Anno 140â— Monstre lib. 1 cap. 22. and Reporters a great enmitie arose betwixt Lewis duke of Orleans the kings brother and Iohn duke of Burgoigne conte of Flanders of Artois and lord of many other lands and territories Our hystories name not these Marmosets but simply say that their houshold servants incited them to band one against another the duke of Orleans his servants and favourits said and said truly That he was the chiefe prince of the blood the kings only brother also more aged and of riper and more staied wit than the duke of Burgoigne and that therefore he should not set his foot before him in the handling of the kings affairs For at this time the king having not perfect sences his affairs were handled with the princes of the blood and the privie Counsell but contrarie the duke of Burgoigne his Marmosets said That he was the chiefe peere of France and as they cal it le Doy en des Pairs that he was more mightie and more rich than the duke of Orleans and although he was not so neere of the blood Roiall as he yet was he more neere by alliance for the Dauphin who was yet very young had espoused his daughter and therefore he ought in nothing to give place unto the duke of Orleans but that hee ought to maintaine and hold the same ranke that Philip duke of Burgoigne his deceassed father did who whilest his father liued governed the king and the kingdome at his wil. Briefly these tatlers and reporters caused this duke of Burgoigne so to mount into ambition and covetousnesse to raigne that he enterprised to cause the duke of Orleans to bee slaine who hindered his deseignes and purposes and indeed he caused him to be most villanously massacred and slaine at Paris nie the gate Barbette by a sort of murthering theeves which he had hired as the duke of Orleans went to see the queene who had lately bene brought to rest of a child Great domage there was for that good prince for he was valiant and wise as possible one might be Of him descended king Henry the second now raigning both by father and mother For king Francis his father was sonne of Charles duke of Angolesme who was son also of Iohn duke of Angolesme who was sonne of the duke of that Orleance and Madame Claude queene of Fraunce mother of the said king Henry was daughter of king Lewis the twelfth who was son of Charles duke of Orleance who was the sonne of this duke Lewis whereof wee speake I would to God princes his descendants would well marke the example of this massacre most horrible which was committed upon the person of that good duke their great grandfather and the great evill haps and calamities which came thereof to shun the like miseries which ordinarily happen when such murders goe unpunished For because the duke Iohn of Burgoine was not punished for this fault but found people which sustained and maintained it to have been well done as we shall say more at the full in another place and that followed his part stirring up civile warres which endured two generations and caused the death of infinit persons in France and that the English got a great part of the kingdome and that the poore people of Fraunce fell into extreame miserie povertie and desolation there were many causes and meanes of so many evils for injustice ambition covetousnesse desire of vengeance and other like things might goe in the ranke of causes of so many mischeefes But the Marmosets of duke Iohn of Burgoigne were they which stroke the yron against the flint out of which came that sparke of fire a device fatally taken by the duke of Burgoigne which brought into combustion and into a burning fire all the kingdome for so long time and at last ruinated the house of Burgoigne Francis duke of Bretaigne a prince that was a good Frenchman and affectionate Monstre lib. 3. cap. 4 33. to the king of France his soveraigne had a brother called Gills who gave himselfe to the English in the time that they made warre in France and accepted of the king of England the order of the Garter and the office of high Constable of England The duke and his brother much greeved hereat found meanes to take him prisoner and put him in a strong castle whereunto he would never goe to heare or see him he so much disdained him But yet he sent men unto him which hee trusted which indeed proved very Marmosets and false reporters for after Giles of Bretaigne had remained within the castle a certaine time and that he had considered well his doings that he was borne the kings vassale of France and that he ought never to have disunited himselfe from his brother he then praied his brothers people that came to see him to tell him from him that he greatly repented what hee had done and that if it pleased him to pardon him that from thence forward he would follow with a good heart the part of the king of France and his and that if it pleased them hee would streight send to the king of England his Order and Constables sword What do his Marmosets then They report to the duke that Giles his brother was still obstinate and so perfect English that no reasons they could make could turne him unto that side The duke sent still many times the same men unto him but alwaies they made the like or worse report of him insomuch that this good duke fearing that his brother was invincible in his obstination fearing also that if hee should let him loose he would cause the English to come into Bretaigne to avenge himselfe commanded the same reporters to strangle him in prison which they did Afterward as God when he seeth his time brings the most hid things to light these murdering reporters could not hold but discover the truth of the matter and that Giles of Bretaigne would have done any thing that the duke his brother would have had him to doe which comming to the dukes eares he was nigh out of his wits for his brothers death and caused the reporters to be hanged and to die with great and rigorous paines and executions Behold the end of Giles of Bretaign and the reward which such Marmosets received which were cause of his death Hereof Princes may note a rule Not to beleeve too easily reports made of men without hearing them but especially when it toucheth life One day before the emperour Adrian there was one Alexander which accused I. 3. 9. idem Diu. D. de Testi 6. of certaine crimes one Aper and for proofe of those crimes he produced certaine informations in writing against Aper which he had caused to be taken in Macedon Adrian mocked at it and said to Alexander the accuser that these informations were but paper and inke and it might be made at pleasure but in criminall causes we must not beleeve witnesses in writing but witnesses themselves
lib. 15. cap. 9. li. 16. cap. 3 4 13. lib. 17. and Idumia for the favour of Marcus Antonine a Romane capitaine and by decree of the Romane Senate he espoused a noble Ladie who was of the kings race of that countrie called Mariamme by whom he had two children Alexander and Aristobulus but Herodes had a sister called Salome who was a very Tisiphone and served for nothing but to kindle and light fires in the kings court by false reports which she invented and this infernall furie did so much as she perswaded the king her brother that Mariamme sought to poison him by his cup-bearer and brought out certaine false witnesses to proue it so that the king beleeved it and put to death his wife one of the fairest princes of the world and of whose death there was after infinit griefes and repentances But as one sinne draweth after it another Salome fearing that those two aforesaid children would feele afterward the outragious death of their mother she machinated and resolved in hir spirit that they must also dye So began she straight to forge false reports false tokens and false accusations insomuch as she perswaded Herodes the father that these two children Alexander and Aristobulus spake alreadie of revenging the death of their mother and by the same meanes to vsurpe the kingdome Herodes suffering himselfe to be persuaded by the calumniations and slaunders of his sister Salomē tooke his iourney to Rome having his two children with him where he accused them to have fought his death before Augustus Caesar he began to descipher his accusatorie oration and to deduct set out the means whereby he pretended that his two children should go about his death When it came to their turne to speake for their defence they began to weepe and lament Caesar knew well thereby that the poore children were full of innocencie So he exhorted them from thence forward to carry themselues in such sort towards their father that not only they should not doe against him any thing vnworthy or greevous but also should doe so much as to bring themselves farre from all suspition He exhorted also Herodes to use his sonnes well and to keepe them in his favor Then fell the children on their knees before their father with great effusion of teares crying him mercy by which meanes they were reconciled unto their father But after the returne of Herodes and his children this furie Salome not contented with this reconciliation which Caesar had made began to lay new ambushes by false reports that she made to Herodes wherein she mixed some truth to give the better taste Herodes who was very credulous in such matters made Augustus understand that his children had againe conspired his death Augustus