laythe precedent nights Which Curius being drunke to enjoy his courtizan discovered unto her that the former nights he had been in a company with whom he should make an enterprise which would make him rich for ever As soone as Fulvia knew all the conjuration shee discovered it to the Consull Cicero Cicero did what he could truly to open all the enterprise but all the conspirators held so well their horrible oth that not one of so great a number would ever reveale a word But yet Cicero found meanes to know all by the declaration which the Allobroges made which Catiline had appointed to furnish him with people for the execution But the end of Catiline was such that he was slain fighting with a great number of others and the cheefe of his complices were executed by justice Breefely all they which have practised that wicked doctrine of Machiavell to commit outragious acts to bee irreconcilable their ends and lives have alwayes proved very tragaedies 3. Maxime A Prince in a conquered countrey must place colonies and garrisons especially in the strongest places to chase away the naturall and old inbabitants thereof THe best remedie saith M. Nicholas to conserve a countrey or Cap. 3. of â— Prince a province newly conquered is to erect colonies placing straÌ„gers there and from thence banishing all the princes ancient and naturall inhabitants For by that meanes the prince should keepe that countrey vvith a small charge vvithout troubling the countrey vvith great garrisons onely iniuring such as hee expulseth those places to make roome for new inhabitants And as for them vvhich are chased away he need not feare them for they vvill be but some small portion of the inhabitants of that province vvhich remaining poore and exiled shall from thenceforth be little able to hurt and as for such as shall be left in peace it is likely that they vvill enterprise nothing fearing by their rebellion to procure a banishment also to themselves as the others have For men must be tamed by a certain kindnesse either in not foyling or altogether discouraging such as are left in the province or els ought he utterly to destroy and impoverish them all as in chasing away and exiling the inhabitants of those places vvhere he vvill establish colonies for iniuries done to a man ought to be executed in such sort as they may not bee subiect to feare of vengeance The Romans knew well how to observe this Maxime sending colonies to all the nations vvhich they vanquished by the means of vvhich Colonies they held the most feeble in their vveaknesse not suffering them to gather strength and they also vveakened the power of such as vvere great and most iminent THe distinction of the proprietie of the goods of this world wherby every man ought to be master and assured possessor of his owne hath been introduced by the law and right of nature which wils That to every man beyeelded that which belongeth unto him or els by the right of nations which comes all to one end This distinction of proprietie maintaineth the commerce and trafficke The proprietie of goods is from the right of nature amongst men it entertaineth buyings and sellings permutations loanes and such like which are the bonds of all humane societie and if the distinction of proprietie of goods be not maintained in the world all commerce is destroyed all consocietie decayed and resolved For although some poets and philosophers praise the communitie of goods remembring us of that old golden world of Saturne yet it is plainely evident to all people of judgement that communitie induceth and brings a carelesnesse idlenesse discord and confusion into the commonweale as learnedly Aristotle demonstrateth in his Pollitiques Therefore very necessary it is that the naturall right therein be observed and every man maintained in the enjoyance of his owne good and that to every man be rendered that which is his owne yea this right ought to bee so observed that it is not lawfull for the prince to breake or violate it because by reason of naturall right it is inviolable and none can derogate from it And hereunto agreeth the divine right whereby it is shewed unto us that Achab a king ought not to take away the vineyard from Naboth his subject and hereunto also accord the rules of civile right whereby it is said That the right naturall and the right of nations are inviolable in such sort as that right civile and positive neither can nor ought to derogate any thing from them Hereby therefore is seene the absurditie and manifest iniquitie of this Maxime of Machiavell who counselleth a prince as soone as hee hath conquered a new countrey to dispossesse the masters and right owners of their goods in townes and places where he shall know it to be expedient to make himselfe strong and to place there other new masters and possessors of his owne nation in their places who are dispossessed and banished For if the prince use this Maxime certaine it is first that he violateth the right and law of nature which hee ought not to doe secondly hee acquireth the enmitie of the inhabitants of that new conquered countrey which may be a meanes to deject him from all For in the love of subjects and in their voluntarie obedience lieth the firmenesse and assurance of a princes estate as wee shall speake in another place It is folly to alledge that there will bee no malecontents but only they which are driven away For such sayth Machiavell as remaine in the countrey will be satisfied because they abide still but as I say it is folly to thinke so For certainely alwaies every one feareth that which he seeth happen to his neighbours and further not onely our owne losses engender in us miscontentment but also others losses as of our parents friends allies yea of such as are not joyned unto us with other bond than to be of our countrey of our tongue or of our religion although that in all these there is a distinction of more and lesse Thirdly they whom the prince chaseth from their possessions and goods will ever be so deadly enemies that all their lives they will leave no stone to remove to have right and vengeance of such injustice done against the law of nature And the prince hath no cause to think they cannot hurt him because they are poore banished people for it is certain that there is no little enemie but will be hurtfull Of how small a beginning did Sertorius arise He was but a simple Romane gentleman without authoritie and meanes yet with certaine troupes of Barbarians trained as well as he could he possessed a good Plâ—â— in Sertorio Crassâ— Florus lib. 52 55 56. part of Spaine The Romanes sent against him Metellus with a great hoast which could do nothing to him insomuch as they were yet forced to send Pompeius with an armie whom Sertorius braved calling him the little prentice of Silla and it appeared
