the Senat yet had they no power over the whole body of the Senat for they might well punish with death one Senator but they had no superioritie over the body of the Senat. So the body of the Senat and the body of the People were as it were alike and equall And as much authoritie had the lawes of the Senat which they called Senatus consulta as the lawes of the People which they called Plebiscita And therefore the emperours which by the Law Roiall succeeded in the place of the People only for the Senat did never despoile themselves of their authoritie to invest the emperour therewith had never power to decay the Senat neyther durst they ever enterprise it although some had a will thereunto as Nero Caligula and their like But as for the good emperours besides that they had no power to abolish the Senat they never had any desire thereof but maintained and conserved it and governed themselves by it and by it were they better obeied For we need not doubt but a people will more willingly obey a Law or Decree which shall have been sifted and examined in a great wise and notable an assembly such as was the Senate and will like it better and rather judge the Law to be founded upon reason and equitie than when it onely passeth through the braine of one sole man or of some small number Therefore the Emperour Alexander Severus never made Lamp in Alexand. law nor edict but he had on his Counsell twentie great and excellent Lawyers and fiftie other great excellent persons wise and well experienced And yet to the end that they might give their opinions more assuredly he first made them understand the matter upon which they must give their advise and after give time to consider thereof that their opinions might bee better digested resolved Therfore also the Emperour Theodosius ordained that no law should be availeable unlesse it were first L. humanum C. de Leg. concluded and determined with good and assured resolution of all the princes Consistorie and afterward received and approved by the Senat of Rome For saith he we know well that the ordinance of good Lawes and Edicts concluded with good Counsell and deliberation is the establishment of the assurednesse and glory of our Empire Therefore was it also that that great and wise Emperour Augustus Caesar did so communicate all the affaires of his Commonwealth with the Romane Senate Dion in August that as Dion saith he made a sweet and pleasant mingled harmonie of the Monarchicall estate with the estate of the Commonwealth And he not onely contented not himselfe to conferre with the Senate all affaires of importance and to take their advise but yet he would that the Senate should give him every yeare twentie Counsellors to be nigh him of his privie Councell in which Counsell he had alwaies many men very wise courteous and very modest such as the Lawyer Trebatius and that good and prudent Agrippa his sonne in law with that so learned and good a piller of learned men Mecoenas Therefore also Tiberius the Emperour the successor of Augustus although he was a Prince more abundant in vices than in vertues not daring wholly to stray out of his predecessors traces that good Augustus made nor ordained any thing of weight without the Counsell and advise of the Senate For this cause also breefely all the good Emperors as Vespatian Titus Traian Adrian the Antonines and others like communicated alwaies with the Senate upon all the great affaires of the Commonwealth and they bore themselves not like maisters but like Presidents of the Senat also they did not attribute unto themselves any title of honour nor enterprised to make any triumphs but such as was decreed and ordained by the Senate And by the contrarie the Emperours which were of no account such as Caligula Nero Comodus Bassianus Maximinus Heliogabalus and other like hated extreamely the Senate esteeming of it as their pedegoge and corrector and have caused many Senators to die thinking the more easily to command as they would having no controulers to withstand their wicked actions But the end was alwayes this that such as despised and would have annihilated the Senate have ever had an unluckie end and reigned not long time but have all been massacred and slaine young and have left unto their posteritie an infamie and most wicked memorie of them Herein is shewed a continuall successe of the just judgements of God against them which despised wise Counsell and contrary a felicitie and divine prosperitie in other Emperours which governed themselves by the good Counsell of the Senate and of the wise men of their privie Counsell For they raigned and held the Empire happily replenished with all goods honour and glorie and their subjects under them enjoyed good handling and good repose and tranquilitie And we need not doubt that such felicitie comming to good Princes the evill haps unto wicked Princes doe not proceed from God for as the wise man saith Good Counsell commeth from God and he that despiseth the gift of God Prov. 18. Eccle. 37. certaine it is that in the end he shall be well chastised Our kings of France of old used the same course that these good Emperors did For they often convocated the three Estates of the kingdome to have their advise and Counsell in affaires of great consequence which touched the interest of the Commonwealth And it is seene by our Hystories that the generall assembly of the Estates was commonly done for three causes One when there was a question In old time the general Estates wer held for three causes to provide for the kingdome a Governour or Regent as when kings were young or had not the use of their understandings by some accident or were captives or prisoners For in these cases the three Estates assembled to obtaine a Governour for the Realme Againe when there was cause to reforme the kingdome to correct the abuses of Officers and Magistrates and to bring things unto their ancient and first institution and integritie For kings caused the Estates to assemble because that many being assembled from all parts of the kingdome they might better be informed of all abuses and evill behaviours committed therein and might also better worke the means to remedie them because commonly There is no better Physician than he that knoweth well the disease and the causes therof The third cause why there was made an assembly of the Estates was when there was a necessary cause to lay a Tribute or Impost upon the people For then in a full assembly some shewed to them which were there which represented all the people the necessitie of the kings and the kingdomes affaires who graciously and courteously entreated the people to aid and helpe the king but with so much money as they themselves thought to be sufficient and necessarie And for this cause that which the Estates accorded to the king was
as saith very eligantly the Poet Horace A Supreame power devoid of Counsell good Fals of it selfe as though it never stood Carm. lib. 1. Ode 4. A Temperat power by God exalted is The Intemperat his hatred doth not misse 2. Maxime The Prince to shun and not to be circumvented of Flatterers ought to forbid Chap. 23 of the Prince his friends and Counsellors that they speake not to him nor to counsell him any thing but only of those things whereof he freely begins to speake or asketh their advise THe meanes to shun Flatterers which doe nothing els but make lies and report leasings pleasing Princes eares saith Machiavell is that he make knowne that he takes no pleasure in hearing of lies but that it is more agreeable unto his nature that men should freely speake the truth But because the Prince should too much debase his Maiestie to yeeld an eare to every one that will utter a truth unto him it is then requisite that he take a third way Therefore saith hee it shall bee good that the Prince hold alwaies nigh him some certaine number of vertuous people vvhich may have libertie freely to tell him truth upon all such things vvhereof he demands advise and not of any other things Forbidding and inhibiting them to speake to him of any thing but of that vvhere of he himselfe hath begun the talke After having understood their opinions he ought to deliberat vvith himselfe and chuse the Counsell that he shall find best MAchiavell making a countenance by this Maxime to counsell a Prince not to serve himselfe with flatterers teacheth him the very meanes wholly to be governed by them For there is none more truly a flatterer nor more dangerous than he that seeth before his eyes a thousand abuses and knoweth that his Princes affaires goe evill and yet either will not or dare not open his mouth to let him know them because herein lieth the principall dutie of a good and faithfull Counsellor to his Prince to declare unto him the abuses committed by his subjects be they Officers or privat persons that with good Counsell he may provide therefore The Prince knows not what is donâ— but by the mouth of his people And to attend whilest the Prince himselfe begin the matter first to his Counsell that should be in vaine for he cannot propose that which he knoweth not and it is a notorious and plaine thing that the Prince who is alwaies shut up in an house or within a troupe of his people seeth not nor knoweth how things passe but that which men make them see and know This was the cause wherefore Dioclesian complained so much of the flatterers of his Court which keeping close the truth of things fed him with smoke and so by that meanes made him commit many great faults in the administration of the empire But because that hystorie is worthy the marking I will recite it at length The Emperor Dioclesian was borne in a little village of a base and obscure race Pompo Laetus in Diocl. Vopis in Aureliano at Salon in Esclavonia yet in his youth and naturally he was so ambitious and covetous of honour that from a young souldier he aspired still more higher that he became a Captaine and from a Captaine to be a Colonell and from a Colonell to be a Lieutenant generall and cheefe of the armie and finally came to that great dignitie to be the Romane Emperour When he was come to the soveraign degree of all honours yet was his unsatiable ambition and covetousnesse of glorie unsatisfied for being Emperor he would needs be worshipped as a God and made his feet be kissed on which he ware golden shoes covered with pearles and precious stones after the manner of the kings of Persia But who would have thought that he would have given over the emperiall dignitie and so many honours as were done him yet in truth he did forsake all this and despoiled himselfe of his Empire which he resigned to Constantius Chlorus and Galerius and retired unto his house at Salon in Sclavonia where he lived yet more than ten yeares a privat man taking his pastime in gardening and rurall workes and never repented him whilest he was a privat man that he had despoiled himselfe of the Empire But if this be so strange a thing that a man so ambitious and that so well loved the honours of this world to rid himself of so great a dignitie did become as I may say a Gardiner and a Labourer of the earth yet more admirable is the cause wherfore he did this For it was for no other cause but for the hatred and evill will that he conceived against the flatterers of his Court which a thousand waies abused him whereunto he could not well give remedie he was so besieged betwixt their hands This hath been written by many Hystoriographers yea by Flavius Vopiscus who placeth flatterers amongst the principall causes of Princes corruptions And because this place likes me well I will translate it A man may aske sayth he What is it that maketh Princes so wicked corrupt First their great libertie and abundance of all things they have Secondly their wicked friends their detestable attendants their covetous Eunuchs their foolish and uncivile courtiers and too plaine ignorance of the affaires of their Common-wealth I have heard my father tell this that the Emperour Dioclesian returning unto a private life was wont to say that there is nothing harder than to know well how to play the Emperour Foure or five saith he will assemble and make a plot together to deceive the Emperour after they will say all with one voice what they will have him to doe The Emperour who is enclosed in his house cannot know the truth of things as they passe but by necessitie is constrained to understand nothing but what pleaseth them to tell him and make him understand so doe they cause him to give offices to men by themselves in post which merit them not at all and makes him cast out such as best deserve them for the good of the Commonwealth What shuld be said more to make short saith Dioclesian A good wise and vertuous Prince is bought and sold by such people Behold the very words of Vopiscus who evidently sheweth that Dioclesian was discontented to be Emperour because he was governed maugre his beard as they say by flattering Courtiers which caused him to abuse his estate But I leave you to thinke if this were not a straunge thing to see Dioclesian change his emperiall estate with a rusticke life for the displeasure he tooke at his flattering Courtiers for by the contrarie we commonly see that Princes rather please themselves marvellously to see flatterers and they cannot goe three paces but they have them at their tailes and more willingly doe they give their eares unto them than to good people which will tell them the truth of affaires that import their Estate And he that will tell
came there was much beloved of the souldiors as well because he resembled his father Amilcar as for his militarie vertues Not many yeares after he was chosen captaine generall of the Carthaginian armie But as soone as he was setled in that estate he accomplished the prophesie of Hanno for hee lighted the great fire of the Punicke warres against the Romanes whereby in the end the Carthaginians were utterly ruined All this proceeded but from the Partialitie which was at Carthage for as soone as the Hannonians reasoned one way the Barchinians must needs reason to the contrarie and they studied for nothing but that by the pluralitie of their voices their opinion might obtaine the upper hand without any care or consideration what opinion was the best And thus ordinarily happeneth it where there is any Partialitie For then men give themselves more to contradiction than to judge after an wholesome sentence and without passion of that which is profitable and expedient The Partialities of the houses of Orleance and Burgoigne in our grandfathers memorie were they not cause of infinit miseries and calamities wherewith France was afflicted by the space of more than threescore yeares and of the entier ruine of the Bourgonianne house Lewis duke of Orleance the alone brother of king Charles the sixt tooke for his devise Mitto Duke Iohn de Bourgoigne tooke for his Accipio challenging as it were thereby an egalitie with the only brother of the king under colour that he was richer than hee This commencement of contrarie devices which they caused to paint in their banners of their launces and on their servants liverie coats erected a great Partialitie insomuch as the duke of Bourgoigne enterprised to cause the duke of Orleance to bee slaine as hee did The children of the duke of Orleance because justice was not executed on their fathers massacre levied armes Duke Iohn also by armes resisted them insomuch as all the realme was partialized about the quarrell of these two great houses After duke Iohn was slaine at Monterean-fante-Yonne in a strange manner whereupon his sonne Philip willing to revenge himselfe sent for the Englishmen which he caused to passe through Fraunce and occupied at least the third part of the kingdome of France This duke Philip made peace with the king but he had a son Charles his successour who would never put trust in the king of Fraunce fearing himselfe because of the warres which his father and grandfather had raised in the kingdome but would needs graple with king Lewis the eleventh This king who was too good for him raised him up so many enemies on all sides that the house of that duke came to ruine Behold the fruits of partialities which Machiavell recommendeth so much to a prince And hereupon should well be noted the saying of master Philip de Comines That Divisions and partialities are very easie to sowe and are a sure token of ruine and destruction in a countrey when they take root therein as hath happened to many monarchies and commonweales De Comines to prove his alledged saying setteth down other examples The Partialitie of the houses of Lancaster and Yorke in England whereby the house of Lancaster was altogether ruined and brought downe and the one house delivered to the other seven or eight battailes betwixt three and fourscore princes of the royall blood of England and an infinit number of people This here is no small thing but it is rather an example which should make us abhorre all Partialities Hee further saith That by the meanes of the said Partialitie betwixt these two houses many great princes and lords were banished and chased from England and amongst others that he saw a duke of the house of Lancaster the cheefe of the league of that house and brother in law of king Edward the fourth who saved himselfe in Bourgoigne yet in so poore estate that hee went bare foot and without hose after the traine of duke Charles of Bourgoigne demaunding his almes from house to house Hee after reciteth the tragicall acts of the duke of Warwicke of the kings Edward and Henry of the prince of Wales of the dukes of Glocester and Somerset which are strange hystories that cannot be heard or read without great horror and cannot but make men detest all Partialities and divisions In the time that Anniball made warre upon the Romanes there were created Titus Livius lib. 1. 7. Dec. 3. lib 4. 5. Dec. 1 Consuls together at Rome Marcus Livius and Claudius Nero which bore great enmitie one towards another and of long time The Senate fearing that these enmities betwixt those two Consuls should cause some Partialities in the administration of their estate which might turne to the domage of the publicke good admonished them both to be reconciled together Marcus Livius made answere That it was not needfull and that their enmities and Partialities should cause them with envie to seeke one to doe better than another but the Senate was not of that advice For they remembred that in the time of the Proconsulship of Quintius Paenus Caius Furius Marcus Posthumius and Cornelius Cossus the Romane armie had been vanquished and chased by the Veians because of the Partialities of the cheefetaines which could not accord in their counsels and deseignes but tended alwayes to contrarie ends The like also happened in the Proconsulship of Publius Virginius and Marcus Sergius But the most memorable and latest example which the Senate had before their eyes was the losse of the battaile at Cannes where the Romans lost fiftie thousand men which losse happened by the discord Partialitie of two cheefetaines Paulus Aemylius and Terentius Varro These examples mooved the Senate to exhort these two Consuls Livius and Nero to a reconciliation not beleeving that their Partialitie could serve them for any thing but evill to conduct the affaires of the commonweale insomuch as being constrained by the Senates authoritie they accorded and reconciled themselves together and very well acquited themselves in their charge and overthrew together a succour of fiftie thousand men which Asdruball conducted and brought over into Italie to Anniball his brother In this defeat also Asdruball himselfe was slaine and his head secretly carried and cast into Annibals campe who yet knew no newes of that journey When Anniball saw the head of his brother he then deplored his fortune and despaired of his affaires knowing that the Roman vertue would never bow nor stoope for either misfortune or calamitie The reconciliation then and concord of Marcus Livius and Claudius Nero were the cause of a great good and utilitie to the commonwealth and remounted the affaires Concord very profitable to the common-wealth thereof into a great hope and abated the pride that Anniball had taken of the battaile at Cannes as also by the contrarie the Partialitie of Paulus Aemylius who was a wise captaine and of Terentius Varro who was very rash and headie was the cause that the Romane
exercised therein but the excesse is often pernitious as it was in many particular Romanes in Caesars time which were so exceeding opulent rich that their excessive riches drew them out of the limits of vertue to give themselves unto all luxurie and to enterprise novelties and changes But when I say that unmeasurable riches are pernitious most often to particular A prince ought not to the sawrize persons I meane also of the person of a soveraigne prince For it is neither good nor profitable that a prince doe treasure up nor make heapes of riches for it serves but for a bait to draw unto him enemies or to engender quarrels and divisions after him we often see that princes great treasures are causes of more evill than good That infinit treasure of threescore and seven millions of gold which Tiberius left after him for what good purpose served it It served to commit a thousand villanies and unprofitable expences full of corruptions which Caligula would never have made if he had not found that treasure And the treasure which Charles le Sage king of Fraunce left behind him wherefore served it but to sowe enmitie and division amongst brethren for Lewis duke of Anjou got it for which the dukes of Berry and Bourgoigne bore him evill will and on their sides also to get treasures they caused great exactions to be laid upon the people And what good did this treasure to the duke of Anjou but tended to the destruction of him and his treasure in the conquest of the realmes of Naples and Sicilie The great treasures of king Croesus of Lidia incited him to warre against king Sirus of Persia and Media to his owne destruction The treasures of Perseus king of Macedonie made him put so great confidence in his forces that hee would needs have warre with the Romanes and so lost all together with himselfe Breefely it is neither good nor profitable for a prince to heape up nor to have great treasures and riches enclosed in one place And what then must a soveraigne prince be poore No But contrarie he had need bee rich and very opulent for otherwise he shall be feeble and weake and cannot make head against his enemies but his riches and treasures must be in the purses and houses of his subjects that is to say a prince must so deale that his subjects by good handling The surest treasure of a prince is in the subjects purses and maintenance of good peace may abound and be rich that their townes may be maintained in their liberties and franchises and in free commerce and that the labourer and all others may be comforted and preserved from extraordinarie and excessive imposts and from exactions and pillings of magistrates and of a companie of ruffians and violent persons which under colour that they hold the place of an Archer in the kings militarie ordinances or some horseman therefore will they eat and ruinate the poore labourer and others under colour of a commission to receive tenthes and of others under pretext to receive some taile or money royall and of others under diverse other pretexts For to say true the pettie and inferiour people is as much or more foiled and spoiled by magistrates and such as usurpe the office of magistrates as by the imposts of mony which are destined for the prince If a prince then shoot at this marke that through all his countrey and lands of his obedience his subjects be rich and abundant and that there be the greatest number that can be of good and rich houses then shall there be so many treasurers for him and he shall never want in his need For the nobleman shall servein good order yea at his owne expences if need be in affaires of warre the merchant and laborer shall furnish him with silver and souldiors the Cleargie will willingly contribute their tenthes breefely the prince shall find ordinarily good and assured recourse in his subjects purses which will be the best treasuries he can have for in place to give great wages to other treasurers which can often subtilly steale from their prince without being perceived these treasurers will take no wages of their prince nor steale from him neither will his treasure perish in their hands And truly the true and assured riches of a prince which he cannot lese and which cannot faile him is the richesse of his subjects for other of the princes treasurers may be undone by the povertie of collectors of the princes debts or by some other chance of warre or shipwrack but the treasure that is in all the peoples hands is not subject to hazards And therefore the prince cannot better treasure up wealth and enrich himselfe than by growing rich by good dealing with his subjects The Venetians which are wise Politickes use this For it is a capitall crime in their commonwealth to speake of gathering money for a publicke treasure But their particulars are so rich that the publicke cannot bee poore By the abovesaid reasons it seemeth unto me that the Maxime of Machiavell is Povertie makes men enterprise novelties sufficiently confuted and that it is seene that a prince for the good of his estate ought to maintaine his subjects rich and not poore For to say that poore subjects will be more tractable and obedient and will more easily thrust their heads under the yoke and wil better beare burdens when they are laid upon them it is rather contrarie This was the opinion of the emperour Galba who said when one told him that Vitellius enterprised upon the empire that there were no people lesse to be feared than such as are every day in thought to live and therfore he being such an one was not to be feared But Galba knew well in the end to the losse of his life that his saying was not true and that a person in necessitie will seeke all meanes good bad right and wrong to obtaine his purpose The same cause of povertie made also Otho to enterprise to aspire to the empire For he himselfe said that he had rather die in warre in hazarding himselfe to come to an empire than to die in prison for his debts Therefore said Iulius Caesar to such as were poore and great spenders or which were loadened with crimes that they stood in need of a civile warre meaning that the Sueto Caesar Dict. cap. 1â—1 best meane to put away their povertie was to see pilleries and thefts permitted as they are in civile warres to gather silver and other goods good cheape with little labour And to this purpose is very notable the sentence of Salust Alwaies saith he men of one citie which have no goods doe envie good people doe make most account of such as are naught doe hate the present government and desire a new and disdaining their owne affaires doe studie for a change because povertie cannot incurre any hazard of losse If it were needefull to confirme this by examples to shew
place untill these Offices were reduced to their auncient number as it was in the time of king Lewis the twelfth And by the same meanes it was also ordained That the said Offices should be no more sold but conferred and bestowed by the king at the nomination of men notable and of qualitie in every place to persons having good reputation of honestie and whose abilitie in knowledge shall bee examined extemporally at the opening of a booke before their reception But the Machiavelists have rased and quashed these two articles The Machiavelists have made deare Offices in France the last to have silver for the sale of Offices and the first to bring foyson and abundance of marchandize for the greater number there are of Offices so much the better is the trafficke and commerce because there are every day more times of respite whereof to make money And wee must not thinke that the abundance of Offices hath brought a low prise cheapnesse to their marchandize For contrary it hath made them dearer by a third or halfe within this tenne yeares insomuch as an Office of a Counsellor in a parliament which was not wont to cost past three or foure thousand Franks will now cost two or three thousand crownes of the Sunne And the Offices of Presidents and Procurers Generall which were not woont to be sold are within this little time sold as all other Offices at the tax and price of tenne twelve fourteene yea twentie thousand franks according as they are and according to the greatnesse of the parliaments For they are not all at one price But I pray you upon whom do our Machiavelists of France bestow these Offices upon beasts or ambitious men For learned men will not buy them if they be not drawne on by ambition but they had rather be reputed as Cato said being put by the Praetorship which he demanded worthie to be Presidents or Counsellors than to be so in effect by the price of silver As for them which are beasts and ignorant they have some reason to make provision for that marchandize to get whereof to live and pay their debts otherwise should they die for hunger or els bee despised and pointed at with the finger for that by reason of their ignorance they shall be employed in no affairs of Iustice and shall have no practise And truly these be they which within this little time have made this kind of marchandize so deare For because they are in great number thy run thither fast with great desire to have Which is the cause that the Machiavellists seeing so many marchants to arrive so exceeding eager to buy doe hold up without all reason the price of their marchandize and will by no meanes depart with it but to him that offereth most But I will not here stay to dispute against these buyers and sellers For I am of opinion that all their processes shall bee made at the first Estates that are holden By the resolution then of the Estates of Orleance it is seene That this Maxime of Machiavell was reprooved and condemned and that it is neither good nor profitable for the commonwealth that there should bee a great number of Officers of lustice but that it were better there were a meane number of them And this might easily be judged and knowne by naturall reason For the prince which shall establish a great number of Officers to administer Iustice either he must make a multiplicitie of degrees of Officers or he must establish many in one same degree If he make many degrees of Officers then Iustice shall be longer and more prolonged and pernitious because they which plead must passe through the hands of many Officers by many instances from one degree to another And therefore it is evident that the multiplicitie of Officers in degree cannot bee but domageable and pernitious If the prince make a multitude of Officers in one same degree as was done in Fraunce when Presidiall seats were instituted when new Counsellors of parliament were added to the old and when many lieutenants and other Officers were new created the great number will not cause Iustice to bee better nor more promptly ministred but contrarie shall bee the cause of great charge and procrastination For much time goes away whilest many Iudges are gathered together to one place to reason one after another and after as saith the Proverbe Affaires to many committed Are alwayes carelesly regarded Moreover suters alwayes desire with their owne mouthes to informe the Iudge of the principall points of their cause fearing something should bee left out either by negligence or too much hast And withall which is said in a common proverb That the lively voice toucheth better than the writing and better engraveth a thing in the spirits of men This desire of the parties to cause the Iudge well to understand their right is not reprehensible but just and reasonable and which ought not to be denied them yet in the meane time the multiplicitie and great number of Iudges maketh this point very difficult and uneasie For men have not so soone spoken to all and finding one he straight finds not another Moreover if the matter to judge be easie and without difficultie wherefore serves it to assemble a great sort of Iudges to decide the cause since one alone can as well dispatch it as many And withall that one alone can rid more matters in his studie in a day or two than an assembly can doe in a moneth For a man may labour his cause at all houres in the morning all the day at night by candle light on holy dayes and working dayes whereas the bodie of an assemblie will not travailene sit but certaine houres and on certaine daies If the matter to be judged be difficult hard it may seeme at the first that many can better judge of it than one alone because many eyes see clearer than one eye alone and withall there is not so great appearance of corruption in many as in one alone But for these difficulties there are other easier provisions than by multiplication of Officers For there needs but good consideration to establish in every subalterne seat one Officer alone which were a good man of good knowledge and well stipended For being a just man and well stipended he will not be easily corrupted lesse a great deale it may bee than a great number of such as are at this day and beeing learned and of good knowledge hee will easily resolve difficulties withall also in a case of difficultie he may take for an assessor some one of the most sufficient Advocates of his seat privatly heare in his studie the parties and their Counsell upon their hearing to resolve of the difficultie in deed and in right yea he himselfe with wise inspection into all things with the helpe of his bookes may dispatch and rid himselfe out of all difficulties being learned and of good judgement as he had need be Moreover
happie memorie For during his raigne and before the kingdome was governed after the meere French manner that is to say following the traces and documents of our French auncestors But since it hath governed by the rules of Machiavell the Florentine as shall bee seene heereafter Insomuch that since that time untill this present the name of Machiavell hath beene celebrated and esteemed as of the wisest person of the world and most cunning in the affaires of Estate and his bookes held dearest and most precious by our Italian and Italionized courtiers as if they were the bookes of Sibilla whereunto the Paynims had their recourse when they would deliberate upon any great affaire concerning the common wealth or as the Turkes hould deare and precious their Mahumets Alcaron as wee have said above And wee neede not bee abashed if they of Machiavells nation which hould the principall estates in the government of France have forsaken the ancient manner of our French ancestors government to introduct and bring France in use with a new forme of managing ruling their countrie taught by Machiavell For on the one side every man esteemeth and priseth alwaies the manners fashions customes other things of his owne countrey more than them of an others On the other side Machiavell their great doctor Cap. 3. De Princ. Discourse lib. 2. cap. 30. lib. 3. cap. 43. Machiavells slanders against the kings and the people of France describes so well France and the goverment thereof in his time blaming and reprehending the Frenchmens conduction of affaires of Estate that it might easily persuade his disciples to change the manner of French government into the Italian For Machiavell vaunteth that being once at Nantes and talking with the Cardinall of Amboise which was a very wise man in the time of king Lewis the twelfth of publike State affaires hee plainly tould him that the Frenchmen had no knowledge in affaires of Estate And in many places speaking of French causes hee reprehendeth the government of our abovenamed kings Charles the eight and Lewis the twelfth yea hee hath beene so impudent speaking of that good king Lewis rebuking him for giving succours unto Pope Alexander the sixt that hee gives him the plaine lie saying hee belyes himselfe having passed Italie at the Venetians request yet succoured the Pope against his intention And in other places hee calls our kings Tributaries of the Suisses and of the English men And often when hee speaketh of the Frenchmen hee calleth them Barbarous and saith they are full of covetousnesse and disloyaltie So also hee taxeth the Almaignes of the same vices Now I beseech you is it not good reason to make so great account of Machiavell in France who so doth defame reproove the honour of our good kings of all our whole nation calling them Ignorant of the affaires of Estate Barbarous Covetous Disloyall But all this might bee borne withall and passed away in silence if there were not another evill But when we see that Machiavell by his doctrine and documents hath changed the good and ancient government of France into a kind of Florentine government whereupon we see with our eies the totall ruine of all France It infallibly followeth if God by his grace doe not remedie it soone that now it should be time if ever to lay hand to the work to remit and bring France againe unto the government of our ancestors Hereupon I humbly pray the Princes and great lords of France to consider what is their duties in this case Seemeth it most Ilustrious Lords seeing at this time poore France which is your countrey and mother so desolate and torne in sunder by strangers that you ought to suffer it to be lost and ruinated Ought you to permit them to sowe Atheisme and Impietie in your countrey and to set up schooles thereof Seeing your France hath alwaies been so Zealous in the Christian Religion as our ancient kings by their pietie and iustice have obtained that so honourable a title and name of Most Christian Thinke you that God hath caused you to be borne into this world to help to ruinate your countrie or coldly to stand still and suffer your mother to be contaminated and defiled with the contempt of God with perfidie with sodomie tyrannie crueltie thefts strange usuries and other detestable vices which strangers sowe heere But rather contrarie God hath given you life power and authoritie to take away such infamies and corruptions and if you do it not you must make account for it you can looke for but a greevous iust punishment If it be true as the Civilian lawiers say That he is a murderer and culpable of death which suffereth to die with hunger the person unto whom he oweth nourishment And shall not you be culpable before God of so many massacres murders and desolations of your poore France if you give it not succours seeing you have the meanes and that you are obliged thereunto by right of nature Shall you not be condemned and attainted of impietie Athisme and tyrannie if you drive not out of France Machiavell and his government Heere if any man will inquire how it appeareth that France is at this day governed by the doctrine of Machiavell the resolution heereof is easie and cleere For the effects which France governed by the doctrine of Machiavell we see with our eies and the provisions and executions of the affaires which are put in practise may easily bring us to the causes and Maximes as we have abovesaid which is one way to know things by ascending from effects and consequences to the knowledge of causes Maximes And whosoever also shall reade the Maximes of Machiavell which we shall handle heereafter and discend from thence into the particularities of the French government hee shall see that the precepts and Maximes of Machiavell are for the most part at this day practised and put in effect and execution from point to point Insomuch that by both the two wayes from the Maximes to the effects and from the effects to the Maximes men may clearely know that France is at this day governed by the doctrine of Machiavell For are they not Machiavelists Italians or Italianized which doe handle and deale with the seales of the kindgome of France Is it not they also which draw out and stampe Edicts Which dispatch all things within and without the realme Which hould the goodliest governments and fermes belonging unto the Crowne Tea if a man will at this day obtaine or get any thing in the Court for to have a good and quicke dispatch thereof hee must learne to speake the Messereske language because these Messers will most willingly heare them in their owne tongue and they understand not the French no not the tearmes of iustice and Royall ordinances Whereupon every man may coniecture and imagine how they can well observe or cause to be observed the lawes of France the tearmes whereof they
called with these gracious names Subsidies Subventitions Aydes Grants not with these tearmes Tailles Imposts Tributes Impositions which were tearmes more hard and odious Examples appeare of the first cause when the generall Estates assembled at Paris after the death of king Charles le Sage to provide for the government as well of king Charles the sixt being under Annal. upon An 1380 and Fross li 2. cap. 58. 60. age as of the kingdome which government they gave unto three of the kings uncles namely to the Duke of Berry Languedoc to the Duke of Bourgoigne Picardie and Normandie and to the Duke de Aniou the remainder of all the realme and the rule of the young kings person was committed to the said Dukes of Berry and Bourgoigne So was there ordained during the said kings life another ordinance In like manner the generall Estates were held at Tours after the decease of king Lewis the eleventh to purvey for the government of king Charles the eighth under Annal. upon An. 148. and Coâ—â—n â—ib 1. ca. 109. age and of the kingdome And by the same Estates was established a Counsell of twelve persons good men and of good calling to dispatch the affaires of the kingdome yet in the kings name and under his authoritie And the rule of the young kings person was committed unto Madame de Beavien his sister When king Charles the sixt le bien aime was come to the age of one and twentie yeares his uncles were discharged from the government of the kingdome by the Froiss lib 1. cap. 134. lib. 4. cap. 44. advise and deliberation of the kings great Counsell But this good prince by an accident of sicknesse fell a certaine time after into a frenzie which sometimes bereaved him of his sences insomuch that the Estates assembled at Paris gave the government of the kingdome during the kings indisposition to his two uncles the dukes of Berrie and Burgoigne The yeare 1356. that king Iohn was taken prisoner nie Poictres at the journey of Annal. upon An. 1356 and Fross li. 1. cap. 170. 171. Maupertins with his sonne Philip after Duke of Burgoigne and that they were led into England there remained in France three of the said king Iohns children namely Charles Dauphin and duke of Normandie Lewis duke de Aniou and Iohn duke of Berrie There was a question about the providing for the government of the kingdome because of the kings captiuitie but none of them would enterprise the mannaging thereof of himselfe insomuch that the generall Estates were assembled at Paris whereby were elected thirtie six persons some say fiftie to governe the affaires of the kingdome with Monsieur le Dauphin who at the beginning called himselfe the Lieutenant of the king his father but afterward he named himselfe Regent The yeare 1409. during the raigne of Charles the sixt king of France were held Monstrelet lib. 1. ca. 59. the generall Estates at Paris for the reformation of abuses in the kingdome And there it was ordained that all accountants for the kings revenues and rents should make their accounts By the meanes of which reformation great summes of money were recovered upon the same accountants and there were also made some good lawes and ordinances In other conventions of Estates the money and coine hath been reformed from weake and light unto thicke and of good waight and goodnesse Also of late at the generall Estates held at Orleans were made manie goodly ordinances for the good and comfort of the poore people reformation of justice and for the cutting off of manie abuses which were committed in plaies at Cardes and Dise in superfluitie of apparell and in matter of benefices But commonly commeth such euill hap that all good things which are introducted and ordained vpon good reason and to a good end incontinent vanish away and wicked examples are alwaies drawne into consequence As for the last cause for which we haue said the generall Estates in old time were called namely for the graunt of Helps Subsidies ther are manie examples in our Histories As in the time of king Iohn wherein the Estates accorded great subventions Froiss lib. 1. cap. 155. Annal. upon An 1354 58. 59. or subsidies to make warre against the English men which then held a great part of the kingdome And after he was taken prisoner and led into England the said Estates agreed to give vnto Monsieur le Dauphin his soune great summes of money to pay for the said kings raunsome and for Philip his sonne being also a prisoner And well to be marked it is that our histories doe witnesse that all the people of France generally were meruailously anguished grieved with the prisonment captivitie which they saw their king suffer but especially the people of the countrey of Languedoc For the Estates of the said countrey ordained that if the king were not delivered within a yeare that every one both men and women should lay by all coloured garments such also as were jagged and cut and such as were enriched with gold silver or other strange and costly fashion Likewise to make cease all stage-plaies morrisdauncings piping yea and plaies pastimes and daunces in signe and token of their mourning and lamentation for their princes captivitie A thing whereby appeared the great and cordiall affection of this people towards their king As truely the Frenchmen have alwaies been of great love and affection towards their kings unlesse they were altogither tyrants But to make an end of this point Certaine it is that before king Charles the seventh called le Victorieux no Subsidies were imposed without assembling the generall Estates And that our kings used thus to do was not because they had power by an absolute authoritie to impose tallages and subsidies without calling the Estates but it is to the end they may be better obeyed with a voluntarie and unconstrained obedience and to shunne all uprores and rebellions which often happen upon that occasion And truly the French people have alwaies been so good and obedient unto their kings that they never refused him any thing if there were but any appearance of reason to demand it Yea often the Estates have granted their king more than he would demand or durst looke for as is seene by that which our histories write of the Estates held for Subsidies But because Aydes and Subsidies were customably granted for the making of De Com. lib. 5. cap. 18. warres M. Philip de Comin saith That kings should also communicat and consult with their Estates whether the causes of such warres be just and reasonable and that the Prince cannot nor ought not otherwise to enterprise a warre For it is reason that they which defray the charges and expenses should know something But yet he passeth further and saith There is no Prince in the world which hath power to lay one pennie upon his subjects without their grant and consent unlesse he will use tyrannie and
death so that by the incestuous mariage wherewith Claudius had contaminated and poysoned his house he and his naturall sonne who by reason should have been his successor were killed with poyson We read likewise that the Emperour Bassianus Carracalla Spartian in Carac beholding one day Iulia his mother in law with an eye of incestuous concupiscence She said unto him Si tu le veux tu le peux If thou wilt thou maiest Knowest thou not that it belongs unto thee to give the law not to receive it which talke so enflamed him yet more with lust that he tooke her to wife in marriage Hereupon Hystoriographers note that if Bassianus had knowne well what it was to give a law he would have detested and prohibited such incestuous and abhominable copulations and not to have authorised them For breefely a Prince may well give lawes unto his subjects but it must not be contrary to nature and naturall reason This was the cause why Papinian the great Lawyer who well understood both naturall and civile law loved better to die than to obey the said Emperor Bassianus who had commanded him to excuse before the Senate his parricide committed in the person of Geta his brother For Papinian knowing that such a crime was against natural right so much there wanted that he would have obeied the Emperor if he had commanded him to have perpetrated and committed it that he would not obey him so far therein as to excuse it Wherein the Paynim Lawyer may serve for a goodly example to condemne many Magistrate Lawyers of our time which not only excuse but also cause to be executed unnaturall murders and massacres against all law divine and humane But now we have spoken of a Princes absolute power let us come to the other The other power which we call Civile is that which is governed and as it were The Civile power temperateth the Absolute limited within the bounds of Reason of right and equitie and which we must presume that the Prince will use and useth ordinarily in all his commaunds unlesse expressely he shew and declare that he willeth and ordaineth this or that of his absolute power and of his certaine knowledge This is that second power which is guided by prudence and good Counsell and which giveth a sweet temperature and counterpoise to that absolute power no more nor no lesse than the second motion of the Sunne tempereth the course of the first as we have abovesaid This is that power which establisheth and conserveth in assurednesse kingdomes and empiers and without which they cannot stand but incontinent shal be ruinated annihilated and laid on the ground This is that power which all good Princes have so practised letting their absolute power cease without using any unlesse in a demonstration of Majestie to make their Estate more venerable and better obeyed that in all their actions and in all their commands they desire to subject and submit themselves to lawes and to reason And in this doing they never thought or esteemed to doe any thing unworthie of their Majestie but contrary have ever accounted that there was no thing more beseeming the majestie of a soveraigne Prince than to live and carrie himselfe in all his actions according to right and equitie And that the domination and power of a Prince that so governeth himselfe is greater more secure and more venerable than his which governeth himselfe after the absolute power And truly all the good Romane Emperours have alwayes held this language and have so practised their power as we read in their hystories Yea the Emperour Theodosius L. digna Vox C. de Lege made an expresse law for it which is so good to be marked that I thought good to translate it word by word It is the majestie of him that governeth to confesse himselfe to be bound unto lawes so much doth our authoritie depend upon law And assuredly it is a farre greater thing than the Empire it selfe to submit his Empire and power unto lawes And that which we will not to be lawfull unto us we shew it unto others by the oracle of this our present Edict Given at Ravenna the eleventh day of Iune the yeare of the Consulship of Florentius and Dionisius To come then to our purpose you must understand that de Comines spoke of this second power in the place above alledged and not of the absolute power of a Prince for by that power it is certain that the Prince hath good authority to enterprise wars to levie imposts upon his subjects without their consent Because that by the roiall law above mentioned the Roman people gave all the like power unto the Prince as Dion de August ◠I. D. de Constit. Princ. they had themselves to use it towards the people against the people gave him absolute power without any astriction or bond to laws to do what he would We see also by the law of God the same absolute power is given unto kings soveraign Princes For it is written that they shall have full power over the goods persons of their subjects And althogh God have given them that absolute power as to his ministers 1. Sam. 8. lieutenants on earth yet wold he not have thē use it but with a temperance moderation of the second power which is ruled by reason equitie which we call Civile For so much there wanteth that God would that Princes shold use the said absolute power upon their subjects as he wold not so far constrain them as to sell their goods as is declared unto us in the example of Naboth For most unlikely is it that God 1. King 22. the great Dominator and Governor of al Princes would have Princes to abuse their powers with cruelties rapines injustices or any other unreasonable way of absolute power But as God by justice punisheth the wicked and by kindnesse and clemencie maintaineth the good and rightly and most holily useth his divine power so would he that Princes which are his lieutenants on earth should do the like not in perfection for that they cannot but in imitation To conclude then now our talke concerning the place of Comines certaine it is that a Prince may well make warre and impose tallies without the consent of his subjects by an absolute power but better it is for him to use his civile power so shuld he be better obeyed And as for Aydes and Subsidies whereof Comines speaketh some say they are not at this day levied by an absolute power but by the peoples consent Because in the time of Charles the seventh who had great and long warres against the English the Estates generall of the kingdome agreed unto him to levie Aydes and Subsidies every yeare without any more calling them together for that the warres endured so long and that their every yeares assembly would have come to great expences so that if the cause had alwaies continued then necessarily
