pretious stones the Carbuncle amongst colours Azure and amongst Nations the Spanish which is the modell and major of all the rest and that which hath in it selfe all the prerogatives and eminences and is the noblenesse of all the nations of the world CHAP. VIII That the French and Spanish Nation being the beginning of the other Nations naturally ought to be opposite IT beeing concluded in the precedent Chapter that the French and Spanish nations are the beginning and spring of all the other It must through necessary consequence follow that they ought to bee opposite and contrary as likewise the two great lights of heaven are upon which the discourse of this my booke is grounded The end of the contrariety which is in the heavenly ones being none other then the variety whereby the spacious garden of the world shewes faire and enamelled with divers colours with infinite variety of natures and kindes yet with such order and art that all united together seem nothing but individuum of one onely thing And so it was requisite that their influence and motion should be various and divers it being certaine that there can be no difference in the effects if the causes be not different which punctually belongs to these two nations which as the beginning and modell of the rest must have some contrariety in their ceremonies humours fashions of cloathing conversations and the like that other nations which looke on these in a glasse might be various and so humane nature by reason of the said variety should be beautified and delightfull And though this truth be cleare to any one that shall looke on it yet I will confirme it by Aristotles authority who saith that beginnings ought to be different saying when he defineth them that contraries or beginnings are they which are not made by any neither any of them is composed of the other but of them all things are made which definition squares excellent well with these two nations since we cannot say that they are composed of any other that is that they have taken any perfection vertue or noblenesse from them which were before them seeing it is plaine that since the creation of the world there never was any nation florishing in learning wit subtilty policie or other laudable exercises more then these two And so it seemes that God did with particuler providence make them in this world bestowing on them immediately with his owne hand those perfections which they have Neither can it be said that the one is composed of the other since that neither France takes anything from Spaine nor any way seeks to imitate it nor Spaine likewise from France yet other nations are composed of them receiving all the good they have from these two beginnings and fruitfull springs so that it agreeing so well with these two nations to be beginnings they ought also to be of their nature that is to be contrary I hold it certaine that this variety and opposition of nature which is in these two nations was by divine providence For if all were of one minde and one humour either all would stay at home and would have no desire to see the world or all would be wandring and forget their homes and families against the law of nature preservation of humane kinde and the effects of the world not have that beauty which is in them if they were all alike And therefore this being the pretended and in the creation of the universe God made these two beginnings and nations so contrary and shared all favours and graces amongst them so equally that the one cannot prevaile against the other like two contraries of equall vertue that cannot overcome one the other Neither let any one deceive himselfe so farre as to thinke that the contrariety which is in these two nations as originalls be any imperfection but that it is in them the greatest excellenlency that may be seeing that if we consider it well they have no other end then peace and preservation it being a thing infallible that since they cannot overcome nor conquer one another by reason of the equality strength and valour they will preserve not onely themselves but these nations also which depend on them It being most certaine that a Province favoured and protected by Spaine shall not be destroied by France nor likewise by Spaine any nation favoured by the French And therefore wee shall finde that this contrariety is ordained for the peace and preservation of the world and if God had not made these two originall these two nations contrary and communicated unto them their valour with full equality I verily beleeve that a great part of the world would be left for if God had not tempred the fury and violence of the French with farre degrees lesse of Spanish patience and solidity they would questionlesse be soveraigns of the world And contrariewise if Spanish patience were not mixed with a slow and flegmatick deliberation there is no doubt but they would bring all the kingdomes of the earth in subjection And that therefore God who with an equall ballance measure and wisedome made all thinges sweetly disposing of them ordained that the world should be preserved in peace by meanes of this contrariety dividing the goods so equally betweene these two Nations that that which the one wanted the other abounded in that so like two perfect originals they might give peace and preservation unto other Nations This Philosophy wil not seem harsh to them who shall consider in the foure Elements the contrariety and order wherewith they mix themselves to