so ruled in him that as soone as any spoke unto him any word that displeased him he changed colour voice and gate and could not commaund himselfe nor keepe from committing many cruelties and injustices his judgement was so with choller oppressed Finally it was the cause of his death For one day the Quadians demanded peace of him and by their embassadors excusing themselves of a rebellion he began to speak to those embassadors in so great anger rehearsing his kindnesse humanitie before used unto them that at once his voice and words failed him as if he had been strucken with a deadly blow and withall begun to send out a mortall sweat he was incontinent carried to a chamber and laid upon a bed and by the advice of one of his physicians a veine was opened but it was not possible to draw a drop of blood out the said choller had so burned and dried his inward parts so he died A notable example for princes to take that consideration of their health that they never suffer choller nor crueltie to abide in them for such passions once taking an habit in them they burne rost their entrailes and so will not suffer them to live long But they ought further to consider that such vices also doe soile and defile the reputation of that generositie and magnanimitie that ought to be in a prince For we have seene and doe ordinarily see that chollericke and cruell men have almost alwayes been and are cowards and fearefull but generous and valiant men are gentle and full of humanitie Princes ought further to consider that if they be once spotted with crueltie they never make good end and God will have it so because he that committeth crueltie violateth the divine law which forbiddeth to shed mans bloud and to sley but by forme of justice He also violateth the law of nature for he destroyeth his like which nature hath produced and which hath given that instinct even to brute beasts not to destroy beasts of their own kind there is also a precept of the law of nature not to offend another Hee likewise violateth the civile law whereby is forbidden all murder and homicide upon paine of death Is it then any marveile if sanguinarie and bloodie princes have commonly evill ends seeing they violate the divine naturall and civile lawes approved of all people and nations There was never a more cruell nor a more cowardly man than Caligula the emperour for he quaked and trembled as he went to warre to heare speake onely of his Sueton in Calig cap. 45. 46. 47. â—2 58 59. enemies without seeing them Making warre in Almaigne in a forrest nigh unto him he caused certaine Apostata Almaignes to lie in ambush and commaunded one of them when hee was at dinner to declare unto him that the enemie was discovered in the said forrest As soone as he heard this hee incontinent sounded the trumpet and placing his battaile in array he caused them to assault that poore forrest which he made to be cut all downe and having so obtained this goodly victorie against this forrest he came backe againe with great vaunt and fiercenesse taxing and reproching the cowardise of such as remained behind and were not present at this great overthrow Was not this an act of a generous a valiant prince Another time he caused to ordaine and place his battaile strong and in good order to fight and commanded that every one should march in his ranke and that al their artillerie and all other furniture for an assault should be prepared for a ready fight yet no man knew his intent what hee would doe When his armie had marched in order of battaile to the shore of the great Ocean sea which was nigh hee then commanded al his souldiers and men of warre to fish gather into their hose bosomes and murrions as many oysters as they could carrie saying it was the spoile and bootie conquered from the Ocean which hee would have to bee carried to the Capitoll of Rome in signe of that notable victorie obtained against that great Ocean Also he caused to be builded upon this shore an high tower for a memoriall of this happie journey After hee sent to Rome to prepare against his comming a goodly triumph as could be to triumph upon the great Ocean which he had so valiantly vanquished and the spoiles thereof did bring to the Capitoll Are not these heroicall acts to overthrow a forrest and fish for oysters For crueltie whereof this monster was full I will say no other thing but that he had alwayes a servant expert in cutting off of heads which ordinarily at his dinners and suppers beheaded poore prisoners in his presence and for his pleasure I leave to speake of so many good people as he brought to their deaths for I should never have done to rehearse all his cruelties His end was that his people conspired against him taking for their watchword Redoubles when they all fell upon him and massacred him with thirtie blows in his age of 29 yeares after he had raigned three yeares and ten months The crueltie of Nero which caused to be slaine Agrippine his mother Britannicus his brother Octavia his wife Seneca his master and all the most vertuous and good people of Rome even of the Senate are notorious ynough and should bee too long to recite And never man was more feminine and cowardly than he for he was never found in any warre But he had good and valiant lieutenants which acquited themselves well whilest he played upon the citheron amongst singers and common players of enterludes His death was strange For being abandoned of all the world but of some four or five servants he sought to hide himselfe in a litle house of pleasure in the fields which appertained to Phaon one whom he had enfranchised being there his men pressed him to slay himselfe quickly least he fell alive into the hands of his enemies for none of them would doe him the pleasure as to slay him Then he commanded them to make for him a grave and laid him downe upon the earth for a measure thereof but whilest they were making of the grave behold a lacquey of Phaons came who brought a decree from the Senat whereby Nero was declared an enemie of the Commonwealth with commandement to seeke him out to punish him as a publick enemie After he had read this decree he took his two daggers and proved whether they both were sharpe ynough after hee put them in the sheath saying his houre was not yet come yet straight hee prayed his men that they would begin a little to weep lament Soon after he desired that some of them would shew him by example how hee should sley himselfe But perceiving knights arriving and doubting they came to take him hee gave himselfe a stroke with his dagger in the throat with the help of Secretarie Epaphroditus he being yet alive there entred a centenier which
he caused justice to flourish hee brought the people into a good repose and assurance and reduced againe the golden world They praise him also because he amplified and enlarged the Romane Empire But they speake not one word of the civile warres nor for that hee overthrew Cassius and Brutus doe they either praise or despraise him And indeed as Plutarch sayth They are pitious triumphs which are made upon civile bloud These Plutarch in Caesar Epitaphers then should learne to praise a Prince as they ought to doe and as the elders have done But when they say that our dead king died like Sampson and that with him died also pietie and justice which he carried in the devise of his two pillers do they not plainely blame the kingdome at this present of impietie and injustice as if justice were not now so good nor religion in so good estate as in the time of the dead king or as if they were or could bee made worse yea contrarie every one seeth with his eye that justice and religion are still in as good estate in France as before that the king died and that they are now so well governed as they cannot waxe worse And when they say that France was a stepmother unto the dead king is not this injuriously to blame the French nation Wherein hath Fraunce appeared unto him a stepmother Because there were rebels against the king say they They which they call rebels denie they are such and in truth when edicts were maintained and observed they were seene to be very obedient But let it be so that there were in France some rebellious subjects must therefore all the nation bee blamed and be called their kings stepmother seeing there is no nation in the world more obedient than the French to his Prince And as for that great cunning in arts and the