counselled them to erect a speciall society of men of war to ioyne together in the Nauall expedition and to lend vpon reasonable considerations some of those shippes which they tooke to waft our Fishermen and to defend the Plantations Sir Thomas Smith protested that there must be strait Lawes enacted against superfluous commodities imported into the land out of other Countreyes before the Golden Fleece could possibly become the Catholike Restoratiue Among many superfluities hee insisted principally on three 1. vpon the extraordinary vse of Tobacco 2. vpon forraigne stuffes and silks which wrought the Decay of English cloth and consequently of many poore Housholds which liued by spinning weauing fulling and dressing of cloth 3. He enueighed against the multitudes of wine tauernes and Alehouses saying that a great part of our Treasure were yearly wasted in these fiery houses That halfe of them might well bee spared and that in Cities and Townes next to the contagion of the Aire formerly mentioned they were the chiefe causes of the inflamation of mens blood and so of Feuers and most of our late sicknesses And in conclusion he pronounced these verses In anciant times they vsed much to Fast And what was spar'd they turn'd to Almes at last But we the Sabbaths make Saturnall Feash On Holy dayes Drinke makes some worse then beasts If men did Custome pay for Ale and Beere Great Charles then Spaines King Philip richer were Our bloods inflam'd Diseases grow by Wine Our Barnes waxe lesse The Poore doe grone and pine Tempore Maiorum leiunis multa colebant Inque Eleâ—mosynas Copia versa suit Sabbata nunc mutant in Satur nalia Bacchi Patrum Festa di s ebri tate scatet Si pro Ceruisid persoluerâ—t Anglia Censum Ditior Hispano Carole magne fores Corporis hinc nimy facta ebullâ—tio morbos Accersâ—â— minuunt Hordea languet Egenis Lastly William Lord Burleigh brought forth his opinion and said that all the meanes restoratiues and good orders which hee had heard deliuered would proue of no validity nor euer come to perfection except his Maiesty of Great Britaine might find some zealous ministers to execute the Lawes and statutes concerning the hindrance of Trade And further he signified that one maine point for reformation and repaire of Trading consisted in rewarding those vigilant spirits which like Sentinells awaked when others slept or proiected for the coÌ„mon benefit while others spent their time like belly-gods in bibbing of sugred sack in pampring their guts with gluttonous fare In these two positiuely he laid the foundation of Great Britaines well fare In the execution of these new Decrees and in rewarding of the industrious whereby the obstinate might be punished and the vertuous heartned And in conclusion this prudent Atlas on whose vnwearied shoulders sometimes relied the waight of Englands cares made this discourse In one thing more I note the prouident Remedy which the diuine wisedome lately manifested in this Kingdome by remouing from hence many people with famine war plagues feuers and other sicknesses A remedy surely applyed for two beneficiall respects In his loue to these by translating them to a happier place In his mercy to the rest which suruiue that they take heed by such terrible sudden accidents how they wast those means whereof they are but his Stewards in lauish feasts in Tobacco Apparell in suites at Law or in drinking more then sufficeth nature And to bestow the estimate of what they shall saue hereafter by their thrist on nobler monuments in offring of sweet smelling sacrifices to his sacred nostrills by helping to build places of succour for their distressed brethren seeing that the noney-bees doe ouerswarme at home for certainely if all these whom He lately tooke to his mercy had been yet liuing their natiue Countrey could not containe them but that a greater Decay of trading would necessarily haue ensued nor could all the wits of our wisest Politicians haue deuised remedies to restore it which now may in all humane probability serue to make the Golden Fleece an absolute Catholike Medicine God grant that the same may worke effectually and conuert the steely heart into a relenting tender and into that which is truly Christian Let all good Christians say Amen Fiat voluntas Domini CHAP. 12. The Order which Apollo tooke for the setling of the Golden Fleece before his late Progresse into the Tropick of Cancer recommending the same to the care of the Fraternity of the Rosie Crosse the foure Patrons of Great Britaine The Consultation of the foure Patrons for the good of Great Britaine The copy of Saint Dauids sonnet which he pronounced in the Amphitheater at Parnassus in honour of the King of Great Britaines mariage and Coronation THe day before the summers Solftice in Iune last 1626. Apollo sent for the famous fraternity of the Rosie Crosse St. George St. Andrew St. David and St. Patrick those carefull Patrons of Great Britaine and in the presence of the Lady Pallas the Muses the Graces and other vertuous persons his Fauorites he deliuered this short speech The time now drawes on that we must take our Progresse into the Tropicke of Cancer where we must exhilarate with our influence those