Romish religion into the free States and Cities of Germanie which had abandoned it contrary to his former promises when hee solicited their ayde against the Duke of Saxonie and Landgrave of Hessen not as the chiefe maintainers or patrons of reformed religion but as rebels against his imperiall Majestie This unexpected purpose of Charles was most clearely bewrayed in the siege of Magdeburge against which Citie no occasion of hostility could be pretended besides her Citizens resolution to maintaine that religion which by publique Authoritie had beene established The whole body of Germany besides was in a manner so drowned and choaked that libertie especially in points of religion could scantly draw breath save onely through Flaccus Illyricus his penne For subduing this Citie which for a while had held out stoutly against others set to besige it Maurice of Saxony was adjudged the fittest man who being imployed in this service gaines opportunity by protraction of the warre to make leagues as well with the French King as with some Princes and States of Germany but after many suspitions and jealousies taken against him so cunningly goes on with his project that he came upon Charles the Emperour on such a sudden manner at Inchborrouh as made him and his Courtiers with the forraine Embassadours there attending to leave the Supper which had beene provided for them unto Maurice and his company There was a horse-liter and torches provided for the Emperour himselfe with some few attendants but such scarcity of horses for the rest that a man might have seene that common resemblance of Princes of Nobles and common people to a company of Chesse men promiscuously put up into a coÌ„â—on bag when the game is ended really acted in the confused flight of this great Emperours amazed Court Dukes Earles Lords great Commanders in Warre common Souldiers and Kitchin Boyes were glad to trudge it on foot in the mire hand in hand a Duke or Earle not disdaining to support or helpe up one of the blacke Guard ready to fall lest he himselfe might fall in the mire and have none to helpe him This was the issue of the greatest Warre which Germany had seene or knowne since the dayes of Charles the Great in the managing and prosequution whereof more excellent Commanders were imployed by Charles the fift than any Prince in Christendome since hath had to imploy 10 Vnto many is given power and wit sufficient for compassing the conquest of their potent enemies unto whom the wisedome of using the victorie aright which they oftentimes purchased at too deare a rate is denyed The same Lord of Hoasts which put his hooke into Senacheribs nostrills and thereby dragged this furious Monster which had ranged farre and neere to devoure others into his owne Land there to fall by his owne bowells in the house of his false gods had all this while led Charles the fift a Prince of more calme and moderate spirit as it were in a silken string yet strong enough to bring this roving projector back againe within the Rheine where he is now to encounter with the French And being thus overwearied in the Germane Warre the Duke of Guise at the siege of Metz beates his Souldiers out of heart and breath and makes Charles himselfe thus to pant Iam me desertum circa me nullos viros video Now I see I am a man forsaken and have no men about me Few there were besides himselfe that were willing to have the siege continued any longer and one of his common Souldiers out of the bitternesse of his discontented soule and diseased body calls him the sonne of a mad woman to his face for continuing it so long But whether his undertaking or prosequuting this siege did relish more of his mothers disposition than of his owne let Warriours judge he never shewed more wisedome in any enterprise before then he did in this that he sought not from this time to wooe his wonted fortunes by wrestling with Fates But after he perceived the Lord of Hoasts did not goe out with his Armies as before he had done he willingly puts off his imperiall Robes with his Armour and betakes himselfe to a private retired life How much happier in this resolution than either the Davus or Diabolus Germaniae than the often mentioned Maurice of Saxony surnamed the Victorious or the turbulent Albert of Brandeburgh which had brought him into these straits As these two Princes in all their undertakings in their secret confederacies whether for Charles the fift or against him had aymed more at their private ends than at the publique weale of Germany so it pleased the Lord of Hoasts after he had by their joynt forces so turned the seales of the Germane Warre as is before set downe to settle the publique peace by their fatall discord So I terme it partly because they had beene so deare friends partly because a reconcilâ—ation betwixt them was so earnestly sought by many and would have beene readily embraced by Maurice had not Albert more out of the strength of wine than either of wit or courage provoked him to battaile by a most gross and most unseasonable challenge Maurice had given good tokens of his inclination to peace and the like was expected from Albert. But the messenger being dispatched after dinner when Bacchus was more predominant with Albert than either Minerva or Mars in stead of a pledge of peace hee sent his colours to Maurice and so after they had eaten and drunk they rose up to play after such a manner as Abners young men and Ioabs did 2 Sam. 2. 