meanest mechanicall sciences which those Poets attribute to our dead king are not they goodly praises thinke you As if it were some goodly vertue in a Prince to make a coffer or to paint gourdes for which we reade that the emperor Adrian was mocked or to make some such like things But contrarie the Poet Virgil describing Aeneid 6. what kind of Princes the Romane Princes should be he wils they should have no knowledge in the mechanicall arts onely they should learne sayth he the Science well to command to governe to vanquish to pardon to make lawes and edicts and to establish good manners and customes upon the nations under their governance In like manner the prophane comparison of Castor and Pollux where one god succeeds another god how unfit a speech it is for a Christian If Princes at this day will beleeve janglers they make themselves to be adored upon the altar in the middest betwixt two Saints as was Caligula betwixt Castor and Pollux But ynough is spoken of janglers and of their janglings and of their too too impudent and strange praises Let us now come unto Marmosets A Marmoset according to the language of Marmosets our elders is as much to say as a reporter murmurer whisperer of tales behind ones backe in Princes and great mens eares against one or other which be false or else ought not to be reiterated or reported And it seemes unto me that this name of Marmoset is verie proper and fit for such people and that it meriteth well to bee againe called backe in use And I beleeue it is drawne from hence that such people go marmoting murmuring and whispering secretly in Princes eares flattering speeches which they dare not speake clearly and on high before the face of him whom they detract and speake evill of These people are worse and farre more perilous than plaine raylers scoffers jesters or janglers whereof we have before spoken for carrying the countenance of good servants and friends they make the Prince beleeve that they serve him as spies to marke and seek out the designes evill purposes and carriages of their secret enemies to the end he may not unawares be surprised of them and that no evill may come unto him And because saith Comines Comines lib. 1. cap. 9. 56. Princes are almost all suspitious for doubts and feares that are put into their heads by advertisements they easily beleeve Marmosets and reporters Yea some Princes saith he promise them that they will say nothing nor discover any thing which is one of the greatest faults that a Prince can commit For besides that in all men be they princes or privat persons the auncient proverb hath place which saith That the sinewes of Wisedome is not to beleeve lightly yet is it a thing as particularly required in a Prince to stop his eares to all reports unlesse the reporter will be well knowne and sustaine the punishment of a slaunder in case his report be not found true And thereupon the Prince ought to make diligent inquisition to have the truth well averred when the thing is waightie and meriteth it And he may not be satisfied with a light information thereof but he ought to heare him which is charged or blamed before he beleeve any thing And if the thing be not of great consequence and import him much as if they be but words spoken as it often happeneth lightly in some pleasant talke or at the table or in choler the Prince ought to despise and make no account of such words but as talke uttered in an immoderate bable and without thinking or considering thereof For there is no man so perfect that can so bridle his tongue but there will often fall words without consideration which after when he thinkes of them wisheth he had never spoken them And this imperfection which is in all men ought to be supported of some towards others and Princes ought rather to beare them then particular persons for two reasons The one for that he is more subiect to receive reports than privat men so that if he easily deliver his eare unto them he shall see a thousand griefes and displeasures and shall be in continuall doubts and feares The other reason is because all Princes ought to consider that men speake more of them than of anie privat person For there is neither great nor little but he will meddle to speake of Princes yea to judge of their actions and everie man to utter his follies of his good or evill behaviours What should Princes then doe It is impossible to bridle their tongues and if they should be forbidden to speake they would speake the more Seeing then both great and small doe ordinarily speake of Princes yea more then of other things it is impossible that in such abundance of talke there should not be alwaies much evill and he that would set foote therein should binde himselfe to an infinite paine from whence he should not know how to get out For the tongues of men are so ready and quicke workers in their trade that they will frame more businesses in a day then a
above shewed that our predecessors were sometimes miscontented with the Englishmen that would needs have all estates and offices in Aquitaine as much may happen in this time for nothing hath beene in times past which may not againe be in this time The Salicke law which is observed in Fraunce and through all Almaigne was not onely made to fore-close and barre women from the succession of the crowne and from soveraigne domination by reason of the imbecilitie and incapacitie well to commaund which is in the feminine sex for in the masculine sexe happen often such incapacities But especially the Salicke law was made to the end That by marriages strangers should not come to the said succession of the Crowne For it should be as an intollerable thing to a Frenchman to obey a strange king as to obey a queene of the French nation so odious is a strange domination in Fraunce As also for that the consequence thereof with us should be ever evill For a strange king would alwayes to estates and offices of the kingdome advaunce straungers of his nation a thing which would alwayes cause in the end disorders and confusions as is seene by the examples which we have before discovered There is also an auncient example of Queene Brunehant or Brunechile who advanced Annal. upō Anno 607. to the estate of Maire du Palais de France which was as much as governor of all the kingdome a Lumbard called Proclaide who was much in her good grace and amitie This stranger seeing himselfe lifted up so high became so fierce and so proud that he made no estimate of the princes of the kingdome but put them to many troubles and vexations Hee became also very rapinous and covetous as sayth the hystorie is the nature of the Lumbards insomuch that hee did eat up and ruinated the subjects of Fraunce Breefely his behaviours and dealings were such that hee got the evill wils of all men from the nobleman to the carter At that time was there warre amongst the children of the queene Brunehant Theodoric king of Orleans and Theodebert king of Metz. The barons and great lords their vassales desirous to make a peace betwixt the two kings brothers but this great Maire Proclaide hindered it withall his power which the said lords seeing resolved amongst them That it were better that strangers died than that so many gentlemen and subjects of the two kings should sley one another and so indeed they did slay him as an enemie to peace and concord The example of this Lombard should be well marked in this time by the Lombards which governe in Fraunce Lewis le Debonance sonne of Charlemaigne king of Fraunce and emperour Annal. An. 829. Maire du Palais a stranger cause of civile warre of the West altogether gave the Estate