Yong men when they marry in their youth haue no further consideration but of their pleasure and onely content them selues to haue their wiues beautifull but the father and mother for that it toucheth both honor and goods they séeke him a wyfe that shall be wise ritch gentle honest and chast and the last thing they behold is hir beautie The marriages that be made hidden and in secret I say it groweth of greate lightnes and procéedeth of no small crueltie for it giueth to al the neighbours whereof to talke and to their old parents wherfore to wéepe It hapneth many times that the mother ouerwatcheth hir selfe to spinne and the Father to grow old in gathering a sufficiēt portion And at the time they shall entreat or talke of an honest marriage the foolish yong man remayneth secretly married whereof after followeth that the mother remayneth wéeping the father ashamed the kindred offended and the friende scandalized and yet thereof procéedeth a greater griefe which is that the sonne hath chanced to matche with suche a wife that the father holdeth his goods not onely euill employed but is much ashamed to admit hir into his house Also another offence riseth in the like marriage which is many times the fathers doe determine with the sonnes portion to remedie and amend the daughters marriage and as the yong mans most principall intent is to enioye the mayde withoute care of goodes the sister remayneth cast awaye the sonne deceyued and the father derided Plutarche in hys politikes sayeth that the sonne whyche married withoute consente of hys Parentes amongst the Greekes was publikely whipt amongst the Lacedemonians they did not whippe but disinherite Laertius sayeth that vnto suche so married it was a custome amongst the Thebanes not that they should only be disinherited of all goodes but also openly be cursed of their parents Let no man estéeme it light to be cursed or blessed of their elders for in the old time amongst the Hebrewes the children withoute al comparison held more account of their fathers blessing thā of their Grandfathers inheritance That the woman be very shamefast and no babler or full of talke ALso it is a counsell very necessary that the man whyche shall marrie and set vp house do choose a wife shamefast for if forceably there should be in a woman but one vertue the same ought to be only shamefastnesse I confesse that it is more perillous for the conscience but I say lesse hurtfull to honesty that a woman be secretely vnhonest than openly vnshamefast Very many infirmities be couered in a woman only by shamefastnesse and many more suspected in hir that is of ouerbold and of shamelesse countenance Let euery man say what he will but for my part I doe firmely beléeue that in a woman of a bashfull countenance there be fewe things to bée reprehended and in hir that is otherwise there wanteth all things wherefore to be praysed The safety that nature hathe giuen vnto a woman to kéepe hir reputation chastitie honoure and goodes is only shamefastnesse and that day that thereof she hathe not great regard let hir yéeld hir selfe euermore for a castaway When any man shall enquire marriage of any woman the first thing he hath to demaund is not if she be rich but if she be shamefast for goodes is euery daye gotten but shamefastnesse in a woman once lost is neuer recouered The best portion the greatest inheritance and the most precious iewell that a woman can bring with hir is shamefastnesse For if the Father shall sée that his daughter hath lost the fame it shall be lesse euill for him to bury hir than to marry hir The maner is that many women presume to be talkers and to séeme gratious in taunting whiche office I woulde not sée them learne and much lesse put in vre for speaking the troth and also with libertie that which in men we call gratious in women we terme it witlesse babling Newes tales vaine fables and dishonest talkes an honest woman ought not onely shame to speake them but also loth to heare them The graue women of authoritie ought not to care to be skilfull of talke and newes but to be honest and silent for if she much presume of talke and taunting the very same that did laugh at hir deuice will afterwards murmur at hir manners The honour of women is so delicate that many things whiche men may both doe and speake is not lawful vnto women that they once dare to whisper them The gētlewoman or women that will be holden graue ought not onely to kéepe silence in things vnlawfull and vnhonest but also in lawfull things if they bée not very necessary for women seldome erre by silence and by much speach they seldome cease to giue cause of reproche Oh sorrowfull husband whose lot hath chaunced to light on a wife that is a great babler yet would séeme a curious speaker For truly if any such once take in hand to recite a matter or to frame any complaint or quarell she neither admitteth reason or patiently suffereth any woord to be said vnto hir The euill life that women passe with their husbands is not so much for that which they commit with their persons as it is for that which they speake with their tongues if the woman would kéepe silence when the husband beginneth to chide he should neuer haue bad dinner neither she worse supper which surely is not so for at the instant that the husbande beginneth to vtter his griefe she beginneth to scolde and yell whereof doth follow that they come to handy grypes and also call for neyghbours That the wife be a home keeper and auoyding all occasions JT is also a commendable counsel that the wife presume to be honest and an housekéeper for when women in their houses will be absolute they come afterwards to wander the streates dissolute The honest woman ought to be very well aduised in that which she speaketh and very suspicious and doutfull in all thinges she doth bycause suche maner of women as haue no regard to their wordes do afterwards offend in déedes For how simple and ignorant is that man but he easely knoweth the honour of women to be much more tender and delicate than of men and that this is true it appereth most cleare for that a man may not be dishonored but with reason but for a woman to shame hir selfe occasion is sufficient She that is good and presumeth in goodnes to continue may hold it for most certaine that she shal be so much better as she shall haue of hir selfe lesse confidence I say lesse confidence to the ende that she neither aduenture to giue eare to wanton or light words or presume to admit fayned offers Let hir be as she may be and deserue what she may deserue and presume what she thinketh good that if she delighteth to heare and suffer to be serued early or late she shall fall And if they shall
and by feare so we of loue and good wil their law is called hard and that of the christians sweete The propertie of loue is to turne the rough into plaine the cruell to gentle the bitter to swéete the vnsauory to pleasant the angry to quiet the malicious to simple that grosse to aduised and also the heauy to light Hée that loueth neither can he murmur of him that doth anger him neither denie that they aske him neither resiste when they take from him neyther answere when they reproue him neither reuenge if they shame him neither yet will be gone when they send him away What doth he forget that dothe loue with all his hart what leaueth he vndon that knoweth not but to loue wherof doth he complaine that alwaies doth loue If he that doth loue hath any cause of complainte it is not of him that he loueth but of him selfe that hath made some fault in loue the conclusion is The hart that loueth entierly without cōparison much more is the pleasure that hee taketh in loue than the trauell he passeth in seruing Oh to how greate effect should it come too passe if being Christians wée should therewith be enamored of the lawe of Christ for then surely neither should wée be pensiue nor liue in paine for the heart that is occupied in loue doth neyther flie daungers nor is dismayed in trauelles The yoke that cattell do beare when hée is new is of him selfe very heauie but after when he is drie and somewhat worne he is more soft to be suffered and more light to be caried Oh good Iesu Oh high misterie of thée my God Since thou wouldest not incontinent after thy byrth burden vs with the yoke of thy lawe but that thou thy selfe vppon thy selfe didst beare the burden and thirtie yeares firste didst cary the same that it should drie and growe light and be seasoned What hath Christ cōmaunded vs to do that he first hath not done what yoke hath he cast vpon our backs that he first hath not borne vppon his shoulders If hée commaunded to fast he fasted if he commaunded to pray he prayed if he commaunded wée should forgiue he pardoned if he commaunded to die he died if he commaunded vs to loue he loued In such wise that if he commaunded vs to take any medicine first in him selfe hée made experence Christ doth not compare his blessed lawe vnto Tymber Stone Plants or Iron but only to the yoke bycause al these things may be caried by one alone but to drawe the yoke of necessitie there must be twain High also most profoūd is this misterie by the which is giuen vs to vnderstand that euen at the present houre that the good Christian shall put downe his head vnder the yoke to cary the same forthwith on the other part Christ puts himselfe to helpe him None calleth Christ that he doth not answere None doth commend himselfe vnto him that he doth not succour None doth aske him that he giueth not some what None doth serue him that he payeth not Likewise none doth trauell that he doth not helpe The yoke of the lawe of Christ doth more cure then wound doth more pardon than chastise doth more couer than accuse doth more feare than weary and also doth more lighten than burden For Christ him self that commaunded to beare he himself no other doth helpe vs to cary Oh good Iesu O loue of my soule with such a guide as thou who can lose the way with suche a patron as thou who feareth drowning with such a captaine as thou who dispaireth victory with such a companion as thou what yoke may bée painefull Oh swéete lawe oh blessed yoke oh trauell well imployed by the whiche wée passe vntoo Christe for not only thou dost make accompt too bée with vs in all our trauels but also dost promise not to leaue vs to our selues He that in the garden of Gethsemany came forth to receiue those that were come too take him It is firmely to bée beleued that he fayleth not to come forth to imbrace them that come to serue him If any worldly and mightie riche man doe contend at any time with a poore Christian truely we shall finde that the helpe is much more that Christe giueth vnto his poore seruant than all the cost that the world giueth to those that do followe the same Those that the world doth leade vnder his yoke to them hée giueth al things variable dismesured and by false waight but in the house of god all things are giuen whole entier without counterpeyse and most perfect We may well say with great reason that the yoke of Christe is swéete and his burden light for that the world doth not so muche as pay for the seruice wée do him but Christ doth pay vs euen for the good thoughts we hold of him Christ doth well sée that of our owne nature we be humane weake miserable foule and remisse for which cause he doth not behold what we are but what we desire to be Moyses gaue the lawe to the Hebrewes Solon to the Greekes Phoroneus to the Egyptians Numa Pompilius to the Romanes but as mē made thē euen as men died so they ended but the yoke of the law of God shall endure as long as God doth endure What may Moyses lawe be worth in whiche was permitted diuorcements and vsury What may the lawe of Phoroneus be estemed in which was graunted to the Aegyptians to be théeues Of what value may the law of Licurgus be accompted in whiche man slaughter was not chastised of what accompt may the lawe of Solon Solonius be reputed in which adultery was dissimuled Of what reputation may the lawe of Numa Pompilius be weighed in which it was allowed that as much as you coulde take was lawfull to conquer Of what consideration may wée iudge the law of the Lidians in which the maydēs vsed no other mariage but vnto him that did win them by adultery Of what iudgemēt may we thinke the law of the Baleares wherein it was commaunded that the bride shoulde not be giuen vnto the bridegrome before the next kinsman had vsed hir These and suche like lawes wée cannot say otherwise but that they were beasily brutish and vnhonest since they did containe vices and by vicious men were permitted He that is entred into the religion of Christ to be in déede a Christian hath no licence to bée proude a théefe a murderer an adulterer a glutton malicious neither blasphemous And if we shall happen to sée any to do the contrary he shall haue onely the name of a Christian but for the rest he shal be of the parish of Hell. The holy and sacred Lawe of Christe is so right in the things it doth admitte and so pure and sincere in the things it doth permit that it doth neither suffer vice nor consent to the vicious man Quia lex Domini immaculata The Hebrewes the Arabians the Pagans
