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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	book_n	life_n	write_v	4,779	5	6.1891	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01615	A discourse vpon the meanes of vvel governing and maintaining in good peace, a kingdome, or other principalitie Divided into three parts, namely, the counsell, the religion, and the policie, vvhich a prince ought to hold and follow. Against Nicholas Machiavell the Florentine. Translated into English by Simon Patericke.; Discours, sur les moyens de bien gouverner et maintenir en bonne paix un royaume ou autre principauté. English	Gentillet, Innocent, ca. 1535-ca. 1595.; Patrick, Simon, d. 1613.	1602 (1602)	STC 11743; ESTC S121098	481,653	391

must have a wise quicke and sharpe wit and iudgement rightly and discreetly to ponder and weigh the circumstances and accidents of every affaire prudently to apply them to the rules and Maximes yea sometimes to force and bend them to serve to the present affaire But this science and habit of knowing well to weigh and examine the accidents and circumstances of affaires and then to be able handsomely to apply unto them their rules and principles is a science singular and excellent but rare and not given to many persons For of necess●●● he that will come to this science at the least in any perfection to be able to mannage and handle weightie affaires had need first to bee endowed with a good and perfect naturall iudgement and secondly he must be wise temperate and quiet without any passion or affection but all to publicke good and utilitie and thirdly hee must bee conversed and experimented in many and sundry affaires These he cannot have and obtaine unlesse hee himselfe have handled or seene them handled or els by great and attentive reading of choise hystories he have brought his iudgement to bee very stayed and well exeecised in such affaires We must not then thinke that all sorts of people are fit to deale with affaires of publicke The scope of the Author estate nor that every one which speaketh and writeth thereof can say that which belongeth thereunto But it may be some will enqu●re if I dare presume so much of my selfe as to take upon me effectually to handle this matter Hereunto I answer that nothing lesse and that it is not properly my purpose wherunto I tend or for which cause I enterprise this Worke But my intent and purpose is onely to shew That Nicholas Machiavell not long agoe a Secretarie of the Florentine commonweale which is now a Dutchie understood nothing or little in this Politicke science whereof we speake and that he hath taken Maximes and rules altogether wicked and hath builded upon them not a Politicke but a Tyrannicall science Behold here then the end and scope which I have proposed unto my self that is to confute the doctrine of Machiavell not exactly to handle the Politick science although I hope to touch some good points thereof in some places when occasion shall offer it selfe Vnto my aforesaid purpose I hope to come by the helpe of God with so prosperous a good wind and full sailes as all they which reade my writings shall give their iudgement and acknowledge that Machiavell was altogether ignorant in that science that his scope and intent in his writings is nothing els but to frame a very true and perfect tyrannie Machiavell also never had parts requisit to know that science For as for expertence in managing of affaires he could have none since during his time hee saw nothing but the brabblings and contentions of certaine Potentates of Italie and certaine practises and policies of some cittizens of Florence Neither had hee any or very little knowledge in hystories as shal be more particularly shewed in many places of our discourse where God ayding we will marke the plaine and as it were palpable faults ignorances which he hath committed in those few hystories which it pleaseth him sometimes by the way to touch which also most commonly he alledgeth to evill purpose and many times falsely As for a firme and sound iudgement Machiavell also wanted as is plainely seene by his absurd and foolish reasons wherewith for the most part he confirmes his propositions and Maximes which he sets downe only he hath a certaine subtiltie such as it is to give colour unto his moct wicked and damnable doctrines But when a man comes something nigh to examine his subtilties then it truth it is discovered to be but a beastly vanitie and madnesse yea full of extreame wickednesse I doubt not but many Courtiers which deale in matters of Estate others of their humor will find it very strange that I should speake in this sort of their great Doctor Machiavell whose bookes rightly may bee called The French Courtiers Alcoran they have them in so great estimation imitating and observing his principles and Maximes no more nor lesse than the Turkes doe the Alcoran of their great Prophet Mahomet But yet I beseech them not to be offended that I speake in this manner of a man whom I will plainely shew to be full of all wickednesse impietie and ignorance and to suspend their iudgement whether I say true or no untill they have wholly read these my discourses For as soone as they have read th●● I doe assure my selfe that every man of perfect iudgement will say and determine th●t I speake but too modestly of the vices and brutishnesse found in this their great Doctor But to open and make easie the intelligence of that should here be handled wee must Of Machiavell and his writings first search out what that