shuld the imposition have continued But certaine it is that this consent delivered by the said Estates concerned only the English warres which ending the said consent finished yet afterward the said consent and accord of the Estates was drawne into a custome In the time of king Charles the eight the Estates generall at Tours were convocated as well to provide for the government of the king and of the kingdome for his majestie was under age as also for Aydes and Subsidies which were freely graunted by the said Estates although the people of Fraunce were then very poore and ruinated And the abovenamed Comines sheweth one thing that is very true That the holding of the said Estates is very good and profitable for a king of France whereby he is both stronger and better obeyed but he complaines That in his time there were men as there are at this day unworthie to possesse those offices which they held who all they could hindered the holding of the Estates least their evill behaviors and incapacities should be espied and knowne Such men are of like humors as the unworthie Emperours Caligula Maximinius Commodus others whereof we have spoken above which hated the Senat of Rome because they would not have such correctors and controulers Let us now come to Machiavell to proove his Maxime which we have aboue The counsell of many is better than the counsell of oâ—e alone confuted by good reasons and examples He alleadgeth two reasons The one is that if a Prince governe himselfe by one Counsell alone it would proove dangerous for feare that the Counsellor seeke to occupie the Estate Whereunto I answere that that were considerable if principalities were at this day given by tumultuarie elections of souldiers as in times past the Romane Empire was given for he that could obtaine the favour of the men of warre either by love or money carried it away But in our time principalities are hereditarie or are given by grave and deliberate election of more staid and discreet people than were the Praetorian souldiers of Rome Yet doe not I approove that a Prince should be governed by one alone when he may have a greater number of good Counsellors for they that have so done in times past have found it evill and have repented it as more fully shall be shewed in the next Maxime The reason also is evident because one alone cannot so well by his wisdome examine and search out a matter or cause nor so well can prevent difficulties occurrents consequents that may happen as many can do Therfore also the wise Salomon approveth the counsell which is compounded of many The other second reason of Machiavell is that he saith That in a Counsell compounded Discordant opinions comming to one end is not to be feared of many there are alwaies discordances and contrarieties of opinions that they cannot accord Whereunto I answer That if a Counsell be compounded of good and fit men they will alwaies sufficiently agree in their opinions as experience sheweth it in the Counsels of many Princes and in the body of Common-weales although they disagree in motives reasons allegations and in other circumstances These discordances are often very profitable and necessarie if so be they all looke to one end which is the good of the Commonwealth As happened in the Counsell of the Senate which was held at Rome about that horrible and straunge conspiration of Catiline who with his companions went about to destroy his countrey with fire and sword For in that Counsell Caesar reasoned so gently as it seemed he made small account of the matter and in respect of his authoritie others after him reasoned in like manner so mildly and gently as Catiline and his partakers were in a good way to have been absolved But when it came to Cato his ranke he reasoned in another sort yea even plainely to rebuke such as spoke before him Great pitie it is sayth he that we are in such a time when men attribute the name of wicked things to such as are good Now is it accounted liberalitie to give the goods of another man it is magnanimitie to use violence and boldnesse it is mercie and clemencie to plucke criminall and condemned persons out of a Iustices hands And I pray you is it so small a thing to have conspired our destruction and the effusion of our bloud Another crime might be punished after it should be committed but who should punish Catiline after the execution of his conspiration and that we shal be all dead They which before have delivered their opinions seeme to be very liberall of our blouds and of the bloud of so many good men within Rome to spare that of a sort of wicked conspirators If they be not afraid of this conspiration so much the more my masters have we cause to feare to watch hold us upon our guards without too much trusting them which are in such assurance For our auncestors have made themselves great by diligence justice by good counsell free from all covetousnesse and viciousnesse Vnto them which are vigilant take paines and use good counsell all things succeed well but sluggards and cowards had need implore aid of the gods for no doubt they are both contrarie and angry with them And therefore my advise is that they which have confessed the fault should die the death of their desert Cato in this manner reasoning against the advise of others which had been before him greatly to his commendation drew the rest at the last to his opinion yet not more to his honour than to the dishonour of Caesar So then it is not ever evill that in a Counsell there should be sometimes Catoes and Appius Caludius and such like persons which often hold strong against others for affaires and businesses are so much the better cleared and boulted out It also holds other better in order which otherwise by too great facilitie and fear to contradict suffer themselves to be carried after the first opinion without debate or due consideration And truly in all Counsels there are but too many such as were Valerius Publicola Maenenius Agrippa Servilius Pompeius Caesar and such like which alwaies reasoned gently and mildly in all things but too few Catons Appius Claudius Quintus Cincinnatus and such like which in Senates hold rigorous opinions For although for the most part such rigorous opinions ought not to be followed yet they being mingled and dispersed amongst others they r serve well to bring to passe a good resolution and so doe make a good and sweet harmonie in a Counsell or Senat as Titus Livius sheweth in many places And therefore contradictions of opinions whereof Machiavell speaketh are not so much to be feared in Princes Counsels Against whose Maxime I conclude That the Prince which governeth himselfe by the counsell of men that be wise honest and experienced shall prosper in all good he that ruleth himselfe by his own head shall ruinate himselfe
and triflingly talked with king Alexander the Great as if he had spoken to some simple burgesse of Athens And Calisthenes Plutarke in Alex. whom Alexander led with him in his voyage unto Asia to instruct him in good documents of wisedome who indeed was so austere hard and biting in all his remonstrances and reasonings as neither the king nor any others could take in good part any thing that he taught It is then very much expedient if a man mean to gather fruit and do good by his speech to use gentle and civile talke and persuasions especially if he have to doe with a Prince or great man which will not be gained by rigor or as they say by high wrastling but by mild and humble persuasions And above all men ought well to engrave in princes minds that notable answere which The difference of a friend and a flatterer captaine Phocion made unto the king Antipater who had required some thing of him which was not reasonable I would Sir doe for your service all that is possible for me but you cannot have me both for a friend and a flatterer as if he would say That they be two things farre different to be a friend and to be a flatterer as in truth they are For the true friend and servant of the prince orders and frames all his actions Plutarke de discri adul amici to the good of the prince and the flatterer tends and bends all his actions to his owne proper good the true friend loveth with a true love his prince and the flatterer loveth himself the true friend modestly sheweth his vices in his presence and praiseth his vertues in his absence but the flatterer alwaies exalts the prince in his presence rather for his vices than for his vertues and behind his backe he blameth and defameth him vaunting and saying that he governes him at his pleasure and that he possesseth him and makes him doe what hee will the true friend persevereth in the service of his prince as well in time of adversitie as prosperitie and the flatterer turnes his backe in time of adversitie the true friend serves for an healthfull medicine to his prince but the flatterer for a sweet poison the true friend conserveth his prince in his estate and greatnesse but the flatteter precipitateth him into ruine and destruction as we shall discourse the examples of al these things hereafter Moreover when we say that flatterers are pernicious to a prince that is not ment of all them which dedicate and give themselves to please the prince for there may well be Gentlemen of his owne age about him to accompany him in his honest pastimes as to ride hunt hawke to tourney to play at tennis to run and other like pastimes which doe not evill to give themselves to please him in such things but contrary it is right necessary and requisit that the prince have sometimes such companie For it should not be good nor comely in defect and for want of plaies and pastimes hee should to himselfe procure an habit of a Stoicall humour neither that he should get a complection too severe and melancholicke Hereof we read a very remarkable example above others in Alexander the great king of Macedon When he departed from his countrey to passe into Asia to make war upon that great Dominator king Darius he had with him most cheefe in his love amongst others Craterus and Hephaestion two gentlemen his especiallest friends and servants yet farre Plutarke in Alex. different the one from the other for Craterus was of an hard and sharpe wit severe stoicall and melancholicke who altogether gave himselfe unto affaires of Counsell and indeed was one of the kings cheefe Counsellors but Hephaestion was a young gentleman well complexioned and conditioned in his manners and behavior of a good and quicke wit yet free of all care but this to content and please the king in his sports and pastimes insomuch as men called Craterus the kings friend and Hephaestion the friend of Alexander as one that gave himselfe to maintaine the person of his prince in mirths and pastimes which were good to the maintenance of his health When Alexander had conquered Persia and Media he begun to apparrell himselfe after the Persian Median manner the rather to gaine the hearts of those nations newly conquered Hephaestion to please the king did the like leaving the Macedonike manner to apparrell himselfe as the Persians and Medes did for which the king liked him the better but Craterus kept alwaies his old fashions of Macedonie and much blamed that change of fashions in their apparrell and said it was but even to barbarize and begun to taunt and gibe at Hephestion for it This their contrarietie of manners was a cause that they entred farre into enmitie and quarrels insomuch as one day thēy came unto the drawing of swords one against another and streight assembled their friends on both sides wherby had falne out a great mutinie if the king himselfe had not come in good time hearing a great noise of people and seperated them presently openly rebuking Hephaestion calling him foole and mad man he tooke also privatly aside Craterus and told him he greatly marvelled that he being a wise man would so hate Hephaestion for so small a thing Afterward he agreed them publickely delared unto them that they were the two Gentlemen which most he loved in the world but if any more they fell to quarell again hee swore by Iupiter Amon that with his owne hands he would slay him that begun But after that they did nothing one against other Hereupon I say That it is necessary for a Prince to have such as Craterus for his counsell and it also becomes him well to have such as Hephaestion to keepe him companie in his honest pastimes But to the end men may better discerne such as are good friends and servants from flatterers I will now God willing discover the examples of many sorts of flatterers which for the most part have had in singular observation that Maxime of Machiavell namely To hold close from the Prince the truth of things and the better to distinguish them I will call them with such names as our auncestors have called them which are very proper and covenable unto them First there are a sort of flatterers which our auncient Frenchmen called janglers which signifieth as much Ianglers as a skoffer a trifler a man full of words or as we call them long tongues which by their jangling and babelings in rime or in prose such as do give themselves to please great men in praising and exalting them exceedingly rather for their vices than for their vertues These be they which by their fair language can make as one saith of a Devill an Angell but in the meane while they so enchant men and swell them up so with pride that in effect they make them become even Angelicall Devils This sort
gave them all great summes of money for Severus had left great treasure and made them sweare they would be faithfull unto him So that when after they knew the deed done and found themselves all gained and corrupted with silver they obeyed him without contradiction as to one sole emperour And what came of all this Bassianus not ignorant that the Senate of Rome would find this murder very strange that he had committed of his brother desired that great lawyer Papinian who was his kinsman and had beene as the Chancellor or great maister under the Emperour Severus that he would goe to the Senate and make his excuses by an Oration well set out That he had done well to slay his brother and that he had reason and occasion to doe it Papinian who was a good man answered him That it was not so easie to excuse a parricide as it was to commit it Bassianus greeved at this refusall caused one of his attendants straight to cut off his head After this willing to shew to the Senate and to the people that he greeved because he had slaine his brother and that they might see it was done by evill counsell he caused also his Marmoset Laetus his head to be cut off who had counselled him to doe that murder he caused also to die all them which helped him in that businesse which were culpable thereof saying that they were cause thereof This notwithstanding to the end Geta his friends should enterprise nothing against him he made die as many as he could catch of them So that under that title of being a friend servant or favourer of Geta his brother he made die many great and noble persons yea he slew all such as caried themselves betwixt them two as neuter and reconciliators I pray you what was the cause of all this great and horrible butcherie was it not the mortall enmitie which these Marmosets had sowne betwixt the brethren In the time of the Emperour Commodus there happened a like thing and because Dion Lamprid. in Commod Herod lib. 1. the hystorie is memorable I would rehearse it a little at length Marcus Antonius the Emperour was surnamed the Philosopher because he was a prince wise and studious and a lover of good letters In his time there were great plentie of wise and learned men because commonly saith Herodian men doe imitate their prince and give themselves to such things as the Prince loveth There was alwaies about him a great number of good and learned people for his privie Counsell which hee called his faithfull friends as the king of Fraunce also at this day dooth call his privie Counsellors in his pattents This good emperour being in Hungarie at the warre with Commodus his sonne fell into a disease whereof he died But before his death hee caused his Counsell to assemble and to recommend his sonne unto them made a little remonstrance worthy of such a Prince in this manner I doubt not my good friends that you are not anguished and sorrowfull to see me of this disposition For humanitie causeth that easily wee have compassion of mens adversities but especially when we see them with our eyes But yet in my regard there is a more speciall reason for I doubt not but you beare mee alike good will to that which I have ever borne you But now is the time for me to thanke you that you have alwayes been unto me good and faithfull Friends and Counsellors And I pray you also not to forget the honour and amitie which I have borne you You see my son which you your selves have nourished who now entreth into the flower of his youth who as he that entreth into an high sea had need of good Patrones and Governours least by ignorance and evill conduction hee stray from the right way and so come into perill I pray you then my friends whereas he had no more fathers but one in me be you many fathers unto him that he may be alwaies made better by your good counsels For truly neither the force of silver and treasures nor the multitude of guarders can maintaine a prince and make him be obeyed unlesse the subjects which owe obedience doe beare him good affection and benevolence And assuredly they onely raigne long and assuredly which ingrave and instill in their subjects hearts not a feare by crueltie but a love by bountie For they ought not to bee any thing suspected to a prince in that they doe or suffer which are drawne to obedience by their owne will and not by constrained servitude And subjects will never refuse obedience unlesse they bee handled by violence and contumelie Very true it is That it cannot bee but hard for a soveraigne prince who is at his full libertie moderately to guide and bridle his affections But if you alwayes admonish him to doe well and to remember the words which hee heareth now of me that am his father I hope you shall find him a good prince towards you and all others And in thus doing you shall manifestly shew That you alwayes have mee in remembrance by which onely meanes you may make mee immortall Vpon this speech his heart and his word failed with languishment and then all his Counsellors which were there begun to weepe lament yea some could not containe from crying for great sadnesse and bitternesse of heart that they had to see so good a prince faile After his death Commodus his sonne and successor in the empire governed himselfe some little time by the good people and auncient Counsellors of his father but this continued not long for there were straight Marmosets which found subtill meanes and entries to get into him which when they saw their time begun to say unto him What meane you to tarie in this base and barraine countrey of Hungarie better it were for you to bee at Rome to have all the pleasures in the world you have no cause to beleeve these tutors which your father left you you are no child to bee governed by tutors Commodus who was a faire young prince and one that desired nothing but his pleasures and who yet had no great resolution although his father had taken great paines to instruct him wel begun to let himself to be led with Marmosets which never spoke anything unto him but of merry and pleasant things So made he a shamefull and dishonorable peace with the Barbarians against whom his father had commenced warre and retired to Rome being there he begun to become cruell especially against the good and auncient counsellors of his fathers which hee caused almost all to die at the instigation of his Marmosets which reported unto him that they bore him no good will that they blamed his actions and controuled his pleasures He caused also many Senatours to die which his reporters for the same reason disgraced Amongst other Marmosets he had one called Perennis which persuaded him to care for nothing to take his pleasures and to
lib. 15. cap. 9. li. 16. cap. 3 4 13. lib. 17. and Idumia for the favour of Marcus Antonine a Romane capitaine and by decree of the Romane Senate he espoused a noble Ladie who was of the kings race of that countrie called Mariamme by whom he had two children Alexander and Aristobulus but Herodes had a sister called Salome who was a very Tisiphone and served for nothing but to kindle and light fires in the kings court by false reports which she invented and this infernall furie did so much as she perswaded the king her brother that Mariamme sought to poison him by his cup-bearer and brought out certaine false witnesses to proue it so that the king beleeved it and put to death his wife one of the fairest princes of the world and of whose death there was after infinit griefes and repentances But as one sinne draweth after it another Salome fearing that those two aforesaid children would feele afterward the outragious death of their mother she machinated and resolved in hir spirit that they must also dye So began she straight to forge false reports false tokens and false accusations insomuch as she perswaded Herodes the father that these two children Alexander and Aristobulus spake alreadie of revenging the death of their mother and by the same meanes to vsurpe the kingdome Herodes suffering himselfe to be persuaded by the calumniations and slaunders of his sister Salomē tooke his iourney to Rome having his two children with him where he accused them to have fought his death before Augustus Caesar he began to descipher his accusatorie oration and to deduct set out the means whereby he pretended that his two children should go about his death When it came to their turne to speake for their defence they began to weepe and lament Caesar knew well thereby that the poore children were full of innocencie So he exhorted them from thence forward to carry themselues in such sort towards their father that not only they should not doe against him any thing vnworthy or greevous but also should doe so much as to bring themselves farre from all suspition He exhorted also Herodes to use his sonnes well and to keepe them in his favor Then fell the children on their knees before their father with great effusion of teares crying him mercy by which meanes they were reconciled unto their father But after the returne of Herodes and his children this furie Salome not contented with this reconciliation which Caesar had made began to lay new ambushes by false reports that she made to Herodes wherein she mixed some truth to give the better taste Herodes who was very credulous in such matters made Augustus understand that his children had againe conspired his death Augustus answered him That if his children had done against him the thing which merited punishment that he should chastice them as he thought good and that he himselfe gave him power and permission so to do The abovesaid Herodes joyful to have received this power being led with an irreconcileable rage by the meanes of Salome caused the two poore children Alexander and Aristobulus to be strangled Salome ayded her selfe in all this businesse with one other sonne of Herodes borne of another woman called Antipater God would that Herode should discover that the accusations against his two dead children were but slaunders and that Antipater who had aided to forge them had himselfe conspired to poison his father Whereupon he caused him to be called before Guintius Varius the governor of Syria for the emperour The cause being long pleaded and debated Antipater could not purge himselfe of the sayings and proofs against him and did no other thing but make great exclamations nothing appertaining to the matter holding on that God knew all unto whom he recommended his innocencie Varus seeing that he could not wel justifie himselfe wished Herodes to imprison him and so he did Certaine dayes after Herodes fell sicke which comming to the notice of Antipater in prison he rejoyced greatly Herodes advertised that Antipater wished his death and rejoyced at his sicknesse sent one of his guard into prison to slay him which he did Five daies after Herodes died like a mad man for the evill haps he had in his children and this rage lighted a fire in his entrailes which rotted him by little and little wherupon engendred worms which eat him alive with horrible languishments before his death And who was the cause that Herodes thus contaminated his hands and all his house with the bloud of his owne children Even that most wicked reporter Salome who devised false accusations and slaunders which she blew in the king her brothers eares Besides those kind of flatterers whereof we have spoken above which are janglers Coūsellors flatterers and Marmosets there is yet a third kind which under the name and title of principall Counsellors and under the pretext and colour of conducting the affaires by good counsel they abuse the princes authoritie who are greatly to be feared To shun the mischeefe that may come therupon there is nothing better than to follow the precept of Comines namely That the king have many Counsellors and that hee Comines lib. 1. cap. 27. lib. 2. cap. 44. never commit the conducting of his affaires to one alone and that he hold as nigh as he can well his Counsellors equall For if hee commit much more to one than to another he wil be master and the others dare not reason against him freely or els knowing his inclination dare not contradict him Therefore in a criminall cause handled before the Senate of Rome against a gentlewoman of a great house called Lepida accused of treason the emperour Tiberius although he were very rude in Cornel. Tacitus annal lib. 3. li. 5. such cases would not suffer his adoptive sonne Drusus to reason first least sayth Tacitus thereby had been laied and imposed a necessitie for others to have consented unto his opinion And in another cause of like matter where Granius Marcellus was accused in a certaine place to have set his owne image above the emperors When the cause came to handling Piso whose opinion the Emperour desired first began thus to say And you Sir in what place will you reason for if you reason last I feare that by imprudencie I shall not dissent from you For that cause Tiberius declared that he would not reason at all indeed the accuser was absolved although the Emperour had shewed a countenance to be angry against him as he heard the accusation rehearsed And there is no doubt but that the counsell of one alone is Counsell of one alone dangerous perillous to the prince because naturally men are divers waies passionate and that which shall be governed by one alone is often by passion guided Also the indisposition of mens persons causeth that every one hath not alwaies his head well made as they say nor are wise at all seasons and
do often proceed when kings governe themselves by men of base hand as they call them for then are princes and great lords jealous And therefore to shun such jealousies and just complaints that great men may have to see themselves despised a prince ought so to advance meane men that hee recoile not great men and meane men ought alwaies to acknowledge the place from whence they came respecting great men according to their degrees without staggering in their dutie to their prince common-wealth And when they see that by some accident they are evill beloved of great men or of the common people and that for the good of peace it is requisit to extinguish the envie and jealousie conceived against them they ought voluntarily to forsake their estate For willingly to retaine it to the detriment and confusion of the common-wealth therein doe they evidently shew that they are not good servants of their prince King Charles the seventh had Counsellors both wise and loiall as M. Tanguy du Chastell M. Iohn Lowet president de Provence the Bishop of Cleremont Annal. upon An. 1426. and certaine others of meane qualitie which had done him great services in great affaires he had had as well when he was Dolphin as after he was king At that time this king had civile warre against the duke of Burgoigne whome secretly the duke of Bretaigne favoured which warre the king would gladly have had extinguished Therefore hee himselfe openly spoke to the said lords and dukes which made him answere That they were content to come to some good accord provided that hee would put from him such Counsellors as he had and take others These beforenamed Counsellors knowing this said to the king Since Sir it holds but thereon to quench civile warre which there is against the house of Burgoigne let them all goe home againe it shall not come of us that so good a thing shall bee hindered and they themselves desired and counselled the king to accord to that condition These were good and loyall Counsellors but they are dead and there are no more such to bee found But such there are now adaies which had rather see the commonwealth in combustion and ruine than they would suffer themselves to be removed from their places one pace Yet these good Counsellors abovesaid withdrew to their houses willingly and without constraint and soone after peace was accorded and finished betwixt the king and the duke of Burgoigne These good persons alledged not That men sought to take away the kings faithfull Counsellors to seduce and deceive him and that their dutie commaunded them then more than ever to keepe nigh his Majestie seeing the great troubles and affairs of the kingdome and that otherwise they might be accounted traitors and disloiall No no they alledged no such thing they looked right upon the white to keepe peace in the kingdome For they knew well that if they had used these reasons to the duke of Burgoigne that he could soone have answered replied that they were too presumptuous and proud to thinke that in all the kingdome of Fraunce there could not be found people as wise and faithfull to their prince as they For in all times the kingdome of Fraunce more than any other hath ever beene well furnished with wise and vertuous people of the Nobilitie Iustice Cleargie yea Marchants and of the third Estate To come againe to our purpose certaine it is That a prince which committeth the government of his affaires to one alone brings himselfe in great daunger and hardly can such governement bee without great mischeefes and disorders For this commonly men hold That being lifted up unto great honor and dignitie they cannot hold a moderation and mediocritie which is that which giveth taste and grace to all our actions The emperour Severus so high advaunced Plautianus that being great master of his houshold the people thought seeing his dealings in his office that hee was the emperour himselfe and that Severus was but his great master Hee Dion Spartian Severo slew robbed banished confiscated the goods of all such as hee would in the sight and knowledge of Severus who contradicted him in nothing So farre mounted this great and immoderate license that Plautianus durst well attempt to cause Severus to be slaine and his two sonnes But his wickednesse was disclosed by a captaine unto whom he had discovered it insomuch that Severus caused him to come before him and although by nature he were a cruell Prince yet was he so firmely affected to Plautianus that he never spoke sharpe or rigorous word unto him but onely uttered this remonstrance I am abashed Plautianus how it came in thine heart to enterprise this against me who have so much loved and exalted thee and against my children whereof Bassianus my eldest sonne hath married your daughter and so is your sonne in law Truly the condition of men is very miserable that cannot maintaine themselves in such honour and dignitie as I have placed you in I pray you tell me your reasons defences to purge you of this act The abovesaid Bassianus seeing that the emperour his father would receive Plautianus to his justification fearing he should have escaped caused one of his men to slay him in the presence of his father adding to the saying of Severus Certaine it is that great honors attributed to one man alone as to governe the affaires of a kingdome not only makes him go out of the bonds of reason but also subjects him unto great envies wherby great mischeefes happen unto him In the time of Philip le Bell king of Fraunce M. Enguerrant de Marigni Countie Annal. upon An. 1314 1326. de Longuevile a valiant and wise knight governed almost all the affaires of the king and his kingdome and especially of his common treasure which was distributed by his ordinance Amongst other things he caused to build that great Pallace at Paris where the court of parliament is held After the death of king Philip Charles Counte de Valois his brother begun criminally to pursue M. Enguerrant before certaine commissionaries of the said court delegated for that purpose And so farre did the said Countie de Valois being a great lord prince of the bloud and in great credit with king Lewis le Hutin his nephew and sonne of the said Philip pursue the cause against M. Enguerrant who was then out of credit after the death of king Philip his master that he was condemned to bee hanged and strangled on a gibbet at Paris as he was indeed This happened onely unto him by the envie he had procured by his great place and too great credit For true it is that he was accused of many things but he was not condemned of any punishable thing But our hystories say That he was not received unto his justifications and defences he was so fiercely pursued by the said Countie de Valois who after he had caused him to bee hanged and that
also comes that vertuous people beeing angry and chafed to see themselves despised as also to see strangers preferred before them suffer themselves to be governed and guided by turbulent passions contrarie to their natures Moreover it seemeth well that the Poet Hesiodius and Aristotle shoot not farre from the white of truth when they say That by right of nature he ought to dominier and rule who hath the more able spirit to know how to command well and he that hath the lesseable ought to obey And although sovereign principalities are not ruled by that naturall law because of the difficultie which falleth ordinarily in the execution of their election yet for all that that law alwayes sticketh naturally in the spirits and minds of men insomuch as it seemes to them which feele themselves to have some sufficiencie that there is wrong done them when they are put by to bring into an office one lesse capable By the abovesaid reasons then I hope men may see and usually we reade how great disorders doe often come when princes have preferred strangers unto publicke charges offices and honours before them of that nation and countrey where such charges and honours are distributed and exercised The yeare 1158 William king of Sicilie by his originall was a Frenchman gave Annale 1168. the estate of the Chancellor of his kingdome to a person very capable and fit but he was not that countreyman but a Frenchman The lords of the kingdome greeved to see a stranger constituted in so high an estate within their countrey and that A strange Chancellor cause of a great massacre in Sicilie the greatest magistracie of justice must needs be exercised by strange hands a very cruell conspiration For not onely they conspired the death of that chancellor a Frenchman but also of all them of the French nation which were dispersed in the kingdome of Sicilie Calabria and Apuleia For that purpose sent they secret letters through all the townes and places of the said countries whereby they advertised their friends and adherents which were alreadie prepared all over that they should massacre and slay each one respectively the Frenchmen of their places and towns on the day and hour that they would assigne them Which was executed and there was made in the said countries an horrible butcherie and exceeding great effusion of French blood Behold the mischeefe that came in that kingdome for having a stranger for their chancellor True it is that some may say that this massacre of the Frenchmen in Sicilia and other countries of Italie happened not so much for that reason that there was a strange chancellor as for that the Italian race hath alwayes ben much enclined to shed the blood of our nation For that same race made also another like generall massacre in the year 1282 by a conspiration wherin it was concluded that every one of the country should slay or cause to be slaine his French guest at the first sound of their Evensong bell even upon Easter day Which conspiration was not only executed but also the rage of the massacrers was so great that they ripped the bodies of women of their owne nation alive which were never so little suspected to be gotten with child by Frenchmen to stifle the fruit they caried And this cruell and barbarous massacre was called the Sicilian Evensong By the SiciliaÌ„ EveÌ„song imitation hereof the same race complotted and executed not in Sicilie but in France it selfe and through all the best townes of the kingdome the horrible and generall massacre of the yeare 1572 which will ever bleed and whereof their hands and swords are yet bloodie Of which exploit they have since incessantly vaunted and braved calling it The Parisien Matines M. Martin du Bellay rehearseth also in Paritien Matinâ— his Memories how the same race murdered a great number of poore souldiers after the journey of Pavie comming towards France lame wounded and unarmed slaying them in their high waies But such is this peoples generositie of heart alwayes to be tenne or twentie against one and to brave such as are wounded or unarmed which have no meanes to resist This Messeresque generositie is at this day called in France Coyonnerie and Poltromerie But let us come to our purpose touching the disorders that come by strange magistrates By the peace of Bretaigne made betwixt Iohn king of Fraunce and Edward king Froissart lib. 1. cap. 216. 246 c. Pla. in Martin 4. of England the countrie of Aquitaine was acquited purely and in al soveraigntie by the sayd king Iohn to the said king Edward This king Edward from the first possession of the sayd countrie gave it to the prince of Wales his eldest sonne who came and lay in Bourdeaux and apart kept a court great and magnificall The gentlemen of Gascoigne and of other countries of Acquitaine which by the means of the sayd peace should become vassals to the king of England to the said prince of Wales his sonne came straight to find the prince at Bourdeaux first to sweare their faith and homage secondly to obtaine his favour and good countenance as is the custome of all nobilitie The prince of Wales very gently courteously benignly and familiarly entertained them but in the meane while he gave all the offices estates of the countrie as the captainships and governments of the towns and castles the offices of bayliffs and stewards the estates of his court unto English gentlemen where of he had alwaies great store about him These English gentlemen although they held no other goods but their estates spent prodigally and held as great a traine as the lords of the countrey and to maintaine that they committed great extortions upon the people Hereupon came it that the people feeling themselves oppressed by the English officers the nobilitie and vertuous people seeing themselves recoiled and kept from offices that the prince gave al to strangers which were not of that nation and that herewith he would needs impose a new tribute and impost upon the countrie in a little time all revolted from his obedience and so caused all the towns of Aquitaine to revolt one after another insomuch that the king of England and the sayd prince of Wales his sonne lost straight all the countrey having therewithall procured the evill will of their subjects by giving offices unto strangers Iohn duke of Bretaigne in regard that hee had taken a wife in England was marvellously Froiss lib. 1. cap 311 â—14 affected to the English partie yea against the king of Fraunce his soveraign lord The nobilitie of Bretaigne were much grieved therat insomuch that one day the three greatest lords of the countrie that is to say the lord de Clisson de Laval and de Rohan went to him and after salutations said to him in this manner Sir wee know not upon what thought you shew your selfe so enclinable and favourable unto the English you know that the
above shewed that our predecessors were sometimes miscontented with the Englishmen that would needs have all estates and offices in Aquitaine as much may happen in this time for nothing hath beene in times past which may not againe be in this time The Salicke law which is observed in Fraunce and through all Almaigne was not onely made to fore-close and barre women from the succession of the crowne and from soveraigne domination by reason of the imbecilitie and incapacitie well to commaund which is in the feminine sex for in the masculine sexe happen often such incapacities But especially the Salicke law was made to the end That by marriages strangers should not come to the said succession of the Crowne For it should be as an intollerable thing to a Frenchman to obey a strange king as to obey a queene of the French nation so odious is a strange domination in Fraunce As also for that the consequence thereof with us should be ever evill For a strange king would alwayes to estates and offices of the kingdome advaunce straungers of his nation a thing which would alwayes cause in the end disorders and confusions as is seene by the examples which we have before discovered There is also an auncient example of Queene Brunehant or Brunechile who advanced Annal. upō Anno 607. to the estate of Maire du Palais de France which was as much as governor of all the kingdome a Lumbard called Proclaide who was much in her good grace and amitie This stranger seeing himselfe lifted up so high became so fierce and so proud that he made no estimate of the princes of the kingdome but put them to many troubles and vexations Hee became also very rapinous and covetous as sayth the hystorie is the nature of the Lumbards insomuch that hee did eat up and ruinated the subjects of Fraunce Breefely his behaviours and dealings were such that hee got the evill wils of all men from the nobleman to the carter At that time was there warre amongst the children of the queene Brunehant Theodoric king of Orleans and Theodebert king of Metz. The barons and great lords their vassales desirous to make a peace betwixt the two kings brothers but this great Maire Proclaide hindered it withall his power which the said lords seeing resolved amongst them That it were better that strangers died than that so many gentlemen and subjects of the two kings should sley one another and so indeed they did slay him as an enemie to peace and concord The example of this Lombard should be well marked in this time by the Lombards which governe in Fraunce Lewis le Debonance sonne of Charlemaigne king of Fraunce and emperour Annal. An. 829. Maire du Palais a stranger cause of civile warre of the West altogether gave the Estate of Maire du Palais de France to a Spaniard called Berard who incontinent mounted into great pride The king had three sonnes Lotharie Lewis and Pepin who could not support the arrogancie and fiercenesse of this stranger who as it were would parragon them This was the cause of an evill enterprise of these three young princes against their owne father For they seized upon his person and brought him into the towne of Soissons and there caused him to forsake his crowne of Fraunce and the Estate of the empire and to take the habit of a monke in the Abbey of S. Marke in the said Soissons within which they caused him to be kept straitly for a time But in the end the great barons and lords of Fraunce and Almaigne medled therein and dismonked him and restored him to his Estate and agreed the father with the children This had not happened if that good king and emperour had had that wisedome not to have lifted up a stranger so high a thing which could not be but displeasant to his naturall subjects great and little For a conclusion of this matter I will here place the witnesse of M. Martin du Bellay knight of the kings order a man of qualitie of vertue and of great experience who sayth That hee hath seene in his time more evill happen unto the affaires of king Francis the first of that name by the meanes of straungers which revolted from his service than by any other meanes Amongst which strangers Strangers enclined to commit treasons hee placeth the Bishop de Liege the Prince of Orange the Marquesse of Mantua the Lord Andrew Doria M. Ierome Moron of Millaine who caused Millaine to revolt and certaine others But because these things are not of very auncient memorie but happened in our world I will make no longer discourse thereof Seeing also the examples and reasons which wee have above rehearsed are sufficient to shew against the opinion of Machiavell his disciples That a Prince cannot doe better than to serve himselfe in offices and publicke charges of the countrey of his domination with his owne subjects of the same countries as beeing more fit and agreeing to the nature of the people of that countrey than are strangers And there is not a more odious thing to the people as M. Comines sayth than when they see great offices benefices and dignities conferred upon strangers And as for offices it hath not beene seene aunciently and commonly that they have beene bestowed upon straungers but that within this little space of time they have found meanes to obtaine the greatest and best For of old there was committed unto them but offices of Captaineships to the end that under that title they might the better draw people of their owne countrey to serve the king But as for benefices of a long time it hath been that the Italians have held and possessed the best in Fraunce which the Pope bestowed upon them and our kings durst not well contradict Yet notwithstanding it gave occasion unto king Charles the sixt to make an edict in the yeare 1356 whereby hee forbad That any benefices of the kingdome of France should be conferred upon strangers which both before and since by many royall Edicts hath often beene renued and reiterated Which Edicts merite well to be brought into use but it shall not bee yet since that they onely are they which yet doe governe all But I pray here all them which are good Frenchmen that they will consider a little neerer the wrong they do themselves to suffer themselves to be reputed for strangers in their owne countrie and by that meanes recuiled and kept from the Charges and Estates of the same For Italians or such as are Italianized which have in their hands the governance of France hold for true the Maxime of Machiavell That men should not trust in strangers as it is true and this is because they would not advance any other but men onely of their owne nation and certaine bastardlie and degenerous Frenchmen which are fashioned both to their humour and their fashions and which may serve them as slaves and most vile ministers of their trecheries cruelties rapines
and other vices For as for good and naturall Frenchmen they will never advaunce them because they are strangers vnto them and by consequent suspected not to bee faithfull enough unto them following the said Maxime Where is now then the generositie of our ancient Frenchmen who made themselves redoubted amongst strange nations Where are now our auncestors vertues who have caused the Levant to tremble have sent out their reputation into Asia and hath repulsed and driven back the Gothes and Sarracens out of France Spaine and Italie For it seemeth that at this day the Frenchmen hold no more any thing of their ancestors valour seeing they suffer in comparison to them so few strangers to dominiere so imperiously over them and so to debase themselves and to carry on their backes such insupportable burdens and to suffer themselves to be driven from the Charges and Estates of the common-wealth Truly this is farre from making us to be redoubted and obeyed in strange countries when strangers constreine us to obey them and to take the yoke in our owne countrie This is to doe cleane contrarie to our auncestors who subjected strangers unto them when contrarie we subject our owne selves to strangers The Frenchmen were wont to be reputed franke liberall far from all servitude but now our stupiditie carelesnesse cowardize do make us servants slaves to the most dastardly cowardly nation of Christendome Our ancestors have vanquished and subjugated in battaile by armes great Italian armies but we suffer our selves to be over come by a small number of Italians armed with a rock a spindle and a pen and inckhorne Shall we alwayes be thus bewitched see we not that by secret and and unknowne meanes they overthrow and cause to die by treasons poysonings injustice now one now another of the greatest that they looke to no other marke but to ruinate the nobilitie and all men of valour in France which are suspected to favour the common-weale or disfavour them Be sleepie no longer for it is time to awake and to thinke what we have to doe and not to attend till from the particular ruine now of one house then of another we see all France vpon the earth It is alreadie but too much established and we have but too long attended to provide for our affairs and to oppose our selves against the deseignes and machinations of these strangers all which are discovered and knowne to such as will not shut their eyes Let us then stir up in our selves the generositie and vertue of our valiant great grandfathers and shew that we are come from the race of those good noble Frenchmen our auncestors which in old time past have brought under their subjection so many strange nations and which so many times have vanquished the Italian race which would make us now serve Let us not leave off for a sort of degenerate Frenchmen adherents to the pernitious purposes of that race to maintaine and conserve the honors and reputation of loyaltie integritie and valiancie of our French nation which these bastardlie Italians have contaminated and foiled by their cruelties massacres and perfidies Wee want nothing but courage to effect all this for these Messiers would not stand one whit if they knew once that it were in good earnest and with good accord that the Frenchmen would send them to excercise their tyrannies in their owne countrey and force them to make account of such as they have committed in Fraunce Here endeth the first Part entreating of such Counsell as a Prince should use THE SECOND PART TREAting of the Religion which a Prince ought to hold ¶ The Praeface AFter having before discoursed largely enough What Counsell a prince should have and take it will not be to any evill purpose to handle What Religion he ought to hold and cause to bee observed in his dominions For it is the first and principall thing wherein he ought to employ his Counsell namely That the true and pure Religion of God be knowne and being knowne that it bee observed by him and all his subiects Machiavell in this case as a very Atheist and contemner of God giveth another document to a prince for he would That a prince should not care whether the Religion that he holdeth be true or false but sayth That he ought to support and favour such falsities as are found therein And hee comes even to this point as an abhominable and wicked blasphemer that he preferreth the Religion of the Paynims before the Christian and yet his booke is not condemned as hereticall by our Sorbonists But before we enter to confute his detestable Maximes I will in manner of a Preface demonstrat in few words the true resolution that a prince ought to have in this matter I presuppose then by a certaine Maxime That the prince ought to hold the Christian Religion as it is seene by all antiquitie simplicitie and excellencie of doctrine For in the first place none can deny but it is more ancient thā any other of all the Religions Antiquitie of Christian Religion that ever were because it takes his foundation upon the bookes of Moses and the promises of God of Christ and Messias contained in them bookes which were made to our first Fathers from the beginning of the world But there is no author Greeke or Latine which was not long after Moses and it is a thing confessed and held amongst all learned men That Moses writ his bookes many hundred years before Homer Berosus Hesiodus Manethon Metasthenes and others like which many men hold for the most auncient Writers Moreover when Moses describeth unto us the generation of Noe and sheweth us that his children have bene as the first stem and root of divers nations of the world in token and signe thereof these nations hold yet at this present the names of such children doth not this shew plainly and truly that Moses begun at the worlds beginning Of Madens came the Medians of Ianus the Ionians of Iobel the Iberians of Riphat the Riphaeans of Tigran the Tigranians of Tharsis the Tharsians of Cithin the Cyprians of Canaan the Cananites of Sidon the Sidonians of Elam the Elamites of Assur the Assyrians of Lud the Lydians and others all these were the children nephews or arrere-nephews of Noe from whence the said nations have taken their names it followeth therefore that they were the first stocks and roots of them Againe if we looke to the ceremonies that in times past the Paynims used in their sacrifices men shall easily know that they are but apish imitations of such sacrifices as were ordained of God which are described by Moses For the sacrifice of Iphigenia which the Graecians made in Aulide to prosper them in the war they enterprised against Troy what other thing is it than an imitation of Iepthe his sacrifice who made a vow of a sacrifice to prosper him in the war he enterprised which sacrifice fell after by the divine
