnderkind of the falling sicknesse Paulus Aegineta saith that it maketh the bodie col◠and feeble And therefore Clinias and Pithagoricall philosophers said That the companie of women was but then to be vsed when men were desirous to fall into some disease wherein he followed his maister Pithagoras who prohibited the vse of women vnlesse it were to make them the weaker and feebler That is the cause why Solon in his lawes ordained mariage howbeit with charge that the husband should not haue to do with his wife aboue thrice in a month Licurgus to make the Lacedemonians the stronger prohibited them to lie with their wiues enioyning thē to take them vnapareled and secretly of purpose to take away the abuse of them the ouermuch vse whereby they might afterward become weake and lesse able to take paines Plutarch among his precepts of health setteth downe chiefly the conseruation of the vitall seede Plato in his lawes commandeth yong men to imploy their strength about other things than that and to weaken the lust of the flesh by much trauell which will easily be done if a man vse it not too vnchastly For if a man vse it rarely and with shamefastnes lecherie shall haue the lesse power ouer him Wherefore we must persuade our selues to do so by custome without law written and think it a shame and note of insamie to do otherwise And if it could be a law should be made that no man might touch any woman but his wife nor beget bastards vpon concubines and that if any man kept a concubine he should be proclaimed as an infamous person and be depriued from all honor and offices of the citie or common-weale As touching the mind nothing doth so much abate it and make it to grow out of kind It is euident how Antonie managed his affairs amisse after that he fell in loue with Cleopatra namely how he made an vnfortunat voiage against the Parthians and knit vp his doings with a mis-incounter at the iourney of Actium It would require a whole booke to number the mischieues that haue come thereof and to shew the alterations that loue hath wrought in the minds of men And as Parmeno sayth in Terence It is a strange thing to see how men are altered by loue and how a man that was well staid and sterne becommeth loose and ill disposed through loue And for all Salomon the wisest of all men in the world may suffice who through loue became more fond and vnaduised than any man insomuch that he left his religion and became an idolater We read in the 19. chapter of the Iudges what a bloodie battell there was betweene the Israelites and their fellows of the tribe of Beniamin for a Leuits wife that was rauished by them in which battell there died three score and fiue thousand men on both sides and in the end the Beniamits being ouercome
nothing holdeth men in awe so much as feare and that he which is dreaded is better obaied than he that maks himselfe beloued For nothing doth so soone wex stale as a benefit All men loue and commend him that doth them a pleasure and such a one is followed of all men but soone also is he forgotten whereas he that is feared and had in awe is neuer forgotten For euery man bethinketh him of the mischiefe that he shall run into if he faile to do the thing that he is commanded And this feare is of much greater force than loue In that respect Cornelius Tacitus said That to the gouerning of a multitude punishment auailed more than gentlenes When Tamerlan came to besiege a citie the first day he would haue a tent of white which betokened that he would take all the citie to mercy good cōposition The second day he would haue one of red which betokened that although they yelded themselues yet would he put some of thē to death at his discretion The third day he had a pauilion all blacke which was as much to say as that there was no more place for cōpassion but that he would put al to fire sword The fear of such cruelty caused al cities to yeeld thēselues at his first cōming And he could not deuise to haue don so much by frendly dealing as by that means Neuertheles it is the custom of war to deal hardly with that captaine which defendeth a place not able to be kept against an army roiall to the intent it may serue for example to such as would withstand an army in hope to come to cōposition For whē they see there is no mercy they yeeld thēselues afore it come to the canō-shot Which maner the Romans practised For had the battel-ram once begun to beat the wals ther was no great hope of any cōposition When Iulius Caesar had lost the battel at Dirrhachiū as he fled a litle town did shut their gates against him wherinto he entring by force sacked it to the intent to put others in feare that were minded to do the like Caesar was mild gentle but his gentlenes could nor procure the opening of the gates to him this cruelty of his was the cause that no mā durst deny him to come in And as for Scipio although he was a valiant and fortunat captain as gracious as could be yet was he not alway obeied but had rebellions of of his souldiers against him so as he was cōpelled to turne his gentlenes into rigor Machiauel handling this question is long time balancing of his discouse vpon Quintius Valerius Coruinus Publicola al which being mild gentle were good captains and did many noble feats of arms were wel obeied of their mē of war obtained many faire victories These he compareth with other valiant captains that were rough stowr cruel as Camillus Appius Claudius Manlius Torquatus others And in the end he maketh a good distinction saying That to men which liue vnder the laws of a publik-weale the maner of the proceeding of Mālius is cōmendable because it turneth to the fauour of the publick-weale For a man can win no partakers which sheweth himself so rough to euery man and he dischargeth himselfe of all suspicions of ambition But in the maner of the proceeding of Valerius and Publicola there may be some mistrust because of the friendship and good fauor which he purchased at his souldiers hands wherby they might worke some euill practises against the liberty of their countrie But when it commeth to the consideration of a prince as Xenophon painteth vs out a perfect