unto him then he constrained him whether he would or no to accept that Office He had also a good grace in the election of the Senators of the Senat for he chose not any without demanding the advise of them which were already in that estate and enquired of the maners knowledge and sufficiencie of him or them which were to be Senators And when it came to passe that any man by his opinion did bring any into an Office that was not in all points sufficient as it often commeth to passe that they that favor a man make his manners good and his knowledge greater than it is he thus punished them to bring them to the lowest roume of all their companie which was a covenable and meet punishment for he that by undue and unlawfull meanes will advaunce another meriteth well to bee put from the place himselfe We find in our hystories of France that our kings have sometimes imitated this manner of proceeding of the Emperour Alexander in his manner of election of Counsellors and Magistrates For by auncient ordinances which lately were fresh in the publicke Counsell of Estates of Orleance but since evill observed Offices ought to be conferred upon such as were named to the king by the other Officers and Magistrates and by the Consuls Presidents of Townes and Provinces which were to make true report of the life good manners and sufficiencie of such as they named As for the vent and selling of Offices it seemeth that it hath been long time tollerated in Fraunce For M. Philip de Comines in his Hystorie which hee writ of Comines li. 1. cap. 12. the life of king Lewis the eleventh saith That alreadie in the time of that king when he had warre against the lords of the Commonweale in the yeare 1464 the Perisians made a great trafficke and commerce of Offices whereof they are more desirous than any others of all the French nation For sayth he there are some which will give eight hundred skutes or crownes for an Office that hath no wages nor stipend belonging unto it and some will give for an Office that hath a stipend belonging unto it more than fifteene yeares the stipend comes to But it seemes unto me that de Comines toucheth not the white when he speakes of the cause why the Parisians are so desirous of Offices For the true cause seemeth to be for that by the customes of Paris a father cannot bestow upon one child more than upon another be they daughters or sonnes unlesse it be in Offices And that therefore the Parisians which desire to advantage any of his children above other as commonly the father which hath many children loves one more than another are as it were constrained to buy Offices And would to God that this custome were yet to invent and that the Parisians had free dispensation of their goods and that they had not brought in this villainous trafficke of Offices But a strange thing it is which Comines addeth That even in the time of king Lewis the eleventh the parliament of Paris maintained that such a commerce and trafficke was lawfull But he speakes not of what Offices the Court of Parliament tollerates that kind of trafficke It is not credible that at that time Offices of judgement were sold nor that the Court of Parliament approved such a commerce but rather that they were Offices of Fines Vshers Castle keepers Sergeants Notaries Offices of Waters and Forrests and such like whereof the sale was tollerable but not of Offices of Presidents Counsellors Bailiffes Stewards Lieutenants and other Offices of judgement For it is seene by Annales vpon An. 1499. our Annales that king Lewis the twelfth who was called the Father of the people to spare his people and to pay the debts of king Charles the eight his predecessor and to helpe other great affaires which he had on his Arme for the recoverment of the Duchie of Millaine he was the first king that began to sell Offices Royall excepting alwayes the Offices of judgement which he touched not This was a very good king and did this to a good end to comfort and help his poore people from tallages and borrowings Who considered that it was as much and more reasonable that hee should take silver for such Offices which were not of judgement as privat persons did upon whom they were freely bestowed unto whom it was lawfull as is said by a sufferance alreadie inveterate of the said Parliament to sell and trafficke them But since the fact of this good king hath been drawn into a consequence and an use yea the exception of Offices of judgement is cleane also taken away in such sort that now al Offices indifferently are venall yea to him that offereth most to the last penny And although we may say still it is to the same end namely to helpe the people yet it is evident that that end is not sought nor followed For by the contrarie the people is eaten up even to the bones by these buyers of Offices which will needs draw out of them the mony of that they bought And it seemeth according to the saying of the Emperor Alexander that they have reason for that which may be bought may be sold As for the manner of election of the said Emperour whereby he preferred to estates such as demaunded them not before such as sought them our kings have sometimes used that also as king Charles le Sage when he gave the Office of Constable to that generous and valiant Knight Bertrand de Guesclin For de Guesclin Froisart lib. 1. chap. 290. lib. 2. cap. 49. Annales vpon An. 1402. excused himselfe the most that hee could in the world from accepting that estate shewing him that he was a simple knight that the Office of Constable is so great that he that will acquite himselfe of that Office ought rather to commaund great men than them that were of low calling and that he durst not enterprise so much as to commaund the brethren cousins and nephewes of his Majestie But the king replied unto him M. Bertrand by this meanes excuse not your selfe for I have neither Brother Cousin Nephew Countie nor Barron in my kingdome which shall not obey you with a good heart and if any one doe otherwise I will cause him to know that it displeaseth me So that in the end de Guesclyn accepted the Office as constrained After the death of this valiant Constable king Charles the sixt sonne of the said Charles le Sage minding to give that Office to the Lord de Coucy who was a brave and wise knight and of a great house and had performed great services unto the Crowne of France but he refused it saying that he was not capable for an Office of so great a burthen and that M. Oliver de Clysson was more sufficient than he to exercise that Estate for he was valiant bold wise and wel beloved of the people of warre M. Oliver made the
do often proceed when kings governe themselves by men of base hand as they call them for then are princes and great lords jealous And therefore to shun such jealousies and just complaints that great men may have to see themselves despised a prince ought so to advance meane men that hee recoile not great men and meane men ought alwaies to acknowledge the place from whence they came respecting great men according to their degrees without staggering in their dutie to their prince common-wealth And when they see that by some accident they are evill beloved of great men or of the common people and that for the good of peace it is requisit to extinguish the envie and jealousie conceived against them they ought voluntarily to forsake their estate For willingly to retaine it to the detriment and confusion of the common-wealth therein doe they evidently shew that they are not good servants of their prince King Charles the seventh had Counsellors both wise and loiall as M. Tanguy du Chastell M. Iohn Lowet president de Provence the Bishop of Cleremont Annal. upon An. 1426. and certaine others of meane qualitie which had done him great services in great affaires he had had as well when he was Dolphin as after he was king At that time this king had civile warre against the duke of Burgoigne whome secretly the duke of Bretaigne favoured which warre the king would gladly have had extinguished Therefore hee himselfe openly spoke to the said lords and dukes which made him answere That they were content to come to some good accord provided that hee would put from him such Counsellors as he had and take others These beforenamed Counsellors knowing this said to the king Since Sir it holds but thereon to quench civile warre which there is against the house of Burgoigne let them all goe home againe it shall not come of us that so good a thing shall bee hindered and they themselves desired and counselled the king to accord to that condition These were good and loyall Counsellors but they are dead and there are no more such to bee found But such there are now adaies which had rather see the commonwealth in combustion and ruine than they would suffer themselves to be removed from their places one pace Yet these good Counsellors abovesaid withdrew to their houses willingly and without constraint and soone after peace was accorded and finished betwixt the king and the duke of Burgoigne These good persons alledged not That men sought to take away the kings faithfull Counsellors to seduce and deceive him and that their dutie commaunded them then more than ever to keepe nigh his Majestie seeing the great troubles and affairs of the kingdome and that otherwise they might be accounted traitors and disloiall No no they alledged no such thing they looked right upon the white to keepe peace in the kingdome For they knew well that if they had used these reasons to the duke of Burgoigne that he could soone have answered replied that they were too presumptuous and proud to thinke that in all the kingdome of Fraunce there could not be found people as wise and faithfull to their prince as they For in all times the kingdome of Fraunce more than any other hath ever beene well furnished with wise and vertuous people of the Nobilitie Iustice Cleargie yea Marchants and of the third Estate To come againe to our purpose certaine it is That a prince which committeth the government of his affaires to one alone brings himselfe in great daunger and hardly can such governement bee without great mischeefes and disorders For this commonly men hold That being lifted up unto great honor and dignitie they cannot hold a moderation and mediocritie which is that which giveth taste and grace to all our actions The emperour Severus so high advaunced Plautianus that being great master of his houshold the people thought seeing his dealings in his office that hee was the emperour himselfe and that Severus was but his great master Hee Dion Spartian Severo slew robbed banished confiscated the goods of all such as hee would in the sight and knowledge of Severus who contradicted him in nothing So farre mounted this great and immoderate license that Plautianus durst well attempt to cause Severus to be slaine and his two sonnes But his wickednesse was disclosed by a captaine unto whom he had discovered it insomuch that Severus caused him to come before him and although by nature he were a cruell Prince yet was he so firmely affected to Plautianus that he never spoke sharpe or rigorous word unto him but onely uttered this remonstrance I am abashed Plautianus how it came in thine heart to enterprise this against me who have so much loved and exalted thee and against my children whereof Bassianus my eldest sonne hath married your daughter and so is your sonne in law Truly the condition of men is very miserable that cannot maintaine themselves in such honour and dignitie as I have placed you in I pray you tell me your reasons defences to purge you of this act The abovesaid Bassianus seeing that the emperour his father would receive Plautianus to his justification fearing he should have escaped caused one of his men to slay him in the presence of his father adding to the saying of Severus Certaine it is that great honors attributed to one man alone as to governe the affaires of a kingdome not only makes him go out of the bonds of reason but also subjects him unto great envies wherby great mischeefes happen unto him In the time of Philip le Bell king of Fraunce M. Enguerrant de Marigni Countie Annal. upon An. 1314 1326. de Longuevile a valiant and wise knight governed almost all the affaires of the king and his kingdome and especially of his common treasure which was distributed by his ordinance Amongst other things he caused to build that great Pallace at Paris where the court of parliament is held After the death of king Philip Charles Counte de Valois his brother begun criminally to pursue M. Enguerrant before certaine commissionaries of the said court delegated for that purpose And so farre did the said Countie de Valois being a great lord prince of the bloud and in great credit with king Lewis le Hutin his nephew and sonne of the said Philip pursue the cause against M. Enguerrant who was then out of credit after the death of king Philip his master that he was condemned to bee hanged and strangled on a gibbet at Paris as he was indeed This happened onely unto him by the envie he had procured by his great place and too great credit For true it is that he was accused of many things but he was not condemned of any punishable thing But our hystories say That he was not received unto his justifications and defences he was so fiercely pursued by the said Countie de Valois who after he had caused him to bee hanged and that
Theseus Vlisses Castor Pollux Aeneas Achilles and almost all great persons which the Grecians place amongst their gods of him learned these vertues whereby they have obtained immortall praise and the reputation to be gods Hee saith also that Chiron was not in the time of Achilles but long time before but because the prince Achilles was instructed and nourished in his discipline vertue and manner of life men say he was Achilles his instructor True it is that the Poets have called him a Centaure because he tooke great pleasure in riding of horses and in hunting which are exercises well beseeming a prince But although he loved horses and the exercise of knighthood yet was he never esteemed to hold any thing of a beast but rather of the divinitie as being endowed with all excellent vertues which bring men nigh God and take them fardest from beasts And therefore the beastly mallice of Machiavell is seene in perverslie abusing the example of that valiant and generous prince Achilles to persuade a prince not to sticke to governe himselfe after the imitation of beasts seeing that Achilles was instructed as is said by Chiron the Centaure a man and a beast which learned him how to live both like a man and a beast for this is false and devised for Chiron rather held of divinitie than of a beast neither was Achilles instructed but in all heroicall vertues And we never read that hee ever used any Foxlike subtiltie or unlawfull policie or any other thing unwoorthie of a magnanimous prince well nourished and instructed in all high and royall vertues But since Machiavell travaileth so much to persuade princes to learne how to play the Lion and the Fox wherefore doth he not persuade them also to carry those two beasts in their armes We see many which beare Lyons because it is in some things a generous and a noble beast but there are sildome seene in armes any Foxes pourtraied because every noble and generous man which loveth vertue disdaineth and hateth all deceit falshood and Foxlike dissembling as things very unfit for gentlemen The Machiavelists which esteeme it so fit that a prince should know how to play the Lion and the Fox together the more to authorize this Maxime should carie Foxes in their armes But they would not be knowne to be that they are to the end they might the better deceive the world and lest men crie after them The Fox The Fox 13. Maxime Crueltie which tendeth to a good end is not to be reprehended ROmulus saith Machiavell at the beginning of his kingdome Discourse lâ—b 1. slew Remus his brother and afterward consented to the death of Tatius Sabinus king of the Sabines whom he associated in his roialtie that he might unite together in one same citie the two people the Romanes and Sabines It vvould seeme to many men of grosse conceit that Romulus proceeded evill to begin his kingdome vvith the murder of his owne brother and that it vvas an act of evill example But as for me saith M. Nicholas I am of a far other opinion For it is a generall Maxime That the state of the Commonwealth cannot be vvell laid and compounded of new lawes if the Lavvmakers and Iudges be many but there ought to be no more than one onely person and spirit to doe rule and ordaine all And therefore the prince vvhich desireth to come to that point is not vvorthy of any reprehension if he commit any extraordinarie exploit to come thereunto For that violence vvhich destroyeth all is greatly to be reprehended but so is not that vvhich tendeth to make things in better state Therefore is Romulus vvorthie of praise that he himselfe slevv his brother caused to sley Tatius his coÌ„panion that hee alone might establish a good policie at Rome as after he did erecting there a Senate by vvhich hee vvas counselled in all his affaires both of peace and vvarre and they made also good rules ordinances A like praise is due to Agis king of Sparta vvho sought to conforme the corrupted state of the Lacedaemonians and to establish in use the auncient ordinances of Licurgus but knowing that the Ephori might hinder and contradict him in his deseignes he caused them all to be slaine whereby hee got great renowne yea as much or rather greater than Licurgus himselfe the first author of such lawes True it is that Agis could not make an end of his good entents and purposes because of the unluckie deseignes of the Macedonians vvho making vvarre upon him vanquished him to the hinderance of his gallant enterprises THere was never murder nor crueltie which is not coloured with some pretext or shew of good some cover themselves with justice affirming all that they doe to be founded upon a good reason and equitie and that justice would have done no lesse than that which they have executed and that their execution is the shortest way of justice which would otherwise have beene too long so that in place of murderers cut-throates massacrers they are not ashamed to call themselves abbreviators of justice And why should they bee ashamed seeing that justice at this day is so practised as they make her serve but as a palliation or coverture for all assassiments murders and vengeances Every mans eyeseeth that in many places justice serveth to no other turne but to lend her name to such as will seeme to doe well when they doe evill against their owne consciences therein following the doctrine of Machiavell Murderers therefore massacrers may well from henceforth cover themselves with the name of abreviators of justice without reprehension seeing officers of justice take also that trade upon them and cause as unjust and wicked executions to bee done as they Both of these truely according to this Maxime of Machiavell doe pretend for their mischievous wickednesse a laudable end and doe say it is to minister and exercise justice when they doe the aforesaid executions Others cover their murders with another end namely the publike good saying that their murders and massacres are done to shun a greater evill which would have come by him or them that they have slaine or murdered There are some which make a covering of peace and tranquilitie and so will say That the murders which they did or caused to bee done were executed to establish peace and to make troubles to cease Breefely after Machiavells doctrine there cannot bee found so cruell a tyrant and murderer but hee should be justified praised and remunerated because all murders massacres and assasinates are alwaies found done to a good end and the most cruell hangman and executioners will never want a colour for their most detestable and sanguinarie actions Notwithstanding what pallations shewes so ever that take the worke alwaies shewes who was the workeman and in the end their colours will deceive them like the deceitfull painting of harlots so that their maske or visard taken from them murder will alwayes bee found murder and theft
in hearing interrogating and confronting them with him that is accused Therefore hee sent the cause and the parties to Iunius Rufus Governour of Macedonie commaunding him to examine diligently the witnesses and take good advisement whether they were good men worthy of credit and if Alexander the accuser could not prove well his accusation that he should banish him to some place This commandement of the emperour Adrian hath since been marked by the Lawyers which since made a law thereof Behold how men must proceed when it lies on mens lives and not to beleeve Marmosets and reporters neither beleeve papers without seeing or hearing witnesses and the accused without searching whether the witnesses be good men or no as is done at this day for at this day there is nothing wherof magistrats make a better market than of mens lives But let us passe on Froissart lib. 2. cap. 173. lib. 3. cap. 63 68. and other following and lib. 4. cap. 92. c. I would now rehearse an example truly tragicall of king Richard of England who was sonne of that valiant and victorious prince of Wales This king came to the crowne very yong and had three good uncles about him the duke of Lancaster Yorke and Glocester by whose counsell for a certaine time hee governed well his kingdome But the earle of Suffolke whom the king made duke of Ireland entred so farre into the kings favour that he governed himselfe after his fancie Then took he occasions to talke so of the kings uncles as was very strange for he told him that his uncles desired nothing but to deale in the affaires of the kingdome to obtaine it to themselves a thing which they never thought And did so much by his reports that the king put his uncles from his counsell and from dealing with any of the affaires of the kingdome whereof the people and especially the Londoners were so evill contented that they rose up and made warre against the king or rather against the duke of Ireland and they were at a point to give the battell one against the other But the duke of Ireland who was generall of the kings armie lost his courage with great feare that he had to be slain or taken and therfore fled passed into Flanders where he finished his dayes never after returning into England As soone as he was fled his armie was dissipated the kings uncles seized upon the kings person established a new Counsell by justice executed some of them which were of the duke of Ireland his adherents A longtime after another Marmoset called the earle Marshall gained the duke of Ireland his place and was so farre in the kings good grace that he governed all as he would One day this earle Marshall talking with the earle of Darbie eldest sonne of the duke of Lancaster the earle of Darbie chanced to say Cousin what will the king do will he altogether subject the English nobilitie there will soone be none it is plainely seene that he desireth not the augmentation of his kingdome But he held this talke because the king had put to death chased away a great number of gentlemen and caused the duke of Glocester to die a prince of his blood and yet continued in that rigour to make himselfe be feared and revenging still that which was done in the duke of Irelands time The earle Marshall answered nothing to the speeches of the earle of Darbie but only marked them in his heart Certain daies after he reported them to the king and to make them seeme of more credit he profered and said hee was readie to enter into the campe against the earle of Darbie to averre the said words as outragious injurious against his Majestie The king not measuring the consequence of the deed in place to make no account of these words sent for the earle of Darbie his cousin germane and after hearing before him the earle Marshall speak his wil was they should enter into the camp and fight it to utterance But the kings Counsell conceiving it might come to be anevill example such great lords to slay one another and that the earle Marshall was not of equall qualitie unto the earle of Darbie they counselled the king to take another course namely to banish from England for ever the earle Marshall because he had rashly appealed and challenged unto single combat a Prince of the bloud to banish also the Earle of Darbie for ten years only for speaking the aforesaid words of the king his lord The king following the advice of his Counsel by sentence given by himself banished the earle Marshall out of England forever the earle of Darbie for six years only moderating his Counsels advice foure years When the earle of Darbie came to depart there assembled in the streets before his gates at London more than fortie thousand which wept cried lamented his departure extreamly blamed the king and his Counsell insomuch that going away he left in the peoples hearts an extreame anguish and greefe for his absence and a very great amitie towards him yet notwithstanding he left England and came into France Whilest he was in France the duke of Lancaster his father died The king to heape up his evill lucks caused to be taken seized into his hands all his lands goods because they fell to the earle of Darbie Hereby hee got great hatred and evill will of the Nobilitie and of all the people Finally the Londoners which are a people easie to arise made a complot and part against the king and secretly sent word to the earle of Darbie that hee should come and they would make him king The earle arriving in England found an armie of the Londoners ready So went he to besiege the king Richard in his castle unprovided whom he tooke and imprisoned and caused him to resigne unto him the Realme and Crowne of England King Richard was put to death in prison after hee had raigned two and twentie yeares a thing very strange rigorous and unheard of in England or in any kingdomes nigh unto it And so the earle of Darbie who had beene banished from England remained a peaceable king and was called Harry the fourth of that name This earle Marshall who kept at Venise knowing these newes died ragingly This was the end of this Marmoset and the tragicall evill hap whereunto he brought his master and that upon words reported which were never spoken as any evill speech of the king but onely for the greefe hee had that they of his Counsell governed so evill the kingdomes affaires Which words should nor ought not to have been taken up nor reported to the king and being reported unto him he should have made no account of them to have alwaies presumed rather well than evill of his cousin Germane Herodes borne of a lowe and base race was created king of Iudea Galalie Samaria Joseph Antiq â—ib 14. cap 23.
king of France is our sovereign lord and the dutchie of Bretaigne holdeth also of the crowne of Fraunce Wee pray you to despoile and rid your selfe of that affection which you have to the Englishmen and shew your selfe a good Frenchman such as you ought to be for we come to declare unto you that if you doe it not wee will abandon and leave you to serve the king of Fraunce who is our sovereigne lord The duke hereat was much troubled and could not so much cover his courage but he sayd That the king of Fraunce did wrong the king of England to despoile him of Aquitaine Certaine time after distrusting his subjects he sent into England to have Englishmen for his service and to give them captainships and governments of towns and castles of Bretaigne The king of England sent him people but the gentlemen of Bretaigne thinking much that their duke distrusted them and would prefer Englishmen before them themselves seazed the fortresses and towns of the countrie before the arivall of the Englishmen Insomuch that the duke seeing himselfe brought into a great extremitie abandoned his countrey and saved himselfe in England This came unto him for loving strangers more than his owne subjects and for that he desired to give them the charges and estates of the countrey The king Charles the eight in the voyage of Naples which he made in his owne Comines lib. 1. cap. 20. person conquered the realme of Naples almost without stroke striking and was received of all the people and of the most part of the Nobilitie of that countrey as a Messias sent of God to deliver them from the cruell and barbarous tyrannie wherein they were before and had now long time beene under their kings Alphonsus and Ferrand of Arragon usurpers of that kingdome upon the house of Anjou whereunto Charles succeeded Every one may judge if it had not beene easie for the king if he had enjoyed a good Counsell to have kept that goodly kingdome in his perpetuall obedience For when a people hath been tyrannized by an usurper and that he comes to recover his naturall prince which deales with them like a good prince there is nothing to induce the people to denie him obeisance or to revolt Because on the one side they acknowledge that after God and reason they ought to obey him which is the true and lawfull prince unto whom alwayes there is more amitie borne than unto another and on the other side they see themselves discharged and unburdened of that heavie waight of tyrannie and of an usurper But what came there unto king Charles Thus having conquered that kingdome hee gave all the estates and offices of the country unto Frenchmen which he had with him in that voyage whereof the gentlemen of the countrey and especially such as had alwaies either secretly or openly held to the part of the house of Anjou were so discontented and spighted that they straight cast off all amitie good affection to the king and incontinent entred into practises and complots to make all the countrey to revolt which they straight did and so made void that voyage and for nothing the king lost both his people and his money who assuredly might have well kept the kingdome of Naples if he had given the offices thereof to them of the countrey and sought meanes to have maintained them in voluntarie obedience By the aforesaid example it appeares That the Frenchmen gained nothing by getting into their hands all the offices and estates of the kingdome of Naples yet gained they much lesse in the fact I come now to speake of seeking to take away the honour of the warre from the Spaniards in Spaine at the battaile of Iuberoth You Froiss lib. 3. cap. 12 31 14 15 16. must then understand that the king Iohn of Castile being an allie with the king of Fraunce demaunded succours of him and aid to make warre against king Denis of Portingale The king of Fraunce sent him gallant succours as well of footmen as horsemen Our Frenchmen arriving there were very well entertained of king Iohn of Castile our French desired the point of the battaile to shew both what they could doe in warre as also their good affection to doe him service The Castilians contradicted this beeing greeved and envious against the French that so vaunted preferred themselves before them Notwithstanding all that the Spaniards could doe the king graunted them their request where of they were very glad and the Castilians as sad What did the Castilians Vpon despight and envie they complotted together to suffer the French to pursue the enemie without following or seconding them but onely to make a shew that they would follow them to the end that all the glorie might remaine to the French if they vanquished or all to them if after the overthrowing of the French they were victors Vpon which resolution it is well to note how envie and hatred blindeth judgement For if they had not been very passionate they might well judge That forces devided might easily be vanquished one after another as it happened to their ruine and dishonour and to the ruine of the French but being joyned together they might much sooner have beene victorious Finally the battaile was given against the Portugals which were valiantly encountred by the French but beeing unseconded by the Castilians which held the arreregard they were found the more feeble insomuch that they were all slaine or taken And which was a thing very lamentable Of those there were a thousand gentlemen taken prisoners amongst which there were nineteene great lords all which also were thus slaine For as the Portugals a while after the defeating of the avantgard of the French perceived to arrive the arreregard of the Castilians they resolved to slay their prisoners and did so lest they either should make warre upon them behind or els escape So having slaine all their said prisoners they marched valiantly against the Castilians whom they likewise discomfited If we Frenchmen had not been so ambitious and covetous of glorie as to seeke glorie in a strangers countrey above them of that countrey they had not falne into this mischeefe Ochozias king of Iuda was son of Athalia a woman stranger daughter of a king 2. Kings cap. 10. 2. Chron. cap. 22. of Samaria This king governed himselfe by Samaritans which were much hated of the people of Iuda unto whom he gave the principall charges and offices of his kingdome at the persuasion of his mother a Samaritane also despising and casting behind the wisest and most vertuous of his kingdom by which he should haue beene governed after the example of his predecessors This was the cause of that kings destruction for as Iehu was in destroying the house of Achab brother of Athalia he slue also Ochozias and extermined almost all his race as a partner and friend which maintained Achab. If Ochozias had governed himselfe rather by people of his owne kingdome than
of the commons which committed those barbarous inhumanities was called Cappeluche the executioner or hangman of Paris Those comparteners of the house of Burgoigne not contented to suscitate such popular commotions stirs in France but brought also the English men into Fraunce which were like to have beene masters therof yet not herewith content they caused king Charles the sixt to war against his owne son who after was called Charles the seventh and one moietie of the kingdome against another And not to leave behind any kind of crueltie no not towards the dead they caused to bee spread and published all over Fraunce certaine Popes buls wherby they indicted and excommunicated all the house of Orleance and his partakers both quicke and dead insomuch as when there died any in the hands of the parteners of Bourgoigne either by ward prison or disease they buried them not in the earth but caused their bodies to be carried to dunghils like carrion to be devoured of wolves and savage beasts What could they have done more to the execution of all barbarousnesse and crueltie Behold what fruits civile warres doe bring wee see it even at this day with our eyes for there is no kind of crueltie barbarousnesse impietie and wickednesse which civile warres have not brought into use The prince then that is wise will leave nothing behind to appease civile warres under his owne governement but will spend all his care power and dilligence to hinder it after the example of that good and wise king Charles the seventh king Lewis the eleventh his sonne Charles the seventh being yet Daulphin the duke Iohn Monstr lib. 2. ca. 175. 180 181 182 183 186 187. of Bourgoigne a man very ambitious and vindicative after by secret practise hee had caused to be slaine Lewis duke of Orleance the onely brother of king Charles the sixt and after hee had filled the kingdome with warres both civile and strange contented not himselfe herewith but laid hold of the king who by a sickenesse was alienated of his wits and of the queene to make warre upon the Daulphin These occasions seemed sufficient to such as then governed the Daulphin and at last to the Daulphin himselfe being yet very yong to enterprise an hazardous blow He then sent to the said duke that hee would make a peace with him and prayed him they might appoint a place and day together to meet for that purpose The day was appointed the place assigned at Montean-fant-Yonne whither the said duke came under the trust of the word of the Daulphin his faith and assurance As soone as hee arrived making his reverence unto Monsieur le Daulphin he was compassed in and straight slaine and withall also certaine gentlemen of his traine Philip sonne and successor of this duke Iohn tooke greatly to heart this most villanous death of his father and sought all the meanes he could to be revenged which still continued the civile warres This meane while the English did what they could in France and conquered Normandie Paris the most part of Picardie and marched even unto Orleance which they besieged The abovesaid king Charles the sixt died so that Monsieur le Daulphin his son who was called Charles the seventh comming to the crown and finding himselfe despoiled of the most part of his kingdome insomuch as in mockerie he was generally called the king of Bourges This wise king well considered That if civile warres endured he was in the way to loose all one peece after another hee therefore laid all his care power and diligence to obtaine a peace and an accord with the duke of Bourgoigne Therefore he sent in embassage unto him his Constable Chancellor and others his cheefe Counsellors to say that he desired to have peace with him and that he well acknowledged that by wicked counsell he had caused his father duke Iohn to be slaine at Monterean and that if he had been then as advised and resolute as hee was at that present hee would never have committed such an act nor have permitted it to have beene done but hee was young and evill counselled and therefore in that regard hee offered to make him such amends and reparation thereof as he should be contented therewith yea that he would demand pardon althogh not in person yet by his embassadors which should have expresse charge thereof and prayed him to forgive that fault in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that betwixt them two there might be a good peace and love for hee confessed to have done evill being then a young man of little wit and lesse discretion by bad counsell so to sley his father And besides this he offred to give him many great lands seigniories as the Countie de Masconnois S. Iangon the Counrie de Auxerre Barsur Seima la Counte de Boloigne Surmer and divers other lands that during his life he would acquite him and his subjects of personall service which he ought him as vassale of Fraunce yet made many other faire offers unto him This duke Philip seeing his soveraign prince thus humiliate himself to him bowed his courage justly exasperated for his fathers death harkened unto peace which was made at Arras where there was held an assembly of the embassadors of all Christian princes of the counsell of Basil of the Pope insomuch as there were there above 4000 horses All or the most part of those embassadors came thither for the good of the king and his kingdome but there was not one there which found not the kings offers good and reasonable as also did all the great princes lords of the kingdome all the kings counsel so that his majesties embassadors which were the duke of Bourbon the countie of Richemont constable of France the archbishop of Rhemes chancellor the lord de Fayette marshall many other great lords in a full assembly in the king their masters name demanded pardon of the duke of Burgoigne for his fathers death confessing as abovesaid that the king their master had done evil as one yong and of litle wit following naughtie counsell therfore they praied the duke to let passe away all his evill wil so to be in a good peace love with the king their master And the duke of Burgoign declared that he pardoned the king for the honor reverence of the death passion of our Lord Iesus Christ for compassion of the poor people of the kingdome of France to obey the Counsels reasons the Pope other Christian princes which praied him Moreover besides the aforesaid things it was accorded to the said duke that justice punishment should be done upon all such asâ—ed slain his father of such as had given the Daulphin counsell to cause his slaughter that the king himself should make diligent search through all his realme to apprehend them Here may you see how king Charles 6 appeased the civile wars of his kingdome by humilitie and
Normandie to the number of about 3000 men after hee embarked with the troupe and tooke his course to Dover wher king Richard attended him with 4000 men but God conducted that busines sending a contrary wind which landed the said earle in the northern parts of England where without all interruption landing they which sent for him met him by consent marched toward London King Richard met him on the way with 40000 or 50000 as they came nigh one another to give battaile the most part of king Richards people turned to the earle of Richmonds side Yet that king who despaired otherwise to bee maintained in his estate than by a victory upon his enemie gave battaile to the earle and was slaine fighting after hee had raigned about a yeere And the earle of Richmond went right to London with his victory and the slaying of that tirant Then tooke he out of the monastery king Edwards two daughters whereof hee espoused the elder and was straight made king of England called Henry the seaventh grandfather of the most ilustrious Queene Elizabeth at this present raigning Alfonsus king of Castile the 11 of that name who began his raigne Anno 1310 Frâ—isar lib. 1. cap. 230. 231 241. 242 243. raigned 40 yeeres left after him Peter Henry his bastard sons This king Peter was a prince very cruell inhumane amongst other cruelties he committed he caused to die Madame Blanche his wife daughter of duke Peter of Bourbon sister of the queene of France of the dutches of Sauoy He made also to die the mother of the said Henry his bastard brother also banished slew many lords barons of Castile Insomuch as by his crueltie hee acquired the hatred of all his subjects yea of strangers his neighbours so that his bastard brother being legitimated by the Pope at the earnest sute of the nobilitie of Castile and the help of the king of France Charles le Sage who sent him a good armie under the conduction of master Iohn of Bourbon countie of March of Messier Bertrand of Guesclin after constable of France hee enterprised to eject king Peter out of his kingdome of Castile and to make himselfe king and did according to his enterprise For as soone as hee was entred with forces into Castile all the countrie of all sorts abandoned that cruell king Peter who fled and retired to Bourdeaux towards the prince of Wales praying him to give him succours against his bastard brother This prince who was generous and magnanimous graunted his demaund under colour that the said Don Peter was a little of his parentage but in truth moved with desire of glorie and to acquire the reputation to have established a lawfull king in his kingdome against a bastard which the French had set in so did hee enterprise to goe inro Castile with a strong army to establish king Peter in his kingdome All succeeded so well unto him that hee got a battaile at Naverret against king Henry who fled into France and king Peter was established in his kingdome The prince of Wales exhorted him to pardon all such as before had borne armes against him and from thence forward to become gentle and kind towards all his subjects which hee faithfully promised to bee But hee did no such thing but againe exercised his cruelties and vengeances as well upon the one as the other In the meane while Henry the bastard gathered a new army with the help of the king of France which was conducted by the said Messier Bertrand of Guesclin and unlooked for they gave an assault nigh unto Montiell in Castile to king Peter and put him to flight with a great overthrow of his people King Peter saved himselfe in a castle which was incontinent besieged and seeing himselfe evill provided within it hee by stealth sought to save himselfe with a few people but he was encountred by the said Henry his bastard brother who slew him with his owne hand By which meanes the said Henry with his race remained peaceable kings in the kingdome of Castile and king Peter finished his life unhappie by reason of his great cruelty whereof hee could never be chastised By the abovesaid examples it seemes unto mee That a prince may easely judge if hee be of any judgement how pernitious and damnable the doctrine of Machiavell is to enstruct a prince to bee cruell for it is impossible that a cruell prince should long raigne but we ordinarily see that the vengeance of God yea by violent meanes followeth pace by pace crueltie Machiavell for confirmation of his doctrine alledgeth the example of the emperour Severus who indeede was a man very cruell and sanguinarie yet raigned eighteene yeeres or there abouts and dyed in his bed But unto this I answere that the cruelties of Severus seeme to bee something excusable because that he had for competitors in the empire Albinus and Niger two of greater nobilitie than hee and which had more friends Insomuch as it seemed necessarie for him to weaken the two competitors and to withstand their friends from hurting him to use that crueltie to kill them Yet hee pardoned many Albinians and reconciled himselfe unto them moreover hee exercised part of his cruelties in the revenge of the good emperour Pertinax which was a lawfull cause yet withall had he in himselfe many goodly and laudable vertues as wee have in other places rehearsed so that as his crueltie made him much hated his other vertues wrought some mitigation thereof Lastly hee made no other end than other cruell princes for hee dyed with sorrow as saith Herodian who was in his time for that hee saw his children Dion in Seve Herod lib. 3. such mortall enemies one against another and that Bassianus the eldest had enterprised to kill his father who yet did pardon him But Bassianus pardoned not his fathers phisitions which would nor obey him when hee commanded them to poison his sicke father for as soone as his father was dead hee hanged and strangled them all Heerein also God punished the crueltie of Severus that having exercised all these cruelties and slaughters well to establish the empire in his house hee was frustrated of his intention For of those two sonnes Bassianus and Geta one slew the other and Bassianus after he had slaine Geta endured not long but was slaine by Macrinus and left behind him no children Therefore although it seemed that God spared to punish Severus crueltie for his other good vertues yet remained not hee unpunished for seeing his sonne who had learned of him to bee cruell durst enterprise to slay him hee dyed of griefe and sorrow And wee neede not doubt but his conscience assaulted him greatly for he might well thinke that it was a just divine vengeance to see himselfe so cruelly assaulted by his owne blood and to see machinated against himselfe by his owne sonne the like crueltie which hee exercised against others yet he dissembled this pardoned
