Histories For which cause The Diuine Philosopher found great fault with his countrymeÌ„ the Graecians because their Noblewomen were not instructed in matters of state policie Likewise Iustinian the Emperour was highly displeased with the Armenians For that most barbarously they prohibited women from enioying heritages and bearing rule as though quoth hee women were base and dishonoured and not created of God In the right of succession the sisters sonne is equall to the brothers sonne Whereby is vnderstood that women are licensed to gouerne aswell as men Moreouer there be two forcible reasons that conclude women to be most apt for Seignories First there is neither Iew nor Graecian there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for they are all one in Christ Iesus The minds and actions of men and women do depeÌ„d of the soule in the which there is no distinction of sexe whereby the soule of a man should bee called male and the soule of a woman female The sexe rather is the instrument or meanes of generation and the soule ingendreth not a soule but is alway permanent and the very same Seeing therefore that a womans soule is perfect why should she be debarred by any statute or salique law from raigning The body is but lumpish and a vassall to the soule and for that respect not to be respected Secondly vertue excludeth none but receyueth all regarding neither substaunce nor sexe What should I rippe vp the examples of sundry nations which preferred women before themselues And for that cause they did neyther reiect their counsels nor set light by their answeres Semiramis after the death of her husband Ninus fearing lest the late conquered Aethiopians would reuolt and rebell from her Sonne yet young of yeeres and ignorant of rule tooke vpon her the principality and for the time of his nonage ordered the kingdome so princely that shee passed in feates of armes in triumphs conquests and wealth all her predecessours Nicocris defended her Empire against the Medes who then sought the Monarchy of the world and wrought such a miracle in the great riuer of Euphrates as all men were astonished at it for shee made it contrary to mens expectation to leaue the ancient course so to follow her deuice to and fro to serue the citie most commodiously insomuch that she did not onely surpasse all men in wit but ouercame the elements with power Isis after the decease of her husband Osyris raigned ouer Egypt and tooke care for so much prouision for the common wealth that shee was after her death worshipped as a Goddesse Debora iudged Israel Iudith the Bethulians Lauinia after the death of Eneas gouerned Italy Dido Carthage Olympias Pirrhus his daughter ruled ouer Epire Aranea was queen of Scythia Cleopatra of Egypt Helena after the death of Leo the Emperour raigned in Constantinople ouer all Asia as Empresse Ioanna was queene of Nauarre marying with Philip Pulcher the French king made him king of Nauarre in the yeere of our Lord 1243. Margaret ruled ouer Flaunders in the yeere of our Lord 1247. And another Princesse of that name y e only daughter of Valdemare the 3. king of DeÌ„mark Norway gouerned those kingdoms after her fathers death in the yeere of our Lord 1389. she tooke Albert the king of Swethland captiue kept him in prison 7. yeeres Ioanna was queene of Naples in the yeer 1415. Leonora Dutchesse of Aquitaine was maried to Henry Duke of Gaunt and in despight of the French K. brought him Aquitaine Poiteaux in the yeere 1552. Queene Mary raigned here in EnglaÌ„d in the yeere 1553. What should I write of Elizabeth our gratious Queene that now is which by her Diuine wisedome brought three admirable things to passe First her Maiesty reformed religion that by the Romish Antichrist was in her sisters time bespotted Secondly she maintayned her countrey in peace wheÌ„ all her neighbour Princes were in an vprore Thirdly she triumphed ouer all her foes both domesticall and hostile traiterous and outlandish If a man respect her learning it is miraculous for shee can discourse of matters of state with the best Philosopher she vnderstandeth sundry kinds of languages and aunswereth forreine Ambassadours in their forreine tongues If a man talke of the administration of iustice all the nations vnder the heauens cannot shew her peere In summe her Princely breast is the receiuer or rather the storehouse of all the vertues aswell morall as intellectuall For which causes England hath iust occasion to reioyce and to vaunt of such a gratious mother To whome the Monarch of Monarches long continue her highnesse and strengthen her as he hath done hitherto to his perpetuall glory confusion of all her enemies and to our euerlasting comfort Of Tyraunts Chap. 9. SIr Thomas Smith termeth him a Tyraunt that by force commeth to the Monarchy against the will of the people breaketh lawes already made at his pleasure and maketh other without the aduise and consent of the people and regardeth not the wealth of his commons but the aduauncemeÌ„t of himself his faction kindred Also there be two sorts of Tyrants The one in title the other in exercise He is in title Tyrant that without any lawfull title vsurpeth the gouernment In exercise he that hath good title to the principality and commeth in with the good will of the people but doth not rule wel and orderly as he should And so not onely they which behaue themselues wickedly