to equality but also they will not suffer any other to doe it resting satisfied in this that as themselves have many unequals their superiours so those have the Prince unequall and their superiour and in this at least they shall be equall that they are all of them inferiour to one But because obedience is hardly found especially in new states if there be not force concurring whereupon the Throne of Salomon which by Writers is taken for obedience was compassed about with twelve Lyons seeing they who desire to be obeyed ought together with generosity have force also to make them be obeyed and therefore the holy Ghost in the mouth of Salomon saith Sicut Turris David collum tuum quae aedisicate est cum propagnaculis mille clypei pendent ex ea omnis armatura fortium This Towre hath so many defences because it is put for a figure of obedience meaning to shew that they who desire to preserve obedience have need of all sorts of Armes to defend it for these causes Augustus knowing this and having an Army in his hand able to make him be obeyed by force if need should be he made the Souldiers sure to him by donatives of which they are most greedy whereupon it may be said that Augustus maintained his Empire neither by the Nobility nor by the people nor by the souldiers neither by love nor yet by force but by all of them together Et ad tuendam plebem Tribunitio Iure contentum ubi Militem donis Populum annona cunctos dulcedine otii pellexit How Princes may get the peoples love how a private man ought to make use of the peoples favour and what part it hath in bestowing the Empire The thirteenth Discourse AS safety is not enough to give the people satisfaction if it be not accompanied with plenty and therefore the Israelites though they lived safe under their leader Moyses yet when plenty failed they desired againe the servitude of Pharao so neither doth plenty give satisfaction if it be not accompanied with peace as was plainly seene in that people for when those men returned whom Joshua had sent into the Land of Promise to make known the fruitfulnesse of the Countrey yet when they heard there were in it great store of Gyants onely for this they liked better to stay in the Wildernesse in peace then to goe to a Land flowing with Milke and Honey with warre the desire of living quietly prevailing more with them than the enjoying of plenty Three things then are required in a people to make them absolutely happy safety from being oppressed by those at home peace with those abroad and plenty Whereupon our Lord God meaning to shew the happinesse in which his people should live expresseth these three things by the mouth of his Prophet Esay where he saith Sedebit populus meus in plenitudine pacis here is peace In Tabernaculis fiduciae here is safety In requie opulenti here is plenty Such a like happinesse Tacitus shewes that Rome had or to say better the people of Rome under the Dominion of Augustus where he saith Et ad tuendam plebem Tribunitio jure contentum see here by making himselfe protectour of the people he made them safe from oppressours at home Vbi populum Annona see here plenty Cunctos dulcedine otii pellexit see here the safety from forraine enemies which is peace for by the word Otium in this place as I shall shew in another discourse he meanes nothing else but peace But because many gather from this place seeing Augustus obtained and maintained his Empire by the love of the people that therefore this is the true way for all others to rise from a private man to be a Prince and the rather because a place in Aristotle confirmed by many examples seemes to concurre in this opinion where he saith Et profecto antiquorum Tyrannorum plurimi ex popularibus hominibus facti sunt I shall be forced in discoursing of this matter to proceed with distinction as finding many places directly contrary to this and particularly in the foresaid Tacitus who in another place shewes that the peoples favour is rather a ruine than a fortune to great men where in the third of his Annals he saith Breves Infaustos Rontani populi amores I say then that he who is in the peoples favour either he hath a mind to make himselfe Prince or he hath not if he have no such mind he shall doe better to avoyd those demonstrations with safety which without any benefit makes him runne into danger seeing a good intention is not sufficient where it is equally dangerous to have such imputation whether wrongfully or justly as Tacitus well saith Si objiciantur etiam insontibus periculosa because Princes as soone as they see the peoples favour enclining to another presently have him in suspition and therefore David began to be hated of Saul as soone as he knew the people loved him whereupon in the booke of the Kings the holy Spirit saith Posuitque eum Saul supra viros belli acceptus erat in occulis Vniversi populi maximeque in 〈◊〉 famulorum Saul and a little after Non rectis ergo oculis Saul respiciebat David a die illa deinceps Likewise when the mysticall David Christ was seene to the Jewes to enter triumphantly into Hierusalem on Palme-sunday with great applause of the people they presently began to conspire against him The like hapned to Germanicus whose case was much like that of Aristobulus both of them being gracious with the people young men of goodly presence both both of them next to the Crowne under most cruell tyrants Herod the great and Tiberius Nero both of them for the same causes put to death by fraud one bewalled