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
excused for having made away with so many of his Brothers Nephews and Kindred seeing that otherwise the meanest person of the Ottoman line that should have but scaped acting a part in that Tragedy might have come to the same Dignity He enjoyed But passing by these Impious and yet â—neffectual Examples of Cruelty let us now come to the Daughters of the King of Spain And these Probably may do well to be matched with the Kings or Princes of Poland and France and also with the Kings of Denmark Muscovia England and the like upon this condition that these Princes promise faithfully to embrace the Catholick Religion which if they would do there would thence a double Benefit accrue The King must take into his Court all the most able and most knowing in all sorts of Sciences and He must endeavour to render both Himself and his Children as excellent in them as is possible that so the Eyes of all men may be turned upon Him and His and may joyn themselves unto them seeing them live so happily and securely In like manner as all the People of Israel even to the Maccabees themselves who had God for their Guide became yet admirers of the Romans and entring into a League with them fled to Them for Protection Now He that protects or assists may naturally be said to be Lord of him whom he protects as the Man became Lord of the Horse whiles He assisted him against the Stag. CHAP. X. What Sciences are required in a Monarch to render him admired by all ALl Great Men when they have gone about to set up a New Monarchy have changed the Sciences that the people were exercised in before and many times also the Religion of the Country that so they might render themselves the more Admired by their Subjects and by this means also other Nations have come in unto them too And this is the reason why the Assyrians under King Ninus changed the Religion of Noah and set up that of Iupiter Belus and applied themselves to the study of Astrology whereby they became so famous and admired that they brought the whole East under their Subjection The like course also was taken by the Persians under Cyrus who took upon himself the Title of Gods Commissary for These introduced into the World the Practise of Natural Magick a Science till then never heard of before and furnished it out with great Variety of New and Admirable Rites and Ceremonies The Macedonians made the world believe that their Prince Alexander the Great was the Son of Iupiter Ammon and withal abolisâ—ing the Ancient Disciplines they brought in upon the Stage the Aristotelian which confuted all that were before it insomuch that his Father King Philip rejoyced very much thereat foreseeing that this Novelâ—y of Doctrine would lay a Foundation for his son to erect a New Empire upon and so thenceforward neglected the worship of Iupiter Mercury Osiris and the rest of the most Ancient among the Gods Thus Mahomet also when he now aspired to a Monarchy introduced a New Religion fitting it to his own Palat and the Gust of the People Iulius Caesar likwise being now got to be chosen the Pontifâ—x Maximus and Astrology being at that time not very well known to the Romans He by changing the Old Account and rectifying the Year laid the Foundation of His Monarchy And the same must the King of Spain also do especially seeing He hath the best Opportunity that can be of doing the same For seeing that it is not Lawful at all times to introduce a New Religion He ought therefore to adorn and set forth the Old so much the more and to enlarge it with variety of New Rites anâ— Ceremonies as also to bring forth into the World New Sciences and such as shall be suitable to His Dignity But above all let him make a Law to be observed by all Christians First That whensoever any People or Country shall forsake the Roman Religion all Princes shall be bound upon pain of forfeiting their Estates to root out and extirpate the same like as God commanded Moses Secondly That the Clergy and such as are skilled in Church Matters shall make it Their care to look to the regulating of the Moneths of the Year and the Daies of the Week calling the several Moneths by the Names of the Twelve Apostles and the seven Daies of the Week by the Names of the Seven Sacraments For the truth of it is that the Inhabitants of the New World when they find in conversing with the Christians that the Heathenish Names of Moneths and Daies are still in use among them they are wrapt into a great admiration And the like course is to be observed in other the like things Thirdly that seeing that New Sciences do make a New Monarchy the more Admired I would have the Schooles of the Platonists and of the Stoicks opened again whose Opinions come nearer to Christianity then the Aristotelian And that we may descend to particulars the Telesian Philosophy is the most excellent of all seeing it comes the nearest to the Holy Fâ—thers and makes it appear to the World that the Philosophers knew nothing and that Aristotle who would have the Soul to be Mortal and the World to be Immortal and denyes Providencâ— also on which Christianity is grounded talks very absurdly notwithstanding all his so specious Reasons seeing that the same are refuted by stronger Reasons fetcht in like manner from Nature Fourthly It is necessary that he set the Wits of the Learned to work with Scholastick Questions lest by being conversant in the Sciences of Natural Things it set an edge upon their Ambition and by this meanes they should aspire to higher Matters Fifthly That He should banish all Theological Questions out of the Transalpine Schools seeing that all the Divines of those parts turn Hereticks by not continuing firm to the Holy Constitutious of the Pope but are still raising up fresh Controversies and the Wits of these men are to be exercised onely in the Disputes of Natural Philosophy Sixtly He must endeavour to get himself Renown as Iustinian did by reducing all the Roman Lawes into One Bodyâ— and as Charles the Great did by opening the School of Aristotle which was at that time the only School of Philosophy in Christendome for all the rest had been long before trodden down to the ground by the Barbarians as I have shewed elsewhere Seventhly He shall do well to shut up all the Greek and Hebrew Schools because that these Two Languages have been destructive to Monarchy and are besides the Main Pillars by which those Heresies that chiefly raign at this day are built upon And therefore on the contrary let him endeavour to bring in the Knowledge of the Arabick Tongue by meanes whereof the Mahumetans may be the better convinced and the troublesome Transalpine Wits may imploy themselves rather in confuting the Turks then in vexing the Catholicks with their Disputes Eighthly Let him also erect Mathematical
Wisest and ablest Commanders for War that are about him Thus we read Sophia Wife to the Emperour Iustinian dealt with Narses who being thereby very much incensed he took occasion to invite the Lombards into Italy to the infinite prejudice and losse both of the Emperour and Empresse Covetousnesse also proves the ruine of Kings as we see in Antiochus who pillaged the Temple of Iupiter Dodonaeus and in Caligula who having profusely wasted all his own most greedily gaped after other mens estates whence they both came to be hated by their Subjects and so died a miserable death Such a one also was Midas who wished That whatsoever he touched might presently â—urn to Gold whereas he could neither eat his Gold nor could it procure him an houres sleep when he wanted it that is to say it was of no use at all to him but it onely laid him open to the spoyl of him that had but the Skill to make use of his Iron Caligula in one year consumed riotously seventeen Millions of Crowns which his Predecessor Tiberius had scraped up together and was afterward reduced to that want that he was forced to betake himself to spoyl his Subjects and to practise all manner of Cruelties upon them King Solomon also what in building of Sumptuous Palaces and Temples and about other most chargeable Pomps and Magnificences expended the better part of a Hundred and twenty Millions which his Father David had left him and notwithstanding that he had no trouble upon him from any part yet did he so excessively overburden his Subjects with Taxes that being become Intolerable to the greatest part of his People he lost a great part of his Kingdome in his Son Rehoboam We do allow in our King a desire of Honour but so that he aspire to it by the steps of Vertue for otherwise He will gain onely the opinion of being Proud which was the ruine of Alboin and Attila And indeed Honour is the Witnesse to Vertue and therefore whosoever is a Vertuous Person he shall attain to True Honour without any Flattery which hath been the overthrow of many a Prince in the World And hence it will also follow that a Prince should not enter into so strict a Tye of Friendship with any One or Two of his Subjects as to indulge them the liberty of transgressing the bounds of Justice and the Lawes without controul For by so doing the Principal Persons of his Nobility and Commanders in War laying aside all duty will look upon him as an Abject Unworthy person And which is more they sometimes in these cases enter into Conspiracies against Him and that very person whom He advanced to so much honour as to make him his Favourite may chance to usurp the Kingdome as we read it happened betwixt Gyges and Candaules King of Lydia So likewise Sejanus did much mischief to the Emperour Tiberius who notwithstanding was as subtle and crafty as any man But yet Macro did more who made an end of him Neither can any thing be more destructive to a Prince then to single out One onely to be his Friend and Favourite And hath not Antonio Perez been of very ill Consequence to the Present King If the King hate any particular persons he must by no means discover it unlesse he find that they are hated by the People also as are commonly all Hereticks Infidels Usurers and Publick Executioners of Justice upon Malefactors for by so doingâ— He shall the more indear himself to the People He must also take notice that Accusations among his Subjects do not so much avail his Kingdome as Calumnies hurt itâ— and therefore He ought alwaies to encline rather to the Accused Party And to the end that he may attain to the highest degree of his Subjects Love and Affection He must set up some Court of Grace that shall be above all other Courts whatsoever that all such persons as are condemned to death may have yet some left to whom they may appeal And the King ought to pardon Offenders often where it may be done safely enough and where the Condemned person hath not been admitted to make his Appeal to the Kings Deputies or hath not offended either against the State or Religion and these Offenders by Him pardoned may be sent out either for Souldiers or else to the Gallies and this will do very much good And of this Court of Grace I would have the King himself to be President and it should consist onely of his Queen and his Children and one Bishop only The King must also with all Modesty and Humility put his chiefest trust in God and repose but little confidence in his own strength especially when He is not endued with any Extraordinary Prudence for the managing of the same and all the weightiest of his Actions must be referred to God as the Author of them that so they may be lookt upon by all with the greater reverence and esteem Let him never hope with a few to vanquish a greater number nor with Undisciplined and unruly Souldiers nor to conquer a forraine enemy in his own Country of which things I have elsewhere spoken He must alwayes remove all Fear far from him and â—e must discover his onely Fear to be lest any Sad Disaster should befall either Religion or his Subjects And in all His Expeditions He must shew himself to the Height of Valour and even of bold Daring too provided that â—e do it with Reason and that so He may the more inflame the courage of his Souldiers Neither ought he ever to seem to be Jealous of the Worth of any one lest he should so betray His own Timorousnesse and Poorenesse of Spirit And therefore to the end that his Subjects may not rebel His safest course will be to keep them alwayes up in Armes rather then to let them lie unarmed quietly at home for being in Armes they will the easier be kept within the bounds of Obedience Because that if they be by fair and Prudential meanes kept in awe they will be ready to make use of their Armes at all times for their Kings advantage but if though Unarmed they be otherwise then fairely dealt with by their Prince they will be apt to revolt from him or which is worse will find Armes which they will turn against Him An example of this kind we have in David and Sâ—ul who was Jealous oâ— David seeing his Valour and Worth The King ought also as often as he begins to be Jealous and fearful of the Greatnesse of any of his Subjects under the shew of honouring him to send him abroad out of the Country he is powerful in to some other as Ferdinand King of Arragon dealt with the Great Duke Consalvus removing him from Nâ—ples where he might possibly have raised Commotions in the State to Spain where he was not able to do any such thing Neither yet are such Men too much to be slighted for by this meanes the Prince might incurre the hatred
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
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
the Princes of Italy and that by reason of their Union in point of Religion I say moreover that He cannot suffer any Notable Overthrow â—nlesse it be by some very Potent Prince such a One as the great Turk is who yet lying so very far remote from him as Alexander the Great of old did from the Romans cannot so quickly ruin him whereas on the Contrary any Peaceable Agreement of the Christians among themselves if so be it were but Firm and Lasting would utterly confound the Turk And therefore I say that although King Philips Kingdomes lye scattered far and near yet his enemies also lye far asunder one from another and therefore it is clear that his Emulators the Italians Tuscans and Venetians will never enter into a Combination against him unlesse he First give them some evident cause and wrong them very much Neither indeed will the Pope ever suffer any acts of Hostility to be done against His Catholick Majesty and besides it is also most certain that the Catholick Princes both out of fear of the Hereticks and also of the Authority of the Pope will never attempt any such thing And the Hereticks are at very great Variance also amongst themselves and for this reason Germany being divided into severall small Republicks cannot do him any harm at all and it is besides part of it made subject to the House of Austria and the Archdukes thereof by the Emperours and part also to certain Archbishops who are withall secular Princes as namely the Archbishops of Mâ—ntz of Colen Trevers Salsburg Strasburg and Bamberg and part also to the Dukes of Bavaria so that the Protestants can by no meanes make any Insurrection against the King of Spain The Lower Germany also is divided into more Common-Wealths then the other all which bear Armes against the King of Spain though it be only to defend themselves and not to offend Him And of this number are the Provinces of Holland Frisland and Zealand Besides the Upper and the Lower Germanies differ very much in their Religion which we may also say of the Danes Norwegians Transylvanians Gotlanders Polonians French Switzers and Grisons so that the King hath no need at all to fear that these should ever all joyn together against him and besides the King retains a great part of these Nations in pay and by that means keeps them his friends and then the King of Poland and the Prince of Transylvania are allied to him by Marriage and so are in league and amity with him So that He hath no body to stand in fear of but only the King of France and the King of England which two Princes by reason of their being of different Religions can never agree together Now although the King of Spain cannot as yet subdue the King of France yet it makes very much for His Interest that the King of France being absolved by the Pope is returned again to the Obedience of the Church For otherwise he would have been the Head of all the Transalpine Hereticks and would have marcht with an Army of them over into Italy to the great Prejudice both of the Pope and of our King which None of the Hereticks hath to this day adventured to do merely for want of a Powerful General to head them Then besides there is a Division broken out in France betwixt the Catholicks and