understand the language of her behaviour She counts her house a prison and is never well till gadding abroad sure 't is true of women what is observed of elm if lying within doores dry no timber will last sound longer but if without doores expos'd to weather no wood sooner rots and corrupts Yet some Harlots continue a kind of strange coynesse even to the very last which coynesse differs from modesty as much as hemlock from parsely They will deny common favours because they are too small to be granted They will part with all or none refuse to be courteous and reserve themselves to be dishonest whereas women truly modest will willingly go to the bounds of free and harmlesse mirth but will not be dragg'd any farther She is commonly known by her whorish attire As crisping and curling making her hair as winding and intricate as her heart painting wearing naked breasts The face indeed ought to be bare and the haft should lie out of the sheath but where the back and edge of the knife are shown 't is to be feared they mean to cut the fingers of others I must confesse some honest women may go thus but no whit the honester for going thus The ship may have Castor and Pollux for the badge and notwithstanding have S. Paul for the lading yet the modesty and discretion of honest Matrons were more to be commended if they kept greater distance from the attire of Harlots Sometimes she ties her self in marriage to one that she may the more freely stray to many and cares not though her husband comes not within her bed so be it he goeth not out beyond the Foure-seas She useth her husband as an hood whom she casts off in the fair weather of prosperity but puts him on for a cover in adversity if it chance she prove with child Yet commonly she is as barren as lustfull Yea who can expect that malt should grow to bring new increase Besides by many wicked devices she seeks on purpose to make her self barren a retrograde act to set Nature back making many issues that she may have no issue and an hundred more damnable devices Which wicked projects first from hell did flow And thither let the same in silence go Best known of them who did them never know And yet for all her cunning God sometimes meets with her who varieth his wayes of dealing with wantons that they may be at a losse in tracing him and sometimes against her will she proves with child which though unable to speak yet tells at the birth a plain story to the mothers shame At last when her deeds grow most shamefull she grows most shamelesse So impudent that she her self sometimes proves both the poyson and the antidote the temptation and the preservative young men distasting and abhorring her boldnesse And those wantons who perchance would willingly have gathered the fruit fruit from the tree will not feed on such fallings Generally she dies very poore The wealth she gets is like the houses some build in Gothland made of snow no lasting fabrick the rather because she who took money of those who tasted the top of her wantonnesse is fain to give it to such who will drink out the dregs of her lust She dieth commonly of a lothsome disease I mean that disease unknown to Antiquity created within some hundreds of years which took the name from Naples When hell invented new degrees in sinnes it was time for heaven to invent new punishments Yet is this new disease now grown so common and ordinary as if they meant to put divine Justice to a second task to find out a newer And now it is high time for our Harlot being grown lothsome to her self to runne out of her self by repentance Some conceive that when King Henry the eighth destroyed the publick Stews in this Land which till his time stood on the banks side on Southwark next the Bear-garden beasts and beastly women being very fit neighbours he rather scattered then quenched the fire of lust in this kingdome and by turning the flame out of the chimney where it had a vent more endangered the burning of the Commonwealth But they are deceived for whilest the Laws of the Land tolerated open uncleannesse God might justly have made the whole State do penance for whoredome whereas now that sinne though committed yet not permitted and though God knows it be too generall it is still but personall JOAN the first of that Name Queen of Naples which for her Incontinency and other wicked Practises was put to Death Anno 1381. Page 360. WM sculp CHAP. 2. The life of JOAN Queen of Naples JOan grandchild to Robert King of Naples by Charles his sonne succeeded her grandfather in the Kingdome of Naples and Sicily Anno 1343. a woman of a beautifull body and rare endowments of nature had not the heat of her lust soured all the rest of her perfections whose wicked life and wofull death we now come to relate And I hope none can justly lay it to my charge if the foulnesse of her actions stain through the cleanest language I can wrap them in She was first married unto her cosen Andrew a Prince of royall extraction and of a sweet and loving disposition But he being not able to satisfie her wantonnesse she kept company with lewd persons at first privately but afterwards she presented her badnesse visible to every eye so that none need look through the chinks where the doores were open Now Elizabeth Queen of Hungary her husband Andrews mother was much offended at the badnesse of her daughter-in-law whose deeds were so foul she could not look on them and so common she could not look besides them wherefore in a matronly way she fairly advised her to reform her courses For the lives of Princes are more read then their Laws and generally more practised Yea their example passeth as current as their coin and what they do they seem to command to be done Cracks in glasse though past mending are no great matter but the least flaw in a diamond is considerable Yea her personall fault was a nationall injury which might derive and put the Sceptre into a wrong hand These her mild instructions she sharpned with severe threatnings But no razor will cut a stony heart Queen Joan imputed it to ages envy old people perswading youth to leave those pleasures which have left themselves Besides a Mother-in-laws Sermon seldome takes well with an audience of Daughter-in-laws Wherefore the old Queen finding the other past grace that is never likely to come to it resolved no longer to punish anothers sinne on her self and vex her own righteous soul but leaving Naples return'd into Hungary After her departure Queen Joan grew weary of her husband Andrew complaining of his insufficiency though those who have caninum appetitum are not competent judges what is sufficient food And she caused her husband in the city of Aversa to be hung
Lyrick verse were all turned into the gingling of Cymballs tinckling with rhythmes and like-sounding cadencies But let us heare a few lines of her Prophecies and thence guesse the rest In those dayes there shall rise up a people without understanding proud covetous and deceitfull the which shall eat the sins of the people holding a certain order of foolish devotion under the feigned cloke of beggery Also they shall instantly preach without devotion or example of the holy Martyrs and shall detract from the secular Princes taking away the Sacraments of the Church from the true pastours receiving almes of the poore having familiarity with women instructing them how they shall deceive their husbands and rob their husbands to give it unto them c. What could be said more plain to draw out to the life those Mendicant friers rogues by Gods statutes which afterwards swarm'd in the world Heare also how she foretold the low water of Tiber whilest as yet it was full tide there The Kings and other Rulers of the world being stirred up by the just judgement of God shall set themselves against them and run upon them saying We will not have these men to reigne over us with their rich houses and great possessions and other worldly riches over the which we are ordained to be Lords and Rulers and how is it meet or comely that those shavelings with their stoles and chesils should have more souldiers or richer armour and artillery then we wherefore let us take away from them what they do not justly but wrongfully possesse It is well the Index expurgatorius was not up in those dayes nor the Inquisition on foot otherwise dame Hildegardis must have been call'd to an after account I will onely ask a Romanist this question This Prophesie of Hildegardis was it from heaven or from men If from heaven why did ye not believe it If from men why did the Pope allow it canonize her As for miracles which she wrought in her life time their number is as admirable as their nature I must confesse at my first reading of them my belief digested some but surfeted on the rest for she made no more to cast out a devil then a barber to draw a tooth and with lesse pain to the patient I never heard of a great feast made all of Cordialls and it seems improbable that miracles which in Scripture are used sparingly and chiefly for conversion of unbelievers should be heaped so many together made every dayes work and by her commonly constantly and ordinarily wrought And I pray why is the Popish Church so barren of true works nowadayes here wrought at home amongst us For as for those reported to be done farre of it were ill for some if the gold from the Indies would abide the touch no better then the miracles However Hildegardis was a gratious Virgin and God might perform some great wonders by her hand but these piae fraudes with their painting have spoyled the naturall complexion of many a good face and have made Truth it self suspected She dyed in the 82. yeare of her age was afterwards Sainted by the Pope and the 17 day of September assign'd to her memory I cannot forget how Udalrick Abbat of Kempten in Germany made a most courteous law for the weaker sexe That no woman guilty of what crime soever should ever be put to death in his dominions because two women condemn'd to die were miraculously delivered out of the prison by praying to S. Hildegardis CHAP. 14. The Elder Brother IS one who made hast to come into the world to bring his Parents the first news of male-posterity and is well rewarded for his tidings His composition is then accounted most pretious when made of the losse of a double Virginitie He is thankfull for the advantage God gave him at the starting in the race into this world When twinnes have been even match'd one hath gained the gole but by his length S. Augustine saith That it is every mans bounden duty solemnly to celebrate his birth-day If so Elder Brothers may best afford good cheer on the festivall He counts not his inheritance a Writ of ease to free him from industry As if onely the Younger Brothers came into the world to work the Elder to complement These are the Toppes of their houses indeed like cotlofts highest and emptiest Rather he laboureth to furnish himself with all gentile accomplishment being best able to go to the cost of learning He need not fear to be served as Ulrick Fugger was chief of the noble family of the Fuggers in Auspurg who was disinherited of a great patrimony onely for his studiousnesse and expensivenesse in buying costly Manuscripts He doth not so remember he is an Heire that he forgets he is a Sonne Wherefore his carriage to his Parents is alwayes respectfull It may chance that his father may be kept in a charitable Prison whereof his Sonne hath the keyes the old man being onely Tenant for life and the lands entaild on our young Gentleman In such a case when it is in his power if necessity requires he enlargeth his father to such a reasonable proportion of liberty as may not be injurious to himself He rather desires his fathers Life then his Living This was one of the principall reasons but God knows how true why Philip the second King of Spain caused in the yeare 1568. Charles his Eldest Sonne to be executed for plotting his fathers death as was pretended And a Wit in such difficult toyes accommodated the numerall letters in Ovids verse to the yeare wherein the Prince suffered FILIVs ante DIeM patrIos InqVIrIt In annos 1568. Before the tIMe the oVer-hasty sonne Seeks forth hoVV near the fathers LIfe Is Done 1568. But if they had no better evidence against him but this poeticall Synchronisme we might well count him a martyr His fathers deeds and grants he ratifies and confirms If a stitch be fallen in a lease he will not widen it into an hole by cavilling till the whole strength of the grant run out thereat or take advantage of the default of the Clark in writing where the deed appears really done and on a valuable consideration He counts himself bound in honour to perform what by marks and signes he plainly understands his father meant though he spake it not out He reflecteth his lustre to grace and credit his younger brethren Thus Scipio Africanus after his great victories against the Carthaginians and conquering of Hannibal was content to serve as a Lieutenant in the warres of Asia under Lucius Scipio his younger Brother He relieveth his distressed kinred yet so as he continues them in their calling Otherwise they would all make his house their hospitall his kinred their calling When one being an Husbandman challenged kinred of Robert Grosthead Bishop of Lincoln and thereupon requested favour of him to bestow an office on him Cousen quoth the Bishop
