Turk is now so Potent in the East and that he so little fears the Persian as he does for by this means whiles he is making War upon the Christians in the West He is secure from all danger from Asia and so gets ground upon us daily more and more It would be convenient therefore to make a League with the Persian and especially in respect of the Kings Negotiations in the East-Indies because that His Fleet must passe by the Persian Coast And I am of opinion also that the same ought to be done with the Kings of Calecut Narsinga and Caramania but these are not to be furnished with Guns They may indeed be instructed in the Art of Printing and other Arts that are in use among the Christians to the end they may thereby have the Christians in admiration and high esteem and that by the introducing of Ingenious Arts and Sciences amongst them they may be made our Own And yet Arts are wont to become a Prey to Armes at last unlesse they be both equally in practise together And hence it is that Pallas in the Fable is said to have overcome both Calliope and Mars because She was experienced as well in the use of Mars his Armes as Calliope's Arts. The like course is to be taken with those of Taprobana China and Japan by communicating our Arts and Sciences to them as Printing Painting and the like which will be very much admired by them and by the means of which they may by degrees be won over and may be brought to embrace the Christian Faith But those that deal with them must be sure that above all things they abstain from Covetousnesse and exercising of Cruelty upon any of these people lest otherwise they should be provoked and should joyn all together against us and should thereby prove a great hinderance to the Spaniards Designs We shall not need to speak any thing here of the Great Cham of Cataia seeing that his Country lies so far out of the road that the Spaniard takes in his Voyage to the East-Indies notwithstanding that the Persians and Turks have cause enough to stand in fear of him and we know very well that the Tartarians have many times over-run all Asia and that also becoming Christians they restored unto Us Jerusalem Yet afterwards when they once saw Our Unworthy Base Disposition in that notwithstanding we all professed the same Christian Religion we were yet continually at War one with another they forsook Christianity again and presently embraced Mahumetanisme which at that time flourished infinitely and was in high esteem throughout the Whole East And by this means was it that they came to give over making war any longer upon the Persians and Turks whom they now suffered to live quietly without being at all annoyed by Them who yet had in former times often overthrown and beaten them But on the other side they were more and more alienated from the Christian Faith and from the Christians whom they saw to be so Base and Unworthy as to be continually at discord and variance amongst themselves And yet I believe that the Glorious Spanish Monarchy which encompasseth the whole Earth will shortly reduce them and bring them to embrace again the Christian Religion especially if there should any Wars break out in the Eastern Parts and that so much the rather because that Macon is now divided into many several Sects Besides the People of Galecut and of Goa are Christians already though but Nestorians yet they might easily be brought to embrace the True Primitive Christian Religion if it were but proposed to them to consider that God hath alwaies preserved the Church of Rome and firmly settled it in its own Proper Seat and Power whereas on the Contrary all the Heresies of others have been successelesse and could never get any Dominion or Authority throughout Christendome as appears by Arius Nestorius Macedonius Apollinaris and all other Authors of Heresies Now I do not know any thing that would cause those most Remote Kingdoms to admire us more and that would sooner draw the Inhabitants of the same from their Superstitions and would besides weaken them too and make them unapter for War then if the Knowledge of the Liberal Arts the Languages Philosophy and the Mathematicks were carried thither from hence by some of our Western Professors of the same because that Minuit vires nervosque Minerva Minerva's quiet Arts Take off and Chill our hearts Let the King therefore take care that Forraigners may be exercised only in Idle Umbratil Sciences and Light toyish matters and Pastimes but in the mean time let Him keep His own Natural Subjects to the exercise of their Armes also together with those forenamed Sciences by which Means He may still be victorious But lastly that we may return to our former discourse touching the Persians aiding us against the Turks The Persians having alwayes relyed wholly upon the Number and Goodnesse of their Horse have notwithstanding in the mean time while they have been Victorious in the Open Field yet lost their Cities at home And therefore I say they are to be advised to fortifie their Cities with Castles and strong Holds every where For the Turk although he have been many times beaten by them hath yet by litle and litle so entrenched himself about as it were with Garrisons and Fortifications made in all convenient places that he hath by this means made himself Master of a very great part of the Persians Country and hath possessed himself at last also of the great City Tauris or Ecbatan They must be taught therefore to make use of the same Arts in defending themselves by which they have formerly been beaten CHAP. XXX Of the Great Turk and his Empire BY what means the Turk endeavours to make himself Lord of the whole World hath been as I conceive sufficiently declared before in this Treatise and He will also at this time already be called The Vniversal Lord as the King of Spain is called The Catholick King so that these two Princes seem now to strive which of them shall attain to the Universal Monarchy of the whole World And therefore I think it not amisse to examine here in what Particulars the one of them is either Inferiour or superiour to the other The Great Turk is the most Absolute Lord of and Heir to all the Goods that his subjects have throughout his whole Empire and not of their Goods only but also of their Persons And in this He is worse then ever any Tyrant was in that He arrogates all to Himself and because that although He calls all his People His Sons Yet He doth not like a Father suffer them to inherit any thing but only bestowes yearly upon every one of them as much as He thinks fit appointing them withal the Employments that they shall serve him in He hath also a Religion that is framed according to his own Will only without taking the advise with him of any
was well versed in all the Learning of the Egyptians and managed a War for King Pharaoh against the King of Ethiopia whom he vanquished in the War and whose daughter also he took to Wife as both Flavius Josephus and Philo testifie And yet for all this he despised not the advice of Jothro his Father-in-law touching the taking in of a certain number of persons to assist him in the Administration of the Government over the People of Israel And indeed They being sore oppressed and labouring under their Egyptian Slavery took Occasion by his means of shaking that Yoak off their necks whence they were inclined to hearken the more willingly to Him and to follow him whither he would lead them the Occasion also taken from the Wickednesse of those of Palaestine concurring with their Inclinations Besides the Great Monarch of all the Earth God of his own accord and free grace gave Wisdom to his People as he did likewise to the Apostles and to the Bishop of Rome which was also assisted by Occasion which is nothing else but to know how to make right use of the Time whence followed the Division of the Romane Empire but the utter Subversion of the Jewish Yet notwithstanding where the Power of Man only appeared Outwardly there was a concurrence and co-operation of the finger of God though not so visibly seen And thus the Assyrians for some secret Causes were possessed of the Monarchy of the World which Causes notwithstanding have been sometimes apparent as we see in Nabuchodonosor whom God rewarded with the spoyles of Egypt because he had made use of Him against the ingrateful Hebrewes and against Tyre And in Isaiah God reproveth the King of the Jewes for that when by his aide his enemies had been slain and put to flight He notwithstanding had ascribed all to his Own strength Now the Occasion of this was the Wickednesse of the Nations who were governed by no Prudence In the Monarchy also of the Medes the same Occasion carried a great stroke in the businesse when as God as it appears out of Daniel came forth upon the stage and raised up Arbaces the Praefect of Media who was a very wise man against Sardanapalus who wallowed in all Luxury and Womanish delights In the Persian Monarchy the Valour and Courage of Cyrus appeared and Media being destitute of a Successour for the Kingdome afforded him the Occasion of shewing it and God himself in Isaiah calling Cyrus his Anointed instructed him how he should bring the Nations under his Yoake Who makes any doubt of the Prudence and Wisdome of Alexander the Great and knowes not that the Divisions of the Grecians at home and the Loosenesse of Life that the Eastern Nations had at that time given themselves up unto administred unto him an Occasion of making use of it Wherein the Divine Power was most evidently manifested for as much as as the Prophet Daniel testifies the Angel of the Kingdome of Greece laboured much in the businesse In the Roman Empire also Prudence and Valour did very much but Italy's being divided into several Common-Wealths and the Carthaginians Factions among themselves were the Occasion And commonly to that Part that dissolves any great Empire all the rest of the Principalities of the World do incline And certainly God himself was the chiefest Cause of the Prosperity of the Romans because of their Moral Virtues as it is proved by St. Augustine in his book De Civitate Dei Yet no place doth more evidently shew what Occasion can do then Sicily at what time it called forth Peter of Arragon against those of Anjou whence sprang the Proverb of those most famous Vespers Although it cannot be denied but that he was assisted very much in that Undertaking not only by the Pope but also by his own Innate Prudence And truly although Historians seldome make any mention at all of these Three Causes yet the Books of the Kings of the Jewes and the Successions therein laid down before us do sufficiently confirm the same and make it appear that which way soever the Prophesies and the Valour of the Persons inclined that way also did the Fortune of the Kingdom look CHAP. II. The Causes of the Spanish Monarchy THe same Three Causes therefore have concurred