losse their Fleet had newly suffered it saw powerfull preparations in Holland which threatned the Low Countries and a formed tempest which it could not conjure down In a word Milan lost Naples could not be preserved and Flanders would have been lost of it selfe in shutting up that passage from whence it received its principall supplies to make Warre And neverthelesse this great power which gave fear to so many powers which was formidable even to the Turks and Barbarians of Affrica which is fatall to the rest of Christian Nations which obliged all of them to be with us or against us Had been beaten with that single stroake and we had nothing more within to fear when the springs of our troubles had been stopped without and the Instruments broak which make and nourish our divisions and humbled th' Authors or Promoters of our civill discords These were the thoughts that in that time exercised the spirits of many persons and particularly of th' Italians and as 't is the custome of men t'accommodate their thoughts to their interests and to flatter themselves in their desires they imagined that ours were like theirs Though in that poynt our Interests were disagreeing But also on th' other part who shall consider that men must not spend their time about setting their haire or paring their Nailes when th' Heart and the Brain are sick That great States never perish by a Forraign violence so long as th' Interiour is in health and th' Entrails sound and that they ruine of themselves when the corruption is within and th'Evill hath seised upon the Noble parts That in long Warrs abroad a Prince ought not t' engage himselfe when the Diversion is ever ready within and that ther 's a formed feaction in the middle of the State which will not fail to disturb for to prevaile of th' Occasions That the discontented will foment if they dare not publique assist and to whom strangers will give heat or forces to disturbus by our selves For to consume us at easie Chargges and alwaies to weaken us either by losse or victory Who shall consider I say these things will avow that the Returne of the King into Languedoc was a stroake of the gaine of the decision of our Domestique Affairs the good of Forraign Affairs Furthermore Could a greater misfortune befall us then to lose the occasion of finishing the Ruine of a party that hold France in Languishment more then sixty years had reduced it to a State equall to that of certain persons who know not what health is but are alwaies busie either t'heal th'evills they suffer or to present them they feare The conjucture past It was probable it would not returne of a long time and that 't was to no purpose t' hope or expect it It was so contrary to that party that it could not but be relieved from Germany that laboured to defend its proper Liberty That England was wearied in protecting an ill cause That th' Hollanders durst not irritate France openly by reason of th' use they have of it and that they have learned to regulate their Charities by their Interests and the Zeal of Religion by the Zeal of State That the Spaniards had greater action in Flanders Italy than they could master and could not act against us but with a little Money with vain promises In the third place The Reputation of the Kings Armes was incredible it could alone make conquests It could overcome without fighting and never Prince was better served of his Souldiers or more feared of his Enemies Our Souldiers were in heat and full of hope The past victories were certain arguments of future and after the taking of Rochell forceing of Suza overcomming what was defended by Sea and covered with mountains They ought not t' apprehend any thing impossible nor any thing difficult It was then the only proper season to defeat that party which Sr. the Cardinal most judicially observed and the King most divinely made choyce of If that expedition had been longer deferr'd the plague alone had been sufficient to force us from Languedoc and to defeat our Armies and if we had been engaged in Italy what had not Monsieur of Rohan don with the Aid of strangers which had not failed him If the Spaniards who ever promise timely and almost without deliberation who performe slowly and after long consultations but who spare nothing when they are well engaged in a businesse and have put those that serve them in a condition not to be able to repent or unable t' unsay it If the Spaniards I say had performed the conditions of the Treaty they had made with him and furnished the Money they had promised If the forces of Savoy had passed into Danphine to joyne with him as the resolution was taken If ours had been divided within and without the Kingdome and if th' hope of Change and Expectation of a better fortune had withdrawne from their duty them of that party which feare retained He had without doubt broken all our designes because they were destitute of its Advantages frustrated of forraigne promises Abandoned of the soundest and most Considerable party of Hugonotes in the poverty of all them that aided him and in the distrust of some and irresolutions of others In certaine Corners of a Province where he commanded He gave so much trouble that the presence of the King was necessary and six Armies to reduce him Moreover 't is a great discourse to speak of the Conquest of Milan and to renew beyond that Mountaines the pretentions of our