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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79588	A discourse touching the Spanish monarchy. Wherein vve have a political glasse, representing each particular country, province, kingdome, and empire of the world, with wayes of government by which they may be kept in obedience. As also, the causes of the rise and fall of each kingdom and empire. VVritten by Tho. Campanella. Newly translated into English, according to the third edition of this book in Latine.; De monarchia Hispanica discursus. English	Campanella, Tommaso, 1568-1639.; Chilmead, Edmund, 1610-1654.	1653 (1653)	Wing C401; Thomason E722_1; ESTC R207219	193,362	240

A DISCOURSE TOUCHING The Spanish Monarchy WHEREIN VVe have a Political Glasse representing each particular Country Province Kingdome and Empire of the World with wayes of Government by which they may be kept in Obedience AS ALSO The Causes of the Rise and Fall of each Kingdom and Empire VVritten by Tho. Campanella Newly translated into English according to the Third Edition of this Book in Latine LONDON Printed for Philemon Stephens and are to be sold at his Shop at the Gilded Lion in Paul's Church-Yard 1654. The Translator to the Reader Courteous Reader SEeing that we are fallen into an Age of Translations that swarm more now then ever partly by reason that there are so many that as things now stand have hardly any other Trade of life to take to and partly also through the Natural Itch that most men have to appear to the world some way or other especially since they find so good reception from such Readers as either cannot or will not take the pains to peruse Authors in their Originals I have also adventured to present thee here with a Translation which if thou understand it thou wilt thank me for if thou dost not thy censure concerns me not But first before I put thee upon the reading of the Book it self I shall by the way take liberty to give thee some little but necessary Information touching these three following Particulars viz. 1. The Author of this Piece 2. The Use that may be made of it and 3. Of this present Translation of it into English First as for the Author He was a man that was as famous for his Sufferings as for his Learning for notwithstanding that he was a Roman Catholick nay a Frier and withal so eager and hearty an Asserter and Maintainer of the Roman Catholick Sea and Its Interests yet for all this do we find him in the Inquisition and so terribly tormented there as that the Learned J. Gaffarel a Frenchman being at Rome where our Author was then in Duresse and having a desire to see him he went with some friends to the Place where he was where he found him as he expresseth himself in his Curiositez Inouyes cap. 7. ayant le gras des jambes toutes meurtries les fesses presque sans chair la luy ayant arrachée par morceaux asin de tirer de luy la confession des crimes dont on l'accusoit with the Calves of his Legs beaten black and blue all over and with scarsely any flesh at all upon his buttocks it having been torn from him peice-meal to force him to the confession of such crimes as they had accused him of Niether were these his sufferings of any short Continuance as appears out of his own words as in other places so in this Book of his now in our hands where we have him intimating unto us as I conceive these his sufferings and calling them Decennalem Afflictionem his Ten years Affliction in his Preface to this Book and in the last Chapter of it Decennalem miseriam his Ten years misery But of the reason of these his sufferings I am not at present able to give thee any very good Account only the afore cited J. Gaffarel there tells us that there was at that time an Expectation abroad of A ful Relation of his whole life for saith he Mais un seavant Altman faira voir en peu de temps l' histoire de ses malheurs de sa vie A certain Learned German will ere long give us the historie of his Misfortunes and of his Life Now whether any such Discourse of Campanella's Life ever came forth or not I know not I confesse it never came to my hand So much for the Authors Sufferings And as for his Learning whosoever would understand how large and General that was must not stay upon this our present Treatise but may have recourse to other Tracts of his that are written of Several Subjects both in Divinity Philosophy Politicks Astrology and what not which the shops will every where furnish him with As for this present Discourse touching the Spanish Monarchy I confesse I cannot yet discover in what Language it was first written by the Author but I find that the Latine which is now Lately come abroad and goes under the name of the Last Edition and is set forth by Lodwick Elzivir at Amsterdam is the Third Edition of it and pretends to the mending of what was amisse and corrupt in the two former Editions And seeing that we have now in a manner found a kind of an Accomplishment of some Counsels of his that were given