in the Spanish Monarchy For after that It had by the Assistance of Almighty God happily maintained War against the Moors for near 800. years space together It at length brought forth such Valiant Commanders and Souldiers that being so fortified both by Strength and Prudence and having overcome the Barbarians they then turned their Armes another way and proceeded on to greater Undertakings And afterwards being as it were by Divine Instinct assisted by the Pope with a great Treasure of Indulgences and Croisados and the King being also honoured by the Title of Catholick that is to say Vniversal It arrived to so great a reputation and glory of Valour that the Genueses were so much the more willingly and readily drawn in to their assistance in the making themselves Masters of the New World And lastly it is most certain that whilest Wars were made with Launces and Horses the Gaules Goths and Lombards enlarged their Dominions but when the Sword was the chief Weapon the Romans then carried all afore them But in after times when Subtlety and Craft was of more Prevalence then Valour and that Printing and Guns were now found out the Chief Power then fell into the hands of the Spaniards who are a People that are both Industrious Active Valiant and Subtle For then did Occasion joyn the King of Arragon with Isabella Queen of Castile who had no Issue Male to succeed her and at the same time also was added to him the Imperial Line of the House of Austria to which likewise through defect of Issue Male in the Burgundian Family there was added a very considerable Inheritance of many Lordships and Provinces in the Low-Countries and in other places Then followes the Discovery of the New World made by Christophorus Columbus and another accession also by the joyning of the Kingdom of Portugal to Spain All which rendred the Monarchy of Spain both Illustrious and Admirable and also besides other things made Her Lady of the Seas to which Advantages was also added the Troubled Condition of the French English and Dutch who were at Variance among themselves about certain Points of Religion by which meanes the Spaniard so easily arrived to this height of Power and Greatnesse it now is in And the King of Spain might grow more Powerful yet and might attain to the Dominion of the Whole World if he would but endeavour the Overthrow of the Turkish Empire as Alexander heretofore did of the Persian and the Romans of the Carthaginean For that Empire got up to this height for the Sins of the Christians and the Angel of that People hath yet the upper hand For while the Imperialists have been at variance with the Pontificians the French with the English
Spain as the Alans Goths and Vandals did of old And yet seeing that these Nations differ all in Religion and the King of Spain doth craftily under hand sow new seeds of Dissention amongst them there is no great cause to fear that they should joyn their forces together upon any design Let us now see what Spain is able to do within it self and by what means it may become Greater and enlarge its Territories laying down this for a Ground That for the rendring of any Dominion whatsoever Firm and Durable it is necessarily required that there be first a Natural Sociablenesse and an apt Correspondence among the subjects themselves and then betwixt the Prince and the subjects as there is in Mans body betwixt the Members themselves and also betwixt them and the Head Now this Natural Sociablenesse is founded first in the Man and Wife then in the Father of the Family and his Children with the rest of his Family and then again in several Families being linked and united together then in those also who are allied together by the Bond of Consanguinity or Affinity and likewise those that live in one Common Aire and Climate enjoying the same Temper of the Heavens as also those that agree in their Lawes Manners Customes and studies whereto also we may add their using one Common Language and wearing all one the same Habit in Apparel Neither do I account their Identity of Species or of Humanity to be any small Bond of this Natural sociablenesse namely because they are All Men and wheresoever Many of these Bonds Ties meet together there also must necessarily be a Firmer and more Durable Association made up and a more lasting Dominion setled Hence it is that the Italians and the Spaniards do so readily jump and agree together both because they understand each the others Language and are also like each other in their Manners Bodies and their Rites and Customes which can never be amongst the French because they differ among themselves not only in their Language and Manners but are also of a different Natural Constitution and temper So the Spaniards would much more easily be brought to enter into a league of Society and Friendship with the Africans then with the Netherlanders who are of a much more different Constitution from them For the Spaniards are Naturally Hot and Dry and are therefore Lean and of a Low Stature being withal Sharp-witted Subtle and Talkative But on the Contrary the Netherlanders are Cold Corpulent and Big-boned and are Heavy and Dull and of few words Whosoever therefore is to Rule Several and Different Nations and would keep them all within the bounds of Obedience let him endeavour to reduce them into a conformity as far as he is able and to make them in all things like to each other And this Uniting of Men to one another God himself the Author of all Polity had pointed out unto Men. Now there are Three sorts of this Union we here speak of the First is of Minds which is caused by Religion which is indeed the strongest of all Unions for it uniteth together in Opinion Nations that are at the greatest distance that may be from each other Upon this have both Mens Wills and Actions their Dependancy and in This are both their Tongues Arms united By this the Pope ruleth over Europe Asia Africk and America and in a word over all the Christians in the whole World Whereas on the contrary the Emperour of Germany is scarse able to Rule Germany alone although the People there are otherwise as like and as much agreeing among themselves as may be both in their shape of Body Habit Arms Rites and Customes and all because It wants this first Vnion namely of Religion For there are so many several different Opinions in Religion among the Germans that it may be truly said of them Quot homines tot Sententiae so many Men so many Minds And for this reason the English and Helvetians suffer but two sorts only of Religion in their Countries for that common saying Divide impera that is Divide thy subjects and thou shalt rule them is of no use here but rather on the contrary Divide perdes that is If thou devide thy subjects thou shalt ruin thy self Catharine de Medicis Queen of France that she might contrary to the Salique Law sit at the Helme and have the Government of the Kingdome in her hands complied sometimes with the Catholicks and sometimes with the Huguenots but by this means she brought destruction both upon her self and upon her Sons one of which was Slain by a Dominican Fryer And therefere in this Particular the King of Spain is more happy then any other besides because that his Kingdomes though they lye at a great distance from one another are yet all joyned together and united in one Religion and in this very respect also he stands upon better terms then the Great Turk himself or any other Prince whatsoever because as we have shewed before He converts those that are under his subjection and makes them to be all of one and the same Faith The second is the Vnion of Bodies and in this the Turk goes beyond all other Princes for He hath under his subjection and in perfect Obedience both Mahumetans Christians and Jewes which are all as much differing one from another in their Religions as can be neither doth this their diversity of Religion prejudice him at all because that he brings up their Sons to serve him in his Wars and besides He leaves all such of his Subjects as are not of his Religion without either Armes or any meanes possible of doing him any harm But indeed in case He should intrust any of these with the Government of any part of his Empire and should exercise not a Despotical but a Political Soveraingty over them He would quickly be brought into Sad Straites by them as we see it for example in many of our German Princes at this day or at least all meanes of enlarging his Empire would quite be cut off from him as we see the case now stands with the Emperour and with the King of Poland If haply among the Turks Vassals there should chance to start up some Gallant-Spirited Person he might possibly prove to be the Ruin of his Empire as Scanderbeg had like to have been had he had but the Christians as ready to assist him as the Genueses were to do him a mischief who both to their own and also to the great Losse of Hunniades K. of Hungary were hired for so many Crownes to passe over forty Thousand Mahumetans out of Asia into Europe by which meanes Amurath that was before in a manner utterly broken and had well near lost all was now so well relieved and recruited again as that by these forces He afterwards made himself Master of half Europe I shall not here speake of Moses who was raised up against God by Pharaoh according to which example
