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
same and apply what Counsells are here given the King of Spain to their own Affaires For if it be good counsel for the King of Spain to take To procure and maintain a perfect Vnion among his own subjects at home but on the Contrary To sow the seeds of Division among his Enemies abroad the same must be as good Counsel for the King of France also to take or any other Prince or Potentate what ever If it be good Counsel to the Spaniard Never to trust so much to any peace made with an Enemy as thereupon quite to lay aside his Armes it is altogether as good Counsel for any other Prince And the same may be said of any other of the General Maxims of Policy delivered here by our Author But as for what in Particular concerns the Advancement of the Spaniard and his Designs in order to the bringing about of his Universal Monarchy whether the Rules by our Author laid down were in sufficient to do the businesse or whether hough they were every way as full and proper as could be yet having not been precisely observed the businesse hath miscarried and the Spaniard hath not as yet arrived and perhaps now is never like to arrive to the end of his Desires all this needs not hinder but that thou shouldest look upon this Author as a man of a most clear wit Judgment and prize him as one that was full of knowledge and experience in the Affaires of the World and a most industrious and studious person In the Third and last place thou art to take notice as concerning this Translation that we have therein dealt so fairely nd Ingenuuosly with our Author as that we have perfectly and entirely preserved his own sense unto himâ— Neither have we stopt his foul mouth where he hath either used ill Language toward any of the Protestant Princes or cast dirt into the faces of the first Reformers Luther Calvin c. For to what end should we falsifie our Original by making our Author more Civil then he had a mind to be seeing we are never a whit the worse for being so miscalled by him nor is he himself a jot the wiser for using us so And to say the Truth we our selves take the same Liberty towards them and therefore for ought I see Hanc Veniam petimusque damusque vicissim We must even be content to allow each other this Liberty on both sides An Index of the CHAPTERS CHAP. I. Of the Causes of Humane Principalities Page 1. II. The Causes of the Spanish Empire p. 4 III. Of the first Cause of Empires namely God p. 6 IV. Of the Spanish Empire considered according to the First Cause p. 9 V. Of the Second Cause namely Prudence 15 VI. How the Clergy are to be dealt withal 25 VII What may be further added concerning Prudence and Opportunity 30 VIII The Causes by which the Spanish Monarchy may be enlarged and become lâ—sse 31 IX Of the King 32 X. What Sciences are required in a Monarch to render Him admired by all 45 XI Of Lawes both good and bad 50 XII Of Counsel 52 XIII Of Justice and its Contrary 57 XIV Of the Barons and Nobility of the Spanish Empire 60 XV. Of the Souldiery 66 XVI Of the Treasure of Spain 81 XVII Of the Peoples Love and Hate as also of Conspiracies 93 XVIII Of Preachers and Prophâ—sies 105 XIX Of such Kingdomes as are properly belonging to the King of Spain and of such also as arâ— his Enemies and of these which are in League with each other and which not 115 XX. Of Spain 125 XXI Of Italy 129 XXII Of Sicily and Sardinia 136 XXIII Of Germany 139 XXIV Of France 144 XXV Of England Scotland and Ireland 155 XXVI Of Poland Muscovia and Transylvania 162 XXVII Of Flanders and the Lower Germany 165 XXVIII Of Africk 185 XXIX Of Persia and Cataia 194 XXX Of the Great Turk and his Empire 197 XXXI Of the Other Hemisphere and the New World 211 XXXII Of Navigation 223 The Authors Preface THe Universal Monarchy of the World begining from the East and so coming at length to the West having passed through the hands of the Assyrians Medes Persians Greeks and Romans who were divided by the Imperial Eagle into Three Heads is at length come down to the Spaniard upon whom after so long Slavery and Division it is wholly conferred by Fate and that with greater Splendour then on any of his Predecessors to whom also according to the Vicissitude of Humane Affaires it did of right belong Now although I had not any Intention to write any thing touching either the Government or the Enlargement of the Spanish Monarchy which you most Noble Alfonso have desired me to do yet being at length delivered from my Tedious Sicknesse and my Ten years Afflictions though I am utterly deprived of the help of any Books and am as it were shut up as a Prisoner in this my Cell I shall notwithstanding in a brief and Compendious way give your Lordship an account what my Iudgment is concerning this Subject and shall give in the Causes of each several Point in General first not after a Natural nor a Theological but after a Political way and shall afterwards also descend to treaâ— more Particularly of the same Tho. Campanella A DISCOURSE TOUCHING The Spanish Monarchy CHAP. I. Of the Causes of Humane Principalities IN the acquiring and managing of every Dominion and Principality there usually concur three Causes that is to say God Prudence and Occasion All which being joyned together are called by the name of Fate which is nothing else but a concurrence of all the Causes working by vertue of the First And hence also is Fortune sprung which is the Successe of Earthly things whether it be good or evil whichâ— if it be rightly known is called Prudence but if otherwise it is then called Fate Fortune or Chance As for example if a man find that which he had long sought after it is called Vnderstanding and Prudence but if he light upon a thing which he did not seek after nor knew where it was it is called Chance or Fortune Among these three Causes One sometimes prevailes in the ruling of things more then Another and perhaps more then the Other two Yet notwithstanding if we will confesse the truth they are all Three Politically concurring in the businesse Do but take notice of the Kingdome of the Iewes wherein God was the Principal Agent who by sending Moses and Aaron furnished out the Other Two Causes For Moses was a person of extraordinary Wisdome and Knowledge not onely in Divine but in Humane things also for he was well versed in all the Learning of the Egyptians and managed a War for King Pharaoh against the King of Ethiopia whom he vanquished in the War and whose daughter also he took to Wife as both Flavius Iosephus and Philo testifie And yet for all this he despised not the advice of Iethâ—â— his Father-in-law touching
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
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
