acted in such manner that what Countenance soever th' Affaires have taken and whatsoever traverses the time hath raised he was never astonished nor cast down He abated nothing of his pursuit He continually respected the Dignity of the Master he served and the reputation of the Crown which he laboured to sustain And whatsoever happened unto him how strange soever the Tempest was he resolved to perish with the Government in his hand and to be able to say what Francis the first wrote to his Mother after the loss of the Journey to Pavia All is except th' Honour But this Courage which hath shined so eminently in Disgraces was not effeminated in proserity and that magnanimity which he expressed in his ill fortune when it undertook to exercise him changed it selfe into an excellent Moderation and into a most perfect acknowledgement of that which proceeded from th' hand of God and from the fortune of a Prince The Fourth Discourse That the Science to discover the merits of Men and t' employ them is necessary for a Minister of State ONe of the Noblest Conditions which formes the Minister of State and the perfection of Administration is the Science to discern other men and th' Art to employ them Truly as our soul how heavenly soever it is and all spirituall hath need of the Body to make its operations And as God makes uses of second Causes to govern with them the World and to renue Nature so a Minister of State how excellent soever he may be hath necessary use of a number of persons to labour with him and to help him to carry th'Engine of the State and burthen of Affairs 'T is the Pilot that ought to give Motion to all other Officers in the Ship 'T is th' head that ought to put in exercise th' Armes and th' other parts of the Body And as that ancient Captain found no Title so glorious nor Argument more magnificent to make himselfe known than to answer him who demanded of him If he was a man of compleat Arms or an Archer or a light Horseman That he was the person that commanded all those men there So a principall Minister of State ought to have a spirit superiour to other Officers of State and not to be ignorant of the Duties of Generals of Armies nor of the Duties of Judges nor of them who manage the Treasury This Condition is remarkable in Sr. the Cardinal and 't is true if a man have but one good Quality he knows how to make choice of it in the midst of many defects and to discern a Grain of Gold in the midst of Gravel and Dung The Earth is not more various in its proprieties nor the Heaven in its influences than men are in their Tempers and Inclinations And 't is an extraordinary thing to find a soul capable of all sorts of good or a Temper proper for all the functions of the soul Le ts place here some few of its Differences and of its Proprieties for the clearing of our subject They in whom Imagination is predominant and who have subtil hot spirits are very proper for th' Intrigue They are Rich in expedients and have present Apprehensions which warrant them from surprises which suffer them not to be confounded and which resist the first impression of Accidents which have not been foreseeen and the newness of Occurrences They speak ordinarily with grace and express themselves with facility Their Action hath somewhat I know not what that pleaseth and a certain Harmony which charmes the senses and glides even Reason and to th' Affections of the soul They are bold to undertake and for that Difficulties appear lesse to them then they are or beneath their strength They cast themselves blindly upon them they precipitate in stead of walking And if they meet with a Ditch in the way it stops them not either they fall in or leap over it They are pleased with Noyse and love Disturbance they appear strong in troubled times and the Consusion of Affaires is their element and the matter which is proper for them They do sometimes great things and 't is not possible that undertaking much all should succeed ill That they encounter onely if they fail in their choice Hazard where th' Election is of no use to them and that being so seldom wise they are never happy They are neverthelesse of great service and of incredible prosit when they fall under the Direction of a wise man who tempers th' heat by his judgement and moderates their impetuosity by his Prudence And as Philosophy observes That Choller serves for a spur to Virtue and puts life to it 'T is also true that when these active humours are accompanied with a good Sense and perfect Reason nothing seems difficult or impossible to them But also when they are Masters of their Actions and Arbiters of Affaires their Conduct is much to be feared It is more dangerous then profitable They cannot commit easie faults having alwaies great designes in their heads and they seldom fail of making them having not circumspection enough or foresight to avoid them They that are of a cold temper and in whom reason abounds are more fit to govern And though their Actions are not so glaring and tumultuous as th 'others are yet they are more lively and more efficacious The common people who have no understanding but for th' objects of sense and comprehends but what it sees and what it toucheth admires these lesse then the former persons They are neverthelesse of a higher price in the judgement of wise men and have the same Advantage of them th'Architects have of Masons that Pilots have of Mariners and that they who draw the designs of Pictures have of them who know onely how to mingle their Colours and to habit the Figures They seldom contribute to the fall of States by Imprudency in so much that the first Law they observe is to commit no faults As the first Inclination which Nature gives us is to shun th'Evill and what is contrary to us They seldom shipwrack because they know the nature of the Seas and of the Winds That they know how to foresee the Tempests and that they put out in time and gain timely the Haven They are fit for War and Peace they are good to gain and to preserve their Virtue is ever present and there 's neither condition of time nor exception of affaires that hinders them to act or renders them unprofitable There are others in whom Imagination may find heat enough to act if there were driness enough and if it were not drowned in the Flegme and in an abundance of moysture which duls and cooles it And neverthelesse they have not the vivacity of the first nor the prudence of the second I speak of that high and divine Virtue which resides in the understanding and in that supream Region of the soul which is the Guide and Torch of other Virtues and which chooseth the means of things that
He had surpassed all the Moderne Captaines Considerations upon the principall things which the King hath done since the Landing of th' English in th' Ile Rhé which will declare some Conditions necessary for a Minister of State The third Book The First Discourse Of what Importance Care and Vigilancy are for a Minister of State and that nothing is to be neglected principally in Warre CAre Labour and Vigilancy are not things purely spirituall The body seems therein to have the best part and if they derive their Originall from th' understanding they determine in the matter and sensible objects do bind them They are the neerest causes of execution and without them a Minister of State may peradventure be wise but can never be happy On the contrary there 's no difficulty nor resistance which may not be forced by their aide with them fortune is constrained to follow Good counsells are assured Bad are corrected Things are supported and overthrown and that form is almost given to businesse which is proposed 'T is then of great Concernment to neglect nothing that may be profitable That no accident is to be esteemed smal if it may incommodate That every moment ought to be of precious esteem if it be necessary for us And that the Maxim of Morality be remembred That evill is raised out of the least defect in things and that Good to be such requires that every part be entire and sound Above all in great misfortunes in the violence of fortune that all advizes must be heard and all things attempted though they seem impossible For then much must be hazarded provided that it be not all unlesse we are constrained thereunto and cannot save our selves but in ruming a course to destroy our selves Moreover we ought t' Imitate the Wise Physitian who will never ordain dangerous Remedies and whose operation is doubtfull but they will trye diverse of whose goodnesse they may not be fully assured but that they shall not kill if they heal not and will not make th' evill worse if they do not ease it In a word 't is not to be believed what great and incredible effects are produced by an exact care by a constant diligence by an infatigable contest and by that prudent inquietude which alwaies acts which forgets nothing which never gives it selfe liberty and forceth at last what holds too fast and draws what will not follow Caesar was incomparable in these Qualities as in all other that forme a great Captain No person ever took more pains in the Warre or exercised more functions together in his Army nor that more desired to be present in all occasions or that was more obstinate t' execute his resolutions not to retire when he was once advanced and not to stand in the midst of an enterprize 'T is true that he deliberated much before he undertook any thing and did not cast himselfe blindly upon any designe He did not prepare to make war after he had begun to make it The provisions answered alwaies to the time he had forecast to make them continues and th' execution never deceived his providence But after that he lost not a moment of time nor an occasion of advantage and never remitted to the next day what he might execute the same day He seldome trusted but to his eyes and judgement and for the most part he went in person to view the Country he would assault and th' enemies he was to fight When th' occasion prest he made incredible Marches He passed Rivers by swimming t' avoid going about to gain Bridges He crossed the Seas in small Vessels to make the more diligence and chose rather to sayl in Storms then suffer his businesse to run hazard and to put his person in danger rather then his fortune And it must not be a wonder if in his profession he left all the men in the world behind him And if it hath been doubted To whom the victory had remained if Alexander had made Warre to the growing Common-Wealth No Question can be made but he was inferiour to Caesar who destroyed it in its most vigorous Age and in th' excesse of its force and made it fall from th' height of its greatnesse and from the top of its Power On the contrary the reason why the Reputation of so many Men is seen to passe with the time and their glory t' extinguish 'T is the diminution of Labour and the default of Vigilancy This diminution default proceed from severall causes The first is that as in the condition of particular persons a mans fortune doth not alwaies advance with equall pace and with an uniforme progresse That it stops toward th' end or moves slowly though it come with impetuosity and swiftnesse Insomuch that he who burnt with impatience in the beginning to quit poverty and laboured with Zeal to become Rich So soon as his desire is satisfied and that he sees himselfe in plenty H' abates of his cares and would enjoy with rest th'fruits of his industry So the man whose spirit is possessed with the passion of glory and meditates the great actions which do beget it when he hath attained his end That he hath filled the World with the reputation of his vertue and hath formed in himselfe a great opinion of himselfe Th' hunger of honour which pressed him at first becomes moderate and by consequent his first contest weakens and his ordinary diligence diminisheth A second cause of this diminution is Age and 't is no wonder if the body which destroyes it selfe grieves the Soul and if it operate not with the same vigour as it did when th' Organs are spoyled and th'instruments of use weare out This rule neverthelesse is not absolutely true and hath its exceptions as I have said elsewhere A third cause are the diseases which produce the same effects and more dangerous then Age because they produce them more suddenly and with more violence and 't is not possible that in the griefe of the body and weaknesse of nature a man can intend things that are without him and at the same time contest with the disease and businesse Besides what hath been said before of Phillip the second The Spaniards have also observed that their affaires in the Low Countryes declined with th' health of the Prince of Parma and began to change when he began to be sick and neverthelesse being of a very vast spirit and active humour He would not abate any thing of his accustomed occupations He would do more then he could He would retain the same authority in businesse as when he had his health He could not ease himself upon the cares of another and thought that nothing was well done but what was done by his Orders When he was hurt before Candebu He put the command of th' army into the hands of his Son and in regard he was but a young Prince and to whom experience was wanting and that sort of Capacity which comes not from study or nature He
