to proceed to Excommunication of the Republick who still offered to shew both reason and ancient custom to warrant their Actions But this Pope contrary to his Predecessors moderation required absolute obedience without disputes Thus it continued for about a year the Pope still threatning Excommunication and the Venetians still answering him with fair speeches and no complyance till at last the Popes zeal to the Apostolick Sea did make him to excommunicate the Duke the whole Senate and all their Dominions and that done to shut up all their Churches charging the whole Clergy to forbear all sacred Offices to the Venetians till their Obedience should render them capable of Absolution But this act of the Popes did but the more confirm the Venetians in their resolution not to obey him And to that end upon the hearing of the Popes Interdict they presently published by sound of Trumpet a Proclamation to this effect That whosoever hath received from Rome any Copy of a Papal Interdict publish'd there as well against the Law of God as against the Honour of this Nation shall presently render it to the Councel of Ten upon pain of death Then was Duado their Ambassador call'd home from Rome and the Inquisition presently suspended by Order of the State and the Flood-gates being thus set open any man that had a pleasant or scoffing wit might safely vent it against the Pope either by free speaking or by Libels in Print and both became very pleasant to the people Matters thus heightned the State advised vvith Father Paul a Holy and Learned Frier the Author of the History of the Council of Trent vvhose advice vvas Neither to provoke the Pope nor lose their own Right he declaring publickly in Print in the name of the State That the Pope was trusted to keep two Keys one of Prudence and the other of Power And that if they were not both used together Power alone is not effectual in an Excommunication And thus these discontents and oppositions continued till a report was blown abroad that the Venetians were all turned Protestants which was believed by many for that it was observ'd the English Ambassadour was so often in conference with the Senate and his Chaplain Mr. Bedel more often with Father Paul whom the People did not take to be his Friend And also for that the Republick of Venice was known to give Commission to Gregory Justiniano then their Ambassadour in England to make all these Proceedings known to the King of England and to crave a Promise of his assistance if need should require and in the mean time they required the King's advice and judgement which was the same that he gave to Pope Clement at his first coming to the Crown of England that Pope then moving him to an Union with the Roman Church namely To endeavour the calling of a free Council for the settlement of Peace in Christendom and that he doubted not but that the French King and divers other Princes would joyn to assist in so good a work and in the mean time the sin of this Breach both with His and the Venetians Dominions must of necessity lie at the Pope ' s door In this contention vvhich lasted almost two years the Pope grew still higher and the Venetians more and more resolv'd and careless still acquainting King James with their proceedings which was done by the help of Sir Henry Wotton Mr. Bedel and Padre Paulo whom the Venetians did then call to be one of their Consulters of State and with his Pen to defend their just Cause which was by him so performed that the Pope saw plainly he had weakned his Power by exceeding it and offered the Venetians Absolution upon very easie terms which the Venetians still slighting did at last obtain by that which was scarce so much as a shew of acknowledging it For they made an order that in that day in which they were Absolv'd there should be no Publick Rejoycing nor any Bonfires that night lest the Common People might judge that they desired an Absolution or were Absolved for committing a Fault These Contests were the occasion of Padre Paulo's knowledge and interest with King James for whose sake principally Padre Paulo compiled that eminent History of the remarkable Council of Trent which History was as fast as it was written sent in several sheets in Letters by Sir Henry Wotton Mr. Bedel and others unto King James and the then Bishop of Canterbury into England and there first made publick both in English and in the universal Language For eight years after Sir Henry Wotton's going into Italy he stood fair and highly valued in the Kings opinion but at last became much clouded by an accident which I shall proceed to relate At his first going Ambassadour into Italy as he passed through Germany he stayed some days at Augusta where having been in his former Travels well known by many of the best note for Learning and Ingeniousness those that are esteemed the Virtuosi of that Nation with whom he passing an