returned home with a faire Bull yet was it not possible by any vertue thereof to set down a rule in habits For alwayes the Friers found to speake against the advice and resolutions of their gardians saying They understood nothing and that they had not read the text of the rule of blessed S. Francis and that they were but beasts In this contestation of Friers against their gardians and superiours remained their affaires by a long and great space of yeares Finally in the yeare 1323 in the time of Pope Iohn the two and twentieth of that name who held his seat in Avignon the gardians and superiors of that Order went to complain to his Fatherhood shewing him That they could not be obeyed upon the resolution they had made in vertue of the power which had been given them by the said Bull of Pope Clement So they humbly prayed his said Fatherhood That he would vouchsafe to doe some good therein The Pope to proceed in this matter more iuridically or rather iudicially would heare the partie and therefore sent to those Friers which refused to obey their gardians and superiors That they should either come and make their reasons or send the cause in writing why they refused obedience They sent them The abovesaid Pope caused to assemble his Cardinals and being in the Conclave the allegations of the Friers pretended disobedience were read and no doubt found so great and admirable so subtill and sharpe that a flie could not there have placed her foot and indeed they could never give a resolution thereof True it is that the Pope could doe no lesse for his honour than to ordaine something Therefore caused hee to expediate a Bull wherein he exceedingly praiseth the Buls of his predecessors Pope Nicholas and Clement and sayth That he marvelleth how men cannot be contented with the resolution contained in them After he makes declaration That the vilitie of habits should bee measured according to the custome of every countrey After that he giveth commission to the gardians and superiors of every Order as did Pope Clement to make a rule for the longitude latitude thicknesse colour fashion and vilitie as well of the Tunikes as of the hood and upon all other accidences circumstances and dependances willing and commanding them to obey the rule that should bee made without any more framing so many obiects arguments and fantasticall contradicts Behold in substance the content of Pope Iohns Bull whereby it appeareth That neither hee nor all the Papall Consistorie could ever give a law or a well determined resolution upon the matter of the dispute of Friers habits I know not how since they are accorded but they have taken unto them the white and blacke colour as it comes from off the beast and of those two intermingled colours they have made a third colour which of them hath taken the name and at this day are called Gray-friers They have also chosen great side gownes and great hoods as we see them weare at this day Breefely we see them accorded now of all their differences which they had touching the fashion of their habits except for the sleeves For there are yet Friers with great sleeves others with strayt sleeves This is the discourse touching the Friers contentions and the three Decretals made by three Popes upon that matter whereof the last is called an Extravagant as in truth it is and may well be called Extravagant and the other two also Praying you masters to take in good part this hystorie for I have not told it to displease any man but to passe away the time whilest our horses eat their provender I beleeve it will be now soone time to leape on horsebacke every man to draw to his way Vpon this each man rose up from the table every one contented to heare this discourse which they never had heard before as they all confessed Then each man tooke his count payed mounted on horsebacke and went away Now let us come to treat of Machiavell 1. Maxime A Prince above all things ought to wish and desire to be esteemed devout though he be not so indeed THe World saith Machiavell looketh but to the exterior and Cap. 18. of the Prince to that which is in appearance and iudgeth of al actions not by the causes but by the issue and end So that it sufficeth if that the Prince seeme outwardly religious and devout although he be not so at all For let it be so that some vvhich most narrowly frequent his companie doe discover that feined devotion yet he or they dare not oppugne the multitude who beleeve the Prince to be truly devout THis Maxime is a precept whereby this Atheist Machiavell teacheth the Prince to be a true contemner of God and of Religion and onely to make a shew and a faire countenance outwardly before the world to be esteemed religious and devout although he be not For divine punishment for such hypocrisie and dissimulation Machiavell feares not because he beleeves not there is a God but thinkes that the course of the Sunne of the Moone of the Starres the distinction of the Spring time Summer Autumne and Winter the polliticke government of men the production that the earth makes of fruits plants living creatures that all this comes by encounter and adventure following the doctrine of Epicurus the doctor of Atheists and master of Ignorance who esteemes that all things are done and come to passe by Fortune and the meeting and encountring of atomes But if Machiavell beleeved that those things came by the disposition and establishment of a soveraigne cause as common sence hath constrained Plato Aristotle Theophrastus and all the other Phylosophers which have had any knowledge to The order which is in nature sheweth us that there is one God confesse it he would beleeve there is one God who ruleth governeth the world and all things within it And if he beleeve there is one God hee would also beleeve that men ought to honour him as the soveraigne governour and that hee will not be mocked of his creatures And therefore will not he give such precepts to make a shew to be devout and not to be For what is it to mocke God if that be not But they that learne such lessons of Atheisme and which put out their eyes that they may not see so cleare a light and which take pleasure to be ignorant of that which as Cicero saith even nature it selfe teacheth the most barbarous nations That there is a God which governeth all things let them I say know that if they will not know God well God will well know them and will make them well feele that such as spit against heaven shall spit against themselves when they shall feele how heavie his hand weigheth then shall they know that there is a God a revenger of them which reverence him not but this knowledge shall be to their confusion and ruine Many Atheists have been seene which of a brutish
emperour Iustinian overcame them in Italie and in Affrica Charlamaine and many other kings of France which were both Christians very humble have notwithstanding gained and obtained goodly victories against the Paynims as wee have otherwhere said The emperour Charles the fift of late memorie obtained also in his time goodly victories in Africa against the Turke Breefely this point needs no further to be debated upon For it is clearely seene That Machiavell is a filthie lier to say That the Christian Religion is the cause that Christians fall to be a prey unto the Paynims For contrarie a small number of Christians have often beaten a great number of Gothes Turkes and other Infidels And it is no more true that which the Machiavelists say That such as doe horribly sweare and blaspheme with Mortdieu Sangdieu and such like do fight better than they that say Surely and Truly because say they Surely and Truly do effeeblish and weaken mens hearts for experience sheweth in many places that this is false When I thinke upon and consider where Machiavell hath fished this goodlie Maxime I can hardlie be persuaded but he learned it out of the historie of Aygolant Annales of the life of Charlemaine a Paynim king of Affrica of Mahumets religion this king was a great and puissant ruler who demeaned and maintained great warres with Charlemaine king of France but he was alwaies vanquished and Charlemaine victorious so that to escape from the hands of Charlemaine by the cheapest and best means he could devise none better than one day to make Charlemaine understand that he the said Aygolant would become a Christian and be baptized Charlemaine rejoyced therat and caused him to come into his lodging with intent to feast him give him good enterteinment When he came in to Charlemaine his lodging he did see thirteen poore men beggerlie apparrelled eating on the ground without cloath as beggars vse to do which Charlemaine did to have alwaies before his eyes an image of povertie to remember Christ and his Apostles and their humilitie Aygolant at the sight of these poore men desired to know what they were Charlemaine aunswered him These be the servants of God yea said Aygolant hath thy God his servants in so evill order and are thy servants so brave trulie I will never bee baptised to become the servant of thy God for I will never yeeld to so base an estate as I see thy Gods servants hold so Aygolant would not bee christened for the humilitie he saw in the estate of God his servants So Machiavell rejecteth the Christian Religion because that thereby humilitie is recommended unto us but loveth much better the Paynim Religion of Aygolant because saith he it maintaineth the heart haughtie and fierce And as for that that he saith That the Christian Religion promiseth not Paradice Christian Religion alloweth not an idle and contemplative life but to idle contemplative people he sheweth well that he never knew what Christian Religion meant for it commandeth us to travaile not to be idle and everie man loyallie to exercise his vocation Verie true it is that amongst Christians there must be some contemplatives that is to say studious people which give themselves to holie letters for to teach others but we finde not by the documents of that Religion That there is allowed any idle contemplation of dreamers which doe no other thing but imagine dreames and toyes in their braines but a contemplative life of labouring studious people is only approoved which give themselves to letters to teach others for after they have accomplished their studies they ought to put in use and action that which they know bringing into an active life that which they have learned by their studie in their contemplative life and they which use this otherwise follow not the precepts of the true Christian Religion Touching that which he saith That the Christian Religion disposeth rather men to receive blowes than to vengeance I confesse that it is true that our Religion forbiddeth us to take vengeance of our owne enmities and particular quarrels by our owne authoritie but the way and course of justice is not denied us And if it were lawfull for everie one to vse vengeance that should be to introduce a confusion and disorder into the commonwealth to enterprice upon the right which belongeth to the magistrate unto whom God hath given the sword to doe right to everie one and to punish such as are faultie according to their merites but what is all this to purpose touching the generositie of hart that men should have in war for although a man should not be quarrelous nor vindictative to find quarrels for needles points yet will he not cease to performe his dutie in warfare for the service of his prince yet Men that are not quarellous are not the lesse generous is there one point in Christians more then in Paynims that is That a Christian being well resolved in his conscience that he beareth armes for a good and just cause as for the good of his prince or of his countrey or some such like good cause hee will lesse esteeme of his life and will more willingly hazard it than a Paynim or an Infidell will doe because hee hath a firme trust and beleefe that hee shall enjoy the eternall life after this fraile life Caesar writeth That our auncient Gaules were very generous and warlike because they held as resolute the immortalitie of soules and that they that die die not at all How much more then ought Christians to bee generous which not onely are resolved of the immortalitie of soules but do also know that God hath prepared for them an eternall rest an immortall glorie and a perdurable beatitude with him and his angels Surely as the life and eternall felicitie are more excellent than this fraile life full of miseries and calamities so the Christian will never doubt nor feare to change the one for the other but with a magnanimous and generous heart will willingly alwaies bestow his life in a just quarrell Machiavell and all his schoole of Atheists which have nothing that so much fears their conscience as to thinke of God have no such mind They shew themselves generous and valiant to execute some massacre to sley men unarmed which have no meanes to defend themselves but otherwise they are resolute people to hold themselves far from blowes Finally when Machiavell saith That the Christian Religion teacheth us to despise A Christian may desire honour by lawfull meanes honor he shewes himselfe a stinking lier True it is that a man must distinguish the vertue and that which is good from that which is the vice and the evill which resembleth it For ambition is a vice which commeth very nigh the desire of good reputation which good men ought to have If then a man travaile and take paines to come to some estate and greatnesse by all lawfull and unlawfull meanes and beeing
doctrine doth How then dare that filthie Machiavell say That men become wicked like unchained slaves when Oracles failed where found he this where ever read hee that men were worse and more evill conditioned in the time when Oracles failed than before Rather contrarie we reade That when Oracles failed which was in the time of the primitive Church men which gave themselves to the Christian Religion were of an holy life and conversation they which gave not themselves to that Religion but persevered in their Paynisme did yet alwayes learne of the Christians that which made them better and of more account Let any reade the workes of Seneca Plutarke Pliny the Second and of many In the primitive Church the Paynims learned of the Christians other Paynim authors which were in the time of the primitive Church and he shal find infinit godly and Christian sentences which the Paynims learned of the Christians of their time as may be necessarily supposed For such sentences were never borrowed of Plato Aristotle or of other Philosophers which were before the comming of Iesus Christ As for example when Plutarke disputerh of the tranquilitie of the soule to flie anger to shun usurie of the profit that a man may draw from an enemie of such as God punisheth slowly and of many other points hee uttereth many sentences which are truly Christian and doe hold nothing of the Philosophers doctrine which were before Christ our Saviour And all the workes of Seneca are full of Christian sentences insomuch that many have esteemed That Seneca himselfe was a Christian yea that he was well knowne of S. Paule which it may be was not unworthie to be beleeved For Seneca who was in the time of Nero and was a learned man and a lover of the learned might well have heard Paule speake who at the said time was a prisoner at Rome for the doctrine which hee preached and might well have beene so curious as to talke with him to understand what was that doctrine whereof all the world spoke But whatsoever it was none can denie that the writings of Seneca in many places doe not demonstrate that hee learned many things of the Christians Wee may then conclude That in the time when Oracles failed and that Christian doctrine began to bee published and divulged through the world men became better and not more wicked like unchained slaves as this mocker Machiavell saith For although even in that time there were found certaine Atheists like himselfe men must not therefore inferre that all the world or the most part thereof became wicked Neither hath Machiavell uttered this opinion as having read it in any good author but only thereby to blame the Christian Religion as the cause of the corruption of manners But he impudently lieth like a shamelesse slaunderer which dare bee so bold as to deliver such talke without any proofe and the contrarie whereof is alreadie clearely proved 6. Maxime The Romane Church is cause of all the calamities in Italie THe Romane Church saith Machiavell is cause that Italie which of old vvas the most flourishing province of the Romane empire is at this day dismembred and cut into pettie Seignories as is seene By the meanes wherof she that vvas vvont to subiugate vanquish other provinces is now exposed as a prey for all strange kings vvhich vvill attempt it vvith a strong arme And although of all Christianitie it be nighest unto the Roman Church yet hath it of all other least Religion because therein that most holy Court doth little els but sow partialities and disorders And he that vvill proove vvhether such evils proceed from the Romane Church let them procure that she may remove her seat such as it is for a small time unto the countrey of the Switzers vvhere men live in great rest and unitie For there should you shortly see it fill the vvhole countrey vvith disorder and confusion ALthough the Romane Church be contaminated with many The papall seat doâ—h evill rather far off than nigh vices yet doth Machiavell shew himselfe here a notable slanderer against it for experience hath made us long time know That it rather doth mischeefe far off than nigh hand and that she ordinarily enricheth the place where shee abideth Wee reade That she hath held her seat at Avignon by the space of seventie yeares so that by the affluence plentie of gold and silver which ordinarily arrived there the towne became so opulent rich that it yet tasts thereof and gladly desireth it might bee alwayes there As for the Suiffes of whome Machiavell speaketh I am assured that there are they who would it cost them much money that the seat of the Romane Church were amongst them and if it were there the Pope should not lacke people for his guard for they would furnish him of as many as he would and his Cardinals also for their pay And I am also of that mind for their entertainement they would also accord them letters to be denizons and free burgesses in all their townes though it bee contrarie to their customes to receive strangers For so will they bee glad that there shall every day arrive in their countrey plentie of silver which they cannot but love better than either the Popes benedictions or pardons yet would they also be glad to reape their pardons at a low price And notwithstanding Machiavell saith That if the Romane seat were there placed there would be no good peace for sowing divisions amongst the Suisses that is not likely no more than it so did in Avignon or the countries about it For whereas Machiavell saith It soweth divisions and partialities in Italie that rather happeneth by the humor of that countrey people which are naturally subject to nourish divisions and partialities amongst both themselves and other nations where they have credit as experience is in Fraunce Moreover the Romanes themselves are not of Machiavels opinion neither doe they complaine that the Romane seat brings them any domage At the beginning of that great schisme of Popes they shewed well how greatly they feared to loose their seat For so much were they afraid that the Cardinals should againe have a French Pope which might againe dwell at Avignon where the said seat had so long before remained that they constrained the Cardinals by force cries and popularie violence to elect a Pope of their owne nation insomuch that all through the towne of Rome and before the place where the Cardinals were assembled to make their election all the people in a mutinie cried with an high voice Wee will have a Romane or at the least Froiss lib 2. cap. 12. an Italian This was the cause that the Cardinals gave them a Romane whereof the Romane inhabitants were so joyous that they tooke him on their shoulders to honour him the more and so long and so farre carried him through Rome that they stifled him and smothered him with the great prease amongst their armes When
to the manner of speech used amongst the people but there was never Philosopher so beastly that ever thought her to be any goddesse but when the auncient Philosophers say any thing comes by fortune or by adventure or contingencie they meane that the efficient cause of such a thing is unknowne for that is their doctrine and manner of speech to say that a thing happeneth or chanceth by Fortune and contingently when they know not the cause thereof Learnedly speakes Plutarke to this purpose when he sayth That the poets have Plutarke in libello de Fortuna done great wrong to Fortune to say she is blind and that she gives her gifts to men rashly without knowing them for sayth he it is we which know it not for Fortune is no other thing but the cause whereof we are ignorant of things which wee see come to passe And therfore the Stoicke philosophers although they knew not the second causes of all things no more than other philosophers yet used they another manner of speech than they and attributed the haps and chances of all things unto the ordinance and providence of God which they called by the name of Fatum yet indeed the Fatum differeth much from the providence of God which the Christians hold For the Stoickes held That God could worke no otherwise than the order of second causes would beare and leade him unto but wee hold That God is free in operation and not tied to second causes without which he can do that which he doth by them and can change them at his pleasure Timotheus an Athenian captaine comming one day from the war where his affaires had succeeded and sped well hee was much greeved at some which said that he Plu. in Silla was very happie and fortunate so that one day in a publike assemblie of all the people of Athens hee made an oration wherein hee discoursed all his gestes and victories uttering by the way the meanes and counsell which hee had used in the conduction of his affaires and after all this discourse Maisters said hee Fortune hath had no part in all this that I have accounted unto you as if he would say That it was by his owne wisedome that these things had so well succeeded to him The gods saith Plutarke were offended at this foolish ambition of Timotheus insomuch that he did never after any thing of account but all things he did turned against the haire till hee came to bee hated much of the Athenian people that in the end hee was banished and chased from Athens Hereby we may see that the ancient Paynims meant to attribute to the gods that which men in their common manner of speech attributed to Fortune but they never beleeved shee was a goddesse When Messiere de Commines speaketh of the constable of S. Pol who was so great and puissant a lord yet in the end such evill luck befell him that his hand was De Com. lib. 1. cap. 18. cut off Heereof hee makes a question and wisely and religiously absolveth it What shall wee say saith hee of Fortune This man that was so great a lord that by the space of twelve yeeres he had handled and governed king Lewis the eleventh the Duke Charles of Bourgoigne hee was a wise knight and had heaped together great treasures and in the end fell into her net Wee may then well say that this deceitfull Fortune beheld him with an evill countenance nay contrary wee must answere saith hee that Fortune is nothing but a poeticall fiction and that God must of necessitie have forsaken him because hee alwaies travailed with all his power to cause the war still to continue betwixt the king and the duke of Bourgoigne for upon this war was founded his great authoritie and estate and hee should bee very ignorant that would beleeve that there was a Fortune therein which could guide so wise a man to obtaine the evill will of two so great princes at once and also of the king of England which in their lives accorded in nothing but in the death of this constable Beholde the very words of Commines speaking of Fortune which senteth as much of a good man and a good Christian as the Maxime of Machiavell tastes of a most wicked Atheist And as for that which Machiavell saith That Fortune favours such as are most hazardous and rash Titus Livius is of a farther opinion who speaking of the victorie Tit. Livi. lib. 2. Dec. 3. which Anniball obtained nigh the lake Trasimene against the consull C. Flamminius saith That evill luck came by the temeritie of Flamminius which was nourished and maintained in him by fortune whereas before things had well succeeded with him but now hee which neither tooke counsell of the gods nor of men it was no mervaile if sodainely hee fell into ruine This losse of the battaile was the cause that Fabius Maximus was elected Dictator to go against Anniball as indeed after his election he tooke the field with a new army and certain time after being sent for of the Senat to assist at Rome certain sacrifices and ceremonies he left in the campe Minutius his Lieutenant saying unto him in this manner I pray you Minutius take heed you do not as Flamminius did but trust you more in good counsell than in fortune better it were to bee assured not to be vanquished than to hazard your selfe to bee vanquisher In another place Titus Livius rehearseth That Caius Sempronius captaine of the Roman Armie against the Volsques trusting in Fortune as a thing Lib. 4. Dec 1. constant and perdurable because alwaies before the Romanes had it in custome to overcome that nation used no prudence nor good counsell in his conduction but hazard and temeritie therefore saith Livie fortune and good successe followeth abandoneth rashnesse and this happeneth most commonlie Heere you see the opinion of Fabius Maximus and of Titus Livius much better than that of Machiavell who would persuade us that wee had better bee rash than prudent to have fortune favourable unto us for certaine it is that the haps which men call of Fortune proceede from God who rather blesseth prudence which hee hath recommended unto us than temeritie and although sometimes it happen that hee blesse not our counsels and wisedomes it is because we take them not from the true spring and fountaine namely from him of whom we ought to have demanded it and that most commonly wee would that our owne wisedome should bee a glorie unto us whereas onely God should bee glorified Heere endeth the second part entreating of such Religion as a Prince should use THE THIRD PART TREATING of such Pollicie as a Prince ought to hold in his Commonweale ¶ The Praeface I Have before in order disposed all Machiavels Maximes touching Counsell and Religion and at large I have shewed That all his doctrine shootes at no other marke but to instruct a prince to governe himselfe after his owne fancie not
delivering his â—are to such as would shew him the truth and to dispoile himselfe of all pietie conscience and religion There remaines now to handle the third part of his said doctrine which concerneth Pollicie whereof there are many parts for in it are comprehended such Maximes as concerne Peace War Faith Promise Oth Clemencie Crueltie Liberalitie Covetousnesse Constancie Craft Iustice and other vertues and vices considerable in publike and politike persons All these things Machiavell handles in such sort as it is easie to know that his onely purpose was to instruct a prince to bee a true tyrant and to teach him the art of tyrannie In which art verily hee hath shewed himselfe a great doctor yea far greater than Bartolus for Bartolus who was a renowmed doctor in the civile law in his treatise written of tyrannie wades no thing so deepe in the matter as Machiavell doth although reading the treatise of Bartolus it seemes that Machiavell hath learned a great deale of his knowledge but Machiavell applieth it contrary seeking that men should hold it for good whereas Bartolus speaketh of it as of a damnable thing which men ought to repulse and shun with all their power and to conferre a little thereupon I will here summarily recite certaine points of doctor Bartolus touching this matter of tyrannie to shew that which Machiavell hath stolne yet would applie it to the dutie of a prince whereas Bartolus attributeth it to the iniquitie and mallice of a tyrant First Bartolus constituteth two kinds of tyrants the one in title the other in exercise A tyrant in title saith he is hee which without any title or els with a bad title usurpeth a domination and seignorie A tirant in exercise is hee who having a lawfull title to dominier and rule ruleth not iustly and loyallie as a good prince ought to doe after this hee numbreth ten sorts of actions whereby a tyrant is manifested to be a tyrant in exercise The first action is when he puts to death the mightiest and most excellent persons amongst his subiects for feare they should arise against his tyrannie The second when he troubleth and afflicteth good and wise men of his domination least they should discover his vices to the people The third action when he seekes to abolish studies and good letters to the end wisdome may not be learned The fourth when he forbiddeth lawfull and honest assemblies and congregations fearing men will arise up against him The fift when hee hath spies in all places fearing men speake evill of his evill actions The sixt when hee maintaines divisions amongst his subiects to the end one part may feare another and so neither the one nor the other arise against him The seventh when he seekes to hold his subiects poore to the end that they being occupied in the meanes to get their living they may machinate nothing against him The eight when he seekes to maintaine warre to effeeblish his subiects and to abolish studies and to make himselfe strong when he needs The ninth when hee trusteth more in strangers than in his owne subiects and that he be takes himselfe unto a strange guard And the tenth action is when there is partialitie amongst his subiects and he adhereth more to the one than the other Which tenne kinds of action Bartolus proveth by reasons of law to be truly tyrannicall by which a tyrant in exercise is known and manifested to be a tyrant and especially sayth he by these three kinds when hee maintaineth division amongst his subiects when he empoverisheth them and when he afflicteth them in their persons and goods insomuch that the most part of the people are miscontented And finally he concludeth That to such tyrants by right and reason men ought not to obey nor appeare before theÌ„ but that they ought to be dispossessed of their estates But in all this doctrine of Bartolus can you find one onely point that Machiavell would not have applied and taught to a prince All these tenne kinds of tyrannicall actions set down by Bartolus are they not so many Maximes of Machiavell his doctrine taught to a prince Saith he not That a prince ought to take away all vertuous people lovers of their commonwealth to maintain partialities and divisions to impoverish his subiects to nourish warres and to doe all other the aforesaid things which Bartolus saith to bee the works of tyrants We need then no more to doubt that the purpose of Machiavell was not to forme a true tyrant and that hee hath not stolne from Bartolus one part of his tyrannicall doctrine which he teacheth which yet he hath much augmented and enriched For he hath added That a prince ought to governe himselfe by his owne counsell and he ought not to suffer any to discover unto him the truth of things and that hee ought not to care for any Religion as we have shewed before neither that he ought to observe any faith or oth but ought to be cruell a deceiver a fox in craftinesse covetous inconstant unmercifull and perfectly wicked if it be possible as we shall see hereafter So that hereby apparently may be seene That Machiavell is a farre greater doctor in the art of tyrannie than Bartolus yet I compare them not together For that which Bartolus hath written of tyrannie was to discover and condemne it but that which Machiavell hath written was to cause princes to practise and observe it and to sow in their hearts a true tyrannicall poyson under the pretext and name of a princes dutie and office Finally there is no cause nor reason to compare this beastly Machiavell a simple burne-paper-scribe of the towne-house of Florence with this great Doctor Bartolus who was one of the excellentest Lawyers of his time and for one such is yet acknowledged But now let us enter into the matter 1. Maxime That Warre is just which is necessarie and those Armes reasonable when men can have no hope by any other way but by Armes MAchiavell exhorting the magnificent Lawrence de Medicis to get all Italie persuadeth him by this Maxime He shewes him that Italie is fit and readie to receive a new prince because it is now falne into extreame desolation more than ever the Iewes vvere in the servitude Hebrewes of Aegypt And that this miserable province hath attended to be delivered from her servitude by a prince meaning king Charles the eight vvhich shee esteemed should bee sent of God but that by his acts it appeared that he vvas reproved and abandoned of Fortune and that now there vvas no other hope to be delivered from their miserie but in that illustrious house of Medicis vvhich might vvell enterprise to make it selfe cheefe of that redemption vvith the Churches helpe vvherupon she ruled meaning of Pope Leo x. with the aid also of his owne vertue and his owne fortune favoured of God And that the magnificent Lawrence might vvell bring it to passe in proposing to himselfe for imitation the examples of
Caesar Bourgia and Agathocles And that Italie delights in nothing so much as novelties and the Italians surpasse other nations in force agilitie of bodie and spirit True it is saith he that vvhen it commeth to battailes they vvill never appeare but men must lay the fault thereof upon the cowardise and little heart of their captaines because they that have knowledge vvill not willingly obey and every man presumeth to know much He sheweth moreover That the magnificent Lawrence had good occasion to enterprise the taking of Italie to deliver it from the slavish servitude wherein it is and that enterprise should be founded upon good iustice because that vvarre cannot faile to be esteemed iust vvhich is necessarie and all armes are good and reasonable when men have no hope otherwhere but by them THis Maxime of Machiavell is a true meanes to sow both civile strange warres all over the world For if princes had this persuasion that it were lawfull for them to assaile any other prince under the pretext and shew that hee handled not well his subjects princes should never want occasions to warre one against another And therefore to say that the magnificent Laurence de Medicis had just occasion to get Italie to deliver it from the evill handling of the potentates thereof which there dominiered and ruled this in no sort could bee called a just cause of warr but it rather may be called an evill against an evill and tyrannie against tyrannie because they de Medicis cannot say that they have any right or title unto Italie But if wee consider what tyrannie is as the elders have spoken thereof we shall find that not onely men in old time called such princes tyrants which handled evill and rudely their subjects as Caligula Nero Commodus other like but also such as handled well and kindlie their subjects when without title they usurped domination upon them as Iulius Cesar Hieron of Siracuse the governours which the Lacedaemonians set over Athens and other like And therefore a prince which hath no title over a countrey cannot lawfully invade it to get dominion there but by tyrannie whatsoever good intent he surmise or have to use the inhabitants friendly when he hath conquered it yet he may well aide another prince having lawfull title to oppose against a tyrannie because that is a common dutie whereby all good princes are obliged to help all such as by title and legitimate cause doe oppose themselves to resist a tyrannie But if a prince goe about to usurpe another countrie after the counsell of Macbiavell without lawfull title under a vaile to deliver that countrey from tyrannie this cannot bee well and justlie done unles a man will say that one tyrant may justlie expulse an other tyrant The Romanes have many times by example shewed this to bee true and never Titus Liviuâ— lib. 7. Dec. 1 would they deale in warre against any man without just title The Samnites which were a mightie people made one warre against the Campani neighbours unto the Romanes which sent to Rome to demand succours They shewed that they were the None may move warre without just title and cause Romanes neighbours and that it well became the Romane generositie and vertue to succour their neighbours seeing also that by marriages there were infinit alliances betwixt the Romanes and the Campanians and the Romanes might alwaies draw great commodities and profits from Campania which was a fertill and plentifull countrie But they could never obtaine other thing at the Romane Senates hand for these allegations but that the Senate sent embassadours to the Samnites to pray them to cease making warre upon the Campanians the Romanes neighbours Then the Campanians deputies said Well my masters seeing you will not now defend us against an unjust tyrannous invasion yet at the least defend that which is your owne for wee yeeld and give our selves to you yea us and all that is ours Then the Senate taking title and foundation of this dedition enterprised the defence of the Campanians which otherwise without title they would never have enterprised And truely the saying of the emperour Martian is very memorable and deserveth good observation That a prince ought never to move warre whilest hee could Pomp. Laetus in Martian maintaine peace as if he would say That Armes ought not to bee employed by a prince but in the defence of his countrey and not to assaile another And indeed a man had need looke about him more than once before hee moove warre and well consider and examine if therein there bee just cause or no for warres are easie to commence as M. Comines sayth but very uneasie to appease and finish And upon this we reade That in the Senate of Rome there was once a very notable disputation betweene Cato one esteemed the wisest of Rome and Scipio Nasica who was reputed the best man of Rome The matter was this After the first Punicke warre the Romanes made peace with the Carthaginians by which peace was accorded That the Carthaginians might not rig any ship of warre nor moove warre against the Romanes or their allies It came to passe a certaine time after this peace that the Carthaginians gathered together many ships which being reported at Rome and the matter propounded in counsell in the Senate Cato and many others reasoned That warre should be made upon the Carthaginians because they had gone from the treatie of peace and that warre might justly be offered unto them as breakers of peace But Scipio Nasica was of a contrarie opinion That there was yet no sufficient cause to make warre for although the Carthaginians had gone against the peace and violated their faith and promise yet the Romanes received no offence or damage as yet and therefore he was of advice That the Carthaginians should bee summoned to lay downe their armes and untackle their ships and observe peace even in the articles which they had broken The pluralitie of voices were of Nasica his opinion and accordingly men were sent to Carthage to summon them to obtemperate and obey the treatie of peace and to repaire contraventions They would doe nothing therein but prepared themselves more to set upon Massinissa their allie and friend Then this comming to counsell in the Senate all agreed That then there was just cause to move warre against the Carthaginians seeing they had alreadie begun to practise the same against Massinissa their allie and friend but there also were diverse opinions whether they should altogether ruinate from the top to the bottome the towne of Carthage after they had taken it or to let it still remaine a towne Cato was of opinion totally to ruinate and destroy it because it could not be kept in any fidelitie but would breake her faith and promise at the first occasion that offered it selfe Nasica was of a contrarie advice saying It was good that Rome had alwayes an enemie upon whom to make warre that the Romane people might
founded upon reason and they accorded to the people of the third estate magistrates which were called Tribunes of the people These had the charge to defend the common people against great men with power to imprison all such as seemed good unto them and this magistrate proved very profitable whilest they used it well but as soone as they abused it it fell out to bee very pernitious so is it of all other offices To demonstrate that men cannot keepe a peace when thereby they are handled like slaves the example of the Saguntines is very notable admirable The Saguntines Titus Livi. lib. 1. Dec. 3. a people of Spaine were besieged by Anniball of Carthage who held them so straightly in their city that they had no meane left to escape or resist They being reduced to this extremity Anniball sent them word by one of his nation called Alorcus to yeeld themselves to save their lives For courages said hee must needes bee vanquished when forces failed and Anniball would save their lives if they would yeeld to him and of his grace would deale well with them These poore people well considered the extreame danger wherein they were and that they had no meane to escape Anniball his hands but with yeelding unto him and to yeeld they should change their free into a servile condition which they feared so much as they loved better to lose their lives therefore resolved so to deale as neither their bodies nor their goods should ever come into the power of Anniball So they tooke choice of certaine young men of the towne which they caused to sweare to defend the gates of the towne even to the death that in the meane while the other townes-people might have leasure to execute their determination after this the cheefe of the towne resorted to the common market place and there caused to bee laid on a heape all the goods and treasures of the towne and about it to light a great fier within which many cast themselves and were burned lest they should fall into Anniballs hands others shut themselves up in their houses with their wives and children after putting fire thereunto burnt the said houses themselves and their goods and the said young men which were trusted with the gates made an end of fighting and living together Was not heere thinke you an admirable love of libertie for if they would but a while have lived under Anniball his yoake there had beene hope that the Romanes their allies would have delivered them but yet they rather tooke choice to lose their lives yea that by a most strange cruell death than to suffer for a small time a servile subjection under Anniball But as it is rare and unlikely that a servile peace should bee long and well observed so it is a very great fault to breake a peace when it is sufficiently commodious A tolerable peace ought not to be broken and tollerable This was the onely cause of the totall ruine of that great flourishing commonwealth of the Carthaginians for after they had many times broken the treatie of peace which they had with the Romanes and had beene many times vanquished in the end they were altogether destroyed and their townes rased and the cause that moved the Romanes thus to doe was for that they considered that the Carthaginians would never observe faith nor promise they made which alreadie so many times they had violated especially since they were not at any time bound to any hard condition of peace but onely hindered to rebell or waxe great Titus livi lib. 3. Dec. 4. and lib. 4. Dec. 5. Plutarch in P. Aemil. But the example of king Philip of Macedon and of Perseus his sonne is verie notable in this matter This king Philip about some light occasion enterprised warre against the Aetolians a people of Greece the Romanes allies The Aetolians called to their aid the Romanes sent an armie into Greece against Philip under the charge of captaine Sulpitius as well to succour the Aetolians as also the Athenians which Philip would have destroyed and lastly to revenge themselves of the king who covertly had aided with silver Anniball to make warre upon them after certaine conflicts this king fearing the forces and vertue of the Romanes did so much as hee wrought a peace with them after that they had made this peace hee observed it very well all the rest of his life and the better to keepe it from point to point hee had ordinarily in his hands the articles of that peace which hee ever read twise a day that hee might not breake any point of it When hee was dead Perseus his sonne succeeded him unto whom a Macedonian gentleman called Onesimus a faithfull friend and councellor of his father Philip gave this advice to have ever in his hands and often to reade the said treatise and articles of peace that as his father had done he might inviolablie observe them as the onely meane to maintaine him in his estate Perseus at the beginning did but despise the admonitions of that good seruant Onesimus but in the end hee had him in suspition and put him out of credit insomuch as the good person fearing worse unto himselfe fled to Rome After this Perseus gathering great store of money and esteeming himselfe strong enough to warre against the Romanes by little and little broke the articles of peace one after another altogether contrarying the contents of the articles in the mean time covertly prepared for warre finally the Romanes sent against him the consull Paulus Aemilius with a Roman armie which in lesse than a month seised upon all Macedonia and brought it into the Romane obedience and tooke prisoners the king Perseus and his sonne which hee carried to Rome in a triumph where they miserably dyed in a prison behold the evill haps of Perseus for not imitating the example of his father in the observation of the treatise of peace Verely the prince which well considereth the good that comes by living in peace will alwaies seeke to maintaine it but at the least within his owne domination for in peace all things do flourish and in warre all things are in ruine and devastation we reade that in the time of Antonius Pius all the Romane empire was in good peace and that by the same meanes all the provinces were rich and flourishing not onely Capitol in Antonio Pio. Plinius in epist ad Traianum in goods but in vertues and sciences for at that time good letters flourished al over and especially the civile law which was so well practised and in all places so good justice administred that the whole empire was a most excellent and admirable thing at that time Moreover that good emperour tooke a great delight to fabricate and build great works and common buildings as the Amphitheater which he builded at Nismes where hee was borne it is called at this day les Arenes the temple of Adrian
alive and hee shewed letters found in the house of Antistius written by Tarquin and sealed with his seale directed to Antistius which were found about him where Sextus had secretlie put them which he caused to be read before all the Gabinians as soone as they had heard them they were so angred and moved against good Antistius who knew not what to say of this thing he never thought that straight they stoned him and suffered Sextus himselfe to punish the compartners of Antistius Then Sextus having the bridle loose caused to be massacred in their houses all the greatest and noblest of the towne of Gabium and by that meanes he and his father proved masters of that poore desolate towne But this tyrannie and others they committed caused on the other side that they lost the kingdome and domination of Rome so that fishing for a frog they let goe out of their net a lamprey so happeneth it ordinarilie to such as will needes practise this detestable doctrine of Machiavell If wee looke into the manner of government practised by all great conquerors not such petie and tyrannous governours as Borgia and generous monarches which became the greatest and noblest of the world as Caesar Alexander the great Cyrus Charlemaine c. wee shall finde that they used most contrary meanes to Machiavells doctrine for they exercised no cruelties towards great or little as they made their conquests but so farre as the necessitie of warre carried them Yea they used conquered people with all kindnesse clemencie they embraced and entertained very well such as were great personages altered nothing in the publike state religion policie customes liberties but maintained them all contenting themselves onely with the soveraignite And this was the cause why many people desired not to resist them but to bee their subjects and they which resisted them yeelded againe easily without abiding any great batterie or assaults Therefore most generously and nobly dealt king Lewis to imitate the kindnes and gentlenes of those great Monarches when hee conquered Millan For although hee after againe lost it yet it followeth not that the fault proceeded heereof That hee would not bee so cruell as to exterminate the whole race of the Sforces but rather heere of proceeded that losse by the inconstancie of the Millanois and the machinations of pope Iulius the second with the Venetians which thought it not good to have so great a master so nigh them as the French and Italian hystories doe evidently demonstrate And whereas Machiavell maintaineth That it succeeds not well for a prince to imitate sometimes the vertuous actions of generous princes and that therefore he ought to follow the vicious actions of such as are of no account he shewed that he is together both wicked and ignorant for what more wicked doctrine can be given to a prince than to say he ought to imitate wicked actions because sometimes they succeed well This is as much as to say that we must by the high waies cut merchants throats and be theeves because theeves gaine therby But if Machiavell and all his favourites would judge of the successe of all things by their end as they ought to judge they should find that those glorious goodly successes that happen to the wicked are but meanes wherewith God serves himselfe to bring them into ruin and utter overthrow which they merited as amply I have otherwhere shewed by many examples And as for the examples he alledgeth he shewes himselfe by the application he makes a very beast It succeeded not well saith hee to Commodus Caracalla Spartian Dion in Severo Caracalla and Maximinus in that they would imitate and resemble Severus ô bravely applied and to good purpose spoken for Pertinax succeeded Commodus and Severus Pertinax so that Commodus did never see nor know Severus who in his time was yet unknowne being a simple waged souldier of a base and unknowne race how should Capitol in Maximino then Commodus propose him for an example to imitate and as for Caracalla his sonne and Maximin they were never imitators of Severus but in his vices namely in crueltie and therefore we need not mervaile if it succeded not well unto them Lamprid. in Alexan. Herod lib. 6. Capitol in Marco The emperour Severus had very good vertues for he was very well learned and advanced to estates learned people he maintained a very good policie in the Roman empire he made good and holy lawes which are yet in use hee caused good justice to bee administred to the people and kept barbarous nations in a new obedience Caracalla his sonne had none of those vertues although Machiavell being very ignorant of histories saith he was endued with excellent vertues for histories attribute no vertue unto him but that from his youth hee was accustomed to live a la Souldarde like a souldier that hee was not delicate but patient of labour but otherwise the most wicked man in the world in all things And as for Maximin he in all things resembled Caracalla but that he was issued from a vile and base race and a barbarous nation and Caracalla was an emperours sonne and as for that which Machiavell sayth That it succeeded not well to Pertinax Alexander Severus by their imitation of the emperour Antonius the philosopher hee still shewes more his beastlinesse and that he hath not read the hystories of their lives For hystories shew that Pertinax was slaine of his souldiers because he appeared to them more covetous than he should have been So likewise was Alexander slaine for the covetousnesse of Mammea his mother towards the souldiers But we never reade that Marcus Antonius was ever spotted with that vice of covetousnesse but contrary that he was a very liberall prince nothing holding lesse than a covetous mind and that herein as in all other vertues he was a true philosopher that is to say loving good and hating evill And therefore Machiavell knowes not what he saith when he saith it succeeded not well with Pertinax and Alexander Severus to have a mind to imitate Marcus Antonius he had better have spoken onely of the jeasts and matters written in the registers of Florence whereof he was Secretarie than so with a foolish interpretation to inquinate and corrupt hystories he knowes not 5. Maxime To be revenged of a citie or a countrey without striking any blow they must be filled with wicked manners VAnquished cities or provinces saith this Florentine doe mervellously Discourse lib. 1. cap. 35. lib. 2. cap. 19. vvell revenge themselves of the vanquishers in receiving them gently and filling them with wicked manners for so doe they easily prepare and dispose them to be vanquished by vvhomsoever assaulteth them as it happened to Annibals souldiers at Capua For having a long time soiourned there at their ease in all delights and pleasures they became all so effeminate that they vvere never after good for any thing This corruption of manners comes