towards their subiects are called Tyraunts as Edward the second of this realme in the yeere of our Lord 1319. and Alphonsus of Naples that lawfully came to the crowne in the yeere 1489. but also they are named tyrants which albeit they behaue themselues well yet they are to be called tyraunts in that they had no title to the principality as Sâ—eno the King of Denmark that vsurped this realme of England in the yeere 1017. and Pope Clement the eight that now is who about two yeeres ago seysed on the Dukedome of Ferraria onely by pretence of a gift which Constantine time out of mind bequeathed to the papacy Furthermore there be sixe tokens to know a tyrant The first if hee sends abroad pickthanks talebearers and espies to hearken what men speake of him as Tiberius the Emperour was woont to do The second if he abolisheth the study of learning and burneth the monuments of most worthy wittes in the market place and in the assembly of the people least his subiects should attaine to the knowlege of wisedome As Alaricus king of the Gothes did in Italy in the yeere 313. and the great Turke in his Empire The third if hee maintaine schismes diuisions and factions in his kingdome for feare that men should prie into his doings As the Popes haue done alway from time to time and of late daies the Queene mother in Fraunce The fourth if hee trust straungers more then his
owne naturall subiects and continually goeth garded with a strong company As Vortiger sometime king of this Realme did when he brought in Hengist and the Saxons and gaue them the countreys of Kent and Essex to inhabit The fift if he without cause coÌ„mand his chiefest nobles to be cashiered branded with ignominy or to be imprisoned and put to death for feare lest they should waxe too popular and ouermighty Such a one was Frauncis Sfortia Duke of Millain that caused Alphonsus king of Naples villanously at a banquet to murther Earle Iames sonne to Nicholas Picinio whome he had sent Ambassadour to the sayd Alphonsus for no other cause then for that hee feared his might because the Braciques in Italy some of his subiects highly esteemed him The sixt token to know a tyrant is if he do away learned and wise men for no other intent then that fearing they should reproue him write against his depraued vngodly life As Domitius Nero that commaunded Seneca the Philosopher and the Poet Lucan to be slaine and Domitian that banished the Poet luuenal for the same cause But of this matter I haue spoken in another booke Whether it be lawfull for subiects to rise against their Prince being a tyraunt or an heretique Chap. 10. EVen as the Prince ought to remoue the causes of mislike which his subiects haue conceiued against him and to extinguish the flame that being nourished in one seuerall house would breake into the next and at last into the whole towne so in like maner subiects ought to please their soueraigne and to tolerat all rigour yea and to lay downe their neckes vpon the block rather then to coÌ„spire against his power which he hath from God It may be that he is raised as another Nabuchodonozor of the Lord for a scourge to punish the transgressioÌ„s and enormities of the inhabitants The dishonourable things which a Prince doth ought to be accounted honourable Men must patieÌ„tly for they can do no otherwise beare with an vnreasonable deà re yeere with vnseasonable stormes and with many blemishes and imperfections of nature Therefore they ought to endure with as constant courages the heresies and tyrannies of their soueraigne But thou wilt say subiectes must obey only iust and vpright Princes To which I answere that parents are bound to their children with reciprocall and mutuall duties Yet if parents depart from their duty and prouoke their children to desperation it becommeth not children to be lesse obedient to their parents But they are subiect both to euill pareÌ„ts and to such as do not their duty Further if seruants must be obedient to their masters aswel curteuos as curst much more ought subiects to obey not onely their gentle but also their cruell Princes This Didacus Couarruuias an excellent Lawier confirmeth saying If a Prince whether by succession or election he was made it skilleth not doth exceed the limits of law and reason he cannot bee deposed nor put to death by any subiect Yea it is hereticall to hold that paradoxe For God is he which chaungeth the times and seasons he taketh away kings and setteth vp Kings to the intent that liuing men might know that the most high hath power ouer the kingdome of men and giueth it to whomesoeuer hee will and appointeth ouer it the most abiect among men Hence is it that we seldome heare of rebels that euer prospered but in the end they were bewrayed and brought to confusion In the time of Henry the fourth there rebelled at one time against him the Duke of Exceter with the Dukes of Gloucester Surrey Aumarle Salisburie and at another time the Earle of Worcester the Archbishop of Yorke HeÌ„ry Hotspurre sonne to the Earle of NorthuÌ„berland all which were either slaine or beheaded To come neerer the state of this question we find that Leonagildus an auncient king of the Gothes in Spaine both a tyrant and an Arrian in the yeere of our Lord 568. pursued the true Christians and exiled his own sonne because he was of the true religion Whereupon this young Prince being moued at the persecution of the