of Maire du Palais de France to a Spaniard called Berard who incontinent mounted into great pride The king had three sonnes Lotharie Lewis and Pepin who could not support the arrogancie and fiercenesse of this stranger who as it were would parragon them This was the cause of an evill enterprise of these three young princes against their owne father For they seized upon his person and brought him into the towne of Soissons and there caused him to forsake his crowne of Fraunce and the Estate of the empire and to take the habit of a monke in the Abbey of S. Marke in the said Soissons within which they caused him to be kept straitly for a time But in the end the great barons and lords of Fraunce and Almaigne medled therein and dismonked him and restored him to his Estate and agreed the father with the children This had not happened if that good king and emperour had had that wisedome not to have lifted up a stranger so high a thing which could not be but displeasant to his naturall subjects great and little For a conclusion of this matter I will here place the witnesse of M. Martin du Bellay knight of the kings order a man of qualitie of vertue and of great experience who sayth That hee hath seene in his time more evill happen unto the affaires of king Francis the first of that name by the meanes of straungers which revolted from his service than by any other meanes Amongst which strangers Strangers enclined to commit treasons hee placeth the Bishop de Liege the Prince of Orange the Marquesse of Mantua the Lord Andrew Doria M. Ierome Moron of Millaine who caused Millaine to revolt and certaine others But because these things are not of very auncient memorie but happened in our world I will make no longer discourse thereof Seeing also the examples and reasons which wee have above rehearsed are sufficient to shew against the opinion of Machiavell his disciples That a Prince cannot doe better than to serve himselfe in offices and publicke charges of the countrey of his domination with his owne subjects of the same countries as beeing more fit and agreeing to the nature of the people of that countrey than are strangers And there is not a more odious thing to the people as M. Comines sayth than when they see great offices benefices and dignities conferred upon strangers And as for offices it hath not beene seene aunciently and commonly that they have beene bestowed upon straungers but that within this little space of time they have found meanes to obtaine the greatest and best For of old there was committed unto them but offices of Captaineships to the end that under that title they might the better draw people of their owne countrey to serve the king But as for benefices of a long time it hath been that the Italians have held and possessed the best in Fraunce which the Pope bestowed upon them and our kings durst not well contradict Yet notwithstanding it gave occasion unto king Charles the sixt to make an edict in the yeare 1356 whereby hee forbad That any benefices of the kingdome of France should be conferred upon strangers which both before and since by many royall Edicts hath often beene renued and reiterated Which Edicts merite well to be brought into use but it shall not bee yet since that they onely are they which yet doe governe all But I pray here all them which are good Frenchmen that they will consider a little neerer the wrong they do themselves to suffer themselves to be reputed for strangers in their owne countrie and by that meanes recuiled and kept from the Charges and Estates of the same For Italians or such as are Italianized which have in their hands the governance of France hold for true the Maxime of Machiavell That men should not trust in strangers as it is true and this is because they would not advance any other but men onely of their owne nation and certaine bastardlie and degenerous Frenchmen which are fashioned both to their humour and their fashions and which may serve them as slaves and most vile ministers of their trecheries cruelties rapines
boldnesse have made a mock of God but it was never seene that they felt not the punishment and vengeance of their audaciousnesse and impietie as hereafter we will shew by examples Yet wee have cause greatly to deplore the miserie and calamitie of the time wherein we are which is so infected with Atheists and contemners of God and of all Religion that Atheists esteemed serviceable men even they which have no religion are best esteemed and are called in the court-language people of service because being fraughted with all impietie and Atheisme and having well studied their Machiavell which they know upon their fingers they make no scruple nor conscience at any thing Commaund them to slay and massacre they slay and massacre commaund them to rob and spoile good Catholickes and Cleargie men they rob and spoile all They hold benefices with souldiers garments and short clokes yet exercise no Religion nor cares but for the gaine therof Commaund them to enterprise the betraying or impoysoning of this or that person they make no scruple at it yea they themselves excogitate and devise all wickednesse and impieties as the invention of so many new imposts upon the poore people which they destroy and cause to die with hunger without having any commiseration Atheists inventors of imposts or compassion upon them no more than upon brute beasts Not many yeares agoe did not they invent the impost of processes and contentions of law in Fraunce by the meanes of which impost a poore man cannot seeke by law to recover his owne unlesse before hand he pay the said impost and that he shewed his acquittance But by the meanes of that generous prince of Conde of happie memorie it was taken away by his complaints against these Atheists inventors of such novelties which both by nation and religion are Machiavelistes Have not they also invented new customes tributes and imposts upon paper upon Innes to bee paid by travellers upon the sales of exemptions for lodging souldiers of wardships of marriages of Consulships Syndikes and other such like which cannot bee devised but by impious people which have neither love to their neighbour nor to their countrey the impost of the small seale for sealing of contracts came it not from the same forge If it had not been for the Evangelikes which alone hitherto durst open their mouths to complain of these horse-leeches and blood-suckers had they not lately made lawes and coined edicts to command tributes and summes of mony for each child that should be baptised likewise to levie the twentieth part of every womans dowrie and marriage upon the first conclusion of every mariage yea although after they breake off againe Have they not established the vent and sale of offices of judgement and so brought that now into common use which was utterly abolished by the generall Estates at Orleans have not they devised the offices of Counsellors without wages within Bayliwikes and Stewardships and all for silver Have they not and yet every day doe they not cause the value of money to be augmented for their owne profit for after that by the meanes of their bankes fermes and other their dealings in the realme they have gathered great heapes of money they can at their pleasure enhaunce the value thereof both in their hands and out of their hands Yet none complaines thereof But in the end it will produce and bring forth some great disorder and confusion as hath sometimes been seen for like actions for the reasons well ynough knowne to wise people As for peace these people never like of for they fish alwayes in a troubled