ordinarily vvhen corrupted nations frequent amongst others for they infect them vvith evill manners And therefore it is that the Almaigne nation remaines so entire and constant in his manners because the Almaignes vvere never curious to trafficke vvith their neighbours nor to dwell in other countries nor to receive strangers into their countrey but alwayes have contented themselves vvith their owne goods nouriture manners and fashion of apparrell insomuch as shunning the frequentation of Spaniards French and Italians vvhich are the three nations of the vvorld most vicious they have not yet learned their customes and corruptions I Have not here set downe this Maxime to say it is not very true For besides the examples we reade in hystories we know it by experience and sight of eye seeing wee see at this day all Fraunce fashioned after the manners conditions and vices of strangers that governe it and have the principall charges and Estates and not onely many Frenchmen are such beasts to conforme themselves to strangers complections but also to gaggle their language and doe disdaine the French tongue as a thing too common and vulgar But if wee well consider this manner of vengeance taught by Machiavell in this Maxime we shall find it is a most detestable doctrine as well for them which practise it as for them against whom it is practised The example even of Capua which Machiavell alledgeth prooveth it For the Capuans in receiving into their towne Annibals armie corrupted Tit. Livius lib. 3. Dec. 3. rupted and infected the souldiers of Anniball with all excesse and effeminate wantonnesse also by the same meanes they procured their owne ruine and entire destruction which soone after happened unto them The Persian lords which with their manners corrupted king Alexander the Great did nothing to their owne advauntage Plu. in Alex. For Alexander becomming vicious they got the evill will of the Macedonians which tooke displeasure to see their king corrupted and finally after the death of Alexander which came unto him by his dissolutenesse learned of the Persians these lords had part of the evill lucke whereof they were cause And generally we may see that the corrupters of princes and people take part alwayes in the evill whereof they are cause as in other places we have shewed by many examples of flatterers which have corrupted their princes We Frenchmen may yeeld good witnesse of what account the Italian and Neapolitane nation is by the frequentation wee had with them in the voyage which was made to Naples in the time of king Charles the eight for from thence brought they this disease which at this day is now called the French poxe and that we have ever since kept but yet so as the Italians and Neopolitanes are not exempt therefrom but both the one and the other have part of that corruption Breefely we ought to detest and hate this wicked doctrine of Machiavell and reject all vengeance and follow S. Paules lesson who commands us to converse with good people and of good manners because the conversation of the wicked not onely corrupteth good manners but also soweth those that are wicked And as for that which Machiavell saith of the Almaignes wee know and see the frequentation of the Almaignes in France and yet till this present we have not seene that they have yet gathered corruption of manners And whereas he sets downe the French nation amongst such as are most corrupted we cannot denie it but we may well say That the doctrine of Machiavell the frequentation of them of his nation are cause of the greatest and most detestable corruption which is at this day in Fraunce For of whome have the Frenchmen learned and knowne atheisme sodomie trecherie crueltie usurie and such other like vices but of Machiavell and of them of his nation So that they may brag that they are well revenged of the warres which our auncestors have made in Italie 6. Maxime It is folly to thinke that with princes and great lords new pleasures will cause them to forget old offences CAEsar Borgia saith Machiavel during the life of Pope Alexander Cap. 7. Of Princes Discourse lib. 3. cap. 4. the sixt his father usurped the domination of Romania which is a land belonging to the Church and vvas called duke de Valentinois In making those usurpations in favour of the Pope his father he offended many Cardinals and amongst others the Cardinall of Saint Peter ad vincula yet after he consented that hee should bee elected Pope after the death of Alexander his father vvhereof hee soone repented For this new Pope called Iulius the eleventh straight be took himselfe to armes to recover that vvhich Borgia had usurped although he had favoured him in his election vvhich hee should never have done nor suffered any election of a Pope vvhich vvas his enemie For saith he new pleasures never makes men forget old iniuries and offences and therefore Borgia which in all other things had governed vvell committed a foule fault in the creation of Iulius and himselfe delivered the mean of his finall destruction The same fault cōmitted Servius Tullius king of the Romanes in giving his two daughters in marriage to two Tarquins vvhich quarrelled for the crowne and vvhich thought that Tullius vvould usurpe it upon them For not only this alliance extinguished the envie and rancour vvhich they had to Servius but that which is more it caused one of the daughters to enterprise to sley her owne father IF seemeth that this which Machiavell telleth of Borgia boweth something from the truth of the hystorie For Sabellicus writeth That during the election of Pope Iulius the eleventh Borgia was shut up in the Popes tower to be safe and guarded by his enemies So there was no likelyhood that a man brought into such an extremitie as to hide himselfe and be shut up in prison for the great multitude of enemies which hee had procured should have such great credit in the Popes election But suppose it was true that Borgia helped Pope Iulius to the Popedome and that Pope Iulius was unthankfull for that benefit for the remembrance that he had of the old and ancient injuries that Borgia had sometimes done him what followes hereof That all great lords will alwayes doe the like will some Machiavelist answer and that therefore they ought not to bee trusted Is not here a goodly doctrine for a prince Breefely it is Machiavels mind to teach a prince to trust in no lord which hee hath once offended and againe that none which hath made a fault or offended him shall any more trust him whatsoever reconciliation peace concord amitie pleasure and good offices may happen since the offence Here behold a most wicked and detestable doctrine to say That an offence ought to take so deepe root in the heart of the offended that by no pleasures services or other meanes it can be rased out But Machiavell seemeth something excusable to maintaine this Maxime for according to
so ruled in him that as soone as any spoke unto him any word that displeased him he changed colour voice and gate and could not commaund himselfe nor keepe from committing many cruelties and injustices his judgement was so with choller oppressed Finally it was the cause of his death For one day the Quadians demanded peace of him and by their embassadors excusing themselves of a rebellion he began to speak to those embassadors in so great anger rehearsing his kindnesse humanitie before used unto them that at once his voice and words failed him as if he had been strucken with a deadly blow and withall begun to send out a mortall sweat he was incontinent carried to a chamber and laid upon a bed and by the advice of one of his physicians a veine was opened but it was not possible to draw a drop of blood out the said choller had so burned and dried his inward parts so he died A notable example for princes to take that consideration of their health that they never suffer choller nor crueltie to abide in them for such passions once taking an habit in them they burne rost their entrailes and so will not suffer them to live long But they ought further to consider that such vices also doe soile and defile the reputation of that generositie and magnanimitie that ought to be in a prince For we have seene and doe ordinarily see that chollericke and cruell men have almost alwayes been and are cowards and fearefull but generous and valiant men are gentle and full of humanitie Princes ought further to consider that if they be once spotted with crueltie they never make good end and God will have it so because he that committeth crueltie violateth the divine law which forbiddeth to shed mans bloud and to sley but by forme of justice He also violateth the law of nature for he destroyeth his like which nature hath produced and which hath given that instinct even to brute beasts not to destroy beasts of their own kind there is also a precept of the law of nature not to offend another Hee likewise violateth the civile law whereby is forbidden all murder and homicide upon paine of death Is it then any marveile if sanguinarie and bloodie princes have commonly evill ends seeing they violate the divine naturall and civile lawes approved of all people and nations There was never a more cruell nor a more cowardly man than Caligula the emperour for he quaked and trembled as he went to warre to heare speake onely of his Sueton in Calig cap. 45. 46. 47. â—2 58 59. enemies without seeing them Making warre in Almaigne in a forrest nigh unto him he caused certaine Apostata Almaignes to lie in ambush and commaunded one of them when hee was at dinner to declare unto him that the enemie was discovered in the said forrest As soone as he heard this hee incontinent sounded the trumpet and placing his battaile in array he caused them to assault that poore forrest which he made to be cut all downe and having so obtained this goodly victorie against this forrest he came backe againe with great vaunt and fiercenesse taxing and reproching the cowardise of such as remained behind and were not present at this great overthrow Was not this an act of a generous a valiant prince Another time he caused to ordaine and place his battaile strong and in good order to fight and commanded that every one should march in his ranke and that al their artillerie and all other furniture for an assault should be prepared for a ready fight yet no man knew his intent what hee would doe When his armie had marched in order of battaile to the shore of the great Ocean sea which was nigh hee then commanded al his souldiers and men of warre to fish gather into their hose bosomes and murrions as many oysters as they could carrie saying it was the spoile and bootie conquered from the Ocean which hee would have to bee carried to the Capitoll of Rome in signe of that notable victorie obtained against that great Ocean Also he caused to be builded upon this shore an high tower for a memoriall of this happie journey After hee sent to Rome to prepare against his comming a goodly triumph as could be to triumph upon the great Ocean which he had so valiantly vanquished and the spoiles thereof did bring to the Capitoll Are not these heroicall acts to overthrow a forrest and fish for oysters For crueltie whereof this monster was full I will say no other thing but that he had alwayes a servant expert in cutting off of heads which ordinarily at his dinners and suppers beheaded poore prisoners in his presence and for his pleasure I leave to speake of so many good people as he brought to their deaths for I should never have done to rehearse all his cruelties His end was that his people conspired against him taking for their watchword Redoubles when they all fell upon him and massacred him with thirtie blows in his age of 29 yeares after he had raigned three yeares and ten months The crueltie of Nero which caused to be slaine Agrippine his mother Britannicus his brother Octavia his wife Seneca his master and all the most vertuous and good people of Rome even of the Senate are notorious ynough and should bee too long to recite And never man was more feminine and cowardly than he for he was never found in any warre But he had good and valiant lieutenants which acquited themselves well whilest he played upon the citheron amongst singers and common players of enterludes His death was strange For being abandoned of all the world but of some four or five servants he sought to hide himselfe in a litle house of pleasure in the fields which appertained to Phaon one whom he had enfranchised being there his men pressed him to slay himselfe quickly least he fell alive into the hands of his enemies for none of them would doe him the pleasure as to slay him Then he commanded them to make for him a grave and laid him downe upon the earth for a measure thereof but whilest they were making of the grave behold a lacquey of Phaons came who brought a decree from the Senat whereby Nero was declared an enemie of the Commonwealth with commandement to seeke him out to punish him as a publick enemie After he had read this decree he took his two daggers and proved whether they both were sharpe ynough after hee put them in the sheath saying his houre was not yet come yet straight hee prayed his men that they would begin a little to weep lament Soon after he desired that some of them would shew him by example how hee should sley himselfe But perceiving knights arriving and doubting they came to take him hee gave himselfe a stroke with his dagger in the throat with the help of Secretarie Epaphroditus he being yet alive there entred a centenier which
his sonne For how durst he punish that vice that hee had learned him therefore this example of Severus serveth little or nothing to maintaine the doctrine of Machiavell neither is one example so considerable against a million of others contrary for men must make a law of that which happeneth most often and in many examples not of that which seldome happeneth When Anniball began to execute evill his businesses in Italie and that the Romanes having taken courage began to follow him neere and to hould him short he tooke a cruell counsell which much advanced his ruine For the townes and fortresses which hee could not guard hee ruinated and destroyed that his enemies after him might not draw any commoditie from them nor make any use of them This was a cause that their courages which tooke part with him were alienated from him for saith Titus Livius Example toucheth men more than doth callamitie and losse It was a great crueltie in the duke Iohn of Bourgoigne when hee durst so much enterprise as to cause to bee slaine the duke of Orleance the kings onely brother Monst lib. 1 cap. 38. 39. 112. which crueltie cost many heads and was cause of infinit evils in the kingdome of France and finallie was the cause that the duke himselfe was massacred on the same manner that hee had caused to massacre the duke of Orleans But yet it is a thing more strange that this duke durst maintaine that he had great neede to commit that massacre Yea he found a doctor in Theologie called master Iohn Petit who durst affirme in tearmes of Theologie that that act was goodly praiseable and worthie of remuneration True it is that in the time wherein wee are there are found many such doctors of the bottle patrons defenders of sinnes and vices such as this Iohn Petit but as in the end hee was knowne to bee a lyer and a slanderer and his propositions condemned hereticall so God will cause his imitators of this time in the end to bee found like him but that the asse may appeare by his eares I have briefely set downe his oration The duke of Bourgoigne having made himselfe the stronger in armes within Paris hee tooke order that there should be held a Counsell and an assembly therein to propose his justifications In which Counsell assisted Monssier le Daulphin the king of Sicile the cardinall of Bar the dukes of Berry of Bretaigne of Lorraine and many contes barons and many other great lordes and the rector of the Vniversitie of Paris accompanied with many doctors clearkes and bourgesses There was brought in by an usher master Iohn Petit a doctor in Theologie before all those nobles to justifie the act of the duke of Bourgoigne After then they had given him audience with both his hands hee tooke off his great square doctorall bonnet from off his head and began to speake in this manner My most redoubted lordes Monseignior the duke of Bourgiogne contie of Flanders and Arthois twise peere of France An oration of a doctor in Divinity and deane of Peares is come before the most noble most high Majestie royall as to his soveraigne lord to doe him reverence in all obedience as he is bound by foure obligations which commonly are set downe by doctors in Theologie and of the cannon civile law Of which bonds the first is of neighbour to his neighbour the second of parent towards his parent the third of vassaile towards his lord and the fourth will bee that the subject not onely offend not his lord but also revenge such offences as are done against him There are yet other obligations that is That the king hath done much good honour to my lord of Bourgoigne For it pleased him that Monseignior le Daulphin should espouse his daughter that the son of my said lord of Bourgoigne should marry madame Michelle daughter to his royall majesty and as S. Gregorie saith Cum crescunt dona crescunt rationes donorum that is when gifts encrease so doe their obligations also All these obligations are cause that my lord of Bourgoigne hath caused to slay the duke of Orleance lately dead which act was perpetrated for the very great good of the kings person of his children and of all the realme as I shall so sufficiently shew as every man shall bee satisfied For the said Monseignior of Bourgoigne hath charged me by expresse commandement to propose his justification which thing I durst not denie for two causes The first because I am bound to serve him by an oth taken of mee three yeeres agoe The second because hee hath given mee a good and great portion every yeere to keepe mee at schole because hee considered I was smally benificed which pension did mee great good towards my expences and yet will so doe mee long if it please God and my said lord of Bourgoigne But when I consider the great matter I have taken in hand to handle before this noble companie great feare troubleth my heart for I know I am of small sense feeble of spirit and of a poore memorie so that my tongue and memory flieth away and that small sence I was wont to have hath now altogether left mee so that I see no other remedie but to commend mee to my God and creator and to his glorious mother to Monseigneur S. Iohn the Evangelist prince of Theologians And therefore I humbly beseech you my most redoubted lords all this companie if I say any thing which is not well said to attribute it to my simplenesse and ignorance that I may say with the Apostle Ignorans feci ideoque miserecordiam consecutus sum that is I did it of ignorance and therefore am I pardoned But some may here make a question saying It appertaineth not to a Theologian to make the said justification but rather to a jurist I answer That then it belongeth nothing to me which am neither the one nor the other but a poore ignorant man as I have sayd whose sence and memorie faileth yet a man may say and maintaine it That it well belongeth to a doctor in Theologie to defend his master and to say and preach the truth Men need not then be abashed if I lend my pore tongue to my lord and maister who hath nourished me For it is now in his great need that I lend him my tongue they that love me the lesse for it I thinke they commit a great sinne and hereof every man of reason will excuse me Then to begin this Iustification I take my theame upon that which S. Paul saith Radix omnium malorū cupidit as quam quidam appetentes erraverunt à fide These words are in the first to Timothie the sixt chapter and are thus englished Ladie Covetousnesse of all evils is the root which makes men disloyall Some may object to me that pride is the first of all sinnes because Lucifer by his pride fell from Paradice into hell and also
from that which is good And heere that manner of electing friends which Augustus Caesar observed is worthie observation for hee did not easily retaine every man in his friendship and familiaritie but ever tooke time to proove and finde their Sueton. in Aug. lib. 66. vertues fidelitie and loyaltie Such as hee knew to bee vertuous people and which would freely tell him the truth of all things as did that good and wise Maecenas and which would not flatter him but would employ their good wills sincerely in the charges he gave them after he had well prooved them then would he acknowledge them his friends but as hee was long and difficile to receive men into familiar amitie so they which hee had once retained for friends hee would never forsake them but alwaies continued constantly his friendship towards them Adversitie also is a true touchstone to proove who are fained or true friends For when a man feeleth laborinthes of troubles fall on him dissembling friends depart from him and such as are good abide with him as saith Euripides Adversitie the best and certain'st friends doth get Prosperitie both good and evill alike doth fit 11. Maxime A prince which would have any man to dye hee must seeke out some apparent colour thereof and then hee shall not bee blamed if so bee that hee leave his inheritance and goods to his children WHen a prince saith master Nicholas will pursue the death Cap. 17. Of the prince of any man he ought to colour it with some iust colour and when hee puts him to death hee must abstaine from the confiscation of his goods for his children which abide behinde will sooner forget the death of their father than the losse of their patrimonie And withall let him know That nothing makes a prince so much hated as when hee comes to touch the goods and wives of his subiects THis is also another tyrannicall precept like to the former For it Corne. Taci Annales lib. 1 and 4. is a custome with tyrants to impose false accusations and blames against such as they will cause to die sometime before the execution sometimes after Wee have shewed before an example of Domitian who for light and no causes tooke occasion to make many great Romane lords to dye which were of him suspected as to tyrants all good and vertuous men are ordinarily which are better than themselves The emperour Tiberius saith Tacitus at the beginning of his raigne hated men of eminent vertue and such also as were extreamely vicious suspecting the vertue of some and fearing to be dishonoured and despised by the vicious But after he came to the fulnesse of all vices and loved most such as were most vicious hee practised too much this principle of Machiavell against many vertuous and honourable men for hee caused to dye a learned and most excellent man called Cremutius Cordus because hee writ an hystorie wherein hee praised Cassius and Brutus He slew also Aemylius Scaurus for writing a tragoedie which pleased him not and many other like railors whereby hee sought to cover his tyrannie Nero likewise after hee had slaine his mother writ lies to the Senat to bee published all over how he had discovered a great conspiration that his mother had intended against him to cause his death and that hee was constrained to sley her to prevent her In like sort Caracalla after hee had slaine Geta his brother caused a fame to bee spred all over that hee himselfe escaped faire for his brorher would have slaine him Briefely all tyrants use to doe so practising their cruelties and vengeances ever under some pretext or false coulour as Machiavell teacheth And there are none at this day which cannot examplifie this position with many late and fresh examples in our time For the massacres of Paris executed on S. Bartholomewes day and the execution after made of captaine Briquemand of Maistre Arnand of Carignes of contie Mongomery and of the lord of Monbrum and other like were all coloured with false imputations by these Messers Machiavellists and by wicked judges their slaves as every one knoweth And as for that which Machiavell saith That the children of such as are unjustly caused to die take no care if so bee their goods bee not taken from them Dion in Neroue and in Aâ—to Carac I beleeve few men will accord with him in this point for every one which hath a good mans hart will sooner make account of honour and life than of goods But certaine it is if the successor his sonne or other kinsman despise and make no account to pursue by lawfull meanes that justice bee done for the unjust death of the slaine men whom hee succeedeth that he leeseth his honour and by the civile lawes is culpable and unworthie of the succession Moreover the injurie done in the person of the father is reputed done to the sonne himselfe and the contrarie As also every man esteemes himselfe to suffer injurie when any of his parents or friends doe suffer it Insomuch as such violent executions are without doubt more intollerable than the losse of goods and do much more stronglie wound the hearts of men which are not destitute of naturall love towards their bloud and such as have their honour in any recommendation than all other losses and damages that they can suffer and although the Machiavellists hold for a Maxime That a dead man biteth not or makes no warre yet the death of a man oftentimes is the cause of many deaths and of great effusion of blood as more at large shall be said in another place 12. Maxime A prince ought to follow the nature of the Lyon and of the Fox not of the one without the other YOu must understand saith this Florentine that men fight in two manners the one with lawes when matters Cap. 18. 19. Of the prince are handled by reason the other with force The first is proper to men which have the use of reason The second appertaineth to beasts which have neither reason nor intelligence But because the first is not sufficient to keepe men and to maintaine them in inioying of things belonging unto them they must needes oftentimes have recourse to the second which is force Wherefore it is needefull that a prince can well play the beast and the man together as our elders have taught when they writ that Chiron the Centaure halfe a man and halfe a beast was given as an instructor for the prince Achilles For heereby hee gave to understand that a prince ought to shew himselfe a man and a beast together A prince then beeing constrained well to know hovv to counterfet the beast hee ought amongst all beasts to chuse the complexion of the Fox and of the Lyon together and not of the one without the other for the Fox is subtill to keepe himselfe from snares yet he is too weake to guard himselfe from vvolves and the Lyon is strong enough to guard himselfe from vvolves
theft and they wicked men as they are although most subtillie they play the Foxes according to their masters doctrine yet in the end they wil be alwaies known Murder is alwaies murder to whatsoever end it bee done for Foxes And though they sometimes deceive before they bee knowne they are therefore after double punished in regard of the profit they get by deceiving when none will beleeve or trust them in any manner no not even then when they have an intention and will not to deceive at all For alwaies men presume of them as men ought to presume of deceivers and wicked men which are without faith and promise for men hold them for such and they can bee held for no other in regard of their actions and behaviours of their lives past This then is the first evill proceeding from Machiavells doctrine which is that they themselves which practise it bring evill to themselves and are discryed hated and evill beloved of all men The other inconvenience which followeth this Maxime is that if the prince permit Crueltie overthroweth justice men to commit murders under colour of a good intent and end hee shall breake the order of justice which hee ought to observe in the punishment of offenders and so shall turne all upside downe and bring his estate and countrey into confusion and perill for when justice goeth evill all goes evill when well all goes well as in another place shall bee shewed more at full Murders and massacres also never remaine long unpunished for God incontinent sendes them their reward as came to Romulus Machiavells owne example who was an unjust murtherer and in the end was murdered himselfe And in our time wee see examples enough and I beleeve wee shall see more in such as the hand of God hath not yet touched But amongst these evills and inconveniences which ordinarily lay hold of these murderers and follow them even to their graves with furies feares and torments which vexe their consciences I could heere alledge for a confirmation of this Maxime that which S. Paul saith That we must not doe evill that good may come thereof But I have alreadie said in another place thar I will not imploy the sacred armour of the holy scripture to fight against this profane and wicked Atheist but I will still give him this advantage to contend with his owne armes namely with profane authors which were not Christians and which heerein alone resemble him for in other things hee holds nothing of them and especially in the matter whereof wee speake they have beene most farre from his detestable doctrine When Tarquin the proude king of Rome saw that hee had so behaved himselfe Titus Livius lib. 1. 21. Dec. as he had utterly lost the amitie of his subjects then resolved to cause himselfe to be obeyed by feare and to bring it to passe hee tooke to himselfe the knowledge of capitall causes against great men which before appertained to the Senate to make himselfe the better feared and obeyed and so hee put to death such as he thought good under certaine pretextes and colours thinking thereby the better to assure his estate But how did hee assure it Thus hee so practised this doctrine of Machiavell that hee became extreamely hated of all men in such sort as his subjects not being able to beare his tyrannie did drive him out of his kingdome where hee miserably died And so much there wanteth that the ancient Romanes delighted in massacring and slaying that they hated even the too rigorous punishments of offenders as the punishment of Metius Suffetius Albanois who was with foure horses drawne to death for a strange and damnable treason by him entended For although he merited to bee so handled yet the Romanes had the crueltie of the punishment in so great disdaine and detestation that every body turned away their eyes saith Titus Livius seeing so villanous a spectable And it was the first and last time that ever they used that rigorous punishment Likewise it greatly displeased the Romanes that some thinking to doe well caused to bee slaine a Tribune of the people a very seditious man called Genutius who ceased not to trouble the commonwealth by divisions whereby hee stirred the common people to uproares If Genutius had had his lawfull tryall it is likely hee would have beene condemned but therein there was this mischiefe that none durst lay hold upon him for the reverence of his estate during that yeere but hee must needes have beene suffered either to doe what hee would or els to resist his dessignes by other meanes then by accusation and not at all to condemne him before hee were out of his office This seemed a goodly colour to dispatch him to shun seditions and troubles which this Tribune raised yet the execution which was made without course of law was found nought and of an evill example and consequence and was the cause of great mischiefes and broyles which followed after And as for that which Machiavell writeth that Romulus caused to slay Tatius Dioni Halic lib. 2. Titus Livi. lib. 1. Dec. 8. his companion in the kingdome the better to rule and governe the towne of Rome this is false for histories doe witnesse that after hee had caused this execution to be made hee became cruell and proud towards the Senators exercising tyrannie in many things insomuch as the Senators themselves slew him even in the senat house and cut him in little pieces whereof every man tooke one piece in his bosome so that the bodie of Romulus was not found for they hired one to say that hee did see the bodie flie into heaven and the said Senators helping this bruite and report Plutarch in Romulo placed him in the letanie of their Gods and persuaded the people that hee ascended into the heavens both in body and soule But they gave Romulus his reward for the murdering of his brother Remus and his companion Tatius and they murdered him as hee had done them For briefely it is a generall rule that murderers are alwaies murdered which rule hath seldome any exceptions But whereas Machiavell saith That well to rule and governe a common wealth there would bee but one person to medle therein there hath beene alwaies the contrarie Tituâ— Livi. lib. 3. Dec. 8. practised When the Romanes thought it good by good lawes and ordinances to governe the estate of their common weale they considered that the number of two Consuls which were their soveraigne magistrates were too few and therefore they abrogated and tooke them cleane away and elected ren men in their places Dionisius 14 Halic lib. 10 unto which they gave the same authoritie which the Consuls before had and especially gave them power and expresse charge to make lawes and ordinances for the pollicie government and justice of the common weale They made the lawes of the twelve tables which endured long after them yea at this day some of these are
by Machiavell which maintaineth his subjects in division and partialitie and which seekes to sley all them which love the commonweale and which desire a good reformation a good policie in the commonweale There are also other tokens and markes whereby to know a tyrant as them which wee have before alledged out of doctor Bartolus and them also which hystoriographers have marked to have been in Tarquin the proud For they say when he changed his just and royall domination Dioni Halic lib. 4. into a tyrannicall government he became a contemner and a despiser of al his subjects as well the meane people as the nobilitie and Patritians he brought a confusion and a corruption into justice he tooke a greater number of waiting servants into his guard than his predecessors had he tooke away the authoritie from the assembly of the Senate which it alwaies before had moreover hee dispatched criminall and civile causes after his fancie and not according to right hee cruelly punished such as complained of that change of estate as conspirators against him he caused many great and notable persons to die secretly without any forme of justice hee imposed tributes upon the people against the auncient forme and regalitie to the impoverishing and oppression of some more than of others hee had also spies to discover what was said of him and afterward punished rigorously such as had blamed either him or his government These be the colours wherewith the hystories do paint Tarquin when of a king he became a tyrant and these are ordinarily the colours and liverie of all tyrants banners whereby they may be knowne It seemeth that Tarquin forgot nothing of all that a tyrant could doe but that he slew not Brutus which was a fault in the art of tyrannie as learnedly Machiavell noteth it which fell to bee his ruin But the cause hereof was that Brutus in the court counterfeted the foole wherby Tarquin had no suspition of him For none but wise men and good people are suspect and greevous to tyrants but as for counterfeting fooles unthrifts flatterers bauds murderers inventors of imposts and such like dregs and vermine of the people they are best welcome into tyrants courts yet even amongst them are not tyrants alwaies without danger for amongst such fooles sometimes happeneth a Brutus who at last will plat out their ends so that ever their lives hangs by a small thred as Denis the tyrant sayth But the example of Hieronimus another tyrant of Sicilie is to this purpose well to be noted This Hieronimus was the sonne of a good and wise king called Hiero whom also they well called tyrant because he came not to that estate by a legitimate title although he exercised it sincerely and in good justice who when he died left this Hieronimus his sonne very young and under age For the government therefore of him and of his affaires he gave him fifteene tutors and amongst them Andronodorus and Zoilus his sonnes in law and one Thraso which he charged to maintaine the countrey of Sicilie in peace as he himselfe had done by the space of fiftie yeares of his raigne but especially that they should maintaine the treatie and confederation which he had all the length of his time duly observed with the Romanes The said tutors promised to performe his request and to change nothing in the estate but altogether to follow his footsteps Straight after Hiero was dead Andronodorus being angry because of so many tutors caused the king who was then but 15 yeares old to be proclaimed of sufficient age to bee dismissed of tutors and so dispatched himselfe as well as others of that dutifull care they ought to have had of their king and countrey After he got to himselfe alone the government of the kingdome and to make himselfe to bee feared under the kings authoritie hee tooke to him a great number of waiters for his guard and to weare purple garments and a diademe upon his head and to goe in a coach drawne with white horses altogether after the manner of Denis the tyrant and contrary to the use of Hieronimus yet was not this the worst for besides all this Adronodorus caused the yong king his brother in law to bee instructed in pride and arrogancie to contemne every man to give audience to no man to bee quarelous and to take advantage at words of hard accesse given to all new fashions of effeminacie and riotousnesse and to bee unmeasurable cruell thirstie after bloud After Andronodorus had thus framed to his minde this yong king a conspiration was made against him unto which Andronodorus was consenting to dispatch and sley him but it was discovered but yet executed which A conjuration discovered yet executed was strange For one Theodorus was accused and confessed himselfe to bee one of the conspiracie but being tortured and racked to confesse his complices and parteners in that conspiracie knowing he must needs die and by that meanes desiring to be revenged of that yong tyrant he accused the most faithfull and trustiest servants of the king This young tyrant rash inconsiderat straight put to death his friends and principal servants by the counsell of Andronodorus who desired nothing more because they hindered his deseignes This execution performed incontinent this yong tyrant was massacred and slain upon a straight way by the conspirators themselves which before had made the conjuration the execution whereof was the more easie by the discoverie thereof because as is said the tyrants most faithfull friends and servants were slaine Soone after the tyrants death Andronodorus obtained the fortresse of Siracuse a towne of Sicilie but the tumults and stirres which he raised in the countrey as he thought for his owne profit fell out so contrarie to his expectation that finally he his wife and all their race and the race of Hieronimus were extermined as well such as were innocent as they that were culpable And so doth it ordinarily happen to all young princes which by corruption are degenerated into tyrants So fals it out also to all them which are corrupters of princes to draw them into habits of all wickednesse Lastly here would not bee omitted altogether this wickednesse of Machiavell who confounding good and evill together yeeldeth the title of Vertuous unto a tyrant Is not this as much as to call darkenesse full lightsome and bright vice good and honourable and ignorance learned But it pleaseth this wicked man thus to say to plucke out of the hearts of men all hatred horror and indignation which they might have against tyrannie and to cause princes to esteeme tyrannie good honorable and desirable 16. Maxime A Prince may as well be hated for his vertue as for his vice THe emperour Pertinax saith Machiavell vvas elected emperor Cap. 19. Of the prince against the vvils of his men of vvarre vvhich before had customably lived licentiously in all vices and dissolutenesse under the emperour Commodus his predecessor
that which Machiavell prescribeth for by oppressing and causing to die al the conjurators and enemies and all their friends and allies he made himselfe so feared and redoubted that there was not in Rome great or little but he trembled for feare only to heare the name of Nero Such great men whose friends and parents were put to death came and fell downe on their knees before him and thanked him for the good and honour he had done them to have purged and cleansed their parentage and alliance from so wicked men as those he had slaine Others in signe of joy for the death of their friends and parents caused their houses to be hung with lawrell and made sacrifices to the gods to give them thankes for so great a good as was happened unto them They celebrated also great feasts of joy as they had been mariages The Senate also for their part being also in a great terrour ordained there should be processions and publicke sacrifices to yeeld thankes to the gods that this conjuration was discovered yea they caused to be builded and consecrated a chappell to the Sunne in the house where the conjuration was made because it shined to the discoverie therof They builded also a temple to the goddesse Health Nero thinking that all these joyes were true and unfained yet were they but simulations exercised still more and more his butcherie and in the end made himselfe so assured by reason he was feared and redoubted of all the world that he was of opinion that he had obtained the upperhand of all his enemies but it was cleane contrarie For by this strange slaughter with so many other wickednesses whereof hee was full hee brought himselfe into a deadly hatred of all the world insomuch as the provinces of the empire revolted from his obedience one after another and in the end he was abandoned of every man unlesse it were of some foure or five of his meanest servants which kept him companie in his flight untill he had slaine himselfe as is said in another place therfore Nero needed to take no thought how to nourish enemies against himselfe as Machiavell teacheth in this Maxime for hee never wanted a great number as all tyrants have ordinarily And how should not tyrants have good store of enemies seeing even good De Com. lib. 1. cap. 107 108 109 100 111. and wise princes doe not want them To this purpose master Phillip de Comines makes a very good discourse saying That it pleased God to give to all princes kingdomes and common weales an opposit and contrary unto them that both the one and the other might the rather bee held in their duties as England hath Fraunce Scotland hath England Portugall hath Castile Grenado hath Portugall the princes and common weales of Italie are contrarie one to another and so it is of all God hath giveÌ„ to every seignorie his opposit countries and seignories of the earth For if there bee any prince or common-weale which wants his opposite to hould him in feare straight one shall see him fall to a tyrannie and luxuriousnesse Therefore God by his wise providence hath given to every seignorie and to every prince his opposit that one by the feare of an other might be stirred up to a modest and temperate carriage And there is indeed nothing saith hee that better holdeth a prince in his duetie nor which causeth him to walke more upright than the feare of his opposit and contrary For the feare of God nor the love of his neighbour nor reason whereof commonly hee hath no care nor justice for there is none above himselfe nor any other like thing can hold him in his duetie but onely the feare of his contrary After that Comines had dispatched this question hee entreth into another which dependeth heereof What is the cause saith hee that commonly princes and great lords have Princes have not the feare of God nor of charitie for want of Faith not the feare of God nor love to their neighbours He answereth the want of Faith for if a prince beleeved verely the paines of hell to bee such as indeed they are hee would doe no wrong to noe man nor retaine an others goods unjustly For if they beleeved assuredly as it is true and certaine that they are damned in hell and are never like to enter into paradise which retaine other mens goods without making satisfaction or that doe any wrong to any without amends unto him It is not likely there would bee found a prince or princesse in the world or any other person which would with-hold anothers goods were it of his subjects vassailes or neighbour in good earnest or would put any to death wrongfully no not to hold them in prison nor take from one to give to another nor procure any dishonest thing against any person If then they had a firme faith and beleeved the paines of hell to bee horrible and great without other end or remission for the damned knowing againe the shortnesse of this life they would not doe that they doe And for example saith hee when a king or a prince is a prisoner and that hee feareth to die in prison is there any thing so deere in the world which hee would not give to come out Certainely hee would give both his owne and his subjects goods altogether As wee have seene king Iohn of France being taken prisoner by the prince of Wales at the battaile of Poitiers who paied 3000000 of franks for his ransome and acquited to the English all Aquitane or at least as much as they then held and many other cities townes and places all which came to the third part of the kingdome which was thereby brought into great povertie that no coine was there currant but it was made of leather with a little naile of silver in the middest of it And all this gave king Iohn and Charles the sage his sonne for the said kings deliverance out of prison And if they would have given nothing yet the English would not have put him to death but at the worst have kept him in prison And yet if they had caused him to die the paine that hee had suffered had not beene comparable to the thousand part of the least paine in hell Why then did king Iohn give all that hath beene said and so overthrew his children and the subjects of his kingdome because hee beleeved that which hee saw and knew well that otherwise hee could hot bee delivered But you shall not finde a prince or else very few that if hee had a towne of his neighâ—ours would yeeld it for the feare of God or the paines of hell It is then the want of faith because princes beleeve not that God will punish the wrongs they doe to another and that they doe not also beleeve that the paines of hell are horrible and eternall as they are Yet is this certaine that god will punish them as well as other men though not
there is like to be so little helpe therein as it vvill rather advance his ruine IT should bee best and more expedient for a prince to prevent all his subjects with good and courteous dealings than to attend till hee see himselfe constrained to diminish his rigour and as the common proverbe saith to bend or breake Notwithstanding the counsell here given by Machiavell is altogether wicked and cannot but bring into ruin a prince and his estate for in summe his counsell is To hold hard against his subjects nothing to abate his rigour nor to use any kindnesse or graciousnesse then and when he sees himselfe to doe it constrained and pressed thereunto If a prince then will stand stiffe alwayes rigorously to handle his subjects and to oppresse them The rigour of a prince is the cause of deniall of obedience without abating any thing thereof although he heare of their grievances and complaints and that hee see them prepared to rebellion and to denie their obedience what other thing can there follow but the entire ruine of him and his estate For wherein consisteth the estate of a prince but that his subjects agree together for to yeeld him obedience If then by his obstinate rigour and evill dealing hee so doe as he brings his subjects into that necessitie to denie him obedience will not that be the ruine of him and his estate There is no man of good judgement but he knows this Therefore said the poet Sophocles Even as hard steele in fire we see In pieces breake most easilie So minds too hard and fierce which bee Most oft with fall on ground doth lie Wherefore this precept whereby Machiavell would make a prince stiffe and inflexible against his subjects can bring to him but his owne ruine as it happened to Roboam the king who when his people humbly desired an ease and mitigation of their tributes he obstinately and proudly denied them For this king following such counsell as Machiavell giveth here made answere to his subjects that so much there wanted that he had any intent to abate any thing of his former dealing with them that contrarie he determined to augment rather his rigour towards them And for this cause did the greatest part of his kingdome cut themselves from his rule and obedience And to say that the people are unthankfull to their prince for benefits accorded Constrained graunts are not without profit as it were by constraint this is false and experience shewes us the contrarie For the people is not so speculative that they will cause to seeke out and examine the impulsive cause which moved the prince to commit or ordain any thing but holds themselves contented with the good and profit which redounds to them by that ordinance and the enjoying of the good they receive bringeth unto them such a pleasure and contentment as it moves them to thanke their prince for that good and to praise and blesse him yea to pray unto God for his conservation and prosperitie In all the peace that was made in Fraunce since the civile warres there hath alwayes been seene an experience thereof For a man may well say that the king accorded peace to the Protestants as it were by constraint which indeede is contained in the edicts of peace for the king himselfe so declared it in other edicts which hee made when the warre was renued as he declared by an edict in the yeare 1568 wherein hee saith That hee had alwayes had in his heart to abolish the religion of the said Protestants and the cause of his before suffering it had been as by constraint and to accommodate himselfe to the time The Courtiers also have alwayes called it the Suffered Religion and the Catholicke Romane the authorised Religion Although then that those goodly edicts of peace were accorded by the king against his heart yet ceased not the people to be thankfull unto the king yea to praise and exalt him as a lover of the good and repose of his poore people and to blesse and praise God for him both publickely and privately But put the case that were true which Machiavell saith That the subjects of a prince cannot be thankfull for a benefit accorded by constraint it followeth not therefore that such a benefit and a better handling must needs be unprofitable and without fruit For certaine it is that alwaies this will make cease the complaints of the people and cause them to desist from all rebellions and whatsoever enterprises are intended machinated against him Titus Livius sheweth us by many examples this to have many times happened at Rome where the commons entered into seditions and rebellions against the Patricij and such as were great men in authoritie but they were appeased incontinent as soone as the great men graunted that which they desired And yet wee find not that the great Patricians and nobles of Rome did almost at any time accord unto the commons but as constrained and against their wills There was amongst them men of as good wits and judgement as Machiavell such as Coriolanus Appius Caeso Fabius and other like which cried that they must not accord to common people under the pretext of their seditions and rebellions what they demand because it is an evill example and as it were to give occasion to the people ever to rebell and be seditious causing their faults to turne to their profit but notwithstanding all these reasons the most part of their wise Senators found it more expedient to bow and give place to the tumultuous people than to resist them There hath beene many times seene in Fraunce rebellions and stirres of the people for new imposts which straight were stayed by taking them away And indeed naturall reason sheweth well that it ought so to be For in all things of what sort soever they bee as soone as the cause is taken away men also take away the effect thereof Moreover I will not denie but this is of very evill consequence that a profit should come of a rebellion and sedition but upon this point it is worth noting that seldome or never people arise without some great just and urgent occasion therefore if the prince have not done his dutie to cut off that occasion before but that thereby there arise rebellion sedition he may not find it strange nor evill to remedie it rather late than never and so to purge his negligence A prince in stead to harden his heart against his subjects as Machiavell teacheth shall doe better not to bee so obstinate but to plie and bow his courage when the good of the commonweale and his owne requireth it following the admonition which that wise knight Phenix gave to the prince Achilles his disciple Appease thy selfe Achilles strong thy hardened heart abate A mortall man it not becomes implacable to bee Hom. Iliad 9. Though power most and honour eke on gods attend and wait To prayers of us mortall men yet yeeld they we