above Humane Condition and ought to be esteemed as a kind of Godâ— or a Christ or at least is to be reputed as qualified with a certain measure of Divinity and to have some eminâ—nt knowledge conferred upon him from above as had that Divine Law-giver Moses and as at this day have the Pope and the Bishops Or if this be not granted to Him he ought however â—hrough Humane Virtue at least to submit and yield Obedience to the Divine Law-giver as did Charles the Great And there have been some who wisely considering these things have endeavoured to perswade the World that they were Inspired from Heaven as did Mahomâ—t and Minos whose Lawes were thereby held in great Reverence by the People And certainly wheresoever the King shall approve himself to be such the People in general will be made good where as on the contrary if the Prince be Bad the People will be so too And therefore following the Example of the Pope and his Bishops he ought to appear as like them as he can doing nothing at all without their approbation but making a Union betwixt his Kingdom and their Church so to make up one Body of a Republick betwixt them as I have said before and by observing the Ecclesiastical Order and by constituting good Lawes he must render himself Worthy of Reverence from the People which by appearing but seldom abroad among them in Publique he shall be sure to have from them As for those Acts which Humane Nature cannot abstain from as eating and the like these he ought to do privately Or if at any time he do any of them in Publiâ—k He must alwaies after the example of Philopoemen the General of the Achaeans have some by him to discourse touching Peace and War Our King must not endeavour so much to be Accounted a Vertuous Person as to be so Really for where any one is discovered to have but once played the Dissembler no body will ever believe him again afterwards And because that for want of Issue to succeed him the Kingdome may easily fall to the ground His chiefest care must be that he get children as soon and early as he can And so soon as ever his Eldest Son shall be grown up to any maturity and himself perchance is yet a young man he may then do well to â—end him to Rome that so he may be instructed both in the affaires of the World and in those of Religion also and withal the Kingdom of Spain may be the more firmly incorporated into the Church by having both the Cardinals and Popes themselves alwayes true to their Faction and also that His Son and the Barons may not dare to joyn together and take up Armes against Him which our King Philip suspected of his Son Charles and so by Obeying he shall learn how to Rule The King of Spain ought also alwayes to design some of the House of Austria to be his successor in case that he should die without a successor of his own Let him alwayes speak the Language of his Native Country and give Audience to such only as speak the same He ought alwayes to keep his Court in Spain the Head of his Empireâ— neither let him ever go out of it unlesse it be to the Wars and leaving his Son behind him Or to suppresse some mutinying Province or some Baron that he suspects He may go and take up his quarters among them that so being thereby reduced to want and scarcity they may be forced to serve the King instead of Souldiers and He by this means may be freed from all fears and jealousies The rest of His Male Children that are not brought up in the hope and expectation of Reigning he may make Cardinals neither ought he at any time to commit the rains of Government to their hands least happily they should be possessed with a desire of Ruling And hence it is that among the Turks it is the Custome alwayes to make away with all the yonger Sons And the King of China shuts up those that are next in blood to Him in large spacious places which abound with all variety both of necessaries and Delights as the King of Ethiopia confines all his to a certain very high and most pleasant Mountain called Amara where they are to continue tell they shall be called to succeed in the Kingdom But yet for all this neither doth the King of China or Ethiopia by confining their nearest of kin nor the Great Turk by killing his nor yet the Moor by putting out the Eyes of his acquit themselves from the danger and fear of Seditions and Rebellions For notwithstanding that the Parents of these confined Persons may haply bear it with a patient and quiet mind enough yet it may possibly be that either the Common People or the Nobles of the Kingdome being moved either with Indignation and Fury or else Fear of Punishment or desire of Revenge may corrupt and provoke those Persons so shut up or by killing their Keepers may carry them away out of their prisons by force and may place them in the Throne as those they call The Common Rebels of Spain attempted to carry away by force the Duke of Calabria who was at that time a Prisoner in the Sciattive Tower And in China many most cruel Tyrants â—f both sexes both Kings and Queens have been murdered And of late years in Ethiopia Abdimalo was called to the Crown not from ouâ— of the Mountain of Amara but from out of Arabia whether he had fled to preserve himself Neither is there any Country where there have been more Civil Wars and Rebellions raised then among the Moors in Maâ—ritania The Kings of Ormus before that that Country was subdued by the Portuguez were wont to kill their Parents which custome was practised also by some Emperours of Constantinople by the Kings of Tunis also and of Marocco and Fez as likewise among the Turks as appears by the Wars betwxt Bajazet and Zerim and of Selim and his father Bajazet the second Therefore this Cruelty of the Turks renders them not much more secure thereby For in other Kingdomes it is onelyâ— Ambition and a desire of Honour and Rule that excites men to raise sedition and to take up Armes against the Prince Which Ambitious Desires may either be satisfied some other way or be diverted to some other design or possibly may be overawed and crusht But those of the Blood Royal among the Turks and Moors besides Ambition have a Necessity also of seeking the preservation of their own Lives to force them on to such Attempts For seeing they are all certainly enough assured that they shall be put to death by the succeeding Emperour they have need all of them to provide for themselves and so are necessitated in a manner to take up Armes and to implore the aid and assistance either of subjects at home of Forrain Princes abroad Hence it was that Sâ—lim was wont to say that He was to be
Schools because this would be of great use and advantage in respect of the New World as well as of the Old because by this means the Peoples Minds will be diverted from creating Us any trouble and will be incited to bend their studies that way which may be useful to the King Then let him get about him the Ablest Cosmographers that he can and assign them Liberall Allowances Whose businesse it shall be to describe those several parts of the World wheresoever the Spaniards have set footing throughout the Compasse of the whole Earth because that Ptolomy knew nothing of most of those Countries at all And let Him by the Industry of these his Mathematicians correct all the Errours of the Ancient Geographers and he may also put forth a Book under the Title of the King of Spains Name wherein he shall set forth the praises due to Christophorus Columbus Magellanus Americus Vesputius Ferdinandus Cortesius Pizarrus and others of his Valiant Sea-Commanders whose Posterity He ought to confer Dignities upon for the Incouraging of others to fall upon the like undertakings Let him also send able Astrologers abroad into the New World and especially some of those beyond the Alpes to the end that he may by this means also take them off from their Heresies and filth and let him by proposing rewards to such invite the ablest Wits out of Germany and send them into the New World that there they may give an account of and describe all the new Stars that are in that Hemisphere from the Antarctick Pole to the Tropick of Capricorn and may describe the Holy Crosse whose figure is at that Pole and about the Pole it self they may place the Effigies of Charles V. and of other Princes of the House of Austria following herein the Example of the Grecians