one of the deepest clerks of his time What a rare man and of heavenly speculations was Io de sacro bosco the Author of the sphaere which remaines yet engraven upon his tomb in Paris some ages after these the world of learned men did much esteem Reginald Poole Iohn Colet William Lillie Linacre Pace Cardinall Fisher Bishop of Rochester Sir Thomas More Latimer Tindall Baleus Tunstall men inferior to none as well for sanctimony of life as for rare erudition and knowledg Toby Matthew Archbishop of York another Chrysostom Thomas Stapleton Nic. Wotton Iewell Cheek Humphreys Grindall Whitgift Plowden Ascham Cooke Smyth Whitaker Perkins Mountagu those great speculative Lords Baeon and Herbert Andrews Usher that rare Primat Selden who knows as much as both the Scaligers Camden the English Strabo Owen another Martiall with divers excellent Dramatique Poets and it is a great wrong to the Common-wealth of learning that their works are not made intelligible in a larger toung then that Insulary Dialect Add hereunto that for Physicians and Lawyers both Civill and Common there are as profound spirits there as any on earth And as for learning so for prowess and magnanimity the Inhabitants of Great Britain have been and are still very celebrous And though there hath been alwayes an innated kind of enmity twixt the French and the English yet they have extorted prayses out of their enemies mouths witnes Comines Froissard and Bodin who write so much in honor of the English Nor do they herein complement or flatter a whit What a bold Britain was Brennus who liv'd long before the English took footing there what notable feates did he perform in Italy Greece and Asia so that the old Britains or Welsh in honor of that Heroe call a King after his name to this day viz. Brennin and there is a Castle in Wales of his name to this day How manfully did the ancient Britains tugg with the Romans who receav'd fowler defeats there then in any other Region which one of their Poets seemes to confesse when he saith Invictos Romano Marte Britannos The Silures who are a peeple but of a few small shires in Wales viz. Monmouth Brecknock and others being animated by the courage of their King Cataracus and provok'd by the menaces of the Emperour Claudius who threatned to extinguish the very names of them met his army in open field and cutting off an auxiliary Regiment which was going to recreut the Emperour under Marius Valens they utterly routed him In so much that Ostorius the propraetor of Britanny for the Romans resenting this dishonor died out of a sense of grief Charles the Great had to doe with them in three battailes wherein there was such a slaughter of his men that he cryed Si vel semel tantùm cum illis adhuc depugnandum foret ne unum quidem militem sibi superfuturum If he were to encounter the Britains but once more he should not have a soldier left him a saying proceeding from such a man as Charlemain that tends much to the reputation of the Britains But the Gaules are they whom the Britains galld having in so many victories left their arrowes in their thighs in their breasts and some sticking in their hearts which makes Bodin complain Gallos ab Anglis in ipsa Gallia clades accepisse ac pene Imperium amisisse That the French receaved many overthrowes in France herself by the English and had almost lost their Kingdom whereupon the Poet sings wittily Anglorum semper virtutem Gallia sensit Ad Galli cantum non fugit iste Leo. For how often have the French Kings with their Nobles been routed defeated and discomfited by the English Gray-goose-wing how often hath it pierc'd the very center of the Kingdom what notable rich returnes have the English made from France And what pittifull looks must France have when Edward the fourth got such a glorious victory at Cressy where above thirty thousand perish'd among whom the King of Bohemia was found among the dead bodies ten Princes eighty Barons twelve hundred Gentlemen and the flower of the French fell that day and King Philip of Valois did hardly escape himself to a small town which being ask'd at the gate who he was qui va la answer'd la Fortune de France the Fortune of France This made France weare black a long time But in another battail she had as ill luck wherein her King Iohn and David King of Scots where taken prisoners and attended the prince of Wales to England yet such was the modesty of that prince though conquerour that he waited upon King Iohn bareheaded at table this was such a passage as happen'd in King Edgars raign who had foure Kings to row him upon the river Dee hard by Westchester viz. Kennad Kind of the Scots Malcolm King of Cumberland Maconus King of Man and another Welsh King The English reduc'd France to such a poverty at that time that she was forc'd to coin leather money In divers other battailes in the raignes of Charles the fift sixt and seventh and Lewis the elevenths time the English did often foyl the French untill the war pour le bien public begun by the Duke of Burgundy Such a large livery and seifin the English had taken in France that for three hundred and fifty years they were masters of Aquitain and Normandy Nay Henry the sixt of England was crowned King of France in Paris And so formidable were the English in France that the Duke of Britany when he was to encounter the French army in the field thought it a policy to cloth a whole Regiment of his soldiers after the English mode to make them more terrible to the French What shall I say of that notable Virago Queen Elizabeth who did such exploits again Spain by taking the united provinces of the Low Countreys under her protection How did she ply the Spaniard and bayt him by Sea and Land how did she in a manner make him a Bankrupt by making him lose his credit in all the banks of Europe And all that while Spain could do England no harme at all touching the strength of which Kingdom you may please to hear what a judicious Italian speaks of it Il Regno d'Ingliterra non há bisogno d'altri per la propria difesa anzi non solo é difficile mà si può dir impossible se non é divisione nel Regno che per via de force possa esser conquistato The Kingdom of England stands in no need of any other for her own defense so that it is not only difficult but a thing impossible unlesse there be some intestin division to make a conquest of that Countrey Philip offer'd very fairly for her in the year eighty eight when he thought to have swallowed her with his Invincible Fleet which was a preparing three yeers she consisted of above 150. saile 8000. Mariners 20000. foot besides voluntiers she carried 1600. Canons of brasse 1000. of iron
pray what can he want who hath Money unlesse he make such a foolish wish as Mydas did that whatsoever he touch'd might turn to gold for so he might starve medias inter opes inops Ther is a proverb in Spain that Don sin dinero no es Don si no Donayre A man without money is no man but a bable but a man with money commands the world according to those witty verses of Petronius Arbiter Quisquis habet nummos securâ naviget Aurâ Fortunamque suo temperet arbitrio Uxorem ducat Danaen ipsumque licebit Arisium jubeat credere quod Danaen Carmina componat declamet concremet omnes Et peragat causas sitque Catone prior Iurisconsultus paret non paret habeto Atque esto quicquid Servius Labeo Multa loquor quidvis nummis praesentibus opta Et Veniet Clausum possidet Arca Iovem I confesse it may be the Catholick King may be plung'd in a gulph of debt having allwayes his Sword drawn and being in perpetuall hostility with the common enemy of Christendom to his great glory as also in actuall Warr with some of the Princes of Europe who if they wold let him be quiet he might quickly subdue all Mauritania the opposit shore to Spain yet for all ther is never any the least appearance of want in the Catholique Court nor the least shew that Spain is in warr or want but all things flourish as if he did not ow peny or as if he were in peace with all the world It makes me think upon Glareanus a great learned man but much in debt who being asked by a friend of his how he liv'd He answer'd I lead the life of Kings and Princes for I drink I eet and indulge my genius I game and have money always in my purse yet I am in arrears to all so it may be said of the King of Spain But it is brave security the Spanish King gives to his Creditors no lesse then assignments upon his occidentall Fleet which weigh all circumstances well is one of the greatest glories that ever Monarch had Fortune her self may be call'd the King of Spaines wife who hath brought with her such a bottomles tresure for her dowry His closet is that punctum so often wish'd by Archimedes whence he moves the whole Globe of the Earth He hath more Kingdoms then the French King hath Provinces more Fleets then the French hath Shipps more Nations then the French hath Citties more Viceroys then he hath Marshals and more Captains by Land and Sea then he hath Common-Soldiers It is day It is Spring perpetually with him in one part or other of his dominions Strabo writes of one who had such a strong and piercing perspicuity of sight that he could discern an object 135. miles off for from Lilybaeum a promontory in Sicily he could discern and dinumerat the Shipps that went out of Carthage road But the Catholique King hath stronger Optiques for from his Councell Chamber he can see what is a doing in the Seralio at Constantinople in the Louvre in France at White-hall in England at Vienna in Austria in the Consistory at Rome his sight is so sharp that he can penetrat the very Cabinet-Chambers of Kings far and neer and pry into their intrinsecallst and secretst Councells All other Princes and States stand to him in the light and he in the dark to them But wheras you say that the Spaniard is irreconcilable unto the Reformed Religion let me tell you although the Theologues there do sometimes inveigh against Luther and Calvin alledging that the God of the Calvinists is the Author of sin Deum Calvinistarum esse Authorem peccati as may be infer'd out of Iohn Calvins own words yet you must not count the Spaniard an Antichrist for this Nor although he will rant it out sometimes that he will go arm'd to Paradis and rapp out other Rodomontado's 'T is tru the Spanish Soldiers are great Libertines but not Atheists nay som of them have good Consciences and capable of Repentance As ther is a true and memorable story of a Spanish Captain who wold have ravish'd a Lawyers daughter in Flanders 1578. who was of an alluring beauty but strugling with her she took his own dagger and mortally wounded him to preserve her pudicity The Spaniard thus wounded was taken away and he sending for a Surgeon 't was told him he could not escape death many howers therupon he call'd for his ghostly father to whom having confess'd and shewed great Evidences of repentance he was absolv'd from the attempt but this is not sufficient sayed he the party whom I wold have wrong'd must pardon me hereupon the yong Virgin came to whom he sayd in rathfull termes I am here upon my deaths bed therefore I desire you wold pardon my rash attempt and for your pardon and the expiation of the offence I bequeath unto you all my Estate provided that you will give me rites of buriall and assume hereafter the name of my wife The yong maid melting into teares did do all the Testator desir'd accordingly But my noble Cousin George Frederique I find 't was not enough for you to bespatter the Spaniard and tax him of pride prophanes and many other Vices but you bereave him of the glory for discovering the new World and of the right of that Discovery Seneca the Spanish Tragaedian was as much Prophet as Poet he was a tru Vates when he sung Venient annis Saecula seris quibus Oceanus Vincula Rerum laxet ingens Pateat Tellus Typhisque novos Detegat Orbes nec sit terris Ultima Thule Late yeers shall bring an Age wherin the Ocean shall slacken the ligaments of nature a mighty tract of Earth shall appeare and Neptune shall discover new Worlds so that Thule or Island will not be the furthest part of the Earth Now his Countreymen made Scneca a tru Prophet herein to whom that mighty blessing of discovery and dominion was reserv'd In so much that both the Prophet of this new tract of Earth and the propagators thereof were Spaniards So most humbly thanking this noble Auditory for this priviledg of reply I desire you most noble Cosen and illustrious Baron of Limburg to have a more charitable and just opinion of Spain DIXI THE ORATION OF THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS LORD EUBESWALD c. FOR GREAT BRITAIN Most Honorable and Heroique Princes IF any one of this Illustrious convention would set forth the glory of some great City which flow'd with plenty of all things that were requisit either for necessity or pleasure exceeding therein the very wishes of the Inhabitants a City which had also impregnable fortifications and strength both by art and nature with armes of all kinds such propugnacles such advantages by land and water both to defend her self and destroy the enemy Who had a grave way of administration of Justice whose Inhabitants did florish with all sorts of manufactures with all kind of vertu invention and