the Hereticks and which is the chiefest thing of all there are in that Kingdome many Potent Bishops who would not by any means see Spain ruined And lastly our Kings Subjects do not come into the field with Lances Swords and Horses as the French use to do but they come into it armed with Guns which are a kind of Arms that are fitter for the defending of strong Holds and Fortifications then for the setting upon an Enemy in an open Field And hence it is that the French are able indeed to resist all the Spaniards Attempts but they cannot overcome them for in this case the very Princes and States of Italy who have to this day alwaies held with the French would go over to the Spaniard for it is their Design to keep the Ballance alwaies so even betwixt these two Nations as that neither of them may preponderate and bear down the Scales and so make a Prey of the Other which Hiero King of Syracuse heretofore laboured to do betwixt the Romans and the Carthaginians although he failed of his purpose Besides the King of France cannot march with an Army into Spain by reason of the Fortified Places and Castles that lye in his way and are kept by the Spaniards who are very well skilled in defending such Places Neither can he so soon march out with an Army against Millan or Naples but that the King of Spain can be much sooner in France with an Army and shall so force him to return back again and defend his own Kingdom Neither did the King of France ever passe over into Italy unlesse when he was assisted by the Pope as the Expedition of Charles of Anjou testifies or except he were called in by some Prince or State of Italy as Charles the Eighth was called in by the Duke of Millan which yet at this time can hardly be done again For the Italians were now afraid that they would bring in a New Religion with them And besides it is a usual thing that that Prince that first calls Forraigners in to his aide shall be first ruined by them for he must necessarily entertain them and allow them Quarters who after they have overcome the adverse Party will joyn with them and so drive out Him who called them first in Examples of this we have in the Sforza's Castruccio's and the Florentines with many others and also in the Pope himself although his own Papal Authority restored him again And therefore the Spaniard hath no need to fear the King of France much And as for the English he hath much lesse reason to stand in fear of them seeing they are shut up within an Island and we seldome see Islanders get any sure footing and make themselves Masters of any part of a Forraign Continent And therefore it is sufficient for them if they can keep their own only they send out their Ships to fetch in Prizes by Sea but for this Mischief I shall hereafter set down a Remedy Only let the King of Spain take care that the English joyn not their Navy with the Hollanders Scots Danes Norwegians and Danzickers for if they should they might then be able to overrun all Spain as the Alans Goths and Vandals did of old And yet seeing that these Nations differ all in Religion and the King of Spain doth craftily under hand sow new seeds of Dissention amongst them there is no great cause to fear that they should joyn their forces together â—pon any design Let us now see what Spain is able to do within it self and by what means it may become Greater and enlarge its Territories laying down this
for a Ground That for the rendring of any Dominion whatsoever Firm and Durable it is necessarily required that there be first a Naturâ—l Sociablenesse and an apt Correspondence among the subjects themselves and then betwixt the Prince and the subjects as there is in Mans body betwixt the Members themselves and also betwixt them and the Head Now this Natural Sociablenesse is founded first in the Man and Wife then in the Father of the Family and his Children with the rest of his Family and then again in several Families being linked and united together then in those also who are allied together by the Bond of Consanguinity or Affinity and likewise those that live in one Common Aire and Climate enjoying the same Temper of the Heavens as also those that agree in their Lawes Manners Customes and studies whereto also we may add their using one Common Language and wearing all one the same Habit in Apparel Neither do I account their Identity of Species or of Humanity to be any small Bond of this Natural sociablenesse namely because they are All Men and wheresoever Many of these Bonds Ties meet together there also must necessarily be a Firmer and more Durable Association made up and a more lasting Dominion setled Hence it is that the Italians and the Spaniards do so readily jump and agree together both because they understand each the others Language and are also like each other in their Manners Bodies and their Rites and Customes which can never be amongst the French because they differ among themselves not only in their Language and Manners but are also of a different Natural Constitution and temper So the Spaniards would much more easily be brought to enter into a league of Society and Friendship with the Africans then with the Netherlanders who are of a much more different Constitution from them For the Spaniards are Naturally Hot and Dry and are therefore Lean and of a Low Stature being withal Sharp-witted Subtle and Talkative But on the Contrary the Netherlanders are Cold Corpulent and Big-boned and are Heavy and Dull and of few words Whosoever therefore is to Rule Several and Different Nations and would keep them all within the bounds of Obedience let him endeavour to reduce them into a conformity as far as he is able and to make them in all things like to each other And this Uniting of Men to one another God himself the Author of all Polity had pointed out unto Men. Now there are Three sorts of this Union we here speak of the First is of Minds which is caused by Religion which is indeed the strongest of all Unions for it uniteth together in Opinion Nations that are at the greatest distance that may be from each other Upon this have both Mens Wills and Actions their Dependancy and in This are both their Tongues Arms united By this the Pope ruleth over Europe Asia Africk and America and in a word over all the Christians in the whole World Whereas on the contrary the Emperour of Germany is scarse able to Rule Germany alone although the People there are otherwise as like and as much agreeing among themselves as may be both in their shape of Body Habit Arms Rites and Customes and all because It wants this first Vnion namely of Religion For there are so many several different Opinions in Religion among the Germans that it may be truly said of them Quos homines tot Sententiae so many Men so many Minds And for this reason the English and Helvetians fuffer but two sorts only of Religion in their Countries for that common saying Divide impera that is Divide thy subjects and thou shalâ—â—ule them is of no use here but rather on the contrary Divide perdes that is If thou devide thy subjects thou shalt ruin thy self Catharine de Medicis Queen of France that she might contrary to the Salique Law sit at the Helme and have the Government of the Kingdome in her hands complied sometimes with the Catholicks and sometimes with the Huguenots but by this means she brought destruction both upon her self and upon her Sons one of which was Slain by a Dominican Fryer And therefere in this Particular the King of Spain is more happy then any other besides because that his Kingdomes though they lye at a great distance from one another are yet all joyned together and united in one Religion and in this very respect also he stands upon better terms then the Great Turk himself or any other Prince whatsoever because as we have shewed before He converts those that are under his subjection and makes them to be all of one and the same Faith The second is the Vnion of Bodies and in this the Turk goes beyond all other Princes for He hath under his subjection and in perfect Obedience both Mahumetans Christians and Iewes which are all as much differing one from another in their Religions as can be neither doth this their diversity of Religion prejudice him at all because that he brings up their Sons to serve him in his Wars and besides He leaves all such of his Subjects as are not of his Religion without either Armes or any meanes possible of doing him any harm But indeed in case He should intrust any of these with the Government of any part of his Empire and should exercise not a Despotical but a Political Soveraignty over them He would quickly be brought into Sad Straites by them as we see it for example in many of our German Princes at this day or at least all meanes of enlarging his Empire would quite be cut off from him as we see the case now stands with the Emperour and with the King of Poland If haply among the Turks Vassals there should chance to start up some Gallant-Spirited Person he might possibly prove to be the Ruin of his Empire as Scanderbeg had like to have been had he had but the Christians as ready to assist him as the Genueses were to do him a mischiefâ— who both to their own and also to the great Losse of Hunniades K. of Hungary were hired for so many Crownes to passe over forty Thousand Mahumetans out of Asia into Europe by which meanes Amurath tâ—at was before in a manner utterly broken and had well near lost all was now so well relieved and recruited again as that by these forces He afterwards made himself Master of half Europe I shall not here speake of Moses who was raised up against God by Pharaoh according to which example God may also raise up some of the Turks Christian Slaves against him The like Insurrection may also possibly utterly Subvert the Spanish Monarchy The Third is the Union of Monies and Riches by meanes whereof the Turk commands the Ragusians who are otherwise a free People but they are forced to pay Him tribute that so they may enjoy their Estates lying within his Dominions as also because they are too neer Neighbours to him which Neighbourhood
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
the Parliament till that now of later times under pretext of introducing a New Religion they have taken upon them to exercise a more absolute power over their Subjects But in Antient Times the whole Kingdom of England was divided into four lesser Kingdoms as Spain also hath been anciently distributed both into many several Kingdomes both of which Countries did afterwards grow into two entire Kingdomes although it cannot be denied but that the Power of the Kings of England was never so great as that of the Kings of Spain My opinion is therefore that the King of Spain should do well to employ under hand some certain Merchants of Florence that are wise and subtle persons and that traffick at Antwerp who because they are not so much hated by the English as the Spaniards are should treat with some such of the English as are some way or other descended from some of the former Kings of England and should promise each of them severally no one of them knowing any thing what is said to the other all the possible aides that can be from Spain for the restoring of them to their Inheritances Legally descending down to them from their Ancestours and undertake to effect this for them if not as to the whole Kingdome yet at least to some part of it requiring them to engage themselves to nothing else so to give a colour to the businesse save only that they shall not joyn their forces and assist the English in setting upon the Spanish Fleet at its return from the West Indies For by this meanes each of them being puft up with hope will presently fall to question the King of Scots his Title to the English Crown and will endeavour to oppose him in it Let him also send privately to King Iames of Scotland and promise him that He will assist him to the utmost of his Power in his getting possession of the Kingdom of England upon this conditionâ— viz that He shall either restore there again the Catholick Religion for the love whereof His Mother Mary Stuart Queen of Scots refused not to spend her dearest blood and even to lay down her Life too or at least that he shall not annoy or any way disturbe the said Spanish Fleet. But then again on the other side let him under hand labour with the English Peers and the chiefest of the Parliament and egge them on to endeavour to reduce England into the Form of a Republick withal assuring them that the King of Scots when he shall have once gotten into the English Throne must needs prove a cruel Prince to them as having alwaies about him a deep remembrance how injuriously the English have heretofore dealt with the Scots Moreover let Him endeavour to strike a terrour into Queen Elizabeths friends by often putting into their heads that they will find that King Iames will revenge his Mothers blooâ— upon Queen Elizabeths friends seeing that She is like to leave behind her None of Her Own blood upon whom He might take revenge especially seeing that His Mother Queen Mary when she was now to dye seriously commended unto Him the care of the Catholick Religion and the Revenge of Her Blood The English Bishops are also to be exasperated and put into Fears and Jealousies by telling them that the King of Scots turned Calvinist out of hope and desire of the English Crown and being also forced to do so by his Heretical Barons but that when He shall once be quietly settled in the English Throne He will then quickly restore the Former Religion for as much as not onely His deceased Mother but even the King of France also have both of them very earnestly commended the same unto Him By which means it must necessarily follow that the seeds of a continual War betwixt England and Scotland will be sown in so much that neither Kingdome shall have any leisure to work any disturbance to the Spanish Affaires Or else by buzzing into their ears that in case King Iames should be possest of this Kingdom He wilâ— however be a Friend of Spain that the whole Island would be devided into many Dominions or else that it would come to be an Elective Kingdom by which means the King of it will be the lesse careful of making himself Master of other Countries and of adding them to the English Crown neither indeed though he should never so much desire it would he ever be able to do so as I have before shewed where I speak of France or else that this Country of England will be reduced into the Form of a Common Wealth which will perpetually be at feude with Scotland and that all Actions It shall undertake will be long in bringing to effect and so It will be able to do the lesse harm to Spain The Spirits of the English Catholicks also are to be rouzed up and as it were awakened from sleep and encouraged to Action for by this means so soon as ever the Throne shall be vacant the King of Spain shall come into England under Pretence of assisting them Let Him also deal with those English Nobles who are possessed of some certain circumjacent Islands lying about England that they should exercise an Absolute and full Jurisdiction each of them in their several places and have Peculiar Courts of Justice of their own distinct from those of England which very thing we read to have been Anciently done by them The Chief of the Irish Nobility also are to be dealt with that as soon as they hear of the Queens death they should new model Ireland either into the Form of a Republick or else should make it a Kingdom of it self throwing off all Obedience to the English withal promising aides to each of them in particular and that so much the rather because that in that Kingdome or Island the Catholicks and especially the Friers that are of the Order of S. Francis are very greatly esteemed and beloved There is also much greater agreement and correspondence betwixt the Spaniard and the Irish then betwixt them and the English whether it be by reason of the Similitude of their Manners or else by reason of the Clime and the nearnesse of these two Countries one to the other There are also in Ireland many Vagabond persons and such as have fled their Countries being men that are most impatient of Government and yet are good Catholicks and such as may be able to do good service in this kind as hath been shewed already But this sort of Men is not very rare to be found either in England or Scotland also These and the like Preparations may be made before hand that so soon as ever Queen Elizabeth is dead they may be immediately put into Execution For there is no man but knowes what horrid Civil Wars and what strange Alterations and Turns have happened several times in England So that what I have here proposed ought not to appear to any man as things either New or Impossible CHAP. XXVI
