times losing Genoua by this meanes at last he resolved to govern it by Genuesi So in Milan he made Trivultio Governour wherein though he erred yet the errour was in the Individuall and not in the Species as putting the government into his hand that was Head of a Faction But if the Prince be resident in the Province though he be a stranger yet with better liking he will be tolerated because such commonly not only govern the places where they reside but all other places subject to them by Citizens of that Country where they reside The King of Spaine residing in Spaine governes all his subject Kingdomes by Spaniards a thing which not onely winnes love to the Prince but profit also to the Province To this may be added that those people shall alwaies receive more favours who are neere to the Fountaine from whence those favours come then they shall doe that are further off seeing as S. Thomas learnedly observes how much a thing is neerer to its beginning so much it partakes more of the effects of that beginning And for this cause Dionysius Areopagita saith that the Angels as being neerer to God than men are do therefore partake more of the divine goodnesse then men do I cannot omit to advertise that all the difficulties before spoken of are easily allayed after the first heats are once passed as oft as there is found a prudence and graciousnesse in the Prince which is indeed of marvellous great moment as was seen in the Romans who though they hated strangers and were resolved to have no stranger be their King yet when 〈◊〉 a stranger was propounded to them in regard of his eminent vertue they accepted of him Whereof Livy saith Romani veteres peregrinum Regem aspernabantur and a little after Audito nomine 〈◊〉 patres Romani quanquam inclinari opes ad Sabinos Rege inde sumpto videbantur tamen neque se quisquam nec factionis suae alium nec denique Patrum aut civium quenquam praeferre illi vero ausi ad 〈◊〉 omnes 〈◊〉 Pompilio Regnum deferendum decernunt Whereupon it is no marvell if at this day many Provinces and Cities whereof some have a Prince that lives farre off and some a Prince that is a stranger of customes and language different yet they all live in great contentment only thorough the just government of him that rules them I desire therfore that this discourse of mine may be received as of the times past my purpose being to search out the reasons of things have formerly happened and not expressely or tacitely to taxe any Prince Common-wealth or City nor so much as any particular person For above all things I abhorre slandering and specially of those to whom as superiours I owe Reverence Caeterum Augustus subsidia dominationi Claudium Marcellum sororis filium admodum adolescentem Pontificatu curuli Aedilitate Marcum Agrippam ignobilem loco bonum Militia victoriae socium geminatis consulatibus extulit mox defuncto Marcello generum sumpsit Tiberium Neronem Claudium Drusum privignos Imperatoriis nominibus auxit What meanes Princes may use with safety to set them in a way that are to succeed them in the government The eighteenth Discourse IT is plainly seen that Augustus to the end the Senatours nor any other should ever hope to reduce Rome to its ancient forme of government held this for a speciall Maxime of State to advance his neerest kinred and to set some one of them in the way for managing the Empire that so making him privy to all affaires making him known to the fouldiers making him beloved of the people and lastly making him favoured of the Senatours both he after his death might have his way made to come to the Empire and on the contrary no hope might be left for any to attempt any thing against the life of the Prince being propped up with so many Pillars And therefore Vt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insisteret he raysed Marcellus he advanced Marcus Agrippa and after them Tiberius Nero 〈◊〉 Drusus 〈◊〉 and Lucius sonnes of Agrippa and lastly would have Tiberius to adopt Germanicus and 〈◊〉 to be his successours And accordingly 〈◊〉 advanced to the Consulship and other honours 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 and after them Caius Caesar. Whereupon by the example of such great men this course perhaps may be thought worthy of imitation as well for securing ones selfe from danger as also for lessening in part the burthen of those great labours which so great a dignity brings with it so much the more as we have in Cornelius Tacitus a manifest example of Sejanus who by no other meanes was stopped in his course but onely by the number of successours Tiberius had ordained and this stopping as in conspiracies it useth was cause at last that the Prince discovered all his practices But because of the other side the desire of rule blinds the minds of the most inward and domesticke friends It seemes to be no safe course for a Prince whilst he lives himselfe to give any great authority to successours For Invidia Regni as Livy saith etiant inter Domesticos infida omnia atque infesta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 caused his sonne to be elected King but this served not his sonnes turne who thereupon would have killed his father So Absolon meant to do and when with safety he might have expected the Kingdome after the death of his old father David he would rather with wickednesse prevent it and run 〈◊〉 allong into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith 〈◊〉 upon another occasion tarda cum securitate praeniatura vel cum exitio properant And therefore Selim being assumed into part of the Empire by his father Bajaset could not stay to expect it with peace but sought by the death of his father to make himselfe sole Lord. And the like intention had Mustapha towards Sultan Solyman and thereby lost his life Finally this advancing of his successours had but ill lucke with Augustus for Tiberius as is commonly conceived caused him to be poysoned and with Tiberius it proved not much better who also towards the end of his life had the kindnesse of Caius Caesar to helpe him to his death For resolution it may be said that where a State is quiet accustomed to passe by succession in children legitimate there it is in no wise sit to take them into part of the Empire there being no cause with ones owne danger to take away hopes where there are none or to seeke for props where no part threatens ruine But on the other side when the State is in danger not accustomed to live under a Prince and is apt to rebellions in such case it may doe well to call him that is to succeed to be a cosort in the Empire To this purpose it seems the example tends which Tacitus relates of Augustus he caused Tiberius to be called Filius to shew he was his successor Collega Imperii to enter him in managing affaires Consors Tribunitiae
