but that in the houses of Kynges and of high Princes many must enter many must serue many must liue and many must eate but that whych is to be reprehēded is this that many times more is spoiled than is spent If in the Courtes of Princes there were not so many horses in the stable so many haukes in the mewe so many gibers in chambers so many vagabondes in pallace and so greate disorder in expences I am sure that neyther shoulde they so go ouercharged eyther their Subiectes so much gréeued God in commaunding the Prince not to haue many horses is to forbid him that he vse not excessiue expences bycause in déede and in conclusion they shal giue an accoumpt vnto God of the goodes of the common wealth not as Lords but as tutors Also God dothe commaunde that hée which shall be King do not consent to turne the people intoo Egipt that is to say that he do not permit them to commit Idolatrie ne yet to serue King Pharao for oure good God will that we adore him alone for Lorde and that we hold hym for our creator To come out of Egipt is to come out of sinne to turne into Egipt is to turne into sin for this cause the office of a good Prince is not only to remunerate the vertuous and such as liue wel but also to chastise the wicked and suche as liue euil It is no other thing to return into Egypt but boldly openly and manifestly to sinne the which the good Prince ought not to consent vnto eyther with any in lyke cace to dispence bicause the secrete sinnes to God are to be remitted but those whiche are manifest the good king ought to chastise Then doth the Prince suffer any to return into Egipt when openly he suffreth him to liue in sinne that is to say to passe his life in enuious reuenging to holde by force that which is due to an other to be giuen to folow the lusts of the fleshe and to dare to renue his olde age into wanton affections in which the Prince doth so much offend God that although he be no companion in the fault yet in the worlde to come hée shall not escape to be partaker of the payne For a kyng to gouerne well in his kingdome oughte to be asmuche feared of the euyll as beloued of the good And if by chaunce any bée in his house that is in fauour that is a quareller or any seruaunt that is vicious I denie not but vnto suche a one he may impart of his goods but not with his conscience Also God commaundeth him which shall be king that he hold not in his companie many women that is to vnderstand he shal content himself with his Queene with whom he is maried without vngodly acquayntance with any other for the great Princes and mighty potentates doe more offend God with yll example they giue than with the faultes they committe Of Dauid of Achab of Assa and of Ieroboam the scriptures do not so much complaine of their sinnes as of the occasion they gaue vnto others to sinne bicause very seldome wee sée the people in awe of correction when their lorde is vicious As Princes be more high and also mightyer than the rest euen so are they more behelde also more viewed thā others And for this cause according to my iudgement if they be not chast yet at the least they should be more secrete Among the heap of sinnes this maye be one wherewith God is not a little offended And on the other part it is wherwith the cōmon welth receiueth most sclander for in cases of honor none wil that they haunt his house request his wyfe or defloure his daughter The writers of histories do much prayse Alexander the great Scipio the Affrican Marcus Aurelius the greate Augustus the good Traian which onely vsed not to force women in libertie but did not so much as touch suche as were their captiues taken in battaile and truly they were iustly praised for vertuous mē For it procedeth of a more noble corage to resist a prepared vice thā to giue an onset vpō a cāp of great power Also God doth commaund him which shal be king that he hoord not vp much treasure that he be not scarce or a nigard for the office of the marchant is to kéep but of a King to giue and to be liberal In Alexander the great is muche more praised the largenesse be vsed in giuing than his potencie in fighting the which doth clearly appeare when we wil praise any man we do not say he is mightie as Alexander but franke as Alexander To the contrary of this Suetonius writeth of the Emperor Vespasian the which of pure miserie nigardship and couetousnesse commanded in Rome to be made publike places to receyue vrine not to kéepe the Citie more swéete but to the end that they should giue him more rente The diuine Plato did counsell the Atheniens in his bookes of a good comon wealth that the gouernour whiche they had to choose should be iust in his iudgements true of his word constant in that he takes in hand secrete in that he vnderstandeth large and bountiful in giuing Princes and great potentates for their power they be feared and for their magnificēt liberalitie they are beloued But in déed and in the end fewe folow the king not only for that his conditions be good but bicause they think his giuing is much and verie noble Gods commaunding in his lawe that the Prince shal not hourde vp treasures is no other thyng to saye but that all shall serue hym of good wyll and that bée vse towarde all men of his liberalite for that many tymes it dothe happen that the Prince in béeyng vnchearefull in giuyng it commeth to passe in proces that very few haue any mind to gratifie or serue hym Also God commaunded the kyng that should gouerne his people that he should not be proude tha◠he should always read in Deuteronomie which is the Booke of the Lawe And bycause wée haue alreadie made a large discourse we will leaue the exposition of these two woordes for an other day There resteth that we pray vnto the Lord to giue your Maiestie his grace and vnto you and vs his glorie to the which Iesus Christ bring vs Amen A discourse or conference with the Emperour vpon certayne moste aunciente stampes in Mettalles the whyche he commaunded the Author to reade and to expounde wherin are touched many antiquities S. C. C. R. M. SO greate be the affaires of Princes and so muche laden wyth studious cares that hardlye remayneth tyme to sléepe or eate muche lesse to recreate or ioye themselues with gladsome pastyme Oure forces are so small our iudgemente so weake oure appetite so variable and oure desyres so disordinate that sometyme it is necessarie and also profitable to giue place to the humanitie to bée recreated vppon condition that the truth bée
Hameth Abducarin to sée if it came in Arabian I did present it also to Siculo that he might sée the stile if it were in Greeke I sent it vnto maister Alaia to vnderstand if it were a thing of Astrologie Finally I shewed it vnto Flemings Almans Italians Englishmen Scottes and Frenchmen the which all did affirme that either it was a letter in iest or else a writing inchanted And when many said that it was not possible but that it was a letter inchanted or else infected with a spirit I determined with my selfe to send it to the great Nigromancer Iohn de Barbota instantly desiring him to read it or else to coniure it who aunswered by writing and also certefied me that he had coniured it and also put it in circle and that he could gather of the matter is that the letter without doubt had no spirit in him but he aduised me that he which wrote it should be besprited Sir for that I wish you well and am also beholding vnto you I aduertise and also beséech you from henceforth to vse some amēdment in your letters if not ye may cōmend them to Iohn de Barbota That your letters shall scape my handes as good a virgin as Putifars wife did scape the handes of Ioseph or the fayre Sara the handes of Abimelech or the Hebrues Sunamite the handes of Dauid or the Dame of Carthage the handes of Scipio or Phocions wife the handes of Dionisius or the daughter of King Darius the handes of Alexander or Quéene Cleopatra the hands of Augustus finally I do say that I cannot reade or els you know not to write If the letter sent by Dauid vnto his Captaine Ioab vppon the death of the vnhappy Vrias and the conception of the fayre Bersabe had bene of this cursed letter Dauid had not sinned neither the innocēt Vrias bene slaine If the consederacie made by Escaurus and his companions in the comuration of Catiline had bin of such miserable letter as youres neither had they receiued so cruell death or in the Citie of Rome had they raysed so infamous warre that it had pleased the diuine prouidence that you had bene secretarie to Manicheus to Arrius Nestorius Sipontinus Marius Ebion and all the other heretiks that haue bene in the world for though they had constrayned you to write their excommunicate and cursed heresies wée should neuer or any other haue found meane to reade them Of Plinie in his naturall History of Clebius in his Astrologie of Pitus in his Philosophy of Cleāder in his Arithmetike of Estilphon in his Ethiks and of Codrus in his Politikes all the auncient writers doe most sharpely complaine bycause in their doctrines they did write some thinges the which are easie to bee reade but difficill to vnderstand In the Captaineship of these so excellent men you may well set downe your launce and also giue thrée poundes of wax to enter their fraternitie For if their writings will not be vnderstoode no more may your lines be read Many times I do muse how with the antiquitie of times and with the varietie of wits all things haue bin renued and many made better except the letters of the A.B.C. in whiche from the time they were first inuented there hath bene nothing added and much lesse mended The A.B.C. holdeth xxj letters eightene of the which Nestor found and the other thrée the captaine Diomedes inuented being at the siege of troy And surely it is a thing to be noted that neither the eloquence of the Greekes either the curiositie of the Romanes or the grauitie of the Aegyptians ne yet the excellency of the Philosophers both found or could find another letter to the A.B.C. to be added or to be taken awaye or to be changed And although the humaine nations are in some part diuers at the least the letters of the A.B.C. thoroughout the world do sound one As Solon Harman Cortes Pedrarias and Pisarro haue discouered in the Indies a new world to liue in it may be that you haue found out a new A.B.C. to write withall but I feare mée much that none will goe to learne at your schole if the matter therof be like your letters I say for my owne opinion that you shall neuer come to any good market to sell your land by such a list I will say no more of the matter of your letter but that you accept this of mine as a warning and therwith of your curtesie I do craue from henceforth you kéepe your letter vnmoth eaten And that it may stand with your pleasure to amend the imperfection of the same for I haue learned too read and not to diuine I did imagine with my selfe that of purpose you had sent me this letter in iest to giue me occasion to answere you in iest and of very ouerthwartnes you did write to me so bycause I should aunswere to the same purpose if happely it were your intent Sir you must thinke that out of such pilgrimage you can obtaine but like pardons Sir from this Court of Caesar very fewe things are to bée written although many to be murmured the newes now are that many titles of Dukes Marqueses Earles and Vicountes the Emperour our Lorde and Maister hath giuen to many of his kingdome thē which do deserue them very wel for the authoritie of their persons for the antiquitie of their houses If ye demaund of the rents they receiue and of the landes and Seigniories they possesse in these things I do not entermedle or dare not put to my hand although it be true that some of these Noble mens estates be so narow and strait that if it appertained to the Friers Hieronimites as it doth to thē they would shortly choose it within a wall Rodrigo Giron to you beholding and my speciall friend desired me of his owne part and commaunded me of yours that I should speake to the gentleman Antony of Fonseca vppon I cannot tell what unbarge or stay that you had vppon a licence Sir I haue dispatchte it as your authoritie and my fidelitie did require Since that time I haue not vnderstood what hath ben done therin but that which I can certifie you of and affirme is If he do perseuer with suche diligence too take order for your licence as he hath with great earnestnes played away his goodes your worship shal as well be deliuered of auditors and of an accompt as he was this other night of gamsters at dice. For as one of them aduertised me he lost no more but the cap he did weare the spurs vpon his héeles There are that do well resemble their owne and do followe the steps of their forefathers for if I be not forgetfull I haue séene his father the Iustice or Maior of Montanches many times kepe his chamber not bycause hée was sicke but for that in Merida hée had played and lost all that euer he had The lord haue you in his kéeping
hath sent thée and that thou art a yong man my nephew and a Citizen of Rome The Emperour Tiberius writing vnto his brother germain said thus The Tēples be reuerenced the Gods be serued the Senate in peace the common wealth in prosperitie Rome in health Fortune gentle and the yeare fertile this is here in Italy the same we desire vnto thée in Asia Cicero writing vnto Cornelius sayeth thus Bée thou merry since I am not euill for likewise I shall reioyce if thou be well The diuine Plato writing from Athens vnto Dionysius the tirant saith thus To kill thy brother to demaund more tribute to force thy people to forget me thy friende and to take Photion as an enimie be workes of a tyrant The great Pompeius writing from the East vnto the Senate saith thus Conscript Fathers Damascus is taken Pentapolis is subiect Syria Colonia and Arabia is confederate and Palestina is ouercome The Consull Cneius Siluius writing newes of the battel of Pharsalia vnto Rome saith thus Caesar did ouercome Pompeius is dead Rufus is fled Cato killed himselfe the gouernement of Dictator is ended and the libertie lost Behold Sir the manner that the ancients vsed in writing to their peculiar friends which with their breuitie gaue vnto all men wherefore to be noted but we in neuer making an end giue large occasion to be corrected No more but that I pray the Lord to be your protector and giue me grace to serue him From Valiodolid the eight of October in the yere 1525. A letter vnto the Marques of Pescara wherein the Authour doth touch what a Captaine ought to be in the warres BEing with Caesar in Madrid the .xxij. of March I receiued a letter from your Lordship written the .xxx. of Ianuary and God be my witnesse that when I sawe and read it I would rather the date thereof had bin not from the siege of Marcellus but from the conquest of Ierusalem For if it were from Asia and not from France your iourney should be more famouse and magnified and of God much more accepted Titus Liuius reporteth of no small variance betwixt Mar. Marcellus and Quintus Fabius which did arise vpon the Cenfulships of the warres for that the good Mar. Marcellus would not be Captaine of the warre which was not very well iustified And Quintus Fabius did not accept to go to the warres were it not very daungerous The Romanes were in a maruelous vaine glory in that worlde when these twoo noble Princes were borne but in the ende muche more was the estimation of Marcus Marcellus for being iust than of Quint. Fab. for being valiaunt The Romanes were neuer so foyled or euer did incurre so muche dishonor in the warres of Asia either in Africa as they receiued at the siege of Numantia And this was not for defaulte of batterie eyther bicause the Citie was very strong but for that the Romanes had no reason to make them warre And the Numantines had iust cause to defend themselues Helie the Spartan doth say that onely the Emperour Traian was hee that neuer was ouercome in battell And the reason thereof was this that he did neuer take any warre in hand wherein he did not iustifie his cause The King of Pontus whiche was called Mithridates dyd wryte a certaine Letter vnto the Consull Silla being bente in warres moste cruelly the one against the other wherein was thus written I doe muche wonder of thée Consull Silla to take warre in hande in so straunge a lande as this of mine and that thou darest aduenture to deale with my great fortune since thou knowest shée neuer deceiued mée neither had acquaintance with thée To these woordes the Consull did answere Oh Mithridates I weighe it very little to holde warre farre from Romae since the Romanes haue fortune alwayes by them And if thou say that she did neuer fayle thée nor euer know mée thou shalt now sée how in vsing hir office she shall passe to mée and take hir leaue of thée And although it be not so I do neither feare thée or doubte hir for that I hope that the Goddes will do more for my iustice than for thée thy great fortune Many times the Emperoure Augustus vsed to say that warres to be good must be incommended vnto the Goddes accepted of Princes iustified of Philosophers and executed of Captaines Thus much I haue saide vnto your Lordship to this end that if your warre had bin vpon Ierusalem it were to be holden for iust but for that it is vpon Marsellius alway we hold it for scrupulous The kings hart is in the hand of God saith the diuine scripture If it be so who may attaine vnto this so great a secret whiche is to wéete that the Kings hart being in Gods hand he dare offend God which doth appeare most cleare in that we see no other thing but warres amongst the Christians and leaue the Moores to prosper and liue in rest This businesse to me is so difficulte that although I cā speak thereof I know not how to vnderstand it since all day wée sée no other thing but that God doth permitte by his secrete iudgements that the Churches where they prayse him be destroyed and throwen downe and the cursed remaine sound and frée where they do offend him Your Lordship is a Christian a good man at armes my neare kinseman and my speciall friend any of which things doth much binde me to féele your trauaile and to be gréeued with your perill I speake of trauell to the bodie bycause the Captaine that holdeth much of his honour ought to estéeme little of his life I say perill vnto the soule bicause amongst Christians there is no warre so iustified that in the same remayneth not some scruple Herein your Lordship shall sée that I desire to saue you in that I will not delite you with lies But only to say vnto you that which I do conceiue to the end that afterwards you may do what is méete If you know not wherunto you are bound I wish your Lordship to vnderstand it is that the Captaine generall do auoyde vniust wrongs correct blasphemers succour innocents chastise quarellers pay his armie defend the people auoyde all sackings and obserue fayth with the enemies Assure your selfe my Lord that there shall come a time in whiche you shall giue an accompt to God and also to the king not onely of what you haue done but likewise of that whereunto you haue consented Sir Iohn of Gueuara was your Grādfather and my cousin and he was one of the Gentlemen at armes that passed out of Spayne into Italy with the King Sir Alonso and there did helpe to get this kingdome of Naples and in recompence of his seruice hée made him Lorde greate Seneshall of the kingdome Of whiche you may gather howe muche your Lordship ought to trauell to leaue suche another renoume vnto your successours as hath bene left vnto you by your predecessors As