that the Empire of the Moon shall be divided betwixt Two Sons of the Turkish Emperour that shall be the Fifteenth Emperour of Turkey at which time the Moon shall be bowed into two Horns And this star is indeed a very terrible one and will make it appear that he that shall conquer and subdue the Turkish Empire shall be Lord of the whole Earth The House of Spain then can never attaine to any great Monarchy according to Fate but only by the adhering to Italy the Roman Empire which is the German the Right Head The King of Spain therefore is to use his utmost endeavour that he may be chosen Emperour seeing that not only God but even Human Prudence also may inform us that by that meanes he may attain to what ever his heart can wish A beginning of which thing appeared plain enough in Charles the Fifth King of Spain who being also Emperour and being assisted with the whole power of Italy and Spain overcame those of Tunis and the King of France and conquered all Germany in so much that Solyman seeing the prosperous Fortune of this Prince had good Cause to say that it behooved him to take heed of Charles neither would he though he were stronger then He fight with Him under the Walls of Vienna We see therefore that which way the Fates incline the same also goes all the rest of the Fortune and so on the other side all things must needs be successelesse that are taken in hand under a Reluctant Fate I shall here also open another Mystery namely that all Empires according to the Prophesy of Noah do descend from the Sons of Japhet God shall enlarge Japhet and he shall dwell in the tents of Sem and Cham shall be his Servant And from Cham are to descend none but Slaves and Tyrants who are indeed Slaves as I have elsewhere proved Wherefore the Turkish Empire comes from Japhet by Magog and as to the Law from Sem by the Line of Ishmael from whom Mahumet descended as it hath allwaies been observed to fall out that the Northern People which are fierce and by the armes of Japhet still Victorious have yet received Lawes and Rules from the wiser Southern People who were the Ofspring of Sem. And yet the Empire sometimes hath otherwise had a succession of Tyrants also who have descended from Cham though by the intervention of the German who is descended from Japhet as the Spaniard himself derives his Line from Japhet by Tubal like as concerning the Law the Roman Christianity doth derive it self from Sem in respect of Christ who is a true Sem by the Line of Isaac Seeing therefore Dominion was promised to Japhet it belongeth chiefly to the Spaniards who are more nearly and by a firmer alliance descended from the Law-giver then the Turks and their Victorie drives on to this end that they may dwell in the House of Sem seeing that they possesse the Greatest part of Italy by the Investiture of the Pope who is descended from Sem Of whom this is no fit occasion to say any more although I willingly would do so and indeed ought I shall only add here that they cannot according to Fate come to be Lords of all unlesse they become the Deliverers of the Church and set it free from out of the hands of the Babylonians that is to say of the Turks and Hereticks Upon this account they conquered the Moores God bestowing upon them so great an Empire as their reward Now it is evident that the Church is in subjection to Babylon as long as it is Militant and I have formerly shewed elsewhere that it doth yet retain the dayes of Tuesday and Friday and the moneths of August and July which were theirs of the Roman Babylon and the Church now suffers most grievous Persecutions under the Babylonian Infidels both in Africk Asia and Europe and especially in Germany France England and Poland This discourse therefore is to be listened unto with attentive eares because that all the Jewish Affaires were a Type and figure of those of the Christians He therefore that shall deliver the Church out of these evills shall become the Universal Monarch because He shall perform the Office of the Christain Cyrus whom God shall raise up as Esay saith to subdue the whole World to restore Jerusalem to remove their Captivity and to build a temple to the God of Heaven and Earth wherein shall be set up the Continual Sacrifice as is foretold by Daniel Esay and Esdras Cyrus also was of the Linage of Japhet by the Medes and notwithstanding that the Turk is descended of the same stock also yet shall He not perform the Office because that He is become an Enemy by setting up another Contrary Law The French in the time of Charlemagne arrogated this Office to themselves who by their often delivering the Pope out of the hands of the Princes of Italy the Lombards and the Goths arrived to so great power that they became formidable to all and the said Charlemagne might have come to have been Universal Monarch of the World had not his sons been at Variance among themselves but had managed their Empire rightly and as they ought to have done But the discords that were betwixt the Christians and the following Heresy raigning at this day broke the neck of the French Empire at least took away from it all hope of ever arriving to the height of so much greatnesse But the Spaniards by being continually rooting out of the Moors became powerful but contrariwise Constantinople because it deserted the Pope and adhered to Arrius Sabellius and others came to destruction The Venetians also have by the Popes meanes arrived to a great height because that they assisted him against Frederick So that it is manifest that he that shall take any enterprize in hand under a Favourable Fate shall have all happy successe therein but on the contrary he that shall rush on upon any undertaking under a Crosse and Vnwilling Fate shall find the Event also quite contrary to his desires Which may also be demonstrated out of Reasons of Policy For he that maintaines the Popes Interest maintaines the Universal Right of all Christendom which depends upon the Pope For this Cause is accounted both a Just and a Religious one and therefore all men will take it up And the Opinion also of Religion overcomes all other causes as we have already shewed elsewhere and shall further shew hereafter Add hereto that the Pope is the Universal Moderator and Judge of all things to whom all people have their recourse and yeild obedience to him as to their God and Deliverer as on the contrary the Sweden Saxon and the Constantinopolitan Princes as being enemies to and Stubborn opposers of Him are rejected and deserted by them Therefore the Office of Cyrus belongs to the King of Spain who being now honoured by the Pope with the Title of The Catholick King may easily arrive to the Principality
of the whole World and we see that he hath already followed his Footsteeps in having delivered the Church heretofore out of the hands of the Moors of Granado as he hath lately done from the Hereticks of England the Low-Countries and France and He maintaines besides with yearly Revenues so many Bishops Cardinals and Monasteries and he hath also setled the Daily Sacrifice throughout the whole World for as much as that every half hour indeed continually the Masse is celebrated throughout his Empire within the compasse whereof the Roman Papacy the City of Jerusalem and the Temple are contained Neither doth it ever Sleep in his Empire For seeing that the Sun being carried about in his Course from Spain to Brasile the Straites of Magellan the Philippine Islands Japan China Archipelagus Lazari Calecut Goa Bengala Ormus the Cape of Good hope the Sea Coast of Africk and the Fortunate Islands till it comes back again to the same Spain there is no hour of the day but it enlightens some part of His Dominions there is no question but that there are continually Sacrifices offered up to the God of Heaven and Earth It is certainly a very wonderful thing and a most evident Sign that this Kingdom of his is diffused to a vast distance wherein Prayers are continually offered up for the Church and the King together with what Stupendous Sacrifice which both according to the Truth and the Opinion of Men is of no mean Efficacy in the hearts of his Subjects Whence I affirm that the King of Spain following the Order of Things and by observing the Rules of Prudence together with Occasion may bring all things under his Obedience as it shall be made appear out of the Reasons hereafter following For this is already evident that he engages in the same Interest with that of the German Empire which is the same with that of Italy which is the same with that of Rome of Greece and of Persia or the Empire of Cyrus and so consequently of that of Media and Babylon And he shall have the Assistance of many several Angels as that of Cyrus and of Michael and afterwards all things shall be delivered into the hands of Gog and Magog But the Christians shall overcome and then shall Christ come to Judge the World And then shall the end be But the Eclipse and the Great Conjunction in Sagittary which is the Constellation of Spain will discover many secrets when I shall have opportunity to discourse of the same CHAP. V. Of the Second Cause namely Prudence FOr as much as Prudence is required in the manageing of all Humane things which is a Cause adjoyned to Fate consisting of an infinite number of Joynt Causes acting by vertue of the Prime Cause so especially it is necessary in the manageing of an Empire by It the whole World is governed and it is disseminated by God through all the Universe For Nature is an Intrinsecal Divine Art and whosoever shall follow Nature as his guide he is wise which appears evidently in Plants Ants Bees Cranes and the very Fishes themselves which small Creatures do oftentimes afford Instruction even to Men in the managing of their Dominions Whence we are to understand that Prudence is a different thing from Craft which is called by some Ratio Statuum regendorum the Reason or Rule of State-Government For Prudence is agreeable to the Prime Cause namely God whence it searcheth into Prophesies and Divine Sciences to the end that it may attain to the knowledge of things to come But Craft seeks after its own satisfaction and Pleasure only and is Pleased with nothing more then the subtlety of its own Wit Which notwithstanding though falsely calls it self Wisedom according to what was spoken by Pharaoh Venite Sapienter opprimamus eos Come on let us deal wisely with them Prudence is Magnanimous and Proposeth to it self onely such things as are truly of most difficult Atchievement But Craft is pusillanimous and sneaking yet that it may appear to be Magnanimous It puts on the garbe of Pride and would fain seem to reach at high matters but alwayes out of the way of Vertue and it flies at mean things such as are scarcely of any value at all Prudence is addicted to Clemency and Truth but Craft is Cruel and given to Flattery Whence the Crafty Princes saying is that the Nobles the Wise and the Valiant are to be made out of the way least happily they should wrest the Scepter out of his Hand Quicquid excelsum est cadat was the saying of Nero and Periander whatsoever is High you must down with it But Prudence makes use of the Assistance of such for the establishing of its own Kingdom as we read that the Honest Pharaoh who differed much from the other Crafty Pharaoh made use of the service of Joseph And this is the Rule also of the Pope who is wont to advance such as are Wise and Learned persons to the dignity of being Cardinals The Crafty Prince studieth how to find out deceitful tricks and fraudulent devises to impose upon his Subjects But the Prudent looks after advantageous and useful Arts and such as may encourage his people and make every one of them the more ready for the discharge of his duty as we see in Numa who that he might render Himself the more Venerable and worthy of esteem to the People of Rome found out for them and established a Form of Religion and Sacred Rites that so by this meanes He might the better make them contain themselves within the Bounds of their Duty and Obedience Prudence is a Vertue that becometh Kings and Emperours but Craft is fit only for Davusses and Slaves Prudence while it loseth is a gainer as we may observe of St. Peter and from the practise of the Pope at this day and the more inwardly we are acquainted with it the more fervently we love it Whereas Craft while it gaines is a loser and the better it is known and seen into the more it is hated As wee see it was in that wicked Disciple of Machiavell Caesar Borgia who by his Crafty Politique Tricks lost the Principality of Flaminia which is now called Romania and in Tiberius also and Nero who by their Finesses and Crafty designments darkened and cast a cloud over the Majestie of the Roman Empire which had been rendred so resplendent and Illustrious before by the Prudent Management of Augustus Caesar The Prudent Prince proposeth to himself the good of the Publique only but the Crafty looks onely after his own Private gain The Prudent that he may accomplish his desires shewes himself Valiant even almost to Rash adventuring as Columbus Caesar Alexander and Cyrus did and withall Liberal also even to a seeming degree of Prodigality and lastly Just yet with a Moderation in his Severity And therefore when he gets any thing he bestowes it all upon his Subjects that so he may oblige them to him by Benefits and may make them
