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
Queen he ought at that instant to be very hot in his love to her for it is of great concernment to the whole World what the seed of the King be And I could wish that all men did observe these Rules But the World is now come to that passe that men take more care to have a generous Breed of Horses then to have generous Children Then must his Queen when she is with Child use some Moderate Exercise that so the Child may be the stronger When she hath brought forth a Son there must be some woman that is a Gentlewoman provided to be his Nurse which Gentlewoman must also be a Wise woman and of a high Spirit too For the Manners are suckt in together with the Milk of the Nurse When the Child is grown up to some Maturity He must converse with Men rather then with Women and he must delight himself with the looking upon Mathematical Figures and also with Maps and draughts of the Kingdoms He is born to He may also look upon Horses and Armes but he must not be suffered to run about to idle Childish sports and plaies as were the sons of Cyrus Cambyses and Darius as if they had been born for themselves only and not for their People and who therefore as Plato saies came to destruction He must have Religious Tutors both Bishops and Commanders that are eminent for their knowledge in Martial affaires He must also have Eloquent persons that may instruct him in the Art of Aratory and informing him rather in the Solid Rules then the trifling Quiddities of Grammer After he hath grown past a Child he must then exercise both his Mind and his Body also for Valour and Wisdom are Virtues that are proper to Princes And we are to know that whaâ— Prince soever shall use the Exercise of Body only and not of his Wit as well his own as his Subjects he shall be a slave to him that exerciseth his Wit too And hence it is that the King of France and his Officers of State yeilded themselves up to Calvin as the Germans did to Luther both which so bewitched their eyes that they took all for right and good whatsoever these laid down before them And thus the Tartarians also after they had made themselves Lords of the whole East were at last made fools of by Mahomets Priests And if they are not enslaved by Wicked Ingeniouâ— Men yet how ever they are slaves to those that are Good as well as Ingenious And hence we see that those Kings of Iudah and of Israel that were both dull and wicked persons were given up into the hands of Elias and Elisha and others who set them up and deposed them from their Thrones for their Ignorance of their own Religion The Consuls of Rome likewise were in subjection to their Priests And again on the other side he that exerciseth his Wit only is brought under the power of him that exerciseth his Body and Feats of Armes Whence it is that the Popes have so often been made the laughing stock of the Goths and Lombards and that Platonical King Theodoricus the second K. of Ravenna was subdued by Belisâ—rius But that King that exerciseth himself both these waies he is the truly wise King And hence it was that the Romans never exercised their Wit without the exercise of the Body too as Salust informs us I adde moreover that a King ought not to bend his studies wholly to and to spend all his time in one certain Science onely as did King Alphonsus who became one of the most famous Astronomers in the World following the Example of King Atlas who was overcome by Perseus a valiant Man of Armes as the Fable tells us nor yet would I have him to addict himself wholly to the Study of Divinity as Henry the VIII did who by this means utterly ruined his own Wit But he ought to have several Tutors for each several Science and be a hearer of each of them at their several appointed times But the Knowledge most fit for the King is to know the Division of the World into its parts and of his own Dominions the different manners and Customes of the several Nations of the Earth and their Religions and Sects as also the stories of all the former Kings and which of them was a Conquerour and which was overcome and for what reasons And for this purpose he must make choice of the best Historians that have written He must likewise know the several Lawes of Nations and which are wholsome Lawes and which not and the Grounds they were made upon But chiefly He is to be well skilled in the Lawes of his own Kingdome and of the Kings his Predecessors and to understand by what means Charles the Fifth got here or lost there and how Maximilian sped in his wars So likewise with how many and what kind of Nations and Kingdomes They made their Wars and how the same Nations may be subdued He must also give an ear to all sorts of Counsels but let him make choice of and publish as His own the Best and Soundest onely Let his rule be also to inflict all punishments upon his Subjects in the name and by the Ministry of his Officers but to confer all benefits and rewards upon them with his own hand and in his own name In a word he must be adorned with all kinds of Vertues and let it be his chiefest desire to leave to His Successors Himself an Example worthy of their Imitation as it must be his care to imitate all the wisest of his Predecessors Those Affections which he ought with his utmost power to restrain are Grief Pleasure Love Hatred Hope Fear and lastly Mercy also For when a King shewes himself to be cast down by any Ill Fortune that hath befallen him He betrayes his own Weaknesse discourages his Subjects and lastly gives himself wholly to grieve for the same for which King David was justly reproved by Ioab when he lamented so excessively the death of his Son Absalon As on the contrary side when he is too much lifted up with Joy for any good successe it argues in him an abject and servile Disposition and Temper And especially if he addict himself to keep company with Buffoons and Jesters and give himself up to excessive Banquettings and other the like pleasures he must needs be despised by his Subjects as Nero was who minded nothing but Stage-Playes and his Harp or Vitellius and Sardanapalus who giving themselves over wholly to Women and Feasting were therefore scorned by their Subjects and deposed with the losse of their Lives And indeed the Love of Women will very often endanger him unlesse he fortifie his mind against it as it happened to the most Wise Salomon himself and especially of his own Wife who commonly hates her Husbands nearest and most intimate friends conceiving that the greatest share of His Affection is due to Her self in so much that she will hate and persecute the
to deliver such things as concern Spain only But above allâ— care must be taken that the Souldiers be not used like Beasts who if they have but their wages duly paid them and if when they are wounded they be carefâ—lly looked to and be encouraged also to shew themselves Valiant men through the hopes of Military glory and by hearing good Preachers and by rewards they will then never think either of running away or of Revolting which are two of the greatest Mischiefs that can befal an Army I would also have some persons appointed out of some of the Religious Orders to commit to writing the famous and memorable Acts of each particular Souldier which should be read openly before the King when ever He bestowes rewards upon his Souldiers For this is the reason why the Barons refuse to serve in person in the Wars saying The King himself is not there to be an eye witnensse of my Valour and I cannot confide in the treacherous Memories of Envious Commanders Neither would I have the Souldiers to be rewarded with Mony only but sometimes also with some Coronet either of Oak or of Olive which is a most Magnificent argument of Honour to them and of no charge to the Prince and by this means they will be the more faithfâ—l and constant to Him For an other mans Mony may in like manner buy and sell perhaps that Faith which you have so purchased of them but such Honour it cannot seeing it is a most ignominious thing even in the esteem of an Enemy himself for any one to forsake his King And therefore it should be lawful for any man to kill such a one as should begin to run away or that goes abroad a pillaging without the leave of his Commander which very thing hath often hindered the obtaining of Victory against the Enemy and those that are of least account in the Army do by these courses enrich themselves while the Valiant Souldier fights it out to the last drop of blood in his body What Souldier soever shall fill up the place of his slain fellow-Souldier or protects him and saves his life he should have a Coronet of Oak granted him This was called by the Romans Corona Civica That Souldier that shall first get upon the Enemies Walls should have a Mural Coronet made of Herbs wreathed together in form of a Coronet which he should recieve at the hands of the General whiles the rest of the Army standing round about shall celebrate his Gallantry with Acclamations and Songs according to the ancient custome of the Romans For these two things Punishment and Reward are the two Pillars whereon all Military Discipline is founded and built the Former whereof deterrs the Souldier from wicked courses as the latter pricks him on to do gallant things the Former was devised for the restraining of Vileâ— Rebellious spirits as the latter was for the Encourageâ—ent of the Generous and Valiant the former serves instead of a Bridle as the later doth of a Spur. Alexander the Great erected for the honour of his Souldiers that were Slain at the River Granicus Statues of Marble in a most stately manner The King of Siam that he might encourage his Souldiers to fight bravely took care to have the names of all those that had behaved themselves Gallantly in the Wars to be registred in a Book and afterwards to be recited before him which was the custome also of King Ahasuerus as the holy Scripture testifieth Whensoever there are any designs on foot for the gaining any large Kingdom or Empire the King ought alwayes to go in person to the Wars because that Princes that are Warlick alwaies get more then those that are sluggish and negligent which is a consideration of great importance for all such Princes as desire to enlarge their Dominions But if they care only to preserve their own they may then stay at home themselves provided that they set Valiant and faithful Commanders over their Souldiers However it will concern a Prince that he get an opinion of being a Warlike man unlesse he mean to be despised by all People or let him make an open shew that he loves Wars And to the end that He may be the more secure of Victory let him alwaies take with him good store of Souldiers that so he may neither lose his reputation nor be despised by his Enemies Those Defeats of his Armies are the least hurtful to Him where He himself was not present at the Engagement Strength of his forces at Sea wherein the Genoese Portugals and Hollanders do most excel is also a most necessary businesse For whoever shall make himself master of the Seas the same shalll command all by Land also CHAP. XVI Of the Treasury of Spain IT is necessary that the King have a full Treasury if it be but for the keeping up of his Reputation abroad for as the World goes now a dayes the Power of Princes is valued according to the fulnesse of their Purses rather then the largenesse of their Territories And therefore not only in the time of War but of peace also it behoves a Prince to have alwaies good store of ready Mony by him For it is a very hard and dangerous businesse also especially when He is now already engaged in a War to expect and wait till monies can be raised Tolle moras Semper nocuit differre paratis It is necessary therefore that there be Monies alwayes in a readinesse for the raising of Souldiers in an instant least while you are employed in getting Mony together your Enemy be before hand with you To this end Augustus Caesar erected a Military Treasury as Suetonius testifieth and that he might alwaies and without any trouble be provided of Mony for the raising and paying of his Souldiers he filled the same with New Taxes and Impositions And certainly very many wonder how it comes to passe that the King of Spain whose yearly Revenues amount to above twenty Millions hath not by this time made Himself Universal Monarch of all Christendome nor hath all this while so much as as once set upon the Turk To whom I answer that this is nothing at all to be wondred at if they would but take notice that the reason of this it because He hath not the skill to lay hold on Occasion when it is offered Him which very thing hath hitherto upheld the Fortune of all Great Empires For there was an Occasion given him at the Uniting of the Kingdomes of Castile and Arragon and of Naples and Millan but there was a much fairer offered to Charles the V. who was a man of a Warlike spirit being King of Spain was afterwards chosen also Emperour of Germany by al which advantages He might have been able to have made himself Lord of the whole Earth had He but known as well how to give Lawes to those He conquered as He knew how to conquer them This Prince took Tunis and having driven thence Ariodenus the Turk
