the Romans who at their first entry made so stately a show whom Pernassus had seen so noble an Auxiliary Militia who had raised their Empire to such an immensity and who were so glad to hear their civil Government so exagerated by all the Literati in being able to dilate their Empire by the blood of other men were forced to quit the Theater and to hide themselves in holes that so they might shun hearing the scorn and injurious speeches which were uttered against them by all the Literati that were present at the show For the noble Vertuosi hating from their very souls the Roman cruelty and ingratitude used towards those Nations who by their expence of blood had deserved so well at their hands asked where was the Faith where the sacred Friendship where the Gratitude used to those their Friends to those who had so well deserved of the people of Rome and by their lives had exalted their Empire to so great a height And whether these were Actions becoming that Roman Senate who made so great a show and boasted so much of Religion Faith and unviolable friendship insomuch as all did detest that execrable reason of State which following onely that which brings men apparent advantage can so impiously turn its back upon what is just and honest and which when her occasions are served forgets all Obligations how great so ever As soon as this miserable sight was ended Guiccardin by order from Apollo got up into a very high place and made a long Political discourse upon the little discretion and upon the want of Charity of great Monarchs towards petty Princes that are of less power then they wherein he said that when in a State consisting of many Princes one Prince more great then any of the rest took up Arms to bear down one of the other all the rest to keep from being supprest should think their Companions loss their own ruine a means to bring them into slavery a preparation for their overthrow and that therefore absolutely forgetting all private hatreds and heart-burnings they should all of them imbrace the publike Cause and â—…un by their common forces joyntly to asswage that fire which was likely in a short time to reduce their own homes into ashes for in former times Asia and Africa not at all betaking themselves to Arms were unfortunate spectators of the servitude of whole Italy subjugated by the famous Romans and in more modern times the whilome powerful Kingdom of Hungary to it s now great sorrow laught at the overthrow of the Grecian Empire that therefore in like dangers every Prince should have the two golden Sentences of that Master of true Policy Tacitus written in their hearts Omnibus perire quae singuli amittant Tacit. in vita Agriculae It being very true that in such like cases Singuli dum pugnant Universi vincuntur And that they should esteem such honors as were done them by those who were more powerful then they shameful disgraces alliances which they might contract with them preparations to betray them the advantage which they might get by Pensions hooks bayted with poyson tricks to lull them asleep onely that they may afterwards with a little mony purchase that their liberty which cannot be payd by mountains of gold And that above all things else they should take example by the slavery which they had seen of the Romans associates and should think that the ambition which the more powerful have to reign having no Orison the accomplishment of conquering an Enemy was the beginning to subjugate a Friend The second day Apollo commanded that upon the same Theater all those great Senators should first appear who had assisted Caesar his Tyranny and that of Augustus out of the Interest of private Ambition or out of meer avarice which being forthwith done he gave order that all those should appear who were wickedly slain in the cruel Proscription made by the Triumviri and in Augustus his long reign and those who had been put to death by Tiberius his cruelty Caligula's bestiality and by Nero's fierce Nature This was the most sad and lamentable spectacle that was ever seen represented in the memory of man in any place whatsoever for then all Pernassus broke forth into deep sighs and shed tears in abundance when those that had assisted Caesar in his Tyranny saw that not onely Tiberius Caligula Claudius and Nero but even Augustus himself forgetting the obligations which they ought to their posterity who had ayded them in atchieving their Tyrannical power were by them destroyed and cruelly put to death For Children not inheriting their fathers humors as they do their Estates many of the sons of those Senators who following Caesars and Augustus his Colours had appeared enemies to publike liberty were afterwards cruelly slain by the insuing Tyrants onely for that they discovered too much their love to live free others for proving more vertuous Senators then would stand with Tyrannical Govenment and an infinite number by the meer bestiality of those that governed This so horrid sight at first occasioned great silence wherein the Vertuosi considered that since not any Plebeian appeared amongst the vast number of those that were slain nor any other principal subject of the Provinces but onely worthy Senators and Gentlemen of infinite desert the cruelties used by the Tyrants who reigned in the Roman Empire against the Senators and nobler sort of Gentry were for the most part occasioned thorow the defect of the Nobility who not able to preserve publike liberty by peace as they ought to have done could never submit themselves to receive that total servitude which must of necessity be imbraced under the Government of one onely man but by their many Conspiracies by continual misgovernment of their Tongues and by their pride of speaking like free men whilst they were in slavery did so provoke and anger them that reigned as made them become cruel Butchers of the Roman Nobility This useful consideration being ended those unfortunate Senators who to make Caesar and Augustus great had with their swords in hand and with so much effusion of blood banisht liberty from out their Country ran as if they had been mad to embrace their children grandchildren and great grand-children who had been so Tyrannously treated but being by them driven away with reproachful speeches those Senators more afflicted then ever said You have reason to look upon us your Progenitors with an incensed eye and to drive us like enemies out of your sight for you may truly say these your wounds were occasioned by these our hands the Tyranny which hath made you so miserable by our imprudency your calamities by our foolish Ambition all the inhumanities whereinto we have most imprudently hurryed you by our unfortunate jars and deplorable discord and now when repentance serves onely to make our afflictions the greater we cleerly see by this your miserable spectacle that nothing is sweeter that there is no greater consolation no greater
labours redounds much to our shame since the malady which we ought to cure lies not hidden in the veins but is so manifestly known to all men that it self crys aloud for help And yet by all the reasons I have heard alledged methinks you go about to mend the arm when it is the breast that is fistula'd But Gentlemen since it is Apollo's pleasure that we should do so since our reputation stands upon it and our charity to our so afflicted age requires it at our hands let us I beseech you take from off our faces the mask of respect which hath been hitherto worn by us all and let us speak freely The great disorder hath always reigned amongst men which doth domineer so much at the present and which God grant it may not still reign that whilst powerful men by their detestible vices and by their universal reformation have disordered the world men go about to re-order it by amending the faults of private men But the falshood avarice pride and hypocrisie of private men though I must confess them to be hainous evils are not the vices which have so much depraved this our age for fitting punishments being by the law provided for every fault and foul action mankind is so obedient to the laws and so apprehensive of justice as a few ministers thereof make millions of men tremble and keeps them in and men live in such quiet peace as the rich cannot without much danger to themselves oppress the poor and every one may walk safely both by day and night with gold in their hand not onely in the streets but even in the high-ways but the worlds most dangerous infirmities are then discovered when publique