they would craue of God vengeance vpon you Without comparison you ought to haue more feare to doe iniurie vnto the poore than to the riche for the riche doth reuenge himselfe with armes but the poore with teares Also you shall finde in youre Earledome some yong men and maydens that were children of old seruants and the sorowfull orphanes neither haue father to help them neyther good to sustayne them your Lordship ought in suche cases to bring vp the sonnes and to mary the daughters for there is not in this world an almes of God more accepted thā to giue mariage vnto a damsell vpon the point to be cast away As it is a great offence to cause another to sinne so doth hée deserue much glory that takes away the offence for another to fal for certainely we are more beholding to him that kéeps vs from stumbling than vnto him that helps vs vp Also you shall find some men and women of whom they shall say vnto you that they were affectioned to one partialitie and offended at the other and in such cases take no care to make search and much lesse to take vengeance for the noble harts ought neuer to thinke themselues iniured but of such as be mighti◠like themselues If any want of dutie or offence hath bin done vnto you by any of youre estate I holde it for more suretie to dissemble it than to reuēge it for it may so happen that thinking all lawe were ended there mighte arise vnto you other new more indigested angers It is tollerable that the Lords do chastise his vassall but not that he reuenge for it is sure that he will not only defend him selfe but also attempt to offend and the offence shall be raising his countrey and defaming his person If you will be reuenged of such as haue gyuen some occasion be grateful vnto those that did follow and serue you for after this maner they shall remayne recompensed and the other confounded And let it be in this cace for conclusion that in my iudgement and conceit your Lordship ought not to care to remember the iniuries they haue done you but the seruice that now they do you and make no account to make quarells with your vassals for in things of cōmon libertie he that shall séeme most to serue you the same is he that most will sell you That a Knight do minister Iustice in his Countrey ALso it is necessary to the good gouernment of youre vassalles that you leaue them to bee gouerned of vertuous men and of experiēce for ther is no mā in this world so wise that néedeth not the counsell of another We sayd not without graue consideration that you should vse men of experience and sayde not that you shoulde take men of learning For matters in law must be commended vnto the learned but gouernment of the common wealth vnto men of wisedome For we sée euery day by experience what difference or aduauntage there is betwixt hym that hath a good wille and him that knoweth no more but out of Bartlet If you fynde any that ioyntly is both learned and wise leaue not to lay hande vppon him nor let him slip for any price for learning to giue sentence and prudence to gouerne be two thynges that many desire and fewe doe obtayne My Lord you haue to be aduised to commend youre countries to mouthy or brutishe bachelers that come from Salamanca which bringing their science in their lippes and their witte in their sachelles before they can chance to do Iustice they shall escandelise the common wealth and also robbe the whole countrey Those that do procéede from Colledges and from the Vniuersities as they tie themselues to that theyr Bookes do say and not to that whiche theyr eyes doe sée and to that their science doth speake and not to that whiche experience doth find such are good to be aduocates but not to gouerne Sir beléeue me and be out of doubt that the art of gouernment neyther is sold at Paris either is found at Bolloigne neither yet learned at Salamanca but is found out by prudence is defended by Science and conserued by experience Plato in his booke of common wealth sayd these words Consilium peritorum ex apertis obscura ex paruulis magna ex proximis remota ex partibus tota aestimat As if he should haue sayde the man that is wise and of experience the cleare he holdeth for darke the little for great the neare to be far off the gathered together to be cast abrode the certaine for doubtfull Out of these words of Plato there may be gathered the difference betwixt science and experience for that we sée inexpert men holde all things for easie and he that is expert iudgeth all things difficult God dealeth mercifully with suche men as he leaueth not into the hands of proude captaines rash Pilots vnlearned Lawyers foolishe Phisitions and vnexpert Iudges bycause the proude Captayne fighteth out of time the rash Pilots sendes you to the bottome the vnlearned Lawyer looseth youre matter the foolishe Phisition spoyles your life and the vnexpert iudge robbeth your goodes The Iudges to whome you shal put your conscience in trust and commende youre common wealth ought to be honest in their liues vpright in iustice pacient in iniuries measured in their spéech iustified in that they commaund righteous in iudgement and pitifull in their executions Beware of Iudges that be childish foolish ouerbold rash and bloudy which to the end their fame shall sounde at Courte that from thence they may receyue commission of Iustice they wil commit a thousand cruelties in your countreyes and will giue a thousande displeasures to youre persone in suche wise that many times there néedes more reformation for their disorders than for the offences youre vassals shall commit I do lie if it did not happen on a time to me in Arreuallo being warden with a new vnexpert Iudge which bicause I did somewhat aduertise him that he was ouer furious and cruell sayde Father Warden you get youre meate by preaching and I get it by hanging and by your Lady of Gadilupe I do more estéeme to put a foote or a hand to the Pillery than to be Lord of Ventosilla When I heard him mention Ventosilla I replied thys word of my troth master Iustice iustly apertayneth vnto you the Lordship of Ventosa for you may not be contayned in Vētosilla But prosecuting our intent it is to wit that those that the Romaines did call Censors or iudges we do call Corregidores or Correctors and it was amongst them a lawe inuiolable that they made no man a Iudge that was not at the least aboue forty yéeres old he shoulde be maried holden for honest meanely ritch nor infamed with couetousnesse and that in other offices of the common wealth hée had experience Iulius Caesar Octauius Augustus Titus Vespatianus Neruus Coceyus Traian the iust Antony the méeke and the good Marcus Aurelius All these
you demaund and write vnto me for that to the good Knight it is as pertinent to haue a booke vnder his pillow as a sword at his beds head The greate Iulius Caesar in the mids of his campes had his Commentaries in his bosome his launce in his left hand and his pen in the right hand in suche wise that all the time that was frée from fighting he spent in reading and writing The great Alexander that onely with feare did subdue the West and with armes did conquere the East he was alwayes girt with Achilles sworde and with the Iliades of Homer did alwayes sléepe in his Chamber It is not my opinion that you should take writing and reading for your principall office as I that am bound to studie but the tenth houre you spende in talke and loose in play you should employ and spend in reading But comming to the purpose it is to witte that in the yere M.CCC.lxviij the King Sir Alonso being in the Citie of Burgos that was the sonne of King Sir Hernando and of the Quéene the Lady Constance This good King made a certaine new order of Knighthood which he entituled the Order of the band wherein he himselfe with his children hys bretherne and the sonnes of the most riche and noble Knightes of the realme did enter Four yeares after he had ordayned thys order of the band the king Sir Alonso being in Palentia reformed the rules which he had made and also added punishmēts for the transgressors of the same in such wise that agréeable to the last rule which was the better and more Knightlike I will write this letter vnto your Honor They were named Knightes of the bande bycause they dyd weare vpon them a certayne redde skarffe thrée fingers broade after the maner of a stoale cast vppon the lefte shoulder and knit vnder the right arme None coulde giue the bande but onely the Kyng eyther any myghte receyue the same except he were the sonne of a Knight or the son of some notable Gentleman that at the least had bene resident at the Court ten yeres or in the warres against the Moores had serued the King. In thys order of the bande the eldest sonnes of knightes that were inheritours coulde not enter but suche as were second or thirde sonnes and that had no patrimonie for the intention of the good Kyng Sir Alonso was to honoure the sonnes of the worshipfull of his Courte that coulde doe and had but little That daye whiche they receyued the band they dyd present into the Kings hande faithe and homage to obserue the rule and I saye they made not any strayt vow or rigorous othe bycause if afterwardes any shoulde transgresse some parte of the rule they shoulde bee subiecte to the chastisement but not bounde to the sinne HIs firste rule commaunded that the Knight of the bande was bounde to speake vnto the Kyng béeing required for the aduauncemente of his Countrey and for the defence of the Common wealth vpon payne that béeing noted therof he should be depriued of his patrimonie and banished out of his countrey 2 His rule commanded that the knight of the band aboue all thinges shoulde speake trouth vnto the kyng vnto hys Crowne and person shoulde obserue fidelitie And if anye in hys presence shoulde murmure of the kyng and he should not disco uer it and béeing approued with infamie he shoulde bée turned oute of Courte and for euermore depryued of the bande 3 His rule commaunded that all those of that order shuld vse muche silence and that whyche they spake should be of great trouth and if by chaunce any knight of the band shuld tell any notable lie he shuld go one month without his sword 4 His rule commaunded that they shoulde accompanie themselues with wise men of whome they myghte learne to lyue well and with men of warre that might teach them to fight vpon paine that the knight of the band which should suffer himselfe to be accompanied or be séene to walke with marchants men of occupations Lawyers or with men of the countrey shoulde be grieuously reprehended of the maister and one whole moneth in his chamber imprisoned 5 His rule commaunded that all the knights of this order should maynteyne their words and kéepe fidelitie vnto their friendes and in case it were proued agaynste any knighte of the bande that he had not accomplished his word although it were giuen vnto a base person and vpon a small matter yet suche a one shoulde goe alone in courte and vnaccompanied not presuming to speake or to approche or kéepe companie with any knight 6 His rule commanded that the knight of the band should be bounde to haue good armour in his chamber good horsses in his stable a good launce at his gate and a good sworde at his girdle vpon paine that if in any of these things he were defectiue they shoulde call him in Court by the space of a moneth seruant and should lose the name of knight 7 His rule did commaund that no knight of the band shold presume to ryde to the Court on a mule but on horsebacke eyther openly should dare to goe withoute his bande eyther should take vpon him to go to Court without his sworde or venture at his lodging to eate alone vpon pain to pay a mark of Siluer towards the iustes 8 His rule commaunded that no knight of the band should be serued with a lyer eyther boast himself like a babler vpon pain that if any of thē shuld put himself in palace to tel newes or tales or to make to the king any false report he should goe to court one month on foot arested an other into his chamber 9 His rule commaunded that no knight of the band shuld complain of any wound that he had receyued eyther shoulde boast himself of any déed he had don vpon paine if he so reported of his sore or shoulde relate many tymes of his prowes he should of the maister be gréeuously reprehended and of the other knightes of the band not visited 10 His rule commaunded that no knight of the band shuld presume to play at any playe in especiall at the dice vpon paine that if any did play eyther in his lodging did consent to play they should take away his moneths wages and for sixe wéekes banished him the Courte 11 His rule commaunded that no knight of the band shuld presume to lay his armour to guage eyther to play the apparell perteyning to his person at any play that might be deuised vpon paine that he that should play them away or laye them to guage should go two moneths without the band and an other month remaine prisoner in his lodging 12 His rule commaunded that the knight of the bande in the wéeke dayes should be apparelled in fine cloth and on the holy dayes he should weare some kynd of silke and at Easter some little of golde and he that shoulde haue nether
life and iust in youre tribunall or iudgements I wold not gladly heare that those that do praise that which you do should complaine of that whiche you say with a Lorde of so high estate and with a iudge of so preheminent an office my pen should not haue presumed to write what it hath written if your Lordship had not commaunded My Lord I saide it bycause if this that I haue here written vnto you shall not like you that it may please you to sende too reuoke the licence that you haue giuen Also you will that I shall write vnto youre Lordship if I haue founde in anye auncient Chronicle what is the cause wherefore the Princes of Castile do call themselues not onely Kings but also Catholique Kings And that also I write vnto you who was the first that called himself Catholique King and what was the reason and the occasion to take this so generous and Catholique title There were ynowe in thys Court of whome you might haue demaunded and of whome you might haue vnderstood in yeares more auncieÌ„t in knowledge more learned in bookes more rich and in writing more curious than I am But in the end my Lord be sure of this one thing that that which I shall write if it be not written in a polished stile at the least it shall be all very true Comming to the purpose it is to be vnderstood that the Princes in olde time did always take proud ouer-names as Nabugodonozer that did intitle him selfe King of Kings Alexander the greate the king of the world the king Demetrius the conqueror of Cities the great Haniball the tamer of kingdomes Iulius Caesar the Duke of the Citie the king Mithridates the restorer of the world the king Athila the whip of nations the king Dionisius the host of all men the king Cirus the last of the Gods the king of England defender of the Church the king of Fraunce the most Christian king and the king of Spaine the Catholique king To giue your Lordship a reckoning who were these kings and the cause why they did take these so proude titles to me it should be painfull to write and to your Lordship tedious to reade it is sufficient that I declare what you commaunde me without sending what you craue not It is to wit that in the yere seuen hundreth fiftie two the fift day of the month of Iuly vpon a sunday ioyning to the riuer Bedalake about Xeres on the frontiers euen at the breake of day was giuen the last and most vnfortunate battell betwixt the Gothes that were in Spaine and the Alarues that had come from Africa in whiche the sorowfull king Sir Rodrigo was slaine and all the kingdome of Spaine lost The Moore that was Captaine and that ouercame this famous battell was named Musa which did know so well to folow his victorie that in the space of eight moneths he did win and had dominion from Xeres in the frontieres vnto the rocke Horadada which is neare to the towne of Onnia And that whiche séemeth to vs most terrible is that the Moores did win in eighte moneths which in recouering was almost eight hundred yeres for so many yeares did passe from the time that Spaine was lost vntill Granado was wonne The fewe Christians that escaped out of Spaine came retiring vnto the mountaines of Onnia neare vnto the rocke Horadada vnto which the Moores did come but from thence forward they passed not either did conquer it for there they found great resistance and the land very sharp And when they of Spaine did see that the king Sir Rodrigo was dead and all the Gothes with hym and that without Lord or head they could not resist the Moores they raysed for king a Spanish Captaine that was named Sir Pelaius a man venturous in armes and of all the people very well beloued The fame being spread thoroughout all Spaine that the mountaine men of Onia had raised for king the good Sir Pelaius all men generouse and warlike did repaire vnto him with whome he did vnto the Moores greate hurt and had of them glorious triumphes Thrée yeares after they had raysed the good sir Pelaius for King hée married one of his daughters with one of the sonnes of the Earle of Nauarn who was named Sir Peter and his sonne was called Sir Alonso This Earle Sir Peter descended by right line of the linage of the blessed King Richardos in whose tyme the Gothes did leaue the sect of the curled Arrius by the meanes of the glorious and learned Archbyshop Leonard The good king Pelaius being dead in the eighteene yeare of his raigne the Castilians exalted for king a sonne of his that was named Fauila the which two yeares after he began to raigne going on a certaine day to the mountaine meaning to flea the Beare the Beare killed him And for that the king Fauila died without children the Castilians elected for king the husband of his sister whiche is to wit the sonne of the Earle of Nauarne who was named Alonso the whiche began his raigne in the yeare .vii. C.lxxij hys raigne endured eightene yeares which was as much tyme as his father in law the good King Sir Pelaius had raigned This good King was the firste that was named Alonso which tooke his name in so good an houre that since that daye amongst all the kings of Castile that haue bin named Alonso we reade not of one that hath bin euill but very good Of thys good king Alonso the historiographers do recite many landable things to recompt worthy to be knowen and exemplars to be followed The King sir Alonso was the first that out of Nauarne entered Galizia to make warre vppon the Moores with whome be had many encounters and battells in the ende he ouercame and droue them out of Astorga Ponferada Villa franca Tuy and Lugo with all their Countries and Castelles This good king Alonso was he that did win of the Moores the Citie of Leon and builded there a royall place to the ende all the Kings of Castile his successors should there be resideÌ„t and so it came to passe that in long time after many Kings of Castile did liue and die in Leon. This good King Alonso was the firste that after the destruction of Spaine began to builde Churches and to make Monasteries and Hospitalles in especially from the beginning the Cathedrall churches of Lugo Tâ—y Astorga and Ribeâ—ew the which afterwards did passe to Mondonedo This good king Alonso did buiâ—d many and very solempne Monasteries of the order of saint Benet and many hospitalles in the way of saint Iames and many particular Churches in Nauarne and in the Countrey of Ebro whiche he endewed all with great riches and gaue them opulent possessions This good King Alonso was the first that did séeke and commaunded to be sought with very great diligence the holy bookes that had escaped the hands of the Moores and as a zelous Prince commaunded that they shoulde bée caried to the Church of Oiendo to be kept and gaue great rewards vnto such as had hid them This good King Alonso
Emperour Traiane did vse to say men that possesse noble heartes and blushing vysages ought neuer to beginne that whiche lyeth not in their handes to performe for otherwyse they shall leaue with great shame that they beganne with great hope Sir you doe well knowe that all those that you leade in your campe against the king be théeues murtherers blasphemers and seditious Commoners all whiche as they are a base people and men of handicrafte you haue to intreate them but not to force them suffer but not to chastise to pray but not to commaunde to flatter but not to threaten for they followe you not to remedie things amisse but to rob the goods that others haue in possession That daye that the king shall enter into Castile that day that you shal lose any battell and also that daye that you haue not to paye the men of warre then shall you sée howe they will trudge from you without takyng any leaue and also make a secrete sale of you Sir haue compassion of your age so tender and of youre bloud so vndefiled of your parentage so honorable of youre house so auncient of your condition so good of your abilitie so â—ntier and of your youth so euill imployed all which things you haue vnfauourly infected and also in a maner mortifyed If you will beléeue me and giue credite vnto my wordes incommende your selfe vnto God leaue this enterprise turne vnto the king goe vnto the Gouernours and shake handes with these commoners Forasmuche as the king is pitifull and all men desire your remedie and welfare hée woulde much more accept your comming to serue with the rest than to haue raised this war against him Let not the deuil deceiue you either any vaine or fantasticall imagination hinder you to performe the same neither to conceiue that they haue to charge you with vnstablenesse in that you haue enterprised either as a traitor for that you haue taken in haÌ„d bicause in al the histories of this world they be acompted loyal that serue their king and such as rebell be called disloyall traitors Also if a GeÌ„tleman be reproued for slouthfulnesse he riseth more early and vseth more diligence if they call him babbler he kéepeth silence if they accuse him for a glutton he vseth temperance if they charge him as an adulterer he abstayneth if they burden him to be furious he suffereth if they impute him to be ambicious he abaseth if they name him a sinner he amendeth but if they call him by the name of a traytor there is no water that may wash or make it cleane either any excuse that may excuse it Neyther is the King so muche offended or the kingdome so much altered or affaires so aforehand nor the Gouernours of so hard disposition but that you maye be reduced and finde time very conuenient to serue the King. The which if you woulde performe I promise you by the faith of a Christian and do sweare vnto you by the lawe of an honest man that amending this wrong my penne shall change his stile Montauan maister of your house and I haue communed in secrete things of greate importaunce and since he did herein credit me it shal not be amisse that you beleue him there and if you will not I washe my handes of all your faulte and from hence forwarde doe take my leaue of your friendship No more but that with the faith and credit that I haue receiued your letter with the verie same it may please you to receyue this of myne From Medina del camop the eight day of Marche in the yeare of our Lorde .1521 A letter vnto a Gentleman and secrete friend to the Author wherin he doth aduise and reprehende him for his wretched couetousnesse MAgnificent and couetous GeÌ„leman the good Emperor Titus that was son to Vaspasian and brother to Domitian was of himself so vertuous of al the Romane Empire so welbeloued that at the tyme of his death they did engraue these words vpoÌ„ his sepulcher Delitiae moriuÌ„tur generis humani which is to say To daye is dead in Rome that did reioyce all mankynd Of this good Emperor Titus is read in Suetonius that being at supper on a time with many Princes of the empire other Embassadors of diuers kingdoms sodeinly gaue a great sigh sayd Diem amisimus amici as if he should say more cléere Let not this day be accompted amongst the days of my lyfe bicause this day I haue not performed any bountie neither giuen any reward Plutarke doth report of Alexander the great that when many Philosophers had disputed in his presence wherein consisteth the good happe of this lyfe hée made answere Beléeue me friends and be out of doubt that in all this worlde there is not equall delighte or lyke pleasure as to haue wherwith to be liberall and not wherefore to chastise Also it is said of Theopontus the Thebane who béeing a Captayne of men of warre a souldioure craued of him some péece of money to buye breade and hauing none to giue pulled of his shoes saying If I had better I would giue thée better but in the meane while take these shoes of myne for that I haue no money for it is more iust that I goe barefoot than thou an hungred Dionysius the tyrant entring vpon a certain day into his sonnes chamber and séeing there many iewels of siluer and gold sayde Sonne I did not giue these riches to the end thou shouldest kéepe them but bicause thou shouldst giue and imparte them For there is no man in this world of more power than the giuing and liberall man for with his giuing he conserueth his frends and maketh teÌ„der his enimies I haue made this discourse to vtter a certaine thyng vnto you which if you were in Castile as you are in Andolozia my penne should neuer haue written vnto you but my toung should haue spoken it into your eare for our assured friendes notwithstanding wée haue licence to blame them yet we may not vse our libertie to defame them Some of Andolozia hath told me here and some of your frendes haue written me from thence that your delite excéedeth to farre in hoording vp of money and no lesse enimie with the spendyng therof Of which déede and disposition I am not a little grieued also muche ashamed bicause honor auarice be so contrarie and in such contention and defiance that they neuer dwell in one person neither at any time had any affinitie All vicious men in this life haue some tast in their vices except it be the miserable and most vnfortunate couetous nigard which is tormeÌ„ted with that which others do possesse takes no tast in that whiche he hath The painfull trauell of the couetous nigarde is that always he walketh suspicious and in feare that the raging flouds carrie awaye his Milles that the hierd eate vp his meades that hunters steale his game and