fathers T is a designe which well deserves Consideration before it be attempted and requires another Conjuncture than that wherein we are found For who is ignorant that t is not for the good of France nor th' Interest of Italy that the King be Duke of Milan Who knows not that our Conquests if we should Maintaine them would give greater jealousie to the Princes of that Country then the domination whereof they complaine That they esteeme us worse Masters and more dangerous Neighbours then the Spaniards are more Conformable unto their Flegme and severity than our Heat and License That they believe that we are a more certaine and assured Counterpoyse to th' Ambition of others than they would be to ours That the facility we have to make our Armies descend into their Countrey and th' aboundance of men to relieve them might give the desire of undertaking and usurping it That th' occasion stirres up the most lazie and raiseth the most sleepy That present objects do raise all the faculties and that Commodity and Conveniency provoke th' Appetite of Conquest which is otherwise moderate and quiet And though th' Ambition of the Spaniards hath neither Moderation nor bounds That they desire violently and desire Many things That in th' order of their Counsells which neither change nor dye They have declared the warr t' all Nations which hold not of them by subjection or dependency since this
THE MINISTER OF STATE VVherein is shewn The true use OF Modern Policy BY MONSIEVR DE SILHON Secretary to the late Cardinall RICHELIEU Englished by H. H. Tandem didici animas sapientiores fieri quiescendo LONDON Printed for Thomas Dring And are to be sold at his shop at the George in Fleetstreet neare Cliffords Innt 1658. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD THE LORD VISCOUNT SCUDAMORE My Lord THis Translation makes its first addresse to your Honour 's Accurat judgment but craves no protection for the Matter or Expressions of the Originall For the Matter is but the result of your Reasonings and the Expressions but the repetition of your Eloquence In th' Author two things besides his exact knowledge in Civill and Divine affairs are very remarkable his Love to Truth and Hatred to Detraction As to Truth he holds it forth as the best most permanent Policy for Princes and their Ministers of State Buy the Truth but sell it not saies Solomon Magna est Veritas praevalebit As to Detraction he condemns the practice of it in all persons and gives th' example t'others For he is sparing in the discovery of some sharp Truths and permits the Matter Errours or Crimes to publish the men And it were to be wished that personall obloquie were not as modeable in our daies as new dresses In the businesse of Religion he may be found zealous but not superstitious and rather of the Gallican then Papall perswasion Deceits and Vices are decryed by him in what subject soever he finds them Piety and Vertue highly exalted For he made them if report be true his daily exercise as knowing that nothing can be perpetuall but what is founded upon Piety or Vertue for they are equall in the Ballance when Vices endure no equality And being bred in the School of that eminent and successfull Cardinall of Richlieu and cherished in his Conversation and House did collect the most resined products of his Policy Wit and Experience and gather the choicest Flowers of his Garden The Book had a very high esteem in France at the publication in Paris and hath justified its credit in the present use as an approved Jewell and it cannot go lesse in value here where Learning and good Wits abound and the judgment of discerning a true Diamond from a Pibble stone though never so well set equall if not superiour to any Nation of the World My Lord Forgive th'excercise of your patience so long in the Porch of this beautifull and regular Edifice raised from the materialls of the Brain and adorned with the Beauties of Rhetorick and Examples drawn to the life But the Key being now in your hand your Lordship may enter at pleasure and dismisse My Lord Your Lordships humble Servant H. H. ADVERTISEMENT READER I Have some Considerations to represent unto thee concerning this VVork whereupon I beseech thee to cast thy eyes The first is in relation to the Matter which is composed of Reasonings and Examples As to the Reasonings thou shalt know them to be wholly mine and a pure product of my witt and by consequence imperfect and tastes of the weakenesse of the principle from which it is derived When I discourse of past Occurrences and of things hapned in the Raignes of the King If the true motives have not alwaies been encountred by me nor the essentiall causes of their successe I have nothing to say to thee but that I had not the spirit of Divination That I have not received remembrances or instructions from any person And that th'Actions of Princes are like great Rivers the beginning and springs whereof sew persons have seen though an infinite of persons see the course and progresse of them If any person thinks my Judgement too free chiefly when I speake of the Pope and the matters of Rome I beseech him to consider that gentler Consequences cannot be drawn from th'Examples that are brought If th'examples are false I have not invented them the springs are well knowne There 's cause neverthelesse to praise God that some of the Pastors who have governed his Church have