so glorious Princes from the office of Iudges did rise to be Emperours in suche wise that in those dayes they did not prouide offices for men but men for offices for the office of Gouernour Iustice and corrector many will be suters and for many they will make sute but in any wise you ought to be aduised howe ye make promise thereof to any man eyther for prayers or intreataunce to giue the same For your good you may giue to whome you shal think good but the rod of iustice to him who shall beste deserue it Also some of your seruants in recompence of seruice will craue the office of iustice and in my iudgement you oughte lesse to giue it vnto those than vnto any other for in saying they be your seruants that you shal beleeue them more thā the rest The people shal not dare to complayn and they shall haue libertie the more to robbe and steale If any man or woman shall come to complain before your Lordship of your Iustice giue him eare at leysure and with good will and if you shall fynd his complaynte to be true remoue his griefe and reprehende your Iusticer but if it bée not so declare how iust it is that he commaundeth and how vniust that he demaundeth for the base countrey people doe holde the words of their Lord for gospell of the officer as a passioned If it be not cōuenient for the Iudge you shal choose that he bée skilful to steale or bribe muche lesse dothe it beseeme your Lordeship to be a nigarde or couetous neyther with the price of iustice to profit your chamber Aduise your Iustices that haynous bloudy desperate and scandalous offences in no wyse be redeemed with money for it is impossible that any may liue in suretie eyther goe safe by the highe way if there be not in the common wealth the whip the halter and the sworde There are so many quarellers vagabonds and théeues murtherers rebels and sedicious that if they had hope for money to escape Iustice they would neuer cease to commit offences And therfore it is conuenient that the Iudge bée wyse and skilfull to the ende he chastise not all offences with extremitie neither that he leaue somtime with the voyce of the king to honoure the people Also your Lordship hath to prouide that the officers of your audience which is to wit Counsellers Atturneys and Scriueners be faithfull in the processe they make and no tyrantes in the Lawes they haue in hande for many tymes it doth happen that one cōming to complayn of an other they do not iustice vpon the person that gaue the quarel but they execute iustice vpon the pouche that he weareth Also aduise your Iustices that they dispatche their affaires with breuitie and with trouth with trouth bicause they shall iudge iustly with breuitie that it be done with expedition for it hapneth to many Clients that without obteyning that they craue they consume al that whiche they haue Also your Lordship ought to prouide and commaunde the ministers of your iustice that they doe not dishonor misvse shame or despise such as come to your audience but that they be mylde modest and manerly For sometimes the sorowful suter doth more féele a rough word they speake than the Iustice they delate I assure you there be officers so absolute without temperance and so yll manered that they presume to doe more cruelties with their pen than Roulande with his sworde Also your lordship hath to prouide that your Iudges doe not suffer themselues to be muche visited accompanied and muche lesse serued For the iudge can not hold narrow frendship with any man that is not in the preiudice of iustice for verie fewe resorte vnto the Iudge for that he deserueth but for the power he holdeth In the common wealthe dissentions angers quarelles of ambition amongst your officers of Iustice neither ought you to dissemble or in anye wise consente vnto for at the instant that they shall grow into quarels the people shal be deuided into partialities wherof may rise great offences in the common wealth and great want of reuerence to youre person Concluding in this case I say that if you will hold your Countrey in iustice giue your Officers occasion to conceyue opinion that you loue Equitie And that for no request or interest you will be remoued from the same for if the Lord be iust his officers neuer dare to be vniust That a Knight or Gentleman be mylde and of good gouernance ALso it is necessarie to the good gouernmēt of your house cōmon wealth that your behauior towardes your subiects be suche that with the meaner sort ye deale as with sonnes with the equall as with brothers with the ancient as with fathers and with the strangers as with felows for you ought much more to estéem your self in holding them for frends than to cōmaund them as vassals The difference betwixt the tirant the Lord is that the tyrant so he may be serued makes small accompt to be beloued but he that is a Lorde wise and will rather choose to be beloued than serued and I assure you he hath great reson for the person that giues me his heart will neuer denie me his goods The great Philosopher Licurgus in the laws he gaue to the Lacedemonians did commaund and counsel That the auncient men of his common wealth shoulde not talke standing neyther be suffred to stand bareheaded and I say it to this ende For that it shall diminishe nothing your authoritie or grauitie in that you shall say vnto the one be couered Gossip and vnto the other sit down frende The good Emperour Titus was worthily beloued for that the old men he called fathers the yong men fellowes Strangers Cousins the priuate frendes and all in generall brothers The gentleman that is humble courteous and of a good bringing vp strangers loue him and his owne do serue him for courtesie and friendly behauiour is more honour to hym that vseth it than to whom it is done I am not far in in loue with many Gentlemen vnto whom there goeth to talk and to dispatche affaires olde honorable and wise men although poore they neuer offer vnto thē so much curtesie as to say aryse neyther be couered and muche lesse to sit downe conceiuing all their greatnesse to consiste in not commaundyng to giue them a stoole eyther to put of their cap to any man note and consider well this which I say vnto your Lordship that the authoritie greatenesse and grauitie of Lordes and Gentlemen doth not consist to haue their vassals knéeling and bare headed but in gracious and good gouerning them When I heard a certain knight valiant and of noble bloud yet disdainfull and very proud that vsed always to say to all men although of worship he talked withal thou thou and he he neuer added wordes of fauor worship or curtesy I said vnto him By my life sir
the rest The conditions of a good king Princes ought so to recreate themselues that thereof ryse none offence Princes ought to limite their recreations In the auncient times yron was vsed in coyne It is to be noted that all lawes are reduced from three lawes Seuen maner of auncient lawes Lawes onely for Romane Senators The lawes for warre they vsed in Rome The first that made lawes for warres The procurer of the people was most priuiledged in Rome We receiue liberalitie from the Prince when he commaundeth to serue Note the great vertues of the Philosopher Licurgus Of him that brought vp one dog fat in idlenesse and in the house the other in the field To be good it doth much profite to be well brought vp A notable proclamation daily made A right worthy search Bathes and oyntmēts forbidden The authoritie of old men The disobedient sonne both chastised and disinherited A friend by fraternitie New inuentiō and the inuentors banished An honour vsed to the dead that valiantly died in the warres Gentlemen may commen but not cōtend For what causes a Gentleman may be inflamed with choler Helia is nowe Ierusalē and Byzantio is Constantinople Numantia was named of Numa Pompilius The Numantins in the warres did rather die than flee Rome was enuious of the fortune of Numantia Nine Consulles were slaine at the siege of Numantia The good Captaine ought rather loose his life than make an infamous truce In the warres vice doth more hurt thā the enimies The Numātines did eate the fleshe of the Romains To fight with a desparate man is no small perill The noble minded had rather die free than lyue a slaue The Numantines did kill their wiues and children No Numantine taken prisoner The continuance of the prosperitie of Numantia In the warres it importeth dot to write with an euill pen. More is spent to maynteyne opinion than to defende reason No excuse may excuse the losse of a battayle A iust warre is loste by an vniust captaine An euill lyfe doth come to make repayment in one day The more noble victorie is that which is obtayned by counsel thā by the sword Iron was made to eare fields and not to kill men We ought rather to make tryall by perswasion than by sworde The bloudie Captain doth finishe his days with an euill ende Iulius Cesar pardoned more enimies than he kilde It is more loued that is obteyned by request than by the sworde In tyme of warre it besemeth not a knighte to write from his house Note the right conditions of a right gētleman Is a gentleman a fault is tolerable if it be not vile The good knight hath in possessiō more armour than bookes Iudas Machabeus had rather lose his his lyfe than his fame To cōmaund many wil cost muche Note the wordes of a valiant captain To demaunde how many not where the enimies be is a signe of fear Words wordthy to be engraued on his tombe Of more value is the noble mynded expert captain than a greate armie Who was the valiāt Viriato captain of Spayne Viriato was inuincible in the warres Fewe vices are sufficiente to darken many victories Note what is due betwixte friendes Ingratitude seldom or neuer pardoned The grace that is giuen in preaching is seldome giuen in writing The hearte is more moued hearing the word of God than by reading The old lawe gaue punishment to the euill but no glorie to the good Vntill Christ none proclaymed rest For what cause Christe saide my yoke is sweete and my burden is light The propertie of a faithfull louer Perfect loue endureth all trauell Christ did not commaund vs to doe that whiche he did not first experimēt himself The worlde doth more chastise than pardon but in the house of God more pardoned than chastised In all the lawes of the world vices be permitted Christes lawes excepted The Lawe of christ is sharp vnto the wicked but easie and light to the vertuouse Daughters are to be married before they grow old The Ipineās did write the date of their letters with the superscriptiō With what paper they were wont to write Note the inck of old time Famouse eloquence of the Auctor in a base matter Notable exāples of cōtinēcie in Princes Catiline a tyrant of Rome It ought not to be written that cannot be written The inuētion of the A.B.C. The rentes of great Lords ought to be agreeable to their titles Gamsters at dice play them selues to nothing Postes in old time made great speede Euill newes neuer cōmeth to late The auctor reporteth of his linage of Gueuara To descend of a noble bloud prouoketh to be vertuous The auncient and noble Linages in Rome were much esteemed In Rome they bare no office that descended of traitours The properties of a man born of a good linage A note of the Giants of the old time The differēce betwixt the great and litle men Of a little Frier of the Abbay of Guysando Little thinges giue more offence than profite A sise is obserued in nothing but in sermōs More grauitie is required in writing thā in talking Note the breuitie of ancient writing Twoo Romane Captaines would two manner of warres The warres against Numantia was vmust The nature of warres that is to be holden iust Warres betwixt christiās dependeth of the secretes God. Eight condicions meete to be performed by a captaine generall of the warres The good knight ought to imitate his good predecessors He is not to be intituled a knight that is rich but vertuous In the talke of warres not that I haue heard but that I haue scene is most commendable for a gentleman The armes of a knight are giuen him to fight and not to behold Age and abilitie be mothers of good counsell The generous and noble mind dothe more feare to flie than to abide In soden perils it needeth not to vse lōg and delayed counsels A fort ought to be the sepulchre of the defendant If many be married they are not fewe that be repentant No married man may liue without trauell That man is miserable that is maried vnto a foolish woman Worship is not blemished by answering of a letter A Prince did write vnto a bitmaker A noble Romane did write vnto a plough man. No man is so euill in whom there is not somwhat to be praysed Negligence presumptiō be two things that loseth friends Euill nurture is hurtfull in all estates Where is money there is dispatch God doth many times bring things to passe rather by the weake thā by the strong Amongst .xij. sonnes the yongest was most excellent To lacke friends is perillous And some friends be tedious We ought rather to bewaile the life of the wicked than the death of the iust A man is to be knowne but not to be vnderstood The battell of Rauenna for euermore shall be renoumed Lesse in the warres than many other thing we haue to beleue fortune With great eloquence the aucthor declareth the nature of
but that in the houses of Kynges and of high Princes many must enter many must serue many must liue and many must eate but that whych is to be reprehēded is this that many times more is spoiled than is spent If in the Courtes of Princes there were not so many horses in the stable so many haukes in the mewe so many gibers in chambers so many vagabondes in pallace and so greate disorder in expences I am sure that neyther shoulde they so go ouercharged eyther their Subiectes so much gréeued God in commaunding the Prince not to haue many horses is to forbid him that he vse not excessiue expences bycause in déede and in conclusion they shal giue an accoumpt vnto God of the goodes of the common wealth not as Lords but as tutors Also God dothe commaunde that hée which shall be King do not consent to turne the people intoo Egipt that is to say that he do not permit them to commit Idolatrie ne yet to serue King Pharao for oure good God will that we adore him alone for Lorde and that we hold hym for our creator To come out of Egipt is to come out of sinne to turne into Egipt is to turne into sin for this cause the office of a good Prince is not only to remunerate the vertuous and such as liue wel but also to chastise the wicked and suche as liue euil It is no other thing to return into Egypt but boldly openly and manifestly to sinne the which the good Prince ought not to consent vnto eyther with any in lyke cace to dispence bicause the secrete sinnes to God are to be remitted but those whiche are manifest the good king ought to chastise Then doth the Prince suffer any to return into Egipt when openly he suffreth him to liue in sinne that is to say to passe his life in enuious reuenging to holde by force that which is due to an other to be giuen to folow the lusts of the fleshe and to dare to renue his olde age into wanton affections in which the Prince doth so much offend God that although he be no companion in the fault yet in the worlde to come hée shall not escape to be partaker of the payne For a kyng to gouerne well in his kingdome oughte to be asmuche feared of the euyll as beloued of the good And if by chaunce any bée in his house that is in fauour that is a quareller or any seruaunt that is vicious I denie not but vnto suche a one he may impart of his goods but not with his conscience Also God commaundeth him which shall be king that he hold not in his companie many women that is to vnderstand he shal content himself with his Queene with whom he is maried without vngodly acquayntance with any other for the great Princes and mighty potentates doe more offend God with yll example they giue than with the faultes they committe Of Dauid of Achab of Assa and of Ieroboam the scriptures do not so much complaine of their sinnes as of the occasion they gaue vnto others to sinne bicause very seldome wee sée the people in awe of correction when their lorde is vicious As Princes be more high and also mightyer than the rest euen so are they more behelde also more viewed thā others And for this cause according to my iudgement if they be not chast yet at the least they should be more secrete Among the heap of sinnes this maye be one wherewith God is not a little offended And on the other part it is wherwith the cōmon welth receiueth most sclander for in cases of honor none wil that they haunt his house request his wyfe or defloure his daughter The writers of histories do much prayse Alexander the great Scipio the Affrican Marcus Aurelius the greate Augustus the good Traian which onely vsed not to force women in libertie but did not so much as touch suche as were their captiues taken in battaile and truly they were iustly praised for vertuous mē For it procedeth of a more noble corage to resist a prepared vice thā to giue an onset vpō a cāp of great power Also God doth commaund him which shal be king that he hoord not vp much treasure that he be not scarce or a nigard for the office of the marchant is to kéep but of a King to giue and to be liberal In Alexander the great is muche more praised the largenesse be vsed in giuing than his potencie in fighting the which doth clearly appeare when we wil praise any man we do not say he is mightie as Alexander but franke as Alexander To the contrary of this Suetonius writeth of the Emperor Vespasian the which of pure miserie nigardship and couetousnesse commanded in Rome to be made publike places to receyue vrine not to kéepe the Citie more swéete but to the end that they should giue him more rente The diuine Plato did counsell the Atheniens in his bookes of a good comon wealth that the gouernour whiche they had to choose should be iust in his iudgements true of his word constant in that he takes in hand secrete in that he vnderstandeth large and bountiful in giuing Princes and great potentates for their power they be feared and for their magnificēt liberalitie they are beloued But in déed and in the end fewe folow the king not only for that his conditions be good but bicause they think his giuing is much and verie noble Gods commaunding in his lawe that the Prince shal not hourde vp treasures is no other thyng to saye but that all shall serue hym of good wyll and that bée vse towarde all men of his liberalite for that many tymes it dothe happen that the Prince in béeyng vnchearefull in giuyng it commeth to passe in proces that very few haue any mind to gratifie or serue hym Also God commaunded the kyng that should gouerne his people that he should not be proude tha◠he should always read in Deuteronomie which is the Booke of the Lawe And bycause wée haue alreadie made a large discourse we will leaue the exposition of these two woordes for an other day There resteth that we pray vnto the Lord to giue your Maiestie his grace and vnto you and vs his glorie to the which Iesus Christ bring vs Amen A discourse or conference with the Emperour vpon certayne moste aunciente stampes in Mettalles the whyche he commaunded the Author to reade and to expounde wherin are touched many antiquities S. C. C. R. M. SO greate be the affaires of Princes and so muche laden wyth studious cares that hardlye remayneth tyme to sléepe or eate muche lesse to recreate or ioye themselues with gladsome pastyme Oure forces are so small our iudgemente so weake oure appetite so variable and oure desyres so disordinate that sometyme it is necessarie and also profitable to giue place to the humanitie to bée recreated vppon condition that the truth bée
they shal remember they were subiectes to our Caesar for so much as I finde in old Histories that this linage of Marshalls of Nauarre is auncient generous and valyant And for my parte I doe firmely beléeue that the Marshall had rather serue Caesar his lord than folow the French king his master The good Scipio the Affricane did vse to say that al things in the warrs ought to be assayed before the sworde be drawne And surely he did speake most truely Bicause there is not in all this world so greate a victorie as that which is obtayned withoute bloud Cicero to writing to Atticus dothe saye and affirme that the deuise that vanquisheth the enimyes with counsell is of no lesse worthynesse than he that ouercommeth by the sworde Sylla Tyberius Caligula Nero neuer could but cōmaund kill and on the other side the good Augustus Titus and Traianus coulde not but pray and pardon in suche maner that they ouercame praying as the other fighting The good Surgion oughte to cure with swéete oyntments and the good Captaine with discrete persuasions For as for yron God rather made it to eare fieldes than to kill men Plutarch dothe saye that Scipio being at the siege of Numantia when they were importunate that he should besiege the Citie and destroy the Numantins answered I had rather conserue the life of one Roman than kill all those in Numantia If these words of Scipio were wel considered of the Captains of warre peraduenture they woulde leaue to bée soo rashe in hazardyng theyr armyes in so greate and many perils Wherof doth folow oftentimes that thinking to be reuenged of their enimies they execute vengeance of their owne proper bloud All this haue I sayde noble Constable to the ende that sith Caesar hath iustified the warre of Founterabie your noblenesse of your parte should also iustifie the same And the iustification whiche you haue to make is First persuade thē before you come to besiege them bicause it doth many times happen that the prayers of a friend may doe more than the sworde of the enimie Of the good Emperoure Theodosius the historie writers recount that vntill ten dayes were past after he had besieged any Citie he did not permit his souldiours to make warre neyther to misuse the neighbors therof Saying and proclayming euery daye that those tenne dayes space hée gaue them to the ende they shoulde profite themselues by his clemency before they should make proof of his power When the greate Alexander did sée the deade bodie of Darius and Iulius Caesar the heade of Pompeius and Marcus Marcellus Syracusa burne and the good Scipio Numantia destroyed They coulde not detaine their eyes from wéeping althoughe they were mortall enimies For if the tender hearted and noble mynded reioyce of the victorie they are grieued with others spoyle Beleeue me noble Constable that pitie and clemencie doe neuer blunt the launce in tyme of warre And on the other side the Captaine that is blouddie and reuenging eyther the enimies doe kill him or else his owne doe sell hym Iulius Caesar not vndeserued shall hold the supremacie amongst the Princes of the world and not bycause hée was more fayre stronger valyanter or more fortunate than the rest but for that without comparison muche more were the enimies hée pardoned than those he ouercame or killed We doe reade of that famous Captaine Narsetes that he did subdue the Frenche ouercame the Bactrians and did conquere and gouerne the Germains and with all thys dyd neuer gyue battayle to the enimies but hée wepte in the Temples the night before The kingdome wherein the Emperour Augustus moste delighted and ioyed was that of the Mauritanes whyche is nowe called the kyngdome of Marrewcos And the reason that he gaue for this was bycause all other kingdomes he got by the sword and this kingdome he obtained by entreatance If vnto my wordes it please you to giue credite trauayle that Founterabye maye bée yéelded rather by composition than by force For that in graue and doubtefull cases firste men oughte to profite themselues with their pollicie before they make proofe of Fortune All the rest that your Lordship dothe commaunde mee I will perfourme with greate good will Whiche is to witte that I praye vnto our God for your Lordships victorie And that hée giue vnto mée of hys glorie From the towne of Victoria the .xiij. of Ianuary .1522 A letter for Sir Antonie of Cuniga Priour of Saint Iohn in the which is said that although there be in a Gentleman to bee reprehended there ought not to be cause of reproch FAmous and moste valiaunt Captayne yesterday béeyng Sainct Luces day Lopes Osorius gaue mée a letter from your woorship made at the siege of Toledo And of a truthe I didde muche reioyce therein and no lesse estéeme the same to bée written of suche a hande and sente from suche a place For in the tyme of rebellion as nowe the Knyght ought not to write from his house resting but from the Campe fightyng The Priest oughte to boaste hymselfe of his studie the husbandman of his plough and the Knyght of his launce In suche wyse that in a good common wealth the priest prayeth the husbandman ploweth the Knight fighteth He is not to be accounted a knight that is extract of noble blud in power great in iewels rich in seruāts mighty for al these things in marchauntes is many times found and also of a Iewe many tymes obtained But that whiche maketh the Knight to be a perfect gentleman is to be measured in his words liberal in giuing sober in diet honest in lyuing tender in pardoning and valiant in fightyng Notwithstanding any one be noble in bloud and mightie in possessions yet if hee bée in his talke a babbler in eating a glutton in condition ambicious in conuersation malicious in getting couetous in trauells impatient and in fightyng a coward of such we shal rather say to haue more abilitie for a carle than for a Knight vilenesse sluggishnesse nigardship maliciousnesse lying and cowardnesse did neuer take repast with knighthoode For in the good knight although there may be founde wherewith to be reprehended there ought not to be conteyned wherfore to be reproued In our age there hath bin no tyme wherin the good knight mighte better shewe his ablenesse or to what ende hee is than at this instant bicause the King is out of his kingdom the Quéene is sicke the royall Counsell is fledde the people rebell the gouerners are in Camp and all the kingdome out of quiet nowe or neuer they ought to trauaile and die to appease the kingdome and euery man to serue his king The good Knight doth now turne his gloues into gantlets Mules into horsses his buskins into greues his hattes into Helmets his doublets into Harnesse his sylke into mayle his golde into yron his hunting into fighting In such wise that the valiant knight ought not to boaste himselfe