salutem Descendit ad inferos In the yeare a thousande fiue hundred twenty and thrée comming out of Fraunce by Nauarne in a little Churche in Viena not farre from the Growine I saw an Epitaph vpō the Tomb of the Duke Valentine which without writing I commended vnto my memorie and as I thinke thus it sayd Here lieth clad in a little clay That mortall men did feare VVhich in peace war the ful whole sway In all this world did beare O thou that goest with care to seeke VVorthy things of prayse most meete If worthy things thou wouldest prayse Here thou hast to direct thy wayes And therein farther to spend no dayes In the warres of Lumbardy there dyed an auncient soldier which was valiant and meanely rich who was buried by his friends in a little Village betwixt Plazentia and Voguera on whose Sepulture were written these words Here Campuzano doth lie VVith whose soule the Diuill did flie But his goodes had Sir Antonie In Alexandria de la Palla I found another soldier buried in the Churche within the Castell vpon whose Sepulture that is to say vpon the wall I saw writtē with a Cole these words Here lieth Horozco the Sergeant VVhich liued playing And died drinking In the Citie of Aste when Caesar went to make warre in Fraunce we stayed certayne dayes A Souldier was buried in the monasterie of Saint Frauncis as it séemed being very poore made his will very rich vppon whose Sepulture another Soldier placed these wordes Here lyeth Billandrando VVhich all that he had did not let to play And that which he had not he gaue away In the Citie of Nisa we buried an honorable soldier that had bin Captayne but in the morning and at night with a Cole I saw written vpon his Tomb these words Here lieth the Soldier Billoria VVhose body to the Church by his friēds did send But his hart to his loue he did incommende In a place of Spayne which shall be namelesse I founde the Sepulture of a certayne Gentlewoman vpon whose Tombe these words were written Here lieth the Lady Marina in earthly presse VVhich died thirty days before she was countesse In the .18 yeare I being warden of the Citie of Soria going to preach to the Camp of Gomara in a little Village I encountred with an old Sepulture vppon the stone whereof were written these words Here lieth bald Iohn Hussillo VVhich taught boyes to swimme And wenches to daunce very trim This yeare past in visiting my Byshoprick of Mondonedo I found in the Archdeaconship of Trasancos in a little Churche by the Sea side an auncient Tomb which they sayd was of a gentlemā naturall of the place which had these words writtē Here lieth Vasko Bell A good Gentleman and a fell The which neuer drew his sword indeede That made any man euer to bleede Going for Custos of my prouince of conception in a generall Chapter ioyntly with certayne religious Portingalls of my order bound to the same place amongst the which the warden of Sanctaren a man both wise and learned vnderstanding me to haue delight in old things sayde that in his Monasterie vppon a Tombe of a Portingall Gentleman were written these words Here lieth Basko Figueira Much against his will. So high a sentence so delicate words and so certain a troth as this as God saue me might not procéed either be inuēted but of a man of an high delicate iudgement they wer spokē in Portingall in a Monasterie of Portingall in the behalfe of a Portingall and a Portingall saide them whereof I gather vnto my selfe that the nobles of Portingall be wise in their attempts and of sharp iudgement in what they speake To my iudgemēt my appetite to my tast and liking to this daye I haue not heard or red a thing so gratious as the letter of that Sepulture bycause ther may not be said a greater troth than to say that Basko Figueira or any other persone is in hys Tomb much against his will. What Sepulture is in thys world so rich wherein any man desireth to dwel or wisheth to be buried what man is so insensible that woulde not rather liue in a narrow houell than in a large and ample sepulture Not only Basko Figueira lieth in his sepulture against his wil but also the Machabees in their Piramides Semiramis in hir Polimite the great Cirus in hys Obiesko the good Augustus in hys Columna the famous Adrian in his Mole magno the prowde Alaricus in hys Rubico All whyche if we coulde demaunde of them and they aunswere vs woulde sweare and affirme that they dyed without their owne consent and were buryed agaynste their willes My Lorde Admirall from hencefoorth I diuine that if Basko Figueira lyeth deade in his sepulture agaynst his will with an euill will I dare auouche you will bée buryed in yours although moste certayne the chappell is riche and your Tombe very stately Your honor hath to vnderstande that I thought good to enlarge this letter to the end you should haue wherat to maruel and also wherwith to laugh with a protestation that I make that if you wryte agayne within this halfe yeare I wyll refuse to answere for that I haue in hande certayne woorkes of myne owne presently to be printed and after to be published No more but that our Lorde be in your kéeping From Valiodolid the .xxx. of Marche 1534. A letter vnto Sir Alphonce Manrique Archebishop of Ciuill wherein is declared a certayne passage of holy Scripture conuenient to bee read of Iudges and prelates that be cruell RYght Noble and pitifull Prelate if your reuerend Lordship do conceyue that for the gallant baye mule which you haue sent mée by Orlande your Stewarde I shoulde submit my selfe to do you great seruice eyther to render greate thankes ye are greatly deceiued for although she be both faire and good I haue wonne and gayned the same by a sentence pronounced agaynste your honor for the costes of processe and the amendes wherein you are condemned when your moste reuerend Lordship and the Duke of Naiarra vppon a certaine contention did elect mée for your iudge which is to wéete where the situation of Sagunto shuld haue stande and the renowned Neomantia should haue bene wherein to determine and verifie your doubte I studied very muche and traueled not a little And since you are condemned in a Mule and consented vnto the sentence once againe I aduertise your honor that I will neyther restore hir and muche lesse pay for hir My Lord the Duke of Naiarra your brother at Courte doeth dayly threaten mée that eyther by violence he will take hir from mée or else cause hir to be stolen wherfore I humbly pray your honor to commaunde that he leaue me in peace otherwise I promise you to proue vnto him by my auncient histories that the borders and limites of Naiarra haue bene twoo leagues within the Duchie But nowe setting aside all iestes to speake in earnest I
enim in iniquitatibus conceptus sum in peccatis concepit me mater mea Durste he peraduenture say that in him was no sinne And God sayde vnto Noe Quòd omnis caro corruperat viam suā what may hée be that will saye he had no sinne considering that God condemneth the vniuersall worlde of sinne Since the Psalmist sayeth with most cleare voyce Omnis homo mendax how cōmes it to passe that any dare excuse himselfe of sinne The Scripture saying thus Adam sinned in eating of the defended frute Cain sinned in killing his brother King Dauid sinned by his adultery Ionathas sinned in eating the hony Absalon in conspiring against his father Dauid and also Salomon sinned by idolatrye Then since these glorious personages be fallen downe flatte is there any person that may thinke himselfe safe from stumbling And in the name of God I craue to be answered for what cause did the diuine Paule cry saying Qui se existimat stare videat ne cadat but to the ende that euery man shoulde consider with himselfe that hee is fallen into sinne or that shortly hée may fall into sinne He that considereth the moste infortunate fall of Iudas the disciple of Iesus Christ accompanying Iesus Christe and hearing Iesus Christ dareth he aduenture to trust and haue confidence in himselfe Since wée are descended of sinners haue taken our byrth of sinners be conuersant with sinners and committe so enorme and deadly sinnes say we not most true that they be most vniust which affirme estéeme themselues for iust and rightuous I admitte that euery man say what he will and performe of himselfe what hée thinketh good For if I will confesse the troth that in mée there is many things to be amended many things to be clipt or shorne many things to be purged and to too muche to be snuffed And surely it is no small parte of Iustification to confesse our faultes notwithstanding the confession suffiseth not if wée do not inforce our selues to correction For if a candell haue too long a snuffe it suffiseth not a little to dresse and erect but to snuffe the same And for that if in this whole worlde there were but one vice wherein wée myght fall all men woulde beware thereof But séeyng there be so many quagmires wherein to bée myred it is a thing too common that if we sincke not to the bottome at the leaste we remayne all bemyred Yf wée wyll haue the candle cleare and of himselfe gyue lyght it is very necessary that he be oft snuffed By this that I haue sayde I woulde say that the man that hath shame in his face and woulde preserue his conscience presently when he hath committed the faulte he muste determine to amende For if he once harden his conscience late or neuer doth hée amende his lyfe To this purpose the wise Salomon sayde Impiusciòn in profundum malorum venerit contemnit as if he shoulde say He that the Lorde doth refuse to succour with his mercifull hande deferring from day to day to amend he goeth deeper and deeper to the bottome beeing clad in suche manner with sinne as he in no wise wyll yeelde to correction Wherefore God in commaunding that at the foote of the lampes that did light in the Temple there shoulde be snuffers to snuffe them it is no other thing as mée thinketh but that euery man ought to séeke with whome to bée indoctrined in that whiche hee ought to followe and remoued from his errour wherein hée offended For in his owne cause it is not permittible for any man to bée Iudge of himselfe But how contrary is the fashion at these dayes in this miserable worlde The glorious Apostle S. Paule sayde In nouissanis diebus coaceruabunt sibi magistros prurientes auribus which is They shall more delyght to haue with them flatterers to deceyue them than directers by good counsell to aduise them I returne to say and reiterate that it is no other thing to commaunde to haue snuffers nyghe vnto the candlesticke than to gyue vs to vnderstande that wée ought often to accustome our selues to purge our conscience For if it be necessarie in one houre thrée or foure tymes to snuffe the candle it shall not be ouermuche that euery wéeke at the leaste once or twice to purge and snuffe the soule The candle hauing a greate snuffe may not well gyue lyght and the soule laden with sinnes may finde no merite And therefore it is necessarie to gyue and maynteyne muche as to a lampe or to snuffe him well as a candle bycause sinnes that bee rooted and growen olde be difficile to confesse and harde to amende Therein it is also to bée vnderstoode God commaunded that the snuffers wherewith they shoulde snuffe the lampes and also the bason wherin they shoulde lay the snuffers to be not of grosse but pure and moste fine golde to gyue vs to vnderstande that the King the Prelate the Iudge the gouernour and giuer of chasticement ought not to containe in thēselues any vice wherfore to be shorue clipt or snuffe for that it is not permittable by the lawes humane or diuine that one théefe should iudge another théefe to be hanged And then are the snuffers of leade or of yron when the Iudge or gouernor is of a life lesse honest in his speache inordinate and wherein hée iudgeth of partiall affection For otherwise it shall be more expedient to neate and purge the snuffers than to snuffe the Candelles And then be the snuffers of fine golde when the Iudge or Prelate is of a syncere life modest in his purposes zelous of his Common wealth a right Iusticer as also by the voyce of common consent to haue nothing whereof to be amended and lesse to be desired Faciebat Dauid iudicium iustitiam omni populo This is written of Dauid in the seconde booke of Kings which is as muche to say That the good king Dauid did sitte openly giuing audience to euery man and doing iustice to all men Certaynly there bée many that as Iudges do heare all in publike and smal is the number which giueth right to all men And some that do iustice vnto diuers but not many that equally minister iustice to all men Which ought in no wise to be done much lesse to be consented vnto For the lawe ought not to go as the king willeth but rather the King as the lawe willeth O wordes moste certainely to bée noted and to memorye bée incommended by the which is sayde of the good King Dauid not by the hands of another but of himselfe not in his house but openly not once but euery daye not to one person but to al the people not that he would prolong them but it is sayde from the present hour◠in whiche hée hearde them he did dispatche them The Iudges that God did constitute and send into diuers places all haue bene holy and iust which is to say Noe
to be drowned the finall end of youre Realme of Iudea and of the Crowne of Israell What shall we say of your most auncient Temple so magnificent in buildings and so holy in the action of sacrifice surely ye haue no other thing but the lies For ye well know that forty yeares and no more After ye crucifyed the Lorde Iesus Christe the Emperours Titus and Vaspasian the father and sonne did sack destroy and burne the same Of the Monarchy of your kingdome muche lesse haue you not of any thing than the lies for that from the time the great Pompâ—y passed into Asia and subdued Palestine he neuer after committed fayth to any Iewe I say to giue him any speciall charge of gouernmeÌ„t in the Citie or defence of any fortresse but perpetually did shew your selues subiect to the Romaynes not as Vassals but rather as slaues If we should speake of your auncient language of the old carrecters of your wrightings we should likewise finde that you haue not any thing left but lies and for proofe thereof first I pray you tell me whiche is he amongst you that knoweth the language of your ancesters either can reade or else vnderstand any of the auncient Hebruish bookes But nowe to bring you to the knowledge thereof I shall deduce notwithstanding it doth not like you directly and successiuely the beginning of your Hebrewish tong and how by little and little it was lost agayne Wherein you haue to vnderstand that the Patriarke Noe with his children and Nephewes escaping the Floud went and did settle in the countrey of Caldea the situation whereof is vnder the fourth Climate the RegioÌ„ after the Floud first inhabited and populat from whence be issued the Aegiptians Sarmits Greekes Latines and all other Nations In the same Region I meane beyond the riuer Euphrates and neare vnto Mesopotamie the Patriark Abraham was borne and nourished the whiche being called of God came to dwell in the countrie of Canaan afterwardes named Siria the lesse the countrey where the good old Abraham and his generation did most inhabit In those days in that countrey of Canaan they had in vse to speake another language named Sirien very differeÌ„t from the Calde tong But as Abraham and hys posteritie dwelling in that countrey many yeares these two languages by processe of time grewe to be corrupted Abraham hys family and successors being not able to learne the Sirien spéeche neyther the Siriens the Calde tong of these two languages there remayned in vse one which was named the Hebrew Also you haue to vnderstand that this name Hebrew is as much to say as a man that is a straunger or come from beyond the Riuer and for that Abraham was come from the other side of the Riuer Euphrates he was generally called Hebrew in such wise that of this name Hebrew by the which Abraham was called the spéeche tong and language was also named Hebraique and not Caldean notwithstanding that hée was of Caldea Many Doctors Gréekes and Latins haue sayde that the Hebrew tong doth come from Heber the sonne of Sale and that it was the language which was in vse and spoken before the generall Floud notwithstanding Rabialhazer Mosanahadach Aphesrura Zimibi and Sadoc your most anciente and famous Hebrew doctors do sweare and affirme that the first spéeche and language in this world was lost in the construction or to say better the confusion of the towre of Babylon without perfection remayning in any one word of their language And then since the language of Noe was lost the Caldean conuerted into the Sirien and the Sirien into the Hebrew it came to passe that Iacob with his twelue sonnes went to dwel in Egipt where they did soiorne so long Captiues that very neare they forgate the Hebrue tong neyther aptly coulde learne the Egiptian language remayning in their spéech and pronounciation corrupted And as after the destruction of the second Temple as also the totall and finall losse and destruction of the holy lande That your brethren were dispersed throughout the worlde for the most part Captiues and that in you ther remayned nothing but the lies of Iacob the things desolate of Israell God did permitte that they shoulde ioyntly take ende both the forme of your life and the manner of your spéech Behold here honorable Iewes sufficiently proued by your owne doctors that of your countrey language renowne glory and the whole state of your Sinagoge ye haue nothing left but the lies as the Prophet sayth and the dregs and grounds of the tubbe In suche manner that ye haue neither Lawe to obserue King to obey Scepter to estéeme priesthood to aduaunce youre honor Temple to pray in Citie to inhabit neyther language to speake And for that the scope and proofe of your obstination and oure healthe and saluation doth lye and consist in the veritie of the Scripture whiche we haue receyued and the falshoode and corruption of theÌ„ which you confesse it shall be expedient to recite how where and when youre Scriptures were corrupted and lost euen as I haue produced and broughte foorth the losse of your language Ye haue therefore to vnderstande that the fyue bookes of the lawe the which your greate Duke Moyses did write after he came foorth of the Land of Egypt and before he entred the lande of promisse and those whiche were written by the Prophet Samuell and Esdras were all written in the Hebrew tong without any addition of the Egiptian language for youre Moyses being inspired by God in all the things hée did take in hand did wright these bookes in the most auncient Hebrew tong which is to vnderstande in the very same that Abraham did speake at his comming out of Calde God giuing you thereby to vnderstand that you should haue folowed your father Abraham not onely in the forme of your life but also in your spéech During the time that Moyses Aaron Iosue Ezechiell Caleph Gedeon and all the fourtéene Dukes did gouerne your Aliama vntill the decease of the excellent King Dauid the lawe of Moyses was alway well vnderstood and indifferently wel obserued But after the decease of these good personages and the kingdome and gouernment being come into the handes of the successors of Dauid the Sinagoge was neuer more well gouerned neyther the Scriptures well vnderstoode I woulde saye not well vnderstoode generally of the twelue Tribes There were notwithstanding alwayes some particular persones of the house of Israell the whiche were agreable and also acceptable vnto God and to the common wealth very profitable That your law was not from thencefoorth wel vnderstood is most euident for it was prohibited and defended in your Aliama that neyther the visions of Ezechiell the sixt Chapter of Esay the booke of the Canticles of Salomon the booke of Iob neyther the lamentations of Ieremy should be read or commented by any person whiche was done not bycause the bookes
