they shal remember they were subiectes to our Caesar for so much as I finde in old Histories that this linage of Marshalls of Nauarre is auncient generous and valyant And for my parte I doe firmely beléeue that the Marshall had rather serue Caesar his lord than folow the French king his master The good Scipio the Affricane did vse to say that al things in the warrs ought to be assayed before the sworde be drawne And surely he did speake most truely Bicause there is not in all this world so greate a victorie as that which is obtayned withoute bloud Cicero to writing to Atticus dothe saye and affirme that the deuise that vanquisheth the enimyes with counsell is of no lesse worthynesse than he that ouercommeth by the sworde Sylla Tyberius Caligula Nero neuer could but cōmaund kill and on the other side the good Augustus Titus and Traianus coulde not but pray and pardon in suche maner that they ouercame praying as the other fighting The good Surgion oughte to cure with swéete oyntments and the good Captaine with discrete persuasions For as for yron God rather made it to eare fieldes than to kill men Plutarch dothe saye that Scipio being at the siege of Numantia when they were importunate that he should besiege the Citie and destroy the Numantins answered I had rather conserue the life of one Roman than kill all those in Numantia If these words of Scipio were wel considered of the Captains of warre peraduenture they woulde leaue to bée soo rashe in hazardyng theyr armyes in so greate and many perils Wherof doth folow oftentimes that thinking to be reuenged of their enimies they execute vengeance of their owne proper bloud All this haue I sayde noble Constable to the ende that sith Caesar hath iustified the warre of Founterabie your noblenesse of your parte should also iustifie the same And the iustification whiche you haue to make is First persuade thē before you come to besiege them bicause it doth many times happen that the prayers of a friend may doe more than the sworde of the enimie Of the good Emperoure Theodosius the historie writers recount that vntill ten dayes were past after he had besieged any Citie he did not permit his souldiours to make warre neyther to misuse the neighbors therof Saying and proclayming euery daye that those tenne dayes space hée gaue them to the ende they shoulde profite themselues by his clemency before they should make proof of his power When the greate Alexander did sée the deade bodie of Darius and Iulius Caesar the heade of Pompeius and Marcus Marcellus Syracusa burne and the good Scipio Numantia destroyed They coulde not detaine their eyes from wéeping althoughe they were mortall enimies For if the tender hearted and noble mynded reioyce of the victorie they are grieued with others spoyle Beleeue me noble Constable that pitie and clemencie doe neuer blunt the launce in tyme of warre And on the other side the Captaine that is blouddie and reuenging eyther the enimies doe kill him or else his owne doe sell hym Iulius Caesar not vndeserued shall hold the supremacie amongst the Princes of the world and not bycause hée was more fayre stronger valyanter or more fortunate than the rest but for that without comparison muche more were the enimies hée pardoned than those he ouercame or killed We doe reade of that famous Captaine Narsetes that he did subdue the Frenche ouercame the Bactrians and did conquere and gouerne the Germains and with all thys dyd neuer gyue battayle to the enimies but hée wepte in the Temples the night before The kingdome wherein the Emperour Augustus moste delighted and ioyed was that of the Mauritanes whyche is nowe called the kyngdome of Marrewcos And the reason that he gaue for this was bycause all other kingdomes he got by the sword and this kingdome he obtained by entreatance If vnto my wordes it please you to giue credite trauayle that Founterabye maye bée yéelded rather by composition than by force For that in graue and doubtefull cases firste men oughte to profite themselues with their pollicie before they make proofe of Fortune All the rest that your Lordship dothe commaunde mee I will perfourme with greate good will Whiche is to witte that I praye vnto our God for your Lordships victorie And that hée giue vnto mée of hys glorie From the towne of Victoria the .xiij. of Ianuary .1522 A letter for Sir Antonie of Cuniga Priour of Saint Iohn in the which is said that although there be in a Gentleman to bee reprehended there ought not to be cause of reproch FAmous and moste valiaunt Captayne yesterday béeyng Sainct Luces day Lopes Osorius gaue mée a letter from your woorship made at the siege of Toledo And of a truthe I didde muche reioyce therein and no lesse estéeme the same to bée written of suche a hande and sente from suche a place For in the tyme of rebellion as nowe the Knyght ought not to write from his house resting but from the Campe fightyng The Priest oughte to boaste hymselfe of his studie the husbandman of his plough and the Knyght of his launce In suche wyse that in a good common wealth the priest prayeth the husbandman ploweth the Knight fighteth He is not to be accounted a knight that is extract of noble blud in power great in iewels rich in seruāts mighty for al these things in marchauntes is many times found and also of a Iewe many tymes obtained But that whiche maketh the Knight to be a perfect gentleman is to be measured in his words liberal in giuing sober in diet honest in lyuing tender in pardoning and valiant in fightyng Notwithstanding any one be noble in bloud and mightie in possessions yet if hee bée in his talke a babbler in eating a glutton in condition ambicious in conuersation malicious in getting couetous in trauells impatient and in fightyng a coward of such we shal rather say to haue more abilitie for a carle than for a Knight vilenesse sluggishnesse nigardship maliciousnesse lying and cowardnesse did neuer take repast with knighthoode For in the good knight although there may be founde wherewith to be reprehended there ought not to be conteyned wherfore to be reproued In our age there hath bin no tyme wherin the good knight mighte better shewe his ablenesse or to what ende hee is than at this instant bicause the King is out of his kingdom the Quéene is sicke the royall Counsell is fledde the people rebell the gouerners are in Camp and all the kingdome out of quiet nowe or neuer they ought to trauaile and die to appease the kingdome and euery man to serue his king The good Knight doth now turne his gloues into gantlets Mules into horsses his buskins into greues his hattes into Helmets his doublets into Harnesse his sylke into mayle his golde into yron his hunting into fighting In such wise that the valiant knight ought not to boaste himselfe
séeke that whiche we may when we cannot what we desire No more but our Lorde be youre protector and giue me grace to serue him From Valiodolid the xxvj of October .1520 A letter vnto sir Iohn of Moncada in whiche is declared what thing is Ire and how good is patience EXpectable Gentleman and magnificent Knight if it shall séeme vnto you that I aunswer youre Letters with slacknesse impute the fault to Palome your seruant which halteth and the horse whereon hée rideth is lame the way long the winter hard and I also am always in businesse although from the same I haue gathered small profit and as I suspect if this your seruant haue made any tarriance vppon the way in comming hither or hath made small hast in returning thither it hath procéeded of a certayne combat with loue that he hapned to encounter by the way Wherein you may then well thinke how much rather he would accomplishe the loue that he beares in his brest than with your letters that he carieth in his bosome If you will credit me to men inamored you shall neuer commend your busines For his office is not to be occupied in other affayres but in writing letters watching at corners playing on gitterns climing of walles and vewing of windowes As concerning that which you write vnto me in youre letter I shall aunswer you more briefly than your desire and more largely than I may Considering how I goe to the Inquisition to reforme and to the Court too preach and euery day in Caesars Chronicles to write My busines is ouermuch and my time too little By the holy God I do sweare that as many courtiers which be idle in this court I do more enuie the time they loose than the money they possesse But comming to the purpose I do sweare by the law of a friend I haue bene as muche gréeued for your greate mischance and misfortune as if it had bin myne owne cause For as Chilo the Philosopher said the mischances of a friend we must not onely remedy them but also bewayle them Agesisaus the Greek being demanded for what cause he did more lament the heauinesse of his frends than the death of his children made answere I do not bewayle the want of my wife the losse of my goodes or the death of my children for al these are partes of my selfe but I bewayle the death of my frend which is an other my selfe Sir I saye thus muche since I may not be there present to lamente with you neither doe I here finde my selfe of power sufficient to remedie your case I will write some letter to comforte you For sometimes the pen vseth no lesse pitie with the friende than the launce doth crueltie with the enimie to persuade that you shoulde not féele that which reason would you shoulde so muche féele it shuld be iust occasion for me to be worthily noted with want of due consideration and you accused to be insensible That which I dare speak in this matter is that you conceyue therof as a man and dissemble the same as aduised and discrete The iniuries that touche our honour done by suche of whom we may not be reuenged the most sounde counsell is to let it fal since with due vengeance it may not be quited If in these present gréeues you wil take the order of a Christian leaue the way of a worldly knight you shall fixe your eyes not on him that doth persecute you but in God that doth permit the same before whō you shal find your self so faultie that that is little whiche you suffer in respect of that ye deserue to suffer Moreouer ye ought to thinke that tribulations whiche God permitteth be not to lose vs but to proue vs For in the books of God they set downe no man as quited but he that is apte for trauell and amongst those of the worlde they giue wages to none but vnto him that is giuen to wantonnesse Sir you write vnto me that I certifie you what thing is anger and the definition therof To sée if you may forget the dispite of him that hath done you so cruel an outrage to know what thing is Ire and to cut of the furious curse of his rage Sir it semes to me no euill counsell the very troth being knowen many times it is more securitie for him that is iniuried to dissemble the iniurie than to reuenge it Aristides saieth that ire is no other thing but an inflaming of the bloud and an alteration of the hart Possidonius sayth that ire is no other thing but a short foolishnes Cicero saith that which the Latins do cal ire the Grekes do name desire of vengeance Aeschines sayth that ire was caused of the fume of the gall and of the heate of the heart Macrobius saith there is muche difference betwixte ire and testinesse bicause ire groweth of an occasion and testinesse of euyll condition The diuine Plato sayeth that the faulte is not in anger but in hym that giues occasion Laertius sayth when the chastisement excéedes the fault then is it vengeance and not zeale But when the fault doth excéede the chastisemente it is zeale and no vengeance Plutarche saith that the priuiledges of ire are not to beléeue our friends to be rash in attempts to haue the chéekes inflamed to vse quicknesse with the handes to haue an vnbridled toung at euery word to vse ouerthwartnesse to be fumish for small causes and to admitte no reason Solon Solonio being demāded whom we cal properly irous answered he that little estéemeth to lose his friendes and maketh no account to recouer enimies After so manie and so graue Philosophers that which I dare say is that the vice of ire is lightly written easy to persuade pleasaunt to preach ready to counsell and very difficile to refrayne Of any vice wée may speake euill but of the vice of anger we may say much and very much euil For ire doth not only transform vs into fooles but also maketh vs of al men to be abhorred To temper ire is sufficientely vertuous but vtterly to expell it is a thing more thā sure For all things that are euill of themselues and of condition hurtfull are more easily resisted than throwne away In the beginnings many thinges be in oure owne handes to admit or to send them away but after they haue taken power ouer vs if by chaunce reason rise against them they say they will not depart since they be in possession Ire hath so euil a condition that of one only tyme that we yéelde him our will he afterwards maketh our will vnto all the hée liketh In the Magistrates that gouerne the common wealthe we condemne not the good or euill correction they vse but the greate furie they shewe in the same For if they be bounde to chastise the offences they haue not licence to shew themselues passioned Those that offend it is a thing very iust that they remaine not vnpunished but
I assure you and do iudge many tymes with my selfe that for this cause God or the king shew you any fauor bicause you neuer talk with any man with words of fauor worship or curtesie He did so much féele this word that from thence forward he left to say thou and said vnto all men My maisters or by your fauors All men that shal come to talke and haue businesse with your Lordship you ought to vse with mildnesse honour and also fawne on them as euerie man shall deserue and according to their degrées cōmanding the olde men to couer the yong men to rise and some to sit downe For if they delight to serue as vassalles they will not that you intreate them as slaues many vassals wée doe sée euery day rise against their Lords not so much for the tributes they raise on them as for the euil dealings they vse towards them always your Lordship hath to remember that you and they haue one God to honor one King to serue one lawe to kéepe one land to inhabite and one death to fear and if you hold this before your eies you shall speak vnto them as vnto brothers and deale with them as with Christians Aboue all things take greate héede to say at the sodaine to any of your subiects any word that shall staine his kinred or iniurie his person for there is no villain of Saigo so insensible that doth not more féele an iniurious word that is spoken than the chastisement which is giuen and there is a greater euil therin than this that amongst the cōmon and countrey-people all the kinred doth aunswere for the iniurie and the shame to one redoundeth to the despite of the whole whereof it hapneth many times that to be reuenged of a worde the whole people do rise against their lord So in this case take my counsell that if any your subiects shal doe a thing whiche he ought not to do that you determine to chastise him not to vpbrayd or defame him for the chastisement he shal think to procéede of iustice but your vpraiding of malice For any distemperance that may gréeue you or maye happen to anger you Auoyde in any wise to call any man knaue Iew filth or villaine for besides that these woords be rather of tiplers than of Knightes or Gentlemen The Gentleman is bound to be as chast of his spéech as a virgin of hir virginitie for a gentleman to be of a distempred spéeche foule mouthed euill manered loude and foule spoken this maye not procéede of any other occasion but that he is melancholike a coward and feareful For it is notorious vnto all men that vnto the woman it appertaineth to be reuenged with the toung but the knight or Gentleman with his launce The king Demetrius had a certain loue named Lamia whiche when she demaunded Demetrius why he didde not speake and was not merrie he made answere Holde thy peace Lamia and let me alone for I doe as wel my office as thou dost thine for the office of the woman is to spin and prattle and the office of the man is to holde his peace and fight To buffet the boyes of the chamber to pull them by the heare to ioll them against the portall and to spurne with the féete Your Lordship ought not to do it neither consent that it bée done in your presence For in palaces of auctoritie and grauitie to the Lord it appertaineth to manifest his mind and to the stuarde to chastise If your lordship shall commaunde to chastise or to whip any page or seruaunt prouide that it be doone in a place priuie and secrete for it ought to be very strange vnto the Lord or Gentleman that is noble valiant to sée any man wéepe either to heare any complaine The writers of histories do muche prayse the Emperour Octauius Augustus which did neuer consent that any execution shoulde be doone whilest he was within the walles of Rome but for the taking away of any mans lyfe he always went to hunting By the contrarie the Historiographers do much reprehend the Emperour Aurelius who before his owne eyes commaunded his seruants to be whipt and chastised which certaynly he should not haue doone for the clemencie of the Prince oughte to bée such that not only they should not sée the execution neyther yet so much as the person that is executed Your Lordship also hath to beware to aduenture to recoūt newes to compound lies to relate fables and to tell tales For the foolishe man and the tatling tedious Gentleman be brothers children The officers and seruantes of your house you haue to kéepe them corrected warned and also in feare that they rayse no quarels robbe no orchardes spoyle no gardens neither dishonour maried women In such sort that the seruants presume not to doe that whiche theyr Maisters dare not commaunde the yong men and pages that shal attende on you cause them to learne the commandements to praye and fast and to kéepe the Sabbaoth dayes For God wyl neuer deale mercifully with you if you make not greatter accompt that they serue God than your selfe Suche as shall play at cardes or dice for drie money not only chastise them but also dispatch them away for the vice of play may not be susteyned but by stealing or disceyt The pages and yong mē that you shall take into your chamber you haue to make choyse of suche as be wyse honest clenly and secret for babling and foulemouthed boyes they will imbesill your apparell staine your fame Commaunde the Controller of your house that the pages be taught to go clenly to brushe and laye vp their apparel serue at the table put of their cap vse reuerence and to speake with good maner bicause it may not bée named a palace where there wants in the Lorde shamefastnesse and in the seruants good bringing vp To the seruaunt that shall be vertuous and agréeable to your condition trust him with your person let him cōmaund in your house incommend him with your honoure and giue him of your goods vpon suche condition that he presume not to be absolute lord of the common weal for that day that they holde such one in reuerence they shall estéeme you but little If you will enioy seruice and be frée from displeasures you shall giue no man suche rule in your estate that your seruant shall thwart you or your vassal disobey you Also your Lordship is to be aduertized in that as now ye enter of new you attempt not to doe manye newe thinges for euery noueltie doth not more please him that doth institute the same than the accomplishement therof displeaseth hym to whome it is commaunded Lactantius Firmianus doth saye that the common wealth of the Sicienians endured longer than that of the Grekes Aegyptians Lacedemonians and the Romaines bicause in seuen hundreth and fortie yeares they neuer made newe lawes neyther brake their olde Suche as shall counsell you
