Power over his Subjectsâ— that the Turk does over his He might easily surpasse him in Riches The King I confesse wants Mony but I have formerly shewed him by what waies He might gather together Mony enough to maintain a war against the Turk Now the Turk useth infinite Celerity and speed in putting what ever designs He hath in execution sparing no cost or charges for the providing of all things necessary for the same so that with the present Mony that he hath in his Treasury He presently raiseth Men and provides them Armes and gets all things immediately in a readinesse in order to the expedition He is upon and when he hath laid out all the Mony that he had in his Treasurie he then presently falls to filling it up again by laying fresh Impositions and Taxes upon his Subjects It is a necessity that is in a manner Peculiar to the Turk of making War upon his Neighbours round about and as it were in a Circle for they are all his enemies But now the condition of the Spaniard is otherwise For betwixt His Kingdome of Naples and his Duchy of Millanâ— there lye the Pope and the Tuscans who are united unto him by the Tie both of Religion and Friendship He lies something remote indeed from the Netherlands and the West Indies which notwithstanding render him worthy the more admiration because that by reason of his Fleets he lies as it were neer unto them and by meanes of the same he may possibly in time make himself Master of those other Parts also which he hath not yet possessed himself of as we shall shew hereafter The King hath also this advantage that although those Countries lâ—e at so great a distance from one another yet by the Tie of Religion they are all joyned to Spain Lastly whereas in Turky the Eldest sons of the Emperours are wont alwaies to make away with their Younger brothers this piece of Cruelty of theirs does but set a Note of Infamy upon them and it may easily so fall out that some One of these Younger Brothers may get away out of his Elder Brothers power and may be able afterwards to make War upon his Brother And we see that this had been like to have come to passe in Gemes the Brother of Bajazet who having gotten out of prison might have been able to have done his Brother very much Mischief and by the Assistance of the Christians might have made his way into Greece had he not by the Arts his Brother Bajazet used and by the treachery also of the Christians been taken off by Poyson And Selim although He did not desire to make Himself Emperour yet He made himself very strong at first only to preserve himself from being put to death but afterwards taking the Opportunity when it was offered him He turned both his Father and Brother out of the Empire and commanded them to be both put to death at which Juncture of Time that Empire might very easily have been utterly subverted and ruined And truly I conceive that the Total destruction of that Empire cannot be brought about any other way then by this one thing namely their most bloody Cruelty that they Practise upon their nearest and dearest Friends and Kindred For seeing that the great Turk takes as many Wives to himself as he pleases and so gets an Infinite number of Sons by them all which are most certainly assured that when ever their Eldest Brother comes to be Emperour They shall be all of them murdered it is very probable that some time or other there may Civil Wars arise in that Empire by which it may either be totally destroyed or at least may be divided into many parts which would give the Turks enemies an Opportunity of falling upon him and so of ruining him Neither need any one wonder that this hath not as yet happened to this very day seeing that this Empire is not of any so very long standingâ— For Ottoman who was the Founder of it died but in the Year of our Lord 1328. in the time of Pope Benedict XI And yet we know that there have already been bloody Wars amongst them which seems to confirm this our Prognostication and makes me the willinger to give credit to Torquatus the Astrologer who foretold that it would come to passe that in the time of the Sixteenth Emperour of Turky that Empire should fall to the ground namely when the Moon which is the Ensign of that Empire shall begin to decrease that is to say when It shall be divided into Two Hornes by two of the Great Turks Sons rising up one against the other and causing the Empire to be divided into Two parts One of which Brothers turning to Christianity shall come over to the Christians Now these Two Hornes signifie Two Kingdomes for Kingdomes are oftentimes denoted by the Ensigns or Armes of the same as we see in the Revelâ—tion of St. Iohn where the Kingdomes themselves are from their Insignia called sometimes Dragons sometimes Eagles and sometimes also Lions and the Prophet Ieremy calleth the Kingdome of the Assyrians by the name of a Dove because the Assyrians had the Figure of a Dove for their Ensign or Devise Now in this Particular the Spaniard is much more happy then the Turk because that His Sons do not fall out or hate each other for any such Cause Yea we see at this day that those of the House of Austria partly by reason of this very thing because they are Brothers and Kindred and partly also through fear of the other Christian Princes and of the Hereticks are at so much the greater Concord and Agreement among themselves And you shall scarse find more Brothers or Kindred in any one Princes Family then in that of Austria and yet have not these ever broken the Bond of Consanguinity one with another nor have ever raised any Commotions in their Republick through Ambitious Ends and Respects but have on the contrary preserved each to other their Just Rights Untoucht and have lived together in so Unshaken a Concord and Union as that they seem to be so many Bodies animated all with One Soul and guided all by One Will. We may adde hereto that the Younger Brothers of this House have hopes either of being made Cardinals or else of being Elected Kings of Poland or of some of the other Forreign Elective Kingdoms so that the House of Austria by reason of the Multitude of Sons growes the Greater whereas the Ottoman House does for the same reason decrease every day more and more not to say any thing how much the Turk's Subjects are offended with this Tyranny of his Experience also testifies that the Daughters of the House of Austria have by their Marriages with other Princes and the Inheritances thereby fallen to them very much advanced the Greatnesse of the Austrian Family and have enlarged their Dominions in a wonderful manner and besides they have also caused the hearts of their Husbands and of their
day who are so distracted and divided by several Heresies that the Assyrians were of old to the Iewes who by faction were divided into the Kingdomes of Iudah and Israel except the Good Angell of Spain afford us his assistance as I have elsewhere shewed CHAP. III. Of the First Cause of Empires namely God IT is very evident that neither Prudence alone nor yet joyned with Occasion is sufficient for the attaining to or governing a Kingdome for as much as we know that the Freedom of the Will consists only in the Will it self and not either in Action or Passion For it may so fall out that a man may over night purpose the next morning to go to Sea or to study or to go to plow or to do any other businesse and yet upon a sudden the falling of Rain or unexpected tempestuous and foul weather may crosse that so wise counsel of his so that he must be forced to do not according to his own determination but according as matters shall fall out So that he that knowes how so to order his Counsels and Determinations as that they shall alwaies be subordinate to the Superiour Causes his affaires shall seldom fail of succeeding prosperously Wisemen therefore make it their businesse to labour after the knowledge of these Superiour Causes of God and His Divine Will on which the whole Chain and Series of future things depends And hence it is that some have sought for God in the Stars who hath also answered some by the Stars as namely the Magi or Wisemen at our Saviours Nativity And perhaps a Rainy Morning may have done no hurt at all to this or that Astrologer because they foresaw this Rain and so probably ordered their affaires accordingly having regard to the Will of God herein who out of his singular goodnesse will be found there where we seek him with a sincere heart Nay when the businesse so requires he answereth even those that do not seek him with a sincere heart as we see in Balaam whom he answer'd perhaps when he was not askt And so likewise in King Saul who was informed by Samuel what the Event of things should be though he had by Witchcraft consulted the Divel and not Samuel as Tho Aquinas also is of opinion in his 2.2 4.140 And therefore we also ought to believe that the True God gave answer to the Diabolical Superstitions of the Romans Graecians and Chaldeans by the Ministry of the peculiar Angel of each of these several Empires For the Inevitable Decree of his Will sometimes exalted and again sometimes depressed and clouded the Majesty of those Monarchies Therefore the Chaldeans and so likewise the Medes whensoever their own Wisdom failed them made their Invocations upon God by the Stars as the Greeks did by their Oracles at Delphos the Romans by their Auguries and Observations of Birds and as the more Sound Philosophers sought Him in the Works of Nature as Pythagoras also did in Numbers which are as a certain Ray of Divinity disseminated and diffused throughout the whole Universe But much more rightly did the Iewes seek after him by the Prophets which were sent unto them Which custome of theirs the Christians also followed when as the Archangel Michael had gone over from the Iewes to the State of the Christians For in all probability we ought to believe that when any Empire is overthrown the Angel of that goeth over to the Conquerour And this is a Secret which was not unknown to the Romans who for this very reason would not have their Tutelar Angel to be known to the end that he might not be invoked by other Nations And therefore we may probably believe that either the Angel of Persia yeelded to that of Greece or else that He went over from the Persians to the Greeks and so consequently that the Angel of Constantinople does at this time fight for the Turks or else having removed his station stands now for Germany and hath joyned himself to Her Angel Now where there are the more of these Tutelar Angels There there is the greater growth and stronger confirmation of Power And therefore being instructed hereto out of the Scriptures I affirm that if at any time God appear to treat either favourably or else contrarily with any Monarchy we are to understand this in reference not to that present Monarchy only but to the succeeding also For unlesse this were so God should not have revealed the Knowledge of Future things to his Church by the Prophets which is an absurd thing to believe and it would also follow that this Knowledge was to be sought for by the Stars or some other things Which things seeing they are partly also forbidden by the Pope we are necessarily to believe that all things are otherwise sufficiently provided for Wheresoever therefore God speaks of the Babylonish Empire we are to understand it as said also of the Persian Grecian and Roman which in their turns succeeded It. And hence it is that St. Iohn calls Rome Babylon And so likewise what is said of the Kingdom of the Iewes the same is to be understood also of the Church of Rome which hath received the Keyes of David and the Name of Ierusalem according to that which is said to the Angel of Philadelphiae Now Philadelpâ—ia is Brotherly Love as Roma Rome by turning the Letters backward is Amor Love And God oftentimes threatens his Church I will remove thy Candlestick out of its place unlesse thou repent For in like manner the Angel of God may be said to remove from one Church to another as for example from Heretical England to Catholick Borussia as from one Kingdom to another And so what is pronounced by Ezechiel Ieremy and Esay concerning the Prince of Tyre is sometimes to be taken as spoken of the Prince of the Angels that fell from Heaven and were cast out of their Kingdom there Where that also which is said How art thou fallen O Lucifer which is spoken of the King of the Chaldaeans is to be taken as by way of similitude spoken of his Successors and of the Aerial so called Empire of the Great Divel For both Empires and all other Earthly things bear a similitude to the Heavenly as those of the Sea do to them of the Land Whence it is that you have your Bishop-fish your Sea-calf and the Calamary or Sea-Clark for as much as all of them have their dependance from the Prime Reason or the Divine Idea which is the Eternal Word Whence I seem to my self to have found out a Key by which I may find out a passage to the knowledge of the Original Government and end of the Kingdome of Spain by the First Cause which God hath laid open in the Prophets and by which we may proceed on further to discover the Prudence herein requisite and the Occasion which the Spaniard ought to lay hold on CHAP. IV. Of the Spanish Empire considered according to the First Cause IT is evident that
be forced by the necessity of imposing upon his Subjects Unusual Taxes to gain their ill will and lose their Affections which was Caligula's Case heretofore who after that he had in riotous courses fool'd away all his own Estate was necessitated presently to snatch away other mens Certainly whosoever takes in hand any high and difficult Attempt under the Assistance of a Favourable Fate he must necessarily be Couragious and daring and indeed every Great and Memorable Enterprise requireth a certain Extraordinary Valour and Courage which yet in case the successe should not be answerable would be called Rashnesse As for example it was accounted a Bold undertaking in Columbus to go in search of a New World but plain Rashnesse in Vlisses only because the one escaped safe but the other suffered shipwrack But when a Prince hath effected his desiâ—es he must then have an eye to the uncertainty of Fortune and must therefore take heed how he is too bold and daring the observing of which Counsel being neglected by Charles the Fift was the cause of bringing to nothing all that he had atchieved before in Germany for he did not take the same wise Course to preserve what he had gotten as he had done in the getting of it And the case was the same also with the great Iulius Caesar. And then again in war there is a necessity of using severity that so the Souldiers may all be kept to their several duties and besides those that perform any Signall peices of Service are to be rewarded accordingly which Course unlesse it be taken they will begin to spurn at the Government and break out into seditious wayes as Tiberius his Army did when it was in Germany and will fall to an insolent course of Plundering and robbing and so by these meanes will bring the Victory they had gotten before to nothing as it happened to Conradinus the Swevian and Charles of Anjou Therefore after any Conquest gotten over a Kingdom the Conquerour must modestly use his Victory and endeavour to please the People For otherwise he will alienate their affections from himself and they will be apt upon all occasions to invite in his Enemies to fall upon him as it happened to Rehoboam and Charles of Anjou in Sicily and to the Carthaginians after the First Punick War and to Aecolinus against whom his subjects the Citizens of Padua shut their gates as likewise to Nero who though Prince of it was yet called The Enemy of his Country And although many Crafty Practises are now in use among Princes for the keeping of their Subjects in due obedience yet I dare boldly affirm that