CERTAINE Miscellany Works OF THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE FRANCIS Lo. Verulam Viscount S. ALBAN PVBLISHED By WILLIAM RAWLEY Doctor of Diuinity one of his Maiesties Chaplaines LONDON ¶ Printed by I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson dwelling at the signe of the three Pigeons in Pauls Church-yard 1629. To the Reader I Haue thought good as a Seruant to the Labours and Memory of that Noble Lord the Lo. Viscount S. Alban to collect into one these few rather Parcells than lust Works of his excellent Pen. Which I haue done for these Causes First to vindicate the Wrong his Lordship suffered by a corrupt and surreptitious Edition of that Discourse of his Touching a Warre with Spaine lately set forth Secondly by way of Preuention to exempt from the like Iniury Defacements those other Discourses of his herein contained Lastly to satisfie the Desires of some who hold it vnreasonable that any the Delineations of that Pen though in neuer so small a Modell should not be shewen to the World I know it carries the Excuse with it after the Authors Death to publish Fragments Therefore I will make none These Works being all for the Argument Ciuill I cannot represent better than in Resemblance of Aristotles Parua Naturalia to account them as his Lordships Parua Politica Howsoeuer I doubt not but euery Iudicious Reader finding of his Lordships Spirit in them will know them to be his And will afford them a Place of Reputation amongst his Greater Works W. RAWLEY CONSIDERATIONS Touching a WARRE With SPAINE VVritten about fiue yeeres since and inscribed to his MAIESTIE At that time PRINCE OF WALES LONDON ¶ Printed by IOHN HAVILAND for Humphrey Robinson 1629. CONSIDERATIONS Touching a WARRE With SPAINE To the Prince YOur Highnesse hath an Imperiall Name It was a CHARLES that brought the Empire first into France A CHARLES that brought it first into Spaine Why should not Great Britaine haue his turne But to lay aside all that may seeme to haue a shew of Fumes and Fancies and to speake Solids A Warre with Spaine if the King shall enter into it is a mighty Worke It requireth strong Materialls and Actiue Motions He that saith not so is zealous but not according to knowledge But neuerthelesse Spaine is no such Giant And he that thinketh Spaine to be some great Ouermatch for this Estate assisted as it is and may be is no good Mint-man But takes greatnesse of Kingdomes according to their Bulke and Currency and not after their intrinsique Value Although therefore I had wholly sequestred my thoughts from Ciuill Affaires yet because it is a new Case and concerneth my Country infinitely I obtained of my selfe to set downe out of long continued experience in Businesse of Estate and much Conuersation in Bookes of Policie and Historie what I thought pertinent to this Businesse And in all humblenesse present it to your Highnesse Hoping that at least you will discerne the strength of my Affection through the weaknesse of my Abilities For the Spaniard hath a good Prouerbe Desuarió siempre con la Calentura There is no Heat of Affection but is ioyned with some Idlenesse of Braine To a Warre are required A Iust Quarrell Sufficient Forces and Prouisions And a prudent Choyce of the Designes So then I will first iustifie the Quarrell Secondly ballance the Forces and lastly propound variety of Designes for Choice but not aduise the Choice For that were not fit for a Writing of this Nature Neither is it a Subiect within the leuell of my Iudgement I being in effect a Stranger to the present Occurrences Warres I speake not of ambitious Predatory Warres are Suits of Appeale to the Tribunall of Gods Iustice where there are no Superiours on earth to determine the Cause And they are as ciuill pleas are Plaints or Defences There are therefore three iust Grounds of Warre with Spaine One Plaint Two vpon Defence SALOMON saith A Cord of three is not easily broken But especially when euery of the lines will hold single by it selfe They are these The Recouery of the Palatinate A iust Feare of the Subuersion of our Ciuill Estate A iust Feare of the Subuersion of our Church and Religion For in the handling of the two last Grounds of Warre I shall make it plaine That Warres Preuentiue vpon Iust Feares are true Defensiues as well as vpon Actuall Inuasions And againe that Warres Defensiue for Religion I speake not of Rebellion are most iust Though Offensiue Warres for Religion are seldome to be approued or neuer