produce and preserve those things which are composed of them for hee shall in them finde their qualities tempered and divided with such art that the one hath that which the other wants God gave the Element of fire heat as the Philosophers call it in summo and drinesse inremisso For if it were extreame as the heat it would with its power and activity destroy all the other And therefore to withstand that disorder he left the fire with a remisnesse If the earth had coldnesse in extreame as it hath drynesse it would by reason of its clamminesse hardnesse be intractable and altogether incapable of compounding any mixt He left the water with a remisse humidity giving the same to the ayre in summo So that with this distribution of qualities God made them originals of peace and preservation The same art did hee use in these two Nations for he gave the French the extreame of valour force and gentilenesse yet accompanyed with the remisse of variability and inconstancy He placed in the Spaniard courage stability and constancy in a supreame degree but tempered with a remisse deliberation I would lay open the point more diffusedly if I did not feare thereby to animate by telling of the truth the two nations one against the other who will not confesse that they have any thing in a remisse degree but all perfection in summo And so we are
THE ANTIPATHY betweene the French and Spaniard Englished By Robert Gentilys Sold by R Martine at the Venice in old Baly 1641 THE 〈◊〉 AND THE Spaniard OR of the world displayed in lively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 representing the Antipathy of their Humours and different Dispositions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Customes of both those Nations By R. G. Gent. LONDON Printed for 〈◊〉 at the Princes Armes in Pauls Churchyard TO THE RIGHT Worshipfull SIR PAUL PINDAR Knight YOur well known goodnesse which makes you admired praised by every one excited long since a desire in me to testifie unto the world and your self that though a stranger unto you yet I was not such a stranger in the city but that I had heard and taken notice of your daily pious and charitable workes So that this my translation being to goe forth into the view of the world I have made bold to dedicate it unto you for two causes The first my desire to make knowne unto you that you had an unknowne servant who had long wished for some opportunity whereby he might manifest the desire he had to tender his service unto you The second to make this poore worke more acceptable to the world by prefixing your beloved name in the front of it which is greater in the worlds esteeme Quam cui possit invidia nocere Your curteous and noble mind will I hope not disdaine the gift though so smal that it meriteth not so great a Patron I promising ere long to present you with something which shall bee mine owne invention So wishing you many happy daies fore-runners of eternal happinesse I rest Your Worships most devoted servant Robert Gentilis To the Reader TO obviate an Objection I thought good to write these few lines unto thee For it may bee said that the extolling of one is in some sort the vilifying of another and the glorious praises given in this book to the French and Spaniards may seeme a disparagement to our Nation But when I think upon that Prince who desirous to have a valiant man brought before him and one being presented unto him who had many scarres about him which were questionlesse tokens of his bold adventerousnesse said he had rather have had the man who gave those wounds I resolve my selfe that our Nation is rather commended and magnified by their praises then otherwise For if their conquests be so glorious what must the English renowne be who never could bee said to have had but the upper hand of either of them in all attempts or enterprises witnesse Histories Chronicles of all ages If the Authour have beene any thing hyperbolicall in their praises impute it to the Spanish phrase humour which cannot speake in a low stile or strain in your owne discretion accept of his meaning circumscribe his generalities As for example when he saith that these two great Monarchs protect defend others taxe him not with so much indiscretion as to imagine he meant all but onely such petty Princes Dukes as have their adherencies and dependancies upon them And not those who equall in power need not crave ayde of any but God either to defend or vindicate them So submitting my authour and my selfe to thy curteous censure I rest Thine if thou esteeme me worthy of thy favour R. G. The opposition and conjunction of the two great lights of the EARTH CHAP. I. That Peace and Vnion are Gods Attributes and the perfection of nature THAT supreame God who made the Heavens chroniclers of his glory and greatnesse to give us by his visible effects some knowledge and notice of the invisible treasure deposited in the deepe treasures of his owne omnipotency In all his operations as well internall or as the Divines doe terme them ad intra which are the generation of the word and production of the holy Ghost as also in the externall as the creation the providence the preservation and the like sheweth us that his most essentiall and proper attribute is Union Since the reall distinction admitted by sacred Divinity betweene the Divine persons is not sufficient to make the Son not to be the same with the Father and both one with the holy Ghost Nor doth that infinite variety of divers natures