stand on his own legs rendring himself absolute without being beholden to the French King or any other Having wholly conquer'd Romania he cast his eyes on Hetruria and therein either wan to submission or compliance most of the cities an earnest of his future finall conquest had not the unexpected death of his father Pope Alexander prevented him This Alexander with his sonne Cesar Borgia intended to poyson some rich Cardinalls to which purpose a flagon of poysoned wine was prepared But through the errour of a servant not privy to the project the Pope himself and Borgia his sonne drank thereof which cost the former his life and the other a long languishing sicknesse This Cesar Borgia once bragg'd to Machiavill that he had so cunningly contrived his plots as to warrant himself against all events If his father should die first he had made himself master of such a way that by the strength of his party in the city of Rome and conclave of Cardinalls he could chuse what Pope he pleased so from him to get assurance of this province of Romania to make it hereditary to himself And if which was improbable Nature should crosse her hands so that he should die before his father yet even then he had chalked out such a course as would ensure his conquest to his posterity so that with this politick dilemma he thought himself able to dispute against heaven it self But what he afterwards complained of he never expected that at the same time wherein his father should die he himself should also lie desperately sick disenabled to prosecute his designes till one unexpected counterblast of Fortune ruffled yea blew away all his projects so curiously plaited Thus three aces chance often not to rub and Politicians think themselves to have stopp'd every small cranny when they have left a whole doore open for divine providence to undo all which they have done The Cardinalls proceed to the choice of a new Pope whilest Borgia lay sick abed much bemoaning himself for all others had they the command of all April showrs could not bestow on drop of pity upon him Pius the third was first chosen Pope answering his name being a devout man such black swans seldome swim in Tyber but the chair of Pestilence choked him within twenty six dayes and in his room Julius was chosen or rather his greatnesse chose himself a sworn enemy to Cesar Borgia who still lay under the Physicians hands and had no power to oppose the election or to strengthen his new-got Dukedome of Romania the state of his body was to be preferred before the body of his state and he lay striving to keep life not to make a Pope Yea the operation of this poyson made him vomit up the Dukedome of Romania which he had swallowed before and whilest he lay sick the States and cities therein recovered their own liberties formerly enjoyed Indeed this disease made Borgia lose his nails that he could never after scratch to do any mischief and being banished Italie he fled into Navarre where he was obscurely kill'd in a tumultuous insurrection He was a man master in the art of dissembling never looking the same way he rowed extremely lustfull never sparing to tread hen and chickens At the taking of Capua where he assisted the French he reserved fourty of the fairest Ladies to be abused by his own wantonnesse And the prodigality of his lust had long before his death made him bankrupt of all the moysture in his body if his Physicians had not dayly repaired the decayes therein He exactly knew the operations of all hot and cold poysons which would surprise nature on a sudden and which would weary it out with a long siege He could contract a hundred toads into one drop and cunningly infuse the same into any pleasant liquour as the Italians have poysoning at their fingers ends By a fig which restored Hezekiahs life he took away the lives of many In a word if he was not a practicall Atheist I know not who was If any desire to know more of his badnesse let them reade Machiavills Prince where Borgia is brought in as an instance of all vilany And though he deserves to be hiss'd out of Christendome who will open his mouth in the defence of Machiavills precepts yet some have dared to defend his person so that he in his Book shews not what Princes should be but what then they were intending that work not for a glasse for future Kings to dresse themselves by but onely therein to present the monstrous face of the Politicians of that Age. Sure he who is a devil in this book is a Saint in all the rest and those that knew him witnesse him to be of honest life and manners so that that which hath sharpned the pens of many against him is his giving so many cleanly wipes to the foul noses of the Pope and Italian Prelacy CHAP. 8. The Hypocrite BY Hypocrite we understand such a one as doth Isaiah 32.6 practise hypocrisie make a trade or work of dissembling For otherwise Hypocriseorum macula carere aut paucorum est aut nullorum The best of Gods children have a smack of hypocrisie An Hypocrite is himself both the archer and the mark in all actions shooting at his own praise or profit And therefore he doth all things that they may be seen What with others is held a principall point in Law is his main Maxime in Divinity To have good witnesse Even fasting it self is meat and drink to him whilest others behold it In the outside of religion he out-shines a sincere Christian. Guilt cups glitter more then those of massie gold which are seldome burnish'd Yea well may the Hypocrite afford gaudy facing who cares not for any lining brave it in the shop that hath nothing in the ware-house Nor is it a wonder if in outward service he out-strips Gods servants who out-doeth Gods command by will-worship giving God more then he requires though not what most he requires I mean his heart His vizard is commonly pluckt off in this world Sincerity is an entire thing in it self Hypocrisie consists of severall pieces cunningy closed together and sometimes the Hypocrite is smote as Ahab with an arrow 1. Kings 22.34 betwixt the joynts of his armour and so is mortally wounded in his reputation Now by these shrewd signes a dissembler is often discovered First heavie censuring of others for light faults secondly boasting of his own goodnesse thirdly the unequall beating of his pulse in matters of pietie hard strong and quick in publick actions weak soft and dull in private matters fourthly shrinking in persecution for painted faces cannot abide to come nigh the fire Yet sometimes he goes to the grave neither detected nor suspected If Masters in their art and living in peaceable times wherein pietie and prosperity do not fall out but agree well together Maud mother to King Henry the second being besieged
patience she condemned them for deserving such punishment She never had blow from or jarre with her husband she so suppled his hard nature with her obedience and to her great comfort saw him converted to Christianity before his death Also she saw Augustine her sonne formerly vitious in life and erroneous in doctrine whose soul she bathd in her Tears become a worthy Christian who coming to have his eares tickled had his heart touched and got Religion in to boot with the eloquence of S. Ambrose She survived not long after her sonnes conversion God sends his servants to bed when they have done their work and her candle was put out as soon as the day did dawn in S. Augustine Take an instance or two of her signall piety There was a custome in Africk to bring pulse bread and wine to the monuments of dead Saints wherein Monica was as forward as any But being better instructed that this custome was of heathenish parentage and that Religion was not so poore as to borrow rites from Pagans she instantly left off that ceremony and as for pietie's sake she had done it thus long so for pietie's sake she would do it no longer How many old folks now adayes whose best argument is use would have flown in their faces who should stop them in the full career of an ancient custome There was one Licentius a novice-convert who had got these words by the end Turn us again O Lord God of hosts show us the light of thy countenance and we shall be whole And as it is the fashion of many mens tongues to echo forth the last sentence they learnt he said it in all places he went to But Monica over-hearing him to sing it in the house of office was highly offended at him because holy things are to be suted to holy places and the harmonie could not be sweet where the song did jarre with the place And although some may say that a gracious heart consecrateth every place into a Chapell yet sure though pious things are no where unfitting to be thought on they may somewhere be improper to be uttered Drawing near her death she sent most pious thoughts as harbingers to heaven and her soul saw a glimpse of happinesse through the chincks of her sicknesse-broken body She was so inflamed with zeal that she turned all objects into fewell to feed it One day standing with S. Augustine at an East-window she raised her self to consider the light of Gods presence in respect whereof all corporall light is so farre from being match'd it deserves not to be mentioned Thus mounted on heavenly meditations and from that high pitch surveying earthly things the great distance made them appear unto her like a little point scarce to be seen and lesse to be respected She died at Ostia in Italy in the fiftie sixth yeare of her age Augustine closing her eyes when through grief he had scarce any himself CHAP. 3. The good Husband HAving formerly described a good Wife she will make a good Husband whose character we are now to present His love to his wife weakeneth not his ruling her and his ruling lesseneth not his loving her Wherefore he avoideth all fondnesse a sick love to be praised in none and pardoned onely in the newly married whereby more have wilfully betrayed their command then ever lost it by their wives rebellion Methinks the he-viper is right enough served which as Pliny reports puts his head into the she-vipers mouth and she bites it off And what wonder is it if women take the rule to themselves which their uxorious husbands first surrender unto them He is constant to his wife and confident of her And sure where jealousie is the Jailour many break the prison it opening more wayes to wickednesse then it stoppeth so that where it findeth one it maketh ten dishonest He alloweth her meet maintenance but measures it by his own estate nor will he give lesse nor can she ask more Which allowance if shorter then her deserts and his desire he lengtheneth it out with his courteous carriage unto her chiefly in her sicknesse then not so much word-pitying her as providing necessaries for her That she may not intrench on his prerogative he maintains her propriety in feminine affairs yea therein he follows her advice For the soul of a man is planted so high that he overshoots such low matter as lie levell to a womans eye and therefore her counsell therein may better hit the mark Causes that are properly of feminine cognizance he suffers her finally to decide not so much as permitting an appeal to himself that their jurisdictions may not interfere He will not countenance a stubborn servant against her but in her maintains his own Authority Such husbands as bait the mistris with her maids and clap their hands at the sport will have cause to wring them afterwards Knowing she is the weaker vessell he bears with her infirmities All hard using of her he detests desiring therein to do not what may be lawfull but fitting And grant her to be of a servile nature such as may be bettered by beating yet he remembers he hath enfranchised her by marrying her On her wedding-day she was like S. Paul free born and priviledged from any servile punishment He is carefull that the wounds betwixt them take not ayre and be publickly known Jarres conceald are half reconciled which if generally known 't is a double task to stop the breach at home and mens mouths abroad To this end he never publickly reproves her An open reproof puts her to do penance before all that are present after which many rather study revenge then reformation He keeps her in the wholsome ignorance of unnecessary secrets They will not be starved with the ignorance who perchance may surfet with the knowledge of weighty Counsels too heavy for the weaker sex to bear He knows little who will tell his wife all he knows He beats not his wife after his death One having a shrewd wife yet loth to use her hardly in his life time awed her with telling her that he would beat her when he was dead meaning that he would leave her no maintenance This humour is unworthy a worthy man who will endeavour to provide her a competent estate yet he that impoverisheth his children to enrich his widow destroyes a quick hedge to make a dead one CHAP. 4. The Life of ABRAHAM I Intend not to range over all his life as he stands threesquare in relation Husband Father Master We will onely survey and measure his conjugall side which respecteth his wife We reade not that ever he upbraided her for her barrennesse as knowing that naturall defects are not the creatures fault but the Creatours pleasure all which time his love was loyall to her alone As for his going in to Hagar it was done not onely with the consent but by the advice of Sarah who was so ambitious