neuer gaue obedieÌ„ce to any but alwaies made a Seigniory of it selfe The seate of the Citie of Sagunto was foure leagues from Valentia where is now Monviedro he that shall say that which we call now in Castile Ciguenca was in time paste the Citie Sagunto it shall be because he dreamed it not to haue read it Being Inquisitor of Valentia I was many times at Monviedro as well to visite the Christians as to baptise the Moores And considering the sharpnesse of the place the antiquitie of the walles the greatnesse of the colledge the distaÌ„ce from the Sea the statelinesse of the buildings and the monstrousenesse of the sepulchers there is none but he may vnderstand that to be Monviedro which was Sagunto and that which was Sagunto is now Monviedro In the fields of Monviedro and in the ruinous buildings that be there at these daies there are found many stones ingraueÌ„ and many auncient Epitaphes of the Hannibals of the Asdrubals that died there in the siege of Sagunto the which were two linages of Carthage very notable of bloud and also famous in armes Neare to Monviedro there is a certaine place that in those daies was called Turditanos is now named Torres torres for that they were mortall enemies of the Saguntines Hanniball put himself in with them and from thence did make his batterie did throw downe burne the citie of Sagunto not succoured then of the Romanes or euer after reedified Behold here my Lords how your contention was which was Sagunto and not whiche was Numantia So that Soria and Samorra doth rather giue doubte whiche was Numantia and Monviedro and Sigentia which was Sagunto But the resolution and conclusion of all the aforesayde considering the merites of the processe and what eyther partie hath alledged for him selfe I doe say and declare by my definitiue sentence that the Archbishop of Ciuile did faile and the Duke of Naiara did erre in the thing that both did contend and lay their wager And I condemne either of them in a good Mule to be employed vpon him that shall declare whiche was the greate Numantia I my Lordes will now recount and declare whiche was that Citie Numantia and also say who was the founder therof where it was foÌ„nded how it was founded and what time it lasted and also how it was destroyed for that it is an history very delectable to read worthie to be vnderstood pleasant to recount and lamentable to heare VVhich was the great Citie Numantia in Spaine THe Citie of Numantia was founded by Numa Pompilius the second king of Romanes in the fiftie and eight yeere after the foundation of Rome and in the eightenth yeare of his raigne in suche sorte for that the founder thereof was called Numa it was named Numantia In the old time they did much vse to name their Cities they builded by their owne proper names as Ierusalem of Salem Antioche of Antiochus Constantinople of Constantine Alexandria of Alexander Rome of Romulus and Numantia of Numa Onely seuen Kings there were of Romanes The first of the which was Romulus the seuenth was Tarquine of these seuen the moste excellent of them all was this Numa Pompilius for he was the first that brought the Goddes into Rome he did inclose the vestall Virgins builded the temples and gaue lawes to the Romanes The situation of this Citie was neare the riuer of Dwero and not farre from the head of the same and it was set vpon the heigth of an hill and this heigth was not of a Rocke but vpon a certaine plaine Neither was it towred within nor walled without onelâ— it was compassed about with a broade déepe dischâ—… was inhabited with more than fiue and lesse than sixe thousand households two partes of the which did follow the warres and the third parte their tillage and labour Amongst them exercise was much praised and idlenesse greatly condemne which is more not couetous of goods and yet very ambitious of honour The Numantins of their naturall coÌ„dition were more flegmatike than colericke suffring dissembling suttle and of great actiuitie in such wise that that whiche they did at one time dissemble at another they did reuenge In their Citie there was but one crafts man that was the Smith Goldsmiths Silkworkers Drapers Fruters Tauerners Fishmongers Butchers such like they would not coÌ„sent to liue amongst them For al such things euery maÌ„ ought to haue in his owne house not to séeke them in the common wealth They were so valiant and so doubtie in the affayres of warre that they neuer saw any Numantine turne his barke or receiue any wound in the same in such wise that they did rather determine to die than to flée They could not go a warfare without licence of their common wealth and those also must goe altogether and followe one quarell for otherwise if one Numantine did kill another Numantine the murtherer afterwards was put to death by the common wealth Foure kind of people the Romanes had very fierce to tame and very warlike to fight that is to wit the Mirmidones whiche were those of Merida the Gauditanes whiche were those of Calis the Saguntines whiche were those of Monviedro and the Numantines whiche were those of Soria The difference amongst these was that the Mirmidons were strong they of Calis valiant the Saguntines fortunate but the Numantines were strong valiant and fortunate Fabatus Metellus Sertorius Pompeius Caesar Sextus Patroclus all the other Romane Captaines that by the space of one hundred and foure score yéeres held warres in Spaine did neuer conquere the Numantins neither at any time had to doe with them Amongst all the Cities of this world onely Numantia did neuer acknowledge hir better or kisse the hands of any other for lord This Numantia was somewhat Rockie halfe coÌ„passed with out-towers not very well inhabited and lesse riche With all this none durst hold hir for enemie but for confederate and this was the cause for that the Fortune of the Numantins was much more than the power of the Romanes In the warres betwene Rome and Carthage Caesar and Pompey Silla and Marius there was no King or kingdome in the world that did not follow one of those partes and against the other did not fight except the proude Numantia which always made aunswere to those that did persuade hir to followe their opinioÌ„ that not she of others but others of hir ought to make a head In the first Punick warres neuer would the Numantines follow the CarthaginiaÌ„s or fauour the Romanes for which occasion or too say better without any occasion the Romanes determined to make warre vpon the Numantins not for anye feare they had of their power but for enuie of their great fortune Fouretene yeares continually the Romanes besieged the Numantins in which great was the hurt the Numantins receiued but much more meruelous of the Romane Captaines that there died There were slaine in
Romaines neuer possessed or inhabited The Prince Iugurth of the age of .xxij. yeares came from Africa to the warres of Numantia in fauor of Scipio and did there suche and so notable feates in armes that he deserued with Scipio to be verie priuate and in Rome to be esteemed Al the Historiographers that write of the warres of Numantia saye that the Romaines did neuer receyue so muche hurte or lose so many people or were at so greate charges neyther receyued so great shame as they did in that conqueste of Numantia And the reason they giue for this is for that all the other warres hadde their beginning vppon some iniurie except that of Numantia whiche was of méere malice or enuie To say that the Citie of Samorra was in tyme past Numantia is a thing verie fabulous and worthie to be laughed at bicause if stories do not deceiue vs from the time that Numātia was in the world vntil the time that Samorra begā to be there did passe seuen hundreth thirtie thrée yeres If Plinie Pomponius Ptholomaeus Strabo had said that Numantia was néere to Dwero there had bin a doubt whether it had bin Soria or Samorra But these Historiographers doe saye that the foundation thereof was néere to the head of Dwero wherof it may be gathered that séeing Samorra is more than thirtie leagues from the heade of Dwero Soria is but fiue that it is Soria and not Samorra There be thrée opinions where the situation of the citie of Numantia should bée in whiche some doe saye that it was where nowe is Soria others affirme that it was on the other side of the bridge vpon an hill some do auouche that it was a league from thence on a certain place named Garray and in my iudgement as I consider of the thrée situations this opinion is moste true bycause there is founde greate antiquities and there doth appeare auncient greate buyldings Those that wrote of Numantia were Plinius Strabo Ptholomaeus Trogus Pompeius Pullio Trebellius Vulpicius Isodorus Instinus and Marcus Ancus A letter vnto the Constable Sir Ynigo Valasco in the whiche the Authour doth perswade that in the taking of Founterabie he first make proofe to profite his wisedome before he do experiment his Fortune MOst renoumed Lorde and Captaine to Caesar about the dead of this night Peter Herro deliuered mée a Letter from your Lordship the whiche althogh it had not come firmed or with superscription by the letter I should haue knowen it to be written with your owne hand bicause it conteined few lines many blots While you are in the warres it is tollerable to write on grosse paper with crooked lynes euill ynke and blotted letters For good warriers doe more esteme to sharpen their launces than to make pennes Sir you write vnto me that I should pray for your health and victorie for that at the commaundemente of Caesar you goe to besiege Founterabie which was taken by the Admirall of Fraunce the same béeyng of the Crowne of Castile Thys youre seruaunt preaceth with such diligence for this letter that I shal be forced to answer more at large than I can and muche lesse than I woulde As touchynge Founterabie I doe certaynly beléeue that within these two yeares the takyng and susteynyng of it hathe coste the French King more than it would haue cost to haue bought or else to haue buylt it Wherof there is no cause to haue maruell for that great Lordes and Princes do spend much more in susteyning the opinion they holde than the reason that they vse In all christendome at this presente I fynde not an enterprise more dangerous than this of Founterabie For either you muste ouercome the French king or else displease the Emperor I wold say that ye take in hand to deale with the might of the one and with the fauour or disgrace of the other To be a Captain generall is an estate verie honorable and profitable although ryght delicate For notwithstanding hée doe all that he can and all that is méete to bee done it by the mishap of his sinnes hée giue any battel and carie not away the victorie it is not sufficiēt that the sorowfull man doe lose his lyfe but also they séeke some faulte by the whiche they say he lost that battell Be it that euery man be what he can and fight what he may yet neuer to this day haue we séene a conquered Captain called wyse neyther him that ouercame termed rashe It is verie good that the Captaines which fight and the Physitions that cure be wise but it is muche better that they be fortunate For these bée two things wherein many tymes wysedome fayleth and fortune preuayleth Sir you do take in hand an enterprise iuste and verie iust bicause from tyme out of mynde to this day wée haue neuer heard or séene the towne of Founterabie possessed by any king of France neyther any king of Castile to haue giuen it them In suche wyse that it is a conscience for them to holde it and a shame for vs not to take it Sir consider well for your owne part that a warre so iust be not lost through some secrete offence bycause the disgraces and ouerthrowes that do happen in such like enterprises doe not chaunce bicause the warre is not iust but for that the conductours thereof bée vniuste The warre the Hebrewes made with the Philistines in the mount of Gilboa was a war verie iust but king Saule that had the conduction therof was a Kyng verie vniuste for whose cause the Lorde did permit that noble battayle to be lost to the ende the kyng should be slayne in the same But as the iudgements of God are in them selues so high and of vs so vnknowen many times it dothe happen that a king or prince doth chose out one of his seruāts to make him general of an armie to the ende he be honored and his state more amended than the rest And on the other side God doth permit that there where he thought to obtayn most honor good happe from thence he dothe escape moste shamed and confounded Let it not bée thought of Princes and of great men that séeing they woulde not abstaine from sinne they shall more than others auoyd the payne For God doth compasse them in suche wise that they come to make paymente in one houre of that whiche they committed in all their life In the house of God there hath not is not neyther shall be merite without reward or fault without punishment And if it hap that presentely wée sée not the good rewarded eyther the euill chastised it is not for that God doth forget it but vntill an other tyme to deferre it The Marshall of Nauarre with his band of Agramontenses wée vnderstande is in the defence of Founteraby it séemeth not to be yll counsell to make youre siege openlye and to practise wyth them secretely For although they be nowe seruauntes to the Frenche Kyng
or not remembring the case was thus that within fewe dayes after they gaue him thrée twentie stabs with a dagger in such wise that the most Noble Prince lost his life for no greater matter than for not hauing a little good maner The contrary of this Suetonius Tranquillus doth write of Augustus the Emperour which being in the Senat or in the Colledge did neuer sit downe vntill they were all set and rendred the same reuerence that they gaue him and if by chaunce his children entred the Senate house neither did he consent that the Senators shoulde rise either that his children should sit downe Sir if you will not that men call you presumptuous or to speake plainly do call you foole haue a care to be well manered for with good maner more than with any other thing we withdraw our enemies and do sustaine our friends Sir I haue spoken with the Popes messenger vppon the dispensations that you sent to haue to marry with the Gentlewoman the Lady Marina Whiche wée haue agréed for thrée score ducates and as he is a Venetian and would not be counted a foole he will first be payed before you shall be dispatcht I haue spoken with Perianes as concerning the expedition of the priuiledge of the Iury and as he was deaffe and moste dunch I cried out more in speaking vnto him than I do vse in preaching The newes of the Courte is that the Empresse wisheth the Emperours comming the Dames woulde marrie the suters would be dispatched the Duke of Veiar would lyue Antony de Fonseca woulde grow young Sir Rodrigo of Voria would enherit also Frier Denise wold be a Bishop Of my selfe I giue you to vnderstand that I am in possession of all the condicions of a good suter that is to wit occupied soliciting carefull spent suspicious importunate out of temper and also abhorred for that my Lorde the Archbishop of Toledo and I go to the lawe for the Abbay of Baza vppon which I haue for my parte a famous sentence No more but that our Lord be your protector and giue me grace to serue him From Medina del Campo the twelfth of Marche .1523 A lerter vnto sir Gonsalis Fernandes of Cordoua great Captaine in which is touched that the knight escaping the warres ought not from thence forth to depart his house MOst renoumed valiant Prince my weakenesse to write vnto your mightinesse my simplicitie vnto your prudencie if it shall séeme vnto those that shal heare thereof to be a thing ouer proude and to such as shal see it to be ouer presumptuous lette them lay the fault vpon your honour which did first write vnto me and not on me that do answere with shamefastnesse Sir I will trauell to satisfie your excellencie in all things that ye cōmaund me by your letter vpon this condition most humbly beséeching that you do not so much consider what I doe say as that which I would say And for that to a person of so greate an estate it is reason to write with grauitie I will trauell to be measured in the wordes I shall speake and to be remeasured in the reasons I shall write The diuine Plato in his Bookes of common wealth did say That lesse greatnesse is not to be imputed to the honorable to deale and be conuersant with the weake than it is to stand and to countenance with the mightie and the reason that he gaue for the same is that the Generouse and magnificent mā vseth more force in taming his harte to stoupe vnto lowe things than to take in hand graue weightie and high attempts A mā of an high stature receiueth more paine in stouping to the ground for a straw than to stretch out his arme to reach a braunche By this that I haue said I would say that this our hart is so puffed vp and so proude that to rise vnto more than he may it is life and to descend to lesse than he is worth it is death There are many things whiche God woulde not bring to passe by himself alone to the end they shall not say that he is a Lord absolute either wil he bring them to passe by the hāds of the mightie for that it shal not be sayd that he taketh help of humaine fauour and afterwardes he performeth the same by the hand and industrie of some man beaten down of fortune and forgotten amongst men wherein GOD sheweth his greatnesse and filleth the same with his might The great Iudas Machabeus was lesse in body and much lesse in yeares than his thrée other brethren but in the end the good old Mathathias his father to him onely did cōmend the defence of the Hebrewes and into his handes did also resigne the armies against the Assyrians The least of the children of the great Patriarch Abraham was Isaac but in him was established the right line of Christ on him al the Iewish people did fixe their eyes The inheritāce of the house of Isaac came too Esau and not to Iacob but after the daies of the Father Iacob did not onely buy the inheritance of his brother Esau but also did steale the blessing Ioseph the sonne of Iacob was the least of his brethren and the last of the eleuen Tribes but in the ende it was he alone that foūd grace with the kings of Aegypt did deserue to interprete their dreames Of seuen sonnes that Iesse had Dauid was the least but in the ende King Saul was of God reproued and Dauid King of Hebrewes elected Amongst the meaner Prophetes Heliseus was the least but in the ende vnto him and vnto none other was giuen a dubled spirite Of the meaner sorte of the Apostles of Christ was S. Philip and the meanest Disciple of Paule was Philemon but in the end with them more than with others they did take counsaill and in great affaires would take aduise Sir it seemes to mée that agréeing with that which I haue saide your Lordship wold not take counsell with other men that be learned and wise but with me that am the simplest of your friends As your Lordship hath ben so long time in the warres of Italie it is very seldome that I haue séene you but much lesse that I haue eyther spoken or bin conuersant with you for whiche cause my friendship is to be holden for more sure and lesse suspitious for that I loue you not for the rewardes you haue giuen me but for the magnificence that I haue séene in you When one cōmes to seeke to be our frend maketh much to the matter to consider the cause that moueth him to séeke the same for if he be poore we must giue him if he be rich we must serue him if he be fauoured we must worship him if he be wilfull we must faune on him if he be impatient we must support him if he be vicious we must dissēble with him and if he be malicious we must beware of him One of the
