Sir COnsidering in what estate we find the Treaty of marriage between Spain and Emgland and knowing certainly how the Ministers did understanding this business that treated it in the time of Philip the third who is now in heaven that their meaning was never to effect it but by enlarging the treaties and points of the said marriage to make use of the friendship of the King of Great Britain as well in the matter of Germany as those of Flanders and suspecting likewise that your Majesty is of the same opinion although the demonstrations do not shew so joining to those suspitions that it is certain that the Infanta Donna Maria is resolved to put her self into the Monastery the same day that your Majesty shall press her to make the marriage I have thought fit to present to your Majesty that which my good zeal hath afforded me in this occasion thinking it a good time to acquaint your Majesty withal to the end you may resolve of that which you shall find most convenient with the advice of those Ministers that you shall think fit The King of Great Britain doth find himself at this time equally in the two businesses the one is the marriage to the which he is moved by the conveniences which he finds in your Majesties friendship with making an agreement with those Catholiques that he thinks are secretly in his Kingdom and by this to assure himself of them as likewise to marry his son to one of the house of Austria knowing that the Infanta Donna Maria is the best born Lady in the world Th' other businesse is the restitution of the Palatinate in which he is yet more ingaged For besides that his reputation is at stake there is added the love and interest of his Grandchildren sons of his onely daughter So that both by the law of Nature and reason of State he ought to put them before whatsoever conveniences might follow by dissembling what they suffer I do not dispute whether the King of Great Britainy be governed in this business of the Palatinate by Art or friendship I think a man may say he hath used both but as a thing not precisely necessary to this discourse I omit it I hold it for a maxime that these two Ingagements in which he finds himself are unseparable for although the marriage be made we must fail in that which in any way of understanding is most necessary which is the restitution of the Palatinate This being supposed having made the marriage in the form as it is treated your Majesty may find your self together with the King of Great Brirain engaged in a war against the Emperour and the Catholique league so that your Majesty shall be forced to delare your self with your Arms against the Emperour and the Catholique league a thing which to hear will offend your Majesties godly ears or declaring your self for the Emperour and the Catholique league as certainly you will your Majesty will find your self ingaged in a war against the King of England and your sister married with his son with the which all whatsoever conveniences that was thought upon with this marriage do cease if your Majesty shall shew your self Newtrall as it may be some will expound The first will cause very great scandall and with just reason since in matters of lesse opposition then of Catholiques against Heretiques the Armes of this Crown hath taken the godly against the contrary part And at this time the French men have taken part with the Hollanders against your Majesty your piety hath been such that you have sent your Arms against the Rebels of that Crown leaving all the great considerations of State only because those men are enemies of the faith and the Church It wil oblige your Majesty and good occasion to those of the League to make use of the King of France and other Catholique Princes ill affected to this Crown for it will be a thing necessary for them to do so and those even against their own Religion will foment and assist the Heretâ—ques for hatred to us without doubt they will follow the contrary part onely to leave your Majesty with that blemish that never hath befaln any King of these Dominions By the second the King of England will remain offended and disobliged seeing that neither interesses nor hopes do follow the Allyance with this Crown as likewise the pretext of particular resentment for having suffered his daughter and grand-children to be ruined for respect of the said Allyance The Emperour though he be well-affected and obliged to us in making the translation at this time as businesses now stand the Duke of Bavaria being now possessed of all the Dominions although he would dispose all according to our conveniences yet it will not be in his power to do it as you and every body may see And the memoriall that the Emperours Ambassador gave your Majesty yesterday makes it certain since in the List of the Souldiers that every on of the League is to pay he shews your Majesty that Bavier for himself alone will pay more then all the rest joyned together the which doth shew his power and his intention which is not to accommodate matters but to keep to himself the superiority of all in this broken time The Emperour is now in the Dyet and the translation is to be made in it The opposition in this estate is by conserving the means for conference which your Majesties Ministers will do with their capacities zeal and wisdom and it is certain they wil all have enough to do for the difficulty consists to find a way to make the present estate of affairs straight again which with lingring as it is said both the power and time will be lost I suppose that the Emperour as your Majesty knows by his Ambassador desires to marry his daughter with the King of Englands son I doubt not but he will be likewise glad to marry his second daughter with the Palatines son Then I propound that these two marriages be made and that they be set on foot presently giving the King of England full satisfaction in all his propositions for the more strict union and correspondency that he may agree to it I hold for certain that all the conveniences that would have followed the allyance with us wil be as full in this it doth accommodate the matter of the Palatinate and the succession of his grand-children with his honor without drawing a sword or wasting treasure After I would reduce the Prince Elector that was an enemy to the obedience of the Church by breeding his sons in the Emperours Court with Catholique Doctrine The business is great the difficulty greater then perchance have been in any other case I have found my self obliged to represent to your Majesty and to shew if you please to command me what I think fit for the disposing of the things and of the great Ministers that your Majesty hath I hope with the particular notice of these
