difference nor measure to their civilities and treating with the same honours and complements the persons of small merit and base condition oblige not so much the one as they wrong th 'others Neverthelesse if I am not deceived I doe exercise such a moderation in speaking of Popes and so well support what is of Gods institution in condemning what proceeds from the weaknesse and from the corruption of man that I am so farre from beleeving my selfe guilty of blame that I think without vaunt to have merited somewhat from the Holy Chayre if without passion judgement be passed upon me Howsoever if I flatter my selfe in my apprehensions and if the love of my worke deceives me I submit with a compleat submission to the judgement of Superiours and of them who have power to regulate my opinions and to impose lawes upon my understanding What they shall condemne I condemne it I doe now retract what they shall not esteeme good and I have not so little of Christianity as not to know that t is better to obey and exercise a necessary vertue then to make a noyse in the world and gaine a vaine reputation of spirit in defending an ambiguous Opinion Let this be said in passing-by and by way of prevention As for the Examples which make out th' other part of the matter of this work I advise thee Reader that if the Authors from whom I have taken them are deceived I will not be their security If I have mistaken my selfe in what I have taken from them I confesse freely that that fault is voluntary that 't is a defect for which a remedy might have been found in consulting with knowing men or bookes but that I have not done it for want of leisure or industry If any person take it ill that I doe make so frequent use of Spanish Examples I beseech him to consider that I doe it for two or three reasons The first that its the French humour to be more sensible of strange things than them of their country The second in so much that they will serve the more to make knowne the Conduct of the Spaniards which is a necessary knowledge to the Agents of other Princes since that Nation holds other Christian nations in perpetuall exercise and obligeth them to be with her or against her The third insomuch that speaking generally that Nation understands th' Art to governe and command men better then any Nation in the world If I speak in many places with prayse of S. the Cardinall bee it considered apart from the interest of any person that I take nothing from another to give to him That I do attribute alwaies to the King the chiefe glory of good successe That I doe represent him as the principall and first cause of the good fortune of France and that the prayses which I give to S. the Cardinall are applyed unto him in such a manner that they rebound neverthelesse upon the King That I condemne not in particular any living person That I commend others whom J meet with in my discourse who deserve it and give honour to vertue wheresoever I finde it That I doe report what passed under the Government of that great Minister of State by way of Example and as I doe relate the Actions of a Ferrand Gonsalve or of a Gaston of Foix of a Prince of Parma or of a Duke of Guyse that I adde nothing to th' Actions that I speake not but of the things wee have touched and seene whereof our senses are Judges and whereunto all Nations give Evidence I doe but reason upon it let it be examined whether my reasonings are weake and ill grounded and if they who take offence have better Moralls and better Politiques then mine I doe not pretend to hinder them of the light or of the value they shall put upon them with these Precautions It cannot be thought strange that I prayse a Person who hath rendred so great Services to the King which are known to all the world who hath so much merited of the State and of Religion that our Neighbours and they that love us not have an infinite esteeme for him and that he is my Master It remains to speake of the forme of the Worke which is the style Whereupon Reader I doe timely advise thee that I am not enflamed with eloquence That I have laboured Things more then Words That I have not read Quintilian nor the Rhetorique of Aristotle unlesse it be that part where he speakes of the passions of Men and of the affections of divers Ages And therefore if there be any thing that relishes of this Art know that it entred by chance and slipped in by accident That 't is a plant that growes of it selfe and without being set and that I have done like the needle of a Watch which markes the howers without knowing of it Notwithstanding I confesse that I have not neglected to give it ornaments after my fashion that 's to say naturall and that I had strewed more flowers if J had had them or more leasure to have gathered them Thou mayst finde there some inequality and some places that are not so strong or so well digested as others But 't is that all the matters or the manner wherewith they ought to be handled are not capable of the same force and graces Forgoes much better when the subject carries us and that we have wind and tide then when we cannot move but by the strength of Armes and Oares And the Maisters of fortifications say that there are places upon the Earth which cannot be made strong not for want of Art but by reason of the vitious platforme and situation I beseech thee also not to start back at th' Entry and at the reading of the first discourse which hath some Rudenesse in it whereof I am very sensible and which is not sufficiently polished nor adorned THE MINISTER OF STATE First Book First Discourse That An Excellent Minister of State is an Evidence of the Fortune of a Prince and the Instrument of the happinesse of a State IN the course of Affairs 't is certain that Designes onely are in the power of man and that all Events are disposed by some Power above him and which being infinitely wise doth nothing by Chance Th'hazard to which so many things are attributed is a work of our brain and none of the Principles of governing the World All things are guided without our help in Light and Justice and the blind goddesse that is called Fortune is a fancy which Philosophy hath not adored and Religion hath abolished in the destruction of Idolatry Th' invention neverthelesse hath not been unprofitable The miserable charge the causes of their misery upon it and th' imprudent th' effects of their ill conducts Her name is in the mouths of all persons the wise and unwise do equally employ it and use is made of it sometimes to be the better understood and not to depart from a received custome nor
a person Th' End of that enterprise exceeded all that could have been desired of good success Our friends were delivered and the Rout of our Enemies compleated the Victory which we sought not but in their retract After the first passage of Suza could Montferrat be trusted in surer or more esteemed hands then those of Sr. of Thorax And again as fortune had pre-prepared him that Occasion and reserved him for the defence of Casal and to confirm th' Honour he hath gained in Rhe It seeems also that by a certain fatality Sr. of Chombert had been destined to go to relieve him the second time and to compleat the Glory of that Siege by the safety of that place In those last Emotions of Italy did not the King appear admirable in the choice of the men which he imployed there And though Policy permits not many Chiefs of equall Authority in an Army He understood neverthelesse so well to discern the just proportion of their humours and the necessary Temper to conserve Concord amongst them that he joyned and changed them to so good purpose that it may be his service was advanced by that plurality and his Armies were the more happy And when the passage was to be opened for our Troops for the Reliefe of Casal and the resistance of Armies to be forced which opposed it To whom could that design be more rationally committed Monsieur Mount Moraney than to them who have executed it What might not be expected from that Lord who came into the world lighted with the virtue of his Ancestors and Crowned with their Glory who laboured so much to improve that immortall Inheritance who is not so absolute in th' Armies he commands by his Authority as by th' Affections of the Men of War That Love makes more men follow him in perillous occasions then Duty who shews to others the way of doing well and whose example would inspire the strongest passions into the most fearfull souls Veillane and Carignan shall be for ever famous by th' effects of their Valour and by that of th' other Marshal Monsieur Feat who accompanied them with his Courage and Prudence and made himselfe to be no lesse considerable in War than in Peace nor in the Field than in the Cabinet Above all 't is a thing worthy of Consideration and a particular mark of the Kings judgement and of the wisdom of his Councill in leaving the Marshall of Force constantly in Italy and in making that Army as the foundation of our Armies in that Country and him the Director of the War Age which ruines th' Active Qualities of so many other persons offended not his old Age which chils the blood did not diminish his Valour 'T is a habit which had not in him its Original from th'heats of the Body but in the lights of Reason and he was as bold when there was cause as he was ever wise His long and ancient experience and the good sense wherein he naturally abounded permitted him not to commit any fault He knew the Spaniards too well to fall into their snares and into a surprise by their Deceits and with the Companions which the King gave him There was nothing to be feared and all good successe was to be hoped from his Conduct It must not be forgot that Sr. the Cardinal considers not onely Merit in the choice of them whom he proposeth but would also have good Birth if it be possible That things may be acted with Glory and that the reputation of affairs might improve by the Dignity of the Persons who manage them He is very far from th' humour of a certain King who made his Physicism his principall Counsellor And from the humour of another who made his Chirurgion enter into the Councill of State and permitted the same hands to handle the Seals which had newly quitted the Razour and Launcet wherefore the Nobility is more imployed in Negotiations then heretofore it was They who lead Armies or help to make War are called to manage Treaties of Peace and the suspensions of Arms And 't is true that ordinarily th' affairs do prosper well in their hands because they are usually bolder in Action and have the sense lesse sophisticated than persons of the long Robe The Sixth Discourse That a Minister of State ought not to forme his Conduct by the Example of strangers and that be ought to treat with them after a Different Manner THere 's nothing so universall in the world as Diversity and it seems that God hath affected it to shew his power by it and to render Nature fair The number of Angels as 't is said surpasseth the number of other Creatures But if the Schools would have believed St. Thomas the diversity of kinds which is amongst them had equalled the number of particulars and there had not been in those high and divine Hierarchies two Natures alike However insomuch that they conceived that the Dignity of the living Creatures encreased by the multitude of th'Individuals which composed them and that Philosophy hath sent back the Phoenix to the fables of the Poets who have sung of him as being alone The greatest part of the Schools have departed in that sense from the judgement of that Doctor whose opinions are so often adored by them Let 's go on The Varieties of bodies which issue from th' Elements were incredible if Nature had not submitted them to our sense and if Art did not discover unto us an infinity of Words which are made of a few Letters and an infinity of Figures which are drawn out of a small quantity of Colours And an infinity of Colours which are taken out of a small quantity of Drugs This is not all The divesity which Nature could not place in Essences she hath put to the forms which accompany them what she could not do to the principal she hath done to the Incidents and Accessaries and the conformity which is in the faces of men for to distinguish them from Beasts is changed by many Marks of dissemblance for to distinguish them from one another This Second Diversity proceeds from the first mixture of th' Elements which enters into the Composition of the Bodies from the virtue of Heaven and of the Stars which are therein predominant and from the quality of the Climate and of the place which have a great share in the Composition and in the Constitution of all things that are born That if the Compositions of bodies of the same kind are so divers for the Causes above mentioned How much greater ought the Difference to be which is found in the manners of men where th'Inclinations of the Body do interveyn the motions of Reason Examples from without and strange suggestions but above all th'Inclinations of the Body prevail and the strength of the Constitution Reason is very seldom heard Men live almost wholly by passion and as if the whole Man were but a lump the greatest part of them act but according to that party
