the Hebrew signifies the Desert and such a course list bounded Palestine both on the South and North so that in effect preferment bloweth from no point of the compas True every man is fortunae suae faber the Smith to beat out his own fortunes but God first doth give him coals iron and anvil before he can set up his trade The first inlet into a Princes knowledge is half way into his favour Indeed the heat of the sunne pierceth into the innermost bowells of the earth but onely the surface thereof is guilded with his beams So though the influence of the Princes protection reacheth the utmost and obscurest man in his dominions yet onely some few who lie on the top of the heap of his subjects can be graced with his favour He therefore that is known to his Prince starts in the half way of his race to honour A notable fellow and a souldier to Alexander finding this first admission to be the greatest difficulty put feathers into his nose and eares and danced about the Court in an antique fashion till the strangenesse of the Shew brought the King himself to be a spectatour Then this Mimick throwing off his disguize S r said he to the King thus I first arrive at your Majesties notice in the fashion of a fool but can do you service in the place of a wise-man if you please to employ me 'T is the easier for them to leap into preferment who have the rise of noble bloud such get their honour with more ease and keep it with lesse envie which is busiest in maligning of upstarts Nor is it any hinderance unto him but rather an advantage if such a Nobleman be of an ancient family decayed in estate through the fault of his Ancestours for such Princes count the object as well of their pity as favour and it an act as well of charity as bounty to relieve and raise them But those are in some sort born Favourites and succeed by descent to a Princes affection rather as a debt then a gift whose parents have formerly suffered in the Princes or his predecessours behalf This made Queen Elizabeth first reflect on the Lord Norris for in the peaceable beginning of her reigne the Martiall spirits of his sonne were not yet raised because his father dyed her mothers Martyr to attest her innocencie in the reigne of King Henry the eighth Severall doores open to preferment but the King keeps the key of them all Some have been advanced for their Faces their Beauty their Heads their Wisdome their Tongues their Eloquence their Hands their Valour their Bloud their Nobility their Feet their Nimblenesse and Comlinesse in dancing but all is ultimately resolv'd on the Princes pleasure Happy the Favourite that is raised without the ruine of another as those which succeed in a dead place who draw lesse envy of competitours in keeping others out of the Kings favour then those that cast one out of the possession thereof Also he that climbeth up by degrees stands more firmly in favour as making his footing good as he goes Sometimes the Princes favour is all the known worth in the Favourite I say known for he is an Infidel that believes not more then he sees and that a rationall Prince will love where he sees no lovelinesse Surely Charles the ninth of France beheld some worth in Albertus Tudius an Hucksters sonne to whom in five years besides other honours he gave six hundred thousand crowns though some affirm all the good the King got by him was to learn to swear by the Name of God Except we will say that Kings desire in some to shew as the absolutenesse of their power to raise them from nothing so of their will also to advance them for nothing But Princes have their grounds reard above the flats of common men and who will search the reasons of their actions must stand on an equall basis with them Some Kings to make a jest have advanced a man in earnest When amongst many Articles exhibited to King Henrie the seventh by the Irish against the Earl of Kildare the last was Finally all Ireland cannot rule this Earl Then quoth the King shall this Earl rule all Ireland and made him Deputie thereof But such accidents are miraculous and he shall sterve that will not eat till such Manna is dropt into his mouth But by what lawfull means soever he hath gotten his advancement he standeth but in a slippery place and therefore needs constantly to wear ice-spurres for he rather glides then goes and is in continuall fear to be crush'd from above by his Princes anger and undermin'd from beneath by his fellow-subjects envie Against both which see how he fenceth himself He prayseth God for preferring him and prayeth to him to preserve him His Greatnesse must needs fall which is not founded in Goodnesse First he serveth his God in heaven and then his Master on earth The best way to please all or to displease them with least danger is to please him who is all in all Next he studieth the alphabet of his Princes disposition whose inclination when found out is half fitted Then he applyes himself to please his naturall though not vitious humours never preferring himself before his Prince in any thing wherein he desires or conceiveth himself to excell Nero though indeed but a Fidler counted himself as well Emperour of Musick as of Rome and