his Prince should shine beside him but especially thorow him on others Too covetous are they who not content to be sole heirs to their Princes favour grudge that any pensions should be allotted to their younger brethren Why should it not as well be Treason to confine a Princes affection as to imprison his person He makes provident yet moderate use of his Masters favour Especially if he be of a various nature and loveth exchange counting it not to stand with the state of a King to wear a Favourite thredbare Too blame they who thinking it will be continuall summer with them as in the countrey under the Aequator will not so much as frostnip their souls with a cold thought of want hereafter and provide neither to oblige others nor to maintain themselves As bad they on the other side who like those who have a lease without impeachment of waste speedily to expire whip and strip and rap and rend whatsoever can come to their fingers He makes his estate invisible by purchasing reversions and in remote countreys He hath a moderate estate in open view that the world may settle their looks on 't for if they see nothing they will suspect the more and the rest farre off and hereafter The eyes of envy can never bewitch that which it doth not see These Reversions will be ripe for his heir by that time his heir shall be ripe for them and the money of distracted revennues will meet entirely in one purse Having attained to a competent height he had rather grow a buttresse broader then a storie higher He fortifieth himself by raising outworks and twisting himself by intermarriages of his kinred into noble Families his Countenance will give all his Kinswomen beauty Some Favourites whose heels have been tript up by their adversaries have with their hands held on their Allies till they could recover their feet again He makes not Great men dance envidious attendance to speak with him Oh whilest their heels cool how do their hearts burn Wherefore in the midst of the Term of his businesse he makes himself a vacation to speak with them Indeed some difficulty of accesse and conference begets a reverence towards them in common people who will suspect the ware not good if cheap to come by and therefore he values himself in making them to wait Yet he loves not to over-linger any in an afflicting hope but speedily dispatcheth the fears or desires of his expecting Clients He loveth a good name but will not wooe or court it otherwise then as it is an attendant on honesty and virtue But chiefly he avoydeth the sweet poyson of Popularity wherewith some have swollen till they have broken Especially he declines the entertainment of many Martialists the harsh counsell of souldiers being commonly untunable to the Court-way The immoderate resorting of military men to a Favourite chiefly if by any palliation he pretends to the Crown is like the flocking of so many ravens and vulturs which foretell his funerall He preserves all inferiour Officers in the full rights and priviledges of their places Some are so boysterous no severals will hold them but lay all Offices common to their power or else are so busie that making many circles in other mens professions they raise up ill spirits in them and for every finger they needlessely thrust into other mens matters shall find an hand against them when occasion shall serve As bad are they who leaping over meaner persons to whom the businesse is proper bring it per saltum to themselves not suffering matters to run along in a legall channell but in a by-ditch of their own cutting so drawing the profit to themselves which they drein from others If accused by his adversaries he flies with speed to his Princes person No better covert for a hunted Favourite to take to where if innocent with his loyall breath he easily dispels all vapours of ill suggestions if guilty yet he is half acquitted because judged by the Prince himself whose compassion he moves by an ingenuous confession But if this Sanctuary-doore be bolted against him then his ruine is portended and not long after He is a fish on the dry shore when the tide of his Masters love hath left him so that if he be not the more wise he will be made a prey to the next that finds him Severall are the causes of Favourites falls proceeding either from the Kings pleasure their enemies malice or their own default different the degrees and manner of their ruine some when grown too great are shifted under honourable colours of employment into a forrein aire there to purge and lessen others receive their condemnation at home But how bad soever his cast be see how he betters it by good playing it He submits himself without contesting to the pleasure of his Prince For being a Tenant at will to the favour of his Sovereigne it is vain to strive to keep violent possession when his Landlord will out him Such struggling makes the hook of his enemies malice strike the deeper into him And whilest his adversaries spurre him with injuries on purpose to make him spring out into rebellious practices he reins in his passions with the stronger patience If he must down he seeks to fall easily and if possible to light on his legs If stript out of his robes he strives to keep his clothes loosing his honour yet to hold his lands if not them his life and thanks his Prince for giving him whatsoever he takes not away from him To conclude A Favourite is a trade whereof he that breaks once seldome sets up again Rare are the examples of those who have compounded and thrived well afterwards Mean men are like underwood which the Law calls sylva caedua quae succisa renascitur being cut down it may spring again but Favourites are like okes which scarce thrive after to make timber being lopt but if once cut down never grow more If we light on any who have flourished the second time impute it to their Princes pleasure to crosse the common observation and to shew that nothing is past cure with so great a chirurgion who can even set a broken Favourite Now to shew the inconstancie of Greatnesse not supported with virtue we will first insist in a remarkable pattern in holy Scripture Next will we produce a parallel of two Favourites in our English Court living in the same time and height of honour with their Sovereigne the one through his vitiousnesse ending in misery the other by his virtuous demeanour shining bright to his death for I count it a wrong to our Countrey to import presidents out of forrein Histories when our home-Chronicles afford us as plentifull and proper examples CHAP. 2. The life of HAMAN HAman the sonne of Amedatha of the kinred of Agag and people of Amalek was highly favoured by Ahasuerus Emperour of Persia. I find not what pretious properties he had
the matter himself he was contented to be the stock whereon Wolsey should be graffed whom he made heir to his favour commending him to King Henrie the seventh for one fit to serve a King and command others And hereupon he was entertained at Court Soon after when Henrie his sonne came to the Crown Wolsey quickly found the length of his foot and fitted him with an easie shoe He perswaded him that it was good accepting of pleasure whilest youth tender'd it let him follow his sports whilest Wolsey would undertake every night briefly to represent unto him all matters of moment which had passed the Counsell-table For Princes are to take State-affairs not in the masse and whole bulk of them but onely the spirits thereof skilfully extracted And hereupon the King referred all matters to Wolsey's managing on whom he conferr'd the Bishopricks of Duresme Winchester and York with some other spirituall promotions Nothing now hindred Wolsey's prospect to overlook the whole Court but the head of Edward Stafford Duke of Buckingham who was high in birth honour and estate For as for Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk he stood not in Wolsey's way but rather besides then against him Brandon being the Kings companion in pleasures Wolsey his counsellour in policy Brandon Favourite to Henrie Wolsey to the King Wolsey takes this Buckingham to task who otherwise a brave Gentleman was proud and popular and that tower is easily undermin'd whose foundation is hollow His own folly with Wolsey's malice overthrew him Vainglory ever lyeth at an open guard and giveth much advantage of play to her enemies The Duke is condemned of high treason though rather corrivall with the King for his Clothes then his Crown being excessively brave in apparell The ax that kills Buckingham frights all others who turn contesting into complying with our Archbishop now Cardinall Legate à latere and Lord-Chancellour All the Judges stood at the barre of his devotion His displeasure more feared then the Kings whose anger though violent was placable the Cardinalls of lesse furie but more malice yet in matters of Judicature he behaved himself commendably I heare no widows sighes nor see orphans tears in our Chronicles caused by him sure in such cases wherein his private ends made him not a party he was an excellent Justicer as being too proud to be bribed and too strong to be overborn Next he aspires to the Triple Grown he onely wants Holinesse and must be Pope Yet was it a great labour for a Tramountain to climbe over the Alps to S. Peters Chair a long leap from York to Rome and therefore he needed to take a good rise Besides he used Charles the fift Emperour for his staff gold he gave to the Romish Cardinalls and they gave him golden promises so that at last Wolsey perceived both the Emperour and the Court of Rome delay'd and deluded him He is no fox whose den hath but one hole Wolsey finding this way stopt goes another way to work and falls off to the French King hoping by his help to obtain his desires However if he help not himself he would hinder Charles the Emperours designes and revenge is a great preferment Wherefore covertly he seeks to make a divorce betwixt Queen Katharine Dowager the Emperours Aunt and King Henrie the eighth his Master Queen Katharines age was above her Husbands her gravity above her age more pious at her beads then pleasant in her bed a better woman then a wife and a fitter wife for any Prince then King Henrie Wolsey by his instruments perswades the King to put her away pleading they were so contiguous and near in kinred they might not be made continuous one flesh in marriage because she before had been wife to Prince Arthur the Kings brother Besides the King wanted a male heir which he much desired Welcome whisperings are quickly heard The King embraceth the motion the matter is enter'd in the Romish Court but long delayed the Pope first meaning to divorce most of the gold from England in this tedious suit But here Wolsey miscarried in the Master-piece of his policy For he hoped upon the divorce of King Henrie from Queen Katharine his wife which with much adoe was effected to advance a marriage betwixt him and the King of France his sister thinking with their nuptiall ring to wed the King of France eternally to himself and mould him for