our Lord be youre protectour From Borgos the .15 of October Anno .1523 A letter vnto sir Peter of Acunia Erle of Buendia wherin is declared a prophesie of a certaine Sibill. RIght magnificent Christian knight doth your honor thinke in your iudgement that the answere I shall sende you shall be as large as the letter you haue written vnto me of a trouth it may not be so for I am nowe come to that age that nothing lyketh me that I take in hand either can I performe any thing that I would do The many yeares the cōtinual studies the great trauels that I haue passed haue made in me such impression that now the eyes be tired with reading the pulses with writing the memorie with retaining and also the iudgemente with noting and compounding God knowes I would not boast my self therof but in the end I can not but cōfesse it which is euery day I féele my self much more in age and much lesse in abilitie the more I wold dissemble the more I would enable my self the more I wold grow yong the more tenderly I would deale with my selfe I can not leaue to acknowledge but that my sighte decreaseth my memorie fayleth my bodie goeth wearied the strength decayeth and also my heares grow hoare Oh my soule what be all these things but certaine cruell summoners that cite my life to inhabite the sorowfull sepulture Epaminondas the Greke sayde that vntill the age of thirtie yeares they ought to say vnto men you are welcome or you come in a good houre bicause at that tyme they séeme to bée cōming into the world from thirtie vntill fiftie they ought to say God keepe you or stande in a good houre bycause at that time they begin to haue some iudgement of the world from fiftie yeares forwarde they ought to say vnto them God speed you or goe in a good hour for from thence they go taking their their leaue of the world In these repartments of Epaminondas it appertaineth not vnto your honour and mée that wée come in a good houre nor that we stande in a good houre for we are now come to be of the number that go in a good houre I beséech the redéemer of the worlde that when we shal passe out of this worlde we may depart in a good houre take our leaue in a good houre and that we goe in a good houre For if it be muche requisite for vs to liue well muche more it standeth vs vpon to finish well I thought good to write vnto your Lordship all this to the end that if I shal answere you somewhat short ye haue me excused and to hold me blamelesse But comming to the purpose I say that I muche delighte to reade your letters on the other parte I am ouercharged with your importunities for alwayes you come to me with vnknowne demaunds and right strange questions you now sende mée a moste auncient Epitaph that a certaine friende of yours hath brought from Rome whiche hath waged with your honour a certain wager that in all Spayn there shoulde not be a man which should haue skil to reade it much lesse to vnderstand it the letters of the Epitaph be these R.R.R.T. S.D.D.R.R.R.F.F.F.F. Neyther did that Romane speake according to knowledge eyther shall he winne his wager For that notwithstanding they be moste obscure and euery letter importe one worde I will sende them so declared and so aptly distinguished that he shall remayn confounded and you win the wager The case is thus Romulus raigning in Rome and Ezechias in Iudea there was a woman borne in Tarento named Delphica which was famous in hir life and singular in the art of diuining Amongest the Hebrues such women were named Prophetesses and amongste the Gentils called Sibilles Thys Sibill Delphica prophesied the destruction of Carthage the prosperitie of Rome the ruine of Capua the glorie of Graecia and the great pestilence of Italie And for that the fame of this Sibill was spread thoroughoute the worlde Kyng Romulus sente hir great presentes made hir greate promises and wrote to hir many letters to remoue hir out of hir countreye to lyue at Rome Neyther for any intreatance they vsed with hir or for any giftes they could sende hir this Sibill at any tyme would leaue hir countrey or come to dwell at Rome The whiche Romulus perceiuing determined in his owne person to goe sée hir and with hir in certayne causes to communicate The secret that Romulus desired was to vnderstand what Fortune was reserued for him and what destenie the Citie of Rome should haue whiche at that time king Romulus began to buylde Answere better nor worse mighte the kyng receyue of that Sibille Delphica but that she gaue him fouretéene letters written in certayne barkes of trées for that in those so auncient tymes they had not as then founde oute the manner to write in parchement and muche lesse in paper the secrete and misterie of which letters neither coulde King Romulus vnderstande eyther woulde the woman declare the same But so muche she did certifie him that there was one to be borne which should vnderstand and interprete those letters King Romulus being returned vnto his Citie of Rome commaunded those letters to be set in one of his Temples vnder greate and safe kéeping vntill the tyme shoulde come that the Goddes shoulde reueale them or some other bée borne that shoulde vnderstande them Foure hundreth thirtie seuen yeares those letters stoode hydden that no man coulde reade them muche lesse vnderstand them vntil there came to Rome an other Sibill named Erithra the whiche so clearely did declare interprete and expound them as if she hir selfe and none other had composed them The letters are but fouretéene the whiche declared in Englishe sayeth Romulus reygning Rome triumphing Sibill Delphica sayde the kingdome of Rome shall perish by Sword Fier Hunger and Colde Let vs put the selfe same caracters of the letters and the exposition in Latin vppon euery one of them in the forme that the Sibill expounded them whyche was as followeth R. Romulo R. Regnante R. Roma T. Triumphante S. Sibilla D. Delphica D. Dixit R. Regnum R. Romae R. Ruet F. Ferro F. Flamma F. Fame F. Frigore Sir behold héere your letters expounded your prophesies deuined your Romane confounded and also youre wager gotten And the reward shal be that I ouer watching my selfe to séeke this history your honour shall beare away the prayse of the aunswer If he will more thorowly know of this history let him come to séeke and reade Liuius Vulpitius Trebellius and Pogius whiche haue written of the antiquities of the Romans the sayings of the Sibilles No more but that our Lord be your protector and that he giue vs both his grace Amen Amen From Madrid the .xiij. of March. 1535. A letter vnto Sir Ynigo Marrique in which is re counted what hapned in Rome betwixt a slaue and a Lion an history very pleasant
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
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 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
séeke that whiche we may when we cannot what we desire No more but our Lorde be youre protector and giue me grace to serue him From Valiodolid the xxvj of October .1520 A letter vnto sir Iohn of Moncada in whiche is declared what thing is Ire and how good is patience EXpectable Gentleman and magnificent Knight if it shall séeme vnto you that I aunswer youre Letters with slacknesse impute the fault to Palome your seruant which halteth and the horse whereon hée rideth is lame the way long the winter hard and I also am always in businesse although from the same I haue gathered small profit and as I suspect if this your seruant haue made any tarriance vppon the way in comming hither or hath made small hast in returning thither it hath procéeded of a certayne combat with loue that he hapned to encounter by the way Wherein you may then well thinke how much rather he would accomplishe the loue that he beares in his brest than with your letters that he carieth in his bosome If you will credit me to men inamored you shall neuer commend your busines For his office is not to be occupied in other affayres but in writing letters watching at corners playing on gitterns climing of walles and vewing of windowes As concerning that which you write vnto me in youre letter I shall aunswer you more briefly than your desire and more largely than I may Considering how I goe to the Inquisition to reforme and to the Court too preach and euery day in Caesars Chronicles to write My busines is ouermuch and my time too little By the holy God I do sweare that as many courtiers which be idle in this court I do more enuie the time they loose than the money they possesse But comming to the purpose I do sweare by the law of a friend I haue bene as muche gréeued for your greate mischance and misfortune as if it had bin myne owne cause For as Chilo the Philosopher said the mischances of a friend we must not onely remedy them but also bewayle them Agesisaus the Greek being demanded for what cause he did more lament the heauinesse of his frends than the death of his children made answere I do not bewayle the want of my wife the losse of my goodes or the death of my children for al these are partes of my selfe but I bewayle the death of my frend which is an other my selfe Sir I saye thus muche since I may not be there present to lamente with you neither doe I here finde my selfe of power sufficient to remedie your case I will write some letter to comforte you For sometimes the pen vseth no lesse pitie with the friende than the launce doth crueltie with the enimie to persuade that you shoulde not féele that which reason would you shoulde so muche féele it shuld be iust occasion for me to be worthily noted with want of due consideration and you accused to be insensible That which I dare speak in this matter is that you conceyue therof as a man and dissemble the same as aduised and discrete The iniuries that touche our honour done by suche of whom we may not be reuenged the most sounde counsell is to let it fal since with due vengeance it may not be quited If in these present gréeues you wil take the order of a Christian leaue the way of a worldly knight you shall fixe your eyes not on him that doth persecute you but in God that doth permit the same before whō you shal find your self so faultie that that is little whiche you suffer in respect of that ye deserue to suffer Moreouer ye ought to thinke that tribulations whiche God permitteth be not to lose vs but to proue vs For in the books of God they set downe no man as quited but he that is apte for trauell and amongst those of the worlde they giue wages to none but vnto him that is giuen to wantonnesse Sir you write vnto me that I certifie you what thing is anger and the definition therof To sée if you may forget the dispite of him that hath done you so cruel an outrage to know what thing is Ire and to cut of the furious curse of his rage Sir it semes to me no euill counsell the very troth being knowen many times it is more securitie for him that is iniuried to dissemble the iniurie than to reuenge it Aristides saieth that ire is no other thing but an inflaming of the bloud and an alteration of the hart Possidonius sayth that ire is no other thing but a short foolishnes Cicero saith that which the Latins do cal ire the Grekes do name desire of vengeance Aeschines sayth that ire was caused of the fume of the gall and of the heate of the heart Macrobius saith there is muche difference betwixte ire and testinesse bicause ire groweth of an occasion and testinesse of euyll condition The diuine Plato sayeth that the faulte is not in anger but in hym that giues occasion Laertius sayth when the chastisement excéedes the fault then is it vengeance and not zeale But when the fault doth excéede the chastisemente it is zeale and no vengeance Plutarche saith that the priuiledges of ire are not to beléeue our friends to be rash in attempts to haue the chéekes inflamed to vse quicknesse with the handes to haue an vnbridled toung at euery word to vse ouerthwartnesse to be fumish for small causes and to admitte no reason Solon Solonio being demāded whom we cal properly irous answered he that little estéemeth to lose his friendes and maketh no account to recouer enimies After so manie and so graue Philosophers that which I dare say is that the vice of ire is lightly written easy to persuade pleasaunt to preach ready to counsell and very difficile to refrayne Of any vice wée may speake euill but of the vice of anger we may say much and very much euil For ire doth not only transform vs into fooles but also maketh vs of al men to be abhorred To temper ire is sufficientely vertuous but vtterly to expell it is a thing more thā sure For all things that are euill of themselues and of condition hurtfull are more easily resisted than throwne away In the beginnings many thinges be in oure owne handes to admit or to send them away but after they haue taken power ouer vs if by chaunce reason rise against them they say they will not depart since they be in possession Ire hath so euil a condition that of one only tyme that we yéelde him our will he afterwards maketh our will vnto all the hée liketh In the Magistrates that gouerne the common wealthe we condemne not the good or euill correction they vse but the greate furie they shewe in the same For if they be bounde to chastise the offences they haue not licence to shew themselues passioned Those that offend it is a thing very iust that they remaine not vnpunished but
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
drinking thereof it doth greate profit I would saye that the trauells which we suffer to be good they giue not so much paine when we endure them as they afterwards giue pleasure hauing passed them Prouide who will of the wines of Illana of the buttes of Candia and of the pipes of Rebedew but for my consolation and saluation I aske not of God but that al the days that remaine of my life he giue me leaue to drink if he please but one drop of his cup. There is another Cup which is called the cup of the wrath of God wherof to speake the entrailes do open the hart doth faile the flesh doth tremble and the eyes do wéepe with thys God doth threaten vs this is that whiche the Prophet speaketh of Of this the sorowfull Ierusalem did drinke of this the vnfortunate Sinagogue did make hir selfe dronke And the drunkennesse of this was the cause that Israell was banished from Iudea and translated into Babilon He drinketh of the cup of wrath that falleth from the state of grace wherein he stood wherof it foloweth that the soule is much more dead without grace than a body without a soule Then it is sayde that God is an angred when he is carelesse of vs and that day that we be forgetfull to feare him and he not delighted to loue vs and stumbling at euery steppe in the end of the iorney we shall be condemned Oh what difference there is in the wrath that men doe shewe and in that wrath and yre which is sayd to procéede from God for when men be angry they reuenge but God when he is angrie hee ceaseth to chastise In suche wise that God doth more chasten an euill man when he deferreth doth dissemble with hym than when he doth presently torment him There is not a greater temptation than not to be tempted there is no greater trouble than not to be troubled there is not greater chastisement than not to be chastised neyther is there a greater whip than not to be scourged of god The sick man of whose helth the phisition dispaireth is in small hope of his life I would say that his sinne which God doth not chastise I haue great suspition of his saluation It is much to be noted that the Prophete dothe not onely threaten Ierusalem for that she did drinke the cuppe of wrath but also bycause she did drink the grounds and dregs therof vntill nothing was left in suche wise that if there had bin more she woulde haue dronke more To drinke of the cuppe vnto the dregges is that hauing offended God greeuously committing all manner of sinnes wickedly forsaken some articles of the faith peruersely and hauing sinned with al the members damnably As if the commaundements being ten had bin ten thousand we had rather die than leaue any one of them disobeyed To drinke the Cup vnto the dregges is when we be not contented with breaking of one commaundement or two or thrée but that of force they must be broken al ten to drinke the cup vnto the dregs is if we leaue to commit any sinnes it is not for want of will but for want of power or for wante of occasion to drinke the cup vnto the dregges is that we doe not onely content our selues with sinning but that we doe presume and boaste ourselues of oure sinning to drinke the cuppe vnto the dregges is committing as we doe all manner of sinnes we can not suffer that they call vs sinners to drinke the cup vnto the dregges is to haue so greate vnshamefastnes in sinning that we dare not entire and vrge others to sinne to drinke the cup vnto the dregges is to haue our desires like a saint and our deserts like a deuill Behold here my Lorde Admirall what I conceaue of that text of the Prophet beholde here what I do thinke of youre doubt and I beséech God our Lord that he being pleased we may deserue to drinke of the cup that Christ did drinke of and not of the cup that Ieremie doth write of I write not vnto your lordship newes of the court as I was wont to write bicause it seemeth to commit treason vnto the holy Scripture if we should place any profane things at the foote of so holy a matter No more but that our Lord giue vs his grace From Madrid the xxv of March. Another letter vnto the same Commendathor Sir Lewes Braue wherein is written the conditions that the honorable old men ought to haue and that loue sildome or neuer departeth the hart where it is entred VEry noble and refourmed knight by the words of youre letter I vnderstoode how quickly the medicine of my writing came to youre hart and I do much reioyce to haue shotte at you with an arrow so inuenomed that was sufficient to make you stagger but not to strike you downe Although in the other letter whiche I did write vnto you it repented me to call you noble now I holde it for very well imployed in this letter to entitle you very noble bycause you haue amended the abuse of your life and answered according to your noblenesse Sir you write vnto me that the words of my letter did penetrate your hart and touch you to the quicke and to say you the troth I was right glad thereof for I did not write it that you should onely reade it but to the end you should cordially féele it Iointly with this I promise you as a Gentlemā and sweare vnto you as a Christian that it was not my meaning when I did write vnto you to offend you but to the intent to amend you Also you say that at the instant you read my letter you burned the tokens of your enamored dyd teare the letters of loue dispatch the page of messages remoued all talke of youre loue and gaue a quittance to the Pandor I cannot but praise what you haue done and much more will praise it when I shall sée you continue and perseuer in the same For vices be so euill to be vnrooted where they once take place that when we thinke they be all gone in the house they remayne hidden Sir I giue you great thankes for that you haue done and also do craue pardon for that I haue said although it be true to sée you amended I do little estéeme that you be offended For an vnkindnesse is sooner lost than vice remoued Also you craue of me in your letter that since I haue written you the conditions of an old man enamored that I write also vnto you the conditions that a wise olde man ought too haue bycause by the one may be knowne the shelfe that is to be shunned and by the other the channell obtayned that is nauigable wherein I delight to accomplish your request and to write your desire although it be true that I knowe not if my iudgement shall haue so delicate a vayne and my pen so good a grace in giuing counsell as in reprehending For