his Followers too grossely did sooth him up in the admiration of his skill in that Art But the most temperate Princes love to taste the sweetnesse of their own praises if not overluscious with flattery where their own deserts lay the groundwork and their Favourites give the varnish to their commendations Bluntnesse of speech hath becom'd some and made them more acceptable Yea this hath been counted Freeheartednesse in Courtiers Conscience and Christian simplicity in Clergiemen Valour in Souldiers I love thee the better said Queen Elizabeth to Archbishop Grindall because you live unmarried And I Madam replyed Grindall because you live unmarried love you the worse But those who make musick with so harsh an instrument need have their bow well rosend before and to observe Time and Place lest that gall which would tickle at other times He leaveth his Prince alwayes with an appetite and never gluts him with his company Sometimes taking occasion to depart whilest still his staying might be welcome Such intermissions render him more gratious yet he absents himself neither farre nor long lest he might seem to neglect Though he doth not alwayes spurre up close to the Kings side to be constantly in his presence he never lagges so farre behind as to be out of distance Long absence hath drawn the curtain betwixt a Favourite and his Sovereigne and thereby hath made room for others to step in betwixt them He doth not boldly engrosse and limit his Masters favour to himself He is willing
the matter himself he was contented to be the stock whereon Wolsey should be graffed whom he made heir to his favour commending him to King Henrie the seventh for one fit to serve a King and command others And hereupon he was entertained at Court Soon after when Henrie his sonne came to the Crown Wolsey quickly found the length of his foot and fitted him with an easie shoe He perswaded him that it was good accepting of pleasure whilest youth tender'd it let him follow his sports whilest Wolsey would undertake every night briefly to represent unto him all matters of moment which had passed the Counsell-table For Princes are to take State-affairs not in the masse and whole bulk of them but onely the spirits thereof skilfully extracted And hereupon the King referred all matters to Wolsey's managing on whom he conferr'd the Bishopricks of Duresme Winchester and York with some other spirituall promotions Nothing now hindred Wolsey's prospect to overlook the whole Court but the head of Edward Stafford Duke of Buckingham who was high in birth honour and estate For as for Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk he stood not in Wolsey's way but rather besides then against him Brandon being the Kings companion in pleasures Wolsey his counsellour in policy Brandon Favourite to Henrie Wolsey to the King Wolsey takes this Buckingham to task who otherwise a brave Gentleman was proud and popular and that tower is easily undermin'd whose foundation is hollow His own folly with Wolsey's malice overthrew him Vainglory ever lyeth at an open guard and giveth much advantage of play to her enemies The Duke is condemned of high treason though rather corrivall with the King for his Clothes then his Crown being excessively brave in apparell The ax that kills Buckingham frights all others who turn contesting into complying with our Archbishop now Cardinall Legate à latere and Lord-Chancellour All the Judges stood at the barre of his devotion His displeasure more feared then the Kings whose anger though violent was placable the Cardinalls of lesse furie but more malice yet in matters of Judicature he behaved himself commendably I heare no widows sighes nor see orphans tears in our Chronicles caused by him sure in such cases wherein his private ends made him not a party he was an excellent Justicer as being too proud to be bribed and too strong to be overborn Next he aspires to the Triple Grown he onely wants Holinesse and must be Pope Yet was it a great labour for a Tramountain to climbe over the Alps to S. Peters Chair a long leap from York to Rome and therefore he needed to take a good rise Besides he used Charles the fift Emperour for his staff gold he gave to the Romish Cardinalls and they gave him golden promises so that at last Wolsey perceived both the Emperour and the Court of Rome delay'd and deluded him He is no fox whose den hath but one hole Wolsey finding this way stopt goes another way to work and falls off to the French King hoping by his help to obtain his desires However if he help not himself he would hinder Charles the Emperours designes and revenge is a great preferment Wherefore covertly he seeks to make a divorce betwixt Queen Katharine Dowager the Emperours Aunt and King Henrie the eighth his Master Queen Katharines age was above her Husbands her gravity above her age more pious at her beads then pleasant in her bed a better woman then a wife and a fitter wife for any Prince then King Henrie Wolsey by his instruments perswades the King to put her away pleading they were so contiguous and near in kinred they might not be made continuous one flesh in marriage because she before had been