pray what can he want who hath Money unlesse he make such a foolish wish as Mydas did that whatsoever he touch'd might turn to gold for so he might starve medias inter opes inops Ther is a proverb in Spain that Don sin dinero no es Don si no Donayre A man without money is no man but a bable but a man with money commands the world according to those witty verses of Petronius Arbiter Quisquis habet nummos securâ naviget Aurâ Fortunamque suo temperet arbitrio Uxorem ducat Danaen ipsumque licebit Arisium jubeat credere quod Danaen Carmina componat declamet concremet omnes Et peragat causas sitque Catone prior Iurisconsultus paret non paret habeto Atque esto quicquid Servius Labeo Multa loquor quidvis nummis praesentibus opta Et Veniet Clausum possidet Arca Iovem I confesse it may be the Catholick King may be plung'd in a gulph of debt having allwayes his Sword drawn and being in perpetuall hostility with the common enemy of Christendom to his great glory as also in actuall Warr with some of the Princes of Europe who if they wold let him be quiet he might quickly subdue all Mauritania the opposit shore to Spain yet for all ther is never any the least appearance of want in the Catholique Court nor the least shew that Spain is in warr or want but all things flourish as if he did not ow peny or as if he were in peace with all the world It makes me think upon Glareanus a great learned man but much in debt who being asked by a friend of his how he liv'd He answer'd I lead the life of Kings and Princes for I drink I eet and indulge my genius I game and have money always in my purse yet I am in arrears to all so it may be said of the King of Spain But it is brave security the Spanish King gives to his Creditors no lesse then assignments upon his occidentall Fleet which weigh all circumstances well is one of the greatest glories that ever Monarch had Fortune her self may be call'd the King of Spaines wife who hath brought with her such a bottomles tresure for her dowry His closet is that punctum so often wish'd by Archimedes whence he moves the whole Globe of the Earth He hath more Kingdoms then the French King hath Provinces more Fleets then the French hath Shipps more Nations then the French hath Citties more Viceroys then he hath Marshals and more Captains by Land and Sea then he hath Common-Soldiers It is day It is Spring perpetually with him in one part or other of his dominions Strabo writes of one who had such a strong and piercing perspicuity of sight that he could discern an object 135. miles off for from Lilybaeum a promontory in Sicily he could discern and dinumerat the Shipps that went out of Carthage road But the Catholique King hath stronger Optiques for from his Councell Chamber he can see what is a doing in the Seralio at Constantinople in the Louvre in France at White-hall in England at Vienna in Austria in the Consistory at Rome his sight is so sharp that he can penetrat the very Cabinet-Chambers of Kings far and neer and pry into their intrinsecallst and secretst Councells All other Princes and States stand to him in the light and he in the dark to them But wheras you say that the Spaniard is irreconcilable unto the Reformed Religion let me tell you although the Theologues there do sometimes inveigh against Luther and Calvin alledging that the God of the Calvinists is the Author of sin Deum Calvinistarum esse Authorem peccati as may be infer'd out of Iohn Calvins own words yet you must not count the Spaniard an Antichrist for this Nor although he will rant it out sometimes that he will go arm'd to Paradis and rapp out other Rodomontado's 'T is tru the Spanish Soldiers are great Libertines but not Atheists nay som of them have good Consciences and capable of Repentance As ther is a true and memorable story of a Spanish Captain who wold have ravish'd a Lawyers daughter in Flanders 1578. who was of an alluring beauty but strugling with her she took his own dagger and mortally wounded him to preserve her pudicity The Spaniard thus wounded was taken away and he sending for a Surgeon 't was told him he could not escape death many howers therupon he call'd for his ghostly father to whom having confess'd and shewed great Evidences of repentance he was absolv'd from the attempt but this is not sufficient sayed he the party whom I wold have wrong'd must pardon me hereupon the yong Virgin came to whom he sayd in rathfull termes I am here upon my deaths bed therefore I desire you wold pardon my rash attempt and for your pardon and the expiation of the offence I bequeath unto you all my Estate provided that you will give me rites of buriall and assume hereafter the name of my wife The yong maid melting into teares did do all the Testator desir'd accordingly But my noble Cousin George Frederique I find 't was not enough for you to bespatter the Spaniard and tax him of pride prophanes and many other Vices but you bereave him of the glory for discovering the new World and of the right of that Discovery Seneca the Spanish Tragaedian was as much Prophet as Poet he was a tru Vates when he sung Venient annis Saecula seris quibus Oceanus Vincula Rerum laxet ingens Pateat Tellus Typhisque novos Detegat Orbes nec sit terris Ultima Thule Late yeers shall bring an Age wherin the Ocean shall slacken the ligaments of nature a mighty tract of Earth shall appeare and Neptune shall discover new Worlds so that Thule or Island will not be the furthest part of the Earth Now his Countreymen made Scneca a tru Prophet herein to whom that mighty blessing of discovery and dominion was reserv'd In so much that both the Prophet of this new tract of Earth and the propagators thereof were Spaniards So most humbly thanking this noble Auditory for this priviledg of reply I desire you most noble Cosen and illustrious Baron of Limburg to have a more charitable and just opinion of Spain DIXI THE ORATION OF THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS LORD EUBESWALD c. FOR GREAT BRITAIN Most Honorable and Heroique Princes IF any one of this Illustrious convention would set forth the glory of some great City which flow'd with plenty of all things that were requisit either for necessity or pleasure exceeding therein the very wishes of the Inhabitants a City which had also impregnable fortifications and strength both by art and nature with armes of all kinds such propugnacles such advantages by land and water both to defend her self and destroy the enemy Who had a grave way of administration of Justice whose Inhabitants did florish with all sorts of manufactures with all kind of vertu invention and