in bloud if they haue little and may doe little let them hold it for certaine they will estéeme them but little and therefore it were very good counsell that they shoulde rather remayne riche seruantes in their countries than to come to the Courts of Kinges to bée poore Gentlemen For after thys manner they shoulde in their countries be honored that now go in Court discountenaunced According to this purpose it came to passe in Rome that Cicero being so valiaunt of person and hauing so great commaundement and power in the common wealth they dyd beare him great enuie on all sides and beheld him with ouermuch malice Wherefore a certaine Romane magistrate said as if we should say vnto a frankling of Spaine tel me Cicero wherfore wilt thou cōpare with me in the Senat since thou knowest al others do know that I am descēded of glorious Romanes and thou of rusticall ploughmen where vnto Cicero made aunswer with very good grace I will confesse it that thou art descended of noble Romane magistrates and I procéede from poore ploughmen but ioyntly with thys thou canst not denie me but that all thy linage is ended in thée and all mine beginnes in me Of thys example your Lordship may gather what difference there is betwixt times betwixt linages and also betwixt persons Since we knowe that in Caius began the Augustus and in Nero ended the Caesars I would say by that which is saide that the want of noblenesse in many gaue an ende to the linages of the Knightes of the band and the valiantnesse of others gaue a beginning to other glorious linages that be now in Spaine bycause the houses of greate Lordes be neuer lost for want of riches but for want of persons I haue enlarged this letter much more than I promised and also more than I presupposed but I giue it all for well employed since I am sure that if I remaine wearied in writing thereof it will not be tedious vnto your Honour too reade it bycause therein are so many and so good things that of old Gentlemē they are worthy to be knowen and of yong gentlemen necessary to be followed From Toledo the xij of December 1516. A letter vnto the Constable of Castile sir Ynigo of Valesco in which is touched that the wise man ought not to trust his wife with any secret REnoumed and good Constable Sir Iames of Mendoza gaue me a letter from your honor written with youre hand and sealed with youre seale I would to God there were as good order taken with my letters that I aunswer you as is here vsed with such as you send me For I cannot say whether it be my hap or my mishap that scarcely I can write you a letter wherof al in your house vnderstand not As much as it doth please me that al men know me to be your friende so muche doth it gréeue me when you discouer of me any secret chiefly in graue and most waightie affaires for comming to the intelligence of youre wife and children that you communicat with me your delicat affayres they will make great complaint if to the profit of their substance I direct not your conscience My Lady the Duchesse did write vnto me aduertising to haue some scruple in me saying that I was against hir as concerning the house of Touare which I did neuer speake or thinke for the office that I do most boast myselfe of is to direct men that they be noble and vertuous and not to vnderstand in making or marring of heyres or Manor houses My Lorde Constable you do know that at all times when you discouer your selfe and take counsell of me I haue always sayd and do say that the Gentleman of necessitie must pay that he oweth and what he hath deuide at his will and that to make restitution there néedeth a conscience and too giue or deuide iudgement and wisdome if there passe eyther more or lesse betwixt vs two it is without néede that youre noblenesse should speake it or of my authoritie be confessed For the things that naturally be graue and do require secrecie if we may not auoyde that they iudge or presume of them at the least we may cut off that they knowe them not In that your Lordship hath let flie some words or lost some letter of mine my Lady the Duchesse is not a little offended with me and I do not maruell thereof in that she not vnderstanding the misterie of your spéech or the ciphers of my letters did kindle hir choller and raysed a quarrell against me Beléeue me my Lorde Constable that neither in iest or earnest you ought to put secret things in confidence of women for to the end that others shall estéeme them more they will discouer any secret I hold the husbands for very doltish that hide their money from their wiues and trust them wyth their secrets for in the money there is no greater losse than the goodes but in discouering their secretes sometime he loseth his honour The Consull Quintus Furius discouered al the conspiracie of the tirant Cateline to a Romane woman named Fuluia Torquata the which manifesting the matter to another friend of hirs and so from hande to hande it was deuulgate thorough all Rome whereby it happened that Quintus Furius lost his life and Cateline his life and honour Of this example your Lordship may gather that the things that be graue and effectuall ought not to be committed to the confidence of women muche lesse spoken in their presence for to them it importeth nothing the knowledge of them and their husbāds it toucheth much if they be discouered There is no reason to thinke either is it iust to presume and say that all women are like for that we sée there are many of them honorable honest wise discrete and also secrete whereof some haue husbands so foolish and such buzardes that it shoulde be more sure to trust them than their husbands Not offending the gentlewomen that be discrete and secrete but speaking commonly of all I saye that they haue more abilitie to breede children than to kéepe secrets As concerning this let it bée for conclusion that it happen you not another day to talke before any man much lesse before any woman That whyche we haue cōmuned and agréed betwixt our selues there might rise thereof that your Lordship might remaine offended and I disgraced At this present there is nothing more newe in Court to write thā that I am not a little offēded of that your Lordship dare discouer troubled with the wordes that my Lady the Duchesse hath sent me for which cause I beséeche you as my good Lord and commaund you as my godsonne that you reconcile me with my Lady the Duchesse or commaund me to be forbidden your house From Valiodolid the eight of August .1522 A letter vnto the Constable Sir Ynigo of Velasco wherein is touched that in the hart of the good Knight there ought not to raigne passion
the King and procured peace vnto the Kingdome When I was at the towne of Braxima with your Lordship and with the Commoners I preached nothing vnto you but penitence and to the kings gouernours at Medina del rio secco I perswaded nothing but clemencye for it was impossible if the one did not repent and the other pardon that these kingdomes might be remedied neither so many euilles and daungers cut off Now since I haue traueled after this maner and suffered so greate trauails I knowe not why you should call me traytor desire to kill me and to hang me at a window since I desire not to sée your Lordship hanged but amended Titus Liuius maketh mention of a Romane Patricide who being ambitious of honour a coward to obtaine the same determined to set fier on the treasure house where all the people of Rome layd vp their treasure This euill disposed fellow being taken tormented and examined of the cause of his enterprise made answer I would haue done this hurt to the commō welth for that writers should make mention of me in their Chronicles whiche is to wit as touching the treasures of Rome though I had not abilitie to obtaine them yet had I skill to burne them I thought good too put youre Lordship in remembraunce of this historie to the end you may vnderstande considering I am Preacher and Chronicler vnto his maiestie in which imperiall Chronicle there shall be sufficient report of your Lordship not that you were a father and a pacifier of your countrey but rebellious and an inuentor of these warres How maye I with troth write of the rebellion of Toledo the death of the ruler of Segouia the taking of Tordesillas the imprisonment of the counsell the siege of Alaheios the conuocation of Auila the burning of Medina the alteration of Valiodolid the scandall of Burgos the losse of Toro Zamora and Salamanca without I make mention of your Lordship How may I make report of the euils that Vera the Lockier hath cōmitted in Valiodolid Bobadilla the shereman in Medina the Lockiar in Auila and Burgos and in Salamanca the Skinner but that in that holy brotherhood we must find the Bishop of Zamora I report me vnto you my Lord Bishop shall I raise any slaunder vpon you by reporting in my Chronicle that I sawe at the towne of Braxima all the artillerie brought togither to the gates of your house I saw watch ward kept rounde about your lodging I saw all the Captaines of your bands féede at your table I saw them all ioyne to consult in your chamber and that al did exclame for long life to the bishop of Zamora All these things which your Lordship hath done I woulde gladly leaue them vnwritten if your Lordship would amend and also remedie the mischiefe you haue in hand but I beholde you with suche eyes and with such an opinion that you will rather lose your life wherewith you liue than the opinion which you follow I conceiued no small compassion when this other day I saw you compassed with the commoners of Salamanca with villaines of Saiago with manquellers of Leon with rebelles of Zamora with Cappers of Toledo and with hit makers of Valiodolid All which in generall you are bound to content and not licence to commaund This kind of people that you leade of the communaltie is so vaine and fickle that with threates they will followe you with intreatance bée sustayned with promises be blinded fighting with feare walking with suspition liuing vpon hope not contented with little or pleased with gifts for their intente is not to followe those that haue most right but such as giue best wages There is a certayne difference betwixt vs and you which is that we whiche follow the King hope to be rewarded but you haue no suche hope but by violence to please your selues which we knowe well that you your selfe haue promised to your selfe the Archbishoprike of Toledo we well knowe that Iohn of Padilia hée himselfe hath promised vnto himselfe the Mastership of S. Iames we do know that Clauero himselfe hath promised vnto himselfe the Mastership of Alcantara we well knowe that the Abbot of Compludo he himselfe hath promised vnto hym selfe the Bishoprike of Zamora we well know that the Prior of Vadiodolid he himselfe hath promised vnto himselfe the Bishoprik of Valentia sir Peter Pinentel Maldonado Quintanilla Sarabia the Licēciat Barnardine and the doctor Cowsehed None of these at this day wil giue their hope for a good quēt of rent Ramir Nunez Iohn Braue do accept to be called Lordes Iohn Braue for that he hath hope to be Earle of Chincon Ramir Nunez Earle of Luna it may be that one of thē or both may first lose their heads before they haue obtayned their estates Wherefore my Lord Byshop retire repent and amend bycause the loyaltie of Castile doth not suffer but one king neyther endure but one lawe No more but that our Lord bée youre instructor From Tordesillas the tenth of March. 1521. A letter vnto Sir Iohn of Padilla Captaine of the Commoners against the King wherein he perswadeth him to surcesse that infamous enterprise MAgnificent and vnaduised Gentlemā the letter that with youre owne hande you haue written vnto mée and the credite and trust you sent me with your seruant Montaluan I haue receyued here in Medina and to say the troth I did not more delight to sée your leter than I receyued griefe to heare youre message for that it séemeth you determine to procéede with youre enterprise and to finish the ruine of this common wealth Sir you do well vnderstande at the assemblie of Auila I saide vnto you that you were lost deceyued and solde bycause Hernando of Auila Sir Peter Giron the Bishop of Zamora and the other commoners had not inuented this Ciuill warre with zeale too redresse the offences in the common wealth but to take vengeance of their enemies Sir also I saide vnto you that the resolution of that assembly séemed vnto me great vanitie and no small vaunte and that which the common people demaunded which is to witte that in Castile all shoulde contribute all shoulde be equall all shoulde paye and that they should be gouerned after the manner of segniories in Italy the whiche is scandalous to heare and blasphemie to speake for as it is impossible to gouerne the body without armes so is it impossible that Spaine be sustayned without Gentlemen Also I said vnto you that being of bloud vndefiled of persone so well compact in armes so expect of minde so valiant in iudgemente so aduised in condition so well liked in age so tender and in the flowers of youre youth it were muche more conuenient for you to serue the King in Flaunders than Castile to trouble his kingdome Also I did aduertise you how in that of late the King had created the Admiral and the Constable for gouernours whiche
proper sinnes we discharge vpō others And in Iesus Christ charitie is so great That he taketh the sinnes of others vpon him selfe in such maner that he confesseth to haue many sinnes for as much as he is the redéemer of many sinners Behold honorable Rabbis what it is that the Christiās doe vnderstand of his diuinitie and that which we confesse of his humanitie Vnto which faith I extéeme to lyue and protest to dye And for that I haue sayd more then I thought to haue done yea and more then ye would haue heard we wyll remitte for another disputacion both your doubtes and my aunsweres Considering that my Lordes the Prelates And the noble men that be here do staye to goe to dinner and to withdrawe them selues c. ¶ A Letter to Syr Ferdenando of Cordoua wherein is discoursed the eleuen persecutions of the Church when and by whom they were persecuted WOrshipful Syr and Christian Knight Iohn de Cabreta your Steward deliuered me a letter from your worship which was as long as betwéen Madrid Almagro where at this present you do remaine wherby if you thinke to receiue no short answere by writing so long a Letter you do much abuse your selfe for wanting oportunity leasure to studie I maie not imploye my selfe to write such long tedious Epistles especiallye when he to whom they are written is simply but a friend Yet true friends delight not only in reading lōg letters but are grieued if their friends write not euery day al which aboue sayd is not to say that I estéeme not to place you in the chiefestes rankes of my best friends And if you imagine the contrarie you are much deceiued For your friendes mine do wel know that Don Ferdenand de Cordoua and Friar Anthony de Gueuarra Bishop of Mondoneto be twoo bodies ioyned in one wyll linked in a chaine of in dissoluble amitie But omitting this discourse retorning to your letter I assure you it pleased me very much chieflie in that I perceiued your good dispositiō which is no smal matter in the middest of these perillous heates Now touching the persecutions of the myllitant Church wherof you haue written wherof the Prior of Calatrana you haue liberally discoursed I aunswere that there haue beene many persecutions of the Church done at sundry times and by seuerall Princes And for that I greatly desire to do you that seruice which lyeth in my power I haue not fayled to sende you the sayde persecutions in order as followeth The first persecution was in the raigne of the Emperour Nero the which possessed with the Deuil in whose bonds his offēces did imprisō him perceiuing the nūber of Christiās daily to increase at Rome by grace of the euangelical worde which Peter Paul preached there where they were martered for such conuersion of the people determined with his power to persecute destroye the Church whereby he murdred many Christiās as wel in Rome as els where which was the first persecution of the Church For albeit the Church since the suffering of Christ hath béen continually persecuted in hir perticuler members yet notwithstanding vntyll the comming of Nero there went forth no commaundement to persecute the Christians Touching the constancy of the Martyrs and the diuersitie of the tormentes which they endured beside the Catholique Historiographers which write therof Cornelius Tacitus a Painim writer and enemie to the Christians yet verye credible in his writing doth report the same who making recitall of the persecutions made by the ordinaunce of the Emperour Nero of whome Sueton maketh also mencion doth say of the slaughter of Christians both men and women that amongest a thousande diuersities of punishmentes and deathes they cast the Christians to be torne in péeces with dogges And to make the dogges more fierce vpon them the men were braced in skinnes of Beares and other sauadge Beastes Which persecution was performed as witnesseth Cornelius Tacitus and Suetonius after the huge fire of Rome In the eleuenth yéere of the Empyre of Nero by whose decrée the glorious Apostles Peter and Paul were martyrred It maye well bée as I also beléeue that this martyrdome continued lytle more then thrée yéeres For though it were done at that time according to the Prior of Calatrana his opinion yet God would preserue his Apostles and deferre their martyrdoms vntyll the foresayde time The second persecution was in the time of the Emperour Domitian This wicked and accursed monster vnderstanding that there should one spring out of the lyne of Dauid which should expell him out of the Empyre he caused search to be made with much diligence for all those whiche descended from the race of Dauid amongst the Iewes and caused them to be put to death onelye raunsoming as Eusebius sayth twoo persons of the same familie who further for the accomplishment of his deuillishe deuices at the motion of the fiende he determined to persecute the Catholique Churche Whereby at his commandement a great slaughter was made of Christians within Rome and without In which persecution multitudes of the Christians were at the first committed to banishment who after were tormented and then murdered by most horrible paines and cruell deaths as affirmed Eusebius Orosius and many other Christian Historiographers This was the second general persecution of the primitiue Church in which S. Iohn the Euangelist was confined or exiled into the Yle of Pathinos where he sawe the visions of the Apocalips It were hard to know how long this persecution endured but as we may gather by Eusebius it continued twoo yéeres a lytle more For he sayth that Domician dyd moderate and cease his execution and yet notwithstanding aswel by reason of the sayd persecution as for his other vices the same Domician hath béene holden to be one of the most wicked and cruell Princes that euer liued The third persecution of the Church was vnder the gouernment of the Emperour Traian who allured by the Deuill his other ministers determined by torments to punishe the Christians and therfore by publique edict ordayned that the Christians should worship the Idol of the Gentiles vpon paine of death Wherevnto the Christians not wylling to obey he made a great slaughter of them This was the third persecution of the Church Catholique whereof Eusebius and diuers other Historiographers Christians do make plentiful mencion that was in the tenth yéere of the Empyre of Traian which afterward also commaunded this persecution to be stayed as doth apeare by some writers especially in the letters of Plyny directed to Traian in the answeres thereto sent by the same Emperor which are at this presēt extant where he prescribed that the christians should be permitted to lyue in their Lawes and vnder theyr liberties If they dyd not commit any other wickednesse therewith The fourth persecution was in the time and vnder the dominion of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius surnamed the Philosopher whose lyfe we haue discribed in