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
King a Prophet a Sainct and with God so priuate vnderstoode not what to present vnto God for the good things hée had receiued what shall we doe that are miserable that vnderstand not what to say nor haue not what to giue of our selues wée are so weake and our abilitie so small our valure so little and haue so few things that if God do not giue wherwith to giue of our selues we haue not what to giue And what we haue to craue or els that he should giue is his grace to serue him and not licence to offend him In remuneration of so great victory I would not counsell your Maiesty too offer iewels as the women of Rome eyther Siluer or Gold as the Greekes eyther your owne blud as Silla neyther your childrē as Iephtha but that ye offer the inobedience and rebellion against your Maiesty by the commons of Castile For before GOD there is no Sacrifice more accepted than the pardoning of enemies The iewels that we might offer vnto God procéede from our Cofers the Gold from our Chests the bloud from our Veynes but the pardoning of iniuries from our hartes and entrayles where enuie lyeth grinding and perswading reason to dissemble and the hart to be reuenged Much more sure is it for Princes to be beloued for their clemency than to be feared for their chastisements For as Plato sayeth the man that is feared of many hath cause also too feare many Those that offended your Maiestie in those alterations paste some of them bée deade some bée banished some hidden and some be fledde Most excellent Prince it is great reason that in reward of so great victory they maye boast themselues of your pietie and not complaine of your rigor The wiues of these vnfortunate men bée poore their daughters vpon the poynt to be lost their Sonnes are Orphans their kinsfolkes blushe and are ashamed In so muche as the pitie that yée shall vse towardes a fewe redoundeth to the remedie of manie There is no estate in this worlde whiche in case of iniury is not more sure in pardoning than in reuenging for that many times it dothe happen that a man séeking occasion too bée reuenged doth vtterly destroy him selfe The enemies of Iulius Caesar did more enuie the pardoning of the Pompeyans than the killing of Pompeyus himselfe For excellencie it was written of him that he neuer forgot seruice or euer did remember iniurie Two Emperours haue bene in Rome vnlike in name and much more in maners the one was named Nero the Cruell the other Antony the Méeke The which ouernames the Romaines gaue them the one of Méeke bycause he could not but pardon the other of Cruell bicause he neuer ceased to kill A Prince although he be prodigall in play scarce in giuing vncertaine of his woorde negligent in gouernement absolute in cōmaunding dissolute in liuing disordinate in eating and not sober in drinking is termed but vicious but if he be cruel and giuen to reuenge he is named a tyrant As it is sayde by Plutarch He is not a tyrant for the goods he taketh but for the cruelties he vseth Foure Emperours haue bene of this name The first was called Charles the great the second Charles the Bohemian the third Charles the Balde the fourth Charles the grosse the fifth which is your maiestie we wishe to be called Charles the Méke in following the Emperoure Antony the Méeke which was the Prince of all the Romaine Empire best beloued And bicause Calistines would that Princes should be persuaded by few things those very good and woordes well spoken I cōclude and say that Princes with their pietie and clemencie be of God pardoned and of their subiects beloued An Oration made vnto the Emperours Maiestie in a sermon on the day of Kings wherein is declared howe the name of Kings was inuented and howe the title of Emperours was first found out A matter very pleasaunt S. C. C. R. M. THis present day being the day of Kings in the house of Kings and in the presence of Kings it is not vnfitte that wée speake of Kings though Princes had rather be obeyed than counselled And seing we preache this day before him that is the Emperour of the Romains King of the Spaniards it shal be a thing very séemly also very necessary to relate here what this woorde King doth mean and from whence this name Emperor doth come to the end we may al vnderstand how they ought to gouerne vs and we to obey them As concerning this name of King it is to be vnderstood that according to the varietie of nations so did they diuersly name their Princes that is to saye Amongest the Aegyptians they were called Pharaones the Bythinians Ptolomaei the Persians Arsicides the Latines Murrani the Albans Syluij Sicilians Tyrants the Argiues Kings The fyrste king of this world the Argiues doe saye was Foroneus and the Greekes do report to bée Codor Laomor Whiche of these opinions is most true hée only knoweth that is moste high and only true Although we know not who was the first King neither who shal be the laste king of the worlde at the least we know one thing that is that al the Kings past are dead and al those that now liue shal die bicause death doth as wel cal the King in his throne as the laborer at his plow. Also it is to bée vnderstood that in olde time to be a King was no dignitie but onely an office as Maior or Ruler of a common wealth After this maner that euery yeare they did prouide for the office of King to rule as nowe they do prouide a Viceroy to gouerne Plutarke in his booke of Common wealth dothe reporte that in the beginning of the worlde all Gouernours were called tyrantes and after the people did perceiue what difference was betwéene the one and the other they did ordeyn amongst thēselues to name the euill gouernors tyrāts and the good they intituled Kings By this it may be gathered most excellent Prince that this name King is consecrated vnto persons of good deserning and that be profitable vnto the common wealth for otherwise he doth not deserue to bée called King that doth not knowe to gouern When God did establish an houshold for himself did constitute a Common Wealth in the land of the Aegyptians he would not giue thē kings to gouerne but Dukes to defend them that is to say Moses Gedeon Iephtha and Sampson This God did to deliuer them from paying of tributes and that they might be vsed as brethren not as vassals This maner of gouernment amōg the Hebrues did cōtinue vnto the time of Helie the high priest vnder whose gouernance the Israelites required a King to gouerne their cōmon welth and to lead them in their warres Then God gaue them Saul to be their King much against his will so that the last Duke of Israell was Helie and the firste king was
enter into the Senate and to procure the causes of the people and in such businesse as did not like him he had authoritie to stand for the poore and to resist the Senators And for that the office of Tribune was alwaies against the Senate and thereby passed his life in perill it was a law made and capitulate by the Lawyers and Senators that what soeuer man or woman did violently prease to his person or vnto his garment to offend him publikely they cut off his head And be it knowne to your Maiestie that many Romane Princes did procure to be chosen Tribune of the people not for the interest they receiued by that dignitie but for the securitie they had with the same bycause not only they might not kill them either in their clothes so much as touch them The first Tribune that was in Rome was a certaine Romane named Rusticius a man of a very sincere life and merueilous zealous of his common wealth This Rusticuis was and this dignity created betwixt the first and the second Punick battails in the time that Silla and Marius did leade great bands in Rome and did spoile the common wealth Thus much the letters of the stampe would say This is the good Consull Rusticius the which was the first Tribune that was in the Empire of Rome Your Maiestie amongst these hath many other stāpes the whiche being easie and facile to reade and cleare to vnderstand I shall not néede to spende the time too expound them A certaine relation vnto Queene Germana declaring the life and lawes of the Philosopher Licurgus MOst high and serene Lady this Sunday past after I had preached before your highnesse the Sermon of the destruction of Ierusalem ye commaūded I should recite and also giue in writing who was that great Philosopher Licurgus whose life I praysed whose lawes I alledged In repayment of my trauell and to binde me the more vnto your seruice you commaunded I shoulde dine at your table and also gaue me a rich clocke for my studie For so small a matter as your highnesse doth commaund neither it needed ye should feast me either giue me so great rewards for that I attaine more honour and bountie in that ye commaund than your highnesse doth receiue seruice in the thing I shall accomplish To say the truth I had thought rather yée had slept in the sermon the curtains drawne but since ye cōmaund I shall recite that whiche I sayd of the Philosopher Licurgus it is a signe ye heard the whole Sermon and also noted the same And since it pleaseth your highnesse that the Ladies and dames that serue you and the gallants Courtiers that attend vpon you be present at this communicatiō that ye commaund them that they be not gibing either making of signes for they haue sworne to trouble me or to put me from my matter But cōming to the purpose it is to wit that in the first reignes of this world whē Sardanapalus reigned in Assiria Osias in Iury Tesplus in Macedonia Phocas amongst the Greekes Alchimus amongst the Latins Arthabanes amōgst the Aegyptians Licurgus was borne amōgst the Lacedemoniās This good Licurgus was iointly Philosopher and King King and Philosopher bicause in those Golden times either Philosophers did gouerne eyther else Gouernours did vse Philosophie Plutarche doth say of this Licurgus that he was low of stature pale of colour a friend of silence an enemie of vaine talke a man of small health of great vertue He was neuer noted of dishonestie he neuer troubled the common welth he did neuer reuēge iniury he did neuer thing against iustice either