Condition it then is I mean to defend it from being Changed or Invaded by the Craft or Force of any Man although it be the Prince or Chief Magistrate himself provided that such taking up of Arms be Commanded or Authorised by those who are by the Orders of that Government legally intrusted with the Custody of the Liberty of the People and Foundation of the Government This I hold to be so far from Rebellion that I believe it laudable nay the Duty of every Member of such Commonwealth for that he who Fights to Support and Defend the Government he was born and lives under cannot deserve the odious name of Rebel but he who endeavours to destroy it If this be not granted it will be in vain to frame any mixt Monarchies in the World yet such is at this day the happy Form under which almost all Europe lives as the People of France Spain German Poland Swethland Denmark c. Wherein the Prince hath his share and the People theirs which last if they had no means of recovering their Rights if taken from them or defending them if invaded would be in the same Estate as if they had no Title to them but liv'd under the Empire of Turkey or of Muscovey And since they have no other Remedy but by Arms and that it would be of ill Conquence to make every private man judge when the Rights of the People to which they have as lawful a Claim as the Prince to his are Invaded which would be apt to produce frequent and sometimes causeless Tumults therefore it hath been the great Wisdom of the Founders of such Monarchies to appoint Guardians to their Liberty which if it be not otherwise exprest is and ought to be understood to reside in the Estates of the Country which for that Reason as also to exercise their share in the Soveraignty as making Laws Levying Money c. are frequently to be Assembled in all those Regions in Europe before mentioned These are to assert and maintain the Orders of the Government and the Laws established and if it cannot be done otherwise to arm the People to defend them and repel the force that is upon them Nay the Government of Aragon goes further and because in the intervals of the Estates or Courts many accidents may intervene to the prejudice of their Rights or Fueros as they call them they have during the intermission appointed a Magistrate called El Iusticia who is by the Law and Constiâ—ution of that Kingdom to Assemble the whole People to his Banner whenever such Rights are incroacht upon who are not only justified by the Laws for such coming together but are severely punishable in case of refusal So that there is no question but that if the Kings of Aragon at this day very powerful by the addition of the Naples Kingdom and of Sicily and the Union with Castile should in time to come Invade their Kingdom of Aragon with the Forces of their New Dominions and endeavour to take from them the Rights and Priviledges they enjoy lawfully by their Constitution There is no question I say but they may though their King be there in person against them Assemble under their Iusticia and defend their Liberties with as much Justice as if they were Invaded by the French or by the Turk For it were absurd to think since the People may be legally assembled to apprehend Banditti Robbers nay to deliver a Possession forceably detain'd against the Sentence of some inferiour Court that they may and ought not to bestir themselves to keep in being and preserve that Government which maintains them in possession of their Liberty and Property and defends their Lives too from being Arbitrarily taken away But I know this clear Truth receives opposition in this unreasonable and corrupt Age when Men are more prone to Flatter the Lusts of Princes than formerly and the Favourites are more impatient to bear the impartiality of Laws than the Sonâ— of Brutus were who complain'd Legâ—s esse Surdas that is though they were fine Gentlemen in favour with the Ladies and Ministers of the King's â—leasures vet they could not Oppress Drink Whore nor Kill the Sbiri Officers of Justice in the Streets returning from their Night Revels but the Execution of the Laws would reach them as well â—s others who in the times of Tarquin it seems found the Prince more exorable Nay the very Divines themselves help with their fallacies to oppugne this Doctrine by making us believe as I said before that it is God's will all Princes should be absolute and are so far in a Conspiracy against Mankind that they assert that in the Text This shall the manner of your King be God was giving that People the Ius Divinum of Government when in truth he was threatning then with the Plagues of Monarchy But I spare the Divines here since I shall have occasion in Discoursing of my next Accusation to shew how that sort of People have dealt with God's Truths and with the Interests of Men and to be as good as my word I shall presently fall upon that Point having been so tedious already in the former I am charged then in the Second place with Impiety in villifying the Church and so to make way for Atheism I do not deny but that I have very frequently in my Writings laid the blame upon the Church of Rome not only for all the Misgovernment of Christendom but even for the depravation and almost total Destruction of Christian Religion it self in this Province But that this Discourse of mine doth or can tend to teach