villanously to his death therefore by thine owne confession thou doest merit a most ignominious death Straight after the king commaunded that he should be hanged and strangled which was done So this perfidious and disloyall Heber received the reward of his perfidie and breach of Faith as hee himselfe judged to have merited Edward king of England the second of that name was much governed by the Frois lib. 1. cap. 5. 13 14. house of the Spensers which took upon them the handling of all the affaires of the kingdome and despised farre greater lords than themselves The said king having lost a battaile at Esturmelin against the Scots all England imputed the evill lucke of that losse unto the evill government of the Spensers They beleeving that the great lords of England which envied their credit had caused this brute to bee sowne resolved to take vengeance thereof by a most perfidious disloiall meanes For they persuaded the king to convocate a generall assemblie of States to advise and provide as they gave to understand for the affaires of the kingdome The princes and lords of the kingdome not doubting any thing assembled at the kings commaund But incontinent as they were assembled king Edward whome the Spensers had persuaded that his princes and lords meant to get his kingdome from him commanded them to be taken arrested prisoners which was done and without any knowledge of cause he cut off the heads from two and twentie of the greatest lords and princes of the kingdome and amongst them there was beheaded Thomas duke of Lancaster the kings uncle who was a good and a sage prince and who after was cannonized and saincted This perfidie joyned with crueltie for commonly the one goeth with the other was the cause that the said king was deprived by all the States of England of his royaltie as unworthie to carrie the crowne and was confined to prison where he finished his daies And the Spensers authors of such disloialtie were executed and rigorously punished according to their merits For after they had ben drawne on hurdles through the streets all over the citie of Herford their privie parts were first cut away and cast into the fire then were their hearts taken out of their bellies and also cast into the fire after their heads were cut off and carried to London and the bodies of every of them were quartered and every quarter caried into other severall towns to be set on the tops of their great gates in detestation of their great perfidie and disloyaltie which they used towards the said lords It was also a great perfidie in Charles the last duke of Bourgoigne in that hee De Comines lib. 1. cap. 78. and Annal. 1475. gave safe conduct to the contie of S. Pol constable of France to come to him with good assurance and then tooke him prisoner and delivered him to king Lewis the seventh who making his processe at Paris his head was cut off in the place de Greve True it is that the said countie had committed great faults as well against the king as against the duke hee had also alwaies studied to nourish warre betwixt the said two princes yet notwithstanding it was a very dishonorable and infamous thing for the duke to take him prisoner after hee had given him his faith and assurance by the safe conduct which hee graunted him For if hee had not beene hee had according to his determination with his silver fled into Almaigne from thence in time he might have made his peace and againe have come into the kings favour But he was deceived as before and the said perfidie was so much the more infamous and dishonest because it was perpetrated by this duke of Bourgoigne for the covetousnesse to gaine the townes of S. Quinten Han and Bohain which belonged to the said countie which the king gave to the said duke to the end hee would deliver and betray him But behold the just judgement of God who permitted that this duke of Bourgoigne was in the end beaten with the same rods wherewith hee had beaten the countie of S. Pol for being twice overthrowne at Granson and Morat by the Suissers the siege of Nus succeeding evill unto him and also having lost the dutchie of Lorraine which before he had unjustly occupied upon the duke of Lorraine who conquered it all these traverses and troubles engendred such greefe sadnesse and confusion in his spirit and great indisposition in his person that hee was never after whole either in bodie or mind His wits thus comming into decay there came into his braine a distrust of his owne subjects and therefore thought good to serve himselfe with strangers and to chuse a loyall and faithfull nation he addressed himselfe to a countie de Campobache an Italian and gave him charge to bring with him many Italians to his service as hee did This was the last act of the Tragedie of his life For this countie de Campobache ceased not till he had betrayed him unto the duke of Lorraine before Nancy which the said duke of Bourgoigne held besieged and there was slaine in an assault which the duke of Lorraine gave him to constrain him to raise the siege And so in like sort as by perfidie and violating of his faith he had caused the constable of S. Pol to leese both life and goods so by the treason and perfidie of Campobache hee both lost his life and his house was ruinated and â—ent in pieces which was the greatest house in Christendome next unto that of Fraunce He should never have done that would set downe all the calamities mischiefes proceeding of perfidie and breach of publicke Faith It caused the ruine of Carthage the great in Affrica which for a long time was one of the greatest and most flourishing commonweales that ever was in the world It was the onely ruine of Corinth of Thebes of Calchis which were three of the greatest fairest and richest cities of Greece It was the cause of Ierusalems destruction and of all the countrey of Iudea yea breefely there never happened any great subversion and desolation in the world were it of citties commonweales kingdomes empires great captaines great monarchs or of strong and flourishing nations but it came upon perfidie and the breach of Faith True it is that it draweth at the taile with her crueltie avarice and other like companions but yet perfidie is the mistresse and governesse of all She breaketh peace she renueth civile and strange warres she troubleth people nations which are quiet she destroyeth and impoverisheth them she overthroweth right and equitie she prophaneth and defileth holy and sacred things she banisheth and chaseth away all pietie justice and the feare of God she bringeth in Atheisme and contempt of all religion she defaceth all amitie and naturall affection towards parents our countrey and nation she confoundeth all politicke order shee abrogateth good lawes and customes Finally what mischeefes hath there ever beene in the
dead man makes no warre But if a man reply upon them that a dead man yet may because of warre although he can make no warre what would they answere Dare they denie so apparent a thing as we see with our eyes and whereof hystories furnish us with infinit examples Lewis duke of Orleance king Charles the sixt his brother after the duke Iohn of Bourgoigne had caused him to be slaine made no warre indeed but yet was the cause of a civile warre in Fraunce which endured more than sixtie yeares Pompeius after he was slaine made no more warre but his death was the cause of a great and long civile warre in the Romane empire The violating and Iudges 19 20. death of a Levites wife was it not the cause of a warre wherein there died more than sixtie thousand men They which were slaine at Vassi Anno 1562 drew not they on a civile warre which endured too long They also which were slaine in Anno 1572 in the moneth of August by the great townes of Fraunce but especially Paris were not they cause of great warres It is therefore a foule and an inconsiderate saying to alledge that a dead man makes no warre thereupon to found their massacres and slaughters without considering the consequences thereof Hereupon is very memorable the speech that Geta the yong prince made to the emperour Severus his Spar. in Geta father Severus having vanquished Albinus and Niger his competitors to the empire begun to make a great slaughter of the greatest lords and gentlemen of Rome which had taken part with Albinus or Niger because they were of a more noble house than Severus As then day by day he was committing his slaughter he one day said unto Bassianus Geta his children as men spoke of that fact I shall by this meanes ease you of all your enemies Hereupon Geta his sonne demanded of him My lord and father them which you meane to put to death are they a great number Yea answered Severus and told him the number All they replied he have they neither parents allies nor friends Yea they have many said Severus You then said Geta will leave us more enemies than you take from us This wise speech of this young prince touched so well the heart of Severus although he was cruell that hee would needs cease from his slaughter but that Plautianus and other courtiers which attended the enriching of themselves by confiscations incited him to continue Let murderers then hold themselves assured that for one they have slaine they stirre up tenne enemies And yet is not this all for all the rest of their life they have soules and consciences tormented with the remembrance of such as they have most wickedly murdered and the shadowes and remembrances of them shall alwayes bee before their eyes as a feare and terror unto them O how the shadow of that great Admirall shall strangely torment these great enterprisers of massacres it will never leave them at rest but shall bee a burning flame which shall agast and fearefully accompanie them even to their sepulchres Let them then hearken unto the menace and threatening he makes in his tombe against them Although the soule from bodie mine cold death hath ravished Virgil Aene. lib. 4. Yet absent I will follow thee yea with a flame full blacke My shaddow alwaies shall appeare about thee as one dead Which shall revenge on thee my blood thou who no ill doest lacke I thought good by the way to touch what warre the dead makes or what cause of war they are to refute that saying of the Machiavellians That a dead man makes no warre Let us now come where we left Of subtilties which wee say ought not to bee practised in the government of the affaires of State and that thereby none may cover any perfidie When Anniball had gotten the battaile of Cannas against the Romanes hee toke a great number of prisoners and because he more loved money for their ransome than to hold them hee sent a certaine number of them to Rome to practise and worke their redemption but hee made them sweare and promise that they would returne to him and so did let them goe upon their Faith But one advised himselfe of a subtile device when hee came at Rome to returne no more yet none should say hee broke his Faith For having passed a good piece of his way towards Rome hee suddenly returned backe againe to Anniball fayning hee had forgotten something after againe followed his companions and so they all came to Rome But their affaires comming to bee debated in the Senate none would yeeld to redeeme the prisoners insomuch as they all which came to Rome for that purpose returned very sad to Anniballs campe except hee which returned by the way who with these came not to the campe but remained in his house thinking hee was well discharged of his Faith and othe But when the Senate heard tell of the fallacious and deceitfull returne of the said souldier so unworthy and unseemely for a Romane they commanded him to bee drawne out of his house and by force to bee led unto Anniball Heereby you may see then that no wise people of good judgement such as were the ancient Romanes can approve such subtile palliations and covertures of an infraction and breach of Faith such as Machiavell persuadeth to a prince A like deceit was in the king of France Phillip the sixt of that name for having Froisart lib. 1. cap. 10. made an oth as almost all his ancestors kings of France had done never to run over or attempt to besiege or take any thing belonging to the empire yet desiring the castle of Tin the Bishops nigh to Cambray which troubled him much caused his sonne the duke of Normandie as the chiefe generall of the armie to besiege it and himselfe went thither also as a simple souldier without any command at all By which subtiltie the king Phillip could not save his oth for hee that doth any thing by a mediator is as much as if hee had done it himselfe neither did the deceit succeede well unto him for both the duke of Normandie was constrained to raise his siege from before the castle and not long after the king lost the battaile at Cressy The emperour Valentinian in his time was cruell in his actions and dealings Amm. Marel lib. 28. and had many officers like himselfe Amongst other such there was a criminall judge called Maximus who as hee examined certaine criminall persons promised them if they would confesse the truth they should suffer no punishment either of sword or fire These poore accused persons as often men doe confessed things they had never perpretated trusting upon his Faith and promise But this wicked judge caused them to bee beaten downe and slaine with leaden hammers thinking by this cavillation to save his oth God would that for a recompence hee should after be hanged and strangled under the emperour Gratianus
of their naturall effects as the fire cannot bee without his heating nor light without shining so that a man debonaire and gentle I speake of all men in generall but especially of a prince the chiefe meanes to obtaine the favour grace amity and reverence of the people he cannot avoide when he will but feele great utilities agreeable contentments pleasures benefits great assurance farre from all feare and most exceeding great repose and tranquilitie in his soule and conscience But in order to diduce the good effects utilities which proceede from clemencie I doe advertise the reader that I speake of that vertue in his most ample signification according whereunto it comprehendeth not onely mercie and kindnesse towards offenders but also bountie goodnesse of nature mansuetude of manners popularitie and facilitie to accommodate himselfe to the peoples humors and to all such as a man hath to command also humanity and officious affabilitie towards all men For briefely all these aforesaid vertues are like the honnie and sweetnesse of a well complectioned and setled soule which sweetnesse may well bee called in one word Clemencie although according to his divers effects and respects men give it divers names This naturall kindnesse and bounty of the soule then which men call Clemencie being in a prince the first produceth this effect that shee will soften and mitigate the punishments of offendors yea sometimes will forgive and altogether acquit them according as the circumstances of the fact and of the persons doe require For a prince ought well to consider When How To whom Wherefore he pardoneth a fault because it is not clemency but crueltie as the king S. Lewis said when a prince may doe justice and doth it not But forsomuch as equitie is the soule of justice which oftentimes is repugnant and contrarie to the rigour of lawes and ordinances therefore a prince must needes employ his clemencie to bring equitie in use by dispensing with the punishment of offendors which should suffer by the rigor of lawes But if there bee no equitie nor vailable reason to persuade a prince to dispense with the law then is hee bound to doe justice otherwise hee merits to be reputed not clement but cruell and culpable of the crime which he would not vouchsafe to punish And in this point very necessarie it is that a prince bee wise and vigilant to guard himselfe that hee be not surprised nor deceived and that he use not crueltie in steade of clemencie by the ordinarie opportunitie of such as sue for pardons And not to fal into this inconvenience whensoever the fact is of evill example and that the commonwealth hath interest therein the prince ought not to use remission and grace without knowledge of the cause and without good counsell The emperour Marcus Antonine governed himselfe very wisely in his use of clemencie to such as committed crimes for as to them which had not perpetrated Capit. Dio. in Marâ—o Vulc. Gallicanus in Avidio Cassio great and erronious faults and had not taken a custome therein he mitigated and lenified such punishments as were ordained by lawes by some other lighter punishment So in weightie crimes of evill consequence he was inexorable for them had no favour much lesse pardon And in regard of offences committed against himselfe particularly hee was as prompt and voluntarie to pardon as was possible and so it appeared in the case of Avidius Cassius For Cassius being in Esclavonia with a Romane armie hearing a false report that this good emperour was dead and beleeving this fame to be true he enterprised to make himselfe emperour and for such made himselfe to bee knowne and saluted by his armie After having certaine notice that he was in good health hee was much abashed and withall troubled that so rashly he had enterprised upon his masters estate yet notwithstanding hee desisted not from holding carrying himselfe as an emperour fearing that some would sley him so soone as hee forsooke his forces having so farre embarked and engaged himselfe therein yet could he not shun that which he so much feared for hee was slaine by certaine of his captaines which thought thereby greatly to please Marcus Antonine and carried to him his head Antonine seeing the head of Cassius was exceeding greeved and sorrowfull thereat and said to them which brought it That they should not have slaine him since hee had not so commaunded for so had they taken from him the use of mercie Hee rather desired they had brought him alive that he might have reproched the benefites received at his hands and with reason have shewed him how little cause he had to conspire against him so also might hee have shewed himselfe a better friend unto Cassius than Cassius had done to him Yea but Sir replied one of the captaines What if by sparing the life of Cassius he had gotten the victorie of you We doe not feare that answered the emperour for wee have not so honoured the gods nor lived in such sort as Cassius could have vanquished us No good princes or very few were at any time vanquished or slaine or despoiled of their estate but only such as well merited it as Nero Caligula Otho Vitellius and other like which were cruell and full of vices and like Galba and Pertinax which were exceedingly given to covetousnesse than which vice nothing becomes a prince worse But Augustus Traian Adrian our father Antonius Pius and such like as they modestly governed so deceased they honourably and without violence Cassius was a good and valiant captaine whose fault wee desired to have pardoned because it rather proceeded of temeritie than of evill will against us beeing persuaded when he made his enterprise that we had ben dead and although he could never have excused himselfe but that he had greatly injured our children which by right and reason ought to succeed us in our estate yet would not wee have had him to die for that for if our children merited to succeed us in the empite Cassius could not have overthrowne their estate but if contrary Cassius had better deserved than they to governe the comomwealth and had been better beloved it had also been reasonable and just hee had been emperour By this answere of that good emperour a man may see how facile and easie he was to pardon offences against him which is a very covenable vertue in a prince for a prince can hardly rigorously punish faults committed against himselfe but he shall be taxed and blamed for rigour and crueltie although the fault merit greevous punishment as the same emperour witnesseth by his missive rescribed unto the Senate which made too rigorous a pursute against the complices of Cassius And because the said letters containe notable sentences worthie of such a prince I will here translate them I pray saith he and require you Masters that in regard of the Cassian conspiration you will depose and lay aside your censure and conserve my pietie and
is much better composed more quiet and better governed For when men are given to that vertue they will withall addict themselves to Iustice Temperance Charitie Pietie and all other vertues which doe ordinarily accompanie Clemencie from whence cannot but arise the estate of a most perfect common-wealth Therefore we reade That in the time of the aforesaid emperour Marcus Antonine the world Capit. in Marcel was commonly well reformed in good manners for every man studied to imitate him in his vertues and especially in his moderation and gentlenes insomuch saith Capitolinus as he made many good men of such as were very bad before and such as were good he made them better This is also the cause why debonaire and gentle princes are alwaies so praised and esteemed not onely by men of their time but also by all Hystoriographers and all posteritie because they are ordinarily cause of many goods to all their subjects as by contrarie cruell princes are alwaies diffamed during their lives and after their deaths because of great mischeefes whereof they are cause authors and executors This is well painted out by Homer when he saith A wicked man full of fierce crueltie Behind his backe of all accurst shall be Odys lib. 19. Both during life and after death also Defame on him in every place shall go But contrarie the good and sincere man Will grave in mind his praise all that hee can How all men in each place set forth his praise To borders even of nations strange alwaies But I doe well know that hereupon the Machiavellists will say and replie That if a A princes Clemencie is not the cause of evill prince will be so facile to pardon and to practise Clemencie he will thereby incite men to take experience of that his vertue and by consequent provoke them to commit evill and excesse under the hope of impunitie hereunto I answere in a tripartite sort First I say That if a prince use Clemencie without derogating from his justice as above we have said he ought to doe there will follow no impunitie of a punishable crime nor by consequent any provocation to commit any excesse punishable for justice shall alwayes have her course although by Clemencie it may bee moderated Secondly suppose that the Clemencie of a prince might bee a meanes or occasion unto men to take more license to doe evill yet could not this take place but in persons of evill nature for men of good natures and disposition will rather be incited by a princes clemencie to be good like him by following his vertues than to bee wicked and ungodly thereby The prince also which shall bee endowed with Clemencie will love and follow other vertues and hate vices and by consequent will honour and advance vertuous people and hate and recoile from him such as are vicious This will cause the wicked which are enclined to vices to guard themselves from committing punishable faults for although they promise to themselves an easinesse to entreat pardon for their faults by the princes Clemencie yet can they not promise to themselves to be beloved and entertained of him but rather evill liked and unadvanced Thirdly although Clemencie cannot but draw with it some iniquitie and injustice as verily a prince cannot so evenly poise and weigh his affaires in the practise of Clemencie but there will be alwaies found within them some injustice yet that evill which followeth Clemencie is not so great that we ought therfore altogether to take away Clemencie from a prince from whence proceeds infinit goods profitable and commodious as well to the prince himselfe and his estate as to his subjects the whole commonwealth as may easily be collected out of that which hath been already said and shall be spoken hereafter The auncient Romanes doe confesse that their facilitie to pardon hath many Titus Livius lib. 1. Dec. 4. times brought warres upon them as also revoltments of their allies and confederats But what then Left they therefore alwayes to shew themselves prompt and voluntarie to use Clemencie towards such as offended them nay rather it was the vertue whereof they made greatest estimation and which they most practised knowing well that Clemencie was the true foundation of the greatnesse and estate of the commonwealth And this is it which the embassadour of the Romanes spake in an assembly of the Aetolians a people of Greece which were sollicited rather to allie themselves with king Philip of Macedonie against the Romanes than with them to renew their alliance Our auncestors saith he have often experimented and we also have seene that because ever wee have beene easie to pardon wee have occasioned many to experiment our Clemencie yet were wee never so discouraged as we would not at all times use equalitie to such as have broken their Faiths unto us and such as holily observed them as also reason wills that such as are loyall and faithfull be better beloved favoured and respected than others Have wee nor warred upon the Samnites by the space of seaventie yeeres and during this time how many times have they broken their Faiths how many times have they risen up against us yet have wee alwaies received them for our allies after by marriages have wee come to an affinitie with them and finally wee have received them for concitizens into the the towne of Rome The Capuans revoulted from us to allie themselves with Anniball but after wee had besieged them there were more in the towne which slew themselves pressed with an evill conscience than wee caused to dye after we had taken the towne by force and left them their towne whole and their goods Having also vanquished Anniball and the Carthaginians which had done us so many mischiefes and so often broken their Faiths yet left wee them in peace and liberty Briefely ô Aetolians said hee you should know and beleeve that the Romane people will alwaies have Clemencie in most singular recommendation and you shall doe farre more for your selves to replant your selves into our amitie and alliance unles you love better to perish with Phillip than to vanquish and prosper with the Romanes Vnto this remonstrance of the Romane embassadors the Aetolians States would deliver no answere but amongst themselves resolved secretly neither to be on the one side nor the other and that at the end of the warre they would joyne themselves to the strongest which in the end was their bane yet found they refuge in the Romanes Clemencie And verely Clemency is such a vertue as a prince may never dispoyle himselfe of although sometimes it seeme hee get harme thereby For Clemencie is not cause of any evill but onely the malice of men doth abuse it yet it doth not therefore follow that it is to bee rejected because a man may abuse it no more than to cast away all wine as a pernitious thing because therewith many are drunke But let us now come to the other effect of Clemencie Besides the
was no great warriour But the cause why the Romanes delivered so great and honourable a charge unto him was because the great Scipio the Affrican his brother had declared that if Lucius his brother were chosen generall captaine to goe against Antiochus he should be there as his lieutenant As then they both were in Greece with the Romane armie making warre upon that king it so happened that the only sonne of Scipio the Affrican was taken prisoner by Antiochus souldiers Antiochus having this young lord in his hands entertained and used him very honourably knowing that that great Scipio was of such Clemencie that he would never forget that the pleasure and that the amitie of so great a personage might stand him in good stead in some great necessities as losse of a battaile or of a captivitie or such like Not long after Scipio fell sicke whereof Antiochus hearing he sent him his sonne without ransome fearing Scipio would die with greefe and melancholie by whose death he doubted to leese a good refuge For that king saith Titus Livius trusted more in the Clemencie and authoritie of Scipio alone for the uncertaine and doubtfull haps of warre than in his armie of 60000 footmen and 12000 horsemen Is not here thinke you an admirable effect of Clemencie that an enemie dooth better assure his estate upon his enemies Clemencie than upon his owne forces But what need we any more to amplifie by examples or authorities this point doth not ordinarie experience shew and ever hath done that all good and clement princes have alwaies been very assured in their estates as Augustus Vespasian Traian Adrian the Antonines and many other Romane emperours and the most part of our kings of Fraunce which were clement and debonaire doe fully proove this which I say for they raigned very peaceably died of naturall deaths and after their deaths were greatly lamented of the people Here I may not forget a notable sentence of the emperour Antonius Pius which hee received from Scipio the Affrican Capit. in Pio. Sueâ— in August cap. 35. which was this That hee loved better to preserve one of his subjects than to sley a thousand of his enemies Assuredly a sentence of a good and clement prince who delighted not in shedding of blood as our Machiavelists doe at this day which are so covetous of such blood as they account their enemies that whensoever any of marke fals into their hands they will not give him for an hundred pounds They may well say contrary to Scipio and the emperor Pius that they had rather slay an enemie than save an hundred friends Are not these people worthie to commaund Neither make they any account more of their princes subjects than of slaves which men may beat scourge or sley at their pleasure as beasts as indeed there hath been lately a burne-paper-fellow a writer for wages one of these Machiavelists who durst publish by writing That the authority of a prince over his subjects is like that which a lord hath over his villaine and slave having power over death and life to sley and massacre them at their pleasure without forme of justice and so to despoile them of their goods And how comes this Thinkes this sot that the office of a king is like to the office of a gally captaine to hold his subjects in chaines and every day to whip them with scourges Surely they which hold that opinion doe merit to be so handled yea that some good gally captaine would twice or thrice a day practise that goodly doctrine upon their shoulders but how much more notable and humane is the doctrine wee learne of the life of Augustus Caesar who so much feared that men had such an opinion of him that he would not take away but onely diminish the libertie of the people that he could never abide and suffer to be called Dominus that is to say Lord but abhorred it as an injurious name full of opprobry because it hath some relation to Servus which is to say servant or slave he being farre from the affectation of such great and magnificall names as many great men have since well liked of without shewing the effect of them The third point now remaineth which is to shew That the Clemencie of a prince A prince by Clemencie encreaseth his domination Dionis Halic lib. 2. Plutarke in Caesar Alexand is cause of the encreasement of his domination Hereupon we reade a memorable hystorie of Romulus who was so clement soft and gentle towards his people which he vanquished and subjugated that not only many particulars but the whole multitude of people submitted themselves voluntarily and unconstrainedly under his obedience The same vertue was also cause that Iulius Caesar vanquished the Gaulois for he was so soft and gracious unto them and so easie to pardon and used them every way so well farre from all oppression that many of that nation voluntarily joyned themselves unto him and by them he vanquished the others When Alexander the Great made great conquests in Asia most commonly the citizens of all great cities met him to present unto him the keyes of the townes for he dealt with them in such Clemencie and kindnesse without in any thing altering their estates that they liked better to be his than their owne Anniball having taken the towne of Saguntum in Spaine was so feared and redoubted Titus Livius lib. 2. Dec. 3. that the most part of Spaine submitted themselves under his obedience and abandoned the Romane societie because they had not aided Saguntum against Anniball The Romanes to repaire their fault whereat they tooke much greefe sent great forces into Spaine under the conduction of Publius Scipio father of the African and of Cneius his uncle Anniball to containe in obedience the Spaniards tooke in hostage their children their brethren or parents of all the nobilitie of the countrey and the notablest citizens of the good townes and set them under guard at Saguntum under the charge of some small number of souldiers God would that those hostages should find meanes to escape from their prison yet it was their haps to fall into the hands of the Scipioes The Scipioes having possession of them in place to revenge themselves upon them as they feared for the fault they and their parents had made by their revoltment from the Romanes they welcommed and dealt with them very graciously and sent them all to their parents and houses This Clemencie and kindnesse of the Scipioes was cause that soone after all Spaine forsook the obedience of Anniball and the Carthaginians and fell under the government of the Romans which they would never have done if these hostages had been dealt with after the counsels and precepts of Machiavell Yet the example of Clemencie in Scipio the Affrican is more notable than this Titus Livius lib. 3. Dec. 3. of his father and uncle After the deaths of his said father and uncle this young lord full of all
generositie and hardinesse came to besiege new Carthage in Spain which the Carthaginians of Affricke had founded there and did so much as hee got it by assault Besides the great riches which he found within the towne he found there also within that towne a good number of Spanish hostages which the Carthaginians held there for the better assurance of other townes of Spaine which they had regained upon the Romanes after the death and overthrow of the Scipioes and their hoast Scipio as soone as the towne was taken caused all the hostages to be brought before him and wished them to take good courage and that they should feare nothing for they were falne into the power of the Romane people which loved better to bind men unto them by good deeds than by feare and to joyne all strange nations unto them rather by a societie than by a sad servitude After hee had thus encouraged them hee dispatched messengers through all Spaine to the end every man might come thither to seeke his hostages and in the meane while gave expresse charge to Flaminius his treasurer to handle them well and honourably Amongst other hostages there was a young ladie of a great house which was brought to Scipio which was of so great beautie that as she passed by she dreweach mans regard upon her This ladie was fianced unto one Allucius prince of the Celtiberians Scipio taking knowledge of her parents and to whom shee was fianced also that Allucius extreamely loved her he sent for them all Her parents came with a great quantitie of gold and silver for her ransome Allucius came also They all beeing present before Scipio hee said to that young prince Allucius My deare friend understanding that ardently you love this young ladie as her beautie well meriteth it I thought it good to keepe her for you as I would my affianced should be kept for me if the affaires of the commonweale permitted me to thinke upon the action of legitimate love in favor then of your affections I have preserved your loves inviolated in recompence whereof I only desire and pray you that from henceforth you will be friends unto the Roman people and if you will credit me as a good man that is desirous to follow the traces of my father and uncle which you knew Know you that in our towne there be many like to us and that there is no people in the world which you ought lesser to desire for enemies nor more for a friend After Scipio had thus graciously entertained this young prince he was so filled with shame and joy that presently he prayed the gods that they would acquite to Scipio that great benefit for hee could never doe it The said ladies parents stepped forward and presented unto him a great quantitie of gold and silver for their daughters ransome which although Scipio refused yet they pressed it so sore upon him that he accorded to take it and bad them lay it before him which they doing Scipio called Allucius and said unto him Good friend besides the dowrie which your father in law will give you my desire is that you will take this silver at my hands as an encrease of her dowrie Allucius very joyfull of so great a benefit thanking him greatly returned with his lover in great contentment unto his countrey where as soone as he came he sowed the fame of those things through all Spaine saying That there was come into that countrey a young lord like the gods which vanquisheth all men by armes by clemencie and magnificence Within a smal time after he came to the service of Scipio with 1400 horse Not long after came also to Scipio the parents of the other hostages which he had taken in new Carthage all which he yeelded unto them conditionally to be the Romanes friends Hee gave also to a great lord called Mandonius his wife who was sister of another great lord named Indibilis which were exceeding joyous thereof and promised Scipio all fidelitie Amongst those prisoners also there was found a young prince called Massiva the nephew of Massinissa king of Numidia which he sent to his uncle after he had honourably apparrelled mounted and accompanied him This was the cause that Massinissa stucke so firmely to the Romane partie wherein he constantly persevered all his life and greatly aided Scipio to the overthrow of the Carthaginians And as for the Spaniards whose hostages Scipio had sent home without ransome they performed many great favours to him in all his Spanish wars Breefely this great Clemencie kindnesse and gentlenesse of Scipio were the cause that all his high mightie enterprises were ever facile easie unto him But herein appeared in him a double Clemencie namely that the two lords above-named Mandonius and Indibilis revolted and so caused all their countrey to revolt also upon a false fame that run of Scipioes death But after finding the report false they resolved yet once againe to proove his Clemencie as an assured refuge and so went fell on their knees before him desiring pardon confessing their faults Scipio after he had rebuked them said unto them in this sort My friends by your merits you shall die but you shall live by the benefit of the Romane people And although the custome be to take all armes from rebels yet I will not take them from you but if you fall any more into such a fault I shall have reason with armes to take armes from armed people but not from disarmed Therefore seeing you have many times experimented the Romanes Clemencie take heed also you prove not their vengeance and wrath By this example then of Scipio it appeares that a prince ought alwaies to be enclined to Clemencie wherby he may obtaine friends augment his dominations shun Gods indignation the envie of men and to do to another that which he would should be done to himselfe This is it which Romulus said to the Antenates and Caeninians which hee had vanquished subjugated Although said he you have merited to suffer al extreame things for that you rather loved warre against us than our amitie yet many reasons Dioni Halic lib. 2. moove us to use our victorie moderately in respect of the indignation of the gods unto whom pride is odious the feare of the envie evill will of men and because we beleeve that Mercie and Clemencie is a great releese and remedie for the miseries and calamities of mortall men which we would gladly entreat of others in our owne distresses and calamities We therefore pardon you this fault and leave you in the same enjoiance of your goods as you were before The Romane Senat had alwayes Clemencie in great recommendation yea even towards them which had often rebeled The Ligurians which now we cal Genevois Titus Liviuâ— lib. 2. Dec. 2. rose up against the Romanes many times insomuch as they sent against them Marcus Popilius Consull with a puissant armie Popilius having subjugated and vanquished them
thing deceived when thinking to leade a prince unto a soveraigntie of wickednesse hee furnisheth him with inconstancie and mutabilitie as the windes for as soone as the prince shall cloth himselfe with Protheus garments and that hee hath no hold nor certitude of his word nor in his actions men may well say that hee is abandoned of phisitions and his maladie is incurable and that in all vices hee hath taken the nature of the Camoelion At the hands of such a prince which is inconstant variable in his word mutable in actions and commands there is nothing to be hoped for but evill disorder and confusion How much more notable and worthie to bee engraved in princes hearts is that Titus Livius lib. 6. Dec. 3 sentence of Scipio the Affrican That they are vanquishers which being vanquished doe give place vnto Fortune But the better to understand this I will set downe the occasion of this notable speach After by an evill hap of warre Scipio his father and uncle were overthrowne with the most part of their armie in Spaine the day being come whereupon they elected their magistrates at Rome none durst hazard himselfe to demand the government of Spaine for evill luck which happened to the two brothers Scipioes Heereat the Romane people beeing very sad and sorrowfull cast their eies upon the great men of the citie to see if any of their hearts would arise to demand the government of Spaine and because none did it they esteemed the affaires of the common weale to bee in a deplored and desperate estate The above said yong lord Scipio who after was called the Affrican of the age onely of two and twentie yeeres arose and demanded of the Romane people the said government of Spaine shewing by a grave oration full of magnanimitie and assured constancie That his carriage should be good and that they needed not feare that in regard of his yong age there should bee found in him any temeritie for he would doe nothing but by good counsell And although the name of the Scipioes might seeme unluckie in regard that his father unckle had ben vanquished slaine in Spaine that notwithstanding hee doubted not but to turne the chance of Fortune Briefely by a great and favourable consent of all the people hee was chosen governour of Spaine and generall captaine of the Romane armie As soone as hee was in this estate well assured of his vertues hee began to speake to every one with such a majestie and constancie as all men became fully resolved that hee would well acquite himselfe of this charge to the honour and benefit of the common weale After being in Spaine hee convocated the old bands which remained after the defeating of his father and unckle and used unto them good words reasons giving them thanks for the fidelitie they had borne to his diseased father and unckle and that ioyfullie they had received him for their captaine generall although hee was yong of age for the good hope they had of him which was of the race of their dead captaines and that hee would so well performe his dutie that they should truely know that he was of the race of their dead captaines The publike Fortune said hee of the Romane common weale and your vertue must needes keepe us from all despaire of our affaires For this good luck hath ever beene fatally given us being vanquished in our great warres yet ever notwithstanding to remaine victors by resisting by constancie and vertue all malignitie of Fortune The same Scipio another time but long after speaking to Zeusis and Antipater Titus Livius lib. 7. Dec. 4. embassadors of the king Antiochus which demanded peace of him after he had beene vanquished used these words full of gravitie and wisedome The peace saith hee which you demand now that your are vanquished wee agree unto you with like conditions as you offered before our victory For in all fortune good or evill we have Constancie stirreth not for prosperitie or adversitie alwaies the same courages neither can prosperitie exalt us nor adversitie humble us too much And if you your selves were not good witnesses thereof I would aledge no other testimonie then that of Anniball who is in your army Therefore make knowne unto the king your master that wee accord unto him the same peace which wee offered him before our victorie Heere may you see how constant the Romanes were in vertue without any change either of prosperitie or adversitie Heere is no Machiavelizing wee must not goe to the schoole of Scipio nor of the ancient Romanes nor of any other valiant princes to learne Machiavells doctrine to have an unconstant and mutable courage to change and to turne as the winde This must bee learned in the schoole of a sort of Italian Machiavelists resembling harlots which love every man yet love no person and which with doubtfull and unstayed mindes runne heere and there like Tops Wee commonly say That the king is the lively law of his subjects and that the prince ought to serve for a rule to his people but is it not a ridiculous thing to say That the law ought to bee a thing unconstant and mutable with every winde Nay contrarie the law ought to bee firme constant permanent inviolable and inviolably observed else it is no law And therefore amongst all mortall men the prince is hee which ought to bee most constant and firme to shew that hee is the true and lively law of his people and subjects unto whom his carriage and actions ought to serve for a rule A prince then must bee of one word and to take heede that he bee Constancie of a princē wherein it ought to be employed not mutable nor double of his promises and that hee alwaies have a magnanimous and generous courage tending to vertue and the publike good of his kingdome principallity and that no trouble nor adversitie may abate that generositie and constancie of courage nor any prosperitie make him swell with pride whereby to draw him from vertue In a constant course hee must shew himselfe grave and clement these two should be in him with a temperature such gravitie is requisit for the majestie of his calling with such clemencie and affabilitie as his subjects desire in him In all his actions hee must alwaies shew himselfe to bee one man loving and amiably entertaining men of vertue and of service and alwaies as constantly rejecting vicious people flatterers lyers and other like from which hee can never draw out good services Finally hee ought to bee constant in retaining his good friends and servants and not to take a sinister opinion of them without great and apparent causes and in all things to governe himselfe constantly by good counsell and to bee master of himselfe that is to say of his affections and opinions for to direct them alwaies to good and sage counsell such as were those great Romane monarches Augustus Caesar Vespasian Traian Adrian
