as with the sweetnesse of life to make him swallow down the bitternesse of an eternall disgrace He begrutcheth not to get to his side a probability of victory by the certainty of his own death and flieth from nothing so much as from the mention of flying And though some say he is a mad-man that will purchase Honour so dearly with his bloud as that he cannot live to enjoy what he hath bought our Souldier knows that he shall possesse the reward of his valour with God in heaven and also making the world his executor leave to it the rich inheritance of his memory Yet in some cases he counts it no disgrace to yield where it is impossible to conquer as when swarms of enemies crowd about him so that he shall rather be stifled then wounded to death In such a case if quarter be offered him he may take it with more honour then the other can give it and if he throws up his desperate game he may happily winne the next whereas if he playeth it out to the last he shall certainly lose it and himself But if he be to fall into the hand of a barbarous enemy whose giving him quarter is but repriving him for a more ignominious death he had rather disburse his life at the present then to take day to fall into the hands of such remorslesse creditours He makes none the object of his cruelty which cannot be the object of his fear Lyons they say except forc'd with hunger will not prey on women and children though I would wish none to try the truth hereof the truly valiant will not hurt women or infants nor will they be cruell to old men What conquest is it to strike him up who stands but on one leg and hath the other foot in the grave But arrant cowards such as would conquer victory it self if it should stand in their way as they flie count themselves never evenly match'd except they have threefold oddes on their side and esteem their enemie never disarmed till they be dead Such love to shew a nature steep'd in gall of passion and display the ignoble tyrany of prevailing dastards these being thus valiant against no resistance will make no resistance when they meet with true valour He counts it murther to kill any in cold bloud Indeed in taking Cities by assault especially when Souldiers have suffered long in an hard siege it is pardonable what present passion doth with a sudden thrust but a premeditated back-blow in cold bloud is base Some excuse there is for bloud enraged and no wonder if that scaldeth which boyleth but when men shall call a consultation in their soul and issue thence a deliberate act the more advised the deed is the lesse advised it is when men raise their own passions and are not raised by them specially if fair quarter be first granted an alms which he who gives to day may crave to morrow yea he that hath the hilt in his hand in the morning may have the point at his throat ere night He doth not barbarously abuse the bodies of his dead enemies We find that Hercules was the first the most valiant are ever most mercifull that ever suffered his enemies to carry away their dead bodies after they had been put to the sword Belike before his time they cruelly cut the corps in pieces or cast them to the wild beasts In time of plenty he provides for want hereafter Yet generally Souldiers as if they counted one Treasurer in an army were enough so hate covetousnesse that they cannot affect providence for the future and come home with more marks in their bodies then pence in their pockets He is willing and joyfull to imbrace peace on good conditions The procreation of peace and not the satisfying of mens lusts and liberties is the end of warre Yet how many having warre for their possession desire a perpetuity thereof Wiser men then King Henry the eights fool use to cry in fair weather whose harvest being onely in storms they themselves desire to raise them wherefore fearing peace will starve whom warre hath fatted and to render themselves the more usefull they prolong discord to the utmost and could wish when swords are once drawn that all scabbards might be cut asunder He is as quiet and painfull in peace as couragious in warre If he hath not gotten already enough whereon comfortably to subsist he rebetakes himself to his former calling he had before the warre began the weilding of his sword hath not made him unweildie to do any other work and put his bones out of joynt to take pains Hence comes it to passe that some take by-courses on the high-wayes and death whom they honourably sought for in the field meets them in a worse place But we leave our Souldier seeking by his virtues to ascend from a private place by the degrees of Sergeant Lieutenant Captain Colonell till he comes to be a Generall and then in the next book God willing you shall have his example CHAP. 20. The good Sea-Captain HIs Military part is concurrent with that of the Souldier already described He differs onely in some Sea-properties which we will now set down Conceive him now in a Man of warre with his letters of mart well arm'd victuall'd and appointed and see how he acquits himself The more power he hath the more carefull he is not to abuse it Indeed a Sea-captain is a King in the Iland of a ship supreme Judge above appeal in causes civill and criminall and is seldome brought to an account in Courts of Justice on land for injuries done to his own men at sea He is carefull in observing of the Lords day He hath a watch in his heart though no bells in a steeple to proclaim that day by ringing to prayers S r Francis Drake in three years sailing about the world lost one whole day which was scarce considerable in so long time 'T is to be feared some Captains at sea lose a day every week one in seven neglecting the Sabbath He is as pious and thankfull when a tempest is past as devout when 't is present not clamorous to receive mercies and tongue-tied to return thanks Many mariners are calm in a storm and storm in a calm blustring with oathes In a tempest it comes to their turn to be religious whose piety is but a fit of the wind and when that 's allayed their devotion is ended Escaping many dangers makes him not presumptuous to run into them Not like those Sea-men who as if their hearts were made of those rocks they have often sayled by are so alwayes in death they never think of it These in their navigations observe that it is farre hotter under the Tropicks in the coming to the Line then under the Line it self in like manner they conceive that the fear phancy in preparing for death is more terrible then death it self which makes them