wife to Prince Arthur the Kings brother Besides the King wanted a male heir which he much desired Welcome whisperings are quickly heard The King embraceth the motion the matter is enter'd in the Romish Court but long delayed the Pope first meaning to divorce most of the gold from England in this tedious suit But here Wolsey miscarried in the Master-piece of his policy For he hoped upon the divorce of King Henrie from Queen Katharine his wife which with much adoe was effected to advance a marriage betwixt him and the King of France his sister thinking with their nuptiall ring to wed the King of France eternally to himself and mould him for farther designes whereas contrary to his expectation King Henrie fell in love with Anna Bullen a Lady whole beauty exceeded her birth though honourable wit her beauty piety all one for his love not lust so that there was no gathering of green fruit from her till marriage had ripened it whereupon the King took her to wife Not long after followed the ruine of the Cardinall caused by his own vitiousnesse heightned by the envy of his Adversaries He was caught in a Premunire for procuring to be Legate de latere and advancing the Popes power against the Laws of the Realm and eight other Articles were framed against him for which we report the Reader to our Chronicles The main was his Ego Rex meus wherein he remembred his old profession of a Schoolmaster and forgot his present estate of a Statesman But as for some things laid to his charge his friends plead that where potent malice is Promoter the accusations shall not want proof though the proof may want truth Well the broad seal was taken from him and some of his spirituall Preferments Yet was he still left Bishop of Winchester and Archbishop of York so that the Kings goodnesse hitherto might have seemd rather to ease him of burthensome greatnesse then to have deprived him of wealth or honour which whether he did out of love to Wolsey or fear of the Pope I interpose no opinion Home now went Wolsey into Yorkshire and lived at his Mannour of Cawood where he wanted nothing the heart of man could desire for contentment But great minds count every place a prison which is not a Kings Court and just it was that he which would not see his own happinesse should therefore feel his own misery He provided for his enstalling Archbishop State equivalent to a Kings Coronation which his ambition revived other of his misdemeanours and by command from the King he was arrested by the Earl of Northumberland and so took his journeys up to London By the way his soul was rackt betwixt different tidings now hoysed up with hope of pardon then instantly let down with news of the Kings displeasure till at Leicester his heart was broken with these sudden and contrary motions The Storie goes that he should breath out his soul with speeches to this effect Had I been as carefull to serve the God of Heaven as I have to comply to the will of my earthly King God would not have left me in mine old age as the other hath done His body swell'd after his death as his mind did whilest he was living which
183. * Duke of Rohan in his complete Captain cap. 22. * Dr. Hakewill in his Apologie for divine Providence lib. 4. cap. 11. p. 546. * Descript. Bell. Suecici per Aut. Anony mum pag. 186. * Silvester Petra Sancta in his book against Du Moulin Maxime 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 * Sr. Fr. Nethersol in the fun orat of him pag. 16. 8 9 10 11 * Sr. William Cornwallis in the life of Prince Henry 12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 13 14 15 * For King Ed. his father called him his Fair Sonne Speed p. 579. * See the copy thereof in Mr. Seldens titles of Honour pag. 595. * 1346 in the twenty yeare of Ed. the third * Vid. Cambd. Remains pag. 344. * September 19. 1356. * Paulus Aemil in the life of King Iohn pag. 286. * Sr Francis Nethersole in his fun or at on Prince Henry pag. 16. Maxime 1 * Plutarch in the liâ—e of Demosthenes 2 * Dan. 4.17 * Irenaeus l. 5. * Tertull. Apol pag. 6.5 * Nullo modo contegi aut concamerari potest sed transitus ejus à terra ad coelum usque patet apertum Adricom de terra Sancta ex Hieron aliis Autoribus 3 * Zanchez Velasquez in their Comments on the Text. 1. Sam. 9 14. 4 * Isaiah 49.23 5 * Prov. 16.12 * Prov. â—0 28 6 7 Maxime 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 * Olaus magnus de Rit Gent. sept lib. 1. c. 23. 10 * Taken out of Brovius An. Eccle. an 1344. Petrarch lib. 5. Episi Summontius H. si Neopol lib. 3. * Collenusius l. 5. Regn. Neop * Exod. 18 2â— * Therefore called Ventosus pilcus Olaus mag de Gent. septent lib. 3. cap. 14. * Fulgentius in Sermon Maxime 1 2 * Multi dum vitare student quae vitanda non sunt fugâ vanâ superstitionis superstitiosi siunt Cardan de Subtil p. 924. lib. 8. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 * Plinius lib. 3. cap. 1. * 1. Sam. 28. * Exod. 8.18 * Gyrard Seigneurdu Haillizan in Charles the seventh * Gerson lib. de mirab victoria cujusdam puâ—llae pauló post initium * Polidor Virg. in Hen. sixth pag. 471. * See the coppy thereof in Speeds King Hen. sixth pag. 654. * Du Serres in his French Hist. translat by Grimston p. 326. * Idem p. 317. * Sententia post homines natos durissima Pol. Vir. pag. 477. * Gerson in the book which he wrote of her after long discussing the point leaves it uncertain but is rather charitably inclined * Serres pag. 325. Pol. Virgil. ut priùs * Gerson * Iustin. Martyr secund Apolog pro Christian pag. 156. * August tom 7. lib. 3. contra Petilianum c. 1. David cùm dicit Stultus dixit in corde c. videtur Diagoram praedixisse Maxime 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 * Ovid. lib. 3. Amor. Eleg. 3. * Psal. 73.2 3. * Iustin. lib. 2. 8 * Because of these naturall forms in wood and stone it seems that from thence the Dukes assum'd their armes * Cambd. Brit. in Warwickshire 9 * Paul Diacon lib. 15. * In his grave Counsell p. 3. * Guicciard History of Italy lib. 1. pag. 10. * Idem lib. 3. pag. 179. * Liv. lib. 1. * Guicciard lib. 4. pag. 237. * Machiavill in his Prince cap. 7. * Guicciard l. 6. pag. 307. * Idem lib. 5. pag. 260. * 2. Kings 20.7 * Nunquam verebor in exemplum Valentinum subjicere Machiavel Prince cap. 13. pag. 73. * His notes on Livy but especially his Florentine History savours of Religion * Boissardus part 3. Iconum virorum illustrium * Hieronym lib. 2. contra Pelag. August in eadem verba Serm. 59. de Tempore Maxime 1. 2 3 4 * Cambd. Brit. in Hantshire * Matth. Paris in Anno Dom. 1141. 5 6 * Pantaleon in vita Rodulph Imperat. lib. de Illustrib Germ. part 2.285 * Exod. 34.23 * Hic videtur quòd omnis qui non obedit statutis Romanae sedis sit Haereticus Glossa in C. nulli dist 19. in verbo Prostratus * Ioh. Avent lib. 3. Annal. â—â—ior * 1. John 2.19 Maxime 1. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 * Gerards Common places de Magistrat Polit. p. 1047. Anno Domini 331. * Augustin ad Quod vult Deum * Valer. Max. lib. 9. cap. 15. * Ipsum Fraternitatis nomen uâ—cunque Donatistis fastidiosum est tamen orthodoxis erga ipsos Donatistas necessarium Optat. lib. 3. init * S. August in Psal. 132. quia circum celâ—as vagantur count them so called which iâ— rather his Allusion then the true Etymologie * Sâ— H. Spelman Councells pag. 446. * Quòd apud eum solum justitia locum habe et Aug. contra literas Petil. lib. 2. cap. 97. * August lib 2. contra Crescon cap. 37. * Quis non impudentissimè nitatur aliquid in allegoria positum pro se interpretari nisi habeat manifesta testimonia quotum lumine illustrentur obscura Aug. Tom. Epist. 48. ad Vincent * Optat. Milev lib. 7. Aug. contraliter Petil. cap 6.7.8 * Aug. ut priùs ad Vincentium epist. 50. ad Bonifac. * Protestation protested p. 14. August contr Don. post Coll. Lib. * Aug. lib. 2. contra Petill. cap. 39. * Aug. lib. 1. contraliter Petil cap. 1. * I. Penry p. 46. and 49. * Aug. tract 80. in Iohan. * Idem contra Parmen lib. 2. cap. 10. * Idem lib. 1. contra Cresco cap. 30. * D r Soame writing against them lib. 2. pag. 4. * August lib. 3. cont Crescon cap. 51. * Donatus oravit respondet ei Deus de coelo Aug. in Iohann tract 3. prope finem * Theodoretus in fabulis Haeret * Centuriator cent 4 c. 5 p. 211. ex Theodoreto * Aug. Epist. ad Vincentium * In minutula frustula Idem * Petilian went not so farre as the rest Aug. lib. 3. de correct Donati c. 17.19 Vid Aug. de schism Maxim brevi collat 3 diei * He caused the Patent of priviledge which Iulian granted the Donatists publicis locis assigendum in â—udibrium vide Baron in Anno. 362. â—um 264. Maxime 1. 2 * Deut. 7.14 3 4 * Chamnitius in exam cont Trident. paâ—t 4. p. 12. 5 6 7 Maxime 1 2 * Stephens Apol. for Herodotus 3 4 5 * Valer. Max. lib. 3 cap. 5. Maxime 1. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 * S r William Segar in his Honours milit and civill 9 * Olaus mâ—g Hist. septent p. 531. * Versteg restitut of deâ—aid intellig p. 53. 10 * Liv. lib. 27. * These were foure bells the greatest in London hanging in a fair Tower in Pauls Churchyard Stowes Survey of London pag. 357. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 * Markams Decads of Honour pag. 76. 18 * Loco priùs citato * He is either against the Sovereigne Person alone or against the State wherein he lives We deal onely in describing the former because to character the other exact skil in the Municipal Laws of that State is required wherein he is charged of treason Maxime 1. 2 3 4 * Nat. hist. lib. 8. cap. 16. 5 6 7 Anno 1478. April 26. The summe hereof is taken out of Machiavels Florent Hist lib. 8. pag. 407. sequent * Machiav disput de Repub lib. 3. cap. 6. pag. 397. * Machiav disp de Repub. lib. 3. cap. 6. pag. 399. * He is two-fold 1. In Titulo properly an Usurper 2. In Exercitio whom we onely describe Maxime 1. 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 * Comineus Comment lib. 1. juxta finem 8 9 10 * The summe of this chapter is taken out of Nicetas Choniates his Annalls lib. 1. 2. of Andronic Comnenus 1181 * See bow charitably Drexelius is opinion'd of him in his book de Aeternitate Consider 5. Sect. 3. * Famianus Stra. de Bellâ— Belgico p. 430. Ann. Dom. 1568. * Fam. Strad de bell Belgico pag. 449. * Grimst Hist. of the Netherlands pag. 413. * Barâ—l Icon. Anim. cap. 5. * Grimst Hist. of the Netherlands pag. 411.