understanding and if that arise from many acts iterated this also is produced by many acts contemplated and produced it cannot be if there be not a knowledge of the things that have happened in the World and such knowledge cannot be had without reading of Histories seeing a yong man by reading of Histories can come to know more then a man of a hundred yeeres old because the one hath but feene and heard the accidents onely of his owne time the other hath read all the principall things that have beene done from the beginning of the World to the present time I conclude then that in those things wherein contemplation and action belong both to the same in those ordinarily a yong man cannot be fit but where contemplation is not joyned with action there he may be most fit And therefore one that hath read Histories ought not to be blamed if he take upon him to write of things belonging to action seeing affection cannot hinder him from speaking the truth nor want of experience from finding it out And this opinion of mine is no way differing from that of Aristotle who saith That yong men are no good hearers of morall Philosophy because action and contemplation in morall Philosophy are not distinct but joyned together and therefore said that he who contemplates well and operates otherwise cannot have the name of a good morallist so as Aristotle excludes not a yong man as one that cannot contemplate well but as one that cannot operate well by reason of impediment of affection and want of habit As to that other objection that yong men should alwaies stand to heare and learne of others I suppose I shall be excused by any that have observed in Plato that they sufficiently reape profit by speaking who while in speaking they shew their ignorance give occasion to others to correct them and this also is my desire so as the correction come from the hand of Socrates Besides I am not without hope of commendation for my judgement if not in the forme at least in the matter if not in the composition at least in the choyce Rather indeed seeing an ill-favoured Image is yet well valued if wrought in a Diamond I am out of doubt that these my Discourses shall be valued by reason of the Authour from whom I take their matter Cornelius Tacitus an Authour so famous and so highly esteemed through all the World and especially in these our times and the matter such that I am enforced to seeke out the causes whereof in truth there may be found many part taken from the things he relates part from the manner of his relating them The things he relates are actions of Princes and from thence the first benefit we take is that we learne many profitable things as living in an age where all the World is governed Princes Where in other times as when in Italy there were many Common-wealths we see that expert Politicians laying aside Tacitus gave themselves to write Discourses upon Livy who will alwaies be more esteemed of by men that live in a Common-wealth as he that shewing the waies how Rome came to be a free State and how it grew great will be a meanes of learning many excellent instructions But now that we are under Princes there is no doubt but the greatest content will be to learne things of this nature as the conditions of Princes the cunning of Courtiers and such like All this Tacitus expresseth where he makes comparison betweene the Histories of others and his Annals Igitur ut olim plebe valida vel cum Patres pollerent noscenda vulgi natura quibus modis temperanter haberetur senatusque optimatum ingenia qui maxime perdidicerant callidi temporum sapientes credebantur sic converso statu neque alia rerum quam si unus imperitet haec conquiri tradique in rem fuerit quia pauci prudentia honesta ab deterioribus utilia ab noxiis discernunt plures aliorum eventis docentur Secondly the continuall slaughters of principall Senatours the fall of Courtiers the violent deaths of Princes and such like are things from which the first delight we can take is this to know how much we are bound to our Lord God that we are borne in so much better times secure of our lives of our goods and honours This delight Cornelius Tacitus had when considering with himselfe the difference that was betweene the times of those Emperours of whom he writ and the times of Trajan and Nâ—…rya he said Rara temporum faelicitate ubi sentire quae velis quae sentias dicere licet Another is that finding their tragicall accidents they worke in us the like effect as a Tragoedy is wont to doe which is to purge as one cals it the affections of terrour and compassion as it happens in a souldier who being used to see wounded and dead men is never moved by any accident either to pity or affrighting He therefore that shall read in Tacitus so many deaths banishments imprisonments and other cruelties will never for every light occasion be either moved with terrour or with compassion Or else as others conceive these accidents moving us to terrour or pity will purge our minds from such passions as for example when we read that Nero through lust and cruelty came to a miserable end this by terrifying us will make us resolve to the end we may not incurre the like misery to keepe our selves from the like qualities And this effect Tacitus made account his Annals would worke in us as he writes Exequi sententias haud institui nisi insignes per honestem aut notabili dedecore quod praecipuum munus Annalium reor ne virtuces sileantur ut quae pravis dictis factisque ex posteritate infamia metus sit To these may be added that speaking of bad Princes he can doe no lesse then alwaies to blame them a thing which as in another plaee I shall shew not onely makes the Writer be held for truer but makes the Readers pleasure be the greater as taking it for a praise to himselfe to be free from those vices which he sees blamed in others In regard whereof Tacitus saith Obtrectatio livor pronis auribus accipiuntur And thus much concerning the pleasure that is taken from the things he relates Then concerning the pleasure that is taken from his manner of writing it consists first in his Laconick stile which is so much more pleasing then the Asiatick as cleane Wine is then that which is mingled with water Secondly it gives great satisfaction not to loose time in reading many lines with little instruction Thirdly his very obscurity is pleasing to whosoever by labouring about it findes out the true meaning for then he counts it an issue of his own braine and taking occasion from those sentences to goe further then the thing he reads and that without being deceived he takes the like pleasure as men are wont to take
