interpretation of bookes If ye will say that those whiche presently be called Moores or Turkes be the same people whereof the Prophet speaketh Scrutati sunt iniquitates herevnto I answer that as false is the one as the other for as muche as if we will haue regarde vnto the time of the raigne of King Dauid which did prophesie the same vntill the time of Mahomet the first inuentor and conductor of the sect of the Moores we shall find that there dyd passe lesse than 2000. and more than 1800. yeares If we would say and affirme that the Prophet did meane and direct his speech vnto the Christians I saye also it is most false and repugnant vnto all troth for being admitted that the Christian faith had beginning to raigne 600. yeares before the sect of the Moores and more than 3000. yeares after the beginning of the Gentilitie or the Heathen from the tyme that this prophecie was written at Ierusalem vnto the time they began to name themselues Christians at Antioch there passed more than a thousand yeares and also thrée hundred yeares more for aduantage Behold here truly verifyed that since the prophecie may not be aduouched vpon the Gentiles the Moores neyther yet the Christians that it is to be vnderstood spoken vnto you Iewes more expressely for that the Prophet saith not Scruteront but Scruterent giuing vs to vnderstande that many yeares before King Dauid did pronounce the same youre auncesters had then already begon to corrupt the sacred Scriptures and to adde vnto the same erroneous glosses I lie not neyther do I repent to haue sayd that your auncient fathers Scrutati sunt iniquitates since they haue no grace to vnderstand the Prophecie of Ieremie which sayth post dies multos dicit dominus dabo meam legem in visceribus illorum in corde eorū ad scribā legem meam As if he wold haue sayd After many dayes and after many yeares I will create a newe people and will giue them a new lawe whiche I my selfe will wright in theyr bowells and hide within their harts to the ende that no persone shall falsefy the same and muche lesse shall they be able to forget it Then as the Prophecie which sayth Scrutati sant iniquitates c. is spoken onely vnto you and not to all men in lyke manner this Prophecie of Ieremy whiche sayth dabo legem in visceribus illorum c. is spoken vnto vs Christians and not to you Iewes For as muche as our Catholike fayth consisteth more in that which is rooted within our hartes than in that whyche is written in bookes in such manner the weale of the Christian lieth not in that whiche hée readeth but in that which he beléeueth The maruels that Christe hathe done and the doctrines which he hath giuen vnto the world It is necessary and well done to knowe and also to reade them but it is muche more founde and sure to beléeue them for the number is infinite which be saued without reading but not one persone without well beléeuing The Edicts and Proclamations which they ordeyned and the lawes of Moses Promotheus Solon Licurgus and Numa Pompilius were all written with their handes and preserued and kept safe in their originals within their liberties but the law of Iesus Christ ought most certaynly to be writtē within our harts for that in as much that the Lord gaue vs no other law but the law of loue he did like and thought it better that we shoulde search and find the same within our hartes than within our bookes And not without great mistery God sayd by the mouth of your Prophet that the law which his sonne should giue vs that he shuld first write it within the harts before the Euangelist shuld reduce them by writing into bookes for after this manner it might not be forgotten neyther yet burned And so if youre auncient predecessors hadde obtayned the law of Moyses written in their harts as they had them writtē in old parchment they had not in times past worshipped the Idolls of Baal Bell Pegor Asterot Bahalim and Belzebub for whiche offence you were caried captiue into straunge countries and falne into your enimies hands How it came to passe that the Hebrew tong was lost IN like manner ye vsed me with no small despight for that in disputing against you I alleaged youre Esay where God the Father speaking vnto his owne proper sonne sayde these wordes parum est mihi vt suscites tribus Iacob feces Israell dedit te in lucem gentium vt sis salus mea vsque ad extremum terrae As if hée would haue sayd it is no great matter that thou serue me to suscitate and raise vp the lies of Iacob and to conuert the dregges of Israell for I haue giuen thee also for a light vnto the Gentiles to the ende that thou shalt be my sauing health vnto the ende of the worlde There is no man hauing read although but little in the holy Scripture that will not saye and affirme that the Prophet Esay was not an Hebrew borne a Prophet of a noble line and right eloquent in the scriptures for which cause you ought rather to blame and complayne of him which doth call and tearme you lies and dregges of Iacob than of me the which in all oure diputations haue not at any time alleaged any Christian doctor but only Hebrewish Prophets I saye agayne that you haue small reason to be offended with him or me for there is another Prophet which doth call you off scowring another venim another lies another dregs another ordure another slime another smoke another filthe in suche wise that as oft as ye did not ceasse to sin so did they not ceasse to blason and to expresse you with most perfect tearmes Are ye able to denie that of your priesthood of your Scepter of your Temple of your Realme of your lawe of youre tong either of your scripture is there any remayning but the lies which smelleth and the dregs which stinketh Surely that which was in youre lawe cleare nete precious and odoriferous long before the incarnation was consumed and that little which remayned in Iesus Christ did take an end And as cōcerning the priesthood of your law the great sacrificer or the high Priest ought he not to be extract out of the Trybe of Leuy whereof you haue nothing left but the lies for yet in the time of yonger and better dayes it was no more giuen vnto the Leuits that did best deserue it but vnto him that offred most siluer in such wise that to him that offred most and had greatest skill to flatter the priesthood was giuē as when a garment is sold by the drumme Likewise of your Scepter royal what haue you but the lyes for Herod Eskalonite a straunger did not onely vsurpe your Realme but by industry caused the Prince Antigonus sonne to Alexander your King
to be drowned the finall end of youre Realme of Iudea and of the Crowne of Israell What shall we say of your most auncient Temple so magnificent in buildings and so holy in the action of sacrifice surely ye haue no other thing but the lies For ye well know that forty yeares and no more After ye crucifyed the Lorde Iesus Christe the Emperours Titus and Vaspasian the father and sonne did sack destroy and burne the same Of the Monarchy of your kingdome muche lesse haue you not of any thing than the lies for that from the time the great Pompâ—y passed into Asia and subdued Palestine he neuer after committed fayth to any Iewe I say to giue him any speciall charge of gouernmeÌ„t in the Citie or defence of any fortresse but perpetually did shew your selues subiect to the Romaynes not as Vassals but rather as slaues If we should speake of your auncient language of the old carrecters of your wrightings we should likewise finde that you haue not any thing left but lies and for proofe thereof first I pray you tell me whiche is he amongst you that knoweth the language of your ancesters either can reade or else vnderstand any of the auncient Hebruish bookes But nowe to bring you to the knowledge thereof I shall deduce notwithstanding it doth not like you directly and successiuely the beginning of your Hebrewish tong and how by little and little it was lost agayne Wherein you haue to vnderstand that the Patriarke Noe with his children and Nephewes escaping the Floud went and did settle in the countrey of Caldea the situation whereof is vnder the fourth Climate the RegioÌ„ after the Floud first inhabited and populat from whence be issued the Aegiptians Sarmits Greekes Latines and all other Nations In the same Region I meane beyond the riuer Euphrates and neare vnto Mesopotamie the Patriark Abraham was borne and nourished the whiche being called of God came to dwell in the countrie of Canaan afterwardes named Siria the lesse the countrey where the good old Abraham and his generation did most inhabit In those days in that countrey of Canaan they had in vse to speake another language named Sirien very differeÌ„t from the Calde tong But as Abraham and hys posteritie dwelling in that countrey many yeares these two languages by processe of time grewe to be corrupted Abraham hys family and successors being not able to learne the Sirien spéeche neyther the Siriens the Calde tong of these two languages there remayned in vse one which was named the Hebrew Also you haue to vnderstand that this name Hebrew is as much to say as a man that is a straunger or come from beyond the Riuer and for that Abraham was come from the other side of the Riuer Euphrates he was generally called Hebrew in such wise that of this name Hebrew by the which Abraham was called the spéeche tong and language was also named Hebraique and not Caldean notwithstanding that hée was of Caldea Many Doctors Gréekes and Latins haue sayde that the Hebrew tong doth come from Heber the sonne of Sale and that it was the language which was in vse and spoken before the generall Floud notwithstanding Rabialhazer Mosanahadach Aphesrura Zimibi and Sadoc your most anciente and famous Hebrew doctors do sweare and affirme that the first spéeche and language in this world was lost in the construction or to say better the confusion of the towre of Babylon without perfection remayning in any one word of their language And then since the language of Noe was lost the Caldean conuerted into the Sirien and the Sirien into the Hebrew it came to passe that Iacob with his twelue sonnes went to dwel in Egipt where they did soiorne so long Captiues that very neare they forgate the Hebrue tong neyther aptly coulde learne the Egiptian language remayning in their spéech and pronounciation corrupted And as after the destruction of the second Temple as also the totall and finall losse and destruction of the holy lande That your brethren were dispersed throughout the worlde for the most part Captiues and that in you ther remayned nothing but the lies of Iacob the things desolate of Israell God did permitte that they shoulde ioyntly take ende both the forme of your life and the manner of your spéech Behold here honorable Iewes sufficiently proued by your owne doctors that of your countrey language renowne glory and the whole state of your Sinagoge ye haue nothing left but the lies as the Prophet sayth and the dregs and grounds of the tubbe In suche manner that ye haue neither Lawe to obserue King to obey Scepter to estéeme priesthood to aduaunce youre honor Temple to pray in Citie to inhabit neyther language to speake And for that the scope and proofe of your obstination and oure healthe and saluation doth lye and consist in the veritie of the Scripture whiche we haue receyued and the falshoode and corruption of theÌ„ which you confesse it shall be expedient to recite how where and when youre Scriptures were corrupted and lost euen as I haue produced and broughte foorth the losse of your language Ye haue therefore to vnderstande that the fyue bookes of the lawe the which your greate Duke Moyses did write after he came foorth of the Land of Egypt and before he entred the lande of promisse and those whiche were written by the Prophet Samuell and Esdras were all written in the Hebrew tong without any addition of the Egiptian language for youre Moyses being inspired by God in all the things hée did take in hand did wright these bookes in the most auncient Hebrew tong which is to vnderstande in the very same that Abraham did speake at his comming out of Calde God giuing you thereby to vnderstand that you should haue folowed your father Abraham not onely in the forme of your life but also in your spéech During the time that Moyses Aaron Iosue Ezechiell Caleph Gedeon and all the fourtéene Dukes did gouerne your Aliama vntill the decease of the excellent King Dauid the lawe of Moyses was alway well vnderstood and indifferently wel obserued But after the decease of these good personages and the kingdome and gouernment being come into the handes of the successors of Dauid the Sinagoge was neuer more well gouerned neyther the Scriptures well vnderstoode I woulde saye not well vnderstoode generally of the twelue Tribes There were notwithstanding alwayes some particular persones of the house of Israell the whiche were agreable and also acceptable vnto God and to the common wealth very profitable That your law was not from thencefoorth wel vnderstood is most euident for it was prohibited and defended in your Aliama that neyther the visions of Ezechiell the sixt Chapter of Esay the booke of the Canticles of Salomon the booke of Iob neyther the lamentations of Ieremy should be read or commented by any person whiche was done not bycause the bookes
were not holy and approued but rather bycause ye could not vnderstand them Muche lesse may you denie me that your Rabby Salmon Rabby Salomon Rabby Fatuell Rabby Aldugac and Rabby Baruch do not saye and affirme by their writings that after your second deliuerance from the Captiuitie of Babylon ye neuer more vnderstoode to performe the Ceremonies of your temple speake the Hebrew tong either vnderstande the holy Scripture much lesse to sing the Canticles of Dauid And no lesse may you denie that of all sorts of your Iewish people in the dayes of the great Priest Mathathias did repaire vnto the Court of king Antiochus to sell the Realme and to learne his law and that which is more vile ye consented that all the bookes of Moyses shoulde publikely be burnt and likewise permitted scholes in the Citie of Ierusalem to reade the lawes of the Gentiles placing also an Idol in the holy temple vnto whome was offered incense and other odours as if it had bin the true God the which most certaynly I woulde not haue spoken if I had not found it written in the booke of Machabees And then our Lorde God seing the wine of the lawe in a manner consumed and that there remayned nothing but lies and dregs and the time approching that the Gentiles shoulde be called and conuerted and that in them the Church shoulde begin he did permit and ordayne that all the holy scriptures should be translated into the gréeke tong foreséeing that the Hebrew tong should be lost And how so famous a translation and interpretation came as touching their law hauing also in the same charge to iudge all differences betwixt the people They had likewise the charge to commaunde and to make ordinances as touching the gouernement of the Common wealth euen to the assignement direction what euery one should haue in his house These were the mē hat did ordeyne and commande that before the Hebrewes should sute at table they shoulde wash their handes the transgression of whiche Ceremonie the Iewes did accuse the Apostles but as well defended by Iesus Christ For surely if these auncientes had not dealte farther than with the gouernement of their common wealth and iudging their causes it had bene notwithstanding a thing tolerable But by their authoritie they thrust in themselues to glose the Bible and garboyle the scripture Wherof the principal that therto did first giue attēpt was Rabby Salmon Rabby Enoch Limuda Rabby Adam Rabby Elechana and Rabby Ioiade whose gloses ye haue as much praysed and estéemed as if God him selfe had ordeyned and Moyses written them Whereof hath risen many errors in your Aliames and many wrong and most vntruthes in the Scriptures which you haue Neither are ye able to denie vnto mée that by the meane of your false interpretations and the erroneous vnderstandings that your predicessors haue committed and done vppon the Bible there hath not risen in your Synagoge those thrée cursed sectes of the Assees Saduces and Pharises the which heretiques caused in your common wealth great scandalles and in your lawe greate doubtes And to the ende you shall vnderstand that I know all your secrets It is not vnknowne vnto you that .40 yeares before the incarnation of Iesus Christ there was in Babylon a Iewe named Ionathan Abemiziell so muche estéemed amongst you and his doctrine so muche reuerenced that your auctors haue sayde that in him was renewed the fayth of Abraham the pacience of Iob the zeale of Helie and the spirite of Esay This Rabby Abemiziell was the firste that translated the Bible out of the Hebrew into the Caldian tongue with suche diligence and fidelitie that hée was thought to bée inspired of the holy Ghost in the doing thereof This good Iewe Abemiziel is the same the which whereas the Psalmist sayeth Dixit Dominus Domino meo he sayde Dixit Dominus verbo meo And in that Psalme whiche sayeth Ego mortifico hée sayde Ego mortificor And where it is sayde Percutiam ego sanabo he sayde Percutiar ego sanabo And where it is sayde Aduersus Dominum aduersus Christū eius he sayde Aduersus Dominum aduersus Messiam eius And where Salomon sayeth Viam viri in adolescentia he sayd Viam viri in adolescentula In suche manner that in his woordes he séemed rather to prophesie than to translate The translation of this Iewe Abemiziel is the same which at this present we call the Caldian translation and the which is moste in vse in the Orientall Churches likewise is vsed of the Armenians the Caldees the Aegiptians and of many Greekes But the doctors of your law perceyuing that many Iewes did conuert Christians and that also conformable vnto his translation they gathered that Christe was the true Messias The whiche when they perceyued they did assemble in the Citie of Babylon in the fourthe yeare of the reygne of the Emperour Traian wherein it was ordeyned and commaundement giuen vnder great penalties that any of that translation should neuer more be vsed but in all places whersoeuer it should be founde without remission to be burned The translation of Abemiziel béeyng condemned by the cōmon consent of the Iewes it came to passe in the sixt yeare of the sayde Emperor Traian a certayne greate and famous heathen Priest borne in the Isle of Pont named Aquile did conuert himselfe to the lawe of Moyses the which conuersion hée did not performe of conscience to saue his soule but to obtaine in mariage an excellent fayre Iewishe woman with whome he was farre inflamed And for that this Aquile was a man very skilfull in the Gréeke and Hebrewe tongues hée founde no better opportunitie more aptly to shewe his spirite than to take in hande the translation of all the holy Scripture out of Hebrewe into Gréeke This same was the first translation that was performed after the incarnation of Iesus Christe in the yeare .104 after his natiuitie The whiche translation among you Iewes was in small estimation bycause it was doone by suche a one as in tymes paste had bene a Heathen or Gentile and of the Christians much lesse estéemed for that it was brought to passe by him that was conuerted a Iewe. Fiftie twoo yeares after the death of the sayde Aquile it is to bée vnderstoode in the eyght yeare of the euyll Emperour Commodus There was another Gréeke translation performed by a Iewe named Theodosius the whiche after became a Christian which remooued and made perfect all the errors of Aquile Thirtie seuen yeares after the death of Theodosius which is to vnderstande in the nynth yeare of the Empire of Seuerus there was another translation performed out of the Hebrewe into Gréeke by a man learned and vertuous named Simachus the whiche was approued well allowed and reseued throughout all the Easte notwithstanding that not long after it was reproued and reiected In those tymes there raygned in the greatest partes
