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
IO ACHIM ERNEST Heir of Norway Duke of Sleswik c. For France Most Heroique Princes THe Emperour Maximilian the first who may be said to have deserved that name for the magnitude of his merits his singular wisedom his incomparable spirit as well as from the sacred Font of Regeneration in some familiar discourses with his Domestique Lords about the Kingdom of France is said to have broken out into this high commendation thereof If it could stand with the order of Nature that any mortal man might be a God here among the Elements and I were Hee I would so dispose in my Will quantum ad familiae herciscundae judicium touching the division of my estate that my eldest son should be God after me absit proptana mens but my second should be King of France This saying or excesse of speech must be interpreted with a sane judgment for hereby the noble Emperour meant nothing els then to intimate his opinion touching that potent populous and opulent Kingdom of France and that no one Countrey under the Sun is preferrable to it I use this preface most excellent Princes for preparing your attentions and if peradventure I be transported too far with the elogie of France I may have the suffrage of so noble an Emperour and a Countrey-man of our own to apologize for me And truly though I owe my vitals to Germany and all that I have being my most dear native soyl yet let me not be thought to degenerate a jot from the nature of a German if in my subsequent discourse I hold France to have the advantage of Germany in divers things as also of any Europaean Country besides which while I endeavour to assert and prove I humbly desire this most Noble Auditory that the same gale of favor and candor may blow upon me all along as I go which did on that Illustrious Prince who spoke before me And now will I endeavour to take a survey of France which noble Monarchy whosoever will behold with a judicious and impartial eye will acknowledg that first for her position and site she hath the advantage of any other Countrey being placed in the Center of Europe having Italy Spain Germany and Great Britain round about Her She enjoyes a most delicate temper of clime for she needs not either the stoves of Germany to preserve her children from the inclemency of the Heavens in point of cold or the subterranean caves in other Countries to refresh her in point of heat nor is she much infected with unwholsom aguish and infectious aires which in other Countreys produce such a legion of diseases Now that which adds much to the advantage of her situation is that she lieth accessible and open to all mankind for Commerce and negotiation both by Land and Sea and being seated so in the midst she is the fittest to be Arbitresse and to give law to the rest of Christendom as being able to divide hinder or unite the Forces of Europe when she pleaseth She stands commodiously to restrain the growing and unproportionable greatnes of some as also to releeve the weaker that they be not oppressed by the stronger She bridles Great Britany backward On the right hand she checks Spain on the left hand Germany both high and low The Ocean and Mediterranean wash both her sides the Alps fence her from Italy and the Pyrenean Mountains from Spain those huge hills serving her as trenches of Circumvallations against both And where nature fayles she secures her self by art by Fortresses Cittadels and Castles To this Strength of hers may be added her plenty and indeed she may be call'd a Copia Cornu or a Pandora's box of all things for necessity or pleasure and she useth to give such largesse of her luxuriant fortune abroad that she is a Creditor to all other peeple but a Debtor to none Those commodities which use to enrich other Countreys singly are here all conjunct and what is exotique or strange in other Countreys is here domestique common Which Italy who useth to be sparing of other's praises and prodigal of her own doth acknowledg for Boterus saith that those things which are found but in some places of Italy are found every where in France Therefore the character which Pliny gave in times past to Province and Salvianus gave to Aquitania in particular may be applyed to France in general Narbonensis Provincia agrorum cultu c. The Countrey of Narbon saith Pliny is not to be postpos'd to any other either for Agriculture for foecundity of soyl for universality of wealth for Nobles and Gentry c. And Salvianus saith that Aquitania is not only a fat Countrey and full of marrow but she hath as much jucundity as fertility as much real pleasure as outward beauty Nam Illic omnis admodum Regio aut intertexta est Vineis aut florulenta pratis aut irrigata fontibus aut interfusa fluminibus aut distincta culturis aut consita pomis aut amaenata lucis aut crinita messibus Ut verè possessores ac Domini illius terrae non tam soli istius portionem quà m Paradisi imaginem possidere Videantur There every place is either interwoven with Vines or flowr'd with Medowes or set with Orchards or cut by Corn fields or peepled with Trees and Woods or refresh'd with Fountains or inchanel'd with Rivers or periwigg'd with all sorts of grain In so much that the Inhabitants of that Countrey may be sayed to have a peece of Paradise rather then a portion of the Common Earth But the four Cardinal Commodities of France may be said to be Corn Wine Hemp and Salt which Boterus calls Galliae Magnetes the four Loadstones of France For as the loadstone especially the blew and Ethiopian is more precious in weight then silver and hath an attractive Vertu to draw and embrace iron with other mettals so these French Loadstones which are so far more noble then the Ethiopians as the climes are in temper and noblenesse do draw unto them all the silver and gold of their neighbours so that France may be call'd the Exchequer of Europe Touching French Corn ther 's no question but it is the perfect'st of all other Solinus and Pomponius Mela expatiate themselves very far in the French fields and speak much of their fatnesse and foecundity Nor was Cicero himself silent but he speaks of vast proportions of Corn which were exported from the Gaules of France And Pliny one of Natures Protonotaries bears witnesse that the Gallic corn was nitidissimi grani plus panis reddere quà m far aliud it was of a neat grain and yeelded more bread then other Wheat Who knowes not but Spain might starve without French Corn which is transmuted to Indian silver and gold Insomuch that the Spaniard may be said to have the dominion of the Mines of Mexico but the French reap the benefit thereof Now touching the French Wines we may well say they need no bush for by bartring of
slave whom he had bought in Spain the slave being told of the Constitutions of France came and told his Master Sir I have serv'd you hitherto in quality of a slave but I am now a Freeeman yet I am content to serve you still but as a free attendant according to the custome of this noble Countrey The like thing happen'd at the siege of Mets where a servant had play'd the fugitive and ran away with his Master Don Luis de Avila's horse who was Master of the horse to the Emperour Don Luis sent to the Duke of Guyse a Trompetor for his man and his horse The Duke understanding that the horse was sold caus'd the money to be sent the Spaniard but for the servant he sent him word That his servant had enter'd into the inner parts of France where the Law is that if any of a servile condition puts his foot once he instantly recovers his liberty which custom being so consonant to reason and agreeable to Christianity he could not nor would not violat Touching the magnanimity and valour of the French ther are infinit Examples all the World over Alexander the great hearing of their valour sent to know of them what they fear'd most They answer'd Ne coelum rueret Least the heaven should fall 'T is tru Gallia became a Province to the Romanes but presently after the death of Iulius Caesar she was declared free And Rome call'd the Gaules in their publique writings by the appellation of frends 'T is well known what footing the Gaules took in Italy for the best part of Lombardy was call'd Gallia Cisalpina We read in Caesar that the time was cum Germanos Galli virtute superarent that the Gaules were superior to the Germans in valour that they had conquer'd much of the Countrey about the Hercynian Forest Are not the Britains of the Gaulic or Wallic race are not divers Provinces in Spain and Portingal descended from Them Afterward in revolution of time the German Franconians and Gaules being neighbours came by coalition to be one Nation and they have continued so above these 12 Ages The Kings of Sicily descend from Tanered the Norman so do the Kings of England from William the Conqueror and the Plantagenets The Kings of Cyprus Syria and Greece com from Guy of Lusignan nay Constantinople was held awhile by Gallic Emperours What glorious Expeditions have bin made to the Holy Land by 5. French Kings in person Me thinks I see Godefroy of Bâ—…llion having sold his Duchy to that purpose marching with a huge Army through Germany Hungary and Greece and so passing to Asia and Syria to encounter the Forces of Soliman the Ottoman Emperour and Chalypha the Soldan of Egipt with other Barbarian Kings whom he put all to flight making himself Master of Nice of Antioch and Hieresulam her self with the holy Sepulcher of Christ Me thinks I see him when he was to be crown'd King of Hierusalem throwing away a Crown of gold and taking one of thorns in imitation of his Saviour Me thinks I see all the tributary Princes therabouts bringing offrings unto him and he clad in the habit of a common Gregarian Soldier wherat they being astonished som of them as the Archbishop of Tyre said How is it that so great a King so admirable a Conqueror who coming from the West hath shaken all the Eastern World shold go so plain and homely But to step back a little look upon Brennus ransacking Rome with an Army of Gaules look upon Charles Martel who was call'd Conservator of the Christian World which was then upon point of ruine and to fall under the yoke of Infidels and Saracens Look upon Pepin who chas'd the Longâ—…bards out of Italy upon Bertrand who depriv'd Peter King of Castile of his Kingdom for his tyranny I could instance in a great nomber who have their names engraven and their Ensigns hung up in the Temple of immortality Moreover for Cavalleers and horsemen it is granted by all Nations that the French are the prime It is recorded in good how in the African Warr 30. French repuls'd 2000. Moors But to come neerer home In the siege of Mets where the fifth himself commanded in chief What resolute Sallies did the French make out of the Town causing the Emperour at last to trusse up his bagg and baggage and go away by torchlight Inso much that the Town of Mets being then kept by a French Garrison put the last bounds to the Conquests of that Great Captain as a Poet could tell him Si metam nescis Urls est quae Meta vocatur Now to go from the Sword to the Crosier What brave Prelats and Champions against haeresie hath France bred St. Hilary the queller of the Arrian heresie St. Hierom Pontius Paulinus Bishop of Nola Rusticus Phaebadius Prosper â—…cditius Avitus Mamertus Archbishop of Vienna Sidonius Apollinaris Lupus Germanus Salvianus Remigius Archbishop of Rheims with multitudes more all of them most pioâ—…s and learned Prelats whose Monuments shew them to be so to this day And so well devoted were the French alwayes to the Church of God that they thought nothing too dear and precious to endow her withall witnesse those mighty revenues the Gallican Church possesseth For in the late Raign of Charles the 9. ther was a cense brought in of the demains of the Church and they amounted to 12 millions and 300. thousand Franks in annual rent besides voluntary oblations Now touching Learning and Eloquence Lucius Plotius a Gaul was the first began to read Latin Lectures at Rome and Cicero being then a boy and finding such a great confluence of Auditors to flock ev'ry day to hear him he griev'd that he could not do the like as Suetonius hath left it upon record Marcus Antonius Gnipho a Gaul did then florish also at Rome a man of singular Elocution and a prodigious Memory he delivered praecepts in Greek and Latin and among others Cicero himself when he was Praetor us'd to be his Auditor Marseilles was very renowned for great learned men having bin so many ages a Greek Colony so was Lions also a special seat of the Muses as it is now for Marchants of all Nations of whom the Kings of France have borrow'd Millions of money to supply their sudden necessities Valence was also famous for Philosophers and Poets witnesse Athenaeus as also Vienne where Latin was so vulgar according to that signal Epigram of Martial Fertur habere meos si vera est fama 〈◊〉 Inter delicias pulchra Vienna suas Me legit omnis ibi Senior Iuvenisque puerque Et coram tetrico cast a puella viro Hoc ego maluerim quà m si mea carmina cantent Qui nilum ex ipso protinus ore bibunt Quà m Meus Hispano si me Tagus impleat auro Pascat et Hybla meas pascat Hymettos apes c. And questionlesse no Countrey florish'd with Learning more then France in those daies witnesse St. Hierom when he writ Sola Gallia monstra