Christians in his countrey did twise raise armes against his Lord and Father At the first he was taken captiue and banished at the second he was put to death on Easter day By which example wee may note the effects of Gods iudgements and rebuke the rashnesse of this Prince that rebelled against his soueraigne Wherefore O yee that be subiect to cruell Princes refraine your fury learne to obey beware lest the same chance vnto you which is faigned to haue chanced vnto the frogs who being importunat on Iupiter to haue a king a beame was giuen them the fiâ—â—t fall whereof did somwhat affright them but when they saw it stil lie in the streame they insulted theron with great disdain praied for a king of a quicker spirit theÌ„ was sent vnto them a stork which tyraÌ„nized daily deuoured them In a word rebels in taking care to auoid one calamity do entaÌ„gle themselues in a whole peck of troubles as by this fable of y e frogs is euident And oftentimes it hapneth that the remedy is more dangerous then the malady it selfe for of one tyraunt they make three Hydraes or els in seeking to shun tyranny they reduce their gouernment to a troublesome Democracy Of an Aristocracy Chap. 11. THe rule of a certain and prescribed number of noblemen GentlemeÌ„ respecting the benefite of the common wealth is termed an Aristocracy if any ambitiously preferre their priuat coÌ„modity before the publick good and by coÌ„spiracies dispose of all matters appertaining to the coÌ„monwealth as it please theÌ„ it is named an Oligarchy For as iroÌ„ is consumed in time by rust although it auoideth al incoÌ„uenieÌ„ces so some peculiar dammage or other sticketh to euery commonwealth according to the nature therof as for exaÌ„ple this Oligarchy endamageth an Aristocracy TyraÌ„ny is opposite to a Monarchy sedition to a Democracy That Aristocracy is best allowed where the gouernment is allotted to a few noble vertuous men which bestow most in common seruices and make lawes for the rest directing their cogitations to no other scope then the publick good of their countrey The citizens of Venice do deliuer the discussing of their matters aswell ordinary as of importance to the Senate which are very fewe in number as not ignorant how few being made priuy of their matters they should bee the more priuily managed Neuerthelesse this kind of commonwealth being compared with a monarchy will be found imperfect farre inferiour True it is that siluer and tinne are good but yet imperfect metals in comparison of gold wherein the souerainety and perfection of all metals consist In like maner an Aristocracy well tempered may be good but seldome it so falleth out This Realme of England when it was diuided into prouinces as Mercia NorthuÌ„berlaÌ„d others ruled by
earnestly charge some of their most faithfull followers to admonish them of their ouersights at conuenient seasons Of Indulgence Chap. 48. INdulgence is a fond vaine foolish loue vsed most commonly of parents towards their children There is no vice so abhorred of wise men as this For they find by experience that mo youths haue bene cast away through their parēts indulgence then either through violent or naturall death Yea I haue heard sundry Gentlemen when they came to yeeres of discretion grieuously exclaime and bitterly complaine of their parents fondnesse saying Wee would to God that our parents had heretofore kept vs in awe and seuerity for now lacking that instruction which we ought to haue wee feele the smart thereof Vndoubtedly God wil one day demaund an account of them and examine them wherefore they respected not better their owne bowels Shall he blesse them with children and they through blind indulgence neglect their education Truly it is a miserable case In times past parents were wont to place their sonnes with wise gouernors requesting them not in any case to let them haue their owne willes But now adaies it falles out cleane contrary For parents in these times when they hire a scholemaster will first hearken after his gentle vsage and then they will question with him touching the small salary which they must pay him for his industry so that forsooth now and then to be mindfull of this vice Indulgence they accept of a sow-gelder or some pety Grammatist that will not sticke in a foole-hardy moode to breake Priscians pate With such a one they couenaunt namely that hee must spare the rodde or els their children will be spild Within a while after assoone as their indulgent Master hath taught them to decline Stultus Stulta Stultum as an adiectiue of three terminations they bring them out of hand into the Vniuersity and there diligently do enquire after a milde Tutour with whome their tender sonnes might familiarly and fellow-like cōuerse And what then Mary before a tweluemoneths end they send for them home againe in all post haste to visit their mammes who thought each day of their sonnes absence to bee a whole moneth There they bee made sucklings during the next twelue moneth Well now it is high time to suffer their ready dādlings to see new-fangled fashions at the Innes of Court Where being arriued they suite themselues vnto all sorts of company but for the most part vnto shriuers Caualeers and mad-cappes insomuch at the last it will be their friends hard happe to heare that their sweet sonnes are eyther pend vp in New-gate for their good deeds or haue crackt a rope at Tiburn