Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	prince_n	queen_n	3,203	5	6.8163	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28504	I ragguagli di Parnasso, or, Advertisements from Parnassus in two centuries : with the politick touch-stone / written originally in Italian by that famous Roman Trajano Bocalini ; and now put into English by the Right Honourable Henry, Earl of Monmouth.; De' ragguagli di Parnaso. English	Boccalini, Traiano, 1556-1613.; Monmouth, Henry Carey, Earl of, 1596-1661.	1656 (1656)	Wing B3380; ESTC R2352	497,035	486

to live and die what they were born For if it should so fall out that any one to better his condition should presume to make himself head of any Heresie the power of all the other free Towns who were joyntly interessed in Liberty with that City where factions began to arise would presently assist with arms in hand to beat down that faction Moreover that though the diversity of religions occasioned in those Cities by the Liberty of Conscience were less dangerous in them yet could it not be said that they were totally free nor that the humor was not pernitious and apt to occasion deadly evils and that no father of a family was ever induced to set his own house one fire for having the means of quickly quenching it by a neighbouring River But that in Empires and great Kingdoms it fared otherwise for in them there were oft-times brothers to him who Governed in Chief and other Princes of the bloud and there were alwaies therein great store of particular privat men eminent for birth riches and adherents who were all of them ambitious and out of a thirst of reigning thought any enterprize how desperate soever easie And that to boot with these they had potent forreign enemies upon whom they confined who were more then ready to foment such heads of faction as should appear to arise as had lately been seen in France and in Flanders and that as well the lay Princes Electors as every other Prince of the Empire who had imbraced the present Heresies did not live with liberty of conscience but with a particular thirst accommodated to human Interest As appeared clearly in the Lutheran impiety which taking its beginning in the Dukedom of Saxony to the end that he who declared himself to be Head thereof might not grow too great the rest of the Heretick Princes had introduced the new Sects of Calvin Zwinglius and of others in their States with such confusion to sacred things as it might be truely said that there was as many Heresies in Germany as Princes and Potentates that did rule there And that which made me wonder most was to hear that some Subjects in Germany were forced to alter their Religion at their Princes pleasure an inconvenience which was seen to happen so often amongst them as some Cities have past sundry times from one Heresie to another in less then one months space All which are things of very bad example and an excellent means to introduce that Atheism amongst men which I said I thought was not to be found amongst beasts Wherefore Bodin as a horse which is long suffered to go without a bridle becomes fierce and unserviceable to man so people when they have the Reyns of Religion let loose in their necks grow wild seditious unruly and no longer apt to be governed or ruled by a Prince For he who is not taught by a sound and well regulated religion to love honor and fear God cannot obey honor nor fear man So great a truth as it is the nature of all people who alwaies err in the extreams to despise Humane Laws when they are miss-led in those that are Divine for the freedom which they have to offend the Majestie of God provokes them against their Prince who gave them that liberty This truth which I tell you is apparently seen in those who seduced the Flemmish to change their religion and to rebell against their natural Prince who to bring them to so wicked an enterprize permitted them to plunder Churches and Church-men and when at last they would have refrained and regulated them in their highest Towring Tumults they found that when God is despised men are so likewise The Government of people is a weighty affair for any Prince how wise soever nor is it possible for him alone to support so heavy a burthen but being assisted by Religion it becomes so easie unto him as one Prince may govern many millions of men for very many are so ill conditioned as they despise human Laws yet do they often fear divine ones and many who little esteem the anger of an earthly Prince dread the King of heaven and live peaceably Bodin was sorely cast down when he heard the Ottaman Emperor speak so solidly of the care which Princes ought to have of the unity of Religion and was then more grieved when the Judges told him that it was wicked ignorance to maintain that Princes are Lords of mens bodies and not fit to rule their souls as if the Allegiance which by Gods command Subjects owe their Princes be not as well a duty of the soul as of the body and that God hath constituted the most Christian Kings of France and other earthly Princes only that they might feed their ambition by reigning and pass away their time in delight wallowing in the plenty of so many earthly blessings