went about to pull downe Images But I am of this opinion yet readye to yeeld to a better iudgement that if men were honest and vpright and walked in their calling holily they would neuer fight among themselues for religion And if there had beene no other cause mingled therwith in our ciuill wars we should not haue had experiēce of those miseries which daily ouer-whelme vs. The authoritie of a holie and free Councell may by the grace of God end all these dissentious in the meane time let euery one seeke by good life and amendment of manners to serue for a light to those that are out of the way laying aside all part-takings forgetting all iniuries and taking vp againe our first vnitie concord friendship Yea I doubt not but that a Prince embracing with a true zeale the opinion of his religion and neglecting the contrarye would abolish it without force or constraint if God maintain it not For the minds of men resolued in a religion are more confirmed therin if they be resisted but shrinke of themselues if compulsion be not vsed Now for the end and conclusion of our discourse laying a part the causes of seditions and ciuil wars which bring alteration and ouerthrow many times to Estates and Monarchies whereof we haue particularly intreated we will heere comprehend and reduce to a certaine number the causes of the changes of all Common-wealths namely when the posteritie of Princes faileth and the greatest amongst them enter into ciuill warre for the Estate when most of the subiects are extreme poore and a few exceeding rich when the diuision of offices and honors are vnequall or else through extreame ambition and desire of commanding through the reuenge of iniuries through the crueltie and oppression of tyrants through the feare of chasticement which some haue that deserue it through the change of lawes and religion through the greedie desire that some haue to enioy at wil those pleasures which they seeke after lastly through the expulsion of such as defile the places of honor with excessiue and beastly pleasures All these things breede the change corruption and finall ouetthrow of flourishing Estates and great Monarchies and therefore all Princes Gouernors and politike Rulers ought carefully to looke vnto them The ende of the sixteenth daies worke THE SEVENTEENTH DAIES WORKE Of the preseruation of Estats and Monarchies and of remedies to keepe them from sedition Chap. 65. ASER. WIsedome saith Lactantius is giuen of God to all men that euery one according to his abilitie and capacitie might seeke after things vnknowne and examine that which he knoweth And we must not thinke that such as haue gone before vs many yeeres and ages did so possesse and vse hir that she is now lesse forceable in vs. She cannot be wholy possessed no more than the light of the Sunne and as the Sunne is the light of our eies so is wisedome the light of mans hart If your delight thē saith the wise man be in thrones and scepters O kings of the people honor wisedome that ye may raigne for euer Truly she is necessarie prouision for them that would raigne that they may do it woorthily and safely maintaine their estate yea she is no lesse requisite in euery calling For she illuminateth and sharpneth the discourse of reason by the knowledge of things she ruleth and conducteth the will to that which is the true and onely Good Therefore seeing that wisedome which is asmuch to say in regard of vs as the searching out of the truth is both offered and needefull for all men euery one ought to be stirred vp to imbrace it with a burning zeale and affection that he may bring foorth the fruits of perfect charitie by applying it next after the seruice of God to the common profite of men Which thing seeing it hath prouoked our yong and vnexperienced yeeres to vtter our former Morall and Politicall discourses and to handle yesterday the causes that breede change and ruine to Estates and Monarchies although such high matters surpasseth the capacitie of our vnderstanding yet let vs my Companions follow with the same zeale our venturous enterprise and as we haue profited in the schoole of this selfe same wisedome let vs enter into the consideration of those meanes and remedies that are contrary to the causes of corruption in policies and that may serue to their preseruation Albeit they may be knowne by the same causes that corrupt them seeing contrary effects proceede from contrary causes and corruption is contrary to preseruation But the vnderstanding of this matter will be more cleare and profitable heereby to them that will take the benefite thereof AMANA If all callings were content with their owne fortune and goods if they would abstaine from other mens goods and from offering them wrong if they would be more intentiue to amend their owne life than to reprehend others and submit them-selues willingly to the obedience of their Magistrats lawes and ordinances I thinke it would be a meane to cause euery Monarchie to flourishe and to continue happie a longe time ARAM. Equalitie said Solon neuer breedeth sedition in the gouernment of a Common-wealth but is the nursing mother of peace and concord and the maintainer of loue whereby the vnitie of subiects is preserued But as the graue and destruction are neuer glutted according to the saying of the wise man so mens eies are neuer satisfied But the discourse of this matter heere propounded belongeth to thee ACHITOB. ACHITOB. That great louer of knowledge and vertue Ptolomy king of Egypt as he feasted one day seuen Embassadors of the best and most flourishing Common-wealthes in his time reasoned with them about their gouernments that hee might knowe which of them had the best policie and was furnished with the best lawes and moste commendable customes The disputation was long and the matter throughly debated amonge them with manye reasons But Ptolomy being desirous to bee instructed by them in the best and rarest pointes necessarye for the preseruation of an Estate prayed them to propounde euerye one three of those customes and lawes that were moste perfect in his Common-wealth The Embassadour of the Romanes beganne and sayde Wee haue the Temples in great respect and reuerence wee are very obedient to our Gouernours and we punish wicked men and euill liuers seuerely The Carthaginian Embassadour said In the Common-wealth of Carthage the Nobles neuer cease fighting nor the Common-people and Artificers labouring nor the Philosophers teaching The Sicilian sayd In our Common-wealth iustice is exactly kept merchandise exercised with truth and all men account themselues equall The Rhodian sayd At Rhodes old men are honest yoong men shamefast and women solitarie and of fewe wordes The Athenian sayd In our Common-wealth rich men are not suffered to be diuided into factions nor poore men to be idle nor the Gouernours to be ignorant The Lacedemonian sayd In Sparta enuie raigneth not for all are equall
are two sortes of negligence the one in those that call chuse or receiue into any great office such men as are vnwoorthie and care not for their charges or that suffer such persons to ascend to the chiefest places of Magistracie that are enimies to that forme of Common-wealth as if the chiefe men in Bearne shoulde chuse an Auoyer which office is contrarie to their manner of liuing or if the Venetians should chuse a Duke or the Cardinals a Pope that were not of their religion or if the King of Fraunce should create a Constable or Chancellour that liked not a Royall and Monarchicall Estate The other kinde of negligence which is much more common is in them that are called to a dignitie office or Magistracie and shewe them-selues retchles in that administration and exercise as we see that moste Bishops and Prelats neglect the dutie of their charges to imploie or bestowe their tyme in worldlie affaires for which cause they growe into misliking and contempt From hence haue proceeded great offences and maruellous troubles which may more easilye bee lamented than taken away or reformed being such abuses as haue taken deepe roote Moreouer the alteration of policie is bred by other meanes by little and little as when through dissimulation or otherwise men suffer some part albeit neuer so little of the lawe or politike Estate to be cut off Changes seldome fall out all at one time if they are not very violent but for the most part go on by litle and litle as the seasons of the yeere slide away softly from great heates to hard frosts and from the frost and cold of winter to the heate of sommer A lingring feuer afflicteth the patient so easily that he hardly perceiueth himselfe therin but if it be suffered to continue without redresse in due time it will turne to a hectick feuer and so consequently become incurable So fareth it with an Estate and Policie whose authoritie waxeth contemptible and is lost by little and little when men are negligent in preuenting the same in due time He that will consider the alteration happened in France within these thirtie yeeres shall find it to be very great aswell in regard of religion as of manners and lawes which neuertheles came by little and little and so continueth still greatly threatning a change of the estate Heere therefore I will distinguish betweene the chance of lawes customes religion place which is properly but an alteration and the change of an estate which is when the soueraigntie goeth from one into the power of another Dissimilitude also is the cause many times of sedition and of change in the Common-wealth which commeth to passe when the Inhabitants of a place are not of the same nation but many strangers are receiued into it who perceiuing them-selues to be the stronger part haue many times thrust the naturall Citizens out of their towne whereof Aristotle alleadgeth many examples that fell so out in the Grecian cities At Sienna at Genes at Zurick at Cullen the strangers being multiplied draue out the Lords of those places and slew most of them bicause they were ouer-charged with exactions euill entreated and excluded from bearing of offices They of Lindauia slew the Lords of the countrie and changed the Aristocraty into a popular Estate and so did the Inhabitants of Strausborough who hated the Nobilitie in such sort that they would not suffer any of them to enioy the great estates and publike charges vnles he prooued that his grandfather was one of the baser sort of the people These examples mooue naturall Inhabitants many times to ouer-runne strangers when they see the number of them waxe ouer-great amongst them One example heereof we may note in the citie of Geneua into which when many strangers aswell Frenchmen as others retired for religion the naturall Citizens could neuer brooke them although they were very profitable to the citie making it rich and populous whereas before it was poore and smally inhabited but conspired many times to driue them out as namely that conspiracie of one Perin in the yeere 1556. which began to be put in execution when Caluine ranne into the midst of their naked swords to appease the tumult as Beza writeth in his life The same feare mooued Pharaoh when he sawe the Hebrewes encrease ouer-fast amongst his subiects to decree that the Midwiues should from that time forward kill the male children at their birth Now in receiuing of strangers regard must be had to the number that it be not ouergreat and that their authoritie be not vnmeasurable For otherwise it is necessarie for trafficke sake and for many other publike commodities that some be receiued of others Many other kinds of dissimilitude are found in common-wealths as dissimilitude of linage betweene the Nobilitie and Common-people of offices betweene Iudges Treasurers Souldiors Priests of professions betweene Lawyers Phisitions Diuines and Philosophers of occupations betweene Bakers Butchers Shooemakers Painters Smithes Carpenters without which dissimilitudes no Common-wealth can consist Therefore they are not to be taken quite away but onely the disorder that groweth amongst them that so they may be reduced to a conuenient agreement like to that which is betweene the diuers parts that are in the constitution of the world of man We may also call a dissimilitude that difference which is of religions as of the Iewes Christians Mahomists Caphrans Armenians Grecians Latines Iacobites Ethiopians then betweene the Christians themselues as Catholiks Lutherans Zuinglians and Caluinists Many haue said and are yet of this opinion that the chiefe cause of ciuill warres in France proceedeth from this diuersitie of religion And to say truth there is nothing that carieth men away with such vehement passions as zeale of religion for which they fight more willingly thā for their liues goods wiues and children Through the diuersitie heereof they that are neerest of kinne loose their naturall loue they that are of the same country and language persecute one another as mortall enimies and sundry nations abhorre one another for the same These things are too well knowne amongst vs to require proofs thereof And truly in respect of sedition and tumult nothing is more dangerous than for subiects to be diuided in opinion whether it be in matters of estate or of lawes and customs or for religion For if they be of diuers opinions some labour for peace and seeke to make others agree vnto it who wil neuer agree amongst themselues And in truth it is a very hard matter to maintaine publike exercises of any religion whatsoeuer when it is contrary to the religion of the people or of the most of them who many times cannot be kept within compasse neither by lawes nor Magistrats vnlesse the force appointed to keepe them in bee very great For we saw that Thomas Emperour of Constantinople was cruelly slaine by the people amidst a great congregation in the Church bicause he
mislike publike charges and by and by they blame the priuate life labouring that they may be imploied They forsake one countrie to go and dwell in another and suddenly they desire to returne againe into their former waies They that haue neither wiues nor children seeke and wish for them and when they haue them they desire oftentimes nothing more than to be rid of them and soone after ye shall see them married againe Haue they heaped vp great store of wealth and increased their reuenues by halfe so much more they desire notwithstanding to make it altogither as much The soldier seeketh to be a captain from a captaine to be maister of the campe from maister of the campe to be lieutenant to the king then he would gladly make himselfe king The seelie Priest would be a Curate from a Curate Bishop from a Bishoppe Cardinall from a Cardinall Pope and then would commaund Kings and soueraigne Princes Kings are not contented to raigne ouer their owne subiects but bende themselues alwaies to enlarge their limits to make themselues if they can the onely Monarchs Briefly all men whose harts are set vpon worldly goods when they are come to this estate of life they would attaine to that and being come thereunto some other neae desire carieth them farther so that this mischiefe of continuall vncertaine and vnsatiable lustes and desires doth more and more kindle in them vntill in the ende death cut off the thred of their inconstant and neuer contented life This commeth to passe bicause the alteration of an Estate and condition of life plucketh not out of the mind that which presseth and troubleth it namely the ignorance of things and imperfection of reason But they who through the studie of wisedome are furnished with skill and vnderstanding and know that all humane and earthlie things are vncertaine deceitfull slipperie and so many allurements vnto men to drawe them into a downe-fall and destruction they I say doe laie a farre better and more certaine foundation of their chiefe Good contentation and felicitie For they are so farre off from being caried away as worldlings are with the desire of greatnes riches and pleasure that they rather desire lesse than they haue contemne them and so vse them as though they had them not And deliuering their soules by the grace of God from all those perturbations which besiege them in the prison of their bodies they lift vp their wishes and desires yea they refer al the endsof their intents actions to this only marke to be vnited and ioined to the last end of their soueraigne Good which is the full whole fruition of the essence of God that their holy affections might be at once fulfilled and satisfied by enioying that diuine light through a most happie immortal life when they shal be vncloathed of this body of death of all concupiscences passions reioice in such a felicitie as neither eie hath seene nor eare heard nor euer entred into the hart of man Moreouer we ought to know if we haue neuer so litle iudgmēt reason that in al worldly things how great goodly soeuer they seeme to our carnall eies sences there is such a mixture of bitternes dislike ioined with the fruition of them that if we could diuide the euil from that which of the ignorant sort is called good weigh them one against another there is no doubt but the bad part would easily weigh down what goodnes soeuer could be found amongst them But how shal we call that good which is so mingled with euill which oftentimes hurteth more than it profiteth and which being possessed abundantly cannot yet keepe the possessor thereof from being wretched and miserable What contentation can a man find therein seeing that such a Good commonly slippeth away as soone as it is receiued and alwaies worketh an vnsatiable desire thereof What felicitie shall we expect and looke for in the fruition of that thing which waxeth old and perisheth and which men are alwaies afraid to loose Now I pray you who can doubt iustly but that the qualitie and nature of riches of glorie of honour and pleasure is such Whereupon we must conclude that man can finde no goodnes contentation or happines in any thing that is earthly and mortall Besides who knoweth not sufficiently the poore estate of mans life which in the fairest of his race commeth to nothing in the twinkling of an eie so that all his bodily shewe and brightnes turneth suddenly into putrefaction Who doth not try more than he would how full his life is of sharpe griefes and pricking miseries and how it is assaulted with continuall troubles With how many percing cares doth it abound and what griping griefes doe pursue it Briefly as a wise Grecian said hauing but the bare name of life it is in effect and truth a continuall paine And truly that thing hath no beeing in deede which changeth without ceasing as the nature of man doth which neuer continueth in the same estate no not the least moment that is I would gladly aske of thee who readest this or doest meane to reade it what day or what hower thou hast passed or now passest ouer since thou hadst any iudgement or knowledge wherein thy body hath not felt some griefe or thy hart some passion As there is no sea without tempest warre without danger or iourney without trauell so there is no life without griefe nor calling without enuie or care neither did I euer see or know that man who hath had no cause to be grieued or to complaine Doth not experience daily teach vs that no man liuing can make choise of any estate void of all trouble or flie one inconuenience but that he is in danger to fall into another Is it not also most certaine that a sudden ioy or prosperitie is but a fore-warning or signe of some griefe heauie calamitie at hand But what Shall we for all this think man so miserable that sailing all his life time in stormes and tempests he cannot possibly attaine to any safe hauen against the rage of them Shall we in such sort depriue him during the time of his being in this world of all Good contentation and happines as if there were no meanes to auoid or at leastwise to mollifie the mishaps and miseries of mankind that he faint not vnder the heauy burden of them Wherefore then do wise men by so many learned writings inuite vs diligently to seeke after and with a burning zeale to embrace holy vertue saying that by hir alone a man may liue happily and contentedly in euery calling and may enioy therein the soueraigne Good through the tranquillitie and rest of his soule purged of perturbations by Philosophy Was it in vaine and fruitles that an infinite number of famous personages whom Histories the mother of antiquitie set before our eies imploied so great trauell passed infinite watchings for sooke and contemned riches pleasures honors and worldly
diuine nature Of the diseases and passions of the bodie and soule and of the tranquillitie thereof Chap. 3. ARAM. ONe of the ancient philosophers vsed to say that no liuing creature was worse to man than man himselfe bicause albeit he hath dominion ouer all things yet he cannot rule himselfe nor his desires Experience causeth vs but too much to knowe the truth of this saying For who can doubt in any sort heerof seeing blessed S. Paule himselfe confesseth that he did not the good thing which he would but the euill which he would not and that in his flesh there dwelt no goodnes So vndoubtedly we haue both bodie and soule compassed about with so many pernitious passions that it is very hard yea altogither vnpossible that what good thing soeuer is in vs should not faint and sinke vnder their heauie waight without a speciall and diuine grace ACHITOB. Truly this is no vaine speculation nor vnprofitable to man as also for a man to know that he is as it were tied in this world to all vncertaine things which he being mortall by nature cannot any way shun and auoid without the helpe of God He which is in health expecteth sicknes he that is sicke health Doth any one desire in his mind any thing Before he enioyeth it his desire is often changed into another In a word no man abideth still in one and the same estate And therfore Plato calleth man a mutable creature as if he meant to say that he is easily altered and changed ASER. The change which this diuine philosopher meant if I be not deceiued hath relation principally to the conditions of the soule which being filled with infinite perturbations fastened in the midst of it with the naile of pleasure and griefe is carried away with inconstancie and vncertaintie into a streame of troublesome passions which if they be not cut off and maistred by reason draw a man into vtter destruction But giue vs to vnderstand AMANA more at large of these passions of the soule and of the way to remedie them and if you thinke good you may speake somewhat of those of the bodie AMANA Amongst the innumerable euils which the desire of pleasure and feare of griefe ingrauen in the most secret parts of our soule by our first corruption bring to man this is the greatest and most pernitious that they make sensible things more euident and plaine vnto him than things intelligible and constraine the vnderstanding to iudge more by passion than by reason For vsing through the sence oâ— pleasure or trauell to attend to the erronious vncertaine and mutable nature of the bodie as to that which is subsisting and subiect to sight he remaineth blind and looseth all knowledge of that which truly is and subsisteth namely of the light of the soule which is diuine and immortall Moreouer applying himselfe wholie to the sensuall and vnreasonable will which is that part of the soule that proceedeth of the corruption thereof he laboureth with all his might to quench and choke that weake instinct of the soule which aspireth vnto the true Good from whence she perceiueth hir selfe to haue fallen And this he doth with such force and power that if God strengthen not the soule and reason the diuine guide accompanie hir not without doubt she yeeldeth to such mightie enimies and then as we haue said staying himselfe wholy in things subiect to sight he appeereth too carefull and curious in seeking to decke that which belongeth to the bodie but as for the soule wherof all humane felicitie dependeth bicause she is inuisible and not seene of him it is the lest of his cares to furnish hir with that which she seeketh and desireth and which is necessarie for hir Wherupon in the end it commeth to passe that the lest ouerthwarts and discommodities of his flesh seeme very greeuous and burthensome to a man but as for the incurable diseases which ouerwhelme his soule he doth not so much as feele them Now to the end we may vnderstand more particularly that which is heer propounded vnto vs we will handle in order and as briefly as we may this matter being very large the diseases and passions of the bodie and soule with the remedie which we are to desire and seeke after And first we will speake a word of the diseases of the bodie next of the naturall and necessarie passions thereof albeit we will intreat of the passions of the soule as of our chiefe matter subiect Concerning the maladies and euill dispositions of the bodie one Hippocrates one Galen nay infinite others skilfull in physicke are not able to describe them exactly much lesse prescribe certaine and sure remedies But seeing it is not my purpose or profession to stay long heere neither yet necessarily belonging to the cause of our assemblie I will content my selfe to speake these few words by the way that we ought to take euerie bodily infirmitie as a fatherly chastisement of our sins and as a necessarie meane to awaken vs to warne vs of our dutie and to keep vs in awe Besides one principall cause of all bodilie diseases proceedeth ordinarily from vices which are the proper inheritance of man and with which we defile our selues continually Therefore if we heale our soules we may cure our selues of the most of them and as for others which come by defect of nature or by some other hidden cause we haue the counsell and helpe of physicions whom willingly and diligently we seeke after There are besides these certaine naturall and necessarie passions in the body properly belonging vnto it euen from the first creation therof which are not to be condemned neither can be taken away but with the abolishing of mans nature as the desire of drinking eating sleeping such like which onlie by the direction of reason are to be freed from all superfluitie But it standeth otherwise with the diseases and passions of the soule deriued from our first corruption and driuen forward by sinne being plentifull and rich which without comparison are far more dangerous than those of the bodie more hard to be perceiued knowen more headstrong and vneasie to cure and which is worse man is very slothfull in seeking out a remedie for them And for the most part thinking that he hath found some remedie through want of skill and ignorance he falleth into a worse estate than he was in before and as we commonly say from a gentle ague into a pestilent and burning feuer But first we will generally define this word Passion according to the opinion of those philosophers who were endewed with greatest light Passion is euerie naturall and actuall motion in the soule This motion is of two sorts the one weake good and holie aspiring and reioicing in that which is truly good the other verie strong euill and pernitious coueting with a disordered desire and delighting with an immoderate ioy in a good falsly so imagined The