taken from the difficulty to finde many in the first founding of a City that are of ability and fit to governe for which reason perhaps Aristotle saith Rex ab Initio repertus est quia difficile erat viros plures excellenti virtute reperiri And so much the more the City being then as Lucius Florus saith in her childhood and consequently wanton and given to pleasures and therefore had need of such a schoolmaster as a King is to keep them in awe whom liberty else would soone corrupt And to this purpose it is that Livie speaks and that of the liberty of Rome Quid enim futuâ—…m fuit si illa Pastoriâ—…m convenarumque plebs transfuga ex suis populis sub tutela Inviolati Templi aut libertateni aut certam impunitatem adepta soluta Regio metu agitare caepta esset Tribunitiis procellis No man therefore ought to marvell that our Lord God in the time of the Mosaicall Law never gave to the Hebrews a Common-wealth as long as either immediately by himselfe or else by the meanes of Kings or Judges he governed them in feare under severe lawes where of when men came to be more perfect he abated the rigour as Saint Austin excellently expresseth saying Deus Hebraeis diversa pro qualitate temporis imposuit Praecepta erant enim sub lege quast puert sub Pedguogo incluse and therefore Saint Paul saith Sub lege custodiebamur in Christo nutriens nos tanquam parvulos sub rigore Diseiplina The last reason is because a City in its Beginning hath need of Lawes which may better be given by one alone then by a multitude where of Aristotle gives the reason Quia Vnum nancisci paucos facilius est quam â—…ltos qui recfe sentiant possint leges condere jus constituere Now having shewed that not without just cause the City of Rome was in its beginning governed by Romulus it will not be amisse to examine the scituation of the City and therein to shew the Founders wisdome in the building it First therefore the scite of a City according to Aristotle ought neither to be too remote from the sea nor yet too neer it to the end that by too much remotenes it be not deprived of many commodities which the Sea is wont to bring in and by too great neernesse it be not exposed to the danger of suddaine assaults Secondly It ought to be in a good aire as the thing which of all other can most annoy us being continually not onely about us but taken into us Thirdly it ought to be in a place of plenty without which there can never accrew any greatnesse to a City Fourthly it ought to be in a place easie for carriage and bringing in of commodities Fiftly and lastly it ought to be in a place of advantage for assaulting its neighbours and difficult it selfe to be assaulted Now that Rome was scituated according to these rules of Aristotle is related by Livie where he saith Non sine causa Dii hominesque hunc urbi condendae locum elegerant saluberrimos colles here he shewes the goodnesse of the ayre Flumen optimum quo ex Mediterraneis locis fruges advehantur Here he shewes the facility of cariage either by Land or Water Mare vicinum ad commoditates nec expositum nimia propinquitate ad pericula classium externarum Nationum Here he shewes a neerenesse to the sea in respect of profit and a remotenesse in respect of danger Italiae Medium ad Incrementuan urbis natum unice Here he shewes the difficulty for being assaulted by people farre off being in the midst of Italy and by people neere hand by reason of its own strength We may therefore conclude that a City built to grow great cannot possibly have a more excellent scituation according to Aristotle then Rome had Libertatem Lucius Brutus Instituit How the City of Rome came from being governed by Kings to be a free State and what the difference is betweene a beginning and a cause The second Discourse HAving shewed the causes for which the City of Rome was in her first beginning governed by Kings I conceave it to be no lesse necessary to make inquiry how it hapned that leaving that kind of government it came under Brutus to be a free State and seeing of the causes that may be alledged setting them aside that are supernaturall some are Philosophicall and some Politicall these consisting in the things done those in the order of number and influences of the Heavens I say first speaking as a Politician There are many of opinion that this alteration of government in Rome was caused by the ravishing of Lucretia by Sextus Tarquinius which opinion Aristotle seemes not much to decline while speaking of the causes by which Monarchies and States come to be changed he omits not to name for one the lust and lasciviousnesse of the Prince which as he shewes by many examples have been the cause of change in all kinds of Commonwealths and Monarchies Others may say that this change of government in Rome proceeded from this that Tarquinius had taken away all authority from the Senators and had by devises procured the utter abolishing of the Senate which also was the cause that the Monarchy of Rome passed afterwards from the house of the Caesars into that of Galba The cause likewise of the change in Syracusa from a Monarchy to a popular State when Hieronymus not following the steps of his grandfather Hieron devested the Senate of all authority and was therefore by conspiratours most miserably slaine For as the stomacke which is the seat of naturall heat as long as it hath in it any little nourishment leaves the body in peace and quiet but if it be altogether without it then drawes nourishment from the head and thereby oftentimes destroyes the body so if the Senate have but some little authority left it it then rests satisfied and contented but if it be wholly deprived of all authority it then turnes head upon their head and fals upon the Prince and oftentimes becomes the ruine of the City And even this is one reason that Octavius Augustus after the death of Caesar was able to continue in his Empire because he left to the Senate part of that authority which Caesar had before abolished at least had plotted to abolish By the examples hitherto brought I conceave it may be gathered that these were the true Politicall causes why the City of Rome changed its regall government to a free State but because to say but this would be to confound beginnings with causes it is necessary to expatiate a little that so returning backe I may leave no man uncapable of this truth We must therfore know that between a beginning and a cause there is great difference not speaking of them either Philosophically or Theologically although in each of them it might easily be shewed In Theologie because the Father is the beginning of the Sonne and