they will in the end prove destructive to those Princes For we see that Tiberius that Grand Artifex of Subtleties and Craft was miserably hated by his Subjects and so led a very sad life because he found he was not loved by any body so that he was fain to put some or other every day to death as contemners of his Majesty and so to be ever of a troubled disquieted mind which certainly may better be called a Death then a life Therefore the highest and most advantageous Craft that a Prince can make use of is to shew himself Beneficent Religious and Liberall toward his Subjects yet this in so moderate a way as that by this means he give them not occasion to despise him as happened to Pope Celestine the Fifth But let us now proceed to those things that more Particularly concern Spain As I have before shewed by Divine Reasons that there can be no Universal Monarchy among the Christians expected save that of the Pope and have also declared how he is to be dealt withal so I shall now prove by Reasons of Policy that there can be no Monarch in the Christian World unlesse he have his dependance upon the Pope For certainly what Prince soever hath any other that is superiour to Him though in Religion onely and not in point of Armes as the Pope is he can never attain to an Universal Monarchy For whatsoever He shall take in hand it will be successelesse and he shall be as it were crushed in pieces by the superiour For All Religions as well the False as the True do prevail and are Victorious when they have once taken root in the Minds of men upon which onely depend both their Tongues and Armes which are the onely Instruments of attaining Dominion Thus we see that Iulius Caesar when any were created Consuls if the Poâ—tifex Maximus came and sayd They were not created Rightly they were presently by him put by and so whensoever he was to enter into a fight if the Augurs said that The Pullen would not eat their meat he forbare to go on and did onely what he was directed to by their Omen And therefore when the same Caesar had fallen upon a resolution of making himself A Monarch he opposed Cato as much as possibly he could and endeavoured by all possible meanes to be chosen to be the Pontifex Maximus Which when he had once attained unto he acted another way and took upon himself all the Martiall Offices that were to be administred by the sword that so he might drive on his designs the more securely and withal by his gifts obliged all the Souldiery so to him as that they refused not to bear arms for Him even against their Country and to assist him in his designs of changing the Government of the state So in like manner Cyrus would be called by the Title of Gods Commissary that so no Prophet might pretend to be greater then Himself And Alexander the great would be accounted the son of Iupiter Ammon for the very same reason It is also very evident that no Monarchy in the Christian World hath arrived to the Height by reason of the obedience which is due to the Pope And hence it is that Mahomet when he aspired to a Monarchy brought in first a New Religion which was quite different from what was before For Armes cannot effect any thing against Religion if they be overmaster'd by another more powerful Religion though a worse if so be it be but entertained by the People For as much therefore as there is no more powerful Religion found in the World then that of the Roman Christian it is evident that neither Spain nor France can attain to any greater Dignity then It. And hence it was that Charles the Great when he had a design upon the Universal Monarchy of the World took upon himself the Title of being The Protector of the Pope and indeed so long as he stood up in a defence of Christianitie he became Great If the King of Spain therefore do in like manner aspire to the same Height it is necessary that he frame some New Religion but this neither God nor Reason permits him to do For First this is never to be done but in the very Infancy and beginning of a Kingdom as you may see in the examples of Mahomet Romulus
and Pythagoras for otherwise he must needs come to ruine by changing the Auspicia Regni the Fortune of the Kingdom as I may call it whose dependance is from Faith in Christ and then the People will immediately betake themselves to their Armes and revolt from him Neither indeed have any Monarchies been either more certainly or more miserably brought to destruction then when they have changed their Religion as is testified by Histories And then again the Pope and the rest of the Princes of Christendom would joyn their whole strengths together and would in a very litle time root him out of his Kingdom of Naples Millan and consequently also of the New World the rest of his Dominions And although these things were not done to Henry the VIII of England nor yet to the Duke of â—â—xony because their Territories were encompassed within small though well fortified Bounds yet for all that did they fail of succession and so their States went away from them And we have examples hereof also in Ieroboam Iehu Iulian the Apostate and others who for having changed their Religion incurred the hatred of their People and brought destruction upon themselves Unlesse we shall say that the Pope hath no power at all in Temporal things nor is any whit above either any other of the Bishops or theirs Surrogates or Chaplains in Authority or degree which is evidently contradictory to Gods Ordination by which He hath been constituted a Regal Priest and hath been armed with both the Swords as well the Civill as the Spiritual For were it otherwise Christ should be a very mean Law-giver and should be lesse then Melchisedech who was both King and Priest together which addeth both the greater Majesty as well as security to any Kingdom as I have proved in my Treatise Touching Monarchy against Dante who looking only upon the Priesthood of Aaron allowes to the Pope nothing but Spiritualties and Tithes only And which is more this impugnes also all Reasons of Policy because the Pope can never want those that will take up Armes in His defence in case He should not be able to defend Himself and that either by being moved thereunto through Zeal to Religion as the Countesse Matilda did against the Emperour Henry or else out of Emulation or some interest of Faction as it was in the Case of the Venetians making war upon the Emperour Frederick whom they compelled to kisse the Popes Foot or for both these reasons as when King Pipin and Charles the Great took up Armes in assistance of the Pope against the Lombards and others who waged war against him Thus we see that the Constantinopolitan Empire came to be destroyed for the Apostasy of Iulian and Constantius in like manner as all the Fredericks Henries and other Kings also of Naples suffered for the same Cause as often as they denied their Obedience to the Pope And certainly the Opinion and Beliefe which hath prevailed upon the Minds of all People touching the Christian Religion is of very great force and moves them to defend It to the utmost of their power so that whensoever the Pope hath excommunicated any Prince He doth at the same instant ruine him also Do but observe I pray you to what state Ferraria is reduced at this day But we have discoursed more copiously of this in the Treatise of Monarchy It is lastly against all Policy too for the Pope withholds the rest of the Princes of Christendom from invading Spain as he doth the King of Spain from invading them by continually composing their differences in like manner as he divided India betwixt the Portugals and the Spaniards and thus hath several times made peace betwixt the Spaniards and the French Venetians and Genowaies and so likewise betwixt Pisa and Florence which yet he would not so easily be able to do by the meer Reverence they bear to Religion For here in these Cases they have an eye as well to the force of Armes as to Religion for He that is in the wrong Cause may justly suspect the Popes joyning of his strength to that of his Antagonist and so for this reason he will the more readily obey the Popes Injunction as I have declared formerly in the forementioned Treatise And the King of Spain if he but declare himself for and stand up in the defence of the Pope shall be sure to have alwayes the assistance of His Forces at his devotion at any time which will be a good means of confirming his Kingdom to him And therefore I conceave it very necessary according to the Fate of Christendom that if the King of Spain would arrive to an Universal Monarchy He must declare himself publiquely to have his dependance from the Pope and command it to be published all abroad throughout the World that himself is the Cyrus that was before typified and the Catholick King that is the Universal Monarch of the World declaring this his Monarchy by his Religious Counsels and pious Actions and passing also by many litigious Controversies which he hath with the Pope and dwelling in the Tents of Sem making it appear to all the World that He is the Chief Defender of Christian Religion that depends wholly upon the Pope of Rome calling together also the Christian Princes to consult about the recovery of those Countreys they have lost and are at this day in the hands of Hereticks and Turks and He must proceed to the causing of such to be excommunicated as shall deny their assistance herein and lastly he must also take care that Pious and diligent Preachers be sent abroad into the World to promote this businesse For the Plain truth of it is that the Pope picks quarrels sometimes with the King of Spain for no other reason but only because he is afraid that in case he should subdue the King of France and the Princes of Italy hee would then make Him only as his Chaplain And this is the reason why He desires that they should alwayes be at variance one with another that so in case either of them should fall off from Himâ— by reason either of Apostasy or some quarrel or other He might have the other to assist him And this is the reason why he stirred up the Western Empire against the Eastern onely because they had forsaken their former Religion had had many Clashings with the Pope about It. But now if King Philip will but do that which is his duty as is before declared and will but give way to the Pope in some things which he pretends His Right and will besides send some Bishops and Cardinals into the Belgiâ—k Provinces and to the New world to dispose of and order things there he will by this meanes both free the Pope from this suspition and shall withall effect his own desires seeing that it is evident that the Pope by his Indulgencies and Croysados brings him in more mony then those Dignities which he bestowes upon Cardinals Archbishops Bishops and
Authority as we find it testified by daily Experience Or else it may indeed be desired at the Popes hands that it should be so and it may also be declared that the King is willing to yield that in all Causes whatsoever there should be Appeales to the Pope if so be that it may be but every where allowed to appeal first to a Councel of Three Bishops or else that Appeales in all Causes of the Laity shall come at length to the Pope but passing first by degrees through a Councel consisting of two Bishops and the King and so to be referred afterward to a General Councel and last of all to come to the Pope for Appeals from General Councels are very seldome heard of and besides the very Name of a Councel is hateful to the Pope So that in conclusion the determination of all Causes will alwaies rest with the King who by this means shall be a Gainer where he seems to be a Loser CHAP. VII What may be ufrther added concerning Prudence and Opportunity THat Prudence ought in the first place to agree in all things with Divine Fate hath already been shewed it remaineth now that we speak of all the rest of the parts of Prudence and shew whitherto all its Vertues and especially Opportunity ought to be referred for as much as it is the property of Prudence to know how to make use of Occasion We have already also declared upon what Interests and under what Confederacy with the Pope the Monarchy of Spain ought to proceed at least as far as was fit to be committed to writing for the most secret Arcana and Mysteries of State are not thus to be made Publick It is therefore Manifest that the Occasion which the King of Spain hath consists chiefly in this that his Neighbouring Enemies are weak and at discord among themselves touching both Points of Religion and matters of State but his Remoter Enemies are more Powerful so that these if his weaker Neighbours were once overcome seem the more easily conquerable The Spaniard hath besides a Notable Occasion from the Extraordinary advantage of Navigation and by his having Dominion in all places round about the whole Earth in a Circle And it seems to me that the attaining to the Empire of the whole World is a very feasible businesse for Him to bring about if there could be such an Uniting of things together by degrees as I shall shew hereafter according to the General Rules of Politick Prudence Where we shall at length come to Particular Actions examined according to Nearer and Remoter Relations But first of all the Politick Relation of Spain at home is to be strengthened and afterwards the Forrain is to be looked after Thus therefore I proceed on to the businesse CHAP. VIII The Causes by which the Spanish Monarchy may be enlarged and become lesse THe Occasions by which the Spanish Monarchy may be kept up or perhaps be enlarged also are these First of all The Virtue of the King Secondly the Goodnesse of the Lawes thirdly the Wisdome of the Councel fourthly the Iustice of the Officers of State fiftly the Obedience of the Barons sixtly the Multitude and good Discipline of Souldiers and Commanders Seventhly a Full Treasury Eightly the Mutual Love of the People among themselves and toward their King Ninthly Good Preachers in their Sermons speaking for subjection to Kings Tenthly the Good Agreement betwixt his own Kingdomes and the Disagreement betwixt his Neighbours And on the contrary this Monarchy hath these things that may be the ruine of it as First A wicked King Secondly Bad Lawes Thirdly an Ignorant Councel Fourthly Vnjust Officers of State Fifthly a Disobedient Nobility Sixthly the Want of Souldiers and Commanders and those He hath not well disciplined Seventhly Want of Mony Eighthly The Mutual Hatred of the People among themselves and toward their King Ninthly False Prophets or else perhaps True ones that may rise up against Monarchy Tenthly The Discord of his Own Kingdomes and the Agreement among others All which things are Prudently to be considered and weighed seeing that the present Disagreement among the Enemies of Spain and his Power at Sea all over the World have rendred the Attempt not only of maintaining but of enlarging this so great a Monarchy very feasible CHAP. IX Of the King HE cannot govern the World that cannot govern an Empire neither can he rule an Empire that cannot a Kingdom nor he a Kingdom that cannnot a Province nor he a Province that cannot a City nor he a City that cannot a Village nor he a Village that cannot a Family nor he a Family that cannot a single house nor he a single house that cannot govern himself neither can he govern himself that cannot reduce his affections and bring them within the compasse of Reason which very thinâ— no man is able to do except he submit himself to the will of God For whosoever rebels against God who is the Supreme Wisdom against him shall all things that are subordinate to him rebel also and that justly and by the Law of Retaliation which is most just in all both Governments and Actions of Men. Having therefore weighed in onr mind and coâ—sidered all the Ideas and Formes of Humane Government we say that the King of Spains endeavours must be that He may arrive to the Highest pitch of Wisdom that may be For every Virtue is an Affection of the Mind consisting in a certain Mean beyound which if it arise or fall beneath it it comes to be a Vice Now it is Reason that constitutes this Mean And therefore we are to say that Actions alone do not render a man Vertuous but to this purpose there is required also a Natural Inclination in the Person which is derived both from the Complexion of his Parents from the Aire and from the Stars Seeing therefore that the Kingdom of Spain is not an Electtive one but descends by succession I say that the King ought to have but one wife for to have more is contrary to Reason it self which is to be of a tall Stature and she must be both fruitful and Eloquent and must excel all other women in the endowments both of Body and Mind Neither must he look after the Noblensse of her Family only for so she may chance to be barren or may some other waies be not so pleasing to Him and he should be overwhelmed with all those mischieifs that Henry the Eighth was or the Duke of Mantua Whence Francis the Duke of Tuscany might seem to deserve commendation if he had married Blanch only because he wanted an Heir to succeed him The King is likewise to exercise the Act of Copulation with his Queen under a Fortunate Planet onely and after Digestion is finished and besides he must not do this till after he hath abstained some reasonable time from the said Act to the end that his seed may be the more fruitful and when ever he hath any thing to do with his