against any man did vse malicious wordes He was in féeding tēperate in drinking sober in giuing liberall in receiuing of consideration in sleeping short in his speache reposed in businesse affable in hearing patient prompt in expedition gentle in chastisement and benigne in pardoning Being a child was brought vp in Thebes being a yong mā he did studie in Athens and in the time of more yéeres he passed into the great India afterwards being old was king of the Lacedemonians which also were called Spartans which of nation were Greekes and of condicion very barbarous For excellencie it is recounted of him that they neuer saw him idle he neuer dranke wine neuer trauailed on horsebacke neuer chid with any man neuer did hurt to his enemies neither at any time was ingrate to his friends He himself wente to the temples he himself did offer the Sacrifices he himself did reade in scholes he himselfe did heare complaints he himself gaue sentēce in causes of the law he himself did cause to giue chastisement to offenders This Licurgus was of a valiant mind in warres of great deuise in time of perill certaine in things determined seuere with rebels in sodaine assaults of great readinesse affable with offenders a mortal enemie of vagabonds They say that this Philosopher did inuent the Olimpiades whiche were certaine playes vsed euery fourth yéere in the mountaine Olimpus to the ende that all shoulde giue themselues to studie or to learne some Art bicause in that assembly which there they vsed euery man made a proofe of his knowledge and the sprite that was giuen him Licurgus was the first that gaue lawes to the Spartans which afterwards were called Lacedemonians whiche is to vnderstand before Solon and Numa Pompilius And also it is written of him that he was the first that inuented in Greece to haue publique or cōmon houses founded at the charges of the common wealth also endewed where the sicke might be cured the poore refreshed Before the days of Licurgus the Lacedemonians were a people very absolute also dissolute for which cause the good Philosopher did passe immesurable trauels no lesse perils amongst thē before they would be gouerned by a King or liue vnder a law On a certaine day before al the people he tooke two little dogges new whelped the one of the which he fedde in his own house very faire fat the other he cōmanded to be brought vp in a countrey house with hunger to vse the fields These dogs being thus brought vp he cōmaunded thē to be brought to the market place in the presence of the whole multitude throwing before them a liue Hare a great péece of flesh presently the countrey dog ran after the Hare and the pampered dogge to the fleshe Then said Licurgus you are witnesses that these two dogges were whelpt in one day and in one howre in one place of one Syre Dam. And for that the one was brought vp in the field he ran after the Hare and the other that was brought vp in idlenesse ran to his meat Beléeue me ye Lacedemoniās be out of doubt that to proue good vertuous it importeth muche from the infancie to bée well gouerned and brought vp for we retaine much more of the customes wherwith we be bred
Romaines neuer possessed or inhabited The Prince Iugurth of the age of .xxij. yeares came from Africa to the warres of Numantia in fauor of Scipio and did there suche and so notable feates in armes that he deserued with Scipio to be verie priuate and in Rome to be esteemed Al the Historiographers that write of the warres of Numantia saye that the Romaines did neuer receyue so muche hurte or lose so many people or were at so greate charges neyther receyued so great shame as they did in that conqueste of Numantia And the reason they giue for this is for that all the other warres hadde their beginning vppon some iniurie except that of Numantia whiche was of méere malice or enuie To say that the Citie of Samorra was in tyme past Numantia is a thing verie fabulous and worthie to be laughed at bicause if stories do not deceiue vs from the time that Numātia was in the world vntil the time that Samorra begā to be there did passe seuen hundreth thirtie thrée yeres If Plinie Pomponius Ptholomaeus Strabo had said that Numantia was néere to Dwero there had bin a doubt whether it had bin Soria or Samorra But these Historiographers doe saye that the foundation thereof was néere to the head of Dwero wherof it may be gathered that séeing Samorra is more than thirtie leagues from the heade of Dwero Soria is but fiue that it is Soria and not Samorra There be thrée opinions where the situation of the citie of Numantia should bée in whiche some doe saye that it was where nowe is Soria others affirme that it was on the other side of the bridge vpon an hill some do auouche that it was a league from thence on a certain place named Garray and in my iudgement as I consider of the thrée situations this opinion is moste true bycause there is founde greate antiquities and there doth appeare auncient greate buyldings Those that wrote of Numantia were Plinius Strabo Ptholomaeus Trogus Pompeius Pullio Trebellius Vulpicius Isodorus Instinus and Marcus Ancus A letter vnto the Constable Sir Ynigo Valasco in the whiche the Authour doth perswade that in the taking of Founterabie he first make proofe to profite his wisedome before he do experiment his Fortune MOst renoumed Lorde and Captaine to Caesar about the dead of this night Peter Herro deliuered mée a Letter from your Lordship the whiche althogh it had not come firmed or with superscription by the letter I should haue knowen it to be written with your owne hand bicause it conteined few lines many blots While you are in the warres it is tollerable to write on grosse paper with crooked lynes euill ynke and blotted letters For good warriers doe more esteme to sharpen their launces than to make pennes Sir you write vnto me that I should pray for your health and victorie for that at the commaundemente of Caesar you goe to besiege Founterabie which was taken by the Admirall of Fraunce the same béeyng of the Crowne of Castile Thys youre seruaunt preaceth with such diligence for this letter that I shal be forced to answer more at large than I can and muche lesse than I woulde As touchynge Founterabie I doe certaynly beléeue that within these two yeares the takyng and susteynyng of it hathe coste the French King more than it would haue cost to haue bought or else to haue buylt it Wherof there is no cause to haue maruell for that great Lordes and Princes do spend much more in susteyning the opinion they holde than the reason that they vse In all christendome at this presente I fynde not an enterprise more dangerous than this of Founterabie For either you muste ouercome the French king or else displease the Emperor I wold say that ye take in hand to deale with the might of the one and with the fauour or disgrace of the other To be a Captain generall is an estate verie honorable and profitable although ryght delicate For notwithstanding hée doe all that he can and all that is méete to bee done it by the mishap of his sinnes hée giue any battel and carie not away the victorie it is not sufficiēt that the sorowfull man doe lose his lyfe but also they séeke some faulte by the whiche they say he lost that battell Be it that euery man be what he can and fight what he may yet neuer to this day haue we séene a conquered Captain called wyse neyther him that ouercame termed rashe It is verie good that the Captaines which fight and the Physitions that cure be wise but it is muche better that they be fortunate For these bée two things wherein many tymes wysedome fayleth and fortune preuayleth Sir you do take in hand an enterprise iuste and verie iust bicause from tyme out of mynde to this day wée haue neuer heard or séene the towne of Founterabie possessed by any king of France neyther any king of Castile to haue giuen it them In suche wyse that it is a conscience for them to holde it and a shame for vs not to take it Sir consider well for your owne part that a warre so iust be not lost through some secrete offence bycause the disgraces and ouerthrowes that do happen in such like enterprises doe not chaunce bicause the warre is not iust but for that the conductours thereof bée vniuste The warre the Hebrewes made with the Philistines in the mount of Gilboa was a war verie iust but king Saule that had the conduction therof was a Kyng verie vniuste for whose cause the Lorde did permit that noble battayle to be lost to the ende the kyng should be slayne in the same But as the iudgements of God are in them selues so high and of vs so vnknowen many times it dothe happen that a king or prince doth chose out one of his seruāts to make him general of an armie to the ende he be honored and his state more amended than the rest And on the other side God doth permit that there where he thought to obtayn most honor good happe from thence he dothe escape moste shamed and confounded Let it not bée thought of Princes and of great men that séeing they woulde not abstaine from sinne they shall more than others auoyd the payne For God doth compasse them in suche wise that they come to make paymente in one houre of that whiche they committed in all their life In the house of God there hath not is not neyther shall be merite without reward or fault without punishment And if it hap that presentely wée sée not the good rewarded eyther the euill chastised it is not for that God doth forget it but vntill an other tyme to deferre it The Marshall of Nauarre with his band of Agramontenses wée vnderstande is in the defence of Founteraby it séemeth not to be yll counsell to make youre siege openlye and to practise wyth them secretely For although they be nowe seruauntes to the Frenche Kyng
Cicero sayth writing vnto Articus this name Knight or Gentleman the Romaynes did neuer admit either consent to entitle those that could gather muche riches but suche as had bene at the victory of many battailes That Knight or Gentleman that doth not imitate the valiant actes of his predecessours ought not boast himselfe to descend of them For how much the more renoumed the life of the fathers is so much the more are the children to be accused for their negligence To presume much of no more but to descend of Noble parents I say is a thing most vaine To blason a mans owne proper déedes is foolishnesse but in the end of these two extremities he is more tollerable that prayseth his owne vertues than he that boasteth himselfe of other déedes When amongst Knights or Gentlemen talke is of armes a Gentleman ought to haue great shame to say that he read it but rather that he saw it For it is very conuenient for the Philosopher to recount what hee hath read but the Knight or Gentleman it becommes to speake of things that hée hath done The Consull Marius when he was resident in Rome and also in the warres many times would say I confesse that I am extract of linage obscure and also I acknowledge that I haue no armes of my predecessors for that they were not florishing Captaines But iointly with this they that are now aliue can not denie that in the temples I haue erected pictures or counterfets I haue receiued in my body many woundes and in my house many enseignes none of which I do enherite of my predecessours but haue wonne thē of mine enimies And Marius saide more Your predecessors left you riches to enioy houses wherein to dwell slaues to serue you gardens to delight in fame whereof to boaste and armour wherwith to venter but they haue not left you vertue wherof you might presume Of which déede Oh you Romaynes ye may inferre that it is very little that he doth