th' eyes of their subjects There 's nothing so easy as to passe them from Love to Disdaine and from Disdaine to Hatred and to Revolt The Life of Henry the third is an illustrious example of this Truth and th' Inconveniences wherein he fell after he had attained the Crowne make it appeare what foundation is to be laid upon the will of the people and upon th' inclinations of that beast which stirrs and his thrâ—st and which after it had adored the Duke of Anjou persecuted the King of France and dared to make War with him On th' other side it may be said that no Emperour is furer nor power better established than that which is founded upon Love And 't is certain that things are conserved by the same causes and with the same meanes which give them birth there 's also no doubt but that the soveraigne Authrority is the firmer when it is supported by the good will of the people from whence it took its Originall In the second place no violent thing is durable its proper force consumes it or some other that resists it and which is greater And 't is true that every sort of Chaine save that of Love weighes upon the spirit of man and that every sort of yoak if it be not voluntary opresseth it To conclude to raigne only by severity is to renounce the peace of the spirit 't is to charge upon himselfe the passion given to another 't is t' expose himselfe to an eternall necessity of distrusting all persons and to make them Enemies whom he would not suffer to love him for fear of not being sufficiently feared 'T is to fall into the the same mischiefs which traverse jealous husbands and in over-straining his subjects to be faithful to give them a will to rebell and to quit their obedience which would not be trusted to their vertue and to their inclination To the first Answer may be given that severity alone conserves very ill the power of a soveraigne and that t' employ violence against th'evills of a State 't is to use nothing but passion and fire against all the Maladies of the body and every sort of Ulcers That if great persons sometimes have affected an austere and hard humour and seem thereby to maintain themselves in Authority That effect neverthelesse proceeds from another cause And insomuch that that terrible conduct hath not been alone and was found in the Company of many great vertues that have tempered it It hath not done th'evill it was accusstomed to do This was observed in the life of Torquabes of Mariust of Sylla of Corbulon and of many others of the Ancients And of the Moderne in the Life of the duke of Alva of the Marquess of the Holy Crosse who left such cruell Markes of his Humours to the Terceres of the County of Fuentes and Wailstaine of this time who was so absolute in th' Armies he commanded that the name of the Emperour was but th' Image of the Soveraigne power He exercised If these great persons I say had known onely how to comand the setting up of Gallowses and to send men to death they had not been followed by their Souldiers in the occasions of glory and they had been unknown to us but a examples of Misfortune whereinto severity doth precipitate It may be also aswered to the second that Indulgency is a Means as little safe as facile to give power to raigne or to compell obedience that if the first men of the past and moderne ages seem to have neglected severe wayes and th' Examples of Rigour the better to subsist in the spirits of their subjects or of their souldiers 'T is that in effect they had extraordinary Qualities and I know not what of admirable in their persons which appeared in their face and countenance and inspited respect with love into the souls of them who came neer them such were Alexander Scipio Caesar Germanicus such Gaston of Foix Don John of Austria Ferrant Gonsalve and the two last Dukes of Gaise whose single presence-bewitched the world forced the wills of men in spight of Reason and constrained their Enemies to change their passion or to suspend it at the sight of them From this discourse I draw two Instructions which may be applyed to th' other matters of Policy The first is That for th' use of gentleness and severity and generall Rule cannot be Resolution must be taken upon th' Occasion Consultation had with the nature of Affairs with the condition of the times with the Quality of the persons and leve the disposition of th' event to fortune and t' other causes which are without us The second That although the difference brought of th'inclinations of divers people requires or the most part a very different application of the Means which are to be used for governing of them so 't is that as in the Oeconomy of th' humane body and dispensation of th' humours which compose it there 's of course one that predominates and which serves for a law to Physick and for a that 't is necessary sometimes to keep under that commanding Humour and that predominant Quality To raise others alter their order and change the course of certaine Occurences and according to the nature of the diseases which happen or threaten 'T is the very same with th' Humours of the People and Complexions of States There 's a certaine Conduct which is as naturall to them but it ought not to be inviolable A Minister of State ought not to be a slave He may quit it provided that he doth not abandon it and may resume it and a Minister of State is sometimes constrained to go out of th' high way t' avoide an ill passage or an Ambush There are people who are to be retained with Rigour and whose obedience is not ascertained but under a severe Empire But that ought not to be eternall 'T is good sometimes to gaine them and not alwayes to subdue them To bend them and not alwayes to break them and occasions doe happen wherein 't is of necessity to flatter them and to stroake them for feare of affrighting them lest they take the Bridle in their teeth and Carry him away that ought to Lead them The Seaventh Discourse That a Minister of State ought to treate in a different Manner with strangers as they are powerfull and free A Minister of State ought not onely to conforme his conduct to th' Inclination of the people which he governes or with whom he treats But he ought also to adjuste it to their power and to their weaknes He ought t' Imitate that wise Physician who considers as much the strength of the sick person as the virtue of the Remedy and seeks the proportion of that which actes with that which suffers There are States whose Greatness is in themselves which subsist upon their owne weight which can passe-by all others which have very little to feare from without and can hardly fall but bu their owne
THE MINISTER OF STATE VVherein is shewn The true use OF Modern Policy BY MONSIEVR DE SILHON Secretary to the late Cardinall RICHELIEU Englished by H. H. Tandem didici animas sapientiores fieri quiescendo LONDON Printed for Thomas Dring And are to be sold at his shop at the George in Fleetstreet neare Cliffords Innt 1658. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD THE LORD VISCOUNT SCUDAMORE My Lord THis Translation makes its first addresse to your Honour 's Accurat judgment but craves no protection for the Matter or Expressions of the Originall For the Matter is but the result of your Reasonings and the Expressions but the repetition of your Eloquence In th' Author two things besides his exact knowledge in Civill and Divine affairs are very remarkable his Love to Truth and Hatred to Detraction As to Truth he holds it forth as the best most permanent Policy for Princes and their Ministers of State Buy the Truth but sell it not saies Solomon Magna est Veritas praevalebit As to Detraction he condemns the practice of it in all persons and gives th' example t'others For he is sparing in the discovery of some sharp Truths and permits the Matter Errours or Crimes to publish the men And it were to be wished that personall obloquie were not as modeable in our daies as new dresses In the businesse of Religion he may be found zealous but not superstitious and rather of the Gallican then Papall perswasion Deceits and Vices are decryed by him in what subject soever he finds them Piety and Vertue highly exalted For he made them if report be true his daily exercise as knowing that nothing can be perpetuall but what is founded upon Piety or Vertue for they are equall in the Ballance when Vices endure no equality And being bred in the School of that eminent and successfull Cardinall of Richlieu and cherished in his Conversation and House did collect the most resined products of his Policy Wit and Experience and gather the choicest Flowers of his Garden The Book had a very high esteem in France at the publication in Paris and hath justified its credit in the present use as an approved Jewell and it cannot go lesse in value here where Learning and good Wits abound and the judgment of discerning a true Diamond from a Pibble stone though never so well set equall if not superiour to any Nation of the World My Lord Forgive th'excercise of your patience so long in the Porch of this beautifull and regular Edifice raised from the materialls of the Brain and adorned with the Beauties of Rhetorick and Examples drawn to the life But the Key being now in your hand your Lordship may enter at pleasure and dismisse My Lord Your Lordships humble Servant H. H. ADVERTISEMENT READER I Have some Considerations to represent unto thee concerning this VVork whereupon I beseech thee to cast thy eyes The first is in relation to the Matter which is composed of Reasonings and Examples As to the Reasonings thou shalt know them to be wholly mine and a pure product of my witt and by consequence imperfect and tastes of the weakenesse of the principle from which it is derived When I discourse of past Occurrences and of things hapned in the Raignes of the King If the true motives have not alwaies been encountred by me nor the essentiall causes of their successe I have nothing to say to thee but that I had not the spirit of Divination That I have not received remembrances or instructions from any person And that th'Actions of Princes are like great Rivers the beginning and springs whereof sew persons have seen though an infinite of persons see the course and progresse of them If any person thinks my Judgement too free chiefly when I speake of the Pope and the matters of Rome I beseech him to consider that gentler Consequences cannot be drawn from th'Examples that are brought If th'examples are false I have not invented them the springs are well knowne There 's cause neverthelesse to praise God that some of the Pastors who have governed his Church have not been so black as they are painted If they are true there 's cause to admire the Divine Providence in preserving his Church from decay and spot in the time of corruption of some of its members and in maintaining of it in health the plague being so neer it That is to say as I understand it that nothing was altered of the meanes which God hath appointed to guide us to our supernaturall end That the Doctrine of Faith which is one of the Principles that makes us act Christianly and which hath workes for her nearest end is alwaies the same That the Sacraments which conferr and increase grace in us by virtue of the Institution of Jesus Christ and not by virtue of what we bring unto it of ours as of a meritorious cause are not changed for the number their matter or their forme That the permanent and incorruptible State in these two things is found only in that holy Hierarchy which makes that mysticall Body of Jesus Christ which is composed of a head that represents it and of many principall subalterne members who hold of that head and with an admirable dependency and union amongst themselves That it never hapned that this Head and those members to whom it belongs to guide others have together and with a common consent fayled against these two things and that it will never happen to th' end of the world at least if the Promises of God are eternall and his word unchangeable and therefore no person is to wonder if out of the Church there be no salvation since the Church only containes that means that brings us thither and preserves inviolable the substance and number of the Sacraments and the purity of th'Evangelicall doctrine Moreover and for what respecteth every member of the Church in particular That God hath left them in the hands of their counsell to beleeve or live as they please that hee hath put before them fire and water that they may make their choyce and that he imposeth no necessity upon them but leaves them be power of their will that 's to say the power to follow that good or to forsake it to doe evill or to abstaine from it When I speake then with liberty of the vices of some Popes and of the corruption of some of their Agents I doe not thinke to wrong Religion nor to offend the Church The Cardinall Baronius relates with much more soverity or lesse allay then I doe the abuses which overstowed the Court of Rome when two famous whores Theodosia and Morosia governed it and the Popes of that time A man must not alwaies set himselfe against known truths Who support ill causes lose their credit make themselvs to be suspected when they have good ones to defend resemble certain persons who being equally honest to all the world are not so to any person and putting neither
from the tearms that are practised But to declare what 't is The Power we speak of is no other thing than God himself insomuch that he undertakes the government of free causes and disposeth of them to his ends whether they be conformable to theirs or contrary to them And as the first Mobile without destroying the naturall motion of the other Heavens doth make them subject to his and carries them from th' East to the West so God doth manage in such sort the actions of the Creatures which work with liberty that without violating their freedom and by the encounter of other causes wherein he doth cast them infallibly drawes th' effect which he proposed to himself and which from humane foresight is often litle expected In a word the workman that observes the rules of his Art is never disappointed of his intention the Painter that perfectly understands the mixtures of Colours and the proportions of Figures drawes at pleasure exquisite Pictures th' Architect that casts his designes by the rules of Architecture makes them happily to prosper But the fairest operations of Man wherein his noblest part hath most interest are not solely capable of attaining their end and th' effect aimed at Hannibal acted the full duties of a brave Captain and yet was overcome by Scipio Cicero forgets nothing of the charge of an excellent Oratour yet Milon was condemned and André Doria sees the Fleet of his Master perish in the Port of Argiers notwithstanding his skill and experience in Maritime affairs But what God addes to the Principles that are in us th' occasions which He causeth to arise for us the means which he suscitates th' obstacles which he diverts in our favour and all th' assistance which He gives us to make our desires to prosper is that which we call Good fortune and them Happy which receive it But this good successe doth not alwaies accompany Justice and Holy enterprises as God doth not alwaies oppose unjust and violent designes th' Insidells have often triumphed over th' Armies of Christians and of Catholieks The most holy of our Kings hath been unhappy in his two Voyages beyond the Seas and the Cause of God for which he made War and th' Interest of Religion could not secure him from prison nor from the plague On the contrary nothing is reád comparable to the successe of Usurpators nothing put a stop to Alexander's successes but his death and a Prince for whose ambition the world was too little and that had the vanity to think that there was not matter enough therein for his courage had fortune so favourable that she covered his faults and rendred his failings happy Caesar had most successe in the most unjust War he ever made he had no more to do than to go and conquer in dissipating the Romane Common-wealth She that gave the Law to all the Earth fell in lesse time than is laid out in taking of a City and three years have destroyed the works of many ages Attila and Tamberlain have passed like lightning in their conquests and the Race of Ottomans which takes away Religion from God and liberty from men hath obtained so many victories and extended so far Its Dominions for these hundred years and upwards that no forraigne force seemes sufficient and capable for the present to abate the forces of that Empire and that it hath nothing more to fear but its own greatnesse and excessive powers The reason of this diversity is that God doth not alwaies work miracles and disorders not the order of things for the love of honest men and as it is very reasonable to rayse their courage and confirme their hopes that God should sometimes visibly hasten