and giue me grace to serue him From Burgos the 15. of September in the yeare 1523. A letter vnto Sir Ynnigo of Velasco Constable of Castile wherein the author doth teache the briefenesse of writing in olde time THe fourth of October here in Valiodolid I receyued a letter from your honour written in Villorado the thirtith of September and considering the distance from hence thither and the small tarying of your letter from thence hither too my iudgement if it had bin a troute it had come hither very fresh Pirrhus the King of the Epirotes was the first that inuented currers or postes and in this case he was a Prince so vigilant that hauing thrée armies spred in diuers partes his seate or pallace being in the Citie of Tarento in one day he vnderstood from Rome in two dayes out of Fraunce in thrée out of Germany and in fiue out of Asia In such sorte that his messengers did rather séeme to flie than otherwise The hart of man is such an inuentor of new thinges and so farre in loue with nouelties that the more straunge the thing is they say or wright vnto vs so much the more we do reioyce and delight therein for that olde things do giue lothsomenesse and new things do awaken the spirites This vātage you haue that can do much of them that haue but little that in short time you write whether you will and vnderstand from whence you think good although also it is most true that sometime you vnderstand some newes within thrée dayes which you would not haue knowen in thrée yeares There is no pleasure ioye or delight in this world that with it bringeth not some inconuenience in such wise that that wherin long time we haue had delight in one day wée pay and yelde againe Sir I haue saide thus muche to the end to continue your good opinion towards Mosen Ruben your Steward whiche by the date of your letter dothe séeme to haue made greate spéede and to haue slept very little for he brought the letter so freshe that it séemed the inke to be scarce drie You write vnto me that I should certefie you what is the cause that I being descended of a linage so auncient of body so high in the momentes of my prayers so long and in preaching so large how I am in writing so briefe especially in my last letter that I sent from the monasterie of Fres Dell Vall when I was there preaching vnto Caesar Whiche you say did containe but foure reasons and eight lines Sir in these things that you haue written you haue giuen me matter not to answere very short And if by chaunce I shall so doe from hencefoorth I say and protest it shal be more for your pleasure than for mine owne contentation As concerning that you say my linage is auncient your lordship doth well knowe that my graundfather was called sir Beltran of Gueuara my father also was named sir Beltran of Gueuara and my Cosin was called sir Ladron of Gueuara and that I am now named sir Antony of Gueuara yea and also your Lordship doth know that first there were Earles in Gueuara before there were Kings in Castile This linage of Gueuara bringeth his antiquitie out of Britaine and dothe containe sixe houses of honour in Castile whiche is to wete the Earle of Onate in Alaua sir Ladron of Gueuara in Valldalega sir Peter Velez of Gueuara in Salinas sir Diego of Gueuara in Paradilla sir Charles of Gueuara in Murcia sir Beltran of Gueuara in Morata All which be valiant of persones although poore in estates rentes in such sorte that those of this linage of Gueuara do more aduaunce themselues of their antiquitie from whence they are descended than of the goods which they possesse A man to discend of a delicate bloud and to haue noble or Generous parents doth muche profite to honour vs and doth not blunte the launce to defende vs for that infamie doth tempt vs to be desperate and the honour to mende our estate Christ and his Mother would not descend of the tribe of Beniamin whiche was the least but of the tribe of Iuda which was the greater and the better They had a law in Rome named Prosapia which is to say the law of linages by which it was ordained and commaunded in Rome that when contention did arise in the senate for the consulship that those which discended of the linage of the Siluians of the Torquatians and of the Fabritians should obtain chiefe place before all others and this was done after this manner for that these thrée linages in Rome were most auncient and did descend of right valiant Romaines They whiche descended of Cato in Athenes of Licurgus in Lacedemonia of Cato in Vtica of Agesilaus in Licaonia and of Tussides in Galacia were not onely priuiledged in their prouinces but also amongst all nations much honored And this was not so much for the desert of those that were liuing as for the merite of the auncient personages that were dead Also it was a lawe in Rome that all those that descended of the Tarquines of the Escaurians Catelines Fabatians and Bithinians had no offices in the commō wealth neither yet might dwell within the compasse of Rome And this was done for the hate they bare to King Tarquin the Consull Escaurus the tyrant Catiline the Censor Fabatus and the traytour Bithinius all which were in their liues very vnhonest and in their gouernement very offensiue Sir I say this bicause a man to be euill descending from the good surely it is a great infamie but to descend of the good and to bée good is no small glorie But in fine it is with men as it is with wines sometime he sauors of the good soyle sometime of the caske others of the goodnesse of the grapes A minde not to flie a noblenesse in giuing swéete and curteous in speach an heart for to aduenture and clemencie to pardon graces and vertues be these that are rarely founde in a man of base soyle And many times suche one is extract of an auncient and Noble linage As the worlde nowe goeth vpon who art thou and what art thou it doth not séeme to me a man may haue better blason in his house than to be and also descended of a bloud vnspotted For that such a man shall haue whereof to commend himself and not wherefore to be despised or taunted Sir also you say in your letter that I am in body large high drie and very straight of which properties I haue not whereof to complaine but wherefore to prayse my self Bycause the wood that is large drie and straight is more estéemed and bought at a greater price If the greatnesse of bodie displeased God hée had neuer created Paulus the Numidian Hercules the Grecian Amilon the wilde woodman Sampson the Hebrewe Pindarus the Thebane Hermonius the Corinth nor Hena the Ethicke whiche were in the
hath sent thée and that thou art a yong man my nephew and a Citizen of Rome The Emperour Tiberius writing vnto his brother germain said thus The Tēples be reuerenced the Gods be serued the Senate in peace the common wealth in prosperitie Rome in health Fortune gentle and the yeare fertile this is here in Italy the same we desire vnto thée in Asia Cicero writing vnto Cornelius sayeth thus Bée thou merry since I am not euill for likewise I shall reioyce if thou be well The diuine Plato writing from Athens vnto Dionysius the tirant saith thus To kill thy brother to demaund more tribute to force thy people to forget me thy friende and to take Photion as an enimie be workes of a tyrant The great Pompeius writing from the East vnto the Senate saith thus Conscript Fathers Damascus is taken Pentapolis is subiect Syria Colonia and Arabia is confederate and Palestina is ouercome The Consull Cneius Siluius writing newes of the battel of Pharsalia vnto Rome saith thus Caesar did ouercome Pompeius is dead Rufus is fled Cato killed himselfe the gouernement of Dictator is ended and the libertie lost Behold Sir the manner that the ancients vsed in writing to their peculiar friends which with their breuitie gaue vnto all men wherefore to be noted but we in neuer making an end giue large occasion to be corrected No more but that I pray the Lord to be your protector and giue me grace to serue him From Valiodolid the eight of October in the yere 1525. A letter vnto the Marques of Pescara wherein the Authour doth touch what a Captaine ought to be in the warres BEing with Caesar in Madrid the .xxij. of March I receiued a letter from your Lordship written the .xxx. of Ianuary and God be my witnesse that when I sawe and read it I would rather the date thereof had bin not from the siege of Marcellus but from the conquest of Ierusalem For if it were from Asia and not from France your iourney should be more famouse and magnified and of God much more accepted Titus Liuius reporteth of no small variance betwixt Mar. Marcellus and Quintus Fabius which did arise vpon the Cenfulships of the warres for that the good Mar. Marcellus would not be Captaine of the warre which was not very well iustified And Quintus Fabius did not accept to go to the warres were it not very daungerous The Romanes were in a maruelous vaine glory in that worlde when these twoo noble Princes were borne but in the ende muche more was the estimation of Marcus Marcellus for being iust than of Quint. Fab. for being valiaunt The Romanes were neuer so foyled or euer did incurre so muche dishonor in the warres of Asia either in Africa as they receiued at the siege of Numantia And this was not for defaulte of batterie eyther bicause the Citie was very strong but for that the Romanes had no reason to make them warre And the Numantines had iust cause to defend themselues Helie the Spartan doth say that onely the Emperour Traian was hee that neuer was ouercome in battell And the reason thereof was this that he did neuer take any warre in hand wherein he did not iustifie his cause The King of Pontus whiche was called Mithridates dyd wryte a certaine Letter vnto the Consull Silla being bente in warres moste cruelly the one against the other wherein was thus written I doe muche wonder of thée Consull Silla to take warre in hande in so straunge a lande as this of mine and that thou darest aduenture to deale with my great fortune since thou knowest shée neuer deceiued mée neither had acquaintance with thée To these woordes the Consull did answere Oh Mithridates I weighe it very little to holde warre farre from Romae since the Romanes haue fortune alwayes by them And if thou say that she did neuer fayle thée nor euer know mée thou shalt now sée how in vsing hir office she shall passe to mée and take hir leaue of thée And although it be not so I do neither feare thée or doubte hir for that I hope that the Goddes will do more for my iustice than for thée thy great fortune Many times the Emperoure Augustus vsed to say that warres to be good must be incommended vnto the Goddes accepted of Princes iustified of Philosophers and executed of Captaines Thus much I haue saide vnto your Lordship to this end that if your warre had bin vpon Ierusalem it were to be holden for iust but for that it is vpon Marsellius alway we hold it for scrupulous The kings hart is in the hand of God saith the diuine scripture If it be so who may attaine vnto this so great a secret whiche is to wéete that the Kings hart being in Gods hand he dare offend God which doth appeare most cleare in that we see no other thing but warres amongst the Christians and leaue the Moores to prosper and liue in rest This businesse to me is so difficulte that although I cā speak thereof I know not how to vnderstand it since all day wée sée no other thing but that God doth permitte by his secrete iudgements that the Churches where they prayse him be destroyed and throwen downe and the cursed remaine sound and frée where they do offend him Your Lordship is a Christian a good man at armes my neare kinseman and my speciall friend any of which things doth much binde me to féele your trauaile and to be gréeued with your perill I speake of trauell to the bodie bycause the Captaine that holdeth much of his honour ought to estéeme little of his life I say perill vnto the soule bicause amongst Christians there is no warre so iustified that in the same remayneth not some scruple Herein your Lordship shall sée that I desire to saue you in that I will not delite you with lies But only to say vnto you that which I do conceiue to the end that afterwards you may do what is méete If you know not wherunto you are bound I wish your Lordship to vnderstand it is that the Captaine generall do auoyde vniust wrongs correct blasphemers succour innocents chastise quarellers pay his armie defend the people auoyde all sackings and obserue fayth with the enemies Assure your selfe my Lord that there shall come a time in whiche you shall giue an accompt to God and also to the king not onely of what you haue done but likewise of that whereunto you haue consented Sir Iohn of Gueuara was your Grādfather and my cousin and he was one of the Gentlemen at armes that passed out of Spayne into Italy with the King Sir Alonso and there did helpe to get this kingdome of Naples and in recompence of his seruice hée made him Lorde greate Seneshall of the kingdome Of whiche you may gather howe muche your Lordship ought to trauell to leaue suche another renoume vnto your successours as hath bene left vnto you by your predecessors As