as wel earthly as eternall Which that we may more surely auoid and marke better the excellencie and beautie of vertue by the lothsomnes and deformitie of vice bicause contraries set one by another as blacke neare to white shew themselues a great deale better I thinke it will not be to wander besides the matter if we bestow the rest of our mornings worke in the handling thereof ASER. There is no euill in man as the philosopers say but vice if we take that for euill which is offensiue Neither doth any thing offend and make a man woorse but that which endammageth his soule And in this maner vice onely and sinne is hurtfull vnto him yea as Plutarke saith is sufficient of it selfe to make a man miserable AMANA As vertue saith Plato is the health and forceable vigor of the soule so vice is the sicknes and imbecillitie thereof which hauing gotten a habit maketh a man vicious and corrupt For it is certaine that if men had sufficient force and constancie to resist vice which we haue by inheritance they would follow after vertue But being ouercome by the loosenes of their sensualitie they are led captiues as it were in a triumph vnder the yoke of sin Let vs then hearken to ARAM who I thinke will not forget to paint out vnto vs this pernitious Hydra with all hir colors that she may be so much the more odious vnto vs. ARAM. I haue alwaies learned of wise men that this saying of an ancient man is most true That there is a hundred times more paine in doing euill than in well doing and that vice hath the same effect in the soule which the dropsie hath in the bodie For both of them do plant in man a continuall desire of that which breedeth his greatest bane Whereupon most miserably he seeketh after his owne perdition and ruine with paine and trauell wheras he might passe through felicitie in this life into that life which is eternall and most happie One chiefe occasion heerof as I thinke may be attributed to the ignorance of euill For what wicked man is so dull of vnderstanding that if he knew certainly what vice were would not with all his might separate himselfe as farre from it as for the time he drew neere vnto it By a stronger reason it foloweth that he which truly knoweth it before it be growen to a habit within him wil shun it more diligently bicause we begin then to hate vices as Plutarke saith when by reason we vnderstand what shame and harme commeth of them Therefore it must needs be very profitable for vs to vtter heerin that which we haue learned by the studie of philosophie and that briefly for this present hoping heerafter to intreate more particularly of the principall parts of vice First we will define it then consider the pernitious effects thereof in the soule and the fruits which it bringeth with it thirdly declare how it neuer escapeth vnpunished and lastly shew how we must fortifie our selues against the priuie watchings and snares of such a dangerous and mightie enimie Vice is an inequalitie and iarring of maners proceeding from mans naturall inclination to pleasures and naughtie desires This inclination not being reined with the bit of reason guided by the spirit of grace nor ruled by the wise declarations thereof causeth a man by little and little to giue ouer himselfe to all wicked passions the end of one being the beginning of another whereby he becommeth most vnhappie yea more wild and sauage than any brute beast Chrysippus a Stoike philosopher called vice the proper essence of vnhappines And surely it is a very perfect workmaister of wretchednes disposing and framing men to all kinde of mischiefe and miserie For after it hath once taken hold of the soule it will neuer forsake it vntill it hath wholie brused ouerwhelmed and destroied it filling it daily with perturbations and new passions with voluptuousnes rancor enmities reuenge murders anguish feare fruitlesse repentance ambition couetousnes and with all other lusts which are incurable diseases of the soule after they haue once taken roote therein For the more they waxe the more they will grow vice being as Plato saith of an infinite and endles race And therefore the aboue named Chrysippus said not without reason that to auoid so dangerous an enimie and one that ought to be so odious vnto vs it were better for vs to cast our selues headlong into the sea than to suffer it to raigne ouer vs. Plato also writeth that it is far better for a man not to liue at all than to liue wickedly or in ignorance For such a life can haue no fitter name than to be called a true shadow of death I meane of eternal death which followeth the wicked euen at the heeles Bias one of the Sages said That no man could iustly be termed a captiue although he were loden with irons except also he were compassed about with vices Moreouer we see that neither sword nor fire doth carie away a man so violently as vice doth Many haue suffered a thousand outrages and punishments with such constancie that tyrants were sooner wearie of persecuting them than they of suffering Besides they had so great power ouer themselues that in the midst of torments they were able to stay their voice altogither insomuch that one would haue either iudged them to be senselesse or els think that in seeing them he did not see them But vice alwaies discouereth it selfe and euery where appeereth shamefull infamous and hurtfull Thales called vice the hurtfullest thing in the world bicause that where it is it marreth and destroieth all Moreouer it maketh those things which otherwise seeme honorable and magnifical lothsome and vnpleasant when it is mingled with them yea it appeereth so much the more infamons as the nobilitie and authoritie whereunto it is ioined is greater bicause then it discouereth better what pernitious and damnable effects it hath For taking a swift course by the high way of power and driuing forward euery wicked affection to execution it causeth choler to be turned presently into murder loue into adulterie couetousnes into confiscation and so in other passions But as the vices of the greater sort are more dangerous so no doubt shame and dishonor are likewise doubled vpon them bicause they are better seene and noted whereby they become more odious and contemptible to euery one Besides their reward lieth at their gate in great measure which will not be long from them For to whom more is giuen of him more shall be required And I pray you what greater cause of shame and blushing can that man haue who being borne to command men of all estates and conditions doth himselfe obey such vile and abiect things as are sensualitie ignorance concupiscence other like passions wrought by vice which being without reason are made to obey and to be ruled by reason Neither are we more
speaking bicause a rash and inconsiderate worde may be corrected presently but that which is once set down in writing can no more be denied or amended but with infamy As therfore a man had need of a readie and quicke wit to be able to speake wel so great wisedom is very necessarie to write well yea the same rules and precepts that belong to speaking agree also to writing Besides writing is called of many a dumb speech which ought to be short and full of instruction Caesar in a letter which he sent to Rome frō the Persian battaile wrote but these three words Veni vidi vici that is to saie I came sawe and ouercame Octanian writing to his nephew Cains Drusus said thus For asmuch as thou art nowe in Illyria remember that thou deseendest of Casars that the Senate hath sent thee that thou art yoong my nephewe and a citizen of Rome Plato writing to Dionysius the yoonger vsed these words onely To kill thy brother to double thy tributes to force the people to forget thy friends to take good men for thine enimies are the works of a tyrant Pompey writing to the Senate from the east parts saide thus Fathers of the Senate Damascus is taken Pentapolis subdued Syria Ascalonia and Arabia are confederates and Palestina is vanquished We see then the maner of writing vsed by the ancients for which breuitie they were as much esteemed as the great discoursers of these tiems after inst occasion of correction But to returne againe into the path-way of speaking we haue in Cicero a notable instruction for this matter Let our speech saith he be sweet and pleasant not headstrong and when we discourse let vs not be so long that we hinder others from speaking For speech of all other things ought to be mutuall and equall Moreouer we must haue respect to that thing whereof we speake If a man discourse of graue matters he must adde a certaine seueritie but if he speake of delectable things a pleasant and gratious behauior Aboue all things we must take heede that our speech discouer not some vice to be in our manners which commonly falleth out when we speake euill of a man in his absence either to mooue laughter or to his shame and reproch We must also remember if our speech vpon some occasion comming betweene intermit the first discourse that it returne againe in conuenient time But that is as thinges fall out For all take not pleasure in the same things nor at all times And as we haue begun vpon some occasion so we must end by some meanes Now bicause in euery action of our life the perturbations of the soule are to be eschewed we must be carefull that our speech be voide thereof namely that it be without choler without extreame affections also without carelesnes and other such like imperfection Especially we must striue to make it knowne that we loue reuerence those with whom we speake Further we must know that silence in due time and place is profound wisedome a sober and modest thing and full of deepe secrets This caused Archidamus when he saw that Hecatus the orator was blamed for not speaking one worde at a banquet to answere for him that they which knowe how to speake well know also the time of silence Hyperides likewise being at a feast amongst a great assemblie verie full of noise pleasure and being asked why he spake nothing answered thus It is no time now to discourse of those things for which I am fit and as for those things which the time nowe requireth I am vnfit Bias being mocked of a babler bicause he spake nothing all a supper while answered him thus How is it possible that a foole should holde his peace at the table The ambassadours of the king of Persia being at a feast with a citizen of Athens and seeing Zeno the great philosopher say nothing they began to flatter him and to drinke to him saying what shall we tell the king our master concerning you master Zeno Nothing else quoth he but that you saw an olde man who knew wel how to holde his peace at the table And truly no speech vttred did euer so much good as many kept in haue profited and that which is restrained may be spoken at any time but a worde giuen out can no more be called backe againe For words as the poet saith haue wings and are presently dispersed euery where and manie repent that they haue spoken but neuer that they held their peace How many examples do histories set before our eies of men who through the intemperancie of their toongs haue throwne themselues headlong into infinite calamities of mightie cities and great estates destroied and ouerthrowne through the disclosing of some secret The citie of Athens was taken and destroied by Sylla the Romane dictatour who by his spies was admonished of the pratling of certaine old men in a barbars shop where they talked of a certaine place of the town that was weakest and woorst defended The ouermuch talke of one only man was the cause that Rome was not deliuered from the tiranny of Nero. For seeing one of the prisoners that was taken by the tirant to be dismaid bicause he shuld be put to death he willed him to pray to God that he might escape but vntil the morrow onely then he should haue cause of reioicing Wherupon the prisoner thinking with himselfe that it were better for him to chuse a certaintie than to expect an vncortainty and to prefer a safe way to saue his life before a iust disclosed this speech to Nero who knew wel how to remedy the conspiracy The gentleman of Normandy who in his confession told a Franciscan frier that he was once minded to haue killed king Fraunces the first may wel be placed amongst these ouermuch speakers For the king being aduertised hereof by the Franciscan frier sent the poore penitentiarie to the court of parliament where he receiued sentence of death Those that are nobly roially brought vp saith Plutark learne first to hold their peace then to speake Therfore Antigonus the great being demanded by his son at what houre the campe should dislodge art thou afraid quoth he to him that thou alone shalt not heare the trumpet He trusted not him with a secret matter to whom the succession of the empire was to come teaching him thereby to be more close and secret in such matters Euerie particuler man likewise ought to be no lesse aduised in vsing great discretion when the questiō is of vttring any thing which a man would haue concealed For he saith Plato to whom one discloseth a secret getteth the others libertie Now in this laudable silence which we commend here we haue this to marke wel that when the question is of speaking a truth or of profiting another we ought not to doubt in any case what pretence soeuer there be to speak vtter maintaine
freely to giue counsaile in that thing which concerneth the dutie of a good man or the charge wherunto we are called The sages vertuous men heretofore haue alwaies shewed themselues to be such in their free counsailes wise declarations as hereafter we may handle more largly In the meane time we may haue here Demaratus for an example of this commendable libertie of speech who comming from Corinth into Macedonia when Phillip was at variance with his wife with his son was demanded by the king whether the Graecians did agree wel among themselues Truly sir quoth he to him it becommeth you wel to inquire after the concord of the Athenians Peloponesians in the meane while to suffer your owne house to be ful of diuision and domesticall discord Diogenes also being gon to the camp of the same Phillip at the same time that he returned from making war against the Grecians being led before him the king asked him if he were not a spy Yes truely answered the philosopher I am a spy com hither to espy thy impudency folly who not constrained by any dost set downe as it were on a dicing boord in the hazard of one houre both thy kingdome life Demosthenes being demanded of the tirant Epemetes why he wept so bitterly for the death of a philosopher a cōpanion of his seeing it was a strang matter to see wisemē weepe yea altogither vnbeseeming their profession know said he to him that I weepe not for the death of this philosopher but bicause thou art aliue For I tel thee that in the Academies we are more sorrowfull for the life of the wicked than for the death of good men Let vs learne then by your present discourse that talke being the messenger of thought discloseth our maners a great deal more than the lines draughts of our face do And as that tree whose root is drie can haue no greene leaues so from a vicious and corrupted soule nothing but vile filthy speeches can proceede which a wise man ought wholy to shunne bicause to make small account of euill words leadeth a man by litle and little to dishonest deeds Let all vaine speech also be banished from vs and let vs take great heed that we neuer speake either in sport or earnest any one word that is not tru knowing that to be true in word is the beginning and foundation of a notable vertue Moreouer let vs know that truth is not onely betraied of those that speake falsely and maintaine a lie but also of those that dare not confesse and defende it publikely Let vs know that aboue all things we must dedicate our voice and speech to sing the praises of God remembring the saying of that holy man Gordius who as he was led to the place of punishment was exhorted by some to leaue his opinion and so saue his life To whom he answered that the toong ought to vtter nothing that is iniurious to the Creator thereof Lastly let vs know that we must refer euery word to the glory of his name and to the profit of our neighbors The end of the third daies worke THE FOVRTH DAIES WORKE Of Friendship and of a friend Chap. 13. ASER. MAn being a reasonable creature borne for ciuill societie to obserue lawes and iustice and to exercise in the world all duties of gentlenes and goodnes the fairest and most fruitfull seede that God hath infused and sowne in his soule and that draweth him to this ende is loue and charitie towards his like But as euerie action of mans life standeth in need to be guided by the vertue of Prudence whereof we discoursed yesterday so in truth she is verie necessarie in euerie good and vnfained friendship For this cause I thinke companions that we shall obserue the order of our discourses if we begin this daies worke with the handling of friendship and of the true and perfect dutie of a friend AMANA Nothing that seemeth to be profitable whether it be honor riches pleasure or whatsoeuer else is of this kinde ought to be preferred in any respect before friendship Yea a man is to make more account of friends as Socrates said then of any other mortall thing ARAM. Perfect friendship saith Aristotle is to loue our friend more for his benefit than for our owne and therefore a friend is alwaies profitable and necessary But he is greatly deceiued saith Homer that seeketh for a friend in the court and prooueth him at a feast But let vs heare ACHITOB discourse hereupon ACHITOB. Rare things are commonly most esteemed amongst men the more pretious they are of their owne nature so much the more are they had in request This we may very aptly apply to a friend seeing there is nothing so rare as one that is vnfained and stedfast neither any thing so excellent and perfect as he is if he be a good and prudent man And for this cause the philosophers accounted friendship to be the chiefest and most excellent good of fortune as being least of all subiect to hir and most necessarie for man But bicause the wickednes of men is so great in these daies that nothing is so sacred and holy which is not violated corrupted brought to confusion no maruell if men impudently abuse this name of a friend so much reuerenced in olde time that some take it to themselues being altogither vnwoorthie thereof and others as freely although to their losse and shame grant them this excellent title and esteeme them for such in truth towards them as they falsely vaunt themselues to be But that we be not deceiued with the greater number which is not alwaies the surest marke let vs briefly consider what friendship is what fruits spring from hir who may rightly challenge this title of a friend what maner of one we ought to choose how we must trie him before we take him for such a one then the meanes whereby to keepe him and lastly what mutuall dutie friends are to vse one towards another First we say with Socrates that true friendship cannot be framed but by the helpe and grace of God who draweth like to the loue of his like that euerie perfect friendship is to bee linked with the bond of charitie and ought to be referred to God as to our soueraigne good and cheefest friend and therefore that true friendship cannot be setled betweene the wicked who being at discord within themselues can haue no concorde and agreement one with another Moreouer there is to be found in friendship whatsoeuer men thinke woorthie to be desired as honestie glorie tranquillitie of minde and pleasure and consequently a happie life which cannot bee amongst the wicked Friendship is a communion of a perpetuall will the end whereof is fellowship of life and it is framed by the perfect habit of a long continued loue Whereby wee may perceiue that there is a difference betwixt loue and
driueth away round about hir the darknes and obscuritie of passions She is saith Socrates the wholesomest vertue of all For she preserueth both publikely and priuately humane societie she lifteth vp the soule miserably throwen downe in vice and restoreth hir againe into hir place Temperance saith Plato is a mutuall consent of the parts of the soule from whence springeth continencie causing all disordered and vnbrideled desires to take reason for a rule and direction Temperance saith Cicero is the mother of all dutie and honestie It is the propertie of iustice not to violate the right of another man and of Temperance not so much as to offend him In Temperance a man may behold modestie with the priuation of euery perturbation in the soule as also away how to frame al things according to that which is decent or seemely which the Latins call Decorum being a conueniencie meet for the excellencie of man and that wherein his nature differeth from other liuing creatures For as bodily beautie mooueth and reioiceth the eies by reason of the goodly and seemely composition of all the members wherin all the parts with a certaine grace agree togither so this decencie which is honestie and seemelines shining in mans life by his good order constancie and moderation both in deed and word mooueth and draweth the harts of those amongst whom we liue This vertue then of temperance is a stedfast and moderate rule of reason ouer concupiscence and ouer other vehement motions of the mind But she commandeth cheefly ouer those two perturbations of the soule grounded vpon the opinion of good I meane Vnbridled desire and vnmeasurable ioie whereof heertofore we made mention Thus we see that no man can find out any thing that is so excellent and wonderfull as temperance the guide and gouernor of the soule which bicause of hir exceeding great light cannot be hid in darknes which compelleth vs to follow reason bringeth peace to our minds and mollifieth them as it were by concord and agreement She serueth for a bridle to restraine all pleasures and in the midst of them maketh man good and vertuous She serueth for a knife to cut off all superfluous vaine and vnnecessarie desires as well of the soule as of the bodie and is as it were a rule directing naturall and necessarie desires by fit choice of times and by temperate vse of mediocritie Wherefore we may say that this vertue of temperance comprehendeth in it all the other vertues that through hir a harmonie concordance and coniunction of them all is made that she ministreth vnto them all occasions of beginning and being begun confirmeth them by a firme and stedfast safetie Breefly temperance as Plato saith is a generall surname of those vertues whereby a man moderateth his owne affections and frameth his gesture and behauiour in such sort that no effeminate or loose maners no clownish or vnciuil fashions are seene in him O saith Euripides how is temperance to be esteemed which is the cause of such great glorie and honor amongst men This vertue is diuided into fower principal parts into Continencie Clemencie Modestie and Order Continencie is that part whereby concupiscence and desire are gouerned by counsell and reason Clemencie is that whereby the minds of men rashly caried away with the hatred of any one and with desire to hurt him are kept backe by gentlenes Modestie is that whereby honest shame and bashfulnes purchaseth good and due deserued renowne Order is a disposition of all things in their conuenient place All these vertues are vndoubtedly ioined with temperance and consist as well in action as in the discoursing of the mind For by ioining a certaine mediocritie and order vnto those things that belong to this life we preserue honestie and dutie Euerie vertue saith Iamblicus a notable man despiseth whatsoeuer is fraile mortall and momentanie but temperance more than the rest bicause she contemneth and through chastitie beateth downe all those delights and pleasures whereby the soule as Plato saith is fastened vnto the bodie as it were with a naile Therefore if temperance rooteth out whatsoeuer she findeth vnperfect and subiect to perturbations how shal she not therewithall make vs perfect This is the meaning of that which the poets would giue vs to vnderstand vnder that fained fable of Bellerophon who being aided by modestie put to death that Chimaera and all other cruel and sauage monsters But as long as the immoderate force of our affections raigneth in vs it suffereth not men to be men but draweth them to the il fauoured nature of beasts void of reason Contrariwise this holie moderation whereby pleasures are contained within certaine bounds preserueth families togither and cities and which is more draweth vs in some sort neere to the diuine nature Thus we see that she is the foundation and ornament of all good things If we should endeuor to rehearse heere al those excellent praises which philosophers giue to this vertue of temperance bicause of hir worthie effects and wholesome fruits which she bringeth foorth in the soule we were not able to performe it although we should bestow this whole daies worke about it But bicause in the sequele of our discourses as well in the handling of vices as of vertues we may consider further how necessary temperance is and what profit it bringeth to the whole life of man we will content our selues to learne of Plato that temperance is the piller of fortitude the helmet and shield against luxuriousnes the keeper and guide of the eies the preseruer of good will the rasor of euill thoughts the corrector of vntamed desires an enimie to the disordered will of the soule that it shunneth naturall desires hindereth dishonest actions breedeth continencie mollifieth mens harts and giueth reason for a rule in all things Now let vs note out amongst the ancients some examples of the force and greatnes of this vertue of temperance which hath made many excellent men worthie of eternall renowme Scipio Africanus generall of the Romanes at the taking of the citie of Carthage had a yoong damsell to his prisoner of rare and excellent beautie And when he vnderstood of what great calling she came and how hir parents not long before had betrothed hir to a great Lord of Spaine he commanded that he should be sent for and restored hir vnto him without abusing hir in any respect although he was in the flowre of his age and had free and soueraigne authoritie Moreouer he gaue for a dowrie with hir the monie that was brought vnto him for hir ransome An act no doubt of great continencie in a victorious captaine towards his captiue whereof Aulus Gellius ioining it with that which we read of Alexander the great maketh this question whether of the twaine behaued himselfe more vertuously For Alexander hauing vanquished in battell king Darius and retaining as prisoner his wife which excelled al the dames of Asia in beautie and
was withall but yong in yeeres the victorious Monarke being but yong also and hauing no superior aboue him to whom he was bound to giue an account of himselfe had notwithstanding such great knowledge how to command himselfe that albeit by his acquaintance and friends he was sufficiently certified of the excellent beautie of this Ladie yet hee bare no ill thought towards hir but sent to comfort hir and caused hir to be intertained and attended on with no lesse honor and reuerence than if she had been his owne sister And to auoid all suspicion and occasion of euill he would not see hir nor suffer hir to be brought before him The temperance of Cyrus king of Persia is also very famous amongst the historiographers For when one of his minions stirred him vp to go and see faire Panthaea saying that hir rare beautie was well woorthie to be seene that is the cause answered this yong prince vnto him why I will altogither abstaine at this present from beholding hir at thy persuasion least she hir selfe heerafter should induce me through the remembrance of hir perfection to go to hir and so cause me in the meane time to let slip many affaires of great importance Architas was so temperate that he would not so much as vtter one filthie word and if he were driuen to declare it vpon some iust occasion then he wrote it shewing by this silence how dishonest a thing it was to commit that which being onely vttered ought to cause a man to blush Xenocrates was indued with such a great gift of continencie that Phryna a very faire and notable courtisan laid a wager with certaine yoong men that if she lay with him she would cause him to breake his temperance But Xenocrates hauing granted hir the halfe of his bed for example sake to those youths was nothing more mooued for any thing she could do Whereupon Phryna being verie angrie made answere in the morning to those that demanded the wager of hir that she laie not with a man but with a blocke Isaeus the philosopher being asked of one that looked vpon a verie faire woman whether she seemed not vnto him to be faire made this answer My friend I am not diseased any more in my eies and so would not behold hir at all Caius Gracchus the Romaine as long as he gouerned Sardinia would neuer suffer a woman to set foote in his house except it were to demand iustice Antigonus king of Macedonia hearing that his sonne was lodged in a house where there were three verie faire daughters made an edict that no courtier should lodge in any matrons house that had daughters if she were vnder fiftie yeeres of age Pompeius would neuer speak to the wife of Demetrius his freeman bicause she was so faire that he feared least he should be in loue with hir In the number of these ancient famous and vertuous men that great captaine Francis Sforce duke of Millan deserueth to be placed whose continencie was woonderfull euen when he was yet yoong and generall of the Florentine armie at the taking of Casanoua For as certaine souldiers had taken a maide of an exccellent beautie and at hir intreatie and earnest request had brought hir before him Sforce asked the maide why she desired so earnestly to come before him To this ende quoth she that thou mightest deliuer me from the souldiers that I might please thee Sforce seeing hir to be verie faire accepted of hir and at night caused hir to lie with him But as he would haue drawne neer vnto hir the maide cast hir selfe on both hir knees before him without the bed and besought him to saue hir virginitie and to restore hir to him vnto whome she was made sure Whereupon Sforce willingly agreed beholding the abundance of hir teares which were testimonies of the chastitie of hir hart Will we haue examples of this vertue of temperance in other circumstances of hir effects Ambition truly is the most vehement and strongest passion of all those wherewith mens minds are troubled and yet many notable and vertuous men haue so mastred it by the force of their temperance that oftentimes they accepted of offices and estats of supreame authoritie as it were by compulsion with greefe yea some altogither contemned and willingly forsooke them Pompey receiuing letters of absolute authoritie from the senate to conduct the warre against the two kings Tygranes and Mithridates cried out O God shall I neuer come to the ende of so many trauels Shall enuie alwaies hold me in such sort as hir slaue that newe and great charges daily laying hold vpon me I cannot rid my selfe of these snares to the end I may liue sweetly with my wife and children at my house in the countrey Pittacus one of the Sages of Graecia being constrained to take vpon him the charge of an armie accepted it with great greefe saying before them all O how hard a matter it is to be a good man Pedaretus the Lacedemonian hauing escaped to be elected one of those three hundred senators which gouerned the estate of Sparta returned from the assembly verie ioifull saying that it was an easie matter to finde in that citie three hundred better and more honest men than himselfe What did Scipio of whom we haue already spoken after he had performed a thousand glorious facts for the greatnes of the Romaine empire He forced the nature of ambition which is alwaies caried with a desire of new glorie and changed the rest of his life into quietnes and abandoning the affaires of estate he went and dwelt in the countrey Torquatus and Fabritius absented thēselues from Rome the one bicause he would not haue the dictatorship and the other the consulship It is not long since Aimaeus duke of Sauoy willingly gaue ouer his duchy into his sons hands became an hermit and after that being chosen pope he gaue vp the seat willingly to another Amurathes the second of that name emperor of the Turks after he had obtained infinite victories and vanquished the king of Hungarie became a monke of the straightest sect amongst them That great emperor Charles the fift did he not resigne his empire into the hands of the princes electors and withdrewe himselfe into a monasterie But what need we maruell at the knowledge of these examples which shewe the effects of this vertue of temperance against strange passions arising in vs proceeding of our nature corrupted with sinne and ruling in vs through the ignorance of that which is good when we may see that temperance doth not onely serue for a good guide and schoolmaster to our passions and to our naturall and necessarie desires and pleasures that are borne with man from the beginning to rule them with mediocritie and reason but also compelleth them oftentimes to submit themselues thereby triumphing ouer their necessitie although as Thales said it be inuincible