to their releife it is also most conformable to the lawes of his providence and to the sweetnesse of his conduct that second causes be suffred for the most part to act according to their capacity and extent of their force and therefore in order to that the weake to give way to the stronger that a lesser virtue politique I meane obey the greater and that they who have notorious advantages of their enemies have also upon them notorious successe otherwise truly he should oblige himselfe to repaire all the faults of them who have good intentions And if goodnesse alone should be successfull in the world prudence should be banished from the civill life and industry from the trayne of affaires As to the successes of Usurpators It is easie to give the reason if we search causes of the change of States and of the Revolution of Empires T is certaine that the greatest most Extended are not alwaies the firmest nor the most durable on the contrary as the most delicate fruits are sooner spoyled then others and a perfect health is an instance of a disease approaching it happens also that States which are in the flower of their force and at the last round of their happinesses are not farre from their fall Pleasure enters with wealth power produceth ambition these two passions which aspect alwaies their ends without exception to meanes draw with them so many other evills that of necessity those unhappy States must perish be translated into a new form of Government In this fatall conjuncture if a person of courage of ambition to conquer take Armes he finds the matter ready prepared God seconds his designe and abandons them unto him whom ambition had divided and whom delicacies had deprived of Judgement and affeminated their courage not that he doth inspire the conquerors with unjust thoughts nor with those furious motions which thrust them on to usurp what belongs to others and to violate the rights of humane society but acted of their owne accord and by their owne election he may lawfully favour them and his justice will not suffer many good actions of theirs to passe unrewarded nor them unpunished who have abused his graces But when he makes choice of a person to repaire the disorders of the world or for the good of a particular State Then his care is shewed in furnishing him with necessary principles to undertake great matters The thoughts are put in his soule by God and he gives the power to execute them he troubles and confounds his enemies and leades him as by the hand to victories and triumphs and one of the greatest expedients whereof he serves himselfe for this purpose is to rayse unto him excellent men to whom he communicates his cares and who help him to beare the weight of Affaires And as the operations of the soul do themselves good or ill according to the conditions of the organs and quality of their temper the prosperity or adversity of Princes depends on them in whose hands their authority is placed and who dispose of their power Alexander had never conquered Asia nor made the Indiaes to tremble but for Ephestion Parmemo and Clytus Caesar gained many battails by the hands of his Lieustenants and the fayrest Empire of the world which ambition
the Body and Understanding and in the seditious Motions from the worse part of the soul we do commit often the Evill which we would not do The Condition of the person of State is much worse and that of the proud Directors of the people who are sometimes constrained to doe the Evil they would not do if they were Masters of affairs and if th'impetuosity of Destiny and violence of some Cause stronger than them did not over-rule them And nevertheless the world fails not to blame them Princes are angry gainst unfortunate as against guilty persons Particular men that discover sometimes in their private affaires somewhat like his do not forgive for all that the Condition of publique persons And the pittifull Boatmen who can hardly save themselves upon a small River when it is but a little moved condemn the great Philots when they suffer shipwrack in the Ocean and cannot resist the fury of an implacable Element Behold very eminent Examples to Confirm the truth of what hath been said In the league made between the Venetians and Charles the fifth against Soliman a memorable accident happened The Venetians were fully resolved not to break with Soliman and to avoid a War wherein they were to receive the first stroaks and furnish the Field with th' action that was preparing and the theater with the Tragedy They remembred that they never had to do with the house of the Ottomans without losse and that they never justled with them but to their ruine They would not forsake th' Alliance of a Prince whose faith was known to them in whom ambition permitted Justice and was accustomed to distinguish between what 's honest and what is onely profitable They would not deprive themselves of the great advantages which they drew from those States nor cut the pipe of Riches and the root of Abundance which came to their subjects from thence They were not ignorant of the Nature of Leagues and their weakness They knew that good deeds penetrate lesse then injuries and that the desire of Revenge is more active and violent in them that are provoked then Acknowledgement in them who are assisted They consider that a wise Prince ought not to engage but on extremity in th' affaires that have nothing certain but the expence whereof the future is alwaies trouble and whose conclusion is not necessarily conformable to Principles and to the first Appearance Upon these foundations or others they resisted th' endeavours of Paul the third who solicited them to enter into that League and not to abandon the common Cause of Christians Soliman also on his part desired to continue fair with the Republique of Venice He was afraid to have so many enemies together in Hand and how great soever their ambition was the virtue and the power of Charles did not seem so inconsiderable unto him but that he judged them Capable alone to exercise him But as fortune often deceives the desires of men and laughs at their wisdom it disappointed in this occasion as well th'inclination of Soliman as that of the Venetians The encounter of some of their Ships and of unexpected Accidents which happened obliged them to fight and engaged them also in spight of them to a total Breach And the Venetians were constrained to accept of the League which they had so solemnly refused By this truly it appears that the Venetians could not avoid with all their Conduct th'evill they had foreseen And that he also from whom they were to receive their damage could not be prevented from doing of it though he had a design to be their friend For it happened that the Gallies of th'Emperour having not done their duty at Prevese and André Dona having betrayed the Christian Republique and suffered Barbarosse to escape when he might have sunk him The tempest that ris ' in the States of Charles fell upon them of the Republique and Soliman offended that the Republique as he thought had disdained his friendship or had not sufficiently respected it turned his Forces and Designs against their Ilands besieged Corfu and was within little of taking the Bulwarks that defend Christendom He took besides that all that they had in the Archipelagus except Naples of Romaigna and Malvoisca which he forced from them since by a Treaty of peace after the losses they had suffered after th' Expence they had made and after a great diminution of former Reputation Behold other Examples to shew that there are faults which seem fatall In the first troubles of Heresie in France and in that Tragique Confusion the memory whereof hath since been often repeated All the world observed that the siege of Poictiers had been the Stone of offence to the Huguenots and that the fairest Army they ever had perished there The Cardinall of Lorraine reproached it to Sr. of the None and though faults are customary in the war more then in any other function of life He assured him that they who commanded th' Armies of the King would prevent committing of the like yet notwithstanding after the Battel of Moncontour which poured out so much Hugenots blood and where that party received such large wounds that it depended only on the Conqueror that the soul was not let out Instead of following the flight of th' Army which was routed and them that saved themselves from the storm The Duke of Anjou unhappily dissipated his Army by lying down before Saint John He stormed that Town and lost the fruit of his Victory which ought not to have been taken of a single place but the Reducement of the whole party not the remission of the Malady but the health of the State By this fatall stay I say he failed to make an end of the work that was so well begun He gave meanes to th' Enemies to breathe and recruit He rendred again the fortune of France doubtfull and deprived it of the honour of terminating a War which is never ended by weaknesse but inability nor by Reconciliation but by the Ruine of the Conquered The Ninth Discourse Where the precedent Discourse is confirmed by the Example of the Spaniards I Will confirm former Discourse by a newer Example and from the most prudent Nation of the world The Spaniards who have their Reason so subtil and Motions so regular who make no Consultations but they observe all the differences of the time and have alwaies in their thoughts the future and the past when they deliberate onely of the things in hand or that are not farre from their eyes These prudent I say and Circumspect persons are not free from errours They commit faults like other men they go out of the way as well as we and more is not to be said then that it seems their failings are either voluntary or more inavoidable then ours And as we fall ordinarily as it were by night and in unknown wayes They fall at full noon and in the midst of a high way And as other people have reproached us that we are capable
Statues to the side of his Masters and th' overthrow of that Colossus who had commanded all th' Earth 'T is not sayeth Aristotle that Valour is the first of all Virtues or that Justice is not to be preferred before it but that it acts with more boldness then other Virtues and is exercised in surmounting of dangers and in despising of death 'T is reasonable that the Recompence that is due to it from abroad be the greater and the more eminent that it be Crowned with Glory and they that give their Lives to the service of their Princes and to the good of their Country obtain another life not subject to perish and to be preferred in the memory of men and to flourish alwaies in the mouthes of the Renowned Though these things here do raise admiration and that the spirit of man which attends naturally actions of Eminency layes out excessive love upon them though a Minister of State ought to esteem them highly and honour the Conduct when it shall be necessary yet he ought to proceed further and know that there are more silent and concealed operations which are better then th 'others because they are more usefull for the publique and want of that outward recompence Time onely discovers them in regard that secrecy is their principall Condition and the wise onely consider them according to their merit because they make but little noyse touch not upon the senses which make up the reason of the people They resemble the Rivers which running gently from the womb of their Center fill the fields with fruitfulness and Cities with abundance or the motions of the Heavens whith being almost undiscernable turn upon the Earth the power of the Sun and the wealth of the Stars To foresee th'evills which may befall a State to prepare preservatives to hinder their growth to suppress the Causes before they have produced their Effects are things very little considered And yet a greater Obligation is due to a Physitian that preserves the health from all sorts of Alteration than to him that restores the health when it is lost A greater Debt is due to him that hinders a person from falling then to him that draws him from a precipice And 't is a better and more difficult thing to preserve a State then to Conquer it The preservation of the Creatures is as noble and excellent a work of God's as their Creation They are both of the same price and th' one is but the continuation of th' other But it is not the same in Conquests and preservation of States The first are not gained but by pieces one Province is added to another and there 's need of severall Ages and of great Revolutions of things before a Monarchy can attain the Greatness that composeth it But the second takes notice of the whole frame of an Empire no part is exempted and the pieces which have been made one after another ought to move together as in a Watch and to point out th' hours The glory of Conquests is derived from many Causes many Persons contribute to it Fortune interposeth as well as Virtue and the faults committed by Enemies do advance them as much as the Conduct of the persons that obtain them But the conservation is th' effect of a single person or the work of a few persons Imprudency enters not there but to destroy and confound and the door of Hazard and so all th'Avenues of Fortune is as strongly shut as it can be locked It Conquests force mingles with prudence and the Body acts with th'understanding but in Conservation Reason onely is employed and Wisdom the noblest of her habits In a word great Princes have found the last of these things more difficult then the first Augustus endured much labour before he could confirm the Empire his Uncle left him and it was not done without changing the face of the world and without seeing all Nations armed against one another That he reunited the body that was divided into three pieces But he was so much troubled to maintain that Composition and to govern that Frame when he became absolute that he had it in deliberation amongst his friends whether he ought to strip himselfe of so weighty a greatness or bear it with the inseparable Cares and Thorns that are fastned unto it Some have been found who having tryed the weight and rusted the bitterness have chosen rather to abandon it cast themselve upon the quiet of a private life then alwaies to be encumbred with a multitude of Persons and croud of Businesse There are some who have given the lie to that common opinion which Ambition hath invented That an Empire can no more receive a Companion than the World two Sunt and have permitted others to share with them in a thing so full of jealousie as Commands and so incommunicable as Soveraignty The Conduct of Tiberius for peace hath not been lesse admired nor th'Artifices he used in his Age lesse exactly observed by the Historians then the Wars he made in his youth and th'evidences of Valour which he gave in his most flourishing time The life of one of our Kings Which deserved the Sirname of Wise is not less considerable then the life 's of them who have carried the Titles of Conquerors and a Prince our Neighbour hath given him this praise that no King ever raised fewer Armies and that no person ever gave him so much disturbance The Difficulties wherewith he was assaulted both within and without th'Artifices he was constrained to resist the Conspiracies from which he was to be secured and th'Enterprises of strangers which he made uselesse by his prudence delivered him to posterity worthy of a Title which hath been given to meaner persons as that of the Great Few Princes had greater Affairs in hand then Lewis the eleventh or more Enemies His principal Officers betrayed him the Princes of the blood forsook him He saw England Burgundy Flanders and Bretany in confederacy for his Ruine and yet his dexterity surmounted those difficulties He overcame his Enemies without conducting of Armies or giving of Battails and without making much noyse of eminent Attempts He defeated all that was raised to destroy him but never person was more to be feared in the Cabinet nor had done greater things abroad without stirring from home then Philip the second From th' Escuriall where he had shut up himselfe He governed two Worlds with three fingers of Paper He was also as absolute in Peru as in the Kingdom of Castile with three words he changed the Governours and deposed the Magistrates in America and in Japan And 't is certain that never Prince was lesse seen of his subjects nor more respected by them than he was According to what hath been said 't is not possible to suppose a more eaven Conduct or more intelligent then that of of Sr. the Cardinal 's He never offends against the conveniencie of things and his Intelligence is so pure and Reason so cleare
