or slaughter the men or utterly disorder any Fleet of crosse sailes with which they encounter I say then if a Vanguard be ordeined of these hoyes who will easily recover the wind of any other ships with a Battaile of 400 other warlike ships and a Reare of thirty of his Majesties ships to sustaine relieve and countenance the rest if God beat them not I know not what strength can be gathered in all Europe to beat them And if it be objected that the States can furnish a farre greater number I answer that his Majesties 40 ships added to 600 before named are of Incomparable greater force then all that Holland and Zeeland can furnish for the Wars As also that a greater number would breed the same confusion that was found in Zerxes Land Army of seaventeene hundred thousand souldiers For there is a certaine proportion both by Sea and Land beyond which the excesse brings nothing but disorders and amazement Of those hoyes Carvills or Crumsters Call them what you will there was a notable experience made in the yeare 1574. in the River of Antwerpe neere Rummerswaell where the Admirall Boysett with his Crumsters overthrew the Spanish Fleet of great Ships Conducted by Iulian Romero So contrary to the expectation of Don Lewis the great Commander and Lieutenant of the Netherlands for the King of Spaine as he came to the bancks of Bergen to behold the slaughter of the Zelanders But contrary to his expectation he beheld his Armado some of them sunck some of them thrust on the shoare and most of the rest mastered and possessed by his enemies Insomuch as his great Captain Romero with great difficulty some say in a skiffe some say by swymming saved himselfe The like successe had Captaine Werst of Zeeland against the Fleet which transported the Duke of Medini Coeli who was sent out of Spaine by Sea to governe the Netherlands in place of the Duke of Alva For with twelve Crumsters or Hoyes of the first troope of 21. sayle he tooke all but three and he forced the second being twelve great ships filled with 2000. souldiers to run under the Ramakins being then in the Spaniards possession But whence comes this dispute Not from the increase of numbers Not because our Neighbours breed more Marriners then we doe Nor from the greatnesse of their Trade in all parts of the world For the French creepe into all corners of America and Africa as they doe and the Spaniards and Portugalls imploy more ships by many fishing trades excepted then the Netherlands doe But it comes from the detestable covetousnesse of such particular persons as have gotten Licences and given way to the transporting of the English Ordnance Fuit haec Sapientia quondam publica privatis secernere Sacra profanis And that in so great abundance as that not only our good friends the Hollanders and Zealanders have furnished themselves and have them lying on their Wharfes to sell to others but all other Nations have had from us not only to furnish their Fleets but to Garnish all their Forts and other places fortifying their Coasts without which the Spanish King durst not have dismounted so many pieces of Brasse in Naples and else where therewith to Arme his great Fleete in 88. But it was directly proved in the Lower House of Parliament Anno of Queene Elizabeth That there were landed in Naples above 140. Culverins English since which time also and not long since It is lamentable that so many have beene transported into Spaine But those that belike then determined it and the transporters have now forsaken the Country and though the procurers remaine I am resolved that they also have forsaken the care of his Majesties Estate And the honour of this Nation I urge not this point as thinking it unfit to furnish his Majesties good friends and Allyes who have had with us one common enemy for many yeares But all politique Estates have well observed this precept Ut sic tractarent amicum tanquam inimicum futurum For what are all the Ships in the world to be valued at other then a company of floating tubs were they not furnished with Ordnance either to offend others or defend themselves If a Ship of a thousand runs had in her a thousand Muskateers and never a great Gun with one Crumster carrying ten or thirteene Culverins she may be beaten to pieces and her men slaughtered Certainly the advantage which the English had by their Bowes and Arrowes in former times was never so great as we might now have had by our Iron Ordnance if we had either kept it within the Land kept it from our enemies or imparted it to our friends moderately For as by the former we obteined many notable victories and made our selves masters of many parts of France so by the latter we might have Commanded the Seas and thereby the Trade of the world it selfe But we have now to our future prejudice and how far to our prejudice I know not forged Hammers and delivered them out of our hands to breake our owne Bones withall For the conclusion of this dispute there are five manifest causes of the upgrowing of the Hollanders and Zelanders 1. The first is the favour and assistance of Queene Elizabeth and