that they performed things most worthy to be committed to everlasting Memory namely their so frequent Compassing the Earth about their finding out of so many Islands and Continents and which is the most eminent piece of service of all the rest the Discovery of the New World yet did they never all this while take care to employ any Able person in the committing of these famous Acts of theirs to Memory and after the example of the Greeks and Romans to record them in Writing and transmit them over to the Perpetual Memory of Posterity Although that the Portugals have herein gone far beyond the Castilians for they have found out such able persons as have published abroad to the world their gallant Acts both in Latine and in their own Native Language The Second sort of Rewards should respect Profit and this I would have to be the Chiefest Dignity or place of Honour in the Kingdom that should be taken in the King whereof should be carried over into Spain and should there be instructed in the Catholick Religion and there should also be conferred upon him some Barony in Spain to the end that It might so be rendred the more Illustrious and also that the rest of the Indian Princes might be given to understand that we put not to death any of the Kings of such Countries as we subdue if that they will but embrace Our Religion as for instance Motecuma Atabalipa and some other petty Kings that we could name but rather use them with all courtesie and civility that may be For it is Fear of being put to death only that forces those Princes to take up Armes against the Spaniard Businesses of State do all contain in them some Certain thing the not knowing of which makes all other things both Difficult and also Vain and to no purpose as in sayling there are some that spread the sailes and others that ply their Oares and some again are imployed either in casting forth or taking in of Ballast yet are all these things to no purpose unlesse there be joyned with these an able Pilot who by his skilful steerage of the Vessel shall make good and set forward the Labours of all the rest And therefore Spain especially hath very great need of some Wise Person that should know in what thing chiefly consists the Stern as we may call it of the Kingdom without the knowledge whereof all Conceipts Contrivances Labours Charges and Consultations whatsoever will come to nothing After that Pope Clement the VIII began to think of making a Reformation among the Clergy all men were ready to put to their helping hand and assist in the framing of New Lawes Orders and Ceremonies together with appointing of Fasting daies and such Habits as every one should wear But I living at that time at St. Sabines told them plainly that all the endeavours of the Commissaries were vain seeing that the Rule it self was sufficient for the bringing about of all those things neither indeed did they know wherein the main point of the businesse lay I added moreover that the whole businesse of the Reformation consisted in this that no one particular person of the whole company in Monasteries or the like Religious Houses should have a Key or Lock to himself of his Cell but that there should be only One Common Key that should serve both for the Dormitory and also for every mans particular lodging For this would have been a means at once to have put an end to all Proprieties and to have kept out all Wanton Books Gifts and Obscene Poetry But when that the Chief and Principal Governours of this Ship once perceived that all this would redound to Their Losse there was none of Them then that would set his hand to the Stern nor come to the head of the matter but they would onely have some Lawes to be made concerning Novices only and such as were newly entred in Religion but would not hear of any thing at all that touched their own interest And so by this means the good Intention of the Pope was utterly frustrated and came to nothing The Kingdome of Spain therefore hath need of some Wise Palinurus by whose Conduct all things may be rightly managed according to the Rules before laid down Which certainly would much more tend to the advancement of the Majesty of its Empire then any Macchiavilian Suggestions and Cunning Devises whatsoever which have nothing of a Good Conscience in them at all and which besides serve as a Cloak only to disguise the Tyranny and Cruelty of Princes by arming them with the Law of Majesty and which countenance such Abuses as even not silly Women much lesse People that have been accustomed to Liberty can endure And therefore I cannot sufficiently wonder that there should be any that should so extol this Impious Politician to the heavens as they do as if His Writings were a Certain Rule and Idea of a Good and Happy Government And yet this I do not so much wonder as I am angry at when I see that most Vile Maxime in Politicks to be admitted in the Administration of State Affaires namely That some things are Lawful in respect of the State and others in respect of Conscience Then which Opinion there cannot certainly be imagined any thing to be either more Absurd or more Wicked For he that shall take away or restrain that Universal Jurisdiction that Conscience ought to have over All Things as well Publick as Private shewes thereby that he hath Neither any Conscience nor any God The very Beasts themselves are lead by a Natural Instinct to such things as are good for them and refuse whatsoever would be hurtful to them and should the Light of reason and the Dictate of Conscience which were given unto Man that He might know how to distinguish betwixt Good and Evill be utterly Blind in Publick Things and fail in businesses that are of the Greatest Moment I have had I confesse I know not what Itch upon me to give an account in writing of such Points as that Author ought to be chastised for with the Rod of Censure and not onely he himself but all his Disciples I mean the Counsellours of Princes and their nearest Favorites for certainly both all the Scandals of the Church of God and all the Perturbations and hurly burlies that have happened in the whole World have had their rise from hence But yet I have thought fit to hold my hand till some other time seeing that some others have written of the same Subject already very copiously and also because that the thing is of it self clear enough And therefore I fell upon another Design whereby I might Illustrate the Majesty of the Spanish Empire the conservation whereof is a businesse of much greater difficulty then the Acquisition For Humane Things do as it were Naturally encrease sometimes and sometimes again decrease after the example of the Moon to which they are all subject And therefore it is a
be forced by the necessity of imposing upon his Subjects Unusual Taxes to gain their ill will and lose their Affections which was Caligula's Case heretofore who after that he had in riotous courses fool'd away all his own Estate was necessitated presently to snatch away other mens Certainly whosoever takes in hand any high and difficult Attempt under the Assistance of a Favourable Fate he must necessarily be Couragious and daring and indeed every Great and Memorable Enterprise requireth a certain Extraordinary Valour and Courage which yet in case the successe should not be answerable would be called Rashnesse As for example it was accounted a Bold undertaking in Columbus to go in search of a New World but plain Rashnesse in Vlisses only because the one escaped safe but the other suffered shipwrack But when a Prince hath effected his desiâ—es he must then have an eye to the uncertainty of Fortune and must therefore take heed how he is too bold and daring the observing of which Counsel being neglected by Charles the Fift was the cause of bringing to nothing all that he had atchieved before in Germany for he did not take the same wise Course to preserve what he had gotten as he had done in the getting of it And the case was the same also with the great Iulius Caesar. And then again in war there is a necessity of using severity that so the Souldiers may all be kept to their several duties and besides those that perform any Signall peices of Service are to be rewarded accordingly which Course unlesse it be taken they will begin to spurn at the Government and break out into seditious wayes as Tiberius his Army did when it was in Germany and will fall to an insolent course of Plundering and robbing and so by these meanes will bring the Victory they had gotten before to nothing as it happened to Conradinus the Swevian and Charles of Anjou Therefore after any Conquest gotten over a Kingdom the Conquerour must modestly use his Victory and endeavour to please the People For otherwise he will alienate their affections from himself and they will be apt upon all occasions to invite in his Enemies to fall upon him as it happened to Rehoboam and Charles of Anjou in Sicily and to the Carthaginians after the First Punick War and to Aecolinus against whom his subjects the Citizens of Padua shut their gates as likewise to Nero who though Prince of it was yet called The Enemy of his Country And although many Crafty Practises are now in use among Princes for the keeping of their Subjects in due obedience yet I dare boldly affirm that they will in the end prove destructive to those Princes For we see that Tiberius that Grand Artifex of Subtleties and Craft was miserably hated by his Subjects and so led a very sad life because he found he was not loved by any body so that he was fain to put some or other every day to death as contemners of his Majesty and so to be ever of a troubled disquieted mind which certainly may better be called a Death then a life Therefore the highest and most advantageous Craft that a Prince can make use of is to shew himself Beneficent Religious and Liberall toward his Subjects yet this in so moderate a way as that by this means he give them not occasion to despise him as happened to Pope Celestine the Fifth But let us now proceed to those things that more Particularly concern Spain As I have before shewed by Divine Reasons that there can be no Universal Monarchy among the Christians expected save that of the Pope and have also declared how he is to be dealt withal so I shall now prove by Reasons of Policy that there can be no Monarch in the Christian World unlesse he have his dependance upon the Pope For certainly what Prince soever hath any other that is superiour to Him though in Religion onely and not in point of Armes as the Pope is he can never attain to an Universal Monarchy For whatsoever He shall take in hand it will be successelesse and he shall be as it were crushed in pieces by the superiour For All Religions as well the False as the True do prevail and are Victorious when they have once taken root in the Minds of men upon which onely depend both their Tongues and Armes which are the onely Instruments of attaining Dominion Thus we see that Iulius Caesar when any were created Consuls if the Poâ—tifex Maximus came and sayd They were not created Rightly they were presently by him put by and so whensoever he was to enter into a fight if the Augurs said that The Pullen would not eat their meat he forbare to go on and did onely what he was directed to by their Omen And therefore when the same Caesar had fallen upon a resolution of making himself A Monarch he opposed Cato as much as possibly he could and endeavoured by all possible meanes to be chosen to be the Pontifex Maximus Which when he had once attained unto he acted another way and took upon himself all the Martiall Offices that were to be administred by the sword that so he might drive on his designs the more securely and withal by his gifts obliged all the Souldiery so to him as that they refused not to bear arms for Him even against their Country and to assist him in his designs of changing the Government of the state So in like manner Cyrus would be called by the Title of Gods Commissary that so no Prophet might pretend to be greater then Himself And Alexander the great would be accounted the son of Iupiter Ammon for the very same reason It is also very evident that no Monarchy in the Christian World hath arrived to the Height by reason of the obedience which is due to the Pope And hence it is that Mahomet when he aspired to a Monarchy brought in first a New Religion which was quite different from what was before For Armes cannot effect any thing against Religion if they be overmaster'd by another more powerful Religion though a worse if so be it be but entertained by the People For as much therefore as there is no more powerful Religion found in the World then that of the Roman Christian it is evident that neither Spain nor France can attain to any greater Dignity then It. And hence it was that Charles the Great when he had a design upon the Universal Monarchy of the World took upon himself the Title of being The Protector of the Pope and indeed so long as he stood up in a defence of Christianitie he became Great If the King of Spain therefore do in like manner aspire to the same Height it is necessary that he frame some New Religion but this neither God nor Reason permits him to do For First this is never to be done but in the very Infancy and beginning of a Kingdom as you may see in the examples of Mahomet Romulus
and Pythagoras for otherwise he must needs come to ruine by changing the Auspicia Regni the Fortune of the Kingdom as I may call it whose dependance is from Faith in Christ and then the People will immediately betake themselves to their Armes and revolt from him Neither indeed have any Monarchies been either more certainly or more miserably brought to destruction then when they have changed their Religion as is testified by Histories And then again the Pope and the rest of the Princes of Christendom would joyn their whole strengths together and would in a very litle time root him out of his Kingdom of Naples Millan and consequently also of the New World the rest of his Dominions And although these things were not done to Henry the VIII of England nor yet to the Duke of â—â—xony because their Territories were encompassed within small though well fortified Bounds yet for all that did they fail of succession and so their States went away from them And we have examples hereof also in Ieroboam Iehu Iulian the Apostate and others who for having changed their Religion incurred the hatred of their People and brought destruction upon themselves Unlesse we shall say that the Pope hath no power at all in Temporal things nor is any whit above either any other of the Bishops or theirs Surrogates or Chaplains in Authority or degree which is evidently contradictory to Gods Ordination by which He hath been constituted a Regal Priest and hath been armed with both the Swords as well the Civill as the Spiritual For were it otherwise Christ should be a very mean Law-giver and should be lesse then Melchisedech who was both King and Priest together which addeth both the greater Majesty as well as security to any Kingdom as I have proved in my Treatise Touching Monarchy against Dante who looking only upon the Priesthood of Aaron allowes to the Pope nothing but Spiritualties and Tithes only And which is more this impugnes also all Reasons of Policy because the Pope can never want those that will take up Armes in His defence in case He should not be able to defend Himself and that either by being moved thereunto through Zeal to Religion as the Countesse Matilda did against the Emperour Henry or else out of Emulation or some interest of Faction as it was in the Case of the Venetians making war upon the Emperour Frederick whom they compelled to kisse the Popes Foot or for both these reasons as when King Pipin and Charles the Great took up Armes in assistance of the Pope against the Lombards and others who waged war against him Thus we see that the Constantinopolitan Empire came to be destroyed for the Apostasy of Iulian and Constantius in like manner as all the Fredericks Henries and other Kings also of Naples suffered for the same Cause as often as they denied their Obedience to the Pope And certainly the Opinion and Beliefe which hath prevailed upon the Minds of all People touching the Christian Religion is of very great force and moves them to defend It to the utmost of their power so that whensoever the Pope hath excommunicated any Prince He doth at the same instant ruine him also Do but observe I pray you to what state Ferraria is reduced at this day But we have discoursed more copiously of this in the Treatise of Monarchy It is lastly against all Policy too for the Pope withholds the rest of the Princes