Sessions There confines to the Province of York the Bishoprick of Durham a County Palatine whereof the Bishop is perpetuall Sherif there is a sumptuous antient Cathedrall Church belongs to it and the soyl is so fat that the fertility thereof doth contend with the labour of the Tiller Then there is Lancashire that brings forth goodly Oxen with larger hornes than ordinary besides that Country produceth the handsomest and best favour'dst women of any in the whole Iland VVestmerland excells in the Town of Kendall for curious Artists in all sorts of Wooll Cumberland is singular for abundance of Fish and doth upbrayd the negligence of the Inhabitants who might make a farre greater emolument of them there runnes there the precious River of Irt which affords plenty of Pearle This County also hath Mines of Copper amongst which is found some Gold ore which Mines were first discovered by a Countryman of ours Gemanus Augustan insomuch that Caesar Cicero were in the wrong when one saith that he was forc'd to bring brasse to Britany for Coining of Money the other saith neque Argenti scrupulum ullum esse in Insula Britannica for in Cardigan in Wales there is both a Silver Mine and a Mint which emploies about three hundred men every day in the week and makes them rich returnes And for other Minerals there is not onely enough to satisfie the Natives but to furnish other parts of the World besides which is done by frequent transportation The most Northern County of England is Northumberland which is full of Warlike stout people for every Gentlemans house there is built Castlewise with Turrets and Motes I have hitherto most noble Princes spoken of the best part of Great Britain which is England I will now crosse Offa's Dike which is a continued Mount of Earth that extends from Sea to Sea which the Romans did cast up to make a partition twixt England and Scotland there is another Water-partition that Nature hath put betwixt them which is the Tweed but before I part with England I will give you that Character which Pope Innocent the 4th gave of her Anglia est verè hortus deliciarum puteus inexhaustus England saith he is a true Garden of delicacies and an inexhaustible Well But there is not any who can make a true estimate of England but he who hath seen her auget praesentia famam Touching this Elogium of mine I confesse it too barren to set forth her fertility I will now to Scotland which by King Iames was united to England he was the first who may be said to break down the partition-wall by way of descent Henricus Rosas Regna Iacobus Henry the eighth joyn'd the two Roses and King Iames joyn'd the two Kingdomes And here it is worth the observing how Keneth the Pict being utterly destroyed carried with him a fatal stone out of Ireland and placed it in a woodden chaire in Scone-Monastery with this inscription engraven upon it Ni fallat Fatum Scoti quocunque locatum Invenient lapidem regnare tenentur ibidem If Fate failes not The Scots where e're they find This stone there they shall raign and rule mankind This Northern Kingdome is fenc'd with the same salt ditch as England is It is much longer then it is in latitude in so much that there is never a house there that is much above twenty miles distant from the Sea There is plenty of Fish Foule and Flesh there In Sutherland there are Mountaines that afford fair white Marble and among the craggs of Craford there was a Gold Mine discover'd in the time of Iames the fourth But that which redounds most to the glory of Scotland is that they can shew a cataloge of Kings for above twenty ages which come to the number of 109. from Fergusius to Charles the first There hath a strong antient league been struck betwixt this Nation and the French who confederated alwaies with them against England upon all occasions In so much that the French King hath a gard of Scots ever about his person call'd la Garde de la manche then there is a gard of Swisse and the French is last I passe now from Scotland to Ireland which is no long voyage it is but twelve leagues distance over a working and angry Sea full of Rocks and little Ilands whereof there are hundreds about the two Iles call'd the Orcades and Hebrides Ireland is a Noble and very considerable Region if you explore either the fatnesse of the soyl the conveniency of Ports and Creekes the multitudes of fresh Rivers and huge loughs as also the Inhabitants who are a robustâ—… nimble and well timbred people In so much that Giraldus saith Naturam hoc Zephyri regnum benigniori oculo respexisse Nature did look upon this Western Kingdom with a more benign aspect then ordinary The temper of the air is such that neither the summer solstice forceth them to seek shades or Caves against the violence of the heat and in the Winter solstice they may make a shift to be without fire against the rigor of the cold There are cattle there in an incredible abundance In so much that in one of the four Provinces alone there were reckon'd there hundred and twenty thousand head of cattle at one time Bees do thrive and swarm there infinitely in hollow trees up and downe as well as in hives They were Christians with the first for Saint Patrik a Britain born did convert them where he did many miracles They so adore the memory of him that it is a common saying among them That if Christ had not been Christ when he was Christ Saint Patrik had been Christ. Hereupon many famous men flourished in Ireland both for sanctitie of the life and Doctrine which the Roman Ecclesiastic history speakes of as Caelius Sedulius the Priest Columba Colmannus Aidanus Gallus Kilianus Maydulphus Brendanus and divers of a holy and austere Monastique life who contemned the World with the vanity and riches thereof For it is recorded of Columbanus who being offered great matters by one of the Kings of France if he would not depart the Country as Eusebius writes also of Thaddeus he answer'd non decere videlicet ut alienas divitias amplecterentur qui Christi nomine suas dereliquissent It was not fitting that any should embrace other mens riches who for Christ's sake had abandoned their own Nay it is recorded in good story that the Saxons now English cross'd over those stormy Seas to the mart of learning which was then famous in Ireland so that you shall find it often mentioned in the English Annalls how such a one amandatus est in Hyberniam ad disciplinam he was sent to Ireland to be taught and in the life of Sulgenus who lived neere upon 700. years since these verses are found Exemplo patrum commotus amore legendi Ivit ad Hybernos sophiâ mirabile claros According to the example of his Ancestors he went to Ireland for love
that tall men are seldoâ—… wise 30 S. Bernards description of Ireland 6â—… A bitter satyre against the Queen of Scot land 64 Buchanan and Knocks censur'd 64 C THey of China an Eagle-eyd pâ—…eple next neighbours to the Rising Sun They disdain all other Nations Their proverb The true appellation of China 8. times bigger then France They are good Artists They have generally flat noses They restrain strangers to come into their Countrey They inhibit the Natives to travell abroad c. 2 in the proeme The character of man 2 in the pro. The Chino is enemies to humanity to the law of Nature 2 in the pro. Cybeles priests were Hermaphrodites 4 in the pro. Charlemain vers'd in many languages a good Poet he caus'd the Grammar to be put in the vulgar toung and German names to be impos'd upon the months in the yeer he divided the winds into twelve he was us'd to be present in the schooles and threatned a degradation to all Nobles that were illiterat 11 Charls the V. had Thucydides alwaies with him in the field 11 A comparison touching Italy 35 Another comparison 36 A comparison of the French Wines 39 A comparison of the French Kings 50 A comparison of Monsieur de la Nove 54 Two comparisons wittily us'd 7 A fit comparison 6 A comparison 'twixt the Germans and Italians 8 Caesar saluted onely the skirts of Germany 8 A comparison of Rivers 9 A comparison of Weeds 9 Ciceroâ—…s complaint of false writing 15 A comparison of Tacitus 17 Caesars saying of the Swablanders 23 A comparison touching Kingdoms 23 Of the Cosacks 23 A high comparison about the praises of Italie 21 A comparison 41 The Italian Wheat is the first the Boetian next the Sicilian the third and the African next that 21 Of Cosmo de Medici and his rare abilities his admirable pietie his golden speech his Epitaph 27 D. THe duty of a Traveller 3. in the pro. Duke of Saxony Orator for Germany 5 His curious Proeme 5 Disswasions from forren Travell 7 Danzick Delph in Low Germany and Rostock Paderborn Brunswick and Breslaw in High Germany the most famous for Beer 18 The Duke of Holyiein had at one time 1000. Maâ—…es and 160 Stallions 19 Of the Danube that watereth a hundred people 19 The Dutch were Grandfathers if not Fathers of the Britains as Caesar writes 23 Of divers that writ upon bald petty subjects as Archippusâ—…ell â—…ell upon the praise of an Asse Passeratius upon his shadow Lucian of a fly Erasmus of folly c. 6 The defects of Italy in not having Navigable Rivers with others 35 Divers places in Italy subject to ill aires 35 Of Duke Godfâ—…ey of Bullen 43 A Discouâ—…se against Elective Kingdomes and what confusions come by Interregnums 47 Dirt of Paris indelible 63 Montague his saying of his Countrymen 64 A Discourse of Forren Travell by the Duke of Saxony 5 Of Duels so much us'd by the French 64 The dangerous opinions of the Jesuits and the various wayes they have to oblige the Gentry 17 Of Sir Francis Drake and his exploits 42 E. The English taunted wittily fol. 6 Eudoxus his Extravagant wish to go near the Sun 6 English sweat 6 Eckius first found found the way of mingling Oyl with Colours 14 An Encomium of Printing 16 The Excellencies of the German Cities 17 England call'd Transmarina Saxonia 24 Entringh Castle a memorable passage that happen'd in it 24 The Encouragement the Pope gives Merchants to buy his Allum 22 Aeneas Sylvius his witty Distic to the Poets 37 Extravagant wishes of two Brothers in Padoa whereby they both perished 42 The Excesse of speech that Maximilian us'd touching France 37 A notable example of a drunken woman in France 62 Of the English Kings 39 The English made Trade to flourish first in Flanders 40 Of Queen Elizabeth 40 The English great Reverencers of their Kings 40 The Earth is the Native Country of all men she is but one Mansion 3. in the Pro. The marvellous Eccho of Charenton bridge in France that reverberates 13 times 4. in the Pro. Of the Escurial in Spain the eighth wonder of the world 3 Notable Examples of the Spanish constancy 6 Edgar row'd by four Kings 38 The Exploits of the English in France 38 The English formidable in France as by example 38 The English King pray'd for more often than any other 41 Queen Elizabeth caused the Great Turk to expell the Jesuits out of Pera 19 The English censur'd 67 Englands Inconveniencies 61 The English and Dutch compar'd in point of drinking 37 Examples of Drunkards 37 F. A Fantastick Traveller 3. fol. in the Pro. Set forth by Sir Thomas More in the person of Lalus a meer Ape or Mimick c. 3. in the Pro. He turns a Sprat to a Whale 4. in the Pro. France taunted 6 Forren Travel the best Academy 7 The famous Divines of Germany muster'd up the famous Politicians the famous Physitians and Philosophers 12 Germany the first Correctresse of the Kalender 12 The Fantastick humour of Petrus Bembus touching the Latin tongue 13 France the center of Europe she enjoyes a delicate temper able to unite or hinder the conjunction of the forces of Europe her comodious situation 38 The four Loadstones of France according to Boterus 38 Without France Spain might starve for Bread 39 Of the French Wines 39 Of the French Hemp 39 Of the French Salt compar'd with that of other Countries 39 Of divers other French comodities wherewith the Country abounds 39 The bad fruits of forren Travell 6 Friburg famous for Crystal work 13 Florence a City to be seen on Holydaies as Charls the Emperour sayd 16 Of the French Mines 40 A Fish in France that changes with the Moon 4 Of the French Rivers and how commodiously they lie for Navigation 40 France the eye and pearl of the world 41 France hath 102 Episcopal Cities whereof four are Metropolitan she hath 30000. Parishes 41 Of the French Towne and of Paris in particular 42 France the freest Country upon earth and the reasons 42 The Freedome of France exemplified by two notable instances 42 Of the French Martial Kings 43 Of the French Church and the vast Revenue thereof 43 A Frenchman the first Latin Lecturer in Rome when Cicero was a boy 43 Of the great Learned men of France and the Colledge of Sorbon 44 Of the French Academies 44 Of the French Tongue and of Ioseph Scaliger the Dictator of Literature 46 The best French spoken upon the banks of Loire 46 Of the French Kings and their excellencies 46 The French Crown not tied to a Distaffe and the reason alledged 46 French Kings never die example thereof 47 France prohibits the Imperial Law 48 French Kings beginne to raign inchoativâ—… at 14 48 Their high Prerogatives and of the Parliament of Paris 49 French King more glorious than the Emperor in gards c. 50 The French King cures the Struma and the manner of it 50 Of the late French Kings and