was afflicted Man by the multitude of his sinnes doth deserue to be an offence and a scourge of the good Much did the Diuell offend Iob in tempting him but much more did holy Iob deserue in suffering that temptation Bycause in the persecutions of the iust God doth more behold the pacience of him that suffreth than he doth the malice of him that doth persecute Also you will that I write vnto you what it was I preached this other day vnto the Emperour which is to wit that the Princes which tyraÌ„nously gouerne their common wealthes haue more cause to feare good men than those that be euill Sir that whiche I sayde in this case was that the tyrants whiche in the common wealthes haue offices of most preheminence haue much more respect to the bountie of the good than to the conspiracies of the euill For that amongst many other thinges this priuilege is coÌ„tayned in vertue that is to vnderstand amongst the least inferiors it giueth dismay with the equall it moueth enuie and to the great mightie it yeldeth feare The Siracusan Dionisius had more feare of the diuine Plato which was in Grecia than of al the enemies he had neare him in Cicilia Kyng Saule had more respect to the deseruings of Dauid than to the armies of the Philistines The proud Aman that was so priuate with Kyng Assuerus was more grieued with the good Mardocheus that he held him in no reuerence than with all the rest of the kyngdome Herod Escalonite did hold in more reuereÌ„ce and also did more feare only Iohn Baptist than all the kingdome of Iudea Finally I do say and affirme that none may with a troth say or affirme that he hathe an enemie but when he hath some good man to his enemie Bycause the euil man doth hurt with his knife but the good doth hurt with his credit Sir alwaies haue regard not to striue or contend with a man that naturally is good and hath credite in the common wealth with all men For he shall do you more hurt with his word than you shall offend him with a blowe of a launce Sir as touching the Commendathor Iohn of Towres that would not the gouernment this yéere which the gouernours had giuen him saying that he deserued better and that the king when he shall come from Flaunders will giue him more to this I aunswere that it seemeth to me lacke of wit and also a surplusage of foolishnesse to leaue a reward certaine for a hope doubtfull Sir also you coniure me that I write vnto you what I thought of the Lorde President Sir Antony de Roias when I talked with him in your businesse to this I aunswere that hée séemeth to mée sharpe in his aunsweres and wise in his dealings I do not like well with many of this Court that depraue him for his speache and do not afterwards consider of his doings as it is true so likewise many of our fréends giue vs wordes by Kintals but workes by the ounce Also you will mée that I write vnto you what I iudge of the Embassadour of Venize for that I am conuersant with him and hée confesseth himself with me Sir I can tell you that hée is in science learned in his life reformed and in conscience much considerate And it may bée sayde by him thatwhich Plato saide by Phocion his friend he did more loue to bée than séeme to be vertuous In the other secrete and particular businesse that Alonso Espinell commoned with mée off in your behalf with the same faith that your worship sent me the message receyue yée also the aunswere From Toledo the .xxx. of Iune in the yeare of our Lord. 1525. A letter vnto Master Frier Iohn Beneuiades wherein is expounded that which is sayd in the scripture that the euill spirite sent of God came vpon Saule REuerend and welbeloued Father the letter that your fatherhod made in Salamanca I haue receiued héere in Soria the which forthwith I read and afterwardes many times did turne to reade For that I receyued very great consolatioÌ„ in remembring my self from whom it came and in noting what it contained In the letter of a very friend the spirits do reioyce the eyes delight the hart is recreated friendeship confirmed and the vnderstanding is comforted For Plutarch sayth in the book of the fortune of Alexander that the great Alexander did neuer reade the letters whiche tyrantes did send him eyther did teare the letters that Philosophers did write vnto him All the letters that Marcus Antonius did write vnto Cleopatra and all the letters that Cleopatra did write vnto Marcus Antonius were found by the Emperoure Augustus very well laide vp after the death of Marcus Antonius The letters that Cicero did write to Publius Lentulus to Atticus to Rufus to Fabarius and to Drusius which were his familiar frends were all found in their keping and not in his originall As coâ—cerning that your fatherhode wryteth and by this letter comaund me to write it may be very well answered as saint Agneda did answer the virgin Lucie which is to wete Quid a me petis Lucia Virgo nam ipsa poteris praestare continuò matri tuae In this case and in this demaund I can not tell whether of vs deserueth more paine your fatherhode for tempting my patience or I in aduenturning my selfe to publishe my ignorance For hée is not worthy lesse fault that sinneth than hée that is the cause of sinne Si nequeo ascendere in montem cum Loth ad minus saluabor in Segor I would say that if your fatherhode bée not satisfied with that whiche I shall aunswere it maye please you to bée satisfied with that I would aunswere For as Plato sayd hée that doth trauel not to erre misseth very narowly You will that I write vnto you what I iudge and how I vnderstand that text whiche is written in holy scripture 1. Regum cap. xvj where it is said speaking of King Saul and of his infirmitie Spiritus Domini malus arripiebat Saulem The fyrst King of Israell was named Saul he was chosen of the Tribe of Beniamin which was the last Tribe of all the Tribes and in the second yeare of his raigne an euill spirit sent of God did vex him whiche would not come out of him neyther leaue to torment him vntill the good King Dauid came before him to play and to sing But now the dout is how it may be vnderstoode and agrée withall that the scripture should say the euill spirit of the Lord did take Saul if the spirit were of the Lord how was he euell and if he were euill how was he of the Lord it séemeth an hard thing and not intelligible to say of the one part that that spirit which held Saul was of the Lord and of the other part to say that the spirit was euil But if the spirite were of the Lord how was he then euil and if he were euill
the one that you liue onely with your own and in the other that also you take profit of other mennes 8 In the one that alwaies you remember to dye in the other that for nothing you leaue to lead an ill life 9 In the one that alwaies you occupie your self in knowledge in the other that you giue your self to be of much power 10 In the one that you impart of that you haue with the poore and friends and in the other that alwaies you keepe for deare yeares 11 In the one that you vse much silence and in the other that you presume to be very eloquent 12 In the one that you beléeue onely in Christ and in the other that you procure to haue money If you my Lord Embassador with these xy conditions wil be a Romane much good may it do you For vpon the day of accoumpt you would rather haue bin a laborer in Spaine than an Embassadour at Rome No more but that our Lord be your protector and to you and to me he giue good endings From Granado in the yeare 1525. the daye and moneth aforesaid A letter vnto the said Sir Ierome Vique in whiche is declared an Epitaph of Rome RIght magnificent Embassadour to Caesar by your letter that I haue receiued I was certified that to you was deliuered an other of mine wherein I haue vsed no curious care For vnder your good condicion there is no place for any thing to be dispraysed much lesse to be condemned Mosen Rubine aduertised me that by sléeping in an ayry place you haue bin very reumatike which I certainly béeleue hath procéeded of the great heate of the moneth of August but by my aduise you shall not vse it neither others so giue counsell for that it is lesse euill in sommer to sweate than to cough You write and also send vnto me certaine Gothicke letters that you haue foūd written in an aunciēt place in Rome whiche you can neither reade or they in Italy can declare Sir I haue very well séene considered and also reconsidered them and to him that is not acquainted with this Romish cyphringes they séeme illegible and not intelligible and that to vnderstand and read them well it were necessary that the men that bée a liue shoulde deuine or those that wrote them shoulde rise from death to life But to expound these letters no dead man shall bée raysed either am I a soothsayer or diuine I haue tyred my wittes and called to remembrance I haue ouerturned my Bookes and also haue ouerloked meruailous and many histories to see and to know who it was that did write them and wherefore they were written and in the ende as there is nothing that one man doth that another can not do or that one man knoweth and an other knoweth not your good luck wold and my great diligence that I met with that whiche you desired and I sought for And for that it shall not séeme that I speake without Booke in few wordes I will recite the history In the times of Octauius Augustus the Emperour there was in Rome a Romane Knight named Titus Annius verely a man of great experience in causes of warre and right wise in the gouernment of the common wealthe There was in Rome an office that was called Tribunus Scelerum this had the charge of all criminall causes whiche is to wit to hang to whip to banish to cut throates and to drowne in wels in such maner that the Censor did iudge the Ciuill and the Tribune the Criminall This office amongst the Romanes was of great preheminence and of no lesse confidence they neuer incommended the same but to a man of noble bloud auncient in yeares learned in the lawes in life honest and in iustice very moderate for that all these condicions did concurre in Titus Annius hée was by the Emperour Augustus in the office of Tribune named by the Senate confirmed and of the people allowed Titus Annius liued and was resident in this office xxv yeres in all whiche time hée neuer spake to man any iniurious word either did any iniustice In remuneration of his trauell and in reward of his bountie they gaue him for priuilege that hée shoulde bée buried within the walles of Rome and that hée should bury by him selfe some money and that in that sepulcher there shoulde not any other bée buried For a man to bée buried in Rome was amongst the Romanes a great preheminence the one was bycause the priests did consecrate the sepulcher and the other for that malefactors to flie vnto sepulchers were more worth than the temples But now these letters woulde saye that Titus Annius Iudge of the faultie by him in his sacred sepulcher did hide certaine money whiche is to wit ten foote off and that in the same sepulcher the Senate doth commaund that none of his heyres be buried This Titus Annius when hée died left his wife aliue that was named Cornelia whiche in the sepulcher of hir husband did set this Epitaphe The aucthors of this history are Vulpicius Valerius Trebellius And bycause the declaration of the history shall appeare more cleare let vs set the exposition ouer euery letter and these be the letters Titus Annius Tribunus Scelerum Sacro T. A. T. Sce. S. Suo Sepulcro Pecuniam Condidit Non. S. S. P. Con. N. Longe Pedes Decem. Hoc Monumentum Lon. P. X. H. M. Heres Non. Sequitur Iure Senatus H. N. S. I. S. Cornelia Dulcissima Eius Coniux Posuit Cor. D. E. Con. P. Behold here my Lord Embassador your letters expounded and not dreamed and in my iudgement this that we haue said they would say and if you be not satisfied with this interpretation let the dead expound them that did write them or those bée whiche aline that gaue them No more but that our Lord be your protector and giue vs grace that we ende in his seruice From Toledo the third of April 1526. A letter vnto the Bishop of Badaios in whiche there is declared the auncient lawes of Badaios RIght magnificent and Caesars Precor I receaued a letter from your Lordshippe with the whiche I did much reioyce my selfe before I did read it and after that I had reade it I remained no lesse offended not for that whiche you had written vnto me but for that you commaunded me and also demaunded of me If Plutarch do not deceaue vs into the chamber of Dionisius the Siracusan none did enter in the librarye of Lucullus no man sate down Marcus Aurelius with the key of his study no not with his Faustine did vse any trust and of a troth they had great reason bycause there be things of such qualitie that not only they ought not to be dealt withall neither yet to be looked vppon Aeschines the Philosopher said that for very great frendship that might be betwixt one and other he ought not to shew him all thinges in his house nor to communicate
MAgnificent and discrete Gentleman your seruaunt Trusillo gaue me a letter of yours at the breaking vp of the counsell of the Inquisition and to speake the troth neither did he aduertise me from whome hée came neither did I demaund him any question To my iudgemeÌ„t the one did well and the other did not erre for he came wearied with trauell and I came from the Counsel angred The philosopher Mimus sayd qui cuÌ„ lasso fameliâ—o loquitur rixam quaerit as if he should haue sayd to talke with a man that is hungrie and to haue busines with him that is wearie be great occasions to moue debate For if at the time the hungrie would eate or when the wearied would repose himselfe and woulde séeke occasion of busines he would giue the busines to Barrabas and the Author to Sathan Experience doth teach vs that at the present when a man is refreshed forthwith he begins to talke at the instant that a man doth eate or drinke forthwith he beginneth to debate And therfore we say that then and not afore it is an apt time to dispatch affaires For other wise it should be rather to importune thaÌ„ to dispatch Sir I say thus much for that you shal sée and also vnderstand that it is verie conueniente for him that goeth in affaires not onely to flée importunitie but also that hée knowe to séeke oportunitie Syr leauing this aparte I giue you to vnderstande that your importunities my muche businesse haue bin together by the eares the one procuring that I should condescende to your desire the other resisting that I could not do what you required in such wise that the cause why I haue not answered is I can not also I will not why I cannot answere dyd proceed at that time for that we toke order in the inquisition for the busines of witches in Nauerne and that I woulde not dyd rise that you sent to demaund of me a thing so straunge with the which if you did take pleasure in reding I receiued much offence and also tired my selfe in séeking The declaratioÌ„ of which historie that you sent to demand I did well remember I had séene it but I coulde not call to mynde in what booke I had red it and therof we do not maruel that do not deale with humain and diuine scriptures For the diuine Plato saith we should leaue to be men and become Gods if the memorie were able to retaine so muche as the eyes were able to reade and see Although on the one parte I had great businesse and on the other part was somwhat offended yet always I left my affaires and began to turne ouer my booke to sée if I could finde out that historie and remember the counterfait And I thought good to take this trauell in hand not only to accomplish your demaunde but also to proue my abilitie Sir you write vnto mée that in the Wardrobe of the great captain you sawe a riche cloth which they say the Venetians had giuen him for a present wherin was figured a man leading a Lyon and a Lyon that went led and laden after a man Also you saye that in the breast of the Lyon were written these wordes Hic Leo est bospes huius hominis In lyke maner was written in the breast of the man other wordes which were Hic homo est Medicus huius Leonis The one and the other letters thus much did signifie This Lion is the hoste of this man and This man is Phisition or Chirurgian to this Lyon. Sir you may well thinke somewhat at the straungenesse of the historie since the maner of the paintyng séemeth so monstrous therefore I maruell not thoughe you desire to vnderstande the same notwithstanding to finde it was not a little painefull to me It shall happen to this my letter whiche I consent verie seldome vnto an other that is that it shal be somewhat long yet not tedious for the historie is so pleasant to hear that the reader shal be gréeued for that it is no loÌ„ger Comming to the purpose The good Titus Emperoure of Rome whiche was sonne to Vespasian and brother to that euill Emperour Domitianus commyng from the warres of Germanie determined to celebrate in Rome the daye of his natiuitie in Campania Amongste the Romaine Princes thrée feastes of all other were moste celebrated to witte the daye wherein they were borne the daye wherein their Fathers dyed and the daye wherein they were created Emperours The day of this Titus byrth béeing come he ordained to make great feasts to the Senate and to distribute gifts among the people For in great disportes and feasts alwayes the Romaine Princes didde feaste the myghtye and gaue rewarde to the poore A thyng worthye to bée noted and also vnto memorye to bée commended that in the great feastes and triumphes of Ianus of Mars of Mercurie of Iupiter of Venus and of Berecinthia they dyd not boaste neyther estéeme suche feastes to be solemne great or duly solemnised by the costes that were spent either by the shewes and triumphs that therein were represented but by the number of rewards and liberall giftes that there were giuen The Emperour Titus commaunded to be brought for that feaste many Lions Beares great Harts Onchas Vnicorns Griffins Bulles Bores Wolues Camelles Elephants and ether many maruelous cruell beasts which for the more part be bred in the deserts of Aegypt and in the edge of the mountayne Caucasus Many dayes before the Emperour had commaunded that they should reserue all théeues and robbers by highwayes murderers periured persons traytors quarellers and rebelles to the end that on that day they shoulde enter into listes to chase and fight with the beasts in such wise that the chastisements of malefactors shoulde be perfourmed by the same beasts The order that he vsed herein was that the wretched men should be put within the greate Colledge and those cruell beasts should come foorth to fight against theÌ„ all the people standing to behold and none to help And if it hapned the beasts to teare the man in péeces there he payde his det but if the man kild the beast by iustice they could not put him to death Amongst other beasts that they brought vnto that feast there was a Lion whiche they had taken in the deserts of Aegypt which was mightie of body of great age of aspect terrible in fighting cruell and in his yelles and cries very horrible This most cruell Lion walking in the chase all imbrued for at that time he had slayne and torne to péeces xv men they determined to cast vnto him a fugitiue slaue to the intent he should kill and eate him and therevpon to quiet his rauenous furie A maruellous thing it was to heare and fearefull to sée that at the very instant they cast the slaue in the chase to the Lion he did not onely refuse to deuoure him but also hasted not to touche him but rather went vnto him and