hath sent thée and that thou art a yong man my nephew and a Citizen of Rome The Emperour Tiberius writing vnto his brother germain said thus The Tēples be reuerenced the Gods be serued the Senate in peace the common wealth in prosperitie Rome in health Fortune gentle and the yeare fertile this is here in Italy the same we desire vnto thée in Asia Cicero writing vnto Cornelius sayeth thus Bée thou merry since I am not euill for likewise I shall reioyce if thou be well The diuine Plato writing from Athens vnto Dionysius the tirant saith thus To kill thy brother to demaund more tribute to force thy people to forget me thy friende and to take Photion as an enimie be workes of a tyrant The great Pompeius writing from the East vnto the Senate saith thus Conscript Fathers Damascus is taken Pentapolis is subiect Syria Colonia and Arabia is confederate and Palestina is ouercome The Consull Cneius Siluius writing newes of the battel of Pharsalia vnto Rome saith thus Caesar did ouercome Pompeius is dead Rufus is fled Cato killed himselfe the gouernement of Dictator is ended and the libertie lost Behold Sir the manner that the ancients vsed in writing to their peculiar friends which with their breuitie gaue vnto all men wherefore to be noted but we in neuer making an end giue large occasion to be corrected No more but that I pray the Lord to be your protector and giue me grace to serue him From Valiodolid the eight of October in the yere 1525. A letter vnto the Marques of Pescara wherein the Authour doth touch what a Captaine ought to be in the warres BEing with Caesar in Madrid the .xxij. of March I receiued a letter from your Lordship written the .xxx. of Ianuary and God be my witnesse that when I sawe and read it I would rather the date thereof had bin not from the siege of Marcellus but from the conquest of Ierusalem For if it were from Asia and not from France your iourney should be more famouse and magnified and of God much more accepted Titus Liuius reporteth of no small variance betwixt Mar. Marcellus and Quintus Fabius which did arise vpon the Cenfulships of the warres for that the good Mar. Marcellus would not be Captaine of the warre which was not very well iustified And Quintus Fabius did not accept to go to the warres were it not very daungerous The Romanes were in a maruelous vaine glory in that worlde when these twoo noble Princes were borne but in the ende muche more was the estimation of Marcus Marcellus for being iust than of Quint. Fab. for being valiaunt The Romanes were neuer so foyled or euer did incurre so muche dishonor in the warres of Asia either in Africa as they receiued at the siege of Numantia And this was not for defaulte of batterie eyther bicause the Citie was very strong but for that the Romanes had no reason to make them warre And the Numantines had iust cause to defend themselues Helie the Spartan doth say that onely the Emperour Traian was hee that neuer was ouercome in battell And the reason thereof was this that he did neuer take any warre in hand wherein he did not iustifie his cause The King of Pontus whiche was called Mithridates dyd wryte a certaine Letter vnto the Consull Silla being bente in warres moste cruelly the one against the other wherein was thus written I doe muche wonder of thée Consull Silla to take warre in hande in so straunge a lande as this of mine and that thou darest aduenture to deale with my great fortune since thou knowest shée neuer deceiued mée neither had acquaintance with thée To these woordes the Consull did answere Oh Mithridates I weighe it very little to holde warre farre from Romae since the Romanes haue fortune alwayes by them And if thou say that she did neuer fayle thée nor euer know mée thou shalt now sée how in vsing hir office she shall passe to mée and take hir leaue of thée And although it be not so I do neither feare thée or doubte hir for that I hope that the Goddes will do more for my iustice than for thée thy great fortune Many times the Emperoure Augustus vsed to say that warres to be good must be incommended vnto the Goddes accepted of Princes iustified of Philosophers and executed of Captaines Thus much I haue saide vnto your Lordship to this end that if your warre had bin vpon Ierusalem it were to be holden for iust but for that it is vpon Marsellius alway we hold it for scrupulous The kings hart is in the hand of God saith the diuine scripture If it be so who may attaine vnto this so great a secret whiche is to wéete that the Kings hart being in Gods hand he dare offend God which doth appeare most cleare in that we see no other thing but warres amongst the Christians and leaue the Moores to prosper and liue in rest This businesse to me is so difficulte that although I cā speak thereof I know not how to vnderstand it since all day wée sée no other thing but that God doth permitte by his secrete iudgements that the Churches where they prayse him be destroyed and throwen downe and the cursed remaine sound and frée where they do offend him Your Lordship is a Christian a good man at armes my neare kinseman and my speciall friend any of which things doth much binde me to féele your trauaile and to be gréeued with your perill I speake of trauell to the bodie bycause the Captaine that holdeth much of his honour ought to estéeme little of his life I say perill vnto the soule bicause amongst Christians there is no warre so iustified that in the same remayneth not some scruple Herein your Lordship shall sée that I desire to saue you in that I will not delite you with lies But only to say vnto you that which I do conceiue to the end that afterwards you may do what is méete If you know not wherunto you are bound I wish your Lordship to vnderstand it is that the Captaine generall do auoyde vniust wrongs correct blasphemers succour innocents chastise quarellers pay his armie defend the people auoyde all sackings and obserue fayth with the enemies Assure your selfe my Lord that there shall come a time in whiche you shall giue an accompt to God and also to the king not onely of what you haue done but likewise of that whereunto you haue consented Sir Iohn of Gueuara was your Grādfather and my cousin and he was one of the Gentlemen at armes that passed out of Spayne into Italy with the King Sir Alonso and there did helpe to get this kingdome of Naples and in recompence of his seruice hée made him Lorde greate Seneshall of the kingdome Of whiche you may gather howe muche your Lordship ought to trauell to leaue suche another renoume vnto your successours as hath bene left vnto you by your predecessors As
difference betwixt the one and the other is that in the Booke your Lordship may vnderstand my simplicity and in the pen there doth appeare your great bountie No more but that our Lorde be your protectour and giue me grace to serue him From Valiodolid the xix of August 1524. A letter vnto sir Allonso of Albornaz wherin is touched that it is a point of euill maner not too aunswer too the letter that is written vnto him IF the Lady Marina your wife bée as well affected to your person as my penne is offended at your slouthfulnesse you may safely marrie without after repentāce And I think not that I bind my selfe vnto a small matter in saying that in your mariage you shall find no repentance for surely I wish too haue no more contrition of my sinnes than many men haue too think themselues maried To contract matrimonie with a woman is a thing very easie but to sustaine it vnto the end I hold it for very difficult Whereby it comes to passe that those which mary without respect but only for loue liue afterward with sorowe Considering al the displeasures that proceede of the familie then tediousnesse of the wife the care for the children the necessitie of the house the prouision for the seruants the importunitie of the cousins and the sutes of the sonnes in law Although of all these thinges the maried doth not repent him at the least it doth tyre him The Philosoper Mirtho being demaunded why hée did not marry aunswered bycause if the woman whome I take in mariage bée good I shall spill hir if she bée euill I must supporte hir if she bée poore I must maintaine hir if shée bée riche I must suffer hir if she bée foule I shall abhorre hir it she be faire I must watch hir and that which is worst of al for euermore I giue my libertye to hir that shall neuer gratifie mée Riches bréedeth care pouerty sorrow sailing feare eating heauines going wearinesse all which trauelles we se deuided amongst many except amongst the maried where they ioyne altogither For we seldome sée the maried man go without care sorow wearied heauie yea and also sometime astonied I say astonied of that whiche maye happen vntoo him and of that his wife may dare to do The man that doth encounter with a woman that is a dizard foolish a babler light a glutton a chider slouthfull a goer at large vntractable iealouse absolute or dissolute it were better for that man too bée a slaue to some honest man than a husbande too suche a wife It is a terrible thing too suffer a man but there is very much too bée knowen in a woman And for no other cause more than for that they knowe not too vse a measure in louing or giue no ende in abhorring I will not or perchance I dare not saye more in this case For if in the same I should occupie my selfe and giue libertie to my pen I should want time to write but not matter to speake Not without cause I saide my pen was angry with your slothfulnesse since halfe a yeare past I did write vnto you and you haue not as yet answered me And afterwards came Iohn de Occanio and also with him you did not write in suche wise that on the one part I call you sluggish and of the other part note you of negligence Sir you may take it for a rule neuer to leaue him vnanswered that hath taken paine to write vnto you For that the maister of the henchmen which is Harnan Sanz de Minchasa said vnto me that none lost his worshippe for answering vnto a letter To write to our better is of necessitie to answere our equall is of will but to write vnto our inferiour is of pure vertue Alexander the great did write vnto Pulion his bit maker Iulîus Caesar to Rufus his gardiner Augustus to Pāphilo his smith Tiberius to Escaurus his miller Tullius too Mirto his tailer and Seneca to Gipho his rent gatherer wherof it may very wel be inferred that basenesse doth not consist in writing or answering base persones but to will or to do vile things Paulus Aemilius writing vnto his plough man said I haue vnderstood what word thou didst send me by Argeus and the aunswer of the same is that I send thée another oxe to yoke with that firce oxe also I sēd thée a cart redy drest therfore eare that ground well dresse the vines purge the trées and alway haue memorie of the Goddesse Ceres Curius Dentatus béeing in warre with Pyrrhus King of the Epirotes did write a letter vnto a carpenter which said thus Cneius Patroclus certified me that thou dost worke in my house take héed that the timber be dry and that thou make the lightes towardes the south that it be not high that it be cléere the chimney without smoke with two windowes and no more but one dore Alexander the great writing vnto his smith said I send thée a horse which the Athenians sent me he and I did scape wounded from the battaile breath him well euery day cure wel his wounds pare his foreféete let him be vnshod slit his nose wash his necke let hym not growe fat for that no fat horse may well endure with me in the field Of the famous Phalaris the tirant it is read that neuer man did him seruice that he did not gratifye either write him a letter that he dyd not aunswer So high and so great Princes as bere we haue named too haue written to men so base and so vile occupations is not written by historiographers too blemish them but by the same to magnifie them Of which we may gather that basenes doth not consist in wryting or aunswering base persons but in doing thinges scandolous or vnhonest In this matter as in all other thinges you may vse that boldnesse with me as with your selfe but if vniuersally you vse to do the same with all men it may be if your frendes do note you of negligence there shall not want that will accuse you of presumption To be noted angry enuious couetous slothfull wanton gluttonous auaricious certainly is a griefe but to be noted of foolishnes is an infamie which giueth me occasion to saye vnto you that to cal a man presumptuouse by a cunning maner of speach is to call him foole In Caius Caesar there wanted no fortitude for that he ouercame many people either clemencie for he pardoned his enemies either liberaliitie for that he gaue kyngdomes either science for that he wrote many Bookes either fortune for he was Lorde of all men But he wanted good manner which is the foundation of a quiet life Amongst the Romanes it was a custome that when the Senate entred the Emperours house they did vnto him a certaine great obeysance and he did vse vnto them a certaine curtesie in doing whereof as he grew negligent either for that he woulde not
or not remembring the case was thus that within fewe dayes after they gaue him thrée twentie stabs with a dagger in such wise that the most Noble Prince lost his life for no greater matter than for not hauing a little good maner The contrary of this Suetonius Tranquillus doth write of Augustus the Emperour which being in the Senat or in the Colledge did neuer sit downe vntill they were all set and rendred the same reuerence that they gaue him and if by chaunce his children entred the Senate house neither did he consent that the Senators shoulde rise either that his children should sit downe Sir if you will not that men call you presumptuous or to speake plainly do call you foole haue a care to be well manered for with good maner more than with any other thing we withdraw our enemies and do sustaine our friends Sir I haue spoken with the Popes messenger vppon the dispensations that you sent to haue to marry with the Gentlewoman the Lady Marina Whiche wée haue agréed for thrée score ducates and as he is a Venetian and would not be counted a foole he will first be payed before you shall be dispatcht I haue spoken with Perianes as concerning the expedition of the priuiledge of the Iury and as he was deaffe and moste dunch I cried out more in speaking vnto him than I do vse in preaching The newes of the Courte is that the Empresse wisheth the Emperours comming the Dames woulde marrie the suters would be dispatched the Duke of Veiar would lyue Antony de Fonseca woulde grow young Sir Rodrigo of Voria would enherit also Frier Denise wold be a Bishop Of my selfe I giue you to vnderstand that I am in possession of all the condicions of a good suter that is to wit occupied soliciting carefull spent suspicious importunate out of temper and also abhorred for that my Lorde the Archbishop of Toledo and I go to the lawe for the Abbay of Baza vppon which I haue for my parte a famous sentence No more but that our Lord be your protector and giue me grace to serue him From Medina del Campo the twelfth of Marche .1523 A lerter vnto sir Gonsalis Fernandes of Cordoua great Captaine in which is touched that the knight escaping the warres ought not from thence forth to depart his house MOst renoumed valiant Prince my weakenesse to write vnto your mightinesse my simplicitie vnto your prudencie if it shall séeme vnto those that shal heare thereof to be a thing ouer proude and to such as shal see it to be ouer presumptuous lette them lay the fault vpon your honour which did first write vnto me and not on me that do answere with shamefastnesse Sir I will trauell to satisfie your excellencie in all things that ye cōmaund me by your letter vpon this condition most humbly beséeching that you do not so much consider what I doe say as that which I would say And for that to a person of so greate an estate it is reason to write with grauitie I will trauell to be measured in the wordes I shall speake and to be remeasured in the reasons I shall write The diuine Plato in his Bookes of common wealth did say That lesse greatnesse is not to be imputed to the honorable to deale and be conuersant with the weake than it is to stand and to countenance with the mightie and the reason that he gaue for the same is that the Generouse and magnificent mā vseth more force in taming his harte to stoupe vnto lowe things than to take in hand graue weightie and high attempts A mā of an high stature receiueth more paine in stouping to the ground for a straw than to stretch out his arme to reach a braunche By this that I haue said I would say that this our hart is so puffed vp and so proude that to rise vnto more than he may it is life and to descend to lesse than he is worth it is death There are many things whiche God woulde not bring to passe by himself alone to the end they shall not say that he is a Lord absolute either wil he bring them to passe by the hāds of the mightie for that it shal not be sayd that he taketh help of humaine fauour and afterwardes he performeth the same by the hand and industrie of some man beaten down of fortune and forgotten amongst men wherein GOD sheweth his greatnesse and filleth the same with his might The great Iudas Machabeus was lesse in body and much lesse in yeares than his thrée other brethren but in the end the good old Mathathias his father to him onely did cōmend the defence of the Hebrewes and into his handes did also resigne the armies against the Assyrians The least of the children of the great Patriarch Abraham was Isaac but in him was established the right line of Christ on him al the Iewish people did fixe their eyes The inheritāce of the house of Isaac came too Esau and not to Iacob but after the daies of the Father Iacob did not onely buy the inheritance of his brother Esau but also did steale the blessing Ioseph the sonne of Iacob was the least of his brethren and the last of the eleuen Tribes but in the ende it was he alone that foūd grace with the kings of Aegypt did deserue to interprete their dreames Of seuen sonnes that Iesse had Dauid was the least but in the ende King Saul was of God reproued and Dauid King of Hebrewes elected Amongst the meaner Prophetes Heliseus was the least but in the ende vnto him and vnto none other was giuen a dubled spirite Of the meaner sorte of the Apostles of Christ was S. Philip and the meanest Disciple of Paule was Philemon but in the end with them more than with others they did take counsaill and in great affaires would take aduise Sir it seemes to mée that agréeing with that which I haue saide your Lordship wold not take counsell with other men that be learned and wise but with me that am the simplest of your friends As your Lordship hath ben so long time in the warres of Italie it is very seldome that I haue séene you but much lesse that I haue eyther spoken or bin conuersant with you for whiche cause my friendship is to be holden for more sure and lesse suspitious for that I loue you not for the rewardes you haue giuen me but for the magnificence that I haue séene in you When one cōmes to seeke to be our frend maketh much to the matter to consider the cause that moueth him to séeke the same for if he be poore we must giue him if he be rich we must serue him if he be fauoured we must worship him if he be wilfull we must faune on him if he be impatient we must support him if he be vicious we must dissēble with him and if he be malicious we must beware of him One of the
letter ill written and worse noted neither is it to be taken in good parte either may wée leaue to murmur thereat The ploughman in plowing dothe reuew his forough that it bée straight and shall not a man haue regard to note and write his letter very well There be many who wil as lightly take the pen in hād to write as the glasse to drink and that which is worst of all they thinke much of themselues to be talking and writing The which doth well appere in their letters because the letter is illegible the paper blotted the lines crooked and the reasons doltish To knowe a man whether he be wise or foolish is a great part to consider whether he write vpon aduisement and speake with iudgement for a mā must not write what commeth to his memory but what reason doth direct Plutarch doth say of Phalaris the tyrant that he did neuer write but being alone withdrawen and with his own hand whereof it doth follow that although al do blaspheme him for his tyranny his letters wer praised throughout the world Of a trouth a Gentleman and a kinseman of mine did write vnto mée a letter of twoo shéetes of paper and as he wrote so large and not returning to read what he had writtē the very same reasons and the very same woords that he had put in the beginning he did return to write in the end wherat I was so much offended that I burnt the letter and made him no aunswere Doubtles your letters are not of such qualitie the whiche to me be very pleasant to reade and not tedious to aunswere bycause in iestes they are very pleasant and in earnest very wise Sir you say that in reading the moralles of saint Gregory you did note and also did meruaile to sée that the deuill did aske licence of God to do hurt vnto holy Iob it was graunted him and the Apostle S. Paule did pray vnto God to take away the temptation of the flesh and it was denied him In such wise that God heard the Deuill and did not condiscend vnto the prayer of saint Paule Maruell ye not sir of this for the thinges that the diuine prouidence do bring to passe be so iust and done for so iust causes that although wée maye not reach them they want not therefore reason why they should not be done If wée déepely consider what God did with the Apostle wée shall finde that it was more that God gaue him than the Apostle did craue Bycause hée desired that the temptation of the flesh might be taken away and God gaue him grace to ouercome it What iniurie doth the Prince to the Captaine that sendes him a warfare if hée makes him sure to haue the victory If absolutely God should haue taken away the temptation of the flesh from the Apostle saint Paul neither should there haue remayned occasiō to deserue either should haue béen giuen grace to ouercome For hée is more supported of God to whom hée giueth helpe to conquere than to him that hée excuseth to fight Let vs not despaire afflict our selues or bée ouer thoughtfull and much lesse complayne and murmur of God if forthwith hée giue not that whiche wée desire For hée doth it not with disfauour in that hée will not heare vs but bycause he wil change it into a better cause Hée knoweth what hée doth and wée vnderstand it not hée knoweth what hée doth denie but wée not what wée aske hée measureth all thinges with reason and wée but with apetite hée dooth denie that is hurtfull vnto vs and graunteth that which is profitable Finally I doo say that he doth know how hée are to bée handled and therfore wée ought of him only to depend The Apostle had séene the inuisible and diuine secrets whiche of his forefathers had béen much desired but neuer séene and bycause of that so high reuelation hée should not boast or grow proud the Lord would not take away the concupiscence of the fleshe In suche wise that in recompence of not condescending to his desire hée did take awaye the occasion to sinne and gaue him grace to ouercome God vsed more pitie with saint Paule in that hée would not heare him than if hée had heard him For if hée should haue taken awaye the concupiscence of the flesh it might haue come to passe that as much as hée had diminished in temptation hée might haue increased in pride When the Lord doth permit that one is tempted it doth not followe therfore that hée is of God abhorred for my parte I holde it rather a signe that of God hée is elect For as saint Gregory sayth there is not a greater temptation than not to be tempted Christ hath left the way to heauen marked and the markes of this voiage be tribulations aduersities mishappes and infirmities In such wise that it is no other thing to be remembred of God but that in this world he be permitted to be tempted Let it be holden for certaine that they of him are lost whiche in this world from aduersities be priuiledged For the enemy of mankind whiche is the deuill vnto all those that he hath registred for his owne hée doth trauell that they may liue in great welfare and ease Sir also you saye that you doe much maruail to sée the boldnesse that the Deuill had in asking licence of God to hurt holy Iob and to sée the liberalitie that God vsed in giuing it In such sort that he denied S. Paule that he desired and graunted the Deuill that whiche hee craued Sir although you haue no reason yet haue you some occasion to demaund that whiche you aske for of a suretie it as an hard thing to consent that our enemy do hurt vnto our friend That whiche I dare speake in this case is that it is lesse pernicious and of more worthinesse to suffer ill than to haue authoritie to do euill And after this maner wée haue more enuie of holy Iob in that hée suffred than vnto the deuill for that whiche he did It ought to be farre distant from the diuine will that he that hath to giue grace to serue him should giue licence to offend It is a great euill for a man to be euill but it is much worse to make him euil which is good Bycause our owne proper sinnes God doth well sée they procéede of weakenesse but the persecuting of the good alwayes groweth of malice If men do aske of God vppon their knées that hée giue grace to serue him they ought to aske with teares that he do not giue them place to offend him For in the ende if I do not good workes I shall haue no reward but if I doe euill for the same I shall haue paynes By Caine Abell was slaine by Esau Iacob was persecuted by Saule Dauid was banished by Nabugodonoser Ierusalem was burned by Achab Micheas was imprisoned by Zedechias Esaias was sawen and by the Diuell holy Iob
how was he of the Lord For the vnderstanding hereof it is to be noted how it is written in the 1. Regum cap. xxvj that Dauid being compassed with the armie of King Saul who sléeping on a night in his tent Dauid did passe thorough the middes of his campe and toke from the Kinges beds head the launce that he fought withall and a cruse of water wherein he vsed to drink and in this passage he was neither séen of the watch nor perceiued of the scout And why Quia sopor Domini irruit super eos to saye as the Scripture saith that the sléepe of the Lord fell vppon them is most true but to say that God doth sléepe and hath néede of sléepe is a great mockery For as the Psalmist doth saye Ecce non dormitabit neque dormiet qui custodit Israel Whē the scripture doth say Quòd sopor Domini irruit super eos that God had sent a dead sléepe vpon them it is to be vnderstoode non quòd ipse dominus dormiret Sed quia eius nutu infusus esset ne quisquam presentiam Dauid sentiret The diuine prouidence would cast a sléepe vpon King Saul and vpon his watch and vpon those of his Campe not for their recreation but for the safe kéeping of Dauid in such wise that in God his sléepe and his prouidence is one self thing the Lord is so zelouse of his elect and so vigilant to preserue them that he doth not only giue them grace to performe good purposes but also doth direct them alwaies by good meanes in suche wise that although hée doth permit them to trauaile he doth not consent that they perish But comming to the purpose that after the maner that the Scripture is to be vnderstood Sopor Domini irruit super eos after the same manner is vnderstand Spiritus Domini malus arripiebat Saulem And for farther declaration of this I say Quod si Diabolus tentationem iustis semper inferre cupiat tamen si à Domino potestatem non accepit nullatenus adipisci potest quod appetit The spirite that did tempt and torment King Saul for this cause he is called an euill spirite for that the will of the Deuill in tempting vs is euill And for this purpose he is named the spirite of the Lorde for that the power which the Lord doth giue him to tempt vs is good When God dothe giue licence to any Diuell that he go to vexe and disquiet any iust man it is not Gods intention that he tempt him but to exercise him bicause vertue is of such qualitie that it groweth mortified when it is not exercised with trauailes The wheat whiche is not turned is eaten with wiuels The garment that is not worne is eaten with mothes the timber that is not seasoned is spoiled with chest lockes the frō that is not wrought doth consume with ruste bread long kept groweth finnowed By this that I haue saide I would say that there is not any thing that turneth vs to more weakenesse negligence than to be a certaine time without temptations Much more care hath God of vs than we of our selues for in the end as our worthinesse is litle and but to smal purpose if we do quaile he doth comfort vs if we lie downe to sleepe he waketh vs if we be wearied he helpeth vs if we grow fearful he doth encorage vs if we grow negligent he doth intice vs Finally I say that leauing our selues vnto our owne power wée permit our selues to fall and he alone giues the hand to lift vs vp Also holy Iob was tempted of the euill spirit of the Lord not because there was any notable fault in the man but for that ther raigned in the Diuell enuie and malice For cursed sathan had not enuie of the great goods that Iob had but of the excellent life that he led At the instant that one is euill he doth desire that all be euill if he bée sclaundered that all be defamed in such wise that ther is not so perillous an enuie as that whiche euill men haue of those whiche be good and vertuous If one be good and ritch and liue by one that is euill and malicious First he that is euill dooth trauell to take away the credit the good man hath before he vseth force to spoile him of his goodes Abrabam was tempted when it was commaunded that his onely sonne shoulde be sacrifized Tobie was tempted when he lost his sight The holy Iob was tempted when they killed his children tooke his goods and filled him with the mangie in which temptatiōs those holy men suffered much and also loste much but at the time of repayment he did not giue them reward according to the goods they lost but according to the patience they vsed Since it is certain that all passions or troubles eyther God doth send them or else do come by the hand of God it is reason that we take them as sent by the hand of God who is so iust in that he commaundeth and so limited in that hée permitteth that he doth neuer suffer vs to be tempted aboue our strength With men that be of a good life and doe kepe rekening with their conscience the licence whiche God giueth to the Diuill to tempte them is surely limited and the patience that hee giueth them is very bountifull de hoc bactenus sufficit The Controler Hinestrosa came from the Court this way to sée me whiche came in suche distresse for that he had gone thither he him repented and for that hée had staied hée was despited and for that whiche had happened he was abhorred in suche sorte that to heare him report his great trauelles moued me to weigh my owne as light Men in sadnes ought not to séeke comfort of those that be merie but of others that are sorrowfull and more confounded than them selues For if they so doe of a troth they shal find that it is very little they suffer in respecte of that whiche others endure No more but that our Lord be your protector and giue me grace to serue him From Sotia the 4. of March. 1518. A letter vnto the Marques of Velez wherein hee writeth vnto him certaine newes of the Court. RIght magnificent my singular good Lord Garcy Rodrygues seruant and solicitor vnto your Lordshippe gaue me a letter of yours made the seuēth of this present in Velez el Rubio which came with more swiftnes and also more fresh thā the Samons they bring from Bayon Your honour writeth vnto me that I shoulde certifie you what newes and what worlde runneth vnto whiche I dare aunswere your Lordship that in this Court none runneth but they goe all bechafed It is an auncient pestilence in the courtes of Princes that they call suche men as do not aunswere theim they loue where they be hated they follow suche as know them not they seeke those that flie them they serue those that pay them not