dispose of and order things there he will by this meanes both free the Pope from this suspition and shall withall effect his own desires seeing that it is evident that the Pope by his Indulgencies and Croysados brings him in more mony then those Dignities which he bestowes upon Cardinals Archbishops Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Persons do yearly stand him in so that he will be a gainer in that wherein he is affraid most of being a loser And this he would quickly confesse if he would but cause it to be publickly preached and proclaimed abroad that the end of the World is at hand and that the time is now come when there is to be one Sheepfold under One Shepheard that is the Pope and that Himself is another Cyrus whose Office it is to see these things brought about and to gather all the Flock into that One Sheepfold and that what Nation or Kingdom soever shall refuse to yield Him obedience shall be brought to destruction and many other things which I had rather deliver by speech then writing There are many Causes to be laid open whereby the King of Spain as well in reference to Prudence Power and lastly Prophesy may be rendered Admired by all the World For whether all these things do joyntly incline there necessarily must the Empire follow And seeing that this height of Dignity is to be atained unto under the Fortune and Interest of the Empire of Italy which is now called the German Empire there is a necessity that the King of Spain should labour by all possible meanes to reduce that Empire under his power And the better to effect this he must deal with the Pope that he would denounce the most direful Curses that may be against the Three Protestant Electors of the Empire threatning them withall that unlesse they return to the Church of Rome He will deprive them of their Electoral Dignity which they received from the Pope onely and that feeing they now affirm that the Pope is Antichrist they shall be convinced out of their own words and made to see that themselves are Antichristians and that therefore they ought of themselves to lay down that Dignity of theirs unlesse they will recant and again admit of the Catholick Beliefe And to this end the French Italians and Spaniards being first all reconciled and made friends by the Pope are to joyn their whole Forces together and to go against them which certainly would much promote this businesse and having overcome them they must utterly extirpate all the Sects that have raigned among them and send in new Colonies into their places And this expedition is so easy a one that Charles the Fifth himself might have been able to have effected it alone But whereas the Free Cities of Germany do in no wise desire to hear of any such Empire or Vniversal Monarchy lest so They should be reduced into their ancient servitude again and also because they are very slow in their Deliberations and as slow also in the Execution of them it would therefore very much advance this design if the rest of the Princes of Christendom joyning their Forces together would suddenly fall upon them Which businesse when it should be over the most Potent or most Forward of those Princes should be chosen Electors of the Empire by the Apostolical Authority of the Pope whether they were Germans Italians or Spaniards or else they might be chosen by Lot when the most potent of the Christian Princes should meet together in a Solemne Convention And although the Universal Empire of Christendom might easily by these meanes be translated to Spain yet it would be sufficient to do the businesse if but any one King of Spain would so order the matter that Himself might be but chosen Emperour who should then immediately march into Germany with a good Army and should instantly subdue it while it is at so great discord and variance within it self both in point of Religion and of State And this Expedition he ought speedily to go upon and that under a Pretext of marching for Hungary These things I say that all People might take notice how much it concerns the Interest of the King of Spain that he endeavour the attaining to the Empire of the World by the means of the Pope And indeed his being Dignified with the Title of the Catholick or Vniversal King shewes plainly that this is the will of the Holy spirit speaking by the Clergy CHAP. VI How the Clergy are to be dealt withal BUt it is not sufficient that we have the Clergy on our side but we are further to labour that at length we may get a Spaniard to be elected Pope or rather one of the house of Austria seeing it is evident that whensoever the Pope pronounceth his Oracle for this House He doth thereby raise it withall and on the contrary He casts a cloud upon it and keeps it under whensoever He declares against it Which the Kings of France observing they have endeavoured with all their might that the Pope should remove his Seat and go and live in France And so we know that when the Oracle at Delphos began once to speak on Philips side King of Macedon He presently what by his Politick Stratagems and what by Pretense of Religion arrived to the Monarchy of all Greece In the Determinations also concerning Differences in Religion it behoves the King of Spain to be the most Active of any in the managing of the same and indeed to take a greater care and to be more Vigilant herein then the Pope himself Whence we see that Philip King of France did alwaies in a manner as it were command Pope John the XXII as being himself more Zealous then the Pope was in defending and propagating that decree of the Church namely That the Saints in Heaven do see the Essence of God even before the last day of Judgment There must also alwaies some Novelty or other tending to Christian Religion be set on Foot such as are the Canonizations of Saints the changing of the Names of Holy Dayes of Moneths other the like things by transferring them to Christian Worship by which means He shall keep busy the heads of the Prelats as much as he can and so shall thereby the more confirm his own Authority among them He ought besides to oblige the Chief of the Clergy to himself by the most commodious Arts that he can as namely by sending into the Low-Countries and the like suspected places Cardinals and Bishops to be Governours there for the People would much more readily and chearfully obey the commands of such then they will the severity of the Spaniard and such Prelates would also adhere more to Them Neverthelesse in the mean time they ought to have as subordinate to them some Military Commanders with Forces too And besides He ought by the Popes consent too to send abroad such Cardinals as are either Spaniards born or at least of the Spanish Faction
subjects also and the Revenues of the Crown are by this means diminished neither will any Nation that is Populous endure to hear of the Spaniards who for the same cause endeavouring this way to bring into the Netherlands also became most hateful among them And this Course is the King of Spain at this day fain to take in Naples and Sicily for he hath not above five Thousand Spaniards to keep those so large Kingdomes in Obedience And indeed those Dominions are upheld and made good to the Spaniard meerely through Opinion onely And for this very reason are they forced to disarme the People which causeth them to suspect Tyranny and Inhumanity from them and which makes many also forsake their Country as Solon told Periander the Tyrant of Corinth Besides seeing they are necessitated to treat the Subjects hardly they are therefore fain to get Switzers about them for their Life-guards as not daring to trust their persons with those whose hatred they have for these reasons contracted which was also the discourse of the same Solon to the aforesaid Tyrant of Corinth Another meanes and cause why Spain should want Souldiers is because that the Spaniards when ever they conquer any Country that abounds with all manner of delights they do so give themselves up to the full injoyment of those delights that they thereby soften and enervate themselves and laying aside all their Innate fiercenesse and yet withal securety relying upon their own strengths alone they are easily driven out thence again For this cause the Romans when they saw their Army ro be grown Effeminate and much weakned by lying in Campania and enjoying the Pleasures thereof they presently reformed it And at Naples they never had any Native for their King by reason of the Delicacy of the Aire there and Venereal Pleasures whereby all their Manly Courage and Gallantry of Spirit is softened and taken down Neither could any Forreigners ever keep it long because that in processe of time they became cheap in the Peoples Eyes and so became a prey to other Forreigners as the Viscardians were to the Suevians the Suevians to those of Anjou and those of Anjou to the Arraganians and at length to the French and the Castilians who afterwards under the Command of the Great Captain drove the French out of the said Kingdom of Naples The like hath also happened to all those Fierce Nothern Nations that have heretofore possessed themselves of any Southern Countries for through the softnesse and delights of the said Countries they have at length become Effeminate and broken in their strength And by this meanes the Herulians became a Prey to the Goths and the Goths to the Grecians as the Lombards were to the French and as at length it befell to the Vandalls also and Hunnes Thus the Tartarians in like manner became the Laughing-stock and Scorn of the Turks but indeed the Turk now defends himself by his Guards of these Northern People after this manner After He had once perceived that the Courage of his own Nation began to cool He presently erected certain Seminaries of Souldiers they call them Seragli that is to say Cloysters or Enclosures into which he shut up all the likeliest and ablest-bodied young boyes of all the Nations that