what I would say in defence of Letters which help to forme th' Art of a Minister of State and sometimes serve for a Guid and Torch to them who are to walk ofton in the dark and amongst Precipices It remaines now to speak a word of Eloquence which is as th' hand of that Art and Instrument wherewith it enters the hearts stirs up the passions gives to things the form she pleaseth and renders her selfe Mistress of Men and Businesses 'T is a quality of an incomparable perfection which requires all the favours Nature can bestow upon a Body and Wit All the polishings that Labour and Industry can bring unto it and all that good Custome and Experience can adde unto it 'T is so full also of Glory that 't is never exposed to Disdains as sometimes the Sciences are She makes her selfe to be feared if not to be beloved she hath Lightnings as well as Crowns She raigns in all places and to that height that she undertakes to change the order of Providence and to take away the use of Liberty from the Causes to which God had given it This Quality then which cannot be perfect nor in its true Dignity without Virtue and Philosophy is worthy of the Cares of a Minister of State It wonderfully adornes Peace and is of great service in time of War 'T is by her power that th' Ancient Orators protected the Innocency of particular persons and defended oppressed Provinces 'T is by her force that the fall of States hath been sometimes prevented and fatall Conspiracies dissipated 'T is by her that Cicero merited honours which he preferred to the Triumph of Conquerors And by her he pretends to have place amongst the Founders and Restorers of the first Common-wealth of the world 'T is she that hath often secured the Victories that were doubtfull that hath given courage to the Souldiers that had lost it that struck fire and boldnesse into the souls of them who compelled Fortune to favour them and that would die or overcome And without speaking of Xenophon of Caesar and of the greatest Captains of Antiquity who have gained in the Modern Ages a higher and clearer Reputation than Scander-beg than the great Captain and than Gaston of Foix And is it not true that these three great persons have alwaies begun to prepare the Victory by Discourse and by perswasion which after they compleated by Conduct and Valour In effect it is no small favour which God hath done to the reasonable soul by giving it power to communicate its thoughts and to bring to light its affections And Speech is a present of an extraordinary price wherewith she may distribute part of her excellencies She can give without losse and make rich without becoming poor she can see the Treasures abroad she hath within her selfe the Lights that beautifie her and those admirable Representations whereof she is at the same time the Painter and the Table And 't is for that chiefly that she hath received so exquisite a Guift For in relation onely to the Body and the single necessities of th' animall life 'T is probable that Nature would have given it certain signs and some exterior Motions to express them as it hath done to Beasts and little Children But as health of it selfe is a silent good and is scarce felt if pleasure do not animate it and delight give it life so the Dignity of Speech is unknown if it be not accompanied with Graces and expressed with Pomp. It seems that Reason scorns to go abroad unless she be adorned that she hath no force without allurements and effects Complaisancy that she may be useful And 't is Eloquence and that divine faculty whereof we speak which fits and trims Reason to so high an Admiration 'T is she that doth furnish her with Flowers and Ornaments 'T is she that causeth Reason not onely to bring Light to be understood but also stirs up Love to be followed I will not speak here of the knowledge of Sr. the Cardinal nor of the wonder that laying out so much time for Action and Directions for publique Affairs there should remain to him any time for his study and for to gain that generall knowledge he hath of all good things It were also to be ignorant of his strength and dignity of his subject To speak of his Eloquence it were to seek light from the Sun to undertake the publishing of that Divine Faculty which is every day admired in Councills which hath so eminently appeared in Assemblies done so great services to France and hath so often by his Mouth and Pen made the Christian truths to Triumph 'T is such and his soul is so strangely imbued that as there are places in the world from whence nothing is taken but what is perfumed and odoriferous In liker manner even the most familiar Discourses and ordinary Entertainments of Sr. the Cardinall hold forth some Tincture and give some taste of the virtue fo that excellent quality The Fifteenth Discourse That the Councill of a Prince ought to be composed a few persons 'T Is of importance that the Councill of a Prince be reduced to a few Heads so as they be well chosen and that the number be not the Evidence of his Dignity but the Merit and Virtue of his Counsellors Unity is the last measure of the perfection of things and the first of all Beings is the most single of all others This Being is God himselfe who without suffering Division of Parts or mixture of Qualities is infinitely perfect within and infinitely active without and by a power infinitely pure and infinitely single and without th'adjunction of any forraine virtue hath produced the wonders we see and that variety of subjects which are united to make the world And without him the most noble Natures and most excellent are the least composed and the most indivisible And we rejoyce much more in a sight not limited in th'extents of its objects and that can know all the colours of Nature and the Figures of all Bodies then if we had as many eyes as the visible Objects are divers and Colours different in nature So if it were permitted to make faire Dreams and magnificent Wishes it were to be desired that a Prince alone should make up his Councill That he were the sole Director of his business That he were the sole intelligence to give it motion and that he alone held the Helme and handled the Scepter But insomuch that such a Prince was never seen and that th'Idaea remaines in th' head of Xenophon that History doth not propose the like to us that th'imperfection of humane things suffers it not Lewis the Eleventh and that he who boasted that his Horse carried him and all his Councill did sometimes commit such enormous faults and foolish errours that all the world takes notice of them A Prince ought at least so to order his business that his power be not loose that it enlarge not and be restrained to
a few persons that it may be the more active and absolute and its operation the more nimble and efficacious But that the goodness of this order may appear the better and th' advantages that accrew to a State where it is observed to be the more evident It may not be amiss to demonstrate it by the comparison of other formes of Government which are more disunited and where the Authority to resolve businesse is more dilated for the things of this world do appear best by opposition the shadow quickens the colours and the Lights Recovery from sicknesse is more agreeable then health and there 's no good that would not lose one halfe for its just price if there were no evill contrary to it I will say upon the subject in hand a word of the Republique of Venice of that of the Suisses and of the Government of the Polaques which is a mixt kind of Government and composed of Aristocracy and Monarchy I think that no Republique was ever established with so great Wisdome or that received Orders more apt to attain th' ends of a civill life which is the happinesse of Inhabitants then that of Venice 'T is not but that some have made a greater noyse in the world and whose Empire hath been more enlarged Dominion more glorious But as the greatest bodies and of highest stature are not ever the soundest and as the vastest buildings are not alwaies the firmest so the good policy of a State and the goodnesse of its Composition is not to be judged by th'extent of the Country it enjoys by the great quantities of Earth and Sea it commands so whosoever considers the duration of the Republique of Venice and its quiet for 1200 years and observes that it hath never been strongly agitated within and hath felt but a leight intestine sedition may easily conclude that the Noble parts have been very sound and that the Foundations are very deep and solid And though of late it may seem that her Forces are diminished that her best condition is past and that the violence of some strange cause hath blasted the beauty of her Countenance there 's no matter of astonishment nor any great wonder that old Age should produce wrinckles that what is mortall should be sometimes sick that the strong should offend the weak and that Prudence should not alwayes be Mistress of Fortune nor good events the necessary effects of good Counsels Though this be thus yet there 's some change to be wished as to the manner of their Treating and resolving th' affaires of that Republique and 't is a great mischief that they are carryed through so many Assemblies and pass by so many Heads whereof the Senate is composed the Secret which is never very safe with a multitude hath much ado to be there preserved Length is unavoydable there and many times Fortune flies away and good occasions are lost whilst they deliberate and before they have concluded Heretofore in pressing-matters and where dispatch was requisite and Secrecy extraordinarily necessary they were treated and resolved in a Councell which they called of Ten with the same force and Authority as in the Senate But they have since judged that the supream Authority attributed to Ten persons in matters regarding the whole State was of too dangerous a consequence and that that Order might in time by th' Ambition and by th'Artifices of particular persons degenerate into a pure Aristocracy and corrupt th' essence of their Government which is blended of three others From thence may be seen the fatality of humane things that the good is ever accompanied with some evill and that nothing is so well accomplished as not in some part to be defective Of all sorts of Government under which the world rowls the most excellent are not exempt from spots 'T is not but that they who invented them foresaw th'inconveniences but that they could not do better nor provide a Remedy where none was to be had Prudence is not so often imployed in choosing the greatest Good as in avoiding the greatest Evills and as we see in the Composition of the humane body that there are but a few parts capable of pleasure and which touch upon the pleasant Objects and that on the Contrary all parts are exposed to grief and to share Resentments so it happens that in all other things th'evill enters by more wayes then the good and finds more places to make its impression and exercise its violence If this be to be seen in all of Nature and if it be an experience which passeth even to Beasts it ought not to be thought strange if in a matter so mixed and so confused as States are and where Fancies so different and Inclinations so various do enter if the pure good be not there found nor such a perfection as no sort of vice can alter Let 's go on As to the Common-wealth of the Suisses 't is a sort of Government very loose and in some measure tumultuous The Bond that tyes them is not stronger than that which joyns the Leagues and there 's onely this difference that they do but ordinarily pass and have no durable cause that they are not good but to repell an Evill suddenly fallen upon some of the Confederates and which threatens the rest of them or to prevent some storm and inundation of some great approaching power But so soon as the danger is over or that th' oppression is taken away they fall of themselves and go out for want of aliment and matter Of this I will treat at length in the second Part of this Work But th' Union of the Suisses cannot perish nor dissolve but by an outward violence It hath an everlasting foundation which is jealousie of Liberty and though they dwell onely in Rocks and that poverty stirs not from their houses yet they would not change their Condition which appears not so ugly but that there 's great cause for them to be in love with it and to believe that the Wealth which Nature hath denyed their Country is plentifully repaired by the Independency wherein they have fixed themselves and by the Freedom under which they live Their Policy then which is at greater distance with Unity that that of the Venetians is by consequence more imperfect and hath greater Inconveniences Secrecy is not to be found in their Meetings the Convocation is made with extream tediousness Their Resolutions are not taken but very late And besides th' error which is common to all Assemblies To dispute much and conclude little 'T is certain the variety of Religions wherewith they are now in labour causeth that when the Dyets are composed of all the Cantons that interests more opposite and passions more opinionated are brought than heretofore were practised And it hath been seen and we have made very troublesome experiences that when our Forces were not fully known to us and that our Infantry was almost raised out of Suisses that the services were so slowly