go about every day to blemish the same through their vile and unworthy reproches you shal add to your titles that of the Restorer of a people the most innocent and most barbarously persecuted that ever was In that which concerns me Sir I will not make mention to your Majesty of my owne Interest though I might doe it having as it seems the honor be unto you what I am but I have so long since consecrated all things with my selfe to the publicke good that I shall esteeme my self happie enough so that the Church were not miserably distressed and that I may have this advantage that through my actions which your Majestie will not disavow I may make it known that I am Your Majesties most humble and most obedient servant Henry de Rohan Pope Gregory the 15 to the â—â—quisitor General of Spain April 19. 1623. Venerable Brother THe protection of the Orthodox Religion in the most spacious Kingdoms of Spain we think to be happily committed to your Fraternity for we know with what watchful vigilancie in this renowned station you are careful that Monsters of wicked doctrine steal not into the bounds of the Church and Vine But at this time occasion from heaven is offered you by which you may extend the benefits of your piety beyond the bounds of those Kingdoms and extend them also to forraign Countries We understand that the Prince of Wales the King of Great Britains son is lately arrived there carried with a hope of Catholike Marriage Our desire is that he should not stay in vain in the Courts of those Kings to whom the defence of the Popes authority and care of advancing Religion hath procured the renowned name of Catholique Wherefore by Apostolike Letters we exhort his Catholike Majestie that he would gently endeavour sweetly to reduce that Prince to the obedience of the Romane Church to which the ancient Kings of Great Britain have with heavens approbation submitted their Crowns and Scepters Now to the attaining of this victory which to the conquered promiseth triumphs and principalities of heavenly felicity we need not exhaust the Kings treasure nor levie Armies of furious souldierâ— but we must fetch from heaven the armour of Light whose divine solendor may allure that Princes eye and gently expel all errours from his minde Now in the managing of these businesses what power and art you have we have well known long ago wherefore we wish you to go like a religious Counsellor to the Catholike King and to try all ways which by this present occasion may benefit the Kingdoms of Britain and the Church of Rome The matter is of great weight and moment and therefore not to be amplified with words Whosoever shall enflame the minde of this Royal youth with the love of the Catholike Religion and breed a hate in him of Heretical impiety shall begin to open the Kingdom of heaven to the Prince of Britain and to gain the Kingdoms of Britain to the Apostolike See into the possession of so great glory I make no doubt but that your Fraternity armed with the sword of Verity will be desirous to come About which matter our venerable brother Innocent Bishop of _____ the Apostolike Nuncio shall discourse with you more at large whom you may trust And we with most accurate prayers will endeavour to procure the assistance of God for you upon whom most lovingly we bestow our Apostolical benediction Given at Rome in St. Peters under the Fishers Seal April 19. 1623. of our Popedom 30. Pope Urban to Lewis the 13. Aug. 4. 1629. To our dearest Son in Christ Jesus Lewis the most Christian King of France Pope Urban sendeth greeting MOst dear Son in Christ Health and Apostolical benediction The high exploits of your Royal valour which have drawn upon them all the eyes of Christendom bring a great deal of comfort to our fatherly care as well in regard of the glory of your Arms as the hope of your triumphs For considering as we do with much grief the impiety of Hereticks living in some places without fear or danger we now thank the Lord of hosts that hath in so fit an opportunity made your Majestie to maintain with Arms the dignity of the Catholike Religion Oh fair Apprentiship of Royal Warfare and worthy of a most Christian King What an admirable thing it is that the age which other Princes out of a kinde of softness and idleness use to pass away in sports and delights your Majesty should employ so generously so fortunately in appeasing differenâ—es conducting Armies and besieging the strongest places of Hereticks and all not without the special counsel of God by which Kings raign Is it almost credible that the very first steps of your thoughts should carry you in so high and troublesome an enterprise and that the dangers and difficulties which have stopt others in their course should onely serve for a spur to the greatness of your courage Enjoy dear Son the Renown your name hath got and follow the God that fights for you to the end that as you are now held the Thunderbolt and Buckler of War so you may hereafter be esteemed the praise of Israel and the glory of the world From the height of our Apostolick