by their true worth and value and will not take them upon the credit whereon others present them unto him He conceives they will be most loving to the branch which were most loyall to the root and most honour'd his father We reade how Henry the fifth as yet Prince of Wales intending to bear out one of his servants for a misdemeanour reviled S r William Gascoine Lord chief Justice of the Kings Bench to his face in open court The aged Judge considered how this his action would beget an immortall example and the echo of his words if unpunished would be resounded for ever to the disgrace of Majesty which is never more on its throne then when either in person or in his substitutes sitting on the bench of Justice and thereupon commanded the Prince to the prison till he had given satisfaction to his father for the affront offered Instantly down fell the heart of great Prince Henry which though as hard as rock the breath of Justice did easily shake being first undermin'd with an apprehension of his own guiltinesse And King Henry the fourth his father is reported greatly to rejoyce that he had a Judge who knew how to command by and a Sonne who knew how to submit to his Laws And afterward this Prince when King first conquering himself and afterwards the French reduced his Court from being a forrest of wild trees to be an orchard of sweet fruit banishing away his bad companions and appointing and countenancing those to keep the key of his honour who had lock'd up his fathers most faithfully He shews himself to the people on fit occasions It is hard to say whether he sees or is seen with more love and delight Every one that brings an eye to gaze on him brings also an heart to pray for him But his subjects in reversion most rejoyce to see him in his military exercises wishing him as much skill to know them as little need to use them seeing peace is as farre to be preferred before victory it self as the end is better then the means He values his future sovereignty not by impunity in doing evil but by power to do good What now his desire is then his ability shall be and he more joyes that he is a member of the true Church then the second in the land Onely he fears to have a Crown too quickly and therefore lengthens out his fathers dayes with his prayers for him and obedience to him And thus we leave Solomon to delight in David David in Solomon their people in both EDWARD Prince of Wales commonly called the black Prince He dyed at Canturbury june the 8 th 1326. Aged 46 yeares W Marshall sâ—ulp CHAP. 20. The life of EDVVARD the Black Prince EDward the Black Prince so called from his dreaded acts and not from his complexion was the eldest sonne to Edward the third by Philippa his Queen He was born Anno 1329 on the fifteenth of June being friday at Woodstock in Oxfordshire His Parents perceiving in him more then ordinary naturall perfections were carefull to bestow on him such education in Piety and Learning agreeable to his high birth The Prince met their care with his towardlinesse being apt to take fire and blaze at the least spark of instruction put into him We find him to be the first Prince of Wales whose Charter at this day is extant with the particular rites of investiture which were the Crownet and Ring of gold with a rod of silver worthily bestowed upon him who may passe for a miroir of Princes whether we behold him in Peace or in Warre He in the whole course of his life manifested a singular observance to his Parents to comply with their will and desire nor lesse was the tendernesse of his affection to his Brothers and Sisters whereof he had many But as for the Martiall performances of this Prince they are so many and so great that they would fill whole volumes we will onely insist on three of his most memorable atchievements remitting the Reader for the rest to our English Historians The first shall be his behaviour in the battel of Cressy against the French wherein Prince Edward not fully eighteen years old led the sore front of the English There was a causlesse report the beginning of a rumour is sometimes all the ground thereof spread through the French army that the English were fled whereupon the French posted after them not so much to overcome this they counted done but to overtake them preparing themselves rather to pursue then to fight But coming to the town of Cressy they found the English fortified in a wooddy place and attending in good array to give battel Whereat the French falling from their hopes were extremely vext a fools paradise is a wisemans hell finding their enemies faces to stand where they look'd for their backs And now both armies prepared to fight whilest behold flocks of ravens and vulturs in the aire flew thither bold guests to come without an invitation But these smell-feast birds when they saw the cloth laid the tents of two armies pitch'd knew there would be good cheere and came to feed on their carcases The English divided themselves into three parts The formost consisting most of Archers led by the Black Prince the second by the Earl of Northampton the third commanded by King Edward in person The French were treble in number