Heic tutus obumbror Symbol Auth. A GERMAN DIET OR THE BALLANCE OF EUROPE WHEREIN The Power and VVeaknes Glory and Reproch Vertues and Vices Plenty and VVant Advantages and Defects Antiquity and Modernes Of all the Kingdoms and States of Christendom are impartially poiz'd At a solemn Convention of som German Princes in sundry Elaborat Orations Pro Con. Made fit for the Meridian of ENGLAND By Iames Howell Esq. Senesco non Segnesco LONDON Printed for HUMPHREY MOSELEY and are to be sold at his Shop at the Prince's Armes in Saint Paul's Church-yard 1653. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE AND The most accomplishd LORD JOHN EARLE of CLARE c. MY LORD MY brain was a good while in labor before it could produce a Resolution to whom of those Noble Personages I have the honor to wait upon somtimes I shold most properly addresse this Piece in point of Dedication At last my thoughts reflecting upon your Lordship did there acquiesce and settle Nor I beleeve will any knowing Soul question my judgment in this Election considering how excellently your Lordship is versd in the Customes Conditions and Languages of divers Nations which is the scope and subject of these Criticall Orations though running in a new untrodden way Moreover the Orators here being Princes and Noblemen wherof those of Germany are esteemd to be of the ancientst Extraction and purest Allaye of any in Europe being those who yet retain their first integrity as Machiavill confesseth I say the Orators here being all Peers I thought it not incongruous to present their Conceptions to a Personage of their own rank that Patronus might be par Operi Lastly the main design of this application to your Lordship was to divulge my gratitude for the frequent noble respects I receave within your walls that not only the present times may bear witnes but future Ages may find it allso upon Record in this small Monument how much I am and was My Highly Honored Lord Your most humble and truly devoted Servitor Iames Howell London 3 0 Idus Junii 1653. To the Discerning Reader whether Home-bred or broken in the World abroad AS Fire is comonly struck by concussion of Flint and Steel which are two differing bodies So Truth who is the Child of Light as also Knowledg who is the Child of Truth use to break out and appeer more conspicuous by contest of Argument and the clashing of discrepant Opinions It was the first Dessein and it is the Method of this Work all along which descants by way of contraries and altercations upon the humors of all the European Nations Som of these Orations in point of matter may be sayed to be Sugar dissolv'd in Oyl Others Salt mingled with Pepper and som dashes of Vineger yet it is not Sal Momi but Sal Mercurii ther is nothing here scurrilous or favouring of malice the dirt which is thrown here is like the dirt of Oysters which rather cleanseth then contaminats We all are Coppies of Adam the Prototype Infirmities are entail'd upon us by a Conveyance drawn in his time therfore it must not be expected that Man shold be better out of Paradis then when he was in 't Ther is neither Horse nor Humane Creture so good but is subject to stumbling and that stumbling may make him afterwards go faster and stronger in the road of Vertu I have read of an old French Poet Iean Clopinel or de Meung who was a great Satyrist his Pen was like the dart of Death it spar'd none and having fallen foul upon the Queen's Maydes of Honor for their wantones in these two verses which were fix'd upon the dore of the back staires Toutes estes serez ou futes De fait on de volonte Puttes Yee are or will be or have bin All Whores in Act or Thought of Sin Complaint being made herof Iean de Meung was deliver'd over for a Sacrifice to the Maydes who having got him bound to a post to be whip'd he sayed Noble Ladies Let me desire but one boon of you before you fall to execution and it is That She of you which finds her self most guilty wold give me the first lash Therupon they fell gazing one upon another and none wold begin so the Poet scap'd The application herof is easy if it be made to relate to the Countreys of Europe We read the Queen of Bewty herself had a Mole and Queen Anne of Bullen had a Wren upon her Neck to hide which Ruffs were brought first in fashion So the best Region and fayrest City on earth have their blemishes Now touching those frailties which are thus hereditary to Mankind ther is nothing contributs more to the propagation practise of them then diversity of Opinions and Caprichios of the Brain which are infinit And how can it be otherwise for if out of 24. letters only in the Alphabet so many millions of differing words may be fram'd and if these two Verses alone which relate to Good and Bad according to the subject of the Book Rex lex Grex Res spes Ius thus sal sol bona lux laus Mars Mors sors fraus fex styx nox crux pus mala vis lis I say if so few words and we know words are the Indexes of the mind may be varyed as it hath bin tryed to nere upon four millions of Verses how many variations of Crochets and Opinions must then the boyling braines of so many millions of men be subject unto To this may be ascribed the miseries and distempers of most Countreys especially the rents and heresies in Religion wherof som peeple have so many that they need not pray Adauge Fidem nostram Lord increase our Faith but rather O Lord decrease our Faiths they are so many and I am sorry that England deserves to have a fillip upon the nose for this Now as these alternative Orations treat of the humors of Nations so they do also of the quality of their Countreys They will tell you that France hath the best Granary of Europe England the fattest Kitchin Spain the best Exchequer Italy the richest Wardrobe Germany the best Woodyard Holland the best Dayrie c. They will tell you that som Countreys compar'd to others are like Gold compar'd to Silver others as Silver compar'd to brasse as Ireland to England is as Silver in point of value to Gold which requires 12. ounces for one and Scotland to England is as Brasse to Silver which requires 100. ounces for one in proportion of intrinsique value in so much that one may say the Union 'twixt England and Scotland was like Oil mingled with Vineger They will tell you also that som Countreys are so perfect that they are created to preserve themselfs only and not to propagat as England with her Concomitant Provinces Others to plant abroad and expand themselfs as Spain with her Dominions Others to be Umpires and Arbitrators among their Neighbours for their fit posture as France and the Popes Territories the first being
seated about the midst of Europe and the other running through the midst of Italy Others are unhappily placed 'twixt two Neighbours more potent then themselfs as Savoy and Lorain the one being seated 'twixt the Emperour and France the other 'twixt France and the dominions of Spain in Italy so that they cannot make a legg to the one but they must pull off their hatts to the other They will also tell you how some peeple are so fiery mouth'd that they must be ridd with a bitt as the Napolitan and French c. whereas a small Snaffle will serve others fearing that if they cast their Rider they may fall from bad to worse as the Castillian the Savoyard the Venetian and Florentine Touching the perfecting of this Work ther were Stones fetch'd from many Quarries whereof the learned and well-read Lansius affoorded most which were pil'd up to compile this fabrique Now I impos'd upon my self this task for the demulsions of my life and to delude those tedious howers and turbid intervalls which the contemplation of these sad disjointed times makes many subject unto besides my self specially those active spiritts who having bin formerly in Employment who lead now a sedentary and umbraticall life So I wish that this Peece may produce the same effects in the Reader as it did in the Writer Sic Tempus adulor The names of the Princes and Orators who conven'd upon this Occasion 1. THe Duke of Wirtemberg and Teccia Count of Mountpelgard c. Lord President of the Assembly make the Proeme 2. Francis Duke of Saxony Angaria and Westphalia c. pleads for Germany High and Low 3. The Lord Wilhelm of Retwiz pleads against Germany 4. The Lord Ioachim Ernest Duke of Sleswick and Holstein pleads for France 5. The Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 D. of Saxony declaims against France 6. The Lord George Fredrique Baron of Limburg declaims for Spain 7. The Lord Magnus Duke of Wirtemberg declaims against Spain 8. The Lord George Baron of Stubenberg replies for Spain 9. The Lord Wolfangus Baron of Stubenberg declaims for England Scotland and Ireland 10. Lord Daniel Bensin declaims against England Ireland and Scotland 11. Lord Maximilian of Mesch pleades for Poland 12. The Lord Axelius of Goerholm declaims against Poland 13. Lord Albert Baron of Limburg pleades for Hungary 14. Lord Schafeliski declaims against Hungary 15. The Lord Laurentius Bensin pleades for Italy the Popedom Repub of Venice c. 16. Lord George Rolderer declaims against Italy The Result of all these Declamations and Rising up of the Assembly To the Knowing Reader upon the Subject of these Princely Orations AXIOM Contraria juxta se posita magis elucescunt BLack sidelong putt or standing opposite Doth use to add more lustre unto White A Perl shine's brighter in a Negro's ear Som Ladies look more fair who Patches wear So Vice if counterplac'd or seated neer Makes Vertu shew more lovely strong and cleer This Book hath Vice and Vertu White and Black 'T is as a Crystall Glasse foâ—…l'd on the Back 'T is like a Chessboard Or an Ermins skin Checkquer'd with two Extremes both Out and In It weighs and winnowe's Good from Bad which any Of Europe's Kingdom 's have and they have many Now if those purer Regions of the Sky Where ev'ry Star's a perfect Monarchy If the bright Moon and glorious Sun above Have Spotts and Motes as Opticks Organs prove How then can these grosse Earthly Regions bee And we that peeple them from taintures free This were for US to arrogat that blisse Which ADAM could not keep in Paradise I. H. An Advertisement to the Reader WHeras there are various Quotations here out of sundry Forren Authors in their own Language you may please to take notice that they are rendred into English all along that so they may fall under the Capacity of any Reader Humphrey Moseley FREDERIQUE DUKE OF WIRTEMBERG c. Appointed Lord President and Proloquutor of the Diet HIS PROEME OR INTRODUCTORY Oration to the rest of the Princes Most Illustrious and High-borne Princes HOW joyfull am I to see this day O how happy I am to behold this glorious Assembly What a high Honour is it to be a Member of it Specially being met upon such a brave Designe of Vertue as to render a voluntary free account of our forreigne Peregrinations to discover what we have observ'd most memorable abroad And to do this with such a latitude of liberty that our hearts and tongues may be Relatives they may go together all along It being the Prerogative of this Noble Consistory that every one may deliver and descant upon without the least apprehension of danger or giving any distast what he hath met withall most remarkable in other Countries as well as his own either in point of Morality or Military Discipline either referring to their Vertues or Vices their Poverty or Wealth their weaknesse or strength their policy or misgovernment And so in order to the Province he hath undertaken to vent his Conceptions and passe his Judgment accordingly The Inhabitants of China a Potent and Eagle-ey'd People as being the nearest Neighbours to the Rising Sun of any upon this side of the Hemisphear are reported to have such a haughty conceit of themselves that beholding all other Nations with a Supercilious disdainfull Countenance they magnifie and extoll their own contemning as it were the rest of Man-kind as an inferiour and ignorant Race of rationall Creatures which appeares by a kind of proverbiall Saying they have common amongst them That the Chineses have two eyes the Europaeans one and the rest of the World is blind For my part I cannot deny but the people of China or Sina more properly the true Appellation of the Country being Sinarum or Tzinarum Regio may be an ingenious progeny of men They may be exquisite Artists as we finde by their Manufactures They may also have good Intellectuals and forecasts in framing wholesome Statutes and Politicall Constitutions for the safe and peacefull Government of that huge tract of Earth which is estimated to be in one intire peece eight times as big as the whole Continent of France Yet under favour they have two Lawes which favour not so much of Prudence and Rationability The first an Inhibition that none of their Natives must travell abroad beyond the bounds of their own Country under pain of loosing one of his eyes The second that no Forreigner be permitted to enter into the bowels of the Land except onely Ambassadours and Ministers of State and they also must be carried hoodwink'd all along from the Marine I say though the Chineses in other things may haply be wise and Argc-ey'd who was all eye yet herein they may be said to be as blind as Buzzards and their Noddles to be as flat as their Noses which is a peculiar shape they have above all other people for these restrictive Lawes are repugnant to common humanity They destroy the magna charta the grand Ordinance of
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Have the Frank or the Frenchman for thy friend not for thy Neighbour And the name of Frank or French grew so renownd that Iustinian the Emperour calld himselfe Francicum whereat Theudebert King of France took exception because he was neither born there nor gott one foot of the Countrey And now the fame of the Franks like a bright flame of fire flew higher and higher and at last it grew so high that in Charlemaynes time all Gallia and all Germany that extended from the Rhin to Illyrium was calld France nay the name of Freink or Frence came to be of such a huge extent and latitude that all Christians among the Turks and up and down Asia of what Nation soever they were were calld Freinks yea the Christian Affricans in Ethiopia calld the Habissines calld all the Europaeans Alfrangues and the Countrey Frankia Herby most noble Princes by our fortitude and constancy we became twise the Fathers of Gallia and so we may be sayed to be also twise the Fathers of the Britains For the Saxons which som wold derive from the Saci a renowned peeple in Asia but wrongfully being as Zosimus sayeth for their magnitude of spirit strength of body and patience in labour grown famous and feard by the Romans as Marcellinus hath it The Saxons I say were sent for by the Britons to help them against the incursions of the Picts and Scots where being arrivd after many vicissitudes they settled there a Monarchy so that by som it was calld Transmarina Saxonia nor have the ancient Britons Irish and Scotts any other name for an English man to this day but Sasson Nor was the English Language any thing else at first but a meer dialect of the German so that all their Townes terminant in Dutch either in Ham thorp wich burg berg sted heim stadt c. Now I pray were not the ancient Kings of Spain before the House of Austria all Germans with the principallst Families of Spain who to this day take it a glory to be descended of the Goths Now it is observd that whersoever the German and Goth took footing they never forsook the place but multiplied there exceedingly nor is there any Nation so fruitfull and prolificall as the Germans witnesse these examples though somthing