prince certaine it is that there is nothing in the world which makes him more contemptible Covetousnesse cause of a princes ruine and despighted than it doth for of it selfe it is odious in all men because it is filthie and mechanicall but especially in princes which as they are constituted in a more ample and opulent fortune than other men are ought also to shew themselves more liberall and further removed from Illiberalitie and Covetousnes The emperour Galba otherwise a good and sage prince but suffering himselfe to bee governed by some about him which were rapinous and covetous hee himselfe also Tacit. lib. 17 Annales Dio. in Galba being too hard to his souldiers thus destroyed and defiled all his vertues But that more is this his covetousnesse and the rapines of his officers cost him his life brought him into contempt and after to bee slaine of his souldiers The emperour Pertinax was good and one of the most wise and moderatest princes that ever was Dion Cap. in Perti and who a man might say to bee as it were irreprehensible and a very father of the people hee alwaies so studied every way to comfort his subjects but he was so spotted and defiled with that vice of covetousnesse that hee thereby became hated and contemned of his men of warre so that they slew him The emperor Mauricius was Pomp Laetus in Mauritio Phoâ—a a very niggard yea so great was his covetousnesse that hee delighted in nothing but heaping up of treasures and would spend nothing whereby every man tooke occasion to blame and despise him The great store of treasure which he had made Phocas his lieutenant who otherwise was a man of no account a coward but as covetous as his master to sley him and to obtain the empire But yet Phocas being come to the empire continued in his covetousnesse more than ever was found in Mauricius his predecessor and respected nothing but heaping up of treasures by rapines and extorcions without any care of government of his empire This miserable covetousnesse carefulnesse of this traitor Phocas was the cause of his owne ruine the entier dissipation of the Roman empire For during his government there were cut off from the Roman empire Germanie Gaul Spaine the most part of Italie Slavonia and Mesia the most part of Affrick Armenia Arabia Macedonia Thracia Asiria Mesopotamia Aegypt and many other countries wherof some cut themselves from the empire and other were occupied by the king of Persia and other potentates which was an exceeding great evill hap and very memorable that thus the Romane empire should fall in pieces by meanes of this emperours covetousnesse This happened not alone to Phocas to have lost his domination by the meanes of his covetousnesse for the like fell to king Perseus of Macedonie This king having Titus Livius lib. 4. Dec. 5. enterprised warre upon the Romanes gathered together great store of treasures but when it came to bee distributed to have souldiers hee shewed himselfe so holding and covetous as was possible For having caused to come from the Gaulois very great succours into his countrie by the covenant of a certaine summe of mony which hee promised them yet refused to deliver them silver when they came excusing himselfe amongst his people that it was a dangerous thing to receive so great a number of strangers in his countrie for fewer would serve him Briefely saith Titus Livius hee did but find meanes to bring all those treasures into the Romanes hands for their bootie for the Gaulois seeing themselves thus mocked by this king returned spoiling all his countrey as they passed and after the Romanes vanquished Perseus and got all his treasures which hee lost with his crowne and his life and this fell unto him by his covetousnesse Marcus Crassus a Romane citizen being worth 350000 crownes of annuall revenew Ioseph Antiq lib. 14. cap. 8. 13. Pluta in Crasso was yet so covetous that seeing Lucullus had enriched himselfe by the Levant warre never ceased till he had obtained charge and commission to make warre upon the Parthians And that which incited him most to purchase that charge was that hee had heard say that Pompeius who had made warre there not long before had had goodly meanes to heape up great treasures if he had listed as hee might have pilled the temple of Ierusalem where the treasures of sacred vessels and of the widdowes and orphants mounted to the summe of two thousand Talents or five millions of Crownes So Crassus resolved to rob that temple to redouble his riches and therein not to bee so scrupulous as Pompey had beene And so indeede Crassus passing by Hierusalem against the Parthians pilled the temple and to himselfe appropriated all that treasure which partly was the goods and substance of poore widdowes and orphants Crassus going on came into Armenia and from thence came to the Parthians where he gave battaile to king Herodes or rather to Surena his lieutenant but Crassus losing the battaile where his onely sonne was slaine escaped on foot thinking to save himselfe which he could not doe but in the end was overtaken and slaine and his head carried to Herodes who with it served himselfe in a play of a Tragoedie which was plaied before him where they talked of an hunter which had slaine a great savage beast Here may you see the tragicall end of this insatiable covetous wretch Crassus who was justly and soone punished for his great and horrible sacriledge which he had committed in the holy temple of Hierusalem By these examples then it is evidently seene That Covetousnesse is customably the cause of the ruine of such princes and great lords as are infected therewith so farre is it off that it is profitable as Machiavell saith Yet true it is that there have been some but very few which being covetous notwithstanding have not been ruinated by that vice as the emperour Vespasian but the reason wherefore the covetousnesse of Vespasian was not cause of his destruction is for that he exercised it not Dion in Vespasi cap. 16 17. else but upon his rapinous magistrates and because hee employed on good uses and for the utilitie of the publicke good such money as his avarice heaped up yea he even practised great liberalities towards good people and ruinated cities to rebuild them Surely if those reasons be well considered they will serve Vespasian for a lowable excuse if it so be that a vice can be any thing excused For first there was no great harme that he should draw water from such spunges as such magistrates were which had sucked and drunke up the substance of the people and to cause them to regorge and cast up the booties whereof they were full And in my opinion there were no harme if they did the like at this day for what harme is there to take from a theefe The other excuse is yet more considerable that Vespasian
employed not upon his owne pleasures and delights the silver which his covetousnesse had collected but bestowed it on good uses for the good of the commonwealth And certainly there is nothing that more troubles subjects which pay tributes than when they see that the prince spendeth evill the silver which is levied upon them which would alwaies more liberally furnish them with a crowne than they would do with a penny if they saw their money well bestowed Our king Lewis was herein something like Vespasian for he levied much mony upon his subjects yea triple so much as his predecessors had done but he spent it not in his pleasures and delights nor other dissolutenesse nor in practise of liberalitie upon unworthy people but upon good things about the affaires of the kingdome as to buy peace with his neighbors and to corrupt strangers which might serve therein or in other affaires Moreover he did not as the emperour Mauricius or as king Perseus which heaped up great treasures and then durst not touch it for as Comines saith he tooke all and spent all Princes then which levie money upon their people are something excusable when they employ them upon good uses and especially when they have that discretion to pill the pillors and to tansacke theeves and eaters of the poore people and Profusion cause of ruine in a prince Sueto in Calig cap. 37 38 40 41. spare other good subjects which are not of that sort But such as make great levies upon the people and doe bestow them evill they cannot bee any thing excused in their covetousnesse and prodigalitie The emperour Caius Caligula succeeding Tiberius found an inestimable treasure even 67 millions and 500000 crownes To calculate this unmeasurable summe after the proportion of 1240000 crownes which made 32 Mule loads as du Bellay saith which were sent to Fontarabie in the yeare 1529 for king Francis the firsts ransome it should be found that the 67 millions of Caligula should make about 1800 Mullet loads which is an huge and a most admirable treasure yet did this monster spend all this in lesse than a yeare But was this possible will you say that so great heapes should be laid out in so litle space Yea I say for this brainelesse foole caused houses to bee builded upon the sea yea and that should be onely where men said it was deepest So that there to make good foundations he was forced to cast in great heapes of stones as great as high mountaines and so much more as any thing was impossible so much rather loved hee to doe it Moreover he delighted to bring downe mountaines and rockes to equall them with flats and plaines so in plaines to erect mountaines this also must needs be done even the very day that he commaunded it upon paine of life He would also cause bathes to be made in waters of very precious sents he would make prodigall bankets wherein he would serve excellent pearles and other precious stones which he would cause to be liquified and dissolved as they might be drunke Again he caused ships to bee made of Liburnian Caedars whose sternes were all covered with pearles and within them were builded bathes galleries halls and orchards and there sitting amongst dauncers and players of instruments he caused himselfe to be caried in those ships about the coasts of Campania By these unmeasurable and monstrous expences he saw the end of that great treasure left by Tiberius in lesse than a yeare Hereof came it that wanting silver he converted himselfe to rapines and to lay great and new imposts upon his subjects yea tributes upon victuals upon processes upon labourers salaries upon harlots gaines upon players gaines and upon many such like things and so having againe gathered huge heapes of crownes upon a covetous pride to touch and handle money hee delighted to walke bare foot and to tumble upon it By this meanes and with crueltie and other vices he was hated of all the world and incontinent slaine And in truth he was inexcusable for inventing new and great imposts upon his people seeing hee so evill employed the money The emperour Nero likewise laid great imposts and levies of money upon his Sueto in Nero cap 27. 30 32. Dion in Nerone subjects and quashed and made void the Testaments of such as would not make him their heire As an ingrate person to his prince he by force took treasures out of temples and committed infinit other extortions But how expended he all this money In making sumptuous bankets as Caligula did in giving unmeasurable gifts to flatterers and bad people and upon other strange dissolutenesse He alwaies apparrelled himselfe with exceeding rich precious habites yet he never put on garment twice he played away great summes of money at once he fished alwaies with golden nets the cords whereof were knit with purple and scarlet he never went abroad with lesse than a thousand coaches or litters drawne with Mules whose shoes were all of silver all the Mulleters also were gallantly and costly apparrelled Sabina Poppea his wife caused the coaches wherein she rid to be drawne with cords and all other furniture for her mules of gold Whensoever shee went abroad there waited on her 500 shee Asses which gave milke and that milke was drawn out every day to make bathes for her to bathe in Breefely Nero made so great and riotous expences that no silver could suffice him insomuch as spoiling his provinces of their goods and riches by rapines and imposts and withall practising great cruelties for rapine and crueltie are alwaies companions he brought upon himselfe the hatred of all the world and came to a miserable end as we have above said The like happened to the emperour Vitellius who in a yeare spent in bankets without all measure nine millions of crownes Dion saith That in a vessell served at Dion in Vitel Sueto cap. 13. his table he had so many tongues braines and livers of certaine strange and exquisit fishes and birds as cost ten thousand crownes Suetonius sayth That his brother bestowed a supper upon him whereat was served two thousand exquisit fishes and seven thousand exquisit and precious birds besides all other services These so exorbitant and unreasonable expences drew him into covetousnesse rapine and crueltie which was the cause that he was massacred and slaine and raigned but a yeare and tenne daies Here might I adde to these the examples of Domitian Commodus Bassianus and many other Romane emperours which held of the two extremities of Liberalitie namely Covetousnesse and Prodigalitie using Covetousnesse and rapine to heape up silver and Profusion to spend them all which had the like end as Nero Caligula and Vitellius had But hereby is sufficiently shewed in those examples the contrarie of the Maxime which Machiavell saith is true and that a prince which is covetous and hard cannot prosper but especially when he naughtily bestoweth the treasures and money which he heapeth up Now there
so that if it please you my lord to use benefits and liberalitie towards such as you esteeme your enemies and towards such as feare you will doe them wrong you shall easily gaine them and others from henceforth for your friends This remonstrance of Livia was the cause that Augustus let loose and set at liberrie all them which were accused to have enterprised any thing against him satisfying himself with the admonishments he gave them and besides gave great goods and benefits unto some of them so that as well those as other of his enemies became his friends and good subjects Behold heere what good came to Augustus by his beneficence and liberalitie The emperour Marcus Antonine feared nothing more than the reputation of an hard and covetous man and alwayes wished and desired that such a spot of infamie Dion in Marco might never bee imposed upon him And indeede all his carriage and actions were such that none could impute unto him any spot of Covetousnesse but al Liberalitie worthie of a good prince for first hee established publicke professours of all sciences in the towne of Athens unto which he gave great wages which prooved a most profitable act to the commonweale woorthie of such a prince and this was partly the cause that in his time there was so great store of learned people in all manner of sciences insomuch as the time of his kingdome was and hath ben since called the golden world In our time king Francis the first of happie memorie did imitate the example of this great and wise emperour establishing publicke lectures at great wages in the Vniversitie of Paris a thing wherof his memorie hath ben and shall be more celebrated through the world than for so many great warres as hee valiantly sustained and demeaned during his raigne Secondly the emperour Antonine forgave the people all the fiscall debts and arrerages which they ought him by scedules obligations or otherwise for fiftie yeares before which was an huge and unspeakable liberalitie But he did this to take away all meanes matter from all officers and fiscall procurators of molesting and troubling his subjects afterward with researches and calling on of old debts Thirdly hee never laid impost or extraordinarie exaction upon his people but handled them in all kindnesse and generositie He never made profuse and superfluous expences but held an estate both at home and in the court sober and full of frugalitie And finally to shew how he delighted in liberalitie he caused a temple to be builded to Beneficence Behold here a true patterne after which princes should conforme themselves to know how to practise that goodly vertue Liberalitie And very notable is that point that that good emperour Antonine held the estate of his house ruled by frugalitie and sobrietie and farre from the straunge profusions of those monsters Caligula Nero and Vitellius for he considered that it were much better to employ for the publicke wealth of his empire the revenues and money therof than in riotousnesse and vanities and that such unmeasurable profusion constraineth a prince to fall to rapines and to deale evill with their subjects because as the common proverb saith Vnmeasurable largesse hath no bottome Therefore did that great emperour Traian Dion in Traiano Lampr. in Alex. Spar in Andria also hould his estate soberly governed and hee maintained no unprofitable persons in his service No more did the emperour Severus who would not suffer in any offices any persons to be placed which were not necessarie They had also good sallaries and rewards of him yea he would often rebuke them for not demaunding gifts of him And wherefore saith he wilt thou that I should be thy debter seeing thou askest me nothing Adrian also had this propertie that hee gave great gifts unto his good friends and servants and made them rich before they demaunded any thing And above all hee was liberall towards professors of letters and learned men which he enriched but he much hated such as by evill meanes became rich and generally all good emperours were adorned with the vertues of liberalitie and munificence which they practised with such moderation and prudence that they were never spotted neither with Machiavels Covetousnesse nor his Prodigalitie And therefore they flourished and prospered during their raignes and left after them a perpetuall memorie to posteritie of their vertues and praises Our kings of Fraunce as Clovis Charlemaigne Lewis the piteous his sonne Robert Henry the first Lewis le Gros Lewis the eight S. Lewis and many others were very liberall but they exercised their liberalitie and principalitie upon the Church and Churchmen which they but too much enriched Yet wee reade that Charlemaigne was also very liberall towards learned men and that he spent much in founding and maintaining the Vniversitie of Paris And a man may generally marke in our kings of Fraunce a Christian liberalitie which they have alwayes had that is That they have been great Almoniers exercising their liberalitie upon poore people which is an exercise of that vertue exceeding woorthie of a Christian prince which he should never forget By this abovesaid I hope the Maxime of Machiavell is sufficiently confuted and that it evidently appeareth by our examples and reasons That Covetousnesse is domageable and dishonourable to a prince as also is his contrarie profusion and that Liberalitie is profitable and honourable unto him And as for the reasons which Machiavell alledgeth they are foolish and false as his Maxime For to say That a rich prince shall be esteemed puissant because he hath great treasures that reason dooth evill conclude King Perseus of Macedonie of whome wee have spoken had The power of a prince lieth not in treasures great treasures yet left he not to be esteemed a king pusillanimous and of small valour and such was his reputation in his owne countrey and amongst his owne subjects Crassus also was knowne to be more richer than Pompeius but he was not esteemed so valiant nor so good a man neither in his life had hee the tenth part of Pompeies honours Mauricius and Phocas Romane emperours by their covetousnesse heaped up great treasures but were they therefore esteemed puissant and valiant nay contrarie they were esteemed cowards and in the catalogue of such emperours as held the most abject and infamous places But I pray you let us come to the reason When a prince hath the fame to bee a great treasurer doth he not give his neighbours occasion to seeke meanes to enterprise upon him to obtain those treasures Wherfore is it that the Venetians which if they list might bee the greatest treasurers of the world have made a law amongst De Con. l. b. 2. cap. 21. them to have no treasure in their commonwealth other than of armes It is because they know well as they be wise that if they heape up treasures in money they shall but prepare a bait to draw rheir neighbours on to make warre upon them
but it vvas because hee knevv not in a neede to be altogether vvicked Heereupon I conclude That men leave to leese great fortunes and occasions vvhich happen unto them because they knew not how in a neede to be altogether wicked THis Maxime is a true end and scope whereunto Machiavell would leade a prince and all such as follow his doctrine namely to Machiavell teacheth a soveraigne wickednes be altogether wicked in all perfection of wickednesse The degrees to come to this so high and soveraigne wickednesse have for the most part beene alreadie declared For Machiavell hath shewed That crueltie perfidie impietie subtiltie or deceit covetousnesse and other like which are the degrees whereby men mount the top of all wickednesse are very fit and meete for a prince and that hee ought to bee decored and adorned with them But now complaines hee that men although they bee otherwise full of vices yet they cannot use them so dexteriouslie and handsomely as that they may mount to the highest greatest and soveraignest wickednesse and that it is a great fault and brings unto them great domages in their affaires I pray you can there bee found amongst the Scithians Arabians or any other barbarous nation which live without law or policie a more detestable and infamous doctrine than heere is taught in Machiavells schoole May not any man see that hee buildeth by his precepts a true tyrannie yea that hee useth the like method to teach his soveraigne wickednesse that philosophers doe to teach the soveraigne good For as Aristotle Plato Cicero and others which dealt in writing of the soveraigne good first shewed the vertues and good manners whereby they must ascend thereunto as by degrees so this stinking doctor Machiavell useth the same manner teaching a prince all kinds of evill and wickednesse which may leade to the highest degree and top of all vices and of all evill But I will not long stay in refuting this Maxime for I thinke I have before so well beaten downe those degrees whereby hee would have princes ascend to that height of all wickednesse that hee that followeth the way which wee have shewed shall not neede to feare mounting thither but rather not doubt the contrary Wee have also made appeare by reasons and notable examples That they which give themselves to the vices of perfidie impiety cruelty other vices which Machiavell teacheth come ordinarily to evill ends so far is it off to be domageable That a man cannot bee perfectly wicked as most impudently hee affirmeth And as for the example of Pagolo which hee alledgeth it is a strange thing how this gallant should not attaine to the full top of all wickednesse since they of his nation have commonly their spirits so prompt and quicke to all evill and corruption But it is credible he was some luskish and faint hearted fellow which wanting no good will to slay the Pope onely wanted courage to enterprise and performe it But some may say that Pagolo feared to doe well if hee had slaine the Pope Iulius and therefore hee would not doe it because hee would not doe good but onely apply himselfe to evill and vâ—ee as Machiavell teacheth And indeede if hee had slaine this Pope hee had done great good to all Christendome of that time for he lighted and stirred up warres amongst Christian princes and delighted in nothing so much as to sow trouble every where yea hee vaunted that hee would doe more with S. Pauls sword than all his predecessors had done with S. Peters keies Pagolo then who had sworne to the doctrine of Machiavell as is to bee presumed would not bee the cause of so great good as by slaying that monster to doe so much good to Christendome But Machiavell found hee did evill that hee slew not the Pope and speakes thereof as a man passionate for there was never man a greater enemie to the Pope than Machiavell I therefore doe greatlie mervaile how Papists can esteeme of Machiavell But indeede they which esteeme so much of him are not papists though they say they are but are a people which in their hearts make no care either of God or of the divell nor of the Pope nor of the popedome no nor of any religion but are very Atheists full of impietie like their master yet indeed they goe well to Masse there is good policie in it for therein they make to appeare that they have so well profited in their Machiaveline philosophie that they are come to the perfection that their master taught them in this Maxime 29. Maxime Hee that hath alwaies carried the countenance of a good man and would become wicked to obtaine his desire ought to colour his change with some apparent reason WHen a man desires to change from one qualitie to another saith Discourse lib. 1. cap. 42. our Florentine as when hee will become wicked for some cause having alwaies before carried the countenance of a good man hee must doe it discreetly and before seeke occasions by providing himselfe in the meane while nevv friends to leane upon in the place of the ancient vvhich abandon him And heerein a great fault was committed by Appius Claudius who was one of the ten soveraigne potentates of Rome for hee having alwaies shewed himselfe a lover of the people humane kind communicative of easie accesse a good iusticier going after about to usurpe the soveraigne domination of Rome he too sodainely changed his qualities into other cleane contrary turning his roabe as it had beene from vvhite to blacke which vvas the cause that the vvorld incontinent discovered his hipocrisie and pourpensed mallice and pointed at him vvith their fingers So could hee not attaine his desseines and purposes vvhich hee might have had if fairely by little and little hee had changed alwaies seeking some apparent occasions to become cruell fierce rigorous unsociable and to have provided himselfe friends of like qualities to maintaine him as is said THis Maxime is like that of Renardizing and fox like deceit wherof wee have before spoken For this is a precept how of a good man to become wicked and yet the world should not perceive it And saith Machiavell hee must not bee so grosse as at the first arivall to change from good to evill as from white to blacke because this change may be perceived of the world but he must proceede unto it by a cautell and subtiltie seeking palliations and coulours to hide his change and to give apparent reason thereof As if a man will become cruell he must cover his cruelties with some appearance of Iustice if he will become rapinous and a catchpoll hee must cover his rapines with some appearance of necessitie and publike utilitie Thus doth he change himselfe by little and little and so from good shal he become wicked and none perceive it And it is good to bee noted the comparison which Machiavell makes of the chaunge and varietie of manners by the chaunce of colours For
as blacke never takes white well his contrarie unlesse first white bee tainted with some other colour as blew or red So the chaunge saith Machiavell from good to wicked is never made unto any good purpose without some pretext and shew which gives to a man an appearance betwixt good and evill Here is a singular precept in the art of wickednesse To become wicked and yet the world shall not perceive it for if the world know it then it is an ignorance of the art which wills a knowledge well to dissemble and that a man should bee apt and fit to know handsomely to faine and deale with his visage and countenance to deceive men By joyning then together these two precepts To be a dissembler and to be wicked to doe evill it will follow that this Maxime is very proper for this art for it teacheth how to doe to become wicked and not discover himselfe to be so but alwayes to observe the pretext of dissimulation You see then and he that sees not is very blind of sence and understanding that this abhominable Florentine persevereth still to teach a prince the art of wickednes But for so much as before we have disputed against all the kinds thereof as likewise against hypocrisie and dissimulation I will speake no more hereof And as for the example of Appius Claudius one of the tenne potentates of Rome which Machiavell alledgeth serves nothing for his purpose For Appius exercising an office which endured but a yeare carried himselfe well for that first yeare which was the cause that he and his companions were continued in their estate another yeare but with great difficultie obtained they that continuation for it was as it were a breach of their law to continue an office to any person more than a yeare Appius seeing that it should be impossible to obtaine of the Romane people a continuation for a third yeare thought it good now to make himselfe feared by seeking to obtaine his estate by force and like ynough he had gotten againe his office had there not happened a warre against the Romanes which came nigh unto them and therefore Appius and his companions could doe no lesse if it were but to defend themselves than levie an armie but none would obey them because the time of their offices was expired and that they acknowledged them no more for lawfull magistrates so that for want of obedience they were constrained to forsake their offices to submit themselves to the peoples mercie who set in prison Appius Claudius and Spurius Oppius where they died and banished the other eight and confiscated their goods The cause then why Appius could not obtaine the tyrannie which hee had enterprised was not for that hee changed too suddainely from good to wicked but because the time of his office being expired he could not be obeyed and herein all the dissimulations and foxlike dealings of Machiavell could have done him no good for as soone as any mans office was expired at Rome hee that held it must come out were he good or wicked because such was the law Moreover this Maxime here is not onely wicked but also hard to practise For very difficult it is that a man should change from a good man to a wicked and not bee perceived though in his actions he use many palliations and dissimulations For amongst people there are alwayes some one which is not a beast but as the proverbe is can know flies in the milke and which straight can discover the dissimulations of those Machiavelizing Foxes and can crie The Fox that men may take heed of him 30. Maxime A Prince in the time of peace maintaining discords and partialities amongst his subiects may the more easily use them at his pleasure OVr auncestors of Florence saith Machiavell especially such Cap. 20. Of a prince as vvere esteemed the vvisest have alwaies held this Maxime That Pistoye must be held in obedience by the means of Partialities And for that cause they nourished in certaine townes belonging unto them discords the more easily to governe them The Venetians also mooved vvith the like opinion maintained in the townes of their government the factions of the Guelfes and Gibelines that their subiects minds being occupied vvith such studies might have no leisure to thinke upon rebellion yet a prince vvhich as they say hath any blood in his nailes vvill not nourish such Partialities in time of warre For so may they bring him much hurt But in time of peace he may by such meanes handle his subiects much more easily WHensoever the commonwealth is governed by a good prince who useth good counsell in the conduction of his affaires and gets the love of his subjects it is certaine that both in time of peace and warre he shall be obeyed alwayes For the most part of the people will obey him voluntarily and without constraint some for love others for feare of his justice which he shall have well established in his domination And therefore this Maxime cannot be but domageable and pernitious to a good prince which being Partialitie pernitious to a prince practised alienateth him from the love of his subjects for if he nourish Partialities amongst his subjects he cannot possibly carrie himselfe so egally towards both parties but in them both will be jealousie and suspition insomuch as each partie will esteeme the other to be more favoured of the prince than they whereupon hee will hate his prince and by that meanes it may come to passe that the prince shal be hated of both parties and so both the one and the other shall machinate his ruine which he can hardly shun having al their evill wills And suppose he had but the evill will of the one partie yet could he not be assured seeing men are naturally enclined to a desire to ruinate and destroy that which they hate and that not onely many but even one alone particular may well find and encounter meanes to bring to passe his purpose and to execute an enterprise as before we have demonstrated by many examples Therfore this Maxime cannot but be very pernicious and very perillous for a prince who wil use it But it may be a tyrant may make use of it to hinder a concord of the people which may proove ruinous and perillous unto him for when a people accordeth a tyrants nailes have no great power upon them neither can easily introduce or practise tyrannicall actions upon a people which is in good concord because he refuseth the yoke and denieth obedience unto wicked ordinances and new burthens and without obedience nothing by him is brought to effect Therfore Partialitie the foundation of tyrannie they which meane to introduce a tyrannie into a countrey doe first cast this foundation of Partialitie as the certainest meane to establish and build a tyrannie and although no tyrannie be ever firme or assured that we seldome or never see tyrants live long because all tyrannie comprehendeth violence
and that by nature violent things cannot endure as also that God sets in foot and exerciseth his justice upon them yet for all that is there not a better nor more expedient meane to establish a tyrannie than to place and plant a Partialitie amongst the people And this is the marke and end whereat Machiavell shooteth to establish a tyrannie as we have before shewed in many places It may be Machiavell learned this Maxime of Claudius Appius who was a man of courage and very tyrannicall towards the Romane people and if all other Senatours had been of his humor assuredly the Senate had usurped a tyrannie in the citie and changed the Aristocraticall estate into an Oligarchie but most commonly he remained alone in his opinion But wee must understand that at Rome there was tenne Tribunes of the people which were magistrates established to conserve the liberties and franchises of the meane people against the tyrannicall enterprises of the great men of the citie which had power to oppose themselves against all novelties as new lawes new burthens and imposts and after a firme opposition none might passe any further They also had power to propose and pursue the reception of new lawes as they knew it was requisit and profitable for all the people whereby it often came to passe that the Tribunes sought to make passe and to receive lawes to the great dislike of the Patricians and Senatours and to the utilitie of the meane people The abovesaid Claudius Appius alwaies gave the Senate advice to sow a Partialitie Titus Livius Dec. Dionis Halic lib. 9. amongst the said tenne Tribunes and by the practise of that same amongst them they might oppose themselves against laws which others would have to passe For said he by this meanes the Tribunes power shall ruinate it selfe without that we shall seeme any way to meddle therein and without that the people shall know that any of our action is in it This counsell of Appius was many times followed but in the end they found it did them no good For after the Tribunes were partialized one against another and that thereby nothing could passe nor be concluded by way of deliberation and accustomed suffrages then fell they to armes and seditions So that in the end the people were constrained by force to plucke from the Patricians that which they would not permit to bee handled and disputed by the accustomed way of good deliberation and conclusion by pluralitie of voices Thus oftentimes the Patricians were constrained to appease the people to grant them things which by reason they might have persuaded them to leave for it is the nature of men to desire alwayes that which is denied them as the Poet Horace sayth very well expressing that which happeneth ordinarily in the world That which denied is most commonly Desired is of us most ardently Moreover it often came to passe that the Patricians desired to make passe to the people by meanes of the Tribunes some law which seemed unto them profitable for the commonwealth but they could not come to their pretences because they had fashioned the Tribunes to a contradiction one of another And of those Tribunarie partialities arose at Rome great insurrections of the people and great murthers and effusion of blood as there did when the two brethren Graccht were slain And therefore that goodly counsell of Appius whereupon Machiavell hath made his Maxime was cause of great evils and calamities as surely it is easie to judge That all Partialities and divisions are cause of ruine and desolation amongst a people whereof we are also advertised by him who is truth it selfe our Lord Iesus Christ who saith That every kingdome divided in it selfe shall be desolate And if there be any Machiavelist so grosse headed as hee cannot comprehend this in his spirit yet may he see this by experience in Fraunce if he be not altogether blind and if hee be French he cannot but palpably touch it in the losse of his goods and in the death of his parents and friends unlesse he be a lazer or without sence For all the late ruines of Fraunce from whence have they proceeded but from the partialities of Papists and Hugenots which strangers sowed and maintained thereof It is solly to say that the diversitie of Religion was cause thereof For if men had handled all controversies of Religion by preachings disputes and conferences as at the beginning they did they had never falne into any Partialitie but since men came to armes and massacres and that by constraint they will force men to beleeve partialities sprung up which was the onely marke whereat all strangers shot that thereby they might plant in Fraunce the government of Machiavell The Chalcedonians were well advised not to beleeve the counsell of the Aetolians which resembled this doctrine of Machiavell and the counsell of Appius for when the warre was open betwixt the Romanes and the king Antiochus the Chalcedonians allies and friends of the Romanes caused to be assembled the States of their countries to resolve upon that which Antiochus made them understand That his onely comming into Greece was to deliver the countrey from the subjection and servitude of the Romanes and therefore required them to allie and conjoyne themselves with him The Aetolians which were very unconstant and mutable people with each wind as are the Machiavelists chanced to be in that assembly and persuaded the Chalcedonians that it was certaine that the king Antiochus had passed from Asia into Europe to deliver Greece from the Romanes servitude and that they thought it best that all the cities of Greece ought to allie and contract amitie with both the two parties the Antiochs and the Romanes For said they if wee allie our selves with both parties when the one would offend us the other will revenge us The Chalcedonians not finding good this counsell of the Aetolians knowing well that as none can serve two contrary masters so neither can they allie themselves with two nations enemies and that they which will entertaine two contrarie parties shall often fall into the malegrace of both And therefore Mixtion one of the principals amongst the Chalcedonians made to the Aetolians a very wise and notable answere Wee see not masters Aetolians say they that the Romanes have seized upon any towne in Greece neither that therein they have placed any Romane garison nor that any payeth them tribute neither know we any unto whome they have given any law or any thing changed their estate And therefore we do not acknowledge our selves entangled in any servitude but that we alwaies are in the same libertie which we have alwayes been Being therefore free we stand in no need of a deliverer and the comming of the king Antiochus into Greece cannot but hurt us who can performe no greater good unto us than to withdraw himselfe farre from our countrey And as for us we are resolved to receive none within our townes but by the authority of
the Romanes our allies The Chalcedonians then governed themselves after this answere and it happened well unto them But the Aetolians were almost all ruined and lost by practising their foolish opinion to entertaine both the Romanes and Antiochians together for so were they of necessitie forced to seeke practises alwayes to maintaine warre betwixt that king and the Romane commonweale to the end that the two powers might alwayes stand on foot without abilitie one to overthrow another because otherwise could they not attaine to their desseigne and purpose which was to keepe themselves in friendship with both parties yet thus seeking and practising to sustaine them both and maintaine them enemies they made themselves hated of both So that after the retreat of Antiochus into his countrey these miserable Aetolians fell into a desperate case like to have torne one another in pieces burdening and accusing mutually one another to be the inventors of that wicked counsell yet in the end by the Romanes clemencie and bountie which pardoned them they had a certaine subsistence though in a meane sort In the towne of Ardea a neighbour of the Romanes there was a like partialitie Titus Livius lib. 4. Dec. 1. as there is at this day at Genes for now at Genes the people is banded against the nobles and they will by no meanes receive any for duke of Genes of the nobilitie insomuch as all dukes of Genes must needs be villaines and base men of race and it may be there will be found in France of the like race as at Genes The like partialitie I say being in the towne of Ardea betwixt the nobilitie and the people it happened that two young batchelers one of the people and another of the nobilitie fell at debate one against another about the obtaining in marriage a yong maid of excellent beautie but of a base and carterly race Great bandying there fell out about this mariage they of the nobilitie all casting their heads and employing their abilities for their gentleman who loved and desired that maid and they obtained so much as they got the maids mother on their side who affected that her doughter might bee placed in a noble house But contrarie the people which were for the other young man of their owne race and qualitie did so much for him as they gained the maids tutors which thought that it was more reasonable that their pupill should espouse an husband of her own qualitie than to mount into an higher degree for that equalitie ought as much as might be to bee observed in marriage Vpon altercation of this marriage the parties were drawn unto justice and the maid was adjudged to the gentleman after the advice of the mother yet although by law the gentleman got the cause by force he could not for the tutors with strong hand forced the maid from her mother The gentleman unto whom she was adjudged being almost enraged at this tape and injurie that was done him gathered together a great companie of other gentlemen his parents and friends and gave charge upon those which had taken away his betrothed wife Breefely there was a great stirre and noise through the towne and a great number slaine on both sides and at last the gentlemen remained masters of the towne and the people were driven away The people straying about the fields ruinated the houses and possessions of the nobles The abovesaid nobles sent to Rome embassadors for succours The people likewise sent to the Volsques people of Tuscane for their aid By this meanes the Romanes and the Volsques fell to warre one against another But the Romanes carrying away the victory beheaded the principall authors of the insurrection which happened for this marriage in the towne of Ardea and confiscated all their goods which was adjudged to the communaltie of the Ardeates Here you see how the partialitie which was in the towne of Ardea was cause of that great calamitie and combustion and therefore well to be noted are these words of Titus Livius The Ardeates saith he were continually in an intestine warre the cause and commencement whereof proceeded of the contention of partialities which alwaies have and will bee ruinous and domageable to people farre more than externe warres than famine than pestilence or than all other evils which the gods doe send upon citties which they will altogether destroy These words are full contrarie to the Machiaveline doctrine as indeed they are the words of another manner of author than Machiavell at whome I doe much marvell that he dare attempt to write discourses upon Titus Livius since any may see be understands him not and his doctrine is also cleane contrarie to that of Titus Livius Vnto the said sentence of Titus Livius I will adde that which he reciteth from Quintius Capitolinus who admonishing the souldiors of his armie Our enemies said hee come not to assaile us upon any trust they have in our cowardize or their owne vertue for many times alreadie they have assayed both the one and the other but it is for the confidence they have in our partialities and contentions which now are betwixt the Patricians and the people for our partialities are the venome which empoysoneth and corrupteth this citie because we are too imperious and you too unmeasurably desirous of libertie The partialities of the Carthaginians were they not cause of their utter ruine There were two factions at Carthage the Barchinian whereof was Annibals house Titus Livius lib. 1. Dec. 3. and the Hannoenne contrarie As soone as Amilcar the father of Anniball was dead the Carthaginians elected for captaine generall of their armie Asdruball their citizen one of the Barchian faction which they sent to make war in Spaine with a great armie This Asdruball had learned his art of warre under Amilcar which was the cause why he sought to have Anniball nigh him who at that time was very yong to administer unto him the same benefit which he had received at his fathers hands and therefore writ to the Senate of Carthage The Senate brought this to deliberation and Hanno his advice being demanded he reasoned in this sort Masters said he me thinkes the demaund of Asdruball is very equall yet I am not of opinion his request should be graunted him For it is equall in that hee desireth to restore a like benefit to the sonne as he hath received of the father yet may not we herein accommodate our selves to his will and give him our youth to nourish after his fancie I am then of advice that this young Anniball be nourished and educated in this cittie under the obedience of lawes and magistrates and that he be learned to live after justice and in egalitie with others least this little fire do one day raise up a farre greater The wisest and best advised of the Senate were of this opinion but the pluralitie which was of the Barchian faction was to send young Anniball into Spaine to the warre who as soone as he
so doe and behave your selves as this altar may bee more holily and chastly reverenced than this chappell heere Behould heere a contention worthie of vertuous and sage ladies But at this day ladies contend who shall best dance paint and decke themselves and to doe such like thjngs as doe not leade them into the chappell of the Romane Patricians nor to the altar of Verginia her Chastitie but rather doe leade them cleane contrary 31. Maxime Seditions and civile dissentions are profitable and blamelesse I Say against the advice of many saith master Nicholas that dissentions and civile seditions are good and profitable and that they vvere rhe cause that Rome is mounted into the loftie degree of empire vvherein it hath beene I know well that some hold that it vvas rather her valiancie in armes and her good fortune vvhich so high hath lifted her up But they which hold this doe not consider that deedes of armes cannot bee conducted vvithout good order and good policie and that is it policie vvhich commonly leadeth to good fortune But certaine it is that seditions have beene cause of good order and of the good policie vvhich vvas established at Rome And in summe all the goodly acts and examples of the ancient Romanes have proceeded from this fountaine of seditions For good examples proceede from good nurture and education good nurture proceedes from good lawes and policies and the mother of good lawes are seditions and civile dissentions which inconsideratly most men condemne IT were to bee desired that Machiavell and his nation which esteeme Seditions and civile dissentions so profitable had reserved them for themselves with all the utilitie and profit that is in them and not have participated them with their neighbours As for France they might well have spared the Seditions and partialities which the Italian Machiavelists have sowne on this side the mounts which caused so much bloodshed so many houses destroyed and so many miseries and callamities as every man feeles sees and deplores Would to God then all civile dissentions had remained amongst the Florentines and other Italians who doe love finde them good so that the French men had beene without them then would not France bee so rent and torne in pieces as it is and it should not bee enfeeblished more than halfe in his forces the people should not bee so poore as wee see them nor so naked of his substance and all good meanes For civile dissentions have brought to the realme such a ransacke and discomfiture of goods and have so abandoned and overthrowne all free commerce and good husbandry which are the two meanes to store and fill a countrey with abundance of goods that at this day there are seene no good houses but they which were wont to bee are ruinated and altogether impoverished and made barren Seditions cause of ravishments of goods of cessation of commerce and agriculture And truely it is as in a forrest when a man sees all the goodly oakes hewen downe and that there remaineth no more there but thornes shrubs and bushes For even as such a forrest which either hath none or few trees in it meriteth rather the name of a bush than of a forrest so the kingdome or commonweale whose good ancient houses are impoverished deserveth rather to be named by the name of a desart than of a kingdome or commonweale Moreover the reason which Machiavell alledgeth whereby hee would proove Seditions to bee good is very grosse and foolish for follow with this Because Seditions are sometime not the cause but the occasion that there are made some good lawes and rules That they are therefore good This reason is like the argument of a certaine philosopher whom Aulus Gellius mocketh who would maintaine that the fever quartaine is a good thing because it makes men sober and temperate and to guard themselves from eating and drinking too much Such philosophers as delight to broach such absurd opinions deserve to bee left without answere with their Seditions and fever quartaines to draw out such profit from them as they say doe proceede out of them Doth not the common proverbe say That from evill manners doe proceede good lawes and doth it therefore follow that evill manners are goods that is doth it follow that white is blacke or blacke white The grossest headed fellowes know well that law makers never set downe lawes but onely to reforme vices and abuses which are in a people so that indeede no lawes would have beene made if the people walked uprightly and committed no abuses nor had any vices For lawes are not set downe but for transgressors and to hould intemperate persons within limits and bounds Heereof followeth it that abuses vices straying and lusts are occasions of good lawes and prudent princes and law makers are the efficient causes of them but it doth not therefore follow that vices abuses and straying lusts are good things Moreover it is not alwaies true that which Machiavell saith That Seditions are causes or occasions of having good lawes and rules The Seditions which were raised up at Rome by Tiberius Gracchus and Caius his brother Tribunes of the people which were so great and sanguinary were not cause of any good lawes They were the cause that they both were massacred as they merited but they were neither cause nor occasion of any good law or rule and how should they bee cause thereof seeing they tended to authorise and make passe wicked lawes and to despoile true masters and proprietors of their goods For Tiberius Gracchus pursued by his Seditious faction that a law called Agraria might bee received and authorised whereby it was not lawfull for a Romane citizen to possesse above ten acres land which was as much to say as to take away the more from them which had more And because Marcus Octavius his companion in the Tribunate opposed himselfe to hinder the passage of this law as both wicked and unjust Gracchus would needes have had him dispatched of his estate and sought to make a Triumvirate of himselfe of his brother and of his father in law to divide amongst the people rich men goods This was the cause that the great lords of the citie by the advice and counsell of Scipio Nasica who was accounted the best man thereof slew him in the Capitoll and caused his body to bee cast into Tiber His brother Caius Gracchus beeing Tribune of the people a certaine space after sought againe to bring up that law Agraria and would needs devise one out of his owne braine whereby it was ordained that in all judgements and conclusions of affaires there should be 600 knights and 300 Senators all having voices this did he to have the pluralitie of voices at his command knowing that the knights would alwaies easily encline to his pursutes and so could hee not faile to obtaine what hee would if at all deliberations there were twise as many knights as Senators But this was a wicked law tending to