to the English and had in their army the three Kings of France Bohemia and Majorca Charles Duke of Alenson with John the Bohemian King led the vanguard the French King Philip the main battel whilest Amie Duke of Savoy brought up the rere The Genoan Archers in the French forefront wearied with marching were accus'd for their slothfulnesse and could neither get their wages nor good words which made many of them cast down their bows and refuse to fight the rest had their bowstrings made uselesse being wetted with a sudden showre which fell on their side But Heavens smiling offended more then her weeping the sunne suddenly shining out in the face of the French gave them so much light that they could not see However Duke Charles breaking through the Genoans furiously charged the fronts of the English and joyned at hand-strokes with the Princes battel who though fighting most couragiously was in great danger Therefore King Edward was sent unto who hitherto hovered on a hillock judiciously beholding the fight to come and rescue his sonne The King apprehending his case dangerous but not desperate and him rather in need then extremity told the messenger Is my sonne alive let him die or conquer that he may have the honour of the day The English were vext not at his deniall but their own request that they should seem to suspect their Kings fatherly affection or Martiall skill as needing a remembrancer to tell him his time To make amends they laid about them manfully the rather because they knew that the King looked on to
with other symptomes gave the suspicion that he poysoned himself It will suffice us to observe If a Great man much beloved dyeth suddenly the report goes that others poysoned him If he be generally hated then that he poysoned himself Sure never did a Great man fall with lesse pity Some of his own servants with the feathers they got under him flew to other Masters Most of the Clergy more pitying his Profession then Person were glad that the felling of this oke would cause the growth of much underwood Let Geometricians measure the vastnesse of his mind by the footsteps of his Buildings Christ-Church White-Hall Hampton-Court And no wonder if some of these were not finished seeing his life was rather broken off then ended Sure King Henrie lived in two of his houses and lies now in the third I mean his Tombe at Windsor In a word in his prime he was the bias of the Christian world drawing the bowl thereof to what side he pleased CHAP. 4. The life of CHARLES BRANDON Duke of Suffolk CHarles Brandon was sonne to Sr. William Brandon Standerd-bearer to King Henry the seaventh in whose quarrell he was slain in Bosworth field wherefore the King counted himself bound in honour and conscience to favour young Charles whose father spent his last breath to blow him to the haven of victory and caused him to be brought up with Prince Henrie his second sonne The intimacy betwixt them took deep impression in their tender years which hardned with continuance of time proved indeleble It was advanced by the sympathy of their active spirits men of quick and large-striding minds loving to walk together not to say that the loosenesse of their youthfull lives made them the faster friends Henry when afterwards King heaped honours upon him created him Viscount Lisle and Duke of Suffolk Not long after some of the English Nobility got leave to go to the publick Tilting in Paris and there behav'd themselves right valiantly though the sullen French would scarce speak a word in their praise For they conceived it would be an eternall impoverishing of the credit of their Nation if the honour of the day should be exported by foreiners But Brandon bare away the credit from all fighting at Barriers with a giant Almain till he made an earth-quake in that mountain of flesh making him reel and stagger and many other courses at Tilt he performed to admiration Yea the Lords beheld him not with more envious then the Ladies with gracious eyes who darted more glaunces in love then the other ranne spears in anger against him especially Mary the French Queen and sister to King Henry the eighth who afterward proved his wife For after the death of Lewis the twelfth her husband King Henry her brother imployed Charles Brandon to bring her over into England who improved his service so well that he got her good will to marrie her Whether his affections were so ambitious to climbe up to her or hers so courteous as to descend to him who had been twice a widower before let youthfull pennes dispute it it sufficeth us both met together Then wrote he in humble manner to request King Henries leave to marrie his sister but knowing that matters of this nature are never sure till finisht and that leave is sooner got to do such attempts when done already and wisely considering with himself that there are but few dayes in the Almanack wherein such Marriages come in and subjects have opportunity to wed Queens he first married her privately in Paris King Henrie after the acting of some anger and shewing some state-discontent was quickly contented therewith yea the world conceiveth that he gave this woman to be married to this man in sending him on such an imployment At Calis they were afterward re-married or if you will their former private marriage publickly solemniz'd and coming into England liv'd many years in honour and esteem no lesse dear to his fellow-subjects then his Sovereigne He was often imployed Generall in Martiall affairs especially in the warres betwixt the English and French though the greatest performance on both sides was but mutuall indenting the Dominions each of other with inrodes When the divorce of King Henry from Queen Katharine was so long in agitation Brandon found not himself a little agrieved at the Kings expence of time and money for the Court of