not been so black as they are painted If they are true there 's cause to admire the Divine Providence in preserving his Church from decay and spot in the time of corruption of some of its members and in maintaining of it in health the plague being so neer it That is to say as I understand it that nothing was altered of the meanes which God hath appointed to guide us to our supernaturall end That the Doctrine of Faith which is one of the Principles that makes us act Christianly and which hath workes for her nearest end is alwaies the same That the Sacraments which conferr and increase grace in us by virtue of the Institution of Jesus Christ and not by virtue of what we bring unto it of ours as of a meritorious cause are not changed for the number their matter or their forme That the permanent and incorruptible State in these two things is found only in that holy Hierarchy which makes that mysticall Body of Jesus Christ which is composed of a head that represents it and of many principall subalterne members who hold of that head and with an admirable dependency and union amongst themselves That it never hapned that this Head and those members to whom it belongs to guide others have together and with a common consent fayled against these two things and that it will never happen to th' end of the world at least if the Promises of God are eternall and his word unchangeable and therefore no person is to wonder if out of the Church there be no salvation since the Church only containes that means that brings us thither and preserves inviolable the substance and number of the Sacraments and the purity of th'Evangelicall doctrine Moreover and for what respecteth every member of the Church in particular That God hath left them in the hands of their counsell to beleeve or live as they please that hee hath put before them fire and water that they may make their choyce and that he imposeth no necessity upon them but leaves them be power of their will that 's to say the power to follow that good or to forsake it to doe evill or to abstaine from it When I speake then with liberty of the vices of some Popes and of the corruption of some of their Agents I doe not thinke to wrong Religion nor to offend the Church The Cardinall Baronius relates with much more soverity or lesse allay then I doe the abuses which overstowed the Court of Rome when two famous whores Theodosia and Morosia governed it and the Popes of that time A man must not alwaies set himselfe against known truths Who support ill causes lose their credit make themselvs to be suspected when they have good ones to defend resemble certain persons who being equally honest to all the world are not so to any person and putting neither
from the tearms that are practised But to declare what 't is The Power we speak of is no other thing than God himself insomuch that he undertakes the government of free causes and disposeth of them to his ends whether they be conformable to theirs or contrary to them And as the first Mobile without destroying the naturall motion of the other Heavens doth make them subject to his and carries them from th' East to the West so God doth manage in such sort the actions of the Creatures which work with liberty that without violating their freedom and by the encounter of other causes wherein he doth cast them infallibly drawes th' effect which he proposed to himself and which from humane foresight is often litle expected In a word the workman that observes the rules of his Art is never disappointed of his intention the Painter that perfectly understands the mixtures of Colours and the proportions of Figures drawes at pleasure exquisite Pictures th' Architect that casts his designes by the rules of Architecture makes them happily to prosper But the fairest operations of Man wherein his noblest part hath most interest are not solely capable of attaining their end and th' effect aimed at Hannibal acted the full duties of a brave Captain and yet was overcome by Scipio Cicero forgets nothing of the charge of an excellent Oratour yet Milon was condemned and André Doria sees the Fleet of his Master perish in the Port of Argiers notwithstanding his skill and experience in Maritime affairs But what God addes to the Principles that are in us th' occasions which He causeth to arise for us the means which he suscitates th' obstacles which he diverts in our favour and all th' assistance which He gives us to make our desires to prosper is that which we call Good fortune and them Happy which receive it But this good successe doth not alwaies accompany Justice and Holy enterprises as God doth not alwaies oppose unjust and violent designes th' Insidells have often triumphed over th' Armies of Christians and of Catholieks The most holy of our Kings hath been unhappy in his two Voyages beyond the Seas and the Cause of God for which he made War and th' Interest of Religion could not secure him from prison nor from the plague On the contrary nothing is reád comparable to the successe of Usurpators nothing put a stop to Alexander's successes but his death and a Prince for whose ambition the world was too little and that had the vanity to think that there was not matter enough therein for his courage had fortune so favourable that she covered his faults and rendred his failings happy Caesar had most successe in the most unjust War he ever