moderation of this Lord hath been such that he sought not any extraordinary Power in that Occasion That he hath not done nor undertaken any thing but by the expresse Orders of the King and they that have studied his Life and observed his demeanour know that he hath chosen rather to be considered by th'Actions of the compleatest Obedience which a Subject can give to his Soveraign than by the particular marks of Honour and Affection which he could have received But beyond this let us confesse that he is that extraordinary person who hath in an eminent degree all the Qualities fit for governing which are rarely seen but severed in others who executes what he adviseth appears in Calms and Tempests who hath deserved th' honour of Peace and the triumph of War and in whom Virtue is not limited neither by he Condition of the Times nor Diversity of Affaires The Second Discourse whence the Virtue of keeping a Secret proceeds and how necessary it is for a Minister of State WE have shewed in the precedent Discourse how necessary it is that the Councill of a Prince be reduced to a few persons and how difficult it is for a multitude of persons to keep a Secret This may be added to th'happinesse of the King's Raign that never Councill was more faithfull then his nor where the secret of Affaires lay more secure The number is very small but of excellent persons Nothing is capable to untie their Tongue but when it is necessary They are not weak nor to be Corrupted Their Virtue is proof to all Trialls That Condition is particularly remarkable in him who is the Chief and in whom resides that Unity which is a Beam from the Soveraignty and the last measure of the perfection things Few persons have been of profounder thoughts nor of higher exaltations of soul And but few have been seen that could better retaine them or that were more the Master of them And nevertheless the best thoughts of the world and the most happy productions of wit have this in them that they ought to resemble fruits which should be gathered in season that they may be wholsome but they have this Imperfection that they are like to Wine which when it is new endeavours to break out and to run out The wit of man is so in love with it selfe and hath so hot a thirst to make it selfe known that so soon as it hath conceived something which may as it believes deserve praise hath impatience to discover it It makes haste to bring it to light it cannot attend the just time of delivery and it ordinarily falls out that it loseth by too much haste the value of what would have been excellent if it had been brought forth in season and had ripened at leasure Besides this defect which is alwaies naturall to us and which is the proper French Temper There 's another Cause for which the greatest part of men cannot conceal long a design without giving it Air nor retain unto themselves a good Thought 'T is the small power they have to resist common reports and th'opinions that run abroad It hath alwaies been th' humour of the people to be the Censurers of the designs of Princes and of the conduct of their Counsellors 'T is a disease which cannot be cured in them And it seems to them that after they have made them their superiours and have put their goods and lifes into their hands that at least the liberty is reserved unto them of judging of their abilities Strange folly that they who make so ill and crooked Judgements in their own affairs whereof th'extent is so short and th' intelligence so easie constitute themselves Arbiters of State-affairs whose principall circumstance is secrecy and which ought to be in th' eyes of the people as prophesies which are not to be understood but by their success And nevertheless though the knowledg of things be hid from them as much as may be that the Causes are concealed they forbear not to pry into them that they may have alwaies matter of disturbance And wherewith to torment themselves unprofitably They believe all things their sense represents unto them or that another passion suggests unto them A dexterous person then and one who hath a strong understanding and high Courage makes alwaies towards his End without disturbance for these popular infirmities He rests in peace whilst they who have nothing to do but to take their ease and cherish their health are in trouble and in a feavers and imitates the Heavens which alter not their Course for the Tempests of th' Aire nor for the noyse that is made in that stormy Region On the Contrary weak understandings cannot sustain the liberty of Judgements nor th'indiscretion of Tongues The conjectures of Curious and the speculations of idle persons offend them They make haste to give a reason of their Designs and by a precipitated judgement which they passe upon them they see them abortive or fatal Sr. the Cardinal hath not done the like When Envy was raised against him when the Wits did mutiny against his Government when his Enemies opposed him silently or have assaulted him a outward force or by publique Defiance all that hath not disordered him His Actions were neither slow nor confused And as if such Difficulties improved his Judgement or gave him new Forces He never appeared so intelligent or so valiant as in all occasions that seemed to be desperate Whilst th' English possessed th'Iland of Rhee and that Languedoc was in Rebellion and that one part os the Huguenots had declared themselves and th 'others observed the successe of forraine enterprises That the discontented Catholiques did rejoyce at th'ills of the State and that others feared the future which they saw troubled and full of storms never person was more exposed to complaints and ill language then himselfe Indiscretion was extream Insolency raised to threats and that purple which in Venerable in th' eyes of Catholiques and the Dignity of a Prince of the Church were in danger of that common License of being violated His soul neverthelesse changed not its place His Courage was not shaken He did not use violent or faint Remedies as had been sometimes done to stay the Disorder He did not use hatefull preservatives against an ill which inflames by opposition and is provoked by resistance He chose rather to fight them with the greatness of his Actions than by the fear of his punishment and resolved that his Virtue should confound th'Artifices of the wicked and th'Errours of the simple But how many sinister Judgements and sharp discourses did the siege of Rochell raise How many passions did that Town-stir up amongst the Protestants and amongst the Catholiques How many Oppositions were set on foot against that Design in the Kingdom and abroad by them who were our declared Enemies and by them who would seem to be our friends What had not been said of th' expence of that siege if being so
side of the Medall We shall see a Prince ill handled by fortune and a Diadem bruised by her strokes We shall see a Father bury his own Son and make Funeralls for his eldest Daughter A Husband that loseth his Wife who was his Glory and had been more the Companion of his troubles than of his bed A Master aban doned by his Servants and Creatures an old Man forced from his House and a Father in law stripped his own Son in Law In this Sea of Disgraces and of Afflictions we shall also see an admirable serenity of spirit A Calm that overthrows not it selfe or if there was some kind of emotion it did not pass into a storm and was not violent not dangerous 'T is true that his Courage had a weakness in it which I cannot conceal and a fault too visible to be dissembled which is not to have been able to suffer the reputation of he great Captain not the Virtue of his own Subject that was faithful unto him As to his Nephew Charles 't is certain that he was never so tractable as in prosperity not so inflexible in Adversity He never yeeled to force no Prince of his time gave so much and lost so little and the Spaniards say that the never broke his word but t'exercise Clemency and to pardon his Enemies whose Ruine he had sworn During the tempest that arose in the Haven of Algiers against his Fleet and when the Heavens destroyed it in his sight no other word every went out of his Mouth than that wherewith our Saviour Christ hath taught us to pray That thy will be done He was humbled but not overcome by that disgrace and in that terrible Chaos where th' Elements were confounded and Nature in disorder His Courage stood firm His Judgement lost not its Light and he gave order for the embarking of his Troops which were not perished with the same liberty of soul as before he had done when he returned Triumphant from the taking of Thâ—nis and from the spoils of Africa The life of Philip is a Table much mixed and a representation of divers former and contrary Adventures On the one side are seen Countries gained or recovered the Springs of Gold and Silver discovered Victory obtained against Christians and Infidels and that incomparable Advantage to govern peaceably from th'Escuriall a part of two worlds and to be feared in the middle of this Cabinet from one end of th' Earth to th' other But le ts turn our sight a little and we shall find that this prosperity had frequent and long Eclipses and that the shadows of the Pictures exceeded the lively Colours We shall encounter the Death of four wives which he tenderly loved The fancies of his eldest Son which gave him so much trouble and forced him to put off the resentmen of a Father to execute th' office of a King and function of a Judge The jealousies which the good successe and great virtue of Don John of Austria gave him The defeat of his Ships by Tempests and by Enemies The Rebellion of the Low Countries which have deserted Spain and made poor the Indies And amongst all that and in the midst of that Revolution and that confusion of Accidents not to wander and to preserve his Constancy It must be acknowledged that it belongs to such persons by all sorts of Rights to govern the People to the Superiours on Earth and soveraign Arbiters of the destiny of men Amidst so many good successes and rude experiences where in the virtue of Philip was not lost I have made choice of a very remarkable Example 'T is of them that enter in prosperity and be in the favours of fortune and th'evidences of Love which she giveth And therefore 't is the fairer that 't is so rare and that 't is more difficult not to be overcome by pleasure than to resist force and to prevent bending than breaking And as a gentle and temperate heat penetrates our bodies easier than the cold because they expatiate themselves to receive it and cloze to repell the cold So th' Allurements of prosperity are more active and enter sooner into the soul which by desire and the hope of enjoyment goes to meet them than by th' attempts of ill fortune against which the soul fortifies her selfe and defends all ' th Avenues by which she might assault it After then that the Christians had gained the battel of Lepantha and that God had them that memorable Victory the price whereof was lost by their ill Conduct He that carried the news to Philip was so transported above himselfe and seized upon by so strange an emotion that with great difficulty could he make the report of it On the contrary Philip stood as cold as if it had nnot concerned him and so little moved as if the news had been indifferent unto him He replyed onely with a serious Face and settled Countenance THAT DON JOHN HAD MUCH HAZARDED From what cause soever this coldnesse proceeded either from a spirit abated by a long Apprehension least the battel should be lost or from a soul prepared for all sorts of chances and for all the Accidents of life or else from a Consideration which suffered him not to rejoyce at the glory of an Action whose principles it may be he did not esteem reasonable enough From that cause soever I say it proceeded the view is alwayes fair and the substance very noble And I am no more astonished if the person who was not transported for a success which delivered Italy from an approaching Ruine and all Christendom from a great fear received since with any apparent Tranquillity or true Constancy the newes of the Routing of the Fleet which had cost him so much money and ought to have tyed England to the Chain and contented himselfe to say That he had not sent his Fleet to fight against the Winds The constancy of Ministers of State hath this advantage over that of Soveraigns That the Soveraigns are alwaies pittied in their ill successe though it happen by their fault and that Love or Respect which the people bears them doth discharge them from th' envy of the Losses which they make by their imprudency On the contrary they cast upon the Ministers of State all th'evill of the State though they are not guilty The require from them a continuall felicitie though it be not in their power They will have them security for all the chances though they ought onely to secure their Counsels They make them instruments of all their afflictions and of all their sufferings though ordinarily their sins are the cause In briefe they handle them in the same manner and with the same injustice as the first Christians were handled by the Pagans who took exceptions to them for th'anger of Heaven and for the wounds of th' Empire and made them th' Authors fo th'Inundations and of the sterilities and of the plagues wherewith the Nation was grieved Truly Sr. the Cardinal hath alwaies