farther designes whereas contrary to his expectation King Henrie fell in love with Anna Bullen a Lady whole beauty exceeded her birth though honourable wit her beauty piety all one for his love not lust so that there was no gathering of green fruit from her till marriage had ripened it whereupon the King took her to wife Not long after followed the ruine of the Cardinall caused by his own vitiousnesse heightned by the envy of his Adversaries He was caught in a Premunire for procuring to be Legate de latere and advancing the Popes power against the Laws of the Realm and eight other Articles were framed against him for which we report the Reader to our Chronicles The main was his Ego Rex meus wherein he remembred his old profession of a Schoolmaster and forgot his present estate of a Statesman But as for some things laid to his charge his friends plead that where potent malice is Promoter the accusations shall not want proof though the proof may want truth Well the broad seal was taken from him and some of his spirituall Preferments Yet was he still left Bishop of Winchester and Archbishop of York so that the Kings goodnesse hitherto might have seemd rather to ease him of burthensome greatnesse then to have deprived him of wealth or honour which whether he did out of love to Wolsey or fear of the Pope I interpose no opinion Home now went Wolsey into Yorkshire and lived at his Mannour of Cawood where he wanted nothing the heart of man could desire for contentment But great minds count every place a prison which is not a Kings Court and just it was that he which would not see his own happinesse should therefore feel his own misery He provided for his enstalling Archbishop State equivalent to a Kings Coronation which his ambition revived other of his misdemeanours and by command from the King he was arrested by the Earl of Northumberland and so took his journeys up to London By the way his soul was rackt betwixt different tidings now hoysed up with hope of pardon then instantly let down with news of the Kings displeasure till at Leicester his heart was broken with these sudden and contrary motions The Storie goes that he should breath out his soul with speeches to this effect Had I been as carefull to serve the God of Heaven as I have to comply to the will of my earthly King God would not have left me in mine old age as the other hath done His body swell'd after his death as his mind did whilest he was living which
with other symptomes gave the suspicion that he poysoned himself It will suffice us to observe If a Great man much beloved dyeth suddenly the report goes that others poysoned him If he be generally hated then that he poysoned himself Sure never did a Great man fall with lesse pity Some of his own servants with the feathers they got under him flew to other Masters Most of the Clergy more pitying his Profession then Person were glad that the felling of this oke would cause the growth of much underwood Let Geometricians measure the vastnesse of his mind by the footsteps of his Buildings Christ-Church White-Hall Hampton-Court And no wonder if some of these were not finished seeing his life was rather broken off then ended Sure King Henrie lived in two of his houses and lies now in the third I mean his Tombe at Windsor In a word in his prime he was the bias of the Christian world drawing the bowl thereof to what side he pleased CHAP. 4. The life of CHARLES BRANDON Duke of Suffolk CHarles Brandon was sonne to Sr. William Brandon Standerd-bearer to King Henry the seaventh in whose quarrell he was slain in Bosworth field wherefore the King counted himself bound in honour and conscience to favour young Charles whose father spent his last breath to blow him to the haven of victory and caused him to be brought up with Prince Henrie his second sonne The intimacy betwixt them took deep impression in their tender years which hardned with continuance of time proved indeleble It was advanced by the sympathy of their active spirits men of quick and large-striding minds loving to walk together not to say that the loosenesse of their youthfull lives made them the faster friends Henry when afterwards King heaped honours upon him created him Viscount Lisle and Duke of Suffolk Not long after some of the English Nobility got leave to go to the publick Tilting in Paris and there behav'd themselves right valiantly though the sullen French would scarce speak a word in their praise For they conceived it would be an eternall impoverishing of the credit of their Nation if the honour of the day should be exported by foreiners But Brandon bare away the credit from all fighting at Barriers with a giant Almain till he made an earth-quake in that mountain of flesh making him reel and stagger and many other courses at Tilt he performed to admiration Yea the Lords beheld him not with more envious then the Ladies with gracious eyes who darted more glaunces in love then the other ranne spears in anger against him especially Mary the French Queen and sister to King Henry the eighth who afterward proved his wife For after the death of Lewis the twelfth her husband King Henry her brother imployed Charles Brandon to bring her over into England who improved his service so well that he got her good will to marrie her Whether his affections were so ambitious to climbe up to her or hers so courteous as to descend to him who had been twice a widower before let youthfull pennes dispute it it sufficeth us both met together Then wrote he in humble manner to request King Henries leave to marrie his sister but knowing that matters of this nature are never sure till finisht and that leave is sooner got to do such attempts when done already and wisely considering with himself that there are but few dayes in the Almanack wherein such Marriages come in and subjects have opportunity to wed Queens he first married her privately in Paris King Henrie after the acting of some anger and shewing some state-discontent was quickly contented therewith yea the world conceiveth that he gave this woman to be married to this man in sending him on such an imployment At Calis they were afterward re-married or if you will their former private marriage publickly solemniz'd and coming into England liv'd many years in honour and esteem no lesse dear to his fellow-subjects then his Sovereigne He was often imployed Generall in Martiall affairs especially in the warres betwixt the English and French though the greatest performance on both sides was but mutuall indenting the Dominions each of other with inrodes When the divorce of King Henry from Queen Katharine was so long in agitation Brandon found not himself a little agrieved at the Kings expence of time and money for the Court of Rome in such matters wherein money is gotten by delayes will make no more speed then the beast in Brasil which the Spaniards call Pigritia which goes no farther in a fortnight then a man will cast a stone Yea Brandon well perceived that Cardinall Campeius and Wolsey in their Court at Bridewell wherein the divorce was judicially handled intended onely to produce a solemn Nothing their Court being but the clock set according to the diall at Rome and the instructions received thence Wherefore knocking on the table in the presence of the two Cardinalls he bound it with an oath That It was never well in England since Cardinalls had any thing to do therein And from that time forward as an active instrument he indeavoured the abolishing of the Popes power in England For he was not onely as the Papists complain of him a principall agent in that Parliament Anno. 1534. wherein the Popes supremacy was abrogated but also a main means of the overturning of Abbeys as conceiving that though the head was struck off yet as long as that neck and those shoulders remained there would be a continuall appetite of reuniting themselves Herein his thoughts were more pure from the mixture of covetousnesse then many other imployed in the same service For after that our eyes justly dazled at first with the brightnesse of Gods Justice on those vitious fraternities have somewhat recovered themselves they will serve us to see the greedy appetites of some instruments to feed on Church-morsels He lived and dyed in the full favour of his Prince though as Cardinall Pool observed they who were highest in this Kings favour their heads were nearest danger Indeed King Henrie was not very tender in cutting off that joynt and in his Reigne the ax was seldome wiped before wetted again with Noble bloud He dyed Anno 1544. much beloved and lamented of all for his bounty humility valour and all noble virtues since the heat of his youth was tamed in his reduced age and lies buried at Windsor CHAP. 5. The wise Statesman TO describe the Statesman at large is the subject rather of a Volume then a Chapter and is as farre beyond my power as wide of my profession We will not lanch into the deep but satisfie our selves to sail by the shore and briefly observe his carriage towards God his King himself home-persons and forein Princes He counts the fear of God the beginning of wisdome and therefore esteemeth no project profitable which is not lawfull nothing politick which crosseth piety Let not any plead for the contrary Hushai's dealing with Absalom which strongly
imperfections Had they not been men they had not burn't yea had they not been more then men by Gods assistance they had not burn't Every true Christian should but none but strong Christians will die at the stake But to return to Ridley One of the greatest things objected against him was his counsell to King Edward which the good Prince wash'd away with his tears about tolerating the Masse for Princesse Mary at the intercession of Charles the fifth Emperour which how great it was let the indifferent party give judgement when the Historian hath given his evidence The Bishops of Canterbury London Rochester gave their opinion that to give licence to sinne was sinne but to connive at sinne might be allowed in case it were neither too long nor without hope of reformation Another fault wherewith he was charged was that wofull and unhappy discord betwixt him and reverend Bishop Hooper about the wearing of some Episcopall garments at his consecration then in use which Ridley press'd and Hooper refused with equall violence as being too many rather loading then gracing him and so affectedly grave that they were light again All we will say is this that when worthy men fall out onely one of them may be faulty at the first but if such strifes continue long commonly both become guilty But thus Gods diamonds often cut one another and good men cause afflictions to good men It was the policy of the Lacedemonians alwayes to send two Embassadours together which disagreed amongst themselves that so mutually they might have an eye on the actions each of other Sure I am that in those Embassadours the Ministers which God sendeth to men God suffereth great discords betwixt them Paul with Barnabas Jerome with Ruffin and Augustine and the like perchance because each may be more cautious and wary of his behaviour in the view of the other We may well behold mens weaknesse in such dissentions but better admire Gods strength and wisdome in ordering them to his glory and his childrens good Sure it is Ridley and Hooper were afterwards cordially reconciled and let not their discords pierce farther then their reconciliation The worst is mens eyes are never made sound with the clearnesse but often are made sore with the bleernesse of other mens eyes in their company The virtues of Saints are not so attractive of our imitation as their vices and infirmities are prone to infect Ridley was very gracious with King Edward the sixth and by a Sermon he preach'd before him so wrought upon his pious disposition whose Princely charity rather wanted a directour then a perswader that the King at his motion gave to the city of London 1 Greyfriers now called Christ-Church for impotent fatherlesse decrepid people by age or nature to be educated or maintained 2 S. Bartholomews near Smithfield for poore by faculty as wounded souldiers diseas'd and sick persons to be cur'd and relieved 3 Bridewell the ancient Mansion of the English Kings for the poore by idlenesse or unthriftynesse as riotous spenders vagabonds loyterers strumpets to be corrected and reduc'd to good order I like that Embleme of Charity which one hath expressed in a naked child giving honey to a Bee without wings onely I would have one thing added namely holding a whip in the other hand