they hope for that which is not giuen them and they procure that which they can not obtaine Suche and so great trauelles as these are although we performe with our bodie that suffereth we can not bring to passe with the heart to dissemble them if the body suffer paynes and the heart bée compassed with anguish sooner dothe the body cease to complain than the hart to sighe Plutarche saithe of Aeschines the Philosopher that being as he was alway sick did neuer complaine of the Splene that did gréeue him and on the other parte hée did muche lament of any sorow that hapned vnto him As a wise man it séemethe your Honor to bée aduised in kéeping your house ouerseeing your landes enioying your goods vnderstanding how to liue and howe to discharge your conscience In suche wise that of affaires in court ye delight to heare flie to sée them For of a troth as all things that doe passe here are fayned vayne voide inconstant and daungerous it is a pastime to vnderstand them and a great despite to behold them Your Lordship will that I write vnto you whether I bée present at any time when the Emperesse doth eate and what things she doth most vse to feed on Now in winter as at this present few Prelates being at Court I my Lord am present euery day at dinner and supper not to sée but to blesse the table And I can tell your Lordship that if I blesse hir I cursse my self bicause at the houre that I departe the Court to go to dinner it is then time very neare to goe to bed There is much lesse trauell in seruing of God than the kyng For the king doth not accept seruice but when it liketh him but our God dothe not only accept when hée will but also when we thinke good To that you demaund what and how the Empresse doth eate I can shew your Lordship that shée eateth that whiche she eateth cold and in the cold alone with silence and that all stand beholding If I be not deceiued these bée fiue such condicions that onely one were suffcient to giue me a very euill repast Sir it is now winter the which naturally is a time very heauie cold melancholike and all men delite to eate their meate by the fire warme accompanied and talking and that none stand to behold for that in time of reioycing when a man neither eateth or serueth but standeth with silence musing with him selfe I dare saye of such a one that he doth not behold vs but rather watch vs To eat in the winter any cold meat is no smal wāt of good diet for meats that are cold do hurt the stomacke giue no apetite A man to eat alone is likwise great solitarnesse in the ende the gentleman doth not so much delite in the meate he eateth as in the mirth he maketh with the company he hath at his table For a man to eate without communication and warmthe I would say the one proceded of filthinesse the other of wretchednesse Princes bée not bound to bée subiect to these rules bycause they are forced to vse great seueritie in their life and great authoritie at their meat My Lord be it as be may and let hir Maiestie eate as shall please hir to commaund for in the end I do more repine at hir pacience than enuie the meat she eateth The meates that are serued at hir table are many and those that shee féedeth on bee very few for if hir Phisiognomie do not deceiue me the Empresse is of a very good condition and of a weake complexion The most that shée eateth of is winter Mellons poudred Beefe fed Pigions minst Bacon great Geese and Capons rosted in suche wise that shée eateth that others do loth and shée abhorreth that for whiche men of the countrey do sighe They set before hir Pecocke Partridge Capōs franked Fesant Manger blāck Pasties Tarts and other variable kind of gluttonies of all whiche shée not only pretendeth a contempt to eate but also sheweth a lothsomnesse to behold In such wise that the contētation doth not cōsist in the much or little that we haue but only in that wherunto we be inclined In all her dinner shée drinketh but once and that is not pure wine but water mixed with wine in suche wise that with hir sippets none may satisfie his apetite and much lesse kill his thirst Shée is serued after the maner of Portingall which is to wit there is placed at the table thrée Dames vppon their knées the one to carue the other twaine to serue in such sort that the meate is braught by gentlemen and serued with Ladies All the other Dames be there present standing vpright not in silence but talking not alone but accompanies so that the thrée Ladies giue the Empresse to eate and the others yéeld their seruaunts sufficient matter both to speake and thinke Authorized and pleasant is the maner of Portingall yet truly notwithstanding that sometimes the Dames do laugh so loude and the gallants do speake so high that they lose their grauitie and also are yrksome to hir Maiestie To that whiche your Lordship doth demaunde that whether bée more the Dames that be sued vnto or the gallants that do serue them to this I aunswere that Esayas did saye Apprehendent septem malieres virum vnum Manye sonnes of Knights and Gentlemen do trauel to sée the Dames to talke with them and to serue them but at the tyme of maryage none doth marrie with them In such maner that Iustice iustice but not at home To that whiche you demaund who gaue the Hat to the Lorde Cardinall it was Sir Frauncis of Mendoza Bishop of Samora And if my diuination deceiueth me not the Lord Bishop had rather haue ben vppon his knées to receiue the same than sitting to giue it They presented the Hat in saint Antonies Church and at the instāt it was giuen him there fell so great tempest of wind and raine that if as he was a Christian hée had bene a Romane either he would not haue receiued it or els haue defered it vntill another daye My Lord it is not to be holden for a iest that at the very present the wind and the raine was so cruell and vehement and the water so great that when the Cardinall went thence made Cardinall he did more profite him selfe of the Hat he brought than of the Hat whiche he receiued The banquet made by the Cardinall was magnificent in expences and of long continuance for that we began to eat at one and made an end at foure As concerning drinking there were found so good wines and also so good drinkers that Toro S. Martin Madrigall and Arenas did cause that some did stauke with vnstedy steppes As concerning my lodging your Lordshippe ought not to aske me if I haue good lodging but if I haue any lodging For I saye many times vnto Iohn de Aiala the harbenger that of God wée obtain
that wee desire with praiers and of him wée can not get a lodging no not with teares On a sunday in Aduent preaching in the Chappell vnto hir Maiestie I sayd that saint Iohn Baptist went to dwell in the desert not onely to auoyd sin but also for that he woulde not haue to doe with herbingers and your Lordship do demaund if there be much people at the Court to my iudgement ther are few men many women for that from Auila there came inowe to the Court and here in Medina was very many beside these Toro Zamora Salamanca Olmedo haue sent hither other aduentures in suche fort that if in Palace there be for euery galant seuen dames there is in Courte for euery courtyer seuen Courtizanes For that Caesar is in Flanders the winter harde and the yeare déere also there is none at the court that willingly would be there but for necessitie Further your Lordship will that I write vnto you what I thinke of the duke of Veiar which gathered so great treasure in hys lyfe that at his death he left foure hundreth thousand Ducates This is a matter perillous to write and odious to heare but in the ende my iudgemente is that he wente to séeke care for himselfe enuie for his neyghboures spurres for his enimies a praie for théeues trauaile for his person anguishe for his spirite scruple for his conscience perill for his soule lawe for his children and cursses for his heyres Great contention and debate goeth betwixt the olde duchesse and the yong Duke and the Erle of Miranda and others his kinsfolke and heyres vpon the inheritaunce of his good and the succession of his house in such wise that there be many that eft procure to inherit his money and none that takes the charge of his discharge In the yeare 1523. I béeing sicke in Burgos the Duke came to sée mée and demanded who might properly be called couetous for the he had asked many none had answered vnto his minde and that which I answered at the sodeyn were these words The man the sitteth in the smoke when he may warme himself by a faire fire that may drinke good wyne and drinketh euill that may haue a good garment and goeth hard and ragged and that will lyue poorely to die riche he alone and no other wée maye name couetous and wretched And sayde further Beléeue mée my Lord Duke that I holde hym a more woorthie man that dothe venter to parte his riches than him that gathereth them together bicause for a man to be riche it is sufficient that he be diligent but to employ his greate riches he muste be a Gentleman and noble minded To that your Lordship doth demaūd my opinion of this towne of Medina I can saye vnto youre honour to my iudgement that it hath neyther grounde nor heauen for the heauens are always couered with Clowdes and the grounde with dirt in suche wise that if the neighbourhed do call it Medina of the field we Courtiers doe terme it Medina of the dirt It hathe a riuer that is called Sapardiell which is so déepe and daungerous that géese in sommer go ouer drye footed and as it is a riuer narrow and muddy it doth prouide vs many éeles and dothe couer vs with many Clowdes No more but that our Lord be your protector and giue me grace to serue him Frō Medina del campo the xviij of Iuly in the yeare 1532. A letter vnto the Bishop of Tui new president of Granado in which is sayd what is the office of Presidents MAgnificent and most reuerend Lorde and regall iudge I wish the new prouision that his maiestie hath bestowed vpon your honour for the Presidentship of this royal audience of Granado may be fortunate I can shewe youre lordship that in this countrey you are more knowen by your fame than by your persō Wherfore as you know you haue to trauaile that your life may be conformable vnto your fame also you haue to consider that if you come to iudge you shall also be iudged not of few but of many not of learning but of custome not of goods but of fame not only in publique but also in secret not of waightie causes but also of very small matters One of the greatest trauayls that Presidents haue and suche as gouerne common wealthes is that they doe not onely iudge what they doe but also what they thinke not only the things that they doe in earnest but also what they commit in iest in such sort that all things whiche they doe not with seueritie they iudge it for lightnesse Plutarke sayth in his politikes that the Athenians did note in Simonides that he spake loude The Thebanes accused Parniculus that he spet much The Lacedemonians sayd that Licurgus went stouping The Romains blamed Scipio that hée slepte snorting The Vticenses defamed the good Cato that he did eat with both his chéekes The enimies of Pompey murmured that he scratched with one finger The Carthaginiās reproued their Hanniball for that he went lose with his garments and the Sillanos charged Iulius Caesar that he went euill girt Behold sir how far the malice of man doth extend and in what things the ydle in the common wealth do occupie themselues to witte that they prayse not what the noble mynded doe take in hande as valiaunt men but condemne that whiche they doe of negligence With reason they mighte haue praysed Simonides that ouercame the battaile of Marathone Parniculus that reskued Thebes Licurgus that reformed his kingdom Scipio that subdued Carthage Cato that susteined Rome Pompeius that augmented the Empire Hanniball that was of a mynd immortall and Iulius Caesar that thought it little to bée Lord of the world Wherof we may gather that the people of a base soile do not speake of their betters and of the mightie accordyng as reason directeth but agréeable to that whiche enuie dothe persuade them Plinie sayeth that the Romanes onely in the prouince of Vetica held fiue iurisdictions conuented whiche is that of Gades Hispalis Emeritans Astaginensis Cordubensis they called Andelozia the Prouince of Vetica they named the Chauncellorships iurisdictions conuented Gades was Calis Hispalis was Seuill Cordubensis Corduua Meritensis Merida Astaginensis Ecija Of these fiue Chauncelorships the first and the greatest was that of Calis for there was resident the Counsell of the Prouince and in Merida were the men of warre I haue broughte all these antiquities vnto youre Lordships memorie therby to be aduertised and also to consider as there were then many presidents appoynted to gouerne ther were many of whom also to murmur but now you being alone the charge of murmuration wil light vpō you onely The people of this countrey are not lyke the people of your countrey for here they be sharpe suttle and greate dissemblers therefore I aduise and forewarne you that in hearing them you vse leysure and in your answers resolution As you shall perceiue more hereafter
the one that you liue onely with your own and in the other that also you take profit of other mennes 8 In the one that alwaies you remember to dye in the other that for nothing you leaue to lead an ill life 9 In the one that alwaies you occupie your self in knowledge in the other that you giue your self to be of much power 10 In the one that you impart of that you haue with the poore and friends and in the other that alwaies you keepe for deare yeares 11 In the one that you vse much silence and in the other that you presume to be very eloquent 12 In the one that you beléeue onely in Christ and in the other that you procure to haue money If you my Lord Embassador with these xy conditions wil be a Romane much good may it do you For vpon the day of accoumpt you would rather haue bin a laborer in Spaine than an Embassadour at Rome No more but that our Lord be your protector and to you and to me he giue good endings From Granado in the yeare 1525. the daye and moneth aforesaid A letter vnto the said Sir Ierome Vique in whiche is declared an Epitaph of Rome RIght magnificent Embassadour to Caesar by your letter that I haue receiued I was certified that to you was deliuered an other of mine wherein I haue vsed no curious care For vnder your good condicion there is no place for any thing to be dispraysed much lesse to be condemned Mosen Rubine aduertised me that by sléeping in an ayry place you haue bin very reumatike which I certainly béeleue hath procéeded of the great heate of the moneth of August but by my aduise you shall not vse it neither others so giue counsell for that it is lesse euill in sommer to sweate than to cough You write and also send vnto me certaine Gothicke letters that you haue foūd written in an aunciēt place in Rome whiche you can neither reade or they in Italy can declare Sir I haue very well séene considered and also reconsidered them and to him that is not acquainted with this Romish cyphringes they séeme illegible and not intelligible and that to vnderstand and read them well it were necessary that the men that bée a liue shoulde deuine or those that wrote them shoulde rise from death to life But to expound these letters no dead man shall bée raysed either am I a soothsayer or diuine I haue tyred my wittes and called to remembrance I haue ouerturned my Bookes and also haue ouerloked meruailous and many histories to see and to know who it was that did write them and wherefore they were written and in the ende as there is nothing that one man doth that another can not do or that one man knoweth and an other knoweth not your good luck wold and my great diligence that I met with that whiche you desired and I sought for And for that it shall not séeme that I speake without Booke in few wordes I will recite the history In the times of Octauius Augustus the Emperour there was in Rome a Romane Knight named Titus Annius verely a man of great experience in causes of warre and right wise in the gouernment of the common wealthe There was in Rome an office that was called Tribunus Scelerum this had the charge of all criminall causes whiche is to wit to hang to whip to banish to cut throates and to drowne in wels in such maner that the Censor did iudge the Ciuill and the Tribune the Criminall This office amongst the Romanes was of great preheminence and of no lesse confidence they neuer incommended the same but to a man of noble bloud auncient in yeares learned in the lawes in life honest and in iustice very moderate for that all these condicions did concurre in Titus Annius hée was by the Emperour Augustus in the office of Tribune named by the Senate confirmed and of the people allowed Titus Annius liued and was resident in this office xxv yeres in all whiche time hée neuer spake to man any iniurious word either did any iniustice In remuneration of his trauell and in reward of his bountie they gaue him for priuilege that hée shoulde bée buried within the walles of Rome and that hée should bury by him selfe some money and that in that sepulcher there shoulde not any other bée buried For a man to bée buried in Rome was amongst the Romanes a great preheminence the one was bycause the priests did consecrate the sepulcher and the other for that malefactors to flie vnto sepulchers were more worth than the temples But now these letters woulde saye that Titus Annius Iudge of the faultie by him in his sacred sepulcher did hide certaine money whiche is to wit ten foote off and that in the same sepulcher the Senate doth commaund that none of his heyres be buried This Titus Annius when hée died left his wife aliue that was named Cornelia whiche in the sepulcher of hir husband did set this Epitaphe The aucthors of this history are Vulpicius Valerius Trebellius And bycause the declaration of the history shall appeare more cleare let vs set the exposition ouer euery letter and these be the letters Titus Annius Tribunus Scelerum Sacro T. A. T. Sce. S. Suo Sepulcro Pecuniam Condidit Non. S. S. P. Con. N. Longe Pedes Decem. Hoc Monumentum Lon. P. X. H. M. Heres Non. Sequitur Iure Senatus H. N. S. I. S. Cornelia Dulcissima Eius Coniux Posuit Cor. D. E. Con. P. Behold here my Lord Embassador your letters expounded and not dreamed and in my iudgement this that we haue said they would say and if you be not satisfied with this interpretation let the dead expound them that did write them or those bée whiche aline that gaue them No more but that our Lord be your protector and giue vs grace that we ende in his seruice From Toledo the third of April 1526. A letter vnto the Bishop of Badaios in whiche there is declared the auncient lawes of Badaios RIght magnificent and Caesars Precor I receaued a letter from your Lordshippe with the whiche I did much reioyce my selfe before I did read it and after that I had reade it I remained no lesse offended not for that whiche you had written vnto me but for that you commaunded me and also demaunded of me If Plutarch do not deceaue vs into the chamber of Dionisius the Siracusan none did enter in the librarye of Lucullus no man sate down Marcus Aurelius with the key of his study no not with his Faustine did vse any trust and of a troth they had great reason bycause there be things of such qualitie that not only they ought not to be dealt withall neither yet to be looked vppon Aeschines the Philosopher said that for very great frendship that might be betwixt one and other he ought not to shew him all thinges in his house nor to communicate
health and the grief you séemed to haue of my infirmitie Beleue me Sir and be out of doubt that at that present I had more abilitie to drink than to read for I would haue giuen all my Librarie for one only ewer of water Your Lordship writeth vnto me that you also haue béen ill that you thinke all your sicknesse to be well employed as well for that you féele your selfe recouered as also that you finde your selfe affected with a holy purpose to departe from sin and to abstaine from excesse in eating My Lord I am sory with all my heart that you haue ben sicke and it pleaseth me very much that you stand vppon so good a purpose although it be very true that I wold more reioyce to sée you performe than to heare you promise for hell is full of good desires and heauen is full of good workes But be it as be may to my iudgemeÌ„t there is not any thing wherin we may soner discerne a man to be wise or foolish than to sée in what maner he behaueth him selfe in aduersitie how he reapeth profite by sicknesse There is no such foolishnes as to employe our health to euill purpose either is there any such wisedome as to drawe fruite or commoditie out of sickenesse Cum infirmor iuncfortior sum the Apostle said that wheÌ„ he was sicke then was he most strong this he said bycause the sicke man doth neither swel by pride or fornication doth make him coÌ„bat or auarice doth ouerthrow or enuie doth molest or ire doth alter or gluttony doth bring vnder or slouthfulnesse doth make negligent either ouerwatch him selfe with ambition My Lord Duke pleaseth it the Lord that wée were suche being whole as we promise to be when we be sicke All the care of the euill Christian when he is sicke is to desire to bée whole onely to liue and enioye more of this world but the desire of the good Christian wheÌ„ he is diseased is to be whole not so much to liue as to reform his life In the time of sickenesse there is none that doth remember himselfe of affection or passion of friendes or enemies of riches or pouertie of honour or dishonour of solace or trauell of laying vp treasure or growing poore coÌ„maunding or obeying but to be deliuered of one grief of the dead would giue all that he had gotten all the daies of his life In sicknes ther is no true pleasure in health all trauel is tollerable what wants he that lackes not health What is it worthe that he possesseth that enioyeth not his health What doth it profite to haue a very good bed if he cannot sléepe What benefite hath he that hath old wine of fragrant fauour if the phisitian do commaund that he drinke sod water What auayleth to haue good meat wheÌ„ only the fight thereof moueth belkes and makes the stomacke wamble What commoditie ariseth vnto him that hath much money if the more part hée spend vpon Phisitians and Poticaries Health is so great a thing that to kéepe it and to conserue it wée ought not only to watche but ouerwatche The whiche surely séemes not so since we neuer haue regard thereof vntil we haue lost it Plutarch Plini Nigidius Aristicus Dioscorus Plotinus Necephalus with them many others haue written great Bookes and treatises how infirmities are to be cured and how health is to be conserued And so God saue me if they affirmed a troth in some things in many other things they did but gesse and other things not a few they dreamed Béeleue me my Lord Duke and bée out of doubt for my part I doe fully béeleue and also I haue experimented that to cure diseases and to conserue healths there is no better thing than to auoyd anger and to eate of few meates How great weale should it be for the body and also for the souls if we might passe our life without eating and without anger For meates do corrupt the humors and anger doth contâ—â—ne the bones If men did not eat and would not be angrie there shoulde be no cause to be sicke and muche lesse of whom to complaine For the whips that doe most scourge our miserable life are ordinary excesse and profound sadnesse Experience teacheth vs euery daye that the men that bée doltishe and ignorant for the more part are alwayes strong lustie and in good healthe and this is the reason for that suche as they are neither doe weary them selues to obtaine honour eyther doe féele what is shame reproch or dispite the contrary of all this doth happen to men that be wise discrete quicke witted and of sharpe deuise euerye one of which be not only grieued of that which is spoken vnto them but also they growe sorowfull for that they imagine what others do thinke Ther be men that be so sharpe and so ouersharpe or refined that it séemeth little vnto them to interprete wordes but also they holde it for an office to diuine thoughts and their repaiment is that by them selues always they goe discomforted and with others euill lyked I durst affirme and in a maner sweare that to bréed a sickenesse and to daunger a mannes lyfe there is no poyson of so daungerous infection as is a profounde and déepe sorrow for the miserable hart when he is sad doth reioyce in weping and takes ease in sighing Let euery man speake what he thinketh good for amoÌ„gst such as be discrete and no fooles without comparison they be more that grow sicke by anger they receyue than of the meates they féede on All day long wée sée no other thing but that those men whiche be merrie and glad be always fat whole and well coloured and those that be sadde and melancholike alwayes go heauie sorowful swollen and of an euill colour In these writings I confesse vnto you my Lorde Duke that the Ague that now I haue was not of any meate that I had eaten but of a certayne anger I had taken Your Lordship doth write that by sléeping vpon the grouÌ„d you haue taken a pestilente reume I verily thynke the greafe heate of this moneth of Auguste hath bin the cause therof whiche in myne opinion you ought not to vse or counsell any other therevnto For it is lesse euill to sweate with heate than to cough with colde To the rest which I vnderstand by your letter in desiring I should write some newes it is sufficient for this tyme that of this our Courte there bée few things to be trusted in paper much to be said in a maÌ„s eare The thinges that appertaine vnto Princes and lordes of high estate wée haue permission to conceyue them and no licence to speake them In the Courte and out of Courte I haue séene many aduaunced by secrecie and many shamed by want of silence Your Lordship pardon for this tyme my pen and when wée shall méete together my toung shall supplie this present want No more but that