Wisest and ablest Commanders for War that are about him Thus we read Sophia Wife to the Emperour Iustinian dealt with Narses who being thereby very much incensed he took occasion to invite the Lombards into Italy to the infinite prejudice and losse both of the Emperour and Empresse Covetousnesse also proves the ruine of Kings as we see in Antiochus who pillaged the Temple of Iupiter Dodonaeus and in Caligula who having profusely wasted all his own most greedily gaped after other mens estates whence they both came to be hated by their Subjects and so died a miserable death Such a one also was Midas who wished That whatsoever he touched might presently â—urn to Gold whereas he could neither eat his Gold nor could it procure him an houres sleep when he wanted it that is to say it was of no use at all to him but it onely laid him open to the spoyl of him that had but the Skill to make use of his Iron Caligula in one year consumed riotously seventeen Millions of Crowns which his Predecessor Tiberius had scraped up together and was afterward reduced to that want that he was forced to betake himself to spoyl his Subjects and to practise all manner of Cruelties upon them King Solomon also what in building of Sumptuous Palaces and Temples and about other most chargeable Pomps and Magnificences expended the better part of a Hundred and twenty Millions which his Father David had left him and notwithstanding that he had no trouble upon him from any part yet did he so excessively overburden his Subjects with Taxes that being become Intolerable to the greatest part of his People he lost a great part of his Kingdome in his Son Rehoboam We do allow in our King a desire of Honour but so that he aspire to it by the steps of Vertue for otherwise He will gain onely the opinion of being Proud which was the ruine of Alboin and Attila And indeed Honour is the Witnesse to Vertue and therefore whosoever is a Vertuous Person he shall attain to True Honour without any Flattery which hath been the overthrow of many a Prince in the World And hence it will also follow that a Prince should not enter into so strict a Tye of Friendship with any One or Two of his Subjects as to indulge them the liberty of transgressing the bounds of Justice and the Lawes without controul For by so doing the Principal Persons of his Nobility and Commanders in War laying aside all duty will look upon him as an Abject Unworthy person And which is more they sometimes in these cases enter into Conspiracies against Him and that very person whom He advanced to so much honour as to make him his Favourite may chance to usurp the Kingdome as we read it happened betwixt Gyges and Candaules King of Lydia So likewise Sejanus did much mischief to the Emperour Tiberius who notwithstanding was as subtle and crafty as any man But yet Macro did more who made an end of him Neither can any thing be more destructive to a Prince then to single out One onely to be his Friend and Favourite And hath not Antonio Perez been of very ill Consequence to the Present King If the King hate any particular persons he must by no means discover it unlesse he find that they are hated by the People also as are commonly all Hereticks Infidels Usurers and Publick Executioners of Justice upon Malefactors for by so doingâ— He shall the more indear himself to the People He must also take notice that Accusations among his Subjects do not so much avail his Kingdome as Calumnies hurt itâ— and therefore He ought alwaies to encline rather to the Accused Party And to the end that he may attain to the highest degree of his Subjects Love and Affection He must set up some Court of Grace that shall be above all other Courts whatsoever that all such persons as are condemned to death may have yet some left to whom they may appeal And the King ought to pardon Offenders often where it may be done safely enough and where the Condemned person hath not been admitted to make his Appeal to the Kings Deputies or hath not offended either against the State or Religion and these Offenders by Him pardoned may be sent out either for Souldiers or else to the Gallies and this will do very much good And of this Court of Grace I would have the King himself to be President and it should consist onely of his Queen and his Children and one Bishop only The King must also with all Modesty and Humility put his chiefest trust in God and repose but little confidence in his own strength especially when He is not endued with any Extraordinary Prudence for the managing of the same and all the weightiest of his Actions must be referred to God as the Author of them that so they may be lookt upon by all with the greater reverence and esteem Let him never hope with a few to vanquish a greater number nor with Undisciplined and unruly Souldiers nor to conquer a forraine enemy in his own Country of which things I have elsewhere spoken He must alwayes remove all Fear far from him and â—e must discover his onely Fear to be lest any Sad Disaster should befall either Religion or his Subjects And in all His Expeditions He must shew himself to the Height of Valour and even of bold Daring too provided that â—e do it with Reason and that so He may the more inflame the courage of his Souldiers Neither ought he ever to seem to be Jealous of the Worth of any one lest he should so betray His own Timorousnesse and Poorenesse of Spirit And therefore to the end that his Subjects may not rebel His safest course will be to keep them alwayes up in Armes rather then to let them lie unarmed quietly at home for being in Armes they will the easier be kept within the bounds of Obedience Because that if they be by fair and Prudential meanes kept in awe they will be ready to make use of their Armes at all times for their Kings advantage but if though Unarmed they be otherwise then fairely dealt with by their Prince they will be apt to revolt from him or which is worse will find Armes which they will turn against Him An example of this kind we have in David and Sâ—ul who was Jealous oâ— David seeing his Valour and Worth The King ought also as often as he begins to be Jealous and fearful of the Greatnesse of any of his Subjects under the shew of honouring him to send him abroad out of the Country he is powerful in to some other as Ferdinand King of Arragon dealt with the Great Duke Consalvus removing him from Nâ—ples where he might possibly have raised Commotions in the State to Spain where he was not able to do any such thing Neither yet are such Men too much to be slighted for by this meanes the Prince might incurre the hatred
of his Subjects and it would be a discouragement to them from the endeavouring at any High and Noble Actions Therefore such persons as He is Jealous of are to be employed in such places where there is the least danger to be feared from them as we read Belisarius was called home by Iustinian out of Italy where he was beloved by all men and sent against Persia. The Kings Anger must neither be Violent nor Headlong as was Alexander's of Macedon against his Nobles for so he may chance to be made away by poyson as Alexander was and his Subjects may fall off from him and so his Power will be diminished as it happened to Theoderick the First King of Ravenna and which was also the cause of the Emperour Valentinian's death In times of Peace He must be merciful to such as offend either out of Ignorance or Weaknesse of Body or Mind and that in favour of the Multitude and to sweeten Them but this he must take heed of in time of War and he must not pardon any Egregious Offenders or that are the Heads and Ringleaders of any Faction especially where the Worth of the Persons is not so great as that being pardoned they may be of greater use to him then that wherein they offended was prejudicial Thus Scanderbeg pardoned Moses rebelling against him as being the Greatest Commander he had under him who thereby became afterwards of very great Use and Advantage to him In like manner as David also pardoned Ioab But yet we must remember that this Easinesse and Mercifulnesse is then only seasonable where the Crime concerns not the State it self but onely Particular persons And therefore the Prince ought not at any time to deny the Legal Proceeding of Justice to any one For for this very cause Philip King of Macedonia was slain by Pausanias And therefore as we have formerly said he ought to be careful and circumspect in the curbing and bridling of his own Passions and Affections But now Piety and Religion is of it self sufficient to make any Prince exercise his power of Dominion Justly and happily as we see by the Examples of the Emperour Constantine the Great Theodosius and the like And here we are alwaies to remember that it is most certain that The People do naturally follow the Inclinations of their Prince And therefore Plato was wont to say If the King but mend all the Kingdome mends without the accession of any other Law And therefore the Virtue of the Prince ought to surpasse in a manner all Humane sense As concerning Making of War it is certain and evident to all that Warlike Princes have still had the better of those that are not so inclined and although Wise Kings have alwaies made a shift to preserve their own yet they have not alwaies enlarged their Dominions but the idle and sloathful have ever been of the losing hand I say therefore that a King if he would be accounted a warlike Prince ought to go in person to the Wars especially â—â—ere he is certain of Victory Thus Ioab having for some time besieged that City of the Ammonites and being now ready to take it he gave notice to the King that He should come and be at the delivery of it up that so the Glory of the Action might be His. For by this means the People will be ready to admire their King as if he were something more then a King But He must be sure to decline all Evident Dangers and especially Duels Lest as the Israelites said to David He quench the Light of Israel For this was accounted a great fault in Alexander the Great that he would needs leap down first himself from off the Walls into a certain Town where He by that meanes received many Wounds For by that rash Act of his he in His Single person brought into Hazard the Monarchy of the whole World He must also reâ—ard his Old Souldiers with his Own hand and must preâ—er them to the Government of Castles and Forts and the rawer sort of Souldiers he must cause to exercise themselves in light skirmishes among themselves and in exercises of the Field Every King that swaieth a Scepter is either a Wolfe or a Hireling or lastly a Shepheard as Homer and the Holy Gospel it self also calls him A Tyrant is the Wolfe that keepes the Flock for his own Advantage and alwayes maketh away with all the Wealthiest Wisest Valiantest of his Subjects that so he may fill his own bags and may without any danger or controule Lord it as he list and range about through the whole flock spoyling whom he please And if the King of Spain should go about to shew himself such a one to his Subjects he will lose all as did those Dionysij of Syracuse Acciolinus of Padouâ— Caligula Nero Vitelliuâ— and the like The Hireling is he that kills not indeed his Subjects but rather drawes to himself all Profits Honours and advantages acquired by the service of his Souldiers and Vassals but he doth not at all defend them from the Ravenous Wolves I mean False Teachers nor other fierce Invaders and Oppressors As we may call the Venetians the Hireling Rulers of Cyprus seeing that they did not defend it against the Turkes And the Romans also were such in Relation of the Saguntines from whose necks they did not keep off Hannibals yoak And in like manner we may tearm Don Philip Maria the Hireling Vicount of the Genowayes for he mad onely a benefit of them but shewed not himself as a Governour over them Which cannot now be said of the Kiâ—g of Spain And these Hirelings or Mercenary Princes are suddenly losers by it as the former were As wee see the King of France lost by suffering Calvin to mount up into the Chaire as the Elector of Saxony likewise did by suffering that Wolf Luther For he that makes a prey of Mens Mind hath command over their Bodies also and will at length have the disposing of their Fortunes and estates too And therefore it is a meer Folly and Ignorance in those Princes whosoever they be that shall admit New Religions into their Dominions whereby the Minds of their Subjects are lead away And hence it was that Saul foresaw his own Ruin so soon as ever he perceaved the affections of the People inclined towards David And the Mischiefs of Germany Poland and France have been infinite since Luthers making a â—Prey and carring away the Minds and Affections of the Inhabitants of these Countriesâ— But that King is a Shepheard that feeds Himself with the Honour and Love of his People and them with his own Example Learning and Abundance of good Things and withall defends them by his Armes and Wholesome Lawes And therefore a good King ought to be endued with so much a greater proportion of Learning and Knowledge above his People who do infinitely herein excel Brute Beasts as the Shepheard is above his Mâ—te Flock So that a Prince as Plato said is somewhat