Gonsalis Fernandes of Cordoua great captaine in vvhich is touched that the knight escaping the vvarres ought not from thenceforth to depart his house 77 A letter to sir Enrique Enriques vvherein the author dothe aunsvvere to many gratious demaundes 83 A letter for sir Anthony of Cneua vvherein is expounded an authoritie of holy scripture 88 A letter vnto Maister frier Iohn Beneuiades vvherein is expounded the text vvhich sayth The euill spirite sent of God came vpon Saule 94 A letter vnto the Marques of Velez vvherin he vvriteth vnto him certaine nevves of the court 98 A letter vnto the Bishop of Tui nevve president of Granado in vvhiche is sayd vvhat is the office of Presidents 103 A letter vnto the VVarden of Alcala in vvhiche is expounded the Psalme vvhich sayth Let the liuing descende into hell 1â—7 A letter vnto Diego de camina vvherin is treated hovv enuy raigneth in all men 111 A letter vnto syr Iohn de Moncada in vvhich is declared vvhat thinge is ire and hovv good is pacience 115 A letter vnto sir Ierome Vique in vvhich is treated hovve greate libertie is much hurtfull 121 A letter vnto sir Ierome Vique vvhere in is declared an Epitaph of Rome 125 A letter vnto the Bishoppe of Badaioz vvherein is declared the auncient lavves of Badaioz 127 A letter vnto sir Iohn Palamos vvherein is declared vvhich vvas Saians horse and Toloze gold 129 A letter vnto the Duke of Alba syr Frederique of Toledo vvherein is intreated of infirmeties the profits of the same 134 A letter vnto sir peter of acunia Earle of Buendia vvherein is declared a prophesie of a certaine Sibill. 138 A letter vnto Ynigo Manrique in vvhich is recompted vvhat happened in rome betvvixt a slaue and a Lion 141 A letter vnto sir Peter of Acunia Earle of Buendia vvherein is touched hovv lordes should gouerne their estates 152 A letter vnto the Admirall sir Frederique Enriques in vvhich is declared that olde men haue to bevvare the yere three score and three 168 A letter vnto the admirall sir Frederique Enriques vvherein is expounded vvherefore Abraham and Ezechiell did fall forvvarde and Hely backevvardes 172 A letter vnto the abbot of Monserrate vvherein is touched the Oratoris that the Gentyls vsed 176 A letter vnto the Admirall syr Frederique Enriques vvherein is declared a certayne authoritie of holy Scripture 178 An other letter vnto Levves Braue vvherein is touched the conditiones that honourable olde men ought to haue 185 A letter vnto sir Ieames of Gueuara Vncle to the author vvherein he doth comforte him 192 A letter vnto Mayster Gonsalis Gill â–ª in vvhich is expounded that vvhich is saide in the Psalmiste Inclinaui cor meum 198 A letter vnto the Abbot of saint Peter of Cardenia in vvhich he much praiseth the Mountaine countrey 201 A letter vnto Doctor Manso Precident of Valiodolid vvherein is declared that in other mens affaires vvee may be importunate 204 A letter vnto the Earle of Beheuent sir Alonso pimentill vvherein is intreated the olde auncient order of the knightes of the band 208 A letter vnto the Constable of Castile sir Ynigo of Valasco in vvhich is touched that the vvise man ought not to trust his vvife vvith any secrete of importaunce 220 A letter vnto the Constable sir Ynigo of Valasco vvherein is touched that in the harte of the good Knight there ought not to raigne passion or anger 223 A letter vnto the Constable sir ynigo of Valasco vvhiche is sayde vvhat the Marques of Piscara reported of Italy 227 A letter vnto the Constable sir ynigo of Valasco in vvhich is declared the prises of thinges in olde time in Castile 229 A letter vnto sir Alonso of Fonsica Bishop of Burgos president of the Indians vvherein is declared vvherfore the Ringes of spaine bee intituled catholique 2â—0 A letter vnto Moson Rubin of Valentia being old and enamored 237 A letter vnto the Bisshop Zamora Sir Antony of Acuna vvherein he is sharplie reprehended being capitaine of the commoners that rebelled in spaine 242 A letter vnto the saide Bishoppe of Zamora in vvhich he is pesvvaded to turne to the seruice of the king 248 A letter vnto syr Iohn of Padiila captain of the commoners reuolted â—54 A letter vnto a gentleman and secrete friend to the Aucthor vvherein hee aduiseth and reprehendeth his vvretched couetousnesse 260. A letter vnto the Lady Marye of Padilla vvife to Don Iohn of Padilla vvherein the Aucthor doth persvvade that she turne to the seruice of the king 265 An oration made in the Toune of Braxima vnto the knightes and gentlemen of the assemblie vvherein the Aucthor doth tequest them to peace in the name of the king 272 A letter vnto Doctour Melgar Phisition vvherein is touched the profites and disprofites of Phisicke 282 vvho first inuented medicine and practised Phisicke 282 Of kingdomes and prouinces that banished Phisicke 287 The trauailes of Phisicke 289 A letter sent from Grecâ—a to Rome vvith a caueâ—t against Phisitions 291 Of seuen notable benefites proceeding from the good Phisition 293 Of nine perniciouâ— euils that Phisitions commit 295 The Aucthors iudgement of Phisicke 297 A letter vnto Mâ—sen Puche of Valentia vvherein is touched at large hovve the husband vvith the vvife and the vvife vvith the husband c. 300. That none doe marrie but vvith his equall 304 That the vvomen be very shameâ—aced and no babler 3â—8 That a vvoman be a home keeper and â—hun occasions 309 That the maried vvoman be not proude or cruell 311 That the husbands be not rigorous especially vvheÌ„ they be nevv c. 313 That the husbandes be not ouer ielouse 316 That if betvvixt the married there passe any vnkindnesse they giue no part thereof vnto their neighbours 318 That the husbands prouide thinges necessarie for the house 321 That the husbands bring not to their houses suspicious persons 322 That maried vvomen ought to learne to sovve and gather togither 325 A letter vnto Mosen Robin of Valentia vvherein he ansvvereth to certaine notable demaunds a letter very conuenient for the vvoman that marrieth an olde man. 327 A letter to the chaâ—on Osorius vvherein is declared that vve knovve not the things that profit or hurte vs in this life 331 A letter to count Nasaoth Marques of cenece vvherein is expressed vvhy amongst the fectes of Mahomet some be termed Turkes some saracens and others Moores 334 A letter to Don Frances of vlloa expounding certayne straunge and auncient Epitaphes 344 A letter vnto the admirall sir Frederike vvherin is touched the maner that in olde time vvas vsed on their sepulchers and the Epitaphe vpon the same 351 A letter vnto sir Alphonce Maurique Archbishop of ciuill vvherein is declared a certaine passage of holy scripture 361 A discourse made vnto queene Elinor in a sermon of the transfiguration vvherein is touched the great loue that christ did beare vs. 371 The taking and ouerthrovv of carthage done by scipio the great 378 A disputation and discourse holden against the Ievves at Rome 383 An excellent disputation that the authour had vvith the Ievves of Naples vvherein is declared the most high mysteries of the trinitie 398 A right high ê“fitable discourse apertayning chiefly vnto the learned 401 A letter to sir FerdenaÌ„do of Cordoua vvherin is discoursed the eleuen persecutions of the church vvhen and by vvhom they vvere persecuted 405 FINIS The favvtes that be escaped in printinge Foll 328. line 2. Reade caspe for paâ—pe Foll 329. line 4. Reade they for flee Foll Idem line 16. Reade falne for fall Foll 331. line 11. Reade algezire for algezi Foll Idem line 20. Reade Tincinatus for omitus Foll 336. line 26. Reade during for baâ—ging Foll 335. line 13 Reade enxoâ—ius for enponius Foll Idem line 14. Reade pithiniachus for pithanius Foll Idem line 17. Reade thesithes for gothes Foll Idem line 23. Reade Cesaria for â—osarâ—a Foll Idem line 24. Reade Isawrus for Isauca Foll Idem line 24. Reade feleuce for solenua Foll Idem line 25. Reade briquiene for briquemust Foll Idem line 26 Reade fes for fee. Foll Idem line 6. Reade quisquiane for gnisquaince Foll 354. line 27. Reade ninus for mimus Foll â—6â— line 5. Reade demanded for determined Foll 384. line 20. Reade neither for ether
of his great Librarie but of his good armorie For the weale of the common wealth it is as necessarie that the knight doe arme as the priest reuest himselfe for as prayers do remoue sinnes euen so doth armour defende from enimies Sir I haue sayd all this to the ende you shall vnderstande there that we know here all that you do in your campe and also all that you do say Wherwith you ought not to be grieued sith euery man dothe praise your wisedome and magnifie your Fortune In the register of fame maruellous is the great Iudas Machabeus the whiche when he was counselled by his souldiours by flying to saue their liues euen at the instant to giue battaile sayd God neuer permit that we put our fame in suspitioÌ„ but that this day we die all here to kéepe our lawes to succour our brethren and not to liue de famed Great account doe the Gréeke writers make of their king Agiges the which vpon the point to giue battayle to the Licaonians when his souldiors began to say that the enimies were very many he made answere The Prince that will subdue many of necessitie must fight with many Anaxandridas Captaine of the Spartans béeing demaunded why those of his armie did rather endure themselues to be slaine than taken answered That it was a lawe amongst them much vsed rather to dye frée than lyue captiues The great Prince Bias holding warres with Iphicrates Kyng of the Athenians when hée happened to fall into the stale of his enemies and hys Souldiours beganne to crie what shall we doe he made aunswere That you make reporte to those that are aliue that I dye fyghtyng and I will say there to the dead that you scapte flying Leonidas the sonne of Anaxandridas and brother to Cleomenides fighting in a certayn battaile when his souldiours sayd the enemies dyd shoote arrowes so thick that the Sunne was couered He aunswered Then lette vs fighte in the shade Charrillus the fifte King after Licurgus béeing in warre with the Athenians when one of his Captaynes didde aske an other if hée dydde knowe what number the enemyes were Charrillus answered The valiant and noble mynded Captaynes ought neuer to enquyre of their enimies howe many they are but where they be The one is a signe of flying the other of fyghting Alcibiades a famous Captaine of the Athenians in the warres he held with the Lacedemonians when they of his campe sodenly made alarum with great cries that they were fallen into their enemies handes â—e valiant and feare not quod he we are not fallen into their handes but they into oures I thought good to recounte these fewe antiquities that it may be knowne to all that be presente and also notified to those that are absent that amongst these so glorious personages your noble worthinesse mighte be recounted for that they neyther did excéede you in their wordes they spake neither in their actes they did We haue here vnderstoode in what manner the armye of Toledo did make their salye to take away a great bootie that you were driuing to your Campe and many of your souldiours did not onely begin to flée but also gaue you counsell to saue your selfe by running away but you of your part as a man of muche courage and a Captaine of no lesse experience gaue onset amongst the enimies crying Here Gentlemen here shame shame victorie victorie if this daye wée ouercome we obtain that we desire and if we die we perform our duetie Oh woordes worthy to bée noted and right worthie vppon your tombe to be engrauen Since it is certain that you slew that day more thaÌ„ .vij. with your sword with your noblenes of mind ouercame more than seuen thousand Trogus Pompeius doth saye many tymes and in many places that the innumerable victories whiche the Romaines did obtain were not so much for that their armies were of such power but bicause their Captains were of experience And this may we verie well beléeue for we euery day sée that the happie successe of a battell is not so much attributed to the armie that fighteth as to the captain that ouercoÌ„meth The Assyrians doe muche glorie themselues of their captaine Belus The Persians of Syrus The Thebans of Hercules The Iewes of Machabeus The Grekes of Alcibyades The Troyans of Hector The Aegyptians of Osiges The Epirothians of Pyrhus The Romains of Scipio The Carthagians of Hanniball The Spaniardes of Viriato This noble man Viriato was naturall of the prouince of Lusitania the which is now called Portingale In his youth he was first a shepeherd afterwarde a ploughman and then a robber and in fine made Emperour and of his countrey only defendour The writers of Rome themselues doe recount of this valiant Captaine Viriato that in fiftéene yeares that the Romaines helde warre with hym they coulde neuer kill take eyther foyle hym When they founde him inuincible and not to be ouercome in battaile they ordeyned treason to kill him with poyson Sir I thought good to bring this Historie in remembraÌ„ce to the ende that in this ciuill warre that we the Gentlemen hold with the Communers that you shew your self an other new Machabeus amongst the Hebrues and an other newe Viriato amongst the Spaniards To the end that our enimies may haue what to say and your friends what to prayse But to let the conclusion bée that you ceasse not to trauell as you haue a noble mynde to giue aduenture vpon your enimies that you may also resist al vices for men of valiantnesse as your worship is fewe vices are sufficient to darken many victories As concerning the reste that M. Hernando of Vega did commend vnto mée of your part wich is to wit that since you haue doone notably in the warres it maye bée remembred in the Chronicles Sir holde your selfe for happie that if your launce shall be such as was Achilles my pen shall be suche as that of Homere From Medina of Ruisseca the .18 of Februarie 1522. A Letter to the Earle of Myranda wherin is expounded that text of Christ whych sayth My yoke is sweete c. MOste famous and right noble Lorde and Master of the house to Caesar your honoure requireth by youre Letter that I should send vnto you the exposition of that text of Christe whiche sayeth My yoke is sweete and my burden is lyght the whiche you heard me preache the other day before his maiestie in the sermon of all saincts and that you delighted not a little to heare it and no lesse desire to haue the same in writing Also you write it shall not be muche for me to take the payne to send the exposition thereof for that you came to visite me when I was Warden of Soria in suche wise that if I would not performe your request of courtesie you would demaund it by iustice I will not denie but that visitation was to me no smal pleasure and consolatioÌ„ for that the
and Gentiles that defame our law and complayne of the hardnesse thereof Surely they haue no reason much lesse occasion so to do For the defecte is not in that shée is euill but in that of vs shée is euill obserued Those that would bée vertuous of the preceptes of Christe neuer conceyue hardnesse bycause the yoke of God is not for their purpose that followe their opinion but for those that liue conformable to reason Finally I doe say that all that wée do in respect of Christians wée are bound to do in consideration that wee are men and to this end Christe sayeth that his yoke is swéete and his burden light For he is so good and so magnificent that he payeth vs as well for that we do for him as though we were not bound to do it This is it that I vnderstand of this text And this is it that I said vnto his maiestie when I preached thereof No more but that our Lord haue you in his keping and giue me grace to serue him From Madrid the .x. of Iune 1526. A letter vnto Sir Peter Gyron wherein the authour doth touch the maner of auncient writing VIlloria your Solicitor and seruaunt gaue me a letter of yours here in Borgos written in Ossuna the .xxiiij. of August the which although he departed from thence in the same moneth came hither the .xv. of Nouember Your letters be so wise and so well prouided for that before they come out of their Countrey they will haue August and the grape gathering past If it had bene powdred fleshe as it is a letter it had good time to come hither very well seasoned for by this time it had taken salt Sir the letters that you haue to sende and the daughters that you haue to marry care yée not to leaue them far ouer yeared for in our countrey they do not ouer yeare other things than their bacon which they will eate and their store wine which they will drinke There is much lesse distāce betwixt Ossuna Borgos than is betwixt Rome Constantinople And the Emperour Augustus gaue cōmaundement vnto al his Viceroys that were resident in the East that if they did not receiue his letters within xx daies after they were written they should not take thē as receiued although in processe they did receiue them saying that afterwardes there might happen some thing in Rome whiche were to be otherwise prouided than according to the first letters The Emperour Tiberius Caesar if the letters that came frō Asia were not of .xx. daies writing those that came from Europa of .xv. and those that came from Africa of x. and those that came from Yllirica of .v. and those that came out of all Italie of .iij. daies he would neither read them and much lesse prouide for them Sir it séemeth to me that you ought from henceforth to talke indent and also couenant with your letters that if they come to Caesars Court they make more haste vpon the way for in deede speaking the truth that with libertie if your letters were wood of the Pines of Soria as they be letters of Ossuna by the faith of a Christian they might come so drie that therof might be made both dores windowes Although they giue me many Letters togither presently I know yours among the rest the which come wrinkled like linnē rusty like bacon besweat like a doublet beside al this to open read them there néedeth no force or necessitie to teare thē for that the foldes come all broken and the seales all to pieces Philistratus in the life of Apolonius Thioneus saith that it was a custome amongst the Ipimeans to put the date of their letters with the superscriptiō to the end if they were but few daies written to read thē if they were ouer yeared to teare them If as you be a Christiā you had bin a Ipimean be sure out of doubt that of a .100 letters writtē with your hād .98 shold be torne And also I doubt whether the other two shold be read But since it is true that the Date of the letter is old yet that the letters be good and legible I sweare by the holy things of God that it séemeth rather the caracters wherwith they write musike than the letter of a Gentleman If your Tutor you had in your youth did not instruct you better to liue than your scholemaister to write your life should be no lesse disgraced in the sight of God than your euill letter to my discontētation For I giue you to wit that I had rather take in hand to conster cifers thā to read your letters According to the varietie of time so was the discouering of the manner of writing amongst men For according to the saying of Strabo in the beginning of the worlde first they did write in ashes afterwardes in Kindes of trées then in Stones afterwardes in leaues of Laurell afterwardes in shéetes of lead after that in parchement and at laste they came to write in Paper It is also to be noted that in stones they did write with yron in leaues with pensils in ashes with fingers in rinds with kniues in parchment with canes and in paper with pennes The Incke that our old forefathers did write withall was first of a fishe called Zibia after that they made it of soote of smoke afterwards of vermilion after that of Cardenillio in the end they inuented it of gumme galles coperas and wine Sir I thought good to recite these antiquities to gather thereof of this your letter whether it were written with kniues with yron with pensilles or with the finger For as I thinke it is not possible at the least but that you did write it with a cane or with a canon You haue to vnderstand that the forme of your letter was grosse paper whitish incke croked lines letters turned vpside downe and the reasons blotted so that either you did write it by Moone light or else it was some childe that beganne to learne at schoole Although the letter came old open slubbred rent and all be blotted is it true that it was shorte in reasons and fewe in lines no surely but to haue little or nothing to write it helde twoo shéetes a halfe of paper In such wise that when I did open it and did sée it I thought it rather to be some citation wherwith they cited me than a letter whiche any should write to me The letters written with your owne hand I cannot tell why they should be closed and much lesse sealed for speaking the truth for more safe I holde your letter being open than your plate being lockt in your chest For vnto the one a gardeniance is not sufficient to the other a seale is superfluous I gaue your letter to be read to Peter Coronell to sée if it were in Hebrew I deliuered it to maister Prexamo to tel me if it were in Chaldee I shewed it vnto