vnlesse they haue some Mixture of Ciuill Titles But all that I shall say in this whole Argument will be but â—ike Bottomes of Thred close wound vp which with a good Needle perhaps may be flourished into large Workes For the Asserting of the Iustice of the Quarrell for the Recouery of the Palatinate I shall not goe so high as to discusse the Right of the Warre of Bohemia Which if it be freed from doubt on our part then there is no Colour nor Shadow why the Palatinate should be retained The Rauishing whereof was a meere Excursion of the first Wrong and a Super-Iniustice But I doe not not take my selfe to be so perfect in the Customes Transactions and Priuiledges of that Kingdome of Bohemia as to be fit to handle that part And I will not offer at that I cannot master Yet this I will say in passage positiuely and resolutely That it is impossible an Electiue Monarchy should be so free and absolute as an Hereditary No more than it is possible for a Father to haue so full Power and Interest in an Adoptiue Sonne as in a Naturall Quia naturalis Obligatio fortior Ciuili And againe that Receiued Maxime is almost Vnshaken and Infallible Nil magis Naturae consentaneum est quà m vt iisdem modis Res dissoluantur quibus constituuntur So that if the part of the People or Estate be somewhat in the Election you cannot make them Nulls or Cyphers in the Priuation or Translation And if it bee said that this is a dangerous Opinion for the Pope Emperour and Electiue Kings It is true it is a dangerous Opinion and ought to be a dangerous Opinion to such personall Popes Emperours or Electiue Kings as shall transcend their limits and become Tyrannicall But it is a safe and sound Opinion for their Sees Empires and Kingdomes And for themselues also if they be wise Plenitudo Potestatis est plenitudo Tempestatis But the chiefe Cause why I doe not search into this point is because I need it nor And in handling the Right of a Warre I am not willing to intermix matter doubtfull with that which is out of doubt For as in Capitall Causes wherein but one Mans life is in question in fauorem vitae the Euidence ought to bee cleare So much more in a Iudgement vpon a Warre which is Capitall to Thousands I suppose therefore the worst That the Offensiue Warre vpon Bohemia had beene vniust And then make the Case Which is no
sooner made than resolued If it be made not enwrapped but plainly and perspicuously It is this in Thesi An Offensiue Warre is made which is vniust in the Aggressour The Prosecution and Race of the Warre carrieth the Defendant to assaile and inuade the Ancient and Indubitate Patrimony of the first Aggressour who is now turned Defendant Shall he sit downe and not put himselfe in Defence Or if he be dispossessed shall he not make a Warre for the Recouery No Man is so poore of Iudgement as will affirme it The Castle of Cadmus was taken and the City of Thebes it selfe inuested by Phaebidas the Lacedemonian insidiously in violation of League The Processe of this Action drew on a Resurprise of the Castell by the Thebans a Recouery of the Towne and a Current of the Warre euen vnto the walls of Sparta I demand was the Defence of the City of Sparta and the Expulsion of the Thebans out of the ancient Laconian Territories vniust The sharing of that part of the Duchie of Millaine which lieth vpon the Riuer of Adda by the Venetians vpon Contract with the French was an Ambitious and vniust Purchase This wheele set on going did powre a Warre vpon the Venetians with such a tempest as Padoua and Treuigi were taken from them and all their Dominions vpon the Continent of Italy abandoned and they confined within the Salt Waters Will any man say that the memorable Recouery and Defence of Padoua when the Gentlemen of Venice vnused to the Warres out of the loue of their Country became Braue and Martiall the first day And so likewise the Readeption of Treuigi and the rest of their Dominions was matter of Scruple whether iust or no because it had source from a Quarrell ill begunne The Warre of the Duke of Vrbin Nephew to Pope Iulius the second when he made himselfe Head of the Spanish Mutiniers was as vniust as vniust mought be A support of desperate Rebels An Inuasion of Saint Peters Patrimony And what you will The Race of this Warre fell vpon the losse of Vrbin it selfe which was the Dukes vndoubted Right Yet in this case no Penitentiary though hee had enioyned him neuer so strait Penance to expiate his first Offence would haue counselled