difference betwixt the one and the other is that in the Booke your Lordship may vnderstand my simplicity and in the pen there doth appeare your great bountie No more but that our Lorde be your protectour and giue me grace to serue him From Valiodolid the xix of August 1524. A letter vnto sir Allonso of Albornaz wherin is touched that it is a point of euill maner not too aunswer too the letter that is written vnto him IF the Lady Marina your wife bée as well affected to your person as my penne is offended at your slouthfulnesse you may safely marrie without after repentāce And I think not that I bind my selfe vnto a small matter in saying that in your mariage you shall find no repentance for surely I wish too haue no more contrition of my sinnes than many men haue too think themselues maried To contract matrimonie with a woman is a thing very easie but to sustaine it vnto the end I hold it for very difficult Whereby it comes to passe that those which mary without respect but only for loue liue afterward with sorowe Considering al the displeasures that proceede of the familie then tediousnesse of the wife the care for the children the necessitie of the house the prouision for the seruants the importunitie of the cousins and the sutes of the sonnes in law Although of all these thinges the maried doth not repent him at the least it doth tyre him The Philosoper Mirtho being demaunded why hée did not marry aunswered bycause if the woman whome I take in mariage bée good I shall spill hir if she bée euill I must supporte hir if she bée poore I must maintaine hir if shée bée riche I must suffer hir if she bée foule I shall abhorre hir it she be faire I must watch hir and that which is worst of al for euermore I giue my libertye to hir that shall neuer gratifie mée Riches bréedeth care pouerty sorrow sailing feare eating heauines going wearinesse all which trauelles we se deuided amongst many except amongst the maried where they ioyne altogither For we seldome sée the maried man go without care sorow wearied heauie yea and also sometime astonied I say astonied of that whiche maye happen vntoo him and of that his wife may dare to do The man that doth encounter with a woman that is a dizard foolish a babler light a glutton a chider slouthfull a goer at large vntractable iealouse absolute or dissolute it were better for that man too bée a slaue to some honest man than a husbande too suche a wife It is a terrible thing too suffer a man but there is very much too bée knowen in a woman And for no other cause more than for that they knowe not too vse a measure in louing or giue no ende in abhorring I will not or perchance I dare not saye more in this case For if in the same I should occupie my selfe and giue libertie to my pen I should want time to write but not matter to speake Not without cause I saide my pen was angry with your slothfulnesse since halfe a yeare past I did write vnto you and you haue not as yet answered me And afterwards came Iohn de Occanio and also with him you did not write in suche wise that on the one part I call you sluggish and of the other part note you of negligence Sir you may take it for a rule neuer to leaue him vnanswered that hath taken paine to write vnto you For that the maister of the henchmen which is Harnan Sanz de Minchasa said vnto me that none lost his worshippe for answering vnto a letter To write to our better is of necessitie to answere our equall is of will but to write vnto our inferiour is of pure vertue Alexander the great did write vnto Pulion his bit maker Iulîus Caesar to Rufus his gardiner Augustus to Pāphilo his smith Tiberius to Escaurus his miller Tullius too Mirto his tailer and Seneca to Gipho his rent gatherer wherof it may very wel be inferred that basenesse doth not consist in writing or answering base persones but to will or to do vile things Paulus Aemilius writing vnto his plough man said I haue vnderstood what word thou didst send me by Argeus and the aunswer of the same is that I send thée another oxe to yoke with that firce oxe also I sēd thée a cart redy drest therfore eare that ground well dresse the vines purge the trées and alway haue memorie of the Goddesse Ceres Curius Dentatus béeing in warre with Pyrrhus King of the Epirotes did write a letter vnto a carpenter which said thus Cneius Patroclus certified me that thou dost worke in my house take héed that the timber be dry and that thou make the lightes towardes the south that it be not high that it be cléere the chimney without smoke with two windowes and no more but one dore Alexander the great writing vnto his smith said I send thée a horse which the Athenians sent me he and I did scape wounded from the battaile breath him well euery day cure wel his wounds pare his foreféete let him be vnshod slit his nose wash his necke let hym not growe fat for that no fat horse may well endure with me in the field Of the famous Phalaris the tirant it is read that neuer man did him seruice that he did not gratifye either write him a letter that he dyd not aunswer So high and so great Princes as bere we haue named too haue written to men so base and so vile occupations is not written by historiographers too blemish them but by the same to magnifie them Of which we may gather that basenes doth not consist in wryting or aunswering base persons but in doing thinges scandolous or vnhonest In this matter as in all other thinges you may vse that boldnesse with me as with your selfe but if vniuersally you vse to do the same with all men it may be if your frendes do note you of negligence there shall not want that will accuse you of presumption To be noted angry enuious couetous slothfull wanton gluttonous auaricious certainly is a griefe but to be noted of foolishnes is an infamie which giueth me occasion to saye vnto you that to cal a man presumptuouse by a cunning maner of speach is to call him foole In Caius Caesar there wanted no fortitude for that he ouercame many people either clemencie for he pardoned his enemies either liberaliitie for that he gaue kyngdomes either science for that he wrote many Bookes either fortune for he was Lorde of all men But he wanted good manner which is the foundation of a quiet life Amongst the Romanes it was a custome that when the Senate entred the Emperours house they did vnto him a certaine great obeysance and he did vse vnto them a certaine curtesie in doing whereof as he grew negligent either for that he woulde not
the Court whervnto I answer that as my aduersaries do follow me and my businesse enlarging I do nothing but vndoe my selfe Likewise you will that I write vnto you in what thing I do imploy the time to this I answere that according to the fashion of vs Courtiers beare euil will blaspheme loyter lye trafike and cursse with more truth we may say of time that we lose it than employe it Also you demaund with whō I am moste conuersant in this Court to this I answer that the Court and the people therof be grapes of so euill a soyle that we that goe in the same and from our childhode be brought vp therein studie not with whome to be conuersant but in discouering of whom to beware with muche payne wée haue tyme to defende vs from oure enimies and will you that wée occupie our selues in séeking newe friendes In the Courtes of Princes I doe confesse there is a conuersation of persons but no confederation of will for here enimitie is holden for naturall and amitie a straunger The Court is of such nature that they that do most visit them the worse they doe entreate them and such as speake beste vnto them the more euill they do wish them They which haunt the Courts of Princes if they will be curious and no fooles shall fynde many things wherat to wonder and muche more whereof to beware Also you demaunde how the difference betwixt the Admirall and the Earle of Myranda standeth to this I answer that the Admirall as one of muche power and the Earle as one in much fauor giues to eche other wherwith to be occupied and to vs sufficient wherat to murmure Sir you demaund what newes we haue of the Emperors comming to this I answer that which we presently vnderstand is that the Turke is retired Florence is alyed the Duke of Milane is reduced the Venetians did amaine the Pope and Caesar did consecrate the Estates of Naples be reparted the Coluna is deade the Marques of Villa Franca is made Viceroy of Naples the Prince of Orange is slayn and vnto the Chanceler and to the Confessor to either of them is giuen a Cardinals hat Other secret news they write from thence which be lamentable to such as be therewith touched and gracious to those that heare therof which is many of those that went into Italie with Caesar are became amorous and in the artes of loue haue raunged too farre But sir in this case I sweare vnto you as it foundeth in myne eares theyr wiues be here sufficientely reuenged of them for if they leaue there any women greate with childe also they shall fynde here theyr wyues brought a bed You will also that I write vnto you howe it goeth wyth vs for vittailes this Lent to this I aunswere that by diuine grace we haue not wanted this lent fishe to eat and also fins ynowe to confesse For the case is come to such dissolution and vnshamfastnesse that the Gentlemen hold it for an estate and aduancement of honour to eate fleshe in Lent. Also you demaund if the Court be deare or good cheape to this I answere that my steward telleth me that from October vnto Aprill it hath cost me in wood and cole an hundreth and fortie Ducates The cause of this is that this same towne of Medina as it is rich in faires so is it poore in moūtaines or woods in suche sorte that the count being wel cast the wood costs as deare as the dressing of the pot Other thinges are in this Court at a good price or to say it better very good cheap that is to wit cruel lies false news vnhonest women fayned friendship continuall enimities doubled malice vaine words and false hopes of whiche eight things we haue suche abundance in this Courte that they may set out bouthes and proclayme faires Sir you demaund of me if there be good expedition of causes for that you haue some to be dispatched to this I doe answere as the things of the court be tedious displeasant long deferred costely intricate vnfortunate desired besieged lamented and bescratched I conceyue of mine own part that if ten be dispatched nintie be despited Also you will mée that I write vnto you if the faire be good thys yeare at Medina To this I answer that as I am a courtyer and a suter and haue neyther marchaundise to sell and muche lesse money wherwith to buy I knowe not whereof to prayse it nor do I fynde why to mislyke it But in passing thorough the faire I sée in the bouthes of these Burgaleses so many riche and pleasaunt things that in beholding them I tooke great pleasure and being not able to buy them I was muche tormented The Empresse came foorth to sée the faire and as a Princesse most wise wold not be accompanied with hir maids of honor bicause the Gentlewomen that did serue hir being so poore and so fewe it coulde be no lesse but that they would vse their libertie in asking fairings and the gentlemen should thinke it their partes to giue them Sir you demaund if the Courte be in health or if the pestilence be thereaboutes to this I aunswere that of agues tertians and quartaines plague sores and such other infirmities of the body we are al in health and verie well excepte the licenciate Alarcon that being relating a proces before the counsell sodainly fell downe dead And of a trouth his death was to many in this Court very terrible although I sée none to amende his lyfe by the same Other infirmities be in this Courte that bée not corporall but spirituall as angers hatred quarels rancours wrath and slaughters the whiche maladies doe consist not that they go with bodies infected but in the swelling of the splene corruption of the gall I haue turned many tymes to reade your letter and haue not founde any more to aunswere For of a suretie it did rather séene an Interrogatorie to take witnesses than a letter to a frend I wil say no more but that I haue escaped in writing vnto you very wearie also angrie not for the answering to the matter but in construing youre ill fauored letter Our Lord be your protector and giue me grace to serue him From Medina del Campo the fift of Iune in the yeare .1532 A letter to sir Antonie of Cneua wherin is expounded an authoritie of holie Scripture very notable which is to wit why God did not heare the Apostle and did heare the diuell against Iob. MAgnificent sir particular beloued Alonso Espinell gaue me a letter from your worship here in Toledo the date whereof was the .12 of May and it is nowe the .16 of Iune in such sort that your letter neyther may by cōdemned for stale either for fresh Many from many partes do write vnto me sometime their letters be suche that to read them it is very tedious and to aunswere them no lesse displeasant To sée a
this punishment must not be suche that it appeare that they take some great vengeance for be a man neuer so brute without comparison he dothe more féele the hate that they shewe than the chastisements which they giue The whip the staffe the sworde the punishment that is giuen to the fleshe although it be gréeuous yet it soon passeth but the iniurious worde the heart neuer forgetteth For a man to be in power and authoritie and to refraine his anger it is not an humaine vertue but heroicall and diuine For in this world there is not a more high or excellent kind of triumph than a man to triumph ouer his owne heart Socrates the Philosopher holding his dagger in his hād to strike one of his seruantes the same alreadie lifted vp sayde remēbring my self that I am a philosopher that at this present I am angrie I wil not giue thée thy deserued chastisemente O example for certayne worthie to bée noted and muche more to be imbraced and followed Of whiche wée may gather that duryng the tyme that ire hathe vs in possession we ought not to dare to speake and muche lesse anye man to chastise Licurgus the Philosopher commaunded those that gouerned his common wealth that all euill and dishonest things they shoulde condemne and chastise but yet by no means abhorre the malefactor saying that there could not be amongst the people a more gréeuous plague than a iudge that woulde make hymselfe dronke with furie There be few that follow this counsell and verie manie that do the contrarie for now a days there is none that is angred with the offence but with the offender For my part and also for those that shall it is a great trauayle to trafike or deale with furious impacient and men of euill suffering For that they are importable to serue and of conuersation very perillous Since I haue said what thing is ire and the hurtes that are doone by ire nowe let vs say what remedies may be giuen against ire For my meaning is not to teache you to be angrye but to bée paciente I dare auouche that it is a great remedie agaynst ire when a man is angred to refrayne the tongue and to deferre vengeaunce vntill an other tyme For that many tymes a man doth say and promise béeing in choler thinges the whiche afterwardes he woulde not shoulde haue once passed hys thoughtes With the yrefull we must not be importunate to entreate a pardon no not from the foote to the hand but only to desire that vengeance be deferred For during furie there is no accompte to bée made that the iniuried will pardon excepte he bée quieted with the man that is furious and in choler for any one to séeke to bring him to agreement or to iustice eyther it is lacke of witte or diligence more than néedeth For the ire that is muche inflamed and the heart that is kindled with furye neyther doth admit consolation or is ouercome with reason I doe aduise and readuise the man that presumes to be wise that he take not in hand to contend with him that is inflamed with yre For if he faile to follow counsell herein when he scapeth best he shal eyther haue his honour reuiled or his head broken Although a man be a frēd vnto him that is offended he doth him more profite to let him alone than to speake vnto him or help him For at the instant he hath more néede of a bit to bridle him than a spur to quicken hym With the man that is in a rage it is more néede to vse skill than to deale by force For although he were angred at the sodain the pacifying of him must be at leisure Plutarch in the bookes of his cōmon wealth doth counsell the Emperoure Traiane that hée bée paciente in his trauayles mylde in his affayres and of muche suffering amongest the furious affirming and swearing that many mo thyngs bée cured by tyme than framed and agréed by reason Betwixt noble personages wée haue séene greate quarelles whiche passions and furies mighte not be stayed by entreataunce of friends threatning of enemies giftes of money neyther yet with wearinesse of trauayles And after that tyme hath had his course and calling them to remembrance haue agréed amongst themselues without the request of any friende to talke therin Finally I say that when a friende doth sée the choler of his friende inflamed if hée will doe him good lette hym caste on water with temperaunce to coole hym and not wood wyth furie to burne him I sir Iohn haue enlarged this Letter muche more than I thoughte and also more than I desyred but that youre excéedyng payne and sorrowes haue made my penne discourteous to suffer vse silence and dissemble and let the tyme passe and somewhat forget the matter For if I bée not deceyued you shall sée the fire that they made at your gates burne in their entrayles Salomon the Hebrew sayde that the wise man hathe his tongue in his hearte and he that is a foole and furious hath his heart in his tongue Agis the Greeke sayd that the foolish man is grieued with that whiche he doth suffer and boastes himselfe of that whiche he hath spoken And the wyse is gréeued with that whiche he hath spoken and boasteth himselfe of that he doth suffer Nowe or neuer it is néedfull that you profyte your selfe of your science and wisedome For it is a spice of no small foolishnesse to knowe to cure others and not to remedie your selfe I am not forgetful that when my sister the Lady Francis died in Mexia hir towre you did write mée so many and so good thinges that they were sufficient to lyghten me of the payne althoughe not altogether of the sorrowe And sir I saye it for this cause that it shall bée greately to youre owne purpose to take some grapes of the same vine As concerning the reste I haue no more to write vnto you but that the credite whiche youre seruaunte broughte with youre letter in that hée shoulde say vnto mée the selfe same credite my letter doth giue him in that whiche he shal answere From Toledo the .vj. of Aprill 1523. A letter vnto Sir Ierome Vique in whiche is treated how great libertie is much hurtfull RIght magnificent and Caesars Embassadour I being in Granado the xx of Iuly receiued a letter from your worship And considering it came so farre as it is from Valentia to Granado he hath made good spéed vppon the waye since he departed from thence the Saterday and came hither the Monday Comming as you come from so straunge a coūtrey as is Rome and hauing passed so daungerous a Sea as is the gulfe of Narbona I will not demaund if you came safe But giue God thankes for that you are come aliue I wishe if it please the Lord that you come from Italy so sound in bodie and so perfect in soule as when you parted from Spaine for in new countreyes