answered him That if his children had done against him the thing which merited punishment that he should chastice them as he thought good and that he himselfe gave him power and permission so to do The abovesaid Herodes joyful to have received this power being led with an irreconcileable rage by the meanes of Salome caused the two poore children Alexander and Aristobulus to be strangled Salome ayded her selfe in all this businesse with one other sonne of Herodes borne of another woman called Antipater God would that Herode should discover that the accusations against his two dead children were but slaunders and that Antipater who had aided to forge them had himselfe conspired to poison his father Whereupon he caused him to be called before Guintius Varius the governor of Syria for the emperour The cause being long pleaded and debated Antipater could not purge himselfe of the sayings and proofs against him and did no other thing but make great exclamations nothing appertaining to the matter holding on that God knew all unto whom he recommended his innocencie Varus seeing that he could not wel justifie himselfe wished Herodes to imprison him and so he did Certaine dayes after Herodes fell sicke which comming to the notice of Antipater in prison he rejoyced greatly Herodes advertised that Antipater wished his death and rejoyced at his sicknesse sent one of his guard into prison to slay him which he did Five daies after Herodes died like a mad man for the evill haps he had in his children and this rage lighted a fire in his entrailes which rotted him by little and little wherupon engendred worms which eat him alive with horrible languishments before his death And who was the cause that Herodes thus contaminated his hands and all his house with the bloud of his owne children Even that most wicked reporter Salome who devised false accusations and slaunders which she blew in the king her brothers eares Besides those kind of flatterers whereof we have spoken above which are janglers Coūsellors flatterers and Marmosets there is yet a third kind which under the name and title of principall Counsellors and under the pretext and colour of conducting the affaires by good counsel they abuse the princes authoritie who are greatly to be feared To shun the mischeefe that may come therupon there is nothing better than to follow the precept of Comines namely That the king have many Counsellors and that hee Comines lib. 1. cap. 27. lib. 2. cap. 44. never commit the conducting of his affaires to one alone and that he hold as nigh as he can well his Counsellors equall For if hee commit much more to one than to another he wil be master and the others dare not reason against him freely or els knowing his inclination dare not contradict him Therefore in a criminall cause handled before the Senate of Rome against a gentlewoman of a great house called Lepida accused of treason the emperour Tiberius although he were very rude in Cornel. Tacitus annal lib. 3. li. 5. such cases would not suffer his adoptive sonne Drusus to reason first least sayth Tacitus thereby had been laied and imposed a necessitie for others to have consented unto his opinion And in another cause of like matter where Granius Marcellus was accused in a certaine place to have set his owne image above the emperors When the cause came to handling Piso whose opinion the Emperour desired first began thus to say And you Sir in what place will you reason for if you reason last I feare that by imprudencie I shall not dissent from you For that cause Tiberius declared that he would not reason at all indeed the accuser was absolved although the Emperour had shewed a countenance to be angry against him as he heard the accusation rehearsed And there is no doubt but that the counsell of one alone is Counsell of one alone dangerous perillous to the prince because naturally men are divers waies passionate and that which shall be governed by one alone is often by passion guided Also the indisposition of mens persons causeth that every one hath not alwaies his head well made as they say nor are wise at all seasons and
After that the emperour Nerva was chosen emperour hee entred into the Senate Dion in Nerva when it was assembled and after hee made them understand how kindlie and temperatelie hee meant to behave himselfe in the government of the empire hee added for a conclusion an oath and promise That never by his ordinance and command hee would put to death any Senator A thing which greatlie pleased all the companie and especiallie because that cruell emperour Domitian his predecessor whom hee succeeded had caused a great number to die yea for frivolous and trifling causes What followed It happened that certaine Senators conspired against that good emperour and that the conspiration was discovered but that good prince seeing that the conspirators were Senators and that hee had given to them all his Faith and oath that hee would cause none of them to dye loved better to observe his Faith and oath than to punish with death those Senators which had well merited it What will our Machiavellists say heere which most cruelly put to death massacre against publik Faith even such as no way have deserved any punishment But it is time to leave those ancient Romane examples for wee should never Beliay lib 1. Of his memories have done to rehearse them all now let us come to domesticall examples In the yeere 1508 king Lewis the twelfth who then held the dutchie of Millan made a league at Cambray with the emperour Maximilian and pope Iulius the eleventh to expulse at their common charge and expences the Venetians out of the firme land as usurpers of that they held upon the empire upon the Church and upon the dutchie of Millan And it was accorded that in the yeere following at a convenient and good time every one of the said three princes shoule appeare upon the place with his army and every man should have that yeelded unto him that was his owne after they had conquered the said countries which the Venetians held The king according to this accord came himselfe in person with his army and many great princes and French lords but the emperour and the pope failed Yet the king feeling himselfe strong enough alone gave battaile to the Venetians and got the victorie insomuch as their chiefetaines were taken and 2000 slaine and almost all the townes which the Venetians had on firme land yeelded to him What then did this good king although the other two held not their Faiths unto him and that having then the dutchie of Millan hee alone might easily have kept all that he had conquered yet notwithstanding hee voluntarilie yeelded to the emperour Verone Vicence Padua and otherplaces belonging to the empire and to the Pope Rimini Faence Cervia Ravenna and other church townes Heereby this good king shewing in what great recommendation hee had the observation of his Faith and to maintaine whole and perfect his promise For if with excuses hee would have dealt deceitfully to have broken his Faith as Machiavell saith hee ought to have done had hee not a faire pretext to say that others had not held promise with him might hee not have the said that hee was nor bound to reconquer theirs at his owne charges by the traict of their league Might hee not well have beaten the Pope with his owne Cannons alledging as before Frangenti fidem fides frangatur eidem But he was a plaine man without guile and sincere hee sought no evasions or refuges but an upright observer of his Faith and promise yet Machiavell reprehends him because hee used not deceits and tromperyes as the popes Alexander Iulius did The memorie is yet fresh of the great warres which the emperour Charles the fifth and Francis the first king of France had together as also how they objected Bellay lib. 8. Of his memories one to another the observation of Faith in their publike escripts and writings yet whatsoever imputations were laid by one to another experience manifested the truth in the yeere 5539 when the emperour under the word of the king passed through France to goe from Spaine into Flanders where the people of Gant were risen up against him for in that passage the emperour shewed well that hee beleeved the king was a prince who would keep his Faith unviolated when he trusted his owne person under it notwithstanding all the warres enmities hostilities and other differences which had so often happened betwixt them two and were not yet extinguished And certaine it is that if the emperour who was a wise prince had had the least doubt in the world of the kings Faith and loyaltie hee would never have put himselfe in his hands and especially for so small an occasion as in hast to goe build a citadell in the towne of Gant insomuch as his fact contradicteth his mouth and word For before hee had many times given an intimation to the king not to hold and observe sincerely his Faith but as by his own fact he shewed that he beleeved the contrary of that hee had said so found hee by experience that the king was the part hee plaied with the king of Armenia succeeded not alike unto him which king he sent for to come unto him being then nigh his country making him to understand that hee would agree him with his children with which then the king had some dissention For as soone as hee came to him hee caused him to