the Kings Majesty which the late worthy and famous Prince of Orange did alwayes acknowledge and in the yeare 1582. when I tooke my leave of him at Antwerpe After the returne of the Earle of Leicest into England And Monsieur's arrivall there when he delivered me his Letters to her Majesty He prayed me to say to the Queen from him Sub umbra alarum tuarum protegimur for certainly they had withered in the Bud and sunck in the beginning of their Navigation had not her Majesty assisted them 2. The second cause was The imploying of their owne people in their Trades and Fishings and the entertaining of strangers to serve them in their armies by Land 3. The third is the fidelity of the house of Nassawe and their services done them especially of that Renowned Prince Maurice now living 4. The fourth the withdrawing of the Duke of Parma twice into France while in his absence he recovered those strong places of Zealand and Frizland as Deventer Zuphen c. 5. And the fifth the imbarging and confiscating of their Ships in Spaine which constrained them and gave them courage to Trade by force into the East and West Indies and in Africa in which they imploy 180 Ships and 8700 Marriners The successe of a Counsell so contrary to their wisdome that gave it as all the wit and all the force the Spaniards have will hardly if ever recover the damage thereby received For to repaire that ruine of the Hollanders trade into both Indies the Spaniards did not only labour the truce But the King was content to quit the Sovereigntie of the united Provinces and to acknowledge them for free States neither holding nor depending on the Crowne of Spaine But be their estates
thereof is so imprinted in their hearts And so passionatly imbraced by their greedy desires As if every one laid claime for himself unto that which was conferred upon all This appeared in the Gaules who falling upon Italy under their Captaine Brennus told the Roman Ambassadours plainly that prevalent arms were as good as any title and that valiant men might account to be their owne as much as they could get That they wanting Land therewith to susteine their people And the Tuscanes having more then enough It was their meaning to take what they needed by strong hand if it were not yeilded quietly Now if it be well affirmed by Lawyers that there is no taking of possession more just then In vacuum venire to enter upon Land unhabited As our Countrymen have lately done in the Summer Islands Then may it be inferred that this demand of the Gaules held more of reason then could be discerned at the first view For if the title of occupiers be good in a Land unpeopled why should it be bad accounted in a Country Peopled over thinly should one family or one thousand hold possession of all the Southerne undiscovered continent because they had seated themselves in Nova Guiana or about the Straits of Magalane why might not the like be done in Africk in Europe or in Asia If this were most absurd to imagine Let then any mans wisdome determine by lessening the Territory and increasing the number of Inhabitants what proportion is requisite to the peopling of a Region in such manner That the Land shall be neither too narrow for those whom it feedeth nor capable of a greater multitude Untill this can be concluded and agreed upon one maine and fundamentall cause of the most grievous Warre that can be imagined is not like to be taken from the Earth It were perhaps enough in reason to succour with victualls and other helps a vast multitude compelled by necessity to seeke a new feare or to direct them unto a Country able to receive them But what shall perswade a mighty Nation to travaile so farre by Land or Sea over Mountaines Deserts And great Rivers with their Wives and Children when they are or thinke themselves powerfull enough to serve themselves neerer hand and inforce others into the Labour of such a Journey I have briefely shewed in an other worke that the miseries accompaning this kind of War are most extreame For as much as the Invaders cannot otherwise be satisfied then by rooting out or expelling the Nation upon which they fall And although the uncertainty of tenure by which all worldly things are held minister very unpleasant meditation yet is it most certaine that within 1200. yeares last past all or the most of Kingdomes to us knowne have throughly felt the calamities of such forcible trasplantations being either over whelmed by new Collonies that fell upon them or driuen as one wave is driven by an other to seeke new seates having lost their owne Our Westerne parts of Europe indeed have cause to rejoyce and give praise to God for that we have been free about 600 years from such Inundations As were those of the Gothes Humes and Vandalls yea from such as were those of our owne Ancestors the Saxons Danes and Normans But howsoever we have together with the feeling lost the very memory of such wretchednesse as our Fore-fathers endured by those Wars of all other the most cruell Yet are there few Kingdomes in all Asia that have not been ruined by such overflowing