letter ill written and worse noted neither is it to be taken in good parte either may wée leaue to murmur thereat The ploughman in plowing dothe reuew his forough that it bée straight and shall not a man haue regard to note and write his letter very well There be many who wil as lightly take the pen in hād to write as the glasse to drink and that which is worst of all they thinke much of themselues to be talking and writing The which doth well appere in their letters because the letter is illegible the paper blotted the lines crooked and the reasons doltish To knowe a man whether he be wise or foolish is a great part to consider whether he write vpon aduisement and speake with iudgement for a mā must not write what commeth to his memory but what reason doth direct Plutarch doth say of Phalaris the tyrant that he did neuer write but being alone withdrawen and with his own hand whereof it doth follow that although al do blaspheme him for his tyranny his letters wer praised throughout the world Of a trouth a Gentleman and a kinseman of mine did write vnto mée a letter of twoo shéetes of paper and as he wrote so large and not returning to read what he had writtē the very same reasons and the very same woords that he had put in the beginning he did return to write in the end wherat I was so much offended that I burnt the letter and made him no aunswere Doubtles your letters are not of such qualitie the whiche to me be very pleasant to reade and not tedious to aunswere bycause in iestes they are very pleasant and in earnest very wise Sir you say that in reading the moralles of saint Gregory you did note and also did meruaile to sée that the deuill did aske licence of God to do hurt vnto holy Iob it was graunted him and the Apostle S. Paule did pray vnto God to take away the temptation of the flesh and it was denied him In such wise that God heard the Deuill and did not condiscend vnto the prayer of saint Paule Maruell ye not sir of this for the thinges that the diuine prouidence do bring to passe be so iust and done for so iust causes that although wée maye not reach them they want not therefore reason why they should not be done If wée déepely consider what God did with the Apostle wée shall finde that it was more that God gaue him than the Apostle did craue Bycause hée desired that the temptation of the flesh might be taken away and God gaue him grace to ouercome it What iniurie doth the Prince to the Captaine that sendes him a warfare if hée makes him sure to haue the victory If absolutely God should haue taken away the temptation of the flesh from the Apostle saint Paul neither should there haue remayned occasiō to deserue either should haue béen giuen grace to ouercome For hée is more supported of God to whom hée giueth helpe to conquere than to him that hée excuseth to fight Let vs not despaire afflict our selues or bée ouer thoughtfull and much lesse complayne and murmur of God if forthwith hée giue not that whiche wée desire For hée doth it not with disfauour in that hée will not heare vs but bycause he wil change it into a better cause Hée knoweth what hée doth and wée vnderstand it not hée knoweth what hée doth denie but wée not what wée aske hée measureth all thinges with reason and wée but with apetite hée dooth denie that is hurtfull vnto vs and graunteth that which is profitable Finally I doo say that he doth know how hée are to bée handled and therfore wée ought of him only to depend The Apostle had séene the inuisible and diuine secrets whiche of his forefathers had béen much desired but neuer séene and bycause of that so high reuelation hée should not boast or grow proud the Lord would not take away the concupiscence of the fleshe In suche wise that in recompence of not condescending to his desire hée did take awaye the occasion to sinne and gaue him grace to ouercome God vsed more pitie with saint Paule in that hée would not heare him than if hée had heard him For if hée should haue taken awaye the concupiscence of the flesh it might haue come to passe that as much as hée had diminished in temptation hée might haue increased in pride When the Lord doth permit that one is tempted it doth not followe therfore that hée is of God abhorred for my parte I holde it rather a signe that of God hée is elect For as saint Gregory sayth there is not a greater temptation than not to be tempted Christ hath left the way to heauen marked and the markes of this voiage be tribulations aduersities mishappes and infirmities In such wise that it is no other thing to be remembred of God but that in this world he be permitted to be tempted Let it be holden for certaine that they of him are lost whiche in this world from aduersities be priuiledged For the enemy of mankind whiche is the deuill vnto all those that he hath registred for his owne hée doth trauell that they may liue in great welfare and ease Sir also you saye that you doe much maruail to sée the boldnesse that the Deuill had in asking licence of God to hurt holy Iob and to sée the liberalitie that God vsed in giuing it In such sort that he denied S. Paule that he desired and graunted the Deuill that whiche hee craued Sir although you haue no reason yet haue you some occasion to demaund that whiche you aske for of a suretie it as an hard thing to consent that our enemy do hurt vnto our friend That whiche I dare speake in this case is that it is lesse pernicious and of more worthinesse to suffer ill than to haue authoritie to do euill And after this maner wée haue more enuie of holy Iob in that hée suffred than vnto the deuill for that whiche he did It ought to be farre distant from the diuine will that he that hath to giue grace to serue him should giue licence to offend It is a great euill for a man to be euill but it is much worse to make him euil which is good Bycause our owne proper sinnes God doth well sée they procéede of weakenesse but the persecuting of the good alwayes groweth of malice If men do aske of God vppon their knées that hée giue grace to serue him they ought to aske with teares that he do not giue them place to offend him For in the ende if I do not good workes I shall haue no reward but if I doe euill for the same I shall haue paynes By Caine Abell was slaine by Esau Iacob was persecuted by Saule Dauid was banished by Nabugodonoser Ierusalem was burned by Achab Micheas was imprisoned by Zedechias Esaias was sawen and by the Diuell holy Iob
how was he of the Lord For the vnderstanding hereof it is to be noted how it is written in the 1. Regum cap. xxvj that Dauid being compassed with the armie of King Saul who sléeping on a night in his tent Dauid did passe thorough the middes of his campe and toke from the Kinges beds head the launce that he fought withall and a cruse of water wherein he vsed to drink and in this passage he was neither séen of the watch nor perceiued of the scout And why Quia sopor Domini irruit super eos to saye as the Scripture saith that the sléepe of the Lord fell vppon them is most true but to say that God doth sléepe and hath néede of sléepe is a great mockery For as the Psalmist doth saye Ecce non dormitabit neque dormiet qui custodit Israel Whē the scripture doth say Quòd sopor Domini irruit super eos that God had sent a dead sléepe vpon them it is to be vnderstoode non quòd ipse dominus dormiret Sed quia eius nutu infusus esset ne quisquam presentiam Dauid sentiret The diuine prouidence would cast a sléepe vpon King Saul and vpon his watch and vpon those of his Campe not for their recreation but for the safe kéeping of Dauid in such wise that in God his sléepe and his prouidence is one self thing the Lord is so zelouse of his elect and so vigilant to preserue them that he doth not only giue them grace to performe good purposes but also doth direct them alwaies by good meanes in suche wise that although hée doth permit them to trauaile he doth not consent that they perish But comming to the purpose that after the maner that the Scripture is to be vnderstood Sopor Domini irruit super eos after the same manner is vnderstand Spiritus Domini malus arripiebat Saulem And for farther declaration of this I say Quod si Diabolus tentationem iustis semper inferre cupiat tamen si à Domino potestatem non accepit nullatenus adipisci potest quod appetit The spirite that did tempt and torment King Saul for this cause he is called an euill spirite for that the will of the Deuill in tempting vs is euill And for this purpose he is named the spirite of the Lorde for that the power which the Lord doth giue him to tempt vs is good When God dothe giue licence to any Diuell that he go to vexe and disquiet any iust man it is not Gods intention that he tempt him but to exercise him bicause vertue is of such qualitie that it groweth mortified when it is not exercised with trauailes The wheat whiche is not turned is eaten with wiuels The garment that is not worne is eaten with mothes the timber that is not seasoned is spoiled with chest lockes the frō that is not wrought doth consume with ruste bread long kept groweth finnowed By this that I haue saide I would say that there is not any thing that turneth vs to more weakenesse negligence than to be a certaine time without temptations Much more care hath God of vs than we of our selues for in the end as our worthinesse is litle and but to smal purpose if we do quaile he doth comfort vs if we lie downe to sleepe he waketh vs if we be wearied he helpeth vs if we grow fearful he doth encorage vs if we grow negligent he doth intice vs Finally I say that leauing our selues vnto our owne power wée permit our selues to fall and he alone giues the hand to lift vs vp Also holy Iob was tempted of the euill spirit of the Lord not because there was any notable fault in the man but for that ther raigned in the Diuell enuie and malice For cursed sathan had not enuie of the great goods that Iob had but of the excellent life that he led At the instant that one is euill he doth desire that all be euill if he bée sclaundered that all be defamed in such wise that ther is not so perillous an enuie as that whiche euill men haue of those whiche be good and vertuous If one be good and ritch and liue by one that is euill and malicious First he that is euill dooth trauell to take away the credit the good man hath before he vseth force to spoile him of his goodes Abrabam was tempted when it was commaunded that his onely sonne shoulde be sacrifized Tobie was tempted when he lost his sight The holy Iob was tempted when they killed his children tooke his goods and filled him with the mangie in which temptatiōs those holy men suffered much and also loste much but at the time of repayment he did not giue them reward according to the goods they lost but according to the patience they vsed Since it is certain that all passions or troubles eyther God doth send them or else do come by the hand of God it is reason that we take them as sent by the hand of God who is so iust in that he commaundeth and so limited in that hée permitteth that he doth neuer suffer vs to be tempted aboue our strength With men that be of a good life and doe kepe rekening with their conscience the licence whiche God giueth to the Diuill to tempte them is surely limited and the patience that hee giueth them is very bountifull de hoc bactenus sufficit The Controler Hinestrosa came from the Court this way to sée me whiche came in suche distresse for that he had gone thither he him repented and for that hée had staied hée was despited and for that whiche had happened he was abhorred in suche sorte that to heare him report his great trauelles moued me to weigh my owne as light Men in sadnes ought not to séeke comfort of those that be merie but of others that are sorrowfull and more confounded than them selues For if they so doe of a troth they shal find that it is very little they suffer in respecte of that whiche others endure No more but that our Lord be your protector and giue me grace to serue him From Sotia the 4. of March. 1518. A letter vnto the Marques of Velez wherein hee writeth vnto him certaine newes of the Court. RIght magnificent my singular good Lord Garcy Rodrygues seruant and solicitor vnto your Lordshippe gaue me a letter of yours made the seuēth of this present in Velez el Rubio which came with more swiftnes and also more fresh thā the Samons they bring from Bayon Your honour writeth vnto me that I shoulde certifie you what newes and what worlde runneth vnto whiche I dare aunswere your Lordship that in this Court none runneth but they goe all bechafed It is an auncient pestilence in the courtes of Princes that they call suche men as do not aunswere theim they loue where they be hated they follow suche as know them not they seeke those that flie them they serue those that pay them not
MAgnificent and discrete Gentleman your seruaunt Trusillo gaue me a letter of yours at the breaking vp of the counsell of the Inquisition and to speake the troth neither did he aduertise me from whome hée came neither did I demaund him any question To my iudgemeÌ„t the one did well and the other did not erre for he came wearied with trauell and I came from the Counsel angred The philosopher Mimus sayd qui cuÌ„ lasso fameliâ—o loquitur rixam quaerit as if he should haue sayd to talke with a man that is hungrie and to haue busines with him that is wearie be great occasions to moue debate For if at the time the hungrie would eate or when the wearied would repose himselfe and woulde séeke occasion of busines he would giue the busines to Barrabas and the Author to Sathan Experience doth teach vs that at the present when a man is refreshed forthwith he begins to talke at the instant that a man doth eate or drinke forthwith he beginneth to debate And therfore we say that then and not afore it is an apt time to dispatch affaires For other wise it should be rather to importune thaÌ„ to dispatch Sir I say thus much for that you shal sée and also vnderstand that it is verie conueniente for him that goeth in affaires not onely to flée importunitie but also that hée knowe to séeke oportunitie Syr leauing this aparte I giue you to vnderstande that your importunities my muche businesse haue bin together by the eares the one procuring that I should condescende to your desire the other resisting that I could not do what you required in such wise that the cause why I haue not answered is I can not also I will not why I cannot answere dyd proceed at that time for that we toke order in the inquisition for the busines of witches in Nauerne and that I woulde not dyd rise that you sent to demaund of me a thing so straunge with the which if you did take pleasure in reding I receiued much offence and also tired my selfe in séeking The declaratioÌ„ of which historie that you sent to demand I did well remember I had séene it but I coulde not call to mynde in what booke I had red it and therof we do not maruel that do not deale with humain and diuine scriptures For the diuine Plato saith we should leaue to be men and become Gods if the memorie were able to retaine so muche as the eyes were able to reade and see Although on the one parte I had great businesse and on the other part was somwhat offended yet always I left my affaires and began to turne ouer my booke to sée if I could finde out that historie and remember the counterfait And I thought good to take this trauell in hand not only to accomplish your demaunde but also to proue my abilitie Sir you write vnto mée that in the Wardrobe of the great captain you sawe a riche cloth which they say the Venetians had giuen him for a present wherin was figured a man leading a Lyon and a Lyon that went led and laden after a man Also you saye that in the breast of the Lyon were written these wordes Hic Leo est bospes huius hominis In lyke maner was written in the breast of the man other wordes which were Hic homo est Medicus huius Leonis The one and the other letters thus much did signifie This Lion is the hoste of this man and This man is Phisition or Chirurgian to this Lyon. Sir you may well thinke somewhat at the straungenesse of the historie since the maner of the paintyng séemeth so monstrous therefore I maruell not thoughe you desire to vnderstande the same notwithstanding to finde it was not a little painefull to me It shall happen to this my letter whiche I consent verie seldome vnto an other that is that it shal be somewhat long yet not tedious for the historie is so pleasant to hear that the reader shal be gréeued for that it is no loÌ„ger Comming to the purpose The good Titus Emperoure of Rome whiche was sonne to Vespasian and brother to that euill Emperour Domitianus commyng from the warres of Germanie determined to celebrate in Rome the daye of his natiuitie in Campania Amongste the Romaine Princes thrée feastes of all other were moste celebrated to witte the daye wherein they were borne the daye wherein their Fathers dyed and the daye wherein they were created Emperours The day of this Titus byrth béeing come he ordained to make great feasts to the Senate and to distribute gifts among the people For in great disportes and feasts alwayes the Romaine Princes didde feaste the myghtye and gaue rewarde to the poore A thyng worthye to bée noted and also vnto memorye to bée commended that in the great feastes and triumphes of Ianus of Mars of Mercurie of Iupiter of Venus and of Berecinthia they dyd not boaste neyther estéeme suche feastes to be solemne great or duly solemnised by the costes that were spent either by the shewes and triumphs that therein were represented but by the number of rewards and liberall giftes that there were giuen The Emperour Titus commaunded to be brought for that feaste many Lions Beares great Harts Onchas Vnicorns Griffins Bulles Bores Wolues Camelles Elephants and ether many maruelous cruell beasts which for the more part be bred in the deserts of Aegypt and in the edge of the mountayne Caucasus Many dayes before the Emperour had commaunded that they should reserue all théeues and robbers by highwayes murderers periured persons traytors quarellers and rebelles to the end that on that day they shoulde enter into listes to chase and fight with the beasts in such wise that the chastisements of malefactors shoulde be perfourmed by the same beasts The order that he vsed herein was that the wretched men should be put within the greate Colledge and those cruell beasts should come foorth to fight against theÌ„ all the people standing to behold and none to help And if it hapned the beasts to teare the man in péeces there he payde his det but if the man kild the beast by iustice they could not put him to death Amongst other beasts that they brought vnto that feast there was a Lion whiche they had taken in the deserts of Aegypt which was mightie of body of great age of aspect terrible in fighting cruell and in his yelles and cries very horrible This most cruell Lion walking in the chase all imbrued for at that time he had slayne and torne to péeces xv men they determined to cast vnto him a fugitiue slaue to the intent he should kill and eate him and therevpon to quiet his rauenous furie A maruellous thing it was to heare and fearefull to sée that at the very instant they cast the slaue in the chase to the Lion he did not onely refuse to deuoure him but also hasted not to touche him but rather went vnto him and
Father Abbot you will come and dwell at Court from hencefoorth I make exchaunge for your craggy mount and also doe promise you by the faith of a Christian you shall more repent you to haue bin conuerted a courtier than I to be admitted of the religion of S. Benet For the much good will I beare you for the much deuotion I hold of that place you are bound to pray vnto God that he will draw me from this infamous life and fight me with his grace without the whiche we cannot serue hym and much lesse be saued By the handes of Frier Roger I haue receyued the spoones you sent me and to him I deliuered the booke that he desired me in such wise that I shall haue spoones to eate with and your fatherhod a booke to pray in In the rest that you write as concerning your Monasterie the cace shall be that you deale with God for me as one that is deuoute and I shall do with Caesar the worke of a friend No more but that our Lorde be your protector From Valiodolid the vij of Ian. 1535. A letter vnto the Admirall Sir Frederique Enriques in the whiche there is declared a certaine authoritie of the holy scripture GLorious and right famous Archmarriner I am determined before the Iudge Ronquillo to adiorne your Lordship to the end that the parties called and hearde hée he iudge and giue sentence betwixte vs whether I being as I am a Gentleman and a Courtier be bound to answere Extempore vnto all your Letters and to expounde all doubtes which your honour so continually writeth vnto me Your sollicitor is so importunate for answere I confesse that many tymes I giue the seruaunt to the Deuil and also at sometime I pray not vnto God for the maister Complayning yesterdaye vnto your solicitour for that he was so tedious and bicause so continually he did moue me he made me answer with a verie good grace Consider sir master I giue you to vnderstande that the Admirall my Lorde craueth of your reuerence that you write vnto him as a friend that you send him newes as a Chronicler declare his doubtes as a Diuine and counsell his conscience as a Religious Whervnto I replyed if your maister the Admirall will be well serued also I wil be wel payed The paiment shal be for the office of Chronicler of a diuine of a friend and of a Counseller that since I cānot get my meat with the laūce I must obtayn it with the pen. I made al this threatening not to the intente your Lordship shall giue me to eate but for that you should cease to be importune for I thank God the Emperour that is my lord and maister hath not onely giuen mée that whiche is necessarie but also wherewith to reliene others The benefit that we haue that attend vpon Princes is that if we be bound to serue them we haue alwais licēce to craue of them but let the conclusion be that with the same intention that I did speake those wordes here it may please your Lordship to receiue them there that in fine in the end chide we neuer so much or be we neuer so angrie you must nedes do what I desire you and I must of necessitie doe what you commaunde me Your Lordships pleasure is that I write vnto you howe that texte is to be vnderstoode of Esaias where he sayeth Vae tibi Ierusalem quia bibisti calicem irae Dei vsque ad feces Whiche woordes are to bée vnderstoode wo be vnto thée Ierusalem bycause thou hast dronke the cuppe of the Lords wrath euen to the dregs Your lordship asketh a matter so high a thing so profound that I had rather vnderstand than speak it tast it than write it for they know more therof that be giuē to contemplation than such as be occupied in reading but this is the doubt Since God the father did send to Christ his son a cup to drinke of bitternesse wherof is Ierusalem reprehended for the cup that she drank of wrath the one was the cup the other was the cup the one of bitternesse the other of wrathe the Synagogue did receyue the one and the Churche the other Christe dyd drinke the one Ierusalem dyd drynke the other God sent the one and God sent the other But since it is so why doe they so muche prayse the cuppe that Christe tasted of and condemne the sorrowfull cuppe that Ierusalem dyd drinke To vnderstand the profunditie of this scripture we muste presuppose that there be two maners of cuppes which is to wit the cup that is sayd simply only of God and the cup that is sayd with an addition that is of the ire of god There is so great difference betwixt these two cuppes that in the one we drink heauen in the other we swalow hell the holy cup of God is no other thing but temptations hunger cold thirste persecutions exile pouertie and martirdom of which thinges God giues to drink and to tast to such as he hathe chosen to serue him and hath predestinate to be saued Vnto whome God giueth this cup to drynke it is a signe that he is registred amongest them that shall be saued in suche sorte that we can not escape Hell but at the coste of verie great trauel Profoundly it is to be considered what Christ sayde that the cup should not only be giuen to his owne person but that it shoulde also passe vnto his Church in such wise that he drank thereof but he made not an ende for if Christ had dronke al the cuppe only Christ should haue entred the glorie And for this cause he prayed vnto his father that the cup shoulde passe vnto those of his Churche for that we shoulde all enter with him into the glorie Oh high misterie neuer heard of that Christ being in the Garden in the darke alone flat vpon his knées sweating praying and wéeping he did not craue of hys Father that the elect of his Church shuld be cherished or worldly pampred but of that cup he would giue them a draught to drinke Of that cup of bitternesse and trauell only Christ did drinke his fill bicause he only was sufficient to redéeme vs All we that came after Christ If we cannot drinke our fill I would to God we might drinke sufficient for our Saluation the sword of saint Peter the Crosse of saint Andrew the knife of saint Bartelmew the girdierne of S. Laurence the sheares of saint Steuen what other things are they but certaine badges they haue receyued of Christe and certaine gulpes they haue drunke of his cup. So many more degrées we shall receiue in Heauen of Glorie as we haue drunke of the cup of Christ in this life and therefore we ought to pray vnto God euery day with teares that if we cannot drinke all his cup at the least that he will suffer vs to tast thereof The cuppe of Christ although it be bitter in drinking after the