and Egyptians who placed in the Heavens the Images of their Princes and Heroes For by this meanes both Astrology and Local Memory will be both learnt together And when any such Illustrious Persons are so advanced to Honour and rendred so Venerable and such Astrologers are encouraged with large rewards it is of no small advantage to the enlargment of a Kingdom For all the Worlds Affections will be inclined toward such a Prince and will desire to serve him We are to know also that the Novelty of Doctrine is a great promoter of Monarchy provided it be not against Religion as was that of Luther but that it rather agree well with it as doth that of Teleâ—ius and that which I my self have collected by my reading of the Ancient Fathers of the Church or aâ— least when it doth not contradict the same but rather enlargeth it and renders it admired by all men and takes up the Minds of the People and keeps them in from running after and employing themselves in that which is prejudiciall to the Kingdom Aristotle though his Opinions were impious yet was he in nothing at all any hinderance to Alexâ—nder and therefore much lesse can there be any hurt in such a Doctrine as we speak of The King must also take care to have the General Histories and Annals of the Whole World compiled in a compendiouâ— and succinct way like that of the Books of the Kings of the Hebrewes and which may also shew from the first building of Rome the whole progresse of this Monarchy down to this present day and may set down the time when the Christian Faith was first embraced by it and may make it known to all so many Kings thereof as were Pious and and Religious men were all of high esteem in the World and reigned happily but those that were Wicked and Ill men were also Unfortunate Let Him likewise cause a Brief Collection to be made of the Lawes of all the several Kingdomes and Principalities of the World digested in their several Orders as also their Religions and Customes and let him make use of the best of these and reject the bad But he must be very careful that He publish not in any place such Lawes as the Nature of that place cannot bear CHAP. XI Of Lawes both Good and Bad. THe King of Spain as well for Theological as Politick reasons can enact no New Lawes For the Christian Law together with the Roman Military Power and Prudence is that which He succeeds in and with which He is to comply He must take heed therefore that He make not many Pragmatical Sanctions And it would be an excellent thing if the Lawes as far as it were possible were all written in the Spanish Tongue that so the whole World might be acquainted and might have some commerce with the Spanish Monarchy both in the Language and the Lawes But seeing that this Monarchy had Its Rise under the Roman Empire and Religion the Latine is a Language that it needs not be ashamed of Let such Lawes therefore be made as the People may keep rather Willingly then by compulsion and through fear of punishment as finding them to be advantagious to themselves For when such Lawes are enacted as make for the Profit of the Prince or some few Particular persons only the People must needs be out of love with them and then do they presently find out waies to elude the same whereupon there strait followes Confiscation of the Subjects Goods with Mulcts Punishments and Banishment Then must we have New Laws made to punish the Transgressors of the Former and then again other New Lawes must be made for the punishing of such as have offended against these latter and thus is the Number of Lawes increased the Princes Authority slighted and the Subjects at length out of hate to their Prince either rise up against Him or else forsake the Kingdom to the very great damage no question of the Prince for by this means both the number of the Souldiery is diminished and besides the Kings Subsidies grow lesse Every Tyrant therefore that maketh Lawes that are for his Own Advantage only and not for his Subjects is a Fool for by this meanes He loseth himself whereas on the other side a wise King while he seems to do things Prejudicial to himself doth himself notwithstanding thereby the greatest Right that can be And we find by Experience that Princes that are Popular are more extolled then those are that admit into their friendship and favour some few Noblemen or Courtiers only as we may observe in the Contrary Examples of Augustus and Tiberius It is moreover necessary that a Law be conformable to the Custome of the place for which it is made for all Northern People love Easie Lawes and would rather obey out of their own Good Nature then by Compulsion And the not observing of this was the reason of the Dukes D'Alva's losing the Low-Countries The Southern People as those of Andaluzia require strict Lawes the Italians Portuguez and Calabrians desire a Mediocrity and Moderation in their Lawes The King must also consider as touching the New World under what Climate each
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
as are of eminent either Valour or Virtue and must prefer them to dignities and honours In every place also where He hath any Councel sitting He ought to joyn to them one of some Religious Order or other whom he can trust and that for the common security of both parties both Prince and Counsellour And all such persons as shall be admitted to this honour should have an Oath administred unto them or else should have some kind of Obligation by way of some Religious Fraternity with the Crown by which they should be bound in all troublesome and perillous times not only to deliver into the Kings hands all the Gold and Silver they have but that themselves also shall in person serve in the Wars in defence of the Fortune and safety of the Kingdom By which means the King shall prevent all Insurrections among them or in case they should stirr He shall have a sufficient Pledge in his hands as being possessed of all their Treasures in so much that their Wives will not spare in this case to bring in what Rings Bracelets and Chains of Gold or any thing else of value that they have as we read the Roman women did when Rome was distressed by Hannibâ—l and other Enemies and lay them all at the Kings feet And as for Commanders in War those he ought to account the best that were themselves once common Souldiers such as Antonius de Leva and Gonsalvus de Corduba were as those Counsellours also are to be esteemed the ablestâ— that have risen to that height from the lowest and meanest Trusts and Employments And therefore the King shall not take any great care for such Barons as have not been in service abroad before so that they may have thereby rendred themselves fit to discharge the offices of able Commanders in War or to serve the King in his Councells But he must get about him such as have been men of long Experience and are well acquainted with and versed in the Affaires of the World Neither is it a small Calamity that the Kingdom of Spain lieth under by reason of such Quarells and Suits of Law as oftentimes arise among the Nobiliy about Precedency as they call it which certainly in the time of War must needs be of most dangerous consequence for There Military Valour is onely to be looked after And who knowes whether or no this very thing might not be the cause of the Miscarriage of the Armado that was sent against England in the year 1588. But herein the Barons are of great use and advantage to the King because that in case He shall have any ill successe in any expedition He can immediately