evening in merriments was requested by Christopher Flecamore to write some Sentence in his Albo a Book of white Paper which for that purpose many of the German Gentry usually carry about them and Sir Henry Wotton consenting to the motion took an occasion from some accidental discourse of the present Company to write a pleasant definition of an Ambassadour in these very words Legatus est vir bonus peregrè missus ad mentiendum Reipublicae causâ Which Sir Henry Wotton could have been content should have been thus Englished An Embassadour is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his Country But the word for lye being the hinge upon which the Conceit was to turn was not so exprest in Latine as would admit in the hands of an Enemy especially so fair a construction as Sir Henry thought in English Yet as it was it slept quietly among other Sentences in this Albo almost eight years till by accident it fell into the hands of Iasper Scioppius a Romanist a man of a restless spirit and a malicious Pen who with Books against King Iames Prints this as a Principle of that Religion professed by the King and his Ambassadour Sir Henry Wotton then at Venice and in Venice it was presently after written in several Glass-windows and spitefully declared to be Sir Henry Wottons This coming to the knowledge of King Iames he apprehended it to be such an oversight such a vveakness or vvorse in Sir Henry Wotton as caused the King to express much vvrath against him and this caused Sir Henry Wotton to write two Apologies one to Velserus one of the Chiefs of Augusta in the universal Language vvhich he caused to be Printed and given and scattered in the most remarkable places both of Germany and Italy as an Antidote against the venomous Books of Scioppius and another Apology to King Iames vvhich vvere both so ingenious so clear and so choicely Eloquent that his Majesty vvho vvas
excuse is accepted but because they did not aftervvards vvithout a second demand send him vvord that they vvould be at leisure incrassatus est sanguis on the Spanish side A much deeper and incurable case is fallen out betwixt the French and the Extraordinary Ambassador of Parma vvho after the French sent first unto him as they say though he affirms it vvas the Spaniard did yet visit the Spaniard before them belike according to the method of his devotion and proximity to his Master or of Authority in this Court howsoever hereupon the Duke of Angolesme assigned the same Ambassadour a day to visit him and vvhen he came alla buona he shut his Gates upon him Which is here generally the worse interpreted because he is a Bishop seeming an affront to both his qualifications In such a touchy time as this I had almost had my share to whom after the three French Ambassadors had sent their three Secretaries for prevention of the Spaniard as far as Cloyster Newburg vvhere I made my stop they vvere likewise the first here that sent to visit me but came all three together and vvith them Monsieur de Beaugie the Ordinary Agent Whereupon fell a little disputation between us Whether visits of respect between Representants of equality being received in specie should be paid in individuo vvhich seemed unto me no good complemental Logick but finding afterwards first that their Commissions vvere the same then that the Emperor had sent to their several Lodgings and the Popes Nuncio though visited in gross had visited them apart I made an end of this scruple yet not before a promise that if your Majesty should send more Ambassadors hither they vvill proceed a la pareille vvith them having gained thus much by this small debate that perchance they think me not over-punctual nor altogether supine I have likewise received and rendered to the Spanish Ambassador all due formalities and from all other Ambassadors and Agents except the Popes and the Duke of Parma's vvhose habits make us incommiscible Of the rest I need not speak at all of the French and Spanish I vvill presume to speak my opinion as far as may conduce to the main I find the French surely of good intention towards a peace here but not hasty either to believe in truth that the Crowns of Hungaria or Bohemia vvere Hereditary Here at their first coming they had more credit as I receive from a good hand then they seem to have novv vvhich is thought to proceed from the Spanish Ambassador vvho in this Court is not only the Supream Counsellor but hath in truth a Dictatoriam potestatem as the French find the reason being not very obscure for vvhen I put in the major that the Emperors resolutions depend upon necessities and in the minor that his necessities depend upon Spain I think I may spare the conclusion Thus stand the publick Ministers here and thus they stand one vvith another vvhich I thought fit to set down because it hath some influence into the general business Novv to proceed to the scope of my