rude subiects of ours which inhabit neere the Northerne Pole to gratifie their natures which otherwise would proue more fullen with some perpetuall Dayes without Nights for their patience in tolerating so many long nights without dayes at the winters Solstice during which timeof our Progresse I require you my Gratious friends to assist the planters of the Newfoundlle which we haue lately styled Britanniol and to treat on their behalfe with that magnanimous King Charles of Great Britaine that hee confirme the commission and orders which his Father of blessed memory granted about three yeares past for the establishing of Wafting ships for the defence of that hopefull Plantation and of the fishing fleetes against the oppressions of Pyrats assuring him from vs that there lies the principall part of the Golden Fleece which Orpheus Iunior hath sounded out in his Cambrensium Caroleia which he published at the celebration of his Mariage with the Paragon of France which likewise he lately renewed here before vs at Parnassus And not onely hee but others haue intimated the benefit of this Proiect namely the Noble Sir William Alexander in his New Scotland and Master Misselden in his Circle of Commerce who in most liuely termes paints out the substance of this Fleece A braue Dessigne it is as Royall as Reall as Honourable as Profitable It promises renowne to the King reuenew to the Crowne Treasure to the Kingdome a purchase for the Land a prize for the Sea Ships for nauigation Nauigation for ships Mariners for both Entertainment for the rich employment for the poore aduantage for the Aduenturers and encrease of Trade to all the subiects A myne of Gold it is The Myne is deepe the veines are great the Oare is rare the gold is pure the extent vnlimited the wealth
Dauid doth morally teach vs that wee must not smite our Princes with the sword of our Lips though they wrong vs nor that we teare the hemme of their superfluous deeds If wee approoue not the holinesst of their liues let vs applaud the holinesse of their Vnctions In the English Chronicles euen when the Pope was at the highest staire of worldly triumph it is registred that Anselmus Archbishop of Canterbury in some difference betwixt him and King William Rufus would haue appealed to the Pope And that the King and the Bishops withstood it In the Raigne of King Henry the Second a Law was made on paine of Treason not to appeale out of the Kingdome of England Thus from time to time it is manifest that the Popes power hath beene inferiour and subiect to Earthly Princes And therefore to broach out such damnable Paradoxes for the iustification of murther and the warranting of priuate men to conspire against their Soueraignes is a Doctrine which God hates Somtimes men are plagued by the immediate hand of God sometimes by mediate and secondary means for their sins Sometimes men are forced to endure extraordinary stormes tempests famine warres and also crosses at their very friends hands Sometimes their women are deliuered of abortiues or mishapen Creatures All which they must patiently brooke Much more must they beare with the spots of Princes who haue long Eares and long hands It is not safe or vertuous to meddle with litigious wares nor to trouble the braine with these kind of Problemes For if men liue in a Monarchy which is hereditary the Fault is the greater If in other Kingdomes the fundamentall Lawes must be regarded by the publike States and not by priuate persons If the Kingdome be Electiue as Poland let the Chancelor looke to it If in Germanie it belongs to the Electors to decide the quarrell betwixt the Emperour and the Subiects Wee doe therefore vtterly detest these Iesuites for maintayning of these bloudy Tragedies and from henceforth wee banish that pestilent Race of Sectaries out of our Iurisdiction of Parnassus Mariana heere we doe order to bee perpetually tortured in Phalaris his Brazen Bull and his Bookes also to be burnt and the ashes to be scattered in the Riuer of Lethe CHAP. III. Now Doctor Wicliffe of Oxford espying in a Church at Athens a Franciscan Frier a kissing of a Maide of Honour belonging to the Princesse Thalia brought Saint Frances to surprize them who of meere Idiotisme applaudes the Fact IN May last when all liuing Creatures followed their naturall motions and kinds Doctor Wicliffe of Oxford who in King Richard the Seconds time by the countenance of Iohn of Gaunt and the Londoners opposed himselfe against the Romish Clergie as hee was entring into the Temple of the vnknowne God at Athens espied a Franciscan Frier very heartily kissing a Gentlewoman which in that jouiall and merrie time had made choise of that lustie Frier to confesse her whereupon Doctor Wicliffe being euer held to be of an vnblemisht behauiour and as chaste as Origen but that he had not gelt himselfe as Origen did burned with Zeale and like another Phinehes thought once to haue runne vpon them both to haue scratcht their eyes out for weapons he had none to offend with such was the Law of Apolloes Court But remembring himselfe of a place in Homer how Achilles as he intended to draw out his Sword against Agamemnon was preuented by the Ladie Pallas who inuisibly