be taken prisoner and to bee bound and to bee cast into a straight prison as hee had done with Augarus But the Armenians having discovered this perfidie and disloyaltie rose up in armes and would not submit themselves under the obedience of that perfidious Caracalla Hee also played another part of treacherie under the pretext and shew of marriage with the king of the Parthians Artabanus For hee writ letters unto him whereby hee signified unto him that the empire of the Romanes and that of the Parthians were the two greatest empires of the world and that hee beeing the sonne of a Romane emperour could not find a partie more sociable unto him for a wife than the daughter of Artabanus king of the Parthians he therefore praied him to give her to him in marriage to the end to allie and joyne together the greatest empires of the earth as thereby also to impose an end to their warres This king at the first denyed him his daughter saying that such a marriage was very unfit because of the diversitie of their tongues manners and habits as also for that the Romanes never heeretofore allied or married with the Parthians But upon this refuse Caracalla insisted and pressed him more strongly than before and sent to Artabanus great gifts so that in the end hee gave to him his daughter Whereupon Caracalla assuring himselfe that hee should finde noe hostilitie in the Parthian countrie entred bouldly farre into the countrie with his armie making men understand wheresoever hee passed that hee went but for to see and make love to the kings daughter
ordinarily vvhen corrupted nations frequent amongst others for they infect them vvith evill manners And therefore it is that the Almaigne nation remaines so entire and constant in his manners because the Almaignes vvere never curious to trafficke vvith their neighbours nor to dwell in other countries nor to receive strangers into their countrey but alwayes have contented themselves vvith their owne goods nouriture manners and fashion of apparrell insomuch as shunning the frequentation of Spaniards French and Italians vvhich are the three nations of the vvorld most vicious they have not yet learned their customes and corruptions I Have not here set downe this Maxime to say it is not very true For besides the examples we reade in hystories we know it by experience and sight of eye seeing wee see at this day all Fraunce fashioned after the manners conditions and vices of strangers that governe it and have the principall charges and Estates and not onely many Frenchmen are such beasts to conforme themselves to strangers complections but also to gaggle their language and doe disdaine the French tongue as a thing too common and vulgar But if wee well consider this manner of vengeance taught by Machiavell in this Maxime we shall find it is a most detestable doctrine as well for them which practise it as for them against whom it is practised The example even of Capua which Machiavell alledgeth prooveth it For the Capuans in receiving into their towne Annibals armie corrupted Tit. Livius lib. 3. Dec. 3. rupted and infected the souldiers of Anniball with all excesse and effeminate wantonnesse also by the same meanes they procured their owne ruine and entire destruction which soone after happened unto them The Persian lords which with their manners corrupted king Alexander the Great did nothing to their owne advauntage Plu. in Alex. For Alexander becomming vicious they got the evill will of the Macedonians which tooke displeasure to see their king corrupted and finally after the death of Alexander which came unto him by his dissolutenesse learned of the Persians these lords had part of the evill lucke whereof they were cause And generally we may see that the corrupters of princes and people take part alwayes in the evill whereof they are cause as in other places we have shewed by many examples of flatterers which have corrupted their princes We Frenchmen may yeeld good witnesse of what account the Italian and Neapolitane nation is by the frequentation wee had with them in the voyage which was made to Naples in the time of king Charles the eight for from thence brought they this disease which at this day is now called the French poxe and that we have ever since kept but yet so as the Italians and Neopolitanes are not exempt therefrom but both the one and the other have part of that corruption Breefely we ought to detest and hate this wicked doctrine of Machiavell and reject all vengeance and follow S. Paules lesson who commands us to converse with good people and of good manners because the conversation of the wicked not onely corrupteth good manners but also soweth those that are wicked And as for that which Machiavell saith of the Almaignes wee know and see the frequentation of the Almaignes in France and yet till this present we have not seene that they have yet gathered corruption of manners And whereas he sets downe the French nation amongst such as are most corrupted we cannot denie it but we may well say That the doctrine of Machiavell the frequentation of them of his nation are cause of the greatest and most detestable corruption which is at this day in Fraunce For of whome have the Frenchmen learned and knowne atheisme sodomie trecherie crueltie usurie and such other like vices but of Machiavell and of them of his nation So that they may brag that they are well revenged of the warres which our auncestors have made in Italie 6. Maxime It is folly to thinke that with princes and great lords new pleasures will cause them to forget old offences CAEsar Borgia saith Machiavel during the life of Pope Alexander Cap. 7. Of Princes Discourse lib. 3. cap. 4. the sixt his father usurped the domination of Romania which is a land belonging to the Church and vvas called duke de Valentinois In making those usurpations in favour of the Pope his father he offended many Cardinals and amongst others the Cardinall of Saint Peter ad vincula yet after he consented that hee should bee elected Pope after the death of Alexander his father vvhereof hee soone repented For this new Pope called Iulius the eleventh straight be took himselfe to armes to recover that vvhich Borgia had usurped although he had favoured him in his election vvhich hee should never have done nor suffered any election of a Pope vvhich vvas his enemie For saith he new pleasures never makes men forget old iniuries and offences and therefore Borgia which in all other things had governed vvell committed a foule fault in the creation of Iulius and himselfe delivered the mean of his finall destruction The same fault cōmitted Servius Tullius king of the Romanes in giving his two daughters in marriage to two Tarquins vvhich quarrelled for the crowne and vvhich thought that Tullius vvould usurpe it upon them For not only this alliance extinguished the envie and rancour vvhich they had to Servius but that which is more it caused one of the daughters to enterprise to sley her owne father IF seemeth that this which Machiavell telleth of Borgia boweth something from the truth of the hystorie For Sabellicus writeth That during the election of Pope Iulius the eleventh Borgia was shut up in the Popes tower to be safe and guarded by his enemies So there was no likelyhood that a man brought into such an extremitie as to hide himselfe and be shut up in prison for the great multitude of enemies which hee had procured should have such great credit in the Popes election But suppose it was true that Borgia helped Pope Iulius to the Popedome and that Pope Iulius was unthankfull for that benefit for the remembrance that he had of the old and ancient injuries that Borgia had sometimes done him what followes hereof That all great lords will alwayes doe the like will some Machiavelist answer and that therefore they ought not to bee trusted Is not here a goodly doctrine for a prince Breefely it is Machiavels mind to teach a prince to trust in no lord which hee hath once offended and againe that none which hath made a fault or offended him shall any more trust him whatsoever reconciliation peace concord amitie pleasure and good offices may happen since the offence Here behold a most wicked and detestable doctrine to say That an offence ought to take so deepe root in the heart of the offended that by no pleasures services or other meanes it can be rased out But Machiavell seemeth something excusable to maintaine this Maxime for according to