fire therein thinking to burne him is also worthie of double death Fourthly every subject making alliance with the mortall enemies of the king the kingdome is also worthie of death Fiftly every subject which fraudulently setteth dissention betwixt the king and the queene making the queene understand that the king hateth her and counselling her to goe out of the realme she and her children offering safely to conduct her out is worthie of the like death as above Sixtly every subject that giveth the Pope to understand false things as to make him understand that his king and lord is not worthie to hold the crowne nor his children after him is worthy of like death Seventhly the tyrant that hindereth the union of the church and the deliberations of the Cleargie for the utilitie of the holy mother Church ought to be punished as an hereticke and schismaticke and meriteth that the earth should open and swallowe him as Dathan Core and Abiron Eightly the subject which by empoysonments and viands seekes to cause the king or his children to die is worthie of the aforesaid death The last is that every subject which with souldiers causeth the people and countrey of his soveraigne to bee eaten up and exiled and which taketh and distributeth his money at his pleasure and makes it serve his turne to procure alliances with his lords enemies ought to be punished as a very tyrant with the first and second death And here I make an end of my Maior of the justification of Monsieur the duke of Bourgoigne But I come now to declare my Minor wherin I have shewed That Lewis late duke of Orleance was so much embraced with ladie Covetousnesse of the honours and riches of this world that hee would have taken away the seignorie and crowne of Fraunce from the king his brother and his children by temptation of the enemie of hell using the aforesaid meanes for he found an Apostata monke expert in the divellish art unto whom he gave a ring and a sword to consecrate them to the divell This monke went into a solitarie place behind a bush where he put off all his garments to his shirt and fell on his knees so invocating devils Straight there appeared two devils apparelled in darke greene whereof the one was called Hernias and the other Estramain Then this monke did unto them as great reverence honour as he could doe to God our Saviour and one of the devils tooke the ring and the other the sword and after vanished away the monke went away also Hee returned into that place againe and there found the ring having a red colour and the sword wherewith he thought to have slaine the king but by the helpe of God and of the most excellent ladies of Berry and Bourgoigne the king escaped Also the said duke of Orleance made an alliance and confederation with the duke of Lancaster who in like manner warred against king Richard of England his lord as is abovesaid Item He went about to have carried away the queene and her children which hee meant to have carried into the countie of Luxembrough to take his will of her which the queene would not agree to Item Hee practised to make Monseignior le Daulphin eat an impoysoned apple which was given to a child who was charged to give it to none but to the said Daulphin but it so happened that the child gave it to one of the sonnes of the said duke of Orleance who diâ—d thereof Item The said duke hath alwayes favoured the Pope in the extraction of money out of the kingdome to obtaine of him a declaration against the king and his generation of inhabilitie to hold the kingdome and to give it unto him Item He hath held armed men in the fields by the space of 14 or 15 yeares which did nothing but pill exile rob ransack and sley the poore people and force women and maids Item He laid tallages upon the kings subjects and emploied the silver in making alliances with our enemies to come to the crowne and besides hee hath committed many great crimes which my said Monseignior le Bourgoigne reserveth to declare in time and place It followeth then by good consequence that my said lord of Bourgoigne Conclusion ought not to be blamed for sleying the said duke of Orleance and that the king should like that deed well and to authorize the same as much as were needfull And besides he ought to be rewarded in three especiall things that is in Love Honour and Riches as were S. Michaell the archangell and the most valiant Phineas that is to say as I thinke in my grosse and rude understanding That the king our lord ought more than before to beare amitie loyaltie and good reputation to my said lord of Bourgoigne and to cause to be published letters patents through all the realme God graunt it may bee so who bee blessed world without end Amen Here is in substance the Oration of that venerable doctor in Theologie unto which I have not added one word onely I have shortened certaine long and reiterated allegations whereby might be seene the beastlinesse of this our master a man hired to justifie one of the most execrable murders that ever was committed Very notable is the rhethoricke and art of this venerable doctors Oration which in the Exordium or beginning to obtaine benevolence confesseth that he is an ignorant man without sence or memorie And to make a reason why hee hath enterprised to be in these causes advocate he saith it is for a pension which the duke of Burgoigne gave him towards his living After for proofe of his Maior he alleadgeth places of Scripture so evill applied as children at this day will discover his follie And for notable authors he alledgeth a sort of sottish scholasticall sophisters of Theologie as Alexander de Hales Salceber Mivile and other like His Correlatives and his Minor are the false imputations wherewith the duke of Bourgoigne charged the duke of Orleance Moreover this Oration was reviewed by the masters of the facultie of Sorbonne with the bishop of Paris and the Inquisitor of faith and there were condemned for heresies these propositions following Every tyrant may be slaine by his vassale and subject without commandement of justice Secondly S. Michael slew Lucifer without Gods commandement Thirdly Phineas killed Zambry without the commandement of God Fourthly Moses slew the Egyptian without the commandement of God Fifthly Iudith sinned not in flattering Holofernes nor Iohn in lying that he would honour Baal Sixtly it is not alwaies perjurie when a man dooth that which he hath sworne not to doe Which articles having been declared hereticall they were condemned to be burnt publickely as also M. Iohn Petits bones who had maintained them for he was at this judgement dead and buried at Hesdin and the said articles were executed and put into the fire but not the doctors bones for they could not be gotten because the duke of Bourgoigne then
like would bring all to the treasurers of the common-wealth For every man saith Titus Livius thought he could not better place his silver nor better assure it than under the publicke Faith When Scipio the Affrican entred into Sicilie wiih his armie to passe into Africa because hee entred into it as a friend hee would suffer no man to take any thing from the Sicilians But saith Titus Livius thinking that the first thing hee should doe was to maintaine defend the publike Faith hee by a proclamation commanded every man in his campe to yeeld and to give to the Sicilians all their owne whatsoever Hee also deputed judges to heare and determine all complaints touching such causes This so pleased the Sicilians that from thence forward they shewed themselves very affectionate to aide the Romanes in their Affricke warre Whilst Anniball was in Italie Valerius Levinus being Consull there was a loane of money made of the Romane people Afterward it came to passe that Scipio having passed into Affrica with his armie the Carthaginians sent unto Anniball to come and defend Carthage and the countries of Affrica insomuch as he was constrained against his will to returne As soone as hee was voided Italie although the Romanes had not ended their warre neither were out of great affaires yet Levinus certified the Senate that during the time of his consulship there was a great somme of monie borrowed of the people that it was time to pay it and that hee in particular was bound in this case to acquite the publike Faith therefore hee desired that that borrowed money might bee restored The Senate liked well of his speach and it was decreed that the said monie should bee paied at three payments the first incontinent the other within two yeeres the last within two yeeres after that When it came to the third payment there was no money in the treasury to pay it because of the great affaires that the commonwealth had in their warres Vpon this necessitie the Senate resolved that whatsoever came of it they must acquite their publike Faith and therefore they gave to particular persons the lands possessions belonging to the commonwealth in payment for every mans debs retaining onely upon every acre three halfe pens rent to shew that that land had beene the common-wealthes with this covenant that such detbters should have their payment in money as soone as the common wealth had silver if they had rather have money than land This Romane vertue straightly to observe Faith was not onely resplendishant in the bodie of the commonwealth but also amongst particular persons which never Titus Livius lib. 10. Dec. 3 had regard to any thing in the world so much as in the keeping of their Faith When Scipio was in Affrica warring upon the Carthaginians hee accorded a truce with them if they would for that purpose send ambassadours to Rome which they did Whilst the said embassadors made their voiage to Rome Asdruball a Carthaginian captaine breaking the truce distressed and tooke 230 Romane ships upon the sea Whereof Scipio beeing advertised sent to Carthage embassadors to shew the Senate that breach of the peace so unfit for people that demanded peace But these Romane embassadors were so evill intertained at Carthage that the common people had like to have stoned them so that they were forced to go back againe Not long after the embassadors which the Carthaginians had sent to Rome returned and passed through the campe of Scipio What did Scipio he sent for them and shewed them how their people had violated the publike Faith by breaking the truce and offending the right of nations by the violent repulsing of his embassadors which hee sent Yet said he I will doe nothing against the custome of the Romanes in the holy observation of the publike Faith neither any thing uncomely to my selfe and after this speach hee sent them away not doing to them any harme Heereby men may know that at that time the scoffe and jest so much used of the Canonists was not in use Frangenti fidem fides frangatur eidem Faith must bee broken to him that breaketh Faith Caesar also had this propertie that hee would never imitate the treacherie and disloyaltie of his enemies nor breake his Faith unto them although they broke theirs And indeede as that wise captaine Quintus Cincinnatus said naturall reason sheweth us that wee must not sinne for others example nor breake a law because others have alreadie broken it nor commit that fault which we reprehend and condemne in others These ancient Romanes were so scrupulous and exact observersiof their Faith Titus Livius lib. 8. Dec. 2. that not onely they esteemed that a man did violate it when hee did any thing against it but also whensoever hee suffered any thing to bee done by others which seemed to bee to the detriment of that Faith As when Anniball besieged and ruined the towne of Saguntum in Spaine which was an allie of the Romanes because they could not give succours to the Saguntines before the taking of the towne they thinking that heerein their Faith was something engaged never ceased till they had rebuilded and repeopled it And therefore warred they in Spaine by the space of foureteene yeeres at unspeakeable charge and vanquished the Turditans which brought in Anniball against the Saguntines made them tributaries to the Saguntines drive the Carthaginians wholy out of Spaine and redeemed all the Saguntine slaves which Anniball had sold after the taking of the towne and recalled from all parts such as were escaped to repeople the towne So well affectionated were these old Romanes to leave nothing behinde whereby they might make knowne That a publike Faith was the thing of the world which they had in most singular recommendation Iugurtha king of Numidia in Affrica slew wickedly his two brethren the naturall Salust de bello Iugurth and legitimate children of good king Micipsa who left his kingdome as well to the said children as to the said Iugurtha his adoptive sonne borne of his brother The Romanes which greatlie loved that good king Micipsa were much greeved that this adoptive had dealt so wickedly with them unto whom the kingdome better belonged than to him yet hee had both spoiled and withall bereaved them of their lives Notwithstanding hee desiring to goe to Rome they gave him a safe conduct to goe and returne because hee made the Senate beleeve that hee would justifie himselfe When hee came at Rome hee sought for his justification to obtaine friends by great presents but hee could no way cause his fact to bee approved yet hee returned into his kingdome in all assurance for although hee merited well by reason and justice to have beene staied seeing the execrable act which hee had committed and that it appertained to the Romanes to doe justice thereof because they had the protection of the children of Micipsa yet notwithstanding saith Salust the publike Faith got the victorie
must have a wise quicke and sharpe wit and iudgement rightly and discreetly to ponder and weigh the circumstances and accidents of every affaire prudently to apply them to the rules and Maximes yea sometimes to force and bend them to serve to the present affaire But this science and habit of knowing well to weigh and examine the accidents and circumstances of affaires and then to be able handsomely to apply unto them their rules and principles is a science singular and excellent but rare and not given to many persons For of necessâ—â—â— he that will come to this science at the least in any perfection to be able to mannage and handle weightie affaires had need first to bee endowed with a good and perfect naturall iudgement and secondly he must be wise temperate and quiet without any passion or affection but all to publicke good and utilitie and thirdly hee must bee conversed and experimented in many and sundry affaires These he cannot have and obtaine unlesse hee himselfe have handled or seene them handled or els by great and attentive reading of choise hystories he have brought his iudgement to bee very stayed and well exeecised in such affaires We must not then thinke that all sorts of people are fit to deale with affaires of publicke The scope of the Author estate nor that every one which speaketh and writeth thereof can say that which belongeth thereunto But it may be some will enquâ—re if I dare presume so much of my selfe as to take upon me effectually to handle this matter Hereunto I answer that nothing lesse and that it is not properly my purpose wherunto I tend or for which cause I enterprise this Worke But my intent and purpose is onely to shew That Nicholas Machiavell not long agoe a Secretarie of the Florentine commonweale which is now a Dutchie understood nothing or little in this Politicke science whereof we speake and that he hath taken Maximes and rules altogether wicked and hath builded upon them not a Politicke but a Tyrannicall science Behold here then the end and scope which I have proposed unto my self that is to confute the doctrine of Machiavell not exactly to handle the Politick science although I hope to touch some good points thereof in some places when occasion shall offer it selfe Vnto my aforesaid purpose I hope to come by the helpe of God with so prosperous a good wind and full sailes as all they which reade my writings shall give their iudgement and acknowledge that Machiavell was altogether ignorant in that science that his scope and intent in his writings is nothing els but to frame a very true and perfect tyrannie Machiavell also never had parts requisit to know that science For as for expertence in managing of affaires he could have none since during his time hee saw nothing but the brabblings and contentions of certaine Potentates of Italie and certaine practises and policies of some cittizens of Florence Neither had hee any or very little knowledge in hystories as shal be more particularly shewed in many places of our discourse where God ayding we will marke the plaine and as it were palpable faults ignorances which he hath committed in those few hystories which it pleaseth him sometimes by the way to touch which also most commonly he alledgeth to evill purpose and many times falsely As for a firme and sound iudgement Machiavell also wanted as is plainely seene by his absurd and foolish reasons wherewith for the most part he confirmes his propositions and Maximes which he sets downe only he hath a certaine subtiltie such as it is to give colour unto his moct wicked and damnable doctrines But when a man comes something nigh to examine his subtilties then it truth it is discovered to be but a beastly vanitie and madnesse yea full of extreame wickednesse I doubt not but many Courtiers which deale in matters of Estate others of their humor will find it very strange that I should speake in this sort of their great Doctor Machiavell whose bookes rightly may bee called The French Courtiers Alcoran they have them in so great estimation imitating and observing his principles and Maximes no more nor lesse than the Turkes doe the Alcoran of their great Prophet Mahomet But yet I beseech them not to be offended that I speake in this manner of a man whom I will plainely shew to be full of all wickednesse impietie and ignorance and to suspend their iudgement whether I say true or no untill they have wholly read these my discourses For as soone as they have read thâ—â— I doe assure my selfe that every man of perfect iudgement will say and determine thâ—t I speake but too modestly of the vices and brutishnesse found in this their great Doctor But to open and make easie the intelligence of that should here be handled wee must Of Machiavell and his writings first search out what that Machiavell was and his writings Machiavell then was in his time the Secretarie or common Notarie of the Common-weale of Florence during the kingdome of Charles the eight and Lewis the twelfth kings of France Alexander the sixt and Iulius the eleventh Popes of Rome and of Henry the seventh and Henry the eight kings of England in which time hee writ his bookes in the Italian language and published them about the first beginning of Francis the first king of Fraunce as may be gathered by his owne writings Of his life and death I can say nothing neither did I or vouchsafed I once to enquire thereof because his memorie deserved better to be buried in perpetuall oblivion than to be renewed amongst men Yet I may well say that if his life were like his doctrine as is to be presumed there was never man in the world more contaminated and defiled with vices and wickednesse than hee was By the Praefaci he made unto his booke entituled De Principe Of the Prince it seemeth he was banished and chased from Florence For he there complaineth unto his Magnificall Lawrence de Medicis unto whom he dedicated his Worke of that hee endured iniuriously and uniustly as he said And in certaine other places he reciteth That one while he remained in France another time at Rome and another while not sent embassadour for he would never have forgotten to have said that but as it is to be presumed as a fugitive and banished man But howsoever it be he dedicates the said booke unto the said Lawrence de Medicis to teach him the reasons and meanes to invade and obtaine a principalitie which booke for the most part containeth nothing but tyrannicall precepts as shall appeare in the prosecution and progresse of this Worke. But I know not if they de Medicis have made their profit and taken use of Machiavels precepts contained in his said booke yet this appeares plainely that they since that time occupied the principalitie of Florence and changed that Aristocraticall free estate of that cittie into a Dutchie
bee any greater vice or sinne than they are Yea after a man once hath forfeated and failed in his Faith contract and promise although but in small things and of no great reckoning or value they will never afterward esteeme or account him a good or honest man So great I say is their detestation of all kinde of deceit and false dealing But a man needs not mervaile that Machiavell dare so impudentlie lye upon the Almaignes for hee hath brought forth more strange things than this slaunder as wee shall shew hereafter both to the good of all others that shall reade his writings and to the manifest and plaine laying open of him in his true and perfect colours For the effecting whereof let us then now enter into the matter THE FIRST PART ENTREAting what Counsell a Prince should use 1. Maxime A Princes good Councell ought to proceed from his owne wisedome otherwise he cannot be well counselled IT is a Maxime and generall rule sayth Machiavell that good counsell ought to proceed from the vvisdome of the Prince himselfe and not contrarie that the Princes vvisedome should proceed from good Counsell For if the Prince bee not vvise of himselfe hee cannot bee vvell counselled For as much as if hee bee counselled by one alone in the administration of his affaires hardly shall hee find a man of requisit honestie and sufficiencie vvell to counsell him and although hee should find one of such qualitie there were danger that hee would take away his estate For to dominier and reigne there is no honestie or vertue that can keepe in the ambition of men And if an unwise Prince take counsell of many hee must euer make his account to haue discordant and contentious counsels and opinions vvhich hee can never accord nor reconcile in the meane vvhile every one of his Counsellers vvill seeke his particular profit vvithout that the Prince can know or remedie it AT the first shew this Maxime seemeth to haue some appearance of truth but when it shall be well examined a man shall find it not only nothing true but also that it is pernitious and of wicked consequence I am well contented to presuppose that it is very true and certaine That there cannot come a better and Of a wise Prince of himselfe more profitable thing to a people and Commonweale than to haue a Prince wise of himselfe therefore said Plato That men may call that an happie Commonweale when either the Prince that raineth there can play the Philosopher or els when a Philosopher commeth to raigne there that is to say in one word when the Prince is of himselfe wise and prudent For in old time that name Philosopher was taken for a person full of wisedome and science not for a dreaming unsociable man as he is commonly taken at this day Of old that name of Philosopher was attributed for a title of great honour unto the Emperour Marcus Antonius who in truth was a good and a wise Prince But to verifie that which I say it is not needful to alledge many reasons for it is evident inough That the felicitie of a publick estate lieth wholly in well commanding well obeying whereupon resulteth and ariseth an harmonie and concordance so melodious and excellent that as well he that commandeth as he that obeieth do both receive contentment pleasure and utilitie But to obey well dependeth wholly of well commanding and it cannot be without it So well commanding dependeth of the prudence and wisdome of him that commandeth Therefore the Emperour Seuerus being Spartianus in Seuero in warres and his sonne Bassianus with him and being caried in a Litter because he had the Gout as he saw his soldiors discontented and mutinous and would needs have Bassianus his sonne their Cheefetaine he caused all the Army but especially his Colonels Captaines and Corporals to be called and to assemble in one place and after having made unto them some Remonstrance and Oration hee caused straight to be executed to death all the heads of that mutinie After he spoke thus to all the Armie Now know ye that it is the head and not the feet which commandeth you And indeed and truth the good commanding proceeds from the prudence and wisdome of him that commandeth which remaineth and hath his being not in the feet nor armes but in a brave mind wel staied and governed which is aided and helped with a good naturall towardnesse a mature and ripe age and experience And the Prince which can well command shall also vndoubtedly be well obeyed For a prudent commaundement draweth after it withall an obedience because a wise Prince will alwayes advise to found his commandements in Reason and Iustice and to the publicke utilitie not to his owne pleasure by which meanes they that are to obey shall as it were be constrained by the force of reason and equitie and drawne also by the sweetnesse of the profit to yeeld obedience But if some by these meanes cannot be induced to obey as there are alwayes some amongst many they will be brought thereunto either by the example of such as let themselves be overcome with reason and publicke utilitie or els by punishment which is in the Princes hand He that will shew this by pluralitie of examples That prudent Princes haue alwayes been well obeyed and that their kingdomes and countries haue been happy and full of all prosperitie should never haue done but I will content my selfe to alledge only two Salomon was a King most wise and a great Philosopher for he asked wisdome of God and he gaue it him in such abundance that besides that he was 1. Kings 4. 10. 1. Chron 9. ignorant of nothing which a Prince should know well to governe his subjects yet knew he the natures of Plants and living creatures and was so cunning in all kind of Philosophie that his knowledge was admired through the world This his prudence and wisdome made him so respected of all the great Kings his neighbours that they esteemed themselues happie that they could doe him pleasure and might have his amitie By this meanes hee maintained his kingdome in so high and happie a peace that in his time his subjects made no more account of silver than of stones they had such store And as for himselfe he held so magnificall an estate that we read not of any King or Emperor that did the like Charles the wise king of France comming to the Crowne found the kingdome Frossard lib. 1. cap. 132. in great confusion and calamitie For all Guienne part of Normandie Picardie were occupied by the Englishmen he saw he had K. Edward of England the third of that name his adversarie who was one of the most happie and most valiant princes that ever was in England and who certain yeares before had obtained two great victories in Fraunce the one at the journey of Crecy against K. Philip de Valoys where France lost eleuen Princes twelue hundred Gentlemen
Knights and thirtie thousand other people of warre the other victorie was at the journey of Poitiers which also the said K. Edward gained by the conduction of the Prince of Wales his sonne and lieutenant Generall against Iohn King of Fraunce who was there taken prisoner with a son of his called Philip after Duke of Bourgogne and many other Princes and great Lords all which were conducted into England there was made there a great discomfiture of people By these two battailes lost in Fraunce the one after the other in a small time the kingdome was so debilitated of his forces and goods as it could not stand yet for a further heape of mischeefes at Paris and in many other places of the realme at the same time arose there many broiles and civile dissentions But that good King Charles le Sage was so wise and prudent in the conduction and government of the affaires of the realme as well in the time that he was Dolphin and Regent of France his Father being prisoner as after when he was king that by little and little hee laid to sleepe all civile stirres and discords after hee did so much that he recovered upon the Englishmen almost all which they occupied and although he was not so brave a warriour as his father king Iohn nor as his grandfather King Philip yet was he wiser and better advised in his deliberations not hazarding his affaires as they did fearing to be reputed cowards nor did any thing rashly without due consideration Hee tooke not arms in hand but he knew well how and when to employ them to his good Insomuch that K. Edward of England seeing the wisdome of that king made his Armes rebound and become dull and his victories and conquests to be lost and annihilated Truly said he I neuer knew king that lesse useth Armes yet troubleth me so much he is all the day enditing letters and hurteth me more with his missives than ever did his Father or Grandfather with their great forces and Armes Behold the witnesse which king Edward gave of the wisdome of his enemie king Charles which was yet of so great efficacie that he brought his kingdome into a good peace by the meanes wherof his people became rich and wealthie where before they were as poore and miserable And not only the people became rich but the king also himselfe heaped up great treasures which hee left to his sonne after him insomuch that he was not onely surnamed the Wife but the Rich also I could to this purpose adde here many other examples but in a thing so cleare the example of these two kings Salomon and Charles shall suffice which two for their great wisdome have acquired the name of Wife they both were rich in great treasures both of them maintained their subjects in peace both left their kingdomes opulent and abundant and placed the estates of their Commonwealths in great felicitie It is a thing then plaine confessed That it is an exceeding great good to a people Prudence is more requisit in a Princes Counsell than in himselfe when they have a Prince that is wise of himselfe but thereupon to inferre and say as Machiavell doth That the government of Prince ought to depend vpon his owne proper wisdome and that he cannot be well counselled but by himselfe is evill concluded and such a conclusion is false and of pernitious consequence For a Prince how prudent soever he be ought not so much to esteeme of his owne wisedome as to despise the counsell of other wise men Salomon despised them not and Charles the wise alwaies conferred of his affaires with the wise men of his Counsell And so farre is it off that the Prince ought to despise anothers Counsell that even he ought to conform his opinion to that of the men of his Counsell which are wise and ought not stubbornely to resist their advise but to follow it and hold his owne for suspected And therefore that wise and cunning Emperour Marcus Antonius the Philosopher being in his privie Counsell house where was that great Lawyer Scaevola Maetianus Volusianus many other great persons excellent in knowledge and honestie after having well debated with them the matters they handled when sometimes he tooke in hand to sustaine opinions contrarie to theirs Well said he masters The thing then must be done according to your advise For it is much more reasonable that I alone follow the opinion of so good a number of my good and faithfull friends as you are than that so many wise men should follow the opinion of me alone Vnto this opinion of the Emperor Antonius agreeth also the common Proverbe That many eyes see clearer than one eye alone Experience also teacheth vs That things determined and resolved by many braines are alwayes wiser safer better ordered than the resolutions of one alone And we see also that the ancient Dionis Halic lib. 2. Romanes and all Commonweales well governed as well in times past as at this day have alwayes followed and observed that which by pluralitie of wise mens voices was concluded determined And truly so much the wiser a Prince is so much the more will he suspect his owne opinion For the same wisedome which is in him wil persuade him not to beleeve himselfe too much and to have his own judgement for suspected in his owne case as all publicke affaires may be said to be proper to the Prince and to permit him to be governed by his Counsell And contrarie because there are no people more presumptuous nor that thinke to know more than they which know little nor that thinkes to be more wise than they that have no wisdome if you learne a Prince that thinketh himselfe wise this principle of Machiavell That he ought to governe himselfe by his owne wisdome and Counsell and that he cannot be better counselled than by himselfe you shall streight find inconveniences For then shal you see that he will beleeve neither counsell nor advise but that comes out of his owne head and he will say to them that will give him any That he vnderstands well his owne matters and that he knoweth what he hath to doe and so will bring his estate and affaires into confusion and overthrow all upside downe And from whence comes this evill government and disorder Even from that goodly doctrine of Machiavell which willeth That a Prince should govern himselfe by his own wisedome and that maintaineth That a prince cannot be well counselled but by his owne wisedome The consequence then of this Maxime is not small seeing the publicke state of a countrey may stagger and be overthrowne thereby Better then it is that contrarie the Prince hold this resolution To govern himselfe by good counsell and beleeve it and have in suspition his owne wisedome For if the Prince bee wise and his opinion found to be founded upon Reason they of his Counsell will easily fall to his advise seeing also that
unbrideled and undiscreet appetites but a good Prince cannot correct so many evill Counsellors which will feed their Prince with smoke and lies and will hide from him such things as he ought to know for the Commonweale This may yet be better shewed by the examples of many Princes which have ben Princes of little wisedome have beene well governed by good Counsâ—ll Capitol in Goâ—d Iun. of small wisedome and vertue and yet notwithstanding have well ruled the Commonwealth by the good and wise Counsell of prudent and loyall Counsellors wherwith they were served as did the Emperour Gordian the yong who was created Emperour at eleven yeares of age insomuch that many judged the Empire to be falne in to a childish kingdome and so into a weakenesse and a bad conduction But it proved otherwise for this young Emperour Gordian espoused the daughter of a wise man called Misitheus whom he made the high Steward of his houshold and governed himselfe by his Counsell in all his affaires so that the Romane Empire was well ruled so long as Misitheus lived Likewise Ioas king of Israel came to the Crowne a young child of the age onely 2. Kings 11. and 12. and 2. Chro. 23. of seven yeares but hee was governed by Ioiada his vncle a very wise man Insomuch that whilest that good Counsellor lived the kingdome was well and rightly administred Charles the sixt king of France was but thirteene yeares old when hee came to the Crowne was of small vnderstanding yet during his minoritie the kingdome was well and wisely governed by his three uncles the Dukes of Anjou of Berry and Bourgoigne There was nothing in their government to be spoken against but only that they were a little drawing unto themselves the kings treasure all other affaires were administred well and prudently Yet true it is that after the kings majoritie they yet entred into the government of the kingdome because of a phrensie that tooke the king which endured more than twentie years but then their government was corrupted by ambition covetousnesse a desire of vengeance envie yet as I said during the kings minoritie they did governe well The kings of France Clotharie the fourth of that name and Chilperic the second Annales of France vpon the year 716 the three following were both Princes of small vnderstanding and indeed had no wisdome to conduct the affaires of the realme but they had for a Counsellor and Conductor of their affaires that valiant Lord Charles Martell that during their reigne the realme was well ruled yea with many great and excellent victories In our time we know that the Emperour Charles the fift was left very young by his father and grandfather in such sort as during his minoritie hee could never have Du Bellay lib. 1. de se Memoires knowne how to governe his affaires which were great and in great trouble in many places His said father then foreseeing at his death that his sonne had need of a good overseer which were a good man ordained for that purpose to governe him and his affaires king Lewis the twelfth praying him to accept that charge knowing well the sinceritie and loyaltie of that good king which for nothing would wound his conscience as he did not althogh he might for therby he had offered him great occasions of enlarging his limits The king then loyally to acquit himselfe of that charge gave unto that young Prince for Governour a good man faithfull and of good understanding called the Lord de Chieures by the counsell of whom and of certaine other good Counsellors the affaires of that young Prince were much better managed even in that low age than ever they were in his fathers or grandfathers time This good government in that base age proceeding from good Counsell gave so great a fame and reputation unto that yong Prince that he was chosen Emperour at the age of 20 yeares The Emperour Domitian besides he was not wise he was wicked and exceeding cruell yet he during his raigne had so good hap to encounter and light upon such Suetonius in Domit. cap. 3. 4. 8. 10. Governors and Magistrates for the Provinces of his Empire being good and wise men that whilest he raigned the Romane Empire was well governed and there was none but certaine particular persons of Rome which felt the evill of his vices and crueltie Charles the eight king of Fraunce came to his Crowne at the age of thirteene yeares and was a very good Prince but of no great understanding nor wisedome Annales of France upoÌ„ the yeare 1484. yet the Estates that were assembled at Tours gave him a good Counsell which they did chuse of fit and capable persons by which Counsell the affaires of the kingdome were well governed during the kings minoritie although there fell out some emotions and stirres of some revolters I will not here repeat the example of the Emperour Alexander Severus who very young came to the Empire and under whom the affaires of the Commonwealth were well governed by the meanes of good Counsellors as is abovesaid I may also here adde many other examples of our kings of Fraunce which were not too spirituall and yet governed well by their good Counsell As also there were many Emperours of the Romane Empire some ignorant and brutish others voluptuous and effeminate others cruell and knowing nothing but to handle yron As were Philipus Licinius Dioclesianus Maximianus Carus Carinus Gallus Constantius Aurelianus Galienus Leon Macrinus Zeno Iustintanus and many others which yet made very good Lawes as wel for distributive justice as for the pollicie of the Empire as is seene by the Code of Iustinian which lawes wee must needs attribute to their wise and learned men which were their Counsellors for none of all them knew any thing or little except Macrinus how to make good Lawes Therfore I conclude this point against the Maxime of Machiavell That a Prince may wel governe wisely the Commonweale by the good counsell of good and faithfull Counsellors although he be evill provided of wisdome But here remaineth a difficultie which is not small How an unwise Prince may Of the election of good CouÌ„sellors and Magistrats provide good and loyall Counsellors seeing that Princes that are wise and well advised are therein often deceived And upon this point I confesse there is nothing harder nor of greater consequence to a Prince than to guide himselfe well in the election of such persons whereof he should compose his Counsell For there are great hypocrisies and dissimulations and one seemes to be a good man sincere and continent which shewes himselfe another man when meanes comes in his hand to corrupt vertue for to make his particular profit thereof And we see but too much by experience that the old Proverbe is true Honours change manners You may see how the most gracious and courteous in all the world the most affable and officious to every one that is