to drive away the drones So that King Edwards bounty was herein perfect and complete To return to Ridley His whole life was a letter written full of learning and religion whereof his death was the seal Brought he was with Cranmer and Latimer to Oxford to dispute in the dayes of Queen Mary though before a Syllogisme was form'd their deaths were concluded on and as afterwards came to passe being burnt the sixteenth of October Anno 1555. in the ditch over against Balioll Colledge He came to the stake in a fair black gown furr'd and fac'd with foins a Tippet of velvet furr'd likewise about his neck a velvet night-cap upon his head and a corner'd cap upon the same Doctour Smith preacht a Sermon at their burning a Sermon which had nothing good in it but the text though misapplyed and the shortnesse being not above a quarter of an houre long Old Hugh Latimer was Ridleys partner at the stake sometimes Bishop of Worcester who crauled thither afâ—er him one who had lost more learning then many ever had who flout at his plain Sermons though his down-right style was as necessary in that ignorant age as it would be ridiculous in ours Indeed he condescended to peoples capacity and many men unjustly count those low in learning who indeed do but stoop to their Auditours Let me see any of our sharp Wits do that with the edge which his bluntnesse did with the back of the knife and perswade so many to restitution of ill-gotten goods Though he came after Ridley to the stake he got before him to heaven his body made tinder by age was no sooner touch'd by the fire but instantly this old Simeon had his Nunc dimittis and brought the news to heaven that his brother was following after But Ridley suffered with farre more pain the fire about him being not well made And yet one would think that age should be skilfull in making such bonefires as being much practised in them The Gunpowder that was given him did him little service and his Brother-in-law out of desire to rid him out of pain encreased it great grief will not give men leave to be wise with it heaping fewell upon him to no purpose so that neither the fagots which his enemies anger nor his Brothers good will cast upon him made the fire to burn kindly In like manner not much before his dear friend Master Hooper suffered with great torment the wind which too often is the bellows of great fires blowing it away from him once or twice Of all the Martyrs in those dayes these two endured most pain it being true that each of them Quaerebat in ignibus ignes And still he did desire For fire in midd'st of fire Both desiring to burn and yet both their upper parts were but Confessours when their lower parts were Martyrs and burnt to ashes Thus God where he hath given the stronger faith he layeth on the stronger pain And so we leave them going up to Heaven like Eliah in a chariot of fire CHAP. 12. The true Nobleman HE is a Gentleman in a Text Letter because bred and living in an higher and larger way Conceive him when young brought up at School in ludo literario where he did not take ludus to himself and leave literarius to others but seriously applyed himself to learning and afterwards coming to his estate thus behaves himself Goodnesse sanctifies his Greatnesse and Greatnesse supports his Goodnesse He improves the upper ground whereon he stands thereby to do God the more glory He counts not care for his Countreys good to be beneath his state Because he is a great pillar shall he
a masculine word to so heroick a spirit She was very devout in returning thanks to God for her constant and continuall preservations for one traitours stabbe was scarce put by before another took aim at her But as if the poysons of treason by custome were turn'd naturall unto her by Gods protection they did her no harm In any designe of consequence she loved to be long and well advised but where her resolutions once seis'd she would never let go her hold according to her motto Semper eadem By her Temperance she improved that stock of health which Nature bestowed on her using little wine and lesse Physick Her Continence from pleasures was admirable and she the Paragon of spotlesse chastity what ever some Popish Priests who count all virginity hid under a Nunnes veil have feigned to the contrary The best is their words are no slander whose words are all slander so given to railing that they must be dumbe if they do not blaspheme Magistrates One Jesuit made this false Anagram on her name Elizabeth Iezabel false both in matter and manner For allow it the abatement of H as all Anagrams must sue in Chancery for moderate favour yet was it both unequall and ominous that T a solid letter should be omitted the presage of the gallows whereon this Anagrammatist was afterwards justly executed Yea let the testimony of Pope Sixtus Quintus himself be believed who professed that amongst all the Princes in Christendome he found but two which were worthy to bear command had they not been stained with heresie namely Henry the fourth King of France and Elizabeth Queen of England And we may presume that the Pope if commending his enemy is therein infallible We come to her death the discourse whereof was more welcome to her from the mouth of her private Confessour then from a publick Preacher and she loved rather to tell her self then to be told of her mortality because the open mention thereof made as she conceived her subjects divide their loyalty betwixt the present and the future Prince We need look into no other cause of her sicknesse then old age being seventy years old Davids age to which no King of England since the Conquest did attain Her weaknesse was encreased by her removall from London to Richmond in a cold winter day sharp enough to pierce thorow those who were arm'd with health and youth Also melancholy the worst naturall Parasite whosoever seeds him shall never be rid of his company much afflicted her being given over to sadnesse and silence Then prepared she her self for another world being more constant in prayer and pious exercises then ever before yet spake she very little to any sighing out more then she said and making still musick to God in her heart And as the red rose though outwardly not so fragrant is inwardly farre more cordiall then the damask being more thrifty of its sweetnesse and reserving it in it self so the religion of this dying Queen was most turn'd inward in soliloquies betwixt God and her own soul though she wanted not outward expressions thereof When her speech fail'd her she spake with her heart tears eyes hands and other signes so commending herself to God the best interpreter who understands what his Saints desire to say Thus dyed Queen Elizabeth whilest living the first maid on earth and when dead the second in heaven Surely the kingdome had dyed with their Queen had not the fainting spirits thereof been refresh'd by the coming in of gratious King James She was of person tall of hair and complexion fair well-favoured but high-nosed of limbes and feature neat of a stately and majestick deportment She had a piercing eye wherewith she used to touch what metall strangers were made of which came into her presence But as she counted it a pleasant conquest with her Majestick look to dash strangers out of countenance so she was mercifull in pursuing those whom she overcame and afterwards would cherish and comfort them with her smiles if perceiving towardlinesse and an ingenuous modesty in them She much affected rich and costly apparell and if ever jewells had just cause to be proud it was with her wearing them CHAP. 16. The Embassadour HE is one that represents his King in a forrein countrey as a Deputy doth in his own Dominions under the assurance of the publick faith authorized by the Law of Nations He is either Extraordinary for some one affair with time limited or Ordinary for generall matters during his Princes pleasure commonly called a Legier He is born made or at leastwise qualified honourably both for the honour of the sender and him to whom he is sent especially if the solemnity of the action wherein he is employed consisteth in ceremony and magnificence Lewis the eleventh King of France is sufficiently condemn'd by Posterity for sending Oliver his Barber in an Embassage to a Princesse who so trimly dispatch'd his businesse that he left it in the suddes and had been well wash'd in the river at Gant for his pains if his feet had not been the more nimble He is of a proper at least passable person Otherwise if he be of a contemptible presence he is absent whilest he is present especially if employed in love-businesses to advance a marriage Ladyes will dislike the body for a deformed shadow The jest is well known When the State of Rome sent two Embassadours the one having scarres on his head the other lame in his feet Mittit populus Romanus legationem quae nec caput habet nec pedes The people of Rome send an Embassy without head or feet He hath a competent estate whereby to maintain his port for a great poverty is ever suspected and he that hath a breach in his estate lies open to be assaulted with bribes Wherefore his means ought at least to be sufficient both to defray set and constant charges as also to make sallies and excursions of expenses on extraordinary occasions which we may call Supererogations of State Otherwise if he be indigent and succeed a bountifull Predecessour he will seem a fallow field after a plentifull crop He is a passable scholar well travell'd in Countreys and Histories well studyed in the Pleas of the Crown I mean not such as are at home betwixt his Sovereigne and his subjects but abroad betwixt his and forrein Princes to this end he is well skill'd in the Emperiall Laws Common Law it self is outlawed beyond the seas which though a most true is too short a measure of right and reacheth not forrein kingdomes He well understandeth the language of that countrey to which he is sent and yet he desires rather to seem ignorant of it if such a simulation which stands neuter betwixt a Truth and a Lie be lawfull and that for these reasons first because though he can speak it never so exactly his eloquence therein will be but stammering compar'd to the ordinary talk of the
Natives secondly hereby he shall in a manner stand invisible and view others and as Josephs deafnesse heard all the dialogues betwixt his brethren so his not owning to understand the language shall expose their talk the more open unto him thirdly he shall have the more advantage to speak and negotiate in his own language at the least wise if he cannot make them come over to him he may meet them in the midway in the Latine a speech common to all learned Nations He gets his Commission and instructions well ratified and confirm'd before he sets forth Otherwise it is the worst prison to be commission-bound And seeing he must not jet out the least penthouse beyond his foundation he had best well survey the extent of his authority He furnisheth himself with fit Officers in his family Especially he is carefull in choosing 1 A Secretary honest and able carefull to conceal counsels and not such a one as will let drop out of his mouth whatsoever is poured in at his eare Yea the head of every Embassadour sleeps on the breast of his Secretary 2 A Steward wise and provident such as can temper magnificence with moderation judiciously fashioning his ordinary expences with his Masters estate reserving a spare for all events and accidentall occasions and making all things to passe with decency without any rudenesse noise or disorder He seasonably presents his Embassage and demands audience Such is the fresh nature of some Embassages if not spent presently they sent ill Thus it is ridiculous to condole griefs almost forgotten for besides that with a cruell courtesie it makes their sorrows bleed afresh it foolishly seems to teach one to take that which he hath formerly digested When some Trojane Embassadours came to comfort Tiberius Cesar for the losse of his sonne dead well nigh a twelvemoneth before And I said the Emperour am very sorry for your grief for the death of your Hector slain by Achilles a thousand years since Coming to have audience he applyeth himself onely to the Prince to whom he is sent When Chancellour Morvill Embassadour from the French King delivering his message to Philip Duke of Burgundy was interrupted by Charles the Dukes sonne I am sent said he not to treat with you but with your father And our M â— Wade is highly commended that being sent by Queen Elizabeth to Philip King of Spain he would not be turned over