him to haue giuen ouer the pursuit of his Right for Vrbin Which after he prosperously re-obtained and hath transmitted to his family yet vntill this day Nothing more vniust than the Inuasion of the Spanish Armada in 88. vpon our Seas For our Land was holy land to them they mought not touch it Shall I say therefore that the Defence of Lisbon or Cales afterward was vniust There be thousands of Examples Vtor in Re non dubia Exemplis non necessarijs The Reason is plaine Warres are Vindictae Reuenges Reparations But Reuenges are not infinite but according to the measure of the first Wrong or Damage And therefore when a voluntary Offensiue Warre by the Designe or Fortune of the Warre is turned to a necessary Defensiue Warre the Scene of the Tragedy is changed and it is a new Act to beginne For though they the particular actions of Warre are complicate in Fact yet they are separate and distinct in Right Like to crosse Suits in Ciuill Pleas which are sometimes both iust But this is so cleare as needeth no further to be insisted vpon And yet if in things so cleare it were fit to speake of more or lesse cleare in our present Cause it is the more cleare on our part because the Possession of Bohemia is setled with the Emperor For though it be true that Non datur Compensatio Iniuriarum yet were there somewhat more Colour to detaine the Palatinate as in the nature of a Recouery in Value or Compensation if Bohemia had beene lost or were still the Stage of the Warre Of this therefore I speake no more As for the Title of Proscription or Forfeiture wherein the Emperour vpon the matter hath beene Iudge and Party and hath iusticed himselfe God forbid but that it should well endure an Appeale to a Warre For certainly the Court of Heauen is as well a Chancery to saue and debarre Forfeitures as a Court of Common Law to decide Rights And there would bee worke enough in Germany Italy and other Parts if Imperiall Forfeitures should goe for good Titles Thus much for the first Ground of Warre with Spaine being in the Nature of a Plaint for the Recouery of the Palatinate Omitting here that which mought be the Seed of a larger Discourse and is verified by a number of Examples That whatsoeuer is gained by an Abusiue Treaty ought to bee restored in Integrum As wee see the daily Experience of this in Ciuill Pleas For the Images of great things are best seene contracted into small Glasses Wee see I say that all Pretorian Courts if any of the Parties be entertained or laid asleepe vnder pretence of Arbiterment or Accord that the other Party during that time doth cautelously get the start and aduantage at Common Law though it bee to Iudgement and Execution Yet the Pretorian Court will set backe all things in statu quo priùs no respect had to such Euiction or Dispossession Lastly let there be no mistaking As if when I speake of a Warre for the Recouery of the Palatinate I meant that it must be in lineâ rectâ vpon that Place For looke into ius faeciale and all Examples and it will be found to be without scruple That after a Legation ad Res repetendas and a Refusall and a Denuntiation or Indiction of a Warre the Warre is no more confined to the Place of the Quarrell but is left at large and to choice as to the particular conducing Designes as Opportunities and Aduantages shall inuite To proceed therefore to the second Ground of a Warre with Spaine We haue set it downe to be A iust feare of the Subuersion of our Ciuill Estate So then the War is not for the Palatinate onely but for England Scotland Ireland our King our Prince our Nation all that we haue Wherein two things are to be proued The one that a iust Feare without an Actuall Inuasion or Offence is a sufficient Ground of a War and in the Nature of a true Defensiue The other that wee haue towards Spaine Cause of iust Feare I say iust Feare For as the Ciuilians doe well define that the Legall Feare is Iustus Metus qui cadit in constantem Virum in priuate Causes So there is Iustus Metus qui cadit in constantem Senatum in causa publica Not out of vmbrages light Iealousies Apprehensions a farre off But out of cleare Forefight of imminent Danger Concerning the former Proposition it is good to heare what time saith Thucydides in his Inducement to his Story of the great Warre of Peloponnesus sets downe in plaine termes that the true Cause of that Warre was The ouergrowing Greatnesse of the Athenians and the feare that the Lacedemonians stood in thereby And doth not doubt