prodigious Margaret Florence the fourth Count of Hollands Daughter and Wife to the Earl of Henneberg being about two and forty yeers old about nine a clock in the morning was brought to Bed of an Almanack of Children Viz. three hundred sixty five as many as there be dayes in the yeer whom Guido the Suffragan Bishop of Utrecht christned all alive being brought all to Church in a great Bason and being half Boyes and half Girls the Males were calld Iohns and the Females Elizabeths but they all expird with their Mother in one day which was Anno 1276. Another Margaret Wife to a Count of Holsten some thirty yeers after brought forth so many But these were unusuall abortive weak Issues Germany needs and daylie produceth stronger broods I pray observe that nere Tubinga ther is a Castle calld Entringh Castle which for the serenity of the ayr the sweetnesse of soyl and amaenity of walks is a place most delectable there livd within these few yeers in this Castle five Gentlemen with their Wifes in a rare harmony of affection who got a hundred Children who livd to be all Men and Women Consider the Countesse of Dalburg who saw her numerous Issue to the third degree of whom this Distic was made Mater ait natae dic natae filia natam Ut moneat natae plangere filiolam Rise up Daughter and go to thy Daughter for thy Daughters Daughter hath a Daughter The story is notable of Babo Count of Abeneberg who of Wifes had two and thirty Sonns and eight Daughters whom he gave the choicest education unto that could be this Count being invited one day to Hunt with the Emperour Hen the second took oportunity to bring his Troup of Sonns well horsd and in gallant Equippage and making a present of them to the Emperour he took them all with much grace and contentment to his service and married them very nobly insomuch that many Illustrious Families sprung from their loynes And the Emperour was bound to do this according to Law for whosoever in Germany getts seven Sonns together the Emperour is to maintain them all and though the German Continent be very vast yet is it full of people so that as Boterus hath it ther was a cense of ten Millions of soules who breathd ther at one time but he corrected himself afterward and averrs Veggo che quella amplissima provincia passa 19. millioni d'anime senza comprendervi I Regni di Danemarca di Boemia I find that that huge Province besides Denmark and Bohemia hath nineteen millions of soules within it Therfor though an Army of two hundred thousand Soldiers shold be carried out of Germany ther would be no misse at all of them What shall we say of the Normans in France who establishd a Monarchy both in England and Sicilie by their meer prowesse and having subjugated that fertile Province in France calld Normandy ever since they did so infest the rest of that spacious Kingdom that it was a part of their Letany a Furore Normanorum libera nos Domine From the Norman Fury the Lord deliver us At last Charles the simple was forcd to give Rollo their Duke his Daughter Gista to wife with that whole Province and when at that Ceremony Rollo was advisd by his Nobles to kisse the Kings foot answerd no by God which is the cause that the Normans are calld By-gods to this day Roger Hoveden speaks thus of the Normans Audax Francia Normannorum Militiam experta est ferox Anglia captiva succubuit dives Apulia sortit aestoruit Heirosolyma famosa insignis Antiochia se utraque suppoluit Bold France felt the Norman Disciplin fierce England yeelded her selfe as Captive rich Apulia receavd them and flourishd holy Ierusalem and famous Antioch subjected themselfs both unto him What a man of men was Tancred who going as a Martiall Adventurer abroad with many goodly young Princes his Sons did perform many exploits in Italy chasd the Saracens out of Sicilie and did sundry brave feats in the Holy-land And to this day the Sicilians acknowledg that it was by his valour they enjoy their own Country that they live free and became all Christians again Tacitus himself though no great Friend to our Nation confesseth that the Germans cut the Romans more work to do then either the Samnites the Carthaginians the Spaniards or French and Parthians For what can the Orient as he sayeth bragg of but that they conquerd and killd our Generall Crassus and Pacorus But the Germans did not onely rout five Roman Armies in the Consulship of Carbo Cassius Scaurus Aurelius Servilius Cepo and Manlius but they took away Varus with three Legions
Paraphrastically thus in English Whether thy choice or chance thee hither brings Stay passenger and wayle the fate of Kings This little stone a gâ—…eat Kings heart doth hold Who rul'd the fickle French and Polaques bold Whom with a mighty warlike host attended With fatal steel a couled Monster ended So frayl are even the highest earthly things Go passenger and wayle the happ of Kings Now though that nefarious conjuration of the Ligue was partly dissipated by the fortitud and felicity of Henry the 4th yet this inundation settling it self so long upon the fair continent of France left a great deal of scruffy odd dreggish stuff behind it as it happens often when the pestilence ceaseth the infection may a long time continue in beds and clothes For though it happen'd 22. yeers after yet it was by one who was impell'd by the Genius of the old Ligue and he must needs go whom the devil drives that Henry the fourth was kill'd by Ravillac so in revolution of not much above half an age ther were 3. Henries all Kings of France died violently two by knifes and the first by the splinter of a Lance all contemptible instruments the first was kill'd on horseback the second in his closet the third in his coach Now as all is not gold that glisters no more was the last Henry so Peerles a Prince as he is cryed up to be we know well how he shrunk from that Religion he had professed nere upon forty yeers how it was his common practise to lye 'twixt other mens sheets what a nomber of known natural children he left behind besides those that were father'd by others We know how he repudiated his first wife of better Extraction then himself and being all gray maried a young Princesse to whom he mought have bin a granfather for age We know also how he wrought Birons head to be chop'd off and others who were the chief that put the French Crown upon his head How he broke with Queen Elizabeth of England in the performance of many promises who had done him such signal courtesies c. I will conclude this period of my discourse with a proverb worth the knowledg Quand Italie sera sans poison Angleterre sans trahison Et la France sans guerre Lors sera le monde sans Terre When Italie doth poyson want And Traytors are in England scant When France is of Commotions free The World without an Earth shall be I com now most noble Auditors to the third Eryâ—…nis or Furie of France Injustice Injustice and this fury compar'd to the first may change places with her and take the precedency ther is nothing so great an opposit and profess'd enemy to the Queen of Vertues as Injustice she is covetous revengeful and ambitious in the superlatif degree yet she goes commonly under the holy and wholsom name of Justice wherwith she doth vayl and varnish all her actions and yet while she palliats her proceedings she doth perpetrat a world of mischiefs of rapine of tyrannical exactions and extorsions with a thousand villanies more she spares the nocent and so wrongs the innocent nay she spils the bloud of the guiltlesse oftentimes and swallowes bribes by gobbets Her brain is alwaies at work to find new Monopolies new projects new devices to rack and rend money to grind the face and excoriat the poor peasan that she leaves him neither eyes to bewayl nor toung to bemoan his misery This Henry the 4th found to be true for he observ'd that ther was a double tribute us'd to be payed one to the King the other to his Officers but the first was made intolerable by the second so that it was impossible but that both Prince and peeple â—…hold be abus'd wherof in the last civil warrs ther was a notable instance happen'd in a president of Normandy who being inordred to raise 30000. Crowns upon the Reformists it was discover'd that he had levied 300 thousand crowns in lieu of the 30. But among other ocasions and bayts of Injustice in France the nundination and sale of Judiciary offices which lye prostant for him who gives most is one of the greatest and dishonorablest for it is lawful for him who buyes to sell again Insomuch that it often falls out that they who buy by detayl do sell again in grosse Others clean contrary do buy in grosse and sell by detayl as Butchers use to do in buying a beast for the slaughter whom they afterwards cut into parts and haply make one quarter to pay for the whole It is recorded by a modest Author that in the compasse of 20. yeers ther came to the Kings coffers above 26. millions of crownes this way And they wold justifie this by the example of the Venetians who to support the war they had against Lewis the twelfth they rais'd 5. millions by selling Offices by outcry under a spear to the highest bidder and by this way they were said to have levied 100. millions since to preserve S. Marks bank from breaking But the rate of Offices in France is mounted now to its highest pitch La vente des Offices aujourdhuy est montés a sa periode A President 's or Attorney Generals place is valued at about 20000. franks 2000. l. sterling which the poor client in a short time payes treble again It was a brave law of Theodosius and Valentinian that none shold be promoted to publique honors or Magistracies for money but for merit and that the party advanc'd shold be liable to an oath that he came to his place with clean hands without gratuity price or compromise directly or indirectly Now as Covetousnesse is sedulous so she is ingenious as appeers by the Edict of the Paulette wherby it is enacted that if the Officer doth not transmit it to another 40. daies before he dies the Office returns to the King therfore to be free of this casualty they either give the more at first or they give an annual pension wherby most of the places of Judicature in France are not onely vendible but hereditary This was the device of one Monsieur Paulet at first therfore when one hath bought an office he useth to say j'ay Paulette or j'ay payé la Paulette Besides this institory and marchandising way of handling Justice 't is incredible what multitudes of gown'd cormorants ther are in France as Advocates Proctors Scribes Clerks Solliciters who prey upon the poor Client and suck his vital spirits they are call'd the souris de Palais the mice of the Court and the Judges the ratts they are as thick as gnats and able to corrupt ten worlds Stephen Paschasius recordeth and he was a man of great ingenuity and integrity that the King of France might raise an Army of 200 thousand Scribes or Chicanears as they term common Barretors and Clerks and VVolfangas Prisbachius thinks ther are more of those in Paris alone then in all Germany which is estimated to be two parts in three larger then
lay my head upon is fill'd with Amazonian hair my Cushion is made of a Turban took off from the Sultans head my Coverlet is the skin of that Nemean Lion which Hercules kill'd my Courtains are made up of colours and Ensignes taken in divers battailes when I march into the field I commonly carry two drumms as pendants at my eares I am lul'd asleep by noyse of trumpets and brasse kettles and Perillus bull stretch'd along serves me for a pillow The month and day of my Nativity was Mars who was then the predominant Planet and my Ascendant I came into the world about break of day Sol himself then suffer'd an Eclypse Saturn stood astonish'd and dull Iove and Mercury hid themselfs and Cynthia took in her hornes for fear but Mars and Venus did cast benign influences being then in Conjunction yet that morning it rain'd blood the streames of the greatest River turn'd redd Mongibel and strombola belch'd out more fire then ordinary terrible Earth-quakes happen'd in divers places Eolus blew very furious which rais'd such impetuous stormes that made Neptune to tumble and swell very high Nere the place which I was nurst in ther was a den of Lions that I might be inur'd to their roaring and one time my Mother caus'd a yong cubb to be slain of purpose to feed me with the bloud thereof To conclude I am that Invincible transcendent great Captain Basilisco Espheramonte Generalissimo of all the Melitia of Europe I am he who useth to swallow mountains to breath out whirlwinds to spit Targets and sweat Quicksilver By this Rodomontado you may give a guesse at the vanity and extravagant humour of the Spaniard who though he be not so big yet he looks higher then any other Nation in his own conceit which makes them have that vapouring saying of themselfs in point of valour that Tres espanoles son quatro diables en Francia three Spaniards are fower Devills in France When Mendoza was Ambassador in France he wold break out often into this prophane Ostentation Dios es poderoso en el Cielo y Don Felipe en Tierra Gods power is in Heaven and King Philips on earth he can command both Sea and Land with all the Elements to serve him When the English Drake swomme to Santo Domingo and plunder'd the place ther was a Pyramis erected in the Market-place whereon was engraven this arrogant Motto Non sufficit Orbis one world will not suffice Don Philip yet that Philip that invincible Philip was overcom at last by a Regiment of poor contemptible things for Herod-like he went out of the world by the pediculary disease which made no mean modern Poet to sing Rex Ille Philippus Tot populis Terrisque potens lateque Tyrannus Occiditu â faedo rosus grege Vermieulorum Carnificesque suos miserando corpore pavit Vivens atque Videns propria funera planxit Som imputed this foul gastly kind of death to his lasciviousnes and lust som gave out it was a judgment upon him for doing away his Son Don Carlos others gave out that hé suffer'd for Alva's Tyranny in Flanders