THOMAS CAMPANELLA An Italian FRIAR And Second MACHIAVEL His advice to the King of Spain for attaining the universal Monarchy of the World Particularly concerning England Scotland and Ireland how to raise Division between KING and PARLIAMENT to alter the Government from a Kingdome to a Commonwealth Thereby embroiling England in Civil war to divert the English from disturbing the Spaniard in bringing the Indian Treasure into Spain Also for reducing Holland by procuring war betwixt England Holland and other Sea-faring Countries affirming as most certain that if the King of Spain become master of England and the Low Countries he will quickly be Sole Monarch of all Europe and the greatest part of the new world Translated into English by Ed. Chilmead and published for awakening the English to prevent the approaching ruine of their Nation With an admonitorie Preface by WILLIAM PRYNNE of Lincolnes-Inne Esquire LONDON Printed for Philemon Stephens at the Gilded Lyon in St. Pauls Church-Yard Mr. WILLIAM PRYNNE his premonitory Epistle concerning Campanella's discourse of the Spanish Monarchy To the Ingenuous Reader THou hast here presented to thy serious perusal by an able hand a faithful English Translation of a discourse touching the SPANISH MONARCHY penned by Thomas Campanella a famous Italian Frier and second Machiavel about the end of Queen Elizabeths Reign prescribing sundry politick plots to the King of Spain how to make himself sole Temporal and the Pope sole Spiritual Monarch of the world in general and of England Scotland and Ireland and Holland in particular laid down in the 25. and â—7 chapters by sowing the seeds of division and intestine wars between England Scotland Ireland and the Netherlands eithâ—r by changing our Hereditary Kingdom into a Commonwealth or at least into an Elective Kingship and other policies there laid down to destroy our temporal Kingly Government and by broaching new Opinions and Sects in Religion and by scattering the seed of Schism and division in the natural sciences and promoting the study of Astrology to undermine our Church and Religion and usher in Popery by insensible degrees by Romish Emissaries If thou wilt but seriously peruse these Chapters and compare them with the counsels projects proceedings new models of Government and wars with the Scots and Hollanders of the late Agitators and general Council of Officers in the Army and their Anti-Parliamentary Conventicles ever since the year 1647. till this present thou wilt most clearly discern and ingenuously confess that they punctually pursued Campanella his projects to advance the Popes and Spaniards Monarchy over our three Kingdoms and the Netherlands and reduce them under their unsupportable Tyranny both in Civils and Spirituals wherein they have now made either ignorantly or affectedly such an unhappy dismal progress by subverting our ancient Kingly Government to metamorphose us into a Commonwealth which hath crumbled our formerly united Kingdoms Churches into so many opposite irreconcileable Sects Factions Parties Interests undermining oppressing each other by impoverishing our Kâ—ngdoms destroying their Trades and eating them up to the very bones by a perpetual domineering all swaying Army and intolerable endless Taxes Excises Militia's Imposts Free-quarters and all sortâ— of violences and oppressions and leaving us no legal visible Head Authority Council Parliament Governours Judicatures to which they can flie for protection or advise that unless Gods infinite mercy interpose they are in all probability ready to be invaded overcome and swallowed up by the united forces of these Combined Enemies and to incur that fatal doom which Christ himself hath predicted to every Kingdome and City in our present condition Mat. 12.25 Every Kingdome divided against it self Is brought to desolation and every City or House divided against it self shall not stand Which Campanella laying for his ground made it his Master-piece to set down straâ—agems to divide us and other Kingdoms and Nations against and between themselves to bring them first to desolation by themselves that so the Spaniard and Pope might without much difficulty seise upon them whiles in that condition which imminent danger and approaching ruine we have no probable means left to prevent but by a speedy cordial Christian union between our lawful KING long exiled Head and members and happy restitution of our Hereditary King Peers and English Parliaments to their ancient just Rights and Priviledges according to our sacred Oathes Protestations Vow League Covenant and an avowed future renunciation of all Campanella's Jesuitical Popish Spanish Counsels Plots Innovations dividings which I leave thee to contemplate Concluding with this memorable observation and passage of St. Basil the great in his Ascetica This holy Saint of God being very much perplexed in his mind at the manifold Schismes and vehement dissentions then in the Church of Christ between Christians Bishops and Ministers themselves renting the Church with opinions and practices contrary to the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ and diligently enquiring and much doubting what should be the true cause thereof at last that text in the Book oâ— Iudges coming into his mind Every one did that which was right in his own eyes the cauâ—e whereoâ— is dâ—clared in the premised words In those dayes there was no KING in Israel after some consideration and meditation thereupon he concluded not as a paradox but undoubted truth that the very râ—ason why there was then so great contention and fighting amongst Christians in the Church of Christ was the contempt of that great true and only KING of all Men whilst every one departed both from the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ and did set up his own cogitations and definitions by his own authority as his rule and would rather Command against the Lord then be subject to the Lord and governed by him When I pondered these things with my self and stood amazed at this enormous impiety and would yet further search out the truth hereofâ— I was perswaded that the aforesaid cause was true in this as it was in other affairs of this life For I saw all the multitude to be a well compounded State and to Consent and Consist together so long only as obedience was yielded to some one Supream KING of them all and on the other side That dissention and division of every kind and also Polyarchy to arise from hence if there being no KING every man obtained licence to do what he pleased I have sometime seen even a swarm of Bees out of the Law of Nature to wage War and to follow their own KING in order and I have seen and read many such things of them and thoâ—e who are busied about such things know much more so that what I have said may be proved true from hence For it is the propertye and peculiar of those who regard the command of one and use one KING that they be well and Vnanimously disposed between themselves therefore all dissention and discord is both an Index and Prognostick of that contumacy wherein the Principality of one is
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-Father-in-law touching
Turkish Empire shall be Lord of the whole Earth The House of Spain then can never attaine to any great Monarchy according to Fate but only by the adhering to Italy the Roman Empire which is the German the Right Head The King of Spain therefore is to use his utmost endeavour that he may be chosen Emperour seeing that not only God but even Human Prudence also may inform us that by that meanes he may attain to what ever his heart can wish A beginning of which thing appeared plain enough in Charles the Fifth King of Spain who being also Emperour and being assisted with the whole power of Italy and Spain overcame those of Tunis and the King of France and conquered all Germany in so much that Solyman seeing the prosperous Fortune of this Prince had good Cause to say that it behooved him to take heed of Charles neither would he though he were stronger then He fight with Him under the Walls of Vienna We see therefore that which way the Fates incline the same also goes all the rest of the Fortune and so on the other side all things must needs be successelesse that are â—aken in hand under a Reluctant Faâ—e I shall here also open another Mystery namely that all Empires according to the Prophesy of Noaâ— do descend from the Sons of Iaphet God shall enlarge Japhet and he shall dwell in the tents of Sem and Cham shall be his Servant And from Cham are to descend none but Slaves and Tyrants who are indeed Slaves as I have elsewhere proved Wherefore the Turkish Empire comes from Iaphet by Magog and as to the Law from Sem by the Line of Ishmael from whom Mahumet descended as it hath allwaies been observed to fall out that the Northern People which are fierce and by the armes of Iaphet still Victorious have yet received Lawes and Rules from the wiser Southern People who were the Ofspring of Sem. And yet the Empire sometimes hath otherwise had a succession of Tyrants also who have descended from Cham though by the intervention of the German who is descended from Iaphet as the Spaniard himself derives his Line from Iaphet by Tubal like as concerning the Law the Roman Christianity doth derive it self from â—em in respect of Christ who is a true Sem by the Line of Isaac Seeing therefore Dominion was promised to Iaphet it belongeth chiefly to the Spaniards who are more nearly and by a firmer alliance descended from the Law-giver then the Turks and their Victorie drives on to this end that they may dwell in the House of Sem seeing that they possesse the Greatest part of Italy by the Investiture of the Pope who is descended from Sem Of whom this is no fit occasion to say any more although I willingly would do so and indeed ought I shall only add here that they cannot according to Fate come to be Lords of all unlesse they become the Deliverers of the Church and set it free from out of the hands of the Babylonians that is to say of the Turks and Hereticks Upon this account they conquered the Moores God bestowing upon them so great an Empire as their reward Now it is evident that the Church is in subjection to Babylon as long as it is Militant and I have formerly shewed elsewhere that it doâ—h yet retain the dayes of Tuesday and Friday and the moneths of August and Iuly which were theirs of the Roman Babylon and the Church now suffers most grievous Persecutions under the Babylonian Infidels both in Africk Asia and Europe and especially in Germany France England and Polaâ—d This discourse therefore is to be listened unto with attentive eares because that all the Iewish Affaires were a Type and figure of those of the Christians He therefore that shall deliver the Church out of these evills shall become the Universal Monarch because He shall perform the Office of the Christian Cyrus whom God shall raise up as Esay saith to subdue the whole World to restore Ierusalâ—m to remove their Captivity and to build a temple to the God of Heaven and Earth wherein shall be set up the Continual Sacrifice as is foretold by Daniel Esay and Esdras Cyrus also was of the Linage of Iaphet by the Medes and notwithstanding that the Turk is descended of the same stock also yet shall He not perform the Office because that He is become an Enemy by setting up another Contrary Law The French in the time of Charlemagne arrogated this Office to themselves who by their often delivering the Pope out of the hands of the Princes of Italy the Lombards and the Gotâ—s arrived to so great power that they became formidable to all and the said Charlemagne might have come to have been Universal Monarch of the World had not his sons been at Variance among themselves but had managed their Empire rightly and as they ought to have done But the discords that were betwixt the Christians and â—he following Heresy raigning at this day broke the neck of the French Empire at least took away from it all hope of ever arriving to the height of so much greatnesse But the Spaniards by being continually rooting out of the Moors became powerful but contrariwise Constantinople because it deserted the Pope and adhered to Arrius Sabellius and others came to destruction The Venetians also have by the Popes meanes arrived to a great height because that they assisted him against Frederick So that it is manifest that he that shall take any enterprize in hand under a Favourable Fate shall have all happy successe therein but on the contrary he that shall rush on upon any undertaking under a Crosse and Vnwilling Fate shall find the Event also quite contrary to his desires Which may also be demonstrated out of Reasons of Policy For he tâ—at maintaines the Popes Interest maintaines the Universal Right of all Christendom which depends upon the Pope For this Cause is accounted both a Just and a Religious one and therefore all men will take it up And the Opinion also of Religion overcomes all other causes as we â—ave already shewed elsewhere and shall further shew hereafter Add hereto that the Pope is the Universal Moderator and Judge of all things to whom all people have their recourse and yeild obedience to him as to their God and Deliverer as on the contrary the Sweden Saxon and the Constantinopolitan Princes as being enemies to and Stubborn opposers of Him are rejected and deserted by them Therefore the Office of Cyrus belongs to the King of Spain who being now honoured by the Pope with the Title of The Catholick King may easily arrive to the Principality of the whole World and we see that he hath already followed his Footsteeps in having delivered the Church heretofore out of the hands of the Moors of Granado as he hath lately done from the Hereticks of England the Law-Countries and France and He maintaines besides with yearly Revenues so many Bishops Cardinals and
