and the heart which being cut off or wounded cause desolution so it is possible to find a way to weaken that Monster which cannot bee killed at one blow Great preparations at mighty expences giue too great warning are subiect to many accidents and hazard too much reputation And if one State know any one Designe that may much annoy the Enemy it is like the other is not ignorant of their owne weaknesses Wise Gamesters play not all at a Cast the By often helpes the Maine Therfore both rule example hath taught vs that Spaine is more easily wasted then any part of their Christian Dominion conquered while the streame of money is open and vndiuerted But if this long and sure course threaten also a reciprocall Consumption yet that warre in Europe will bee most profitable for vs which shall be made nearest our owne Kingdome both for the keeping our forces vnited and at hand and for the easinesse of supplies in all Euents and out of Europe by a Roiall Action it is not impossible at one stroke to behead the Indies To oppose them in their Counsels we must first obserue what they are Pierre Mat. Espagne practiquant tousiours sa vieille maxime de se maintenir par la querra de ses voisins Sedition separation and disunion are the dangerous weapons wherewith they prepare to themselues easie Conquests and these Arts haue their first efficacie vnder the pretence of Treaty then is the Spaniard most to be suspected because they know how hostibus prodere prima belli tempora Tacit. and if they can raise any iealousie or variance to remoue any one all are weakned rebusque turbatis malum extremum discordia accessit The contrary then which is a firme and constant League is onely powerfull and able to arrest them In the Colleagued warre of the Common-wealths of Greece against the vnited power of the Spartans some of the Confederates who lay next the danger beginning to wauer this sentence of their common safetie was giuen Pelib vnicam spem superesse video omnibus agnisui longum tempus possidendi si Epaminondae consilio vsi omnium temporum omniumque rerum societatem sinceram inâ—er se colant To hope to diuide indivisihile is lost labour the Designes of Spaine are one vnited in the head in genere generalissimo the House of Austria which cannot be distracted They haue no other maine and important adherent but the Pope and his Ecclesiasticall Dependents and these also make but one and meet in the Center concurring in common and mingled ends And they greatly erre who suppose that it is euer possible to finde a Pope vnpartiall for Spaine or to fauour any other Prince against them Let Vrban the Eighth serue for an example rais'd and fed by France yet fallen to their enemies per ragione distato One fresh and pregnant instance will discouer both this vnitie and the aduantage of Spanish Counsells When the Treaty of Madrid for the liberty of the Valteline was not performed and roundly pressed by the French some difficulties remaining to prolong the possession the Forts of that Vally were by consent deliuered to the Pope tanquam communi Patri in Depositâ— This seemed very equall but the French were ouer-reached For they hoped vpon the iustice of their Cause and that a sentence would timely be giuen for them which was impossible For the Spaniard was content that the Deposition should remaine for euer to his vse and he knew that the Pope by accepting it was engagâ—d neuer to surrender to the Grisons because the spirituall Father could neuer deliuer his Children behold another title to the subiection and will of Heretiques and if the French should at last vse force his Holinesse was doubly intangled both in honor and conscience to vnite with Spaine to maintaine his Depositation This the French did not foresee and fel vpon a disaduantage to recouer it from the Pope a matter of dangerous consequence Who at last takes Armes in the Cause as the World knowes But when both the Pope and Spaine saw such a generall storme and Colleguation and foresaw that there was no remedie but to lose it by Armes which being victorious might quarrell with Millan or finde new obiects of their disdaine they resolued rather to surrender it and to seeme to yeeld to Iustice But who must doe it The Pope by no meanes can consent to deliuer part of his flocke to wolues so his Ambassage protested in France therefore by secret conniuence and agreement the King of Spaine doth suddenly seale the old Articles and makes the Transaction before Barbarini shall arriue to saue the Popes honor For a temporall Prince may saluâ conscientiâ restore Heretiques to their temporall rights which the Pope a higher pretender ouer soule body and goods cannot doe By this cunning they hope to separate the Princes vnited the quarrell being in outward appearance ended and by this Intelligence it is euident that the Spirituall and temporall serue one another and take turnes and shift Interests for mutuall aduantage But if examples proue not categorically let it be considered that the spirituall and temporall Monarchies affected by Rome and Spaine haue such mutuall interest and affinitie and are so woven one within the other that though natural affection or other respects of gratitude may for a time retard perhaps striue against an open declaration yet when necessitie exacteth a resolution the essence and mystery of the Papacie will preuaile It must forsake father and mother and cleaue to this double supremacie for Rome and Spaine must stand and fall together To proceed when the Romans first transported their Legions into Greece they were called in by diuision to restore that shew of liberty to a part which they absolutely tooke from all Greece Separation and disunion by them fomented opened a Port to a Dominion which vnited was like their Phalanx not to be broken And certainly this day the Spaniards haue more hope to diuide the Princes colleagued then to vanquish them To which vse they haue two dangerous Instruments Money for the Traitor and a Pope for the Conscience It is obserued that Spaine will buy Treasons dearer then other Nations doe Faith Omne scelus externum cum laetitia habetur And another noteth Tacit. that with a bit of parchment the Pope will reduce any Kingdome to him disobedient to the State of Nauarre when the true King Iohn Albret and Queene Katherine were expelled Pierre Math. l'excommunication du Pape Iules 1. aquant eu plus de forces que les armes de Castille And they are not ashamed to glory with Philip of Macedon another oppressor that the victories gotten with words are more sweet then those of the Sword For euery Souldier can fight and share the honor but Arts and deceits of Treaties are onely proper to the Prince and his Counfell I will not enter into a search of the Treaties of Spaine nor how they are maintained