THE MINISTER OF STATE VVherein is shewn The true use OF Modern Policy BY MONSIEVR DE SILHON Secretary to the late Cardinall RICHELIEU Englished by H. H. Tandem didici animas sapientiores fieri quiescendo LONDON Printed for Thomas Dring And are to be sold at his shop at the George in Fleetstreet neare Cliffords Innt 1658. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD THE LORD VISCOUNT SCUDAMORE My Lord THis Translation makes its first addresse to your Honour 's Accurat judgment but craves no protection for the Matter or Expressions of the Originall For the Matter is but the result of your Reasonings and the Expressions but the repetition of your Eloquence In th' Author two things besides his exact knowledge in Civill and Divine affairs are very remarkable his Love to Truth and Hatred to Detraction As to Truth he holds it forth as the best most permanent Policy for Princes and their Ministers of State Buy the Truth but sell it not saies Solomon Magna est Veritas praevalebit As to Detraction he condemns the practice of it in all persons and gives th' example t'others For he is sparing in the discovery of some sharp Truths and permits the Matter Errours or Crimes to publish the men And it were to be wished that personall obloquie were not as modeable in our daies as new dresses In the businesse of Religion he may be found zealous but not superstitious and rather of the Gallican then Papall perswasion Deceits and Vices are decryed by him in what subject soever he finds them Piety and Vertue highly exalted For he made them if report be true his daily exercise as knowing that nothing can be perpetuall but what is founded upon Piety or Vertue for they are equall in the Ballance when Vices endure no equality And being bred in the School of that eminent and successfull Cardinall of Richlieu and cherished in his Conversation and House did collect the most resined products of his Policy Wit and Experience and gather the choicest Flowers of his Garden The Book had a very high esteem in France at the publication in Paris and hath justified its credit in the present use as an approved Jewell and it cannot go lesse in value here where Learning and good Wits abound and the judgment of discerning a true Diamond from a Pibble stone though never so well set equall if not superiour to any Nation of the World My Lord Forgive th'excercise of your patience so long in the Porch of this beautifull and regular Edifice raised from the materialls of the Brain and adorned with the Beauties of Rhetorick and Examples drawn to the life But the Key being now in your hand your Lordship may enter at pleasure and dismisse My Lord Your Lordships humble Servant H. H. ADVERTISEMENT READER I Have some Considerations to represent unto thee concerning this VVork whereupon I beseech thee to cast thy eyes The first is in relation to the Matter which is composed of Reasonings and Examples As to the Reasonings thou shalt know them to be wholly mine and a pure product of my witt and by consequence imperfect and tastes of the weakenesse of the principle from which it is derived When I discourse of past Occurrences and of things hapned in the Raignes of the King If the true motives have not alwaies been encountred by me nor the essentiall causes of their successe I have nothing to say to thee but that I had not the spirit of Divination That I have not received remembrances or instructions from any person And that th'Actions of Princes are like great Rivers the beginning and springs whereof sew persons have seen though an infinite of persons see the course and progresse of them If any person thinks my Judgement too free chiefly when I speake of the Pope and the matters of Rome I beseech him to consider that gentler Consequences cannot be drawn from th'Examples that are brought If th'examples are false I have not invented them the springs are well knowne There 's cause neverthelesse to praise God that some of the Pastors who have governed his Church have not been so black as they are painted If they are true there 's cause to admire the Divine Providence in preserving his Church from decay and spot in the time of corruption of some of its members and in maintaining of it in health the plague being so neer it That is to say as I understand it that nothing was altered of the meanes which God hath appointed to guide us to our supernaturall end That the Doctrine of Faith which is one of the Principles that makes us act Christianly and which hath workes for her nearest end is alwaies the same That the Sacraments which conferr and increase grace in us by virtue of the Institution of Jesus Christ and not by virtue of what we bring unto it of ours as of a meritorious cause are not changed for the number their matter or their forme That the permanent and incorruptible State in these two things is found only in that holy Hierarchy which makes that mysticall Body of Jesus Christ which is composed of a head that represents it and of many principall subalterne members who hold of that head and with an admirable dependency and union amongst themselves That it never hapned that this Head and those members to whom it belongs to guide others have together and with a common consent fayled against these two things and that it will never happen to th' end of the world at least if the Promises of God are eternall and his word unchangeable and therefore no person is to wonder if out of the Church there be no salvation since the Church only containes that means that brings us thither and preserves inviolable the substance and number of the Sacraments and the purity of th'Evangelicall doctrine Moreover and for what respecteth every member of the Church in particular That God hath left them in the hands of their counsell to beleeve or live as they please that hee hath put before them fire and water that they may make their choyce and that he imposeth no necessity upon them but leaves them be power of their will that 's to say the power to follow that good or to forsake it to doe evill or to abstaine from it When I speake then with liberty of the vices of some Popes and of the corruption of some of their Agents I doe not thinke to wrong Religion nor to offend the Church The Cardinall Baronius relates with much more soverity or lesse allay then I doe the abuses which overstowed the Court of Rome when two famous whores Theodosia and Morosia governed it and the Popes of that time A man must not alwaies set himselfe against known truths Who support ill causes lose their credit make themselvs to be suspected when they have good ones to defend resemble certain persons who being equally honest to all the world are not so to any person and putting neither
from the tearms that are practised But to declare what 't is The Power we speak of is no other thing than God himself insomuch that he undertakes the government of free causes and disposeth of them to his ends whether they be conformable to theirs or contrary to them And as the first Mobile without destroying the naturall motion of the other Heavens doth make them subject to his and carries them from th' East to the West so God doth manage in such sort the actions of the Creatures which work with liberty that without violating their freedom and by the encounter of other causes wherein he doth cast them infallibly drawes th' effect which he proposed to himself and which from humane foresight is often litle expected In a word the workman that observes the rules of his Art is never disappointed of his intention the Painter that perfectly understands the mixtures of Colours and the proportions of Figures drawes at pleasure exquisite Pictures th' Architect that casts his designes by the rules of Architecture makes them happily to prosper But the fairest operations of Man wherein his noblest part hath most interest are not solely capable of attaining their end and th' effect aimed at Hannibal acted the full duties of a brave Captain and yet was overcome by Scipio Cicero forgets nothing of the charge of an excellent Oratour yet Milon was condemned and André Doria sees the Fleet of his Master perish in the Port of Argiers notwithstanding his skill and experience in Maritime affairs But what God addes to the Principles that are in us th' occasions which He causeth to arise for us the means which he suscitates th' obstacles which he diverts in our favour and all th' assistance which He gives us to make our desires to prosper is that which we call Good fortune and them Happy which receive it But this good successe doth not alwaies accompany Justice and Holy enterprises as God doth not alwaies oppose unjust and violent designes th' Insidells have often triumphed over th' Armies of Christians and of Catholieks The most holy of our Kings hath been unhappy in his two Voyages beyond the Seas and the Cause of God for which he made War and th' Interest of Religion could not secure him from prison nor from the plague On the contrary nothing is reád comparable to the successe of Usurpators nothing put a stop to Alexander's successes but his death and a Prince for whose ambition the world was too little and that had the vanity to think that there was not matter enough therein for his courage had fortune so favourable that she covered his faults and rendred his failings happy Caesar had most successe in the most unjust War he ever made he had no more to do than to go and conquer in dissipating the Romane Common-wealth She that gave the Law to all the Earth fell in lesse time than is laid out in taking of a City and three years have destroyed the works of many ages Attila and Tamberlain have passed like lightning in their conquests and the Race of Ottomans which takes away Religion from God and liberty from men hath obtained so many victories and extended so far Its Dominions for these hundred years and upwards that no forraigne force seemes sufficient and capable for the present to abate the forces of that Empire and that it hath nothing more to fear but its own greatnesse and excessive powers The reason of this diversity is that God doth not alwaies work miracles and disorders not the order of things for the love