Hameth Abducarin to sée if it came in Arabian I did present it also to Siculo that he might sée the stile if it were in Greeke I sent it vnto maister Alaia to vnderstand if it were a thing of Astrologie Finally I shewed it vnto Flemings Almans Italians Englishmen Scottes and Frenchmen the which all did affirme that either it was a letter in iest or else a writing inchanted And when many said that it was not possible but that it was a letter inchanted or else infected with a spirit I determined with my selfe to send it to the great Nigromancer Iohn de Barbota instantly desiring him to read it or else to coniure it who aunswered by writing and also certefied me that he had coniured it and also put it in circle and that he could gather of the matter is that the letter without doubt had no spirit in him but he aduised me that he which wrote it should be besprited Sir for that I wish you well and am also beholding vnto you I aduertise and also beséech you from henceforth to vse some amēdment in your letters if not ye may cōmend them to Iohn de Barbota That your letters shall scape my handes as good a virgin as Putifars wife did scape the handes of Ioseph or the fayre Sara the handes of Abimelech or the Hebrues Sunamite the handes of Dauid or the Dame of Carthage the handes of Scipio or Phocions wife the handes of Dionisius or the daughter of King Darius the handes of Alexander or Quéene Cleopatra the hands of Augustus finally I do say that I cannot reade or els you know not to write If the letter sent by Dauid vnto his Captaine Ioab vppon the death of the vnhappy Vrias and the conception of the fayre Bersabe had bene of this cursed letter Dauid had not sinned neither the innocēt Vrias bene slaine If the consederacie made by Escaurus and his companions in the comuration of Catiline had bin of such miserable letter as youres neither had they receiued so cruell death or in the Citie of Rome had they raysed so infamous warre that it had pleased the diuine prouidence that you had bene secretarie to Manicheus to Arrius Nestorius Sipontinus Marius Ebion and all the other heretiks that haue bene in the world for though they had constrayned you to write their excommunicate and cursed heresies wée should neuer or any other haue found meane to reade them Of Plinie in his naturall History of Clebius in his Astrologie of Pitus in his Philosophy of Cleāder in his Arithmetike of Estilphon in his Ethiks and of Codrus in his Politikes all the auncient writers doe most sharpely complaine bycause in their doctrines they did write some thinges the which are easie to bee reade but difficill to vnderstand In the Captaineship of these so excellent men you may well set downe your launce and also giue thrée poundes of wax to enter their fraternitie For if their writings will not be vnderstoode no more may your lines be read Many times I do muse how with the antiquitie of times and with the varietie of wits all things haue bin renued and many made better except the letters of the A.B.C. in whiche from the time they were first inuented there hath bene nothing added and much lesse mended The A.B.C. holdeth xxj letters eightene of the which Nestor found and the other thrée the captaine Diomedes inuented being at the siege of troy And surely it is a thing to be noted that neither the eloquence of the Greekes either the curiositie of the Romanes or the grauitie of the Aegyptians ne yet the excellency of the Philosophers both found or could find another letter to the A.B.C. to be added or to be taken awaye or to be changed And although the humaine nations are in some part diuers at the least the letters of the A.B.C. thoroughout the world do sound one As Solon Harman Cortes Pedrarias and Pisarro haue discouered in the Indies a new world to liue in it may be that you haue found out a new A.B.C. to write withall but I feare mée much that none will goe to learne at your schole if the matter therof be like your letters I say for my owne opinion that you shall neuer come to any good market to sell your land by such a list I will say no more of the matter of your letter but that you accept this of mine as a warning and therwith of your curtesie I do craue from henceforth you kéepe your letter vnmoth eaten And that it may stand with your pleasure to amend the imperfection of the same for I haue learned too read and not to diuine I did imagine with my selfe that of purpose you had sent me this letter in iest to giue me occasion to answere you in iest and of very ouerthwartnes you did write to me so bycause I should aunswere to the same purpose if happely it were your intent Sir you must thinke that out of such pilgrimage you can obtaine but like pardons Sir from this Court of Caesar very fewe things are to bée written although many to be murmured the newes now are that many titles of Dukes Marqueses Earles and Vicountes the Emperour our Lorde and Maister hath giuen to many of his kingdome thē which do deserue them very wel for the authoritie of their persons for the antiquitie of their houses If ye demaund of the rents they receiue and of the landes and Seigniories they possesse in these things I do not entermedle or dare not put to my hand although it be true that some of these Noble mens estates be so narow and strait that if it appertained to the Friers Hieronimites as it doth to thē they would shortly choose it within a wall Rodrigo Giron to you beholding and my speciall friend desired me of his owne part and commaunded me of yours that I should speake to the gentleman Antony of Fonseca vppon I cannot tell what unbarge or stay that you had vppon a licence Sir I haue dispatchte it as your authoritie and my fidelitie did require Since that time I haue not vnderstood what hath ben done therin but that which I can certifie you of and affirme is If he do perseuer with suche diligence too take order for your licence as he hath with great earnestnes played away his goodes your worship shal as well be deliuered of auditors and of an accompt as he was this other night of gamsters at dice. For as one of them aduertised me he lost no more but the cap he did weare the spurs vpon his héeles There are that do well resemble their owne and do followe the steps of their forefathers for if I be not forgetfull I haue séene his father the Iustice or Maior of Montanches many times kepe his chamber not bycause hée was sicke but for that in Merida hée had played and lost all that euer he had The lord haue you in his kéeping
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
whiche we may gather for our purpose that chaunging the Captaines of the warres ioyntly therwith fortune doth alter In one self kingdome with one self people vnder one king in one ground and vpon one selfe quarell or demaunde hope you not that Fortune will alwayes be faithfull For in the place where she hath vsed to be moste fauourable it is hir deuise by the same meanes to shewe hir crueltie Rodrigo of Viuero did say vnto me that your honour was not a little gréeued to sée that your departure was prolonged and that the Kyng for this present helde it in suspense And further he sayd vnto me that you held it for so great displeasure that if it were with an other that were your equal you would demaund it at his hand as an iniurie To heare this I do maruell am not a little but muche offended for I holde him not for a good beaste that when they lade him wil stand stock still and when they vnlade him will yerke out behind Since the soule goeth charged with sinnes the hearte with thoughts the spirit with temptations and the body with trauels it is much conuenient for vs that if maye not altogether discharge oure selues of this burden at the least that in some parte we lighten the same Your honour is not so yong a man but that the more part of your life is past and since the lyfe goeth consuming and death approching in my iudgement it should be better counsell for you to occupie your selfe in bewayling your old sins than of newe to shed the bloud of enimies It is nowe time rather to wéepe than to fight to withdraw youre selfe than to vse libertie to make a reckoning with God more than with the king to accomplish with the soule and not with honour to call vpon God and not to prouoke with enemies to distribute your owne and not to take from others to conserue peace and not to inuent warres And if in this case your lordship will not beléeue me from hence forward I diuine that then you shall begin to féele it when you may not remedie the same Your honour deceyueth your self or else I know not what to say for that I sée you flée that you should procure which is quietnesse and you procure that which you should flée which is disquietnesse For there is no man in this world more vnfortunate than he that did neuer experiment what thing it is to be reposed Those that haue trauailed throughout diuers landes and haue had exprience of diuers fortunes the thing that they most desire in this lyfe is with honoure to sée themselues returned to their countrey Of which it may be inferred that it is great temeritie that you alone wil rather go to die amongst strangers than to liue with honor amongst your own Vntil men haue gotten necessarie to eate yea vntill they haue obteined also some surplusage also to giue in my iudgement they ought not much to be blamed although they wander through out diuers kingdomes and put themselues in great perilles For he is as muche worthie reprehension that doth not procure that whiche is necessarie as he that ceasseth not to prouide that which is superfluous After a man hath found that which he hath sought for and also perchaunce it hath happened him better than he thought of if after he be retired vnto his house in great quietnesse will returne to rubbe againe with the world I dare be bold to speake it that such a one eyther lacketh wit or else fortune will be to him vnhappie The diuine Plato doth saye in his bookes of common wealth that Fortune is more contrary vnto that man that he doth not suffer to enioye that which he hath than vnto him to whome he denieth what he craueth I doe beseche and also aduise your honour that after you haue red this sentence that you turne againe and againe too read the same for in my iudgement this sentence of Plato is very true and very profound and also vsed of many For almost we sée it by dayly experience that many men can obtaine fame honour quietnesse riches and haue not the meane afterward to enioye them Iulius Caesar was he that nature endued with most grace◠and to whom Fortune did giue most victories and with all this great Pompey did say of him that hée had great hardinesse to ouercome any battaile but that afterwardes he did not vnderstand how to enioy the victory If in the great renoumed battail of Canas Hanniball had knowen how to enioy the conquest he neuer afterwards in the fields of Carthage by Scipio the Aphrican had bin ouercome Your Honour may take it as it pleaseth you and vnderstand thereof as it may like you to cōmaund but in my iudgement he is not so cruell an enemie that hurles his darte at me in the warres as he that comes to driue mée from my house Cōformable to that which I haue said I do say that since we can not flée from cares and trauelles yet at the least that we procure to auoid some displeasures thereof For without comparison much more be the offences that wée seeke vnto our selues than be brought vnto vs by our enemies I will say no more in this letter but that the Gentleman Rodrigo of Viuero and I haue talked some things worthie the vnderstanding and perillous to be writtē I commend them with trust vnto his noblenes here he shal relate them vnto your excellencie there No more but our Lord be your protector and vnto me giue grace to serue him From Medina del Campo the .viij. of Ianuarie .1512 A letter to sir Enrique Enriques wherin the Authour doth answer to many gracious demaundes RIght magnificent and my olde frend Valdiuia your solicitour gaue mée a Letter the whiche séemeth verie well to be written with youre owne hande for that it helde fewe lynes and many blottes As God made you a Knight if he had made you a Scriuener you woulde haue bene more handsome to colour Cordouan skinnes than to haue written proces Sir alwayes frame if you shall write any Letter to bée sente that the lynes bée ryght the Letters close the reasons deuided the letter legible the paper cleane the folding equall the closyng smoothe and the seale cléere for it a lawe of Courte in that whiche is written the wysedome is vttered and in the manner of writyng good manner is knowne In the letter that was giuen mée were contayned many demaundes vnder verie fewe woordes And for that with one Turquois wée both will make but one shewe The case shall be thus to euery demaunde I will answere onely one word First you aske me wherfore I came to the Courte to this I answere that I came not willingly but constrained of necessitie for the contention betwixte me and the Churche of Toledo my comming was expedient to cléere my selfe and to withdraw the lawe Also you demaund of me what I doe in
the Court whervnto I answer that as my aduersaries do follow me and my businesse enlarging I do nothing but vndoe my selfe Likewise you will that I write vnto you in what thing I do imploy the time to this I answere that according to the fashion of vs Courtiers beare euil will blaspheme loyter lye trafike and cursse with more truth we may say of time that we lose it than employe it Also you demaund with whō I am moste conuersant in this Court to this I answer that the Court and the people therof be grapes of so euill a soyle that we that goe in the same and from our childhode be brought vp therein studie not with whome to be conuersant but in discouering of whom to beware with muche payne wée haue tyme to defende vs from oure enimies and will you that wée occupie our selues in séeking newe friendes In the Courtes of Princes I doe confesse there is a conuersation of persons but no confederation of will for here enimitie is holden for naturall and amitie a straunger The Court is of such nature that they that do most visit them the worse they doe entreate them and such as speake beste vnto them the more euill they do wish them They which haunt the Courts of Princes if they will be curious and no fooles shall fynde many things wherat to wonder and muche more whereof to beware Also you demaunde how the difference betwixt the Admirall and the Earle of Myranda standeth to this I answer that the Admirall as one of muche power and the Earle as one in much fauor giues to eche other wherwith to be occupied and to vs sufficient wherat to murmure Sir you demaund what newes we haue of the Emperors comming to this I answer that which we presently vnderstand is that the Turke is retired Florence is alyed the Duke of Milane is reduced the Venetians did amaine the Pope and Caesar did consecrate the Estates of Naples be reparted the Coluna is deade the Marques of Villa Franca is made Viceroy of Naples the Prince of Orange is slayn and vnto the Chanceler and to the Confessor to either of them is giuen a Cardinals hat Other secret news they write from thence which be lamentable to such as be therewith touched and gracious to those that heare therof which is many of those that went into Italie with Caesar are became amorous and in the artes of loue haue raunged too farre But sir in this case I sweare vnto you as it foundeth in myne eares theyr wiues be here sufficientely reuenged of them for if they leaue there any women greate with childe also they shall fynde here theyr wyues brought a bed You will also that I write vnto you howe it goeth wyth vs for vittailes this Lent to this I aunswere that by diuine grace we haue not wanted this lent fishe to eat and also fins ynowe to confesse For the case is come to such dissolution and vnshamfastnesse that the Gentlemen hold it for an estate and aduancement of honour to eate fleshe in Lent. Also you demaund if the Court be deare or good cheape to this I answere that my steward telleth me that from October vnto Aprill it hath cost me in wood and cole an hundreth and fortie Ducates The cause of this is that this same towne of Medina as it is rich in faires so is it poore in moūtaines or woods in suche sorte that the count being wel cast the wood costs as deare as the dressing of the pot Other thinges are in this Court at a good price or to say it better very good cheap that is to wit cruel lies false news vnhonest women fayned friendship continuall enimities doubled malice vaine words and false hopes of whiche eight things we haue suche abundance in this Courte that they may set out bouthes and proclayme faires Sir you demaund of me if there be good expedition of causes for that you haue some to be dispatched to this I doe answere as the things of the court be tedious displeasant long deferred costely intricate vnfortunate desired besieged lamented and bescratched I conceyue of mine own part that if ten be dispatched nintie be despited Also you will mée that I write vnto you if the faire be good thys yeare at Medina To this I answer that as I am a courtyer and a suter and haue neyther marchaundise to sell and muche lesse money wherwith to buy I knowe not whereof to prayse it nor do I fynde why to mislyke it But in passing thorough the faire I sée in the bouthes of these Burgaleses so many riche and pleasaunt things that in beholding them I tooke great pleasure and being not able to buy them I was muche tormented The Empresse came foorth to sée the faire and as a Princesse most wise wold not be accompanied with hir maids of honor bicause the Gentlewomen that did serue hir being so poore and so fewe it coulde be no lesse but that they would vse their libertie in asking fairings and the gentlemen should thinke it their partes to giue them Sir you demaund if the Courte be in health or if the pestilence be thereaboutes to this I aunswere that of agues tertians and quartaines plague sores and such other infirmities of the body we are al in health and verie well excepte the licenciate Alarcon that being relating a proces before the counsell sodainly fell downe dead And of a trouth his death was to many in this Court very terrible although I sée none to amende his lyfe by the same Other infirmities be in this Courte that bée not corporall but spirituall as angers hatred quarels rancours wrath and slaughters the whiche maladies doe consist not that they go with bodies infected but in the swelling of the splene corruption of the gall I haue turned many tymes to reade your letter and haue not founde any more to aunswere For of a suretie it did rather séene an Interrogatorie to take witnesses than a letter to a frend I wil say no more but that I haue escaped in writing vnto you very wearie also angrie not for the answering to the matter but in construing youre ill fauored letter Our Lord be your protector and giue me grace to serue him From Medina del Campo the fift of Iune in the yeare .1532 A letter to sir Antonie of Cneua wherin is expounded an authoritie of holie Scripture very notable which is to wit why God did not heare the Apostle and did heare the diuell against Iob. MAgnificent sir particular beloued Alonso Espinell gaue me a letter from your worship here in Toledo the date whereof was the .12 of May and it is nowe the .16 of Iune in such sort that your letter neyther may by cōdemned for stale either for fresh Many from many partes do write vnto me sometime their letters be suche that to read them it is very tedious and to aunswere them no lesse displeasant To sée a