of Christendom from invading Spain as he doth the King of Spain from invading them by continually composing their differences in like manner as he divided India betwixt the Portugals and the Spaniards and thus hath several times made peace betwixt the Spaniards and the French Venetians and Genowaies and so likewise betwixt Pisa and Florence which yet he would not so easily be able to do by the meer Reverence they bear to Religion For here in these Cases they have an eye as well to the force of Armes as to Religion for He that is in the wrong Cause may justly suspect the Popes joyning of his strength to that of his Antagonist and so for this reason he will the more readily obey the Popes Injunction as I have declared formerly in the forementioned Treatise And the King of Spain if he but declare himself for and stand up in the defence of the Pope shall be sure to have alwayes the assistance of His Forces at his devotion at any time which will be a good means of confirming his Kingdom to him And therefore I conceave it very necessary according to the Fate of Christendom that if the King of Spain would arrive to an Universal Monarchy He must declare himself publiquely to have his dependance from the Pope and command it to be published all abroad throughout the World that himself is the Cyrus that was before typified and the Catholick King that is the Universal Monarch of the World declaring this his Monarchy by his Religious Counsels and pious Actions and passing also by many litigious Controversies which he hath with the Pope and dwelling in the Tents of Sem making it appear to all the World that He is the Chief Defender of Christian Religion that depends wholly upon the Pope of Rome calling together also the Christian Princes to consult about the recovery of those Countreys they have lost and are at this day in the hands of Hereticks and Turks and He must proceed to the causing of such to be excommunicated as shall deny their assistance herein and lastly he must also take care that Pious and diligent Preachers be sent abroad into the World to promote this businesse For the Plain truth of it is that the Pope picks quarrels sometimes with the King of Spain for no other reason but only because he is afraid that in case he should subdue the King of France and the Princes of Italy hee would then make Him only as his Chaplain And this is the reason why He desires that they should alwayes be at variance one with another that so in case either of them should fall off from Himâ— by reason either of Apostasy or some quarrel or other He might have the other to assist him And this is the reason why he stirred up the Western Empire against the Eastern onely because they had forsaken their former Religion had had many Clashings with the Pope about It. But now if King Philip will but do that which is his duty as is before declared and will but give way to the Pope in some things which he pretends His Right and will besides send some Bishops and Cardinals into the Belgiâ—k Provinces and to the New world to dispose of and order things there he will by this meanes both free the Pope from this suspition and shall withall effect his own desires seeing that it is evident that the Pope by his Indulgencies and Croysados brings him in more mony then those Dignities which he bestowes upon Cardinals Archbishops Bishops and
other Ecclesiastical Persons do yearly stand him in so that he will be a gainer in that wherein he is affraid most of being a loser And this he would quickly confesse if he would but cause it to be publickly preached and proclaimed abroad that the end of the World is at hand and that the time is now come when there is to be one Sheepfold under One Shepheard that is the Pope and that Himself is another Cyrus whose Office it is to see these things brought about and to gather all the Flock into that One Sheepfold and that what Nation or Kingdom soever shall refuse to yield Him obedience shall be brought to destruction and many other things which I had rather deliver by speech then writing There are many Causes to be laid open whereby the King of Spain as well in reference to Prudence Power and lastly Prophesy may be rendered Admired by all the World For whether all these things do joyntly incline there necessarily must the Empire follow And seeing that this height of Dignity is to be atained unto under the Fortune and Interest of the Empire of Italy which is now called the German Empire there is a necessity that the King of Spain should labour by all possible meanes to reduce that Empire under his power And the better to effect this he must deal with the Pope that he would denounce the most direful Curses that may be against the Three Protestant Electors of the Empire threatning them withall that unlesse they return to the Church of Rome He will deprive them of their Electâ—ral Dignity which they received from the Pope onely and that â—eeing they now affirm that the Pope is Antichrist they shall be convinced out of their own words and made to see that themselves are Antichristians and that therefore they ought of themselves to lay down that Dignity of theirs unlesse they will recant and again admit of the Catholick Beliefe And to this end the French Italians and Spaniards being first all reconciled and made friends by the Pope are to joyn their whole Forces together and to go against them which certainly would much promote this businesse and having overcome them they must utterly extirpate all the Sects that have raigned among them and send in new Colonies into their places And this expedition is so easy a one that Charles the Fifth himself might have been able to have effected it alone But whereas the Free Cities of Germany do in no wise desire to hear of any such Empire or Vniversal Monarchy lest so They should be reduced into their ancient servitude again and also because they are very slow in their Deliberations and as slow also in the Execution of them it would therefore very much advance this design if the rest of the Princes of Christendom joyning their Forces together would suddenly fall upon them Which businesse when it should be over the most Potent or most Forward of those Princes should be chosen Electors of the Empire by the Apostolical Authority of the Pope whether they were Germans Italians or Spaniards or else they might be chosen by Lot when the most potent of the Christian Princes should meet together in a Solemne Convention And although the Universal Empire of Christendom might easily by these meanes be translated to Spain yet it would be sufficient to do the businesse if but any one King of Spain would so order the matter that Himself might be but chosen Emperour who should then immediately march into Germany with a good Army and should instantly subdue it while it is at so great discord and variance within it self both in point of Religion and of State And this Expedition he ought speedily to go upon and that under a Pretext of marching for Hungary These things I say that all People might take notice how much it concerns the Interest of the King of Spain that he endeavour the attaining to the Empire of the World by the means of the Pope And indeed his being Dignified â—ith the Title of the Catholick or Kingâ— shewes plainly that this is the will of the Holy spirit speaking by the Clergy CHAP. VI How the Clergy are to be dealt withal BUt it is not sufficient that we have the Clergy on our side but we are further to labour that at length we may get a Spaniâ—rd to be elected Pope or rather one of the house of Austria seeing it is evident that whensoever the Pope pronounceth his Oracle for this House He doth thereby raise it withall and on the contraryâ— He casts a cloud upon it and keeps it under whensoever He declares against it Which the Kings of France observing they have endeavoured with all their might that the Pope should remove his Seat and go and live in Frâ—nce And so we know that when the Oracle at Delphos began once to speak on Philips side King of Macedon He presently what by his Politick Stratagems and what by Pretense of Religion arrived to the Monarchy of all Greece In the Determinations also concerning Differences in Religion it behoves the King of Spain to be the most Active of any in the managing of the same and indeed to take a greater care and to be more Vigilant herein then the Pope himself Whence we see that Philip King of France did alwaies in a manner as it were command Pope Iohn the XXII as being himself more Zealous then the Pope was in defending and propagating that decree of the Church namely That the Saints in Heaven do see the Essence of God even before the last day of Iudgment There must also alwaies some Novelty or other tending to Christian Religion be set on Foot such as are the Canonizations of Saints the changing of the Names of Holy Dayes of Moneths other the like things by transferring them to Christian Worship by which means He shall keep busy the heads of the Prelats as much as he can and so shall thereby the more confirm his own Authority among them He ought besides to oblige the Chief of the Clergy to himself by the most commodious Arts that he can as namely by sending into the Low-Countries and the like suspected places Cardinals and Bishops to be Governours there for the People would much more readily and chearfully obey the commands of such then they will the severity of the Spaniard and such Prelates would also adhere more to Them Neverthelesse in the mean time they ought to have as subordinate to them some Military Commanders with Forces too And besides He ought by the Popes consent too to send abroad such Cardinals as are either Spaniards born or at least of the Spanish Faction into the parts of the New world and all other far remote Places to rule and exercise Monarchical Power there which would be a businesse of high advantage to Him He must also bestow on all Wise Men and such as are the most Skilled in matters of Religion greater gifts then the Pope himself doth that so
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
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
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
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
Philosophical and Politicall Questions proposed among them that they may so be diverted from embracing Heretical Opinions But the best course the King can take for the preventing of all Conspiracies and designs against Him will be to shew Himself a Good Awful and Iust Princeâ— The want of the First of these Vertues was the Ruin of Nero and Acciolinus the Defect in the second undid Sardanapalus and Vitellius and the failing in the last cost Philip King of Macedonia his life who because he had denied the due Course of Justice to one Pausanias was by him killed Inequality also and Injustice was the Cause of the Ruin of Rome it self If any one Single person have any Treacherous Design against the Prince the only Course in that case for prevention of it will be to take notice of and search every one that comes into the Kings presence least they should carry any Armes Privily about them for it is a difficult businesse to prevent such Treacheries as are designed by One single Person alone And hence it was that Henry the III. of France and the King of Moab and so likewise Philip King of Macedonia were all Slain by single persons the First of them for his Religion the second for his Cruelty and the Third for his denying Justice to be done to a Subject of his But if there be Many joyned together in any Conspiracy against the Prince it cannot be but that unlesse they effect their design within fifteen or twenty daies space or except the Conspirators have fallen upon their Design out of their Love and respect they bear to Justice Piety or the benefit of the Publick and so it prove to be onely a Conspiracy contrived by Honest Men against a Tyrant it cannot otherwise be I say but that they must necessarily be discovered For every body will hope some way or other to advance himself by the Prince's Favour if he do but discover the said Conspiracy to him And hence it was that the Conspiracy of Absolon against his father David and of Catiline against his Country were detected because that those that were the Conspirators were nothing at all better or honester men then those against whom they had conspired Conspiracies are also easily and speedily too discovered by servants unlesse they be presently put into Execution as was that of Laurence de Medicis against Duke Alexander which was deferred but one night onely And whensoever Honest Men joyn in any Conspiracy against a most Cruel Tyrant notwithstanding they should delay the putting of the same in execution yet would there be no great danger of its being discovered and hence it was that the Conspiracy of Iohn de Procitha and the Barons of Sicily against the French and Charles of Anjou who miserably afflicted the poor Inhabitants was kept close above a year before the Execution of it and that too though both the Emperour the Pope and Peter King of Arragon who were Forraigners were all privy to the Same the only Reason of which was because that This was a Conspiracy made by the Nobles and others that were therein concerned against Forraigners and Tyrannical Governours The like was that Conspiracy also which was entred into by Iehoiada and the Levites against Athaliah And yet for the most part although the number of those that are in the Conspiracy be but of a few and it be besides contrived against some Wicked person too yet if it be not speedily put in Execution it comes to light and is discovered as we may see by that Conspiracy made against Nero in which even Seneca himself also was and that Other contrived against Cosmo de Medicis by the Wicked Strozzi who were themselves much worse then He. But in case any single person aspiring to some Principality shall yet bear his followers in hand that He drives at some other thing and so in the mean time winnes upon them and gaines their Affections He shall certainly bring about his designes This was the course that Iulius Caesar took in attaining to the Empire though He kept his Design close to Himself and never discovered it to any being yet wont while He was but a Youth to have this saying often in his mouth Si violandum est jus Regnandi gratiâ violandum est If I would violate the Lawes it should be to Rule And of this Design of his he laid for himself Two Foundations namely Religion and The Love of the Souldiery to whom at length He made known his purpose though under another Pretext Whereas Catiline in his attempting the same took a quite Contrary Course and having laid down to himself before hand no one particular Foundation He without any more ado at first made all of his fellow Conspirators acquainted with his drift and purpose By whose Miscarriage Caesar taking warning He attempts the same thing but with more Caution and Advisednesse The King therefore ought to use all diligence and care to discover how the Minds of His Subjects and Ministers stand affected toward Him and what they have in agitation amongst them and when He hath once found what they would have He shall do well immediately to give them Satisfaction in that Particular And besides it would not be amisse that He should bestow some gifts under hand yet without any shew at all of fear or suspition upon some one Principal person among the Conspirators who being by this meanes wrought over to the Prince will be able to acquaint Him with what ever Designs his Subjects have in hand And if any shall inform Him that there are certain Persons that have for many months together been openly contriving some conspiracy against Him He may very well laugh at such Informers For whosoever shall go about to attempt any such thing in that manner are either Fooles or very Unskilful in the Course of the World or else lastly those that gave him such Information are Liers and forged those Stories only to ingratiate â—â—emselves with the Prince and get into Favour with him Thus heretofore Perseus falsely accused his Brother Demetrius of having Secretly conspired against their Father Philip King of Macedonia And in the Reigne of Tiberius and afterwards of Nero there were every day some or other that accused others of Treasonable Designs against the Emperour Which certainly is a very Villanous base thing for by this meanes the Prince is both made to suspect every body and besides He renders Himself withal suspected by every body so that the Subjects are put to act really upon Him that which Himself stands in fear of or else Innocent men are unjustly put to death both which things are of very ill Consequence to a Kingdom He ought rather therefore to seem not to believe any such Accusations although perhaps they should be true unlesse they be also manifestly proved except they be such as wherein Religion is concerned For by so doing He will shew himself to be a just and Good Prince and such a one as doth the