He may have them at his devotion whensoever He shall have need of them He must make choice of and take into all His Higher Councels two or three of the Religious either Iesuits Dominicans or Franciscans that he may bind the Clergy the faster to Himself and that his Councellours may be the more Circumspect and may in their Determinations have more Authority In all Wars that he takes in hand every one of his Chief Commanders must have an Adjutant joyned to him out of the Clergy for by this meanes the Souldiers will hearken to their Commands with the more Reverence neither is any thing to be done without their being first acquainted therewith But especially the Stipends of all Poor Maimed Souldiers are to be distributed to them by the hands of those of the Clergy for this is the Misery of Spain that they pay their mony and know neither how nor to whom And by this meanes under the Banner of Religionâ— He shall both make the Pope more firm to him and shall also establish his own Empire and so complying with Divine Fate He shall raigne the more happily and be the more Fortunate Neither ought He ever to commend to the Pope for Ecclesiastical Dignities and Preferments such persons as are not fit for the same that so He may have the greater crediâ— with the Pope and that those Persons whose wisedom and parts He hath commended to him may be the more approved and esteemed He must alwayes likewise be making Proposals and laying down the wayes by which the Infidels are to be set upon and he must be earnest with the Pope that he proclaime that all such Princes are worthy to be deposed that shall any way impede or hinder such Religious Expeditions He shall do well also to build Hospitals Almes-houses and the like Charitable Places which as they are profitable and give encouragement to the Souldiery so may they serve also as so many Seminaries both for Souldiers and Artificers for the contriving of Engines for war in which Houses Maimed Souldiers and Engineers may be carefully lookt unto and may also have Indulgencies proposed unto them as shall be shewed hereafter He must also be sure that whatsoever Expeditions He shall undertake they shall be approved of by the Pope that so they may be commended by all Christians and also that the Craft of the Spaniard may be the lesse suspected and that the Pope also himself may be the more ingaged to see the same brought to good effect He must declare also to the World that He conceives the Right of Empire to consist not in Armes alone contrary to the Opinion of the Roman Scipio who being askt by a certain Spanish Commander What Right hâ— had to Spain answered him only by shewing him the Armie he had brought against it but in the Auspicious Faâ—e of Christianitie According to what Iephta answered when he was askt the same question Iud. 11.24 Wilt not thou possesse that which Chemosh thy God giveth thee to possesse So whomsoever the Lord our God shall drive out from before us them will we possesse Whatsoever therefore the Spaniard getteth under the Victorious Banner of Christ it is his own Right And this I speak in reference to the Spaniards Subduing of the New World which is blamed by so many For seeing that the Indians had Violated the Law of Nature the King of Spain invading them upon the Interest of the Christian Religion whose Handmaid the Law of Nature is their Country is his lawful possession in like manner as Moses seized upon the Holy Land after that the iniquities of the Amorites were once grown full So also the Turkes having possessed themselves of Constantinople under the Conduct and Fortune of Mahomet for our sins they possesse it now as their own Right as if Chemosh had given it themâ— But neither are all meanes of recovering that Empire again denied us therefore when as we shall have repented of that sin which was the cause that we lost it namely the Discord of the Christian World For then the Angel of that Empire which now defends and takes care of It not for that false Macon's sake whom It invokes but by reason of the just Judgment of God shall come over unto Us. And these Arguments are of very great moment for the defending or as I may better call it the Justifying of those Expeditions the justice of which Lactantius especially lib. de Iustitia Dei and Cajetan 2â— 2x. and some other of our later Writers understood not But now it seems to me very expedient for the inducing of the Pope to stand wholly for the King of Spain and that the Fate of Christianity may advance His Monarchy if that King Philip would promise the Pope that He whereto the rest of the Christian Princes should give their assent would observe inviolably that Constitution of the Emperour Constantine wherein he affirms That in all Causes and from what Powers and Courts of Judicature soever Appeales may be made to the Tribunals of the Bishops who are called by Him Angeli Dei Gods Angels and Dei terrestres Gods on Earth For when the Pope shall once find this promptnesse and readinesse of Mind in him He cannot chuse but alwaies be a friend unto him Neither can this be any diminution at all of the Dignity of the King for the rest of the Christian Princes will never give their consent hereto without all doubt and so all businesses will be betwixt the Pope and Him onely to be managed But in case that They should also give their assents to this all Causes would presently be put necessarily into the Popes hands so that the King of Spain having united his Monarchy to the Popes He should that way also have Dominion over the rest And that this may not prove prejudicial to him He may erâ—ct some kind of Supreme Councel and Court of Judicature into which there shall be admitted Two Bishops and His own Confessor and Himself also as a Clergy Man shall have a Power of Voting there for as much as the Kings Eldest Son is alwaies to be initiated into the Order of the Clergy and to this Councel there should be liberty of Appeal as from all other Tribunals so from that even of the Bishops also in case they shall oppresse either their own or the Kings Subjects For by this means the King shall in effect be the sole Judge not onely of all other Courts but even of that of the Bishops too as being Himself one of the Holy Order of the Clergy And by this means He shall evade that dangerous opinion of D. Rota who sayes that The Kings Subjects when they are hardly dealt withal by the Prelats may appeal to the Supreme Councel of Spain Which Assertion is certainly both an unworthy and an Heretical one and is of dangerous consequence also to the King for it tends to the rendring Him odious to his people and diminisheth rather then encreaseth His
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
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
him odious to his people and in the mean time fleece the poor miserable Subjects Therefore let every Officer provide himself to render an Account of his Administration to the People who are to give in Information to the King every ten yeares where they have been honestly dealt with and where not All False Witnesses also of whom the World is so full must likewise be severely punished and there must be care taken also that the Atturnies of the Exchequer may not force men by threatning words and sometimes by blowes too to be Witnesses for them But the best Course would be that the Law of Retaliation should be in force that the Complainant that makes not good his Accusation should suffer the same punishment that the other should have done if found guilty because that now adaies there are more Calumnies brought into Courts then Just Accusations And therefore any Lawyer that shall be found to have suborned any such Witnesse or any Judge that shall be proved to have taken any Bribe to pervert the Lawes should be debarred for ever after either from pleading at any Bar or giving sentence in any Court The King must also take care that Judges give sentence alwaies according to the Lawes and not according as Policy of State as they use to speak shall require and afterward either the King himself or his Viceroy or any other of the Kings Ministers may mitigate the Rigour of the Law as they shall see cause provided it be not in Case of High Treason that by this meanes they may gain the more upon the Peoples Affections And that untoward Custome is to be rooted out of the minds of Ordinary Judges which yet hath taken deeper root in the minds of the Superiour Judges also namely that although they know an accused person to be Innocent yet they will condemn him though it be in a matter of no Moment to the end that the fault may at last light upon Him after the businesse hath been a good while depending under the Judge that so as they use to say there may seem to have been Pregnant Reasons for the long depending of the Cause Whereas they should be so far from aggravating any fault as that they should rather lessen it as much as may be and so they should endeavour the rather to be really Just then to get an Opinion of being so to the great detriment of the People and also of the King himself who through the wickednesse of these Unjust Judges who are hated both by God and Himself is deprived of the Love and Affections of his People which is the main Prop of His Affaires and besides Good Men having lost their reputation desire to change their present state for a better as we see it usually comes to passe And no people have opportunity of offending more dangerously and closely then your Inferiour Officers have and besides these men the more in favour they are with the Prince the more grievously are they wont to aggravate mens crimes And therefore in this case there ought to be certain Commissaries at all times deputed and the same also to be maintained at the Charge of the said Ministers who shall yearly also lay down a certain summe of Mony to be kept in some Common place for the charges of the next Commissaries the following year that by these their Books of Accounts may be examined during the time of their being in Office or afterwards also if need be For by reason of the Corruption of these Inferiour Officers whole Provinces have many times heretofore fallen off from the Roman Empire especially when they have been found to be too ambitious and active in squeezing the Subjects either for the enriching of the Publick Treasury or else for the filling of their own private Coffers And for this reason it was that the Parthians having killed Crassus filled his mouth full of Melted Gold as a certain Spanish Grandee was also served by some Indians in the New World And certainly Covetousnesse and an open barefaced Desire of Gold was the reason that the Affaires of the Spaniards succeeded so ill in the New World into which at first they had so miraculous an Entrancâ— and that the other Nations there perceiving that humour in them stood upon their guard as well as they could against the Spaniard whose Government notwithstanding before they had not refused The same manner of proceeding also in the Netherlands was the cause of the ruining of the Spanish Affaires there Let all Criminal Causes in times of Peace be protracted as much as may be For No delay about the death of any man can ever be too long but this must not be in times of War As for Civil Causes they ought all to be without any demurring or delay heard and determined CHAP. XIV Of the Barons and Nobility of the Spanish Monarchy THe King of Spain to the end that so vast a Monarchy may not fall to decay hath need of such men as are excellent both for Learning and the practise of Armes whom He ought to reward afterwards with Baronies that so being from thenceforth made sharers as it were of the said Monarchy they may to their utmost power endeavour to maintain and make good the same to their Prince Which Baronies notwithstanding when they once fall into the hands of Unworthy persons are the cause of much mischief And they do fall into such hands when they come to be bestowed either upon Buffoons or perhaps such Exchequer Men as have found out new waies of oppressing the Subject or else when they have been conferred at first upon Wise and Valiant men whose Successors for all that may have proved to be Mean Inconsiderable persons or are else riotous and proud and such as laying aside all thought of their Ancestors Virtue take the full enjoyment only of that they have left them and having no worth of their own can onely boast of the Nobility of their Ancestors And hence it is that the King is in want so much of Persons of Worth whilest the number of such Uselesse Drones encreaseth in the Kingdom The Great Tuâ—k that he may prevent the latter of these Mischiefs putting by all such as are bottom'd only upon Others Nobility takes notice of such onely as are Eminent for some worth of their own Neither doth he suffer any son to succeed in the Estate or Goods of his Father by Right of Inheritance but he is to receive the same at his hands as a reward of his Service if so be he deserve it But in case he do not he must then serve him either in some Ignoble Art or else in some inferiour Office in his Wars The Former of these Inconveniences any King of Spain may prevent if he but confer these rewards upon such onely as are deserving Persons but the Remedy of the Second which is practised by the Turks cannot be made use of among Christians Onely let him be sure that many of these Baronies
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