water gathering riches and heapes of the treasures of the Realme whilest it is in trouble and confusion They alwayes have in their mouths their goodly Maximes of their Machiavell to empeach and hinder a good peace A prince say they must cause himselfe to bee feared rather than loved this must be held as a resolved point But if a peace be accorded to these rebels such as they desire then would it seeme that the king were afraid of his subjects whereas he should make himselfe to be feared True it is that if such a peace could be made with them as it might againe procure another S. Bartholmewes journey nothing were so good pleasant as that For that is another resolved point and Maxime That a prince ought not to hold any faith or promise but so farre as concernes his profit and that hee ought to know how to counterfeit the foxe to catch and entrap other beasts and as soone as he hath them in his nets to play the lion in slaying devouring them We have set downe unto us that goodly example of Caesar Borgia who in our country could so well counterfeit the said two beasts Behold here the language and dealings of our Machiavelistes which at this day men call people of Service for that there is no wickednesse in the world so strange and detestable but they wil enterprise invent and put it in execution if they can From whence comes it that they be thus enclined to all wickednesse It is because they are Atheists contemners of God neither beleeving there is a God which Atheists encline to all wickednes because they feare not the punishment of God seeth what they doe nor that ought to punish them It is that goodly doctrine of Machiavell which amongst other things complaines so much that men cannot be altogether wicked as we shall touch in his place These good disciples seeing that their master found this imperfection amongst men that they could not shew themselves altogether and in all things wicked doe seeke by all meanes to attaine a degree of perfect wickednesse And indeed they have so well studied and profited in their masters schoole and can so well practise his Maximes that none can deny but they are come unto the highest degree of wickednesse What need men then to be abashed if they see in the world and especially in this poore kingdome of France such famine pestilence civile warres the father to band against his sonne brother against his brother they of the same Religion one against another with all hatred envie disloyaltie treasons perfidies conspirations empoysonments other great sinnes to raigne Is there any marvaile if the people goe to wracke the Cleargie be impoverished the Nobilitie almost extinct For it is the first judgement and vengeance of God which he exerciseth against us because some are filled with all impietie and Atheisme which they have learned of Machiavell and others which should resist such impieties least they should take root doe suffer them to encrease augment So that indeed all men are culpable of Atheisme impietie of the despight of God and Religion which at this day raigneth Therefore most righteously dooth God punish us all For Atheisme and impietie is so detestable and abhominable before Impietie punished of God God that it never remaineth unpunished The Emperour Caius Caligula was a
alive and hee shewed letters found in the house of Antistius written by Tarquin and sealed with his seale directed to Antistius which were found about him where Sextus had secretlie put them which he caused to be read before all the Gabinians as soone as they had heard them they were so angred and moved against good Antistius who knew not what to say of this thing he never thought that straight they stoned him and suffered Sextus himselfe to punish the compartners of Antistius Then Sextus having the bridle loose caused to be massacred in their houses all the greatest and noblest of the towne of Gabium and by that meanes he and his father proved masters of that poore desolate towne But this tyrannie and others they committed caused on the other side that they lost the kingdome and domination of Rome so that fishing for a frog they let goe out of their net a lamprey so happeneth it ordinarilie to such as will needes practise this detestable doctrine of Machiavell If wee looke into the manner of government practised by all great conquerors not such petie and tyrannous governours as Borgia and generous monarches which became the greatest and noblest of the world as Caesar Alexander the great Cyrus Charlemaine c. wee shall finde that they used most contrary meanes to Machiavells doctrine for they exercised no cruelties towards great or little as they made their conquests but so farre as the necessitie of warre carried them Yea they used conquered people with all kindnesse clemencie they embraced and entertained very well such as were great personages altered nothing in the publike state religion policie customes liberties but maintained them all contenting themselves onely with the soveraignite And this was the cause why many people desired not to resist them but to bee their subjects and they which resisted them yeelded againe easily without abiding any great batterie or assaults Therefore most generously and nobly dealt king Lewis to imitate the kindnes and gentlenes of those great Monarches when hee conquered Millan For although hee after againe lost it yet it followeth not that the fault proceeded heereof That hee would not bee so cruell as to exterminate the whole race of the Sforces but rather heere of proceeded that losse by the inconstancie of the Millanois and the machinations of pope Iulius the second with the Venetians which thought it not good to have so great a master so nigh them as the French and Italian hystories doe evidently demonstrate And whereas Machiavell maintaineth That it succeeds not well for a prince to imitate sometimes the vertuous actions of generous princes and that therefore he ought to follow the vicious actions of such as are of no account he shewed that he is together both wicked and ignorant for what more wicked doctrine can be given to a prince than to say he ought to imitate wicked actions because sometimes they succeed well This is as much as to say that we must by the high waies cut merchants throats and be theeves because theeves gaine therby But if Machiavell and all his favourites would judge of the successe of all things by their end as they ought to judge they should find that those glorious goodly successes that happen to the wicked are but meanes wherewith God serves himselfe to bring them into ruin and utter overthrow which they merited as amply I have otherwhere shewed by many examples And as for the examples he alledgeth he shewes himselfe by the application he makes a very beast It succeeded not well saith hee to Commodus Caracalla Spartian Dion in Severo Caracalla and Maximinus in that they would imitate and resemble Severus ô bravely applied and to good purpose spoken for Pertinax succeeded Commodus and Severus Pertinax so that Commodus did never see nor know Severus who in his time was yet unknowne being a simple waged souldier of a base and unknowne race how should Capitol in Maximino then Commodus propose him for an example to imitate and as for Caracalla his sonne and Maximin they were never imitators of Severus but in his vices namely in crueltie and therefore we need not mervaile if it succeded not well unto them Lamprid. in Alexan. Herod lib. 6. Capitol in Marco The emperour Severus had very good vertues for he was very well learned and advanced to estates learned people he maintained a very good policie in