of honest men and as it is very reasonable to rayse their courage and confirme their hopes that God should sometimes visibly hasten to their releife it is also most conformable to the lawes of his providence and to the sweetnesse of his conduct that second causes be suffred for the most part to act according to their capacity and extent of their force and therefore in order to that the weake to give way to the stronger that a lesser virtue politique I meane obey the greater and that they who have notorious advantages of their enemies have also upon them notorious successe otherwise truly he should oblige himselfe to repaire all the faults of them who have good intentions And if goodnesse alone should be successfull in the world prudence should be banished from the civill life and industry from the trayne of affaires As to the successes of Usurpators It is easie to give the reason if we search causes of the change of States and of the Revolution of Empires T is certaine that the greatest most Extended are not alwaies the firmest nor the most durable on the contrary as the most delicate fruits are sooner spoyled then others and a perfect health is an instance of a disease approaching it happens also that States which are in the flower of their force and at the last round of their happinesses are not farre from their fall Pleasure enters with wealth power produceth ambition these two passions which aspect alwaies their ends without exception to meanes draw with them so many other evills that of necessity those unhappy States must perish be translated into a new form of Government In this fatall conjuncture if a person of courage of ambition to conquer take Armes he finds the matter ready prepared God seconds his designe and abandons them unto him whom ambition had divided and whom delicacies had deprived of Judgement and affeminated their courage not that he doth inspire the conquerors with unjust thoughts nor with those furious motions which thrust them on to usurp what belongs to others and to violate the rights of humane society but acted of their owne accord and by their owne election he may lawfully favour them and his justice will not suffer many good actions of theirs to passe unrewarded nor them unpunished who have abused his graces But when he makes choice of a person to repaire the disorders of the world or for the good of a particular State Then his care is shewed in furnishing him with necessary principles to undertake great matters The thoughts are put in his soule by God and he gives the power to execute them he troubles and confounds his enemies and leades him as by the hand to victories and triumphs and one of the greatest expedients whereof he serves himselfe for this purpose is to rayse unto him excellent men to whom he communicates his cares and who help him to beare the weight of Affaires And as the operations of the soul do themselves good or ill according to the conditions of the organs and quality of their temper the prosperity or adversity of Princes depends on them in whose hands their authority is placed and who dispose of their power Alexander had never conquered Asia nor made the Indiaes to tremble but for Ephestion Parmemo and Clytus Caesar gained many battails by the hands of his Lieustenants and the fayrest Empire of the world which ambition
the Body and Understanding and in the seditious Motions from the worse part of the soul we do commit often the Evill which we would not do The Condition of the person of State is much worse and that of the proud Directors of the people who are sometimes constrained to doe the Evil they would not do if they were Masters of affairs and if th'impetuosity of Destiny and violence of some Cause stronger than them did not over-rule them And nevertheless the world fails not to blame them Princes are angry gainst unfortunate as against guilty persons Particular men that discover sometimes in their private affaires somewhat like his do not forgive for all that the Condition of publique persons And the pittifull Boatmen who can hardly save themselves upon a small River when it is but a little moved condemn the great Philots when they suffer shipwrack in the Ocean and cannot resist the fury of an implacable Element Behold very eminent Examples to Confirm the truth of what hath been said In the league made between the Venetians and Charles the fifth against Soliman a memorable accident happened The Venetians were fully resolved not to break with Soliman and to avoid a War wherein they were to receive the first stroaks and furnish the Field with th' action that was preparing and the theater with the Tragedy They remembred that they never had to do with the house of the Ottomans without losse and that they never justled with them but to their ruine They would not forsake th' Alliance of a Prince whose faith was known to them in whom ambition permitted Justice and was accustomed to distinguish between what 's honest and what is onely profitable They would not deprive themselves of the great advantages which they drew from those States nor cut the pipe of Riches and the root of Abundance which came to their subjects from thence They were not ignorant of the Nature of Leagues and their weakness They knew that good deeds penetrate lesse then injuries and that the desire of Revenge is more active and violent in them that are provoked then Acknowledgement in them who are assisted They consider that a wise Prince ought not to engage but on extremity in th' affaires that have nothing certain but the expence whereof the future is alwaies trouble and whose conclusion is not necessarily conformable to Principles and to the first Appearance Upon these foundations or others they resisted th' endeavours of Paul the third who solicited them to enter into that League and not to abandon the common Cause of Christians Soliman also on his part desired to continue fair with the Republique of Venice He was afraid to have so many enemies together in Hand and how great soever their ambition was the virtue and the power of Charles did not seem so inconsiderable unto him but that he judged them Capable alone to exercise him But as fortune often deceives the desires of men and laughs at their wisdom it disappointed in this occasion as well th'inclination of Soliman as that of the Venetians The encounter of some of their Ships and of unexpected Accidents which happened obliged them to fight and engaged them also in spight of them to a total Breach And the Venetians were constrained to accept of the League which they had so solemnly refused By this truly it appears that the Venetians could not avoid with all their Conduct th'evill they had foreseen And that he also from whom they were to receive their damage could not be prevented from doing of it though he had a design to be their friend For it happened that the Gallies of th'Emperour having not done their duty at Prevese and André Dona having betrayed the Christian Republique and suffered Barbarosse to escape when he might have sunk him The tempest that ris ' in the States of Charles fell upon them of the Republique and Soliman offended that the Republique as he thought had disdained his friendship or had not sufficiently respected it turned his Forces and Designs against their Ilands besieged Corfu and was within little of taking the Bulwarks that defend Christendom He took besides that all that they had in the Archipelagus except Naples of Romaigna and Malvoisca which he forced from them since by a Treaty of peace after the losses they had suffered after th' Expence they had made and after a great diminution of former Reputation Behold other Examples to shew that there are faults which seem fatall In the first troubles of Heresie in France and in that Tragique Confusion the memory whereof hath since been often repeated All the world observed that the siege of Poictiers had been the Stone of offence to the Huguenots and that the fairest Army they ever had perished there The Cardinall of Lorraine reproached it to Sr. of the None and though faults are customary in the war more then in any other function of life He assured him that they who commanded th' Armies of the King would prevent committing of the like yet notwithstanding after the Battel of Moncontour which poured out so much Hugenots blood and where that party received such large wounds that it depended only on the Conqueror that the soul was not let out Instead of following the flight of th' Army which was routed and them that saved themselves from the storm The Duke of Anjou unhappily dissipated his Army by lying down before Saint John He stormed that Town and lost the fruit of his Victory which ought not to have been taken of a single place but the Reducement of the whole party not the remission of the Malady but the health of the State By this fatall stay I say he failed to make an end of the work that was so well begun He gave meanes to th' Enemies to breathe and recruit He rendred again the fortune of France doubtfull and deprived it of the honour of terminating a War which is never ended by weaknesse but inability nor by Reconciliation but by the Ruine of the Conquered The Ninth Discourse Where the precedent Discourse is confirmed by the Example of the Spaniards I Will confirm former Discourse by a newer Example and from the most prudent Nation of the world The Spaniards who have their Reason so subtil and Motions so regular who make no Consultations but they observe all the differences of the time and have alwaies in their thoughts the future and the past when they deliberate onely of the things in hand or that are not farre from their eyes These prudent I say and Circumspect persons are not free from errours They commit faults like other men they go out of the way as well as we and more is not to be said then that it seems their failings are either voluntary or more inavoidable then ours And as we fall ordinarily as it were by night and in unknown wayes They fall at full noon and in the midst of a high way And as other people have reproached us that we are capable