14 15. The manner of their mutuall assault was more like a butchery than a sober warre Albert in this furious conflict was so foyled that hee never recovered root or branch againe but after some few attempts lived as a perpetuall Exile or Vagabond his memory being as hatefull to his Country in his absence as his presence had beene terrible whilest he was able to gather forces And Maurice who deservedly enjoyed the title of Victorious did take up victory upon exchange of life having so much use of sense and memory as to have his Enemies colours presented to his eyes now ready to be closed up in perpetuall darknesse This was the end of this victorious Prince which had outstripe the greatest Statesmen of those times in maturitie of wit and deepnesse of judgement in matters Martiall or Civill before his body was come to its full growth in so much that Policy whom Caesars in their greatnesse are oft-times forced to serve did seeme to attend on him enabling him to atchieve those projects with an heroicall carelesse resolution and majestique grace for the purchase of which many powerfull Monarchs have beene often drawne to use untowardly shifts and slye collâ—sions odious and contemptible to their inferiours He was the only man of his age as one writes of him that had the skill to take occasion when it offered it selfe by the very point and to
carve opportunities out of perplexities Yet for all this â—ad no skill or forecast to prevent no fence to put by the sudden stroke of Death which seâ— a short period to his farre reaching plots and dashed the masterpiece of his projects when it was come to the very height and ready to fall upon the marke it aymed at The Spaniards have more cause to blesse the day of this Princes death then the day of their victory over the Duke of Saxony his uncle For if he had lived but a little longer the wings of Austria and Spaine had in all probability beene cut a great deale shorter throughtout Germany and the Low-Countries than since they have beene by the confederacy which the French King and he had made lately for ruinating Charles the fift But whatsoever devices were in their hearts the counsell of the Lord was against them and that must stand though by the sudden fall of the Confederates 11 To reflect a little upon the more speciall interpositions of Gods providence in moderating the proceedings and issues of this warre The Romanists have small cause to brag though many of them doe so of Charles his victorie over the two confederate Princes as of some speciall token of Gods favour to their Church and religion Chytreus a most unpartiall Writer and well acquainted with the State of Germany as then it stood and with the severall dispositions of the chiefe confederates ingenuously confesseth as a speciall argument of Gods favour towards the professors of the reformed Religion throughout Germany that the Duke of Saxony and Landgrave of Hessen had not the victory which they expected over the Emperour Hee might have more reason thus to write then I know or now remember but certainly their agreement during the time of the war was not altogether so good as to promise any lasting concord or sure establishment of true Christian peace throughout the severall Provinces of Germany if they had prevailed Shertelius who commanded in chiefe for the free Cities did as some write forsake the Campe as being wearie of their wranglings However their few yeares captiuitie was a fatherly chastisement no plague or token of Gods wrath against them As the unjust detention of the Landgrave brought greater dishonour to the Emperour Charles then any one Act that ever he did so the Duke of Saxonie wonne himselfe more honour by his durance then the Emperour could bestow upon him Victorie in battaile abundance of wealth and titles of honour are gifts and blessings from the Lord yet of which Pagans and Infidels are capable and such as many Heathen have scorned or not affected But for a Prince by birth which had beene continually borne upon the wings of better Fortune alwayes reputed the chiefe stay and pillar of his Country to endure captivity in an uncouth Court with such constancy of minde as could turne the intended contempt and scorne of his witty enemies into kindnesse and admiration and cause such as had led him captive not only to pitie but to honour him and propagate his fame unto posterity This was a blessing peculiar to Gods Saints That character which forraigne Writers have put upon him will hardly befit any that is not a Christian inwardly and in heart Neque in prosperis elatum neque in adversis dejectum sui hostes unquam vidêre His enemies did never see him either puft up with prosperitie or dejected with adversity But was it not the greater pitie if we may speake after the manner of most men and as many Germanes in those times did that so noble a Prince should be punished with the perpetuall losse of his Electorall dignity Yet even this that we may with veneration rather admire than question the secret wayes of Gods providence was no losse but gaine unto Gods Church and the publique weale of Saxony which he more sought than his owne ends or commodities For by his falling into Charles his hands the Electorall dignity of Saxony fell into another Collaterall line which proved as beneficiall and favourable to good learning and Reformed Religion as any other Princely Family of Germany in those times Witnesse to omit their other good deeds in this kinde that Princely munificence of Duke Augustus