urbem Patrios lares amitendi per fortitudinem nihil mali perpessi in posterum pâ—…ius suis rebus consulâ—…t And in truth if we consider the accident which of late yeares happened in Venice the prudence with which those Senatours managed that disorder and the good ordinances made for preventing the like hereafter we cannot but say with Aristotle that the accident proved to the City of Venice of great benefit Lastly I conclude that they who will not be in warre actually at least let them make a shew to be in it potentially Ostendite modo bellum pacem habebitis videant vos paratos ad vim jus ipsi remittent and therefore Augustus was never without an Army upon the frontiers of enemy Nations and Salomon also did the like Thus it stands sufficiently proved when externall discords or to say better forraine warres are profitable that is speaking of men and Cities if they be turbulent and imperfect and have laws tending to warre to such they are profitable or rather necessary But if their lawes be tending to peace or if the people bemild and gentle and by reason of their strong scituation accustomed to peace or merchandising in this case there is no inconvenience but they may live quictly and without warre Then as concerning times we have shewed that in times when warre hath been lately it will doe well but not so when there hath been long peace Then as concerning states we have proved that Common-wealths that are potent and able to wage warre with their own Forces shall doe well to maintaine a warre farre off but not neere home But if they be not able to wage warre without forraine Forceâ—… they shall then do well to embroyle themselves with no warre at all either neere or farre off And as for Commonwealths that are but petty ones and of small power it is best for them to looke to their own safety Then for Kingdomes that are well setled we have liked well of peace for them that are dangerous of warre Lastly that a popular state take care how to live What is the fittest time to proceed in the discords with enemies of the faith The seventh Discourse THis sentence of Tacitus standing good Cuncta discordiis civilibus fessa nomine Principis sub Imperium accepit many grow to beleeve that because discords made the way easie for Augustus to make himselfe Emperour of Rome therefore every one may easily make advantage of the dissentions of others But because they neither consider the diversity of persons nor distinguish the times nor are acquainted with the causes they therefore oftentimes deceive themselves determining these things absolutely and in grosse which are not to be admitted but with distinction To find out therefore the truth in this matter indeed weighty and worthy of consideration I say that discords may be either internall between Citizens or externall between Cities of one Province if between Citizens then sometimes they are between Nobles and Nobles oftentimes between Nobles and Plebeians and many times between Plebeians and Plebeians If they be between Cities it happens that sometimes they be equall sometimes unequall likewise he that aspires to be a Lord either is a stranger or Citizen if a stranger either he is stronger then the others or weaker and either he hath intelligence or hath none if a Citizen either he is chiefe of a faction or not These heads I shall endeavour to examine beginning with the stranger who by civill discords aspires to make himselfe Lord understanding by civill discords not those only which are between Citizens of the same City but between divers Cities of the same Province as Plato understands them where he saith that if Graecians contended with Graecians it was a sedition and not a warre shewing plainly that such a one ought to be called a civill discord I say then to returne to my purpose that such stranger either hath intelligence with one part of the Citizens or he hath not if he have intelligence then is the time so did Germanicus when he assaulted the Catti a people in Germany Nam spes incesserat dissidere hostem in Segestem Arminium whereupon having Segestes on his side it was an easie matter to prosper in his enterprise and of such cases Histories are full But if this stranger have no intelligence either it is in the beginning of the discords or when they are inveterate and thereby one or other of the sides wasted and spent if it be the beginning it will do no hurt but good so it happened to the Thuscans and the Veientanes so to the Athenians while Agis approached their walls so to the Sabines and the Prenestines against the Romans Of whom Livy saith Nam in spe ventum erat discordia intestina Rem Romanam dissolvi posse But in truth it was but ill advised of them and in such a manner as while they sought the death of the sick Roman state they applied a medicine that restored it to health Whereupon Livy inferres Sed externus Timor maximum concordiae vinculum quamvis infestos suspectosque jungobat inter se animos And therefore Aristotle saith Cogit enim in unum communis metus etiam eos qui p rius erant inimicissimi And this will the rather happen if they be enemies naturally either through long warres between them or else through diversity of Ay re which consequently produceth diversity of tempe ratures from whence ariseth diversity of customes and these would rather die a thousand deaths then come to be in subjection to their enemies Whereupon it was seen in the beginning of Charles the fifth that while the Kingdome of Spaine rose up in Armes and strongly mutinied against their own King France seeing it and having recovered Navarre brought their Army upon Spaine and presently they came to concord The best way therefore will be to take another course I mean alwaies against infidels which is to let them wast themselves imitating the worme which