Men Impiety or to make way for Atheism I peremptorily deny and although for proof of my innocence herein I need but refer you and all others to my Papers themselves as they are now Published where you will find all my Reasons drawn from Experience and frequent Examples cited which is ever my way of arguing yet since I am put upon it I shall in a few Lines make that matter possibly a little clearer and shall first make protestation that as I do undoubtedly hope by the Merits of Christ and by Faith in him to attain Eternal Salvation so I do firmly Believe the Christian Profession to be the only true Religion now in the World Next I am fully perswaded that all Divine Verities which God then designed to teach the World are contained in the Books of Holy Scripture as they are now extant and received amongst us From them I understand that God Created Man in Purity and Innocence and that the first of that Species by their frailty lost at once their Integrity and their Paradise and intail'd Sin and Misery upon their Posterity That Almighty God to repair this loss did out of his infinite Mercy and with unparallel'd Grace and Goodness send his only Begotten Son into the World to teach us new Truths to be a perfect Example of Vertue Goodness and Obedience to restore true Religion degenerated amongst the
have reason'd this matter impartially and without passion nor have possitively affirmed any thing But what if this part of my Accusation had been true why should I be condemned of Heresy or Indiscretion for preserring a Common-wealth before a Monarchy Was I not born bred and employ'd in a City which being at the time I writ under that Form of Government did owe all Wealth and Greatness and all prosperity to it If I had not very designedly avoided all dogmaticalness in my Observations being not willing to imâ—tate young Scholars in their declamations I might easily have concluded from the Premises I lay down that a Democracy founded upon good Orders is the best and most excellent Government and this without the least fear of confutation for I firmly believe that there are none but Flatterers and Sophisters would oppose me such as will wrest Aristotle and even Plato himself to make them write for Monarchy by misapplying some loose passages in those great Authors nay they will tell their Readers that what is most like the Government of the World by God is the best which wholly depends upon his Absolute Power To make this Comparison run with four feet these Sycophants must give the poor Prince they intend to Deify a better and superiour Nature to Humanity must create a necessary dependance of all creatures upon him must endow him with infinite Wisdom and Goodness and even with Omnipotency it self It will be hard for any man to be misled in this Argument by Proofs wrested from Theology since whosoever reads attentively the Historical part of the Old Testament shall find that God himself never made but one Government for Men that this Government was a Commonwealth wherein the Sanhedrim or Senate and the Congregation or popular Assembly had their share and that he manifested his high displeasure when the rebellious People would turn it into a Monarchy But that I may not strike upon the Rock I profess to shun I shall pass to that which is indeed fit to be wipt off and which if it were true would not only justly expose me to the hatred and vengeance of God and all good Men but even destroy the design and purpose of all my Writings which is to treat in some sort as well as one of my small parts can hope to do of the Politicks and how can any man pretend to write concerning policy who destroys the most essential part of it which is Obedience to all Governments It will be very easie then for Giulio Salivati or any other Member of our Society to believe the protestation I make that the animating of private Men either directly or indirectly to disobey much less to shake off any Government how despotical soever was never in my thoughts or Writings those who are unwilling to give credit to this may take the pains to assign in any of my Books the passages they imagine to tend that way for I can think of none my self that so I may give such person more particular satisfaction I must confess I have a Discourse in one of my Books to encourage the Italian Nation to assume their antient valour and to expel the Barbarians meaning as the Antient Romans us'd the word all Strangers from amongst us but that was before the Kings of Spain had quiet possession of the Kingdom of Naples or the Emperour of the Dutchy of Milan so that I could not be interpreted to mean that the People of those two Dominions should be stirr'd up to shake off their Princes because they were Foreigners since at that time Lodovic Sforza was in possession of the one and King Frederick restored to the other both Natives of Italy but my design was to exhort our Countrymen not to suffer this Province to be the Scene of the Arms and Ambition of Charles the VIII th or K. Lewis his Successor who when they had a mind to renew the old Title of the House of Anjou to the Kingdom of Naples came with such Force into Italy that not only our Goods were plundered and our Lands wasted but even the Liberty of our Cities and Governments endanger'd but to unite and oppose them and to keep this Province in the hands