prince vnder the person of Cyrus the maner of Publicola Scipio and such others is much more allowable and dangerlesse For the prince is to seeke for no more at his subiects and souldiers hands but obedience and loue For when a prince is well minded on his owne part and his armie likewise affection it only towards him it is conformable to all conditions of his state But for a priuat person to haue an army at his deuotion is not conformable to the rest of the parts whom it standeth on hand to make him liue vnder the lawes and to obey magistrats But there remaineth yet one doubt vndecided which is whether a lieutenant-generall of an host who is neither prince nor king but is sent by a king to cōmand ought to be gentle or rigorous For he cannot be suspected to make his army partiall And though he had it so which thing he can not do he should smally preuaile against his prince Wherfore in this behalfe I would hold as well the one as the other to the obseruation of the lawes I would be rigorous to the men of war For there is not so beautifull and profitable a thing to an armie as the execution of iustice and the keeping of the law vninfringed The which if ye once breake in any one man though he be a very braue and valeant fellow it must needs be broken in diuers others But the discipline of war being well kept and obserued the generall ought to be familiar towards al his souldiers Alexander was familiar gentle and courteous to the common souldiers Antonie was to them both gentle and louing Iulius Caesar was likewise and so were all the excellent emperours On the other side they also were welbeloued and yet in discipline they were rigorous I haue told you heretofore in the chapter of Iustice how the said Iulius Caesar Augustus Traian certain others winked at small faults but were rigorous in others as towards mutiners traitors and sleepers in the watch and such others aforealledged The reason was that they would not in any wise corrupt the discipline of war for feare of the mischiefe that might ensue and therfore they neuer pardoned the faults of them that infringed it It is a wonderous thing that Caesar being but a citizen and hauing his army but of such as serued him of good wil and being lately afore discomfited at the battell of Durazo and fleeing before the army of the senat was notwithstanding not afraid to punish such as had not done their dutie in the battell insomuch that whole legions were faine to sue to him for mercie Which doing sheweth the good discipline that was in the Roman armies and the faithfull seruice which they did to their generall to whom they had giuen their oth Anon after again when he gaue battell to Pompey with what cheerfulnes did all his souldiers accept it With what zeale and good will did they beare with their generall and with what feercenesse did they fight The which serueth to shew that seueritie taketh not away the loue of men of war when they perceiue that otherwise their chieftaine is valeant and worthie to rule For then they impute it not so much to his austeritie as to their owne faults Which ought to be punished
according to the law Tamerlane hanged a souldier of his for stealing a cheese This rigour was was very needfull For else he should haue had no vittels in his campe which was alway followed with infinit vitellers And by being so rough towards his souldiers he got the good will of whole countries in executing iustice vpon his men of warre according to the law He was gentle to such as submitted themselues vnto him but sharpe and cruell to such as resisted him which was the way to winne much people And no man withstood him Wherfore I conclude that whether it be the prince himselfe or whether it be his lieutenant he must not be so gentle to his souldiers as to beare with all their faults nor so courteous to the plaine countrie-men but that he must shew them all some examples of his seuerity that they may stand in aw of him But he must reserue his austerity for the wicked and stubborn sort and he must vse gentlenes meeldnes and louingnes towards his good souldiers and such as hold out their hands to yeeld themselues vnto him whom he ought to intreat well not for a day or twaine a some do but for euer to the end that the people which are his neighbors may be allured to do the like when they find that this his good dealing proceedeth not of dissimulation but of the very loue meeldnes and good nature of the prince CHAP. V. Whether it be better to haue a good army and an euill chieftaine or a good chieftaine and an euill army THe prince that hath to deale with arms ought to be prouided of two things namely of valeant and well experienced captaines and of good and well trained souldiers For little booteth it to haue a good chieftaine that hath not good men of war or good men of war that haue not a good captaine to lead them But the question is in case that both meet not togither whether it were better to haue an euill army and a good captaine or a good armie and a bad captaine This question seemeth to be doubtles Notwithstanding forasmuch as Machiauell putteth it in ballance although he resolue it after the common maner yet am I to say a word or twaine of it by the way to confirme it the better In this discoursing vpon the historie of Titus Liuius he saith The valeantnes of the souldiers hath wrought wonders and that they haue done better after the death of their captaine than afore as it befell in the armie which the Romans had in Spain vnder the conduct of the Scipios the which hauing lost those two generals did neuerthelesse ouercome their enemies Moreouer he alleageth Lucullus who being vntrained to the wars himselfe was made a good captaine by the good peticaptains of the bands that were in his armie But his reasons are not sufficient to incounter the opinion of those that vphold That an army of stags hauing a lion to their leader is much better than an army of lions that haue a stag to their captaine And in very deed if euer battell were won the winning thereof is to be attributed to the captaine It is well knowen that so long as the Volses had Coriolane to their captain they had alwaies