Rome in such matters wherein money is gotten by delayes will make no more speed then the beast in Brasil which the Spaniards call Pigritia which goes no farther in a fortnight then a man will cast a stone Yea Brandon well perceived that Cardinall Campeius and Wolsey in their Court at Bridewell wherein the divorce was judicially handled intended onely to produce a solemn Nothing their Court being but the clock set according to the diall at Rome and the instructions received thence Wherefore knocking on the table in the presence of the two Cardinalls he bound it with an oath That It was never well in England since Cardinalls had any thing to do therein And from that time forward as an active instrument he indeavoured the abolishing of the Popes power in England For he was not onely as the Papists complain of him a principall agent in that Parliament Anno. 1534. wherein the Popes supremacy was abrogated but also a main means of the overturning of Abbeys as conceiving that though the head was struck off yet as long as that neck and those shoulders remained there would be a continuall appetite of reuniting themselves Herein his thoughts were more pure from the mixture of covetousnesse then many other imployed in the same service For after that our eyes justly dazled at first with the brightnesse of Gods Justice on those vitious fraternities have somewhat recovered themselves they will serve us to see the greedy appetites of some instruments to feed on Church-morsels He lived and dyed in the full favour of his Prince though as Cardinall Pool observed they who were highest in this Kings favour their heads were nearest danger Indeed King Henrie was not very tender in cutting off that joynt and in his Reigne the ax was seldome wiped before wetted again with Noble bloud He dyed Anno 1544. much beloved and lamented of all for his bounty humility valour and all noble virtues since the heat of his youth was tamed in his reduced age and lies buried at Windsor CHAP. 5. The wise Statesman TO describe the Statesman at large is the subject rather of a Volume then a Chapter and is as farre beyond my power as wide of my profession We will not lanch into the deep but satisfie our selves to sail by the shore and briefly observe his carriage towards God his King himself home-persons and forein Princes He counts the fear of God the beginning of wisdome and therefore esteemeth no project profitable which is not lawfull nothing politick which crosseth piety Let not any plead for the contrary Hushai's dealing with Absalom which strongly
he knew thriftily to improve being a pregnant proficient in State-discipline CHAP. 7. The good Iudge THe good Advocate whom we formerly described is since by his Princes favour and own deserts advanced to be a Judge which his place he freely obtained with Sr. Augustine Nicolls whom King James used to call the Iudge that would give no money Otherwise they that buy Justice by wholesale to make themselves savers must sell it by retail He is patient and attentive in hearing the pleadings on both sides and hearkens to the witnesses though tedious He may give a waking testimony who hath but a dreaming utterance and many countrey people must be impertinent before they can be pertinent and cannot give evidence about an hen but first they must begin with it in the egge All which our Judge is contented to hearken to He meets not a testimony half-way but stayes till it come at him He that proceeds on half-evidence will not do quarter-justice Our Judge will not go till he is lead If any shall brow-beat a pregnant witnesse on purpose to make his proof miscarry he checketh them and helps the witnesse that labours in his delivery On the other side he nips those Lawyers who under a pretence of kindnesse to lend a witnesse some words give him new matter yea clean contrary to what he intended Having heard with patience he gives sentence with uprightnesse For when he put on his robes he put off his relations to any and like Melchisedech becomes without pedigree His private affections are swallowed up in the common cause as rivers lose their names in the ocean He therefore allows no noted favourites which cannot but cause multiplication of fees and suspicion of by-wayes He silences that Lawyer who seeks to set the neck of a bad cause once broken with a definitive sentence and causeth that contentious suits be spued out as the surfets of Courts He so hates bribes that he is jealous to receive any kindnesse above the ordinary proportion of friendship lest like the Sermons of wandring Preachers they should end in begging And surely Integrity is the proper portion of a Judge Men have a touch-stone whereby to try gold but gold is the touch-stone whereby to trie men It was a shrewd gird which Catulus gave the Romane Judges for acquitting Clodius a great malefactour when he met them going home well attended with Officers You do well quoth he to be well guarded for your safety lest the money be taken away from you you took for bribes Our Judge also detesteth the trick of Mendicant Friers who will touch no money themselves but have a boy with a bag to receive it for them When he sits upon life in judgement he remembreth mercy Then they say a butcher may not be of the Jurie much lesse let him be the Judge Oh let him take heed how he strikes that hath a dead hand It was the charge Queen Marie gave to Judge Morgan chief Justice of the common Pleas that notwithstanding the old errour amongst Judges did not admit any witnesse to speak or any other matter to be heard in favour of the adversary her Majestie being party yet her Highnesse pleasure was that whatsoever could be brought in the favour of the Subject should be admitted and heard If the cause be difficult his diligence is the greater to sift it out For though there be mention Psal. 37.6 