som gave out it was for bereaving Portugall of her right Heir But most affirm'd it was a visible judgment from Heaven because the bloud of so many hundred thousands of poor American souls did cry for vengeance who for their Gold and Silver were made away and extinguished by so many kindes of deaths according to the Italian proverb La coda condanna spesso la volpe alla morte per esser troppo lunga The Foxes tayl condemns him to death because it is too long How far further could I enlarge my self on this subject but I will grate the eares of so princely an auditory no longer therfore I will conclude with a character which a most ingenuous Poet gives of one part of Spain when he sayld thence to France Iejuna misera tesqua Lusitaniae Gebaeque tantùm fertiles penuriae Valeta longùm At tu beata Gallia Salve bonarum blanda nutrix Artium Caelo Salubri fertili frugum solo Umbrosa colles pampini molli comâ Pecorosa saltus rigna Valles fontibus Prati virentis picta campos floribus Velifera longis Amnium decursibus Piscosa stagni rivulis lacubus mari Et hinc illinc portoso littore Orbe receptans hospitem atque Orbi tuas Opes vicissim non avara impertiens Amaena Villis tuta muris turribus Superba testis lauta culta splendida Victu modesta moribus non aspera Sermone comis patria gentium Omnium Communis animis fida pace florida Iucunda facilis Marte terrifico minax Invicta rebus non secundis Insolens Nec sorte dubia fracta cultrix numinis Syncera ritum in exterum non degener Nescit calores laenis aestas torridos Frangit rigores bruma flammis asperos Non pestilentis pallet Austri spiritu Autumnus aequis temperatus flatibus Non ver solutis amnium repagulis Inundat agros labores elicit Ni Patrio te Amore diligam colam Dum vivo rursus non recuso visere Iejuna miserae tesqua Lusitaniae Glebaeque tantùm fertiles penuriae Valete longùm Thus the Scottish Poet descants upon France making Portugall a foyl to her and so he might have made his own Countrey as well And now most Highborn Princes I hope ther is not any of this Auditory that will wrong his judgment so far as to think that Spain for any respects shold carry away the Palm and claime precedencie of the rest of the Provinces of Europe DIXI THE REPLY OF Prince GEORGE Baron of Studenberg c. in behalf of SPAIN Most Illustrious Auditors THis Oration of the excellent Baron of Limburg though flowing with powerful eloquence hath not under favour wrought so much in me as that gallant Encomium of yours Prince Magnus in the behalf of Spain therfore I concurr still with you in opinion that she may deserve the primacy and if the comparison that Strabo makes be admitted that Europe is like an Eagle whose head is Spain the neck France Germany the back and breast Italy and England the two Armes the thighs and leggs those huge tracts of Earth Northward I say if this Simile be allow'd ther is no question but Spain may challenge the priority and head-ship But my noble Cofen of Limburg I much wonder what came into your mind to throw so much dirt into the face of Spain and her children If you were now in the Escuriall and made such a speech before Philip the fourth I believe we shold heare no more of you but you shold be buried alive in the Inquisition all your life time But is Spain so hungry as you say that she must eat grasse Is she so weak that she needs Crutches Is she so abandond to Vice that she hath quite shaken off all Vertu and a good Conscience Surely no Touching the first she may be call'd the Exchequer of all Christendom for Money and I
and a hundred and twenty thousand granados of all sorts The Fleet stood the King in every day thirty thousand Duckets insomuch that Bernardin Mendoza the Spanish Ambassadour in France being in a private conference one day with King Henry the fourth assured him that viis modis that Fleet had stood his Master in above tenne Millions first and last from the time that she set sayl from Lisbon This Fleet look'd like a huge Forrest at Sea as she made her way Good Lord how notably did that Masculine Queen bestirre her self in viewing her Armies in visiting her Men of Warre and Ships Royall in having her Castles and Ports well fortified in riding about and in the head of the Army her self in discharging the Office of a true Pallas wearing a Hat and Feather in lieu of a Helmet Henry the fourth of France sent her seasonable notice hereof so that most of the Roman Catholiques up and down were commanded to retire to the I le of Ely a fenney place and others were secured in Bishops houses till this horrid cloud which did threaten the destruction of England should be overblown But this prodigious Fleet being come to the British seas how did the little English vessels pelt those huge Gigantick Galeons of Spain whereof those few which were left for all the rest perisht were forc'd to fetch a compass almost as far as Norway in 62. degrees and so got to Spain to bring the sad tidings what became of the rest There were Triumphs for this not onely in England but all the United Provinces over where a Medal was coyn'd bearing this Inscription on the one side Classis Hispanica The Spanish Fleet on the other side Venit â—…vit fuit She came she went she was But had the Duke of Parma come out of Flanders with his Land Army then it might have prov'd a black day to England and herein Holland did a peece of Knight-service to England for she kept him from comming forth with a squadron of Men of Warre How gallantly did the English take Cales the Key of Spain and brought home such rich plunder How did they infest the Indies and what a masse of Treasure did Drake that English Dragon bring home thence he made his Sailes of Silk and his Anchors of Silver Most noble Princes you have heard something though not the tyth that might be said of the early Piety and Devotion of the exquisite Knowledge and Learning of the Manhood and Prowesse of Great Britain but these praises that I give her is but a bucket of water cast into her Seas Now touching both King and people it is observ'd that there is such a reciprocation of love betwixt them that it is wonderfull the one swayes the other submits obeyes and contributes to the necessities and preservation of the honour and majesty of the King for which he receives protection and security Touching the Regall Authority and absolute Power and Prerogatives of the Kings of Great Britain it is as high and supreame as any Monarchs upon Earth They acknowledge no Superior but God himself they are not feudetary or homageable to any they admit no forraign jurisdiction within the bounds of their Kingdomes and herein they have the advantage of the Kings of France and Spaine yea of the Emperour himself who is in a kind of vassalage to the Pope and may be said to divide authority with him in their own Dominions No they have long time shaken off that servitude and manumitted the Crown from those immense sums which were erogated and ported from England to pay for First fruits for Indulgences for Appeales Palls and Dispensations and such merchandises of Rome How many hundred of years did England pay Tribute though it went under the name of Peter-pence to Rome think you no less than near upon a thousand from the reign of King Inas the Saxon to Henry the eighth From the Power of the Kings of Great Britain let us goe to their Justice let us descend from the Throne to the Tribunall Now such is the Divinitie of the Kings of Great Britain that they cannot doe any Injustice it is a Canon of their Common Law that the King can doe no wrong if any be done it is the Kings Minister the Judge Magistrate or Officer doth doe it and so is punishable accordingly such a high regard the English have of the honour of their King and such a speciall care the Kings of England have us'd to take for punishing of Injustice and corruption such a care as King Edgar had to free the Iland from Wolves and corrupt Officers are no better than Wolves which he did by a Tribute that he impos'd upon a Welsh Prince for his ranson which was to bring him in three hundred skinnes of Wolves every year this produced â—…o good effects that the whole race of Wolves was extirpated in a short time so that it is as rare a thing to see a Wolf now in England as a Horse in Venice Touching the care that the Kings of England us'd to have to enrich their subjects hath been us'd to be very great and to improve the common stock Edward the third that Gallorum malleus the hammer of the French he quell'd them so was the first who introduced the art of making of Cloth into England whereby the Exchequer with the publique and private wealth of the Kingdome did receive a mighty increment for Wooll is the Golden Fleece of England and the prime Staple-commodity which is the cause that by an old custome the Judges Masters of the Rolls and Secretaries of State in Parliament time doe use to sit upon Woolsacks in the House that commodum lanarum ovium non negligendum esse Parliamentum moneatur that they put the Parliament in mind that the commodity of Wool and Sheep be not neglected The Swede the Dane the Pole the German the Russe the Turk and indeed all Nations doe highly esteem the English cloth The time was that Antwerp her self did buy and vend two hundred thousand English cloths yearly as Camden hath it And great and antient are the priviledges that the English have in Belgium for since the year 1338 which is above three hundred yeares agoe when Lewis Malan Earl of Flanders gave them very ample immunities in the Town of Bruges since which time it is incredible how all kind of commerce and merchantile affaire did flourish among the Flemins for which they were first obliged to the English for the English Wooll hath been a Golden Fleece also to the Flemins as well as the English themselves because it was one of the principal causes of enlarging their Trade whereunto the Duke of Burgundy related when he established the order of the Golden Fleece Guicciardin makes a computation that the Traffique and Intercourse betwixt England and Flanders amounted to twelve millions yearly where of five was for woollen manufactures What an Heroique incomparable Princesse was Queen Elizabeth who wore the English Crown and
sway'd the Scepter as politiquely prudently and stoutly as any of those Kings which wore swords before her or after her she raigned four and forty years in a marvellous course of prosperity and all the world yea her enemies did confesse that there was never such a Virgin and a Virago upon earth Her subjects lov'd her as their most indulgent Mother her foes fear'd her as a just Revengresse her Neighbour Princes and States did attribute their safety to her and all Europe yea the great Turk and the Emperour of Russia to whom she first open'd the way of commerce did behold her though a far off with the eyes of admiration They esteem'd her as a great Heroina and the Arbitresse of Christendome for she might as well as her Father have taken that Motto cui adhaereo praeest He whom I sti◅k to prevailes Nay she did more truly verifie that saying of her Father's Galliam Hispaniam esse quasi lances in Europae libra Angliam esse lingulā sive libripendem That France and Spain were like the Beams of the great balance of Christendom and England was the handle of that balance Touching the observance and fidelity which the English us'd to bear towards their Soveraign Prince it hath been us'd to be rare and exemplary They reverence him in his absence as wel as when he is present for whersoever the Chaire of State stands all goe uncover'd they honour his very shadow they serve him upon the knee The Preacher makes three profound reverences in the Pulpit before he beginnes his Sermon They pray for him five times in the publique Liturgy and for his Queen the Heir apparent by name with the rest of his children which I beleeve is not done so often to any Christian Prince Their fidelity and affectionate Allegiance is also very remarkable and may serve for a pattern to all subjects when the Spaniard by internunciall negotiation and secret practises did treat with the Duke of Norfolk and the Earle of Ormond that the one in England the other in Ireland should rise against Queen Elizabeth the people were so eager in the cause especially on the Sea side that it is wonderfull how they flocked to all the Ports voluntarily of themselves to prevent an Invasion insomuch that there came a command to restrain such confluences of people and that every one should retire home to his dwelling and business till there were occasion When Prince Charles return'd from Spain in safety what exultations of joy was in every corner of the Kingdome specially in the great City of London what huge Bonefires some of big massy timber were up and down streets which made them as lightsome in the night as if it had been noon insomuch as one said the flames of the fires might be seen as far as Spain what barrels of Beer Ale and Wine were brought out to drink carouses to his health But most Illustrious Princes in regard this Iland is so delicate a peece of Earth I 'le take her into parcels and present her to your view I will beginne with the Southernst part with Cornwall a Province which abounds with diversity of necessary commodities whereof Spain hath every year a good share being the nearest part of the Iland towards Her here besides Gold and Silver and Marble there is great store of Tinne digg'd out which is so pure and white that it may passe for Silver when it is hammer'd into Vessells This commodity is transported and dispers'd into all parts of the World rich returnes made of it Then they have a savory Fish call'd Pilchards which Spaniards call Sardinas which is found in incredible quantities in the Sea near that Coast whereof there be huge Cargasars carried to Spain and Italy every year and for barter they will give you Silke Wine Oyle Cotton and the best Commodities they have About November this Fish is taken and they shape the course of their Voyages so that they may be in Spain Italie a little before Lent which is the convenientest for their Market