to dispence his holy mysteries amongst vs to whome wee are not onely to attribute honour but for whome wee are also bound to pray if they doe not make themselues vnworthy of it by their owne contempt by their couetousnes by their pride and by their ambition as there bee some that haue set themselues opposite to the ordinance of the Church that haue set the holy scriptures at a iarre that will many times make the glose to ouerthrow the Text that will cry out for Discipline yet will obey no Discipline that will take vpon them to teach al men yet they themselues wil not be taught that are angry against Bishoppes and would not haue them to be Lordes yet are become so Lady like themselues that they would haue euery one a new fashion particular to himselfe these are to proud in their own conceites these be they that disdaining to yeelde to authority do shew greater pride in their contempt theÌ„ the other can shew in their most ambitious desires Saint Paul writing to Timothie Hee that desireth the office of a Bishoppe that man desireth a good worke I hope the office of a Bishoppe is not altogether without authority and that authority in the Church of God is not altogether vnworthy of honour and where Christ prohibited his Disciples that they should not be caled Rabbi that they should not be called Doctors c. by the opinion of the most learned writers those words of Christ doe not condemne superiority lordship or any other like authority but the ambitious desire onely neither doth he say elsewhere that no man should be great or beare rule amongst them but his words are He that desireth to be great amongst you let him be humbled And Timothie notwithstanding those words spoken by Christ calleth himselfe the Doctor of the Gentiles and Paul in like manner writing to the Corinthians calleth himselfe their Father Now as the holy Scriptures exhorteth the professors of the Gospell to be humble meeke so we ought to render them the first title of honour and to giue theÌ„ precedence in the formost ranke especially to those that do not ambitiously desire it Loe heare now the difference betweene the Disciples of Christ and the followers of Antichrist the one refuseth the prefermeÌ„ts of the world that are offered vnto them by the Deuill and contenteth themselues with their vocation in the ministery the other with the Pope accepteth of al that is offered besides their ecclesiasticall promotions they hunt after temporall iurisdictions other proud titles of the world to vphold and maintain their pride and ambition for the better manifestation whereof I thinke it will not bee out of season to remember a iest that was merily broken by a plaine Country fellow vpon one of the Popes Chaplaines the Bishoppe of Cullen who passing on a iourney sumptuously mounted and gorgeously furnished both himself and al the rest that were in his company was encountered by a rude country fellow who comming to the Bishop after hee had bluntly saluted him he saide my Lord I haue heard speaking of Peter and Paul and of some others that were reputed to be good and godly men I may well commend their goodnes but I will neuer prayse their wit for they were glad to amble about the country on foot for falling followed perhaps with some poore thred bare fellowes like themselues but I see God hath prouided for your Lordship better then for them or your wisedome is the more to prouide so well for your selfe The Bishop that heard himselfe to bee thus pretily nipt returned this answere but sirra said he you mistake your text you thinke I take more state vppon me then is befitting an Apostle but let Peter Paul goe or ride how they list I am not only the Bishoppe of Cullen but I am ouer and besides a Prince Elector and for this state that you thinke I take vpon mee as you thinke it to be too much for a Bishoppe so I know it to be too little for a prince and thus you are answered you haue answered well said the other but good my Lord but one question more if this prince Elector that you speake of do happen to goe to the Deuill for his pride what will become of my Lord Bishop of Cullen We might make the like demaund to the Pope who notwithstanding his humble pâ—etence to bee Seruus Seruorum Dei yet hee assumeth to himselfe the dispose of the whole world not contented with that neither but he further taketh vppon him to haue commaund both in Heauen and Hell to let in and shut out as it pleaseth him but because his intollerable pride is well inough knowne I may be the more sparing it was the bounty and liberality of princes that first begat this ambition in Popes so ambition was it again that first destroyed Religion but for the tru professors of the Gospell I protest I thinke it a sinne to carry any ill conceit against theÌ„ whose praiers vnto God doth so appease his displeasure towardes vs that hee many times forbeareth to punish vs when wee haue worthily deserued it and as the prayers of Moses did rather procure the victory against Amalecke then all the swordes that did accompany Iosua to the fight so I beleeue that the petition of one godly man deliuered with a confident zeale is of more effect then the prayers of a multitude that are but breathed in words and are rather vttered from the mouth then proceeding from the heart Hauing thus placed the Diuine in the formost rank the