the vpper hand against the Romans But as soone as he was dead they went by the worse When the Romans had cowardly captains they were continually beaten by the Numantines but when Scipio was once chosen generall they did so well ouerset their enemies that in the end they rased Numance itselfe And as I haue said in this discourse when one vpbraided the Numantines that they suffered themselues to be beaten by those whom they had so often beaten afore they answered That in very deed they were the same sheep whom they had encountered afore but they had another shepherd This sheweth sufficiently how greatly some one man may auaile in an armie Antiochus not regarding the multitude of his enemies asked a captain How many meÌ„ he thought his presence to be worth making account that he himself alone should supply the number which the captain desired Eumenes had not an host so wel trained as his enemies and yet he guided it in such sort as he could neuer be ouercome When Antigonus supposing this Eumenes to haue bin extreamly sick was purposed not to haue lost the faire occasion of discomfiting his army as soone as he saw the good gouernance therof iudged incontinently that it was a good chieftaine that had the ordering thereof And when he perceiued the horslitter of Eumeneâ— a farre off by and by he caused the retreit to bee sounded fearing more that which was within the litter than he feared fiue and twentie or thirty thousand men The bondmen of the Romans had not beaten them so oft vnlesse it had ben by the good guidance of Spartacus Sertorius had the whole force of Rome against him and yet could neuer be ouercome Epaminondas and Pelopidas did by their good gouernment traine people that had no skill of warre and vanquished the greatest warriors of all Greece For it is a hard matter that any army be it neuer so well practised in wars should be able to maintaine it selfe against a politick and valeant enemie I say not but that they may fight valeantly but the skilfulnes of the captaine of their enemies may be such as to disorder them by vsing some cunning deuice the disappointing and preuenting whereof belongs to the captaine and not to the souldiers As for that which is alledged of the Scipios it will not serue For inasmuch as the battell was well ordered afore the Romans might well obtaine the victory though both the consuls were there slain Likewise notwithstanding the death of the duke of Burbon yet was Rome taken by his army because the souldiers that had aduentured vpon the assault knew not of the death of their captaine And the Thebans failed not to get the victory though Eâ—aminondas was wounded to death Againe the emperors armie which was sent against the marques of Brandenbrough gat the victorie notwithstanding that duke Moris the generall of the field lost his life there And as touching that which is said of Lucullus who had little experience of war that is very true Neuerthelesse he behaued himselfe so discretly in the warre wherein he was imploied that he was nothing beholden to Pompey which bereft him of the honour of conquering the whole East And to shew that he was not led by the aduice of his army but by his own skill being at the siege of Tigranocerta being counselled by some to raise his siege and to go meet his enemy who was coÌ„ming towards him with great forces and not to stay about the city he beleeued his own wit and vndertook a ieoperdous aduenture For with the one halfe of his armie he went to encounter his enemie whom he ouercame and left the other halfe afore the citie the which he tooke at his returne Also
people were quite quailed On the contrarie part the feare which his enemies had conceiued at the first brunt when they saw so great a power by little and little vanished away And he was to blame for that by too long lingring vpon desire to do his things too surely he let slip the occasions of doing manie good and â—aite exploits notwithstanding that he vndertooke them well and executed them with speed but he was slow in resoluing and cowardly in aduenturing The fourth maner of defending is to haue an armie readie within the countrie and there to wait to giue him battell as Thomyris did against Cyrus For she tarried for him with a quiet foot and her Massagets about her within her countrie of Scythia And as Basiil duke of Moscouia did who did the like on the further side of the deepe and swift riuer Boristhenes But therein he did amisse for that whereas by encountering with Constantine the chieftaine of the Polonians as he was passing the riuer he might haue made the victorie certaine by his fighting with him in the plain field without aduauntage he lost the battell And so did the Aetolians against the Romans for want of prohibiting them the passage of Naupact So did the Venetians vnder the conduct of Lalmian at the riuer Dade against king Lewis the twelfth So did the viceroy of Naples and Prosper Columna against the Frenchmen And so haue many others done who verie seldome haue found good speed For the courage and lustinesse of a conqueror must be broken by taking him at some aduantage as when he is incountered at some passage afore he haue set his men in aray or haue passed them all ouer or by delaying and driuing off the time if he cannot be stopped otherwise But if necessitie require then must he be fought withall as Themistocles did vnto Xerxes Hanniball vnto Scipio and Charles Martell vnto the Sarzins CHAP. VIII Whether it be better to driue off the time in ones owne countrie or to giue battell out of hand IOhn Iaques of Trivulce marshall of France said That a prince must neuer attempt the fortune of a battell except he be allured by some great aduantage or compelled by some vrgent necessitie It is to grosse a kind of play to hazard a battell when a man stands vpon his gard Gasely one of the great captains of Egypt said That the warres of greatest importance which at the beginning haue vehement and sodaine swayes are woont to asswage of themselues by intermission and space of delay and that on the contrarie part man cannot assay a battell in his owne countrie without great daunger because there is no