Lucretia Now if this injury onely had beene the motive to Brutus certainly then as the injury came from a particular person so the revenge should rather have been taken upon that particular person then upon the power Regall and yet we see the contrary happened for Brutus in the oath which he caused his confederates to take made this one part not to suffer any to reigne not onely not the Tarquines but not any other person whatsoever Nec illos nec alium quemquam regnare Romae passurum A manifest argument that he had more desire to abrogate the regall Power then to vindicate the adultery So much more as the conspirators addressed themselves against the dignity rather then against the life of the offender The cause then of this alteration in the state of Rome was the Citizens spirits being grown to such perfection that they could no longer tolerate Kings and this no sooner then they were arrived at such perfection In signe whereof I consider amongst so many Kings as Rome had how onely Tully Ostillus the predecessor of Tarquinius superbus had the intention to make it a free state which certainly had taken effect if his death had not prevented it Ac tam moderatum Imperium tamen quia Vnius esset deponere eum in animo habuisse ni scelus liberandae patriae consilia agitanti interemisset Which because we cannot ascribe to the onely goodnesse of Tullus seeing Numa Pompilius a better man perhaps then he never had any such thought we must needs say that Numa seeing the Citizens unfit for a republicke set them in a way to that perfection to which arrived under Tullus It should be an easie matter for such Citizens to conserve that liberty which under a good Prince they had received And here experience shewes that which Aristotle speaking naturally knew well in matters politicke for assigning the cause why Power regall changeth oftentimes to a free State he alledgeth no other reason but the passing from imperfection to perfection saying thus Sed cum postea contingeret ut plures pari virtute reperirentur non amplius tolerarunt Regem sed commune quiddam quaerentes respublicas constituêre Moreover that the ordinances of Romulus had not been sufficient if with it there had not concurred a perfection in the Citizens will be easily conceived if we consider the case of Moses who was blamed by Jethro for ruling himselfe alone I doe not beleeve it was for that he did not judge well or for that he tooke too great paines but rather for that he shewed not to be more intentive to strengthen his owne power then to prepare for others the goodway of which this was the chiefe and first foundation Vt non aliter ratio constet quam si uni reddatur And therefore he appointed them a Senate which by their authority might serve to set the people in a way to know their owne good shewing them the way with which being once acquainted he might leave them afterward to walk in it of themselves in such sort that Moses no lesse then Romulus directed the Israelites the way to liberty but they never attaining to know the way as never comming I speake not in matters of Religion to that perfection to which the Romans attained as these could not endure Kings so those had no will to live in liberty for although they met with the same cause extrinsecall yet they had not the same cause intrinsecall which Moses well knew when perceiving his death to approach he made his prayer to God that he would provide them a leader to the end that as sheep not knowing the way if it be not shewed them by a shepheard they might be by him directed Provideat Dominus Deus spirituum omnis carnis hominem qui sit super multitudinem hanc ut possit exire intrare ante â—…os vel introducere ne sint sicut oves sine ductore And he that will more plainly see their imperfection let him confider that in the long absence of Moyses they never demanded any other leader there being none amongst them sit to governe them but onely desired that Aaron would make some Gods Facnobis Deos qui nos pracedant Whereupon for all the many beginnings the Israelites had from which they might have taken occasion to erect a Commonwealth yet they never did it because as causes be not sufficient if with them there concurre not beginnings so beginnings aâ—…e of no force if they come not accompanied with causes and causes availenot neither if they be not good The death of Caesar was a beginning from which a Common wealth might have been erected but because it was grounded upon a cause that was not politicall proceeding rather from the hatred and spleene against the Prince then upon any mature judgement or judicious counsaile it was not therefore sit to bring them to a be free State So when the Senatours killed Romulus they had by that a beginning of liberty but it hapning upon the same occasion as that of Caesar they hardly had so much braine to agree among themselves to choose a King So as when there concurre not causes beginnings oftentimes are left unpursued that I cannot but say if Lucretia had been â—…avished by Romulus yet Rome for all that had never gotten liberty It behooves therefore to take great heed when there be occasions first not to give the least cause of a beginning and therefore the Ifraâ—… being moved to demand a King upon a very great occasion namely their unfitnesse to suffer liberty they tooke for a beginning a most weake cause namely the old age of Samuel and yet for all he could doe in shewing them the burtheus of tyranny telling them as a Prophet that instead of a King they should have a tyrant he could never perswade them to leave demanding a King And therefore David after his great sinne knowing he had given the people great cause to rebell avoyded all occasions from which they might take never so weake a beginning and for this cause forbare to punish Joab though provoked to it by just indignation and left the revenge of it to his successor Whereupon we may beleeve that Tarquinius Superbus and his sonne shewed little discretion seeing so many worthy men desirous of liberty that they would give them occasion of beginning it The one by taking away all authority from the Senat and other and that more hainously by ravishing Lucretia considering that the insolency of the sonnes makes alwaies the Prince himselfe odious as Guicciardine relates of John Bentivoglio And hereof we have a like example in the holy Scripture of Hemor Hevaeus Prince of the Sichemites who lost his Kingdome thorough the ravishment his sonne Sichem committed upon Dyna the daughter of Jacob and Lea whereof the holy text in Genesis saith Egressa est autem Dyna filia Leae ut videret mulieres regionis illius quam cum vidisset Sichem filius Hemor Hevaei Princeps