make himself whole again by his Barons which the Turks can not do For when he hath once received but one notable Blow and is now much weakened thereby He hath no Barons left him by whose aide he may recover himself again which was the case also of Dâ—rius when he was overthrown by Alexander the Great and of the Sultan of Aegypt that was conquered by Selim both which being once beaten were never afterward able to make head again against their Enemy And if so be that Emulation and Envy had not born too great a sway among the Christians in that Memoral Victory obtained at Sea against the Turk in the year 71. Constantinople might at that time have been recovered and the Turk utterly rooted out The King must therefore take especial notice wherein the Barons may be prejudicial to Him and in what they may advantage Him and He must make use of them rather as his Treasurers of his Arms and Monies then make them as it were the Patrons of His State And yet out of these Treasurers of his he may choose out some to be Commanders in his War provided that he lay a Command upon them to set aside their Second Sons to be as a Seminary of Military Valour both for Sea and Land Service as we shall shew hereafter and by this means He shall have their Fathers the Barons themselves as it were bound to be faithful to him by reason of this Engagement of their Sons to the Prince and so He shall be sure to have them at his devotion whensoever he shall have occasion to make use of them as shall be shewed hereafter in the Chapter Of Navigation CHAP. XV. Of the Souldiery THe Souldiery of Spain and consequently the defense and Enlarging of that Kingdom may faile two wayes One is because that Spanish Women by reason of the too great Heat of the Country are not very Fruitful whence it may well so come to passe as that seeing there are very many Spaniards killed both in the Netherlands and in the New World and other of their wars they may want Souldiers As on the contrary the Helvetians and Polonians and all other Northern Nations do abound with Souldiers by reason of the Fruitfulnesse of their Women and especialy because there are so few of them in those parts that put themselves into Monasteries neither do they suffer any Publick Stewes there at all by which it is a wonderful thing to consider how much Humane seed is lost and utterly cast away and also because they deal more openly and freely with each other neither are matches among them so often broke off through the disagreement of Parents about Dowries c. and therefore they Multiply much the faster as having fewer Impediments either from Art or Nature And hence it is that the Franks Goths Vandals Lombards Herulians and other Northern People have alwaies abounded with plenty of Men In so much that by reason of the too narrow Limits of their own Countries they have been fain to leave them and to seek for places of Habitation in ours and other Countries and have like Bees been continually sending forth fresh Colonies into other parts by which means we see it hath come to passeâ— that the Oriental Nations together with the Grecian Italian Spanish and Hungarian are now in a manner quite extinct And therefore the Spaniards being but few in Number have been forced for the reasons afore alleadged quite to clear all the places whatsoever that they conquered of their ancient Inhabitants as appears by the course they took with the Indians in the New World least otherwise they should have lived in a continual fear that the conquered who were much the greater number might rise up and take armes againstâ— their Conquerors And this is the reason why by the Ignorant they are accounted Cruel Mercilesse people for such their proceeding against the Indians The number of the subjects also and the Revenues of the Crown are by this means diminished neither will any Nation that is Populous endure to hear of the Spaniards who for the same cause endeavouring this way to bring in the Nâ—therlands also became most hateful among them And this Course is the King of Spain at this day fain to take in Naples and Sicily for he hath not above five Thousand
He made Muleasses King of that place without changing the former State of the Kingdom at all After this He conquered Germany that is to say the Protestant Princes there whom He devested of their Electoral Dignity substituting into their places their Brethren and Kinsmen but otherwise leaving them in the same state He found them And although He had once got Luther himself into his hands and power yet looking after the empty Fame only of being accounted a Merciful Prince He let him go again that so he might have the opportunity forsooth of seducing all Germany and the Nâ—therlands He took Fâ—ancis the King of France and then set him again at liberty that so he might raise up a new War against Him and thereby frustrate all that He had done before He also took in the Cities of Sienna Florence and bestowed them upon the Family of the Medici that so He might procure himself more powerful enemies by the bargain For whosoever is raised by any one to some degree of Power what service soever is due from him to his Rayser he will be sure to decline the doing it as much as he can and therefore he seeks all the occasions he can of shaking off the Yoak that he may make his Benefactor his Enemy which very thing was done by the Dukes of Florence and by Maurice Prince Elector of Saxony against Charles the Fifth And indeed such Benefits as by reason of the greatnesse of them cannot any way be returned commonly they draw a hatred upon the Virtue of the Benefactor as we see it evidently fell out in the case betwixt the aforementioned Francis King of France and Charles the Fifth Another cause that this Monarchy hath not yet hitherto been brought about is this because that Philip could not succeed his Father not so much as in the War and therefore lost both the Low-Countries together with the Imperial Titles But that Affliction which also fell upon him by the losse of Charles his Son was the most grievous of all the rest for he would have been able to have maintained the Wars in His stead which seeing the King of Spain is not able to do He is constrained alwaies to defend and make good the bounds of his Kingdom rather then to endeavour to enlarge them and to look to his Commanders and see that they do not pillage the Countries where their Command lies and enrich themselves out of the Kings Treasure it being their onely care how to keep up such a Trade of War by which they may make advantage to themselves rather then any way enlarge the Kings Dominions I shall therefore here lay down these Rules though they are not so proper for this place that when any new Country is conquered that is of a different Religion and manner of Government the Natives are presently to be removed out of it and carried into some other Country where they may serve as Slaves and their Children are to be Baptized and may be either put into the Seminaries before spoken of or else sent into the New World and into this conquered Country may be sent Colonies of Spaniards under the conduct of soâ—e Wise and faithful Commander Which Course ought to have been taken by Charles the Fifth at Tunis who should also have carried away Muleasses to Naples And He should by right have done the very same thing in Germany namely in Saxony in the Marquisat of Brandenburg and the Lantgravedome of Hessen into which Countries He should have sent New Colonies under the Command of New Governours The