Dignity whereto if hath pleased God of his goodness to raise us unworthy of so great grace we assist your Arms with heart and affection and by our frequent prayers prepare the divine remedies And though we doubt not but your own vertue will make you constant in the work you have begun nevertheless we have thought good to adde Exhortations that the world may see the care we have of the advancement of true Religion and how willing we are to give way to your glory You have been hitherto infinitely bound to God for his bounty towards you and as we hope and wish you shall hereafter a great deal more For you having your minde endued with celestial doctrine and not with the bare precepts of humane wisdom do well know that Kingdoms have their foundation upon the truth of Orthodox faith and unless God keep the City what principality can subsist with any assurance It may easily be judged with what fidelity they are likely to defend your Royal Throne that have cast the very Saints themselves out of their Temples and done as much as in them lay to put them out of the number of the blessed yea out of Paradise it self that with impious temerity condemn the Institutions of our Fathers the Custom of Kings the Decrees of Popes and the Ceremonies of the Church These are the disturbers of the Christian Commonwealth and the reproaches of France whom the great God hath reserved to be exterminated as it were in the beginning of your Raign Know then that all Europe which the event of your Arms holds all this time in suspence hopes shortly it will hoyse sail upon the Ocean under the conduct of your Greatness and Power and go to the place which serves now for
particular And on the other side I will not omit to desire humbly your Lordships favour in furthering a good conceit and impression of my most humble duty and true zeal towards the King to whose Majesty words cannot make me known neither mine own nor others but time will to no disadvantage of any that shall â—orerun his Majesties experience by their humanity and commendations And so I commend your Lordship to Gods protection From Grays-Inne c. Your c. FR. BACON To King James MAy it please your most excellent Majesty It is observed upon a place in the Canticles by some Ego sum Flos Campi Lilium Convallium that it is not said Ego sum flos horti lilium montium because the Majesty of that Person is not inclosed for a few nor appropriate to the great And yet notwithstanding this Royal vertue of access which nature and judgment hath placed in your Majesties mind as the portal of all the rest could not of it self my imperfections considered have animated me to have made oblation of my self immediately to your Majesty had it not been joyned to a habit of like liberty which I enjoyed with my late dear Soveraign Mistress a Princess happy in all things but most happy in such a Successor And yet further and more neerly I was not a little encouraged not only upon a supposal that unto your Majesties sacred eares open to the aire of all vertues there might have come some small breath of the good memory of my Father so long a principal Councellor in your Kingdom but also by the particular knowledge of the infinite devotion and incessant endeavours beyond the strength of his body and the nature of the times which appeared in my good Brother towards your Majesties service and were on your Majesties part through your singular benignities by many most gracious and lively significations and favours accepted and acknowledged beyond the thought of any thing he could effect All which endeavours and duties for the most part were common to my self with him though by design between brethren dissembled And therefore most high and mighty King my most dear and dread Soveraign Lord since now the corner-stone is laid of the mightiest Monarchy in Europe and that God above who is noted to have a mighty hand in bridling the floods and fluctuations of the seas and of peoples hearts hath by the miraculous and universal consent the more strange because it proceedeth from such diversity of causes in your coming in given a sign and token what he intendeth in the continuance I think there is no Subject of your Majesty who loveth this Island and is not hollow and unworthy whose heart is not on fire not only to bring you Peace-offerings to make you propitious but to sacrifice himself as a Burnt-offering to your Majesties service Amongst which number no mans fire shall be more pure and fervent but how far forth it shall blaze out that resteth in your Majesties imployment For since your fortune in the greatness thereof hath for a time debarred your Majesty of the fruitly vertue which one calleth the principal Principis est virtus maxima nosse suos because your Majesty hath many of yours which are unknown unto you I must leave all to the trial of further time and thirsting after the happiness of kissing your Royal hand continue ever Your c. FR. BACON To the Earl of Northumberland concerning a Proclamation upon the Kings entry It may please your Lordship I Do hold it a thing formal and necessary for the King to forerun his coming be it never so speedy with some gracious Declaration for the cherishing entertaining and preparing of mens affections For which purpose I have conceived a draught it being a thing to me familiar in my Mistress her times to have my pen used in politique writings of satisfaction The use of this may be in two sorts First properly if your Lordship think convenient to shew the King any such draught because the veins and pulses of this State cannot but be known here which if your Lordship should then I would desire your Lordship to withdraw my name and only signifie that you gave some heads of direction of such a matter to one of whose stile and pen you had some opinion The other collateral that though your Lordship make no other use of it yet it is a kind