by Machiavell which maintaineth his subjects in division and partialitie and which seekes to sley all them which love the commonweale and which desire a good reformation a good policie in the commonweale There are also other tokens and markes whereby to know a tyrant as them which wee have before alledged out of doctor Bartolus and them also which hystoriographers have marked to have been in Tarquin the proud For they say when he changed his just and royall domination Dioni Halic lib. 4. into a tyrannicall government he became a contemner and a despiser of al his subjects as well the meane people as the nobilitie and Patritians he brought a confusion and a corruption into justice he tooke a greater number of waiting servants into his guard than his predecessors had he tooke away the authoritie from the assembly of the Senate which it alwaies before had moreover hee dispatched criminall and civile causes after his fancie and not according to right hee cruelly punished such as complained of that change of estate as conspirators against him he caused many great and notable persons to die secretly without any forme of justice hee imposed tributes upon the people against the auncient forme and regalitie to the impoverishing and oppression of some more than of others hee had also spies to discover what was said of him and afterward punished rigorously such as had blamed either him or his government These be the colours wherewith the hystories do paint Tarquin when of a king he became a tyrant and these are ordinarily the colours and liverie of all tyrants banners whereby they may be knowne It seemeth that Tarquin forgot nothing of all that a tyrant could doe but that he slew not Brutus which was a fault in the art of tyrannie as learnedly Machiavell noteth it which fell to bee his ruin But the cause hereof was that Brutus in the court counterfeted the foole wherby Tarquin had no suspition of him For none but wise men and good people are suspect and greevous to tyrants but as for counterfeting fooles unthrifts flatterers bauds murderers inventors of imposts and such like dregs and vermine of the people they are best welcome into tyrants courts yet even amongst them are not tyrants alwaies without danger for amongst such fooles sometimes happeneth a Brutus who at last will plat out their ends so that ever their lives hangs by a small thred as Denis the tyrant sayth But the example of Hieronimus another tyrant of Sicilie is to this purpose well to be noted This Hieronimus was the sonne of a good and wise king called Hiero whom also they well called tyrant because he came not to that estate by a legitimate title although he exercised it sincerely and in good justice who when he died left this Hieronimus his sonne very young and under age For the government therefore of him and of his affaires he gave him fifteene tutors and amongst them Andronodorus and Zoilus his sonnes in law and one Thraso which he charged to maintaine the countrey of Sicilie in peace as he himselfe had done by the space of fiftie yeares of his raigne but especially that they should maintaine the treatie and confederation which he had all the length of his time duly observed with the Romanes The said tutors promised to performe his request and to change nothing in the estate but altogether to follow his footsteps Straight after Hiero was dead Andronodorus being angry because of so many tutors caused the king who was then but 15 yeares old to be proclaimed of sufficient age to bee dismissed of tutors and so dispatched himselfe as well as others of that dutifull care they ought to have had of their king and countrey After he got to himselfe alone the government of the kingdome and to make himselfe to bee feared under the kings authoritie hee tooke to him a great number of waiters for his guard and to weare purple garments and a diademe upon his head and to goe in a coach drawne with white horses altogether after the manner of Denis the tyrant and contrary to the use of Hieronimus yet was not this the worst for besides all this Adronodorus caused the yong king his brother in law to bee instructed in pride and arrogancie to contemne every man to give audience to no man to bee quarelous and to take advantage at words of hard accesse given to all new fashions of effeminacie and riotousnesse and to bee unmeasurable cruell thirstie after bloud After Andronodorus had thus framed to his minde this yong king a conspiration was made against him unto which Andronodorus was consenting to dispatch and sley him but it was discovered but yet executed which A conjuration discovered yet executed was strange For one Theodorus was accused and confessed himselfe to bee one of the conspiracie but being tortured and racked to confesse his complices and parteners in that conspiracie knowing he must needs die and by that meanes desiring to be revenged of that yong tyrant he accused the most faithfull and trustiest servants of the king This young tyrant rash inconsiderat straight put to death his friends and principal servants by the counsell