the one that you liue onely with your own and in the other that also you take profit of other mennes 8 In the one that alwaies you remember to dye in the other that for nothing you leaue to lead an ill life 9 In the one that alwaies you occupie your self in knowledge in the other that you giue your self to be of much power 10 In the one that you impart of that you haue with the poore and friends and in the other that alwaies you keepe for deare yeares 11 In the one that you vse much silence and in the other that you presume to be very eloquent 12 In the one that you beléeue onely in Christ and in the other that you procure to haue money If you my Lord Embassador with these xy conditions wil be a Romane much good may it do you For vpon the day of accoumpt you would rather haue bin a laborer in Spaine than an Embassadour at Rome No more but that our Lord be your protector and to you and to me he giue good endings From Granado in the yeare 1525. the daye and moneth aforesaid A letter vnto the said Sir Ierome Vique in whiche is declared an Epitaph of Rome RIght magnificent Embassadour to Caesar by your letter that I haue receiued I was certified that to you was deliuered an other of mine wherein I haue vsed no curious care For vnder your good condicion there is no place for any thing to be dispraysed much lesse to be condemned Mosen Rubine aduertised me that by sléeping in an ayry place you haue bin very reumatike which I certainly béeleue hath procéeded of the great heate of the moneth of August but by my aduise you shall not vse it neither others so giue counsell for that it is lesse euill in sommer to sweate than to cough You write and also send vnto me certaine Gothicke letters that you haue foūd written in an aunciēt place in Rome whiche you can neither reade or they in Italy can declare Sir I haue very well séene considered and also reconsidered them and to him that is not acquainted with this Romish cyphringes they séeme illegible and not intelligible and that to vnderstand and read them well it were necessary that the men that bée a liue shoulde deuine or those that wrote them shoulde rise from death to life But to expound these letters no dead man shall bée raysed either am I a soothsayer or diuine I haue tyred my wittes and called to remembrance I haue ouerturned my Bookes and also haue ouerloked meruailous and many histories to see and to know who it was that did write them and wherefore they were written and in the ende as there is nothing that one man doth that another can not do or that one man knoweth and an other knoweth not your good luck wold and my great diligence that I met with that whiche you desired and I sought for And for that it shall not séeme that I speake without Booke in few wordes I will recite the history In the times of Octauius Augustus the Emperour there was in Rome a Romane Knight named Titus Annius verely a man of great experience in causes of warre and right wise in the gouernment of the common wealthe There was in Rome an office that was called Tribunus Scelerum this had the charge of all criminall causes whiche is to wit to hang to whip to banish to cut throates and to drowne in wels in such maner that the Censor did iudge the Ciuill and the Tribune the Criminall This office amongst the Romanes was of great preheminence and of no lesse confidence they neuer incommended the same but to a man of noble bloud auncient in yeares learned in the lawes in life honest and in iustice very moderate for that all these condicions did concurre in Titus Annius hée was by the Emperour Augustus in the office of Tribune named by the Senate confirmed and of the people allowed Titus Annius liued and was resident in this office xxv yeres in all whiche time hée neuer spake to man any iniurious word either did any iniustice In remuneration of his trauell and in reward of his bountie they gaue him for priuilege that hée shoulde bée buried within the walles of Rome and that hée should bury by him selfe some money and that in that sepulcher there shoulde not any other bée buried For a man to bée buried in Rome was amongst the Romanes a great preheminence the one was bycause the priests did consecrate the sepulcher and the other for that malefactors to flie vnto sepulchers were more worth than the temples But now these letters woulde saye that Titus Annius Iudge of the faultie by him in his sacred sepulcher did hide certaine money whiche is to wit ten foote off and that in the same sepulcher the Senate doth commaund that none of his heyres be buried This Titus Annius when hée died left his wife aliue that was named Cornelia whiche in the sepulcher of hir husband did set this Epitaphe The aucthors of this history are Vulpicius Valerius Trebellius And bycause the declaration of the history shall appeare more cleare let vs set the exposition ouer euery letter and these be the letters Titus Annius Tribunus Scelerum Sacro T. A. T. Sce. S. Suo Sepulcro Pecuniam Condidit Non. S. S. P. Con. N. Longe Pedes Decem. Hoc Monumentum Lon. P. X. H. M. Heres Non. Sequitur Iure Senatus H. N. S. I. S. Cornelia Dulcissima Eius Coniux Posuit Cor. D. E. Con. P. Behold here my Lord Embassador your letters expounded and not dreamed and in my iudgement this that we haue said they would say and if you be not satisfied with this interpretation let the dead expound them that did write them or those bée whiche aline that gaue them No more but that our Lord be your protector and giue vs grace that we ende in his seruice From Toledo the third of April 1526. A letter vnto the Bishop of Badaios in whiche there is declared the auncient lawes of Badaios RIght magnificent and Caesars Precor I receaued a letter from your Lordshippe with the whiche I did much reioyce my selfe before I did read it and after that I had reade it I remained no lesse offended not for that whiche you had written vnto me but for that you commaunded me and also demaunded of me If Plutarch do not deceaue vs into the chamber of Dionisius the Siracusan none did enter in the librarye of Lucullus no man sate down Marcus Aurelius with the key of his study no not with his Faustine did vse any trust and of a troth they had great reason bycause there be things of such qualitie that not only they ought not to be dealt withall neither yet to be looked vppon Aeschines the Philosopher said that for very great frendship that might be betwixt one and other he ought not to shew him all thinges in his house nor to communicate
health and the grief you séemed to haue of my infirmitie Beleue me Sir and be out of doubt that at that present I had more abilitie to drink than to read for I would haue giuen all my Librarie for one only ewer of water Your Lordship writeth vnto me that you also haue béen ill that you thinke all your sicknesse to be well employed as well for that you féele your selfe recouered as also that you finde your selfe affected with a holy purpose to departe from sin and to abstaine from excesse in eating My Lord I am sory with all my heart that you haue ben sicke and it pleaseth me very much that you stand vppon so good a purpose although it be very true that I wold more reioyce to sée you performe than to heare you promise for hell is full of good desires and heauen is full of good workes But be it as be may to my iudgemeÌ„t there is not any thing wherin we may soner discerne a man to be wise or foolish than to sée in what maner he behaueth him selfe in aduersitie how he reapeth profite by sicknesse There is no such foolishnes as to employe our health to euill purpose either is there any such wisedome as to drawe fruite or commoditie out of sickenesse Cum infirmor iuncfortior sum the Apostle said that wheÌ„ he was sicke then was he most strong this he said bycause the sicke man doth neither swel by pride or fornication doth make him coÌ„bat or auarice doth ouerthrow or enuie doth molest or ire doth alter or gluttony doth bring vnder or slouthfulnesse doth make negligent either ouerwatch him selfe with ambition My Lord Duke pleaseth it the Lord that wée were suche being whole as we promise to be when we be sicke All the care of the euill Christian when he is sicke is to desire to bée whole onely to liue and enioye more of this world but the desire of the good Christian wheÌ„ he is diseased is to be whole not so much to liue as to reform his life In the time of sickenesse there is none that doth remember himselfe of affection or passion of friendes or enemies of riches or pouertie of honour or dishonour of solace or trauell of laying vp treasure or growing poore coÌ„maunding or obeying but to be deliuered of one grief of the dead would giue all that he had gotten all the daies of his life In sicknes ther is no true pleasure in health all trauel is tollerable what wants he that lackes not health What is it worthe that he possesseth that enioyeth not his health What doth it profite to haue a very good bed if he cannot sléepe What benefite hath he that hath old wine of fragrant fauour if the phisitian do commaund that he drinke sod water What auayleth to haue good meat wheÌ„ only the fight thereof moueth belkes and makes the stomacke wamble What commoditie ariseth vnto him that hath much money if the more part hée spend vpon Phisitians and Poticaries Health is so great a thing that to kéepe it and to conserue it wée ought not only to watche but ouerwatche The whiche surely séemes not so since we neuer haue regard thereof vntil we haue lost it Plutarch Plini Nigidius Aristicus Dioscorus Plotinus Necephalus with them many others haue written great Bookes and treatises how infirmities are to be cured and how health is to be conserued And so God saue me if they affirmed a troth in some things in many other things they did but gesse and other things not a few they dreamed Béeleue me my Lord Duke and bée out of doubt for my part I doe fully béeleue and also I haue experimented that to cure diseases and to conserue healths there is no better thing than to auoyd anger and to eate of few meates How great weale should it be for the body and also for the souls if we might passe our life without eating and without anger For meates do corrupt the humors and anger doth contâ—â—ne the bones If men did not eat and would not be angrie there shoulde be no cause to be sicke and muche lesse of whom to complaine For the whips that doe most scourge our miserable life are ordinary excesse and profound sadnesse Experience teacheth vs euery daye that the men that bée doltishe and ignorant for the more part are alwayes strong lustie and in good healthe and this is the reason for that suche as they are neither doe weary them selues to obtaine honour eyther doe féele what is shame reproch or dispite the contrary of all this doth happen to men that be wise discrete quicke witted and of sharpe deuise euerye one of which be not only grieued of that which is spoken vnto them but also they growe sorowfull for that they imagine what others do thinke Ther be men that be so sharpe and so ouersharpe or refined that it séemeth little vnto them to interprete wordes but also they holde it for an office to diuine thoughts and their repaiment is that by them selues always they goe discomforted and with others euill lyked I durst affirme and in a maner sweare that to bréed a sickenesse and to daunger a mannes lyfe there is no poyson of so daungerous infection as is a profounde and déepe sorrow for the miserable hart when he is sad doth reioyce in weping and takes ease in sighing Let euery man speake what he thinketh good for amoÌ„gst such as be discrete and no fooles without comparison they be more that grow sicke by anger they receyue than of the meates they féede on All day long wée sée no other thing but that those men whiche be merrie and glad be always fat whole and well coloured and those that be sadde and melancholike alwayes go heauie sorowful swollen and of an euill colour In these writings I confesse vnto you my Lorde Duke that the Ague that now I haue was not of any meate that I had eaten but of a certayne anger I had taken Your Lordship doth write that by sléeping vpon the grouÌ„d you haue taken a pestilente reume I verily thynke the greafe heate of this moneth of Auguste hath bin the cause therof whiche in myne opinion you ought not to vse or counsell any other therevnto For it is lesse euill to sweate with heate than to cough with colde To the rest which I vnderstand by your letter in desiring I should write some newes it is sufficient for this tyme that of this our Courte there bée few things to be trusted in paper much to be said in a maÌ„s eare The thinges that appertaine vnto Princes and lordes of high estate wée haue permission to conceyue them and no licence to speake them In the Courte and out of Courte I haue séene many aduaunced by secrecie and many shamed by want of silence Your Lordship pardon for this tyme my pen and when wée shall méete together my toung shall supplie this present want No more but that
so glorious Princes from the office of Iudges did rise to be Emperours in suche wise that in those dayes they did not prouide offices for men but men for offices for the office of Gouernour Iustice and corrector many will be suters and for many they will make sute but in any wise you ought to be aduised howe ye make promise thereof to any man eyther for prayers or intreataunce to giue the same For your good you may giue to whome you shal think good but the rod of iustice to him who shall beste deserue it Also some of your seruants in recompence of seruice will craue the office of iustice and in my iudgement you oughte lesse to giue it vnto those than vnto any other for in saying they be your seruants that you shal beleeue them more thā the rest The people shal not dare to complayn and they shall haue libertie the more to robbe and steale If any man or woman shall come to complain before your Lordship of your Iustice giue him eare at leysure and with good will and if you shall fynd his complaynte to be true remoue his griefe and reprehende your Iusticer but if it bée not so declare how iust it is that he commaundeth and how vniust that he demaundeth for the base countrey people doe holde the words of their Lord for gospell of the officer as a passioned If it be not cōuenient for the Iudge you shal choose that he bée skilful to steale or bribe muche lesse dothe it beseeme your Lordeship to be a nigarde or couetous neyther with the price of iustice to profit your chamber Aduise your Iustices that haynous bloudy desperate and scandalous offences in no wyse be redeemed with money for it is impossible that any may liue in suretie eyther goe safe by the highe way if there be not in the common wealth the whip the halter and the sworde There are so many quarellers vagabonds and théeues murtherers rebels and sedicious that if they had hope for money to escape Iustice they would neuer cease to commit offences And therfore it is conuenient that the Iudge bée wyse and skilfull to the ende he chastise not all offences with extremitie neither that he leaue somtime with the voyce of the king to honoure the people Also your Lordship hath to prouide that the officers of your audience which is to wit Counsellers Atturneys and Scriueners be faithfull in the processe they make and no tyrantes in the Lawes they haue in hande for many tymes it doth happen that one cōming to complayn of an other they do not iustice vpon the person that gaue the quarel but they execute iustice vpon the pouche that he weareth Also aduise your Iustices that they dispatche their affaires with breuitie and with trouth with trouth bicause they shall iudge iustly with breuitie that it be done with expedition for it hapneth to many Clients that without obteyning that they craue they consume al that whiche they haue Also your Lordship ought to prouide and commaunde the ministers of your iustice that they doe not dishonor misvse shame or despise such as come to your audience but that they be mylde modest and manerly For sometimes the sorowful suter doth more féele a rough word they speake than the Iustice they delate I assure you there be officers so absolute without temperance and so yll manered that they presume to doe more cruelties with their pen than Roulande with his sworde Also your lordship hath to prouide that your Iudges doe not suffer themselues to be muche visited accompanied and muche lesse serued For the iudge can not hold narrow frendship with any man that is not in the preiudice of iustice for verie fewe resorte vnto the Iudge for that he deserueth but for the power he holdeth In the common wealthe dissentions