Machiavell was and his writings Machiavell then was in his time the Secretarie or common Notarie of the Common-weale of Florence during the kingdome of Charles the eight and Lewis the twelfth kings of France Alexander the sixt and Iulius the eleventh Popes of Rome and of Henry the seventh and Henry the eight kings of England in which time hee writ his bookes in the Italian language and published them about the first beginning of Francis the first king of Fraunce as may be gathered by his owne writings Of his life and death I can say nothing neither did I or vouchsafed I once to enquire thereof because his memorie deserved better to be buried in perpetuall oblivion than to be renewed amongst men Yet I may well say that if his life were like his doctrine as is to be presumed there was never man in the world more contaminated and defiled with vices and wickednesse than hee was By the Praefaci he made unto his booke entituled De Principe Of the Prince it seemeth he was banished and chased from Florence For he there complaineth unto his Magnificall Lawrence de Medicis unto whom he dedicated his Worke of that hee endured iniuriously and uniustly as he said And in certaine other places he reciteth That one while he remained in France another time at Rome and another while not sent embassadour for he would never have forgotten to have said that but as it is to be presumed as a fugitive and banished man But howsoever it be he dedicates the said booke unto the said Lawrence de Medicis to teach him the reasons and meanes to invade and obtaine a principalitie which booke for the most part containeth nothing but tyrannicall precepts as shall appeare in the prosecution and progresse of this Worke. But I know not if they de Medicis have made their profit and taken use of Machiavels precepts contained in his said booke yet this appeares plainely that they since that time occupied the principalitie of Florence and changed that Aristocraticall free estate of that cittie into a Dutchie

will upon his owne daughter The custome which the Gaulois and many other people had to immolat and offer criminall men when they had an opinion that God was angrie with them what other thing was it but a following of the sacrifice of Abraham and of the sacrifices that God had commaunded for the expiation of sinnes The Paynims also imitated this of Moses his sacrifices that they immolated the like beasts and reserved also a part of the beast sacrificed to eat So that thereby also it is clearly seene That the Religion of Moses is the primitive and first and that the other religions are but fowle and lazie pourtratures and imitations thereof From hence followeth it That our Christian Religion which draweth his principles from the promises of Messias contained in Moses is the most ancient of the world yea as ancient as the world it selfe For I wil not vouchsafe to stay upō the refutation of the strange opinion of Machiavell and other ancient Philosophers Paynims which have maintained That the world had no beginning but I send them to Empedocles Plato and other ancient Paynim Philosophers which have maintained the contrarie I thinke that the ignorance of the philosophers which held That the world had no beginning shal something excuse them because they never saw the bookes of Moses and in a thing so difficile and hard to comprehend the spirits of men might easily faile But the impietie of Machiavel is no way excusable who hath seene the bookes of Moses yet followeth that wicked opinion like a mocker and contemner of the holy Scripture thinking to shew that he knowes more than others he I say who is ignorant and full of brutish beastlinesse as God willing I shall make knowne As for the simplicitie of the Christian Religion herein it is seene That the Christians Simplicitie of the Christian Religion will know God as he will that we should know him and as he hath manifested himselfe unto us simply without passing further For they are not so presumptuous as were those foolish Paynim philosophers which disputed of the Essence of God and disputing upon that point fell into opinions the most absurd and strange of the world Some after they had much dreamed in their brains cōcluded That the universall world was God others That it was the Soule of the world others That it was the Sun and others set forward certaine other like monstrous opinions They disputed also of his Power of his Eternitie and of his Providence by naturall reasons in all these they knew not how to resolve themselves therein For how is man so prowd and insensible to thinke that his braine which is not halfe a foot large can cōprehend so great and infinit a thing it is as great a foolery and grosenesse as he that in the palme of his hand will comprehend all the waters of the sea A Christian then hath this modestie and simplicitie To know God by those means and according as he will be known of men beleeving That to have a wil to passe further is to enter into darknesse not into knowledge From hence followeth it That the knowledge which a Christian hath of God is the only true knowledge and that all the knowledge that others as Paynims and Philosophers ever had it neither was nor is any other but a shadow and imagination very far from the most part of the truth And touching the excellencie of the doctrine of true Religion herein is it first seene The excellency of the Christian Religion that it is founded upon the promises of God made to the first fathers from the beginning of the world whereby all they that embrace that