prime and purest property of idiotisms seems as it were to dwell upon the banks of the Loire and principally in Blois and Orleans Insomuch that as the Attique was esteem'd the choicest dialect among the Greeks so the Aurelian is by the French Now for language vertu and learning the French have perfected all three with a marvailous dexterity and promptitude of nature and a rare vigor of all the senses inward and outward which makes Iulius Scaliger to break out thus into their praises I find there is a fiery kind of vigor and mature celerity in the French which other Nations have not To whatsoever they apply themselves they become notable proficients and arrive to a perfection in a short time whether it be in the mystery of Marchandising in letters armes or Arts Paulus Meâ—…ula gives this testimony of them I have observ'd and became astonish'd that among the French some will argue and discourse extempore of any probleme and that with such an admirable method as if they had studied the theme many daies before Therfore sure Servius was deceav'd in the French when he sayes they are pigrioris Ingenii so was Iulius Firmicus wheen he calls them stolidos foolish so was Iulianus when he terms them stupidos et rusticitatis amantes blockheads and lovers of homelinesse so was likewise Polybius where he saith that doctrinae et artibus operam non dant they apply themselves neither to Learning nor Arts I know Diodorus Athenaus and Clemens Alexandrinus say that they are faithlesse and given to gluttony and drunkenes Livie brands them to be light and effeminat Mela accuseth them to be greedy after gold proud and superstitious Solinus calls them vain-glorious Plutark writes they are insatiable of money and Cicero sayeth Gallos minimè vlla Religione moveri The Gaules are not mov'd at all by any Religion Surely these Writers took all these reports a far off and upon trust For they who have had intimacy with the French and studied the nation in general will say otherwise of them But that which is most noble in France and which elevats Her above all other Empires is the Majesty of her Kings wherof ther have bin so many brave heroique Monarks who have don such exploits that one may speak more of them in telling truth then can be spoken of Others in vapouring out hyperboles and lies Pope Gregory writing to Childebert King of France Quantò caeteros homines Regia dignitas antecellit tantò caeterarum gentium regna Regni vestri culmen excellit As much as Kings excel other men so far doth the glory of yours exceed the Kingdomes of other Nations Honorius the third said that the Kingdom of France was the unexpugnable wall of Christendom Urban the fourth saith that the King of France is the morning Star in the midst of the Western clowds He is an Earthly God in his own Kingdom he is above all Kings Ejúsque umbrâ totus mundus regitur and all the World is govern'd by his shadow saith Baldus Nay St. Thomas saith that he who prayeth for the King of France hath 100. daies indulgence granted by Pope Clement and 10. added by Innocent the fourth Moreover France is not subject to the distaff as other Kingdoms are but the Salique Law proclaimes aloud Gallorum Imperii Successor masculus esto For this is not only consentaneous to reason but hath a congruity with nature her self Because that in man the mind the body the voice and all things els are more strong and strenuous They are fitter for action and attract more awe and reverence unto them In the female all things are softer and lighter which may attract more affection but there is a kind of contempt that mingles with it In the one authority and Majesty appeers in the other fears and jealousie And how preposterous is it to the law of nature for man to be a vassal to that sex which should be under him The Pagan Epigrammatist can tell you in oeconomical government Inferior maetrona suo sit Prisce marito Non aliter fuerint foemina Virque pares I cannot deny but ther may be examples produc'd of som notable Heroique Queens as Zenobia Pulcheria Semiramis Isabella of Castile and of Elizabeth Queen of England a Lady that was prudent beyond her sex and ador'd with literature she understood Greek and Spanish indifferently well but for Latin French Italian English and the old British she spoak them familiarly which made Pope sixtus the fifth break out into this wish that he had a greater desire to see one woman and one man then all the race of mankind besides and they were Queen Elizabeth of England and Henry of Navarâ—… to whom were they not tainted with heresie he had things of mighty consequence to communicat But we may not forget what kind of Queens other women have bin as Athaliah Cleopatra Messalina Faustina Iane of Naples and Fredegunda of France which made Eumolpus or Porphyrius under Constantine to break out into this harsh tetrastique Crede ratem Ventis animum ne crede puellis namque est faeminâ—…a tutior vnda fide Faemina nulla bona est et si bona contigit ulla nescio quo fato res mala facta bona est Ther is another prerogative that the Kings of France are said to have which is never to die whereupon Maria de Medicis being struck with a consternation when she heard of the death of her husband Henry the fourth and cryeng out Helas that the King is dead No answer'd the Chancelor the Kings of France never die And the reason that they die not is because they are born Kings and perpetuat themselves so in their own bloud And as in all successions according to the mode of speaking in France le mort saisit le vif so in an hereditary Kingdom Uno avulso non deficit Alter Surculus The next a kin succeeds though a thousand degrees off by right of bloud Which cours doth not only foment and encrease affections 'twixt the Prince and his peeple but it prevents all tempests of ambition and pretences that may happen during the vacancy or interregnum and propps the Crown with columnes of eternity But in Elections what expectations and stirrs what sidings and factions do use to happen Besides what Prince will care for another mans as much as for his own inheritance which he is assured will descend upon his own issue and bloud Moreover in Elective States what a nundination what a buying and selling of suffrages is ther The Roman Empire presently after Claudius who was the first Caesar that was chosen by the Soldiers whose alleageance he bought with rewards did fall upon vile and base heads by that kind of Election or rather by that kind of Emption for it may be sayed that the Empire lay under the spear expos'd to publique sale What contestations happen'd 'twixt the Senat and the Legions In so much that ev'ry Province might be sayed to have their several
Emperours And when Zenobia was Empresse ther were reckon'd 30. at one time In our Germany how many Interregnums have we had by this way of Election How many yeers did she appeer as a Monster without a head after the death of Frederic the second What a world of confusion and exorbitances of fraud and depraedations did she fall into What a base plot had Charles the fourth as also Vuenceslaus who would have prostituted the Empire for money They did so deplume the Eagle that she became contemptible to all other Creatures These were they whom Maximilian the first call'd the stepfathers or rather the two pests of the Empire The same Maximilian also in the Councel of Constance protested that he had rais'd 100. tonnes of gold out of his own patrimonial demeanes to support the sacred Roman Empire and all that while he had not receiv'd from the States of the Empire 40000. florins Now because my discourse hath transported me so far I cannot but extremely groan and deplore the state of the Empire and to what a pitiful low ebb 't is fallen unto For wheras in the time of Frederic the first and the strength of the Empire was then much attenuated the annual revenues came to 60000. tonnes of gold which amounts to about 6. millions sterling the exility of the rents of Caesar which he gets by the Empire are scarce able as Schneiderin a famous Civil Lawyer doth assert to maintain the domestic expences of the Imperial Court nor those neither unlesse Caesar did contribut much therunto out of his own patrimonial inheritances which made Cardinal Granvil to affirm aloud in the time of Charles the 5. ex Imperio ne tantillum Emolumenti habere Caesarem that Caesar had no Emolument at all from the Empire and we know no King in Christendom was reduc'd to that tenuity But France is not subject to those Comitial diseases or Diets of the Empire being secure by the succession and prerogatives of her Kings who have a transcendent and absolut authority not derived at all from their subjects wherby Caesar himself may be sayed to be inferior in point of power though not in precedence to Caesar himself though as Bartolus averrs Haeretici sunt pronunciandi quicunque Imperatorem Germanicum universi terrarum Orbis Dominum esse negant They are to be pronounc'd Heretiques who deny the Rom. German Emperour to be Lord Paramount of all the Univers And he grounds this right upon the answer of the Emperour Antoninus to Eudaemon of Nicodemia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ego quidem Mundi Dominus lex autem maris I am Lord of the World and the Law of the Sea He urgeth also another argument from the words of the holy Evangelist when he sayeth Ther issued forth a Decree from Augustus that the whole world shold be taxed But France acknowledgeth no such superiority for when L. Madrutius was employed by Ferdinand the Emperour to Francis the second for the restitution of Toul and Verdun with other feathers which he had pluck'd from the Eagle Franciscus Olivarius the Chancelor answer'd that they deserv'd capital punishment who wold advise the King to such a surrendry or held that the most Christian King and first son of the Church was any wayes inferior to Caesar Herupon we know that the doctrine of the Imperial Lawes are prohibited in Paris by this Edict and Caveat Ne quis publicè profiteretur Romanas leges in Academia Parisiensi neve quem Scholasticos ejus disciplinâ ad gradus auderet provehere That none shold make profession of the Roman Lawes in the University of Paris or dare to advance the Students therof to any degree of dignity Herupon Hospitalius Charles the ninth's Chancelor in presence of the King himself and the assembly of the three Estates procur'd it to be enacted that the Kings of France the very same moment that they entred into the 14th yeer of their age shold be pronounc'd capable to raign and to be out of his minority and so govern inchoativè Now for the Imperial Lawes their reason and equity may be haply made use of in other Dominions but not their authority and sanction No more could the Romans in times past be sayed to be any way under the Greeks because they borrowed and made use of som Lawes of theirs No more can the Turks be sayed to be any way subject to the Romans because they have the Iustinian Code translated into their vulgar language and that their Cadies make use of them to rectifie somtimes natural reason Furthermore the supereminent royalties of the Kings of France appeer manifestly in that they have the sole power to indict war or establish peace to make leagues and confederacies to enact Lawes to creat Magistrates of the gown and the sword to give pardon for lives to stamp money to give letters of denization to impose taxes and make pecuniary levies at pleasure Now the Kingdom of France is like a most fertile and florishing medow wheron infinit flocks of sheep do feed and bear golden fleeces which may be shorn when the shepherd pleaseth yet I will except here the province of Languedoc wher the King cannot exact any subsidiary contributions without the expresse consentment of the three Estates of that Countrey For administration of Civil Justice France comes short of no other Region whose charge it is to preserve the Kings prerogatives as well as the priviledg of the subject To which end ther be 8. Courts of Parlement whose names are known to any that have travel'd France Among these that of Paris is the most praedominant in regard the Parlament of Peers is alwayes there residing which high Court useth to verifie not confirm all the Kings Edicts to make them the more plausible and for form sake only Now as France is the beauty of Europe so that Parlement is the eye of France and the Parlement of Peers is the apple of that eye Nor do ther want examples how other Forren Kings and Princes have refer'd themselves to this Court of Parlement as a high consistory of reason and Justice as being Astrea's noblest tribunal The Emperour Frederick the second refer'd the controversies 'twixt him and Pope Innocent the fourth touching the Kingdom of Naples to the decision of this Court So the Count of Namur in a difference 'twixt Charles of Valois and him touching the County of Namur put himself upon the verdict of this Court and he therby carried his businesse Philip Prince of Tarentum overcame the Duke of Burgundy in this Court touching som expences made in recovering the Greek Empire The Dukes of Lorain have in divers things refer'd themselves to the judgment of this Court They of Cambray who are a free peeple have bin willing to be tryed by it The confederacy also 'twixt the Kingdom of Castile and Portugal were confirm'd by this Court Nor is ther any admitted to this Soverain Court but persons either priviledg'd by their birth or men of exquisit knowledg