angers quarelles of ambition amongst your officers of Iustice neither ought you to dissemble or in anye wise consente vnto for at the instant that they shall grow into quarels the people shal be deuided into partialities wherof may rise great offences in the common wealth and great want of reuerence to youre person Concluding in this case I say that if you will hold your Countrey in iustice giue your Officers occasion to conceyue opinion that you loue Equitie And that for no request or interest you will be remoued from the same for if the Lord be iust his officers neuer dare to be vniust That a Knight or Gentleman be mylde and of good gouernance ALso it is necessarie to the good gouernmēt of your house cōmon wealth that your behauior towardes your subiects be suche that with the meaner sort ye deale as with sonnes with the equall as with brothers with the ancient as with fathers and with the strangers as with felows for you ought much more to estéem your self in holding them for frends than to cōmaund them as vassals The difference betwixt the tirant the Lord is that the tyrant so he may be serued makes small accompt to be beloued but he that is a Lorde wise and will rather choose to be beloued than serued and I assure you he hath great reson for the person that giues me his heart will neuer denie me his goods The great Philosopher Licurgus in the laws he gaue to the Lacedemonians did commaund and counsel That the auncient men of his common wealth shoulde not talke standing neyther be suffred to stand bareheaded and I say it to this ende For that it shall diminishe nothing your authoritie or grauitie in that you shall say vnto the one be couered Gossip and vnto the other sit down frende The good Emperour Titus was worthily beloued for that the old men he called fathers the yong men fellowes Strangers Cousins the priuate frendes and all in generall brothers The gentleman that is humble courteous and of a good bringing vp strangers loue him and his owne do serue him for courtesie and friendly behauiour is more honour to hym that vseth it than to whom it is done I am not far in in loue with many Gentlemen vnto whom there goeth to talk and to dispatche affaires olde honorable and wise men although poore they neuer offer vnto thē so much curtesie as to say aryse neyther be couered and muche lesse to sit downe conceiuing all their greatnesse to consiste in not commaundyng to giue them a stoole eyther to put of their cap to any man note and consider well this which I say vnto your Lordship that the authoritie greatenesse and grauitie of Lordes and Gentlemen doth not consist to haue their vassals knéeling and bare headed but in gracious and good gouerning them When I heard a certain knight valiant and of noble bloud yet disdainfull and very proud that vsed always to say to all men although of worship he talked withal thou thou and he he neuer added wordes of fauor worship or curtesy I said vnto him By my life sir
they will rather amēd God than correct themselues Let houses fal the vines be blasted the stormes spoile corne the flocks die and rent gatherers run away if we giue thanks to God for that he leaueth vs if we do not murmur for that he taketh away if we grow not dul to serue him he will neuer grow negligent to giue vs prouision They say vnto me that your Lordship is vexed sorowfull and also vntractable these are priuileges of olde menne but not of wise olde men for it shoulde be a muche greater losse to haue the wit blasted thā the Corne destroied Vncle you know very well that in all the the markets of Vilada Palencia we shal find bread to be sold but in none of the faires of Medina shal we find wisdome to be bought For which cause men ought to giue more thanks vnto God for that hée did create them wise than for that he made them rich It is a more sounde welthinesse for a man to estéeme himselfe wise than to presume to be of great wealth for with wisdom they obtaine to haue but with hauing they come to lose thēselues The office of humanitie is to féele trauells and the office of reason is to dissemble them For when sodaine assaultes come vpon vs and infortunes knocke at our gates if the hart should receiue them all and of euery one complaine and bewayle he should euer haue wherof to recount and neuer want wherfore to lament Prometheus that gaue laws to the Aegiptians said that the Philosopher should not wepe for any thing but for the losse of his friend for all other things are contained in our chestes onely the friend dwelleth in the hart If Prometheus did not permit to shew any griefe but for a friende it is not credible that he would wéepe for the corne in the field wherin he had greate reason for notwithstandyng that the losse of temporall good is wherewith we be moste grieued yet on the other part it is that wherein our losse is least Séeing the incertayntie of this lyfe and the continuall chaunges that be in the same as little suretie men haue thereof that be in their houses as the corne that is in the field I dare say that wée haue very little wherin to trust and many things wherof to be afrayd It is not vnknowen to your Lordship that in this lyfe there is nothyng sure since wée sée the corne blasted trées striken downe floures fall woodde wormeaten cloath deuoured with moathes cattell doe ende and menne doe dye and that all thynges well marked in the ende all thyngs haue an ende Men that haue passed thrée score yeares haue for their priuiledge to sée in their houses great misfortunes whiche is to witte absence of friendes deathe of children losse of goodes infirmities in their persones pestilences in the common wealth and manye nouelties in Fortune and for thys cause Plinie durste saye that men ought not to bée borne if that he being borne foorthwith should die Oh howe well sayde the diuine Plato that men oughte not to be carefull to liue long but to lyue well I thought good thus muche to write vnto you to the ende you shoulde vnderstande to profite your selfe by olde age since you had skil to enioye the dayes of youth for in the age of fourescore yeares it is a tyme to make small accounte of lyfe and to vse great skill and no small reckening of death All these thinges I haue written vnto your Lordshippe and my good vncle not for that you haue néede but bicause you shall haue wherein to reade and also to the ende you shall vnderstande that although I go bescattered and wandring in thys Court I doe not leaue to reknowledge the good No more but that our Lorde be your protectour From Madrid the eleuenth of Marche 1533. A letter vnto Master Gonsalis Gil in which is expounded that which is sayd in the Psalmist Inclinaui cor meum ad faciendas iustificationes tuas in aeternum RIght reuerend and eloquent Doctor ad ea quae mihi scripsisti quid tibi sim respōsurus ignoro although I saye that to so many things I know not to answer I should haue sayd better that I dare not to wright For the affaires of our common wealth are come to that estate that though we be bound to féele them we haue no licence to reporte them It is too gréeuous in our humanitie to suffer iniuries but it is much more gréeuouse vnto the hart to kéepe them secret and not to vtter them for the remedie of the sorowfull hart is to discouer his poyson and to vnburden where he loueth He deserueth much and can do very much that hathe a hart to féele things as a man and dissembleth them as discret For he is of a greater courage that forgettes the sorowe that once entreth into the hart than he which reuengeth it If my memorie should reueale what it doth retaine my tong speake what it doth knowe and my pen write what me listeth I am sure those that be present would maruell and suche as be absent would growe offended for nowe burneth the pearcher without tallow and at randon all goeth to the bottom The armie of gentlemen be here in Medina del ryo secco and they of the communaltie in Villa Braxima in suche wise that too the one we desire victory and of the other we haue compassion For the one be our good Lords and the others our good friēds I desire that the part of the gentlemen may ouercome and it grieueth me to sée the deathe and fall of the poore chiefly for that they know not what they aske either vnderstand what they do If the trauell of the warre and the perill of the battel might light vpō their shoulders that were inuenters therof and that haue altered the people it shoulde be tollerable too sée and iust to suffer but alas the sorow they fight in safetie and chase the bull in great suretie wée haue the monasterie full of souldiors and the Celles occupied with knights wherin there is no place for a man to withdrawe eyther a quiet houre to studie In such wyse that if my Bookes be scattred also my wits be wandring What quietnesse or contentation will you that I haue séeing the king is oute of his kingdome the commons rebell the counsell fled the Gentlemen persecuted the townes men altered the gouernours astonied and the people sacked euery houre entreth men of warre euery houre they make alarums euery houre they sound to battell euery houre they ordeine ambushes euery hour there is skirmishes euery houre they intende repayres and also euery houre I sée them bring men wounded The Cardinal and the gouernours commaunde me to preache and instructe them in the affaires of peace that which I can say is euery thirde day I goe from one campe to an other and they of the cōmonaltie will not beléeue me neither will be conuerted in suche wise that
in bloud if they haue little and may doe little let them hold it for certaine they will estéeme them but little and therefore it were very good counsell that they shoulde rather remayne riche seruantes in their countries than to come to the Courts of Kinges to bée poore Gentlemen For after thys manner they shoulde in their countries be honored that now go in Court discountenaunced According to this purpose it came to passe in Rome that Cicero being so valiaunt of person and hauing so great commaundement and power in the common wealth they dyd beare him great enuie on all sides and beheld him with ouermuch malice Wherefore a certaine Romane magistrate said as if we should say vnto a frankling of Spaine tel me Cicero wherfore wilt thou cōpare with me in the Senat since thou knowest al others do know that I am descēded of glorious Romanes and thou of rusticall ploughmen where vnto Cicero made aunswer with very good grace I will confesse it that thou art descended of noble Romane magistrates and I procéede from poore ploughmen but ioyntly with thys thou canst not denie me but that all thy linage is ended in thée and all mine beginnes in me Of thys example your Lordship may gather what difference there is betwixt times betwixt linages and also betwixt persons Since we knowe that in Caius began the Augustus and in Nero ended the Caesars I would say by that which is saide that the want of noblenesse in many gaue an ende to the linages of the Knightes of the band and the valiantnesse of others gaue a beginning to other glorious linages that be now in Spaine bycause the houses of greate Lordes be neuer lost for want of riches but for want of persons I haue enlarged this letter much more than I promised and also more than I presupposed but I giue it all for well employed since I am sure that if I remaine wearied in writing thereof it will not be tedious vnto your Honour too reade it bycause therein are so many and so good things that of old Gentlemē they are worthy to be knowen and of yong gentlemen necessary to be followed From Toledo the xij of December 1516. A letter vnto the Constable of Castile sir Ynigo of Valesco in which is touched that the wise man ought not to trust his wife with any secret REnoumed and good Constable Sir Iames of Mendoza gaue me a letter from your honor written with youre hand and sealed with youre seale I would to God there were as good order taken with my letters that I aunswer you as is here vsed with such as you send me For I cannot say whether it be my hap or my mishap that scarcely I can write you a letter wherof al in your house vnderstand not As much as it doth please me that al men know me to be your friende so muche doth it gréeue me when you discouer of me any secret chiefly in graue and most waightie affaires for comming to the intelligence of youre wife and children that you communicat with me your delicat affayres they will make great complaint if to the profit of their substance I direct not your conscience My Lady the Duchesse did write vnto me aduertising to haue some scruple in me saying that I was against hir as concerning the house of Touare which I did neuer speake or thinke for the office that I do most boast myselfe of is to direct men that they be noble and vertuous and not to vnderstand in making or marring of heyres or Manor houses My Lorde Constable you do know that at all times when you discouer your selfe and take counsell of me I haue always sayd and do say that the Gentleman of necessitie must pay that he oweth and what he hath deuide at his will and that to make restitution there néedeth a conscience and too giue or deuide iudgement and wisdome if there passe eyther more or lesse betwixt vs two it is without néede that youre noblenesse should speake it or of my authoritie be confessed For the things that naturally be graue and do require secrecie if we may not auoyde that they iudge or presume of them at the least we may cut off that they knowe them not In that your Lordship hath let flie some words or lost some letter of mine my Lady the Duchesse is not a little offended with me and I do not maruell thereof in that she not vnderstanding the misterie of your spéech or the ciphers of my letters did kindle hir choller and raysed a quarrell against me Beléeue me my Lorde Constable that neither in iest or earnest you ought to put secret things in confidence of women for to the end that others shall estéeme them more they will discouer any secret I hold the husbands for very doltish that hide their money from their wiues and trust them wyth their secrets for in the money there is no greater losse than the goodes but in discouering their secretes sometime he loseth his honour The Consull Quintus Furius discouered al the conspiracie of the tirant Cateline to a Romane woman named Fuluia Torquata the which manifesting the matter to another friend of hirs and so from hande to hande it was deuulgate thorough all Rome whereby it happened that Quintus Furius lost his life and Cateline his life and honour Of this example your Lordship may gather that the things that be graue and effectuall ought not to be committed to the confidence of women muche lesse spoken in their presence for to them it importeth nothing the knowledge of them and their husbāds it toucheth much if they be discouered There is no reason to thinke either is it iust to presume and say that all women are like for that we sée there are many of them honorable honest wise discrete and also secrete whereof some haue husbands so foolish and such buzardes that it shoulde be more sure to trust them than their husbands Not offending the gentlewomen that be discrete and secrete but speaking commonly of all I saye that they haue more abilitie to breede children than to kéepe secrets As concerning this let it bée for conclusion that it happen you not another day to talke before any man much lesse before any woman That whyche we haue cōmuned and agréed betwixt our selues there might rise thereof that your Lordship might remaine offended and I disgraced At this present there is nothing more newe in Court to write thā that I am not a little offēded of that your Lordship dare discouer troubled with the wordes that my Lady the Duchesse hath sent me for which cause I beséeche you as my good Lord and commaund you as my godsonne that you reconcile me with my Lady the Duchesse or commaund me to be forbidden your house From Valiodolid the eight of August .1522 A letter vnto the Constable Sir Ynigo of Velasco wherein is touched that in the hart of the good Knight there ought not to raigne passion