certainly the Romans must needs be very valiant men naturally besides so many victories did heighten their courage Among thousands of examples which I could produce let Licinius Dentatus serve for one who as Valerius Maximus avoucheth had receaved forty and five severall wounds and never a one backward he had been in above one hundred battailes and brought home thirty and foure spoiles What notable great Generalls did she breed of divers tempers Marcellus was of a fiery spirit Fabius Maximus was politiquely slow Pompey was daring The Scipios were patient Caesar for expedition for martiall knowledge and magnitude of mind was unparalleld When Pyrrhus came with a new race of men and horrible Elephants into Italy and was advanced within thirty miles of Rome He sent unto her if she would parly word was sent Pyrrhus Italiâ cum copijs excedito ubi excesserit de pace si volet agito ni excesserit Arma viros acieâ—… expectato Let Pyrrhus depart Italy with all his forces when he hath done that there shall be a treaty for peace if he will but if he do not depart let him expect Armes men and a battaile such was the undauntable courage of Rome in that age which it seems did much degenerat afterwards when the Goths Vandalls Huns and other Septentrionall rough-hewn peeple appeared before her And the reason of this degeneration in the mind of the Romans was that by desuetude of arms and want of an enemy they fell to voluptuousness to ease and softnes Before they had a brave method in training up their youth they were instructed in letters till they were twenty afterwards in military discipline But new Rome after so many assaults and sackings of divers barbarous nations as she fell in glory so she also fell lower in situation for she removed from the seven Hills to the plaine of Campus Martius where she is seated now having lost the fift part of her circumference and magnitude and being not the sixt part so populous yet a notable providence hath attended this City that she florisheth still and though she be not so bigg as she was ' yet she is better since the standard of the Crosse was planted there by a speciall benignity of heaven she hath the Law of Christ insteed of her Legions As she was before the chiefest City in the world for armes so she is now for Religion she is the Court of the Chief Pastor and the common Countrey of all Christians she is the gnomon of the great Diall of saving Faith Romana Ecclesia est illa quae non modo tot principum Imperatorum sed quod longè praeclarius est omnium sanctorum Catholicamater in cujus gremio mori faelicius est quà m ab initio nasci cùm non nasci satius sit quà m in hac non mori The Roman Church is she who is not onely the Catholique universall mother of Princes and Emperours but of Saints in whose lapp it is more happy to die then to have been born it being better not to be born at all then not to die in Her as Montanus saith This makes her so refulgent for so many prerogatives that the greatest part of the European world as also all the new Converts in the American new world doe acknowledge her the Chief seat of the Oracles of God and her Bishop the chiefest ministeriall head of the holy Church and to deny this if we may be-believe Stapleton summae impietatis vel praecipitis arrogantiae est It is either the highest impiety or the desperatest arrogance He is the universall Shepheard the successor of Saint Peter and the Vicar of Christ the Commission which our Saviour gave Saint Peter Feed my Flock is transferr'd to him in chief and with the Commission the keyes and power also of absolving and binding For which respect such an humiliation and reverence Religion strikes into the Soul of man all Emperors and most Kings doe willingly give not onely precedence but perform Offices of service unto him as among a world of instances that could be produc'd besides Charles the fifth did at Bolonia and Francis the first at Marseilles How many Emperors have held the bason while he wash'd his hands how many Kings have held his stirrop while he mounted and descended off his Mule how many have lead his horse by the bridle How many thousand Princes have kiss'd his Pantouffle and carried him in a Chair upon their shoulders and gloried in all these acts of submission such a Power Christian Religion hath to humble the hearts of the greatest Princes and make all temporall greatnesse stoop to the spiritual hopes of Heaven 'T is true that Rome from her very infancy when she was a Pagan was much given to the reverence of the Gods Her Pontifex Maximus was then in high adoration she had magnificent and costly Temples Altars and Fanes which had singular immunities and prerogatives the Temple was then an Asylum and Sanctuarium a refuge and sanctuary from all violence and of these Ethnic Temples Rome had 4. times more then she hath now of Christian Churches She had then her Nunneries and Vestall fires her Flamins and Archflamins more in number then any other City when she had conquer'd any forren Nation