fuerit abstergit Sic in herbarum superficie nocturni roris humor aspergitur sed diurm Luminis subito calore siccatur Sic spumosae aquarum bullae inchoantibus fluviis excitatae ab intimis certatim prodeunt sed eo celerius diruptae depereunt quo inflatae citius extenduntur Cumque 〈◊〉 ut appareant Crescendo peragunt ne subsistant I cannot bring a better example in conformity to this Doctrin then of Venice which was never in any great danger but when it was at the greatest as drawing then neere to the bound of Maximum quod Non whereupon if it had not beene for the strength of its scituation as Historians say assisted with the great Prudence of the Senatours and with the great valour of the Citizens in defending Padua It had utterly come to ruine And therefore Augustus seeing Non aliud Discordantis patriae remedium quam ut ab uno regeretur made himselfe Emperour wherein notwithstanding Christians must not imitate him whose duty it is to set Religion before Country and life and Common-wealth and all rather suffering death then be drawne to commit any wickednesse and rather then imitate Augustus follow the course of Marcus Aurelius who though he saw his Country upon the point of loosing and himselfe also thorough the wickednesse of his Compagnion yet he tooke all things patiently and would not put him to death though it was in his power to doe it For Conclusion I say that a Prince ought not to governe his Country by force although force bee sometimes necessary for correcting of Errours as Sallust teacheth where he saith Nam Vi quidem Regere patriam aut Parentes quamquam possis delicta corrigas Importunum tamen est Comparatione Deterrima sibi Gloriam quaesivisse That to Elect a wicked successour thereby to get glory to himselfe is a beastly Course The seven and thirtieth Discourse BY that which Tacitus and Dio relate many conceive that Augustus made choice of Tiberius whom he knew to be a proud and cruell man to be his successour to the end that the ill conditions of Tiberius so much differing from his owne might turne to his Glory I cannot indeed deny but that a worse successour is apt enough to make a lesse evill Predecessour be thought a good one which Galba well knowing speaking of Piso said Nero a pessimo quoque desiderabitur Mihi ac tibi providendum est ne etiam a bonis desideretur He seeing that if a wicked Prince should come after Nero his errours would be converted to the others Glory and this is so true that the holy Spirit in the mouth of Ezechiel said that the wickednesse of the Hebrewes before the comming of our saviour made the people of Sodome and Samaria to seeme Just which could not certainly happen but long of the Comparison Vivo ego dicit Dominus Deus these are the words of Ezechiel quia non fecit Sodoma soror tua ipsa filiae ejus sicut 〈◊〉 tu filiae tuae and a litle after Et Samaria Dimidium peocatorum tuorum non 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sceleribus tuis Iustificasti sorores tuas in omnibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quas operata es Ergo tu 〈◊〉 porta confusionem tuam quae vicisti sorores 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agens ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sunt a te And he that would see a passage more like to that of Tacitus let him reade those words in Jeremy where he saith Iustificavit animam suam aversatrix Jsrael 〈◊〉 praevaricatricis Iudae But yet this way of acquiring Glory attributed here to Augustus is not to be imitated not only of Christians but not so much as of impious Barbarians seeing there are better and directer wayes I meane not to governe well but speake onely of a successour because if they have children to succeed them in the Kingdome there will Glory enough accrew to the father if he give them good education whereby they may come to prove good This Salomon affirmes in his Proverbs where he saith Filius sapiens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as others read it Filius sapiens Gloria patris that is a wise sonne is the honour and Glory of his Father and keepes him alive after he is dead and therefore it is said in Ecolesiasticus Mortuus est pater ejus 〈◊〉 non est mortuus 〈◊〉 enim reliquit sibi post se and therefore Princes need not desire their successours should be worse then themselves seeing they may hope for more glory by them if they shall be better and therefore David tooke great Joy to heare that Salomon was like to be greater then himselfe had ever beene Sed Salomon sedet super Solium Regni Jngressi servi ejus benedixerunt Domino nostro Regi David dicentes Amplificet Deus Nomen 〈◊〉 super 〈◊〉 magnificet Thronum ejus super thronum tuum rather indeed a wicked suecessour is a Prejudice to a good Prince Therefore writers say that Marcus Aurelius had dyed a happy man if he have not left Commodus his successour for this cause many of the Antients as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were of opinion that Children living might make their dead fathers unhappy in such sort that he who living was happy yet could not be called happy if after his death hee had ill 〈◊〉 and were unfortunate in his children To give therefore his successours good education is a matter of much honour to Princes and in case they prove not to have those vertues which are required in a Prince hee must not suffer Paternall piety to prevaile with him but wholly abandon and utterly dis inherit them of the royall dignity though as Aristotle saith it be hard for a father to doe This Plato expressed in his Common-weath who ordained that they should be Princes who in their Nativity had Gold mingled with Earth meaning that if their Sonnes had together with Earth either Iron or brasse in them they should not then be admitted to the Kingdome Qua propter ipsis Principibus Primo maxime Deus praecepit ut nullius rei majorem curam custodiamque 〈◊〉 quam natorum ut dignoscant quid ex quatuor his potissimum illorum animis sit immixtum si quis ex ipsis nascatur 〈◊〉 aut serreus nullo pacto misereantur sed honorem illi naturae convenientem tribuentes interopifices vel agricolas mittant and therefore Moyses was contented that our Lord God should chuse Iosuah of another Tribe to be his successour rather then his owne Sonne In consideration whereof Saint Hierome saith Moises amicus Dei cui 〈◊〉 ad faciem 〈◊〉 loquutus est potuit utique successores Principatus filios suos facere Posteris propriam relinquere dignitatem sed extraneus de alia Tribueligitur Iesus ut sciremus Principatum in populos non sanguini deferendum esse sed 〈◊〉 and this is the true way for acquiring of Glory so much more as it is more repugnant to Naturall affection And if