peace is disturbed and of this we must all of us confess that the ambition avarice and diabolical engagement which the swords of some powerful Princes hath usurped over the States of those who are less powerful is the true cause and that which is so great a scandal to the present times T is this Gentlemen which hath filled the world with hatred and suspicion and hath defiled it with so much blood as men who were by God created with humane hearts and civil inclinations are become ravenous wilde beasts tearing one another in pieces with all sort of inhumanity For the ambition of these men hath changed publike peace into most cruel war vertue into vice the charity and love which we ought to bear to our neighbours into such intestine hatred as whereas all Lyons appear Lyons to a Lyon the Scotch man appears unto the English the Italian to the German the French to the Spaniard the German Spaniard French and men of all other Nations to the Italian not to be men not brethren as they are but creatures of another species So as justice being oppressed by the unexplicable ambition of potent men mankind which was born brought up and did live long under the Government of wholesome Laws waxing now cruel to themselves lives with the instinct of beasts ready to oppress the weaker Theft which is the chief of all faults is so persecuted by the Laws as the stealing of an egg is a capital fault and yet powerful men are so blinded with the ambition of reigning as to rob another man perfidiously of his whole state is not thought to be an execrable mischief as indeed it is but an noble occupation and onely fit for Kings and Tacitus the master of Policy that he may win the good will of Princes is not ashamed to say In summa Fortuna id aequius quod vallidus sua retinere privatae domus de Alienis certare Regiam laudem esse li. 15. An. If it be true which is confest to be so by all Politicians that people are the Princes Apes how can those who obey live vertuously quiet when their Commanders do so abound in vice To bereave a powerful Prince of a Kingdom is a weighty business which is not to be done by one man alone To effect so foul an intent observe what the thirst of Dominion can do in an ambitious mind they muster together a multitude of men who that they may not fear the shame of stealing their neighbours goods of murthering men and of firing Cities change the name of base Thief into that of a gallant Souldier and valliant commander and that which aggravates this evil is that even good Princes are forced to run upon the same rocks to defend their own estates from the ravinousness of these Harpyes For these to secure their own Estates to regain what they have lost and to revenge themselves of those that have injured them possess themselves of their states and being allured by gain they betake themselves to the same shameful Trade which they did so much abhor before Which hath caused the art of bereaving other men of their Territories become an highly esteemed science and is the reason why humane wit which was made to admire and contemplate the miracles of heaven and wonders of the earth is wholly turned to invent stratagems to plot treasons and hands which were made to cultevate the earth which feeds us into knowing how to handle Arms that we may kill one another This is that which hath brought our age to its last gasp and the true way to remedy it is for Princes who use such dealings to amend themselves and to be content with their own present Fortunes for certainly it appears very strange to me that there should be any King who cannot satisfie his ambition with the absolute command over twenty millions of men Princes as you all know were ordained by God on earth for the good of mankind I therefore say it will not do well onely to bridle the ambition which Princes have of possessing themselves of other mens estates but I think it necessary that the peculiar engagement which some men pretend their swords have over all estates be cut up by the root and I advise above all things that the greatness of Principalities be limitted it being impossible that too great Kingdoms should be governed with that exact care and justice which is requisite to the peoples good and to which Princes are obliged For there never was a Monarchy excessively over great vvhich vvas not in a short time lost by the carelessness and negligence of those that were the Governors thereof Here Periandro ended whom Solon thus opposed The true cause of the present evils which you with much freedom have been pleased to speak of vvas not omitted by us out of ignorance as you peradventure may believe but out of prudence The disorders spoken of by you that the weak were oppressed by those of greater power began vvhen the World vvas first peopled And you know that the most skilful Physician cannot restore sight to one that was born blind I mention this because it is much the same thing to cure an eye that is infirm as to reform antiquated errors For as the skilful Physician betakes himself the
more to deceive men then to please God The X. ADVERTISEMENT The City Pretor or Chief Iustice of Parnassus complaiâ—… bitterly before Apollo of the Triumviri a Magistracy newly instituted by his Majesty That in an Edict of theirs published against Mignus and other Ministers of Princes obsenities they have violated his Iurisdiction APollo having learnt by many sad examples which have hapned that Printing which it is to be believed was at first by Divine Councel suggested into the Cavalier Iohn of Mentz only to facilitate the learning of the most illustrious Sciences to such as are desirous of knowledge is made use of by wicked men not onely as an excellent instrument to staine mens minds with impiety obsceneness and evil speaking but that ambitious men serve themselves thereof for damn'd weapons to make people rebel against their natural Princes Apollo I say by wholsom and Divine Councel as the event hath shewn did many years ago institute the remarkable Magistracy of the Triumviry whose Office it is to send such books as are infected with impiety sedition and such obscenities as corrupt good manners to the Pest-house This Magistracy some three daies ago under pain of grievous punishment sent express command to all favorits bawds flatterers and others whom their Princes do Idolize who live desolutely that they should not dare any more to stir out of dores to the end that these monsters of nature might not to the great scandal of good men be seen to go so vain-gloriously trampling the street upon their pacing horses and in their rich Coaches as if they triumphed over the world who by their lewd manner of living having extorted those rewards from vitious Princes which are only due to deserving men are not worthy to eat bread The City Pretor made a great complaint to Apollo of this novelty accusing the Triumviry of having exceeded the bounds of their Authority and very much intrencht upon his Jurisdiction The Triumviry were immediately sent for by his Majesty who defending their cause exceedingly well said that they had by length of time clearly learnt that certain obscene living books which walked up and down the streets caused greater scandal in well composed minds and free from all pollution then did Machiavil Bodin Aratin and other writers of wickedness and obsceneness which were found hid in many Libraries a disorder which ought the rather to be corrected for that the wicked manners of living men made a much greater impression in mens minds then the filth that was read in dead Authors whose damn'd writings many forbore to read out of meer abhorition of such things many for fear of offending God and of being punisht by men many for that they had not many of those forbidden books or for want of curiosity or love of idleness but that men of holy lives much against their wils and not without offence were forced to read study contemplate and honour these Bawds Flatterets and other Ministers of vitious Princes who neither cared for Gods honor nor their own reputation who were scandalous two leg'd books which were daily seen to walk the streets and that he must be armed with more then humane vertue who would not be contaminated and scandalized to see the sole aspects of these hateful men The XI ADVERTISEMENT The Inhabitants of Phocides fall into open Rebellion by reason that the Priviledges of their Country are not observed by Apollo's Officers they are pacified by a Senator and send new Ambassadors to his Majesty THe Polititians