of righteousnesse as clear as the noon-day yet God forbid that that innocency which is no clearer then twilight should be condemned And seeing ones oath commands anothers life he searcheth whether malice did not command that oath yet when all is done the Judge may be deceived by false evidence But blame not the hand of the diall if it points at a false houre when the fault 's in the wheels of the clock which direct it and are out of frame The sentence of condemnation he pronounceth with all gravity 'T is best when steep'd in the Judges tears He avoideth all jesting on men in misery easily may he put them out of countenance whom he hath power to put out of life Such as are unworthy to live and yet unfitted to die he provides shall be instructed By Gods mercy and good teaching the reprive of their bodies may get the pardon of their souls and one dayes longer life for them here may procure a blessed eternity for them hereafter as may appear by this memorable Example It happened about the yeare one thousand five hundred and fiftie six in the town of Weissenstein in Germany that a Jew for theft he had cōmitted was in this cruell manner to be executed He was hang'd by the feet with his head downwards betwixt two dogs which constantly snatch'd and bit at him The strangenesse of the torment moved Jacobus Andreas a grave moderate and learned Divine as any in that age to go to behold it Coming thither he found the poore wretch as he hung repeating Verses out of the Hebrew Psalmes wherein he cryed out to God for mercy Andreas hereupon took occasion to counsell him to trust in Jesus Christ the true Saviour of mankind The Jew embracing the Christian Faith requested but this one thing that he might be taken down and be baptized though presently after he were hanged again but by the neck as Christian malefactours suffered which was accordingly granted him He is exact to do justice in civill Suits betwixt Sovereigne and Subject This will most ingratiate him with his Prince at last Kings neither are can nor should be Lawyers themselves by reason of higher State-employments but herein they see with the eyes of their Judges and at last will break those false spectacles which in point of Law shall be found to have deceived them He counts the Rules of State and the Laws of the Realm mutually support each other Those who made the Laws to be not onely disparate but even opposite terms to maximes of Government were true friends neither to Laws nor Government Indeed Salus Reip. is Charta maxima extremity makes the next the best remedy Yet though hot waters be good to be given to one in a swound they will burn his heart out who drinks them constantly when in health Extraordinary courses are not ordinarily to be used when not enforced by absolute necessity And thus we leave our good Judge to receive a just reward of his integrity from the Judge of Judges at the great Assize of the world CHAP. 8. The life of Sr. JOHN MARKHAM IOhn Markham was born at Markham in Nottinghamshire descended of an ancient and worthy familie He employed his youth in the studying of the Municipall Law of this realm wherein he attained to such eminencie that King Edward the fourth Knighted him and made him Lord chief Justice of the Kings Bench in the place of S r John Fortescue that learned and upright Judge who fled away with King Henrie the sixth
therefore bear the lesse weight never meddling with matters of Justice Can this be counted too low for a Lord which is high enough for a King our Nobleman freely serves his Countrey counting his very work a sufficient reward As by our Laws no Duke Earl Baron or Baronet though Justices of Peace may take any wages at the Sessions Yea he detesteth all gainfull wayes which have the least blush of dishonour For the Merchant Nobility of Florence and Venice how highly soever valued by themselves passe in other countreys with losse and abatement of repute as if the scarlet robes of their honour had a stain of the stamell die in them He is carefull in the thrifty managing of his estate Gold though the most solid and heavy of metalls yet may be beaten out so thin as to be the lightest and slightest of all things Thus Nobility though in it self most honourable may be so attenuated through the smalnesse of means as thereby to grow neglected Which makes our Nobleman to practice Solomons precept Be diligent to know the state of thy flocks and look well to thine herds for the Crown doth not endure to every generation If not the Crown much lesse the Coronet and good husbandry may as well stand with great honour as breadth may consist with height If a weak estate be left him by his Ancesters he seeks to repair it by wayes thrifty yet noble as by travelling sparing abroad till his state at home may outgrow debts and pensions Hereby he gains experience and saves expence sometimes living private sometimes shewing himself at an half light and sometimes appearing like himself as occasion requires or else by betaking himself to the warres Warre cannot but in thankfulnesse grace him with an Office which graceth her with his person or else by warlike sea-adventures wisely undertaken and providently managed otherwise this course hath emptied more full then filled empty purses and many thereby have brought a Galeon to a Gally or lastly by match with wealthy Heirs wherein he is never so attentive to his profit but he listens also to his honour In proportion to his means he keeps a liberall house This much takes the affections of countrey people whose love is much warmed in a good kitchin and turneth much on the hinges of a buttery-doore often open Francis Russell second Earl of Bedford of that sirname was so bountifull to the poore that Queen Elizabeth would merrily complain of him that he made all the beggers sure 't is more honourable for Noblemen to