be of good use to you nor will ever scatter abroad any Pestilent Opinions such as were Cato and Socrates among the Gentiles and St. Bernard and Thomas Aquinas among the Christiansâ— There are also other Good men to be found that are able to act powerfully on either part such as were among the Heathen Alcibiades and Coriolanus both which were the Authors of much good and as much evil to their Countries accordiâ—g as they were led by the Occasion and present necessity upon them as among the Christians were Luther and Sergius who afterwards recanted as it were all that ever they had before Rightly Preached and taught And therefore it concerns the Prince that he shew himself Favourableâ— and Gracious to all Learned Men seeing that he cannot be able to see so far into them as to know what their â—nclinations are And let him use all the means he can to know who are the most excellent for Learning in his Dominions and having notice of them let Him invite them to him and find Imployments for them preventing even the Pope himself in bestowing perferments on them and these he shall encourage and provoke to shew their abilities against the Infidels One only Monk converted all England to the Christian Faith and Charles the Great that extraordinary favourer and Patron of all that were Eminent for Learning and Eloquence whether they were Laicks or Clergy-men subdued Gotland Norway and Denmarkâ— with a great part of Germany also by the means of these Men whom also He rewarded most magnificently In the Conquest also of the New World the Monks were of more use and did more good then the Souldiers And the like might also be effected both in China Ethiopia and Persia. Wherefore New Sciences are to be introduced and New Sects of Philosophers together with the Mathematicks as likewise the study of the Arabick Tongue is to be taken up seeing that the Empires of the Greeks and of the Hebrews are now quite extinct that so by the use thereof the Turks may be the better convinced of their Errour Let there be also certain Assemblies erectedâ— consisting of the wisest persons that can be pickt out both of the Religious Order of the Friers and out of the Laity whose businesse it shall be to deliberate about such things as concern the State that so their Wits being wholly taken up with the meditating about these things they may wholly serve the Prince and him only and not design any thing to his disadvantage while their own only Ambitions will be who shall deserve best of the Prince and so will have no other thoughts And let him make it his businesse to get together as many of these men as he can and withal let him be sure that they be all honest good men For should there be never so many of them yet if they were such as those were that Iezabel had about her one Elijah because he is a Good man would easily confound them all and bring them to nothing Antiochus also erected Greek Schooles at Ierusalem to the end that by that means he might abolish the Wholsome Doctrine and Lawes that Moses had given the Jewes but all in vain because the Macchabees opposed themselves against him In like manner ought the King to set up many Christian Catholick Schoolesâ— and that against the Enemies of Religion for by so doing he shall render Himself secure both from the Pope and from his Enemies and shall besides reduce the Netherlands and bring them under his subjection as I have before declared Neither would I have this one thing to be omitted namely that He erect certain Colledges through all the Provinces of his Dominions in which should be placed all the most Ingenious Boyes of the said Provinces and who are such may easily be known by their first Masters that taught them their Grammers and other the First Rudiments and these being thus câ—lled out of all Grammer Schools I would have to be brought up and maintained at the Kings Charge and there should be a New Order set up of them like that of St. Dominick which Order I would have called The Austrian Order And when any of these were come to be 18. years old they should then be commanded to Preach and these I would have to be called The Kings Preachers and they should then be sent abroad some into Germany and others into England where if they have managed their businesses rightly and well at their return they should have Bishopricks conferred upon them by the King of those that are in the Kings own gift for by so doing he shall render himself secure both from the Pope and also against all perfidious Preachers and Hereticks and by this meanes such persons only shall be maintained at His charge as do him service for it and advance His affairs Neither can it be expressed by words what great advantages He shall reap to himself hereby For among all sorts of Hereticks that are there are none that are farther out of the way of Truth then the Calvinists are who sow abroad the Seeds of Sedition wheresoever they come and endeavour to break asunder the bonds of that Peace which was made known unto the world by Angels and publickly preached by Christ himself and who having neither any respect to Learning nor regarding the Authority of the Fathers do defend their own Sect by their Armes only as the Turks do There is need therefore here of the most Effectual Medicines that can be against this Evil these kind of Men and that is Principiis obstare To stop them in their Beginning which course is to be observed in the Prevention of all Evils whatsoever and then afterwards are those other Remedies to be applied which are before set down namely for the converting of them for which work there must be chosen out honest and painful Labourers who by the Purity of their Doctrine and holinesse of their Life may reduce and winne back such wandring sheep as have gone astray out of the Way of Truth The Kings of Portugal and especially Iohn the Third erected in India certain Colledges and Seminaries wherein are educated a great number of young Youths of all sorts under the Discipline of the Iesuits who also have by this meanes done very much good both in Germany and in the New World For those Cities of Germany in which these Jesuits live have alwaies stood firm in the Faith and those other which have been infected with the Venom of Heresie are cured thereof by their Means But if there be no hopes at all left of reducing these men and bringing them back again into the True Way and making them to submit themselves to our Government and Doctrine then must the King embrace that counsel which was given by Terentius Varro to Hostilius for the keeping of the Tuscans within the bounds of their Duty and Obedience namely let him so order the matter as that they should not be able to shake off the yoak
alwaies inforceth the weaker to be a Servant to him that is stronger then he By this Third kind of Vnion the King of Spain beareth rule over the Genueses because that their Merchandise and their Baronies lye within his Territories And therefore I say that that Prince whose Dominions lye far asunder one from the other ought in the first place to endeavour to joyn them together by a Natural Vnion and then Secondly by Political Bonds and Ties As concerning Natural Ties the King may by them joyn his Spaniards with any other Nations although for the most part they are hated by all Nations for a Spaniard whiles he is a Servant is humble enough but where he is a Master he is very proud And he is besides a great Boaster and Loves to deal very subtlely and cunningly in meer trifling businesses though he does not carry himself so in matters of any Moment It is also certain enough that the Spanish Language and Habit doth please most people but then again their ordinary Carriage and Conversation and their swelling Titles together with their Ambitious striving for the uppermost places at all meetings and their too affected stately Gate distasts every body And because these Vices are Naturally Inherent in this Nation although they cast a blot upon their Virtues namely their Patience Religion Manlike Courage together with their Eloquence yet they cannot possibly be quite taken away and therefore others must come over unto their Manners as trees are graffed into one another And therefore I say it would be a very excellent good Course if our Spanish Souldiers and Barons that live abroad in Forraign Countries should marry Wives out of the same and besides those Arts by which strangers should be invited in to match with Spanish women and by Offices of which I have formerly spoken deserve so much the more serious Consideration because there lies more within them then they outwardly make shew of And this will appear more clearly when I shall come to speak of each several Nation in particular As concerning Political Vnions the King must endeavour to procure an Union betwixt his ow Nation and others and especially in Religion which is the surest means of uniting men together in the World and this must be done by the meanes of good and Learned Preachers as we have said before And next by the Tye of New and Famous Arts and Sciences and Languages which would draw all men into an admiration of so great an Empire And let Him alwaies make war rather upon his Neighbouring Enemies then upon those that are farther off and let Him go himself in person to the wars And lastly let him perswade and invite all Nations that traffick into the West-Indies to take up their Commodities in some parts of his Territories as we see that Genueses do at this day And therefore let Him so order all businesses as that one Kingdom may alwaies stand in need of another that so by this means there may be a continual Tie betwixt them And let him seek out all possible ways of setting his enemies at variance amongst themselves and labour that they may disagree both in Religion Leagues Manners Sciences Conditions Traffick and all things necessaryâ— and let him be in League with all those that may do him any hurt All which things that they may appear the more clearly I shall now fall to speak Particularly of all such several Nations as may either annoy or be advantageous to Him withall laying down the means bâ— which they may be brought to an Union with him For it is an Undoubtâ—d Truth that every great Empire if it be Vnited within it self is so much the safer from the Enemies Incursions because it is not only Great but Vnited also whence cheifly is derived all its strength and Power CHAP. XX. Of Spain TO what hath been said we may further add that seeing that there are so many several sorts of people in Spain the King ought to take care that those amongst them who have heretofore been more Eminent then the rest for the largenesse of Dominion they had thereâ— be at Unity among themselves And therefore let Him labour especially that there may be all fair Correspondence and friendship betwixt the Castilians Arragonians and the Portugues and let Him confer equal Offices upon them in Court and let him bestow preferments upon the Portugues in the Kingdom of Castile and upon the Castilians in the Kingdom of Portugal also let him as it were tye them one to the other by the common bond of Marriages betwixt each other and by the Community of Navigation And the same course also is necessary to be taken with the Mountainous Biscaines and the Lionois and also betwixt the Astureans and Gallicians and betwixt the Champian-inhabiting Andâ—luzians and Valentians and let all these be brought to a familiarity one with another notwithstanding they are so far distant in place from one another Let him also erect in these several Provinces such Common Colledges and Seminaries for Souldiers both for the Theorical and Practical part of War as we have before spoken of that by means of these both themselves and also the King may be rendred the more secure and let Him take such order that they may marry Wives from forraign Countries and so may have Children by them who in case any War should be made upon them may fight for them not as if by chance they were engaged thereto but as they stand bound to do so by the Law of Nature And by little and little their old Customes are also to be abolished but not upon a suddain and let them be instructed how to bear Offices in Italy rather then in the Netherlands But in Spain let Italians be put to bear Offices with the Spaniards And seeing that Spain is the Principal Seat of the Whole Monarchy there ought in it to be all Vertues and Sciences in their prime and height namely Justice and Religion that so others may the more readily be induced to make the Spaniards their pattern to walk by and may suck in Their Manners whom they see to live so well and happily But in case that They should be of a Dissolute Life and of corrupt Manners they would be abhorred by all Nations not to say any thing that in Gravity and Constancy of Manners they ought to excell all others because they have an example amongst them whence they may learn these Vertues And in the first place it is necessary that they be very faithful as well in the times of Peace as of War in which Principle they must be instructed and brought up in the aforesaid Seminaries where they are taught to yield Obedience and Service to the King And then if the King shall approve himself to be a Good Souldier and a Cherisher of Valour and Worth He will necessarily therebâ— winne himself the Love and Affections of all men And let him be sure withal to deal Faithfully and Justly with every
be sufficient if He could but bring it about that the Hollander and the Freezlander should with their Fleets fall upon the English Forces at Sea as I shall by and by make it plainly appear But seeing He is so far from doing thisâ— that his own Navies are very often damaged by the English ships the only Remedy that is left him is to provide himself of some Vast Fleets of ships which should lie at Corugna and Lisbon that when ever the Spanish Fleet shall return from the Indies they may serve as convoys to It and may bring it home safely or else they may be sent forth either against Ireland or England and so may divert them from lying in wait for and infesting of the Spanish Navies And because the King of Spain is to be Lord of the Seas it is very necessary that He build himself many Wooden Cities that is to say great Navies for the securing of His Treasure that he recieves out of the New World It would also be a very good course for him to hire those that are of the greatest strength among the Hollanders though it cost him a Million of mony to guard such Fleets of his as are to passe to and fro in the Northern Seas and to deal in the like manner with such Nations as are better skilled in Nautical affaires then the English themselves are as namely the Danzickers by means of the King of Poland who is allied to the house of Austria likewise with the Gutlanders Swedes Finlanders and the rest that are of Scandinavia Denmark Pomerania and Borussia procuring them to declare against the English and either to set upon some of their Islands or else to invade England it self that so they may divert them from falling upon the Spanish Fleets or else if the King shall think it better to set upon the English Navy it self If I say He would but be at so great a charge as to hire the said Nations to fall upon the English and would besides but give them all the Booties that they should take from the English He might compasse all his desires and besides the seeds of such a Feude once sown would spread far and near and would never be killed and choaked again And therefore I conceive that Mony alone would be able to set these People at Variance and make them fall foul one upon the other And it is certain that England stands in fear of no other Nations so much as of those above named because they are both more fierce and more Populous Nations and also more powerful at Sea then the English themselves are For Spain cannot it self make any considerable opposition against the English unlesse it be by makig use of some such Artifice seeing that they are better acquainted with those Northern Seas then the Spanish are And then England is an Island whose Inhabitants are both very Numerous and they are also a diligent and subtle People and it is besides very strongly fortified both by Sea and Land and withall a deadly enemy to Spain partly by reason of their different Religions and partly because the English claime a kind of Right to that Crown by reason of the Castilian Line which is derived by