multitudes within the same space of these last six hundred yeares It were an endlesse labour to tell how the Turks and Tartars falling like Locusts upon that quarter of the world having spoiled every where and in most places Eaten up all as it were by the roots Consuming together with the Princes formerly Reigning and a world of people the very names language and memory of former times Suffice it that when any Country is overlaid by the multitude which live upon it there is a naturall necessity compelling it to disburthen it self and lay the Load upon others by right or wrong For to omit the danger of Pestilence often visitting those which live in a throng there is no misery that urgeth men so violently unto desperate courses and contempt of death as the Torments or Threats of famine whereof the Warre that is grounded upon this generall remâ—dilesse necessity may be tearmed the generall the Remedilesse or the necessary War Against which that our Country is better provided as may be shewed hereafter Then any civill Nation to us knowne we ought to hold it a great blessing of God And carefully retaine the advantages which he hath given us now Besides this remedilesse or necessary Warre which is frequent There is a Warre voluntary and Customeable unto which the offering party is not compelled And this Customary Warre which troubleth all the world giveth little respite or breathing time of peace doth usually borrow pretence from the necessary to make it self appeare more honest For Covetous Ambition thinking all too little which presently it hath supposeth it self to stand in need of all which it hath not Wherefore if two bordering Princes have their Territory meeting on an open Champaigne the more mighty will continually seeke occasion to extend his limits unto the further border thereof If they be divided by Mountaines they will fight for the mastery of the passages of the Tops And finally for the Towns that stand upon the roots If Rivers run between them they contend for the Bridges And thinke themselves not well assured untill they have fortified the further banck Yea the Sea it selfe must be very broad barren of fish and void of little Islands interjacent else will it yeild plentifull argument of quarrell to the Kingdomes which it severeth All this proceeds from desire of having and such desire from feare of want Hereunto may be added That in these Arbitrary Wars there is commonly to be found some small measure of necessity though it seldome be observed perhaps because it extendeth not so far as to become publique For where many younger sonnes of younger Brothers have neither Lands nor means to uphold themselves and where many men of Trade or usefull possessions know not how to bestow themselves for lack of Imployments there can it not be avoided that the whole body of the State howsoever otherwise healthfully disposed should suffer anguish by the greivance of those ill affected Members It sufficeth not that the Country hath wherewith to susteine even more then live upon it if means be wanting whereby to drive convenient participation of the generall store unto a great number of well deservers In such cases there will be complaining Commiseration and finally murmur as men are apt to lay the blame of those evills whereof they know the ground upon publike misgovernment unlesse order be taken for some redresse by the sword of Injury supposed to be done by Forreigners whereto the discontented sort
he imposed the like penance upon England Also when our King Edward the First made Warre upon the Scots word came from Rome that he should surcease for that the Kingdome of Scotland belonged unto the Popes Chappell A great oversight it was of St. Peter that he did not accurse Nero and all heathen Princes whereby the Popes Chappell might have gotten all that the Devill offered and our Saviour refused Yet what need was there of such a banne Since Fryar Vincent of Valnarda could tell Atatalipa King of Peru That all the Kingdomes of the Earth were the Popes who had bestowed more then halfe thereof upon the King of Spaine If the Pope will have it so it must be so otherwise I should have interpreted that place in Genesis Increase and multiply and fill the Earth As spoken to Noah and his Children not as directed only to Tubal Homer and Phatto the supposed Fathers of the old Iberians Gothes and Moores of whom the Spanish blood is compounded But of such impudent presumption in disposing of countryes farre remote And whereto the sword must acquire a better title the mischiefe is not presently discerned It were well if his Holinesse had not loved to set the world in an uproare by nourishing of War among those that respected him as a Common Father His dispensing with oaths taken for agreement between one King and another or between Kings and Subjects doe speake no better of him For by what right was it That Fardinand of Arragon won the Kingdome of Navar why did not the Confederacie that was between Lewis the Twelfth of France and the Venetians hinder that King from warring upon Venice why did not the like