and had not made them his Lieutenants on earth to the end that they may observe his holy Law for these reasons all the Lords of Parliament ordered that he might be immediately punished by fire who had publisht a Tenet fit only to set the world on fire The LXV ADVERTISEMENT Apollo punisheth a Poet severely for having been so desperate as to blaspheme APollo doth so abhor Blasphemy above all other vices as two daies ago he caused a Poets tongue to be struck through with a naile in the Delfick Temples Porch who had presumed to say that Nature had dealt injuriously with him in having indowed him with a Princely soul and allotted him but a beggarly fortune And though many Litterati earnestly beseeched his Majesty that he would in some sort mittigate this punishment he did not only deny to do it but in a great rage said that such wits deserved the severest punishments who being born to a poor fortune consumed all their time in afflicting themselves by seeking out new conceits which might make poverty appear unto them more shamefull and insupportable which they should imploy in seeking out such Instructions as might make it appear less shamefull and more tollerable and that he would teach men of but mean fortunes by this example how to accommodate their minds to their means it being a hatefull piece of petulancy to envy great Princes fortunes whilst others in tattered clothes died of hunger The LXVI ADVERTISEMENT The Vertuosi of Parnassus visit the Temple of Divine Providence whom they thank for the great Charity which she hath shewn to mankind THis morning according to the ancient custom of this Court all the Prince-Poets and the Litterati-Lords of Parnassus went to visit the Temple of Divine Providence to whom Giovan Ioviano Pontano made a learned Oration wherein he highly praised the infinite Charity and immence love which she had shewed to mankind in creating frogs without teeth For it would have been of no advantage to man that this world canopied by so many heavens full of so many stars should not only abound in all things necessary but even be fully fraught

use of the Grecian rites and the cause of this diversity is because there being no Grecian Prince who can cause jealousie to my greatness and consequently the Grecians which live in my Empire not being able to be fomented by any Prince of their own religion they do not trouble me so much as do the Latins who have many and potent Princes which is the cause I take such care to annihilate their religion But I am so watchfull that all my Mahometan Subjects should punctually observe the Religion profest in my State as it is not lawfull for any of them to prevaricate I give you for a clear example of all this That I having the Persian who is held an Heretick by my Religion no Turk that is my Subject dare upon pain of life believe much less preach the Persian Faith nor is that Heresie permitted in my States For though my last Emperors by reason of the divisions of Germany and the great jealousies which are amongst all Christian Princes might much to their advantage have made War in Hungary and so extend my Empire even to Austria the acquisition of which Province would throw open the Gates unto me to conquer Italy yet they have been wisely better advised rather to weaken the Persian Heretick then to make War upon the Christian Princes who being so far distant in poynt of belief from my Religion do not frighten me so much as the Persian Hereticks do for there is a great difference between tolerating Infidelity in a State from which the passage to true belief is so hard and the permitting of Heresie a plague which so easily infects any Kingdom how great soever as the Germans English Flemmings French and others have seen and tryed And know that I have rooted out all Sciences and Learning from out my Dominion only to the end that my Subjects may live in such simplicity as is most requisite for my Religion and to this purpose I have considerately and upon severe punishment inhibited the translation of my Alcheron which is written in the Arabick tongue into vulgar Turkish language having learnt at the cost of some Christian Kingdoms what mischief the translation of the Bible into vulgar languages hath occasioned which falling into the hands of ignorant people I hear that in those parts where this abuse is introduced even poor silly women spend more time in disputes about Religion then in spinning Wherefore to free my self from the evil of Heresie which may be introduced into my Empire by ambitious men I have commanded that whosoever shall propound any doubts in Religion be answered by the Scimiter Because the Heresies which now reigne in the Christian Religion have opened all mens eyes so as they may discern that those who have first sowed them are more moved by ambition of governing the earth then out of charity as they would make blockheads believe of sending mens souls to heaven by their new positions My Subjects sobriety who are all of them bound to drink water makes much for the keeping of my Territories from the contagion of Heresie and I say this for that I see the fire of Heresie amongst Christians breaks most forth there where