employment in matter of substance I had Audience of the Emperor as the French the second day after my arrival vvhere vvhat I said vvill best appear to your Majesty out of the Memorial vvhich I aftervvards sent unto him at his own requisition here following vvord for vvord as I have translated it out of the Italian in vvhich language the Emperor treateth most vvillingly The Proposition of Henry Wotton Knight Ambassador Extraordinary from his Majesty of Great Britain delivered in the Name of his Sovereign-Lord the King with all real intention to his Sacred Imperial Majesty the 23 of August stylo vet did contain four points FIrst That his Imperial Majesty would be pleased to make known his inclination towards a sincere Treaty upon the present Motions Secondly That it will please him by one or two or more to inform the said Ambassador of all the fundamental Arguments in the merit of the Cause which shall be most faithfully represented by him to the King his Master Thirdly Either his Imperial Majesty vvill refuse or agree to enter into Treaty In the first case It vvere vain for Representants of Princes of good intentions to spend further the Reputation of their Masters In the second His Majesty of Great Britain doth think it most convenient that both the Parties together with their Confederates be contented to condescend to a cessation of Arms for some competent time lest vvhile their Reconcilements vvere in Treaty their passions be more exasperated then before Fourthly That for the furthering of their Reconcilement His Imperial Majesty would be pleased to free the passages of Curriers from Vienna to Prague vvhich shall be procured likewise on the other side Besides these substantial points the said Ambassador did touch three Considerations about the Person of His Soveraign Lord the King which did render Him with His Imperial Majesty of indubitable credit although interessed by so strait Bonds in the contrary side First His Majesties clearness in the beginning of these Motions Secondly His Neutrality in the progress thereof Thirdly His Equity in the present Touching the first point the Ambassador declared in His Majesties Name with high and holy affirmations that He had had in Election of His Son-in-Law to the Crown of Bohemia no participation of Counsel or fore-knowledge VVhich His Majesty did not only affirm for Himself but as indubitably in the Person of His Son-in Law that he had no way fore-practised that Election For the second point of Neutrality the Ambassador said that His Majesty had not yet given the Title of King to His Son-in-Law or of Queen to His Daughter in any Letter either publick or private nor had permitted the same Title in any Sermons within His Kingdomes As for the third point of Equity the Ambassador shewed most evidently the great moderation and aequanimity of the King his Master in not having setled any firm judgement touching the merit of the Cause upon information from that side vvherein His Majesty is most interessed vvithout first requiring farther knowledge from the Emperor himself by an express Minister This vvas the Memorial of my Proposition Four days after the Emperor sends me vvord that his Answer vvas ready giving me my choice vvhether I vvould receive it from himself or else from the Baron of Eckemberg his Principal Counsellor and vvhether verbally or in vvriting or both In this gracious option I took hold of the vvriting because scripta manent and vvished I might have it from the Baron vvithout the Emperors farther trouble till from it might rise some nevv occasion To the Baron I vvas called two days after vvhom I found infirmer of his feet then of his head for in truth he is a Gentleman of strong conceit and fair delivery though as most of the Court are tainted vvith the Iesuit From him I received besides complements and many thanks for the honour that your Majesty
may speak both openly and safely Yea let me adde this with confidence that if Nature her self the first Architectress had to use an expression of Vitruvius windowed your brest if your Majesty should admit the eyes of all men not only within the privatest parts of your Bed-Chamber but even into the inwardest closets of your heart no other thing at all would there appear save the splendor of your Goodness and an undistemper'd serenity of your Vertues What said I if you would admit As if those whom the Supreme Power hath set on high and in the light could be hid from our eyes or cover as it were by a drawn cloud the wayes of their Lives and Government Herein no doubt Obscurity and Solitude it self is more vailed then Majesty Thinks that Abissine Emperor whom men report to appear to publick view but once a year that therefore it is less known what he doth in secret Know we not at this day that Domitian even in his closest Cabinet wherein each day he shut up himself did nothing but stick flyes