offended and growe angrie if I answere not presently vnto your letters and send you not your doubtes declared As concerning that whiche you write of Marcus Aurelius the case standeth thus that I translated and presented it vnto Caesar not all finished the whiche Laxao did steale from the Emperoure and the Quéene from Laxao and Tumbas from the Quéene and the Lady Aldonsa from Tumbas and your lordshippe from the Lady Aldonsa in suche wise that my sweates ended in your theftes The newes of this Courte is that the Secretarie Cobos groweth priuate the gouernour of Brefa doth kéepe silence Laxao doth murmure and groane the Admirall dothe write the Duke of Veiar dothe hoorde and kéepe the Marquise of Pliego dothe plays the Marquise of Villa Franca followeth his busynesse the Earle of Osorno dothe serue the Earle of Siruela doth praye the Earle of Buendia doth sigh Gutiere quixada doth iust and the Iudge Ronquillo doth whippe From Madrid the sixthe of Ianuarie 1524. A letter vnto the Constable Sir Ynigo of Velasco in which is said that which the Marques of Piskara reported of Italy REnowmed Lorde and cōplayning Constable it hath chaunced me with very good grace that you neuer writte me letter wherin there cōmeth not some murmuring complaintes saying that I haue not answered to all that you haue written or that I am very short in writing or that I write but now and then or that I detayne the messenger or that I write as one offended in suche wise that neyther in me is any end of faults nor in your Lordship any lacke of complaints but if youre Lordship will note and accuse all the wants of considerations negligences slacknesse simplicities and doltishnesse that I haue I can tell you that you shall be wearied and also tyred for there is in me many things to be reprehended and very few wherefore to be praised That which is in me to be praised is that I estéeme my selfe to be a Christian kéepe my selfe from doing hurt to any man and boast my selfe to be your friend And that which is in me to be reprehēded is that I neuer leaue to sinne neither euer begin to amend this it is my Lorde that doth vexe me this it is that settes me aground and this is the cause why that there neuer remayneth in me gladnesse for as youre Lordship knoweth matters of honor and of conscience gyue great cause to be felt or considered but not to be discouered To write short or at large to write late or in time to write polished or without order neither is it in the iudgemente of him that doth indite it either in the pen that writeth the same but in the matter that he hath in hande or in the aptnesse of time he vseth for if a man be disgraced he writeth that hée ought not and if in disposition he writeth what he listeth Homer Plato Aeschines and Cicero in their writings neuer ceasse to complaine that when theyr common wealthes were in quiet and pacifyed they studied read and writte but when they were altered and vnruly they coulde not study much lesse wrought That which passed by those glorious personages in those days euery day passeth now in my selfe for if I bée well disposed and in temper it is offred me by heapes as muche as I woulde write and if by chaunce I bée disgraced or distempred I would not so muche as to take pen in hand There be tymes that I haue my iudgement so kindled and so delicate that as me thinketh I coulde swéepe one graine of wheate and cleaue a haire in sunder At another time I haue it so dull and so farre remoued that I can hardly hit a nayle with a stedge I knowe not what to write of thys Court but that the Marques of Peskara is come hither from Italy which doth recount from thence such so many things that if they be worthy to be put in Chronicle they be not to be written in a letter He that knoweth the condicione of Italy will not maruell of the things therof for in Italy no man may liue vnder the defence of iustice but that to haue and too be able he must be of power or else very priuate Let him not desire to liue in Italy that hathe not fauour of the king to defend or power in the field to fight for in Italy they neuer care to demaunde by Iustice that whiche they may winne by the launce In Italy they haue not to aske of him that hathe an estate or goodes of whome he did inherit them but how be did winne them In Italy to giue or take away estates or goodes they séeke not right in the lawes but in armes In Italy hee that leaueth to take any thing it is for want of power and not for want of will. Italy is very pleasant to liue in and very perillous to be saued Italy is an enterprise whether many do go and from whence few do returne These and many other such like things the Marques of Peskara recounted vnto vs at the table of the Earle of Nassao many Lords being present and some Prelates Giue thanks vnto God our Lorde that hath bred you in Spaine of Spaine in Castile and of Castile in Castile the olde and of Castile the olde in Burgos where you are beloued and serued for that in the other places or townes of Spaine althogh they be noble of power they haue always some controuersies The memoriall the your Lordship sent me this yeare to consider of and vpon the same to giue you counsell nowe I sende it you corrected with my conscience and consulted with my science No more c. A letter vnto the Constable Sir Ynigo of Velasco in which is declared the prises of thyngs as in olde tyme they were wonte to be sold in Castile REnoumed and curious Constable I haue receiued a letter from your Lordshippe as it appeareth by the same although you be chief or heade of the Valascos and I of the Ladrons of Gueuara there you haue the déede and here I haue the name For entring into my cell you haue stolne my Pictures and ouerturned my Bookes If there be a priuiledge of the Constables of Castile the religious being at his prayers that they shal enter and sacke his Cel it were very iust to shew wherfore they did it or else to restore vnto the owner the thing stolne Your Lordship writeth vnto me that you wil not restore the pictures that you haue takē away except I send you written the auncient ordinances that were made by the king Don Iuan in Toro in suche wyse that you doe not content your selfe with stealing but that you will also extort and doe violence I know not which was greater that day your fortune or my mischance in that my Cell was open for I swear by the faith of a christian that my lance in the sight of God wer much more worth if I shuld vse as great circūspection in
life and iust in youre tribunall or iudgements I wold not gladly heare that those that do praise that which you do should complaine of that whiche you say with a Lorde of so high estate and with a iudge of so preheminent an office my pen should not haue presumed to write what it hath written if your Lordship had not commaunded My Lord I saide it bycause if this that I haue here written vnto you shall not like you that it may please you to sende too reuoke the licence that you haue giuen Also you will that I shall write vnto youre Lordship if I haue founde in anye auncient Chronicle what is the cause wherefore the Princes of Castile do call themselues not onely Kings but also Catholique Kings And that also I write vnto you who was the first that called himself Catholique King and what was the reason and the occasion to take this so generous and Catholique title There were ynowe in thys Court of whome you might haue demaunded and of whome you might haue vnderstood in yeares more auncieÌ„t in knowledge more learned in bookes more rich and in writing more curious than I am But in the end my Lord be sure of this one thing that that which I shall write if it be not written in a polished stile at the least it shall be all very true Comming to the purpose it is to be vnderstood that the Princes in olde time did always take proud ouer-names as Nabugodonozer that did intitle him selfe King of Kings Alexander the greate the king of the world the king Demetrius the conqueror of Cities the great Haniball the tamer of kingdomes Iulius Caesar the Duke of the Citie the king Mithridates the restorer of the world the king Athila the whip of nations the king Dionisius the host of all men the king Cirus the last of the Gods the king of England defender of the Church the king of Fraunce the most Christian king and the king of Spaine the Catholique king To giue your Lordship a reckoning who were these kings and the cause why they did take these so proude titles to me it should be painfull to write and to your Lordship tedious to reade it is sufficient that I declare what you commaunde me without sending what you craue not It is to wit that in the yere seuen hundreth fiftie two the fift day of the month of Iuly vpon a sunday ioyning to the riuer Bedalake about Xeres on the frontiers euen at the breake of day was giuen the last and most vnfortunate battell betwixt the Gothes that were in Spaine and the Alarues that had come from Africa in whiche the sorowfull king Sir Rodrigo was slaine and all the kingdome of Spaine lost The Moore that was Captaine and that ouercame this famous battell was named Musa which did know so well to folow his victorie that in the space of eight moneths he did win and had dominion from Xeres in the frontieres vnto the rocke Horadada which is neare to the towne of Onnia And that whiche séemeth to vs most terrible is that the Moores did win in eighte moneths which in recouering was almost eight hundred yeres for so many yeares did passe from the time that Spaine was lost vntill Granado was wonne The fewe Christians that escaped out of Spaine came retiring vnto the mountaines of Onnia neare vnto the rocke Horadada vnto which the Moores did come but from thence forward they passed not either did conquer it for there they found great resistance and the land very sharp And when they of Spaine did see that the king Sir Rodrigo was dead and all the Gothes with hym and that without Lord or head they could not resist the Moores they raysed for king a Spanish Captaine that was named Sir Pelaius a man venturous in armes and of all the people very well beloued The fame being spread thoroughout all Spaine that the mountaine men of Onia had raised for king the good Sir Pelaius all men generouse and warlike did repaire vnto him with whome he did vnto the Moores greate hurt and had of them glorious triumphes Thrée yeares after they had raysed the good sir Pelaius for King hée married one of his daughters with one of the sonnes of the Earle of Nauarn who was named Sir Peter and his sonne was called Sir Alonso This Earle Sir Peter descended by right line of the linage of the blessed King Richardos in whose tyme the Gothes did leaue the sect of the curled Arrius by the meanes of the glorious and learned Archbyshop Leonard The good king Pelaius being dead in the eighteene yeare of his raigne the Castilians exalted for king a sonne of his that was named Fauila the which two yeares after he began to raigne going on a certaine day to the mountaine meaning to flea the Beare the Beare killed him And for that the king Fauila died without children the Castilians elected for king the husband of his sister whiche is to wit the sonne of the Earle of Nauarne who was named Alonso the whiche began his raigne in the yeare .vii. C.lxxij hys raigne endured eightene yeares which was as much tyme as his father in law the good King Sir Pelaius had raigned This good King was the firste that was named Alonso which tooke his name in so good an houre that since that daye amongst all the kings of Castile that haue bin named Alonso we reade not of one that hath bin euill but very good Of thys good king Alonso the historiographers do recite many landable things to recompt worthy to be knowen and exemplars to be followed The King sir Alonso was the first that out of Nauarne entered Galizia to make warre vppon the Moores with whome be had many encounters and battells in the ende he ouercame and droue them out of Astorga Ponferada Villa franca Tuy and Lugo with all their Countries and Castelles This good king Alonso was he that did win of the Moores the Citie of Leon and builded there a royall place to the ende all the Kings of Castile his successors should there be resideÌ„t and so it came to passe that in long time after many Kings of Castile did liue and die in Leon. This good King Alonso was the firste that after the destruction of Spaine began to builde Churches and to make Monasteries and Hospitalles in especially from the beginning the Cathedrall churches of Lugo Tâ—y Astorga and Ribeâ—ew the which afterwards did passe to Mondonedo This good king Alonso did buiâ—d many and very solempne Monasteries of the order of saint Benet and many hospitalles in the way of saint Iames and many particular Churches in Nauarne and in the Countrey of Ebro whiche he endewed all with great riches and gaue them opulent possessions This good King Alonso was the first that did séeke and commaunded to be sought with very great diligence the holy bookes that had escaped the hands of the Moores and as a zelous Prince commaunded that
stilled water Although Doctor Soto tolde me this tale in iest I did firmly beléeue it bicause you Master Doctor did once saye vnto mée in Madrid that in all the days of your life you neuer receiued compound purgation either proued the fast of stilled water Ther is no arte in this world that makes me lose the stirops or to say better my wits but the maner that Physitions do vse to cure For wée sée them desirous to cure and enimies to be cured And bicause Master Doctor you write vnto me also you sweare and coniure me by the desire I wishe to the welfare of my father that I write vnto you what is my iudgement of Physike and what I haue read of the inuenters birth and first rising thereof I will performe your request although it be more than others would wish for it is a matter that the wise Physitions will delight in but wherefore the foolish will giue both you and me to the diuell Of the moste auncient inuenters of Physike and medicine IF Plinie doe not deceyue vs there is no arte of the seuen liberall Artes wherein there is practised lesse trouth and whiche hath passed more mutabilitie than the Arte of Medicine Bicause there hath not bin kingdom people either notable natiō in this world wher she hath not bin receiued and after entertaynment againe throwne out of the same For if as she is a medicine she were a man immesurable wer the trauels that she wold report that she had suffred and many and very many are the kingdoms that she hath traueled and prouinces that she hath wandred not bycause they neglected to be cured but for that they helde Phisitions suspitious to be doubted The first that amongst the Greekes found the art of curing was the Philosopher Apollo and hys Sonne Aesculapius which for being so famous in Phisicke they concurred vnto him as vnto an Oracle throughout all Grecia but the chaunce was thus This Aesculapius was but a yong man and by greate mischaunce was slayne with lightning And as he left no disciple that knew his secretes neither that could make his medcines the master and the Art of medcine ioyntly did perish Four hundred and forty yeres was the Art of Phisicke lost in suche wise that in all the worlde there was not a man founde that did cure publikely or was called Phisition for so many yeares passed from the time that Esculupius died vntill the birth of Arthaxerxes the second in whose time Ipochras was borne Strabo Diodoro also Plini maketh mention of a woman of Grecia that in those most aunciente times did florish in the art of Phisicke of whome they recite so many mōstrous things and so incredible that to my iudgemēt they be al or the more part of thē fayned for if they shuld be true it séemed rather that she raysed the dead than cured the sicke In these days there did rise in the prouince of Achaia an other womā that began to cure with psalmes and words without applying any medcine simple or compound whyche being knowne in Athens was condemned by decrée of the Senate to be stoned to death saying that the Gods neyther nature had giuen remedies for sicknesse in words but in herbes and stones In the dayes that they had no phisitions in Asia the Gréekes held for custome when any man had made experiēce of a medcine and did heale with the same he was bound to write it in a table and to hang it vp in the temple of Diana that was at Ephesus for that in the like case any other might vse the same remedy Trogos Laertios and also Lactantius saith that the cause whereby the Gréekes did sustayne themselues so long time without Phisitions was that in May they dyd gather swéete herbes whiche they kept in their houses they were let bloud once in the yeare did bath once euery monthe and also they did eate but once a day Conformable to this Plutarch doth say that Plato being demaunded by the philosophers of Athens if he had seene any notable thing in Tinacria which is now called Sicilia made aunswer vidi monstrum in natura bominem bis saturum in die whiche is to say I did see a monster in mās nature which did fill or féede himselfe twice in one day he sayde thus by Dionysius the tyrant which was the first that inuented to eate at noone and afterwards to suppe at night for in the olde worlds they did vse to suppe but not to dine I haue curiously considered and in great varietie of bookes I haue sought and that whiche I found in this case is that all the nations of this world did eate at night and onely the Hebrewes did féede at none but following our intent it is to vnderstand that the temple most estéemed in all Asia was the Temple of Diana the one cause was for that it was stately of buildings another for that it was serued with many Priests but the most principall cause was for that the tables of Medicines were hanged there to cure the diseased Strabo sayeth that eleuen yeares after the battells of the Peloponenses the great Philosopher Ipochras was borne in a little Iland named Coe in whiche also were borne those glorious personages Licurgus and Brias the one Captayne of the Athenians and the other Prince of the Lacedemonians Of this Ipochras it is written that he was of small stature somewhat poare blind with a great head of much silēce paynefull in study and aboue all of a high and delicate iudgement From xviij yeares vnto thirtie fiue Ipochras continued in the scholes of Athenes studying Philosophie and reading and notwithstanding that in his time many Philosophers did flourish he was more famouse renoumed and estéemed than all the rest After that Ipochras departed from the studies of Athenes he wandred throughout diuers kingdomes and prouinces inquiring and searching of all men and women what they did knowe of the properties and vertues of herbes and planets and what experience they had seene of them At which things he did write and incommend vnto his memorie Also Ipochras did search with most great diligence for other bookes of Phisick written by any other auncient Philosophers and it is sayd that he found some written bookes in whyche theyr authours had written no medcine that they had made but such as they had séene made Of the Kingdomes and Prouinces where Phisitions were banished TWelue yeares Ipochras did trauell in this peregrination after which time he retired vnto the temple of Diana that was in Ephesus and translated al the tables of medcines and experiments that were there preserued many yeares he put in order all that was before confused and added many things that he had founde out and other things that he had experimented This Philosopher Ipochras is Prince of all Phisitions in the world for he was the first that tooke penne to write and to put Phisicke in order Also it is