inforce Catholiques to built them Churches That they extinguish wholly Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction depriuing the Catholiques of the publication of Indulgences and Iubilees and of Entrance into Orders taking away all their Goods and from the Pastorall Cure of their Bishop Not suffering any to obey him nor that he should come to visit or comfort them That they permit the Heretique Ministers openly to treade downe the Sacraments of the Catholique Church and if any oppose hee is suddainly and barbarously punished in life and goods That they exclude out of the Vally almost all the orders of Religion admitting on the other part indistinctly hereticall Ministers of all Nations That they erect Seminaries and lately hereticall Colledges assigning them the profits tithes Canonryes and Benefits taken from the Curates and Catholique Church Of all these there are passed Decrees Statutes and open Edicts And of Cases particular there are publique Acts whereof the memory is too fresh and renewed by most cruell death inflicted on Catholiques and Religious men in the most Infamous maner imaginable Now what else is this but to vse manifest Tyrannie ouer the soules of the Catholique Subiects to take from them those helpes wherewith they aduance their saluation and their way to Heauen and to enforce them to embrace a new Religion which leads them downe to Hell The cause too much declares it selfe there is no neede of greater exaggeration to make it manifest and to shew it more intollerable In the rest to demonstrate the wretched estate of the said Vally it shall suffice simply to represent the maner of Gouernment vsed many yeares past it shall be sufficient to say that it hath beene giuen onely to him that would offer most money without any the least Consideration of abilitie or other parts necessary to such a charge and that the Commissaries sent in apparance to remedy the forepast iniustice were of the same quality and sometimes wors Insomuch that both the one and the other had for their ayme and thereto onely did attend to get their charges and to heape vp by all imaginable meanes so much Gold that therewith they might returne to their owne houses enrich't for euer From hence it proceeded that the liues of poore Innocents were a thousand waies ensnared and often taken away with open iniustice at the instance of their Enemyes who with great summes of money bought them and soâ—â—â—imes after sharpe Imprisonment and other torments hardly were dismissed naked by the price of all their substance which remained openly to the Officers without any shame in so much security that the miserable oppressed both in life and goods durst not thereof lament By the same meanes the estate of the Subiect in Ciuill Causes was alwaies in great danger For the Magistrates being publiquely mercenary it often happened that some did loose by an vniust sentence dearely bought of the Aduersary and others to preserue them against Iniustice were forced to present a great part to the Iudge No Sentence although confirmed passed in Iudgement whether Ciuill or Criminall was euer secure because the Successor to dig out money did renew the trouble to the partty acquitted and for a new price did often racall without any respect that which of others though iustly had beene iudged Safe-Conducts were broken at their pleasure and publique faith with vaine pretences violated to depriue life that by such death they might enrich themselues Lawes and Statutes were not now with arts and Stratagems deluded but openly despised and trodden vnder foot as if all had beene freely giuen to them in prey Orphans and Widdows and others of that Condition so much recommended both by diuine and humane law to the protection of Princes and Magistrates as vnable to helpe themselues by infamous meanes did remaine wholly exposed to the auarice of rauening wolues to the extreame griefe and compassion of good men On the other part it often occurred that those wicked men which had offended others in life goods and honor being fallen into the hands of Iustice in stead of exemplary punishment were for great bribes sometimes by vniust Iudgement absolued sometimes vnder couler of feined escape let free out of prison to the great oppression and affliction of those whom they had wronged There were seene numbers of infamous persons gracious with the officers of Iustice and by them rewarded onely because they serued as Instrumets many and many wayes to betray the life and goods particularly of Catholiques From whence did often follow the destruction and ruine now of one now of another family alwayes of the most ancient and honorable of the Valley Lastly who shall well consider that which the Sicilians did for three yeares suffer in the Roman Common wealth vnder the gouernment of the infamous Verres shall find that the vnhappy Valtelines haue endured much more a longer time from the hands of so many worse then Verres and perhapps shall not find any other gouernment so infamous and which so well resembles that as this of the Grisons in the Vally which should more clearely be manifested if it were here necessary to represent all the Cases and their circumstances one by one as it was for Cicero handling his Cause for ends far different from ours That which makes our Case more full of compassioÌ„ is that when the miserable oppressed haue attempted the refuge of their Superiors for remedy against so many Tyrannies and Acts of Iniustice the officers themselues haue opposed with seuerest banishments and imprisonments those who for the publike good intermedled and when it hath happened that all Impediments vanquished the Procurators of of the Vally haue arriued at the Community of the Three-Leagues and haue informed particularly their many and excessiue grieuances in the end after hauing receiued in diuers places such affronts that scarcely Slaues could suffer they haue rested deluded without effect or any prouision These things without doubt are sufficient to take away all hope euer to find vnder that gouernment any case of so many miseries But there are other accidents thereunto added whereby the Subiects are brought into vtter desperation The Assembly in the towne of Tosana is already notorious which was applied to nothing else but the destruction of good and Catholique men as well Grisons as Valtelines In the Diett there called many banishments and many Capitall Condemnations were decreed amongst which was that against Nicolo Rusca Arch Priest of Sondrio a Priest of most innocent lise and a true Martyr of Christ tormented and put to death with all cruelty and possible infamy without any other fault then being a good Catholique a priest Now these Iniuries and Cruelties hauing necessitated some Catholique Communities to seeke redresse of so many cuillâ— vsing their vtmost force they obtained that these Sentences being reuiewed were as barbarous and most vniust reuoked But a little time the remedy lasted because those people stirred vp by the fury of their Ministers and which more imported moued by the practices