of Princes of our own Nation this my intention is so visible in the Chapter it self that I need but refer you to it Yet that I may not answer this imputation barely by denying I shall assert in this place what my Principles are in that which the World calls Rebellion which I believe to be not only a rising in Arms against any Government we live under but do acknowledge that word to extend to all Clandestine Conspiracies too by which the peace and quiet of any Country may be interrupted and by consequence the Lives and Estates of innocent Persons endanger'd Rebellion then so described I hold to be the greatest Crime that can be committed amongst Men both against Policy Morality and in Foro Conscientiae But notwithstanding all this it is an Offence which will be committed whilst the World lasts as often as Princes tyrannize and by Inslaving and Oppressing their Subjects make Magistracy which was intended for the Benefit of Mankind prove a Plague and destruction to it For let the terrour and the guilt be never so great it is impossible that Humane Nature which consists of Passion as well as Vertue can support with patience and submission the greatest Cruelty and Jnjustice whenever either the Weakness of their Princes the Unanimity of the People or any other favourable accident shall give them reasonable hopes to mend their Condition and provide better for their own interest by Insurrection So that Princes and States ought in the conduct of their Affairs not only to consider what their People are bound to submit to if they were inspir'd from Heaven or were all Moral Philosophers but to weigh likewise what is probable de facto to fall out in this corrupt Age of the World and to reflect upon those dangerous tumults which have happen'd frequently not only upon Oppression but even by reason of malversation and how some Monarchies have been wholly subverted and changed into Democracies by the Tyranny of their Princes as we see to say nothing of Rome the powerful Cantons of Swisserland brought by that means a little before the last Age to a considerable Commonwealth courted and sought to by all the Potentates in Christendom If Princes will seriously consider this matter I make no question but they will Rule with Clemency and Moderation and return to that excellent Maxime of the Antients almost exploded in this Age that the Interest of Kings and of their People is the same which Truth it hath been the whole Design of my Writings to convince them of Now having gone thus far in the description of Rebellion I think my self obliged to tell you what I conceive not to be Rebellion Whosoever then takes up Arms to maintain the Politick Constitution or Government of his Country in the
Iews into Superstition Formality and Hypocrisie to die for the Salvation of Mankind and in fine to give to us the Holy Spirit and to regenerate our Hearts support our Faith and lead us into all Truth Now if it shall appear that as the lusts of our first Parents did at that time disappoint the good intention of God in making a pure World and brought in by their disobedience the Corruptions that are now in it so that since likewise the Bishops of Rome by their insatiable Ambition and Avarice have designedly as much as in them lies frustrated the merciful purpose he had in the happy restoration he intended the World by his Son and in the renewing and reforming of Humane Nature and have wholly defac'd and spoil'd Christian Religion and made it a Worldly and a Heathenish thing and altogether uncapable as it is practised amongst them either of directing the ways of its Professors to Vertue and good Life or of saving their Souls hereafter If I say this do appear I know no reason why I for detecting thus much and for giving warning to the World to take heed of their ways should be accused of Impiety or Atheism or why his Holiness should be so enraged against the poor Inhabitants of the Vallies in Savoy and against the Albigesi for calling him Antichrist But to find that this is an undoubted Truth I mean that the Popes have corrupted Christian Religion we need but read the New Testament acknowledged by themselves to be of Infallible Truth and there we shall see that the Faith and Religion Preacht by Christ and settled afterwards by his Apostles and Cultivated by their Sacred Epistles is so different a thing from the Christianity that is now Profest and Taught at Rome that we should be convinc'd that if those Holy Men should be sent by God again into the World they would take more pains to confute this Gallimaufry than ever they did to preach down the Traditions of the Pharisees or the Fables and Idolatries of the Gentiles and would in probability suffer a new Martyrdom in that City under the Vicar of Christ for the same Doctrine which once animated the Heathen Tyrants against them Nay we have something more to say against these Sacrilegious Pretenders to God's Power for whereas all other false Worships have been set up by some Politick Legislators for the Support and Preservation of Government this false this spurious Religion brought in upon the ruines of Christianity by the Popes has deform'd the face of Government in Europe destroying all the good Principles and Morality left us by the Heathens themselves and introduced instead thereof Sordid Cowardly and Impolitick Notions