gnawes in wood in such sort that afterwards it is easily broken so discords should be fomented in enemies countries that afterward more easily they may be overcome but yet staying time that the wood be first consumed that so at one blow it may be broken In regard whereof David saith Quasi tonerrimus ligni vermiculus qui octingentos interfecit impetu uno in as much as having by little and little and by secret waies weakned his enemies he afterwards easily as wormeaten wood broke them at one blow Whereupon I conceive that the Romans are therefore by the Holy Ghost called a Worme in Jonas where he saith Et paravit Deus Vermem ascensu diluculi in Crastinum percâ—…ssit haederam exaruit this place being meant as Robert Abbot with many other writers interprets it of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans under the Empire of Vespasian who having prepared a siege against Hierusalem and understanding there were discords risen amongst them he delayed
the enterprise Obsidionem Hierusalem distulit ratus ejusmodi civilibus discordiis facilius Judaeos consumptos deleri quam armis Romanorum and after a while assaulting the City he destroyed it I observe moreover in that Chapter of Jonas that the sunne came not first upon the Prophets head but the worm that dried up the gourd so also we must dry up our adversaries with discords and then set upon them with our Armies This Coriolanus meant when he appointed his souldiers to spoile the fields of the Plebeians but to leave the fields of the Senatours untouched which he did not do for any hatred to the people but out of a further reach by this means to foment their discords The importance of this the ancient Romans knew well who after the first warre in Sicily seeing the Carthagenians I may say their naturall enemies in a great streight through the revolt of the Cities of Africke and the rebellion of their own Army yet never for this made warre upon them which would rather have brought concord to their enemies then victory to themselves but letting them tire and weary themselves with their own discords they then set upon them so wearied and without shedding of blood made themselves Lords of all Sardinia with encrease of Tribute But in case they would not stay so long till the enemy might trie out himselfe they should then do wel to bring with them in their Army some person of the blood and that hath pretension in the state but yet so as to do it without forcing When Charles the eighth had intention to make warre upon Bajaset the great Turke because he knew how vain a thing it were to beleeve that a Kingdome in Religion in customes and in language different should receive him he therefore tooke with him the brother of Bajaset and the like did Situlces King of the Thracians and Osman Basha by the commandement of Amurath going to destroy the King of the Tartars took with him Islan brother of that King and it succeeded well whereupon as Argentone relates Lewis the eleventh stood in feare of the league only because they brought his brother along with them But if the discords be inveterate and the Citizens through them grown weak it is then alwaies time to assaile them and there can be no doubt of victory Thus Greece was easily overcome by any stranger that tooke this opportunity And thus much concerning discords of Citizens between themselves or of Cities that are under one Lord in which it is sufficiently shewed how a stranger ought to carry himselfe Now we will shew what course he ought to take with other Provinces or Cities that are in discord between themselves These Cities then are either of equall force or of unequall if of equall then ought he to foment both sides and thereby they comming at last to be unequall he shall then take part with the weaker side but yet so as not to weaken himselfe as Croesus in Justin teacheth us who ayding the Babylonians against Cyrus he so much weakned his own Army that after the taking of Babylon he also himselfe was easily overcome And therefore he saith Ibi fortuna prioris praelii that is of Babylon percussum jam Croesi exercitum nullo negotio fudit The matter therefore must be so carried that if the contrary side happen to be Conquerour yet you may be able to maintaine the warre your selfe if conquered it will then be easie for you to make your selfe Lord both of the one and the other For it is not fit when a man may have need of his money and his Forces in defence of himselfe that he should rashly wast them in the service of another Such was the counsell as Thucidides relates that Nicias gave the Athenians while he disswaded them from the warre in Sicily there being no discretion to uncloath 〈◊〉 selfe to cloath another Which is so true that it is written by the Holy Ghost in Ezechiel while speaking of the foure beasts he saith Sub 〈◊〉 autem pennae eorum rectae alterius ad alterum and this as S. Gregory interprets it intends to expresse the ayd that is due from a man to his neighbour It follows after 〈◊〉 duabus alis velabat corpus suum to shew that for ayding of others it is not fit to dismantle our selves To return to our purpose in that we spake of before that is what way is to be held in ayding the weaker side a better example cannot be given then that of Phillip King of Macedon who seeing the Cities of Greece at variance between themselves he fomented the weaker side and after he had wearied the one and the other he brought them both under his Dominion Philippus Rex Macedonum saith Justin libertati omnium insidiatus dum contentiones civitatum alit auxilium inferioribus ferendo victos pariter victoresque subiâ—… Regiam servitutem coegit According to this advice Ferdinand King of Spaine fomented so well the discord between Francis King of France and him of Aragon that weakning the one and