the Senat yet had they no power over the whole body of the Senat for they might well punish with death one Senator but they had no superioritie over the body of the Senat. So the body of the Senat and the body of the People were as it were alike and equall And as much authoritie had the lawes of the Senat which they called Senatus consulta as the lawes of the People which they called Plebiscita And therefore the emperours which by the Law Roiall succeeded in the place of the People only for the Senat did never despoile themselves of their authoritie to invest the emperour therewith had never power to decay the Senat neyther durst they ever enterprise it although some had a will thereunto as Nero Caligula and their like But as for the good emperours besides that they had no power to abolish the Senat they never had any desire thereof but maintained and conserved it and governed themselves by it and by it were they better obeied For we need not doubt but a people will more willingly obey a Law or Decree which shall have been sifted and examined in a great wise and notable an assembly such as was the Senate and will like it better and rather judge the Law to be founded upon reason and equitie than when it onely passeth through the braine of one sole man or of some small number Therefore the Emperour Alexander Severus never made Lamp in Alexand. law nor edict but he had on his Counsell twentie great and excellent Lawyers and fiftie other great excellent persons wise and well experienced And yet to the end that they might give their opinions more assuredly he first made them understand the matter upon which they must give their advise and after give time to consider thereof that their opinions might bee better digested resolved Therfore also the Emperour Theodosius ordained that no law should be availeable unlesse it were first L. humanum C. de Leg. concluded and determined with good and assured resolution of all the princes Consistorie and afterward received and approved by the Senat of Rome For saith he we know well that the ordinance of good Lawes and Edicts concluded with good Counsell and deliberation is the establishment of the assurednesse and glory of our Empire Therefore was it also that that great and wise Emperour Augustus Caesar did so communicate all the affaires of his Commonwealth with the Romane Senate Dion in August that as Dion saith he made a sweet and pleasant mingled harmonie of the Monarchicall estate with the estate of the Commonwealth And he not onely contented not himselfe to conferre with the Senate all affaires of importance and to take their advise but yet he would that the Senate should give him every yeare twentie Counsellors to be nigh him of his privie Councell in which Counsell he had alwaies many men very wise courteous and very modest such as the Lawyer Trebatius and that good and prudent Agrippa his sonne in law with that so learned and good a piller of learned men Mecoenas Therefore also Tiberius the Emperour the successor of Augustus although he was a Prince more abundant in vices than in vertues not daring wholly to stray out of his predecessors traces that good Augustus made nor ordained any thing of weight without the Counsell and advise of the Senate For this cause also breefely all the good Emperors as Vespatian Titus Traian Adrian the Antonines and others like communicated alwaies with the Senate upon all the great affaires of the Commonwealth and they bore themselves not like maisters but like Presidents of the Senat also they did not attribute unto themselves any title of honour nor enterprised to make any triumphs but such as was decreed and ordained by the Senate And by the contrarie the Emperours which were of no account such as Caligula Nero Comodus Bassianus Maximinus Heliogabalus and other like hated extreamely the Senate esteeming of it as their pedegoge and corrector and have caused many Senators to die thinking the more easily to command as they would having no controulers to withstand their wicked actions But the end was alwayes this that such as despised and would have annihilated the Senate have ever had an unluckie end and reigned not long time but have all been massacred and slaine young and have left unto their posteritie an infamie and most wicked memorie of them Herein is shewed a continuall successe of the just judgements of God against them which despised wise Counsell and contrary a felicitie and divine prosperitie in other Emperours which governed themselves by the good Counsell of the Senate and of the wise men of their privie Counsell For they raigned and held the Empire happily replenished with all goods honour and glorie and their subjects under them enjoyed good handling and good repose and tranquilitie And we need not doubt that such felicitie comming to good Princes the evill haps unto wicked Princes doe not proceed from God for as the wise man saith Good Counsell commeth from God and he that despiseth the gift of God Prov. 18. Eccle. 37. certaine it is that in the end he shall be well chastised Our kings of France of old used the same course that these good Emperors did For they often convocated the three Estates of the kingdome to have their advise and Counsell in affaires of great consequence which touched the interest of the Commonwealth And it is seene by our Hystories that the generall assembly of the Estates was commonly done for three causes One when there was a question In old time the general Estates wer held for three causes to provide for the kingdome a Governour or Regent as when kings were young or had not the use of their understandings by some accident or were captives or prisoners For in these cases the three Estates assembled to obtaine a Governour for the Realme Againe when there was cause to reforme the kingdome to correct the abuses of Officers and Magistrates and to bring things unto their ancient and first institution and integritie For kings caused the Estates to assemble because that many being assembled from all parts of the kingdome they might better be informed of all abuses and evill behaviours committed therein and might also better worke the means to remedie them because commonly There is no better Physician than he that knoweth well the disease and the causes therof The third cause why there was made an assembly of the Estates was when there was a necessary cause to lay a Tribute or Impost upon the people For then in a full assembly some shewed to them which were there which represented all the people the necessitie of the kings and the kingdomes affaires who graciously and courteously entreated the people to aid and helpe the king but with so much money as they themselves thought to be sufficient and necessarie And for this cause that which the Estates accorded to the king was
called with these gracious names Subsidies Subventitions Aydes Grants not with these tearmes Tailles Imposts Tributes Impositions which were tearmes more hard and odious Examples appeare of the first cause when the generall Estates assembled at Paris after the death of king Charles le Sage to provide for the government as well of king Charles the sixt being under Annal. upon An 1380 and Fross li 2. cap. 58. 60. age as of the kingdome which government they gave unto three of the kings uncles namely to the Duke of Berry Languedoc to the Duke of Bourgoigne Picardie and Normandie and to the Duke de Aniou the remainder of all the realme and the rule of the young kings person was committed to the said Dukes of Berry and Bourgoigne So was there ordained during the said kings life another ordinance In like manner the generall Estates were held at Tours after the decease of king Lewis the eleventh to purvey for the government of king Charles the eighth under Annal. upon An. 148. and Coâ—â—n â—ib 1. ca. 109. age and of the kingdome And by the same Estates was established a Counsell of twelve persons good men and of good calling to dispatch the affaires of the kingdome yet in the kings name and under his authoritie And the rule of the young kings person was committed unto Madame de Beavien his sister When king Charles the sixt le bien aime was come to the age of one and twentie yeares his uncles were discharged from the government of the kingdome by the Froiss lib 1. cap. 134. lib. 4. cap. 44. advise and deliberation of the kings great Counsell But this good prince by an accident of sicknesse fell a certaine time after into a frenzie which sometimes bereaved him of his sences insomuch that the Estates assembled at Paris gave the government of the kingdome during the kings indisposition to his two uncles the dukes of Berrie and Burgoigne The yeare 1356. that king Iohn was taken prisoner nie Poictres at the journey of Annal. upon An. 1356 and Fross li. 1. cap. 170. 171. Maupertins with his sonne Philip after Duke of Burgoigne and that they were led into England there remained in France three of the said king Iohns children namely Charles Dauphin and duke of Normandie Lewis duke de Aniou and Iohn duke of Berrie There was a question about the providing for the government of the kingdome because of the kings captiuitie but none of them would enterprise the mannaging thereof of himselfe insomuch that the generall Estates were assembled at Paris whereby were elected thirtie six persons some say fiftie to governe the affaires of the kingdome with Monsieur le Dauphin who at the beginning called himselfe the Lieutenant of the king his father but afterward he named himselfe Regent The yeare 1409. during the raigne of Charles the sixt king of France were held Monstrelet lib. 1. ca. 59. the generall Estates at Paris for the reformation of abuses in the kingdome And there it was ordained that all accountants for the kings revenues and rents should make their accounts By the meanes of which reformation great summes of money were recovered upon the same accountants and there were also made some good lawes and ordinances In other conventions of Estates the money and coine hath been reformed from weake and light unto thicke and of good waight and goodnesse Also of late at the generall Estates held at Orleans were made manie goodly ordinances for the good and comfort of the poore people reformation of justice and for the cutting off of manie abuses which were committed in plaies at Cardes and Dise in superfluitie of apparell and in matter of benefices But commonly commeth such euill hap that all good things which are introducted and ordained vpon good reason and to a good end incontinent vanish away and wicked examples are alwaies drawne into consequence As for the last cause for which we haue said the generall Estates in old time were called namely for the graunt of Helps Subsidies ther are manie examples in our Histories As in the time of king Iohn wherein the Estates accorded great subventions Froiss lib. 1. cap. 155. Annal. upon An 1354 58. 59. or subsidies to make warre against the English men which then held a great part of the kingdome And after he was taken prisoner and led into England the said Estates agreed to give vnto Monsieur le Dauphin his soune great summes of money to pay for the said kings raunsome and for Philip his sonne being also a prisoner And well to be marked it is that our histories doe witnesse that all the people of France generally were meruailously anguished grieved with the prisonment captivitie which they saw their king suffer but especially the people of the countrey of Languedoc For the Estates of the said countrey ordained that if the king were not delivered within a yeare that every one both men and women should lay by all coloured garments such also as were jagged and cut and such as were enriched with gold silver or other strange and costly fashion Likewise to make cease all stage-plaies morrisdauncings piping yea and plaies pastimes and daunces in signe and token of their mourning and lamentation for their princes captivitie A thing whereby appeared the great and cordiall affection of this people towards their king As truely the Frenchmen have alwaies been of great love and affection towards their kings unlesse they were altogither tyrants But to make an end of this point Certaine it is that before king Charles the seventh called le Victorieux no Subsidies were imposed without assembling the generall Estates And that our kings used thus to do was not because they had power by an absolute authoritie to impose tallages and subsidies without calling the Estates but it is to the end they may be better obeyed with a voluntarie and unconstrained obedience and to shunne all uprores and rebellions which often happen upon that occasion And truly the French people have alwaies been so good and obedient unto their kings that they never refused him any thing if there were but any appearance of reason to demand it Yea often the Estates have granted their king more than he would demand or durst looke for as is seene by that which our histories write of the Estates held for Subsidies But because Aydes and Subsidies were customably granted for the making of De Com. lib. 5. cap. 18. warres M. Philip de Comin saith That kings should also communicat and consult with their Estates whether the causes of such warres be just and reasonable and that the Prince cannot nor ought not otherwise to enterprise a warre For it is reason that they which defray the charges and expenses should know something But yet he passeth further and saith There is no Prince in the world which hath power to lay one pennie upon his subjects without their grant and consent unlesse he will use tyrannie and
violence But because at the first they which reade this place of Commines may peradventure thinke that he seemes too much to limit and restraine a Princes power I will here as it were by an interpretation of his saying a little cleare this point You must then understand and presuppose that in a soveraigne Prince there A Prince hath a double power an absolute and a civile are two powers the one is called an absolute power and the other a civile power The absolute power is that which cannot nor ought not to be any thing limited but stretcheth it selfe to all things whatsoever they be unlesse it be to the lawes of God and of nature and of those lawes which are the foundation of the principalitie and estate For a Prince hath not power over God no more than the vassall hath over his liege Lord but ought himselfe to obey his commandements and ordinances So much there wants that he can any thing abolish or derogate from them The Prince also cannot abolish the fundamentall lawes of his principalitie wherupon his estate is founded and without which his said estate cannot subsist nor endure for so might he abolish and ruinate himselfe As in France the king cannot abolish the Salicke law nor the three estates nor the law of not alienating the countries and provinces united to the crowne For the Realme and the Royaltie are founded upon those three points which are as three pillars that sustaine and hold up both the king and kingdome neither can the Prince breake nor abolish any law naturall approved by the common sence of all men But in all other things the absolute power of a Prince reacheth without limitation for it is above all other lawes which he may make and unmake at his pleasure he hath power also over the body and goods of his subjects without restriction purely and simply True it is that he ought to temperat the use of that Absolute power by the moderation of his second power which is Civile as we shall say hereafter But suppose he will not moderate his absolute power by the Civile we must notwithstanding obey because God commandeth us But before we speake of the Civile power we must a little more amply cleare the points before touched The first point then which is that the Absolute power of a Prince stretcheth not above God is a matter of all confessed And there were never found any Princes or very few which would soare and mount so high as to enterprise upon that which belonged unto God yea even the Emperours Caligula and Domitian are blamed and detested by the Paynim hystories which had no true knowledge of God for that they durst enterprise upon God and upon that which appertained unto him Also it is a Maxime in Theologie That we must rather obey God than men which Maxime hath at all times ben practised by all good people and holy persons which are praised even with the mouth of God in the holy Scriptures as by Daniell and his companions the Apostles the Christians of the primitive Church and many of our time As for the other point which is that the Prince cannot abolish the foundamentall The Prince cannot abolish the fouÌ„damentall lawes of his principality lawes of his principalitie it is as cleare of it selfe For if a Prince overthroweth the foundations of his principalitie he ruinateth and overthroweth himselfe and his estate cannot endure for the first sencelesse and unwise man that comes thereunto will overthrow all upside downe As if in Fraunce a king may overthrow the Salicke law and so subject his Crowne unto the succession of women it is certaine that long ago the estate of France had been overthrowne For kings which have left none but daughters after them as Philipâ—le long Charles le bel and Lewis the twelfth had been easily enclined upon naturall affection towards their daughters to have broken that Salicke law if they so could to cause the Crowne to have falne unto their said daughters by the meanes whereof the kingdome after should have falne into strangers hands and by consequent into ruine and dissipation For the nature of the inhabitants of France is such that they cannot long suffer a strange Prince wherein they differ from many other nations as they could not long beare the domination of the Romane Emperours but against the reigne of the Emperour Tiberius they began to kicke and be greeved with the rule of Princes of another nation than their owne and finally they rid themselves of the Romanes yoke and Gaule was the first Province that cut it selfe from the Empire Neither was there ever found king that durst enterprise to breake the Salicke law True it is that king Charles the sixt at the instigation of Philip duke of Bourgoigne gave the kingdome of France in dowrie with his daughter Katherine which he maried to the king of England and declared the Dolphin unable and incapable to succeed in the kingdome of Fraunce because at Monterean-fante-Yonne Iohn father of the said Philip duke of Bourgoigne was by him slaine But this donation held not as being made against the Salicke law insomuch that the said duke Philip himselfe which had procured and caused to declare the said Dauphin unable to be king of France after the death of king Charles the sixt acknowledged him for king and lawfull successor to the Crowne of Fraunce For as for incapacitie it was knowne there was none because that duke Iohn which the Dauphin had slaine deserved it well having before caused to be slaine the duke of Orleance the kings only brother Yet because the manner of the execution which the said Dauphin caused to be made upon the said duke Iohn was not by lawfull meanes he acknowledged his fault in that case and made a great satisfaction to the said duke Philip as shall hereafter be more at large set forth So then the Salicke law hath alwaies remained firme as one of the three pillars of the kingdome and royaltie of France our ancestors neverbeing willing to suffer women to raigne and rule over them As much is to be said of the Estates generall the authoritie of which hath alwaies remained whole untill this present even from the foundation of the kingdome as being the second piller whereupon the kingdome is founded For if it happen that the crowne fall to a king under age or to one that is not well in his wit and understanding or that the king be a prisoner or captive or that the kingdome have urgent necessitie of a generall reformation how necessarie is it in all these cases that the estates assemble to provide for all affairs otherwise the estate of the kingdome and of the Roialtie would incontinent fall to the ground and without doubt it could not long continue in his being if the generall estates were abolished and suppressed For to say that in the aforesayd cases other than the foresaid estates may well order the affairs of the
realm as the princes of the blood and the kings Counsell is to say nothing because it may so come to passe that the princes themselves be under age or prisoners or captives or witlesse or suspected or dead or otherwise uncapable as also it may come to passe that the kings Counsell shall be dead or quashed or suspected or otherwise unable so that the estate of the kingdome and the Roialtie shall be evill founded and assured upon such foundations and leaning stocks But the body of the estates Generall is a body not subject to minoritie captivitie perclusion of understanding suspition nor other incapacitie neither is it mortall therefore is it a more certaine and firme foundation of the kingdomes and Roialties estate than any other For the body of the Ewates which is a body composed of the wisest fittest of the kingdome can never faile because it consisteth not in Individuis and certain perticular persons but it standeth in Specie being a body immortal as al the French nation is immortall The Princes the kings Counsellors are but fraile brittle leaning stocks and means subject to incapacitie so is not the body of the Estates and therefore the Estates being the true and perpetuall foundation to sustaine and conserve the kingdome cannot be abolished but ought to be convocated whensoever there is to be a provision in the cases above mentioned Withall also Reason willeth that the Estates whom the affairs of the realme toucheth most should have a part in the conduction of publike things but most especially in the cases aforesaid where the king cannot order them Therefore is it a strange damnable and pernitious position which our strangers that governe France at this day dare impudently hold That it is treason to speake of holding the Estates But contrary a man may rather say That it is treason to abolish the Estates and that they which wil hinder that they shall not be held in the cases aforesaid but especially for the reformation more than necessarie of so many abuses as these strangers haue brought into Fraunce are themselves culpable of treason being such as doe overthrow and ruinat the Realm the Roialtie and the King in taking away the principall piller which sustained them And truly such people do merit that processes and indictions should be laid upon them as upon the enemies of the Commonwealth which doe subvert overthrow the foundations upon which our Auncestors have with great wisdome founded and established the estate of this goodly and excellent kingdome The like may we say of the Law whereby the lands and provinces united to the Crowne of Fraunce are inalienable For a king of France cannot abolish that Law because it is the third piller upon which the realme and his estate is founded For proofe hereof I will alleage but two examples the one was practised in the time of Charls le sage king of Fraunce and the other in the time of king Francis the first of happie and late memorie By which two examples may appeare not onely that this law of Not alienating the lands of the Crowne is a pillar of the kingdome but also that the Estates are as the very and true basse and foundation thereof King Iohn having been taken prisoner at the battaile of Poiters was conducted Froiss lib. 1. ca. 201 211 212 214 246 247 310. into England where he made treatie of peace with king Edward of England But the estates of the kingdome which were assembled would not agree unto that treatie as too prejudiciall and to the diminution of the Crowne of France King Edward was so angry and despited thereat that he made a great oth that he would end the ruinating of Fraunce And indeed whilest king Iohn was his prisoner he passed over the sea and made great warre in France and much wasted the flat Countrey but he made no great conquest of the Townes In the end the Duke of Lancaster counselled him to make peace with the French shewing him that he did but leese time so to run over the fields and spoile the champion countrey and souldiers only had the profit and he himselfe losse of people and expences These reasons could not much move the king to make peace he was so sore offended and animated But God who had pitie of this poore kingdome which was in extreame desolation and confusion wrought and brought to passe as it were by miracle a peace sending from heaven a tempest accompanied with lightening so great over the campe of the English that they thought that heaven earth would have met and the world have finished for so great stones fell with the tempest that they overthrew men and horses Then the king of England seeing God fight against him being in a great fear and distresse made a vow unto God That if by his grace he escaped from that peril he would hearken unto peace and would cease to saccage and destroy the poor people as indeed he did after the tempest seased Which peace yet was accorded to his so great advantage that thereby besides the ransome of three millions of franks Guienne remained unto him in soveraigntie also the countrey of Armignac de Albret de Comines de la Marche de Santongeois Rochellois and a good part of Languedoc which before never was in the peaceable obedience domination of English Vnto this peace which was concluded in a village called Bretigni nigh to Chartres the French subjects of that countrey would not in any sort agree nor condiscend but refused to obey and yeeld themselves English For their reasons they alleaged That the king had no power to dismember and alienate them from the Crowne of France and that therupon they had priviledges from king Charlemaine whereby they could not nor ought not to be cut off from the truncke and house of France After that they had long debated refused to obey the king Iohn who upon good hostages was returned into Fraunce sent into his countries M. Iames de Bourbon his cousin and a Prince of his bloud to make them obey the English insomuch that whether they would or no those good French subjects should forsake the French obedience and be under the English governement This could not be without great greefe of heart sadnesse and incredible displeasure But above all others most remarkable for great constancie were they of Rochell to remaine French for they many times excused themselves unto the king and stood stiffe more than a Rochellois good Frēchmen yeare before they would let the Englishmen into the towne And thinking that their excuses and remonstrances might stand in some stead they sent to the king their Orators which arriving at Paris and being brought before the king fell at his feet with weepings sobbings and lamentations making this speech Most deare sir your poore and desolate subjects of your towne of Rochell have sent us hither to beseech your Majestie in all humilitie and with joined hands that it
at Paris shewed him in all humilitie how of themselves they were rid of the English obedience and that again they would remit themselves into his Majesties obedience as being their king and naturall soveraigne Prince but that they besought him humbly to accord Priviledges of Rochell them certaine priviledges The king demanded what priviledges First said they That it would please your Majestie to agree unto us that the Towne of Rochell may be inseparably united unto the Crowne of France so that it may never be seperated nor dismembred by peace mariage nor by any compact condition or misadventure that can come in Fraunce Secondly that the Castle may be throwne to the earth without which we will keepe the towne of Rochell well for your Majestie The king perceiving their demands and finding them reasonable and proceeding from a true French heart accorded their requests and so the Rochellois returned merily into the French obedience from whence they had been seperated to their great greefe Here then you see how well to the purpose and to the great profit of the king and of the kingdome that law of not alienating the Lands Townes and Provinces of the Crowne was made But upon this that I have said of the Rochellois some Messer will say How happeneth it then that the Rochellois are at this day so bad French subjects hereunto the answere is easie and evident that is that they are at this day as good Frenchmen as ever were the ancestours but they are not good Italians neither meane to be subject under the yoke of strangers no more than their ancestors Let us now come to the other example King Francis the first of that name being prisoner at Madril in Spain in power of the emperour Charles the fist there was made a traitie and an accord betwixt the two great princes whereby amongst other things the king promised the emperor to grant him all his right and possession of the Dutchie of Burgoigne and that he would imploy himselfe to cause the Estates of the countrey to condiscend therunto This accord being concluded the emperor caused the king to be conducted to Bayonne and there by his embassadours summoned him to ratifie the accord which he had made at Madril when he was prisoner to the end to make more valeable and that it might the rather appeare to be made without constraint unto which embassadours the king answered that he could doe nothing in that article concerning the Dutchie of Burgoigne without first knowing the intent and will of his subjects because he could not aliene it without their consent and that he would cause the Estates of the countrey to assemble to know their wils therein Not long after the king caused the Estates of Burgoigne to come together which would by no meanes consent unto the said alienation whereof hee advertised the emperour who seeing that by reason they could not be alienated without their consents was content with that answer upon this condition That the king would assure the said Dutchie unto the first heire male which the said king should have by Elenor the said emperours sister unto whom he was then espoused so that that law That the king cannot alienate the Crowne-land was then verie profitable unto the king and the kingdome And unto this agree the doctors of the Civill law which hold that the emperour cannot aliene any thing of the Empires but he is bound to increase it to his power And from thence they drawe but foolishly the etymologie of that name Augustus saying The Emperors are called Augusti for that they ought to encrease and cannot diminish the Empire as much say they of other kings and monarchs for there is therein the like reason For a conclusion no man of perfect judgment can denie but these three lawes of the kingdome of France namely the law Salicke the law of the Estates general and the law of not alienating the lands and provinces of the crowne are the verie true pillars bases and foundations of the kingdome and the royaltie which none can or ought to abolish I doubt not but there will be found manie which will be quarelling at those aforesaid examples and reasons and will say That to sustain and defend that the king cannot abolish the said lawe is to diminish his power and to give limitation and restriction to his soveraigne authoritie But for reply I will only demaund If it be not puissance in a prince to conserve him and his estate If they confesse yea as none can denie it if he be not altogether without judgement I say it followeth by argument taken from contraries that it is then impuissance and want of power in a prince to ruinate himselfe and his estate And by consequent it followeth that when we say that a Prince cannot abolish the fundamentall lawes of him and his estate so much there wanteth that we diminish his power that by the contrarie we establish it and make it more firme greater and as it were invincible As also on the contrarie they which say that a Prince can abolish and change his lawes upon which he and his Estate are founded they establish and place in him an impuissance to conserve himselfe For to take it rightly and in good sence it is an act of impuissance to ruinat destroy overthrow and to participate his estate And contrarie it is an act of power to conserve himselfe and maintaine his estate No more nor no lesse than when a building falleth upon the earth or when a man letteth it fall these be acts of feeblenesse frailetie and impuissance but when the one and the other holdeth and standeth streight and firme without cracking or falling these be acts of force and power As for the law Naturall it cannot be abolished For if a Prince will authorise The law naturall cānot be abolished by the king or any other adulteries incests thefts murders and massacres and other like crimes which naturall reason and common sence causeth us to abhorre and detest certaine and evident it is that such authorising is of no value and that the Prince cannot doe this When the emperor Claudius wold espouse Agrippina his niece his brothers daughter he made a Law whereby he authorised the mariage of the uncle with the niece which was published all over but sayth Suetonius no man would imitate and follow the Emperours example but a bad servant newly enfranchised and a souldier every body so detested and abhorred such kind of mariages as being contrarie to the naturall law and common sence And indeed this mariage fell not out well for Sueto in Claudio cap. 26. Tacitus Annal lib. 12. him For Agrippina his neece and wife poysoned him to bring to the Empire Nero hir sonne whom she had had by another husband and had caused him to be adopted for his sonne although he had by his first wife Messalina another naturall sonne called Britanicus whom Nero when he came to the Empire empoysoned to
Caligula being one day sicke in his bed these janglers came to visit him The first was one Afracanus Potitus who being nie the Emperours bed seemed to be verie sad and sorrowfull for the Emperours disease and amongst other adulatorie talke he said unto him I would Sir it would please the gods that I might die for the recoverment of your health for I make a vow to the gods that I would die with as good an heart as ever I did anie thing The other called Afracanus Secundus said likewise to the Emperor O would it pleased the gods that I might to utterance go skirmish with the Sword plaiers to be slaine of them for your majesties health For I sweare by the gods that I would willingly employ my selfe for your recoverie Caligula answered them nothing at that time but when he was whole he sent for them both and being come he said unto them Maisters my good friends I am made to know that you are verie devout to the gods For since the other day that you came to visit me and that you vowed your lives to the gods for my health I have soone recovered it as you vowed unto me But fearing a relaps and againe to fall into my disease if you accomplish not your vow I have sent for you to make you die praying you not to take it in evill part And withall without attending their answere he commanded the Captaine of his Guard to dispatch them This foolish Emperour after those janglers had made him become such a beast and madde man did never good thing but this But in regard of the execution of these three flatterers they encountred the best of the world for they which had made him become a foole merited well to receive part of his folly But certaine it is that this sort of flatterers which are so prodigall of praises will not spare all honourable titles towards the Princes unto whom they addict themselves whilest they are in their presence but behind their backs they mocke them Dion in Neron and speake a thousand evils upon them Teridates brother of Vologaesus king of the Parthians in the time of the Emperour Nero came to Rome with a great retinue As soone as he was arrived he fell on his knees before Nero his hands together tending towards heaven said in this manner Sir I which am the Nephew of the great king Arsaces and brother of the king Vologaesus and Pacorus am thy humble servant and slave and am come hither to worship thee as my god for I can be nothing but what it pleaseth thee Thou hast done well answered the Emperor Nero to come unto me to enioy and have fruition of my sight and of my presence For that which thy predecessors did not leave thee I give it thee and make thee at this present king of Armenia that thou maist know that it is in me to give kingdomes and to take them away After this word he put a crowne on his head and invested him with the kingdome of Armenia After for a pastime and sport for this new king plaies were appointed wherein Nero would needs make it appeare how well he could play upon the citharon and indeed plaied amongst the common plaiers Also he thrust himselfe amongst carters cloathed in greene as they were to shew that in Lists he could also tell how to handle chariot horses After this Teredates the new king of Amenia being retired into his lodging mocked Nero and spoke infinit evils of him calling him Carter Citternier and further said he mervailed how they could suffer at Rome such a master and Lord. When he was before Nero he held and respected him as a god but when he was out of his presence he detested him as a monster I aske of you if such a flatterer deserved at Nero his hand such a present as a kingdome Prusias king of Bithynia was a flatterer like Teridates For one day comming to Titus Livius lib. 5. Dec. 5. Florus lib. 50. Rome a little after that Paulus Aemilius had vanquished king Perseus of Macedon he made certaine Senators understand that he had a desire to enter into the Senat to know his masters and superiors whose enfranchised slave he said he was and to congratulate with them their victorie To enter the Senat was granted him When hee approached the palace where the Senat assembled hee fell on his knees at the doore and kissed the doore lintell after rose up and entred into the hall where the Senators did sit being there he made great reverences calling the Senators his gods and his saviours and desired leave to go into the temples of the gods in Rome to make offrings and sacrifices to their gods for the victorie which the Romans have gotten of the king Perseus This also was graunted him But hee was mocked and despised of all the companie for this so great and exorbitant humilitie and flattering which hee made unto vertuous people which tooke no pleasure in flatterie This was a king of no worth a coward and man full of vices as commonly all such people are which cover their adulations with so extreame humilitie and in the end was slaine by Nichomedes his sonne who made himselfe king Lucius Vitellius father of the monstrous Emperour Vitellius was such a flatterer Sueto in Vite lio cap. 2. as Prusias for knowing that the Emperour Claudius suffered himselfe to be much governed by Messaline his wife to come to his good grace and favour he came unto this Madame his wife and praied her for the honour of the gods that it would please her to grant him a gift whereby he should for ever feele himselfe bound to doe her most humble service as her humble slave The Empresse demanded what gift he desired It is Madame said he that it would please you to put out your feet that I may pull off your shoes It may bee supplied in the hystorie that this was at some houre when Messaline meant to put off her shoes either to goe lie downe in her bed or to wash her feet as the Elders used much to do Messaline could not refuse him this so honorable and excellent a demaund proceeding from so generous and heroicall an heart and indeed suffered him to plucke off her shoes But what did my man After he had drawne off her shoes he tooke one of them smiling and kissed it three or four times in the presence of this Madame and caried it away with him He ordinarily bore the shoo or startup in his bosome and wheresoever hee came he shewed it to the people kissing it saying That the Empresse had done him that honor favour to give it him in pure free gift and that he bore it in his bosome and kissed it every day for her honour What should a man say unto this filthie drudgerie and slaverie I will yet set downe one other example of janglers from a gowned man or Senator and then we passe on
he caused justice to flourish hee brought the people into a good repose and assurance and reduced againe the golden world They praise him also because he amplified and enlarged the Romane Empire But they speake not one word of the civile warres nor for that hee overthrew Cassius and Brutus doe they either praise or despraise him And indeed as Plutarch sayth They are pitious triumphs which are made upon civile bloud These Plutarch in Caesar Epitaphers then should learne to praise a Prince as they ought to doe and as the elders have done But when they say that our dead king died like Sampson and that with him died also pietie and justice which he carried in the devise of his two pillers do they not plainely blame the kingdome at this present of impietie and injustice as if justice were not now so good nor religion in so good estate as in the time of the dead king or as if they were or could bee made worse yea contrarie every one seeth with his eye that justice and religion are still in as good estate in France as before that the king died and that they are now so well governed as they cannot waxe worse And when they say that France was a stepmother unto the dead king is not this injuriously to blame the French nation Wherein hath Fraunce appeared unto him a stepmother Because there were rebels against the king say they They which they call rebels denie they are such and in truth when edicts were maintained and observed they were seene to be very obedient But let it be so that there were in France some rebellious subjects must therefore all the nation bee blamed and be called their kings stepmother seeing there is no nation in the world more obedient than the French to his Prince And as for that great cunning in arts and the meanest mechanicall sciences which those Poets attribute to our dead king are not they goodly praises thinke you As if it were some goodly vertue in a Prince to make a coffer or to paint gourdes for which we reade that the emperor Adrian was mocked or to make some such like things But contrarie the Poet Virgil describing Aeneid 6. what kind of Princes the Romane Princes should be he wils they should have no knowledge in the mechanicall arts onely they should learne sayth he the Science well to command to governe to vanquish to pardon to make lawes and edicts and to establish good manners and customes upon the nations under their governance In like manner the prophane comparison of Castor and Pollux where one god succeeds another god how unfit a speech it is for a Christian If Princes at this day will beleeve janglers they make themselves to be adored upon the altar in the middest betwixt two Saints as was Caligula betwixt Castor and Pollux But ynough is spoken of janglers and of their janglings and of their too too impudent and strange praises Let us now come unto Marmosets A Marmoset according to the language of Marmosets our elders is as much to say as a reporter murmurer whisperer of tales behind ones backe in Princes and great mens eares against one or other which be false or else ought not to be reiterated or reported And it seemes unto me that this name of Marmoset is verie proper and fit for such people and that it meriteth well to bee againe called backe in use And I beleeue it is drawne from hence that such people go marmoting murmuring and whispering secretly in Princes eares flattering speeches which they dare not speake clearly and on high before the face of him whom they detract and speake evill of These people are worse and farre more perilous than plaine raylers scoffers jesters or janglers whereof we have before spoken for carrying the countenance of good servants and friends they make the Prince beleeve that they serve him as spies to marke and seek out the designes evill purposes and carriages of their secret enemies to the end he may not unawares be surprised of them and that no evill may come unto him And because saith Comines Comines lib. 1. cap. 9. 56. Princes are almost all suspitious for doubts and feares that are put into their heads by advertisements they easily beleeve Marmosets and reporters Yea some Princes saith he promise them that they will say nothing nor discover any thing which is one of the greatest faults that a Prince can commit For besides that in all men be they princes or privat persons the auncient proverb hath place which saith That the sinewes of Wisedome is not to beleeve lightly yet is it a thing as particularly required in a Prince to stop his eares to all reports unlesse the reporter will be well knowne and sustaine the punishment of a slaunder in case his report be not found true And thereupon the Prince ought to make diligent inquisition to have the truth well averred when the thing is waightie and meriteth it And he may not be satisfied with a light information thereof but he ought to heare him which is charged or blamed before he beleeve any thing And if the thing be not of great consequence and import him much as if they be but words spoken as it often happeneth lightly in some pleasant talke or at the table or in choler the Prince ought to despise and make no account of such words but as talke uttered in an immoderate bable and without thinking or considering thereof For there is no man so perfect that can so bridle his tongue but there will often fall words without consideration which after when he thinkes of them wisheth he had never spoken them And this imperfection which is in all men ought to be supported of some towards others and Princes ought rather to beare them then particular persons for two reasons The one for that he is more subiect to receive reports than privat men so that if he easily deliver his eare unto them he shall see a thousand griefes and displeasures and shall be in continuall doubts and feares The other reason is because all Princes ought to consider that men speake more of them than of anie privat person For there is neither great nor little but he will meddle to speake of Princes yea to judge of their actions and everie man to utter his follies of his good or evill behaviours What should Princes then doe It is impossible to bridle their tongues and if they should be forbidden to speake they would speake the more Seeing then both great and small doe ordinarily speake of Princes yea more then of other things it is impossible that in such abundance of talke there should not be alwaies much evill and he that would set foote therein should binde himselfe to an infinite paine from whence he should not know how to get out For the tongues of men are so ready and quicke workers in their trade that they will frame more businesses in a day then a