make beggers by their liberality then by their oppression But our Nobleman is especially carefull to see all things discharged which he taketh up When the corps of Thomas Howard second Duke of Norfolk were carried to be interred in the Abbey of Thetford Anno 1524. no person could demand of him one groat for debt or restitution for any injury done by him His servants are best known by the coat and cognizance of their civill behaviour He will not entertain such ruffian-like men who know so well who is their Master that they know not who they are themselves and think their Lords reference is their innocence to bear them out in all unlawfull actions But our Lords house is the Colledge wherein the children of the neighbouring Gentry and Yeomanry are bred and there taught by serving of him to rule themselves He hateth all oppression of his tenants and neighbours disdaining to crush a mean Gentleman for a meaner offense and counts it no conquest but an execution from him who on his side hath the oddes of height of place strength of arme and length of weapon But as the Proverb saith No grasse grows where the grand Seignieurs horse sets his feet so too often nothing but grasse grows where some Great men set their footing no towns or tillage for all must be turn'd into depopulating pastures and commons into enclosures Nigh the city of Lunenberg in Germany flowed a plentifull salt spring till such time as the rich men engrossing all the profit to themselves would not suffer the poore to make any salt thereof whereupon God and Nature being offended at their covetousnesse the spring ceased and ran no more for a time Thus hath Gods punishment overtaken many great men and stopp'd his blessing towards them which formerly flowed plentifully unto them for that they have wronged poore people of their commonage which of right belonged unto them In his own pleasures he is carefull of his neighbours profit Though his horses cannot have wings like his hawks to spoil no grasse or grain as he passeth yet he is very carefull to make as little waste as possible may be his horses shall not trample on loaves of bread as he hunteth so that whilest he seeks to gather a twig for himself he breaks the staff of the commonwealth All the countrey are his Retainers in love and observance When they come to wait on him they leave not their hearts at home behind them but come willingly to tender their respects The holding up of his hand is as good as the displaying of a banner thousands will flock to him but it must be for the Kings and Countreys service For he knows that he who is more then a Lord if his cause be loyall is lesse then a private man if it be otherwise with S. Paul he can do nothing against the truth but for the truth Thus Queen Elizabeth Christâ—ned the youngest daughter of Gilbert Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury now Countesse of Arundell Aletheia Truth out of true consideration and judgement that the house of the Talbots was ever loyall to the Crown Some priviledges of Noblemen he endeavours to deserve namely such priviledges as are completely Noble that so his merits as well as the Law should allow them unto him He conceives this word On mine Honour wraps up a great deal in it which unfolded and then measured will be found to be a large attestation and no lesse then an eclipticall oath calling God to witnesse who hath bestowed that Honour upon him And seeing the State is so tender of him that he shall not be forced to swear in matters of moment in Courts of Justice he is carefull not to swear of his own accord in his sports and pleasures Other priviledges of Noblemen he labours not to have need of namely such as presuppose a fault are but honourable penalties and excuse from shamefull punishments Thus he is not to be bound to the peace And what needs he who hath the peace alwayes bound to him being of his own accord alwayes carefull to preserve it and of so noble a disposition he will never be engaged in any braules or contentions To give an instance of such a Nobleman seems to be needlesse hoping that at this time in one city of this Realm and in one room of that city many such Noblemen are to be found together CHAP. 13. The
by the swiftnesse of his motion would set all the world on fire so Mercy must ever be set near Justice for the cooling and tempering thereof In his mercy our King desires to resemble the God of heaven who measureth his judgements by the ordinary cubit but his kindnesses by the cubit of the Sanctuary twice as big yea all the world had been a hell without Gods mercy He is rich in having a plentifull exchequer of his peoples hearts Allow me said Archimedes to stand in the aire and I will move the earth But our King having a firm footing in his Subjects affections what may he do yea what may he not do making the coward valiant the miser liberall for love the key of hearts will open the closest coffers Mean time how poore is that Prince amidst all his wealth whose Subjects are onely kept by a slavish fear the jaylour of the soul. An iron arm fastned with scrues may be stronger but never so usefull because not so naturall as an arm of flesh joined with muscles sinews Loving Subjects are most serviceable as being more kindly united to their Sovereigne then those which are onely knock'd on with fear and forcing Besides where Subjects are envassaled with fear Prince and People mutually watch their own advantages which being once offered them 't is wonderfull if they do not and wofull if they do make use thereof He willingly orders his actions by the Laws of his realm Indeed some maintain that Princes are too high to come under the roof of any Laws except they voluntarily of their goodnesse be pleased to bow themselves thereunto and that it is Corban a gift and courtesy in them to submit themselves to