made he had no more to do than to go and conquer in dissipating the Romane Common-wealth She that gave the Law to all the Earth fell in lesse time than is laid out in taking of a City and three years have destroyed the works of many ages Attila and Tamberlain have passed like lightning in their conquests and the Race of Ottomans which takes away Religion from God and liberty from men hath obtained so many victories and extended so far Its Dominions for these hundred years and upwards that no forraigne force seemes sufficient and capable for the present to abate the forces of that Empire and that it hath nothing more to fear but its own greatnesse and excessive powers The reason of this diversity is that God doth not alwaies work miracles and disorders not the order of things for the love of honest men and as it is very reasonable to rayse their courage and confirme their hopes that God should sometimes visibly hasten to their releife it is also most conformable to the lawes of his providence and to the sweetnesse of his conduct that second causes be suffred for the most part to act according to their capacity and extent of their force and therefore in order to that the weake to give way to the stronger that a lesser virtue politique I meane obey the greater and that they who have notorious advantages of their enemies have also upon them notorious successe otherwise truly he should oblige himselfe to repaire all the faults of them who have good intentions And if goodnesse alone should be successfull in the world prudence should be banished from the civill life and industry from the trayne of affaires As to the successes of Usurpators It is easie to give the reason if we search causes of the change of States and of the Revolution of Empires T is certaine that the greatest most Extended are not alwaies the firmest nor the most durable on the contrary as the most delicate fruits are sooner spoyled then others and a perfect health is an instance of a disease approaching it happens also that States which are in the flower of their force and at the last round of their happinesses are not farre from their fall Pleasure enters with wealth power produceth ambition these two passions which aspect alwaies their ends without exception to meanes draw with them so many other evills that of necessity those unhappy States must perish be translated into a new form of Government In this fatall conjuncture if a person of courage of ambition to conquer take Armes he finds the matter ready prepared God seconds his designe and abandons them unto him whom ambition had divided and whom delicacies had deprived of Judgement and affeminated their courage not that he doth inspire the conquerors with unjust thoughts nor with those furious motions which thrust them on to usurp what belongs to others and to violate the rights of humane society but acted of their owne accord and by their owne election he may lawfully favour them and his justice will not suffer many good actions of theirs to passe unrewarded nor them unpunished who have abused his graces But when he makes choice of a person to repaire the disorders of the world or for the good of a particular State Then his care is shewed in furnishing him with necessary principles to undertake great matters The thoughts are put in his soule by God and he gives the power to execute them he troubles and confounds his enemies and leades him as by the hand to victories and triumphs and one of the greatest expedients whereof he serves himselfe for this purpose is to rayse unto him excellent men to whom he communicates his cares and who help him to beare the weight of Affaires And as the operations of the soul do themselves good or ill according to the conditions of the organs and quality of their temper the prosperity or adversity of Princes depends on them in whose hands their authority is placed and who dispose of their power Alexander had never conquered Asia nor made the Indiaes to tremble but for Ephestion Parmemo and Clytus Caesar gained many battails by the hands of his Lieustenants and the fayrest Empire of the world which ambition
towards Rome in spight of his Generall I speak not of the raising of 14000 furious Lutherans and burning with the first Zeale of that Heresie t' employ them in a Warre where th' Holy Chaire had so great a part But after that Rome was taken that dreadful accident was hapned by the course wherewith it was guided After that th' Holy Citty had served for spectacle to the World of the justice and of th' Impiety of Men After that the Pope was besieged in the Castle of St. Angelo Why did not th' Emperour cause the scandall to cease at the first news he heard of it Why did he not deliver Rome of that heretique Garrison which abused th' holy things who prophaned the most sacred Mysteries of our Religion and added to all the kinds of cruelty all the kinds of sacriledge Why did he suffer the Pope to be put to Ransom to redeeme himselfe with Money from the vexation of victorious Heretiques and that Ostia and th' other strong place of th' Ecclesiastique State were the Price of his liberty and th' Arguments of his servitude I know well that some answer may be made in his favour and for his discharge That 't is permitted to make use of th' Advantage which we have not sought but fortune hath offer'd That 't is lawfull to draw good from th'evill which