whipt drawne they brought me to my cruell maister and I may say to thée O good Caesar that I wold rather haue remained dead at the Lions féete than aliue to appeare before my mayster Incontinent after I was brought into his presence he began to take aduice of them that brought me if I should be drawne to péeces haue my throate cut be hanged flayne quick or else be drowned In suche wyse that thou mayest well conceyue O noble Caesar in what case my hearte stoode and how afflicted in spirite I was when in my owne hearing they intreated not how they shuld chastise me but what cruell death they myght giue me After they had spoken many cruell wordes had threatned me with diuers cruell deathes he commaunded that I should be thrown into the dungeon amongst the condemned men for that with them I should be broughte hyther to Rome to bée meate for beastes and surely he did not erre in thinkyng to be thus moste cruelly reuenged of mée for there is not so cruell a kinde of death as to tarie thinke euerie houre to die This lion that you sée here lying by me is the same that I cured of the thorne and he that kept me so manie dayes in his caue and since the immortall Gods haue willed that he and I I and he should come to be acquainted in the place where they haue brought vs to be slain vpon my knées I beséech thée most victorious Caesar that since my fault hath condemned me to the beasts that it may please thy great clemencie to quite vs and to make vs frée This was that which Andronicus sayde vnto the Emperor Titus and that he related before all the Romane people If the myldnesse of the Lion had put them in greate maruel the words the great trauailes of Andronicus moued them to great compassion to heare the immeasurable paines the poore man had passed to sée how many times death had swallowed him with loude voyces al the people began to beséech pray the Emperour Titus that it might please him to prouide and commaund that Andronicus might not be slaine neyther cast vnto the Lion for the best part of the feast had bin to sée the mildnesse of the Liō to heare the life of Andronicus The Emperor Titus condescended with a very good wil to that whiche the people required and Andronicus desyred And thus it was that from thence forward he and the Lyon wente together throughout all the stréetes and Tauernes of Rome making merie and al the people reioycing with them After the maner of a little asse Andronicus with a small lyne did leade the Lion girded with a payre of bougets wherin he caryed certaine prouision of bread and other things that they gaue him at their houses and tauernes And somtime he consented that boyes shoulde ride vpon the Lion for money and to the straungers that came to Rome from farre countreyes and had not heard the storie therof demandyng what that so straunge and monstrous sighte shoulde signifye aunswere was made that that man was the Lyons surgion and that the Lyon was that mannes host This historie is recounted by Aulus Gellius the Latin and Apius the Gréeke much more at large Behold sir your paynting here declared behold here your straunge storie founde out beholde here your desire accomplished and beholde mée here that remayne tyred that for any thing woulde not againe take suche paine neyther put my selfe in suche care No more but that our Lord be your protector and giue vs good ending Amen From Toledo the .25 of August 1529. A letter vnto Sir Peter of Acuna Earle of Buedia wherin is touched howe Lordes should gouerne their estates A notable letter for suche as come newly to their inheritance REnoumed Lord and Christian knight Gonsalus of Vrena your seruant my friend gaue me a letter frō your lordship by the which you maintain against me a certain greate cōplaynt saying that it is a yere past since I haue not séene you and six monethes wherein I haue not written vnto you Syr I am so busyed and of my naturall condition so solitarie that it is painfull vnto me to visite and no lesse tedious to be visited not bycause they doe visit me but for that they let and hinder me The diuine Plato said quòd amici sunt fures temporis whiche is to saye that friends are stealers of tyme wherein he sayed troth For there be friends so importune in visiting and so tedious in communication that the time is more euill employed that is lost with them than the goods that theeues steale from vs. We Courtiers be much combred with tediousnes whiche in the court our friends doe vse with vs that sit downe by great leasure and doe settle them selues in a chayre not to aske any case of conscience or to talke any thing of holy scripture but to murmur saying that the King doth not firme the Counsell doth not dispatch the Paymasters doe delay the priuat doe commaund the Bishops bée not resident the Secretaries rob the Iustices dissemble the Officers compoūd the Gentlemen play and the women go at large Thinke you Sir that a man learned giuen to reading solitary and busied doth not more loose tyme in hearing these newes than to cure an infirmitie with euill diet to haue delight in murmuring he must be ill tongued that talketh of lend dispositiō and of euill condicion that delighteth therein They say that the good Marques of Santillana vsed to saye that euill tongs and euill eares did frame pleasant murmurings There be so many men in this Court loytering superfluous idle vagarant and euill tonged that if Laurence Temporall bée so great workman in refining clothes as they bée in shearing their neighbours liues we maye boldly giue more for the refining of cloth of Segeuia than for the cloth in Graine of Florencia My Lord I saye all this to the ende you haue me excused for my want of diligence and also to giue you to vnderstand of my condicion the whiche stretched no farther with his friendes than to make them aunswere to their letters and that sometime I write vnto them Before all things I am right glad of the sentence gyuen on your Lordships behalfe wherin they haue entituled you with Towne of Duennas and the Earldome of Buendia in whiche I beséeche God giue you many yeares of fruition and children to inherit For it is no small sorrowe to sée strange childrē inherit our proper sweat Your Lordship doth write vnto me in your letter that I pray vnto God to giue you grace as well to saue you as also to gouerne this estate whereunto I aunswere as also vnto them of the Towne of Duennas great is the mischance if they should not bée better intreated than my sacrifice of God aceepted Do you not thinke that I being a sinfull man a religious sinner and a Courtlike sinner shall not haue ynough to pray
for myne own sinnes but that I must burdē my selfe with you Much is God pleased with the prayer of the iust but much more he doth delight in the amendment of the sinner for it doth litle profit for the one to augment his prayers if the other do not diminishe his sinnes If you will gouerne this Earledome very well begin the gubernation in youre selfe for it is impossible for him to vnderstand to gouerne the common wealth that doth not know to rule his owne house or order his owne person when the Lorde is milde honest chast sober silent patient and deuout all his housholde and common wealth be likewise affected and if by chaunce there be any seruaunts absolute or dissolute they must be hidden and withdrawen which to the Lord is no small glory for hée doth not little that taketh holdnesse from any man in his house to be euill In the houses where Lordes are ambitious rashe quarelling lyars gluttons gamsters infamous and lecherous what steward may bring to passe that the seruants bée honest seeing they do not but what their maisters do allowe and likewise do The wordes of Lords be fearfull but theyr good works do animate and I say it to this end for their seruaunts and vassalles do rather imitate the works they sée thē do than the words they heare them speake The charge that a Bishop hath of his housholde and Diocesse the same hath a Gentleman of his seruants For it is not sufficient that a master or Lorde pay his seruants what is dew but that they make them also do their dutie it is a lamentable thing to sée that a mother shall send hir sonne to the house of Gentleman clad shod shamefast honest solitarie well mannered and deuoute and at the yeares end the poore yong man shall returne ragged bare legged dissolute a glutton a dice player a liar and a quarreller in such wise that it had bin lesse euill to haue had him dead than sent to such pallace or court Let the conclusion of this case be that in suche maner you order your life and gouerne your house that your owne may haue to follow and straungers to prayse That the Knight ought to be to God gratefull and to men pitifull ALso it is right necessary that alwayes you haue in remembrance the bounties and good things ye haue receyued of god In speciall to giue you this Earledome be depriued the Earle youre Brother of his life the Lady countesse died disherited your Cosin gaue a sentence against the Admirall in suche wise that you owe vnto God not only for the gift thereof but also for the deliuerance of the incumber thereof My Lorde be ye certaine that although before God all sinnes be gréeuous yet the sinne of ingratitude is holden for most intollerable for God will not any thing that we haue but only for that which he giueth vs we be thankfull Giue thanks vnto God for that he created redéemed and reléeued you and also prouided for you And surely with this estate Earledome if you kéepe rekoning with your rent and measure in expences you may serue God and liue honorably Although this Earledome hathe cost muche trauell perilles sutes anger and money contend not wyth God thinking that you haue obtained it by youre owne diligence but confesse his great mercie to haue giuen it for the victories and good gifts that God doth giue vs we may desire thē also craue thē but not deserue thē Remēber my Lord that god hath remoued you frō anger to ease frō poore to rich from asking to giuing from seruing to commaunding from misery to plentie and from sir Peter to be intitled the Earle of Buendia in such wise that you owe vnto God not only the state that he hath giuen you but also the miserie that he hath taken from you Oh how great mercie doth God vse with that man that giues him wherewith to giue and putteth him not in estate to craue of any man For to shamefast faces and to generous hearts there is no trauell that so doth perce their intralles as to enter to craue at other mens dores Plutarch reported of the great Pompeius that being sicke in Pusoll whē the Phisitions saide that to be hole and recouer strength it were conuenient hée shoulde eate of certain Zorzales that the Consull Luculus did bréede he aunswered I will rather die than sende to craue them for the Goddes haue not created Pompeius to aske but to giue My Lord I saye thus much to the ende ye consider since God hath giuen you liberally that you néede not craue of any man that you be not rechlesse to giue as they gaue you to succour as they succoured you and to part as they parted with you For of the temporall goods that God giues vs we be not lords but reparters Although the Earledom of Buendia be of no great rentes yet maye you do with it many good workes For as I haue said the gentleman that knoweth to rule his house and to order his goodes hée shall haue to spende to kepe and to giue For Princes and Lordes of power ought not to bée called great or mighty for the proude estates that they hold but for the great rewardes they giue The office and dewtie of the labouring man is to digge the religious to be contemplatiue the priest to pray the craftes man to worke the Marchaunt to be guilefull the vserer to keepe the poore to craue and of the gentleman to giue for vppon that day that the gentleman doth beginne to hourde vp money from thēce foorth he putteth his fame in proclamation In Lordly houses and of inheritours there ought to be the haunts of brothers cosines nephewes vncles and all others of his kinne bearing good will to their affaires and supporting their necessities In suche wise that to them there is no houre forbidden or any dore shut neuerthelesse there are some Brothers Cosins and Nephewes tedious in theyr spéech so importunate in visiting and so without measure in their crauing that they make a man angrie and also abhorre them and the remedy for suche is to succour their necessities and to appart their conuersations You shall now find in your Earledome retaynours of your Fathers Seruants of your Brothers allies of youre house and friends of all your dealings vnto whome you ought in generall to vse good countenance speake sweete words gyue good hope and deale some rewards for if you should be ingrate vnto them you should run into greate indignation of the people Also my Lord you shal find some old Seruants and some poore widowes vnto whome youre predecessours commaunded to be giuen some pension or some refreshing for trauelles past or for seruice they did them beware in no wise to take it away neither yet to diminish it For besides that vnto you it were a great wretchednesse and vnto them a great want In the place to pray vnto God for your life
to renewe your Iudges chaunge your Iustices make proclamations and to remoue your seruice to other persons vnknown Consider very well if they attempte the same to the ende that you shall not erre or else to amend their owne estate For it was a lawe amongst the Athenians that he shoulde haue no voyce in the common wealth that pretended to haue interest in that which he counselled Now at the beginning you haue muche cause to consider in whom to trust and with whom to take counsell for if the counseller be such as hopeth thereby to gather any gaine to that end he will direct his counsell where his affection is enclined In suche sorte that if he be couetous he will séeke to rob and if he be malicious or matched with enimies how to be reuenged And also such things as you shall finde in your house to be reformed and your common welth to be chastised It is not my opinion that you amend or reforme all things in hast that is amisse For it is not iust neither yet sure that ancient customes of the cōmon people be taken away sodeynly being brought in by little and little The customes that touch not the faith neither offende the Churche eyther offende the Common wealth take them not away neither alter thē the which if you will not for their cause yet for your owne cause disfauor the same for if I be not deceiued in the house where dwelleth nouelties there lodgeth want of iudgement Also my Lord I counsell you that you in suche wise measure your goods that they liue not with you but that your lordship liue with them I say it bicause there be many noble men of your estate that kéepe a great house with other mens goodes he that hath much spendes little they call him a nigarde he that hath little spendes muche they hold him for a foole for which cause men ought to liue in such sorte that they bée not noted mizers for their kéeping either prodigal for their spēding My Lord Earle be none of those that haue two quentes of rent foure of follies which alwayes go taking by lone dealing by exchāge taking rent aforehand and selling their patrimonie In such maner as all their trauel doth cōsist not in mainteyning house but in sustayning follies Many other things I might say vnto youre Lordship in this matter the which my pen doth leaue to write to remit them vnto your prudencie No more but the Lorde be your protector From Valiodolid the thirde of Nouember A letter vnto the Admirall Sir Fadrique Enriques wherin is declared that olde men haue to beware of the yeare three score and three MOste renoumed Lorde and great Admirall I assure you I maye firmely aduouche vnto your honour that at the instant there was not anye thyng farther oute of my mynde than was your letter when I sawe it enter into my Cell and incontinente I imagined with my selfe that you wrote vnto mée some iest or sent vnto me to declare some doubt To the very like purpose the diuine Plato did say that such is the excellencie of the heart aboue all the other membres of man that many tymes the eyes be deceiued in the things they sée and the hart doth not erre in that it doth imagin The Consul Silla when he sawe Iulius Caesar being a yong man euill trussed and worse girt for whiche cause many did iudge him to be negligent and also doltish sayd vnto all those of his band beware of that il girt youth that although he appeareth to be such yet this is he that shall tirannise the Citie of Rome and be the ruine of my house Plutarch in the life of Marcus Antonius recounteth of a certaine Gréeke named Ptolomeus which being demaunded wherefore he did not talke or was conuersant with any man in all Athens but with the yong man Alcibiades answered bycause my hart giueth me that this yong man shall set Greece on fire and defame all Asia The good Emperour Traiane sayd that he was neuer deceyued in choosing fréends and in knowing of enemies for presently his hart did aduertise him to whome he shoulde repaire and of whome he should beware And if we well consider the foresayd neither the hart of Silla was deceyued in that he propbesied of Iulius Caesar neyther the Art of Ptolomeus did erre in that he diuined of Alcibiades bycause the one depriued Rome of hir libertie and the other darkned the glory of Greece Thus much I thought to saye vnto youre Lordship to the ende you might sée how my hart was not deceiued in diuining what you had written and also what you craued I may very well say that sometimes your Lordship writeth me some iests that makes me mery and sometimes you demaund questiōs that makes me watch for your Lordship hath your iudgement so cleare your memorie so readye the Scripture so prompt the time so disposed and aboue all great swiftnesse in writing and much vse in reading that you doe me great gréefe to importunate me so often to declare that which you vnderstande not and to séeke out that whiche you may not finde to expound as I did the verses of Homer too declare the life of Antigonus to search you the historie of Methiados the Thebane to relate you the Ceruatica of Sertorius you haue iudged to be don in maner without trauel but I sweare by the law of an honest man I was ouer watched in séeking spent in disposing and tried in writing it Many other Lords of this kingdome and also out of the same do write vnto mée and craue that I declare them some doutes and send thē some histories which doutes and demaundes be all plaine and easie and at thrée turnes I finde them amongst my writings but your Lordship is such a frend of nouelties as always you aske me histories so straunge and peregrine that my wittes may not in any wise but néedes go on pilgrimage My Lord comming to the purpose you say that the Earle of Miranda did write vnto you that eleuen dayes before the good Constable Sir Ynnigo of Velasco died he hard me say and certifie that he shoulde die the whiche as I then spake so afterwards it came to passe but I would not declare vnto him by what meane I vnderstood it Youre Lordships pleasure is that I shoulde write vntoo you whether I did speake it in earnest or in iest or if I sawe in the sickeman any prognostication or if I knewe in thys matter any great secret the which I will discouer vnto you if you promise me to kéepe it secret and that vnto me thereof you be not ingrate The truth is I sayd it to the Earle of Miranda and also to the Doctour Carthagna neyther did I know it by reuelation as a Prophet either did I obtayne it in Circle as a Nigromanticke either did I finde it in Ptolomeus as an Astronomer nor vnderstand by the pulse as a
Phisition but I found it as a Philosopher for that the good Constable did then goe in the yeare Climatike At the present I vnderstood the Constable to be sick I demaunded how old he was and when they answered that he was thrée score and thrée I sayde his life was in great perill for that he was then in the most daungerous yeare to die For the vnderstanding hereof it is to wit that all the lyfe of man is like a long a perillous sicknes wherin the seuēth and the ninth day is muche to be noted for that in those cretick dayes the sick do mend or grow worse That whiche the Phisition dothe call Terme in the sick man is called in the whole by the Philosopher Climate and from thence it is that from seuen to seuen yeares and from nine to nine yeares mē do chaunge their complexions and also many times theyr conditions That this is true it clearely appeareth in that the man which is now flegmaticke we sée him turne cholerike the furious to be milde the prosperous to be vnfortunate and also he that is wise remoue to be foolish All whych commeth to passe that after seuen or nine yeares they haue chaunged as we haue sayde their conditions and also theyr complexions Also it is to be vnderstoode that in all the discourse of oure lyfe we onely lyue vnder one onely climat the which is seuen or nine yeares except in the yeare of thréescore and thrée in the which two termes of two climats doe ioyne which is to witte nine seuens or seuen nines because nine times seuen and seuen times nine be thréescore and thrée yeares and therefore in that yeare many olde men dye Those that come to the yeare of thrée score and thrée oughte to lyue in very good order and to walke very warely because that yere is so perillous that none passeth the same without suffering some daunger Many and very notable men in time past and also present died in that yeare of thréescore and thrée More and ioyntly with this I saye that the sonne that shall sée his Father passe this terme let him not hope so soone to sée him die neyther as yet to inherite The Romaine and Greeke Princes after they sawe themselues escaped the yeare théescore and thrée they gaue greate gifts vnto their people and also offered no small offerings in their Temples as it is read of the Emperour Octauius the Emperour Antonie the méeke the good Alexander Seuerus I thought good to giue a reckoning vnto your honor of this historie or to say better of this philosophie because you maye vnderstand how I did diuine the death of the good Constable of Castile which all we his friends and louers did sée within the yeare sixtie thrée to begin to be sicke and also to make and to dye Of all the great-states of this kingdome I holde some for kinsmen others my good Lordes some for neighbours and others for aquainted but amongst them all I held him for my singuler good Lord and friend for that I foūd him of a very good conuersation and of a sounde condition The good Constable was milde in commaunding iust in gouerning wise in spéeche large in expence valiant in battell méeke in pardoning and a very good Christian in liuing For that your Lordship and he were captaynes in the warre and Viceroys in time of peace you will not denie that whiche I say to be very true although I leaue of him much more to be said When you gaue and also ouercame the battell of Reniega neare vnto Pampalona I do remember that I comming vnto your honour to confirme two billes the one as concerning Iustice the other for goodes your Lordship sayde vntoo me these words with me father master you haue framed and brought to passe that I will do what you will and confirme what you demaund but it is necessary that firste you informe the Constable of the case and make relation vntoo him of the qualitie of the matter for that he is very much aduised in the distribution of goodes and very scrupulous in matters of Iustice The good Constable had with me very great familiaritie and I with him inuiolable friendship and vpon this foundation he did alwayes communicate with me matters of conscience and discharges of his goodes wherein alwayes I did know of hym that he did procure to do well and did shunne and auoyde to offende I knowe not what to write more in this matter vnto your Lordship but that the good Constable if he finished his life here in Madrid at the least in my chronicle his memorie shall remayne immortall From Madrid the xv of October .1529 A letter vnto the Admirall Sir Frederique Enriques in which is expounded wherefore Abraham and Ezechiell did fall forward and Hely and the Iewes backwardes RIght renowmed Lord and Archmariner great be the complaints that your Honor sendeth me in this your last letter the one for that I haue not answered thys yeare vnto youre writing and the other bycause I haue not sent your doubt absolued The truth knowen and the certaintie vnderstood neyther shall I be blamed or you remaine offended The very truth that hath passed in this matter is that as they haue stolen from Mansilla your seruant his horse and he played away al his money that he brought by the way in séeking to borow to pay at his lodging he forgat with me to take order for his answere Since I read youre letters with a very good will and presently forthwith did put my self in studie for your doubts it is not iust that faulte to be imputed vnto me if youre seruantes be forgetfull to take their answer Oftentimes I was both ashamed and also offended to sée your letters come so bitter and so cholerike that of a troth to shew so much anger and to write so heauie or leadenlike youre Lordship had no occasion and muche lesse any reason But as your body is little and your hart excéeding the same by a third or fift if you giue him place to speake what he wil and that he complayne what he féeleth beléeue me my Lorde and be out of doubt you shall liue in your selfe payned and discontented and of others not welbeloued The great and mightie Lords ought of nothing more too presume or boast themselues than to haue great harts which they ought to inioy if they will imploy them well in moderating themselues in great prosperities and not to be dismaied in their great aduersities My iudgement is since your Lordship is naturally cholerike and of small patience that you giue not your selfe to write when you be distempered for men do write many times in their choler whiche afterwards they would not should haue passed so much as their thoughts To the argument whiche you alledge that I estéemed you but little bycause I wold not answer presently this I answere I deny the premises and defye the consequence bicause your
that I do owe no more will I denie the fault that I haue committed in neglecting my dutie in visiting and writing vnto you for with our friendes we ought to accomplishe vntill we may doe no more and spende vntill we haue no more let it auayle what it may auayle and my excuse serue what it may serue The very troth is that I go in this court with myne offices so occupied and so bewandred in my busines that scarsely I knowe any man neither yet remember my selfe and this which I say is not so muche to excuse my fault as it is to accuse my liuing For in the time when I was aliue and abode in my monastery I did rise earely to go to Church I studied my bookes preached my sermons fasted the aduents performed my disciplines bewailed my sinnes and prayed for sinners in such sort that euery night I made a reckening of my life and euery day did renewe my conscience But afterwards I died afterwards they buried me and afterwards they brought me vnto the Court I grew negligent in fasting I brake holy days I forgot my disciplines I dyd no almes I prayed with negligence I preached sildome I spake at large I suffred little I celebrated wyth dulnesse I presumed much and ouer much and the worst of all is that I gaue my selfe to vnprofitable conuersations the which lead me vnto some tedious passions and also affectiōs to be auoyded Beholde here my Lorde and Vncle after what manner we goe in Court neither know we kindred or speake to friends neither be sensible of the mischiefe or profit vs of the time neyther do we séeke rest or haue any wit but wandring here and there we goe as certaine men bedolted and charged with a thousand thoughts But setting this apart since in time to come there shal be amends and for that which is past I may obtaine pardon I shall promise you by the faith of an honest nephew that the court hauing passed these ports I shall come to visit you and wil write by euery messēger Sir Ladron your sonne and my cosin willed me here in Madrid that I shoulde write vnto you the sorow which I conceyued of the sicknesse your Lordship hath had and the long diseases you haue passed The excesse you vsed is grief vnto mée the ague that held you sorroweth me the sorowes you haue paste displeaseth me the syropes you receyued irketh mée the purgations you vsed lothed me the oyntmentes you experimented despiteth me the bathes you proued are tedious and tormenteth mée the lauatories you tasted payneth me the money you wasted vexeth me bycause the sicke man consideryng the goodes he expended and the little that medicines haue profited many tymes it dothe more gréeue hym that he giueth to the Physition and Apoticarye than the maladie whiche hée suffered Behold here my Lorde howe I am not a man that giueth one sorowe but an hundreth if néed bée although it be true that a thousand tymes it soroweth me is not so much worth as one it pleaseth me Licurgus in the lawes that he gaue to the Lacedemonians did commaund that no man should bring euill newes to any man but that the pacient should diuine it or by discourse of tyme he shoulde vnderstande it The diuine Plato in the bookes of his common wealth did counsell the Athenians that they should not visite any of their neyghbours in tyme of aduersitie except they coulde by some meanes remedie them For he sayd and sayd well that colde and vnsauorie is that comfort when it commeth not be wrapt in some remedie Of a trouth to remedie and giue counsell bée two distinct offices very seldome conteyned in one person for counsel is to be giuē by the wife the remedy by him that possesseth the same My Lord vncle I would God that your remedie were in my hands as it is to desire it that I myght rather say It pleaseth me of your helth than that it soroweth me of your sicknes Sir you haue to vnderstand I beare you much enuie not of Paradilla where you dwel not to the newe plāted vineyard which you possesse or to the mil that you make either to the nintie yeares that you possesse but of the order that you vse in your house for that in nurtour it is a palace and in honest ciuilitie a Colledge Cato the iudge in his old age did withdrawe himselfe to a countrey house which stoode betwixt Nola and Caieta all the Romanes that past thereby did say iste solus scit viuere whiche is to vnderstand this man knoweth to liue by himself wherfore they reported that he had withdrawn himself thither in time and sequestred himselfe from the hurly burly of the worlde The greatest mercy that God vseth to an old man is to giue him to vnderstand that he is become old for if he know this of himself of a trouth he shal fynd that the olde man hath not of any thing more certaintie than euery day to look for death Plato saide Iuuenes citò moriuntur senes autē diu viuere nō possunt that is to say it is true that yong men die quickly but the old men can not liue long The stéele being spente the knife may not cut the talow consumed the candle goeth out the Sunne being set the day can not tarie the floure being fallen ther is no hope of fruite By that which is sayd I would say that after an olde man is past foure score yeres he ought to make more readinesse to die thā prouisiōs to liue Diodorus Siculus sayth that it was a lawe amongst the Aegyptians that no king after he had children either any old man hauing passed thréescore yeares shoulde presume to buylde an house without first for himselfe he had made a sepulcher My Lord thus much I say that not as an Aegyptian but as a good Christian you haue in the Monastery of Cuenca made a sepulture and indued a chapell where your bones shall rest and whereof your kynred may boaste Peter of Reynosa your neyghbour and my greate friende hathe aduertised mée that in the pleasant Peradilla the storm hath spoyled youre wheate and that in lowe places the vines be blasted with which lamentable and straunge chaunce although you féele much grief your lordship must shewe good courage and haue great pacience for that you now stande in suche an age as you shall rather wante yeares to lyue than corne to eate Those that ingrosse wynes to make it deare kéepe their corne against the moneth of May vpon such men heauinesse ought to fall and vpon suche losse is wel employd for there is nothing so méete eyther more iust than the man that wisheth an euill yeare to the common wealth shoulde neuer sée a good yeare enter his owne house It is a propertie of such as be muche couetous and little vertuous to murmure at that which nature doth performe and God doth permit in such sort that