whereof this artificial frame of the world is composed besides the universall dependency which they have from one beginning refuse the bond of peace wherewith they are straightly joined together For proof of the first the efficacy wherewith the same God did so much give in charge and urge unto his chosen people the unity of his divine nature shall serve me for a concluding reason he saying unto them a thousand times Hearken O Israel thy God is one and one is his name Which wordes as they are most true and unreproovable witnesses of this truth shall save me a labour of proving it by naturall and theologicall reasons The second which is the dependency which all creatures have from one onely beginning may be plainly demonstrated by that which historicall Moses writ the beginning of his sacred history attributing the creation of the world to one sole cause Which truth that great Mercurius Trismegistus did also leave engraven in pure Emerald beeing there in followed by the whole troop of Philosophers who unanimously confessed one first cause eternall independent and immortall needing therein no other Tutor but onely the light of naturall reason And if any curious man should aske me the proof of the third point he may yeeld himselfe satisfaction by considering the streight bonds and intrinsecall union wherewith all natures doe linke themselves one with another untill they come unto the first linke from whence they were taken Nor let any one thinke this union and naturall concord of the creatures to be a borrowed perfection or accidentally belonging unto them seeing that the supreame architect who made all thinges deliberately and with wisdome and measure having set every one of them in their owne poste and place convenient for their natures gave unto them all joined together union for the center of their preservation And that so properly and intrinsecally that if the said union could be broken the whole frame of the world whose harmony consisteth in the reciprocall consonancy of all its parts would be brought to nothing He that shall with particular attention consider the seven rings or linkes whereof the chaine of this world is composed shall easily finde out this marvailous bond of union Beginning from the first and last which is God who though he be generally united to all creatures which live in him subsist by him and move through him yet by a more particular assistance he is united unto the Angelicall nature as the perfectest of all creatures This joyneth it selfe with the nature of the heavens which by reason of its incorruptibility is the most perfect next unto the Angelicall To the celestiall enterlaceth it selfe the elementall in whose linke consisteth the diameter of the chain as that which according
them CHAP. XVII Of the cause of the enmity and antipathy of the Spaniards and the French I Have endeavoured divers times to finde out by speulation the fundamentall cause of the disdaine and hatred betweene these two Nations Because that though it is true that the Divell hath been the principall authour of this antipathy and discord to hinder the fruit which might grow through their union yet we must presume that hee found in them some ground and root to increase such a cursed dissention and pernitious poyson Some doe attribute this contrariety to the difference of the starres and their influences as their universall cause and say that the situation of the heavens and constellation of Spaine being farre different from that which the French have consequently the temperament and humours of both must bee very different They confirme this with Hippocrates doctrine in his booke de Aere Aquis Locis which saith that the divers constitutions of the starres is cause of the variety of temperaments complexions and humours of man And verily hee that considers the humours of these two Nations in order with the constellation and change of time shall find some likelihood in this reason seeing that in Spaine if hot weather once begins it continueth in the same vigour three or foure months there being in all that time no notable change and of the same compasse is the Spanish humour seeing that setting upon a purpose hee keeps himselfe firme in it without any change or alteration at all It is otherwise in France for there bee it Winter or Summer the cold nor the heat nor the faire weather never lasts three dayes together but the variablenesse of this constellation is such that a man can never perceive what time of the yeare it is The inhabitants of Paris know this to bee true because that in one day there you shall have the weather change eight or ten times the morning or day breake being very faire and two hours after there falling a deluge of rain after the which the Sunne will appeare more bright and resplendent then in the month of June and hee shall scarce have spread his beams but you shall heare a noise of thunder lightning and winde as though the world were sinking and therefore there being a dependencie from the influence and constellation the French as subjected to an inconstant clymate must needs be voluble and inconstant in their determinations And therfore hee that will assigne for the reason of this Antipathy and hatred the diversity of climates will say that the Divell grounded his malice upon nature making use of the differences of the starres This reason though in appearance it bears some shew of truth yet it doth not resolve our question seeing that though the starres