they drink merriliest I very well know that all divisions in States are very dangerous but especially those which arise in point of Religion because people do not only not love honour or faithfully serve those who are not of the same religion with them but hold them to be beasts and bear them that cruel hatred which we see reigns amongst Nations of different Religion Add hereunto That as it is impossible for a man to live without a head so is it for diversity of Factions and where there are two Religions there must of necessity be two Heads and every fool knows whether or no one Kingdom can at one and the same time receive two Kings And thou Bodin oughtest so much the less to have published the seditious opinion which hath caused thee so much sorrow for that thou knowst better then any other that the modern Heresies which now reign in many Chri●… Kingdoms have been sowed and fomented by great Princes to whom Lutherans Calvinists and many others like thy self have served to seduce the people and to be bawds to their ambition only that they may thereby be followed by the mal-content Nobility who greedily imbrace new sects out of a desire to better their condition and by Plebeians who follow them out of avarice and a detestation which they bear to their own unfortunate condition And if for the quiet of Empires all the people of one and the same Kingdom ought to be under one and the same human Law how much more for the same reasons and out of the same considerations ought this to be endeavored in matters of Religion which being bred with us in our mothers belly hath taken such deep rooting in our hearts as she is become the absolute Queen of all our affections and of all our passions and therefore she ought to be so much the better regulated in every State for that we cannot live without her nor can we be touched in any thing which is more ticklish These things are all of them so true as I will boldly affirm that even bruit beasts could they speak or could we understand their yelping braying and other noises which they make would be heard to praise God even as we do who hath created them and who doth feed them I remember that many years ago I heard a Polititian discoursing of this very Article and because he esteemed it too wicked to God-ward and seditious towards Princes I desired to inform my self of him whether there were any Prince or Commonwealth in the world who did permit so wicked a thing in their Dominions And he freely told me That even the most modern Hereticks themselves who had cryed up Liberty of Conscience in other mens States would by no means allow of it amongst themselves For they hated to see their own houses burn with the same fire which they by their seditions had kindled in other mens habitations And of this said he Geneva which I call the sink of all seditious impiety is an evident example where they who endeavor to raise new Heresies are condemned to be burnt The same man told me moreover that in Germany where so many modern Heresies were invented in their Hans Towns only to suppress the house of Austria Liberty of Conscience was permitted but that it would be evidently dangerous to imitate them for that the example of others would prove unfortunate to those who had not all the same requisite circumstances as those whom they set before them for a President He said that the Hans Towns of Germany live without any apprehension of any enemy-Prince who might aspire to deprive them of their Liberty that their Emperors were weak and that their Citizens were not only by nature far from the ambition of Governing the Country but were forced by necessity

upon a three farthing business and that the world did very much desire to see a compleat Collection made of Cases touching the consciences of great Princes A Subject very necessary for the universal tranquillity and yet wholly omitted by Divines In which Collection men should exactly discourse upon those act●…ons of Princes wherewith they so often put the world in confusion filling it with Pillages Plunders and so many Murthers that many of them blinded with an ambition of reigning upon the earth have made it flow withrivers of humane bloud And the most judicious College of the Literati hearing these particulars desired that they should dispute and resolve upon these present questions viz. Whether Christian Piety doth admit of that pretence of Right which the violence of the sword hath usurp'd upon other mens Estates W●…ether a Principality taken either by force or fraud from another Prince may be held by one that hath the true fear of God in him Whether the determination of Governing a Kingdom that is conquered with a purpose only to impoverish and waste it that he may Reign over it without jealousie may be put in practice by him that hath been bred up in the Christian Faith And whether to set and cry up meer damn'd Policy called Ragione di Stato so high that at this instant she tramples upon all Laws Humane and Divine be not a more detestable and accursed Idolatry then to adore Nebuchadnezzars Image and the Golden Calf Lastly the College declared That then their desires should be fully satisfied when there should be found