en la conseruation della feè Catholicho en el Reyno di Francia y a instantia y requesta del y que no pensaua dexar las armas hasta cobrallos O yo el pontifice atenta mente la pretestacson y tomò della el Duque instrumento publico Auertiò antes à sua Santitad de algunos inconuenientes che temia hauian de resultar de la absolucion que tenia determinado dar à Enrico That is The Euening before the Absolution should be giuen the Duke of Sessa Ambassadour of the Catholique King on his behalfe protested to the Pope that the absolution which his Holines intended to giue to Henry should not preiudice the Reasons of his King in that which concerned the Kingdome of Nauar and the County of Bourgundy nor in the expence which he had made for the Confernation of the Catholique faith in the Kingdome of France at his instance and request and that he determined not to depose Armes vntill he had recouered them The high Bishop attentiuely heard the Protest and the Duke tooke thereof a publique instrument hauing first aducrtised his Holinesse of some inconueniences which hee feared might result from the Absolution which was purposed to bee giuen to Henry These Protests did appeare to men of sound iudgement ill grounded prentencos the alleaged inconueniences false foundations of that great Building which those malicious aboue mentioned did figure to themselues They said it was requisite to the strict Christianity which the Catholique King professed all humane Interest deposed to aduance with all his spirits the conuersion of Henry and to exhort the high Bishop affectionately to receiue the prodigall Sonne seeing he was returned penitent to his fathers house and to take into his Armes the strayed sheepe which hee had now found to carry him to the Sacred sheepfold of Christ They did blame as a work very little Catholique but rather as a suggestion of the Deuill to attempt the hinderance of that Absolution which onely hee ought to haue procured for the quiet of France and the publique good of Christendome which if it had not succeeded might haue wholly alienated that Kingdome from the Church as the like had done in England They did consider that it was wide of the purpose to feare any preiudice in the kingdome of Nauarre and the County of Burgundy seeing the Absolution did not deriue any more right to Henry then that which any other which should be King of France might haue But aboue all the pretensions of the expence made in the warre did giue them greatest scandall They discoursed if only for the loue of Christ the Catholique King had disbursed that money why was he not content to haue Christ his Debtor But how a Debtor if hee doth enioy of the Patrimony of Christ aboue Three Millions yearely Reuenue granted him by the Vicar of Christ of Tenths Subsidies and Croysado's and other meanes with condition to employ them against the Enemies of Christendome why takes hee nor penne in hand and comes not to a distinct Account of the Receipts and Issues well balancing il dare conl'hauere and hee shall finde himselfe not Creditor of one Maranedi but certainely Debtor of many and many Millions spent not according to his obligation for Christianity but for the interest of his owne priuate Estates What then doth hee pretend Why then doth he not lay downe Armes Vpon what hath hee fixed his thoughts To what end doth he aspire If he prosecute this warre he prosecuteth an vniust warre How doth that correspond with the zeale of Religion for which onely at first he vndertooke it What change is this Certainely it proceedeth not from the right hand of the most High But bee it so let him follow the warre at his owne pleasure there is no remedy Henry shall bee absolued and shall bee King of France Doth the Catholique King perhaps hope with his owne forces and by strong hand to depriue him If he was not able with the vnion of so many other Princes to hinder him from taking possession of his Kingdome how shall he now be able to expell him hauing set sure footing in his Throne He attempts a dangerous Action Here they proceed with witty and politique Consideration that a good issue of this warre against Henry not ensuing hee should be sure to acquire a powerfull and perpetuall Enemy that might in time make Spaine to tremble within her owne bowels and the Prophesie had well neare beene verified the whole world knowes it if a violent death had not interposed to stay him But this yet which perhaps was foreseene they did iudge insufficient to free Spaine of the danger Seeing the offence of the father and with the offence the disdaine might descend to the Sonne his Successor as soone as hee came to ripe age and should fall into consideration that the Catholique King had done his vâ—most to keepe him from being King of France when hee indeauoured to take the Crowne from the head of his father and that if his father in despight of Spaine mainteined himselfe King he also in despight of Spaine might enioy his fathers Kingdome But all these considerations which certainely were very great before any other conceiued them were resolued by the most wise King Phillip who by common Iudgement was the Salomon of his time From whence for the same reasons that others did iudge it requisite to leaue the warre hee esteemed it necessary to prosecute it Seeing he knew he had so grieuously offended Henry that hee could by no other meanes secure himselfe from his disdaine but onely by opposing him to become King of France Wherefore seeing the cause of Religion did cease it was expedient to fasten vpon some other pretence to resist with his Holiness the absolution and in France the Corenation and to proue if it were possible already reason of State had insinuated that great building of the Malicious to make a King of his owne fashion as he had already caused to be propounded in Parliament Tarde se desengana el dessee de mandar Bauia p. 4. vita de Clem. 8. c. 30. y ser Rey Por este aunque con menos brie no desistian los pretensores Proponia el Duque de Feria al Serenissima Infanta de Espana Dona Isabel Affermaua denersele el Reyno porque hauiendo faltado la linea masculina de Hugo Capcto eraquien tenià meior derecho a la Corona como hija de hermana mayor de Eurico III vltimo Rey de Francia Y dezia con esto que el Rey Catholico su padre la ca sarsa con alâ—un principe Frances con que el nombramiento del tal quedasse en su elecion That is The desire to command and to bee King was slowly cleared from all doubt For this cause though with lesse boldnesse the Pretènders gaue not ouer The Duke of Feria did propound her highnesse Donna Isabella Infanta of Spaine He did affirme the Kingdom
