Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	king_n	pope_n	venetian_n	2,475	5	12.4435	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56530	Politick discourses written in Italian by Paolo Paruta ... ; whereunto is added a short soliloquy in which the author briefly examines the whole course of his life ; rendred into English by the Right Honorable Henry, Earl of Monmouth.; Discorsi politici. English	Paruta, Paolo, 1540-1598.; Monmouth, Henry Carey, Earl of, 1596-1661.	1657 (1657)	Wing P639; ESTC R19201	289,485	232

friendship with Caesar which was offer'd them with so much advantage to themselvs but had taken up Arms to defend and preserve for that King their Friend and Confederate the State of Milan little mindful of such a service as the usual affections of other men are seldom found amongst Princes conspires her ruine and tu●ns those Arms against her which through their friendship were grown so powerful in Italy What should move him thereunto Not desire of revenge for there appeared no injury Not any fear of his own affairs for he had found them already very constant unto them No self-interest for he ought to have been jealous of Caesars greatness who had been his perpetual Enemy and to have wished well unto the Venetians who had been his antient Friends But what shall I say of the rest Had not Caesar the like obligations to the Venetians as the King of France had which should have kept him from such a confederacie Nay had he not peculiar respects which counsell'd him to the contrary The injuries which the French had done to the Empire the King of France his particular hatred to him the high aspiring thoughts of that King pernicious to the dignity of the Empire and to the German liberty Wherefore as he could never promise himself safe and firm friendship from the French so be ought rather to have obviated their power then have help'd to advance it But who could have expected that such an action should have proceeded from the admired wisdom of Ferdinand King of Spain so unusual and so harmful to himself by reason of the prejudice and danger which he was to receive in not preserving the State which he had won in the Kingdom of Naples in peace and quiet For which cause the greatness of the French their fidelity and natural desire of novelty ought to have been ●●spected by him yet he assented to the increase of their power and of his own danger But how did those generous thoughts which Pope Iulius the Second seemed to bear to the greatness and liberty of Italy correspond with his joining in confederacie with the Transa●pine Princes who went about to oppress her by the ruine of that Commonwealth which was confest by all men to be at that time the Maintainer of the Glory of Italy and the hope that she might again rise to her antient greatness and reputation What safety could the Apostolick Sea expect by increasing the power of those Princes in Italy who were great of themselves whom he feared and upon whose authority he foresaw the Popes of Rome must depend These certainly were such things as did transcend whatsoever could have faln into the imagination of the Venetian Senators or of any other men how wise soever Nor was the immensity of the danger less nor less able to molest and confound the minds of those who were to prepare for resistance against so great a War The King of France his Forces were of themselves very powerful that Kingdom being then more flourishing then it had been for many years before and become more formidable by the possession which the French had got of the Dukedom of Milan which afforded them mighty conveniencies to assault the Co●fines of the Common-wealth And though Caesars Forces were not of themselves greatly considerable yet were they increased by the fame he gave out that he led his Army into Italy to make a certain and noble prey thereof and with a mind to restore the Empire to its almost lost greatness whereby he reconciled the mindes of the German Princes and people and got them to joyn their Forces with his Moreover the King of Spains Naval preparation was in particular to be feared to prevent the which those Sea-Forces of the Commonwealth were to be imployed which should all of them have been imployed in defending the State by Land from so fierce an assault The Pope added no small reputation to the League by his authority and his Spiritual arms being accompanied with Temporal forces became the more dreadful And though the other petty Princes forces were but small yet was their will to offend the Commonwealth great and the Kings of England Poland and Hungary were sought unto and sollicited by all these together to join with them and to declare enmity to the Venetians If then the Venetians had yielded to this so new and great preparation for War which like Thunder made both its noise and harm be heard and felt at once what could have been said unto them Ought not they to have been judged worthy of excuse and their Commonwealth free from the imputation that their Orders were no ways good For as an object of immensurable force does not move but corrupt the sense so the encountring with so weighty a conspiracie was a thing not likely to