was afflicted Man by the multitude of his sinnes doth deserue to be an offence and a scourge of the good Much did the Diuell offend Iob in tempting him but much more did holy Iob deserue in suffering that temptation Bycause in the persecutions of the iust God doth more behold the pacience of him that suffreth than he doth the malice of him that doth persecute Also you will that I write vnto you what it was I preached this other day vnto the Emperour which is to wit that the Princes which tyraÌ„nously gouerne their common wealthes haue more cause to feare good men than those that be euill Sir that whiche I sayde in this case was that the tyrants whiche in the common wealthes haue offices of most preheminence haue much more respect to the bountie of the good than to the conspiracies of the euill For that amongst many other thinges this priuilege is coÌ„tayned in vertue that is to vnderstand amongst the least inferiors it giueth dismay with the equall it moueth enuie and to the great mightie it yeldeth feare The Siracusan Dionisius had more feare of the diuine Plato which was in Grecia than of al the enemies he had neare him in Cicilia Kyng Saule had more respect to the deseruings of Dauid than to the armies of the Philistines The proud Aman that was so priuate with Kyng Assuerus was more grieued with the good Mardocheus that he held him in no reuerence than with all the rest of the kyngdome Herod Escalonite did hold in more reuereÌ„ce and also did more feare only Iohn Baptist than all the kingdome of Iudea Finally I do say and affirme that none may with a troth say or affirme that he hathe an enemie but when he hath some good man to his enemie Bycause the euil man doth hurt with his knife but the good doth hurt with his credit Sir alwaies haue regard not to striue or contend with a man that naturally is good and hath credite in the common wealth with all men For he shall do you more hurt with his word than you shall offend him with a blowe of a launce Sir as touching the Commendathor Iohn of Towres that would not the gouernment this yéere which the gouernours had giuen him saying that he deserued better and that the king when he shall come from Flaunders will giue him more to this I aunswere that it seemeth to me lacke of wit and also a surplusage of foolishnesse to leaue a reward certaine for a hope doubtfull Sir also you coniure me that I write vnto you what I thought of the Lorde President Sir Antony de Roias when I talked with him in your businesse to this I aunswere that hée séemeth to mée sharpe in his aunsweres and wise in his dealings I do not like well with many of this Court that depraue him for his speache and do not afterwards consider of his doings as it is true so likewise many of our fréends giue vs wordes by Kintals but workes by the ounce Also you will mée that I write vnto you what I iudge of the Embassadour of Venize for that I am conuersant with him and hée confesseth himself with me Sir I can tell you that hée is in science learned in his life reformed and in conscience much considerate And it may bée sayde by him thatwhich Plato saide by Phocion his friend he did more loue to bée than séeme to be vertuous In the other secrete and particular businesse that Alonso Espinell commoned with mée off in your behalf with the same faith that your worship sent me the message receyue yée also the aunswere From Toledo the .xxx. of Iune in the yeare of our Lord. 1525. A letter vnto Master Frier Iohn Beneuiades wherein is expounded that which is sayd in the scripture that the euill spirite sent of God came vpon Saule REuerend and welbeloued Father the letter that your fatherhod made in Salamanca I haue receiued héere in Soria the which forthwith I read and afterwardes many times did turne to reade For that I receyued very great consolatioÌ„ in remembring my self from whom it came and in noting what it contained In the letter of a very friend the spirits do reioyce the eyes delight the hart is recreated friendeship confirmed and the vnderstanding is comforted For Plutarch sayth in the book of the fortune of Alexander that the great Alexander did neuer reade the letters whiche tyrantes did send him eyther did teare the letters that Philosophers did write vnto him All the letters that Marcus Antonius did write vnto Cleopatra and all the letters that Cleopatra did write vnto Marcus Antonius were found by the Emperoure Augustus very well laide vp after the death of Marcus Antonius The letters that Cicero did write to Publius Lentulus to Atticus to Rufus to Fabarius and to Drusius which were his familiar frends were all found in their keping and not in his originall As coâ—cerning that your fatherhode wryteth and by this letter comaund me to write it may be very well answered as saint Agneda did answer the virgin Lucie which is to wete Quid a me petis Lucia Virgo nam ipsa poteris praestare continuò matri tuae In this case and in this demaund I can not tell whether of vs deserueth more paine your fatherhode for tempting my patience or I in aduenturning my selfe to publishe my ignorance For hée is not worthy lesse fault that sinneth than hée that is the cause of sinne Si nequeo ascendere in montem cum Loth ad minus saluabor in Segor I would say that if your fatherhode bée not satisfied with that whiche I shall aunswere it maye please you to bée satisfied with that I would aunswere For as Plato sayd hée that doth trauel not to erre misseth very narowly You will that I write vnto you what I iudge and how I vnderstand that text whiche is written in holy scripture 1. Regum cap. xvj where it is said speaking of King Saul and of his infirmitie Spiritus Domini malus arripiebat Saulem The fyrst King of Israell was named Saul he was chosen of the Tribe of Beniamin which was the last Tribe of all the Tribes and in the second yeare of his raigne an euill spirit sent of God did vex him whiche would not come out of him neyther leaue to torment him vntill the good King Dauid came before him to play and to sing But now the dout is how it may be vnderstoode and agrée withall that the scripture should say the euill spirit of the Lord did take Saul if the spirit were of the Lord how was he euell and if he were euill how was he of the Lord it séemeth an hard thing and not intelligible to say of the one part that that spirit which held Saul was of the Lord and of the other part to say that the spirit was euil But if the spirite were of the Lord how was he then euil and if he were euill
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
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
great eyes a soft skinne colour baye and aboue all of courage maruellous fierce This horse being yet but a colt they came from Asia from Palestina from Thebes from Pentapolis and from all Greece by the meane of his fame some to sée him others to buy him and other some to praise him and set him a sale to the people for there was no person that desired not to sée him and much more to haue him And in this world as there is not a thing so perfit in whiche there is not some imperfection the destiny of this horse was so accursed for all they that bred him bought him and did ride him died miserable and infamed And for that it shall not séeme that wée speake at large and doe recounte an historie very suspicious briefly we will touche who were they that bought this horse and did possesse him and also the great misfortunes that came vnto them by the same In the yeare CCCCxiij from the foundation of Rome Quintus Cincinatus the Dictator being dead the Romanes did sende a Romane Consull into Grecia that was named Cneius Saianus a man in bloud holden famous and for gouernement in the common wealth very wise When the Consull Cneius Saianus went into Greece that horse was a Colt of thirtie monethes the which he cheapened bought and brake and was the first that did ryde him And for that this Cneius Saianus being in Rome did follow the partialitie of Octauius Augustus a yeare after hée went into Greece and not six moneths after hée had bought that horse Marcus Antonius commaunded his head to be cut off and also his body to be vnburied This maye it appeare that Cneius Saianus was the first that bought and brake this horse and also did experiment by death his vn happy destenie They named him then and from thence forwarde Saianus horse Cneius Saianus being beheadded there succéeded him in the office of Consulship a certayne Romaine named Dolabella whiche immediatly being Consull did buy that horse for an hundreth thousand Sestercios and surely if hée had knowen the euill that hée bought vnto his house I think hée would haue giuen an other hundreth thousand not to haue bought him Within a yeare after the Consull Dolabella had bought that horse there arose in the Citie of Epirus were hée was resident a popular sedition in whiche the sorowfull Dolabella was slaine and also drawen throughe the streates The Consull Dolabella being dead another Consull was desirous to buy that horse whose name was Caius Cassius a manne whome Plutarch writeth to haue borne great office in Rome and to haue done great déedes in Africa Not two yeares after the Cōsul Cassius had bought that vnhappy horse they gaue him suche herbes at his dinner that within an howre hée his wife and children lost their liues not hauing time to speake one word The Consull Caius Cassius being dead the famous Romane Marcus Antonius desired to buy that horse and hée was so pleased with the forme and shape thereof when they brought him that hée gaue as great reward to the bringer as hée paid vnto him that solde the same not twoo monethes after that Marcus Antonius had bought this horse a batell was fought at Sea betwixt him and his enemy Octauius Augustus In whiche bataill his onely beloued Cleopatra would be present to hir greate infamie and greater losse of him selfe What vnfortunate ende Marcus Antonius had and what an hastye death his Cleopatra did suffer is notorious to all men that haue reade Plutarch Marcus Antonius being dead yet still that vnfortunate horse remained aliue whiche came to the handes of a Knight of Asia who was named Nigidius and for that the horse as now was somewhat olde at that present he bought him good cheape although afterwards he cost him very deare for within one yeare after he bought him at the passage of the Riuer Marathon the horse stumbled and fell in suche wise that both master and horse were drowned and were neuer more seene These are the fiue Knightes that are throwen downe at the foote of Sayans horse to wit Saian Dolabella Cassius Marcus Antonius and Nigidius The whiche history although it bée delectable to reade on the other part it is lamentable to heare Afterwardes whē in Asia they fell in reckoning and to remēber the euill fortune that the horse had alway with him there arose amongest them a common prouerbe to saye vnto the man that was vnhappy or vnfortunate That he had ridden vpon Sayans horse The like chaunce happened when Scipio did robbe the Temples of Tolosa in France in that of all those which caried away any golde and riches to their houses none did escape but within one yeare died and all his familie and house destroyed To this daye it is a custome in France to saye vnto the man that is vnfortunate That he hath Tolouze golde in his house Laertius saith that in Athenes there was an howse where all were borne fooles and there was another house where they were all borne doltish and as by discourse of time the Senators fell into the reckoning therof they commāded that those houses shoud not bée inhabited but pulled downe Herodianus sayeth that in the Marcian field in Rome there was a Gentlemans house in whiche all the owners died sodainly And as the neighbourhod made relatiō thereof vnto the Emperour Aurelianus he did not onely commaund it to bée threwen downe but also that all the tymber shoulde be burned Solon Solonius forbiddeth in his Lawes to the Aegyptians that nothing of the dead should be sold but that all should bee parted amongst his heyres saying If the dead had any vnfortunate or vnluckie thing it should remayne in his family and kinred and should not passe vnto the common wealth Incontinent vpon the death of the infamouse Romane Princes Caligula and Nero the Senate prouided that all the riches and houshold stuffe should be burned and buried in welles fearing that in their tyrānicall goods ther might be hid some euill fortune by the couetousnesse whereof Rome might be lost and the common wealth impoysoned Sir I thought good to write all these examples and straūge chaunces not that you shoulde béeleue in Augureis but to the ende you should think that there be in this world some things so infortunate as they séeme to draw or bring with them the selfe same or other mishaps No more but that our Lord bée your protector c. A letter vnto the Duke of Alba Sir Frederique of Toledo in the whiche is entreated of infirmities and the profites of the same REnoumed and most magnificēt Lorde at the time that Palome your seruaunt came to visit me on your behalf and gaue me your letters I was in a furious feuer in suche wise that I could neither read your letter or speake a word vnto the bearer thereof After that the feuer begā to cease that I had reade your letter I vnderstood the desire you had of my
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
Father Abbot you will come and dwell at Court from hencefoorth I make exchaunge for your craggy mount and also doe promise you by the faith of a Christian you shall more repent you to haue bin conuerted a courtier than I to be admitted of the religion of S. Benet For the much good will I beare you for the much deuotion I hold of that place you are bound to pray vnto God that he will draw me from this infamous life and fight me with his grace without the whiche we cannot serue hym and much lesse be saued By the handes of Frier Roger I haue receyued the spoones you sent me and to him I deliuered the booke that he desired me in such wise that I shall haue spoones to eate with and your fatherhod a booke to pray in In the rest that you write as concerning your Monasterie the cace shall be that you deale with God for me as one that is deuoute and I shall do with Caesar the worke of a friend No more but that our Lorde be your protector From Valiodolid the vij of Ian. 1535. A letter vnto the Admirall Sir Frederique Enriques in the whiche there is declared a certaine authoritie of the holy scripture GLorious and right famous Archmarriner I am determined before the Iudge Ronquillo to adiorne your Lordship to the end that the parties called and hearde hée he iudge and giue sentence betwixte vs whether I being as I am a Gentleman and a Courtier be bound to answere Extempore vnto all your Letters and to expounde all doubtes which your honour so continually writeth vnto me Your sollicitor is so importunate for answere I confesse that many tymes I giue the seruaunt to the Deuil and also at sometime I pray not vnto God for the maister Complayning yesterdaye vnto your solicitour for that he was so tedious and bicause so continually he did moue me he made me answer with a verie good grace Consider sir master I giue you to vnderstande that the Admirall my Lorde craueth of your reuerence that you write vnto him as a friend that you send him newes as a Chronicler declare his doubtes as a Diuine and counsell his conscience as a Religious Whervnto I replyed if your maister the Admirall will be well serued also I wil be wel payed The paiment shal be for the office of Chronicler of a diuine of a friend and of a Counseller that since I cānot get my meat with the laūce I must obtayn it with the pen. I made al this threatening not to the intente your Lordship shall giue me to eate but for that you should cease to be importune for I thank God the Emperour that is my lord and maister hath not onely giuen mée that whiche is necessarie but also wherewith to reliene others The benefit that we haue that attend vpon Princes is that if we be bound to serue them we haue alwais licēce to craue of them but let the conclusion be that with the same intention that I did speake those wordes here it may please your Lordship to receiue them there that in fine in the end chide we neuer so much or be we neuer so angrie you must nedes do what I desire you and I must of necessitie doe what you commaunde me Your Lordships pleasure is that I write vnto you howe that texte is to be vnderstoode of Esaias where he sayeth Vae tibi Ierusalem quia bibisti calicem irae Dei vsque ad feces Whiche woordes are to bée vnderstoode wo be vnto thée Ierusalem bycause thou hast dronke the cuppe of the Lords wrath euen to the dregs Your lordship asketh a matter so high a thing so profound that I had rather vnderstand than speak it tast it than write it for they know more therof that be giuē to contemplation than such as be occupied in reading but this is the doubt Since God the father did send to Christ his son a cup to drinke of bitternesse wherof is Ierusalem reprehended for the cup that she drank of wrath the one was the cup the other was the cup the one of bitternesse the other of wrathe the Synagogue did receyue the one and the Churche the other Christe dyd drinke the one Ierusalem dyd drynke the other God sent the one and God sent the other But since it is so why doe they so muche prayse the cuppe that Christe tasted of and condemne the sorrowfull cuppe that Ierusalem dyd drinke To vnderstand the profunditie of this scripture we muste presuppose that there be two maners of cuppes which is to wit the cup that is sayd simply only of God and the cup that is sayd with an addition that is of the ire of god There is so great difference betwixt these two cuppes that in the one we drink heauen in the other we swalow hell the holy cup of God is no other thing but temptations hunger cold thirste persecutions exile pouertie and martirdom of which thinges God giues to drink and to tast to such as he hathe chosen to serue him and hath predestinate to be saued Vnto whome God giueth this cup to drynke it is a signe that he is registred amongest them that shall be saued in suche sorte that we can not escape Hell but at the coste of verie great trauel Profoundly it is to be considered what Christ sayde that the cup should not only be giuen to his owne person but that it shoulde also passe vnto his Church in such wise that he drank thereof but he made not an ende for if Christ had dronke al the cuppe only Christ should haue entred the glorie And for this cause he prayed vnto his father that the cup shoulde passe vnto those of his Churche for that we shoulde all enter with him into the glorie Oh high misterie neuer heard of that Christ being in the Garden in the darke alone flat vpon his knées sweating praying and wéeping he did not craue of hys Father that the elect of his Church shuld be cherished or worldly pampred but of that cup he would giue them a draught to drinke Of that cup of bitternesse and trauell only Christ did drinke his fill bicause he only was sufficient to redéeme vs All we that came after Christ If we cannot drinke our fill I would to God we might drinke sufficient for our Saluation the sword of saint Peter the Crosse of saint Andrew the knife of saint Bartelmew the girdierne of S. Laurence the sheares of saint Steuen what other things are they but certaine badges they haue receyued of Christe and certaine gulpes they haue drunke of his cup. So many more degrées we shall receiue in Heauen of Glorie as we haue drunke of the cup of Christ in this life and therefore we ought to pray vnto God euery day with teares that if we cannot drinke all his cup at the least that he will suffer vs to tast thereof The cuppe of Christ although it be bitter in drinking after the
is delicate and of smal strength so be is more offended by a little ayre that cōmes in at a chinke thā the cold of one whole winter night did gréeue him when he was yong The old men of your age ought very much to procure to eate good bread and to drinke good wine and the bread that is well baked and the wine that is a yeare old for as old age is compassed with infirmities and laden with sadnesse the good vituals shall hold them in health and the good wine shall leade them in mirth The old men of your age ought much to consider that theyr meales be small their meate yong and well seasoned and if they eate much and of many meates they euer goe sicke for notwithstanding they haue money to buy them they haue not heate to disgest them The old men of your age ought too procure their bed curteyned their Chamber hanged a meane fire the chimney without smoke for the life of olde men consisteth in going clenly warme cōtented and without anger The old men of your age ought vtterly to auoide to dwel vppon any riuer either to do their busines in moist groundes either to sléepe in ayry places for olde men being delicate as they are be like children and naturally accraised the ayre shall penetrate their powers and moystnesse shall enter their bones The old mē of your age vpon paine of their life ought to be temperate in their diet refusing to eate late for old mē as they haue their stomacks weake and growen colde they may not disgest two meales in a day for the olde man that is vnsatiable and a glutton vsing the contrary shall belke much and sléepe little The olde men of your age to the ende that they be not sicke or grow heauie neyther turne to be grosse ought a little to refreshe them selues walke into the fielde vse some exercise or be occupied in some facultie for otherwise it might happen them to get a tisick or a lamenesse in their limmes in such wise that it will be hard to fetch breath and by puffing and blowing giue warning where you walk The old men of your age ought to haue great care to auoyde all contentious brabbling amongst their seruants and sometime to beare with their negligences to pay their wages too the ende they go contented for otherwise they will be negligent in seruice and very suttle in stealing For conclusion the old men of your age ought much to procure to weare their apparell swéete and cleanly their shirts very well washed their house neat and wel swept and their chamber very close warme and well smelling For the olde man whiche presumeth to be wise if he will liue in health and goe contented ought to haue his body without life his hart without strife In the end of your letter you write that hauing left to loue sorow leaueth not to vere you which vseth to folow the enamored and instantly you desire me to giue you some remedy or to sende you some comfort for notwithstanding you haue throwen it out of the house it leaueth not nowe and then too knocke at the gate Sir in this case I remit you to Hermogenes to Tesiphontes to Doreatius to Plutarch and to Ouid which spent much time and wrote many bookes to giue order in what manner the enamored shoulde loue and the remedies that for their loue they should vse Let Ouid write what him pleaseth Dorcas say what he thinketh good but in fine there is no better remedie for loue than is neuer to begin to loue for loue is so euill a beast that with a thread he suffereth to be taken but hée will not depart with thrusts of a launce Let euery man consider what he attempteth marke what he doth beholde what he taketh in hand note whither he dothe enter and haue regarde where he may be taken for if it were in his handes to set the tables he is not certaine to win the game There is in loue after it is begon infinite shelues immesurable sloughes daungerous rockes and vnknowen whirelpooles in whych some remaine defaced others blinded some besoilde and also some others vtterly drowned in such wise that he that is best deliuered I accoumpt to be euill deliuered Oh how many times did Hercules desire to be deliuered from his loue Mithrida Menelaus from Dortha Pyrrhus from Helena Alcibiades from Dorobella Demophon from Phillis Hāniball from Sabina and Marcus Antonius from Cleopatra from whome they could neuer not only depart but also in the end for them and with them they were cast away In case of loue let no man trust any man and much lesse him selfe for loue is so naturall to man or woman and the desire to be beloued that where loue amongst them dothe once cleaue it is a sore that neuer openeth and a bond that neuer vnknitteth Loue is a metall so delicat a canker so secret that he planteth not in the face where he may be sene nor in the pulse where he may be felte but in the sorowfull hart where although he be sensible they dare not discouer it After all this I say that the remedie that I giue for loue is that they gyue him no place to enter amongst the entrayles nor giue theyr eyes libertie to behold windowes or giue eare to bawdes either suffer any trade of Dames to come or goe if any come to house to shut the dores and not to walke abroade after euening if with these conditions loue may not altogither bée remedied at the least it may be eased and amended Sir and my gossip if you will in all these things profite youre selfe and well consider thereof you shall be excused of many angers and also saue much money For to youre age and my grauitie it is more conuenient to vnderstande of the best wines than to view the windowes of the enamored Take for example chastisement the Licentiat Burgos your acquainted and my great friend which being old and enamored as you died this saterday a death so straunge and fuddayne as was fearefull to al men and sorowfull to his friēds No more but our Lord be youre guide and giue me grace too serue him From Burgos the .24 of Febr. 1523. A letter vnto Sir Iames of Gueuara vncle to the Author wherein he doth comfort him for that he hath bin sicke MAgnificent and right honorable Vncle it pleaseth your Honor to complaine of mée in youre letter that I neither serue you as my good Lorde either do sue as vnto a father or visite as an vncle neyther write as vntoo a friende I may not denie but as concerning kinred your are my Fathers brother in merit my good Lord my father in curtesie and my Progenitor in giuing of liberall rewards which I haue receiued at your hands not as a nephew but as a sonne much beloued Since I haue confessed the affinitie that I hold and affirme the dette