turn Priests or Friers or Renegadoes and so to serve as Souldiers in other Countries And therefore it would be much the better course to use them more Courteously and to take this for a most certain Truth That Mony doth not give Men Dominion over their Enemies but rather exposeth them as a Prey to others And therefore the Spaniard is in a very great Errour as we shall hereafter shew while he thinks that Mony hath the Command of All the World Whereas in truth it is thy Vassals and thy Souldiers that must make Thee Lord over thine Enemies and not thy Mony For the Only Use of Mony is to procure and maintain Souldiers with it It is much better therefore that Souldiers should bear rule over any Country then Mony for by this means mutual Amity and friendship will be the better preserved betwixt the Souldier and the Subject And to this purpose it would be much a safer course if there were a Law made both in Spain and other places that the Eldest Sons only should inherit their Fathers Estates and the rest should all serve the King and be Pensioners to Him then so severely to squeeze out of the People such vast Summes of Mony as the Kings Ministers do In the second place I would have some course to be taken for the promoting of Peoples Marrying by the denying of some certain Honours and Priviledges to all such who being arrived to the Age of One and Twenty years unlesse they be Souldiers do not marry for by this means the summes required for Virgins Portions in Marriage which â—ath now rendred the Condition of Matrimony very hard will be abated And this is one of the Principal Elements of advancing a Common-Wealth and was much made use of by the Romans It would do very well also if a Law were made that the daughters of no Tradesmenâ— or Husbandmen should bring above a Hundred Crowns to their Husbands for their Portions and that within the compass of this Law should be included all those also who have in former timeâ— ever been Tradesmen or Mechanical persons For now adaies when any one hath scraped together but a Hundred Crowns he presently puts the same out to use and looks ever after to be called a Gentleman quite bidding Adieu to his Profession and thus the Kings Tributes are diminished not without the losse and detriment of the rest of their fellow Subjects But a Circumspect and wise Law-maker will be able to provide well enough against all these things Thirdly let the King give leave to his Souldiers to seize upon Women in the Low-Countries England and Africk and carry them away with them by force which they may afterwards make their Wives according as any of them shall be invited to do so by Mutual Love and these Women thus caught up I would have to be maintained at the Kings Charge who for this cause must enlarge the Souldiers pay But all these things are to be so ordered that the Dutch Women be married to Spaniards and the African Women either to Germans or Low-Dutch and the Spanish Women to Italians For this the Law of Nature seems to require that the Heat of the Spaniaâ—d should be rendred more fruitful by the German Juycinesse and that the Fiery Temper of the African should be attempered and allayed by the Cold and Moyst Constitution of the Netherlander that so both Venereal Desires and Fecundity too may be the more excited and procured as I have formerly shewed in My Philosophy And as concerning this Temperament the Italians are good for both And from hence will arise two Advantages the First whereof is that these Women will embrace the Christian Faith for a Woman will never be of any other Religion then that which her Husband whom she loves so dearly is of As your Northern Women who are naturally coldâ— love their South-Country Husbands who are hotâ— and the Sabine Young Women made peace betwixt the Romans their Ravishers and the Sabines their Parents that came to demand them of the Romans and to have them home again And St. Paul saith that the Unbelieving Wife is sanctified by her Believing Husband and so on the contrary The Second Advantage is that by this meanes the King shall never be without good store of Souldiers while He shall alwaies have his Souldiers Sons also to make Souldiers of When therefore He shall once come to abound in Souldiers by reason of this course taken to promote Fructification which I have now laid down it will be a means to inflame the Souldiers minds and will exceedingly encourage them to go on against any Garrisons or Fortified places of the Enemy that so they may get themselves handsome women for their Wives and afterward may lye still and take their ease And this was a Secret of Plato's finding out that Souldiers should be stirred up and encouraged to fight for Love I would also have a Law made that such Souldiers as have taken away more Women then one should be placed in some strong Holds and keep Garison there and not be forced to follow the Camp in like manner as at Naples all those Souldiers that are married are put into the Forts there and it would do very well if such were sent away into some New Colonies of the New World Fourthly let Him cause to be erected in each of his several Dominions as namely in Spain Naples the Low-Countries c. two or four Seminaries of Souldiers into which shall be put poor Mens Sons only and Bastards which shall be here trained up to the Exercise of Armes acknowledging the King for their father and none else and these after they are once grown up to be listed for Souldiers shall go and seize upon Women where they can in an enemies Country which they may make their Wives And this will be a means to encourage poor people to get children as fast as they can as being certainly provided of one that will breed them up for them and the King also shall by this means be sure to have faithful Souldiers But in Forreign Nations let Him erect for every several Nation a several Seminary as for Example let there be one for the Moors and another for the Sons of the Low-Dutch all which He shall cause to be brought up in Military Discipline as the Great Turk doth his Ianizaries And besides there should be certain poor women maintained in the said Seminaries at the Kings Charge who shall make the Souldiers beds or may Spin and Weave cloath for the making of Sailes or the like Then again that such as are too near of kin may not marry contrary to the Orders of the Church and withal that those Marriages that are made may prove the more fruitful I would have Italian Women to be married to those that are of the Seminaries of the Low-Countries or of Spain For by this means also there will not so many Idle persons enter themselves into Religious Orders as there do who
are a great burthen to the Churchâ— for as much as â—hese Men make choice of this kind of Life not out of any sense of Religion but meerly being forced out of necessity and so are a Scandal to the rest and besides the King is also hereby prejudiced who by this means hath both the fewer Vassals and Souldiers and the smaller Subsidies also There may also be educated in these Cloysters or Colledges or call them what you please people of all Nations whatsoever for the maintenace of whom there may Revenues be taken out of the Allowances of Almes-houses and Hospitals appointed for the Maintenance of Old Men or of any other honest Men or of such Friers as by preaching about the Country get enough to sustain themselves and toward this Charge there may be something exacted of all Usurers as I shall shew hereafter when I come to speak of the Kings Treasure And by this means the Kings Revenue will be so far from being diminished that if He do lay out any thing of his own He will rather prove a gainer by it But now it would be very advantagious for Spain that the Spaniards should marry Italian and Low-Country Women and so make up one Family betwixt them for by this meanes the whole World would by little and little be brought to embrace the Manners and Garbe of the Spaniard and so would the easilier be brought into subjection And those Spanish Souldiers that are at Naples are in an errour while they seek onely for Spanish Women to make Wives of and therefore the Vice-Roy there should see that the Spanish Women should have Italians or Netherlanders for their Husbands on whom He should confer all the honours he can especially where these Marriages happen to be among the Barons or other persons of quality Neitheâ— let any one think that those Seragli or Cloysters among the Turks before spoken of are a meere fiction for this most excellent Design hath been practised in the Church ever since the Apostles time and we see how many Colledges for young Students the Pope hath both of Germans English and Maronites that are as so many Seminaries of the Faith And then the Orders of St. Dominick S. Francis and the rest are nothing elseâ— but Seminaries of Apostolical Souldiers who using no Armes but their Tongue only do bring the World in subjection And These are the very Nerves of the Ecclesiastical Monarchy The Pope likewise promotes Men of all Nations to the Dignities both of Priests Bishops and Cardinals having no respect either to Rich or Poor Barbarian or Roman as the Apostle himself commanded if so be they be but Wiâ—e and Good Men. And hence it is that His Dominion is so far extended and so united within it self namely through Spain the Nâ—w World Afâ—ick and France as well as in Italy and that by reason only of the Common Tie of Religion and the Union of Men and Minds And therefore the King whose design it is to procure an Association not of his Subjects Fortunes onely but also of their Persons and Armes unlesse He be Powerful over their Religion too which is the Bond of Mens Minds and Affections He will have but a kind of an Estranged and weak Dominion among them And it is very evident that the Emperour of Germany by reason of his Subjects being of different Religions is of lesse power then either our King is or the Duke of Bavaria And hence it is therefore that the Turks have learnt Wisedome to Our Prejudice and Damage whilest we in the mean time transgresse against the Lawes of Policy while we observe the Roman or National Lawes Wherefore the King might do what would well become a Christian if he would cause to be erected Colledges of Souldiers and would also promote to Military Preferments not Spaniards only but all Persons of Worth and Valour whatsoever by that means engaging them in the Spanish Manners and Customs for by so doing He should be beloved as well by strangers as by his own Subjects And it is also consonant to the Opinion of Thomas Aquinas to take and baptize in the Seminaries such Children of Hereticks and Moores as have been taken from an enemy in time of War though not to do so in time of peace as for example to take the Children of Iewes living at Rome perhaps and by force to baptize them notwithstanding that Scotus approves of both these I would have the King likewise every seven years to pardon all such as are Banished Persons or are guilty of Murder upon condition that they shall serve Him as Souldiers in his Warres against Africk or in the New World Let Him also make an Act that each several Parish shall every year furnish him out one Souldier a piece which is a Proposal Your Lordship saith was made by a Friend of Yours in Spain for by this means there may be raised Threescore Thousand Souldiers and more in that Kingdom It will therefore be very expedient that there should an Union be made up betwixt the King and the Pope as hath been before spoken of But it would be better that every Baron at the end of such a set term of years should bring in to the King such a certain number of Souldiers and it would be best of all that the Baron himself also should go in person to the Wars whensoever the King goes And this ought to be observed not only in Spain but in all other of the Kings Dominions and likewise that other Rule that only the Eldest sons shall inherit their Fathers Estates in all places what ever But all these Rules cannot be observed any where to any great purpose except the Foundation of the Nations be first reformed namely in Making of Marriages and by erecting Seminaries or Colledges of Souldiers who should be such as contenting themselves with Meat and Drink and Cloathes onely shall have the Courage through hope of Advancement in case they approve themselves stout and Valiant persons to attempt as daringly and adventure upon all the most dangerous Undertakings and those greater then even the Turks Janizaries are wont to venture on And let this suffice to have been spoken concerning the means of encreasing the Souldiery and against the Depopulating of Countries As touching Captains and Commanders in War they ought not to be made out of that most Idle sort of men whom they now adaies call Nobiles Gentlemen but rather let the most Stout and Valiant persons be chosen for this purpose and such as are inclined rather to Severity as Hannibal was then such as are of a Courteous Disposition as was Scipio And I would have these to be chosen out of the number of Souldiers that have behaved themselves valiantly in fight and such as have step by step got up to what places they are now in Such as were Marius Sylla Ventidius Antonio de Leva Cicala and Occiali But the Person to whom the whole Charge of the War shall be committed must
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
is Impossible but that things should alwayes succeed ill with Him so long as there is no provision made for the remedying of this mischief Yet I do not say that a Kings whole strengh consists only in his Mony but He is to consider that Mony alone will do little toward the subduing of an Enemy And indeed we read that Iulius Caesar by his great knowledge in Military affaires and having withal the love of his Souldiersâ— though they were but a very Small Army to speake of yet for all this conquered the whole World And so likewise the Saracens Tartarians and Hunnes without any Mony made themselves Lords of almost the whole World We confesse therefore that Mony is of Excellent good use and most necessary for a Prince for the Preserving and making good the Bounds of his Dominions but not at all for the enlarging of them by adding New Provinces to the same And therefore let him believe that the sinews of his Strength lye in something else then his Mony For that Faith that is purchased by Mony may again be sold for Mony And therefore I beseech you do but observe how in France our King Philip by his mony procured the Dukes of Maine Ioycuse Mercoeur and Guise to take up Armes against the King of Navarre and then again how the King of Navarre by the same meanes got over the very same men to His side after they found King Philip to be grown somewhat close-sisted and not to come off with his Mony so freely as before And in like manner the Commanders and Souldiers in the Low-Countries do now a daies rather exercise the profession of Hucksters then of Souldiers for they do not fight that they may overcome their Enemy but that they may make a gain of their serving in the Wars And so have made Armes which are the Instruments of Monarchy to be the Instruments of their Covetousnesse and their Sports And the King deceives himself whiles He pursues all Covetous Designs for He hath Mony enough if he have but Souldiers enough and if there be withal but Mutual love betwixt him and them and a due regard had to their several merits which things if they be wanting he shall be sure to be a sufficient Loser in the end First therefore and above all things let the King endeavour to treasure up to himself the Minds and Affections of his Subjects and Vassals and indear himself to them by his own Gallantry both in Peace and in War making Himself admired by them by making profession of and proposing to them some New Sciences c. as hath been said before Secondly let Him raise himself a Treasure of his Subjects Bodies by causing them to multiply by Frequency of Marriages to which they are to be encouraged by Honours and other Inticements c. as was also touched before And in the Third place let Him raise himself a Treasure out of the Wealth of his Subjects whiles He makes them Rich by taking care that Agriculture and Manuring of the Ground be promoted and that the making of Silks Woollen Cloath and the like Useful and Profitable Arts and Trades be set on foot and