counterfetly of Herod the other feignedly of Nero by whom in truth they came to their deaths Of these then it may be said Breves 〈◊〉 populi amores But if he that is in the peoples favour have an intention to make himselfe Prince we must then distinguish for either the peoples favour towards him growes out of a discontentment towards the Prince or it comes out of anger arising from some suddaine accident if in the first case he that will make use of their favour if he be able to hide it which is a difficult thing shall doe well to wait for some good occasion seeing he may assure himselfe that as discontentment encreaseth by little and little and is nourished in minds once discontented so it is hard or rather impossible it should vanish on a sudden and therefore if he stay for a good beginning where there hath preceded a good occasion as I have shewed in another discourse there can be no doubt of having good successe Princes therefore must take heed they give the people no such occasions which are so much more dangerous as they are lesse violent because in such cases men are not moved with every light wind but wayting for
to suffer him together with the dignity to get the love and affection of the Subjects This Augustus put in execution untill he was blinded by his wives intreaties For when he demanded the Tribuneship for Tiberius under colour of excusing him he laid open all his ill conditions thereby to make him odious Etenim Augustus paucis ante annis cum Tiberio Tribunitiam potestatem a Patribus rursus postularet quanquam honora oratione quaedam de habitu cultuque institutis ejus jecerat quae velut excusando exprobraret To what end should Augustus demand honours for Tiberius and himselfe dishonour him but onely to this that as by meanes of the dignity which could not be denyed him he meant to settle in him the succession so by meanes of making knowne his vices he meant to make him odiouâ—… and thereby secure himselfe that he might never be able through the peoples favour to contrive any plot against him Tiberius also made use of this course and therefore caused Drusus to be present alwaies at the sports of the Gladiatours to the end that by shewing himselfe delighted with the sight of blood he might be knowne to be of a cruell and bloody disposition and consequently be of all men hated Whereupon Tacitus discoursing upon the reasons why Tiberius himselfe would not be present at them amongst other he mentions this where he saith Non crediderim ad ostentandam saevitiam movendasque offensiones concessam filio materiem quamquam id quoque dictum est Another time when Tiberius saw Germanicus and Drusus contesting with the Senate he wonderfully joyed at it as well because their contention was about disparaging a Law as because of the hate they incurred by it Laetabatur Tiberius cum inter filios ejus leges Senatus disceptaret Having commended the course for a Prince to designe more then one successour by whom to be supported there must care be taken to hold the ballance even betweene them otherwise he shall expose himselfe to manifest danger in regard whereof Augustus never brought Tiberius openly forward untill such time as he was left alone Drusoque pridem extincto Nero 〈◊〉 ex privignis erat illuc cuncta vergere and that which followeth So Tiberius as long as Germanicus lived used them with great equality but after Germanicus death he then discovered his love to Drusus Tiberius Drusum summae rei admovet incolumi Germanico integrum inter Duos Iudicium But because it is a most difficult thing to observe this equality and to carry an even hand as that which was in Christ accounted a matter of admiration that he so carried himselfe toward his Apostles that they could never know which of them he favoured most every one thinking himselfe to be the man whereupon they often contended which of them should be the greatest it is fit to consider to which side the Prince ought rather to incline For resolution whereof I conceive that a Prince as indeed he can doe no lesse shall doe well to favour the weaker party for by meanes of his favour he shall make him stronger then the other and yet shall not need to doubt him as being of himselfe the weaker So did Tiberius who if ever he shewed any sparke of partiality it was to Drusus Nam senem Augustum devinxerat adeo ut nepotem unicum Agrippam Posthumum in Insulam Planasiam projiceret And a little after Nulla in praesens formidine dum Augustus aetate validus seque Domum pacem sustentavit postquam provecta jam 〈◊〉 aegro corpore fatigabatur That old men are apt to be carried away by women and of what age a Prince should be The nineteenth Discourse THe old age of Augustus as we may conjecture by these two Texts which for more conveniency I have joyned together brought forth in the City of Rome many evill effects First by suffering himselfe to be ruled by his wife Livia who with no small subtilty perswaded him to discard Agrippa Posthumus and to leave Tiberius Nero his successour in the Empire Secondly because thorough old age he was no longer able to governe the City his family or himselfe By occasion then of the first we will examine whether it be true that old men are apt and easie to be led away by women and finding it to be so we will shew the reason and by occasion of the second it will be fit to examine at what age a Prince is fittest to governe Concerning the first there will need no great labour to shew by examples and by reason that the wives