incite the Commonwealth to shew her vertue but rather to disorder and to confound her Yet it is seen how she behaved herself upon such an occasion and whether it may be inferred from these her first counsels as from a thing that was in her own power that she was not worth much or that she did any thing unworthy of herself of her fame or of the reputation which she held amongst other potent Princes of that Age. What appearance was there in her of any fear or rather what greater sign could be desired in her of generous confidence and most noble daring What did she resolve to yield up of free-will What noise what complaints were heard which shewed that she would terminate that contention with vain words which could not be ended but with Arms The Answer which was given to the French Herald who came to denounce unto them that the King was upon his march in Arms against the Commonwealth was onely that that War was intimated them from the King when they had more reason to expect Amity and Peace from him but that they would not be wanting to their own defence being confident that they should be able to defend themselves by their own Forces and through the right of their cause The effects were answerable to their words for they betook themselves forthwith to provide for so great a War The most expert Commanders were sent for from all parts veteran Soldiers mustered in all places in so great numbers and so qualified as it was agreed upon by the common consent of all that neither that Age nor any other for many years before had seen such an Army of meer Italians in Italy Great and very miraculous was the union and concord both in the Senate and City wherewith men of all conditions and ages to lend their helping hand to assist their Country at so great a need There appeared so great a zeal in every one to the common good such resolution to maintain the state and liberty of the Commonwealth even to the last gasp as those who have appeared to be no very good friends to the Venetians in other things do praise these proceedings being forced so

that Authority which Roman Armies held of making Emperors whom by reason of the said Armies all Provinces were to obey there being no Militia like to that of the Romans or which could resist them or withdraw themselves from their yoke But great was the diversity in all things almost in all Ages for the height of Empire was arrived at by several ways Some got it by Inheritance as Tiberius Caligula Nero and in the following Constantinus Constantius and many others some though very few were c●●sen by the Senate many by the Emperors themselves who in their life-time chose some one for their Companions and Successor in the Empire calling him Caesar to whom after the former Emperors death the Title of Emperor and of Augustus was given But their number were most who got the Empire through favor of the Sol●iery wherein one and the same respect did not always prevail but many much different considerations regard sometimes being had to the birth and affinity that any one had to the former Emperors sometimes to worth and to some singular action of War sometimes to favor which Commanders knew some way or other how to come by from their Armies and sometimes to some other such like things Whence it was that persons not onely of much differing condition but even of divers Nations were made Emperors of Rome Trajan and Theodotius were Spainards ●robus Giovinianus and Valentinus Hungaria●s Dicclesian a Dalmarian Cato a Slavonian and some others But that which made the difference greater was that this Empire as it was diversly gotten so was it diversly administred By some so tyrannically as there is no so infamous and wicked vice whereof you find not shameful examples in the lives of Tibe●us Caligula Nero Commodus Caracalla Heliogabolus and other of those Emperors whereas the Empire was governed by some others with such Wisdom and Justice as no more perfect Regal Government can almost be imagined And what excellent vertue not to speak of Augustus was there to be desired in Vespatian Titus Trajan Adrian Antoninus Marcus Aurelius Alexander Severus and such like Whence it was that there having been good and bad Emperors in divers Ages as much of Dignity Authority and Power as this Empire lost through the bad Government of those wicked Princes it recovered as much by the valor and good Government of these good and vertuous Princes And this may be alledged for the first reason why the Empire was able to preserve it self for so long a space of years For being for a while run into many disorders s●ch as were introduced by the baseness and negligence of other their Predecessors were by the worth of generous Princes amended and returned to their first channel The Romans antient and confirmed use of good military orders did likewise help well towards this Wherefore though the Empire were in the hands of unworthy persons yet finding the usual Armies already raised and ready for any enterprise they were able by means of their Commanders to wage war successfully and to quiet such rising and rebellions as continually arose in so great an Empire Thus Tiberius did not onely return France