is unlawfull in any Christian Church to play upon the sinnes and miseries of others the fitter object of the Elegies then the Satyrs of all truly religious But what do I speaking against multiplicity of books in this age who trespasse in this nature my self What was a learned mans complement may serve for my confession and conclusion Multi mei similes hoc morbo laborant ut cum scribere nesciant tamen à scribendo temperare non possint CHAP. 19. Of Time-serving THere be foure kinds of Time-serving first out of Christian discretion which is commendable second out of humane infirmity which is more pardonable third and fourth out of ignorance or affection both which are damnable of them in order He is a good Time-server that complyes his manners to the severall ages of this life pleasant in youth without wantonnesse grave in old age without frowardnesse Frost is as proper for winter as flowers for spring Gravity becomes the ancient and a green Christmas is neither handsome nor healthfull He is a good Time-server that finds out the fittest opportunity for every action God hath made a time for every thing under the sunne save onely for that which we do at all times to wit Sinne. He is good Time-server that improves the present for Gods glory and his own salvation Of all the extent of time onely the instant is that which we can call ours He is a good Time-server that is pliant to the times in matters of mere indifferency Too blame are they whose minds may seem to be made of one entire bone without any joynts they cannot bend at all but stand as stiffly in things of pure indifferency as in matters of absolute necessity He is a good Time-server that in time of persecution neither betrayes Gods cause nor his own safety And this he may do 1 By lying hid both in his person and practice though he will do no evil he will forbear the publick doing of some good He hath as good cheer in his heart though he keeps not open house and will not publickly broch his Religion till the palat of the times be better in taste to rellish it The Prudent shall keep silence in that time for it is an evil time Though according to S. Peters command we are to give a reason of our hope to every one that asketh namely that asketh for his instruction but not for our destruction especially if wanting lawfull Authority to examine us Ye shall be brought saith Christ no need have they therefore to run before Princes for my sake 2 By flying away if there be no absolute necessity of his staying no scandall given by his flight if he wants strength to stay it out till death and lastly if God openeth a fair way for his departure otherwise if God bolts the doores and windows against him he is not to creep out at the top of the chimney and to make his escape by unwarrantable courses If all should flie Truth would want champions for the present if none should flie Truth might want champions for the future We come now to Time-servers out of infirmity Heart of oke hath sometimes warp'd a little in the scorching heat of persecution Their want of true courage herein cannot be excused Yet many censure them for surrendring up their forts after a long siege who would have yielded up their own at the first summons Oh there is more required to make one valiant then to call Cranmer or Jewell Coward as if the fire in Smithfield had been no hotter then what is painted in the Book of Martyrs Yet afterwards they have come into their former straightnesse stiffnesse The troops which at first rather wheeld about then ran away have come in seasonable at last Yea their constant blushing for shame of their former cowardlinesse hath made their souls ever after look more modest and beautifull Thus Cranmer who subscribed to Popery grew valiant afterwards and thrust his right hand which subscribed first into fire so that that hand dyed as it were a malefactour and all the rest of his body dyed a martyr Some have served the times out of mere Ignorance Gaping for company as others gap'd before them Pater noster or Our Father I could both sigh and smile at the witty simplicity of a poore old woman who had lived in the dayes of Queen Marie and Queen Elizabeth and said her prayers dayly both in Latine and English and Let God said she take to himself which he likes best But worst are those who serve the times out of mere Affectation Doing as the times do not because the times do as they should do but merely for sinister respects to ingratiate themselves We reade of an Earl of Oxford fined by King Henrie the seventh fifteen thousand marks for having too many Retainers But how many Retainers hath Time had in all ages and Servants in all offices yea and Chaplains too It is a very difficult thing to serve the times they change so frequently so suddenly and sometimes so violently from one extreme to another The times under Dioclesian were Pagan under Constantine Christian under Constantius Arian under Julian Apostate under Jovian Christian again and all within the age of man the term of seventie years And would it not have wrench'd and spraind his soul with short turning who in all these should have been of the Religion for the time being Time-servers are oftentimes left in the lurch If they do not onely give their word for the times in their constant discourses but also give their bands for them and write in their defence Such when the times turn afterwards to another extreme are left in the briers and come off very hardly from the bill of their hands If they turn again with the times none will trust them for who will make a staff of an osier Miserable will be the condition of such Time-servers when their Master is taken from them When as the Angel swore Rev. 10.6 that Time shall be no longer Therefore is it best serving of him who is eternity a Master that can ever protect us To conclude he that intends to meet with one in a great Fair and knows not where he is may sooner find him by standing still in some principall place there then by traversing it up and down Take thy stand on some good ground in Religion and keep thy station in a fixed posture never hunting after the times to follow them and an hundred to one they will come to thee once in thy lifetime CHAP. 20. Of Moderation MOderation is the silken string running through the pearl-chain of all virtues It appears both in Practice and Judgement we will insist on the latter and describe it first negatively Moderation is not an halting betwixt two opinions when the through-believing of one of them is necessary to salvation no pity is to be shown to such