Souldier is next to be preferred for honor cannot be wanting in those men of valour that haue restored to their country their bloud which their conntrie first gaue vnto them if wee stand vpon birth onely then the most auncient whether in Nobility or Gentility if we stand vpon desert then the martiall man hee that doth deliuer his country from the seruitude of strangers the oppression of Tyrantes that doth countermaund the miseries of ciuill dissentions that doth restraine the pride and ambition of aspiring traitors that doth inlarge their territories defend their liberties vphold and maintaine Iustice and make honorable defence against all inuaders The Souldier is the man that holdeth the whole world in awe and is not onely a sure defence against forraine inuasions but likewise against domesticall rebellions wee need not in this case to seeke after farre fet precedents when wee haue home examples inough of our own who hath not heard of Iack Straw Iacke Cade and of Ket with many others now of later times in Ireland that if the Souldiers sworde had not beene of greater vertue then a writ out of the Kinges Bench to haue brought them before my Lord Chiefe Iustice they would neither haue made appearance nor haue paid fees I say then that the execution of Iustice lieth in Arms but me thinkes I see a Lawyer laugh at this for those that bee of the sorrier sort of Lawyers
ROOME for a Gentleman OR THE SECOND PART OF FAVLTES Collected and gathered for the true Meridian of Dublin in Jreland and may serue fitly else where about London and in many other partes of England By BARNABE RYCH Souldier Malui me diuitem esse quam vocari LONDON Printed by I. W. for Ieffrey Chorlton and are to be sold at his shoppe at the great North dore of Paules Church 1609. TO THE RIGHT Worshipfull and Honourable dis posed Sir THOMAS RIDGEVVAY Knight Treasurer and Vice-Treasurer at Warres in his Maiesties Realme of Ireland ALthough I do not thinke these idle lines to be a fit present for your iudgment and wisedome whome the Arts haue adorned with knowledge and science but that I shall rather seeme to inioyne you to a pennance then giue you any manner of content yet sir hauing had former trials of your curtesies towards me I will number this amongst the rest of your fauours you see the best gratification my ability can afford is but a few paper wordes and betwixt kind wordes that be written and kind wordes that bee spoken the difference is small I would bee glad to arme them with some better merite and to endeuour any other thing that might be more acceptable vnto you in the meane time I shall acknowledge my selfe more beholding vnto you to vouchsafe me a reading then my little skill is able to merite by writing I will not make any further ostentation neither will I light a candle to the sunne but will rest Alwaies at your disposition BARNABE RYCH To all those Gentlemen that are worthily so reputed GENTLEMEN that you might the rather know your selues to be Gentlemen I haue endeuoured these lines wherein I haue distinguished of Gentlemen both currant and counterfeit I call them currant that are wel known to be Gentlemen by discent or haue been otherwise aduaÌ„ced by desert eyther by seruice in the field or by any other vertuous indeauour â—ending to the generall good of the common wealth I call them counterfeit that do vsurpe the name title of gentlemen that are lately crept out of a thatcht house or from the dunghil by scraping together alittle pelfe that haue neither petigree vertue nr honesty whereby to make claime and yet will intrude themselues and take more vpon them then becommeth basenes I hope I shall neither offâ—nd the honest nor discontent the wise for the rest if they be a little rubd ouer the gaule let them kicke in Gods name Hee that cannot endure the reprehension of Sinne let him neuer goe to Church and he that cannot abide to heare folly reproued let him neuer reade Bookes But as mistres Minx is many times sicke but shee cannot tell where so there be some would fame finde fault if they could tell how but for him that is of the reprehending humour here is matter for him to worke vpon My lines are like the Shoomakers leather that if a man complains of a straite shoo they will swear one daies wearing will make it retch againe if they be too wide they will say the leather will shrink in the wearing so my lines according to the disposition of the Reader may be made either too short or too long for although I haue fitted them to mine own fantasie yet I know I cannot fit them to euerie mans humor In the same pasture where the Bee â—â—eazeth on the flower the oxe feedeth on the shrub so readers some like Bees and some like Oxen do conuert things indifferent to particular qualities for what the one coÌ„uerts to honey the other turus to gall Xenophon was wont to say that if beasts could paint they would pourtray God himself like a beast so the ignorant sort that wil draw all thinges to their own appetites and but to what themselues do affect will make those expositions of any thing they read as the writer himselfe neuer thought vpon and as they will not let to dispraise those things that they could neuer conceiue so they wil praise that againe which they neuer vnderstood We haue too many of these expositors that can wrest generalities to priuate