with a pointed Bodkin Lay Tiberius hid in his recess to the Islands of Caprea when among so many wounds and tortures of his conscience which as so many furies tormented him many tokens of a distracted mind did daily break forth Surely no. Your Majesty hath taught the Princes of your own and future times the only and most wholsome way of self-concealing in that you indeavour nothing to be concealed There are certain creatures of ingrateful aspect as Bats and Owls condemn'd by nature to hate the light I know also that some in power have also held it among the secrets of State and as a great mystery of craft to be served at a distance as if reverence did only dwell in Dens and Caves not in the light Whence then these Subtilties of Government In a word and freely they walked in crooked paths because they knew not the shortest way to be good But your Majesty doth not shun the eyes and access of your Subjects delight not in covert nor withdraw your self from your own people you do not catch at false veneration with a rigid and clouded countenance yea sometime you vouchsafe to descend even to some familiarity without offence to your dignity for thus you reason with your self in the clearness of your own bosome If it were not above our power to lye concealed yet were it below our goodness to desire it then which nothing surely can be in effect more popular for good Kings all good men openly revere and even the worst do it silently Whilest Vertues beauty not unlike some brightest Rayes strikes into the most unwilling eyes Wherefore as of late I took in hand Tranquillus Suetonius who hath laid open the very bowels of the Cesars to beguile in the time of your absence with some literate diversion the tedious length of those dayes and fell by chance upon that passage so lively describing the wailings of Augustus after the Varian defect often crying out Render me Quintilius Varus my Legions my desires of Your Majesty instantly flamed out and my wishes gowed for your Return for it seemeth then much juster for England to have solicited her SISTER with these panting suspirations then Augustus the Ghost of Quintilius Restore to me Scotland my Sister our King Restore the best of men whom none but the wicked love not none but the ignorant praise not Restore both the Director and Rule it self of Morality whereby we may become not the gladder only but the better too while at hand we may contemplate a thing most rare One in highest Place not inaulging to himself the least excess Since therefore such you are O best of Kings suffer I humbly pray if rather by Prayers then Arguments you choose to be inclined That the nine Nations of different Language for I reckon them no fewer over which you gently reign may glory in your being such and may each declare it not in their native Dialects alone which would not give sufficient compass to our joyes but however in this also more publick Tongue That even forraigners may know your Britany which formerly bestowed upon the Christian World their first and most renowed Emperor is not become so barren yet as not to afford even at this day a Type of the highest-famed King Having now thus I hope somewhat smooth'd the way to your patience in hearing good it will be henceforth out of the whole state of your Life and Carriage thus far summarily to pick up some particulars as those do who make their choice of Flowers For I please my self more in the choice then in the plenty of my Matter Although I am not ignorant neither that in this kind of speaking the diligence or ambition of the Ancients was so profuse that perhaps Timeus said not unwittily That Alexander the Macedonian sooner subdued all Asia then Isocrates did write his Panegyrick Certainly there seems then to have been too great an indulgence to Art while the Wits of Orators were wanton in that fertile age of Eloquence but it becometh me mindful both of my simplicity and age to touch rather the heads of your praises then to prosecute them all that even the succinctness of my speech may as it were resemble the passage of my fleeting years In the first place is offered the eminent Nobleness of your Extraction whereby in a long Order of antecedent Kings your lustre is above them all your Father himself not excepted This in brief I will deduce more clearly Your Great Great-Grandfather Henry the Seventh whether more valiant or fortunate I know not being almost at once an Exile and a Conqueror united by the Marriage of Elizabeth of York the white Rose and the red the Armories of two very powerful Families which being in division had so many years polluted their own Countrey with bloud and deadly Fewds The more blessed Colligation of the Kingdomes then that of the Roses we owe to the Happiness of your Father who even for that alone were to be remembred ever with highest veneration But in you singly most Imperial Charles is the