which had rebelled to obedience but subjugated Comagena and Cappadocia and driving out their Kings reduced them to Provinces Nero drove the Parthians out of Armenia and placed King Tigranes there making that Kingdom Tributory to the Empire Claudius did not onely reduce Mauritania which by means of her Commanders made insurrection against the Empire but did himself in person pass with his Army into England to appease the Risings of that Island and yet these Princes were not thought to have of themselves any great worth in them These and some other such like causes may perhaps be alleadged why this Empire could maintain it self in that greatness to which it was arrived But to come to that which men are more curious in inquiring after as a thing very strange of it self as also for many other notable consequences to wit to the causes of its declining and ruine Three may in my opinion be chiefly alleadged The immeasurable greatness of the Empire the simplicity and wickedness of those who governed it and the corruption of customs which were far different from those with which it was first founded and wherein it grew great Humane imperfection is the cause why mans vertue as it is not onely finite and bounded but weak ●●d brittle so hath it to do with things not onely finite and bounded but circumscribed within no very large limits which were it otherwise it would loose it self in an Ocean from whence it would not know how to escape safe And of this to omit the examples of many other of our actions we will onely consider for as much as appertains to what we have now in hand That his worth must be exceeding great who is to rule and command over others Phylosophers have affirmed That such a one ought to exceed others as far in Wit and Worth as he doth in Dignity and Power nay that his worth and vertue ought to we●gh against that of all those that he will rule over But let us pass by these supreme Eminences which are rather to be desired then ever hoped to be found 'T is very certain that it is very hard to govern an Empire well and the greater it is the greater is the difficulty of governing it Wherefore Lycurgus a very wise Legislator knowing that the quiet of a City and the long preservation thereof in one and the same condition and with a certain Form of Government ought to be the true cause of ordaining good Laws would of his own election so dispose of his Spartans and of the orders of that Commonwealth as she should not be able much to enlarge her Confines But on the contrary Rome as all the constitutions of the City and the Cities Armies aimed chiefly at the enlarging the power of the Common-wealth so did she never know what belonged to the enjoyment of Peace not onely by reason of foreign Forces but not by occasion of discord between the Citizens The bounds of her Empire grew to be almost immense and she marcht with her Forces to the utmost parts of the Earth subjugating the farthest distant and most barbarous Nations But at last not having almost any foreign Enemies to fight with her Citizens begun to make use of their Armies which had conquered other Nations in long and deadly contentions amongst themselves till at last the worth and fortune of Caesar prevailed so as Augustus remained sole Lord of the World and Tiberius who succeeded him entered peaceably into so great an Empire wherein were an infinite number of Soldiers train'd up in a perpetual Militia and by reason of Civil Wars accustomed to live very licentiously The greatest acquisitions of the largest and farthest distant Provinces were very lately made there having been above 1700 Cities taken by two onely Commanders Caesar and Pompey and powerful Nations vanquished So as it behoved to

have sent at that time more men into Italy and Monsieur d'Orleans would not have had any occasion to have possest himself of Nevara which did afterwards redound to the great prejudice of the Colleagues and particularly to the business of Naples For part of those Forces which were promised and intended to assist Ferdinand in the recovery of the Kingdom marched to the recovery of Novara out of desire whereof Lodowick Sforza did at last draw himself out of the league Whence it appears that it was rather revenge or vain-glory then any just reason which the Princes proposed unto themselves in this their confederacy that moved them to resolve upon fighting the French Army But let us now consider more particularly what of advantage what of good the Colleagues might have got if they had had the better of that Battel The best which they could hope for for all these their pains and dangers could be nothing else but the routing of those Forces which were not likely to make War any more in Italy and the Italians had as then no reason to think of any Transalpine Affairs It may be the person of the King who was then in the Army might peradventure be considerable if he had faln into the power of the Colleagues But both his life in that hurly burly was exposed to great danger and say he had been taken prisoner he might have found many waies how to eseape And say althings had faln out according to the wish of the Colleagues what would the Italians have