Free Cities also He should have suppressed and have taken away their Priviledges and lastly He should have made Three Cardinals the Governous of all Germany But when any New Country is taken in that is not of a different Religion but only differing in Government let Him then change nothing at all in matters that concern the People but only let Him set strong Guards upon the Country and let the Chief Officers be chosen all out of the Kings party but the Inferiour out of the Common People of the place the Lawes whereof may also be altered by little and little and made to conforme to the Kings Lawes either by heightning or abating the rigour of them according as the Condition and Temper of the place shall require All Authors or Heads of Factoins must be presently removed out of the way either by Death if they have been Enemies or if they have been friends they must be carried away into Spain that they may there receive Baronies for their reward or may have liberty of free Traffick into the Kings Dominions granted them But the Chief Heads of such People as He shall subdue He must never suffer to continue in their places which course ought to have been taken with the Strozzi Medici Cappones Petruccij and other Ringleaders and Heads of Factions at Sienna and Florence And indeed the same Course should have been taken with Francis King of France that so he might have had no further opportunity of attempting any thing against Charles the V. But as for the Hereticks and Luther the best way would have been to have suppressed them under some other Pretense presently after the breaking up of the Diet at Ausburg as I shall shew hereafter And if Chaâ—les the Fifth had but taken these Courses He had never left behind him so much work and trouble for King Philip and perhaps his young son Charles too might have been alive at this day and might perhaps by His Arms have added Africk Hungary Macedonia Italy and England to his Dominions But He as I have before said was the onely cause of all those Evills which we see at this day So that I do not wonder at all that notwithstanding the vast Treasures of the King of Spain yet the bounds of His Monarchy are not all this while enlarged But I rather wonder that so Wealthy a Prince hath not laid up all such his Revenues for Necessary Uses against times of need which might have been his ruin For if so be his Negotiation by Sea should be stopt or interrupted but for one five or six yeares space together or that his Plate Fleet should be intercepted in its return home from the West-â—ndies would it not be so sore a cut to him as that he must of necessity be forced to oppresse his own snbjects by laying most heavy and unusual Taxes upon them and so draw upon himself their Hate and besides should he not also undoe all his Merchants and defraud his Souldiers of their Pay and by that means be in danger of losing them upon every the least Occasion And indeed it is a thing much to be wondred at how and which way such vast Summes of Mony should come to be wasted and yet the King not any thing at all the better for it for we see that He is still Poor for all this and is almost continually borrowing Mony of others And therefore I say that it
Rule is most Absurd several waies First because it makes the King to be a most cruel Tyrant who takes care of Himself alone and not of his Subjects in General and so by this means through the mutual Hatred of his Subjects the King doth not at all procure their Love but rather kindles their Envy against himself and so lives in continual fear Secondly because all Natural Dominion requires Concord amongst the People that so they may be able more stoutly and effectually to resist all Enemies whatsoever and may oblige one another by Mutual Offices both at home and in War And therefore all good Lawgivers have used their utmost Endeavors to procure a Union and as it were a knitting together of Subjects by the Bonds of Mutual Love and of Unity in Religion and therefore they have provided that they should All meet together in Churches to the end that they might the better know the reason why they ought to love one another For Ignoti nulla cupido No man desiresâ— what He knowes not And upon this Consideration it was that Plato forbad all Private Chappels and Moses also gave order that there should be erected but One Temple only in the whole Kingdom of the Iews that so all of them concurring and agreeing together in One Religion and in the Love of One Only God might every way fill up one compleat Mutual Love amongst themselves And to this end besides Marriages were Clienteles or Multitudes of Clients and Followers designed and diverse other Institutions tending to the promoting and advancing of Mutual Profit and Advantage As likewise Companies of Merchants and Officious Relations to great Persons taken up upon designe of doing them Service or Honour And all these things are profitable to the Prince But so is not the Hatred of his People for this proved very Prejudicial to France And such Contests betwixt the Prince and his Subjects have made for the Advantage of the See of Rome when ever the People got the better of it Although the Contrary happened in Florence For there the Conquering Plebeians did not raise themselves to the Condition of Gentlemen but on the contrary the Gentry debased themselves down to the state of Plebeians the Contrary whereof happened at Rome And therefore my Advice is that the Prince should use his utmost endeavour to procure that there be a Mutual love and Correspondence among his Subjects Now this Mutual Love is maintained First by their Unity in Religion and by rooting out all those that endeavour to sow Tares abroad which was the Losse of the Netherlands Secondly by Spaniards marrying with any other Nations whatsoever Thirdly by having Commerce and Traffick with Several Nations Fourthy by Introducing an equality amongst them for this is an Error which hath now spread it self over all the Christian World that One man should be very Poor and another very Rich which was a thing that Plato hated perfectly Whereas a Parity or Equality between Fellow-Subjects is a meanes of removing all Envy Rapine Pride Hatred and Effeminatenesse from among them And hence it was that Moses commanded the Iewes that every Seventh Year all Families should have their Inheritances restored unto them again and all Servants that were of their own Nation should be set at liberty and have also some thing given them by their Patrons at their going off withall informing them that this was agreeable to the Law and will of God And for this reason also Almes-houses Hospitals and other the like Places for Charitable uses were erected that so Honour might be preserved amongst them with some Equality Salust testifieth that there were never any Conspiracies contrived by any of the Romans against their Country till such time as a Few persons had gotten into their hands the Wealth of Many that is to say such as Crassus Pompey and Caesar. And in Luthers and Calvin's time the Country Peasants in Germany rose up in Armes aginst the Nobility and Gentry only because those Two having trampled under foot the Evangelicall Truth had Sowen Tares and the Seeds of Sedition and Subversion of States every where to the ruine of whole Kingdomes And even in our daies also we see that you shall have one Man that hath a hundred Thousand Crowns a year and a Thousand other men again that have hardly each of them a Hundred Crowns a year a piece And all that Wealth