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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A11511	The free schoole of vvarre, or, A treatise, vvhether it be lawfull to beare armes for the seruice of a prince that is of a diuers religion; Quaestio quodlibetica. English	Sarpi, Paolo, 1552-1623.; Bedell, William, 1571-1642.; Brent, Nathaniel, Sir, 1573?-1652.	1625 (1625)	STC 21758; ESTC S116734	27,201	78

THE FREE SCHOOLE OF WARRE OR A TREATISE WHETHER IT BE LAWFVLL TO beare Armes for the seruice of a Prince that is of a diuers RELIGION DIEV ET MON DROIT LONDON Printed by IOHN BILL Printer to the Kings most excellent Maiestie 1625. TO THE READER THis Discourse by birth an Italian is now at last vpon some aduise turned English The necessitie of these Times and the perturbed Face of Christendome wherein it can hardly bee iudged whither the Distempers or Dangers are greater doe seeme to inuite the publication of the same It will serue to open the vnderstandings of sober and dispassionate men that they may detest the Practises of Factious Papalines and discerne with what impious cunning they adulterate Religion and force her to play a part on the Stage of their State-reasons and Temporall interests And this is the prime Weapon wherewithall they now fight which when it meeteth with a Conscience that is Tender or Simple it easily obtaines the conquest because it findes the one without Armes and the other without Skill Hence it ariseth that the kindely Warmth which Religion is wont to communicate to mens actions wherby they merite the appellation of Zealous is by this preposterous appliance turned into Flame and Furie so that like the heate of Feauers it no longer comforts but consumes Deuotion I doe not purpose to blot much paper in commendation of the Author Hee is as farre from the desire as he is from the neede of such helpes to Fame Yet let mee modestly say this little of him An Jtalian he is and a Romanist in Religion who liuing neere these Motions and therefore the better able to distinguish the Obliquities of them hath with so correct a pen and with that iudgement and penetration discouered the Masking of Jesuits and some other Priests vnder the Garments of Religion as that a more exact Peece of this kind is hardly any where to be found His name as his owne silence bids me shall not by any Curiosities or Coniectures of mine be raked into let him in peace enioy his Priuacie and thou the benefit of his Labour It appeares that hee was desirous to doe good not ambitious to receiue honour And in this qualitie I present him vnto thy view with his owne lineaments and parts in his Entire only I haue apparrelled him in English Clothes Thou mayst now at thy pleasure entertaine his acquaintance it will not be the lesse worthy of thee because it is easie and at hand vnlesse like some Disseasoned Palats thou doost nauseate at Plentie and longest onely after things that are hard to come by or forbidden W. B. THE TRVE SCHOOLE OF WARRE OR A TREATISE WHEther it be lawfull to beare Armes for the seruice of a Prince that is of a diuers RELIGION CErtaine Italian gentlemen who for the better attainement of militarie skill serued in the Armie of the States in the Low Countries did the Holy weeke last past which is the weeke of preparation before Easter present and prostrate themselues before a Confessor in the towne of the Haghe that so they might reueale their sinnes and from him receiue absolution But the Priest that was thus by them elected for their Spirituall Father denyed absolution vnto them all Nothing may bee said to be light or of small estimation where matter of Religion and of Conscience is handled but rather to bee held full of moment and consideration especially ought those points to bee so reputed which treate of remission of the transgressions committed against the Maiestie of God and of the meanes to receiue spirituall consolation from the most holie Sacraments of Penance and Communion And certaine it is that if the Confessor shall proceed vniustly by a pertinacious refusall of Absolution to him vnto whom it doth belong he tyrannically vsurpes vpon the Soule deeply offends the diuine Maiestie abuses the spirituall authoritie committed vnto him and doth intollerably violence the Holy Church and his Neighbour Touching this successe I being to make an answere and to shew what is consonant to diuine and humane Reason and conformable to the sacred Theologie and to the Canons of the holy Catholike Church that my proceeding may bee with order and cleerenesse I hold that the action of the Confessor in refusing absolution to his Ghostly Penitents cannot flow but from one of these Heads or from many of them in vnion and concurrence together 1 Either from a scruple What these gentlemen had to doe to be in that countrey where they serued as souldiers which is that which concerneth the Penitent 2 Or from the Confessors part for that hee had commandement and precise instruction so to do 3 Or in regard the matter it selfe doth so require because it is not lawfull for them being Gentlemen of Italy to dwel in the Low Countries subiect to the LL. the States of Holland without continuance in sinne 4 Or lastly because that they exercising themselues in a militarie profession doe this vnder the banner of the States of Holland against the King of Spaine or the House of Austria I cannot deuise any other ground that the Confessor might haue And vpon euery of these I will very briefely frame my Discourse to the fabricke whereof I will onely bring materials necessarie and agreeable to Catholicke Doctrine For the first It is cleere amongst Diuines primarily and then amongst Canonists and Professors of Cases of Conscience That the errour of the mind concerning humane