of old men may obtaine of them whatsoever they desire Adonia the sonne of David had made himselfe King in his fathers life and by reason of age as being the eldest it was his due as Salomon himselfe confessed whilst denying a favour which his mother in behalfe of Adonia requested of him he said Ipse enim est frater meus major me yet how easily did Bersabee perswade her old husband David to put by Adoniah and to make her sonne Salomon his successour whereof the holy Scripture in the Booke of Kings saith Ingressa est itaque Bersabee ad regem in cubiculo Rex autem senuerat nimis And seeing the holy Scriptures have never a word that hath not some mystery in it we may well gather by these words Rex autem senuerat nintis were written to intimate that the suite of Bersabee was much facilitated by the old age of David Another example in the booke of Kings we have of Salomon who in his old age was so led away by his Concubines that most perfidiously leaving the true worship of God he set up Images built Altars and Temples unto Idols whereof the holy Spirit in the said Booke gives the reason saying that Salomon being now growne old was easily drawne away by women Cumque jam esset senex depravatum est cor ejus per mulieres ut sequeretur Deoâ—… alienos The effect then is manifest it remaines that we shew the cause why this should happen in old men and not in yong And first it may be attibuted to length of time for as a stone though never so hard is mollified and broken by often falling of water so the long suits of women accompanied with their dalliances and allurements are able to penetrate the hardest heart and therefore Job saith Lapides excavant aquae alluvione paulatim terra consumitur whereof Saint Gregory makes the like interpretation as I doe here of the example of Salomon Videamus qualiter lapides excavant aquae alluvione paulatim terra consumitur Salomon quippe immoderato 〈◊〉 atque assiduitate mulierum ad hoc perductus est ut qui prius Templum Deo construeret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etiam perfidiae substratus Idolis construere Templu non 〈◊〉 Sicque factum est 〈◊〉 ab assidua carniâ—… petulantia usque ad mentis persidiam perveniret Quid it aque aliud quam aquae excavarunt lapidem
Isaac and Jacob yet he destroyed not all enemies but left a part of the Land in the power of the Philistines and others mentioned in the Booke of Joshua and this he did as knowing that the Imperfection of that people whom the Holy Ghost by the mouth of Moyses cals Gens durae cervicis could not better be upheld and kept then by the feare of enemies And this the Holy Ghost expresseth likewise in the booke of Judges where speaking of those Nations which remained in the Land of Promise he saith Hae sunt Gentes quas dereliquit Dominus ut erudiret in eis Israelem It is therefore no marvell that our Lord God knowing the weaknesse of Adaâ—… as soon as he saw him fall into the imperfection of sin to the end he should not commit the like errour againe presently put him in the midst of discords and enmities when he said to the serpent Inimicitias ponam inter te mulierem semen tuum semen illius and for this cause it is that he hath left to the Catholique Church so great adversaries as himselfe expresseth in S. Matthew In signe whereof he would not suffer the servants to pull up the Tares but would have them to be let to grow with the Corne least plucking up the one they should withall root out the other Now for those Cities where the Citizens are given to merchandise they by all meanes ought to shun warre as being things of very different nature to stand in the shadow writing Bils of account and to endure heat and cold fighting in the field as S. Thomas teacheth us where he saith Est otiam Negotiationis usus contrarius quamplurimum exercitio Militari Negotiatores onim dum umbram colunt a laboribus vacant dum fruuntur delitiis molleseunt aninto corpora redduntur debilia ad labores Militares inepta But if Cities be so formed with Lawes that they have better meanes to make resistance in warre then to conserve themselves in Peace in this case it will be necessary to have warre with forraine Nations to maintaine peace in their own Nation otherwise it will runne a manifest hazzard to be ruined as it happened to the Lacedemonians of whom Aristotle saith Ad partem enim virtutis tota ordinatio illarum legum contendit scilicet Bellicam haec autem utilis ad victoriam consequendam Itaque salvi erant bellum gerentes peribant vero rerum potiti quoniam nec otiâ—…n agere nec quicquam aliud exercere sciebant praestabilius quam rem Militarem And therefore the City of Rome which was formed by Lawes and Ordinances to enlarge it selfe and grow greater by warre no sooner laid down Armes with Enemies but it tooke them up with friends that having none at last with whom to contend it contended with it selfe and became overthrown by its own forces And therefore Livy saith Nulla magna civitas diu quiescere potest si foris hostem non habet domi invenit ut praevalida corpora ab externis causis tuta videntur sed suis ipsa viribus onerantur But if they have Lawes and Ordinances to live in peace their best course is to hold them to peace The second division we brought before was of times which may be divided into two One wherein warre hath been but of late the other wherein peace hath been long if peace hath been long why should we take any other course and not continue peace still but if our case be the former