their Gods were brought to Rome and they were ascited among hers admitted alledging that there could not be too many Gods to preserve so great a City Yet there was violence laid then upon the conscience in spiritual things nor did the Ecclesiastick Power and Pontifex Maximus ever clash with the temporal for Superiority but alwaies yeilding unto it as receiving his Protection Meanes and Maintenance from it This was the genius of old Rome but new Rome came to be so high in her devotions that she came at last to give more alleageance to the Pontifical Power then to the Imperial Nor were the Roman Emperors ever in that adoration in old Rome as the Pope is now in the new whom she holds to be so farre above the temporall power as the Soul is above the body 'T is true there was much reverence given to the chief Roman Magistrate and Senate from all times Adherbal King of Numidia call'd himself Romanorum Procuratorem The Romans Procter Eumenes King of Pergamus came to Rome and pulling of his Capp offer'd it to the Senate confessing he receiv'd his liberty from Rome Prusias King of Bithynia when he came to the Senate he us'd to kisse the threshal of the door acknowledging himself Mancipium Senatus a slave unto the Senate Tiridates King of Armenia bowd himself to Nero's knees But there was never such low submission done to any Pagan Governor as is now done to the Pope whom the Turkes call Rumbeg that is Prince or Lord of Rome and the Persian Rumschah King of Rome for we never read that the Ethniques ever descended so low as to Foot-Osculation which is a reverence peculiar and due only to the Pope the Emperor and other Kings being
greedy of Wine so are the Spaniards greedy of another mans wealth and so to interdict the German his wine were the same as to prohibit the Spaniard he shold not robb which was one of the ten Commandements of God Almighty where you shall not find any against drinking And as the peeple of Spain are such robbers so the Kings of Spain are the greatest of all They are Robbers of whole Kingdoms and Countreys they are the Harpies of the earth for whersoever they confine they cast about how to devoure their Neighbours using all artifices and picking any quarrell to that end in so much that those Virgilian Verses may very well quadrat with their practises Armati Terram exercent semperque resentes Convectare juvat praedas vivere rapto The greatnes of this Nation is but Modern and upstart when the fortune of France was a little wayning Spain began to shine first under Ferdinand King of Aragon Grandfather to Charles the V. so that as one sayd Ubi Galli desierunt Rerum potiri ibi Hispani inceperunt This Ferdinand the first Catholique King vail'd and varnish'd all his Enprizes with the plausible pretext of advancing Religion yet were his pen and his tongue double in doing this he carryed oftentimes two faces under one hood and played with a staff of two ends in his greatest negotiations specially in the performance of Articles 'twixt him and the French King Lewis the XII about the division of the Kingdom of Naples that he shold have Calaba and Apulia and the French Naples and Campania But afterwards he sent his great Captain Gonsalvo who conquer'd both He got also the Kingdom of Navarr by a trick for when an English Army who was sent from Hen. the 8. of England for his assistance was to passe from Spain to Aquitain and the King of Navarr who t is tru was then under Excommunication together with the King of France desiring his English son-in-lawes Forces leave to passe through his Country Ferdinand took his advantage hereby with the help of the English to seaze upon the Kingdom of Navar and thrust out Iohn Labretan who was then lawfull King And to make his cause more specious and pretend som right he insisted upon the censure of the Pope saying That they who were enemies to the Holy Father might be assaulted by any Christian King and that his Holines was to give the Countrey to the first Conquerour Now touching the East and West Indies the Spanish title is unquestionable there you will say but let us examin the busines a little The right which the Spaniards pretend to these two Indies is Right of Discovery For the East Indies it hath been so celebrated by ancient Pagan Writers that to hold the Spaniard to be the first De tector therof were to maintain the grossest paradox that ever was For Pliny relates how Hanno the Carthaginian being carryed about from the feet of Gibraltar to the farthest end of Arabia was the first discoverer of India by twice crossing the Equinoctiall And 't is easie to finde in antient Authors that Malacca was call'd Aurea Cherchonesus and that huge Iland Sumatra was known formerly by the name of Tatrobana what is he who is never so little vers'd in Antiquity but hath read the Orientall Brachman Philosophers and of the Sinenses the peeple of China Touching the West Indies they were not unknown to Plato for whereas he placeth Atlantidis at the mouth of the Gaditan Frete which is the mouth of the Mediterranean he sayeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ther is from Atlantidis a passage to other Ilands and from them to a great opposit Continent What doth he intimat herby but the great Canarie with other Ilands in the Atlantique Sea and by the other Ilands Cuba and Hispaniola by the opposit Continent Peru and Mexico Moreover the Spaniards themselfs confesse that in a valley call'd Cautis in the Province of Chyli they found among the Sauvages many pictures and formes of two-headed Eagles in midst of their houses therfore the Spaniards call that part of AMERICA The Imperiall Province to this day because the Armes of the Roman Empire were found there There is a greater evidence then this that the Spaniards were not the first discoverers of America