because in those Catholick Countries that season is observ'd so strictly There is in this Province of Cornwall a wonderfull thing and it is a great famous Stone call'd Mainamber a little distant from a small Market Town call'd Pensans That stone though it be as bigg as a little Rock and that a multitude of men cannot carry it away yet you may stirre and move it sensibly with your little finger Prince Arthur one of the 9. Worthies was born there who is so much celebrated through the World and by such a number of Authors among other things for his round Table which was made of stone about which a selected number of Chivalrous Kinghts were us'd to sit with him and they had special Orders and Lawes made among themselves which they were bound to observe punctually Good Lord what a Heroe was this Arthur being an old Britain born he overcame the Saxons in twelve several battells In so much that an ingenious Poet sung of him thus Prisca parem nescit aequalem postera nullum Exhibitura dies Reges supereminet omnes Solus praeteritis melior majorque futuris From Cornwall I passe to Devonshire where there is also quantity of choice Tinne not inferior in purity to that of Cornwall there is a place there also where Loadstone is found Winfrid who was the Apostle of the Germans was borne there at Kirton who converted the Thuringians and Friselanders to Christianity I will leave Exeter the Provincial Town Neat Rich and large and wil go to Plimouth a most comodious and safe well frequented Port. Here Sir Francis Drake was born for Naval glory and skill the ablest that any age hath afforded he did circumnavigate and compasse the World I mean the Globe of the Earth he saild further into the Southern Seas into mare pacificum then any other where starres are so scant to guide one's course by for there are but three of the first magnitude to be seen there He gave part of America a new name call'd new Albion Among other prizes he tooke from the Spaniard the Shippe Caga fuego was one which had seventy pound weight of Gold in her thirteen great Chests cramm'd with Patacoons and a huge quantity of barrs and sowes of silver which serv'd for Ballast This rich ship this English Iason brought with him to England with his own ship the Publican in safety But the Spanish Captain broke this jest for all the losse of his treasure that his ship and Drakes ship should change their names and that his should be call'd Caga plata and Drakes Caga fuego Thus this English Drake swom like the great Leviathan to the new and old World of whom that most ingenious Epigrammatist Owen hath this Hexastic Drake pererrati quem novit terminus Orbis Quemque semel mundi vidit utrumque latus Si taceant homines facient Te sidera notum Atque loqui de Te discet uterque polus Plus
and many thousands of them are so massie and big that they seem men rather than women unlesse they were distinguished by their clothes Now touching the haughtinesse of minde that is naturall in the English there is one notable example in the person of Nicolas Breakspeare born at Langley in Hartfordshire who being elevated to the Popedome by the name of Adrian the fourth came to such a height of arrogance that he rebuked the Emperour for writing his name before him in a certain Instrument And being to hold the stirrup while that Adrian mounted he took hold of the wrong but a little flie cur'd in him this humour of pride who getting into his throat choakt him and so made him low enough With such a spirit of pride was Thomas Wolsey possessed who was at once Chancellor Archbishop and Cardinall though a Butchers Son of Ipswich by blood Charles the fift in his Letters subscrib'd himself his Son and Cosen for indeed he had a designe for the advantage of his affairs as they stood then to advance him to the Popedom after the decease of Leo the tenth but when the Emperour had exalted Adrian the sixth a Brewers sonne his Tutor in lieu of the Butcher his Cosen to the Chair and having denied him also the Archbishoprick of Toledo he grew so implacable to the Emperour that he set all wheeles a going to make both England and France to bandy against him He therefore began to whisper some surmises into Henry's eare touching Katharine of Aragon his Queen VVhether the match was consonant to the holy Scriptures she having been his eldest brothers wife before and he raised this doubt the rather because the said Queen had miscarried so often in Childbirth of Male Princes The Cardinal knowing his Masters humor might well think that this would make impressions within him and so recommended unto him the Lady Margaret Sister to the King of France but when this scruple was thrust into the Kings thoughts and that a Divorce was procurable he did not look towards France but he cast his eyes upon Anne daughter to Sir Thomas Bolen having no regard to Majesty but beauty and lust This cool'd Wolsey from negotiating the said Divorce and made him spinne out the time by tergiversations and delayes which his Master perceiving his favour began to decline towards him and so he died some say out of apprehension of grief others say by poyson This Wolsey was a man of a notable high spirit and vast designes and among other passages which discovered it one was that having built a Colledge in Oxford he put his own Armes before the Kings with this Motto Ego Rex meus I and my King which as one wittily said might be true by the rule of Grammar which tels us that the first person is more worthy than the third but the Moral rule tels us otherwise He had such a splendid magnificent Family than an Earl nine Barons and I cannot tell how many Knights and Squires with near upon four hundred were his domestique servants there were all likewise choice personable men whom he entertain'd so that after his fall divers of them came to be the Kings servants After Pride comes in the Lust and Luxury of the English It stands upon good record how Pope Boniface writ to King Etheobald in these words Gentes Anglorum spretis legalibus connubiis adulterando luxuriando ad instar Sodomiticae gentis faedam vitam ducere The English Nation forsook their lawfull Wives and like a Sodomiticall people spent their lives in Adultery and Luxury There was one of the Henries left thirteen Bastards behinde him as some write and it was more than probable that Anne of Bolen who was call'd in France La Mule du Roy l'haquenée d'Angleterre The Kings Mule and the English hackney I say according to some Writers it was more than probable that she was both Daughter and Wife to the eighth Henry Among others one inference was that when Sir Francis Brian who was a facetious Knight asked the King what it was to lie with the Daughter and the Mother It was no more said he than to eat the hen first and the chicken after This King married six several Wives whereof the second and the fift he chopt off their heads with an Axe the first and fourth he repudiated the third was destroyed in childbearing the sixt he left behind him This was that mercilesse Prince who sign'd a Warrant for beheading some Noblemen upon his very death-bed and being much troubled in conscience as he was taking his farewell of the world the last word he breathed out to the Bishop by him was All is lost all is lost and so expir'd to go before the Tribunall of Heaven to give account of his life wherein he had confessed before that He had never spar'd man in his rage nor woman in his lust But you say that the English are strenuous and stout they might be such in former ages but now they are much degenerated their warrs are now in Tap-houses and Tobacco-shops for since Drake brought that inchanting Nicotian Drugge from the Indies against crudities and rheums the use thereof is so frequent in England that it is incredible the very Impost of that Indian smoak alone amounting to more than Queen Elizabeth received in custom for all commodities whatsoever In Ireland also this Weed is taken excessively in sneezing which the Husbandman at the Plough-taile and the servant mayd at the washing block doe use to suck into their nostrils to beget new spirits in them when they are tyr'd with labour King Iames was a great enemy to this smoak and when he was a Hunting if any fogge or mist would rise up to interrupt his sport he would swear that Belzebub was then taking Tobacco and being once surprised with a great showre of rain and forced to goe to a Pigstie for shelter he caused a pipe of Tobacco to be taken that one stink as extremes use to doe might drive out another Moreover since the English have been accustomed to have Beer for their beverage so much not using so universally the old drink of England which is Ale the Hop by its inflammation hath made them more subject to diseases fill'd them with gravell and so troubled them with the Stone Strangury and Coliques These with drinking such sophisticated Wines hath much enervated the English Nation in point of strength which in former times was such that they could draw an arrow of an Ell long and make the Gray-goose-wing fly through the heart of France And now that I speak of Wine it is so adulterated in England that it drinks in some places like a Potion and I beleeve as many dye there by drinking bad Wines as of any other disease for indeed all Vintners are Brewers in England they mixe French Wines with Syder the Spanish with milk and feed other Wines with flesh very frequently Now for the Valour of the English in France
whereof the noble Baron hath spoken so much they were very valiant indeed when a silly Shepheardesse Anne d' Arc did beat them away from before Orleans pursued them to Paris and so drive them over the Seine to Normandy and when they could not be reveng'd of this Mayd in the Field being taken by a Stratageme they cut her off by a forged accusation that she was a Sorceresse forsooth Then was the time if the English had comported themselves like men of prowesse and policy to have reduc'd all France under a perpetuall subjection King Charles the seventh being driven to such streights that he was constrain'd to fly to Bourges and so for the time was in a jeering way call'd King of Berry But that notable mayd at her execution being tied to the stake was nothing daunted but left prosperity and victory for a legacy to her Countrey men till the English should be beaten quite out of France as they were afterwards for being driven and dogg'd as far as Calais they kept that a while but afterwards they were by a writ of ejectment publish'd by sound of drum and trumpet as also by the Canon Musket of the Duke of Guise thrust out of Calais and so casheer'd quite out of France which sunck so deep and made such black impressions of sorrow upon the heart of Queen Mary of England that she would often say if she were open'd after death the town of Calais would be found Engraven in her heart Now for the piety goodnes and vertu of the English which the noble Baron did so much magnifie you may judge what it was in those dayes by the ingenuous confession of an English Captain who when he had truss'd up his bagg and bagage to go for England as he was going out of the gate he in a geering way was ask'd O Englishmen when will you back again to France The Captain with a sad serious countenance answer'd When the sinns of France are greater then the sinns of England then will the English return to France Nor indeed had the French much cause to affect the English in regard of their insolence and cruelty wherof there be divers examples for in some good successes they had the victory was more bloody then the battaill cutting of prisoners off in cold blood for their greater security But the English must needs be cruell in a Forren Countrey when they use to be so in their own What a barbarous act was that of Edward the fourth to clapp up his own brother George Duke of Clarence in prison and afterwards to drown him in a butt of Muscadin by a new invention of death But to descend to neerer times what an act of immanity and ignoblenes was that in Queen Elizabeth when she promis'd safety welcom to Mary Queen of Scotts and Dowager of France if she came to England for preventing the machinations of her rebellious subjects against her and afterwards to suffer her to be hurried from one prison to another for twenty yeares and then to suffer her head to be chop'd off and by a cunning kind of dissimulation to lay the fault upon Davison her secretary and throw the bloud into his face under pretence that he sent the warrant for her execution without her knowledge Truly this was a most inglorious act and the reproach of it will never be worn out but will stick as a black spot to England while she is an Iland nor can all the water of the Sea about her wash off the stain but it wil continue still indelible But 't is the more strange that Queen Elizabeth should doe this a Queen that had been herself bred up a good while in the school of affliction and might be said to have come from the Scaffold to the Throne I say 't is strange that she should not be more sensible of anothers calamity Dido the Pagan Queen out of a sweet tendernes could say Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco and it had more becom'd Queen Elizabeth to have said so being a Christian Queen That Queen Elizabeth should do this to her own Cosen and sister Queen one as good as herself who after an invitation to England would never suffer her to have the comfort of her presence all the while That Queen Elizabeth who was cryed up and down the world to be so just so vertuous so full of clemency should do this it doth aggravat the fact much more then if another had done it I must confesse she lost much repute abroad for it Satyres pasquills and invectives being made in every corner of Christendom among others I will recite unto you one that was belch'd out in France which was thus Anglois vous dites qu'entre vous Un seul loup vivant on ne trouve Non mais vous avez une Louve Pire qu'un million de loups No Wolfs ye Englishmen do say Live in your Ile or beasts of prey No but a Wolfesse you have one Worse then a thousand Wolfs alone Among other Kings and Queens of England the example of this Queen and her Father may serve to verifie the saying of Porphyrius which you alledg'd most noble Baron Britannia fertilis Provincia Tyrannorum That Great Britanny is a province fruitfull for Tyrants Now Nimrod was call'd the Robustus Venator the strong Hunter which the Divines do interpret to be a mighty Tyrant And certainly the chasing and hunting of beasts the killing of them the washing of the Kings hands in their blood and feasting with them afterwards must needs make the minds of princes more ferocious and lesse inclinable to clemency wherefore they have a wholsom law in England that no Butcher who is habituated to blood may be capable to be a Juryman to give verdit upon any mans life The Nobles of England may in some kind be call'd Carnificers of some sorts of beasts as the buck and the doe with other such poor harmeles creatures whereof some have no gall in them for having wounded them first and then worried them down with their doggs at last as a signall of victory they bath their fingers in the blood of the poor animall which they call to take the essay but certainly this must conduce to obdurat human hearts and as it were flesh them in blood Now 't is well known there are no Kings on earth such great hunters as the English and who have more of variety of sport in that kind then any for there are more Forests Chaces and Parks besides variety of Royall palaces annexed to the Crown of England then to any other of Europe which might make the Countrey far more copious of corn fuller of cattle and have fewer beggars if they were made arable grounds or turn'd to pasturage Moreover the English Kings may not improperly be call'd Nimrods as Bodin hath it herein considering what rigorous punishments use to be inflicted upon the poor peeple by vertu of the Forest lawes In the book call'd Liber Rufus there