or anger REnoumed Lord and pitifull Constaple I may saye by your honour that whiche God saide by the Sinagog which is to wit Curauimus Babilonian nō est curata relinquamus illam which is to say we haue cured Babilon and it woulde not bée cured let vs abandon it Sir I say thus muche for that it hath happened not a little gracious vnto me that whereas I craued in my letter that my Lady the Duchesse should not see any one part therof notwithstanding you haue not only shewed it and conferred theron with hir but also had great game thereat Wherevpon in the way of reuenge I shewed youre letter vnto the Earle of Nassaro who with Flemings Portingalles Almaines and Spaniards dyd also take some pastime therewith yet was it my very good lucke that all the euill that I saide of women in your letter my Lady the Duchesse conuerted into iest in such wise that with greate reason I may praise hir for hir wisedome and complaine me of your temeritie My Lord Constable I shall most hartely desire you not to haue such care to make proues of triacle with my letters but to reade them and to teare or else burne them for it may happen that some day you might reade them before some not very wise either yet of good condition that might deuine to my hurt that which they vnderstand not to their owne profit Leauing this a part your Lordship sayeth that for my sake you haue remitted the displeasure you did beare against the Gentleman the which I accept for so great courtesie and grace as if vnto my selfe the iniurie had bin pardoned for I am so tēder ouer him that is my dere friend that al which I sée to be done in the behalfe of his person to the amendment of his estate I set it downe in mine own account Besides the accomplishment of my desire your Lordship hath performed that which you were bound to doe for Princes and great Lordes haue no licence to doe iniuries eyther so muche as to reuenge them For as you know that whiche is in the meaner called wrath in the mightie is named pride and that which amōgst the smaller sort is chastisement in the mightie is termed vēgeance As oft as you shall make coniugation with youre noblenesse and conscience and shall call to remembrance that you be a Christian and a Knight it shall not mislike you of the offences you haue dissimuled and it shall grieue you of the iniuries you haue reuenged The pardoning of iniuries gyueth great contentation to the hart and the desire of reuengement is no small torment thereof By that whiche is said I woulde saye that sometimes for some man to reuenge some little iniurie he escapeth from thence much more iniuried There be some iniuries that onely are not to be reuenged neither as muche as to bée confessed for things of honour are so delicate that the same day that any confesseth to haue receyued an iniurie from that day he bindeth himselfe to take reuengement The Consull Mamilius demaunded at a certaine time of Iulius Caesar wherein it was that he had in this worlde most vaine glory and in the remembring thereof did take most pleasure to this the good Caesar made aunswer by the Goddes immortall I sweare vnto thée Oh Consul Mamilius that of nothing in all this life I doe thinke that I deserue so muche glory or any other thing doth giue me so greate ioy and contentation as pardoning of those that do offend me and gratifying such as do serue me Oh wordes worthy prayse and pleasant to heare notable to reade and necessary to followe for if Iulius Caesar did beléeue as a Pagane he did worke as a Christian but we all beléeue as Christians and worke lyke Paganes I speake it not without a cause that we liue as Paganes although we beléeue as Christians since in this case the malice of man is growen so great that many woulde pardon their enemies and dare not for feare of their friends for if they once perceiue them to speake of pardoning any man presently they will say they doe it more of cowardise than of conscience Be it as be may and let euery man speake as he thinketh good in this case of pardon your lordship hath done with that Gentleman like a faithfull Christian and with me like a very friend and beside fidelitie to God and frendship to a friend There is no more to be craued of any man in this world The memoriall that your Lordship sendeth me of that things that toucheth your goods and conscience I my Lord wil consider therof at leysure and wil answere vpon aduisement because in your charges or discharges in such wise I will giue you counsel as in my brest no scruple shall remaine In him that asketh counsell there ought to be diligence and no slackenes for that many times businesse lieth so in corners and so farre from hand that it shall be more sure counsell to trust to our weapon than to staye for that bookes shall say the contrary wherof is to be vsed of him the shall giue counsel vnto another which is to wit that he haue much wisedome and little diligence for counsell that is giuen if it be not vpon aduisement most times bringeth some repentance The diuine Plato writing of Orgias the Greeke sayd My frend Orgias thou writest vnto me that I should counsell thée how thou shouldest behaue thy selfe in Licaonia and on the other parte thou makest great haste to haue an aunswere which thing although thou doest rashly craue I dare not performe for that I doe much more studie to counsel my frends than to read in scholes to Philosophers the counsell that is giuen or taken ought to be giuen by a man that is wise for the good iudgement he hath a learned man for the much that he hath read an auncient man for that he hath séene a patient man for that of him selfe he hath suffered a man without passion bycause malice shall not blind him a man without interest for that couetousnesse shall not let him Finally I saye that the shamefast man and of a noble minde oughte to giue vnto his friendes money with liberalitie and counsell with greate grauitie If it bée true as it is moste certayne that he oughte to haue all these conditions that shoulde giue counsell vnto an other we dare wel say that to giue counsell is an office so cōmon that many vse it and very few can performe it There commeth a carefull man to aske counsell of his friende in giuyng whiche counsell the one way or the other there goeth lyfe honour goodes and also conscience and then his friend whose counsell he hath craued without remouing or further thinking therof voyde of all scruple or doubt sayeth what is to be doone in that case as though he had founde it written in the holy Scripture All this I say vnto youre Lordship bycause sometime you be
offended and growe angrie if I answere not presently vnto your letters and send you not your doubtes declared As concerning that whiche you write of Marcus Aurelius the case standeth thus that I translated and presented it vnto Caesar not all finished the whiche Laxao did steale from the Emperoure and the Quéene from Laxao and Tumbas from the Quéene and the Lady Aldonsa from Tumbas and your lordshippe from the Lady Aldonsa in suche wise that my sweates ended in your theftes The newes of this Courte is that the Secretarie Cobos groweth priuate the gouernour of Brefa doth kéepe silence Laxao doth murmure and groane the Admirall dothe write the Duke of Veiar dothe hoorde and kéepe the Marquise of Pliego dothe plays the Marquise of Villa Franca followeth his busynesse the Earle of Osorno dothe serue the Earle of Siruela doth praye the Earle of Buendia doth sigh Gutiere quixada doth iust and the Iudge Ronquillo doth whippe From Madrid the sixthe of Ianuarie 1524. A letter vnto the Constable Sir Ynigo of Velasco in which is said that which the Marques of Piskara reported of Italy REnowmed Lorde and cōplayning Constable it hath chaunced me with very good grace that you neuer writte me letter wherin there cōmeth not some murmuring complaintes saying that I haue not answered to all that you haue written or that I am very short in writing or that I write but now and then or that I detayne the messenger or that I write as one offended in suche wise that neyther in me is any end of faults nor in your Lordship any lacke of complaints but if youre Lordship will note and accuse all the wants of considerations negligences slacknesse simplicities and doltishnesse that I haue I can tell you that you shall be wearied and also tyred for there is in me many things to be reprehended and very few wherefore to be praised That which is in me to be praised is that I estéeme my selfe to be a Christian kéepe my selfe from doing hurt to any man and boast my selfe to be your friend And that which is in me to be reprehēded is that I neuer leaue to sinne neither euer begin to amend this it is my Lorde that doth vexe me this it is that settes me aground and this is the cause why that there neuer remayneth in me gladnesse for as youre Lordship knoweth matters of honor and of conscience gyue great cause to be felt or considered but not to be discouered To write short or at large to write late or in time to write polished or without order neither is it in the iudgemente of him that doth indite it either in the pen that writeth the same but in the matter that he hath in hande or in the aptnesse of time he vseth for if a man be disgraced he writeth that hée ought not and if in disposition he writeth what he listeth Homer Plato Aeschines and Cicero in their writings neuer ceasse to complaine that when theyr common wealthes were in quiet and pacifyed they studied read and writte but when they were altered and vnruly they coulde not study much lesse wrought That which passed by those glorious personages in those days euery day passeth now in my selfe for if I bée well disposed and in temper it is offred me by heapes as muche as I woulde write and if by chaunce I bée disgraced or distempred I would not so muche as to take pen in hand There be tymes that I haue my iudgement so kindled and so delicate that as me thinketh I coulde swéepe one graine of wheate and cleaue a haire in sunder At another time I haue it so dull and so farre remoued that I can hardly hit a nayle with a stedge I knowe not what to write of thys Court but that the Marques of Peskara is come hither from Italy which doth recount from thence such so many things that if they be worthy to be put in Chronicle they be not to be written in a letter He that knoweth the condicione of Italy will not maruell of the things therof for in Italy no man may liue vnder the defence of iustice but that to haue and too be able he must be of power or else very priuate Let him not desire to liue in Italy that hathe not fauour of the king to defend or power in the field to fight for in Italy they neuer care to demaunde by Iustice that whiche they may winne by the launce In Italy they haue not to aske of him that hathe an estate or goodes of whome he did inherit them but how be did winne them In Italy to giue or take away estates or goodes they séeke not right in the lawes but in armes In Italy hee that leaueth to take any thing it is for want of power and not for want of will. Italy is very pleasant to liue in and very perillous to be saued Italy is an enterprise whether many do go and from whence few do returne These and many other such like things the Marques of Peskara recounted vnto vs at the table of the Earle of Nassao many Lords being present and some Prelates Giue thanks vnto God our Lorde that hath bred you in Spaine of Spaine in Castile and of Castile in Castile the olde and of Castile the olde in Burgos where you are beloued and serued for that in the other places or townes of Spaine althogh they be noble of power they haue always some controuersies The memoriall the your Lordship sent me this yeare to consider of and vpon the same to giue you counsell nowe I sende it you corrected with my conscience and consulted with my science No more c. A letter vnto the Constable Sir Ynigo of Velasco in which is declared the prises of thyngs as in olde tyme they were wonte to be sold in Castile REnoumed and curious Constable I haue receiued a letter from your Lordshippe as it appeareth by the same although you be chief or heade of the Valascos and I of the Ladrons of Gueuara there you haue the déede and here I haue the name For entring into my cell you haue stolne my Pictures and ouerturned my Bookes If there be a priuiledge of the Constables of Castile the religious being at his prayers that they shal enter and sacke his Cel it were very iust to shew wherfore they did it or else to restore vnto the owner the thing stolne Your Lordship writeth vnto me that you wil not restore the pictures that you haue takē away except I send you written the auncient ordinances that were made by the king Don Iuan in Toro in suche wyse that you doe not content your selfe with stealing but that you will also extort and doe violence I know not which was greater that day your fortune or my mischance in that my Cell was open for I swear by the faith of a christian that my lance in the sight of God wer much more worth if I shuld vse as great circūspection in
life and iust in youre tribunall or iudgements I wold not gladly heare that those that do praise that which you do should complaine of that whiche you say with a Lorde of so high estate and with a iudge of so preheminent an office my pen should not haue presumed to write what it hath written if your Lordship had not commaunded My Lord I saide it bycause if this that I haue here written vnto you shall not like you that it may please you to sende too reuoke the licence that you haue giuen Also you will that I shall write vnto youre Lordship if I haue founde in anye auncient Chronicle what is the cause wherefore the Princes of Castile do call themselues not onely Kings but also Catholique Kings And that also I write vnto you who was the first that called himself Catholique King and what was the reason and the occasion to take this so generous and Catholique title There were ynowe in thys Court of whome you might haue demaunded and of whome you might haue vnderstood in yeares more auncieÌ„t in knowledge more learned in bookes more rich and in writing more curious than I am But in the end my Lord be sure of this one thing that that which I shall write if it be not written in a polished stile at the least it shall be all very true Comming to the purpose it is to be vnderstood that the Princes in olde time did always take proud ouer-names as Nabugodonozer that did intitle him selfe King of Kings Alexander the greate the king of the world the king Demetrius the conqueror of Cities the great Haniball the tamer of kingdomes Iulius Caesar the Duke of the Citie the king Mithridates the restorer of the world the king Athila the whip of nations the king Dionisius the host of all men the king Cirus the last of the Gods the king of England defender of the Church the king of Fraunce the most Christian king and the king of Spaine the Catholique king To giue your Lordship a reckoning who were these kings and the cause why they did take these so proude titles to me it should be painfull to write and to your Lordship tedious to reade it is sufficient that I declare what you commaunde me without sending what you craue not It is to wit that in the yere seuen hundreth fiftie two the fift day of the month of Iuly vpon a sunday ioyning to the riuer Bedalake about Xeres on the frontiers euen at the breake of day was giuen the last and most vnfortunate battell betwixt the Gothes that were in Spaine and the Alarues that had come from Africa in whiche the sorowfull king Sir Rodrigo was slaine and all the kingdome of Spaine lost The Moore that was Captaine and that ouercame this famous battell was named Musa which did know so well to folow his victorie that in the space of eight moneths he did win and had dominion from Xeres in the frontieres vnto the rocke Horadada which is neare to the towne of Onnia And that whiche séemeth to vs most terrible is that the Moores did win in eighte moneths which in recouering was almost eight hundred yeres for so many yeares did passe from the time that Spaine was lost vntill Granado was wonne The fewe Christians that escaped out of Spaine came retiring vnto the mountaines of Onnia neare vnto the rocke Horadada vnto which the Moores did come but from thence forward they passed not either did conquer it for there they found great resistance and the land very sharp And when they of Spaine did see that the king Sir Rodrigo was dead and all the Gothes with hym and that without Lord or head they could not resist the Moores they raysed for king a Spanish Captaine that was named Sir Pelaius a man venturous in armes and of all the people very well beloued The fame being spread thoroughout all Spaine that the mountaine men of Onia had raised for king the good Sir Pelaius all men generouse and warlike did repaire vnto him with whome he did vnto the Moores greate hurt and had of them glorious triumphes Thrée yeares after they had raysed the good sir Pelaius for King hée married one of his daughters with one of the sonnes of the Earle of Nauarn who was named Sir Peter and his sonne was called Sir Alonso This Earle Sir Peter descended by right line of the linage of the blessed King Richardos in whose tyme the Gothes did leaue the sect of the curled Arrius by the meanes of the glorious and learned Archbyshop Leonard The good king Pelaius being dead in the eighteene yeare of his raigne the Castilians exalted for king a sonne of his that was named Fauila the which two yeares after he began to raigne going on a certaine day to the mountaine meaning to flea the Beare the Beare killed him And for that the king Fauila died without children the Castilians elected for king the husband of his sister whiche is to wit the sonne of the Earle of Nauarne who was named Alonso the whiche began his raigne in the yeare .vii. C.lxxij hys raigne endured eightene yeares which was as much tyme as his father in law the good King Sir Pelaius had raigned This good King was the firste that was named Alonso which tooke his name in so good an houre that since that daye amongst all the kings of Castile that haue bin named Alonso we reade not of one that hath bin euill but very good Of thys good king Alonso the historiographers do recite many landable things to recompt worthy to be knowen and exemplars to be followed The King sir Alonso was the first that out of Nauarne entered Galizia to make warre vppon the Moores with whome be had many encounters and battells in the ende he ouercame and droue them out of Astorga Ponferada Villa franca Tuy and Lugo with all their Countries and Castelles This good king Alonso was he that did win of the Moores the Citie of Leon and builded there a royall place to the ende all the Kings of Castile his successors should there be resideÌ„t and so it came to passe that in long time after many Kings of Castile did liue and die in Leon. This good King Alonso was the firste that after the destruction of Spaine began to builde Churches and to make Monasteries and Hospitalles in especially from the beginning the Cathedrall churches of Lugo Tâ—y Astorga and Ribeâ—ew the which afterwards did passe to Mondonedo This good king Alonso did buiâ—d many and very solempne Monasteries of the order of saint Benet and many hospitalles in the way of saint Iames and many particular Churches in Nauarne and in the Countrey of Ebro whiche he endewed all with great riches and gaue them opulent possessions This good King Alonso was the first that did séeke and commaunded to be sought with very great diligence the holy bookes that had escaped the hands of the Moores and as a zelous Prince commaunded that