that League wherewith Guicciardine beginneth his Story and maketh it as it were the Kalender of the good dayes of Italy which was contracted betweene Ferdinando King of Naples Lorenzo of Medici Potentate of Florence and Lodouico Zforza Duke of Milan designed chiefly against the growing Power of the Venetians But yet so as the Confederates had a perpetuall eye one vpon another that none of them should ouertop To conclude therefore howsoeuer some Schoolemen otherwise Reuerend Men yet fitter to guide Penkniues than Swords seeme precisely to stand vpon it That euery Offensiue Warre must be Vltio A Reuenge that presupposeth a precedent Assault or Iniurie yet neither doe they descend to this Point which we now handle of a iust Feare Neither are they of authority to iudge this Question against all the Presidents of time For certainly as long as Men are Men the Sonnes as the Poets allude of Prometheus and not of Epimetheus and as long as Reason is Reason A iust Feare will be a iust Cause of a Preuentiue War But especially if it be Part of the Case that there be a Nation that is manifestly detected to aspire to Monarchie and new Acquests Then other States assuredly cannot be iustly accused for not staying for the first Blow Or for not accepting Poliphemus Courtesie to be the last that shall be eaten vp Nay I obsetue further that in that passage of Plato which I cited before and euen in the Tenet of that Person that beareth the Resoluing Part and not the Obiecting part a iust Feare is iustified for a Cause of an Inuasiue Warre though the fame Feare proceed not from the fault of the forraine State to bee assailed For it is there insinuated That if a State out of the distemper of their owne Body doe feare Sedition and intestine Troubles to breake out amongst themselues they may discharge their owne ill Humours vpon a forraine Warre for a Cure And this kind of Cure was tendred by Iasper Coligni Admirall of France to Charles the ninth the French King when by a viue and forcible perswasion he moued him to a warre vpon Flanders for the better Extinguishment of the Ciuill Warres of France But neither was that Counsell prosperous Neither will I maintaine that Position For I will neuer set Politiques against Ethicks Especially for that true Ethicks are but as a Handmaid to Diuinity and Religion Surely Saint Thomas who had the largest heart of the Schoole Diuines bendeth chiefly his stile against the depraued Passions which reigne in making Warres speaking out of S. Augustine Nocendi Cupiditas vlciscendi Crudelitas implacatus implacabilis Animus Feritas Rebellandi Libido Dominandi si quae sunt similia haec sunt quae in Bellis iure culpantur And the same Saint Thomas in his owne Text defining of the iust Causes of a Warre doth leaue it vpon very generall Tearmes Requiritur ad Bellum Causa iusta vt scilicet illi qui impugnantur propter aliquam culpam Impugnationem mereantur For Impugnatio Culpae is a farre more generall word than vltio Iniuriae thus much for the first Proposition of the Second Ground of a War with Spaine Namely that a iust Feare is a iust Cause of a War And that a Preuentiue Warre is a true Defensiue The Second or Minor Proposition was this That this Kingdome hath Cause of iust Feare of Ouerthrow from Spaine Wherein it is true thaâ— Feares are euer seene in dimmer lights than Facts And on the other side Feares vse many times to be represented in such an Imaginary fashion as they rather dazell Mens eyes than open them And therefore I will speake in that manner which the Subiect requires That is probably and moderately and briefly Neither will I deduce thâ—se Feares to present Occurrences but point only at generall Grounds leauing â—he rest to more secret Counsels Is it nothing that the Crowne of Spaine hath enlarged the Bounds thereof within this last sixscore yeares much more than the Ottomans I speake not of Matches or Vnions but of Armes Occupations Inuasions Granada Naples Milan Portugal the East and West Indies All these are actuall Additions to that Crowne They had a mind to French Britaine the lower Part of Piccardi and Piemont but they haue let fall their Bit. They haue at this day such a houering possession of the Valtoline as an Hobby hath ouer a Larke And the Palatinate is in their Tallons So that nothing is more manifest than that this Nation of Spaine runnes a race still of Empire When all other States of Christendome stand in effect at a stay Looke then a little further into the Titles whereby