will He spend upon Dogs Horses Jesters and in Gold Trappings for his Horses or else upon Whores which is worse And if at any time a Poor man shall be put to go to Law with him for any thing he is so far from being able to prosecute his Action against Him as that he is rather fain to get out of the way as fast as he can or else he may chance to be forced to end his dayes in Prison Mean while that the Rich man does every where what he liâ—ts without controule because forsooth He hath Mony to corrupt the Judges with And indeed our Judges for the most part are such as have been made Judges either for Favour or for Mony as we sâ—e it commonly fals out in all Smaller Cities which certainly is a most Pernicious thing to all Principalities For it is almost an Impossible thing that a Judge that will take a Bribe should ever discharge his Office honestly For as God himself testifieth A Gift blindeth the Wise. Which it is very likely will be the practise of him that buyeth his Office with Mony and so entreth into it not as into a Field overrun with Thorns and Briers but rather as into a most plentiful and rich Harvest And therefore I shall here take the liberty though it be somewhat beside my present purpose to admonish all Polititians whatsoever that they should take this for a certain Rule that Whosoever sells his Offices for Mony the same desires that his Ministers should be Theeves Lewis the Twelfth of France was wont to say that those that buy Offices were like Merchants who buy Goods altogether at any easie rate and afterwards sell them off in parcels at a dear rate But to returne to our purpose Although our Rich Man is very liberal and is at great cost and charges in the maintaining and richly cloathing of his Servants and Retainers Yet is not the Common-wealth any thing at all the better for this but rather suffers by it First of all because by this means He obligeth them to Himself onely and makes them so much his own as that they will be ready to follow Him against any person whatsoever even the King himself which thing was attempted heretofore by that Roman Spurius Melius against his Country and therefore the Venetians fearing this very thing suffer not any to keep about them any great Retinue Then besides it renders them soft and Effeminate and makes them to be Flatterers and Proud Pimps and Bawds to their Patrons Lust and so by this means here is erected as it were a Seminary of
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
enough upon Spain CHAP. XXI Of Italy SPain hath no Nation that is more a friend to It then Italy And therefore for the preserving of the Amity and Friendship of the Italians it is very fit that the King of Spain should so court and ply by Benefits and Gifts both the Neapolitans and the Millanois as that other Nations seeing it should admire the Felicity of those Two countries should withal wish themselve had the like good Fortune And this the King may do by remitting some thing of their Gabels and Taxes by increasing the number of Men in both those Dominions and He may also erect in both the Countries certain Seminaries out of which as out of these Trojan Horse may issue forth Able Persons that are skilled both in all the Liberal and Military Sciences and such as are withal most firm and resolved Catholicks as we have hinted before Which thing would certainly cause in Forreigners both Admiration and Astonishment neither would the King as the Opinion of some men herein is lose any thing at all thereby Let there be also some course taken for the Restraining of Usurers and let Him set up some Monti della Pieta as they call them that is Banks of Charity which are certain publick Houses where the poorer sort of Citizens have the liberty of taking up Mony upon their Pawâ—s Let them also restrain the grouth of the Nobility and let the Barons Prisons be visited sometimes for These are many times too cruel Neither would I have it in the power of any to imprison any man by any private Authority except it be in Case of Sedition or Violation of the Publick Peace or of Treason against the Prince and those that are Prisoners should be dealt more gently with then they have been hitherto wont to be for the Kings Officers by their Intolerable Cruelty have caused the King to be branded with that Infamous Name of a Tyrant especially in the Kingdom of Naples And I conceive it would make very much for the winning of the Love and Good will of the common People if the King would appoint One Commissary at least who should joyn to himself some of the Clergy and should go and visit all the Publique Prisons reforming what abuses they find there and should also take an Account of all Usurers and of the Inferiour sort of Publick Officers as hath been touched beforeâ— I would also have him to shew mercy to such as are Proscribed and Banisht persons under the Pretense of sending them into Africk and I would really advise Him once in seven years to â—end all such into the West-Indies As for those Souldiers which have alwayes hitherto been set over the subjects I would have them to be all disbanded and in their stead to have so much the greater Number of Gallies provided that should lye all along the Sea Coasts throughout all the Kings Dominions to guard and secure them against the Invasions of the Turk For these Souldiers have alwaies carried themselves very Insolently and proudly towards the People but have been still very backward and unwilling to go out in any Expedition by Sea against the Turks and besides when they have returned home from any such Expedition they have usually abused poor Citizens that have behaved themselves stoutly in the Fight cudgelling them and forcing from them such prisoners as they had taken and so afterwards in a Thrasonicall boasting way make their brags abroad that Themselves had taken those Turks prisoners which most base unworthy course we see practised in Calabria every day It were a better way therefore that the subjects themselves should take up Arms and go out against the Turks and should have at least half the Mony that the Prisoners taken in the War are valued at for by this means the King will have both Valiant and Rich men to Fight for Him neither shall He have cause to fear least the subjects through the hatred they bear the Souldiers for their Cruelties should seek to change their Masters and bring in some other to Rule over them Let Him also take order for the restraining of the knavish Diligence of the Officers of the Kings Exchequer who to maintain the Kings Right forsooth forbear not to use any manner of cruelty towards the poor subjects imprisoning them and extorting mony from them under any pretenses how unjust so ever But of these evils and their Remedies we have spoken sufficiently before where we discoursed of Iustice c. These Sea expeditions will render the King secure both from his Enemies abroad and his own subjects at home whereas on the contrary the Souldiers that are set over the Country people do at first but very little good and afterwards do none at all And therefore the putting of good full Guards into all the strong Holds upon the Sea Coast will be sufficient for the securing of the Inland parts and withall the People will by this means be kept in a Loving Awfulnesse and Dread of their Prince The best part of Italy that is to say the Kingdome of Naples and the Duchy of Millan is subject to the King of Spain and those other parts that are not so are stirred up by their several Princes who stand in fear of