of pourtraicture of that which I think worthy to be advised to the King to express himself according to those points which are therein conceived and perhaps more compendious and significant then if I had set them down in Article I would have attended your Lordship but for some little Physick I took To morrow morning I will wait on you So I ever continue c. FR. BACON To the Earl of Southampton It may please your Lordship I Would have been very glad to have presented my humble service to your Lordship by my attendance if I could have foreseen that it should not have been unpleasing unto you And therefore because I would commit no error I chose to write assuring your Lordship how credible soever yet it is as true as a thing that God knoweth that this great change in me hath wrought no other change towards your Lordship then this that I may safely be now that which I was truly before And so craving no other pardon then for troubling you with this letter I do not now begin to be but continue to be Your Lordships most humble and devoted FR. BACON To the Earl of Northumberland It may please your Lordship I Would not have lost this journey and yet I have not that I went for For I have had no private conference to purpose with the King no more hath almost any other English for the speech his Majesty admitteth with some Noblemen is rather matter of grace then matter of businesse with the Attorney he spake urged by the Treasurer of Scotland but no more then needs must After I had received his Majesties first welcome and was promised private accesse yet not knowing what matter of service your Lordship carried for I saw it not and knowing that priviness in advertisement is much I chose rather to deliver it to Sir Thomas Hoskins then to let it cool in my hands upon expectation of accesse Your Lordship shall find a Prince the furthest from vain-glory that may be and rather like a Prince of the ancient form then of the latter time his speeches swift an cursory and in the full Dialect of his Nation and in speech of businesse short in speech of discourse large he affecteth popularity by gracing them that are popular and not by any fashions of his own he is thought somewhat generall in his favours and his vertue of accesse is rather because he is much abroad and in presse then that he giveth easie audience he hasteneth to a mixture of both kingdoms and nations faster perhaps then policy will well bear I told your
over-tedious to your Majesty and being well assured how well your Majesty stands inclined to either of these points Ferdinand the Emperour to Don Balthazar de Zuniga October 15. 1621. To the Honorable and sincerely beloved Don Balthazar de Zuniga Cousin and Councellour of State to the most excellent and Catholique King of Spain Honorable and sincerely beloved WHat my mind and purpose is touching the translating of the Electorship to the Duke of Bavaria according to the promise I made him and wherefore I think that business so necessary and profitable as for Germany in generall so particularly for securing our House from all attempts of Heretiques as his Holiness exhorts me not to be further delayed You shall understand as well by conference with Father Jacinthus whom his Holiness hath for that purpose addressed unto me his Majesty of Spain my Nephew and other Catholiqne Princes of Germany as by these ensuing reasons whereof the principall are That when I repeat from the beginning the whole course of my Reign and the difficulties through which I have attained my Kingdoms and Provinces I behold with reverence the admirable providence of God over me which makes me the more bound to repose my trust in him and not to omit any occasion which may tend to the advancement of his glory and the honor of so admirable tried providence and therfore that I should use that most notable victory to the honor of God and extirpation of all seditions factions which are nourished chiefly among the Calvinists and that I should withdraw my self from that judgement that the Prophet threatens to the King of Israel Because thou hast dismissed a man worthy of death thy Son shall be for his soule The Palatine keeps now in Holland exiled not onely from the Kingdom which he rashly attempted but despoiled almost of all his own Territories expecting as it were the last cast of Fortune whom if by an impious kind of commiseration and subtile Petitions I be perswaded to restore to his Electorall dignity and nourish in my bosome as a troden half living snake what can I expect less then a deadly stinging For it is in vain for me to think that he should be able to discern the greatness of such a benefit For the Polititians saying is true Vltionem quaesivi gratiam oneri habere especially since the injuries he did me are so heynous his projects so subtile that although I should overcome him with Christian charity yet I should never be able to take him from the guilt of his offences and make him soundly faithfull unto me but he will always gape at all occasions whereby he may free himself from fear of his ill deservings and cover his own prostituted honor with new attempts Add hereunto the Calvinists institution of whose Sect the proper genius is to hold nothing either fraud or wickedness which is undertaken for the Religion no sanctity of oath nor fear of dishonour hinders them From such an one what caution can either the house of Austria or other Catholique Princes with whom he is no less in enmity because for Religion as because they are interessed in the war receive The King of England will be engaged but of the same Religion nor is there any thing more easie then when there is occasion of perpetrating any wickedness to palliate it with a pretext of a breach of the League Histories are fraughted with examples in some there are no cautions sufficient in such a business then to drive him where he cannot hurt all