restrained his hand from that reprochfull Act he reculed backe vnseene by the youthfull Couple whose lips were so fastned together that as if they had beene in a trance the Church might haue falne by piece-meales about their eares before they would been parted from their sugred kisses and like an Arrow out of a Bow hee rushed into Saint Frances cloyster where meeting with the Old man a mumbling on his Orisons and Rosaries he desired him in all haste to come and visit the Corpse of one of his Friers which was strooke dead by the Planet Venus together with a Maide of Honour belonging to the Princesse Thalia At these words Saint Frances flung away his deuout Offices and went a long with Doctor Wicliffe to the place where he found the Frier and the gentlewoman a kissing After that Saint Frances had considerately noted how loâ—ingly the Frier lay as it were in an extasie with his lips as close as Iuy to an Elme vnto the Maides lips the good man fell downe vpon his knees and thanked God that he had seene so much Loue and Charitie in the World which before hee doubted had forsaken all humane race CHAP. IIII. Doctor Wicliffe connents Saint Frances and the kissing Frier before Apollo Saint Frances defendeth the cause and discouereth seuen sorts of kisses Apollo refuteth his Defence condemnes the Frier and abolisheth all Monasticall Orders DWicliffe the next day after this aduenture loth to be accessary to such baudy deeds made the matter knowne vnto Apolloes Maiestie who immediately sent Mercury for both the Friers And vpon the Friday after appointed a speciall Conuocation for the ordering of this lasciuious Cause About nine a clocke in the morning vpon the prefixed day both the Friers being brought before the Lords of the Connocations Apollo spake in this wise to Saint Frances The first time that you were initiated in morall Precepts and sithence matriculated in our Court you vndertooke aswell for your Monasticall Order as your selfe to liue chast and not to minister occasion of scandall to the married Societie to suspect the least token of incontinencie in your carriages But we find that you are flesh and bloud subiect to concupiscence as well as others Saint Paul therefore aduiseth you rather to marrie then to burne But you on the contrary doe forbid your Clergy to marry at all although in your consciences you know it a most grieuous yoke the which our Sauiour Christ said that no man can beare vnlesse as a speciall Gift some few receiue it from Heauen And therefore Saint Paul tels you It is the doctrine of deuils to forbid Marriage Why then haue you imposed such a burthen such a vow on these silly Nouices of your Fraternitie which they can neuer keep without hinneying and lusting after the Female Sexe Haue not you heard that a certaine Hermite cockolded the chiefest Nobles of a Princes Court whose Wiues vsed to repaire to his Cell for Spirituall Physicke as if he had beene another Baptist Endeauour yee neuer so violently to expell the affections of nature they will breake into your thoughts and bodies doe what yee can as on a time another Hermit but more holy of life experimented in a Nephew of his who notwithstanding that hee had brought him vp euen from his cradle in his hermitage shut vp from the sight of all Women-kinde and afterwards by chance following his Ghostly Father to a Towne when he had looked on the Sexe of women and askt his Father what creatures those prettie
buying Lands Old and cruell From losing Heauen gayning Hell From Diues fare and hardned mind While Lazarus with hunger's pin'd From tumbling in a downy bed While Godlier men for cold lie dead From Misers and those greedy Elues Which loue no Creatures but themselues From wishing Neighbours lazie bones When Hiues are full to play the Drones From sneaking like a Snaile at home When Forraigne Climes yeeld elbow rome From them which hate Plantations From Sathans combinations Our Christ's bright Genius Blesse and reforme vs S. Patrick FRom a faire House which seldome smoakes While the Owner in Riot soakes From slauish prodigalitie From miserable frug alitie From a Cloake that 's full of patches From a Hen which neuer hatches From seeing Elues or strange Monsters Or those men my mind misconsters From those which causlesse doe arrest vs. When we would gladly sit and rest vs. From such sights make vs amazed From a Chamber not well glazed From rude people in a furie From a false and partiall Iurie From Almanacks false predictions From th' Exchange and Currents fictions From White Spaniards or Red headed From all Women which are bearded From Black-haird Women stubborne proud From Little Deuils scolding loud From the Faire-snouted held for Fooles From all long slow-backs idle tooles From Red-hair'd Foxes closely bad From pale and leane too peeuish sad The Worlds great Genius Blesse and defend vs. After these deuout Patriarchs and famous Fraternitie of the Rosie Crosse had made an end of their Hymnes with an applauding Alleluiah to the Diuine Maiestie for the discouery of themselues now at a pinch when Sathan thought to sist vs all as Wheate and vtterly to eclipse the glory of this Monarchie they interceded vnto Apolloes Maiestie that hee