are feisable for as to the rest they have but an imperfect and diminutive virtue which is as the Shadow and a light impression of the true if Aristotle must be believed Their principall study is to hide their defects to daube the breaches which they cannot make up to paint the face and to deceive the world with apparances of Good and by postern Virtues But in so much that'tis hard to appear a long time what a man is not and that a lame person counterfeits to little purpose when he cannot walk far but he will be observed so th' Art of these men is easily discovered and a little Conversation undresseth that borrowed person and that Stage-Player when they are in Imployments they are secret t'excesse They keep silence not by discretion but by feare and in so much that they cannot distinguish betwixt the things they ought to conceal and such as ought to be published They suppresse all and so betray sometimes innocently th' honours of their Master and the Reputation of his Affairs they bring some design and subtilty to all they do which is that petty and imperfect Prudence whereof as I have said Aristotle makes mention But had he been of our time he had also knowm that as the Alchymists being unable to make perfect the Mettals that are not change them that are and thereof make false Money so also it happens that these subtill persons being not able to conduct their little Artifices and the disposition they have to subtilty even to the true Prudence change it into Jugling and make an Art of it which is the slime of humane society and the poyson of Commerce They have neverthelesse commonly somewhat of good and were not made by chance Heaven hath cast some favourable aspect upon them and they are capable to serve if they are imployed according to their Forces If they are not good to deliberate and to resolve they are good for th' execution of such Orders as are prescribed them They want not confidence to act nor compleasancy t' insinuate into the spirits of them with whom they treat They are exact to perform their charge they shun not labour and though the softnesse of their Complexion withdraws them from it their duty neverthelesse whereof they usually have care and the vanity whereof they are ever sick presse them to it and maintain them in it That is also the cause that they are not very wicked That they are not capable of great Vices no more then of great Virtues And if th' Example doth not Corrupt them or some violent occasion transport them That they will never be guilty of those black Actions which stain th' Honour and destroy the Conscience There 's a fourth kind of Men who have the soul heavier then all th 'others and in whose Composition Nature hath laid up more of Earth These men are capable of great paines and long patience they never yeeld to labour they never work but to work they know not what belongs to honest leisure And that rest which is th' end of th' active Life and which the Philosophers seek for to be happy is their torment and misery They are unapt for Negotiation But in so much that in the midst of that Mass whereof they are compounded they have some beam of good sense and although their Understanding makes no flame it hath neverthelesse some sort of clearnesse they are not to be despised they are not improper for the Oeconomy They may serve in an Army to presse on labour to make provisions for Victuals and for the like services wherein the Body hath a greater share then th' Understanding but that they have need of both The Fifth Discourse Of a fifth Temper which comprehends the perfections of all th 'others TO conclude There 's a fifth Order of Constitutions which a few persons enter into and which the world sees seldomer than Miracles For this Nature opens all her Treasures becomes prodigall of her graces draws forth her Art and goes to the very bottom of her power And as the ordinary Constitutions are formed of the substance of the Elements and of the hidden virtues of Heaven which are mingled with Harmony and Symmetry It seems that these are composed of what others have of most rare and pure that they are Extracts and Elixirs and that the bodies which are so furnished are not Prisons for the soul but very commodious Palaces nor rebellious slaves but tractable Servants or obedient Subjects In effect As th' Heavens have generall Qualities and which agree and enter into society with all the qualities of th' Elements and of the Bodies which they produced In like manner those divine Constitutions whereof we speak are proper to all the faculties of the soul and for all the operations of those faculties There 's nothing in them of malignant nor any thing that hinders Th' abundance of the memory makes not the judgement poore th' Action of th'understanding doth not lessen the benefits of the Memory and dissolves not its Representations Memory and Judgement take not from the Understanding its edge its vivacity nor its presence All works there with facility and that which causeth disturbance and trouble in other bodies produceth here a miraculous Harmony and perfect Intelligence Th'understanding as it hath been said is so much Master of the body that it obeyes it without resistance 'T is supple to all its desires takes pains as if it were strong though it be sometimes sick and weak and as if it were born up by th 'others strength or raised by its Agility It holds the body to all sorts of toyl and is not over come by the greatness of the labour or continuance of it The sensitive Appetite is there very quiet no Motion almost doth there arise which is not voluntary either in its birth or duration The Desire of glory is the sole passion which makes its selfe violently to be felt and which is so imperious if it be not suppressed that it confounds or makes all th 'others subject unto it when it is without bridle 't is not content to raign over the lower part of the Soul it will domineer in th' highest She will command Reason she declares that it belongs to her to violate Justice with praise She stirs up Usurpators and Robbers of Provinces and Kingdoms whom she causeth to be called Conquerors she commands the Title of Great to be given Alexander for having unjustly possessed himselse of part of the world and he had a will to have invaded th' other part of it She causeth that even to Christians th' Emperours Honour themselves in their qualities with the Name of a person that hath raised th' Empire to which they succeed upon the Ruines of their Country In briefe it causeth that one is called the Flayl of God to colour his Invasions and another the Corrector of Princes and of the Nations of th' Earth But when the desire of glory is submitted to Reason when the Soul
when Christendome is agitated and that It's Princes are in discord I should be an ill Logician to draw no better consequences and it were t' act against all the principles of Reason and all the Maxims of Morality To forbid th' use of good things for their cause that abuse them To hinder good Superiours to do their Duty because the bad neglect it and not enjoy the Beauty of the Sun nor the benefits of its Light because of the Eclipses which sometimes interpose and steale it away from the World 'T is true that there have been wicked Popes and who have been the shame of th' Holy Chaire and the scandall of Religion There have been of them who did not engage in th' Affairs of Princes but to trouble them who brought only poyson and fire against the diseases and who infected with their venome and breath all that they touched But all are not of that Nature all are not guided by that Spirit There have been some very honest Men full of the spirit of God who burn only with Holy Zeal and having been raised to that supreame Dignity have renounced all affections of Blood for t'assume only th' affections of common Fathers of Christians and of incorruptible Arbiters of th' affairs committed to them And as they have the heart very sound and the will free from all irregular passion some of them also have the sight cleere and th'understanding much enlightned having a great intelligence of the things of the World and that the goodnesse of their understanding and th' Imployment they have had from other Popes have put them into a condition neither to be deceived by the artifices of their Relations nor bewitched with strange illusions The corruption also of their kindred and of their Ministers of State is not so Universall but that many are exempt and who mingle nothing of particular with the Zeal of publique Rest nor any thing of Strangers with th' instructions of their Masters And without considering that th' Holy Chaire is the foundation wherein Religion is supported and that there 's no salvation for the members who abandon that Head This Good ariseth to the Princes his Children That his Authority is much respected by them when it interposeth in their Affaires and that his offices are very powerfull or very proper to determine their Quarrells when the fire is kindled betwixt the two great Crowns and that France and Spaine make warr What power is either high enough or impartiall enough t' interveine to put it our who can have force enough to retaine those two great Engines when they move and to stop such Impetuous and rash Motions but th' Holy Chair Besides that the Empire hath long stood without its first Glory and without any markes of its ancient Majesty but the Name Armes Who knows not that it depends on Spaine or is in Communion of Interests with it who knowes not that it hath withdrawn th' Empire from the precipice wherein it was falling That it subsists not but by its subventions and Reliefes and that Charles the fifth left not a stronger Recommendation to his son than to be alwayes in amity with his Cousins though their friendship cost him very deer or to preserve it at an excessive price and with Immoderate Conditions For what concernes the Crowne of England which was heretofore the Counterpoise of th' other two and Arbiter of their differences It is no more so proper as it hath been t' Act in their discords Change of Religion hath spoiled it it cannot entertaine any good Intentions for the Catholiques Having that venome on the heart it cannot behold their prosperities with Eyes entirely pure Their good Intelligence ought to be suspected and if it advanceth sometimes towards Spaine and sometimes towards France It lasteth so little and is done with such languishing Motions and so suddaine a Returne That 't is very visible that 't is not a perfect Amity it considers but a fancy of Goodwill which presently disappeares and an abortive of Affection which is produced by some light Cause As to the Republique of Venice It hath truly Wisdome and Greatness enough to labour in the Quarrells of the two Crownes But'tis so very Jealous of the power of th' one and so great an Enemy to their Ambition that their Endeavours would not be lesse suspected then th' offices of a Declared Enemy As for th' other Princes of Italy and Germany they are so little or so dependant or so enstrainged from th'Inclination of Spain That for their sakes they would not forsake their Animosity nor submit to their good offices The Pope then remaines the sole Mediator of their Discords The Quality of Children of the Church which Catholique Princes do Glory in obligeth them to honour Him who represents the Chiefe and whatsoever jealousie of Honour they labour under they do no wrong to their Courage or Ambition to submit to him who is above them and Conjures them in the Name of Jesus Christ by whom they reigne not to despise the peace he hath so much recommended Those Princes also who are sometimes a weary of quarrelling and to whom th'Evills of warr are dreadfull and the Misery of their subjects gives them cause of Pitty are very willing to be invited to Rest by so powerfull Authority It cannot be denyed but that the peace of Vervins so necessary for Spain and profitable for France was the work of Clement th' Eighth and that Henry the Great and Philip the Second had been much troubled to lay downe Armes which weighed so heavily on both partyes without so great an Interposer I have said that when Princes are tired with Quarrells and emptied of Monies and Men or that they have in other places more important Employments which they cannot attend but in quiting the first otherwise truely when Ambition is supported by force and when th' appetite to Conquer is provoked by th' hope of victory T is hard to extinguish it with Treaties or to appease it by offices To the greatest part of Princes that make warr the same happens as t'opinionated Lawyers who cease not to plead by Election but by Insufficiency who owe their Rest to the poverty and not to the moderation of their spirit and who stop not in going but stand on the way for want of Force to go further Besides th' Experience which we have made of these last motions of Italy we have memorable examples in the Life 's of Charles the fifth and Francis the first The state of Milan was the Love of those two Princes and the most violent objects of their Ambition They both burned with an Equall heat of possessing it and th' animosity which they Conceived upon that subject one against another was so great that neither time nor men could ever evercome it Paul the third spared not his person and exposed himselfe to long journeies to labour so necessary a Reconsiliation Th' inundations of the Turke from all parts upon Christians sufficiently sollicited th'Emperour
of men is very strange to help of nature the wayes of reigning and to destroy their affairs which they might find more certain and honourable with prudence and discourse what pitty 't is that so many experiences which have preceded cannot make them understand that if vertue be sometimes unhappy 't is alwaies esteemed That it riseth oftner then Malice when it falls and that the good fortune of this consists not in the souls of them that exercise it but in th' opinion of them that behold only th' Exteriour which covers it and the superficies that doth surround it The Fifthtenth Discourse Whether it be lawfull to make Warre with the Pope Wherein the Demeanour which Phillip the second observed in the Warre he made is Commended and that of Charles the fifth Condemned TO resolve this matter well and give it a full day and a perfect Cleerenesse 'T is necessary to make use of the Metaphysicall abstractions and to distinguish the things which are effectively joyned with the Spirit But are truly diverse and have nothing of common but the subject which holds them and the stock on which they are grafted The Popes then are not now to be considered as Vicars of Jesus Ghrist Who hath protested that his Kingdome was not of this world but as Princes of th' Earth and Lords of certaine States in Italy and in the country of Provance That being supposed I say in the first place that it seems that they who have given these Estates to the Church could not bestow them with other Intentions than as they did enjoy them and subject to the same inconveniences they were in the time of their enjoying them And therefore the Popes which enjoy them are not exempt from the right of Nations no more then the first Masters of those estates and that they ought to propose to themselves Besides that injustice is more odious in them then in other persons who ought t' act only by charity ' That 't is permitted t'other Soveraignes to do Justice themselves when it cannot be obtained of them and that they abuse to the ruine of men to temporall power they have received from men So when Paul the fourth declared War against Phillip the second and would take away the Kingdome of Naples from him to give it t 'one of his Nephewes Th' advise of the most eminent Theologians of Spaine and Flanders and amongst others of Melchior Canus Porta was That he ought not only t' attend in his dominions the Popes Forces and beat them back but that he might also with a good conscience enter upon the Lands of the Church by way of diversion and to prevent the storme which was raised against his Territories I say neverthelesse that here distinction must be used and 't is very probable that a Warre purely offensive against the Pope may not singly be undertaken That there 's no title of just Warre nor consideration of State which can dispence a Prince to retaine with conscience what he hath gained in justice from th' Holy Chaire and that consequences are not to be drawn from what intervenes in the Commerce of Princes purely temporall and in the Quarrels they have together in relation to what respects the good of the Church and the Revenue of St. Peter The Reason is that insomuch that amongst the first 't is sufficient that the Warre be probably just t'authorise the conquests that are made and make the