Religion are assured That God is their father and that he loveth them and that hee will give them eternall life by the meanes of Messias Can there then be any thing more excellent than this Is there any thing in the world that can give more contentment or repose to the spirit of man than this doctrine For when man considereth the brevitie of his dayes the languishments and miseries of this world full of envies enemities all vices and calamities will hee not iudge himselfe more unhappie than the beasts if hee hoped not for an eternall happinesse after this life The poore Paynims having this consideration aspired to an eternitie some in doing worthy acts wherof there should be a perpetuall memorie after them others writ bookes that might bee read after their death others persuaded themselves that the gods would send good mens soules into the Elisian fields and the wicked into the Acherontike and Stigian darkenesse Yet were there some Philosophers which disputed Cice. in Somn. Scipi Plato in Phaedo That the soules of generous and valiant men after death goe to heaven All these opinions and persuasions of men were but to give rest to their minds which iudged man of all creatures most unhappie without an eternall life after this But what assurance had they of these opinions which they gave to themselves These poore people had none neither founded they themselves but upon some weake and feeble reasons For thus they argued That it was not credible that God who is all good would create man who is the most excellent creature in the world to make him most unhappie which hee should doe if he should not enioy an happie and eternall life after this They also say That it is not credible that God which is all iust would equally deale with the good as with the bad which he should doe if there were not another life than this wherein the good might receive a felicitie and the wicked punishment for their misdeeds But what is all this These be but feeble and weake pettie reasons wherupon the spirits and consciences of men can find no good foundation to repose themselves and to take an assured resolution of a salvation and an eternall felicitie But the Christian hath another foundation than this for he knoweth that God is of old gone out if I may so say from his throne in heaven to communicate and manifest himselfe to our auncient fathers to speake vnto them to declare unto them his bountie and love towards mankind hee knowes that God hath made them promises of Messias which he hath since accomplished and that in him he hath promised to give eternall life to all them which lay hold of that Messias and use his meanes to come unto it These promises have ben many times reiterated to our said fathers and in ages well distant one from another that they might not be forgotten but that they might be so much the more cleare and known of every one insomuch that the Paynims themselves which never read our fathers writings have had some knowledge of the promises of God touching Messias they were so cleare not orious and well knowne as we shall say more at full in another place Heare thē for a resolution a great excellencie in this doctrine of Christian

make warre upon them The duke of Bourbon assembled the greatest lords of the armie to resolve what answer to make to the herauld After by the advice of all it was answered That they Christians made warre upon them to revenge the death of Christ the sonne of God and a true Prophet which their generation had put to death and crucified The Turkes understanding this answere sent againe to the duke of Bourbon and the lords of France that they had by some received evill information upon that matter for they were the Iewes which crucified Iesus Christ and not their predecessors and if the children must needs suffer for their auncestors faults they should then take the Iewes which were then amongst them and upon them revenge the death of their Iesus Christ Our Frenchmen knew not what to answere hereunto yet they continued the warre where was done no notable exploit but by contagion of the aire they were constrained to returne after they had lost the most part of their armie Likewise in the yeare 1453 the Pope having proclaimed a Croisado in Christendome to run over Turkie to avenge the death of our Lord Iesus Christ and to constraine the Turkes to be christened the Turke writ letters unto him wherein he signified that they were the Iewes which crucified Christ And as for him hee descended not of the Iewes but of the Trojans blood whereof hee understood the Italians were likewise descended And that their dutie were rather both one of us and the other to restore rather the great Troy and to revenge the death of Hector their auncestor against the Grecians than to make warre one upon another as for his part he was readie to doe having alreadie subjugated the most part of Greece And that he beleeved that Iesus Christ was a great Prophet but that he never commanded as he was given to understand that men should beleeve in his law by force and by armes as also on his part he so constrained no man to beleeve in the law of Mahomet Behold the substance of the Turkes letter to the Pope which seemed to bee as wel yea better founded upon reasons than the Popes buls For verily Iesus Christ would that by preaching his law should be received into the world and not by force of armes In the time when Christendome was devided into Clementines and Vrbanists by reason of a schisme of Popes we may well presuppose that the one thought the Froisar lib. 2 cap. 132. 