overthrow and weake the authoritie of Senators and therefore they hindered it For Lucius Opimius Consull by the decree of the Senate caused the people to arme themselves and to goe assaile Caius Gracchus with the seditious of his troupe and in the conflict Gracchus was slaine with Flacchus his fellow in the Triumvirate Finally the seditions of these two bretheren Gracchi tended but to bring forward wicked lawes and heereof came no good but they were cause of infinit murders and of great effusion of bloud The seditions also which were raised up at Rome by the Triumvirate of Octavius Antonius and Lepidus what good brought they to the commonwealth They Dion in Augusto were cause of infinit mischiefes of great and long civile warre of the death of an infinit number of persons of the ruine impoverishment and pillage of the provinces of the empire and finally of the change of the estate of the commonwealth into a monarchie And although that the subjects of the Romane empire did not then feele any harme by that change because they light on a good prince Augustus yet after they felt it under five or sixe emperours all which successively followed Augustus that is to say Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero Otho and Vitellius all which were bad emperours and governed very tyrannicallie Herodianus writeth That the Greekes were first subjugated and brought under subjection by the Macedonians and after by the Romanes because of their accustomed Herod lib. 3. seditions whereby they bannished or caused to die ordinarilie the most valiant and generous persons that they had in their commonwealth And yet after they were brought under the Romanes yoke they could not hould themselves from beeing seditious yea even when there were many competitors to the empire for ever they banded for some one which was after cause oftentimes of the racing ruinating and destroying of their best townes as happened in the time of Severus to such as partialized for Niger Before the Romanes had subjugated the Gaulois Gaule was divided into pettie commonweales as Iulius Caesar saith in the commentaries which notwithstanding were leagued together and held a diet once a yeere at Dreux to parlie and confer of the whole countries affaires But at last there fell a partialitie amongst them insomuch as there became great warre betwixt the Sequanois and the Autunoys The Sequanois drew to their succours the Alemains under the conduction of Ariovistus and the Autunois the Romanes under the conduction of Caesar Caesar ariving in Gaule to succour the Autunois did so well as hee planted greater division and sedition through all Gaul and by that meanes subjected it to the Romane empire And it was a province which the Romanes esteemed most opulent and rich of all them under the empire so made they their account to draw ordinarilie out of it greatest store of silver And indeede after Gaul was made subject unto the Romanes it was alwaies much vexed with imposts and tributes and with the extorcions pillages of governours which to cover their robberies with some coulour said it was needefull to hould the Gaulois poore least they rebelled against the Romanes against whom they had aunciently made warre and obtained upon them many victories The tenne Potentates which were created at Rome in the place of Consul would Dionis Halic lib. 11. needs usurpe a tyrannie and continue in their estate beyond the time established by lawes But what meanes used they even sedition For so long as they could maintaine sedition betwixt the people and the Patricians their tyrannie was in some assurance but as soone as great and small of the citie were at an accord the ten Potentates were withall straight ruined and overthrowne But this example is very fit to confirme the Maxime of Machiavell according to the end whereunto it tendeth which is to establish a tyrannie for seditions and civile dissentions may something serve a tyrants turne to maintaine him in his tyrannie but because heeretofore wee have sufficiently parlied of tyrannicall actions and alledged many examples which in their places may bee found wee passe on 32. Maxime The meanes to keepe subiects in peace and union and to hould them from Rebellion is to keepe them alwaies poore THe townes saith Machiavell which are placed in leane Discourse lib. 1. Cap. 22 lib. 2. cap. 7. lib. 3. cap. 16. and 25 and barren soiles are customably united and peaceable because the inhabitants there being ever occupied in ploughing and labouring the earth have no other meanes nor leasure to thinke upon seditions rebellions And contrary townes situated in fat and rich countries are easily enclined to stirres and disobediences For truly strifes debates which arise every day amongst men proceede onely of riches and abundance of goods rich people will not suffer themselves to bee handled as wee commonly see Therfore did the Romanes maintaine in poore estate their Colonies and assigned them small possessions least they should rise up against them yea even within their owne towne a long time raigned a very great Povertie notwithstanding which the citizens left not to bee vertuous people imploied in great publike charges as were Quintus Cincinnatus Marcus Regulus Paulus Aemilius and many others which were very poore yet executed great things And surely wee have ever seene that povertie hath produced better fruits than riches and that a people being rich and fat have alwaies beene more prompt to rebellion and disobedience Therefore it is an healthfull and good remedy to hould subiects poore to the end that by their riches they neither may corrupt themselves nor others HEere may a man see the very counsell which Guiemand gave to Giles governour for the Romane emperour in the towne of Soisons and the neighbour countries Chilperick the fourth of that name king of France had for one of his most especiall friends and counsellors this Guiemand who was a valiant and sage French baron This king sometimes led a slipperie and disordinate life so that to furnish his pleasure and unmeasurable expences hee was constrained to impose upon the people great imposts and to commit great exactions The French which at that time were of an austere courage saith the hystorie begun to hate him and beare him evill will and to resolve amongst themselves to seize his person and to appoint a tutor for him and so to take from him all his young and bad counsellors about him which he perceiving demaunded Guiemand his advice what he should doe Guiemand counselled him to flie and to give place to the French ire which in his absence hee would appease and as soone as they were quieted hee would recall him He also parted a gold ring in two and gave one moietie to the king saying Sir when I send you this other halfe which I keepe it shall be unto you a certain token that you may boldly come againe and without feare Chilperick then retired towards the king of Thuringe and in his absence the French
That poverty hath many times been cause of great insurrections and civile warres We reade that at Rome Dion Halic lib. 5. 6. 7. there were many stirrs and seditions against usurers which eate up and impoverished the people and caused great faintnesse The like often happened in France for in the time of king Philip Augustus the conquerour in the time of S. Lewis in the time of king Iohn and many other times the Iewes and Italians which held bankes Annal. 3. and practised usuries in France whereby they ruinated the people were chased and bannished out of the kingdome The factions of Mailotins and of such as carried coules and hoods of divers coulours and other like popular inventions tending to seditions and civile warres were not founded upon any other foundation than that For poore people of base estate are alwaies the authors executioners of such factions and seditions In the time also that France was under the obedience of the Romane empire we reade that the Gaulois rose up often when they sought to impoverish Dion in Aug. them by undue exactions As in the time of Augustus there was in Gaul one Licinius a receiver of imposts who practised great and undue exactions upon the people unknowne to Augustus and because at that time part of Gaulois payed tributes each chiefe of every house a certaine summe by moneth this master deceiver made a weeke but sixe daies and a moneth but of twentie foure daies so that in the yeere were foureteene moneths and so two fell to his profit Augustus being advertised heereof was much grieved yet did no justice thereon Not long after Augustus sent for governour into Gaul Quintilius Varus who was a great lord and before had had the government of Siria where he had filled his hands Ariving in Gaul hee sought to doe there as hee had done in Siria and began to commit great exactions upon the people and to deale with them after the Sirian manner that is like slaves The Gaulois seeing this made a countenance voluntarily to accompanie Varus and his army against the high Almaines upon which hee made warre but after they had conducted him and his army into a straight whence hee could not save himselfe they set upon him defeated cut his army in pieces Varus the other great lords of his company slew themselves in dispaire And heereupon the Gaulois rebelled against the Romane emperours many times as under Nero under Galien under many others and at the last freed and cut off themselves altogether from the obedience of the empire Whereupon I conclude That to goe about to hould the people poore as Machiavell counselleth there can arise nothing but insurrections feditions and confusions in the commonwealth But the meanes that a prince ought to hould to inrich his subjects without weakening his owne power is first to take away all abuses which are committed upon Means how a pâ—ince may enrich his subjects on the people in the collection of ordinarie tributes For a prince most righteously may levie ancient accustomed tributes to sustaine publike charges otherwise his estate would dissolve And he ought not to follow the example of Nero who once would needes abolish all tributes and imposts and because the Senate shewed him that hee ought not to doe it hee imposed other new without number For a good wise prince will doe neither the one nor the other but without inventing any new tributes will maintaine himselfe in the exaction onely of the ancient which hee will cause to bee received the most graciouslie and without stirre of the people that can bee which to doe it seemes to bee requisite that such taxes imposts be duely laid without favour or respect of persons which in times of ould was a reformation that the king Tullius Hostilius made in his time at Rome whereupon hee was much praised and his poore people comforted Men must also imitate the ancient Romanes which excepted no person from patrimoniall tributes which are such reall burdens Titus Livin lib. 6. Dec. 3. lib. 3. Dec. 2 as are payed in regard of grounds whereunto they belong For there was neither Senator nor bishop but hee paied as well as they of the third estate There must also bee a provision made that the receivers and treasurers which are they which doe most hurt to the people may no more pill and spoile the world There must also an hand bee houlden that so excessive usuries be no more practised under the name of pensions and interests and that it bee permitted to deliver silver to a certaine moderate profit which upon great paines it may not bee lawfull to exceede for to forbid at once all profit is to give unto men occasions to seeke out palliations in contracts by sales of pensions by letting to hire fruits by selling to sell againe fained renumerations such like coulours There must be a provision made that strangers banquers nor others may no more make themselves bankrouts And here would bee brought in use a law made in the time of the emperour Tiberius whereby it was ordained that no man might hould a banque upon a great paine which had not two Sueton. in Tib. cap. 48. third parts of his goods in ground of inheritance moreover there must bee expressed the superfluities of apparell of banquets and other like whereby men doe so impoverish themselves this shall bee a cause that povertie or to have little shall bee the more tollerable For as Cato the elder said in an oration for the law Oppia against the great estates and luxuries of women It is a great evill and dangerous shame the shame of povertie parcimonie but when the law forbiddeth superfluities excesses of apparell and other vaine expences it covereth that shame with an honourable mantle of living after lawes seeing that it is a most praiseable thing and the contrary punishable and vituperable And assuredly saith hee it ordinarily commeth to passe that when wee are ashamed of that whereof wee should not wee will not be ashamed of that whereof wee ought to have shame Finally a prince must be a good justicer ever respective that the meaner poorer sort be not oppressed by the greatest neither by such men as are violent or evill livers All those things shall bee no charge to the prince to bring to passe yet by these meanes hee may greatly inrich his subjects which then will never spare any thing they have at their princes demand The people of the earledome of Foix are of their owne natures rude and stubborne enough yet wee reade That in the time of Gaston contie of Foix who was in the time of king Charles the sixt his subjects paied him so great tallies and imposts as hee held a kings estate though hee were but a counte Yea they payed him them very liberally without constraint and bore unto him great amitie and benevolence and whereupon came this but because hee
Maxime as well of the Mendicants as of all other monkes yea of all men in generall That every man must live But a man cannot well live with contemplations and mediations for the bellie is not satisfied with such viands but it must needs have bread and victuals which grow and proceed from the earth and possessions of this world Whereof it followeth That they must needs have possessions to obtaine victuals or at least they must buy and obtaine of them unto whom possessions doe belong But the profession of Povertie especially of that high one repugneth and contrarieth all this For thereby it is not lawfull to have any possessions nor to acquire corne wine or other victuals for as much as by the acquisition thereof whether it be by sale donation exchange or other like the acquirer and obtainer thereof makes himselfe a proprietor and master of the thing which hee obtaineth which is not lawfull to doe for such as make profession of high Povertie which can no way bee propriators of any thing be it moovable or unmoovable victuals apparrell or any other thing whatsoever as is said Therefore you see that the practise of Povertie is something greevous and troublesome and not so pleasant as the Theorique For as for Theorique you cannot find a thing more pleasant nor facile nor which lesse hindreth a man in worldly affairs nor which meriteth more to be praised and esteemed in all good companies and especially in great feasts and bankets after the old proverbe which saith Hee that implete is of viands Fasting to others recommands But upon these difficulties touching the practise of Povertie the Mendicants have made many great questions and scruples of conscience which many Popes have sought to resolve yet could never satisfie nor content those brethren Amongst others the Friers Minors were greatly troubled in their spirits upon this that by their rule which the blessed S. Francis left them it is said by an expresse article That the brethren of that order can have nothing proper in any manner neither may they have any meanes to live but to beg hard and without shame For there are amongst them which thinke that this may be understood of simple proprietie and not of usufructe or use thereof So that retaining the usurpation only of possessions and other things graunted unto them rejecting the proprietie of them they thinke not to violate any part of their rule But they that give this interpretation of the rule dare not justifie their interpretation thereof least they contradict the testament and last will of blessed S. Francis their founder whereby hee had ordained and expressely forbidden That none should glose upon his rule and that none should say that it ought to be understood thus or thus and that none should obtaine Apostolicall letters from the Pope either to adde thereunto or declare insomuch as on the one side not daring to adventure to give declarations and new sence to the rule on the other side beeing held so short thereby that they dare neither have nor acquire any thing their consciences are mervellously troubled and tormented and especially since some of their adversaries call them theeves and prooving it by this argument Whosoever possesseth or eateth another mans goods whereas hee hath nothing nor can have any thing of his owne hee is a theefe But the Mendicants and especially the Friers Minors doe possesse habites bookes moovables chambers bribes asses and other moovable goods and do eat bread and pittance in all which goods they can have no right of proprietie nor other Ergo then c. Vnto which argument assuredly they cannot answere For if they replie that in these goods by them possessed they have the use simply without any proprietie besides that they have given an interpretation to the said rule against the testamentarie prohibition of their glorious founder a man may replie upon them that if they will say they have a right of use in the said goods it will then follow that that right should be to them in proprietie and that therefore having the proprietie of that right they should alwayes find themselves breakers and gainsayers of their rule which prohibiteth to have any thing proper whether possessions rights or other goods Hereat let every man thinke if it must not needs be very greevous to those good Friers Minors that men should thus argue against them by subtile arguments to proove them theeves as living on other mens goods and of that which was not theirs like birds of prey And so much the more this pincheth them because they see that high Povertie whereby they pretend to mount to the degree of perfection is the cause whereupon this blame and diffame commeth But they dare not well complaine nor speake a word but onely tollerate all things in all patience and humilitie not without great scruple of conscience which many amongst them make whensoever they thinke in their spirits that that which they eat is not their owne neither the apparrell that they weare and that they have not nor can have in them any propertie any right any usufructe nor any simple usage yet could they not so represse this their greefe of mind but it would by many tokens breake out yea and that meat which with sad minds and striving consciences they had crammed their bellies withall was againe disgorged and vomited Finally after they had remained a long time in that anguish and perplexitie of spirit and of conscience it happened that they created a Pope at Rome who in his youth had been a Frier Minor who was called Pope Nicholas the C. Exist de verb. sig 6. Platina in Nicol. 3. third The Friers seeing that such a Pope who once was one of theirs and who knew the difficulties which were in the practise of this High Povertie could not bee but favourable unto them held a Chapiter generall where they resolved to send certaine delegates and embassadours to this Pope humbly to beseech him to do them this favour and grace as to take away and cut off all the said difficulties These delegates then in the yeare 1280 hasted towards the S. Paternitie of this Pope and shewed him from the Chapiter generall of their order the great and indissoluble difficulties wherein they were for the intelligence of the rule of blessed S. Francis and for the observation of the prohibitions contained in his Testament and generally for the whole practise of that High Povertie humbly beseeching his said Paternitie to provide therefore as he knew to bee requisit yet they most humbly shewed unto him by forme of advice without any mind of presumption to give any interpretation to the said rule that it seemed unto them that the glorious S. Francis neither understood nor would that they should be left naked of all goods For by the same rule he had commanded them to observe the Gospell and to follow the traces of Iesus Christ But Iesus Christ said they had a purse and silver in
and dependences of them with inhibitions to such as called themselves Curates and to all others not to trouble molest nor hinder them in any sort by themselves or by interposed persons upon paine to encurre the indignation and malegrace of S. Peter and of S. Paul and of perpetuall damnation without any hope of grace pardon or appeale Vpon this goodlie remonstrance containing so ponderous and considerable reasons Pope Alexander referred the matter to counsell and by the advice of his Cardinals granted to Mendicant Friers all that they demanded and caused with great expedition to goe out faire and ample bulls well leaded These good Mendicants friers as soone as they had got out their bulls came straigbt from Rome to Paris to cause them to bee received registred in the court of Parliament But before they presented them to the said court they advised and concluded that it was most expedient to have the people favourable and on their sides Therefore through all a whole lent they preached at Paris in all their covents the contents of their bulls saying That they onely were the true Curates pastors of soules by the ordinance creation of the Pope Gods lieutenant on earth of whose power none ought to doubt and exhorted the people so from henceforth to acknowledge them to the end to shunne the paines set downe in our holy Fathers bulls against all contradictions thereof And in their sermons they forgot not to make invectives against a companie of Curates which knew nothing but to take the revenewes of their cures without any deserving them neither spared they also to taxe detest their beastlie and too notorious ignorance But yet were they something deceived in their opinion for at Paris many cures were held and possessed by doctors Theologians of Sorbonne These doctors then fearing the consequent of these bulls of the Mendicants and that thereby they might be dispossessed of their cures incontinent mounted also into pulpits to counterpreach and blazon the said bulls and them which had obtained them Therefore they shewed to the people That from all times exceeding all memory of any man living Curats were in actuall and legimate possession to take and receive tenths oblations obventions and other fruits and revenewes affected and dependants to cures And the Mendicants contrary to ther proper profession of mendicitie were in possession season and injoyance of Povertie meane and base respectively without any trouble hinderance or contradiction in the knowledge and view of all the world And that therefore every one ought to be maintained guarded in his possession without any innovation that is all Curates of the goods and revenewes of their cures and Mendicants of their Povertie and begging and for proofe thereof they alledged many good places saying it was written That man must give to Caesar that which is Caesars and to God that which is Gods which is to say that wee must needes yeeld to every man that which belongeth unto him to Curates tenths oblations and to Mendicants their begging and almes They further said That it was reasonable that the name should answere to the thing and that since that Friers Iacobines Carmelites Augustines have chosen that name of Mendicants that really and in effect they ought to be beggers and not Curates A short time would not serve to set downe discover all the reasons and alligations which the Curates preached and blazed abroad against the Mendicants and the Mendicants against Curates For neither the one nor the other ever studied better sermons than they did in this contestation contention The Curates defended themselves by their long possession and by the ancient and moderne cannons which assigned them their charge of soules which compare them to Levites yea even in taking their tithes They alledged also Non alligabis c. that is Thou shalt not binde the throate of the Oxe which treadeth out the corne and Dignus est operarius c. that is The workeman is worthie of his sallarie or wages and many other like places which they had at their fingers ends And to confute those Mendicants bulls they said they were but new come wherwith they doe trouble the world and that before that they were borne the people was as well preached unto and instructed and Masses confessions and other divine services as well done and exercised as since they came into the world that they had nothing in them but bable and certaine subtilty wherewith they brought the people asleepe and persuaded them that they are learned although they know nothing and that they are full of hipocrisie and simulation making an outward profession of Povertie yet tending in effect to no other end but to have and heape up goods and revenewes They moreover said that it was a mortall sinne to give any thing to these Mendicants unles some few bribes and almesses because that they which gave them either silver or possessions or rents or revenues made them to be condemned in hell by causing them to breake their vow of Povertie and by making them breake their rules which they had sworne to observe And that they which are the cause that any other doth any evill and sinne are as culpable as hee that doth it The Mendicants to the contrary alledged their Apostolicall bulls and the Popes power and said It was an heresie heresie one of the greatest and most insupportable that could be in the world to say That the said bulls ought to have no place because that was as much as to revoke into doubt the high unmeasurable power of the great vicar of God and that they which preach against the said Apostolicall bulls should feele the smart of it They also tooke the places of scripture before alledged Non alligabis Et dignus est mercenarius c. saying that they formally made for them for they were the true oxen which treade out the graine the true workemen which travaile in divine service and that they say more Masses in a moneth in one of their covents than there is said in all the cures of Paris in a yeere and that for one man and one woman which those Curates confesse they confesse an hundreth and for one body which the Curates burie they burie an hundred and therefore for Curates to alledge these places they cut but themselves with their owne knives And as for their sermons said they these masters Curates will bee so proud to compare them with ours Doe not all men see that commonly they can doe nothing but at the Offertorie speake a few words which they have learned by heart from their master to get their offrings in Doe they not likewise see that every one mocks them because of their ignorance evill life and that commonly there is no good play that hath not a Curate in it But as for us you see how wee preach said they in pulpits our sermons are other manner of things than their proemes and
generallie exhorred them all to concord and union in the name and as Vicker of him who said Pacem meam do vobis Pacem meam relinquo vobis I give you my peace I leave you my peace By which articles of the said arbitriall sentence is seene how these Curates and Mendicants publikelie blamed one another And all this proceeded not but from the ardent zeale they all had not to the edification of the people but to have their offrings and oblations for since that time they could so well manage and deale with the poore ignorant world that they made them give them whatsoever they would especially such as were sick when they were at confession and demanded absolution from purgatorie and hell they would never absolve them unlesse they gave to their Covents and churches whatsoever they desired This conclusion heere is also cleane contrarie to the Maxime of Machiavell That Povertie cannot be a cause to hould a people in peace and obedience seeing it was cause of so many discords and disientions even amongst them which made profession thereof and which constituted their perfection therein By this discourse also wee may note the sanctitie of Mendicants wherewith this poore world hath beene so much ravished which from the beginning of their birth in this world have raised up so many riots and strifes against Curats all for the paunch For they begun and florished in the time of Pope Gregorie the ninth Anno 1230 which Pope was Platina in Gregorie 9. then much troubled with resolving the hard points about their Povertie amongst other points resolved them That it ought to be understood not only in the abdication of all proprietie to particulars but also to the generall as Pope Nicholas reciteth it in his abovesaid Decretall For that of Pope Gregorie is not found printed in the bodie of the Cannon law as the others are whereof before we have made mention But herein is no great losse no not though all the Cannon law were lost with it For although some thing be good in it yet the most of it is good for nothing but to maintaine wickednesse abuses and Romanish superstitions that it were expedient to burie that little good in it so that all the evill might bee choaked with it For from hence there is come into the world infinite both spirituall and corporall calamities 33. Maxime A Prince which feareth his subiects ought to build fortresses in his countrey to hold them in obedience THe Prince saith Machiavell vvho hath more feare of his owne Discourse lib. 2. cap. 24. cap. 20. of the prince people than of strangers must build Fortresses but hee that doubteth strangers more than subiects needeth not For the best Fortresse that is is not to be evill beloved of subiects and if a prince be once evill beloved of his people there is no Fortresse can save him True it is that Fortresses may bee profitable to a prince in time of peace to give more courage to him and to his Governours established in them to hould the people in subiection and to use against them greater audacitie and rigour But yet this shall be but vveake assurance unlesse the prince have meanes to raise up a good and strong armie to tame his subiects if they vvill needs rebell For to thinke to tame them by reducing them to povertie Spoliatis arma supersunt Armes remaine yet to the unarmed Also to unarme them Furor arma ministrat Furie administreth armes inough Likewise to slay the cheefe heads of the people more heads vvould arise as of the Hydra The Sforces builded the castle at Millaine vvhich done they iudged that by the means of that Fortresse they might vvith assurance handle their subiects at their pleasure and therefore spared no kind of violence insomuch as they acquired the hatred and evill vvill of their subiects vvhich vvas the cause that the French their enemies caried away Millaine at the first assault and the Sforces had no good by their fortresse but vvere spoiled of all the dutchie ALthough Machiavell have not dealt with the art of tyrannie Machiavell hath hādled all the parts of the art of tyrannie in his writings by a methode yet hath hee not left behind any part of that art For first he hath handled How a tyrannie ought to be builded that is by crueltie perfidie craft perjurie impietie revenges contempt of counsell and friends entertainement of flatterers tromperie the hatred of vertue covetousnesse inconstancie and other like vices whereby hee hath demonstrated that men must ascend as by degrees to come unto a soveraigne wickednesse Secondly hee hath shewed how one ought to bee maintained and conserved in that high degree of wickednesse and tyrannie namely by maintaining amongst subjects partialitie and seditions and in holding them in povertie and necessitie Now he yet addeth another mean namely to build Fortresses against his subjects as by making in good townes citadels and by building forts upon bridges and common passages and other like castles and fortresses and Machiavell thinkes this meane ought to be practised and that other aforesaid meanes are not so sufficient well to establish a tyrannie For Povertie saith he is no sufficient meane to containe a people in obedience for they are never unfurnished of armes And though they should take them from them and should sley their cheefetaines yet that would not suffice because the anger and furie of the people would furnish them with sufficient armes and that cheefetaines would arise unto them like Hydra her heads But I will not stay long in the confutation of this Maxime but onely I will say this That experience makes us wise and that the invention of Citadels which in our time princes have builded against their subjects hath been cause of infinit evils For all commerce and traffique hath been and is greatly diminished in townes where they have been builded and there have beene and are committed infinit insolencies by souldiors against citizens and there neither hath come nor will come to princes which have builded them other good than great expences and evill will of their subjects For this construction of Citadels is an apparent shew that the prince trusteth not his subjects but especially when they are builded any other where than in the limits and borders of kingdomes and countries against strangers When the subjects know that their prince distrusteth them they also esteeme that hee loveth them not And when the subject is not beloved of his prince he cannot also love him and not loving him hee obeyes him not but as constrained and in the end will get his head out of the yoke as soone as there will fall out a fit occasion Here is the profite of Citadels Yet I will say this by the way That our Machiavelists of Fraunce which were authors and enterprisers of the massacres of S. Bartholmew read not well this place The Machiavelists of France doe not alwayes follow their master of Machiavell which
wee come to alledge For they said That men must not stay upon fishing for froggs but men must catch in their nets the great Salmons that one Salmons head was more worth than tenne thousand froggs and that when they had slaine the cheefetaines of pretended rebels that they should easily overthrow the rude and rascally multitude which without heads could enterprise nothing These venerable enterprisers should have considered that which here their Doctor Machiavell saith which also since they have seen by experience That a people cannot want heads which will alwayes rise up yea even those heads which bee slaine If they had so well noted practised this place of Machiavell as they do others so much blood would never have ben shed their tyrannie it may be had longer endured than it hath done For the great effusion of blood which they have made hath incontinent cried for vengeance to God who according to his accustomed justice hath heard the voice of that blood and for the crie of the orphant and widdow hath laid the axe to the root of all tyrannie and alreadie hath cut away many braunches thereof and if it please him will not tarry long to lay all on the ground and so establish Fraunce in his auncient government As for Fortresses in frontiers of countries they have been long time practised and are profitable to guard from incursions and invasions of enemies and to the end such as dwell upon the borders may the more peaceably enjoy their goods Wee reade That the emperour Alexander Severus gave his Fortresses upon frontiers to Lamprid. in Alex. Pomp. Laetus in Constant Magno good and approoved captaines with all the lands and revenewes belonging unto them to enjoy during their lives to the end saith Lampridius that they might be more vigilant and carefull to defend their owne And afterward the emperour Constantine the Great ordained That the said Fortresses with their grounds and revenewes should passe to the heires of the said captaines which held them as other manner of goods and heritages And hereupon some say have come such as the civile law call Feudi 34. Maxime A Prince ought to commit to another those affaires which are subiect to hatred and envie and reserve to himselfe such as depend upon his grace and favour A Prince vvhich vvill exercise some cruell and rigorous act saith cap. 7. 14. of a prince M. Nicholas he ought to give the commission thereof unto some other to the end he may not acquire evill vvill and enmitie by it And yet if he feare that such a delegation cannot bee vvholly exempted from blame to have consented to the execution which was made by his Commissarie he may cause the Commissarie to be slaine to shew that he consented not to his crueltie as did Caesar Borgia and Messire Remiro Dorco THis Maxime is a dependancie of that goodly doctrine which Machiavell learned of Caesar Borgia which although it was very cruell yet meaning to appeare soft and gentle following therein the Maxime which enjoyneth dissimulation committeth the execution of his crueltie to Messire Remiro Dorco as at large before wee have discoursed that hystorie And because we have fully shewed that all dissimulation and feignednesse is unworthie of a prince we will stay no longer upon this Maxime Well will I confesse that many things there be which seeme to be rigorous in execution although they be most equall and just which it is good a prince doe commit to others to give judgement and execution by justice as the case meriteth For as the emperour Marcus Antonine said It seemeth to the world that that which the prince doth hee doth it by his absolute authoritie and power rather than of his civile and reasonable power Therefore to shun that blame and suspition it is good that the prince delegate and set over such matters to Iudges which are good men not suspected nor passionate not doing as the emperour Valentinian did who would never heare nor receive accusations against Iudges and Magistrates which hee had established but constrained the recusators or refusers to end their cause before those Iudges only Whereby he was much blamed and his honor impeached and disgraced For truly the cheefe point which is required to cause good Passionate Iudges cannot judge well justice to be administred is That Iudges be not suspected nor passionat because the passions of the soule and heart doe obfuscate and trouble the judgement of the understanding and cause them to step aside and stray out of the way It is also a thing of very evill example when a prince with an appetite of revenge or to please the passions of revengefull great men dooth elect Iudges and Commissaries that bee passionate and which have their consciences at the command of such as employ them As was done in the time of king Lewis Hutin in the judgement of Messire Enguerrant de Marigni great master of Fraunce and in the time of king Charles the sixt in the judgement of the criminall processe of Messire Iean de Marests the kings Advocate in the parliament of Paris And a man may put to them the judgements given in our time against Amie du Bourg the kings Counsellor in the said parliament and against captaine Briquemand and M. Arnand de Cavagnes master of the Requests of the kings houshold and against the countie de Montgomerie and many others For the executions to death which followed manifested well That the Iudges were passionate men their consciences being at the command of strangers which governed them 35. Maxime To administer good Iustice a Prince ought to establish a great number of Judges TO have prompt and quicke expedition of good Iustice saith Machiavell many Iudges must be established for few can dispatch Discourse lib. 1. cap. 7. few causes and a small number is more easie to gaine and be corrupted than a great number And vvithall a great number is strong and firme in Iustice against all men EXperience hath made us wise in France that this Maxime of Machiavell is not true For since they multiplied the Officers of Iustice Multiplicitie of Officers cause of the corruption of â—ustice in Fraunce in the kingdome by the encrease of Counsellours in parliaments by erection of Presidents seats by creation of new or alternative Officers we have processes and law causes more multiplied longer and worse dispatched than before insomuch as by good right and by good reason the last Estates generall held at Orleance complained to king Charles the ninth of that multiplication and multitude of Officers which served not as it doth not yet but to multiplie law causes to ruinate and eat up the people and yet no better expedition of Iustice than before but rather worse and notoriously more long and of greater charges to the parties Vpon which complaint it was holily ordained That offices of Iustice which became vacant by death should bee suppressed and that none should come in their
inferiour Iudges can hardly judge evill unlesse they erre either in Fact or Right from which they shall guard themselves if supreme Iudges performe well their duties by not sparing the personall adjornaments against such as by grosse ignorance doe erre in Right or which by the negligent inspection into their causes do erre in Fact And assuredly if such Iudges have good Censors which will marke their faults and will reproove and correct them Iustice shall bee as well administred by one alone in every inferiour seat as by many But our soveraigne Iudges are glad of the faults of their inferiours For their evill judgements brings the greater practise unto them to fill their purses to pay for their Offices to glut their avarice and to furnish the unmeasurable pompes of themselves and their wives So that to Iustice the same happeneth which dooth to an humane bodie For when the head is whole it will purvey and provide for the necessities and maladies of the members and seeke out all things fit for that purpose but when the head is diseased all the members feele it So the corruption which is in parliaments makes that all Iustice in inferiour courts is depraved and corrupted I resolve then against the saying of Machiavell That it were better that ther were but one person in every estate or degree of inferior justice than a great multiplicitie of Officers but my meaning is not to stretch this unto soveraigne Iustice but contrarie I thinke that it is good and necessarie that judgement bee executed by more than one person namely by a meane number of good and well chosen men For a judgement given by a notable companie hath more waight and gravitie as a soveraigne judgement ought to have than that which comes from one alone Also because a soveraigne judgement may sometimes take his foundation upon the pure and simple equitie which sometimes directly repugneth the locall customes ordinances and lawes written it is good and necessarie that equitie bee juged to bee equitie by the braine and judgement of many and it is not meete that one alone should take upon him that great licence to depart from authentike and received lawes to follow his owne opinion which hee will call equitie For that should bee as it were to give power to every particular Iudge to judge after his fantasie against received and approoved right and so to suffer to passe under the name of equitie huge iniquitie Since then none may easily and without great reason depart from received and approoved lawes it followeth that none may easily also induce an equitie against the said lawes unlesse to induce it hee use great and deliberate consideration and examination and doe well ponder the circumstances consequences by a good and experimented judgement which one alone cannot doe except hee bee of some exceeding invention knowledge and experience and of a good and sound judgement such a one as can hardly bee found Therefore it is much better to commit to many not to every one but unto such as are well chosen that power to induce equitie against received lawes than to one alone Besides this it appertaineth unto soveraigne judges to examine the new edicts and lawes of princes to marke and note if there be any thing hard in them which it were good to mitigate and lenifie which they must either themselves doe before they allow or divulge them or else must they signifie to the prince a cause why they approove them not This one alone can never so well doe as many how great and wise so ever hee bee because the spirit of one man alone is not capable to see and comprehend all the particular cases which may bee applied to the matter of an edict neither in memorie or cogitation can hee comprehend whatsoever absurditie incommodity or iniquitie can bee in a law But many casting and discoursing in their mindes every thing one foreseeing one thing and another another by examining and disputing upon the matter may the better perceive and comprehend the law and inconveniences thereof For it is not to bee doubted but that by the dispute of learned and sufficient men which doe examine by a good judgement reasons contrarie likely conjuncts and adjuncts of every thing may farre better comprehend the difficulties and in commodities of a edict than by the reasoning of one alone The manner which the Romanes anciently observed in the making of new lawes shewes this for they which proposed and preferred them were commonly men of good spirit great judgement and experience in the affaires of the common weale but yet every man great and small was heard to contradict that law which was proposed yea sometimes it was found and often that a base person of small estimation which had neither great knowledge nor experience yet hath noted in that law absurdities and inconveniences which were causes of rejection or at the least of moderating and correcting it Againe for that soveraigne judges are as it were censors and correctors of of inferior judges it is very requisit that they bee many in number because it will seeme hard for a magistrate to bee corrected by one alone unto whom it may be hee would not give place in any thing either in good knowledge or experience Finally because corruption is more to be feared in soveraigne judges which have none above them to correct their faults than in subalterne and inferiors who themselves may bee corrected therefore it is requisit that soveraigne judges bee in number for many are more uneasie to bee corrupted than one alone I confesse then in the soveraigne degree of justice of a prince it is good and expedient that hee have a sufficient number of persons to exercise it provided alwaies the number be not too great and unbrideled for the qualitie is therein more requisit than the quantitie The like is to bee of the kings Counsell where it is good and requisit there bee many heads as we have said in another place For confirmation of my saying I will alledge no other thing than the example of our ancestors For in the time and before king Lewis the twelfth inferior Officers were not many in one seate and degree of justice for there was but one in every seate thereof to administer it namely a Provost or ordinarie judge in the first degree a lieutenant generall or bayliffe as they call him or steward in the second degree but in soveraigne courts of Parliaments and the great Counsell they were many yet not in so great number as they bee at this day But seeing wee are in hand with meanes to establish a good justice I will touch therein some small points which I have marked in histories Wee must then presuppose Good Iustice consisteth in good lawes and good Magistrates that to cause good Iustice to bee administred a prince must needes have good lawes and create good Magistrates and Officers As for lawes some concerne the decision of matters and other the
formalitie of processe Touching such as concerne the decision of matters it seemeth well that there hath beene sufficiently provided by the locall custome of every countrey and by the right or law written Well might it bee desired that the doctrines of the docters of the civile and cannon law were well chosen and the good set a part and authorised For though in judgements wee can hardlie lacke them yet are they so confused and wrapped with contrarie opinions that they which hope to finde in the doctors gloses and commentaries the solution of some doubtfull question doe often fall into inexplicable laborinthes and for treasure doe finde coales Which would not come to passe if the good doctrines which often come in use and which are founded upon reason and equitie were separated and distinguished from the troupe and mixture of those doctors writings And touching lawes which concerne the formalitie and conduction of processe and litigations it seemes to mee there hath beene sufficient provision in France by Royall ordinances But it seemes not to bee sufficient that a prince make good lawes well and rightly to conduct and leade to the end the processes and contentions of subjects but it wil bee very requisit and necessarie that hee make lawes to prohibit and hinder the birth of these processes and contentions for otherwise good Iustice and readie expedition of causes shall indirectly serve for an occasion to increase and multiplie because men will bee made prompt and voluntarie to move actions when they are assured to have speedie and good Iustice So that to shunne this and to make that the thing which of it selfe is good and holy bee neither cause nor occasion of evill it shall bee as I have said very requisit to have good lawes to hinder the birth and originall of contentions wherein it seemes to mee that the said Royall ordinances are defectuous and maimed So is there great neede of some Licurgus or Solon to make those said laws mens wits are so wilde and their spirits so mervaisously plentifull and fertill to bring forth contentions and differences and so easily to discent one from another yet notwithstanding I thinke not that it is impossible something though not altogether to represse this arising and secunditie of law causes but because it will bee too long now to discourse wee will reserve it for another time But it is nothing to have good lawes if there bee not withall good magistrates for their execution for the magistrate is the soule of the law who gives it force vigour action and motion and without whom the law is but a dead and an unprofitable thing A good magistrate then is a most excellent thing yea the most excellent in the world yea he is a very rare thing at the least in his time yet might there bee sufficient in a mediocritie if they were well chosen and sought for But now the first that payeth most is received without any care to chuse the fittest Dion writeth That the emperor Caius Caligula had an horse called Velocissimus which he so much loved that he made him often to dine and sup at his table and caused him to be served with barley in a great vessell of gold and with wine in great caldrons of gold also Not contented thus to honour his Velocissmus hee determined with himselfe to advance him unto estates and offices and to the goverment of the commonwealth Caligula would make his horse a consul of Rome and so resolved to make him Consull of Rome and had done it saith Dion if hee had not beene prevented by death The Machiavellistes of this time which reade this in Dion can well say that this was an act of a sencelesse and mad man to give such an estate to a beast Yet doe they finde it good at this day to give estates to as sencelesse beasts more dangerous than Velocissimus was for if the worst had falne if Velocissimus had beene created Consull of Rome hee could have done no other harme to the commonwealth nor to particulars unlesse it had beene a blow with his foote to such as had saluted him too nigh but hee would never have made any extortions pillings or other abuses which the beasts of our time commit which are placed in Offices And this is it which Horace saith That wee mocke him which is evill favouredly powled and him that weareth a rent shirt under a silke coate or Epist 1. lib. 1 that hath his gowne on the one side long and on the other short but he is not mocked who wasteth great goods riotouslie who overthroweth right and committeth infinit sinnes and abuses in his charge men will peradventure say hee doth evill but not that hee ought to bee punished How many Offices bee there in France more fit for Velocissimus than for them which hould them And that which is least perilous every man doth laughat but this which is most dangerous to a commonweale no man dare so much as say it ought to bee amended much lesse corrected For there is a simple beastlinesle and ignorance and a malitious beastlinesse and ignorance The simple ignorance is like to that of Velocissimus which can doe neither good nor evill but malitious beastlinesse and ignorance is a beastly ignorance of all good and right things but of a great capacitie to hould all vices and wickednesse such as our Machiavellistes If then a man must needes choose one of the two who sees not that it were more expedient to choose a simple beastlinesse Can any then denie but it were better to have for a magistrate Velocissimus than some of our Machiavellists or our Office-cheators which comes by retaile unto that which they bought in grosse But the prince who resolves with himselfe to establish good Magistrates without which hee can have no good justice though his lawes bee the best in the world he must consider and note many things both in particular persons and in bodies in generall for hee should take notice what an office it is for which hee should provide an officer and accordingly seeke a person whose vertue and sufficiencie may be Proportion geometricall to bee observed in providing of Officers Aristo lib. 1. Ethniks correspondent and equall unto the functions of that estate For a farre greater sufficiencie is required in a President than in a Counsellor and in a Councellor than in an inferiour Iudge and in a Iudge than in a Chatellaine or castle guarder Heere it is where ought to bee observed the Geometricall proportion whereof Aristotle speaketh by giving to the most fittest and sufficientest the greatest estate to them which are meanely fit meane offices and estates and the least to such as are least sufficient This it is which Fabius Maximus shewed to the Romane people when they would needs create Consulls two yong lords that is Titus Octacilius Fabius his nephew Aemilius Regillus when Anniball made warre in Italie Masters said hee if wee had peace