a few Ages are not even infallible nor the soveraign Rule of the truth of things 'T is true that there are Sciences so superfluous and occupations of the Understanding so frivolous that the losse of time is the least Evill committed by them that make their Address which do not onely puszle but corrupt which divert from Action dissipate the powers of the soul fill it with effeminate Habits and make a man sometimes unable to serve the publique or to be usefull to himselfe And such were the Sciences from which no doubt Cath endeavoured to divert the Romane youth But as for other Sciences that form th'understanding and refine Prudence which rectifie Manners and regulate the Duties of life that fortifie Courage and kindle the desires of Glory He could never have consented as I conceive to the banishment of them from Rome if they had been there taught he would not have driven away the Socratians the Platonists th' Aristotelians and th' other Masters of human kind as he did the Greek Orators He would have known that from their Schools did issue th' Epimanendas's the Xenophons and th' Alexanders He had known that the Republiques called for them in Order to reformation and that Tyrants sent for them to secure their Dominion and to make lawfull the countenance of a power whose beginning was unjust That if Ages sometimes have produced great persons for Peace and War who became such without th'ayd of Sciences and the lights of Philosophy If the Gothes could not endure in their Country th'exercise of Learning If some Pagan Emperours have judged it for the best Expedient to take away the hearts from Christians to leave them that sullen contemplation and that languishing Entertainment And if Lewis the Eleventh would not suffer his Son to learn above five or six Latine words which he believed to include the whole secret of Government and to comprehend all the substance of that Art As to the first it must be confessed that they were the strains of Nature which fortune favours that they were persons of very good common sense and of very high Courage and compleated by th' use of Affairs and managment of Wars which they governed Such have been the Marians the Tamberlaines and the first Romanes whereof we have above spoken But it must be also acknowledged that if study had been added to the rich gifts of Nature and if Philosophy had cleared their understandings that their valour had been fairer and their glory more eminent That it had not been stained with so many faults as it was and that their valour so high and happy in their Youth for being rooted in the body had nor failed nor departed in Age as it hapned to some of them That if th' health of the Common-wealth changed when Sciences flourished much at Rome and if it fell in a time when its Captains were Philosophers Philosophy for that Cause must not be charged with it You must not condemn th' innocent nor believe that she who laboured to moderate the passions and to purge the soul of its blots and weakness did infuse that violent Disire to raign and that immoderate Ambition which could not be restrained neither by the inclinations of blood nor by the love of their Country This great disorder then proceeded from the temper of certain spirits who after they had a long time commanded in those Provinces and given Lawes to the people could not reduce themselves to equality and civill obedience nor suffer Companions and Masters Moreover that whilst the Romans were imployed and that stranger Enemies exercised them at home they thought onely of subduing or defending themselves But since all the world yeelded to their Virtue or submitted to their Power that with the Conquest of the World the wealth of all Nations was brought to Rome That great persons made many servants and parties in the midst of the City and in the Provinces That Prodigality and Luxury had devoured the best Families and that the change of state had given hopes of the change of fortune to them who could not be worse then in their present Condition no wonder at the disorders that hapned It must not be thought strange if Factions were raised where Ambition was so hot if Novelty was desired where there was so much Poverty and so much Wealth and if the Ruine of one of the parties was attended with the ruine of the State where the power that was shared became absolute by victory As to the second it may be agreed that for the simple function of Souldiers 't is not of importance that they be furnished with knowledge and Learning And 't is true that those Qualities which ordinarily swell up th'understanding and make it overflow weaken obedience which is so necessary for them and render them lesse tractable for commands chiefly if they have not a great opinion of their Commanders which they have but seldom because they have too much for themselves Besides that presumption which ariseth to them from the small advantages which Letters give them above others that have them not causeth them not to expose themselves willingly but upon th'eminent occasions and that they scorn to apply themselves to mean and small Factions which are often a great occasion for great Executions and to obtain the Victory Wherefore Lodowith Sforza who by his Ambition overthrew the peace of Italy and opened the door to Strangers who have since subdued it said That a great Wit made an ill Condition in a Souldier and that he received not easily into his service them who were proud of it 'T is true also that it infinitely concerns States that are obliged to entertain great Armies and are jealous of the Reputation of Commerce without which they become poor and the Revenue of the Prince decayes That there be not so great a number of Scholers as are seen in France That irregular number of men who cast themselves into the Church ir into th'exercise of Justice is the cause that such formidable Armies as heretofore cannot be raised and that many who would make good Merchants and their Families to flourish if they had been bred in Trade ruine or incommodate them by becomming ill Doctors and dangerous or unprofitable Members of the Court of Justice For what concernes Lewis th' Eleventh it must not be understood that his opinion comprehends all the duty of a Prince and all the knowledge of Government it makes but a little and dangerous party and that there are nobler Maximes for Raigning and more exalted Principles than dissimulation And truly the seeds of good which were in his Son remained imperfect for want of improvement His Courage that was high wanted Rule and Conduct and his Understanding had not force enough to resist the Corruption of them that had invironed him and the designs of his Ministers of State who ruined his businesse to doe their own The Fourteenth Discourse That 't is of importance that a Minister of State be Eloquent YOu have
vast it had been unprofitable How much had they cryed out against us if we had suffered our Allies to perish and if that we had not reduced to obedience the rebellious French And neverthelesse so many different passions and all those irregular Motions did not stop our pursuit nor th' heat of an Enterprise which hath secured the foundations of the State and the foot of the Crown And at that last business of Italy How many disgracefull Discourses and outragious Murmurings did it produce against the Reputation of that great Minister of State It seemed that there were persons hired in all places of purpose to cry down his Actions His Enemies had found th' occasions they sought for to discharge their Malice with colour and vomited their Hatred with liberty The people that ordinarily wish ill to them that govern them and suffer themselves alwaies to be led by running Reports especially when they are bad remember no more th'evill from which they were delivered but demand the good which they could not so soon receive and few persons considered what was done nor the progress of the Kings Armes nor his Conquests but what was yet to be done Even our Allies applyed themselves to us for repair of their Losses And as if they could not be imprudent or unhappy in our Company It seemed good to them that we should answer for their faults and for their disgraces and the worst Accident of all was the sicknesse of the King so very violent that it gave no place for hopes to honest men and in such a conjuncture that if this Prince had dyed the world must have changed its face and must have taken another Course then what it ought to follow In this Confusion of Spirits and of Affaires the Constancy of Sr. the Cardinall lost not it selfe His Reason was still awake the Provisions for the reliefe of Casal were not interrupted and he made it appeare that the wise Man is above all passions and the true griefe he suffered for the love of so great a Master lest him strength and Address enough not to let go the Helme and to bring us to our Haven in spight of contrary winds The Third Discourse That a Minister of State cannot have an equall Soul unlesse he hath made tryall of Good and Bad Fortune THe quality whereof we have lately spoken and that invincible constancy which is necessary for a Counsellour of State is not a disposition of the soul which nature hath infused or that Philosophy hath compleated It hath besides these need of exercise to form it And that divine Temper which hath its Roots in our selves and hath cause to raise it selfe betwixt the Discourses of Reason and Examples of History ought to take its just growth from the Trials where fortune doth place us and from the various Countenances it shews unto us There 's nothing in the world she suffers with more impatience not that she beholds with more maligne and more envenomed eyes In every place where 't is found she assaults it in all places she forms parties against it she will have it by force or by Artifice and no causes or dissimulations shall be wanting to corrupt it nor rudenesse of violence that shall not be exercised to overthrow it So they that can warrant themselves against her designes and have power enough to resist her Charmes and her outrages have competent Qualities t' aspire to the Government of State wherefore Galba protests in Tacitus that he called Piso to the succession of th' Empire because he had been unhappy and constant And that he whom fortune could not overcome was worthy to command the people of Rome and to give Lawes to the Conqueror of Nations and Triumpher over th' Earth 'T is to know onely the Moyety of ones Life to have tasted onely of prosperity 'T is not to have sayled far to have the winds alwaies in Poope and the Sea propitious 'T is to have matter onely for a part of the virtues which compose a Minister of State to have been ever happy Adversity hath also her Virtues as night hath her Stars There are some that are wholly proper for it and which cannot be practised but in so rude a season nor appear but in tumults and in the midst of storms The life of Sr. the Cardinall ought to be too highly raised not be exposed to this variety of Accidents and too eminent to want examples of every Virtue His Actions have deserved Clappings from all hands and praises from all Mouthes They have given him dayes of Triumph they have pierced the most retired parts of the World and in all places there are but a few Names so great as his after that of his Master But he hath had his back blowes and contradictions He hath not been exempted from private Misfortunes and publique Vexations Fortune and Envy have diversly exercised him notwithstanding his Courage failed him not his Conduct was equall The Revolution that surrounded him made no change in him and whatsoever hapned his soul was neither puffed nor abated this equality neverthelesse is not ordinarily found And as amongst the brightest Colours there are but a few that preserve the same lustre and the same apperance to the light of a Day and to the light of Torches Histories have also furnished us but with a few examples of Illustrious persons who have been equall in Prosperity and Adversity Spain commends the constancy of the Duke of Alva and that he was never so great as in his afflictions But it confesseth also that prosperity made him overflow that he was insolent when he was prosperous and that the Victories he gained were odious to his Masters though they were profitable unto them On the contrary let us consider the three Princes of Spain that have known how to raign for an Age and halfe and have dared to introduce immortall Designes in a form of Government where Soveraigns dye and which changeth often their Master Le ts consider I say Ferdinand Charles the fifth Philip the second and we shall find that all their lives have been nothing but a Composition of good and evill and a confusion of contrary things We shall there see Prosperity without Number Disgraces without Measures Wounds dressed with Laurels Triumphs adorned with Mourning and above all that constant and firm Courages and an immoveable Virtue Behold Ferdinand glorious in the reduction of the Kingdom of Granada and with the Title of Catholique Behold him triumphant in the Conquest of Naples and of the fortune of France Behold that a fancy gives him Navarre and that chance finds him an unknown world and new wealth This neither enflames him nor effeminates him He is not the more lazy nor the lesse vigilant He formes greater designs and layes the Platform of a Monarch which shall exercise his Nephews a long time and trouble the rest of other Nations and the peace of the world Moreover le ts contemplate thill sucesse of his life and th' other