Yet Fortescue was not miss'd because Markham succeeded him and that losse which otherwise could not be repair'd now could not be perceiv'd For though these two Judges did severally lean to the sides of Lancaster and York yet both sate upright in matters of Judicature We will instance and insist on one memorable act of our Judge which though single in it self was plurall in the concernings thereof And let the Reader know that I have not been carelesse to search though unhappy not to find the originall Record perchance abolished on purpose and silenced for telling tales to the disgrace of great ones We must now be contented to write this Story out of the English Chronicles and let him die of drougth without pity who will not quench his thirst at the river because he cannot come at the fountain King Edward the fourth having married into the family of the Woodvills Gentlemen of more antiquity then wealth and of higher spirits then fortunes thought it fit for his own honour to bestow honour upon them But he could not so easily provide them of wealth as titles For honour he could derive from himself like light from a candle without any diminishing of his own lustre whereas wealth flowing from him as water from a fountain made the spring the shallower Wherefore he resolved to cut down some prime subjects and to engraff the Queens kinred into their estates which otherwise like suckers must feed on the stock of his own Exchequer There was at this time one S r Thomas Cook late Lord Maior of London and Knight of the Bath one who had well lick'd his fingers under Queen Margaret whose Wardroper he was and customer of Hampton a man of a great estate It was agreed that he should be accused of high Treason and a Commission of Oyer and Terminer granted forth to the Lord Maior the Duke of Clarence the Earl of Warwick the Lord Rivers Sr. John Markham Sr. John Fogg c. to try him in Guild Hall And the King by private instructions to the Judge appear'd so farre that Cook though he was not must be found guilty and if the Law were too short the Judge must stretch it to the purpose The fault laid to his charge was for lending moneys to Queen Margaret wife to King Henrie the sixth the proof was the confession of one Hawkins who being rack'd in the Tower had confessed so much The Counsell for the King hanging as much weight on the smallest wier as it would hold aggravated each particular by their Rhetoricall flashes blew the fault up to a great height S r Thomas Cook pleaded for himself that Hawkins indeed upon a season came to him and requested him to lend one thousand marks upon good security But he desired first to know for whom the money should be and understanding it was for Queen Margaret denyed to lend any money though at last the said Hawkins descended so low as to require but one hundred pounds and departed without any peny lent him Judge Markham in a grave speech did recapitulate select and collate the materiall points on either side shewing that the proof reached not the charge of high Treason and misprision of Treason was the highest it could amount to and intimated to the Jurie to be tender in matter of life and discharge good consciences The Jurie being wise men whose apprehensions could make up an whole sentence of every nod of the Judge saw it behoved them to draw up Treason into as narrow a compasse as might be lest it became their own case for they lived in a troublesome world wherein the cards were so shuffled that two Kings were turn'd up trump at once which amazed men how to play their games Whereupon they acquitted the prisoner of high Treason and found him guilty as the Judge directed Yet it cost S r Thomas Cook before he could get his libertie eight hundred pounds to the Queen and eight thousand pounds to the King A summe in that age more sounding like the ransome of a Prince then the fine of a Subject Besides the Lord Rivers the Queens Father had during his Imprisonment despoyled his houses one in the city another in the countrey of plate and furniture for which he never received a penie recompence Yet God righted him of the wrongs men did him by blessing the remnant of his estate to him and his posterity which still flourish at Giddy Hall in Essex As for S r John Markham the Kings displeasure fell so heavy on him that he was outed of his place and S r Thomas Billing put in his room though the one lost that Office with more honour then the other got it and gloried in this that though the King could make him no Judge he could not make him no upright Judge He lived privately the rest of his dayes having besides the estate got by his practice fair lands by Margaret his wife daughter and coheir to S r Simon Leak of Cotham in Nottinghamshire whose Mother Joan was daughter and heir of S r John Talbot of Swannington in Leicestershire CHAP. 9. The good Bishop HE is an Overseer of a Flock of Shepherds as a Minister is of a Flock of Gods sheep Divine providence and his Princes bounty advanced him to the Place whereof he was no whit ambitious Onely he counts it good manners to sit there where God hath placed him though it be higher then he conceives himself to deserve and hopes that he who call'd him to the Office hath or will in some measure fit him for it His life is so spotlesse that Malice is angry with him because she cannot be angry with him because she can find no just cause to accuse him And as Diogenes confuted him who denyed there was any motion by saying nothing but walking before his eyes so our Bishop takes no notice of the false accusations of people disaffected against his order but walks on circumspectly in his calling really refelling their cavils by his conversation A Bishops bare presence at a marriage in his own diocesse is by the Law interpreted for a licence and what actions soever he graceth with his company he is conceived to priviledge them to be lawfull which makes him to be more wary in his behaviour With his honour his holinesse and humility doth increase His great Place makes not his piety the lesse farre be it from him that the glittering of the candlestick should dimme the shining of his candle The meanest Minister of Gods word may have free accesse unto him whosoever brings a good cause brings his own welcome with him The pious poore may enter in at his wide gates when not so much as his wicket shall be open to wealthy unworthinesse He is diligent and faithfull in preaching the Gospel either by his pen Evangelizo manu scriptione saith a strict Divine or by his vocall Sermons if age and other indispensable occasions hinder him not teaching the Clergie to
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