down one most Admirable and Profitable Rule more for the King to observe and that isâ— that every Seventh and Ninth year which are the Fatal Numbers He should call together all the Nobility of each of his several Kingdomes every one of which shall come to the Court attended but with three Servants apiece at the most and at the same time let there be sommoned to appear also all persons whatsoever that are the ablest and best seen in the affaires and Secrets of State and of Government and there let him command them to propose every one of them severally what they conceive most advantageous for the promoting of the Greatnesse of the Spanish Monarchy or else for the particular Benefit of their several Provinces aud withal to give notice what Errours have been there committed to that very time which it concernes the Publick should be rectified And I would have all the Counsellours also of all the several Councells to be present at this assembly that every one of them in particular may be instructed in what concerns the whole World and may take notice by this meanes wherein he committed any Error for the last Seven yeares and so may either be reproved for the same or may otherwise râ—ceive the praise due to him For if this Course were taken the Counsellours of the Several Councels growing Wiser and more Circumspect would take heed how they gave any either Unworthy or Unprofitable Counsels and the King himself would have a greater insight into the Condition of his Monarchy and by discovering New Secrets and Mysteries of State should thereby find out waies of advancing his own Greatnesse more and more every day and the Nobles also would set their braines to work all that Seven years space to find by what means their Princes State might be the most advanced and would not any longer continue in their former Ignorance and both they and the rest of the learned of the Kingdom would utter the Virulency of their Ambition not by their Sword but by their Tongue Now there is none so weak but is able to deliver in words the State of his own Republick seeing that there is no Philosopher but will undertake out of his own brain to give a description or Model of the same Whence indeed are scattered abroad the seeds of Heresy and Sedition But by the taking of this course when any of these kind of Persons hath hopes of being rewarded by the Prince he will conceive it his best way to expect rather to be calâ—ed to give his Judgment at the Septennial Assembly or else to send it thither in writing and so will suppresse his Opinions till that time And so by this meanes the King shall be rendred the more secure of the Obedience of his Nobility and shall understand who they are that deserve either well or ill of Him Neither shall He be deceived and abused by his Courtiersâ— or Flatterers and shall have the better Opportunity of calling his Ministers of State to an account for their evill Administration of the Provinces they were set over and shall withal very much mend the condition of the said Provinces and shall find many othâ—r Advantages to follow hereupon which I am not at present able to reckon up and shall besides bring it so to passe that his Councel shall be both the Wiser and withal the Truer to Him But the Nobles of the New World in case they cannot make their personal appearance at this Meeting may send others in their places Which is the Custome that the Clergy being instructed by a certain Divine Wisdome have alwaies observed in their Geâ—eral Chapters though no Monarch or State hath ever taken the said course except it be the Venetians whose Embassadours when they return home from any Forreign parts are to give an account in the Senate of what they found Observable in the several Countries whither they were imployed Now although our Discourse here hath been concerning the Particular Councels and Kingdoms that belong to the King of Spain onely yet we may not therefore omit to say something of Councels in general seeing that it is certain That More Weighty Affaires are Effected by Good Conduct and Counsels then by Weapons and Hands But because a Dissertation of this nature being besides the intention of our present design would be too prolixe I shall only here touch at some few particulars Such Counsels as are too Subtile and Nice are not much to be regarded because they seldom are brought to any good Issue for by how much the greater Subtlety there is in them so much the more Exactnesse and Punctuality is there required in the Execution of them which is a businesse of the greatest difficulty that can be And hence it is that the Venetians although they are not so Ingenious a People as the Florentines yet are they more happy for the most part in their Consultations then They are as of old the Lacedaemonians were in this particular more Fortunate then the Athenians Those Counsels are not to be much regarded that have no matter of Weight or Eminency in them Yet much lesse are such to be esteemed that aime at too Vast and Immense Undertakings such as for the most part were those that were designed by the Emperour Maximilian and Pope Leo X. the Effecting whereof required both a better Purse a longer Life and greater Abilities then either of them had which kind of undertakings are very pernicious to a State or Kingdom All deseperate Counsells are likewise Dangerous and are commonly attended by Despaire and Misery It remaineth therefore that those Counsells are chiefâ—ly to be Embraced that have the greatest both Facility and Security in them and such as are well grounded and upon Mature deliberation resolved upon and as little subject as may be to Casualâ—ies and the power of Fortune Slow Counsels become Great Princes for it concerns them to be more careful in the Preserving and making good then in the Enlarging of the Bounds of their Kingdomes But those Counsels that are designed rather for the Acquiring of More then the Preserving only of what they have must be more Quick and Sudden But of this subject I have elsewhere discoursed more largely CHAP. XIII Of Justice and Its Contrary IF the King be just all his Ministers will likewise be just and if the Superiour Ministers of State shall be Unjust the Inferiour will be Unjust also but there is nothing can hurt a Prince more then to distribute the Rewards of Virtue at the pleasure of any Favourite And therefore where Offices are disposed of at the will of the Court Favourites nothing ever goes well there And it is so much the worse because that now adaies the Greater Officers sell the Lesser Offices to such Creatures of theirs as shall play the Theeves ever after for them and themselves And thus in Small Countries Common Justice is not observed for these men while they pretend to enlarge the Kings Jurisdiction they render
do not in time fall into the hands of one man who perhaps upon the first Opportunity given may revolt from him as did the Nobility of Iapan who being grown great in power made opposition against their King in the City Meaco which was also done by the Barons of France who thereby hindered their own Monarchy and as Scanderbeg did to the Turk and so likewise the Princes of Ta entum and Salerne and many other in the Kingdom of Naples who made the same Attempts against their Kings both those of Arragon and of Anjou too Now the Mischeifs which these Barons bring upon the People and consequently upon their King are these They come to Naples and to the Court and there spending their mony profusely and lavishly they make a great shew for a while and get in favour with the Kings friends and at length having spent all they return poor home and make prey of whatsoever they can that so they may make themselves whole again and then they return to Court again running round still as it were in the same Circle in so much that we see these mens Territories much more desert and naked then the Kings in Italy are all through the default of the Barons themselves And then if the People have been infested with any Pestilential Diseases or have suffered by the Turks They presently beg of the King to have the yearly Taxes to be remitted for some certain time the payment whereof they themselves require at the hands of the People and in the Kings name too and that with all the severity that may be which the Prince of Rogebo had the confidence to do after the battel with the Turks And lastly under the pretence of the Camera as they call it that is to say that the Country may be freed from quartering of Souldiers they extort from the Subjects many Thousands of Crownes And they find out a Thousand other wayes of fleecing the poor Subjects that so they may never want Supplies either for their Luxury or their Prodigality And notwithstadning that the Spaniards believe that this Lavishnesse of theirs makes for the Kings Advantage and renders his state the more secure because that those that are so given to rioting and Luxury are never any gatherers and hoarders up of vast Sums of Mony which may prove the Instruments of Rebellion yet the plain truth of it is they do him much hurt for they by this meanes reduce the People from whom the greatest part of the Kings Revenues come to a poor low condition For the remedying of which Mischeif it would do well if there were a Law made that no Baron should have above 3000. Crownes of yearly Revenues and that whatsoever any of them hath more it should not descend to his Successor but should go after him to the Exchequer I speak here onely of such Baronies as shall be conferred by the King upon the Grounds aforesaid As for the Ancienter Barons it would do well if there were some Competitions cherished among them that by this means by their contentions they might keep one another under and so likewise that at every Seven years end there should be such an Assembly called together as I spake of before and that the Barons should be freed from all Bonds Likewise that every Baron should every three years find the King as many Souldiers and Horses as he hath Thousands of Crowns of yearly Revenue Let him also divide the Titles of Honour and besides he may do well to create many New Lords finding out for them New Titles that so the smalnesse of their number may not encrease their dignity and honour Let Him take care also that the Lordships and Lords Mannours of the Kingdom of Naples Millan Spain and the Nâ—therlands may be bought by Forraigners that is to say by the Genuese Florentines French and Venetians that so the Barons that are the Natives may be brought lower and the Forreigners may bring the King in a large yearly Revenue out of their own Country Lordships By which means I dare be bold to affirm that the King shall have greater power and Command at Genoa then at Millan because that nothing can be done or resolved upon at Genoa without his knowledge and consent whiles the Genueses will alwayes be in fear of losing the Lordships they have in the King of Spains dominions And by this means also the King shall not need to trouble himself about allowing them maintenance as he is with the Millanois for Whosever is fed by thee he is thy servant And thus have the Florentines alwaies been servants to the King of France into whose Dominions they have liberty of Traffick allowed them But there must be care taken that no Fortified Places be ever put into the hands of any of the Barons And besides there must be such Provision made as that all the Sons of the said Barons should have Spaniards for their Tutors who shall Hispaniolize them and train them up to the Habit Manners and Garbe of the Spaniard And when these Barons shall once begin to grow Powerful He must take them down yet under the pretense of honouring them by sending them away to some Office or Charge that lies in some place far remote from their own Lordships and where they shall be sure to spend more then they get And again when ever the King shall please to take his Progresse into the Country let him so contrive his Gists as that He may lye upon these Barons and so under the pretext of doing them Honour may force them to be at a great charge in entertaining Him Let Him give a willing ear to the People when they make any complaints of them Neither ought Nobility to be higher prized by the King then Virtue which is a Rule that deserves to be observed above all the rest Besides in all the Metropolian Cities in his several Kingdomes as at Lisbon Toledo Antwerp and the rest as well in this as in the other Hemisphere the King under pretext of doing them honours may constitute in each of them five eight or ten Ranks or Orders of Barons such as are at Naples that when they are to treat of any Affairs of State each of them may go into his own Order and Place For being thus divided they will never be able to determine any thing that shall be Prejudicial to the King by reason of the Ambition that will be amongst them and so where there shall be three Lawes perhaps made to the Kings prejudice there will alwaies be eight made for his advantage And the common People also may in like manner be distributed into their several Classes and Ranks And this is much the more honourable and secure way then to cause divisions and sidings into parties among them which is the counsel of some Writers who have a Saying Divide impera Cause Divisions among thy subjects and thou shalt rule them well enough The King must alwayes make much of such persons
Spaniards to keep those so large Kingdomes in Obedience And indeed those Dominions are upheld and made good to the Spaniard meerely through Opinion onely And for this very reason are they forced to disarme the People which causeth them to suspect Tyranny and Inhumanity from them and which makes many also forsake their Country as Solon told Periander the Tyrant of Corinth Besides seeing they are necessitated to treat the Subjects hardly they are therefore fain to get Switzers about them for their Life-guards as not daring to trust their persons with those whose hatred they have for these reasons contracted which was also the discourse of the same Solon to the aforesaid Tyrant of Corinth Another meanes and cause why Spain should want Souldiers is because that the Spaniards when ever they conquer any Country that abounds with all manner of delights they do so give themselves up to the full injoyment of those delights that they thereby soften and enervate themselves and laying aside all their Innate fiercenesse and yet withal securely relying upon their own strengths alone they are easily driven out thence again For this cause the Romans when they saw their Army to be grown Effeminate and much weakned by lying in Campania and enjoying the Pleasures thereof they presently reformed it And at Naples they never had any Native for their King by reason of the Delicacy of the Aire there and Venereal Pleasures whereby all their Manly Courage and Gallantry of Spirit is softened and taken down Neither could any Forreigners ever keep it long because that in processe of time they became cheap in the Peoples Eyes and so became a prey to other Forreigners as the Viscardians were to the Suevians the â—uevians to those of Anjou and those of Anjou to the Arraganians and at length to the French and the Castilians who afterwards under the Command of the Great Captain drove the French out of the said Kingdom of Naples The like hath also happened to â—ll those Fierce Nothern Nations that have heretofore possessed themselves of any Southern Countries for through the softnesse and delights of the said Countries they have at length become Effeminate and broken in their strength And by this meanes the Herulians became a Prey to the Goths and the Goths to the Grecians as the Lombards were to the French and as at length it befell to the Vandalls also and Hunnes Thus the Tartarians in like manner became the Laughing-stock and Scorn of the Turks but indeed the Turk now defends himself by his Guards of these Northern People after this manner After He had once perceived that the Courage of his own Nation began to cool He presently erected certain Seminaries of Souldiers they call them Seragli that is to say Cloysters or Enclosures into which he shut up all the likeliest and ablest-bodied young boyes of all the Nations that he had conquered where they should be taken off from acknowledging their own Parents and should be accustomed to reverence and own the Grand Signiour only as their Father and here they are also instructed in all Military Arts and in the Turkish Religion and out of these doth the Great Turk choose his Ianizaries for the guard of his own Person and of these same Ianizaries doth He afterwards make his Bashawes that is his Commanders and Counsellours in his Wars as also the Presidents of his Provinces and Baronies and such of these as He finds to be studiously inclined aâ—d fit for the Book he chooseth out of them the Mufâ—ies and the Cadies that is to