133 lib. 3. cap 24. other to be altogether out of the way of salvation and our hystorians say That the one part called the other dogs miscreants infidels c. Their reason was because they said that as there was but one God in heaven so there ought to bee but one on earth and the aforesaid Clementines held assuredly That Pope Clement was the true god on earth and Pope Vrbane the false god and that the Vrbanists beleeved in a false god and by consequent that they all strayed from the faith For as no religion can stand without beleeving in God so esteemed they that they which beleeved not in the true earthly god were altogether without all religion as dogs miscreants our hystoriographers which held that opinion as well as the other said That from that time the faith was shaken and readie to fall to the ground The same opinion had the Vrbanists of the Clementines as the Clementines had of the Vrbanists We have before in another place said That under colour of this diversitie in religion the king of England who was an Vrbanist enterprised to make warre upon the kings of France and Castile Clementines Likewise also the Clementines enterprised no lesse against the Vrbanists yea against the Pope Vrbane himselfe whom they besieged in the towne of Peronse where he was in great danger to have been taken yet in the end he saved himselfe at Rome The king of Fraunce determined to have passed into Italie by warre to have destroyed the Vrbanists but in the end he tooke another resolution which was to cause the schisme to cease so he caused to convocate a great and notable assembly in the towne of Rhemes in Campaigne whither in person resorted the emperour Sigismund and there a conclusion was made to exhort the two Popes to submit themselves to the new election of a Pope wherein their right should bee conserved unto them and if they would not submit themselves thereunto that the Christian princes and their subjects should withdraw themselves from the obedience both of the one and the other After this subtraction was made because the said Popes would not obey the exhortation that was made there was a new election of a Pope in a Counsell held at Pise by the emperors and the kings authorities called Pope Alexander the fift a Frier minor and the other two Antipopes were cursed as is said in another place And thus ceased the warres for Religion in all Christendome To this purpose also you must know That during the said schisme of the Clementines Froisar lib. 4 cap. 33. and Vrbanists the duke of Bretaigne had peace with the king of Fraunce and a great assembly was made betwixt them in the towne of Tours The duke appearing there some of the kings Counsell shewed him that hee was disobedient to the king being of another religion than the king was for the king was a Clementine and the duke an Vrbanist and it was not meet that the vassale should be of another religion than his soveraigne lord The abovesaid duke aunswered wisely That it could not bee called a rebellion or disobedience for no man ought to judge of his conscience but only God who is the soveraigne and only judge of such a matter and that he beleeved in Pope Vrban because his election was before Pope Clements Some of the kings Counsell of the meanest sort made a great matter of this diversitie of religion but the dukes of Berry and Bourgoigne the kings uncles were opinioned that it was not a sufficient point to stand upon to put by an accord with the duke of Bretaigne insomuch that following their advice an accord was concluded yea a mariage of one of the kings daughters with the said duke of Bretaigne This example and advice of these two good dukes mee thinkes all Christian princes should follow and not cease to agree together for diversitie of Religion but to remit the judgement thereof unto God who alone can compound and agree the differences of the same And not onely amongst princes the bond of amitie ought not to bee broken for difference of Religion but also princes ought not to use armes against their subjects to force them unto a Religion but they ought to assay all other meanes to demonstrate unto them by lively reasons their errors and so bring them to a good way and if it appeare not that their subjects doe erre and stray they ought to maintaine them and not persecute them at the

in good use and observance Naturall reason also sheweth us that a law and rule made and examined by many braines must needes bee better than when it is made by one alone but because I have touched this point more at large in another place I will wade no further therein As touching that which Machiavell saith of Agis Plutarch in his life speaketh otherwise thereof for hee saith that hee was the most meeke and quiet man in Plut. in Agid the world who sought to reforme the estate of Sparta by all good and honest meanes and to bring into force and use the ancient lawes of Licurgus and because the Ephori opposed themselves against his desseignes and purposes hee practised that Lysander and Agesilaus should bee advanced to the estate of Ephori as they were But Agesilaus overtaken with auarice refused to sticke to the effecting of this good purpose of king Agis so that he could not any way bring to passe that good reformation which hee intended Heere is all which Plutarch saith he speakes no word that Agis should cause the Ephori to bee slaine but contrary that the Ephori brought Agis to his death neither speakes hee of any enterprise of the Macedonians And I know not where Machiavell hath fished for that hee