from that which is good And heere that manner of electing friends which Augustus Caesar observed is worthie observation for hee did not easily retaine every man in his friendship and familiaritie but ever tooke time to proove and finde their Sueton. in Aug. lib. 66. vertues fidelitie and loyaltie Such as hee knew to bee vertuous people and which would freely tell him the truth of all things as did that good and wise Maecenas and which would not flatter him but would employ their good wills sincerely in the charges he gave them after he had well prooved them then would he acknowledge them his friends but as hee was long and difficile to receive men into familiar amitie so they which hee had once retained for friends hee would never forsake them but alwaies continued constantly his friendship towards them Adversitie also is a true touchstone to proove who are fained or true friends For when a man feeleth laborinthes of troubles fall on him dissembling friends depart from him and such as are good abide with him as saith Euripides Adversitie the best and certain'st friends doth get Prosperitie both good and evill alike doth fit 11. Maxime A prince which would have any man to dye hee must seeke out some apparent colour thereof and then hee shall not bee blamed if so bee that hee leave his inheritance and goods to his children WHen a prince saith master Nicholas will pursue the death Cap. 17. Of the prince of any man he ought to colour it with some iust colour and when hee puts him to death hee must abstaine from the confiscation of his goods for his children which abide behinde will sooner forget the death of their father than the losse of their patrimonie And withall let him know That nothing makes a prince so much hated as when hee comes to touch the goods and wives of his subiects THis is also another tyrannicall precept like to the former For it Corne. Taci Annales lib. 1 and 4. is a custome with tyrants to impose false accusations and blames against such as they will cause to die sometime before the execution sometimes after Wee have shewed before an example of Domitian who for light and no causes tooke occasion to make many great Romane lords to dye which were of him suspected as to tyrants all good and vertuous men are ordinarily which are better than themselves The emperour Tiberius saith Tacitus at the beginning of his raigne hated men of eminent vertue and such also as were extreamely vicious suspecting the vertue of some and fearing to be dishonoured and despised by the vicious But after he came to the fulnesse of all vices and loved most such as were most vicious hee practised too much this principle of Machiavell against many vertuous and honourable men for hee caused to dye a learned and most excellent man called Cremutius Cordus because hee writ an hystorie wherein hee praised Cassius and Brutus He slew also Aemylius Scaurus for writing a tragoedie which pleased him not and many other like railors whereby hee sought to cover his tyrannie Nero likewise after hee had slaine his mother writ lies to the Senat to bee published all over how he had discovered a great conspiration that his mother had intended against him to cause his death and that hee was constrained to sley her to prevent her In like sort Caracalla after hee had slaine Geta his brother caused a fame to bee spred all over that hee himselfe escaped faire for his brorher would have slaine him Briefely all tyrants use to doe so practising their cruelties and vengeances ever under some pretext or false coulour as Machiavell teacheth And there are none at this day which cannot examplifie this position with many late and fresh examples in our time For the massacres of Paris executed on S. Bartholomewes day and the execution after made of captaine Briquemand of Maistre Arnand of Carignes of contie Mongomery and of the lord of Monbrum and other like were all coloured with false imputations by these Messers Machiavellists and by wicked judges their slaves as every one knoweth And as for that which Machiavell saith That the children of such as are unjustly caused to die take no care if so bee their goods bee not taken from them Dion in Neroue and in Aâ—to Carac I beleeve few men will accord with him in this point for every one which hath a good mans hart will sooner make account of honour and life than of goods But certaine it is if the successor his sonne or other kinsman despise and make no account to pursue by lawfull meanes that justice bee done for the unjust death of the slaine men whom hee succeedeth that he leeseth his honour and by the civile lawes is culpable and unworthie of the succession Moreover the injurie done in the person of the father is reputed done to the sonne himselfe and the contrarie As also every man esteemes himselfe to suffer injurie when any of his parents or friends doe suffer it Insomuch as such violent executions are without doubt more intollerable than the losse of goods and do much more stronglie wound the hearts of men which are not destitute of naturall love towards their bloud and such as have their honour in any recommendation than all other losses and damages that they can suffer and although the Machiavellists hold for a Maxime That a dead man biteth not or makes no warre yet the death of a man oftentimes is the cause of many deaths and of great effusion of blood as more at large shall be said in another place 12. Maxime A prince ought to follow the nature of the Lyon and of the Fox not of the one without the other YOu must understand saith this Florentine that men fight in two manners the one with lawes when matters Cap. 18. 19. Of the prince are handled by reason the other with force The first is proper to men which have the use of reason The second appertaineth to beasts which have neither reason nor intelligence But because the first is not sufficient to keepe men and to maintaine them in inioying of things belonging unto them they must needes oftentimes have recourse to the second which is force Wherefore it is needefull that a prince can well play the beast and the man together as our elders have taught when they writ that Chiron the Centaure halfe a man and halfe a beast was given as an instructor for the prince Achilles For heereby hee gave to understand that a prince ought to shew himselfe a man and a beast together A prince then beeing constrained well to know hovv to counterfet the beast hee ought amongst all beasts to chuse the complexion of the Fox and of the Lyon together and not of the one without the other for the Fox is subtill to keepe himselfe from snares yet he is too weake to guard himselfe from vvolves and the Lyon is strong enough to guard himselfe from vvolves
dead man makes no warre But if a man reply upon them that a dead man yet may because of warre although he can make no warre what would they answere Dare they denie so apparent a thing as we see with our eyes and whereof hystories furnish us with infinit examples Lewis duke of Orleance king Charles the sixt his brother after the duke Iohn of Bourgoigne had caused him to be slaine made no warre indeed but yet was the cause of a civile warre in Fraunce which endured more than sixtie yeares Pompeius after he was slaine made no more warre but his death was the cause of a great and long civile warre in the Romane empire The violating and Iudges 19 20. death of a Levites wife was it not the cause of a warre wherein there died more than sixtie thousand men They which were slaine at Vassi Anno 1562 drew not they on a civile warre which endured too long They also which were slaine in Anno 1572 in the moneth of August by the great townes of Fraunce but especially Paris were not they cause of great warres It is therefore a foule and an inconsiderate saying to alledge that a dead man makes no warre thereupon to found their massacres and slaughters without considering the consequences thereof Hereupon is very memorable the speech that Geta the yong prince made to the emperour Severus his Spar. in Geta father Severus having vanquished Albinus and Niger his competitors to the empire begun to make a great slaughter of the greatest lords and gentlemen of Rome which had taken part with Albinus or Niger because they were of a more noble house than Severus As then day by day he was committing his slaughter he one day said unto Bassianus Geta his children as men spoke of that fact I shall by this meanes ease you of all your enemies Hereupon Geta his sonne demanded of him My lord and father them which you meane to put to death are they a great number Yea answered Severus and told him the number All they replied he have they neither parents allies nor friends Yea they have many said Severus You then said Geta will leave us more enemies than you take from us This wise speech of this young prince touched so well the heart of Severus although he was cruell that hee would needs cease from his slaughter but that Plautianus and other courtiers which attended the enriching of themselves by confiscations incited him to continue Let murderers then hold themselves assured that for one they have slaine they stirre up tenne enemies And yet is not this all for all the rest of their life they have soules and consciences tormented with the remembrance of such as they have most wickedly murdered and the shadowes and remembrances of them shall alwayes bee before their eyes as a feare and terror unto them O how the shadow of that great Admirall shall strangely torment these great enterprisers of massacres it will never leave them at rest but shall bee a burning flame which shall agast and fearefully accompanie them even to their sepulchres Let them then hearken unto the menace and threatening he makes in his tombe against them Although the soule from bodie mine cold death hath ravished Virgil Aene. lib. 4. Yet absent I will follow thee yea with a flame full blacke My shaddow alwaies shall appeare about thee as one dead Which shall revenge on thee my blood thou who no ill doest lacke I thought good by the way to touch what warre the dead makes or what cause of war they are to refute that saying of the Machiavellians That a dead man makes no warre Let us now come where we left Of subtilties