long ago as namely touching a war with the Dutch it would not be amisse to examine about what time this Book was written Now though the very time of the writing of it is now here precisely set down yet there are some Circumstances let fall here and there in the Book that may serve to guide our Conjecture by And I therefore conceive it to have been written about 53 or 54 years since For it is plain that it was written in Queen Elizabeths time and after 88. and indeed when the Queen was now grown very Old and that King James was in daily expectation of the English Crown falling to Him But this does not do the businesse we can bring it yet nearer home then so for in his Chap. XXIV of France speaking of Henry IV. King of France he sayes that Jam in declivi aetate est nec successorem nec nxorem habet He now begins to be an old man and hath neither successor nor Wife Now the time here pointed out I conceive to be the year of our Lord 1599. or the following year 1600. for in the first of these years King Henry was divorced from Margaret his former Wife and he married the year following Catharine de Medicis by whom he afterwards had issue Lewis the XIII c. In one of these years therefore I suppose the Author to have written this book 2. For the Use of it we have here laid down both in a Methodical and copious way a perfect Model both of the Original and Principles of Government For here weare instructed both how Princes ought to treat their Subjects at home and also how to manage their Affaires abroad towards other Forreign Kingdomes and Republicks We have here as it were a Political Glasse wherein we have presented unto us a view of each particular Country Province Kingdom and Empire through the whole World as also by what waies of Government whether by strict Justice or Lenity a strait or a loose Rain they are to be governed and kept in obedience as likewise the Causes of the Rise and Fall of each severall Kingdom and Empire together with the Dangers and Hazards they were exposed to and the Advantages they had to boast of and all this Illustrated and confirmed by several examples taken both out of Profane and Sacred Writers Now although this be designed wholly and modelled

at the will of the Court Favourites nothing ever goes well there And it is so much the worse because that now adaies the Greater Officers sell the Lesser Offices to such Creatures of theirs as shall play the Theeves ever after for them and themselves And thus in Small Countries Common Justice is not observed for these men while they pretend to enlarge the Kings Jurisdiction they render him odious to his people and in the mean time fleece the poor miserable Subjects Therefore let every Officer provide himself to render an Account of his Administration to the People who are to give in Information to the King every ten yeares where they have been honestly dealt with and where not All False Witnesses also of whom the World is so full must likewise be severely punished and there must be care taken also that the Atturnies of the Exchequer may not force men by threatning words and sometimes by blowes too to be Witnesses for them But the best Course would be that the Law of Retaliation should be in force that the Complaint that makes not good his Accusation should suffer the same punishment that the other should have done if found guilty because that now adaies there are more Calumnies brought into Courts then Just Accusations And therefore any Lawyer that shall be found to have suborned any such Witnesse or any Judge that shall be proved to have taken any Bribe to pervert the Lawes should be debarred for ever after either from pleading at any Bar or giving sentence in any Court The King must also take care that Judges give sentence alwaies according to the Lawes and not according as Policy of State as they use to speak shall require and afterward either the King himself or his Viceroy or any other of the Kings Ministers may mitigate the Rigour of the Law as they shall see cause provided it be not in Case of High Treason that by this meanes they may gain the more upon the Peoples Affections And that untoward Custome is to be rooted out of the minds of Ordinary Judges which yet hath taken deeper root in the minds of the Superiour Judges also namely that although they know an accused person to be Innocent yet they will condemn him though it be in a matter of no Moment to the end that the fault may at last light upon Him after the businesse hath been a good while depending under the Judge that so as they use to say there may seem to have been Pregnant Reasons for the long depending of the Cause Whereas they should be so far from aggravating any fault as that they should rather lessen it as much as may be and so they should endeavour the rather to be really Just then to get an Opinion of being so to the great detriment of the People and also of the King himself who through the wickednesse of these Unjust Judges who are hated both by God and