imbecillitie to be stirred vp to anger and to be troubled let vs follow that commandement of the Scripture Not to sinne in our anger neither to let the sunne go downe vpon our wrath least we shew our selues to haue lesse vertue and curtesie than the Ethnike Pythagorian Philosophers who albeit they were neither of kinne nor allied yet kept this custome inuiolable that if peraduenture they were entred into some contention and choler one against another before the sunne went downe they appointed a meeting where they imbraced and shooke hands one with another Further we haue carefully to auoyd all occasions which we know might induce and prouoke vs to choler As Cotis king of Thracia wisely behaued himselfe when one brought him a present of many goodly vessels curiously made and wrought but very brittle and easie to breake bicause they were of glasse After he had well recompenced the gift he brake them all for feare least through choler whereunto he knew himselfe subiect he should be mooued with wrath against any of his seruants that should breake them and so punish him too seuerely And of this matter we may also draw a good instructiō for all those that are placed in authoritie aboue others namely that they beware least they correct or punish any body in their choler but only when they are void of all vehement passions considering the fact in it selfe aduisedly and with quiet and setled sences knowing that as bodies seeme greater through a miste so doe faults through choler which for the most part carieth Princes headlong to commit execrable and cursed cruelties Among many examples we may note that of the emperor Theodosius who being mooued with anger against those of Thessalonica for a commotion which they made for staying his lieutenant sent his army thither with commādement that they should be vtterly rooted out whereupon fifteene thousand were slaine neither women nor children being spared Of which fault repenting him but too late he made a law afterward whereby he willed that the execution of his letters Patents and Commaundements should be held in suspence and deferred thirtie days after signification and knowledge of them namely when any were to be punished more rigorously than of custome he vsed Neither is it lesse dangerous in an estate that the administration of publike charges should be committed to such as suffer themselues to be ouer-ruled with wrath seeing there are not in a maner fewer matters which are to be winked at and dissembled than to be punished corrected And although Magistrates haue authoritie iust cause to punish vices yet haue they no licence to shew thēselues to be passionated But this being a matter of Policie let vs continue our morall instructions and note that which we read of Plato deseruing to be considered of here who being very angry with a seruaunt of his for a great fault committed by him and seeing Xenocrates to come towards him requested him if he were his friend to correct that seruant of his bicause at this present quoth he anger surmounteth my reason Whereby this wise Philosopher declared sufficiently that if the first motions are not at all in our power through the imperfection of our nature yet at the lest reason may serue for a bridle to hinder euery naughtie execution teaching vs likewise that we ought to vse and exercise our power and authoritie ouer others without any extreme passion Further that we may haue such imperfections in greater hatred we are to note that choler hath been the ouerthrow of many great men as it was of the emperor Aurelianus who was endued with notable vertues but otherwise easilie mooued to anger whose wrath was such that their death with whom he was displeased was the onely remedie to appease it For being one day incensed against Mnesteus his Secretarie he knowing his masters disposition for the safegard of his life deuised to write counterfaiting the emperors hand in a litle scroule the names of the principall captaines of his army putting himselfe in the number of those whom he had fully purposed to put to death and bearing it vnto them sayd that he saw this bill fall out of the emperours sleeue Whereat they being astonished and giuing credit thereunto resolued with themselues to preuent it and so falling vpon him slew him Moreouer it is well known to euery one that choler may greatly hurt health whereof men are for the most part desirous enough It was cause of the emperour Valentinians death who through crying out in his choler brake a veine in his neck From this vice proceedeth another detestable imperfection which is swearing a thing directly contrary to a wise mans life and condemned by the lawe both of God and man whereof we might easilie be cured by custome if first we destroied Impatiencie and Choler which prouoke blasphcmie The Romanes obserued an auncient decree which expresly commaunded that when yong men would sweare by the name of some God they should first go out of the house wherin they were Which was a commēdable mean both to retain keep them frō swearing lightly vpō the suddain also that they might haue good laisure space to bethink thēselues This would be very profitable for vs towards the correction of this vice the vnmeasurable licence whereof ought to be kept backe and chastised by some better meanes Yea it were very expedient and necessarie to renew and put in practise that law of good king S. Lewes that all blasphemers should be marked in the forehead with an hot iron yea punished with death if they would not be corrected otherwise Such contemners of the name of God ought to learne their lesson of Carilaüs the Ethnicke and Pagan who being demanded why the images of the Gods in Lacedemonia were armed to the end quoth he that men might feare to blaspheme the Gods knowing that they are armed to take reuengement Concluding therefore our present discourse let vs learne to decke our liues so well with patience which is so profitable and necessary to saluation and to a good and happie life that we be patient towards all men in all things to the end we may obey the will of God and reape the fruite of his promises as the end of patience is the expectation of things promised And let vs know that the learning and vertue of a man is knowne by patience and that he is to be accounted to haue lesse learning and vertue that hath lesse patience Further let vs learne that the office dutie of a prudent and noble minded man is to winke at many things that befall him to redresse other things to hold his peace at some things and to suffer much so that he follow reason alwaies and flie opinion Lastly we are to know that he which endureth euill patiently shall know also how afterward he may easily beare prosperitie and that euery christian offereth an
acceptable sacrifice to God when he yeeldeth vnto him dailie thanks in the midst of infinite troubles and vexations which benefit will worke in vs the vtter ouerthrow of all impatience choler and wrath sworne enemies to all reason and vertue Of Meekenes Clemeneie Mildnes Gentlenes and Humanitie Chap. 30. ACHITOB A Philosopher in a great assemblie of people taking a lanterne and a candle lighted at midday and going into an high place in all their sight was demanded what he ment to do with all I seeke said he for a man but can see none no not one And truly it is a very rare and excellent thing to find one that in deed is a Man which is as much to say as courteous or made of meekenes and gentlenes for which cause Plato calleth him a ciuill creature and sociable by nature Now therefore let vs vnderstand of you my companions what woorthy effects this vertue of meekenes bringeth foorth in man ASER. Mercie said Plato ought no more to be taken away from the nature of man than the altar out of the Temple And euery noble hart ought to be so courteous and gratious that he be reuerenced more than feared of his neighbors AMANA There is no nation so barbarous which loueth not meekenes curtesie beneuolence and a thankfull soule and contrariwise which hateth and contemneth not proud wicked cruell and vngratefull persons But it belongeth to thee ARAM to discourse of this matter vnto vs. ARAM. Sinne hauing depriued man of the perfection of graces wherewith the image of God in him had inriched and beautified him namely with perfect goodnes and holye righteousnes there remained nothing in his soule but a weake desire to aspire to that soueraigne Good of which she felt hir selfe spoiled For further confirmation whereof this incomparable beautie of the visible shape of the bodie was left vnto him to the end that in this principall worke as in a rich picture he might find large matter to mooue him to contemplate and to admire the excellencie and greatnes of his Creator who is able to set him againe in his former glorie and brightnes By means of this knowledge a man feeleth himselfe effectually mooued and touched with the loue of his like imprinted in euery nature which desireth vsually to shew foorth the effects thereof to the profite of many if it be not wholy depraued and accursed This loue ought to be so much the greater more perfect in man by how much the neerer he approcheth to the vnderstanding of the incomprehensible secrets of the diuinitie For what thing ought more to stirre vs vp and to mooue vs with zeale to do good to our neighbours than the consideration both of their creation after the image of God whereunto we owe all honor loue obedience and also of their roestablishment into the same image by his pure grace mercie besides the contemplation of the excellent composition and building of this frame of man These things being well considered in our minds whom shall we take for our enemie for a stranger as contemptible vnwoorthy and of no account seeing this brightnes and grace of God shineth in euery one and especially in those whom the world despiseth Moreouer when we know by his word that Man is substituted of God in his place that we should acknowledge towards him the inestimable benefits which we haue and daily receiue from the helpe and goodnesse of our common Father who promiseth to accept as done to himselfe what good thing soeuer we procure to his creatures so that it be done with a gladsome and cheerfull countenance and with a sweete and curteous kind of beneficence void of arrogancie contumelie or reproch shal any thing stay vs from exercising towards euery one all duties of humanitie We read in Macrobius that long sithence there was a Temple in Athens dedicated to Mercie into which none was suffered to enter except he were beneficiall and helpfull and then also with licence from the Senate In so much that through a desire which the people had to haue accesse into it they studied earnestly to exercise workes of pitie and pietie Yea the greatest reproch which an Athenian could vtter to his neighbor was to hit him in the teeth that he was neuer in the Academie of the Philosophers nor in the Temple of Mercie girding him by this only reproch with two shamefull things the one of ignorance and want of prudence the other of crueltie inhumanitie Now if among those of olde time the onely naturall seede of the loue of their like which also is seen in beasts was so strong and powerfull that it brought forth in them notwithstanding they were destitute of the heauenly light fruites woorthy of perpetuall memorie as they that had nothing in greater estimation than to shew themselues meeke gentle curteous helpfull and gratious towards others euen towards their enemies What ought they to do that say they are all members of that one head who recommendeth so expresly vnto them meeknes mildnes gentlenes grace clemencie mercy good-will compassion and euery good affection towards their neighbor All which things are cōprehended vnder this only sacred word of Charitie which is the indissoluble band of God with vs whereby we are inflamed with the loue of him for that which we owe vnto him and thereby also are induced to loue our neighbours for the loue of God But let vs consider how the ancients hauing but the shadow of this perfect Charitie praysed esteemed this vertue of Meeknes from which they knew how to draw so many good commodities for the profite and succour of euery one that after we may note here certain woorthy examples to stirre vs vp so much the more vnto our dutie Meeknes saith Plato is a vertue that belongeth to the courageous part of the soule whereby we are hardly mooued to anger Hir office and dutie is to be able to support and endure patiently those crimes that are layd vpon hir not to suffer hir selfe to be hastily caried to reuenge nor to be too easily stirred to wrath but to make him that possesseth hir mild gratious and of a stayed and setled mind Meeknes and gentlenes as he sayth else-where is that vertue whereby a man easily appeaseth the motions and instigations of the soule caused by choler and it standeth him in stead of a moderate temperāce of the spirit decking him with mildnes curtesie which draweth vnto him the loue of strangers and good seruice of his owne Whereby it appeereth that whosoeuer is mild and courteous to others receiueth much more profit and honor than those whome he honoreth They are not to be credited saith Cicero who say that a man must vse crueltie towards his enemies esteeming that to be an act proper to a noble and courageous man For nothing is more commendable or woorthie a great and excellent man than meekenes and clemencie It seemeth also that liberalitie beneficence iustice
proper end expecting our renewing in that life which is immortall and euerlasting Of Good and Ill hap Chap. 31. ARAM. THere hath beene alwayes men of great humaine learning but voyd of the sincere knowledge of the truth that haue maintained one of these two opinions some That all things were gouerned by nature others that they were ruled by fortune They that acknowledge nature for the first cause of all things did attribute vnto hir a constellation which through the strength and efficacie of the starres gouerned the counsaile and reason of men The other sort acknowledging fortune maintained that all things were done at aduenture and by chance Now albeit there are too many at this day that follow this error yet is it so absurd a thing that in the writings of Ethnicks and Pagans a thousand inuincible reasons are found of sufficient force to conuince such opinions of meere lying and ouer-great sottishnes and to constraine those that are most impudent and shameles to acknowledge an infinite almightie power to be the creator of nature and of all things moouing therein and to dispose and order them with an eternall and euerlasting prouidence True it is that I would not absolutely deny the maruellous effects which many haue noted in heauenlie bodies throughout nature neuertheles I hold this for certaine that as all their vertue dependeth of one onely God so he withdraweth from them his power when and as soone as it pleaseth him Of this I inferre that they greatly deceiue themselues who thinke that the seeking out of the starres and of their secret vertues diminisheth any thing from the greatnes and power of God seeing that contrariwise his maiestie is much more famous and woonderful in doing such great things by his creatures as if he did them himselfe without any meane Nowe that which I haue touched heere my companions is not to offer any occasion to discourse of the Mathematicks or of any part thereof which would be to depart out of those bounds which we appointed to our Academy But seeing nothing is so common amongst vs as to vse or rather to abuse these wordes of Good and Ill hap by attributing vnto them some power and vertue ouer our doings insomuch that we commonly say there is nothing but good or ill lucke in this world I thinke it wil not be without fruite to consider narowly what we ought to thinke of these words and wherein we are to seeke and desire good hap and wherein to feare and flie ill lucke Now therefore let vs be instructed of you touching this matter ACHITOB. Good hap consisteth in that contentation which proceedeth from the perfection of the subiect therof being adorned with a perfect habit and intire possession of all kind of Goods in the priuation whereof all ill hap consisteth This cannot be verified of the passions and affections of men nor of their worldly affaires which are alwaies intermingled with diuers sundry accidents turning one while on this manner by and by after an other and carying the soule continually vp and downe with these two perturbations Desire and Griefe Therefore if there be a happie man in this world said Socrates it is he that hath a pure and cleane soule and a conscience defiled with nothing For the mysteries of God may be seene and beheld of him onely ASER. A temperate and constant man that knoweth how to moderate feare anger excessiue ioy and vnbrideled desire is very happie but he that placeth other vading Goods in his felicitie shall neuer haue a quiet mind Let vs then heare of AMANA wherein we ought to iudge that happines or vnhappines consisteth AMANA The continuall alteration sudden chang of one estate into another cleane contrary which might alwaies be noted in the nature disposition and euents of mens actions counsels desires gaue occasion to some of the ancient Philosophers to thinke the sicke more happie than the sound bicause said they sicke folks looke for health whereas the healthie expect sicknes For this very consideration it seemeth that Amasis almost the last of those kings that raigned peaceably in Egypt shoke off the alliance and league with Policrates king of Samos who was so happie in worldlie respects that do what he could yet could he not know what sorow meant but all things fel out vnto him better than he desired For proofe wherof may serue that which happened vnto him after he had cast into the sea a ring of great value which he loued exceedingly Now although he did so of purpose to the end he might taste of some sorow and griefe yet he found it quickly againe in the bellie of a fish taken by Fishermen and bought for his kitchen Whereupon this wise Egyptian iudged it a thing altogether impossible but that some great miserie was to follow hard at the heeles of so great happines and therefore he would not be partaker therof as of necessitie he should haue beene if he had continued still that league which before was betwixt them Neither was Amasis any thing deceiued in his opinion For within a while after Policrates was depriued of his kingdome and shamefully hanged seruing for a common and notable example of the instabilitie and variablenes of mans estate as also to shew that it is a very absurd thing to place happines in so vncertain felicity And yet among infinit imperfections borne with man this is common in him to loose quickly the remembrance of a benefit receiued but to retaine a long time the memorie of a calamitie fallen vpon him Which is the cause that he alwaies supposeth his mishaps to be without comparison greater than all the good hap that he can haue so that he complaineth continually of his miseries and calamities not remembring the innumerable benefits which are daily offred presented vnto him from the grace and bountifulnes of God Notwithstanding if all men as Socrates said aswell rich as poore brought their mishaps and laid them in common together and if they were in such sort diuided that euery one might haue an equall portion then should it be seene that many who thinke themselues ouercharged oppressed would with all their hartes take againe vnto them their fortune and be contented withall Wouldest thou said Democritus auoid the griefe of thy miserie Behold the life of the afflicted and by the comparison thereof with thine thou shalt see that thou hast cause to thinke thy selfe very happie He that will measure his burthen saith Martial may well beare it Now with this common complaint in men of their estate and condition this custome also is ioined to lay the cause of that which they suffer vpon cruell and intollerable destinie accusing that to excuse their owne fault Wherefore we cannot more aptly compare them than to blind folks who are angrie and oftentimes call them blind that vnawares do meete and iustle them But if we desire to cure our soules of so many
miserable passions which depriue vs of true rest tranquillitie necessarie for a happie life let vs be carefull to learne how to discerne true happines from mishap that we may reioyce in that which is good and as readily giue thanks to the author thereof as naturally through a false opinion which we haue of euill we sustaine humaine miseries and crosses vnpatiently First then let vs heare the sundry and notable opinions of many ancient men touching good and ill hap If thou knowest all that ought to be knowen in all things said Pythagoras thou art happy Let them be accounted very happy said Homer to whom fortune hath equally wayed the good with the euill The greatest miserie of all said Bias is not to be able to beare miserie That man is happie said Dionysius the elder that hath learned from his youth to be vnhappy For he will beare the yoke better whereunto he hath been subiect and accustomed of long tyme. Demetrius surnamed the Besieger said That he iudged none more vnhappy than he that neuer tasted of aduersitie as if he would haue sayd that it was a sure argument that fortune iudged him to be so base abiect that he deserued not that she should busie hir selfe about him That man saith Cicero is very happy who thinketh that no humane matters how grieuous soeuer they may be are intollerable or ought to discourage him iudging also nothing so excellent wherby he should be mooued to reioyce in such sort that his hart be puffed and lift vp thereby Yea he is very happy who fitly and conueniently behaueth himself in all things necessary for him Nothing is euil saith Plutarke that is necessarie By which word Necessarie both he and Cicero vnderstand whatsoeuer commeth to a wise man by fatall destinie bicause he beareth it patiently as that which cannot be auoyded thereby increasing his vertue so much the more and so no euill can come to a good man Solon drawing neerer to the truth of sincere happinesse sayd that it consisted in a good life and death and that to iudge them happy that are aliue considering the danger of so many alterations wherein they are were all one as if a man should before hand appoint the reward of the victorie for one that is yet fighting not beyng sure that he should ouercome Socrates speaking rather with a diuine than a humane spirite sayd that when we shall be deliuered from this body wherein our soule is inclosed as an Oyster in his shell we may than be happy but not sooner and that felicitie cannot be obtained in this life but that we must hope to enioy it perfectly in the other life as well for our vertues as by the grace and mercy of God Not the rich said Plato but the wise and prudent auoyd miserie They that thinke sayth Aristotle that externall goods are the cause of happines deceiue themselues no lesse than if they supposed that cunning playing on the harpe came from the instrument and not from Arte but we must seeke for it in the good and quiet estate of the soule For as we say not that a body is perfect bicause it is richly arayed but rather bicause it is well framed and healthfull so a soule well instructed is the cause that both hir selfe and the bodie wherein she is inclosed are happy which cannot be verified of a man bicause he is rich in gold and siluer When I consider all the aboue named wise opinions of these Ethnikes and Pagans I cannot sufficiently maruell at the ignorance and blockishnes of many in our age touching Good and Ill hap bicause they labor to make these words priuate and to tie them to the successe of their affections in worldly matters which if they fall out according to their desire and liking behold presently they are rauished with extreme ioy boasting of thēselues that they are most happy But contrarywise if they misse of their intents by and by they dispaire and thinke themselues the vnhappiest men in the world Do we not also see that most men iudge them happy that possesse riches pleasure delight glory and honour and those men miserable that want especially if after they had aboundance they loose it by some mishap the cause wherof they commonly attribute either to good or ill lucke which they say ruleth all humaine affaires We read that Apollonius Thianaeus hauing trauelled ouer al Asia Afrike and Europe sayd that of two things whereat he maruelled most in all the world the first was that he alwayes sawe the proud man commaund the humble the quarellous the quiet the tyrant the iust the cruel the pitifull the coward the hardie the ignorant the skilfull and the greatest thieues hang the innocent But in the meane while who may doubt whether of these were the happiest that the good were not rather than the wicked if happines according to the ancients to the truth be perfected in good things then it is certain that whosoeuer enioieth al good things shall be perfectly happy Now nothing can be called good but that which is profitable and contrary to euill so that whatsoeuer may as so one be euill as good ought not to be called good Moreouer it must be the possession of some firme stedfast and permanent Good that maketh a man happy For nothing ought to wax old to perish or decay of those things wherin a happy life consisteth seeing he that feareth to loose them cannot be sayd to liue quietly Therefore neither beautie nor strength and disposition of body neither riches glory honour or pleasure can be truely called Goods seeing oftentymes they are the cause of so many euils waxe old and vanish away many times as soone as a man hath receiued them and lastly worke in vs an vnsatiable desire of them How many men are there to whom all these things haue been the occasion of euill And how can we call that good which being possessed and that in abundance cannot yet keep the owner thereof from being vnhappy and miserable Wherfore we may say that happines cannot be perfected by the possession of humane and mortall things neither vnhappines through the want of them but that the true felicitie which we ought to desire in this world consisteth in the goods of the soule nourished in the hope of that vnspeakable euerlasting happines which is promised and assured vnto it in the second life And so we say that none are vnhappy but they who by reason of their peruersnesse feele in their conscience a doubting of the expectation of eternall promises as also they that giue ouer themselues to vice whose nature is to corrupt destroy and infect with the venom that is alwayes about it all things whereof it taketh hold As for the common miseries of mans life they cannot in any sort make him vnhappy whose naturall disposition maners beyng framed and decked with vertue are able to giue to impart to euery
was nothing but vertue could tame it and that men furnished therewith behaued themselues constantly and courageously in both kinds of fortune Vertue saith Cicero abideth calme and quiet in the greatest tempest and although she be driuen into exile yet she stirreth not out of hir place and countrey but shineth so alwaies of hir selfe that she cannot be soiled with the spots of an other This excellent Orator and Philosopher giueth vs also wholesome counsell to oppose against the dangerous effects that are to be feared in prosperitie When we are saith he in best estate we must vse the counsell of our friends more than we do commonly and as long as it continueth we are greatly to beware that we open not our eares to flatterers who are the plague destruction of the greater sort bicause all their labor is to propound vnto vs occasions meanes to enioy delights and pleasures and to shew out selues to be proud and arrogant during the time of our prosperitie to the end we should put good men farre from vs and reserue to them onely that authority wherein they are setled Whereas on the contrarie side our true friends would lead vs backe to consider the inconstancie of humane things to the ende that we abuse not our felicitie but behaue our selues as a wise Pilote doth who alwayes feareth a smiling calmnesse in the maine sea Which consideration maketh a mā constant and resolute to beare and indure all sinister chaunces and not so ready and easie to be deceiued bicause he always feareth and distrusteth fortune Let vs now come to examples of that which we haue here alleaged As touching the pernitious effects of ouer great prosperitie they may well be noted in Alexander the great who although he was indued with notable and rare vertues yet could not vse moderately the great good speed and happy successe of all his enterprises but being conquered of the Persian delights gaue himselfe ouer to commit many insolencies and then filled with prefumption and pride would haue been worshipped Iulius Caesar being ascended into the highest degree of fauourable fortune that he could desire and lending his eare ouer freely to flatterers would be called and declared a king which name was most odious to the Romanes since the time that Tarquinius was banished as we mentioned before and retained alwayes to himselfe the authoritie and power of a Dictator which before continued but a certaine time He bestowed the publike offices and places of honor vpon whō he thought good whereof proceeded the ill will of his subiects and in the end his destruction The greatnesse of Pompey was that which afterward ouerthrew him For imploying his credite to fauour others vniustly it fell out to him as to cities that suffer their enemies to enter euen into their strongest places diminishing so much of their own forces as they adde to others that wish them no good Which thing Sylla the Dictator did very notably giue him to vnderstand when he sawe that Pompey by his countenance and fauour had brought Lepidus a wicked man to the dignitie of Confulship I see well quoth Sylla to him thou art very glad bicause thou hast preuailed in this suit and sure thou hast great cause so to be For it is a goodly matter and the point of a noble man to be so gratious with the people that through thy fauour Lepidus the wickeddest man in the world hath caried away the Consulship before Catullus the honestest man in all the citie But I aduise thee to beware of sleeping now and to haue a vigilant eie to thy busines bicause thou hast armed made strong an aduersarie against thy selfe Wherof Pompey had experience afterward in those warres which Lepidus raised against whome he was sent by the Senate and in the end obtained the victorie But the fauour he bare to Caesar entring vpon the gouernment of publike affairs came not to that passe For he was afterward ouerthrowne by the same meanes wherewith he had strengthned Caesar against others Out of which we may draw an excellent doctrine for all that are placed in authoritie or that haue the eares of great men at commandement that they neuer cause the wicked to be aduanced For as the worme that is bred at the foote of a tree groweth with it and in the end destroieth it so a wicked man aduanced by the fauour of one greater than himselfe becommeth afterward vnthankfull and treacherous vnto him This mooued Archidamides the Lacedemonian to answer in this sort one that commended Charilaüs king of Sparta bicause he shewed himselfe alike courteous to all But how deserueth that man praise who sheweth himselfe courteous towards the wicked Now to returne to our speech touching the effects of prosperitie not ruled by the reason of true prudence what is more hatefull or hath at any time beene more hurtfull to men than pride Which as Plato saith dwelleth with solitarines that is to say is so hated that in the end it is forsaken of all the world And whereof is it bred sooner than of prosperitie Which that wise man excellent Romane captaine Paulus Aemilius knowing ful well after the victorie gotten by him against Perses king of Macedonia being desirous to admonish the men of warre that were in his armie and to keepe them within the compasse of their dutie he vsed these or the like speeches vnto them Is there any man now my friends and companions that ought to waxe proud and to glorie in the profperitie of his affaires if he hath lucke to his liking and not rather to feare the ficklenes of fortune who euen at this present setteth before our eies such a notable example of the common frailtie of man subiect to the ordinarie course of fatall destinie which turneth about continually You see how in the moment of an houre we haue beaten downe and put vnder our feete the house of Alexander the Great who was the mightiest and most redoubted Prince in the world You see a King not long since followed and accompanied with so many thousands of fighting men brought to such miserie that being prisoner he must receiue his meate and drinke at the hands of his enemies Ought we to trust more to our good hap and to thinke it more firme and assured Truly no. And therefore let vs learne to humble our selues and to restraine this foolish arrogancie proud insolencie wherewith our youth seemeth to be ouercome by reason of the victorie obtained by vs and let vs expect to what end and issue fortune will guide the enuie of this present prosperitie Marcus Aurelius after he had vanquished Popilion Generall of the Parthians spake thus vnto him I tell thee of a truth that I stand in greater feare of fortune at this present than I did before the battell For she careth not so much to ouertake the conquered as to subdue and vanquish the Conquerors This selfe same consideration caused Philip
