greedy of Wine so are the Spaniards greedy of another mans wealth and so to interdict the German his wine were the same as to prohibit the Spaniard he shold not robb which was one of the ten Commandements of God Almighty where you shall not find any against drinking And as the peeple of Spain are such robbers so the Kings of Spain are the greatest of all They are Robbers of whole Kingdoms and Countreys they are the Harpies of the earth for whersoever they confine they cast about how to devoure their Neighbours using all artifices and picking any quarrell to that end in so much that those Virgilian Verses may very well quadrat with their practises Armati Terram exercent semperque resentes Convectare juvat praedas vivere rapto The greatnes of this Nation is but Modern and upstart when the fortune of France was a little wayning Spain began to shine first under Ferdinand King of Aragon Grandfather to Charles the V. so that as one sayd Ubi Galli desierunt Rerum potiri ibi Hispani inceperunt This Ferdinand the first Catholique King vail'd and varnish'd all his Enprizes with the plausible pretext of advancing Religion yet were his pen and his tongue double in doing this he carryed oftentimes two faces under one hood and played with a staff of two ends in his greatest negotiations specially in the performance of Articles 'twixt him and the French King Lewis the XII about the division of the Kingdom of Naples that he shold have Calaba and Apulia and the French Naples and Campania But afterwards he sent his great Captain Gonsalvo who conquer'd both He got also the Kingdom of Navarr by a trick for when an English Army who was sent from Hen. the 8. of England for his assistance was to passe from Spain to Aquitain and the King of Navarr who t is tru was then under Excommunication together with the King of France desiring his English son-in-lawes Forces leave to passe through his Country Ferdinand took his advantage hereby with the help of the English to seaze upon the Kingdom of Navar and thrust out Iohn Labretan who was then lawfull King And to make his cause more specious and pretend som right he insisted upon the censure of the Pope saying That they who were enemies to the Holy Father might be assaulted by any Christian King and that his Holines was to give the Countrey to the first Conquerour Now touching the East and West Indies the Spanish title is unquestionable there you will say but let us examin the busines a little The right which the Spaniards pretend to these two Indies is Right of Discovery For the East Indies it hath been so celebrated by ancient Pagan Writers that to hold the Spaniard to be the first De tector therof were to maintain the grossest paradox that ever was For Pliny relates how Hanno the Carthaginian being carryed about from the feet of Gibraltar to the farthest end of Arabia was the first discoverer of India by twice crossing the Equinoctiall And 't is easie to finde in antient Authors that Malacca was call'd Aurea Cherchonesus and that huge Iland Sumatra was known formerly by the name of Tatrobana what is he who is never so little vers'd in Antiquity but hath read the Orientall Brachman Philosophers and of the Sinenses the peeple of China Touching the West Indies they were not unknown to Plato for whereas he placeth Atlantidis at the mouth of the Gaditan Frete which is the mouth of the Mediterranean he sayeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ther is from Atlantidis a passage to other Ilands and from them to a great opposit Continent What doth he intimat herby but the great Canarie with other Ilands in the Atlantique Sea and by the other Ilands Cuba and Hispaniola by the opposit Continent Peru and Mexico Moreover the Spaniards themselfs confesse that in a valley call'd Cautis in the Province of Chyli they found among the Sauvages many pictures and formes of two-headed Eagles in midst of their houses therfore the Spaniards call that part of AMERICA The Imperiall Province to this day because the Armes of the Roman Empire were found there There is a greater evidence then this that the Spaniards were not the first discoverers of America for ther was a Welsh Epitaph found there upon Madoc a British Prince who it seems flying from the fury of the Saxons in England put himself in som Bark to the fortune of the Sea and landed in America And that the old Britains or Welsh were there it may be confirmd further in regard ther are divers British words found amongst them to this day But what shall we wander so far in the Indies We will come neerer home We know well that Solyman the Turk denied Charles the V. the title of Roman Emperor alledging that he himself was the tru successor of Constantin the Great who was Emperour of East and West And that consequently the City of Rome belongd to the Ottoman Empire and Selim Solymans son urgd such an argument when he took Cypres from the Venetians for he sayed that the sayed Ile appertained to the Soldans of Egipt which was now under his dominion But the Apostolicall concession and bounty of Pope Alexandor the VI. entitles the King of Spain to America touching that I pray here what Attabalipa a wild Pagan King sayd when he heard that his Kingdome was given by the Pope to the Spanish King surely said he that Pope must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foâ—…l or som injust and impudent Tyrant that will undertake to bestow othâ—…r mens possessions so freely But his title may be just you will say for the propagation of Christian Religion yet Christ enacted no such Law that any free peeple shold be made slaves much lesse murther'd and tortur'd either for refusing the Gospell or continuing in their former Religion ther was not any of the Apostles claym'd a Kingdom for his preaching Saint Paul preaching to the Romans did not demand the Empire Our Saviour sayd Go and preach the Gospell to all Nations The Spaniard's lesson is Go and preach the Roman Religion and the Spanish Empire to all Nations and keep under you or kill whosoever shall resist For the first Doctrine which the Spaniards were us'd to vent in any place was Vos Indiani hujus loci Yee Indians of this place we make known unto you All that there is but one God one Pope one King of Spain which you must all obey Thus Motezuna King of Mexico and Atabalipa Emperour of Peru were brought under the yoke though they gave a house full of Gold for their ransome But the Indians did more upon the Spaniards then the Spaniards could do upon them for they brought more Spaniards to adore the Indian Gold then the Spaniards brought Indians to adore Christ Herupon a company of Indians being ready to fall into the Spaniards hands carryed som Gold into the Market place saying This is the Spaniards God le ts dance
of learning who were marvellously famous for wisdom and knowledge This Iland doth partake with Creet now Candie in one property which is that she produceth no Venemous creature as Toads Vipers Snakes Spiders and the like and if any be brought thither they die It is wonderfull what huge confluences of birds do flutter about the shores of this Iland as also of Scotland which offuscate the broad face of Heaven sometimes and likewise such huge shoales of Fish A thousand things more might be spoken of these Ilands which are fitter for a Volume then a Panegyrical Oration I will end with the end of the World and that is the I le of Shetland which most of your great Geographers take to be that ultima Thule that terminates the Earth which lyeth under 63. degrees and the most Northern point of Scotland And now most Noble Princes since the most generous I le of Great Britain and her handmaid Ilands which indeed are without number doth as it were overflow with abundance of all commodities that conduce to the welfare and felicity of mankind and is able to afford her neighbours enough besides as the Hollander confesseth when he saith that he lives partly upon the Idlenesse and superfluity of the English Since the antient Britaines were the first displayers of Christianity in most part of the Western World Since of late years they have been such Navigators that they have swom like Leviathans to both the Indies yea to the other Hemisphere of the Earth among the Antipodes since that in the Newfound World they have so many Colonies Plantations and Ilands yea a good part of the Continent of America annexed to the Crown of England And since that Her inhabitants for Comelines and courage for arts and armes as the Romans themselves confessed whose conquests in other places had no horizon Invictos Romano Marte Britannos I say that all circumstances and advantages Maturely considered Great Britain may well be a Candidate and conte nd for priority and the Dictatorship with other Provinces of Europe For my part according to the motto upon Saint George his Garter Hony soit quimaly pense let him be beraid who thinks any hurt by holding this opinion which neverthelesse I most humbly submit to this Princely Tribunall ANOTHER ORATION OF THE Lord WOLF ANGUS BARON of STUBENBERG For GREAT BRITAIN Most Illustrious President and Princes MY most dear Lord and Cosen the Baron of Eubeswald hath made an Elogium of the noble I le of Great Britain as copious and as full of Eloquence as the I le itself is full of all things that are requisite for humane accommodation but most humbly under favour in this survey there are some things pretermitted which are peculiar to Great Britain and worthy the taking notice of one is the generous strong-bodied and dauntless race of Dogs which that I le produceth whereof Claudian makes mention Magnaque taurorum fracturi colla Britanni Britain hath Dogs that will break the huge necks of Buls I do not mean by these Buls those fierce and truculent White-buls which are found in the woody Caledonian hils of Scotland who are so wild that they will not touch any thing that men have handled or blown upon for they cannot only repell but they contemn the assaults of any Dog It was the custom of the Romans to bring in huge Irod Cages the British Dogges to Rome which in their Amphitheatres were put to tugge with huge wild beasts therefore there was an Officer call'd Procurator Cynegiâ—… in Britannis Ventensis The Keeper of the Dog-house among the Britains which Cuiacius would have to be Gynaecii not Cynegii viz. a Work-house for Women not a Kennell for Dogges And Pancirollus is of the same opinion when he saith Gynaecia illa constituta fuisse texendiâ—… principis militumque vestibus navium velis stragulis linteis aliis ad instruendas mansiones necessariis That those Gynecia or Female Work-houses were appointed to weave Garments for the Prince and Souldiery as also Sailes for Ships Beds Tents and other necessaries for furnishing of houses But Wolfangus Lazius holds to the first opinion Procuratorem illum canes