to the Spanish Privy Counsel whose greatest Grandees were dwarfs in honour to his Queen but would either have audience from the King himself or would return without it And yet afterwards our Embassadour knows if desirous that his businesse should take effect how and when to make his secret and underhand addresses to such potent Favourites as strike the stroke in the State it often hapning in Common-wealths that the Masters mate steers the ship thereof more then the Master himself In delivering his message he complies with the garb and guise of the countrey either longer briefer more plain or more flourishing as it is most acceptable to such to whom he directs his speech The Italians whose countrey is called the countrey of good words love the circuits of courtesie that an Embassadour should not as a sparrow-hawk flie outright to his prey and meddle presently with the matter in hand but with the noble falcon mount in language soar high fetch compasses of complement and then in due time stoop to game and seise on the businesse propounded Clean contrary the Switzers who sent word to the King of France not to send them an Embassadour with store of words but a Treasurer with plenty of money count all words quite out which are not straight on have an antipathy against eloquent language the flowers of Rhetorick being as offensive to them as sweet perfumes to such as are troubled with the Mother Yea generally great souldiers have their stomachs sharp set to feed on the matter lothing long speeches as wherein they conceive themselves to lose time in which they could conquer half a countrey and counting bluntnesse their best eloquence love to be accosted in their own kind He commands himself not to admire any thing presented unto him He looks but not gazeth on forrein magnificence as countrey clowns on a city beholding them with a familiar eye as challenging old acquaintance having known them long before If he be surprised with a sudden wonder he so orders it that though his soul within feels an admiration none can perceive it without in his countenance For 1 It is inconsistent with the steddinesse of his gravity to be startled with a wonder 2 Admiration is the daughter of ignorance whereas he ought to be so read in the world as to be posed with no rarity 3 It is a tacit confession if he wonders at State Strength or Wealth that herein his own Masters kingdome is farre surpass'd And yet he will not slight and neglect such worthy sights as he beholds which would savour to much of sullennesse and self-addiction things ill beseeming his noble spirit He is zealous of the least puntillo's of his Masters honour Herein 't is most true the Law of honour servanda in apicibus Yea a toy may be reall and a point may be essentiall to the sense of some sentences and worse to be spared then some whole letter Great Kings wrestle together by the strength and nimblenesse of their Embassadours wherefore Embassadours are carefull to afford no advantages to the adverse party and mutually no more hold is given then what is gotten lest the fault of the Embassadour be drawn into president to the prejudice of his Master He that abroad will lose an hair of his Kings honour deserves to lose his own head when he comes home He appears not violent in desiring any thing he would effect but with a seeming carelesnesse most carefully advanceth his Masters businesse If employed to conclude a Peace he represents his Master as indifferent therein for his own part but that desiring to spare Christian bloud preponderates him for Peace whose conscience not purse or arms are weary of the warre He entreats not but treats for an accord for their mutuall good But if the Embassadour declareth himself zealous for it perchance he may be forced to buy those conditions which otherwise would be given him He is constantly and certainly inform'd of all passages in his own Countrey What a shame is it for him to be a stranger to his native affairs Besides if gulls and rumours from his Countrey be raised on purpose to amuse our Embassadour he rather smiles then starts at these false vizards who by private instructions from home knows the true face of his Countrey-estate And lest his Masters Secretary should fail him herein he counts it thrift to cast away some pounds yearly to some private friend in the Court to send him true information of all home-remarkables He carefully returns good intelligence to
corps to scale a city by it then a bridge of him whilest alive for his punies to give him the Goe-by and passe over him to preferment For this reason chiefly beside some others a great and valiant English Generall in the daies of Queen Elizabeth was hated of his souldiers because he disposed Offices by his own absolute will without respect of orderly advancing such as deserved it which made a Great man once salute him with this letter S r if you will be pleased to bestow a Captains place on the bearer hereof being a worthy Gentleman he shall do that for you which never as yet any souldier did namely pray to God for your health and happinesse He is fortunate in what he undertakes Such a one was Julius Cesar who in Brittain a countrey undiscovered peopled with a valiant Nation began a warre in Autumne without apparent advantage not having any intelligence there being to passe over the sea into a colder climate an enterprise saith one well worthy the invincible courage of Cesar but not of his accustomed prudence and yet returned victorious Indeed God is the sole disposer of successe Other gifts he also scattereth amongst men yet so that they themselves scramble to gather them up whereas successe God gives immediately into their hands on whom he pleaseth to bestow it He tryeth the forces of a new enemy before he encounters him Sampson is half conquered when it is known where his strength lies and skirmishes are scouts for the discovery of the strength of an army before battel be given He makes his flying enemy a bridge of gold and disarms them of their best weapon which is necessity to fight whether they will or no. Men forced to a battel against their intention often conquer beyond their expectation stop a flying coward and he will turn his legges into arms and lay about him manfully whereas open him a passage to escape and he will quickly shut up his courage But I dare dwell no longer on this subject When the Pope earnestly wrote to King Richard the first not to detain in prison his dear sonne the Martiall Bishop of Beavois the King sent the Pope back the armour wherein the Bishop was taken with the words of Jacobs sonnes to their-Father See whether or no this be the coat of thy sonne Surely a corslet is no canonicall coat for me nor suits it with my Clergy-profession to proceed any further in this warlike description onely we come to give an example thereof GUSTAVUS Adolphus the pious and Valiant King of Sweden He was Slaine in the Battell at Lutzen the 16 of November 1632. Aged 38 yeares W.M. sculp CHAP. 18. The life of GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS King of Sweden GUstavus Adolphus King of Sweden born Anno Domini 1594 had princely education both for Arts and Armes In Italie he learnt the Mathematicks and in other places abroad the French Italian and Germane tongues and after he was King he travelled under the name of M r G. A. R. S. being the foure initiall letters of his name and title He was but seventeen years old at his Fathers death being left not onely a young King but also in a young kingdome for his title to the Crown of Sweden was but five years old to wit since the beginning of his Fathers reigne All his bordering Princes on the North nothing but the North bounded on him were his enemies the Duke-Emperour of Muscovy on the East the King of Denmark on the West and of Poland on the South The former two laid claim to parcels the latter to all his kingdome Yet was he too great for them in his minority both defending his own and gaining on them Wo be to the kingdome whose King is a child yet blessed is that kingdome whose King though a child in age is a man in worth These his first actions had much of glory and yet somewhat of possibility and credit in them But Chronicle and belief must strain hard to make his Germane Conquest probable with posterity coming in with eleven thousand men having no certain confederates but some of his alliance whom the Emperour had outed of all their estates And yet in two years and foure moneths he left the Emperour in as bad a case almost as he found those Princes in Gods Providence herein is chiefly to be admired who to open him a free entrance into Germany diverted the Imperiall and Spanish forces into Italy there to scramble against the French for the Dukedome of Mantua For heaven onely knows how much Protestant flesh the Imperialists had devoured if that bone had not stuck in their teeth If we look on second causes we may ascribe his victories to this Kings piety wisedome valour and other virtues His piety to God was exemplary being more addicted to prayer then to fight as if he would rather conquer Heaven then Earth He was himself exceeding temperate save onely too much given to anger but afterwards he would correct himself and be cholerick with his choler shewing himself a man in the one and a Saint in the other He was a strict observer of Martiall discipline the life of Warre without which an Army is but a crowd not to say herd of people He would march all day in complete armour which was by custome no more burthen to him then his armes and to carry his helmet no more trouble then his head whilest his example made the same easie to all his souldiers He was a strict punisher of misdemeanours and wanton intemperance in his camp And yet let me relate this story from one present therein When first he entred Germany he perceived how that many women followed his souldiers some being their wives and some wanting nothing to make them so but marriage yet most passing for their landresses though commonly defiling more then they wash The King coming to a great river after his men and the wagons were passed over caused the bridge to be broken down hoping so to be rid of these feminine impediments but they one a sudden lift up a panick schrick which pierced the skies and the souldiers hearts on the other side of the river who instantly vowed not to stirre a foot farther except with baggage and that the women might be fetch'd over which was done accordingly For the King finding this ill humour so generally dispers'd in his men that it was dangerous to purge it all at once smiled out his anger for the present and permitted what he could not amend yet this abuse was afterwards reformed by degrees He was very mercifull to any that would submit And as the iron gate miraculously opened to S. Peter of its own accord so his mercy wrought miracles making many city-gates open to him of themselves before he ever knock'd at them to demand entrance the inhabitants desiring to shroud themselves under his protection Yea he was mercifull to those places which he took by assault ever detesting the bloudinesse of Tilly