them next we will behold some examples of these famous personages that we may be induced thereby to contemne such pernitious goods Men ought to make great account of riches said Socrates if they were ioined with true ioy but they are wholy separated from it For if rich men fall to vsing of them they spoile themselues with ouergreat pleasure if they would keepe them care gnaweth and consumeth them within and if they desire to get them they become wicked and vnhappie It cannot be saith Plato that a man should be truly good and very rich both togither but he may well be happie and good at one time And it is a verie miserable saying to affirme that a rich man is happy yea it belongeth to children and fooles to say so making them vnhappy that beleeue and approoue it Slouth and slug gishnes grow of riches and they that are addicted to heape them vp more and more the greater account they make of them the lesse they esteeme vertue So that if riches and rich men are greatly set by in a Common-wealth vertue and good men will be much lesse regarded and yet great matters are brought to passe and Common-wealths preserued by vertue and not by riches Riches saith Isocrates serue not so much for the practise of honestie as of wickednes seeing they draw the libertie of men to loosenesse and idlenesse and stirre vp yong men to voluptuousnes Men said Thales are by nature borne to vertue but riches draw them backe vnto them hauing a thousand sortes of sorceries to allure them to vices and through a false opinion of good to turne them from those things that are truly good They suffer not him that hath them to be able to know any thing but draw him to external goods They are passing arrogant most feareful If they vse themselues they are riotous if they abstaine miserable They neuer content their Owners nor leaue them void of sorow and care but as they that are sicke of the dropsie the more they drinke become the thirstier so the more that men abound in wealth the more they desire to haue Riches of themselues breed flatterers who helpe to vndoe rich men They are the cause of infinite murders and hired slaughters they make couetous persons to contemne the goods of the soule thinking to become happy without them They prouoke them also to delicacies and to gluttony whereby their bodies are subiect to diseases and infirmities Briefly riches greatly hurt both bodie and soule They stirre vp domesticall sedition and that among brethren They make children worse in behauiour towards their fathers and cause fathers to deale more hardly with their children Through them it commeth that friends suspect each other for a true friend is credited no more by reason of a flatterer Besides rich mē are angry with good men saying that they are arrogant bicause they will not flatter them and in like maner they hate such as flatter them thinking that they keepe about them onely to robbe them and to diminish their wealth These are the cuils which may be said to be commonly in riches But these also accompany them being execrable diseases namely presumptiō pride arrogancie vile and abiect cares which are altogether earthly naughtie desires wicked pleasures and an insatiable coueting Besides if they were not pernitious of thēselues so many mischiefs would not take their beginning from them For men commit a thousand murders for gaine They robbe churches fidelitie is lost and broken friendship is violated men betray their country maidens are loosely giuen brieflie no euils are left vnexecuted through the desire of riches They that giue them selues said Bion to gather riches are verie ridiculous seeing fortune giueth them couetousnes keepeth them and liberalitie casteth them away Men must haue rich soules saith Alexides as for siluer it is nothing but a shew and vaile of life It is a naughtie thing saith Euripides but common to all rich men to liue wickedly The cause thereof as I take it is this bicause they haue nothing but riches in their mind which being blind seele vp likewise the eies of their vnderstanding I pray God neuer to send me a wealthy life which hath alwaies sorow and care for hir Companions nor riches to gnaw my hart Speake not to me of Pluto that is to say of riches for I make no great reckoning of that God who is alwaies possessed of the most wicked vpon the earth O riches you are easie to beare but infinite cares miseries and griefs keepe you companie He saith Democritus that woondereth at such as haue great riches and are esteemed of the ignorant multitude to be happie will surely through a desire of hauing commit and vndertake wicked things and those oftentimes against the lawes As drunkennes saith Aristotle begetteth rage and madnes so ignorance ioined with power breedeth insolencie and furie And to those whose minds are not well disposed neither riches nor strength nor beautie can be iudged good but the greater increase ariseth of them the more harme they procure to him that possesseth them Moreouer do we not see that the most part of rich men either vse not their riches bicause they are couetous or abuse them bicause they are giuen ouer to their pleasures and so they are all the seruants either of pleasures or of trafficke and gaine as long as they liue But he that would be as Plato saith truly rich ought to labor not so much to augment his wealth as to diminish his desire of hauing bicause he that appointeth no bounds to his desires is alwaies poore and needie For this cause the libertie of a wise mans soule who knoweth the nature of externall goods belonging to this life is neuer troubled with the care of them being assured as Plutark saith that as it is not apparell which giueth heate to a man but only staieth and keepeth in naturall heate that proceedeth from the man himselfe by hindring it from dispersing in the aire so no man liueth more happily or contentedly bicause he is compassed about with much wealth if tranquillitie ioy and rest proceed not from within his soule Heape vp saith the same Philosopher store of gold gather siluer togither build faire galleries fill a whole house full of slaues and a whole towne with thy debtors yet if thou doest not maister the passions of thy soule if thou quenchest not thy vnsatiable desire nor deliuerest thy soule of all feare and carking care thou doest asmuch to procure thy quietnes as if thou gauest wine to one that had an ague Life of it selfe saith Plato is not ioyfull vnles care be chased away which causeth vs to waxe gray-headed whilest we desire but meane store of riches For the superfluous desire of hauing alwaies gnaweth our hart Whereupon it commeth to passe that oftentimes amongst men we see pouertie to be better than riches death than life And truly there is great madnes in the greedy coueting of
which were his lands in the territorie of Athens Whereunto when Alcibiades answered that they were not described nor set downe there How is it then quoth this wise man that thou braggest of that thing which is no part of the world One meane which Lycurgus vsed and which helped him much in the reforming of the Lacedemonian estate was the disanulling of all gold and siluer coine the appointing of iron money onely to be currant a pound waight whereof was woorth but sixe pence For by this meanes he banished from among them the desire of riches which are no lesse cause of the ouerthrow of Common-wealths than of priuate men This mooued Plato to say that he would not haue the princes and gouernors of his Common-wealth nor his menne of warre and souldiours to deale at all with gold and siluer but that they should haue allowed them out of the common treasurie whatsoeuer was necessary for them For as long gownes hinder the body so do much riches the soule Therfore if we desire to liue happily in tranquillitie and rest of soule and with ioy of spirit let vs learne after the example of so many great men to withdraw our affections wholy from the desire of worldly riches not taking delight pleasure as Diogenes said in that which shall perish and is not able to make a man better but oftentimes woorse Let vs further know that according to the Scripture no man can serue God and riches togither but that all they which desire them greedily fall into temptations and snares and into many foolish and noisome lustes which drowne men in perdition whereof we haue eye-witnesses daily before vs. This appeereth in that example which the self same word noteth vnto vs of the rich man that abounded in all things so that he willed his soule to take hir ease and to make good cheere bicause she had so much goods layd vp for many yeeres and yet the same night he was to pay tribute vnto nature to his ouerthrow and confusion Being therefore instructed by the spirite of wisedome let vs treasure vp in Iesus Christ the permanent Riches of wisedome pietie and iustice which of themselues are sufficient through his grace to make vs liue with him for euer Of Pouertie Chap. 34. ACHITOB NOw that we haue seen the nature of riches with the most commō effects which flow from them and seeing the chief principall cause that leadeth men so earnestly to desire them is the feare of falling into pouertie which through error of iudgement they account a very great euill I am of opinion that we are to enter into a particular consideration thereof to the end that such a false perswasion may neuer deceiue vs nor cause vs to go astray out of the right pathe of Vertue ASER. Pouertie said Diogenes is a helpe to Philosophy and is learned of it selfe For that which Philosophie seeketh to make vs know by words pouertie perswadeth vs in the things themselues AMANA Rich men stand in need of many precepts as that they liue thriftily and soberly that they exercise their bodies that they delight not too much in the decking of them and infinite others which pouertie of hir selfe teacheth vs. But let vs heare ARAM discourse more at large of that which is here propounded vnto vs. ARAM. If we consider how our common mother the earth being prodigall in giuing vnto vs all things necessarie for the life of man hath notwithstanding cast all of vs naked out of hir bowels and must receiue vs so agayne into hir wombe I see no great reason we haue to cal some rich and others poore seeing the beginning being and end of the temporall life of all men are vnlike in nothing but that some during this litle moment of life haue that in abundance and superfluitie which others haue onely according to their necessitie But this is much more absurd and without all shew of reason that they whom we call poore according to the opinion of men should be accounted yea commonly take themselues to be lesse happy than rich men and as I may so say bastard children not legitimate bicause they are not equally and alike partakers of their mothers goods which are the wealth of the world for the hauing whereof we heare so many complaints and murmurings For first we see none no not the neediest and poorest that is except it be by some great strange mishap to be so vnprouided for that with any labour and pains taking which is the reward of sinne he is able to get so much as is necessary for the maintenance of his life namely food and raiment neither yet any that for want of these things howsoeuer oftentimes he suffer and abide much is constrained to giue vp the Ghost But further as touching the true eternall and incomparable goods of our common father their part and portion is nothing lesse thā that of the richest Yea many times they are rewarded and enriched aboue others in that beyng withdrawen from the care gouernment of many earthly things they feele themselues so much the more rauished with speciall and heauenly grace if they hinder it not in the meditation and contemplation of celestiall things from whence they may easily draw a great and an assured contentation in this life through a certaine hope that they shall enioy them perfectly bicause they are prepared for them in that blessed immortalitie of the second life For nothing is more certaine than this that as the Sunne is a great deale better seene in cleare and cleane water than in that which is troubled or in a miry and dirtie puddle so the brightnes that commeth from God shineth more in minds not subiected to worldlie goods than in them that are defiled and troubled with those earthlie affections which riches bring with them This is that which Iesus Christ himselfe hath taught speaking to him that demanded what he should do to haue eternall life If thouwilt be perfect saith he sell that which thou hast and giue it to the poore and thou shalt haue treasure in heauen adding besides that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdome of heauen If a father diuiding his substance among his children should leaue to one as to his eldest or best beloued the enioying of his principall mannor by inheritance and to the rest their mothers goods which are of much lesse value and that only for terme of life what folly were it to iudge that these last were more preferred and had better portions than the other And I pray you what comparison is there betweene the greatest worldlie and transitorie riches that can be and the permanent treasures of heauen seeing those cannot be compared but to a thing of nought than which they are weaker beeing moreouer accompanied with innumerable hurtfull euils as we haue alreadie shewed What happines and felicitie can wealth adde to rich men aboue the poorer
sort that these should be accounted miserable and wretched Take away saith Lactantius insolencie and boasting from rich men and there will be no difference betweene a poore man and a rich And if he that made the condition both of the one the other and that prouideth nourishment for vnreasonable creatures doth distribute vnto vs as much as he knoweth in his eternall prescience and foreknowledge to be needfull for vs whereof shall we complaine except as inheritors of that damnable vice of ingratitud from the first man we forget so many benefits receiued as also those that are dailie profered and promised vnto vs of his heauenlie goodnes and grace In a feast said Epictetus we content our selues with that which is set before vs thinking it an impudent and vile part to aske any other thing of him that entertaineth vs. And how can we be so impudent and shameles in this world as to aske those things of God which he will not giue vs and not content our selues with the vse of that which he hath liberally freely bestowed vpon vs But there is a further matter For if we would consider the great yea vnspeakable fruits which pouertie bringeth with hir whereof she is able to make vs partakers in this life without doubt she will be found to be a thousand times more happie than riches Pouertie saith Aristophanes is the mistres of manners Pouertie said Archesilaus seemeth to be sharpe hard troublesome but she is nurse to a good linage as she that acquainteth hir selfe with frugalitie and abstinence In a word she is a schoole of vertue Wealth is full of wickednes saith Euripides but pouertie is accompanied with wisedome and all honest men are contented with necessarie things And if they offer sacrifice to the Gods with a little incense in the paulme of their hand they are for the most part sooner heard than they that kill many beastes for sacrifice For as Menander saith the poore are vnder the protection of God and it is better to possesse a little wealth with ioy than a great deale with fadnes To desire but a little said Democritus maketh pouertie equall with riches and if thou desirest not many things a little will seeme to thee to be very great Pouertie said Anaximenus maketh the spirite more sharpe and men more excellent in all things belonging to this life For she is a very good mistres of knowledge and skill The life of poore men said Aristonymus is like to a nauigation made alongst the shore of some sea but the life of rich men to that which is in the maine sea For the first sort may easily cast anchor come a shore and saue themselues whereas the others cannot do so bicause they are no more in their owne power but in fortunes Flie not from pouertie said Hipsaeus but from iniustice and wrong For no man was euer punished bicause he was poore but many bicause they were vniust Neither is a mans life commended bicause he is rich but bicause he is iust Hunger saith Plutark neuer engendreth adult erie nor want of monie lust so that pouertie is a short kind of temperance If thou wert borne among the Persians said Epictetus thou wouldest not wish to dwell in Grecia but to liue there in a happie estate Art thou not then a very foole bicause thou seekest not rather to liue happily in pouertie seeing thou art borne therein than to striue with so great labor for riches that thou maist liue As it is better to lie downe in a very little bed with health than in a great and large bed being sicke so is it a great deale better to liue in rest with a little wealth than in trauell and care with aboundance For neither pouertie procureth trouble nor riches driueth away feare but reason is that which causeth men neither to desire riches nor to feare pouertie If other things saith Bion the wise could speake aswell as we and were licenced to dispute with vs might not pouertie iustly say vnto vs after this manner O man wherefore fightest thou against me Why art thou become my enemie Haue I robbed thee of any thing Haue I beene the cause that thou hast receiued any iniurie or haue I depriued thee of any good thing Haue I taken from thee either Prudence Iustice or Fortitude But thou fearest least necessarie things should faile thee What Are not the waies full of herbs and fruits and the fountaines of water Hast thou not as many beds as the earth is great and as many couerlets and mattresses as there are leaues Hast thou not a good Cooke by my meanes that maketh good sauce for thee in hunger And he that is a thirst doth he not take very great pleasure in drinking Doest thou thinke that a man shall die for hunger bicause he hath no tart or for thirst if he haue not very delicate wine cooled with snow All such things are but for delicacie and nicenes Doest thou want a house when there is so many goodly Churches in cities What answer could be made to pouertie if she should speake thus Truly he that hath vertue possesseth all goods bicause that alone maketh men happie which may be spoken aswell of a poore man as of a rich For they sayd Thales that thinke pouertie hindreth Philosophie and that riches are a helpe vnto it greatly deceiue themselues For proofe that it is not so how many moe haue withdrawne themselues from studie through riches thā through pouertie Do we not see that the poorest study Philosophy best which the welthy bicause of their mony many matters cānot do For this cause Theognis said very well that many mo haue perished through surfetting than through hunger And to let you know that pouertie is more happy better esteemed of than riches consider the example of Aristides surnamed the Iust who being very poore was chosen to leuie and to gather tribute before all the rich men in Athens And Callias the richest man of all the Athenians sought by all means to haue his friendship whereas the other made no great account of him Epaminondas was not called half a God nor Lycurgus a Sauiour bicause they abounded in wealth and were slaues to their passions but bicause they profited their countrey exceedingly and were content with their pouertie Therefore we may gather out of the sayings of so many great and vertuous men an assured testimonie of the benefit and profit that commonly foloweth the condition of poore men And for inuincible proofes haue we not the examples of the liues of infinite Sages and learned Philosophers who willingly forsaking wholy contemning riches went to the Academy commonly called the Schoole of Pouertie there to enioy the treasures of wisdome and vertue Yea which is more we find that pouertie hath been the only and principal cause of enriching many with this vnspeakable treasure according to that saying of Aristotle that calamitie is oftentimes the occasion of vertue
that fall into it through negligence or misgouernment of those goods which God hath put into their hands that they should be faithfull keepers and disposers thereof in charitable workes This is that which Thucidides saith that it is no shame for a man to confesse his pouertie but very great to fal into it by his owne default Therefore to reape profite by that which hath beene heere discoursed let vs put off that old error which hath continued so long in mens braines that pouertie is such a great and troublesome euill whereas it is rather the cause of infinite benefits and let vs say with Pythagoras that it is a great deale better to haue a quiet and setled minde lying vpon the ground than to haue much trouble in a golden bed Moreouer let vs knowe that to possesse small store of earthlie goods ought not to be called pouertie bicause all fulnes of wealth aboundeth in the knowledge and assurance of the fatherlie grace and goodnes of the Author and Creator of all things which he offereth liberally to all without accepting either of pompe or greatnes And further when as continuing the care which it pleaseth him to take of vs he giueth vs although in trauell and sweate wherewith to feede and to cloth vs in all simplicitie and modestie and that according to our necessitie we should be vnthankfull and altogither vnwoorthie the assistance of his helpe and fauour and of his eternall promises if not contented nor glorifieng him for our estate we complained or wondred at desired the calling of other men offering thereby in will and affection our birthrights through a gluttonous desire whereas we ought to preserue to our selues the possession of that heauenlie inheritance wherein consisteth the perfection of all glorie rest and contentation Of Idlenes Sloth and Gaming Chap. 35. ARAM. TWo things being the cause of all passions in men namely Griefe and Pleasure they alwayes desire the one but flie from and feare the other But the occasion of the greatest euil that befalleth them is bicause these desires and affections being borne with them from the beginning do also grow encrease a long time before they can haue any iudgement framed in them through the right vnderstandyng of things Whereupon as well by nature which of it selfe is more inclined to euill than to good as through a long continuing in vice they are easily drawen to follow the appetite and lust of their sensualitie wherein they falsly iudge that pleasure consisteth and thinke it painfull not to please it Being thus guided by ignorance and walking like blindmen they haue experience for the most part of such an end as is cleane contrary to their purposes As we may see in those men who purposing with themselues to liue at their ease in ioy rest and pleasure giue ouer all intermedling in serious matters and such as beseeme the excellencie of vertue that they may liue in idlenes wherwith being bewitched they are partakers of many false pleasures which procure them a greater number of griefs and miseries all which they thought to auoyd very well And this we may the better vnderstand if we discourse of Idlenes the enemie of all vertue and cleane contrary to Perseuerance which is a branch of Fortitude Therefore I propound the handling of this matter to you my Companions ACHITOB. Although we haue not a singular excellencie of spirite yet we must not suffer it to be idle but constantly follow after that which we haue wisely hoped to obtaine For as Erasmus saith that which is often done reiterated and continually in hand is finished at last ASER. They that do nothing saith Cicero learne to do ill through idlenesse the body minds of men languish away but by labour great things are obtained yea trauail is a worke that continueth after death Let vs then giue eare to AMANA who will handle more at large for our instruction that which is here propounded vnto vs. AMANA As we admire and honour them with very great commendation in whom we may note as we think some excellent and singular vertues so we contemn them whom we iudge to haue neither vertue courage nor fortitude in them and whom we see to be profitable neither to themselues nor to others bicause they are not laborious industrious nor carefull but remain idle and slouthfull And to say truth the maners conditions and natural disposition of such men are wholy corrupted their conuersation is odious vnprofitable and to be auoided seeing that Idlenes is the mother and nurse of vice which destroieth and marreth all Therefore it was very well ordained in the primitiue Church that euery one should liue of his owne labor that the idle and slothfull might not consume vnprofitably the goods of the earth Which reason brought in that ancient Romane edict mentioned by Cicero in his booke of Lawes that no Romane should goe through the streets of the city vnles he caried about him the badge of that trade whereby he liued Insomuch that Marcus Aurelius speaking of the diligence of the ancient Romanes writeth that all of them followed their labor and trauell so earnestly that hauing necessarie occasion one daye to send a letter two or three daies iournie from the towne he could not find one idle bodie in all the citie to carie it That great Orator and Philosopher Cicero minding to teach vs how we ought to hate Idlenes as being against nature sheweth that men are in deede borne to good works whereof our soule may serue for a sufficient and inuincible proofe seeing it is neuer still but in continuall motion action And for the same cause he greatly commendeth Scipio who vsed to say that he was neuer lesse quiet than when he was quiet Whereby he giueth vs to vnderstand that when he was not busied with waightie affaires of the Common-wealth yet his owne priuate matters and the searching after knowledge were no lesse troublesome vnto him so that euen then in his solitarines he tooke counsell with himselfe It seemeth saith this father of eloquence that nature doth more require of a man such actions as tend to the profit of men than she doth the perfect knowledge of all things seeing this knowledge and contemplation of the workes of nature should seeme to be maimed vnperfect if no action followed it whereas vertuous deedes are profitable to all men for which end nature hath brought vs foorth which sheweth sufficiently that they are better and more excellent So that vnles the knowledge of things be ioined with that vertue which preserueth humane societie it will seeme to be dead and vnprofitable Therefore Chrysippus the Philosopher said that the life of those men that giue themselues to idle studies differed nothing from that of voluptuous men So that we must not studie Philosophie by way of sport but to the end we may profit both our selues and others Now if action must of necessitie be ioined to