way to amend a fault that is done in battel For if the battell be lost the countrie is in great perill to be lost too as befell to the Romans at the battell of Cannas against Hanniball To Campson and Tomombey against Selim and vnto the last king of Hungarie who chose rather to bid the Turke battel than to winne time of him for he lost both his life and his kingdome Xerxes by loosing the battell against the Greeks lost but his men because he was the assailant But Darius by giuing battell in his owne countrie lost his whole kingdome And to say the truth it was to grosse a kind of play against one that had so small a rest And he shewed himselfe too negligent in his own defence and too hastie in bidding battell Too negligent in that he being so great a lord and hauing wherewith to set out a million of men he tooke not order to haue three armies in a readinesse one to enter into the countrie of Greece therby to turne their forces backe againe another to watch at the passage into his owne countrie and the third to be about him in his realme to gather vp those againe togither which had not beene able to defend the passage and to haue encamped himselfe in a sure place of aduauntage to follow the taile of Alexanders host as Fabius did the host of Hannibal that he might not be compelled to come to a battell But in stead of bethinking him what he had to do as commonly they do which vpon an ouerweening of their owne greatnes do despise their enemies he let Alexander come in so farre that it gaue him courage to trie his fortune And when Darius saw him well forward in his countrie he made verie great hast with an inâ—init number of men to find the new conquerour and he was sore afraid least he should scape his hands and returne without battell But Alexander eased him well of that feare for he came to meet Darius in the face and with a well ordered armie gaue him battell and discomfited him Wherin Darius did greatly amisse for he might haue held him play with his great number of men haue wearied him with some of his light horsemen as the Parthians could well skill to do afterward to the Romans without hazarding the substance of his armie And the thing that vndid him was his ouerweening opinion that he should ouercome Alexander with ease which is the thing that ouerthroweth all such as vpon disdain to their enemies do set no good order in their affairs and in the leading of their armies This dispising of enemies caused the losse of the battell at Poyctiers where king Iohn was taken prisoner And of the battell of the Moscouits at the riuer Boristhenes which also did put the citie of Semoleuch in daunger of taking if the winter comming on had not foreclosed the Polonians from besieging it Caesar being in penurie of all things went to seeke Pompey with intent to giue him battell Pompey being wise would not tarie for him there because he was sure that ere long he should haue him by famin Neuerthelesse being ouercome with the suit of his captaines that desired battell vpon trust of their power which without all comparison was â—arre greater than Caesars he gaue him battell and lost it by putting the assured victorie togither with the time in hazard of a battell to the ruine of the Senate and of the whole common-weale Now then it is a great fault to put that in hazard at one houre which is sure in tarying the time And they that haue so hazarded themselues haue commonly beene vndone Contrariwise they that haue hazarded theÌ„selues vpon necessitie haue had the vpper hand The Spaniards being entred a good way into the lands of the Venetians with a power well armed were sodainly abashed to see a mightie armie readie at hand and to auoid the daunger wherein they saw themselues they fled before the host of the Venetians and took the way to Trent but yet in order of battell howbeit with small hope to escape them But Lalnian and Loridam suffering not the faire occasion that was offered them to slip away did thrust themselues forward in such headlong hast that the viceroy of Naples and Prosper Colonne chose rather to trie the
and to ioine them to a new power which he had caused to come and to gather them all togither at their ease fled openly to a certaine towne that was strongly situated and fell in hand with fortifying it as if he had ment to abide the siege there for doubt least his enemies should come thither to find him out The which they failed not to do But as soone as he vnderstood that his people were in safetie and the supplie of new force ready he went out of the town to ioine his new forces togither with the which he came backe againe to find his enemies Neuerthelesse the retiring into a towne except it be defensible and well prouided of vittels is verie daungerous Yet notwithstanding sometime a man is constrained to retire thither because he hath none other place of refuge as it befell to Nectanebus king of Aegypt who was compelled to saue himselfe in a fortresse wherein he was by and by besieged by the pursuers who forthwith began to make trenches round about to keepe him in by reason whereof Nectanebus would haue hazarded the small power that was left him rather than yeeld himselfe by constraint of famin if Agesilaus had not letted him For he would haue no speech of fighting vntill he saw the trenches almost finished and that there was no great space betweene the two ends of them that they were not fully met togither And then he shewed Nectanebus how he might escape without daunger because the trench should serue their turne and be an impediment to the enemies that the whole multitude of them should not runne vpon them at once because it should gard them on either side and by that means they should match them with equall number And in deed as soone as the euening was shut in they marched in order of battell out at the gap that was not entrenched and hauing foiled the first that encountered them they saued themselues at ease Sometime a captaine saueth himselfe by the commodious seat of his campe as Agesilaus did who in accompanying Nectanebus king of Egypt was compelled to turne his backe vpon his enemie and to flee Neere vnto his campe was