this then I inuoke with all my spirits the attentiue mind of your Maiestie for when I shall haue demonstrated that all the Reasons of the Manifest are ill grounded and false and what the truth of the businesse is it shall together appeare that the Causes of said Manifest cannot bee other then those about specified The Reasons drawne to excuse the Rebellion of the Valtelines are reduced to two Heads Religion and Tyranny Vpon these are made great Amplifications but all is affirmed without proose A manifest signe that it is spoken without foundation Concerning Religion it is said that the Grisons vtterly haue taken from the Valtelines the libertie of Conscience and haue procured that all should be infected with Heresie shewing in euery occasion fauour to Heretiques and the contrary to Catholiques vpon some of whom they haue insâ—â—tod most cruell and infamous death onely in hatred of the Religion I repedre not euery particular It is sufficient to take this Mauiâ—â— to which all other matters are reduced and in the Manifest may be distinctly read Conterning Tyranny it goeth painting out a kind of gouernment of the Grisons in the Valteline like to that which hâ—â—fore Verres vsed in Sirtly and to speake more modernly like to some practised as well by the Ministers of your Maiestie as of your Predecessors in their States of Italys as by this discourse you shall fully vnderstand perhaps with some notable benefit to your poore Subiects who are waiting some ease from your Roy all hand But before wee discourse particularly in those two points it is fit to consider That the Grisons though diuided in two Religions Roman and Bâ—â—â—golique may it please the diume Maiestie that in time they may all agree in the vaine of the true Apostolique yet in all matters in respect of the publique good of the State thee haue constantly stood vnited in the politique Gouernment With which Concord they haue so many yeares maintained themselues free Princes vndependent of other and highly estemed of all For which cause wee know with how much diligence and charge many great Priaces haue sought their friendship But of late yeares in this part some Ministers of your Maiestie malignant to see them colleagued now with France now with Venice moued with an immoderate zeale of your seruice to which they supposed that such Confederations might bring some preiudice and iudging it most important to your Crowne that you onely should haue the free passage through the straighes of the Valreline into Germany and thâ—â— to all other Princes they should at your pleasure bee shot haue gone contriuing Inuentions and insiduous Artifices to diuide the Grisons as well in the politique gouernment as in Religion to the end they might easily stide into vtter ruins To this effect the late count de Fuentes Gouernour of Millan erected that Fort which to this day beares his name so preiudiciall as nothing more to the State of the Grisons Hauing first with money corrupted some of the chiefe of that Countrey to the end that if the Lords would oppose themselues they should with various Arts be disturbed as it came right to passe by the labor of lo Baptista Preuestâ— Pompeio Rodolfo Planta Nichole Rusea and others noted in the Manifest of the Grisons of the yeare 1618. Instantly after which Don Pedro de Toledo Gouernor of Millan in the yeare 1617. did attempt to make a perpetuall league with the Grisons vpon Articles molded by the Lord Alfonse Casale Ambassador of your Maiestie in that Republique after his owne fashion In which there was nothing inserted in the fauour of the Grisons but a delusory promise to demolish the fort of Fuentes where with it seemed to him that they should condiscend to all other things how contrary soeuer to their libettie The same men who did fauour the building of the Fort did not faile to aduance also this Confederacie perswading many that by al meanes it ought to be embraced but the crooked practises of these Patriots Enemies of their Countrey being to the Grisons discouered they would not accept these Capitulations but forming a Iuridicary and Capitall Processe against these Rebels they found so many Machinations treasons and other wicked Actions by them wrought that proceeding to Iustice it was requisite with Banishments and death to giue them deserued punishment Prom that time till now that they remained exiled aided with money by the Ministers of your Maiestie with which they proceeded maintayning fresh practices with their friends and adherents and corrupting many others they haue sollicited continually to sowe dissention among this people thereby to raise some insurrection as finally hath succeeded in the Valteline The truth of all this is clearly collected from the forealleaged Manifest of the Actions of the Grisons in the yeare 1618. to which Credit cannot bedenied as the Ministers of your Maiesty desire seeing the things therein related are matters of fact and iuridically approued where these affaires haue beene handled without passion or respect of persons as euery dispassionate mind by the reading thereof will iudge The intent then of your Maiesties Ministers was not to establish a Confederacy with the Grisons which had in bin so they would haue procured by lawfull wayes vpon Conditions reasonable as other Princes vsed and not by interuention of particular persons corrupted with gisâ—s and vpon Articles so vnsanory as among them are seene But then purpose was so cunningly to frame them that they should not be accepted because being promoued by the factious party of men corrupt and reiected by the sound part dis-interressed and louers of the publique good there might arâ—â—â— a discord sowed by this art to cast these people into Confusion so that from their diuision according to the Gospell the desolation of the State might follow For the Ministers of your Maiestie fomenting one part against the other did hope to oppresse both the one and the other and highly to merit of you by enlarging in what way soeuer your Empire This Artifice O Sacred Catholique Kingh to disunict Subiects from their Princes to send them into destruction is most proper and practised by the Ministers of your Crowne and who would here recount how often and in what maner they haue plotted disunion in the Kingdome of France should weaue a large Historie The French Lords doe well know it and it is a common opinion amongst them who best vnderst and the Affaires of State that if all the Hugonotts of France should bee reduced to the Catholique Religion the Spanish Ministers would therewith be grieuously displeased seeing that of them they make principall vse as of most deare friends to embroile that Kingdome whensoeuer they haue any doubt that the French may moue his forces to the dammage of Spaine And they doe glory not to seare at all the Armes of his most Christian Maiestie not because the are inualid but that they know the way to keepeth 〈◊〉 busied at their pleasure in his owne houseâ—