This is the effect of Indulgence This is their false conclusion proceeding of their false premisses Now you must vnderstand that if the parents had not thus cockered 〈◊〉 their sonnes in their childhood 〈◊〉 caused them to be seuerely looked vnto they would not in the floure of their age haue come to such a miserable end In the Chronicle of the Switzers mētion is made of a certaine offendour whom vpon his arraignement his owne father was compelled to execute that so by the indulgent author of his life hee might come to his death Hither likewise may I referre that common story of a certaine woman in Flaunders who liuing about threescore yeeres agoe did so much pamper two of her sonnes that shee would neuer suffer them to lacke money yea shee would priuily defraud her husband to minister vnto them But at last she was iustly punished in them both for they fell from dicing and rioting to stealing and for the same one of them was executed by the halter the other by the sword she her selfe being present at their wofull ends whereof her conscience shewed her that her Indulgence was the onely cause This ought to be a liuely glasse to all parents to prouide for their childrens bringing vp and to purge them betimes of their wild and wicked humours least afterwards they proue incurable and of litle sprigs they become hard withered braunches In briefe O parents correct your childrē while they be young pluck vp their weedes while they beginne lest growing among the good seed they hinder their growth and permit them not so rathe of prentises to become enfranchised freemen In so doing you may be assured that they will easily be brought to study the knowledge of heauenly wisedome and to embrace ciuility the onely butte and marke wherat the godly vertuous do leuell especially for Gods glory for their owne commodity and for the goodnesse that thereby ensueth vnto the commonwealth in generall Of Pride Chap. 49. PRide is a bubbling or puffing of the minde deriued from the opinion of some notable thing in vs more thē is in others But why is earth ashes proud seeing that when a man dieth hee is the heire of serpents beasts wormes Who knoweth not that GOD closely pursueth proud men who doubteth that he thūdreth and scattereth them in the imaginations of their hearts that he putteth downe the mighty from their seates and exalteth the humble and meeke In somuch that he which is to day a king to morow is dead Wherefore O wight whosoeuer thou art that readest this booke lay aside thy Peacocks plumes and looke once vpon thy feet vpon the earth I mean wherehence thou camest though thou thinkest in thine heart that thou art equall with GOD yet thou art but a man and that a sinfull man In summe wish not lordly authority vnto thy selfe for hee that seeketh authority must forethinke how hee commeth by it and comming well by it how hee ought to liue in it and liuing well in it hee must forecast how to rule it and ruling discreetly hee must oftentimes remember his owne frailty Of Scurrility of Scoffing Chapt. 50. EVen as I greatly commend affability and pleasant iestes so I vtterly mislike and condemne knauery in iesting For toungs were not giuen vnto men to scoffe and taunt but rather to serue God and to instruct one another And as a litle fire may cōsume whole villages so in like manner the toung which is a kind of fire yea a world of calamity polluteth the whole body if it bee not refrained For which cause though there be some merry and conceited wit in a iest yet we must beware that we rashly bestow it not on them whom we afterwards would not for any thing offend Therefore the respect of time consideration of the person is necessary in lesting For we must not giue dry floutes at meales least we be accounted Ale-knights wee must not taunt cholericke men least they take it in ill part we must not deride simple felowes because they are rather to be pitied nor yet wicked persons for it behoueth to haue them rather punished then laught to scorne Whether Stageplayes ought to be suffred in a Commonwealth Chapt. 51. STageplaies fraught altogether with scurrilities and knauish pastimes are
reasons First that they might remember th◠creation of the world for in sixe daies the Lord made heauen and earth and all that therein is and rested the seuenth day Secondly that they might assemble together gratefully thanke his diuine maiesty for his daily blessing powred down vpon them Thirdly that they might recreat refresh and repose themselues to th' end they might labour the next week more aptly Fourthly the Sabaoth is to be obserued by reason it is the seuenth day which number containeth great and hidden mysteries The skie is gouerned by seuen Planets The reuolutiō of time is accomplished in seuen dayes which wee call weekes God commaunded Noah to take into his arke cleane beasts fowle by seuens Pharaoh dreamed that he saw seuen fat kine and seuen leane Dauid deliuered seuen of Sauls sonnes to the Gibeonites to be hanged Christ being termed the first stone of God hath seuē eyes Seuen thousand men did God reserue that neuer bowed their knees to Baal Zachariah in a vision saw a candlesticke of gold with a bowle vpon the top of it and seuen lampes therein and seuen pipes to the lampes Iob had seuen sonnes Seuen Angels go forth before God Neither were the seuen brethren whom Antiochus put to death voyd of a mystery S. Iohn in the