possession lawfull of what is gained Which happens not in the Warres that are made to Popes To make out the true difference 't is of importance to stay a little upon this dolefull matter and to descend even to the Root of that justice and to the finall cause which makes the Warre lawfull The Soveraign Princes who have no superiours on Earth who hold only of God by themselves and are independent as to all other men are dependent as Justice And therefore so oft as they violate that Vertue and break that Divine bond which sustains th' Order of the World Another Prince which shall be wronged may repaire himself of the wrong he suffers and satisfie himselfe with his own hands And in this Conscience is safe and the Warres mads to repulse violence are agreeable to God and the bloud there spilt a sacrifice of a good Odour before his Divine Majesty Wherefore in th' Antient Law he hath stirred up his people t' Arme themselves and to fight and he hath not disdained amongst his most Magnificent Qualities and most glorious Titles t' assume that of God of th' Armies This at first seems strange by reason of th'Inclination Man ought to have to sweetnesse and peace And since 't is not seen that Beasts are greedy of the bloud of their kinde nor Tygers cruell against Tygers There 's cause of great amazement that men should be so ingenious to destroy one another and so fierce to ruine their very kind That the noblest of all Virtues is Valour and that of making warre the most famous Art That the glory of Alexander and Caesar needed two Millions of Lifes to rise to th' heighth it is at And that ancient Rome allowed not the triumph but to the Murderers of all most a whole Nation and to them who had depopulated a Country of the Flower of their Inhabitants and poured out the Noblest bloud of a Province That would truly be strange if it was done by an Instinct of Cruelty If it proceed from a blind Envy to drinke up humane bloud and was conducted by any other spirit then that of Justice That if we make no Question to take Physicke To permit opening of veines and to make use also of Poyson and of fire t'heat our bodies How much lesse difficulty ought we make t' imploy violent Remedies when gentle are unprofitable and that there 's no other provision to be made against th' Irregularities of Princes and of people nor to Maintain justice which is th' health of States and the soul of the politique Body That if what soveraigne Princes practise in the person of their subjects and the Example they make of their Crimes are agreeable to God and necessary for the world How much more ought that to be just which they exercise against other Princes and is of the more Generall faults and concern all the Nations of th' Earth in Consequence an infinite of particular persons in their private Interest It were well to be wished That of two parts which Compose the distributive The world knew onely that which gives Crownes to virtue and Recompences to Merit But since Corrupted nature enclines more t' evill than to good and that th' objects of virtue are not so frequent and active as those of vice That part of justice which distributes punishment hath by Consequent a more necessary use and more extended then th' other and Soveraignes ought no more to be exempted then particular persons since they are alike faulty and more dangerously Culpable 'T is the reason God hath put the
would supply that defect by his Counsells Th' Army was at Iuetot and the father at Candebu where he was dressed of his wound There he would be Consulted with upon all Occurrences and th' order for what was to be done was fetched a League off In the mean time the time passed in going and coming the state of the warr changed Countenance new Accidents demanded new Counsells and the Spaniards lost faire occasions t' inomomodate us whilst they went t' aske his permission and we made no small advantage of the Disorder of a body that was so disunited from th' head that governed it But to make the benefits of Vigilancy the better t' appeare and th' operations of that sharp virtue and of that unquiet Prudence which is ever in Action which makes profit of all things that suffers nothing t' escape and particularly in the warr where occasions stay not and never returne when they are once fled away Le ts demonstrate this by apt examples When Gaston of Foix drew to the Reliefe of Bonlogna against th' Army of the League which had besieged it If at th' entry of the Towne he had drawn out to Charge th' Enemies he had surprized them He had defeated them without resistance that had not been on their guards because they distrusted nothing and the delay of one night which He gave at the Requests of his Captaines for some rest to his souldiers ravished from us a victory which had all Italy for price and cost us a little after the Life of that prince which was of more vertue then all Italy Th' evening before the battell of Jury The late King had taken his quarter at Menoncour The Marshall of Charters was to discover it and observed that his Army was weake and affrighted Sr. of Maine nevertheless would not Charge that evening t' untire his souldiers who were haressed with the Labour of the way and with the long Marches they had made in the mean time three thousand foot and Eight hundred horse arrived in the night to the King who gave Courage with th' hopes of victory to his Army and after prevailed for the gaine of the Battell which they run hazard the day before to lose As to th' Important victories which Care and Diligence have occasioned and have as it were forced from the hands of destiny I observe three famous ones amongst the Modern and which ought to be observed with a particular attention The defeate of Francis the first before Pavy is without doubt a work of th' Emperours fortune and of the virtue of the Marquis of Pessary who was one of the chiefe Commanders of his Army But it ought chiefly to be attributed to his Industry and to that Indefatigable and hot humour which never gave him any Rest which held him in perpetuall action which exercised him day and night and forced business t' obey him and to come to the point he had proposed to himselfe In that manner He overcame us against all shew of Apparance and got the better of us though we had then no need of any thing but patience t' overcome That we had nothing to do but to defend our selves and t' hinder being defeated for to defeate them First he did beat downe the Forts which covered our Army and rendred his Avenues safe He advanced towards us without losse of time or taking of rest and before almost we could see them come He fell into the Kings Quarters and constrained him to fight and to put t' hazard what he had assured if he had kept his advantage On the contrary there 's no place of excuse for Francis nor palliate his blindness and that stupid negligence wherewith he was possessed in the midst of his Army without knowing the State or Number of it but by the report of his Captaines and not knowing the designes of his Enemies till he was not in a Condition to break them and not being prepared to resist them but believing them too weake t' assault him A notorious fault in Warr wherein the necessity of fighting should never be permitted nor t' act at the pleasure of enemies where they ought never to be despised or esteemed weake where th' Eyes ought to be imployed on all things and nothing neglected and where small Accidents are ordinarily the beginnings of great Revolutions and th' originall of the good or bad success of Enterprizes The second Example is of the last Duke of Guise when he defeated th' Army of Germans which came to overcome France under the Command of the Duke of Bouillon and of the Baron of Auneau So soon as he had discovered th' Army he never allowed in any rest and lost not an occasion of Incommodating it He gave it Continuall A larmes to tire it He had it in his Braine when it Marched He vexed it in its Quarters He cut off the wayes of Provisions from all sides and at last in three encounters at Vimony at Auneau and at Mount beliart dissipated the whole Army The third Example is the Reliefe of th' Iland of Rhé It must be acknowledged that the glory of that success which will appeare another day a Miracle in the life of the King or a fable in History is an effect of the piety of that Prince and a visible Argument of th' Inclination which th' heavens have for him But it must be also confessed that this good fortune was not given him freely and that he hath aided th' Hands of God to work this wonder The feaver hath newly left him His recovery was yet uncertaine and it was necessary for his Courage to compleate the support of his body when he put himselfe into the way to find th' English what he did in an Occasion apparantly deplorable may be judged by his accustomed Actions which were alwayes of greatest difficulty And though th' Actions of Princes resemble th' Essences which containe a great Virtue in a small Quantity and though they do little yet operate much by reason of the force of th' Example So it is that the King would not have believed his Charge to have been discharged but in doing more then th' others If he had put them onely on their way to let them after that march of themselves had he not alwayes served them for guid If he had not made way for them without Interruption and if he had not been the last to quit labour and to retire from Action Moreover it must be further avowed that as in th' affaires whereof we now speak He hath forgot nothing of the duty of an Active and labourious Prince and that he hath also there Compleately served so that th' Instruments which he there imployed betrayed not the virtue of the principall Cause Monsieur his Brother made his first Armes there very remarkable and the beames of that rising valour have been so lively and pure that it was visible they could not proceed but from a spring extreamly faire and that greater beginnings could not be expected from
losse their Fleet had newly suffered it saw powerfull preparations in Holland which threatned the Low Countries and a formed tempest which it could not conjure down In a word Milan lost Naples could not be preserved and Flanders would have been lost of it selfe in shutting up that passage from whence it received its principall supplies to make Warre And neverthelesse this great power which gave fear to so many powers which was formidable even to the Turks and Barbarians of Affrica which is fatall to the rest of Christian Nations which obliged all of them to be with us or against us Had been beaten with that single stroake and we had nothing more within to fear when the springs of our troubles had been stopped without and the Instruments broak which make and nourish our divisions and humbled th' Authors or Promoters of our civill discords These were the thoughts that in that time exercised the spirits of many persons and particularly of th' Italians and as 't is the custome of men t'accommodate their thoughts to their interests and to flatter themselves in their desires they imagined that ours were like theirs Though in that poynt our Interests were disagreeing But also on th' other part who shall consider that men must not spend their time about setting their haire or paring their Nailes when th' Heart and the Brain are sick That great States never perish by a Forraign violence so long as th' Interiour is in health and th' Entrails sound and that they ruine of themselves when the corruption is within and th'Evill hath seised upon the Noble parts That in long Warrs abroad a Prince ought not t' engage himselfe when the Diversion is ever ready within and that ther 's a formed feaction in the middle of the State which will not fail to disturb for to prevaile of th' Occasions That the discontented will foment if they dare not publique assist and to whom strangers will give heat or forces to disturbus by our selves For to consume us at easie Chargges and alwaies to weaken us either by losse or victory Who shall consider I say these things will avow that the Returne of the King into Languedoc was a stroake of the gaine of the decision of our Domestique Affairs the good of Forraign Affairs Furthermore Could a greater misfortune befall us then to lose the occasion of finishing the Ruine of a party that hold France in Languishment more then sixty years had reduced it to a State equall to that of certain persons who know not what health is but are alwaies busie either t'heal th'evills they suffer or to present them they feare The conjucture past It was probable it would not returne of a long time and that 't was to no purpose t' hope or expect it It was so contrary to that party that it could not but be relieved from Germany that laboured to defend its proper Liberty That England was wearied in protecting an ill cause That th' Hollanders durst not irritate France openly by reason of th' use they have of it and that they have learned to regulate their Charities by their Interests and the Zeal of Religion by the Zeal of State That the Spaniards had greater action in Flanders Italy than they could master and could not act against us but with a little Money with vain promises In the third place The Reputation of the Kings Armes was incredible it could alone make conquests It could overcome without fighting and never Prince was better served of his Souldiers or more feared of his Enemies Our Souldiers were in heat and full of hope The past victories were certain arguments of future and after the taking of Rochell forceing of Suza overcomming what was defended by Sea and covered with mountains They ought not t' apprehend any thing impossible nor any thing difficult It was then the only proper season to defeat that party which Sr. the Cardinal most judicially observed and the King most divinely made choyce of If that expedition had been longer deferr'd the plague alone had been sufficient to force us from Languedoc and to defeat our Armies and if we had been engaged in Italy what had not Monsieur of Rohan don with the Aid of strangers which had not failed him If the Spaniards who ever promise timely and almost without deliberation who performe slowly and after long consultations but who spare nothing when they are well engaged in a businesse and have put those that serve them in a condition not to be able to repent or unable t' unsay it If the Spaniards I say had performed the conditions of the Treaty they had made with him and furnished the Money they had promised If the forces of Savoy had passed into Danphine to joyne with him as the resolution was taken If ours had been divided within and without the Kingdome and if th' hope of Change and Expectation of a better fortune had withdrawne from their duty them of that party which feare retained He had without doubt broken all our designes because they were destitute of its Advantages frustrated of forraigne promises Abandoned of the soundest and most Considerable party of Hugonotes in the poverty of all them that aided him and in the distrust of some and irresolutions of others In certaine Corners of a Province where he commanded He gave so much trouble that the presence of the King was necessary and six Armies to reduce him Moreover 't is a great discourse to speak of the Conquest of Milan and to renew beyond that Mountaines the pretentions of our fathers T is a designe which well deserves Consideration before it be attempted and requires another Conjuncture than that wherein we are found For who is ignorant that t is not for the good of France nor th' Interest of Italy that the King be Duke of Milan Who knows not that our Conquests if we should Maintaine them would give greater jealousie to the Princes of that Country then the domination whereof they complaine That they esteeme us worse Masters and more dangerous Neighbours then the Spaniards are more Conformable unto their Flegme and severity than our Heat and License That they believe that we are a more certaine and assured Counterpoyse to th' Ambition of others than they would be to ours That the facility we have to make our Armies descend into their Countrey and th' aboundance of men to relieve them might give the desire of undertaking and usurping it That th' occasion stirres up the most lazie and raiseth the most sleepy That present objects do raise all the faculties and that Commodity and Conveniency provoke th' Appetite of Conquest which is otherwise moderate and quiet And though th' Ambition of the Spaniards hath neither Moderation nor bounds That they desire violently and desire Many things That in th' order of their Counsells which neither change nor dye They have declared the warr t' all Nations which hold not of them by subjection or dependency since this