of Andronodorus who desired nothing more because they hindered his deseignes This execution performed incontinent this yong tyrant was massacred and slain upon a straight way by the conspirators themselves which before had made the conjuration the execution whereof was the more easie by the discoverie thereof because as is said the tyrants most faithfull friends and servants were slaine Soone after the tyrants death Andronodorus obtained the fortresse of Siracuse a towne of Sicilie but the tumults and stirres which he raised in the countrey as he thought for his owne profit fell out so contrarie to his expectation that finally he his wife and all their race and the race of Hieronimus were extermined as well such as were innocent as they that were culpable And so doth it ordinarily happen to all young princes which by corruption are degenerated into tyrants So fals it out also to all them which are corrupters of princes to draw them into habits of all wickednesse Lastly here would not bee omitted altogether this wickednesse of Machiavell who confounding good and evill together yeeldeth the title of Vertuous unto a tyrant Is not this as much as to call darkenesse full lightsome and bright vice good and honourable and ignorance learned But it pleaseth this wicked man thus to say to plucke out of the hearts of men all hatred horror and indignation which they might have against tyrannie and to cause princes to esteeme tyrannie good honorable and desirable 16. Maxime A Prince may as well be hated for his vertue as for his vice THe emperour Pertinax saith Machiavell vvas elected emperor Cap. 19. Of the prince against the vvils of his men of vvarre vvhich before had customably lived licentiously in all vices and dissolutenesse under the emperour Commodus his predecessor
thing deceived when thinking to leade a prince unto a soveraigntie of wickednesse hee furnisheth him with inconstancie and mutabilitie as the windes for as soone as the prince shall cloth himselfe with Protheus garments and that hee hath no hold nor certitude of his word nor in his actions men may well say that hee is abandoned of phisitions and his maladie is incurable and that in all vices hee hath taken the nature of the Camoelion At the hands of such a prince which is inconstant variable in his word mutable in actions and commands there is nothing to be hoped for but evill disorder and confusion How much more notable and worthie to bee engraved in princes hearts is that Titus Livius lib. 6. Dec. 3 sentence of Scipio the Affrican That they are vanquishers which being vanquished doe give place vnto Fortune But the better to understand this I will set downe the occasion of this notable speach After by an evill hap of warre Scipio his father and uncle were overthrowne with the most part of their armie in Spaine the day being come whereupon they elected their magistrates at Rome none durst hazard himselfe to demand the government of Spaine for evill luck which happened to the two brothers Scipioes Heereat the Romane people beeing very sad and sorrowfull cast their eies upon the great men of the citie to see if any of their hearts would arise to demand the government of Spaine and because none did it they esteemed the affaires of the common weale to bee in a deplored and desperate estate The above said yong lord Scipio who after was called the Affrican of the age onely of two and twentie yeeres arose and demanded of the Romane people the said government of Spaine shewing by a grave oration full of magnanimitie and assured constancie That his carriage should be good and that they needed not feare that in regard of his yong age there should bee found in him any temeritie for he would doe nothing but by good counsell And although the name of the Scipioes might seeme unluckie in regard that his father unckle had ben vanquished slaine in Spaine that notwithstanding hee doubted not but to turne the chance of Fortune Briefely by a great and favourable consent of all the people hee was chosen governour of Spaine and generall captaine of the Romane armie As soone as hee was in this estate well assured of his vertues hee began to speake to every one with such a majestie and constancie as all men became fully resolved that hee would well acquite himselfe of this charge to the honour and benefit of the common weale After being in Spaine hee convocated the old bands which remained after the defeating of his father and unckle and used unto them good words reasons giving them thanks for the fidelitie they had borne to his diseased father and unckle and that ioyfullie they had received him for their captaine generall although hee was yong of age for the good hope they had of him which was of the race of their dead captaines and that hee would so well performe his dutie that they should truely know that he was of the race of their dead captaines The publike Fortune said hee of the Romane common weale and your vertue must needes keepe us from all despaire of our affaires For this good luck hath ever beene fatally given us being