Reuelation sawe seuen golden Candlestickes and in the middest of them the Sonne of man hauing in his right hand seuen starres Moreouer he saw the opening of the seuenth seale and the seuen Angels which stood before the Lord to whome were giuen seuen trumpets The Antichrist is prophesied to sit vpon a scarlet coloured beast which hath◠seuen heads By which as all true Christians be perswaded the Pope and his Cardinals attired in Scarlet his seuen hilled city of Rome are meant What more shall I write of the worthinesse of this seuēfold number mans life goeth by seuens named climactericall yeers which Macrobius hath well obserued Sith therefore it hath pleased God so to esteeme of this number let vs Christians honour the same as fearing the scourage of the commaunder It was ordained by a good and godly act made in y e parliament of Scotlād in the yeere of our Lord 1512. being the one and twentieth yeere of the raigne of Iames the fourth that no markets nor fayres should be holden on the Sabaoth day Which act King Iames the sixt that nowe is by the consent of his three estates ratified and approoued in the Parliament holden in the yeere 1579. cōdemning the breakers of the Sabaoth to forfeit all their moueables to the vse of the poore within that parish where they dwelt It was likewise there enacted that no handy-work should be vsed on y t Sabaoth nor any gaming playing passing to Tauernes nor wilfull remaining from prayer and Sermons should bee in any case exercised vnder the penalties following to wit of euerie man for his labouring as often as he was taken in the fact ten shillings and of euerie person for gaming playing passing to Tauernes and wilfull remaining from praier and Sermons on the sunday twentie shillings to bee presently payed and imployed to the releefe of the poore in their parish I could wish that some speedy good order were taken here in Englād for the breakers of the Sabaoth For many now a-dayes hauing beene idle all the weeke before doe of set contumacie labour that day in despight of the Lord his Sabaoth Some frō morning to euening do nothing els but play at dice or tables swearing staring at the least crosse of fortune Others againe be delighted with reading of pāphlets louebooks ballads such like neuer once so deuout as to name God vnlesse shamefully abusing him Oh how oftē do they vse on that day vnseemly speeches the very Turks I feare me go beyond them in deuotion For they duly on their festiual daies resort to their Churches neuer once gazing or looking aside as long as seruice lasteth The seruice being ended they go home each mā to his house inuiting humbly beseeching the priests to beare them cōpany with whō they questiō touching diuine matters not by carping nicking nipping but with pure simplicity feruent care wheras many of vs Christians contrariwise do openly prophane not only holidaies but also the Lords day yet they terme themselues Christians Christiās O coūterfeit Christiās worse thē Painims Me thinks if nothing else could moue you yet the daily myraculous punishments inflicted on such prophane persons as you bee should bee a terrible warning for you At Kinstat a towne in France dwelled a certain couetous woman about fortie yeres ago who was so eager in gathering together worldly pelfe that shee would neither frequent the church to heare the word of God on sunday her selfe nor yet permit any of her familie to do it but alway toyled about pilling and drying of flaxe neither would shee bee disswaded by her neighbours frō such an vnseasonable work One sunday as she was thus busied fire seemed to fall downe among the flaxe without doing any hurt The next sunday it tooke fire indeed but was soone quenched For all this shee continued forwarde in her worke euen the third Sunday when the flaxe againe taking fire could not be extinguished till it had burnt her two of her childrē to death for though they were recouered out of the fire aliue yet y e next day they all 3. died that which was most to be wondred at a yong infant in the Cradle was taken out of the midst of the flame without any hurt Thus God punisheth the breakers of y e sabaoth Famous is that example which chanced neere London in the yeere of our Lord 1583. on the thirteenth day of Ianuarie being Sunday at Paris garden where there met together as they were wont an infinite number of people to see the beare-baiting without any regard of that high day But in the middest of their sports all the scaffolds and galleries sodainely fell downe in such wise that two hundred persons were crushed well nigh to death besides eight that were killed forthwith In the yeere of our Lord 1589. I being as then but a boy do remember that an Alewife making no exception of dayes would needes brue vpon Saint Markes day but loe the maruailous worke of God whiles she was thus laboring the top of the chimney tooke fire and before it could bee quenched her house was quite burnt Surely a gentle warning to them that violate and prophane forbidden dayes Notwithstanding I am not so straight laced that I would not haue any labour done on Sundayes and holy dayes For I confesse It is lawfull to fight in our countries defence on any daie It is lawfull to enter into the bath and it is lawfull for Phisicians and Apothecaries to temper and prepare medicines for the sicke and for cookes to dresse meate for our sustenance It is lawfull for vs