precept is very true That people who have lived long in a half Liberty with large priviledges are very hardly reduced to tollerate whole slavery This is said because the uproars of Phocides occasioned by the not observancy of their priviledges as you heard at large by the last Post have still increased more and more in so much as on the ninth of this present month more incenst then over since such satisfaction as was desired was denied them by Apollo's Officers the Phocidians took up arms and running through the City cryed out Liberty Liberty When the chief Magistrate of Phocides much troubled at such a novelty desired a Parley of the people that were in arms who when they were all assembled in the chief Piazza t is said that the uprightest and most experienced Senator of Phocides spake thus The most dangerous enterprise my most beloved Phocidians which Subjects can undertake is to grow stubborn and rebel against their Prince For Princes are not so merciful as to pardon injuries of so high a nature which though they sometimes forgive they never forget Whence it is that such excesses never pass without their condigne punishment For as it falls out in all offences which are either through wisdom winkt at or pardoned per force they are in their due time and place the more severely revenged by having their vindication retarded to a more opportune time And God deliver us and all other people that suffer such calamities as we do from those cruel revenges which Princes who are offended in State-affairs use after long meditation to take against their disloyal people and rebellion is so far from being forgotten even by most merciful Princes as an amendment of many hundred years loyalty cannot so cancel it cut of exasperated minds but that the memory of such signal injuries are transmitted over to the twentieth generation since by their importance they infuse such diffidence into him that reigns and such suspitions as occasion perpetual odium between the Vassal and the Soveraign Lord from whence afterwards the great disorder ariseth as that natural subjects which are no other then the Princes beloved children and therefore ought to be treated with terms of fatherly love and governed by Laws of Charity are reputed cruel enemies conquered people subjugated by force of arms and therefore according to the politick Precept treated like slaves Which things at last produce that great inconvenience that even lawful Princes grievously moved by such hainous offences against their rebellious subjects become cruel Tyrants I fellow Citizens speak not now as an Officer of the Prince in aggravating the condition of our slavery but as one who would produce peace in this our Country and if you shall not think my councel good I will willingly be one of the first who will joyn with you in your resolution being better contented to err with many then to be wise with a few But before you proceed further in a business of such importance I earnestly intreat you and heartily beg of you even by these tears which fall so abundantly from mine eyes that you will maturely consider that for the most part popular insurrections meet with unfortunate ends Which happens not only because resolutions in so weighty affairs are taken in hot bloud when men are most incenst and when mens minds are most incombred with the foolish passion of fury whereas they ought to be put on in cold bloud and when the mind is most maturely setled
institutes a Committe of the greatest Subjects of this State but hath but bad success therein THe perfidiousness of wicked men is arrived at that height as that the sacred Seats of Justice erected for the safety of good men and to punish the wicked are made use of to persecute and afflict those that are honest and mean well a disorder which his Majesty is very angry at who can by no means tolerate that through the so much mischief of wicked men the Seats of Justice should become hatefull Wherefore Apollo to try whether the wit of man could find the true Antidote to this raging Poyson chose many moneths agoe some of the best Philosophers skilfullest Politicians and men most esteemed for wisdom that are in the State of Parnassus all which he caused to be shut up in that Apartment which stands by the Delphick Library and straitly commanded them not to stir from thence till they had healed so dangerous a wound by fitting remedies All the Vertuosi of Parnassus thought such a business might be dispatched in a few hours but it was eight months ere these men opened their dores at which time they desired Audience of Apollo whom they told that after having been so long shut up in that place wherein they had diligently examined a thousand opinions and maturely sifted an infinity of applications they could find no expedient means whereby severely to punish false accusations without affrighting true ones The XXX ADVERTISEMENT Marcus Brutus desires Justius Brutus to shew him the perfections of the Conspiracy which he so happily brought to pass against the Tarquins and the Imperfections of that Conspiracy which he so miserably executed upon Caesar. And receives desired satisfaction from him MArcus Brutus who lives still discontented in this Court of Parnassus because that important business which he undertook of recovering the Roman Liberty by the murder of the Tyrant Caesar did not succeed well went the other day to finde out Lucius Brutus whom he earnestly desired to aquaint him with the reason why both of them being spurd on by the same generous thought of reducing their Countrey into Liberty they did so much differ in the effect adding that he should be very much satisfied by knowing the excellency of his Conspiracy and what the faults were of that which he himself plotted against Caesar. Menante who by great good fortune was by when this demand was made assures every one that Lucius Brutus did thus answer his kinsman A good intention is not sufficient Cozen Marcus to reap renown by great actions it must be accompanied by judgment Know then that in purging the Roman Empire from the ill humors of Tyranny wherewith I found her greatly opprest I successfully imitated the art which skilful Physicians use in restoring health to a body that is sick of a Malignant Feaver which had you done you would not only not have committed that great error which caused so many mischiefs to your self and to our whole Country but should have happily acquired that glory which hath made me immortal Know then that when I resolved to restore Liberty to our Country I did first exactly consider the body of the State of Rome in its sick condition the quantity and quality of the humors which she did abound within her sickness of servitude and like a wise Physician I prepared the peccant materials and digested the crude Humors with the syrrop of discontent and bad satisfaction which I dayly sowed in the People of Rome against the Tarquins and the insolency committed against Lucretia proved very lucky to me for the unbridled lust of the Tyrant Tarquin brought the people of Rome to that point of hatred and dispair which I had always desired so that finding the materials of discontent to be excellently well prepared by the water of the common peoples continual exclamations with two onely ounces of laxative syrrope of Roses resolution which I knew how to make by appearing head of the inraged Romans with permition of the sick Commonwealths Militia the bad humors of Tyranny were purged out without the pains of death or any alteration of Tumults in lieu whereof the health of Liberty returned to our Country But you Cozen did not duly consider any of these important particulars For having with a rash resolution given your self over in prey to the zeal of recovering lost Liberty the light of your understanding was so blinded as made you fall into a more cruel servitude and this was when by the immature counsel which you put into action against Caesar in the Capitol you gave the Roman Liberty a strong Purgation compounded of Colloquintida and Antimony and other violent ingred ents with which whilst you thought to evacuate the Crude humors you did infinitely increase that malady which having first wrought your ruine and the like of all your associates occasioned at last that so famous sickness the sad proscription which did kill outright the most excellent Roman Liberty and the Proverb is as true as common that Conspiracies are not made out of curiosity of changing the Prince his Face but for the important interest of