it will then be ne cessary to maintaine at least some face of warre be cause as all habits whether of body or mind are hard to be left so spirits once grown fierce with warre when they want meanes to exercise their fiercenesse upon enemies with honour will hardly be kept from using it upon friends though with shame Thus it fell out that I may keep me to Tacitus amongst the Suevians and the Cherusci people of Germany who after the departure of the Romans being secure from forrain enemies they then out of the custome of waging warre and desire of glory turned their Armes upon their friends at home and therefore Tacitus saith Sed Suevi praetendebantur auxilium adversus Cheruscos orantes nam discessis Romanorum ac vacui externo metu gentis adsuetudine tunc aemulatione Gloriae arma in se verterant So the Romans most stout and warlike from the time of Scipio Nasica untill the birth of our Saviour being in a manner quiet abroad were in continuall warre at home and the peace which they came to at last was under a Prince where of Tacitus saith Post haec Pax quidem sed cruenta because it was under Augustus who finding the City tyred with discords made himselfe sole Lord whereupon S. Austin speaking of those times saith Eaque libido dominandi quae inter alia vitia generis humani immoderatior inerat Populo Romano postquam in paucis potentioribus vicit obtritos fatigatosque caeteros etiam jugo servitutis oppressit And this of may be rendered many causes the first is because in Cities used long to warre the people at least great part having no other occupation give themselves to be souldiers and if they faile of that imployment they must necessarily either sterve for want of victuals or else stirre up discords and seditions that so under one side or other they may get a living Et ex civili praelio saith Tacitus Spem majorum praemiorum Not being possible that souldiers accustomed to gaine by warre should be content with peace as Dion excellently observed in Caesar and therefore Livy saith Mercenarii milites pretia militiae casura in Pace aegrè ferebant Whereupon Salomon seeing that the greater part of his people having in Davids time been accustomed to continuall warre and had not any other trade of living would of necessity be forced to die for hunger he therefore though now in peace would not disband them but kept them still in Armes as it is written in the Booke of the Kings knowing there is nothing that sooner makes men Rebell then to have their Trade taken from them by which they gaine their living and therefore when S. Paul spake of destroying the Temple of Diana in Ephesus those Silver-smithes who lived by making such Images presently rose up in Armes and were ready to have killed him So also it was when S. Paul healed the woman possessed because Magnum quaestum faciebat Domino suo from hence it is that it will alwaies be impossible to breake the Uscocchi from using pyracy seeing they have no other trade by which to live The second cause may be taken from the Nobility who will easily be moved to raise discords in time of peace by reason of a habit which as it is produced by many Acts iterated so it necessarily produceth iterated acts and also by reason of that desire of greatnesse which alwaies accompanies the Nobility and againe by reason of the skorn it takes
a tyrant that should live amongst them than a good Prince that should be farre of Another way is no wadaies used by Princes for peopling such places and it is by confining some petty delinquents thither because if they live they encrease the number of the inhabitants and if they die the Prince receives no losse by it This invention whether good or bad is yet most ancient and we have an example of it in Tacitus himselfe Actum de 〈◊〉 Aegyptiis 〈◊〉 pellendis factunque 〈◊〉 consultum ut quatuor millia libertini generis superstitione infecti queis Idonea aetas in insulam Sardiniam 〈◊〉 coercendis illic latrociniis si ob gravitatem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vile damnum If the defect grow in the third case that is from smalnes of Territory where the people are many the remedy here used hath been to send forth Colonies so Pericles did to help a dearth that was at Athens In this case Plutarch in the life of Numa gives a counsell which is that in such a City care must be taken that Trades be in account and that idle persons be punished but the best course of all will be that the Prince spare no cost to fetch Corne where it may be best had so a thousand times did Tiberius and so Nero who not regarding the great charge he had been at by Sea nor the great losse he had in Tyber with infinite expenses provided that the price of Corne might not be raysed This course was notably followed by the Serenissimo Cosmo second great Duke of Thuscany who by the way of Livorno and other places procured at his infinite charges a perfect plenty and sometimes out of his owne purse hath kept of Almes six thousand persons I forbeare to say that many yeeres together he spent of his owne to keepe down the price of Corne above a hundred thousand Crownes An act that exceeds any act whatsoever of the Ancients seeing that which moved them was their owne interest and matter of state but that which moved him was only the office of a Prince and the zeale of a Christian. In the fourth case provision will be made from other Countries by such waies as have been shewed In the other two cases where dearth may happen by reason of warres caused