a maris with a narrow cawsey cast vp on both sides with brode and deepe ditches full of running water He turned so long to and fro in his flight that at length he drew a great sort of the enemies that lay vpon his hand vnto the said cawsey the which he passed and afterward vpon the midst therof he suddenly stopped their passage with the forefrunt of his battell the which he made equall to the bredth of the cawsey and thereby made the number of his people equall to the number of his enemies because they could no more come about him neither on the sides nor behind by means whereof after he had fought a while he put them all to flight Eumenes being discomfited by Antigonus and fleeing before him tooke a path a little out of the way cleane contrarie to those that chased him and trauelled so long till he came againe to the field where the battell was fought There he caused the bodies of his men that were slain in the battel to be gathered vp and to be buried with the accustomed funerals and also tooke him that had betraid him whom he had pursued so freshly that he gaue him no respit to retire to the enemies And he might also haue taken all the stuffe and baggage of Antigonus but that he thought it would be a let to his escaping CHAP. XVIII Of Ambushes NOw must I speak of Ambushes which diuerse times are the cause of the winning of a battell and sometime of the taking of a citie and are practised diuersly after as the places and occasions are offered Hanniball excelled all captaines in that feat and neuer fought battell without laying some Ambush I speake of the iourney of Trebia wherein he ouercame the Romans by laying his brother Mago in ambush in a wood with ten thousand men that the Romans might be assailed both before and behind when they thought least of it Demosthenes being generall of the Athenian armie fearing to be inclosed by the Peloponnesians who were farre stronger than he in number of men â—ent four hundred men to lie in ambush in a faire greene way that was ouergrowne with bushes commanding them to breake out when the battell was begun and to lay vpon their enemies with maine blowes As soone as the battell was once begun and that the men which lay in stale saw the Peloponnesians fetch about to haue inclosed the Athenians they assailed them behind so as they put them out of array finally to flight When Brasidas discomfited the Athenians at Amphipolis he kept a good sort of men in store who were of the citie to fall vpon the enemies when they were in the hotest of the battell saying that they which come suddenly to a conflict strike more fear and terror into them than they that fight face to face Selim woon the field of Acomaâ— his elder brother by means of an ambush For afore the battell he sent his brother in law Camolis with a thousand good horses into a forrest neere hand willing him to come out and assaile his enemies behind when euerie man was most busie on all sides and that onely thing woon him the battell â—or Acomat being a valiant prince entred violently euery where with a few men and began to ouerthrow Selims people when suddenly Camolis came vpon him and assailed his men behind at such time as they fought best and made them to turn towards him with great outcries Then Selims footmen began to march close linked against Acomat. And Selims horsemen that were fled perceyuing that returned to the battell so as Acomats armie was enuironed on all sides and cut in peeces Marius did as much to the Almans by sending Marcellus to lie in a stale behind a little hill as I haue said afore Iulius Caesar vsed the like feate against the Swissers by sending Labienus with two legions in the night to winne a certaine hill when he was to shew himselfe the next morning in the field to bid the Swissers battell But the enterprise abode vnperformed by reason that he was falsly aduertised that the Gaules had taken the hill aforehand which caused him to draw his armie backe Hanniball hauing chosen a faire plaine wherein there was a deepe vallie and a certaine little hill verie aduauntageable for his armie which had beene no hard matter for him to haue gotten to the intent to draw Minutius to battel left it indifferent for a bait to train his enemies to the encounter And one night he couched a certaine number of his men of warre in those and afterward at the breake of the day sent a small troope to take the said hill Minutius likewise sent out his vauntcurrors and after them all his men of armes and finally when he saw Hanniball come thither in person he himselfe also
went thither with the rest of his armie and gaue a great assault to haue driuen away those that defended the hill Then Hanniball perceiuing that his enemie had cast himselfe into his nets gaue the watchword to his men that were in ambush who brake out with a great noyse vpon the taile of the Romans of whom they slue a great number at the first dash and had put the rest out of aray but for the readie succour of Fabius who aided him at need and wrested the victorie out of Hannibals hand Insomuch that Hanniball sounding the retreit said smiling to his friends concerning Fabius Did not I tell you that yonder cloud which we see houering vpon the top of the hils would one day breake out into a stormie tempest that should light vpon vs Also Flaminius the Roman consul was discomfited by a like policie For Hanniball suffered him to win the passage that was in the hils aboue the lake of Trasimenus but yet higher aboue theÌ„ he had laid his men in ambush Now beyond the passage that was kept by the Romans there was a faire plain where Hannibals armie was so as the Romans being cooped vp in a place where they had their enemies both before and behind lost the battell The same Hanniball perceiuing that Marcellus neither by vanquishing nor by being vanquished could hold himselfe from troubling him vsed this policie when he saw him nie him Betweene the two camps was a certain peece of ground of strong situation couered round about with bushes therin were high places where a man might discouer them far of towards both the camps and at the foot of it ran mâ—ny springs and brookes