the Spaniards Potency against the Spaniards made to hate them whence it is that they are wont to threaten the King of Spain with two things The first is that they will call in the French and encourage them to set upon the state of Millan which mischief however the King might easily prevent if he would but place strong Garrisons in all the Frontier Towns of the said Duchy and would quite destroy all the small unfortified Villages that lying here and there scattered about are made a Booty by the Enemy that hath liberty to range up and down where they please And He might take order also as the Hungarians do that all the Provision of Cornâ—nd all the subjects Goods be carried into the Fortified Cities and Places of strength with all manner of Mechanical Instruments that so those that have fled thither in the time of any Siege or Incursions of the Enemy may have where withall to set themselves on work and may so get wherewith to keep themselves But Genoa lies very conveniently for the coming into the Kings Assistance and so doth Naples also if so be the King would but provide himself of such a Fleet as I spake of before to ly about those Seas in a Readinesse For it is a most certain Truth and that hath been confirmed by long experience that He that can make himself Master of the Sea shall give Lawes to the Continent and command it and shall be able to Land men whensoever and wheresoever he pleases and shall find it convenient to do so which the King of France should he be invited into Italyâ— could not be able to do It will be a good course therefore for the King of Spain to be in League with
sort as that It should not have been able to have opposed or hindred the growing Potency of the Spaniard was offered to his Son Philip had he but had the skill to have laid hold of it and to have made the right use of it For Henry the III. of France being slain by a certain Dominican Frier under pretense of his favouring those of the Religion and the whole Kingdom of France being now divided into two Factions namely the Catholicks and the Huguenots and many Governours of Provinces having at that time the said Provinces at their Devotion as for example Montmorency had that of Languedoc and Espernon and others had others the Line of Valois being now quite extinct and there being a great Controversy started amongst them whether it were best for them to think of choosing any New King of some other House or not and lastly Henry of Navarre being by reason of his being an Heretick hated by the Catholick Party King Philip had at that time five Opportunities offered him either of which had He but laid hold of it would have been sufficient to have made him Master of France or at least to have weakned the power of it very much not to say any thing what might have been done when all of them concurred and met together And yet to say truth it lay not in his power at that time to effect this for he saw that if he should fall upon this design in an open way of making war upon them it would have been necessary for Him then to have had good store of Souldiers to have brought into the Feild which at that time He had not to be able to divide and distract all the Nobles of that Kingdome and to set them together by the ears And therefore he should first of all have dealt under hand either with the Duke of Guise or of Maine or with some other of the most Powerful amongst them and have promised to make Him King and besides to make him His Son in Law and at the same time to give hopes also to all the rest of the Nobility that they should every man of them be made the Proprietary and Absolute Lord of their several Provinces as that Montmorency should have Languedoc confirmed to Him Esperâ—on should have Provence and every one of them should have had a promise made him of such Lordships as they liked best and all of these He should also have furnished with mony that they might have been the better enabled to make resistance against Henry of Navarre He ought also to have entred into a League with the Pope and the rest of the Catholick Princes that so joyning all their forces together they might all at once have set upon Henry of Navarre who was of a different Religion from them And then besides all this He ought to have obliged to him the hearts of all the French Bishops and Preachers by conferring upon them large Dignities and Preferments And when all these things had been thus ordered then either the King himself in person or else if He should not think that fit His Son or the Duke of Parma should presently have invaded France with an Army of at least a Hundred Thousand men consisting of Germans Italians and Spaniards and He should also immediately have sent out some to make Excursions into France by the way of the Duke of Savoys Country and by Navarre and Picardy And all these things should have been with all care and diligence put into Execution which if they had He had then certainly done his businesse and had either added France to his other Dominions or else might have Canton'd it out into many small Baronies and Republicks as Germany is and so he should have been ever after secure from their being able to do Him any hurt But King Philip was not nimble enough in his businesse and besides He was deluded by the French Nobles who almost all went over to the King of Navarre whereas had He been but as quick as He shonld have been all this had never happened For this is the usual Course of the World that every man looks first of all to his Own Interest and then to that of the publick and accordingly men use to bestirr themselves in troublesome times But here in this case where every one of them perceived that the good of the Publick did consist in the welfare of each Particular person and so on the Contrary they then presently made choice of that which they conceived would be for the Publick Good And so although those French Nobles being at the first by Mony and fair Promises wrought over to favour the King of Spain and so were brought to enter into Action in order thereunto yet when upon better Consideration they found at last that in case the Crown of France should passe away to another or that the Kingdom should be parcell'd out into small Dominions and Republicks the losse would at length redound to each of them in particular whiles that the King of Spain might then with ease reduce them one by one and bring them under his Obedience seeing that they were so divided as that they could not in any convenient time joyn their strengths together to make any opposition against him and besides knowing that France it self which had been hitherto so much honoured by all other Nations would now come to be despised by them and that all hopes of ever attaining to the Crown would now be quite cut off from them and that they should afterwards find that the Spaniards would but laugh at them for all their pains they conceived it to be the safer and more advantageous Course for themselves to adhere to the King of Navarre and receive him for their Prince Which certainly when at the first whiles they were inveagled and blinded by the false hopes of the Spaniards Mony they had not so well and throughly considered as They did afterwards when they had once weighed in their minds what the Event was like to be and also saw with their eyes what the Kings Proceedings were They then at length began to elude Art with Art Besides the French perceiving also how great Inconveniences would arise by maintaining a War with the Spaniard did therefore the more willingly and chearfully proceed to the election of a New King because that they were perswaded that when a King was once chosen those evils would then be removed which yet at the first they made litle account of But the King of Spain committed yet another Errour in this Point in that by his Slownesse He gave the King of Navarre time to make over to his Party the Princes of Italy and the Pope only by making them believe that He intended to abjure the Protestant Religion and turn Catholick besides that those Princes did likewise consider that when France was once subdued by the Spaniards whom they knew very well to gape earnestly after an Universal Monarchy their Own Turnes would