by the feare of death The couetous wretched niggard that he goeth seeking is carefulnesse for himselfe enuie for his neighbours spurres vnto his enemies a pray for théeues perill for his person damnation for his soule malediction for his heires and law for his children All these thinges Sir I thought good to write thereby to giue you to vnderstande the grosse office you haue taken in hande and the euill opinion they do couceyue of you the which to vs your friends is great shame and to you a most great infamie Sir amende youre fault and take some other order in your life for in the house of any honest manne any lacke of goodes is tollerable but no want in honour If you shall alwayes continue to be a miser a niggard and shall giue your selfe to kéepe and hoord money from henceforward I take my leaue of your friendship and also to call you my acquainted For I neuer delighted to hold acquaintance with the man that woulde presume to lie and giue himselfe to kéepe This letter I send you without head or foote which is to wit without date or firme for going with such choler and so vnsauorie it is not reason he shoulde bée knowen that did write it neither to whome it was written No more A letter vnto the Lady Mary of Padilia wife to Don Iohn of Padilia wherein the Authour doth perswade that she tourne to the seruice of the king and giue no occasion of the losse of Castile MAgnificent and vnaduised Lady in the dayes that the good Emperour Iustinian did raigne in the East a certaine Captaine of his dyd gouerne the kingdomes in the West that was named Narsetes a man of greate capacitie to gouerne and of great valiantnes in fighting and giuing battell of this Narsetes the Romanes did saye that in him only was the force of Hercules the boldnesse of Hector the noblenesse of Alexander the wisdome of Pirrhus the valiantnesse of Antheus and the fortune of Scipio After that thys glorious captain had ouercome and slaine Atholia King of the Gothes Vncelino king of the French men Sindual king of the Brittons and also pacified and triumphed ouer all the kingdomes of the West the Romanes sought meanes to disgrace him with his Lorde and maister Iustinian saying and giuing him to vnderstand that he sought meanes to obtaine the Empire wherefore Narsetes was constrayned to departe from Rome and to passe into Asia to appeare before the Emperour Iustinian and the Empresse Sophia his wife to declare his innocencie and to make proofe that enuie had raised that sclaunder certaine dayes were then past that the Empresse Sophia had conceyued disdaine against Narsetes some say it was for his great wealth others for that he commaunded in the Empire with too much authoritie and others bycause he was a gelded man and when she sawe time to vtter hir hatred she said vnto him in Court on a certaine day since thou Narsetes art lesse than a man and halfe a woman being an Eunuche I commaunde thée to leaue the gouernment of the Empire and that thou get thée vp to weaue where my maydes doe weaue and knit caules and that there thou help them what they commaund thée Although Narsetes were a man of great authoritie and of no lesse grauitie these words did so deepely pearce him to the quicke that he chaunged countenance the teares brake from his eyes and so chafed with teares he said Serene Princes I woulde right gladly that you shoulde chastise me as a Lady but not to defame me like a woman it gréeueth me not so much of that you haue said as the occasion which you giue me how to make you answer and said more I presently depart vnto Italy to weaue knit and frame such a toyle that neyther thou maist comprehend nor yet thy husband able to vnweaue Comming now to the purpose my Lord Abbot of Compludo gaue me here in Medina a letter frō your Ladiship which contained such ouerthwarts such want of measure and so greate rashnesse that he was ashamed too haue deliuered it and I astonied to sée the contents thereof And as the good Narsetes aunswered the Empresse Sophia it gréeueth me not of that you haue saide but of that whiche I must answer for of necessitie my penne must stand foorthe to make combat with your tong Your Ladiship doth say in your letter that you haue séene the letter that I sent vnto youre husband Iohn of Padilia and that it dothe well appeare in the same that it came from a frier irreguler foule spoken ouerthwart absolute and dissolute and that if I were one of the world not only I would not dare to wright such things neyther yet so much as in corners to speake them Also you do extréemely charge me that I haue suborned Sir Peter Lasso disswaded sir Peter Giron contended with the Bishop of Zamora resorted to Villa Braxima for the Gouernours that I preache publikely againste the commoners and that in my mouth there is no truth nor in my déedes any fidelitie Also you blame me charge condempne and threaten me for the letter I did write vnto your husbande and for the counselles and aduertisementes I gaue him affirming and swearing that since he had conference with me he hathe alwayes bene sorowfull penūue melancholicke and also vnfortunate Also you note blame and charge me that I neuer cease too lye vnto the gouernours deceyue the commoners discourage his men of warre preach against the commonaltie promise that which the King commaundeth not goe and come to Villa Braxima and to leade all Castile in suspence These and such other things are contayned within youre letter vnworthy the writing and scandalous to recount But since youre Ladiship hath first laide hand vpon the sword complaine not if I happen to giue you some wound on the head To that which your Ladiship sayth if I were of the world as I am of religion I durst not wright suche a letter vnto youre husband your Ladiship speaketh greate troth for I being the son of Sir Beltram of Gueuara and cousin to Sir Ladron of Gueuara and to be there in the worlde I shoulde not write vnto him but fighte with him not make pennes but sharpen the launce not gyue counsell or perswade your husbande but defye him bycause the contention betwixt loyaltie and treason ought not to be tried with wordes but with swords I am in profession a Christian in habite religious in doctrine a diuine in linage of Gueuara in office a preacher and in opiniō a gentleman and no commoner for which cause I presume to preach the troth and to impugne the communaltie I holde for sure that those whiche defende the troth be the most noblest knights and gentlemen in your Camp for they rob not vpon high wayes neyther steale out of Churches destroy no corne burne no houses spoyle no people neither do consent to men of vile conditions for they obserue the law
wise that many Gentlewomē to mayntaine an estate make their house a stable For a woman to be good it is no small help to be alwayes in businesse and by the contrary we sée no other thing but that the idle woman goeth always pensitiue Let all maner of women beleue me that in any wyse they busie their daughters in some honest exercise for I giue them to vnderstand if they know not that of idle moments and wanton thoughtes they come to make euill conclusions No more but that our Lord be in your procéeding from Granada the .4 of maye .1524 yeares A letter vnto Mosen Rubin of Valentia wherein he answereth to certayne notable demaunds A letter very conuenient for the woman that marrieth an olde man. RIght worshipfull aunciente renued with youthely motion youre Letter read and considered that which I conceyue and comprehende thereof is that it contayneth much writing and commeth written in very grosse paper whereof it may very well be inferred that you haue wast time and want of money Small comforte shoulde he haue at youre handes that at thys instant should craue youre almes for a Cote that hathe not a Maruedye to buy a shéete of paper Althoughe I holde it for most certayne that if you haue not at this present a Mareuedy to buy paper at other times you vse to set an hundred Duckats at a rest The property and condition of Players is sometymes to haue greate abundaunce and at other times to suffer greate lacke in suche wise that to daye hauing too many Duckats to play on the morrowe they haue not to paye for their dinner I haue sayde it many times and also written in my doctrines that I enuy not these gamesters for the money that they win but at the sighes that they gyue bycause if they cast the dice with courage with great sighes they wish their chaunce But comming to the purpose of youre demaunde and answering to youre request I saye that if to all the demaundes of youre letter I shall not aunswer with grace and good eloquence impute the fault to my disgrace and also vnapte disposition And the cause of my disgrace endureth not to be written with inke in paper But it suffiseth a man to be at Court where be few things to be commended but many to the contrary Sir you write vnto me to aduertise you of my opiniō of the bailiwick of Orihnela which the Quéene hathe giuen you and the garde of the frontires of Caspe whither the Moores of Pampe do passe and they of Affrica do enter To this I aunswere that you haue to make small accounte that the Quéene hath giuen you the charge of Iustice if god deny you his grace bycause preheminent offices by vertues be conserued but heroicall vertues amongs offices do runne in perill In him that administreth Iustice it is necessary he haue good Iudgement to giue sentence temperance in his speche patience to suffer good counsell to discerne good disposition to Iustice and fortitude to execute If in the budget of your household stuffe you finde your selfe furnished with all these kind of goods you may safely be Iudge of Orihnela and also gouernour of Valentia And if your abilitie stretch not so farre it should be more sounde counsell for you to kepe your house than to bring your honour in question and disputation Also you wright vnto me to aduertise you what was contained in the countesse of Concentainas letter which the quéene shewed me That which passed in this case is that the Earle of Concentaina being dead my Lady the Countesse presently did wright vnto the vassalles of the Earldōr a certaine letter of the sorrow and griefe of hir husbands death and in the ende and conclusion of the letter they placed according to the manner of such Ladies and widowes which is to witte the sorowfull and most vnfortunat countesse and added ther vnto in the place of the firme therof two great blottes The letter being receyued and redde by hir vassals in their counsell before all men they aduised to aunswere my Lady the Countesse and also to giue hir to vnderstande of the sorowe they conceiued of the death of the Earle hir husband and their Lorde And it séemed good vnto them that since she hadde changed the stile of hir firme that also they were bounde too alter the stile of their letter In which the superscription therof saide thus Vnto our sorrowfull Ladye and moste vnfortunate countesse of Concentayna withinin the vpper face of the letter where they place the woordes of curtesy and congratulation was after this manner Righte magnificente and most sorowfull Lady at the end where was sayd by the ordinance of the coūsell iustice gouernours were made thrée dasshes much blotted in such wise that according to the tenor of hir writing she answered My Lady the Countesse receyued no small offence thereof and yet with good grace she sayd vnto me that she wished the error had passed by one mans faulte and not as it was by all their consents Also you write vnto me to aduertise you how it standeth with Mosen Burela since the time he receyued that so great distresse in Xatina Sir vnto this I answer that vnto me he giueth great sorow to beholde him and no lesse compassion to heare him bycause I sée hym wander laden with thoughts and no lesse forsaken of friends Beléeue me sir and be out of doubt that he falleth not in all this world that falleth not out of his princes fauour bycause the fashion or stile of Court is that the priuate and in fauoure knoweth not himselfe with the fall and out of fauoure no mā will grow aquainted The houses and Courts of Princes be very fortunate vnto some no lesse perillous vnto others bycause there either they preuayle and growe very greate or else vtterly lose themselues All Courtiers séeme to me to resemble the Bée or else the Spider wherin there be some persons in Court so fortunate that all thinges whereon they lay hands turneth to golde and others so vnlucky that all which they pretend cōuerts to smoke As concerning our Mosen Burela I can say vnto you that he is thoroughly smoked as touching his honor and no lesse stumbled and falne in respect of his goodes bycause he hath lost the office that he held and the credite wherwith he was sustayned Sir also you wrighte to me to aduertise you of the state of the Sonnes of Vasko Bello your friend and my neighbour to this I answer that their parents hauing past their liues in the trade of merchants they haue conuerted themselues to the state of Gentlemen and to the end you vnderstād me better I say they be not of the Gentlemen of auncient right but suche as haue obtayned by prise and purchase bycause their goodes being consumed I holde their gentry fully finished In the state that men do get theyr liuing in the same they ought to conserue themselues for otherwise
salutem Descendit ad inferos In the yeare a thousande fiue hundred twenty and thrée comming out of Fraunce by Nauarne in a little Churche in Viena not farre from the Growine I saw an Epitaph vpō the Tomb of the Duke Valentine which without writing I commended vnto my memorie and as I thinke thus it sayd Here lieth clad in a little clay That mortall men did feare VVhich in peace war the ful whole sway In all this world did beare O thou that goest with care to seeke VVorthy things of prayse most meete If worthy things thou wouldest prayse Here thou hast to direct thy wayes And therein farther to spend no dayes In the warres of Lumbardy there dyed an auncient soldier which was valiant and meanely rich who was buried by his friends in a little Village betwixt Plazentia and Voguera on whose Sepulture were written these words Here Campuzano doth lie VVith whose soule the Diuill did flie But his goodes had Sir Antonie In Alexandria de la Palla I found another soldier buried in the Churche within the Castell vpon whose Sepulture that is to say vpon the wall I saw writtē with a Cole these words Here lieth Horozco the Sergeant VVhich liued playing And died drinking In the Citie of Aste when Caesar went to make warre in Fraunce we stayed certayne dayes A Souldier was buried in the monasterie of Saint Frauncis as it séemed being very poore made his will very rich vppon whose Sepulture another Soldier placed these wordes Here lyeth Billandrando VVhich all that he had did not let to play And that which he had not he gaue away In the Citie of Nisa we buried an honorable soldier that had bin Captayne but in the morning and at night with a Cole I saw written vpon his Tomb these words Here lieth the Soldier Billoria VVhose body to the Church by his friēds did send But his hart to his loue he did incommende In a place of Spayne which shall be namelesse I founde the Sepulture of a certayne Gentlewoman vpon whose Tombe these words were written Here lieth the Lady Marina in earthly presse VVhich died thirty days before she was countesse In the .18 yeare I being warden of the Citie of Soria going to preach to the Camp of Gomara in a little Village I encountred with an old Sepulture vppon the stone whereof were written these words Here lieth bald Iohn Hussillo VVhich taught boyes to swimme And wenches to daunce very trim This yeare past in visiting my Byshoprick of Mondonedo I found in the Archdeaconship of Trasancos in a little Churche by the Sea side an auncient Tomb which they sayd was of a gentlemā naturall of the place which had these words writtē Here lieth Vasko Bell A good Gentleman and a fell The which neuer drew his sword indeede That made any man euer to bleede Going for Custos of my prouince of conception in a generall Chapter ioyntly with certayne religious Portingalls of my order