Imperatoribus in illa Venta curavisse That the said Procurator did keep and provide Dogges for the Emperour Strabo saith further that Britanni canes erant milites the English Dogs were Souldiers and the old Gaules made use of them so accordingly in their Wars They are also rare Animals for Hunting and herein it is wonderfull what Balaeus hath upon record that two hundred and seventy years before the Incarnation Dordanilla King of Scotland did commit to writing certain precepts for Hunting and to be observed by his subjects which are yet in force Great Britain hath also the most generous and sprightfull Cocks of any Country and 't is a great pleasure to be in one of their Pits at that sport where one shall behold a Cock fight out his eyes and yet retain still his naturall vigour to destroy the other and if these brute Animals Beasts and Birds be thus extraordinary couragious we may well think the rational creatures may hold analogy with them THE ORATION OF THE LORD DANIEL VON WENSIN AGAINST GREAT BRITAIN Most Excellent Lord President and Princes NOw that I am to speak of the Britains I will begin my Oration with that of Ausonius Nemo bonus Britto est No good man is a Britain which ever since grew to be a Proverb God forbid this should be verified of all but I believe I shal rectify the judgment of those noble princes who spoak before me that as I observ'd when I sojourn'd there neither the Countrey of Great Britain nor her Inhabitants are generally so good as they by their perswasive and powerfull Oratory would induce you to give credit unto For as the English sea is unfaithfull and from Beerfleet in Normandy almost to the midst of the chanell is full of rocks and illfavourd ragged places wherin prince VVilliam son to Henry the first and Heir apparant to England and Normandy was cast away by shipwrack together with his sister and a great many noble personages besides so the nature of the Britains may be said to be full of craggs and shelfs of sands that vertue cannot sayle safely among them without hazarding a wreck England is not such a paradis nor the Angli such Angeli though styld so by a Popes mouth which you make them to be most Illustrious Baron of Ewbeswald First for the Countrey it self it is not sufficiently inhabited notwithstanding there be some Colonies of Walloons Hollanders among them The earth doth witnes this which wants culture and the sea is a greater witnes that wants fishermen Touching the first it is a meere desert in some places having no kind of agriculture though she be capable of it And for the other the Hollanders make more benefit upon their coasts then they themselves and which is a very reproachfull thing they use to buy their own fish
whereof the noble Baron hath spoken so much they were very valiant indeed when a silly Shepheardesse Anne d' Arc did beat them away from before Orleans pursued them to Paris and so drive them over the Seine to Normandy and when they could not be reveng'd of this Mayd in the Field being taken by a Stratageme they cut her off by a forged accusation that she was a Sorceresse forsooth Then was the time if the English had comported themselves like men of prowesse and policy to have reduc'd all France under a perpetuall subjection King Charles the seventh being driven to such streights that he was constrain'd to fly to Bourges and so for the time was in a jeering way call'd King of Berry But that notable mayd at her execution being tied to the stake was nothing daunted but left prosperity and victory for a legacy to her Countrey men till the English should be beaten quite out of France as they were afterwards for being driven and dogg'd as far as Calais they kept that a while but afterwards they were by a writ of ejectment publish'd by sound of drum and trumpet as also by the Canon Musket of the Duke of Guise thrust out of Calais and so casheer'd quite out of France which sunck so deep and made such black impressions of sorrow upon the heart of Queen Mary of England that she would often say if she were open'd after death the town of Calais would be found Engraven in her heart Now for the piety goodnes and vertu of the English which the noble Baron did so much magnifie you may judge what it was in those dayes by the ingenuous confession of an English Captain who when he had truss'd up his bagg and bagage to go for England as he was going out of the gate he in a geering way was ask'd O Englishmen when will you back again to France The Captain with a sad serious countenance answer'd When the sinns of France are greater then the sinns of England then will the English return to France Nor indeed had the French much cause to affect the English in regard of their insolence and cruelty wherof there be divers examples for in some good successes they had the victory was more bloody then the battaill cutting of prisoners off in cold blood for their greater security But the English must needs be cruell in a Forren Countrey when they use to be so in their own What a barbarous act was that of Edward the fourth to clapp up his own brother George Duke of Clarence in prison and afterwards to drown him in a butt of Muscadin by a new invention of death But to descend to neerer times what an act of immanity and ignoblenes was that in Queen Elizabeth when she promis'd safety welcom to Mary Queen of Scotts and Dowager of France if she came to England for preventing the machinations of her rebellious subjects against her and afterwards to suffer her to be hurried from one prison to another for twenty yeares and then to suffer her head to be chop'd off and by a cunning kind of dissimulation to lay the fault upon Davison her secretary and throw the bloud into his face under pretence that he sent the warrant for her execution without her knowledge Truly this was a most inglorious act and the reproach of it will never be worn out but will stick as a black spot to England while she is an Iland nor can all the water of the Sea about her wash off the stain but it wil continue still indelible But 't is the more strange that Queen Elizabeth should doe this a Queen that had been herself bred up a good while in the school of affliction and might be said to have come from the Scaffold to the Throne I say 't is strange that she should not be more sensible of anothers calamity Dido the Pagan Queen out of a sweet tendernes could say Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco and it had more becom'd Queen Elizabeth to have said so being a Christian Queen That Queen Elizabeth should do this to her own Cosen and sister Queen one as good as herself who after an invitation to England would never suffer her to have the comfort of her presence all the while That Queen Elizabeth who was cryed up and down the world to be so just so vertuous so full of clemency should do this it doth aggravat the fact much more then if another had done it I must confesse she lost much repute abroad for it Satyres pasquills and invectives being made in every corner of Christendom among others I will recite unto you one that was belch'd out in France which was thus Anglois vous dites qu'entre vous Un seul loup vivant on ne trouve Non mais vous avez une Louve Pire qu'un million de loups No Wolfs ye Englishmen do say Live in your Ile or beasts of prey No but a Wolfesse you have one Worse then a thousand Wolfs alone Among other Kings and Queens of England the example of this Queen and her Father may serve to verifie the saying of Porphyrius which you alledg'd most noble Baron Britannia fertilis Provincia Tyrannorum That Great Britanny is a province fruitfull for Tyrants Now Nimrod was call'd the Robustus Venator the strong Hunter which the Divines do interpret to be a mighty Tyrant And certainly the chasing and hunting of beasts the killing of them the washing of the Kings hands in their blood and feasting with them afterwards must needs make the minds of princes more ferocious and lesse inclinable to clemency wherefore they have a wholsom law in England that no Butcher who is habituated to blood may be capable to be a Juryman to give verdit upon any mans life The Nobles of England may in some kind be call'd Carnificers of some sorts of beasts as the buck and the doe with other such poor harmeles creatures whereof some have no gall in them for having wounded them first and then worried them down with their doggs at last as a signall of victory they bath their fingers in the blood of the poor animall which they call to take the essay but certainly this must conduce to obdurat human hearts and as it were flesh them in blood Now 't is well known there are no Kings on earth such great hunters as the English and who have more of variety of sport in that kind then any for there are more Forests Chaces and Parks besides variety of Royall palaces annexed to the Crown of England then to any other of Europe which might make the Countrey far more copious of corn fuller of cattle and have fewer beggars if they were made arable grounds or turn'd to pasturage Moreover the English Kings may not improperly be call'd Nimrods as Bodin hath it herein considering what rigorous punishments use to be inflicted upon the poor peeple by vertu of the Forest lawes In the book call'd Liber Rufus there