or not remembring the case was thus that within fewe dayes after they gaue him thrée twentie stabs with a dagger in such wise that the most Noble Prince lost his life for no greater matter than for not hauing a little good maner The contrary of this Suetonius Tranquillus doth write of Augustus the Emperour which being in the Senat or in the Colledge did neuer sit downe vntill they were all set and rendred the same reuerence that they gaue him and if by chaunce his children entred the Senate house neither did he consent that the Senators shoulde rise either that his children should sit downe Sir if you will not that men call you presumptuous or to speake plainly do call you foole haue a care to be well manered for with good maner more than with any other thing we withdraw our enemies and do sustaine our friends Sir I haue spoken with the Popes messenger vppon the dispensations that you sent to haue to marry with the Gentlewoman the Lady Marina Whiche wée haue agréed for thrée score ducates and as he is a Venetian and would not be counted a foole he will first be payed before you shall be dispatcht I haue spoken with Perianes as concerning the expedition of the priuiledge of the Iury and as he was deaffe and moste dunch I cried out more in speaking vnto him than I do vse in preaching The newes of the Courte is that the Empresse wisheth the Emperours comming the Dames woulde marrie the suters would be dispatched the Duke of Veiar would lyue Antony de Fonseca woulde grow young Sir Rodrigo of Voria would enherit also Frier Denise wold be a Bishop Of my selfe I giue you to vnderstand that I am in possession of all the condicions of a good suter that is to wit occupied soliciting carefull spent suspicious importunate out of temper and also abhorred for that my Lorde the Archbishop of Toledo and I go to the lawe for the Abbay of Baza vppon which I haue for my parte a famous sentence No more but that our Lord be your protector and giue me grace to serue him From Medina del Campo the twelfth of Marche .1523 A lerter vnto sir Gonsalis Fernandes of Cordoua great Captaine in which is touched that the knight escaping the warres ought not from thence forth to depart his house MOst renoumed valiant Prince my weakenesse to write vnto your mightinesse my simplicitie vnto your prudencie if it shall séeme vnto those that shal heare thereof to be a thing ouer proude and to such as shal see it to be ouer presumptuous lette them lay the fault vpon your honour which did first write vnto me and not on me that do answere with shamefastnesse Sir I will trauell to satisfie your excellencie in all things that ye cōmaund me by your letter vpon this condition most humbly beséeching that you do not so much consider what I doe say as that which I would say And for that to a person of so greate an estate it is reason to write with grauitie I will trauell to be measured in the wordes I shall speake and to be remeasured in the reasons I shall write The diuine Plato in his Bookes of common wealth did say That lesse greatnesse is not to be imputed to the honorable to deale and be conuersant with the weake than it is to stand and to countenance with the mightie and the reason that he gaue for the same is that the Generouse and magnificent mā vseth more force in taming his harte to stoupe vnto lowe things than to take in hand graue weightie and high attempts A mā of an high stature receiueth more paine in stouping to the ground for a straw than to stretch out his arme to reach a braunche By this that I haue said I would say that this our hart is so puffed vp and so proude that to rise vnto more than he may it is life and to descend to lesse than he is worth it is death There are many things whiche God woulde not bring to passe by himself alone to the end they shall not say that he is a Lord absolute either wil he bring them to passe by the hāds of the mightie for that it shal not be sayd that he taketh help of humaine fauour and afterwardes he performeth the same by the hand and industrie of some man beaten down of fortune and forgotten amongst men wherein GOD sheweth his greatnesse and filleth the same with his might The great Iudas Machabeus was lesse in body and much lesse in yeares than his thrée other brethren but in the end the good old Mathathias his father to him onely did cōmend the defence of the Hebrewes and into his handes did also resigne the armies against the Assyrians The least of the children of the great Patriarch Abraham was Isaac but in him was established the right line of Christ on him al the Iewish people did fixe their eyes The inheritāce of the house of Isaac came too Esau and not to Iacob but after the daies of the Father Iacob did not onely buy the inheritance of his brother Esau but also did steale the blessing Ioseph the sonne of Iacob was the least of his brethren and the last of the eleuen Tribes but in the ende it was he alone that foūd grace with the kings of Aegypt did deserue to interprete their dreames Of seuen sonnes that Iesse had Dauid was the least but in the ende King Saul was of God reproued and Dauid King of Hebrewes elected Amongst the meaner Prophetes Heliseus was the least but in the ende vnto him and vnto none other was giuen a dubled spirite Of the meaner sorte of the Apostles of Christ was S. Philip and the meanest Disciple of Paule was Philemon but in the end with them more than with others they did take counsaill and in great affaires would take aduise Sir it seemes to mée that agréeing with that which I haue saide your Lordship wold not take counsell with other men that be learned and wise but with me that am the simplest of your friends As your Lordship hath ben so long time in the warres of Italie it is very seldome that I haue séene you but much lesse that I haue eyther spoken or bin conuersant with you for whiche cause my friendship is to be holden for more sure and lesse suspitious for that I loue you not for the rewardes you haue giuen me but for the magnificence that I haue séene in you When one cōmes to seeke to be our frend maketh much to the matter to consider the cause that moueth him to séeke the same for if he be poore we must giue him if he be rich we must serue him if he be fauoured we must worship him if he be wilfull we must faune on him if he be impatient we must support him if he be vicious we must dissēble with him and if he be malicious we must beware of him One of the
whiche we may gather for our purpose that chaunging the Captaines of the warres ioyntly therwith fortune doth alter In one self kingdome with one self people vnder one king in one ground and vpon one selfe quarell or demaunde hope you not that Fortune will alwayes be faithfull For in the place where she hath vsed to be moste fauourable it is hir deuise by the same meanes to shewe hir crueltie Rodrigo of Viuero did say vnto me that your honour was not a little gréeued to sée that your departure was prolonged and that the Kyng for this present helde it in suspense And further he sayd vnto me that you held it for so great displeasure that if it were with an other that were your equal you would demaund it at his hand as an iniurie To heare this I do maruell am not a little but muche offended for I holde him not for a good beaste that when they lade him wil stand stock still and when they vnlade him will yerke out behind Since the soule goeth charged with sinnes the hearte with thoughts the spirit with temptations and the body with trauels it is much conuenient for vs that if maye not altogether discharge oure selues of this burden at the least that in some parte we lighten the same Your honour is not so yong a man but that the more part of your life is past and since the lyfe goeth consuming and death approching in my iudgement it should be better counsell for you to occupie your selfe in bewayling your old sins than of newe to shed the bloud of enimies It is nowe time rather to wéepe than to fight to withdraw youre selfe than to vse libertie to make a reckoning with God more than with the king to accomplish with the soule and not with honour to call vpon God and not to prouoke with enemies to distribute your owne and not to take from others to conserue peace and not to inuent warres And if in this case your lordship will not beléeue me from hence forward I diuine that then you shall begin to féele it when you may not remedie the same Your honour deceyueth your self or else I know not what to say for that I sée you flée that you should procure which is quietnesse and you procure that which you should flée which is disquietnesse For there is no man in this world more vnfortunate than he that did neuer experiment what thing it is to be reposed Those that haue trauailed throughout diuers landes and haue had exprience of diuers fortunes the thing that they most desire in this lyfe is with honoure to sée themselues returned to their countrey Of which it may be inferred that it is great temeritie that you alone wil rather go to die amongst strangers than to liue with honor amongst your own Vntil men haue gotten necessarie to eate yea vntill they haue obteined also some surplusage also to giue in my iudgement they ought not much to be blamed although they wander through out diuers kingdomes and put themselues in great perilles For he is as muche worthie reprehension that doth not procure that whiche is necessarie as he that ceasseth not to prouide that which is superfluous After a man hath found that which he hath sought for and also perchaunce it hath happened him better than he thought of if after he be retired vnto his house in great quietnesse will returne to rubbe againe with the world I dare be bold to speake it that such a one eyther lacketh wit or else fortune will be to him vnhappie The diuine Plato doth saye in his bookes of common wealth that Fortune is more contrary vnto that man that he doth not suffer to enioye that which he hath than vnto him to whome he denieth what he craueth I doe beseche and also aduise your honour that after you haue red this sentence that you turne againe and againe too read the same for in my iudgement this sentence of Plato is very true and very profound and also vsed of many For almost we sée it by dayly experience that many men can obtaine fame honour quietnesse riches and haue not the meane afterward to enioye them Iulius Caesar was he that nature endued with most grace◠and to whom Fortune did giue most victories and with all this great Pompey did say of him that hée had great hardinesse to ouercome any battaile but that afterwardes he did not vnderstand how to enioy the victory If in the great renoumed battail of Canas Hanniball had knowen how to enioy the conquest he neuer afterwards in the fields of Carthage by Scipio the Aphrican had bin ouercome Your Honour may take it as it pleaseth you and vnderstand thereof as it may like you to cōmaund but in my iudgement he is not so cruell an enemie that hurles his darte at me in the warres as he that comes to driue mée from my house Cōformable to that which I haue said I do say that since we can not flée from cares and trauelles yet at the least that we procure to auoid some displeasures thereof For without comparison much more be the offences that wée seeke vnto our selues than be brought vnto vs by our enemies I will say no more in this letter but that the Gentleman Rodrigo of Viuero and I haue talked some things worthie the vnderstanding and perillous to be writtē I commend them with trust vnto his noblenes here he shal relate them vnto your excellencie there No more but our Lord be your protector and vnto me giue grace to serue him From Medina del Campo the .viij. of Ianuarie .1512 A letter to sir Enrique Enriques wherin the Authour doth answer to many gracious demaundes RIght magnificent and my olde frend Valdiuia your solicitour gaue mée a Letter the whiche séemeth verie well to be written with youre owne hande for that it helde fewe lynes and many blottes As God made you a Knight if he had made you a Scriuener you woulde haue bene more handsome to colour Cordouan skinnes than to haue written proces Sir alwayes frame if you shall write any Letter to bée sente that the lynes bée ryght the Letters close the reasons deuided the letter legible the paper cleane the folding equall the closyng smoothe and the seale cléere for it a lawe of Courte in that whiche is written the wysedome is vttered and in the manner of writyng good manner is knowne In the letter that was giuen mée were contayned many demaundes vnder verie fewe woordes And for that with one Turquois wée both will make but one shewe The case shall be thus to euery demaunde I will answere onely one word First you aske me wherfore I came to the Courte to this I answere that I came not willingly but constrained of necessitie for the contention betwixte me and the Churche of Toledo my comming was expedient to cléere my selfe and to withdraw the lawe Also you demaund of me what I doe in
séeke that whiche we may when we cannot what we desire No more but our Lorde be youre protector and giue me grace to serue him From Valiodolid the xxvj of October .1520 A letter vnto sir Iohn of Moncada in whiche is declared what thing is Ire and how good is patience EXpectable Gentleman and magnificent Knight if it shall séeme vnto you that I aunswer youre Letters with slacknesse impute the fault to Palome your seruant which halteth and the horse whereon hée rideth is lame the way long the winter hard and I also am always in businesse although from the same I haue gathered small profit and as I suspect if this your seruant haue made any tarriance vppon the way in comming hither or hath made small hast in returning thither it hath procéeded of a certayne combat with loue that he hapned to encounter by the way Wherein you may then well thinke how much rather he would accomplishe the loue that he beares in his brest than with your letters that he carieth in his bosome If you will credit me to men inamored you shall neuer commend your busines For his office is not to be occupied in other affayres but in writing letters watching at corners playing on gitterns climing of walles and vewing of windowes As concerning that which you write vnto me in youre letter I shall aunswer you more briefly than your desire and more largely than I may Considering how I goe to the Inquisition to reforme and to the Court too preach and euery day in Caesars Chronicles to write My busines is ouermuch and my time too little By the holy God I do sweare that as many courtiers which be idle in this court I do more enuie the time they loose than the money they possesse But comming to the purpose I do sweare by the law of a friend I haue bene as muche gréeued for your greate mischance and misfortune as if it had bin myne owne cause For as Chilo the Philosopher said the mischances of a friend we must not onely remedy them but also bewayle them Agesisaus the Greek being demanded for what cause he did more lament the heauinesse of his frends than the death of his children made answere I do not bewayle the want of my wife the losse of my goodes or the death of my children for al these are partes of my selfe but I bewayle the death of my frend which is an other my selfe Sir I saye thus muche since I may not be there present to lamente with you neither doe I here finde my selfe of power sufficient to remedie your case I will write some letter to comforte you For sometimes the pen vseth no lesse pitie with the friende than the launce doth crueltie with the enimie to persuade that you shoulde not féele that which reason would you shoulde so muche féele it shuld be iust occasion for me to be worthily noted with want of due consideration and you accused to be insensible That which I dare speak in this matter is that you conceyue therof as a man and dissemble the same as aduised and discrete The iniuries that touche our honour done by suche of whom we may not be reuenged the most sounde counsell is to let it fal since with due vengeance it may not be quited If in these present gréeues you wil take the order of a Christian leaue the way of a worldly knight you shall fixe your eyes not on him that doth persecute you but in God that doth permit the same before whō you shal find your self so faultie that that is little whiche you suffer in respect of that ye deserue to suffer Moreouer ye ought to thinke that tribulations whiche God permitteth be not to lose vs but to proue vs For in the books of God they set downe no man as quited but he that is apte for trauell and amongst those of the worlde they giue wages to none but vnto him that is giuen to wantonnesse Sir you write vnto me that I certifie you what thing is anger and the definition therof To sée if you may forget the dispite of him that hath done you so cruel an outrage to know what thing is Ire and to cut of the furious curse of his rage Sir it semes to me no euill counsell the very troth being knowen many times it is more securitie for him that is iniuried to dissemble the iniurie than to reuenge it Aristides saieth that ire is no other thing but an inflaming of the bloud and an alteration of the hart Possidonius sayth that ire is no other thing but a short foolishnes Cicero saith that which the Latins do cal ire the Grekes do name desire of vengeance Aeschines sayth that ire was caused of the fume of the gall and of the heate of the heart Macrobius saith there is muche difference betwixte ire and testinesse bicause ire groweth of an occasion and testinesse of euyll condition The diuine Plato sayeth that the faulte is not in anger but in hym that giues occasion Laertius sayth when the chastisement excéedes the fault then is it vengeance and not zeale But when the fault doth excéede the chastisemente it is zeale and no vengeance Plutarche saith that the priuiledges of ire are not to beléeue our friends to be rash in attempts to haue the chéekes inflamed to vse quicknesse with the handes to haue an vnbridled toung at euery word to vse ouerthwartnesse to be fumish for small causes and to admitte no reason Solon Solonio being demāded whom we cal properly irous answered he that little estéemeth to lose his friendes and maketh no account to recouer enimies After so manie and so graue Philosophers that which I dare say is that the vice of ire is lightly written easy to persuade pleasaunt to preach ready to counsell and very difficile to refrayne Of any vice wée may speake euill but of the vice of anger we may say much and very much euil For ire doth not only transform vs into fooles but also maketh vs of al men to be abhorred To temper ire is sufficientely vertuous but vtterly to expell it is a thing more thā sure For all things that are euill of themselues and of condition hurtfull are more easily resisted than throwne away In the beginnings many thinges be in oure owne handes to admit or to send them away but after they haue taken power ouer vs if by chaunce reason rise against them they say they will not depart since they be in possession Ire hath so euil a condition that of one only tyme that we yéelde him our will he afterwards maketh our will vnto all the hée liketh In the Magistrates that gouerne the common wealthe we condemne not the good or euill correction they vse but the greate furie they shewe in the same For if they be bounde to chastise the offences they haue not licence to shew themselues passioned Those that offend it is a thing very iust that they remaine not vnpunished but