Henrici oblivio eâ—… Humani generis Occasus the memory of Henry the great will not perish but with the world But for a true Character of him I will insert what is here engraven upon the belly of his Brazen horse on the new bridge in sight of his most royal Castle of the Louure in Paris Ie suis Henry grand honneur de la Terre L' Astre de paix et foudre de la guerre L' Amour des Bons la Cranite des Pervers Dont les Vertus meritoîent L'Univers Henry I am The Glory of Mankind The Star of Peace and Thunderbolt of War The spurr of Vertu scourge of Vice a Mind That merited to sway more Scepters far We com now to Lewis the 13th his son Lewis the Just who though Nature was a stepmother to him by reason of some bodily imperfections yet Fortune was mightily indulgent and favorable to him He began to bear Armes almost when he was no higher then a sword for in his bassage he repress'd two ill-favour'd Commotions in Poitou and Britany He was a Victor all his life time nor did he know how to be beaten He bang'd all his neighbours round about He clammer'd twise o're the Alps and came back having done his businesse He clammer'd o're the Pyreneys and establish'd a French Vice Roy in Catalonia He cross'd o're the Meuse and made many ill-favour'd hacks in the Ragged staffe His Armies flew o're the Rhin and help'd to cuff the Eagle in the German Air And lastly he fouly foyld the English at the I le of Ré At home also he did marvailous things He debell'd the Huguenots and left them not one cautionary Town to stand upon their gard An Exploit which his five immediat predecessors could not do though they attempted it many wayes And by Sea he improv'd the power of France more then ever Therfore most excellent President and you no lesse Illustrious Princes I do not see but France and her Monarks if we respect the freedom the fertility the fairnesse and self-sufficiency of the one And the glorious Exploits against Infidels both in Europe Asia and Afrique of the other with their absolut power their ordinary gards being greater then any one Potentat's in Christendom If we consider the maner of their anointing and what a divine prerogative they have to be Physitians in curing the Struma I say under the favor of this Judicious Assembly that France may well stand in competition for priority with any Countrey of Europe THE ORATION OF RODOLPHUS MAXIMILIAN Duke of Saxony of Angaria and Westphalia c. Against Francé Most Splendid and Illustrious Auditory WE read that Actius Syncerus Sarmazarius a most Ingenious Poet who was next Maro for his muse and Monument Musâ proximus et tumulo being buried hard by Virgil when he had made that famous Hexastic Viderat Hadriacis Venetam c. in honor and to the glory of the Citty of Venice the Senat for every verse gave him in lieu of reward 100. Zecchins of gold Now if Sarmazarius merited such a gift what guerdon do you deserve my Illustrious Cosen Prince Ioachim Ernest who have given France so gallant Elogiums for whatsoever may be laudable or glorious you have confer'd it upon that Countrey with such a prodigality of affection and high straines of Eloquence surely you merit no lesse then to be Peer or high Constable of France for it But under favour you have omitted one thing which Bodin reports to have Aristotle speak of France his words are Neque tamen verum est quod Aristoteles scribit nullos in Gastia Hispanis proxima reperiri asinos that ther are no asses found in France though next to Spain Indeed Aristotle was much misinform'd therin for if he liv'd now and made the tour of France he wold find more asses there then in all Europe besides for all the common peeple and poor peasans of France are all made asses of by the insupportable burdens they bear of so many impositions and tallies But wheras Bodin among other extravagancies falls a praising the asses of his Countrey that distic may be not impertinently applied unto him Dum laudas Asinos Patriae Bodine quid Erras Ignotumne tibi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 erat But wheras noble Cosen you have extoll'd France so highly and suffer'd your self to be transported so far with her praises 't is tru she may be outwardly fair but she is foul within take off the gay saddle you have put upon the horse and you will find his back all gaull'd take off those paintings you have with so much art put upon France and I believe she will look but very homely Monsieur de la Noüe one of her own children will tell you that as a rapid torrent never stops her furious course till she be swallow'd in the Sea so the French being snatch'd away by the torrent of their Enormous vices will never rest till they find their graves in the gulph of perdition The same Author will whisper you in the Ear that France is possess'd with 3. furies viz. with Impiety Injustice and Corruption of discipline the first gnawes the conscience the second gaules the Cominalty and the third raignes among the Gentry For Impiety let that horrid massacre on St. Bartholomew's bear witnesse at which time brother did butcher brother the son the father and children their mothers Is it possible that a race of peeple adoring one God born in one Countrey fellow subjects to one King Is it possible that a Christian peeple trusting in the same Redeemer govern'd by the same Lawes eating the same bread breathing the same air shold prove such tygers Thuanus President of the Parlement in Paris abhors the very memory of it applying most appositly those Verses of Papinius and cryeng out Excidat illa dies aevo nec postera credant Saecula nos certè taceamus 〈◊〉 obruta multa Nocte tegi propriae patiamur crimina gentis Let that black day be raz'd out of our Calender for ever that it may die with us and never com to the knowledg of our Nephews And which doth aggravat the thing what a horrid thing was it that Charles the ninth shold give way that this butchery shold be done at the Nuptials of his own Sister the Lady Margaret of Valois and Henry of Bourbon King of Navarr In so much that as one sayed ther was more bloud spilt then wine drunk at that wedding Nor did this effusion of innocent bloud end in Paris but it went all the Kingdom over And among others that had a hand in tracing this massacre ther was a woman that was chief and where women are in any conspiracy ther must be bloud and this was Katherine de Medicis a certain Poet doth descant wittily upon the humor of that Queen Tres Erebi Furias ne posthac credite Vates Addita nam quarta est nunc Catharina tribus Quòd si tres Furias a se dimitteret Orcus Haec
took Numantia For their fidelity the Spaniards have bin very signal in all ages which induc'd Iulius Caesar to have a gard of them and Augustus Caesar a band of Biscayners or Cantabrians But how far the vertu and valour of the Spaniards prevailed against the Romans let Paterculus be heard to speak Per ducentos annos in Hispanis multo mutuoque certatum est sanguine For the space of 200. yeers ther were so many and mutuall conflicts of bloud that many of the Roman Emperours and Armies being lost much reproch and sometimes great danger resulted to Rome How many of their Scipios were destroyed there how VIRIATUS for ten yeers together did shake them what a disgracefull truce Pompey made and Mancinus a more disgracefull In all Sertorius his time it was doubtfull whether Spain shold be tributary to Rome or Rome to Spain But why do I fly to Pagan instances when ther are so many Christian Examples at hand Sancho King of Castile I pray listen attentively to this stupendous story I say Sancho King of Castile took Tariffa from the Moors but he being anxious and doubtfull whether he shold keep it or no by reason of the vicinity of the enemy and the great expences that it wold put him to Alfonso Perez rise up and told the King that he wold undertake to secure keep the place Thereupon the Moore by the help of the King of Morocco came with a numerous Army before the Town and Alphonso's Son being taken prisoner at a sallie the Generall of the Moores desiring a parley upon the walls with Alfonso he shewed him his Son protesting unto him that he wold torture and slay his Son unlesse he wold yeeld up the place Alphonso being not a whit abash'd told him that if he had a hundred Sons he would prefer his honour and Countrey before all so the Moor having barbarously kill'd young Alphonso They of the Town made such a resolut sallie the next day that they utterly routed the Moores and took so many prisoners that he offered 100. Moors for a Victime for his son To this Alonso the Family of the illustrious Dukes of Medina Sidonia ow their rise The Spaniards are admirable for their military discipline being exactly obedient to their Comanders and lesse subject to mutiny then any peeple They are allwayes true to their trust witnes that Spanish Centinel who was found dead in the morning in a Tower upon the Cittadel of Antwerp with his Musket in his hand in a defensive posture and standing on his leggs all frozen Moreover ther is no people so mutually charitable and carefull of their nationall honor then the Spaniards For their modern exploits the name of Alvaro Sandeo is terrible to this day among the Moors for having invaded Barbary with 4000. Spaniards and beat before him above 16. miles 20000 Moores with but 800. of his own The memory of the 2000. Spaniards is irksome to the French to this day who routed and quite discomfited Gaston de Foix who had quintuple the nomber Gonzalo call'd the great Captain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is much spoken of amongst them to this day for having with such admirable fortitude taken away the Kingdom of Naples from Lewis the 12. and being return'd to Spain the King took off a Gold chain from off his own neck and hang'd it about his Antonio de Leiva was a stout and sedulous Commander so was the Count de Fuentes Don Pedro Encques who did not only defend but extend the boundaries of Belgium for the King his Master and in the midst of a double warr took such Towns that might be in the wish but not in the hope of the Flemish The Italians do yet tremble at the name of Don Fernand Alvarez Duke of Alva and his ghost who wold not take Rome when he could He who terrified France secur'd Hungary subdued Afrique and appeas'd both Germans high and low He who chastis'd Spain He who first after the death of Don Sebastian told King Philip that it was fitting he shold see the rites of buriall to be perform'd in Lisbon for King Sebastian Then Henry being dead in lesse then 50. dayes space he enter'd survay'd and subjugated all Portugall And it was said se regnum Lusitanieum eo modo quo regnum caelorum acquiritur cepisse c. That he had taken the Kingdom of Portugall in the same manner as the Kingdom of Heaven is got that is by eating bread and drinking water and abstaining from other mens goods And this was sayd because his Souldiers liv'd upon their allowance only having no benefit of booty in any Towns as they passed such a regular and strict Order was observed in his Army We Germans do yet contemplat with admiration the exploit that a band of Spanish Soldiers did perform in the Saxon warr when stripping themselfs naked they leap'd into the Elve with their Swords in their mouths and swimming to the other side did fight for new cloathes and did notable feats afterwards Don Christopher Mandragon did do things in the low Countreys beyond belief I could produce here a long scrowle of other late notable Spanish Commanders therfore all things well ponder'd it may be justly said Hispania Rerum potitur in Europa The Spaniards are the men of Europe and their King the considerablest Monark for he hath not only all Spain united under him and reduc'd to one Empire but he hath taken footing both in Germany and France by the House of Burgandy He possesseth above half Italy by having the Duchie of Milan with the Kingdomes of Naples and Calabria the first is the heart of Lombardy and the second the very marrow of Italy Then hath he Sicily Sardinia the Baleares and all the Ilands in the Mediterranean He hath Piombino in Toscany Port Hercules Telamon Orbitello Porto Longone all which bind the Italians to their good behaviour towards him Genoa is as it were under his protection like a Partridge under a Faulcons wings who can seize upon the prey when he lift That Citty being his scale for conveyance of his tresure is grown infinitely rich by his money and tied to him by an indissoluble knot Nay Rome her self by making som of the Cardinalls his Pensioneries is much at his devotion The Spaniard hath don more then Alexander the Great for he hath not only got much of the old world but conquered a new one for which the Greek sighed so much And if we beleeve the Civill Lawyers he hath don this justly for 't is the sentence of the Almighty Quicquid calcaverit pes tuus Wheresoever thou shalt tread with thy foot shall be thine the Heavens is the Lords but he hath given the Earth among the Sonns of Men. Moreover Reason dictats unto us that men who live like brute Animalls or wild Beasts shold be reduc'd to civility and to the knowledg of the true God Besides it is the Law of Nations Quae bona nullius sunt ea fieri Occupantium Those goods