at Magdenburg under the ashes whereof he buried his honour coming valiant thither and departing cruell thence In such cases he was mercifull to women not like those Generalls who know the differences of Sex in their lust but not in their anger yea the very Jesuites themselves tasted of his courtesie though merrily he laid to their charge that they would neither Preach faith to nor keep faith with others He had the true art almost lost of Encamping where he would lie in his Trenches in despight of all enemies keeping the clock of his own time and would fight for no mans pleasure but his own No seeming flight or disorder of his enemies should cousen him into a battel nor their daring bravado's anger him into it nor any violence force him to fight till he thought fitting himself counting it good manners in Warre to take all but give no advantages It was said of his Armies that they used to rise when the swallows went to bed when winter began his forces most consisting of Northern Nations and a Swede fights best when he can see his own breath He alwayes kept a long vacation in the dog-dayes being onely a saver in the summer and a gainer all the yeare besides His best harvest was in the snow and his souldiers had most life in the dead of winter He made but a short cut in taking of cities many of whose fortifications were a wonder to behold but what were they then to assault and conquer at scaling of walls he was excellent for contriving as his souldiers in executing it seeming a wonder that their bodies should be made of aire so light to climbe whose armes were of iron so heavy to strike Such cities as would not presently open unto him he shut them up and having businesse of more importance then to imprison himself about one strength he would consigne the besieging thereof to some other Captain And indeed he wanted not his Joabs who when they had reduced cities to terms of yielding knew with as much wisdome as loyalty to entitle their David to the whole honour of the action He was highly beloved of his souldiers of whose deserts he kept a faithfull Chronicle in his heart and advanced them accordingly All valiant men were Swedes to him and he differenced men in his esteem by their merits not their countrey To come to his death wherein his reputation suffers in the judgements of some for too much hazarding of his own person in the battel But surely some conceived necessity thereof urged him thereunto For this his third grand set battel in Germany was the third and last asking of his banes to the Imperiall Crown and had they not been forbidden by his death his marriage in all probability had instantly followed Besides Never Prince hath founded great Empire but by making warre in person nor hath lost any but when he made warre by his lieutenants which made this King the more adventurous His death is still left in uncertainty whether the valour of open enemies or treachery of false friends caused it His side won the day and yet lost the sunne that made it and as one saith Upon this place the great Gustavus dy'd Whilest victory lay bleeding by his side Thus the readiest way to lose a jewell is to overprise it for indeed many men so doted on this worthy Prince and his victories without any default of his who gave God the glory that his death in some sort seemed necessary to vindicate Gods honour who usually maketh that prop of flesh to break whereon men lay too great weight of their expectation After his death how did men struggle to keep him alive in their reports partly out of good will which made them kindle new hopes of his life at every spark of probability partly out of infidelity that his death could be true First they thought so valiant a Prince could not live on earth and when they saw his life then they thought so valiant a Prince could never die but that his death was rather a concealment for a time dayly expecting when the politickly dead should have a Resurrection in some noble exploit I find a most learned pen applying these Latine verses to this noble Prince and it is honour enough for us to translate them In Templo plus quam Sacerdos In Republica plus quam Rex In sententia dicenda plus quam Senator In Iudicio plus quam Iurisconsultus In Exercitu plus quam Imperator In Acie plus quam Miles In adversis perferendis injuriisque condonandis plus quam vir In publica libertate tuenda plus quam Civis In Amicitia colenda plus quam Amicus In convictu plus quam familiaris In venatione ferisque domandis plus quam Leo. In tota reliqua vita plus quam Philosophus More then a Priest he in the Church might passe More then a Prince in Commonwealth he was More then a Counseller in points of State More then a Lawyer matters to debate More then a Generall to command outright More then a Souldier to perform a fight More then a man to bear affliction strong More then a man good to forgive a wrong More then a Patriot countrey to defend True friendship to maintain more then a Friend More then familiar sweetly to converse And though in sports more then a Lion fierce To hunt and kill the game yet he exprest More then Philosopher in all the rest The Jesuites made him to be the Antichrist and allowed him three years and an half of reigne and conquest But had he lived that full term out the true Antichrist might have heard further from him and Romes Tragedy might have had an end whose fift and last Act is still behind Yet one Jesuite more ingenuous then the rest gives him this testimony that save the badnesse of his cause and religion he had nothing defective in him which belonged to an excellent King and a good Captain Thus let this our poore description of this King serve like a flat grave-stone or plain pavement for the present till the richer pen of some Grotius or Heinsius shall provide to erect some statelyer Monument unto his Memory CHAP. 19. The Prince or Heir apparent to the Crown HE is the best pawn of the future felicity of a kingdome His Fathers Subjects conceive they take a further estate of happinesse in the hopes of his Succession In his infancy he gives presages of his future worth Some first-fruits are dispatch'd before to bring news to the world of the harvest of virtues which are ripening in him his own Royall spirit prompts him to some speeches and actions wherein the standers by will scarce believe their own eares and eyes that such things can proceed from him And yet no wonder if they have light the soonest who live nearest the East seeing Princes have the advantage of the best birth and breeding The Gregorian account goes ten dayes before the computation of the
upon a beam and strangled in the night time and then threw out his corps into a garden where it lay some dayes unburied There goes a story that this Andrew on a day coming into the Queens chamber and finding her twisting a thick string of silk and silver demanded of her for what purpose she made it She answered To hang you in it which he then little believed the rather because those who intend such mischief never speak of it before But such blows in jest-earnest are most dangerous which one can neither receive in love nor refuse in anger Indeed she sought in vain to colour the businesse and to divert the suspicion of the murther from her self because all the world saw that she inflicted no punishment on the actours of it which were in her power And in such a case when a murther is generally known the sword of the Magistrate cannot stand neuter but doth justify what it doth not punish Besides his corps was not cold before she was hot in a new love and married Lewis Prince of Tarentum one of the beautifullest men in the world But it was hard for her to please her love and her lust in the same person This Prince wasted the state of his body to pay her the conjugall debt which she extorted beyond all modesty or reason so unquenchable was the wild-fire of her wantonnesse After his death she hating widowhood as much as Nature doth vacuum maried James King of Majorca and commonly styled Prince of Calabria Some say he dyed of a naturall death Others that she beheaded him for lying with another woman who would suffer none to be dishonest but her self Others that he was unjustly put to death and forced to change worlds that she might change husbands Her fourth husband was Otho of Brunswick who came a Commander out of Germany with a company of souldiers and performed excellent service in Italy A good souldier he was and it was not the least part of his valour to adventure on so skittish a beast But he hoped to feast his hungry fortune on this reversion By all foure husbands she had no children either because the drougth of her wantonnesse parched the fruit of her wombe or else because provident Nature prevented a generation of Monsters from her By this time her sinnes were almost hoarse with crying to heaven for revenge They mistake who think divine Justice sleepeth when it winks for a while at Offenders Hitherto she had kept herself in a whole skin by the rents which were in the Church of Rome For there being a long time a Schisme betwixt two Popes Urban and Clement she so poysed herself between them both that she escaped unpunished This is that Queen Joan that gave Avignon in France yet under a pretence of sale to Pope Urban and his Successours the stomach of his Holinesse not being so squeamish but that he would take a good almes from dirty hands It may make the chastity of Rome suspicious with the world that she hath had so good fortune to be a gainer by Harlots But see now how Charles Prince of Dyrachium being next of kin to Prince Andrew that was murdered comes out of Hungary with an army into Naples to revenge his uncles bloud He was received without resistance of any his very name being a Petrard to make all the city-gates fly open where he came Out issues Otho the Queens husband with an army of men out of Naples and most stoutly bids him battel but is overthrown yet was he suffered fairly to depart the kingdome dismiss'd with this commendation That never a more valiant Knight fought in defence of a more vitious Lady Queen Joan finding it now in vain to bend her fist fell to bowing of her knees and having an excellent command of all her passions save her lust fell down flat before Charles the Conquerour and submitted her self Hitherto said she I have esteemed thee in place of a sonne but seeing God will have it so hereafter I shall acknowledge thee for my Lord. Charles knew well that Necessity her Secretary endited her speech for her which came little from her heart yet to shew that he had as plentifull an Exchequer of good language promis'd her fairly for the present But mercy it self would be asham'd to pity so notorious a malefactour After some moneths imprisonment she was carried to the place where her husband was murder'd and there accordingly hang'd and cast out of the window into the garden whose corps at last was buried in the Nunnery of S. Clare CHAP. 3. The Witch BEfore we come to describe her we must premise and prove certain propositions whose truth may otherwise be doubted of 1 Formerly there were Witches Otherwise Gods Law had fought against a shadow Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live yea we reade how King Saul who had formerly scoured Witches out of all Israel afterwards drank a draught of that puddle himself 2 There are Witches for the present though those Night-birds flie not so frequently in flocks since the light of the Gospel Some ancient arts and mysteries are said to be lost but sure the devil will not wholly let down any of his gainfull trades There be many Witches at this day in Lapland who sell winds to Mariners for money and must they not needs go whom the devil drives though we are not bound to believe the old story of Ericus King of Swedeland who had a cap and as he turned it the wind he wish'd for would blow on that side 3 It is very hard to prove a Witch Infernall contracts are made without witnesses She that in presence of others will compact with the devil deserves to be hang'd for her folly as well as impiety 4 Many are unjustly accused for Witches Sometimes out of ignorance of naturall misapplying of supernaturall causes sometimes out of their neighbours mere malice and the suspicion is increas'd if the party accused be notoriously ill-favoured whereas deformity alone is no more argument to make her a Witch then handsomnesse had been evidence to prove her an Harlot sometimes out of their own causlesse confession Being brought before a Magistrate they acknowledge themselves to be Witches being themselves rather bewitch'd with fear or deluded with phancy But the self-accusing of some is as little to be credited as the self-praising of others if alone without other evidence 5 Witches are commonly of the feminine sex Ever since Satan tempted our grandmother Eve he knows that that sex is most licorish to tast and most carelesse to swallow his baits Nescio quid habet muliebre nomen semper cum sacris if they light well they are inferiour to few men in piety if ill superiour to all in superstition 6 They are commonly distinguished into white and black Witches White I dare not say good Witches for woe be to him that calleth evil good heal those that are hurt and help them to lost goods But better