they haue acquired and doe now hold these new Portions of their Crowne and you will finde them of so many varieties and such natures to speake with due respect as may appeare to be easily minted and such as can hardly at any time be wanting And therefore so many new Conquests Purchases so many Strokes of the Larum Bell of Feare and Awaking to other Nations And the Facility of the Titles which hand ouerhead haue serued their turne doth ring the Peale so much the sharper and the lowder Shall wee descend from their generall Disposition to inlarge their Dominions to their particular Disposition and Eye of Appetite which they haue had towards vs They haue now twice sought to impatronise themselues of this Kingdome of England once by Marriage with Queene Mary And the second time by Conquest in 88. when their Forces by Sea and Land were not inferiour to those they haue now And at that time in 88. the Counsell and Designe of Spaine was by many aduertisements reuealed and laid open to bee That they found the Warre vpon the Low-Countries so churlish and longsome as they grew then to a Resolution That as long as England stood in state to succour those Countries they should but consume themselues in an endlesse Warre And therefore there was no other way but to assaile and depresse England which was as a Backe of Steele to the Flemmings And who can warrant I pray that the same Counsell and Designe will not returne againe So as we are in a strange Dilemma of Danger For if wee suffer the Flemmings to be ruined they are our Out-worke and wee shall remaine Naked and Dismantled If wee succour them strongly as is fit and set them vpon their feet and doe not withall weaken Spaine we hazard to change the Scene of the War and to turne it vpon Ireland or England Like vnto Rheumes and Defluxions which if you apply a strong Repercussiue to the Place affected and doe not take away the Cause of the Disease will shift and fall straightwayes to another Ioynt or Place They haue also twice inuaded Ireland Once vnder the Popes Banner when they were defeated by the Lo. Grey And after in their owne name when they were defeated by the Lo. Mountioy So as let this suffice for a Taste of their Disposition towards vs. But it
graft this Golden Head vpon their owne Necks after their Death Nay they may make Nabuchadonozors Jmage of Monarchy golden from Head to Foot And if any of the Meaner sort of Politiques that are sighted onely to see the worst of things thinke That Lawes are but Cobwebs and that good Princes will doe well without them and bad will not stand much vpon them The Discourse is neither good nor wise For certaine it is that good Lawes are some bridle to bad Princes And as a very wall about Gouernment And if Tyrants sometime make a breach into them yet they mollifie euen Tyranny it selfe As Solons Lawes did the Tyranny of Pisistratus And then commonly they get vp againe vpon the first Aduantage of better times Other meanes to perpetuate the Memory and Merits of Soueraign Princes are inferiour to this Buildings of Temples Tombes Palaces Theaters and the like are honourable things and looke bigge vpon Posterity But Constantine the Great gaue the Name well to those workes when hee vsed to call Traian that was a great Builder Parietaria Wall-Flower Because his Name was vpon so many Walls So if that be the Matter that a King would turne Wall-flower or Pellitory of the Wall with cost he may Adrian's veine was better For his minde was to wrastle a fall with Time And being a great Progressour through all the Roman Empire when euer he found any Decaies of Bridges or Highwaies or Cuts of Riuers and Sewers or Walls or Banks or the like he gaue substantiall order for their Repaire with the better Hee gaue also Multitudes of Charters and Liberties for the comfort of Corporations and Companies in decay So that his Bounty did striue with the Ruines of Time But yet this though it were an excellent Disposition went but in effect to the Cases and Shels of a Common-wealth It was nothing to Vertue or Vice A bad Man might indifferently take the benefit and ease of his Waies and Bridges as well as a good And bad People might purchase good Charters Surely the better Workes of Perpetuity in Princes are those that wash the Jn-side of the Cup. Such as are Foundations of Colledges and Lectures for Learning and Education of youth Likewise Foundations and Jnstitutions of Orders and Fraternities for Noblenesse Enterprise and Obedience and the