between England and France hinder our King Henry the eighth for warring upon the same King Lewis Was it not the Pope who did set on the French to the end that himself might get Ravenna from the Venetians Why was it not the same Pope who afterwards upon desire to drive the French out of Italie excommunicated Lewis and his adherents By vertue of which Excommunication Fardinand of Arragon seized upon Navarr And served not the same Warrant to set our Henry upon the back of France But this was not our Kings fault more then all the peoples We might with shame confesse it if other Countries had not been as blindly superstitious as our Fathers That a Barque of Apples blessed by the Pope and sent hither for presents unto those that would be forward in the War upon France made all our English hasty to take Armes in such sort as the Italians wondred and laughed to see our men no lesse greedy of those Apples then Eve was of the forbidden fruit for which they were to hazard their lives in an unjust War Few ages have wanted such and more grievous examples of the Popes tumultuous disposition but these were amongst the last that fell out before his unholinesse was detected Now for his dispensing betweene Kings and their Subjects we need not seeke instances far from home He absolved our King Iohn of an oath given to his Barons and people The Barons and people he afterwards discharged of their alleageance to King Iohn King Henry the third had appeased this Land how wisely I say not by taking such an oath as his Father had done swearing as he was a Knight A Christian and a King But in a Sermon at Paules People were taught how little was to be reposed on such assurance the Popes dispensation being there openly read which pronounced that Oath voyde Good cause why For that King had the patience to live like neither Knight nor King But as the Popes Tenant and Rent-gatherer of England But when the same King adventured to murmure the Pope could threaten to teach him his duty with a vengeance And make him know what it was to winch and play the Fredericke Thus we see what hath been his Custome to oppresse Kings by their people And the people by their Kings yet this was for serving his owne turne Wherein had our King Henry the sixt offended him which King Pope Iulius would after for a little money have made a Saint Neverthelesse the Popes absolving of Rich Duke of Yorke from that honest oath which he had given by mediation of all the Land to that good King occasioned both the Dukes and the Kings ruine And therewithal those long and cruell Wars betweene the Houses of Lancaster and Yorke and brought all England into an horrible Combustion What he meant by this I know not unlesse to verifie the Proverbe Omnia Romae venalia I will not urge the dispensation whereby the Pope released King Philip the second of Spaine from the solemne Oath by which he was bound to maintaine the priviledges of the Netherlands though this Papall indulgence hath scarce as yet left working And been the cause of so many hundred thousands slaine for this last forty years in the Netherlands Neither will I urge the Pope encouraging of Henry the second and his sons to the last of them against the French Protestants the cause of the first three Civill Warres And lastly of the Leavyings of Byrons in which there hath perished no lesse number then in the Low-Countryes For our Country it affords an example of fresh memory since we should have had as furious Warre as ever both upon us and amongst us in the daies of our late famous Soveraigne Queene Elizabeth if Pope Pius his Bull Could have gored as well as it could Bellow Therefore it were not amisse to answer by a Herald the next Pontificall attempt of like nature rather sending defiance as to an enemy then publishing answers as to one that had here to doe though in deed he had never here to doe by any lawfull power either in Civill or Ecclesiasticall businesse after such time as Brittaine was won from the Romane Empire For howsoever it were ordered in some of the first holy generall Councills that the Bishop of Rome should be Patriarch over these quarters yea or it were supposed that the forged Canons by which he now challengeth more then precedency and primacie had also been made indeed yet could this little help his claime in Kingdomes that hold not of the Empire For those right holy Fathers as in matters of Faith they did not make truth But religiously expounded it so in matters of Ecclesiasticall Government they did not create provinces for themselves But ordered the Countries which they then had They were assemblies of all the Bishops in the Romane world and with the Romane dominion only they medled Requisite it is that the faith which they taught should be imbraced in all Countryes As it ought likewise to be entertained if the same had been in like sort illustrated not by them but by a generall Councill of all Bishops in the great Kingdome of the Abissines which is thought to have been Christian even in those daies But it was not requisite nor is that the Bishops of Abissines or of India