changing Tyranny into Liberty And therefore in a business of such concernment a man must confine himself by the Charity which he bears unto his Country within the bounds of the love of Liberty and hatred of the publick Tyrant and among other considerations which ought to be had in a business of so great concernment the chiefest is to consider with exact diligence the means whereby a Tyrant hath possest himself of his Countries Liberty which whilst they continue in their vigour and strength that Citizen wishes no good unto his Country but is rather a cruel enemy thereunto who by plotting against the Tyrants life is cause of greater slavery to his fellow Citizens and of much greater scandals to his Country The Tarquins maintaind themselves in their usurped Liberty by the love which they had cunningly won from the Romans which when by their cruelties libidinousness and avarice they had lost the foundation of their greatness failed and therefore it was not hard for me to restore my Country to her ancient Liberty For I did not drive the Tarquins out of Rome by my Conspiracy till being ready to be thrown headlong down by the publike hatred I gave then a justle But you did not do so for it is evident that Caesar had possest himself of the publike Liberty by the great good opinion he had in his Army of which he had so many years been head and by the miraculous affection of the people of Rome which he had won by his profuse liberality And by killing him whilst he was master of these two powerful means you did nothing else but change Caesar who did study to secure himself in the State onely by his clemency and by his obliging every body into Augustus who having seen the unfortunate end which Tyrants make by using the indulgencies of Pardons thought it a safer way
and Kingdom and consequently his reputation and was forst to flye from Naples and to bury himself alive in a Monastery in France where he dyed for meer madness and that he had learnt by Tiberius his wise demeanor in the like case that it had been more honorable for him to have lived a cornuted King in Naples then a private man of honor in France Apollo did then pardon the disturbance which that noble Frenchman had occasioned and bad Tiberius proceed to make his defence who said And because the too great connivance at the shameful life which my wife led in Rome would certainly have rendred me contemptible both to the Senate and people of Rome a thing which would have been of equal danger to such a personage as I who lived in hope of that greatness which I afterward acquired as the resentment of such an injury by way of revenge would have been I chose the middle way between these two dangerous extreams which in dubious resolutions proves always best So as not to be an eye-witness of that injury which I could neither revenge nor tolerate I went from Rome under a pretence of living privatly and hid my self in Rhodes This my modesty this great respect which I bore to Augustus his blood was the true and chief cause which did not only induce him to love me but which did oblige him to demonstrate that his love in such sort as the world hath seen since his death For this Pr. who was as wise as he was glorious pittying my so much scorned condition and infinitely loathing his daughters infamous life behaved himself so rigorously towards her as his demeanor may serve for a rule to every wise Prince how to handle their unchast daughters If then so great Patience if the respect reverence and perfect obedience and so many other lawful pieces of cunning which I continually used to work my self into Augustus his affection be vitious comportments and fraudulent deceits as my enemis have represented them to your Majesty I refer my self to those who are to judge upon my reputation I now come to the second Article of my impeachment I acknowledge the cruelty which I am accused to have used towards the Romish Nobility to be true and all that Tacitus hath said of me in that point to be very true but I desire that such difference as ought to be be put between the cruelties used by a new Prince and those which are practised by an ancient and hereditary Prince for if I have taken away any mans life out of an innate cruelty or thirst after humane blood or out of any capricious inhumanity I submit my self to the rigour of the Cornelian Law as if I were one of the meanest and most abject plebeians of this State but if it were meer State necessity which forced me to be cruel to those of Augustus his blood to the chiefest Senators the commanders of any extraordinary worth and in fine even to worth it self I desire every one to consider how new Princes are necessitated to do horrid and cruel acts though it be much against their Inclination And upon this occasion I will for my defence make use of my implacable accuser Tacitus his words He hath openly profest that the horrible Proscription made by Augustus which I confess did surpass all the most immense cruelties that were ever commanded by cruel man was done not out of any inclination to severity by those who of themselves did infinitely blame such an act but onely out of meer State necessity Sane Proscriptionem Civium divisiones Agrorum neque ipsis quidem qui fecere Laudatas Tacit. lib. 1 â—nnal These are Tacitus his words Which if it be true am I to be condemned for having wisely known how to establish my self in a new Principality and for having had the wit to execute those precepts which not only every other Politician but even Tacitus hath publisht and if it be true that indulgence mansuetude and clemency are then vices in a Prince when such signal vertues are used towards those who though they be pardoned keep malice in their hearts and covet revenge is there any one here present who thinks that if I should have suffered Agrippa Posthumus Germanicus and the others of Augustus his blood to have lived that they would ever have sincerely loved my greatness and if it be a grounded precept in Policy that Princes ought to indeavour above all things to reign void of jealousie and if a Prince can never be said to be safe in a State whilst those live who were driven out of it or who pretend more right thereunto then he will not every one how little knowledge soever they have of worldly affairs confess with me that it was not any innate cruelty in me but meer necessity of state Policy which forst me to appear so severe towards those of Augustus his blood for a Prince is wise in his cruelty when as Tacitus himself says he runs danger by being merciful Moreover the many slaughters which I and after me many other Emperors gave order for against the chiefest of the Roman Senators ought not to be imputed to our cruelty as they do unjustly affirm who do now persecute me but to the indiscreet pride of those Senators who though they law Liberty banisht from out their Country yâ—t through a proud stubbornness of not putting on the cloak of humbleness or rather through a foolish ostentation of free speaking when they were inslaved and of commanding in subjection did every day more and more irritate Princes to use all sorts of severity and inhumanity against people so proudly spirited Hence it is Sir that neither Tacitus nor any other who writes my story could ever say that I was severe against any Citizens or any of the Roman or Provincial Plebeians for they never gave me any just occasion of suspition but onely say that which I confess to be true that I did persecute the noblest of the Roman Senate the which I did to abase them to terrifie them to make them mistrustful one of another to disunite them and to make them indure that slavery which I saw they did abhor nor can any Politician teach me any better rules then these to be made use of to the Nobles of a Country which being but a little before bereft of its Liberty will not onely not accommodate it self to servitude but foolishly pretends to limit the Princes Authority in commanding and in servitude keeps the pride of freedom and an inraged mind upon any good occasion to revenge the injury done unto its Liberty whence it is that hang-men spies and Atturney-Generals are the fittest instruments to establish a mans self in those new states which but a little before hath lost the Liberty of a free Commonwealth for every cruel action is held a prudent resolution when it secures the life the state and honor of that new Prince who knows how to use it Moreover I heartily