loves it without being transported when she takes it not for the end of Virtue but for the pursuit of it and proposeth to it selfe a second Glory which is more certain than what Fortune doth distribute and than th' opinion which Men give There 's not a passion in the world so fair nor more profitable She takes away the tasts of all others that are base or effeminate She acquires Imitators of Virtue and by the present or near approaching Recompence which she offers her renders her more fertile and more efficacious To conclude The Constitution whereof we speak sends marks of its Nobility even to th'outside and to th'exteriour of Men It imprints there certain Characters which make him to be reverenced of them that see him It covers his face with Majesty it puts into his eyes a fire which is more bright than that of ordinary eyes and gives him in a word some beam of that Beauty whereof Jesus Christ himselfe hath not refused the praise and which by the means of the senses makes a suddain impression upon the will and gains before Discourse be entertained and reason perswaded I will not speak here of the Constitution of Sr. the Cardinall nor of a Good which he hath not done to himselfe but received it from th'Indulgence of Heaven and from the Cares of Nature There are truths which would not alwaies be published And this season would hardly permit them in his favour the knowledge whereof depends upon so profound and delicate speculation since she is ingenuous enough to Contest with him th' Experience of senses or to change the face of things which we have touched or seen I suppress then my Judgement in this subject to accommodate my self to the time and to th'Inclination which raigneth I will onely say in Generall that as there are Diseases which are to be discovered by th' encounter of several Symptoms and as for the discovery of Gold which is in th' Earth there are many signs which ought to appear above ground in the Superficies so you must conclude this high divine Composition whereof I speak by a multitude of great Actions of divers Kinds of different Condition which the same subject hath produced Let reflection now be made if there be a mind for it upon the life of Sr. the Cardinal Let past Governments be compared with his let it be examined what the King hath acted since he had him for his Instrument Let the Greatnesse the Variety and the number of things which have been done be considered Let the shortnesse of the time be observed which shuts up all these wonders and which amazeth th' Imagination of them who have seen them and will weaken for the future the faith of History And after that let every person judge of the Matter proposed according to his sense or passion and let him make himselfe voluntarily blind If he be afraid to behold a Light that offends him and a Truth that angers him I will not forbear t' observe that although Sr. the Cardinal in acting gives somewhat t' Honour That he is very sensible of the Glory of faire Actions and is not exempt from a sense which all generous souls partake of That neverthelesse hath never changed his Duty never did wrong to his Conscience and to the Counsells which he hath proposed He hath not onely considered the Justice of things but many times proceeded to Charity which is so seldom called to the Councills of Princes and which makes with Conveniency the two extreams betwixt which Reason of State is shut up This hath been seen particularly in the Conduct which the King observed towards th' Emperour and the Spaniards before he began the War of Italy and had renewed it but I will speak thereof in another place I return to the first subject of the precedent Discourse and to make it appear that Sr. the Cardinall in a soveraign degree hath the spirit of Discerning whereof I have above spoken I will fix upon some Elections which have been made since he was in the Government No person is ignorant of th'Eminency and of the weight of the Charge of the Keeper of the Seals 'T is one of the noblest parts of the Body of the State 'T is the generall form of the Justice of the Kingdom 't is an universal Cause whose Influence is not Circumscribed which penetrates within and without which makes its power known near and far and operates in all places where we have Communication or power And 't is of Importance that they who possess it deserve it and that they who exercise it fill it up And 't is true that for that Dignity the Kings choice could not fix upon a person worthier then that of Sr. of Chasteauneuf I speak not of the splendour of the Family from which he is come nor of the faculty it hath had to this day to give Illustrious persons to the state They are Accidents which are not Proprietics and Conditions which may fail in Families And though the seeds of good grow ordinarily with good blood 'T is not to be said that they ought alwaies to fructifie And though the Spring be very pure it follows not but the Stream may be poysoned or become troubled and taste of th' ill Qualities of the places it hath passed These Advantages then of birth and priviledges of fortune are but incitements to do well by th'Examples of their Predecessors To render the good the fairer which they encounter and to make the Counterpoyse in a promotion betwixt two equall Virtues But for Sr. of Chasteauneuf he hath no need of the Lights of his Ancestors to make himselfe seen He is sufficiently observable in himself besides the knowledge he hath gained He hath highly that which Nature gives which is the good sense He hath watched in Imployments and Negotiations He knows our affairs and the affairs of Strangers He is neither weak nor interessed His virtue is without Artifice and th'evill which represents it selfe publiquely or that cometh more dangerously under the vizard of good and with its Liveries is not capable to deceive or corrupt him wherefore he hath received nothing but what was due to his Services or to his Merit and therein the choice of the King hath but followed the publique desires and the Predictions have been made even from a former Raign And when it was in Question to relieve th'Island of Rhe and to uphold France ready to fall into precipice there was need of a man that despised Death and dared to cast himselfe on a manifest danger who had enough of affection to be willing to perish for his Master and prudence enough to manage the least Beam of safety that should appear and the highest Apparance for good to be seen in a deplorable Occasion But whom could Sr. the Cardinall propose or the King choose that was more capable for that purpose then Sr. of Chombert so th' Event did not deceive th'opinon had of the Virtue of so great
a person Th' End of that enterprise exceeded all that could have been desired of good success Our friends were delivered and the Rout of our Enemies compleated the Victory which we sought not but in their retract After the first passage of Suza could Montferrat be trusted in surer or more esteemed hands then those of Sr. of Thorax And again as fortune had pre-prepared him that Occasion and reserved him for the defence of Casal and to confirm th' Honour he hath gained in Rhe It seeems also that by a certain fatality Sr. of Chombert had been destined to go to relieve him the second time and to compleat the Glory of that Siege by the safety of that place In those last Emotions of Italy did not the King appear admirable in the choice of the men which he imployed there And though Policy permits not many Chiefs of equall Authority in an Army He understood neverthelesse so well to discern the just proportion of their humours and the necessary Temper to conserve Concord amongst them that he joyned and changed them to so good purpose that it may be his service was advanced by that plurality and his Armies were the more happy And when the passage was to be opened for our Troops for the Reliefe of Casal and the resistance of Armies to be forced which opposed it To whom could that design be more rationally committed Monsieur Mount Moraney than to them who have executed it What might not be expected from that Lord who came into the world lighted with the virtue of his Ancestors and Crowned with their Glory who laboured so much to improve that immortall Inheritance who is not so absolute in th' Armies he commands by his Authority as by th' Affections of the Men of War That Love makes more men follow him in perillous occasions then Duty who shews to others the way of doing well and whose example would inspire the strongest passions into the most fearfull souls Veillane and Carignan shall be for ever famous by th' effects of their Valour and by that of th' other Marshal Monsieur Feat who accompanied them with his Courage and Prudence and made himselfe to be no lesse considerable in War than in Peace nor in the Field than in the Cabinet Above all 't is a thing worthy of Consideration and a particular mark of the Kings judgement and of the wisdom of his Councill in leaving the Marshall of Force constantly in Italy and in making that Army as the foundation of our Armies in that Country and him the Director of the War Age which ruines th' Active Qualities of so many other persons offended not his old Age which chils the blood did not diminish his Valour 'T is a habit which had not in him its Original from th'heats of the Body but in the lights of Reason and he was as bold when there was cause as he was ever wise His long and ancient experience and the good sense wherein he naturally abounded permitted him not to commit any fault He knew the Spaniards too well to fall into their snares and into a surprise by their Deceits and with the Companions which the King gave him There was nothing to be feared and all good successe was to be hoped from his Conduct It must not be forgot that Sr. the Cardinal considers not onely Merit in the choice of them whom he proposeth but would also have good Birth if it be possible That things may be acted with Glory and that the reputation of affairs might improve by the Dignity of the Persons who manage them He is very far from th' humour of a certain King who made his Physicism his principall Counsellor And from the humour of another who made his Chirurgion enter into the Councill of State and permitted the same hands to handle the Seals which had newly quitted the Razour and Launcet wherefore the Nobility is more imployed in Negotiations then heretofore it was They who lead Armies or help to make War are called to manage Treaties of Peace and the suspensions of Arms And 't is true that ordinarily th' affairs do prosper well in their hands because they are usually bolder in Action and have the sense lesse sophisticated than persons of the long Robe The Sixth Discourse That a Minister of State ought not to forme his Conduct by the Example of strangers and that be ought to treat with them after a Different Manner THere 's nothing so universall in the world as Diversity and it seems that God hath affected it to shew his power by it and to render Nature fair The number of Angels as 't is said surpasseth the number of other Creatures But if the Schools would have believed St. Thomas the diversity of kinds which is amongst them had equalled the number of particulars and there had not been in those high and divine Hierarchies two Natures alike However insomuch that they conceived that the Dignity of the living Creatures encreased by the multitude of th'Individuals which composed them and that Philosophy hath sent back the Phoenix to the fables of the Poets who have sung of