whereby they have subjected Mankind and even great Princes and States to their own Empire and never suffer'd any Orders or Maximes to take place where they have power that might make a Nation Wise Honest Great or Wealthy This I have set down so plainly in those Passages of my Book which are complain'd of that I shall say nothing at all for the Proof of it in this place but referr you thither and come to speak a little more particularly of my first assertion That the Pope and his Clergy have depraved Christian Religion Upon this Subject I could infinitely wish now Letters begin to revive again that some Learned Pen would employ it self and that some Person verst in the Cronology of the Church as they call it would deduce out of the Ecclesiastical Writers the time and manner how these Abuses crept in and by what Arts and Steps this Babel that reaches at Heaven was built by these Sons of the Earth But this matter as unsuitable to the brevity of a Letter and indeed more to my small Parts and Learning I shall not pretend to being one who never hitherto studied or writ of Theology further than it did naturally concern the Politicks therefore I shall only deal by the New Testament as I have done formerly by Titus Livius that is make Observations or Reflections upon it and leave you Messieur Giulio and the rest of our Society to make the judgment not citing like Preachers the Chapter or Verse because the reading of Holy Scripture is little us'd and indeed hardly permitted amongst us To begin at the top I would have any reasonable Man tell me whence this unmeasurable Power long claim'd and now possest by the Bishop of Rome is derived first of being Christ's Vicar and by that as I may so say pretending to a Monopoly of the Holy Spirit which was promised and given to the whole Church that is to the Elect or Saints as is plain by a Clause in St. Peter's Sermon made the very same time that the miraculous Gifts of the Spirit of God were first given to the Apostles who says to the Iews and Gentiles Repent and be Baptised every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the Remission of Sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for this Promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Next to judge infallibly of Divine Truth and to forgive Sins as Christ did Then to be the Head of all Ecclesiastical Persons and Causes in the World to be so far above Kings and Princes as to Judge Depose and Deprive them and to have an absolute Jurisdiction over all the Affairs in Christendom in Ordine ad Spiritualia yet all this the Canonists allow him and he makes no scruple to assume whilst it is plain that in the whole New Testament there is no description made of such an Officer to be at any time in the Church except it be in the Prophecy of the Apocalypse or in one of St. Paul's Epistles where he says Who is it that shall sit in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God Christ tells us his Kingdom is not of this World and if any will be the greatest amongst his Disciples that he must be Servant to the rest which shews that his Followers were to be great in Sanctity and Humility and not in Worldly Power The Apostle Paul writing to the Christians of those times almost in every Epistle commands them to be obedient to the Higher Powers or Magistrates set over them and St. Peter himself from whom this extravagant Empire is pretended to be deriv'd in his first Epistle bids us submit our selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake whether it be to the King or c. And this is enjoyn'd although it is plain that they who Govern'd the World in those days were both Heathens Tyrants and Usurpers and in this submission there is no Exception or Proviso for Ecclesiastical immunity The Practice as well as Precepts of these Holy Men shews plainly that they had no intention to leave Successors who should deprive Hereditary Princes from their right of Reigning for difference in Religion who without all doubt are by
several Functions of their Calling as Prophesying that is preaching the Gospel Visiting the Sick c. and never intermitted the ordinary business of their Trade or Profession unless their Church or Congregation was very numerous in which case they were maintain'd by Alms or Contribution which was laid aside by every Member and Collected the first day of the Week by the Deacons this was said to be given to the Church and was imploy'd by Suffrage of the whole collective Body to the Poor and to other incidences so far was it from Sacriledge in those days to employ Church Goods to Lay uses From these words Church Clergy Ordination Pastor which last hath been Translated of late years Bishop you see what Conclusions these Men have deduced and how immense a Structure they have raised upon so little a Foundation and how easily it will fall to the ground when God shall inspire Christian Princes and States to redeem his Truths and his poor enslaved Members out of their clutches and to bring back again into the World the true Original Christian Faith with the Apostolical Churches Pastors and Ordination so consistent with Moral Vertue and Integrity so helpful and conducing to the best and most prudent Policy so fitted for obedience to Magistracy and Government all which the World hath for many years been depriv'd of by the