injustice which was done them Moreover that all Primogeniture being grounded with much loss of blood he feared he should not be able to find out any form of priviledge with so strong and strict proviso's as would be able to keep people excluded from their inheritance from making by a dagger in their hand their Fathers last Will and Testament ineffectual The XLIV ADVERTISEMENT The Duke of Alva being accused of cruelty for having with exquisite diligence caused two of the prime subjects of his new Principality of Achaia to be imprisoned slain and afterwards secretly buryed in their very prisons defends himself stoutly before Apollo SOon after the Duke of Alva had tane possession of the new Principality of Achaia of which you heard at large by our late Letters that severe spirit who being wholly composed of wariness and vigilancy seemed to be indowed by nature with all requisites in a Prince who will with security govern States newly acquired After he had exactly observed the humors and behaviors of some chief men of the State he indeavoured to know who they were who had occasioned those many popular insurrections which had so much indangered the free State of Achaia and at last he found apparently that all the former evils had had their rise from the ambition of two principal men who being wealthy liberal courteous and more ambitious of government then became subjects to be qualities which in any whatsoever corrupted Commonwealth or newly founded principality make him who possesseth them formidable and by those means infinitely beloved by the people the Prince to secure the quiet of his State thought it very necessary to rid the world of so dangerous subjects so as with admirable dexterity and secrecy he got them both into his hands and with necessary resolution made them be put to death and buryed the very hour that they were imprisoned This cruel and resolute action not usually heard of nor seen in a State which never having known what belonged to servitude was not acquainted with those severe resentments which Princes through jealousie of State use to take gave that bad satisfaction to the Nobility which the severity of a new Prince usually doth when it is exercised against those ambitious popular Chieftains who by their seditions abuse Liberty and precipitate it into Tyranny and was of great terror to the common people who though they were much incenst against their Prince yet when they saw their leading men vvere tane from them they neither had courage nor vvit to move but as is usual upon such like occasions changed their insolency into admiration or vvonder their boldness into fear their acting of resentments into complaints by vvord and to threatning that revenge vvhich of themselves they had not vvit to execute The end of their rancor vvas then the making of such appeals to Apollo against their Prince as his Majesty straitly commanded him to make his present appearance in Parnassus and plead his justification against those imputations Alva obeyed and having acquainted his Majesty vvith their tedious conditions shevved him cleerly that to secure himself in the Government of his new Principality he was necessitated to use the wonted remedy of taking off the heads of the seditious people which Apollo seemed to be but little satisfyed with but told Alva that though the death of those two seditious men might be requisite yet he could not approve of the manner for that Princes who in the important resolution of putting any of their subjects to death did not proceed by the rules of known Justice injured their own reputation and interest and that Princes were obliged to make known to all the world the true reason which made them proceed with severity against their subjects and that the Delinquents punishment ought to be publick not onely for the Prince his Justification but to terrifie others and keep them from doing amiss The Prince grew pale to hear Apollo speak thus positively and answered that the aforesaid two persons were so mightily beloved by the People as if they should have been proceeded against by the usual course of Justice and that they had been executed as he acknowledged they should have been in the publike Piazza it was odds but that the People would by violence have taken them from the hands of Justice which disorder though it might have been prevented by guards of armed men yet it was most certain that the publike death of such prime men and who were so dearly beloved by their State would have caused such compunction such alteration in the minds of his Vassals as if not at that instant they would at least at some other time leave nothing unattempted to revenge it Which respects made him keep from purging the body of his State from those malignant humors which it abounded in by approved Medicines for certainly he should have stirred up such store of more pernicious humors as would have much aggravated the malady That it was a trivial politick Precept to frighten the meaner sort of people from committing wickedness by the spectacle of mechanicks in the Piazza's and other publike places but that personages of quality who were beloved by the People and whom Princes put to death onely for the safety of their State their deaths and burials must ensue their imprisonment in secret places for to punish signal men publikely upon scaffolds did not beget fear in men but rage of revenge Apollo then asked the Prince how long it had been since he had learned that Precept the Prince answered that whilst he was a young man he learned it of a Florentine who was his Master in the Politicks Apollo asked him again why he practised the contrary in the memorable and fatal resolution which he took in the business of Prince Egmont and Count Horn Alva boldly answered his Malesty that the interests were different in him who governed a Province as an other mans substitute and in him who was absolute Prince thereof and that Nature had made men wiser in governing their own particular affairs then those of their Masters and that many who seemed to be blinde in the government of other mens States were more then Argus-eyed in their own affairs The XLV ADVERTISEMENT A chief subject of the Province of Macedonia being hired by the Prince of Epire at a great salary when he came to know the right cause why that pension was given him doth magnanimously refuse it THe Prince of Epire who gives great Pensions to the chief Counsellors of divers of his neighbouring Potentates hath for a long time past paid great sums of money yearly to a chief Baron of Macedonia who is very well beloved and hath many followers in that Nation who believing that this the Prince of Epires Liberality proceeded from meer love sincerity of mind to free himself from the superiority of any other Prince which might disturb him in his service that he might be the more able to serve the Prince of Epire to
books not constrained by any necessity at all And that they must all know that Prince Battori had attained to this elegancy of the Latine Tongue not out of any ambition to shew himself learned nor out of a vertuous curiosity to know many things but out of the necessity he was put to of correcting for his credit's sake that simple boyish misconstruction which he committed in Gender Number and Case then when in the Hungarian War he made that fatal resolution of taking up arms against the Turks that he might adhere to the Emperor of Germany of whom having so strong and lively pretences upon the Principality of Transilvania he should have stood in more fear then of threescore and ten Ottoman Emperors The French are freed out of the Mad-mens Hospital by the Spaniards SOme two daies ago did Apollo now at last cause to be releas'd out of the Mad-mens Hospital a great number of French that had lain there many years During which time in their raging fits they had committed both against themselves and their friends many lamentable trespasses and had given cause sufficient for tears to all Europe Now because by Affidavit formally given in to the Court of the most illustrious Physicians or Medici of Florence who have alwaies been assisting in the cure of the dangerous malady of that Nation it was made fully to appear that they were recovered they have been dismiss'd But before their departure out of Pernassus his Majesty sent for them and told them That for the future they should understand how to enjoy so flourishing and potent a Kingdom with more discretion then formerly they had and that above all things they should remember that for the recovery of their healths they had been wholly