conflux of the glory of all Nations in all Ages which since the Romans have possessed Britany either by right or by Arms in you I say alone whom the Cambrians first the English-Saxons Scots Normans and finally the Danes do acknowledge with us to be the branch of that Stock that hith erto hath worn the Crown In this perchance if the meanness of the comparison be not rejected not unlike to Europes famous Ister which rolling along through vast Countreys is ennobled with the waters of so many famous streams One not obscure among our Authors hath written that our Ancestors would not acknowledge the Norman Rule in England for legitimate which had so weak a beginning until Maud marrying with Henry the First had brought into the world a child of the bloud of the ancient Saxon Kings she was Sister to David Nephew twice removed
off King Ethelred your Progenitor How much is there now a nobler cause for our imbracing your Majesty with open arms who are descended unto us from so plentiful a Race of Kings since the access of the most ancient Cambrian Bloud to the rest of your Nobility by Queen ANNE your Mother a Lady of a great and masculine Mind And how much the more truly may we now repeat that which in the former Age Buchanaâ—… a Poet next the Ancients of most happy invention sang to your Grand-mother I wish with happier fate From numberless Progenitors you hold Transmitted Scepters which they sway'd of old But all these hitherto you scarcely account your own I pass then to such as are your own peculiar which conferre no less of lustre then they admit Three particulars we observe O best of Kings which Appellation I now again willingly and shall often use in your Beginnings of no small importance to your succeeding Progress as for the most part the first favour of Principles continues in the after-growths First That you were not born to the supream hope of Soveraignty so as flattery though an evil swift and watchful which attends the Cradles of Potent Heirs more gently pressed on your tender years And the whiles your native goodness drank in with a draught more uncompounded the generous liquor of Integrity for no doubt how the earliest dispositions of private persons much more of Princes be at first formed and as it were instilled that I may so speak is of highest importance to the Commonwealth whereof they are to become afterwards not only the Props but also the Precedents Next That you succeeded a Brother of no small Natural Endowments which begat thence-forward in your Parents a more industrious and closer sedulity for it surpasseth care for the accomplishment of their only Son Nay your own spirits daily grew the more intent when now the weight of so vast an expectation was lodged on your self alone Then were advanced to you such who faithfully instructed in learning that youth of yours as yet unapt for business Then such were sent for who as your strength increased dressed you in the exercises of the Horse which I call to mind with how graceful a dexterity you managed until afterwards at a solemn Tilting I became uncertain whether you strook into the beholders more Joy or Apprehension In the third place It comes to mind that for some time while Nature was as it were in strugling you were somewhat weak of limbs and far below that vigour which now with gladness we admire which I may judge to have befallen by the secret Councel of Providence thereby at that time to render more intense the care of furnishing your mind as became the Heir then secretly designed of a King whom Malignants themselves deny not to have been the wisest of all Princes from many Ages past From your first Essaies I shall hasten to your stronger times not unmindful of my promised business After your forraign Travels obnoxious to many hazards you came unto the Crown whence it appeared how much your self then dared to adventure when the while at home each one was trembling for your sake But the favour of Heaven brought you back safely to us not so much as coloured with out-landish Dye not unlike another Ulysses who accounted it sufficient even by Homers witness To have known the Morals of Men and Cities When you had assum'd the Crown before all other things there was resplendent in you a Religious mind the Support of Kingdomes the Joy of good men The Chappel Royal was never more in order The number of eminent Divines daily increased Sermons in no age more frequented In none more learned And the example of the Prince more effectual then the Sermons No execrations rashly proceeded from your mouth Your ears abhorring not only any wanton but even the least sordid word which perchance under Edward the 4th while toyish Loves did raign passed for Courtly eloquence Neither stopped this piety within the Walls of Court but was diffused also through the Kingdome The Church Revenues were not touched Temples here and there new founded