vanquished in our great warres yet ever notwithstanding to remaine victors by resisting by constancie and vertue all malignitie of Fortune The same Scipio another time but long after speaking to Zeusis and Antipater Titus Livius lib. 7. Dec. 4. embassadors of the king Antiochus which demanded peace of him after he had beene vanquished used these words full of gravitie and wisedome The peace saith hee which you demand now that your are vanquished wee agree unto you with like conditions as you offered before our victory For in all fortune good or evill we have Constancie stirreth not for prosperitie or adversitie alwaies the same courages neither can prosperitie exalt us nor adversitie humble us too much And if you your selves were not good witnesses thereof I would aledge no other testimonie then that of Anniball who is in your army Therefore make knowne unto the king your master that wee accord unto him the same peace which wee offered him before our victorie Heere may you see how constant the Romanes were in vertue without any change either of prosperitie or adversitie Heere is no Machiavelizing wee must not goe to the schoole of Scipio nor of the ancient Romanes nor of any other valiant princes to learne Machiavells doctrine to have an unconstant and mutable courage to change and to turne as the winde This must bee learned in the schoole of a sort of Italian Machiavelists resembling harlots which love every man yet love no person and which with doubtfull and unstayed mindes runne heere and there like Tops Wee commonly say That the king is the lively law of his subjects and that the prince ought to serve for a rule to his people but is it not a ridiculous thing to say That the law ought to bee a thing unconstant and mutable with every winde Nay contrarie the law ought to bee firme constant permanent inviolable and inviolably observed else it is no law And therefore amongst all mortall men the prince is hee which ought to bee most constant and firme to shew that hee is the true and lively law of his people and subjects unto whom his carriage and actions ought to serve for a rule A prince then must bee of one word and to take heede that he bee Constancie of a princē wherein it ought to be employed not mutable nor double of his promises and that hee alwaies have a magnanimous and generous courage tending to vertue and the publike good of his kingdome principallity and that no trouble nor adversitie may abate that generositie and constancie of courage nor any prosperitie make him swell with pride whereby to draw him from vertue In a constant course hee must shew himselfe grave and clement these two should be in him with a temperature such gravitie is requisit for the majestie of his calling with such clemencie and affabilitie as his subjects desire in him In all his actions hee must alwaies shew himselfe to bee one man loving and amiably entertaining men of vertue and of service and alwaies as constantly rejecting vicious people flatterers lyers and other like from which hee can never draw out good services Finally hee ought to bee constant in retaining his good friends and servants and not to take a sinister opinion of them without great and apparent causes and in all things to governe himselfe constantly by good counsell and to bee master of himselfe that is to say of his affections and opinions for to direct them alwaies to good and sage counsell such as were those great Romane monarches Augustus Caesar Vespasian Traian Adrian
formalitie of processe Touching such as concerne the decision of matters it seemeth well that there hath beene sufficiently provided by the locall custome of every countrey and by the right or law written Well might it bee desired that the doctrines of the docters of the civile and cannon law were well chosen and the good set a part and authorised For though in judgements wee can hardlie lacke them yet are they so confused and wrapped with contrarie opinions that they which hope to finde in the doctors gloses and commentaries the solution of some doubtfull question doe often fall into inexplicable laborinthes and for treasure doe finde coales Which would not come to passe if the good doctrines which often come in use and which are founded upon reason and equitie were separated and distinguished from the troupe and mixture of those doctors writings And touching lawes which concerne the formalitie and conduction of processe and litigations it seemes to mee there hath beene sufficient provision in France by Royall ordinances But it seemes not to bee sufficient that a prince make good lawes well and rightly to conduct and leade to the end the processes and contentions of subjects but it wil bee very requisit and necessarie that hee make lawes to prohibit and hinder the birth of these processes and contentions for otherwise good Iustice and readie expedition of causes shall indirectly serve for an occasion to increase and multiplie because men will bee made prompt and voluntarie to move actions when they are assured to have speedie and good Iustice So that