the meane time we will heere note that the deniall of Iustice hath procured to many their death or vndoing Phillip the first king of Macedonia was slaine by Pausanias a meane Gentle-man bicause he would not let him haue Iustice against Antipater who had offered him wrong Demetrius the besieger hauing receiued many requests and supplications of his subiects threw them all into the water as he went ouer the bridge of a riuer whereupon his subiects conceiued such hatred against him that within a while after his army forsooke him and yeelded themselues to Pyrrhus his enimie who draue him out of his kingdome without battell In our time Henrie king of Sweathland striking with a dagger a Gentle-man that asked Iustice of him stirred vp the Nobilitie and people in such sort against him that putting him into prison where he is at this present they elected his yoonger brother to be their king who nowe raigneth But for a more woonderfull matter we might heere rehearse how God to shew vnto vs his detestation of Iniustice hath sometimes suffered his iudgement to fal out in that very howre and time which such as were vniustly condemned did assigne to their vniust Iudges In the liues of the kings of Castile we finde that Ferdinando the fourth of that name putting two knights to death more through anger than iustly one of them cried aloud in this sort O vniust king we cite thee to appeere within thirtie daies before the tribunall seate of Iesus Christ to receiue iudgement for thy Iniustice seing there is no other Iudge in earth to whome we can appeale from thy vniust sentence Vpon the last of which daies he died likewise True it is some man may say that death is so naturall and the hower thereof so vncertaine although determined that no other cause thereof ought to be supposed but onely necessitie But yet when it followeth so neerely some notable wickednes committed and some disquietnes and torment of mind is mingled therewith in the soule as it commonly falleth out we may take such a death for a testimonie and beginning of the Iustice of God who will not suffer the vniust man to rule any longer but exerciseth his iudgements diuersly in due time and season vpon those that are not to giue an account of their doings to men like themselues And as for such as are of meaner estate and lower in degree God suffreth also many times their punishment to be notorious and that sometime by such as are not much better than themselues Heereupon Apollonius that great Philosopher said that in his peregrination ouer three parts of the world he maruelled most at two thinges whereof the first was that he alwaies sawe the greater theeues hang the lesse and oftentimes the innocent And thus it fell out in the time of king Phillip the long wherein a Prouost of Paris named Henrie Lapperell caused a poore man that was prisoner in the Chastelet to be executed by giuing him the name of a rich man who being guiltie and condemned was set at libertie by him But his reward followed him hard at the heeles being for the same accused conuicted hanged and strangled Not long after a President of the Parliament named Hugues of Crecy met with the same fortune for a certaine corrupt iudgement giuen by him Therefore let euery one of vs learne to flie from this pernitious vice of Iniustice namely from euery action repugnant to the dutie of christian charitie and destroying the bond of humane societie through the vtter spoiling of the riuers that flow from the fountaine of honestie And let vs be afraid through such impietie to fal into the indignation and wrath of the Almightie to whome onely as to the author of Iustice and to whome all time is as nothing it belongeth to define and to determine thereof when after what sort and how farre it standeth with reason all which things are vnknowne to vs. If he deferre sometime the punishment of Iniustice let vs know that it is for their greater and more greeuous condemnation who multiplie and heape vp daily vpon their heads iniquitie vpō iniquitie And for an example which great men ought to follow and not suffer Iniustice to be practised according to euery mans fancie or vnder any other pretence whatsoeuer we wil propound vnto them the fact of a Pagan king who shall rise vp in iudgement against them if they do otherwise The Prince I meane is Artaxerxes surnamed Longhand and king of the Persians who being requested by a Chamberlaine of his whome he greatly fauoured to do some vniust thing hauing by his diligence found out that he vndertooke this suit for another who had promised him thirty thousand Crownes called of them Dariques he commanded his Treasurer to bring the like summe vnto him and then said vnto his Chamberlaine Take this mony which I giue thee For in giuing it vnto thee I shall be neuer the poorer whereas if I had done that which thou requiredst of me I should haue beene more vniust Alexander Seuerus the Emperour handeled after another fashion yea more iustly a seruant of his who vsed like a horse-leech of the court to sucke their bloud that had to deale with his master by thrusting himselfe forward and profering his means to fulfill their request for a good reward by reason of the fauour which he bare him which turned to the great dishonor of his imperiall maiestie bicause a Prince ought not to make greater account of any thing than of the grace and fauor of his gifts and benefites This monarch caused him to be tied to a post and choked with smoke making this proclamation by sound of trumpet That they which sell smoke should so perish with smoke Now to enter into the last point of that matter which is here propounded vnto vs we must diligently note that as it is the dutie of all Magistrates and of such as haue authoritie ouer others to chastice to punish euery malefactor so likewise they must beware lest vnder pretēce of exercising Iustice they fall into another kind of Iniustice through ouer-much rigor which is as hurtfull or rather more than that vice whereof we discoursed euen now namely into Seueritie which causeth them to be misliked for crueltie and belongeth rather to a beastly and sauage nature than to the nature of man For clemencie and compassiō neuer ought to be separated from a good iust sentence which is to hold smal faults excused or but lightly to punish thē prouided alwayes that Iustice be not violated Clemencie saith the wise man is the true preseruation of the roial throne And therefore one of the ancients said that it was ill to be subiect to a prince vnder whom nothing was tolerated but worse when all things were left at randon We may alleage here for an example of ouer-great seueritie the fact of Manlius Torquatus a Consull of Rome who caused his
sonnes head to be cut off bicause he fought agaynst his enimie bodie to bodie contrary to the Edicts and out of his ranke albeit he came away victor The act of Ausidius the Romane was more cruel barbarous than iust when he slew his sonne for withdrawing himselfe to take part with Catiline vttring this speech vnto him I did not wretch as thou art beget thee for Catiline but for thy countrey Such murders and cruelties deface all the commendation of Iustice whose waies ought to be ordinary and vsuall ruling rigor with gentlenes as the rigor of discipline ought to moderate gentlenes that the one may be commended by the other Seneca rehearseth a crueller fact than any of the former committed by Piso the Proconsul who seeyng a souldior returne alone to the campe condemned him to withstanding he affirmed that his fellow came after him At the very instant of the execution his companion came whereupon the captaine that had charge to see the condemned partie executed returned to the Proconsul with both the souldiors But Piso being offended therwith put them all three to death the first bicause he was condemned the second bicause he was the cause of the condemnation and the captaine bicause he obeied not so that he put three to death for the innocencie of one man abusing his authoritie and power in most cruell maner what soeuer rigor was vsed in those times in the ordinaunce of warlike discipline Now to take from vs all taste of such barbarousnesse let vs cal to mind an act of Augustus Caesar worthie of eternall praise who would not condemne one that was accused of seeking his death bicause the arguments and proofes were insufficient but left him to the iudgement of God Let vs learne therfore for the conclusion of our discourse to hate all kind of Iniustice in such sort that euery one of vs seeke to profit his neighbour rating at an high price as Euripi saith the violating of right which is holy and sacred And thus through the good order of magistrates and reformation of euery one by himselfe the wicked shall haue no means to rob to spoile by force to take bribes and to deceiue others when breakers of iust lawes shall be punished Then will the effect of those two sentences take place which are taken out of the holy scriptures and written in a table in the great chamber of the palace belonging to the head citie of this kingdome and which ought to be well engrauen in the harts of all Iudges the first sentence is conteined in these words Execute iudgement and righteousnesse or otherwise I haue sworne by my selfe saith the Lord that this house shall be waste The other sentence is this O ye Iudges take heed what ye do for ye execute not the iudgements of man but of the Lord and with what iudgement ye iudge ye shal be iudged For truely the crowne of praise and immortall glory is kept and prepared for them that walke in truth and righteousnes but shame and dishonor with eternall fire for those that perseuer in vnrighteousnes Of Fidelitie Forswearing and of Treason Chap. 39. ARAM. SVch is the corruption of our age wherin impietie and malice are come in place of ancient innocencie that vertue seemeth very vnfit to be receiued and imploied in affaires seeing the gate is quite shut vp against hit So that a man might aptly say that whosoeuer should thinke to bring backe agayne amidst the peruerse liues and corrupt maners of this present time the vprightnesse and integritie of ancient behauior he did as much as if he offered fruites out of season which being faire in sight were notwithstanding vnfit to be vsed Neuerthelesse we must not doubt to bring hir in sight and to maintaine hir with all our power who knoweth how to cause hir enimie Vice both to reuerence and feare hir and in the end also to triumph ouer him mauger all the power and vnder-propping which he receiueth from the wicked In the middest therfore of so many trecheries and treasons wherof men glory now adaies let vs not be afraid to paint them out in their colors therby giuing honor to Fidelitie which is a part of Iustice or rather Iustice it selfe which I leaue to you my companions to make plaine vnto vs. ACHITOB. It is impietie to violate faith For God who is truth detesteth all lying and is a terrible reuenger of the contempt of his name To loue or to hate openly saith Cicero doth better beseeme a noble hart than for a man to hide and to dissemble his will and affection ASER. Guile and fraud saith Seneca are meete weapons for a cowardly and base-minded man Therefore we must take good heed as Pittacus said That fame speake not euill of vs to them vnto whom we haue given our faith But it belongeth to thee AMANA to handle this matter AMANA Amongst the famous and great personages of olde time no vertue was more commended or straightlier kept and obserued than Faith and Fidelitie which they affirmed to be the foundation of Iustice the indissoluble bond of friendship and the sure supporter of humane societie Of this Faith we mind now to speake not touching at all that religious and sacred faith concerning the holy mysteries of true pietie which is a singular gift of God his spirit and peculiar to those that appertain to his eternall election This therfore which respecteth the mutuall conuersation and promises of men hath been always kept vnuiolable of honorable men ought to be so amongst vs bicause he that giueth his faith layeth to pawne whatsoeuer is most precious diuine in his soule So that if he forget himselfe somuch as to breake and violate the same he committeth manifest impietie shewing that he careth not to offend God by abusing his name to colour his lying It were a great deale better neuer to take God to witnes than to forsweare him in mockerie seeing the Scripture so often forbiddeth vs to take his name in vaine to sweare falsly by it or in any sort to defile the same It is true that this question hath alwaies beene and is at this daye more than euer in controuersie namely whether a man is bound to performe that which he hath promised and sworne to by compulsion or no And this sentence is receiued approoued of many that nothing but our Will bindeth vs to performe those things which necessitie forceth vs to promise But to speake according to truth and without any particular passion we say that true and perfect magnanimitie suffereth vs not to promise any thing and to pawne our faith thereunto except we were willing to performe it bicause no vertuous and wise man ought to forget himselfe so farre as to do or to promise any thing contrary to his dutie for any necessity no not for death it selfe Neither is there any thing wherby a foole is sooner discerned from
coniunctions which respect onely the estate of mankind the mariage of loue is that which is betweene an honest man and a vertuous woman linked togither by God for the preseruation of the linage of man It may be called a charitable coniunction vnitie and societie of them that are good being made by grace peace concord Of this mariage spake that wise lewe saying that three things among others were approoued of God and men the concord of brethren the loue of our neighbour and the husband and wife that agree well togither And to say truth it is one of the greatest benefits yea one of the rarest felicities in the world when a mariage is well and duly kept when both the husband wife feare God and keepe their promise one to another according to that saying of the wise man Blessed is the man that hath a vertuous wife the wife also being no lesse happy that hath a good husband The other kind of mariage namely of labour is that which is commonly practised in our daies wherein many yea almost all marie for couetousnes not for the vertue chastity or good report which they heare of women and maidens Plautus the comicall Poet said that in mariage a man must take his wife by the eares and not by the fingers that is to say for hir good report not for hir dowrie which is told with hands Lycurgus being desirous that his Citizens should put the same in practise established a law which forbad all giuing of dowries with maidens in mariage to the end that euery maide should labour to endow hir selfe with vertue for loue wherof and not of riches they should be demanded in mariage The same reason mooued Themistocles when two men required his daughter in mariage to preferre the honest man before the wealthie saying that he had rather haue a man to his sonne in lawe without goods than goods without a man We read that Olympias the mother of Alexander hearing of one that had maried a very faire woman but scarce chast being rauished with bi r loue said that he was a braineles man otherwise he would not haue maried by heare-say nor by the lust of his eies We may say asmuch of them that marie by the report of their fingers counting vpon them howe much their wiues bring to them by mariage not considering before whether they bee so qualified that they may liue with them But let vs know that euery mariage made through couetousnes especially where there is inequalitie of riches as namely when the husband is poore and the wife rich will be alwaies riotous and very hardly will there be any peace betweene them Which thing Menander desirous to teach vs said that when a poore man marieth a rich wife he giueth himselfe in mariage to the woman which he weddeth and not the woman to him And the Satyricall Poet saith that nothing is more intollerable than a rich wife This caused a yoong man to go to Pittacus one of the Sages of Grecia and to aske his counsell saying I haue two wiues offered me the one is equall to me in goods and parentage the other goeth farre beyond me which of them shal I take Marke said this wise man where children are readie to play at fence go to them and they will counsell thee He did so and as he drew neere they began to set themselues one against another to skirmish And when they saw this yoong man comming who exceeded them in strength and bignes and supposed that he would make one amongst them they said aloud let euery one go to his match Whereby he learned what he was to doe concerning his mariage Martia a noble widow being demanded why she maried not againe seeing she was rich and as yet in the floure of hir youth made this answer I can find none said she that loueth not my goods more than my person The same reason moued Venda Queene of Ruscia to throw hir selfe into the water thereby to reuenge hir selfe of them that made warre with hir to haue hir in mariage seeing they could not win hir by gentlenes For she knew well that they desired hir for hit kingdome and not of any good wil they bare vnto hir as it is the custome of Princes to respect onely their alliance and profite marying often-times by substitutes and proxies those whome they neuer saw but by picture But I finde that Elizabeth that wise Queene of England was of a better iudgement when she wrote to Henrie Prince and since king of Sweathland who demanded hir in mariage that he was the onelie Prince in the world whome she ought to loue most bicause he required hir when she was a prisoner but she was resolued neuer to marie any man before she had seene him The like answere she sent to the Archduke of Austria which was in part the cause why neither of them would come vnto hir fearing belike that if they were not well liked they should be sent backe againe into their countrie Of this that hath beene hitherto discoursed togither with the experience which is daily seene we may infer that mariages made through couetousnes are in deed mariages of labor And of this number may those be reckoned wherein bodilie beautie and other outward graces are only regarded For it seldome falleth out but that the spirite of dissention troubleth all in those houses and that all loue and liking vanisheth togither with age which causeth the liuely hue of colour to wither away Likewise amongst these mariages of labour we place those wherein there is disparitie of age especially of maners Therfore Dionysius the elder said to his mother who being very old would needes marie a yoong man that it was in her power to violate the lawes of Syracusa but not the lawe of nature Aristotle sayth that men and women ought to marie togither in such an age that both of them should leaue of to beget and to conceiue children at the same tyme. According to this rule the husband must be twentie yeeres or there abouts elder than his wife bicause naturally women conceiue and beate children vntil fiftie yeeres and men may beget children vntil 70. Lycurgus also forbad that any man should marie before he were â—7 yeeres old a woman before 17. Whereof this reason may rather be rendred that the wife may more easily acquaint hir self with hir husbands manners he being then of ripe iudgement and she comming into his power from hir tender yeeres For as the same Aristotle saith diuersitie of manners and callings hindereth friendship and true loue But bicause of the shortnes of mans daies I thinke it were good for him to marie at thirtie yeeres of age taking a wife of twentie yeeres old to the ende that hir age may not be too much vnlike his that so liuing according to the common course of nature they may
suites with all that rablement of practitioners who deuoure the substance of poore men as Drones eate vp the hony of Bees lastly after the Chancery did let loose the bridle to all sortes of expeditions and went about to teach the Iudges I say after these things began to be practised we fell into this miserie of long suits gainefull to wicked and faithles men who seeke nothing but delaies very preiudiciall to good men who many-times had rather loose their right than vndoe themselues by following it so long time by way of iustice For they commonly see the rightest cause frustrated by delaies which are granted at their pleasure that are fauoured and by infinite other vniust meanes Sometimes many iudgements are giuen vpon one matter and yet nothing concluded or if there be any definitiue sentence it is by and by suspended from execution vpon the least obiection that is made or else it is called into doubt by some ciuill request or by a writ of error Thrice happie were we if we might continue in that ancient simplicitie and naturall goodnes rather than after this manner to infold our selues in so many proceedings and captious subtleties which haue corrupted and extinguished the light of iustice imprinted in the hartes and mindes of all men well borne We see that suites are heaped vp one vpon another and made immortall that nothing is so certaine which is not made vncertaine that no controuersie is so cleare which is not obscured no contract so sure which is not vndone no sentence or iudgement so aduisedly giuen which is not made void all mens actions open to the slanders craft malice redemptions and pollings of Lawyers the maiestie and integritie of ancient iustice lost and last of all that in the dealings of men nowe a daies no shewe of vpright iustice but onely a shadowe thereof remaineth This euill being so great and growne to such extremitie it is impossible but that according to the course of worldlie things the ruine thereof should be at hand or at least it is to receiue some notable change within short space For as Plato saith in a corrupt Common-wealth defiled with many vices if a man should thinke to bring it backe againe to hir first brightnes and dignitie by correcting small faults and by curing the contagion thereof by little and litle it were all one as if he should cut off one of Hydras heades in whose place seuen moe did spring vp but that alteration and disorder whereby all euill vice was brought into the Common-wealth must be plucked vp by the rootes Therefore let vs not thinke it strange if they that haue the raines of the gouernment of this Estate in their hands find so many difficulties and so small meanes in the reformation therof For as Demades said they gouerne nothing but the shipwracke of the Common-wealth Neuertheles honest men indued with some gifts with good iudgement ought not to be discouraged in so great a storme but the more that the tempestuous rage thereof seemeth to torment the Vessell of our Common-wealth and that with such violence that the Patron himselfe and the Pilotes are in a manner tired and faint with continuall trauell so much the more diligently ought the passengers to lend their hands some to the sailes some to the tackling and some to the anchor yea now is the time following the counsell of Cicero in the like case that all that are endued with singular giftes of nature fit for the managing of affaires ought boldly to take vpon them publike Offices and Estates without feare to the ende that all entrance may be shut vp against the wicked who are the nourishers of this present corruption Nowe if those three things which Aristotle requireth in all good Iudges and Magistrates did abound in them that should heerafter be called to administer iustice and iudgement namely a loue to the present Estate a sufficiencie to exercise those duties that are required in their office with vertue and iustice we might yet see some Idea and forme of that golden age wherein our Predecessors liued we might see pietie and iustice flourish to the great benefite and felicitie of this French Monarchie Concerning that which may be further required in the duties qualities and conditions of good Iudges we may be instructed by our other treatise wherein we entreated of Counsellors of Estate and also by calling to mind the former discourses of vertue and iustice I onely will adde heere that it were very commendable and full of profite yea necessarie for the Estate that all the companies of Iudges should be compounded of such notable old men as with their knowledge haue experience of many things And in deede this title of Senator which was giuen them in ancient time signifieth an olde man neither did the Grecians or Romanes call any to that degree but olde men But how can we desire a more heauenlie ordinance than that which God himselfe appointed when he established a Senate Gather togither said he three score and tenne of the ancientest of the people wise men and such as feare God Surely in this election of Iudges it behooueth Kinges to vse great prudence and as Isocrates saide to take triall of them to knowe whether they are of good iudgement whether they haue a sharpe sight in affaires and whether they are not troubled with the change of their life but behaue themselues wisely in euery estate both in prosperitie and in aduersitie especially to take good order that they be not such as are subiect to lucre from whence all iniustice proceedeth Therfore Cicero would haue the contempt of temporal goods from whence all quietnes of our mindes commeth to be no lesse in Magistrates than in true Philosophers Yea he saith that they ought to be more carefull and laborious to attaine vnto it than the others bicause worldlie affaires toucheth them neerer so that they haue greater cause to stand in feare of the alteration of fortune of aduersitie and of pouertie Vnto which agreeth fitly that saying of Plinie the yoonger That no point of Philosophy is more excellent than to deale in publike affaires and to do iustice whereby they practice that which philosophers teach But out of question the forme and manner which of late time hath beene vsed in calling Iudges Officers to their charges is so farre from that which we desire heere that in this respect a man may call it the mother of all corruption and iniustice For when a Iudge is made his knowledge is not examined his integrity vprightnes of life is not weighed his long experience is not considered his age vertue is not regarded but only his crownes are viewed to see whether they are weight Now since that such men grew rich although they are found insufficient yet they obtaine so many letters of commandement so many Mandatums one in anothers necke that in the end they are receiued whatsoeuer
in the end the earle of Richmond ouercame king Richard enioyed the kingdom quietly and was called Henry the seuenth hauing married Elizabeth daughter to Edward the fourth both of them beyng the sole heires of the families of Lancaster and Yorke By means of this mariage the dissention ceased in England and the red and white Roses were ioyned togither in one armes There was no Countrey more afflicted than Spayne both by ciuill warres and by Neighbour-states when it was diuided into many kingdomes The Moores ouer-ranne it on the one side the French and Englishmen deuoured it on the other taking part at the first with the dissentions that were in Castile between Don Peter and Don Henry next with the contentions that arose betwixt Castile and Portingale which caused much euil to both the kingdomes But since that Spaine hath been vnited it hath extended hir dominion into Afrike and into the New found Ilands borne armes in Germany and in Hungary commanded ouer the chief Ilands of the Mediterranean sea ouer Naples and Sicilia ouer Millan and Flanders Contrarywise Italy hauing in former times hir forces knit togither obtained the Empire of the world but being now diuided into many Seignories and Potentates that agree badly togither and hauing suffred all the calamities in the world by ciuil warres lieth open to the iniuries of strangers Through the same cause the power of Germany is greatly diminished wherin not long since the princes of Saxonie were banded one agaynst an other Iohn Fredericke Phillip Lantgraue of Hesse the Duke of Wittemburg with many free cities rebelled against the Emperour the peasauntes rose against the Nobilitie to set themselues at libertie the Anabaptists possessed Munster made a botcher their king and held out the siege for the space of two yeeres Hungaria which had valiauntly resisted the Turkes almost two hundreth yeeres togither was at length subdued by them through the diuisions that were in the countrey as Polonia is greatly threatned by the Moscouite In Persia after the death of king lacob his two sonnes stroue for the gouernement of the countrey but the Sophie Ismael commyng in the meane tyme vpon them with his new religion slew one of them in battell and compelled the other to flie into Arabia and so possessed the kingdome which he left to his children Phillip the eleuenth Duke of Burgundie easilie subdued Dinan and Bouines in the countrey of Liege which were separated onely by a riuer after they had ouerthrowen themselues by their dissentions whereas before he could not obtaine his purpose And whilest the kings of Marrocke warred one with another for the estate the Gouernour of Thunis and of Telensin made himselfe king renting a sunder his two prouinces from the rest to erect a kingdome Concernyng Frenchmen they haue beene often and many times molested with seditions and ciuill warres as well as others The nobilitie of Fraunce was almost all slayne at the battell of Fountenay neere to Auxerre by the ciuill warres betweene Lotharius Lewes and Charles the balde And Champagnie lost so many of the nobilitie in warre that the Gentlewomen had this speciall priuiledge graunted them to make their husbandes noble When king Iohn was prisoner in England Charles his sonne Regent of Fraunce beyng at Paris to gather money for his raunsome there fell such a diuision betweene the king of Nauarre who tooke part with the Parisians and the Regent that the people vnder the guiding of Marcel Prouost of the merchauntes ranne to Charles his lodgyng where the Marshalles of Cleremount and Champagnie were slayne euen in his chaumber and presence and their bodies drawen ouer the marble stones The like was done to Reignold Dacy the kings Attorney besides many other murders so that the Regent had much ado to saue himselfe without Paris But the forest factions that euer were in Fraunce were those of Burgundie and of Orleans which caused a most grieuous cruel ciuill war that lasted 70. yeeres with murders robberies and vnspeakable cruelties Both of them one after another called in the Englishmen to succor them who afterward seazed vpon the crowne It was a pitifull thing to see France cruelly tormented both by hir owne subiects by strangers to see it void of right equitie without magistrates without iudgements without lawes which had no abiding place amongst fire and force where violence onely raigned All this was procured by the ambition of these two houses each of them seeking to obtaine the gouernment of the kingdom vnder Charles the sixt whose wittes fayled him By the means of these diuisions Henry the fift king of England taking to wife Katherine the youngest daughter of king Charles was put in possession of Paris by the duke of Burgundie and proclaimed heire and Regent of Fraunce by the consent of three estates held at Troy But the death of this Henry and the duke of Burgundie forsaking the alliance of the Englishmen with the valure and good behauiour of king Charles the 7. as also the loue and fidelitie of the Frenchmen restored the kingdom to that estate wherin it is at this present Now if France hath heretofore suffred so much by ciuill warres and domesticall seditions if all forraine estates haue receiued so many sundry alterations and incredible wounds by the same means how can we looke for lesse nay rather haue we not already seene the like or greater calamities amongst vs through our dissentiōs priuate quarels between certain houses contending one with another being chiefly mooued with ambition and desire to gouerne Why doe we not acknowledge this first cause of our miseries that we may lay aside all hatred crept in amongst vs vnder pretence of diuersitie of religion that we may reunite our mindes so much diuided to the good and common quietnes of vs all and liue vnder the obedience of our Prince with that fidelitie for which Frenchmen haue been alwais praised aboue other nations Do not so many examples both of auncient and later times make vs see thus much that if we redresse not this contention this goodly and florishing kingdom which heretofore hath growen great by the concord and obedience of our auncestors is readie to fal into vtter ruine and subuersion through our factions diuisions and part-takings Shall this little that remaineth of the French monarchie which in former times hath had all the empire of Germany the kingdoms of Hungarie Spaine and Italy and all the bounds of the Gaules to the riuer of Rhine vnder the obedience of hir lawes shall it I say be thus laid open as a praie and that by hir owne subiectes caried headlong with such passions that they make the way plaine and readie for strangers to bring them vnder their miserable bondage Shall it be said among our posteritie that our selues haue encouraged them to vnder-take that which not long since Spaine Italy England the Lowe countreys the Pope the Venitians being