would proclaime some fauourable Edict on the behalfe of their humble and penitent Clients Whereupon the Noble Emperour rose vp from his Sunny Throne and pronounced his Oracle If Brittaines King like valiant Hercules His Stables cleanse and those Foxes footlesse Which Christian Vines destroy do firret out His Prouinces shall rise without all doubt And brauely flourish by our Golden Fleece As Rome was sau'd once by the noyse of Geese So he restraine some of these vagaries For Contraries are cur'd by Contraries CHAP. XVIII Orpheus Iunior sheweth that one of the chiefest causes of the Decay of Trading in Great Brittaine proceeded by the rash Aduentures of the Westerne Merchants in passing the Straites of Gibraltar and in fishing on the Coast of Newfoundland without wafting ships to defend them from Pirats THe next day after this memorable Procession of the famous Fraternity Apollo caused a publick Proclamation to bee set vp on the great Porch of Neptunes Royall Exchange willing and requiring all such as wished well to Great Britaine to repaire with their grieuances before him into the Hall of the said Exchange where hee had appointed a particular meeting for the affaires of that Common-wealth in the afternoone of the said day Orpheus Iunior finding by experience that one of the late causes of the Decay of Trade arose by the misgouerned and stragling courses of the Westerne Merchants which either of foole-hardinesse carelessenesse or of a griping humour to saue a little charge aduentured in their returne from Newfoundland without Fleets or Wafters to guard them or any politicke Order to passe through the Straits of Gibraltar to the Dominions of the King of Spaine to Marseilles or Italy where yeerly they met with the Moorish Pirats who by the conniuance of the Great Turk were suffered to prey vpon al Christiās which they encountred With these inconueniences Orpheus Iunior being grieued to see his Countrie suffer through these Merchants sides he exhibited a Petition to his Imperiall Maiestie Shewing these irregular courses as also how that the Golden Fleece which now became rife in all mens mouthes might bee quickly surprized and anihilated if his Prouidence did not becimes take some safe course to secure the labours of those new Argonautickes which spared no shipping to saile into those Coasts where this precious Fleece flourished on the backes of Neptunes Sheepe Apollo vpon this Information examined the proceedings of the English and comparing them with the Hollanders as also with those of other Companies established with Priuiledges and Ciuill Order found more confusion among the Fishermen of New foundland then in any other For where soeuer the Hollanders either fished or traded they went strongly guarded with wasting Ships to preuent all casualties The Spaniards likewise being taught in Queene Elizabeths time by the English sithence by the Moorish Pirats to go wel prouided with some ships of Defence Yea and all those Companies in London which the King of Great Britaine had graced with Charters and Freedomes prospered and neuer went abroad without sufficient strength Onely those petty Merchants which were led with desire of Gaine not willing to enranke themselues into an orderly Societie but as it were in despite of Gouernment singled and seuered from Fleets these became continually a spoyle to the Pirats His Maiesty viewed the East India Company and found them Rich with many braue seruiceable Ships He searched into the strength of the Turkie Merchants and saw them stored with warlike Munition and abounding in wealth yea and by their painfull Trading getting the start of the Italians which heretofore in Argosies gained and exported great treasure out of this Kingdome He pryed into the state of the Moscouie Company and found them very able subsisting of themselues and readie to supply their Countrey with many rich Commodities He entred into the Mystery of the French Societie and also into the Easterne Merchants and beheld them winning the Trade from the Balticke Sea and the Hans Towne in Germany Onely the Westerne Trading he saw out of square and all for want of setled Fleets At last it came into his Maiesties minde that the Noble King Iames of happy memory did about three yeeres past see into these discommodities and thereupon directed out a Commission at the suite of the Corporation for the Plantation of the Newfoundland to prouide a couple of good Ships on the charge of the Fishermen which yeerely frequented that Coast continually to assist them against the inuasions of Pirats who had in a few yeeres before pillaged them to the damage of fortie thousand pounds besides a hundred Peeces of Ordnance and had taken away aboue fifteene hundred Mariners to the great hinderance of Nauigation and terrour of the Planters Vpon mature consideration of this Royall Commission Apollo pronounced that it was necessary to keepe this Commission still a foot aswell in time of peace as of Warre both for the rearing of expert Commanders at Sea as for the securing of that most hopefull Country And to this purpose he commanded Orpheus Iunior to attend at his Maiesties Court of Great Britaine and to sollicit his Soueraigne to conclude that Noble Designe which his Royall Father vpon most weightie deliberation had formerly granted The