he had conquered where they should be taken off from acknowledging their own Parents and should be accustomed to reverence and own the Grand Signiour only as their Father and here they are also instructed in all Military Arts and in the Turkish Religion and out of these doth the Great Turk choose his Janizaries for the guard of his own Person and of these same Janizaries doth He afterwards make his Bashawes that is his Commanders and Counsellours in his Wars as also the Presidents of his Provinces and Baronies and such of these as He finds to be studiously inclined and fit for the Book he chooseth out of them the Mufties and the Cadies that is to say the Priests and Judges So that although the race of the Turks should faile yet will he never be unprovided of an able Souldiery seeing that He takes such an order to have such brought up thus for his service in every Province by the Presidents of the said Provinces And the Romans of old to the end that they might never want Souldiers proposed great rewards and Honours for all such as should approve themselves Valiant in War Hence we read that Ventidius Marius and other Valiant and Wise persons arrived to so great a height of Renown among them till at length by this means they made themselves Masters of the Whole World The King of Spain therefore to the end that He may remove from his Souldiery these two Evils which It chiefly laboureth under must make use of these two Arts especially First He must presently take away from all People that he shall conquer all their Immovable Goods and must allow them only food and cloathing and so set them to manure the ground and as for their Sons He may make them either Souldiers or Husband men according as he shall find them fittest for either of these Imployments And this will be best done in such Countries as He shall have brought into his Subjection upon some certain Occasion according as Joseph did in Egypt who taking his advantage by Occasion of the unexpected Dearth that arose there to the end that the People might the better be furnished with Corn he caused them to put all they had into their King Pharaohs hands from whom the Turks also have learnt this Art But there will be need of a very Wise Man that may be able to bring this about in our Country by taking good and plausible Occasions of doing the same Or else the King may constitute some Third Person as an Intermediate Lawgiver such as Joseph was in Egypt or Plato who was sent for into Sicily by Dionysius the Tyrant by whose means He may in each several Province reforme the Politie of three or five Cities there the examples whereof the rest will afterwards follow of their own accord when they shall but once take notice of the Benefits and Advantages that such a Reformation brings along with it And therefore for this end and purpose there must be care taken especially for the providing of Wise and Able Preachers for these places and I my self have a certain Secret to communicate which would much promote this businesse which I shall reserve for the Kings own Ear. Or if the King of Spain have a purpose and resolution of prosecuting the Course already begun although it seems not to be so proper a one for the New World my Opinion is that considering the Multitude of his conquered Vassals there and the Small Number of his Souldiers in comparison of them He ought to take this Course First of all let Him shew himself bountiful to the People by remitting their Taxes by mitigating the severity of the Lawes and by removing all occasions that the Inferiour Officers
a man of a Warlike spirit being King of Spain was afterwards chosen also Emperour of Germany by al which advantages He might have been able to have made himself Lord of the whole Earth had He but known as well how to give Lawes to those He conquered as He knew how to conquer them This Prince took Tunis and having driven thence Ariodenus the Turk He made Muleasses King of that place without changing the former State of the Kingdom at all After this He conquered Germany that is to say the Protestant Princes there whom He devested of their Electoral Dignity substituting into their places their Brethren and Kinsmen but otherwise leaving them in the same state He found them And although He had once got Luther himself into his hands and power yet looking after the empty Fame only of being accounted a Mercisul Prince He let him go again that so he might have the opportunity forsooth of reducing all Germany and the Nâ—therlands He took Francis the King of France and then set him again at liberty that so he might raise up a new War against Him and thereby frustrate all that He had done before He also took in the Cities of Sienna Florence and bestowed them upon the Family of the Medici that so He might procure himself more powerful enemies by the bargain For whosoever is raised by any one to some degree of Power what service soever is due from him to his Rayser he will be sure to decline the doing it as much as he can and therefore he seeks all the occasions he can of shaking off the Yoak that he may make his Benefactor his Enemy which very thing was done by the Dukes of Florence and by Maurice Prince Elector of Saxony against Charles the Fifth And indeed such Benefits as by reason of the greatnesse of them cannot any way be returned commonly they draw a hatred upon the Virtue of the Benefactor as we see it evidently fell out in the case betwixt the aforementioned Francis King of France and Charles the Fifth Another cause that this Monarchy hath not yet hitherto been brought about is this because that Philip could not succeed his Father not so much as in the War and therefore lost both the Low Countries together with the Imperial Titles But that Affliction which also fell upon him by the losse of Charles his Son was the most grievous of all the rest for he would have been able to have maintained the Wars in His stead which seeing the King of Spain is not able to do He is constrained alwaies to defend and make good the bounds of his Kingdom rather then to endeavour to enlarge them and to look to his Commanders and see that they do not pillage the Countries where their Command lies and enrich themselves out of the Kings Treasure it being their onely care how to keep up such a Trade of War by which they may make advantage to themselves rather then any way enlarge the Kings Dominions I shall therefore here lay down these Rules though they are not so proper for this place that when any new Country is conquered that is of a different Religion and manner of Government the Natives are presently to be removed out of it and carried into some other Country where they may serve as Slaves and their Children are to be Baptized and may be either put into the Seminaries before spoken of or else sent into the New World and into this conquered Country may be sent Colonies of Spaniards under the conduct of some Wise and faithful Commander Which Course ought to have been taken by Charles the Fifth at Tunis who should also have carried away Muleasses to Naples And He should by right have done the very same thing in Germany namely in Saxony in the Marquisat of Brandenburg and the Lantgravedome of Hessen into which Countries He should have sent New Colonies under the Command of New Governours The Free Cities also He should have suppressed and have taken away their Priviledges and lastly He should have made Three Cardinals the Governous of all Germany But when any New Country is taken in that is not of a different Religion but only differing in Government let Him then change nothing at all in matters that concern the People but only let Him set strong Guards upon the Country and let the Chief Officers be chosen all out of the Kings party but the Inferiour out of the Common People of the place the Lawes whereof may also be altered by little and little and made to conforme to the Kings Lawes either by heightning or abating the rigour of them according as the Condition and Temper of the place shall require All Authors or Heads of Factoins must be presently removed out of the way either by Death if they have been Enemies or if they have been friends they must be carried away into Spain that they may there receive Baronies for their reward or may have liberty of free Traffick into the Kings Dominions granted them But the Chief Heads of such People as He shall subdue He must never suffer to continue in their places which course ought to have been taken with the Strozzi Medici Cappones Petruccij and other Ringleaders and Heads of Factions at Sienna and Florence And indeed the same Course should have been taken with Francis King of France that so he might have had no further opportunity of attempting any thing against Charles the V. But as for the Hereticks and Luther the best way would have been to have suppressed them under some other Pretense presently after the breaking up of the Diet at Ausburg as I shall shew hereafter And if Charles the Fifth had but taken these Courses He had never left behind him so much work and trouble for King Philip and perhaps his young son Charles too might have been alive at this day and might perhaps by His Arms have added Africk Hungary Macedonia Italy and England to his Dominions But He as I have before said was the onely cause of all those Evills which we see at this day So that I do not wonder at all that notwithstanding the vast Treasures of the King of Spain yet the bounds of His Monarchy are not all this while enlarged But I rather wonder that so Wealthy a Prince hath not laid up all such his Revenues for Necessary Uses against times of need which might have been his ruin For if so be his Negotiation by Sea should be stopt or interrupted but for one five or six yeares space together or that his Plate Fleet should be intercepted in its return home from the West-Indies would it not be so fore a cut to him as that he must of necessity be forced to oppresse his own snbjects by laying most heavy and unusual Taxes upon them and so draw upon himself their Hate and besides should he not also undoe all his Merchants and defraud his Souldiers of their Pay and by that means be in danger