considerable for a man of his estate Nor can he be more carelesse to pay then the Usurer is willing to continue the debt knowing that his bands like infants battle best with sleeping Vacation is his vocation and he scorns to follow any profession and will not be confin'd to any laudable employment But they who count a calling a prison shall at last make a prison their calling He instills also his lazie principles into his children being of the same opinion with the Neapolitane Gentry who stand so on the puntoes of their honour that they preferre robbery before industry and will rather suffer their daughter to make merchandise of her chastity then marry the richest merchant Drinking is one of the principall Liberall Sciences he professeth A most ungentile quality fit to be banished to rogues and rags It was anciently counted a Dutch vice and swarmed most in that countrey I remember a sad accident which hapned to Fliolmus King of Gothland who whilest a Lord of misrule ruled in his Court and both he and his servants were drunk in mere merriment meaning no harm they took the King and put him in jest into a great vessel of beere and drowned him in earnest But one tells us that this ancient and habited vice is amongst the Dutch of late years much decreased which if it be not would it were Sure our Mariners observe that as the sea grows dayly shallower and shallower on the shoars of Holland and Zeland so the channell of late waxeth deeper on the coasts of Kent and Essex I pray God if drunkennesse ebbes in Dutchland it doth not flow in England and gain not in the Iland what it loseth in the Continent Yea some plead when overwhelm'd with liquour that their thirst is but quenched as well may they say that in Noahs floud the dust was but sufficiently allayed Gaming is another art he studies much an enticing witch that hath caused the ruine of many Hanniball said of Marcellus that nec bonam nec malam fortunam ferre potest he could be quiet neither conquerour nor conquered thus such is the itch of play that Gamesters neither winning nor losing can rest contented One propounded this question Whether men in ships on sea were to be accounted among the living or the dead because there were but few inches betwixt them and drowning The same scruple may be made of great Gamesters though their estates be never so great whether they are to be esteemed poore or rich there being but a few casts at dice betwixt a Gentleman in great game and a begger Our Gallant games deeply and makes no doubt in conscience to adventure Advousands Patronages and Church-livings in gaming He might call to mind S r Miles Pateridge who as the Souldiers cast lots for Christ his coat plaid at dice for Jesus bells with King Henry the eighth wonne them of him Thus he brought the bells to ring in his pocket but the ropes afterwards catch'd about his neck and for some offenses he was hang'd in the dayes of King Edward the sixth Then first he sells the outworks of his state some stragling mannour Nor is he sensible of this sale which makes his means more entire as counting the gathering of such scattering rents rather burdensome then profitable This he sells at half the value so that the feathers will buy the goose and the wood will pay for the ground with this money if he stops the hole to one Creditour by his prodigality he presently opens a wider gappe to another By this time the long dormant Usurer ramps for the payment of his money The Principall the grandmother and the Use the daughter and the Use upon use the grandchild and perchance a generation farther hath swell'd the debt to an incredible summe for the satisfying whereof our Gallant sells the moity of his estate Having sold half his land he abates nothing of his expenses but thinks five hundred pounds a yeare will be enough to maintain that for which a thousand pound was too little He will not stoop till he falls nor lessen his kennell of dogs till with Acteon he be eaten up with his own hounds Being about to sink he catcheth at every rush to save himself Perchance sometimes he snatcheth at the thistle of a project which first pricks his hands and then breaks Herein it may be he adventured on a matter wherein he had no skill himself hoping by letting the Commonwealth bloud to fill up his own veins again and therefore trades with his partners brains as his partner with his purse till both miscarry together or else it may be he catcheth hold on the heel of another man who is in as dangerous a case as himself and they embracing each other in mutuall bands hasten their drowning together His last mannour he sells twice to a countrey-Gentleman and a London-usurer though the last as having the first title prevails to possesse it Usurers herein being like unto Foxes they seldome take pains to digge any holes themselves but earth in that which the foolish Badger made for them and dwell in the mannours and fair houses which others have built and provided Having lost his own legs he relyes on the staff of his kinred first visiting them as an intermitting ague but afterwards turns a quotidian wearing their thresholds as bare as his own coat At last he is as welcome as a storm he that is abroad shelters himself from it and he that is at home shuts the doore If he intrudes himself yet some with their jeering tongues give him many a gird but his brazen impudence feels nothing and let him be arm'd on free-cost with the pot and the pipe he will give them leave to shoot their flouts at him till they be weary Sometimes he sadly paceth over the ground he sold and is on fire with anger with himself for his folly but presently quencheth it at the next alehouse Having undone himself he sets up the trade to undoe others If he can but scrue himself into the acquaintance of a rich heir he rejoyceth as much at the prize as the Hollanders when they had intercepted the Plate-Fleet He tutours this young Gamester in vice leading him a more compendious way to his ruine then possibly he could find out of himself And doth not the guide deserve good wages for his direction Perhaps he behaves himself so basely that he is degraded the sad and solemn Ceremonies whereof we may meet with in old Presidents but of them all in my apprehension none should make deeper impression in an ingenuous soul then this one That at the solemn degradation of a Knight for high misdemeanour the King and twelve Knights more did put on mourning garments as an embleme of sorrow for this injury to honour that a man Gentile by birth and bloud or honoured by a Princes favour should so farre forget not onely himself but his Order as to
deserve so severe punishment His death is as miserable as his life hath been vicious An Hospitall is the height he hopes to be advanced to But commonly he dies not in so charitable a prison but sings his last note in a cage Nor is it impossible but that wanting land of his own he may incroch on the Kings high-way and there taking himself to be Lord of the soyl seise on Travellers as Strayes due unto him and so the hangman give him a wreath more then he had in his Armes before If he dyes at liberty in his pilgrimage betwixt the houses of his acquaintance perhaps some well-disposed Gentleman may pay for his buriall and truly mourn at the funerall of an ancient Family His children if any must seek their fortunes the farther off because their father found his too soon before he had wisdome to manage them Within two generations his name is quite forgotten that ever any such was in the place except some Herald in his visitation passe by and chance to spell his broken Arms in a Church-window And then how weak a thing is Gentry then which if it wants virtue brittle glasse is the more lasting monument We forbear to give an instance of a degenerous Gentleman would to God the world gave no examples of them If any please to look into the forenamed Valerius Maximus he shall there find the base son of Scipio Africanus the conquerour of Hanniball and Africk so ill imitating his father that for his viciousnes he received many disgracefull repulses from the people of Rome the fragrant smell of his Fathers memory making him to stink the more in their nostrils yea they forced him to pluck off from his finger a signet-ring whereon the face of his Father was engraven as counting him unworthy to wear his picture who would not resemble his virtue CHAP. 15. The Traytour A Traitour works by fraud as a Rebell does by force and in this respect is more dangerous because there 's lesse stock required to set him up Rebellion must be managed with many swords Treason to his Princes person may be with one knife Generally their successe is as bad as their cause being either detected before defeated in or punished after their part acted detected before either by wilfulnesse or weaknesse of those which are privie to it A plotter of Treason puts his head into the halter and the halter into his hand to whom he first imparts it He oftentimes reveals it and by making a foot-stool of his friends head climbs up the higher into the Princes favour Some mens souls are not strong enough but that a weighty secret will work a hole through them These rather out of folly then falsenesse unawares let fall words which are taken up by the judicious eares of suc who can spell Treason by putting together distracted syllables and by piecing of broken sentences Others have their hearts swoln so great with hope of what they shall get that their bodyes are too little to hold them and so betray themselves by threatnings and blustring language Others have cut their throats with their own hands their own writings the best records being produced against them And here we must know That Strong presumptions sometimes serve for proofs in point of Treason For it being a deed of darknesse it is madnesse to look that the Sunne should shine at midnight and to expect evident proof Should Princes delay till they did plainly see Treason they might chance to feel it first If this semiplena probatio lights on a party suspected before the partie himself is the other part of the proof and makes it complete And here the Rack though Fame-like it be Tam ficti pravique tenax quam nuncia veri is often used and the wooden horse hath told strange secrets But grant it passe undiscovered in the plotting it is commonly prevented in the practising By the Majestie Innocency or Valour of the Prince or his attendants Some have been dazeled with the divine beams shining in a Princes face so that coming to command his life they could not be masters of their own senses Innocency hath protected others and made their enemies relent and pitie though a stranger to him for many years before hath visited a Traitours heart in that very instant If these fail a Kings valour hath defended him it being most true of a King what Plinie reports of a lion in hunting if he be wounded and not killed he will be sure to eye and kill him that wounded him Some by flourishing aforehand have never stricken a blow but by warning have armed those to whom they threatned Thus madde Somervile coming to kill Queen Elizabeth by the way belike to trie whether his sword would cut quarrelled with and wounded one or two and therefore was apprehended before he came to the Court. The palsie of guiltinesse hath made the stoutest Traitours hands to shake sometimes to misse their mark Their conscience sleeping before is then awakened with this crying sinne The way seems but short to a Traveller when he views it from the top of an hill who finds it very long when he comes into the plain so Treason surveyed in the heat of bloud and from the height of passion seems easie to be effected which reviewed in cold bloud on even terms is full of dangers and difficulties If it speed in the acting generally it 's revenged afterwards For A King though killed is not killed so long as he hath sonne or subject surviving Many who have thought they have discharged the debt have been broken afterwards with the arrearages As for journeymen-Traytours who work for others their wages are ever paid them with an halter and where one gaineth a garland of bayes hundreds have had a wreath of hemp CHAP. 16. The Pazzians conspiracie IN the city of Florence being then a Popular State the honourable familie de-Medices managed all chief affairs so beloved of the people for their bounty that the honour they had was not extorted by their greatnesse but seemed due to their goodnesse These Mediceans depressed the Pazzians another familie in that State as big set though not so high grown as the Medicei themselves loading them with injuries and debarring them not onely from Offices in the city but their own right The Pazzians though highly wrong'd counterfeited much patience and which was a wonder though malice boyled hot in their hearts yet no scumme ran over in their mouthes At last meeting together they concluded that seeing the Legall way was stopp'd with violence the violent way was become Legall whereby they must right themselves and they determined to invite Julian and Laurence Medices the Governours of the State to dinner with Cardinall Raphael Riarius and there to murther them The matter was counted easie because these two brethren were but one in effect their heads in a manner standing on the same shoulders because they alwayes went together and