applications I wold bâ— glad to blesse my self from them but if I cannot escape them my â—â—re is the lesse because it is not my case alone when it is generall to as many as haue had to doe with the printing presse Roome for a Gentleman Or the Second Part of FAVLTES IT hath beene holden for a great blessing of God when the sworde and all other weapons of warre are turned into Plough-yrons but we doe not consider that war is the minister of Gods iustice either for contempt of himself neglect of his Religion or for the wicked life of worldlings it is the surfers of peace that hatcheth vppe war and it is the finnes of the people that draweth the Soldiers Sword for warres are but as a Corrector to the disorders of peace it is as fire to the mettell that wants refining as a phisition to a body ouergrowne with grosse and corrupt humors it is the scourge of Security the plague of Timeritie a miserable necessity in nature and a necessary Corrector of times infirmity Warre stirs vp the bloud it cals courage to the field and it is the Theatre where on Nobilitie was borne to shew himselfe Peace breedes Cowards it effeminates our mindes it pampers our wanton wils and it runs headlong into all sorts of sinne VVarres vpholds our right Peace will put vp wrong and what we honourably winne in war wee cowardly loose againe in peace Peace filles the world with pompe war abates the edge of pride Peace feedes Folly fat makes vertue lean and it armeth Cape a Pee all manner of inormity warre spends the pelfe that Peace hath miserably scraped for And what should I say warre like a storme that comes ratling in the skie doth clense and purge the aire infected with the misty fogs of peace war hath had his beginning with the world and it will neuer haue end so long as there is a world Valiancy hath an eye to warre and warre hath the like againe to peace and warre should not be vndertaken but to the end to haue peace and as peace is the parent of prosperity so it is the nurse of pride and draweth after it the very corruption of manners In the time of peace a fauorite shall ruffell it out with the wealth of a realme whilst Souldiours in the time of warre are ready to mutiny for want of pay In warre those are onely dignified that are found to be valiant or otherwise approued to be of worthy reputation peace preferreth Carpet Knights and such as will scratch at dignity without desert The Souldiour who in the time of warre sauoreth of sweat the true testimony of exercise and labour in the time of Peace is all to bee spiced with perfumes the witnes of effeminate and womanish nicite As long as Carthage waged warre against Rome so long were the Romaines in dayly exercise of Armes
Diogenes to much like purpose walking through Athens and finding the statues and Images of many wo thy men which had beene erected for their well deseruing in the common wealth went vnto them al one after another begging gifts and asking of almes and being demanded what he ment to begge of dumb Images he answered I learne hereby to take deniall patiently Now if there be a woman that is sicke of the spleen and a little to ease her stomacke will needs pronounce her selfe guilty before she bee accusde I am furnished you see with presidents inough to teach me to bee patient to beare all reproaches that may be imputed against me by the most bitterest and spitefullest tongs A woman of vertuous life is neuer offended at any report that is ayâ—ed of her for if it be true shee being vertuous it must be to her prayse if false her life and manners will proue the reporter to be but a lyer her owne innocency is inough to protect her against any deprauer But I am out of the text that I ment to take in hand and here a man may see what it is to hit into good company I am gotten amongst a company of women aâ—d now I am loth to depart but I must take my leaue of them for a time and follow my vndertaken Subiect I remember I was about to speake of a many of wranglers that were striuing for places and disputing for dignities but fearing I might bee accused of sacriledge to steale out of the Gospell I might remember here where it is written VVhen thou art bidden to a Feast sit thee downe in the lowest roome that when the goodman of the house commeth in he may say Friend sit vp higher and so it shall be for thine honour c. It is a great vertue in a man to be an vpright Iudge of himselfe for as it is the first Chapter of Fooles for a man to thinke himselfe to be wise so it is a signe of as little wit to thinke better of our selues then there is cause Bucephalus Alexanders horse in an ordinary saddle would easily admit any man to ride him but being appointed in his royall furniture would suffer none but Alexander to mount him so there be some that in a meane estate such as their fathers held before them haue beene known to be lowly tractable enough but being after crept into an office or a little aduanced whereby they might proule for pence they know not how to behaue themselues but doe thinke that pride disdaine currish demeanour are the only complements belonging to Gentility And this is it that armeth them with this sawcines I mean to take place of their betters whereby they become iniurious and in time might grow to a matter of quarrell when amongst persons of reputation honour is preferred before life