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
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
life and iust in youre tribunall or iudgements I wold not gladly heare that those that do praise that which you do should complaine of that whiche you say with a Lorde of so high estate and with a iudge of so preheminent an office my pen should not haue presumed to write what it hath written if your Lordship had not commaunded My Lord I saide it bycause if this that I haue here written vnto you shall not like you that it may please you to sende too reuoke the licence that you haue giuen Also you will that I shall write vnto youre Lordship if I haue founde in anye auncient Chronicle what is the cause wherefore the Princes of Castile do call themselues not onely Kings but also Catholique Kings And that also I write vnto you who was the first that called himself Catholique King and what was the reason and the occasion to take this so generous and Catholique title There were ynowe in thys Court of whome you might haue demaunded and of whome you might haue vnderstood in yeares more auncieÌ„t in knowledge more learned in bookes more rich and in writing more curious than I am But in the end my Lord be sure of this one thing that that which I shall write if it be not written in a polished stile at the least it shall be all very true Comming to the purpose it is to be vnderstood that the Princes in olde time did always take proud ouer-names as Nabugodonozer that did intitle him selfe King of Kings Alexander the greate the king of the world the king Demetrius the conqueror of Cities the great Haniball the tamer of kingdomes Iulius Caesar the Duke of the Citie the king Mithridates the restorer of the world the king Athila the whip of nations the king Dionisius the host of all men the king Cirus the last of the Gods the king of England defender of the Church the king of Fraunce the most Christian king and the king of Spaine the Catholique king To giue your Lordship a reckoning who were these kings and the cause why they did take these so proude titles to me it should be painfull to write and to your Lordship tedious to reade it is sufficient that I declare what you commaunde me without sending what you craue not It is to wit that in the yere seuen hundreth fiftie two the fift day of the month of Iuly vpon a sunday ioyning to the riuer Bedalake about Xeres on the frontiers euen at the breake of day was giuen the last and most vnfortunate battell betwixt the Gothes that were in Spaine and the Alarues that had come from Africa in whiche the sorowfull king Sir Rodrigo was slaine and all the kingdome of Spaine lost The Moore that was Captaine and that ouercame this famous battell was named Musa which did know so well to folow his victorie that in the space of eight moneths he did win and had dominion from Xeres in the frontieres vnto the rocke Horadada which is neare to the towne of Onnia And that whiche séemeth to vs most terrible is that the Moores did win in eighte moneths which in recouering was almost eight hundred yeres for so many yeares did passe from the time that Spaine was lost vntill Granado was wonne The fewe Christians that escaped out of Spaine came retiring vnto the mountaines of Onnia neare vnto the rocke Horadada vnto which the Moores did come but from thence forward they passed not either did conquer it for there they found great resistance and the land very sharp And when they of Spaine did see that the king Sir Rodrigo was dead and all the Gothes with hym and that without Lord or head they could not resist the Moores they raysed for king a Spanish Captaine that was named Sir Pelaius a man venturous in armes and of all the people very well beloued The fame being spread thoroughout all Spaine that the mountaine men of Onia had raised for king the good Sir Pelaius all men generouse and warlike did repaire vnto him with whome he did vnto the Moores greate hurt and had of them glorious triumphes Thrée yeares after they had raysed the good sir Pelaius for King hée married one of his daughters with one of the sonnes of the Earle of Nauarn who was named Sir Peter and his sonne was called Sir Alonso This Earle Sir Peter descended by right line of the linage of the blessed King Richardos in whose tyme the Gothes did leaue the sect of the curled Arrius by the meanes of the glorious and learned Archbyshop Leonard The good king Pelaius being dead in the eighteene yeare of his raigne the Castilians exalted for king a sonne of his that was named Fauila the which two yeares after he began to raigne going on a certaine day to the mountaine meaning to flea the Beare the Beare killed him And for that the king Fauila died without children the Castilians elected for king the husband of his sister whiche is to wit the sonne of the Earle of Nauarne who was named Alonso the whiche began his raigne in the yeare .vii. C.lxxij hys raigne endured eightene yeares which was as much tyme as his father in law the good King Sir Pelaius had raigned This good King was the firste that was named Alonso which tooke his name in so good an houre that since that daye amongst all the kings of Castile that haue bin named Alonso we reade not of one that hath bin euill but very good Of thys good king Alonso the historiographers do recite many landable things to recompt worthy to be knowen and exemplars to be followed The King sir Alonso was the first that out of Nauarne entered Galizia to make warre vppon the Moores with whome be had many encounters and battells in the ende he ouercame and droue them out of Astorga Ponferada Villa franca Tuy and Lugo with all their Countries and Castelles This good king Alonso was he that did win of the Moores the Citie of Leon and builded there a royall place to the ende all the Kings of Castile his successors should there be resideÌ„t and so it came to passe that in long time after many Kings of Castile did liue and die in Leon. This good King Alonso was the firste that after the destruction of Spaine began to builde Churches and to make Monasteries and Hospitalles in especially from the beginning the Cathedrall churches of Lugo Tâ—y Astorga and Ribeâ—ew the which afterwards did passe to Mondonedo This good king Alonso did buiâ—d many and very solempne Monasteries of the order of saint Benet and many hospitalles in the way of saint Iames and many particular Churches in Nauarne and in the Countrey of Ebro whiche he endewed all with great riches and gaue them opulent possessions This good King Alonso was the first that did séeke and commaunded to be sought with very great diligence the holy bookes that had escaped the hands of the Moores and as a zelous Prince commaunded that
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
and to driue the Erle of Alua de Lista out of Zamora If you enter in reckening with all those of your bande which goe in your companie certainly you shall fynde that passion was your foundation not reason neither zeale of the common wealth but ouermuche desire in euery one to augment his owne house and estate Sir Peter Giron woulde haue the possession of Medina the Earle of Saluatiera commaunde the royall Pastures Fernando de Aualoes reuenge his iniurie Iohn de Padilia be maister of S. Iames Sir Peter Lasso the onely ruler in Toledo Quintanilla Controller of Medina Sir Fernando de Hulloa expell his brother out of Toro the Abbot of Compludo obtaine the Bishoprike of Zamora the Doctor Barnardine the Auditor of Valiodolid Ramir nimez the possession of Leon and Charles de Arrelano ioyne Soria with Vorobia The wise man sayeth hée séeketh occasion that will depart from a frend in like maner we may say that sedicious men séek not but rebellious times for that it séemeth vnto them whiche want are in necessitie while rebellion lasteth they may feed of the sweate of other mens brows and profit by their neighbors losse The arte séemeth not a litle gracious which you haue vsed to deceiue and persuade Toledo Burgos Valiodolid Leon Salamanca Auila and Segouia to rebell saying that by this meane they shal be established and made frée as Venize Geneua Florence Sena and Luke in suche wise that from hencefoorth they shall not bée named Cities but Seigniories Musing what was to be said in this matter a good space I had my pen in suspence and in the end I conceiued that vpon so great a vanitie and mischief neuer lyke heard of there is nothing to be sayd much lesse to be written For I hold it for certain and dare auouch that you make not those Cities frée but a praye not entitle them with seigniories but profit your selues with their riches Those the wil take in hand any enterprise that naturally is seditious or offensible haue not to consider of the occasion that moueth thē to ryse but only the good or euil end which therof may procéed for all famous offences haue had always a beginning of good respects Silla Marius and Cateline whiche were famous Romains and glorious Captaines vnder the coloure to delyuer Rome from euill gouernours made themselues tirants of the same At sometymes it is lesse euill in greate Cities to beare with some want of Iustice than to moue the people and therby to raise warre for that war is a certain net that catcheth away all weale from the common wealth The great Alexander being demaunded for what cause hée would be Lord of the whole worlde made answere All the warres that are raised in this worlde is for one of these thrée causes which is eyther to haue goodes many lawes or else many Kings therfore would I obtain the same to cōmaund throughout the whole worlde that they honour but one God serue but one king and obserue but one law But let vs now conferre your Lordship with Alexander the great and we shal finde that he was a King and your Lorship a Bishoppe he a Pagan and you a Christian he bred in the warres and you in the Church he neuer heard of the name of Christe you haue sworne to obserue his Gospell and with all these conditions he would not for the whole worlde haue but one king and your lordship wold haue seuen only for Castile I say vnto your Lordship that you wold establish seuen kings in Castile for that you would make the seuen Cities of the same seauen seigniories The good and loyal gentlemen of Spayn vse to remoue kings to make one king and such as be traytours and disloyall do vse to remoue the King to make kings For vs and our friends we wil no other God but Christ no other law but the Gospell or other king but the Emperoure Charles the fifth And if you and your commoners will haue an other king and an other lawe ioyne your selues with the Curate of Mediana which euery sunday doth establishe and take away kings in Castile And this is the case In a certain place named Mediana which is néere vnto Palomera of Auila there was a Biskay priest and halfe a foote whiche was moued with so great affection to Iohn of Padilia that at the tyme of bidding of beads on the holy days he recōmended after this maner My brethren I commend vnto you one Aue Maria for the most holy communaltie that it neuer decay I commende vnto you an other Aue Maria for the maiestie of king Iohn of Padilia the God may prosper him I cōmend vnto you an other Aue Maria for the Quéenes highnesse our mistresse and Lady Mary of Padilia that God may preserue hir for of a troth these be the true kings and all the rest before time were tyrantes These prayers continued aboute thrée wéekes little more or lesse After whiche tyme Iohn of Padilia with his menne of warre passed that waye and the souldiers that lodged in the priests house inticed away his woman drank his wine kilde his hennes and eate vp his bacon The sundaye folowing in the Churche he sayde It is not vnknowne vnto you my brethren howe Iohn of Padilia passed this way and howe his souldiors hath left me neuer a henne haue eaten me a flitch of bacon haue drunke out a whole tinage of wine and haue caried away my Cateline I say for that from hencefoorth you shall not pray vnto God for him but for king Charles and for our Lady Quéene Ione for they be the true Princes giue to the diuell these straunge kings Behold here my Lord Bishop how the Curate of Mediana is of more power than your Lorshippe for that he made and vnmade Kings in thrée wéekes whiche you haue not performed in eyght moneths and yet I doe sweare and prophesie that the King that you shall establish in Castile shall endure as little as that king whiche was made by the Curate of Mediana No more but that our Lorde be your protectour and lighten you with his grace From Medina del rio secco the .xx. of December .1521 A letter vnto the Bishop of Zamora sir Antony of Acunna in whiche the Author doth perswade him to turne to the seruice of the kyng REuerend disquiet bishop by the letter of Quintanilla of Medina I was aduertised in what maner your lordship receiued my letter and also vnderstoode that in the ende of reading thereof presentely you beganne to groue and murmuring sayd Is this a thing to be suffred that the tong of Frier Antony of Gueuara may bee of more power than my launce and that he be not contented to haue withdrawne Sir Peter Giron euen from betwixte oure hands but also now euen here doth write me a thousand blasphemies It hath much pleased me that my letter was so wel cōfected that with such swiftnes it
sée them fled that they neyther dare assemble or execute iustice This other day I sawe in Soria where they hanged a Procurer of the citie béeing poore sicke and olde not bycause he had cōmitted any euill but for that some did wish him euill To report vnto you how they haue throwen the Constable out of Burgos the Marques of Auia frō Tordisillas the Earle and Countesse of Duneas and the knights and gentlemen frō Salamanca and Sir Iames of Mendoza from Palentia and how in place of these gentlemen they haue taken for their leaders and captaines bit makers sheremē skinners lockmakers is no smal shame to recount and infamy to heare The hurts murders robberies and scandals that is nowe committed within this realme I dare say that of this so great fault wée al are in fault bycause our God is so right a iudge that hée would not permit that all should be chastised if all were not offenders The affairs of this miserable kingdome is come to such a state the through the same there is no way sure no tēple priuiledged none that tilleth the fielde none bringeth vitailes none the executeth iustice none safe in their houses yet all confesse a king and appeale to the king but the disgrace is that none doth obserue the law none doth obey the King beleue me if your people did acknowledge the King and obserue the law neyther would they robbe the kingdome or disobey the King but for that they haue no feare of the sword nor doubt of the gallowes they do what they lust and not what they ought I knowe not how you can say that you wil refourme the kingdome since you obey not the King you consent to no gouernours you admit no royall counsell you suffer no Chancelour you haue no Iudges nor Iustices no giuing of sentence in matters of lawe neyther any euill chastised in such wise that your iudgemēt to haue no iustice in the kingedome is to refourme iustice I can not cōprehende how you wil reforme this kingdome since by your consent there is no subiect that shall acknowledge a preacher neither any Nunne that keepes hir cloyster no Frier that remayneth in his monastery neyther womā that obeyeth hir husband nor vassall that obserueth loyalty neyther any man that dealeth iustly in so much that vnder the colour of liberty euery man liueth at his owne wil. I know not how you will reforme the common welth since those of your campe do force women rauish maydens burne villages spoyle houses steale whole slockes cut downe woods and rob churches in such wise that if they leaue any euill vndone it is not bycause they dare not but for that they can not I can not conceiue how you will reforme the common welth since by your occasion Toledo is risen Segouia altered Medina burned Halaheios besieged Burgos fortified Valiodolid immutined Salamanca stragled Soria disobedient and also Valentia an Apostata I can not perceiue how you will reforme the common welth since Naiarza is rebelled against the Duke Dueas against the Earle Tordisillas against the Marques Chincon against his Lorde since Auila Leon Toro Zamora and Salamanca doe neither more or lesse than the assembly doth commaund So may my life prosper as I like of your demaund which is to weete that the King be not absent out of this Realme that he maintaine all men in iustice that he suffer no money to be transported out of the Realme that he giue his rewardes and offices vnto the natural subiectes of Spaine that they deuise not any new tributs and aboue all that the Offices be not solde but gyuen to men of most vertue These and such other like things you haue licence to craue and only the King hath authoritie to graunt but to demaund of princes with the lance that which they haue to prouide by Iustice is not the part of good vassalles but of disloyall seruants wée well vnderstand that many people of this lande doe complaine of the newe gouernement of Flemmings and to speake the truth that fault was not all theirs but in their small experience and our much enuie Further aduertising that the straungers were not more to bée blamed than our owne countrie men they knew not the state of things either what offices to craue neither how they would be solde but that they were aduised and also instructed in the skill thereof by the men of our owne nation in such wise that if in them there did abound desire of gain in vs there did excéed the vice of cruell malice Although Maister Xebes and the rest haue cōmitted some fault I know not that our Spaine hath done any offence that you should in the same and against the same rayse any warre The medicine that you haue inuented for the remedie of this mischiefe is not to purge but to kill But since you will néedes make war let vs examine here against whom is this war not against the king bycause his tender youth dothe excuse him not against the Counsell for they appeare not not against Xebes for hée is in Flaunders not against the Gouernors whiche haue but nowe entred their offices not against the Gentlemen who haue not offended neither yet against tyrantes for the Kingdome was in peace than is this war againe your own countrie and against our own lamentable common wealth The wante of prouidence in the king neither the auarice of Xebes is sufficient cause that we should sée that whiche wée doe sée the people to ryse against people fathers against the sonnes the vncles against their cousins friends against friends neighbors against neybours and brothers against brothers but that our sinne hath so deserued to be chastised and yours hath merited that you shuld be our scourge Speaking more particular you are not able to excuse your faulte for beginning as you did the assemblie of Auila from which counsell all this warre hath had his féeding and of a trouth presently I did diuine and also preache that is to witte that neuer was Monipody of any kingdome whereof did not arise some notable scandall The kingdom is nowe altered the kyng is disobeyed the people are nowe risen the hurt is alreadie begon the fire is alreadye in flame and the common wealth goeth sinking to the bottom But in the ende if it like you a good end may be made from whence may procéede all the remedie for that we haue firmely to beléeue that God will rather heare the hearts that praye for peace than the fifes and drums that proclaime warre If it may lyke you to forget some part of your anger and the gouernours to lose some part of their right I hold it all for finished And to speake you the trouth in popular and ciuil warres men do rather fight for the opinion they haue takē than for the reason that they hold My iudgement should be in this case that you should ioyne with the Gouernours to talke and conferre for the