enherite which doth not enherite the vertues of his predecessors I thought good to aduertise you of these things to the end that in remembring the fame and noblenesse of such men as were your predecessours you should muche more estéeme to imitate their vertuous actes than too haue their armes sette forth and drawen at large I am deceiued if I did not sée in Caesars court a certaine gentleman of more than a Quent of rent whiche I did neuer sée haue a horse in his stable either launce in his house neither yet commonly did weare his sword but onely a Dagger that was very little But on the other part when he began to recount the doubty déedes of his forefathers it séemed that he daunted Lions Men do now estéeme to paint their armes in their houses to graue them in their seales to place them in their portals to weaue them in their sumpter clothes but none aduētureth to win them in the field in such wise that they hold armes for others to behold and not for themselues to fight One thing I will counsell your lordship which for suche as are of your estate in the warres is very necessary And that is aboue al things to be vigilant to haue great regard that amongst the captaines of your army there be vsed great secrecie for in greate affayres there is neuer good successe when they be discouered before they take effect If Suetonius Tranquillus doe not deceyue vs Iulius Caesar neuer sayde to morow this shal be done and to day let this be done but onely to day this shal be done and to morrowe wée shall sée what wée haue too doe Plutarche saithe in his politiques that Lucius Metellus being demaunded of one of his Captains when the battayle shoulde bée giuen made aunswere if I thought my shirt did knowe the leaste thought that is in my hart I woulde presently burne it and neuer weare another It were very well the affaires of warres shoulde bée commoned of many but the resolution of them to be vsed with few For otherwise they are like to be discouered before they bée concluded Also I thinke very well that you take counsayle with men that be graue and of experience but not without consideratiō that they be wise without rashnesse For sometimes more sound counsaile doth procéede from men of fewe yéeres and of much habilitie than from men that be opinatiue and of old yéeres Your Lordship hath great cause to consider howe to take aduise of men that in their counsayles be headstrong and in their déedes very rashe for in daungerous cases that happen in the warres it is lesse euill to retire than to be loste Alcibiades a Captaine amongst the Greekes did vse to say that men of bolde and valiant harts haue more néede of fortitude to moue them to retire than to abide their enemies For not to flie their honour doth moue them but to retire their wisdome doth constraine them In greate hazardes it is muche better that men submitte themselues to reason than to hurle themselues into fortune In all things your Lordshippe hath to imbrace counsaile except it be when you shall see your selfe in some sodaine daunger for in the warre wée haue séene many Captaines lost for no other cause but for that when they should haue done a thing at the sodaine they haue sit downe with great leysure to take counsell Also your lordship ought to admonish your armies that in their forcible and necessary perilles they shew not thēselues to be menns dismayed for the warres be of suche qualities that the feare of some dismayeth the rest Your Lordship may hold it for certaine that the heart which is full of feare must of necessitie be voide of hope Those that go alwayes to the warres neither ought to holde victorie for certaine eyther dispayre to obtaine it For there is nothing wherein fortune is lesse correspondent than in the affaires of warre Brasidas the Greek in the warres that hée held with the Thracians when they did take by force of armes a certaine fort which he defended meruailous valiantly being demaunded by one of his enemies why he had put him selfe within the same for his defēce answered I do sweare by the immortall Gods that she did rather commend hir self vnto me to be kept than I vnto hir to be defended Bycause in the end I haue more certentie of hir to serue me for a sepulcher than for a sauegard I will saye no more in this case but craue of especiall fauour that in such wise ye behaue your selfe in these warres of Prouance that it may séeme and also be to all men notorious that you do more for the obedience of your Lord the Emperour than to be reuenged of the French king For otherwise God would take vengeance of your reuengement The penne of gold that you sent me I haue receiued and so I beleue your Lordship shall receiue Marcus Aurelius whiche I do send you the
that wee desire with praiers and of him wée can not get a lodging no not with teares On a sunday in Aduent preaching in the Chappell vnto hir Maiestie I sayd that saint Iohn Baptist went to dwell in the desert not onely to auoyd sin but also for that he woulde not haue to doe with herbingers and your Lordship do demaund if there be much people at the Court to my iudgement ther are few men many women for that from Auila there came inowe to the Court and here in Medina was very many beside these Toro Zamora Salamanca Olmedo haue sent hither other aduentures in suche fort that if in Palace there be for euery galant seuen dames there is in Courte for euery courtyer seuen Courtizanes For that Caesar is in Flanders the winter harde and the yeare déere also there is none at the court that willingly would be there but for necessitie Further your Lordship will that I write vnto you what I thinke of the duke of Veiar which gathered so great treasure in hys lyfe that at his death he left foure hundreth thousand Ducates This is a matter perillous to write and odious to heare but in the ende my iudgemente is that he wente to séeke care for himselfe enuie for his neyghboures spurres for his enimies a praie for théeues trauaile for his person anguishe for his spirite scruple for his conscience perill for his soule lawe for his children and cursses for his heyres Great contention and debate goeth betwixt the olde duchesse and the yong Duke and the Erle of Miranda and others his kinsfolke and heyres vpon the inheritaunce of his good and the succession of his house in such wise that there be many that eft procure to inherit his money and none that takes the charge of his discharge In the yeare 1523. I béeing sicke in Burgos the Duke came to sée mée and demanded who might properly be called couetous for the he had asked many none had answered vnto his minde and that which I answered at the sodeyn were these words The man the sitteth in the smoke when he may warme himself by a faire fire that may drinke good wyne and drinketh euill that may haue a good garment and goeth hard and ragged and that will lyue poorely to die riche he alone and no other wée maye name couetous and wretched And sayde further Beléeue mée my Lord Duke that I holde hym a more woorthie man that dothe venter to parte his riches than him that gathereth them together bicause for a man to be riche it is sufficient that he be diligent but to employ his greate riches he muste be a Gentleman and noble minded To that your Lordship doth demaūd my opinion of this towne of Medina I can saye vnto youre honour to my iudgement that it hath neyther grounde nor heauen for the heauens are always couered with Clowdes and the grounde with dirt in suche wise that if the neighbourhed do call it Medina of the field we Courtiers doe terme it Medina of the dirt It hathe a riuer that is called Sapardiell which is so déepe and daungerous that géese in sommer go ouer drye footed and as it is a riuer narrow and muddy it doth prouide vs many éeles and dothe couer vs with many Clowdes No more but that our Lord be your protector and giue me grace to serue him Frō Medina del campo the xviij of Iuly in the yeare 1532. A letter vnto the Bishop of Tui new president of Granado in which is sayd what is the office of Presidents MAgnificent and most reuerend Lorde and regall iudge I wish the new prouision that his maiestie hath bestowed vpon your honour for the Presidentship of this royal audience of Granado may be fortunate I can shewe youre lordship that in this countrey you are more knowen by your fame than by your persō Wherfore as you know you haue to trauaile that your life may be conformable vnto your fame also you haue to consider that if you come to iudge you shall also be iudged not of few but of many not of learning but of custome not of goods but of fame not only in publique but also in secret not of waightie causes but also of very small matters One of the greatest trauayls that Presidents haue and suche as gouerne common wealthes is that they doe not onely iudge what they doe but also what they thinke not only the things that they doe in earnest but also what they commit in iest in such sort that all things whiche they doe not with seueritie they iudge it for lightnesse Plutarke sayth in his politikes that the Athenians did note in Simonides that he spake loude The Thebanes accused Parniculus that he spet much The Lacedemonians sayd that Licurgus went stouping The Romains blamed Scipio that hée slepte snorting The Vticenses defamed the good Cato that he did eat with both his chéekes The enimies of Pompey murmured that he scratched with one finger The Carthaginiās reproued their Hanniball for that he went lose with his garments and the Sillanos charged Iulius Caesar that he went euill girt Behold sir how far the malice of man doth extend and in what things the ydle in the common wealth do occupie themselues to witte that they prayse not what the noble mynded doe take in hande as valiaunt men but condemne that whiche they doe of negligence With reason they mighte haue praysed Simonides that ouercame the battaile of Marathone Parniculus that reskued Thebes Licurgus that reformed his kingdom Scipio that subdued Carthage Cato that susteined Rome Pompeius that augmented the Empire Hanniball that was of a mynd immortall and Iulius Caesar that thought it little to bée Lord of the world Wherof we may gather that the people of a base soile do not speake of their betters and of the mightie accordyng as reason directeth but agréeable to that whiche enuie dothe persuade them Plinie sayeth that the Romanes onely in the prouince of Vetica held fiue iurisdictions conuented whiche is that of Gades Hispalis Emeritans Astaginensis Cordubensis they called Andelozia the Prouince of Vetica they named the Chauncellorships iurisdictions conuented Gades was Calis Hispalis was Seuill Cordubensis Corduua Meritensis Merida Astaginensis Ecija Of these fiue Chauncelorships the first and the greatest was that of Calis for there was resident the Counsell of the Prouince and in Merida were the men of warre I haue broughte all these antiquities vnto youre Lordships memorie therby to be aduertised and also to consider as there were then many presidents appoynted to gouerne ther were many of whom also to murmur but now you being alone the charge of murmuration wil light vpō you onely The people of this countrey are not lyke the people of your countrey for here they be sharpe suttle and greate dissemblers therefore I aduise and forewarne you that in hearing them you vse leysure and in your answers resolution As you shall perceiue more hereafter
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
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