euery iniurious action not repulsed is holden by the opinion of all magnificent minds to be dishonourable infamous and reprochfull It should not be amisse therfore but rather behouefull that we might be informed what iniury is wherby we may with the more facility both moderate our selues and learne to represse it I doe not goe about to incite men to vnaduised or needles quarrels but to informe the true meane how to shunne offences or being offended how to represse an iniury with a due respect both of honour and a christian consideration Iniuries are aswell offered by wordes as by deedes in wordes by vnseemely speeches as in giuing the lie or such other like in deedes no lesse by depriuing men of their reputation right as in deprauing them of their due by any other meaneâ— I might speake of infinite wrongs to be offered in both these kindes that might draw to blowes but I will let them passe for I hold it no lesse expedient for wisemen to know when it is time to put vp as when it is time to draw their weapons Vertue alloweth a iust Reuenge and admitteth the defence of property and right yet true it is that the law of God willeth vs to be of that perfect patience as not onely to endure iniurious wordes but also quietly to disgest and putvp all other wrongs that are offered what or howsoeuer but very few men haue attained to that perfection in suffering wrongs and iniuries as the Law of God requireth there is nothing more intollerable to flesh and bloud then to endure wrong let Diuinity and Philosophy too perswade what they list for impatient cruelty making hot spurde youth his Agent doth thinke no man capable of glory that is not apt and ready to reuenge And here Cicero to aggrauate the matter tels mee That it is as great iniustice to put vppe an iniury as to doe awrong But if it be iniustice to put vppe an iniurie why then it is a vertue to Reuenge but Reuenge proceedes of Anger for Anger is the mother of Reuenge and what affinity may be betweene angry Reuenge and doing of Iustice I thinke is as much as is betweene doing of right and doing of wrong and so by consequence as is between vertue and vice I know not how to reconcile these matters together but for him that is iniured I thinke the surest way is to reuenge himselfe by patience for hee that is armed with patience to endure and suffer wrong punisheth more in not punishing then the hastiest Executioner that is most speedy in reuenge Perhaps now on the other side it may seeme contrary to the courage of man to relent when they haue done a wrong but rather to persist and to vphold one wrong with another the lesse with the greater if wee could then but examine the matter with a christian consideration it would appeare that he that doth persist to doe euill doth still endeuour to condemne himselfe Who will impute him to be worthy of infamy that is cowardly stricken by another or that is oppressed by aduantage by any manner of meane nay who will not rather condemne him that offereth such an iniury and acquit him to whome it was done And who will not laugh to see the sawcines of some little worthy persons in whome there is neither vertue desert nor any other merite of worth but a little audatious boldnes and yet will pearch and presume to take that place that is an other mans right To conclude therefore I say that infamy is due to him that willingly doth a dishonourable wrong but no reproch at all to him that taketh it But to the end that men might know their owne places both what they ought to take and how they ought to giue it shall not be amisse to distinguish of Gentry and to shew the difference between Gentlemen and Gentlemen from whence and how it growes I say there is a disequality in Gentry for vertue being as it were the first steppe to Generosity hee that can bur vaunt of the Scutchions left vnto him by Ancestors seemeth himselfe to bee very destitute for the more high he
to say to the Cicilians that to the sacrificing Priestes of the Temple most honour was due whereby it may appeare that the religious from the beginning were had in reuerent estimation it was not giuen them without some consideration for as it is recorded the Priestes of Diana were limited to their seuerall seasons the first wherein they might learn wisedom the second wherein to exercise it them selues and the third to instruct others Brias king of Argiues gaue most honor to the Philosophers that read in schooles Numa Pompilius amongst the Romains was of opinion that he was worthy of most reputation to whom had happened the victory of any famous battel and that was fortunate in warre But Anaxarchus the Philosopher ordained amongst the Phenitians that in a common wealth such shoulde be especially honoured who in the time of peace entertained the state in tranquility and in the fury of war was found to bee a valiant protector of the limites and liberties of his country concurring with that of Tully who likewise preferreth to the highest degree of honour those who armed doe make warre and robbed do rule and gouerne the common wealth but because this little pause of peace hath euen almostlulde vs in that security that now the souldier hath hanged vp his armor a rusting by the wals they would likewise hang himselfe a rusting with his Armes I thinke it not amisse therefore to giue him a litle furbushing