Country is full of boggs of squalid and unfrequented places of loughs and rude Fenns of huge craggs and stony fruitlesse hills the air is rhumatique and the Inhabitants odiously nasty sluggish and lowsie Nay some of them are Pagans to this day and worship the new moon for the kerns will pray unto her that she would be pleas'd to leave them in as good health as she found them For all the paines the English have taken to civilize them yet they have many savage customes among them to this day they plow their ground by tying their tacklings to â—…he horses taile which is much more painful to the poor beast then if they were before his breast and on his back They burn their corn in the husk in stead of threshing it which out of meer sloth they will not do for preserving the Straw But to set forth the Irish in their own colours I pray hear how Saint Barnard describeth them when he speakes of Saint Malachias a holy Irish Bishop of a place call'd then Conereth a man that had no more of his Country rudenesse in him then a fish hath saltnesse of the Sea Malachias inquit Barnardus tricesimo ferme aetatis suae anno consecratus Episcopus introducitur Conereth hoc enim nomen Civitatis Cum autem caepisset pro officio suo agere tunâ—… intellexit homo Dei non ad homines se sed ad bestias destinatum Nusquam adhuc tales expertus fuer at in quantacunque barbarie nusquam repererat sic protervos ad mores sic ferales ad ritus sic ad fidem impios ad leges barbaros cervicosos ad disciplinam spurcos ad vitam Christiani erant nomine Re Pagani Non decimas non primitias dare nec legitima inire conjugia non facere confessiones paenitentias nec qni peteret neâ—… qui daret penitus inveniri Ministri altaris pauci admodum erant sed enim quid opus pluribus ubi ipsa paucitas inter Laicos propemodum otiosa vacaret Non erat quod de suis frâ—…ctificarent officiis in populo nequam Nec enim in Ecolesâ—…iis aut praeâ—…icantis vox aut cantant is audiebatur Quid faceret Athleta Domini aut turpiter cedendum an t periculosè certandum sed qui se pastorem non mercenarium agnoscebat elegit stare potius quam fugere paratus animam suam dare pro ovibus si oportuerit Et quanquam omnes lupi Oves nullae stetit in medio luporum pastor intrepidus omnimodo argumentosus quomodo faceret oves de lupis Malachias saith Saint Barnard in the 33. year of his age was consecrated Bishop of Conereth but when he began to officiate and to exercise his holy function he found that he had to deal with beasts rather then with men for he never met with the like among any Barbarians He never found any so indocil for manners so savage in customes so impious in their faith so barbarous in their lawes so stiffnecked for discipline so sordid in their carriage They were Christians in name but Pagans in deed There were none found that would pay tiths or first fruits that would confine themselves to lawfull wedlock that would confesse or doe any acts of penitence For there were very few Ministers of the altar and those few did live licentiously among the Laiques Neither the voice of the Preacher or singing man was heard in the Church Now what should the Champion of God do He must recede with shame or strive with danger but knowing that he was a true Pastor and not a hireling he chose to stay rather then flye being ready to sacrifice his life for his sheep And though they were all Wolfs and no sheep yet the faithful shepheard stood fearlesse in the midst of them debating with himself how he might turn them from Wolfes to sheep It seems this holy Father S. Bernard was well acquainted with Ireland by this relation for ther 's no Countrey so wolvish they are in up and down heards in some places and devoure multitudes not only of cattle but men In deed of late yeers Ireland I must confesse was much improv'd both in point of civility as also in wealth and commerce Their mud cottages up and down specially in Dublin where the Court was turnd to fair brick or free-stone-houses Ireland was made to stand upon her own leggs and not onely to pay the standing English army which was there and us'd to be payd out of the Exchequer at Westminster but to maintain the Vice-Roy with all the Officers besides of her self and to affoord the King of England a considerable revenu every yeer and this was done by the management and activity of the last Lord Deputy after whose arrivall the Countrey did thrive wonderfully in traffic which is the great artery of every â—…land and in all bravery besides In so much that the Court of Dublin in point of splendidnes might compare with that of England But that refractory haf-witted peeple did not know when they were well But now I will leave the Irish to his Bony clabber and the Scot to his long Keall and short Keall being loth to make your eares do penance in listning to so harsh discourses Therefore to conclude most noble Princes I conceave it a high presumption in Great Britain to stand for the principality of Europe considering how many inconveniences attend her for first though she be most of all potent at sea yet she cannot set a ship under sayle in perfect equipage without the help of other Countreys she hath her cordage pitch and tarr she hath her masts and brasse Canons from abroad onely she hath indeed incomparable Oke and knee timber of her own she abounds 't is true with many commodities but they are rustic and coorse things in comparison of other Kingdoms who have silk for her wooll wine for her beer gold and silver for lead and tinne For arts and sciences for invention and all kind of civilities she hath it from the Continent Nay the language she speaks her very accents and words she borroweth els where being but a dialect of ours She hath a vast quantity of wast grounds she hath barren bad mountains uncouth uncomfortable heaths she hath many places subject to Agues and diseases witnes your Kentish and Essex Agues what a base jeer as their own Poet Skelton hath it have other Nations of the English by calling them Stert men with long tailes according to the verse Anglicus a tergo caudam gerit ergo caveto What huge proportions of good ground lieth untill'd in regard of the sloth of her Inhabitants she suffers her neighbours to eat her out of trade in her own commodities she buyeth her own fish of them They carry away her gammons of bacon and by their art having made it harder and blacker they sell it her againe for Westphalia at thrice the rate she hath affronted imprisond deposd and destroyd many of her Kings of late yeers
contented only that the Vassall kisse their hands or hem of their Garment Nor doth the Pope return reverence to any other potentate by rising up bowing his head or uncovering his head to any onely to the Emperor after he hath kiss'd his feet he is afterwards admitted to kisse his hand and then he riseth a little and giveth him a mutuall kisse of Charity with an Embracement There is a cloud of examples how diver Emperors and Kings came to Rome to do their filial duty to the Holy Father and to have their Coronations confirm'd by him Iustinian did so to Constantine Pipin to Stephen the second Charles the Great to Leo the 3. Lodovicus pins of France to Sergius the 2. the Emperor Henry the forth to Paschall the 2. Frederic the first to Adrian the 4. But that was a notable Signal reverence which Lewis of France and Henry the second of England did to Alexander the 3. Who came both together and jointly attended the Pope a good way to his lodging he being on horsback and they both a foot Now it is one of the high Tenets of the Catholiques That the Pope is the only Free independent Prince upon Earth not accountable to any for his actions but unto Christ himself whose Vicegerent he is He cannot onely command but make Kings at least confirm them The King of Spain did not hold himself perfectly established King of the West-Indies till the Holy Father pleas'd to allow of it and confirm him Now touching the Title of Emperor there is a notable letter upon record which Adrian the 4. writ to the three Ecclesiastic Electors of Germany Romanum Imperium a Graecis translatum est ad Alemannos ut Rex Teutonicorum non ante quam ab Apostolica manu coronaretur Imperator vocaretur ante consecrationem Rex post Imperator Unde igitur habet Imperium nisi a nobis ex electione principum suorum habet nomen Regis ex consecratione nostra habet nomen Imperatoris Augusti Caesaris Ergo per nos imperat c. Imperator quod habet totum a nobis habet Ecce in potestate nostra est ut demâ—…s illud cui volumus propterea constituti a deo super gentes Regna ut destruamus evellamus ut aedificemus plantemus The Roman Empire saith Adrian the 4. was transferr'd from Greece to Germany therefore the King of the Teutons cannot be call'd Emperor till he be apostolically Crown'd before his consecration he is but King and Emperor afterward Whence therefore hath he the Empire but from us by the Election of his Princes he hath the name of King but he hath the Title of Emperor of Augustus and Caesar by our consecration Therefore he is Imperial by us c. that which he hath of Emperor he hath wholly from us behold it is in our power to give the Title to whom we please therefore are we constituted by God himself over Nations and Kings that we may destroy and pluck up build and plant c. Nor doth the Papall power extend to give Titles to Emperors but to make Kings It is upon record how Pope Leo made Pipin King of Italy Sergius made Stephen King of Hungary Pope Iohn made Wenceslaus King of Poland Alphonso King of Portugal was made by Eugenius the 3d. Edgar was made King of Scotland by Urban the 2d. Iohn de Brenna was made King of Ierusalem by Innocent the third Pope Pius the 5. gave Cosmo de Medici the Title of Gran-Duke of Tâ—…scany notwithstanding the opposition of Maximilian the 2d. and Philip the 2d. of Spain I saw in the Archives of Rome the names of those Kings who are Vassalls to the Pope and they are rank'd in this order and Bodins Cataloge agrees with it Reges Neapolis Siciliae Arragoniae Sardiniae Hierolosymorum Angliae Hiberniae Hungariae all these are or should be at least feudetary and hommageable to the Bishop of Rome Nor can the Holy Father entitle Emperors and make Kings and Gran-Dukes but he can as he alledgeth depose them if they degenerate to Tyrants or Heretiques he can absolve their subjects from all ties of allegeance As among other examples Innocent the 3. did to Iohn King of England and Sixtus quintus did to Queen Elizabeth Innocent the 1. did not onely thrust Arcadius out of his Throne but out of the society of Christians Anastasius the Emperor was excommunicated by Anastasius the 2. Pope Constantine anathematiz'd the Emperor Philippicus Gregory the third delivered over to Satan Pope Leo Isaurus and took from him all Italy Gregory the 7. excommunicated the Emperor Henry the 3. and Boleslaus King of Poland The Emperor Lewis the 4. was barr'd to come to Church by Benedict the 12. Otho by Innocent the 3. Frederic the 2. by Innocent the 4. and Peter King of Castile was quite thrust out both of his Throne and the holy Church by Vrban the 5. who made Henry the bastard capable to succeed him by a bull of legitimation and indeed that Peter was a hatefull Tyrant having murtherd many of his own Subjects and his Queen or the house of Bourbon with his own hands There is another high prerogative which the Roman Bishop claimes which is to summon Generall Councells which Montanus who was president of the Councell of Trent from the Pope did avouch in open assembly upon a design of removing the Councell to Bolonia where he among other things did positively assert and pronounce Caesarem nempe non Dominum aâ—…t Magistrum esse sed Ecclesiae filium esse se verò Collegas qui adsint Romane sedis Legatos esse penes quos ordinandi transferendi concilii jus erat Caesar was not Lord nor Master but Sonne of the Holy Church But he and his Colleagues there present were Legats of the Roman See whose right it was to ordain and transferre General Councells Moreover the Bishop of Rome hath a great stroake in preserving the Universal peace of Christendom and keeping Earthly Potentates from clashing one with another In so much that the Pope may be compar'd to that Isthmos of land which runns twixt the Ionian and Aegaean Seas keeping their waters from jusling one with another Nor is the Bishop of Rome thus powerfull only by his spirituall Authority by vertue whereof besides Patriarkâ—… Archbishops and a world of Bishops he hath 70. Cardinalls who are accounted equal to Princes and who as they are all of his making so are they at his devotion which number of 70. was limited by a solomn diploma or Bull of Sixtus Quintus and the election to be alwaies in December so many daies before Christmas which is a general Jubile of rejoycing for the Nativity of our Saviour And as these Cardinals are Princes Companions so have they revenues accordingly from the Common aerarium or Treasury of the Church which is an unknown thing and inexhaustible For as long as men have soules within them and believe there is a Heaven or Hell the