Phisicians to take care ouer all the English Sailers which from thenceforth should hazard their liues to the Indies He likewise commanded the East Indies Company to be more bountifull to the poore Widowes whose Husbands chanced to miscarry in their seruice Lastly his Maiestie caused the London Merchants to ioyne together for the prosecuting further of the Northwest passage and for the honour of those braue spirits which had already aduentured their persons in the discouery to ingraue on a brazen Table these verses following and the same to place as a Frontispice on the Delphicke Palace Orbis in Occiduâ latitat via parte sub Arcto Ducit ad Eoum quâ— magis apta mare Dux Frobisherus Dauis Hudson et inclitus ausis Buttonus validis hanc petiere viam Cambria non tantum sed et Anglia laudibus effert Te Buttone suis aequiparátque Dâ—ako De quot te memorem saluum euasisse periclis Sint testes Indus Maurus IeÌ„rnus Iber. Non glomerata tibi Glacies imperuia ferro Non Hyemis longae nix numerosa nocet Quin tunc vlterius transisses altera naui Obuia succedens sireleuasset onus Albioné mque nouam nobis incognita Meta Tum benc vulgasset per fretanostramaris Neere to the Pole there lurkes within the West A shorter way to saile into the East Braue Furbisher Danis and bold Hudson Sought out this way with the valiant Button Not onely Wales but England rings his name And with great Drake compares our Buttons fame Though Ireland Spaine India and Affrick rage To beare the brunts of his stout Pilgrimage Yet they will prize him more when more they know How he endur'd a winter deep with ' Snow For eight moneths space besides the Icy hills Which Natures eares with strange amazemeÌ„t fils And if supplies had come in his distresse New Pillars he like those of Hercules Had raisd but with Plus vltra in the place Where Drakes new Albion waites for Britaines race CHAP. 8. The Merchants of Lisbone doe complaine on the English and Hollanders for trading into the East Indies for Spices Drugs and other Commodities Apollo reiecteth their complaints and aduiseth how they may saile thither with lesser inconueniences then heretosore APollo hauing giuen order to the Inhabitants of Great Britaine to set forwards some Shippes for the discouery of the North west passage word was presently brought to the Portingals that his Maiestie had interessed the Protestants in the Trade of Spiceries Whereupon the City of Lisbone sent to Parnassus foure of their most substantiall Citizens where being arriued they made meanes by Osorius one of their learned Bishops to haue a full Audience of their matter the next Court day which fell out on the fift of Iune last 1626. as Menante the grand Post-master deliuered the last weeke at Paris But Mercurius Gallobelgicus affirmeth otherwise that this weighty cause was discussed on the ninth of Iune Such is the disparity of iudgements and inequality of reports that wee cannot rightly be informed by any of these Currents concerning those passages which happen in our neerest times How much lesse then shall we credit Historiographers of elder ages which haue left vs the occurrences of many memorable affaires which ought to serue as mirrours to posterity Howsoeuer most true it is that the East Indy Cause was decided before the sunne entred into the Tropick of Cancer in this Moneth of Iune last The ground of the Plaintiffes suit was fixed most vpon the Diuision which Pope Alexander the sixt made betwixt the House of Castile and the House of Portingall about 120. yeares past that all the whole world then newly discouered or to bee discouered should equally be shared betwixt them both the East Indies to belong vnto the Portingals and the West Indies to the Castilians the same to haue and to hold to either of the said Nations their Factors and Agents for euer warranted contra omnes gentes Vnder colour of which authenticke Patent they freely inioyed the same vntill the bold English and Hollanders lately intrâ—ded into their Liberties and haue vsurped many of the Coasts in those rich Countries Apollo not wont suddenly without mature deliberation to order causes of such high consequences sent for Peter Martyr the Author of the Decades and asked him how that Partition became ratified Peter Martyr now a member of the Corporation of Parnassâ—â—s and not daring to conceale the verity of that businesse from the sincere Head of the vertuous Society answered that indeed such a Capitulation was treated of betwixt those Princes and that iust as the said Commissioners intended to diuide the whole world by certaine Lines and imaginary points in the Globe they were quite put out of their agreements by a Knauish Boy who at that time accidentally bathed himselfe in a riuer neere vnto them as they debated of these Lines and hearing the Commissioners varying and wrangling about the drawing of these new Lines he turned his backe side vnto them and wished them to forme the same equally as if they should delineat from the Center of his Ano and so taking the same for a patterne the one halfe should appertaine to the one and the