wise that many Gentlewomē to mayntaine an estate make their house a stable For a woman to be good it is no small help to be alwayes in businesse and by the contrary we sée no other thing but that the idle woman goeth always pensitiue Let all maner of women beleue me that in any wyse they busie their daughters in some honest exercise for I giue them to vnderstand if they know not that of idle moments and wanton thoughtes they come to make euill conclusions No more but that our Lord be in your procéeding from Granada the .4 of maye .1524 yeares A letter vnto Mosen Rubin of Valentia wherein he answereth to certayne notable demaunds A letter very conuenient for the woman that marrieth an olde man. RIght worshipfull aunciente renued with youthely motion youre Letter read and considered that which I conceyue and comprehende thereof is that it contayneth much writing and commeth written in very grosse paper whereof it may very well be inferred that you haue wast time and want of money Small comforte shoulde he haue at youre handes that at thys instant should craue youre almes for a Cote that hathe not a Maruedye to buy a shéete of paper Althoughe I holde it for most certayne that if you haue not at this present a Mareuedy to buy paper at other times you vse to set an hundred Duckats at a rest The property and condition of Players is sometymes to haue greate abundaunce and at other times to suffer greate lacke in suche wise that to daye hauing too many Duckats to play on the morrowe they haue not to paye for their dinner I haue sayde it many times and also written in my doctrines that I enuy not these gamesters for the money that they win but at the sighes that they gyue bycause if they cast the dice with courage with great sighes they wish their chaunce But comming to the purpose of youre demaunde and answering to youre request I saye that if to all the demaundes of youre letter I shall not aunswer with grace and good eloquence impute the fault to my disgrace and also vnapte disposition And the cause of my disgrace endureth not to be written with inke in paper But it suffiseth a man to be at Court where be few things to be commended but many to the contrary Sir you write vnto me to aduertise you of my opiniō of the bailiwick of Orihnela which the Quéene hathe giuen you and the garde of the frontires of Caspe whither the Moores of Pampe do passe and they of Affrica do enter To this I aunswere that you haue to make small accounte that the Quéene hath giuen you the charge of Iustice if god deny you his grace bycause preheminent offices by vertues be conserued but heroicall vertues amongs offices do runne in perill In him that administreth Iustice it is necessary he haue good Iudgement to giue sentence temperance in his speche patience to suffer good counsell to discerne good disposition to Iustice and fortitude to execute If in the budget of your household stuffe you finde your selfe furnished with all these kind of goods you may safely be Iudge of Orihnela and also gouernour of Valentia And if your abilitie stretch not so farre it should be more sounde counsell for you to kepe your house than to bring your honour in question and disputation Also you wright vnto me to aduertise you what was contained in the countesse of Concentainas letter which the quéene shewed me That which passed in this case is that the Earle of Concentaina being dead my Lady the Countesse presently did wright vnto the vassalles of the Earldōr a certaine letter of the sorrow and griefe of hir husbands death and in the ende and conclusion of the letter they placed according to the manner of such Ladies and widowes which is to witte the sorowfull and most vnfortunat countesse and added ther vnto in the place of the firme therof two great blottes The letter being receyued and redde by hir vassals in their counsell before all men they aduised to aunswere my Lady the Countesse and also to giue hir to vnderstande of the sorowe they conceiued of the death of the Earle hir husband and their Lorde And it séemed good vnto them that since she hadde changed the stile of hir firme that also they were bounde too alter the stile of their letter In which the superscription therof saide thus Vnto our sorrowfull Ladye and moste vnfortunate countesse of Concentayna withinin the vpper face of the letter where they place the woordes of curtesy and congratulation was after this manner Righte magnificente and most sorowfull Lady at the end where was sayd by the ordinance of the coūsell iustice gouernours were made thrée dasshes much blotted in such wise that according to the tenor of hir writing she answered My Lady the Countesse receyued no small offence thereof and yet with good grace she sayd vnto me that she wished the error had passed by one mans faulte and not as it was by all their consents Also you write vnto me to aduertise you how it standeth with Mosen Burela since the time he receyued that so great distresse in Xatina Sir vnto this I answer that vnto me he giueth great sorow to beholde him and no lesse compassion to heare him bycause I sée hym wander laden with thoughts and no lesse forsaken of friends Beléeue me sir and be out of doubt that he falleth not in all this world that falleth not out of his princes fauour bycause the fashion or stile of Court is that the priuate and in fauoure knoweth not himselfe with the fall and out of fauoure no mā will grow aquainted The houses and Courts of Princes be very fortunate vnto some no lesse perillous vnto others bycause there either they preuayle and growe very greate or else vtterly lose themselues All Courtiers séeme to me to resemble the Bée or else the Spider wherin there be some persons in Court so fortunate that all thinges whereon they lay hands turneth to golde and others so vnlucky that all which they pretend cōuerts to smoke As concerning our Mosen Burela I can say vnto you that he is thoroughly smoked as touching his honor and no lesse stumbled and falne in respect of his goodes bycause he hath lost the office that he held and the credite wherwith he was sustayned Sir also you wrighte to me to aduertise you of the state of the Sonnes of Vasko Bello your friend and my neighbour to this I answer that their parents hauing past their liues in the trade of merchants they haue conuerted themselues to the state of Gentlemen and to the end you vnderstād me better I say they be not of the Gentlemen of auncient right but suche as haue obtayned by prise and purchase bycause their goodes being consumed I holde their gentry fully finished In the state that men do get theyr liuing in the same they ought to conserue themselues for otherwise
murdred and buried vpon whose Tomb was placed this Epitaph with his armes whiche englished importeth as followeth Here lyeth the valiant Athaolphus with sixe of his children issued of Gothick bloud this was the first that aduentured to enter Spayne with an Army slayne with his owne men and buried with great teares in the great Citie of Barcelone Sée here the exposition of your Epitaph and the cause of the fame It resteth now to reueale the occasion of the destruction of Spayne and how the Christians lost the same to the Paynims concerning which you muste vnderstande that in the tyme of the raigne of king Roderic whiche was of the line of the Gothes there was in Spayne a Prince called Iulian Earle of Cepta and Lord of Consuegra whiche had a daughter of excellent beautie and incomparable wisedome named Caba Thys Damesell beyng sent to the Courte to attende vppon the Quéene to serue hir according to the manner of the Countrey was cause of the destruction of Spaine For the king being surprised with hir loue when shée woulde not agrée to accomplishe his inordinate desires determined by force if not by loue to inioy hir béeyng thus drowned in extreme passions hée defloured hir within his royall Palace The which when Count Iulian vnderstoode hée was hyghly offended therewith and féeling himselfe muche iniured thereby determined reuenge vpon the kings owne person to the ende he myght make a perpetuall remembrance of the wrong done by the Prince to him and his defloured daughter This Counte Iulian kepte secretely in his stomacke the mortall hatred hée bare vnto King Roderic and when hée sawe conuenient tyme hée made semblance to passe into Africa with an armie whiche the King had committed vnto him where with to repulse the Moores whiche then inuaded the borders of Spaine And hauing conferred of his determinations with Muzza Liuetenaunt generall of that Prouince to the greate Miramamolyn Vlit hée secretely practyzed with him in this sorte that if hée woulde yéelde him sufficient supplye of souldiers hée woulde put all Spaine vnder his obedience The whiche when Muzza vnderstoode hée gaue intelligence thereof to King Miramamolyn who did not onely in curteous wise accepte the offer of the Count but also sent him a sufficient army to bring his deuysed practize to effect The countrie béeyng néere the straites of Giberaltare was well furnished with men of great courage He then folowing fortune béeyng stirred forwarde by his wife and the iniury whiche he had receyued reiecting all loue of his cuntry renouncing obedience to his Prince Sodenly as hée had imbarked his army of Moores in foure ships and strongly fortified himselfe he reuealed to his friends and kinred the iniury which the king had done him by deflouring his daughter and requested their friendly succour in his enterprise so waighty Wherevnto they assenting sent him aide both of men monie Sée here the exposition of your Epitaph and the cause of the fame It resteth now to reueale the occasion of the destruction of Spaine and how the Christians lost the same to the Paynims concerning which you muste vnderstande that in the tyme of the raigne of king Roderic which was of the line of the Gothes there was in Spaine a Prince called Iulian Earle of Cepta and Lorde of Consuegra whiche had a daughter of excellent beautie and incomparable in wisedome named Caba This damsell beyng sent to the Courte to attende vppon the Quéene to serue hir according to the manner of the cuntrie was cause of the destruction of Spaine For the King being surprised with louing hir when shée woulde not agrée to accomplishe his inordinate desires determined by force if not by loue to inioy hir so as béeyng thus drowned in extreme passions hée defloured hir within his royall Palace The whiche when Counte Iulian vnderstoode he was highly offended therewith and féeling himselfe muche iniured thereby determined reuenge vpon the kings owne person to the end he might make a perpetuall remembrance of the wrong done by the Prince to him and his defloured daughter This Counte Iulian kepte secretely in his stomacke the mortall hatred hée bare vnto king Roderic and when hée sawe conuenient tyme hée made semblance to passe into Africa with an armie which the king had committed vnto him where with to repulse the Moores which then inuaded the borders of Spaine And hauing conferred of that which he woulde do with Muzza Auuenokair Liuetenaunt generall of that prouince to the greate Miramamolyn Vlit hée secretely practyzed with him in this sorte that is if hée woulde yéelde him sufficient supply of souldiers hee woulde put all Spaine vnder his obedience The whiche when Muzza vnderstoode hee gaue intelligence thereof to King Miramamolyn who did not onely in curteous wise accepte the offer of the Counte but also sent him a sufficient army to bryng his deuised practize to effect The Ilandes of this country beyng néere the straites of Giberaltare were wel furnished with meÌ„ of great courage He theÌ„ folowing fortune being stirred forwarde by his wife and the iniury which he had receyued reiecting all loue to his cuntry renouncing obedience to his Prince Sodenly as he had imbarked his army of Moores in foure shippes strongly fortified himselfe he reuealed to his friends and kinred the iniurie which the king had done him by deflouring his daughter and requested their friendly succour in his enterprise so waightie Whervnto they assenting sent him aide both of men and monie so as he tooke all the coastes of Spaine and much of the cuntry for the Moores whiche was the firste entrie of the Moores into Spaine and was in the yeare of grace 712. When the miserable king Roderic had vnderstaÌ„ding hereof that if with speede he ordered not his affaires he shoulde be in daunger to loose his realme and state with all the hasâ—â— possible he assembled an armie to encounter the Moores and made a nephew of his Captaine generall But the Moores giuing them the ouerthrow mangled him his men in péeces About which time another armie of Moores which the fornamed Muzza had placed in garison in places before subdued entred and tooke another countrye or prouince Whiche King Roderic vnderstanding and perceyuing the Moores daylye to aduaunce their force committing to fire and swoorde all the countrie that they subdued he gathered togither another army in whiche himselfe in person togither with all the Nobilitie of Spaine woulde go to searche out the Moores which then remayned at Seres and did so in déede where hée made greate slaughter both of the straunge Moores of his owne Christians But in fine the Christian army was vtterly destroyed the king loste in suche wise that afterwards he could neuer be founde quicke or deade From this tyme Spaine fell into the subiection of the Moores This battell was ended on a sunday the fourth of September in the yeare of our Sauiour 714. so as the Moores beeyng then victors might
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
custome to burie no dead man without burying a liue man with the same and if by chance ther were not that willingly would be buried with the dead for money a slaue was bought with violence to be buried with the same The Bractians whiche were a people very barbarous with smoke did cure the bodies of the dead as we now vse to smoke oure Bacon after at times in stead of Martelmas béefe by péecemeale to boyle the same in the pot The Thibirins did by industrie breede certayne most cruell Dogges the whiche at the last gasp of the dead were cast vnto the Dogs to be eaten torne to péeces in suche manner that the bowels of the Dogs was the place where the Thibirins did burie their dead And for that it shall not séeme that we speake of fauoure or at large your honor hath to read S. Ierome against Iouinian the Poliantea in the title of sepulture where you shal find al that I haue said and also much more which we haue omitted here to be written Of the sepulture of Belus of Minus of Semiramis of Promotheus of Ogiges and of the other kings of Aegipt Diodorus Siculus resiteth so many and so fabulous things the whych I thinke better to omitte than to wright to auoid his dishonor and mine owne trauell The Cithes did burie their dead in the fields incoffined with a certayn wood of Cithia incorruptible The Hebrues did burie their dead in their inheritances or vineyards vppon the same they erected a faire couer curiously wrought of stone of great choyce Commonly in olde time they did burie within their houses or in the mids of their possessions and so at this presēt appeareth in Italy that wheresoeuer ye shall find any Tombe of earth stone it signifieth that there hath bene erected some honorable sepulture Foure Sepultures haue bin in Rome most rich and stately that is to vnderstand of the great Augustus whiche at this presente is called the néedle of Adrian whiche now is the Castell Saint Angell of the good Marcus Aurelius whiche is erected in the fielde of Mars and of the valiant Seuerus which was placed in the Vatican Many Princes both Gréekes Latins Romayns Persiās Medes Argiues Hebrues and Germaines did make build many very stately temples but we reade of none that commaunded or gaue order for themselues to be buried therein but in the fieldes and their Temples they did dedicate vnto their Gods. More than thrée hūdreth yeares after the foundation of the Christiā fayth none at any time were buried within the Church whereof it procéedeth that it is not found in any of the ancient Legends of the martirs but that such a martyr was buried in Cimiterie of Pretexato either of Calisto or els in the house or inheritance of some faithfull Christian Long time after the great Constantine this custome was brought into the catholike Church to be buried in the same it is to be thought that it rather procéeded of the deuotion of the faithfull than for any interest to the Cleargy Also your honor sayth in your letter that you hold me for a man both carefull and curious for whiche cause you suppose for that I haue passed diuers times with Caesar into Italy and haue many ways traueled through Spayne I shuld haue collected and recouered some Epitaphs of Sepultures worthy to be séene and notable to be red I cannot denie but that after the manner of a Drunkarde that venteth for the best wine so doth mine eyes stare and wander to find out some old Sepulture that may contayne some thing to reade or sentēce or Epitaph worthy the writing and as I haue trauelled many diuers lands prouinces I haue sene many very anciēt sepultures in which I haue found some writings graue some sharpe others deuout some malitious some gracious some foolish in suche wise that some are to be noted some to be skoft and others to be laughed at If I had thought that any would haue bene so curious as to haue craued or demaunded them as I haue bin carefull and curious to search and find them I would haue held them in more estimatiō and also haue commended them to more safe kéeping for of them I haue lent giuen lost and some haue bin stolen and othersome I haue reserued But the case shall be thus I will send vnto your Lordship all manner of Epitaphs whiche is to vnderstand suche as bée graue malicious foolish and some that be gratious for that in the good your honor hath to note in the other wherat to laugh In an Hospitall of the incurable that is in Naples Caesar vppon a certayne festiuall day did heare seruice where I saw in the great Chappell a Tombe of a yong gentleman whereon his old mother had placed this lamentable Epitaph Quae mibi debebas supremae munera vitae Infelix soluo nunc tibinate prior Fortuna inconstans lex varabilis aeui Debueras cineri iam superesse meo In the same kingdome and Citie of Naples vppon another festiuall day Caesar wēt vnto a stately Monasterie of Nunnes of S. Clare wher I found a Tombe of a certaine gentlewomā betrothed which hapned to die the same wéeke she shuld haue bin married vpon whome hir parents bestowed this lamentable Epitaph Nate beu miserum misero mibi nata parenti Vnicus vt fieres vnica nata dolor Nam tibi dum virum taedas thalamumque parabam Funera inferias anxius ecce paro In the Citie of Capua I found a Sepulture very old and in a manner defaced in which these letters were ingrauen although very short yet comprehending much Fui non sum Estis non eritis In the Citie of Gaieta one of the strongest vpon the Sea coast in all Italy being there with Caesar I met with a Sepulture not of the oldest vpon which were written these words Siluius Paladius Vt moriens viueret Vixit vt moriturus In Rome walking the stations of Saint Paule passing at greate leasure beholding the Churche I encountred with an old Sepulchre vppon the ground on the stone whereof these words were ingrauen Hospes quid sim vides Quid fuerim nosti Futurus ipse quid sis cogitae In the Monasterie of Minerua in Rome whiche be of the order of Preachers I sawe in a certaine Tombe written these words O mors O mors O mors Aerumnarum portus Et meta salutis Caesar being in the warres of Africa the Viceroy of Cicilia died which was called the Earle of Monteleon Lord of Calabria And for that by iustice he did cutte the throte of the Earle of Camarato and with him many others the Cicilians did deadly hate him for the same The cause was thus being buried in Saint Frauncis of Mezina by night they added this title vpon his Sepulchre as I was aduertised by the warden of the house Qui propter nos homines Et propter nostram