lickt his handes fauned with his tayle helde downe hys head and couched downe vpon the ground shewing signes of old acquaintāce and that he was in his det and beholding vnto him The slaue séeing the fawnings and the curtesies that the Lion vsed with him cast himselfe downe vpon the groūd and créeping to the Lion and the Lion comming to the slaue they began one to imbrace the other and to faune as mē that had bin of old acquaintāce that had not séene in many yéeres To sée a thing so monstrous and strange at the sodain which the eyes of man had neuer séene neither in old Bookes had euer bin read the good Emperour Titus was amased and all the Romane people grewe astonied and did not presently imagine that the man and the Lion had bin of olde acquaintance and there knew ech other but that the slaue shoulde be a nigromantike and had inchaunted the Lion. And after the Lion and the slaue had played together renued their olde acquaintance and the people of Rome beholding a greate space the Emperour Titus commaunded the slaue to be cald before him the which comming to accomplish his commaundemēt the cruell Lion came after him so quiet and so gentle as if it had bin a house lamb brought vp by hand The Emperour Titus said vnto him these words tell me man what art thou of whence art thou what is thy name to whome didst thou belong what hast thou done what offence hast thou committed wherefore wast thou brought hither and cast vntoo the beastes may it happen that thou hast bred this most cruell Lion or hast thou known him by chaunce in times past wa st thou present when he was taken or hast thou deliuered him from any mortall perill perchaunce thou art a Nigromantike and hast enchaunted him I commaund thée that thou say vnto vs the truth what hath passed and deliuer vs of thys dout for I sweare vnto thée by the immortall gods this matter is so mōstrous so strange that it séemeth rather that we dreame it than behold it With a good courage with a hygh cleare voyce the slaue made aunswer to the Emperour Titus as followeth the Lion being layd at his foote and all the people in admiration Andronico recompteth by discourse all his life IT may please thée to vnderstande most victorious Caesar that I am of the countrey of Slauonia of a certayne place that is called Mantuca the which when they dyd rise and rebell against the seruice of Rome we were there al taken condemned to seruitude bondage My name is Andronico and my father was named Andronicus and also my grandfather This linage of Andronicos wer in our Countrey so noble and generous as Quintus Fabius and Marcus Marcellus be nowe in Rome But what shall I wretche do vnto fortune which do sée the sonnes of seruants there to be knightes and my selfe that was there a Gentleman in Rome become a slaue It is twentie six yeares since I was taken in my Countrey and so long agoe since I was brought vnto this Citie and also other twētie six since I was sold in the field of Mars and bought of a sawyer which when he perceyued that my armes were better giuen to handle a launce than to pull at a sawe he sold me to the Consull Dacus father to the Censor Rufus that is now aliue This Consull Dacus was sent by thy father Vespasian to a certain prouince in Affrica whiche is called Numidia as Proconsull to minister Iustice and as Captayne of the horsemen to vnderstande in causes of warre for that in verie trouth in the warres he had great experience and in gouernment muche wisedom Also great Caesar it may please thée to vnderstād that my maister the Consull Dacus ioyntely with the experience and wisedom that he had was on the other side proude in commaundemente and couetous in gathering together And these two things be brought to passe that he was yll serued in his house and abhorred in the common wealth and his principall entente was to gather money to make hym selfe riche so that although he had many offices and muche businesse he had no more in his house but my selfe and an other to do all the same in so muche I gathered and caste abroade did grynde fift and bake the breade And besides all this I dressed the meate I washed the clothes I swepte the house I dressed the cattel and also made beddes What wilt thou that I shal say more O most victorious Caesar but that his couetousnesse was so great and his pitie so little that he gaue me neither coate shoes or shirt and moreouer beside al this euery nighte he made mée to weaue two baskettes of Palmes which he made me to sell for eight Sextertios towardes his dispences And that night that I had not performed the same he gaue me nether to eate either left me vnwhipt But in the end séeing my master so continually to chide me so oft to whippe me to kéepe me so naked so to ouer worke me and so cruelly to deale with me I will confesse the troth vnto thée oh inuincible Caesar whiche is that séeing my selfe in so desperat a state and in a life so miserable I desired hym oftentimes that it mighte please him to sell me or else to giue order to kill me Eleuen yéeres continually I passed this wretched life with him without receyuing at his handes any rewarde or at his mouth any milde word And farther séeing in the Proconsul my master that euery day his anger increased and vnto me there was no trauell diminished and ioyntly with this féeling age cōming vpon me and my head to be hore mine eyes blinde my strength weake my health wanting and my hart desperat I determined with my selfs to runne away vnto the cruell deserts of Aegipt to the intent that some rauenous beast mighte eate me or that by pure hunger I might die And for that my master did not eate but what I drest him or drinke but what I broughte him wyth great suertie I might haue killed him and reuenged my selfe but that hauing more respect to the noblenesse of bloud from whence I was descended than to the seruitude that I suffered I thought it better to put my life in perill than to do treason to my noblenesse In the end my master the proconsull going to visite a certaine Countrey named Tamatha which is in the confines of Aegipt and Affrica when on a night he had supped and I saw him a bed I departed without knowing any high way but that I tooke care that the nighte might be very darke and did beholde the daye before whiche mountayne was most sharpe where I myght be most hidden and least sought for I caried with me but a payre of sandalles to weare a canuas shirt to put on a bottell of water to drinke and a little bunch of grapes to eate with whiche prouision I might haue bin
Lordship hath much may do muche deserueth much and therefore we all estéeme you very muche For me to be ignorant of the great estate of your persone of bloud so vnspotted of iudgement so delicate in letters of so great exercise and of so greate dexteritie in armes the cause were to great foolishnesse or to much lacke of wit. But let the cace rest let vs deuide all this vnkindnesse amongst vs whiche is to wit that your Lordship from hence forward deferre or put off your choler pardon Mansilla for forgetting his letter and also kind me to expound your doubts and after this maner we will giue amends to that which is past and vse silēce for the time to come Your honour demaundeth that I declare wherefore the Patriarch Abraham in the vale of Mambre and the Prophete Ezechiel neare vnto the riuer Cobar as holy scripture saith of them fell to the ground vpon their faces and contrariwise Heli the Prophet and the Iewes that tooke Christe fell backwards Your Lordship hath to consider that it is not so light or easie whiche you doubt of for if I be not deceyued it is a question that few men do moue and in a manner none dothe expound For notwithstanding I haue séene much and read much I can not remember me to haue considered or doubted neither at anytime to haue preached thereof I dare bée bold to say that by these two maners of fallings the one back wards and the other forwards do signifie two kindes of sinning For euen as to fall after the one manner or the other in the end all is falling so in like manner to sinne after the one sort or the other all is sinning Those that do fall vppon the backe and backwards we sée them haue their faces discouered and looking vp to heauen by these are to be vnderstood those which do sinne without the feare of God afterwardes haue no shame to haue sinned We sée by experience that he that falleth forwardes may helpe hym selfe to rise with hys hands with hys elbowes with his knées and with hys féete by this I woulde say that then we haue hope to come out of sinne when we shall be ashamed to haue sinned The contrary happeneth in him that falleth backwards that whych can neuer help him selfe with his handes or lift him selfe or stay with his féete By this I would say that the man that is not ashamed to be a sinner late or neuer shall we sée hym come out of sinne Plutarch and Aulus Gellius doe saye that no yong man of Rome might enter amongst the common women but wyth their faces very wel couered If ther hapned any so vnshame-fast that durst enter or come foorth discouered so openly was he chastised as if he had committed some forcible adultery It is to be noted that all those that fell forward were saints as Abraham and Ezechiel and on the contrary those that fell backwardes as Hely the priest of the temple and the Iewes that sold Christ were sinners Out of all this there may bée gathered how much and how greatly we haue to regard not only that we fall either so much as to stumble for we knowe not whether we shall fall forward as Abraham or backward as the vnfortunate Hely Considering we discend of sinners liue amongst sinners be conuersant amongst sinners and this world being in so great want of iust men we cannot deliuer our selues from all sinnes ioyntly therefore with thys let vs pray vnto the Lord that if he take away his grace that we do fall that he take not away shamefastnesse wherewith to arise Much is God offended with vs to sée how little we estéeme to sinne but he is muche more offended to sée howe slowly we remember to repent for they be very few that do leaue to sinne but at the time when they cannot more sinne Oh how many moe be they that fal backward with Hely thā forward with Abraham for if there be one that is ashamed of sinne there is an hundreth that account sinne but pastime Let euery man estéeme himselfe as he list and let euery man say what he supposeth but for my part I hold none for a greater sinner than he that accompts himselfe for very iust neyther do I conceyue for very iust but he that acknowledgeth himselfe to be a great sinner God doth well knowe what wee can do and he vnderstandeth very well the strength that we haue and thereof it is that he is not offended for that we bée not iust but bycause we doe not confesse to be sinners I returne to say that God doth not maruell that we be humane in sinning but that which doth offēd him is for that being as we are so great sinners we would well make the world beléeue that we be very iust Let the conclusiō be in this matter that they only fall backwards with Hely and with the Hebrewes that so without remorse sit downe to sinne as they would sit downe to eate and lie downe to sléepe Of that whiche I doe most maruell in this matter is that being as we are fallen into most grieuous sinnes we do so liue and go so contented as though we had receyued of God a safeconduit to be saued Behold here my Lord your letter answered Beholde youre doubt absolued Beholde here my fault excused And also behold here your choler remoued No more but that our Lorde giue you his grace and vnto me his glory From Madrid the xj of Nouember 1528. A letter vnto the Abbot of Monserrate wherein is touched the oratories that the Gentiles vsed that it is a better life to liue in Monserrate than at the Court. MOst reuerend and blessed Abbot in the eleuenth Calends of May your Monke brother Roger gaue me a letter of yours which I receyued with gladnesse and read with pleasure for that it was from your fatherhoode and brought by the hands of that graue Father Of Aurelianus the Emperour it is read that the letters which Domitius sent vnto him were so tedious that he heard them but did not answer them and the letters that the Censor Turinus sent him he himselfe did read them and with his owne hand aunswered them Of a troth there be men so tedious in their spéech and so without grace in writing that a man would rather be sicke of a feuer than heare their talke either reade their letters No man of any man ought to maruell since men be so diuers in complexion and so variable in condition that many times against our will the hart doth loue which were muche better to be abhorred and doth abhorre that which were better to be beloued I say this father Abbot to the ende you shall vnderstand that as oft as they say here is one of Monseratte my heart reioyceth to heare some newes from thēce and the eyes he quickened in readyng your letters Father you write vnto me that I aduertise you if in the olde tyme