diligently followed rather then that such Courses should be taken as we see now adaies every where whiles in the smaller Towns most people give themselves to Usury and in the Greater Cities men for the most part apply themselves to Merchandise and Extorsion The Pope raises up his Treasures in the Minds of Men and therefore is He a Conquerour because that This being conjoyned with Eloquence and Wisedom is the onely Instrument by which that Treasure is acquired And hence it was that the Saracens by the use of their Tongue and also by making Profession of New Sciences and of a New Religion became Conquerours Iulius Caesar raised Himself a Treasure both in Minds and Bodies by His own Personal Virtue and Gallantry winning to himself and obliging the Hearts and Affections of the Whole Souldiery But the Taâ—tarians and Hunnes did this by Bodies only rendring them so Fruitful as that by reason of their Vast numbers they were fain to leave their Native soyl marching out of it in huge bodies like swarms of Bees and seizing upon others Territories But now the King may by His Own just Right exact all these Treasures at the hands of his Subjects as namely Religion by placing Able Preachers among them Love by Good Lawes the Subjects Profit and True Justice and Multiplication of them by the Waies before laid down where I spoke touching the encreasing of the Number of the Souldiery and let Him require of each several Nation that which they most abound in as People from the Germans Souldiers from the Spaniards Commanders in War and Garments from the Italians from the West-Indies Gold but not the contrary We may truly affirm that the New World hath in a manner undone the Old for it hath sowen Covetousnesse in our Minds and hath quite extinguished Mutual Love among men For all the World are wretchedly in love with Gold only and hence it is that Men are become Deceitful and Fraudulent in their dealings and have often sold and re-sold their Faith for Hire because they saw that Mony was That that did the businesse every where and that was held in Admiration by all people and so They are come now to despise all Sciences and Holy Sermons in comparison of Mony and have bid Adieu both to Agriculture and other Arts applying themselves only to look after the Fertility and Increase of Mony and to get themselves into Rich Mens houses It hath likewise Introduced a great Disparity amongst Men making them either too Richâ— whence they become Proud and Insolent or else leaving them too Poor whence proceeds Envy Theft and Open Robbery Hence also it is that the prices of Corn Wine Flesh Oyl and Cloath are very much raised because that no man applies himself to this kind of Merchandise whence followes Want and Penury and yet Monies in the mean while must be laid out In so much that the poorer sort being not able to hold out in the world are fain either to put themselves into service or else betake themselves to robbing upon the High-Way or else turn Souldiers being necessitated to do so through Poverty and not at all for Love either of the King or of Religion and many times also they run away from their Colours or else change them neither do they endeavour to get Children in a Lawful Way of Marriage because they are not able to pay Taxes or else perhaps they try all the waies that possibly they can to get to be admitted into some Covent or other for Friers or Preachers I therefore here leave it to the King to consider whether or no He may not rather be overcome by Gold which is the Cause of so many Evils I say therefore that there are many things here that stand in need of a Reformation that so the Kings Treasury may grow
Rich and that He himself may have greater Testimonies of his Subjects Love and Fidelity which might easily be brought about if so be that those Rules before laid down touching the encreasing the Number of the Subjects and the remitting and abating the Taxes and Exactions laid upon them were but observed and if the King going into the Wars Himself in person would by that means chalk out to his Wise and Valiant Commanders and Souldiers the Way to Honour rather then to Covetousnesse and would also propose New Arts and Sciences So likewise if He would make some such Lawes to which those that are Obedient should have their former honours continued to them but the Refractory and Disobedient should have Disgraces cast upon them and to perswade Obedience to which Lawes there should in the Second place some Profit and Advantage be proposed for such but in the Third place before the Disobedient should be laid down the Fear of Punishment to which our Modern Writers absurdly attribute the First Place in Relation to the due Observing of Lawes who having regard to the Time rather then to Religion require Fear in Subjects rather then Love because that the Rulers of the Gentiles preferred this Later before the Former and so taught that Wicked Wretch Macchiavel and other the like Polititians those Rules But if there be no place left for a Reformation it is then necessary that respect being had to the Present Abuses there should be good store of Treasure got up together lest at length the King should be undone by Use-Mony or some other Losses should fall upon him in case the Plate Fleet should not return back from the West-Indies in three or four years together perhaps I shall first therefore lay down the Usual Rules in this case and then such other as I my self have thought upon First therefore there must be matter administred for the promoting of Vsury and Vsurers and every one of them is to be bound under a certain Penalty to have alwaies a stock of Monies lying by them that so when there shall be any Necessity the King may know where to fetch presently good store of Large Summes of Mony Which Course is to be taken in all the chief Cities both in the Kingdome of Naples and of Spain Then when any great War is near at hand the said Summes of Mony are to be called for at the said Usurers hands and that by the intervening too of the Popes Authority that so the King may not draw upon himself alone the Hatred and Ill Will of his Subjects Secondly let him introduce the Tribute of Apulia which was brought up by King Ferdinand through all the Provinces that are under him imposing it either in the same or some other the like Form Thirdly let Him cause all the Barons to bring in what summes of Mony they have binding them thereto in the name of Religion and the Crown of Spain to which they are joyned and engaged Fourthly let Him procure of the Popâ— Indulgences and Croisados for all his Kingdomes and those Summes of Mony that shall be raised by the same He shall lay up in some Treasury where they may encrease to such a quantity as that an Army may be raised out of them which may be sent into the Holy Land Fifthly let Him get an Injunction from the Pope that for the space of five years all Churches Monasteries Bishopricks and Parishes throughout all his Provinces shall pay in a certain sum of Mony into The Sacred Treasury so called as being collected for the making of a War against the Infidels that is to say Five in the Hundred of all their Revenues but so that every year there should be an abatement made of One As namely the first year they should pay Five in the Hundred the second year Fourâ— the third Three and so on till the five years be expired But the Venetians exact the Tenths And this Course may be takenâ— betwixt the King and the Pope under the Pretense of making a War upon the Infidels After all this is done let Him then appoint two Bishops to be the Treasurers of this Mony Sixthly let the King by his Treasurers traffick in every Country with such Commodities as are used there as in Calabria with Silks in Apulia with Wheat in Sicily with Oyl for by this means He will divert his Subjects from applying themselves to Usury and will cause them to attend more the Manuring of the Ground and withal will hereby mightily enrich Himself Seventhly let Him send out into every City and Town especially in the Kingdom of Naples a Commissary having a Counsellour joyned with him who shall be one of the Clergy to make enquiry into all Usurers and to cause Them to make it appear by the testimony of Three Witnesses that they have taken no other Use then what is allowed to be taken by the custome of the Kingdom and where they shall find any to have done otherwise to seize upon all they are worth and carry it away to some publick place for the King's use But then the King may afterwards restore half of it to them again if he think fit as for example suppose his Officers took away from any of these Usurers Ten Thousand Crownes He may then restore to the Owner Five Thousand Crownes of his Mony again For they are a hateful sort of People and are despised by all men so that you need never fear that they will rebel and besides the people when ever they see Them ruined will be very glad of it neither will any of them take their parts and indeed the Usurers themselves when they have half of their estates left them will think themselves very well dealt withal And with the rest of such Monies the King may set up A Bank of Charity where poor people shall take up Monies upon their Pawn but upon this condition that if they redeem not their Pawn by the Limited Time that then it shall be forfeit to the King And afterward with the Mony arising from hence He may drive a Trade of Merchandise as the Usurers themselves use to do or else He may with those monies erect Cloysters or Seminaries for Souldiers and Poor Women as hath been shewed before And if some of the Clergy were sent abroad with the like Commissions to inquire into the Barons also it would do them much good both in reference to their Soul Body and State who otherwise by their arts would swallow up and devour the whole World Eighthly let Him require an Account of all the Kings Ministers and Commissioners for the whole time of their being employed in their Offices and whatsoever Fines shall be set upon their heads let it be put into the Treasury or the King may remit half to them if he please or lesse as he shall see cause and by taking this course with them both Himself and his Subjects shall be much advantaged and have cause to rejoyce Ninthly let Him call all
most Idle and Vile persons who after they have once gotten themselves Wives do then by their crafty Wiles oppresse poor men and begin to spread abroad the Poyson of their Wickednesse far and near And for this reason it was that Bishops have oftentimes forbidden those Prelats that have been under their Jurisdiction the use of a Numerous Retinue though here there was no great need of any such Interdiction For although that such Servants of Prelates are not in truth Honest and Good men yet are they forced at least to appear such in those places and so they give the lesse Scandal to the World Wherefore the King ought to endeavour to introduce an Equality by restraining all Numerous Retinues Let Him moreover indulge the Common People so much as that for the space of whole ten years they shall pay onely the one half of their Taxes and for the other half let Him exact the payment of it at the hands of the Barons and others that are Artificers I would also have those Lawes and Arts spoken of before where I treated of the Barons and Usurers to be brought into use But for as much as the Spaniards are hated by all Nations the best Course would be that the King should endeavour to reconcile them to the Spaniard by intermarrying with them and also by erecting such Military Seminaries into which should be admitted indifferently and be there maintained Souldiers of all other Nations For by this means the King shall have both a more Copious and also a better Tempered and more Generous Army as we see Chestnut Graffes when they are set upon other stocks bring forth the better fruit And this very course God himself is wont to take who that He may render all Mankind the more Noble uses to transplant the People of the Northern Parts and to remove them into the more Southern which He also does for some other causes which yet are all save one or two unknown to us After this let the King of Spain so order his affairs as that not only his subjects may live together in mutual love amongst themselves but also that He himself may be beloved by them which thing he may easily effect by Enacting Profitable Lawes by encreasing the number of his subjects by remitting their Taxes and Impositions by bringing in an Equality amongst them and lastly by not omitting even those things also of which We spoke before And because that nothing is so destructive to a Prince as the stirring up of the subjects Hate against Himself whence it is for the most part that Conspiracies and Treasons are plotted against both Prince and State it would be very well if all the subjects were of the same Religion that the Prince is of for nothing in the World doth more set men at Variance then Diversity of Religion And this the King of France hath found to be true by his own sad Experience But it is here necessary that the Prince should shun those two Extreams to wit Hypocrisie â—ud Superstition God is Truth and will be worshipped in Truth and with a Clear upright mind Let our Prince therefore be sure that he approve himself to be a Pious and Religious Prince without Hypocrisie by which Tiberius Caesar did himself much wrong and without any apparent softnesse or Effeminatenesse But nothing more commends a Prince to his People then to be furnished both with Domestick and Military Vertues which are sufficient to engage all his subjects of all Ranks and Conditions whatsoever to be faithful to Him for these are the Foundation and Groundwork of all Principalities For as the Elements and all Bodies compounded of them do without any Reluctancy obey the Motions of the Celestial Bodies by reason of their Ingenit Excellencie of Nature and in the Revolutions of the Celestial Orbes themselves the Inferiour follow the Motion of the Superiour in like manner do all men willingly submit and yeeld themselves up to such a Prince in whom they find all Eminent Vertues shining forth For this is an Impression of Nature imprinted on all that no Inferiours refuse to yeeld Obedience