underneath Touching the large Province of York whereas you averre that Constantine and his Mother Helen were Britaines and born there Nicephorus makes a question of it and would have them to be of Bithynia Towards Richmond there are such squalid uncouth places and horrid Mountaines that the English themselves call them the Northern Alpes and there be such roaring streames of water which rush out of them that the inhabitants name them Hell-becks that is Infernal or Stygian Rivers Now for Scotland Good Lord what a pittifull poor Country is it It were no petty kinde of punishment to be banisht thither for it is a Country onely for those to dwell in that want a Country and have no part of the earth besides to dwell upon In some parts the soyl is such that it turns trees to stones and wheat to oats apples to crabbs and melons to pumpions In some places as you pass along you shall see neither bird in the aire nor beast on the earth or worm creeping on the ground nor scarce any vegetall but a black gorsie soyl a raw rheumatique air or some craggy and squalid wild disconselate hils And touching Woods Groves or Trees as Stephen might have scap'd stoning in Holland for want of stones so if Iudas had betrayed Christ in Scotland he might as one sayd have repented before he could have found out a tree to have hang'd himself upon And most noble Auditors you may make easie conjectures of the poverty of Scotland by the demeans of the Crown which scarce amount to a hundred thousand Dollars a year which you know is the ordinary Income of a German Prince and this both Boterus and Bodin do testifie who were Eagle-ey'd Inspectors into the Revenues of all Kingdomes and States And the answer which the Duke of Norfolk made Queen Elizabeth when she reprehended him for his presumption to marry the Queen of Scots doth verifie this Madam said he it is no great presumption in me to attempt this for my Revenues are not much inferiour to the King of Scotlands This induced the Queen Elizabeth to give King Iames her Godsonne and Successor a Pension every year Nor were the Revenues of the Crown of England any thing considerable till of late years that Trade began to encrease so infinitely and consequently the Customes with Suits in Law since the demolition of Abbeyes and the alienation of Church-Lands to the Crowne with the First-fruits Fines and other perquisites by Offices and Courts of Justice I say before these additions to the Crown the Revenue of the Crown of England was but very contemptible in comparison of other Princes I must confesse indeed that in these late Wars the Wealth of England as well as the Strength thereof hath wonderfully appear'd for I believe on both sides there hath been above two hundred Millions consum'd And there is now coming into this new Republique I beleeve above twelve Millions of Crownes every year And for her Strength one may say England was like a Horse she knew not her own strength till now for who would have thought that England could have put forth a hundred thousand foot and forty thousand horse all arm'd besides her power at Sea I say who could have thought it Yet there were so many in number at least betwixt King and Parliament at one time But to reflect again upon Scotland as the Country is pittifully barren insomuch that long Keale and short Keale which is a kind of Cabbidge that they can dress twenty sorts of wayes is one of their principall food besides fish and some odde fowle as the Solan Goose which is their greatest Regalo yet the Eater must stop his nose when he takes a bit into his mouth the smell is so rank and strong I say as the Country is so steril so is the people sordid and subject to vermine Good Lord what nasty little huts and holes shall you finde there up and down what dirty courts and stables above the anckle deep cramm'd with dung The sight of an ordinary Scots woman is a remedy against Lust for they are as big as Cows in the middle Nature seems to make no distinction there between the two sexes but the women commonly are as bigge limb'd as the men These short commons at home drive the men commonly abroad to seek their fortunes in Swethland Denmark and Poland where they are in such multitudes that in case of necessity the King of Poland might put in the field thirty thousand Scots Pedlars though they passe by the name of Merchants for if one can come up to a horse and a pair of panniers he presently assumes that name unto him Now though abroad the Scots are kept under a strict discipline that they cannot steal yet at home they are notable theeves and indeed the Caledonians were ever so to a proverb they goe now under the names of Mossetroupers Hear I pray what their own Country man Iohn Lesley the Bishop of Rosse speaks of them Noctu turmatim per invia loca perque multos maeandros è suis finibus exeunt interdiu in prostitutis latibulis equos viresque suas recreant donec eò tandem per tenebras quo volunt perveniant Arrepta praeda similiter noctu per circuitus devia loca dunt axat ad sua redeunt Quò quisque peritior Dux per illas solitudines anfractus praecipitia media caligine tenebris esse potest is ut ingeniâ—… excellens majore in honore habetur tanta calliditate hi valeut ut rarissimè praedam sibi eripi sinant nifi canum odoratu quorum ductu rectis semper vestigiis insequentium ab adversariis non nunquam capiantur In the night time the Scots doe use to steal forth by troups through odde invious places and divers Meanders and windings they bait in the way in some odde nook or cave where they refresh themselves and their horses untill they come unto the places they aime at where they had intelligence there was booty for them which when they have got they return by some other devious passage wheeling about until they are come to their own home He who is the most cunning conductor through these unfrequented and craggy by-places in the dark is cried up to be a very knowing man and consequently he is held in greatest esteem And so cautious crafty they are in their art this way that their prey is seldome or never taken away from them unlesse they be pursued with Dogs But these Borderers or Mossetroopers which this description aimes at are far inferiour to the Highlanders or Redshankes who sojourne 'twixt craggs and rocks who in the art of Robbery go much beyond all other insomuch that it is a Law in Scotland St quis ex aliqua illorum gente damna intulerit quicunque captus fuerit aut damna resarciat aut capite luat When any of the Highlanders commit any Robbery let the next that is taken repair the losse or suffer death I
Country is full of boggs of squalid and unfrequented places of loughs and rude Fenns of huge craggs and stony fruitlesse hills the air is rhumatique and the Inhabitants odiously nasty sluggish and lowsie Nay some of them are Pagans to this day and worship the new moon for the kerns will pray unto her that she would be pleas'd to leave them in as good health as she found them For all the paines the English have taken to civilize them yet they have many savage customes among them to this day they plow their ground by tying their tacklings to â—…he horses taile which is much more painful to the poor beast then if they were before his breast and on his back They burn their corn in the husk in stead of threshing it which out of meer sloth they will not do for preserving the Straw But to set forth the Irish in their own colours I pray hear how Saint Barnard describeth them when he speakes of Saint Malachias a holy Irish Bishop of a place call'd then Conereth a man that had no more of his Country rudenesse in him then a fish hath saltnesse of the Sea Malachias inquit Barnardus tricesimo ferme aetatis suae anno consecratus Episcopus introducitur Conereth hoc enim nomen Civitatis Cum autem caepisset pro officio suo agere tunâ—… intellexit homo Dei non ad homines se sed ad bestias destinatum Nusquam adhuc tales expertus fuer at in quantacunque barbarie nusquam repererat sic protervos ad mores sic ferales ad ritus sic ad fidem impios ad leges barbaros cervicosos ad disciplinam spurcos ad vitam Christiani erant nomine Re Pagani Non decimas non primitias dare nec legitima inire conjugia non facere confessiones paenitentias nec qni peteret neâ—… qui daret penitus inveniri Ministri altaris pauci admodum erant sed enim quid opus pluribus ubi ipsa paucitas inter Laicos propemodum otiosa vacaret Non erat quod de suis frâ—…ctificarent officiis in populo nequam Nec enim in Ecolesâ—…iis aut praeâ—…icantis vox aut cantant is audiebatur Quid faceret Athleta Domini aut turpiter cedendum an t periculosè certandum sed qui se pastorem non mercenarium agnoscebat elegit stare potius quam fugere paratus animam suam dare pro ovibus si oportuerit Et quanquam omnes lupi Oves nullae stetit in medio luporum pastor intrepidus omnimodo argumentosus quomodo faceret oves de lupis Malachias saith Saint Barnard in the 33. year of his age was consecrated Bishop of Conereth but when he began to officiate and to exercise his holy function he found that he had to deal with beasts rather then with men for he never met with the like among any Barbarians He never found any so indocil for manners so savage in customes so impious in their faith so barbarous in their lawes so stiffnecked for discipline so sordid in their carriage They were Christians in name but Pagans in deed There were none found that would pay tiths or first fruits that would confine themselves to lawfull wedlock that would confesse or doe any acts of penitence For there were very few Ministers of the altar and those few did live licentiously among the Laiques Neither the voice of the Preacher or singing man was heard in the Church Now what should the Champion of God do He must recede with shame or strive with danger but knowing that he was a true Pastor and not a hireling he chose to stay rather then flye being ready to sacrifice his life for his sheep And though they were all Wolfs and no sheep yet the faithful shepheard stood fearlesse in the midst of them debating with himself how he might turn them from Wolfes to sheep It seems this holy Father S. Bernard was well acquainted with Ireland by this relation for ther 's no Countrey so wolvish they are in up and down heards in some places and devoure multitudes not only of cattle but men In deed of late yeers Ireland I must confesse was much improv'd both in point of civility as also in wealth and commerce Their mud cottages up and down specially in Dublin where the Court was turnd to fair brick or free-stone-houses Ireland was made to stand upon her own leggs and not onely to pay the standing English army which was there and us'd to be payd out of the Exchequer at Westminster but to maintain the Vice-Roy with all the Officers besides of her self and to affoord the King of England a considerable revenu every yeer and this was done by the management and activity of the last Lord Deputy after whose arrivall the Countrey did thrive wonderfully in traffic which is the great artery of every â—…land and in all bravery besides In so much that the Court of Dublin in point of splendidnes might compare with that of England But that refractory haf-witted peeple did not know when they were well But now I will leave the Irish to his Bony clabber and the Scot to his long Keall and short Keall being loth to make your eares do penance in listning to so harsh discourses Therefore to conclude most noble Princes I conceave it a high presumption in Great Britain to stand for the principality of Europe considering how many inconveniences attend her for first though she be most of all potent at sea yet she cannot set a ship under sayle in perfect equipage without the help of other Countreys she hath her cordage pitch and tarr she hath her masts and brasse Canons from abroad onely she hath indeed incomparable Oke and knee timber of her own she abounds 't is true with many commodities but they are rustic and coorse things in comparison of other Kingdoms who have silk for her wooll wine for her beer gold and silver for lead and tinne For arts and sciences for invention and all kind of civilities she hath it from the Continent Nay the language she speaks her very accents and words she borroweth els where being but a dialect of ours She hath a vast quantity of wast grounds she hath barren bad mountains uncouth uncomfortable heaths she hath many places subject to Agues and diseases witnes your Kentish and Essex Agues what a base jeer as their own Poet Skelton hath it have other Nations of the English by calling them Stert men with long tailes according to the verse Anglicus a tergo caudam gerit ergo caveto What huge proportions of good ground lieth untill'd in regard of the sloth of her Inhabitants she suffers her neighbours to eat her out of trade in her own commodities she buyeth her own fish of them They carry away her gammons of bacon and by their art having made it harder and blacker they sell it her againe for Westphalia at thrice the rate she hath affronted imprisond deposd and destroyd many of her Kings of late yeers