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
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
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
and to driue the Erle of Alua de Lista out of Zamora If you enter in reckening with all those of your bande which goe in your companie certainly you shall fynde that passion was your foundation not reason neither zeale of the common wealth but ouermuche desire in euery one to augment his owne house and estate Sir Peter Giron woulde haue the possession of Medina the Earle of Saluatiera commaunde the royall Pastures Fernando de Aualoes reuenge his iniurie Iohn de Padilia be maister of S. Iames Sir Peter Lasso the onely ruler in Toledo Quintanilla Controller of Medina Sir Fernando de Hulloa expell his brother out of Toro the Abbot of Compludo obtaine the Bishoprike of Zamora the Doctor Barnardine the Auditor of Valiodolid Ramir nimez the possession of Leon and Charles de Arrelano ioyne Soria with Vorobia The wise man sayeth hée séeketh occasion that will depart from a frend in like maner we may say that sedicious men séek not but rebellious times for that it séemeth vnto them whiche want are in necessitie while rebellion lasteth they may feed of the sweate of other mens brows and profit by their neighbors losse The arte séemeth not a litle gracious which you haue vsed to deceiue and persuade Toledo Burgos Valiodolid Leon Salamanca Auila and Segouia to rebell saying that by this meane they shal be established and made frée as Venize Geneua Florence Sena and Luke in suche wise that from hencefoorth they shall not bée named Cities but Seigniories Musing what was to be said in this matter a good space I had my pen in suspence and in the end I conceiued that vpon so great a vanitie and mischief neuer lyke heard of there is nothing to be sayd much lesse to be written For I hold it for certain and dare auouch that you make not those Cities frée but a praye not entitle them with seigniories but profit your selues with their riches Those the wil take in hand any enterprise that naturally is seditious or offensible haue not to consider of the occasion that moueth thē to ryse but only the good or euil end which therof may procéed for all famous offences haue had always a beginning of good respects Silla Marius and Cateline whiche were famous Romains and glorious Captaines vnder the coloure to delyuer Rome from euill gouernours made themselues tirants of the same At sometymes it is lesse euill in greate Cities to beare with some want of Iustice than to moue the people and therby to raise warre for that war is a certain net that catcheth away all weale from the common wealth The great Alexander being demaunded for what cause hée would be Lord of the whole worlde made answere All the warres that are raised in this worlde is for one of these thrée causes which is eyther to haue goodes many lawes or else many Kings therfore would I obtain the same to cōmaund throughout the whole worlde that they honour but one God serue but one king and obserue but one law But let vs now conferre your Lordship with Alexander the great and we shal finde that he was a King and your Lorship a Bishoppe he a Pagan and you a Christian he bred in the warres and you in the Church he neuer heard of the name of Christe you haue sworne to obserue his Gospell and with all these conditions he would not for the whole worlde haue but one king and your lordship wold haue seuen only for Castile I say vnto your Lordship that you wold establish seuen kings in Castile for that you would make the seuen Cities of the same seauen seigniories The good and loyal gentlemen of Spayn vse to remoue kings to make one king and such as be traytours and disloyall do vse to remoue the King to make kings For vs and our friends we wil no other God but Christ no other law but the Gospell or other king but the Emperoure Charles the fifth And if you and your commoners will haue an other king and an other lawe ioyne your selues with the Curate of Mediana which euery sunday doth establishe and take away kings in Castile And this is the case In a certain place named Mediana which is néere vnto Palomera of Auila there was a Biskay priest and halfe a foote whiche was moued with so great affection to Iohn of Padilia that at the tyme of bidding of beads on the holy days he recōmended after this maner My brethren I commend vnto you one Aue Maria for the most holy communaltie that it neuer decay I commende vnto you an other Aue Maria for the maiestie of king Iohn of Padilia the God may prosper him I cōmend vnto you an other Aue Maria for the Quéenes highnesse our mistresse and Lady Mary of Padilia that God may preserue hir for of a troth these be the true kings and all the rest before time were tyrantes These prayers continued aboute thrée wéekes little more or lesse After whiche tyme Iohn of Padilia with his menne of warre passed that waye and the souldiers that lodged in the priests house inticed away his woman drank his wine kilde his hennes and eate vp his bacon The sundaye folowing in the Churche he sayde It is not vnknowne vnto you my brethren howe Iohn of Padilia passed this way and howe his souldiors hath left me neuer a henne haue eaten me a flitch of bacon haue drunke out a whole tinage of wine and haue caried away my Cateline I say for that from hencefoorth you shall not pray vnto God for him but for king Charles and for our Lady Quéene Ione for they be the true Princes giue to the diuell these straunge kings Behold here my Lord Bishop how the Curate of Mediana is of more power than your Lorshippe for that he made and vnmade Kings in thrée wéekes whiche you haue not performed in eyght moneths and yet I doe sweare and prophesie that the King that you shall establish in Castile shall endure as little as that king whiche was made by the Curate of Mediana No more but that our Lorde be your protectour and lighten you with his grace From Medina del rio secco the .xx. of December .1521 A letter vnto the Bishop of Zamora sir Antony of Acunna in whiche the Author doth perswade him to turne to the seruice of the kyng REuerend disquiet bishop by the letter of Quintanilla of Medina I was aduertised in what maner your lordship receiued my letter and also vnderstoode that in the ende of reading thereof presentely you beganne to groue and murmuring sayd Is this a thing to be suffred that the tong of Frier Antony of Gueuara may bee of more power than my launce and that he be not contented to haue withdrawne Sir Peter Giron euen from betwixte oure hands but also now euen here doth write me a thousand blasphemies It hath much pleased me that my letter was so wel cōfected that with such swiftnes it
gréeues and things amisse and to vnderstād for the remedie therof for by this meanes you should growe to more ripenesse for the things you haue to demaund and in our king and maister more facilitie in that whiche he shoulde graunt If it may please you to leaue your armour and giue faith vnto my words I sweare by the faith of a Christian by this letter of credence that I bring with me do promise you that you shall be pardoned of the king and well intreated of his gouernors that you shal neuer for this déed be chastized neither yet in wordes be blamed or defamed And bicause it shall not séeme that your zeale hath bin in vaine and that the Gouernours doth not desire the common wealth I will here shew vnto you what they wil do for the kingdome and what kindnesse on his Maiesties behalfe they will bestowe vppon you which is as followeth First they promise you that at any time whē the kings Maiestie shall be absent from this kingdome he shall place a Castilian to gouerne Castile bicause the authoritie greatnes of Spaine endureth not the gouernment of straungers Also they promise you that all the dignities holdings and offices of the kingdome and Court shall be giuen to Spaniards and not to straungers notwithstāding there be many noble personages that haue well deserued and in whome they were well employed Also they promise you that the royall rents of the people shall be rated at an indifferent rente in such wise that the Cities may haue reasonable gayne and no greate losse to the king Also they promise you that if in the regall counsell shal be found any examiner or any other officer although it be the president vnwise or vnapt for gouernement and not learned to giue sentence or not honest of lyfe that his maiestie shall absolue him of his office notwithstanding they may be affectionate to some and also offended like other men Also they promise that from hencefoorth his Maiestie shall commaund his Iustices of Court and Chauncery that they shall not vse their commaundements so absolute neyther their chastisements so rigorous notwithstanding that sometimes they be in some things fierce bycause they may be more feared and also more esteemed Also they promyse that from henceforth his Maiestie shall commaunde to reforme his house and also remoue the excessiue charges thereof considering that disordinate expences bryng forth newe tributes Also they promise you that for any neede the Kings Maiestie may haue hée shall not carry neither yet commaund to be caried any money out of this kingdome to bée transported into Flaunders Almayne or Italy considering that incontinent trafficke decayeth in kingdomes where money wanteth Also they promise that his Maiestie shall not permitte from henceforth Biscay Iron Alum of Murcia Vitailes of Andolozia nor Sackes of Burgos to be laden in straunge botoms but in shippes of Biscay and Galizia to the ende that straungers shall not robbe and our Countrey men to gayne whereby to eate Also they promise that his Maiestie shall not permit to be gyuen from henceforth fortresse Castell bridge gate or towne but vnto Gentlemen plaine and curteous and not vnto Gentlemen or Knights of power which in reuolting times may rise with the same considering that in the ancient times none might haue Artilery or Fortresse but the King in Castile Also they do promise you that from henceforth his Maiestie shall not permitte licences to cary corne into Portingall neyther from Mancha to Valentia consideryng that many tymes to haue licence to transport thither is here amongst ourselues cause of greate dearth Also with all breuitie his Maiestie wil commaund the contentions and matters in law to be examined and considered that haue bene continued betwixt Toledo and