to those that are above or better then themselves For it is received by the Eternal Law of Nature that Inferiours should obey their Superiours And it is the Bond of Faith saith Livy to obey our betters Andâ— Our Superiours Commands are to be obeyed saith another Author And Aâ—istotle sayes that Natural Reason requires that those that do excel in Wit and Iudgment should govern those that are not so excellent therein When any Prince therefore is Eminent for Vertue it gains Him the Love of his People especially if he shall but make it appear to them that He loves them with a Fatherly Love admitting them to come into his presence and to discourse with Him and withall looking into the Accounts of His Inferiour Ministers and alwayes more readily lending an ear to the Poor then to the Rich and besides if He pardon all Offenders and bestow all Rewards Himself but inflict punishments on Malefactors by his Ministers and also if He suppresse Usurers and those Mercenary Barons spoken of before and shew Himself clear from all Wicked Acts whatsoever and withall render Himself worthy to be reverenced for his Religion by having Godly Counsellors about Him and winning to himself a holy love from all by reason of the most strict Tye that is between Him and the Pope and the Holy Church And let Him in all things Propose for Examples for Him to follow David Constantine Theodosius Trajan Augustus Martianus Charles the Great all which being endowed with the forementioned Vertues aâ—d with Sciences raigned more happily then Iulian Frederick Henry Tiberius Nero and Philip Surnamed the Faire who spent his time in a quite contrary course to what Charles the Great did Besides I would have Him to invite his Subjects by honours and Rewards to an Emulation of Vertue and Sciences and an Endeavour to excel each other herein by which means there would be New Sciences invented Gaming also would be of good use in Spain and would serve to divert the Common People from prying over-curiously into Affairs of State or else it would necessitate those that have lost all their Estates that way to turn Souldiers But yet seeing that this breaking of one another is the cause of Extortion Covetousnesse Hatred of their fellow Subjects and of the love of Mony this Gaming seems in the end to bring more damage to the State then benefit And therefore I conceive it were better that there were some Sports of Recreation devised for his Subjects of Spain to try Masteries in and some Velitations and Innocent Contentions in some Arts or Sciences but for his Forraign subjects abroad they should use Gaming either at Cards or Dice which they should be put upon by the Leiger Ambassadours there that so by this means they may become Broken and Heartlesse through Idlenesse and want of Exercise I would also have some Mathematical
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
his Neighbours the Switzers and the Grisons and let Him chuse out of these Nations Thirty Thousand Souldiers to whom He shall in the mean time allow half pay till such time as He shall have Occasion to use them according as the Venetians are wont to do and this Army let him make use of for the repelling of any powerful Enemy assaulting hâ—m But yet lest these people encreasing their numbers should themselveâ— invade the Duchy of Millan which thing we know to have happened heretofore in the time of the Romans I would have this Army to be divided and some part of it to be sent into the Netherlands and another to Naples and there may some of them also be sent abroad as far as the West-Indies that so serving him abroad in His Wars they may at length be all destroyed And certainly should this People but keep at home and not go so much abroad to Wars as they do but should unite their forces together it would be a very easie matter for them to subdue all Italy but now whiles that they serve some of them under this Prince and some under that in their wars there is no great reason to fear any such thing of them However it would be a very good way to divide them as we have shewed and to send them abroad several waies The second thing that the Italians are wont to threaten the Spaniard with is that perhaps They may enter into a League with the Pope and the King of France to the Prejudice of Spain But this conceipt of theirs also the King of Spain may easily elude because no one of them dares do any thing without the Pope and the King of France as being not able of himself to defend himself much lesse to attempt any thing against others unlesse it be by chance and by taking some extraordinary Advantage as the Venetians did heretofore at what time the Popes were at War with the Emperours and when the Transalpines made bold to march over into Italy And therefore iâ— so be the King of Spain have but the Pope on his side He hath no need at all to fear the Princes of Italy neither indeed is there any Change made in any State or Dominion in Italy without the Pope and the Pope alone hath been the cause of all the Mutations that have happened in the Kingdom of Naples And in case the Pope should take up Arms against any Party or against any Common-Wealth in Italy He would presently prove the Conquerour by having recourse immediately to his wonted Helps such as are His giving out Indulgences against it and his absolving the subjects from the Oathes they have taken to be true to the same and by calling in others to His Assistance as Pope Iulius the second did at that time when He Excommunicated the Venetians at which time they were utterly crushed by him Now my Counsel to the King of Spain is that He would yeeld to the Pope and do whatsoever He would have and that He would give His Commands abroad as Constantine the Emperour heretofore did namely that the Pope shall have supream Authority in Last Appeals and so likewise that Two Bishops with the King who then holds the place of a Clergy man be Judges in all causes that shall be devolved unto them by way of Last Appeals And let it be agreed upon betwixt him and the Pope that what Princes soever shall refuse to submit hereto they shall be deprived by their Authority For if some of the Princes of Italy or indeed if all of them should fall off from the Pope the King of Spain who is the Vindicater of the Pontifical Authority being assisted by Croisados and other Aides from the Pope would by degrees ruin them all one after another or else bring them in Subjection under himself and thus whiles he yields to the Pope He is sure to have both His Affections surely united to Him and His power assisting him and he shall withal make himself Maâ—ter of the Princes of Italy's Dominions And this may possibly hereafter come to passe although as matters now stand all that the King can do is to make it his businesse to keep these Princes at difference amongst themselves and to make either the Duke of Parma or some other of them Sure to Him and then He need care but little for any of the rest Let him also give the Venetians the Tittle of being The Fathers of Italy and let him desire of them the favour to have some of the Principal of them sent to him whom he may imploy as Iudges in the Netherlands because that this Nation doth more willingly admit of Italians then Spaniards and of all Italians of the Venetian rather then any other and upon These Venetians so imployed by him let him confer the Dignities of Barons And seeing that it is known to every man that the Venetians are both very Just and also free from Ambition and so the fitter to be made use of if not for the gaining of any New Dominions yet certainly for the keeping of what are already gotten let the King so order the matter as that the Hollanders may be brought to desire Lawes to be prescribed them by the Venetians of which I shall say more hereafter And if by these Arts He could so far prevaile with them as to get them to give over their travelling to Alexandria and â—yria to traffick there and to take up a trade of Merchandise with those in the West-Indies as the Portuguez have done He would by this meanes in time make Himself Lord of the Venetians as He hath already of the Genoeses Now that he may also secure himself in the mean time from the Venetians it would be his best Course to provide himself of such a Navy as I spake of before and He should likewise do well to make use of the Archduke of Carinthia and His Neighbours the Grisons in his wars by this meanes to fright the Venetians the more And besides let him give entertainment to all such persons as are banished by the Florentines or by the Venetians and receive them into his service in his wars and he may do well to bestow extraordinary rewards upon them too that by this meanes he may draw others of them also over to him who may serve under him if neeed be even against their owne Native Country Which indeed was the frequent practise of the Duke of Millan and also many times of the King of France when for the same reason he invited in to him all the Banished Genoeses and Florentines And for the same reason also the Strozza's Piccolominies and the Lord Peter de Medicis might in these our times strike no small terrour into the Great Duke of Florence If therefore the King would have these Princes of Italy to continue at variance among themselves let him take heed how he strikes any fear into them for Fear is the onely meanes to unite them together and
therefore let him beware that he discover not at all that He is angry with them Now there ought not any meanes to be used for the causing of any Division amongst them through differences in Religion neither indeed can any such thing possibly be effected but this must be done only by bestowing Rewards upon some of them as we have said before And if any one of the House of Austria should chance to be elected Pope Italy were then quite undone It would do very well also if the King would give way that Others might have liberty to â—ome and Traffick at Genoa as His Subjects do for Genoa is as it were the King of Spain's Treasury and He makes use of them to keep the Princes of Italy in awe And besides the Genois assist Him very much in poynt of Navigation and Seafaring businesses as hath been said before But yet these Genois are to be treated handsomely and cunningly that they may not seem to be forced to do what they do but only by Love and Fair Usage to be brought about to be so Serviceable and Obedient to the King of Spain Yet would I have the King pay his Debts to them as soon as might be and he may either pawn or else sell them some few Townes or Fortified Places least if by chance there should be any General Rising in Italy the Genoises Banners might also march along with them for company Let Him therefore continually have a Vigilant eye upon the two most Flourishing States of the Venetians and the Genueses yet of the two the Vnetian doth far excell the Genuensian both in Dignity and Powerâ— The reason whereof is because that the Venetians by maintaining a Free Trade of Merchandise with other Nations have reasonably well improved every man his own particular Estate but have advanced the Publick infinitely whereas the Genois by being chiefely great Bankers and Mony-Masters have infinitely enlarged their own Private Estates but the Publick hath much suffered thereby Which being considered the King in his Transactions with these two different Commonwealths must proceed in a different manner CHAP. XXII Of Sicily and Sardinia THe Sicilians and Sardinians being both Islanders and also somewhat near Neighbours to Africk ought for these reasons to have stricter Lawes imposed upon them then the Italians and a good way to keep them within the bounds of Obedience would be for the King to secure all their Havens and Fortified places lying upon the Sea Coast. And these places would very easily be rendred secure if the King had but such a Navy continually in a readinesse as I spake of before which I would not have to lye all together in a body but to be divided into severall Squadrons which should lye round about Italy and these Islands and so keep them safe from all Invasions of Enemies the Souldiers of which Fleet if they should be set over the Countrymen would do much more hurt then good and besides the number of them must then be enlarged Whereas by this meanes the Prizes that they take from the Moors and Turks would be sufficient to maintain them and the King would also be thereby enriched and the Coast of Affâ—ick made safe and secure And if it should chance that those of Algier and Tunis should at any time cause any tumult in favour of the Christians there should be Souldiers alwaies in a readinesse to come into their assistance by sayling over into the Kingdome of Oran with which people they may Traffick by carrying into them Silks Wheat and other Commodities so long as the Adriatick Sea is Scoured and made Safe by the Venetians so that there would be no need of fearing either the Turks or Pirats In these Islands there may very convenient Seminaries be erected for the breeding up of Souldiers of such Children as with their Mothers shall be taken from the Turks and Moors and in these may be also taught the Arabick tongue and there may be Monasteries for Friers erected also as we have hinted before And here we are to givâ— a Caution that whensoever any Merchants put in at either of these Islands either from England Turky or Africk there ought to be present some or other of the Clergy lest the inhabitants should be infected with some Forreign Heresy For Islands by reason of their Commodiousnesse for the reception of People of all sorts are very subject to such Mutations and Changes which is also observed by Plato himself Those that live near the Sea Coast by reason of their so constant Conversation with Forreigners for which reason Plato called the Sea the Schoolmaster of all Wickednesse are Crafty subtle and Circumspect and such as know very well what belongs to Trading and Merchandise But on the contrary the Inlanders are sincere upright and just and content with a little The King might also make very good use of Great Cities such as is Syracuse in Sicily which as Cicero here tofore said of it had it been divided into four parts would very well have made as many handsome Cities And such as at this day also is Palermo in the same Island which is adorned with Stately Churches and Palaces wherein there are two things worthy to be taken notice of the one is a stately street that runs all along the whole breadth of the City and divides it in a manner into two parts and is both very streight long and broad and withal adorned with very fair buildings so that I do not know whether all Italy can any where shew the like of it or no The other is a vast Pile or Banke raised up by an infinite expence of mony against the Sea by meanes whereof the City is accommodated with a very fair capacious Haven which is a work that is really worthy of the Ancient Roman Magnificence Islands as Plato saith were for the most part the Nests of Tyrants But touching such Havens as are necessary in case of such fears and likewise of Navigation and Sea voyages I shall have occasion to speak in its proper place And as concerning these Islanders they ought not to be kept short and to be defrauded of things necessary or to be held to too hard meat but they have need rather that such Usurers as lye lurking amongst them and also the Publick prisons should be inquired into and visited as we have said before There may also be erected some Seminaries for Sea-men to which may be yearly sent in Gallies young men to be instructed in the Art of Navigation as the Custome is among the Venetians and this the King ought to do so much the rather because that he wants young Seamen more then any thing but yet to these he must joyn some Transalpine Seamen for the encreasing of his number There may also be instituted in these Islands two New Orders of Knights such as those of Malâ—a neither ought the Revenewes belonging to the Knights that are of the Order of St Iames or of any other Order of