Heic tutus obumbror Symbol Auth. A GERMAN DIET OR THE BALLANCE OF EUROPE WHEREIN The Power and VVeaknes Glory and Reproch Vertues and Vices Plenty and VVant Advantages and Defects Antiquity and Modernes Of all the Kingdoms and States of Christendom are impartially poiz'd At a solemn Convention of som German Princes in sundry Elaborat Orations Pro Con. Made fit for the Meridian of ENGLAND By Iames Howell Esq. Senesco non Segnesco LONDON Printed for HUMPHREY MOSELEY and are to be sold at his Shop at the Prince's Armes in Saint Paul's Church-yard 1653. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE AND The most accomplishd LORD JOHN EARLE of CLARE c. MY LORD MY brain was a good while in labor before it could produce a Resolution to whom of those Noble Personages I have the honor to wait upon somtimes I shold most properly addresse this Piece in point of Dedication At last my thoughts reflecting upon your Lordship did there acquiesce and settle Nor I beleeve will any knowing Soul question my judgment in this Election considering how excellently your Lordship is versd in the Customes Conditions and Languages of divers Nations which is the scope and subject of these Criticall Orations though running in a new untrodden way Moreover the Orators here being Princes and Noblemen wherof those of Germany are esteemd to be of the ancientst Extraction and purest Allaye of any in Europe being those who yet retain their first integrity as Machiavill confesseth I say the Orators here being all Peers I thought it not incongruous to present their Conceptions to a Personage of their own rank that Patronus might be par Operi Lastly the main design of this application to your Lordship was to divulge my gratitude for the frequent noble respects I receave within your walls that not only the present times may bear witnes but future Ages may find it allso upon Record in this small Monument how much I am and was My Highly Honored Lord Your most humble and truly devoted Servitor Iames Howell London 3 0 Idus Junii 1653. To the Discerning Reader whether Home-bred or broken in the World abroad AS Fire is comonly struck by concussion of Flint and Steel which are two differing bodies So Truth who is the Child of Light as also Knowledg who is the Child of Truth use to break out and appeer more conspicuous by contest of Argument and the clashing of discrepant Opinions It was the first Dessein and it is the Method of this Work all along which descants by way of contraries and altercations upon the humors of all the European Nations Som of these Orations in point of matter may be sayed to be Sugar dissolv'd in Oyl Others Salt mingled with Pepper and som dashes of Vineger yet it is not Sal Momi but Sal Mercurii ther is nothing here scurrilous or favouring of malice the dirt which is thrown here is like the dirt of Oysters which rather cleanseth then contaminats We all are Coppies of Adam the Prototype Infirmities are entail'd upon us by a Conveyance drawn in his time therfore it must not be expected that Man shold be better out of Paradis then when he was in 't Ther is neither Horse nor Humane Creture so good but is subject to stumbling and that stumbling may make him afterwards go faster and stronger in the road of Vertu I have read of an old French Poet Iean Clopinel or de Meung who was a great Satyrist his Pen was like the dart of Death it spar'd none and having fallen foul upon the Queen's Maydes of Honor for their wantones in these two verses which were fix'd upon the dore of the back staires Toutes estes serez ou futes De fait on de volonte Puttes Yee are or will be or have bin All Whores in Act or Thought of Sin Complaint being made herof Iean de Meung was deliver'd over for a Sacrifice to the Maydes who having got him bound to a post to be whip'd he sayed Noble Ladies Let me desire but one boon of you before you fall to execution and it is That She of you which finds her self most guilty wold give me the first lash Therupon they fell gazing one upon another and none wold begin so the Poet scap'd The application herof is easy if it be made to relate to the Countreys of Europe We read the Queen of Bewty herself had a Mole and Queen Anne of Bullen had a Wren upon her Neck to hide which Ruffs were brought first in fashion So the best Region and fayrest City on earth have their blemishes Now touching those frailties which are thus hereditary to Mankind ther is nothing contributs more to the propagation practise of them then diversity of Opinions and Caprichios of the Brain which are infinit And how can it be otherwise for if out of 24. letters only in the Alphabet so many millions of differing words may be fram'd and if these two Verses alone which relate to Good and Bad according to the subject of the Book Rex lex Grex Res spes Ius thus sal sol bona lux laus Mars Mors sors fraus fex styx nox crux pus mala vis lis I say if so few words and we know words are the Indexes of the mind may be varyed as it hath bin tryed to nere upon four millions of Verses how many variations of Crochets and Opinions must then the boyling braines of so many millions of men be subject unto To this may be ascribed the miseries and distempers of most Countreys especially the rents and heresies in Religion wherof som peeple have so many that they need not pray Adauge Fidem nostram Lord increase our Faith but rather O Lord decrease our Faiths they are so many and I am sorry that England deserves to have a fillip upon the nose for this Now as these alternative Orations treat of the humors of Nations so they do also of the quality of their Countreys They will tell you that France hath the best Granary of Europe England the fattest Kitchin Spain the best Exchequer Italy the richest Wardrobe Germany the best Woodyard Holland the best Dayrie c. They will tell you that som Countreys compar'd to others are like Gold compar'd to Silver others as Silver compar'd to brasse as Ireland to England is as Silver in point of value to Gold which requires 12. ounces for one and Scotland to England is as Brasse to Silver which requires 100. ounces for one in proportion of intrinsique value in so much that one may say the Union 'twixt England and Scotland was like Oil mingled with Vineger They will tell you also that som Countreys are so perfect that they are created to preserve themselfs only and not to propagat as England with her Concomitant Provinces Others to plant abroad and expand themselfs as Spain with her Dominions Others to be Umpires and Arbitrators among their Neighbours for their fit posture as France and the Popes Territories the first being
French Disease the English Sweat the Hungarian Scab the African Leprosie the Spanish Calenture came into Germany by Peregrination The Physitians observe that if a man hath drunk Poyson and be presently clap'd into the belly of a Mule he may recover and if one Mule will not serve another must be kill'd I was told of one that was preserv'd so by the death of ten but I beleive if all the Mules of Barbary were sacrificed they would not be enough to cure our German Gentlemen who have suck'd in so much Venome abroad under the tast of Hony Now if there be a strict Law among us to punish those severely who import counterfeit Merchandises by way of Commerce And if it be death to bring in base Sophisticated Coine how much more do they deserve to be punisht who indroduce Vice instead of Vertue bad Customes for good to pervert the manners the dispositions and nature of the whole Nation I know this itch of Travelling and to wander abroad is no where greater then among us How many thousands of us are found in Paris at this time How many hundred in Padua and Venice England is full of us and many other Countries Prince Rodolphus discoursing with one that had been a great Traveller told him Iam vidisti Orbem terrarum universum qui nihil aliud est quam colles Montes Valles Planities syluae hujus generis alia I finde thou hast gone over most part of the earthly Globe which is nothing else but Hills and Dales Mountaines Vallies Plaines and Champians Woods and Groves with such like things Eudoxus wish'd and implor'd the Gods that he might but have power to go neer the body of the Sun to behold his Beauty Magnitude and Matter and he would willingly be content to be afterwards burnt with the Beames thereof So many of our Country-men are so greedy of Peregrination that they will venture upon it though they shorten their lives thereby Let us heare how Seneca that grave Philosopher descants upon Peregrination when he writes thus to Lucilius Quid per se prodesse Peregrinatio cuiquam potuit What hath Peregrination of it selfe profited any man It hath not bridled lust attemper'd pleasure repress'd anger nor broke the unâ—…amed violence of love It hath roâ—…ted no ill out of the minde it hath not improv'd the judgment nor rectified errour but it hath detain'd us a while with new Sights as Boyes are with Rattles It provokes the inconstancy of the minde and by tossing it to and fro makes it more light and moveable Therefore men use to be quickly cloy'd with those places they formerly did so much covet and like Birds flye away thence almost before they have taken any footing Peregrination will give you knowledge of Nations it will shew you new shapes of Mountaines of Fields and Meadowes with the course and nature of some River As how Nilus swels in the Sommer Solstice and Tygris is suddenly snatch'd away from our sight but passing a little under the Earth recovers her former greatnesse How Meander which hath afforded the Poets so much matter and sport is intangled with so many windings and often-times rushes into her Neighbour before she can recover her selfe but she growes thereby neither better nor wiser Beleive me my noble Country-men unlesse this strange itch of forreigne Travell be cured in us or at least-wise unlesse there be some Lawes and Cautions prescribed to regular Peregrination that there be better returns made our Ancestors Ghosts will rise up against us and Posterity will bewaile our Incogitancy and weaknesse too late for they will hardly be able to finde out among us what were the Primitive manners the continence