Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	woman_n	write_v	writer_n	13	3	7.6002	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01615	A discourse vpon the meanes of vvel governing and maintaining in good peace, a kingdome, or other principalitie Divided into three parts, namely, the counsell, the religion, and the policie, vvhich a prince ought to hold and follow. Against Nicholas Machiavell the Florentine. Translated into English by Simon Patericke.; Discours, sur les moyens de bien gouverner et maintenir en bonne paix un royaume ou autre principauté. English	Gentillet, Innocent, ca. 1535-ca. 1595.; Patrick, Simon, d. 1613.	1602 (1602)	STC 11743; ESTC S121098	481,653	391

the towne of Florence for those two valiant combattants both of them to place themselves upon a great heape of faggots which were laid to that end for to set fire thereunto as soone as they came upon them The day assigned being come behold the two combattants appeared but the Iacobin had about him as they call it the precious bodie of the Host for his defence which he tooke betwixt both his hands the Frier and the Seignorie shewed That that was no reasonable defence for the Iacobin and therefore urged him to let goe the Host but hee would not for any thing depart from it insomuch as by that meanes the combat ended and each one which came to that place to see those valiant combattants goe to the fire returned to their houses But not long after they were all three endighted and I know not how nor wherefore they were accused and condemned for I finde nothing written thereof but they were all three burnt Here behold how the Florentines handled this poore Frier Ierome whom Machiavell reports to have spoken with God It may be some at the beginning had some good opinion of him but in the end they made him well know that he was no such able man to persuade them either to the Religion of Numa or to any other Religion for the most part of them cared for neither the one nor the other 10. Maxime A man is happie so long as Fortune agreeth unto his nature and humor FOrtune may be compared saith M. Machiavell to a great floud vvhich nothing can resist vvhen it overflowes his Cha. 25. De Prince Discourse lib 2. cap. 29. bankes vvith great inundations But vvhen it remaines in his ordinarie course or vvhen it overfloweth not vvithout measure the force thereof may easily bee resisted by levies ditches rampiers and other like obstacles so Fortune is sometimes so unmeasurable in violence that no vertue can resist her yet vertue may afterward repaire the evils vvhich that overflowing violence of Fortune hath brought it may also very vvell so resist Fortune vvhich is moderate and not too violent as the forces thereof shall not hurt I iudge therefore saith he that prince happie unto vvhose nature and manner of doings there happeneth an accordant and a consonant time For the diversitie of times make that two by contrarie meanes come to one same end and effect and also that two by one same meanes doe come to contrarie ends So that if hee vvhich governes himselfe moderately encounter and meet vvith a time vvherein his vertue is requisit he cannot faile but prosper yet if the time change he shall undoubtedly overthrow himselfe if hee likewise change not his manners and order of life Pope Iulius in all his actions proceeded vvith extreame fiercenesse and hastinesse yet his actions succeeded vvell but many others have fared evill by using too precipitate promptitude and hast Whereof I conclude saith he that men are happie so long as fortune accordeth to their humour and complexion but as soone as she beginneth to varie and dissent then goe they fast downe the vvheele vvhom also shee determineth to overthrow she blindeth them ordinarily shee can likewise chuse fit men at her pleasure to cast downe the vvheele commonly she applies gives her selfe to young and inconsiderate people vvhich are most hazardous and prompt in execution therein imitating the nature of women which doe best love young men such as to obey them must rather be spurred than flattered BY this description of Machiavell is evidently seene that he thinks that which the poets writ for fables concerning Fortune is the very truth For the Paynim poets have written That Fortune is a goddesse who giveth good and evill things to whom she list And to denote that this shee doth inconsiderately and without judgement they wrap her head in a cloth least with her eyes she see and know to whom she giveth so that she never knoweth unto whom she doth good or evill moreover they describe her standing upright upon a boule to denote her inconstancie and unstaiednesse turning and tossing one while on the one side another while on the other Now Machiavell would make men beleeve that this is true and that all the good and evill which comes to men happeneth because they have Fortune accordant or discordant to their complexions Hee after sayth That shee commonly favoureth young people such as are hazardous and inconsiderate to the end that therby men might learne that rule to be rash violent and headie that they may have Fortune favourable unto them But all this doctrine tends to the same end as the former Maximes doe namely to insinuate into mens minds and hearts a despight and utter contempt of God and his providence For let man have once this persuasion That no good comes unto us from God but from Fortune he will easily forsake the service of God as also when men beleeve that evill that is to say the punishments of vices and sinnes come not from the just judgement of God but onely from Fortune which inconsiderately and rashly gives evils without consideration whether they merit them or no and as soone to the good as to the wicked then need we not doubt but straight such a man is emptied of all feare of God and readie to fall into every vice Here may you see the scope and end whereunto this wicked man tendeth to bring princes and other men leaving no manner of impietie behind to infect and sow his poyson in the world But against this we have good preservatives drawne out of the holy Scriptures whereby we are assured That nothing fals to us but by Gods providence and that such afflictions as are sent us are for our good least the slipperie way of prosperitie make us fall to our destruction insomuch as wee praise God for both good and evill resolving our selves that that which unto our carnall sences appeareth to bee evill is not evill to our soules but very healthfull and good because there is a Christian Maxime That no evill can happen to a Christian from the hand of God our Father but my purpose is not here to handle that point of Theologie any further but I will confute Machiavell even by the Paynims themselves And first I oppose against him almost all the auncient Philosophers which have maintained That nothing happeneth nor is done without some efficient cause although to us it be unknowne True it is that they make a distinction of causes for they say that God is the first cause which holds in action all other inferior causes God is the first cause of all things which they call Second and makes them worke their effects and although oftentimes in this distinction of causes they attribute some things to second causes which they should attribute to the first alone yet notwithstanding they referre all things to God mediately or immediately Very true it is that sometimes they use that name of Fortune applying themselves