say the Priests and Judges So that although the race of the Turks should faile yet will he never be unprovided of an able Souldiery seeing that He takes such an order to have such brought up thus for his service in every Province by the Presidents of the said Provinces And the Romans of old to the end that they might never want Souldiers proposed great rewards and Honours for all such as should approve themselves Valiant in War Hence we read that Ventidius Marius and other Valiant and Wise persons arrived to so great a height of Renown among them till at length by this means they made themselves Masters of the Whole World The King of Spain therefore to the end that He may remove from his Souldiery these two Evils which It chiefly laboureth under must make use of these two Arts especially First He must presently take away from all People that he shall conquer all their Immovable Goods and must allow them only food and cloathing and so set them to manure the ground and as for their Sons He may make them either Souldiers or Husbandmen according as he shall find them fittest for either of these Imployments And this will be best done in such Countries as He shall have brought into his Subjection upon some certain Occasion according as Ioseph did in Egypt who taking his advantage by Occasion of the unexpected Dearth that arose there to the end that the People might the better be furnished with Corn he caused them to put all they had into their King Pharaohs hands from whom the Turks also have learnt this Art But there will be need of a very Wise Man that may be able to bring this about in our Country by taking good and plausible Occasions of doing the same Or else the King may constitute some Third Person as an Intermediate Lawgiver such as Ioseph was in Egypt or Plato who was â—ent for into Sicily by Dionysius the Tyrant by whose means He may in each several Province reforme the Politiâ— of three or five Cities there the examples whereof the rest will afterwards follow of their own accord when they shall but once take notice of the Benefits and Advantages that such a Reformation brings along with it And therefore for this end and purpose there must be care taken especially for the providing of Wise and Able Preachers for these places and I may â—elf have a certain Secret to communicate which would much promote this businesse which I shall reserve for the Kings own Ear. Or if the King of Spain have a purpose and reâ—olution of prosecuting the Course already begun although it seems not to be so proper a one for the New World my Opinion is that considering the Multitude of his conquered Vassals there and the Small Number of his Souldiers in comparison of them He ought to take this Course First of all let Him shew himself bountiful to the People by remitting their Taxes by mitigating the severity of the Lawes and by removing all occasions that the Inferiour Officers might have of seizing upon the Subjects Goods and restraining the Souldiers from abusing the Inhabitants where they come for which very reasons the People do not get so many Children as otherwise they would which might afterwards do the King service And hence also it is that their Daughters wanting good portions to put them off are fain to become either Nunnes or Whores and the Menâ— to
to deliver such things as concern Spain only But above allâ— care must be taken that the Souldiers be not used like Beasts who if they have but their wages duly paid them and if when they are wounded they be carefâ—lly looked to and be encouraged also to shew themselves Valiant men through the hopes of Military glory and by hearing good Preachers and by rewards they will then never think either of running away or of Revolting which are two of the greatest Mischiefs that can befal an Army I would also have some persons appointed out of some of the Religious Orders to commit to writing the famous and memorable Acts of each particular Souldier which should be read openly before the King when ever He bestowes rewards upon his Souldiers For this is the reason why the Barons refuse to serve in person in the Wars saying The King himself is not there to be an eye witnensse of my Valour and I cannot confide in the treacherous Memories of Envious Commanders Neither would I have the Souldiers to be rewarded with Mony only but sometimes also with some Coronet either of Oak or of Olive which is a most Magnificent argument of Honour to them and of no charge to the Prince and by this means they will be the more faithfâ—l and constant to Him For an other mans Mony may in like manner buy and sell perhaps that Faith which you have so purchased of them but such Honour it cannot seeing it is a most ignominious thing even in the esteem of an Enemy himself for any one to forsake his King And therefore it should be lawful for any man to kill such a one as should begin to run away or that goes abroad a pillaging without the leave of his Commander which very thing hath often hindered the obtaining of Victory against the Enemy and those that are of least account in the Army do by these courses enrich themselves while the Valiant Souldier fights it out to the last drop of blood in his body What Souldier soever shall fill up the place of his slain fellow-Souldier or protects him and saves his life he should have a Coronet of Oak granted him This was called by the Romans Corona Civica That Souldier that shall first get upon the Enemies Walls should have a Mural Coronet made of Herbs wreathed together in form of a Coronet which he should recieve at the hands of the General whiles the rest of the Army standing round about shall celebrate his Gallantry with Acclamations and Songs according to the ancient custome of the Romans For these two things Punishment and Reward are the two Pillars whereon all Military Discipline is founded and built the Former whereof deterrs the Souldier from wicked courses as the latter pricks him on to do gallant things the Former was devised for the restraining of Vileâ— Rebellious spirits as the latter was for the Encourageâ—ent of the Generous and Valiant the former serves instead of a Bridle as the later doth of a Spur. Alexander the Great erected for the honour of his Souldiers that were Slain at the River Granicus Statues of Marble in a most stately manner The King of Siam that he might encourage his Souldiers to fight bravely took care to have the names of all those that had behaved themselves Gallantly in the Wars to be registred in a Book and afterwards to be recited before him which was the custome also of King Ahasuerus as the holy Scripture testifieth Whensoever there are any designs on foot for the gaining any large Kingdom or Empire the King ought alwayes to go in person to the Wars because that Princes that are Warlick alwaies get more then those that are sluggish and negligent which is a consideration of great importance for all such Princes as desire to enlarge their Dominions But if they care only to preserve their own they may then stay at home themselves provided that they set Valiant and faithful Commanders over their Souldiers However it will concern a Prince that he get an opinion of being a Warlike man unlesse he mean to be despised by all People or let him make an open shew that he loves Wars And to the end that He may be the more secure of Victory let him alwaies take with him good store of Souldiers that so he may neither lose his reputation nor be despised by his Enemies Those Defeats of his Armies are the least hurtful to Him where He himself was not present at the Engagement Strength of his forces at Sea wherein the Genoese Portugals and Hollanders do most excel is also a most necessary businesse For whoever shall make himself master of the Seas the same shalll command all by Land also CHAP. XVI Of the Treasury of Spain IT is necessary that the King have a full Treasury if it be but for the keeping up of his Reputation abroad for as the World goes now a dayes the Power of Princes is valued according to the fulnesse of their Purses rather then the largenesse of their Territories And therefore not only in the time of War but of peace also it behoves a Prince to have alwaies good store of ready Mony by him For it is a very hard and dangerous businesse also especially when He is now already engaged in a War to expect and wait till monies can be raised Tolle moras Semper nocuit differre paratis It is necessary therefore that there be Monies alwayes in a readinesse for the raising of Souldiers in an instant least while you are employed in getting Mony together your Enemy be before hand with you To this end Augustus Caesar erected a Military Treasury as Suetonius testifieth and that he might alwaies and without any trouble be provided of Mony for the raising and paying of his Souldiers he filled the same with New Taxes and Impositions And certainly very many wonder how it comes to passe that the King of Spain whose yearly Revenues amount to above twenty Millions hath not by this time made Himself Universal Monarch of all Christendome nor hath all this while so much as as once set upon the Turk To whom I answer that this is nothing at all to be wondred at if they would but take notice that the reason of this it because He hath not the skill to lay hold on Occasion when it is offered Him which very thing hath hitherto upheld the Fortune of all Great Empires For there was an Occasion given him at the Uniting of the Kingdomes of Castile and Arragon and of Naples and Millan but there was a much fairer offered to Charles the V. who was a man of a Warlike spirit being King of Spain was afterwards chosen also Emperour of Germany by al which advantages He might have been able to have made himself Lord of the whole Earth had He but known as well how to give Lawes to those He conquered as He knew how to conquer them This Prince took Tunis and having driven thence Ariodenus the Turk
least in the World deserve to have any such Conspiracies contrived against him and so also the Conspirators themselves will presently lay aside the Ill Opinion they had conceived of Him In the mean time for the Prince to cause any of his Subjects to be thought guilty of Rebellion and Treason when no such thing can be proved against them is but a very sad businesse for then out of the sense of the Infamy that is cast upon them they will be forced to desire a Change of Government and will invite the Kings Enemies to invade him which hath often happened both in the Low-Countries and in France And notwithstanding that there seems to be some hope of gain issuing from thence because an Occasion may hereupon be taken of keeping a stricter hand over the Subject which advantage being readily apprehended by the forementioned Cosmo de Medicis he took an Occasion presently to break off the Articles of Peace that had been concluded upon betwixt him and the Florentines in like manner as our King also upon the like Occasion held a harder hand over the Arragonians upon Pretense that they had entred into Conspiracy against Him with Antonio Peâ—ez yet in truth the King receives more damage then Advantage thereby And therefore the more sure and certain way to confirm and assure his Kingdom to himself would be so to winne over the People to him by Mutual Love and favours bestowed upon them that they should not have any ground to have any such Suspicions of him And besides where this note of Infamy is thrown upon the Subjects not only themselves but their Children also will be sure to preserve the memory of it and so will watch for some fit opportunity of Revenge which when it offers it self they will not stick openly to joyn with Forreigners against him and thus their Treasonable Designs are not by those meanes quite quashed but are deferred only And hence it was that Nero's hoping to get mony out of the People about the First Conspiracy against himself and so by punishing them to benefit himself did not at all suppresse the said Conspiracy but only put it off till some other time which also the Senatours afterwards set on foot again but with greater care and circumspection as it likewise happened to Tiberius and other wicked Princes If any such thing therefore should befall our Prince He should endeavour to obliterate and blot out the memory of such Rebellions by Benefits rather then Punishments by that means both putting a bridle into their mouthes and yet withall sweetning them and winning them over to Himself by his bounty so much more advantagious is it for a Prince at all times and in all places to approve Himself rather Good then Cunning But yet it cannot be denied but that such Conspiracies are most dangerous which are countenanced by the Pretext of Introducing a New Religion or when any Seditious Preacher takes liberty to cast Reproaches upon the State And therefore I shall say something in my following discourse touching Preachers both Good and Bad and afterwards also of the Vniting and Division or falling off of Kingdomes and Countries from one another I would also have Severer Punishments and more examplary peeces of Justice then usual if it may be to be at once and speedily inflicted upon all Conspirators least by often repeating of lighter Punishments upon them their Hate be thereby the more encreased and shew it self upon all Occasions But again if any such having made their escapes shall yet after some space of time begin to be humbled and repent of their Wickednesse I would not that all hope of Pardon and Reconciliation should be cut off from them As for the Preventing of the Barons rising against the King the courses before laid down may be taken No Heresies can spread or get any footing any where but by the Clergy as I have demonstrated elsewhere The King's Deputies or Viceroyes ought to have no command over any Castles or Frontier Townes that have Garrisons in them but all such places are to be committed to the trust of some Particular Commanders residing in the same and who are Experienced Souldiers and betwixt whom and the Viceroyes there is no great correspondence And let these be chosen out of the Barons of the Kingdome that so their Baronies or Lordships may be as Pledges for their Fidelity to the King And to this end I would have Spaniards to be sent into Italy and contrariwise Italians to be sent into Spain to take upon them these Charges CHAP. XVIII Of Preachers and Prophesies IT is certain that the People especially of a certain number of Kingdomes are of more power then the King himself with all his Friends and Souldiers I mean in the Christian World for in Turky whether it be so or no is as yet something a doubtful businesse It is therefore necessary to produce here some reasons why the People do not upon every light Occasion rise up against the King and shake the Yoak from off their neck and these are because that being so scattered and at such a distance from one another they cannot so well joyn in a body and stick together or else because they are worthlesse dull-headed fellowes and have none to head them in a Rebellion in whom they may repose their confidence and hope Now it is manifest again on the other side that the Causes of the Publick peace and quietnesse do derive their Original from the Wisedome of the Preachers and others of the Clergy to whom the people give an ear and that so much the rather because These promise unto them Eternal Blessings which if they do but despise their Temporal they may attain unto perswading them withal that it is agreeable to the Will of God that Obedience should be yeilded to the King and that by suffering Afflictions they shall be rewarded by God himself withal often inculcating into their minds Humility and other the like Vertues but grievously threatning all Theeves Murderers Whoremongers and Seditious persons declaring what Punishments both from Men and God himself continually hang over their heads on the contrary comforting and encouraging the Good and promising them all manner of Happinesse And so by this meanes the words of these men being greedily hearkned unto by their Auditors overcome and captivate their Minds and Affections and then again all Wicked Irreligious persons are cast out of doors with their Perfidious designs being unable to infect any either Magistrate or Souldier with their corrupt malitious Perswasions or by any means to incite them to a Rebellion The First Instrument therefore of Raigning well and quietly is the Tongue and the Second is the Sword And the truth of this will best of all appear by the contrary Use of It. For whensoever any Seditious Preachers rise up against the King they are able in a short time to bring the people that before dissented in Judgments to be now of one and the same mind and