Himself is deprived of the Love and Affections of his People which is the main Prop of His Affaires and besides Good Men having lost their reputation desire to change their present state for a better as we see it usually comes to passe And no people have opportunity of offending more dangerously and closely then your Inferiour Officers have and besides these men the more in favour they are with the Prince the more grievously are they wont to aggravate mens crimes And therefore in this case there ought to be certain Commissaries at all times deputed and the same also to be maintained at the Charge of the said Ministers who shall yearly also lay down a certain summe of Mony to be kept in some Common place for the charges of the next Commissaries the following year that by these their Books of Accounts may be examined during the time of their being in Office or afterwards also if need be For by reason of the Corruption of these Inferiour Officers whole Provinces have many times heretofore fallen off from the Roman Empire especially when they have been found to be too ambitious and active in squeezing the Subjects either for the enriching of the Publick Treasury or else for the filling of their own private Coffers And for this reason it was that the Parthians having killed Crassus filled his mouth full of Melted Gold as a certain Spanish Grandee was also served by some Indians in the New World And certainly Covetousnesse and an open barefaced Desire of Gold was the reason that the Affaires of the Spaniards succeeded so ill in the New World into which at first they had so miraculous an Entrance and that the other Nations there perceiving that humour in them stood upon their guard as well as they could against the Spaniard whose Government notwithstanding before they had not refused The same manner of proceeding also in the Netherlands was the cause of the ruining of the Spanish Affaires there Let all Criminal Causes in times of Peace be protracted as much as may be For No delay about the death of any man can ever be too long but this must not be in times of War As for Civil Causes they ought all to be without any demurring or delay heard and determined CHAP. XIV Of the Barons and Nobility of the Spanish Monarchy THe King of Spain to the end that so vast a Monarchy may not fall to decay hath need of such men as are excellent both for Learning and the practise of Armes whom He ought to reward afterwards with Baronies that so being from thenceforth made sharers as it were of the said Monarchy they may to their utmost power endeavour to maintain and make good the same to their Prince Which Baronies notwithstanding when they once fall into the hands of Unworthy persons are the cause of much mischief And they do fall into such hands when they come to be bestowed either upon Buffoons or perhaps such Exchequer Men as have found out new waies of oppressing the Subject or else when they have been conferred at first upon Wise and Valiant men whose Successors for all that may have proved to be Mean Inconsiderable persons or are else riotous and proud and such as laying aside all thought of their Ancestors Virtue take the full enjoyment only of that they have left them and having no worth of their own can onely boast of the Nobility of their Ancestors And hence it is that the King is in want so much of Persons of Worth whilest the number of such Uselesse Drones encreaseth in the Kingdom The Great Turk that he may prevent the latter of these Mischiefs putting by all such as are bottom'd only upon Others Nobility takes notice of such onely as are Eminent for some worth of their own Neither doth he suffer any son to succeed in the Estate or Goods of his Father by Right of Inheritance but he is to receive the same at his hands as a reward of his Service if so be he deserve it But in case he do not he must

same Subject already very copiously and also because that the thing is of it self clear enough And therefore I fell upon another Design whereby I might Illustrate the Majesty of the Spanish Empire the conservation whereof is a businesse of much greater difficulty then the Acquisition For Humane Things do as it were Naturally encrease sometimes and sometimes again decrease after the example of the Moon to which they are all subject And therefore it is a most High and weighty undertaking if not such a one as is above the Power of Man to endeavour to Fixe them keep them in one Certain standing Condition that so they fall not from the pitch they had arrived at nor grow worse and fall to decay For in the Acquisition of any thing both Occasion Fortune and also the Enemies Errors and other the like Accidental things do very much assist which are yet all of them placed without a Man But to keep what is got requires both an Excellent Wit and singular Wisedom Valour is of use for the getting but Prudence and that not Ordinary neither for the Keeping what is Gotten For the raysing of Tumults and Sedition the Vilest Persons