other means are frail and he which once believed is despised It is likewise a consideration of no less moment that the Palatine being restored will draw all his power and policie as hitherto so hereafter where he thinks he can do most hurt and that most easily to wit to Bethlem-Gabor and the Turks whom he hath already incited to hostility against me and will never cease hereafter to instigate the Galvinists intire hopes in them These untill they recover breath and recollect their forces they endeavour to disarm and exhaust me of monies ranging in my territories as they have done hitherto by fire and sword But if with them also whom notwithstanding I cannot trust alike I should make peace what conditions will Gabor who remains yet unconquered require if I should restore the Palatine already conquered to his Electoral dignity Therefore since long before God granted me that famous victory I firmly forecast with my self that the Palatine could not be restored to his Electoral dignity without the extreme danger of the Catholiques and my house I offered freely on my own motion but being directed questionless by God the Electorship to the Duke of Bavaria a most eager Defender of the Catholique cause whose territories on the other side lie as a Rampire between me and other Princes of Germany and since I made so good use of his help and so profitable in the recovery of my Kingdoms and Provinces and continue yet to this day time it self more then the said Duke doth cry out that I should accomplish my promise without further delay and by translation of the Electorship take away quite all hopes from the Palatine and them that sollicite us so importunately for a restitution that we may be freed from all molestation which thing since it needs the help of his Majesty of Spain although I know his Majesty be propense enough of himself to all things which appertain to the honor of God and the security of our House yet I thought good to admonish you of this occasion lest this opportunity of establishing of our Religion and Family escape which I conceive might conveniently be done by you Neither do I suppose his Majesty to be ignorant that it was alwayes judged of our Ancestors that the House of Austria which by Gods permission doth now signiorize far and neer upon the earth to have its chief foundation here in Germany which is the more to be defended the nearer its mine depends thereupon In times past this House hath had proof of many adversaries to its greatness as the Histories under Maximilian the first Charles the fift Ferdinand the second and Rodulf the second do shew the perfidiousness of Holland against his Majesties Grandfather Philip the second fetcht her food from the Palatinate neither can his Majesty ever reduce the rebellious Hollanders to obedience unlesse his root be pluckt up which onely motive besides these which I alledged before might justly induce him not to suffer a fallen enemy to rise and resume as his stomack will never fail him strength again But albeit it is not to be dissembled that the Lutheran Princes especially the Elector of Saxony will not approve haply of this translation because they fear it conduceth too much to the corroborating of the Catholique Cause Nevertheless since he cannot accuse that act of Charls the fifth who for a far lighter cause deprived John Frederick of the Electorship and confer'd it on Maurice this Dukes
advancement of the Crowne Revenues and lastly in the competent number of Bishops and other able and Learned Ministers of the Church of England of all sorts which we especially attribute to the blessednesse of your time and to the Industryes Zeale Judgment and moderation of your Deputy as well in your Majesty service as towards this peopleâ— having now well learned this great office and to the good beginnings of the two last precedent Deputies under direction of your most Renowned Father Secondly we understand that your Deputy and Councel are blamed for the present surcharge of your Revenues here far beyond the support thereof Herein your Royal Majesty may be pleased to cause a review of our dispatch from hence in August 1627. wherein it wil appear that their part in that offence hath been only obedience to extraordinary warrants from thence and that if those warrants had not beene fully performed out of your Revenues you had had about 40000 pound Irish to pay pensioners in your Coffers and answer other necessities which have since increased So as we humbly crave pardon freely to affirme that the fault hath not been here and further also to say for your Majesties honour and our comfort that during 200 years last past England hath never been so free of the charge of Ireland as now it is Thirdly we understand that your Deputy is accused for miscarriage in the legal prosecution of Phelim Mach Frâ—gh and others adhering to him in certain treasonable Acts and Practises Herein we most humbly beseech your Majesty that a review may be of a declaration sent from hence about the beginning of your Deputies government signed hy him and all the Counsel then here whereby wil appear how the parts of Lemster at least have been from age to age infested by him and his predecessors and the inhabitants of the territory of Ranelagh wherein he tooke upon him a Chiefery and therein will also appeare that it was the special affection and endeavour of several worthy Deputies here to have cleared that offensive plot which no wise State could suffer so neer the seat thereof and that they also severally attempted it by force the said Phelims Father being slain by actuall Rebellion by Sir William Russels prosecution but the generall Rebellion of the Kingdome alwaies interrupted the settlement thereof This being at that time the declaration of the State moved your Deputy being a stranger to have a wary aspect upon the people for the Common peace which he hath