their Laws But whatsoever the Theories of absolute Monarchy be our King loves to be legall in all his practices and thinks that his power is more safely lock'd up for him in his Law then kept in his own will because God alone makes things lawfull by willing them whilest the most calmest Princes have sometimes gusts of Passion which meeting with an unlimited Authority in them may prove dangerous to them and theirs Yea our King is so suspicious of an unbounded power in himself that though the widenesse of his strides could make all the hedge stiles yet he will not go over but where he may He also hearkneth to the advise of good Counsellers remembring the speech of Antoninus the Emperour Aequius est ut ego tot taliumque amicorum consilium sequar quam tot talesque amici meam unius voluntatem And yet withall our King is carefull to maintain his just Prerogative that as it be not outstretched so it may not be overshortned Such a gratious Sovereigne God hath vouchsafed to this Land How pious is he towards his God! attentive in hearing the Word preaching Religion with his silence as the Minister doth with his speech How loving to his Spouse tender to his Children faithfull to his servants whilest they are faithfull to their own innocence otherwise leaving them to Justice under marks of his displeasure How doth he with David walk in the midst of his house without partiality to any How just is he in punishing wilfull murder so that it is as easie to restore the murthered to life as to keep the murtherer from death How mercifull is he to such who not out of leigier malice but sudden passion may chance to shed bloud to whom his pardon hath allowed leisure to drop out their own souls in tears by constant repentance all the dayes of their lives How many wholsome Laws hath he enacted for the good of his Subjects How great is his humilitie in so great height which maketh his own praises painfull for himself to heare though pleasant for others to report His Royall virtues are too great to be told and too great to be conceal'd All cannot some must break forth from the full hearts of such as be his thankfull Subjects But I must either stay or fall My sight fails me dazell'd with the lustre of Majestie all I can do is pray Give the King thy judgements O Lord and thy righteousnesse to the Kings Sonne smite through the loins of those that rise up against his Majestie but upon him and his let the Crown flourish Oh cause his Subjects to meet his Princely care for their good with a proportionable cheerfulnesse and alacrity in his service that so thereby the happinesse of Church and State may be continued Grant this O Lord for Christ Jesus his sake our onely Mediatour and Advocate Amen THE PROFANE STATE BY THOMAS FULLER B. D. and Prebendarie of Sarum ISAIAH 32.5 The vile person shall be no more called liberall nor the churl said to be bountifull EZEK 44.23 And they shall teach my people the difference betwixt the Holy and the Profane CAMBRIDGE ¶ Printed by ROGER DANIEL for Iohn Williams and are to be sold at the signe of the Crown in S. Pauls Churchyard 1642. The Profane State THE FIFTH BOOK CHAP. 1. The Harlot IS one that her self is both merchant and merchandise which she selleth for profit and hath pleasure given her into the bargain and yet remains a great loser To describe her is very difficult it being hard to draw those to the life who never sit still she is so various in her humours and mutable 't is almost impossible to character her in a fixed posture yea indeed some cunning Harlots are not discernable from honest women Solomon saith she wipeth her mouth and who can distinguish betwixt that which was never foul and that which is cleanly wiped Her love is a blank wherein she writeth the next man that tendreth his affection Impudently the Harlot lied Prov. 7.15 Therefore came I forth to meet thee diligently to seek thy face and I have found thee else understand her that she came forth to meet him not qua talis but qua primus because he came first for any other youngster in his place would have serv'd her turn yet see how she makes his chance her courtesie she affecting him as much above others as the common road loves the next passenger best As she sees so her self is seen by her own eyes Sometimes she stares on men with full fixed eyes otherwhiles she squints forth glances and contracts the beams in her burning glasses to make them the hotter to inflame her objects sometimes she dejects her eyes in a seeming civility and many mistake in her a cunning for a modest look But as those bullets which graze on the ground do most mischief to an army so she hurts most with those glances which are shot from a down-cast eye She writes characters of wantonnesse with her feet as she walks And what Potiphars wife said with her tongue she saith unto the passengers with her gesture and gate Come lie with me and nothing angrieth her so much as when modest men affect a deafnesse and will not heare or a dulnesse and will not