obliged to the Spaniards who with only appearing armed in France and particularly in Paris had returned some brains into the beetle-heads of those Frenchmen that formerly had played such mad pranks in France Many and hearty thanks did then these Frenchmen return to his Majesty and said they should be so far mindful of the wholsom counsel he gave them that in measuring the distances of places they would hereafter accustom themselves to make use of the Italian mile that so they might avoid that woful name of League But as for the recovery of their brains they were altogether beholding for that to their most generous and ever victorious King Henry the fourth who with the splendor of his valour had opened the eyes of the French that had been foully blinded with Spanish hypocrisie Besides that the Spaniards which had been the first authors of that lamentable French Tragedy had so cunningly gotten a trick to make way for themselves in France with their glittering and most beloved double Pistolets that they had made both the foolish and the wise too to run out of their wits Some for examples sake are made a spectacle to the people APollo to his singular discontent was informed that the greater part of modern Princes do not for the subduing of their enemies make use according to the custom of the antient Heroes of open force but sometimes of fraud In the exercise of which they so much preval that only by the powerful means thereof they have made shift to bring their most important enterprises to pass Whence it is that the first weapon which these draw against their enemies is that so shamefull one of corrupting the Loyalty of their discontented Subjects and of stirring up the Nobility to rebellion Wherefore to remedy such grievous disorders about thirty years ago his Majesty gave command that the most unfortunate the Count St. Paul the Prince of Orange and the Duke of Guise should be brought in a wheele-barrow by Iohn Francesco Lottini privy Register of moral Precepts in this Court and set under the Porch of the Delphick Temple Whereupon these three great Princes with their hands fingerless and all pittifully mangled looking as if the dogs had gnawn them were shewn by Lottini to the people that went in and out of the Temple To whom with a loud voyce thus he spake Ye faithful Vertuosi devoted to Learning and sacred Morality take example by the so wretched calamity of these unfortunate Princes deprived of the use of their hands which God send you ever to enjoy and learn to know what comes of it when men will be perswaded to be so simple as to draw Crabs out of their holes with their own hands for the benefit of others A discovery made that the Spanish Officers are wholly concern'd in their own profits THree daies ago about one a clock at night forty Carts of Hay were seen to enter the Royal Palace of the Spanish Monarchy and because the unseasonableness of the time filled with jealousie the French the Venetians and other Potentates that live in perpetual jealousie of so formidable a Princesse's greatness with exact diligence inquiry was made whether the Carts carried any thing prejudicial under the hay And the Spies brought in word that under the hay were hidden chests full of mattocks spades and pickaxes And because these are tools that belong to Pioneers the French were resolved to stand to their arms and the Venetians would needs lanch out those Gallies that were in their Arsenal when it was resolved that before they would discover themselves they should do well to be informed whether the Spaniards had brought any other quantity of those instruments or whether they expected any from some other place And they were assured that neither formerly had they received any nor for the future did they expect any And the Spies added That as soon as those chests were taken down they were not carried into the Royal Magazine but all the Grandees of Spain and the prime Officers of that mighty Monarchy suddenly divided amongst them those mattocks those spades and those pickaxes with which the next morning very early with all speed they fell to digging of ditches to drawing of channels to making of banks and to loading the earth with a thousand Aqueducts every one with so much labour and diligence drawing the water to his own Mill as they had brought the publick affairs to such a sad condition that the Mills of the Commonalty of Spain could grind no longer for want of water Maximilian the Emperor is advertised of the tumults sprung up amongst his Sons THis last night there came in three Posts to the Emperor Maximilian the second and instantly it was divulged that they brought news how Matthias the Arch-Duke had taken up arms against his brother Rodulphus the Emperor with which he seditiously claimed the Kingdoms of Hungary of Bohemia of Austria and the absolute Soveraignty over other Provinces These unhappy tidings infinitely troubled the Emperors mind for he very well knew that the discord arisen amongst his Sons afforded to the enemies of the House of Austria that contentment which they so much desired to see Whereupon yesterday morning very early he presented himself before Apollo
De bono Libertatis Of the which as it appeared in his process he was so capital an enemy as that he was the chiefest cause why the Emperor Charls the fifth did inslave many famous Common-wealths of Europe Apollo having heard the relation decreed That Parenotto should be banished Pernassus for ever as he who had impudently gain-said the Delfick Edict wherein the Litterati are strictly forbidden to write of such things whereof they do not make publike profession For that the vertues of Sobriety Chastity and other honorable moral Sciences were made ridiculous when celebrated by men given to lust and gluâ—…ony and to other vices As if such vertues had not power I enough to drive vice from out the souls of men and in lieu thereof to introduce good and honest life and as if it were 〈◊〉 which wicked men whisper continually up and down the streets that the Liberal Sciences are onely learnt to be made merchandise of and to make men understand them but neither believe nor practise them Perenotto's cause being over an unfortunate Doctor of Law was brought loaded with irons before Apollo who was imprisoned for that not being onely a very excellent Advocate but very skilful in all other choice Sciences either blinded by folly or contaminated by lewdness of mind he from being a gainful Advocate in his Countrey and a well reputed Litterato was become a shameful and wretched Souldier changing by so unhappy a Metamorphosis his pen into a sword his book into harquebuses the defending of men with his mouth to killing them with daggers and the reading of good discipline in a famous University into the desperate exercise of assaulting strong holds Apollo being very much offended with so undeserving a man in much anger said unto him Ah thou Traytor and Rebel to Learning knowest thou not that the woful exercise of war is onely fit for such ignorant people who like so much unuseful flesh are onely good for the â—…bles of war and altogether unworthy to be followed by those to whom their deserving parents have left the rich and honourable patrimony of the Liberal Sciences which some Princes have prohibited in their States for no other reason but that they open the eyes of the blind and enlighten the souls of foolish people making them know the cunning and imposturism which the Princes of the world have used to make an occupation seem profitable and honourable which is so much to be abhorr'd And this being said his Majestie gave sentence That that Doctor should for ever be inhibited admittance into any Library that he should be forbidden the contentments of writing and reading and that for the example of others he should be declared to be ignorant The unifortunate Doctor hearing so sad a sentence pleaded loud for mercy and said That his error not having proceeded out of malice but out of meer ignorance he was a subject fit for his Majesties pitty and that it was not the desire of riches nor the thirsting after mans blood which had made him gird the sword about him and betake him to the mysterie of war but onely that he might purchase glory thereby Apollo was then more incensed and replyed unto the Doctor thus And what glory thou wicked one couldst thou hope for by the unhappy practice of killing men of plundering Countreys burning Cities deflowering Virgins and in murthering them that thou mayest make them consent to