oppressing the other he made himselfe Lord of the Kingdom of Naples without wasting of either souldiers or money a Kingdom gotten before by the King of France with so much blood This also many Writers attribute to the Venetians vvho calling Lewis the tvvelfth into Italy hoped by this means to make themselves Lords of many Cities in Lombardy and Romagna with this conceit Lewis il Moro called in Charles the eighth King of France but this man endangered himselfe unhappily and the other were not far from absolute ruine Upon occasion whereof I cannot omit to shew their errour who make doubt that a third man should enjoy the benefit of their victory and what remedy there is for it Secondly how it happened that Ludovico Sforza by raising discord between the King of France and them of Aragon lost his state when Philip by raising discord between the Graecians and also Ferdinand King of Spaine got so much by it Concerning the first there can no better counsell be given to two who striving together have a third looking on to set upon the winner then to perswade them to peace or else juridically to heare their differences but because this seldome or never hath place amongst Princes and warre oftentimes for many occasions either cannot or will not be avoyded therefore I cannot better deliver my opinion then by shewing the example of Metius who being upon the point of striking battell with Tullus Hostilius and knowing that which side soever was victor must needs not having to fight with sheep exceedingly weaken it selfe with losse of souldiers whereby the Thuscans who were equall in Forces to the one and the other and by this losse of men should remain the stronger might take occasion to draw the victory of the conquering side to themselves he invited Tullus Hostilius to a parlee and with these reasons perswaded him to put the fortune of the victory upon a few that not
without this course they were never able to live in peace So the Romans as long as the race of the Tarquins continued were never without warre And this is one of the causes I alledged why the conspiracy of Marcus Brutus against Caesar had not so good successe as the conspiracy of Lucius Brutus against the Tarquins because in this they destroyed not onely the line of the Tarquins but all those that were of the name where in that of Caesar they onely cut downe the tree but left the roote behind from which sprung up Augustus who receiving nourishment and ayd from those very men that had killed his unkle in a short time he grew to be so great a Tree that he crushed them to pieces that went about to cut him downe For this very cause in Aegypt in Cappadocia in Soria in Macedonia and in Bythinia they often changed their Kings because they tooke no care to extinguish the line of the former Lords but onely to get their places And therefore Bardanus in Tacitus is justly blamed who instead of extinguishing Gotarze the former Lord stood loosing his time in besieging the City But these and a thousand other examples which for brevity I omit it may be held for a maxime of State that whosoever gets a Kingdome from another he ought to root out the whole line of him that was Lord before But this rule cannot be thus left without some aspersion of impiety and therefore for resolution I think best to distinguish because if we speake of a Christian Prince that hath gotten the state of another who is enemy of the faith he may justly doâ—… as best pleaseth him by any way whatsoever to take them away that can pretend to the State yet not so neither unlesse he find them so obstinate in their â—…ect that there is no possible meanes to remove them from their errour and so much our Lord God himselfe by the mouth of the Prophet Samuel appointed Saul to do to Amalech 〈◊〉 ergo vade percute Amalech demolire Vniversa ejus non parcas ei non concupiscas ex rebus 〈◊〉 aliquid sed interfice a viro usque ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 atque Lactantem But if we speake of a Christian Prince that by force gets possession of a State from one of the same faith let him never goe about to destroy the line of him that possessed it before for besides that it is a thing unworthy of a Christian it seemes to me to be rather their invention who meaning to live wickedly would be glad to have no bridle for if a Prince shall carry himselfe lovingly towards his Subjects using them as children and not as servants he need not be afraid of any whomsoever For this cause the Senatours of Rome having driven out the Tarquins had more 〈◊〉 to governe the City as fathers then to extinguish the line of him that had been Lord which was indeed incomparably more for their good as in the second booke of the first Decad of Livy every one may see Rather many times it is better to bestow honours upon them from whom a state is taken and to leave them a part thereby to reteine the rest more securely So did Cyrus who having taken Lydia and dispossessed Craesus who was Lord of it before he left him at least a part of his patrimony and gave him a City to be his owne And indeed if he had done otherwise he might easily have lost all therefore Justin saith Craeso vita patrimonii partes urbs Barce concessa sunt in qua 〈◊〉 non Regiam vitam tamen proximam Majestati Regiae degeret And then shewes the benefit that comes by it where he saith Haec Clementia non minus Victori quam victo utilis fuit quippe ex Vniversa Gracia cognito quod illatum Craeso bellum esset auxilia veliâ—…t ad 〈◊〉 extinguendum incendium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Craesi 〈◊〉 apud omnes urbes erat ut passurus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 belluÌ„ Gracia fuerit si quid crudelius in Craesum consuluisset If the King of France had done thus when Ferdinand of Aragon would have