in Italie or that wee had warre heere against a lesser captaine than Anniball so that there were place to amend and correct a fault when it were made wee would not hould him well advised that would hinder your election and as it were withstand your libertie But in this warre against Anniball wee have made no fault but it hath cost us a great and perillous losse therefore am I of advice that you doe elect Consulls which match Anniball For as wee would that our people of warre were stronger than our enemies so ought wee to wish that our heads and cheefetaines of warre were equall to them of our enemies Octacilius is my nephew who espoused my sisters daughter and hath children by her so that I have cause to desire his advancement But the commonwealthes utilitie is more deere unto mee And withall that no other hath greater cause than my nephew not to charge himselfe with a waight under which hee should fall The Romane people found his reasons good therefore revoked their election and by a new suffrage elected Fabius himselfe and gave him for a companion Marcellus which assuredly were two great and sage captaines This rule to elect magistrates equall to every charge above all ought to bee well practised in the election of soveraigne judges for after they have judged if they have committed a fault it cannot but very hardly be repaired so that the reason which Fabius alledged having place in the election of soveraigne judges the provision which followed it meriteth well to bee drawne into an example and consequence for the good and utilitie of the princes subjects The particular qualities required in a Magistrate cannot better nor more briefely Particular qualities required in a Magistrate bee described than by the counsell which Iethro gave to Moses For hee advised him to elect people fearing God true and hating covetousnesse Surely this counsell is very briefe for words but in substance it comprehendeth much For first the Magistrate which shall feare God will advise to exercise his Office in a good conscience Exod. cap. 18. and after the commandements of God and above all things will seeke that God bee honoured and served according to his holy will and will punish â—uch as do the contrary If the Magistrate feare God hee will love his neighbour as himselfe because God so willeth and by consequent he will guard himselfe from doing in the exercise of his estate any thing against his neighbor which he would not should be done against himselfe Briefely hee will in a booke as it were write all his actions to make his account to that great Lord and master whose feare hee hath in him Secondly if the Magistrate bee veritable and a lover of truth it will follow that in the exercise of his Office as well in civile as criminall matters hee will alwaies seeke out the truth and shut his eares to impostures and lies of calumniators and slanderers which is no small vertue wherein Iudges often erre Also a magistrate that loveth truth by consequent shall bee of sufficiencie knowledge and capacitie to exercise his estate for Ignorance and Truth are no companions because Truth is no other thing but light and Ignorance darkenesse And for the last point If the Magistrate hate covetousnesse hee will not onely guard himselfe from practising it but also he will correct it in others and by cutting of this detestable vice the root of all evill he shall keepe downe all other vices which be like rivers proceeding from this cursed and stinking spring And as wee see that the covetousnesse of wicked magistrates is cause of the length of law causes because they have a desire that the parties which plead before them should serve their turnes as they say as a cow for milke whereby it followeth that the poore people are pilled and eaten even to the bones by those horseleaches Also contrarie when the Magistrate hateth covetousnesse hee will dispatch and hasten Iustice to parties and not hould them long in law neither pill and spoile them a thing bringing great comfort and help to the people Briefely then if these three qualities which Iethro requireth in Magistrates and Officers of Iustice were well considered by the prince in such sort as he would receive none into an Office of Iustice who feared not God loved not veritie and hated covetousnesse certainelie Iustice would bee better administred to his great honour and the utilitie of his subjects I will not say that amongst the Paynims there were Magistrates which had the true feare of God for none can have that without knowing him and none can truly know him but by his word whereof the Paynims were ignorant yet were there Paynims which had the other two parts which Iethro required in a Magistrate When Cato the elder was sent governour lieutenant general for the Romanes into the Isle Titus Livius lâ—b 2. Dec. 4. of Sardaigne hee found that the people of the countrey had alreadie a custome for many yeeres before to expend and bestow great charges at the receit and for the honour of all the governours which were sent from Rome hee found also through all that countrey a great companie of bankers and usurers which ruinated and eate out the people by usuries As soone as hee was arived in his goverment he cassed and cut off this and would not suffer them at his arrivall to bee at any charge for his entertainment Hee also drave out of the countrey at once all the said bankers and usurers without any libertie given them to stay upon condition to moderate their usuries which some found hard and evill thinking that it had beene better to have given to these bankers and usurers a meane to their usuries beyond which they might not passe than altogether to take from them the meane to give and take money to profit a thing seeming prejudiciall to commerce and trafficke But so much there wanted that Cato stayed not upon these considerations beleeving that the permission of a certaine might easilie be disguised and perverted and that men which bee subtill in their trade might easily in their contracting and accompting make them lay downe eight for ten or twelve for fifteene Briefely Cato governed himselfe so in his estate and government that the fame of his reputation was of an holy and innocent person Hee was in all matters assuredly a brave man hee was a good souldiour a good lawyer a good orator cunning both in townes and in rurall affaires proper in time Titus Liviuâ— lib. 9. Dec. 4. of peace and as proper in time of warre a man of severe innocencie and who had a tongue that would spare no mans vices even publikely to accuse them as indeed in all his life hee never ceased to accuse vicious and evill living people to make them bee condemned by Iustice and especially in his age of nintie yeeres hee accused one Sergtus Galba This man stepped one day forward to demaund the
Office of Censor which was an Office very meete for him because he delighted more to blame and reprehend the vices of men than praise their vertues In the pursute of this Office of Censor hee had many competitors which also demanded this estate not so much for the desire they had to have it For they did well forsee that if Cato were Censor hee would practise a rigorous Censorship and that he would disgrade many Officers and Magistrates as this lay in the Censors power which were far from good And this which feared them most was that Cato himselfe as hee sued for that Office said openly that if hee were chosen Censor hee would bring to their tryall an heape of vitious corrupted Magistrates and would reforme offices by redusing them into the first forme and disgrading inculpable and unworthie officers and that they which opposed themselves to the pursute heereof did it for no other cause but because they feared the touch Bâ—iefely hee did so much that not onely hee was elected Censor but also gave him for a companion in his Censorship Lucius Valertus whom he demanded because he was like humorous as himselfe These two being Censors they failed not to remove many out of their places for they cassiered many Senators and Magistrates yea such as were of great houses and nobilitie They caused their houses to bee demolished and overthrowen which had builded on publike ground They caused divers ponds and lakes to be paved which were full of mudde and durt and to repurge all the gutters sinkes and jakes of the citie They greatly heightened and raised the farmes of the commonwealth hands which before had beene held at a low price by persons which by complots and intelligences had let them out farre dearer Briefely they administred a very lowable and profitable Censorship whereupon Cato was surnamed Censorius Would to God wee had at this day such men and that princes would employ them for the commonwealth stands in great need so to bee purged of so many evills and corruptions as doe infect and ruinate it King Charlemaine and S. Lewis may in this place serve for examples to all kings Annales upon Anno 809. and 2253. and princes For we reade That these two good kings true lovers of good Iustice performing the Office of good Censors sent often in their time commissiaries and enquestors through all provinces to bee informed against the abuses of Magistrates and such as they found in fault and did not well observe all edicts and ordinances they were rigorously punished Insomuch as during their raignes Iustice was exceeding well administred to the great help and comfort of the people The prince ought also in his election of Magistrates to advise himselfe well to chuse officers which in judgement will have no respect of persons For the Magistrate ought to yeeld right egally to the poore as the rich according to the merit of the cause and not after the desert of persons From the beginning of the Romane commonwealth they had either none or few lawes written to end contentions differences amongst them but Iudges ought to haâ—e no acception of persons they were ended as seemed good to Magistrates which alwaies gave a coulour to their sentences by certaine decrees and judgements which they said had ben before given in like cases By this palliation and deceit saying that they had been so before judged they administred Iustice after their owne fantasies yea in such sort as they almost Dion Halic lib. 10. alwaies carried away the gaining of the cause for Magistrates which were at their command supported and favoured them The meanest sort of people perceiving that under coulour of former judgements they were abused and so that they almost alwaies lost their causes against the great men of the citie many beganne to quarrell and complaine Insomuch as that the Tribunes publikely proposed that it was necessarie there were ten potentates elected in the place of two Consuls to administer the commonwealth and write lawes ordinances wherby from thence forward the differences and law controversies might bee decided and not after the fantasies and former judgements of Iudges Magistrates The great men after their custome opposed themselves against this Heereupon there arose a great stirre and sedition within the towne of Rome which neither the Consuls nor Senate could any Good Iustice cause of peace evill cause of Sedition way appease But at the new creation of Consuls it happened that Lucius Quintius who dwelt in the fields in a little husbandry hee had was elected Consul and sent for to his village where they found him at his ploughes taile ploughing his finall possessions This good person was honourably brought as soveraigne Magistrate into the towne as soone as hee was arrived hee beganne to exercise his estate and to administer justice to every man as well poore as rich without respect or exception of persons He in a little time dispatched all ould causes which had long hanged in suspence by the meanes of prorogations which rich men made and behaved himselfe so discreet and just in the handling of all causes as he was generally esteemed a good and equall judge Hee abode all day in the pallace to heare and dispatch causes and hee gave audience to every man very patiently and benignely and used speedie and good Iustice to one and others indifferently having no regard to persons but to the merits and to the Iustice of the cause then in the question onely By this meanes Quintius brought to passe that not onely the great men were no more suspected judges to the meanest but also Iustice was so agreeable and plausible to the people that the sedition ceased and all the people were appeased so that none demanded any more to have new lawes whereby to judge causes but every man greatly contented himselfe to have for a law so good and equall a judge and Magistrate And surely there is nothing in the world which sooner ceaseth seditions and stirres nor that better maintaineth publike peace and tranquilitie than a good Iustice administred by good and equall Magistrates But on the contrary a wicked Iustice is often cause of uproares insurrections and civile warres as poore France can say at this day The example of both these cases appeared certaine yeeres after Quintius was Dion Halic lib. 10. 11. out of his magistracie for they which succeeded him had not that grace nor dexteritie well to administer Iustice insomuch as the Tribunes tooke up againe their determination to create ten Potentates to write lawes and ordinances after which men might bee judged in all causes And indeede the Senate as it were constrained accorded to this creation there were chosenten Potentates which with great deliberation composed the lawes of the twelve Tables which were found very good and equall and not onely they proposed and made in publike places the said lawes and engraved them in Tables of brasse but which more is
they certaine times administred Iustice to every man after these lawes with great uprightnesse and equitie And amongst other Potentates there was Appius Claudius who shewed himselfe very soft and affable to the meanest people and heard them patientlie and did them very good and speedie Iustice so that the people made no account of the Tribunes thinking they needed not to runne unto the Tribunes for help since Appius alone performed not onely the Office of a good Iudge but also of a Tribune to sustaine the good right of the meane people But this good Iustice endured but a yeere for the second yeere the said Potentates being made to continue but for a yeere in their estates resolved altogether so to remaine without ever despoiling themselves of that Office And to gaine people to their faction they beganne to doe Iustice cleane contrarie to that of the first yeere using favour and subornation alwaies giving sentence to the profit of them which were on their side to sustaine their tyrannie By this meanes they drew many persons to bee of their factions and wrought a great partialitie within the towne of Rome some houlding for the ten Potentates others against them But in the end their imperious and tyrannicall arrogancie towards one and others was the cause that the partialized people accorded and great and little set themselves all on one side against them wherupon fell their totall ruine insomuch as the first yeare of their estate by their good Iustice they brought and maintained a good peace in the citie but in the second yeare by their evill and wicked justice they reduced all into troubles and confusions within the citie Vnto this example of the tenne Potentates might we compare the wicked partiall and venale Iustice which hath raigned in France since fifteene yeares which is and hath bene the principall cause and as it were the nurse of all troubles and seditions and that little of good Iustice which wee see to shine as a lightening which soone passeth away after the first troubles in Provence when the President de Morsen and certain Counsellors were sent thither For the little good Iustice which they did in that quarter in so little time as they remained there was the cause that the people of Provence which naturally are very hot and furious carried and guided themselves in the other following troubles more modestly than any other of the French nation We have before said That Quintius patiently heard all them which demaunded justice of him which is a point that all Iustices and Magistrates ought well to observe For according to the right of nations and of naturall equitie none ought to be condemned without being heard In the time that the Tarquins were chased from Rome they underhand practised many citizens by promises and otherwise to commit a treason to the commonwealth and to establish Tarquin the Proud in his estate The corrupted citizens procured to them many slaves of the best sort of citizens by promises of libertie and other good recompences insomuch as all the hired people being in a very great number concluded upon a secret conspiration that the said citizens should one night seize upon the strongest places of the towne and that the said slaves should sley their masters in their beds as soon as they should hear a noice that should be made through the towne for a watchword and this being done some should goe and open the gates to the Tarquins There were two brethren Marcus and Publius Laurentius which were of this conjuration these many times were tormented in their beds in sleepe by hideous and fearefull dreames this made them go to their Divines to know from whence these dreames proceeded The Divines told them they proceeded from some wicked enterprise which they had in their heads which they could not well bring about it were good they left off that they might be no more tormented with such dreames This was the cause that the two brethren discovered all the conspiration to Servius Sulpitius one of the Consuls Sulpitius saw an evident and nigh perill to the commonwealth if suddainly it were not provided for yet did he not thinke it good to deale in the punishment of the culpable before they were well vanquished and plaine matters averred against them as our Machiavelists of this time doe which take law against men after they have slaine them but secretly communicated the fact to the Senat. The Senat referred to him to proceed in that matter as he thought fittest for the utilitie and conservation of the common-weale Sulpitius considering then that amongst the conspirators there were many great persons and well allied and that he might reape great envie and hatred if hee caused any to die without an open conviction of the fact hee resolved to bring the cause to a cleare and evident proofe He then tooke such order as the strong places of the citie were guarded by good men on a certaine night assigned and so sent to Tullius Longus his companion in the Consulship who then besieged the towne of Fidenes that he should come to Rome with a good part of his armie and he dealt so as he arrived nigh the gates at the houre of midnight at the night assigned and that there he should stay til Sulpitius sent him word This done he gave charge to the two brethren Laurentines which had discovered the enterprise unto him to advertise their complices as from the side of the Tarquins to execute their desseigne that night and that they all should meet in the market place the better to know what every man should doe This was so done insomuch as the conjurators being altogether assembled in the publicke market the Consull Longus was assigned to enter into the towne with all his forces and so in the market place were all the conjurators environned and wrapped in by the good order that Sulpitius had taken so that they were all by this meanes convicted of the fact insomuch as none of their parents or allies could denie the crime This was the cause that every man said after when it came to the punishment of the conspirators that it were a good deed to punish them and that Sulpitius had well performed his dutie Breefely by this cleare evident proofe which Sulpitius drew out of this conspiration he obtained great honour and praise whereas hee should have heaped upon himselfe great envie and evill will of the allies and parents of such as were culpable if he had caused them to be executed without great and evident verification of the crime Helpidius also lieutenant of Iustice at Rome in the time of the emperor Constantius Am. Marcel lib. 21. A Iudge ought to feare to offend his conscience shewed himselfe a good and sincere Iudge For being commaunded by the emperour to racke and torment a poore accused person he would never doe it because he found no matter nor sufficient proofes against him to do it but humbly besought the emperour
rather to discharge him of his Office than constraine him to doe a thing against his conscience The prince then which will make a good election of magistrates ought to take care to chuse persons which like Cato will not winke at vices and which will patiently heare parties and judge equally as did Quintius which will be diligent well to draw out the truth of the fact before he give judgement upon any as did Sulpitius which may be such persons as feare to offend their consciences like Helpidius And briefly that they be fearers of God lovers of truth not covetous according to Iethro his counsell Thus doing hee need not feare to have his justice well ruled and holily administred He must take heed he doe not like the emperour Tiberius who gave his Offices to great drinkers and gourmandizers taking pleasure to see a man tunne up much wine and viands into his bellie Neither ought hee to imitate the example of Suet. in Tib. cap. 42. Aâ— Marcel lib. 23 27. the emperour Iulian the Apostata who for a Iudge one time gave to the towne of Alexandria in Aegypt a most cruell and turbulent man And when it was told him that this Iudge was a man very unwoorthie of such an Office I know nor sayth hee how unworthie he is but because the Alexandrians be turbulent and covetous persons I will give them a like Iudge which may deale with them after their merits This was a very inconsiderate part of this emperour to give a wicked magistrate to a corrupted people for their amendment for that is as if one should give unto a diseased person a wicked physician to heale him There was the like fact committed in our time by the Machiavelists but no marvaile if Atheists follow the traces of an Apostata for the one is as good as the other Neither ought the prince also to doe as the emperor Valentinian who constrained the parties to subject themselves to the judgment of suspected Iudges to bee their enemies For all these said emperours were greatly blamed by authors of their time and are yet by all hystories for their so evill choise of unworthie men in Offices which rather they ought to have recoiled and dejected as many other emperors did which for farre lesse causes have cassierd and dispatched them out of their Offices as some have written That Augustus Caesar cassierd a magistrate as ignorant and incapable because hee writ Ixi in place of Ipsi And Vespasian cassierd another because he perfumed himselfe smelled of muske saying he would have loved him better if he had smelled of Garlicke And Domitian cassierd another because he delighted in dauncing and puppet playes for Domitian although otherwise very wicked had this good in him that he caused wel to be chastised all such as our Machiavelists are at this day Likewise also Fabricius Censor cassierd out of the Senate Cornelius Rufinus Senator because hee had vessels of silver weighing tenne marks which at this time comes to 40 crownes But I leave you to thinke if they would not then have rigorously punished such as doe spoile and eate the people which sell Iustice or which commit like abuses which at this day are manifestly tollerated in France since they cassierd men out of their Offices for farre lighter causes as to faile in the orthographie of a word to smell of a perfume to daunce to have plate of the value of tenne pound for these things seeme not to be great faults but at this time men do rather make vertues of them But it is not ynough that a prince make good election of his Officers and Magistrates by the consideration of each mans particular vertues but also in seats where he must needs establish many Iudges together hee ought to take good advisement well â—o compose the bodie of that assembly by considering the qualities required to give a good harmonie and temperature to all the bodie And for this purpose hee ought to compose and temper it of persons of divers estates and divers countries as for example A parliament and judgement seat which ought to bee composed of many ought not to be made of men all of the Nobilitie or of the Clergie or of the third estate but some of every estate Likewise it ought not to be composed of men all of one towne but they ought to bee taken from divers jurisdictions or diocesses And those two points have aunciently been observed in France according to royall ordinances so enjoyning But in the time wherein we are wee may adde by the like reason That in a parliament or the like seat they ought not all to be Catholike Romanes and none of the Reformed Religion For if the estate of the Clergie for the conservation of her priviledges hath well obtained that in all such places there be magistrates of the Clergie although they bee of the same religion in all points with the Catholike Lay-men why should they denie it to men of the profession of the Gospell To this purpose we reade That at Rome there was a time wherein there was many more knights in the assembly of Iudges soveraigne of causes than of Senators insomuch as by soveraigne judgement Publius Rutilius who was a good and sincere man was condemned to banishment because hee had repressed the excessive and undue exactions of Publicans in Asia being evill beloved of the knights which were the greater number of the assembly The Senatours disdaining and grieving at this wicked judgement stirred up Livius Drusus Tribune of the people at whose pursute there was a law made That from thence forward the Senatours and knights should be of a like number in the judgements of causes Which law was found good and profitable to the commonweale as by the contrary they found not good that law which before Caius Gracchus who also was a Tribune of the people would have caused to passe wherby he sought to these that in the judgement of causes there might be two knights against one Senator For herein there is no equalitie nor equitie and therefore by good reason that law was rejected yea and to the ruine of Gracchus who was slaine in the too earnest pursute of that law Iosaphat also king of Iudea after he had established good magistrates through the townes of his kingdome and expressely enjoyned them to execute good justice Paral. lib. 2. cap. 1410. Antiq. lib. 9. cap. 2. to every man without having any regard but to the feare of God and not to the riches nor the dignitie of persons finally established a seat like a parliament in the towne of Ierusalem composed of persons elected from all the lines and families of his kingdome as Iudges holding the degree of supreame jurisdiction unto which men might only appeale from the sentences of inferior Iudges The same temperature kept also the ancient Romanes in all sorts of their magistrates For they not only had of their nobilitie but also of their knights and of
they understood how they should administer as a captaine Niger lieutenant of the warre for the emperor Marcus Antonine complained to him But that incommoditie was much more supportable in that time than Spart in Nigro at this day it can bee in Fraunce for the Romane magistrates seldome decided private and particular causes but in Fraunce magistrates must deale in all causes After that the prince hath well established his justice as well by publication of A Prince ought himself to minister Iustice good lawes as by institution of good magistrates yet is he not discharged For he ought himselfe also to deale therin And this is another point of the Counsell which Iethro gave to Moses For after he had counselled him what magistrates hee should establish under him he added more That Moses ought to reserve unto himselfe the knowledge and decision of great affaires which are of consequence And assuredly this is a point very necessarie and which a prince ought not to leave behind for hee is debtor of Iustice to his subjects and ought to give them audience in things wherof he is to have necessarie knowledge for all things are not proper to bee handled before magistrates established by the prince but there are many things wherof the knowledge ought to appertaine to the prince alone as when a meane man wil complaine against some great lord or magistrat or against Publicans and exactors of the princes money or when a man labours for a pardon gift recompence and many other like The prince then ought himselfe either alone or in his Counsell to give often audience unto his subjects For we reade that by the primitive creation of kings Dionis Halic â—ib 1. 5. and monarchs the authoritie which was attributed unto them by the people consisted in three very notable points whereof the first was To minister good justice unto their subjects by causing them to observe the lawes and customes of the countrey and to take knowledge themselves of the injuries which are great and of consequence amongst their subjects The second point was To convocat an assembly of a Senat to handle the affaires of the commonwealth And the third To be the cheefetaine and soveraigne of the warre And for as much as the first dutie of kings consisteth to do good justice unto their subjects the auncient Grecians even Homer calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Distributers of justice This is it wherefore almost all good princes have had their ordinary daies of Audience wherin they took knowledge of the complaints and grievances of their subjects and administred right and justice unto them Iulius Caesar tooke great paine and travaile to heare causes and to administer justice and to cause them to observe lawes which concerned Suet. in Caesar cap. 43. in Aug. cap. 3 in Claud. cap. 15. in Galba cap. 7. 8 9. Domitiano cap 8. the commonwealth as especially the law Sumptuariam which would permit no excesse in bankets nor dissolutnesse in apparell Augustus Caesar likewise kept an ordinarie Audience which he continued untill night yea being evill at ease he in a litter would be carried to the pallace or hold Audience in his house The emperour Claudius also although hee were of an heavie and dull spirit yet held hee his Audience and administred right to parties So did Domitian who how wicked soever he was in other deportments with great industrie and diligence administred good justice unto parties and often revoked decrees from the Centumvirat seat which for favor were given and spared not to punish corrupted Iudges The emperour Galba likewise although he was of the age of threescore and twelve yeares when he came to the empire yet dealt with audience of parties and administred justice So did Traian Adrian the Antonines Severus Alexander and many other Romane emperors give Audience to their subjects and administred justice unto them And very memorable is that which is written of the emperor Adrian namely That one day as hee went into the fields he was required by a poore woman who had watched to speake with him to doe her justice upon a certaine complaint she made unto him The emperour very Dion in Adrian kindly said unto her That that was no place where she should require justice and sent her away till another time The woman replied upon him Sir said she if you wil not doe me justice wherefore deale you to be emperour Adrian was never moved hereat but staied still heard her did her justice If we read the hystories of France wee shall find that it hath yet beene more ordinarie and common with our auncient kings to hold Audiences which men called Lict de Iustice The Bed of Iustice than with the Romane emperours Charlemaigne king of Fraunce and emperour besides Annal. upoÌ„ Anno 809 814 1215. that he tooke great care that Stewards Bayliffes and their deputies should walk upright without abusing their Offices would also that they should reserve unto him all great causes or such as were amongst great lords Then caused hee the parties to appeare before him he heard them patiently and agreed them amiably if he could by any means and so he gave his sentence and good and prompt justice King Lewis the first of that name surnamed le Debonaire because of his good and holy conditions following the traces of Charlemaigne his father held a publicke Audience in his pallace three times in the weeke and heard the grievances and complaints of every one executing to all quicke and right justice But what good came there hereof Even this saith the hystorie that the publicke good in this good kings time was so well governed and administred that there was almost no man found amongst his subjects which complained that any man did him wrong or injurie but al men lived in great peace and prosperitie one not daring to offend another for the feare they had of the kings good justice which he would administer himselfe and so cause his ministers to doe after his example So much could that royall vertue of Iustice doe for the maintenance of peace and prosperitie in a kingdome King Philip Augustus surnamed the Conquerour for his great prowesses and conquests was also a good Iusticer and willingly heard the complaints of his subjects insomuch as one day understanding that Guy Counte de Auverne used greatly to pill and violently to spoile his subjects and neighbours exacting upon them great summes of money against their wils and without the kings consent their soveraigne and having found him culpable hereof condemned him by the advice of the barons of the realme to lose his land and seignorie of Auverne which from that time was united to the crown We may also place here the good justice of the kings Charles le Sage Charles the seventh Charles the eight Lewis the twelfth and of many other kings of France Annal. upon Anno 1255 1269 Gaguin in the liâ—e of S.
Lewis The good justice of Lewis which gave oedinarie audience to the complaints of their subjects and to doe them justice But it shall suffice to close up all this matter with the example of that good king S. Lewis who amongst other vertues wherewith he was endowed he was a very good and upright administer of justice This good king having a great zeale to establish a good Iustice in his kingdome first hee would and ordained That the good and auncient lawes and customes of the kingdome should be well and straitly observed upon the paine he would take of his Bayliffes Seneshals and other magistrates if they caused them not to bee well observed And to the end the said magistrates might carry themselves well in their offices he chose other officers the best that hee could find of which he secretly enquired of their vertues and vices And to the end they might administer good and breefe justice to the poore as to the rich without exception of persons he forbad them to take presents unlesse some present of victuall which may not exceed tenne shillings by the weeke nor any other benefites for them or their children neither of them which were in contention nor of any other person of their bailiwike and territorie and commaunded they should take nothing within their perfecture or jurisdiction For this good king considered that presents benefits and desire to gain are the means wherby magistrates may be corrupted and therfore to shun all corruption he must cut off the meanes therunto Moreover he very rigorously punished such officers of Iustice as abused their estates spared not even great lords themselves but punished them after their merits as happened to the lord de Coucy who caused to strangle two yong Flamins when he found them hunting in his woods For the king caused to be called before him the said lord who fearing to be handled as he had delt with the Flamins wold have taken the hearing of the cause from the king saying he was to be sent for before the peeres of France But the king forced him to abide his judgments indeed had made him die if great lords parents friends of the said lord de Coucy had not importuned so much the king for his pardon unto which the king accorded that he shold have his life but yet he condemned him to the warre against the Turks and Infidels in the holy land by the space of three yeares which was a kind of banishment and besides condemned him in a fine paiment of 10000 Paris pounds which were bestowed on the building of an Hostle Dieu at Ponthoise This king gave not easily any pardon nor without great deliberation And for a devise he had often in his mouth that verse of the Psalme of David Happie are they which doe iudgement and Iustice at all times He said also That this was no mercie but crueltie not to punish malefactors Moreover he was a king full of truth chast charitable and fearing God which are vertues exceeding woorthy for a good prince and which commonly accompanie good justice But the godly precepts hee The tenne commandemēts which the king S. Lewis at his disease gave to his eldest sonne gave being in extremitie of his life to king Philip the Hardie his sonne and successor doe well merit to be written in letters of gold upon the lintels of doores and the houses of all kings and Christian princes to have them alwaies before their eies My deare sonne saith he since it pleaseth God our Father and Creator to withdraw me now from this miserable world to carrie mee to a better life than this I would not depart from thee my sonne without giving you for my last blessing the doctrines and precepts which a good father ought to give to his sonne hoping you wil engrave in your heart these your fathers last words I command you then my deare sonne That above all things you have alwaies before your eies the feare of God our good Father for the feare of God is the beginning yea the accomplishment of all true wisedome if you feare him he will blesse you Secondly I exhort you to take all adversities patiently acknowledging that it is God which visiteth you for your sins not to wax proud in prosperitie accounting that it comes to you by Gods grace not by your merits Thirdly I recommend unto you charitie towards the poor for the good you doe unto them shall be yeelded unto you an hundred fold and Iesus Christ our Saviour shall account it done unto him After I recommend to you very straitly my deare sonne that you cause to keep well the good laws customes of the kingdome and to administer good justice to your subjects for happy are they which administer good justice at all times and to doe this I enjoine you that you be carefull to have good magistrates and command you them that they favor not your Procurators against equitie and that you rigorously punish such as abuse their Offices for when they make faults they are more punishable than others because they ought to govern other subjects and to serve them for an example Suffer not that in judgement there be acception of persons and so favour the poore onely as the truth of his fact doth appeare without favoring him as to the judgement of his cause Moreover I command you that you bee carefull to have a good Counsell about you of persons which be of staied good age which be secret peaceable not covetous for if you doe this you shall bee loved and honoured because the light of the servants makes their masters shine Also more I forbid you to take tallages or tributes upon your subjects but for urgent necessitie evident utilitie and just cause for otherwise you shall not bee held for a king but for a tyrant Further I command you that you be carefull to maintaine your subjects in good peace and tranquilitie and observe their franchises and priveledges which before they have enjoyed and take heede you moove no warre against any Christian without exceeding great occasion and reason Item I exhort you to give the benefices of your kingdome to men of good life and good conscience not to luxurious and covetous wretches My deere sonne if you observe these my commands you shall bee a good example to your subjects and you shall bee the cause that they will adict themselves to doe well because the people will alwaies give themselves to the imitation of their prince and God by his bountie maintaine you firme and assured in your estate and kingdome Thus finished this good king his last words full of holy zeale and correspondent to his life passed and yeelded his soule to his creator which had given it him His sonne king Philip third of that name called the Hardie because of his valiancie which he shewed against the infidels and against other enemies as well during the life as after the death of
them this hystorie of Dioclesian a man need not doubt but they will streight say he was a sot a beast to forsake his dignitie of an Emperor for such a cause and that he better deserved to be a gardiner than an Emperour But if they consider what was the end of Galba of Commodus of Bassianus and of many other Romane Emperous which by meanes of flatterers have had fearefull deaths they will not esteeme Dioclesian such a foole to withdraw himselfe to a privat habitation there to finish his dayes otherwise than by the hands of murderers Yet I must confesse that he might have done better to have put away from him all those pestilent flatterers and if to rid so many at once from the court there had been great perill in so great a change yet no doubt it was not impossible for him to have dispatched them by little and little one after another and then to have placed good people about him thereby to have strengthened himselfe It is then seene by the saying of Dioclesian that the Maxime of Machiavell is a It is a pernicious thing to hold the truth from the Prince true precept of flatterie and that there are no greater flatterers nor more pernitious than they that keepe close from Princes the truth of things as they passe And truly if the Prince have good Counsellors and servants by whom he may be well advertised of all truths which may concerne his estate and where he ought to provide and give rules although some lies by flatterers besowne amongst them yet can they not corrupt the good government of the Prince for truth hath alâ—aies of her selfe so great force as she causeth lies to vanish away as mists before the â—un so that alwaies they convert to smoke without effect if so bee the truth bee not hid in the Prince And withall flatterers and liers dare not open their mouthes fearing to bee discovered in their evill purposes when they know that the Prince hath nigh him good and wise men which will freely tell him the truth of all that concernes his estate and which are beloved and credited of him By the Civile laws he that knoweth any enterprise which tendeth to the domage L. quisquis C. ad Leg. Iul. Mai. of his Prince is bound to reveale it unto him upon paine himselfe to be held culpable of treason They then which are Counsellors and most especiall servants of a Prince which are in a more particular obligation unto their maisters service than other Subjects are ought not they to be reputed for traitors when they conceale the truth from the Prince of such things as pertaine to his charge and providence If any answer that all things for which the prince should provide import not his ruine being omitted I reply that it may be not his present ruine but yet at length For one fault and omission draweth an other after it and that an other and so by little and little the estate of the Commonwealth and by consequent the Prince fals into confusion And yet although the omission of providing in things where the Prince is bound to provide doe not import his ruine and destruction either present or at length yet it must needs alwaies import damage to the Prince or his subjects And in everie case it is the profit and interest of the Prince to give provision and rule therefore For there cannot come but good when subjects are well governed and that there is a good pollicie in all things Here may be damaunded Seeing the good Counsellors of a Prince are so necessarie Princes love flatterers wherefore and flatterers and evill Counsellors are so domigeable from whence commeth it that yet Princes are well attended on and garnished with flatterers and have few good Counsellors about them It seemeth that Maister Philip de Comines hath De Comines lib. 1. cap. 21. well hit this marke Saying that this comes to passe because Princes alwaies seeke such as feedes their owne humors and please them best and contemne such as are contrarie although they may be more profitable unto them For saith he such as have been nourished with a Prince or which are of his age or which can best order and dispose his pleasures or such as apply themselves unto his will are alwaies in his good grace and the first unto whom he disparteth and disperseth his authoritie and great Estates And a Prince never knowes how to chuse a wise man and of good counsell untill he find himselfe in some great necessitie and oftentimes hath most need of them which before he had despised as I have seene saith he of the Countie de Charoloies and king Edward of England But upon this point riseth yet another doubt Wherefore it is that flatterers doe rather please Princes than wise men Plutarch seemes unto me well to resolve this question when he saith That it proceedeth from this that naturally men but Plutar. de discr adul â— amici especially Princes do too much love themselves And love of ones selfe obfuscateth and blindeth judgement so that we can never truely judge that which we love From hence it followeth that when a flatterer tels his Prince many goodly things to his praise hee beleeves it and persuades himselfe that there are many praise able things in him although indeed there be nothing And there helpeth to this Dionis Hali. â—ib 9. persuasion that the flatterer alwaies takes for the subject of his prayses such vices as are in alliance and neighbourhood with their vertues For if the Prince be Sainct in Catel cruell and violent he will persuade him that he is Magnanimious and Generous and such an one as will not put up an injurie or despite If he be prodigall he will make him beleeve that he is liberall and magnificall that he maintaines an estate truly Royall and one that well recompenceth his servants If the Prince be over gone in lubricities and lusts he will say he is of an humane and manly nature of a Ioviall and merrie complection and of no Saturnine complection or condition If the Prince be covetous and an eater of his subjects he will say he is worthy to be a great Prince as he is because he knowes well how to make himselfe well obeyed Briefly the flatterer adornes his language in such sort that he will alwaies praise his Princes vice by the resemblance of some vertue nie thereunto For the most part of vices have alwaies some likenesse with some vertue The flatterer also on his part will not forget to cover his owne faults and vices with the visage and likenesse of some vertue nie unto them For he will cover his ambition with the zeale of the Commonweale and will say that for the Princes service and that the affaires of the Commonwealth might be well governed he accepted or pursued such an Estate or tooke on him such a charge which otherwise he would never have demaunded or
Commonwealth was almost utterly overthrowne and that Anniball was mounted into so great pride and hope to bee master thereof Concord then not Partialitie is profitable and healthfull to a commonwealth and to this purpose is verie memorable the oration of Fabius Maximus to the Romane Titus Livius lib. 10. Dec. 3. people Fabius being elected Consull which was the greatest magistracie in the Romane common weale five times and twise having had for his companion Publius Decius the people at this time would needs take for his companion Lucius Volumnius But the above said Fabius arose upon his feet and turning himselfe towards the people said My masters I have alreadie had in two Consulships for companion Publius Decius and wee have carried our selves together in a very good concord therefore I pray you to give mee him yet this time also in favour of my age which hardly can now accustome it selfe with any other companion You know that there is nothing more firme for the tuition of the commonweale than magistrates which accord well for every man will communicate his counsell more privately with him hee knoweth and who is of manners and conditions accordant with his owne than with another At this request of Fabius the people accorded unto him Decius for his companion yea and that with such joy and comfort as each man thought that from so good concord of two Consuls there could not proceede any thing but good and profit to the commonwealth The Romanes one day having no silver in their publike treasure to make warre which they then had on their armes the Senate gave charge to certaine Senators Titus Livius lib. 5. Dec. 1. to remonstrate to the people that each man should make them readie to doe their best for the defence of the common wealth and that none ought to abandon the defence of their counrrey for want of sould and payment of wages This was so well done as first the knights offered for nothing to serve the commonweale Incontinent after this offer made there runne to the pallace grear troupes of people to cause themselves to bee enrowled to march in warre without wages The abovesaid Senate caused and ordained that the colonels of souldiours as well foote as horsemen should assemble their regiments and by orations give them great thanks in the name of the Senate and of the commonwealth for this their good will freely to serve the commonweale which commission they all executed highly praising the generositie of the Romane souldiors Hereby all the world was taken with so great joy for this great concord and unanimitie of great and small to conserve the commonweale that every one wept for joy and cryed on high That assuredly the citie of Rome was most happie invincible and eternall by this concord That the knights were most brave men worthy of praises That the people were good and lowable and that the debonaritie and kindnesse of the Senate had beene vanquished by the prompt and voluntarie obedience of the people Here you may see what opinion the Romane people had of concord so farre were they off to thinke that Partialities were good But when wee say That concord is good necessarie and profitable for the conservation of the publike good I say not that heerein is meant that all persons which deale in the commonwealth ought of necessitie to bee of one humour of one vice and complection For rather contrary they must needes bee gentle and sharp affable and fierce severe and pittifull such as Appius and Publicola Catoes and Caesars For as in the Lute if the strings were all of one sound the harmonie were worth nothing but being of divers sounds tending to one melodie it prooves a pleasant and agreeable harmonie so in a commonweale or in a princes Counsell if all were of one humour and inclination their advices and government could not be good but beeing of divers natures yet tending to one end which is the common good their opinions shall alwaies bee better debated by divers and contrary reasons and by conclusions better taken and better digested This it is which Tullius Hostilius king of the Romans said to Suffetius dictator of the Albanois The Partialities saith Dion Halic lib. 3. he which thou reprochest unto us are profitable and not domageable to the commonwealth as thou saist For wee contend together who shall most profit it great or young ould or new citizens And because to maintaine a publike estate two things are necessarie Force in warre and Prudence in counsell wee will contend and debate upon them both who shall doe best and who shall shew himselfe most vertuous in warre and most prudent in counsell This Partialitie then which is in counsell when all men tend to the publike good are well according discordances which in the end make a very sweet harmonie I conclude then this matter with the saying of Comines That if a prince which is in peace maintaine Partialities amongst his subjects they will bring him into warr and if hee bee once in warre they will bring him unto ruine and confusion I conclude then That a prince above all things ought to take heede that hee nourish no Partialities unlesse it bee saith hee amongst women For a prince may take pleasure Partialitie amongst women in maintaining a Partialitie amongst the ladies and gentlewomen of his court and so may alwaies have some pleasant newes to laugh at and take his pastime But yet I could like better that amongst the ladies of a princes court there should bee such a Partialitie as there was in times past amongst the Romane ladies The Titus Livius lib 10. Dec. 2. Patrician ladies had a chappell dedicated to the Parrician Pudicitie or chastitie unto which place they often went to make their devotions in a great troupe These ladies being one day in their chappell there arived Verginia who was a Patrician but shee was married to Lucius Volumnius who was of the third estate although also a great lord These Patrician ladies would by no meanes suffer Verginia to enter into their chappell because shee was not married to a Patrician but thrust her back Verginia said shee was by race a Patrician and that shee was a chast wife without reproch and married to a lord who had received great honour and estates in the commonwealth and was now in a high degree thereof although by race hee were but of the third estate Notwithstanding whatsoever shee could say these Patrician ladies would not suffer her to enter into their chappell Verginia seeing this to shew that shee was a chast ladie caused an altar to bee erected to Pudicitie and dedicating it in the presence of a great troupe of other Patrician ladies I dedicate saith she this alter to the Patrician Chastitie and doe admonish you all that the same contention which is amongst our husbands who shall bee most valiant and vertuous may also bee amongst us who shall bee most chast and that you may