could pardon those whom he hated most he might well pardon him whom he lov'd most And so made instance in Charles the Great who pardon'd his Son Pepin for a conjuration against his person and having attempted it the second time only committed him to a Monastery The King herupon answer'd that by the Law of Nature he was to love his Son but he lov'd Spain better therupon he put a question to them whether the pardon he shold give his Son would not prove a Sin rather then an Act of Mercy considering the publick calamities that might thence ensue therfore he asked them which was to be preferr'd the peoples good or his Son's They answered certainly the peoples So he transmitted him to that Councell conjuring them in his name who is to judg the Angells one day and will make no distinction twixt Kings and Coblers to do justice herin So the young Prince was adjudg'd and Sentence of Death passed upon him Good God! what passions did struggle in the Father when he was to sign the Sentence and t is his paternall affection to the chaire of Justice he was a Father therfore his affections could not grow to such a hatred but they might returne to their own nature But after many such conflicts he chose rather to be Pater Patriae then Pater Caroli to be Father of Spain then Father of a Son and make naturall respects yeeld to prudentiall So the young Prince dyed yet not by the Executioners hand but as 't was rumor'd by Poyson Thus to the consternation of all the world the Phosphorus of Spain fell to the West and suddenly set and divers of his Favorites with him if you desire to know the yeer this Cronogram will tell you fILIUs ante DIeM patrIos InqUIrIt In annes This Phillip was also famous for his Piety as well as Iustice which made Gregory the 13. to break out in these words The prolongation of my life can little availe the Catholick Church but pray for the health of King Philip for his life concerns her more He was wonderfully constant to himself he was always without passion and somtimes above them of a marvailous Equanimity and Longanimity witness his patience in his sicknesses wherof he had many but that which brought him to his grave was the Pediculary disease which though nasty and gastly yet he endur'd it with invincible patience When he found his glasse almost run out he sent for his Son and Daughter and upon his death-bed told them In this small afflicted body you see to how small a threed the pomp and splendor of all Earthly Magnitude doth hang my Mortall life is upon departing the care of my Sepulchre and rites of exequies I commend unto you with my blessing Among many other ther is one remarkable passage in this Kings life when the Duke of Alva was upon point of going to Portugall he had a great desire to kisse the Kings hand but to the amazement of all the world he was denyed at that time which made the Duke to say that his Master had sent him to conquer Kingdoms being tyed with chains and fetters His Son Philip the second did equall him in Piety and in nothing els we know what a Saint-like man he was having his Beads alwayes either about his neck or in his hands I will hold you no longer only I will tell you that the Kings of Spain more then any other have don miraculous and immortall things For as God almighty when he builds creates no lesse then a world When he is angry sends no lesse then an universall deluge When he conferrs grace to mankind sends no lesse then his own Son When he rewards gives no lesse then Paradise when he warrs employs no lesse then Legions of Angells and makes the Elements to fight the Sea to open and the Sun to stand so if finite things may beare any proportion with infinity the Kings of Spain are borne to do no petty things but mighty matters When they build they erect no lesse then an Escuriall If they are angry they drive forth whole Nations as the Moores and the Iews If they reflect upon the publique good they sacrifice no lesse then their own Sons If they desire to oblige any they restore Kings as Muleasses to Tunis and make Popes of their Schoolmasters when they take armes then they conquer not only whole Kingdoms but new Worlds Therfore my dearest Brother Frederique Achilles and you most Illustrious Cosens and Auditors I think I shall derogat from no other Region if taking King and Countrey together I preferr the Spaniard for glory and amplitude of Dominions for fulgor of Majesty for the longest arm'd Monark for Men and Mines for Iles and Continents I say I do no wrong to any if I prefer him before any other Prince or Potentat upon the earthly Globe DIXI THE ORATION OF The Lord GEORGE FREDERIQUE Baron of LIMBURG and Hereditary Officer to the Sacred Roman Empire and allwayes Free Against SPAIN Most Illustrious Prince and President c. WE have hitherto delivered sundry opinions wheron ther have been many learned and Rhetoricall descants I observe allso ther are som divorcements and discrepancies in the said opinions But for my particular suffrage I will preferr France before any Province of the Europaean world and if I shold attempt to speak more then hath bin presented by that high-born Prince Duke Ioachim Ernest upon this subject it wold be an argument of rashnes in me and so I shold incurr no small hazard of my reputation Me thinks I see Ciceno before me and saying Illam Orationem solùm populus Gallicus parem Imperio suo habet France hath that Oration alone equall to her Empire But though ther was much spoken of Spain by that noble Prince Duke Magnus of Wirtemberg yet I will endeavour to shew that Spain doth not deserve either the Elogium or love of so great a Prince in so high a degree For as shadows use to make bodies bigger then they are really in bulk so it seemes his affection hath made Spain more then she is in intrinsique value For truly unlesse I be stark blind I find Spain to be the most unhusbanded and the sterillest Country of Europe the thinnest of peeple the fullest of fruitlesse Hills which they call Sierras and are indeed no better then Wildernesses In so much that though she be so scant of Inhabitants yet hath she not Bread enough to put into the mouths of the sixt part of them So that unlesse she be very ingratefull and impudent she must acknowledge Germany and France to be her Nources and Sicily her Barn as she was somtimes to the Romans And among these ther was a computation made once of foure millions of tresure that France receav'd that yeer from Spain for Corn in Pistolls and Patacoons which made Henry the fourth say that the great store of tresure which Spain hath discovers her necessity as well as her plenty because she
by the thunderbolts of Excommunication They hold he can dispense with Subjects to levy armes against their soveraign Prince to meet him in the field and murther him insomuch that the verses of the Prince of Pagan Poets may be most fitly applyed to these kind of Christians Tu potes unanimes armare in praelia Fratres Atque odiis versare domos Tu verbera tectis Funereasque inferre faces tibi nomina mille Mille nocendi artes Moreover 't is their tenet that the holy Father cannot only depose any earthly potentat but dispose of his dominions to any other And if a new Countrey be discover'd the party cannot possesse it till he receive it as a gift from him wherin the King of Spain did so far comply with him that as soon as he had discover'd and conquer'd America the first thing he thought upon was to make his humble addresses to his Holines for investiture But the sages of the Parlement of Paris and the most acute learned Doctors of the Colledg of Sorbon detested such Doctrines therfore by a solemn arrest of that high Court abetted by those great Divines caus'd the Institutions of Mariana the Arch-Jesuit who broach'd such tenets and expos'd them to the world to be made a Sacrifice to Vulcan by the hand of the common Executioner with another intitled de temporali potestate Papae adversus Gulielmum Barclaium and that under pain of committing High-Treason none should keep communicat print or vend any of those damnable bookes The Venetians the prudentst and politiquest Republic that ever was as we may infer by the constancy of her goverment and longaevity did shew France the way of using the Jesuits in this manner but that grave Senat went a rounder way to worke for they did not only burn their pages but banish their persons eternally from the Republic of Venice and all her Territories And although Henry the 4. did earnestly mediat for their readmission yet all wold not do for ther was a double inconvenience in it first a hazard of disreputation and opinion of rashnes upon the Senat for revoking so solemn a Decree which was debated and determined with such mature deliberation contrary to their custom And secondly ther wold be a continuall encrease of danger to the Republique for admitting such strangers into her bosome For they were not ignorant that whersoever they live or what Countrey soever they are in They are the Subjects of another Prince viz. the Popes Furthermore the Iesuits have another dangerous doctrine prejudiciall to all soveraign Princes de confessione non detegenda ne in causa quidem Majestatis presenti Regis ac regni periculo That the confession of a penitentiary must not be reveal'd no though it reflect upon Majesty and to the danger both of King and Kingdom this is an Appendix of the Hildebrandine Iesuiticall Doctrine The English Cronicle makes mention that Father Garnet the Jesuit being interrogated by the Earl of Notingham if any one wold confesse unto him in the morning that he had a purpose to murther the King the next evening whether he was bound in conscience to reveale it Garnet answer'd no. Which opinion Binetus the Jesuit confirm'd to Causabon in these words praestare Reges omnes perire quam si vel semel Confessionis Sigillum violaretur Regem enim ait humani juris Imperium esse Confessionem Iuris divini It were better that Kings should perish then that the seal of confession should be broken for the power of Kings is by humane right Confession by Divine Moreover another Jesuit in France did dare openly to affirm si Dominus noster Iesus Christus in terris versaretur morti obnoxius aliquis sibi in confessione dixisset velle se illum occidere prius quam confessionem revelaret passurum se ut Christus occidatur If our Lord Jesus Christ were himself again upon Earth subject to death and one under the seal of confession should tell him that he had a purpose to kill him before he would reveale the confession he wold suffer that Christ shold be slain Henricus Henriques also another furious Jesuit averrs that the Holy seal of Confession must not be broken for any cause whatsoever and the said Spanish Jesuit saith thus Quamvis se ageretur totius Orbis salus aut ipsius paenitentis utilitas nec pro vitando ullo damno gravissimo Innocentis aut quod esset totius orbis conflagratio aut perversio Religionis omnium sacramentorum intentata demolitio Although it tended to the salvation of the whole world or the utility of the penitentiary or that som Innocent might escape som grievous danger or that the conflagration of the whole world depended upon it or the perversion of Religion and the utter overthrow of all the Sacraments All these wold not be causes sufficient to impell the Ghostly Father to break the seal of Confession All this Isaac Cansabon doth averr to be tru in his works to Fronton Pucaeus and Cardinall Perronius For such a high and most venerable opinion they have of auricular Confession that what the penitentiary poures in the Priests breast is put up in the Closet of God Almighty and so it must be kept with sacred silence This may be one of the reasons that more penitentiaries make their addresses to the Jesuits then to any other Order and it may be a reason also why other Monasticalls do so much Envie them som Malign them others detest them Those which formerly were mentioned are the tenets of the Jesuits touching privat Auricular confession if Causabon may be believed who 't is tru was a profess'd enemy of theirs yet the positions are maintained but by the rigidst sort of Teatins not generally as som affirm By these meanes of Confession they open the Cabinets of Princes and know more of State-matters then any For ther are none who have sooner and surer intelligence then they from all parts and their correspondencie is admirable for the punctuality of it Ther are no Ecclesiastiques so frequent in Princes Courts and Noble mens Palaces then they which makes them have more Legacies given them then any other They have also another way besides secrecy of confession to oblige the Nobility by instructing their Children gratis and they have a rare method of Education that way it cannot be denied But in Spain her self though the Jesuits have a powerfull hand over the King himself and in the Councell of the Inquisition as also a great stroak among the Nobility and Gentry yet the common peeple malign and hate them generally as appeers by the Libel which was made in the Court of Spain which I think worthy the relating here Los mandamientes de los Teatinos Mas Humanos son que Divinos 1. Adquirir mucho diuero 2. Sugetar todo el mundo 3. Buen Capon y buen Carnero 4. Comprar Barato y vender carâ—… 5. Con el blanco aguar el tinto 6. Tener siempre el