execrable and innate ill quality which is inseparable from Priestcraft and the Conjuration or Spell of their new invented Ordination by which they cry with the Poet Claudian Iam furor humanum nostro de pectore sensum Expulit totum spirant praecordia Phaebum Which makes them so Sacred and Holy that they have nothing of Integrity or indeed of Humanity left in them I hope I shall not be thought impious any longer upon this Point I mean for Vindicating Christian Religion from the assaults of these Men who having the confidence to believe or at least profess themselves the only Instruments which God hath chosen or can chuse to teach and reform the World though they have neither Moral Vertues nor Natural Parts equal to other Men for the most part have by this pretence prevailed so far upon the common sort of People and upon some too of a better quality that they are perswaded their Salvation or Eternal Damnation depends upon believing or not believing of what they say I would not be understood to disswade any from honouring the true Apostolical Teachers when they shall be re-established amongst us or from allowing them even of right and not of alms or courtesie such Emoluments as may enable them cheerfully to perform the duties of their Charge to provide for their Children and even to use Hospitality as they are commanded by St. Paul But this I will Prophesie before I conclude that if Princes shall perform this business by halves and leave any root of this Clergy or Priest-craft as it now is in the ground or if that Famous Reformer fled some years since out of Picardy to Geneva who is of so great Renown for Learning and Parts and who promises us so perfect a Reformation shall not in his Model wholly extirpate this sort of Men then I say I must foretell that as well the Magistrate as this Workman will find themselves deceived in their expectation and that the least Fibra of this Plant will overrun again the whole Vineyard of the Lord and turn to a diffusive Papacy in every Diocess perhaps in every Parish So that God in his mercy inspire them to cut out the Core of the Uulcer and the bag of this Impostume that it may never ranckle or fester any more nor break out hereafter to diffuse new corruption and putrefaction through the Body of Christ which is his Holy Church nor to vitiate and infect the good Order and true Policy of Government I come now to the last branch of my Charge which is That I teach Princes Villany and and how to Enslave and Oppress their Subjects In which Accusation I am dealt with as poor Messieur Agnolo Canini was who as they report being a very Learned Practiser of the Laws and left the only Man of this profession one Autumn in our City the rest of the Advocates being fled into the Country for fear of a Contagious Disease which then reigned was commanded by our Judges to assist with his Counsel both Parties and to draw Pleas as well for the Defendant as the Plaintiff else the Courts of Justice must have been shut up In the same manner my Accusers handle me and make me first exhort and teach Subjects to throw off their Princes and then to instruct Monarchs how to Enslave and Oppress them but I did not expect such ingratitude from mine own Citizens or to be serv'd as Moses was when he was upbraided for killing the Egyptian by one of his own People for whose sake he had done it whereas he believed they would have understood by that action that he was the Person whom God intended to make use of in delivering them from the horrid Slavery they were then under If any Man will read over my Book of the Prince with impartiality and ordinary Charity he will easily perceive that it is not my intention therein to recommend that Government or those Men there described to the World much less to teach them to trample upon good Men and all that is Sacred and Venerable upon Earth Laws Religion Honesty and what not If I have been a little too punctual in designing these Monsters and drawn them to the Life in all their Lineaments and Colours I hope Mankind will know them the better to avoid them my Treatise being both a Satyr against them and a true Character of them I speak nothing of Great and Honourable Princes as the Kings of France England and others who have the States and Orders of their Kingdoms with excellent Laws and Costitutions to found and maintain their Government and who reign over the Hearts as well as the Persons of their Subjects I treat only of those Vermine bred out of the corruption of our own small Commonwealth and Cities or engender'd by the ill blasts that come from Rome as Olivarolâ— da Fermo Borgia the Baglioni the Bentivogli and a hundred others who having had neither right nor honourable means to bring them to their power use it with more Violence Rapine and Cruelty upon the poor People than those other Renowned Princes shew to the Boars the Wolves the Foxes and other Savage Beasts which are the Objects of their Chace and Hunting Whosoever in his Empire over Men is ty'd to no other Rules than those of his own Will and Lust must either be a Saint to moderate his Passions or else a very Devil incarnate or if he be neither of these both his Life and Reign are like to be very short for whosoever takes upon him so execrable an Employment as to Rule Men against the Laws of Nature and of Reason must turn all topsey