salutem Descendit ad inferos In the yeare a thousande fiue hundred twenty and thrée comming out of Fraunce by Nauarne in a little Churche in Viena not farre from the Growine I saw an Epitaph vpō the Tomb of the Duke Valentine which without writing I commended vnto my memorie and as I thinke thus it sayd Here lieth clad in a little clay That mortall men did feare VVhich in peace war the ful whole sway In all this world did beare O thou that goest with care to seeke VVorthy things of prayse most meete If worthy things thou wouldest prayse Here thou hast to direct thy wayes And therein farther to spend no dayes In the warres of Lumbardy there dyed an auncient soldier which was valiant and meanely rich who was buried by his friends in a little Village betwixt Plazentia and Voguera on whose Sepulture were written these words Here Campuzano doth lie VVith whose soule the Diuill did flie But his goodes had Sir Antonie In Alexandria de la Palla I found another soldier buried in the Churche within the Castell vpon whose Sepulture that is to say vpon the wall I saw writtē with a Cole these words Here lieth Horozco the Sergeant VVhich liued playing And died drinking In the Citie of Aste when Caesar went to make warre in Fraunce we stayed certayne dayes A Souldier was buried in the monasterie of Saint Frauncis as it séemed being very poore made his will very rich vppon whose Sepulture another Soldier placed these wordes Here lyeth Billandrando VVhich all that he had did not let to play And that which he had not he gaue away In the Citie of Nisa we buried an honorable soldier that had bin Captayne but in the morning and at night with a Cole I saw written vpon his Tomb these words Here lieth the Soldier Billoria VVhose body to the Church by his friēds did send But his hart to his loue he did incommende In a place of Spayne which shall be namelesse I founde the Sepulture of a certayne Gentlewoman vpon whose Tombe these words were written Here lieth the Lady Marina in earthly presse VVhich died thirty days before she was countesse In the .18 yeare I being warden of the Citie of Soria going to preach to the Camp of Gomara in a little Village I encountred with an old Sepulture vppon the stone whereof were written these words Here lieth bald Iohn Hussillo VVhich taught boyes to swimme And wenches to daunce very trim This yeare past in visiting my Byshoprick of Mondonedo I found in the Archdeaconship of Trasancos in a little Churche by the Sea side an auncient Tomb which they sayd was of a gentlemā naturall of the place which had these words writtē Here lieth Vasko Bell A good Gentleman and a fell The which neuer drew his sword indeede That made any man euer to bleede Going for Custos of my prouince of conception in a generall Chapter ioyntly with certayne religious Portingalls of my order bound to the same place amongst the which the warden of Sanctaren a man both wise and learned vnderstanding me to haue delight in old things sayde that in his Monasterie vppon a Tombe of a Portingall Gentleman were written these words Here lieth Basko Figueira Much against his will. So high a sentence so delicate words and so certain a troth as this as God saue me might not procéed either be inuēted but of a man of an high delicate iudgement they wer spokē in Portingall in a Monasterie of Portingall in the behalfe of a Portingall and a Portingall saide them whereof I gather vnto my selfe that the nobles of Portingall be wise in their attempts and of sharp iudgement in what they speake To my iudgemēt my appetite to my tast and liking to this daye I haue not heard or red a thing so gratious as the letter of that Sepulture bycause ther may not be said a greater troth than to say that Basko Figueira or any other persone is in hys Tomb much against his will. What Sepulture is in thys world so rich wherein any man desireth to dwel or wisheth to be buried what man is so insensible that woulde not rather liue in a narrow houell than in a large and ample sepulture Not only Basko Figueira lieth in his sepulture against his wil but also the Machabees in their Piramides Semiramis in hir Polimite the great Cirus in hys Obiesko the good Augustus in hys Columna the famous Adrian in his Mole magno the prowde Alaricus in hys Rubico All whyche if we coulde demaunde of them and they aunswere vs woulde sweare and affirme that they dyed without their owne consent and were buryed agaynste their willes My Lorde Admirall from hencefoorth I diuine that if Basko Figueira lyeth deade in his sepulture agaynst his will with an euill will I dare auouche you will bée buryed in yours although moste certayne the chappell is riche and your Tombe very stately Your honor hath to vnderstande that I thought good to enlarge this letter to the end you should haue wherat to maruel and also wherwith to laugh with a protestation that I make that if you wryte agayne within this halfe yeare I wyll refuse to answere for that I haue in hande certayne woorkes of myne owne presently to be printed and after to be published No more but that our Lorde be in your kéeping From Valiodolid the .xxx. of Marche 1534. A letter vnto Sir Alphonce Manrique Archebishop of Ciuill wherein is declared a certayne passage of holy Scripture conuenient to bee read of Iudges and prelates that be cruell RYght Noble and pitifull Prelate if your reuerend Lordship do conceyue that for the gallant baye mule which you haue sent mée by Orlande your Stewarde I shoulde submit my selfe to do you great seruice eyther to render greate thankes ye are greatly deceiued for although she be both faire and good I haue wonne and gayned the same by a sentence pronounced agaynste your honor for the costes of processe and the amendes wherein you are condemned when your moste reuerend Lordship and the Duke of Naiarra vppon a certaine contention did elect mée for your iudge which is to wéete where the situation of Sagunto shuld haue stande and the renowned Neomantia should haue bene wherein to determine and verifie your doubte I studied very muche and traueled not a little And since you are condemned in a Mule and consented vnto the sentence once againe I aduertise your honor that I will neyther restore hir and muche lesse pay for hir My Lord the Duke of Naiarra your brother at Courte doeth dayly threaten mée that eyther by violence he will take hir from mée or else cause hir to be stolen wherfore I humbly pray your honor to commaunde that he leaue me in peace otherwise I promise you to proue vnto him by my auncient histories that the borders and limites of Naiarra haue bene twoo leagues within the Duchie But nowe setting aside all iestes to speake in earnest I
Court as well for the reasons abouesayd as also for that your people shal be indoctrined and maintayned in better behauiour and your haule and buttry more throughly furnished Farther you commaund me to write vnto you particularly whē the Carthaginians entred into Spayne at what time Scipio the African did take Carthage the chiefe Citie of youre Bishoprick and that you haue layd a wager with the Lord sir Peter of Mendoza gouernour of the same Citie vpō the same matter being of cōtrary opinions haue chosen me for iudge or arbitrator of your contentiō Certaynly these be things very farre from my profession for being religious as you know it shoulde serue much better to the purpose to sit and vnderstand of the time that my religion was inuented and in what countrey S. Francis was borne than to vnderstande when the Carthaginians entred Spayne at what time the Romaynes did sack subuert Carthage But since you haue chosen and established me for your iudge will that I shal say my opiniō that which I know I shal not fayle to yéeld rēder my endeuor without any remissiō of the Mule which you promised me But comming nowe to the purpose you haue to vnderstād during the warres betwixt the Gaditains the Turdetaynes the Gaditains sent their embassadors to the Carthaginians to draw thē to their party to haue succour from them whervnto the Carthaginians consented and at the instant sent Marhaball a man very valiant to go into Spayne to the succour of the Gaditains This Marhaball vnder the colour of giuing aide vnto the Gaditains brought himself in possession of a certayne part of Andolozia and reduced the same vnder the gouernmēt of the Carthaginians folowing his secret commission and the order which was giuen him in his eare This was broughte to passe in the yeare of the general Floud M. D.CCCX This was the first discent of the Carthaginians in Spayne In the days when the Romaynes expelled their kings But afterwards the Carthaginians diuers times by diuers Captayns did inuade had possessiō of many countries cities of Spayne which they held vnto the time that the Romayns comming vnto the succour of the Saguntines where the Carthaginians wer discomfited distressed driuen away both the armies being conducted by Hanniball Scipio the first being the leader and Captayn of the armies of Carthage the other for the Romains This Scipio was thē intituled Scipio the great renoumed with the surname African for that after he subdued the great Carthage did take the same by diuers assaults This City as is knowen to your Lordship it holdeth on the East part a certaine hill with a ridge compassed with the Sea and on the other side wher this hill or ridge ioyneth vnto the Citie there is a lake on that side of Bize The Carthaginians supposing theyr Citie to bée sufficiently strong vpon that side gaue no order thereof either for watche or ward As Scipio battred the Citie by Sea land he had aduertisemēt by certaine fishermen of Tarresko which at othertimes had repaired and gone to Carthage that the water of the lake did vse to fall at an houre By whiche aduertisement Scipio caused the water to be sounded and hauing found the greatest depth but to the girdle in most places but to the knées he caused certayne chosen souldiers to enter the water whych passing without impediment did climbe the walles entred the Citie obtayning thereby possession with small losse hauing executed great slaughter of the people thereof and Hanno the Captayne of the Citie being taken prisoner And as the Romaines did prosecute and performed the destruction of the Citie forcing to passe by the edge of the sword al that euer they met a Damsel of Spayne of a noble house the wife of Madonius brother to Indibilis Lord of the Illergets did yéelde hir selfe prostrate and groueling at the féete of Scipio most humbly beséeching that it might please him to vouchsafe to recommende the honor of the women vnto the souldiers And as Scipio answered that he woulde gladly performe the same this Lady replyed saying after this manner O Scipio I am charged with one particular and right sorrowfull griefe whiche pearceth my heart in this present fortune to solicite thy excellēcie to vse thy mild fauour with great diligence for I haue héere my two nices shewing two most excellent right singular yong Ladies daughters of Indibilis which hold and estéeme me as their onely mother who teare mine entrayles and breake and pearce my hart to sée them in seruitude amids the armies Whereof Scipio being moued by great compassion and no lesse reuerence made answer vnto this Lady Madame you haue to vnderstand that notwithstanding the common courtesy of the Romayne people and my naturall condition doe prouoke me to defend the honor of Ladies yet therewithall youre great vertue and dignitie constraynes me to vse more spéedy diligence therein considering that in the mids of youre aduersities you forget not the chiefe poynt of honor whiche al Ladies of chast renowne ought to mayntaine kéepe defend The which being sayd he commended these thrée Damsels to the gard and defence of a gentleman of name and much estéemed for his vertue straightly commaunding the same to entreate and serue these Ladies with no lesse courtesie than if they were the wiues or daughters of gentlemen of Rome And nowe since you haue bin aduertised of one vertuous acte of Scipio I will yet recite another right famous déede of great vertue to shew vnto the world that Scipio doth worthily deserue eternall prayse to serue as an example and perfect spectacle of continencie to all yong Captaynes The cause was thys at the very instant that Scipio hadde dispatched these thrée Ladies aforesayd the Souldiers brought vnto him a certayne yong Damsell the fairest that euer they had séene but Scipio vnderstanding that she was betrothed to Lucius Prince of the Celtibires and that she was discended of parents very noble would in no wise touch hir but rather had a duble care to defend hir honor And hauing commanded the father and the husband of the sayd Lady to be called vnto hys presence and also vnderstanding the sayd Prince to loue with an ardent desire and an inflamed affectiō said thus vnto him O Lucius hauing thy loue in my power and being yong as thou art I might well enioy the delight of hir beauty but hauing aduertisement that thou bearest hir great and most perfect affection I haue thought good not only to defende but also to preserue hir for thée and render the same into thy handes as chast a virgin as she was deliuered vnto me And I wil no other recompence at thy hands but that thou cōtinue a faithfull friend vnto the Romaines for thou shalt not find a Nation in this world of so perfect friendship as are the Romayne people neither of
and giue me grace to serue him From Burgos the 15. of September in the yeare 1523. A letter vnto Sir Ynnigo of Velasco Constable of Castile wherein the author doth teache the briefenesse of writing in olde time THe fourth of October here in Valiodolid I receyued a letter from your honour written in Villorado the thirtith of September and considering the distance from hence thither and the small tarying of your letter from thence hither too my iudgement if it had bin a troute it had come hither very fresh Pirrhus the King of the Epirotes was the first that inuented currers or postes and in this case he was a Prince so vigilant that hauing thrée armies spred in diuers partes his seate or pallace being in the Citie of Tarento in one day he vnderstood from Rome in two dayes out of Fraunce in thrée out of Germany and in fiue out of Asia In such sorte that his messengers did rather séeme to flie than otherwise The hart of man is such an inuentor of new thinges and so farre in loue with nouelties that the more straunge the thing is they say or wright vnto vs so much the more we do reioyce and delight therein for that olde things do giue lothsomenesse and new things do awaken the spirites This vātage you haue that can do much of them that haue but little that in short time you write whether you will and vnderstand from whence you think good although also it is most true that sometime you vnderstand some newes within thrée dayes which you would not haue knowen in thrée yeares There is no pleasure ioye or delight in this world that with it bringeth not some inconuenience in such wise that that wherin long time we haue had delight in one day wée pay and yelde againe Sir I haue saide thus muche to the end to continue your good opinion towards Mosen Ruben your Steward whiche by the date of your letter dothe séeme to haue made greate spéede and to haue slept very little for he brought the letter so freshe that it séemed the inke to be scarce drie You write vnto me that I should certefie you what is the cause that I being descended of a linage so auncient of body so high in the momentes of my prayers so long and in preaching so large how I am in writing so briefe especially in my last letter that I sent from the monasterie of Fres Dell Vall when I was there preaching vnto Caesar Whiche you say did containe but foure reasons and eight lines Sir in these things that you haue written you haue giuen me matter not to answere very short And if by chaunce I shall so doe from hencefoorth I say and protest it shal be more for your pleasure than for mine owne contentation As concerning that you say my linage is auncient your lordship doth well knowe that my graundfather was called sir Beltran of Gueuara my father also was named sir Beltran of Gueuara and my Cosin was called sir Ladron of Gueuara and that I am now named sir Antony of Gueuara yea and also your Lordship doth know that first there were Earles in Gueuara before there were Kings in Castile This linage of Gueuara bringeth his antiquitie out of Britaine and dothe containe sixe houses of honour in Castile whiche is to wete the Earle of Onate in Alaua sir Ladron of Gueuara in Valldalega sir Peter Velez of Gueuara in Salinas sir Diego of Gueuara in Paradilla sir Charles of Gueuara in Murcia sir Beltran of Gueuara in Morata All which be valiant of persones although poore in estates rentes in such sorte that those of this linage of Gueuara do more aduaunce themselues of their antiquitie from whence they are descended than of the goods which they possesse A man to discend of a delicate bloud and to haue noble or Generous parents doth muche profite to honour vs and doth not blunte the launce to defende vs for that infamie doth tempt vs to be desperate and the honour to mende our estate Christ and his Mother would not descend of the tribe of Beniamin whiche was the least but of the tribe of Iuda which was the greater and the better They had a law in Rome named Prosapia which is to say the law of linages by which it was ordained and commaunded in Rome that when contention did arise in the senate for the consulship that those which discended of the linage of the Siluians of the Torquatians and of the Fabritians should obtain chiefe place before all others and this was done after this manner for that these thrée linages in Rome were most auncient and did descend of right valiant Romaines They whiche descended of Cato in Athenes of Licurgus in Lacedemonia of Cato in Vtica of Agesilaus in Licaonia and of Tussides in Galacia were not onely priuiledged in their prouinces but also amongst all nations much honored And this was not so much for the desert of those that were liuing as for the merite of the auncient personages that were dead Also it was a lawe in Rome that all those that descended of the Tarquines of the Escaurians Catelines Fabatians and Bithinians had no offices in the commō wealth neither yet might dwell within the compasse of Rome And this was done for the hate they bare to King Tarquin the Consull Escaurus the tyrant Catiline the Censor Fabatus and the traytour Bithinius all which were in their liues very vnhonest and in their gouernement very offensiue Sir I say this bicause a man to be euill descending from the good surely it is a great infamie but to descend of the good and to bée good is no small glorie But in fine it is with men as it is with wines sometime he sauors of the good soyle sometime of the caske others of the goodnesse of the grapes A minde not to flie a noblenesse in giuing swéete and curteous in speach an heart for to aduenture and clemencie to pardon graces and vertues be these that are rarely founde in a man of base soyle And many times suche one is extract of an auncient and Noble linage As the worlde nowe goeth vpon who art thou and what art thou it doth not séeme to me a man may haue better blason in his house than to be and also descended of a bloud vnspotted For that such a man shall haue whereof to commend himself and not wherefore to be despised or taunted Sir also you say in your letter that I am in body large high drie and very straight of which properties I haue not whereof to complaine but wherefore to prayse my self Bycause the wood that is large drie and straight is more estéemed and bought at a greater price If the greatnesse of bodie displeased God hée had neuer created Paulus the Numidian Hercules the Grecian Amilon the wilde woodman Sampson the Hebrewe Pindarus the Thebane Hermonius the Corinth nor Hena the Ethicke whiche were in the