carefully performed Afterwards at the time when the general voice was amongst the Irish that the Spaniards would be here your Deputie had cause to examine several persons and causes concerning that Rumour wherby fell out to be discovered to him among others that this Phelim had confederated for raising a Commotion in Lemster and murthering a Scottish Minister and Justice of peace a ready instrument in Crown Causes inhabiting about the border of the said territory Before which time we never heard of any displeasure or hard measure born by your said Deputy to him or offence taken by him at any particular done to him unless he were offended that your Deputy refused his mony offered to blanch your Majesties title to the Lands in Ranlagh now granted to undertakers discovered and prosecuted at first by his brother Redmond and his Councel Peter de la Hoyd We do also herein in all humility testifie and declare that he acquainted several Privy Councellors here and others of Judgment with the same And also in every Act and passage thereof used the labour and presence either of your Majesties Privy Concellours Judges or learned Councel alwaies professing publickly and privately which we also in our consciences do believe that he had no particular envy or displeasure to Phelims's person or any of his neither had any end in what might fall out upon that discovery or pains or any act done concerning that Country other then the reducement thereof to the conformity of other civil parts the common peace of your Majesties good Subjects adjacent and the legal and plenary effecting of that which by so many good governours in times of disturbance could not be done there being no power in him to make any particular benefit of the Escheate either in lands or goods and before any thing was to be done for the tryal of him and the rest for their lives he made a speedy and immediate address to your Majesty dated 27. August 1628 upon the indictment found to inform you of the then present estate of that businesse which we have seen not doing it before as he affirms for that he had formerly received gracious approbations of his proceedings in the like discoveries We also in all humblenesse and duty do declare and protest that if upon their evil demerits and the due proceedings of Law those now questioned may be taken away and the Territory settled in legal Government and English order towards which a strong Fort is already almost built in the midst of it by your Majesties Undertakers lately planted there It will be a service of the greatest importment to bridle the Irish assure the inhabitants of other Parts and strengthen the generall peace of the Kingdom next to the great Plantation of Vlster that hath been done in this age If otherwise they shall by fair tryall acquit the course of your Majesties free and indifferent justice it will make them wary in point of duty and loyalty hereafter And we do further in all submission declare That in these discoveries the persons and Causes considered it was of necessity that the personal pains of your Highness Deputy should be bestowed the rather for that the Evidences being to be given for the most part by persons involved in the same confederacyes and who were to become actors they would not be drawn to confess truths to any inferior Ministers being of stubborn and malign spirits besides the disswasions of Priests and of the Dependants and manifold Allies of the said Phelim if they had not been warily look'd after Lastly We in all humblenesse of heart and freedom of faithful servants do beseech your most sacred Majesty to consider how much the sufferings of your zealous servants may prove to your disservice especially in this place where discouragement of your most dextrous service is most aimed at by multitudes of several qualities and cannot but soon perplex the present happy state of your affairs Wee beseech the eternall God to guide and prosper your Majesties advices and designes 28. April 1629. Your most humble and obedient Subjects and Servants Signed by L. Primate V. Valentia V. Kilmallock V. Ranelagh L. Dillon L. Cauffeild L. Aungier L. Pr. of Munster L. Chief Justice St Adam Loftus Mr of the Wards L. Chief Baron Sr Charles Coote Ab Ignoto Of the Affairs of Spain France and Italy 5 Jan. 1629. SIR THough it be now full three months since I received any line from you yet I dare not nor will I
for that respect discontinue my writing to you and because no private businesse occurreth I will be bold to advise a line or two concerning the publick affairs of Italy Cassal is still made good against the Spanyard not by the Duke of Mantua for he poor Prince was long since bankrupt but by the succours of France and this Seignory the former contributing monthly 40000 Dollers the latter 20000 not only to maintaine the Cassaleschi but also to enable the Duke to stand fast against all other the Spanyards attempts mean while we hear say boldly that a league offensive and defensive against the Spanyards in Italy is concluded betweene the French and the Venetians and that the French King hath already sent out two Armies one under the Duke of Guise by sea who they say is landed at Nizza the other under the Marquess de Coeure who is marching hitherward through the Valtoline and though I doubt something these proceedings of the French yet I am sure the Seignior doth daily give out new Commissions for the levying of Souldiers in that number that now every one demands what strange enterprize this State hath in hand and all jump in this that it is against the Spanyard The Pope is still adverse to the Spanyard and inclines strongly to the good of Italy animating this State to meete the French with a declaration and the French to conclude a peace on any honorable terms with us that they may the more safely follow their present designs which is to suppresse the Spanyards in