him as being alone The greatest part of the Schools have departed in that sense from the judgement of that Doctor whose opinions are so often adored by them Let 's go on The Varieties of bodies which issue from th' Elements were incredible if Nature had not submitted them to our sense and if Art did not discover unto us an infinity of Words which are made of a few Letters and an infinity of Figures which are drawn out of a small quantity of Colours And an infinity of Colours which are taken out of a small quantity of Drugs This is not all The divesity which Nature could not place in Essences she hath put to the forms which accompany them what she could not do to the principal she hath done to the Incidents and Accessaries and the conformity which is in the faces of men for to distinguish them from Beasts is changed by many Marks of dissemblance for to distinguish them from one another This Second Diversity proceeds from the first mixture of th' Elements which enters into the Composition of the Bodies from the virtue of Heaven and of the Stars which are therein predominant and from the quality of the Climate and of the place which have a great share in the Composition and in the Constitution of all things that are born That if the Compositions of bodies of the same kind are so divers for the Causes above mentioned How much greater ought the Difference to be which is found in the manners of men where th'Inclinations of the Body do interveyn the motions of Reason Examples from without and strange suggestions but above all th'Inclinations of the Body prevail and the strength of the Constitution Reason is very seldom heard Men live almost wholly by passion and as if the whole Man were but a lump the greatest part of them act but according to that party
th' eyes of their subjects There 's nothing so easy as to passe them from Love to Disdaine and from Disdaine to Hatred and to Revolt The Life of Henry the third is an illustrious example of this Truth and th' Inconveniences wherein he fell after he had attained the Crowne make it appeare what foundation is to be laid upon the will of the people and upon th' inclinations of that beast which stirrs and his thrâ—st and which after it had adored the Duke of Anjou persecuted the King of France and dared to make War with him On th' other side it may be said that no Emperour is furer nor power better established than that which is founded upon Love And 't is certain that things are conserved by the same causes and with the same meanes which give them birth there 's also no doubt but that the soveraigne Authrority is the firmer when it is supported by the good will of the people from whence it took its Originall In the second place no violent thing is durable its proper force consumes it or some other that resists it and which is greater And 't is true that every sort of Chaine save that of Love weighes upon the spirit of man and that every sort of yoak if it be not voluntary opresseth it To conclude to raigne only by severity is to renounce the peace of the spirit 't is to charge upon himselfe the passion given to another 't is t' expose himselfe to an eternall necessity of distrusting all persons and to make them Enemies whom he would not suffer to love him for fear of not being sufficiently feared 'T is to fall into the the same mischiefs which traverse jealous husbands and in over-straining his subjects to be faithful to give them a will to rebell and to quit their obedience which would not be trusted to their vertue and to their inclination To the first Answer may be given that severity alone conserves very ill the power of a soveraigne and that t' employ violence against th'evills of a State 't is to use nothing but passion and fire against all the Maladies of the body and every sort of Ulcers That if great persons sometimes have affected an austere and hard humour and seem thereby to maintain themselves in Authority That effect neverthelesse proceeds from another cause And insomuch that that terrible conduct hath not been alone and was found in the Company of many great vertues that have tempered it It hath not done th'evill it was accusstomed to do This was observed in the life of Torquabes of Mariust of Sylla of Corbulon and of many others of the Ancients And of the Moderne in the Life of the duke of Alva of the Marquess of the Holy Crosse who left such cruell Markes of his Humours to the Terceres of the County of Fuentes and Wailstaine of this time who was so absolute in th' Armies he commanded that the name of the Emperour was but th' Image of the Soveraigne power He exercised If these great persons I say had known onely how to comand the setting up of Gallowses and to send men to death they had not been followed by their Souldiers in the occasions of glory and they had been unknown to us but a examples of Misfortune whereinto severity doth precipitate It may be also aswered to the second that Indulgency is a Means as little safe as facile to give power to raigne or to compell obedience that if the first men of the past and moderne ages seem to have neglected severe wayes and th' Examples of Rigour the better to subsist in the spirits of their subjects or of their souldiers 'T is that in effect they had extraordinary Qualities and I know not what of admirable in their persons which appeared in their face and countenance and inspited respect with love into the souls of them who came neer them such were Alexander Scipio Caesar Germanicus such Gaston of Foix Don John of Austria Ferrant Gonsalve and the two last Dukes of Gaise whose single presence-bewitched the world forced the wills of men in spight of Reason and constrained their Enemies to change their passion or to suspend it at the sight of them From this discourse I draw two Instructions which may be applyed to th' other matters of Policy The first is That for th' use of gentleness and severity and generall Rule cannot be Resolution must be taken upon th' Occasion Consultation had with the nature of Affairs with the condition of the times with the Quality of the persons and leve the disposition of th' event to fortune and t' other causes which are without us The second That although the difference brought of th'inclinations of divers people requires or the most part a very different application of the Means which are to be used for governing of them so 't is that as in the Oeconomy of th' humane body and dispensation of th' humours which compose it there 's of course one that predominates and which serves for a law to Physick and for a that 't is necessary sometimes to keep under that commanding Humour and that predominant Quality To raise others alter their order and change the course of certaine Occurences and according to the nature of the diseases which happen or threaten 'T is the very same with th' Humours of the People and Complexions of States There 's a certaine Conduct which is as naturall to them but it ought not to be inviolable A Minister of State ought not to be a slave He may quit it provided that he doth not abandon it and may resume it and a Minister of State is sometimes constrained to go out of th' high way t' avoide an ill passage or an Ambush There are people who are to be retained with Rigour and whose obedience is not ascertained but under a severe Empire But that ought not to be eternall 'T is good sometimes to gaine them and not alwayes to subdue them To bend them and not alwayes to break them and occasions doe happen wherein 't is of necessity to flatter them and to stroake them for feare of affrighting them lest they take the Bridle in their teeth and Carry him away that ought to Lead them The Seaventh Discourse That a Minister of State ought to treate in a different Manner with strangers as they are powerfull and free A Minister of State ought not onely to conforme his conduct to th' Inclination of the people which he governes or with whom he treats But he ought also to adjuste it to their power and to their weaknes He ought t' Imitate that wise Physician who considers as much the strength of the sick person as the virtue of the Remedy and seeks the proportion of that which actes with that which suffers There are States whose Greatness is in themselves which subsist upon their owne weight which can passe-by all others which have very little to feare from without and can hardly fall but bu their owne
County whose person was odious unto them and Conduct insupportable In brief for the love of them He overthrows the functions of Soveraignty and chose rather to receive the Law from his Catholique subjects than to be constrained to give it to the Heretique Rebells But he knew too late Nature of the people and their diseases And as 't is sometimes good when th' Appetite of Novelty is appeased which vexed it and tired with its owne disorders To bring it back with sweetness To give it liberty to retire from Evill with some shew of Reputation and to seem lesse Culpable then It was That nothing but force can reduce it when it begins to shake and is full of fancies of the future and of hopes of Change That to flatter them is to lose them when they are in that Humour and 't is then that they make themselves to be feared when the least Evidence of feare is discovered unto them Th' easiness of granting the first demands doth furnish them with boldness to make new ones The desire of evill is increased in giving them powers t' execute it and at last 'T is found that instead of a weak and irresolute Mutiny as it was A powerful enemy is made and an Irreconcilable persecutor I handle this Matter very particularly in the second part of this work So 't is that Philip fell into th' Inconveniency which he had a designe t' avoyd and he saw Religion perish and his Subjects of the Low Countries to rebell for not using seasonable Remedies which might have wrought if they had been applied in season in employing Severity and Gentleness in counter time and in making too much or too little use of th' one or th' other It may be also that there was of Fate in th' Accident of that new Power and that God suffered it to rise in opposition to the Spanish Ambition and to stop with so small a thing that Torrent which threatned th' overflow of all his Neighbour-Countryes Our Kings also under whom Heresie hath risen have spoiled all in following violent Counsells They have allwayes either strained too much or slacked too much And as if they had been carried with Contrary windes They never knew how to take the Medium nor find the temper betwixt and Excessive Rigour and a too Loose Indulgency The shamefull Peaces accorded in divers times tho th' Hugunots sad Edicts made in their favour declare cleerly what spirit acted in France and that there was no need of fighting Battails nor of the burning of Townes for to put things in the State they were before the warr On th' other side the violent designes and bloody Resolutions which were taken t'ill purpose have been the fruits of Spanish Counsells and of I alian suggestions Th' impatience which some had to see our Miseries finished have retarded the Cure in making too great haste And th' hopes which others had to make profits of them hath been the Cause that they enflamed more and prepared a long and new Matter for our Discords which were of Advantage to them Th' Execution of St. Bartholomew is a work of their spirit they glory that their King had a particular hand in it and that the Duke of Alva did advise it in his journey to Bayone I will not discourse of the nature of the Action which found even Catholique spirits divided and their opinions different to approve or condemn it Th' Incertitude wherein they alwaies were in what manner King Charles concurred whether by