to shunne this and to make that the thing which of it selfe is good and holy bee neither cause nor occasion of evill it shall bee as I have said very requisit to have good lawes to hinder the birth and originall of contentions wherein it seemes to mee that the said Royall ordinances are defectuous and maimed So is there great neede of some Licurgus or Solon to make those said laws mens wits are so wilde and their spirits so mervaisously plentifull and fertill to bring forth contentions and differences and so easily to discent one from another yet notwithstanding I thinke not that it is impossible something though not altogether to represse this arising and secunditie of law causes but because it will bee too long now to discourse wee will reserve it for another time But it is nothing to have good lawes if there bee not withall good magistrates for their execution for the magistrate is the soule of the law who gives it force vigour action and motion and without whom the law is but a dead and an unprofitable thing A good magistrate then is a most excellent thing yea the most excellent in the world yea he is a very rare thing at the least in his time yet might there bee sufficient in a mediocritie if they were well chosen and sought for But now the first that payeth most is received without any care to chuse the fittest Dion writeth That the emperor Caius Caligula had an horse called Velocissimus which he so much loved that he made him often to dine and sup at his table and caused him to be served with barley in a great vessell of gold and with wine in great caldrons of gold also Not contented thus to honour his Velocissmus hee determined with himselfe to advance him unto estates and offices and to the goverment of the commonwealth Caligula would make his horse a consul of Rome and so resolved to make him Consull of Rome and had done it saith Dion if hee had not beene prevented by death The Machiavellistes of this time which reade this in Dion can well say that this was an act of a sencelesse and mad man to give such an estate to a beast Yet doe they finde it good at this day to give estates to as sencelesse beasts more dangerous than Velocissimus was for if the worst had falne if Velocissimus had beene created Consull of Rome hee could have done no other harme to the commonwealth nor to particulars unlesse it had beene a blow with his foote to such as had saluted him too nigh but hee would never have made any extortions pillings or other abuses which the beasts of our time commit which are placed in Offices And this is it which Horace saith That wee mocke him which is evill favouredly powled and him that weareth a rent shirt under a silke coate or Epist 1. lib. 1 that hath his gowne on the one side long and on the other short but he is not mocked who wasteth great goods riotouslie who overthroweth right and committeth infinit sinnes and abuses in his charge men will peradventure say hee doth evill but not that hee ought to bee punished How many Offices bee there in France more fit for Velocissimus than for them which hould them And that which is least perilous every man doth laughat but this which is most dangerous to a commonweale no man dare so much as say it ought to bee amended much lesse corrected For there is a simple beastlinesle and ignorance and a malitious beastlinesse and ignorance The simple ignorance is like to that of Velocissimus which can doe neither good nor evill but malitious beastlinesse and ignorance is a beastly ignorance of all good and right things but of a great capacitie to hould all vices and wickednesse such as our Machiavellistes If then a man must needes choose one of the two who sees not that it were more expedient to choose a simple beastlinesse Can any then denie but it were better to have for a magistrate Velocissimus than some of our Machiavellists or our Office-cheators which comes by retaile unto that which they bought in grosse But the prince who resolves with himselfe to establish good Magistrates without which hee can have no good justice though his lawes bee the best in the world he must consider and note many things both in particular persons and in bodies in generall for hee should take notice what an office it is for which hee should provide an officer and accordingly seeke a person whose vertue and sufficiencie may be Proportion geometricall to bee observed in providing of Officers Aristo lib. 1. Ethniks correspondent and equall unto the functions of that estate For a farre greater sufficiencie is required in a President than in a Counsellor and in a Councellor than in an inferiour Iudge and in a Iudge than in a Chatellaine or castle guarder Heere it is where ought to bee observed the Geometricall proportion whereof Aristotle speaketh by giving to the most fittest and sufficientest the greatest estate to them which are meanely fit meane offices and estates and the least to such as are least sufficient This it is which Fabius Maximus shewed to the Romane people when they would needs create Consulls two yong lords that is Titus Octacilius Fabius his nephew Aemilius Regillus when Anniball made warre in Italie Masters said hee if wee had peace