other halfe to the other Vpon which ridiculous interruption the Commissioners being abashed and ashamed that a Childe should touch so seriously vpon their Masters ambition they departed leauing the partition vnperfect Apollo perceiuing that the Portingals drift was to ingrosse the whole Trade of Spiceties as a Monopoly preiudiciall to others of the Christian Profession vtterly misliked their a spiring and greedy purposes and after some bitter exprobration of their Couetousnesse hee framed this speech vnto them In going about to appropriate the whole world to your selues yee seeke to ecclipse the power of the Omnipotent to forestall the wonderfull Art of Nauigation and by keeping backe the Protestants to let the Mahumetans still to ioyne with you in this beneficiall Trade I confesse your Nation deserues to be commended for your discoueries of the Cape of Good Hope vnder Vasco de Gama But afterwards for you to ingrosse into your hands more Coasts and Trades then yee are able to mannage is meere auarice and a wrong to your Creator who happily by these your Neighbours aduentures may in time to come discouer as yet more vnknowne Countries and settle in those remote places the word of God euen beyond New Guiny where more Noble Nations doe yet reside then yee haue found out What greater glory can arriue to this part of the world then to search into the vttermost parts of those Southerne Regions In all ciuill Countries the Inhabitants must as well looke into the Artificiall waies of acquiring wealth as into the naturall meanes abounding in the places of their abode This consists in Corne Cattell Wooll Lead Tinne or in the like Commodities which are ordinarily and without much Art deriued from their natiue Seates The other depends on their industry and more curious skill to work vpon those materialls as
golden Touch As Whales doe play vpon the lesser Fish Till Harping-irons spoyle their latest wish So These wound Christ againe through Neighbours sides Till Earth denoures her due their hideous hides O curuae in terras Animae Coelestium inanes O stooping Soules to Earthly trumperies And quite deuoid of Heauenly Mysteries Shall I sleepe on both eares as the Prouerbe saith while these indignities range abroad vnpunished or conniued at among the learned Societie of Parnassus No mighty Monarch I feele an inward motion in my Soule pricking me like a spurre to run as at a deified Deuill against the defied foes of Charitie And now the rather being heere enforced in your Maiesties Court of Parliament the transcendent Light of all worldly Actions Take away the chaine of Charitie take away the Communion of Saints established on the eternall vnion of the Sonne of God who left vs at his departure this last Commandent Loue one another And doe we loue one another if we liue in hatred and watch opportunitie to hurt the members of Christ Decretum profer Apollo I appeale to this high Tribunall How can we say that God is in vs if our Soules and Bodies bee not his Temple The Ground-worke of this Temple is Faith as Saint Paul writes Faith is the ground of things hoped for The walles are the Gifts of Hope without which wee of all men were most miserable And what is the perfection of the Roofe which couers this Temple but Charitie This is the fruit of all our Actions both immanent and transient This brightsome vertue extends to God and man to Heauen and Earth It lifts it selfe vp to God as the prime Mouer of our wils to the Angels as our Guardians and to the triumphant Saints for their participation and spirituall fellowship with our Soules in the harmonious concent and agreement of Holy Workes expecting our humane minds to ioyne with them in their vniuersall Alleluiahs without iarres discord or disproportioned tunes O Angelicall Concord which requirest this Contemplation and Practice of all such which are predestinated to be saued O the depth of Gods scope which exacteth this obedience of the true Catholike Church to loue our Neigbours as wee would haue him to loue vs to doe euill to no man to wish well to all the World like vnto the Sunne which not onely casts his beames vpon all but refresheth the very earth which beareth weeds In what a miserable case then stand those Lawyers which polish their wits and with hired tongues goe about to defeat Oâ—phans Widowes and other innocents by desending wrong-doers Cursed be yee which speake good of euill and euill of good saith the Prophet Which likewise the Wiseman testified He that iustifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the Iust they both are abhominable vnto God What auailes it a man to gather wealth for a small time when hee knowes hee must leaue them behind him and answere for euery idle word and sentence which he produced to disgrace or hinder his Neighbour whom he was bound to tender and loue as himselfe What profit shal he get by his golden fees when Death dogges him at the heeles When his pulses shall faintly beat his senses faile and his eye-lids shut neuer more to open vntill they see the gates of New Ierusalem shut fast against their wretched Master No doubt but some of our Lawyers doe happily thinke vpon this fatall stroke but alas that weake thought