heere writeth unles hee take it out of his owne braine and then oweth hee nothing to any man seeing it is his owne But howsoever it bee hee can learne it of no author which shall not bee alwaies convinced of a lie by that learned Plutarch who speaketh as I have set it downe 14. Maxime A prince ought to exercise crueltie all at once and to doe pleasures by little and little HE vvhich vvill invade a principalitie saith our Florentine Cap. 17. Of the prince vvhatsoever is to bee sharpely and cruelly practised vvould at the first entrie bee dispatched vvith all expedition that there may be no occasion to returne often to one businesse to the end that afterward by gracious and good dealing he may the sooner bring under and tame his subiects for iniuries and offences ought to be committed all at once that beeing the lesse time felt by subiects they may stirre and anger them the lesse And contrarie pleasures must be done by little and little that by often iteration thereof they upon vvhom such benefites are bestowed may the more desirously and pleasantly drinke them up and imprint them in their hearts It is true indeed that many there have been vvhich because they vvere cruell could not long time continue their principallitie in peace but that happened unto them because their cruelties vvere not handsomely and vvell exercised But they may bee accounted vvell exercised vvhen they are committed but once as it vvere upon a necessitie to assure himselfe and to avoid and shun a greater inconvenience for augmentation of the Commonweale Agathocles the Sicilian by the practise of this Maxime became king of Siracuse This gallant vvas but a potters sonne and all his life vvicked and full of vices yet those his vices vvere accompanied vvith a great bravenesse of courage he followed armes By little and little he did so much by his iournies that he became Praetor of Siracuse and being in that estate desirous to make himselfe king and to usurpe the tyrannie he caused the people and the Senat of Siracuse to bee assembled making them understand that he vvould execute some great matters of importance before them The people and the Senate being assembled at a vvatch word he had given unto his soldiers they put to death all the Senators and the most noble of the people and so made himselfe soveraigne lord of the towne without any empeachment Whosoever then considereth the prudence of Agathocles and the greatnes of his courage to enterprise and to execute so great a thing mē would not iudge him inferiour to any other captaine before him In our time during the raign of Pope Alexander the sixt Oliver de Ferme was educated and brought up young by one that vvas his mothers brother called Iohn Foglian vvho sent him to learne the militarie art under captaine Paulus Vitellius thereby to come unto some honourable estate This Oliver being a gallant and personable man and of a quicke vvit after a good space he had followed the vvarre a la Solde for vvages he scorned this base manner of life and determined vvith the helpe of certaine citizens of the towne of Ferme to get possession to make himselfe master and lord of the towne To obtaine this he vvrit a letter to his uncle Iohn Foglian whereby he signified That wheras he having been long time out of his countrey had not all the time seene his parents and friends and now comming to visit them that they of the towne might thinke he had been honorably employed in his pursute of vvarre desired his said uncle to find meanes that he might as honorably enter with an hundred horse of his friends and servants and that he would doe so much as in some good order also to meet him vvhich should be not only to his honour but also to his uncles that had nourished him Messier Iohn greatly reioyced at these newes and failed in nothing to prepare all that vvas possible to honour his nephew insomuch as the vvhole towne every vvay celebrated and reioiced at his comming thither conducting him vvith all honour agreeable to his discent unto the Towne-house vvhere he abode certain daies whilest he made all things readie for the execution of his enterprise At the last he prepared a great banket unto which hee invited his uncle and all other most noble persons of the towne of Ferme At the bankets end he begun to fall into talke of weightie matters concerning Pope Alexander and his son the duke de Valentinois and their enterprises wherunto his uncle making a certaine answere Oliver began to smile and vvithall told him that such an answere vvould have been made more private as also all their vvhole talke of that matter Therefore giving them to understand that he vvould discover unto them certain secrets of that matter he drevv them apart into a chamber and as soon as his uncle and the noblest greatest of the cōpanie vvere there set down suddainly entred a great company of souldiors vvhich he had hired and hid in some place nigh vvho massacred and put to death in a moment his owne uncle and all the others in his companie This murder being executed Oliver being followed of his soldiors overran straight all the towne besieged the soveraigne magistrate in his pallace and did so much as finally every one vvas constrained to yeeld him obedience This done he made himselfe soveraigne lord of the town and he there established a certaine polliticke government but yet caused all such to be slain as might be malecōtent vvith that change or could any vvay hurt him And vvithin a little vvhile after by good civile and militarie ordinances he not only made himselfe