gotten by having so great a Prisoner but the drawing upon themselves an inundation of Foreiners which would still have put them into greater troubles and dangers That warlike Nation which was at this time more then at any other devoted to their King would not have sat down by such an indignity such an injury without revenging it with their own Forces and by drawing other Transalpine Nations who wished not well to the glory of Italy especially in Military Affairs to joyn with them Let us see an example of this in what followed the next Age after where we shall find that the imprisonment of King Francis though taken by so great a Prince as was Charls the Fifth to whom none of the Princes of the League no not the whole League it self was to be compared produced nothing but longer and more heavy Wars which ended not till the conquerors had yeelded many things to the conquered But on the contrary let us imagine into what ruine Italy would have faln if the Army of the League had been routed and defeated the Enemy being in the State of Milan wherein are so many and so noble Cities for defence whereof there were no other Forces on foot then those which were to hazard themselves in that Battel and to raise another Army which might be able to make head against so powerful enemies and so victorious would be a business of some time and very hard to do if not impossible And if the very name of the French and the fame of their Forces had made the way to so great a victory easie to them and so easie the conquest of so noble a Kingdom what mischief had they not reason to expect if by the discomfeiture of that Army the Forces not onely as formerly of the Kings of Aragon should have been beaten of whole Italy and also such forein Forces as could be ready to afford any succor for in that Army were all the Soldiers that the King of Spain had in Italy So as there was not any State which upon such an accident could promise it self security Affairs then standing upon this foot who can praise the advice taken by the confederates of fighting the French But on the other side there want not other reasons to plead for the honor wisdom and maturity of the Italians in this action to boot with that noble daring which can by no means be denied them it is very likely that the flourishing condition and prosperity of Charls King of France began at that time to make him be hated and suspected not onely by all the Italian Princes but also not very acceptable to the King of 〈◊〉 insomuch as he who had called him into Italy did already repent his rash advice and he who did not withstand him blamed himself for his slackness and irresolution so as they agreed all together to abate the so great power of that King and to curb his prosperity and his thoughts of further achievements If then the King had been suffered to return without any let safe and triumphant into his Kingdom was it not to be feared that the French not content with their having got the Kingdom of Naples would pass over the Mountains the next year again with greater Forces to what danger would the Dukedom of Milan and Tuscany have been exposed upon which States it was known that the French had set their minds neither would they have spared the rest if they had had any opportunity offered them of advancing further And if the Italians should have seemed but to doubt their beating those Soldiers who were but the remainder of an Army which had first past the Mountains and ●ad left a good part of their Forces in several Garrisons in the Kingdom of Naples many whereof were likewise dissipated through several accidents what hopes had they to withstand their entire and much greater Forces with which they were to return the next year on this side the Mountains to new enterprises Nor had they any reason to despair of victory since the Colleagues had an Army for number of men much grea●er then the Enemy commanded by experienced and valiant Officers well provided both of Curasiers and Light horse well disposed to all actions and which were to fight with people opprest with fear and who may be said to have almost run away already of themselves especially the advantage considered which the assai●a●ts for the most part have It was further considered that the French Army had done nothing whereby to be dreaded or to cool the courage of other men since the French had not onely not met with any occasion of fighting but had not so much as seen the face of an Enemy since the Enemy was the rather to apprehend this encounter for that it was unexpected they being accustomed to find all passages open not needing to make their way by the sword Nor was the advantage small which they might promise unto themselves by beating a victorious Army and a warlike Nation the person of so great a King being also in that Army wherefore in such a case the French-mens courage was rather to fail then to avial them And it was to be beleeved that the Enemies to that Crown would the sonner appear against them as the Emperor Maximilian Henry King of England and that Ferdinand King of Spain would continue the more firm to the Italian confederacie Then what courage or what hope of succour would those