actions which judgeth of them sinisterly and is called an erronious Conscience is ligatorie whence it followeth That if those Penitents haue before their Confessor made it a matter of Conscience and haue confessed their dwelling and seruing as souldiers as a sinne and cannot calme and dispossesse their Consciences of that errour the Confessor might and ought by the rules of Conscience to deny them absolution because whosoeuer actually doth perseuere in his sinne and is persuaded by his Conscience albeit erronious that hee doth sinne and will not abstaine from it hee may not be absolued But this cannot be in our Case because it is knowne expressely that the Confessor was he who raised the scruple in his Penitents of a matter which they neuer held to be a sinne and it came to such termes that hee denied them the spirituall comfort of absolution vnlesse they would promise to depart from those countries And this is easily euicted by argument For if it had beene a scruple of the Penitents it is not probable that the same should haue happened vnto them all and after the same manner as that all should frame and fancie to themselues an incapacitie of absolution And albeit all of them had fallen vpon the very same scruple yet did the Confessor know whether it were a scruple of reason and foundation or whether it were deuoide both of reason and ground Whether or no it were reasonable shall herafter be demonstrated and proofe made that it cannot hold water If it be without the ground-worke of

on him to iudge of the warres which the Spaniards make as heretofore some haue done of the Schismes in the Church of Rome That there hauing beene a matter of fiftie seuerall Schismes yet they which had iustice and right on their side did euer remaine the Conquerors whereupon of fiue examples whereof wee read John the tenth Leo the ninth Pius the second Gregory the sixt and Iulius the second from the first of these to the last the three intermediate Popes were ouerthrowne and two of those were taken prisoners one of them Leo the ninth being a Cannonised Saint The Kings of Spaine in our memory haue in a manner made warre against all the Princes of the world directly or indirectly In the Indies and New world they haue seised on an infinitie of Countries made a world of free-borne people slaues and become the Lords and Masters of the liues and goods of those that were the antient proprietaries of them They haue attempted England falne vpon Ireland in a very open and notorious manner They haue vndermined France with Leagues which were christned Holy and with rebellions of the subiects that belonged to that Crowne They haue made warre with the Princes of Germanie and taken vp names in trust to iustifie the same The most famous Republicke of Venice the Duke of Sauoy and the Church with the Pope himselfe may witnesse what his goodnesse hath done to Italy where they sacked Rome and made the Pope prisoner And they speake it openly and aloude That a great Empire cannot subsist without warre Is it possible that iustice should euer stand on their side except it be after the profession of Gentiles That God fauoured him that had most power and is it sufficient to cleere the iustnesse of the warre although they should attempt the very Heauen it selfe because forsooth they begin it But the difference is too large to speake of a matter in Thesi and to discourse of the same in Hypothesi Let vs draw neerer to the particular Case and let vs giue it for granted though not for true That the King of Spaine hath reason be it what it will bee to make warre against the States although they affirme the contrarie and that he first outraged them by the debauchment of their Councellors and subiects by seminating amongst them seditions in State and diuisions in Religion of which the Iesuites and other Religious persons haue beene made the Ministers and inciters by breach of publike Faith in Truces which hee was sworne to keepe by planting a pleasant credulitie in them till as it were by a signall giuen hee might vniustly and suddenly take armes against them But as I sayd Let the truth hereof appeare as it may I would in the meane time but aske the good Conscience of this Confessor or of others that direct and bend him Whiles the Spaniard resolues to assault that Common-wealth makes his preparations and his armies are in motion what should the States doe are they idle and at leasure to waite on the discretion of their Enemies and pray them not to passe the bounds of iust Restitution If this bee the Case and that his pretence be to make himselfe Master of those Prouinces by Armes who can then rest secure of their liues and of their wiues honors when they shall suffer him to seise on the Country without taking vp weapons to resist him These are prettie tales to tell by the fires side for recreation not persuasions to be represented to the Maiestie of Princes If it should fall into deliberation and Counsell Whether it were fit to make warre or no an examination of the iustice or iniustice of the quarrell might then be admitted But my Reuerend Confessor takes on him like a Prince engaged in warre many yeares since What doth he thinke That hee is brought hither to bee the Judge and Vmpire whether the warre on the States side bee right or wrong and that thereupon hee is Ex Tripode to pronounce his sentence To say troth men of vnderstanding do strangely wonder and Princes haue a iust subiect to bee highly displeased and deepely to ressent the timeritie and petulancie of some Priests and Confessors who passing the confines of their Office in Confessions prouoke Soueraignetie and make themselues Judges and Censurers of the actions of Princes A Prince can no sooner procure a Contribution or lay on an