the constancy and nature of a true German And now to the task impos'd upon me but before I buckle my selfe for the businesse I make it my humble request that those touches I have given of Peregrination may be understood in a sane sense It is not out of any dislike I have of it for there is no Creature on earth hath a greater esteem thereof then my selfe acknowledging it to be the ripest Schoole and principall Academy for the study both of men and manners and the World affoords not more gallant Students and Proficients herein then I finde now before me in this Princely Assembly but what hath dropt from me was touching the abuse thereof as also in order to the method we have propos'd to our selves to discourse of things pro con and to answer in part to that incomparable Speech of your Highnesse made in praise of Peregrination And now I will enter into the Province I have under-taken which is high Germany and for performance of your desires most Excellent Prince which are Commands to me I will compose my voice and tongue accordingly and at the very first will unmask my minde unto you in three words Germania Europae Princeps Germany is the Princesse of Europe And truly never any Opinion proceeded more impartially and more from the Center of my heart then this For the maintenance of which Tenet there wants not much Oratory or any moving perswasions and allurements of words which the ancient Orators both Greek and Latine did use when they delivered their mindes in any doubtfull or desperate matter The greatest difficulty I finde in this businesse is out of such a hugh heap of matter to cull out and put before you the choicest and best peeces And as Geographers in describing the World use by little lines to shew the course of mighty Rivers as Danube Nile Ganges Thames Tyber Tagus with others As also in small points to describe Rome Constantinople the gran Cayre Paris London and Ghent the greatest wall'd Towne in Europe So will I be as briefe and as punctuall as possibly I can in setting forth the praises of this mighty Country and Nation But to speak the worst at first I pray hear what Cornelius Tacitus the Critique of his times writes of it Quis prater periculum horridi ignoti Maris Who without the dangers of a doubtfull and unknown Sea would leave Asia Affrique or Italy to seek Germany an informed peece of earth a rough clime a Land unmanured full of thick horrid Woods huge Lakes impatient of fruitfull Trees yet full of Cattle though small In stead of Silver Vessells they have them of the same stuff as themselves of pure earth They have no Cities they are given to sleep sloth and gluttony being ignorant of the secrets of Letters they use Dice among their serious affaires with so much rashnesse in winning or losing that at one cast they will hazard their bodies and liberty Caesâ—…r also saith that the Germanes hold it a kind of policy to have large vast Wildernesse about them wherin they permitt Robberies for the exercise of their young men and avoyding of idlenesse c. Such speeches Caesar and Tacitus give of the Germans but will you know the reason of it Because the one in divers conflicts was soundly
best in that kind that can be found any where For all other commodities either for pleasure profit or necessity what doth Germany want what delightfull Orchards are there what large fields of Graine what a World of Cattle where can you finde Cowes that will yeeld twelve quarts of milk every day as in Holland where can you find better Cheese where can you find such Bacon as in Westphalia a Gamon whereof is accounted so rare that in feasts it is served up last after all the fine courses of Fowle and Fruit. Heare what Guicciardin spoak in his times of Holland that in Cheese and Butter shee did vent every yeare above a million and what shall we think shee does now that her Trade is com to such a portentous encrease some think that the benefit shee makes of Milk may compare with Bourdeaeux Wines or the spices of Portugall Touching other animalls and Horses especially Germany yeelds to no other Countrey either for all kind of labours as also for service in Warre as France knowes well who is furnish'd hence what horse can carry a Cuirassier more stoutly then a Frislander what famous Marts are in Germany for Horses what choice breed I will instance but only in one Prince of Holsteyn a Kinsman of ours who at one time had above a thousand Mares for breed and above one hundred choice Stallions Now will I go to the shores of Prussia Pomerland and Livonia to gather Gum and Lord what abundance of it is found there a curious kind of Aromatique Ambar which tricles down from the Firre Trees whereof there are such huge Forrests which serves for Marchandize all the World over Now for Noblenesse of Rivers what Countrey is comparable to Germany We have the Danube acknowledg'd by all to be King of Rivers Qui centum populos et magnas alluit Urbes Shee waters a hundred severall people with many mighty Citties The Rhin is ours The Elve is ours the Main the Mossell the Skeld the Vistula with ten great Navigable Rivers are ours which for Fish and freighting of comodities and conveyance of them from place to place run very conveniently Guicciardin in his time made a supputation that the Fishing of the Low Countries alone came to above two millions a year Now in High Germany there are some Fish who of themselves are so savoury and sweet that they need no sawce and in Prague he is held to have but a very dull tast who useth any sawce with some sorts of fish Now for salt pits what numbers are there in Luneburg in Saxony in Suabland Austria and other places What variety of Baths and Medicinall waters have wee whose virtue proceeds from Mineralls whereof there are such plenty What curious Marble is dig'd up in Limburg and Namur you have there Marble of all colours white black red gray which may vie with Crystall for lustre and brightnesse Germany hath her Mines also of Gold Silver Copper Lead Tinne and Iron The German Dollars furnishd all the Mints of Europe before the Mines of Mexico and Potosi were discovered in America And it is wonderfull how the plenty of Gold and Silver is encreasd in Germany these two last ages which hath enhancd the price of all things Yet the Helvetians scarce made any use or had any esteem of Gold and Silver till they gave that fatall over-throw to Charles the Hardy nere Granson where they carried away their Cap-fulls of Gold and Silver which since is extremely multiplyed amongst them by the salary the Kings of France have given them both for their attendance about his person by way of garde as also for their service in the Warre against the House of Austria The Swisse herby being come to the apprehension of the value of Gold and Silver with other Nations have mightily approvd their stock since that time In so much that they provd often very usefull to France and other people in great sommes of money And as Germany abounds thus with Gold and Silver so the bowels of her earth is also full of Mettalls in divers places Tirol above other Provinces of Europe hath plenty of Mettalls the Elve Edera with other Rivers afford Gold Corbachi in Westphalia hath also som Steinheid in Franconia and other places Cellerfiela in Saxonie hath Mines of Silver as also Friburg Marieburg Anneberg and Sneberg Ioachims vale Cotteberg and other Soyles in Bohemia have much Silver Schonback also and Beraun in Bohemia hath quantity of quick-Silver Melibot and Carpat abound with Copper Aldeberg and Irberesdort in Misena likewise have great store of white Lead and the Mountaine Ramel in Saxony hath black and Ash-colour Lead There are innumerable places where Iron is found the best in Sorland Gishubel and Lavestein In this affluence of all earthly commodities Germany hath often relievd her Neighbours and supplyed them with necessaries according to the rule of Charity the Germans being observd to be least given to the base vice of covetousnesse They have been hospitable in the highèst degree making no difference twixt Native and stranger herin as Tacitus himselfe confesseth And to this in most places we retain that Primitive Vertue But because by giving still and not receiving the 〈◊〉 might draw scarcity upon her self therefore the mystery of Marchandizing was found out and permitted to be exercisd by way of Commutative Justice for bartering Commodities by way of Exchange or else by taking reasonable prices for them In so much that any under the degree of a Gentleman might export superfluous Wares out of Germany and make a return of others in their steed which custom tended both to publique and private benefit and nombers hereby have raysd their families to be great and rich And as high Germany is full of such gallant Marchants so the lower Germans exceed all other in the feat and mystery of comerce where Women as well as men do exercise the trade and beat bargaines in their Husbands absence And the advantagious situation of their Countrey seems to invite them hereunto And if any doubt this let him look upon the multitude of Shipps that lye in every Port so that take bottoms of all sorts they have more that sayle upon salt water then all Christendom besides witnes els that nomber which the King of Denmark did stay of theirs at one time in the Baltique Sea which were 600 for offring an affront to his Ambassadors In Amsterdam alone ther go in and out as many Vessells of all sorts one day with another as there be dayes in the yeare either for England Scotland France Spain Italy Turky Egypt Norway Russia and the East or West Indies What a thing was Antwerp before the revolt of the Low Countries ther usd to be more Mercantile businesses transacted there in one month then a whole yeer in Venice ther being no lesse then 300 families of Spaniards there at one time besides other Nations she erected the first Burse in Christendom where twice a day many thousand negociators use to