come thereunto useth it fiercely and to his own commoditie rather than to the profit of the Commonwealth we confesse that our Religion teacheth us to flie and despise such honours But when a man will maintaine himselfe by all honest and lawfull meanes in a good and entire reputation although by such meanes he aspire to some estate and dignitie whereof he feeles himselfe capable well to use it and to serve God and the Commonweale therein we say That by our Christian Religion there is not forbidden us such an aeffectation of honor and that lawfully wee may yea we ought to seeke and pursue to have such an honor Breefely the thing which Christians hold most precious and deare is their conscience towards God and their honour amongst men M. Philip de Comines king Lewis the eleventh his chamberlaine writeth That this king was very humble in habits in words and in all other things and that hee could well acknowledge his faults and amend them and that these vertues were the meanes whereby he dispatched great affaires which he had on his armes at his first comming to the crowne so had hee ordinarily this notable sentence in his mouth cleane contrarie from Machiavell his Maxime When Pride marcheth before Shame with domage followeth So must we say That humilitie kindnesse gentlenesse patience easinesse to pardon clemencie and all other vertues which accord and agree with an humane and benigne nature are not contrarie to the true magnanimitie but very covenable and agreeing thereunto For magnanimitie is no other thing but a constant and perpetuall will to employ himselfe couragiously in all good and vertuous things and to flie abate and chase away all vices and vicious things It is then magnamitie to be humble soft gentle patient enclined to pardon to be farre from vengeance since all those things are vertues and not vices And by the contrarie it is pusillanimitie to bee proud rigorous sharpe impatient vindicate and cruell because all those things are vices and not vertues For that vertue of Magnanimitie is never accompanied with the said vices neither receives them to wait upon her onely she is waited upon with all other vertues And for example hereof there were never men more moderate more humble and gentle nor more enclined to pardon than were Scipio the African than Iulius Caesar than Alexander the great than great Pompeius Yet were there never in the world men which were more magnanimous than they As much may wee say of Charlemaine Philip Augustus the Conqueror saint Lewis Charles le Sage Charles the seventh Lewis the twelfth and many other kings of Fraunce which were very magnanimous yet very soft and gentle But I shall in another place handle this point more at large and shew That magnanimitie hath alwayes been joyned with humanitie gentlenesse and clemencie and contrarie pusillanimitie hath alwaies beene accompanied with crueltie pride and vengeance 4. Maxime The great Doctors of the Christian Religion by a great ostentation and stiffenesse have sought to abolish the remembrance of all good letters and antiquitie THe Christian Religion saith this Atheist hath held this practise Discourse lib. 2. to abolish the Paynim Religion first to deface the memorie of all order and the ceremonies thereof and of all old Theologie After that it sought to abolish also the Poets and Historiographers and to extinguish the totall knowledge of the deeds and ieasts of excellent persons and of all antiquitie destroying all old images and all that might represent any signe or trace of the vvorld passed yet it could not altogether abolish good letters because it vvas constrained to use the Latine language therevvith to vvrite her new law by the meanes of vvhich language some part of the ancient vvorkes yet remaineth But if the Christian Religion could have formed a new language in a small time you should have seene all antiquitie quite banished and gone But S. Gregorie and other Doctors of that Religion vvhich so obstinately persecuted the letters and writings of the Gentiles were constrained themselves to write them in the Latin tongue The Paynim Religion at his beginning did the same to the Religion vvhich vvas before it for saith hee Sects and Religions change and varie two or three times in five or six thousand yeares and the last makes alwayes perish the remembrance of all that had beene before it and if any kept any reliques of the memorie thereof men held them for fables and gave no credit unto them more than unto the hystorie of Diodorus the Sicilian who begins a narration of things done fortie or fiftie thousand yeares before MAchiavell desirous to shew himselfe a very Atheist without religion and a man full of ignorance and beastlinesse advanceth now this Maxime the very contrarie whereof is plainely seene in the writings of them of our Religion which this impostor and deceiver blameth as altogether false and against truth For so much doth there want that the writers of the bookes of our Religion would abolish good letters as the liberall arts the knowledge of tongues hystories poesies other of the Elders sciences that cleane contrarie they have with them aided and helped themselves to confute the errors of the Painim Religion For they were forced to The Christiā doctors have confuted the Painims by their owne bookes use them against the Painims to vanquish them either with naturall reason or with allegations and authorities out of their owne books because they received not the authoritie of the Bible And whosoever reads the ancient Doctors will witnesse that it is true That they have filled their bookes with allegations of prophane and Painim authors and he that will see this more at large let him reade S. Augustine of the citie of God and the Christian institutions of Lactantius Firmian For he shal see that the purpose of those two authors in the said bookes is no other but to confute and overthrow the Painims Religion with the falsenesse thereof by their owne bookes and to approove and set out ours True it is that often they marke the faults A Christian ought not to be too much givē to profane authors and ignorances of Painim authors and admonish Christians to reade them with a spirit of sobrietie and not to give themselves so much unto them as to leave the holy Scriptures Which admonitions are good and holy and also are necessary even in our time For there are at this day infinit persons which so much please themselves in prophane authors some in Poets some in Hystoriographers some in Philosophie some in Physick or in Law that they care nothing to reade or els to know any thing for the salvation comfort of their soules Some care not at all for it others reserve that studie till they have ended the studies of other sciences in the mean-while the time runneth away and oftentimes it commeth to passe that when they must needs dislodge out of this world their prophane studies are not ended nor