yeelded up the Kingdome of Naples to him if he would have left him but Lord of Calabria perhaps he had not lost both the one and the other and in truth it had been his best way to have done so at least for so long time till he might have made himselfe sure and firme in the Kingdome of Naples and then for the other he might have taken it from him againe at any time So did David who tooke away halfe of the substance which Saul had given to Mephibosheth and gave it to his servant Siba for a doubt he had lest he should desire his fathers Kingdome This interpretation Procopius made of it when he said Vt substantiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ipsius dejiceret ne Regnum affectaret alias enim illum qui adversus Dominum suum mendacium dixerat quem punire potius debebat nequaquam participem cumeo fecisset Alexander the Great when he waged warre with Kings farre off from Macedonia he not onely when he had overcome them never sought to extinguish their line but which is more strange to them from whom he had taken a Kingdome he restored the same Kingdome againe A great act of Magnanimity and which may and ought to be used in the like case to that of Alexander Magnus that is when Countries farre remote from the Seate of the Kingdom and in customes Iawes habit and language very different are easily overcome and so much the rather when the warre is waged more for desire of glory then for getting of ground seeing it is alwaies better to seeke to hold that by a way of clemency which by a way of force can never be held But in case it be feared least leaving the former Prince in the Countries taken from him he should practise to make a revolution he may then have states given him to governe in other places So Cirus did who having overcome the Medes and deprived Astyages of his Kingdome he would not leave him in Media and yet would not deale hardly with him neither but he made him Governour of Hyrcania and although Justin say it was done because Astyages himselfe had no mind to returne to the Medes yet to my understanding it is more likely that Cyrus did it as fearing least he who had procured his nephews death to bring himselfe to the Kingdome being now deprived of it would never be quiet when any fit occasion should be offerd to him Another way there is which others have used and it is to keepe such about themselves and to hold them in esteeme of Kings so Herod the great had begun to doe with Aristobulus and with Hyrcanes but the cruelty of his nature made him fall at last to take the same course that others doe This counsell therefore was much better followed by David who leaving Sauls patrimony to Mephibosheth the sonne of Jonathan
as instruments to execute and not as principals to deliberate For betweene the governing reason and the things that are governed there may intervene another reason two waies one when it supplies some thing which was wanting in the governing reason for example If it have not ordered and provided all things but left some to be ordered by the inferiour reason which it takes notwithstanding by meanes of the superiour reason providing and in this manner the inferiour reason is a meanes and intervenes as a reason to the disposition of the government Secondly the inferior reason may be a meane in the government as a servant and not as reason that is that the principall reason dispose all things how small and particular soever and then give the execution to the inferiour reason as to a servant In the first way our Lord God did not serve himselfe of the inferiour reason for he provided every thing great small universall and particular but in the second way he serves himselfe in the government of humane reason yet not as humane but as ministeriall And this is the doctrine of Cajetan whereupon if it be true that Kings are called Gods Ego dixi Dii estis filii Excelsi omnes then ought they as farre as they are able to imitate the Great Maker and Governour of all things that is to determine all things they are able to determine and leave the execution to their Officers But if a Prince shall leave it to his ministers to determine and provide things necessary for the state he shall not then make use of his ministers as ministers but rather as of reason which is nothing else but as of King Let a Prince therefore leave to his ministers such things as are proper for ministers and such as for their smalnesse need not the understanding of a Prince and though he be able to doe such things of himselfe yet by all meanes let him leave the care of them to his ministers for therefore in the Scripture we see all things of small moment were done by Angels it was an Angell that appeared to Agar they were Angels that destroyed the Tower of Babell Angels that burnt Sodome an Angell that shewed the way to Eleazar but great things were alwaies done by God himselfe as the delivering of the Hebrewes out of Aegypt the giving the Land of Promise to Abraham Isaak and Jacob and the reason why our Lord God would doâ—… thus say Writers was to the end least if the Hebrewes had received such great benefits from Angels they might have thought that all their good came from them and consequently have adored them as Gods So likewise if a Prince shall suffer his ministers to bestow great things upon the people they will be ready to take the minister for Prince as from whose hand they receive all favours Our Lord Jesus Christ going to raise Lazarus was able no doubt of himselfe to remove the stone from the grave seeing he was able to raise one that had been foure daies dead but because it was so small a matter he would not doe it himselfe but said to the Jewes Tollite 〈◊〉 lapidem whereof Saint Austin saith Sed quia ab hominibus fieri poterat homines facere praecepit quae autem Divinae