have power enough but Peace and Quietnesse have need of Art and skill to maintain them The Lacedemonians that they might shew that it was a businesse of greater moment to keep what was Ones Own then to possesse himself of what was another mans appointed punishments for those onely that had lost their shield in fight but not those that had lost their Sword and among the Germans of old it was reputed a most Heynous crime for a man to have left his shield behind him neither was it Lawful for any man in that Scandalous manner to be either present at their Sacrifices or to joyn with them in any of their Meetings The Romans also were wont to call Fabius Maximus the shield of their Commonwealth but Marcus Marcellus The Sword And it is certain enough that they made much more account of Fabius then they did of Marcellus Of this Opinion also was Aristotle who affirmes in his Politicks that the Office and Duty of a Lawgiver doth not so much consist in the constituting and Forming of Cities as in the endeavouring to preserve them when they are formed and to make them stand firm as long as possibly may be Neither need that to trouble us at all that the Propagators of Kingdoms have alwaies been more highly esteemed then the Conservators of the same for the reason of this is because that their Present Acts do more affect and take up the Eyes of men and do make a greater Noyse and shew and are fuller of Ostentation and Novelty which all People so dearly love And this is the reason why most people do more applaud and are delighted to hear of Expeditions and Conquests then they are taken with those other more Peaceful Arts of Preserving what Men had before gotten which Arts notwithstanding by how much the more Tranquillity and Quiet they work withal so much the greater both Judgment and Wit do they argue to be in him whosoever he be that knowes how to make use of them And as Constant Rivers are much more Noble then sudden Torrents that are caused only by the Accidental falling of some Violent Showres of Rain which yet are with more Admiration gazed upon then those more quietly-flowing Rivers Just so is it with the Common People that alwaies have him in greater Admiration and Account that Wins Countries then that preserves them when they are gotten And yet the truth is that it is a much harder Task as Florus hath also observed to preserve and make good a Province then to make one These things are indeed gotten by strength but they are kept by Good Lawes And therefore I shall conclude with that of the Poet Non minor est virtus quam quaerere parta tueri It shews as great a Skill To keep as Conquer still And now I conceive I have treated Copiously enough touching the Prudence and Occasion that the King of Spain ought to make use of both in General and Particular notwithstanding that having been detained ten years in misery and being also sick I could not have the opportunity of furnishing my self with such things as this businesse required nor could have the help of any Books for indeed I had not so much as a Bible by me when I wrote this Discourse so that I shall the more easily deserve the Readers Pardon in case that I shall have any where doatingly failed either by setting down some things in such places as were not proper for them or else by writing some things twice I have done what I was able to do though I could not do what I would willingly have done the fuller handling of all which things notwithstanding I shall reserve for some fitter Opportunity In the mean time I desire that Your Lordship would take the pains to peruse this Tumultuary sudden Piece which yet I hope I shall revise again against the next Easter and therein I shall take the more pains and care and shall take away and adde where I shall see cause This Age of ours hath also Its Solons Lycurgusses and Josephs which are sent by God himself but they are kept under and are not admitted to the Presence of Princes And that Common Saying namely that there are no Solons or Aristotles born now adaies is most false For indeed there are such born even in these our daies and such as are better then they too but they lye hid and concealed whiles that Gentiles are had in admiration but Christians are envied But I would have these things committed to Secret Ears for hereafter when they shall have been viewed over again and corrected they will be more esteemed of then the Sibylls Books were by the Roman King It is not in the power of Envy to hinder me from speaking thus much for when those things which I have here delivered shall but come to be examined and made trial of Spain shall know what It hath to do and shall perceive how great my desire is to assist it in what I may Pro captu Lectoris habent sua fata Libelli Books either fail or hit By th' Scale o' th' Readers Wit And thus I shall now take leave of Your Lordship whose Honours and Deserts I desire and earnestly pray that Almighty God would crown with a happy length of years and a full increase FINIS