with him all that he thinkes in his hart saying that a man is no more himselfe than that he holdeth secret in himselfe It is long since I commended vnto my memorye that sentence of the diuine Plato wher it is said that vnto whom we discouer our secret wée giue our libertie I say this vnto your Lordship for that if I had not consented that your Secretarie shoulde enter my studie neither had hée bin a babler or your Lordship importunate Your honor saith that he said he had séene in my library a banke of olde bookes whereof some were Gothike Latin Greeke Calde and Arabic and that he forgat not to steale one which made much for your purpose In that he said vnto you he said very troth and in that he did he did me much displeasure for that amongst the learned iestes do extend euen to the speaking of wordes but not to the stealing of bookes As I my Lord haue no other goodes to lay vp nor other pastimes wherewith to recreat me but bookes that I haue procured and also sought in diuers kingdomes beeleue me one thing whiche is that to take my bookes is as much as to pull out my eyes Of my naturall condiciou I was euer an enemie to new opinions and a great frend of olde bookes for if Salomon say Quòd in antiquis est sapientia for my part I do not beleue that the wisedonie lyeth in horeheades but in olde bookes The good king sir Alonso that toke Naples did vse to say that all was but trash except drie wood to burn an olde horse to ride olde wine to drinke olde frendes to bée conuersant and olde bookes to reade in Olde bookes haue great aduantage of the newe whiche is to wit that they speake the trueth they haue grauitie and do shew authoritie of whiche it followeth that we maye reade them without scruple and alledge them without shame The case is this that in the yeare 1523. I passing thorough the Towne of Safra came to a Booke binders shop whiche was tearing out leaues of an olde parchement booke to couer another new booke and knowing that the booke was better to reade in than to make couerings I gaue him for the same viij Rialles of plate also would haue giuen him viij Ducates Now Sir you shal vnderstand that the booke was of the lawes of Badaios that king Allonso the xj made a Prince that was very valiant and not a little wise This is the booke that your Secretarie did steale from me whiche he carried vnto you and it hath pleased me muche that you haue séene it and haue not vnderstood it in suche wise that if you render it it is not because ye haue desire to make restitution but for that you will I make exposition thereof The rest of this letter is the exposition of certaine olde lawes wherein there ariseth this maruell that the Castilian speeche but in a few hundreth yeares is so altered and the prices of their things so chaunged that not only the common people but also a Bishop of the same countrie craued an interpretor of the sayd lawes A letter vnto Syr Iohn Palamos wherein is declared whiche was Saians horse and the Gold of Tholose RIght noble Knight I haue receyued your letter and your complaint therein wherevnto answering I say that I haue bin much busied in certaine affaires whiche Caesar hath commaunded during the expedition whereof I haue had no time to pray my houres muche lesse to aunswere your letters missiue It came vnto Caesars vnderstanding that the Duke of Sogorbe and the Monkes of the vale of Paradise did beare each other ill will and did vse euill neighbourhod for whiche cause hée commaunded that I shoulde visite them and trauaile to bring them agréed whiche I did of very good will although not without great difficultie In fourtie dayes that I was there I neither wente to walke either did occupie my selfe in preaching eyther giue my selfe to studie but all my exercise was to sée priuiledges to visit boundes to heare quarelles and to appease iniuries And for that these affaires were of importance and betwixt personages of so great authoritie I passed immeasurable trauel before I could make them frendes and remoue their griefes I haue said all this to the ende you shoulde holde me the rather excused for not aunswering so soone vnto your letter and for not accomplishing that whiche I promised you in the grades of Valentia but the case was this The Prince of Borbon passing by Valentia wée saw in a certaine cloth of his tapistrie a horse whiche had at his féete Knightes throwen downe and dead And in the brest of the horse was a writing in whiche was sayde Equus Seianus as one would saye this is Saians horse Marueylouslye did they of the Citie beholde this cloth and no man vnderstode what the blason of that horse might signifie some saide it was the historie of Iosue some of Iudas Machabeus some of Hector some of Alexander othersome of Cirrudias After that maner euery man did speake as hée did gesse but no man as hée did know for troth There was in that troupe a gentlemā which said that that was king Don Martin his horse which won Valentia of the Mores that they were fyue Kings of the Mores that hée killed in one daye and his horse was named Seian for that he was of Sogorbe And bycause there was no man that did knowe the secret of that history but I that held my peace he did so sweare and forsweare and also affirme it so true as if he had recompted a storie of the Bible Cōsidering he was a Knight in bloud Generouse of goods rich of yeares auncient although in his wordes very lying I would not there declare presently the misterye of that horse bycause others should not haue wherewith to deride him or the poore gentleman wherfore to bée displeased Mimus Publianus the Philosopher said that with old mē that be vaine bablers and ianglers we ought to haue more respect to their hore heares that they possesse than to the wordes they speake The history of Saians horse is written by very graue authors whiche is to wit Cayus Bassianus Iulius Modestus and Aulus Gelius in the third Booke that hée made de noctibus Atticis And I doe aledge these authors for that no man shall thinke it is a compound fable but that of a troth it did passe as here wée shall recount the historie resiting it from the foundation The great Hercules the Thebane after that hée had slaine Diomedes in Thracia brought with him to Greece a certaine race of horses that Diomedes had bred which of their own proper nature were in colour fayre of stature large in condicions gentle and in battell couragious Of the race of these there was bred an horse in the prouince of Argose whose proportiō was a high crest hear to the groūd slit nostrelles sure houed well membred broade buttocks a long tayle
health and the grief you séemed to haue of my infirmitie Beleue me Sir and be out of doubt that at that present I had more abilitie to drink than to read for I would haue giuen all my Librarie for one only ewer of water Your Lordship writeth vnto me that you also haue béen ill that you thinke all your sicknesse to be well employed as well for that you féele your selfe recouered as also that you finde your selfe affected with a holy purpose to departe from sin and to abstaine from excesse in eating My Lord I am sory with all my heart that you haue ben sicke and it pleaseth me very much that you stand vppon so good a purpose although it be very true that I wold more reioyce to sée you performe than to heare you promise for hell is full of good desires and heauen is full of good workes But be it as be may to my iudgemeÌ„t there is not any thing wherin we may soner discerne a man to be wise or foolish than to sée in what maner he behaueth him selfe in aduersitie how he reapeth profite by sicknesse There is no such foolishnes as to employe our health to euill purpose either is there any such wisedome as to drawe fruite or commoditie out of sickenesse Cum infirmor iuncfortior sum the Apostle said that wheÌ„ he was sicke then was he most strong this he said bycause the sicke man doth neither swel by pride or fornication doth make him coÌ„bat or auarice doth ouerthrow or enuie doth molest or ire doth alter or gluttony doth bring vnder or slouthfulnesse doth make negligent either ouerwatch him selfe with ambition My Lord Duke pleaseth it the Lord that wée were suche being whole as we promise to be when we be sicke All the care of the euill Christian when he is sicke is to desire to bée whole onely to liue and enioye more of this world but the desire of the good Christian wheÌ„ he is diseased is to be whole not so much to liue as to reform his life In the time of sickenesse there is none that doth remember himselfe of affection or passion of friendes or enemies of riches or pouertie of honour or dishonour of solace or trauell of laying vp treasure or growing poore coÌ„maunding or obeying but to be deliuered of one grief of the dead would giue all that he had gotten all the daies of his life In sicknes ther is no true pleasure in health all trauel is tollerable what wants he that lackes not health What is it worthe that he possesseth that enioyeth not his health What doth it profite to haue a very good bed if he cannot sléepe What benefite hath he that hath old wine of fragrant fauour if the phisitian do commaund that he drinke sod water What auayleth to haue good meat wheÌ„ only the fight thereof moueth belkes and makes the stomacke wamble What commoditie ariseth vnto him that hath much money if the more part hée spend vpon Phisitians and Poticaries Health is so great a thing that to kéepe it and to conserue it wée ought not only to watche but ouerwatche The whiche surely séemes not so since we neuer haue regard thereof vntil we haue lost it Plutarch Plini Nigidius Aristicus Dioscorus Plotinus Necephalus with them many others haue written great Bookes and treatises how infirmities are to be cured and how health is to be conserued And so God saue me if they affirmed a troth in some things in many other things they did but gesse and other things not a few they dreamed Béeleue me my Lord Duke and bée out of doubt for my part I doe fully béeleue and also I haue experimented that to cure diseases and to conserue healths there is no better thing than to auoyd anger and to eate of few meates How great weale should it be for the body and also for the souls if we might passe our life without eating and without anger For meates do corrupt the humors and anger doth contâ—â—ne the bones If men did not eat and would not be angrie there shoulde be no cause to be sicke and muche lesse of whom to complaine For the whips that doe most scourge our miserable life are ordinary excesse and profound sadnesse Experience teacheth vs euery daye that the men that bée doltishe and ignorant for the more part are alwayes strong lustie and in good healthe and this is the reason for that suche as they are neither doe weary them selues to obtaine honour eyther doe féele what is shame reproch or dispite the contrary of all this doth happen to men that be wise discrete quicke witted and of sharpe deuise euerye one of which be not only grieued of that which is spoken vnto them but also they growe sorowfull for that they imagine what others do thinke Ther be men that be so sharpe and so ouersharpe or refined that it séemeth little vnto them to interprete wordes but also they holde it for an office to diuine thoughts and their repaiment is that by them selues always they goe discomforted and with others euill lyked I durst affirme and in a maner sweare that to bréed a sickenesse and to daunger a mannes lyfe there is no poyson of so daungerous infection as is a profounde and déepe sorrow for the miserable hart when he is sad doth reioyce in weping and takes ease in sighing Let euery man speake what he thinketh good for amoÌ„gst such as be discrete and no fooles without comparison they be more that grow sicke by anger they receyue than of the meates they féede on All day long wée sée no other thing but that those men whiche be merrie and glad be always fat whole and well coloured and those that be sadde and melancholike alwayes go heauie sorowful swollen and of an euill colour In these writings I confesse vnto you my Lorde Duke that the Ague that now I haue was not of any meate that I had eaten but of a certayne anger I had taken Your Lordship doth write that by sléeping vpon the grouÌ„d you haue taken a pestilente reume I verily thynke the greafe heate of this moneth of Auguste hath bin the cause therof whiche in myne opinion you ought not to vse or counsell any other therevnto For it is lesse euill to sweate with heate than to cough with colde To the rest which I vnderstand by your letter in desiring I should write some newes it is sufficient for this tyme that of this our Courte there bée few things to be trusted in paper much to be said in a maÌ„s eare The thinges that appertaine vnto Princes and lordes of high estate wée haue permission to conceyue them and no licence to speake them In the Courte and out of Courte I haue séene many aduaunced by secrecie and many shamed by want of silence Your Lordship pardon for this tyme my pen and when wée shall méete together my toung shall supplie this present want No more but that
Father Abbot you will come and dwell at Court from hencefoorth I make exchaunge for your craggy mount and also doe promise you by the faith of a Christian you shall more repent you to haue bin conuerted a courtier than I to be admitted of the religion of S. Benet For the much good will I beare you for the much deuotion I hold of that place you are bound to pray vnto God that he will draw me from this infamous life and fight me with his grace without the whiche we cannot serue hym and much lesse be saued By the handes of Frier Roger I haue receyued the spoones you sent me and to him I deliuered the booke that he desired me in such wise that I shall haue spoones to eate with and your fatherhod a booke to pray in In the rest that you write as concerning your Monasterie the cace shall be that you deale with God for me as one that is deuoute and I shall do with Caesar the worke of a friend No more but that our Lorde be your protector From Valiodolid the vij of Ian. 1535. A letter vnto the Admirall Sir Frederique Enriques in the whiche there is declared a certaine authoritie of the holy scripture GLorious and right famous Archmarriner I am determined before the Iudge Ronquillo to adiorne your Lordship to the end that the parties called and hearde hée he iudge and giue sentence betwixte vs whether I being as I am a Gentleman and a Courtier be bound to answere Extempore vnto all your Letters and to expounde all doubtes which your honour so continually writeth vnto me Your sollicitor is so importunate for answere I confesse that many tymes I giue the seruaunt to the Deuil and also at sometime I pray not vnto God for the maister Complayning yesterdaye vnto your solicitour for that he was so tedious and bicause so continually he did moue me he made me answer with a verie good grace Consider sir master I giue you to vnderstande that the Admirall my Lorde craueth of your reuerence that you write vnto him as a friend that you send him newes as a Chronicler declare his doubtes as a Diuine and counsell his conscience as a Religious Whervnto I replyed if your maister the Admirall will be well serued also I wil be wel payed The paiment shal be for the office of Chronicler of a diuine of a friend and of a Counseller that since I cānot get my meat with the laūce I must obtayn it with the pen. I made al this threatening not to the intente your Lordship shall giue me to eate but for that you should cease to be importune for I thank God the Emperour that is my lord and maister hath not onely giuen mée that whiche is necessarie but also wherewith to reliene others The benefit that we haue that attend vpon Princes is that if we be bound to serue them we haue alwais licēce to craue of them but let the conclusion be that with the same intention that I did speake those wordes here it may please your Lordship to receiue them there that in fine in the end chide we neuer so much or be we neuer so angrie you must nedes do what I desire you and I must of necessitie doe what you commaunde me Your Lordships pleasure is that I write vnto you howe that texte is to be vnderstoode of Esaias where he sayeth Vae tibi Ierusalem quia bibisti calicem irae Dei vsque ad feces Whiche woordes are to bée vnderstoode wo be vnto thée Ierusalem bycause thou hast dronke the cuppe of the Lords wrath euen to the dregs Your lordship asketh a matter so high a thing so profound that I had rather vnderstand than speak it tast it than write it for they know more therof that be giuē to contemplation than such as be occupied in reading but this is the doubt Since God the father did send to Christ his son a cup to drinke of bitternesse wherof is Ierusalem reprehended for the cup that she drank of wrath the one was the cup the other was the cup the one of bitternesse the other of wrathe the Synagogue did receyue the one and the Churche the other Christe dyd drinke the one Ierusalem dyd drynke the other God sent the one and God sent the other But since it is so why doe they so muche prayse the cuppe that Christe tasted of and condemne the sorrowfull cuppe that Ierusalem dyd drinke To vnderstand the profunditie of this scripture we muste presuppose that there be two maners of cuppes which is to wit the cup that is sayd simply only of God and the cup that is sayd with an addition that is of the ire of god There is so great difference betwixt these two cuppes that in the one we drink heauen in the other we swalow hell the holy cup of God is no other thing but temptations hunger cold thirste persecutions exile pouertie and martirdom of which thinges God giues to drink and to tast to such as he hathe chosen to serue him and hath predestinate to be saued Vnto whome God giueth this cup to drynke it is a signe that he is registred amongest them that shall be saued in suche sorte that we can not escape Hell but at the coste of verie great trauel Profoundly it is to be considered what Christ sayde that the cup should not only be giuen to his owne person but that it shoulde also passe vnto his Church in such wise that he drank thereof but he made not an ende for if Christ had dronke al the cuppe only Christ should haue entred the glorie And for this cause he prayed vnto his father that the cup shoulde passe vnto those of his Churche for that we shoulde all enter with him into the glorie Oh high misterie neuer heard of that Christ being in the Garden in the darke alone flat vpon his knées sweating praying and wéeping he did not craue of hys Father that the elect of his Church shuld be cherished or worldly pampred but of that cup he would giue them a draught to drinke Of that cup of bitternesse and trauell only Christ did drinke his fill bicause he only was sufficient to redéeme vs All we that came after Christ If we cannot drinke our fill I would to God we might drinke sufficient for our Saluation the sword of saint Peter the Crosse of saint Andrew the knife of saint Bartelmew the girdierne of S. Laurence the sheares of saint Steuen what other things are they but certaine badges they haue receyued of Christe and certaine gulpes they haue drunke of his cup. So many more degrées we shall receiue in Heauen of Glorie as we haue drunke of the cup of Christ in this life and therefore we ought to pray vnto God euery day with teares that if we cannot drinke all his cup at the least that he will suffer vs to tast thereof The cuppe of Christ although it be bitter in drinking after the