pretension or by a pure designe and the particular resentment of a Prince which ingaged with the Zeal of publique good are the cause that no judgement can be made thereof but what may be dangerous or rash I suspend mine also to rest me upon the success which was not conforme to th' Hopes were had of it And were it that we knew not how to make use of our advantage or that th' Election of the Duke of Anjou for King of Polonia lost the fruits of the victory that was at hand or that God would not blesse an Action wherein it was presumed that the publique Faith whereof he was alwaies Protector was violated We have seen the Fire the more kindled which they thought had been put out by that bloud-letting and pretence given to cruelty to be animated against the Catholique bloud The Cardinall of Lorrain also made a great wound in the State and Church in being promoter of the discourse of Poissy After he had been so contrary to the Protestant Ministers The persons being of obscure birth and their Lives charged with faults who had been shaken by many Declarations and Edicts who had so often shun'd the Light for to save themselves in dark places and in Woods who had deliberated upon the Doctrine they published To bring forth I say this people to a day so glorious as the Cardinall had made it to draw them to so famous a Combate and to give them the meeting in the Field where they had him for Adversary and the King and the Princes for Spectators It must be confessed that he was much too blame and that it was to pass too dangerously from one extream to another He ought to have believed that it was a means to cherish them in Errour that were shaking and to confirme them that were irresolute That that Honour would excessively swell their heart That it would give them a greater Opinion of their persons and doctrines than they had before and would put those proud spirits into a condition never to Renounce the propositions so solemnly debated He might have believed that no jealousie is so violent as that which we take in favour of our Opinions And for the matter of Sect that come into the World Th' Authors ought to be gained before they are publiquely declared or else they must be destroyed But when they had overcome the first encounterd resistance and that apprehension which the greatnesse of their Enterprize gave them and that the uncertainty of the success was ceased The disease must take its Course of Necessity Hope and fear are weak Remedies against it and Man labours in vain If God doth not shew himselfe with a powerfull Arme to defend his own cause The example of Luther was fresh in memory and the causes of the miserable Schism in Germany known to all the World So long as Luther did only Hazzard his Doctrine and had no other designe but to cast out his spight and revenge the wrong he believed was done to them of his Order for not permitting them to preach as they were accustomed th' Indulgencies in the Duchy of Suxe It had been easie to have reduced him But after he had conferred with Cardinall Caietan That he had been heard of Charles th' Emperour and that Leon the tenth had fulminated against him He changed the passion Vanity succeeded cheller and th' honour to have to do with so great persons renders him irreconsilable In vaine after the Messengers of Paul
when Christendome is agitated and that It's Princes are in discord I should be an ill Logician to draw no better consequences and it were t' act against all the principles of Reason and all the Maxims of Morality To forbid th' use of good things for their cause that abuse them To hinder good Superiours to do their Duty because the bad neglect it and not enjoy the Beauty of the Sun nor the benefits of its Light because of the Eclipses which sometimes interpose and steale it away from the World 'T is true that there have been wicked Popes and who have been the shame of th' Holy Chaire and the scandall of Religion There have been of them who did not engage in th' Affairs of Princes but to trouble them who brought only poyson and fire against the diseases and who infected with their venome and breath all that they touched But all are not of that Nature all are not guided by that Spirit There have been some very honest Men full of the spirit of God who burn only with Holy Zeal and having been raised to that supreame Dignity have renounced all affections of Blood for t'assume only th' affections of common Fathers of Christians and of incorruptible Arbiters of th' affairs committed to them And as they have the heart very sound and the will free from all irregular passion some of them also have the sight cleere and th'understanding much enlightned having a great intelligence of the things of the World and that the goodnesse of their understanding and th' Imployment they have had from other Popes have put them into a condition neither to be deceived by the artifices of their Relations nor bewitched with strange illusions The corruption also of their kindred and of their Ministers of State is not so Universall but that many are exempt and who mingle nothing of particular with the Zeal of publique Rest nor any thing of Strangers with th' instructions of their Masters And without considering that th' Holy Chaire is the foundation wherein Religion is supported and that there 's no salvation for the members who abandon that Head This Good ariseth to the Princes his Children That his Authority is much respected by them when it interposeth in their Affaires and that his offices are very powerfull or very proper to determine their Quarrells when the fire is kindled betwixt the two great Crowns and that France and Spaine make warr What power is either high enough or impartiall enough t' interveine to put it our who can have force enough to retaine those two great Engines when they move and to stop such Impetuous and rash Motions but th' Holy Chair Besides that the Empire hath long stood without its first Glory and without any markes of its ancient Majesty but the Name Armes Who knows not that it depends on Spaine or is in Communion of Interests with it who knowes not that it hath withdrawn th' Empire from the precipice wherein it was falling That it subsists not but by its subventions and Reliefes and that Charles the fifth left not a stronger Recommendation to his son than to be alwayes in amity with his Cousins though their friendship cost him very deer or to preserve it at an excessive price and with Immoderate Conditions For what concernes the Crowne of England which was heretofore the Counterpoise of th' other two and Arbiter of their differences It is no more so proper as it hath been t' Act in their discords Change of Religion hath spoiled it it cannot entertaine any good Intentions for the Catholiques Having that venome on the heart it cannot behold their prosperities with Eyes entirely pure Their good Intelligence ought to be suspected and if it advanceth sometimes towards Spaine and sometimes towards France It lasteth so little and is done with such languishing Motions and so suddaine a Returne That 't is very visible that 't is not a perfect Amity it considers but a fancy of Goodwill which presently disappeares and an abortive of Affection which is produced by some light Cause As to the Republique of Venice It hath truly Wisdome and Greatness enough to labour in the Quarrells of the two Crownes But'tis so very Jealous of the power of th' one and so great an Enemy to their Ambition that their Endeavours would not be lesse suspected then th' offices of a Declared Enemy As for th' other Princes of Italy and Germany they are so little or so dependant or so enstrainged from th'Inclination of Spain That for their sakes they would not forsake their Animosity nor submit to their good offices The Pope then remaines the sole Mediator of their Discords The Quality of Children of the Church which Catholique Princes do Glory in obligeth them to honour Him who represents the Chiefe and whatsoever jealousie of Honour they labour under they do no wrong to their Courage or Ambition to submit to him who is above them and Conjures them in the Name of Jesus Christ by whom they reigne not to despise the peace he hath so much recommended Those Princes also who are sometimes a weary of quarrelling and to whom th'Evills of warr are dreadfull and the Misery of their subjects gives them cause of Pitty are very willing to be invited to Rest by so powerfull Authority It cannot be denyed but that the peace of Vervins so necessary for Spain and profitable for France was the work of Clement th' Eighth and that Henry the Great and Philip the Second had been much troubled to lay downe Armes which weighed so heavily on both partyes without so great an Interposer I have said that when Princes are tired with Quarrells and emptied of Monies and Men or that they have in other places more important Employments which they cannot attend but in quiting the first otherwise truely when Ambition is supported by force and when th' appetite to Conquer is provoked by th' hope of victory T is hard to extinguish it with Treaties or to appease it by offices To the greatest part of Princes that make warr the same happens as t'opinionated Lawyers who cease not to plead by Election but by Insufficiency who owe their Rest to the poverty and not to the moderation of their spirit and who stop not in going but stand on the way for want of Force to go further Besides th' Experience which we have made of these last motions of Italy we have memorable examples in the Life 's of Charles the fifth and Francis the first The state of Milan was the Love of those two Princes and the most violent objects of their Ambition They both burned with an Equall heat of possessing it and th' animosity which they Conceived upon that subject one against another was so great that neither time nor men could ever evercome it Paul the third spared not his person and exposed himselfe to long journeies to labour so necessary a Reconsiliation Th' inundations of the Turke from all parts upon Christians sufficiently sollicited th'Emperour