were infringed and they grinded with exactions against their Laws and Liberties But now Duke D'Alva coming amongst them he intended to cancell all their charters with his sword and to reduce them to absolute obedience And whereas every city was fenced not onely with severall walls but different locall liberties and municipall immunities he meant to lay all their priviledges levell and casting them into a flat to stretch a line of absolute command over them He accounted them a Nation rather stubborn then valiant and that not from stoutnesse of nature but want of correction through the long indulgence of their late Governours He secretly accused Margaret Dutchesse of Parma the last Governesse for too much gentlenesse towards them as if she meant to cure a gangren'd arm with a lenitive plaister affirmed that a Ladies hands were too soft to pluck up such thistles by the root Wherefore the said Dutchesse soon after D'Alva's arrivall counting it lesse shame to set then to be outshin'd petitioned to resigne her regencie and return'd into Italie To welcome the Duke at his entrance he was entertain'd with prodigies and monstrous births which hapned in sundry places as if Nature on set purpose mistook her mark and made her hand to swerve that she might shoot a warning-piece to these countreys and give them a watch-word of the future calamities they were to expect The Duke nothing moved hereat proceeds to effect his project and first sets up the Counsell of troubles consisting of twelve the Duke being the President And this Counsell was to order all things in an arbitrary way without any appeal from them Of these twelve some were strangers such as should not sympathize with the miseries of the countrey others were upstarts men of no bloud and therefore most bloudy who being themselves grown up in a day cared not how many they cut down in an houre And now rather to give some colour then any virtue to this new composition of counsellours foure Dutch Lords were mingled with them that the native Nobility might not seem wholly neglected Castles were built in every city to bridle the inhabitants and Garisons put into them New Bishops Seas erected in severall cities and the Inquisition brought into the countrey This Inquisition first invented against the Moores as a trappe to catch vermine was afterwards used as a snare to catch sheep yea they made it heresie for to be rich And though all these proceedings were contrary to the solemn oath King Philip had taken yet the Pope who onely keeps an Oath-office and takes power to dispence with mens consciences granted him a faculty to set him free from his promise Sure as some adventurous Physicians when they are posed with a mungrell disease drive it on set purpose into a fever that so knowing the kind of the maladie they may the better apply the cure So Duke D'Alva was minded by his cruell usage to force their discontents into open rebellion hoping the better to come to quench the fire when it blazed out then when it smok'd and smother'd And now to frighten the rest with a subtle train he seiseth on the Earls of Egmond and Horn. These counted themselves armed with innocencie and desert having performed most excellent service for the King of Spain But when subjects deserts are above their Princes requitall oftentimes they study not so much to pay their debts as to make away their creditours All these victories could not excuse them nor the laurel wreaths on their heads keep their necks from the ax and the rather because their eyes must first be closed up which would never have patiently beheld the enslaving of their countrey The French Embassadour was at their execution and wrote to his Master Charles the ninth King of France concerning the Earl of Egmond That he saw that head struck off in the Market-place of Brussels whose valour had twice made France to shake This Counsell of troubles having once tasted Noble bloud drank their belly-fulls afterwards Then descending to inferiour persons by apprehensions executions confiscations and banishments they raged on mens lives and states Such as upon the vain hope of pardon returned to their houses were apprehended and executed by fire water gibbets and the sword and other kinds of deaths and torments yea the bodyes of the dead on whom the earth as their common mother bestowed a grave for a childs portion were cast out of their tombes by the Dukes command whose cruelty outstunk the noysomnesse of their carcases And lest the maintaining of Garisons might be burdensome to the King his Master he laid heavy impositions on the people the Duke affirming that these countreys were fat enough to be stewed in their own liquour that the Souldiers here might be maintained by the profits arising hence yea he boasted that he had found the mines of Peru in the Low-countreys though the digging of them out never quitted the cost He demanded the hundredth peny of all their moveable and immoveable goods and besides that the tenth peny of their moveable goods that should be bought and sold with the twentieth peny of their immoveable goods without any mention of any time how long those taxes and exactions should continue The States protested against the injustice hereof alledging that all trading would be press'd to death under the weight of this taxation weaving of stuffs their staple trade would soon decay and their shuttles would be very slow having so heavy a clog hanging on them yea hereby the same commodity must pay a new tole at every passage into a new trade This would dishearten all industry and make lazinesse and painfulnesse both of a rate when beggery was the reward of both by reason of this heavy imposition which made men pay dear for the sweat of their own brows And yet the weight did not grieve them so much as the hand which laid it on being impos'd by a forein power against their ancient priviledge Hereupon many Netherlanders finding their own countrey too hot because of intolerable taxes sought out a more temperate climate and fled over into England As for such as stayed behind their hearts being brimfull before with discontents now ran over 'T is plain these warres had their originall not out of the Church but the State-house Liberty was true doctrine to Papist and Protestant Jew and Christian. It is probable that in Noahs Ark the wolf agreed with the lambe and that all creatures drowned their antipathy whilest all were in danger of drowning Thus all severall religions made up one Commonwealth to oppose the Spaniard and they thought it high time for the Cow to find her horns when others not content to milk her went about to cut off her bag It was a rare happinesse that so many should meet in one chief William of Nassaw Prince of Orange whom they chose their Governour Yea he met their affections more then halfway in his loving behaviour so that Alva's cruelty did not