one of the deepest clerks of his time What a rare man and of heavenly speculations was Io de sacro bosco the Author of the sphaere which remaines yet engraven upon his tomb in Paris some ages after these the world of learned men did much esteem Reginald Poole Iohn Colet William Lillie Linacre Pace Cardinall Fisher Bishop of Rochester Sir Thomas More Latimer Tindall Baleus Tunstall men inferior to none as well for sanctimony of life as for rare erudition and knowledg Toby Matthew Archbishop of York another Chrysostom Thomas Stapleton Nic. Wotton Iewell Cheek Humphreys Grindall Whitgift Plowden Ascham Cooke Smyth Whitaker Perkins Mountagu those great speculative Lords Baeon and Herbert Andrews Usher that rare Primat Selden who knows as much as both the Scaligers Camden the English Strabo Owen another Martiall with divers excellent Dramatique Poets and it is a great wrong to the Common-wealth of learning that their works are not made intelligible in a larger toung then that Insulary Dialect Add hereunto that for Physicians and Lawyers both Civill and Common there are as profound spirits there as any on earth And as for learning so for prowess and magnanimity the Inhabitants of Great Britain have been and are still very celebrous And though there hath been alwayes an innated kind of enmity twixt the French and the English yet they have extorted prayses out of their enemies mouths witnes Comines Froissard and Bodin who write so much in honor of the English Nor do they herein complement or flatter a whit What a bold Britain was Brennus who liv'd long before the English took footing there what notable feates did he perform in Italy Greece and Asia so that the old Britains or Welsh in honor of that Heroe call a King after his name to this day viz. Brennin and there is a Castle in Wales of his name to this day How manfully did the ancient Britains tugg with the Romans who receav'd fowler defeats there then in any other Region which one of their Poets seemes to confesse when he saith Invictos Romano Marte Britannos The Silures who are a peeple but of a few small shires in Wales viz. Monmouth Brecknock and others being animated by the courage of their King Cataracus and provok'd by the menaces of the Emperour Claudius who threatned to extinguish the very names of them met his army in open field and cutting off an auxiliary Regiment which was going to recreut the Emperour under Marius Valens they utterly routed him In so much that Ostorius the propraetor of Britanny for the Romans resenting this dishonor died out of a sense of grief Charles the Great had to doe with them in three battailes wherein there was such a slaughter of his men that he cryed Si vel semel tantùm cum illis adhuc depugnandum foret ne unum quidem militem sibi superfuturum If he were to encounter the Britains but once more he should not have a soldier left him a saying proceeding from such a man as Charlemain that tends much to the reputation of the Britains But the Gaules are they whom the Britains galld having in so many victories left their arrowes in their thighs in their breasts and some sticking in their hearts which makes Bodin complain Gallos ab Anglis in ipsa Gallia clades accepisse ac pene Imperium amisisse That the French receaved many overthrowes in France herself by the English and had almost lost their Kingdom whereupon the Poet sings wittily Anglorum semper virtutem Gallia sensit Ad Galli cantum non fugit iste Leo. For how often have the French Kings with their Nobles been routed defeated and discomfited by the English Gray-goose-wing how often hath it pierc'd the very center of the Kingdom what notable rich returnes have the English made from France And what pittifull looks must France have when Edward the fourth got such a glorious victory at Cressy where above thirty thousand perish'd among whom the King of Bohemia was found among the dead bodies ten Princes eighty Barons twelve hundred Gentlemen and the flower of the French fell that day and King Philip of Valois did hardly escape himself to a small town which being ask'd at the gate who he was qui va la answer'd la Fortune de France the Fortune of France This made France weare black a long time But in another battail she had as ill luck wherein her King Iohn and David King of Scots where taken prisoners and attended the prince of Wales to England yet such was the modesty of that prince though conquerour that he waited upon King Iohn bareheaded at table this was such a passage as happen'd in King Edgars raign who had foure Kings to row him upon the river Dee hard by Westchester viz. Kennad Kind of the Scots Malcolm King of Cumberland Maconus King of Man and another Welsh King The English reduc'd France to such a poverty at that time that she was forc'd to coin leather money In divers other battailes in the raignes of Charles the fift sixt and seventh and Lewis the elevenths time the English did often foyl the French untill the war pour le bien public begun by the Duke of Burgundy Such a large livery and seifin the English had taken in France that for three hundred and fifty years they were masters of Aquitain and Normandy Nay Henry the sixt of England was crowned King of France in Paris And so formidable were the English in France that the Duke of Britany when he was to encounter the French army in the field thought it a policy to cloth a whole Regiment of his soldiers after the English mode to make them more terrible to the French What shall I say of that notable Virago Queen Elizabeth who did such exploits again Spain by taking the united provinces of the Low Countreys under her protection How did she ply the Spaniard and bayt him by Sea and Land how did she in a manner make him a Bankrupt by making him lose his credit in all the banks of Europe And all that while Spain could do England no harme at all touching the strength of which Kingdom you may please to hear what a judicious Italian speaks of it Il Regno d'Ingliterra non há bisogno d'altri per la propria difesa anzi non solo é difficile mà si può dir impossible se non é divisione nel Regno che per via de force possa esser conquistato The Kingdom of England stands in no need of any other for her own defense so that it is not only difficult but a thing impossible unlesse there be some intestin division to make a conquest of that Countrey Philip offer'd very fairly for her in the year eighty eight when he thought to have swallowed her with his Invincible Fleet which was a preparing three yeers she consisted of above 150. saile 8000. Mariners 20000. foot besides voluntiers she carried 1600. Canons of brasse 1000. of iron
Glocester built first by Claudius Caesar doth stand with divers other very jolly rich Towns as Worcester Shrewsbury Bridgnorth Teuxbury and that Noble River of Severn doth part England from the antient Country of Wales In so much that He who is master of the Severn may be said to be master of the 3d. part of England in point of Power I have a great mind now to come to Oxford a little Earthly Paradise for situation salubrity of air and sweetnesse of soyl most daintily watered and crested about with hills a convenient distance off because she might have a freer respiration But the prime thing which graceth this delightful City is that renowned University which is founded there she is rank'd among the 4. principal Academies of Europe for antiquity for number of Colledges for large exhibitions to students for a Library they may compare with the Vatican The story relates that in the reign of Edward the first there were thirty thousand students in Oxford which did homage to the Muses Hear what Lipsius saith Unum Oxoniense Collegium decem Belgica One Oxford Colledge is worth ten Flemish Richard the first call'd the Lionhearted for the vastnesse of his spirit was born here He who built the walls of Vienna at his Victorious return from Palestine It is a great pleasure to passe from Oxford to Buckinghamshire to see those numerous heards of sheep which graze there and bear excellent Wooll Bedfordshire among other things hath such large fieldes of Beanes and Pease that it is a great delight to behold them for they make the very air redolent and perfume it with a kind of fragrancy The County of Hartford hath all Commodities in it Verolam stands there famous for the Protomartyr of Britany Saint Albons Middlesex comes next wherein there are many memorable places but that which illustrates all the rest and indeed the whole Iland is the potent and populous vast city of London Englands Imperial Chamber one of the greatest eyes of Christendom There you have as proud and as deep a Navigable River as ever made her bed between banks you have an antient inexpugnable Tower you have two exchanges old and new of most curious structure you have the largest Hall at Westminster for tribunals of Justice of any in the World The King hath divers Royal Palaces there There is a Bridge of ninteen large high Arches over the rapid profound River of Thames which would astonish you to behold and indeed it may be called one of the wonders of the World all circumstances considered you have in the heart of the City and the highest peece of ground the antient Church of Saint Paul one of the stateliest piles of stone that ever was reard this stately Temple is founded upon Faith for underneath there is another subterranean Parish Church which is a rarity that no other I know of hath through all the Christian World There is Westward a large Abbey the sight whereof would strike devotion into the beholder and a most curious Chappel annexed thereunto call'd Henry the sevenths Chappel which as Leland saith may be call'd Orbis miraculum And judge you if London in the time of William the Conqueror could send out forty thousand foot and twenty thousand horse as the Annals have it how many would she be able to set forth now that she is more opulent more peopled and greater in all dimensions by the 6d. part for her Suburbs are of more extent then her self so that some have compar'd her to a narrow crown'd hat with broad brimms There are more parish Churches there then in Rome viz. 122. There are divers Hospitals both for Orphans which come to above 600. and other poor people of both sexes above 1200. in so much that one may say that poverty is no where better hous'd and fed then there I goe now from London to Essex a most fruitfull and well hedg'd Country among other things she is famous for Iohn Hawknood whom the Italians among whom he was so well known call Aucutho nor was he more known than honour'd by them for in regard of the rare documents he gave for Military discipline the Senate of Florence rays'd a Statue and Tomb for him There is old Walden in that Country where excellent Saffron growes there is Colchester where the best Oysters are and Dunmow which hath the proverb for the best Bacon I pass to Suffolk a spritefull pleasant Country and Doctor Despotino an Italian Physitian affirm'd that the healthfullest air under heaven is that which moves over Saint Edmondsberry That famous Navigator Sir Thomas Cavendish who sailed about the World makes this Country famous for his Nativity there Norfolk lies next a County full of acute wits and abounding with Lawyers Norwich is the Metropolis a large City and full of Artisans for there are hardly found so many Loomes any where Now comes in Cambridgeshire a self-sufficient County where the antient Academy of Cambridge stands still flourishing with scientificall wits and rare acute capacities in all professions in all faculties and knowledge and reputed all the world over for a most learned University and she must needs be so being so near allyed to Oxford as to be her only Sister and having such stately seats for