have dominion over naturall things yet they do not extend their force to acts of absolute command of the will which are hatred and love and therfore we must confesse that those who bring this reason that the starres encline things subject unto them yet naturall ones and by reason of the league which it hath with their wills this influence may somewhat touch them moving them in some manner but yet it cannot force them And since this matter gives me occasion of speaking of a difficulty which is commonly handled by curious and learned men I will not passe it over with silence without speaking that which my small talent will affoord me All the world almost marvailes at some things which the Astrologers fore-tell which depend on mans wil over which no constellation influence or celestiall vertue hath power to move it or force it but contrariwise the will and discourse command and governe the starres with their influences Whence came that common Proverb Sapiens dominabitur astris and yet wee see that many times they prognosticate the truth and so punctually as if the starres did directly enforce mans will 〈◊〉 whence holding such predictions to bee miraculous they call the Astrologians Magicians noâ— beleeving that such things may be known by naturall reasons thinking it impossible that the command of the starres should go beyond materiall things under the which are not comprehended the powers and actions of our soule Surely they which finde great difficulty in this doe it not without great ground but if they â—hall consider the order which our understanding and the will â—old in producing of their actiâ—ns they shall finde that it may â—e done only by the perfect speâ—ulation of the starres without â—oing beyond the bounds of naâ—…re Since all will yeeld to me â—â—at the starres have their influâ—nces in sublunary things and â—â—at they have great power over â—aturall things they being governed by them and that being true the consequence followes that the celestiall vertue and influence shall have command over that which is natural in man as might bee the body with the senses to which our soule is so linked and so depends upon them that it can produce no act without them representing unto them the matter which is the intelligible species it necessarily followes that by reason of this union and streight bond of amity which they reciprocally hold the soule must somewhat participate of the dominion which directly falls upon the senses And although by this meanes they do not force but onely incline yeâ— our will after sinne remained so contrary to the law of Reason and so annexed to the sensitive appetite that it seldome withstands or contradicts it reproving those things which it propounds unto it which senses being governed by the influence and power of the starres as subject and depending on them the will must needs follow that which the appetite propounds unto it And therefore the Astrologers judging the actions of the will by the influence which governes the sensitive appetite many times prognosticate the truth though absolutely it depend on the will of man From this doctrine though true it followeth not that the influence of the starres onely and the diversity of the clymates are the fundamentall causes of the hatred antipathy of these two nations being there are many other nations in the world farre more different in climates and constellations which have not so much hatred and contrariety amongst themselves as these two we must therefore find out some other reason more powerfull then this of the starres I remember I have read in the histories of France that King Lewis the eleventh came to meet the King of Castile upon the confines of France to confer with him about some businesse of importance This King though magnanimous and generous had notwithstanding his particuler humour as other men have and so he ordinarily wore a leaden medall in his hat his cloathes and other French mens who were his followers were ordinary and of meane stuffe so that he was but meanly cloathed without any statelinesse or pompe the Spaniards did cloath themselves the best they could using all the pompe they could beleeving that the King of France
would have come withall the greatnesse and variety as they expected from so great a King and seeing him otherwise they began to despise him and strangely to scoffe the French men where they conceived such hatred against the Spaniards that they could never since forget this disgrace and affront and if we will say that the devill at this meeting grounded the enmity and antipathy which now a daies raignes we shall not say amisse seeing a farre lesser ground then this will serve his turne To all that is said before may be added a great motive which these two Nations have had to contemne and abhorre one another which is that in times past there came not out of France into Spaine any people of sort and note but onely poore beggerly and needy people of the frontiers as Guascons Biernois and others who went as they do to this day in white round caps like a trencher upon their heads bare legged with wooden shoos which they call esclops upon their feet these with a base kind of avarice will put themselves to any base office as keeping of cowes and hogs to sweepe chimneies or the like and though in their eating they bee sober enough for with an onion or a head of garlicke and a peece of bread they will passe the whole day yet in their drinking they are unreasonable