for ther was a Welsh Epitaph found there upon Madoc a British Prince who it seems flying from the fury of the Saxons in England put himself in som Bark to the fortune of the Sea and landed in America And that the old Britains or Welsh were there it may be confirmd further in regard ther are divers British words found amongst them to this day But what shall we wander so far in the Indies We will come neerer home We know well that Solyman the Turk denied Charles the V. the title of Roman Emperor alledging that he himself was the tru successor of Constantin the Great who was Emperour of East and West And that consequently the City of Rome belongd to the Ottoman Empire and Selim Solymans son urgd such an argument when he took Cypres from the Venetians for he sayed that the sayed Ile appertained to the Soldans of Egipt which was now under his dominion But the Apostolicall concession and bounty of Pope Alexandor the VI. entitles the King of Spain to America touching that I pray here what Attabalipa a wild Pagan King sayd when he heard that his Kingdome was given by the Pope to the Spanish King surely said he that Pope must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foâ—…l or som injust and impudent Tyrant that will undertake to bestow othâ—…r mens possessions so freely But his title may be just you will say for the propagation of Christian Religion yet Christ enacted no such Law that any free peeple shold be made slaves much lesse murther'd and tortur'd either for refusing the Gospell or continuing in their former Religion ther was not any of the Apostles claym'd a Kingdom for his preaching Saint Paul preaching to the Romans did not demand the Empire Our Saviour sayd Go and preach the Gospell to all Nations The Spaniard's lesson is Go and preach the Roman Religion and the Spanish Empire to all Nations and keep under you or kill whosoever shall resist For the first Doctrine which the Spaniards were us'd to vent in any place was Vos Indiani hujus loci Yee Indians of this place we make known unto you All that there is but one God one Pope one King of Spain which you must all obey Thus Motezuna King of Mexico and Atabalipa Emperour of Peru were brought under the yoke though they gave a house full of Gold for their ransome But the Indians did more upon the Spaniards then the Spaniards could do upon them for they brought more Spaniards to adore the Indian Gold then the Spaniards brought Indians to adore Christ Herupon a company of Indians being ready to fall into the Spaniards hands carryed som Gold into the Market place saying This is the Spaniards God le ts dance
jure suffragiorum beneficio Electorum atque populi quisque imperat Haec verissima esse convenit inter omnes annalium rerum humanarum divinarumque peritos atque jam saepius utriusque juris Caesarei atque Pontificii coelestis thesauri testimoniis comprobatum est Nonnulli quidem sanctuli praeter fas contra naturae legem docere non erubescunt pastoris beneficiarium esse Dominum neque ante principem principum esse aut nominari oportere quà m ille servus servorum Author fiat dignum judicârit qui regnet sed haec cum maxima Christianae Reipub. pernicie intollerabili populi Christiani imperatoriae Majestatis jacturâ nec sine gravissimo Tetrarcharum Dynastarum Clientium imperii detrimentâ—… instigante Stygio principe domino hujus mundi commenta esse eventus docet exitus probat Quare decernimus perpetuò sancimus Edicto nimirùm ex solo Electionis beneficio omnem potestatem imperiumque proficisci nec ullo pacto pontificis Romani in hac re sanctimonia flaminio authoritate consensu opus esse Quicunque aliter docuerit senserit â—…actitarit crimine laesae Majestatis reus hostis reipub atque proscriptus esto capite paenas solvito bona ejus publica sunto praedia infiscentur The most holy Empire being the highest power upon earth is the gift of heaven For the Emperour is first before all and second after God Almighty by whom the eternall Majesty does bestow Lawes Rights and Kingdomes to mankind and so great a name is onely given by God to whom onely he is accountable for the administration of the Commonwealth By the election of the Heptarchicall Electors according to the custome of our Ancestors and by the Law of Nations he is King and call'd so For him to send Ambassadours to the Priest of Rome that he would authorize him and give him leave to administer is against the Majesty of the Empire but to binde himself unto him by oath and seek of him the use of the royal Diadem is Religion The Pastor hath no right to any of these things who is servant to his sheep and serves the flock in consecrating the Lord For by right of suffrage by the benefit of the Electors and people every one reignes That these things are true is well known to all those that are vers'd in Antiquity never so little where they shall finde this Doctrine confirm'd not onely by Caesarean but Pontificial testimonies themselves Yet neverthelesse some Sciolists or little modern Saints doe not blush to teach the contrary viz. That the Lord is a Beneficiary to the Shepheard and that the Emperour may not be call'd Prince of Princes till he receive his authority from servus servorum from the servant of servants as the Pope stiles himself to be But this cannot be without much mischief to the Christian Commonwealth and without the utter overthrow of the Imperial Majesty on which so many Princes and Potentates depend Therefore it may be called a Doctrin suggested by the Stygian Prince and belched forth out of hell Therefore we decree and divulge it for an everlasting Sanction that the Caesarean Majesty is derived from the power of Election and not from any sanctimony consent or confirmation of Pontificall authority And whosoever shall maintain publish or teach otherwise we pronounce him