Anno 140â— Monstre lib. 1 cap. 22. and Reporters a great enmitie arose betwixt Lewis duke of Orleans the kings brother and Iohn duke of Burgoigne conte of Flanders of Artois and lord of many other lands and territories Our hystories name not these Marmosets but simply say that their houshold servants incited them to band one against another the duke of Orleans his servants and favourits said and said truly That he was the chiefe prince of the blood the kings only brother also more aged and of riper and more staied wit than the duke of Burgoigne and that therefore he should not set his foot before him in the handling of the kings affairs For at this time the king having not perfect sences his affairs were handled with the princes of the blood and the privie Counsell but contrarie the duke of Burgoigne his Marmosets said That he was the chiefe peere of France and as they cal it le Doy en des Pairs that he was more mightie and more rich than the duke of Orleans and although he was not so neere of the blood Roiall as he yet was he more neere by alliance for the Dauphin who was yet very young had espoused his daughter and therefore he ought in nothing to give place unto the duke of Orleans but that hee ought to maintaine and hold the same ranke that Philip duke of Burgoigne his deceassed father did who whilest his father liued governed the king and the kingdome at his wil. Briefly these tatlers and reporters caused this duke of Burgoigne so to mount into ambition and covetousnesse to raigne that he enterprised to cause the duke of Orleans to bee slaine who hindered his deseignes and purposes and indeed he caused him to be most villanously massacred and slaine at Paris nie the gate Barbette by a sort of murthering theeves which he had hired as the duke of Orleans went to see the queene who had lately bene brought to rest of a child Great domage there was for that good prince for he was valiant and wise as possible one might be Of him descended king Henry the second now raigning both by father and mother For king Francis his father was sonne of Charles duke of Angolesme who was son also of Iohn duke of Angolesme who was sonne of the duke of that Orleance and Madame Claude queene of Fraunce mother of the said king Henry was daughter of king Lewis the twelfth who was son of Charles duke of Orleance who was the sonne of this duke Lewis whereof wee speake I would to God princes his descendants would well marke the example of this massacre most horrible which was committed upon the person of that good duke their great grandfather and the great evill haps and calamities which came thereof to shun the like miseries which ordinarily happen when such murders goe unpunished For because the duke Iohn of Burgoine was not punished for this fault but found people which sustained and maintained it to have been well done as we shall say more at the full in another place and that followed his part stirring up civile warres which endured two generations and caused the death of infinit persons in France and that the English got a great part of the kingdome and that the poore people of Fraunce fell into extreame miserie povertie and desolation there were many causes and meanes of so many evils for injustice ambition covetousnesse desire of vengeance and other like things might goe in the ranke of causes of so many mischeefes But the Marmosets of duke Iohn of Burgoigne were they which stroke the yron against the flint out of which came that sparke of fire a device fatally taken by the duke of Burgoigne which brought into combustion and into a burning fire all the kingdome for so long time and at last ruinated the house of Burgoigne Francis duke of Bretaigne a prince that was a good Frenchman and affectionate Monstre lib. 3. cap. 4 33. to the king of France his soveraigne had a brother called Gills who gave himselfe to the English in the time that they made warre in France and accepted of the king of England the order of the Garter and the office of high Constable of England The duke and his brother much greeved hereat found meanes to take him prisoner and put him in a strong castle whereunto he would never goe to heare or see him he so much disdained him But yet he sent men unto him which hee trusted which indeed proved very Marmosets and false reporters for after Giles of Bretaigne had remained within the castle a certaine time and that he had considered well his doings that he was borne the kings vassale of France and that he ought never to have disunited himselfe from his brother he then praied his brothers people that came to see him to tell him from him that he greatly repented what hee had done and that if it pleased him to pardon him that from thence forward he would follow with a good heart the part of the king of France and his and that if it pleased them hee would streight send to the king of England his Order and Constables sword What do his Marmosets then They report to the duke that Giles his brother was still obstinate and so perfect English that no reasons they could make could turne him unto that side The duke sent still many times the same men unto him but alwaies they made the like or worse report of him insomuch that this good duke fearing that his brother was invincible in his obstination fearing also that if hee should let him loose he would cause the English to come into Bretaigne to avenge himselfe commanded the same reporters to strangle him in prison which they did Afterward as God when he seeth his time brings the most hid things to light these murdering reporters could not hold but discover the truth of the matter and that Giles of Bretaigne would have done any thing that the duke his brother would have had him to doe which comming to the dukes eares he was nigh out of his wits for his brothers death and caused the reporters to be hanged and to die with great and rigorous paines and executions Behold the end of Giles of Bretaign and the reward which such Marmosets received which were cause of his death Hereof Princes may note a rule Not to beleeve too easily reports made of men without hearing them but especially when it toucheth life One day before the emperour Adrian there was one Alexander which accused I. 3. 9. idem Diu. D. de Testi 6. of certaine crimes one Aper and for proofe of those crimes he produced certaine informations in writing against Aper which he had caused to be taken in Macedon Adrian mocked at it and said to Alexander the accuser that these informations were but paper and inke and it might be made at pleasure but in criminall causes we must not beleeve witnesses in writing but witnesses themselves
by strangers that evill hap had not come unto him That great king Asseuerus which held the empire of the Medes and Persians and Ester cap. 6 7 8 c. governed over 127. countries a great while governed himselfe by a stranger called Aman who was a Macedonian this Aman seeing himselfe in credit durst enterprise unjustlie to make die Mardocheus who had alwaies beene the kings good and faithfull servant under the pretext and colour that he was not of the kings religion and to cover the particular enmitie which he had against Mardocheus and to the end to make it see me that he would not this harme to him alone he found meanes to the king to cause a generall commandement for the massacring and murdering of all such as were of Mardocheus his religion But the king having beene advertised that Mardocheus had done him good services and that that which Aman did was but upon envie revoked the commaundement and would not have that massacre to be executed but caused to hang and strangle the Macedonian which would have had him brought his kingdomes and countries into combustion by so horrible an effusion of blood as he had caused to be enterprised and gave his estate to Mardocheus Alexander king of Epirotes had drawne and gathered into his countrie a great number of Lucanians banished and chased out of their countrie and vsed them with such curtesie and hospitalitie that not only he permitted them to dwell in Epire but also served himselfe with them and reputed them for his good and faithfull friends and vsed them with all the best dealing he could But it so happened that the king had warre against the countrie of those banished people and so thought to be well served with them in this war as indeed they promised him saying They desired no more than to revenge themselves of such as had banished and chased them out of their countrie and to bring the countrie into the obedience of Alexander and to be afterward established in their goods in authoritie under him in the said countrie But as it ordinarilie commeth saith Titus Livius that such people have spirits and faith as mutable as their fortune they used the matter otherwise than they promised the king and than he looked for For they made secret compacts to betray this king with their countrimen which promised them a restauration into their goods and authority which they had in their said countrie before their banishment provided that they would deliver the king either alive or dead which willing to execute they did so much that they persuaded this king to give battaile against the Lucanians and there should he know the good affection they had to do him service and to fight against such as had banished them insomuch that they came to the battaile there this banished people did so much that they brought this king Alexander into a place nigh the flood Acheron from drowning in which he could not save himselfe but by swimming over the floud Being then brought to that place and straight they begun to shew their treason and turned themselves against the king who seeing the perill wherein he was hazarded himselfe by swimming to passe over that great floud As hee had almost passed it over and that he had recovered the banke on the other side behold there came one of the banished people who with a javeline transpierced and run him cleane through the bodie The body falling in the water was by the river carried into the hands of his enemies which encamped lower But when they light upon that bodie they in great irrision and disdaine cut it in many peeces Here is the miserable end that came to this poore king for trusting in strangers Charles the last duke of Bourgoine not being able any way to get his will of the De Comines lib. 1. cap. 83 92. towne of Nus entred into distrust and discontentment with his owne subjects although in truth they had done all their duties in the besiege of the towne yet a prince must doe what hee will Vpon this mistrust and discontentment of his subjects hee resolved with himselfe to bee served with strangers and amongst all other strange nations he made choice of Italians But I leave you to thinke how good his choice was likely to be for every one knowes well ynough what account Italians make of the observation of their faith and how Machiavell teacheth That faith is not to be observed but to a mans profit which they of that nation doe alwayes well practise And if sometimes there bee found any loyall and good observers of their promise it is a thing so rare as that raritie should not have any thing mooved the duke of Burgoigne rather to trust the Italians than his own proper subjects Yet having taken it in hand he drew to his service the earle of Campobache which hee entertained with foure hundred men of arms more of Italians paied by his hands Incontinent as Campobache was entred into credit with the duke hee begun to governe him at his pleasure so that the duke trusted more in him than in any man in the world Campobache having gained this point straight begun to practise to betray him and to deliver him to king Lewis the eleventh then raigning if hee would promise him in recompence 20000 crownes and a good earledome But the king doing as Fabricius did towards the king Pyrrhus would not enter into that composition but advertised the duke of Burgoigne to the end he might take heed of that traitor and rid himselfe of him The duke tooke this advertisement in evill part his sences were so troubled imagining that the king sent him this word to make him leese his good servants and therefore trusted more than ever Campobache When Campobache saw hee could not bargaine with the king hee sought a merchant other where for hee was resolved whatsoever became of his credit to draw out a profit if he could Amongst these actions the duke thought good to besiege Nancy the principall towne of Lorraine The duke of Lorraine was not so scrupulous to enter into composition with that traitor as the king had been especially because the duke of Burgoigne made warre upon him unjustly and sought to take from him his countrey He therefore entred into compact with Campobache by the meanes of a gentleman of his named Cyfron and they concluded and agreed betwixt them secretly Finally before Nancy was a battaile given by the advice of Campobache who councelled the duke of Lorraine to levie the siege of the duke of Burgoigne who was there slaine and his armie defeated by the meanes and treason of Campobache The king after this tooke a part of the countrey of the said duke of Burgoigne which died in the foresaid battaile because they ought duly for want of heires male to returne to the Crowne of Fraunce and the rest of his dukedome fell to his onely daughter who was his heire which was
his brother master and many good men of his time and in burning Rome and such other wicked and detestable cases As also Caligula wished to the end there might be a memorie of his kingdome in time to come that in his time there might happen some great pestilence and notable mortalitie or some exceeding great famine ruines earthquakes and burnings of townes Because saith he if my raigne do passe in peace and tranquillitie without some great and notable evill luck none will speake of me in time to come There be men of such wicked and divelish natures which are of this humor which desire to make their renowne immortall by vices and wickednesses as Machiavell hath done who hath so well plaied his part that he hath obteined the chiefe ranke of all Atheists and impious persons neere Aretine his companion who lives in his time and hath written the praise of Sodomie to immortalize his name 5. Maxime When men left the Paynim Religion they became altogether corrupted so that they neither beleeved in God nor the Divell THe Paynim Religion sayth Machiavell consisteth principally in the answeres of Oracles and of Augures And to Discourse lib. 1. cap. 12. have good answeres of those Oracles and Augures they builded to the gods goodly temples and vvith great ceremonies offered sacrifices unto them And the vvorld vvas kept in a marvellous devotion by the Oracle of Jupiter Ammon of Apollo in Delos and in Delphos and other like But incontinent as their trumperie and deceit vvas discovered and that men knew that the priests of those gods made them there make answers after the fancies of such as gave most liberally then begun men to despise and contemne those Oracles and no more to beleeve either God or the divell Then begun men to become altogether vvicked prest and vvilling to break burst and destroy all like unchained slaves vvithout any more making conscience of any thing Therefore ought princes if they will be obeyed to hold their subiects alwaies enclined and devoted to Religion MAchiavell still continuing to teach his doctrine of Atheisme and the despight of our Christian Religion goes about to persuade by this Maxime That there was a great losse to men when they lost the Painim Religion But certainly it was the light of the Christian Religion which caused the darkenesse of the Paynim Religion to vanish away because that Religion only depended upon Oracles Augures other divellish illusions So that in breefe Machiavell his mind is That a man should do well to set a packing the Christian Religion that it were a goodly thing alwayes to live in the Paynim Religion What an impietie is this I pray you Can any sentence come from the divell of hell more detestable than this Assuredly it much greeveth mee to blot paper to write such things and to expose and lay abroad before the eyes and eares of good men so hard words which cannot but sound evill in their eares that feare God But the Wise man exhorteth us to speake to the foole after his folly that he may not waxe proud Should wee suffer such an Atheist that teacheth all impietie to take his course and sow his venom amongst us and yet we should not dare to open our mouthes to discover him as he is shall we hold our peace in such a time as is most necessarie to speake to make manifest such wickednesses as commonly runne abroad that they may be shunned and taken heed of should this be well done to meet with common poisoners and fire-brands of hell which run all about the countrie to empoison to set on fire all places and not to stay them but to let them do what mischiefe they will I beseech therefore all them which feare God to accept those reasons as lawfull excuses that I am so often forced to speake and write so impious and abhominable speeches for although it displeaseth me much to do so yet I dare not but lay abroad the impietie of this poisoner He then saith That it was a goodly thing in the time of the Paynims to see the world abused with that false opinion for such he accounteth it of oracles and auguries but that it was a great mischiefe and evill luck when the world began to discover that such things were false faigned and devised of men because then the world began to become exceeding wicked prompt and willing to all euill as an vnchained slave Machiavell then must note by his owne confession That men then became most Atheisme brings men to perfection of all wickednes wicked in all wickednesse as soone as they began to bee of the Heathen Religion that is without all Religion What meanes Machiavell then openly to teach Atheisme and the despight of the Christian Religion yet this he speaks not to bring us unto Paganisme which hee confesseth to bee false but to make men especially princes and great lords for whose instruction he writ his bookes utterly to forsake all pietie and to bring them to the highest degree of wickednesse whereunto hee saith they come which are of no Religion But when princes or others have taken that goodly instruction and offered that mockerie unto God and Religion they but advance their owne infallible confusion and ruine of their estates as we have in an other place demonstrated by examples But to come to the truth of that which Machiavell sayth certaine it is That as soone as Christian Religion came into light and knowledge the Paynim Religion vanished away by little and little as the light also by little and little spread it selfe True it is also that as soone as the falsenesse of the Paynim Religion was discovered there were some which notwithstanding would not be brought to the Christian Religion And as for such I doubt not but they became alwayes worse forsaking the Paynim Religion as false to follow Atheisme No lesse may we well say of our time wherein we may see many which contemne all Religion because they will not enquire and seeke after the true Religion whereof they delight to be ignorant to the end it may not torment their wicked consciences nor controule their disordinate covetousnesse But as wee see many which are not satisfied nor contented to know the errors wherein they were wrapped but also they have well desired to know the truth which they ought to hold So when the Paynim Religion ended they which forsooke it contented not themselves in knowing it was false but they also thought good to know the true which is the Christian the light whereof made the other vanish away And indeed by little and little every one embraced the Christian Religion there remaining but certaine Porphyries and Lucians which would bee without Religion And would to God that our world were as pure from Atheisme as that world was then should wee not see so many miseries and calamities which are in the world And as for that that Machiavell presupposeth That Oracles were certaine
which is so odious to the world brought him to prison where they caused him to finish his daies I will then conclude this recitall That if all Christian princes would practise the Magistrall determination of our masters of Sorbonne and of the Vniversitie of Paris the same would fall unto S. Peter which fell unto Frier Iohn his bird Yet is it not onely by the change of lead into gold that his Holinesse dooth Froisart lib. 2. chap. 132 133. 135. 140. much evill to provinces farre from Rome but also by his interdicts and excommunications In the time of the aforesaid schisme of Popes hee of Rome who was called Vrban sent Buls unto king Richard of England who tooke his part and was an Vrbanist by which hee commaunded him to make warre upon the king of France who was a Clementine and gave him power to levie silver upon the Warre for the Pope of Rome English Cleargie Moreover hee gave so great quantitie of pardons to all them which with a good heart did furnish silver for that warre that it seemed hee meant cleane to have emptied both hell and purgatorie of Englishmen for every man or woman might draw out his father grandfather great grandfather uncles aunts children nephewes and others ascendants descendants and collaterals by paying so much for every poll He further promised their soules to be guided right into paradice which died in this warre or which died that yeare after they had paied the money for that said warre nor that there should be any necessitie for the said soules to stray out of their way by purgatorie and the Limbo but to goe right to paradice The said buls being thus preached and published through England there was every where a great prease that yeare to die and to give silver so that in a small time there was heaped up the summe of 2500000 franks One part of this silver was given to the bishop of London who was chosen generall to make warre upon the Clementines in Spaine and the other part was delivered to the bishop of Norwitch who was elected generall of another armie to make warre upon France which also was Clementine And indeed these two armies did much harme as well in Spaine as in France yet the bishop of Norwitch being a young man and inconsiderat entring upon Flaunders an Vrbanist the king of Fraunce meeting him therewith 100000 men constrained him to retire homeward with shame and great losse In the yeare 1513 happened great damage and hurt unto the kings of Fraunce Annales upon the said yeare Du Bellay lib. 1. of his Memories and of Navarre by the meanes of an interdict and excommunication which Pope Iulius the second of that name cast against all the princes which had sent their embassadors to the counsell of Pise whose lands and seignories he exposed and gave as a prey to all men that would take and invade them For under colour of those wicked and detestable buls the emperour Maximilian and the Switzers constrained king Lewis the twelfth to abandon and forsake Millaine and almost all that hee held in Italie And on the other side the king of England fell upon Fraunce which by the Pope was exposed as a prey with an armie of 3000 English assaying to conquer part thereof But God suffered it not for in the meane time this wicked Pope died and the interdict was revoked and peace made with the English On the other side also king Ferdinand of Arragon feigning he would come to prey upon France entred into the kingdome of Navarre and got and usurped it upon king Iohn d' Albert The Pope cause of the losse of the kingdome of Navarre from the right heirs who was disseased thereof without being defied yea before he knew the king of Arragon his purpose whose successours have alwayes since detained and usurped the said kingdome of Navarre upon the said king Iohn d' Albret and upon his lawfull successors as they doe yet by this title onely of usurpation prey and bootie yet notwithstanding the said unjust usurpers call themselves most Catholike I could here accumulate many other examples of many great domages losses committed by Popes in strange countries and even in Almaigne where they have commonly sowen warres betwixt the emperour and the princes of Almaigne but I will content my selfe with the abovesaid examples for I will not at length handle such an ample and almost infinit matter but it sufficeth mee to have shewed That the contrarie of that which Machiavell saith is true and that the Pope and his holy seat doe much good in the place where they are and many evils and mischeefes in farre countries And as for that which Machiavell saith That Italie is the province of Christendome where there is least Religion he saith very true but what would hee now say if he were alive hee should then find that if in his time they had so well profited in his schoole as to be very great Atheists and contemners of God and of all Religion that now his schollers know farre more than his master And there is no doubt but alreadie long agoe all Religion is contemned in Italie yea and even the Romane Catholicke Will you have a better example than that which M. Comines rehearseth He saith That in the time of king Lewis the twelfth there were two houses at Florence which were principall that is to say of Medicis and of Pacis which were in quarell and enmitie together They of the house de Pacis favoured the Pope and the king of Naples and by their counsell and advice did they enterprise to slay Lawrence de Medicis who was cheefe of his house and all his race and to surprise him the better unprovided and without heed taking they resolved to sley and massacre him with all his race and sequele upon a solemne feast day at the houre that the great Masse was sung and that when the priest begun to sing Sanctus Sanctus it should be the watch word to rush upon them And indeed they executed their enterprise except that they slew not Lawrence de Medicis who saved himselfe in the revestrie but Iulian his brother and certaine others of his race were slaine I demand of you if they which enterprised and gave counsell to attempt such an act beleeved in the Masse we need not doubt but they were very Atheists But if in that time some hundred yeares agoe Italie were so furnished with Atheists and contemners of Religion what thinke you it is now In conclusion Italie Rome the Pope and his seat are truly the spring and fountaine of all despight of Religion and the schoole of all impietie and as they alreadie were in Machiavels time as he confesseth so are they farre more in this time For although the papall Church of Rome both heretofore made and yet dooth certaine demonstrations to sustaine a Religion yet in effect it maintaineth it no otherwise but by subtilties and words for it commaundeth
not be corrupt and become cowards by too great peace and prosperitie for want upon whom to make warre The resolution of the Senat was in a meane betwixt these two opinions For it was ordained That the Carthaginians should be permitted to remove their towne into any other part tenne mile from the sea But the Carthaginians found so strange the removing of their towne that they had rather suffer all extreame things insomuch as by long warre they were wholly vanquished and their towne altogether rased and made inhabitable Very memorable also to this purpose is the advice of the Chancellor de Rochefort Annales upon the year 1488. who was in the time of king Charles the eight For many counselling this yong king to make war against Francis duke of Bretaigne to lay hold of his dutchie this good Chancellor shewed That the rights the king pretended to that duke were not yet well verified and that it were good to seeke further into them before warre was attempted for it should be the worke of a tyrant to usurpe countries which belong not to him According to this advice embassadors were sent to the duke who then was at Reves to send on his side men of counsell and the king would doe so on his side to resolve upon both their rights This was done and men assembled to that end but in the meane while duke Francis died and the king espoused Madame Anne his daughter and heire and so the controversie ended The same king enterprising his voyage of Naples caused to assemble all his presidents Annal. upon Anno 149â— of his courts of Parliaments with his Chancellor his privie Counsell and the princes of his blood to resolve upon his title and right to Naples and Sicilie These lords being assembled visited the genealogie and discent of the kings of Sicilie and Naples they found that the king was the right heire of these kingdomes so that upon that resolution this voyage was enterprised Hereby is seene the vanitie of Machiavell who presupposeth That king Charles had enterprised that voiage to get all Italie but that Fortune was not favourable unto him for that was never his deseigne nor purpose neither assayed he to seize upon any thing in Italie but of certaine townes necessarie for his passage in determination to yeeld them up again at his departure as he did And if the king would have enterprised upon Italie hee had had a farre more apparent title than the magnificent Lawrence de Medicis seeing all Italie was once by just title possessed by Charlemaine king of France his predecessor But this hath been alwayes a propertie in our kings not to run over others grounds nor to appropriate to themselves any seignorie which appertained not unto them by just title We reade also of Charles the fift called the Sage That being incited by his nobilitie Frois lib. 1. cap. 245. 25. and people of Guienne to seize againe that countrey which was occupied by the English he would not enterprise it without great good deliberation of good Counsell And therefore he caused well to be viewed by wise and experienced people the treatie of peace made at Bretaigne betwixt his dead father and the king of England for that it was told him that the king of England had not accomplished on his side that which he was bound to doe After they had as they thought well resolved him of this point yet he was not content to be satisfied himselfe but would that his subjects should be also well resolved thereof and especially such as were under the English obedience and to that purpose hee sent preachers covertly into such good townes as were occupied by the English insomuch that readily by the preachers inducements there were more than threescore townes and fortresses which revolted from the Englishmen and offered themselves unto the kings obeisance This then is a resolved point That a prince ought not to enterprise to obtaine a If by warre any can be constrained to be of any Religion countrey where hee hath no title under colour to deliver the inhabitants thereof from tyrannie But here may arise a question if it be lawfull for a prince to make war for religion and to constraine men to bee of his religion hereupon to take the thing by reason the resolution is very easie For seeing that all religion consisteth in an approbation of certaine points that concerne the service of God certaine it is that such an approbation dependeth upon the persuasion which is given to men thereof but the meanes to persuade a thing to any man is not to take weapons to bear him nor to menace him but to demonstrate unto him by good reasons and allegations which may induce him to a persuasion But he that will decide this question by examples of our auncestors he shall find divers to be for and against For to reade our French hystories in the lives of Clowis the first Charlemaine and some other kings of Fraunce it seemeth that their studie was altogether bent upon warre Annales upon Anno 718. against Paynims for nothing but to make them become Christians with hand-blowes and force of armes But what Christians That is when the Paynims were vanquished and that they could no more resist they were acquited upon condition to be baptized without other instruction And most commonly as soone as they could againe gather strength they returned to their Paynim religion And this is well shewed us by the hystorie of one Rabbod duke of Fricse who being upon the point to be baptized and his clothes off and having one foot in the font hee demanded of the archbishop of Sens which should have baptized him Whether there were more of his parents in hell or in paradice The archbishop aunswered him that the most must needs be in hell because his predecessors were never baptized Then the duke drawing his foot out of the water Well said he then I will goe to hell with my parents and friends and I will not be baptized to be seperated from them so he withdrew himselfe denying to be baptized Here I leave you to thinke if this man were well instructed in the Christian doctrine It seemeth that at that day to be a Christian it sufficed to be baptized and commonly Paynims were baptized by force of armes We reade also That our auncient kings of Fraunce made many voyages into Turkie and into Affrica for the augmentation of the Christian Religion and to revenge as they said the death of our Lord Iesus Christ upon the Paynims and Infidels But one time the Paynims themselves shewed them well that they enterprised such warres by an inconsiderate zeale For the armie of Fraunce whereof the duke of Bourbon was cheefe being in Affrica making warre against the Infidels in the time of king Charles the sixt the captaine generall of the Turkes and Saracens sent an herauld to the duke of Bourbon to know wherefore he discended into Affrica to
instigation of flatterers and envious people An example hereof is memorable of king Lewis the twelfth who was called the Father of the people For in his time certaine Cardinals and Prelates persuaded him to exterminate and utterly to root out all the people of Cabriers and Merindol in Provence which were the reliques of the Christians called Albi then sore persecuted for Christ telling him That they were sorcerers incestuous Molinaeus de la Monarchia deâ— Francois Anno. 155. persons and heretickes They of Merindol and Cabriers having some sente of the aforesaid accusation sent certaine of their wisest men to remonstrate to the king their justice and innocencie As soone as these men were arrived at the Court the said Cardinals and Prelates did what they could to hinder that they should not be heard and indeed told the king that he ought not to heare them because the Cannon law holds That men ought not to give audience to heretickes nor communicate with them The king replied That if he had to make warre upon the Turke yea against the divell himselfe he would heare them This was an answere worthie of a king For seeing kings hold in their hands the scepter of justice this is not to use but to abuse To condemne any not to heare them The said king Lewis then hearing the said messengers of Cabriers and Merindol they shewed him in all humilitie that their people received the Gospell the Bible the Apostles Creed the commaundements of God and the Sacraments but they beleeved not in the Pope nor in his doctrine and that if it pleased his Majestie to send to enquire of the truth of their speeches they were contented all to die if their words were not found true This good king would needs know if it were so and indeed deputed M. Adam Fumee his master of Requests and one M. Parvi a Iacobin his Confessor to go to Cabriers and Merindol to enquire of the life and religion of the inhabitants in those places which they did and after they had seene and knowne all they made their report unto the king That in those places their children were baptized they taught them the articles of the Faith and the commandements of God that they well observed their Sabboths alwayes preaching thereon the word of God and as for sorceries and whoredomes there were none amongst them moreover they found no images in their temples nor ornaments of the Masse The king having received this report what judgement gave he of it did hee condemne them straight because they had no images nor ornaments of the Masse No he presently swearing by his oth pronounced That they were better men than he or all his people Here may princes learne how to use themselves in supporting against slanderers such in whom there is no appearance of error But leaving this question and againe taking our purpose certaine it is That a prince ought not lightly to attempt warre as Machiavell persuadeth and upon A prince ought to seeke all meanes to put out war by a peace some necessitie having warre in hand he ought to search out and accept all honest conditions to get out of it For sometimes the prince which refuseth honest and reasonable conditions upon hope that his forces are great falleth oftentimes into great distresse and it hath been many times seene that pettie captaines have made head against great and strong powers of mightie princes In the time of the battaile of Poictiers where king Iohn was taken the prince of Wales before the battaile offered the king to yeeld him all that both hee and his Froisar lib. 1 cap 161. Annales upon Anno 1356 Annales upon Anno 1433. people had conquered since his departure from Bourdeaux also to yeeld him all the pillage but the king would not accept this offer but withall asked that the prince and foure of the greatest lords of the armie should yeeld themselves at his will The prince who was generous chose rather to fight it out than to accept so shamefull and dishonorable an accord so hee and his army fought valiantly insomuch that a very little numbar of English overcame great forces of the French and the king was taken and many other great princes and lords for which to redeeme the kingdome was so emptied of silver that they were compelled to make money of leather which in the middest had onely a note of siluer and from this battaile proceeded infinite evils miseries and calamities which had not happened if the king had beene so well advised as to have forgone that war by soft and assured meanes rather than by the hazard of the battaile But contrary to king Iohn king Charles the seaventh reconquering Guienne and Normandie upon the English never refused any proffer or composition sought alwaies to recover that which his predecessors had justly lost without effusion of bloud The Romane hystories are ful of such like examples For that which overthrew the Carthaginians the king Perseus the king Mithridates that which abated the pride of Philip king of Macedon of that great king Antiochus and of many others was they could never accept the good and reasonable conditions of peace which was offered unto them by the Romanes but would rather experiment what force founded upon a good right could doe I say founded upon good right because a small force which hath right with it oftentimes abateth a great force which is not founded on a good right the reason is evident because hee that knoweth hee hath just cause to make warre and which seeth that his adversary trusting much in his forces will not come to any reasonable composition redoubleth his courage his heat and fighteth more valiantlie than hee which is driven thereunto rather upon pride than of any generositie of heart but the principall reason thereof is that God who giveth victories inclineth most often to the rights side and although sometimes it seemes that the wrong carrieth away the victorie yet alwaies God shewes by the end issue according to which we must judge that hee is fot the right Above all the prince ought to appease the warres in his owne countrey whether A prince ought to appease war in his owne countrey they be raised by strangers or by his owne subjects for as for such warres as he may have in a strange land against strangers it may happen they will not prove so evill but hee may provide good souldiers in his neede and especiallie this point is considerable when a princes subjects are naturallie enclined to warre as is the French nation for then necessarily they must bee emploied in that wherein is their naturall disposition or els they will move war against themselves as Salust saith in these words If saith hee the vertue and generositie of princes captaines and men of warre might so well be emploied and shew it selfe of such estimate in peace as in warre humane things would carry themselves more constantly and men