the Earle of Velalcassar and Segonia and sir Fernando Chichon and of Iaen with the towne of Martos and Valiodolid with Simancas and that of sir Peter Giron with the Duke of Medina considring that those in possession do delay and the dispossessed complaine Also they promise that the King will commaund to reforme the excesses giue lawe for banquets reforme Monasteries visit Chanceries repayre sorts and fortifie all the frontiers considering that in all these things there is necessitie of reformation and also of correction If you my Masters bée suche as you publishe your selfe throughout Castile whiche is to witte that you bée the redéemers of the Common wealth and the restorers of the libertie of Castile behold here wée offer you the redemption and also the resurrection thereof bycause so many and so good thinges as these are neyther did you remember to demaunde eyther woulde presume to craue nowe is the houre come wherein of necessitie it muste bée manifested whither you speake and meane one thing For if yée desire the generall wealth now is it offred you and if you pretend your particuler interest it may not be graunted you for speaking the troth it is not iust but most vniust that with the sweate of the poore common wealth you shoulde séeke to amend the state of your owne houses But let it be for cōclusion since we be here in the Churche of the towne of Braxima of my part I do humbly beséeche you vppon my knées and in the behalfe of the gouernours I doe request you and on the Kings name I commaund you to leaue your armour to discamp your camp and to vnfortifie Tordisillas if not I iustifie this offer for the gouernours that all the euils mischieues and slaughters that hereafter shall happen in this kingdome be vpon the charge of your soules and not vpon the burden of their conscience As I knéeled downe at the speaking of these last wordes forthwith came vnto me Alonso of Quintanilla and Sarabia bare headed and with great courtesie did help me to rise and forced me to sitte downe During the time I didde speake all that is aforesaid it was a thing to looke vpon and worthy consideration how some of them did behold me some did stampe some did eye me and also some did mocke me but I neuer the more did leaue to note either stay to speake After I had finished my Oration they all with one voice said and desired the Bishop of Zamora to speake his iudgemente and that afterwards they would all sée what were conuenient to be done Forthwith the Bishop toke me by the hand in the name of thē all he said vnto me Father frier Antony of Gueuara thou hast spoken sufficiently and also for the authoritie of thy habite as a man ouer rash but for that thou art a yong man and of small experience neither knowest thou what thou speakest eyther vnderstandest thou what thou demaundest eyther wast thou made a Frier being a boy or else thou art angrie or knowest little of this worlde or thou wantest iudgement since thou presumest to speak such things wouldest make vs beleue but thou father being stayd within thy monasterie knowest not of tirānies
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
and the Phisition betwixt them made bargayne the one to cure and the other to pay and if by chaunce he did not cure according to his promise and band in such a case the law commanded that the Phisition shoulde lose the trauell of his cure and also pay the Apoticary I assure you Master Doctor that if this lawe of the Gothes were obserued in these oure dayes that you and your companions would giue your selues more to study and would be better aduised in the things you shuld take in hand but for that you be very well payd whether the pacient be cured or not cured and if ye happen to performe the cure you attribute the glory vnto your selues but if not you lay all the fault in the poore pacient This appeareth most cleare for coÌ„monly you charge the pacient that either he is a glutton drinketh much water eateth much frute sléepes at noone doth not receyue that he is commaunded takes too much ayre or doth not endure to sweate in such wise that the sorowfull pacient which they cannot cure they do not forget to defame It séemeth not a little gracious vnto me that which your Ipochras affirmeth whiche is that the Phisition is not to be estéemed that of himselfe is not well fortunate whereof we may inferre that all our lift and health doth depende not in your medcines that you minister vnto vs but in the fortune good or bad that the Phisition holdeth He séemeth to haue small confidence in Phisicke that durst publish such a sentence for if we stay our selues by this rule of Ipochras we must flie the wise Phisition that is ill fortunate and séeke to be cured with him that is vnwise and fortunate In the yere of xviij I being sick in Osoruillo whiche is neare vnto your house of Melgar comming to visite me you sayd that I had to consider for that you had killed Sir Ladron mine Vncle Sir Beltram my Father Sir Iames my cosyn and the Lady Ynes my Sister and that if I had a mind to enter into that brotherhood you would rather vndertake to kill me than to cure me although Master Doctor you spake it in iest yet in déede it was most true for whiche cause since I heard you speake it and read that rule of Ipochras I determined in my heart neuer more to offer my pulse neither incommend my health vnto your counsell bycause in my linage of Gueuara your medcine is vnfortunate Of many famous phisitioÌ„s I haue séene performed diuers famous cures and of many foolish Phisitions I haue séene brought to passe many and great doltish follies I speak it for this cause master Doctor for in the hands of the Miller we lose but our meale in the Ferrar but our Mule in the Lawyer but our goodes in the Tayler but our garment but in the hands of the PhisitioÌ„ we lose our liues Oh how great necessitie ought he to haue how conuenient it is for him first to coÌ„sider that at his mouth hath to receyue a purgation or to consente that in his armes they let him bloud for many times it doth hapen that the sick would giue all that he hath to be deliuered of his purgation or to recouer his bloud into his arme In this whole world there be no men of more healthe than such as be of good gouernment and reck not to follow phisick for our nature craueth to be well ruled and very little to vnderstand with Phisicke The Emperour Aurelius died of the age of thréescore and sixe yeares in al which time he was neuer purged or let bloud neyther did vse Phisicke but euery yeare he entred the Bath euery moneth he did vomit euery wéeke he did forbeare to eate one day euery day dyd walke one hour The Emperour Adrian for that in his youth he was gréedy in féeding and disordered in drinking he came to bée in his age much gréeued and sickly of the goute with greate paine in the head whereby he went euer laden with Phisitions and of great experience of many medcines If any man be desirous to know the profit he found by phisick and the remedies be receyued of Phisitions he may easely vnderstand in that at the houre of his death he commaunded these words to be ingrauen vppon his tombe per â—… turba medicorum as if hée should speake more cleare mine enemies hauing no power to kill me am come to die by the hands of Phisitions They report a certain thing of the Emperour Galienus of a troth worthy to be noted and gracious in hearing whiche is that the Prince being sicke and very euill of a Sciatica a certayne famous Phisition had the cure of him which had vsed a thousaÌ„d experimeÌ„ts without any ease or profit on a certayn day the Emperour called and said vnto him take Fabatus two thousande sexter 〈◊〉 and also vnderstande that if I giue them it is not bycause it 〈…〉 hast cured me but for that thou shalte neuer more hereafter cure me To how many Phisitions might we say 〈…〉 those dayes as the Emperour Gabenus sayd vnto hys Phisition 〈◊〉 which although there be not named Fabates with greate reason we mighte tear me them Bobates for they neyther knowethe him 〈…〉 that offendeth the disease eyther 〈…〉 apply a necessary or conuenient medcine As God saiâ—… and master Doctor for my part I do firmely beléeue that it shuld be sounder counsel for vs for no cause to pay the ignorant Phisitions to the ende they shall not cure vs than for that they shoulde minister vnto vs for we â—…earely sée with our owne eyes that they kill more with their receipts froÌ„ the Apoticaries than their predecessors haue slayn fighting in the warres But this shall be the conclusion of my letter that I do accept approue praise and blesse medcine and on the other side I do curse reproue and condemne the Phisition that knoweth not to vse the same For according to that whiche youre Plinie sayeth speaking of medcine non rem antiqui damnabant sed artem As if Plinie should speake more cleare the auncient wise men and suche as banished Phisitions out of their common wealthes did not condempne medcine but the art of curing that men had inuented in the same for nature hauing layde vp the remedy of diseases in simple medcines they haue framed and shut it vp in things compound in suche wise that manye times it is lesse painefull to suffer the disease than to abyde the remedie No more but that our Lorde be youre protector and giue me grace to serue him From Madrid the xxvij of December 1525. A letter vnto Mosen Puche of Valentia wherein is touched at large how the husband with the wife and the wife with the husband ought to liue A letter for the new married YOng and new married GeÌ„tleman Mosen Puche to be married vnto the Lady Mary Gralla and the Lady Mary Gralla to be married with Mosen Puche from hence I
fortune The words of a very friend without dissimulation Men do order warres but God onely giueth victorie To one person and one matter fortune very seldome sheweth fidelitie What he ought to do that hathe continued long in the warres There is no greater trauel than to be ignorant of quietnesse Men oughte to trauell vntill they haue wherwith to defende necessitie He is in some hatred with fortune that is not suffred to repose in his owne house It is more to know how to enioy a victory than to ouercome a battell Our greatest trauels be of our owne seeking Both wisedome and eloqueÌ„ce in writing of a letter bee discouered In the courte men doe not but vndoe In the courte ther are thinges to be wondered as also to be shunned Newes of those dayes from Italy In Italy they win not so muche money as they learne vice Eight conditions of the courte and all verie perillous In the courte more despited than dispatched Death giueth feare but not amendment The ploughman reuewing the straightnes of his forough giueth note to the wise to examin their writings A letter ought to be pleasant to reade discret to be noted God dothe more for vs in giuiÌ„g vs grace than to take away temptations God doth know what he giueth vs but we know not what to craue To haue the occasion of sinne taken awaye is no small benefite of God. To be without temptatioÌ„ is no good signe The deuil procureth great welfare vnto his dearlings Notable examples against such as do persecute Very great bee the priuileges of the vertuous He incurreth great perils that coÌ„tendeth with the vertuous The certaine before the doubtfull is to be preferted A Kintall is a hundreth waight It is better to be than to seeme to bee vertuouse The conditioÌ„s of a friends letter A text of scripture expounded Vertue the vertues by exercise be conserued God hath more regarde vnto vs than we our selues Not the suffring but the pacieÌ„ce wherwith we suffer God regardeth The teÌ„ptation of the Deuill is limited It is lesse