all ioyned togither against the house of Fraunce durst not take in hand after the taking of Frauncis the first and the losse of that famous battell Not one of them durst enter into Fraunce to conquere it knowing the lawes and nature of this Monarchie For as a building layd vpon deepe foundations and made of lasting stuffe well knit and ioyned togither in euery part feareth neither windes nor stormes but easily resisteth all assaults and violence so this kingdom will not easily admit any alteration and change as long as all the members continue vnited and ioyned togither vpon the foundation of their lawes Therefore let the king princes their councell great and small euery one in his place take order that God may be truly knowen and sincerely serued according to his iust and righteous will that honest behauiour may be maintained the authoritie of lawes kept iustice administred magistracie duely exercised rewards and punishments distributed equally that vertuous men may be honored and the wicked corrected Otherwise if we cōtinue long diuided into companies with defiances passing repassing if we persist in our wonted inuectiues and riots referre not all our actions to some good ende let vs not looke for lesse than for a generall desolation and pitifull ouerthrow of our countrey appeering already in many places thereof or at least for some horrible mutation and change of the estate Of the causes that breed the change corruption and finall ruine of Monarchies and Policies Chap. 64. AMANA AS long as the Physition knoweth not the cause of his Patients disease it is impossible for him to remedy the same to prescribe a medicine to the sicke partie A disease knowen saith the Prouerbe is in a maner cured So fareth it with Estates and Monarchies that are changed marred and in the end brought to ruine by diuers causes which if they were wel knowen to their princes and gouernors might easily be preuented by prudence and reason and fit remedies then applied to those euils that dispose lead thē to mutation when the natural corruptiō that is in them as euery thing hath his proper inward corruption of which it is eaten and consumed beginneth to spread it selfe to the best parts to marre all Go to then my companions hauing seen the nature of seditions let vs seek out the causes that stirre them vp whereby Estates and Monarchies are changed marred and in the end ouerthrowen ARAM. The diuision that is between subiects of one and the same prince ariseth for the most part of discontentment where-with some are mooued vpon iniurie or contempt or else of feare that men haue of the light or to auoyd some euil or of great idlenesse pouertie and neede ACHITOB. There are as I take it two causes intermingled which breede this franticke Feauer of our Fraunce the one proceeding from the Estate the other from religion But let vs heare ASER to whome the handling of this subiect offered nowe vnto vs belongeth ASER. There is no beginning of any thing whatsoeuer so small which through continuance perseuerance is not soone made great and strong if vpon slight account thereof it be not stayed Euery euill as Cicero saith in the first sproute thereof may be easily stopped but being inueterate is more strong and vneasie to be suppressed So that if it be mette withall before it appeare and breake foorth the danger is lesse although it proceed first from the necessitie of naturall corruption which is in all things that are created and is to be seene euen in things without sense as Mil-dew in wheate rottennesse in wood rust in brasse and iron yea euery thing is corrupted by it own euill howsoeuer it escapeth all outward harmes Therefore as a good Phisition preuenteth diseases and if one part be suddenly touched with raging payne asswageth the present euill and then applieth remedies to the causes of the disease so a wise prince or gouernor of a Common-wealth ought to preuent as much as is possible the ordinarie changes of all estates which ouer-take them either by outward force or by inward diseases When they beginne he must stay them whatsoeuer it cost him and then looke what the causes are of those diseases that are farthest from effect and apply conuenient and apt remedies vnto them Now it is certaine that if a man would throughly meet with all hurtfull things or otherwise cure any such euill when it happeneth hee must know their causes whereof the effect dependeth which is the very entraunce to all good helpes and remedies what so-euer Fore-seene mischiefes as the Poet saith hurt not so much as those that come vnlooked for A wise man premeditateth all that may happen but it falleth out contrary to fooles And if we haue neuer so small an in-sight into the condition and state of worldly thinges wee can not in any wise doubt of this that euery Common-wealth after it is come to the toppe of persection which is the flourishing estate thereof hath but a short tyme of continuance whether hir ouerthrowe proceedeth from the violence of hir enimies when shee thinkes hir selfe safest or whether she waxe olde through long tract of tyme and so ende by hir inward diseases or whether she sodainly decay and fall downe with hir owne waight by reason of some other hidden cause Which chaunges of Common-wealths beyng matter sufficient to make a great booke we are according to the sequele of our discourse to consider chiefly of the causes that for the most part stirre vp sedition and breed the alteration and finall ouerthrowe of Estates and Monarchies The Philosophers propound foure causes of euery thing the efficient the materiall the formall and the finall cause The efficient cause of seditions is double the one neere the other remooued a farre off The neere or next cause are the authors of seditions by whose counsell direction and helpe they are stirred vp and brought to passe By the cause remooued a far off I meane those things for which men are prouoked to raise seditions and of which we are chiefly to intreat in this place They are the matter of seditions against whome they are raised as princes and magistrates who are superiours and sometime their subiectes beyng inferiours The forme of sedition is the stirring vp of the people noyse out-cries batteries murders ciuill warre the taking of townes spoyling of countreys burning and banishment If it bee of subiectes towardes their lordes and superiours it is called rebellion if betweene subiectes or equals it is called a faction The ende of seditions is that for which they are first mooued and stirred vp Aristotle setteth down foure ends of seditions namely profit honor with their contraries losse dishonor For men are commonly mooued to sedition either through hope of profit honor or else through feare of losse and dishonor towards themselues or their friends so that they desire the one
shun the other Vnto profit we referre riches to honor magistracie publike offices charges to losse pouertie to dishonor coÌ„tinual iniurie contempt such like means Which things although they are reckoned among the motiues or efficient causes of seditions so farre foorth as they prouoke men to stirre vp seditions yet they may bee endes also bicause men conspire togither either to obtaine or to eschew them Thereore let vs handle the causes which mooue the people to murmure and lead them from priuate and secret grudging to publike and open sedition from which the changes alterations and finall ruines of estates and monarchies proceed The couetousnes of magistrates and gouernors seemeth to be a chief cause therof when they lay vpon their subiects great exactions taxes loanes and other intollerable subsides whereby their patience is oftentimes turned into furie and their hartes set vpon reuolting are driuen forward to imitate them that forsooke Roboam for the same cause as the scripture rehearseth But forasmuch as all ciuill societie is appointed to the end that men might keep their goods safely vnder the protection and guiding of good gouernors they that beare chief rule in estates ought especially to prouide that not onely publike goods may be distributed and imploied according to common necessitie and profit but also that euery mans priuate goods may be in safetiâ— Publike goods are the reuenues of Seignories kingdoms and empires demeans taxes tributes confiscations exchetes subsidies graunts and impositions brought in for the supply of publike necessitie A man may say that couetousnes which is a wrongfull desire of another mans goods is committed in these publike reuenues wheÌ„ the mony that commeth of them is conuerted rather to priuate than to publike vse by those that haue the disposing therof which fault the Romans called peculatus and the iudgement giuen against it Repetundarum Now wheÌ„ such goods are wasted vnprofitably or superfluously princes magistrates vse to lay immoderate and strange exactions vpon their subiects Couetousnes also is vsed in priuate goods when the poorer or weaker sort are spoiled of their owne by the mightier The people will hardly beare this kind of vsurping when they consider that they are tormeÌ„ted by those that should defend them this dealing is subiect to restitution before God Histories are ful of changes seditions and destructions of commoÌ„-wealths arising of these causes of couetousnes wherof we haue alleaged many examples in our discourses Vnder Charles the 6. king of France great seditions and robberies were practised by the Parisians by reason of imposts and subsidies that were leuied of the subiects The occasion of these commotions was bicause the farmers exacted a halfpeny of a poore woman that sold Water cressets The couetousnes briberie and polling vsed by the lords nobles of Switzerland caused the common people to fall to mutinie and to deliuer theÌ„selues out of their slauery bondage by horrible massacres which they made of them Vnder Ioel and Abiah the sonnes of Samuel iudges ouer the Israelites the people oppressed through their couetousnes asked a king wherupon the estate of their gouernment was changed The second cause that breedeth the alteration ruine of Common-wealths is ambition or desire of honor which then especially mooueth men to murmure when the vnworthy are aduanced preferred before men of desert Honor is the only reward of vertue that which is more esteemed of euery loftie noble hart than all worldly goods Therfore it is meet that in the distribution of publike charges rewards and honors regard be had to the qualitie merite and sufficiencie of men that they may be giuen to woorthy persons and that such as are vnfit may be put backe Let vertue only diligence open the gates of honor and not mony or fauor We saw before many examples of the fruits of ambition we taste daily of some that are very bitter The third cause that changeth and ouer-turneth estates monarchies is iniurie which hapneth when they that are highest in authoritie through too much insoleÌ„cie pride offer wrong to the honor or person of their inferiors A kingdom saith the wife man is translated froÌ„ one nation to another through the iniustice iniuries contumelies offred by superiors Cyrus the great reuolted froÌ„ his grandfather Astyages ouercame him in battell translated the monarchie of the Medes vnto the PersiaÌ„s bicause of that iniurie which he offered vnto him in casting him out into the fields as soone as he was borne Coriolanus being vniustly banished his countrey tooke armes conquered a great part of the Romane dominion and burned all to the gates of Rome bringing their estate to such an extremitie that it was readie to be destroyed had not the women come towards him to pacifie him Childeric king of Fraunce caused Bodilus to be whipped with rods wherupon he slew him aâ—d his wife great with child Iustine the third emperour was slayne by Atelius generall of his armie whose sonne he had murdred and abused his wife to despite him there-with Feare also is many times the cause of alteration and daunger to a Common-wealth when guiltie and conuicted persones mooue sedition and rebell against the Magistrates to preuent and auoyd the punishment that is due to their faultes Catiline vrged with the consideration of his manifold wicked prankes and with the feare of iudgement conspired against his countrey beyng assisted by Lentulus Cethegus with many sacrilegious persones murderers adulterers bankrupts and other naughtie liuers that stoode in feare of iustice by reason of their misbehauiour Neither may any man doubt but wicked men will rather trouble the estate than stand in daunger of their liues or hazard their goodes For besides the assuraunce which they haue conceiued to escape the iudgement of men by this meanes they haue this further aduauntage to fish in troubled waters so that they are no lesse afrayd of peace than of the plague hauing in all euentes the same resolution before their eyes that Catiline had who sayd that he could not quench the fire begun in his house with water and therefore would pull it downe and so quench it This was one reason that mooued Caesar to lay hold of the estate bicause his enimies threatned that as soone as he was out of his offices they would cause him to giue an accouÌ„t how he had discharged theÌ„ I would to god we had not bought as deerly the same causes of our ciuil warres Likewise too much authoritie and power both for wealth friendship is dangerous in euery kinde of gouernment so that great heede is to be taken that none grow to be vnmeasurable great For men are subiect to corruption neither can euery one sustaine wisely the prosperitie of fortune which causeth some to seeke the alteration of popular and Aristocraticall Common-wealths into monarchies others
to vsurpe kingdomes empires This reason brought in the Ostracisme amongst the Atheniās which was a banishmēt for a time wherby they brought downe them that seemed to exceed in greatnes This they vsed as Plutarke reherseth against Themistocles Aristides and other excellent men fearing least their authoritie credite and good will of all men should procure them a kingly power with the chaunge of their popular gouernment Many kings and princes that had some of their friends and seruaunts too great were themselues or their children ouerthrowen by them afterward Tyberius making Seian too mightie Commodus Perennius Theodosius the second Eutropus Iustinian Bellisarius Xerxes Artaban were in danger of their estate The vnmeasurable authoritie of the Maiors of the palace and of the Constables chaunged the crowne of France from the race of Clouts to that of Charles Martel and vpon the same occasion it was afterward taken from that line and transferred to another Contempt also is another cause greatly to be feared in euery estate and Monarchie as that which oftentimes breedeth their change and ouerthrow It is very daungerous in two considerations especially first when some are contemned and excluded from publique offices and dignities which they deserue and yet see them wholy in the power and disposition of some particular men Whereupon both the one and the other are mooued to sedition the contemned persones through enuie and desire of reuenge they that haue the great charges in their handes through contempt of the others whome they seeke vtterly to exclude and to driue them further off from all publique honours and authorities Secondly contempt is verie pernitious when inferiours contemne their superiours They are commonly despised that haue neither vertue courage nor fortitude that are not able to profite themselues or others that are not laborious painfull nor any manner of way carefull Where contempt is there no obedience is to be had This maketh the sonne disobedient to the father the wife to the husband the learner to the teacher the seruant to the maister The opinion of prudence iustice constancie knowledge goodnes modestie and of other vertues nourisheth and preserueth the obedience of subiects towards their Princes and the contrarie vices prouoke them to rebellion Therefore as policies prosper when they are gouerned by prudent iust constant valiant and moderate men so they are troubled with seditions through the ignorance cowardlines and intemperancie of Princes or else when they are too familiar with their inferiors or when they are suddenly lift vp from base estate or seem too aged or too yong or poore or miserable all which things breede contempt Wherefore this is set downe as a good rule to preserue the estate of a Monarchy That the Prince must procure to himselfe loue without the contempt or hatred of any if it may be For the obtaining whereof there is no better way than the iust distribution of rewardes The Princes and Lords of France bicause they were contemned by king Lewes the 11. who had none about him nor fauoured any but men of lowe and base estate gaue him battell at Montlhery whereof the battel hath euer since retained the name to the great perill of the Estate and danger of the kings life if he had not appeased the indignation and furie of the said Princes and Lords by his great prudence and policie Moreouer too much encrease and vnproportionable growth is one cause that procureth the change and ruine of Common-wealths For as the bodie is made and compounded of parts and ought to grow by proportion that it may keep a iust measure so euery Common-wealth beeing compounded of orders or estates as it were of parts they must be maintained in concord one with another by equall and due proportion obserued betweene each of them For if one Estate be aduanced too much aboue another dissention ariseth As long as the three Orders and Estats at Rome namely the Senators the Knights the people were caried proportionably their policie flourished but after they dealt one against another through enuie ambition couetousnes diuisions and part-takings began This caused many to commend equalitie so much calling it the nursing mother of peace amitie betweene subiects and contrariwise inequalitie the beginning of all enmities factions hatred part-taking But seeing it is meete that in euery well established policie there should be a difference of rights and priuiledges betwixt euery estate equalitie may continue if carefull prouision be made that one Estate go not too much before the other The impunitie of offences is one cause also from whence seditions and ciuill warres proceede yea it is a matter of very great waight and yet men make least account therof We spake of it before but we must of necessitie often rub vp the remembrance thereof as the wise Hebrew doth by repeating so many times that admonition that we should not be suretie for another not that he forbiddeth charitie towardes the poore but that none should be a meanes to let the wicked escape vnles he will beare the punishment himselfe This is that word which God sent to king Achab after he had saued the life of Benhadad king of Syria that he made himselfe a pledge for another man by suffering the wicked to liue and therefore that it should cost him his life Hitherto we haue seene how the couetousnes of Princes the ambition or desire of honour in priuate men iniurie and reproch feare in the guiltie excesse of authoritie and wealth contempt ouer-great encrease or aduancement without proportion and lastly impunitie of offences procure commonly seditions in Estates and Monarchies Besides all these extreame pouertie and excesse of wealth idlenes and want of feare of the forraine enimie as we haue else-where declared change of Princes and lawes too great licence of seditious Orators and Preachers the naturall disposition of places where men are borne which maketh them more inclined to commotions and seditions as Historiographers haue noted of Genes Florence and Flanders with many other things may be said to be causes of ciuill warres of alterations changes and ruine of Estats and Policies Among which we note that shame is sometime a cause of change in the gouernment of Common-wealths but it is without tumult or sedition Thus it fell out in Herea a towne of Arcadia which was gouerned popularly where men of no account were elected Magistrates by others like themselues whereupon beeing mocked they changed their manner of election into chusing by lot that so they might haue a more lawefull excuse There was seene not long since in the Councell of France such a number of Maisters of Requests and of Secretaries of the Treasure that very shame caused them to be sent away bicause it was not meete to entreat of great and waightie matters before such a multitude Negligence likewise breedeth the change and ouerthrow of a politike Estate There
nothing doth cast forth more liuely marks and beames of a wonderful diuinitie than husbandry For most of other arts were inuented long time after man was created of God and augmented since by the industrie of many Onely husbandry gaue sufficient testimonie of it self of the incomprehensible power of God when presently after the creation of the elements there came out of the bowels of the earth all kinds of herbes and plants garnished with their proper vertues for the seruice commoditie of man Man himself also by a diuine and natural instinct hath been from the beginning more enclined and disposed to the tillage of the earth than to any other studie vocation whatsoeuer as we read of our first fathers who commonly called themselues Laborers of the earth and feeders of cattell Husbandry and the countrey life were so much commended esteemed of the auncients that many of them haue written sundry bookes therof in Greek Latin and many monarchs haue heretofore left their great palaces contemned their purple robes and diademes that they might giue themselues to the manuring of countrey cōmodities Cyrus was neuer better pleased and contented than whē he might be dressing of some goodly piece of ground and setting of a certaine number of trees checker-wise Dioclesian forsook the scepter of his empire that he might with-draw himselfe into the fields and trim with his owne hands trees graffs seuerall plots of ground and gardens Besides in husbandry and the countrey life profite aboundeth with pleasure and gaine with delight As for profite it is very euident For a good husbandman is alwais prouided of bread wine flesh fruit wood and other Aliments And concerning pleasure it is incredible to one that hath skill and will to consider of the maruels of nature besides a thousand delights with exercises as pleasaunt and profitable for his health as can be And that benefit which is most excellent and chiefest of all I meane tranquillitie of mind may more easily bee obtained by the Muses darlings and louers of knowledge in the midst of the open fields and pleasaunt sound of waters than amongst the noise of suites dissentions wherwith cities are replenished It belongeth to the dutie of labourers to liue in their simplicitie and to do their endeuor in tilling the fields For the performing hereof they stand in need of 3. things of skill to know the nature of the soile and the seasons of sowing and gathering of will to be diligent and carefull to continue in their countrey labour and lastly of abilitie to prouide oxen horses cattell other instruments of husbandrie By this discourse therefore we may see what things are most requisite and necessarie for the institution of a happy common-wealth and that no man is so industrious wittie or prudent that of himselfe without the helpe of another he can liue without societie and minister to himselfe all necessary things For this cause the fellowship of many togither was found out that by teaching iudging defending giuing taking changing seruing and communicating their works and exercises one with an other they might liue well and commodiously togither Which thing will vndoubtedly come to passe in euery Common-wealth when euery one walking in his vocation directeth his will and worke to the seruice of God his prince and countrey Of Peace and of Warre Chap. 67. ARAM. IVstinian the Emperor in the Preface of his Institutions saith That it is necessarie for the imperial maiesty to haue respect to two times namely of peace and of warre that it may be prouided against all euents either of the one or the other Lawes and good politike statutes are necessary for it in time of peace that the Prouinces may be quietly gouerned but in time of warre it must alwayes haue armour readie and couenient forces to helpe friends to resist enimies and to containe disobedient subiectes within compasse Nowe hauing hitherto intreated of that policie which chiefly respecteth the tyme of peace we must hereafter my companions referre to our discourses that small knowledge which we haue of warlike discipline And first I thinke we must oppose these times of peace and warre one agaynst the other and consider of their cleane contrary effectes that we may bee so much the more easily ledde and perswaded to desire and procure that which is best and most profitable for euery estate and monarchie Therefore I propounde vnto you this matter to discourse vpon ACHITOB. If it be possible as much as in you is saith the Apostle haue peace with all men and let the peace of God rule in your hartes to the which ye are called in one body For truely without peace all riches is but pouertie all mirth but mourning all life but death But no man can perfectly know the benefit of peace that hath had no triall of the burthen of warre ASER. If ye walke in my ordinaunces saith the eternall God I will send peace in the land but if ye will not obey me but despise mine ordinaunces I will send a sword vpon you that shall auenge the quarell of my couenaunt and ye shall be deliuered into the hand of the enimie Now let vs heare AMANA discourse vpon that which is here propounded vnto vs. AMANA Lycurgus entring into the gouernement of the Lacedemonians and finding their Estate greatly corrupted determined with himselfe to change their whole Policie For he thought that if he should onely make some particular lawes and ordinances it would doe no more good than a slender medicine would profit a corrupt bodie full of many diseases before order were taken for the purging resoluing and consuming of the euill humors that a new forme and rule of life might afterward be prescribed His enterprise although great and difficult yet fell out very well and his lawes were receiued approoued of the people after a little force and feare wherwith at first they were restrained But this law-maker referred all his lawes to warre and to victorie and kept his subiects in continuall exercise of Armes not suffering them to learne any other science or handi-craft vnto which he appointed the Ilotes onely who were men brought in subiection by the right of warre Whereby Lycurgus seemeth to haue beene of this mind that force ought to be mistres in all worldly matters and that other things serue to no purpose if they want Armes which by a certaine right of warre that shall alwaies continue amongst men bring in subiection to Conquerours the persons goods of those whome they ouercome It seemeth also he thought that there was neuer any true peace amongst men but onely in name and that all Princes and people liue in continuall distrust one of another and doe nothing else for the most part but watch how to surprize each other as Plutark elegantly setteth it out notwithstanding all leagues and goodly agreements that passe betweene them Numa Pompilius second king of