as saith very eligantly the Poet Horace A Supreame power devoid of Counsell good Fals of it selfe as though it never stood Carm. lib. 1. Ode 4. A Temperat power by God exalted is The Intemperat his hatred doth not misse 2. Maxime The Prince to shun and not to be circumvented of Flatterers ought to forbid Chap. 23 of the Prince his friends and Counsellors that they speake not to him nor to counsell him any thing but only of those things whereof he freely begins to speake or asketh their advise THe meanes to shun Flatterers which doe nothing els but make lies and report leasings pleasing Princes eares saith Machiavell is that he make knowne that he takes no pleasure in hearing of lies but that it is more agreeable unto his nature that men should freely speake the truth But because the Prince should too much debase his Maiestie to yeeld an eare to every one that will utter a truth unto him it is then requisite that he take a third way Therefore saith hee it shall bee good that the Prince hold alwaies nigh him some certaine number of vertuous people vvhich may have libertie freely to tell him truth upon all such things vvhereof he demands advise and not of any other things Forbidding and inhibiting them to speake to him of any thing but of that vvhere of he himselfe hath begun the talke After having understood their opinions he ought to deliberat vvith himselfe and chuse the Counsell that he shall find best MAchiavell making a countenance by this Maxime to counsell a Prince not to serve himselfe with flatterers teacheth him the very meanes wholly to be governed by them For there is none more truly a flatterer nor more dangerous than he that seeth before his eyes a thousand abuses and knoweth that his Princes affaires goe evill and yet either will not or dare not open his mouth to let him know them because herein lieth the principall dutie of a good and faithfull Counsellor to his Prince to declare unto him the abuses committed by his subjects be they Officers or privat persons that with good Counsell he may provide therefore The Prince knows not what is donâ— but by the mouth of his people And to attend whilest the Prince himselfe begin the matter first to his Counsell that should be in vaine for he cannot propose that which he knoweth not and it is a notorious and plaine thing that the Prince who is alwaies shut up in an house or within a troupe of his people seeth not nor knoweth how things passe but that which men make them see and know This was the cause wherefore Dioclesian complained so much of the flatterers of his Court which keeping close the truth of things fed him with smoke and so by that meanes made him commit many great faults in the administration of the empire But because that hystorie is worthy the marking I will recite it at length The Emperor Dioclesian was borne in a little village of a base and obscure race Pompo Laetus in Diocl. Vopis in Aureliano at Salon in Esclavonia yet in his youth and naturally he was so ambitious and covetous of honour that from a young souldier he aspired still more higher that he became a Captaine and from a Captaine to be a Colonell and from a Colonell to be a Lieutenant generall and cheefe of the armie and finally came to that great dignitie to be the Romane Emperour When he was come to the soveraign degree of all honours yet was his unsatiable ambition and covetousnesse of glorie unsatisfied for being Emperor he would needs be worshipped as a God and made his feet be kissed on which he ware golden shoes covered with pearles and precious stones after the manner of the kings of Persia But who would have thought that he would have given over the emperiall dignitie and so many honours as were done him yet in truth he did forsake all this and despoiled himselfe of his Empire which he resigned to Constantius Chlorus and Galerius and retired unto his house at Salon in Sclavonia where he lived yet more than ten yeares a privat man taking his pastime in gardening and rurall workes and never repented him whilest he was a privat man that he had despoiled himselfe of the Empire But if this be so strange a thing that a man so ambitious and that so well loved the honours of this world to rid himself of so great a dignitie did become as I may say a Gardiner and a Labourer of the earth yet more admirable is the cause wherfore he did this For it was for no other cause but for the hatred and evill will that he conceived against the flatterers of his Court which a thousand waies abused him whereunto he could not well give remedie he was so besieged betwixt their hands This hath been written by many Hystoriographers yea by Flavius Vopiscus who placeth flatterers amongst the principall causes of Princes corruptions And because this place likes me well I will translate it A man may aske sayth he What is it that maketh Princes so wicked corrupt First their great libertie and abundance of all things they have Secondly their wicked friends