the Muses though the circumjacent soyl and site on Camus banks be not so pleasant as that which stands on Isis. Huntingdonshire her neighbour is famous for rurall Philosophy upon a time the Town of Gormonchester entertain'd the King in a kinde of pomp with ninescore Ploughs Northampton is full of noble Townes Villages and Churches whereof most are of a Danish built for you shall behold at once in some places thirty holy Pyramids or Steeples as you pass along and the field cover'd all over with sheep Leicestershire doth benefit all her neighbours and warm them with her Cole-mines which she distributes up and down Lincoln was us'd to be a well devoted County for in her chief Town there are half a hundred of Churches wherof the Minster or Cathedrall Church is one of the most conspicuous and visiblest Church in the World Notingham for delightfull prospects hath not her fellow there you have true Troglodits as on the Mountaines of the Moon in Ethiopia that hew their houses out of Rocks This Country is singular for Liquorish Derby lies next famous for the best Ale on the West parts her bowels are pregnant with excellent lead in somuch that the Chymists say that the Planet Saturn who presides over Lead is more benign to the English than to the French Warwick excels for Fabrarian inventions for Smiths work Worcester for Salt-pits and delicate Sider for Pears and Apples grow there as also in Gloucestershire up and down the Hedges and Highwayes Among other Fish which the Severn which waters her soyl doth afford Salmon is one and 't is the best in the world which the Romans confessed The Trent called so for thirty species of Fishes that shee breeds doth make Staffordshire of extraordinary
his hunting venery and pleasure But the judgements of Heaven fell visibly upon his Children for Richard his second Son died of a Pestilential air in the same Forest. William Rufus another Son of his succeeding him in the Kingdome was kill'd there also by the glance of an arrow from Sir Walter Terrell Henry also his Granchild Sonne to Robert his first begotten breath'd his last there like Absolon hanging at a bow while he was a hunting 'T is true that Barkshire hath one goodly structure which is Winsor Castle but most of the Country about is inhabited by savage beasts who may be said to live better then the people thereabouts For Surrey you should have remembred what a perfidious act Godwin Earl of Kent perform'd at Guilford who betraying to Harald the Dane a young Prince that was sent from Normandy to receive the Crown of England was delivered to Harald the Dane Sussex is infamous for the murther of King Sigebert by a Swineheard And the Province of Kent will never wash away the foul stain she received for the sacrilegious murther of Thomas Becket a Saintlike man which assassinate was perpetrated in the very Church near the high Altar for which crying and flagitious deed they say that the race of the murtherers have ever have since a white tuffe of hair in their heads and the wind blowing in their faces whersoever they go For Glocestershire her inhabitants there are worthy of reproach that by idlenesse and ignorance they would suffer the Vineyards there to decay utterly and in lieu of Wine be content with windy Sider In Oxfordshire was that lustful Labarynth made at Woodstock where Henry the second kept Rosamond his Concubine whom the revengful Queen poysoned Now touching the City of London the Metropolis of Great Britain she may be well call'd a Monster for she being the head bears no proportion with the rest of the body but is farre too bigge for it and might serve a Kingdom thrice as bigge but what Saint Hierom spoake of Constantinople Eam nuditate omnium civitatum constructam fuisse that she was made up of the nakednesse and ruine of other Cities so may London be said to grow rich out of the poverty of other Towns She is like the Spleen in the natural body by whose swelling the rest of the members pine away And herein let me observe the poor policy of the fatheaded English who suffer this one Town to be pamperd up while other places though situated in as convenient places for Navigation are ready to starve for want of trade 'T is true that Queen Elizabeth King Iames and King Charles his Son did put forth Proclamations for restraint of building in London and that all the gentry should retire to their Country dwellings in the Vacation time and at Christmas but these Proclamations were like a fire put under a green wood which did flash a little but suffer'd presently to go again so those Royal Proclamations were put in hot execution for a while yet they quickly grew cold again But indeed such is the crossgrain'd and contumacious perverse nature of the Londoners specially the schismatical part that they suspect or repine at any new command that comes from authority For whereas there was a secure and comely durable way of structure inordred them that every one should build for the future with stone or brick and not with lath and wood and that they should build regularly for the beauty prospect and evennesse of the streets as also that the Houses might not be subject to firing Yet this obstinate selfwitted people do stand still in their own light and fall againe to build with lath and lime notwithstanding that they know well enough the great advantages that would redound to the City by the other mode of Edifice In so much that in England ther 's not near that Elegance of building generally as in other Cities nor are their streetes so streight and lightsome by reason the Houses paunch out and are not so uniform as else where I could condescend to the praises you give of Essex Suffolk were it not that in the one at Saint Edmunds Berry there have happened so many popular tumults twixt the Monks and Citizens And were it not for a sordid tenure that lands are held by them of Hemingstone where Baldwin call'd le Petteur held lands from the Crown by sarieanty pro quibus debuit Die Natali Domini singulis annis coram Domino Rege Angliae unum saltum unum suflatum unum bumbulum for which lands he was to pay one leap one puff and one crack of the taile before the King upon Christmas day every yeare under paine of forfeiting his Tenure O brave Knight service O Noble homage O brave devotion upon the birth day of Christ. Touching the Norfolk men they are naturally wranglers and Cavillers The Fenny situation of Cambridge is such that I cannot wonder sufficiently how that place should be chosen out to be made a seat for the Muses Huntingtonshire Countrymen have such a rustiquenesse that hardly admits any civility Northhampton and Leicestershire are so bald that you can hardly see a tree as you passe through them The people of Lincolnshire are infested with the affrightments of Crowlands Daemonical spirits Notinghamshire doth delude the labour of the husbandman with the Sandinesse of their soyl God deliver us from the Devills Posteriors at the Peak in Darbishire Warwik is choaked up with wood there as well as in Lincolnshire The Ordure of the Sow and Cow Doth make them fire and Sope enough I should like Worcester but for cold flatulent Perry Stafford relates many odde fables of her Lake and the River of Trent In Shropshire the sweating sicknesse took its first rise which dispers'd it self not onely all England over but cross'd the Seas found out and infested English bodies in other Regions Chester complaines for want of corn to make her bread In Herefordshire there are walking Mountains for in the year 1571. about 6. of the clock in the evening there was a hill with a Rock underneath did rise up as if she were awaken out of a long sleep and changing her old bed did remove herself to a higher place carrying with her trees and folds of sheep she left a gap behinde of forty foot broad and eighty ells long the whole peece of earth was above twenty Acres and the motion lasted above a natural day that the sayd Moantain was in travell Radnor with her crags would frighten one for the rest of Wales though the inhabitants be courteous and antient yet the country swels with such a conglobation of Mountains that strangers would be hardly invited to visit her which Mountaines in some places are so high and yet so near one to another that Shepheards may talk one to another from the tops of them and not be able to meet one another in a whole day by traversing from one Mountain to the other through the valley and precipices
still in the hearts of the peeple as appear'd by those sundry battails sieges and Skirmishings they had which were more then happen'd in any Countrey for the time considering the extent of ground But that addition of Scotland to England was unhappy and fatall to her for from that cold Northern dore blew all her troubles And now do I much admire what came into that Prince his mind who spoke of Germany to be so tart against her and to throw so much dirt into the face of his own Countrey surely as I beleeve he took those taunts and contumelies out of som forr ein Author who was no great friend to Germany but 't is as easie for Her to shake them off as feathers off a Cloak or small flies when they infest us in Sommer but as Tiberius answer'd one who told him of som aspersions that were cast abroad upon him Non indignamur aliquos esse qui nobis male dicat satis est si hoc habemus ne quis nobis malè faciat We are not angry that ther are some who speak ill of us It is enough that we are in such a condition that no body can do us any ill so may Germany say of her self 'T is too tru that Caesar hath receiv'd some deminution in point of power but though som Countreys which seem to have revolted from him seem to usurp his rights yet he still claims them and they acknowledg fealty We know that Frederique the second writ to the Pope Italia haereditas est mea hoc notum est toti orbi you know Italy is my inheritance and this is known to all the world therfore when Pius the fourth wold have made Cosmo of Medici King of Hetruria the Emperour did countermand it And afterwards when Pius the fift created him Gran Duke of Toscany Caesar did protest against it as an invasion of his imperiall prerogative though that title was afterwards confirm'd to Francis his Son by the Emperors special charter and intercession of friends yet with this proviso that he shold acknowledg himself Beneficiary of the Empire Moreover it continueth to this day that when any difference happen twixt any of the Italian Princes about extent of Territory the decision herof belongs to the Imperiall Court Ther is a late pregnant example herof for when the Genoways had encroached upon the Marquis of Final and had in a manner exterminated him from House and home the Emperour Ferdinand did summon them to answer for themselfs with this menacing addition Nisi Feciali suo parerent urbem agrum Genuensem se proscripturum