the House of Lancaster besides diverse of the former Kings of England of the Family of York and others have been allied to Spain Now as concerning the weakning of the English there can no better way possibly be found out then by causing Divisions and Dissentions among themselves and by continually keeping up the same which will quickly furnish the Spaniard with better and more advantageous Opportunities And as for the Religion of that People it is that of Calvin though very much Moderated and not so rigid and austere as it is at Geneva which yet cannot so easily be extinguished and rooted out there unlesse there were some certain Schooles set up in Flanders with which People the English have very great commerce by meanes of which there should be scattered abroad the Seeds of Schisme and Divisions in the Natural Sciences as namely betwixt the Stoicks Peripateticks and Telesians by which the Errours of the Calvinists might be made manifest For the truth of it is That Sect is Diametrically contrary to the Rules of Policy for they teach that whether a Man do well or ill he doth all by Divine Impulsion which Plato Demonstrates against Homer to be opposite to all Sounder Policy which sayes that every Man hath Free Liberty of Will either to do Well or Ill so that it is in our own Power either to observe or not observe what is commanded us and from hence we are to expect either our Rewards or Punishments according as I have most evidently demonstrated in my Dialogue touching Policy where I have discoursed of this Point though but briefly and without any flourish of Language which They since they have become Hereticks are grown somewhat subtle in and yet being of a Nature that is still desirous of Novelties and Change they are easily wrought over to any thing As concerning their Dominions and Private Estates the English are divided and live in several Countries whence some time or other the Spaniard may easily light upon some convenient Opportunity of advantage against them For the King of Englands Dominion is divided into Ireland and England which together with Scotland maketh up the Isle of Great Brittain Now Scotland it self hath also many small Islands belonging to it which are called the Orcades And hence it is that the Isle of Great Brittain had alwaies two Kings reigning over it namely one of them was King of England and the other of Scotland who by reason of their lying so near to each other were in a manner continually at wars and invading one anothers Territories for their Kingdomes are severed only by a little small River and some few hills But now the King of Scots hovers as it were at this time over England not only by reason of his Neighbourhood to it but also because of His Right of Succession for His Mother was Niece to King Henry the Eighth who was Father to Queen Elizabeth that now reigneth and if we should confesse the truth there is none so near in blood to the Crown of England as He is And therefore the time now draweth on that after the death of the said Queen Elizabeth who is now very old the Kingdom of England must fall into the hands of their Ancient and continuall Rivals the Scots We may here add that the Peers of the Land who when they are assembled together in a Body are called in their Language the Parliament carry a great sway with them and have very great Power in so much that they seem to desire to set up an Oligarchy or an Aristocratical State according to the example shewed them by the Netherlandeâ—s For all Northern Nations are Naturally impatient of Monarchy or Absâ—lute Power in Princes and the Kings of England were alwaies kept under by
Of Poland Muscovia and Transylvania THe Kingdom of Poland is in Our time the most Potent of all the Northern Kingdomes insomuch that if it were not so divided in it self about Points of Religion as it is and were withal an Hereditary Kingdome and had a Prince that were a Native and were not Elected out of some Forraign Nation as their custome is it would prove a sufficient Terrour to the Great Turk especially if the Great Duke of Muscovia were but joyned with them But the Nobility of that Nation in whose Power the Election of the King is are very much afraid of the King's Power and for that reason They keep as hard a hand over Him as possibly they can The King of Spain therefore must endeavour as much as lies in Him that no King be elected there but such a one as is of the Catholick Religion which course hath hitherto been observed amongst them For should they chuse themselves a King that were of any other Religion He would then very easily be induced to countenance by his Authority the Northern Hereticks who do all agree in these two Points although they differ among themsâ—lves almost in all the rest namelyâ— that the Pope is Antichrist and that the Arch-Dukes of Austria are all of them such as fight for Antichrist And therefore upon any the least Occasion that could be they would be apt to joyn their forces together against both the Pope and the Emperour their Neighbour had they but any Powerful Prince to head them and to be their General which Charge none is so able to undertake and go through with as the King of Poland is For the King of Denmark is but a weak Prince and the King of Sweden lies too far off and besides is severed from Germany by the Sea The King of Spain must then in the next place by all meanes endeavour that one of the House of Austria may be advanced to the Crown of Poland or at least such a one as is some way or other allied to the House of Austria as the now King of Poland is And lastly he must be such a one as shall alwaies make head against the Turk and that should enter into an Association with the Muscovites who together should to their utmost endeavour as much as in them lies the utter Ruine and Extirpation of the Turks He must also make choyce of some of the Wisest and most Eminent persons of his Kingdom whom He shall send as Embassadours to Cracovia and who by their presence may adde Authority and Weight to the Spanish Union in the Esteem of the Electors of Poland and that may obtain of them that in case the King of Spain should have more Sons then one that theâ— They would Elect one of the Younger of them to be their King for certainly were any of the King of Spain's Sons chosen King of Poland He would never be so simple and foolish as to take upon him to govern the Kingdome of Poland according to his Own Will and pleasure as the King of France's Son endeavoured to do Besides He must deal with the People of Scandia and the Dantzickers by the means of the King of Poland who now is King of Swethland also that they would joyn together and send out a Fleet against the English as hath been said before For by taking this course the Kings expense will not be half so great as his Gains will be He must also labour that the Prince of Transylvania may in like manner enter into a league with the Polanders or else that either He or the great Duke of Muscovia may be chosen King of Poland For seeing that these two Nations are not only Neighbours to â—he Turks but do also naturally hate them they might easily be able to stop his proceedings And I am verily perswaded that among all the Northern Nations there is not any so fit and able to oppose the Turk as is the Muscovite who would but the Tartarians and the Polanders joyn with him might be able to make Incursions into the Turks Dominions and march up even to the very Walls of Constantinople Neither indeed hath Macedonia or Moldavia or Bulgaria or Thrace ever suffered so much losse by any Nation as by the Muscovitâ—s And if there were an Association contracted betwixt the King of Spain and the Muscovite either by Marriage or else by the nearer Tie of Religion brought about there by the Industry of the Iesuites it must needs prove a very advantageous businesse to Him because that Spanish Gold is among these Northern Nations of greater Estimation and Account then any thing else in the world And then must the King of Spain be very careful that as soon as ever he finds he hath wrought up the affections of these people to a Willingnesse to do him any service He set them upon some Notable Expedition or other while they are now ready for it and before they begin to cool again and repent themselves of their forwardnesse For Delay hath alwaies been the Ruine of the King of Spain's Affaires by reason that his Confederates through his slownesse in putting them in execution have alwaies had time enough to smell out the subtilty of His Designs and by this means it comes to passe that he commonly loses his labour and is at charge to no purpose The Bohemians also might be hired by the King of Spain's and the Popes Mony to joyn with the Transylvanians against the Turks because that They are in league with the House of Austria Yet when all is done there cannot be any considerable matter done in this Particular without the Assistance of the Polanders also and the Muscovites and unlesse the Emperour himself also be a Man of a stout and Warlike spirit as we shewed before when we spake of Germany and use his utmost endeavour to stop all growing Mischiefs in their very Beginings least by Delay they get head and grow so much the stronger and Intractable CHAP. XXVII Of Flanders and the Lower Germany IT is not without good cause that the King of Spain endeavours by all possiblâ— meanes that he can to recover the Low-Countries again about the keeping of that only part whereof which he still possesseth it hath cost him more Humane Blood then there is Water in it and about which He hath spent more Gold then there are stones in it And yet neither is this a matter so much to be wondred at seeing that could He but once make himself Master of those Countries again He might then very easily make himself Lord also of the Whole Earth For were this but done both France and Germany would quickly follow in spite of what ever they could do and also England it self would be utterly ruined and indeed all the Northern Nations would be much weakned and rendred utterly unable to make any resistance against Him For we see that Caesar after he had once conquered the Belgians made little account of all the rest
Perez 19. Seing that the Cities of the Netherlands were in former times and before the Wars the greatest Mart Towns in all Europe and that for no other reason but only because that the Customes of all such Commodities as were either imported thitherâ— or exported into other parts which were both infinite in number and of all sorts were but small it will therefore concern the King whiles He endeavours to reconcile these People to Himself to take this into his consideration and to recall again that Ancient Custome and in a word to restore to the Netherlands its former Happinesse and to endeavour the Continuation of the same For although these Countries have no Gold Mines of their own yet while all things were quiet with them and no noyse of war heard amongst them what by their various and inestimable Pieces of Workmanship and their admirable skill in Manufactures and other Arts they had got together so much Gold as that they needed not at all to envy either the Hungarian or the Transsylvanian Mines Neither was there any Country more Glorious rich or more frequented by Forreigners I will not say in all Europe onely but in the whole World then this was in so much that in regard of that vast immense Treasure that Charles the V. received from thence it was for just cause called by some The Emperours Indies It much concerns the Interest therefore of the King of Spain that He reconcile these People to Himself and that things may be restored to their former State and condition which is a thing that is wont to be very easily brought about And to the effecting hereof He ought not to spare either for Cost Pains Counsel or Industry 20. A Careful Administration of Justice together with Peace and Plenty of all things will contribute much to the bringing of these things about as also the Maintaining and keeping up of Religion Learning and Vertue For seeing that those that are of Religious Orders and other Learned men and Persons of Worth are the men that are as it were the Heads among the rest of the People whosoever hath These of his side he may easily draw all the rest over to him also For those of Religious Orders bear rule over the Consciences of the People as the Learned do over their Wits and those of Eminency and Worth over their Purses and Military strength Those former are looked upon for their Piety and Religion the Other for their Learning and VVisedome Those through Reverence These through the Esteem the World hath of their Parts And hence it is that what soever Those men either do or say it passes for Oracular and is thought worthy to be imbraced and followed by All men 21. The same also of a Princes being addicted to Mercy and Clemency and constantly perâ—evering in the same will stand him in very good stead if so be that it may be but made known to all men that this Gentlenesse and Connivence in him proceeds meerly from his own good Nature and Inclination but that when â—e punisheth any it is out of Necessity and his Zeal towards Justice and the love of the publick Peace Thus Nero in the beginning of his Empire by his cunning dissembling his Natural Inclinations and his appearing to be a Merciful Prince wonderfully wonne the hearts and affections of the people of Rome to him which part He acted so cunningly and to the life as that when a certain Sentence of Judgment that had been pronounced by the Judges against an offender was brought to Him to set his hand to it He sighing said O quam vellem literas non didicisse I could wish I had never known a letter 22. The Raies of some extraordinary eminent Vertue shining forth in a Prince would also be of very great advantage to Him for by this meanes he would not only oblige his own Subjects to him but even his Enemies would be won over to love and favour him examples whereof we have in Alexander and Scipio both of which gave testimony to the World of their Singular Continency and Moderation in all things as likewise in Camillus and Fabricius who both gave evidence of the Greatnesse of their Courage the one against the Falisci and the other against King Pyrrhus These sparks of Gallantry appeared also in the Emperour Conrade in his war again Misicâ— and likewise in Charles the Great who besides his diligent Observance of Religion and his endeavours to promote Learning got himself a great deal of Reputation also by his Beneficence and Liberality towards all sorts of men both the highest lowest and of middle ranke and indeed generally to all And certainly there is not a more Lovely strong and commendable Tye whereby to bind the Affections of the People to a man then Liberality and Bountifulnesse 23 But above all things it would be a businesse of very great Efficacy if that such Covenants and Agreements as have been made betwixt the King and them were but kept which yet the Spaniards have neglected to doâ— though to their Cost and the losse of their own lives For nothing doth more offend and alienate the hearts both of Natural as well as conquered subjects then when they see that those Capitulations as they call them and Articles upon which they have submitted themselvs to any Prince are altered and changed by him And we see that this being not observed by the Duke of Alva who was a Covetous and Unjust man and one that looked after nothing but his own Gain was the cause that the Netherlands began to raise such Tumults there and at length openly to rebel against the King Whereas on the contrary Alexander Farnese Duke of Parma for his fidelity in keeping his promises and Agreements which is certainly an Infallible Argument of a Constant Mind and of an Excellent Judgement got himself an exceeding great repute of Gallantry and worth among the Netherlanders And questionlesse He was a most Compleat and throughly-accomplished Souldier and served as General under a most Just King alwaies commanding an Army under Him for the service of the Church and of God sometimes following the example of Fabius and sometimes that of Marcellus 24. Neither would it be a businesse of small moment to bring in the Spanish Tongue into these Countries and to cause it to be spoken there according to the Practise of the Ancient Romans who when they had conquered any Country caused the Nation conquerd to learn the Latine Tongue Thus did the Arabians also after the example of the Romans introduce their Language into a great part of Africk and of Spain and William Duke of Normandy surnamed the Conquerour endeavoured about five hundred years since to do the same in Englandâ— But now for the introducing of a Language into any conquered Country it is necessary in the first place that the Lawes of that Country be written in the said Language and that the Lawyers Plead in that Language in all Courts of Judicature