like But yet these also are but like Plantations of Orchards and Gardens in Plots and Spots of Ground here and there They doe not till ouer the whole Kingdome and make it fruitfull as doth the Establishing of good Lawes and Ordinances Which makes a whole Nation to be as a well ordered Colledge or Foundation This kinde of Worke in the memory of Times is rare enough to shew it Excellent And yet not so rare as to make it suspected for Impossible Inconuenient or Vnsafe Moses that gaue Lawes to the Hebrewes because he was the Scribe of God himselfe is fitter to be named for honours sake to other Lawgiuers than to bee numbred or ranked amongst them Minos Lycurgus and Solon are Examples for Themes of Grammar Schollers For ancient Personages and Characters now adayes vse to wax Children againe Though that Parable of Pindarus be true The best thing is Water For Common and Triuiall Things are many times the best And rather despised vpon Pride because they are vulgar than vpon Cause or Vse Certaine it is that the Lawes of those three Law-Giuers had great Prerogatiues The first of Fame Because they were the Patterne amongst the Grecians The second of Lasting For they continued longest without alteration The third of a Spirit of Reuiuer To bee often oppressed and often restored Amongst the seuen Kings of Rome foure were Law-Giuers For it is most true that a Discourser of Italy saith There was neuer State so well swadled in the Infancie as the Roman was by the vertue of their first Kings Which was a principall Cause of the wonderfull growth of that State in after times The Decemuirs Lawes were Lawes vpon Lawes not the Originall For they grafted Lawes of Grecia vpon Roman Stocke of Lawes and Customes But such was their successe as the Twelue Tables which they compiled were the maine Body of the Lawes which framed and weilded the great Body of that Estate These lasted a long time with some Supplementals and the Pretorian Edicts in Albo Which were in respect of Lawes as Writing Tables in respect of Brasse The one to be put in and out as the other is permanent Lucius Cornelius Sylla reformed the Lawes of Rome For that Man had three Singularities which neuer Tyrant had but he That he was a Law-Giuer That he tooke part with the Nobility And That he turned Priuate Man not vpon Feare but vpon Confidence Caesar long after desired to imitate him only in the First For otherwise hee relied vpon new Men And for resigning his Power Seneca describeth him right Caesar gladium citò condidit nun quam posuit Caesar soone sheathed his sword but neuer put it off And himselfe tooke it vpon him saying in scorne of Syllae's Resignation Sylla nesciuit literas dictare non potuit Sylla knew no letters he could not dictate But for the part of a Law-Giuer Cicero giueth him the Attribute Caesar si ab eo quaereretur quid egisset in Togâ leges se respondisset multas praeclaras tulisse Jf you had asked Caesar what he did in the Gowne he would haue answered that he made many excellent Lawes His Nephew Augustus did tread the Same steps but with deeper print because of his long Reigne in peace Whereof one of the Poets of his time saith Pace datâ terris animum ad Ciuilia vertit Jura suum legesque tulit iustissimus Author From that time there was such a Race of Wit and Authority betweene the Commentaries and Decisions of the Lawyers and the Edicts of the Emperours as both Lawes and Lawyers were out of breath VVhereupon Iustinian in the end recompiled both And made a Body of Lawes such as might be weilded which himselfe calleth gloriously and yet not aboue truth The Edifice or Structure of a sacred Temple of Iustice Built indeed out of the former Ruines of Bookes as Materials and some Nouell Constitutions of his owne In Athens they had Sexuiri as Aeschines obserueth which were standing Commissioners Who did watch to discerne what lawes waxed vnproper for the Times and what new Law did in any branch crosse a former Law and so Ex officio propounded their Repeale King Edgar collected the Lawes of this Kingdome and gaue them the strength of a Faggot bound which formerly were dispersed Which was more glory to him then his Sailing about this Island with a potent Fleet. For that was as the Scripture saith Via nauis in mari The way of a ship in the Sea It vanished but this lasteth Alphonso the Wise the ninth of that Name King of Castile compiled the Digest of the Lawes of Spaine Intituled the Siete Partidas An excellent Worke which he finished in seuen