the Princes of Italy and that by reason of their Union in point of Religion I say moreover that He cannot suffer any Notable Overthrow â—nlesse it be by some very Potent Prince such a One as the great Turk is who yet lying so very far remote from him as Alexander the Great of old did from the Romans cannot so quickly ruin him whereas on the Contrary any Peaceable Agreement of the Christians among themselves if so be it were but Firm and Lasting would utterly confound the Turk And therefore I say that although King Philips Kingdomes lye scattered far and near yet his enemies also lye far asunder one from another and therefore it is clear that his Emulators the Italians Tuscans and Venetians will never enter into a Combination against him unlesse he First give them some evident cause and wrong them very much Neither indeed will the Pope ever suffer any acts of Hostility to be done against His Catholick Majesty and besides it is also most certain that the Catholick Princes both out of fear of the Hereticks and also of the Authority of the Pope will never attempt any such thing And the Hereticks are at very great Variance also amongst themselves and for this reason Germany being divided into severall small Republicks cannot do him any harm at all and it is besides part of it made subject to the House of Austria and the Archdukes thereof by the Emperours and part also to certain Archbishops who are withall secular Princes as namely the Archbishops of Mâ—ntz of Colen Trevers Salsburg Strasburg and Bamberg and part also to the Dukes of Bavaria so that the Protestants can by no meanes make any Insurrection against the King of Spain The Lower Germany also is divided into more Common-Wealths then the other all which bear Armes against the King of Spain though it be only to defend themselves and not to offend Him And of this number are the Provinces of Holland Frisland and Zealand Besides the Upper and the Lower Germanies differ very much in their Religion which we may also say of the Danes Norwegians Transylvanians Gotlanders Polonians French Switzers and Grisons so that the King hath no need at all to fear that these should ever all joyn together against him and besides the King retains a great part of these Nations in pay and by that means keeps them his friends and then the King of Poland and the Prince of Transylvania are allied to him by Marriage and so are in league and amity with him So that He hath no body to stand in fear of but only the King of France and the King of England which two Princes by reason of their being of different Religions can never agree together Now although the King of Spain cannot as yet subdue the King of France yet it makes very much for His Interest that the King of France being absolved by the Pope is returned again to the Obedience of the Church For otherwise he would have been the Head of all the Transalpine Hereticks and would have marcht with an Army of them over into Italy to the great Prejudice both of the Pope and of our King which None of the Hereticks hath to this day adventured to do merely for want of a Powerful General to head them Then besides there is a Division broken out in France betwixt the Catholicks and the Hereticks and which is the chiefest thing of all there are in that Kingdome many Potent Bishops who would not by any means see Spain ruined And lastly our Kings Subjects do not come into the field with Lances Swords and Horses as the French use to do but they come into it armed with Guns which are a kind of Arms that are fitter for the defending of strong Holds and Fortifications then for the setting upon an Enemy in an open Field And hence it is that the French are able indeed to resist all the Spaniards Attempts but they cannot overcome them for in this case the very Princes and States of Italy who have to this day alwaies held with the French would go over to the Spaniard for it is their Design to keep the Ballance alwaies so even betwixt these two Nations as that neither of them may preponderate and bear down the Scales and so make a Prey of the Other which Hiero King of Syracuse heretofore laboured to do betwixt the Romans and the Carthaginians although he failed of his purpose Besides the King of France cannot march with an Army into Spain by reason of the Fortified Places and Castles that lye in his way and are kept by the Spaniards who are very well skilled in defending such Places Neither can he so soon march out with an Army against Millan or Naples but that the King of Spain can be much sooner in France with an Army and shall so force him to return back again and defend his own Kingdom Neither did the King of France ever passe over into Italy unlesse when he was assisted by the Pope as the Expedition of Charles of Anjou testifies or except he were called in by some Prince or State of Italy as Charles the Eighth was called in by the Duke of Millan which yet at this time can hardly be done again For the Italians were now afraid that they would bring in a New Religion with them And besides it is a usual thing that that Prince that first calls Forraigners in to his aide shall be first ruined by them for he must necessarily entertain them and allow them Quarters who after they have overcome the adverse Party will joyn with them and so drive out Him who called them first in Examples of this we have in the Sforza's Castruccio's and the Florentines with many others and also in the Pope himself although his own Papal Authority restored him again And therefore the Spaniard hath no need to fear the King of France much And as for the English he hath much lesse reason to stand in fear of them seeing they are shut up within an Island and we seldome see Islanders get any sure footing and make themselves Masters of any part of a Forraign Continent And therefore it is sufficient for them if they can keep their own only they send out their Ships to fetch in Prizes by Sea but for this Mischief I shall hereafter set down a Remedy Only let the King of Spain take care that the English joyn not their Navy with the Hollanders Scots Danes Norwegians and Danzickers for if they should they might then be able to overrun all Spain as the Alans Goths and Vandals did of old And yet seeing that these Nations differ all in Religion and the King of Spain doth craftily under hand sow new seeds of Dissention amongst them there is no great cause to fear that they should joyn their forces together â—pon any design Let us now see what Spain is able to do within it self and by what means it may become Greater and enlarge its Territories laying down this
and how great Errours we have of late years committed in reference to them that so for the future we may be the more wary as to this Particular The French Nation being descended from Iaphet by Gomer by their strength and the force of their Armes and having also their Religion and the Fates Propitious to them have had very great Successes in that under the Conduct of Charles the Great and King Pepin they arrived to so great a Monarchy as they then had And certainly all the other Princes of Christendom had at that time an eâ—e upon the Kingdom of France and if the French had but crusht the Impiety of the Mahumetans when it was yet but in the Bud they might easily have compassed the Monarchy of the whole World and that so much the rather by reason that their Rivals the Spaniards were divided into Many several Kingdomes and were besides held in Play with the Moors who had invaded their Country so that at that time they were not at leasure to interrupt the French or to take them off from their Designes as the French at this day hinder Them in theirs But for as much as the French have not the skill of carrying a Moderate Hand in Government over such Forraigners as are under their Subjection but are too Impatient and Indiscreet they could never yet attain to so great a height of Power For they are apt to arrogate too much to themselves shewing no gravity at all they permit their Subjects to do what they please and so sometimes they use them too cruelly and sometimes again too gently having no regard at all to their own defects and weaknesses And hence it hath come to passe that though they have gotten many things abroad yet they have not been able to keep any of them For in One eveningâ— they lost all Sicily and almost in as short a time the Kingdom of Naples too together with the Duchy of Millan and for no other reason but only because that they knew not how through want of Prudence in Governing to oblige their Subjects to them by the Love of the Publick Good nor yet took any care to draw in others to put themselves under their Protection For when the people once perceaved that there would be very litle or no difference to them in respect of their Libertyâ— whether they served the French or the Spaniards they would not vouchsafe so much as to draw a Sword in their behalf And for the very same reason did the King of France and the Duke of Millan several times lose their Dominion over the Genois We may add hereto in reference to the French the Discord that was betwixt the Sons of Charles the Great because that one of them would be King of Italy another of Germany and a third of France and likewise the weaknesse of the French Nobility who would needs all be free Princes and live of themselves without any Head such as are the Duke of Burgundy the Earl of Flanders the Duke of Bretaigne of the Delphinate of Savoy the Count Palatine of the Rhine with diverse others each of which would needs be an Absolute Prince of himselfâ— So that as well for these Reasons and because of their being dâ—vided in their Religion and also as well by Fate as by God himself and besides by not laying hold upon Occasion when it was offered they seem to be excluded from ever attaining to the Universal Monarchy of the whole World And therefore the Majesty of the Universal Dominion over all seemes rather to incline toward the Spaniards both because Fate it self seemes to have destined the same unto Them as also because it seemes in some sort to be their Due by reason of their Patience and Discretion But because that the very Situation of the Country the manner of their Armes in War and the natural Enmity that there is betwixt the French and the Spaniards seem to require that France should be continually in War with Spain and should be still interrupting their Glorious Proceedings like as also when it was in a flourishing state under Charles the Fifth it was hindred by Francis King of France and as it may also at this day be troubled by the Hereticks of France and their King Henry the Fourth who is a Valiant and Warlick Person these things I say being considered it nearly concerns the King of Spain seriously to consider the state of his own Affaires and withal to weigh the Power of France and to be sure when any fit Opportunity is offered to fall upon them with all his might to set upon them on that part where they are Weakest that â—o that other part where they are more powerful may sink of it self Seeing therefore that they are weak not in Armes but in Wisdom and Brain He ought to manage his War against them accordingly And therefore first of all he must be sure to lay hold on Fortune and Opportunity whensoever they offer themselves as evidently appeares by the example of that good Fortune that delivered the aforenamed King Francis and Germany into the hands and power of Charles the Fifth by which means had he pursued that Opportunity he might have crushed all the Princes that were his Competitors for he ought immediately to have bent his whole strength against France and by the assistance of the Germans to have repressed and curbed the Insolency of the French I say by the assistance of the Germans for they as being the more Fierce Nation of the two have alwaies been as an Antidote against the Fiercenesse of the French And hence it is that the Franconians Normans Swedes Gotlanders Danes and other Northern Forraign Nations have alwaies in a manner been to hard for the French that lye not so Northerly as they And therefore as I said Charles the Fifth ought immediately with an Army of Germans to have set upon France And after that he should have put Guards of Spaniards into all their Castles and strong Holds and should have placed Italians in all their Courts of Judicature and have appointed them to regulate their Lawes and then should either have brought France wholly under his own Power and Obedience or else should have put it into the hands of some Petty Princes to be governed by them and so should presently have declared Himself Head of the Christian World But he instead of doing thus had recourse to that Vain uselesse course of securing himself by marriage chusing rather to winne over to him his Rivall Neighbour by Fair meanes which is never to be done but with those that are farther off and which is especially to be declined when a Prince hath so Potent Neighbours that are his Antagonists for an Empire For the Fâ—ench had first a design of making themselves Universall Monarchs of the World before the Spaniards had any such thought whom the French afterwards envied when they found them aspiring that way A second Opportunity of keeping France under in such