their detestable attendants their covetous Eunuchs their foolish and uncivile courtiers and too plaine ignorance of the affaires of their Common-wealth I have heard my father tell this that the Emperour Dioclesian returning unto a private life was wont to say that there is nothing harder than to know well how to play the Emperour Foure or five saith he will assemble and make a plot together to deceive the Emperour after they will say all with one voice what they will have him to doe The Emperour who is enclosed in his house cannot know the truth of things as they passe but by necessitie is constrained to understand nothing but what pleaseth them to tell him and make him understand so doe they cause him to give offices to men by themselves in post which merit them not at all and makes him cast out such as best deserve them for the good of the Commonwealth What shuld be said more to make short saith Dioclesian A good wise and vertuous Prince is bought and sold by such people Behold the very words of Vopiscus who evidently sheweth that Dioclesian was discontented to be Emperour because he was governed maugre his beard as they say by flattering Courtiers which caused him to abuse his estate But I leave you to thinke if this were not a straunge thing to see Dioclesian change his emperiall estate with a rusticke life for the displeasure he tooke at his flattering Courtiers for by the contrarie we commonly see that Princes rather please themselves marvellously to see flatterers and they cannot goe three paces but they have them at their tailes and more willingly doe they give their eares unto them than to good people which will tell them the truth of affaires that import their Estate And he that will tell
returned home with a faire Bull yet was it not possible by any vertue thereof to set down a rule in habits For alwayes the Friers found to speake against the advice and resolutions of their gardians saying They understood nothing and that they had not read the text of the rule of blessed S. Francis and that they were but beasts In this contestation of Friers against their gardians and superiours remained their affaires by a long and great space of yeares Finally in the yeare 1323 in the time of Pope Iohn the two and twentieth of that name who held his seat in Avignon the gardians and superiors of that Order went to complain to his Fatherhood shewing him That they could not be obeyed upon the resolution they had made in vertue of the power which had been given them by the said Bull of Pope Clement So they humbly prayed his said Fatherhood That he would vouchsafe to doe some good therein The Pope to proceed in this matter more iuridically or rather iudicially would heare the partie and therefore sent to those Friers which refused to obey their gardians and superiors That they should either come and make their reasons or send the cause in writing why they refused obedience They sent them The abovesaid Pope caused to assemble his Cardinals and being in the Conclave the allegations of the Friers pretended disobedience were read and no doubt found so great and admirable so subtill and sharpe that a flie could not there have placed her foot and indeed they could never give a resolution thereof True it is that the Pope could doe no lesse for his honour than to ordaine something Therefore caused hee to expediate a Bull wherein he exceedingly praiseth the Buls of his predecessors Pope Nicholas and Clement and sayth That he marvelleth how men cannot be contented with the resolution contained in them After he makes declaration That the vilitie of habits should bee measured according to the custome of every countrey After that he giveth commission to the gardians and superiors of every Order as did Pope Clement to make a rule for the longitude latitude thicknesse colour fashion and vilitie as well of the Tunikes as of the hood and upon all other accidences circumstances and dependances willing and commanding them to obey the rule that should bee made without any more framing so many obiects arguments and fantasticall contradicts Behold in substance the content of Pope Iohns Bull whereby it appeareth That neither hee nor all the Papall Consistorie could ever give a law or a well determined resolution upon the matter of the dispute of Friers habits I know not how since they are accorded but they have taken unto them the white and blacke colour as it comes from off the beast and of those two intermingled colours they have made a third colour which of them hath taken the name and at this day are called Gray-friers They have also chosen great side gownes and great hoods as we see them weare at this day Breefely we see them accorded now of all their differences which they had touching the fashion of their habits except for the sleeves For there are yet Friers with great sleeves others with strayt sleeves This is the discourse touching the Friers contentions and the three Decretals made by three Popes upon that matter whereof the last is called an Extravagant as in truth it is and may well be called