they haue the voyce of Iacob and the handes of Esau In this ciuil warre I heare them say from thence so many things that it displeaseth me and I see héere so many things that discontenteth me Quod posui custodiam ori meo vt nō delinquam in lingua mea If they meete there with my letters or yours should be séene here eyther for not vnderstanding or by euill interpreting it might be I should incurre some daunger and you discredite Ignosce mi domine tum breuitate literarum tum etiam quòd non liceat hic nostra tempestate apertius loqui The Authour dothe expounde an authoritie of the Prophete THis other daye whyche was the feaste of Saincte Thomas when I preached vnto the Gouernoures you doe say in your letter that you hearde mée expounde that Texte of the Prophete whyche sayeth Inclinaui cor meum ad faciendas Iustificationes tuas in aelernum proptet tribulationem and you desire me to send it you in writing in suche forme maner as I did pronoūce it in the pulpet Sir I will performe it although I vse it not for that I wishe you well and am also beholding vnto you For the friend vnto his friende shoulde neither hyde secrete that hée knoweth or denye anye thing that he possesseth But coming to the purpose it is a thing to be noted no lesse to be maruelled that the Prophet wold bind himself to serue God for euermore without end knowing that she should die and haue an ende For the vnderstanding of this text of Dauid it is necessarie to expounde that of Christe which saith Ibunt in supplicium boni autem in vitam aeternam bicause the one authoritie béeing expounded the other is easyly vnderstanded Christ being as hée is the whole truth and the summe of Iustice it séemeth a thyng disproporcioned to giue vnto the good infinite glorie for temporall merites and to giue vnto the euill eternall paine for temporall faultes Since he commaundeth in the Apocalips that by the weight of their demerites the wicked should be tormented If it were not diuine iudgement it would séeme in the opinion of man to be a iust thing they shoulde giue vnto the iust that serued God an hundreth yeares in this worlde so muche more of glorie in the other worlde and to the wicked that offended fiftie yeares being aliue here in this world they shuld torment him as many more in hell In such sort that there the payne should be giuen by weyght and the glorie by measure In that God giueth not temporal reward for temporall seruice neither doth giue temporall payne for temporall offences there séemeth and ought to be in this case some high misterie which if it bée facile to demaunde is verie difficile to absolue For the vnderstanding hereof it is to wit that the paine they haue to giue vs in the other world and the rewarde we shall receyue in the glorie is not answerable to the many or fewe workes which wée do but vnto the much or little charitie wherewith we worke them for God dothe not beholde what wée doe presently but what we would do It may be that a man may deserue much with little workes and another merite little passing many trauels for our desertes consist not in the trauels we do passe but in the pacience we vse therein Not without a high and very notable misterie Christ sayd in your patience and said not in your labour you shall possesse your soules For as Austine sayth the paine makes not the Martyr but the cause wherefore he suffreth Answering to your demaund and to my dout I do say and affirme that for this cause in the other world they shall giue eternall reward vnto the good for if God should let them liue for euer and euer they would neuer cease to serue god In like manner they shal giue vnto the wicked infinite paine their sinnes being infinite for if God for euermore shoulde giue them life here in this world they would neuer cease to offend him The Prophet to say inclinaui cor meum in aeternum is as if he shoulde say I Lorde do bind my selfe to serue thée so muche as shall please thée to be serued of me In that if it shall please thée to perpetuat my life it shall be always imployed in thy seruice what wilt thou that I say more oh my God but if it shall please thée and may be to thy seruice that my dayes be temporall that at the least my good desires may be infinite quia in aeternum inclinaui cor meum Oh with how greate desire ought we to serue God and how great hope ought we to haue of our saluation for that we haue a Lord of so good condition and a God of suche power that without any scruple we maye set downe in his accompt not only what we doe but also what we desire to do No more but that our Lord be your protector From Medina del rio secco the xxij of Ianuary 1523. A letter vnto the Abbot of saint Peter of Cardenia in which he much prayseth the mountaine countrey REuerent Abbot and monasticall Religious Regi seculorum immortali sit gloria quia te ex litteris tuis bene valere audio ipse bene habeo The health of the body at all times ought to be much estéemed muche more in this present yeare for we haue warre within the house and pestilēce is calling at dore I haue not sayd much in saying that the pestilence calleth at the doore since Auila is infected Madrigal depopulate Medina escandalized Valiodolid in great feare and Duennas mourning As touching the rest I giue your fatherhood many thankes for Ochams Dialogues that you lent me And I gyue you no lesse for your poudred meat you sent me and as I was borne in the Astuaries of Sintillana and not in the costs of Cordoua you coulde haue sent me nothing more acceptable than that salt flesh in suche sorte quod cognouisti cogitationes meas de longe From Asia vnto Rome the fayre Cleopatra sent vnto hir good friend Marcus Antonius a poudred Crane whiche he so esteemed that he eat euery day onely one morsell of that poudred meate From Illiria in the Confines of Panonia they brought presēted vnto the Emperour Augustus sixe salted Lampreys whiche meate was so newe a thing in Rome that hee onely eate but one and deuided the other fiue amongst the Senators and Embassadours Macrobius in his Saturnals recounting or to say better reprehending Lucullus the Romane of a solemne and costly supper that he made to certaine Embassadours of Asia he sayth amongst other things they did eate a Gripe in potage and a Goose in pickle In a certain inuectiue that Crispus Salust maketh againste his aduersarie Cicero amongst the most graue thinges that he dothe accuse him is that he caused to bée broughte to satisfie his wanton excesse poudred meates from Sardinia and wines from Spaine The
as you that be supreme Iudges and constituted in high estates to the ende that if you will not doe all that wée craue at the least you will not chide vs when we be suters vnto you bycause that bond that holdeth the Iudge to be iust in that he iudgeth the very same doth bind the good to be importune when he sueth for another The office of the good maÌ„ is to pray and be importunate not only for the good but also for the euill it is to wit for the good that they maye be made better and for the euill that they pardon them Since there is no lawe in this worlde so rigorous that in good or in euill part may not be interpreted the Iudges haue to presuppose we do not desire them to breake their lawes but that they do but moderate them for many times the suter doth complaine not of the sentence of condemnation but of the desire that the iudge did shew to condemne him In the iudge it is not onely a vice intolerable to condiscend to all that which they craue but also a great extremitie to doe nothing of that they desire the good Iudge ought to be alwayes iust in that he giueth sentence and in that they desire him sometime humaine When the Consull Ascanius did boast himselfe that in the office of Censor or iudge he had neuer admittted either so muche as heard the requests of his friends The good Censor Cato sayd vnto him on a certain day in the Senat the offence standeth not oh Ascanius in that the Iudge suffreth himselfe to be sued vnto but to consent himselfe of any man to be commaunded Not of few but of many Iudges we maye iustly saye that which they do not at the intreatance of a gentleman they doe afterwards by the Counsell of their priuat friend I do lie if I did not intreat a Iudges wife to cause him to coÌ„sider of a plée of a friend of mine whiche aunswered me Intreat what think not Master Gueuara that my husband hath a wife that must intreat but commaund And so it came to passe as she said for that which could not be obtained in halfe a yeare she dispatched in one night In the bookes of common wealth Plutarch doth aduise Traiane that since in humane lawes there be more things arbitrable than forceable he should aduise his Iudges to approch more vnto reason than opinion The vnbridled Iudges that naturally be seuere and vntractable it is impossible but that they must be odious vnto all men and for this cause I thinke it very méete that one by one they shoulde heare all men with curtesie and afterwards determine what they shall finde by Iustice Many Iustices do holde it for aduauncement of honour to heare their suters with an euill will and not to doe anye thing wherein they bée intreated which they do not bycause they be iust in their offices but for that of their nature they be euill condicioned The good Iudge ought not to wrest the lawes to his condicion but wrest his condicion conformable vnto the lawes for otherwise it should not be expedient to séeke iust Iudges but men well coÌ„dicioned but in somuche as God was intreated of those of Niniuie that wâ—re condemned of Ezechias that was anoynted of Dauid that offended in adultery of Achab that committed Idolatry of Iosua that did not ouercome of Anna that was barraine and of Susan that falsely was accused surely it is not much that men do suffer them selues to bée intreated of other men I thought good my Lord president too write all these things not to teach you them but to remember you of them The Abbot of saint Isidro is of my acquaintance and great friend for we were brought vp in pallace together and were fellowes of one Colledge in suche wise that we be bretherne not in armes but in letters and now of late there hath bin proces againste him to appeare in this youre audience for which he would present him selfe before youre presence and in his way take a letter of mine by which I do much desire your Lordship that the Father Abbot and hys Monks Sentiant si placet quod non sit amor ociosus siue vester ad nos siue nostrum ad illos salua tamen in omnibus iusticia contra quam noque patrem respicere fas est From Toledo the xx of August 1532. A letter vnto the Earle of Beneuent sir Alonso Pimentell wherein is intreated the order and rule holden by the auncient Knights of the band RIght renowmed and greatest Earle of Spaine most acceptable to my hart was the letter you did write vnto me by the Commendathor Aquilera bycause there was not in these Kingdomes Lorde nor Prelate that had not written vnto me and to whome I had not writteÌ„ againe except your honour my Lorde the Earle of Cabra but since we haue passed the port and that the gulfe is nauigable the way tracked and I come to youre acquaintance knowing the sinceritie of your bloud the generositie of youre persone the authoritie of your house and the fame of your renowme I will not leaue from hence forward to request you neither will I be negligent to write vnto you With some Lords and gentlemen I hold aquaintance with others kinred and affinitie with other friendship with others couersation but to other some I refuse communication and flye their condition for in wit they be doltishe and in their coÌ„munication very tedious It is more painefull to suffer a tedious Lord or Gentleman than a foolish ploughman for the inconsiderate Gentleman will make you raue and the doltish ploughman prouokes you to laugh and farther and besides this the one you may commaunde to holde his peace and the other you must suffer vntill he haue made an end but youre Lordship is of so good stuffe and come of so right a Turquois and so delicate of iudgement that there may be no place in my conceit but that from hence forward I wil boast my selfe of your conuersation and ioy my selfe of your condition Your Lordship dothe commaunde me to write vnto you if I haue read in any auncient writing who were the knights of the Band in Spaine Also you woulde vnderstande in the time of what prince this order was established who was the inuentour thereof why he deuised the same what rules he gaue them to liue with how long it lasted and wherefore it was lost although I were some suspitious witnesse and youre Lordship were iudge Ronquillo you could not take my deposition by interrogatories more delicatly I sweare by the law of a good man that if mine answer be so accomplished as your demaund is exquisit your honour shall be satisfied and I not a litle tired After I did sée the stately buildings that you haue made at Valiodolid I did more boast you for a good builder thaÌ„ for a curious reader and therefore I do much delight in that
or anger REnoumed Lord and pitifull Constaple I may saye by your honour that whiche God saide by the Sinagog which is to wit Curauimus Babilonian nō est curata relinquamus illam which is to say we haue cured Babilon and it woulde not bée cured let vs abandon it Sir I say thus muche for that it hath happened not a little gracious vnto me that whereas I craued in my letter that my Lady the Duchesse should not see any one part therof notwithstanding you haue not only shewed it and conferred theron with hir but also had great game thereat Wherevpon in the way of reuenge I shewed youre letter vnto the Earle of Nassaro who with Flemings Portingalles Almaines and Spaniards dyd also take some pastime therewith yet was it my very good lucke that all the euill that I saide of women in your letter my Lady the Duchesse conuerted into iest in such wise that with greate reason I may praise hir for hir wisedome and complaine me of your temeritie My Lord Constable I shall most hartely desire you not to haue such care to make proues of triacle with my letters but to reade them and to teare or else burne them for it may happen that some day you might reade them before some not very wise either yet of good condition that might deuine to my hurt that which they vnderstand not to their owne profit Leauing this a part your Lordship sayeth that for my sake you haue remitted the displeasure you did beare against the Gentleman the which I accept for so great courtesie and grace as if vnto my selfe the iniurie had bin pardoned for I am so tēder ouer him that is my dere friend that al which I sée to be done in the behalfe of his person to the amendment of his estate I set it downe in mine own account Besides the accomplishment of my desire your Lordship hath performed that which you were bound to doe for Princes and great Lordes haue no licence to doe iniuries eyther so muche as to reuenge them For as you know that whiche is in the meaner called wrath in the mightie is named pride and that which amōgst the smaller sort is chastisement in the mightie is termed vēgeance As oft as you shall make coniugation with youre noblenesse and conscience and shall call to remembrance that you be a Christian and a Knight it shall not mislike you of the offences you haue dissimuled and it shall grieue you of the iniuries you haue reuenged The pardoning of iniuries gyueth great contentation to the hart and the desire of reuengement is no small torment thereof By that whiche is said I woulde saye that sometimes for some man to reuenge some little iniurie he escapeth from thence much more iniuried There be some iniuries that onely are not to be reuenged neither as muche as to bée confessed for things of honour are so delicate that the same day that any confesseth to haue receyued an iniurie from that day he bindeth himselfe to take reuengement The Consull Mamilius demaunded at a certaine time of Iulius Caesar wherein it was that he had in this worlde most vaine glory and in the remembring thereof did take most pleasure to this the good Caesar made aunswer by the Goddes immortall I sweare vnto thée Oh Consul Mamilius that of nothing in all this life I doe thinke that I deserue so muche glory or any other thing doth giue me so greate ioy and contentation as pardoning of those that do offend me and gratifying such as do serue me Oh wordes worthy prayse and pleasant to heare notable to reade and necessary to followe for if Iulius Caesar did beléeue as a Pagane he did worke as a Christian but we all beléeue as Christians and worke lyke Paganes I speake it not without a cause that we liue as Paganes although we beléeue as Christians since in this case the malice of man is growen so great that many woulde pardon their enemies and dare not for feare of their friends for if they once perceiue them to speake of pardoning any man presently they will say they doe it more of cowardise than of conscience Be it as be may and let euery man speake as he thinketh good in this case of pardon your lordship hath done with that Gentleman like a faithfull Christian and with me like a very friend and beside fidelitie to God and frendship to a friend There is no more to be craued of any man in this world The memoriall that your Lordship sendeth me of that things that toucheth your goods and conscience I my Lord wil consider therof at leysure and wil answere vpon aduisement because in your charges or discharges in such wise I will giue you counsel as in my brest no scruple shall remaine In him that asketh counsell there ought to be diligence and no slackenes for that many times businesse lieth so in corners and so farre from hand that it shall be more sure counsell to trust to our weapon than to staye for that bookes shall say the contrary wherof is to be vsed of him the shall giue counsel vnto another which is to wit that he haue much wisedome and little diligence for counsell that is giuen if it be not vpon aduisement most times bringeth some repentance The diuine Plato writing of Orgias the Greeke sayd My frend Orgias thou writest vnto me that I should counsell thée how thou shouldest behaue thy selfe in Licaonia and on the other parte thou makest great haste to haue an aunswere which thing although thou doest rashly craue I dare not performe for that I doe much more studie to counsel my frends than to read in scholes to Philosophers the counsell that is giuen or taken ought to be giuen by a man that is wise for the good iudgement he hath a learned man for the much that he hath read an auncient man for that he hath séene a patient man for that of him selfe he hath suffered a man without passion bycause malice shall not blind him a man without interest for that couetousnesse shall not let him Finally I saye that the shamefast man and of a noble minde oughte to giue vnto his friendes money with liberalitie and counsell with greate grauitie If it bée true as it is moste certayne that he oughte to haue all these conditions that shoulde giue counsell vnto an other we dare wel say that to giue counsell is an office so cōmon that many vse it and very few can performe it There commeth a carefull man to aske counsell of his friende in giuyng whiche counsell the one way or the other there goeth lyfe honour goodes and also conscience and then his friend whose counsell he hath craued without remouing or further thinking therof voyde of all scruple or doubt sayeth what is to be doone in that case as though he had founde it written in the holy Scripture All this I say vnto youre Lordship bycause sometime you be
offended and growe angrie if I answere not presently vnto your letters and send you not your doubtes declared As concerning that whiche you write of Marcus Aurelius the case standeth thus that I translated and presented it vnto Caesar not all finished the whiche Laxao did steale from the Emperoure and the Quéene from Laxao and Tumbas from the Quéene and the Lady Aldonsa from Tumbas and your lordshippe from the Lady Aldonsa in suche wise that my sweates ended in your theftes The newes of this Courte is that the Secretarie Cobos groweth priuate the gouernour of Brefa doth kéepe silence Laxao doth murmure and groane the Admirall dothe write the Duke of Veiar dothe hoorde and kéepe the Marquise of Pliego dothe plays the Marquise of Villa Franca followeth his busynesse the Earle of Osorno dothe serue the Earle of Siruela doth praye the Earle of Buendia doth sigh Gutiere quixada doth iust and the Iudge Ronquillo doth whippe From Madrid the sixthe of Ianuarie 1524. A letter vnto the Constable Sir Ynigo of Velasco in which is said that which the Marques of Piskara reported of Italy REnowmed Lorde and cōplayning Constable it hath chaunced me with very good grace that you neuer writte me letter wherin there cōmeth not some murmuring complaintes saying that I haue not answered to all that you haue written or that I am very short in writing or that I write but now and then or that I detayne the messenger or that I write as one offended in suche wise that neyther in me is any end of faults nor in your Lordship any lacke of complaints but if youre Lordship will note and accuse all the wants of considerations negligences slacknesse simplicities and doltishnesse that I haue I can tell you that you shall be wearied and also tyred for there is in me many things to be reprehended and very few wherefore to be praised That which is in me to be praised is that I estéeme my selfe to be a Christian kéepe my selfe from doing hurt to any man and boast my selfe to be your friend And that which is in me to be reprehēded is that I neuer leaue to sinne neither euer begin to amend this it is my Lorde that doth vexe me this it is that settes me aground and this is the cause why that there neuer remayneth in me gladnesse for as youre Lordship knoweth matters of honor and of conscience gyue great cause to be felt or considered but not to be discouered To write short or at large to write late or in time to write polished or without order neither is it in the iudgemente of him that doth indite it either in the pen that writeth the same but in the matter that he hath in hande or in the aptnesse of time he vseth for if a man be disgraced he writeth that hée ought not and if in disposition he writeth what he listeth Homer Plato Aeschines and Cicero in their writings neuer ceasse to complaine that when theyr common wealthes were in quiet and pacifyed they studied read and writte but when they were altered and vnruly they coulde not study much lesse wrought That which passed by those glorious personages in those days euery day passeth now in my selfe for if I bée well disposed and in temper it is offred me by heapes as muche as I woulde write and if by chaunce I bée disgraced or distempred I would not so muche as to take pen in hand There be tymes that I haue my iudgement so kindled and so delicate that as me thinketh I coulde swéepe one graine of wheate and cleaue a haire in sunder At another time I haue it so dull and so farre remoued that I can hardly hit a nayle with a stedge I knowe not what to write of thys Court but that the Marques of Peskara is come hither from Italy which doth recount from thence such so many things that if they be worthy to be put in Chronicle they be not to be written in a letter He that knoweth the condicione of Italy will not maruell of the things therof for in Italy no man may liue vnder the defence of iustice but that to haue and too be able he must be of power or else very priuate Let him not desire to liue in Italy that hathe not fauour of the king to defend or power in the field to fight for in Italy they neuer care to demaunde by Iustice that whiche they may winne by the launce In Italy they haue not to aske of him that hathe an estate or goodes of whome he did inherit them but how be did winne them In Italy to giue or take away estates or goodes they séeke not right in the lawes but in armes In Italy hee that leaueth to take any thing it is for want of power and not for want of will. Italy is very pleasant to liue in and very perillous to be saued Italy is an enterprise whether many do go and from whence few do returne These and many other such like things the Marques of Peskara recounted vnto vs at the table of the Earle of Nassao many Lords being present and some Prelates Giue thanks vnto God our Lorde that hath bred you in Spaine of Spaine in Castile and of Castile in Castile the olde and of Castile the olde in Burgos where you are beloued and serued for that in the other places or townes of Spaine althogh they be noble of power they haue always some controuersies The memoriall the your Lordship sent me this yeare to consider of and vpon the same to giue you counsell nowe I sende it you corrected with my conscience and consulted with my science No more c. A letter vnto the Constable Sir Ynigo of Velasco in which is declared the prises of thyngs as in olde tyme they were wonte to be sold in Castile REnoumed and curious Constable I haue receiued a letter from your Lordshippe as it appeareth by the same although you be chief or heade of the Valascos and I of the Ladrons of Gueuara there you haue the déede and here I haue the name For entring into my cell you haue stolne my Pictures and ouerturned my Bookes If there be a priuiledge of the Constables of Castile the religious being at his prayers that they shal enter and sacke his Cel it were very iust to shew wherfore they did it or else to restore vnto the owner the thing stolne Your Lordship writeth vnto me that you wil not restore the pictures that you haue takē away except I send you written the auncient ordinances that were made by the king Don Iuan in Toro in suche wyse that you doe not content your selfe with stealing but that you will also extort and doe violence I know not which was greater that day your fortune or my mischance in that my Cell was open for I swear by the faith of a christian that my lance in the sight of God wer much more worth if I shuld vse as great circūspection in