criminall of High Treason a professed Enemy to the Imperial Commonwealth and worthy of capitall punishment or Proscription that the property of his goods be altered and confiscated Yet notwithstanding this solemn Sanction how hath the Papal power encreas'd upon the Imperial of late times Caesar was us'd to summon universal Councells It was Constantine the Great who call'd the Nicene Counsel Theodosius the Constantinopolitan Theodosius Iunior the Ephesian Martianus that of Chalcedon which four Councels are next in authority to the 4. Evangelists they are like the 4. Rivers that ran through Paradis Besides how many other General Councels were indicted by Emperors Besides it was their Prerogative to institute Popes Henry the 3. created Clement the 2. Damasus the 2. Leo 9. and Victor the 2. Nay Caesar was us'd to punish the contumacies and exorbitances of the Pope So did Otto the 1. chastice Pope Iohn and Benedict Henry the 3. Sylvester and Gregory Henry the 5. depos'd Pope Paschal There is a cloud of examples to prove this The summons of Henry the 4. to Gregory Hildebrand that Satanical St. as Damianus stiles him are very remarkable Tu Hildebrande non jam Apostolice sed false Monache descende vendicatam tibi sedem Apostolicam relinque Alius sedem B. Petri ascendet qui nulla violentiam Religione palliet sed Beati Petri doctrinam doceat Ego Henricus Rex dei gratiâ cum omnibus Episcopis nostris tibi dicimus descende descende Thou Hildebrand who art no apostolical but a false Monk descend leave the Apostolical seat which thou claimst another shall ascend blessed Peters Throne who will not palliate violence with Religion but teach Peters pure Doctrine I Henry by the grace of God King with all our Bishops do tell thee descend descend I do not see but the Emperor is Caesar still and endow'd with the same power Now touching the oth which the Pope exhibits to the Emperor it is not an Oth of alleageance or fidelity but that Oth relates to the protection and defence which he is bound thereby to give the Holy Church which Lords use to promise ordinarily to their Vassalls and temporal Princes to their subjects And whereas of old the Emperor out of a pious reverence to the Church did use to calculate the time of his reign from the day of his Coronation by the Pope we know well that that custom is grown obsolet and antiquated by a long desuetude In so much that the German or Electorian Coronation is now as valid as the other And I pray how many Emperors have omitted the Papal Coronation and neglected those superfluous formalities and ceremonies The Emperor Henricus Auceps being invited by the Pope to be crown'd at Rome answered It was sufficient for him to be King of the Romans by Gods Grace and so oblig'd to protect Germany from the incursion of infidells Rodolph the 1. gave such an other answer being advis'd to go to Rome to be crown'd Italy said he I know hath consum'd many Alman Kings I will not to Rome I am already King I am already an Emperor and I hope I shall be able to act for the Christian Common-wealth as if I had perform'd that ceremony at Rome The Canonists whose main endeavours are to elevate the Popes Miter above the Imperial Majesty would have it that when Caesar dies the Right is devolv'd to the Pope till a new Election But we well know most noble Princes that by our Golden bull it is ordain'd otherwise that during the Vacancy of the Empire the right of Administration appertains to the Electors of the Rhine and Saxony It is well known how Paul the 4. would have
what one reprehends in another or abroad he finds it at home and haply in his own bosome Now as all quadrupedrall Animalls except Asses are subject to a kind of Vermin so ther is no Nation unlesse it be meerly Asinin but is subject to some infirmities or other Ther is a free and facetious common saying Nullam familiam esse in qua non sit fur aut Meretrix Ther is no family high or low but hath a whore or a knave in 't Now if single Families cannot plead such an immunity how shall we think that whole Nations can be able to do it The greatest wits have a kind of mixture of madnes and the best policied peeple cannot be without som spice of Exorbitancy The purest fields have som kind of weeds that repullulat among the corn Either Intemperance Incontinence Idlenes or Hypocrisy or som other signall vice doth sway among all peeple more or lesse Wherupon when Gaspar Slickius was telling Frederique the fourth that he abhorr'd Hypocrisy so much that he wold go travell to find out a Countrey wher ther were no dissemblers The Emperour smiling said Ultra sauro matas ergo glacialem Oceanum tibi eundum est tamen cum eò veneris non omnino carebit hypocrisi locus si modo tu homo non Deus es Inter mortales enim nemo est qui non aliqua ex parta fictus fucatusque sit Thou must go beyond Sarmatia and the frozen Ocean yet when thou comst thither thou wilt find that there is Hypocrisie if they be Men and no Gods for there is not a Soul among Mortalls but is som way or other fain'd or counterfeited Vitia erunt donec Homines Ther will be Vices as long as ther are men as Cerialis saâ—…th But while we inveigh against the Vice it is no part of humanity to hate the person let us hate the ill Manners and not the Man And being mindfull of our own lubricities as well as of mankinds in generall let us not be too Eagle ey'd into other mens infirmities unlesse it be by them to mend our own I have heard most excellen Prince Maximilian what you have charged the French withall viz. that they were possess'd somtimes with Furies alluding to their sundry civill Commotions 't is very tru yet they have not bin so far transported but they came to themselfs againe and I doubt not but the hand of Heaven will in a short time quench these present flames that now rage there and