Dâ—…apidations repaired And which Posterity will chiefly speak of the Riches of your Kingdome excited by your most religious exhortation for restauration of the Church consecrated to the Apostle of the Nations out of question the amplest and equally ancient of the Christian world which had sustained the injuries of time Where your Majesties care was greatly conspicuous in demolishing those private dwellings which disgraced the aspect of so goodly a Fabrick And not less in imposing the management of that whole business upon that most vigilant Prelate who for his singular fidelity and judgement hath lately merited far higher place Now next to God how tender was your affection to your People When the Sickness raged by your Command recourse was had to publick Fastings When we were pressed with greater fear then evil of Famine the Horders of Provisions were constrained to open their Garners and the prices of grain abated Among these most pious cares I cannot omit one peculiar Elogy proper to your own providence whereof I must repeat the Original a little higher There were hatched abroad some years agone or perhaps raked up out of Antiquity certain Controversies about high points of the Creed which having likewise flown over to us as flames of Wit are easily diffused lest hereabout also both Pulpits and Pens might run to heat and publick disturbance Your Majesty with most laudable temper by Proclamation suppressed on both sides all manner of debates Others may think what pleaseth them In my opinion if I may have pardon for the phrase The Itch of disputing will prove the Scab of Churches I shall relate what I have chanced more then once to observe Two namely arguing about some subject so eagerly till either of them transported by heat of contention from one thing to another they both at length had lost first their Charity and then also the Truth Whither would restless subtilty proceed if it were not bounded there is of captiousness no end but seasonable provision was made against it To these praises of Piety I will adde a very great evidence of Gratitude and almost a greater of Constancy towards George Villiers Duke oâ—… Buckingham him when amidst the dangers of the Spanish journey he had been the nearest of your attendants your Majesty afterwards as in requital bore safely with you at home through all the rocks of either Fortune till an unforeseen day was his conclusion We observed also no ordinary beams of your Favour to be cast upon another of your trusty Associates in the same Journey a Person of approved Judgement Neither do I recount these only among the arguments of an heart mindful of faithful Offices which indeed is Kingly but likewise of singular obsequiousness towards your Father even when deceased to whom the Duke of Buckingham had been for many years a Favourite as iâ—… Your Majesty
the Lutheran Princes being likely to do nothing without counsel of their Ministers and they being the passionatest Men amongst them These two objections considered it was thought fit by the Count Palatine into whose hands I had delivered my self after deliberation vvith his own Counsellors that I should at this time only dispose the other Princes and Representants of Cities in your Majesties Name towards a concurrence with apt lenitives and probabilities and that I should endeavor by your Majesties Christian perswasion to remove all asperity that might impeach it leaving a more particular prosecution thereof till the noise of the Empire were settled in which mean while many things might be further thought on to advance this purpose and be conferred afterwards by Letters Hereupon I framed my Speech to the Princes in the manner following I told them that I brought thither two sorts of Commissions The one from the Duke and Senate of Venice sub fide tacita which I presented in writing containing a profession of much good will from that State towards them and a clear inclination to a streighter correspondence with them In contemplation of whom the Republick had resolved not to permit the transport of any succours cross their Gulf into Austria for the further troubling of Germany This vvas the substance of that I brought under silent confidence without any other credit then mine own honesty might bear vvhich had been delivered unto me by order of Senate whom I acquainted thus far that I vvould take home-wards the vvay of Germany Wherein I craved from the Princes and the rest some taste of their inclinations that these fair offers might be farther prosecuted by your Majesties mediation vvhom I knevv much to desire the further strengthning of this Body with good Amities My other Commission vvas as I said from mine own Royal Master from vvhom I brought Letters of his confidence unto them after presentation vvhereof and all other due premises I told them That your Majesty having long and deeply considered the corruptions