one Divine so truely fearing God that with his Writings he had affrighted Princes from doing amiss as 't is confess'd many of them have with a great deal of pains terrified private men For it seemed to them unreasonably strange that such a multitude of Learned Divines should so trouble themselves to dispute of the strict account which Shop keepers were to give to the Divine Majesty even for idle words and yet should forbear to make any mention of those horrid offences which great Princes commit when with armed Troops plundering mens States they bring all things both sacred and prophane to utter destruction And that their Ministers should with far greater benefit to mankind and eternal rewards to themselves have discoursed upon the actions of Lewis the twelfth and Francis the first both Kings of France of Ferdinand King of Aragon and of the Emperor Charls the fifth whose souls departed this world charg'd with the heavy load of half a million of Homicides all of them committed out of an ambition to Reign for which they were to give a very strict account to God when to stuff up volumns with the venial sins of privat persons All which would be things very necessary to the end that mankind so much afflicted by the ambition of Princes may one day receive that consolation which with so much anxiety it longeth for that those which reign may be frighted from evil-doing and be brought to know that Hell was made as well for mighty persons as for mean Almansor that was King of the Moors meeting with the Kingdom of Naples they two fall a weeping and rehearse their miseries brought upon them by the oppression of the Spaniards THe most famous King of the Moors Almansor he that for many years governed the Noble Kingdom of Granada in Spain met yesterday with the Kingdom of Naples and walking to and again began to discourse with him And after he had for a good while viewed well the chain which this Kingdom of Naples wore about his legg he told him that being of Morisco work he thought he had often seen and handled it And a little while after with gestures of much amazement he assured him that he knew it very well and that it was the very same with which he and the Mauritanian Kings his predecessors had for seven hundred years kept many Kingdoms of Spain in bondage And that therefore he earnestly intreated him that he would discover to him how by whom and when he was enchained A good eye and a very excellent memory hast thou Almansor answered then the Kingdom of Naples for this unhappy chain which thou seest upon my legg was brought from Spain by Consalvo Cordoua called il Gran Capitano And therefore I think it very likely to be the same you speak of And 't is now a hundred years that I have been in that miserable slavery which you see me in From which I know not whether ever I shall be able to free my self because by reason of the excessive power to which I see the Spanish forces are risen having utterly lost all hope of aid that I can expect from men I know my antient liberty lies all in the powerful hand of God who must renew upon me the miracles of the Red-sea if ever I recover The years reply'd Almansor do agree very well for it was but a little before thy bondage that the Spaniards loosned from off the Kingdom of Granada's legg this chain with which they have bound thee But do me the singular favour good Neapolitan Kingdom to tell me how it was possible for the Spaniards to make themselves Masters of such a Kingdom as thou art so potent and so far distant from their Forces By fraud Almansor said the Kingdom of Naples did the Spaniards get footing in Italy for with open force they would never have been able to have made such notable atchievements and as you say very well so infinitely surpassing their forces and those too lying so far off But listen and you will be amazed at the exceeding large conscience which in matters of State a King of Spain had though he used incomparable artifices to be taken amongst fools for a Saint Macarius painted upon a Wall For you will hear a Tragedy according to the rules of my Christian Religion cruel and impious but according to the tearms of Modern Policy the most witty as ever any Nation represented upon the Stage of the World Alfonso my King to his final and my principal ruine gave his Grandchild Isabella ●…or from that unhappy marriage had my ruine its beginning for wife to Giovanni Galeazzo Duke of Millan At first the unfortunate Princes childhood afterwards his unspeakable sottishness encouraged Lodovico Sforza to seise upon his Nephews Estate Alfonso as it behooved him sought to hinder this usurpation Of which ●…ent Lodovico being aware and knowing that without the ruine of my Kings 't was impossible for him to compass the end of his unjust desire he threw himself headlong upon that resolution which since proved so fatal to him to me and all the Italian Princes of calling the French into Italy for the gaining of me My Kings to defend themselves from so puissant enemies called in to their aid that good soul Ferdinand King of Aragon their Cousin who shewed himself such a loving Kinsman and so faithful a friend that instead of driving out the French he shared me