of their Princes are no better what I pray is the Gran Duke of Florence what are the Clarissimi of Venice what are the Senators of Genoa but all Marchants yet every broker and pedler is there termed by Vostra Signoria which is your Lordship The meanest Prince in Italy must be called Serenissimo a title used to be given only to the Archdukes of Austria they scorn to be call'd Excellentissimi or Illustrissimi Nay the Duke of Savoy return'd the Senats letters to Venice because mention being made in them of the Dukes children they termed them Excellentissimi not Serenissimi But learning and the sciences you say doe florish in Italy more then any where Indeed I confesse literature is a rare vertu it enables one for any profession and no profession unlesse it be mechanique can be without it The Emperour Sigismund did make high esteem of it in so much that he preferrâ—…d a Doctor before a Knight and his reason was that he could make twenty Knights in a day but not one Doctor You all know the famous apophthegm of Alphonso King of Aragon Rex illiteratus est Asinus coronatus an illiterat King is an Asse with a crown on his head The Genoa Lady was of another opinion who saied penna non facit Nobilem sed penis 'T is true we are beholden to Italy for learning and she to Greece But as poore Greece is now so degenerated in this point that she who call'd all the world Barbarians yea the Italians among others is now become Barbary Herself in point of literature and scientificall knowledge In Honorius time there dwelt but a few Marchants of honey in Athens And I wish the same fate may not befall Italy for her nefandous crimes which are rife there but touching learning I pray heare what Muretus speaks In media Italia in medio Latio in media Magna Graecia vix centisimum quemque invenias qui Latinè aut Graecè loqui sciat In the midst of Italy in the midst of Latium in the midâ—…t of Magna Graecia you shall not find the hundreth man that can understand Greek or Latin or any kind of letters And I pray how doth Italy use to encourage and reward learned men Look upon Philelphus the leaâ—…nedst man of his time yet they were forc'd to sell his books to bury him in Bolonia And who would have thought that Aeneas Sylvius or Pope Pins the second who was beholden to the Muses for all his fortunes and promotion I say who would have thought that being congratulated by sundry peeces of Poetry when he came to be Pope in lieu of reward he put them off with this distic Pro numeris numeros a me sperate Poetae Carminaque est animus reddere non emere O Poets expect numbers for numbers I use to return not buy verses But it seems that Homers fate of inevitable poverty is devolv'd by way of inheritance to all poets Paul the second next successor to Aeneas had a mischievous designe to demolish all learning in so much that he esteemed students and philosophers no other then Heretiques or Conjurers And now that I have fallen among the Popes I beleeve you have heard of the common saying amongst them Nos accipimus pecuniam mittimus asinos in Germaniam We receive money and send Asses to Germany There were two Popes I know not who was the wiser who was the simpler of the two viz. Iohn the eighth or Calixtus the third The first sold the Crown of France to Charles the bald for a vast summe of money depriving the right heirs The other put Edmund of England and Vincent of Spain into the catalogue of Saints whereupon when Cardinall Bessarion heard of it Novi hi sancti de veteribus mihi dubium movent These new saints puts me in some doubt of the old Alexander the sixt scrap'd up so much treasure by the nundination and sale of Indulgences that Caesar Borgia his son loosing a hundred thousand crownes one night at dice sayed Germanorum tantum haec peccata sunt These are onely the sinns of Germany Iulius the third intending to advance Montanus to a Cardinalship and the consistory disswading his holines from it because he was of very meane birth and no parts answered no lesse modestly then wittily Then what thinke you I pray of me whom you have constituted Prince of the Christian Commonwealth Leo the tenth had a purpose to creat Raphael Urbinus a meer painter to be a Cardinall if he had liv'd to it But touching the strange humors and extravagancies of some Popes I put you over to Platina who was secretary to so many of them But to revert a little touching the older sect of Italians Authors there is more vice then vertu to be found in most of them witnes those triumvirs of wanton love Catullus Tibullus and Propertius Ovid might be called a pander to Venus in some of his works what spurcidicall and obscene things doe we read in Martiall and Iuvenall what a foolish humor was that in Persius to study obscurity so much And in Virgil whom we cry up so highly what was he but a meere Ape to Homer Theocritus and other Greek Poets I have seene Homer's picture in a posture of vomiting and all the Latin poets about him licking up what he had spewd but Virgil lapp'd up more then all the rest Now Cicero whom we magnifie above all if we well observe him we shall find that he sate often upon two stooles Petrus Bembus was such a slave to Cicero and so sworn to his words that he infected Longolius with the same humor who would use no other Latin words but what he found in Cicero Therefore the Senat of Venice is alwayes call'd by him Patres Conscripti Dukes and Dukedoms Reges Regna The sophy of Persia and Gran Turk Reges Armeniae Thracum Faith is call'd by him persuasion Excommunication Interdiction of fire and water Nunns are call'd Vestalls The Pope Pontifex Maximus The Emperour Caesar c. In so much that he holds any word barbarous that is not found in Cicero But touching learning and eloquence we well know that Greece hath been the true source of both whence the Romans have fill'd their cisterns Nay for the Latin toung herself we know she is two thirds Greek all her scientificall words and tearms of art are deriv'd from the Greek In so much that it is impossible for any to be a perfect Latinist unlesse he understand the Greek also I will go a little back to Bembo again who as you have heard was so fantasticall that he would use no words but pure Ciceronian but this fancy drew him to a pure prophanes for it brought him to contemne the Epistles of S. Paul and in a kind of slighting way to call them Epistolaccias disswading his friends from reading them least they should corrupt their eloquence What shall I say of Sanazarius that in three books he writ of Jesus Christ he hath not
the first restaurator of learning in Germany 10 Leunclavius compild the History of the Mahumetans while he was Ambassador for Rodolphus in Constantinople 11 Lovain had 4000. Weavers loomes in the yeer 1330 13 The English first taught to make cloth by the Lovantans 13 Lubecks beer medicinall 18 Of Lorenzo de Medicis a memorable passage 22 Leo the tenth born for the restauration of letters 24 London and Genoa compar'd in Ingratitude and why 26 Latin toung two thirds Greek 38 Languages descanted upon 61 Laval in the raign of Francis the first a corpulent gentleman was the first Inventor of Coches 63 Lipsius his opinion of Oxford 44 Of London Englands Imperiall chamber 44 A Libell in Spain against the Jesuitts and another in France 18 Of love to ones Countrey 31 M MAn not tied to one place no more then a bird or fish 3. in the proeme Man Lord of all elementary creatures by divine charter 3. in the pro. Machiavill rebukes his Countrey men because they us'd German Mathematicians 10 Magdeburg the Metropolis of Germany 16 Many errors of the Ancients musterd up 17 The monstrous trade of Antwerp in times pass'd 20 The marvailous riches of Antwerp when she was plundred by the Spaniards 20 The memorable History of a Duchesse of Bavaria of conjugall love to Guelpho her husband 22 The miraculous story of a Countesse in Holland who brought forth so many children as dayes in the yeer 24 Lituania in some parts doth offer sacrifices to the Devil the maner of their worship 7 M. T. Cicero the great standard bearer of Orators 23 A maxime of Ilanders 35 A modest saying of Iulius the third though an odd one 37 A mighty clash 'twixt the Pope and the King of France 39 Moses Gods Chancelor 2. in the pro. Mets put bounds to the conquests of Charles the fift 43 Of the great Massacre in France and the horrid comet that follow'd a little after the eminent men that were slain 54 Medalls with the inscriptions after S. Bartholome massacre 55 Of Marseilles in France a Greek proverb 61 The Marquis of Ancre most barbarously murtherd 63 Of Maurice Prince of Orenge his speech upon his death bed 37 N NAtures Great Ordinance 2. in the pro. Nilus hath a strange property 7 Norimberg one of the most ingenious towns in Europe 13 A notable saying of Valentinian touching the French 24 The Normans a valiant peeple issued from Germany 25 How they came to be call'd Bygods 25 The Normans elegantly characteriz'd by Roger Hoveden 25 Notable exploits of the Germans against the Romans 25 The Normans chas'd first the Saracens out of Sicily 25 A notable resolution of the Gosack 5 No learning at all left in Greece at this time 37 A notable saying of Borgia Pope Alexanders son when he had lost 100000. crowns at dice 37 The notable cunning of Aeneas Sylvius touching Rome 39 Nogaret the French Ambassador takes the Pope a cuff under the eare 39 A notable letter the Greek Churches writ to Iohn the third 39 The notable speech of Charles the fift to Seldiâ—…s at Flushing 11 No River so full of Meanders as the Sein in France 14 Narbon curiously characteriz'd in Latin verse 41 A notable example of sacrilege 49 Of Nations in general their dexterity 51 Three notable stories in Germany 34 O THe occasion of this meeting 1. in the pro. Otho the Emperour scap'd imprisonment in Greece because he spoak the language so well 11 Of Mary Q. of Hungary a remarkable passage 21 Of the glory of the Emperor the Electors 26 Of Charlemain the first founder of the German Empire 26 Of the famous men in Poland 3 Of ploughs and culters of wood to which the pole doth attribut a kind of Divinity 7 Of some positions of the Canon Law 38 Of the Canonists who are great champions for the Pope 38 Of divers Emperours who summond Generall Councells 41 Of divers Popes who were elected and chastiz'd by Emperors 41 Of Italy France and England a proverb 57 Of the Jesuits their rise their progresse and policy all factors for Spain their strange tenets how they tugg'd to get into Paris how they were banish'd Venice Of the Indispositions of the Spanish monarchy 26 Of the gastly death of Philip the second and many circumstances belonging to it his Epitaph Of Portugall and her pittifull sterility Of the strongest Forts upon earth 34 The Opinion of an Italian touching the strength of England 38 The Order of the golden Fleece more proper to England then to any Countrey els 40 Of York the Seat of Emperours 47 Of Scotland 48 Of Ireland 49 Of the lightnes of the Britains 53 Of the prerogatives of the Emperour 48 Of curing the Kings evill by the French King the opinion of Crescentius 68 Of the base Ingratitude of the Scotts 65 P IN praise of Peregrination 3. in the pro Poyson cur'd in a strange way 6 A proverb the Italians have of the Germans 12 In the praise of Poland 1 Of the Perusian Ambassadors employed to the Pope a facetious passage 1. in Pol. Poland hath salt pitts under ground like palaces 1 Poland a very plentifull Countrey 2 A Polonian marchant nam'd Vernicius being Consull of Cracovia was rich to admiration famous entertainment he gave to 3 Kings 2 The Pole delights not much in sumptuous buildings 2 There were nine score talents erogated out of Garlik Onions and Leeks towards the building the pyramids oâ—… Egypt 2 The Pole measures his house by his own body 2 The Pole goes beyond all for manly attire 2 The Pole confines upon two potent neighbours the Turke and the Russe 4 The brave answer that Stephen King of Poland gave the Turk 4 Potts found naturally shapen in the earth neere Streme 4 Poland hath had very victorious Kings they are reckon'd up 4 King of Poland created a perpetuall friend to the Empire 5 Philip the second would not refer to the Pope the right to Portugall 39 The prerogative of the German Diet 1. in the proeme Plato against forren travell 1. in the pro. The famous pilgrimage of Otto the third to a saint in Poland the story belonging to it 4 The Pole can bring into the field 150. thousand fighting men 5 Of the Polish Nobility 5 The Poles three parts of foure are Arrians 8 In some Polish words there are 10. consonants to one vowell 9 The Polish words as so many stones thrown at a mans brain A proverb of Hungary 19 The power of Pisa in times pass'd when she had 100 gentlemen that could put every one a gally to sea upon his own charge 27 The power of Genoa in times pass'd ibid. Of Philip the second his consciousnes before he invested Portugall his sage cariage about his son before he died 12 Of the perfidiousnes of the English against the old Britains 34 Of Printing and Gunns 39 R. ROme recovered Learning by Urban the 4. who sent for Thomas Aquinas 23 As also afterwards by Cosmo