insomuch that the Romans marueled that Hanniball who was come first had not seazed it But his so doing was for that it seemed to him a very fit place to lay â—tâ—les in to which purpose he chose rather to reserue it Therefore he 〈◊〉 the woods the watersprings and the valley throughout with a good number of men of armes of all sorts assuring himselfe that the place it selfe would draw the Romans thither wh◠〈◊〉 was not deceiued For the two consuls Marcellus and Criâ—pâ—â—â— went both thether with two hundred and twentie horses to view the place Which thing when the Carthaginenses perceiued they suffered them to come on vntil they were ful against them and then suddainly stepping vp and winding Marcellus in began to draw to him both with shot and with handblowes so long til he lay dead vpon the ground and his fellow being wounded to death recouered to his campe by the swiftnesse of his horse where he died by and by after The countie of Anguien was discomfited almost after the same manner as he would needs giue battell almost hard at the bars of Gaunt For the men of Gaunt being desirous to intrap him because he was valeant in battell laid a hundred men in ambush for him without the towne who hemmed him in so close when he was come a litle too forward that there was no meane to saue him and so fighting valeantly he died vpon the field and all his men with him Sometime a stale is made by occasion of a preteÌ„ded feare As for examâ—â—e Hanniball taking occasion to flee vpon the discomfiâ—â—◠〈◊〉 ten or twelue hundred of his men withdrew himselfe be 〈◊〉 the hils as a man dismaid leauing in his campâ— from whence he was dâ—lodged great abundance of riches and vitteâ—â— and dâ—pâ—rting in the night left the burning fires in his campe as 〈◊〉 his meaning had ben to conceale his departure fâ—om the Romans But this trick was discouered by 〈…〉 it stood him in no stead Thomyri queene of the Mâ—ssagets aâ—ter the destruction of hir army wherwith she lost hir sonne had great reason to flee and to 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 that flight she made a bait to draw Cyrus forth into the mountains from whence it was not easie for him to get back againe and so it came to passe For Cyrus courageously pursuing the Queene found himselfe hemmed in on all sides in the mountains where he lost an armie of two hundred thousand men and his owne life with them The emperour Aurelian seeing his enemies too strong for him in horsemen and better weaponed and armed than his prohibited the Romane knights to abide the battell and willed them to flee as soone as they were charged vpon vntill they saw their enemies horses wearie and tired with the pursute and then to turne head The which thing they did so handsomely that the emperour wan the victorie Paulus Vitellius hauing beene troubled two whole daies together by the pesants on the coast of Genes who flang stones and darts and shot arrowes at him from the hils yea and some of them were so bold as to come downe into the plaine and to fight with him bethought himselfe to pretend as though he would saue himselfe by flight and retired so farre that he was chased in full race by infinit pezants But when he saw his game at the best he made all his troopes to mount on horsebacke and to turne their faces insomuch that all at once they charged vpon the pezants of the mountaines and discomfited them Secco a Florentine beeing desirous to draw Monfronk captaine of the Pisanes to battell who of his owne nature was forward enough to it laid an ambush betweene Bientina and Pisa commanding them not to stir vntill he gaue them their watchword Then sent he foorth certaine light horsemen into the fields euen into the view of the citie Pisa who a long while pursued the forragers of Pisa. When Monfronk out of the higher part of the towne saw these forragers and theÌ„ that did coÌ„uoy them to be pressed by the ouergreat number of them he also made certaine of his light horsemen to go foorth and anon he himselfe followed them with his men of armes and footmen Secco did the like on his part so as the fight was full and well foughten At length Secco of set pupose began to recoile and turne his backe as it had ben for feare Monfronk folowed after him liuely not giuing him any respit to assemble his men together againe vntill he came to the stale where issued out men both on horsebacke and on foot which so inclosed the Venetians and Pisanes on al sides that hauing hemmed them in euery way in the end they ouerthrew a great number of them Malâ—testa Balion to make his enemies that were in garrison at Veron to fal into his snare commanded his Albans to go into the marches of Veron and to gather all the cattell that they found and to driue them towards the stale which he had laid a good way off from thence The which the Albans did with such noise that the garrison of Veron vnderstood it out of hand Wherupon some of them mounted vpon their horses to pursue those robbers The Albans to conceale their craft the better did fiâ—st shock themselues on a heape
he caused an assault to be giuen in three places at once and the assault endured all the day long At night euery man retired and the French men put off their armor to rest and refresh themselues But Robert of Artois suffred not his men to vnarme them but onely to rest them a litle and to eat and drinke Afterward hauing set his three battels in order he began the assault againe in two places commanding the third battell to stand still vntill it were time to depart and because it was night the assailants had kindled so great fires that they which waked on the sudden went right whether soeuer they saw the fires without attending any commaundement of the captain and without putting themselues in order During the time that euery mans hands were full the third battel chose another part of the town vnfurnished of warders and there setting vp store of ladders did so much that they entred the citie and put the whole garrison of Vannes to flight The earle of Derby perceiuing that he could not win the citie of Naunts by assault vsed this policy by the aduice of one Alexander of Chaumount