sure he was a pearl in the eye of Ahasuerus who commanded all his subjects to do lowly reverence unto him onely Mordecai the Jew excepted himself from that rule denying him the payment of so humble an observance I fathome not the depth of Mordecai's refusall perchance Haman interpreted this reverence farther then it was intended as a divine honour and therefore Mordecai would not blow wind into so empty a bladder and be accessary to puff him up with self-conceit or because Amalek was the devils first-fruits which first brake the peace with Israel and God commanded an antipathy against them or he had some private countermand from God not to reverence him What ever it was I had rather accuse my self of ignorance then Mordecai of pride Haman swells at this neglect Will not his knees bow his neck shall break with an halter But oh this was but poore and private revenge one lark will not fill the belly of such a vultur What if Mordecai will not stoop to Haman must Haman stoop to Mordecai to be revenged of him alone wherefore he plotteth with the Kings sword to cut off the whole Nation of the Jews Repairing to Ahasuerus he requested that all the Jews might be destroyed He backs his petition with three arguments first It was a scattered Nation had they inhabited one entire countrey their extirpation would have weakned his empire but being dispersed though kill'd every where they would have been missed no where secondly his Empire would be more uniform when this irregular people not observing his Laws were taken away thirdly ten thousand talents Haman would pay into the bargain into the Kings Treasure What out of his own purse I see his pride was above his covetousnesse and spightfull men count their revenge a purchase which cannot be overbought or perchance this money should arise out of the confiscation of their goods Thus Ahasuerus should lock all the Jews into his chest and by help of Hamans Chymistry convert them into silver See how this grand destroyer of a whole Nation pleads the Kings profit Thus our punie depopulatours alledge for their doings the Kings and countreys good and we will believe them when they can perswade us that their private coffers are the Kings exchequer But never any wounded the Commonwealth but first they kiss'd it pretending the publick good Hamans silver is drosse with Ahasuerus onely his pleasure is currant with him If Haman will have it so so it shall freely be he will give him and not sell him his favour 'T is wofull when great Judges see parties accused by other mens eyes but condemne them by their own mouthes and now Posts were sent thorow out all Persia to execute the Kings cruell decree I had almost forgotten how before this time Mordecai had discovered the treason which two of the Kings Chamberlains had plotted against him which good service of his though not presently paid yet was scored up in the Chronicles not rewarded but recorded where it slept till a due occasion did awake it Perchance Hamans envy kept it from the Kings knowledge and Princes sometimes to reward the desert of men want not mind but minding of it To proceed See the Jews all pitifully pensive and fasting in sackcloth and ashes even to Queen Esther her self which unknown to Haman was one of that nation And to be brief Esther invites Ahasuerus and Haman to a banquet whose life shall pay the reckoning and next day they are both invited to a second entertainment Mean time Haman provides a gallows of fifty cubits high to hang Mordecai on Five cubits would have serv'd the turn and had it took effect the height of the gallows had but set his soul so much the farther on his journey towards heaven His stomach was so sharp set he could not stay till he had din'd on all the Jews but first he must break his fast on Mordecai and fit it was this bell-weather should be sacrificed before the rest of the flock wherefore he comes to the Court to get leave to put him to death The night before Ahasuerus had passed without sleep The Chronicles are called for either to invite slumber or to entertain waking with the lesse tediousnesse Gods hand in the margin points the Reader to the place where Mordecai's good service was related and Ahasuerus asketh Haman newly come into the presence what shall be done to the man whom the King will honour Haman being now as he thought to measure his own happinesse had been much too blame if he made it not of the largest size He cuts out a garment of honour royall both for matter and making for Mordecai to wear By the Kings command he becomes Mordecai's Herauld and Page lacquying by him riding on the Kings steed who he hoped by this time should have mounted the wooden horse and then pensive in heart hasts home to bemoan himself to his friends Hamans wife proves a true Prophetesse presaging his ruine If the feet of a Favourite begin to slip on the steep hill of Honour his own weight will down with him to the bottome once past noon with him it is presently night For at the next feast Ahasuerus is mortally incens'd against him for plotting the death of Esther with the rest of her people For had his project succeeded probably the Jew had not been spared for being a Queen but the Queen had been killed for being a Jew Haman in a carelesse sorrowfull posture more minding his life then his lust had cast himself on the Queens bed Will he force the Queen also said Ahasuerus before me in the house These words rang his passing-bell in the Court and according to the Persian fashion they covered his face putting him in a winding sheet that was dead in the Kings favour The next news we hear of him is that by exchange Haman inherits the gibbet of Mordecai and Mordecai the house and greatnesse of Haman the decree against the Jews being generally reversed THOMAS WOLSEY Arch-Bishop of Yorke Chancelovr of England Cardinal and Legate de Latere He Died at Leicester Abby Anno Dni 1529. the 29 th of November W.M. sculp CHAP. 3. The life of Card. WOLSEY THomas Wolsey was born at Ipswich in Suffolk whose father was a Butcher and an honest man and was there brought up at school where afterwards he built a beautifull Colledge From Ipswich he went to Oxford and from thence was preferred to be Schoolmaster to the Marques of Dorset's children where he first learnt to be imperious over Noble bloud By the stairs of a Parsonage or two he climbed up at last into the notice of Fox Bishop of Winchester and was received to be his Secretary There was at that time a faction at Court betwixt Bishop Fox and Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey The Bishop being very old was scarce able to make good his party yet it grieved him not so much to stoop to Nature as to the Earl his Corrivall wherefore not able to manage