transfugit Thirdly it may happen by his being dead to whom he adhered and then though the case may seeme more difficult yet it is more easie at least if he can make it appeare that he adhered to the other more for love to him then for any hate to the contrary side and in such case he may speak boldly and the more boldly the better Herod the great had followed the fortune of Antonius untill his death not for any hate he bore to Augustus whom he never knew but for the love he bore to Marke Antony from whom he had received benefits after whose death he feared not to present himselfe before Augustus to whom he spake with a gravity becomming a King and by this meanes was received of Augustus into a firme league of friendship the reason of this is because the cause of their enmity being ceased which was the love to the person now dead and the profit growing by him they will thinke to have them hereafter their true friends as conceiving they vvill be the same to them as they vvere to the other before vvhereupon vve reade in Tacitus that Otho seeing hovv faithfull Celsus had been to his enemy Galba took him out of the hands of the Souldiers by putting him in prison and then gave him a charge and held him as his speciall friend and Celsus served him as faithfully as he had served Galba Celsus constanter servatae erga Galbam fidei crimen confessus exemplum ultro imputavit nec Otho quasi ignosceret sed ne hostis metum reconciliationis adhiberet statim intra intimos amicos habuit mox bello inter duces dilegit manfitque Celso velut fataliter etiam pro Othone fides integra infoelix Such then as these shall not need to make any excuses but onely shew the love they bore and the faithfulnesse they used towards their friends now dead and that they did nothing for any hatred they bore to this side but for the love they bore to the other out of this respect I conceive it was that Caesar pardoned all those that had borne Armes against him saying that they who had taken part with Pompey out of friendshiphaddone him no wrong to these things may be added the force that a free confessing hath not onely in this case but in all other to procure ones pardon and the Reason is because one cannot voluntarily confesse an errour but he must withall at the same time commend and praise him to whom he confesseth it seeing no man would willingly confesse an errour if he did not hope it would be pardoned and out of such hope he grows confident and fals to praising the Prince for his clemency things of great force to move one to pardon whereupon not without mystery the word Confiteor in the holy Text signifies not onely to confesse but also to praise and we see that our Lord Christ who being without sin needed not to make Confession to his Eternall Father yet notwithstanding he said Confiteor tibi Domine coeli terrae which meanes nothing as Saint Austin and all the Fathers expound it but I praise thee Eternall Father Lord of Heaven and Earth We may justly say then that this word Confiteor signifies as well To praise as to confesse seeing in confessing one is praised And thus much for Adherents Now concerning a Principall if he have been alwayes an Enemy either it is in time of war or in time of peace if in war either he is superior or inferior if superior either he knows he is able to hold out or else he doubts he is like to go down if he know he be able to hold out he ought not then to seek after amity and therefore the Romans meaning to destroy Carthage refused peace but if he doubt himselfe and finde difficulties in it he shall then do well to accept of peace if it be required This made Lutatius the Consul as Polybius relates after he had overcome the Carthaginians by sea not to refuse peace when it was offered him by Amilcar because he found there were many difficulties yet remaining before he could get an absolute victory rather if he stand in doubt he shall come to be inferiour he shall then do well not onely to accept of peace if it be required but to require it himselfe it is true it is an hard matter to perswade men against reputation whereupon we see it succeeded not well with Hanno when after the defeat the Romans had at Cannae he counselled the Carthaginians to demand peace whose counsell was rejected not so much for his being of a contrary faction to that of Hannibals as for the reputation I cannot therefore but account the Senate of Venice to be full of men of great wisdom who after the victory the Christians had gotten in a naval battell yet taking into consideration the depth of things they made a peace with the Turke accounting it lesse evill for the conservation of their State to live in peace than to be turmoiled with war But if such a one be inferiour either he knowes he is like to be inferiour still or else he is in hope to get the better if thus not onely he ought not to seek for peace but not to accept it if it be offered Perseus having overcome the Romans in battail by the advice of his friends demanded peace but the Consul denied it So Pyrrhus after he had won the first battail demanded peace and was denied it But if he be inferiour and hath no hope to get the better he shall do well not to stay to the last seeing as long as he hath any strength left he may demand peace with the more boldnesse and make the better conditions so Hannibal before his last battail demanded peace of Scipio with great majesty where if a man stay till he be at the last cast he must come as a suppliant and aske with submission and be fain to take what conditions he can get and it is great foolery to go to aske pardon with boasting of his merits and standing upontermes And this our Lord Christ expressed in the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican where the Publican humbly asking pardon for his sinnes vvas heard and the Pharisee not because instead of humbling himselfe he boasted of himselfe saying Deus gratias ago tibi quia non sum ficut caeteri hominum raptores injusti adulteri velut etiam hic Publicanus jejuno bis in sabbato decimas do omnium quae possideo The reason of this saying is because when one confesseth his errours he makes himselfe judge and consequently him his advocate to whom he confesseth vvhere he that speakes vvith insolence makes himselfe his ovvn advocate and consequently him judge to vvhom he speakes vvhereupon hovv much it is better for a delinquent to make him he hath offended to be his advocate than his judge so much it is better to aske pardon with humility than with boasting and