is delicate and of smal strength so be is more offended by a little ayre that cōmes in at a chinke thā the cold of one whole winter night did gréeue him when he was yong The old men of your age ought very much to procure to eate good bread and to drinke good wine and the bread that is well baked and the wine that is a yeare old for as old age is compassed with infirmities and laden with sadnesse the good vituals shall hold them in health and the good wine shall leade them in mirth The old men of your age ought much to consider that theyr meales be small their meate yong and well seasoned and if they eate much and of many meates they euer goe sicke for notwithstanding they haue money to buy them they haue not heate to disgest them The old men of your age ought too procure their bed curteyned their Chamber hanged a meane fire the chimney without smoke for the life of olde men consisteth in going clenly warme cōtented and without anger The old men of your age ought vtterly to auoide to dwel vppon any riuer either to do their busines in moist groundes either to sléepe in ayry places for olde men being delicate as they are be like children and naturally accraised the ayre shall penetrate their powers and moystnesse shall enter their bones The old mē of your age vpon paine of their life ought to be temperate in their diet refusing to eate late for old mē as they haue their stomacks weake and growen colde they may not disgest two meales in a day for the olde man that is vnsatiable and a glutton vsing the contrary shall belke much and sléepe little The olde men of your age to the ende that they be not sicke or grow heauie neyther turne to be grosse ought a little to refreshe them selues walke into the fielde vse some exercise or be occupied in some facultie for otherwise it might happen them to get a tisick or a lamenesse in their limmes in such wise that it will be hard to fetch breath and by puffing and blowing giue warning where you walk The old men of your age ought to haue great care to auoyde all contentious brabbling amongst their seruants and sometime to beare with their negligences to pay their wages too the ende they go contented for otherwise they will be negligent in seruice and very suttle in stealing For conclusion the old men of your age ought much to procure to weare their apparell swéete and cleanly their shirts very well washed their house neat and wel swept and their chamber very close warme and well smelling For the olde man whiche presumeth to be wise if he will liue in health and goe contented ought to haue his body without life his hart without strife In the end of your letter you write that hauing left to loue sorow leaueth not to vere you which vseth to folow the enamored and instantly you desire me to giue you some remedy or to sende you some comfort for notwithstanding you haue throwen it out of the house it leaueth not nowe and then too knocke at the gate Sir in this case I remit you to Hermogenes to Tesiphontes to Doreatius to Plutarch and to Ouid which spent much time and wrote many bookes to giue order in what manner the enamored shoulde loue and the remedies that for their loue they should vse Let Ouid write what him pleaseth Dorcas say what he thinketh good but in fine there is no better remedie for loue than is neuer to begin to loue for loue is so euill a beast that with a thread he suffereth to be taken but hée will not depart with thrusts of a launce Let euery man consider what he attempteth marke what he doth beholde what he taketh in hand note whither he dothe enter and haue regarde where he may be taken for if it were in his handes to set the tables he is not certaine to win the game There is in loue after it is begon infinite shelues immesurable sloughes daungerous rockes and vnknowen whirelpooles in whych some remaine defaced others blinded some besoilde and also some others vtterly drowned in such wise that he that is best deliuered I accoumpt to be euill deliuered Oh how many times did Hercules desire to be deliuered from his loue Mithrida Menelaus from Dortha Pyrrhus from Helena Alcibiades from Dorobella Demophon from Phillis Hāniball from Sabina and Marcus Antonius from Cleopatra from whome they could neuer not only depart but also in the end for them and with them they were cast away In case of loue let no man trust any man and much lesse him selfe for loue is so naturall to man or woman and the desire to be beloued that where loue amongst them dothe once cleaue it is a sore that neuer openeth and a bond that neuer vnknitteth Loue is a metall so delicat a canker so secret that he planteth not in the face where he may be sene nor in the pulse where he may be felte but in the sorowfull hart where although he be sensible they dare not discouer it After all this I say that the remedie that I giue for loue is that they gyue him no place to enter amongst the entrayles nor giue theyr eyes libertie to behold windowes or giue eare to bawdes either suffer any trade of Dames to come or goe if any come to house to shut the dores and not to walke abroade after euening if with these conditions loue may not altogither bée remedied at the least it may be eased and amended Sir and my gossip if you will in all these things profite youre selfe and well consider thereof you shall be excused of many angers and also saue much money For to youre age and my grauitie it is more conuenient to vnderstande of the best wines than to view the windowes of the enamored Take for example chastisement the Licentiat Burgos your acquainted and my great friend which being old and enamored as you died this saterday a death so straunge and fuddayne as was fearefull to al men and sorowfull to his friēds No more but our Lord be youre guide and giue me grace too serue him From Burgos the .24 of Febr. 1523. A letter vnto Sir Iames of Gueuara vncle to the Author wherein he doth comfort him for that he hath bin sicke MAgnificent and right honorable Vncle it pleaseth your Honor to complaine of mée in youre letter that I neither serue you as my good Lorde either do sue as vnto a father or visite as an vncle neyther write as vntoo a friende I may not denie but as concerning kinred your are my Fathers brother in merit my good Lord my father in curtesie and my Progenitor in giuing of liberall rewards which I haue receiued at your hands not as a nephew but as a sonne much beloued Since I haue confessed the affinitie that I hold and affirme the dette
in bloud if they haue little and may doe little let them hold it for certaine they will estéeme them but little and therefore it were very good counsell that they shoulde rather remayne riche seruantes in their countries than to come to the Courts of Kinges to bée poore Gentlemen For after thys manner they shoulde in their countries be honored that now go in Court discountenaunced According to this purpose it came to passe in Rome that Cicero being so valiaunt of person and hauing so great commaundement and power in the common wealth they dyd beare him great enuie on all sides and beheld him with ouermuch malice Wherefore a certaine Romane magistrate said as if we should say vnto a frankling of Spaine tel me Cicero wherfore wilt thou cōpare with me in the Senat since thou knowest al others do know that I am descēded of glorious Romanes and thou of rusticall ploughmen where vnto Cicero made aunswer with very good grace I will confesse it that thou art descended of noble Romane magistrates and I procéede from poore ploughmen but ioyntly with thys thou canst not denie me but that all thy linage is ended in thée and all mine beginnes in me Of thys example your Lordship may gather what difference there is betwixt times betwixt linages and also betwixt persons Since we knowe that in Caius began the Augustus and in Nero ended the Caesars I would say by that which is saide that the want of noblenesse in many gaue an ende to the linages of the Knightes of the band and the valiantnesse of others gaue a beginning to other glorious linages that be now in Spaine bycause the houses of greate Lordes be neuer lost for want of riches but for want of persons I haue enlarged this letter much more than I promised and also more than I presupposed but I giue it all for well employed since I am sure that if I remaine wearied in writing thereof it will not be tedious vnto your Honour too reade it bycause therein are so many and so good things that of old Gentlemē they are worthy to be knowen and of yong gentlemen necessary to be followed From Toledo the xij of December 1516. A letter vnto the Constable of Castile sir Ynigo of Valesco in which is touched that the wise man ought not to trust his wife with any secret REnoumed and good Constable Sir Iames of Mendoza gaue me a letter from your honor written with youre hand and sealed with youre seale I would to God there were as good order taken with my letters that I aunswer you as is here vsed with such as you send me For I cannot say whether it be my hap or my mishap that scarcely I can write you a letter wherof al in your house vnderstand not As much as it doth please me that al men know me to be your friende so muche doth it gréeue me when you discouer of me any secret chiefly in graue and most waightie affaires for comming to the intelligence of youre wife and children that you communicat with me your delicat affayres they will make great complaint if to the profit of their substance I direct not your conscience My Lady the Duchesse did write vnto me aduertising to haue some scruple in me saying that I was against hir as concerning the house of Touare which I did neuer speake or thinke for the office that I do most boast myselfe of is to direct men that they be noble and vertuous and not to vnderstand in making or marring of heyres or Manor houses My Lorde Constable you do know that at all times when you discouer your selfe and take counsell of me I haue always sayd and do say that the Gentleman of necessitie must pay that he oweth and what he hath deuide at his will and that to make restitution there néedeth a conscience and too giue or deuide iudgement and wisdome if there passe eyther more or lesse betwixt vs two it is without néede that youre noblenesse should speake it or of my authoritie be confessed For the things that naturally be graue and do require secrecie if we may not auoyde that they iudge or presume of them at the least we may cut off that they knowe them not In that your Lordship hath let flie some words or lost some letter of mine my Lady the Duchesse is not a little offended with me and I do not maruell thereof in that she not vnderstanding the misterie of your spéech or the ciphers of my letters did kindle hir choller and raysed a quarrell against me Beléeue me my Lorde Constable that neither in iest or earnest you ought to put secret things in confidence of women for to the end that others shall estéeme them more they will discouer any secret I hold the husbands for very doltish that hide their money from their wiues and trust them wyth their secrets for in the money there is no greater losse than the goodes but in discouering their secretes sometime he loseth his honour The Consull Quintus Furius discouered al the conspiracie of the tirant Cateline to a Romane woman named Fuluia Torquata the which manifesting the matter to another friend of hirs and so from hande to hande it was deuulgate thorough all Rome whereby it happened that Quintus Furius lost his life and Cateline his life and honour Of this example your Lordship may gather that the things that be graue and effectuall ought not to be committed to the confidence of women muche lesse spoken in their presence for to them it importeth nothing the knowledge of them and their husbāds it toucheth much if they be discouered There is no reason to thinke either is it iust to presume and say that all women are like for that we sée there are many of them honorable honest wise discrete and also secrete whereof some haue husbands so foolish and such buzardes that it shoulde be more sure to trust them than their husbands Not offending the gentlewomen that be discrete and secrete but speaking commonly of all I saye that they haue more abilitie to breede children than to kéepe secrets As concerning this let it bée for conclusion that it happen you not another day to talke before any man much lesse before any woman That whyche we haue cōmuned and agréed betwixt our selues there might rise thereof that your Lordship might remaine offended and I disgraced At this present there is nothing more newe in Court to write thā that I am not a little offēded of that your Lordship dare discouer troubled with the wordes that my Lady the Duchesse hath sent me for which cause I beséeche you as my good Lord and commaund you as my godsonne that you reconcile me with my Lady the Duchesse or commaund me to be forbidden your house From Valiodolid the eight of August .1522 A letter vnto the Constable Sir Ynigo of Velasco wherein is touched that in the hart of the good Knight there ought not to raigne passion
refraining my thoughts as I vse in the keeping of my bookes Your Lordeship sayeth that the booke you hapned vpon in my librarie was olde of an olde letter of olde tyme and of olde thinges and dyd entreat of the prices how all things was sold in Castile in the time that King Iohn the first did first raigne I wyll not only wryte vnto you that which the good king did ordeyn in Toro but also the rude and grosse spéeche wherewith that ordinaunce was written whereof maye be gathered howe there hath bene changed in Spayn not onely the maner of selling but the maner of speaking That which hath passed in this case is that the king Sir Iohn the first kept Court in the Citie of Toro in the yeare M. CCCC and .vi. in which he did ordein very particularly not only how victuals shoulde be solde but also for what prices the labourer should worke The title of that ordinance sayth these wordes which followeth in so olde a kinde of spéeche that the Spanyards themselues craue an interpreter and is much to be maruelled at but moste of all for the prices of thinges is almoste incredible Whiche I leaue vnwritten partly to be considered by these words that follow wherwith the Author concludeth his Letter as followeth Thys Letter beeing read I beleeue your Lordshippe will maruell of the good cheape that was in those dayes and of the dearth that is nowe of victuals And I beleeue that you will laugh at the rusticall spéeche that was then and of the polyshed spéeche that nowe is vsed although it be true that the vantage that we haue nowe in the spéeche they had then of vs in their liuing A Letter vnto sir Alonso of Fonseca bishop of Burgos president of the Indians wherin is declared wherfore the kings of Spayne be intituled Catholike RIght magnificent and Indian Proconsull about twenty dayes past they gaue me a letter from your honour and aboue fifteene dayes since I did write an answere of the same the which no man to this day hath come to aske neither do I know by whome to send it Your lordship doth write that I should aduertise your honor what it is that they say here of your Lordship to speake with libertie and to say you the truth they say al in this Court that you are a very good christian and a very vntractable Bishop also they say that you are long prolix negligent and indetermined in the affaires that you haue in hand and with the futers that follow you which is worste of all that many of them doe returne to their houses spente and not dispatched they saye that your Lordship is fierce proude impacient and suspicious and that many doe leaue their businesse vndetermined to see themselues by your Lordship so ouershadowed Others say that you are a man that deales in troth you speak truth and that you are a friende of truth and that a man giuen to lying was neuer séene to be your friend also they say that you are right in that you commaund iust in your iudgements and moderate in your executions and that whiche is more than all that in matters of iustice and in the determination therof you haue neither passion or affection they say that you are of muche compassion pitifull and an almes giuer and that whiche can not be spoken but to your greate praise to many poore and in necessitie from whom you take goods by Iustice on the other parte you giue it them oute of your chamber Your Lordeship hathe not to maruell of that which I say neither doe I mislike of that which you doe bycause out of the one and the other there may be gathered that no man in this worlde is so perfect but there is in him to bée amended eyther any man so euill that hath not in him to be praysed The historie writers do note Homere of vain spéech Alexander for furious Iulius Caesar for ambicious Pompeius for proude Demetrius for vicious Haniball for periured Vespasian for couetous Traiane for a wine bibber and Marcus Aurelius for amorous Amongst men so illustre glorious and heroicall as all these were it is not much that your Lordship do pay for a pounde of waxe to be of their fraternitie And this pounde is not bicause you are an euill Christian but for that you were of weake pacience There is no vertue more necessarie in him that gouerneth a common wealthe than is patience for the Iudge that is measured in that he speaketh and dissembleth the iniuries that they doe vnto him he maye descende but not fall The Prelates and Presidentes that haue charge to gouerne people and determyne causes muche more than other menne ought to lyue circumspectly and be of more suffering for if we of you be iudged beléeue me that of vs also you are beholden vewed and considered There is nothing in this worlde more sure than he whiche is feared of many ought also to feare many for if I will be a Iudge of your goodes for the same you will be a vewer of my life and thereof it commeth to passe that manye times the Iudge is more damnified in his fame than the surer in his goodes My Lorde all this is to be vnderstoode of Iudges that bée proude of euill complexion and melancholike Suche as bée milde gentle and suffring they do not examine the liues they leade but also they dissemble the weakenes they commit He that hathe charge of the common wealth it is necessary that he haue a milde condicion in such wise that when he shall sée weakenes that he make strong and where he séeth courage that he praise it and where he séeth want of foresight that hée prouide and where he séeth dissolution that he chastise and where he séeth necessitie to succour and where he séeth sedition to appease it and where he séeth conformitie to conserue it and where he séeth suspicion to cleare it and where he séeth heauinesse to remedie it and where he séeth gladnes to temper it for after extreme pleasure and gladnesse many times do follow no small distresses If in your vertuous attempts ye take in hand there shall happen some successe not conformable to youre good desires and if it shall also chaunce that you be grieued therewith impute not all the fault vpon your selfe for the man that doth all that he can do we cannot say to him that he doth not that he ought to do since in bloud I hold you for kinsman in conuersation for friend in authoritie for my good Lord and in deseruing for father I shall not leaue to pray you as a father and beséeche you as my good Lord that you be mild in conuersation and measured in your words bycause of Iudges Lordes as you are at sometimes they do more féele a word than of another the push of a laūce But since in all this kingdome it is notorious that youre Lordship is honest of your