the Roman empire he made good and holy lawes which are yet in use hee caused good justice to bee administred to the people and kept barbarous nations in a new obedience Caracalla his sonne had none of those vertues although Machiavell being very ignorant of histories saith he was endued with excellent vertues for histories attribute no vertue unto him but that from his youth hee was accustomed to live a la Souldarde like a souldier that hee was not delicate but patient of labour but otherwise the most wicked man in the world in all things And as for Maximin he in all things resembled Caracalla but that he was issued from a vile and base race and a barbarous nation and Caracalla was an emperours sonne and as for that which Machiavell sayth That it succeeded not well to Pertinax Alexander Severus by their imitation of the emperour Antonius the philosopher hee still shewes more his beastlinesse and that he hath not read the hystories of their lives For hystories shew that Pertinax was slaine of his souldiers because he appeared to them more covetous than he should have been So likewise was Alexander slaine for the covetousnesse of Mammea his mother towards the souldiers But we never reade that Marcus Antonius was ever spotted with that vice of covetousnesse but contrary that he was a very liberall prince nothing holding lesse than a covetous mind and that herein as in all other vertues he was a true philosopher that is to say loving good and hating evill And therefore Machiavell knowes not what he saith when he saith it succeeded not well with Pertinax and Alexander Severus to have a mind to imitate Marcus Antonius he had better have spoken onely of the jeasts and matters written in the registers of Florence whereof he was Secretarie than so with a foolish interpretation to inquinate and corrupt hystories he knowes not 5. Maxime To be revenged of a citie or a countrey without striking any blow they must be filled with wicked manners VAnquished cities or provinces saith this Florentine doe mervellously Discourse lib. 1. cap. 35. lib. 2. cap. 19. vvell revenge themselves of the vanquishers in receiving them gently and filling them with wicked manners for so doe they easily prepare and dispose them to be vanquished by vvhomsoever assaulteth them as it happened to Annibals souldiers at Capua For having a long time soiourned there at their ease in all delights and pleasures they became all so effeminate that they vvere never after good for any thing This corruption of manners comes
death confesseth that hee thought not to have lived so little a while to admonish us to bee alwaies ready prepared to appeere before God Horace himself an heathen poet teacheth us to make no assurance upon the time to come neither to set our care and hope thereon when hee saith God covers as with night obscure Alwaies the end of life future Hor. lib. 3. Car. Ode 29. And laughes to see affraid the man Of that which no waies see hee can Of time present bee carefull then All other things doe flit from men As water in the river But to understand the goodlie patterne which this Atheist proposeth heere for a prince to imitate I thinke it good a little more amplie to discourse the life and genealogie Sabellicus Ennead 10. lib. 9. and Enne 11. lib. 2. of Caesar Borgia Hee was a bastard sonne of Pope Alexander the sixt but it is likelie hee legitimated him for according to the cannon law the Pope may legitimate the bastards of other priests and by consequent also his owne This Pope by nation was a Spaniard and before hee was Pope called himselfe Roderic Borgia but comming to the Popedome he tooke the name of Alexander that he and his son carrying the names of two of the most victorious monarchs that ever were that is of Alexander the great Iulius Caesar they might make al the world tremble under them Hee came to the Popedome by the art of Nigromancie as some have written which say hee made a composition with the divell which appeared to him in the forme of a protonotarie but others write hee came to it by silver in bying cardinals voices Philip de Comines one of that time saith that he came to it by silver as also Iovinianus Pontanus who writt this Epigramme Christ Sacraments altars are sould by Alexander Pope Hee bought them very deare hee deare then may sell them I hope But it is not much respective I hope whether hee came to the Popedome by Nigromancie or by silver for it is not impossible but he might come to it by both This Roderic besides the said Caesar had many other bastards and especiallie one which in the night time during his lascivious whoring in the towne of Rome was massacred and the next morning his bodie was found in a sacke cast into Tiber and it was never knowne who did it Hee had also a bastard daughter called Lucrece which either for that hee avowed her not for his or otherwise was married to one of his bastards yet entertained by him as Pontanus writeth Heere lyeih shee that Lucrece is by name But Thais is indeede also by Fame Pope Alexanders daughter in law shee is His wife most vile his daughter eke iwis But above all his other bastards hee most singularly loved that Caesar Borgia insomuch that as soone as hee came to his papacie hee gave him his bishopricke of Valence in Spaine and made him cardinall and hee was called cardinall of Valence But this cardinall having the winde in his sterne by meanes of the Pope his father began to cast many things in his head as first to cast away his ecclesiasticall state for a temporall and lay state then tooke he armes determining to winne all Tuscane or Hetruria then all Italie and after consequently all the nations which Great and vaine desseignes of Caesar Borgia belonged unto the empire in the time of Iulius Caesar so indeede hee forsooke his red cap and in steede of cardinall of Valence hee was called duke of Valentinois and incontinent by deceits and disloyalties hee adventured upon great enterptises Hee tooke for his device Ou Caesar ou rien as willing to say that he made no account to bee a lesse lord than Iulius Caesar was which device in the end fitted him better than hee thought for in place whereas hee aspired but to one of the two that is to bee Caesar or altogether nothing hee prooved to bee both Caesar by name and nothing in deede Moreover as for the meanes hee tooke to effect his disseines and imaginations Machiavell hath discoursed them before but hystoriographers say that his subtill deceits and devices were at the first suspected and discovered and that all the potentats of Italie knew straight the intention of him and his father to tend unto the usurpation and domination of all Italy and therefore prepared they to hinder them in all they could and after that the pope his father was dead hee was incontinent left and abandoned of every man and had much to doe to finde where to hide himselfe for all his enemies which hee had offended arose against him especially the Vrsins which straight sought meanes to massacre him Fabius Vrsin the son of Paul whom Borgia had caused to be slaine sought him every where and encountring one of Borgia his familiars slew him cut him in pieces and washed his hands and mouth with his bloud heereupon saith Sabellicus I doe not thinke that there can bee found a more notable example than this of Caesar Borgia to admonish us to governe our lives with moderation He might have beene the second after the Pope his father in the ecclesiasticall order and have had rich and good benefices as many as hee would but forgetting himselfe too much and importuning fortune too much as a mother hee straight experimented