Politicks where teaching the true way that a Prince ought to take for maintaining him in his State he perswades this specially not to keep the people in ease and gives us for example the Kings of Aegypt who to the end their people should not stand idle caused so many Pyramides and Mausoleums to be built as Pisistratus the tyrant built the Olympus and Polycrates a thousand Fabricks about Samos Haec enim omnia saith Aristotle fuerunt instituta ad otium quietem populorum tollendam ut illi quotidianis molostiis occupati vacare non possent ad consilia contra tyrannos ineunda And there is reason for it as is said in Ecclesiasticus Cibaria Virga Onus Asino Panis Disciplina opus servo operatur in disciplina quaerit libertatem jugum illorum curvat collum servum inclinant operationes assiduae servo malevolo tortura compedes mitte illum in operationem ne vacet multam enim malitiam docuit otiositas And so much more might Augustus be blamed for it seeing as we have shewed before he maintained the people in plenty and now if to plenty be added case it cannot choose but be the ruine of any City whatsoever Haec fuit iniquitas Sodomae saith Ezechiel Abundantia panis otii And againe because this ease assigned by Tacitus came presently after a warre his fault may be the more there being a passage of Aristotle in his Politicks where he saith That the Lacedemonians passing from warre to ease incurred great danger Thirdly there is a place in Livy also that crosseth this of Tacitus where he saith that Tarquinius Priscus after his fight with the Latines returning to Rome in peace kept the people in continuall and laborious exercises of which Livy saith Majore inde animo Pacis opera inchoata 〈◊〉 quanta mole gesserat bell a ut non quietior populus domi esset quam militiae fuisset To reconcile then these foure Texts it must be shewed that neither of them is repugnant to another but that all of them agree together First I distinguish of ease which as to our purpose is of two kinds ease which is a desisting from any action at all and ease which is contrary to warre because warre being a violent action those souldiers which are in peace although they have other exercises yet are said to be at ease seeing desisting from warre they desist from that violent action which is proper to them In this sense Aristotle once tooke ease where speaking of the Lacedaemonians he saith Splendorem enim veluti ferrum per pacem amittunt causa hujus est legis positor qui non ita instituit ut in otio stare possint By meanes of this distinction this place of Tacitus is reconoiled with the first place out of Aristotle seeing 〈◊〉 by ease here meanes not an ease contrary to all action for Augustus both with sports and playes and buildings held the people in continuall worke insomuch that he could boast he had made Rome a City of Marble which he found but of Bricke but he means it of that ease which is contrary to warre And this is plainely seene because having said before Cuncta discordiis civilibus sessa he presently comes in with this very word Cunctos dulcedine otii pellexit Thus Aristotle agrees with him exceeding well in that Text where he likes the people should be held in action but not in warre and indeed in such actions as debase men and are worse then ease So dealt Pharao with the Israelites putting them to make Bricke and other most base workes Whereupon it is said in Exodus Praeposuit iâ—…aque eis Magistros operum ut affligerent eos operibus and a little after Oderant filios Israel Aegyptii assligebant cos invidentes eis atque ad amaritudinem perducebant vitam eorum operibus duris luti lateris omnique famulatu But to this resolution that place of Livy before cited is most contrary wherespeaking of Tarquinius Priscus he shews that returning from the wars he held the people in hard and cruell labours For answer whereunto we must distinguish that the Princes are either in termes of getting more or else but of keeping that they have already gotten if to get more then it is necessary to hold the people in hard labours to the end they may not lose courage and be imbased in their spirits And therefore no marvell that Tarquinius Priscus teacheth us to hold the people in hard labours seeing the Romans at that time had no other end but to enlarge their Empire But if the Prince have no ayme at augmentation by new acquests and stands not so much in feare of externall enemies as of friends at home he then ought to let the people enjoy a negotious ease of buildings and playes and such like things And this made Augustus take this course because he aymed not at all at any amplifying of his Empire as from many places in Tacitus may be gathered and particularly from that place where in the first of his Annals he saith Bellum ea tempestate nulnum nist adversus Germanos abolendae potius injuriae ob 〈◊〉 cum Prisco Varo exercitum quam cupidine proferendi Imperii And in another place where he saith Consilium coercendi intra terminos Imperium whereby we see he was minded rather to restraine then to enlarge the Empire Lastly it remaines to reconcile that other place of Aristotle in the second of his Politicks where by the example of the Lacedemonians he shewes that after warre to be left to live at ease is a dangerous thing For Resolution whereof I say that the passing from warre to ease is then dangerous when men returne from a short warre and in which they have had the better because they that get victories by reason of the pride which victory brings with it are apt in Cities to raise commotions So it fell out amongst the Lacedemonians and so a thousand times it hath been like to fall out amongst the Romans whereof in the whole first decad of Livy we may see examples But when men come from a warre bloody and long then they love and are glad of peace Whereupon in our case the Romans comming from an infinity of civill warres in which to winne was no better than to lose and being now weary as is gathered by the words Cuncta discordiis civilibus fessa they became not onely desirous but apt also to tollerate ease It is now sufficiently proved that Tacitus or to say better Augustus is no way discordant either from the precepts of Aristotle or from the examples of Livy but that with great judgment he undeavoured to win every one with ease Lastly it is necessary to reconcile Tacitus with himselfe who in this place praiseth ease and yet afterward examining the causes of the tumults in Germany he saith Habebantur per otium as though ease were the cause of those rebellions To which