and how great Errours we have of late years committed in reference to them that so for the future we may be the more wary as to this Particular The French Nation being descended from Iaphet by Gomer by their strength and the force of their Armes and having also their Religion and the Fates Propitious to them have had very great Successes in that under the Conduct of Charles the Great and King Pepin they arrived to so great a Monarchy as they then had And certainly all the other Princes of Christendom had at that time an eâ—e upon the Kingdom of France and if the French had but crusht the Impiety of the Mahumetans when it was yet but in the Bud they might easily have compassed the Monarchy of the whole World and that so much the rather by reason that their Rivals the Spaniards were divided into Many several Kingdomes and were besides held in Play with the Moors who had invaded their Country so that at that time they were not at leasure to interrupt the French or to take them off from their Designes as the French at this day hinder Them in theirs But for as much as the French have not the skill of carrying a Moderate Hand in Government over such Forraigners as are under their Subjection but are too Impatient and Indiscreet they could never yet attain to so great a height of Power For they are apt to arrogate too much to themselves shewing no gravity at all they permit their Subjects to do what they please and so sometimes they use them too cruelly and sometimes again too gently having no regard at all to their own defects and weaknesses And hence it hath come to passe that though they have gotten many things abroad yet they have not been able to keep any of them For in One eveningâ— they lost all Sicily and almost in as short a time the Kingdom of Naples too together with the Duchy of Millan and for no other reason but only because that they knew not how through want of Prudence in Governing to oblige their Subjects to them by the Love of the Publick Good nor yet took any care to draw in others to put themselves under their Protection For when the people once perceaved that there would be very litle or no difference to them in respect of their Libertyâ— whether they served the French or the Spaniards they would not vouchsafe so much as to draw a Sword in their behalf And for the very same reason did the King of France and the Duke of Millan several times lose their Dominion over the Genois We may add hereto in reference to the French the Discord that was betwixt the Sons of Charles the Great because that one of them would be King of Italy another of Germany and a third of France and likewise the weaknesse of the French Nobility who would needs all be free Princes and live of themselves without any Head such as are the Duke of Burgundy the Earl of Flanders the Duke of Bretaigne of the Delphinate of Savoy the Count Palatine of the Rhine with diverse others each of which would needs be an Absolute Prince of himselfâ— So that as well for these Reasons and because of their being dâ—vided in their Religion and also as well by Fate as by God himself and besides by not laying hold upon Occasion when it was offered they seem to be excluded from ever attaining to the Universal Monarchy of the whole World And therefore the Majesty of the Universal Dominion over all seemes rather to incline toward the Spaniards both because Fate it self seemes to have destined the same unto Them as also because it seemes in some sort to be their Due by reason of their Patience and Discretion But because that the very Situation of the Country the manner of their Armes in War and the natural Enmity that there is betwixt the French and the Spaniards seem to require that France should be continually in War with Spain and should be still interrupting their Glorious Proceedings like as also when it was in a flourishing state under Charles the Fifth it was hindred by Francis King of France and as it may also at this day be troubled by the Hereticks of France and their King Henry the Fourth who is a Valiant and Warlick Person these things I say being considered it nearly concerns the King of Spain seriously to consider the state of his own Affaires and withal to weigh the Power of France and to be sure when any fit Opportunity is offered to fall upon them with all his might to set upon them on that part where they are Weakest that â—o that other part where they are more powerful may sink of it self Seeing therefore that they are weak not in Armes but in Wisdom and Brain He ought to manage his War against them accordingly And therefore first of all he must be sure to lay hold on Fortune and Opportunity whensoever they offer themselves as evidently appeares by the example of that good Fortune that delivered the aforenamed King Francis and Germany into the hands and power of Charles the Fifth by which means had he pursued that Opportunity he might have crushed all the Princes that were his Competitors for he ought immediately to have bent his whole strength against France and by the assistance of the Germans to have repressed and curbed the Insolency of the French I say by the assistance of the Germans for they as being the more Fierce Nation of the two have alwaies been as an Antidote against the Fiercenesse of the French And hence it is that the Franconians Normans Swedes Gotlanders Danes and other Northern Forraign Nations have alwaies in a manner been to hard for the French that lye not so Northerly as they And therefore as I said Charles the Fifth ought immediately with an Army of Germans to have set upon France And after that he should have put Guards of Spaniards into all their Castles and strong Holds and should have placed Italians in all their Courts of Judicature and have appointed them to regulate their Lawes and then should either have brought France wholly under his own Power and Obedience or else should have put it into the hands of some Petty Princes to be governed by them and so should presently have declared Himself Head of the Christian World But he instead of doing thus had recourse to that Vain uselesse course of securing himself by marriage chusing rather to winne over to him his Rivall Neighbour by Fair meanes which is never to be done but with those that are farther off and which is especially to be declined when a Prince hath so Potent Neighbours that are his Antagonists for an Empire For the Fâ—ench had first a design of making themselves Universall Monarchs of the World before the Spaniards had any such thought whom the French afterwards envied when they found them aspiring that way A second Opportunity of keeping France under in such
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
their Course through the Western Ocean were now first arrived in the New World the Natives beheld them with Astonishment and Wonder and having never dreamt of any other World but their Own believed verily Those Men to have dropt down from Heaven and conceived them to be the Sons of the Clouds by reason of the Thundering Noyse they made with their Guns And then again they heard with Trembling and fear Speaking Papers and Writings all which things likewise even Our selves at first wondred at as well as they For neither had We All these things upon â— sudden all together and in one and the same instant of time presented to Us as they were then to Them and besides Assuâ—faction makes all the most Unusual things at length Familiar to Men. In a word They could not choose but have all yielded themselves up freely and of their own accord to the Spaniards who as they were really perswaded were all Gods had not They themselves by their own Dissolute and Corrupt Life removed all such Opinion of Divinity far from them by their Cruelty and Covetousnesse in hunting after the Indians Gold which they themselves regarded not insomuch that the Natives were fain to betake themselves to the Mountains and to defend themselves against them as well as they could And this is the reason that the Spaniards could never make themselves Masters of the whole Country of Peruana which is half as big again as all Africa but were fain to keep about the Sea Coasts and those Plain and Open Countries that border upon the same nor could ever get any farther Northward then Florida New Spain and New France Baccalaos and the Country about Mexico but were alwaies repulsed by the Natives Whence it plainly appears that the Spaniards ought at the first to have cherished that good Opinion which the Indians had all generally conceived of them by their Innocent and Vertuous Life for by this means they must needs have become Masters of the whole Country And besides they should have openly professed and made it known to all that They were really the Sons of God and not of the Clouds and were sprung from a much Nobler Seed and were endowed with an Immortal Soul and that it was God that had created both the Heavens and the Earth and that disposeth of and governeth all things according to his own will and pleasure and that by how much the more Noble any Creature is such as are Men who are His Sons being created after His Image so much the Greater and more Vigilant Care hath He over Them then over the rest So likewise they should have informed them further how that All Men sinned in their disobedient First Parent Adam whom they have ever since imitated in that which is Evil rather then that which is Good Yet notwithstanding that God who is the Father of All loved them so dearly that He found out a Means of calling them back again to His Worship and of translating them at length even into Heaven it self sending amongst them Abel Enoch and others to instruct them But that They growing continually Worse and Worse provoked God their Father to wrath who therefore suddenly swept them all away except One only Family by an Universal Deluge And that it is the Same God that by puting a vast Sea betwixt them had divided Their World from Ours which very thing was asserted heretofore by Plato where he speaks of the Atlantick Ocean And that Noah sent over Colonies into their Countries and peopled that whole Tract of Land from Peru as far as Baccaleos with Inhabitants And that afterwards the whole Progeny of Noah within the compasse of which the Indians themselves are comprehended sinned also except some few of them only and that God sent afterward among them also Other Instructers as Moses and others whom when the World believed not that then God himself took Humane Flesh upon Him and out of the Infinite Love that he bare us put on Our Nature that so making use thereof as of an Instrumental Means He might the more Effectually teach us what way we must take for to go to Heaven and how that Truth is to be observed in all things And all these things should have been instilled into them by friendly Perswasions and fair Means and not by force of Arms And lastly that God himself in his own person and by his own Example confirmed all things that He ever taught and laid down a Pattern before Us according to which We ought to walk in this life And that after He had taught us that we ought not to be terrified or affrighted from the Worship of our God even by threats and Death Himself first underwent Death suffering it by the hands of Cruel Tyrants to the end that we might be encouraged to follow his steps and that Rising again the third day from the Dead He ascended up into Heaven leaving behind Him his Vicar upon Earth who is called by the name of The Pope who sits in His Tribunal being endowed with Celestial Wisedom being assisted also by many most Valiant Princes who all mantain the Divine Truth among whom the King of Spain is the Cheif And that now God being moved with compassion towards Them who were all Idolaters and Violaters of the Law of Nature had sent their Brethren the Spaâ—iards to convert them and to bring them back again into the way of Truth and by means of the Pope and of the King of Spain from which Country Their World was divided at first by the Flood to bring them home to Him Adding further and sayingâ— that God hath given us skill to build Ships and to tame Horses and command the Sea and hath shewed us how to make Vocâ—l Speaking Papers that so the Indians seeing all these things might the more readily believe us And that we are able besides these things to do any other such Miracles as He himself did when He was upon Earth as namely Healing the sick Raising the Dead to life if so be that we be but Obedient to his commands and be Baptized with water in the Name of the Only One God and be cleansed from Our Sins by His Invisible Grace And that He hath given us these Arms to punish all those that should endeavour to hinder the Propagation of the Truth Some such Prologue as this should have been used to winne upon them at first and they should also have made choise among the Indians of some such as by their looks they should have guessed to have been the fittest to be instructed in this Doctrine and should have instilled the same into them and should afterwards have sent them like the woman of Samaria in the Gospel to call their Countrymen and fellow Citizens and should have used them with all gentlenesse and courtesie and without either Cruelty or Covetousnesse And they should besides have perswaded them that They regarded Gold as litle as the Indians themselves did and that they made use