Imposition but they will straight sit vpon it as Iudges whether the Cause be iust or vniust The same Masteries they would play in Confederacies of peace war and yet all this were in some sort tollerable if they did it in relation meerly to themselues but the importance of it lyes in this That they taint the fidelitie of subiects in Confession they put the Prince into scuruie apprehensions they perturbe the Consciences of publicke Ministers and they do insensibly worke such mischief as the very Enemies of the State cannot desire more Miserable is the condition of the Reason of State That beeing a Reason diuine naturall free and independant it should yet be fettered with the Censures of those who are no way capable to discerne of it and that the Reason of Warre being likewise held as indeed it is a Soueraigne reason must be inthralled I will not say to the iudgement but to the capriciousnesse of one that cannot by any meanes attaine to know the true grounds that are to gouerne it The greatest Statesmen haue much doubted whether it were possible to giue iudgement touching the iustnesse of a warre For whosoeuer will determine the iustnesse of it must of necessitie ordaine it by circumscribing the ●ame with certaine Lawes by which the iustice of warre is to be regulated but so it would leaue to be a supreame and soueraign Reason But to let alone those disputes one thing is so certaine that no man can denie it That a common or publicke good is superior to any good that is priuate and this ought to be ruled by that and that to attempt the vse of the contrarie is the ruine of the State and the peruersion of all Lawes both Diuine and Humane The care of the Common good God hath together with Soueragnetie committed vnto the Prince for it is his office alone to prescribe the meanes of conseruing and maintaining this Good whether it bee by impositions or by warre or by leagues or by any other course whatsoeuer And hee that in this point shall intermedle or make himselfe a Iudge and Censurer whether he be Confessor or other hee offends against Soueraigntie and worketh against that respect and reuerence which is by Nature instilled and in the Sacred Scriptures by God himselfe commanded and which euery one ought to carry toward the Prince who is Gods Vicegerent and Lieutenant in the Gouernement of the State And therefore Godly men and conscionable Priests haue the deliberations of Princes in veneration doe not make themselues Judges of them As for the miserable subterfuge of such as excuse themselues That they doe not become Judges in these Cases of Princes but that the warre may bee vniust out of the notoriousnesse of the fact it is not applyable to our present purpose because first it may bee replied Quo iure is it notorious by the Cannon or Ciuile Law But these are inferiour and not superior to the Reason of warre Againe is it notorious by reason of the Publicke Good or of the Priuate If by this why this must be subiect and giue way vnto the Publicke If by the Publicke the care of that appertaines to the Prince And lastly these euasions take no place in warre that is vndertaken for necessary defence If after all this it should bee sayd That Lawyers besides the iustice of the Cause in warre doe looke after and that in the first place the iustice and right of the Dominion Bellum iustum Iustitia Imperij it would bee an intollerable impudence in a Priest without any regard had of that which passed in the Truce wherein the States were by the King of Spaine himselfe acknowledged for Soueraigne Independant and Lawfull that hee should passe so farre as to arrogate to himselfe the examination of Dominions and the titles of them and thereby to ordaine himselfe Iudge of Temporall States and Seigniories Whereas the Holy Writ commands That we should looke into these matters no further than to hold those Princes that raigne to bee appointed by God himselfe And scarsely is it permitteed to Soueraigne Princes to enter into the titles of Dominion which the States or others haue and for priuate persons they ought not to make any iudgement thereupon but by the possession leauing the rest to Almightie God who transferreth Rule and Dominion by those meanes which seeme aptest and best vnto his Diuine Prouidence And if it should be held fit to follow the opinions of others especiall of the parties interessed in decreeing Who Rules with iust and vniust titles the world would be reduced to very few Princes and by this time there would haue beene one Spirituall Pope and one Temporall King or else one sole Spirituall and Temporall Monarke FINIS

did inuite them The same is obserued to haue continued all the while that the Iewes did dwell amongst the Gentiles and in the cities of Idolaters as serued best for their ease and purpose And this remained constant and vninterrupted vntill the comming of our Lord into the World in which tim it apapereth by the Scripture of the New Testament That the true Beleeuers which then were the Hebrewes were dispersed and scattered in the Countries of Asia Affricke Europe and dwelt in Rome it selfe And in those dayes there was amongst the Iewes a Sect called in the Gospell The Heresie of the Saduces who denied that there were any spirituall Creatures or Angells or Soules or Resurrection of the dead and yet they dwelt with the rest and they with them neither did any then euer pretend to reprooue this libertie or to prohibit men from going or abiding where they themselues best liked And after the publication of the Holy Gospell the same libertie remained in all ages neither shall you find that euer any did pretend to the contrarie vntill Clement the eight And yet there were in the Church so many Sects Diuisions and Heresies of that power as that they filled