by sieges and by incursion of enemies the Commonwealths of the Swizzers have found out an excellent way who in places under ground have in store for many yeeres all things belonging to victuals and also to Trades which course with great prudence the Commonwealth of Lucca hath taken to imitate But above all the Prince must take heed that he be not himselfe a cause of the dearth by making merchandise and by engrossing nor yet by suffering others to doe it for then the fault will be laid upon the Prince and the Subjects will have just cause to complaine Likewise that when the people are in want he continue not feasting and feed upon dainties as shewing to take little care of his Subjects misery a thing most pernitious to Princes who should alwaies take such part as the people doe thereby to encourage them the more contentedly to beare their labours This in the old Testament our Lord God teacheth us who when the Israelites were in the Wildernesse and like Shepheards dwelt in Tabernacles he also would dwell in Tabernacles himselfe afterward when changing their course they entred into warre under their Judges and Kings and their Army used Tents he also would then dwell in Tents too and when David desired to build him a Temple he would not suffer him untill such time as there being peace under Salomon every one might dwell in his own house and then he was contented to have a house also built for him All this is expressed in the Booke of Kings where he saith Neque enim habitavi in domo ex die illa qua eduxi filios Israel de terra Aegypti usque in diem hanc sed ambulabam in Tabernaculo in Tentorio per cuncta loca quae transivi cum omnibus filiis Israel But because this course was not imitated by Augustus who when the people died in the streets for hunger himselfe made a sumptuous banquet where as Suetonius relates the guests sate in form of Gods and Goddesses and he in shape of Apollo the people infinitely distasted it and was moved to great indignation Auxit caenae rumorem summa tunc in civitate penuria ac fames acclamatumque postridie est frumentum omne Deos coniedisse But if he shall be no occasion of the dearth and much lesse shew himselfe to rejoyce at it he may then convert it to his owne profit either by getting of money or encreasing his authority or otherwise by winning the love of his people Pharao King of Aegypt by meanes of a dearth and Josephs counsell became Lord of all Aegypt Emit igitur Joseph omnem terram Aegypti vendentibus singulis possessiones suas prae magnitudine fantis subjecitque eam Pharaoni cunctos populos suos a novissimis terminis Aegypti usque ad extremos fines ejus which purchase was not distastfull to the people for the cause aforesaid but rather they accounted themselves obliged to the King for it saying Salus nostra in manu tua est respiciat tantum nos Dominus noster laeti serviemus Regi Whereupon I conclude that when a great famine was in Rome and the Senatours had fetched Corne from Sicilie then had been a fit time to take the authority from the people which they had usurped This Coriolanus in Livy well knew whose conceit yet was not approved of others not because it was not sufficient being used with lesse violence to take away that authority but because it was not sufficient to maintaine it seeing the Senatours having a purpose to augment the Common-wealth and consequently to make use of the peoples Armes they might conceive that those Magistrates who had left their authority in time of dearth would afterward the dearth ceasing resume it againe by force A dearth then thus managed will be a means to get the Prince both authority and riches and the love also of his Subjects As we see in Herod the great who being a Prince the most hated of his people that ever any was yet onely by relieving them with Corne in a time of dearth he made himselfe beloved obliged and freed from a thousand dangers Cunctos dulcedine otii pellexit What kind of ease it is that Tacitus speaks of and how it may be reconciled with some places in other Authours The sixteenth Discourse IN these words Cornelius Tacitus shews us that Augustus by meanes of procuring ease got himselfe the love of all men And because he as a new Prince ought rather to have sought how to maintaine himselfe in his Empire then how with his own danger to procure delights to his Subjects it seemes he might for this be reproved there being a precept of Aristotle in his
cleare that a woman cannot beare rule directly and properly that is in that kind of ruling which is called judging but yet may in that which is said to be commanding and especially in the third way with sonnes and other men As to the second point whether the Dominion of women be odious or no we may distinguish it thus either we speake of women alone and by themselves or else of women accompanied with men If we take it the first way there is nothing more odious nothing more abhorred of men then to be commanded by a woman as being a thing repugnant to reason contrary to Gods commandement and most contrary to the law of nature Our Lord God said to the woman Sub viri potestate eris Aristotle saith that naturally the more perfect beares rule over the more imperfect and the better over the worse whereupon the woman as Aristotle in a thousand places witnesseth being more imperfect then the man and being by Pythagoras placed in the number of evils and man of good it would certainely be a monster in nature that the perfect should be servant to the