that have grown in your own Kingdoms and in the States of your Confederates and Friends by the secret practices of Jesuits did finally observe but one only cause of this creeping mischief and but one onely remedy vvhich you had thought meet to communicate with them by an express though a covered Legation under the colour of my return homewards The cause of the said evils vvas that vve had left the Pope at too much ease in his own Provinces the remedy would be to cut him out so much work at home as should force him to gather his thoughts about himself and in conclusion to revoke his Emissaries for the maintaining of Italy To do this there vvere but four means 1. By the advantage of Arms in time of Action 2. By open Preaching 3. By dispersion of Books 4. By secret Semination For the first it vvas true that the late necessity of calling French among vvhom there vvere many of our Religion into Piedmont and the Dutch Flemish and English into Friuli had done some good by freedom of conversation all Inquisition ceasing at such times But this violent vvay must be left to further occasion For the second although there had been for one vvhole Lent publick preaching against the Roman doctrine in Venice yet that Liberty and the Popes Excommunication did cease together and must so abide till nevv opportunity For the third I acquainted them hovv greedy the Italians vvere of our Treatises in matter of Controversie and of divers ways that had been used both to excite and to satisfie that curiosity both by the vvorks of the Arch bishop of Spalato since his retirement into your Majesties protection and of a Discourse that vvas ready to come abroad vvherein should be discovered by a great intelligent man even of their own breeding all the Practices of the Councel of Trent out of the Original Registers and secret Papers vvherein your Majesty had a hand for the benefit of the Christian World For the fourth and last vvay of secret Semination vvherein vve had been hitherto vvholly deficient and asleep This I said vvas the particular scope of my present charge In this your Majesty did exhort them by all fervent perswasion to joyn vvith you their counsels and cares their diligence and powers according to such vvays as should be hereafter propounded either by your Majesty to them or conceived amongst themselves Whereunto your Majesty had been stirred first by the zeal of Gods glory next by a Religious shame and indignation to see Superstition more active then the Truth Thirdly by the instance of divers well-affected Persons both vvithin the Body of Italy and in the Confines thereof And lastly by the opportunity vvhich the present time it self did yield unto it vvhich I did particularly remonstrate unto them but being matter of secrecy I vvill keep it in my pen till I arrive vvith your Majesty After vvhich I concluded vvith your Majesties most loving and Christian perswasions unto them vvhich they could not refuse coming from such a Friend to lay aside our own small differences to suppress the heat of passionate Divines by Civil Authority and to joyn together against the common Adversary of our Churches and States And because the free passage into Italy vvas a point much importing the present purpose as likewise in other respects very considerable your Majesty did intreat them to spend their earnest intercession by a common Letter to the Cantons of Zurick and Bern That they vvould endeavor by all means possible as being incomparably the fittest Mediators to re-establish the League between the Venetians and the Grisons to vvhich both parties vvere vvell inclining but there vvanted a third to break the business and to remove the scruple of who shall begin which had hitherto hindred the effect This was my poor exposition of Your Commands whereof I thought it my duty to render Your Majesty this preambulatory Accompt for Your ease at mine arrival and for mine own discharge bringing with me the Letters and Answers of the Princes as I hope to Your Majesties full contentment I will conclude with my most humble thanks unto Your Royal Goodness for this Imployment above all other And with my prayers to God that the weakness of the Instrument may not prejudice the excellent intention of the Master and Director 1620. Instructions to Our trusty and well-beloved Servant Henry Wotton Knight at his imployment about the Affairs of Germany to the Emperour Ferdinand to Our Dear Son-in-Law Fredâ—…ick the Prince Elector and Count Palatine of Rhene c. to the Princes of the Union in Body or to their Sub-director in place of Our said Son-in-Law And to other Princes and States as the Duke of Saxony Bavaria and upon occasion as his particular Letters of Credence shall direct him YOu are to know that this your imployment is for the present meerly exploratory and provisional to give Us a clear and distinct Accompt of the present Affairs