trauel to serue God than the world Good company is more pleasant then great fare The old Romanes were superstitious Places where the good wine of Spaine doth grow Terrible notes for the rich nigard The deed do here leaue their moneye and carie awaye theyr sinnes Horrible to liue poorely to die in great wealth Strange customes in a coÌ„mon welth are perillous Notable coÌ„dicioÌ„s of a good President The wordes of the eloqueÌ„t containe great efficacie A straunge example of an Orator A text of the Psalmist expounded It is lesse euill to enuie vs thaÌ„ to pitie vs The causes of hatred of Iulius Cesar and Pompeius Enuie bendeth his artillerie against prosperitie Behold the fraternitie of enuie Courtiers loose time Iniuries don by the almightie are to bee dissembled The trefull of al men and at all times abhorred In him that gouerneth ire is perilious A notable example to reâ—traine ire An example of the heathen to be noted and learned For the doubt of vice libertie refused Libertie craueth wisdome Twelue coÌ„dicioÌ„s of Rome variyng from Christes law A condicion at be in braced A rewarde after death A darke Epitaph expounded He is depriued of libertie that discouereth a secret It staineth a Gentleman to tell a lye Fiue Knightes throwne downe Sometimes some things vnfortunat To profite by sicknes declareth great wisedome Priuileges profites obtained by sicknes Anger 's and excesse be no small enemies to health To manifest the secrets of Princes is perillous An olde Epitaph Who dyd write the historie of the Sibils The historie of the man and the Lion. Great liberalitie vsed in feastes Did acquaintance renued betwene a maÌ„ and a Lyon. The Emperour Titus talketh with a slaue A slaue and also noble was Andronicus Auarice is cause of great infamie Foure sextertios amounte to .iiij. d. Where noblenesse dwelleth no treason haunteth An extreme distresse A passing toye Beastes doe feele benefits The Lyon feedeth his Chirurgian Absence extremely lamented The slaue craueth mercie The people of Rome make humble supplication for the slaue Note the authors of the historie Of what things they murmur in the Court. Who be great murmurers The order of the noble or gentlemans house The sinne of Ingratitude before God is detestable Zorzales blackbirds He is not to be holden for noble that hath much but that geueth much The poore do reuenge with teares To forget an iniurie proceedeth of singular wisedome Things that many desire but few obtain Conditions of a good iustice The conditions of Iudges vsed to be choseÌ„ in Rome The office of Iustice is to be giuen for merit and not for affection Euill iudges do execute the purse and not the person Iudges ought to dispatche with speed and answere with pacience Humanitie to all men of the mighty is to be vsed Of all men to be noted The womans armour is hir tongue True gentilitie pitieth the distressed Brothers children A speciall aduenture The pretence of priuate profite is voyde of all good counsell A notable measure A quent of Meruedis whiche be .6 a penie amouÌ„t 2500. Ducates The harte of man is moste excelleÌ„t in his kynde CommeÌ„dable qualities A notable secret in the yere climatik A perillous time for old men Notable conditions of a noble man. A lesson for Lords The expositioÌ„ of the text To be ashamed of sinne is hope of ameÌ„dment No greter sinner than he that presumeth to be good Oracles of old time Antigonus to be noted Gods grace doth only saue vs. A benefit due to suche as serue princes Badges of Christ Withoute grace a soule is lyke a body without life To drinke of the one or of the other great choyce is to be vsed Rules for old men Conuersation for old men The exercise of good old men The notes of good old men Necessary prouision for olde men A diet for old men Temperance in old men prouoketh sleepe and auoydeth belke A conclusion with rules conuenient for old men A most certaine remedie for loue A sodaine and strange spectacle Note the eloquence of the Author The perfect condition of a friende Buried being alyue A good praise to a Gentleman The wyse man weepeth not but for the losse of a frend The honest care not to liue long but well Who is worthie of prayse The friende vnto the freÌ„d neither hideth secret nor denieth money Not in your labour but in patience Not the paine but the cause maketh the martir A poudred crane sent froÌ„ Asia to Rome Plato offended with Dionisius for eating twice on the day Seuen nations inhabited Spaine The importunat and the foole are brothers children A notable example of a pitifull Prince An answer of Cato to Ascanius The good Iudge wresteth his condition agreeable to good lawes An example for men to be intreated of other men A sugred speach A commendable eloquence Notes of Iulius Cesar of Alexander the great The order of the knights of the
which wanne Belgra HuÌ„garia Buda and Rhodes Semiramis Queene of Babylon set this Epitaph vp in the name of hir husbaÌ„d Ninus The Epitaph of Cata MaÌ„lia that was buried liuing The Epitaph of Athaolphus king of the Gothes The deflouring of a maideÌ„ was cause of the ruine of Spaine or rather the heresie of Arius wherewith they were infected was cause of that punishment The deflouring of a maideÌ„ was cause of the ruine of Spayne or rather the heresie of Arius wherewith they were infected was cause of that punishment The Moores being Lordes of all Spaine except Biscay the Mountaines which is Astiria Cantabria diuided it into kingdomes as Cordubia Carthage suche like A necessarie consideration betwixt will and necessitie A harde comfort An accompte to be made not what wee liue but howe we liue A counsell of Horace the Poet. Errors of mans life A superfluous care A sound couÌ„sell A smal boast of Anchises S 〈…〉 of 〈…〉 thi 〈…〉 Th 〈…〉 me 〈…〉 thei 〈…〉 An 〈…〉 eni 〈…〉 ceas 〈…〉 amoÌ„ 〈…〉 A straunge Sepulture A violence without all reason An art most barbarous An vse of the Chibirins most inhumayne The foure notable Sepultures in Rome A commendable manner of drunkennesse An amplification vpon a small cause An exposition of the .25 chapiter of Exodus A necessary maner to expounde the Scriptures A description of the Tabernacle A question An imperfection of all estates A note for the Pope and papistes An example not to be forgotten No smal part of iustificatioÌ„ to confesse our sinnes And yet vnperfect without correctioÌ„ Contempt of amendement yeldeth vtter confusion A chaunge of fashion The vnderstaÌ„ding of the snuffers of most pure and fine golde The snuffers of leade or yron to bee noted Notable qualities of a magistrate A notable example of king Dauid To be incommended to the memory of Princes A note for Iudges An excellent expoâ—â—tion An example to be imbraced For that God pardoneth sinners it is conuenient that sinners do pardon eche other To rowe agaynste the streame and fishe agaynste the winde The notes of Vertue The garmeÌ„ts wherewith a foole is clad An extreme excesse coÌ„mitted of Christ Thirste ceasseth not to coÌ„mit excesse Loue of effect more than of affection Wante of power but not of will is accepted Loue hath his maintenance by good workes Weake causes to obtayne the loue of God. Agaynst the heare of mundaine loue A diuine loue not vsed among men A most soueraine vnremouable loue Christ extended an ardent loue vnto vs before we had being A great cause of hope A loue neuer hard of An euerlasting loue The manner and frute of life in the Court of Spayne The commodities of the Court of Spayne A good rule for a Byshop A matter without remission The Gaditains be those of Caliz A possession and a secret commission to be noted A description of the situation of Carthage A most vnfortunate report of a neighbor A duble fute of a vertuous Lady An answer of a noble vertuous minde A chiefe point of Ladies of chast renowne A spectacle for yong Captaynes Scipio of singular continencie A rendred raunsome giuen to the mariage of an enemie A recompence for curtesie receyued Newes To be obstinate and opiniatiue expresseth enimitie to the troth The wise is knowen by the manner modestie of his talke The Inis dispute with their fists Psalme 63. King Dauid did Prophesie the errours and false interpretation of the Inis The GeÌ„tiles be excused of false interpretation of the scripture The Turks Moores and Sarasins were not acused by the prophesy of King Dauid to be false interpreters The Christians be defended of false interpretation of the Scriptures A manifest proofe that the Prophet only chargeth the Iewes of false interpretation Ieremy 31. A comfort vnto Christians The weale of the Christian is faith Many be saued without reading but not one person without beleeuing Loue is the law of Christians Chapter .49 A report as true as miserable An heauy destenie Nothing left but lies Nothing left but dregs Nothing but lies Nothing but dregges Nothing but lyes The beginning and ending of the Hebrew tong described The Iewes lost both the forme of their life and the maner of their speeche A maruelous desolation How where when and by whom the scriptures were falsifyed Aliama a troup or company A prohibitioÌ„ amongst the Iewes to reade the scriptures The Iewes doctors aleaged A most wicked exchange The apostles accused by the Iewes and defended by Christ A cause of error in the scripture CoÌ„gregatioÌ„s or Common wealthes The three cursed sectes Asees Saduces and Pharises The auctor knoweth the secretes of the Iewes The Iewes began to conuert Christians The Iewes coÌ„demne and dury the traÌ„slation of Abemiziel doubting the conuersion of the Iewes to Christ The firste traslatioÌ„ after the incarnation of Christ The seconde translation The thirde translation The fourth translation allowed in the Christian Churche A fifth traÌ„slatioÌ„ by Origen after Christ One of the great manifest causes of the false beleefe of the Iewes A Cruell suggestion of the Diuell Vanities affirmed by the Iewishe doctors This prophecie of Dauid verified vpon the Iewes This prophecie of Esay verified vpon the Christians Psal. 2. Psal. 30. Psal. 119. Psal. 20. ¶ The Table of the familiar Epistles of Sir Antony of Gueuara AN Oration made vnto the Emperours Maiestie in a Sermon at the triumphes vvhen the french king vvas taken fol. 1 An Oration made vnto the Emperours Maiestie in a Sermon on the daye of kinges vvherein is declared hovv the name of kinges vvas inuented fol. 4. A discourse or conference vvith the Emperour vpon certaine and most auncient stampes in metalles 12 A relation vnto Queene Germana declaring the life and lavves of the philosopher Licurgus 20 A letter vnto Sir Alonso Manrique Archbishop of Ciuile and Sir antony Manrique Duke of Nauara for the iudgemeÌ„t of a matter in coÌ„tentioÌ„ 21 A letter vnto the Constable Sir Ynnigo of velasco vvherin the Author doth persvvade in the taking of Founterabie to make profe first of his vvisdome before he experiment his fortune 38 A letter vnto sir Antony of cuninga Prior of saint Iohn in vvhich is saide that although there be in a Gentleman to be reprehended there ought not to be cause of reproch 41 A letter to the Earle of Miranda vvherin is expounded that text of Christ vvhich saith My yoke is svveete 45 A letter vnto sir Peter Giron vvherin the Author doth toutch the manner of auncient vvriting 53 A letter vnto sir Ynnigo of Velasco Constable of Castile vvherein th' author doth teach the breifnes of vvriting in old time 59 A letter vnto the Marques of Pescara vvherein the Author doth note vvhat a captaine ought to be in the vvarres 66 A letter vnto sir Allonso Albornos vvherein in is touched that it is a poynt of euill manner not to aunsvvere to a letter vvritten vnto him 72 A letter vnto sir