is delicate and of smal strength so be is more offended by a little ayre that cōmes in at a chinke thā the cold of one whole winter night did gréeue him when he was yong The old men of your age ought very much to procure to eate good bread and to drinke good wine and the bread that is well baked and the wine that is a yeare old for as old age is compassed with infirmities and laden with sadnesse the good vituals shall hold them in health and the good wine shall leade them in mirth The old men of your age ought much to consider that theyr meales be small their meate yong and well seasoned and if they eate much and of many meates they euer goe sicke for notwithstanding they haue money to buy them they haue not heate to disgest them The old men of your age ought too procure their bed curteyned their Chamber hanged a meane fire the chimney without smoke for the life of olde men consisteth in going clenly warme cōtented and without anger The old men of your age ought vtterly to auoide to dwel vppon any riuer either to do their busines in moist groundes either to sléepe in ayry places for olde men being delicate as they are be like children and naturally accraised the ayre shall penetrate their powers and moystnesse shall enter their bones The old mē of your age vpon paine of their life ought to be temperate in their diet refusing to eate late for old mē as they haue their stomacks weake and growen colde they may not disgest two meales in a day for the olde man that is vnsatiable and a glutton vsing the contrary shall belke much and sléepe little The olde men of your age to the ende that they be not sicke or grow heauie neyther turne to be grosse ought a little to refreshe them selues walke into the fielde vse some exercise or be occupied in some facultie for otherwise it might happen them to get a tisick or a lamenesse in their limmes in such wise that it will be hard to fetch breath and by puffing and blowing giue warning where you walk The old men of your age ought to haue great care to auoyde all contentious brabbling amongst their seruants and sometime to beare with their negligences to pay their wages too the ende they go contented for otherwise they will be negligent in seruice and very suttle in stealing For conclusion the old men of your age ought much to procure to weare their apparell swéete and cleanly their shirts very well washed their house neat and wel swept and their chamber very close warme and well smelling For the olde man whiche presumeth to be wise if he will liue in health and goe contented ought to haue his body without life his hart without strife In the end of your letter you write that hauing left to loue sorow leaueth not to vere you which vseth to folow the enamored and instantly you desire me to giue you some remedy or to sende you some comfort for notwithstanding you haue throwen it out of the house it leaueth not nowe and then too knocke at the gate Sir in this case I remit you to Hermogenes to Tesiphontes to Doreatius to Plutarch and to Ouid which spent much time and wrote many bookes to giue order in what manner the enamored shoulde loue and the remedies that for their loue they should vse Let Ouid write what him pleaseth Dorcas say what he thinketh good but in fine there is no better remedie for loue than is neuer to begin to loue for loue is so euill a beast that with a thread he suffereth to be taken but hée will not depart with thrusts of a launce Let euery man consider what he attempteth marke what he doth beholde what he taketh in hand note whither he dothe enter and haue regarde where he may be taken for if it were in his handes to set the tables he is not certaine to win the game There is in loue after it is begon infinite shelues immesurable sloughes daungerous rockes and vnknowen whirelpooles in whych some remaine defaced others blinded some besoilde and also some others vtterly drowned in such wise that he that is best deliuered I accoumpt to be euill deliuered Oh how many times did Hercules desire to be deliuered from his loue Mithrida Menelaus from Dortha Pyrrhus from Helena Alcibiades from Dorobella Demophon from Phillis Hāniball from Sabina and Marcus Antonius from Cleopatra from whome they could neuer not only depart but also in the end for them and with them they were cast away In case of loue let no man trust any man and much lesse him selfe for loue is so naturall to man or woman and the desire to be beloued that where loue amongst them dothe once cleaue it is a sore that neuer openeth and a bond that neuer vnknitteth Loue is a metall so delicat a canker so secret that he planteth not in the face where he may be sene nor in the pulse where he may be felte but in the sorowfull hart where although he be sensible they dare not discouer it After all this I say that the remedie that I giue for loue is that they gyue him no place to enter amongst the entrayles nor giue theyr eyes libertie to behold windowes or giue eare to bawdes either suffer any trade of Dames to come or goe if any come to house to shut the dores and not to walke abroade after euening if with these conditions loue may not altogither bée remedied at the least it may be eased and amended Sir and my gossip if you will in all these things profite youre selfe and well consider thereof you shall be excused of many angers and also saue much money For to youre age and my grauitie it is more conuenient to vnderstande of the best wines than to view the windowes of the enamored Take for example chastisement the Licentiat Burgos your acquainted and my great friend which being old and enamored as you died this saterday a death so straunge and fuddayne as was fearefull to al men and sorowfull to his friēds No more but our Lord be youre guide and giue me grace too serue him From Burgos the .24 of Febr. 1523. A letter vnto Sir Iames of Gueuara vncle to the Author wherein he doth comfort him for that he hath bin sicke MAgnificent and right honorable Vncle it pleaseth your Honor to complaine of mée in youre letter that I neither serue you as my good Lorde either do sue as vnto a father or visite as an vncle neyther write as vntoo a friende I may not denie but as concerning kinred your are my Fathers brother in merit my good Lord my father in curtesie and my Progenitor in giuing of liberall rewards which I haue receiued at your hands not as a nephew but as a sonne much beloued Since I haue confessed the affinitie that I hold and affirme the dette
they will rather amēd God than correct themselues Let houses fal the vines be blasted the stormes spoile corne the flocks die and rent gatherers run away if we giue thanks to God for that he leaueth vs if we do not murmur for that he taketh away if we grow not dul to serue him he will neuer grow negligent to giue vs prouision They say vnto me that your Lordship is vexed sorowfull and also vntractable these are priuileges of olde menne but not of wise olde men for it shoulde be a muche greater losse to haue the wit blasted thā the Corne destroied Vncle you know very well that in all the the markets of Vilada Palencia we shal find bread to be sold but in none of the faires of Medina shal we find wisdome to be bought For which cause men ought to giue more thanks vnto God for that hée did create them wise than for that he made them rich It is a more sounde welthinesse for a man to estéeme himselfe wise than to presume to be of great wealth for with wisdom they obtaine to haue but with hauing they come to lose thēselues The office of humanitie is to féele trauells and the office of reason is to dissemble them For when sodaine assaultes come vpon vs and infortunes knocke at our gates if the hart should receiue them all and of euery one complaine and bewayle he should euer haue wherof to recount and neuer want wherfore to lament Prometheus that gaue laws to the Aegiptians said that the Philosopher should not wepe for any thing but for the losse of his friend for all other things are contained in our chestes onely the friend dwelleth in the hart If Prometheus did not permit to shew any griefe but for a friende it is not credible that he would wéepe for the corne in the field wherin he had greate reason for notwithstandyng that the losse of temporall good is wherewith we be moste grieued yet on the other part it is that wherein our losse is least Séeing the incertayntie of this lyfe and the continuall chaunges that be in the same as little suretie men haue thereof that be in their houses as the corne that is in the field I dare say that wée haue very little wherin to trust and many things wherof to be afrayd It is not vnknowen to your Lordship that in this lyfe there is nothyng sure since wée sée the corne blasted trées striken downe floures fall woodde wormeaten cloath deuoured with moathes cattell doe ende and menne doe dye and that all thynges well marked in the ende all thyngs haue an ende Men that haue passed thrée score yeares haue for their priuiledge to sée in their houses great misfortunes whiche is to witte absence of friendes deathe of children losse of goodes infirmities in their persones pestilences in the common wealth and manye nouelties in Fortune and for thys cause Plinie durste saye that men ought not to bée borne if that he being borne foorthwith should die Oh howe well sayde the diuine Plato that men oughte not to be carefull to liue long but to lyue well I thought good thus muche to write vnto you to the ende you shoulde vnderstande to profite your selfe by olde age since you had skil to enioye the dayes of youth for in the age of fourescore yeares it is a tyme to make small accounte of lyfe and to vse great skill and no small reckening of death All these thinges I haue written vnto your Lordshippe and my good vncle not for that you haue néede but bicause you shall haue wherein to reade and also to the ende you shall vnderstande that although I go bescattered and wandring in thys Court I doe not leaue to reknowledge the good No more but that our Lorde be your protectour From Madrid the eleuenth of Marche 1533. A letter vnto Master Gonsalis Gil in which is expounded that which is sayd in the Psalmist Inclinaui cor meum ad faciendas iustificationes tuas in aeternum RIght reuerend and eloquent Doctor ad ea quae mihi scripsisti quid tibi sim respōsurus ignoro although I saye that to so many things I know not to answer I should haue sayd better that I dare not to wright For the affaires of our common wealth are come to that estate that though we be bound to féele them we haue no licence to reporte them It is too gréeuous in our humanitie to suffer iniuries but it is much more gréeuouse vnto the hart to kéepe them secret and not to vtter them for the remedie of the sorowfull hart is to discouer his poyson and to vnburden where he loueth He deserueth much and can do very much that hathe a hart to féele things as a man and dissembleth them as discret For he is of a greater courage that forgettes the sorowe that once entreth into the hart than he which reuengeth it If my memorie should reueale what it doth retaine my tong speake what it doth knowe and my pen write what me listeth I am sure those that be present would maruell and suche as be absent would growe offended for nowe burneth the pearcher without tallow and at randon all goeth to the bottom The armie of gentlemen be here in Medina del ryo secco and they of the communaltie in Villa Braxima in suche wise that too the one we desire victory and of the other we haue compassion For the one be our good Lords and the others our good friēds I desire that the part of the gentlemen may ouercome and it grieueth me to sée the deathe and fall of the poore chiefly for that they know not what they aske either vnderstand what they do If the trauell of the warre and the perill of the battel might light vpō their shoulders that were inuenters therof and that haue altered the people it shoulde be tollerable too sée and iust to suffer but alas the sorow they fight in safetie and chase the bull in great suretie wée haue the monasterie full of souldiors and the Celles occupied with knights wherin there is no place for a man to withdrawe eyther a quiet houre to studie In such wyse that if my Bookes be scattred also my wits be wandring What quietnesse or contentation will you that I haue séeing the king is oute of his kingdome the commons rebell the counsell fled the Gentlemen persecuted the townes men altered the gouernours astonied and the people sacked euery houre entreth men of warre euery houre they make alarums euery houre they sound to battell euery houre they ordeine ambushes euery hour there is skirmishes euery houre they intende repayres and also euery houre I sée them bring men wounded The Cardinal and the gouernours commaunde me to preache and instructe them in the affaires of peace that which I can say is euery thirde day I goe from one campe to an other and they of the cōmonaltie will not beléeue me neither will be conuerted in suche wise that
or anger REnoumed Lord and pitifull Constaple I may saye by your honour that whiche God saide by the Sinagog which is to wit Curauimus Babilonian nō est curata relinquamus illam which is to say we haue cured Babilon and it woulde not bée cured let vs abandon it Sir I say thus muche for that it hath happened not a little gracious vnto me that whereas I craued in my letter that my Lady the Duchesse should not see any one part therof notwithstanding you haue not only shewed it and conferred theron with hir but also had great game thereat Wherevpon in the way of reuenge I shewed youre letter vnto the Earle of Nassaro who with Flemings Portingalles Almaines and Spaniards dyd also take some pastime therewith yet was it my very good lucke that all the euill that I saide of women in your letter my Lady the Duchesse conuerted into iest in such wise that with greate reason I may praise hir for hir wisedome and complaine me of your temeritie My Lord Constable I shall most hartely desire you not to haue such care to make proues of triacle with my letters but to reade them and to teare or else burne them for it may happen that some day you might reade them before some not very wise either yet of good condition that might deuine to my hurt that which they vnderstand not to their owne profit Leauing this a part your Lordship sayeth that for my sake you haue remitted the displeasure you did beare against the Gentleman the which I accept for so great courtesie and grace as if vnto my selfe the iniurie had bin pardoned for I am so tēder ouer him that is my dere friend that al which I sée to be done in the behalfe of his person to the amendment of his estate I set it downe in mine own account Besides the accomplishment of my desire your Lordship hath performed that which you were bound to doe for Princes and great Lordes haue no licence to doe iniuries eyther so muche as to reuenge them For as you know that whiche is in the meaner called wrath in the mightie is named pride and that which amōgst the smaller sort is chastisement in the mightie is termed vēgeance As oft as you shall make coniugation with youre noblenesse and conscience and shall call to remembrance that you be a Christian and a Knight it shall not mislike you of the offences you haue dissimuled and it shall grieue you of the iniuries you haue reuenged The pardoning of iniuries gyueth great contentation to the hart and the desire of reuengement is no small torment thereof By that whiche is said I woulde saye that sometimes for some man to reuenge some little iniurie he escapeth from thence much more iniuried There be some iniuries that onely are not to be reuenged neither as muche as to bée confessed for things of honour are so delicate that the same day that any confesseth to haue receyued an iniurie from that day he bindeth himselfe to take reuengement The Consull Mamilius demaunded at a certaine time of Iulius Caesar wherein it was that he had in this worlde most vaine glory and in the remembring thereof did take most pleasure to this the good Caesar made aunswer by the Goddes immortall I sweare vnto thée Oh Consul Mamilius that of nothing in all this life I doe thinke that I deserue so muche glory or any other thing doth giue me so greate ioy and contentation as pardoning of those that do offend me and gratifying such as do serue me Oh wordes worthy prayse and pleasant to heare notable to reade and necessary to followe for if Iulius Caesar did beléeue as a Pagane he did worke as a Christian but we all beléeue as Christians and worke lyke Paganes I speake it not without a cause that we liue as Paganes although we beléeue as Christians since in this case the malice of man is growen so great that many woulde pardon their enemies and dare not for feare of their friends for if they once perceiue them to speake of pardoning any man presently they will say they doe it more of cowardise than of conscience Be it as be may and let euery man speake as he thinketh good in this case of pardon your lordship hath done with that Gentleman like a faithfull Christian and with me like a very friend and beside fidelitie to God and frendship to a friend There is no more to be craued of any man in this world The memoriall that your Lordship sendeth me of that things that toucheth your goods and conscience I my Lord wil consider therof at leysure and wil answere vpon aduisement because in your charges or discharges in such wise I will giue you counsel as in my brest no scruple shall remaine In him that asketh counsell there ought to be diligence and no slackenes for that many times businesse lieth so in corners and so farre from hand that it shall be more sure counsell to trust to our weapon than to staye for that bookes shall say the contrary wherof is to be vsed of him the shall giue counsel vnto another which is to wit that he haue much wisedome and little diligence for counsell that is giuen if it be not vpon aduisement most times bringeth some repentance The diuine Plato writing of Orgias the Greeke sayd My frend Orgias thou writest vnto me that I should counsell thée how thou shouldest behaue thy selfe in Licaonia and on the other parte thou makest great haste to haue an aunswere which thing although thou doest rashly craue I dare not performe for that I doe much more studie to counsel my frends than to read in scholes to Philosophers the counsell that is giuen or taken ought to be giuen by a man that is wise for the good iudgement he hath a learned man for the much that he hath read an auncient man for that he hath séene a patient man for that of him selfe he hath suffered a man without passion bycause malice shall not blind him a man without interest for that couetousnesse shall not let him Finally I saye that the shamefast man and of a noble minde oughte to giue vnto his friendes money with liberalitie and counsell with greate grauitie If it bée true as it is moste certayne that he oughte to haue all these conditions that shoulde giue counsell vnto an other we dare wel say that to giue counsell is an office so cōmon that many vse it and very few can performe it There commeth a carefull man to aske counsell of his friende in giuyng whiche counsell the one way or the other there goeth lyfe honour goodes and also conscience and then his friend whose counsell he hath craued without remouing or further thinking therof voyde of all scruple or doubt sayeth what is to be doone in that case as though he had founde it written in the holy Scripture All this I say vnto youre Lordship bycause sometime you be