a wype To the Father Prior of Corta caeli I sende a riche palia for my sake I pray you to cōmaunde that it bée giuen him in my behalf to visit him bicause I lodged long time with him am much bound affectioned vnto him No more but that our Lord be your protector and kéepe you from an euill lemman and heale you of your goute From Madrid the thirde of Marche .1527 A letter vnto the Bishop of Zamora Sir Anthony of Acuna wherein he is sharply reprehended for that he was captain of the commons that rebelled in Spaine REuerent and seditious Prelate Zalobrena the sergeant of your bande gaue mée a Letter of yours whiche presently I coulde not vnderstand but after I had read returned againe to reade the same I did sée it was no letter but a bill that the Bishop of Zamora had sente wherein he dyd desie and threaten that he woulde kill me or commaunde mée to be chastized The cause of this defiaunce your Lordshippe declareth to procéede for that in Villa Braxima I withdrew Sir Peter Giron from your parcialitie and counselled hym to cease to followe you and retire to serue the king I my Lorde doe accept your defiance and hold my selfe defyed not that wée kill our selues but that we examin our selues not to the ende wée goe vnto the fielde but to incommende our selues to reason Which reason as a viewer of our factes shall declare whether of vs is moste culpable I in followyng and obeying the Kyng or you in altering and reuolting the kingdome I remēber me being as thē but yong in Trecenon a manour house of Gueuara I did sée my vncle Sir Ladron sir Beltram my father mourne in black for your father in verie trouth my lord Bishop seeing you as I did sée you in Villa Braxima compassed with artillery accōpanied with souldiours and armed at al points with more reason we might weare gréen bicause you liue than black for that your father died The diuine Plato of two thinges did not discerne which first to bewayle that is to wit the death of good men or the life of the wicked for it is a most great grief vnto the heart to sée the good so soon to die and the wicked so long time to liue A certain Greeke béeing demanded for what cause he shewed so great sorow in the death of Agesilaus He answered I wéepe not bicause Agesilaus died but for that Alcibiades remaineth liuing whose life offendeth the Goddes and escandalizeth the world A certain Gentleman of Medina who is named Iohn Cnaso reported that being appointed to haue the ouersight of your bringing vp he was driuen to change foure Nursses in six moneths for that in nursing you were fierce wayware and importune in suckyng It séemeth vnto mée my Lorde Bishop that since in your childhoode you were so paynfull and in your lyfe so sedicious it were great reason that in your olde yeares as you shoulde be quiet if not for your deseruing yet to repose you shoulde seeke quietnesse holding as you haue in youre possession thrée score yeare completed ▪ and shortely maye boaste youre selfe of thrée score and tenne accomplyshed it seemeth to mée no euyll counsayle that you offer if it lyke you the flower to God for that you bestowed so muche branne in the worlde Since your gardein is blasted your vinedage ended youre floure fallen your primetyme finished your youthe passed you olde age come it were muche more conueniente to take order for amendment of olde sinnes reformation of youre life than to execute the office of Captaine ouer rebelling cōmoners If you will not followe Christe that made you yet folow sir Lewes of Acuna that begat you at whose gates many poore euery day did féede and at your gates we sée not but playing and blaspheming souldiours To make of souldiours priests it passeth but of priests to make souldiors is an acte moste scandalous whervnto I wil not say your Lordship consented but that you exactely haue perfourmed You broughte from Zamora to Tordissillas thrée hundreth Massing Priestes not to instructe the Kinges subiectes but to defend that Town against the King and to remoue your Lordship from euill toungs as also for the better saluation of their soules you brought them from Zamora in the beginning of Lent in such wise that like a good pastor an excellent Prelate you remoued thē from praying to fighting in the assault which the Gentlemē gaue at Tordessillas against your bande I saw with mine eyes one of your priests with an harquebuse ouerthrow eleuen men behinde a window the grace was that when he did leuell to shoote he blessed him selfe with his péece and killed them with the pellot I sawe also before the assaulte was ended the Souldiours of oure side that were without giue that good Prelate such a blow in the forehead with an arrow that the death of that caytise was so suddain as he had neither time to confesse his sinnes nor yet so muche as to blesse himselfe But nowe the soule of that Bishop that remoued that priest from his churche the soule of that priest that slew so many men what excuse can they haue before men and what accounte maye they make to God It were a sinne to take you from the warres but much greater to make you of the church since you be so offensiue in nothing scrupulous hereof we be most certain for that you make no account to fight to kill and also to be irregular I woulde gladly knowe in whether booke you haue read most which is to wit in Vegetius whiche entreateth of matters of warres or in S. Austine his booke of Christian doctrine and that whiche I durste auouche is I haue séene you many tymes handle a partisan but neuer anye booke and it séemeth vnto mée not a little gréeuous that to the souldioures that assaulted and fel at the taking of the fort of Impudia they say that you sayde So my sonnes vp fight and die beholde my soule for yours since you dye in so iust an enterprise and a demaunde so holye My Lorde Bishop you well knowe that the Souldiors that there were slayne were excommunicate for sacriledge traytours to the King robbers of churches théeues on high ways enemies of the common wealth and maintainers of ciuill warre It is most euident that the soule of that Bishop that speaketh suche blasphemie is not much scrupulous that desireth to die as a souldiour neither doe I maruell that he desireth to die like a desperate Souldiour that neuer made account of his estate as a Bishoppe If you had raysed this warre to reforme the common wealth or to haue made frée your countrey from some oppression and taxation it might séeme you had occasion although in déed no reason but your Lordship hath not risen against the king for the weale of the kingdom but to make exchange for a better Bishoprike
pierced vnto your heart for I did not write that you should read it but that you shuld reade and feele it The patiēt that doth determine to receiue a litle rubarbe suffreth the bitternesse that it leaueth in the throte for the profite it doth him against his feuer I woulde say that it shall little profite your Lordship though you know how to complaine if you do not likewise determine how to amende for that your Lordship is an Oforio in bloud in dignitie a Bishop in authoritie a gentleman or a knight and in profession a Christian I hold you in great reuerence but ioyntly therewith as concerning your furious complainses and threates I esteeme them very little for there is a God that beholdeth his seruants and a Prince that standeth for his subiects I conceyue no euil that you be a warriour and that you go armed vpon condition that your armour be such as the Apostle speaketh of quòd arma militiae nostrae non sunt carnalia sed spiritualia bicause your warre ought not to be with enemies but with vices and as Seneca sayth more glory was deserued by Cato in banishing vice out of Rome than of Scipio for conquering the Carthaginians in Africa But since you would needes go on warfare and make warre vppon the whole common wealth of Castile to foyle your enemie the Earle of Alua de Lista what faulte had the King and Quéene committed To pardon many for the merite of one is the office of Christians but to chastise many for one mans offence is the condicion of tyrants in suche sorte that from henceforth we may not call you Bishop of Zamorra but tirant of the common wealth Many times I stay to cōsider to what purpose your Lordship would néedes disobey the king alter the kingdome raise vp the people make armies ioyne with communers cast away your selfe and hurt and endamage the common welth I am not able to comprehend any occasion muchlesse any reason except it be that as you desire to be Archbishop of Toledo you would obtaine by strength that whiche you deserue not by vertue If the matter might come in iudgement before God yea and also before mē your Lordship may be sure that more demerites would be found in you to be dispossessed of your Bishoprike that you now possesse than merits wherefore to giue you the Archbishoprike that you craue The dignities of the Church of God ought not to be giuen vnto suche as doth procure them but vnto those that do refuse them for so muche the more worthy is he to gouerne soules that thinketh himselfe most vnworthy to performe the same To deserue the Archbishoprike of Toledo your Lordship ought rather to shed teares than bloud to be in the temple and not in the fields to accompany the religious and not souldiers too pray at your houres and not to alter the common wealthe but your Lordship séeing that you cannot deserue by vertue you determined to obtaine by armed strength You ought too haue remembred that God hath chosen you for a Bishop and not for a Captaine for the Church and not for the warre to preach and not to fight to be inuested with surples and not with a shirt of maile to succour Orphanes and not souldiers and also to giue orders and not to order stales and ambushes to skirmish The first bishop of this world which was S. Peter founde amongst all the Apostles but two swordes to defende Christ and there is to be founde a M. Hagbuts within youre house to ruinat this Realme In such wise we haue to praise you not for your bookes that you reade in but for the armour you do possesse Maldonado your seruant and my friende hath aduertised me that you haue giuen him a benefice of ij C. Ducats I demanding if he vnderstood to read his diuine prayers He made aunswere Sir you are in a wrong accompt for at this instāt in the house of my Lord Bishop none hath skill to pray but we all learne to skirmish The houses of good prelates are not but certaine schooles of vertues where none may haue acquaintance with lies or learne to play the glutton or too goe at large or to be idle either yet to delight in much talke either to quarrell or to be ambitious which is not so in your house where all become absolute and glory and presume too be dissolute When the gouernours of the kingdome thys other daye sente me thither vnto you to offer condicions of peace with those of the conuocation in the towne of Braxima and sawe your Lordship armed like a clocke compassed with souldiers inuironed with such multitude of shot acompanied with such numbers of commoners and laden with affaires and businesse of so greate importance I was in a dout with my selfe whether that which I saw was a dreame or else the Byshop Sir Turbin were risen againe from deathe If you will not call to remembrance that you are a Christian that you are a priest that you are a Preacher and that you are a natiue of this kingdome yet become aduised that you descended of noble bloud and of an auncient house although it bée most true that as you be an Osorio in bloud so are you rash and desperat in condition It grieueth me my Lord Bishop that you vse armour not as a wise man but as one ouerrash not as one that defendeth but as one that offendeth not as you ought but as you list for I perceiue you follow opinion and flie reason all your displeasure riseth for following your will and imploying your abilitie to a wrong purpose but as Seneca sayth in the house where will doth commaunde very sildome reason doth inhabit and as Muscoso maketh report that eating many times you saye at youre table is there no man that will take me master Gueuara to hang him at a windowe for the disceite and intising away of sir Peter Giron out of oure percialitie To say that I deceyued him I denie it to saye that I deliuered hym from disceite I confesse it and whether it be good or euill for him to remayne there or turne hyther I am sure he repenteth not to haue beléeued me neyther I to haue giuen hym counsell Youre Lordship doth well remember when youre Captaine Lares did take me and so taken brought me before you and notwithstanding you reprehended and delte euill with me I requested you on the behalf of the gouernours that you would leaue warre and accept an honest concorde in whyche Embassage you estéemed me very little of that I said made smal accompt also and skoffed at that which I spake My lord Bishop you do well knowe how many euil dayes I haue passed how many iniuries I haue suffred what froward words with me haue bene vsed what perills I haue past what despites haue bene done vnto me with what threatnings I haue bin threatned and also what slaunders they haue raysed vpō me for that I haue folowed
by the feare of death The couetous wretched niggard that he goeth seeking is carefulnesse for himselfe enuie for his neighbours spurres vnto his enemies a pray for théeues perill for his person damnation for his soule malediction for his heires and law for his children All these thinges Sir I thought good to write thereby to giue you to vnderstande the grosse office you haue taken in hande and the euill opinion they do couceyue of you the which to vs your friends is great shame and to you a most great infamie Sir amende youre fault and take some other order in your life for in the house of any honest manne any lacke of goodes is tollerable but no want in honour If you shall alwayes continue to be a miser a niggard and shall giue your selfe to kéepe and hoord money from henceforward I take my leaue of your friendship and also to call you my acquainted For I neuer delighted to hold acquaintance with the man that woulde presume to lie and giue himselfe to kéepe This letter I send you without head or foote which is to wit without date or firme for going with such choler and so vnsauorie it is not reason he shoulde bée knowen that did write it neither to whome it was written No more A letter vnto the Lady Mary of Padilia wife to Don Iohn of Padilia wherein the Authour doth perswade that she tourne to the seruice of the king and giue no occasion of the losse of Castile MAgnificent and vnaduised Lady in the dayes that the good Emperour Iustinian did raigne in the East a certaine Captaine of his dyd gouerne the kingdomes in the West that was named Narsetes a man of greate capacitie to gouerne and of great valiantnes in fighting and giuing battell of this Narsetes the Romanes did saye that in him only was the force of Hercules the boldnesse of Hector the noblenesse of Alexander the wisdome of Pirrhus the valiantnesse of Antheus and the fortune of Scipio After that thys glorious captain had ouercome and slaine Atholia King of the Gothes Vncelino king of the French men Sindual king of the Brittons and also pacified and triumphed ouer all the kingdomes of the West the Romanes sought meanes to disgrace him with his Lorde and maister Iustinian saying and giuing him to vnderstand that he sought meanes to obtaine the Empire wherefore Narsetes was constrayned to departe from Rome and to passe into Asia to appeare before the Emperour Iustinian and the Empresse Sophia his wife to declare his innocencie and to make proofe that enuie had raised that sclaunder certaine dayes were then past that the Empresse Sophia had conceyued disdaine against Narsetes some say it was for his great wealth others for that he commaunded in the Empire with too much authoritie and others bycause he was a gelded man and when she sawe time to vtter hir hatred she said vnto him in Court on a certaine day since thou Narsetes art lesse than a man and halfe a woman being an Eunuche I commaunde thée to leaue the gouernment of the Empire and that thou get thée vp to weaue where my maydes doe weaue and knit caules and that there thou help them what they commaund thée Although Narsetes were a man of great authoritie and of no lesse grauitie these words did so deepely pearce him to the quicke that he chaunged countenance the teares brake from his eyes and so chafed with teares he said Serene Princes I woulde right gladly that you shoulde chastise me as a Lady but not to defame me like a woman it gréeueth me not so much of that you haue said as the occasion which you giue me how to make you answer and said more I presently depart vnto Italy to weaue knit and frame such a toyle that neyther thou maist comprehend nor yet thy husband able to vnweaue Comming now to the purpose my Lord Abbot of Compludo gaue me here in Medina a letter frō your Ladiship which contained such ouerthwarts such want of measure and so greate rashnesse that he was ashamed too haue deliuered it and I astonied to sée the contents thereof And as the good Narsetes aunswered the Empresse Sophia it gréeueth me not of that you haue saide but of that whiche I must answer for of necessitie my penne must stand foorthe to make combat with your tong Your Ladiship doth say in your letter that you haue séene the letter that I sent vnto youre husband Iohn of Padilia and that it dothe well appeare in the same that it came from a frier irreguler foule spoken ouerthwart absolute and dissolute and that if I were one of the world not only I would not dare to wright such things neyther yet so much as in corners to speake them Also you do extréemely charge me that I haue suborned Sir Peter Lasso disswaded sir Peter Giron contended with the Bishop of Zamora resorted to Villa Braxima for the Gouernours that I preache publikely againste the commoners and that in my mouth there is no truth nor in my déedes any fidelitie Also you blame me charge condempne and threaten me for the letter I did write vnto your husbande and for the counselles and aduertisementes I gaue him affirming and swearing that since he had conference with me he hathe alwayes bene sorowfull penūue melancholicke and also vnfortunate Also you note blame and charge me that I neuer cease too lye vnto the gouernours deceyue the commoners discourage his men of warre preach against the commonaltie promise that which the King commaundeth not goe and come to Villa Braxima and to leade all Castile in suspence These and such other things are contayned within youre letter vnworthy the writing and scandalous to recount But since youre Ladiship hath first laide hand vpon the sword complaine not if I happen to giue you some wound on the head To that which your Ladiship sayth if I were of the world as I am of religion I durst not wright suche a letter vnto youre husband your Ladiship speaketh greate troth for I being the son of Sir Beltram of Gueuara and cousin to Sir Ladron of Gueuara and to be there in the worlde I shoulde not write vnto him but fighte with him not make pennes but sharpen the launce not gyue counsell or perswade your husbande but defye him bycause the contention betwixt loyaltie and treason ought not to be tried with wordes but with swords I am in profession a Christian in habite religious in doctrine a diuine in linage of Gueuara in office a preacher and in opiniō a gentleman and no commoner for which cause I presume to preach the troth and to impugne the communaltie I holde for sure that those whiche defende the troth be the most noblest knights and gentlemen in your Camp for they rob not vpon high wayes neyther steale out of Churches destroy no corne burne no houses spoyle no people neither do consent to men of vile conditions for they obserue the law
with you for the departure of your troublesome feuer and the bitter anger whiche hathe chaced it from you though I remember not that euer I red and much lesse heard the Lady Sorrowe at any time caused any good thing to happē vnto vs I certify you Sir Chanon if al the diseases might be cured like yours with heauinesse and sadnesse pensiuenesse and cares would then be more déere in our hearts than Rubarb is now in the Apoticaries shops and if we shoulde buy sighes sobbes and teares in the market for money I assure you very many both men and women woulde thereby grow excéeding riche and happie whiche nowe are poore and vnfortunate bycause sorow with euery body is so common that there is neyther corner nor place so secret wherein she is not found Touching my selfe I tell you if the sighes I haue breathed and the sorow I haue endured might serue for medicines to cure the quartaine I would be bound to set vp such a Shoppe of those merchandizes that it should serue both Spayne and Fraunce I haue séene many in this world whereof some wanted their eyes some their eares and some their hands othersome lacke houses others goodes and some other apparrell But I neuer knew nor heard of person were he neuer so poore that had not sorrow and griefe so is there no house in the world so rich that sometimes wanteth not money and of enuies and sorrowes is neuer destitute Sadnesse saith Salomon drieth the sinowes and cōsumeth the bones which by you cannot be proued since it is apparant that melancholy sullennesse hathe not wasted your bones but purged youre body of all euill humors and restored your health Now from hencefoorth if any one come to visit you whē you are sicke he cannot as I thinke more pleasure you thā to giue or minister occasiō to moue you to choler But sir I curse your complexion and hate your cōditiōs since anger enuie and sorrowe muste bée your Phisitions to cure your maladies for men that be reasonable doo vsually gyue money to inioy myrth and solace and to escape som sorrowes and troubles Now if you will beléeue mée and hereafter folowe myne aduice bée gladde for the losse of your quartayne but say not that you dryue him from you with anger gréefe For I sweare to you by the law of a fréende if you do that all men wyll therefore diffame you and saye that you are compounded and furnished with cholericke aduste and euill complexion but for this matter let this suffise There bée many things héere in the Courte to be talked of in secrete and fewe to be written openly For murmurings bée matters of counsell and my letters ofte passe through many mens fingers which when they cannot rightly vnderstand perceyue their effect then euerye one iudgeth and gloseth thereof after theyr owne deuise and opinion I praye God be your guyde gyue vs grace euermore to feare him A letter to Count Masaoth Marques of Cenolte wherin is expressed why amongst the sectes of Mahomet some be termed Turkes Sarracenes and others Moores HOnorable Lord and singular frende it is now ten dayes paste since you requested mée in the Emperours chāber to resolue you one doubt the which to doo I haue searched with payne and vsed what diligence I possibly myghte holding it but iustice to submit my trauell to your cōmaundement that neuer denyed mée any thing which I requested of you desiring you withall to respect that if I séeme long in satisfying your demaunde it is not want of diligence to searche but of good happe quickly to finde that which I séeke and you desire to haue bycause a man of youre state and calling muste bée serued with truthes and reason and not with fabling vncerteynties Your Lordships desire is to know why the greate Turke is termed the Greate Turke and wherefore the followers of Mahomets feete be called Sarracens some Mores and some Turkes being all of the lawe and religion of their only god and Lord Mahomet For the discussing of the which doubte and for that you may the better vnderstande my resolution of the same I am forced to recite the historie to you as it were from the firste or beginning Vnderstande my Lorde that Asia the lesse is a region whiche with many other Regions is inclosed all which generally are called greate Turquie it boundeth towardes the Easte on the confynes of Arabia minor on the west it is enclosed with the great lake Cynia and on the north side with the floude Euponius and on the southe coste it is walled with the mounte Pithmiaus In this Turquie néere to Armenia by the greate hill Paton was an auncient Citie named Truconia whereof the inhabitantes were named Truconians after the name of the Citie Within this Citie Gothes did come to inhabite who bycause they coulde not call it Traconia pronounced and called it Turquie and Cityzens Turkes so that the worde Turquy is a name corruptly come from the worde Traconie Within the countrey of Turquie is sundry prouinces as the Prouince of Licaonia whereof the chéefe citie is Icaonia Likewyse Cappadocia the chéefe whereof is Cosaria the Prouince Isanca whose heade citie is Solenna which now is called Briquemust the countrie called Icaonia whose chéefe citie is Fer in olde tyme named Quisguaince also Paflagonia whose capitall or Metropolicke towne is Gernapolis in which moste properly ended the whole Asia And as within this cuntry of Turquy is conteyned many seuerall countryes and prouinces so hath it euer bene peopled with men of seuerall cuntries and nations as with Asians Gréekes Armenians Sarracenes Iacobines Iewes and Christians The whiche albeit they acknowledge the Greate Turke for chéefe Lorde yet notwithstāding they were not all in obedience to one kind of lawe and religion In like manner you must note that in the kingdome of Palestina which bordereth vpon Damas there were thrée Arabies as Arabia Silapide that nowe is Siria maior Arabia deserta ioyning vpon Egypt and Arabia Petrosa which is compassed with Iudea In Arabia Petrosa by the floud Iordanus néere the mount Libanus ther dwelt an ancient kinde of people called Saracyns which were so called after the name of Sartato their chiefe and Metropolitan Citie which at this present be still so named Saracyns This kind of people in times past were much estéemed for their strength and valiantnesse in warres and were then had in reputation therefore as the Swissers are accompted of at this day in Europa in such wise that no Prince durst enterprise against any other to battell except he were ayded with the strength of Saracyns It chaunced that Heraclius a Romane Emperour passing through Asia to inuade the Persians requested ayde of the Saracyns in the same voyage and iorney to whome he promised good vsage and true pay the Saracyns agréeing to Heraclius request came throughly furnished with 40000 footemen souldiars whose Captaine generall was a gentleman of their own countrey called Mahomet a man