lomo en siesto 7. Guardarse bien del sereno 8. Obrar lo suyo y lo ageno 9. Hazer del Penitente esclavâ—… 10. Mesclarse en cosas d'estado Estos diez Mandamientes se encierran en dos Todo para Mi y nada para vos The Commandements of the Teatine Are more humane then Divine 1. To rake up much riches 2. To subjugat all the world 3. Good Capons and good Mutton 4. To sell deare and buy cheap 5. To water red Wine with White 6. To lye warme and easie 7. To take heed of the serenes and ill ayrâ—…s 8. To do his own busines and others 9. To make their Penitentiaries slaves 10. To be busie in matters of State All these ten may be made two All for my selfe and nothing for you Thus you see though som hug yet divers hate the Jesuit in Spain it self Alexander Hayes a Jesuit himselfe gives this character of them Iesuita est omnis Homo A Jesuit is every man That is in their subtile and nimble way of negotiation wherein they will represent and personat the humour of any man They are the great Architects of all politic designes which tend to enrich themselfs and enhance the omnipotency of the Pope For the wisest men are of opinion that had it not bin for this pragmaticall order Saint Peters chair might have tumbled down ere this his bark sunk and his keys lost When they first negotiated to take footing in the Academy of Paris they were asked whether they were Seculars or Regulars they answered they were Tales Quales they were such and such herupon the Parisian Students brought up this character of them that the Jesuits were Tales Quales and are nick'd so to this day herupon one applied this Distic unto them Vestra datis cùm verba datis nam 〈◊〉 Vestrum est Et cùm verba datis nil nisi vestra datis In England it was their equivocations that caus'd the clause without Mentall reservation to be inserted in the Oath of Supremacy One compares them to those little Animals that Seneca speaks of qui mordent non sentiuntur that bite and are not felt onely the swelling shews they are bitten so this subtile sort of Ghostly Fathers by insensible encroachments damnifie where they nestle though the party knowes not where he is hurt When they were first to be introduc'd to France the Parlement of Paris desir'd the opinion of Sorbon Colledg compos'd of the acutest Theologues in France which they deliver'd thus as it stands upon Record Novem hanc societatem appellatione insolita Iesus nomen sibi vindicantem praebere occasionem This new society arrogating to themselfs by an unusuall appellation the name of Jesus doth administer occasion of Schisme in the Church they subtract the obedience that is due to Prelates they deprive Ecclesiastic Lords and others of their rights They induce much perturbation both in civill and sacred administrations they usher in quarrells contentions debates emulations and divers scissures into the Church therfore they held them to be dangerous instruments in the busines of Religion as such that wold disturb the peace of the Church overthrow Monasticall Discipline and that their Order tended more to Destruction then Edification yet by the power of the Guysian faction they were admitted but the Parlement wold demur upon it a little before Herupon Stephen Paschasius an eminent Doctor did sharply argue against them sectam eam ambitiosam fucatae Religionis plebem appellans in Hispania natam He call'd them an ambitious sect fellowes of a counterfet Religion born in Spain but foster'd in Paris strengthned in Rome who under the specious shew of a gratuitous institution of children cheat and exhaust many families infusing pernicious principles into the brains of youths Then he went on with high exaggerations and said that their Provinciall was alwayes chosen by the King of Spain to which Provinciall they yeeld an unquestionable blind obedience Therefore he concludes that if these new sectaries were admitted they wold introduce a Trojan horse into the bowels of the Kingdome full of armed Enemies and that France shold repent her of her credulity when it would be too late for these men by their subtilties and superstition by their praestigiatiory kind of artifices would distract the settlement and tranquility of the whole Kingdome Herupon while this busines was in agitation King Henry the IV. was thrust in lieu of his breast into the Mouth by a yong Jesuit with the losse of one tooth the King having escap'd so great danger sayed pleasingly falloit il que les Iesuites fussent convaincus par ma bouche Was it needfull then that the Jesuits shold be convinced by my mouth Herupon by a solemn arrest of the Court of Parlement they were utterly exterminated and commanded to quit the Kingdome by such a day under great penalties Ther was also in the sentence an interdictory clause that none shold send their children abroad to be instructed by the Jesuits under pain of trea son Herupon ther was a new Gallowes of Stone erected before the Pallace gate to execute the transgressors of this decree But the King finding that his life could never be safe while he stood out with the Jesuits rather out of fear then affection connived for the non-execution of the Sentence causing the said Gallowes to be taken down herupon one sung wittily to the King Sire si vous voulez du tout a l'adenir De l'Assassin Chastel oster le souvenir Ostant la Pyramide l'Arrest qui la touche Quon vous remitte donc une dent dans la bouche Sir If you will for the future extinguish the remembrance of Chastel take down the Jesuits Pyramid and Sentence then let them put in a new tooth into your mouth Elizabeth Queen of England had so ill a conceit of this order that by the credit the great Turk gave to her Embassador and by her advise he banished them out of Pera on the Asian shore over against Constantinople where he had permitted them formerly to reside But you will say Iesuits are a great advantage to a State because they propagate learning and instruct youth so dexterously 't is tru they instruct them but they infuse into them besides most dangerous principles of equivocation and cunnning you will say they are the greatest and most masculine propugnators of the Roman Church 't is tru but they are great weakners of the power of temporall Princes They have planted the standard of the Cross in the Indies and are the greatest propagators of Christian Faith among Infidells 'T is tru but they do it as much for extending the Spanish Monarchy for as they are the chiefest Agents of the Pope's where e're they come so are they Factors also for the King of Spain the bent of all their projects being to enlarge the power of the one and establish the omnipotency of the other That Prince or peeple are in a dangerous condition when any censures
greedy of Wine so are the Spaniards greedy of another mans wealth and so to interdict the German his wine were the same as to prohibit the Spaniard he shold not robb which was one of the ten Commandements of God Almighty where you shall not find any against drinking And as the peeple of Spain are such robbers so the Kings of Spain are the greatest of all They are Robbers of whole Kingdoms and Countreys they are the Harpies of the earth for whersoever they confine they cast about how to devoure their Neighbours using all artifices and picking any quarrell to that end in so much that those Virgilian Verses may very well quadrat with their practises Armati Terram exercent semperque resentes Convectare juvat praedas vivere rapto The greatnes of this Nation is but Modern and upstart when the fortune of France was a little wayning Spain began to shine first under Ferdinand King of Aragon Grandfather to Charles the V. so that as one sayd Ubi Galli desierunt Rerum potiri ibi Hispani inceperunt This Ferdinand the first Catholique King vail'd and varnish'd all his Enprizes with the plausible pretext of advancing Religion yet were his pen and his tongue double in doing this he carryed oftentimes two faces under one hood and played with a staff of two ends in his greatest negotiations specially in the performance of Articles 'twixt him and the French King Lewis the XII about the division of the Kingdom of Naples that he shold have Calaba and Apulia and the French Naples and Campania But afterwards he sent his great Captain Gonsalvo who conquer'd both He got also the Kingdom of Navarr by a trick for when an English Army who was sent from Hen. the 8. of England for his assistance was to passe from Spain to Aquitain and the King of Navarr who t is tru was then under Excommunication together with the King of France desiring his English son-in-lawes Forces leave to passe through his Country Ferdinand took his advantage hereby with the help of the English to seaze upon the Kingdom of Navar and thrust out Iohn Labretan who was then lawfull King And to make his cause more specious and pretend som right he insisted upon the censure of the Pope saying That they who were enemies to the Holy Father might be assaulted by any Christian King and that his Holines was to give the Countrey to the first Conquerour Now touching the East and West Indies the Spanish title is unquestionable there you will say but let us examin the busines a little The right which the Spaniards pretend to these two Indies is Right of Discovery For the East Indies it hath been so celebrated by ancient Pagan Writers that to hold the Spaniard to be the first De tector therof were to maintain the grossest paradox that ever was For Pliny relates how Hanno the Carthaginian being carryed about from the feet of Gibraltar to the farthest end of Arabia was the first discoverer of India by twice crossing the Equinoctiall And 't is easie to finde in antient Authors that Malacca was call'd Aurea Cherchonesus and that huge Iland Sumatra was known formerly by the name of Tatrobana what is he who is never so little vers'd in Antiquity but hath read the Orientall Brachman Philosophers and of the Sinenses the peeple of China Touching the West Indies they were not unknown to Plato for whereas he placeth Atlantidis at the mouth of the Gaditan Frete which is the mouth of the Mediterranean he sayeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ther is from Atlantidis a passage to other Ilands and from them to a great opposit Continent What doth he intimat herby but the great Canarie with other Ilands in the Atlantique Sea and by the other Ilands Cuba and Hispaniola by the opposit Continent Peru and Mexico Moreover the Spaniards themselfs confesse that in a valley call'd Cautis in the Province of Chyli they found among the Sauvages many pictures and formes of two-headed Eagles in midst of their houses therfore the Spaniards call that part of AMERICA The Imperiall Province to this day because the Armes of the Roman Empire were found there There is a greater evidence then this that the Spaniards were not the first discoverers of America for ther was a Welsh Epitaph found there upon Madoc a British Prince who it seems flying from the fury of the Saxons in England put himself in som Bark to the fortune of the Sea and landed in America And that the old Britains or Welsh were there it may be confirmd further in regard ther are divers British words found amongst them to this day But what shall we wander so far in the