no cause to doubt seeing this is the way to riches and he that buyes an office pretends to haue right to sell it in felling Iustice as it was once said of that good Spanish Pope who by force of money ascended to the Chaire did dispence for moneyes all Rights of the Church Emerat ille prius vendere iure porost Here I could open the eies of your Maiesty with a like abuse in your own Court and tell you that los Alguaziles or as we call them Marshals or Captaines of Serieants pay for that charge fiue or six thousand Ducats Los Escriuanos or Notaties of Magistrates pay some eighteene some twenty thousand Crownes los Alcaldes or speaking in our owne Idioms the Criminall or Ciuill Iudges doe not pay a certaine summe but they neuer climbe to that degree without bestowing large donations vpon the Fauorits of your Maiestie What may then be said of Gonernours and Vice-Kings which you send into remoâ—e Prouinces All the Court doth know and the Prouinces are not ignorant that no man gratis doth obtaine these honours but they all passe in the Common way Your Maiestie may well beleeue that your Ministers are not so zealous of the weale publique profusely to expend their owne to goe and wearie themselues to gouerne others though in the most eminent dignitie Whence you may firmely collect that they propose to disburse at Interest and so prouide that the poore Subiects pay them an annuall Tribure not of fiue tenne or twenty but of a hundred for a hundred and sometimes a thousand and that at the end of their Gouernment they doe leuell the Capitall I could read in Cathedra vpon this matter as that which I haue seene with mine owne eyes and whereof in part to my great losse haue had experience But being a publique thing it behooues not that I wearie my selfe therein I returne then to the Tyranny of the Grisons Pompeio Planta aboue mentioned did vsurpe the power of Magistracie in the Praefecture of Forstenau binding all the officers not to intermeddle in any Cause of Importance without his knowledge or of Rodolpho Planta his Brother This man who was Prouinciall Captaine of the Valteline Criminall Iudg of Zernez of the bordering Communities did vsurp the power of Magistracy of the three Leagues exercising therein most great Tyranny in generall and against particular men and did arrogate to himselfe to iudge the lawes and to choose them onely Iudges who to him were pleasing and whosoeuer would not concurre with him was sodainly depriued In which course attempting to doe violence in the vpper Agnadina hee was the cause that six persons did loose their liues He did falsifie the Statutes and ordinances of the Countrey in his Iurisdiction adding and diminishing them as to him it turned best to accompt He did binde the Subiects in many Communities and free Prouinces with various corruptions and presents to elect into many offices men vpon him dependant Of which his followers he after made vse to breake the lawes to excite Commotions against honest men and to gouerne all with violent Tyranny at his owne disposition Vpon delicts of little consideration hee gaue most rigorous sentences Conuerting them after into great Ransoms to whosoeuer would redeeme his vexations When he had punished some Delinquent he found occasion to entangle many Innocents saying that the guilty had accused them of Confederacy or somewhat else and enforced them if they would anoide his persecution to compound with him in great summes of money In Agnadina he did sharpen the quâ—rrells and factions euen amongst Kindred fomenting them with men and Armes where of followed many wounds and many deaths What auaâ—â—gth it particularly to recount the Tyrannies vsed for many yeares by him and his Brother in Agnadina Valteline and other places And who is able to search the truth of infinite others practised by their adherents and followers In summe Pompeio and Rodolfo Planta haue beene Tyrants themselues and Heads of Tyrants From them and by them all those Cruelties of the people which in the Manifest written in the name of the Valtelines are exaggerated haue proceeded without contradiction they are too true we doe not deny them But let it availe to speake the Truth and who by your fauour are those but factious men and Dependents vpon the Ministers of your Maiestie From whom haue they receiued the monies to support their Tyrannicall Authoritie but of the Ministers of your Maiestie who hath constandy comforted them in their wicked Actions but the Ministers of your Maiestie Then it must necessitily bee concluded that the Ministers of your Maiestie are they who haue seated Tyranny in the Valieline and in other parts of the Grisons following the same designe aboue mentioned to breed Confusion Disunion and finall destruction of chose People to the enlargement of the States of your Maiestie and all these workings haue beene carried in a manner so artificiall that though the Grisons did see many things ill done they could not apply a remedie because they knew not from whence the euill did arise So great was the Tyrants power that there was none found who once durst witnesse a truth But at last when it pleased God to bring it to light the Grisons did not neglect to vse all diligence to dig vp the euill by the Roote The Brethren Planta's fled Conscions of their owne Iniquitie whereby not being able to apprehend them they were punished in such sort as was possible by most sharpe exile Looke vpon the writing so often alleadged of the Acts of the Grisons where more distinctly euery particular may be read But for a domonstratiue proofe of the aforesaid matters all the world doth know how these Brothers Plantds after their banishmont were alwaies sauoured and sustained by the Ministers of your Maiestie how at their Instigation and with their helpe they wrought the insurrection of the Valteline and how as yet they negotiate worse actions Here are three things fit to be aduised your Maiestie The one the Detript which is obtruded by your Ministera The other the Repreach which they bring to your Roiall name by insidious Complots which they alway extend to other Potentates The last is the Impudonce wherewith they seeke vnworthily to wound the name and reputation of good Princes against whom they haue often prouoked the Predecessors of your Maiestie and sometime your selfe and still doe attempt earnestly to induce you to actions little reasonable making you beleeue not that they are only lust but holy Vpon this first we shall haue little cause of discourse seeing from the fore alleaged matters it is euidently collected that the Grisons doe not nor haue not tyrannised their Subiects neither concerning Religion nor in the politike life That all the Tyranny which was vsed in their State was treacherously induced by the Ministers of your Maiestie and that the Rebellion of the Valtelines was not free and voluntary in them but practised procured and in a manner