her a most cruell stepmother hee refused to maintaine himselfe in a right high and honorable degree to bee altogether disgraced and brought to nothing But certainely there is nothing which is of lesse endurance than an evill counselled prosperitie for it or dinarily rejecteth great things to bring upon it selfe calamitous and sad things Secondly hee finding himselfe destitute of friends and meanes in the middest of the cruell enmities of men not being able otherwise to save himselfe when his father was dead hee reputed it great advantage that hee was shut up and guarded in the Popes tower till there was a new chosen Behold the censure of this learned Sabellicus touching the life and cariage of this Caesar Borgia which is full contrary to the minde of Machiavell For where as Machiavell counselleth a prince to imitate the actions of Borgia Sabellicus discounselleth it and faith That his life ought to serve for an example to all men for governing themselves as hee did least they fall into the same downefall that hee did To dispute heere of the disloyaltie crueltie and other vices which Borgia used in all his negotiations and to proove that his life ought not to bee imitated but rather detested were a superfluous thing For the common senses of all men which have never so little judgement doe sufficiently shew to all the world that the said vices are so detestable that the users of them cannot but light on the like end that Borgia did First because God customably doth so reward such wicked tyrants Secondlie because it ordinarily commeth to passe that they are greatly hated of every one insomuch as every
effects whereof wee have above discoursed which are to temper the rigour of justice to make the prince beloved reverenced and praised of all the world and to fill his subjects with good manners there are yet three other effects worthie of note in a princes Clemencie that thereby hee may bee better obeyed more assured in his estate and may augment his domination And to touch those three points in order one after an other I will presuppose for the first point That a prince makes himselfe easily and well obeyed when the wils of his subjects are of themselves A clement prince better obeyed well disposed to yeeld obedience But it is certaine when a prince is debonaire and clement that his subjects will bee alwaies well disposed to obey him for two reasons The one because he shal be beloved the amitie which his subjects beare him shall incite and stirre them more willinglie to obey him The other reason because being soft and gentle his commands also are sweet and gratious founded upon reason and equitie and this will cause them easily to yeeld obedience because there is nothing that more enduceth a subject to render his prince obedience and to obey his command than when themselves do see and judge that the commandement is both reasonable equall for equitie is the sinew of the commandement of the law which makes it forcible and brings it into action and without this equitie the law cannot endure nor long bee observed Therefore the lawes and ordinances which the Romanes gave to the Macedonians Titus Livius lib. 5. Dec. 5. after they had brought Macedonie under their obedience endured very long before they were in any thing chaunged or corrected For they were so upright and convenient for that nation as the usage it selfe saith Titus Livius which is the true corrector of lawes found nothing to reprehend or correct by the experience of many yeeres Very memorable also is the manner of the Romanes use to make How to make good lawes lawes and especially those which they gave to the Macedonians For they were not contented to handle and deale with them in their Senate to cut and stretch them after their fancies as some doe at this day which make lawes in their chambers with such as themselves but elected ten delegates or deputies wise and honourable men which went all over Macedonie to inquire and bee informed of the manners and conditions of the countrie people and of their antient customes and liberties and to have their peoples aduice of such lawes as were fittest for them By this meanes they made very covenable lawes for the nation of the Macedonians which they found good holy and equall and they willingly obeyed and observed them with good hearts without any constraint And assuredly this is the best meane when men makes new lawes and ordinances that is to have the aduice of such as are to have obey them to know of them the discommodities that by them may fall out which they must needes know better than any other And for this reason the antient kings of France made their lawes and ordinances by the advice of the States generall or at the least by the assemblie of a great number of barons prelates and wise people of each great towne of the kingdome which assembly they called the kings great Counsell And the Romane emperours made their lawes by their Senates advice as wee have in another place said And indeed it is a rash presumption of one man alone or a few men to thinke they can make lawes of themselves and covenable ordinances for a people and a nation without having the advice of them of that nation yea of many of divers countries The ancient Romanes were of a better judgement than such presumptuous persons and they never received law till it was well tossed and handled and till every one were hard speake that would either persuade or disuadethe law which was to be enacted Therefore saith Titus Livius it came often to passe that the Tribunes whose office it was to cause the law to bee received or rejected by the people desisted from the receit of a law being moved so to doe by the reasons and remonstrations of such as disuaded it and often times also opposing themselves against the reception of a law they departed from their opposition being moved thereunto by the reasons of such as persuaded and truely if the lawes and ordinances which are made for the government of a kingdome or other principallitie were so well examined before they were concluded and that everie man were heard in a generall assembly of States to persuade or disuade them so many absurd and weake lawes would not bee made as are neither by consequent would they bee so evill observed as they are For they should be made equall commodious for such as should obey them and so would each man obey them with good will because as is said Equitie is that which holdeth law in action observation Moreover none neede to doubt but when he that hath authoritie to command Dion in Pompeio Plutarch in Lucul is beloved that by that meanes he shall not bee better obeyed Lucullus was a valiant and wise captaine who executed great matters against Mithridates Tigranes two of the greatest kings of Levant and of all Asia but in the end not being able to obtaine the love of his souldiers hee was in hazard by their disobedience to have overthrowne all the glory and honour which hee had acquired This disobedience of his army was the cause that the Romanes called him from Levant before hee had altogether ended the subjugating of those two kings and sent in his place Pompeius who did nothing else but as I may say gathered the fruit that Lucullus had sowne and carried away the honour and triumph of his paines and travels For the necessitie was such that Pompeius must necessarilie bee sent in Lucullus his place for that Lucullus was nothing obeyed of his people of warre because they loved him not he was so sterne and uncourteous and as soone as they had obtained Pompeius for their captaine generall they greatly obeyed him because hee was unto them gentle clement and affable insomuch as he did with them what hee would and by their forces and valloures hee brought all the East under the Romanes obedience This then was a great evill hap for Lucullus who otherwise was endowed with excellent vertues that hee could not use softnesse clemencie and kindnesse towards his souldiers and have gotten love and to have contained them in his obedience but so to lose the fruit of his travailes and victories not wholy finishing that whereof hee had taken charge But yet greater evill lucke happened unto Appius Claudius who was so exceeding Titus Livius lib. 2. Dec. 1. rigorous and imperious that hee caused his souldiers rather to hate than love him Hee being Consull and captaine generall of the Romane army against the