which wee say ought not to bee practised in the government of the affaires of State and that thereby none may cover any perfidie When Anniball had gotten the battaile of Cannas against the Romanes hee toke a great number of prisoners and because he more loved money for their ransome than to hold them hee sent a certaine number of them to Rome to practise and worke their redemption but hee made them sweare and promise that they would returne to him and so did let them goe upon their Faith But one advised himselfe of a subtile device when hee came at Rome to returne no more yet none should say hee broke his Faith For having passed a good piece of his way towards Rome hee suddenly returned backe againe to Anniball fayning hee had forgotten something after againe followed his companions and so they all came to Rome But their affaires comming to bee debated in the Senate none would yeeld to redeeme the prisoners insomuch as they all which came to Rome for that purpose returned very sad to Anniballs campe except hee which returned by the way who with these came not to the campe but remained in his house thinking hee was well discharged of his Faith and othe But when the Senate heard tell of the fallacious and deceitfull returne of the said souldier so unworthy and unseemely for a Romane they commanded him to bee drawne out of his house and by force to bee led unto Anniball Heereby you may see then that no wise people of good judgement such as were the ancient Romanes can approve such subtile palliations and covertures of an infraction and breach of Faith such as Machiavell persuadeth to a prince A like deceit was in the king of France Phillip the sixt of that name for having Froisart lib. 1. cap. 10. made an oth as almost all his ancestors kings of France had done never to run over or attempt to besiege or take any thing belonging to the empire yet desiring the castle of Tin the Bishops nigh to Cambray which troubled him much caused his sonne the duke of Normandie as the chiefe generall of the armie to besiege it and himselfe went thither also as a simple souldier without any command at all By which subtiltie the king Phillip could not save his oth for hee that doth any thing by a mediator is as much as if hee had done it himselfe neither did the deceit succeede well unto him for both the duke of Normandie was constrained to raise his siege from before the castle and not long after the king lost the battaile at Cressy The emperour Valentinian in his time was cruell in his actions and dealings Amm. Marel lib. 28. and had many officers like himselfe Amongst other such there was a criminall judge called Maximus who as hee examined certaine criminall persons promised them if they would confesse the truth they should suffer no punishment either of sword or fire These poore accused persons as often men doe confessed things they had never perpretated trusting upon his Faith and promise But this wicked judge caused them to bee beaten downe and slaine with leaden hammers thinking by this cavillation to save his oth God would that for a recompence hee should after be hanged and strangled under the emperour Gratianus
a gentle and kind prince For it often happeneth that such cruell judges which have bestowed great paines to make their dâ—lligence allowed of the cruell princes have beene after paid their wages and received their due recompence of some good prince succeeding Nabis was a tyrant who without right or title got soveraigne possession of the commonwealth of the Lacedaemonians and there committed many cruelties and Titus Livius lib. 5. Dec. 4. indignities The Aetolians a furious and cruell kinde of people esteemed that it would bee a great glorie and honour unto them if they could slay this tyrant any way and that all Greece especially the Lacedaemonians would thank them So they enterprised to joyne themselves unto him under a pretext and shew of Faith and socieâ—â—e the better to overthrow him Alexamenes was deputed captaine and conductor of the Aetolian forces to effect that enterprise who did so much as hee entered into league and confederation with Nabis who at that time greatly feared the Romanes This league being past Alexamenes persuaded Nabis that both together they must often exercise their souldiers by bringing them into the fields to wrastle leape skirmish and practise other millitarie exercises to shun idlenesse and to make them good souldiers Nabis beleeved him insomuch as one day beeing in the field together Alexamenes came behinde him and threw him cleane over his horse with a blow hee gave him and then presently caused him to be slaine and massacred This being done Alexamenes his people returning towards the towne of Sparta from whence they departed thinking to seize upon the castle to guard themselves from all assaults of the tirants frinds but they could not obtaine it For the Lacedaemonians so disdained greeved at that most perfiidious villanus part of the Aetolians against their king Nabis although they desired no more than his death that they furiously rushed upon the Aetolians which were dispersed through the towne and looked not for their paines to be so recompensed that they slew them almost all and amongst them Alexamenes himselfe such as escaped the sword were taken prisoners and sould For the last example of this matter I will set downe that of Ioab David nephew 2. Samuel 2. 3. 20. 1 Kings 2. and constable unto whom hee did good and great services Yet David commanded Salomon his sonne that hee should put to death Ioab his cosin germane as hee did because of his perfidie for hee had slaine Abner and Amasa two other great captaines traiterously under the coulour of amitie Ioab seemed to have great causes to justifie his fact For Abner had slaine Asahel Ioabs brother and therefore Ioab could not but receive just sorrow and feeling thereof Moreover Abner had followed the contrary part to David standing for the house of Saul Amasa was a rebell and a seditious person against David and had followed Absalons part so it was evident if Ioab had had our Machivellists judges of his fact they would not onely have adjudged him innocent but for a remuneration they would have made him some great amendes with the goods of Abner and Amasa but the judgement of David which hee made at his death against his sisters sonne who had done him infinit good and great services shewed well how execrable and detestable Ioabs perfidie was to him And heereby princes have to learne to imitate this holy and wise king by whose mouth God teacheth them that they ought to observe their Faith and promise yea to their domage a doctrine fully contrary to the doctrine of this filthie and wicked Machiavell To conclude Perfidie is so detestable a thing both to God and the world that God never leaveth perfidious and Faith-breaking persons unpunished Oftentimes hee waits not to punish them in the other world but plagnes them in this yea often strangely and rigorously by exterminating as it were in a moment all their rase wives and children as the Poet Homer although a Panim hath wisely taught us saying Though straight the God of heaven lay not his punishment divine Homer Ili 4 At all times on the perfidious for his great periurie Yet neither hee himselfe nor child can skape his ire in fine No nor his wife but all destroyed by hand of his shall bee 22. Maxime Faith Clemencie and Liberalitie are vertues very domageable to a prince but it is good that of them hee have onely some similitude and likenesse THere is no necessitie saith our Florentine that a prince Cap. 18. Of the prince should bee garnished with all these vertues but it is requisit that hee have an appearance of them For I dare well say this that having and observing them in all places they will fall out mervelous domageable unto him And contrarie the maske and semblance of them is very profitable and indeede wee see each day by experience that a prince is often constrained to goe from his Faith and from all charitie humanitie and religion to conserve and defend his owne vvhich verely hee shall incontinent lose if exactly hee will observe all points which make men to bee esteemed vertuous MAchiavell sets heere downe three vertues Faith Clemencie and Liberalitie which hee reproveth in a prince as domageable and pernitious effectuallie to use them But whosoever can recover the maskes and similitudes of them as they are naturallie portraied hee shall doe well to adorne and decke himselfe with them as whores and courtizans doe which apparell themselves like women of honour to make men beleeve that they are honest and good women But I will not stand heere upon invectives to confute or cause men to detest such a filthie doctrine For what man is so brutall or ignorant that seeth not with his eie how Machiavell delights to mock play with the most excellent vertues amongst men As for the Faith which is and ought to bee amongest men for Machiavell speakes not of the Faith which is towards God wee have discoursed upon it in the former Maxime And as for Liberalitie wee shall speake upon it in another place Heere wee will speake of Clemencie and examine Machiavells doctrine whether this doctrine can bee domageable to a prince or no To shew that Clemencie cannot bee domageable but profitable to him unto Clemencie profitable honourable to such as are clement whom God imparteth that grace to bee indued therewith an argument drawne from the contrary concludes well and evidently for this purpose For if crueltie which is directly contrary to Clemencie bee pernitious and domageable to him that is infected therewith as wee have above shewed It followeth that clemencie and gentlenesse is both profitable and honourable to him that is indued and adorned therewith And indeede it is a vertue both agreeable and amiable with everie man which bringeth to whatsoever person it dwelleth in favour grace amitie honour and good will of every man to doe him pleasure All which are affections that can never bee idle nor without some operation