a Gascoin In the morning he made countenance to dissodge leauing onely a hundred men behind vnder the leading of the lord Wentworth telling thē what they shuld do And in a couert vally not far from the towne he laid a stale The men of Naunts ran with 400 men vpon the 100 who retiring to the passage drew the Frenchmen into the ambush And when they were passed one companie went right to the towne and took the gates which they found open for the Frenchmen thought them to haue beene their owne men and they that issued out were inclosed both afore and behind and vtterly ouerthrown The Seneschal of Beauquere vnderstanding that great store of rother beasts should passe by the towne of Athenie sent threescore men to driue them and in the mean while lay in ambush himselfe neere the towne The Englishmen with the more part of the garrison of the towne ran to the rescue so farre that they fell into the ambush who chased the Englishmen so lustily that they defeated them euery chone and therwithall went streight forth to the towne the which they tooke by assault for want of men to resist them Lucullus purposing to take the Mitelenians by policie besieged them with maine force Then suddenle in the open day and in the sight of the townes-men he mounted vpon the sea and rowed towards the citie Elea. But in the night he returned back sectetly and without making any noyse couched himselfe in ambush neere the towne The Mitilenians doubting nothing went out vnaduisedly and without order the next morning and without standing vpon their gard went to rifle the campe of the Romanes But Lucullus stepping out suddenly vpon them tooke a great number of them prisoners and slue about fiue hundred that stoode at defence and wan about six thousand slaues Fredericke vsed another policie to get Saminimat It happened that he had receiued a great losse before Parma where his armie was ouerthrowne and he was faine to take the way of Tuscan for to returne into his realme of Naples There was no likelihood that he minded thē of Saminimat that had plaid the traitors and rebels against him neither was he determined to rest there But to compasse them without great paine or studie he dissembled their treason and chose a number of his best most couragious and most loyall soldiers whom he caused to be chained together as if they had bin prisoners The which being done he caused his mules to be loden with a great sort of hampers full of all kind of armor and artillerie and couered them with the same sumpterclothes wherwith the sumpters of his chamber were woont to be couered These prisoners so made at the instant he sent vnto Saminimato with Peter of the Vineyard his steward of houshold secretarie and chauncelor who had the whole gouernment thereof and was a prisoner in deed accompanied with messengers of credence which should declare vnto the inhabitants of the towne that the emperour hauing not a more loyall towne seut them those prisoners men of importance and his preciousest stuffe with them praying them to keepe them carefully till his returne because that being now on his way into his kingdome of Naples he would not be troubled with such baggage The men of Saminimato seeing the emperour in armes round about them made good countenance notwithstanding that they mistrusted thēselues to be bewraid and thereupon shewing themselues verie obedient receiued all the traine with good cheere causing them all to come into the citie When the souldiers of Fredericke saw their conuenient time they cast off their chaines which were disposed in such sort as they might vnlinke them when they list and out of hand taking them to their weapons wan the gates whereat they let in the emperour Fredericks armie so that the towne was yeelded to his obeysance The Slauonians vsed another policie to take another town There approched a certaine of them to the wals so few in shew as were not sufficient to take the towne and yet did they incontinently giue an assault They that were within beholding the small number of them ran out vpon them folowed beating them a good way off from the towne And when they were a sufficient farnesse the residue shewed themselues behind them and slue a great sort of them so as they could not recouer into the citie againe Then the Slauonians comming to the assault entered at ease because there were none but the citizens left to defend the towne The king of Portugall perceiuing how the Britons that were within Feroll in Castile made often salies out laid fiftie men in ambush and a three daies after went with a few men and skirmished hard at the barriers of the towne The Britons failed not to come out against him and pursued the Portugals so hard that they tooke about fiue and twentie of them and were fain to open the barriers wide to let in the prisoners and to let out those that pursued them At length they that lay in ambush riding as fast as they could right to the barriers and making themselues masters of them entred mingled with the Britons into the towne The men of Capua being desirous to receiue the Imperials into the citie and to expulse the Frenchmen willed the Imperials to lay themselues in ambush neere the towne and when they knew them to be laid they would persuade the Frenchmen to make a rode out of the citie to fetch vittels afore they were more straitly besieged The Frenchmen perceiuing their reason to be apparant went out to do so But when they came backe againe they found the gates shut and vnderstood that the Capuans had receiued the Imperials in at another gate Sertorius vsed an other policie to win the Characitanians which did nothing but rob him and