so doe and behave your selves as this altar may bee more holily and chastly reverenced than this chappell heere Behould heere a contention worthie of vertuous and sage ladies But at this day ladies contend who shall best dance paint and decke themselves and to doe such like thjngs as doe not leade them into the chappell of the Romane Patricians nor to the altar of Verginia her Chastitie but rather doe leade them cleane contrary 31. Maxime Seditions and civile dissentions are profitable and blamelesse I Say against the advice of many saith master Nicholas that dissentions and civile seditions are good and profitable and that they vvere rhe cause that Rome is mounted into the loftie degree of empire vvherein it hath beene I know well that some hold that it vvas rather her valiancie in armes and her good fortune vvhich so high hath lifted her up But they which hold this doe not consider that deedes of armes cannot bee conducted vvithout good order and good policie and that is it policie vvhich commonly leadeth to good fortune But certaine it is that seditions have beene cause of good order and of the good policie vvhich vvas established at Rome And in summe all the goodly acts and examples of the ancient Romanes have proceeded from this fountaine of seditions For good examples proceede from good nurture and education good nurture proceedes from good lawes and policies and the mother of good lawes are seditions and civile dissentions which inconsideratly most men condemne IT were to bee desired that Machiavell and his nation which esteeme Seditions and civile dissentions so profitable had reserved them for themselves with all the utilitie and profit that is in them and not have participated them with their neighbours As for France they might well have spared the Seditions and partialities which the Italian Machiavelists have sowne on this side the mounts which caused so much bloodshed so many houses destroyed and so many miseries and callamities as every man feeles sees and deplores Would to God then all civile dissentions had remained amongst the Florentines and other Italians who doe love finde them good so that the French men had beene without them then would not France bee so rent and torne in pieces as it is and it should not bee enfeeblished more than halfe in his forces the people should not bee so poore as wee see them nor so naked of his substance and all good meanes For civile dissentions have brought to the realme such a ransacke and discomfiture of goods and have so abandoned and overthrowne all free commerce and good husbandry which are the two meanes to store and fill a countrey with abundance of goods that at this day there are seene no good houses but they which were wont to bee are ruinated and altogether impoverished and made barren Seditions cause of ravishments of goods of cessation of commerce and agriculture And truely it is as in a forrest when a man sees all the goodly oakes hewen downe and that there remaineth no more there but thornes shrubs and bushes For even as such a forrest which either hath none or few trees in it meriteth rather the name of a bush than of a forrest so the kingdome or commonweale whose good ancient houses are impoverished deserveth rather to be named by the name of a desart than of a kingdome or commonweale Moreover the reason which Machiavell alledgeth whereby hee would proove Seditions to bee good is very grosse and foolish for follow with this Because Seditions are sometime not the cause but the occasion that there are made some good lawes and rules That they are therefore good This reason is like the argument of a certaine philosopher whom Aulus Gellius mocketh who would maintaine that the fever quartaine is a good thing because it makes men sober and temperate and to guard themselves from eating and drinking too much Such philosophers as delight to broach such absurd opinions deserve to bee left without answere with their Seditions and fever quartaines to draw out such profit from them as they say doe proceede out of them Doth not the common proverbe say That from evill manners doe proceede good lawes and doth it therefore follow that evill manners are goods that is doth it follow that white is blacke or blacke white The grossest headed fellowes know well that law makers never set downe lawes but onely to reforme vices and abuses which are in a people so that indeede no lawes would have beene made if the people walked uprightly and committed no abuses nor had any vices For lawes are not set downe but for transgressors and to hould intemperate persons within limits and bounds Heereof followeth it that abuses vices straying and lusts are occasions of good lawes and prudent princes and law makers are the efficient causes of them but it doth not therefore follow that vices abuses and straying lusts are good things Moreover it is not alwaies true that which Machiavell saith That Seditions are causes or occasions of having good lawes and rules The Seditions which were raised up at Rome by Tiberius Gracchus and Caius his brother Tribunes of the people which were so great and sanguinary were not cause of any good lawes They were the cause that they both were massacred as they merited but they were neither cause nor occasion of any good law or rule and how should they bee cause thereof seeing they tended to authorise and make passe wicked lawes and to despoile true masters and proprietors of their goods For Tiberius Gracchus pursued by his Seditious faction that a law called Agraria might bee received and authorised whereby it was not lawfull for a Romane citizen to possesse above ten acres land which was as much to say as to take away the more from them which had more And because Marcus Octavius his companion in the Tribunate opposed himselfe to hinder the passage of this law as both wicked and unjust Gracchus would needes have had him dispatched of his estate and sought to make a Triumvirate of himselfe of his brother and of his father in law to divide amongst the people rich men goods This was the cause that the great lords of the citie by the advice and counsell of Scipio Nasica who was accounted the best man thereof slew him in the Capitoll and caused his body to bee cast into Tiber His brother Caius Gracchus beeing Tribune of the people a certaine space after sought againe to bring up that law Agraria and would needs devise one out of his owne braine whereby it was ordained that in all judgements and conclusions of affaires there should be 600 knights and 300 Senators all having voices this did he to have the pluralitie of voices at his command knowing that the knights would alwaies easily encline to his pursutes and so could hee not faile to obtaine what hee would if at all deliberations there were twise as many knights as Senators But this was a wicked law tending to