understand the language of her behaviour She counts her house a prison and is never well till gadding abroad sure 't is true of women what is observed of elm if lying within doores dry no timber will last sound longer but if without doores expos'd to weather no wood sooner rots and corrupts Yet some Harlots continue a kind of strange coynesse even to the very last which coynesse differs from modesty as much as hemlock from parsely They will deny common favours because they are too small to be granted They will part with all or none refuse to be courteous and reserve themselves to be dishonest whereas women truly modest will willingly go to the bounds of free and harmlesse mirth but will not be dragg'd any farther She is commonly known by her whorish attire As crisping and curling making her hair as winding and intricate as her heart painting wearing naked breasts The face indeed ought to be bare and the haft should lie out of the sheath but where the back and edge of the knife are shown 't is to be feared they mean to cut the fingers of others I must confesse some honest women may go thus but no whit the honester for going thus The ship may have Castor and Pollux for the badge and notwithstanding have S. Paul for the lading yet the modesty and discretion of honest Matrons were more to be commended if they kept greater distance from the attire of Harlots Sometimes she ties her self in marriage to one that she may the more freely stray to many and cares not though her husband comes not within her bed so be it he goeth not out beyond the Foure-seas She useth her husband as an hood whom she casts off in the fair weather of prosperity but puts him on for a cover in adversity if it chance she prove with child Yet commonly she is as barren as lustfull Yea who can expect that malt should grow to bring new increase Besides by many wicked devices she seeks on purpose to make her self barren a retrograde act to set Nature back making many issues that she may have no issue and an hundred more damnable devices Which wicked projects first from hell did flow And thither let the same in silence go Best known of them who did them never know And yet for all her cunning God sometimes meets with her who varieth his wayes of dealing with wantons that they may be at a losse in tracing him and sometimes against her will she proves with child which though unable to speak yet tells at the birth a plain story to the mothers shame At last when her deeds grow most shamefull she grows most shamelesse So impudent that she her self sometimes proves both the poyson and the antidote the temptation and the preservative young men distasting and abhorring her boldnesse And those wantons who perchance would willingly have gathered the fruit fruit from the tree will not feed on such fallings Generally she dies very poore The wealth she gets is like the houses some build in Gothland made of snow no lasting fabrick the rather because she who took money of those who tasted the top of her wantonnesse is fain to give it to such who will drink out the dregs of her lust She dieth commonly of a lothsome disease I mean that disease unknown to Antiquity created within some hundreds of years which took the name from Naples When hell invented new degrees in sinnes it was time for heaven to invent new punishments Yet is this new disease now grown so common and ordinary as if they meant to put divine Justice to a second task to find out a newer And now it is high time for our Harlot being grown lothsome to her self to runne out of her self by repentance Some conceive that when King Henry the eighth destroyed the publick Stews in this Land which till his time stood on the banks side on Southwark next the Bear-garden beasts and beastly women being very fit neighbours he rather scattered then quenched the fire of lust in this kingdome and by turning the flame out of the chimney where it had a vent more endangered the burning of the Commonwealth But they are deceived for whilest the Laws of the Land tolerated open uncleannesse God might justly have made the whole State do penance for whoredome whereas now that sinne though committed yet not permitted and though God knows it be too generall it is still but personall JOAN the first of that Name Queen of Naples which for her Incontinency and other wicked Practises was put to Death Anno 1381. Page 360. WM sculp CHAP. 2. The life of JOAN Queen of Naples JOan grandchild to Robert King of Naples by Charles his sonne succeeded her grandfather in the Kingdome of Naples and Sicily Anno 1343. a woman of a beautifull body and rare endowments of nature had not the heat of her lust soured all the rest of her perfections whose wicked life and wofull death we now come to relate And I hope none can justly lay it to my charge if the foulnesse of her actions stain through the cleanest language I can wrap them in She was first married unto her cosen Andrew a Prince of royall extraction and of a sweet and loving disposition But he being not able to satisfie her wantonnesse she kept company with lewd persons at first privately but afterwards she presented her badnesse visible to every eye so that none need look through the chinks where the doores were open Now Elizabeth Queen of Hungary her husband Andrews mother was much offended at the badnesse of her daughter-in-law whose deeds were so foul she could not look on them and so common she could not look besides them wherefore in a matronly way she fairly advised her to reform her courses For the lives of Princes are more read then their Laws and generally more practised Yea their example passeth as current as their coin and what they do they seem to command to be done Cracks in glasse though past mending are no great matter but the least flaw in a diamond is considerable Yea her personall fault was a nationall injury which might derive and put the Sceptre into a wrong hand These her mild instructions she sharpned with severe threatnings But no razor will cut a stony heart Queen Joan imputed it to ages envy old people perswading youth to leave those pleasures which have left themselves Besides a Mother-in-laws Sermon seldome takes well with an audience of Daughter-in-laws Wherefore the old Queen finding the other past grace that is never likely to come to it resolved no longer to punish anothers sinne on her self and vex her own righteous soul but leaving Naples return'd into Hungary After her departure Queen Joan grew weary of her husband Andrew complaining of his insufficiency though those who have caninum appetitum are not competent judges what is sufficient food And she caused her husband in the city of Aversa to be hung