different things That they applyed the spots of th' one to th' other that had none at all and have revolted against the Holy Chair because they could not suffer the vices of the Pope Th'Authors neverthelesse of this great Attempt have not sinned of ignorance and were not carried thereunto by the zeal of th' honour of God They knew well that the Licence of Manners is not incompatible with the purity of opinions That the Will may follow Evill though the Reason doth not approve of it and that the same Authority which forbids us t' imitate the deboshes of Pastors commands us to respect their doctrine and to hold us in the way they teach us distinct from the myre they are fallen into But they were put on by other Motives Avarice and Spight animated them against the dignity to be revenged of the persons that possessed it Instead of stopping at th' abuses they exercised they assaulted the power which God had given them Instead of pruning the branches they would cut down the body and take away their Neighbours Life to hinder him from Doing ill And as those Creatures who draw Poyson from Flowers and Simples whereof men make perfumes and Medicines Instead of admiring the care God hath for his Church in hindring it from spoyle in the midst of corruption and to sinke in so violent tempests They have severed themselves from her and have indeavoured to cut the bands of the Members and the Head and t' abolish that divine dependancy which makes a regular body as Dissolution makes a Monster God also hath raised many great persons to fight the designs of the Revolted and to revenge th' injury done him in destroying what was of his Institution for the vices of Men and in judging of the virtue of the Sacraments by the goodness of the Priests and the force of the work by the merit of the workman But as 't is hard for th' humane spirit to observe moderation in its designes and that it be not transported in the pursuit of good for which it hath passion It hath also happened that they who have runne to the Relief of th' Holy Chair have truly prospered in that defence and repelled th' imposture of them that have assaulted it yet all have stayed there some have passed their bounds and being pressed with too much heat which the love of truth had inspired into them have not only supported the spirituall power of the Pope but have also attributed unto him a temporal which was unknown to th' Apostles unheard of in the Primitive Church which gives jealousie t' other Princes which hath not ot this time edified which hath destroyed much and made Schism to enter into those States which had been Catholique the space of many ages And insomuch that they who have been raised to this Supream dignity which severs them from the Community of men are nevertheless men sometimes have common inclinations There 's no wonder if some of them are glad to see their Authority extended To see themselves made more powerfull then they thought to be that the light which doth surround them is greater and disperseth its Ray further then they did imagine and if they are easily perswaded to a thing so conformable to their desires and to the most violent appetite of reasonable Nature which is that of Domination Insomuch that 't is not only true that the change of Fortune is ordinarily accompanied with the change of Manners but also sometimes of Opinions That it disorders all the powers of the Soul That it alters the disposition of th' Understanding after it hath changed that of the Will And some Popes have judged more favourably of the greatness of the Holy Chaire when they were in it they they did before when they were but single Cardinals or in some lower dignity Wherefore in subjects which look either directly or obliquely upon th' Holy Chaire A Minister of State ought to be very circumspect He must slide upon that Pavement if he must passe upon it If he be constrained to touch upon so delicate parts Let it be done with a subtile and light hand and that he do not pierce too deep if it be possible into a matter wherein it will be hard not to be offended if he do not offend Above all that he stay alwaies in the bounds of Reason and in the bounds of Justice That he take nothing away from another but that he permit not any thing to be taken away from his Master That his imprudence or softness do not occasion any prejudice for the future to the State and that he remember the proceeding of Charles the fifth when he came into Italy to be Crowned Emperour The Legates who were sent to receive him prayed him that he would swear to do no wrong to the Liberties of the Church nor injure the spouse of Jesus Christ He answered that he would swear neither to alter the rights of the Church nor the pretensions of th' Empire That had an aspect to the Citties of Pleasance and of Parma which the one pretended to be a Fiefe of th' Empire th' other of the Holy Chaire Truly Sr. the Cardinal behaved himself so well in Occurrences of this nature that the Rights of the Crown and Dignity of th' Holy Chaire have been inviolable in his hands That nothing but Justice held the Ballance that he gave to God and Caesar their due and maintained equally the Quality of a Minister of State and of a Prince of the Church He is not ignorant of the Temper which ought to be betwixt a blind Zeal and License scarce Catholique He knowes the way was to be held betwixt these two precipices He knowes how to saile without striking upon the Rocks He cannot wander for want of light He hath a most profound knowledge of Holy things and of the things of the world and the Sorbone admired him as their Ornament before it did reverence him for their benefactor and protector Wherefore he took care not to see with other Mens Eyes as others have done or to Move with the passion of strangers So no soul also was ever lesse prepossessed then his or more direct in its apprehensions There 's no Irregularity in the functions of his powers and with exception to the Commerce of Faith which is alwayes priviledged the Will gives not its opinions to th' Understanding but receives its heate and affections from his discourse and his Illuminations Wherefore 't is easie to judge how imprudent the Calumny of them was who assaulted him during the Negotiation of Cardinal Barberin or a little after Rome did not complaine of Him and th' Holy Father knew well that the necessities of State and th' hidden Causes of its Conduct do not ever permit That to the zeal of honest Men all be given that they would have None then but ill Frenchmen have complained or strangers that hate us and to whom Pretences are good when Causes are wanting to them That cry us down who
are incensed against us Those black Manifests also and those violent and sharp Writings which France hath seen have done no hurt to the Reputation of this Great Minister of State They have resembled those stinking Vapours which are exhaled from Moorish Grounds which evidence cleerly the Corruption of the place whence they come but infect not the Sun against which they arise They have given themselves the Lye by the things that have happened The time hath inverted them upon their Authors They have seen that Delinquent of th' Hugonots fastned invariably to the Ruine of all that was rebellious in that party They have seen Rochell fall in part by the cares of that Cardinall of Rochell They have seen Heresy humbled by that Great polititian and reduced under the Common Right and Generall Obedience as well of Obedience as of Opinions to his Mode they have seen what he dared in th' Affaires of Monsieur of Mantove what he undertook t'assume the Liberty of th' Holy Chaire and to what he exposed himselfe for the Love of that Rome which by imputation was despised by him They have seen that neither th' open force of Conjured persons strangers nor the great Resistance of ill disposed Frenchmen Barrenes nor the Plague could hinder the King from being the Liberator of Italy as He hath been the Restorer of France But how hath the Prudence of that Great Minister of State shined in the Dispute of th' Authority of the Pope which had been awakened some years since amongst us How dexterous hath he been in the Manadgement of a Matter so dangerous How very happy in laying dead that Quarrell which shall ever be fatall to Religion and which cannot be deterred but by opening the dore to Schisme He alone found th' Expedients to pacifie the Sorbone which was in Tumult on that Subject To re-joynt the body which was torne in parts To reduce opinions too much flattered To content the Pope and to preserve our Liberties and the Rights of the Crowne This action was so necessary that without it our Affaires had never taken a Course so advantageous as they did and so difficult that I dare affirme It could not have been done but by a principall Minister of State by a Prince of the Church by a great Theologian and excellent Polititian altogether The Eleventh Discourse Considerations upon the precedent Discourse WHat I have said in the Precedent Discourse is not to Condemn the wealth of the Church but to blame them that abuse it Nor to conclude that she is not ever the same though she was born poor and that she is now rich That Charity is diminished That the Manners of the greatest part of particular persons is Degenerated and that their Lifes are contrary to theirs who were the first of the Faithfull 'T is ever the same face though the good Graces are not the same and the Colour is gone The figures remaines The features and proportions leave it not and 't is still the same Soul which gives it Life T is alwayes the same River though its water is sometimes troubled and sometimes cleere that it flowes at one time and ebbs at another The Channell is permanent The spring is fixed and its Course tends alwayes to the Sea which is its first Originall There are in Religion things of an eternall Substance and there are that may suffer Change and Alteration And as the beginnings of Nature are alwayes weak and perfection comes by degrees into her works so that which issues purely from th' hand of God is usually perfect and if it stay not in that state T is the fragility of Man that alters it and the necessity of the Condition that makes the Change Since God determined that great Designe of the purchase of men and that he would be th' End and Meanes of their happiness It was Convenient that the Church which he should establish should be born poore And that the world might know it to be his work It was necessary that she should be raised by Meanes contrary to th' ordinary That she should triumph over Riches in her poverty over Greatness in Disdaine and over the Wsedome of th' Age in the Ignorance of humane things Otherwise truly if it had come in Abundance If its Entry into the world had been invironed with Glory and the doctrine which she brought perswaded by the ornaments of Rhetorique and subtiltyes of Philosophy It had been under jealouzie with us No person would have been astonished at the progresse It hath made in so Little a time and that it being come out of a Corner of Palestine It had passed in an instant to th' uttermost Bounds of th' Earth and penetrated even to a world severd from ours No person would have thought it strange that Covetous Men should run after wealth That Ambition had followed Pompe and that Eloquence plaid with the Credulity of simple persons That famous Impostor who hath found so many followers and whose Errors entertaine as yet to this day two thirds of our world had been alone if he had been poor and had never deceived the people if he had not subdued them It was the necessary That Religion truly divine had the markes of the Principle from which She proceeds That she comes Contrary to the Rules of Prudence and establishes her self by that which ought to destroy her But as she hath the Love of God for her End and Charity for her Neighbour and that chiefly it ought to distinguish the disciples of Iesus Christ from the rest of Men 'T is from thence happened that the first Christians carried their Lands and Goods to the foot of th' Apostles and stripped themselves of the propriety which did belong to them to make it Common to their brothers A permanent stock neverthelesse of those offerings was not made They did onely passe and were shared in Measure as they were received and as in proportion the Faithfull had occasion The flames of Charity since growing by the Number of Converts and the Goods which were daily offered to the Church being extreamly increased by that Multiplication It was judged expedient to preserve the stock and that the distribution of the Revenue might serve to maintaine the Pastors and to relieve the poor This order was introduced even in the time of th' Apostles as we may conjecture or a little after In conclusion the stock which made a great summe was divided into proportions the portions assigned to them who served the Church and constantly applyed to other uses and without being any more mingled or Confounded This order hath lasted to our time And how holy or unlawfull th' use of the goods of the Church hath been in th' hands of particular Men 'T is at least not to be doubted but that the Charity of the Givers hath been precious before God and their zeal extremely meritorious But moreover I say that after the Golden Age of Christendome and that very happy time wherein they onely knew Jesus