acknowledgement of his faults and from thence forward he prospered so well that after he had ended his civile wars he also overcame his forrain wars against the English And this came of God who ordinarily exalteth the humble overthroweth the insolent proud For assuredly it doth not evill become a great prince to temperat his majestie by a gracious humility softnes affabilitie but saith Plutarch it is a very harmonious consonant temperation yea so excellent as there cannot be a more perfect than this But if the said king had then had such Counselors as many kings now adaies have what counsell would they hereupon have given him they would have said That thus to humiliate himselfe to his vassall as to ask him forgivenes to confesse his fault to acquitehim and his subjects of personall service these were things unworthy of a king and that a king ought never to make peace unlesse it be to his honor but such articles were to his dishonor and disadvantage and that he ought to have endured all extremities before he had made any peace whereby he should not remain altogether master to dispose of persons goods at his pleasure For how would not they say thus seeing they say at this day That it is no honorable peace for the king to accord his subjects any assurances with the exercises of their religion a reformation of justice yet you see that all K. Charles 7 his Counsell all the princes of his blood all the great lords of his kingdome all strange princes embassadors compelled the K. to passe more hard uneasie articles to digest for the good of peace Should we say that in so great a number of great personages ther was not any so wise and cleare sighted as the counsellors at this day as these Mesiers Machiavelists nay contrary they were al wise men of great experience in wordly affairs they were also of great knowlege as the delegates of the counsel of the universitie of Paris of the parliaments wheras at this day men know litle more than their Machiavell Likewise king Lewis the eleventh as soone as hee came to the crowne removed De Com. lib. 1. cap. 3. 5. others from charges and offices many great lords and good servants of the dead king Charles the seventh his father which had vertuously emploied themselves in chasing the English out of the kingdome of France and in lieu of such persons he placed and advanced men of meane and base condition Heereupon straight arose civile discention against the king which was called the warres of the common weale and these men complained that the kingdome was not politikelie governed because the king had put from him good men and of high calling to advance such as were of small estimation and of no vertue It was not long before the king acknowledged his great fault and confessed it not onely in generall but also in particular to every of them which he had recoyled and disapointed and to repaire this fault he got againe to him all the said lords and ancient servants of the dead king his father delivering them againe their estates or much greater and in somme he granted to these common wealth people all that they demanded as well for the generall as for the particular good of all people and all to obtaine peace with extinguishment of civile wars If he had had of his Counsell the Machiavellists of these daies they would not have counselled him thus to doe but rather would have told him That it became not a king to capitulate with his subjects nor so to unable himselfe unto them and that a prince ought never to trust to such as once were his enemies but much lesse ought hee to advance them to estates and that hee should diligentlie take heede of a reconciled enemie yet notwithstanding hee did all this and it fell out well with him for he was very well served of the pretended reconciled enemies and to this purpose Messier de Commines his chamberlaine saith That his humilitie and the acknowledgment of his faults saved his kingdome which was in great danger to bee lost if hee had stayed upon such impertinent and foolish reasons as those Machiavelists alledge for all things may not bee judged by the finall cause What dishonour then can it bee to a prince to use pettie and base meanes if so bee thereby hee make his countrey peaceable his estate assured and his subjects contented and obedient what makes it matter for him that is to ascend into an high place whether he mount by degrees and staires of wood or of stone so that hee ascend But this is not all to say That a prince ought to bee vigilant and carefull to make peace in his countrey for hee must after it is made well observe it otherwise it is to Peace ought to be well observed no purpose made unles men will say that one ought to make peace for after in breaking it to trap and ensnare them which trust therein But they which hold this opinion are people which make no account of the observation of faith as are the Machiavelists of whom wee will speake upon this point in another Maxime But indeede that a peace may bee well observed it must bee profitable and commodious to them with whom it is made to the ende by that meanes it may bee agreeable unto them and that they may observe it with a good will and without constraint for if it be domageable and disadvantageous making the condition of them to whom it is given worse than of other subjects and neighbours certaine it is it cannot long endure for people that have either heart or spirit in them cannot long endure to be handled like slaves Heereunto serveth the advice of that noble and sage companie of the ancient Senators of Rome There was a neighbour unto the Romanes which were called the Titus Livi. lib. 8. Dec. 1. Privernates upon which the Romanes made warre and many times vanquished them They seeing it was impossible any more to make head against the Romane forces sent embassadors to Rome for peace they were caused to enter into the place where the Senate did sit and because they had not well observed the precedent treatie of peace some Senators seemed hard to draw to give their cause any hearing thinking it a vaine thing to accord a peace unto such as would not keepe any notwithstanding some demanded of those embassadors what punishment they judged themselves to haue merited which had so often broken the precedent peace One of them speaking for all and remembring rather the condition of their birth than of their present estate answered That the Privernates merited the punishment that they deserve which esteeme themselves worthie of a free condition and which have a slavish condition This answere seemed to some Senators too hautie and unbeseeming vanquished people yet the president of the assembly who was a wise man benignly demanded
that if Sertorius had not been slaine of his own people he had sooner overcome Pompeius than he him Yet Sertorius was but a simple souldier who had neither silver nor treasure he had no authoritie to command neither did any obey him against their wils Spartacus also was but a poore slave which escaping from his master gathered together a great number of people and made strong warre upon the Romanes whom hee many times vanquished And but that Pompeius and Crassus with great armies were greatly busied to hinder his desseignes he had made himselfe master of Italie And was not Cleon another poore slave yet gathered under his conduction an armie of 70 thousand other slaves wherewith he had like to have gotten all Sicilie And Viriatus was but a shepheard on the mountaines of Spaine and gathering together a great number of shepheards and theeves he made infinit worke for the Romanes yet in the end certaine Romane captains sent against him not being able otherwise to overcome him caused him traiterously to be slaine This the Senat found not good but greatly blamed those captains which overcame by so villanous a meane After Viriatus was slaine his people disbanded not but still made warre upon the Romanes insomuch as the Romanes were constrained to give unto them to appease them the towne and territorie of Valence in Spaine to inhabite and so they were satisfied and gave over their armes Of late memorie Philibert de Chaton Prince of Orange Antonie de Leva Andrew Doria the Marquis of Mantua and many others whereof we have spoken in other places which revolted against king Francis the first and did him more hutt than all the forces of the emperour Charles the fift yet were they no great lords in comparison of the king Therefore he which is a wise prince will estimate no enemie to be pettie and little but will guard himselfe from justly offending any man fearing least by that meanes hee procure enemies For enmities will come too fast on a man before hee lookes for them As for that hee saith That the Romanes had colonies in countries which they Titus Livi. lib. 10. Dec. 1. lib 7. Dec. 3. lib. 8. Dec. 4. conquered they did it not to serve their turnes as fortresses in that countrey as Machiavell saith but to disburden the citie of Rome of their too great a multitude of people which were still stirring up rebellions and seditions in their towne as in the time of the consulship of Marcus Valerius and Quintus Apuleius The towne saith Titus Livius was brought to a great quiet and tranquilitie by discharging it of a great part of the common people by deduction of colonies which when they were sent into any countrey that the Romanes had conquered the publick and common fields were divided amongst them yet the old inhabitants were not chased away neither were their goods taken from them but only mingled with the Romans goods which dwelt with them in their townes in houses they themselves builded or els which were publicke and conquered to the Roman commonweale The Romans also set up colonies as a multiplication of their race but not to serve them for fortresses in conquered countries and that it was so appears because they erected not colonies in all the countries they conquered no not in the most strongest places but rather in the amplest fattest and fertilest places These said colonies also were no more faithfull unto them than the other subjects but often rebelled as well as others as was seene after the battaile that the Romanes lost at Cannas against Anniball for then twelve Roman colonies revolted from them and entred league with Anniball And it is commonly seene that citizens transported into other countreyes doe incontinent degenerate taking the manners and conditions of the countrie as came to passe in the townes of Alexandria in Aegipt Seleucia in Siria Babilon in Parthia which were colonies of the Macedonians and to the towne of Tarentum a colonie of the Lacedaemonians for all these foresaid townes were straight despoiled of the manners natures and the originall generositie of their nation and became soft effeminate and cowardly as they were into whose countries they were removed A great and memorable calamitie fell to Philip king of Macedonie by removing Titus Livi. lib. 10. Dec. 4. to other places the naturall inhabitants of the maritime and sea townes of his countrey This king fearing to enter into warre with the Romanes because many of his neighbours went to complaine of him to the Senat of Rome thought it good to stand upon his guard and something distrusting the inhabitants of such townes as were nigh the sea hee tooke away from thence the naturall inhabitants and gave them grounds in Emathia to dwell in and in their places planted the inhabitants of Thracia in whom he trusted This caused in all Macedonie a great discontentment for every one saw to their great griefe their ancient poore dislodged carrying their children on their shoulders weeping and lamenting their calamities and making exercations and imprecations against the king that it might so happen to the king and his race to bee driven from his kingdome and countrey The king being advertised of this universall murmuration began to enter into a distrust of every man and especially of the children of certaine gentlemen which hee had caused to die and hee feared that the saide children making use of the peoples discontentment should attempt some enterprise against him and therefore determined to have seased certaine young children of the slaine gentlemen for his better assurance Theoxena the widdow of a great lord which was slaine by the king called Herodicus resolved rather to make die the children of her and her dead husband than that they should come into the hands and power of the king So she resolved to save her-selfe and them at Athens and yet if the worst fell she provided good swords poisons after shee was embarked with her children to obtaine the towne of Athens shee was followed by another boate of the kings people which when shee saw that they rowed with great dilligence to the barke wherein shee was Loe said she my childen you have now no other meanes to shun the tyrannie of king Philip but death which you may see shewing the swords and the poison chuse which you had rather die on either on sharpe whetted swords or to swallow this poison on my children let the eldest shew themselves most hardy and couragious This exhortation persuaded so much that they slew themselves some with swords some with poyson then she caused them all to fall into the water even when they yet had breath and cast her-selfe after them Straight the kings people ioyned to the barke but they found it emptie of the persons they looked for The crueltie of this fact added a new flame of envie and evill will towards the king so that it seemed to every one they heard the infernall furies preparing themselves to bring
upon the king and his race the imprecations which all the world made against him and indeede it came to passe by the just judgement of God that as this poore gentlewoman had caused her owne children to or die so Philip made to dye by poison his lawfull sonne Demetrius a prince of exceeding great towardnesse by the false accusation of Perseus his bastard-sonne After certaine time this king having discovered that by a false accufation he had murdered his owne sonne hee would needes disinherite the bastard Perseus and beeing continually tormented with the shaddow and resemblance of his sonne Demetruis which his conscience alwaies brought before his eies he dyed desperately detesting execrating that wicked Perseus This Perseus then his only sonne which remained to succeede him in his kingdome after a few yeeres raigne was taken prisoner by the Romanes and led in a triumph to Rome where hee miserably dyed in a prison So the imprecations and curses which the poore people chased from their countrey and goods by the king had poured out against him and his race fell upon him and his Is not this an example to make the haires to stand upright on princes heads when men persuades them to dispossesse naturall inhabitants of their countrie and goods yet at this day are there too many Machiavelists which say It is good to chase away the naturall inhabitants of France or at the least from certaine places and corners to people them with some race that is good faithfull and loyall as Italians Lombards yea what wants thereof an Italian colonie in the towne of Lyons for besides that a great part of the inhabitants are Italians and that other people of the countrey conforme themselves by little little to their actions behaviours manner of life and language that scant shall you finde any so vile or paltrie an artisan but hee will studie to speake Italian for these magnificall Machiavelists will give no countenanee nor willingly heare any but such as use their owne language by that meanes seeking to bring credit both to themselves and their tongue The townes also of Paris Marseille Grenoble and many others of France are they not full of Italians 4. Maxime A Prince in a country newly conquered must subvert and destroy all such as suffer great losse in that conquest and altogether root out the blood and the race of such as before governed there MEn saith Machiavell doe vvillingly change their lords thinking Cap. 3. of a Prince to amend themselves and this opinion commonly makes them revolt but most commonly they find themselves deceived seeing by experience themselves in vvorse case than before Wherfore to such such kinds of revoltings a prince ought to take out of the vvay all such as he thinks are displeased vvith the change by any enormious or great losse that hee hath suffered For I am persuaded saith he that all men of good iudgement hold this without doubt that the estate of a prince or commonweale cannot long endure in a countrey unlesse all such be taken away which for some great harme they have sustained by the change are contrarie unto him And herein Lewis the twelfth king of Fraunce dealt not vvisely therefore in as little time lost he the dutchie of Millane as before hee had conquered it For the Milanois found themselves deceived in opinion and frustrated of the advantages and commodities which they looked for at his hands and also could not suffer the proud handling of that new prince here vvas then his fault that he tooke not away all male-contents vvhich suffered losse in the change and especially because hee utterly rooted not out the race of the Sforces But Caesar Borgia did not thus for having occupied Romania of all the lords that he had dispossessed hee left not one alive that he could catch and very few escaped Therefore it is better to follow the example of Borgia than of king Lewis For sometimes it succeeds not vvell to imitate the best men For it vvas domageable to Pertinax and Alexander Severus to imitate the mildnesse and bountie of Marcus Antonius and to Caracalla Commodus and Maximine that they desired to resemble Severus MAchiavell meaning to shew that his purpose tendeth and aimeth onely to instruct a prince in all sorts of tyrannie giveth Dionisius Halic lib. 4. him heere a precept which in old time Thrasibulus the Milesian gave to Periander a tyrant of Corinth by Tarquine the proud king of Rome to Sextus his sonne For Periander having tyrannouslie obtained the domination of the crowne of Corinth where he had no right fearing some conspiration against him sent a messenger to Thrasibulus his great friend to desire his counsell and advice how to bee assured master and lord of Corinth Thrasibulus made him no answere by mouth but commanding the messenger to follow him he went into a field full of ripe corne and taking of the highest eares there the most eminent hee brused them betwixt his hands and wished the messenger to returne to Periander his master saying no more unto him As soone as Periander heard speake of brusing of the most ancient eares of corne hee presently conceiued the meaning thereof to wit to overthrow and take out of the way all the great men of Corinth which suffered any losse and were grieved at the change of the Estate as indeed he did As much did Sextus Tarquinius the sonne of Tarquinius the proud for hee making a countenance of some great discontentment with his father for his great crueltie towards him purposely caused a fame secretly to runne to the Gabinians then his fathers enemies that for his safegard hee would flye unto them if it pleased them to receive him and would bring with him a good troupe of his servants and friends These poore Gabinians not suspecting the intelligence betwixt the father and the sonne sent him word hee should bee very welcome Hee failed not with a good troupe by stealth to goe thither where ariving they welcommed him and because hee gave them to understand that hee would make warre upon his father to revenge the injurie done by his father to him them they elected him their captaine As soone as hee saw his foote in hee secretly sent a messenger to his father to let him understand what command hee had in the towne and to send him word what hee should doe The abovesaid Tarquin led the messenger into a garden where amongst many other hearbs then growne up to seede there were great store of poppie whose highest heads he struck of a pace with a little staffe he had in his hand and made no other answere to the messenger who returning to Gabium told Sextus his fathers actions so as hee well understood what he should doe Then made hee the people understand That Antistius Petra the chiefe lord and magistrate of the Gabinians with certaine of his complices had conspired to deliver him to Tarquin his father either dead or
such people I know men had neede take heede for although for a time they dissemble their choller and their appetite to vengeance yet will they not faile to discover it as soone as they see a commodious time to bee revenged with advantage But all Princes resemble little the Tarquines or Pope Iulius whereof Machiavell speaketh For Tarquin who enterprised to sley king Servius Tullius his father in law to obtaine the kingdome of Rome shewed well by that act and many other that hee was a very tyrant His end was also such as commonly tyrants have for he was driven from his kingdome which hee had unduly and unjustly usurped and was compelled to passe the rest of his daies in great povertie as a private person banished from Rome with all his children And as for Pope Iulius hee was knowne for a true and disloyall tyrant who greatlie abused the bountie of king Lewis the twelfth For that good king tooke from the Bentivolians Boloigne and many other townes from such pettie lords as occupied them and delivered them into the popes hands because they were lands belonging to the Romane church Yet in recompence this good Pope by published bulls exposed the whole kingdome of Fraunce for a prey to whomsoever would take it together with all the countries and lands of the allies of Fraunce and so Iohn de Albert king of Navarre lost his kingdome and king Lewis lost Millaine and almost all that hee held beyond the mountaines as wee have said in another place And this was the recompence the king received for all his benefits of this disloyall and wicked Pope of whom in his time was made a Pasquil at Rome and registred in our annales which in this sort speakes to his holinesse Of Gennua thy father was from Greece thy mother came A child then borne upon the sea what good in thee can bee Genuais deceivers are Greekes huge lyers are by fame No faith in sea thou hold'st these points most fully all in thee 7. Maxime A Prince ought to propound unto himselfe to imitate Caesar Borgia the sonne of Pope Alexander the sixt IT is not possible for me saith M. Nicholas to give better Cap. 14. Of the Prince precepts to a new prince than to lay before his eyes for an example the acts of Caesar Borgia duke de Valentinois sonne of Pope Alexander the sixt And although his affaires little prospered yet it vvas not vvholly his fault but rather the malignitie of an extraordinarie Fortune First then by the meanes of the Pope his father he troubled all the Estates of Italie that he might the more assuredly seize upon part of them A thing he easily effected For at the instigation of the Pope his father and of the Venetians the king of Fraunce Lewis the twelfth passed into Italie and so soone as he arrived at Millaine hee gave succours to the Pope to subiugate Romania vvhich straight vvas reduced under the hands of Borgia for the reputation of the French puissance Secondly because at Rome there were two mightie factions the Colonoise and the Vrsine against whose enterprises he feared they would oppose themselves hee got on his side the Vrsine faction by faire vvords and promises by the meanes wherof hee beat downe the French forces and overthrew the Colonois This being done he gained the gentlemen as vvell of the one faction as of the other honestly according them retaining them in his house giving them governments of townes and other honorable charges after their merites and qualities insomuch as in a little time the Vrsine and Colonois faction remained vvithout cheefetaines After this by faire and sweet vvords accompanied vvith good presents he caused the Vrsines to come to him unto Synagyllia vvhich being once together in his hands he slew them all Having thus suppressed those two factions and seeing himselfe peaceable and all Romania and in the dutchie of Vrbin to make himselfe feared to represse the insolencies of the pettie lords of that countrey hee sent thither for governour Messiere Remiro Dorco a severe and cruell man unto vvhom he gave full power Who exercising his crueltie committed many executions by meanes vvhereof he vvith feare made all the countrey tremble and so as peaceable and obedient as might be What then did Borgia To make the vvorld beleeve that such cruell executions vvere not done by his command nor by his consent suddainly he caused publickely the head of Messier Romiro to be cut off after this being afraid of the Frenchmen he refused any more to be served with the French forces so he put them away and to assure himselfe against them he sought alliance vvith the Spaniards vvhich then made vvarre in the kingdome of Naples and so were farther off to hurt him than the French which abode at Millaine Besides all this he put to death all the lords which hee had wronged and all their generation and very few escaped least a new Pope after his father should take occasion to warre upon him to reestablish those lords or their posteritie in their heritage as for the Lords which hee had not offended hee drew them almost all on his side to help him to bridle a new Pope that hee might not enterprise any thing against him his purpose was to make himselfe lord of all Tuscane and after lord of all Italie And already hee had under his protection Pise and Sienna and Luca inclined unto him But Pope Alexander his father dyed and failed him at his neede so that his domination beeing yet as a thing hanging in the ayre which was nothing solide Pope Julius the eleventh easily dispoyled him Borgia seeing that fortune which before had shewed him so good a countenance turned her backe and prooved so maligne and contrary unto him fell sicke and dyed and upon his death bed hee said He had prevented and thought upon all inconveniences that might happen unto him but death which hee never supposed would so soone have come IS not heere a gallant life and a goodly hystorie to propose for princes to imitate or rather a marke of Gods just judgement Caesar Borgia an example of Gods judgement which wee see hee ordinarily exerciseth against such detestable tyrants which by all manner of cruelties and disloyalties seeke to dominier For God in the end brings all their desseignes and goodly enterprises into smoke and makes them die in languishment and confusion and in displeasure that they have ever lived to see themselves falne into a mockerie and reproch with all the world by their wicked enterprises Yet this is not all for dying full of all vices not grieved for the evils they have done but rather for that they had no meanes nor leisure to doe more mischiefe they depart from this languishing life to goe suffer eternall paines by the just judgement of God who yeeldeth to the wicked persevering in their vices the reward of their merit Is not this wicked Borgia a faire example to us who at his
great care to see himselfe in reputation to be cruell so that thereby he maintaine his people in a faithfull union and obedience For the cruell and rigorous executions of a prince doe but privately hurt certaine particulars which ought not to be feared and the two great lenitie of a pitifull prince is the cause of infinit evils which grow up and engender in their kingdomes as murderes thefts and other like Insomuch as a man may well say that a pitifull prince is cause of more evills than a cruell prince The example of the emperour Severus may serve vs for proofe heereof for hee was very cruell and by his crueltie overcame Albinus Niger the most part of their friends so wrought himselfe a peaceable empire which hee long time held beeing well obeyed and reverenced of all the world I Have heeretofore shewed how Caesar Borgia by his crueltie obtained for enemies almost all the potentates of Italie and thereby so well assured his estate that incontinent as his father was dead he was invironed with enemies destitute of friends despoiled of the lands he had usurped and constrained to hide himselfe to save his life This tragicall issue accordeth not very well with that which Machiavell heere maintaineth saying Bâ—rgia was erected by the credit of his father not by his crueltie That the crueltie of Borgia was the cause that hee got the peaceable domination of Romania For to say truth it was not his crueltie which easilie might have beene resisted Borgia of himselfe beeing without power but it was the favour and feare of the pope his father who commanded the French powers and made himselfe feared of all christian princes For at that time men feared more the popes simple buls than at this day they feare either the keies of S. Peter or the sword of S. Paul which hee said hee had or all his fulminations excommunications agravations reagravations interdicts anathematizations or all the forces and meanes hee can make And who would make account of all those at this day seeing even the Romanes themselves make but a mocke of them But in the time of Alexander Borgia yea in the time of Pope Iulius the eleaventh his successor all that the Pope would and ordained was held of christian princes for an ordinance as from the mouth of God yea even when the Pope ordained things manifestly wicked as when Iulius delivered as a prey the whole kingdome of France and the lands of the kings allies For the king of England of Arragon and the emperour Maximilian beleeved all that it was a sufficient cause to set upon the king and his allies and that it was even as an expresse commandement of God The world then and even princes being then overtaken with that beastly superstition and follie wee neede not bee abashed that Caesar Borgia had the meanes to possesse Romania under the shadow and favour of the Pope his father that with the aide of the king of France and it was plainly seene that that good hap to subjugate Romania proceeded from favour and not from crueltie as Machiavell saith because as soone as that favour ceased all his case was overthrowne and it was straight seene that his utter ruine arived as is said I doe then maintaine cleane contrary from the Maxime of Machiavell and say That crueltie is a vice which ordinarily bringeth â—o princes the ruine of them their estates and that clemencie and gentlenes is the true meanes to maintaine and establish a prince firme and assured in his estate For proofe heereof reasons are cleare and manifest for wee call crueltie all executions which are committed upon men their lands and goods without any forme of justice or against all right and equitie heereupon it followeth that as violence is directly contrarie to right and equitie so also is crueltie and that crueltie is no other thing but manifest violence But according to the Maximes even of philosophers No violent thing can endure So it followeth that an estate founded upon cruelty cannot long endure Moreover crueltie is alwaies hated of every one for although it bee not practised upon all particulars but upon some onely yet they upon whom it is not exercised cease not to feare when they see it executed upon their parents friends allies and neighbours But the feare of paine and punishment engendreth hatred for one can never love that whereof hee feares to receive evill especiallie when there is a feare of life losse of goods and honours which are the things wee hold most precious and of that which wee hate wee by the same meanes desire the losse and entier ruine and search out procure and advance it with all our power But it is impossible when all a people shooteth at one same marke that a tyrant or cruell prince for all is one can long endure or that hee can doe so much as there shall not arive unto him some disastre or evill fortune And if sometimes it please God to suffer him to live long it is to cause him to take the higher leap that in the end hee may have the sorer fall As wee see it well painted in poets tragoedies where many tyrants are seene which enduring long time have done no other thing during the space of their life but knit cordes fasten gallowes in some imminent places whet swords and daggers temper poisons for afterward to drinke the poison to stab the dagger in their bosomes or hang themselves on the gibet in the sight of all the world which laughing and mocking them say it is well employed we must not say that such tragoe dies are but poeticall fictions for hystories are full of such tragicall ends of tyrants which have delighted to shed their subjects bloud and to handle them cruellie Cruell people are commonly cowards This vice of crueltie proceeding from the weaknesse of such as can not command their choller and passions of vengeance and suffer themselves to bee governed by them never happened in a generous and valiant heart but rather alwaies in cowardly and fearefull hearts Therfore when one day one advertised the emperour Mauricius that the captaine Phocas entended and wrought evill against him and another maintained that he was but a coward and too fearefull to bring any thing to passe the emperour Mauricius answered So much the more ought I to take heed for those cowardly and fearefull people when they enterprise a crueltie and that they have advantage they can never hold any measure therein And this vice of crueltie saith Marcellinus may be called the ulcer of the soule proceeding of Amian Mar. lib. 27. feeblenesse of the mind and cowardise of the heart And therefore sicke and diseased people are more chollericke than they that are in health and miserable and desperate men more than they which are at their ease and contented And hereupon saith Marcellinus that the cause why Valentinian was a cruell man came because of the choller which
But if any demand how diviners and astrologers could so justly foretell the death of the emperour Domitian I answere that we must beleeve that this said prediction was not by art or science but the evill spirit would give boldnesse of enterprising unto Domitians enemies in making them know by frivolous divinations his fatall houre that they might beleeve the starres and heaven to aid their enterprise And God above who serves himselfe with such meanes as pleaseth him to exercise his justice gives efficacie to the spirit of error The same effect came of the divination of Caracalla for it was the cause that Macrinus enterprised to sley him although he never before thought of it till the astrologers declared their divination nay he would never have done that enterprise if that divination had not constrained and drawne him unto it Master Philip de Comines reciteth to this purpose a very memorable hystorie that happened in his time He saith there was at Naples a king called Alphonsus a bastard of the house of Arragon who was marvellous cruell a traitour and dangerous for none could know when he was angry he could so well manage his countenance yea and often betray men as he made them good cheare and he was a man wherein there was neither grace nor mercie neither had hee any compassion of the poore people This king Alphonsus had a sonne also as wicked as he called Ferrand who had found means to bring before him under his fathers assurance many princes and barons of the countrey to the number of foure and twentie and amongst them the prince de Rosane his brother in law having married his sister all which hee caused to be imprisoned notwithstanding the faith and assurance which he had given them insomuch as some remained foure or five and twentie yeares prisoners As soone as the king Alphonsus was dead and Ferrand his sonne was king the first thing hee did at his comming to the crowne was to massacre all those said great princes and barons which he himselfe had imprisoned during his fathers life by a Moorean slave of Affrica which he rewarded and straight after the execution sent him into his countrey This king Ferrand or Ferdinand having newes of the said murder as the king of Fraunce Charles the eight enterprised the conquest of Naples judging himselfe unworthie to be king because of his great and abhominable cruelties sent embassadors to the king to agree and to be at an accord with him offering to yeeld himselfe tributarie to the crowne of Fraunce to hold the kingdome of Naples of him and to pay him 50000 crownes yearely But the king who knew there was no fidelitie in the Arragonian race of Naples would enter into no treatie with the king Ferdinand who being in dispaire to be ever able to hold that kingdome against the king of Fraunce having his owne subjects his enemies died for sorrow and dispaire and left his sonne Alphonsus his successor This Alphonsus the new king was as wicked as his father and had alwayes shewed himselfe pittilesse and cruell without faith without religion and without all humanitie insomuch as perceiving that king Charles approched Rome his conscience also judging himselfe to be an unworthy king he resolved to flie into Spain and to professe himselfe a monke in some monasterie But before hee fled hee caused to be crowned king at Naples a young sonne of his called Ferdinand who was not yet hated in the countrey his nailes beeing not yet either strong or long ynough to doe evill This done hee fled into Sicilie and from thence to Valence in Spaine where he tooke the habite of a monke and in a little time after died of an excoriation of gravell But it was marvellous that this cruel tyrant should be so seized of feare as he should go in no good order away but left all his moveable goods and almost all his gold and silver in his castle at Naples And this feare proceeded to him from a faintnesse of heart for as Comines saith never cruell man was hardie And when one desired him onely to stay three dayes to packe up his goods No no said he let us quickly depart from hence heare you not all the world crie Fraunce Fraunce Men may see how an evill conscience leaves a man never in quiet This wicked man knowing that by his crueltie hee had procured the hatred of his subjects the wrath of God and the enmitie of all the world was tormented in his conscience as of an infernall furie which ever after fretted his languishing soule in the poore infected and wasted bodie And to end this tragoedie straight after he had saved himselfe the king of Fraunce obtained the kingdome of Naples And a little while after the said young Ferdinand sonne of the said Alphonsus died of a feaver and a flux So that within the space of two yeares God did justice on foure kings of Naples two Alfonses and two Ferdinands because of their strange cruelties which were accompained with disloyall impietie and oppression of subjects for alwaies those keepe company together A like punishment happened by the conduction and judgement of God to that Comines lib. 1 cap. 132. 133. and Bellay lib. 1. of his memories cruell king Richard of England king Edward the fourth his brother This king Edward deceasing left two sonnes and two daughters all yong and in the tutelage and goverment of Richard duke of Glocester his brother This duke desiring for himselfe the crowne of England caused his two nephewes cruelly to be slaine and made a report to goe that by chance they fell of a bridge and so were slaine His two nieces he put into a religion of Nunnes saying they were bastards because saith hee the dead king Edvard their father could not lawfullie espouse their mother for that before hee had promised to espouse a gentlewoman which hee named and the bishop of Bath beeing present protested it was so and the promises of marriage were made betwixt his hands The duke of Glocester having thus dispatched both his nephewes and nieces caused himselfe to be crowned king of England and because many great lords of England murmured at this crueltie this new tyrant king which named himselfe king Richard the third made to die of sundrie deaths all such as hee knew had murmured against him or his tyrannie After all this when hee thought hee had a sure estate in the kingdome it was not long before God raised him up for enemie the earle of Richmond of the house of Lancaster who was but a pettie lord in power without silver and without force who but a little before was detained prisoner in Bretaigne To whom certaine lords of England sent secretly that if he could come into England but with two or three thousand men all the people would come to him make him king of England The earle of Richmond hasted to king Charles the eight then raigning in France by whose permission hee levied people in
his sonne For how durst he punish that vice that hee had learned him therefore this example of Severus serveth little or nothing to maintaine the doctrine of Machiavell neither is one example so considerable against a million of others contrary for men must make a law of that which happeneth most often and in many examples not of that which seldome happeneth When Anniball began to execute evill his businesses in Italie and that the Romanes having taken courage began to follow him neere and to hould him short he tooke a cruell counsell which much advanced his ruine For the townes and fortresses which hee could not guard hee ruinated and destroyed that his enemies after him might not draw any commoditie from them nor make any use of them This was a cause that their courages which tooke part with him were alienated from him for saith Titus Livius Example toucheth men more than doth callamitie and losse It was a great crueltie in the duke Iohn of Bourgoigne when hee durst so much enterprise as to cause to bee slaine the duke of Orleance the kings onely brother Monst lib. 1 cap. 38. 39. 112. which crueltie cost many heads and was cause of infinit evils in the kingdome of France and finallie was the cause that the duke himselfe was massacred on the same manner that hee had caused to massacre the duke of Orleans But yet it is a thing more strange that this duke durst maintaine that he had great neede to commit that massacre Yea he found a doctor in Theologie called master Iohn Petit who durst affirme in tearmes of Theologie that that act was goodly praiseable and worthie of remuneration True it is that in the time wherein wee are there are found many such doctors of the bottle patrons defenders of sinnes and vices such as this Iohn Petit but as in the end hee was knowne to bee a lyer and a slanderer and his propositions condemned hereticall so God will cause his imitators of this time in the end to bee found like him but that the asse may appeare by his eares I have briefely set downe his oration The duke of Bourgoigne having made himselfe the stronger in armes within Paris hee tooke order that there should be held a Counsell and an assembly therein to propose his justifications In which Counsell assisted Monssier le Daulphin the king of Sicile the cardinall of Bar the dukes of Berry of Bretaigne of Lorraine and many contes barons and many other great lordes and the rector of the Vniversitie of Paris accompanied with many doctors clearkes and bourgesses There was brought in by an usher master Iohn Petit a doctor in Theologie before all those nobles to justifie the act of the duke of Bourgoigne After then they had given him audience with both his hands hee tooke off his great square doctorall bonnet from off his head and began to speake in this manner My most redoubted lordes Monseignior the duke of Bourgiogne contie of Flanders and Arthois twise peere of France An oration of a doctor in Divinity and deane of Peares is come before the most noble most high Majestie royall as to his soveraigne lord to doe him reverence in all obedience as he is bound by foure obligations which commonly are set downe by doctors in Theologie and of the cannon civile law Of which bonds the first is of neighbour to his neighbour the second of parent towards his parent the third of vassaile towards his lord and the fourth will bee that the subject not onely offend not his lord but also revenge such offences as are done against him There are yet other obligations that is That the king hath done much good honour to my lord of Bourgoigne For it pleased him that Monseignior le Daulphin should espouse his daughter that the son of my said lord of Bourgoigne should marry madame Michelle daughter to his royall majesty and as S. Gregorie saith Cum crescunt dona crescunt rationes donorum that is when gifts encrease so doe their obligations also All these obligations are cause that my lord of Bourgoigne hath caused to slay the duke of Orleance lately dead which act was perpetrated for the very great good of the kings person of his children and of all the realme as I shall so sufficiently shew as every man shall bee satisfied For the said Monseignior of Bourgoigne hath charged me by expresse commandement to propose his justification which thing I durst not denie for two causes The first because I am bound to serve him by an oth taken of mee three yeeres agoe The second because hee hath given mee a good and great portion every yeere to keepe mee at schole because hee considered I was smally benificed which pension did mee great good towards my expences and yet will so doe mee long if it please God and my said lord of Bourgoigne But when I consider the great matter I have taken in hand to handle before this noble companie great feare troubleth my heart for I know I am of small sense feeble of spirit and of a poore memorie so that my tongue and memory flieth away and that small sence I was wont to have hath now altogether left mee so that I see no other remedie but to commend mee to my God and creator and to his glorious mother to Monseigneur S. Iohn the Evangelist prince of Theologians And therefore I humbly beseech you my most redoubted lords all this companie if I say any thing which is not well said to attribute it to my simplenesse and ignorance that I may say with the Apostle Ignorans feci ideoque miserecordiam consecutus sum that is I did it of ignorance and therefore am I pardoned But some may here make a question saying It appertaineth not to a Theologian to make the said justification but rather to a jurist I answer That then it belongeth nothing to me which am neither the one nor the other but a poore ignorant man as I have sayd whose sence and memorie faileth yet a man may say and maintaine it That it well belongeth to a doctor in Theologie to defend his master and to say and preach the truth Men need not then be abashed if I lend my pore tongue to my lord and maister who hath nourished me For it is now in his great need that I lend him my tongue they that love me the lesse for it I thinke they commit a great sinne and hereof every man of reason will excuse me Then to begin this Iustification I take my theame upon that which S. Paul saith Radix omnium malorū cupidit as quam quidam appetentes erraverunt à fide These words are in the first to Timothie the sixt chapter and are thus englished Ladie Covetousnesse of all evils is the root which makes men disloyall Some may object to me that pride is the first of all sinnes because Lucifer by his pride fell from Paradice into hell and also