and all their gaines goeth in wine which being strong and heady presenâ—ly makes them drunke so that for the most part of the day they go reeling and falling about the streets to the great scandall of the Spaniards amongst whom there is no greater infamy or dishonour then to bee drunke wherefore the Spaniards who saw no other French men but these thought that all the rest had been like them did abhor them and conceive much enmity against them and contempt of them the same occasion had the French for very few or no Spaniards of fashion going into France and they seeing none but poore and wretched people who went to bee touched for the Kings evill verily beleeved that all other Spaniards had been of the same kinde and so from that basenesse they tooke occasion to hold the Spaniards in little esteeme and besides this contempt to encrease this mortall enmity each of these foresaid reasons in my minde are sufficient occasions and motives of the hatred and disdaine we finde between these two Nations especially the divell mixing his care and industry with it But if I should speake mine opinion I think there cannot be a more powerfull reason given for this antipathy then the naturall contrariety of these two Nations humors and so it being so hard a thing to force nature with reason I doe not wonder if the will in which consists hatred or love keeps company with nature and followes her steps obeying her contrarieties and repugnances and we must imagine that to move the will so much the more to the contrariety of humors the divell did helpe forward all the forenamed accidents so that the constellation the diversity of humours the contempt of both nations and the divell joining together there could nothing be hoped for but a mortall hatred and the antipathy which now we see the remedy of which lieth in God only seeing I doe not beleeve that on earth there is any antidote for such a pestilent poison CHAP. XVIII That the conjunction and confederacy of these two crownes is a thing which proceeds from heaven AMongst the great and infallable truths which the Apostle St. Paul writ to lift us up towards the knowledge of God me thinkes that is a marveilous one when he saith Invisibilia Dei per ea quae facta sunt intellectu conspiciuntur which is as much to say that in all and every creature shines the infinite power of the divine wisdome and that they are all like so many tongues to declare unto us what the almighty power of their author is wherefore that must be a grosse and materiall understanding which by the contemplation of things created could not reach to the knowledge of the perfection and noblenesse of of him that made them The same was the royall Prophet his intent when he said Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei opera manuum ejuâ— annuntiat firmamentum whereby is knowne the imperfection and misery of our understanding subject only to the knowledge of the materialities of this world and unable to reach at the knowledge of things which are beyond natures bounds since that in these as Aristotle saith he is as the owle or the night-bat is with the sunne beames when it shines most cleare and bright and the same Psalmist knew this truth when he with such great fervency craved of God Revela oculos meos considerabo mirabilia de lege tua holding it for a certain that it was impossible to arrive to the knowledge of such high mysteries with the imperfection of nature onely wherefore the supreame architect finding that there could bee no equality nor proportion found between his greatnesses and our humane understanding they being infinite and this materiall limited he ordained that man should come to the knowledge of his infinite power by meanes of the visible effects of this world Whence we shall see by this reason that God at all times did communicate himself to men by materiall and visible means as in the guiding of the people of Israel by day with a pillar of cloud by night with a pillar of fire making mount Sinai to shake wheÌ„ he gave the Law affrighting them with thunder lightning sending fire from heaven the deluge and the like by which he did accommodate himselfe to the imperfection of our understanding For if God should not use materiall things and easie to bee understood perhaps the understanding of man would either attribute such effects to some other cause or would not know from whence they proceeded For it is certaine that when God decreed to destroy the world with the floud hee could as well have annihilated and destroyed it without filling of it full of water or doing any other manifest and visible action but it would not have seemed so great a wonder to men if they were all fallen dead without any manifest cause as the rivers over-flowing of their bankes and the opening of the cataracts and windows of heaven was And though God could have destroyed those accursed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah without any apparent signe with making them fall simply without any other visible effect yet he would have their ruine be by meanes of a materiall cause which should manifest the great power of him who sent to doe such an execution as that was to make fire as the sacred text speaketh and brimstome to come downe from heaven a signe that hee could make even the grossest understanding know what the power of divine justice was for if God had used some insensible meanes the cause would not have been knowne nor his great might and power So also