brother and heyre to Maurice the victorious annually exhibited to Ministers Orphans related by Polycarpus Lyserus How well those good examples which Maurice himselfe and his brother Augustus had set have beene followed by their Successors falls not within my reading or observation But surely these two advancers of this second Line did better imitate the princely vertues of their deprived Vncle than his owne sons were likely to have done For the judicious unpartiall French Historian assignes this as one speciall reason why the fame and memory of Iohn Duke of Saxony did not continue so fresh and pretious after his death as he deserved Quia reliquit filios sui dissimillimos CHAP. 29. Of Gods speciall providence in making unexpected peace and raising unexpected warre 1 THE hand of the Almighty is not more conspicuous in managing warres begunne by men than his finger is in contriving their first beginnings Love is his nature and friendship or mutuall love betwixt man and man Princes or Nations is a blessing which descends from him alone who is the onely Author of all true peace but not the Author onely of peace Sometimes hee kindles unquenchable dissentions where the seeds of secular peace have been sowne with greatest policy and watered with continuall care and circumspection Sometimes againe hee maketh sudden unexpected concord between spirits which jarre by nature and joynes the right hand of inveterate foes to strengthen the stroke of Iustice upon his enemies 2 Later Chronicles will hardly afford any example of worse consort betweene neighbour Princes than was betweene Charles of Burgundy and Lewes of France whether wee respect the contrarietie of their naturall dispositions or the incompossibilitie of their projects or engagements Nature had planted and policie had nourished a kinde of Antipathy betwixt them And yet how quickly and unexpectedly did these two great Princes after irreconcileable variances close and agree together to crush the wise the rich and martiall Earle of Saint Paul then High Constable of France He that had beene of both these Princes Courts and of both their Counsels hath left it observed that they could never bee brought in all their life time to concurre in any other action or project besides this albeit they had often greater motives to entertaine peace betweene themselves than provocations to conspire against this Earle Perhaps his experience of their ill consort made him more confident than otherwise hee would have beene though confident he might have beene upon better grounds than most great Subjects or inferiour Princes can be if wit if wealth if policie if martiall power or authority could secure any from the execution of Gods Iustice 3 The best use which Machiavel or his Scholars make of this Potentates mishap is
as policy could devise their practise and execution of meanes invented was more exact then the patterne which Machiavel gives for like designes First because store of armour and munition was necessary for such an action and provision of such store of munition would be suspicious for a private man to undertake in a popular and factious State Fliscus perswades young Doria whose death he especially sought to be his partner in setting out a Man of Warre against the Turkes Doria kindly accepts the offer altogether ignorant of the others intent which was by this colour to furnish himselfe with armour and munition out of the Countrie for Doriaes overthrow And being once furnished with such tragicall attire without suspition of any tragedy to ensue for to provide himselfe of sutable actors hee invites a multitude of the Commons to a night feast where in stead of thanksgiving before meat hee makes a patheticall oration exhorting them to banquet it that night in the Nobilities blood assuring them that they should bee their owne carvers for ever after of the good things of that Citie Some for love to Fliscus others for hate to the Nobility some for feare of present danger and others for hope of greater dignities for one cause or other all at length save two who desired to be spared for their faint hearts offer themselves to Fliscus his service And by their forwardnesse the City gates next to the key whose command made most for their purpose are presently surprised yet not without some noise which comming unto Doriaes eare makes him suspect that his Mariners were quarrelling and rifing out of his bed to compose the supposed quarrell by his presence he falls immediately into his enemies hands before he was sought for But however this yong gallant had committed no actuall crime that by course of humane law deserved a violent death by such executioners yet the right hand of the Lord had found him out for consenting by Piracy to disturbe the publique peace lately concluded betwixt Charles the fift and the Turke which peace the Genoezes amongst others the Dorian faction above other Genoezes but especially this young Doria his Fathers house which had stood for Caesar against the French were bound in conscience to observe But leaving the cause of his death unto the righteous Iudge his sudden end in any Politicians judgement was a good beginning to Fliscus mischievous designes And what more could Machiavel have in the next place given in charge but that the Gallies which made some stirre at the noise should with all speed bee boorded to make all sure untill the Tragedy were fully acted This Fliscus sought to put in execution with as great speed as