and likewise that all Commissions Proclamations and Petitions be published or written in no other Language but that This was also done heretofore by Charles the Great who having made himself Master of the Exarchate of Ravenna which He afterwards bestowed upon the Church He would have it called by the Name of Romania that so by degrees He might bring into disuse the Language and Customes of the Greeks to whom that People had been formerly subject and might withal implant in them the love both of the Roman Church and of the Roman Emperour And even the Great Turk also does not suffer any of the Inhabitants of Natolia to use any other Language but the Turkish save onely in their Church Services 25. Education also seemes to have a great stroke herein as being indeed as it were a second Nature by the meanes whereof strangers are in a manner Naturalized The King of Spain therefore should do well to take the Sons of the Nobility and Principal men as also such Poor mens sons ar are found to be endued with any extraordinary Natural Parts and to take order that they may be carefully brought up in some of the afore mentioned Seminaries in Spain either of Armes or of Arts. Alexander the Great finding the benefit of this course commanded that so many Thousands of the Peâ—sian Youth should be picked out and be Trained up in Learning the use of Armes in the Habit and Manners of the Macedonians conceiving that He should bâ— this meanes receive as much benefit by them when they were once grown up to be men as by his own Natural Subjects of Macedonia themselves After the same manner doth the Turk bring up his Ianizaries who are onely the Children of such of his Subjects as he hath conquered by war or else of Christians and Forreigners such as he can catch abroad at Sea which afterwards prove the most faithful Souldiers to him that ever he had And indeed these are the men to whom the Guard and Protection of the Emperours person is committed and these men doth the Great Turk make use of only in all Affaires of the greatest consequence where there is most need either of strength or Fidelity By meanes of the Turks thus bringing up of â—he sons of his subjects He makes two great Advantages to himself For first he deprives his unfaithful subjects of their strength and then secondly by that strength of theirs of which he hath deprived them he confirmeth his own 26. I would advise Our King not to despise or make light of any the least Commotions or Distempers among his Nobles or Subjects for all Mischiefs have but small Beginnings which yet if they be neglected and not looked unto in time will very probably bring Ruine with them in the end as we see the least Clouds in appearance at first do in the end produce most Horrid Tempests and storms 27. I would not have the King to assent to the Proposal of any thing that may introduce with it any Change or Innovation in the State for His very giving way to have the same deliberated upon addes both Authority and esteem to the same All the Troubles that havâ— befallen both in the Netherlands and in France took their Rise from Two little Books of which the one was read to Francis the Second King of France by Caspar Coligni and the other was presented to the Duchesse of Parma by the L. de Brederode 28. Let the King take heed how he ever exercises his Absolute Power among those people where His Ordinary Power will serve the turn well enough for That way of proceeding is proper to Tyrants only but this Later to Good Princes And indeed all Absolute and Extream Power may rather be said to be Tempest as then Potestas a Tempest rather then Power 29. Let there be all care taken about the chusing of the Ministers of State in those Countries that only such be made choyce of as are but just sufficient to discharge the Trust committed to them and that they be neither too much above it nor beneath it which we find to have been carefully observed by the Emperour Tiberius For those whose Abilities are above the Employment they are put upon will be apt to neglect the same as despising it and thinking it below them and then the other are not able to discharge it if they would Lastly Let Him never so much trust to any Peace as to make him quite lay aside his Armes for such an Vnarmed Peace would prove but a weak one Constantine the Great enjoying now a Settled Peace every where round about Him disbanded all the Souldiers that lay in Garrisons upon the Borders of his Empire by which means He set open a Gate for the Barbarous Nations to break in upon His Territories And in like manner Maximilian the First trusting too much to the Truce agreed upon betwixt Him and the Turk and thereupon laying down his Armes was the cause of the Ruine of very many Christians And thus have we discoursed of these Particulars as copiously as we thought was fit to be committed to Paper but as for the rest of those more Secret Particulars and which are more worthy of Observation I shall reserve them till some other time when it shall please his Majestie to admit me to his Presence and shall give me Audience concerning the same However in the mean time those things which we have here proposed are not to be omitted for unlesse by these Means here set down the Peoples good Affection towards their King be stirred up and cherished His Dominion in those parts will prove to be but like a Plant without any Root For as every the least Storm will be apt to overturn a Tree that hath no firm Root in the ground in like manner will every the least Occasion offered alienate the hearts of the Subjects from their Prince where they are but ill affected to Him before and will take them off from their Allegiance to their Natural Prince and being thenceforth hurried about by Fortune they will one while adhere to One and by and by again to Another And hence arise all the Mutations that we see in Kingdoms and States a most evident Example whereof we have in the Kingdom of France CHAP. XXVIII Of Africk THe Turk possesseth in Africk all Egypt Algier and Tunis The Kiâ—gdome of Fâ—z hath a peculiar King of its own who nothwithstanding might very easily be cast out of his Throne because that Mahumetanisme in those parts is divided into above sixty several Sects The rest of the Kings in Africk have but very small Dominions except only the King of the Abyssines who is commonly called Prester Iohn and hath above fifty smaller Kingdomes under him This King of the Abyssines is a Christian although He doth not professe the Pure Catholick Religion It is necessary therefore that Forces should be brought over thence into Spain seeing that the passage to and fro is very easie For our
Eldest Son comming to the Empire after his Fathers death presently makes away with all his Younger Brothers Neither can He want any Men seeing that He permits every one of his subjects to take as many Wives to him as He is able to keep so that neither Inheritance nor Virginity are any hinderance to the Procreation of Children in his Territories His custome is also in making his Wars to go as it were round about in a circleâ— and so to deal with his Neigbouring enemies neither leaving any enemy behind him nor ever going farther from home one way then another as hath been said before And he hath besides an Admirable Art in his making his Cessations from Arms and Truces with his Enemies being sure alwayes to make them for his own Advantage Now the Turk is descended from Iaphet by Magog and he hath the Lawes of Sem derived to Him by Ishmael whence hath sprung Mahumetanisme And of Him God himself foretold Agar that His hand should be against every man and every mans hand against him and that He should dwell in the pâ—esence of all his brethren And therefore we see that He hath pitched his Tents at Constantinople in the uttermost Angle of Europe over against Us who are his Brethren descending from Isaac who was both the Legitimate and Natural Brother of Ishmael For as the Spaniards are descended from Tubal so the Turks are descended from Magog who were both the Sons of Iaphet And truly the Turk doth put forth his hand every way not only against all Christians but also against Mahumetans now here now there one while on the right hand and then on the left and still goes away the Conquerour He makes use also of another point of subtlety which is that so soon as ever He finds that we are at union amongst our selves He then presently flies to making a Truce with Us which notwithstanding he presently breakes off again so soon as ever he sees us at dissention among our selves And whensoever he is returned Victorious from one Couutry He presently falls to the making of some other Expedition either against the Persians or the Ethiopians c. as hath been shewed before And yet though all these things be thus yet doth the King of Spain lay claime also to the Dominion of that Empire or at least of part of it and thaâ— by reason of his Fraternity both Natural from Iaphet and also Legal proceeding from Abraham but yet in respect of this Later he hath the Preheminence above the Turk For he is descended from Isaac from whom Christ who is also God is descended the Cheif Law-giver of All and He hath also thereby a general Promise made him of the Universal Empire of the World And because He was Blessed also in Abraham the last Kingdome of the Saints which is to succeed after the end of the Four Monarchiesâ— and of which Daniel Prophesied belongs unto him But Ishmael from whom Mahomet the Turks Law-giver is descended had no other promise made unto him but that he should be an Absolute Lord and a great and famous Warriour Besides both these Princes are a part of the Roman Empire for after that the Roman Monarchy shall be at an end there shall no other succeed it But according to Esdras the Gâ—rman which is now the same that the Spaniard as hath been said before is the Right Head but the Turk is the Left Head of the Imperial Eagle after that Mahomet fell off from the Emperour Heracliâ—â—â— during whose Reign the Eagle was divided to whom notwithstandiâ—g there was no other promise made but that He should Devour the Middle Head namely the Constantinopolitan whereas the Spaniard hath this Promise made him thatâ— he should devour the Left Head that is to say the Turk as we have hinted formerly And although that the Spaniard hath above him one that is a Clergy Man and that is also Armed with the Temporal Sword yet doth this make for his advantage both in respect of Fate and of His State as hath been written before for as much as the Spaniard according to the example of Cyrus hath under him the United Monarchy of the Saints and the Pope is also a most sure defence and Safe-guard to Him by whose Assistance he is able to deal well enough with his enemies both with spiritual and Temporall weapons and yet so as that He may easily withal avoid the suspicion either of Covetousnesse or Profanenesse Now as concerning the Absolutenesse of Dominion the Great Turk is herein much above the King of Spain But yet I have formerly shewed that this very thing of his not caring to have any Barons or Nobles under him renders Him and His Condition and State so weak that if he should receive but one sound Blow onely in an open field Battel it would so crush Him as that he would never be able to hold up his Head again Which cannot happen to the King of Spain because that His Nobles and Bishops and also the Pope himself would speedily in such a case send in Relief to Him The Great Turk keeps under all the Great ones among his Subjects least they should attempt any Innovation in the State or act any thing to the Prejudice of His Monarchy as the Nobility of France did heretofore But then in the mean time He doth so weaken them that they are not able to yeild him any Relief or Aide at all in case he should come to have need of it As concerning Military Discipline and the Manner of making War the Turk far excells the Spaniard as I have before shewedâ— yet notwithstanding if the King of Spain would but use all convenient diligence and withal carefully observe those Rules which I have here laid down before him He might even in this Particular surpasse the Turk and the rather if so be He would but go himself in Person to the Wars And as for the number of Men and of Souldiers the Turk goes beyond the Spaniard and indeed in all his greatest expeditions He hath ever done his businesse rather by his Numbers then by valour And yet his Subjects are divided amongst themselves in Religion and then besides all the Lands of every Country are given in Fee only to the Principal Commanders of his Militia whereas the King of Spain hath fewer Subjects indeed in number but yet they are more at unity among themselves But I have already shewn how the Number of the King of Spains Subjects may be encreased by their Marriages with Forraign Nationsâ— and also how by meanes of erecting Seminaries for the instructing of Youth both in learning and the use of Armes the Valour of his Souldiers may be encreased the Neglect of making use of Which Meanes hath been the cause that the Turk hath overstript us in this particular As concerning the businesse of Mony I conceive there is little or no odds on either side But if the King of Spain would but proceed in that Absolute way of
Power over his Subjectsâ— that the Turk does over his He might easily surpasse him in Riches The King I confesse wants Mony but I have formerly shewed him by what waies He might gather together Mony enough to maintain a war against the Turk Now the Turk useth infinite Celerity and speed in putting what ever designs He hath in execution sparing no cost or charges for the providing of all things necessary for the same so that with the present Mony that he hath in his Treasury He presently raiseth Men and provides them Armes and gets all things immediately in a readinesse in order to the expedition He is upon and when he hath laid out all the Mony that he had in his Treasurie he then presently falls to filling it up again by laying fresh Impositions and Taxes upon his Subjects It is a necessity that is in a manner Peculiar to the Turk of making War upon his Neighbours round about and as it were in a Circle for they are all his enemies But now the condition of the Spaniard is otherwise For betwixt His Kingdome of Naples and his Duchy of Millanâ— there lye the Pope and the Tuscans who are united unto him by the Tie both of Religion and Friendship He lies something remote indeed from the Netherlands and the West Indies which notwithstanding render him worthy the more admiration because that by reason of his Fleets he lies as it were neer unto them and by meanes of the same he may possibly in time make himself Master of those other Parts also which he hath not yet possessed himself of as we shall shew hereafter The King hath also this advantage that although those Countries lâ—e at so great a distance from one another yet by the Tie of Religion they are all joyned to Spain Lastly whereas in Turky the Eldest sons of the Emperours are wont alwaies to make away with their Younger brothers this piece of Cruelty of theirs does but set a Note of Infamy upon them and it may easily so fall out that some One of these Younger Brothers may get away out of his Elder Brothers power and may be able afterwards to make War upon his Brother And we see that this had been like to have come to passe in Gemes the Brother of Bajazet who having gotten out of prison might have been able to have done his Brother very much Mischief and by the Assistance of the Christians might have made his way into Greece had he not by the Arts his Brother Bajazet used and by the treachery also of the Christians been taken off by Poyson And Selim although He did not desire to make Himself Emperour yet He made himself very strong at first only to preserve himself from being put to death but afterwards taking the Opportunity when it was offered him He turned both his Father and Brother out of the Empire and commanded them to be both put to death at which Juncture of Time that Empire might very easily have been utterly subverted and ruined And truly I conceive that the Total destruction of that Empire cannot be brought about any other way then by this one thing namely their most bloody Cruelty that they Practise upon their nearest and dearest Friends and Kindred For seeing that the great Turk takes as many Wives to himself as he pleases and so gets an Infinite number of Sons by them all which are most certainly assured that