Indies We will come neerer home We know well that Solyman the Turk denied Charles the V. the title of Roman Emperor alledging that he himself was the tru successor of Constantin the Great who was Emperour of East and West And that consequently the City of Rome belongd to the Ottoman Empire and Selim Solymans son urgd such an argument when he took Cypres from the Venetians for he sayed that the sayed Ile appertained to the Soldans of Egipt which was now under his dominion But the Apostolicall concession and bounty of Pope Alexandor the VI. entitles the King of Spain to America touching that I pray here what Attabalipa a wild Pagan King sayd when he heard that his Kingdome was given by the Pope to the Spanish King surely said he that Pope must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foâ—…l or som injust and impudent Tyrant that will undertake to bestow othâ—…r mens possessions so freely But his title may be just you will say for the propagation of Christian Religion yet Christ enacted no such Law that any free peeple shold be made slaves much lesse murther'd and tortur'd either for refusing the Gospell or continuing in their former Religion ther was not any of the Apostles claym'd a Kingdom for his preaching Saint Paul preaching to the Romans did not demand the Empire Our Saviour sayd Go and preach the Gospell to all Nations The Spaniard's lesson is Go and preach the Roman Religion and the Spanish Empire to all Nations and keep under you or kill whosoever shall resist For the first Doctrine which the Spaniards were us'd to vent in any place was Vos Indiani hujus loci Yee Indians of this place we make known unto you All that there is but one God one Pope one King of Spain which you must all obey Thus Motezuna King of Mexico and Atabalipa Emperour of Peru were brought under the yoke though they gave a house full of Gold for their ransome But the Indians did more upon the Spaniards then the Spaniards could do upon them for they brought more Spaniards to adore the Indian Gold then the Spaniards brought Indians to adore Christ Herupon a company of Indians being ready to fall into the Spaniards hands carryed som Gold into the Market place saying This is the Spaniards God le ts dance
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
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
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
neither King nor Kingdom but it is a kind of confus'd Oligarchycall kind of Government which made the Lady Christina Caesars Daughter and Wife to Uladislaus the 5. so say summum illud jus authoritatem Monarchiae in Polonia esse vmbratilem That the highest power and authority of the Polish Monarchy is meerly umbraticall 't is but a shadow of a power for neither in the OEconomicall Government of his domestick family nor in choosing himself a Wife much lesse in the senate hath he any power of free will Therefore most excellent and judicious Princes for to make Poland to have a precedence of the rest of the Provinces of Europe is the same as when the Bramble according to the holy text was made the King of Trees Dixi. THE ORATION OF Prince HENRY ALBERTUS Baron of LIMBURG c. Hereditary Lord BUTLER of the Sacred Roman Empire and Allwaies free for HUNGARY Most Excellent President and Prince WHile we are in so serious a debate touching the Kingdomes of Europe and which of them may deserve the principality truly me thinks that we are ingratefull to Hungary that we have deferr'd so long to speak of the stoutest people that march under the standard of the Crosse and by whose valour the peace and incolumity of the Christian World hath hitherto stood We should have been more mindfull of the memory of our Benefactors But as the Roman Respublique is oftentimes tax'd to have sinn'd against her best and most devoted Cittizens as when Camillus was ostracis'd and banish'd Scipio dismiss'd Cicero after Catiline undervalued Rutilius hurried over to Smyrna Cato was denied the Praetorship Vatinius the basest of men being preferr'd before him so truly it may be said that we have misdemean'd our selves towards Hungary Now if Hungary could transplant her self hither before us she would sharply rebuke us for this preterition and neglect but because that cannot be I will adventure to be Advocate for that most Noble Kingdom But as in a vast Forrest full of Trees one intending to fell down one for Timber and building but having such choise about him is puzzled which to single out so am I at a stand being entred into this large Forrest of matter where or how to begin Will an inestimable treasure of all Wealth delight you I pray where hath nature endeavoured with more industry to enrich a Country If the amaenity of soyl the marvellous clemencie of the air the faecundity of ground can ennoble a Country I pray hath not Hungary all these qualities such is the fertility of fields there that grain growes no where so kindly and copiously as there There are such Vineyards up and down that you will hardly find any where such generous and strong Wines The Medows are there so luxurious that one Cart cannot see one another though at a small distance For numerous heards of Cattle where can we find the like How many thousand heads of fat cattell doe the Graziers fetch thence for the supply of all the neighbouring Provinces Vienna her self the Caesarean Court spends above 80. thousand of them Such is the felicity of Woods and Groves that they are full of fruit trees as well as timber as Chessnuts Walnuts Acrons Plumms and Apples besides they abound with wild beasts and Foul as Boares Hares Pheasans Partridges which is the familiar food of the Peasans For stately deep Rivers Europe hath not greater and more commodious and navigable for commerce and the easie conveyance of all necessaries to and fro They are quickned with abundance of Fish great and small insomuch that the River Tibisco is said by a proverb of the circumiacent Inhabitants to have two parts water and the third fish so that Wernherus affirmes that 100. Carpes taken out Tibisco were sold for one Hungary ducket What shall I say of the Richnesse of Mines up and down wherein there are precious ores of Gold and Silver the purest that is in the World In a mine of Dalmatia which is no ignoble part of the Hungarian Empire there have been digg'd out 500. pound of Gold in one day out of a Mine in the Principality of Nero as they call it There be some Rivers in Transylâ—…ania wherein ingots of Gold have been found half a pound weight as Bonfinius reports There is a very credible report that Sigismund Chanzares Bishop of the five Churches was so rich in Gold in the memory of man that he could entertain an army upon his own pay Hereupon when Albertus the Pole challeng'd the Kingdom of Hungaria from his brother Uladislaus he us'd to heighten the courage of his souldiers by puting them in mind of the exuberant riches of the Country saying Hanc esse Illam Regionem quam mediam Danubius tot fluviorum consiuxu incolis percommodus intersecat quae universi paenè orbis faelicitatem complectitur Hanc esse Illam optimdrum for acissimam fructuum vinetis specio fissimam equis caeteris animalibus affâ—…im abuudantâ—…m Auri atque argenti multorumque praeterea metallorum ditissimam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ribns quae non modo ad vitae usum spectant sed luxum possit ministrare instructissimam This was that Region which the Danube with the conflux of other Rivers doth cut up and down with many intersections a Country which hath the â—…aelicity of the Universe This is she that abounds with such variety of fruit with fair Vineyards with plenty of generous Horses and other animalls of all kind She is enrich'd with Mines of Gold and Silver with many other sorts of mettalls In sum this is that Kingdome which is furnished with all things that appertain to humane life either for use or pleasure Yet Hungary doth not measure these splendid gifts of nature according to the common opinion and wish of man but she proportions them according to the necessity and use And the Inhabitants must labour for them accordingly Without doubt industry is a high and indefatigable vertue idlenesse and voluptuousnesse is a servile slothfull weak and degenerous thing her station is commonly in stoves and taphouses in baths and hot houses or such places When we find the other in the field in the Market in the Mines or standing in defence of a Town with hard callous hands If Vertue and industry can be found no where else you are sure to find them embracing each other in Pannonia now Hungary What brave masculine births hath she produc'd what grave and learned Doctors for the Church as the most eminent B. Martin a pious Bishop a pure Apostolicall man Then she had Saint Hierom who for his sanctity and learning is reckon'd and with good reason among the holy Confessors and Doctors of the Church Then you have Andrew 〈◊〉 an admired student of Ciceronian Eloquence who writ thrice with his own hand all Cicero's works that are instant But at last leaving the Papaciâ—… the miter the sublime honors of the Court and all worldly Pomp he be took himself to a private
a meer fable which Boterus her own child doth refell accusing them of imprudence and shallow judgement who think so for we know wel that two third parts of Italy hath no navigable Rivers and the fourth part is a steril rough-hewen umbratical country made up by the Apennine hil Bonfinius who had been a curious lustrator of many Countries prefers Austria before Italy though his own Country Liguria was damn'd by Nature her self to a perpetual sterility And the Plaines of Verona though they be famous for some battles that have been fought there yet doe they bear but a sorry report for the wildness of the soyl and huge stones that are therein In Alagnia there is a cankerworm that corrodes the Vines and strangely grows with the grape and takes wings at last it revives with the culture of the earth and dies with it besides there be swarmes of little stares that doth much annoy the crop both of Corn and Wine and there is no fence against them they are so numerous The Pisan Aquileian and Roman fields themselves how many patches of rough barren ground have they what ill air'd fens in many places which makes them so thinne of inhabitants How many places in Italy are there whither strangers when they goe thither are warned not to goe unto in regard of the ill air as Piombino Grossetto Sinigallia Arimino Cervia Pesarâ—… Pestilentiall Fevers are frequent in Venice and Ancona and Tertians in Ferrara nor is the meridian of Rome free from them for upon the Maritime coasts from Port Hercules to Tarracina which is a hundred and fifty miles in extent there are hardly eight thousand inhabitants in all The Veliternian Wines are good for nothing unless they be boil'd nor can those of Viterbo last any time till they be also used so for generally the Italian Wines are so fading that they will last scarce a year to an end whereas our German Wines gather strength with their age as those of the Rhine and the Neccâ—…r but those of the Po and the Tiber grow quickly sower and flat which made Scaliger spit out this bitter jest of Rome Urbem illam esse novum acâ—…tum pessimum veteris vini optimi that she is the worst new Vinegar of the best old Wines Besides there are some places in Italy which might be fruitfull if they had the hands of industry for the Italians are not so industrious with their bodies I cannot tell what their braines may be as the world takes them to be witnesse that capacious and noble port of Ancona which was suffer'd to be choak'd up with sand meerly by the supinenesse and sloth of the inhabitants For Mettals I am sure in Clement the sevenths time there were knowing Mineralists sent for from Germany to Italy and they returned quickly after for they said that the benefit would not countervail the charge Moreover there is no clime so subject to vicissitude of Tempests as Italy The Apennine keeps her snow longer than the Abnoba the mother of the Danube How passengers are tormented with Chinches â—… stinking little vermin in their lodgings at night The heat of Naples is such that none will travell in Iuly and August though the King should command him 'T is true that Padoa hath fertile fields about her but the Tillers of them are half devils and more humorous than any part of France Sicilia once a part of the continent of Italy was used to bear away the bell for faecunditie being called by Cicero Cella penaria Reipub. nutrix plebis Romanae She was Romes Nurse and the peoples Pantree but whereas there is a principle Omnes Insulanos esse malos pessimos autem esse Siculos That all Ilanders are bad and the Sicilians the worst of all It is truer now then ever it was Touching the Calabrians King Alphonso could say that nihil habebant praeter figuram they had nothing of men but the shapes