though not to cast him into any counterfeit colour or so to vernish or gild him wherby to make him more bright by Art then he is of himselfe by Nature a litle therefore to rub out the canker that time hath already begun for to eate I will make him as well as I can to glister and shine in his own vertue Warre is a minister of Gods iustice for sinne God is not the author of ill but the chasticer of abuse he ordereth the will of Princes to punish or reuenge the Souldiers as obedient Subiectes are the Minister to performe if power were not to maintaine Princes proceedinges the Prince might sometimes bee dispossest of his Estate cruell handes woulde bee layed on the Ministery yea the Lawyers woulde bee pulde from the Barre and the Iudge pluckt downe from the place of Iustice so that in peace the name of a Souldier restreyneth the rebellions and in warre maketh subiect the proudest resister The Souldier referreth himselfe to the will of the prince the prince is not disposed but by the direction of God who since hee is the gouernour of euery actiō I dare auow they are not vicious It may be obiected that in the proud attemptes of Princes the Souldier is still present not respecting the cause so much as his owne profite This were a hard position to bee obiected against Lawyers but the Souldier being a subiect is tied to follow his Prince but in iniurious enterprises I know there are Souldiers that are as contrary to the warre as he that is most ready to reprehend who by proofe and not by gesse do conclude of the euent of the battel when the cause proceedeth from a wrongfull ground But let vs speake of Souldiers in their minorities when they first become to bee apprentises to Armes In the choice of a Souldier wee do not onely regard the ability of his body but the quality of his minde for if religion circumspection preuention counsell experience zeale fidelity resolution continency and care be not in him that should enter the profession the charge is ill lookt into neither is such a one to bee admitted that is not thus accomplisht then if a Soldier of iudgement be had when he is imployed how liues he in the field first in the feare of God not assured of his life from one houre to another surely tied to al vertuous actions abstinent in diet diligent to please carefull to correct dutifull to obey tired with trauell handes feet legges thoughts and all toyled occupied and employed so that neither leisure serues him to be idle nor the seuerity of his Captaine admits him to runne astray such Souldiers should be and thus they ought to be employed and if there were not some such the name and title were hardly bestead For those imputations wherewith Souldiers are charged to be rash rebellious cruell mutinous incontinent c. they are but scandals malitiously imposed for first if they were rash their successe would be more infortunate then commonly it falleth out If rebellious and not to bee gouerned without doubt Alexander had not conquered so many countries subdued so many kingdomes and ouercome so many nations and as it were but with a handfull of his Macedonians and Cretians If bloudy minded why then spared Caesar those Senators citizens of Rome when both by their own hand writing and often attempts hee well knew to be the followers of Pompei and his capitall enemies If murtherous how often might the Venetian Armies haue worthily spoiled the whole Iland of Create which not onely had murthered many of their families with the sword but also rebelled against them fiue or sixe seuerall times Ifincontinent what caused Scipio to redeliuer that noble young Virgin who for her passing beauty and great admiration of person was presented vnto him as a rare gift Scipio himselfe amased at the sight would yet deliuer her to Luceias to whome shee was espoused and gaue him also for a dowrie the gold that her parents had brought to redeeme her If couctous how fell it out that after L. Mumius had taken Corinth and adorned all Italy with the riches of that spoile he kept so little to his own vse that the Senate was faine for very need to giue dowry to his daughter of the common treasure But because Rome hath beene especially famed let vs see from whence shee attained to her greatnes we shall find that the Souldier was he that defended the estate the Souldier was hee that made Rome notable yea the Souldier was he that had the creation of the Emperour When the souldier had this sway peace was as plentifull at Rome as after it was the reuenews of Rome greater then now they be the abhomination of Rome lesse then now it is In the time of the souldiers gouernment Rome was renowned for her iustice and was reputed to bee the mistris of the world now the rule is in the hand of a counterfeit priest Rome is insamed for her idolatry and is accounted the scorne of the world In the dayes of Traian other countries sought their lawes from Rome now in the dayes of the Vicar of Christ Rome is accounted lawles of all the world In the losse of a souldier how mourned Iulius Caesar whome not onely he dignified with great honors being aliue but also buried with bitter teares being dead Pompei the great builded the city of Nicopolis to no other end but to harbour souldiers Alexander the Romaine would seldome giue giftes vnles it were to souldiers affirming it to be vnlawfull for