virtutis erant sua potentia demonstravit So also a Prince ought to commit such things to servants which are proper for servants and doe such things himselfe as are proper for a Prince And yet to this opinion of mine the counsell of Jethro is no way discordant for though I grant that a Prince cannot doe all things of himselfe yet I deny not but he may doe all things of himselfe that are of importance for so we may finde did Moyses if the words be well considered Constitue ex eis Tribunos Centuriones Quinquagenarios decanos qui judicent populum omni tempore quicquid autem majus fuerit referant ad te ipsi minora tantum Iudicent See here how Jethro shews plainly that a Prince ought to doe all things himselfe that are of weight which is so true that if he doe otherwise he shall shew himselfe not onely ignorant and irresolute but by preferring his servants he shall give them occasion from getting authority to get into the Kingdome it selfe and set him at naught seeing there is no readier way to make ones selfe King then by drawing all businesses of the Kingdome into his hand And therefore Sejanus knowing this to be the onely meanes for attaining the Empire to which he aspired used many devices to worke himselfe into affaires so much that at last he got Tiberius to goe live in the Countrey to the end that the Emperour being out of Rome all matters might passe through his hands alone And indeed Tiberius was by this very neere to have lost at once both life and reputation but that perceiving at last his errour he would ever after not onely dispatch businesses himselfe when he was in health but even when he lay dying The like art and cunning was practised by Assan Beglerby of Greece and prime Favorite of 〈◊〉 the Great Turke who perswaded him not to stirre out of the Seraglio making him beleeve there were plots laid to kill him if he came abroad which Amurath sillily believed and kept himselfe up 〈◊〉 leaving Assan in the meane time to manage all affaires alone whereby he had a faire field to play the tyrant at his pleasure and the State had soon been ruined and with the State the Prince if Amurath at last perceiving his errour had not gone out of the Seraglio and provided in time for all things necessary No man knew this better then Lewis the eleventh King of France a Prince no lesse judicious then valiant in peace and warre admirable who tooke so much pleasure to dispatch affaires of his Kingdome himselfe that it may be truely said he died dispatching businesse Many opposing this opinion alledge that Princes are not Hackney men nor Porters to kill themselves with labour but with reverence I speake it I yet hold that either Princes must leave their States or else must be content to labour for the subjects good In figure of this it is that in Esay the 〈◊〉 power is laid upon the shoulders where he saith Dabo clavem domus David super 〈◊〉 ejus Likewise in the old law besides the twelve precious stones wherin were written the names of the twelve Tribes which the high Priest bore in his Rationall upon his breast there were also in two stones engraven six names apiece which by Gods appointment he carried upon his shoulders by which was intimated that it is not sufficient to have the subjects in his breast that is to love them but he must also carry them upon his shoulders that is endure any labour for their good And for this onely cause perhaps a Prince in Deuteronomy is likened to an Oxe that should not be dainty and given to rest but apt to
of the whole Country and then by possessing goods there they will take occasion after the victory to make themselves the Lords or else not conquering the whole Country the contrary part will still be growing and then they not to loose the reward given them will either proceed slowly in the warre or else turne to that side that hath the better This Guicciardine attributes to Prospero and Fabritius Colonna who having beene rewarded by the King of France with Dukedomes and Castles in the Kingdome of Naples when they saw the Aragonesian side get the better they went and tooke pay of Ferdinand Therefore Princes shall do well to reward them in other states where they have not warred and where their reputation is not in Fame and thus I have knowne it many times done in our time Also they shall doe well not to put them into choller although faulty perhaps in other things so long as it is not in matters essentiall and proper to their places So did David with Ioab bearing with many Insolencies and murthers committed by him to the end he should not fall into choller and make Insurrection Concerning the suspition which the Prince may shew to have of a Generall and which is wont to be followed with rebellion It will be an easie matter to remedy that if the Prince will not fall to suspect for trifles which is the quality of base persons as Isocrates intimates in his Euagoras or else if suspecting him he conceale his suspition till hee remove him from the Army So did Domitian with Agricola So did Tiberius with Germanicus who removing him out of Germany sent him into Africk with Cueius Piso. And this the Queene Teuca in Polybius not observing was cause that Demetrius her Generall in Slavonia understanding that the Queene was by his Adversaries incenst against him and fearing her Indignation he sent to Rome to deliver into their hands the Citie the Army and all he had under his charge The third cause alledged before was the pride and reputation which victory brings with it for remedy whereof in particular and of the rest in generall there have beene advertisements given by many in divers manners The first way is for a Prince to goe himselfe in person and for a Common-wealth to send thither their Principall Magistrate so the Turke in times past hath used to doe to goe himselfe