by the feare of death The couetous wretched niggard that he goeth seeking is carefulnesse for himselfe enuie for his neighbours spurres vnto his enemies a pray for théeues perill for his person damnation for his soule malediction for his heires and law for his children All these thinges Sir I thought good to write thereby to giue you to vnderstande the grosse office you haue taken in hande and the euill opinion they do couceyue of you the which to vs your friends is great shame and to you a most great infamie Sir amende youre fault and take some other order in your life for in the house of any honest manne any lacke of goodes is tollerable but no want in honour If you shall alwayes continue to be a miser a niggard and shall giue your selfe to kéepe and hoord money from henceforward I take my leaue of your friendship and also to call you my acquainted For I neuer delighted to hold acquaintance with the man that woulde presume to lie and giue himselfe to kéepe This letter I send you without head or foote which is to wit without date or firme for going with such choler and so vnsauorie it is not reason he shoulde bée knowen that did write it neither to whome it was written No more A letter vnto the Lady Mary of Padilia wife to Don Iohn of Padilia wherein the Authour doth perswade that she tourne to the seruice of the king and giue no occasion of the losse of Castile MAgnificent and vnaduised Lady in the dayes that the good Emperour Iustinian did raigne in the East a certaine Captaine of his dyd gouerne the kingdomes in the West that was named Narsetes a man of greate capacitie to gouerne and of great valiantnes in fighting and giuing battell of this Narsetes the Romanes did saye that in him only was the force of Hercules the boldnesse of Hector the noblenesse of Alexander the wisdome of Pirrhus the valiantnesse of Antheus and the fortune of Scipio After that thys glorious captain had ouercome and slaine Atholia King of the Gothes Vncelino king of the French men Sindual king of the Brittons and also pacified and triumphed ouer all the kingdomes of the West the Romanes sought meanes to disgrace him with his Lorde and maister Iustinian saying and giuing him to vnderstand that he sought meanes to obtaine the Empire wherefore Narsetes was constrayned to departe from Rome and to passe into Asia to appeare before the Emperour Iustinian and the Empresse Sophia his wife to declare his innocencie and to make proofe that enuie had raised that sclaunder certaine dayes were then past that the Empresse Sophia had conceyued disdaine against Narsetes some say it was for his great wealth others for that he commaunded in the Empire with too much authoritie and others bycause he was a gelded man and when she sawe time to vtter hir hatred she said vnto him in Court on a certaine day since thou Narsetes art lesse than a man and halfe a woman being an Eunuche I commaunde thée to leaue the gouernment of the Empire and that thou get thée vp to weaue where my maydes doe weaue and knit caules and that there thou help them what they commaund thée Although Narsetes were a man of great authoritie and of no lesse grauitie these words did so deepely pearce him to the quicke that he chaunged countenance the teares brake from his eyes and so chafed with teares he said Serene Princes I woulde right gladly that you shoulde chastise me as a Lady but not to defame me like a woman it gréeueth me not so much of that you haue said as the occasion which you giue me how to make you answer and said more I presently depart vnto Italy to weaue knit and frame such a toyle that neyther thou maist comprehend nor yet thy husband able to vnweaue Comming now to the purpose my Lord Abbot of Compludo gaue me here in Medina a letter frō your Ladiship which contained such ouerthwarts such want of measure and so greate rashnesse that he was ashamed too haue deliuered it and I astonied to sée the contents thereof And as the good Narsetes aunswered the Empresse Sophia it gréeueth me not of that you haue saide but of that whiche I must answer for of necessitie my penne must stand foorthe to make combat with your tong Your Ladiship doth say in your letter that you haue séene the letter that I sent vnto youre husband Iohn of Padilia and that it dothe well appeare in the same that it came from a frier irreguler foule spoken ouerthwart absolute and dissolute and that if I were one of the world not only I would not dare to wright such things neyther yet so much as in corners to speake them Also you do extréemely charge me that I haue suborned Sir Peter Lasso disswaded sir Peter Giron contended with the Bishop of Zamora resorted to Villa Braxima for the Gouernours that I preache publikely againste the commoners and that in my mouth there is no truth nor in my déedes any fidelitie Also you blame me charge condempne and threaten me for the letter I did write vnto your husbande and for the counselles and aduertisementes I gaue him affirming and swearing that since he had conference with me he hathe alwayes bene sorowfull penūue melancholicke and also vnfortunate Also you note blame and charge me that I neuer cease too lye vnto the gouernours deceyue the commoners discourage his men of warre preach against the commonaltie promise that which the King commaundeth not goe and come to Villa Braxima and to leade all Castile in suspence These and such other things are contayned within youre letter vnworthy the writing and scandalous to recount But since youre Ladiship hath first laide hand vpon the sword complaine not if I happen to giue you some wound on the head To that which your Ladiship sayth if I were of the world as I am of religion I durst not wright suche a letter vnto youre husband your Ladiship speaketh greate troth for I being the son of Sir Beltram of Gueuara and cousin to Sir Ladron of Gueuara and to be there in the worlde I shoulde not write vnto him but fighte with him not make pennes but sharpen the launce not gyue counsell or perswade your husbande but defye him bycause the contention betwixt loyaltie and treason ought not to be tried with wordes but with swords I am in profession a Christian in habite religious in doctrine a diuine in linage of Gueuara in office a preacher and in opiniō a gentleman and no commoner for which cause I presume to preach the troth and to impugne the communaltie I holde for sure that those whiche defende the troth be the most noblest knights and gentlemen in your Camp for they rob not vpon high wayes neyther steale out of Churches destroy no corne burne no houses spoyle no people neither do consent to men of vile conditions for they obserue the law
whiche they execute in the kingdom that which the knights noble mē hath tirānised of the reall patrimonie for whiche cause thy entent shall be receyued although thy wordes not beléeued I haue heard say that thou arte rashe in thy spéeche and sharpe in reprehending and ioyntly therewith I did beléeue since the Gouernours had thée in their cōpany that thou hadst a good zele and no want of iudgemente but since they suffer they foolishenesse it is not much that we endure thy wordes God hathe bin thy good Lord that none of the captains of the warre hath bin present for according to thy disordred talke whiche thou hast vsed they woulde firste haue taken away thy life before thou mightst haue finished thy tale then it might be in oure hands to be sory but not to remedie When some other daye thou shalt talk in the presence of so great authoritie grauitie as these are which be present thou oughtest to be in that thou shalt say very moderat in the maner of thy spéech very much measured bycause thy spéeche hath bin rather to scandalize than to mitigate vs for that thou pretendest to condemne vs and discharge the gouernours and since we be but Captaines to execute and not iudges to determine it is conuenient that thou giuest vs by writing firmed with thy hande al that thou hast sayd and promised on the Kings behalfe that wée maye sende it to the Gentlemen of the holie assemblie and there they shall sée what they haue to commaunde vs and to answere to thy ambassage presently they sente a post to Tordisillas for there was the assemblie with the credence that I brought and with the talke I had vsed whiche gaue for answere that so colde a message and suche disordred talk deserueth no other answere but to be wel reprehended also greuously punished Presently they commaunded me to departe from the towne of Braxima without any letter neyther any worde that I should say to the gouernors except this Bishop that said vnto me Father Gueuara fare you wel beware you come not againe for if you do you shal returne no more and say vnto your gouernours that if they haue authoritie from the king to promise much their cōmission extendeth to performe very little This done and said I returned to Medina del rio Secco euill vsed and worse answered and from thence after I had spoken the Bishop aunswered me warres was determined and peace neuer more spoken of It was no small griefe vnto Sir Peter Giron and Sir Peter Lasso of the foule wordes they vsed with me and of the euill aunswere their felowship gaue me for surely they would right gladly haue ben reduced to the Kings seruice and that peace should haue bene established Sir Peter Giron met me vpon the way when I retorned and there conferred vpon such and so delicate things whereof did rise that he retired from the Campe to Villalpandos and that the gouernours should marche vnto Tordisillas so it was brought to passe By that iourney the Queene was deliuered and they of the assembly taken A letter vnto Doctor Melgar Phisicion wherein is touched by great eloquence the hurtes and profites that Phisicions commit RIght reuerent Doctor Caesars Phisicion I haue receyued your letter and the receipt that came therein whether I did speake or not speake vnto the President in your case you may vnderstand by the dispatch therof by the report of your seruant in suche wise that you haue performed with me like a Phisicion and I with you like a friend And whether you or I haue done best it is to wit you in curing of me or I in dispatching of you let good mē sée iudge since I remaine with my gowte you haue obtayned good deliuerance Sir I commaunded those hearbes to be sought the rootes to be gathered and according to the tune of your billet I haue gathered stampt dranke them and God giue your soule better health than they did profite mee any thing for my goute for they did inflame my liuer too much coole my stomacke I wil confesse vnto you that as in this my disease you did not onely erre but also you did hurt me euery time that with the cold my stomacke beginneth to belke presently I say a shame beshine Doctor Melgar since my disease was not aboue the girdle but from the thigh downewards I did not craue that you should purge the humors but deliuer me from payne I know not why you should chastise my stomacke my foote making the offence I cōmoned with Doctor Sotto here in Toledo as cōcerning a Sciatica I had in my thigh he cōmanded to be giuē vnto me two Cautories with an bote instrument behind the eares the profite I gathered thereof was he gaue all the Court occasion to laugh and mine eares to endure great paine And in Alcala I cōmoned with Doctor Cartagema and he did ordayne me a certaine receit wherein was contained the gal of an Ox the ordure of a Rat the bran of Otes the leaues of nettles the buddes of Roses and Scorpions fried to make a plaister to be layd vnto my thigh The profite and greate ease I gathered thereof was it kepte mée from sléepe thrée nights and I payde to the Apoticary that made it ten grotes but from henceforth I renounce the counselles of suche counsellers the Aphorismos of Ipochras the fines or conclusions of Auicene the cases of Ficino the compositions of Rasis and also the Canons of Erophilo if in their writings that wretched and cursed playster be to bée found which as it did not suffer me to sléepe much lesse to take any rest I did not only take it away but also buried it for that it did not onely stincke most filthily but burned mée most grieuously I remember that in Borgos Anno 21. Doctor Sotto cured me of a certaine wandring feuer made me eate so muche Apium take so much Barley water and drinke so much stild Endiue that I fel into such a thirst that only I could not eat neither so much as to abide that fauor of meat Not many yéeres after I wēt to visit the same Doctor Sotto being sicke in Tordisillas and saw him eat an Orange drinke a cup of fragrant white wine after the cold had left him and the heat began to come vpon him Wherfore I did not a little maruel and half offended I sayde vnto him laughing tell mée Master Doctor in what lawe is it contayned or what Iustice doth suffer it that you cure your selfe of your Ague with wyne of S. Martin and on the other side you cure my Sciatica with dung of oxen Whervnto graciously he made me answere your Lordship Master Gueuara hath to vnderstand that our maister Ipochras hath giuen commaundement to all Physitions his successors that vpon paine of his malediction we shoulde cure our selues with wine and our pacientes with
to make incisions the Romanes being not vsed to behold such cruelties and to suffer so intolerable grieues in one day and in one houre they stoned him to death drew him al abouts in the streates FroÌ„ the time they stoned this miserable Antony Musa they coÌ„sented not to haue any Phisition or Chirurgian in all Italy vntill the time of the wicked Emperour Nero which at his returne from Grecia brought vnto Rome many phisitions and also many vices In the times of the Empire of Nero Galba Octo and Bitello phisicke did much florish in Italy and the phisitions did greatly triumph in Rome but after the death of these Princes the good Emperour Titus commaunded the Orators and also the phisitions to be driuen out of Rome The Emperour Titus béeing demaunded why hée did banish them since the one were aduocates for matters in lawe and the other did cure the diseased he made answer I banish the Orators as destroyers of the customes and also phisitions as eniâ—â—â—â— to health And more he said I do also banish the phisitions to take away the occasions from men that be vicious for that we sée by experience in the Cities where phisitions be resident there is alwaies abundance of vices A letter written from Grecia to Rome wishing them to beware of the Phisitions that were come thither THE great Cato of Vtica was no small enimie to all phisitions of this worlde specially that they should not enter within the Empire of Rome who from Asia did write a letter vnto his sonne Marcellus that was in Rome after this maner In thée and in me it appeareth most clearely that more is the loue that the Father beareth vnto the son than the son vnto the father since thou forgettest thy self to write vnto me neither yet to prouide for defence of thy necessities If thou wilt not write vnto me as to thy father write vnto me as vnto thy friend not withstanding it is much more which thou owest vnto my hoare haires and also vnto my good friendly works As concerning the rest my son Marcellus thou knowest that I haue ben resident a Consull here in Asia fiue yeres of which the most time I haue continued here in Athens where al Grecia do hold their notable studies of their renowmed Philosophers and if thou wilt vnderstand what I conceiue of these Greekes it is they speake much and performe little they call all men barbarous and onely themselues Philosophers and the worst of all is they be ready friends to giue counsell vnto al men enimies to accept the same iniuries they know to dissemble but neuer to pardon they be very constant in hatred and very mutable in loue and friendship Finally my son Marcellus I say vnto thée that naturally they be proud to commaund and vntamable to seruice Behold here what in Grecia the Philosophers do reade and teach and what the popular people do learne and if I do write vnto thée it is for that thou shalt not paine thy selfe to come into Grecia neither to passe thy thought to leaue Italy Since thou knowst and also dost vnderstand that the grauitie of our Mother Rome neither may suffer youthly wantonnes neither admit nouelties That day that the fathers of our sacred Senate shall permit the Artes and letters of Grecia to enter Rome from that day I hold our common wealth as lost for our Romanes do esteme and make accompt to liue well and the Greekes but only to speak well In those kingdomes and Cities where schooles and studies be wel ordred and on the other part their common wealthes euill gouerned notwithstanding we sée them florish very shortely we shall sée them famish for there is not in al this whole world any thing that iustly may be termed perpetuall but that which vpon troth and vertue is founded Although al the arts of Grecia be suspicious pernicious scandalous yet I say to thée my son Marcellus for the commonwealth of our Mother Rome the worst of them all is phisicke for that all these Greekes haue sworne to send to kill by medicine those which they might not ouercome by armes Euery day I sée here these phisick Philosophers holde amongst themselues great altercations about the curing of infirmities and the applying of certaine medicines and that whiche is most to be wondred that doing what the one commaundeth and the other counselleth we sée the patient cruelly tormented and sometimes finish his dayes in such wise that their question riseth not how they shall cure him but how with medicines they may kill him My son Marcellus thou shalt aduise the fathers of the Senat if they bring thither vj. phisicke philosophers which be departed hence out of Grecia that they suffer them not to read or teache phisicke either to cure in the common welth bycause this art of medicine is so perillous to be exercised and so delicate to be vnderstoode that there be many that do learne and very few that do know it Of seauen notable benefites that proceedeth from the good Phisition BEhold here maister Doctor the beginning of your Phisick declared and how it was found how it was compiled how it was loste how it was banished how it was receiued and also how sorowfully she went wandring from common welth to common welth Master Doctor by your letter you also craue of me that I write vnto you not onely what I haue read of Phisick but also my iudgment therof whiche I will accomplish to do you pleasure and also for that it may be seene how much profite riseth from the good Phisition and what hurtes from the euill Medicine is to be praised bycause the maker of all things did create the same for the remedie of his creatures giuing vertue to waters plantes herbs stones also in wordes to the end that with all these things men should be cured and with their health serue him God is much 〈…〉 ed with the pacience which the sicke manne vseth but much more with the pacience charitie and hospitalitie that the whole and sound man performeth It is a thing religious and also necessary to procure bodily health and to serue God for if the sicke man haue good desires his workes bée weake but he that is whole sound and vertuous hath good desires and excellent and also notable workes Medicine is to be praised when it is in the handes of a Phisition that is learned graue wise stayed and of experience for such a Phisition with his science shal vnderstand the infirmitie with his wisdome séeke his medicine and with his great experience what and when to imploy the same Medicine is to be praised when the Phisition vseth not the same but in sharpe diseases that be very perillous which is to wit for the Pluresy Squinancy inflamation sharpe Feuer or Apoplexie bycause in cases so daungerous and in perils so perillous all thinges for health is to be prouided and the Phisition in all things
wishe them good successe of their mariage and from hence I pray vnto God they may delight ech other long and many a day Mosen Puche to be married with a wife of xv yeares and the Lady Mary to be married vnto 〈◊〉 husband of xvij if I be not deceyued there remayneth vnto them sufficient time to enioy their matrimonie and also to bewaile their marriage Solon Soâ—…onio commaunded the Atheniâ—es that they shoulde not marry vntill the age of xix The 〈…〉 commaunded the Lacedemonians that they should not marrie vntill the age of xxv The Philosopher Promotheus commaunded the Egyptians that they shuld not marrie vntill the age of xxx yeres And if by chaunce any durst marry before the appoynted age the fathers were publikely chastised and the children not holden for legitimat If Mosen Puche and the Lady Mary Gralla wer of Egypt as they be of Valencia they could not escape vnpunished and also their children disinherited For the great curtesy that I haue receyued of your mother and for the entire amity and perfect loue I held with your father in the time I was Inquisitor at Valencia it gréeueth me to sée you maried in so tender yeres and laden with so greate a charge for so great a burden is matrimonie as you neyther may haue licence to leaue it eyther haue you age to suffer and support it If your father did marry you of him selfe withoute consent he vsed with you no small crueltie and if you maried without licence you haue committed no lesse rashnesse For a yong man of xvij and a young woman of xv to dare set vp house their déedes declareth great temeritie and want of good counsell in the consent thereof for the poore yonglings neyther do they know the burden they take in hand eyther féele the liberty that they lose Let vs vnderstand what conditions the wife ought to haue and what conditions the husbande must hold in possession to the end they may be happily maried and if it be founde in Mosen Puche and in the Lady Mary Gralla from hencefoorth I confirme and ratify their mariage and condemne my selfe to haue spoken without skil The properties due to a maried wife is that she haue grauity when she walketh abroade wisedome to gouerne hir house patience to suffer hir husband loue to breede and bringing vp hir children affable with hir neighbours diligence to lay vp and to saue goodes accomplished in things appertayning to honour a friend of honest company and a great enemy of wanton and light toyes The properties appertayning to the married husbaÌ„d is to be reposed in his speach milde of coÌ„uersation faithfull wherin he is trusted wise wherein he giueth counsell carefull for the prouision of his house diligent in the ordering of his goodes of sufferance for the importunities of his wife zealous in bringing vp of his children aduised in things of honor and a sure man with all men that he dealeth But now demaunding answer if in the xvij yeres of Mosen Puche and in the xv yeres of Lady Mary Gralla we shall finde all that we haue sayde or that euer they thought thereof In men of so tender yeres and married so yong it is to be suspected that such and so delicate things neyther do they knowe to vnderstande when they bée told them neyther yet being wanting to aske for them but I aunswer and also prophesy vnto the xvij yeres of Mosen Puche to the xv yeres of the Lady Mary Gralla that if they will not learne all these properties and after their learning obserue them that in a little further processe of time they with their burden shall fall to the ground or else eyther of theÌ„ séeke newe loue I hold it not for so waighty to be admitted a nouice frier as a yong man to be married for the one may refuse and come foorth and the other may not repent The incommodities that do follow the marriage of xvij with xv Mosen Puche and the Lady Mary Gralla can more effectually declare than I can write For if I say ought it is by gesse but they maye affirme it as féeling witnesses For men to marry themselues very yong there followeth great hurtes whiche is to vnderstande their wiues are broken and spoyled in their child bed weaken their strength laden with children spend their patrimonie soone moued to ielousy not comprehending what appertayneth to honor they vnderstande not to prouide for the housholde the first loues finishe and new cares approche in such wise for marrying them selues so yong they come afterwards to liue discontented or else to be separated in theyr old age The diuine Plato gaue counsel to his commoÌ„ wealth that they should marrie their children in suche an age wherein they shoulde vnderstande what they did choose and very well perceyue what they tooke in hande Graue and very graue is this sentence of Plato for to take a wife or to choose a husband is no hard thing but to vnderstande to sustayne an houshold is very difficult I haue not bene married neyther haue had any motion to be married but for as much as I haue séene amongst my kinred and haue read in bookes by that I haue suspected of my neighbours and by which I haue hearde of my friends I find by my rekoning that those that chaunce to be well married haue here their Paradise and such as haue had worse chaunce of their house they haue made an hell What man to thys day that hath matched with a woman of such perfection that wished not in hir some things to be amended What woman hath chosen a husbande so accomplished that found not in him some thing to be misliked In the first vew of wowers of their contraction few mariages be displeasant but in proces of time few things be liked and that which is most certaine being in want and money spent incontinent without delay displeasures knocks at gate Oh sorowful married man if thou marry with a gentlewoman thou must beare with hir pomp and follie If thou encounter with a woman that is mild and wise thou must accept hir pouertie if thou match with one that is riche it may happen thée to be ashamed of hir kinred if thou choose thée a wife that is fayre thou hast mischaunce sufficient to watche hir if it be thy chaunce to obtayne a wife that is foule after fewe dayes thou wilt shunne thy house and also seeke newe lodging if thou boast thy selfe that thy wife is wise and of goodly personage also thou complaynest that she is costly and no house kéeper if thou say of thy selfe that thy wife is a good huswife forthwith it is reported that no seruant may endure hir fierce crueltie if thou doest glory that thy wife is honest and chast many times thou doest abhorre hir for that she is too much ielouse what wilte thou that I say more Oh thou poore maried man that which I speake besides that