clemencie yea your own and let none die that be culpable let no Senator be punished nor noble blood bee shed let such as are banished be called againe and let their consiscated goods be yeelded unto them againe and would to God that I could revoke and call again to life such as are dead For there was never found that a prince committed a good vengeance of his owne greefe but it was alwayes thought too rigorous and sharpe though never so just I would have you then to pardon Cassius his children his sonne in law and his wife How should I not say pardon since they have done nothing let them live in all assurance and so know that they live under the empire of Marcus Let them enjoy their fathers patrimonie his gold his silver and other their goods that they may be rich assured free and let them be examples of our pietie and clemencie also of yours in the mouth of al the world Neither ô ye Conscript Fathers is it any great clemencie to pardon the children and wives of such as are banished and condemned since I demand and pray for pardon even of the culpable themselves whether they be Senators or knights that you may deliver them from death from confiscations from infamie from feare from envie from all injuries and that you will do this whilest we raigne that they which were slaine in the tumult for enterprising against us bee not defamed After this missive was read in the Senate house all the Senators with an honorable acclamation begun to crie The gods conserve Antonine the clement Antonine most pittifull Antonine most mercifull The gods perpetuate thy empire into thy race We wish all good to thy Wisedome to thy Clemencie to thy Doctrine to thy Nobilitie and to thy Innocencie This acclamation declareth well how amiable acceptable Clemencie makes a prince for there is nothing in the world that better gains the hearts of men nor that brings to a prince more reverence and love than this gentlenesse and lenitie of heart And indeed this good emperour by his Clemencie got thus much that after his death all Rome made a certaine account that he was ascended into heaven as to the place of his originall Because said they it was impossible that so good a soule endowed with so excellent vertues shold come from any other place than from heaven either returne againe to any other place The very name of Antonine was also so reverenced and loved of all the world from father to sonne in many yeares and generations after him that many emperours his successors caused themselves to bee called Antonines that the rather they might be beloved of the people though that name belonged not unto them nor were of the race or familie of Marcus Antonine as did Diadumenus the emperour Macrinus his sonne and his companion in the empire and as also did Bassianus and Geta Severus his children and Heliogabalus they were all surnamed Antonines But as this name appertained not unto them so held they nothing of the vertues of that good emperour with whose name they decked themselves Yet many reprehended in Marcus Antonine this his great Clemencie whereby he so easily pardoned such as had conspired against him saying That he provided evill for the safetie of himself and his children to suffer conspirators to live This was but a meanes to emboulden wicked people to enterprise conspiracies and amongst others the empresse Faustine his wife found it evill and of bad consequence that he punished not rigorously the partakers of Cassius whereupon he writ a very memorable letter to this effect Very religiously dost thou ô Faustine my deare companion to have care of the assurance of us and our children but whereas thou admonishest me to punish the complices of Avidius Cassius I do advertise thee that I had rather pardon them for nothing more recommendeth a Romane emperour amongst all nations than Clemencie That was it which placed Iulius Caesar in the number of the gods which hath consecrated Augustus which gave that most honourable title of Pius that is gentle and godly to thy father Finally Cassius himselfe had not beene slaine if my advice had been demanded in the slaying of him I pray thee therefore my deare companion be not afraid but hold thy selfe assured under the protection of the gods who no doubt will guard us because pietie and Clemencie are so pleasant and agreeable unto them For a resolution then certaine it is that nothing can so become or is so worthy of a prince to practise as Clemencie by pardoning such as offend him and even them which have committed some fault that may bee excused by some equitable reason and by mitigating the punishments of the law to such as upon custome commit no excesse and which otherwise are vertuous and valorous people and their offence not exceeding great and hainous for if otherwise a prince use his Clemencie without having these considerations before his eyes his fact will rather hold of crueltie and injustice than of clemencie but for a man to practise it with a counterpoise and equall ballance of equitie justice can be nothing interressed but rather shall bee reduced and applied to his true rule But assuredly as a princes Clemencie bringeth to his subjects the fruit of a good equitie so doth it also acquire unto himselfe this inestimable good to be beloved of every one as was Marcus Antonine the emperour The like happened to Vespasian Sueto Vesp Pas cap. 14. 15. in â—iâ—o cap. 1. 9. the emperour who was greatly beloved for his great Clemencie and gentlenesse for he was so gentle kind and clement that he easily forgot offences committed against him yea he would doe good to his enemies As when he maried and endowed very richly and honourably the daughter of Vitellius his enemie which warred upon him Moreover hee would never suffer that any were punished who did not well deserve it Likewise his sonne Titus was so good and clement that hee was never blamed for bearing evill will to any man often he had this word in his mouth That he had rather perish himselfe than lose any He was of the people surnamed The delights of mankind for his kindnesse and Clemencie In like sort Traian Adrian Pius Tacitus and many other Romane emperours were so beloved and reverenced of their subjects for their naturall humanitie and Clemencie that they are placed after their deaths in the rowle of their gods Moreover whensoever a prince shall be soft and clement there is no doubt but Clemencie cause of good works his subjects will imitate him therein for it is the peoples nature to conforme themselves unto their princes manners as the Proverbe saith The example of the princes life in all things commonly The subiect seekes to imitate with all his possibilitie But whensoever subjects doe imitate that most excellent vertue of Debonairetie and Clemencie certaine also it is that the whole bodie of the commonwealth
is much better composed more quiet and better governed For when men are given to that vertue they will withall addict themselves to Iustice Temperance Charitie Pietie and all other vertues which doe ordinarily accompanie Clemencie from whence cannot but arise the estate of a most perfect common-wealth Therefore we reade That in the time of the aforesaid emperour Marcus Antonine the world Capit. in Marcel was commonly well reformed in good manners for every man studied to imitate him in his vertues and especially in his moderation and gentlenes insomuch saith Capitolinus as he made many good men of such as were very bad before and such as were good he made them better This is also the cause why debonaire and gentle princes are alwaies so praised and esteemed not onely by men of their time but also by all Hystoriographers and all posteritie because they are ordinarily cause of many goods to all their subjects as by contrarie cruell princes are alwaies diffamed during their lives and after their deaths because of great mischeefes whereof they are cause authors and executors This is well painted out by Homer when he saith A wicked man full of fierce crueltie Behind his backe of all accurst shall be Odys lib. 19. Both during life and after death also Defame on him in every place shall go But contrarie the good and sincere man Will grave in mind his praise all that hee can How all men in each place set forth his praise To borders even of nations strange alwaies But I doe well know that hereupon the Machiavellists will say and replie That if a A princes Clemencie is not the cause of evill prince will be so facile to pardon and to practise Clemencie he will thereby incite men to take experience of that his vertue and by consequent provoke them to commit evill and excesse under the hope of impunitie hereunto I