thereto because that every one of them would have some hope hereby of attaining to the Crown himself And if this should once come to passe it would prove a very great Weakning to the Kingdom of France for during the Vacancy of the Crown there must needs arise very great and long Dissentions amongst them and possibly the King of Spain also being called in by some or other of the Princes might come to have a finger in the businesse Now for as much as Elective Kings are for the most part not much given to trouble themselves about the enlarging the Bounds of their Kingdome because that they know very well that their Sons are not their Successours therefore neither will they expose themselves to danger upon the Account of another mans Interest And this is the onely reason why the Emperours of Germany nâ—ver trouble themselves about the enlarging of their Empire as neither do the Kings of Poland unlesse they chance to be Persons of a high Warlick Spirit as King Steven was surnamed Battorius and Sigismund both which maintained Wars with the Mâ—scovites Tartarians and others about the Principality of Prussia and some other Territories because they hoped that their Sons should at least have succeeded them in those This Course is of very good use to a Prince for the acquiring of Military Glory and through the Multitude of Victories and the affection of his Souldiers for the bringing his own Country under his subjection which Course I before shewed was to be taken by the Emperour of Germany according to the Example of Iulius Caesar. Yet notwithstanding this piece of Craft being well understood by the French hath been the cause that they have now laid aside all desires of enlarging their Territories meerly to avoid that Suspition And This Suspition is the reason why the Venetians do not send Commanders of their Own into their Wars but rather chuse to make use of Forraign Commanders whom a Little Mony contents well enough for their Pay For as to this particular it was no small hazard which they heretofore run under Carmagnolaâ— and Ludovicus Vrsinus And Francis Sforza who was but a Mercenary Souldier under the State of Venice returning home a Conquerour made himself Duke of Millan For this very cause the Romans heretofore hated the Tarquins their Kings who till that time had alwaies been Elective and this very thing also was the Ruine of the Duke of the Athenians that was Elected at Florence Neither are Opportunities at this time wanting of setting the French together by the ears among themselves for although their Peace is not at this time at all disturbed by any Forraign Enemies yet they being naturally of an Impatient Unquiet spirit are alwaies rising up one against another although it be perhaps but upon their quarrel about the Heresie of the Calvinists and I know not what New Gospel which wheresoever it is preached it bringeth not Joy but Mourning not Peace but horrid Wars and filleth the Minds of Men not with Good Will but with rage and Madnesse This Mischief therefore ought to be taken in due time and have a stop put to it for this Contagion hath already infected above two hundred thousand persons in France For if so be it should spread further and should infect the Nobility also and Peers of the Kingdom it would be much to be feared that there would never be any end of the Troubles of France which is now the Condition of Germany by means of the Dukes of Saxony Hessen and others For as we see such Kingdomes as abound with Nobles are made in a manner Immortal as we may evidently perceive by the examples of France and Persia. For when France was heretofore in a manner all subdued and brought in subjection by the King of England yet it was afterwards through the Industry and by the endeavours of the Nobility and Gentry wholly asserted restored again to Its first Natural Lord. And so likewise the Kingdome of Persia which is one while annoyed by the Tartarians and again another while by the Saracens is yet so well defended by the Peâ—sian Nobility as that It is kept from falling under either of their Power and Obedience But yet on the contrary side again the very same Kingdomes are by reason of their Nobility also obnoxious to most unavoidable and miserable Calamities seeing they are able at any time either to assist or protect all such as endeavour to introduce any Innovations either in the State or Religion CHAP. XXV Of England Scotland and Ireland ALthough the English seem the least of all to affect an Vniversal Monarchy yet notwithstanding they have been a very great hinderance to the King of Spains designs that way several examples whereof may be gathered from the proceedings of the aforesaid Queen Elizabeth of England who appeared both against the Catholick King in the Low-Countries and against the most Christian King in France by fomenting the corrupt Humours in the subjects of both these Princes and in assisting the Hereticks both with her Counsels and Forces For they possesse an Island that is excellently well furnished both with Shipping and Souldiers and by this means they rob the King of Spain in all places in the North wheresoever he hath any thing and also wander out abroad as far as to the New World where although by reason of the Fortifications made upon the Sea Coast they cannot lay the foundation of any Kingdome yet do they do the Spaniards no small harme there For that same famous Englishman Captain Drake following the example of Magellan who bad done the same before him sailed round about the whole World more then once and it is noâ— impossible but that the Kingdom of Bacalaos which lies somewhat near to the English and is very convenient for them by reason of the temperatenesse of the Air may be some time or other seazed upon by them However it is most certain that if the King of Spain could but once make himself Master of England and the Low-Countries He would quickly get to be sole Monarch of all Europe and of the greatest part of the New World But seeing that He is not able to reduce this Island under His Obedience because that It is so exceeding strong by reason both of its Situation and multitude of Inhabitants who Naturally hate the Spaniard and are quite different from them both in their Manners and also their Religion it will concern Him therefore to defend himself as well as he can and to fortifie and set strong Guards upon all such places of His Dominions as lye open to their Incursions least otherwise the English should chance to seaze upon them And such are the Haven Corugna and all the Sea Coast of Galicia Leon Biscay and all the Kingdomes that lie in the other Hemisphere as shall be shewed hereafter But this he must make his cheifest businesse namely to weaken the Power of the English for the effecting of which design it would
be sufficient if He could but bring it about that the Hollander and the Freezlander should with their Fleets fall upon the English Forces at Sea as I shall by and by make it plainly appear But seeing He is so far from doing thisâ— that his own Navies are very often damaged by the English ships the only Remedy that is left him is to provide himself of some Vast Fleets of ships which should lie at Corugna and Lisbon that when ever the Spanish Fleet shall return from the Indies they may serve as convoys to It and may bring it home safely or else they may be sent forth either against Ireland or England and so may divert them from lying in wait for and infesting of the Spanish Navies And because the King of Spain is to be Lord of the Seas it is very necessary that He build himself many Wooden Cities that is to say great Navies for the securing of His Treasure that he recieves out of the New World It would also be a very good course for him to hire those that are of the greatest strength among the Hollanders though it cost him a Million of mony to guard such Fleets of his as are to passe to and fro in the Northern Seas and to deal in the like manner with such Nations as are better skilled in Nautical affaires then the English themselves are as namely the Danzickers by means of the King of Poland who is allied to the house of Austria likewise with the Gutlanders Swedes Finlanders and the rest that are of Scandinavia Denmark Pomerania and Borussia procuring them to declare against the English and either to set upon some of their Islands or else to invade England it self that so they may divert them from falling upon the Spanish Fleets or else if the King shall think it better to set upon the English Navy it self If I say He would but be at so great a charge as to hire the said Nations to fall upon the English and would besides but give them all the Booties that they should take from the English He might compasse all his desires and besides the seeds of such a Feude once sown would spread far and near and would never be killed and choaked again And therefore I conceive that Mony alone would be able to set these People at Variance and make them fall foul one upon the other And it is certain that England stands in fear of no other Nations so much as of those above named because they are both more fierce and more Populous Nations and also more powerful at Sea then the English themselves are For Spain cannot it self make any considerable opposition against the English unlesse it be by makig use of some such Artifice seeing that they are better acquainted with those Northern Seas then the Spanish are And then England is an Island whose Inhabitants are both very Numerous and they are also a diligent and subtle People and it is besides very strongly fortified both by Sea and Land and withall a deadly enemy to Spain partly by reason of their different Religions and partly because the English claime a kind of Right to that Crown by reason of the Castilian Line which is derived by the House of Lancaster besides diverse of the former Kings of England of the Family of York and others have been allied to Spain Now as concerning the weakning of the English there can no better way possibly be found out then by causing Divisions and Dissentions among themselves and by continually keeping up the same which will quickly furnish the Spaniard with better and more advantageous Opportunities And as for the Religion of that People it is that of Calvin though very much Moderated and not so rigid and austere as it is at Geneva which yet cannot so easily be extinguished and rooted out there unlesse there were some certain Schooles set up in Flanders with which People the English have very great commerce by meanes of which there should be scattered abroad the Seeds of Schisme and Divisions in the Natural Sciences as namely betwixt the Stoicks Peripateticks and Telesians by which the Errours of the Calvinists might be made manifest For the truth of it is That Sect is Diametrically contrary to the Rules of Policy for they teach that whether a Man do well or ill he doth all by Divine Impulsion which Plato Demonstrates against Homer to be opposite to all Sounder Policy which sayes that every Man hath Free Liberty of Will either to do Well or Ill so that it is in our own Power either to observe or not observe what is commanded us and from hence we are to expect either our Rewards or Punishments according as I have most evidently demonstrated in my Dialogue touching Policy where I have discoursed of this Point though but briefly and without any flourish of Language which They since they have become Hereticks are grown somewhat subtle in and yet being of a Nature that is still desirous of Novelties and Change they are easily wrought over to any thing As concerning their Dominions and Private Estates the English are divided and live in several Countries whence some time or other the Spaniard may easily light upon some convenient Opportunity of advantage against them For the King of Englands Dominion is divided into Ireland and England which together with Scotland maketh up the Isle of Great Brittain Now Scotland it self hath also many small Islands belonging to it which are called the Orcades And hence it is that the Isle of Great Brittain had alwaies two Kings reigning over it namely one of them was King of England and the other of Scotland who by reason of their lying so near to each other were in a manner continually at wars and invading one anothers Territories for their Kingdomes are severed only by a little small River and some few hills But now the King of Scots hovers as it were at this time over England not only by reason of his Neighbourhood to it but also because of His Right of Succession for His Mother was Niece to King Henry the Eighth who was Father to Queen Elizabeth that now reigneth and if we should confesse the truth there is none so near in blood to the Crown of England as He is And therefore the time now draweth on that after the death of the said Queen Elizabeth who is now very old the Kingdom of England must fall into the hands of their Ancient and continuall Rivals the Scots We may here add that the Peers of the Land who when they are assembled together in a Body are called in their Language the Parliament carry a great sway with them and have very great Power in so much that they seem to desire to set up an Oligarchy or an Aristocratical State according to the example shewed them by the Netherlandeâ—s For all Northern Nations are Naturally impatient of Monarchy or Absâ—lute Power in Princes and the Kings of England were alwaies kept under by
may be diverted from Theological Questions and may apply themselves to study Questions of Philosophy for these come nearer to the Christian Faith then the Doctrine of Aristotle doth Now the King in doing these things shall follow the Example of Hercules who to the end He might the more easily overcome Anâ—taeus drew him forth of his own Territories and also of Cadmus who brought over New Arts and Sciences with him into Boeotia and by means of the same got to be Prince of that Country And by taking this Course the Principal among the Hereticks when they shall see there is more to be gotten there then here forsaking their Heresies will become Ringleaders in the Sects of Philosophy and Astrology And besidesâ— that they may gain our favour they will probably make head against their enemies the Turks and their impious Doctrine which hath insensibly crept into Germany because it agrees very much with Calvinisme There should also be erected Publick Work-houses for the exercise of Mechanical Arts to which this People is exceeding Apt and so by this means will the Businesse of Navigation be much promoted together with the skill of Besieging Towns and of taking them in by the use of Artificial Fire-works By this means the People probably will be taken off from their False Religion and divided one from another to the great Advantage of the King and Kingdom of Spain to whom many will now come and tender their Service and His Empire which of late hath been Contemptible and hateful to all the World shall recover its ancient Splendour and Honour 13. There must mutual Contentions and Hatred be stirred up amongst the Nobles and Principal Men of the Country and that part that most favours the Spanish Interest must be assisted and rewarded with gifts that so the rest may be brought over too and may be encouraged to do the like But if this cannot be done He must then rid them â—ut of the way or if the cannot â—e found to have deserved death any way then must their Repâ—tation only be diminished â—or Injustice never yet took deep root or else they must be sent away into some other parts Paulus Aemilius that he might leave Macedoniâ— in a quiet and peaceable condition perswaded all the Principal of the Nobility to take their wives and children and go live in Italy And Charles the Great to prevent the frequent Tumults and Commotions that were in Saxony sent all the Nobility of that Country into France 14. They should be prevailed with to sail away into the New World and to joyn with the Portugal Fleet and break into Arabia and Palestine through the Read Sea â—o to annoy the Turks as shall be hereafter shewed that so being drawn out of their own Country to fight against Forreign Enemies they may be destroyed by the Spaniards who in this particular are much abler men then They. 15. The seeds of Emulation and Envy should be sowed amongst them that after the example of those Brothers that sprung up out of the Serpents Teeth they may destroy one another and that those few of them that shall remain may be afterwards made use of by the King of Spain for his service But then it is necessary in the first place that the Serpent of Sedition it self I mean Count Maurice should be destroyed and not have Opportunity given him by the continuing of the War of growing greater and more powerful every day then other But before allâ— as I said before there must be New Learning and New Languages introduced amongst them according to the Example of Cadmus and there mâ—st likewise Women be got away from them after the example of Iason 16. The Hollanders are to be hired every year though it should Cost the King a Million of Gold to be a convoy to the Spanish Fleet returning out of the West Indies and also to secure the Sea Coast of Spain against the English and those that are the Chief amongst them in that expedition should deliver up their Sons for Hostages till such time as they shall have done their businesse effectually For these men will willingly be hired for mony to fight against England and very probably there will at length be found some one or other of them that will