for us Germans it were our duty to bring all the water of the Rhin to do it by calling to memory that most holy league which was struck between the Emperour Frederique the second and Lewis the eighth of France wherin the most ancient appellation of Germans and Franks was reviv'd and acknowledgd to be the same nation sprung of the same stock therfore it was capitulated that when we came to mention one another we shold mutually term our selfs brothers We must remember also how Maximilian the first caus'd the book which was kept among the Records at Spire to be publickly burnt wherin all the injuries and quarrells that had ever happen'd twixt the Empire and the Kingdom of France were couch'd And you most adorn'd Baron of Limburg under favour you have inveigh'd against Spain with too much heat as if she were Nido di tradimento ove si cova Quanto mal per il mond'hoggi si trova As if Spain were the nest wherin was hatch'd all the mischief that hath befaln poore Europe since the Castilian mounted to this greatnes Now as som Painters when they draw a Face take more pains to set out a Mole or Wert then the gracefulnesse of the whole countenance so under correction have you bin pleas'd to delineat Spain unto us It is true the Spaniard is much emulated by som and hated by others suspected by all but as many sweet and savoury things are not therfore insipid because they prove so to squeazy and unsound stomachs so the Spaniard is not so bad of himself because he is reported to be so by such who either envy or Maligne him All Spaniards are not like the Duke of Alva who because he perfectly abhorr'd a Rebell such as he held our Countrey-man the Low-German to be did such severe execution upon them for wheras they alledg that King Philip had broke his Oath and infring'd their privileges by introducing the Inquisition and imposing new taxes K. Philip answer'd that 't was they themselfs who had broken their own privileges first by receding from that Religion wherein he found them and wherin acording as he was engaged to God Almighty by solemn Oath taken at his Inauguration he was bound to maintain them which he could not do but by strength of Armes and a Warre which they had drawn upon themselfs and therfore it was just they shold maintain it For what he did was to preserve his Oath with the Religion and Immunities he found them in which they wold force him to violat therfor they may thank themselfs for the miseries that befell them which yet in som respect turn'd mightily to their advantage for it fil'd Belgium with wealth and tresure In regard the Spaniard being of so haughty an humor that he wold not relinquish his right to those Provinces he employ'd so much Indian Gold and Silver to reduce them that countervayl'd the price of the Countrey forty times over And had it not been for those unhappy Warrs the Catholique King might by this time have pav'd all his Churches and palaces with Peru Ingots and Mezican Patacoons Touching the Society of Iesuits were it not for their Hildebrandian Doctrine they might be very necessary Members of Church and State both for the Education of youth the propagation of learning converting of Infidels and other things For what concerns Great Britain Hungary and Poland truly the Darts which som Noble Princes here have hurld at them were a little too keen Touching the two last those Encomiums which som noble Princes whom I behold before â—…e have made of them make a full compensation for what was spoken contra They a Martiall peeple perpetually inur'd to Armes and standing upon their gard that the Common Enemy shall rush no further into Europe And for them of Great Britain as they were in former ages much renoun'd for their trophies and feats abroad for one of them built the walls of our Vienna returning from the Holy land which to confesse the truth was more honor to him then to the Arch-Duke who articled with him to do it I say as some ages since the English were famous so of late yeers they were envied by all Nations for their mighty encrease of wealth and commerce with peace and afluence of all felicity Untill these late intestine Warrs happen'd which makes them now to be rather pittied then Envied to be rather scorned then respected yet they have discover'd that the same spirit of magnanimity and prowesse remaines
I could wish it were still in force we should not then have so many treasons and transgressions of Imperiall sanctions the Majesty of Caesar the balance of Dollars the decrees of Diets would be more regarded and Justice would not be so frequently baffled and affronted It is an odd character that Velleius Paterculus gives of our Countreymen Esse Homines qui nihil praeter vocem et membra haberent hominum in summa feritate versutissimi natumque mendacio genus The Germans were men who had nothing but the voices and Members of men yet they had a great deale of wilinesse in their wildnes a Race born for lies Witnes their perfidious carriage in Great Britany towards the old Inhabitants therof when at a solemn meeting and Treaty they carried Knifes hid in their Stockins wherwith in the midst of their salutations they murthered the ancient nobility of the Britons who had come armeles into the field according to the Capitulations of agreement between them that none should bring with him any offensive or defensive Weapon Then when those Saxons which were tru Germans for they came from the lower circuit of Saxony and to this day are calld Saxons by the Welsh and Irish had taken firm footing in Britain what a World of spoiles and devastations did they commit both by Land and Sea In so much that Sidonius complaines of them Quot remiges videris Saxones totidem decernere putes Archipiratas Ita simul omnes imperant parent docent discunt latrocinari Hostis est omni hoste truculentior