Extravagant and the other two also Praying you masters to take in good part this hystorie for I have not told it to displease any man but to passe away the time whilest our horses eat their provender I beleeve it will be now soone time to leape on horsebacke every man to draw to his way Vpon this each man rose up from the table every one contented to heare this discourse which they never had heard before as they all confessed Then each man tooke his count payed mounted on horsebacke and went away Now let us come to treat of Machiavell 1. Maxime A Prince above all things ought to wish and desire to be esteemed devout though he be not so indeed THe World saith Machiavell looketh but to the exterior and Cap. 18. of the Prince to that which is in appearance and iudgeth of al actions not by the causes but by the issue and end So that it sufficeth if that the Prince seeme outwardly religious and devout although he be not so at all For let it be so that some vvhich most narrowly frequent his companie doe discover that feined devotion yet he or they dare not oppugne the multitude who beleeve the Prince to be truly devout THis Maxime is a precept whereby this Atheist Machiavell teacheth the Prince to be a true contemner of God and of Religion and onely to make a shew and a faire countenance outwardly before the world to be esteemed religious and devout although he be not For divine punishment for such hypocrisie and dissimulation Machiavell feares not because he beleeves not there is a God but thinkes that the course of the Sunne of the Moone of the Starres the distinction of the Spring time Summer Autumne and Winter the polliticke government of men the production that the earth makes of fruits plants living creatures that all this comes by encounter and adventure following the doctrine of Epicurus the doctor of Atheists and master of Ignorance who esteemes that all things are done and come to passe by Fortune and the meeting and encountring of atomes But if Machiavell beleeved that those things came by the disposition and establishment of a soveraigne cause as common sence hath constrained Plato Aristotle Theophrastus and all the other Phylosophers which have had any knowledge to The order which is in nature sheweth us that there is one God confesse it he would beleeve there is one God who ruleth governeth the world and all things within it And if he beleeve there is one God hee would also beleeve that men ought to honour him as the soveraigne governour and that hee will not be mocked of his creatures And therefore will not he give such precepts to make a shew to be devout and not to be For what is it to mocke God if that be not But they that learne such lessons of Atheisme and which put out their eyes that they may not see so cleare a light and which take pleasure to be ignorant of that which as Cicero saith even nature it selfe teacheth the most barbarous nations That there is a God which governeth all things let them I say know that if they will not know God well God will well know them and will make them well feele that such as spit against heaven shall spit against themselves when they shall feele how heavie his hand weigheth then shall they know that there is a God a revenger of them which reverence him not but this knowledge shall be to their confusion and ruine Many Atheists have been seene which of a brutish
the towne of Florence for those two valiant combattants both of them to place themselves upon a great heape of faggots which were laid to that end for to set fire thereunto as soone as they came upon them The day assigned being come behold the two combattants appeared but the Iacobin had about him as they call it the precious bodie of the Host for his defence which he tooke betwixt both his hands the Frier and the Seignorie shewed That that was no reasonable defence for the Iacobin and therefore urged him to let goe the Host but hee would not for any thing depart from it insomuch as by that meanes the combat ended and each one which came to that place to see those valiant combattants goe to the fire returned to their houses But not long after they were all three endighted and I know not how nor wherefore they were accused and condemned for I finde nothing written thereof but they were all three burnt Here behold how the Florentines handled this poore Frier Ierome whom Machiavell reports to have spoken with God It may be some at the beginning had some good opinion of him but in the end they made him well know that he was no such able man to persuade them either to the Religion of Numa or to any other Religion for the most part of them cared for neither the one nor the other 10. Maxime A man is happie so long as Fortune agreeth unto his nature and humor FOrtune may be compared saith M. Machiavell to a great floud vvhich nothing can resist vvhen it overflowes his Cha. 25. De Prince Discourse lib 2. cap. 29. bankes vvith great inundations But vvhen it remaines in his ordinarie course or vvhen it overfloweth not vvithout measure the force thereof may easily bee resisted