happens against our intentions That 't is the destiny of the things of this World That the prosperity of some is raised by th' Adversity of others and that th' affairs of State are like those of Merchandize wherein the greatest secret is to know when to make right use of the time and t' employ th' occasions to profit when they are offered To that I answer first that the evills which I have spoken of and those dreadfull Accidents were the sequells of the breach of many treaties made with Clement and of the violation of publique faith in his person And therefore that the effects could not become Lawfull whose causes were so notoriously unjust That the River cannot be very sound if the Spring be poysoned That conclusions retain alwaies the conditions of the principles fâ—om which they arise and partake of their spots and weaknesses and that they who have been the promoters of some Evill or have not diverted it when they were obliged are bound to repaire it and ought to be security for th' ill consequences they bring with them In the second place I answer that the person of the Pope and the dominions of th' Holy Chaire are priviledged-things and of right are not subject t' all th'Inconveniences and t' all the disgraces to which the Person and States of other Princes are exposed for the Reasons above given and which shall not here be repeated As to th' affliction th' Emperour seemed to declare at the News of th'Accident and the Demonstrations he published of an eminent grief As to the mourning he put on to make his Displeasure visible and to the Processions he made upon that occasion And the Rejoycings for the birth of his Son He caused to cease To weep th' ill fortune of the Pope All that was but illusion and Comedy So that false sadnesse suddenly disappeared and that vain shew of griefe was presently belyed by the proceedings above mentioned And moreover Francis the first reproached him in one of his Manifests that he had dared to think to send Clement into Spain and conceived that monstrous vanity To have at the same time in his hands the two principall persons of the World and two so great prisoners as a Pope and King of France The Spaniards answerd that if Charles had had the will who could have hindred him to have executed it And who are strong enough to oppose his designes in a time when Fortune refused nothing to his desires when his prosperities gave feare t' England and Italy was amazed at the blow which it had newly received When France was mortified for th'Imprisonment of its King and th'heretiques of Germany made brags of the purging of Rome from its abominations and abating the Pope dome under th' Authority of a Catholique Emperour To that Answer may be made with Francis the first That Charles was diverted from that designe by th' Horror the proposition raised to all Spaine That the people murmured and the Clergy raged when there was speech of leading the Vicar of Jesus Christ in Triumph and to make a Prisoner of th' head of the Church Though it be very hard to justifie the truth of this fact to make visible a matter so darke 't is better to leave it in darknesse and to suspend herein ones beliefe for the honour of a Prince that hath much merited of the Church in divers occasions and to whom the glory of beating back Soliman cannot be denyed and th'assuring of all Christendome in the defence of his patrimny and the States of his brother At least 't is certain that if he was a sinner he was a Penitent and that he washed his faults with the teares of three years which he poured out in his retraite from the world before death tooke him away from it Others aggravated this fault by th'Evills which Fortune raised t' interrupt his prosperities and by the diverse faces which she shewed to them of his Race They mentioned the disgraces of his Brother The Route of his Armies at Ezechio and at Bude and th' other Victories which Valour did not so much give to the Turk as th' ill Fortune of Ferdinand and the Cowardise of his Captains They did not conceale th' occasions wherein he saw his designes overthrown and his person in danger The sinking of his Fleet in th'haven of Algiers and that fearfull losse which hath not been equalled by any losse made by Christians on the Sea but by that which his Son made in the Sleev of England They represent the successe which the second League had against him in Germany The Chase which Maurice Duke of Saxony gave him And the necessity whereunto he was reduced to save himselfe by night and the sixth person at Isburg and to consent to the peace of Passo so injurious to Religion and so unworthy of th' Empire And to conclude they adde th' ill successe of the Enterprize of Provance and the shame of the siege of Mets which was the last deceit fortune put upon th' Emperour and th' accomplishment of the designe he meditated to put himselfe out of her power in quitting the World where she is so soveraign I will not affirme that all these Evills befell him in revenge of the sacking of Rome and th' affront offered to th' Holy Chaire It might happen that God sent or permitted them for that subject And it might fall out also that they sprang from other reasons and were th' effect of another cause Insomuch that according to the judgements that are made upon that Matter and th'Examples which are alleadged of them whom God hath punished for offending of Popes There 's