answere in a tripartite sort First I say That if a prince use Clemencie without derogating from his justice as above we have said he ought to doe there will follow no impunitie of a punishable crime nor by consequent any provocation to commit any excesse punishable for justice shall alwayes have her course although by Clemencie it may bee moderated Secondly suppose that the Clemencie of a prince might bee a meanes or occasion unto men to take more license to doe evill yet could not this take place but in persons of evill nature for men of good natures and disposition will rather be incited by a princes clemencie to be good like him by following his vertues than to bee wicked and ungodly thereby The prince also which shall bee endowed with Clemencie will love and follow other vertues and hate vices and by consequent will honour and advance vertuous people and hate and recoile from him such as are vicious This will cause the wicked which are enclined to vices to guard themselves from committing punishable faults for although they promise to themselves an easinesse to entreat pardon for their faults by the princes Clemencie yet can they not promise to themselves to be beloved and entertained of him but rather evill liked and unadvanced Thirdly although Clemencie cannot but draw with it some iniquitie and injustice as verily a prince cannot so evenly poise and weigh his affaires in the practise of Clemencie but there will be alwaies found within them some injustice yet that evill which followeth Clemencie is not so great that we ought therfore altogether to take away Clemencie from a prince from whence proceeds infinit goods profitable and commodious as well to the prince himselfe and his estate as to his subjects the whole commonwealth as may easily be collected out of that which hath been already said and shall be spoken hereafter The auncient Romanes doe confesse that their facilitie to pardon hath many Titus Livius lib. 1. Dec. 4. times brought warres upon them as also revoltments of their allies and confederats But what then Left they therefore alwayes to shew themselves prompt and voluntarie to use Clemencie towards such as offended them nay rather it was the vertue whereof they made greatest estimation and which they most practised knowing well that Clemencie was the true foundation of the greatnesse and estate of the commonwealth And this is it which the embassadour of the Romanes spake in an assembly of the Aetolians a people of Greece which were sollicited rather to allie themselves with king Philip of Macedonie against the Romanes than with them to renew their alliance Our auncestors saith he have often experimented and we also have seene that because ever wee have beene easie to pardon wee have occasioned many to experiment our Clemencie yet were wee never so discouraged as we would not at all times use equalitie to such as have broken their Faiths unto us and such as holily observed them as also reason wills that such as are loyall and faithfull be better beloved favoured and respected than others Have wee nor warred upon the Samnites by the space of seaventie yeeres and during this time how many times have they broken their Faiths how many times have they risen up against us yet have wee alwaies received them for our allies after by marriages have wee come to an affinitie with them and finally wee have received them for concitizens into the the towne of Rome The Capuans revoulted from us to allie themselves with Anniball but after wee had besieged them there were more in the towne which slew themselves pressed with an evill conscience than wee caused to dye after we had taken the towne by force and left them their towne whole and their goods Having also vanquished Anniball and the Carthaginians which had done us so many mischiefes and so often broken their Faiths yet left wee them in peace and liberty Briefely ô Aetolians said hee you should know and beleeve that the Romane people will alwaies have Clemencie in most singular recommendation and you shall doe farre more for your selves to replant your selves into our amitie and alliance unles you love better to perish with Phillip than to vanquish and prosper with the Romanes Vnto this remonstrance of the Romane embassadors the Aetolians States would deliver no answere but amongst themselves resolved secretly neither to be on the one side nor the other and that at the end of the warre they would joyne themselves to the strongest which in the end was their bane yet found they refuge in the Romanes Clemencie And verely Clemency is such a vertue as a prince may never dispoyle himselfe of although sometimes it seeme hee get harme thereby For Clemencie is not cause of any evill but onely the malice of men doth abuse it yet it doth not therefore follow that it is to bee rejected because a man may abuse it no more than to cast away all wine as a pernitious thing because therewith many are drunke But let us now come to the other effect of Clemencie Besides the
and that by nature violent things cannot endure as also that God sets in foot and exerciseth his justice upon them yet for all that is there not a better nor more expedient meane to establish a tyrannie than to place and plant a Partialitie amongst the people And this is the marke and end whereat Machiavell shooteth to establish a tyrannie as we have before shewed in many places It may be Machiavell learned this Maxime of Claudius Appius who was a man of courage and very tyrannicall towards the Romane people and if all other Senatours had been of his humor assuredly the Senate had usurped a tyrannie in the citie and changed the Aristocraticall estate into an Oligarchie but most commonly he remained alone in his opinion But wee must understand that at Rome there was tenne Tribunes of the people which were magistrates established to conserve the liberties and franchises of the meane people against the tyrannicall enterprises of the great men of the citie which had power to oppose themselves against all novelties as new lawes new burthens and imposts and after a firme opposition none might passe any further They also had power to propose and pursue the reception of new lawes as they knew it was requisit and profitable for all the people whereby it often came to passe that the Tribunes sought to make passe and to receive lawes to the great dislike of the Patricians and Senatours and to the utilitie of the meane people The abovesaid Claudius Appius alwaies gave the Senate advice to sow a Partialitie Titus Livius Dec. Dionis Halic lib. 9. amongst the said tenne Tribunes and by the practise of that same amongst them they might oppose themselves against laws which others would have to passe For said he by this meanes the Tribunes power shall ruinate it selfe without that we shall seeme any way to meddle therein and without that the people shall know that any of our action is in it This counsell of Appius was many times followed but in the end they found it did them no good For after the Tribunes were partialized one against another and that thereby nothing could passe nor be concluded by way of deliberation and accustomed suffrages then fell they to armes and seditions So that in the end the people were constrained by force to plucke from the Patricians that which they would not permit to bee handled and disputed by the accustomed way of good deliberation and conclusion by pluralitie of voices Thus oftentimes the Patricians were constrained to appease the people to grant them things which by reason they might have persuaded them to leave for it is the nature of men to desire alwayes that which is denied them as the Poet Horace sayth very well expressing that which happeneth ordinarily in the world That which denied is most commonly Desired is of us most ardently Moreover it often came to passe that the Patricians desired to make passe to the people by meanes of the Tribunes some law which seemed unto them profitable for the commonwealth but they could not come to their pretences because they had fashioned the Tribunes to a contradiction one of another And of those Tribunarie partialities arose at Rome great insurrections of the people and great murthers and effusion of blood as there did when the two brethren Graccht were slain And therefore that goodly counsell of Appius whereupon Machiavell hath made his Maxime was cause of great evils and calamities as surely it is easie to judge That all Partialities and divisions are cause of ruine and desolation amongst a people whereof we are also advertised by him who is truth it selfe our Lord Iesus Christ who saith That every kingdome divided in it selfe shall be desolate And if there be any Machiavelist so grosse headed as hee cannot comprehend this in his spirit yet may he see this by experience in Fraunce if he be not altogether blind and if hee be French he cannot but palpably touch it in the losse of his goods and in the death of his parents and friends unlesse he be a lazer or without sence For all the late ruines of Fraunce from whence have they proceeded but from the partialities of Papists and Hugenots which strangers sowed and maintained thereof It is solly to say that the diversitie of Religion was cause thereof For if men had handled all controversies of Religion by preachings disputes and conferences