If they wold not obey his Herald his Imperiall Majestie wold proscribe both the Town and Countrey of Liguria but they conform'd to his command Now ther is no Civilian Doctor but will confesse that Caesar is Lord paramount and consequently hath Jurisdiction over all the States of Italy and that it is an incontroulable truth and a Rule in Law Nullis Italiae civitatibus leges condere jus esse quae Romanorum legibus quas Fredericus promulgari jussit contrariae sint Ther is no City of Italy can by right establish any Law that may repugn any way the Roman Lawes which Frederique comanded to be promulgated Touching the Pope all the world know that he is no other de Iure but a Vassall or Chaplain to Caesar who gave him the praefecture of Rome and the Countrey adjacent a confirmation wherof he solemnly seeks of every new Emperour Therfore Caesar is not fallen from his property and Imperiall Right to Rome to this day Nor is it absolutely necessary for him to make his personall residence in Rome it being a Rule Ibi est Roma ubi est Imperator Ther Rome is where the Emperour is We know that when Constantine the Great did first transferr his Court to Constantinople and fixed there she being the fittest Citty to rule the world by reason of her situation yet he and his successors did still entitle themselfs Roman Emperours preserving still their first rights as the Athenians were sayed notwithstanding that they had relinquished the Citty to conserve Athens still in their Ships So that it may be sayd without much impropriety of speech that Rome is now at Vienna or Prague or Norimberg whersoever the imperiall person of Caesar is All the Hans Towns though they have made use of Caesar and procur'd large priviledges for som pecuniary contributions yet they acknowledg him still their supreme liege Lord Adde herunto that Savoy Lorrain and Burgundy are members of the Empire to this day as also the Neitherlands or Belgium therfore when the confederat Provinces having revolted from Spain had sent a splendid legation to Elizabeth Queen of England to take them under her protection the just and wise Princesse put it to deliberation of Councell as it appears yet upon Record An cum alterius principis subditis protectionis faedus inire liceret an Belgae faederati offerre jure possent sine Caesaris consensu qui supremus Feudi Dominus erat I say the said prudent Queen put it to debate whether it was lawfull to enter into a league with the Subjects of another Prince and whether those confederated Provinces could make such a proposall with the consent of Caesar who was Soveraign Lord of the Fee Wherupon the first answer she sent them was Nihil sibi antiquius esse quam fidem cum honore con unctam tueri nec dum sibi liquere quomodo salvo honore conscientia integrâ provincias illas oblatas in protectionem multo minus in possessionē accipere posset Nothing sayd Q. Eliz. was of more Religion to her then to conserve her Faith conjoyn'd with an honor worthy of a Prince and that it did not yet appear unto her how with safety of her honor and integrity of Conscience she cold undertake the protection much more the possession of those Provinces Yet afterwards som darknesses and jealousies encreasing 'twixt her and Spain she undertook the protection And she prov'd a brave Auxiliary unto them both for men and Money in so much that the foundation of that Free State may be sayd to be cimented with English blood 'T is tru that France concurr'd with her for pure politicall respects for they were both as Remoras to the Spanish greatnes Therfore although those sixe Fugitive Provinces which have revolted from Spain have been strangers to the Empire ever since yet all the rest of the Provinces acknowledg their old homage to Caesar. Now touching the Helvetians or Suisses although by an Imperiall Diplom or Charter they have Exemptionem à Iudicio Aulico Camerali Rotvillensi libertatem foederationum immunitatem ab omnibus oneribus realibus Imperio debitis tamen constitutione fractae pacis publicae tenentur pacem Imperii publicam violantes in Camera accusari possunt imo etiam contra omnes Imperii hostes exteros suppetias ferre sunt obstricti I say although the Swisses have exemption from
the first restaurator of learning in Germany 10 Leunclavius compild the History of the Mahumetans while he was Ambassador for Rodolphus in Constantinople 11 Lovain had 4000. Weavers loomes in the yeer 1330 13 The English first taught to make cloth by the Lovantans 13 Lubecks beer medicinall 18 Of Lorenzo de Medicis a memorable passage 22 Leo the tenth born for the restauration of letters 24 London and Genoa compar'd in Ingratitude and why 26 Latin toung two thirds Greek 38 Languages descanted upon 61 Laval in the raign of Francis the first a corpulent gentleman was the first Inventor of Coches 63 Lipsius his opinion of Oxford 44 Of London Englands Imperiall chamber 44 A Libell in Spain against the Jesuitts and another in France 18 Of love to ones Countrey 31 M MAn not tied to one place no more then a bird or fish 3. in the proeme Man Lord of all elementary creatures by divine charter 3. in the pro. Machiavill rebukes his Countrey men because they us'd German Mathematicians 10 Magdeburg the Metropolis of Germany 16 Many errors of the Ancients musterd up 17 The monstrous trade of Antwerp in times pass'd 20 The marvailous riches of Antwerp when she was plundred by the Spaniards 20 The memorable History of a Duchesse of Bavaria of conjugall love to Guelpho her husband 22 The miraculous story of a Countesse in Holland who brought forth so many children as dayes in the yeer 24 Lituania in some parts doth offer sacrifices to the Devil the maner of their worship 7 M. T. Cicero the great standard bearer of Orators 23 A maxime of Ilanders 35 A modest saying of Iulius the third though an odd one 37 A mighty clash 'twixt the Pope and the King of France 39 Moses Gods Chancelor 2. in the pro. Mets put bounds to the conquests of Charles the fift 43 Of the great Massacre in France and the horrid comet that follow'd a little after the eminent men that were slain 54 Medalls with the inscriptions after S. Bartholome massacre 55 Of Marseilles in France a Greek proverb 61 The Marquis of Ancre most barbarously murtherd 63 Of Maurice Prince of Orenge his speech upon his death bed 37 N NAtures Great Ordinance 2. in the pro. Nilus hath a strange property 7 Norimberg one of the most ingenious towns in Europe 13 A notable saying of Valentinian touching the French 24 The Normans a valiant peeple issued from Germany 25 How they came to be call'd Bygods 25 The Normans elegantly characteriz'd by Roger Hoveden 25 Notable exploits of the Germans against the Romans 25 The Normans chas'd first the Saracens out of Sicily 25 A notable resolution of the Gosack 5 No learning at all left in Greece at this time 37 A notable saying of Borgia Pope Alexanders son when he had lost 100000. crowns at dice 37 The notable cunning of Aeneas Sylvius touching Rome 39 Nogaret the French Ambassador takes the Pope a cuff under the eare 39 A notable letter the Greek Churches writ to Iohn the third 39 The notable speech of Charles the fift to Seldiâ—…s at Flushing 11 No River so full of Meanders as the Sein in France 14 Narbon curiously characteriz'd in Latin verse 41 A notable example of sacrilege 49 Of Nations in general their dexterity 51 Three notable stories in Germany 34 O THe occasion of this meeting 1. in the pro. Otho the Emperour scap'd imprisonment in Greece because he spoak the language so well 11 Of Mary Q. of Hungary a remarkable passage 21 Of the glory of the Emperor the Electors 26 Of Charlemain the first founder of the German Empire 26 Of the famous men in Poland 3 Of ploughs and culters of wood to which the pole doth attribut a kind of Divinity 7 Of some positions of the Canon Law 38 Of the Canonists who are great champions for the Pope 38 Of divers Emperours who summond Generall Councells 41 Of divers Popes who were elected and chastiz'd by Emperors 41 Of Italy France and England a proverb 57 Of the Jesuits their rise their progresse and policy all factors for Spain their strange tenets how they tugg'd to get into Paris how they were banish'd Venice Of the Indispositions of the Spanish monarchy 26 Of the gastly death of Philip the second and many circumstances belonging to it his Epitaph Of Portugall and her pittifull sterility Of the strongest Forts upon earth 34 The Opinion of an Italian touching the strength of England 38 The Order of the golden Fleece more proper to England then to any Countrey els 40 Of York the Seat of Emperours 47 Of Scotland 48 Of Ireland 49 Of the lightnes of the Britains 53 Of the prerogatives of the Emperour 48 Of curing the Kings evill by the French King the opinion of Crescentius 68 Of the base Ingratitude of the Scotts 65 P IN praise of Peregrination 3. in the pro Poyson cur'd in a strange way 6 A proverb the Italians have of the Germans 12 In the praise of Poland 1 Of the Perusian Ambassadors employed to the Pope a facetious passage 1. in Pol. Poland hath salt pitts under ground like palaces 1 Poland a very plentifull Countrey 2 A Polonian marchant nam'd Vernicius being Consull of Cracovia was rich to admiration famous entertainment he gave to 3 Kings 2 The Pole delights not much in sumptuous buildings 2 There were nine score talents erogated out of Garlik Onions and Leeks towards the building the pyramids oâ—… Egypt 2 The Pole measures his house by his own body 2 The Pole goes beyond all for manly attire 2 The Pole confines upon two potent neighbours the Turke and the Russe 4 The brave answer that Stephen King of Poland gave the Turk 4 Potts found naturally shapen in the earth neere Streme 4 Poland hath had very victorious Kings they are reckon'd up 4 King of Poland created a perpetuall friend to the Empire 5 Philip the second would not refer to the Pope the right to Portugall 39 The prerogative of the German Diet 1. in the proeme Plato against forren travell 1. in the pro. The famous pilgrimage of Otto the third to a saint in Poland the story belonging to it 4 The Pole can bring into the field 150. thousand fighting men 5 Of the Polish Nobility 5 The Poles three parts of foure are Arrians 8 In some Polish words there are 10. consonants to one vowell 9 The Polish words as so many stones thrown at a mans brain A proverb of Hungary 19 The power of Pisa in times pass'd when she had 100 gentlemen that could put every one a gally to sea upon his own charge 27 The power of Genoa in times pass'd ibid. Of Philip the second his consciousnes before he invested Portugall his sage cariage about his son before he died 12 Of the perfidiousnes of the English against the old Britains 34 Of Printing and Gunns 39 R. ROme recovered Learning by Urban the 4. who sent for Thomas Aquinas 23 As also afterwards by Cosmo