refraining my thoughts as I vse in the keeping of my bookes Your Lordeship sayeth that the booke you hapned vpon in my librarie was olde of an olde letter of olde tyme and of olde thinges and dyd entreat of the prices how all things was sold in Castile in the time that King Iohn the first did first raigne I wyll not only wryte vnto you that which the good king did ordeyn in Toro but also the rude and grosse spéeche wherewith that ordinaunce was written whereof maye be gathered howe there hath bene changed in Spayn not onely the maner of selling but the maner of speaking That which hath passed in this case is that the king Sir Iohn the first kept Court in the Citie of Toro in the yeare M. CCCC and .vi. in which he did ordein very particularly not only how victuals shoulde be solde but also for what prices the labourer should worke The title of that ordinance sayth these wordes which followeth in so olde a kinde of spéeche that the Spanyards themselues craue an interpreter and is much to be maruelled at but moste of all for the prices of thinges is almoste incredible Whiche I leaue vnwritten partly to be considered by these words that follow wherwith the Author concludeth his Letter as followeth Thys Letter beeing read I beleeue your Lordshippe will maruell of the good cheape that was in those dayes and of the dearth that is nowe of victuals And I beleeue that you will laugh at the rusticall spéeche that was then and of the polyshed spéeche that nowe is vsed although it be true that the vantage that we haue nowe in the spéeche they had then of vs in their liuing A Letter vnto sir Alonso of Fonseca bishop of Burgos president of the Indians wherin is declared wherfore the kings of Spayne be intituled Catholike RIght magnificent and Indian Proconsull about twenty dayes past they gaue me a letter from your honour and aboue fifteene dayes since I did write an answere of the same the which no man to this day hath come to aske neither do I know by whome to send it Your lordship doth write that I should aduertise your honor what it is that they say here of your Lordship to speake with libertie and to say you the truth they say al in this Court that you are a very good christian and a very vntractable Bishop also they say that you are long prolix negligent and indetermined in the affaires that you haue in hand and with the futers that follow you which is worste of all that many of them doe returne to their houses spente and not dispatched they saye that your Lordship is fierce proude impacient and suspicious and that many doe leaue their businesse vndetermined to see themselues by your Lordship so ouershadowed Others say that you are a man that deales in troth you speak truth and that you are a friende of truth and that a man giuen to lying was neuer séene to be your friend also they say that you are right in that you commaund iust in your iudgements and moderate in your executions and that whiche is more than all that in matters of iustice and in the determination therof you haue neither passion or affection they say that you are of muche compassion pitifull and an almes giuer and that whiche can not be spoken but to your greate praise to many poore and in necessitie from whom you take goods by Iustice on the other parte you giue it them oute of your chamber Your Lordeship hathe not to maruell of that which I say neither doe I mislike of that which you doe bycause out of the one and the other there may be gathered that no man in this worlde is so perfect but there is in him to bée amended eyther any man so euill that hath not in him to be praysed The historie writers do note Homere of vain spéech Alexander for furious Iulius Caesar for ambicious Pompeius for proude Demetrius for vicious Haniball for periured Vespasian for couetous Traiane for a wine bibber and Marcus Aurelius for amorous Amongst men so illustre glorious and heroicall as all these were it is not much that your Lordship do pay for a pounde of waxe to be of their fraternitie And this pounde is not bicause you are an euill Christian but for that you were of weake pacience There is no vertue more necessarie in him that gouerneth a common wealthe than is patience for the Iudge that is measured in that he speaketh and dissembleth the iniuries that they doe vnto him he maye descende but not fall The Prelates and Presidentes that haue charge to gouerne people and determyne causes muche more than other menne ought to lyue circumspectly and be of more suffering for if we of you be iudged beléeue me that of vs also you are beholden vewed and considered There is nothing in this worlde more sure than he whiche is feared of many ought also to feare many for if I will be a Iudge of your goodes for the same you will be a vewer of my life and thereof it commeth to passe that manye times the Iudge is more damnified in his fame than the surer in his goodes My Lorde all this is to be vnderstoode of Iudges that bée proude of euill complexion and melancholike Suche as bée milde gentle and suffring they do not examine the liues they leade but also they dissemble the weakenes they commit He that hathe charge of the common wealth it is necessary that he haue a milde condicion in such wise that when he shall sée weakenes that he make strong and where he séeth courage that he praise it and where he séeth want of foresight that hée prouide and where he séeth dissolution that he chastise and where he séeth necessitie to succour and where he séeth sedition to appease it and where he séeth conformitie to conserue it and where he séeth suspicion to cleare it and where he séeth heauinesse to remedie it and where he séeth gladnes to temper it for after extreme pleasure and gladnesse many times do follow no small distresses If in your vertuous attempts ye take in hand there shall happen some successe not conformable to youre good desires and if it shall also chaunce that you be grieued therewith impute not all the fault vpon your selfe for the man that doth all that he can do we cannot say to him that he doth not that he ought to do since in bloud I hold you for kinsman in conuersation for friend in authoritie for my good Lord and in deseruing for father I shall not leaue to pray you as a father and beséeche you as my good Lord that you be mild in conuersation and measured in your words bycause of Iudges Lordes as you are at sometimes they do more féele a word than of another the push of a laūce But since in all this kingdome it is notorious that youre Lordship is honest of your
they shoulde bée caried to the Church of Oiendo to be kept and gaue great rewards vnto such as had hid them This good King Alonso was the firsts that commaunded that all the greate writers and singers should resort to Leon to the end they should write great singing bookes and litle breuiaries to pray on the which he gaue and deuided amongst all the Monasteries and Churches that he had founded for the cursed Moores had not left a Church in Spaine that they did not ouerthrow either booke that they did not burne This good king Alonso was the first that did begin to make all the Bishops houses ioyning to the Cathedrall Churches bycause the heate in the Sōmer either the colde in Winter should not let them to be resident in the Quier and to sée how they worshipped God. This good king Alonso the first died in the age of .lxiiij. yeres in the Citie of Leon in the yeare of our Lord. 793. And hys death of the Castilians and Nauarrois was as much bewayled as of all men his life was desired How acceptable his life was vnto God it appeared most cleare in that the Lord shewed by him at his death whiche is to wit that at the point of his last breath they heard ouer his chamber Angelike voices sing and say Beholde how the iust dieth and no man maketh account thereof his dayes be ended and his soule shall bée in rest The lamentation was so great that was made through out Spaine for the deathe of this good King Alonso that from thence forward euery time that any named his name if hée were a man he put off his cap and if a woman she made a reuerence Not thrée months after the death of the good King Alonso all the mightie of the Kingdome ioyned in parliament wherein they did ordeyne and commaund by a publique Edict that from thence forward and for euermore none should presume to say coldly or driely the king Alonso but for his excellencie they should cal him the king Alonso the Catholique for that he had bin a prince so glorious and of the diuine seruice so zelouse This good king was sonne in law of sir Pelaius he was the third King of Castile after the destruction thereof he was the first king of this name Alonso he was the firste that founded Churches in Spaine he was the first King at whose death such Angelike voyces were heard he was the first king that was intituled Catholike by whose deseruings and vertues all the kings of Spaine his successors be called to thys day Catholike Kings My Lorde it séemeth to me that since the kings of Spaine presume to inherit the name they should also presume to follow his life which is to wit to make warre vpon the Moores and to be fathers and defendours of the Church And for that in the beginning of this letter I did vse the spéech of a friend and in this I haue accomplished what you craued as a seruāt I say no more but that our Lord be your protector and gyue vs all his grace From Segouia the xij of May. 1523. A letter vnto Mosen Rubin of Valentia beeing enamoured wherein is touched the displeasures that the amorous dames giue vnto their louers MAgnificent and old enamored being in Madrid the fourth of August where I receyued a letter of youres and for that it was torne and the firme somewhat blotted I sweare vnto you by the law of an honest mā I could not find meanes to read it or imagine or cal to remembrance who should write it For notwithstanding we were acquainted when I was Inquisitor in Valencia it is almost a thousand yeares since we saw eche other after I awakened and called my selfe to remembrance and did read and read againe your letter I fell in the reckoning that it was of Mosen Rubin my neighbour I say Mosen Rubin the enamored I remēber that sometimes we were wont to play at the chesse in my lodging and cannot aduise me that you gaue me the dame but I do certainly remember that you did not suffer me to sée your enamored I remember that at the rock of Espadon at the encounter we had with the Moores I escaped wounded and you with a broken head where wée could neyther finde Chirurgion to cure vs or as muche as a clout to bind vs I remember that in reward for that I caused your bill to be firmed by the Quéene you sent me a Mule which I did gratifie and not receyue I remember that when we went to accompany the French King to Requena whē we came to the seuen waters I complayned for want of meate and you for lacke of lodging and in the ende I receyued you into my lodging and you went foorth to prouide victualles I remember when Caesar commaunded me to repaire vnto Toledo you gaue me a letter to be deliuered vnto the Secretarie Vrias vppon a certaine businesse of yours to whome I dyd not only speake but also obtained your sute I remember that chiding with a Chaplayne of youre wiues in my presence when he said vnto you that it were not conuenient you shuld deale fowly with him for that he had charge of soules was a Curat you made answer that he was not a Curat of soules but of fooles I remember that I counselled you and also perswaded you being in Xatina that you shoulde giue to the Diuell the loue that you wot of and I also doe knowe bycause they were tedious perillous and costly I remember that after in Algezira you reported wéeping and sighing that you had no power to chase them from your minde either roote them from your hart and ther I returned to say and sweare that it was no loue eyther pleasant to your persone or too your estate conuenient I remember that after we mette at Torres where I demaunded to what conclusion you had framed your loue you answered in a thousand sorrowes and trauelles for that you had escaped from thence wounded abhorred beflouted infamed and also be pilled Of many other things I remember I haue both séene and hard you speake and do in that time that we were neighbours and couersant in Valentia whereof although we may talke they are not too be written In this present letter you aduertise me that now you are enamored and taken with other new loues and that since I sayd the troth in the first you pray me to write my opinion in the second holding it for certaine that my skil serueth to let bloud in the right vayne and also to bind vp the wound Sir Mosen Rubin I woulde you had written or demaunded some other matter for speaking the very troth in this matter of loue you are not in the age to follow it eyther may it be contained with my ingrauitie to write it of my habit of my profession and of my authoritie and grauitie you shoulde haue demaunded cases of counsell and not remedies of loue
a wype To the Father Prior of Corta caeli I sende a riche palia for my sake I pray you to cōmaunde that it bée giuen him in my behalf to visit him bicause I lodged long time with him am much bound affectioned vnto him No more but that our Lord be your protector and kéepe you from an euill lemman and heale you of your goute From Madrid the thirde of Marche .1527 A letter vnto the Bishop of Zamora Sir Anthony of Acuna wherein he is sharply reprehended for that he was captain of the commons that rebelled in Spaine REuerent and seditious Prelate Zalobrena the sergeant of your bande gaue mée a Letter of yours whiche presently I coulde not vnderstand but after I had read returned againe to reade the same I did sée it was no letter but a bill that the Bishop of Zamora had sente wherein he dyd desie and threaten that he woulde kill me or commaunde mée to be chastized The cause of this defiaunce your Lordshippe declareth to procéede for that in Villa Braxima I withdrew Sir Peter Giron from your parcialitie and counselled hym to cease to followe you and retire to serue the king I my Lorde doe accept your defiance and hold my selfe defyed not that wée kill our selues but that we examin our selues not to the ende wée goe vnto the fielde but to incommende our selues to reason Which reason as a viewer of our factes shall declare whether of vs is moste culpable I in followyng and obeying the Kyng or you in altering and reuolting the kingdome I remēber me being as thē but yong in Trecenon a manour house of Gueuara I did sée my vncle Sir Ladron sir Beltram my father mourne in black for your father in verie trouth my lord Bishop seeing you as I did sée you in Villa Braxima compassed with artillery accōpanied with souldiours and armed at al points with more reason we might weare gréen bicause you liue than black for that your father died The diuine Plato of two thinges did not discerne which first to bewayle that is to wit the death of good men or the life of the wicked for it is a most great grief vnto the heart to sée the good so soon to die and the wicked so long time to liue A certain Greeke béeing demanded for what cause he shewed so great sorow in the death of Agesilaus He answered I wéepe not bicause Agesilaus died but for that Alcibiades remaineth liuing whose life offendeth the Goddes and escandalizeth the world A certain Gentleman of Medina who is named Iohn Cnaso reported that being appointed to haue the ouersight of your bringing vp he was driuen to change foure Nursses in six moneths for that in nursing you were fierce wayware and importune in suckyng It séemeth vnto mée my Lorde Bishop that since in your childhoode you were so paynfull and in your lyfe so sedicious it were great reason that in your olde yeares as you shoulde be quiet if not for your deseruing yet to repose you shoulde seeke quietnesse holding as you haue in youre possession thrée score yeare completed ▪ and shortely maye boaste youre selfe of thrée score and tenne accomplyshed it seemeth to mée no euyll counsayle that you offer if it lyke you the flower to God for that you bestowed so muche branne in the worlde Since your gardein is blasted your vinedage ended youre floure fallen your primetyme finished your youthe passed you olde age come it were muche more conueniente to take order for amendment of olde sinnes reformation of youre life than to execute the office of Captaine ouer rebelling cōmoners If you will not followe Christe that made you yet folow sir Lewes of Acuna that begat you at whose gates many poore euery day did féede and at your gates we sée not but playing and blaspheming souldiours To make of souldiours priests it passeth but of priests to make souldiors is an acte moste scandalous whervnto I wil not say your Lordship consented but that you exactely haue perfourmed You broughte from Zamora to Tordissillas thrée hundreth Massing Priestes not to instructe the Kinges subiectes but to defend that Town against the King and to remoue your Lordship from euill toungs as also for the better saluation of their soules you brought them from Zamora in the beginning of Lent in such wise that like a good pastor an excellent Prelate you remoued thē from praying to fighting in the assault which the Gentlemē gaue at Tordessillas against your bande I saw with mine eyes one of your priests with an harquebuse ouerthrow eleuen men behinde a window the grace was that when he did leuell to shoote he blessed him selfe with his péece and killed them with the pellot I sawe also before the assaulte was ended the Souldiours of oure side that were without giue that good Prelate such a blow in the forehead with an arrow that the death of that caytise was so suddain as he had neither time to confesse his sinnes nor yet so muche as to blesse himselfe But nowe the soule of that Bishop that remoued that priest from his churche the soule of that priest that slew so many men what excuse can they haue before men and what accounte maye they make to God It were a sinne to take you from the warres but much greater to make you of the church since you be so offensiue in nothing scrupulous hereof we be most certain for that you make no account to fight to kill and also to be irregular I woulde gladly knowe in whether booke you haue read most which is to wit in Vegetius whiche entreateth of matters of warres or in S. Austine his booke of Christian doctrine and that whiche I durste auouche is I haue séene you many tymes handle a partisan but neuer anye booke and it séemeth vnto mée not a little gréeuous that to the souldioures that assaulted and fel at the taking of the fort of Impudia they say that you sayde So my sonnes vp fight and die beholde my soule for yours since you dye in so iust an enterprise and a demaunde so holye My Lorde Bishop you well knowe that the Souldiors that there were slayne were excommunicate for sacriledge traytours to the King robbers of churches théeues on high ways enemies of the common wealth and maintainers of ciuill warre It is most euident that the soule of that Bishop that speaketh suche blasphemie is not much scrupulous that desireth to die as a souldiour neither doe I maruell that he desireth to die like a desperate Souldiour that neuer made account of his estate as a Bishoppe If you had raysed this warre to reforme the common wealth or to haue made frée your countrey from some oppression and taxation it might séeme you had occasion although in déed no reason but your Lordship hath not risen against the king for the weale of the kingdom but to make exchange for a better Bishoprike