in person So the Common-wealth of Rome used to doe sending forth the Consul or Dictatour But in truth in this way the Remedy seemes to mee more dangerous then the evill because if the Prince goe himselfe in person hee must be sure to have alwayes the victory for otherwise if hee loose hee will either bee slaine or taken prisoner If â—…aine as was Charles of Burgundie what hinders but the victour may enter upon the State at least make spoyle of it If taken prisoner as was Francis King of France and Syphax King of Numidia I see not but his State will bee as much in danger and therefore of this mans State it was easie for Massinissa to get possession and for the other his Repuration and state and life were all Endangered We may then conclude that this way of encountring disorders is a dangerous way A second way is every yeere to change the Generall as the Ancient Romans used to doe and as at this day the Common-wealth of Venice in their Maritime Navy useth to doe But yet in this way also there may infinite disorders happen First if the Army chance to mutinie which is commonly the Correlative of an Army In this case a man new come not beloved not feared will be little fit to appease such tumults Secondly they that make warre in this manner are like to doe but little good because the Souldiers can have no confidence in such a one and it is the confidence in their Captaine that for the most part is the cause of victory For confirmation whereof wee may see in Livie that the same Army which under other Captaines was alwayes beaten when it came to be commanded by Furius Camillus had alway victory and this by reason of the great confidence the Souldiers had in him Thirdly there appeares another danger not inferiour to any and it is that when a Generall knowes he shall be changed at the yearâ—…s end either hee will not with any great heat begin that which he knowes he cannot finish or else beginning it and impatient that another should bee companion of his victory he will rashly and precipitantly hazard both the Army and himselfe which hath beene the cause that the Romans have lost whole Armyes as it happened at Trebia against Hanniball where Cornelius the then Consul to the end hee might have all the glory himselfe unadvisedly stroke battaile with Hanniball and was with much danger to the common-wealth utterly defeated of whom Livie saith Stimulabat tempus propinquum Comitiorum ne in novos Consules differretur O occasio in se unum vertendae gloriae But granting this Captaine should have made a good beginning and have prepared a faire way for victory yet certainely when he heares a successour is to come though he praecipitate not himselfe as Cornelius did at least he will doe all he can to hinder that another shall not rcape the benefit of his labours or otherwise will not stick to make any shamefull Peace as Marcus Attilius did who having beaten the Carthaginians by Sea and land and upon the point of obtaining a Compleate victory yet when hee heard another Consull was to come into Africk to the end the fruit of his labours should not be reaped by him he presently fell to a Treaâ—…ie of peace So Scipio one time by occasion of Tiberius Claudius another time of Cneius Cornelius precipitated the victory with making peace Ferunt postea saith Livie Scipionem dixisse Tiberii Claudii primum Cupiditatem deinde Cnei Cornelii fuisse in mora quo minus idbellum exitio Carthaginis finiretur There bee some that have hindred their successours from victory by overthiowing of purpose all that themselves had well begun such a one was Quintus Metellus who having very neere subdued Spaine when hee heard that Pompey the Consull was to come in his place he disbanded al his Souldiers gave all his provision of victualls to the Elephants and broke up the Army So also in Numidia hearing that Marius was to come his successour he endevour'd all he could to marre the Enterprise Others againe although their predecessours have done nothing to hinder them but have endeavoured to leave them the victory in a manner prepared yet to the end all should be attributed to themselves have refused to make use of the wayes and courses their predecessours had used Whereupon our Lord Christ when he would doe the Miracle of wine he rather made use of water a thing already created then of any new matter whereof Saint Chrysostome saith It was a manifest argument that he who made wine of water was
send the same Generall againe as the King of Spaine would have done after the defeat at Ravenna for if the French had followed the victory which was hindered by the death of the Generall the King of Spaine had determined to send Gonsaluo againe into Italy The last remedy which hath beene invented to prevent this danger specially in Common-wealths is to joyne two Generalls together in the Army So the Romans used often times to doe So the Carthagenians So finally the Athenians yet I cannot satisfie my selfe that this is a good way First because it is commonly the overthrow of the action as was seene by the King of France in the Kingdome of Naples by the Duke of Vrbine and by the Cardinall of Pavia in the Popes Army by Marcus Varro and by Paulus Aemilius amongst the Romans whereof in all Histories there are Examples Secondly this way is not sufficient to take away the danger we speake of as was seene in Augustus who although hee had two companions Hircius and Pansa joyned with him yet could not they hinder him from getting into his hand the Army of both the one and the other having first by devises put them both to death as Tacitus intimates where he saith Caesis Hircio Pansa sive hostis illos seu Pansa veneni vulnere effusum â—…five milites Hircium machinator doli Caesar abstulerant utriusque copias occupavisse Thus for a Prince to goe