the name of Moores establed in Africa when the lawe of Mahomet was there first receyued Now resteth it to discouer vnto your Lordship wherefore this name Greate is attributed to the Turke seeing it is a title which none but he vseth other Princes being onely and simply called by the names of Kings or Emperours For better vnderstanding whereof knowe you that in the yeare 1308. when Michael Palealogos was Emperour of Constantinople and Bonifacius the 8. chiefe Byshop of Rome There sprang amōgst the Turkes a family of Othomans much fortunate famous ouer all Asia in such sort that those Turkes surnamed Othomans enlarged the limits of their rule and reuenewes of their crowne more in 200. yeares than any of their predecessors had in 800. These Othomans discended of base linage and were naturally of Prusea thrée dayes iorneys from Trapezoncia The first Prince of this nation called Othoman tooke this name vppon him at his erecting of a Castle in the cuntrey of Gallana which he did to perpetuate the memorie of the Othomans name This Othoman the first subdued many prouinces of the Kings his adioyning neighbours he wan all that which stretched from Bithynia vnto the Sea Cocsin He brought to his obedience many fortresses towardes the Sea Pontick and all the Cities standing on the Sea costs named Teutonica with the Towne of Sina aunciently named Sebastia Leauing to succeede him his only sonne named Orchanees second Emperour of the Turkes of the race of Othomans whiche conquered many prouinces from the Empyre of Palialogos but especially he obtained the countries of Lycaonia Phrygia Missina and Carye he tooke by force Prusia now called Bursia which was the abiding seate of the Kyngs of Bythynie in whiche he receyued his mortall wound in the firste yeare of the raigne of Iohn King of Fraunce To whome succeeded Amurathes his sonne who imitating the steppes of hys Father and Grandfather in passing an arme of the Sea Hellispont in Abidie to inuade the Greekes tooke Galiapolys with diuers other Townes and afterwardes suddaynely with a mightie power sette vpon the Emperor of Constantinople that nothing mistrusted him and wanne Seruia and Bulgaria but in the ende he was killed by a seruitor After Amurathes succéeded by succession two infants Solyman and Baiazeth which by treason murdred his brother Solyman whereby he alone enioyed the Empire of Turkie and to reuenge the murdering of his father hée attempted sharpe warres agaynst Marke the Lorde of Bulgaria whome he vanquished and flewe and subdued a greate parte more of his country Shortly after he ouercame the prouinces of Hungaria Albania and Valachia and there committing many spoyles and dammages he tooke diuers christian prisoners which he ledde in miserable captiuitie into Thracia to whiche Baiazeth succéeded in right of inheritance two infants one named Mahomet and the other Orchanees which by his vnnatural brother Mahomet was depriued of lyfe so as the gouernment of the Empire was wholly in Mahomet who by might conquered the Valachians and layde vpon them a gréeuous tribute after hée inuaded the Satrapes of Asia and recouered all the countries whiche the greate Tamberlens souldiers before had taken hée chased his owne kynred and aliaunce from Galacie Pontus Capadocia not sparing nor once pitying any noble personages or princes of his own bloud He alwaies kept himselfe in Drinople the Metropolike Citie of Thracia there placing his imperiall seate from thence exiling such Christians as were remayning and inhabiting there in the seuentéenth yeare of his Empire To this Mahomet succéeded his sonne called Amurathes hée ordayned first the Ianissayres runnagate christians to defend his person by whose valiancie hée togither with his successors haue subdued the East With force he inuaded Hungaria Bosina Albania Vallachia and Grecia he toke Thessalonia from the Venetians he obtayned victorie against Laodislaus king of Polonia against the Cardinall Iulian and against Huniades When Amurathes was deade his sonne named Mahomet succéeded in his place whiche with homicide entred his gouernement for bycause his father shoulde not be buryed alone hée slewe his yoonger broother to kéepe companie with his deade father This wicked Prince beleeued in no God hée affirmed Mahomet a false Prophete like vnto himselfe Hée also scorned all Saintes Patriarches and Prophetes This Mahomet was of hearte lyke Alexander the greate in good fortune a Cesar in trauell a Haniball in Iustice a Traian in vyces a Lucullus and in cruelties a seconde Nero. Hée was of greate courage well fauoured euyll coloured friend to Iustice and hyghly delyghted in martiall affayres Hée was in féeding a glutton and in the actes of Venus much impacient To hunting an enimie and to Musicke no friend Hée delyghted to exercyse him selfe sometymes with feates of armes and sometymes in reading histories This Mahomet conquered from the Christians the Empire of Constantinople and Trapezonda Hée wanne twoo hundred townes and twelue Realmes that is to saye Pontus Bythinia Capadocia Pamphilia Licia Sicilia Papblagonia Acbaria Lydia Phrygia Hellespont and Morea Hée also wanne the Segniories of Achaia Carcania and Epyrus and all the Fortes and Cities néere the ryuer Randabelo Hée likewyse obtayned a greate parte of Macedonia and of the Prouince of Bulgaria togyther with the lande of Roscia and the mountaynes Serbye euen to the lake Nicomante Moreouer bée conquered all the Cities Prouinces and Fortresses that were betwéene Andrinopolis and the famous ryuer Danubia and Balaquian also the Isle Mitilene and the foresayde Bosina These and muche more did this miscreaunt Mahomet vanquishe and subdue And yet notwithstanding as Historiographers reporte hée woulde amongest his wayghtie affayres consume muche tyme in abhominable vyces This was hée whiche firste acquyred to himselfe the glorious tytle and name of Greate Turke and Emperour of all the house and race of Othomans whose predecessoures before his tyme were alwayes intytuled Kings or Turkes He raygned thirtie twoo yeares and dyed of the Collicke foure dayes after hée syckened in the yeare of our sauiour Christ 1492. In whiche yeare of this Tirantes deathe was the Citie of Granado taken by the King Don Ferdinando To this Mahomet succéeded in Empyre and name of Greate Turke a seconde Baiazeth who in his Fathers lyfe by procurement of the Ianissayres and in the hope of theyr ayde purposed to vsurpe the state and Empyre to himselfe And as the father béeyng nowe verie olde coulde yéelde no remedie nor reuenge to his disloyall sonne dyed for thought so was his life whiche by enimies coulde not bée taken awaye loste by the enuyes of his children Now if your Lordshippe desire more amplie to reade the wryters of this historie I will when it please you bring them vnto you From Tolledo the .7 of Ianuarie 1533. A letter to Don Frances of Villoa expounding certayne straunge and auncient Epitaphes MAgnificent and curious Knyght for answere to the letter whiche Peter de Heredia maister of youre house deliuered mée at Carsares the 15. of
easily make themselues Lordes of all Spaine A letter vnto the Admirall Sir Frederirk wherein the Auctor doth touche the maner that in olde time was vsed on their sepulchers and the Epitaphes that were placed vpon the same GLorious Admiral curious Lord neither doth it profite mée to bée angrie eyther to hold my peace to exclame or complayne neither yet to cease to make answere but that alwayes I must continue in combate with your letters as also with your messengers for absoluing your doubts It is but .15 dayes since I answered your letter and not a month since I absolued a certaine doubt I am determined with my selfe not to answere you to any letter neither to declare you any doubt vntill the counsell of Saratan haue considered therof and they of Villaunblalo do determine and iudge therein To performe wherin you request mée to execute the case which you cōmaūd me I may not deny vnto your Lordship that I haue not séene much heard passed also reade muche but ioyntly herewith your honor hath to consider that I am now become old wearied also tired go ladē with greate afaires which be of necessity but your doubts procéede of will. I haue sayde also written vnto your honor many times as you are but of little bodie haue that minde so generous noble it should be much to your ease that you Alonso Espinel made exchange which is to wit that he should lend you some more body wherin that hart of yours might be conteined and you bestow on him some more heart for that grosse and so vnweldy a bodie Cōsidering the great dulnes of Alonso Espinel and the excéeding spirite liuelinesse of your honor I do not thinke to be deceiued to vouche that your Lordship is a soule without a body that he is a body without a soule One thing doth yet comfort me which is that as your Lordshippe nowe groweth old and I also both olde sickly we shall not much write eche to other and much lesse vse mutuall visitation bicause as the diuine Plato sayd that yong men at times die sodenly but olde men may not liue long Little or muche or muche or little may it please the king of heauen that that which we lyue we may liue to his seruice for that we haue no accompte to make what we lyue but howe we lyue Leauing aparte both your iestes and my complaintes I my Lorde from hence foorth am determined to answere your letters with all breuitie as also to declare vnto you all your doubts for as Horace the Poet sayth it appertaineth to wise men to shewe a willing minde in that wherein necessitie constreyneth Cōming to the purpose your honor cōmādeth me to write vnto you the maner which they vsed in old time to make their sepulchers the fashion which they obserued in placing their Epitaphes for as it séemeth you meane to take order for your sepulture to deuise for the inuention of your Epitaph From hencefoorth I say and diuine that all those which shall sée my answere vnto your demaunde will maruell also as it may chance to laugh for that I shal be forced in this place to relate histories very straunge and customes neuer heard off Plinie in the beginning of his seuēth booke reciting the great miseries wherwith man is borne the immesurable trauels wherin he liueth sayeth thus Amongs all the beasts that nature hath brought foorth only man crepeth onely man is ambitious man onely is proude couetous and superstitious only desireth long life maketh a sepulture wherin to be buried moste truely Plinie spake greate troth bicause all other beasts neither riches doth make proude neither pouerty doth make sad neither care to lay vp in store neither trauell to gather togither neither wéepe whē they be borne neither grow sad when they shall dye but only trauell for liuing without carefulnesse where to be buried Onely the foolishe man is he which fetcheth marble from Gene Alabastre from Venice porphire from Candie bone of Gelofe and Iuory of Guinea for no greater purpose than to build a stately chappell and to erect a sumptuous sepulcher where to bury his bones the wormes to gnaw his intrailes I do not disalow eyther reproue but the rather I admit prayse to build good churches to erect great Chappell 's to endue with good doctrines to paint faire stories and to make rich ornaments but ioyntly therewith I say that I hold it for more safe that a man trauell and payne himselfe to leade a good life than make a rich Sepulture Oh how many poore men which are buried in Churchyards whose soules reioyce and rest in heauen and how many which be buried in sumptuous and stately Sepulchres whose soules be tormēted in Hell. On that night which Troy was burned Aeneas intreating his father Anchises to depart the Citie to the end he should not want a Sepulchre the old man aunswered Facilis iactura Sepulchri as if he had sayd There is no lesse griefe vnto manne than to want a Sepulchre The King Anchises sayde well in that he spake since we sée the liuing man complayne of the biting of a flye and of a flea that doth offend him but of a man that is dead we neuer heare any complaynt for any lacke of ringing or want of sumptuous buriall If Homer and Pisistratus do not deceyue vs The Cithes were the people that with most pomp did burie their dead and in most reuerence did hold their Sepulchres Zenophon the Thebane sayth That the Cithes fléeing before Darius he sent word to knowe how farre they woulde runne they aunswered we Cithes make no great accompt to lose our houses our fieldes neither oure children neyther yet our selues in respect of offence to the Sepulchres of our forfathers vnto the which whē thou shalte approche oh King Darius there shalte thou sée and know in how much more we estéeme the bones of the dead than the life of the liuing The Salaminos buried their dead their backs turned against the Agarens whiche were their mortall enimies In such wise that their enemitie endured not onely in time of life but also when they were dead The Massagedas at the time of death of any man or womā they drew foorth all the bloud in their vaynes and that day all the kindred being assembled did drinke the bloud and afterwards did burie the body The Hircans did washe the bodies of the dead with wine and did anoynt the same with a precious oyle and after the parents had bewayled and buried the dead they kept that oyle to eate and that wine to drinke The Caspians in finishing the last breath were cast into the fire and the asshes of the bones being gathered into a vessell did afterwards drinke them in wine in suche wise that the entrayles of the liuing was the Sepulchre of the dead The Cithes held for
which was sent against the idolaters Loth that was sent against the Sodomites Moyses against the Aegiptians Helie against the false prophetes and Daniel against the false Iudges Notwithstanding they found much wherefore to correct yet in them there was not founde any thing whereof to be snuft And therefore of the Prelate which is wise vertuous and not cruell all mē take pleasure to be aduised of their negligences and corrected of their faultes But if such a one be absolute or dissolute with greate griefe they indure to be chastised Neither serueth it to great purpose that the snuffers wherwith we snuffe the candell be of golde or siluer if in the place of snuffing we dowte the candel whereby I would say that the true Iudge or Prelate ought to conceyue better of himselfe to be pitifull than rigorous stretching his intention rather to amend the fault than discredite the sinner With snuffers of gold doth he snuffe the candell when the Iudge or prelate do chastice the mischiefe and on the other parte hath pitie on the offender For otherwise God will accept the pacience of him that is corrected and condemne the will and frowarde disposition of him that correcteth Neither is it also without mysterie that God commanded in his law that vnder the holy candelsticke the snuffers shold be placed the bason of golde wherin they should bestow the snuffings of the lampes For in the sacred Scripture there is no word that is not mistical Surely I suppose it is no error to say that the Candlesticke is the Church the cādell the sinner the snuffers the Prelate and that whiche is snuffed is sinne which God commaundeth to be snuffed and incontinently in water or sand to be couered to the end it do not offend or gyue stēch vnto him that snuffeth the same And therfore the Iudge or gouernor of the cōmon wealth ought curiously to cōsider not onely the acte of correction of faults but also whiche cōcerneth the preseruing of credite And it is no other thing when God willeth the presently after the snuffing of the lampe the snuffe shold be buried but that the sinner be chastised not dishonored Admitting that our Lorde Iesus Christ had sinne in great horror notwithstanding hée did not hate the sinner For he himselfe sayde Nō veni vocare iusto sed peccatores And of him thus was sayde Hic peccatores recipit manducat eum illis The Lorde redemptor with golden snuffers did snuffe the lāpes and in a golden bason did lay the snuffers when he called sinners did preache to sinners was serued of sinners hauing no disdayne to haue them in his companie and to sitte with them at one table Yf we ought to vse our skill in snuffing the candels muche more delicately we ought to correct sinne whiche to say that the correction be in secrete discrete and done with Christian charitie and not as a Prelate or Iudge cruell and inhumane Iesus Christ vnderstoode very well that Iudas should sell him and deliuer him into the hands of the Iewes and yet notwithstanding he washte his féete did communicate as with his other disciples did sitte at table with him and gaue him leaue to talke and conferre to gyue vs to vnderstande that with such modestie we should correct the faults of our neyghbour that by no meanes we should hinder his credite In this wretched world that which we snuffe from the candle we cast vpon the grounde and treade vpon with the foote I would say that from the houre that a poore sinner committeth any notable crime from thence forth he is abhorred of al men and likewise defamed as though wee were not accustomably vsed to prosecute sinne behold sinne and committe offences I assure your Lordship that if all men which know to sinne that be giuen to sinne glorifie themselues to haue sinned shoulde fayle or dye we should then haue small cause to build houses neither yet to sowe wheate But it is not so nor hath bin so in the house of god For that whiche was snuffed was layd in the bason of golde to giue vs also to vnderstande that he which sinneth by frailtie either doth erre by negligēce we ought not presently to defame and much lesse to dishonor For if God which is most iniured giue pardon there is no reason that another sinner as greate shoulde condemne him Beholde most noble and my good Lorde what it is that I vnderstande as concerning this passage and that which I preached vnto the Emperor in the pallace at Madrid the .12 of August Anno. 1527. A discourse made vnto Queene Elenor in a sermon of the transfiguration wherein is touched by an high style the greate loue that Christe did beare vs. RIght high and magnificent Princes the moste auncient among the Auncientes and the most famous amongst the famous Adages or Prouerbes is the same whiche was gyuen by the Oracle of Apollo vnto the Orators of Rome whiche is to witte Nosce teipsum and Ne quid himis As if he woulde haue sayde All the weale of the common wealthe is contayned in that that euery man do knowe himselfe and that none do manifest himselfe his déedes attēpts extreme Inasmuchas that presumption to great selfe lyking importeth daunger and euery excesse likewise and leadeth vnto trauell Wordes more briefe and sentences more compendious certaynely myght not bée spoken eyther found in wryting For that to say the troth if euery man did consider with himselfe the small woorthinesse that he contayneth he woulde not so lyghtly iudge of others and if no man woulde so extremely determine to perfourme his wyll so manie errours violences and faultes woulde not be committed And for that cause the man that is in his conuersation presumptuous and in his affayres headstrong vnbrydeler and opiniatiue no man ought to beare him enuie or impaire his rent since he roweth agaynst the streame and fysheth agaynst the winde To eate too much is extreme and excesse too much colde to greate heate is the same greate aboundance miserable pouertie is likewise extreme whereof wée may inferre that onely vertue is that which is equall in ballance and that only is vice that endureth no equalitie One man to cal another man extreme or excessiue is to touche him with to greate an iniurie considering that euery man whiche is headdy and extreme he is not farre from the state of a foole Insomuch that follie is no other thing but when a man without respect doeth all things to his owne liking Then I demaunde if this be true as it is wherfore sayeth the Gospell that vpon the Mount of Thabor Moyses and Helie did talke with Iesus Christ of the greate excesse whiche hée should vse and performe in Ierusalem Truly these be woords very straunge the perfectiō of God being such that his powerserueth not to cōmit any thing superfluous neither yet defectiue in any thing he taketh in hande And
vs with his mercie and to lend vs his blessed grace by the meanes whereof we might bring foorth the frutes of good woorks wherof he himselfe might be amourous and our conscience comforted Then Sainct Peter that denied him S. Paule that pursued him S. Mathew that as a Publican did exchaunge the théefe that did steale might not haue foūd the house of Iesus Christ if he himselfe first had not giuen his grace Oh loue neuer hearde of oh louer not to be compared the which against the heare of mundaine loue both giue loue and the occasions of loue In charitate perpetua dilexi te sayde Iesus Christ by the Prophete that the loue wherewith Iesus Christ doeth loue vs is not fayned much lesse transitorie but perpetuall stable whiche is moste true in as muche as by the meane of his owne grace he is pleased with vs before our good works can declare vs to be his friendes That with a perpetuall and perfect charitie thou louest mée oh thou loue of my soule and redéemer of my lyfe considering the loue which thou bearest vs is thine and the profite therof is mine pretēding no other thing of thy loue which thou bearest to all creatures but by demonstration to declare thy souerayne bountie in placing vpon vs thy most great and ardent charitie With perpetuall charitie O Lorde thou dost loue vs considering that greate daye of thy passion wherein neyther the tormentes of thy body eyther the despitefull malice of the people might in no maner withdraw thy souerayne bountie or darken thy most great charitie but rather with innarrable sighes and teares incomparable didst praye for them that did crucifie thée didst pardon them that did offend thée And most certainly with a perpetuall charitie did our good Lorde loue vs since from the present houre wherein hée finished his prayer and rendred his spirite incontinent was manifested the frute of his passion and the efficacie of his prayer Non rogo pro ijs tantum sed pro bis qui credituri sunt in me Iesus Christe speaking vnto his father the nyght before his passion sayd O my father I pray not vnto thée onely for my Apostles and Disciples but also I praye as well for all the faythfull whiche shall beleeue in mée and that shall loue thée For euen as thou I be one selfe thing in diuinitie so they and I be one body mysticall by charitie O Redéemer of my lyfe oh repayrer from all my distresses what may I do that may please thée wherewith may I recompence thy great goodnesse wherwith I am indebted if I be not sufficient to giue due thankes for the good things that hourely thou dost bestow vpon me what abilitie may I finde to satisfie the great loue which thou bearest vnto my soule Surely the woordes that the Lorde Iesus Christ did speake in his prayer bée ryght woorthie to bée noted retayned and to memorie to be commended considering we were not yet borne neyther yet our greate Grandfathers He prayed vnto his father with suche instance and great efficacy for the health of all his Churche as much I saye as for those whiche were with him at supper in such wise that the good Lorde as he should die for all woulde pray for all whereof we maye inferre that we ought fully to beléeue and to be out of doubt that since oure redéemer had vs in remembrance before wée came into the world that he will not now forget vs when by faith we enter into his seruice I pray thée gentle Christian say vnto me if Iesus Christe had not pitied our estate what had become of vs surely if the Church of God at this present do contayne or is endued with any obedience patience charitie humilitie abstinence or cōtinence all is to be imputed to the ardēt loue that Iesus Christ did beare vs by the prayer he made vnto his father on oure behalfe redéeming our disgrace with his precious bloud and by his prayer placing vs in fauour To be in loue with such as be present and absent to be in loue both with quicke and dead it passeth but to loue suche as be yet to come and be not yet borne certainly is a thing that was neuer heard of the which our redeemer hath performed and brought to passe and yet hateth the wicked liuer and loueth the good not yet borne In such manner is cuppled togither both life and deathe loue and hatred he that loueth and the thing loued that al taketh end at an houre which is contrary vnto the loue whyche Iesus Christ doth beare vs for his loue had beginning before the creation of the world and yet shall not ende at the daye of iudgement The conclusion of all that we haue sayd shall bée that the excesse or extremitie which was spokē of in the mount of Thabor was of the extreme and excessiue sorrowes that Iesus Christ should endure and of the most great and excessiue loue that he did beare vs and in time to come shoulde shewe vs here by grace and after by glory Ad quam nos perducat Iesus Christus Amen The taking and ouerthrow of Carthage done by Scipio the great with a singular example of continencie which he there expressed written to the Byshop of Carthage MOst honorable Lord and Catholike Prelate I haue receyued in this Citie of Toledo in his Maiesties Chamber the letter that you haue written and the Emrode which you haue sent me the which surely is very faire and rich but notwithstanding in respect of the place and from whome it commeth I rather hold and estéeme it more deare incontinuall remembrance And I vnderstoode by your letter youre estate and how you behaue your selfe in your bishoprick and that you are not as yet disposed to come to this Court for that you are there in greater quietnesse and haue leysure to serue God whereof doubtlesse I do not a little enuie your felicitie for this life at Court is no other thing than a languishing death a certayne vnquiet life without peace and principally without money and a certayne purchace of domage and offence to the body and of Hell for the soule If it pleased his Maiestie that I might retire vnto my house I promise you by the fayth of a Christiā I would not stay one houre at court For the Court is neyther good or conuenient for me either I for the court But being confessor vnto his maiestie and Amner vnto the Emperesse I may not escape one day from the court Notwithstanding amongst all these discommodities wé receyue this benefite whiche is we vnderstand in this Courte all that is done or in practise through the world which is a matter wherein man dothe much delight content his spirites hauing no regarde to other thinges that might tourne him to more profite As touching you my Lorde you possesse youre house with great quietnesse deliuered of all fantasy to come to the
so great merit for their worthy vertues Wherevnto Lucius coulde say no other thing but kissing the right hande of Scipio besought the immortall Gods to remunerate the great goodnesse and passing courtesie he had vsed vnto him confessing his great want of abilitie for the recompence of so great a bountie And after returning vnto the parents of the sayd Damsell rendering their daughter without any raunsome They most instantly besought him that it might please him to accept the gold whiche they had brought for hir raunsome in token and as a pledge of their amitie and dutifull affection Scipio being pressed of them did accept the same and placing it at his feete in the presence of them all called Lucius and sayd behold Lucius I giue thée this gold which thy father and mother in law haue presented me as a gift vnto the marriage of thy wife besides that which before was appoynted thée Take and refuse it not for my sake and as a token for remembrance of sound friendship in time to come Then Lucius and his father and mother in lawe receiuing the Damsell and the golde did take their leaue of Scipio and retired into their countrie publishing in all places wher they past most greatest praise of Scipio and the Romaine people Very shortly after Lucius came to séeke Scipio with fourtéene hundreth horse to attend and assist the Romaynes After which time Scipio departed from Carthage to Tarzacone to giue order for the warres in effect to chace and expulse the Carthaginians out of Spayne My Lorde beholde here my opinion as touching youre demaund and if your honor or the gouernor be not of the same opinion which is that if Marhaball were not the first Carthaginian that entred Spayne and that the great Scipio the African did not take sack and subuert new Carthage I will say no more but that if Titus Liuius were aliue he would giue you suche a cōbat with the Camp of his Decades that he would throughly giue you to vnderstand of your wrong information Of newes there is no other but that his Maiestie is in health and twice a wéeke goeth to the assembly The Emperesse also is in health and this hote weather féedeth very little Thys other night from Ciuile they broughte a paquet of letters vnto his maiestie wherein he was aduertised of ten shippes from Peru to be arriued in the hauen of Ciuill with twenty Millions of gold whereof there were eight for his maiestie and twelue for other particular persons Diego of Acunia the bearer hereof shall farther make report of all that passeth here at court No more but God haue you in his kéeping and giue me grace to serue him From Toledo the 22. of Iuly 1537. A disputatiō and discourse holdē against the Iewes of Rome wherin is declared notable authorities of the sacred Scripture ALiama Horranda which is to say honorable troupe of Inis I remayne with the long disputation past so wéery and my head so distempred with your cries that if it were not for the seruice of my Lorde Iesus Christe and for the zeale of youre soules the profession of a deuine as also for the honor of my law which I confesse soundly beleeue you shoulde be assured that I would neither dispute with you any more or enter at any time into your Sinagogue for that as touching your cōuersion ye are too too much obstinate and in the maner of disputation extremely opiniatiue Neyther vnto you eyther yet vnto me doth it apertayne that the difficulties or opinions which eyther of vs defendeth shuld be verefied with offensiue armes much lesse with iniurious words assuring that at the Scholes where I haue studied and of the masters of whome I haue learned he was not esteemed wise that cried strongly but could performe and speake very well And since we debate not vppon any matter of your goodes much lesse is my comming for the same or any suche purpose but only for the verifying of the sacred Scripture I pray you for the loue of God interrupt not my reasons but heare me with patience vntill I haue finished my tale for al you of this Sinagogue hold for custome that if any word be spokē againste your tast or liking forthwith ye begin to garboile cry brable Therefore heare me and I will heare you speake or else I will speake giue eare vnto me or else I wil hearken vnto you suffer me and I shall endure and suffer you since we talke confer and dispute of matters so high and deuine it is good reason that such difficulties and so great mysteries should be disputed after the manner of wise men and not crying as fooles considering that the wisedome of the wise is knowen by his talke and his prudence in the modestie which he vseth in his speech I haue sayd all this for that in the disputation which wee haue had betwixt vs eight days past ye did not only impugne and speake against both the authorities which I alleadged of the holy Prophet Esay and of King Dauid but also ioyning your fistes to my eyes ye charged me with the lie iniuriously and threatning If ye shuld say that I am a great sinner a dasterd dull and simple I confesse the same But to saye that is false whiche I alledged or erroneous whiche I defended I vtterly appeale and denie for my good Lord Iesus Christ of his mercy either coulde or woulde fayle me therin But comming to the purpose me thinketh to commit no iniurie to bring foorth and alleage the passages of the holy Bible and therewithall of the holy Prophet Dauid and a king amongst you best beloued and of Esay the Prophet of you most esteemed The whiche haue sayde and prophecied of the ignorance which ye should haue from the which I beséech God to drawe you and with his grace to enspire you for certaynely I haue compassion to consider youre greate infamie hauing in times past aboue all nations receyued most fauour of God. Scrutati sunt iniquitates defecerunt scrutantes scrutinio The royal Prophet Dauid sayd speaking of the doctors of your lawe as if he would say the ministers of the lawe be set to interprete and declare the sacred scripture from the which they haue not drawen but falshood and malice But now honorable Inis I pray you to say of whome doth your Prophete here speake And tell me what they be that dare falsifye the sacred scripture to the ende we may vnderstand to shun them or else as Heretiques to burne them For as the diuine Plato sayde he ought to be accused of high treason that falsely doth interprete the law If ye will saye that the Gentiles Scrutati sunt iniquitates which is to say That they haue euill interpretated the law I answere that you speake vniustly and raise a false testimonie against them for the princes of the heathen haue more gloried and giuen themselues vnto the warres than to the