Italy his Catholick Majesty hath lost a great deale of credit in these parts by the losse of his Silver Fleete and that he is in extreme want of mony is collected here from the present state of some of his publick Ministers Ognat his ordinary Embassadour at Rome being lately recalled in stead of going home into Spaine hath retyred himselfe privately to Monte Pincio being in such premunire that he is not able to accommodate himselfe with necessaries for his journy And Mounterei who is to succeed him is arrived as far Sienna but being foundred in his purse is able to get no farther meane while living there in an Inne Moreover the Merchants in Rome are advised by their correspondents in Spaine to be wary in letting either of them have monies this is from a good hand in Rome Sir Kenelm Digby hath lately been at Delos where he hath laden great store of Marble he is said to be in very good plight and Condition I trouble you no more Venice 5. January 1629. Stilo novo Your faithful servant C. H. The Lords of the Council of England to the Lords of the Councel in Ireland 31 Jan. 1629. BY your Letter dated the ninth of January we understand how the seditious riot moved by the Friars and their adherents at Dublin hath by your good order and resolution been happly supprest and we doubt not but by this occasion you will consider how much it concerneth the good Government of that Kingdome to present in time the first growing of such evils for where such people be permitted to swarm they wil soon grow licentious and endure no government but their own which cannot otherwise be restored then by a due and seasonable execution of the Law and of such directions as from time to time have been sent from his Majesty and this Board Now it redoundeth much to the honour of his Majesty that the world shall take notice of the ability and good service of his Ministers there which in person he hath been pleased openly in Councel and in most gracious manner to approve and commend whereby you may be sufficiently encouraged to go on with like resolution and moderation til the work be solely done as well in City as in other places of your Kingdome the carriage whereof we must leave to your good discretions whose particular knowledge of the present state of things can guide you better when and where to carry a soft or harder hand only this we hold necessary to put you in mind that you continue in that good agreement amongst your selves for this and other services which your Letters do expresse and for which we commend you much that the good servants of the King and state may find encouragement equally from you all and the ill affected may find no support or countenance from any nor any other connivances used but by general advice for avoiding of further evils shall be allowed and such Magistrates and Officers if any shal be discovered that openly or underhand favour such disorders or do not their duties in suppressing them and committing the offenders you shall doe well to take all fit and safe advantages by the punishment or displacing of a few to make the rest more cautious This we write not as misliking the faire course you have taken but to expresse the concurrency of our Judgments with yours and to assure you of our assistance in all such occasions wherein for your further proceedings we have advised And his Majesty requireth you accordingly to take order first that the house wherein Seminary Friars appeared in their habits and wherein the Reverend Arch-Bishop and the Maior of Dublin received the first affront be spedily demolished and be the mark of terror to the resisters of Authority and that the rest of the houses erected or imployed there or elsewhere to the use of suspicious societies be converted to houses of correction and to set the people on work or to other publick uses for the advancement of Justice good Arts or Trades and further that you use all fit meanes to discover the Founders Benefactors and Maintainers of such Societies and Colledges and certifie their names and that you find out the Lands Leases or Revenues applyed to their uses and dispose thereof according to the Law and that you certifie also the places and institutions of all such Monasteries Priories Nunneries and other Religious houses and the names of all such persons as have put themselves to be brothers and sisters therein especially such as are of note to the end such evil plants be not permitted to take root any where in that Kingdome which we require you take care of For the supply of Munition which you have reason to desire we have taken effectuall order that you shall receive it with all convenient speed And so c. Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer Lord President Lord Privy Seale L. high Chamberlain Earl of Suffolk Earl of Dorset Earl of Salisbury Earl of Kelly Lord Viscount Dorchester Lord Newbergh Mr. Vice Chamberlaine Mr. Secretary Cooke Sir William Alexander The Lord Faulkland's Petition to the King MOst humbly shewing that I had a Sonne until I lost him in your Highnesse displeasure where I cannot seeke him because I have not will to find him there Men say there is a wilde young man now prisoner in the Fleete for measuring his actions by his own private sense But now that for the same your Majesties hand