himselfe in person is dangerous to change his Generalls every yeere is not commendable to send one of his owne blood not safe to remove a Generall after getting a victory worst of all lastly to make more Generalls at once then one of little benefit and consequently how to avoyde this danger is very difficult The best counsell I could give should be that which Augustus gave to Tiberius Consilium Coercendi intra terminos Imperium and in briefe as much as may be to avoid warres and therefore Tiberius knowing these difficulties although he heard of the Rebellion of the Grysons yet hee made no shew of it because hee had no mind to send thither any person of reputation Dissimulante Tiberio damnum ne cui bellum permitteret But because it is impossible but that occasions of warre will sometimes happen I should like well in such case that a Prince being doubtfull of his Generall should goe himselfe to be neere the Army but not to bee in the Army or if in the Army yet hee should never expose himselfe to danger unlesse the maine of the state depended upon it This Charles the fifth King of France knowing for which hewas called Charles the wise would be himselfe in person in the Army but when the battaile was to be fought he then attyred a servant of his in his owne Armour and by this meanes the Army had the benefit of the Princes presence without the Princes danger Pyrrhus also put his Armour upon another finding how faine the Romans were to kill him David as long as matters were in manifest danger thought it necessary to fight himselfe in person But if the presence of the Prince can doe no more good or else if having lost a battaile he have Forces 〈◊〉 to renue his Army in this case a Prince should not doe well to goe in person and therefore David in the like case saying Egrediar 〈◊〉 vobiscum the people answered Non exibis 〈◊〉 enim fugimus non magnopere ad eos denòbis pertinebit 〈◊〉 media pars ceciderit de nobis a non satis curabunt quia 〈◊〉 unus pro decem millibus computaberis Otho therefore shewed little Judgement and had ill counsell when deliberating about a battaile against Vitellius he let it bee knowne that hee meant not to goe himselfe in person seeing when the maine of the businesse is at stake the Prince ought then to goe himselfe because if his Army should be lost he were as good be lost himselfe as was seene in Otho for he staying behind and not going in person in the Army both abated the courage and also the number of his Souldiers Their courage because they lookt for him Militibus ut Imperator pugnae adesset poscentibus Their number because hee retained many companies for his owne Guard and though Tacitus in that oration which Otho made seeme to shew he had forces enow to renue the Army and that he killed himselfe onely because hee would not doe the Common-wealth so much hurt yet I cannot beleeve that a man so wicked as Otho was would ever bee so Compassionate and take such pitty of the Common-wealth A Prince then ought to goe himselfe in person when either the danger is such that if the Army bee lost the whole state is lost or when it is such that Ioosing the battaile the Prince cannot doe better then to dye seeing there is no doubt but it is a great encouragement to the Souldiers to see their prince amongst them as it happened in the battaile at Tarus where the onely presence of the King was the cause they got the victory whereupon it is no mervaile that the Israelites going upon a difficult action and hearing that our Lord God their chiefe Prince would not goe himselfe but would send an Angell to be their Generall Et mittam 〈◊〉 tui Angelum ut eiiciam Chananaeum Amorrhaeum Ethaeum Pheresaeum Iebusaeum intres in terram fluentem lacte melle Non enim ascendam tecum that the people hearing themselves thus vilified made the greatest demonstrations of sorrow that could be Audiens autem populus sermonem 〈◊〉 luxit nullus ex more indutus est cultu suo so as if the Lord God did not goe himselfe the people could have no heart to undertake that Enterprise But if the state of the Prince though that Army bee lost be able in any sort to defend it selfe in this case the Prince shall do well not to goe himselfe in person but shall set onely One Generall over the Army and himselfe not to be farre off but so as in occasion of certaine victory hee may remoove into the Army This Joab teacheth us when he advised David to come into the Campe being now in his power to take the City of Rabbat to the end the glory of the Action might bee Davids and therefore in the second of the Kings he saith Misit Ioab nuntios ad David dicens Dimicavi adversus Rabbath capienda est Vrbs aquarum Nunc igitur congrega reliquam partem populi obside Civitatem cape eam ne cum a me vastata fuerit Vrbs Nomini meo ascribatur Victoria Maharbale left by Hanniball to Oppugne Saguntum left the Oppugnation in good termes and then stayed for Hanniballs comming Strataque omnia saith Livie recentibus ruinis advenienti Annibali ostendit In this manner a Prince shall fully secure himselfe from any Generall whose Reputationi growing onely from the victories hee hath gotten the Prince shall convert all