of men Touching Campania and the Kingdom of Naples it cannot be denied but they are luxurious Countreyes and very populous in so much that Bozius gives an account of above three millions of peeple there and neere upon foure hundred thousand fit to beare armes together with foureteen hundred and sixty towns but take all along with you the improbity of the peeple is such that there is a proverb among the rest of the Italians Napoli é un paradiso ma habit ato da diaboli Naples is a paradis inhabited by devills Indeed it is so delicat a country that it will put to tryall the vertu of any one witness Hannibal and his army The Genoways is as bad as the Nopolitan heare what the tartmouthed Scaliger speaks of him giving a wipe also to the English by huddling up a company of Epithets Genuenfi Osor pacis ac boni moris Unus Brit annis tetrior Ligur cunctis Saxicola pelagi cursor invidus spurcus Famelicosus turpis Archipirata Now whereas you have been persuaded to believe that Italy is the source of civility the nurce of noblenes and vertue the prime propagatresse of piety and learning I pray herein take me along with you I will not say the Italians are ignoble but the corrupters of Nobility They are not illiterat but the perverters of letters They are not vicious but the very cutthroats of vertu They are not impious but the abusers of piety they have drunk so much superstition and it hath got so far into their bones that it will never out of their flesh I am loth to bring all their vices before so princely an Assembly for feare the sent of them might be unpleasing unto you and make you stop your noses as peeple use to do when they passe by a carren or dounghill and when they once infect a German they transform him to a Devill according to the proverb Tudesco Italionato é un diabolo incarnat a Dutchman Italionat is a Devill incarnat Now there is no place upon earth where vice goes more oft in vertues habit and so is able to deceave the wisest For as in the sands of the river Anien there are fine white stones gathered of various shapes some like comfetts others like round suger plumms others like candid â—…innamon which are call'd in derision the junketts of Tivoli and are put sometimes upon the table for a merriment to strangers so are counterfet banquetts and sweets of vertu served before strangers in Italy though they be meer baits of vanity and vice I confesse Italy abounds with nobles but what kind of one's are they such as are found in Lunigiana where a passenger spied three Marquises upon one treâ—… eating figgs to preserve them from starving I Marchesi di Ceva i Conti di Piacenza i Cavaglieri di Bolognia The Marquises of Ceva the Earles of Piacenza the Knights of Bolonia are poore to a proverb for all of them will not make one compleat nobleman in point of estate But indeed the Italian Nobles are rather Marchants then Nobles nay many
their characters specially of Henry the great and his Son the late Lewis the 13. 51 France and her King worthy to have the Principality and the reasons 52 Francis the first brought in the Turk against Spain the act authoriz'd by examples 55 Of the French Ligue and the monstrousness of it 55 French Kings censur'd 55 Of Henry the 3. his vision his death his Epitaph 56 France possessed with 3 Furies 56 Sale of Offices in France a high Injustice 57 French Gentlemen all Surgeons 61 Of the French language 61 France full of wanton Books 62 Of the French Rablais 62 The French often eaters 63 The French most changeable 63 When the Frenchman sleeps the Devil rocks the cradle a Proverb of the Flemin 63 The foolishness of the Londoners in point of building 61 G. Gratianus his famous Decree 2. in the Pro. Germany much better'd by forren travel 3. in the Pro. The German Gentlemen tax'd for abusing forren Travel 6 The Germans very thick abroad in other Countryes 6 Germany the Princesse of Europe 7 Gaunt in Flanders the greatest City in Europe 7 Germany suddenly turn'd Christian her marvailous piety 9 Germany describ'd by Paulus Iovius 10 She hath mightily flourished since the Councell of Constance in Universities and Knowledge 10 The German Princes very covetous of degrees in Learning 11 Of the Duke of Gelders 11 All the German great Townes excell in some particular thing 13 A German Fryer Inventor of Guns and A German Swordman Inventor of Printing vice versa 14 The German Cities characteriz'd 16 The German Territories characteriz'd 17 Of the German Wines 18 Germany compar'd to Italy 18 The German commodities set forth 18 Of the German Horses 19 Of the German Rivers 19 Of the German Fish 19 Of the German Mines of Gold and Silver with other Mettals 19 The German most Hospitable 20 German Gentlemen restrained from Trade 20 The Germans never beat their servants nor imprison their Tenants 21 Germany an ill Country for Bastards 21 The German rare for chastity and conjugall love 22 Of the German valour 22 Germany called by the Belgians Magna patria 23 Germany the strongest body of Europe if united 26 The Genoways only worse than Englishmen 36 The Germans tartly censur'd 34 The German way to try whether a child be a Bastard 73 H. AN Honest man must be a mixt man the reason why 3. in the Pro. Hyperboles of divers sorts 4. in the Pro. Hollanders best makers of Linnen cloth their Looms are as fine as Arachnes Webb 13 Holst Oudenard excel in woven Pictures 13 Holland hath thirty three Cities whereof from Gorcham Tower one may see 22 16 Hercynian Forrest once nine dayes journey broad 17 Holland characteriz'd by Scaliger 17 Holland Cowes give twelve quarts a day 19 Herodes King of Iudaea had a Guard of Germans 21 How the Germans took footing in France 23 Horslers and Tapste◅s in Poland understand Latin in many places 3 How Rome hath been ingrateful to those who deserved best of her 10 Hungary hath strong Wines 10 Hungary hath a River call'd Tibisco whereof it is said that she hath two parts water and the third fish 11 Saint Hierom an Hungarian 11 Hungary hath had famous men their names 11 Hungary affoorded eight Roman Emperours their names 12 Other brave Kings of Hungary mentioned 13 The brave answer of an Hungarian Gentlewoman 14 Hungary the Antimurale and chiefest Rampart of Europe 15 Hungary glorieth of Stephen Bartorius and deservedly his character 15 Of the Hungarian languor or fai◅iness 17 Some Hungarian Wells that will singe Hoggs yet they breed fish 17 The Hungarians described by Bishop Otto of Frisenghen 18 The Huns said to have their original from som Demons 18 Henry the 4 of France censur'd many ways 65 In Henry the seconds time but two Coaches in all Paris 63 The Hollander lives partly upon the idleness of the English 49 A horrid Murrher of a German Butcher 49 I THe Italian taunted 6 The Italian sends yeerly to Germany for Artists as Statuaries Architects Limmers Surveyours Aqueductors c. 12 Iohn Guttemberg of Mentz first Inventor of Printing 14 How Irenaeus adjur'd the writer of his works tobe true 15 Of the Italian Mountibanks 6 Of Idlenes and sloth 11 Italy to other Kingdoms as a diamond to Bristol stones 20 Italy characteriz'd by Pliny 20 The high Elogy that an Emperour gives of Italy 21 Some Italian soyles affoord 4 ◅attermaths 21 Italy Bacchus his Inner Celler 21 Of the Italian wines 21 The wines of Papia cur'd Boetius and afterwards he fell to write his book de Consolatione 21 The various comodities of Italy 22 Italy describ'd curiously by Florus 22 The Italian Cities with their Epithetts 22 A Napolitan found out the Mariners Compas a Venetian found out the making of glasse 23 Of the brave Artists of Italy of the Poets and Orators with Philosophers 23 Italy the great source and Cestern whence all civility flow◅s 24 Italy hath 17. Academies 24 The Italian cautious in exposing himself to danger 24 The brave resolution of an Italian when Charles the eight entred Italy 25 Italy bred great Captains 25 Of Christophero Colomba a greater Heroe then Hercules the reasons induc'd him to that design his proceedings in short how he jeerd the ranting Spaniards how he was slighted at last listned unto by Isabella 25 The Italians are true friends exemplified by Signior Priuli a Venetian Gentleman and Cardinall Pole 26 Italy a seeker after and rewarder of vertu Rome the common Countrey of all Nations where any is capable of dignity 26 Of the stupendous wealth and strength of Venice stil a virgin the greatest mistresse of Sea in the world her exploits and policy 28 Divers Characters of Rome one by Livy her admired populousnes and riches in times pass'd of her Bishop alwayes a Reverencer of the Gods of old and new Rome of the Pope and many examples produc'd what adorations have been done him by Emperors and Kings the notable letter of Adrian the fourth to the Electors of Germany the names of those Kingdoms that are feudetary to Rome how divers Emperours Kings have been excōmunicated by him 31 Touching Generall Councels a proverb of the Pope in Italy c. 33 Italy by many characters of merit deserves to have the precedence of all Countreys in Europe 33 Of famous Iohn Hawkwood 45 Ireland famous of old for learned men 49 The Irish have a holy proverb of S. Patrick 49 Ireland and Scotland censurd 66 K KIngdoms no other then Magna Latrocinia fol. 41 Kingston upon Hull like a Low-Countrey town 47 Of Keneth the Pict who brought the coronation stone from Ireland to Scotland 48 L THe Lord Presidents complement to the rest of the Princes 1. in the pro. Lycurgus against forren Travell 2. in the proeme The Law of God that strangers should be as well us'd of Natives 2. in the pro. Of Luther his quil compar'd to Hercules club 9 Lotharius the Emperour
and Lorenzo de Medici 23 Reasons that Great Britain may stand in competition for the primacy of Europe 50 Raphael Urbin design'd by Leo the tenth to be a Cardinal 37 Reasons why Great Britain cannot deserve the preheminence of other Countries 67 The Russe seldom travels abroad 2. in the Pro. Rodolphus the Emperours wise speech to a Traveller 6 The Rule of Providence not to powre down all blessings at once 8 Of Regiomontanus 10 A Remarkable passage of Everard Barbatus Duke of Wirtemberg 21 The Roman Emperours had a guard of Germans for their fidelity Of the Renowned Families of Germany and their antiquity and extent through all Europe 26 Rhodope a rich Courtisan built one of the Pyramids of Egypt 2 Rome in one Cense that was made had in her two millions and a half of soules 2 Rome when Pagan had above 400 Temples now Christian she hath scarce the 4th part 2 The sorry report the French gave of Poland at their return with Hen. 3 6 Rome often ravished 28 Rome shrunk into a Pigmey's skin from that Gigantick shape she was 34 The hugenesse of Rome conjectur'd by many arguments 34 S. SCotsmen Men-eaters 63 Spain first attempted and at last subdued by the Romans 2 Spain preferr'd before all countries by Charles the 5 1 Spain with her commodities laid opâ—… 2 Spain the fragrantst Country 2 In Spain Milk cannot turn to Whey in some places 2 Spain the Queen of horses 2 Of the chief Cities of Spain 3 Of the Mines of Spain 4 The site and form of Spain 4 Of the 150 Rivers that water Spain 4 Spain hath a bridge twenty miles long whereon cattle feed 4 Spanish Crown made of her own gold 4 Spain describ'd by Claudian 5 A Spanish Guard about Iulius Caesar Augustus had a Band of Biscainers 6 A notable example of the Spanish valour 6 The Spaniards right justified to the West Indies 7 The Spanish Discoverers of the West Indies the Discoverers of the East 7 Spaniards the sole Grandees of this Age 8 Spain hath bred notable Spirits 8 Of the Jesuits founded by a Spaniard 9 The Spanish Monarchy the vastest since the Creation 10 The Sun alwaies shines upon some part of the Philippian Monarchy 10 Sacriledge to dispute of the Emperours power 2. in the Pro. Spain taunted 6 Seneca's notable Speech against Forren Travell 6 Satan doth commonly set up his Chappel near Gods House 9 Scaligers witty saying of â—…lavius 12 Scaligers coÌ„parison 'twixt thunder canon 14 Scaligers witty saying of Printing of Canon Wheele-clocks 16 Scaligers Elogium of Antwerp 16 The Swisse scarce knew the use of Gold and Silver til the overthrow they gave the Duke of Burgundy near Granson 19 Spanish Souldiers made hilts of swords of massie Gold at the plundring of Antwerp 20 A notable speech of Philip the second when his Father resign'd him his dominions 22 The wondrous strength of Sigismund King of Poland who could crack a horshooe 8 Slavonique the most spacious Tongue 8 Strange examples of some learned men that lost their memory as not to remember their own names 34 Scaligers tart opinion of Rome 35 Sicily call'd by Gâ—…cero Romes Nurse and the peoples Pantry 35 Sannazarius writ three books of Jesus Christ and yet never names him 38 Spain hath afforded many brave Emperors 11 The Spanish Grandezas expressed and reasons alledged that the Spanish King is to be