as at the beginning they did they had never falne into any Partialitie but since men came to armes and massacres and that by constraint they will force men to beleeve partialities sprung up which was the onely marke whereat all strangers shot that thereby they might plant in Fraunce the government of Machiavell The Chalcedonians were well advised not to beleeve the counsell of the Aetolians which resembled this doctrine of Machiavell and the counsell of Appius for when the warre was open betwixt the Romanes and the king Antiochus the Chalcedonians allies and friends of the Romanes caused to be assembled the States of their countries to resolve upon that which Antiochus made them understand That his onely comming into Greece was to deliver the countrey from the subjection and servitude of the Romanes and therefore required them to allie and conjoyne themselves with him The Aetolians which were very unconstant and mutable people with each wind as are the Machiavelists chanced to be in that assembly and persuaded the Chalcedonians that it was certaine that the king Antiochus had passed from Asia into Europe to deliver Greece from the Romanes servitude and that they thought it best that all the cities of Greece ought to allie and contract amitie with both the two parties the Antiochs and the Romanes For said they if wee allie our selves with both parties when the one would offend us the other will revenge us The Chalcedonians not finding good this counsell of the Aetolians knowing well that as none can serve two contrary masters so neither can they allie themselves with two nations enemies and that they which will entertaine two contrarie parties shall often fall into the malegrace of both And therefore Mixtion one of the principals amongst the Chalcedonians made to the Aetolians a very wise and notable answere Wee see not masters Aetolians say they that the Romanes have seized upon any towne in Greece neither that therein they have placed any Romane garison nor that any payeth them tribute neither know we any unto whome they have given any law or any thing changed their estate And therefore we do not acknowledge our selves entangled in any servitude but that we alwaies are in the same libertie which we have alwayes been Being therefore free we stand in no need of a deliverer and the comming of the king Antiochus into Greece cannot but hurt us who can performe no greater good unto us than to withdraw himselfe farre from our countrey And as for us we are resolved to receive none within our townes but by the authority of
and dependences of them with inhibitions to such as called themselves Curates and to all others not to trouble molest nor hinder them in any sort by themselves or by interposed persons upon paine to encurre the indignation and malegrace of S. Peter and of S. Paul and of perpetuall damnation without any hope of grace pardon or appeale Vpon this goodlie remonstrance containing so ponderous and considerable reasons Pope Alexander referred the matter to counsell and by the advice of his Cardinals granted to Mendicant Friers all that they demanded and caused with great expedition to goe out faire and ample bulls well leaded These good Mendicants friers as soone as they had got out their bulls came straigbt from Rome to Paris to cause them to bee received registred in the court of Parliament But before they presented them to the said court they advised and concluded that it was most expedient to have the people favourable and on their sides Therefore through all a whole lent they preached at Paris in all their covents the contents of their bulls saying That they onely were the true Curates pastors of soules by the ordinance creation of the Pope Gods lieutenant on earth of whose power none ought to doubt and exhorted the people so from henceforth to acknowledge them to the end to shunne the paines set downe in our holy Fathers bulls against all contradictions thereof And in their sermons they forgot not to make invectives against a companie of Curates which knew nothing but to take the revenewes of their cures without any deserving them neither spared they also to taxe detest their beastlie and too notorious ignorance But yet were they something deceived in their opinion for at Paris many cures were held and possessed by doctors Theologians of Sorbonne These doctors then fearing the consequent of these bulls of the Mendicants and that thereby they might be dispossessed of their cures incontinent mounted also into pulpits to counterpreach and blazon the said bulls and them which had obtained them Therefore they shewed to the people That from all times exceeding all memory of any man living Curats were in actuall and legimate possession to take and receive tenths oblations obventions and other fruits and revenewes affected and dependants to cures And the Mendicants contrary to ther proper profession of mendicitie were in possession season and injoyance of Povertie meane and base respectively without any trouble hinderance or contradiction in the knowledge and view of all the world And that therefore every one ought to be maintained guarded in his possession without any innovation that is all Curates of the goods and revenewes of their cures and Mendicants of their Povertie and begging and for proofe thereof they alledged many good places saying it was written That man must give to Caesar that which is Caesars and to God that which is Gods which is to say that wee must needes yeeld to every man that which belongeth unto him to Curates tenths oblations and to Mendicants their begging and almes They further said That it was reasonable that the name should answere to the thing and that since that Friers Iacobines Carmelites Augustines have chosen that name of Mendicants that really and in effect they ought to be beggers and not Curates A short time would not serve to set downe discover all the reasons and alligations which the Curates preached and blazed abroad against the Mendicants and the Mendicants against Curates For neither the one nor the other ever studied better sermons than they did in this contestation contention The Curates defended themselves by their long possession and by the ancient and moderne cannons which assigned them their charge of soules which compare them to Levites yea even in taking their tithes They alledged also Non alligabis c. that is Thou shalt not binde the throate of the Oxe which treadeth out the corne and Dignus est operarius c. that is The workeman is worthie of his sallarie or wages and many other like places which they had at their fingers ends And to confute those Mendicants bulls they said they were but new come wherwith they doe trouble the world and that before that they were borne the people was as well preached unto and instructed and Masses confessions and other divine services as well done and exercised as since they came into the world that they had nothing in them but bable and certaine subtilty wherewith they brought the people asleepe and persuaded them that they are learned although they know nothing and that they are full of hipocrisie and simulation making an outward profession of Povertie yet tending in effect to no other end but to have and heape up goods and revenewes They moreover said that it was a mortall sinne to give any thing to these Mendicants unles some few bribes and almesses because that they which gave them either silver or possessions or rents or revenues made them to be condemned in hell by causing them to breake their vow of Povertie and by making them breake their rules which they had sworne to observe And that they which are the cause that any other doth any evill and sinne are as culpable as hee that doth it The Mendicants to the contrary alledged their Apostolicall bulls and the Popes power and said It was an heresie heresie one of the greatest and most insupportable that could be in the world to say That the said bulls ought to have no place because that was as much as to revoke into doubt the high unmeasurable power of the great vicar of God and that they which preach against the said Apostolicall bulls should feele the smart of it They also tooke the places of scripture before alledged Non alligabis Et dignus est mercenarius c. saying that they formally made for them for they were the true oxen which treade out the graine the true workemen which travaile in divine service and that they say more Masses in a moneth in one of their covents than there is said in all the cures of Paris in a yeere and that for one man and one woman which those Curates confesse they confesse an hundreth and for one body which the Curates burie they burie an hundred and therefore for Curates to alledge these places they cut but themselves with their owne knives And as for their sermons said they these masters Curates will bee so proud to compare them with ours Doe not all men see that commonly they can doe nothing but at the Offertorie speake a few words which they have learned by heart from their master to get their offrings in Doe they not likewise see that every one mocks them because of their ignorance evill life and that commonly there is no good play that hath not a Curate in it But as for us you see how wee preach said they in pulpits our sermons are other manner of things than their proemes and