Machiavel in like case could have wished But haste as wee say makes waste his forward minde had made him forget that his body was not so nimble in armour as out of it not so apt either to avoid a slip or to recover himselfe when he began to slide By his hasty treading upon a loose plank as if the snare had been set for his soule by the Almighties hand he and one or two of his companions fell some yard or two short of their purpose and drowned themselves and their plot even whilest it was come to such perfection that the younger Fliscus yet hoped to make himselfe Duke of Genoa as haply he might have done if the Lord had lent him so much wit as to have concealed his elder brothers death scarce knowne to any till he bewrayed it to such as enquired for him in hope to finish all instantly by his presence But they partly amazed with the elder brothers sudden disaster and seeing no sufficiency in the younger to satisfie their expectation dissolve the rout and ceasing to project the ruine of others begin every one to seek the best meanes for his owne safety Thus hath this politique Gentleman consulted shame unto his house his stately Palace is demolished and his Noble Family almost extinct Yet were all the conditions which greatest plot-masters require in such projects exactly observed in this the plot it selfe as acurate as could by the reach of man be devised their counsell communicated but to a few at the first the execution of it so speedy that the appointed actors could have no leisure to deliberate whether it were better to relent or goe forwards and yet the successe more dismal and sudden than their enemies could expect or wish Thus Machiavels rules have their exceptions but the Prophets Calendar is never out of date Non est viri dirigere gressus ejus Not Machiavel himselfe had he been present could so have directed Fliscus his steps that his treadings should not slip yea he should have fallen though Machiavel had held the plank For his iniquity had overgrown his plot and being come to ful height it strikes upon that immutable irresistible doome which God by Moses had pronounced Deut. 32. v. 35. Vengeance and recompence are mine their feet shall slide in due time and the day of their destruction is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make haste These men we spake of hastned their owne destruction by making too much haste to destroy others 4 Perhaps the Politician will reply As Haman was too slow so Fliscus was too hasty and should have observed the contrary rule Differ habent parvae commoda magna morae Suppose this hot-spur were revived to re-act his former or the like cunning plot and for his better remembrance should take the Dolphin and Harrow for his devise with this inscription Festina lente it were not possible his speed should be better so long as his intentions were as bad or worse then they had beene and his adversaries no worse then they were when he conspired their death To omit more examples ancient or foraigne the fresh memory of the Powder treason eclipseth all that have gone before it No Politician can justly accuse the Actors of this intended Tragedy either of Hamans too long delay or of Fliscus his haste Such maturity and secrecie they used in their actions and consultations as none on earth could have used more considering the many lets and impediments which did crosse their projects Hell it selfe had gone so long with this hideous monster that it was weary and well content to make an abortive brood as fearing the pangs that must have accompanied the full delivery of what had beene conceived within her bowels would be unsufferable But Achitophel had wit at will to plot a treason to his Soveraignes overthrow yet herein blinded by him that gave him sight in other projects that he could not forecast what harmes might befall him by Absoloms folly And though the Arch-plotter were Vir profundae dissimulationis one that could give traiterous counsell as the destroying Angell of the Lord and hide his counsell as deep as Hell though he had this extraordinary quality in him of making his friends so sure unto him
hate God is no accepter of persons in respect of the execution of his most righteous law as is the people so is the Prince his word must be alike fulfilled in both not only subjects that kill one another but Princes be they Kings or Monarks that authorize murder or suffer their subjects blood to be unjustly spilt by man shall their blood be spilt if other executioners faile even by the hand of their dearest friends such was Count Montgomery to this king 5 The caveat which from the untimely death of this Earle a judgement inflicted by divine justice not so much for this though this were pretended by the Queen Mother and Dowager to take away his life as for other offences hath beene elsewhere commended to yong gallants or Princes servants was to my remembrance this Not to be instruments thogh to Kings in the execution of manifest injustice seeing this noble Gentleman after much honor many victories â—otten by war in defence of those of the reformed Religion whom he had formerly wronged came at length to lose his head in that very place whither by Henry the seconds appointment he had brought divers noble Gentlemen to the fagot some of that honorable bench which afterward sentenced him to death CHAP. 34. The sinnes of parents visited upon their children according to the rule of retaliation 1 ALL the parties hitherto instanced in were visited by