preferrred before all other Potentates 11 In Spain the Mule fares sometimes better than the Master 1â—… The sterillity of Spain discovered by a pleasant tale of the Count Palatin of the Rhine 15 Of the Spanish pride some examples 21 How Spain came to this greatness 22 A question whether the Spaniards were first discoverers of the East and West Indies 22 Of the Spanish cruelty in the Indies 23 Spanish King not so potent as we take him to be and the reasons 24 The Spanish valour question'd 26 Divers Spanish Rodomantadoes 26 The Spanish Fleet the highest Grandeza that ever was 27 The sharp sight of the Spaniard 27 A memorable story of a Spanish Captain in Flanderâ—… 27 Though the King of Spain be in perpetuall war and infinitely indebted yet there is no appearance at all in his Court 27 T A Traveller compar'd to a Horsleech and Paris of Troy 6 Tacitus his notable speech against Germany 7 Thuanus saith that Cambray makes 30000 linnen cloths yearly 13 Tacitus like to have been lost had he not been received in a monastery of Westphalia 15 Typography casts a bridle into times mouth 15 Typography Ars memoriae Mors oblivionis 15 Tacitus his opinion of Germany rectified 17 The Tower of Strasburg 574 foot high 17 Tacitus call'd by Budaeus the wickedest of all writers by Tertullian the lyingst by Orosius the flattringst 17 Tyrol abounds most with Mettals of any Country 17 The Turks call all Christians Freinks and the Abyssins call them Alfrangues 24 The Great Turk prefers the Christian Emperours Ambassador before all others 26 The temple of Ephesus 22 years a building 2 The Pope a great temporal Prince proud 33 A tart censure of the Italian 36 A tart saying touching Saints 37 V ULms excells in Drapery of all sorts 13 Utrecht stands betwixt 50 Cities whereof the remotest but a dayes journey 16 Vienna describ'd by Aeneas Sylvius 18 Vladislaus the perjur'd K. of Poland the horrid judgment that fell upon prince peeple 8 The Yew poysonous to those that sleep under it a brasse nayl beaten in takes away the poyson 40 The vertu of Iron 40 A strange vision Henry the 3 of France had before his death 56 How he was murther'd with his Epitaph ibid. Vulcan hath his chief forge and Mars his Armory in Bilbo 4 Of Viriatus the valiant Portuguez 6 A question discuss'd whither the old world got more by the new or the new by the old 8 The vanity of the Portuguais 20 Of the Spanish Inquisition 20 The three vowes of Solyman 29 W BOdin wittily taunted 53 A witty Epigram on Katherin de Medicis Q of France 54 A witty saying of Henry the 4. of France 57 A witty comparison touching Bodin 60 A witty character of the French by Pontumarinus 60 A witty Chronogram 12 Witty reparties 'twixt a German and a Dutchman touching their languages 61 A witty Epigram for drinking 38 A wise law of the Lacedemonians touching lascivious books 62 A witty saying touching the order of Knighthood in France 63 Two witty comparisons 64 A wise saying of an English Captain 57 A witty letter of Câ—…ligni to the French King 64 A witty Epigram upon Spain 24 A witty saying how Philip got the Kingdom of Portugaâ—…l 6 A wise saying of Philip the second 11 His wise speech at his death 11 A witty simile touching Spain 14 A witty speech of Henry the fourth touching Spain 14 The witty speech of King Iames touching the Spaniard 24 Whither the Indian gold hath done more hurt or good to Europe 24 Some witty sayings of the wild Indians reflecting upon the Spaniards 23 A witty saying of Robert Duke of Normandy 10 A witty speech of K. Iames touching Tobacco 5 A wise saying of Cosmo de Medici 27 Walloons that fled from the fury of the Duke of Alva in Flanders taught the English to make Bays and Serges 13 A witty character of a King 15 The Wines of Germany 18 Wine fo plentifull in Germany that in some places they macerat their lime and mingle their morter with it 18 The Walls of Babylon 200 foot high and 60 miles in compas 2 Of the seven wonders 2 Where the Turks horse sets his foot the grass never grows 4 A witty answer of Charles the sift 21 A wise saying of Scaurus 33 A wise saying of Sigismund the Emperor and of Aâ—…phonso of Aragon touching Learning 37 A witty Epigram upon Henry the 4 19 A wise speech of the Pontano Duke of Venice to the Popes Ambassadors 39 A wise sanction made at a Diet against the Popes power in the election of the Emp. 39 A wise saying of the Duke of Alva 24 Witty answers of som Emperors to the Pope 41 A witty saying of an Ambassadour 1 The witty answer of Hen. 4. to the Parisians 42 Of brave women 47 A witty saying of Hen. the 2. King of France 49 A witty saying of Lewis the 12 50 A witty saying of a Spanish Ambassadour 50 A witty Epigram upon Sir Francis Drake 42 Ward the English Pirat did a world of mischief to Christendom 36 A witty saying of a Spanish client to K. Phil. 26 A witty Pasquil against Spain when the Goletta was lost 26 A witty comparison of Europe 29 A witty Spanish Proverb 29 A Welch Prince freed England of Wolves 40 Why Woolsacks are in the House of Peers 40 The wise speech of King Canutus 43 A wise speech of Charles the 5 1 Of the 〈◊〉 of Wales 46 Women did ride astride til Queen Anne wife to Richard the second 54 Of Câ—…rdinal Wolsey 55 The weakness of the Empire 32 A witty Anagram 56 A witty comparison made to the French by Florus 66 A wise saying of the Emperour Frederique 46 Of the Warrs of the Low-Countries and the grounds of them 46 A wise answer of Tiberius 47 A wise answer of Q. Eliz. to the Hollanders 48 A witty comparison that Florus makes of the French valour 66 The witty saying of an Aethiop 67 Water in Moravia of great vertue 68 A witty saying of Henry the fourth 19 The wise speech of Paschasius against the Jesuits 19 A witty saying touching the Philosophers stone 20 A witty saying touching Portugall 20 A witty revenge of a Secretary 49 The witty answer of an Empress 36 A witty saying of Katharine de Medici 35 The woful catastrophe and last words of Henry the 8 58 To the Reader The plenâ—…y of matter wherewith this book doth swel might have made a larger Index but that the Authour had a regard to the Rule of Proportion viz. that the posterâ—…-gate should not prove too big for the Fabrique Errata Edw. the 6. for Hen. 6. pag. 38. best for left p. 31. Charls the first for fift p. 11.
if he bad any to go away and hang himself the party must do it or else he should be put to a worse kind of death Murther is no capitall crime among them but onely finable if a Gentleman kills another Gentleman he forfetis 30. Crownes if a clown kill a Gentleman he forfeits twice as much and if a gentleman kill a yeoman it is but 10. crownes amercement But Sigismund the first reform'd these lawes and made the price of blood more precious That Sigismund could crack a horshoe with his hands or tear a whole stock of cards to flitters or heave up a reasonable horse in his armes But it is a thing much to be deplor'd that the people of Poland were divided to four parts three parts of four are Arrians in the iâ—…hearts for that heresie reignes no where more in Europe there are other among them but this is the greatest and can there be a greater heresie among Christians Now for Religion and all kind of civilities the Pole is oblig'd to the German who was their first introducer and instructer as is evident by those reliques of the German tongue which are yet found among them which the Slavonique did shoulder out Now the Slavonique is the most spacious vulgar language upon Earth it extends as far as Constantinople one way and Mosco another way for above twenty severall Nations speak it for their Vernacular tongue Now touching the naturall disposition of the Pole it is as savage and sanguinary as of any Nation Among a cloud of horrid examples which could be produc'd that of King Popiel the 2. is remarkable Who finding himself to be illbeloved by his Subjects and suspecting that his brothers and uncles did goe to undermine him He counterfeited himself to be sick and so sent for them as it were upon his death-bed to take his farewell of them committing his wife and children to their care and speaking unto them faintly and with much tenderness he calls for a boul of wine to drink unto them which he scarce touch'd with his lipps but they pledging him freely were all poyson'd and died soon after Hereupon the cunning Queen crying out that they had an intent to poyson the King her Husband their bodies were depriv'd of Christian buriall and thrown into the lake Goplus but mark the judgements of Heaven Out of the putrified bodies there were such ratts engendred more bigg then ordinary that first devoured all Popiells children and then his Queen and lastly himself in Crusvicia Castle in a most disastrous manner to the astonishment of all mankind Moreover touching the perfidiousnesse of the Polish Nation there be as many pregnant examples as can be produc'd among any people but not to detain your ears long with such harsh notes let this one serve When Ladislaus the Son and rightfull Heir of King Albertus was put by and Uladislaus the 5. made King of Poland God Allmighty having respect to the innocence of young Ladislaus powr'd his judgement upon the Pole in the Varvensian Battaile wherein besides the loss of many thousand soules Christianity receiv'd the fowlest blemish that ever she did from her infancie to that day For this usurping Uladislaus having agreed upon Articles of peace with Sultan Amurath and given him the holy host for caution in point of performance The said Uladislaus breaking the Capitulations caus'd Amurath to rush into Poland with a fearfull army and as both were to close the Turk drew out of his bosome the host and the Articles which Uladislaus had sworn unto crying out O thou Crucified O thou crucified look upon thy perfidious people who have pawn'd thee unto me yet in a most scelestous and perjurious manner have infring'd their vow if thou art some God let perjury be vindicated Hereupon there was a generall overthrow given to the Austrian Army and Uladislaus himself slain In so much that Poland grew so despicable that scarce any would undertake the title of her King Touching the Cosacks which were so much applauded in the preceding Oration Truly most noble Princes let me tell you that they are a race of people of the same trade the wild Arabs are of who live by robberies and plunder and I had almost said they are as wild as they for they feede upon raw flesh which they put sometimes upon their horses back under the saddle to warm a little and so they devoure it They are farre worse then the Mosstroupers of Scotland the Tories of Ireland the Frondeurs of France or the Bandoleros of Spain which lurk among the Pyrenean hills for rapine and spoil To draw to a conclusion as the genius and naturall disposition of the Pole is rough fierce and unpolish'd so is their speech which is a most abrupt and craggy kind of language in so much that in some words you have ten consonants and but one vowell the words of the Pole when he speakes high are as so many stones thrown at a mans braines that heares him they have such penenetrating harsh sounds and accents The teeth of a Wolf dentes lupini are the of Poland I arms wil not say their nature doth sympathize with that rapacious beast but me thinks the Latine tongue whereof they bragge so much in point of vulgarity should sound but very harshly among such teeth For conclusion I will relate unto you the character which one of Henry the thirds Secretaries when he was then attending the King gives of Poland and the people which stands upon record in an Authentique peece of story Quant a moy qui ne puis mentir je vous diray fort librement que je ne vis iamais un si miserable pays â—…ant de pouvre Noblesse touts brutals sauuage mais toutesfois si pleins d' arrogance qu' elle n'estime ancune Nation Ces sont choses difficiles a representer par escrit du tout impossibles a croire que par ceux qui les auroient veues For my part saith the French Secretary who cannot lie I will tell you freely that I never saw in the whole course of my life so miserable a Country so indigent a Gentry so brutish and savage a Commonalty but nevertheless so full of arrogance that they esteem no other Nation These are things which are difficult to be represented by writing and impossible to be believ'd but by them who have been Eyewitnesses hereof as I have been too long Surely it must be imputed to this arrogant nature of theirs that they think no man worthy to be their King by birth but by Election Nature is not worthy and wise enough to give them a King but they must choose one themselves And it is observable that they are the only people among Mortals who fetch their Kings from far and admit Forreners to rule over them and one reason may be that they who are acquainted with the squalidness of the Country will not take upon them such a spendid slavery But the truth is that Poland hath