Lordship once before my opinion that methought his Majesty rather asked counsell of the time past then of the time to come But it is yet early to be found in any setled opinion For other particularities I refer to conference having in these generals gone further in these tender arguments then I would have done were not the bearer hereof so assured So I continue your c. FR. BACON To Sir Edward Coke expostulatory Mr. Attorney I Thought best once for all to let you know in plainness what I find of you and what you shal find of me To take to your self a liberty to disgrace and disable my Law experience discretion what it pleases you I pray think of me I am one that know both mine own wants and other mens and it may be perchance that mine may mend when others stand at a stay And surely I may not in publike place endure to be wronged without repelling the same to my best advantage to right myself You are great and therefore have the more enviers which would be glad to have you paid at anothers cost Since the time I missed the Sollicitors place the rather I think by your means I cannot expect that you and I shall ever serve as Attorney and Sollicitor but either to serve with another upon your remove or to step into some other course So as I am more free then ever I was from any occasion of unworthy conforming my self to you more then generall good manners or your particular good usage shall provoke And if you had not been short-sighted in your own fortune as I think you might have had more use of me but that tide is past I write not this to shew any friends what a brave Letter I have writ to Mr. Attorney I have none of those humours but that I have written is to a good end that is to the more decent carriage of my Masters service and to our particular better understanding one another This Letter if it shall be answered by you in deed and not in word I suppose it will not be worse for us both else it is but a few lines lost which for a much smaller matter I would adventure So this being to your self I for my part rest Your c. FR. BACON To the same after Lo. Chief Justice and in disgrace My very good Lord THough it be true that who considereth the wind and the rain shall neither sow nor reap Eccles 9.15 yet there is a season for every action And so there is a time to speak and a time to keep silence there is a time when the words of a poor simple man may profit and that poor man in the Preacher which delivered the City by his wisdom found that without this opportunity the power both of wisdom and eloquence lose but their labour and cannot charm the deaf Adder God therefore before his Son that bringeth mercy sent his servant the Trumpeter of repentance to level a very high hill to prepare the way before him making it smooth and streight And as it is in spiritual things where Christ never comes before his Way-maker hath laid even the heart with sorrow and repentance since self-conceited and proud persons think themselves too good and too wise to learn of their inferior and therefore need not the Physitian so in the rules of earthly wisdom it is not possible for nature to attain any mediocrity of perfection before she be humbled by knowing her self and her own ignorance Not only knowledge but also every other gift which we call the gifts of fortune have power to pull up earthly Afflictions only level these Mole-hils of pride plough the heart and make it fit for Wisdom to sow her seed and for Grace to bring forth her increase Happy is that man therefore both in regard of heavenly and earthly wisdom that is thus wounded to be cured thus broken to be made straight thus made acquainted with his own imperfections that he may be perfected Supposing this to be the time of your affliction that which I have propounded to my self is by taking this seasonable advantage like a true friend though far unworthy to be counted so to shew you your true shape in a glass and that not in a false one to flatter you nor yet in one that should make you seem worse then you are and so offend you but in one made by the reflexion of your own words and actions from whose light proceeds the voice of the people which is often not unfitly called the voice of God but therein since I purposed a truth I must intreat liberty to be plain a liberty that at this time I know not whether or no I may use safely I am sure at other times I could not yet of this resolve your self it proceedeth from love and a true desire to do you good that you knowing the generall opinion may not altogether neglect or contemn it but mend what you find amiss in yourself and tain what your judgment shall approve for to this end shall truth be delivered as naked as if your self were to be anatomized by the hand of opinion All men can see their own profit that part of the wallet hangs before A true friend whose worthy office I would perform since I fear both your self and all great men want such being themselves true friends to few or none is first to shew the other and which is from your eyes First therefore behold your errors In discourse you delight to speak too much not to hear other men this some say becomes a pleader not a Judge for by this sometimes your affections are intangled with a love of your own arguments though they be the weaker and rejecting of those which when your affections were setled your own judgment would allow for strongest Thus while you speak in your own Element the Law no man ordinarily equals you but when you wander as you often delight to do you then wander indeed and give never such satisfaction as the curious time requires This is not caused by any naturall defect but first for want of election when you having a large and fruitfull mind should not so much labour what to speak as to find what to leave unspoken rich soils are often to be weeded Secondly you cloy your auditory when you would be observed speech must either be sweet or short Thirdly you converse with Books not men and Books specially humane and have no excellent choyce with men who are the best Books for a man of action and imployment you seldome converse with and then but with your underlings not freely but as a Schoolmaster with his Scholars ever to teach never to learn But if somtimes you would in your familiar discourse hear others and make election of such as know what they speak you should know many of these tales you tell to be but ordinary and many other things which you delight to repeat and serve in for novelties to be but