from taking the monie that was in the common treasurie alleadged vnto him the lawes that forbad it to whome this Monarch replied that the time of warre and the time of lawes were twaine Moreouer we see that famine and the pestilence commonly follow war For the abundance of all things being wasted want of victuals must of necessitie succeede whereupon many diseases grow Briefly it bringeth with it nothing but a heape of all euils and miseries and easily draweth and allureth the violence and euill disposition of many to followe the state of the time For they that desire a change are very glad of such an occasion to ground their plat-formes vpon which they could not doe in time of peace bicause men are then of a better iudgement and affection aswell in publike as in priuate matters But whatsoeuer we haue spoken of the miseries that followe warre warlike discipline must not be suffered to degenerate in a Common-wealth well established seeing there is neuer want of euill neighbours that are desirous to incroach vppon other mens borders and seeing the lawes iustice subiects and the whole state are vnder the protection of Armes as it were vnder a mightie buckler And forasmuch as the defence of our life pursuite of theeues is warranted both by the lawe of God of nature and of man it followeth that the subiects must needes be trained vp in feates of Armes both defensiue and offensiue that they may be a buckler to the good and a barre to the bad Wherein the example of Augustus is very notable who in time of an assured peace would not dissolue and dismisse the fortie legions but sent them to the Prouinces borders of those nations that were most barbarous to keepe them in warlike discipline and withall to take away as neere as he could all occasion of ciuill warre Whereof Constantine the Great had sorrowfull experience when he discharged his bands of souldiours whereby he opened the gates vnto his enimies who after that inuaded the Romane Empire on all sides For the conclusion therfore of our discourse let vs learn to desire peace rather than war the one being a certaine signe of the blessing of God vpon his people and the other of his wrath and malediction Let the Prince thinke with himselfe as Traian wrote to the Senate that he is called not to warre but to gouerne not to kill his enimies but to roote out vices not somuch to goe foorth to warre as to tarie in the Common-wealth not to take another mans goods from him but to doe iustice to euery one especially considering that in warre a Prince can fight but in the place of one at which time he is wanting to many in the Common-wealth And yet bicause the swoord is put into the Magistrates hand for the preseruation of publike peace he cannot imploie or vse it better than in resisting breaking and beating downe their attempts that tyrannically seeke to trouble it being ledde with ambition and desire to enlarge their bounds with other mens right Nowe bicause the greater part of Potentates and neighbour Princes direct their purposes to this marke it is very expedient and necessarie in euery well ordered Estate that the youth especially the Nobilitie should be trained vppe and exercised in feates of Armes to the ende that in time of necessitie and for common profite they may be apt and readie to serue their Prince and Country Of the ancient Discipline and order of Warre Chap. 68. AMANA BVt following our purpose which is to discourse of the state of warre according to the small experience that our age affoordeth and our studie hath gathered wee are nowe to speake my Companions of warlike discipline which for the excellent order thereof vsed in ancient time is so much the more woorthie to be noted as ours is to be contemned for the great disorder that is seene in it Therefore I leaue the handeling of this matter to you ARAM. Discipline among souldiors is the cause that order is kept in all matters of warre which procureth in armies obedience and victorie ACHITOB. The vnbrideled licence that is vsed nowe adaies amonge souldiours breedeth such boldnes in them that all warlike discipline is supplanted thereby But let vs heare ASER discourse of this matter ASER. If we appoint to euery one saith Socrates in Plato his seuerall arte whereunto he is aptest by nature and which he must vse all his life time forsaking all other trades to the ende that obseruing opportunities he may discharge it the better there is no doubt but that in warlike discipline which is great deale more excellent than any other trade greater leasure greater cunning and practise is necessarily required For if a man take a target or some other warrelike weapon and instrument in his hande he is not by and by fit to fight much lesse of sufficient courage to serue manfully if he be not long before prepared there-vnto by sound reasons and resolutions It is no woorke of an hower or of a daie to perswade men that if they will get praise they must settle them-selues to sustaine all trauels to assaie all perils and to holde this opinion constantly that it is more to bee desired to die fighting in a good and iust quarrell than to escape with life by flying away But that which breedeth and nourisheth such thoughts in mens harts is the good education and institution of youth in the discipline of vertue and in the knowledge of Fortitude and Magnanimitie which are inseparably followed of honor and immortall glorie whereby all feare of enimies is taken away and watching trauelling suffering obeying well liked of that they may bring to passe their noble enterprises The Assyrians Persians Grecians and Romanes whose deedes of Armes are almost incredible had alwaies in singular recommēdation the maintenance of warlike discipline but their chiefe desire was to imprint these three things in the hartes of their souldiours Willingnes Reuerence and Obedience of which things the happie conduct of all warre dependeth They that were well brought vp and instructed in vertue could not want good will to execute vertuous actions Those Heads and Leaders of armies that were well chosen and had wisedome and experience did by their woonderfull vertue prouoke euery one to reuerence them Moreouer this Maxime of warre was diligently practised of the Heads namely to make their souldiours more deuout and obedient to their commandemēts than affectionated to any other thing howe gainefull soeuer it were At this daie as the former education and instruction is wanting so the Heades and Captaines are insufficient And from thence proceedeth the disorder and disobedience of men of warre whereuppon losse of the battell and destruction of the armie followeth in steede of victorie But that we may beginne to consider of this ancient warrelike discipline wee will heere onely waigh the order of the Romane armies and battels who excelled all Nations in
and vertuous in the ende as in the beginning yea the harder they were charged with weapons the more were they inflamed and set on fire Moreouer concerning their warlike discipline it may easily be knowne by that speech which Titus Liuius rehearseth of Papirius Cursor who complained of the corruption that began to growe in their armie for the which he would haue punished Fabius Generall of the horsemen No man saith he beareth any reuerence either to men or to the gods The Edicts of the Captaine of the Coronell and of the Soothsaiers are not obserued The souldiours goe wandering vppe and downe like vagabonds both in countries that are at peace with vs and also in our enimies lands they discharge themselues at their pleasure and forget their oath The Ensignes are desolate and not followed Besides they ioine not togither as they are commanded nor consider whether it be by day or by night whether in a place of aduantage or of disaduantage They fight without the Captaines commandement they keepe not their rankes and signes Briefly whereas war was woont to be solemne and sacred it is disordered inconsiderate and guided at all aduenture after the manner of theeury But as long as warlike discipline tooke place among the ancient Romanes their campe was a schole of honor of sobriety of chastity of iustice of all vertue so that no man might reuenge his owne iniuries or proceed of himself peremptorily They knew not what it was to liue at discretion much lesse to go a foraging to rob steale beate or murder as men do now a daies And as touching obedience towards their Captaines it was very wonderfull For they feared not to preferre it before the safetie of their owne liues and before all victorie At the battell of Cannas the Romane knights seeing the Consull alight and certaine others with him bicause he was hurt and thinking that he had commanded them all to doe so they presently left their horses which was the cause of their ouerthrow And this did Hannibal then declare with a loude voice saying I would not desire rather to haue them deliuered to me bound than as they be The executions that were shewed vpon the disobedient and offenders were ful of rigour and the qualitie of their punishments maruellous strange For the Heads of armies sometime sticked not to cause a whole legion to passe through the pikes which consisted of 6000. footemen 500. horsemen for some notable fault committed by them But among all their terrible executions the tithing of armies was most seuere when euery tenth man throughout a whole hoste was by lot put to death No kinde of punishment could be found that was more fearefull for the correcting of a multitude than this which they practised especially when the chiefe author and they that were the procurers of some notorious fact were not knowne For then it had beene too much to haue chasticed the whole companie and if some had beene corrected and others left vnpunished innocents peraduenture should haue suffered and the guiltie escaped scot-free Whereas by tithing they that were punished could not complaine but of the lot and the rest were kept in feare least the like faults should fall out againe amongst them Whereupon they obserued one another that as many as did not their dutie might bee knowne and chasticed The Captaines and Heads of armies were no lesse rigorously handeled by them that had the soueraigntie of the Estate if they did capitulate or make any agreement with the enimies to the detriment and disaduantage of the Common-wealth For they sent them backe againe naked and not the Heads onely but also all that had any charge in the armie and consented to the composition that the enimies might returne vpon their Heades all the sinne of breaking that oath which they had taken and that appointment which they had sworne to The Emperour Aurelius laboured earnestly to bring in againe the ancient discipline of warre and to cause it to be strictly obserued whereof his letter is a sufficient testimonie being written by him to a Tribune of warre in these words If thou wilt be a Tribune or rather if thou wilt liue restraine the souldiours hands that none steale another mans henne or touch his sheepe Let no man take a grape or spoyle and treade downe the corne Let no man exact of his Oast oyle salt or wood but let euery one be content with his allowance Let them inrich themselues with the praie of their enimies and not with the teares of our subiectes Let their armour be glazed and cleane their hose and shooes good and strong Let new apparell driue away the olde and let them keepe their wages in their purse and not spend it in tauernes Let them lay aside bracelets and rings Let euery one dresse his owne horse and one helpe another Let the Physitions and Chirurgions looke to them without money and let Sooth-sayers haue nothing giuen them Let them liue chastly in their Oasts houses and let such as are mutinous and giuen to quarelling be punished and corrected Let theÌ„ trench their campe euery day as if they were neere their enimy Behold surely an excellent forme of warlike discipline expressed in few words which is so farre from our behauiour that the people in these dayes would thinke they were fauourably delt withall if the souldiours tooke no more from them but that which this emperor forbiddeth his to take vpon paine of life And truely the vnmeasurable licence that is granted them causeth the souldior to enter into the field onely to spoile and rob and to eschew the â—ight And in stead of helping one another and taking care euery one of his owne horse there is not a souldiour so begger-like but will haue his foure Lackeis so that a thousand souldiors in these dayes will be more chargeable to the people than twentie thousand that are well ordered would be If a Romane souldiour had committed adulterie with his Oasts wife Aurelius caused him to be torne in sunder with two trees bowed downe one against another It was death also to take an egge If hee went out of his ranke whilest the armie marched he had the bastonnado Oftentimes for one simple fault a whole Legion was discharged and the captaine seuerely punished and yet for all this rigor the souldiors loued the Emperour as their father He also gaue them their pay well and truly and rewarded liberally such as did their duetie This is the way to redresse so many disorders and calamities as are seene in our armies and to restore in some sort that warrelike discipline which is abolished For souldiours alleage this as an excuse for all their wicked deedes that they are not payd and many would not bee payd that so they might cloke their robberies When the small taxe and since that the payment of fiftie thousand footemen was layed vpon the subiects the king promised to imploy that mony
vpon no other vse than vpō the paiment of his men of war as also to keepe that money apart from his ordinary receipts But bicause this is not duely obserued the people are doubly vexed for they pay their money and yet are polled on all sides Notwithstanding all these ordinarie charges the poore pesants would thinke themselues happie if they were discharged by erecting victualing tents for the men of warre as they haue been forced to doe of late yeeres Now what good issue can be hoped for when the souldiors through an vnbrideled licence sack spoile and burne the poore subiects This hath alwayes been seene that houses families kingdoms and Empires haue come to ruine and pouertie bicause the poore were contemned and the subiects giuen ouer to the robberies of souldiors The immoderate licence of the Pretorian souldiours who were to the emperors as the Ianitzaries are to the Turke and of other men of warre was no small helpe to ouerthrowe the Romane Empire For taking vpon them to elect Emperours at their pleasure one was chosen in one armie and an other else-where and presently murdered by those that had elected them Their insolencie also caused seditions and ciuill warres whereupon those kingdoms and countreys that were vnder the Romane obedience reuolted And it commeth to passe oftentimes that their vnruly behauiour incenseth the people in such sort against them that their destruction followeth As it hapned to all the Frenchmen that were in the I le of Sicilia in the yeere 1281. vpon Easter day at the first peale to Euensong at what time they were all put to death by a secret conspiracie for their insolencies and whoredoms whereupon this prouerbe doth yet remaine amongst vs The Sicilian Euensong There is no corner of this kingdom where the people being halfe mad through the iniuries receiued from the men of warre haue not committed infinite and cruell massacres We may not here forget to propound the wise and warlike discipline of Bellizarius lieutenaunt generall to the Emperor Iustinian who for valure and temperance was equall to the ancient Romanes as histories testifie of him which was the cause that he reconquered all Italy possessed by the Barbariās Not long since during the warre of Piemont which was a very schoole of vertue and of warrelike knowledge the pesaunt husbandman and artificer were suffered quietly at their worke the warre continuing betweene warriours onely for the possession and not the ruine of the countrey And as the people were then glad to receiue amongst them such armies so they dispaire no lesse at this day bicause all warlike discipline all policie both diuine and humane is in such sort extinguished yea all kind of humanitie and societie which is to be seen amongst barbarous people that it is lawfull for Frenchmen to sacke spoile and put to ransome Frenchmen that are many times of the same side faith and condition and that without punishment But let vs not looke for prosperitie and good successe in our enterprises before there be some other order and discipline obserued The ende of the seuenteenth dayes worke THE EIGHTEENTH DAIES WORKE Of the office and dutie of a Generall Chap. 69. ASER. THose men commonly prosper in their affairs that vnderstand them throughly and manage them well diligently considering aduisedly what hath beene heretofore that they may in some sort iudge of that which is to come bicause all worldly things haue euermore some agreement with the ages past Which commeth of this that beyng the works of men they haue had and will alwayes haue like formes and therfore must of necessitie haue like effectes But the cause of the good or euill successe of men in respect of mans nature consisteth in this that the meanes and maner of proceeding iumpe with the time wherein the very condition therof and the occasion offred is diligently to be obserued And if this consideration taketh place in all priuate affaires it is much more necessarie in warre wherein a light fault oftentimes procureth losse ouerthrow to a whole armie whose good or ill happe dependeth of the head and leader therof according as he is either woorthy or vnwoorthy of his charge My opinion therfore is my companions that we alleage in this place whatsoeuer we know belongeth to his duetie and office I propound now the discourse of this matter to you AMANA Men disdaine commonly to obey such as know not how to commaund well Therfore euery Generall of an armie ought to labour carefully that men may behold and see a certaine greatnes magnanimitie constancie in all his doings ARAM. A Generall must be had in estimation of his souldiors and of that reputation that they may giue credite to his prudence otherwise an army doth quickly become rebellious and troublesome to be guided But let vs learne more amply of ACHITOB whatsoeuer concerneth this matter ACHITOB. Lamachus a great Athenian captain sayd that no man must offend twise in warre bicause the faults are of so great waight that for the most part they bring with thē the ouerthrow of the state or losse of life to those that commit them and therefore that it was a hard and daungerous matter to haue experience thereof So that Prudence gotten by vse ought to bee hastened forward bicause it is deerly bought so long a cōming that oftentimes death preuenteth it It must be hastned forward by the diligent enquirie of those things that haue fallen out both before since our time that we may become wise by other mens perils For this cause it is very necessarie that whosoeuer taketh vpon him the honor of guiding an armie should exercise his minde as much in science and in the knowledge of histories as he doth his body in all martiall actes that so he may diligently obserue the deedes of famous personages see how they gouerned themselues in warres and examine the causes of their victory thereby to flie the one and to follow the other And bicause it is against reason that a well armed man should obey him that is vnarmed or that they should take the rudder out of the Pilots hand to saue the ship in a storme that haue no skill in sea-faring matters it is very requisite that whosoeuer vndertaketh to commaund an army should first haue gotten a good report of all men for his valure and greatnesse of courage whereby his authoritie will be reuerenced as being bestowed vpō one that is woorthy of it forasmuch as titles of dignitie do not honor men but men are an ornament to titles Now if souldiors haue conceiued a good opinion of the desert and valure of their captaine it will be as a sharpe spur to pricke them forward in well doing and cause them to honor to loue his commandements For true zeale of vertue that is to say the desire to imitate it is not imprinted in mens harts but through a singular good will reuerence towards that
partie that worketh the impression It was not then without good cause that the anciēts greatly esteemed the dignity of a General being ioined with prowes knowledge experience seeing the happy or vnhappy euents of warre ordinarily depend therof next to the chief cause proceeding frō God as we shewed yesterday what Titus Liuius wrote of the battel between the Romans the Latins For this reason Cimon a great mā of Athens said that he had rather haue an armie of Harts guided by a Lion than an armie of Lions hauing a Hart for their captaine Now if we desire to vnderstand in few words what maner of mē are most woorthy of such charges we may learne it by the answere that one of the wise Interpreters made to Ptolomie concerning this matter They said he that excell in prowesse and iustice and preferre the safetie of mens liues before victorie But to discourse more particularly of the dutie and office of the head of an armie Valerius Coruinus Generall of the Romans against the Samnites to whom he was redy to giue battell incouraged his souldiors to do well in few words and taught euery one how he should proceed to obtaine the place and degree of a captaine A man must consider well quoth he vnto them vnder whose conduction he entreth into battell whether vnder one that can cause himselfe to be heard as if hee were some goodly Oratour that hath a braue tongue but otherwise is a Nouice and vnskilfull in all points of warre or vnder such a one as hath skill himselfe to handle his weapon to marche first before the ensignes and to doe his duetie in the hottest of the fight I would not Souldiours that yee should follow my wordes but my deeds I set before you an example ioyned with instruction and discipline as he that hath gotten three Consulships with this arme not without exceeding prayse Hereby we learne that the ancient captaines and Heads of armies had this laudable custome to make Orations to their men of warre thereby to make them more courageous as appeereth in all histories both Greeke and Latin This fashion is now lost togither with the rest of warlike discipline at least wise there is no account made of it in France whereupon it commeth to passe that many great men are but badly followed and serued in warre For as he that standeth in neede of the faithfull seruice of men ought to winne them rather by gentlenesse and good turnes than by authoritie and rigour so he that would haue prompt and resolute souldiours for warre that hee may vse their seruice in tyme of neede must make much of them and allure them to his obedience by liberalitie and by good and gracious speeches For in truth they must be good friends and affectionate seruitours vnto a man that setting all excuses aside of which there is neuer any want are to fight for him they must neither be enuious at his prosperitie nor traiterous in his aduersitie And there is no doubt but that in a matter of great importaunce the graue exhortations of a Generall grounded vpon good reasons and examples greatly encourage and harten a whole armie in so much that it will make them as hardie as Lions that before were as fearefull as sheepe Moreouer if he that is esteemed and iudged to be valiaunt and noble-minded sheweth foorth effectes aunswerable thereunto he doubteth the courage and strength of his armie as contrarywise the least shew of cowardlinesse discouragement or astonishment shewed by him draweth after it the vtter ruine of his souldiours But to returne to the duetie and office of a good Captaine of an armie as the best worke that a man can doe is first to bee honest and vertuous and than to take order that himselfe and his familie may haue aboundantly all things necessarie for this life so euery wise and well aduised leader of men of warre must dispose and prepare himselfe to the same ende and foresee that nothing be wanting vnto them neither munitiōs of warre nor victuals He must not thinke to make new prouision when necessitie vrgeth him but euen than when he is best furnished he must bee carefull for the time to come Wherby taking away all occasiō of cōplaining from the souldior he shall be better beloued and obeyed and more feared and redoubted of his enimies To this purpose Cyrus said to his chiefe men of warre My friends I reioyce greatly that you and your men are contented that ye haue abundance of all things and that we haue wherewith to do good to euery one according to his vertue Notwithstanding we must consider what were the principall causes of these good things and if yee looke narowly ye shall find that watching trauell continuance in labor and diligence haue giuē vs these riches Therfore ye must shew your selues vertuous also hereafter holding this for certaine that ye shall obtaine great store of riches and contentation of mind by obedience constancie vertue sustaining of trauell and by courage in vertuous and perillous enterprises Moreouer a good captaine of an armie must be very carefull that he neuer suffer his host to be idle but cause his souldiors either to annoy the enimie or to doe themselues good It is a burthensome thing to nourish an idle body much more a whole family but especially an armie and not to keepe them occupied His meaning that warreth of necessitie or through ambition is to get or to keep that which is gotten and to proceed in such sort that he may in-rich and not impouerish his countrey Therfore both for conquering and for the maintenance and preseruation of that which is his owne already he must necessarily beware of vnprofitable expences and do all things for common commoditie So that who so euer would throughly put in practise these two points he had need to follow that custome which the ancient Romanes vsed namely at the beginning to make them short and terrible as we vse to say For entring into the field with great power and strength they dispatched their warre speedily within few dayes insomuch that all their iourneis made against the Latines Samnites Tuscans were ended some in six others in ten and the longest in twentie dayes And although afterward they were constrained to keep the fields a longer time by reason of the distance of places and countreys yet they did not therefore giue ouer the following of their first purpose but ended as soone as they could their enterprises of warre by quick battels according as place and time suffred True it is that a prudent captaine must be skilfull to take the enimie at aduantage but if it be so that he cannot the better and more vertuous man he thinks himselfe and those that follow him to be so much the more paines is required of him for his owne and their preseruation as men vse to keep safely those things which they account deerest and
are to be vsed in seruice but onely how a great number may be had And many times he that is knowen to be a bold murderer and giuen ouer to all wickednesse shall be preferred to an office before an honest man and which is more we despise our owne countrey-men whome the welfare of our countrey concerneth as well as our selues and rather trust strangers and hirelings who seeke nothing but destruction so that we our selues also bewaile but too late the mischiefes that haue light vpon vs. For this cause I propound vnto you my companions to discourse vpon the election and choise which is to be considered of in taking such men of war to whom a man may safely commit himself if you thinke good you may speak somwhat also of the maner of exhortatioÌ„ to fight vsed by the ancients bicause I touched it by the way in my former discourse lastly how victory ought to bee vsed which commonly followeth good order and discipline of war wherof we haue hitherto discoursed ASER. Forasmuch as the chiefe force of an armie consisteth in the sincere and constant good will of the souldiors towards him for whom they fight it is not to be sought for else-where than in his owne naturall subiects to whome prosperitie and good successe is common with the Prince AMANA My friends quoth Cyrus to his men of war I haue chosen you not bicause I haue had proofe heretofore of your manhood but bicause from my yong yeeres I haue known you ready to doe those things which we in this countrey account honest and to eschew all dishonestie This cannot be truely said of strangers neuer seen before who come out of their countrey to inrich themselues with the ouerthrow of their neighbours But it belongeth to thee ARAM to handle this matter here propounded vnto vs. ARAM. If we consider diligently of the causes from whence came the ruine of the Romane Empire we shall find that those meanes which the wisest Emperors inuented for the safetie and preseruation thereof turned in the end to the destruction of it First the ordinary armies placed by Augustus neere to Rome in the borders of his estate ouerthrew many of his successors euen the empire it self which they would sometimes set to sale deliuer vp to him that gaue most for it Next the translation of the empire which Constantine the great made from Rome to BizantiuÌ„ afterward called by his name Constantinople therby to make it more sure against the Persians other people of Asia greatly hastned forward the ouerthrow of the same For when he caried thither the chief strength and wealth of Rome diuided the empire into the East and West â—e weakned it very much so that the West was first destroyed and then the East which if they had continued vnited and knit togither might for a long time and in a maner for euer haue resisted all inuasions Thirdly when the Emperours thought to strengthen themselues with strange hired forrain power called to their succour as namely the Gothes thereby weakening their owne forces and naturall strength of the Empire they put ere they were aware Rome and Italy and consequently the other Prouinces into the hands of the Barbarians Yea we find that the greatest calamities that euer happened to Common-wealths diuided was when the Citizens were seuered among themselues and called in strangers to helpe them who vsing often to goe that way at the last made themselues maisters ouer them The Germanes called by the Sequani to their succour against those of Autun compelled them to deliuer halfe their land vnto them and at length they drooue away all the naturall people of the countrie and became Lordes of the greatest part of the Gaules territorie But not to go so farre off it is high time for vs to grow wise by our owne perill The factions of the houses of Orleans and of Burgundy called in the Englishmen into France who by this meane sette such footing therein that they possessed a great part therof a long time after What lacked in our time why the Frenchmen blinded caried away with partialities and God grant they may throughly knowe it did not bring their countrie to that extremitie of miseries as to submit it to the seruice and slauerie of a strange yoke vnder the colour of begging helpe at their handes What letted why there was not plaied among vs of vs and by vs the cruellest most sorrowfull tragedie that euer was when men came hither from all quarters to behold the sight Would not a man haue thought that both great and small had wittingly purposed to ouer-throw the goodliest most noble kingdome of the world and themselues withall and so in the end haue shamefully lost the glorie and renowne which their Ancestors had woorthily gotten for them Now if any good hap hath turned this tempest from vs against our wils at the least let vs call to mind the danger whereinto we had willingly cast our selues and let vs not forget the admonition that was giuen vs by those barbarous fellowes whose Captaines and Counsellors asked vs why we called them in when a little before their departure out of this kingdome they were complained vnto for the extorsions and cruelties which their men practised What thinke you said they is the intent and purpose of our men in following vs but to enrich themselues with your ouerthrow Agree among your selues and neuer call vs more except ye minde to taste of that which shall be woorse But let vs enter into the particular consideration of the perill and hurt that commeth by forraine and mercenarie souldiours that we may knowe whome wee ought rather to vse The armes where-with a Prince defendeth his Countrie are either his owne or hired of strangers or sent to his succour by some Prince his friend or else mingled of both togither They that maintaine that it is necessarie for the prosperitie and preseruation of euerie happie Common-wealth not to vse forraine helpe say that hired force and succour of strangers is woorth nothing but rather dangerous and that if a Prince thinke to ground the assurance of his Estate vpon forraine force he cannot safely doe it For they agree not easily togither they doe all for profite and will be neither well ordered nor obedient On the other side they are not ouer-faithfull they are all in their brauerie amonge friendes but hartlesse amonge enimies They neither feare God nor are faithfull to men The reason heereof is this bicause no loue nor anye other occasion holdeth them but paie and hope of spoyle Which is no sufficient cause to mooue them to die willingly in his seruice whose subiects they are not and whose ruine they desire rather than his increase The last destruction of Italy came by no other thing than bicause it trusted a longe time to forraine and hyred forces which brought some thinges to passe for some men