whole Cities Countries Kingdomes and Empires Witnesse the Arians in particular who seemed to haue taken possession of the whole Earth in so much as Jerome with great bitternesse sayd of them That the World was amased to finde it selfe turned Arian And these with the Princes of this Sect held the Easterne Empire Affricke and a great part of Italy and yet it will not bee proued that euer it was endeauoured that the libertie of Catholicks should bee taken from them so that they might not trauell abide inhabit or traffike where it should seeme best vnto them And if there appeared danger to any particular man to him in particular did they apply admonitions and persuasions by their friends and ghostly Fathers but neuer durst they forme a generall Command for the people of a whole Nation and of this there can be no example alleadged But you will finde the Apostolicall Doctrine of Saint Paul to the contrarie that if of two ioyned together the one shall be a Beleeuer and the other an Infidell and this shall consent to liue with the Beleeuer let the Beleeuer liue with him and not abandon him And thereupon the Canonists haue framed a Rule with this exception onely That the seperation is commanded then meerely when they cannot Cohabit without iniurie vnto the Creator And this Rule will by reason of this restriction so much the more serue for our purpose The Cannons of seperating a mans selfe from hereticall or excommunicate persons doe likewise make for our Case because it is one thing to abstaine from the conuersation of a particular person that is censured by the Church and another thing not to remaine in a Countrey that is diuerse in Faith from vs for so that which is done against an Hereticke in fauour of Religion might be turned to the disfauour and disaduantage of the libertie of a Beleeuer and a Catholicke concerning whom none will say that he cannot so dwell without an iniury done to the Creator For otherwise all the Catholickes of England Jreland and Scotland and of other Kingdomes too should bee bound to auoid their Countries And therefore to goe to stay to inhabite to trafficke and to serue in war are all ciuile actions and not spirituall And if any could or ought to frame commaundements on them it is an office that belongs to Secular Princes vnto which the Ecclesiastickes can make no pretension vnlesse they will arbitrarily vsurpe vpon others authority without Law or Scripture nay rather against all Law and Scripture But in the meane time all the other countries of Christendome doe enioy this freedome so that neither Pope nor Prelate forbids the Spaniards French Germanes nor Polackes that are Catholicke to goe and abide where they will what reason then is there that onely Jtalians should finde worse Conditions and that this bondage should bee imposed on them alone Either this matter concernes Saluation or no if it doe not why then should the Ecclesiasticks thrust their sickle into other mens corne If it concerne Saluation in this neither the Scriptures nor holy Apostles euer knew distinction of Nations or people Neither would they now giue authoritie vnto any Ecclesiasticke to make decrees in the like matter although in some sort it might bee thought expedient and conducing to saluation For the Canonists themselues who giue power to the Prelate indirectly in temporall things haue not yet dared to passe further except as the power in Temporals concerneth saluation out of necessitie onely and not out of congruitie or for bettering the state of Saluation For otherwise Ecclesiasticks might in all things command absolutely as it may bee they might thinke it profitable for the saluation of many persons that some should build Churches others should giue all they haue vnto the poore that some should not marry that others should bee clad rather after one fashion than another that some should leaue marchandising that a Prince should renounce his Kingdome and turne priuate man that others should lay aside the art which they professe And by this meanes would they become the absolute Masters of all wealth and of all States and which is more of the very thoughts But if the indirect cannot bee meant vnlesse it bee for the necessitie of the Spirituall it will lye on him who pretends to giue such commands to shew how this restraint of the Italian Nation onely is necessary to saluation and not of others too and why Italians alone cannot attaine to their saluation if they dwell in such like Countries and if it really bee an impediment to saluation how may it bee taken away by a peece of paper that containes the Licence which they are to carry with them Besides if Superiors doe send Priests into the Protestant Countries that vnder other shewes they may administer the Sacraments vnto such as albeit they liue vnder Protestant Princes are notwithstanding in Religion Catholicks doe they not thereby conceiue and approue that saluation may there bee had without abandoning those Countries If so then may Italians obtaine the like and that with lesse impediment because they beeing strangers may lawfully make publike profession in the Houses of Embassadors of the exercise of Catholicke Religion so that the Priest cannot hereupon constraine them to depart from thence although hee should iudge it to be more commodious for them to liue in Italy Therefore as it hath beene shewed necessitie only doth grant vnto them indirect authority in Temporals euen by the opinion of the Canonists otherwise if it should bee iudged better for Catholick Religion That the Pope should in Temporals bee inuested with the Kingdomes of France Spaine and Germany they might ordaine that those Countries should by the renunciation of the possident Princes be deliuered vp vnto him And wee see that our Blessed