I briefly say there is great difference betweene the ease that is in a City and the ease that is of souldiers in warre because the end of a City is to live in peace whereof the ease spoken of before is a companion but the chiefe end of souldiers at the warres is to fight to which ease is contrary and an enemy and so the souldier with ease and the Citizen by warre are deprived of their ends and consequently in short time runne into danger Neque Provinciae illum rerum statum abnuebant suspecto Senatus Populique Imperio ob certamina Potentium avaritiam Magistratuum invalido legum auxilio quae vi ambitu postremo pecunia turbabantur That Cities subject to another City better like the government of a King than of a Commonwealth and that every City would gladly have their Lord to live amongst them The seventeenth Discourse COrnelius Tacitus in these words makes us know that the Provinces subject to the people of Rome liked better the government of a King than of a Commonwealth as it happens generally to all Cities that are subject to another So Guicciardine relates of Cremona that it liked better to be under the King of France than to be governed by the Common-wealth of Venice And hereof we have a manifest example in Pisa which being sold by Gabriel Maria Visconte to the Common-wealth of Florence there was scarce one Citizen that would tarry in it But more than in any other we may see the truth of this in the Lycians who having tried what it was to live under a King and under a Common-wealth they called the servitude of that in comparison of this liberty Neque miserabilis legatio Lyctorum qui crudelitatem Rhodiorum quibus ab Lucio Cornelio attributi erant quaerebantur fuisse sub ditione 〈◊〉 eam Regiam servitutem collatam cum praesenti statu pnaeelaram libertatem visam Non publico tantum se 〈◊〉 imperio sed singulos injustum pati servitium Of these points we will speake first in particular of Rome then in generall give the reasons Lastly we will shew that every City would we glad to be under a particular Prince and one that should dwell amongst them Concerning the first all those changes of State which come from a worse must needs be welcome from whence it is that after the expulsion of the Tarquins liberty was so pleasing Et ut laetior esset saith Livy proximi Regis superbia fecit That in our case the Commonwealth was corrupted even to the worst degree is sufficiently expressed by Tacitus in the foresaid words First by reason of the discord of the great ones one of which factions there was a necessity to follow and that overcome all then remained at the discretion of the other Secondly by occasion of the Magistrates who sought rather to satisfie their avarice with money than to take care for the executing of justice Thirdly because the laws had now no more place as being easily corrupted by force and mony Just cause therefore had the Provinces to be glad of the government of Augustus But because this liking of a subject City to be rather under a Prince than under a Commonwealth as we have said before is a common liking of all Provinces and Cities that are under another It will be necessary to search out the reason why it is so And for a first reason 〈◊〉 certaine politioian brings this because Commonwealths are more durable than Kingdomes and being more durable there is lesse hope to shake off their servitude and are therefore the more hated Secondly because Common-wealths having no other care but to make themselves greater and others lesse they endeavour only to weaken the subject Cities and to strengthen their own body a thing which Princes care not to doe and for this he brings the example of the Samnites who as long as they were of themselves maintained warre with the Romans a hundred yeeres a manifest signe they were then a strong people but afterwards falling in subjection to Rome they became most weake and of no force But because the first of these reasons is false and the second followes no lesse in Kingdomes than in Common-wealths with leave of so great a man I have conceived perhaps a better reason and it is because the Provinces and Cities having been at warre and by reason of the warre grown to hate one another and that hatred in processe of time become naturall as it was between the Romans and the Carthaginians between the Pisanes and the Florentines and others it happens that being overcome they are held in subjection by their naturall enemies which subjection is so much the more distastfull as being between persons that are equall and from hence it is that so gladly men seek to shake of the yoak So many times did Pisa so Spaine with the Romans who doubting the like of Greece as knowing by their continuall rebellions that they il brooked their subjection to the Commonwealth of Rome they destroyed many Cities and at last Corinth But if it happen that this Common-wealth fall into the hand of a Prince there is no doubt but the other Cities and Provinces will be glad a principall reason is because where these served and those ruled before with inequality now under a Prince they both serve equally and comming to be commanded by persons much their superiours the Dominion is so much lesse hated as the person is greater that commands and therefore we see that Pisa which under a Common-wealth was alwaies in rebellion now that it is under a Prince hath lived and doth live and is like to live in most quiet peace it is true indeed there concurres the graciousnesse of the Prince that sweetens all things Another manifest example we have in the Roman Histories and it is that Spaine as long as the City of Rome was a Commonwealth was continually in rebellion nor could ever be quieted till the said City came into the hand of a Prince under Augustus I omit the example of the Philistines who never left warring with the Israelites from the first day I may say they entered into the Land of Promise untill they were setled in a Regall government under David To come to the third head not onely Cities and Provinces cannot abide to be under the rule of a Commonwealth but neither doe they like to be under a Prince that is a stranger and that dwels not amongst them which Prince may either be of different customes and language as the King of Spaine to Naples and Milan or of the same customes and language but of divers Provinces as the King of France to Burgundy and Britaine or else of the same Province the same tongue and the same customes as many Princes of Italy to many Cities In the first case they are not well brooked but tolerated with an ill will First by reason of the difference of customes which is able to make a Prince odious though he