then we would knowe a good way how we shall neuer be vanquished we must not trust to our armour or force but alwaies call vpon God to direct our counsels for the best By this also we shall be perswaded to vse victorie mildly seeing it is the propertie of valiant men to be gentle and gratious ready to forgiue and to haue compassion of them that suffer and indure affliction There is no true victorie as Marcus Aurelius wrote to Popilion Captaine of the Parthians but that which carieth with it some clemencie so that a rigorous and cruell man may not in reason be called victorious And it is most true that to ouercome is humane but the action of pardoning is diuine As touching the sacking and ouerthrow of townes taken in warre carefull heede saith Cicero must be taken that nothing be done rashly or cruelly For it is the propertie of a noble hart to punish such onely as are most guiltie and the authors of euil and to saue the multitude Briefly to obserue in all thinges whatsoeuer is right and honest to be valiant and gentle to be an enimie to those that doe vniustly fauourable to the afflicted seuere to quarrellers and full of equitie to suppliants are those praise-woorthie qualities for which Alexander Iulius Casar Scipio Hannibal Cyrus and many other both Greeke and Romane Captaines are most commended who ought to be imitated in the arte of warre by all excellent men Of a happie Life Chap. 71. ARAM. WE haue hitherto discoursed my Companions of vertues vices for which the life of man is praised or dispraised in all Estats and conditions whereunto the varietie of maners and inclinations to sundry studies and works cal men and make them fit Wherin we haue chiefly followed the ends and bounds of honestie equitie propounded by Moral Philosophers from whence they draw particular duties and all actions of vertue vsing a very commendable and excellent order disposition Now seeing we are come to the end of the cause of our assemblie as we began it with the true Christian knowledge of the creation of man and of the end of his being vnknowne to so many great personages in the world who are lightened only with humane sciences which are but darkenes in regard of that heauenly light the eternal word of God that guideth the soules of the beleeuers I think that we ought also to end and breake vp this our meeting togither with the maner of a happie life and death according to those endes that are propounded vnto vs by the infallible rule of all vertue and truth which if they be not so subtilly set downe and disputed as the Philosophy of the Ancients is yet at the least they are without comparison better and more certaine Go to then let vs heare you discourse first of a happie life ACHITOB. Blessed are they saith the Prophet that dwell in the house of God and that euermore praise him hauing his waies in their harts He will giue them grace and glory and will with-hold no good thing from them that walke vprightly ASER. What happier life can we require than that which S. Iohn calleth eternal life namely to know one only true God Iesus Christ whō he hath sent But it belongeth to thee AMANA to feede our spirits with this excellent subiect AMANA Although the spirite of God teaching his iust and holy will by a doctrine that is simple and void of all vaine shew of wordes hath not alwaies obserued and kept so strictly such a certaine order and methode to prepare and to direct their liues that shall beleeue in him as the Philosophers did who affected the greatest shew outwardly that they could thereby to make manifest the sharpnes of their wit the greatnes of their humane vnderstanding yet may we easily gather out of this diuine doctrine which doth more deface all glittering shew and beauty of humane sciences than the Sun excelleth darkenes a most excellent order teaching vs to frame a happie life according to the mould paterne of true heauenly vertue This order consisteth of two parts the one imprinting in our harts the loue of iustice the other giuing vnto vs a certaine rule that will not suffer vs to wander hither thither nor to slip aside in the framing of our life Concerning the first point the Scripture is full of very good reasons to encline our harts to loue that Good which in deed is to be desired I meane perfect righteousnes With what foundation could it begin better than by admonishing vs to be sanctified bicause our God is holy Whereunto the reason is added that although we were gone astray as sheepe scattered dispersed in the Labyrinth of this world yet he hath gathered vs togither to ioine vs to himselfe When we heare mention made of the coniunction of god with vs we must remember that the bond thereof is holines and that we must direct our steps thither as to the end of our calling that we may be transformed into the true image of God which through sinne was defaced in the first man consequently in vs. Moreouer to mooue vs the more to embrace that only true God the spirit of God teacheth vs that as he hath reconciled vs vnto himselfe in his son Iesus Christ so he hath appointed him to be vnto vs an example and paterne vnto which wee must conforme our selues This heauenly worde also taketh occasion to exhort vs thereunto in infinite places drawing his reasons from all the benefits of God and from all the parts of our saluation As when it is saide That seeing God hath giuen himselfe to be our Father wee are to be accused of notable ingratitude if wee behaue not our selues as his children Seeing Iesus Christ hath clensed vs by the washing of his blood and hath communicated this purification vnto vs by baptisme there is no reason why we should defile our selues with new filthines Seeing he hath ioined ingrafted vs into his body we must carefully looke that we defile not our selues in any sort being members of his body Seeing he that is our Head is gone vp to heauen we must lay aside all earthly affections and aspire with all our hart to that heauenly life Seeing the holy Ghost hath consecrated vs to be the temples of God we must labour and striue that the glorie of God may be exalted in vs and beware that we receiue no pollution Seeing our soules and bodies are fore appointed to enioye that immortalitie of the kingdome of heauen and the incorruptible Crowne of God his glorie we must endeuour to keepe both the one and the other pure and vnspotted vntill the day of the Lord. Behold surely good grounds meete to frame and institute a happie life by and to mooue a Christian to bring foorth the effectes of such an excellent and woorthie title throught the loue
be ioined with knowledge What want of prudence is The pernitious effects of ignorance All ignorant men are euill The effects of ignorance both in rich poore Common effects of ignorance The spring of all errors The reasons which mooued the heathen to beleeue that there was a diuinitie Nicias feared an eclipse of the moone Caligula and Domitian Otho 1. Anaxagoras saying against the superstitious feare of celestiall signes Cleander a traitor to Commodus his Lord. The hase mind of Perses being ouercome of Emilius What malice and craft are Vertuous men seeke after honest not secret things Satan the father of malice and subtiltie The malice of Nero. Tiberius Math. 10. 16. We must not denie or hide our ignorance Math. 12. 35. Pro. 17. 27. 28. 1. Per. 3. 10. A double speech or reason How speech is framed Words are the shadow of works The foundation and scope of all speech Of Laconicall speech A pretie saying of Pittacus Of graue and eloquent speech Against prating pleaders The toong is the best and woorst thing that is Isocrates appointed two times of speaking Apelles speech to a Persian lord How great men ought to speake Apelles speech to a shoomaker Alexander gaue money to a poet to hold his peace Nothing ought to be written without great deliberation Notable and pithy letters of ancient men A good precept for speaking The praise of silence Hyperides Examples of mischiefes caused by the intemperancie of the toong Of concealing a secret Examples of the commendable freedome of speech The constancie of Gordius Prudence requisite in a friend No outward thing is to be preferred before friendship Nothing more rare or excellent than a friend The principall cause and end of all true friendship What friendship is The difference betwixt friendship and loue What things are requisite in friendship The common practise of flatterers What maner of man we must choose for our friend How we must prooue a friend How we must shake off a false friend How Alcibiades tried his friends The meanes to keepe a friend Friendship must be free Phalereus How many waies we owe dutie to our friend How we must beare with the imperfections of our friend Against the plurality of friends He that hath neuer a fo hath neuer a friend The best and most excellent friendship is betweene one couple Pisistratus letter 〈◊〉 his nephew Titus Flaminius Nothing better than to liue with a vertuous man Three things necessarie in friendship Man is mutable One of the greatest fruits reaped in friendship A notable custome of the Lacedemonians A friend compared to a musitioÌ„ Agesilaus How we must vse reprehension Time bringeth as many things to good order as reason doth We must correct in our selues those faults which we reprehend in others Sundry instructions how to admonish wisely Reprehension is the beginning of good life Solons good aduice for counsailors to princes Philosophers ought to be conuersant with princes Solons counsell giuen to Craesus Why Plato went into Sicilia to Dionysius Arrogancie dwelleth in the end with solitarines Notable counsell for princes Demetrius Traians letter to Plutarke How Philoxenus corrected Dionysius tragedie The free gird of a peasant giuen to an Archbishop The like giuen to Pope Sixtus the 4. by a Frier Prou. 27.5 Gal. 6. r. Mediocritie must be vsed in all actions The difference of good and bad consisteth in mediocritie Against curiositie in knowledge A notable saying of Socrates The death of Aristotle and Plinie through too much curiositie The burning of Aetna Two generall kinds of curiositie Against the curiositie of seeing strange nations One euident cause of the ruin of Fraunce Lycurgus for-bad traffick with strangers Fiue vices brought out of Asia by the Romanes Why Fabius would neuer go on the water Plato and Apollonius were great trauellerâ— Of curiositie in seeking to know other mens imperfections The curious are more profitable to their enimies than to themselues Curiositie in princes affaires is perilous How we must cure curiositie Examples against curiositie Against lightnes of beleefe Faults whereinto curious men commonly fall Wittie answers made to curious questions Rom. 12. 3. Natural vertues according to the Philosophers who had no knowledge of mans fall The diuision of nature What nature is The propertie and light of nature The corruption of nature Three things neceâ—â—arie for the perfection of 〈◊〉 The difference between philosophers and the common people Three things coâ—curâ—e in perfect vertue The defect of nature is holpen by good education The weaknes of our naturall inclination to goodnes A similitude Lvcurgus example of two dogs Socrates and Themistocles were by nature vicious but by education vertuous The Germaines much changed by institution A mans naturall inclination may be espied in a small matter Great men ought especially to learne vertue The Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vsed by Pythagoras and translated of the Latins Mâ—ndus and of vs World signifieth a comely order No vertue can be without temperance The true marks and ornaments of a king What temperanceis What Decorum or comelines iâ— The definition of temperance What passions are ruled by temperance Fower parts of temperance The commendation of temperance Woonderfull examples of temperance Scipio Africanus Alexander Cyrus Architas Xenocrates Isaeus C. Gracchus Antigonus Pompeius F. Sforce The temperance of Pompey against ambition Pittacus Pedaretus Scipio Torquatus Fabritius Aimaeus Amurathes Charles 5. Soüs Lysimachus Cato Rodolphus Socrates Predominant passions in intemperance Some sinnes are punishments of other sinnes Rom. 1. What intemperance is The difference betweene an incontinent and an intemperate man A fit similitude The companions of intemperance Intemperate men resemble mad folks Heliogabalus Nero. Commodus Caligula Proculus Chilpericus 1. Xerxes Epicurus Sardanapalus Antonius Boleslaus 2. Adrian Iohannes a Casa The Temple of Diana was burnt by Erostratus Or Stupiditie Luke 13. 27. The cause of the long life of our Elders and of the shortnes of ours Dionysius a monster and why The sobrietie of old time and corruption of ours compared togither Sobrietie preserueth health There is more pleasure of the creatures in sobrietie than in superfluitie The belly is an vnthankfull beast The counsell of Epictetus concerning eating How wise men in old time feasted one another Against vaine delights in feasts The bellie a feeding beast When musicke is most conuenient The custome of the Egyptians at bankets The custome of the Lacedemonians The manner of drinking in old time The sobrietie of Alexander Against excessiue drinking Cyrus Porus. Phaotes Alphousus Agesilaus Good cheere keepeth baâ—e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on â—â—â—peius M. Cate. Epaminondas C. Fabritius Scipio Masinissa Mithridates Hannibal Vespasianus Daniel Iohn Baptist. Maxentius Socrates feast Darius in his thirst iudged puddle water to be good drinke Tokens of the wrath of God The chiefest cause of destruction to Common-wealths is excesse in delights Pleasure the end of superfluitie Of the delicate life The seed of diseases Of the shortnes of mans life The soule of gluttons
time namely loue testified by obedience which we may comprehend vnder this onely word of Dutie called by the philosophers the welspring of all vertuous and laudable actions and the foundation of honestie Therefore I propound this matter to you companions to be discoursed vpon AMANA The dutie of a good man consisteth in his good behauiour towards the chiefe and onely end of his being compounded of these two things the glorie of his Creator and the loue of his neighbour But the last vndoubtedly dependeth of the first For without the feare of God men wil neuer preserue equitie and loue amongst themselues as contrariwise the honoring of his maiestie teacheth them to liue vprightly one with another ARAM. We ought not to assure or fortifie our selues with any other bulworke than to do to counsell and to vtter al good and honest things according to dutie wherunto we are called by nature not onely for our selues but also for the benefit and profit of many Therefore of thee ACHITOB we shall vnderstand more at large what Dutie and Honestie is ACHITOB. No treatise in philosophie saith Cicero is so necessarie as that of Office and Dutie forasmuch as no part of mans life whether it be in publike or priuate affaires or in what action soeuer it be either ought or may be destitute therof For therein consisteth all honestie of life and if it be neglected all infamie And albeit most part of the ancient philosophers comprehended duty and honestie vnder vertue affirming them to be one and the same thing yet following the opinion of that great orator and philosopher who hath handled morall philosophie in very good order we may distinguish them after this sort saying that dutie is the end whereunto vertue tendeth namely when in all our actions we obserue honestie and comlines In which distinction we see neuertheles such a coniunction of these three things Vertue Dutie and Honestie that the one is the end of the other the perfection thereof consisting in all three togither Dutie then is that which bindeth the soule cheerfully and willingly without force or constraint to giue to euery one that which belongeth vnto him honor to whom honor reuerence to whom reuerence tribute to whom tribute and succor to whom succor belongeth This dutie is diuided into two generall kinds the one is that which appertaineth to the perfect and souereigne good the other concerneth the preseruation and safetie of the common societie of men and consisteth in morall precepts according to which the behauior of al sorts of life may be squared As touching the first no doubt but all men are beholding and bound vnto God both for their being and preseruation thereof as also for that abundance of goods necessarie for this life which he powreth forth most liberally both on the good and on the bad Moreouer Christians are further tied and bound vnto him for the certaine hope of their saluation in his eternall sonne For all which things he asketh nothing of vs but loue and good-will testified by honor reuerence and seruice according to his holie ordinance euery one after the measure of gifts and graces which he hath from aboue knowing that more is to be required of him to whom more is giuen This obedience being grounded vpon that rule of perfect righteousnes which is giuen vnto vs in the law of God is the mother and preseruer of all vertues yea the beginning and roote of al goodnes The other part of dutie which respecteth our neighbor and whereof we are chiefly to intreat in this our Academie is nothing but charity loue of our like as of our selues which is greatly recommended vnto vs in the scripture as being very requisit vnto salúation This is that dutie whereby we are bound not to do any thing against publike lawes equitie and profit but to be alwaies constant in the perfect exercise and vse of vertue by doing honest and seemely things for their owne sakes and not of necessitie and constraint We are not onely borne saith Cicero for our selues but our countrie parents and friends both will and ought to reape some commoditie by our birth For whatsoeuer is vpon earth was created for men and they for themselues that one might aide and helpe another So that if we will follow nature we must imploy our goods trauell and industrie and whatsoeuer else is in our power in the behalfe of common commoditie and in the preseruation of humane societie yea that man liueth most happily who as little as may be liueth to himselfe And on the other side no man liueth more disorderedly than he that liueth to himselfe and thinketh on nothing but his owne profit This is that dutie which requireth that for the safetie of our parents friends and countrie we should offer our selues to all perils not respecting our owne profit or commoditie Neither ought we to esteeme any thing iust and profitable except honestie which are so linked togither as the philosophers say that they can no more be separated than whitenes and cold from snow and heate and light from fire So that if any man be perswaded that the rule of honestie and profit is not one and the same he will neuer be without fraud or wickednes For thinking thus with himselfe this indeed is honest but that is profitable for me he will not feare to breake and rent a sunder all equitie ordained and appointed either by diuine or humane lawes And this diuision is the fountaine of all vice falshood and mischiefe A good man saith Plato may not slander steale or lie for his owne commoditie Is there any thing then in this world of so great value any treasure so pretious that ought to cause vs to loose the name of vertuous and iust We ought rather to turne profit towards honestie and that in such sort that howsoeuer the words seeme to differ one from another yet we should make them but one thing Moreouer the same diuine philosopher saith that the true beautie of the soule which is honestie is nothing else but the brightnes of that perfect and chiefe good that appeereth in those things which may be knowen by the eies eares and mind whereby it is caused to returne towards the Idea and paterne of goodnes Wherby this excellent man meaneth no other thing than to giue vs to vnderstand that whatsoeuer goodnes and honestie is in vs commeth from God as from the fountaine thereof vnto which by the same vertue it returneth leading the soule with it to liue eternally Besides from him and by him commeth the beginning and proceeding of our good works yea it is he that maketh vs to go forward according to true dutie which consisteth in these two points first that the intention and end of our actions be rightly framed secondly that the like meanes to attaine to that end be found out For these two things may agree or disagree one from another as we see sometimes
the end well propounded and yet men erre in the meanes to attaine vnto it and contrariwise it falleth out oftentimes that the meanes are good and the end propounded bad So that it is from this liuely and euer-flowing fountaine which is the cause of al good from whence we are to looke for the perfect knowledge of our dutie and the ends and meanes whereby to execute it to the glorie of God and to the good and profit of our like And from this generall vertue and fountaine of honestie and dutie fower riuers issue and spring called morall vertues namely Prudence which is as a guide to the rest and knoweth what is profitable for it selfe for others and for the common-wealth Temperance the mistres of modestie chastitie sobrietie and vigilancie and of all order and mediocritie in all things Fortitude which maketh a man constant patient couragious hardie and readie to enterprise high great profitable and holie things and Iustice which is the bond and preseruation of humane societie by giuing to euery one that which belongeth vnto him by keeping faith in things promised by succoring gladly the afflicted and by helping euery one according as abilitie serueth Which vertues are the true and certain goods of the soule whereby all actions are directed according to dutie as we shall speake particularly thereof heerafter In the meane while let vs enter into the examples of the ancients and see how exactly and inuiolably they obserued all points of dutie choosing rather to sacrifice their liues than to infringe and breake any of them much more contemning all other weaker occasions wherwith lewd and base-minded people suffer themselues to be easily corrupted And first touching the first point of dutie naturally imprinted in the soules of the greatest infidels which is to acknowledge some diuinitie with what zeale although inconsiderate and rash did the ancient heathens and pagans precisely obserue their paganisme euen to the sacrificing and cheerfull offering vp of their owne children to their gods as we read of the Carthaginians What say I their children yea oftentimes themselues whereof Calanus an Indian Gymnosophist serueth for a witnes who seeing himselfe old after he had offered sacrifice to the gods bad Alexander the Great farewell with whom he came to Babylon and tooke his leaue also of all his other friends Then lying along according to the custome of his countrie vpon a little pile of wood which he had prepared for that purpose he caused fire to be put vnto it and so burned himselfe for a burnt-offering to his gods not stirring at all but continuing with such a wonderfull constancie that Alexander who was present confessed himselfe to be vanquished of him in greatnes of hart and magnanimitie of courage Who will not admire the strict obseruation of the ancient religion of the Egyptians Graecians and Romans mooued with a desire of yeelding the dutie of their being to the honor of a diuine nature But for shortnes sake and not to wander farre from the subiect of our assemblie I passe it ouer with silence Heere I will onely alledge one notable example of the Iewes who were more zealous professors of their law than euer were any people Caius a Romane emperor sent Petronius into Syria with commandement to make war with the Iewes if they would not receiue his image into their temple Which when they refused to do Petronius said vnto them that then belike they would fight against Caesar not weighing his wealth or their owne weakenes and vnabilitie We will not fight quoth they but had rather die than turne from the lawes of our God And foorthwith casting themselues on the ground and offering their throtes they said that they were readie to receiue the blow In this estate as Iosephus reporteth it they remained for the space of fortie daies letting slip the time which then was of sowing their grounds Which caused Petronius to defer the execution of his charge and to send the declaration of these things vnto Caesar whose death rid the Iewes out of danger Now we are to consider with what burning affection the ancients imbraced common benefit and safetie seeking to profit all men according to the true dutie of a good man but especially their countrie in whose seruice they thought it great happines to lose their liues For truly besides the sweet affection which nature hath imprinted in our harts towards our countrie and the conformitie of humors which commonly is found in our bodies with that heauenly aire wher we haue our first breathing which seemeth to be a mutual and naturall obligation the reason of all humane right and the religion of diuine equitie besides the dutie of conscience bind all persons to serue the publike wealth of their countrie to the vttermost of their power and that so much the rather bicause that vnder it the life honor and goods of euery particular man are comprehended This reason caused Cato of Vtica a Consul and noble Romane to answer one of his friends who was come to giue him thanks for defending him in iudgement from a false accusation that he was to thanke the Common-wealth for whose loue onely he did spake and counselled all things This also made him to vndertake the sute for the office of Tribuneship of the people that he might resist the faction of Pompey by whom he saw Metellus set on worke to sue and seeke for the same office for the assurance of his affaires and strengthening of his league Now is the time quoth Cato to his friends wherein I must imploy and bestow the power of such an office and of so great authoritie as a strong medicine in time conuenient and vpon necessarie causes and either ouercome or die honorably in the defence of common libertie So likewise he opposed himselfe as much as he could against all nouelties and alteration of affaires betweene Caesar and Pompey And when the selfesame Pompey being desirous to win him to himselfe sought to bring it to passe by alliance and thereupon demanded two of his neeces in marriage one for himselfe and the other for his sonne Cato without any longer deliberation answered him presently as being netled that caried backe the message that he should returne to Pompey and tell him that Cato was not to be taken by the meanes of women Which was not bicause he would not haue him esteem greatly of his friendship which he should alwaies find in him to be more sure and certaine than any alliance by marriage so that he onely sought after and did things honest and iust but at this time he would not giue hostages at Pompeies pleasure against the Common-welth Afterward the affaires of Rome being brought to such necessitie through corruption of monie and by vnlawfull and forceable meanes in procuring publike places of authoritie many Senators being of opinion that Pompey was to be chosen sole and onely Consul Cato also was of the same mind saying that men ought