the rule of retaliation in their owne persons some of them not in their owne persons alone But it is usuall with the supreme Iudge to visit the ouâ—crying sinnes of irreligious parents upon their children according to the former rule And to this purpose the visitation of Ahabs and of Iezabels bloody sinnes against Naboth may by expresse warrant of Sacred Writ be improved But no Histories profane or sacred afford more fit instances for the proofe of this conclusion than our owne Chronicles doe It was a question amongst the Heathen Philosophers An res posterorum pertineant ad defunctos Whether the ill or welfare of posterity did any way increase or diminish the happinesse of their deceased ancestors The negative part is determined by the great Philosopher in his Moralls And I know no just cause or reason why any Christian Divine should either appeale from his determination or revive the doubt Yet if the affirmative part of the former question were supposed as true or were it lawfull to imagine or feign such interchange of speech or Dialogues betwixt deceased Grandfathers Vnkles and their Nephewes as our Saviour I take it not by way of reall history but of fiction doth betweene Abraham and Dives me thinks Edward the third and Lionel Duke of Clarence might have taken up Iothams parable against Bullinbrooke and the House of Lancaster If yee have dealt truly and sincerely with us and with the prime stemmes of this royall stock then rejoyce yee and your posterity in your devises but if not Let fire come out from among your selves or from our stock to devoure you and to make your posterity curse your dealings with us And in what region soever 〈◊〉 soule did in the third generation reside it might have framed its responsary unto this parable out of Adonibezeks song As I have done to you and yours so hath the Lord requited me and mine And had this or the like saying upon the deposition of Bullinbrookes heyre beene daily rung into the eares of Edward the fourth Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum Amongst men none more happy is than he That can his owne by others harmes foresee it might have wrought better effects for the bodily or temporall good of his harmlesse sonnes than any dirge could after his death procure unto his soule Few Chronicles else will exhibit such a continued pedigree of unhallowed policies ill successe as our owne Annalls of those times doe 2 Vnto Richard the second and his misleaders it seemed a branch of plausible policy to banish his cozen Henry of Bullinbrook this land the vicinity of whose heroicall spirit was an heart-sore to this degenerate Prince But what successe did the Counsell of the Lord award unto this jealous devise Bullinbrook by his presence amongst foraine Nations which scarce knew him before gained so much honour and so much love with the chiefe Peeres of this Realme which had knowne him before by his absence that Richard the second was taken in his owne feare and his Crowne set upon Bullingbrookes head with generall applause But the lesse right he had unto it the greater was his jealousie lest Richard the second or some other more principall stemme of the royall Stock might take it off againe The only meanes as he thought for securing himselfe from this feare and for setling the Crowne upon the House of Lancaster was to put the poore deposed King to death whose errours deserved pitie and compassion from every true English heart if not for his Grandfathers yet for his heroicall Fathers sake that Gideon which had brought so much honour to the English Nation And after Richards death the master-piece of his policy was to suffer Mortimer the lawfull heyre unto the Duke of Clarence and now unto the English Crowne to live a miserable Captive under the enemy who had more reason to revenge himselfe upon the English by Mortimers death than Bullinbrook had to murther Richard the second This soule sinne of Bullinbrooke was visited upon the third generation His grandchilde and heyre Henry the sixt a man more free from staine of guiltlesse blood than either Richard the second or Bullinbrooke had beene is cruelly murthered by Edward the fourth a stemme of Mortimers stock and of Lionel Duke of Clarence For though God hath sworne not to punish the children for their fathers offences yet he hath professed it as a rule of his eternall justice to visit the sinnes of fathers upon the children And from the equity of this rule many Princely Races have utterly determined and expired in the dayes of such Princes as were most free from the actuall sinnes of their Ancestors which were the causes of their expiration as is in other Meditations shewed at large 3 But though it were just with God to visit Bullinbrookes sinne on Henry the sixt did Edward the fourth commit no injustice by doing that which God would have done yes he did therefore most unjustly because he did doe that which God would not have done by him And therefore the Counsell of the Lord which overthrew the bloody devises of Bullinbrooke for setling the Crowne of this Kingdome on himselfe and his heyre males did more speedily overthrow the devise of Edward the fourth God visits his sinne in the next generation upon his lovely and harmlesse Sonnes in their nonage before the devises of their hearts were capable of any evill or mischiefe towards men and did visit them by the hands of their bloody uncle Richard the third who by their Fathers appointment had practised butchery upon the House of