so barbarous dishonesty knows thou not that my Litterati are those that with their pen eternize the names of military men knowest thou not that all gloâ—…y won by the sword uniess when taken up for Religion or for the defence of a mans Countrey is false Alchimy and merchandize fit onely for hair-brained fools When the honour which my Vertuosi win by their learning and by handling their pen is always the purest refined gold which will bear the Test. The Doctors cause having received this end Giovan Giorgio Tressino that famous Vicentian Poet came before Apollo and throwing himself down before his feet said Sir Your Majestie knows that unfortunate I to amend the many Inconveniences which are in the Italian Tongue even to this day was the first who when I published my Poem of Italia Liberaia endeavoured to bring the Omicron Eupselon Omega and other Greek Letters which I thought very requisite for that language into my own Tongue so to shun the frequent equivocations which are evidently seen therein for want of such letters in which enterprize having been at great charges I contracted those debts for which I am now imprisoned for men who by natural instinct Veteribus etiam quae â—…sus evidenter arguit stare malunt did not approve of this my new Invention And unless your Majestie put in betwixt my misery and my Creditors rage I who have taken such pains for the service of Learning am like to end my days in the stench of this loathsom Prison Apollo was very sensible of Tressino's misery and asked him Whether he was in case to pay his Creditors any moneys by the moneth To which Tressino answered He could not assign over unto them more then five Crowns a moneth Which Apollo turning towards the Creditors desired them to be contented with But they who would have the whole sum answered discourteously And Apollo asking them Whether or no they were so inhumane as to be paid by the price of blood The Merchants with their wonted incivility answered That he must either resolve to pay the whole debt or that parting with his personal estate he should according to the Laws made against Bankrupts wear a green hat and they vvould be satisfied Apollo was so very angry at this their inhumanity as rising up upon his feet and turning towards Tressino's Creditors Will you then said he be paid by this Vertuoso's shame and loss of honor What Law is that which you alledge which will have men forgo their reputation without which they are not worthy to live and if even amongst the most barbarous Nations which inhabit the earth there be no Law found that a man shoul lose his life for debt how can there be a Law in my State where all exquisiteness of Law is professed which bereaves a man of his honor which is much more dear to man then life What crueller wilde beast can there be what more venemous Asp or Viper then he who regards not his reputation good Lavvs and such as ought to be obeyed do never disrobe a man of his honor but love that those who vvant it should by all means possible endeavor the purchase thereof that they should covet it more then any earthly Treasure and set a greater valuation upon it The Creditors mightily affrighted at these words ran from the Visitation Whereupon Cressino somewhat encouraged told Apollo That if his Majestie would endow him vvith a povver of making Knights he vvas sure his Creditors vvould take the honor of Knighthood from him in full payment of his debts Apollo at the
lib. 13. Ann. and then gave sentence that this Divel incarnate should be thrown into the Boat where Melossus Melampus Lisisca and other Poets Dogs were kept by which he was presently torne in pieces and devoured This being over the Commendador Hanibal Caro was brought to the visitation and his Majesty was told that the quarrels between the Commendador and Castelvetro were wel known unto him which could no otherwise be accommodated then by taking security that they should not offend one another After which Castelvetro passing one morning often before the Commendadors house the Poet did so call to mind the injury he had received by that rigorous sentence as by a railing Sonnet which was a thing prohibited he wounded Castelvetro's honor Apollo contrary to all mens beleef commanded that the Commendador should be presently set at liberty and said that Castelvetro deserved to be severely punisht for his being so foolishly adventurous For knowing that he had so hainously offended a revengful man he did foolishly to trust his life upon money-security and so much the rather for that Castelvetro knew that the Marchigiani who were otherwise very gallant men but very bloudy have less patience then discretion Caro's cause being ended Aristides that great Athenian Senator was brought to the Visitation who was imprisoned for having given out great quantity of Corn to the people of Athens in a very hard year Aristides imprisonment appeared altogether unjust to most of the Visitors but Apollo who was of a contrary opinion told them in severe words that in free Countries where people are more jealous of the publick Liberty then in any other sort of Principality in exercising charity men should observe that pious Precept of not letting the right hand know what the left hand did For in all Commonwealths too vain-glorious alms and done out of too much ostentation were very dangerous that therefore he should hereafter forbear to use such charity towards the poor which smelt more of ambition then of any true zeal or piety and which might make men suspect that they were rather done out of a desire of purchasing Principalities on earth then to gain the Kingdom of Heaven Pietro Pomponatio a Mantuan appeared next all besmeared with sweat and very ill acoutred who was found composing a Book wherein by foolish and sophistical arguments he endeavored to prove that the soul of man was mortal Apollo not able to look upon so wicked a wretch commanded that his Library should be presently burnt and that he himself should be consumed in the same flames for that fool deserved not the advantage of books who laboured thereby only to prove that men were beasts Pomponatio cryed out then with a loud voice protesting that he believed the mortality of the soul only as a Philosopher Then said Apollo to the Executioners Let him be burnt only as a Philosopher A Prisoner was afterwards heard who said that he being of Coos had entred bond for one who was not sent thither as Governor by his Prince and who having committed many Larcenaries fled from thence by night wherefore he was forced to pay the whole summe which was laid to the charge of that thief-Officer Apollo wondring at this mans imprisonment turned to the Prince of Coos who was there President and told him that the sure way to have an Officer rule well lay not in his security to stand a Trial but was only grounded upon the Princes good choice That therefore the prisoner who had entred security upon firm belief that his Lord and Master would never have imployed such lewd men in places of such importance should by all means be set at liberty and that the punishment belonging of right to him that had done the fault the Prince should pay his forfeiture who had been so abusive in his charge of whom he might at his leasure repair himself To which the Prince answered that his Officer was a stranger another Princes subject and therefore he could have no right against him Apollo reply'd That he having been so very a fool as to make use of a forreiner whilst he might be served by his own subjects he had no reason to complain of his loss For that Shepherd who was so foolish as to lead other folks sheep to feed ought to blame none but himself if when he brought them back at night to their folds he could neither shear nor milk them This was the end of that imprisoned security which the Prince of Coos liked not though all the Visitors were well pleased with it Tito Strozzi the famous Ferara Poet was the next that appeared imprisoned upon the Suit of Francisco Filelpho who having given him some moneys to deliver to Cintio Geraldi a Creditor of his Strozzo as soon as he had it lost it at play which Filelpho complained of in the Visitation Apollo who knew that Strozzi wanted a leg merrily asked Filelpho whether if a man should have bought a blind horse in his Market of Tolentino the buyer might redemand his money which was ill laid out To which Filelpho answered That whosoever bought a beast that was palpably defective could blame nothing but his own folly If it be so saies Apollo