sayd of him that he neuer made error in that he prognosticated either in any disease he tooke in cure Ipochras dyd giue counsel to Phisitions that they should neuer take in hād to cure anye disordered patient and did counsell the sicke to shunne the vnfortunate Phisition for sayth he he that cureth may not erre where the patient is of good gouernment and the Phisition fortunate The Philosopher Ipochras being dead for that his disciples began to cure or to say more truly to kill many sicke people of Grecia for that the science was very new and the experiēce muche lesse it was commaunded by the Senate of Athenes not only that they shoulde not cure but also depart out of all Grecia After that the disciples of Ipochras were thrust out of Grecia the art of Phisicke was banished and forgotten an hūdred and thréescore yeres so as none durst to learn and much lesse to teache the same for the Gréekes had their Ipochras in suche estimation that they affirmed that Phisicke was borne and buried with him Those hundred and thréescore yéeres being past another Philosopher and phisition was borne named Chrisippus in the kingdome of the Sicionians whiche was as renoumed amongst the Argiues as Ipochras amonst the Athenians This Philosopher Chrisippus although he were very well learned in Phisicke and very fortunate in the experience thereof of the other part he was much opinionatiue and of presuming iudgement for all the time of his life lecture and in all his bookes that he did write his purpose was none other but to impugne Ipochras in all that he had said and only to proue most true that which he affirmed in suche wise that he was the first Phisition that pulled medicine out of reason and put it in opinion The Philosopher Chrisippus being dead there was great alteration amongst the Gréekes whiche of the two doctrines they should follow whiche is to wit that of Ipochras or of Chrisippus and in the end it was determined that neither the one should be followed or the other admitted for they sayd that neyther life nor honor ought to be put in disputation After this the Gréekes remayned an other hundred yeres without Phisition vntill the time of one Aristrato a philosopher which did rise amōgst them He was cosin to the great philosopher Aristotle and was residēt in the kingdome of Macedonia where he of new did exalt the art of Phisicke not for that he was more learned than his predecessours but for that he was more fortunate than all the rest This Aristrato recouered fame by curing king Antiochus the firste of a certayne disease of the lights in reward whereof the yong prince his son that was named Ptholemus did giue a thousande Talents of siluer and a cup of golde in such wise that he wan honor thoroughout all Asia and ritches for his house This Philosopher Aristrato was he that most defamed the art of Phisicke bycause he was the first that set Phisicke asale and begā to cure for money for vntill this time all phisitions did cure some for friendship and some for charitie The Phisition Aristratus being dead ther succéeded him certaine his disciples more couetous than wise which for that they gaue thēselues to be more handsome men of their money than to cure diseases they were commaunded by the Senat of Athens that they should not presume to teach phisicke much lesse to cure any person Of other trauels that Phisick did passe ANother hundred yeres in Asia was phisick forgotten till the time that Euperices was raysed in the kingdome of Tinacria but for that he and another Phisition did vary vpon the curing of King Crisippus the which at that time raigned in that Ile it was determined by those of the kingdome that they should only cure with simple medicines and not presume to mixe or make compositiōs Long time the kingdome of Sicill continued and also the greater part of Asia without the knowledge of the art of medicine vntill the time that in the I le of Rhodes there remayned a certain notable phisition and philosopher named Herosilo a man that was in his time very learned in phisick and very skilfull in Astrology Many do say that this Herosilus was master to Ptolomeus and others say that he was not but his disciple but be it as be may he lefte many bookes written of Astrology and taught many scholers also This Herosilus held opinion that the pulse of the patient ought not to be taken in the arme but in the temples saying that there neuer wanted that which in the arme was sometime hidden This phisition Herosilus was of suche authoritie amongest the Rhodians that they held this opinion to take the poulse in the temples all the dayes of his life and also the liues of his scholers who with his scholers being all dead the opinion tooke an end although it were not forgotten Herosilus béeing deade the Rhodians would neuer more bée cured neither admit any other phisition in their countrie the one cause was not to offend the authority of their philosopher Herosilus and the other for that naturally they were enimies vnto straunge people and also no friendes of newe opinions This being past phisicke fell asléepe other .iiij. score yeres as wel in Asia as in Europa vntill the great philosopher phisition Asclepiades was raysed in the Ilande Mitiline A man sufficiently well learned and most excellent in curing This Asclepiades helde opinion that the pulse ought not to be sought in the arme as nowe they seeke but in the temples or in the nose This opinion was not so farre besides reason but that long time after him the phisitions of Rome and also of Asia did entertaine the same In all these times it was not read that any phisition was borne in Rome or came into Italy for the Romanes were the last of this world that did entertaine Clockes Iesters Barbars Phisitions Foure hundred iij. yeares and ten months the great city of Rome did passe without the entertayning of any Phisition or Chirurgian The first that hath ben read to haue entred Rome was one that was named Antony Musa a Greeke borne and in science a Phisition The cause of his comming thither was the disease of Sciatica that the Emperor Augustus had in his thigh the which when Antony Musa had cured and therof wholy deliuered him in remuneration of so great a benefite the Romanes did erect vnto him a picture of Porphiry in the fielde of Mars and farther and besides this did giue him priuiledge of citizen of Rome Antony Musa had gathered excéeding great riches also obtained the renoume of a great Philosopher if with the same he could haue bene contented and not to haue excéeded his Art of phisick but this was the chance of his sorrowfull fate Giuing him selfe to cure by Chirurgery as also by medicine it is some time necessary in that Art to cut of féete or fingers and
credite vnto his friends neighbours and also to his seruants the whiche if they aduertise him of any euill of his wife it is not so much for the zeale of his honour as it is for the malice they beare vnto hir Also it is hurtfull vnto the husband to bée conuersant with euill mē by the infamie that may procéede of their conuersation for there be some men so euill and of so farre a fetch that they procure friendshippe with the husbād to no other purpose than to haue an entrie more sure to deale with his wife It may be well suffred that the neighbour the friend the kinsman and the acquainted with the husband may haue friendship with the wife but no familiaritie bycause friendship requireth no more but communication but familiaritie leadeth to conuersation I am not of the opinion that a man should haue such confidence in any man that certaynly he durst say vpon my vow I assure thée that I entred suche a mans house and with hys wife did eate laugh and play talke and passe the tyme bycause she is muche my good Mistresse friende and deuoute I defye that friende that hathe no other pastime but with hys friendes wife That which is tollerable to be said in such cases is that such a man is my friend and his wife of some acquaintance bycause it is an olde prouerb That the wife and the sword may be shewed but not lent If vnto the husbande there happen any infamy for bringing his friend to house to bring him acquainted with his wife let him complaine of him selfe that was the cause and not of his wife that stumbled Plutarch sayth that it was a law amongst the Parthians that the wiues might not hold other particular acquaintance but the friendes of their husbandes in such wise that amongst those barbarous people the goods they helde was not onely common but also the friendes that they loued I should think it good that the wife should loue the friendes of hir husband and that the husband should loue the kindred of his wife bycause if he will obtaine peace in his house he ought to be serued of his wife of hir kinred honoured The husband ought not to be so wilfull or carelesse that when the kinred of his wife shall come to house that he leaue to talke with them to entertaine them with some cheare bycause it should be vnto hir no small disgrace and vnto him great want of good nature Sometime also the wiues do conceiue affections and take in hand friendships to be excused although not suspicious for the sustayning wherof they come to some quarelles with their husbands and also sometime vnto extréem vnkindnesse the whiche I alowe not neither muche lesse do I counsell bycause the honest or honorable and aduised woman hath to hold no frendship so deare that it may be sufficient to bréede vnkindnesse with hir husband In any honest woman it is not tollerable to say this is my friend but to say this is of my acquaintance bycause the maried woman ought to haue none for enemie and onely hir husbande to hold for friend Also it séemeth not well vnto me that some women be to much affectioned passioned and bending the which sometimes for defence of their friends and to stand forth to helpe their parties do mete their haire by the fistes and also take vp dust with their shoulders That women ought to gather and to sow ALso it is a right necessary counsell that maried women do learne and also know very well to gouerne their houses which is to wéete to gather to sowe to worke to swéepe to play the Cooke and to sow with the néedle bycause they be thinges so necessary that with out them they them selues can not liue and much lesse content their husbandes Suetonius doeth say that Augustus the Emperour commaunded the Ladyes his children to learne all the offices qualities wherewith a woman might liue be maintained and whereof she ought to boast hir selfe in such wise that al which they did weare they did spin and weaue For the greatnes of any gentlewomās estate or noblenes of bloud or estimation of great welth so well doth a rocke become hir girdle as a knight his launce or a priest his booke When the Romanes vpon a certaine wager did send from the wars to Rome to vnderstande what euery mans wife did at home amongst them all the most famous and most praysed was the chast Lucrece for no other cause but for that she onely was found weauing and al the rest idle If they say vnto one that amongst the nobles it is a matter of no account to vnderstande in these simplicities to this I aunswere that the honest woman hath not to be ashamed to spinne and to lay vp but to eate rest and talke bycause the honour of a gentlewoman doth not consist to be set at hir ease but to be in businesse If women would take pain in their houses we should not sée in the stréets so many cast away bycause in this worlde there is not so mortal an enemie vnto Chastitie as is idlenesse A womā that is young in helth at libertie fair lusty and taketh hir ease what is it that she thinketh leaning vpon a cusshin That which she performeth is to set hir down at leysure to deuise what forme she may vse for liberty to lose hir selfe in such wise that she deceyueth all men saying that she is good and on the other part she enioyeth hir lyfe at pleasure What a delight is it to sée a woman rise earlye in the morning to stirre about hir kerchiefe not all drest hir coate tuckt vp hir armes bare without slippers chyding with the maydens calling vp seruantes and dressing hir children What a pleasure is it to sée hir make hir owne partlet to wash hir clothes to ayre hir Wheate to syfte hir Meale to gather hir things together to bake hir bread to swéepe the house to make the fyre and to set on the pot and after meate to take hir cusshin for boane lace or hir rock to spinne there is no husband in this worlde that is so foolish or vnsensible that wil not like his wife much better on the saterday when she worketh than on the Sonday when she fristeth I like not well of those women that knowe no other thing but to goe to bedde at one rise at eleuen goe to dinner at twelue and talke till night and more and besides this they know nothing but to trimme their chamber where they shall lye and to dresse a withdrawing place wher to worke in in such wise that such be not borne but to eate sléepe rest and talke Leauing apart the chamber wherein they sléepe and the place where they worke if you make a turne about the rest of the house you will be ashamed to sée it lothed to walke in it where all things lieth disordred and worse swept in suche
of Asia the Heresie of Ebionites whereof Sainct Iohn in the Apocalips maketh reporte notwithstanding that Theodosius and Simachus had bene faithfull in their translations and of troth and veritable in their words our Church would at no tyme receyue their scriptures hauing no confidence in the credence of their persons Fourtéene yeares after the death of Simachus whiche was the fifth yeare of the Empire of Heliogabalus it came too passe that a certayne Patriarcke of Ierusalem béeyng named Ioannes Budeus founde in a caue at Iericho faythfully written and catholikely translated out of Greke into Latine all the olde and new Testament This is the translation the whiche at this present the Latine Church doth vse this is that which we call Quinta editio and of others is named the Translation Hiericontini which is to saye that which was founde in Hiericho the auctor whereof was neuer knowen In the eyght yeare of Alexāder Seuerus the sonne of Mamea which was about ten yeares after the translation Hiericontine was found a Doctor of ours named Origene did correct the trāslation of the .70 Interpreters which is to vnderstand in adding where they had bin briefe declaring the darke mysteries placing a little starre as a marke wher he had made declaration of any matter and where he did remoue or take away he added the marke of a little arrowe All these sixe translations aboue mentioned whiche is to say of the .70 Interpreters of Aquile of Simachus of Theodosius of Iericho that of Origene our auncients did vse for custome of them all to make one booke writing in euery leafe by six diuisions and this booke was named Hexapla ab ex quod est ex Latinè quasi sex traductiones in se continens Foure hundreth yeares after this a certaine Doctor of ours named S. Ierome most certainly a man very holy and in his tyme and of his temple most learned and greatest vnderstanding in the sacred Scriptures and humaine letters and no lesse expert in the Gréeke Hebrewe and Caldée tongue This man did in like maner correct the translation of the .70 Interpreters made also another by it selfe out of Greke into Latine as well of the olde as of the new Testament The greatest part wherof is now in vse in our Catholike Church and is the same that we most estéeme In like maner I will that you vnderstande that in the 314. yere after the natiuitie of our sauiour Iesus Christ there was raysed among you a certayne Iewe of Idumaea named Maier a man very subtyle and in the arte of Nygromancie no lesse skilfull which obtayned suche credite and reputation among you that he made you fully beléeue that God had gyuen twoo lawes vnto Moyses in the mount of Sinay the one in writing and the other in worde and sayde that God had done the same knowing that in time the wrytten lawe shoulde bée loste and that lawe shoulde raygne whiche was gyuen by woorde This cursed Iew Maier further sayde that God had reuealed this lawe vnto Moyses only and alone and Moyses did reueale the same to Iosue and Iosue to his successors and so from hand to hande it was reuealed vnto him and that vnto him onely God had commaunded to put the same in writing and to manifest the same to his Iewish people Insomuch that the lawe of Moyses beganne to bée abolished and the people and their lawe to be loste This lawe whiche your Iewe Maier had inuented in the Hebrwe speache was named Misna which is to saye the Secrete lawe This sayde lawe was glosed afterwards by many of your doctors namely by Rabby Manoa Rabby Andasy Rabby Butaora and Rabby Samuel the whiche in like manner with him did write many wretched and cursed things and no small lyes in preiudice of the lawe that Iesus Christe had preached vnto you and the lawe which Moyses had giuen you This lawe is the same whiche your Rabbyes haue otherwise named the booke of the Talmud wherein your doctors do say that when God vpon the Mount of Sinay did gyue the law vnto Moyses that then were present the soules of Dauid of Esay of Ieremie of Ezechiel and of Daniel and of all the other Prophetes And likewise they saye that there was present all the soules of theyr Rabbyes of the Synagogue whiche shoulde declare bothe the lawes of Moyses and also sayde that shortly after God would anew create their bodies to infuse these soules But it is right well knowen vnto you that according to the Prophesies and the lawes of Moyses the true Messias whiche was Iesus Christe was then come and that all your Iewish Common wealth is nowe finished for whiche cause ye haue preferred this lawe named Misna and his glose named Talmud by the meane of which law and glosse ye bold abused all the common people and yeelde destruction to your Iewishe estate Concluding I say that very well to good right and direct purpose I haue alleadged agaynste you that texte of Dauid whiche sayeth Scrutati sunt iniquitates And the other of Esay whiche sayeth Parum est mihi vt suscites feces In so muche as you haue falsified the Scriptures inuēted other new lawes Wherefore in respect thereof I haue done you neyther wrong nor iniurie considering also that at this present yee do more defende the lawe of Maier than the lawe of Moyses And for that I haue dilated this discourse more than I thought to haue done the reste shall remayne to bée verified in some other disputation An excellent disputation which the Auctor held against the Iewes of Naples wherein is declared the hyghe mysteries of of the Trinitie HOnorable Rabbyes and stiffenecked Iewes in the laste disputation holden betwixte vs on saterday last ye would haue pluckt out myne eyes and also haue beaten mée bycause I alledged thē these words of Iesus Christ which say Ego principium qui loquor vobis Answering ye sayde that neyther Iesus Christ vnderstoode what he sayde eyther I muche lesse what I defended scornfully mocking ye affrmed that I was but simple the whiche in déede may be very true But to note my Lord Iesus Christ of falsehoode most certaynly of your parte it procéedeth of your to too greate wretchednesse and moste excéeding and extreme wickednesse béeyng vtterly repugnant vnto his bountie to deceyue and to his diuinitie to lye Were it in you or had ye the grace to beléeue as I and all others do and ought to beléeue that his humanitie word is vnited ye would in like maner beléeue confesse that it were impossible that the blissed Iesus might erre in that which he commaunded eyther exercise his life as sinner eyther his speache as lyer But forasmuche as ye remayne obstinate in your lawes of Moyses ye deserue not to vnderstande so high mysteries The law of Moyses I do not deny but your Cabal I can in no wise credit but vtterly defie firmly beleue the