by levies ditches rampiers and other like obstacles so Fortune is sometimes so unmeasurable in violence that no vertue can resist her yet vertue may afterward repaire the evils vvhich that overflowing violence of Fortune hath brought it may also very vvell so resist Fortune vvhich is moderate and not too violent as the forces thereof shall not hurt I iudge therefore saith he that prince happie unto vvhose nature and manner of doings there happeneth an accordant and a consonant time For the diversitie of times make that two by contrarie meanes come to one same end and effect and also that two by one same meanes doe come to contrarie ends So that if hee vvhich governes himselfe moderately encounter and meet vvith a time vvherein his vertue is requisit he cannot faile but prosper yet if the time change he shall undoubtedly overthrow himselfe if hee likewise change not his manners and order of life Pope Iulius in all his actions proceeded vvith extreame fiercenesse and hastinesse yet his actions succeeded vvell but many others have fared evill by using too precipitate promptitude and hast Whereof I conclude saith he that men are happie so long as fortune accordeth to their humour and complexion but as soone as she beginneth to varie and dissent then goe they fast downe the vvheele vvhom also shee determineth to overthrow she blindeth them ordinarily shee can likewise chuse fit men at her pleasure to cast downe the vvheele commonly she applies gives her selfe to young and inconsiderate people vvhich are most hazardous and prompt in execution therein imitating the nature of women which doe best love young men such as to obey them must rather be spurred than flattered BY this description of Machiavell is evidently seene that he thinks that which the poets writ for fables concerning Fortune is the very truth For the Paynim poets have written That Fortune is a goddesse who giveth good and evill things to whom she list And to denote that this shee doth inconsiderately and without judgement they wrap her head in a cloth least with her eyes she see and know to whom she giveth so that she never knoweth unto whom she doth good or evill moreover they describe her standing upright upon a boule to denote her inconstancie and unstaiednesse turning and tossing one while on the one side another while on the other Now Machiavell would make men beleeve that this is true and that all the good and evill which comes to men happeneth because they have Fortune accordant or discordant to their complexions Hee after sayth That shee commonly favoureth young people such as are hazardous and inconsiderate to the end that therby men might learne that rule to be rash violent and headie that they may have Fortune favourable unto them But all this doctrine tends to the same end as the former Maximes doe namely to insinuate into mens minds and hearts a despight and utter contempt of God and his providence For let man have once this persuasion That no good comes unto us from God but from Fortune he will easily forsake the service of God as also when men beleeve that evill that is to say the punishments of vices and sinnes come not from the just judgement of God but onely from Fortune which inconsiderately and rashly gives evils without consideration whether they merit them or no and as soone to the good as to the wicked then need we not doubt but straight such a man is emptied of all feare of God and readie to fall into every vice Here may you see the scope and end whereunto this wicked man tendeth to bring princes and other men leaving no manner of impietie behind to infect and sow his poyson in the world But against this we have good preservatives drawne out of the holy Scriptures whereby we are assured That nothing fals to us but by Gods providence and that such afflictions as are sent us are for our good least the slipperie way of prosperitie make us fall to our destruction insomuch as wee praise God for both good and evill resolving our selves that that which unto our carnall sences appeareth to bee evill is not evill to our soules but very healthfull and good because there is a Christian Maxime That no evill can happen to a Christian from the hand of God our Father but my purpose is not here to handle that point of Theologie any further but I will confute Machiavell even by the Paynims themselves And first I oppose against him almost all the auncient Philosophers which have maintained That nothing happeneth nor is done without some efficient cause although to us it be unknowne True it is that they make a distinction of causes for they say that God is the first cause which holds in action all other inferior causes God is the first cause of all things which they call Second and makes them worke their effects and although oftentimes in this distinction of causes they attribute some things to second causes which they should attribute to the first alone yet notwithstanding they referre all things to God mediately or immediately Very true it is that sometimes they use that name of Fortune applying themselves