imperfect the good to the evill and especially that sex being I say not alwaies but for the most part voyd of prudence and of valour full of pride and fuller of lust and consequently most unsit to governe of whom Tacitus saith Non solum imparem laboribus sexum sed si licentia adsit saevum ambitiosum potestatis avidum The government therefore of women when they rule alone not onely is odious but is also most miserably administred neither can the example of Debora whereof I spake before be justly objected but rather I may my selfe make use of that example in confirmation of my own assertion for if she governed well it was because she was a Prophetesse and if her government were not odious it was because a man commanded for our Lord God being willing the Israelites should be ruled by a woman and knowing that by reason of their naturall imbecillities they are not fit to rule he infused into Debora a Propheticall spirit and meaning she should be received without distast knowing how distastfull a thing it is to men to be governed by women he appointed her Barak for a companion in the government to the end that commanding by his assistance it might not be thought as of her self alone the command of a woman I will here forbeare to speake of infinite Kingdoms and States that by the government of women have been utterly overthrowne of which all ancient and moderne Histories are full as well for that it is a thing so well knowne as for that it is not much to our purpose For when Tacitus saith Serviendum foeminae he meanes not that a woman should command alone either as Judge or as Princesse but he meanes the third way together with men seeing he speakes of Livia who having been the cause of Tiberius his comming to the Crowne it might be doubted whether she also were not to governe as well as he That which we are to examine is this what authority ought to be given in such cases by men to women and whether their government in this sort be odious or no For answer whereto we must proceed with distinguishing either we speake of States not well setled where the men are stout and warlike or else of States that live quietly and in peace and are governed by a Prince secure If we be in the first case I am absolutely of opinion that the Dominion of women is most odious and therefore Semiramis as knowing this durst not venture to take upon her the Empire openly Haec saith Justin nec immaturo puero ausa tradere Imperium necipsa Imperium palam tractare tot ac tantis gentibus vir patienter uni viro nedum foeminae parituris And the reason of this is nothing else but that those Subjects being stout and warlike would never have consented to be governed by her if they had knowne her at first to be a woman Which we may well thinke seeing with these very subjects it was enough for Sardanapalus that he had but the likenesse of a woman to make him despised and afterward be slaine Indignatus tali foeminae saith Justin of him in the person of Artabanus tantum virorum subjectum tractantique lanam ferrum arma portantes parere And this is the case which Tacitus meanes when he saith Serviendum foeminae shewing it would be odious in a warlike people as the Romans were and dangerous in a new Prince as Tiberius was to governe in company of a woman Now if we aske what authority should be given to women in such cases I say they should not be suffered to entermeddle in matters of judgement nor of the state themselves alone not so much for their incapacity as for the contempt they are apt to fall into though they should governe never so well And therefore the Roman Emperour Alexander a man most just and furnisht with all the qualites of a good Prince yet because he suffered his mother to meddle in matters of State though she did it with great prudence and justice he fell in short time into contempt and finally of the Souldiers was miserably slaine In truth a singular example to shew that warlike minds can never endure the government of women and that their honour is the Princes disparagement which Tiberius a wise man knew and could say Moderandos foeminarum honores and Tacitus no lesse wise then he gives the reason of it saying Muliebre fastigium in sui diminutionem accipiens Yet they must not altogether be left without honour but some authority it is fit they should have especially such as are the cause of the Princes comming to the Empire And therefore the wise Salomon who through the good meanes of his mother Bersabee with old David was assumed to the Royall dignity not onely honoured her exceedingly but would have her sit with him upon his Throne as is written in the Booke of Kings Venit ergo Bersabee ad Regem Salomonem ut loqueretur ei pro Adonia surrexit Rex in occursum ejus adoravitque 〈◊〉 sedit super Thronum suum positusque est Thronus matri Regis quae sedit ad dexteram ejus But yet I cannot finde in holy Scripture that ever she gave judgement or spake in counsell or gave audience in affaires at any time The authority and honour therefore that is to be allowed to women in States that are not secure ought not to be immediately in themselves but by assistance of their husbands And this counsell David gave to Salomon in the Psalm Eructavit speaking to his Bride where he saith Filia Tyri in numeribus vultum tuum deprecabuntur Where he saith not te but vultum tuum that is thy husband meant by the word countenance as Theodoret and S. Basil interpret it He then that is to be resorted to and to be sued unto must be