for want of Zeale quickly perisheth like those seedes which were sowne by the Husbandman and afterwards for want of care suffered to be ouergrowne with weeds and choaked with auarice The want of employments in some other Professions or Trades which might benefit them in their worldly thoughts and dreaming conceits of priuate lucre doe constraine many great Spirits to fall to this wrangling course of life who otherwise would proue more notable members for their Countries Good But seeing no other way then this to arriue without danger of a bloudie nose to a great estate they forgoe those braue flames which Nature had kindled in them and in their steed doe harbour earthy and slimy cogitations like the Serpent whom God cursed and destinated to creepe vpon his belly and to licke the dust of the earth All their mind runnes on Gaine Gaine is their God the God which deliuers them out of the Land of bondage out of the iawes of Pouertie Gaine is the golden Angell which leades them out of the Wildernesse into the Land of Canaan Gaine is their Iosuah that gouernes their battels and giues them superioritie and victory not ouer the vncircumcised Philistines but ouer their owne Brethren the heires of Saluation in the world to come What faire protestations and goodly hopes will they not faile to promise at the first opening of their Clients Cause yet when the matter by their vnluckie Counsell succeeds not as they promised they will shamelesly stand vnto it that their Clients had not throughly informed them or else with admiration and eyes lift vp towards Heauen they will ioyne to lay an aspersion on the Iudge whereas themselues were the chiefe Procurers of the Suite About twenty yeeres past it was my fortune to bee present in a Counsellers Chamber at the Counsell of the Marches where a Gentleman of Worcestershire bitterly complained that the Counsell had ordred him to pay seuenscore pounds which hee might haue compounded for fiftie pounds And that this rigorous sentence proceeded by his relying altogether vpon his Opinion that the Counsell would not deale in matters aboue fiftie pounds being limited by their Instructions from the King To which the Lawyer answered that he had hard measure offered him that the Counsell reduced his Cause from a Common Law businesse to bee a matter of Conscience wherein the King had left vnto them the determining at large without tying their powers to a certaine Summe That hee was sory to see such extreme seueritie Yet notwithstanding somewhat glad that the matter hauing beene so chargeable and trouble some for a long time he might now enioy the continuall company of his wife and children at home which before he could not doe That Peace was a blessed thing and Patience an excellent vertue Which the Gentleman hearing and hauing no comfort else for his great expence paines and troubles he brake forth into Passion saying what doe you tell me of Peace and Patience and going home to haue the company of my wife and children All this I had before I met with your vnfortunate Counsell and but for you I might haue had more meanes to doe for them then now I haue Which Answere of his cals backe into my memory Captaine Eliots Tragedie which about fiue and twentie yeeres agoe he related vnto me at Paris In Queene Elizabeths dayes being enticed by a Iesuite heere in England this Captaine Eliot went to Lisbone with a Pinnasse of the Queenes which hee purposed thence forwards to employ for his New Masters seruice the King
of Spaine And for this cause with his commendatory Letters from a Iesuite in England to his brother Iesuite Robert Parsons at Madrid he posted thither in hope of high preferment In the meane time his men which hee left a ship-boord finding themselues betrayed by Captaine Eliot and destitute of necessaries to relieue their wants they complotted to steale the Pinnasse away But the matter casually discouered some of them were hanged and the rest made Gally-slaues which comming to the eares of Captaine Eliot at Madrid and hearing that his Brother whom he had left to ouer-see the Pinnasse had likewise tasted of this Spanish Courtesie hee repayred in this male-content to Father Parsons pittifully complayning of his cruell fortune and this bloudie course extended toward his people which hee brought of purpose to serue the King of Spaine hoping of reward rather then to bee so inhumanely dealtwith Father Parsons at that time being more in a moode of deuotion then willing to shew himselfe a Statesman began to reade a Lecture to Captaine Eliot of Patience Humilitie and of Mortification The which hee for a while gaue eare vnto but at last perceiuing that his speeches tended to defeate him of his Ship and to get him into a Cloyster he brake into these impatient termes What doe you preach vnto mee of Patience and Mortification Can flesh and bloud rest satisfied with this vsage Can I be patient when I see my brother and my friends executed and the rest of my men condemned to the Gallies Had it not beene for the aduise which your friend and brother Iesuit gaue me to betray the Q Pinnasse I might haue liued in my own Countrie a happy man far from this barbarous end Surely it were fitting that