king how vicious soever he be but alwaies impute vices and faults to some of his governors and Counsellors rather than to him Truly if princes had alwaies good men about them they could never bee vicious at the least to the detriment of the Commonwealth Therefore by good right men do impute the evill government of a countrey rather to a princes Counsellors than to himselfe as we have proved in another place 10. Maxime A Prince ought not to trust in the amitie of men MEn generally saith Machiavell are full of ingratitude variable Cap. 17. of a Prince dissemblers flyers from dangers and covetous of gaine and so long as they profit by thee so long thou maiest hold them in thy lap and they will offer thee their lives goods and all they have even when there is no neede but in a necessitie they will turne their garment and away So that a prince which leaneth upon such a rampire shall at the first fall into ruine yea they vvill sooner be offended when a man will use love tovvards them than if by rigour hee seeke to bee feared because men make lesse accompt to offend him vvhich useth him gently and lovingly than him of vvhom they are afraid Because amitie is onely founded upon some obligation vvhich easily may bee broken but feare is founded upon a feare of punishment vvhich never forsakes the person AS well this Maxime as the former is a plain tyrannous precept For as saith the Poet Aeschilus No friend to trust what common more Amian Marcell lib. 16. Each tyrant hath this ill in store This is the reason why Denis the tyrant of Sicile caused a strong house to be built where he dwelt environed with deepe ditches full of water on all sides over which there was no entrie but a draw bridge which was every night taken in by himselfe and certaine lose planks of the bridge brought into his bed chamber which ever the next morning hee carried himselfe to the bridge againe Hee caused also his daughters to learne to bee barbars to poule and trimme his head and beard and all this did he because hee durst trust no man in the world to doe those things Yet Commodus a cruell tyrant also used another more Lamp in Commod sure receit For trusting no man with his haire of head or beard hee himselfe burnt them with a candle I leave you to thinke if such people bee miserable whose consciences are tormented in such sort that it judgeth them worthie to have all the world for a capitall enemie in such sort as they dare put no confidence in any but are in continuall feare and torment Far contrarie from this doctrine of Machiavell is the exhortation which Misipsa â—aâ—ust in bello Iugurth the good king of Numidia gave a little before his death to Iugurtha and his other children admonishing them amongst themselves to maintaine a good amitie and concord It is not sayth he puissant armies nor great treasures by the meanes of which a prince ought to conserve and maintaine his estate but by his friends which are not acquired either by force of armes or by gold silver but by good offices loialtie But who ought to be a more loiall friend than one brother to another or whome can he trust who shall be an enemie to his owne blood I leave you a kingdome firme and assured if you be good but feeble and weake if you be wicked for by concord small things encrease but by discord great things fall to ruine Behold a breefe exhortation but very weightie to shew how necessarie it is to have good friends and to maintaine good amity and loyaltie amongest parents Like unto this is the oration which Silla made to king Boccus of Mauritania Wee are very joyfull said hee that thou rather seekest to bee a friend than an enemie of the Romane people for even from her birth the Romane people being poore have alwaies better loved to acquire friends than slaves servants have ever thought it more assured to command voluntary people than any by constraint King Boccus then cannot chuse a better amity than ours which can both favour thee aide thee will never hurt thee to say truth neither we nor any other can have too many friends The amitie and friends which a prince may obtaine by a good and just government may serve so to assure him of every man in his estate that hee shall have neede of no guard if hee thinke good to bee rid of them as did that good emperour Traian who often went to visit see his friends onely accompanied with foure Dion in Traian or five gentlemen without any guard of souldiers The like did the ancient kings of France which knew not that kind of guard wee have now of gunners and halberdiers but ordinarily marched without other companie than gentlemen which onely bare their swords about them Amitie saith Cicero is the true bonde of all humane societie and whosoever will take amitie from amongst men as Machiavell doth from amongst princes he seekes to take away all pleasure solace contentment and assurance that can bee amongst humane creatures For the friend is another our selfe with whom wee rejoyce in our prosperitie and our joy encreaseth when wee have unto whom to communicate it for wee are also comforted with him in our adversitie and sorrowes and our sadnesse is more than halfe diminished when wee have upon whom to discharge by amiable communication the bitternesse of our heart Moreover although wee bee sometimes blind in our owne causes yet our friend marketh our faults and kindly sheweth them unto us and giveth us good counsell in our affaires which we cannot take of our selves Briefely humane life without amitie seemes no other thing then a sad widowage destitute of the chiefe sweetnesse and comfort that can bee gathered in humane societie as Cicero Plutarch and other great philosophers have learnedly discoursed unto which I send them which will more amply understand the good and utilitie of Amitie I will not denie but many such friends will bee found like them whereof Machiavell speaketh which will seeme to bee our friends as long as they hope to draw any profit from us and which will make us faire offers when they see we have neede but will turne their backes in our necessities There are indeede but too many such and wee are but too often deceived with them yet wee may not disdaine the good for the evill neither may wee defame friendship for the vices and incommodities which accompanie it For amongst corne commonly growes darnell and amongst wholesome hearbs some are venemous which in outward shew seeme to bee faire and good yet men may not cast away a thing so necessarie as corne for the feare to finde darnell or drauke in it nor the wholesome hearbs for such as bee venemous But wee must seeke as much as may bee to know and to separate that which is evill
by Machiavell which maintaineth his subjects in division and partialitie and which seekes to sley all them which love the commonweale and which desire a good reformation a good policie in the commonweale There are also other tokens and markes whereby to know a tyrant as them which wee have before alledged out of doctor Bartolus and them also which hystoriographers have marked to have been in Tarquin the proud For they say when he changed his just and royall domination Dioni Halic lib. 4. into a tyrannicall government he became a contemner and a despiser of al his subjects as well the meane people as the nobilitie and Patritians he brought a confusion and a corruption into justice he tooke a greater number of waiting servants into his guard than his predecessors had he tooke away the authoritie from the assembly of the Senate which it alwaies before had moreover hee dispatched criminall and civile causes after his fancie and not according to right hee cruelly punished such as complained of that change of estate as conspirators against him he caused many great and notable persons to die secretly without any forme of justice hee imposed tributes upon the people against the auncient forme and regalitie to the impoverishing and oppression of some more than of others hee had also spies to discover what was said of him and afterward punished rigorously such as had blamed either him or his government These be the colours wherewith the hystories do paint Tarquin when of a king he became a tyrant and these are ordinarily the colours and liverie of all tyrants banners whereby they may be knowne It seemeth that Tarquin forgot nothing of all that a tyrant could doe but that he slew not Brutus which was a fault in the art of tyrannie as learnedly Machiavell noteth it which fell to bee his ruin But the cause hereof was that Brutus in the court counterfeted the foole wherby Tarquin had no suspition of him For none but wise men and good people are suspect and greevous to tyrants but as for counterfeting fooles unthrifts flatterers bauds murderers inventors of imposts and such like dregs and vermine of the people they are best welcome into tyrants courts yet even amongst them are not tyrants alwaies without danger for amongst such fooles sometimes happeneth a Brutus who at last will plat out their ends so that ever their lives hangs by a small thred as Denis the tyrant sayth But the example of Hieronimus another tyrant of Sicilie is to this purpose well to be noted This Hieronimus was the sonne of a good and wise king called Hiero whom also they well called tyrant because he came not to that estate by a legitimate title although he exercised it sincerely and in good justice who when he died left this Hieronimus his sonne very young and under age For the government therefore of him and of his affaires he gave him fifteene tutors and amongst them Andronodorus and Zoilus his sonnes in law and one Thraso which he charged to maintaine the countrey of Sicilie in peace as he himselfe had done by the space of fiftie yeares of his raigne but especially that they should maintaine the treatie and confederation which he had all the length of his time duly observed with the Romanes The said tutors promised to performe his request and to change nothing in the estate but altogether to follow his footsteps Straight after Hiero was dead Andronodorus being angry because of so many tutors caused the king who was then but 15 yeares old to be proclaimed of sufficient age to bee dismissed of tutors and so dispatched himselfe as well as others of that dutifull care they ought to have had of their king and countrey After he got to himselfe alone the government of the kingdome and to make himselfe to bee feared under the kings authoritie hee tooke to him a great number of waiters for his guard and to weare purple garments and a diademe upon his head and to goe in a coach drawne with white horses altogether after the manner of Denis the tyrant and contrary to the use of Hieronimus yet was not this the worst for besides all this Adronodorus caused the yong king his brother in law to bee instructed in pride and arrogancie to contemne every man to give audience to no man to bee quarelous and to take advantage at words of hard accesse given to all new fashions of effeminacie and riotousnesse and to bee unmeasurable cruell thirstie after bloud After Andronodorus had thus framed to his minde this yong king a conspiration was made against him unto which Andronodorus was consenting to dispatch and sley him but it was discovered but yet executed which A conjuration discovered yet executed was strange For one Theodorus was accused and confessed himselfe to bee one of the conspiracie but being tortured and racked to confesse his complices and parteners in that conspiracie knowing he must needs die and by that meanes desiring to be revenged of that yong tyrant he accused the most faithfull and trustiest servants of the king This young tyrant rash inconsiderat straight put to death his friends and principal servants by the counsell of Andronodorus who desired nothing more because they hindered his deseignes This execution performed incontinent this yong tyrant was massacred and slain upon a straight way by the conspirators themselves which before had made the conjuration the execution whereof was the more easie by the discoverie thereof because as is said the tyrants most faithfull friends and servants were slaine Soone after the tyrants death Andronodorus obtained the fortresse of Siracuse a towne of Sicilie but the tumults and stirres which he raised in the countrey as he thought for his owne profit fell out so contrarie to his expectation that finally he his wife and all their race and the race of Hieronimus were extermined as well such as were innocent as they that were culpable And so doth it ordinarily happen to all young princes which by corruption are degenerated into tyrants So fals it out also to all them which are corrupters of princes to draw them into habits of all wickednesse Lastly here would not bee omitted altogether this wickednesse of Machiavell who confounding good and evill together yeeldeth the title of Vertuous unto a tyrant Is not this as much as to call darkenesse full lightsome and bright vice good and honourable and ignorance learned But it pleaseth this wicked man thus to say to plucke out of the hearts of men all hatred horror and indignation which they might have against tyrannie and to cause princes to esteeme tyrannie good honorable and desirable 16. Maxime A Prince may as well be hated for his vertue as for his vice THe emperour Pertinax saith Machiavell vvas elected emperor Cap. 19. Of the prince against the vvils of his men of vvarre vvhich before had customably lived licentiously in all vices and dissolutenesse under the emperour Commodus his predecessor
that which Machiavell prescribeth for by oppressing and causing to die al the conjurators and enemies and all their friends and allies he made himselfe so feared and redoubted that there was not in Rome great or little but he trembled for feare only to heare the name of Nero Such great men whose friends and parents were put to death came and fell downe on their knees before him and thanked him for the good and honour he had done them to have purged and cleansed their parentage and alliance from so wicked men as those he had slaine Others in signe of joy for the death of their friends and parents caused their houses to be hung with lawrell and made sacrifices to the gods to give them thankes for so great a good as was happened unto them They celebrated also great feasts of joy as they had been mariages The Senate also for their part being also in a great terrour ordained there should be processions and publicke sacrifices to yeeld thankes to the gods that this conjuration was discovered yea they caused to be builded and consecrated a chappell to the Sunne in the house where the conjuration was made because it shined to the discoverie therof They builded also a temple to the goddesse Health Nero thinking that all these joyes were true and unfained yet were they but simulations exercised still more and more his butcherie and in the end made himselfe so assured by reason he was feared and redoubted of all the world that he was of opinion that he had obtained the upperhand of all his enemies but it was cleane contrarie For by this strange slaughter with so many other wickednesses whereof hee was full hee brought himselfe into a deadly hatred of all the world insomuch as the provinces of the empire revolted from his obedience one after another and in the end he was abandoned of every man unlesse it were of some foure or five of his meanest servants which kept him companie in his flight untill he had slaine himselfe as is said in another place therfore Nero needed to take no thought how to nourish enemies against himselfe as Machiavell teacheth in this Maxime for hee never wanted a great number as all tyrants have ordinarily And how should not tyrants have good store of enemies seeing even good De Com. lib. 1. cap. 107 108 109 100 111. and wise princes doe not want them To this purpose master Phillip de Comines makes a very good discourse saying That it pleased God to give to all princes kingdomes and common weales an opposit and contrary unto them that both the one and the other might the rather bee held in their duties as England hath Fraunce Scotland hath England Portugall hath Castile Grenado hath Portugall the princes and common weales of Italie are contrarie one to another and so it is of all God hath giveÌ„ to every seignorie his opposit countries and seignories of the earth For if there bee any prince or common-weale which wants his opposite to hould him in feare straight one shall see him fall to a tyrannie and luxuriousnesse Therefore God by his wise providence hath given to every seignorie and to every prince his opposit that one by the feare of an other might be stirred up to a modest and temperate carriage And there is indeed nothing saith hee that better holdeth a prince in his duetie nor which causeth him to walke more upright than the feare of his opposit and contrary For the feare of God nor the love of his neighbour nor reason whereof commonly hee hath no care nor justice for there is none above himselfe nor any other like thing can hold him in his duetie but onely the feare of his contrary After that Comines had dispatched this question hee entreth into another which dependeth heereof What is the cause saith hee that commonly princes and great lords have Princes have not the feare of God nor of charitie for want of Faith not the feare of God nor love to their neighbours He answereth the want of Faith for if a prince beleeved verely the paines of hell to bee such as indeed they are hee would doe no wrong to noe man nor retaine an others goods unjustly For if they beleeved assuredly as it is true and certaine that they are damned in hell and are never like to enter into paradise which retaine other mens goods without making satisfaction or that doe any wrong to any without amends unto him It is not likely there would bee found a prince or princesse in the world or any other person which would with-hold anothers goods were it of his subjects vassailes or neighbour in good earnest or would put any to death wrongfully no not to hold them in prison nor take from one to give to another nor procure any dishonest thing against any person If then they had a firme faith and beleeved the paines of hell to bee horrible and great without other end or remission for the damned knowing againe the shortnesse of this life they would not doe that they doe And for example saith hee when a king or a prince is a prisoner and that hee feareth to die in prison is there any thing so deere in the world which hee would not give to come out Certainely hee would give both his owne and his subjects goods altogether As wee have seene king Iohn of France being taken prisoner by the prince of Wales at the battaile of Poitiers who paied 3000000 of franks for his ransome and acquited to the English all Aquitane or at least as much as they then held and many other cities townes and places all which came to the third part of the kingdome which was thereby brought into great povertie that no coine was there currant but it was made of leather with a little naile of silver in the middest of it And all this gave king Iohn and Charles the sage his sonne for the said kings deliverance out of prison And if they would have given nothing yet the English would not have put him to death but at the worst have kept him in prison And yet if they had caused him to die the paine that hee had suffered had not beene comparable to the thousand part of the least paine in hell Why then did king Iohn give all that hath beene said and so overthrew his children and the subjects of his kingdome because hee beleeved that which hee saw and knew well that otherwise hee could hot bee delivered But you shall not finde a prince or else very few that if hee had a towne of his neighâ—ours would yeeld it for the feare of God or the paines of hell It is then the want of faith because princes beleeve not that God will punish the wrongs they doe to another and that they doe not also beleeve that the paines of hell are horrible and eternall as they are Yet is this certaine that god will punish them as well as other men though not
was then such account made of Faith which they preferred before all difficulties and particular necessities And afterward many times that law of taking away from rich men that which they possessed more than five hundred acres was refreshed brought into question by other Tribunes to have it to passe but it never came to effect yet there arose of it infinite seditions murders pilleries and other innumerable evils A thing which well sheweth that the violation of publicke Faith draweth alwayes with it a great Iliade of evils and Titus â—ivius lib. 3. Dec. 3. calamities The Romanes seeing themselves one day want money for the maintenance of their armies and paiment of souldiers the Senat consulted what provision to make for this want none of them thought it good to impose a taillage or tribute upon the people which would prove very greevous in many sorts at last they all agreed that souldiers must needs be paid For said they if the commonwealth stand not by Faith it cannot stand by riches It were therefore better to spend the good of the commonwealth in loyally paying souldiers wages and so acquite themselves of their Faith towards them than to spare the commonwealth by the failing of Faith and word All the Senat being of this advice expedient then it was as they thought to find money and therefore a charge was given to the Praetor Fulvius in an oration to the people to shew them all their publicke necessities and to exhort such as were growne rich by farming grounds belonging to the commonwealth to lay out some silver for the maintenance of the armie in Spaine Fulvtus so well persuaded that the farmers accorded to lay downe a certaine summe of money as much as was demaunded upon conditions to enjoy their farmes for three yeares and that the commonwealth would take upon them the perils of the sea which might come unto them in their commerces by shipwracks and hostile incursions For they were certaine that such money as they lent to the commonwealth was as assured unto them as in their hands upon the publicke Faith and if the Romanes had not had that good reputation they should not so soon have found money for their need But they that have that vertue Well to observe their word shall never want with whom to contract King Perseus of Macedonie determining to make warre upon the Romanes sent embassadours to the Achaeans a people of Greece and allies of the Romanes to draw them on his side and only required of them a Diet where they were assembled to heare the said embassadors But Callicratides a notable man amongst the Achaeans was of advice That they should give no eare unto that king Perseus nor to his embassadors because the Achaeans had already confirmed an alliance by Faith and oath with the Romans that upon that Faith was founded all the assurance of their estate and that Faith had that propertie that it will not be violated nor suspected in any sort whatsoever And therfore it was a breach of Faith only to affoord audience Faith will neither be violated nor suspected to that king whome they saw plainely prepared to make warre upon the Romanes This reason founded upon the authoritie of publicke States was the cause that nothing was accorded to Perseus And likewise heereunto accordeth the saying of the emperour Antonine That the most lamentable thing in this world is when Faith is broken and violated by friends and without the same no vertue can bee Dion in Marcel assured To this purpose that Faith cannot bee suspected that is notable which Fabius Titus Livins lib. 2. Maximus Dâ—ctator did Anniball being in battaile array nigh Rome conceived this subtile device to ruinate and utterly to destroy all the houses in the fields both for pleasure and for other necessarie uses but onely the houses and commodities appertaining to Fabius And this hee did to bring a suspition upon Fabius that hee had made some secret compact with Anniball against his Faith and dutie Fabius knowing well that it was not sufficient perfectly to observe his Faith but that also he must be exempt from all suspition sent straight his sonne to Rome to sell and rid him of all he had without the towne which he did and so assured his publicke Faith by his particular damage taking from the people all sinister opinion they might take of him And assuredly there is nothing in the world more pleasant than when Faith is sincerely kept even in adversitie and when we have most to doe Therefore the Romanes esteemed such their good and loyall allies as kept their Faith loyally during the time they had warres in hand as did Ptolomeus king of Aegypt when the Romanes had to doe with Anniball and the Carthaginians for he was alwayes firme in the confederation and alliance which he had made with them insomuch as their warre being finished with Anniball they sent embassadors to Ptolomie to thank him for that in their so doubtfull and hazardous affaires his Faith had not altered and to pray him to continue Attalus king of Pergamus in Asia came to the degree of royaltie by his vertue Titus Livius lib. 3. 7. Dec. 4. for he was neither sonne nor successor of a king neither had hee the heroicall vertues of Hercules of Alexander or Caesar to conquer a kingdome yea breefely he had nothing in him saith Titus Livius that could either aid or bring hope unto him at any time to be a king but onely riches which he bestowed and used so well that by the meanes of them and by his fidelitie towards the Pergames he became king of Pergamus after he had once vanquished the Gaules of Asia As soone as he was come to this degree he allied himselfe by confederations with the Romans and alwaies kept his Faith perfect and entire insomuch as well by the integritie and constantnesse of his Faith as by good justice hee raigned foure and fortie yeares and left his kingdome stable and firme to Eumenes his sonne whose domination Fidelitie a good inheritance the Romanes greatly augmented because he continued in his fathers loyaltie who at his death charged him to repute that fidelitie to be the best heritage hee left him There was nothing in the world which the old Romanes had in greater reverence Titus Livius lib. 1. Dec. 1. lib. 4. Dec. 3. and observation than their publicke Faith Therefore had they a temple of Faith where men swore and solemnely promised all their treaties of peace truces confederations alliances and other such like and those who first did violate it were esteemed dedicated to the gods of hell and with a like sinceritie did they also observe their Faiths in particular contracts so that every one thought they could not better assure a debt than in lending to the commonwealth yea when by reason of great wars their treasuries were emptie of money such as had the custodie of pupils and widdowes portions and other
On the other side Artabanus prepared himselfe and his retinue in as good order as was possible without any armie to goe meet his new sonne in law What did this perfidious Caracalla As soone as the two parties were joyned and that king Artabanus came nigh him to saluâ—e and embrace him he commanded his souldiers earnestly to charge upon the Parthians Then straight the Romanes embraced and entertained the unarmed Parthians with great blowes of swords and other armes as enemies and as if there had been an assigned battaile in so much as there was a great slaughter made of the Parthians but the king Artabanus with the help of a good horse escaped with great difficultie and danger So that this simuled and disguised marriage although pleasant to Caracalla and his friends yet were they sorrowfull to many poore Parthians Artabanus beeing saved determined well to revenge himselfe of that villanie and trecherie but Macrinus releeved him of that paine who within a little time after slew that monster Caracalla who was already descryed through all the world because of his perfidie Besides that perfidie and violation of Faith is the cause that none wil beleeve nor Perfidie is the cause of the ruine of the perfidous trust them which once have used it yet proceeds there another upon it which is That breach of Faith is ordinarily cause of the totall destruction ruine of the perfidious and disloyall person The example above alleadged of Anniball may well serve to prove it for his trecherie was first a cause that none would trust him secondly it was the cause that another perfidious person seeing him without friends or meanes enterprised to play another part of perfidie which forced him to poyson himselfe We have also in another place before recited the example of Virius and other Capuans to the number of seven and twentie which desperately slew themselves because they had broken their Faith with the Romanes But amongst other examples that of king Syphax of Numidia is most illustrious and memorable This king promised Scipio that he would aid and give him succours against the Carthaginians The Carthaginians knowing this found meanes to lay a bait for this king by Titus Livius lib. 9. 10. Dec. 3. a faire Carthaginian damosell called Sophonisba one of a great house who by her enticements so drew him into her nets that she caused him to breake his Faith with Scipio and made an alliance and confederation with the Carthaginians by the marriage of Sophonisba whereby they accorded that they would have alike friends and enemies Scipio beeing hereof advertised was much both astonished and greeved yet hee thought it good resolution not to attend whilest the two powers of king Syphax and of the Carthaginians were joined together Hee then so hasted that hee placed his armie before king Syphax who was going with thirtie thousand for the helpe of the Carthaginians and overcame all those succours insomuch as Syphax himselfe was taken prisoner his horse having been slaine under him was brought alive to Scipio who demaunded of him wherefore he had broken his Faith with the Romancs which he had so solemnely sworne betwixt his hands This poore captive king confessed that an enraged follie had drawne him unto it by the meanes of the Carthaginians which gave him that pestilent furie Sophonisba who by her flatteries and enticements had bereaved him of his understanding After this miserable king was in a triumph by Scipio led to Rome died miserably his kingdome brought under the obedience of the Romanes which gave a good part of it to Massinissa another king of Numidia who had ever been loyall and faithfull unto them in the observation of their Faith So that Syphax lost himself and his kingdome by his perfidie and breach of Faith and Massinissa acquired great reputation and honour and greatly amplified and enlarged his kingdome for rightly observing his Faith and loyaltie Charles the simple king of Fraunce in his time made strong warre upon Robert Annal. upon the year 916. duke of Aquitaine and vanquished him in a battaile nigh Soissons where duke Robert was slaine Heber countie de Vermandois brother in law of that Robert was so greeved and displeased at that overthrow that he enterprised a part of perfidie and villanie to catch the king his soveraigne lord therefore with a countenance of amitie he invited the king to a great feast in the town of Perone whither the king came with many other great princes and lords but the said countie caused them all to be taken prisoners and shut them within the castle of Perone Afterward hee enlarged all the said princes and lords upon condition of their promises never to bear armes against him but still retained the king prisoner in the said castle where he died within two yeares after Lewis the third of that name his sonne succeeded him in the crowne who at his first entry revenged not the death of his father upon countie Heber fearing some insurrection in his kingdome because of his great kindred and friends yet at the last he also made a great and solemne feast unto which he entreated the great lords and barons of his kingdome and even countie Heber and his friends and kinsfolkes As they were all assembled at that feast behold there arrived out of England a currier a thing fained by king Lewis who booted and spurred fell upon his knees before the king and presented letters unto him on the king of Englands part The king tooke those letters and caused them to be read low by his Chancellor the rather to deceive As soone as he had read them the king began to smile and say on high to the companie Truly men say true that the English are not wise My cousin of England sends me word that in his countrey a rusticall clownish man had summoned his lord whose subject hee is to a dinner at his house and as soone as he came there he tooke and detained him prisoner and after strangled him and villanously caused him to die Therfore he sends me word to have the opion of the princes barons and lords of Fraunce to know what justice should bee done upon that subject I must make him an answere and therefore my masters I pray you tell me your advices What thinke you said he to the countie de Blois the most auncient to this matter my good cousin The countie de Blois answered that his opinion was That the said rusticall fellow should die ignominiously and that according to his desert All the other princes and lords were of the same opinion yea even Heber countie de Vermandois Then tooke the king the word and said Countie de Vermandois I judge thee and condemne thee to death by thine owne word for thou knowest that in the shew of friendship and under the shaddow of a feast in thy house thou diddest invite my dead father and being come thou retainedst him and brought him most
villanously to his death therefore by thine owne confession thou doest merit a most ignominious death Straight after the king commaunded that he should be hanged and strangled which was done So this perfidious and disloyall Heber received the reward of his perfidie and breach of Faith as hee himselfe judged to have merited Edward king of England the second of that name was much governed by the Frois lib. 1. cap. 5. 13 14. house of the Spensers which took upon them the handling of all the affaires of the kingdome and despised farre greater lords than themselves The said king having lost a battaile at Esturmelin against the Scots all England imputed the evill lucke of that losse unto the evill government of the Spensers They beleeving that the great lords of England which envied their credit had caused this brute to bee sowne resolved to take vengeance thereof by a most perfidious disloiall meanes For they persuaded the king to convocate a generall assemblie of States to advise and provide as they gave to understand for the affaires of the kingdome The princes and lords of the kingdome not doubting any thing assembled at the kings commaund But incontinent as they were assembled king Edward whome the Spensers had persuaded that his princes and lords meant to get his kingdome from him commanded them to be taken arrested prisoners which was done and without any knowledge of cause he cut off the heads from two and twentie of the greatest lords and princes of the kingdome and amongst them there was beheaded Thomas duke of Lancaster the kings uncle who was a good and a sage prince and who after was cannonized and saincted This perfidie joyned with crueltie for commonly the one goeth with the other was the cause that the said king was deprived by all the States of England of his royaltie as unworthie to carrie the crowne and was confined to prison where he finished his daies And the Spensers authors of such disloialtie were executed and rigorously punished according to their merits For after they had ben drawne on hurdles through the streets all over the citie of Herford their privie parts were first cut away and cast into the fire then were their hearts taken out of their bellies and also cast into the fire after their heads were cut off and carried to London and the bodies of every of them were quartered and every quarter caried into other severall towns to be set on the tops of their great gates in detestation of their great perfidie and disloyaltie which they used towards the said lords It was also a great perfidie in Charles the last duke of Bourgoigne in that hee De Comines lib. 1. cap. 78. and Annal. 1475. gave safe conduct to the contie of S. Pol constable of France to come to him with good assurance and then tooke him prisoner and delivered him to king Lewis the seventh who making his processe at Paris his head was cut off in the place de Greve True it is that the said countie had committed great faults as well against the king as against the duke hee had also alwaies studied to nourish warre betwixt the said two princes yet notwithstanding it was a very dishonorable and infamous thing for the duke to take him prisoner after hee had given him his faith and assurance by the safe conduct which hee graunted him For if hee had not beene hee had according to his determination with his silver fled into Almaigne from thence in time he might have made his peace and againe have come into the kings favour But he was deceived as before and the said perfidie was so much the more infamous and dishonest because it was perpetrated by this duke of Bourgoigne for the covetousnesse to gaine the townes of S. Quinten Han and Bohain which belonged to the said countie which the king gave to the said duke to the end hee would deliver and betray him But behold the just judgement of God who permitted that this duke of Bourgoigne was in the end beaten with the same rods wherewith hee had beaten the countie of S. Pol for being twice overthrowne at Granson and Morat by the Suissers the siege of Nus succeeding evill unto him and also having lost the dutchie of Lorraine which before he had unjustly occupied upon the duke of Lorraine who conquered it all these traverses and troubles engendred such greefe sadnesse and confusion in his spirit and great indisposition in his person that hee was never after whole either in bodie or mind His wits thus comming into decay there came into his braine a distrust of his owne subjects and therefore thought good to serve himselfe with strangers and to chuse a loyall and faithfull nation he addressed himselfe to a countie de Campobache an Italian and gave him charge to bring with him many Italians to his service as hee did This was the last act of the Tragedie of his life For this countie de Campobache ceased not till he had betrayed him unto the duke of Lorraine before Nancy which the said duke of Bourgoigne held besieged and there was slaine in an assault which the duke of Lorraine gave him to constrain him to raise the siege And so in like sort as by perfidie and violating of his faith he had caused the constable of S. Pol to leese both life and goods so by the treason and perfidie of Campobache hee both lost his life and his house was ruinated and â—ent in pieces which was the greatest house in Christendome next unto that of Fraunce He should never have done that would set downe all the calamities mischiefes proceeding of perfidie and breach of publicke Faith It caused the ruine of Carthage the great in Affrica which for a long time was one of the greatest and most flourishing commonweales that ever was in the world It was the onely ruine of Corinth of Thebes of Calchis which were three of the greatest fairest and richest cities of Greece It was the cause of Ierusalems destruction and of all the countrey of Iudea yea breefely there never happened any great subversion and desolation in the world were it of citties commonweales kingdomes empires great captaines great monarchs or of strong and flourishing nations but it came upon perfidie and the breach of Faith True it is that it draweth at the taile with her crueltie avarice and other like companions but yet perfidie is the mistresse and governesse of all She breaketh peace she renueth civile and strange warres she troubleth people nations which are quiet she destroyeth and impoverisheth them she overthroweth right and equitie she prophaneth and defileth holy and sacred things she banisheth and chaseth away all pietie justice and the feare of God she bringeth in Atheisme and contempt of all religion she defaceth all amitie and naturall affection towards parents our countrey and nation she confoundeth all politicke order shee abrogateth good lawes and customes Finally what mischeefes hath there ever beene in the
effects whereof wee have above discoursed which are to temper the rigour of justice to make the prince beloved reverenced and praised of all the world and to fill his subjects with good manners there are yet three other effects worthie of note in a princes Clemencie that thereby hee may bee better obeyed more assured in his estate and may augment his domination And to touch those three points in order one after an other I will presuppose for the first point That a prince makes himselfe easily and well obeyed when the wils of his subjects are of themselves A clement prince better obeyed well disposed to yeeld obedience But it is certaine when a prince is debonaire and clement that his subjects will bee alwaies well disposed to obey him for two reasons The one because he shal be beloved the amitie which his subjects beare him shall incite and stirre them more willinglie to obey him The other reason because being soft and gentle his commands also are sweet and gratious founded upon reason and equitie and this will cause them easily to yeeld obedience because there is nothing that more enduceth a subject to render his prince obedience and to obey his command than when themselves do see and judge that the commandement is both reasonable equall for equitie is the sinew of the commandement of the law which makes it forcible and brings it into action and without this equitie the law cannot endure nor long bee observed Therefore the lawes and ordinances which the Romanes gave to the Macedonians Titus Livius lib. 5. Dec. 5. after they had brought Macedonie under their obedience endured very long before they were in any thing chaunged or corrected For they were so upright and convenient for that nation as the usage it selfe saith Titus Livius which is the true corrector of lawes found nothing to reprehend or correct by the experience of many yeeres Very memorable also is the manner of the Romanes use to make How to make good lawes lawes and especially those which they gave to the Macedonians For they were not contented to handle and deale with them in their Senate to cut and stretch them after their fancies as some doe at this day which make lawes in their chambers with such as themselves but elected ten delegates or deputies wise and honourable men which went all over Macedonie to inquire and bee informed of the manners and conditions of the countrie people and of their antient customes and liberties and to have their peoples aduice of such lawes as were fittest for them By this meanes they made very covenable lawes for the nation of the Macedonians which they found good holy and equall and they willingly obeyed and observed them with good hearts without any constraint And assuredly this is the best meane when men makes new lawes and ordinances that is to have the aduice of such as are to have obey them to know of them the discommodities that by them may fall out which they must needes know better than any other And for this reason the antient kings of France made their lawes and ordinances by the advice of the States generall or at the least by the assemblie of a great number of barons prelates and wise people of each great towne of the kingdome which assembly they called the kings great Counsell And the Romane emperours made their lawes by their Senates advice as wee have in another place said And indeed it is a rash presumption of one man alone or a few men to thinke they can make lawes of themselves and covenable ordinances for a people and a nation without having the advice of them of that nation yea of many of divers countries The ancient Romanes were of a better judgement than such presumptuous persons and they never received law till it was well tossed and handled and till every one were hard speake that would either persuade or disuadethe law which was to be enacted Therefore saith Titus Livius it came often to passe that the Tribunes whose office it was to cause the law to bee received or rejected by the people desisted from the receit of a law being moved so to doe by the reasons and remonstrations of such as disuaded it and often times also opposing themselves against the reception of a law they departed from their opposition being moved thereunto by the reasons of such as persuaded and truely if the lawes and ordinances which are made for the government of a kingdome or other principallitie were so well examined before they were concluded and that everie man were heard in a generall assembly of States to persuade or disuade them so many absurd and weake lawes would not bee made as are neither by consequent would they bee so evill observed as they are For they should be made equall commodious for such as should obey them and so would each man obey them with good will because as is said Equitie is that which holdeth law in action observation Moreover none neede to doubt but when he that hath authoritie to command Dion in Pompeio Plutarch in Lucul is beloved that by that meanes he shall not bee better obeyed Lucullus was a valiant and wise captaine who executed great matters against Mithridates Tigranes two of the greatest kings of Levant and of all Asia but in the end not being able to obtaine the love of his souldiers hee was in hazard by their disobedience to have overthrowne all the glory and honour which hee had acquired This disobedience of his army was the cause that the Romanes called him from Levant before hee had altogether ended the subjugating of those two kings and sent in his place Pompeius who did nothing else but as I may say gathered the fruit that Lucullus had sowne and carried away the honour and triumph of his paines and travels For the necessitie was such that Pompeius must necessarilie bee sent in Lucullus his place for that Lucullus was nothing obeyed of his people of warre because they loved him not he was so sterne and uncourteous and as soone as they had obtained Pompeius for their captaine generall they greatly obeyed him because hee was unto them gentle clement and affable insomuch as he did with them what hee would and by their forces and valloures hee brought all the East under the Romanes obedience This then was a great evill hap for Lucullus who otherwise was endowed with excellent vertues that hee could not use softnesse clemencie and kindnesse towards his souldiers and have gotten love and to have contained them in his obedience but so to lose the fruit of his travailes and victories not wholy finishing that whereof hee had taken charge But yet greater evill lucke happened unto Appius Claudius who was so exceeding Titus Livius lib. 2. Dec. 1. rigorous and imperious that hee caused his souldiers rather to hate than love him Hee being Consull and captaine generall of the Romane army against the