of Athens that they might the sooner be famished and so it came to passe For whereas he was not able to ouercome them by force he suffered them to rest a while and afterward when he knew that vittails began to wax scant he besieged them so narrowly that they were faine to yeeld the citie to the Lacedemonians To attempt the taking of the rocke of Vandois which was impregnable the vicount of Meaus laid a stale of 1200 men in a caue neare the fort and sent others to skirmish with them at their bars charging them that if any came out of the towne against them they should retire softly vntill they came to the stale The Frenchmen failed not to make countenaÌ„ce but went slowly to the skirmish as if they had beene men vnwilling and smally trained which thing gaue courage to Guion du sel who had the gouernment of the fort in the absence of Amerigoll Marcell to sallie out with certaine of the garrison And he chased the Frenchmen so farre that he was inclosed betweene their ambush and their campe so as he could not saue himselfe nor any of his companie Whereupon the Frenchmen approched nearer the castell and told him that he and all his companions should die if the â—ortresse were not yeelded and that if it were yeelded they should all be saued They that were within perceiuing that they were like to lose the best men of all their companie yeelded themselues at his persuasion The earle of Arminak was discomfited almost after the same sort by Iaques of Berne before Alexandria which was the cause that the siege of Alexandria was broken vp CHAP. XX. Of the defending of Townes THere is not so great a mischief but there is a remedie for it And as the common saying is Well assailed well defended For when he that is within a towne knoweth that another would haue it then by good watch and carefull diligence he keepeth himselfe from being taken on the sudden And if he be aduertised of his enemies comming he doth what he can to keepe them from comming neere the ditches vntill the greatnesse of their number enforce him to retire The like is done when a citie is to be assailed by sea and by land For he that is within doth either by force or by policie impeach their landing as much as he can as did that gallant pyrat named Franday at Port Venerie The Arragonians intending to haue taken that place vpon the gate toward the sea approched with the prowes of their gallies to the hauen to haue set their soldiers a land But Franday had caused the great stones whereupon they were to leape in comming downe from their gallies to be besmeared with greace so as the most part of them fell downe through the slippernesse of their footing and the cumbersomnesse of their armor among the stones which were verie high Sometimes a citie is in hard case for that they cannot certifie their state by reason of the straitnesse of the siege In this case they must do as the Gothes did who being straitly besieged by Bellisariu and not able to giue intelligence of their distresse to Vitigis made a great noise one midnight whereat Belâ—â—sarius wondring and fearing some ambush or treason commanded that euery man should stand vpon his guard without remouing out of his place While Bellisarius was thus musing more to gard himselfe than to looke to the wals of his enemies the Goths sent out two men to giue knowledge to Vitigis in what state they stood But Bellisarius did yet much better when he himselfe was besieged in Rome For vvhen he vnderstood that succors were comming to him fearing least the Goths should set vpon them by the vvay he caused a certaine vvall vvherwith one of the gates of the citie vvas dammed vp to be beaten downe in the night and set a good number of men of vvar at it causing a thousand horsemen to issue out at one of the other gates whom he coÌ„manded to returne to the same gate againe vvhen they vvere charged by their enemies Now vvhile they vvere in hand vvith their enemies Bellisarius vvent out vvith a great power at the gate that vvas towards the sea vvhereof his enemies had no mistrust and easily putting those to flight that encountered him on that part he vvent on till he came right against the other gate vvhere he assailed his enemies behind as they vvere fighting vvith his men that had issued out first in vvhich conflict many of his enemies vvere slaine vvho being sufficiently occupied in defending themselues gaue leisure to the Greekes to ioine vvith the armie of Bellisarius vvithout any let Sometimes there is scarcetie of vittels in a towne so as it needeth to be vittelled And therfore he that hath the charge therof seeketh by all means to get some in vvithout the enemies priuitie Bellisarius intending to vittell the citie of Rome which was streitlie besieged by the Gothes vnder the leading of Totilas deuised this shift Totilas had made two towers of timber to be builded vpon a bridge ouer the riuer Tiber to keepe men from comming to Rome by water And without the ouerthrowing of these towers there was no way to passe To do it by plaine force it was not possible for him for he had too few men Wherfore he took two lighters and ioined them togither with rafters vpon the which he builded a tower of timber of equall heigth to the other two vpon the top wherof he had a little boate full of pitch and brimstone After this tower boat followed two hundred other boats couered ouer with boord and made full of loope holes that his men standing surely fenced in them might shoot at their enemies Within those boats he put great abundance of vittels garded by the choisest of his souldiers by whom vpon either banke of the riuer as neere as might be he sent of his souldiers both on horsebacke and on foot When he came at the towers of the bridge he cast vpon them the said little boat that was full of brimstone which immediatly burned vp the towers and the two hundred men that were within them In the meane while the Romans brake downe the bridge and made way for the litters that conueied the vittels the which had out of all doubt gone forth to the citie had it not ben for the fault of Isaces one of Bellisarius captains who by his rash going out of the hauen towne of Ostia contrarie to Bellisarius appointment was discomfited and taken prisoner by the Goths For Bellisarius being abashed therat and thinking that the towne it selfe had ben taken wherin was his wife and all his mouables returned suddainly back thither without accomplishing his enterprise Sometimes either men or monie be to be conueyed into a towne in whch behalfe example may be taken at the doings of Bellisarius who bearing that monie was brought him from Constantinople to the intent that the bringer thereof