those which vndertake for money to direct their Clients should requite them for their charges if by following their sinister Counsell the matter goes against them If a Smith hauing but a penny for his paines vnwitting ly chance to prick a horse to the quick whereby the horse is the worse for it there lyes an Action of the Case against the Smith How much more then ought a poore Country fellow altogether without the rudiments of Law haue remedie against a learned Master of the Lawes which takes vpon him to know the whole proceedings of Iustice aswell as the wisest Iudge of the Kingdome O I would that men would become more charitable the one to the other that I might heare from time to time the like complaints as Lawyers made at the end of Michaelmus Terme last 1625. They bewailed their misfortune that whereas some one of them vsed to haue sixtie Clients hee had scarce eight at that Redding Terme which complaints moued mee no more to pittie then to see a Goose goe bare foot I rather reioyced to heare the tidings that Suites of Law were not become eternall And presently I ministred this Pill vnto them My Masters said I you seeme for all the world to bee like the Sextons and Diggers of Graues now of late in London who when any askt them how they did they answered with you Neuer worse It is a hard time For whereas one of vs haue receiued fees for ringing and opening of foure hundred graues a weeke now the Plague being abated wee receiue not money for eight graues A pitifull Case To end this my Apologie against Doctor Bartolus and Master Plowden for my vsurping of Orpheus Iuniors Title I doe it permissu Superiorum by your Maiesties command emboldned by the examples of those which in the like matters borrowed the like Titles as Terentius Christianus and Democritus Iunior lately haue done to their great honour and the Readers satisfaction euen as Ausonius before them had imposed the name of Cato to his little Booke of Manners Nor can any man much blame me if hee compare the Aduentures of our Newfoundland with the Argonaâ—ticks Golden Fleece though more sweetly sounded by the elder Orpheus Apollo after this Apologie seemed highly to extoll it And further to let the world know his fuller resolution hee vttered these words God forbid that Vice should raigne without controulement If my Attendants shall bee tongue tied when such vncharitablenesse possesseth mortall men it is to be feared that men wil sooner glory in euill then turne to good nay more it is to be suspected the whole world but for our peales of Charitie and sounding retraits from Hatred will fall vnder a generall Excommunication from the presence of God Take away the abuse which is meerely accidentall and let the substance of Law remaine still Long may Iustice flourish without ecclipse or stormie oppositions Florescat viuat vigeat celebretur ametur CHAP. XII The learned Vniuersities of Great Brittaine doe finde themselues agrieued that Popish Physicians are permitted to practice Physick in this Kingdome Apollo remedies their grieuances and decreeth that the Popish presume not to minister Physick to any Protestant but to them of their owne Sect. VPpon the Wednesday after Low Easter Sunday there arriued at Parnassus certaine Deputies sent from the Learned Vniuersities of Great Brittaine pitifully complaining that whereas sundrie honest Persons of wonderfull rare Spirits and singular dexteritie had spent the most part of their time in ruminating reuoluing the workes of Hippocrates Cornelius Celsus Galen and also had read the volumes of other Physicians aswell Arabian as Paracelsian Antient as moderne there crept notwithstanding some false Brethren seruants to the Mysticall Whore as Drones which vnder a counterfeit maske of more pregnant knowledge had ingrossed the Gaine and Rewards due vnto them as the laborious Bees of their Country and wrought so effectually with some of the Greater sort that by their example others repaired to them for helps in their Bodily Infirmities forsaking them being of the same Religion and no way inferiour vnto these Romish Physicians The danger both eminent and imminent which by this conniuence might happen they submitted to his Maiesties good will and pleasure Apollo nettled at this complaint called for the Romish Physicians and caused some Patients which had lately taken Physick at their hands to be brought before him to whom he said O yee of little Faith what a lunacie and distemper of the Braine hath peruerted your vnderstanding as to moue you to abandon the medicinable waters of Silo and Bethesdae and to haue recourse vnto muddie Pooles not deriued from the Rocke of liuing waters Is it because there is not a God in Israel that yee goe to the God of Ekron to enquire and looke counsell Did the example of Lopez the Portugall who by warrant from the great Dispencer of Murthers poysoned some Noble Personages of your Countrie nothing terrifie your mutable phantasies but ye must resort for cure vnto your knowne Foes the Foes of Christ Is it possible that my Remedies shall worke their proper effect which are ministred by profane hands but rather the contrary being accursed like the Fig-tree in the Gospell It was a sinne in