enforced by those wicked Arts I haue fully demonstrated If then your Ministers to promoue your pious and religious minde to embrace the protection of the Valtelines and to depriue the Grisons of their Dominions would make you otherwise beleeue who knowes not the fraud who sees not the deceipt It is superfluous to enlarge because it is too manifest I come to the second It is certaine that the actions of Ministers are attributed to their Princes and with reason seeing it is supposed that they dare not cannot as they ought not to dee any thing which is not to them either committed or permitted especially to contriue any great practice either secret or open against other Princes If then a Vice-King of Naples hath once surprised some Castles of the Pope which after with difficultie were restored If another did rob the Merchant Gallies of Venice which yet they haue not restored If a Gouernour of Millan did once attempt to take Casall of Montferat a Citie of the Duke of Mantua by treason and the Castle of Bresse from the State of Venice If another did leape out to ransack the land of Cremasce Another did procure to betray the Citie of Crema subiect to the Senate If one of your Ambassadours with intelligence of the Viee-Roy of Naples and the Gouernour of Millan did machinate a most detestable conspiracie against the Citie of Venice it selfe If now the present Gouernour of Millan hath caused the Valtelines to rebell from the Grisons And if all these things haue beene done with the Armes the men and the money of your Malestie and in times that you haue professed to bee a good friend both to the Grisons Venetians Duke of Mantua and the Pope the world cannot imagine other but that your Maiestie hath giuen these orders From whence it is publikely spoken that the King of Spaine doth attend to nothing else but to raise Rebellions to contriue Conspiracies to sollicite treasons to ransack rob assassinate his friends Thus by the meanes of his Ministers his Royall name without any his owne fault is stayned with Infamy I call God to witnesse that I thus speake because I so certainly beleeue of your Maiestie who deriuing your birth from the most noble German Nation which by nature is free single and of a minde farre estranged from frauds deceipts and treasons and are descended from the most famous house of Auftria which hath still produced Princes magnanimous adorned with high valour and true vertue It is incredible that you should euer encline the greatnesse of your minde to Actions so vnworthy But all men are not able to distinguish of Nations nor to know the qualities of Princes whence the greatest part hearing the name of a King of Spaine doe beleene that it is spoken of a Spauish King and doe iudge that he also is such or rather worse then are his Ministers This is an ordinarie forme of Argument Thus spake the Indians when those first Conquerours entred among them Diziendoles que se subiect assen à elles hombres tam inhumanos iniustos Vescoue de Chiappa li de destruâ—â— dellas Indias y crueles en nombre del Rey de EspaÌ„na incognito y nunca jamas delles oyde estimauan ser muy mas iniusto y cruel que elles That is Saying if they should be subiected to them men so inhumane vniust and cruell in the name of a King of Spaine to them vnknowne of whom they had neuer heard they did iudge that he was much more vniust and cruell then they The same Argument they made against Iesus Christ our God Vese de Chia p. nel pr. 23. because finding the Spanyards who called themselues Christians to vse Iniustice and horrible Tyranny they did draw a consequence that the God of the Christians as was formerly said was the most crull and the most vniust of all other Gods Let not your Maiestie then wonder that your Royall name is without your fault but not without cause reproached proiched neither be troubled or displeased against theÌ„ who haue reason much too great and to the world too too apparant to blaspheme it But be grieued and angry at your own Ministers who by their euill demeanour giue subiect to all to scandalize and abhor it And in as much as your Maiestie liues iealous of your reputation bee pleased gratefully to receiue this Aduertisement which you will know to be most important and may bee vnto you not a little auaylable I passe to the third It is a thing almost ordinary with them who practice euill vnder the shew of goodnesse to make the world beleeue that others also when they doe good worke in quitie For the Actions of the one and the other being in themselues contrary those of wicked men cannot be approued for good vnlesse those of good men be condemned for wicked whence vpon their reproach they pretend to build their owne glory The Ministers of your Maiestie blame the Grisons for punishing the Brothers Planta's and other Rebels and calls this chastisement Tyranny because they would haue it said that they hauing still sauoured and supported them had done a iust and compassionate action which certainely the graue Peet would not haue approued who wisely said Ennius Benefacta malè locata malefacta arbitror Rather to speake truth this is the height of iniquitie Totius enim iniustitiae nulla capitalior est quam eorum Cicer. oss li. 1. qui eum maximè fallunt id tamen agunt vt viri boni esse videantur Among Tyrants to punish the good and reward the wicked are acts of iustice and pietie as contrarily to punish euill and reward good men is esteemed Tyranny and wickednesse These are iust the termes which the Ministers of your Maiestie speake and vse in this occasion while they would make show to doe well in cherishing the Rebels of the Grisons and that these haue done euill to punish them Now what may the world say To this they adde that the Grisons haue exercised this Tyranny by the practise and money of that neighbour Potentate who for reason of State doth make any thing lawfull how contrary soeuer to the honor of God and the maintenance of his holy faith and who is the principall Instrument of insinite euills to the Christian Common-weale Now who doth not laugh at this so foolish Calumny Doubt lesse the Grisons had great need of the practices and moneys of some great Potentate to punish halfe a doren Rebells and Traitors part in prison and part fled And who doth not wonder at so much shamelesnesse It had beene enough if that Potemate vnder the pretence of Religion and Godlinesse had done any of those many Villanies which were committed in India to describe him in so handsome colours But who will not praise that great modesty which would not by name declare that Potentate Truely it deserned great praise if it were not knowne that extreame hatred did abhorre to name him But who doth