another sense in the Hebrew is rendred in Latin Lucem vultus mei non abiiciebant that is they despised not my mirth So as Feare is so necessary that Domitian although terrible to the Senat as governing with feare yet after his death he was wished for againe of all men seeing with that feare he kept his owne officers in awe whereupon it happens sometimes to bee worse for a Prince with too much mildnesse to make himselfe be loved and therefore the Kingdome of France under Charles the simple and Charles the grosse was as an Authour writes most miserable on the contrary at the end of Francis the first it was a flourishing Kingdome although they were milde and he a sharpe and terrible King afterward againe in the time of Henry his sonne a most gentle Prince the treasury was all wasted Pertinax and Heliogabalus with their mildnesse had brought the Empire almost to ruine when afterward Severus Africanus and Alexander Severus raised it up againe with incomparable Severity It is not therefore enough for a Prince to be loved but hee must be feared also Concerning the second point which is that feare alone is pernicious to a Prince is easily proved first from that place in Genesis where Noe with his sonnes going out of the Arke our Lord God said unto him Tremor Timor vester sit super cuncta Animalia terrae as though he would say you must make your selves be feared of beasts not of men And therefore Moyses comming downe from the Mount with a horny splendour and finding that it made his face strike the people into feare he covered it with a vaile whereby he shewes plainely that a Prince ought not to make himselfe onely to befeared This also our Lord Christ shewes who amongst the first precepts he gave his Apostles gave this for one that they should carry no Rod with them where S. Ambrose well observes that a Prince ought to governe more with love then feare And in another place he saith David Rex cum omnibus aequabatsuam militiam fortis in praelio mansuetus in Imperio Ideo non cecidit quia charus fuit 〈◊〉 diligi a subjectis quam timeri maluit Timor enim temporalis tutaminis servat excubias nescit diuturnitatis custodiam And therefore it is said in the Psalme Memento Domine David omnis mansuetudinis ejus Whereupon S. Bernard upon those words of the Canticles Dilectus meus mihi ego illi qui pascitur inter Lilia amongst those Lillies where the Spouse feedeth reckons gentlenesse and love by which he reigned Specie tua saith the Prophet pulchritudine tua intende prosperè procede Regna Therefore love alone is not good because it causeth contempt and feare alone is not good because it begets hatred This the Ancients meant to signifie by the Fable of Jupiter who at the Frogs desire to have a King gave them a Blocke and he not stirring the Frogs despised him whereupon Jupiter changed their King and gave them a Storke but he eating them up they hated him more then they despised the other by this they meant to shew that a King should not be so gentle to have more of the blocke then of the man nor yet so severe as to resemble a beast in sucking the blood of his Cittizens A Prince therefore ought to joyne the one with the other which how easie and necessary it is may easily be knowne if we distinguish feare into two kinds one a feare which is but a reverence as a filiall feare is whereof the holy Text in Job saith Vir rectus timens Deum The other a feare which is a terrour and this is that feare which Adam had when he heard the voyce of our Lord God Adam ubies and he answering said Vocem â—…uam Domine audivi abscondime timui quia nudus essem Secondly we must distinguish of men that some are perfect and some unperfect which is common also to all Cities whether great or small I say then that if the men be imperfect it is fit to make them feare not the filiall but the servile feare and therefore Esay saith Sola vexatio tantum dabit intellectum auditui and Jeremy Per omne flagellum dolorem erudieris Hierusalem And Salomon in his Proverbs saith In labiis sapientis invenitur sapientia virga in Dorso ejus qui indiget corde by the Rod is meant feare and by Ejus qui indiget corde are meant the wicked who are said to be without heart as Osee the Prophet saith Factus est Ephraim quasi Columba seducta non habens cor With these men therefore it is fit to use a Rod of Iron to make them feare being the onely meanes to returne the heart into its place The Ninivites had removed their hearts out of their proper places and our Lord God with his Rod Ad quadraginta dies Ninive subvertetur brought them againe into their right places Because as Aristotle in his Physicks saith Every thing that is made proceeds from its like but every thing that is borne from its contrary Quodlibernon non fit a quolibit sed a suo contrario So to beget love where it is not we must not use Love but its contrary which is feare and as in Generation the Contrary departs when the thing is generated so when Love is once generated the feare departs whereupon Saint Bernard and Saint Austin Compare feare to the Needle and love to the Thread because the Needle brings in the threed and having brought it in departs away A Prince therefore ought to make himselfe be feared even with Servile feare by the wicked It remaines to shew how a Prince ought to carry himselfe towards men that are good and perfect but having shewed before that love alone begets contempt and feare hatred it is fit he make himselfe be loved and feared both at one time but not with that servile Feare which for the most part is cause of Rebellions as was seene at the time when our Lord God appeared to the Jsraelites upon the Mount which begetting in them a great feare there followed a Rebellion but with that fâ—…are which is a vertue For knowing of which feare it is to be knowne that feare may have two objects the one is some terrible mischiefe the other is the Person who hath power to doe the mischiefe as Saint Thomas saith and because our purpose is not in this place to speake of the first object but onely of the second as speaking of a Prince I say that he may be considered in as much as he hath power to hurt or in as much as he hath will to hurt if we consider him in as much as he hath will to hurt in this manner he ought not to make himselfe be feared but leave the subjects to feare him of themselves So our Lord God would be feared and not be feared So Saint Paul to the Philippians saith Cum metu tremore vestram