est ijs quaedam cum discriminibus pelagi non notitia solum sed familiaritas As many Rowers you see of the Saxons you discern so many Rovers and Arch-pirats They all command and obey they learn and teach how to robb An enemy more truculent then any enemy They have not only knowledg but a familiarity with the sea c. I beleeve ther is none here who is ignorant of the story of Hatto the first Archbishop of Mentz who so basely betrayed Albertus Bishop of Bamberg who had casually slain Conradus the Emperours brother who having besiegd him in Therussa castle the sayed Albert was perswaded by Hatto to go and submitt himself to the Emperour and he promised to bring him safe back to his Castle which he did but Albert had his hand tied behinde and so as soon as he returnd his head was chopd off but Hatto sayed to excuse himself that he had only promisd to bring him back to the place from which he had fetchd him and no more What a horrible story is there of another Hatto an Archbishop also of Mentz who was devoured and eaten up alive by rats for his uncharitablenesse to the poor in a yeer of famine whom he had lodgd in a great barne and putting fyre therunto in the dead of night he burnt them all saying that those were the rats which devourd his corn And that this story may be upon perpetuall record the castle where he was eaten is called Rat castle to this day being scituated in the middle of the Rhin whither the Rats swomm after him and never left him till they had bin the executioners of divine vengeance upon him Another such a horrid story as this was that of the devill who appeerd at Hamelen in the shape of pied piper which towne being very much infested with rats the sayed piper did covenant with the Burgers to free them of that Vermin for such a reward which he was to receave a yeer after they saw themselfs freed Hereupon the Piper playing upon a kind of bagpipes that he had all the rats followed him to a great lough hard by where he drownd them all but returning at the yeers end for his reward the Burgers wold put him off with a small matter thereupon playing upon his pipes one evening all the children of the town followed him to the mouth of a hill where he and the children vanished There is a great stone piller stands in that place whereon there is mention hereof and the people of the town to this day in all their publick writings draw their Epoches and computation of yeers from the going out of their children And as the devill appeerd here in the shape of a piper so nere Bremen he gott into a Butcher who being inraged one day with his wife that was bigg with childe he took her into a stable and ripping up hir belly took out the embryon ther being a sow hard by big with pigs he killd the sow also and taking out the piggs he sowed them up in his wifes belly and the childe in the sow's Can the witt of man run upon a more nefandous thing But Germany is full of these bloody stories And whereas you know we have a custom when any notorious theef is hangd to stick so many pegs in the gibbet as he had killd men it is ordinary to finde in Moravia and other places such gibbets som with twenty som with thirty and I heard lately of one that had sixty three peggs stuck into it denoting so many murthers by one man Now if we descend to Low Germany we shall find hir litle inferiour to the Higher in strange kindes of immanities What an inhuman thing was that in Gant when the father and the son being condemnd to die for one Fact it was adjudged they shold draw lotts whither the father should hang the son or the son the father and it fell to the son who accordingly thrust out of the world him who brought him in But now I speake of the Citty of Gant which is held to bee one of the most mutinous and inconstant Cities of Christendom and therfore no wonder that she hath so many windmills within her walls what nation I say hath shewd more arguments of instability then Allmain Go first to Religion since that Shaveling Monke Luther fell in love with the Abadesse to enjoy which he made Religion his bawd I pray you how many new Sects have crept in since Iohn Calvin came apace after him he usherd in the Anabaptists then what a swarm of Swenkfeldians Osiandrians Huberians Oecolampadians and Arminians have we and if you desire more you may go to Amsterdam Where you shall find as many sorts as ther be of Venice glasses in Murano What a scandall to the German Nation was Iohn of Leyden that frantique Rascall what an opprobry to Christianity is that Amsterdam wher such a confusion of Religions is allowed no wonder for she is one of the nearest to Hell of any town upon earth And as in the reign of Nimrod there fell a curse upon those that would dwel so high by a confusion of tongues so a confusion of beliefs is fallen upon these men by dwelling too low and cosening the fish of their inheritance for indeed the Fish shold inhabit that Countrey which they have forced out of the jawes of the Sea and thereby may be called tru Usurpers But touching religion the