may and ought to depriue the Prince his Vassall because the inuestiture of the fee is not granted for the peoples ruine but that they should bee gouerned with lustice wherefore if the feudatory vse iniustice and ill entreatment he falls from his Iurisdiction and the Soueraigne Prince may thereof depriue him and not doing it beeing able hee shall bee a wicked Prince and no lesse guiltie of the euill before God which he suffered his feudatory to doe then hee the feudatory himselfe is who acts it Now let your Maiestie apply this doctrine which is wholy conformable to reason and law to the Actions of your Ministers to the condition of your Subiects and to the right of other Princes ouer your Estates in Italy and you shall clearely see how your Ministers are damnable your Subiects miserable and how much other Princes are obliged to releeue them My words perhaps will seeme bitter but I beseech your Maiestie to consider if they be true and finding them so to take them in good part as bitter medicines fiery Canteries sharp lances vse to be gratefully receiued from the hands of Physitians Chirurgions to procure health be assured you shall find them most profitable because your Maiestie fully informed of the truth will correct your Ministers comfort your Subiects and ease other Princes of the necessitie to vse their supreame Iurisdiction The Cause of Subiects and of Ministers are together vnited because those are gouerned and these Gouernours whence as Correlatiues they goe paripasse I will then briefly represent to you Maiestie the Gouernment of your States in Italy so farre as is expedient to the present matter The State of Milun in the time of the Emperour Charles the sift began to bee ill intreated from whence that sad lamentable and despairefull Ambassage which they sent by Baptista Archinto to Nazan is recorded who onely because he did lament in the name of his afflicted Countrey was receiued with an ill eye sent back without remedy and by the Imperiall Ministers at his returne sharply reprehended which might haue occasioned the Rebellion of that people if they had found any better Prince who would haue receided them Hac vbi sub ipsum Caesaris à Nicea discessum ex legatione veâ—â—â—â— per vrbas Cisalpinae Galliae svulgate sunt Iouius Hist lib. 37. vsque adtò tamum ex vei indignitate odium Caesaricrâ—uit vt omnes ex rarum desperations fucise defect 〈◊〉 upoareret si mitior clemenotr qui dâ—dentes reeiperet Dominus offereretur immoderatis siâ—â—dem puoe bâ—llbque rributis upprossi nonn etiam tum mmstruae exactionis onerâ—â— periutâ—rant quae nunquam desitâ—aboni morâ—ales 〈◊〉 donoe vincret Câ—sar atque Italiae Imperis poteretur A feet also a second time when Strozzâ— Pallaâ—icino Visenti who made warre for the King of France approached to Millan all the Imperiall Ministers held that Citie as bad as loft onely because it did feele the yoake of Spanish Dominion too violent and heavy Assiduis at que intollerandis trubutis alienata Jouius lib. 45. parata credi poterat ad nouandas res vt inuictum pergraue Hispanici Regm ingum excuteret If from that time to this their grieuances are diminished or augmented your Maiestie best knowes To what termes that State is at this day reduced who doth not know let him consider this that already many and many year as it hath suffered great numbers of Spanish Souldiers lodged in the houses of poore particular men at discretion Discretion of Souldiers and Tyranny are one and the same thing who hath not proued it let him pray to God fust to die and hee shall die happier then euer to haue proued it And let him be content to beleeue for faith that vnder such discretion goods and honour are dispatched and hardly is life secure I passe ouer the burthen of new Tributes I leaue the Rapine of Ministers who like blood-suckers haue exhausted the veines of that plentifull bodie because in comparison of lodging Souldiers at discretion I esteeme all to bee nothing and he who is able to endure to see them eate the sustenance of his poore family and that which exceeds all other Tyranny to grow familiar with his wife daughters and Sisters it may be said that he is growne insensible of any iniury I remember to haue read in the warres which were so sharpe betweene the Venetians and Genoueses that these did take a Citie of their Enemies and held it the space of tenne yeares subiected to discretion whence it is credible that besides other matters they did dispose of their wiues according to their pleasures for which cause to this day though now two hundred and fifty yeares are ouerpast there cannot bee done a greater Inuiry to those people then to call them Genoueses Bastards and notwithstanding that staine with length of time and the continued peace of that Citie which neuer since felt the offence of Enemie hath beene oftentimes worne out and washed away yet vpon euery occasion they resent the onely memory of that ancient Iniury done to the honour of their women which seemes indelible and eternall If I then say that the greatest of all the Tyrannies which the State of Millan doth now suffer is to haue their wiues at the Souldiers discretion I shall not speak much wide of the purpose because it is a matter very likely that in times to come the Millaneses may bee called Spanish Bastards If this be tolerable let your Maiestie consider Wee proceed to Sicily Let it not be grieuous to your Maiestie that I speake this truth that if this day there were any other Prince as ready to solicit the destruction of Spanyards as there was once a Spanish King to procure that of the French sodainly and easily wee should see another Scicilian Vesper the causes are the same and are not newly begunne Let the Insurrection of Messina bee remembred then when the Vice King Don Iuan de Cardona Ioseph Bonfigl Hist Sicil. p. 1. lib. 10. would oppresse that Kingdome with intolerable Tributes And let it bee considered with what pride and with how great disdaine he vsed the Messinesi because they defended the libertie of their Kingdome For which cause iustly prouoked they did generously to his face vpbraid him that he acted another Phallaris another Dionisius Don Vgo de Moncada who would not start Bonfigl p. 2. lib. 1. onely to heare this name this was that impious man that sacked Rome was also Vice-Roy how can it bee thought that hee handled them Let vs obserue the words of the History Hee was by Nation a Catalonian by birth a Barcellonese a man most ambitious greedy of Riches and immoderately enclined to dishonest Luxury Hee gouerned Sicily with Crueltie Auarice and Impudent Iust Hee neglected so farre to punish the falsifiers of money vntill depriuing it of Commerce hee impouerished that Kingdome and that which more imported he made publike Mechandise of Graine insomuch that hee