employed not upon his owne pleasures and delights the silver which his covetousnesse had collected but bestowed it on good uses for the good of the commonwealth And certainly there is nothing that more troubles subjects which pay tributes than when they see that the prince spendeth evill the silver which is levied upon them which would alwaies more liberally furnish them with a crowne than they would do with a penny if they saw their money well bestowed Our king Lewis was herein something like Vespasian for he levied much mony upon his subjects yea triple so much as his predecessors had done but he spent it not in his pleasures and delights nor other dissolutenesse nor in practise of liberalitie upon unworthy people but upon good things about the affaires of the kingdome as to buy peace with his neighbors and to corrupt strangers which might serve therein or in other affaires Moreover he did not as the emperour Mauricius or as king Perseus which heaped up great treasures and then durst not touch it for as Comines saith he tooke all and spent all Princes then which levie money upon their people are something excusable when they employ them upon good uses and especially when they have that discretion to pill the pillors and to tansacke theeves and eaters of the poore people and Profusion cause of ruine in a prince Sueto in Calig cap. 37 38 40 41. spare other good subjects which are not of that sort But such as make great levies upon the people and doe bestow them evill they cannot bee any thing excused in their covetousnesse and prodigalitie The emperour Caius Caligula succeeding Tiberius found an inestimable treasure even 67 millions and 500000 crownes To calculate this unmeasurable summe after the proportion of 1240000 crownes which made 32 Mule loads as du Bellay saith which were sent to Fontarabie in the yeare 1529 for king Francis the firsts ransome it should be found that the 67 millions of Caligula should make about 1800 Mullet loads which is an huge and a most admirable treasure yet did this monster spend all this in lesse than a yeare But was this possible will you say that so great heapes should be laid out in so litle space Yea I say for this brainelesse foole caused houses to bee builded upon the sea yea and that should be onely where men said it was deepest So that there to make good foundations he was forced to cast in great heapes of stones as great as high mountaines and so much more as any thing was impossible so much rather loved hee to doe it Moreover he delighted to bring downe mountaines and rockes to equall them with flats and plaines so in plaines to erect mountaines this also must needs be done even the very day that he commaunded it upon paine of life He would also cause bathes to be made in waters of very precious sents he would make prodigall bankets wherein he would serve excellent pearles and other precious stones which he would cause to be liquified and dissolved as they might be drunke Again he caused ships to bee made of Liburnian Caedars whose sternes were all covered with pearles and within them were builded bathes galleries halls and orchards and there sitting amongst dauncers and players of instruments he caused himselfe to be caried in those ships about the coasts of Campania By these unmeasurable and monstrous expences he saw the end of that great treasure left by Tiberius in lesse than a yeare Hereof came it that wanting silver he converted himselfe to rapines and to lay great and new imposts upon his subjects yea tributes upon victuals upon processes upon labourers salaries upon harlots gaines upon players gaines and upon many such like things and so having againe gathered huge heapes of crownes upon a covetous pride to touch and handle money hee delighted to walke bare foot and to tumble upon it By this meanes and with crueltie and other vices he was hated of all the world and incontinent slaine And in truth he was inexcusable for inventing new and great imposts upon his people seeing hee so evill employed the money The emperour Nero likewise laid great imposts and levies of money upon his Sueto in Nero cap 27. 30 32. Dion in Nerone subjects and quashed and made void the Testaments of such as would not make him their heire As an ingrate person to his prince he by force took treasures out of temples and committed infinit other extortions But how expended he all this money In making sumptuous bankets as Caligula did in giving unmeasurable gifts to flatterers and bad people and upon other strange dissolutenesse He alwaies apparrelled himselfe with exceeding rich precious habites yet he never put on garment twice he played away great summes of money at once he fished alwaies with golden nets the cords whereof were knit with purple and scarlet he never went abroad with lesse than a thousand coaches or litters drawne with Mules whose shoes were all of silver all the Mulleters also were gallantly and costly apparrelled Sabina Poppea his wife caused the coaches wherein she rid to be drawne with cords and all other furniture for her mules of gold Whensoever shee went abroad there waited on her 500 shee Asses which gave milke and that milke was drawn out every day to make bathes for her to bathe in Breefely Nero made so great and riotous expences that no silver could suffice him insomuch as spoiling his provinces of their goods and riches by rapines and imposts and withall practising great cruelties for rapine and crueltie are alwaies companions he brought upon himselfe the hatred of all the world and came to a miserable end as we have above said The like happened to the emperour Vitellius who in a yeare spent in bankets without all measure nine millions of crownes Dion saith That in a vessell served at Dion in Vitel Sueto cap. 13. his table he had so many tongues braines and livers of certaine strange and exquisit fishes and birds as cost ten thousand crownes Suetonius sayth That his brother bestowed a supper upon him whereat was served two thousand exquisit fishes and seven thousand exquisit and precious birds besides all other services These so exorbitant and unreasonable expences drew him into covetousnesse rapine and crueltie which was the cause that he was massacred and slaine and raigned but a yeare and tenne daies Here might I adde to these the examples of Domitian Commodus Bassianus and many other Romane emperours which held of the two extremities of Liberalitie namely Covetousnesse and Prodigalitie using Covetousnesse and rapine to heape up silver and Profusion to spend them all which had the like end as Nero Caligula and Vitellius had But hereby is sufficiently shewed in those examples the contrarie of the Maxime which Machiavell saith is true and that a prince which is covetous and hard cannot prosper but especially when he naughtily bestoweth the treasures and money which he heapeth up Now there
remaineth to shew That Liberalitie is profitable and necessarie for a prince when he applieth it to good uses When Alexander the Great departed from Macedonie to goe to the conquest Plutarch in Alexand. of Asia hee caused all the captaines of his armie to appeare before him At their comming he distributed unto them almost all the revenue of his kingdome insomuch as he left to himselfe almost nothing Amongst them one of the said captaines called Perdicas said unto him What then will you Sir keepe for your selfe Even Hope answered Alexander We then shall have our part thereof replied Perdicas since we goe with you Thus Perdicas and certaine other also refused the gifts which their king offered them and were as thankfull as if they had accepted them So that they accompanied him in his voyage of Asia full of good will to serve him as they did For he was so well served of these valiant Macedonians his subjects that with them he conquered almost al Asia so the Liberalitie of Alexander was very profitable unto him The ancient Romanes had this custome ordinarily to encrease the seignories and Titus Livius lib 7. Dec. 4. Plutarch in Caton dominations of the kings their allies as they did to Massinissa king of Numidia unto whom they gave a great part of the kingdome of Syphax his neighbor and some part of the countrey of the Carthaginians after they had vanquished Syphax and the Carthaginians as also they did to Eumenes king of Pergamus in Asia unto whom they gave all they conquered upon king Antiochus from beyond the mount Taurus which came to more than foure times so much as all Eumenes his kingdome They also practised great Liberalities towards Ptolomeus king of Cyprus towards Attalus another king of Pergamus towards Hiero king of Sicilie and many others And what profit got they by all this even this that in the end all the countries and kingdomes fell into the Romans hands either by succession and testamentarie ordinance of those kings or by the will of the people or otherwise And this reputation of Liberalitie which the Romans acquired was the cause that the kings and potentates of the world affected and so greatly desired their amitie and alliance Silla Marius his lieutenant making warre upon king Iugurtha persuaded Bocchus king of Salust de bello Mauritania to take part with the Romanes against Iugurtha because saith hee the Romanes are never wearie with vanquishing by beneficence but doe alwaies enrich their friends and allies The king Cotis of Thrace having promised the Romanes that he would proove their good and faithfull friend and to that effect having delivered them hostages notwithstanding they aided king Perseus of Macedonie against the Romanes when after by warre king Perseus was vanquished wherin Bitis the said king Cotis his sonne was taken prisoner this king would have ransomed his sonne and withall made certaine frivolous excuses The Senate made him this worthie answere That the Romanes knew very certainely that hee had preferred the good grace and favour of Perseus before their amitie but that therefore they would not cease to give him his sonne and his hostages because the benefits of the Romane people are free insomuch as they better love to leave the price and the recompence within the hearts of such as receive their said benefits than to be readie to receive prompt and quicke satisfaction Augustus Caesar seeing himselfe have many enemies which he had gotten by civile Dion in August warres he knew not whether he should put them all to death or what hee should doe For he on the one side considered that if he caused all to die then the world would thinke that either he was entring into the butcherie of a civile warre or els to usurpe a tyrannie and on the other side he feared that some mischeefe would happen unto him if he suffered them to live The abovesaid Livia his wife which was a good and sage ladie shewed him that he ought to gaine his enemies which he feared by liberalitie and beneficence Hee followed this counsell and begun with one Cornelius the nephew of Pompeius whom hee advaunced into the office of Consull and in like sort to others which he tooke to be his enemies he practised beneficence and bountifulnesse in such sort as he gained all their hearts But because the remonstrance which Livia made to Augustus is very memorable I will here summarily recite it I am very sorrowfull my most deare lord and spouse to see you thus greeved and tormented in your spirit so that your sleepe is taken from you I am not ignorant that you have great occasions because of many enemies which you will have still feeling in themselves the deaths of their friends and parents which you have caused to die during those civill wars withall that a prince cannot so well governe but there will be alwaies mailcontents and complainers There is this moreover that this change of estate which you have brought into the commonweale by reducing it into a monarchie makes that a man cannot well assure himselfe of such as they esteeme to be their friends yet I beseech you my good lord to excuse me if I a simple woman take that hardinesse to tel you my advice upon this matter which is that I thinke there is nothing impossible to represse by soft and gentle meanes for the natures of such as are enclined to do evill are sooner subdued and corrected by using clemencie and beneficence towards them than severitie For princes which are courteous and mercifull make themselves not onely agreeable and honourable to them upon whom they bestow mercie but also towards all others And by contrary such as are inexorable and will abate nothing of their rigour are hated and blamed not only of them towards whom he shewes himselfe such but of all others also See you not my good lord that either never or very selde physicians come to cut the sicke members of the bodie but onely seeke to heale them by soft and gentle mendicaments in like sort are maladies of the spirit to be healed And the gentle medicaments of the spirit may these well be called Affabilitie and Soft words of princes towards every one his Clemencie and placabilitie his Mercie and debonairetie not towards wicked and bad persons which make an occupation to do evill but towards such as have offended by youth imprudencie ignorance by chance by constraint or which have some just excuse It is also a very requisit thing in a prince not only to do no wrong to any person but also to be reputed such a man as will never do wrong to any man because that is the meane to have the amitie and benevolence of men which a prince can never obtaine unlesse he doe persuade them that he will do well to the good and that hee will doe wrong to none For feare may well bee acquired with force but amitie cannot bee obtained but by persuasion
so that if it please you my lord to use benefits and liberalitie towards such as you esteeme your enemies and towards such as feare you will doe them wrong you shall easily gaine them and others from henceforth for your friends This remonstrance of Livia was the cause that Augustus let loose and set at liberrie all them which were accused to have enterprised any thing against him satisfying himself with the admonishments he gave them and besides gave great goods and benefits unto some of them so that as well those as other of his enemies became his friends and good subjects Behold heere what good came to Augustus by his beneficence and liberalitie The emperour Marcus Antonine feared nothing more than the reputation of an hard and covetous man and alwayes wished and desired that such a spot of infamie Dion in Marco might never bee imposed upon him And indeede all his carriage and actions were such that none could impute unto him any spot of Covetousnesse but al Liberalitie worthie of a good prince for first hee established publicke professours of all sciences in the towne of Athens unto which he gave great wages which prooved a most profitable act to the commonweale woorthie of such a prince and this was partly the cause that in his time there was so great store of learned people in all manner of sciences insomuch as the time of his kingdome was and hath ben since called the golden world In our time king Francis the first of happie memorie did imitate the example of this great and wise emperour establishing publicke lectures at great wages in the Vniversitie of Paris a thing wherof his memorie hath ben and shall be more celebrated through the world than for so many great warres as hee valiantly sustained and demeaned during his raigne Secondly the emperour Antonine forgave the people all the fiscall debts and arrerages which they ought him by scedules obligations or otherwise for fiftie yeares before which was an huge and unspeakable liberalitie But he did this to take away all meanes matter from all officers and fiscall procurators of molesting and troubling his subjects afterward with researches and calling on of old debts Thirdly hee never laid impost or extraordinarie exaction upon his people but handled them in all kindnesse and generositie He never made profuse and superfluous expences but held an estate both at home and in the court sober and full of frugalitie And finally to shew how he delighted in liberalitie he caused a temple to be builded to Beneficence Behold here a true patterne after which princes should conforme themselves to know how to practise that goodly vertue Liberalitie And very notable is that point that that good emperour Antonine held the estate of his house ruled by frugalitie and sobrietie and farre from the straunge profusions of those monsters Caligula Nero and Vitellius for he considered that it were much better to employ for the publicke wealth of his empire the revenues and money therof than in riotousnesse and vanities and that such unmeasurable profusion constraineth a prince to fall to rapines and to deale evill with their subjects because as the common proverb saith Vnmeasurable largesse hath no bottome Therefore did that great emperour Traian Dion in Traiano Lampr. in Alex. Spar in Andria also hould his estate soberly governed and hee maintained no unprofitable persons in his service No more did the emperour Severus who would not suffer in any offices any persons to be placed which were not necessarie They had also good sallaries and rewards of him yea he would often rebuke them for not demaunding gifts of him And wherefore saith he wilt thou that I should be thy debter seeing thou askest me nothing Adrian also had this propertie that hee gave great gifts unto his good friends and servants and made them rich before they demaunded any thing And above all hee was liberall towards professors of letters and learned men which he enriched but he much hated such as by evill meanes became rich and generally all good emperours were adorned with the vertues of liberalitie and munificence which they practised with such moderation and prudence that they were never spotted neither with Machiavels Covetousnesse nor his Prodigalitie And therefore they flourished and prospered during their raignes and left after them a perpetuall memorie to posteritie of their vertues and praises Our kings of Fraunce as Clovis Charlemaigne Lewis the piteous his sonne Robert Henry the first Lewis le Gros Lewis the eight S. Lewis and many others were very liberall but they exercised their liberalitie and principalitie upon the Church and Churchmen which they but too much enriched Yet wee reade that Charlemaigne was also very liberall towards learned men and that he spent much in founding and maintaining the Vniversitie of Paris And a man may generally marke in our kings of Fraunce a Christian liberalitie which they have alwayes had that is That they have been great Almoniers exercising their liberalitie upon poore people which is an exercise of that vertue exceeding woorthie of a Christian prince which he should never forget By this abovesaid I hope the Maxime of Machiavell is sufficiently confuted and that it evidently appeareth by our examples and reasons That Covetousnesse is domageable and dishonourable to a prince as also is his contrarie profusion and that Liberalitie is profitable and honourable unto him And as for the reasons which Machiavell alledgeth they are foolish and false as his Maxime For to say That a rich prince shall be esteemed puissant because he hath great treasures that reason dooth evill conclude King Perseus of Macedonie of whome wee have spoken had The power of a prince lieth not in treasures great treasures yet left he not to be esteemed a king pusillanimous and of small valour and such was his reputation in his owne countrey and amongst his owne subjects Crassus also was knowne to be more richer than Pompeius but he was not esteemed so valiant nor so good a man neither in his life had hee the tenth part of Pompeies honours Mauricius and Phocas Romane emperours by their covetousnesse heaped up great treasures but were they therefore esteemed puissant and valiant nay contrarie they were esteemed cowards and in the catalogue of such emperours as held the most abject and infamous places But I pray you let us come to the reason When a prince hath the fame to bee a great treasurer doth he not give his neighbours occasion to seeke meanes to enterprise upon him to obtain those treasures Wherfore is it that the Venetians which if they list might bee the greatest treasurers of the world have made a law amongst De Con. l. b. 2. cap. 21. them to have no treasure in their commonwealth other than of armes It is because they know well as they be wise that if they heape up treasures in money they shall but prepare a bait to draw rheir neighbours on to make warre upon them
came there was much beloved of the souldiors as well because he resembled his father Amilcar as for his militarie vertues Not many yeares after he was chosen captaine generall of the Carthaginian armie But as soone as he was setled in that estate he accomplished the prophesie of Hanno for hee lighted the great fire of the Punicke warres against the Romanes whereby in the end the Carthaginians were utterly ruined All this proceeded but from the Partialitie which was at Carthage for as soone as the Hannonians reasoned one way the Barchinians must needs reason to the contrarie and they studied for nothing but that by the pluralitie of their voices their opinion might obtaine the upper hand without any care or consideration what opinion was the best And thus ordinarily happeneth it where there is any Partialitie For then men give themselves more to contradiction than to judge after an wholesome sentence and without passion of that which is profitable and expedient The Partialities of the houses of Orleance and Burgoigne in our grandfathers memorie were they not cause of infinit miseries and calamities wherewith France was afflicted by the space of more than threescore yeares and of the entier ruine of the Bourgonianne house Lewis duke of Orleance the alone brother of king Charles the sixt tooke for his devise Mitto Duke Iohn de Bourgoigne tooke for his Accipio challenging as it were thereby an egalitie with the only brother of the king under colour that he was richer than hee This commencement of contrarie devices which they caused to paint in their banners of their launces and on their servants liverie coats erected a great Partialitie insomuch as the duke of Bourgoigne enterprised to cause the duke of Orleance to bee slaine as hee did The children of the duke of Orleance because justice was not executed on their fathers massacre levied armes Duke Iohn also by armes resisted them insomuch as all the realme was partialized about the quarrell of these two great houses After duke Iohn was slaine at Monterean-fante-Yonne in a strange manner whereupon his sonne Philip willing to revenge himselfe sent for the Englishmen which he caused to passe through Fraunce and occupied at least the third part of the kingdome of France This duke Philip made peace with the king but he had a son Charles his successour who would never put trust in the king of Fraunce fearing himselfe because of the warres which his father and grandfather had raised in the kingdome but would needs graple with king Lewis the eleventh This king who was too good for him raised him up so many enemies on all sides that the house of that duke came to ruine Behold the fruits of partialities which Machiavell recommendeth so much to a prince And hereupon should well be noted the saying of master Philip de Comines That Divisions and partialities are very easie to sowe and are a sure token of ruine and destruction in a countrey when they take root therein as hath happened to many monarchies and commonweales De Comines to prove his alledged saying setteth down other examples The Partialitie of the houses of Lancaster and Yorke in England whereby the house of Lancaster was altogether ruined and brought downe and the one house delivered to the other seven or eight battailes betwixt three and fourscore princes of the royall blood of England and an infinit number of people This here is no small thing but it is rather an example which should make us abhorre all Partialities Hee further saith That by the meanes of the said Partialitie betwixt these two houses many great princes and lords were banished and chased from England and amongst others that he saw a duke of the house of Lancaster the cheefe of the league of that house and brother in law of king Edward the fourth who saved himselfe in Bourgoigne yet in so poore estate that hee went bare foot and without hose after the traine of duke Charles of Bourgoigne demaunding his almes from house to house Hee after reciteth the tragicall acts of the duke of Warwicke of the kings Edward and Henry of the prince of Wales of the dukes of Glocester and Somerset which are strange hystories that cannot be heard or read without great horror and cannot but make men detest all Partialities and divisions In the time that Anniball made warre upon the Romanes there were created Titus Livius lib. 1. 7. Dec. 3. lib 4. 5. Dec. 1 Consuls together at Rome Marcus Livius and Claudius Nero which bore great enmitie one towards another and of long time The Senate fearing that these enmities betwixt those two Consuls should cause some Partialities in the administration of their estate which might turne to the domage of the publicke good admonished them both to be reconciled together Marcus Livius made answere That it was not needfull and that their enmities and Partialities should cause them with envie to seeke one to doe better than another but the Senate was not of that advice For they remembred that in the time of the Proconsulship of Quintius Paenus Caius Furius Marcus Posthumius and Cornelius Cossus the Romane armie had been vanquished and chased by the Veians because of the Partialities of the cheefetaines which could not accord in their counsels and deseignes but tended alwayes to contrarie ends The like also happened in the Proconsulship of Publius Virginius and Marcus Sergius But the most memorable and latest example which the Senate had before their eyes was the losse of the battaile at Cannes where the Romans lost fiftie thousand men which losse happened by the discord Partialitie of two cheefetaines Paulus Aemylius and Terentius Varro These examples mooved the Senate to exhort these two Consuls Livius and Nero to a reconciliation not beleeving that their Partialitie could serve them for any thing but evill to conduct the affaires of the commonweale insomuch as being constrained by the Senates authoritie they accorded and reconciled themselves together and very well acquited themselves in their charge and overthrew together a succour of fiftie thousand men which Asdruball conducted and brought over into Italie to Anniball his brother In this defeat also Asdruball himselfe was slaine and his head secretly carried and cast into Annibals campe who yet knew no newes of that journey When Anniball saw the head of his brother he then deplored his fortune and despaired of his affaires knowing that the Roman vertue would never bow nor stoope for either misfortune or calamitie The reconciliation then and concord of Marcus Livius and Claudius Nero were the cause of a great good and utilitie to the commonwealth and remounted the affaires Concord very profitable to the common-wealth thereof into a great hope and abated the pride that Anniball had taken of the battaile at Cannes as also by the contrarie the Partialitie of Paulus Aemylius who was a wise captaine and of Terentius Varro who was very rash and headie was the cause that the Romane
wee come to alledge For they said That men must not stay upon fishing for froggs but men must catch in their nets the great Salmons that one Salmons head was more worth than tenne thousand froggs and that when they had slaine the cheefetaines of pretended rebels that they should easily overthrow the rude and rascally multitude which without heads could enterprise nothing These venerable enterprisers should have considered that which here their Doctor Machiavell saith which also since they have seen by experience That a people cannot want heads which will alwayes rise up yea even those heads which bee slaine If they had so well noted practised this place of Machiavell as they do others so much blood would never have ben shed their tyrannie it may be had longer endured than it hath done For the great effusion of blood which they have made hath incontinent cried for vengeance to God who according to his accustomed justice hath heard the voice of that blood and for the crie of the orphant and widdow hath laid the axe to the root of all tyrannie and alreadie hath cut away many braunches thereof and if it please him will not tarry long to lay all on the ground and so establish Fraunce in his auncient government As for Fortresses in frontiers of countries they have been long time practised and are profitable to guard from incursions and invasions of enemies and to the end such as dwell upon the borders may the more peaceably enjoy their goods Wee reade That the emperour Alexander Severus gave his Fortresses upon frontiers to Lamprid. in Alex. Pomp. Laetus in Constant Magno good and approoved captaines with all the lands and revenewes belonging unto them to enjoy during their lives to the end saith Lampridius that they might be more vigilant and carefull to defend their owne And afterward the emperour Constantine the Great ordained That the said Fortresses with their grounds and revenewes should passe to the heires of the said captaines which held them as other manner of goods and heritages And hereupon some say have come such as the civile law call Feudi 34. Maxime A Prince ought to commit to another those affaires which are subiect to hatred and envie and reserve to himselfe such as depend upon his grace and favour A Prince vvhich vvill exercise some cruell and rigorous act saith cap. 7. 14. of a prince M. Nicholas he ought to give the commission thereof unto some other to the end he may not acquire evill vvill and enmitie by it And yet if he feare that such a delegation cannot bee vvholly exempted from blame to have consented to the execution which was made by his Commissarie he may cause the Commissarie to be slaine to shew that he consented not to his crueltie as did Caesar Borgia and Messire Remiro Dorco THis Maxime is a dependancie of that goodly doctrine which Machiavell learned of Caesar Borgia which although it was very cruell yet meaning to appeare soft and gentle following therein the Maxime which enjoyneth dissimulation committeth the execution of his crueltie to Messire Remiro Dorco as at large before wee have discoursed that hystorie And because we have fully shewed that all dissimulation and feignednesse is unworthie of a prince we will stay no longer upon this Maxime Well will I confesse that many things there be which seeme to be rigorous in execution although they be most equall and just which it is good a prince doe commit to others to give judgement and execution by justice as the case meriteth For as the emperour Marcus Antonine said It seemeth to the world that that which the prince doth hee doth it by his absolute authoritie and power rather than of his civile and reasonable power Therefore to shun that blame and suspition it is good that the prince delegate and set over such matters to Iudges which are good men not suspected nor passionate not doing as the emperour Valentinian did who would never heare nor receive accusations against Iudges and Magistrates which hee had established but constrained the recusators or refusers to end their cause before those Iudges only Whereby he was much blamed and his honor impeached and disgraced For truly the cheefe point which is required to cause good Passionate Iudges cannot judge well justice to be administred is That Iudges be not suspected nor passionat because the passions of the soule and heart doe obfuscate and trouble the judgement of the understanding and cause them to step aside and stray out of the way It is also a thing of very evill example when a prince with an appetite of revenge or to please the passions of revengefull great men dooth elect Iudges and Commissaries that bee passionate and which have their consciences at the command of such as employ them As was done in the time of king Lewis Hutin in the judgement of Messire Enguerrant de Marigni great master of Fraunce and in the time of king Charles the sixt in the judgement of the criminall processe of Messire Iean de Marests the kings Advocate in the parliament of Paris And a man may put to them the judgements given in our time against Amie du Bourg the kings Counsellor in the said parliament and against captaine Briquemand and M. Arnand de Cavagnes master of the Requests of the kings houshold and against the countie de Montgomerie and many others For the executions to death which followed manifested well That the Iudges were passionate men their consciences being at the command of strangers which governed them 35. Maxime To administer good Iustice a Prince ought to establish a great number of Judges TO have prompt and quicke expedition of good Iustice saith Machiavell many Iudges must be established for few can dispatch Discourse lib. 1. cap. 7. few causes and a small number is more easie to gaine and be corrupted than a great number And vvithall a great number is strong and firme in Iustice against all men EXperience hath made us wise in France that this Maxime of Machiavell is not true For since they multiplied the Officers of Iustice Multiplicitie of Officers cause of the corruption of â—ustice in Fraunce in the kingdome by the encrease of Counsellours in parliaments by erection of Presidents seats by creation of new or alternative Officers we have processes and law causes more multiplied longer and worse dispatched than before insomuch as by good right and by good reason the last Estates generall held at Orleance complained to king Charles the ninth of that multiplication and multitude of Officers which served not as it doth not yet but to multiplie law causes to ruinate and eat up the people and yet no better expedition of Iustice than before but rather worse and notoriously more long and of greater charges to the parties Vpon which complaint it was holily ordained That offices of Iustice which became vacant by death should bee suppressed and that none should come in their
they understood how they should administer as a captaine Niger lieutenant of the warre for the emperor Marcus Antonine complained to him But that incommoditie was much more supportable in that time than Spart in Nigro at this day it can bee in Fraunce for the Romane magistrates seldome decided private and particular causes but in Fraunce magistrates must deale in all causes After that the prince hath well established his justice as well by publication of A Prince ought himself to minister Iustice good lawes as by institution of good magistrates yet is he not discharged For he ought himselfe also to deale therin And this is another point of the Counsell which Iethro gave to Moses For after he had counselled him what magistrates hee should establish under him he added more That Moses ought to reserve unto himselfe the knowledge and decision of great affaires which are of consequence And assuredly this is a point very necessarie and which a prince ought not to leave behind for hee is debtor of Iustice to his subjects and ought to give them audience in things wherof he is to have necessarie knowledge for all things are not proper to bee handled before magistrates established by the prince but there are many things wherof the knowledge ought to appertaine to the prince alone as when a meane man wil complaine against some great lord or magistrat or against Publicans and exactors of the princes money or when a man labours for a pardon gift recompence and many other like The prince then ought himselfe either alone or in his Counsell to give often audience unto his subjects For we reade that by the primitive creation of kings Dionis Halic â—ib 1. 5. and monarchs the authoritie which was attributed unto them by the people consisted in three very notable points whereof the first was To minister good justice unto their subjects by causing them to observe the lawes and customes of the countrey and to take knowledge themselves of the injuries which are great and of consequence amongst their subjects The second point was To convocat an assembly of a Senat to handle the affaires of the commonwealth And the third To be the cheefetaine and soveraigne of the warre And for as much as the first dutie of kings consisteth to do good justice unto their subjects the auncient Grecians even Homer calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Distributers of justice This is it wherefore almost all good princes have had their ordinary daies of Audience wherin they took knowledge of the complaints and grievances of their subjects and administred right and justice unto them Iulius Caesar tooke great paine and travaile to heare causes and to administer justice and to cause them to observe lawes which concerned Suet. in Caesar cap. 43. in Aug. cap. 3 in Claud. cap. 15. in Galba cap. 7. 8 9. Domitiano cap 8. the commonwealth as especially the law Sumptuariam which would permit no excesse in bankets nor dissolutnesse in apparell Augustus Caesar likewise kept an ordinarie Audience which he continued untill night yea being evill at ease he in a litter would be carried to the pallace or hold Audience in his house The emperour Claudius also although hee were of an heavie and dull spirit yet held hee his Audience and administred right to parties So did Domitian who how wicked soever he was in other deportments with great industrie and diligence administred good justice unto parties and often revoked decrees from the Centumvirat seat which for favor were given and spared not to punish corrupted Iudges The emperour Galba likewise although he was of the age of threescore and twelve yeares when he came to the empire yet dealt with audience of parties and administred justice So did Traian Adrian the Antonines Severus Alexander and many other Romane emperors give Audience to their subjects and administred justice unto them And very memorable is that which is written of the emperor Adrian namely That one day as hee went into the fields he was required by a poore woman who had watched to speake with him to doe her justice upon a certaine complaint she made unto him The emperour very Dion in Adrian kindly said unto her That that was no place where she should require justice and sent her away till another time The woman replied upon him Sir said she if you wil not doe me justice wherefore deale you to be emperour Adrian was never moved hereat but staied still heard her did her justice If we read the hystories of France wee shall find that it hath yet beene more ordinarie and common with our auncient kings to hold Audiences which men called Lict de Iustice The Bed of Iustice than with the Romane emperours Charlemaigne king of Fraunce and emperour besides Annal. upoÌ„ Anno 809 814 1215. that he tooke great care that Stewards Bayliffes and their deputies should walk upright without abusing their Offices would also that they should reserve unto him all great causes or such as were amongst great lords Then caused hee the parties to appeare before him he heard them patiently and agreed them amiably if he could by any means and so he gave his sentence and good and prompt justice King Lewis the first of that name surnamed le Debonaire because of his good and holy conditions following the traces of Charlemaigne his father held a publicke Audience in his pallace three times in the weeke and heard the grievances and complaints of every one executing to all quicke and right justice But what good came there hereof Even this saith the hystorie that the publicke good in this good kings time was so well governed and administred that there was almost no man found amongst his subjects which complained that any man did him wrong or injurie but al men lived in great peace and prosperitie one not daring to offend another for the feare they had of the kings good justice which he would administer himselfe and so cause his ministers to doe after his example So much could that royall vertue of Iustice doe for the maintenance of peace and prosperitie in a kingdome King Philip Augustus surnamed the Conquerour for his great prowesses and conquests was also a good Iusticer and willingly heard the complaints of his subjects insomuch as one day understanding that Guy Counte de Auverne used greatly to pill and violently to spoile his subjects and neighbours exacting upon them great summes of money against their wils and without the kings consent their soveraigne and having found him culpable hereof condemned him by the advice of the barons of the realme to lose his land and seignorie of Auverne which from that time was united to the crown We may also place here the good justice of the kings Charles le Sage Charles the seventh Charles the eight Lewis the twelfth and of many other kings of France Annal. upon Anno 1255 1269 Gaguin in the liâ—e of S.