credite vnto his friends neighbours and also to his seruants the whiche if they aduertise him of any euill of his wife it is not so much for the zeale of his honour as it is for the malice they beare vnto hir Also it is hurtfull vnto the husband to bée conuersant with euill mē by the infamie that may procéede of their conuersation for there be some men so euill and of so farre a fetch that they procure friendshippe with the husbād to no other purpose than to haue an entrie more sure to deale with his wife It may be well suffred that the neighbour the friend the kinsman and the acquainted with the husband may haue friendship with the wife but no familiaritie bycause friendship requireth no more but communication but familiaritie leadeth to conuersation I am not of the opinion that a man should haue such confidence in any man that certaynly he durst say vpon my vow I assure thée that I entred suche a mans house and with hys wife did eate laugh and play talke and passe the tyme bycause she is muche my good Mistresse friende and deuoute I defye that friende that hathe no other pastime but with hys friendes wife That which is tollerable to be said in such cases is that such a man is my friend and his wife of some acquaintance bycause it is an olde prouerb That the wife and the sword may be shewed but not lent If vnto the husbande there happen any infamy for bringing his friend to house to bring him acquainted with his wife let him complaine of him selfe that was the cause and not of his wife that stumbled Plutarch sayth that it was a law amongst the Parthians that the wiues might not hold other particular acquaintance but the friendes of their husbandes in such wise that amongst those barbarous people the goods they helde was not onely common but also the friendes that they loued I should think it good that the wife should loue the friendes of hir husband and that the husband should loue the kindred of his wife bycause if he will obtaine peace in his house he ought to be serued of his wife of hir kinred honoured The husband ought not to be so wilfull or carelesse that when the kinred of his wife shall come to house that he leaue to talke with them to entertaine them with some cheare bycause it should be vnto hir no small disgrace and vnto him great want of good nature Sometime also the wiues do conceiue affections and take in hand friendships to be excused although not suspicious for the sustayning wherof they come to some quarelles with their husbands and also sometime vnto extréem vnkindnesse the whiche I alowe not neither muche lesse do I counsell bycause the honest or honorable and aduised woman hath to hold no frendship so deare that it may be sufficient to bréede vnkindnesse with hir husband In any honest woman it is not tollerable to say this is my friend but to say this is of my acquaintance bycause the maried woman ought to haue none for enemie and onely hir husbande to hold for friend Also it séemeth not well vnto me that some women be to much affectioned passioned and bending the which sometimes for defence of their friends and to stand forth to helpe their parties do mete their haire by the fistes and also take vp dust with their shoulders That women ought to gather and to sow ALso it is a right necessary counsell that maried women do learne and also know very well to gouerne their houses which is to wéete to gather to sowe to worke to swéepe to play the Cooke and to sow with the néedle bycause they be thinges so necessary that with out them they them selues can not liue and much lesse content their husbandes Suetonius doeth say that Augustus the Emperour commaunded the Ladyes his children to learne all the offices qualities wherewith a woman might liue be maintained and whereof she ought to boast hir selfe in such wise that al which they did weare they did spin and weaue For the greatnes of any gentlewomās estate or noblenes of bloud or estimation of great welth so well doth a rocke become hir girdle as a knight his launce or a priest his booke When the Romanes vpon a certaine wager did send from the wars to Rome to vnderstande what euery mans wife did at home amongst them all the most famous and most praysed was the chast Lucrece for no other cause but for that she onely was found weauing and al the rest idle If they say vnto one that amongst the nobles it is a matter of no account to vnderstande in these simplicities to this I aunswere that the honest woman hath not to be ashamed to spinne and to lay vp but to eate rest and talke bycause the honour of a gentlewoman doth not consist to be set at hir ease but to be in businesse If women would take pain in their houses we should not sée in the stréets so many cast away bycause in this worlde there is not so mortal an enemie vnto Chastitie as is idlenesse A womā that is young in helth at libertie fair lusty and taketh hir ease what is it that she thinketh leaning vpon a cusshin That which she performeth is to set hir down at leysure to deuise what forme she may vse for liberty to lose hir selfe in such wise that she deceyueth all men saying that she is good and on the other part she enioyeth hir lyfe at pleasure What a delight is it to sée a woman rise earlye in the morning to stirre about hir kerchiefe not all drest hir coate tuckt vp hir armes bare without slippers chyding with the maydens calling vp seruantes and dressing hir children What a pleasure is it to sée hir make hir owne partlet to wash hir clothes to ayre hir Wheate to syfte hir Meale to gather hir things together to bake hir bread to swéepe the house to make the fyre and to set on the pot and after meate to take hir cusshin for boane lace or hir rock to spinne there is no husband in this worlde that is so foolish or vnsensible that wil not like his wife much better on the saterday when she worketh than on the Sonday when she fristeth I like not well of those women that knowe no other thing but to goe to bedde at one rise at eleuen goe to dinner at twelue and talke till night and more and besides this they know nothing but to trimme their chamber where they shall lye and to dresse a withdrawing place wher to worke in in such wise that such be not borne but to eate sléepe rest and talke Leauing apart the chamber wherein they sléepe and the place where they worke if you make a turne about the rest of the house you will be ashamed to sée it lothed to walke in it where all things lieth disordred and worse swept in suche
Court as well for the reasons abouesayd as also for that your people shal be indoctrined and maintayned in better behauiour and your haule and buttry more throughly furnished Farther you commaund me to write vnto you particularly whē the Carthaginians entred into Spayne at what time Scipio the African did take Carthage the chiefe Citie of youre Bishoprick and that you haue layd a wager with the Lord sir Peter of Mendoza gouernour of the same Citie vpō the same matter being of cōtrary opinions haue chosen me for iudge or arbitrator of your contentiō Certaynly these be things very farre from my profession for being religious as you know it shoulde serue much better to the purpose to sit and vnderstand of the time that my religion was inuented and in what countrey S. Francis was borne than to vnderstande when the Carthaginians entred Spayne at what time the Romaynes did sack subuert Carthage But since you haue chosen and established me for your iudge will that I shal say my opiniō that which I know I shal not fayle to yéeld rēder my endeuor without any remissiō of the Mule which you promised me But comming nowe to the purpose you haue to vnderstād during the warres betwixt the Gaditains the Turdetaynes the Gaditains sent their embassadors to the Carthaginians to draw thē to their party to haue succour from them whervnto the Carthaginians consented and at the instant sent Marhaball a man very valiant to go into Spayne to the succour of the Gaditains This Marhaball vnder the colour of giuing aide vnto the Gaditains brought himself in possession of a certayne part of Andolozia and reduced the same vnder the gouernmēt of the Carthaginians folowing his secret commission and the order which was giuen him in his eare This was broughte to passe in the yeare of the general Floud M. D.CCCX This was the first discent of the Carthaginians in Spayne In the days when the Romaynes expelled their kings But afterwards the Carthaginians diuers times by diuers Captayns did inuade had possessiō of many countries cities of Spayne which they held vnto the time that the Romayns comming vnto the succour of the Saguntines where the Carthaginians wer discomfited distressed driuen away both the armies being conducted by Hanniball Scipio the first being the leader and Captayn of the armies of Carthage the other for the Romains This Scipio was thē intituled Scipio the great renoumed with the surname African for that after he subdued the great Carthage did take the same by diuers assaults This City as is knowen to your Lordship it holdeth on the East part a certaine hill with a ridge compassed with the Sea and on the other side wher this hill or ridge ioyneth vnto the Citie there is a lake on that side of Bize The Carthaginians supposing theyr Citie to bée sufficiently strong vpon that side gaue no order thereof either for watche or ward As Scipio battred the Citie by Sea land he had aduertisemēt by certaine fishermen of Tarresko which at othertimes had repaired and gone to Carthage that the water of the lake did vse to fall at an houre By whiche aduertisement Scipio caused the water to be sounded and hauing found the greatest depth but to the girdle in most places but to the knées he caused certayne chosen souldiers to enter the water whych passing without impediment did climbe the walles entred the Citie obtayning thereby possession with small losse hauing executed great slaughter of the people thereof and Hanno the Captayne of the Citie being taken prisoner And as the Romaines did prosecute and performed the destruction of the Citie forcing to passe by the edge of the sword al that euer they met a Damsel of Spayne of a noble house the wife of Madonius brother to Indibilis Lord of the Illergets did yéelde hir selfe prostrate and groueling at the féete of Scipio most humbly beséeching that it might please him to vouchsafe to recommende the honor of the women vnto the souldiers And as Scipio answered that he woulde gladly performe the same this Lady replyed saying after this manner O Scipio I am charged with one particular and right sorrowfull griefe whiche pearceth my heart in this present fortune to solicite thy excellēcie to vse thy mild fauour with great diligence for I haue héere my two nices shewing two most excellent right singular yong Ladies daughters of Indibilis which hold and estéeme me as their onely mother who teare mine entrayles and breake and pearce my hart to sée them in seruitude amids the armies Whereof Scipio being moued by great compassion and no lesse reuerence made answer vnto this Lady Madame you haue to vnderstand that notwithstanding the common courtesy of the Romayne people and my naturall condition doe prouoke me to defend the honor of Ladies yet therewithall youre great vertue and dignitie constraynes me to vse more spéedy diligence therein considering that in the mids of youre aduersities you forget not the chiefe poynt of honor whiche al Ladies of chast renowne ought to mayntaine kéepe defend The which being sayd he commended these thrée Damsels to the gard and defence of a gentleman of name and much estéemed for his vertue straightly commaunding the same to entreate and serue these Ladies with no lesse courtesie than if they were the wiues or daughters of gentlemen of Rome And nowe since you haue bin aduertised of one vertuous acte of Scipio I will yet recite another right famous déede of great vertue to shew vnto the world that Scipio doth worthily deserue eternall prayse to serue as an example and perfect spectacle of continencie to all yong Captaynes The cause was thys at the very instant that Scipio hadde dispatched these thrée Ladies aforesayd the Souldiers brought vnto him a certayne yong Damsell the fairest that euer they had séene but Scipio vnderstanding that she was betrothed to Lucius Prince of the Celtibires and that she was discended of parents very noble would in no wise touch hir but rather had a duble care to defend hir honor And hauing commanded the father and the husband of the sayd Lady to be called vnto hys presence and also vnderstanding the sayd Prince to loue with an ardent desire and an inflamed affectiō said thus vnto him O Lucius hauing thy loue in my power and being yong as thou art I might well enioy the delight of hir beauty but hauing aduertisement that thou bearest hir great and most perfect affection I haue thought good not only to defende but also to preserue hir for thée and render the same into thy handes as chast a virgin as she was deliuered vnto me And I wil no other recompence at thy hands but that thou cōtinue a faithfull friend vnto the Romaines for thou shalt not find a Nation in this world of so perfect friendship as are the Romayne people neither of
interpretation of bookes If ye will say that those whiche presently be called Moores or Turkes be the same people whereof the Prophet speaketh Scrutati sunt iniquitates herevnto I answer that as false is the one as the other for as muche as if we will haue regarde vnto the time of the raigne of King Dauid which did prophesie the same vntill the time of Mahomet the first inuentor and conductor of the sect of the Moores we shall find that there dyd passe lesse than 2000. and more than 1800. yeares If we would say and affirme that the Prophet did meane and direct his speech vnto the Christians I saye also it is most false and repugnant vnto all troth for being admitted that the Christian faith had beginning to raigne 600. yeares before the sect of the Moores and more than 3000. yeares after the beginning of the Gentilitie or the Heathen from the tyme that this prophecie was written at Ierusalem vnto the time they began to name themselues Christians at Antioch there passed more than a thousand yeares and also thrée hundred yeares more for aduantage Behold here truly verifyed that since the prophecie may not be aduouched vpon the Gentiles the Moores neyther yet the Christians that it is to be vnderstood spoken vnto you Iewes more expressely for that the Prophet saith not Scruteront but Scruterent giuing vs to vnderstande that many yeares before King Dauid did pronounce the same youre auncesters had then already begon to corrupt the sacred Scriptures and to adde vnto the same erroneous glosses I lie not neyther do I repent to haue sayd that your auncient fathers Scrutati sunt iniquitates since they haue no grace to vnderstand the Prophecie of Ieremie which sayth post dies multos dicit dominus dabo meam legem in visceribus illorum in corde eorū ad scribā legem meam As if he wold haue sayd After many dayes and after many yeares I will create a newe people and will giue them a new lawe whiche I my selfe will wright in theyr bowells and hide within their harts to the ende that no persone shall falsefy the same and muche lesse shall they be able to forget it Then as the Prophecie which sayth Scrutati sant iniquitates c. is spoken onely vnto you and not to all men in lyke manner this Prophecie of Ieremy whiche sayth dabo legem in visceribus illorum c. is spoken vnto vs Christians and not to you Iewes For as muche as our Catholike fayth consisteth more in that which is rooted within our hartes than in that whyche is written in bookes in such manner the weale of the Christian lieth not in that whiche hée readeth but in that which he beléeueth The maruels that Christe hathe done and the doctrines which he hath giuen vnto the world It is necessary and well done to knowe and also to reade them but it is muche more founde and sure to beléeue them for the number is infinite which be saued without reading but not one persone without well beléeuing The Edicts and Proclamations which they ordeyned and the lawes of Moses Promotheus Solon Licurgus and Numa Pompilius were all written with their handes and preserued and kept safe in their originals within their liberties but the law of Iesus Christ ought most certaynly to be writtē within our harts for that in as much that the Lord gaue vs no other law but the law of loue he did like and thought it better that we shoulde search and find the same within our hartes than within our bookes And not without great mistery God sayd by the mouth of your Prophet that the law which his sonne should giue vs that he shuld first write it within the harts before the Euangelist shuld reduce them by writing into bookes for after this manner it might not be forgotten neyther yet burned And so if youre auncient predecessors hadde obtayned the law of Moyses written in their harts as they had them writtē in old parchment they had not in times past worshipped the Idolls of Baal Bell Pegor Asterot Bahalim and Belzebub for whiche offence you were caried captiue into straunge countries and falne into your enimies hands How it came to passe that the Hebrew tong was lost IN like manner ye vsed me with no small despight for that in disputing against you I alleaged youre Esay where God the Father speaking vnto his owne proper sonne sayde these wordes parum est mihi vt suscites tribus Iacob feces Israell dedit te in lucem gentium vt sis salus mea vsque ad extremum terrae As if hée would haue sayd it is no great matter that thou serue me to suscitate and raise vp the lies of Iacob and to conuert the dregges of Israell for I haue giuen thee also for a light vnto the Gentiles to the ende that thou shalt be my sauing health vnto the ende of the worlde There is no man hauing read although but little in the holy Scripture that will not saye and affirme that the Prophet Esay was not an Hebrew borne a Prophet of a noble line and right eloquent in the scriptures for which cause you ought rather to blame and complayne of him which doth call and tearme you lies and dregges of Iacob than of me the which in all oure diputations haue not at any time alleaged any Christian doctor but only Hebrewish Prophets I saye agayne that you haue small reason to be offended with him or me for there is another Prophet which doth call you off scowring another venim another lies another dregs another ordure another slime another smoke another filthe in suche wise that as oft as ye did not ceasse to sin so did they not ceasse to blason and to expresse you with most perfect tearmes Are ye able to denie that of your priesthood of your Scepter of your Temple of your Realme of your lawe of youre tong either of your scripture is there any remayning but the lies which smelleth and the dregs which stinketh Surely that which was in youre lawe cleare nete precious and odoriferous long before the incarnation was consumed and that little which remayned in Iesus Christ did take an end And as cōcerning the priesthood of your law the great sacrificer or the high Priest ought he not to be extract out of the Trybe of Leuy whereof you haue nothing left but the lies for yet in the time of yonger and better dayes it was no more giuen vnto the Leuits that did best deserue it but vnto him that offred most siluer in such wise that to him that offred most and had greatest skill to flatter the priesthood was giuē as when a garment is sold by the drumme Likewise of your Scepter royal what haue you but the lyes for Herod Eskalonite a straunger did not onely vsurpe your Realme but by industry caused the Prince Antigonus sonne to Alexander your King