French fancy was never so greedy after new fashions in apparrell as we Germans high and low do thirst after new fangling opinions in matters appertaining to Christian Doctrin and discipline It was a notable saying of Queen Katherin de Medici when she was Regent of France that the two greatest Heretiques which Europe produced were Luther and Machiavil hir Countrey man the one in matters of piety the other of policy But we Germans being commonly of a higher stature then other Nations we are compard to Houses of five or sixe stories high wherein the upper rooms are worst furnished meaning the cells of our brains as if the largenes of members shold lessen the strength of the mind according to that of Seneca Nimio robore membrorum vigor mentis hebescit quasi abnuente naturâ vtriusque boni largitionem ne supra mortalem sit felicitatem eundem et valentissimum esse et sapientissimum The vigor of the mind growes dull by too great strength and boysterousness of the body Nature denying as it were such a double bounty it being beyond humane felicity for the same man to be most valiant and most wise It is the saying of Bartolus that Longi Homines sunt raro sapientes Tall men are seldom wiâ—…e And as Helvetia is so sterill that she cannot feed her self Hassia so swelling with barren Hills that somtimes she is ready to starve As the Marquisat of Brandenburg and Westphalia are choakâ—…d with sand as other places up and down Germany are full of ill aird fenns and marishes that hinders the fertility of the Countrey and impaires the health of the people and as in som rank grounds weeds get up so fast that the corn cannot grow so in our German natures there is still som obstacle or other that choakes the growth and tapring up of vertu I confesse that our Compatriotts are cryed up generally for continence but truly I do not think they deserve it so much as the world thinks for how many Baths or rather Brothell Houses of lust have you up and down Germany where shirts and smocks promiscuously meet whence som Ladies that came Penelopâ—…s thither go away Helens Poggius writes a book entitled de schola Epicureae factionis quae regnat in Teutonia Of the school of Epicurism which raignes in Germany meaning the Baths of Boden and others He sayeth Nulla in orbe Terrarum balnea ad faecunditatem mulierum magis esse accommodata innumerabilem multitudinem nobilium et Ignobilium ducenta millia passuum eo venire non tam Valetudinis quam voluptatis gratia Omnes Amatores Omnes Procos quibus in deliciis vita est posita eo concurerere ut fruantur rebus concupitis multas faminas simulare corporum aegritudines cum animo laborent omnibus unam mentem esse tristitiam fugare quaerere hilaritatem non de communi dividundo agere sed de communicando divisa There are no bathes so accommodated for the fruitfulnesse of women as the Germans an innumerable company of nobles and ignobles come thither two hundred miles off not so much for health as pleasure All amorous men all suters all servants of ladies who delight in delicacies flock thither many women go thither to cure the sicknesse of the mind rather then of the body they com thither not to treat of dividing the Common but of communicating what are divided What sayeth the Monke of Ulmes of his own Country women he sayeth Omnia aliarum Regionum lupanaria habent foeminas de Suevia sic etiam omnia poene monasteria procul existentia habent virgines Suevigenas et dilectae et utiles Monasteriis sunt plus quam aliae propter bonam naturae dispositionem The Bordells allmost of all Countreyâ—… have som women of Suevi and also all Monasteries though a good distance off have Suevian Nunnes for they are loving and prove more usefull then others for their good naturall dispositions Among other examples let this serve to shew the impudicity of our German ladies in the person of Barbara Count Hermans daughter and wife to the Emperour Sigismund who having tried the mettall of the strongest backs in her husbands time was after his death admonish'd by her ghostly father to live chast and like the turtle wherunto she answerd If you Father Confessor wold have me imitat birds why shall I not the life of a sparrow rather then of a turtle Now Frederique the brother of this Barbara was as bad as she who having murtherd his wife for the love of his concubine and being dehorted by a pious freind from his damnable dissolut courses specially now being ninety yeers of age and to think on his Grave Yes I will sayed he and I intend to have these lines insculpd upon 't Haec mihi porta est ad Inferos quid illic reperiam nescio scio quae reliqui abundavi bonis omnibus ex quibus nihil fero mecum nec quod bibi atque edi quodque inexplebilis voluptas exhausit This is my passage to Hell I know not what I shall find there I know what I left I abounded with all things whereof I carry nothing with me neither of what I ate or drunk or exhausted in insatiable pleasure The example of Henry Duke of Brunswik is very signal who being desperatly in love with Eva Tottina a young damsell daughter to a gentleman of good quality that kept his Dutchesse company he plotted that she shold make â—…emblance to go to visit her frends at such a castle whither being com she faind her self sick over night and so her women who were her complices gave out she was dead of the plague in the morning so having gott a wooden statue in a chest of purpose they coffind the statue and sent it to be buried so the Duke did satiat his â—…ust and got seven children of her What shall I say of the kings of Denmark is it not a common thing for them to keep concubines in their Courts which are attended upon like Queens It is well known how many bastards Maurice Prince of Orenge left behind him who being advised by a reverend Divine upon his deathbed to marry that woman of whom he had most of his sons therby he might preserve her reputation from being a whore and his children from being bastards but being pressed to it he answerd No I will not wrong my brother Harry so much who was to be his Heir Albertus the Archduke it seems preferrd the pleasure of his body before that of his soul when he shook off his Toledo miter and Cardinals capp to maâ—…ry the Infanta of Spain Touching Intemperance especially the vice of ebriety and excesse of drinking where hath it such a vogue as in Germany it is her bosom peculiar sin and she hath infected all other Nations with it The Belgian complaines that the immoderat uâ—…e of wine came tumbling down upon him from high Germany like snow rushing down the Alpian Hills whence it found passage