you have judged aright Filelpho in your own cause Filelpho understood then whither his Majesties question tended and being much afflicted answered that he was not ignorant of the common Proverb That one must be carefull how he deals with those that Nature hath markt but that he did not hold it to be alwaies true Know Filelpho said Apollo that Proverbs are nothing else but experimented Sentences approved sayings and I tell you that Mother Nature in procuring men may be fitly said to imitate a conscientious Potter who when he takes his Vessel out of the Furnace if he find any that have holes in them that be not sufficiently baked or that have any other imperfection to the end that unwary people may not take them for good he breaks off one of their ears or gives them some other mark of being amiss And because all men cannot be born equally honest as nor can all the Potters pots come equally perfect out of the Furnace as let a Garden be never so well looked unto and weeded it is impossible but some nettles or other weeds will spring up Dame Nature who greatly hates cheaters and crosbiters to the end that honest men be not deceived by hollow brains crafty pates and half-baked wits as soon as she sees any such born she puts out one of their eys breaks an arm or leg by which evident signs tying a bel about the horses neck that is given to kicking and fastning a board to the oxes horns which use to thrust therewith she admonisheth all men to be aware of such Amalteo's Cause was discust immediately after who was imprisoned for having called Nero's liberality which he used to Cornelius Tacitus when he rewarded him for the praises he had given him with 25 Mules loaded with Gold foolish
the Poets and other Literati of whatsoever Science are but dim-fighted in the art of discovering the true ends of those wary resolutions which great Princes take they made their recourse to the University of the Politicians whose peculiar profession it is by the light of that knowledge which they have of all Potentates interests to know how to penetrate into the abditos Principâ—…m recessus quicquid occultius habent From whom they received this answer That the Queen of Italy to secure her Liberty from the Arms of so potent a Nation was inforced to joyn with the Spanish Monarchy but that perceiving how she also having gotten into her hands the Kingdom of Naples and the Dutchy of Millan did with more earnest ambition with more profound artifices and with more fraudulent machinations than the French themselves put in for the Soveraignty of all Italy and that to compass this end in the minority of Henry the second 's Sons she endeavoured to embroil France and how for the base Panders of her vast ambition and for Agents for the common bondage of Italy she made use of some principal but indiscreet Italian Princes she began to hate her so extreamly that by every sort of flight the one sought the ruine of the other but that since by the unfortunate end which at last the business of Savioneda came to the Monarchy of Spain plainly perceived that the purchase of all Italy was not feasible and a business utterly to be despaired of she gave over that ambition of being Mistress of it all to whâ—…h she was before wholly addicted and observing that the greater part of her troubles in Flanders and elsewhere had sprung from those ambitious thoughts she perceived there was no better way for the setling of her own affairs then to let others live in quiet And because she palpably found that without the friendship the favour and aid of the Italian Princes it was not possible for her quietly to possess the Kingdom of Naples and the Dutchy of Millan she was desirous with that visit to pacify the troubled mind of that Queen A Policy which the â—…oliticians called a very good one For what manner of men would begin to rouse up themselves if the Spaniards should but make as if they would fall upon Brescia Bâ—…rgamo Turino and Genoua when for offering to take in that poor petty Town of Savioneda there were contrived against them and that by those from whom it was least expected such machinations that the Quail â—…ad bin caught in the Trammelli and could not have avoided falling into the Spaniels mouth had she not couragiously resolved to make a breach in the net and so to save her life by getting out at a torne mesh The Monarchy of Spain throws her Physician out of the window THis morning the Monarchy of Spain having sent for her Physician in ordinary presently after she her self with her own hands threw him out of the window of her Royal Palace So that the poor wretch having all his bones broken to fitters died immediately An accident which seemed so much the stranger in that the Physician was held by all the Court to be a very honest man and in the exercise of his profession admirable Diverse were the discourses made upon so notorious a novelty But Apollo desiring to know the true cause of this hideous resentment from the Spanish Monarchy her self she told him how about forty years ago by some fittes that she had and by other signes which were discovered she was afraid that in process of time she should catch some dangerous French disease or other of the Royal House of Bourbon and to provide agaâ—…nst the mischief she foresaw she ask'd counsel of her Physician who prescribed her a tedious fulsom and chargeable Purge of divers Oyles of holy Leagues of insurrections of people of Rebellions of Nobles of Cauteries and other very painfull Medicines in which she had wasted her stomack weakened her strength and quite lost her appetite And that the infinite store of Syrops and the many Medicines taken with so much anguish had procured nothing but the acceleration of the malady which had it not been for that unlucky and unseasonable Purge would perhaps never have come Besides that the continual and ravenous leeches which were applyed to many parts of her body had so suck'd out the best vital bloud of hâ—…r Spanish Gold that by reason of her weakness of constitution she was not able to evacuate those bad humours of Flanders which have so much oppressed her For which disorders all occasioned by the exceeding bad counsel of that indiscreet Doctor she was so vex'd at him that she seriously swore to him that if to free her from future infirmities he ever prescribed her a purge again she would throw him out of the window And that perceiving the Low-Countrey Ach which at this present she feels in her shoulders to be an absolute French Pox she had asked counsel of the same Doctor how she might be rid of it Who unmindfull of his former errors very simply prescribed her the other purge for all the world just like the first and that hereupon overcome with passion throwing him out of the window she was desirous to punish him for his first fault in his second And she conceived that he had deserved the misfortune because he had not learn'd by that case which had proved so unlucky to her Spaniards to know that purges made before the time for evils that are but feared work not those good effects which the Physician believes and the Patient desires The Cardinal of Toledo's Summa is not admitted into the Library of Pernassus THe most Illustrious and right reverend Francisco Cordouese Cardinal of Toledo a Personage of exemplary life an exquisite Divine and a prime Philosopher one that while he lived did more honour to Gods word in the Pulpit than any other Preacher whatsoever appeared some few daies agone in Pernssus being met at the borders of this State by Alexander de Hales and by Monsignor Cornelio Musso Bishop of Bitonto and entertained all the way at his Majesties charge This honoured Literato presented his Writings to the reverend College of the Vertuosi and those which treated of Philosophy were not only praised but admired as likewise the Commentaries which he had made upon the Subjects of Divinity were received by all the sacred Wrâ—…rs with extraordinary applause and presently they were carried in a sumptuous Urne under a Canopy into the Delphick Library and with the name of so great an Author consecrated to Eternity Only his Summa though very learned was not received by those Vertuosi who plainly said there was such a multitude of these kinds of Summaries and Collections in his Majesties Library that some of them seemed superfluous For an infinite number of the greatest Divines had with such diligence handled matters appertaining to private mens câ—…nsciences that they had put to arbitrement the salvation of mens souls