among the Venetians and this the King ought to do so much the rather because that he wants young Seamen more then any thing but yet to these he must joyn some Transalpine Seamen for the encreasing of his number There may also be instituted in these Islands two New Orders of Knights such as those of Malta neither ought the Revenewes belonging to the Knights that are of the Order of St James or of any other Order of Knighthood to be bestowed upon Idle Persons that the King may not alwaies be forced to make use of Auxiliary Seamen or else to imploy Mercenaries such as the Genois are In such Islands as these the Barons ought to have a stricter hand held over them then any others because that the Conveniency of the situation of such places may tempt them to take an occasion of Rebelling here rather then in any other places these men being indeed Naturally inclined to be Rebells And therefore the best way would be to send Barons from out of some other Countries into these Islands and of all other those of Spain are the fittest the rather because they lye all in the same Climate and these should be put in trust with all Offices and Seafaring Affaires with whom may be joyned some Transalpines partly to assist them as Souldiers and partly for Procreation of Children Neither ought any Noble men of the Natives to be intrusted with any of the stronger Holds or Castles for these are most commonly the Authors and Ringleaders of all Rebellions as they have alwaies proved against the French especially And yet these men have been since very faithful to the Arragonians by reason of their likenesse both in Temper and Manners In a word there is nothing more Necessary for the making a Prince to reign happily then that he throughly understand the Nature Temper and Inclination of his Subjects For according as He finds these to be so must He order his Government CHAP. XXIII Of Germany COmming now to speak of such Nations as are Enemies to the King of Spain to some of which notwithstanding He hath some Title the Germans first offer themselves unto us whom yet the King needs not fear seeing that the House of Austria is the most powerful in all Germany being now raised up to so great a height of Greatnesse and Power by continual Marriages with great Princes and Hereditary Successions and great Alliances as we see it at this day For Maximilian had the Provinces of the Lower Germany falling to him by Mary his wife who was daughter to Charles the last Duke of Burgundy and Philip. Maximilians Son became possessed of Spain with all its Appurtenances by the marriage of Joan he daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella in which Kingdomes his Son Charles succeeded And in these our daies King Philip the most worthy Son of so worthy a Father hath had Portugal with all its Appurtenances which certainly are very great fallen to Him by the death of his Mother Isabella from which very house is derived the Title of King of Both Spains Now we are to understand that the house of Austria is in league with none save only Catholick Princes such as is the Duke of Bavaria with the German Archbishops Bishops and some few others and therefore it is very necessary that these should still be more and more closely united to each other not only in Religion but also by Marriages into one anothers families and other like ties and bonds of Friendship which as it is the Justest course that can be taken so it is also the safest and is much more firm and durable then any other whatsoever But there must be all the care taken that may be to sow continually the seeds of discord and dissention between the Marquesse of Brandenburg the Landgrave of Hossen the Duke of Saxony the Duke of Brunswick the Count Palatine of the Rhine and also the Duke of Wirtemberg and those other Petty Common-wealths in Germany which may easily be effected by reason of those State Divisions and Emulations that frequently trouble these Republicks and fill them with suspicions and Jealousies of each other And hence it comes to passe that they never come in with their Aides to the Emperours in any seasonable time First because they conceive the Emperours businesse and design to be to bring Hungary in subjection not to the Roman Empire but rather to the House of Austria and then again they are afraid lest the Emperour when he is now grown to so great a height of Power should endeavour to put a yoak upon their necks also and keep them in subjection And therefore they do acknowledge Him to be indeed the Head of their Union but yet they will not yeeld Him any Homage but themselves order matters as they see cause among themselves both in reference to the abolishing of old Lawes and enacting New as also in doing the like in matters of Religion a sufficient example whereof we have both in Norimberg Spires Strasbourg and Frankford Yet I shall here add that this Dissension among the German Princes is in one respect Advantageous to the King of Spain and in an other Prejudicial as it usually proveth to be in reference to all Forreign Powers For the Turk hath already taken away Bosnia Croatia and Hungary from the House of Austria and it is to be feared that possibly he may some time or other force his way even into Austria it self also And then if Germany should find it self to suffer thus under the Protection of this House possibly they may reject It and elect some Heretick to be their Emperour which certainly would prove to be the cause of many Greater Mischeifs And therefore I conceive the King of Spain ought to labour as much as in him lies to bring either the Emperour himself or else his brother Maximilian to enter into a League with the Duke of Transylvania or else with the Muscovites and that they should joyn all their force and strength together to ruin the Turk I would have the Emperour also to engage Himself faithfully both to the Protestant Princes and Free Cities of Germany and also to the Duke of Bavaria that what places soever He shall take in in his Wars they shall be all reckoned as Parts added to the Empire and not be accounted as Additions to his Own House only Then again I would have him during the time of the War to confer upon all such persons of Eminency as shall be sent to his assistance by the Free Cities Lands and Lordships and the like Gratuities by this means to oblige them the more to His service rather then to that of their own Native Country in like manner as Caesar engaged His Army even against Rome it self But this must be the businesse only of some one of the House of Austria that shall be a Person both of great Valour and Wisedom neither can any meaner man undertake it And then having conquered the Turks He must
and most Eminent Men of any Seditious City should have been sent abroad some whither else under the Pretense of some Military Imployment and the Ringleaders of all Heresies were to have been extirpated and rooted out and honest Preachers chosen out among the Natives and such as were sound in the Catholick Religion should have been substituted in their places and then at last after all this should the Inquisition have been brought in by the means of the Bishops though under some other name And yet even then He should have forborn to have imposed any Taxes upon them that so it might appear to all the world that nothing but their own Welfare and Good was sought after by Religion and not the Kings Advantage and Benefit onely There should also have been set over them such Governours as were chosen either out of the Germans or Italians seeing they naturally abhor a Spaniard and these indeed should be employed only in the keeping of Cities but not be made Governours of them for they are too Severe and Ceremonious whereas the Dutch should have such Governours set over them as are more Remisse and Easie To these Errours were added others that were committed in the Managing of the War for the King himself who was very much beloved of them as being descended of German Blood yet never went himself in person to the War but sent in his stead Spanish Commanders who were cruel by nature and withal extreamly hateful to the Dutch being such as in their Commands would make use of Blowes rather then of Fair Words And the truth of this appeared in that they desired to have one of the House of Austria to be their Head and therefore made choyce of Matthias the Arch-Duke After him they chose one that was nearer unto them namely Francis the King of France his son who yet having afterwards laid a plot so as that upon a certain day appointed he would have entered into the City of Antwerp upon a fudden with all his Horse whilest the Citizens dreamt of no such thing and would by this meanes have made himself Master of it but in the mean time having before-hand laid no foundation for this his design neither by way of Religion nor Policy He was in an instant driven out again by the Tradesmen and Merchants and that not onely with the losse of his Reputation and Principality but so great was the Tumult that He had like to have lost his life in it too And although Margaret Arch-Duchesse of Austria was made Governesse of these Provinces for one while and ruled there indeed with the Love and good Will of the Subjects yet could She not by any means reduce the same into a due Obedience because that Heresie had now taken so deep root amongst them and that the People had besides a suspition that She had a Design of reducing them and bringing them again under the Obedience of the Spanish Scepter and this was the Pretense under which the Ringleaders of that Sedition amongst them covered their desire of Principality and Liberty which they so greedily thirsted after And yet afterwards God himself shewed a way by which these people might have been subdued seeing that they were so divided by their several Sects into divers parts some of them standing for dull Luther others for subtile Calvin and some again for dissolute Zuinglius and Mennon in so much that you can hardly find a house amongst them wherein these different Heresies are not maintained neither are we wanting to our selves in any thing save only that we have not the skill to lay hold on so wished an Opportunity as this is and to make the best use of it For every Kingdom that is divided within it self shall be destroyed and a firm Union hath alwaies a very hard Knot to tye Notwithstanding we have not yet succeeded all this while not because the Enemy doth do us any harm but because we annoy them For it is certain that by reason of their differences in Religion they dare not one of them so much trust another as to joyn together in the Election of a General for their Wars so that if ever any where it may be truly said here that Quot capita tot sententiae so may Men so many minds I would be understood to speak here in reference to their Making of Warres abroad for the enlarging of their Dominions For they are every one of them so Jealous as that they cannot believe but that should they proceed to the chusing of such a General to be over them He would presently take upon himself the Authority to extirpate all such Sects of Religion as are different from that which He professeth and it would be the general fear of them all that such a one would usurp an Absolute Power over them And therefore we see that the successes which they have had in their Wars under the Conduct of Count Maurice have yet heartned them so far onely as to enter into a League amongst themselves of maintaining a Defensive War but not of an Offensive And then in the last place there be many other