interpretation of bookes If ye will say that those whiche presently be called Moores or Turkes be the same people whereof the Prophet speaketh Scrutati sunt iniquitates herevnto I answer that as false is the one as the other for as muche as if we will haue regarde vnto the time of the raigne of King Dauid which did prophesie the same vntill the time of Mahomet the first inuentor and conductor of the sect of the Moores we shall find that there dyd passe lesse than 2000. and more than 1800. yeares If we would say and affirme that the Prophet did meane and direct his speech vnto the Christians I saye also it is most false and repugnant vnto all troth for being admitted that the Christian faith had beginning to raigne 600. yeares before the sect of the Moores and more than 3000. yeares after the beginning of the Gentilitie or the Heathen from the tyme that this prophecie was written at Ierusalem vnto the time they began to name themselues Christians at Antioch there passed more than a thousand yeares and also thrée hundred yeares more for aduantage Behold here truly verifyed that since the prophecie may not be aduouched vpon the Gentiles the Moores neyther yet the Christians that it is to be vnderstood spoken vnto you Iewes more expressely for that the Prophet saith not Scruteront but Scruterent giuing vs to vnderstande that many yeares before King Dauid did pronounce the same youre auncesters had then already begon to corrupt the sacred Scriptures and to adde vnto the same erroneous glosses I lie not neyther do I repent to haue sayd that your auncient fathers Scrutati sunt iniquitates since they haue no grace to vnderstand the Prophecie of Ieremie which sayth post dies multos dicit dominus dabo meam legem in visceribus illorum in corde eorū ad scribā legem meam As if he wold haue sayd After many dayes and after many yeares I will create a newe people and will giue them a new lawe whiche I my selfe will wright in theyr bowells and hide within their harts to the ende that no persone shall falsefy the same and muche lesse shall they be able to forget it Then as the Prophecie which sayth Scrutati sant iniquitates c. is spoken onely vnto you and not to all men in lyke manner this Prophecie of Ieremy whiche sayth dabo legem in visceribus illorum c. is spoken vnto vs Christians and not to you Iewes For as muche as our Catholike fayth consisteth more in that which is rooted within our hartes than in that whyche is written in bookes in such manner the weale of the Christian lieth not in that whiche hée readeth but in that which he beléeueth The maruels that Christe hathe done and the doctrines which he hath giuen vnto the world It is necessary and well done to knowe and also to reade them but it is muche more founde and sure to beléeue them for the number is infinite which be saued without reading but not one persone without well beléeuing The Edicts and Proclamations which they ordeyned and the lawes of Moses Promotheus Solon Licurgus and Numa Pompilius were all written with their handes and preserued and kept safe in their originals within their liberties but the law of Iesus Christ ought most certaynly to be writtē within our harts for that in as much that the Lord gaue vs no other law but the law of loue he did like and thought it better that we shoulde search and find the same within our hartes than within our bookes And not without great mistery God sayd by the mouth of your Prophet that the law which his sonne should giue vs that he shuld first write it within the harts before the Euangelist shuld reduce them by writing into bookes for after this manner it might not be forgotten neyther yet burned And so if youre auncient predecessors hadde obtayned the law of Moyses written in their harts as they had them writtē in old parchment they had not in times past worshipped the Idolls of Baal Bell Pegor Asterot Bahalim and Belzebub for whiche offence you were caried captiue into straunge countries and falne into your enimies hands How it came to passe that the Hebrew tong was lost IN like manner ye vsed me with no small despight for that in disputing against you I alleaged youre Esay where God the Father speaking vnto his owne proper sonne sayde these wordes parum est mihi vt suscites tribus Iacob feces Israell dedit te in lucem gentium vt sis salus mea vsque ad extremum terrae As if hée would haue sayd it is no great matter that thou serue me to suscitate and raise vp the lies of Iacob and to conuert the dregges of Israell for I haue giuen thee also for a light vnto the Gentiles to the ende that thou shalt be my sauing health vnto the ende of the worlde There is no man hauing read although but little in the holy Scripture that will not saye and affirme that the Prophet Esay was not an Hebrew borne a Prophet of a noble line and right eloquent in the scriptures for which cause you ought rather to blame and complayne of him which doth call and tearme you lies and dregges of Iacob than of me the which in all oure diputations haue not at any time alleaged any Christian doctor but only Hebrewish Prophets I saye agayne that you haue small reason to be offended with him or me for there is another Prophet which doth call you off scowring another venim another lies another dregs another ordure another slime another smoke another filthe in suche wise that as oft as ye did not ceasse to sin so did they not ceasse to blason and to expresse you with most perfect tearmes Are ye able to denie that of your priesthood of your Scepter of your Temple of your Realme of your lawe of youre tong either of your scripture is there any remayning but the lies which smelleth and the dregs which stinketh Surely that which was in youre lawe cleare nete precious and odoriferous long before the incarnation was consumed and that little which remayned in Iesus Christ did take an end And as cōcerning the priesthood of your law the great sacrificer or the high Priest ought he not to be extract out of the Trybe of Leuy whereof you haue nothing left but the lies for yet in the time of yonger and better dayes it was no more giuen vnto the Leuits that did best deserue it but vnto him that offred most siluer in such wise that to him that offred most and had greatest skill to flatter the priesthood was giuē as when a garment is sold by the drumme Likewise of your Scepter royal what haue you but the lyes for Herod Eskalonite a straunger did not onely vsurpe your Realme but by industry caused the Prince Antigonus sonne to Alexander your King
to be drowned the finall end of youre Realme of Iudea and of the Crowne of Israell What shall we say of your most auncient Temple so magnificent in buildings and so holy in the action of sacrifice surely ye haue no other thing but the lies For ye well know that forty yeares and no more After ye crucifyed the Lorde Iesus Christe the Emperours Titus and Vaspasian the father and sonne did sack destroy and burne the same Of the Monarchy of your kingdome muche lesse haue you not of any thing than the lies for that from the time the great Pompâ—y passed into Asia and subdued Palestine he neuer after committed fayth to any Iewe I say to giue him any speciall charge of gouernmeÌ„t in the Citie or defence of any fortresse but perpetually did shew your selues subiect to the Romaynes not as Vassals but rather as slaues If we should speake of your auncient language of the old carrecters of your wrightings we should likewise finde that you haue not any thing left but lies and for proofe thereof first I pray you tell me whiche is he amongst you that knoweth the language of your ancesters either can reade or else vnderstand any of the auncient Hebruish bookes But nowe to bring you to the knowledge thereof I shall deduce notwithstanding it doth not like you directly and successiuely the beginning of your Hebrewish tong and how by little and little it was lost agayne Wherein you haue to vnderstand that the Patriarke Noe with his children and Nephewes escaping the Floud went and did settle in the countrey of Caldea the situation whereof is vnder the fourth Climate the RegioÌ„ after the Floud first inhabited and populat from whence be issued the Aegiptians Sarmits Greekes Latines and all other Nations In the same Region I meane beyond the riuer Euphrates and neare vnto Mesopotamie the Patriark Abraham was borne and nourished the whiche being called of God came to dwell in the countrie of Canaan afterwardes named Siria the lesse the countrey where the good old Abraham and his generation did most inhabit In those days in that countrey of Canaan they had in vse to speake another language named Sirien very differeÌ„t from the Calde tong But as Abraham and hys posteritie dwelling in that countrey many yeares these two languages by processe of time grewe to be corrupted Abraham hys family and successors being not able to learne the Sirien spéeche neyther the Siriens the Calde tong of these two languages there remayned in vse one which was named the Hebrew Also you haue to vnderstand that this name Hebrew is as much to say as a man that is a straunger or come from beyond the Riuer and for that Abraham was come from the other side of the Riuer Euphrates he was generally called Hebrew in such wise that of this name Hebrew by the which Abraham was called the spéeche tong and language was also named Hebraique and not Caldean notwithstanding that hée was of Caldea Many Doctors Gréekes and Latins haue sayde that the Hebrew tong doth come from Heber the sonne of Sale and that it was the language which was in vse and spoken before the generall Floud notwithstanding Rabialhazer Mosanahadach Aphesrura Zimibi and Sadoc your most anciente and famous Hebrew doctors do sweare and affirme that the first spéeche and language in this world was lost in the construction or to say better the confusion of the towre of Babylon without perfection remayning in any one word of their language And then since the language of Noe was lost the Caldean conuerted into the Sirien and the Sirien into the Hebrew it came to passe that Iacob with his twelue sonnes went to dwel in Egipt where they did soiorne so long Captiues that very neare they forgate the Hebrue tong neyther aptly coulde learne the Egiptian language remayning in their spéech and pronounciation corrupted And as after the destruction of the second Temple as also the totall and finall losse and destruction of the holy lande That your brethren were dispersed throughout the worlde for the most part Captiues and that in you ther remayned nothing but the lies of Iacob the things desolate of Israell God did permitte that they shoulde ioyntly take ende both the forme of your life and the manner of your spéech Behold here honorable Iewes sufficiently proued by your owne doctors that of your countrey language renowne glory and the whole state of your Sinagoge ye haue nothing left but the lies as the Prophet sayth and the dregs and grounds of the tubbe In suche manner that ye haue neither Lawe to obserue King to obey Scepter to estéeme priesthood to aduaunce youre honor Temple to pray in Citie to inhabit neyther language to speake And for that the scope and proofe of your obstination and oure healthe and saluation doth lye and consist in the veritie of the Scripture whiche we haue receyued and the falshoode and corruption of theÌ„ which you confesse it shall be expedient to recite how where and when youre Scriptures were corrupted and lost euen as I haue produced and broughte foorth the losse of your language Ye haue therefore to vnderstande that the fyue bookes of the lawe the which your greate Duke Moyses did write after he came foorth of the Land of Egypt and before he entred the lande of promisse and those whiche were written by the Prophet Samuell and Esdras were all written in the Hebrew tong without any addition of the Egiptian language for youre Moyses being inspired by God in all the things hée did take in hand did wright these bookes in the most auncient Hebrew tong which is to vnderstande in the very same that Abraham did speake at his comming out of Calde God giuing you thereby to vnderstand that you should haue folowed your father Abraham not onely in the forme of your life but also in your spéech During the time that Moyses Aaron Iosue Ezechiell Caleph Gedeon and all the fourtéene Dukes did gouerne your Aliama vntill the decease of the excellent King Dauid the lawe of Moyses was alway well vnderstood and indifferently wel obserued But after the decease of these good personages and the kingdome and gouernment being come into the handes of the successors of Dauid the Sinagoge was neuer more well gouerned neyther the Scriptures well vnderstoode I woulde saye not well vnderstoode generally of the twelue Tribes There were notwithstanding alwayes some particular persones of the house of Israell the whiche were agreable and also acceptable vnto God and to the common wealth very profitable That your law was not from thencefoorth wel vnderstood is most euident for it was prohibited and defended in your Aliama that neyther the visions of Ezechiell the sixt Chapter of Esay the booke of the Canticles of Salomon the booke of Iob neyther the lamentations of Ieremy should be read or commented by any person whiche was done not bycause the bookes
of Asia the Heresie of Ebionites whereof Sainct Iohn in the Apocalips maketh reporte notwithstanding that Theodosius and Simachus had bene faithfull in their translations and of troth and veritable in their words our Church would at no tyme receyue their scriptures hauing no confidence in the credence of their persons Fourtéene yeares after the death of Simachus whiche was the fifth yeare of the Empire of Heliogabalus it came too passe that a certayne Patriarcke of Ierusalem béeyng named Ioannes Budeus founde in a caue at Iericho faythfully written and catholikely translated out of Greke into Latine all the olde and new Testament This is the translation the whiche at this present the Latine Church doth vse this is that which we call Quinta editio and of others is named the Translation Hiericontini which is to saye that which was founde in Hiericho the auctor whereof was neuer knowen In the eyght yeare of Alexāder Seuerus the sonne of Mamea which was about ten yeares after the translation Hiericontine was found a Doctor of ours named Origene did correct the trāslation of the .70 Interpreters which is to vnderstand in adding where they had bin briefe declaring the darke mysteries placing a little starre as a marke wher he had made declaration of any matter and where he did remoue or take away he added the marke of a little arrowe All these sixe translations aboue mentioned whiche is to say of the .70 Interpreters of Aquile of Simachus of Theodosius of Iericho that of Origene our auncients did vse for custome of them all to make one booke writing in euery leafe by six diuisions and this booke was named Hexapla ab ex quod est ex Latinè quasi sex traductiones in se continens Foure hundreth yeares after this a certaine Doctor of ours named S. Ierome most certainly a man very holy and in his tyme and of his temple most learned and greatest vnderstanding in the sacred Scriptures and humaine letters and no lesse expert in the Gréeke Hebrewe and Caldée tongue This man did in like maner correct the translation of the .70 Interpreters made also another by it selfe out of Greke into Latine as well of the olde as of the new Testament The greatest part wherof is now in vse in our Catholike Church and is the same that we most estéeme In like maner I will that you vnderstande that in the 314. yere after the natiuitie of our sauiour Iesus Christ there was raysed among you a certayne Iewe of Idumaea named Maier a man very subtyle and in the arte of Nygromancie no lesse skilfull which obtayned suche credite and reputation among you that he made you fully beléeue that God had gyuen twoo lawes vnto Moyses in the mount of Sinay the one in writing and the other in worde and sayde that God had done the same knowing that in time the wrytten lawe shoulde bée loste and that lawe shoulde raygne whiche was gyuen by woorde This cursed Iew Maier further sayde that God had reuealed this lawe vnto Moyses only and alone and Moyses did reueale the same to Iosue and Iosue to his successors and so from hand to hande it was reuealed vnto him and that vnto him onely God had commaunded to put the same in writing and to manifest the same to his Iewish people Insomuch that the lawe of Moyses beganne to bée abolished and the people and their lawe to be loste This lawe whiche your Iewe Maier had inuented in the Hebrwe speache was named Misna which is to saye the Secrete lawe This sayde lawe was glosed afterwards by many of your doctors namely by Rabby Manoa Rabby Andasy Rabby Butaora and Rabby Samuel the whiche in like manner with him did write many wretched and cursed things and no small lyes in preiudice of the lawe that Iesus Christe had preached vnto you and the lawe which Moyses had giuen you This lawe is the same whiche your Rabbyes haue otherwise named the booke of the Talmud wherein your doctors do say that when God vpon the Mount of Sinay did gyue the law vnto Moyses that then were present the soules of Dauid of Esay of Ieremie of Ezechiel and of Daniel and of all the other Prophetes And likewise they saye that there was present all the soules of theyr Rabbyes of the Synagogue whiche shoulde declare bothe the lawes of Moyses and also sayde that shortly after God would anew create their bodies to infuse these soules But it is right well knowen vnto you that according to the Prophesies and the lawes of Moyses the true Messias whiche was Iesus Christe was then come and that all your Iewish Common wealth is nowe finished for whiche cause ye haue preferred this lawe named Misna and his glose named Talmud by the meane of which law and glosse ye bold abused all the common people and yeelde destruction to your Iewishe estate Concluding I say that very well to good right and direct purpose I haue alleadged agaynste you that texte of Dauid whiche sayeth Scrutati sunt iniquitates And the other of Esay whiche sayeth Parum est mihi vt suscites feces In so muche as you haue falsified the Scriptures inuēted other new lawes Wherefore in respect thereof I haue done you neyther wrong nor iniurie considering also that at this present yee do more defende the lawe of Maier than the lawe of Moyses And for that I haue dilated this discourse more than I thought to haue done the reste shall remayne to bée verified in some other disputation An excellent disputation which the Auctor held against the Iewes of Naples wherein is declared the hyghe mysteries of of the Trinitie HOnorable Rabbyes and stiffenecked Iewes in the laste disputation holden betwixte vs on saterday last ye would haue pluckt out myne eyes and also haue beaten mée bycause I alledged thē these words of Iesus Christ which say Ego principium qui loquor vobis Answering ye sayde that neyther Iesus Christ vnderstoode what he sayde eyther I muche lesse what I defended scornfully mocking ye affrmed that I was but simple the whiche in déede may be very true But to note my Lord Iesus Christ of falsehoode most certaynly of your parte it procéedeth of your to too greate wretchednesse and moste excéeding and extreme wickednesse béeyng vtterly repugnant vnto his bountie to deceyue and to his diuinitie to lye Were it in you or had ye the grace to beléeue as I and all others do and ought to beléeue that his humanitie word is vnited ye would in like maner beléeue confesse that it were impossible that the blissed Iesus might erre in that which he commaunded eyther exercise his life as sinner eyther his speache as lyer But forasmuche as ye remayne obstinate in your lawes of Moyses ye deserue not to vnderstande so high mysteries The law of Moyses I do not deny but your Cabal I can in no wise credit but vtterly defie firmly beleue the
fortune The words of a very friend without dissimulation Men do order warres but God onely giueth victorie To one person and one matter fortune very seldome sheweth fidelitie What he ought to do that hathe continued long in the warres There is no greater trauel than to be ignorant of quietnesse Men oughte to trauell vntill they haue wherwith to defende necessitie He is in some hatred with fortune that is not suffred to repose in his owne house It is more to know how to enioy a victory than to ouercome a battell Our greatest trauels be of our owne seeking Both wisedome and eloqueÌ„ce in writing of a letter bee discouered In the courte men doe not but vndoe In the courte ther are thinges to be wondered as also to be shunned Newes of those dayes from Italy In Italy they win not so muche money as they learne vice Eight conditions of the courte and all verie perillous In the courte more despited than dispatched Death giueth feare but not amendment The ploughman reuewing the straightnes of his forough giueth note to the wise to examin their writings A letter ought to be pleasant to reade discret to be noted God dothe more for vs in giuiÌ„g vs grace than to take away temptations God doth know what he giueth vs but we know not what to craue To haue the occasion of sinne taken awaye is no small benefite of God. To be without temptatioÌ„ is no good signe The deuil procureth great welfare vnto his dearlings Notable examples against such as do persecute Very great bee the priuileges of the vertuous He incurreth great perils that coÌ„tendeth with the vertuous The certaine before the doubtfull is to be preferted A Kintall is a hundreth waight It is better to be than to seeme to bee vertuouse The conditioÌ„s of a friends letter A text of scripture expounded Vertue the vertues by exercise be conserued God hath more regarde vnto vs than we our selues Not the suffring but the pacieÌ„ce wherwith we suffer God regardeth The teÌ„ptation of the Deuill is limited It is lesse trauel to serue God than the world Good company is more pleasant then great fare The old Romanes were superstitious Places where the good wine of Spaine doth grow Terrible notes for the rich nigard The deed do here leaue their moneye and carie awaye theyr sinnes Horrible to liue poorely to die in great wealth Strange customes in a coÌ„mon welth are perillous Notable coÌ„dicioÌ„s of a good President The wordes of the eloqueÌ„t containe great efficacie A straunge example of an Orator A text of the Psalmist expounded It is lesse euill to enuie vs thaÌ„ to pitie vs The causes of hatred of Iulius Cesar and Pompeius Enuie bendeth his artillerie against prosperitie Behold the fraternitie of enuie Courtiers loose time Iniuries don by the almightie are to bee dissembled The trefull of al men and at all times abhorred In him that gouerneth ire is perilious A notable example to reâ—traine ire An example of the heathen to be noted and learned For the doubt of vice libertie refused Libertie craueth wisdome Twelue coÌ„dicioÌ„s of Rome variyng from Christes law A condicion at be in braced A rewarde after death A darke Epitaph expounded He is depriued of libertie that discouereth a secret It staineth a Gentleman to tell a lye Fiue Knightes throwne downe Sometimes some things vnfortunat To profite by sicknes declareth great wisedome Priuileges profites obtained by sicknes Anger 's and excesse be no small enemies to health To manifest the secrets of Princes is perillous An olde Epitaph Who dyd write the historie of the Sibils The historie of the man and the Lion. Great liberalitie vsed in feastes Did acquaintance renued betwene a maÌ„ and a Lyon. The Emperour Titus talketh with a slaue A slaue and also noble was Andronicus Auarice is cause of great infamie Foure sextertios amounte to .iiij. d. Where noblenesse dwelleth no treason haunteth An extreme distresse A passing toye Beastes doe feele benefits The Lyon feedeth his Chirurgian Absence extremely lamented The slaue craueth mercie The people of Rome make humble supplication for the slaue Note the authors of the historie Of what things they murmur in the Court. Who be great murmurers The order of the noble or gentlemans house The sinne of Ingratitude before God is detestable Zorzales blackbirds He is not to be holden for noble that hath much but that geueth much The poore do reuenge with teares To forget an iniurie proceedeth of singular wisedome Things that many desire but few obtain Conditions of a good iustice The conditions of Iudges vsed to be choseÌ„ in Rome The office of Iustice is to be giuen for merit and not for affection Euill iudges do execute the purse and not the person Iudges ought to dispatche with speed and answere with pacience Humanitie to all men of the mighty is to be vsed Of all men to be noted The womans armour is hir tongue True gentilitie pitieth the distressed Brothers children A speciall aduenture The pretence of priuate profite is voyde of all good counsell A notable measure A quent of Meruedis whiche be .6 a penie amouÌ„t 2500. Ducates The harte of man is moste excelleÌ„t in his kynde CommeÌ„dable qualities A notable secret in the yere climatik A perillous time for old men Notable conditions of a noble man. A lesson for Lords The expositioÌ„ of the text To be ashamed of sinne is hope of ameÌ„dment No greter sinner than he that presumeth to be good Oracles of old time Antigonus to be noted Gods grace doth only saue vs. A benefit due to suche as serue princes Badges of Christ Withoute grace a soule is lyke a body without life To drinke of the one or of the other great choyce is to be vsed Rules for old men Conuersation for old men The exercise of good old men The notes of good old men Necessary prouision for olde men A diet for old men Temperance in old men prouoketh sleepe and auoydeth belke A conclusion with rules conuenient for old men A most certaine remedie for loue A sodaine and strange spectacle Note the eloquence of the Author The perfect condition of a friende Buried being alyue A good praise to a Gentleman The wyse man weepeth not but for the losse of a frend The honest care not to liue long but well Who is worthie of prayse The friende vnto the freÌ„d neither hideth secret nor denieth money Not in your labour but in patience Not the paine but the cause maketh the martir A poudred crane sent froÌ„ Asia to Rome Plato offended with Dionisius for eating twice on the day Seuen nations inhabited Spaine The importunat and the foole are brothers children A notable example of a pitifull Prince An answer of Cato to Ascanius The good Iudge wresteth his condition agreeable to good lawes An example for men to be intreated of other men A sugred speach A commendable eloquence Notes of Iulius Cesar of Alexander the great The order of the knights of the