And neverthelesse nothing of that could bend them They resisted the prayers of the Pope The miserable Condition of Christendome touched them not and that fatall obstinacy cost him besides the blood of his Children The losse of Rhodes and the diminution of the fairest portion of Hungary Popes have not onely lent their endeavours to Christendome to determine the Quarrells of those Princes But have also often aided in securing it from the Ruine that threatned it or to revenge its affronts or recover its Losses had it not been for their Mediations and Offices the Protestants had finished the defacing of it or the Turks had subdued it and God who hath chosen them to be the visible Cheifs of the Church hath also ordained that they should be sometimes the Liberators of the Country where the Church is preserved and th'Instruments of temporall conservation to the people that do acknowledge her The most famous League the world ever saw was formed in the Councill of Clermont at th'Instance of Peter th' Hermite and by th' Authority of Urban the second Four hundred thousand fighting men put themselves under the command of Godfrey of Buillon for the conquest th' Holy Land Christianity never overflowed so largely as at that time It never obtained such Eminent successe and never so great a Number of adventurers and voluntary Souldiers were so long together for the same designe and with so much courage But not to go from th' Age past and from the things hapned in the times of our fathers Who knows not that Paul the third was Author of the League was made betweene the Venetians and Charles the Fifth to beat back Soliman who threatned Italy and to chastise Barbarosse who robbed the Coasts That if the Christians suffered the victory t' escape which they had in their hands if they would have taken it If the Maritime power of the Turke was not abated at that stroake If Barbarosse was not destroyed at Prevese as he might have been The cause must be attributed t' Andre Doria as I have said in another place It seemed that these two Pirates had shared th' Empire of the Sea and th' one desired not the ruine of th' other for feare of being lesse considerable to his Master when he had defeated his Enemies and to lose credit with the losse of exercise Barbarosse also repayed the Courtesie and gave the revenge to Doria neere Villa Franca where he would not destroy him as it was easie for him after a Wrack nor pursue his Ships which the Tempests had scattered It may be also there was some hidden Cause and some concealed Motive from th' Emperour for which reason he sought not Victory in the League we speak of but the retrayte of his enemies and cessation of the War I will treat of this matter in the second part in the treaty of Leagues Pius the fourth layed the foundation of the League for the reliefe of Cyprus which was concluded under Pius the fourth That if it was not fortunate enough If th' hopes conceived faild of their principall End and if Cyprus was lost for want of reliefe The delayes the Spaniards bring t' all their undertakings The tempests that were frequent that year upon the Sea The Plague which emptied the vessels of the Venetians and a secret disposition of th' Heavens that afflicted the Republique were the causes of that Disgrace The League neverthelesse was profitable and past-ages nor all the powers of th' ancients did not produce upon the Levant Sea any thing so memorable as the Battail of Cursolary That if the Christians had not betrayed themselves If the would have made use of the victory and have followed the fortune Constantinople and the Levant offered them we had been largely repaired for the losses we have lately received We ware Masters of the Mediterranean Sea the Turke was reduced to the Land and the Virtue of Don John of Austria might have given hopes to Spain not t' envy France the glory of its Godfrey and the good successe of it's Armies But the distrust the Venetians had of the Spaniards and th' Experience they had made under Charles the fifth in the taking of Chasteauneuf how unjust observers they were of th' agreements of Leagues On the other side the jealousie the Spaniards had that the Ruine of the Turk was the greatning of the Venetians That they would gather the best pieces of his overthrow and the principall fruit of the Warre That having no cause to fear the forces of the Turk they would the lesse consider the Spanish strength and becomming more powerfull they might the more crosse them in their designes for Italy That I say corrupted the victory and frustrated th' hopes of Christendome and th' attempt of the World They that know the humours of Princes what the reasons of State are and the nature of Leagues will not think that strange which I have now said However we have drawn two notable advantages from the victory of Lepantha Th' one is that if we have not been wise enough to make profit of the Good offered us we have been sufficiently happy in avoiding th'Evills which threatned us if the forces of the Turke had not been shatter'd and that formidable Fleet dissipated which covered all the Gulfe of Venice with Crescents and the lower Sea of Italy Th' other advantage is that we have given him to understand that if his forces are greater then those of a single Prince they are inferiour to the forces of united Christendome And if by a designe worthy the name they beare they combine together against him his Greatnesse in a small time would be humbled the Crescent shattered and himselfe sent to the bottome of Soythia from whence he took his originall The continuation of the League and the good Fortune of Christendome dyed with the Life of Pius the fifth and if his successor had had as much Zeal as he to maintain it He was not happy enough to support it for he had the displeasure to know that the Venetians had broken it and was agreed with Selim without the knowledge of their Confederates whether they had Reason or not I will discourse in the Second part where I will examine the Causes of the Treaty of Moncon which we made some yeares past upon the business of the Valtoline For what concernes the warrs at Land T is very well known what Popes have done against the Common enemy of Christians and against Heretiques In the second Expedition of Soliman against Vienna and in th' heat which possessed him to purge off the shame of the first Expedition It was necessary that Christendome should employ all her forces That her rest was to be set up and oppose its greatest power to a Conquerour whom Spight and Ambition animated to her Ruine It must be confessed that in this Occasion Charles the fifth was truly the Caesar of Christians and that he fought for Religion in defending his patrimony But it must also be confessed that the
more in it of opinion then of science and of conjecture then certitude For who hath been of God's counsel who ever entred in to the depths of his Wisedome Who hath pierced the darknesse where he hids himselfe Tenebrae latibulum eâ—us and to whom hath he discovered the secrets of his providence and th'hid causes of the government of the world The Death of Bourbon of the first instances given is not so concluding an Example nor so demonstrative as 't is believed against what I have now said I deny not but that God might have permitted it as the punishment of the sacriledge he committed in forcing Rome or as the vengeance of the breach of a Treaty whereupon Clement trusted and whereof the confirmation had been often repeated unto him to surprize him But I know also that the violent end of that Prince might proceed from a cause meerly accidentall and th' ordinary fruits of a profession which spares no person and where Musket shot makes no distinction betwixt private Souldiers and Generalls of Armies It might also happen that if the justice of God did particularly consider that death It was to correct a man whose Revolt did so much evill to his King and cost so dear to his Country or more likely as a Revenge for Lombardy which he deserted to be spoyled with Gruelties and Rapines and not to suffer his perjury to passe unpunished when he promised Milan t' ease it of the Garrison that devoured it and to draw from it willingly the last drops of its bloud and what remained in it of Substance The Sixteenth Discourse The defence of Gaston of Foix against them who say that God punished him for making warre to Julius th' eleventh with the comparison of that Prince and of the great Captain I Am sorry that Gaston of Foix is placed amongst th' Examples whom they say God hath punished for having made Warre The respect I bear the vertue of that Prince The great things he did in his very youth and the value some Lords of France have with me being of his bloud and who have with him the same Originall are the causes that I will defend him here of Calumny and averre that he had the Noblest Death and most glorious Life for the time it lasted that History makes mention of or fame doth publish 'T is certain that Gaston made warre in a time when the Nations of Christian Princes were confused and their passions very different for th'Interests of th' Holy Chaire Julius the second who was then in the Chaire seemed to have forgot what he was and to have renounced the Quality of common Father to make himselfe Head of a party or at least Member of a League formed against France The jealousie he had to see us in the heart of Italy The implacable hatred he bore to the King and the effects whereof he had made him to feel in the person of the King of Navarre whose kingdome he had interdicted Obliged Lewis the twelfth to prepare against the Tempest that threatned him t'exercise the Right of Nature and t' oppose force to force and to repaire to counsel to stop the violencies of th' Armies of th' Holy Chair which Julius had on foot nor t'heal but to kill not to edifie but to destroy In this occurrence when the Right seemed to be of Lewis's side Gaston had the command of th' Army in Italy And though the subject ought not to discourse upon the designe of his Master ' when he ought to follow without enquiry whither he goes and that the Law which ought to be observed doth not alwaies declare the vertues of what it ordains Gaston executed the orders of the King in a cause evidently lawfull To whom he owed obedience even in Matters whose right had been ambiguous and justice doubtfull That if he were slaine at the battell of Ravenna and perished in an Occasion whereunto no person goes not to dye but t' overcome as he did The chance of Armes hath so ordained it and his Death was the more noble that it encounterd with his Duty and that he was slain in the Exercise of his Charge I sspeak not at this time of other Circumstances which make his death glorious To dye at th' age of two and twenty yeares being almost assoon Captaine as Souldier having almost at the same time put forth flowers and brought forth fruits after a Number of Victories whereof none were small and the least might have laid a foundation of Reputation for an eminent person and in the midst of a prosperity so constant that it was never in the power of fortune t' interrupt it and so suddaine and Impetuous that ordinarily the last successes troad upon the former without Interruption and the newes followed one another without Intervall Add to this th' Esteem his virtue had gained when he dyed the feares and hopes it diversly occasioned in the world and the contrary passions it produced in equall degree in the soules of his Friends and Enemies It was such that the French could not rejoyce in the Battell they had gained because that Prince dyed there That Lewis the twelvth wished the like Victories to his Enemies to ruine them and what is most eminent and remarkable That it forced Ferdinand of Castille to reconcile himselfe to the great Captaine and to withdraw him from that Retiredness to which a jealousie of State had confined him to send him back to Naples and t' oppose Gaston if he had longger lived That it constrained an old Man and a Soveraign-Prince to suppresse so imperious a passion and to restore t' Imployment one of his subjects whose greatness was in jealously with him To dye in that high Reputation and go out of the world before tryall was made of the Revolutions of it If it be a stroak of vengeance from Heaven and the price of some great Crime Let generous soules that have th' appetite for Glory and some Resentment of honour be Judges of it Since we have said that Gonsalve was to passe into Italy t' oppose Gaston and that Ferdinand had designed him that Great adversary if he had out-lived the journey of Ravenna Le ts observe a little on whom in that warr th' advantage might have rested and on what side the victory have leaned in a Difference where the Parties were so equall It may not peradventure be amisse to divert the Reader with pleasure and t' entertaine him with a piece not unpleasant though of no relation to the work Titus Livius hath sometimes done the like amongst th' Ancients and Paruta amongst the Modernes and I cannot be much blamed in th' Imitation of them nor t' have failed after two so great Examples T is true that the subject which I shall treate upon is extreamely ambiguous and much troubled If it be neverthelesse lawfull to ground some judgment upon the future and to cast our eye upon the thing collected T is probable that the virtue of Gonsalve had given place