mischiefs that lye in the way to hinder the Spaniards from compassing the Dominion of these Provinces The First whereof is because they are to fight with an Enemy in his own Country to whom both the Nature and Site of the Country and also the Temper of the Air are very agreeable all which are most contrary to the temper of the Spaniard The Second is because that this Nation understandeth very well how great Inconveniences do arise unto them by this their War with the Spaniard and therefore it is not without good cause that they do so hate the Spaniards who are the Authors of this War and certainly to them Pax una triumphis Innumeris potior A Firm Peace once settled betwixt them would be infinitely more Advantageous then all the Victories they shall get be they never so many A Third is because that the Spaniards being now as it were mad that the Netherlanders have been able to hold them play now for so many years together should they but once get the better of them They would questionlesse make a horrible slaughter amongst them seeing that They do now at this time miserably afflict what Towns soever they take in punishing the Inhabitants most grievously A Fourth Hinderance of the Spaniards Successe herein is because that the Spanish Commanders fight onely so as that they may have still Occasion to fight and not that they may get the Victory by this means making as it were a Trade of War which should be used rather as a Means not only of Defending but also of Enlarging their Dominions And the very same is the Practise of the Commanders of the other side also for even Count Maurice himself to the end that He may the longer keep that Power he hath in his hands and that conquering the Country by degrees he may at length get into his power
of the war for the war doth but onely increase their strength and makes them abler to resist And therefore I conceive that there are but two waies left now to be taken for the bringing this businesse to effect the first of which is to sow the seeds of Division amongst them and the second To draw them forth out of their own Country Cadmus having a designe of erecting a Monarchy at Thebes whether he came a stranger is said first to kill a Serpent by which was signified the Defence and Safeguard of Thebes and then afterwards to sow the Teeth of it that is to say to scatter abroad the Poyson of Desire of Innovation and an Earnestnesse to be instructed in the knowledge of learning namely in such New Sciences and Arts as he had brought over with him from his own Country And hence Souldiers are said to spring up who through mutual discord slew each other and the remainders of them that were left joyned themselves with Cadmus their Head and Captain so laying the foundation of the Kingdom of Thebes in Boeotia I affirm therefore that these very Courses ought to have been taken by the King of Spain and not a war to have been onely maintained against them all this while And certainly if the Southern People would ever conquer or lay the foundations of a Monarchy over the Northern seeing that they are not strong enough to bring the same about they ought to have recourse to the Arts either of Cadmus or else of Jason although of the two Jason went the more wisely to work seeing he first wonne the heart of Medea that is the good will and Affections of the Northern Women to him for the Women of those Countries are easily brought to love Southern Men by reason of the Natural Heat that is in them which those Women like very well neither indeed do the Netherlanders hate the Spaniards so much as their Wives love them Afterwards Jason by the enchantments of Medea slew the Dragon that is the Guard of the Kingdom such as are the Warlick and Valiant men of a Nation with the Preachers And then did he by the meanes of enchanted Oyntments tame fierce Beasts the Brazen-footed and fire-spitting Bulls that is by his Friendship and Gifts He won over to him the Nobles and Principal men of the Kingdom And at length by them he sowed about the Teeth of the Dragon that is by the assistance of the Nobles he spread abroad the Seeds of Discord and Dissention about Religion Arts and Honours Whence in the last place sprung up Souldiers that is Factions such as are those of the Guelphs and Gibellines the Pontificians and Imperialists the Lutherans and Catholicks wherein they killed each other But those that remained chose Jason for their Head and Commander and though few in number yet afforded Him their assistance in the getting of the Golden Fleece that is to say such an Empire as we here speak of This Learned Fable I have therefore proposed and explained that I might shew the King of Spain what he is to do seeing that He hath hitherto taken so great pains and lost so many men and all to no purpose as Cadmus did before he had killed the Serpent Namely in the first place I would have either the King himself or else his Daughter or his son to go and dwell either a Antwerp or Bruxels or if he think fit rather at Gaunt that so by their Presence the Subjects may be the more encouraged and withal Forraigners may be drawn thither too herein following the Example of Cadmus who after his men were slain went himself to the Fountain of the Sarpent that kept the same In the next place I would have Him remove from all the Neighbouring Provinces all Suspition or fear of having any more Wars made upon them by the Spaniards and He should suffer them to live a while in peace and quietnesse and He withal shew himself so gentle and full of humanity to his own Subjects there that Forreigners taking notice of it should even repine thereat and should have a desire kindled within them of enjoying the same happinesse and of joyning themselves with His Subjects in the defending of that his Dominion In the Third place He should remit the Taxes and Impositions that have been laid upon those Places that are under his subjection and should exact no more of them then what is necessary for the Maintenance of the Kings Court only and the payment of the Souldiers that keep the Garrisons there But however instead thereof He should require a certain number of Souldiers to be raised yearly out of every City which He may send away into the West-Indies And let him be sure to pick out the stoutest and ablest men for this purpose by this means diverting the Noxious Humours from hence and turning them another way and filling up with these men his Armies in other Parts For from all such Countries as abound in Men it is better to require Men then Mony for this is both more advantageous to the Prince and also more agreeable to the humour of the People themselves Fourthly I would have Him make a General Feast every year to be kept upon one certain day in each several City and great Town and at His own charge at which time every City throughout the whole Province would Voluntarily declare their readinesse to serve the House of Austria And at this Yearly Feast I would have no cost to be spared for there is nothing in the world that doth more unite this People among themselves and bind them to others then to Feast them and make them Drunk once a year at least which Practise is said to have been first taken up by Minos the ancient Law-giver Fifthly I would have the Name of the Inquisition taken away though the Inquisition it self should be kept up by the Bishops but under some other Name and It should not be so severe as it is in Spain and at Rome but the Terrour of it should consist in Words only and Threatnings rather then in any more Harsh Usage Sixthly that under pretense of a Croysade Expedition there should be Indulgences and Dispensations procured from the Pope concerning Fasting daies and the Abstaining from Flesh at certain times of the Year for these People are infinitely given to Feastings and Revellings Seventhly all Garrison'd Towns should be kept by Spanish Souldiers but the Government of the same should be committed to the care of Bishops as the Government of the several Provinces should be put into the hands of Cardinals who should be such as are of Ripe Years and are eminent also for Wisdom And then would I have some of the Gentry of Venice to be appointed as Judges and to have the hearing of all Law Causes amongst them for by this means the Italians and Low-Country-men will easily be reconciled to each other seeing that these later love the Italians much better then they do the Spaniards Eighthly
and also how by meanes of erecting Seminaries for the instructing of Youth both in learning and the use of Armes the Valour of his Souldiers may be encreased the Neglect of making use of Which Meanes hath been the cause that the Turk hath overstript us in this particular As concerning the businesse of Mony I conceive there is little or no odds on either side But if the King of Spain would but proceed in that Absolute way of Power over his Subjects that the Turk does over his He might easily surpasse him in Riches The King I confesse wants Mony but I have formerly shewed him by what waies He might gather together Mony enough to maintain a war against the Turk Now the Turk useth infinite Celerity and speed in putting what ever designs He hath in execution sparing no cost or charges for the providing of all things necessary for the same so that with the present Mony that he hath in his Treasury He presently raiseth Men and provides them Armes and gets all things immediately in a readinesse in order to the expedition He is upon and when he hath laid out all the Mony that he had in his Treasurie he then presently falls to filling it up again by laying fresh Impositions and Taxes upon his Subjects It is a necessity that is in a manner Peculiar to the Turk of making War upon his Neighbours round about and as it were in a Circle for they are all his enemies But now the condition of the Spaniard is otherwise For betwixt His Kingdome of Naples and his Duchy of Millan there lye the Pope and the Tuscans who are united unto him by the Tie both of Religion and Friendship He lies something remote indeed from the Netherlands and the West Indies which notwithstanding render him worthy the more admiration because that by reason of his Fleets he lies as it were neer unto them and by meanes of the same he may possibly in time make himself Master of those other Parts also which he hath not yet possessed himself of as we shall shew hereafter The King hath also this advantage that although those Countries lye at so great a distance from one another yet by the Tie of Religion they are all joyned to Spain Lastly whereas in Turky the Eldest sons of the Emperours are wont alwaies to make away with their Younger brothers this piece of Cruelty of theirs does but set a Note of Infamy upon them and it may easily so fall out that some One of these Younger Brothers may get away out of his Elder Brothers power and may be able afterwards