but these should be transacted by the Personal joynt consent of all or at least by signifying the same by their Letters In like manner as all things that concern the Kings Interest in Italy are by a very wise course therein taken appointed to be considered of by the Kings Embassadour lying Lieger at Rome the Vice-Roy of Naples and the Governour of Millan The Third sort of Union is of Goods and therefore my Opinion is that the King should do well to divide every New discovered Country among the common People and Maimed Spaniards according to the Ancient Roman Law called Lex Agraria joyning with them also such Africans and Indians as he had not long before transported into Africk but still under this Condition namely that None of them all shall account what he possesses to be his own proper Goods but must reckon upon all to be the Kings save onely what belongs to the Clergy And Fields Castles and Offices are to be frequently taken from those that hold them and to be disposed of to others that so the Eyes of all may be upon the King onely in whose gift and at whose disposal all these things are yet the fruits of the Earth of every mans Land they may gather and enjoy as their own There should also Judges be appointed out of the Clergy who should assign every man what is his Due and should allot so much for the Maintenance of the Clergy so much for to pay Souldiers and so much to be paid to the King for a Tribute And these Judges should take care to see that no Spanish Souldier shall possesse any thing as his own save only his Armes unlesse it be by chance some small Orchard or Garden for to recreate himself in but they shall all be maintained at the Publick Charge And as for such sons of Souldiers as shall not be fit to serve in the Wars they may be put to the Plough and in their places to the end that the whole Power may still be solely the Kings there may be some such chosen out among the Husbandmen as shall be thought most fit for that purpose and may be trained up to the use of Armes And thus shall all things be ordered according to the Kings own wish and desire and the King himself also shall be beloved above all things neither will his Subjects desire to have any ample Possessions seeing they all depend upon Military service only by means whereof they are daily enlarged And when it shall be thought convenient so to do there may be Vines and the Seeds of other things sent over to them that so they may have wherewithal to delight themselves but yet let them be so sparingly furnished with these things as that they may alwaies stand in need of us for their support For if that the use of Vines the liberty to till the ground and the exercise of Armes together with the use of Printing and the Building of Ships should be denied them the King might thereby easily incur the Suspition of Tyranny In the most convenient places of that Hemisphere there should be erected Schools for the study of Astronomy the Mathematicks the Mechanical and other Arts and Sciences as hath been formerly shewed that so the Constellations of the Heavens and the Seas and Countries of that Part of the World may be the more fully discovered and made known I would not have either the Kings or lesser Princes of any of those Countries to be killed but rather to be carried over into Spain For that will both adde to the Majesty of the Spanish Empire and will also very much win upon the Affections of the Indians CHAP. XXXII Of Navigation BUt now for the better preserving of this Dominion of the New World entire to himself the King of Spain had need to build him a great number of Woodden Cities and to put them out to Sea which being laden with Commodities may continually passe to and fro betwixt this and the West-Indiesâ— and by being perpetually abroad and so scouring those Seas may hinder the English and othersâ— from making any Attempts that way For the performing of which Design the King of Spain will have need of very many Ships which should also be very well Manned with a sufficient number of Sea-men which should sayl about to the New VVorld and round about Africk Asia Calicut China Iapan and the Islands adjacent subduing all where ere they come And all this might easily be effected if that the King would but give his mind to gather Men together rather then Mony seeing that it appears evidently enough that in those Expeditions of his against England the Netherlands and France He was utterly frustrate and failed of his designs meerly through his trusting too much to his Mony and his want of Able Souldiers First of all therefore in all the Islands of Sicily Sardinia the Canaries those of the Achipelago St. Lazaro in Hispaniola likewise and the Philippine Islands I would have Seminaries to be erected for Mariners and places appointed all along the Coast of Spain where young youths maâ— be taught to build Ships and Gallies and may learn to know the Stars and the use of the Mariners Compasse and of the Sea Tables and Charts all these things I say I would have beaten into the dullest heads And then whensoever He destroyes any Country He ought to have more regard to the Captives then to the spoiles of it and so becomming wiser then formerly He shall change away Gold and Silver for a better sort of Merchandise Secondly at what parts so ever His Navy shall arrive He should make Havens and erect such Work-houses especially at the mouths of Rivers and Bayes He should cause Ships and Gallies to be built in the manning of which He may make use of such Mariners as have been brought up in the foresaid Seminaries Thirdly when He hath thus gotten to be well stored with Men He may then treat with the richer sort among the Portuguezes and the Genois and let them know that they shall have both of them free liberty to builâ— themselves Ships and Gallies and with the same to sayle round about the New World which is now almost wholly the King of Spains and to go into the Havens and to fall upon Towns and Castles there and to keep all the Booty they shall there find to themselves only the places themselves they shall deliver up to the Kingâ— together with all the Elder Children of both sexes for the supply of His Seminaries And if they chance to take any whole large Country they may have whole Baronies bestowed upon them for their Reward And by this means both the King will be enriched and the Genois will become the Instruments both of confirming and enlarging the Kings Empire who yet are themselves so rich as that they are able either of them to set forth whole Fleets of Ships against the Great Turkâ— and to take in very many Countries for themselves
particular People there lyeth For those that lye under the Equinoctial would have Moderate Lawes but those that are under the Tropicks must have more severe and rigid Lawes as also those that are under the Pole but those that are nearer to the Frigid Zone desire Milder Lawes but those that are more remote and lye nearer to the Tropicks as do the Inhabitants of Siam require Austere Lawes and such as carry a Religious Reverence with them But those that are situate in a Middle Position as the Italians are are of like Nature to those that lye under the Equinoctial When another Country loseth any of its Inhabitants by reason of the difference of Religion New Lawes are presently to be made by some Bishop and some Eminent Commander of War and a Colony of fit persons is to be sent thither as for example Netherlanders may be sent into Africk Italians into the Netherlands and Spaniards into the New World And the fittest time to do this is when the War is on foot there but when they begin once to yield the Lawes may then be altered by little and little as it is fit it should be done in the Low-Countries when the People there shall submit and yield obedience to the Spaniards For then there should be more use made of the Tongue in governing of them then of the Sword and the Inquisition is also to be kept up there` under some Other Name and Pretense But if any City or Country that is addicted to the Catholick Religion be taken in it will be sufficient then to send thither some Spaniards onely to guard it and some Wise Persons who by degrees may change the Lawes of the Place but the King must put some of his own Subjects and of his own Country into the highest and chiefest places of trust but with the meaner and lower Offices he may intrust the Inhabitants of the place as Duke Francis did at Sena and the Venetians at Padoua But when the Name of a Spaniard begins once to be hateful among them let Him then send thither such Italians as He may safely trust and employ them as his Ministers there Now what course is to be taken in the several Kingdomes belonging to the Spaniard I shall shew hereafter Onely this I shall say here that the First and Principal Keeper of the Lawes ought to be Honour the Second Love and the Third Fear But where this Order is inverted and runs the contrary way nothing will there prosper Of Counsel CHAP. XII THe Supreme Councel or Court ought to consist of the King and some few of the Wisest of his Nobles with some of the Clergy joyned to them Yet the Court of Grace of which I spake before must be above the Supreme Court of Iustice. The Councels of that Kingdom are already managed rightly enough yet their Decrees would be observed with greater Reverence and Religion if that course were taken which I before proposed namely of adding to them a greater number of the Prelates for by this means the Clergy will be the easier won and withall the Decrees of the said Councels will be of the greater esteem and reverence We are to take notice also that persons of any Nation whatsoever are not fit to be presently taken in for Counsellours but such only as know the Customes of the Country or are Learned Men as was Plato or else have an excellent dexterity of wit as had Ciâ—cinnatus For as much therefore as the Spaniard is a person of good ability in all matters of a subtile Nature and where there is use of Good Language as the Germans abilities lie chiefly in matters that are to be done by the Hand and require Labour and the Italians in matters of State Government and Policy it must therefore be the Kings Care that he make a right Choice of these several persons and according to their different Abilities make use of them in His Counsels My Opinion is therefore that in Maritime Affairs and whatsoever concerns Navigation He ought chiefly to employ the Portuguez and the Genouese But in things which concern Mechanical Arts Artificial Fire-works and Engines of all sorts the Transalpine is the only man but where the Government of State is concerned let the Italian be there made use of but as for Fortifications keeping of Garrisons making Discoveries or giving Intelligence and going on Embassies or whatsoever concerns Religion with any of these let the Spaniard be intrusted And seeing that we would have the King of Spain to be Lord of the whole World it must be his care as much as he can to draw on all Nations to comply with the Spanish Manners and Customes that is let Him make them all Spanish Let Him also make them Partakers as well of Government as of Warfare as the Romans of old did and as the Turks Custome is to do at this day For otherwise the Spaniard will be the lesse couragious in War as not having any to rival him in Military Glory and Renown neither will the Counsellours strive among themselves who shall excell the other in Smartnesse and sharpnesse of Wit when they find that all Forreign Nations are cut off from all hopes of being called to Counsel I say therefore that Spaniards are for the most part though not alwayes to be admitted into the Counsel of Spain and especially those of Religious Orders as being the only persons that have little or no Interest of their own in Secular Affairs Into the Councel of Italy there must be taken in such Spaniards as have lived some time in Italy with some Italians and two out of the Netherlands For by this means all the several Nations will rest satisfied and the Kings Counsels will be â—he better tempered because the Spaniard will alwayes be of a Contrary Judgment to the Italian as thinking himself the better man and the greater respect and dignity due to him because the Head of the Empire is with Them and the Italian according to the Freedom of spirit of that Nation will boldly give such Counsel as he conceives to be sound and Good and endeavour to curbe and abate the Fiercenesse of the Spaniard and then must the Netherlander come in and reconcile them to each other The Councel of the Netherlands seeing it is already granted that the Councels of all Nations must be held in Spain must be made up of Spaniards Italians and Natives for the same two causes before given in The Councels of both the Indias must consist of Spaniards and such of other Nations as have continued in the same for some time whether English Genuese or others provided alwayes that into such Councels as concern the State there be taken in some that are of Religious Orders and also some of the Wisest among the Nobility and any others that are well skilled in the Customes Religion Rites Situation and the Policy both Domestick and Military of the several Nations what Country soever they themselves be of I shall here lay