Lewis The good justice of Lewis which gave oedinarie audience to the complaints of their subjects and to doe them justice But it shall suffice to close up all this matter with the example of that good king S. Lewis who amongst other vertues wherewith he was endowed he was a very good and upright administer of justice This good king having a great zeale to establish a good Iustice in his kingdome first hee would and ordained That the good and auncient lawes and customes of the kingdome should be well and straitly observed upon the paine he would take of his Bayliffes Seneshals and other magistrates if they caused them not to bee well observed And to the end the said magistrates might carry themselves well in their offices he chose other officers the best that hee could find of which he secretly enquired of their vertues and vices And to the end they might administer good and breefe justice to the poore as to the rich without exception of persons he forbad them to take presents unlesse some present of victuall which may not exceed tenne shillings by the weeke nor any other benefites for them or their children neither of them which were in contention nor of any other person of their bailiwike and territorie and commaunded they should take nothing within their perfecture or jurisdiction For this good king considered that presents benefits and desire to gain are the means wherby magistrates may be corrupted and therfore to shun all corruption he must cut off the meanes therunto Moreover he very rigorously punished such officers of Iustice as abused their estates spared not even great lords themselves but punished them after their merits as happened to the lord de Coucy who caused to strangle two yong Flamins when he found them hunting in his woods For the king caused to be called before him the said lord who fearing to be handled as he had delt with the Flamins wold have taken the hearing of the cause from the king saying he was to be sent for before the peeres of France But the king forced him to abide his judgments indeed had made him die if great lords parents friends of the said lord de Coucy had not importuned so much the king for his pardon unto which the king accorded that he shold have his life but yet he condemned him to the warre against the Turks and Infidels in the holy land by the space of three yeares which was a kind of banishment and besides condemned him in a fine paiment of 10000 Paris pounds which were bestowed on the building of an Hostle Dieu at Ponthoise This king gave not easily any pardon nor without great deliberation And for a devise he had often in his mouth that verse of the Psalme of David Happie are they which doe iudgement and Iustice at all times He said also That this was no mercie but crueltie not to punish malefactors Moreover he was a king full of truth chast charitable and fearing God which are vertues exceeding woorthy for a good prince and which commonly accompanie good justice But the godly precepts hee The tenne commandemēts which the king S. Lewis at his disease gave to his eldest sonne gave being in extremitie of his life to king Philip the Hardie his sonne and successor doe well merit to be written in letters of gold upon the lintels of doores and the houses of all kings and Christian princes to have them alwaies before their eies My deare sonne saith he since it pleaseth God our Father and Creator to withdraw me now from this miserable world to carrie mee to a better life than this I would not depart from thee my sonne without giving you for my last blessing the doctrines and precepts which a good father ought to give to his sonne hoping you wil engrave in your heart these your fathers last words I command you then my deare sonne That above all things you have alwaies before your eies the feare of God our good Father for the feare of God is the beginning yea the accomplishment of all true wisedome if you feare him he will blesse you Secondly I exhort you to take all adversities patiently acknowledging that it is God which visiteth you for your sins not to wax proud in prosperitie accounting that it comes to you by Gods grace not by your merits Thirdly I recommend unto you charitie towards the poor for the good you doe unto them shall be yeelded unto you an hundred fold and Iesus Christ our Saviour shall account it done unto him After I recommend to you very straitly my deare sonne that you cause to keep well the good laws customes of the kingdome and to administer good justice to your subjects for happy are they which administer good justice at all times and to doe this I enjoine you that you be carefull to have good magistrates and command you them that they favor not your Procurators against equitie and that you rigorously punish such as abuse their Offices for when they make faults they are more punishable than others because they ought to govern other subjects and to serve them for an example Suffer not that in judgement there be acception of persons and so favour the poore onely as the truth of his fact doth appeare without favoring him as to the judgement of his cause Moreover I command you that you bee carefull to have a good Counsell about you of persons which be of staied good age which be secret peaceable not covetous for if you doe this you shall bee loved and honoured because the light of the servants makes their masters shine Also more I forbid you to take tallages or tributes upon your subjects but for urgent necessitie evident utilitie and just cause for otherwise you shall not bee held for a king but for a tyrant Further I command you that you be carefull to maintaine your subjects in good peace and tranquilitie and observe their franchises and priveledges which before they have enjoyed and take heede you moove no warre against any Christian without exceeding great occasion and reason Item I exhort you to give the benefices of your kingdome to men of good life and good conscience not to luxurious and covetous wretches My deere sonne if you observe these my commands you shall bee a good example to your subjects and you shall bee the cause that they will adict themselves to doe well because the people will alwaies give themselves to the imitation of their prince and God by his bountie maintaine you firme and assured in your estate and kingdome Thus finished this good king his last words full of holy zeale and correspondent to his life passed and yeelded his soule to his creator which had given it him His sonne king Philip third of that name called the Hardie because of his valiancie which he shewed against the infidels and against other enemies as well during the life as after the death of
his father made good profit of these excellent commands and maintained the kingdome in good peace and great prosperitie during his raigne For an end heereof I doe note in this good king Lewis That it is very true which the scripture witnesseth unto us That the lust shall spring up and receive of God the blessing of a good and long generation For there were more than three hundreth yeeres that the race of this good king held the crowne of France yea there was no more any other race of the blood royall but his For the house of Valois and the house of Burbon have issued from this good king God by his mercie graunt grace to princes of this time which are discended from so good a roote that they may engrave in their hearts the godly commandements of this king whose meaning verily was not onely to prescribe to the said king Philip his sonne but generally to all his posteritie 36. Maxime Gentlemen which hould Castles and Jurisdictions are very great enemies of commonweales THe Leages and Cantons of Almaigne saith Machiavell live very peaceably and at their ease because they observe Discourse lib. 1. cap. an equalitie amongst themselves and suffer no gentlemen in their country and those fevv they have they so hate them that vvhen by adventure any of them fall into their hands they put them to death and take none to mercie saying they are they vvhich destroy all and hould schooles of wickednesse I call saith hee them gentlemen vvhich live of their revenew without giving themselves to any trade These in a countrey are very dangerous and above all high Iusticers vvhich hould Castles and fortresses and which have a great number of vassailes and subiects which owe them faith and homage The kingdome of Naples the land of Rome Romaigne Lombardie are full of such manner of men and they are the cause that hitherto no good estate politicke can bee constituted in those places for they are formall and capitall enemies of the civile estate of common-weales THey which have frequented the countries of Almaigne and of Suises may well give Machiavell the lie for that he saith in this Maxime for in those countries may bee found many gentlemen great Iusticers having under them men jurisdictions and castles which were not onely maintained in their nobilitie and authoritie but also are there greatly respected and imployed in publike affaires And so much there wanteth that there they hould a schoole of wickednesse that contrary onely they hould the countries in peace every one in his owne countrey and doe see justice administred to their subjects I will not denie but there are gentlemen in Alemaigne in the countrey of Suisses in France and other where which are bad inough and which are violent and vitious yet for some few wee must not condemne all in generall as Machiavell doth heere who saith they bee dangerous people in a countrie and that they are enemies to an estate politicke I know not if those hee named bee such namely the gentlemen of Naples of Romania of Lumbardie and of Rome and I am content to confesse unto him because I will not contest and strive against him upon a fact which hath some appearance of truth But I deny unto him that on this side the mounts they are such but contrary wee see that it is onely the Nobilitie of France and other neighbour countries which authorize protect justice and which make it to bee obeyed Yet will I also confesse that the gentlemen on this side the mounts are very dangerous and great enemies unto such a politicke estate as Machiavell hath builded by his writings that is a Tyrannicall For hystories tell us that our ancestors especially the barons lords gentlemen have vigorouslie alwaies opposed themselves against tyrannies and would never suffer them long to grow up or take roote which is a naturall thing in the French Nobilitie good though evill for the Machiavellistes strangers which are come into France to practise their tyrannies for by Gods grace they shall with much a doe take any deepe roote there 37. Maxime The Nobility of France would overthrow the estates of that kingdome if their Parliaments did not punish them and hould them in feare THe kingdome of France saith Nicholas is a kingdome more living under lawes than any other whereof their Parliaments Discourse lib. 1. cap. 1. are the gardiants and maintainers especially that of Paris And hitherto that kingdome is maintained because the Parliaments have alwaies beene obstinate executors and resisters against the Nobilitie without which the kingdome of France had come to ruine MAchiavell had done much better to have medled onely with the estate of Florence for hee shewes well his ignorance and that hee never knew the estate of France nor how it hath beene governed by our ancestors For I pray you where hath hee found this that the kingdome of France would dissolve and come to ruine but that the Parliaments are executors against the Nobilitie Is not this as much to say as the French Nobilitie will ruinate the kingdome if it bee not brideled and held short by Parliaments and that it were better there were none I doubt not but that Machiavell thus though For wee see it by the practise of the Machiavellists which never shot at other marke than to ruinate in France all the Nobilitie the better to establish their tyrannie at ease without contradiction And for this effect have they cassed violated and overthrowne all the good lawes of the kingdome by the meanes of which it hath alwaies hitherto been maintained and Machiavell confesseth and said true which his disciples having well marked and desiring to ruinate the said kingdome have not fayled to beginne by the lawes thereof knowing well Since what time Parliaments of France were instituted Before Parliaments the kingdome was no lesse florishing in peace and good iustice than since that having ruinated her foundations she will be easily dissolved and overthrowne But to confute this Maxime I will alledge no other thing but that wee see in our French hystories That our kingdome was as much or more flourishing and better governed before there were any Parliaments in France than since For the Parliament of Paris which is the ancientest was established and constituted in the time of king Philip le Bel Anno 1294. That of Tholouse during the raigne of Charles the seventh Anno 1444. That of Bourdeaux in the time of the same king Anno 1451. That of Daulphin in the time also of the same king but by the authoritie of king Lewis the eleventh his sonne then Daulphin and then inhabiting in Dauphine in Anno 1453. The Parliaments of Dijon and of Provence in the time of the said king Lewis the eleventh That of Rovan in the time of king Lewis the twelfth in Anno 1499. And that of Bretaigne was erected onely in the time of king Henry the second in Anno 1553 But before there was any
newes of all those Parliaments was not the kingdome large and flourishing rich in peace flourishing in warre None can deny this without giving the lie to all our hystories which doe witnesse that in the times of Clowis Charles Martell Charlemaigne Philip August S Lewis and of many other kings of France the kingdome greatly flourished in peace and warre Yet was there no newes of all the Parliaments abovenamed And so much there wanted that the gentlemen troubled or ruinated the estate of the kingdome when there was no Parliaments that by contrary they were they which exercised in person the estates of baylifes and seneshals and ministred justice to every man through the provinces and when they were constrained to goe out they appointed themselves a lieutenant to exercise their offices And as for appellations from their sentences they were discussed by a generall meeting of the deputies of provinces and good townes of the kingdome which congregated at a place assigned by the king once a yeere Which assembly men well called a Parliament in the ould French tongue But those assemblies were not formed offices neither in any thing are like the Parliaments at this present but rather are like the assembly of our Estates generall There did sit the deputies of the Short robe whereof the most part were gentlemeâ— which they called Lay men and the deputies of the Long robe which wee call clerkes although since councellors clerkes are onely called Clerkes Lay men they which be married with the Peeres of France when they would sit with them Therefore gentlemen were employed to doe justice to the people not onely in offices of baylifes and seneshals but also as delegates of townes and provinces to assist in the assembly of Parliament which otherwise men called the court of Peeres It is therefore seene that the saying of Machiavell is a meere slaunder and that the Nobilite of France is not such as he makes it although in all estates there be both good and evill and that of all times even before ther were any Parliaments the Nobilitie were employed to maintaine the kingdome in peace repose by their exercise of the charges offices of justice And would to God that yet at this day gentlemen would not give themselves so much to armes but that some of them would studie the civil law that they might exercise offices of Iustice The ancient Romanes made no lesse account of a civile vertue Many of this time despise letters and the noblenesse of vertue Salust in Catelin wherby a man knew how to maintaine peace justice in his country than of the military vertue whereby we are defended from strange oppression And indeede it is a small thing as Salust saith to bee puissant in armes without when within wee have no counsell For the Barbarians as the Scythians and Tartarians are greatwarriors against their enemies and neighbours yet amongst themselves they have no counsell no good policie no well governed justice no letters sciences nor schooles and in summe they are Barbarians though they bee warlike Whereby appeareth how much it serveth to the publike estate of a countrey to have within it a good justice and a good policie and fit and capable people well to manage it But our gentlemen at this day at the least many have letters and sciences in too great despight and doe thinke it doth derogate from their gentry and nobilitie if they know any thing and make a mocke at such as deale with a pen and inckhorne which is one of the greatest vices which at this day raigneth amongst the Nobilitie And if they delighted not in ignorance but would vouchsafe onely to reade hystories they should finde that Iulius Caesar Augustus Tiberius Claudius Adrian Marke Antonine Severus Macrinus and many other emperours were very learned in letters and sciences yea themselves writ bookes Wee reade also in our hystories that king Charlemaigne king Robert Charles le Sage and of recent memorie king Francis the first of that name were princes endewed with good knowledge for their times I say for their times for the time wherein were these ancient kings except the said king Francis were full of barbarousnesse and ignorance and farre from the learned world of the emperours which wee have before named I will also note another notable vice which runnes currant amongst gentlemen at this day which is That they make so great accompt of their Nobilitie of blood that they esteeme not the Nobilitie of vertue insomuch as it seemeth to some that no vices can dishonour or pollute the Nobilitie and gentry which they bring from their ancestors But they ought well to consider that to their race there was a beginning of Nobilitie which was attributed to the first that was noble in consideration of some vertue which was in him If then the Nobilitie and gentrie of race tooke his originall and spring from vertue it followeth that so soone as it houldeth no more of the said spring it is no more Nobilitie nor gentrie no more nor lesse than the water which commeth and springs from a neate and cleere fountaine when it polluteth and corrupts it selfe in filthie boggs carres fennes and miery sinkes shall bee called the fountaine water since it hath corrupted it selfe in filthie mire and clay but shall bee accounted corrupt and stinking water although it runne from a most pure and cleare spring We reade that the emperour Marke Antonine made so great account of the Nobilitie of vertue although hee himselfe was most noble and of an ancient race that in comparison of it hee made no estimate of Nobilitie of race therefore married hee his daughters to persons which were not of great ancient Nobilitie but to such as were wise and vertuous such as none were found like amongst the most illustrious races of Rome Maecenas also was a great lord in the time of Augustus Caesar issued of a royall race yet hee made no account of that Nobilitie of blood in comparison of that true Nobilitie which is of vertue Hee loved honoured praised and enriched learned men yea was very familiar with them and had them ordinarily at his table although otherwise they were of base race This his love and favour which he bore to learning was the cause that his name by them was immortalized and heereupon such as are liberall and love learned men are called Maecenates The Poet Horace greatly praiseth him because hee preferred the Nobilitie of vertue before that of race when hee saith Thou saist truâ— Macenas what matters it to thee Serm. lib. 1. Saâ—ir 6. On what 〈◊〉 is borne so that borne hee bee free Therefore gentlemen of 〈◊〉 ought not to despise such as by their vertue may bouldly say carry themselveâ—â—or Nobles 〈◊〉 â—ught to respect them and acknowledge in them the cause from whâ—nce their Nobilitie of blood tooke their originall commencement They also which are Noble not onely of race but also of vertue ought verily to be
but Sophists should think to understand any thing of it But contrary we must beleeve That God hath given it unto us simple cleare and intelligible that even plaine people might comprehend and understand it So if it please God we need not leave to be saved although wee know not what meaneth Transubstantiation Concomitance and such like tearmes which are not read in the Bible and although we be not so sharpe and quicke to understand the nature of quiddities the subsistence of Accidens seperated from the subiect the effects and operations of second intentions the motion of the Chimaere in Vacuitie and other like deepe subtilties of speculative Theologie But I have above shewed that the Catholikes and we do well accord in the Sacrament of the Altar or the Supper so do we in the principall points of Christian Religion Demand of a Catholick if he do not beleeve That he shall be saved by the merite of the death passion of our Lord Iesus Christ he will say yea that he beleeveth it Aske yet of him if he do not beleeve That one onely drop of the precious blood of our Savior the eternall sonne of God is sufficient to save all the world hee will say yea Make upon it this consequence That it followeth then that the death and passion of Iesus Christ who shed all his blood for us is more than sufficient for our salvation hee will not deny this Aske him after if he beleeve that for our salvation there must be mingled the blood of martyrs supererogatorie works merits of Saints good works with the blood of Christ the sonne of God he will answere you That hee beleeves not that there must be such a mingle mangle since the blood of the sonne of God is sufficient for our salvation and that that should be to pollute it and that he knowes not what supererogatorie workes are And touching good workes which they say we reiect aske of the least child which learnes his Catechisme if a Christian ought not to do good workes to shew himselfe a Christian he will answere you yea Demand of him also if good workes bee not meritorious towards God he will answere you That they so please God that in regard of them as by merit an infinit sort of good things are given us as health long life children and other graces except eternall life which he gives us by the only merit of Iesus Christ I beleeve there is no Catholike in the world which will say more of good workes than this As for faith in generall we receive both the one and the other the holy Scripture of the old and new Testament Touching Baptisme we agree in the substance namely that it ought to be done In the name of the Father the Sonne and the Holy ghost and with the signe of the water We differ about spittle salt and the coniurations of devils which the Catholike priests do say to be within the body of little children and they chase them out wee indeed cast off all this as mens inventions which would be wiser than God who prescribeth them what they shall doe therein And I assure my selfe that the most part of the Catholikes would willingly that those things were reiected and that priests would not spit in the mouths of their little children and that they had no salt at all neither doe they beleeve there are divels within the bodies of their little children We also differ in certaine other ceremonies which I will not discover now at length But must wee hereupon say that the Catholikes and we are of two divers religions The Friers and Iacobins and many other sorts of Monkes in Christendome have all different ceremonies in habits in rules in doing their services and in all the exercises of their orders yet they are all held to be of the Christian Religion Moreover though there were some difference betwixt us touching doctrine seeing we accord in the principall points of Christian Religion must there be accounted a pluralitie and diversitie of Religion amongst us for the Canon Ego Beren garius Must men make all that stir to rore out all the Canons and artillerie of France and thunder at all the townes and castles of the kingdome to fill all places with armes soldiors and all the townes with the blood of Christians and to make red the rivers for such a quarel as this Must brother arme himselfe against his brother the father against his sonne must needs the Nobilitie ruin at it selfe must all the people be trodden under feet the whole realme be brought into a combustion For verily none makes war upon us but because we wil not beleeve in the aforesaid Canon and yet they which do this unto us do not beleeve in it themselves as we have before shewed But yet there is a point that seemeth to be one of the most principall points of Religion wherein we differ namely touching the Pope in whom we beleeve not But I am of opinion that the most part of Catholikes beleeve in him no more than we and that the matter is not of sufficient weight to make any great contention of Our ancestors in times past have wel passed their time without a Pope and wherefore should not we do so as well as they In the time of king Charles the sixt le bien ayme there were two popes in Christendome the one at Rome called pope Vrbane and the other at Avignon who was called Clement The Christian princes and commonweales at this time knew not which was the better of them yet some followed the pope of Rome and they were called Vrbanists and others the Pope of Avignon and they were called Clementines and when that the pope died at Rome or in Avignon men elected alwayes another in his place so that it appeared that this pluralitie of popes would ever endure The king of France and his Counsell were occasioned to exhort both of them to submit themselves to a Counsell which might advise and ordaine which of thē two should be Pope or if the one or the other ought not to be The king could never persuade them to come to this accord and especially the pope of Avignon was more backward than the other Hereupon the king caused to assemble the vniversitie of Paris and especially our masters of Sorbonne to have their advice what he should doe in this case At that time was there a learned Doctor in Theologie in Sorbonne Colledge who was called M. Iohn de Gigenconet who maintained That the Catholike church might wel for a time be without a Pope yea for ever alledged many good reasons which for times sake I will not here recite Breefly the Vniversitie was congregated and thereby it was resolved that the king ought to withdraw himselfe and all his kingdome from the obedience of both the Popes untill there were another legitimately elected And that there were good means to be dispatched of the pope viz. to leave the collations
of benefices to the ordinary Collators and also to labour unto the prelates of Fraunce for dispensations requisit Hereupon the king made an Edict with the advice of his daughter the Vniversitie so names he it whereby inhibitions defences were made to all subiects as well of the Nobilitie and the Clergie as of the third Estate no more to acknowledge either of the said Popes for Popes neither any more to run either to Rome or Avignon for the obtaining and impetration of benefices dispensations or other buls and provisions Apostolicall but to the ordinary Collators and to the Prelates of the French church upon paine to be debarred of their pretended right and other great punishments which Edict was observed by the space of three yeares at the end of which time was a Pope chosen at the counsell of Pise called Alexander the fift under whose obedience the king and his kingdome yeelded themselves But the space of the said three yeares they did well ynough without a Pope in France and so likewise during the said time of pluralitie of Popes which endured forty yeares And there were then many princes which acknowledged neither the one nor the other for Popes as the king of Aragon the countie of Hainaut the duke of Bretaigne the commonwealth of Liege If then in times past so many could be without popes why might we not as wel spare them now as then But as I have said before I see not why the Catholikes should so much care for the Pope as to travell and iourny so farre as Rome to kisse his pantophle nor to spend so much money to buy his pardons being such vile and base marchandize To conclude my masters it seemeth unto me by this breefe discourse I have made hitherto that my proposition is sufficiently cleared That the Catholike and we differ not in Religion but do agree in all points necessary for our salvation After that that good parson had made us the said discourse truly every one of us thanked him but especially the Catholike gentleman saying That as for him he never beleeved otherwise A pleasant discourse of Friers habits the points which he had delivered but even as hee had said and that he would never have thought that they of the Evangelike Religion had accorded so well with the Catholikes as he saw they did But said he my masters after so serious a discourse it should not be impertinent to adde another to make us laugh All the companie prayed him to do it then begun he to say in this manner I have above touched how habites and apparrell brought no sanctitie to the masse we may also say That they adde no sanctitie to the persons neither according to that common proverbe Apparell makes not a Monke Yet I find that this question hath been sometimes handled with great contention and diversitie of opinions which endured nigh fiftie yeares amongst the Friers because they could not accord upon the colour greatnesse widenesse and forme of their habites For you must understand that the glorious S. Francis amongst other articles of his rule hee had placed one whereby he ordained That all that were of his Order for apparrell should cloth themselves with the basest vilest and of the lowest price that could be that they should onely have one coat with an hood and another without an hood and that they should weare no shoes nor ride on horsebacke Vpon the intelligence and interpretation of this article arose great and marvellous altercations and disputations in the order of Friers insomuch that they held a generall Chapiter to accord these disputations and to rule themselves all by one sort of habites For some wore habites of one colour some of another some short others long insomuch that they seemed not to be of the same Order In this Chapiter then was there a great disputation about the intelligence and interpretation of the said article About the last two points they were easie to agree for seeing they were forbidden by the said article to ride on horsebacke they resolved to ride but on Asses and Mules or on foot as commonly they do They considered also That Asses were fittest for them in their Covents for being kept with least charge As for shooes they resolved That they would take away the most part of the leather leaving onely a sole with a thong to go overthwart the foot to make the sole fast to the foot so should they not be shoes but soles But the greatest difficultie and strife was about the fashion of the hood and of the coat or Iacket For in the said Chapiter were mooved three principall questions by certaine subtile and cunning Friers The first upon the Colour the second upon the Quantitie and the third about the Forme But to handle these three questions in order you must understand That about the colour there was divers opinions upon which they could not accord For the blessed S. Francis had spoken nothing of the colour in his rule but only ordained That they of his order should weare habites of a low price Then fell out a great question What colour was of least price and thought to be most vile Some reasoned That the greene colour was the vilest and might bee bought cheaper than any other and that it was ordinarily seene that people of most vile condition as carters marriners and other meane people did weare that colour in lining to their doublets as the worst colour of all They said also That the matter wherewith a greene colour is made is cheaper than any other for with hearbes and leaves greene may bee made to die both woollen and linnen Others said the murrey or smoakie colour was the worst best cheap for to make that colour there need no more but to take white wooll and soot But the third opinion seemed to be best taken with reason and equitie And that was they which said That there was no viler colour nor more meet for their Order than that which came from the beasts back it selfe But it is so that both white and black came from the beasts backe and it is evident that the blessed S. Francis did so understand it they should weare the colour of the beast in token of humilitie patience saying further That all other colours cost something if it were but labour but the colour of the beast cost nothing Therfore they concluded That al the order of Friers ought to weare their garmēts either of white or blacke colour and not of greene smokie or any other colours that this was their opinion Assuredly these reasons of the first disputers were so pregnant that they shaked al the rest of the company yet notwithstanding they which had disputed for Green and smokie colours thinking it not good to bee overcome at the first blow replied more They which have disputed of the colour of the beast say they do shew that they hold some thing of the beast speaking under the brotherly
wasted and burned so many bookes as they could finde being enemies of all learning and letters and who within this hundreth yeares hath restored good letters conteined in the bookes of the auncient Paynims Grecians and Latins hath it beene the Turke who is a Paynim It is well enough knowne that he is an enemie of letters and desireth none Nay contrarie it hath beene the Christians which have restored them and established them in the brightnesse and light wherein we see them at this day The knowledge of the Greeke Latin and Hebrew tongues in other countries have beene brought in by others but into our countries of France that they have come and doe so flourish wee may thanke king Francis the first of happie memorie and since the restauration of tongues and humane sciences men have well experimented that they are verie requisite and profitable well to understand the Scriptures of our Christian Religion so farre are wee off from rejecting them And as for that which Machiavell saith That our Christian Religion hath sought to abolish the memorie of all antiquitie how dare he openlie oppugne the manifest truth for none is ignorant that the true and primative antiquitie is of the Hebrews whose bookes have been conserved translated expounded by the Christians And as for the antiquitie of the Paynims doth any man finde that the Christians have caused to perish Homer Hesiodus Berosus or any other authors of antiquitie nay they they are which have conserved them which have aided themselves with them and which have interpreted them Eustachius the great commentor of Homer was not he a Christian yea a bishop But I shame to stay in the confutation of the impudent lies of this Atheist for young and meane schollers may easilie impugne his impudent lies Machiavell saith That it succeeded not so well with our Christian Religion as it would when it went about to abolish good letters because it was constreined to use the Latin tongue wherein all humane sciences were written Herein doth he manifestlie shew his beastlinesse and ignorance for who constreined our Christian doctors to write in Latin the olde and new Testament were first written in Hebrew and Greeke therefore the Latin doctors if they had list might have written in these languages as did S. Chrisostome S. Athanasius S. Basile S. Cirill Eusebius and manie others yet if writers had used these languages men would nor have ceased to preach in Latin to the Latins in the French to the French in the Allemaigne to the Allemaignes and to other nations to everie one in his language for it hath been seene not past threescore yeares agoe that in Italie France Alemaigne Spaine and other where the Christian Religion was not written in the mothers tongue yet men left not to hold the said Religion in the said countries but since it hath beene brought into everie of those languages for the commoditie of the people as it was brought into the Latin tongue by S. Augustine S. Ambrose S. Ierome S. Gregorie and other Latin doctors of the primitive Church of their time yet if they had written in Hebrew or Greeke the Christian Religion had not left and ceased to subsist and stand for that And although the Latin prophane books had perished the Latin language which then was vulgar had not therefore perished therefore doth Machiavell well shew his beastlinesse to say that the Christian Religion hath beene constrained to use the Latin language and that by that meanes the prophane Latin authors have beene conserved But what means he when he saith That if the Christian Religion could have formed a new tongue it had abolished the memorie of all antiquitie hath there been at any time in any countrie any Religion which hath formed a new language and how comes it that a Religion can bee received by the meanes of a new unknowne tongue If the Christian Religion had invented a new tongue it could never have been understood nor received and by consequent could not have abolished the bookes written in the Latin tongue likewise using the Latin tongue that was in common use it could no more abolish the books written in that tongue according to the saying of the said Machiavell and therefore take it which way you will if the Christian Religion had invented a new tongue or that it had used the Latin tongue as it did and doth it could not extinguish abolish the bookes written in the Latin tongue therefore Machiavell knows not what he saith As little knoweth he what he saith when he holds That sects and Religions have varied twise or thrice in five or sixe thousand yeares and that the last causeth alwaies the remembrance of the first to perish for who hath revealed unto him this secret who hath told him newes of things done before Moses time if it were not Moses himselfe Brieflie there is neither reason nor historie whereupon he may found that impudent lie But hereby he would shew that if any doubt whether he be not a very Atheist that he hath no more cause to doubt for for a proofe hereof he makes a declaration that he beleeves nothing of that which is written in the holy Scripture of the creation of the world nor of the Religion of God which wee hold since Moses For by the holy Scripture it is seene that there are not yet six thousand yeares since the creation of the world It is also seene that the Christian Religion of Messias and Christ changed not since the said creation but hath alwaies endured and shall endure till the consumation of the world And as for Painim Religions they have changed from one into an other in a little time and in one same countrie as histories do shew At Rome in the time of Romulus there was a Religion such as it was which Numa changed and devised an other more cerimonious After the religion of Numa changed strange Religions of the Grecians others were received at Rome insomuch that about five hundreth yeares after Numa when his bookes were found in his sepulcher and men read them they found no part of their Religion in them as shall be more fully said in his place Brieflie these Painim Religions still and often changed in regarde of their forme and ceremonies but in substance they changed nothing since the children of Caine who began to follow the false Religion for whatsoever outward change there was within it was alwaies divelish Religion having for his author the father of lies of falsenesse and therfore Machiavell knows not what he saith but that he is an Atheist and so would manifest himselfe to be one by discovering that he beleeved not the holy Scriptures He thought to have immortalized his name by making himselfe knowne to posteritie that he was a perfect Atheist replenished with all impietie like as Nero did who soughr meanes to make Suet. in Neron cap. 55. in Calig cap. 31. men speake of him after his death in sleying his mother