to make War upon his Brother And we see that this had been like to have come to passe in Gemes the Brother of Bajazet who having gotten out of prison might have been able to have done his Brother very much Mischief and by the Assistance of the Christians might have made his way into Greece had he not by the Arts his Brother Bajazet used and by the treachery also of the Christians been taken off by Poyson And Selim although He did not desire to make Himself Emperour yet He made himself very strong at first only to preserve himself from being put to death but afterwards taking the Opportunity when it was offered him He turned both his Father and Brother out of the Empire and commanded them to be both put to death at which Juncture of Time that Empire might very easily have been utterly subverted and ruined And truly I conceive that the Total destruction of that Empire cannot be brought about any other way then by this one thing namely their most bloody Cruelty that they Practise upon their nearest and dearest Friends and Kindred For seeing that the great Turk takes as many Wives to himself as he pleases and so gets an Infinite number of Sons by them all which are most certainly assured that when ever their Eldest Brother comes to be Emperour They shall be all of them murdered it is very probable that some time or other there may Civil Wars arise in that Empire by which it may either be totally destroyed or at least may be divided into many parts which would give the Turks enemies an Opportunity of falling upon him and so of ruining him Neither need any one wonder that this hath not as yet happened to this very day seeing that this Empire is not of any so very long standing For Ottoman who was the Founder of it died but in the Year of our Lord 1328. in the time of Pope Benedict XI And yet we know that there have already been bloody Wars amongst them which seems to confirm this our Prognostication and makes me the willinger to give credit to Torquatus the Astrologer who foretold that it would come to passe that in the time of the Sixteenth Emperour of Turky that Empire should fall to the ground namely when the Moon which is the Ensign of that Empire shall begin to decrease that is to say when It shall be divided into Two Hornes by two of the Great Turks Sons rising up one against the other and causing the Empire to be divided into Two parts One of which Brothers turning to Christianity shall come over to the Christians Now these Two Hornes signifie Two Kingdomes for Kingdomes are oftentimes denoted by the Ensigns or Armes of the same as we see in the Revelation of St. John where the Kingdomes themselves are from their Insignia called sometimes Dragons sometimes Eagles and sometimes also Lions and the Prophet Jeremy calleth the Kingdome of the Assyrians by the name of a Dove because the Assyrians had the Figure of a Dove for their Ensign or Devise Now in this Particular the Spaniard is much more happy then the Turk because that His Sons do not fall out or hate each other for any such Cause Yea we see at this day that those of the House of Austria partly by reason of this very thing because they are Brothers and Kindred and partly also through fear of the other Christian Princes and of the Hereticks are at so much the greater Concord and Agreement among themselves And you shall scarse find more Brothers or Kindred in any one Princes Family then in that of Austria and yet have not these ever broken the Bond of Consanguinity one with another nor have ever raised any Commotions in their Republick through Ambitious Ends and Respects but have on the contrary preserved each to other their Just Rights Untoucht and have lived together in so Unshaken a Concord and Union as that they seem to be so many Bodies animated all with One Soul and guided all by One Will. We may adde hereto that the Younger Brothers of this House have hopes either of being made Cardinals or else of being Elected Kings of Poland or of some of the other Forreign Elective Kingdoms so that the House of Austria by reason of the Multitude of Sons growes the Greater whereas the Ottoman House does for the same reason decrease
while that we do nothing but faâ—â— together by the Eares one with another But if this cannot be brought about the Persians must then be persuaded to joyn with the Ethiopians Muscovites and Polonians as hath been said before And I do believe also that the Great Turks Bassaes and other of his Subjects would quickly be got to fall off from him if so be they could but be once fully perswaded assured that they should each of them really be made the absolute Lords of what they now possessed All which things ought to have their Accomplishment in the death of this Mahomet III. now Raigning seeing that That Number is Fatal The Great Turks Younger Sons also are to be seazed upon and conveigh'd away least the Eldest Brother should Murder them according to their usual Custome and this the Venetians may do conveniently enough by their Merchants or else the same may be committed to the Christian Slaves that are there to be done by them After that this Empire shall be thus weakned and divided it would be convenient then to send thether some Preachers who should endeavour to convince the Natives of their Error There should care also be taken by all meanes for the bringing of Printing into Turky by meanes whereof that People may be taken off from the exercise of Arms and may apply themselves to Books and by being taken up with Disputations concerning Points of Divinity and Philosophy both of the Peripateticks Stoicks Platonists and Telesians they may be divided amongst themselves and so be the more weakned For those that give themselves to the study of Books onely usually become a Prey to such as apply themselves to the exercise of Armes and the study of the Arts too as we see in the example of Athens which became a Prey to the Lacedemonians both which Nations Philip King of Macedon by the force of his Armes afterwards subdued being first instructed by Epaminondas by what meanes this was to be effectd Cato was wont to say that the Romans would lose their Empire so soon as ever they should begin to apply themselves to the study of the Greek Tongue and Sciences This the Great Turk who is wiser then We are knew very well and therefore preferred rather the exercise of Armes and got him great Guns and Slaves I mean those Jewes that were sent to him by Ferdinand the last King of Arragon for he knew very well what and how great Advantage might be made by Sâ—â—â—es and that the Children that they should beget were to be brought up in the exercise of Armes and the knowledge of Military Affaires But then on the contrary He would not receive nor accept of those Printing-Presses and Letter for the Printing of the Arabick Tongue that were sent Him by the great Duke of Tuscany because he would not have his Dominions filled with Books because that would much take off the Military Valour of his Subjects and besides because that Mahumetanisme by frequent Disputations about it might easily in a short time have been overthrown It hath also been very prejudicial unto Us that we have had no Law made for the Injoyning of Silence whereby we should have been commanded to conceal some things from others which Law certainly would have been of very good use But now adaies in Germany all things are made Publick and laid open to the whole World and hence it is that we see every one there publisheth in Print a New Bible and that the Empire goes to ruine and that all places are overwhelmed with Luxury and Riot And had not the fear of the King of Spain's Armies kept the Netherlanders in Awe they also would by this time have been as Effeminate and Luxurious as the Germans are And the like would have befallen to the English also So that we might have hopes that unlesse there were a War maintained amongst them to keep them in exercise they would all quickly come to utter ruine after that they should but once come to be Effeminate Heart-lesse and at discord one with another as we have said formerly and that so much the rather because that the Heresie they professe seeing it denyes the Freedom of the Will is repugnant to all Principles of Policy Now all Heresies when they are once gone so far as to Atheisme are reduced again into the way of Truth by some Wise Prophet or other such as were in Italy Thomas Aquinas Dominicus Scotus and others For Heresies also have their Periods as well as States which fall first from being governed by good Kings into the hands of Tyrants from their Tyranny into an Aristocracy from thence into an Oligarchy and so at length to a Democracy and in the end they shift about again and in a Circle as it were return again to their first form either of a Kingdom or a Tyranny CHAP. XXXI Of the Other Hemisphere and of the New World THe Admirable Discovery of the New World which was foreseen by St. Brigitt and expressely foretold by Seneca in his Medea and there lively set forth in its proper Colours and Names according as he had received the same from one of the Sibylls hath been the cause that this Hemisphere of Ours hath been thereby rapt into the greatest Admiration that can be For some of the Ancientest among the Philosophers of which number was Xenophanes were of Opinion that That Other Hemisphere lay all covered over with Water some others as Lactantius and St. Augustine thought that the Earth was not a Perfect Globe about which the Sun was carried in his Diurnal Motion And some others believed among whom was Dante that those Countries were Inhabited and were a certain kind of Earthly Paradise Some there were that doubted hereof amongst whom was Aristotle and again some others of them confidently affirmed that the Earth was an Absolute and Perfect Orbe or Globe and of this number were Plato and Origen And therefore it is but for just cause that all the World admires the Spanish Monarchy as both very Daring and very Powerful seeing that It hath measured and overcome so many Seas and in a short space of time hath put a girdle about the vast Globe of the Whole Earth which neither Carthage nor Tyre were ever heretofore able to do nor yet the wisest of All Men King Solomon whose Fleet making its Voyage as far as Goa only and Taprobane spent alwaies three whole years in the same which yet Our Seamen now adaies perform in three Moneths time So that although the Vast distance of place that there is betwixt the several parts of the Spanish Monarchy seems to render It Weak yet doth their Admirable Skill in Navigation for the shortening of those Distances together with those other Means of Uniting these Parts which the Spaniards daily do make use of or may make use of when they please make the same most Illustrious and more Admirable then some perhaps do imagine However to the end that the King of Spain may not