bound to the same place amongst the which the warden of Sanctaren a man both wise and learned vnderstanding me to haue delight in old things sayde that in his Monasterie vppon a Tombe of a Portingall Gentleman were written these words Here lieth Basko Figueira Much against his will. So high a sentence so delicate words and so certain a troth as this as God saue me might not procéed either be inuēted but of a man of an high delicate iudgement they wer spokē in Portingall in a Monasterie of Portingall in the behalfe of a Portingall and a Portingall saide them whereof I gather vnto my selfe that the nobles of Portingall be wise in their attempts and of sharp iudgement in what they speake To my iudgemēt my appetite to my tast and liking to this daye I haue not heard or red a thing so gratious as the letter of that Sepulture bycause ther may not be said a greater troth than to say that Basko Figueira or any other persone is in hys Tomb much against his will. What Sepulture is in thys world so rich wherein any man desireth to dwel or wisheth to be buried what man is so insensible that woulde not rather liue in a narrow houell than in a large and ample sepulture Not only Basko Figueira lieth in his sepulture against his wil but also the Machabees in their Piramides Semiramis in hir Polimite the great Cirus in hys Obiesko the good Augustus in hys Columna the famous Adrian in his Mole magno the prowde Alaricus in hys Rubico All whyche if we coulde demaunde of them and they aunswere vs woulde sweare and affirme that they dyed without their owne consent and were buryed agaynste their willes My Lorde Admirall from hencefoorth I diuine that if Basko Figueira lyeth deade in his sepulture agaynst his will with an euill will I dare auouche you will bée buryed in yours although moste certayne the chappell is riche and your Tombe very stately Your honor hath to vnderstande that I thought good to enlarge this letter to the end you should haue wherat to maruel and also wherwith to laugh with a protestation that I make that if you wryte agayne within this halfe yeare I wyll refuse to answere for that I haue in hande certayne woorkes of myne owne presently to be printed and after to be published No more but that our Lorde be in your kéeping From Valiodolid the .xxx. of Marche 1534. A letter vnto Sir Alphonce Manrique Archebishop of Ciuill wherein is declared a certayne passage of holy Scripture conuenient to bee read of Iudges and prelates that be cruell RYght Noble and pitifull Prelate if your reuerend Lordship do conceyue that for the gallant baye mule which you haue sent mée by Orlande your Stewarde I shoulde submit my selfe to do you great seruice eyther to render greate thankes ye are greatly deceiued for although she be both faire and good I haue wonne and gayned the same by a sentence pronounced agaynste your honor for the costes of processe and the amendes wherein you are condemned when your moste reuerend Lordship and the Duke of Naiarra vppon a certaine contention did elect mée for your iudge which is to wéete where the situation of Sagunto shuld haue stande and the renowned Neomantia should haue bene wherein to determine and verifie your doubte I studied very muche and traueled not a little And since you are condemned in a Mule and consented vnto the sentence once againe I aduertise your honor that I will neyther restore hir and muche lesse pay for hir My Lord the Duke of Naiarra your brother at Courte doeth dayly threaten mée that eyther by violence he will take hir from mée or else cause hir to be stolen wherfore I humbly pray your honor to commaunde that he leaue me in peace otherwise I promise you to proue vnto him by my auncient histories that the borders and limites of Naiarra haue bene twoo leagues within the Duchie But nowe setting aside all iestes to speake in earnest I
the rest The conditions of a good king Princes ought so to recreate themselues that thereof ryse none offence Princes ought to limite their recreations In the auncient times yron was vsed in coyne It is to be noted that all lawes are reduced from three lawes Seuen maner of auncient lawes Lawes onely for Romane Senators The lawes for warre they vsed in Rome The first that made lawes for warres The procurer of the people was most priuiledged in Rome We receiue liberalitie from the Prince when he commaundeth to serue Note the great vertues of the Philosopher Licurgus Of him that brought vp one dog fat in idlenesse and in the house the other in the field To be good it doth much profite to be well brought vp A notable proclamation daily made A right worthy search Bathes and oyntmēts forbidden The authoritie of old men The disobedient sonne both chastised and disinherited A friend by fraternitie New inuentiō and the inuentors banished An honour vsed to the dead that valiantly died in the warres Gentlemen may commen but not cōtend For what causes a Gentleman may be inflamed with choler Helia is nowe Ierusalē and Byzantio is Constantinople Numantia was named of Numa Pompilius The Numantins in the warres did rather die than flee Rome was enuious of the fortune of Numantia Nine Consulles were slaine at the siege of Numantia The good Captaine ought rather loose his life than make an infamous truce In the warres vice doth more hurt thā the enimies The Numātines did eate the fleshe of the Romains To fight with a desparate man is no small perill The noble minded had rather die free than lyue a slaue The Numantines did kill their wiues and children No Numantine taken prisoner The continuance of the prosperitie of Numantia In the warres it importeth dot to write with an euill pen. More is spent to maynteyne opinion than to defende reason No excuse may excuse the losse of a battayle A iust warre is loste by an vniust captaine An euill lyfe doth come to make repayment in one day The more noble victorie is that which is obtayned by counsel thā by the sword Iron was made to eare fields and not to kill men We ought rather to make tryall by perswasion than by sworde The bloudie Captain doth finishe his days with an euill ende Iulius Cesar pardoned more enimies than he kilde It is more loued that is obteyned by request than by the sworde In tyme of warre it besemeth not a knighte to write from his house Note the right conditions of a right gētleman Is a gentleman a fault is tolerable if it be not vile The good knight hath in possessiō more armour than bookes Iudas Machabeus had rather lose his his lyfe than his fame To cōmaund many wil cost muche Note the wordes of a valiant captain To demaunde how many not where the enimies be is a signe of fear Words wordthy to be engraued on his tombe Of more value is the noble mynded expert captain than a greate armie Who was the valiāt Viriato captain of Spayne Viriato was inuincible in the warres Fewe vices are sufficiente to darken many victories Note what is due betwixte friendes Ingratitude seldom or neuer pardoned The grace that is giuen in preaching is seldome giuen in writing The hearte is more moued hearing the word of God than by reading The old lawe gaue punishment to the euill but no glorie to the good Vntill Christ none proclaymed rest For what cause Christe saide my yoke is sweete and my burden is light The propertie of a faithfull louer Perfect loue endureth all trauell Christ did not commaund vs to doe that whiche he did not first experimēt himself The worlde doth more chastise than pardon but in the house of God more pardoned than chastised In all the lawes of the world vices be permitted Christes lawes excepted The Lawe of christ is sharp vnto the wicked but easie and light to the vertuouse Daughters are to be married before they grow old The Ipineās did write the date of their letters with the superscriptiō With what paper they were wont to write Note the inck of old time Famouse eloquence of the Auctor in a base matter Notable exāples of cōtinēcie in Princes Catiline a tyrant of Rome It ought not to be written that cannot be written The inuētion of the A.B.C. The rentes of great Lords ought to be agreeable to their titles Gamsters at dice play them selues to nothing Postes in old time made great speede Euill newes neuer cōmeth to late The auctor reporteth of his linage of Gueuara To descend of a noble bloud prouoketh to be vertuous The auncient and noble Linages in Rome were much esteemed In Rome they bare no office that descended of traitours The properties of a man born of a good linage A note of the Giants of the old time The differēce betwixt the great and litle men Of a little Frier of the Abbay of Guysando Little thinges giue more offence than profite A sise is obserued in nothing but in sermōs More grauitie is required in writing thā in talking Note the breuitie of ancient writing Twoo Romane Captaines would two manner of warres The warres against Numantia was vmust The nature of warres that is to be holden iust Warres betwixt christiās dependeth of the secretes God. Eight condicions meete to be performed by a captaine generall of the warres The good knight ought to imitate his good predecessors He is not to be intituled a knight that is rich but vertuous In the talke of warres not that I haue heard but that I haue scene is most commendable for a gentleman The armes of a knight are giuen him to fight and not to behold Age and abilitie be mothers of good counsell The generous and noble mind dothe more feare to flie than to abide In soden perils it needeth not to vse lōg and delayed counsels A fort ought to be the sepulchre of the defendant If many be married they are not fewe that be repentant No married man may liue without trauell That man is miserable that is maried vnto a foolish woman Worship is not blemished by answering of a letter A Prince did write vnto a bitmaker A noble Romane did write vnto a plough man. No man is so euill in whom there is not somwhat to be praysed Negligence presumptiō be two things that loseth friends Euill nurture is hurtfull in all estates Where is money there is dispatch God doth many times bring things to passe rather by the weake thā by the strong Amongst .xij. sonnes the yongest was most excellent To lacke friends is perillous And some friends be tedious We ought rather to bewaile the life of the wicked than the death of the iust A man is to be knowne but not to be vnderstood The battell of Rauenna for euermore shall be renoumed Lesse in the warres than many other thing we haue to beleue fortune With great eloquence the aucthor declareth the nature of
fortune The words of a very friend without dissimulation Men do order warres but God onely giueth victorie To one person and one matter fortune very seldome sheweth fidelitie What he ought to do that hathe continued long in the warres There is no greater trauel than to be ignorant of quietnesse Men oughte to trauell vntill they haue wherwith to defende necessitie He is in some hatred with fortune that is not suffred to repose in his owne house It is more to know how to enioy a victory than to ouercome a battell Our greatest trauels be of our owne seeking Both wisedome and eloqueÌ„ce in writing of a letter bee discouered In the courte men doe not but vndoe In the courte ther are thinges to be wondered as also to be shunned Newes of those dayes from Italy In Italy they win not so muche money as they learne vice Eight conditions of the courte and all verie perillous In the courte more despited than dispatched Death giueth feare but not amendment The ploughman reuewing the straightnes of his forough giueth note to the wise to examin their writings A letter ought to be pleasant to reade discret to be noted God dothe more for vs in giuiÌ„g vs grace than to take away temptations God doth know what he giueth vs but we know not what to craue To haue the occasion of sinne taken awaye is no small benefite of God. To be without temptatioÌ„ is no good signe The deuil procureth great welfare vnto his dearlings Notable examples against such as do persecute Very great bee the priuileges of the vertuous He incurreth great perils that coÌ„tendeth with the vertuous The certaine before the doubtfull is to be preferted A Kintall is a hundreth waight It is better to be than to seeme to bee vertuouse The conditioÌ„s of a friends letter A text of scripture expounded Vertue the vertues by exercise be conserued God hath more regarde vnto vs than we our selues Not the suffring but the pacieÌ„ce wherwith we suffer God regardeth The teÌ„ptation of the Deuill is limited It is lesse trauel to serue God than the world Good company is more pleasant then great fare The old Romanes were superstitious Places where the good wine of Spaine doth grow Terrible notes for the rich nigard The deed do here leaue their moneye and carie awaye theyr sinnes Horrible to liue poorely to die in great wealth Strange customes in a coÌ„mon welth are perillous Notable coÌ„dicioÌ„s of a good President The wordes of the eloqueÌ„t containe great efficacie A straunge example of an Orator A text of the Psalmist expounded It is lesse euill to enuie vs thaÌ„ to pitie vs The causes of hatred of Iulius Cesar and Pompeius Enuie bendeth his artillerie against prosperitie Behold the fraternitie of enuie Courtiers loose time Iniuries don by the almightie are to bee dissembled The trefull of al men and at all times abhorred In him that gouerneth ire is perilious A notable example to reâ—traine ire An example of the heathen to be noted and learned For the doubt of vice libertie refused Libertie craueth wisdome Twelue coÌ„dicioÌ„s of Rome variyng from Christes law A condicion at be in braced A rewarde after death A darke Epitaph expounded He is depriued of libertie that discouereth a secret It staineth a Gentleman to tell a lye Fiue Knightes throwne downe Sometimes some things vnfortunat To profite by sicknes declareth great wisedome Priuileges profites obtained by sicknes Anger 's and excesse be no small enemies to health To manifest the secrets of Princes is perillous An olde Epitaph Who dyd write the historie of the Sibils The historie of the man and the Lion. Great liberalitie vsed in feastes Did acquaintance renued betwene a maÌ„ and a Lyon. The Emperour Titus talketh with a slaue A slaue and also noble was Andronicus Auarice is cause of great infamie Foure sextertios amounte to .iiij. d. Where noblenesse dwelleth no treason haunteth An extreme distresse A passing toye Beastes doe feele benefits The Lyon feedeth his Chirurgian Absence extremely lamented The slaue craueth mercie The people of Rome make humble supplication for the slaue Note the authors of the historie Of what things they murmur in the Court. Who be great murmurers The order of the noble or gentlemans house The sinne of Ingratitude before God is detestable Zorzales blackbirds He is not to be holden for noble that hath much but that geueth much The poore do reuenge with teares To forget an iniurie proceedeth of singular wisedome Things that many desire but few obtain Conditions of a good iustice The conditions of Iudges vsed to be choseÌ„ in Rome The office of Iustice is to be giuen for merit and not for affection Euill iudges do execute the purse and not the person Iudges ought to dispatche with speed and answere with pacience Humanitie to all men of the mighty is to be vsed Of all men to be noted The womans armour is hir tongue True gentilitie pitieth the distressed Brothers children A speciall aduenture The pretence of priuate profite is voyde of all good counsell A notable measure A quent of Meruedis whiche be .6 a penie amouÌ„t 2500. Ducates The harte of man is moste excelleÌ„t in his kynde CommeÌ„dable qualities A notable secret in the yere climatik A perillous time for old men Notable conditions of a noble man. A lesson for Lords The expositioÌ„ of the text To be ashamed of sinne is hope of ameÌ„dment No greter sinner than he that presumeth to be good Oracles of old time Antigonus to be noted Gods grace doth only saue vs. A benefit due to suche as serue princes Badges of Christ Withoute grace a soule is lyke a body without life To drinke of the one or of the other great choyce is to be vsed Rules for old men Conuersation for old men The exercise of good old men The notes of good old men Necessary prouision for olde men A diet for old men Temperance in old men prouoketh sleepe and auoydeth belke A conclusion with rules conuenient for old men A most certaine remedie for loue A sodaine and strange spectacle Note the eloquence of the Author The perfect condition of a friende Buried being alyue A good praise to a Gentleman The wyse man weepeth not but for the losse of a frend The honest care not to liue long but well Who is worthie of prayse The friende vnto the freÌ„d neither hideth secret nor denieth money Not in your labour but in patience Not the paine but the cause maketh the martir A poudred crane sent froÌ„ Asia to Rome Plato offended with Dionisius for eating twice on the day Seuen nations inhabited Spaine The importunat and the foole are brothers children A notable example of a pitifull Prince An answer of Cato to Ascanius The good Iudge wresteth his condition agreeable to good lawes An example for men to be intreated of other men A sugred speach A commendable eloquence Notes of Iulius Cesar of Alexander the great The order of the knights of the