in Counsells they haue aduantage of vs. It must then be concluded to oppose this end wee must resolue the like and pursue it with the like wayes and Counsells except onely the wayes of Darkenesse to take from them those ranke parts which nourish this Concupiscence To discouer the right line of this opposition it may be enquired what Spaine did aduance in the last warre in the blessed dayes of the glorious Queene Elizabeth either vpon England France Germany Italy or Holland and the totall summe shall be found nothing Whether they lost in Flanders or of their owne is not the question for the warre was in the end defensiue and hee is beaten that assailing conquers not But that the Indies were not able to supply nor appease the mutinies of his Souldiers nor to pay the Interests of Geneua and that they had lost all Reputation and sought peace on all sides precariè Hoochstrat the Electo's their Bills protested their trauailng Fryars their owne Ambassages and the World are irrefutable witnesses To account what they haue gotten in these latter yeares of Peace onely by peace besides the daring so bold an Act as to expell many Millions of inborne Enemies and thereby raising another Indea of treasure for a designed warre at the spring tyde of their full Coffers would if it lay together make a competent estate for a-moderate Prince Somewhat in this point hath beene touched in a generall enumeration but particulars do fully instruct Alarache in Barbarie to strengthen their South Coasts of Spaine and to helpe to shut vp the Streights of Gibralterra Acon vnder the Imperiall Coulours depriued of the libertie of Conscience the Reformed Magistrates banished and the Citie reduced to their Deuotion The non Plus Vltra of the Rhyne 40 yeares defended sliptouer and thereby Wesell the Retraict and Sanctuary of our Religion made the Spanish Garrison Gulick and the Inheritance of the Heyres of Cleue possessed vnder the title of protection and kept as a pledge The Palatinate distributed to their Dependants but the Ports and Fortresses of Importance held in hostage And thus Holland surrounded The Valtoline blockt-vpp The Crownes of Bohemia and Hungary intailed and the Nobility spoiled of their priuiledge of free Election The Euangeliques vniuersally exiled and oppressed And all Germany trembling vnder the example These are the fruits of a Spanish peace If the slumbring Lyon bite so mortally what shall hee doe enraged after his pursued Prey And if in peace contrary to the nature of peace such achieuements are obtained that the ship of Spaine runne in the night so many leagues while the Pilot seemes to sleepe It is euident in peace and Warre they haue one end of Conquest Sapiens non semper it vno gradu Seneca sed vna via From these examples wee must learne bellum vtiliter inire prosequi I will not presume to vnderstand where the Spanish Empire is most sensible and weake but exhibit some generall rules that Riuers are onely to be preuented of their waters by stopping or diuerting their fountaines Aegypt depends vpon the courtesie and payes tribute to the King of Ethiopia to giue leaue to Nilus to water it The body is soonest reduced to a consumption by destroying the Liuer the Indies of blood And then demonstrate these axioms by a fewe Roman and Spanish Parallels what they did and what they suffered and leaue the application to Actine men That Princely People had no Indies but their Virtue Rome and the Senate was all while they caried their Armies abroad they had no returnes but victories and triumph and they could loose nothing except men that sold their liues dearely But when their Emuli the Carthagenians discouered by their Inuasion of Sicily that their ambition had no limits and considered that while they fought for their owne ground they could get nothing but blowes They resolued to send Haniball to the Gates of Rome where he reduced that Empire to nothing but a Colledge of braue old men prepared to dye in Maiestie Eighteene yeares this glorious Captaine trode on the spoiles of Italy and doubtlesse had finished that Dominion and in that day Hor. in which he turned to Capua had sapped in the Capitoll Si quemadmodum sciret vincere sie vti victoria scisset From whence grew the prouerbe Capuam Hanibali Cannas fuisse We must not trust in errors nor hope this Courtesie of our Enemies When the young Scipio reuiued the hearts of the Romans by vndertaking the Prouince of Spaine where his Father and Vncle and so many Legions were buried he found three Armies greater then his owne to oppose him Vulgaria emnia consilia quorum venire in mentem cuiusuis poterat omisit Polib To fight with all at once was impossible to beginne with one desperate the other two were at his back entire vincendo vinceretur And fortune must not be often tempted But when he fell vpon the consideration that new Carthage was the fountaine from whence all the diuisions were supplied the Port and harbour of succours he resolued omnes vnà aggredi by taking that City to dry-vp the streames at the spring head Thus the Enemies retraict storehouse became his tota Regio in vna vrbe superata est and he changed the face of the whole warrc by one deliberation and was victorious without the vncertaine tryall of Battell dubium an vtiliori faelicioriue concilio Lastly when there was no other way to retire Haniball out of Italy this fate of Carthage vndertooke to transport the warre to their own doores and then hee that neuer refused to fight treated sought peace and almost confessed that he was vanquished then he made that pittifull oration the most inglorious of all his Acts Si nunc esset integrum optaturum se fore Hanib ad Scip. vt neque Romani quicquam vnquam eorum quae sunt extra Italiam nec Carthagenienses eorum quae extra Affricam concupiscent To this moderation must Spaine be reduced Haniball knew hee might safelier haue lost all his battells within the Alpes then one at the gates of Carthage In them he aduentured nothing but the superfluity of youthfull blood which en gaijetè de coeur sought their desteny in the field of honour But now the Common-wealth was at stake and they plaied their Altars Liberties Wiues and Children at one game Haniball to auoid this desteny attempted Italy to wast Rome at their owne charges But Scipio had learned that wisedome of him which himselfe could not vse and finished at once a double warre and the Spaniards imitating the one part shewes vs the way to take the other Spaine while it was a single Kingdome threatned no body and in Spaine litle is to be gotten where me ate must be supplied and a victorious Army may starue Therefore that not being the roote it must bee sought from whence this cuills of ambition ariseth and as in naturall Bodies there are other parts besides the head