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
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
and likewise that all Commissions Proclamations and Petitions be published or written in no other Language but that This was also done heretofore by Charles the Great who having made himself Master of the Exarchate of Ravenna which He afterwards bestowed upon the Church He would have it called by the Name of Romania that so by degrees He might bring into disuse the Language and Customes of the Greeks to whom that People had been formerly subject and might withal implant in them the love both of the Roman Church and of the Roman Emperour And even the Great Turk also does not suffer any of the Inhabitants of Natolia to use any other Language but the Turkish save onely in their Church Services 25. Education also seemes to have a great stroke herein as being indeed as it were a second Nature by the meanes whereof strangers are in a manner Naturalized The King of Spain therefore should do well to take the Sons of the Nobility and Principal men as also such Poor mens sons ar are found to be endued with any extraordinary Natural Parts and to take order that they may be carefully brought up in some of the afore mentioned Seminaries in Spain either of Armes or of Arts. Alexander the Great finding the benefit of this course commanded that so many Thousands of the Peâ—sian Youth should be picked out and be Trained up in Learning the use of Armes in the Habit and Manners of the Macedonians conceiving that He should bâ— this meanes receive as much benefit by them when they were once grown up to be men as by his own Natural Subjects of Macedonia themselves After the same manner doth the Turk bring up his Ianizaries who are onely the Children of such of his Subjects as he hath conquered by war or else of Christians and Forreigners such as he can catch abroad at Sea which afterwards prove the most faithful Souldiers to him that ever he had And indeed these are the men to whom the Guard and Protection of the Emperours person is committed and these men doth the Great Turk make use of only in all Affaires of the greatest consequence where there is most need either of strength or Fidelity By meanes of the Turks thus bringing up of â—he sons of his subjects He makes two great Advantages to himself For first he deprives his unfaithful subjects of their strength and then secondly by that strength of theirs of which he hath deprived them he confirmeth his own 26. I would advise Our King not to despise or make light of any the least Commotions or Distempers among his Nobles or Subjects for all Mischiefs have but small Beginnings which yet if they be neglected and not looked unto in time will very probably bring Ruine with them in the end as we see the least Clouds in appearance at first do in the end produce most Horrid Tempests and storms 27. I would not have the King to assent to the Proposal of any thing that may introduce with it any Change or Innovation in the State for His very giving way to have the same deliberated upon addes both Authority and esteem to the same All the Troubles that havâ— befallen both in the Netherlands and in France took their Rise from Two little Books of which the one was read to Francis the Second King of France by Caspar Coligni and the other was presented to the Duchesse of Parma by the L. de Brederode 28. Let the King take heed how he ever exercises his Absolute Power among those people where His Ordinary Power will serve the turn well enough for That way of proceeding is proper to Tyrants only but this Later to Good Princes And indeed all Absolute and Extream Power may rather be said to be Tempest as then Potestas a Tempest rather then Power 29. Let there be all care taken about the chusing of the Ministers of State in those Countries that only such be made choyce of as are but just sufficient to discharge the Trust committed to them and that they be neither too much above it nor beneath it which we find to have been carefully observed by the Emperour Tiberius For those whose Abilities are above the Employment they are put upon will be apt to neglect the same as despising it and thinking it below them and then the other are not able to discharge it if they would Lastly Let Him never so much trust to any Peace as to make him quite lay aside his Armes for such an Vnarmed Peace would prove but a weak one Constantine the Great enjoying now a Settled Peace every where round about Him disbanded all the Souldiers that lay in Garrisons upon the Borders of his Empire by which means He set open a Gate for the Barbarous Nations to break in upon His Territories And in like manner Maximilian the First trusting too much to the Truce agreed upon betwixt Him and the Turk and thereupon laying down his Armes was the cause of the Ruine of very many Christians And thus have we discoursed of these Particulars as copiously as we thought was fit to be committed to Paper but as for the rest of those more Secret Particulars and which are more worthy of Observation I shall reserve them till some other time when it shall please his Majestie to admit me to his Presence and shall give me Audience concerning the same However in the mean time those things which we have here proposed are not to be omitted for unlesse by these Means here set down the Peoples good Affection towards their King be stirred up and cherished His Dominion in those parts will prove to be but like a Plant without any Root For as every the least Storm will be apt to overturn a Tree that hath no firm Root in the ground in like manner will every the least Occasion offered alienate the hearts of the Subjects from their Prince where they are but ill affected to Him before and will take them off from their Allegiance to their Natural Prince and being thenceforth hurried about by Fortune they will one while adhere to One and by and by again to Another And hence arise all the Mutations that we see in Kingdoms and States a most evident Example whereof we have in the Kingdom of France CHAP. XXVIII Of Africk THe Turk possesseth in Africk all Egypt Algier and Tunis The Kiâ—gdome of Fâ—z hath a peculiar King of its own who nothwithstanding might very easily be cast out of his Throne because that Mahumetanisme in those parts is divided into above sixty several Sects The rest of the Kings in Africk have but very small Dominions except only the King of the Abyssines who is commonly called Prester Iohn and hath above fifty smaller Kingdomes under him This King of the Abyssines is a Christian although He doth not professe the Pure Catholick Religion It is necessary therefore that Forces should be brought over thence into Spain seeing that the passage to and fro is very easie For our
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