for mony also betray even Holland it self and their whole Fleet to the Spaniards And certainly if the seeds of Dissention and Envy were but once sowed among the Principal men and Nobles of these Common-Wealths they would never be able to hold up so stifly against the Spaniards and gain strength every day as they do neither would those that now maintain Bookish Controversies against the Pope get so much reputation and Authority among the People and the King himself would also by this means confirm his own Empire both by Sea and Land and would draw these People over to him 17 These People are wonderfully taken with Miracles and are great Admirers of any Excellency and Eminent Vertue so that any Holy and Wise men might easily by their Arts draw them to any thing Therefore there is need of such diligent Workmen who by their Doctrine and Spotlesse Sanctimony of their Lifeâ— may call home those straying sheep to the way of Truth And if it should please God to call Me to take this Imployment upon me I should c. 18. When these People were now once divided and weakened they should then upon the sudden be set upon by an Army for Delay tends rather to the confounding then the well Ordering of Affaires For Semper nocuit differre paratis When Preparations now are made Designs are by Delay betray'd The King should therefore fall in upon them with a numerousâ— and powerful Army in the head whereof Himself should be and should withal make use of some unusual Stratagem without which all his Designs will come to nothing There should also some one among the Spanish Commanders who is both a Stout and also a Wise and circumspect man be suborned by the King of Spain to counterfeit himself to be a Renegado and going over to the Enemy should insinuate himself into the States General and should prevail with them to make him their Generalâ— as we read Zopyrus did who betrayed the City of Babylon whether he had fled having first cut off his own Nose Ears and Lips and making them believe that all those were the Marks of the Cruelty of Darius to his Master or as Sinon did to the Trojâ—ns and as Sextus Tarquinius did who going over to the Gâ—biiâ— and making them believe that he was fled from his Father and being both believed by them and also chosen to be their General he first cut off the cheif men of the Common-Wealth and afterwards betrayed the said Gabii to his Father For the bringing about of the like Designe whereof the King of Spain hath need of a man that is most faithful as well as Valiant and Wise and not such a one as was that Perfidious fellow Antonio
Emperours Conrade and Frederick made several expeditions into those parts not for the taking in of any New Countries but only for the keeping of what the others had formerly gotten yet for all there was not any thing at all done by them worth the speaking of But now there ought to be care taken in this businesse that all may share alike in what shall be gotten for otherwise the Design would be quite spoiled and never come to any thing For as in a Clock if there be any one Exorbitant or Irregular Wheel it spoiles the whole Harmony and mutual Agreement that should be in it so likewise in all Associations if there be any Deficiency in one Part it proves to be the cause of the Dissolution of the whole Union A clear example whereof we have in the League that was made betwixt the Popes Paul III. and Pius V. the King of Spain and the Venetians which though it were managed with the greatest diligence and eagernesse on all sides that could be and with Incredible successe also yet it came all to nothing at last and that meerly for this one reason namely because that it did not equally concern the Interests of all of them that That Expedition should be so carefully undertaken and so diligently carried on For Spain hath no great advantage by any thing that is done against the Eastern People which yet is most beneficial to the Venetians in like manner as it is of litle or no concernment to the Venetians what ever is done against Africk which yet is of very great advantage to Spain And this is the reason that the Venetians who stand in fear of the Power the Turk hath in the East and the Spaniards who are afraid of their Neighbours of Algier can never unanimously go on together against the Enemy with equal courage and desires And by this means the Pope lying in the mean time in the midst betwixt them both and being forced to be at a great charge yet hath no benefit at all thereby But to return to our Present discourse again whence we have digressed There is yet another way whereby the Turkish Empire might be overthrown and that is in case that some one of His Chief Commanders in war who was at first a Christian such as were Cicala Occhiali and Scandeâ—beg should be prevailed withal by such large Promises as should be made him as namely that he should have some Christian Province given him for his reward to betray the Turkish Navy unto us if at least He have it committed to his charge or else in case he hath been appointed by the Great Turk to manage any Kingdom under him as His Viceroy he should then have the possession of that Kingdom promised him as suppose of Tunis Algier or the like For there is no doubt to be made but that such a one had rather be the Sole Absolute Lord of any Kingdom whatsoever it be and so to have the Power of transmitting it over to his Posterity then to be but a kind of Nobler Slave to the Great Turk having neither Power in his liâ—e time to give away any thing to his friends nor at his death to leave any thing to them And I am verily perswaded that there is nothing that keeps these men from attempting such a Rebellion against the Turk more then because they dispaire of ever being able to bring any such their Undertakings to effect as not daring to confide in the Christians or to rely upon them for Assistance Yet if they were but sincerely and Ingenuously dealt withal I am clearly of opinion that they might be brought to this It may also so happen that some such Gallant Vindicator of the Peoples Liberty may spring up among the Turks themselves as was Moses the Hebrew among the Subjects of Pharaoh King of Egypt and such a One in case the Great Turk should entrust him with any great Authority or Charge might questionlesse be able to do him an infinite deal of Mischief There might also a General Association be made amongst the Christians by whom He might be brought to a Pitch'd Battel as we said before and might have one or two such Notable Blowes given him by them that he should be never able to hold up his head again because that he hath not any Nobles that might relieve him in such a case And this might the more easily be done because that he hath within his Dominions an Infinite Number both of Christians and Iewes who if they but once saw him overthrown would all presently come over to Us. And yet in the procuring of such an Association as this there would be required either very much Patience in the Pope and the King of Spain or else a very great necessity that should force All of them to joyne together Now these Princes should all be bound by mutual Covenants drawn up betwixt them that every one of them should have a Proportionable Share of what soever shall be gotten by the said expedition and also that those that have gotten possession of their own share shall assist the rest also in the getting of theirs after the Example of Reuben and Dan who after they had possessed themselves of the Country that lay on this side Iordan were then to assist their brethren in the subduing of the further part of it that lay beyond Iordan There ought also to be a persuasion wrought into All and every one of these Princes that by the King of Assyria in the Scriptures is prefigured unto us the Great Turk who after he hath destroyed the Kingdom of Israel that is to say the Kingdom of the East or that of Constantinople He will then next overthrow the Kingdom of Iudah that is of the West except they repent them of their Heresy and return again into the Bosomâ— of the Church of Rome which is our Jerusalem as I have written in my Christian Monarchy and that so together with the Empire the Priesthood also will be lost and will passe over into the New World as I have there demonstrated by Political Reasons except they take the Course here set down before them And perhaps also it may hereafter so come to passe And when the Turk who is the Typical Cyrus is destroyed then shall the Church be renewed again It is therefore most Necessary that all Christendom should joyn their forces together for the destruction of this Ravenous Wolf who by his Strength and Cunning hath taken from us Two Empires and Two Hundred Kingdomes mean while that we do nothing but fall together by the Eares one with another But if this cannot be brought about the Persians must then be persuaded to joyn with the Ethiopians Muscovites and Polonians as hath been said before And I do believe also that the Great Turks Bassaes and other of his Subjects would quickly be got to fall off from him if so be they could but be once fully perswaded assured that they should each of them
that they performed things most worthy to be committed to everlasting Memory namely their so frequent Compassing the Earth about their finding out of so many Islands and Continents and which is the most eminent piece of service of all the rest the Discovery of the New World yet did they never all this while take care to employ any Able person in the committing of these famous Acts of theirs to Memory and after the example of the Greeks and Romans to record them in Writing and transmit them over to the Perpetual Memory of Posterity Although that the Portugals have herein gone far beyond the Castilians for they have found out such able persons as have published abroad to the world their gallant Acts both in Latine and in their own Native Language The Second sort of Rewards should respect Profit and this I would have to be the Chiefest Dignity or place of Honour in the Kingdom that should be taken in the King whereof should be carried over into Spain and should there be instructed in the Catholick Religion and there should also be conferred upon him some Barony in Spain to the end that It might so be rendred the more Illustrious and also that the rest of the Indian Princes might be given to understand that we put not to death any of the Kings of such Countries as we subdue if that they will but embrace Our Religion as for instance Motecuma Atabalipa and some other petty Kings that we could name but rather use them with all courtesie and civility that may be For it is Fear of being put to death only that forces those Princes to take up Armes against the Spaniard Businesses of State do all contain in them some Certain thing the not knowing of which makes all other things both Difficult and also Vain and to no purpose as in sayling there are some that spread the sailes and others that ply their Oares and some again are imployed either in casting forth or taking in of Ballast yet are all these things to no purpose unlesse there be joyned with these an able Pilot who by his skilful steerage of the Vessel shall make good and set forward the Labours of all the rest And therefore Spain especially hath very great need of some Wise Person that should know in what thing chiefly consists the Stern as we may call it of the Kingdom without the knowledge whereof all Conceipts Contrivances Labours Charges and Consultations whatsoever will come to nothing After that Pope Clement the VIII began to think of making a Reformation among the Clergy all men were ready to put to their helping hand and assist in the framing of New Lawes Orders and Ceremonies together with appointing of Fasting daies and such Habits as every one should wear But I living at that time at St. Sabines told them plainly that all the endeavours of the Commissaries were vain seeing that the Rule it self was sufficient for the bringing about of all those things neither indeed did they know wherein the main point of the businesse lay I added moreover that the whole businesse of the Reformation consisted in this that no one particular person of the whole company in Monasteries or the like Religious Houses should have a Key or Lock to himself of his Cell but that there should be only One Common Key that should serve both for the Dormitory and also for every mans particular lodging For this would have been a means at once to have put an end to all Proprieties and to have kept out all Wanton Books Gifts and Obscene Poetry But when that the Chief and Principal Governours of this Ship once perceived that all this would redound to Their Losse there was none of Them then that would set his hand to the Stern nor come to the head of the matter but they would onely have some Lawes to be made concerning Novices only and such as were newly entred in Religion but would not hear of any thing at all that touched their own interest And so by this means the good Intention of the Pope was utterly frustrated and came to nothing The Kingdome of Spain therefore hath need of some Wise Palinurus by whose Conduct all things may be rightly managed according to the Rules before laid down Which certainly would much more tend to the advancement of the Majesty of its Empire then any Macchiavilian Suggestions and Cunning Devises whatsoever which have nothing of a Good Conscience in them at all and which besides serve as a Cloak only to disguise the Tyranny and Cruelty of Princes by arming them with the Law of Majesty and which countenance such Abuses as even not silly Women much lesse People that have been accustomed to Liberty can endure And therefore I cannot sufficiently wonder that there should be any that should so extol this Impious Politician to the heavens as they do as if His Writings were a Certain Rule and Idea of a Good and Happy Government And yet this I do not so much wonder as I am angry at when I see that most Vile Maxime in Politicks to be admitted in the Administration of State Affaires namely That some things are Lawful in respect of the State and others in respect of Conscience Then which Opinion there cannot certainly be imagined any thing to be either more Absurd or more Wicked For he that shall take away or restrain that Universal Jurisdiction that Conscience ought to have over All Things as well Publick as Private shewes thereby that he hath Neither any Conscience nor any God The very Beasts themselves are lead by a Natural Instinct to such things as are good for them and refuse whatsoever would be hurtful to them and should the Light of reason and the Dictate of Conscience which were given unto Man that He might know how to distinguish betwixt Good and Evill be utterly Blind in Publick Things and fail in businesses that are of the Greatest Moment I have had I confesse I know not what Itch upon me to give an account in writing of such Points as that Author ought to be chastised for with the Rod of Censure and not onely he himself but all his Disciples I mean the Counsellours of Princes and their nearest Favorites for certainly both all the Scandals of the Church of God and all the Perturbations and hurly burlies that have happened in the whole World have had their rise from hence But yet I have thought fit to hold my hand till some other time seeing that some others have written of the same Subject already very copiously and also because that the thing is of it self clear enough And therefore I fell upon another Design whereby I might Illustrate the Majesty of the Spanish Empire the conservation whereof is a businesse of much greater difficulty then the Acquisition For Humane Things do as it were Naturally encrease sometimes and sometimes again decrease after the example of the Moon to which they are all subject And therefore it is a