when ever their Eldest Brother comes to be Emperour They shall be all of them murdered it is very probable that some time or other there may Civil Wars arise in that Empire by which it may either be totally destroyed or at least may be divided into many parts which would give the Turks enemies an Opportunity of falling upon him and so of ruining him Neither need any one wonder that this hath not as yet happened to this very day seeing that this Empire is not of any so very long standingâ— For Ottoman who was the Founder of it died but in the Year of our Lord 1328. in the time of Pope Benedict XI And yet we know that there have already been bloody Wars amongst them which seems to confirm this our Prognostication and makes me the willinger to give credit to Torquatus the Astrologer who foretold that it would come to passe that in the time of the Sixteenth Emperour of Turky that Empire should fall to the ground namely when the Moon which is the Ensign of that Empire shall begin to decrease that is to say when It shall be divided into Two Hornes by two of the Great Turks Sons rising up one against the other and causing the Empire to be divided into Two parts One of which Brothers turning to Christianity shall come over to the Christians Now these Two Hornes signifie Two Kingdomes for Kingdomes are oftentimes denoted by the Ensigns or Armes of the same as we see in the Revelâ—tion of St. Iohn where the Kingdomes themselves are from their Insignia called sometimes Dragons sometimes Eagles and sometimes also Lions and the Prophet Ieremy calleth the Kingdome of the Assyrians by the name of a Dove because the Assyrians had the Figure of a Dove for their Ensign or Devise Now in this Particular the Spaniard is much more happy then the Turk because that His Sons do not fall out or hate each other for any such Cause Yea we see at this day that those of the House of Austria partly by reason of this very thing because they are Brothers and Kindred and partly also through fear of the other Christian Princes and of the Hereticks are at so much the greater Concord and Agreement among themselves And you shall scarse find more Brothers or Kindred in any one Princes Family then in that of Austria and yet have not these ever broken the Bond of Consanguinity one with another nor have ever raised any Commotions in their Republick through Ambitious Ends and Respects but have on the contrary preserved each to other their Just Rights Untoucht and have lived together in so Unshaken a Concord and Union as that they seem to be so many Bodies animated all with One Soul and guided all by One Will. We may adde hereto that the Younger Brothers of this House have hopes either of being made Cardinals or else of being Elected Kings of Poland or of some of the other Forreign Elective Kingdoms so that the House of Austria by reason of the Multitude of Sons growes the Greater whereas the Ottoman House does for the same reason decrease every day more and more not to say any thing how much the Turk's Subjects are offended with this Tyranny of his Experience also testifies that the Daughters of the House of Austria have by their Marriages with other Princes and the Inheritances thereby fallen to them very much advanced the Greatnesse of the Austrian Family and have enlarged their Dominions in a wonderful manner and besides they have also caused the hearts of their Husbands and of their
of It only by way of Exchange for other things and desired to have it without any Covetous mind at all letting the Indians see withall that they brought them Iron for their Gold which is a much more useful Mettal both for the Manuring of the Earth and also for the defence of Mans Life it self And then after all things had been thus carried they should have presently clapt abroad their ships as many of the Natives as they could under pretense of some such Command given from Heaven to the Pope and the King of Spain into whose Dominions they should have carried them and have disposed of them in Colonies dispersed up and down through Africk from whence they should afterwards have been conveyed over into Spain to be made to labour there and to till the ground and to be instructed in Mechanick Arts mean while that the Spaniards themselves should follow their exercise of Arms and so by degrees shall subdue their whole Country But now the Spaniards that first landed in those parts were meer Rude Boysterous Souldiers and such as knew not of how great force the Opinion of Divinity once raised in the minds of men is towards the subduing of them But they as if they had been come into an Enemies Country fell immediately to hunt after their Gold and to pillage them of what they could making it plainly appear that they took litle care of the saving of the poor Indians Souls and yet though they never had prepared them at all by preaching Christ to them before hand yet how ever they would needs by threats fright them into Christianity and force them to be Baptized and to believe that Christ was Crucified for them Which things certainly at the first sight could not chuse but seem to them to be most Absurd as Namely that Water was able to bring any one to Heaven or that God could die and so by this means They at the very first became a Stumbling Block unto All of them as the Apostle Paul speaks by not observing that Apostolical Rule Praedicate hominibus Preach to All men By this means therefore the Spaniaâ—ds comming to be repulsed by the Natives they Presently fell to killing of them so that the Natives betaking themselves to the Mountains the Spaniards then fell to hunt after Men no otherwise then they used to hunt after Wild Beasts and returning home at night they made their brags how many Indians each of them had killed that day and so by this means they in a short time laid that Country for the space of three Thousand Leagues together utterly Wast and voyd of Inhabitants never considering at all that by the common Tie of Humanity theâ— were their Brethren whom they had so Barbarously destroyed and that we are All of us descended from Noah and therefore that all that are not Baptized are not presently to be accounted no better then Beasts But by this means it came to passe that the miserable Wretches seeing that Gold was so highly esteemed by the Spaniards indeed was more accounted of then the Men themselves they grew to be very much offended at them and said that The Spaniards desired to bring them under their subjection only by the Sprinkling of a litle Water upon them meaning that of Baptisme but that their Dominion over them would be the very same with that of the Wolfe over the sheep only to worry them and tear them in pieces They retired themselves therefore to the Mountains and from thence afterwards issuing out they have sometimes got the better of the Spaniards in so much that to this very day having now pretty well learnt how to deal with them they have the courage to come out against them with theirâ— Armes no longer reverencing them as Gods but driving them away and chasing them as so many Ravenous Wolves And from hence sprung up another Mischeif alsoâ— which is that Spain which it self was very bare of Men was notwithstanding â—orced to send over Colonies into those Parts and yet for all this the plain truth of the businesse is that the Souldiers that were there were so inconsiderable for their Number in respect of that Vast Tract of ground as that they were very hard put to it to keep what they had got For the taking off of which fear from themselvesâ— they fell to Slaughter and to kill up the Natives out of the way which is an argument of the greatest Ignorance and Cruelty that can be So that I am clearly of opinion that the King of Spain should make it His businesse rather to people those parts and to encrease the number of the Inhabitants then to enrich himself only with the Gold and Silver that is fetched away from thence if so be He look after his Own greatest Advantage and would continue Lord of that Country And therefore I would have him in the first place to take order that there be a Catechisme made and published in the Language of the Country whereby the people there might be instructed first of all in the Principles of the Law of Nature and of Gods Providence Then would I have a History to be compiled from the Creation of the World down to Christ and so continued on to Our times which should be written in a brief Compâ—ndious Way according to that short Form which I have laid down in few words in my Preface to this Dâ—scourse and after the example of the Fathers of the Church who in converting the Heathens to the Christian Faith made use of the like Compendious Method as for instance Clemens and Lactantius did and not such Prolixe tedious Formes as our Modern Writers use now a dayes There should also be chosen out of such of the Natives as are instructed in the Principles of the Christian Faith some who should take upon them the Office of Priests and Preachers and these should be sent abroad among the rest of their Countrymen that keep about the Mountaines to whom the Spanish Preachers cannot come and should offer them their Brotherly Assistance and should tell them what things the Pope and the King of Spain as in the Name of God would have them informed of and withal how grievously and severely God had punished our World by Heresies and Mahumetanism onely for the former Inhumanity and Cruelty used by the Souldiers towards Them And that now the King hath sent again to them the second time such Persons as should with all mildnesse and gentlenesse invite them to receive the Christian Religion And with these should be joyned also some of Our Preachers who after that they had faithfully and Effectually discharged their Office there should then be preferred to be Bishops or Abbats that so others by their example might be encouraged to do the like and also that those People might know and see that great Honors are by us proposed to such men as we send over to them to teach and instruct them And it seems also to be very
if they would never so fain And this may be done by observing these three things namely by bringing them to be Weakâ— and lastly if they be Kept â—sunder from one another for the Boldnesse that any take upon them in attempting to cast off the Yoak from their Necks proceeds either from their Height of Spirit or from their Strength or else from their Multitude But before these severer Courses are taken with them it cannot be expressed how mightily advantageous it would be to the businesse in hand if so be the Children of Infidels were put to such Masters as should instruct them in the Arts and Liberal Sciences and all such exercises as are fit for any Ingenuous Man to be brought up in for by this course alone we should at once oblige both the Children and the Parents also to Us. We must therefore erect as I said before Seminaries both for the Tongues and Armes which we call the Two Instruments of our Future Monarchy the Former of these for the reducing of all such of our Subjects as are Infidels and Hereticks and the bringing them back in a peaceable manner into the True Way and to a Unity of Faith and the Later to the end that they may be utterly weakned and deprived of all power in case they shall stand out and refuse to return to the True Faith of which we have formerly spoken elsewhere CHAP. XIX Of such Kingdomes as are Properly belonging to the King of Spain and of such also as are his Enemies and of these which are in League with each other and which not SOme are of Opinion that it is Impossible that the Kingdom of Spain should stand long as well because almost All Other Nations are either Enemies to it or at least not very good Friends as also by reason of the remotenesse of the several parts of it from each other some lying in the New World and others lying scatteringly here and there like Islands as in Italy the Low-Countries and in Africk all which are most different from one another both in their Languages Situation and Temper of the Climate whereas on the contrary the Turk who layes claime to the Universal Empire of the whole World hath his Dominions lying all close together and besides in his Wars he observes the same Course that the Romans heretofore did in making War alwayes upon his Neighbours only that lye round about him Neither can the Enmity or hatred of those Nations that are his Enemies do him any hurt at all for as much as he brings up within his own Dominions Young Children of all sorts of which afterwards he maketh Souldiers so that his Empire seems in a manner to be nothing else but a Military Republick Neither can Religion at all hinder his proceedings and besides his Bashawes or Governours of Provinces have all of them an absolute power of Rule given them so that they need not stand in fear of poor naked and unarmed People whom if they should but offer to rise they would be able to suppresse by their own Sons Whosoever desires to become a great Monarch it will behoove him to be continually in making War upon all his Neighbours that lye round about him and to reduce them under his subjection as soon as possibly he can For thus the Romans heretofore did first of all setting upon the Sabines and Latines and then afterwards falling upon the Aequicolae the Peligni the Veientes Lucanians Tuscans and Samnites alwayes going round in a Circle till at length having subdued all Italy they passed over into Sardinia Sicily Spain Gaule and Germany The self same Course was taken by the Babylonians in their expeditions against those of Asia and the Persians The Macedoniaâ—s did the like making War upon the Thebans first then falling upon the Epirotes Lacedemonians Achaians and Aetolians and afterwards passing over into Asia they filled it wholly with their Armies in so much that at length as Livy and Plutarch write they were so puft up with the glory of their Victories as that they would have marcht on against the Romans and Carthagineans also Certainly had not Alexander the Great been taken off by an untimely death he would without all doubt have made an Expedition against the Romans also I say therefore that the Turk does at this day take the very same course that the Greatest Empires in former times did For having first subdued all Asia Minor he then passed over into Europe and conquered all Greece next he falls upon Syria Egypt and Armenia till at length he came as far as Macedonia Epirus and Hungary Where after he had taken in some certain Christian provinces and added them to his Empire and that the Christians now out of a General fear of being swallowed up by him betook themselves all to their Armes and joyned their whole strengths together against him He then very craftily and subtlely makes a Truce with them and agrees upon conditions of Peace These things passing on thus the Christians in the mean while fall at variance among themselves and make war upon â—ach other so that the Turk being now secure from any Molestation by them turnes his Victorious Armes against the Kings of Persia or Georgia till such time that finding the Christians all to peices again among themselves he thinks fit then to strike up a Truce with the Peâ—sian or those other of his enemies whosoever they were and so falls on again upon the Christians with all the strength he hath and does them what mischeif lies in his Power And then while They are fain to spend time in consulting what is to be done the Turk he goes on still Victoriously taking in now one Place and then another without controule So great and of so dangerous and sad Consequence are those Intestine Dissensions that are at this day kept up among the Christian Princes But the King of Spain at one and the same time maintaines a War with several Nations neither hath he at any time all his whole forces joyned together in any one Battel by which meanes He utterly destroyes himself For we shall have him making War in the most Remote Parts of the World whiles yet in the mean time He hath all his Neighbours that lye round about Him his enemies as the English French Hollanders and perhaps even the Italians themselves also Whence it may seem that He takes a very crosse and unlikely way for the enlarging of his Dominions and Empire But to this Objection I Answer that though much of this is true yet the Course that the Turk takes is so blunt and plainâ— that if he should have but one overthrow so that it were a lusty one indeed it would prove his utter Ruin as I have hinted before since that He hath no Vice-Roys or Barons by whom he might be recruited and made whole again But we cannot say so of the King of Spain who in such a case would presently be furnished with Aides from the Pope and